Personification Life, the Universe, & Everything [IC]

[Holy Lykos]

Kuati Dreams
Spirits and Spice

The owner, an old, dark-haired woman named Erica Marciano(known through the nametag on her vest), scrutinized the images closely. Photographs and artistic depictions scrolled by, all depicting the fantastical clothing worn in the Jedi's home universe. Colorful fabrics, flowing forms, and designs out of some fantasy were the main constants. Erica could pick out a few styles, but couldn't place them in time so made the hasty assumption they were someone's newer designs or something from another world she had yet to hear of. Tended to be like that in Bielefield, one of the hubs of the weird on Earth before its current position in some sort of other universe. Erica was used to change by now though.

"Odd styles, yet not too odd. Anything in particular y'all might want? Dresses for the women, suits-" She checked the images again, "Suits would be accurate, yeah, for the men? How many, just enough for the ones of you here? Does your cat need anything?" She had noticed Nick enter along with the rest but like most did not know his nature.

"Special orders tend to be a bit more pricey, but I could get the new kit to you within the hour. Perhaps even a half-hour if its a good day."

-----

Meanwhile, back in the building, Maghrl had managed to pull together a half dozen blank ID chips, the half-foot information dense block of identity and authorizations and passkeys. Hard to mimic up a convincing forgery. Luckily, Maghrl being the jedi he was meant a certain natural talent for picking up skills. Plus he had his own valid one as a reference! It shouldn't be too hard, should he get the story straight.

The squib sent of a quick text towards Amanda asking if they would like using their own names or fictionalized ones for the purpose of the infiltration, and for her to ask the rest of the group. Mag had felt the four of them leaving together earlier, it was hard to miss concentrations of people where they lived. He also asked what their trading business might be called.

Without waiting for a response the Squib set himself to work on the rest of the task. Names were the easy part. He had to set up a convincing enough data record and store for each to back up their claims including records of birth. It wouldn't stand up to intensive search but it only needed to pass the tamper checks and ID verification. As unseemly as it was for a Jedi to be forging identities, Maghrl deemed it necessary to get their presence masked enough for no questions to be asked. Once in universe he could always get a more thorough forgery too. Squibs had connections, and Squibs were loyal to their friends. A good combination for such unsightly business.

[Fvaarniimar]

Kuati Dreams
Spirits and Spice

Still bouncing from the distillery tour - (and new possible friends!!) - the mistaken-for-pet cat spoke up with only an ear flick betraying any irritation. "Hi, Erica! My name is Nick. I'd be happy with a suit in that style... I think it should blend in okay? If different clothes are easier to make for me, that's fine - I really need something comfortable, easy to leap and climb in. It probably should look a bit lavish somehow, as -"

Nick's ears perked forward, as did his whiskers. Ooooh! "You can make several suits in half an hour, really? Are you magical? Telekinetic?" While excited by these possibilities, Nick discussed them in a matter-of-fact way. "Oh, and could you think of anything I could wear when I'd like to be recognized...well...as a person? Something that's simple enough to wear daily and would clue people in? I know a bow tie wouldn't work... Oh! On the subject of simple, I do not want to need help putting on my own clothes! Please don't make it button!"

[Northwest Slobovia]

Kuati Dreams
Spirits and Spice

The squib sent off a quick text towards Amanda asking if they would like using their own names or fictionalized ones for the purpose of the infiltration, and for her to ask the rest of the group. Mag had felt the four of them leaving together earlier, it was hard to miss concentrations of people where they lived. He also asked what their trading business might be called.

Amanda glanced at her phone barely long enough to forward the Jedi's question to Sandy along with a terse note -- a moment's thumb-typing and a flick of the message icon -- so she could give Erica her full attention.

"Odd styles, yet not too odd. Anything in particular y'all might want? Dresses for the women, suits-" [...] "Suits would be accurate, yeah, for the men? How many, just enough for the ones of you here? Does your cat need anything?" [...] "Special orders tend to be a bit more pricey, but I could get the new kit to you within the hour. Perhaps even a half-hour if its a good day."

Nick's ears perked forward, as did his whiskers. Ooooh! "You can make several suits in half an hour, really? Are you magical? Telekinetic?"

Amanda's widened eyes betrayed her surprise, but she saw no reason to repeat Nick's comments, nor add to them. Galli was simply like that. "My husband and I will need several outfits in similar, but not identical, styles. We have to look the part of the wealthy, and being seen in the same clothes twice simply won't do.

"An hour would be fantastic, but today will suffice, really. Let me give you our delivery address." Which she did, regardless of whether that's what various arboreal animals had intended for the scene.

Sandy considered Maghrl's text questions, rubbing his temple with his index finger as he stared at his phone. What they wanted wasn't really significant; what would work was. Eventually, Sandy pecked out a reply, taking a break to walk out to the jeep and take pictures of their previous purchases and the receipts that went with them.

If our first names will work for our purported origins, we'll keep them to prevent accidents. Otherwise, make up similar-sounding first names. We'll need family names/location names/whatever is appropriate for the time and places. Common but not too common, so they don't draw attention.

Amanda wants to know if it's appropriate for us to go armed, and if so, what permits we'll need.

We'll need docs for our goods; see photos.

Sandy paused for a second at Maghrl's last question.

Call our company Glorious Fine Wedge Import-Export

Let the locals think he meant the legendary Wedge Antilles; he was punning on 'the thin end of the wedge'.

[Holy Lykos]

Kuati Dreams
Spirits and Spice

The suddenness of Nick's speech didn't seem to phase Erica. She simply had a bemused smile for a bit, perhaps even thinking it was a bit foolish to assume a quadruped couldn't be just as sapient. "Yes dear, just a touch magic. Have to compete with other tailors even though I prefer costume work, which means any little edge is useful. I'd tell you more, but it is just a bit of a trade secret." She held a finger up to her lips in a shushing motion, very good natured about this.

"But yes, I think I could fashion some outfits for you, Nick. I'm no expert in quadrupedal patterns but the muses should guide me well enough. Easy enough to put on with a quadrupedal form, but obvious enough to denote someone as an intelligent person rather than a dressed up pet." A kind smile, "I'd be happy to help you with that. Feel free to come back here whenever you need newer outfits and clothes.

"For today, I'll get the costumes put together. I'm going to assume as you will be posing as wealthy some dress outfits would be in order along with more leisure or active wear..." She paused for a moment, seeming to do mental calculations. "Won't be all too much. I can have my delivery guy over at your place once they're all done up, and we can sort payment before you head out."

With a few more questions and clarifications of style, the three would be out the door and on their way back to the building to wait for their clothing to be delivered. It was promised to be smart looking and fit the part, alongside a few outfits in the style for their quadrupedal friend Nick. Any requests for specific stylistic flair would have been accepted and jotted down on a notepad by Erica. As friendly and efficient of a tailor as she was, hopefully they would see her again for outfit needs.


Back in the Building that the Belas and friends were likely returning too, Maghrl had finished the basic IDs as requested. The names did fit well enough, so everyone would be going as their own name. Maghrl had replied that it would be unusual to go around without a weapon since the end of the Vong war, and if they were to pose as Corellians especially. Maghrl gave a brief blurb text describing recent corellian history including the tension with the republic and their independence streak. It wasn't uncommon to see rich Corellian people without guards either, so they wouldn't draw too much suspicion. As long as they didn't come in like an army at least.

Maghrl hummed, sitting in the lobby with legs crossed in meditation as he waited. Five IDs and a set of business chips. Fabricated to the best of his ability and with the time. The business chips functioned much like a business card with the added benefit of containing stocks list and information about how to order samples of goods. Everything they would need to pass off as a legitimate business.

[Northwest Slobovia]

Kuati Dreams, Preparing to Depart

Returning to the Building was uneventful, other than the Belas being reminded of how much Bielefeld had changed since they were last there. They did manage to score a pallet on the way back, so they'd be able to move their goods more easily (and look more professional than just having loose boxes).

Until their new clothing arrived, neither Sandy nor Amanda had much to pack. They set aside a few jars of the Balm of Gilead and some of the tiny vials of Ox Blood, but for the most part, they packed things to read on the trip. Amanda carefully packed up the log of the Reine Martienne, along with the atlas found aboard her -- which turned out to be called Conklin's Guide to the Worlds -- while Sandy finished scanning the first two volumes of the Discussion of Magic along with Aristophanes' The Centaur. He loaded them onto his laptop, and added that to the suitcase.

Amanda then tossed in the holographic disguise projector, then turned to Sandy. "And the holocamera?"

Sandy picked it up, then swept the memory shards into the same hand. "We'll need to copy the shards off into the holodeck, then erase them." They headed up to five, Amanda picking up her new gun on the way out of 2L.

As the holodeck labored to construct a unified representation of Alexandria, Sandy asked it to blank the shards, then added an afterthought. "Start playback and freeze just before the Alexandrian ships came into view. Simulate us standing along the starboard side of our ship, and suppress images of everybody else aboard. Merge all data to enhance the view." The holodeck thrummed as it finished building the simulation.

Sandy turned to his wife as the image solidified. "Behold! The Pharos! You're the second modern person to see it."

Amanda stood in awe, gazing on one of the six lost ancient wonders. "We build taller skyscrapers, but this has a certain cachet they don't."

Sandy showed her a few other scenes from Alexandria: his visits and offerings at Poseidon's temple and the Mouseion shrine, and then he let her explore the Mouseion's campus. He was unable to contain his excitement. "Just transcribing the prayers the cult of Poseidon was chanting will give us new insight into their religion. We have nothing like them. With a comparison to Iris' good-morning prayers to the Muses, they'll change our understanding of the Olympian cults.

"The lists of things bought and sold in the market, the number of ships docked in the harbor... Even just the snapshots I've got will...will! We'll have to start all over with our understanding of trade! And the manticore! Biologists are going to have fun--"

"You can't publish, Sandy." Amanda shook her head, sorry to ruin his fun.

That stopped him only for an instant. "Not at home... not openly." He thought about it, studying the frozen image of the manticore in its magic cage. He flashed a grin. "Not yet." He waved away the objection he knew was coming. "Yes, if any of them survived, and yes, I'll have to be careful. But I can hint at the truth, point people in the right directions.

"And here: the universities must study histories. There may even be departments of... comparative history... meta-history. It's worth writing up. And some day, Amanda, I'll publish it all. Our world will be ready for it, if I have to prepare it myself!" He stopped, realizing how he must sound. "You have your crusades, and I have mine."

"Speaking of which..." Amanda ordered the holodeck to simulate her stunner. The image phased into her hand. "I should get some practice with this." She worked her way up from stationary targets at a shooting range to more dangerous game: soldiers with contemporary guns, using Center City Philadelphia as a battlefield.

One last round: "Where did you say the fire lizards' vunerable spots were?"

Sandy rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Eyes and mouth. But they're too fast for the gun's range. ₨20 says you won't get a shot off."

Amanda turned from him, commanding the holodeck. "Clear simulation. Load one fire lizard, aggressive. Maximum safeguards. Begin!" Sandy started to run as he saw the rapidly growing black dot in the distance, then realized he was safer with what he knew, and transformed into Pegasus, zig-zagging madly in flight to keep out of the lizard's line of fire. The beast casually incinerated Amanda.

Chastened and stinging from imaginary burns, she added "No firebreathing" and tried again, and was promptly bitten in half for her trouble. Then carried away and dropped, and once lazily swatted away as she fired.

She dragged her sore, aching body upright again. Teeth gritted, she started the simulation again. Her timing was better this time; her sprint carried her just far enough that the winged lizard needed to roll into a glacial turn to get her. In the split second before a claw would have ripped her across the chest, she fired, and the creature went limp as its nerves overloaded from the stun-bolt. Its momentum carried it over her as she ducked. Triumph! Sandy nodded, impressed, then transfered the money electronically.

Then home, dinner, and showers, and into their newly-arrived costumes -- Sandy pinned his miniature communicators onto his cape collar as decorations -- and the off to the Gatehouse for departure, luggage and cargo in tow.

[Zarkenis Ultima]

Kuati Dreams

For the woman who hailed from old Kemet, the trip out to the city of Bielefeld was rather eventful and interesting, right down to the fact that it was the first time ever that she traveled inside an automobile; while objectively speaking (if one could claim such a thing) not a lot was going on, it was still quite intriguing to be within a vehicle that moved so quickly, and without any apparent means of locomotion anywhere, or at least, not one that she could recognize.

The first stop they made was a rather pleasant one for her, not quite because of the nature of the establishment, but rather, due to the kindness with which the owners, old acquaintances of Sandy and Amanda, treated their visitors. While Sandy talked about business with the man in charge of the distillery, three other members of the family offered to give her a tour of the place, to which she readily agreed, always happy to learn more about what had become her world. As usual, some parts of the explanation made little sense to her due to the lagoons in her understanding of a world that was still strange to her, but she could make sense of most of it; though she had never seen how beer was produced back in her homeland, she had heard a few things here and there, which turned out to be a great help.

The next stop, and as far as she could tell, the main reason they had come out to the city, was a store where rare clothing was made and sold, something that was vital for their mission, as they needed to blend in with the rest of the people of Kuat. The tailor, who claimed to have magical abilities that helped with her work, was very helpful and diligent, and it did not take long for the orders to be sorted out. For her part, Meritari did not ask for any special features, as she was still unfamiliar with the customs of the world that Maghrl belonged to and did not want to mess up, though she did make sure to pick a few designs she liked out of the pictures that Amanda had provided earlier.

Content with how the trip had turned out, Meritari returned with the others to the Building. She had very little luggage to bring along, so instead of preparing anything for her departure, she consulted some of her texts and mentally practiced what magic she could handle, so that she would be ready on the off chance that she needed to use it during the journey.

Some time passed, and Meritari arrived at the Gatehouse to meet the others, wearing a flowing dress that was somewhat more lavish than her usual attire, and more colorful as well, the dress being white at the top but gradually changing into vibrant colors towards the bottom. A white glove covered her skeletal hand and her amulet was well-hidden by the dress. Walking up to those who were already present, the Kemetian waited for the journey to begin.

[Holy Lykos]

Kuati Dreams, Departure

With the group assembled once more, Maghrl did one last check of everything. Identichips, Business chips, his own datapad, check. Goods loaded up on the palette for them to sell, check. Clothing was good... and Mag had the few hundred credits on his person for some expenses until they could make more money, too.

The squib was wearing a different outfit for once too. While not as covering as his normal tunic(terminating at his knees and without any sleeves), the outfit was a light red color to match his fur with an olive-brown cape and gold accents. The material of his chest was scaled rather than conventional fabric as well. An all together alien, likely Squibbish, style of outfit compared to the unmistakably human designs of the rest. Given the fact the humans and feline friends of his were just treated to a very amusing display of reaching into every single crevasse and fold in the mildly baggy outfit and pulled things out while tallying up every single object on his person, including lightsabers, it was an easy assumption to make that it also had a plethora of pockets.

"Good Good..." Maghrl grinned over the rest. "Outfits are wonderful! Most definite fit in with Maghrl's home. Had to dig out own fancydress for trip."

With a bit of force aiding him, Maghrl tossed each person their ID chip, alongside the set of business ones for the Belas. "Kuat matriarchal. Expect to approach Amanda or Meritari first." The squib collected the databall as well, dialing in a specific location he had in mind before slipping it into one of the many concealed pockets.

"But first: Corellia. We start in Coronet. Biggest spaceport on Corellia. Maghrl has ship in dock there. Was visiting world when dragged here, yes yes. If... not impounded of course." Maghrl coughed into his hand. "Has been... years. likely. But Maghrl can get own ship, you bet.

"From Corellia, to Kuat. Travel all normal-style so less suspicious. Less so than suddenly appear on rings. Hypertravel to Kuat from Coronet, yes yes. We scout from there, rent place stay, warp back and have good place to warp in out 'til further notice!" A decent enough plan.

"If there no question now, lets go." Maghrl waved them all towards the portal before hopping through the gate first.

---

And as the group would arrive one at a time in Coronet City, they would each find themselves to be in a large, and very empty loading bay positioned in the middle of a great body of water. A thin pair of rails extended from far under them towards the city itself, only barely seen over the lip of the hanger bay entrance. The room was echoingly empty, with Squib pacing around worriedly upon the arrival of others.

A view out of the open, yet shimmering light covered hanger bay entrance showed a massive city of spires and domes and glittering metal.What seemed to already be Skyscrapers in their own right were dwarfed by buildings yet larger and taller. At least one stretched up and beyond the atmosphere, perhaps a structure built up around a space elevator. The ships compared to the structures were like flies to a wookie, flitting in and out of near invisible divots in the structure and racing from ground to space along it. The city continued to stretch along the visible horizon in all directions, a true megalopolis with levels of buildings miles deep.

The great spires stretched on and on. And even from the miles distant they were on this section of what appeared to be a Spaceport, the city buzzed with life and activity. Even during the noon light, neon gleamed in the undercity visible from here, yet the languages shown were utterly alien and much too far to see clearly if they had familiarized themselves with Aurebesh at all.

It would be by far the largest city any of the others had ever seen. Meri's entire civilization could have lived in even the smallest of neighborhoods of the city and still have room to grow. The rest could have feasibly imagined such a city but to witness one for themselves would be another story all together.

But the Squib didn't even seem to notice. He was preoccupied trying to find something in the room around them.

"Agh. Nonono... Ship gone yes. Need to track down Ship through CorSec now... If CorSec still has Squibship, should have plenty of supplies onboard to supplement goods Bela brings. Unless all was made contraband... Bad day..." Maghrl sighed, hand rubbing over forehead as he thought and ears twitching in concern.

He spun around, glancing over the group. "Everyone-thing made jump safely, yes?"

[Monfrox]

Frozen Rain

The medic had her hand on her helmet to keep it on as the driver of the jeep made a fast getaway from the frontline and turned his headlights on. She smacked him on the arm and shouted something akin to slowing down over the engine, to which he did. She looked back at Willow and then to Sterling, before nodding to herself.

"Well, you must be Patton's boys. Finally made your way out here to rescue us, yeah? Welcome to Bastogne, the most sought after city this side of the German border. Krauts came running in a week ago and needed this town's crossroads for its advance all the way through the rest of the country. Well, we weren't about to let that happen. Been cut off here and surrounded, fighting off the Krauts ever since. Some Christmas present you guys are, though. Day late and a dollar short, or rather a whole division if that. I hope you aren't the only two we got because then we'd be in real trouble. Well as if the lack of supplies and able-bodied men wasn't enough of a problem, the weather keeps the Air Corps from helping us out too."

As she talked, the outline of tall buildings grew in the distance against the snow flurries.

"Things have been pretty shitty lately, but nothing's changed in the days we've been here. When we stop off at the aid station, I'll take you to the Battalion CP and we'll see what the Commander has for you. Always something going wrong around here. Anything else?"

[Giovenith]

The specifics were still gibberish, but it didn't matter, Willow got the general gist. They were fighting over a border, resources were low, and they'd been sent to help.

"Well I'll be sure to take beautiful wide angles of all the bedlam," he said with a sharp smile, adjusting his camera. "And mail you the copies. Frame costs extra. Not sure what we can offer beyond that though, it's just me and Venture here, no clue where the other guys fucked off to."

It was actually quite fortunate that whatever force sent them here seemed to give them the positions they had. Willow was barely able to handle the gauntlet knives of his ancestors, the last thing he wanted was to go toe to toe with the mysterious boomsticks of the humans.

"Do you know where Nicholson is?" he asked after a moment of recalling Brit's last name. He thought maybe they'd have more luck with it, this being modern military and all. "Our..." Leader? General? Commander? "... Uh, hirm, Patton told us that she we would need to talk to her immediately once we got here."

[Northwest Slobovia]

Kuati Dreams, Coronet, Corellia

"Agh. Nonono... Ship gone yes. Need to track down Ship through CorSec now... If CorSec still has Squibship, should have plenty of supplies onboard to supplement goods Bela brings. Unless all was made contraband... Bad day..." [...] "Everyone-thing made jump safely, yes?"

Amanda was still walking toward the entrance to get a look at the city when Maghrl spoke. She started to answer over her shoulder, then turned around to face him -- a bit gingerly, still getting used to her new clothes and how to walk in her preposterously high boots. "I'm fine, but no ship??"

Her index finger drummed against the side of her leg as she thought. "Yes, seeing if you can get your ship back is clearly first on the list. Then the date. The political situation-- the interstellar political situation." She stopped for a moment, marvelling at what she'd just said: she'd have to get used to that scale. "If it's been too long, things may be too different for the plan to work." She realized her husband was nowhere around her. "Sandy?"

He was standing in the hangar's entrance, comparing the city he saw to the precis Maghrl had sent them on his phone, talking mostly to himself. "Passably democratic... millions of inhabitants... commercial center, major port. Could be Philadelphia. Hmmm?"

He answered without shifting his gaze. "I heard. We'll need a ship one way or another. If not Maghrl's, then... passage on another. If we can afford to travel in suitable style." He shoved his phone into a pocket, then rubbed the back of his neck, walking in a slow half-circle to face Amanda and Maghrl as he considered. After a few moments of staring where a starship should be, he blinked in realization, turned his left hand up, and made rapid gestures over it with his right.

Tiny fireworks dutifully sprang from his palm, but they were only a few inches tall, and Sandy had to concentrate on his casting just to get that. He dropped his hands. "Not a lot to work with, but..." He chanted rapidly in Greek and made complex gestures with both hands. He seemed different: jaw a bit squarer, body slightly more muscular, voice a touch more resonant. He looked at himself for a bit, and took a few experimental steps, covering surprisingly much ground. A smile split his face. "Contact with Olympus! Not much... not enough for the full effect, but enough!"

[Holy Lykos]

Frozen Rain

Sterling was just about as perplexed, but the names mentioned brought something up in his mind. The pony had been reading up on human history based on the archives in the building, and there was something immensely familiar about what this person was telling them.

But he couldn't place just what it might be, much to his own frustration. The momentary recognition faded into annoyance, before Sterling spoke up to add onto what Willow had said.

"Even if we can't find our... uh..." A glance to Willow. " Our contact, Nicholson, we would be happy to help do some work while we're here in Bastogne. We may be noncombatants but we could certainly help in some way or another."

[Fvaarniimar]

Kuati Dreams, Coronet, Corellia

Nick nodded. "I'm fine." He glanced around with pricked ears, golden bell swinging. "The missing ship is irritating, and this place is enormous... Finding it should be an adventure!" Then he caught a glimpse of the city. "It's huge! I feel like a gnat! Is that -" He leaned forward, rather uselessly. "New languages! Cool!"

Kind of like - The thought of Alexandria raised more practical concerns. "Exactly what do we do if someone wants to see identichips? Hand them over nicely? Act snooty? Is there any chance of someone snatching them, say by pretending they're to verify who we are?"

A bit nervous, the furry brown person turned his head. A sphere sat on his back rather like a pagoda on an elephant or draconic Amanda: a polycarbonate travel carrier for Alexandria the snake, set in a gyroscope. It was technically small, but larger than Nick's head! A few climbing beams had been pulled out to make room for the business and identi- chips, the latter of which peeked out through sleek black coils. A transparent strap held it firmly in place.

The rest of his attire was no less striking. A triangular cobalt neckpiece with a subtle design went over a burgundy satin vest trimmed in the same hue - sweeping up at the haunches, it resembled a cape from the back or side.

A strap peeked out here and there: Nick's harness. As Nick had opted to wear said harness under his outfit, he had moved his luggage to the tea tray, which hopefully would pass as extravagant tech. A simple wire box corralled his luggage bags, including one padded with a threadbare blanket and holding the obligatory tea set.

[Monfrox]

Frozen Rain

The medic blanched and looked back at Willow, then to Sterling, as if she was just now realizing they were not human at all. She leaned over to her driver and ordered him to speed back up, to which he obliged. Within about ten minutes, they were inside an old looking town and parking outside of a church. They both got out and she called another soldier over to take the litter inside where the aid station was. Along the wall leading to the church was a pile of bodies in uniforms like the ones the others wore. In the doorway, sick and wounded soldiers who still had enough motor functions to stand and weren't in terrible pain meandered while waiting for treatment behind all the others, but it was a sight soon to disappear. The medic returned to the jeep and jumped into the driver's seat. They sped off down the roads past bombed out buildings until the jeep halted outside of a large building with sandbags and a Browning M1919A4 MG, where the jeep was halted and turned off.

"I don't know if this is a sign or what, but..." The medic turned around in her seat to look at the pair. "You'll need to talk to the battalion commander. I hadn't heard much, but word gets around fast. And word was that your friend, one of our platoon leaders for our company, Lieutenant Nicholson, took a patrol out a few days ago along the lines to scout out German troops and...well...no one's seen her since. C'mon, let's go talk to the Major."

The girl stepped out of the jeep and walked up into the building.

[Zarkenis Ultima]

---

---

---

Arriving at the target location in the same manner as the others, although slightly behind them, Meritari stepped onto the loading bay, reflexively looking around to survey the area she was in. Immediately, she was met with the sight of enormous towers and circular buildings which shone with a metallic glint under the sunlight, and it felt almost as if she had been hit with this sight, such was her astonishment upon seeing it all. Massive structures were not exactly new to her, but like before, they were a majestic thing to behold, especially the one that seemed to pierce the veil of clouds and rise to the skies, beyond the scope of her view. A huge city, one that appeared to be infinite, though she was certain that this was only because her perspective was not distant enough for her to capture all of it. The vessels that soared through the skies caught her attention too, once more causing her to think back to the stories of how Re's ship ferried the sun above the world every day. All in all, it was a new and fascinating landscape, and the Kemetian found herself rather focused on taking it all in.

It wasn't until after a few moments had passed that she noticed the conversation the others were having and snapped out of her contemplative stupor. "I'm fine as well." She responded to Maghrl's question; she had not heard it, but could infer that the question was asked based on the fact that both Nick and Amanda had answered it. Nick's enthusiasm was contagious, and she found herself looking forward to exploring the mind-numbingly large city that was present in the horizon, but there were several matters that needed to be set straight first, not least being the customs they should follow regarding the 'identichips' that Maghrl had given them. The matter of the ship was important too, and as she waited for an answer, she directed an inquisitive glance towards Maghrl to let him know that she too wanted to know.

Upon seeing Sandy's brief display of magic, and being suitably impressed by the results, Meritari thought of doing, in principle, the same as he had done and check whether she could still perform the arts she had learned in the past; she had less reasons for it, as her magic was different from Sandy's and did not depend on contact, but the doubt was still there, and she opted to dispel it. Of course, as expected, she could still detect the movements and the flow of life and soul, having no major difficulty in doing so. The others likely did not notice, as her way of testing it was nowhere near as flashy as Sandy's; just a small change in perception and interpretation, adopting a different way to see the world. A change in attitude, so to speak, no words or hand gestures needed.

Done with her small diagnosis, Meritari returned her attention to the matters at hand, and, remembering a specific part of what Maghrl had told them before they crossed the gate to Coronet City, opted to ask the Squib a question of her own. "Maghrl, you said Amanda and I are more likely to be approached once we arrive at Kuat, yes? In that case, is there anything I should know in case I am questioned? Beyond the name of our association and the goods we sell, I mean." She inquired, glancing over at Amanda, Sandy and the pallet they had brought along.

[Giovenith]

As the group drove on, Willow tried to keep his eyes on the medic so as to keep his eyes off the town - or rather, the skeleton of it - as they drove on. If he looked, he might have started to imagine what the place must have been like before whatever little spite somewhere sparked humanity's notorious brand of wrath. He might have thought about the hard work its founders put into raising the first cottages, what their dreams must have been to put themselves to such an enormous task. He might have wondered about their children, what it was like to be the first generation to know this place as completely home without comparison, and how that set the stage. He might have imagined the birthdays, summers, snow fights, school days, weddings, all the firsts and the lasts, all the satisfaction for what this place had given its people and the anticipation of what it would continue to give. He might have thought of all that, and he might have cursed the world for how quickly it took the quilt of time and love and ripped it to rags, left alone in the dark and dust with only suffering strangers for company, as if none of it had ever mattered at all.

He might have. But he had a job to do.

I thought that might help, Willow told Sterling with his eyes as the namedrop provoked a reaction. So Brit had been here after all? She was still lost, but at least with a mission and rank to go on, that had something of a trail.

Uncertain of how far this mental smokescreen keeping their horseyness under wraps would go, Willow decided not to push his luck and opted to walk alongside the medic once they exited the vehicle rather than fly. "These people that Nicholson was scouting," he asked. "I know it'd be stupid to ask if they were dangerous, but do you know if they were... especially eager to be here?"

Humans could be such sick fucks in war, Willow had known that ever since Giovenith told him that horrible story of the war in Troy. If Brit had been captured, as it was sounding more and more like she had, there might at least be hope that hers were civilized captors who were merely holding her and nothing else. If not though, then he and Sterling would have to prepare to meet their worst.

[Holy Lykos]

Frozen Rain

Sterling walked up alongside, glancing about the ruined town uncertainly. Such a ruined place was leaving him uneasy. Who knew when the people attacking them could resume and find them. And with the dangerous weapons he'd seen and heard and felt earlier the unicorn doubted he could do much to protect himself and Willow. The weapons humans had were just too deadly and too quick.

So Sterling followed the other two, trailing a bit behind the medic and artist in somber silence. His consolation was that at least they were on Brit's trail. If they could find their friend they could make their way home. It didn't matter if they didn't have one of those things that would let them return to Galli quickly, Sterling just knew they could find their way home with a little help and their friend. He had to believe in that. He had to.

"Would it be possible for us to get some food? It seems like ages since I last saw any." Off topic all things said, but the unicorn figured they'd do Brit no good if they starved.

---

Kuati Dreams
Coronet City

Maghrl started with Nick's many questions. No reason to not get them answered ASAP. "ID swipes for higher-end places, showing ID for most. Hand to authorities to avoid suspicion-thinks. Acting haughty goodchoice for highclass beings yes yes. But compliance-following leaves less suspicion." As the fuzzy alien nodded his ears bobbed slightly off tempo of the rest of his head, they were just that large.

"But yes, all, ship is gone. Mag needs to visit CorSec. Corellian Security forces. Nasty and corrupt sometimeswise. Amanda is right. Need to see date and news. Ship has Holonet connection, yes yes. Can check latter then. Datetime on Monorail, though." The purple squib scratched at his chin for a moment before glancing over the group.

"My ship is-be better than a randoship for transport. Could see if we return-bring ship along with us, or park somewhere distant 'nuff, yesyes."

Mag, unprompted, grinned widely, before suddenly turning on his heels to head for the three person tall, bulkhead-like door of the hanger. "Follow! CorSec H-Q in Corsec Plaza. Near Elevator. The big one." A gesture made it plain what structure the alien was speaking of, the great spire reaching beyond both clouds and breathable atmosphere.


The squib led the group through the bulkhead and hall to the central elevator block, a quick read of the shape of the hall would tell most the building seemed to be shaped octagonally. The structure held a hanger on each of the 8 walls of the room and a set of elevators, one giant for cargo and a dozen sized for intelligent beings (though larger than the elevators they'd likely seen before by a great margin). Utilitarian to an extreme, with the barest of decorations and harsh lighting. A hanger bay for proper spacers rather than the odd tourist, by all measures.

And already the milling groups of people were a mixed bag. Shifty looking humans and properly dressed aliens of all stripes, guiding hovering or otherwise palettes around. Cargo was kept in crates and barrels and all sorts of advanced looking containers but was just as mixed as the groups conveying it. As they passed, a pair of robots pushed a hover dolly the size of a small traincar into the cargo elevators. A bustling chaos, yet no one appeared to be wandering around lost. But from the looks the Jedi tossed around, not all of them were likely to be trustworthy.

At one point Maghrl dashed off for a moment before returning with a hovering trolley for the Belas. After weaving through the crowds, the group would find themselves in one of the elevators. The floor readout, luckily, had familiar numerals to all save Meritari and told everyone the structure had enough floors that it was more efficient to place a keypad entry than a brace of buttons. As the readout was already set to MAIN Maghrl deigned to tamper with it. As the elevator descended, stopping to allow aliens, humans, and cargo to stream in or out every time, it never seemed to pick up any inertia. The familiar feeling of movement on an elevator contemporary to the Belas was totally absent. And of course, tacky instrumental music played over hidden speakers to fill the otherwise dead air of the elevator car.

Within a dozen minutes, however, the whole group found themselves on a monorail train and getting settled for the ride into the city. Maghrl had covered tickets and had acquired a cabin on the second floor of the rail's latter quarter, with space for a palette. The cabin contained windows on all sides and access through a staircase leading to the main hall running the length of the train below. Much like the elevator, the rail would glide out of its rest rapidly and never seem to show the tug of inertia when banking or accelerating. But the wide city spread out around them on all sides as the monorail followed the high route into Coronet City. Now that they were in a vehicle with panoramic view, it was easy to see that only the open ocean of Coronet Bay was undeveloped- relatively at least, there could occasionally be seen subaquatic structures below the surface after all. Maghrl drummed on his thighs with his hands idly as he sat.

"Hangar-train on whole-city circuit. All big stops in city including main markets. If Belas wish to fundraise credits using supplies, may smart-good to step off in one market or another, yes? Maghrl see where CorSec has ship, and collect. If any get lost, meet back at start point, yes? Monorail is cheap, hangar is on floor 84 in space aurek."

[Monfrox]

Frozen Rain

The medic eyed Willow a bit as she thought of how to respond to his question, but Sterling's talk of food made her a bit worried. She led them off to one of the other rooms that had been stocked with crates with differing labels. Mostly ammunition, some labeled "K RATIONS", but most were empty. The medic dug around through them before tossing two big cans at them. One was labeled "Meat & Spaghetti in Tomato Sauce" for Willow's, and "Chopped Ham, Egg, and Potato" for Sterling.

"It's not much. Air Corps tried resupplying us a few times but none of the supply drops landed on us. We've had to make things last longer than we thought, so rationing the rations feels greatly redundant. But, what else can we do?" The medic had a can herself and rolling it between her gloved hands. "If you guys want warm food, we can cook it up real quick. I'm not sure about how to answer your question but..." She stopped and suddenly stood up. "First Sergeant."

In the doorway to the supply room stood another woman, with long, flowing, silver hair running down along her back from under her M1 helmet. She too had the same Airborne patch the medic did, only on her shoulders was a patch with a lot of chevrons and rockers with a small hollow diamond in the middle. Her expression was hard, but not angry.

"Pilfering food for the wounded again?" She asked.

"No, Sergeant. Just these two." The medic replied, gesturing to the pair before her.

"Who're they?"

"Some of Patton's boys, if you can believe it."

"Patton's boys? You mean..."

"I don't know what it means. They're Signals Corps. All they got is a couple cameras."

"Oh, brother. The Captain hears this and she's going to flip."

"Let's get some food heated up, then. Poor guys were hungry so I thought about getting them some food before they saw the Cap'n."

"Right, well let's go. I can talk with them on the way out."

The First Sergeant turned around, adjusted the M1 Garand rifle slung over her shoulder, and headed out. The medic breathed out a sigh and looked to Sterling and Willow before following.

"Come on, boys. Hot food's always better than cold food." She called back.

[Giovenith]

Willow read the label and exchanged a strained look with Sterling. Meat. They couldn't deny the offer - it would be both ungrateful and raise suspicion - but it wouldn't be much easier explaining why the two were gagging and vomiting profusely, let alone why they should be able to continue with their mission after such an incident.

"Thanks!" Willow gave a polite smile. They'd figure it out.

The smile dropped and his ears flicked beneath his hat as another human came in and expressed less enthusiasm with their arrival. That could be trouble. Willow could handle getting yelled at, but this captain might press for details he didn't have the knowledge to make up. They could feign ignorance and probably get fly under the radar, but if they were going to get any help saving Brit, Willow was pretty sure the people in charge here would expect something more than shrugs and 'I dunno's.

He smiled again when the medic called out to them, held it, and told Sterling in a hush between clenched teeth: "I might be able to separate the pasta from the flesh in mine, and whatever else from yours. The taste will linger, but we're not getting anything from out there - not in that weather."

He galloped after the humans, thinking quickly and planning as he did. They would need to stay several steps ahead to avoid red flags.

"So," he showed up beside the two again. "I don't think we've exchanged names? This is Sterling Venture, I'm Willow Streaks." Maybe if they gave names, they wouldn't have to address each other by ranks and possibly make a slip up. "What's yours?"

[Northwest Slobovia]

Kuati Dreams
Coronet City

"Follow! CorSec H-Q in Corsec Plaza. Near Elevator. The big one." A gesture made it plain what structure the alien was speaking of, the great spire reaching beyond both clouds and breathable atmosphere. [...]

Amanda's gaze followed the elevator up until it shrank to a thread and then disappeared up beyond view. "Oooh, a space elevator! Legitimate government..." She gave Sandy a look until he tossed his head and mumbled something about "no worse than at home" and then she continued with "...and a large, cosmopolitan city must have cultural attractions! This is very civilized! I could get used to this."

"Hangar-train on whole-city circuit. All big stops in city including main markets. If Belas wish to fundraise credits using supplies, may smart-good to step off in one market or another, yes? Maghrl see where CorSec has ship, and collect. If any get lost, meet back at start point, yes? Monorail is cheap, hangar is on floor 84 in space aurek."

The Belas exchanged glances in silence for lingering seconds before Sandy spoke. "If you let us into the markets, you'll never get us out. One can learn so much about a culture just watching what people buy and sell, how they do it, what they value -- and what's taboo -- that... Well, I still need to analyze the last market I visited." He broke into a big grin.

He stared out the window for a few seconds before turning back to the Jedi. "But we should have cash when we arrive at Kuat, at least pocket money. We'll need to understand something about Corellian culture, both high and popular, as part of our roles... and that will satisfy -- partially satisfy -- Amanda. Also current events, um, some politics... state of the economy." He paused, furrowed his brow, then went on. "We should get a portable holo player, small but deluxe enough to suit our stations... and news shows, cultural presentations... uh, sports, if we can. We can study up on the way to Kuat."

Amanda broke in. "Maghrl, you said you could fix droids. Do you think you could modify the holo player to accept the holographic memory Sandy's holocam takes? Or perhaps make an adapter? We have some specifications for the memory. If you could, then we could buy more memory for the player and unload the camera and record more of Kuat. If we do end up planning a raid, the holos would be invaluable."

Sandy shot her a dubious look, but went on as though she hadn't spoken. "So, yes, we will be spending some time in the markets." He studied the monorail map. "We'll get off at the furthest market. We have homework, learning this alphabet well enough to pretend to be literate." He took a picture of a random sign in the train, before giving Amanda a serious look. "Transcription exercises, dear. If we need more time, we'll go around for another loop, saying we missed our stop."

Amanda agreed: forget fitting in, reading was necessary for survival in an advanced civilization. She started to look for things to photograph for transcription practice, then stopped at a moving display that seemed mostly numbers. She nodded at it. "Is that the current date and time, Maghrl? How long has it been since you left here?"

[Zarkenis Ultima]

---

---

Meritari, along with the rest of the group, was ushered into the vehicle--that's what she had been told, but it was so different from anything she would have called such!--and taken to a relatively spacious room, seemingly all for themselves, which had ample windows that gave those inside an excellent view of all things around them. More than happy to ride in such conditions, the young woman seated herself next to one of the windows and gazed outside, looking at the city, the sea, and in general at the landscape that surrounded them. It was quite a strange thing to see everything begin passing by when she felt no movement coming from the vehicle they rode, but she grew used to it quickly and simply continued watching.

While observing the landscape, the Kemetian also listened to the conversations of her questing partners. She was by far the least adjusted of the bunch, so any sort of information she could gather from Maghrl or any directions she could gleam from the Belas would be very useful in, well, making herself useful to the rest of the group.

"A market, huh?" She thought, her mind traveling back to the wide markets of the city of Tjenu that she had seen in her youth, remembering them fondly but also regarding them with a certain irony, as she knew that the markets of Coronet City were unlikely to be anything like those. Still, it was something to look forward to.

Noticing that the Belas were hard at work attempting to translate signs they somehow captured from the landscape with the same devices they had used to light up the flying ship's depths before, Meritari quietly approached them, glancing over and attempting to make out anything that could be useful to her. Unfortunately, the alien signs that passed them by constantly were being translated to other signs that the Belas were familiar with, but which were equally alien to her. She quickly realized that she would not benefit from the translation exercises they were doing, and so, instead of focusing on that, she decided to gather information. Once Maghrl had answered Amanda's question, the Kemetian approached him and repeated the question she had made earlier, assuming he had missed it then due to the number of questions directed at him.

"Mostlike to ask 'bout Coruscant. Need to know basics. Old old planet, possible human homeworld. Usedbe ecumenopolis: a planet sized city. Even bigger than Coronet, yes yes. Hard to imagine size-of." The Squib told her, eager to answer the question. "But about... decade or so in past, Vong sacked-destroyed city. Burned out city, rebuilt planet as if homeworld- full of jungle and water and life. Since end of Vong war, Coruscant begin rebuild but nowhere near as populous. Meri can be young 'nuff to not remember much before, be of Coruscanti exile richie-rich family moved to Corellian system short before sacking, yes yes?"

Listening to these words, Meritari nodded. While some words were tricky to understand and the sheer scale of some of the things he said were very difficult to fathom for her, she did get the gist of it: her identity was that of a woman whose family left their city shortly before it was destroyed. Simple enough, and the details brought a faint, not entirely happy smile to her face. She was humored by the fact that her invented past, too, was marked by tragedy.

Not one to dwell on such things for long, the young woman offered Maghrl a genuine smile this time. "I see. It may not be much, but knowing this makes me feel more confident about my... the paper I am to play on this journey. Thank you." She said sincerely, before turning back to the large windows. The vehicle had by now slowed down enough for her to catch glimpses of activity in the city that surrounded her. Even if she could not understand the symbols of these people, she was certain that she could learn a lot about them by observing their conduct.

[Holy Lykos]

Frozen Rain

"Y'know, I almost forget sometimes that humans are more omnivorous than we are..." The unicorn mumbled to his friend. "I can use my magic to help separate out the chunks too. Better than nothing of course." Not that reduced food was much aside from filling of course. But food was food.

The unicorn would trot after the others, trying to keep his eye on the sky for any strange motion. A few moments would be the difference between life and death out here in a proper warzone. And keeping a keen eye for any sort of attack would mean his magic would just have that much more time to throw up a shield, even if it was a small one. But saving people trumped any sort of hurt to himself. At least the stinging pain in his side had faded, whatever it had been. Sterling hadn't had the light or time to see what had bit him during their flight earlier. He doubted it was a bug with how cold this region was right now.

"Warmth would be nice, yes." Sterling spoke up, not having much else to add with Willow already giving their names. "Thank you for the food."

---

Kuati Dreams
Coronet City

"Oh yes, yes! Date. Numerals of English much like Basic, easy to recognize me so easy you too." Maghrl nodded profusely, wide smile as always on his face. "Few months-so after Magh disappear. Had been in Coronet to attend inauguration of local Jedi enclave. First on Corellia! Might stopby, might not. May need money-stash." He shrugged, rather nonplussed. "Jedi used to Squib being flighty. No have apprentice, so keep own schedule and work."

The Bay shrunk away behind them as the monorail flitted past the first lines of buildings. The previous insane speed tapered off, yet was still fast enough that they only got a few seconds per neighborhood. The track started climbing after the first stop- Maghrl told them to stay put, the coast wasn't the destination for any of them- only stopping once it reached the uppermost level of the city. If they craned over the slight overhang of their panoramic view, they could see a gap under them leading thousands of meters into darkness. "Stay 'way from undercity. Slummy place not good-for high society. Just built over worse neighborhoods to bury problems like old coruscant. Quite shameful on Corellians, Mag thinks. Markets Belas want toplevel, midlevel."

The spires were even larger up close, but interspersed with rooftop gardens and parks and recreational areas. They were obviously entering the nicer parts of the city, and the space elevator loomed large over it all. The building at its base, while physically squat, was still one of the larger spires of the city. "Oh oh, Marketplace in Spire Anchor too, Amanda. Deals in imports and exports. 'swhy coastal hangar-blocks have raillines leading towards it." The traincar was indeed angling them on a circuitous route that fed into the Elevator itself, with bright lights and daytime neon signs on all sides flitting by. All sorts of businesses, but mostly of the type one might see in a higher end section of the city. Fancy restaurants, fine arts, and luxury apartments. Very well appointed and decorated, with serving robots a common sight either tending to patrons at businesses, to the topiary and vegetation, or simply cleaning. A pristine city built on top of urban decay.

On this level mostly humans could be seen milling about. The occasional non-human were usually in clusters of tourists or similar finery to what they were wearing. A very vertically stratified city as Maghrl had indicated earlier. Maghrl took the time to point out some species they should know for certain, including the two others sharing this solar system with the Corellian humans. Drall, a stout rodent-like species with similar height to Maghrl but without the vibrant colors or long snout, and Selonian, a lanky and flexible musteline species not unlike otters from earth that averaged taller than human height. Both seemed similarly rare compared to the non-native species of Corellia. "Usually keep to own planets," Maghrl explained. "Selonians family-clan-minded, don't travel outside of star system often. Drall scholarly, research and statesmen. Neither as adventurous as human, yup yup."


It was then that Meri asked her question about her fictitious origins, and Maghrl was happy to comply with his response. He finished it off with a nod. "No problem, Meri. Like comewith Maghrl to CorSec or with Belas to Market-Spire? You, Nick?" The shuttle came to a stop at the first of their stops, CorSec Plaza, a few moments later. The Squib hopped off his seat and, tall ears pointing forward eagerly, gestured for whoever wanted to follow him as he strode off.

CorSec Plaza outside was quite in contrast to the well-groomed sections they had been passing through before. While just as well-kept, it was much more bare. A large shuttle parking section stood in front of the brutalist block of a building sitting smack in the middle of a large plaza. Uniformed security stood at the exit to the train station, waving through people who they deemed safe and bringing others aside. From the train it was easy to see the checkpoints dotted on the periphery of the plaza that was built almost like a fortress in the center of the city surrounding it. Given its fuction as security, it might as well have been a fortress.

[Northwest Slobovia]

Kuati Dreams
Coronet City

"Stay 'way from undercity. Slummy place not good-for high society. Just built over worse neighborhoods to bury problems like old Coruscant. Quite shameful on Corellians, Mag thinks. Markets Belas want toplevel, midlevel."

Sandy's eyebrows jumped. "Reaaally?

"No, dear. Just no. If it's anything like the Badlands, they'll kill you for your clothes." The Babelfish did their best to translate Amanda's loading of 'the Badlands': a dangerous, crime-ridden area in Philadelphia.

Sandy rounded on her, annoyed. "And what do you suppose will happen to you if you're caught liberating slaves from wealthy, powerful people?" He paused, sighed, and after a moment, brightened. "If you loan me the holocloak, they'll never see these clothes. With a little magic besides, I can look like a bruiser... improve my hearing to where it's hard to sneak up on me, and even with the little contact I have with Olympus, outrun or outfight most people." There was a distinct silence while Sandy seemed to study the floor of the train. "If you can get me the name and... um... address of a fence, I can even act like I belong."

Amanda forewent continuing the argument, gaving him a dubious look instead. "I know the seedy side of Bielefeld, not here." Sandy pled with his eyes, and she relented: Sandy would merrily go in the undercity with or without her help, and he did have a plan. So long as nobody got the drop on him, he probably was safe enough. "I'll see if I can learn anything. Be careful, dear. We're just tourists here. Let me trade you the holocloak for an exotic pet. You can't hide Plutarch, and I doubt he'd be happy down there anyway." She called the parrot, who'd been sitting quietly on Sandy's shoulder, and handed him the palm-sized holocloak, which he slipped into a pocket.

They studied Aurebesh until monorail pulled into the Spire Anchor station. The Belas got out of the train and retreived their cargo and its floating cart. Both of them started to look for some idea of where to head, and quickly spotted clusters of humans and xenos gathered around a row of tall holographic displays. The displays proved to be interactive holo maps of the Spire, with gesture and voice interfaces along with search tools, which brought a big smile to Amanda's face. "Oh, I could get very used to this."

Less than a minute later, they had their destinations: some sort of wine exchange and a cluster of spice auction houses. Sandy set alarms in his phone. "Let's meet back here in three hours. Stay in touch, dear.

"We'll use a simple and true cover story: we've found a--" Sandy hated to use the term, but it would be fastest way to explain himself "-- 'backwards' planet far off the main trade routes and have goods from there. They want proof? Look, they're so isolated they don't even use the right alphabet!" Amanda agreed and rented a smaller floating cart from a nearby vendor -- Maghrl had thoughtfully provided them with a little local money -- and they split up.

Amanda

Finding her way to the spice auctions was a snap: the Spire's elevators were a vertical highway, and all she needed to do was punch in her floor number and wait. Another holo map on that floor got her most of the way there, and she followed the aromas to the spice markets. A brief examination revealed why there were several markets: different species dominated the groups in each market, mostly humans in one, and different kinds of xenos in the majorities in the others.

People seem to be sticking to what they know. For all I know, one man's meat is in fact another man's poison. She got ready to take the plunge. It's just negotiating. I've done that too many times to count. This is supposed to be my home turf; I belong here. She put on her professional mask, as masculine and certain she could manage, and strolled into 'her' auction house, boxes of spices in tow. She gave an off-handed wave of her ID to the guard or bouncer at the entrance, who hurried to scan her in before nodding in the direction of a well-dressed man almost right in front of her.

"Welcome, Madam White!" He pointed a tablet-looking device in her direction. "Interesting, very interesting..." He puzzled at the labels on Amanda's boxes, which she took to be her cue. "Opening up a new trade route, far off the, uh, Corellian Trade Spine." Homework, always done my homework. His gaze shot up, new excitement in his eyes. He spoke quickly into a mic on his wrist, then pointed off to the side and towards the back of the market. "Sal Iblis, row Nen, theater 7."

"Nen Seven", and she strode off in that direction, letting the cart hurry after her. She did her best to figure out prices along the way, but following auctioneers' rapid-fire patter was not her forté. She'd have to wing it.

By the time Amanda got back to 'theater 7' -- just a marked off area of the floor with a balding auctioneer at one end -- she'd gathered a crowd, most wanting to see what this new supplier could provide, and a few gawking at Plutarch. Amanda pulled open packets of Gallimaufrian spices as quickly as she could, handing them out to the people gathered near her. Most of them were apparently human, but there was a fair smattering of xenos, mostly off-white, four-eyed people with tusks.

They besieged her with questions as they sniffed and tasted what she offered, and she did her best to answer them: no, I'm not going to say where this is from, it's my company's find, do your own scouting; yes, that's cinnamon; that one's called cardamom; no, I'm not sure if that's the same as the spice from Takodana; right, those are vanilla beans. The last was from one of the four-eyed xenos, and her quick answer prompted a stream of follow-up questions from him(?) and the other four-eyes, and a murmur in the crowd: whatever the language was, apparently most humans didn't understand it.

The balding man pressed his way throught the crowd and introduced himself as Sal, and wanted typical auctioneer information: lot sizes and reserve bids. Boxes were clearly the right lot sizes, and Amanda tentatively picked reserves in the hundreds of credits, drawing a surprised look. "It's all from far off the Corellian Run." Sal cautioned her, and she lowered the price of cinnamon, but left the high reserve on vanilla. If both humans and xenos wanted it, there must high demand. Amanda also pointed out that most of her stock was reserved for Kuat, and she was just checking prices here. Sal wasn't pleased by that, but business was business.

Amanda's auction went smoothly while she stood in a front corner, though some spices didn't reach her reserve bids, and others went for just a little over it. But a four-way bidding war developed for the vanilla beans between two of the four-eyed folks, a woman, and a scaley green xeno. The bidding became heated, and then angry. The woman shouted an accusation at one of the four-eyes and the green guy of belonging to an illegal cartel, which was rebutted by the four-eyed person pulling a hold-out pistol from his(?) vest and taking a shot at her. He missed, but Amanda's stun-bolt didn't. "Not during my auction, you don't!" Those buyers who hadn't taken cover had drawn their own guns; if Amanda hadn't belonged here before, she did now.

The green guy said something to the other bidders Amanda didn't catch, and the three of them came to the podium. They wanted to divide up all the vanilla on offer at the current price, and wanted Sal's and Amanda's permission. She gave it; no need to push her luck. Sal showed her the final prices and transfered the credits to Amanda's account. She thanked him and the other bidders, left the auction house, and started back towards the elevators.

[Monfrox]

Frozen Rain

Both soldiers walked with the two ponies outside the headquarters until they came to a spot by a lot of tents. The medic sat down around a blackened patch of earth that looked like it had been burnt before. The first sergeant left without saying much of a word to go grab some branches to burn, leaving the medic to take care of introductions.

"Well...I'm Heartling. Corporal Heartling, but everyone calls me Doc. That woman over there is First Sergeant Gutierrez. She answers to the Captain in place of the Lieutenant now. That would be Captain Meinard, by the way."

She took her mess kit out and then looked at the two, catching their looks at the food.

"What's wrong, don't you like spaghetti? Or ham and eggs?"

[Giovenith]

"That's a nice name," Willow said, circling a few times in the air before settling down with his legs tucked under him. "It sounds like something that could come from our home."

Even with the relatively short time they'd been there, the pegasus pony was already itching for a rest, quickly wiggling out of his camera strap and gently setting the machine in front of him. He briefly moved to take off even more of the cumbersome war gear, but caught himself upon remembering that stripping down to the nude probably wasn't the best choice when trying to blend in with humans — no matter how heavy and itchy the cost. Vehemently cursing the species' ridiculously prudish standards on the inside, Willow settled for slipping off his cap and running his hooves through the feathery bangs of his short mane.

He stopped and made brief eye contact with Sterling before smiling back at Heartling. "Oh no, it's just that ever since the last shipment we ate gave the whole team food poisoning, we've been a bit paranoid ever since. But I'm sure it's fine."

It felt like a needless lie to him, but Giovenith had once told him that while there were plenty of humans who didn't eat meat by choice, many others considered that choice very "hippie-ish." And if there was one thing he knew military types didn't like, it was hippies. Plus, they didn't want to be rude.

Fishing out something that resembled a plate from the supplies, Willow quickly got to work cracking open the can, trying his best to maintain a pleasant and normal expression while he did. The lid popped upward with a press of his hooves around the base, and the smell of cold processed flesh mixed in with the tomatoes made him quickly blink away nauseous tears before dabbing it down onto the platter.

"So, how are things going here?" he asked, hoping to distract the Corporal from his casual separating the meatballs from the pasta with conversation. "Any luck protecting the area from the Mustard-People? Where did you come from before being shipped out here?"

[Zarkenis Ultima]

---

"Oh, I will come with you, Mag. I think I could hope to be more useful tagging along with you instead of following the Belas." Meritari said earnestly in response to the Squib's question, opting to leave out the fact that she suspected she would likely be a bit of a hindrance to their efforts; they would likely be able to blend in and perform their roles better without her around. Plus, Maghrl was likely prepared to handle any situation that arose, and she was certain she stood to learn quite a bit simply by observing how he behaved in CorSec plaza. Thus, with her mind made up, she waited for a couple of minutes for the vehicle they were on to stop (something she could only realize by observing the movement outside, and not by any sensation of physically moving or ceasing to move, which she was still not quite used to), and then stood up to follow the Squib out of the vehicle and onto CorSec Plaza.

As she stepped onto the plaza, which contrasted quite a bit both in terms of architecture and decoration with the rest of the city (or at least the parts that she had seen so far), the Kemetian looked around, doing her best to conceal the fact that she felt a little nervous. After all, the building at the center of the plaza was rather imposing, and the large numbers of uniformed men, which she could easily identify as soldiers of some sort despite the difference between them and her usual concept of such, only served to exacerbate this feeling. Trailing behind Mag as the alien headed towards one of the checkpoints, Meritari recalled that he had mentioned CorSec could be hostile and corrupt at times, and hoped dearly that this was not one of those times.

"Where do you think your ship might be? Over there with the rest, or would these people be keeping it elsewhere?" The ancient human asked the Squib to make small talk as they continued heading towards the checkpoint.