Welcome to Drev'starn

[Gus Kalendra]

Drev'starn Spaceport looked more like a palace than any port Gus Kalendra had ever seen. There were intricately patterned domes, engraved columns and twisting spires that surely must have been built for no other reason than that they looked damned impressive. It wasn't a sight-seeing trip that had brought Kalendra to Bothawui, however. Adjusting the holdall that was slung over his shoulder, he scanned the crowds for any sign of the contact he was due to meet. It was the first time he'd ever been part of a crowd and felt like the odd one out, given the ration of humans to Bothans.

[Charlotte Tur'enne]

Drev'starn... wow, holy hells did it look a lot different than the last time she had been there. Of course, the last time she had been a key player in the liberation front, going after the Moff himself and his Inquisitor body guard. The Moff had gotten away before Charlotte had managed to do some rather interesting things to the man that would have made the boys back home proud. That was before she had joined Dorn Force... which was... well, longer than Charles figured she would even be alive for.

All in all, the place looked...well, like a city again. Which was... well, she couldn't exactly say it was a really nice change, but it probably was preferable this way to most people. Almost made Charles wish she had attempted to get in touch with Blue Sauce and see if he actually got any time away from playing spy. If for no other reason than sightseeing with the fun clause of: Remember when I shot that white hat over there? He was what... almost like a klick and a half away from us? Frak yes that was an awesome shot.

The only thing Charles didn't exactly like was how crowded the place had become. Sure it showed life and some semblance of prosperity, but there was something to be said for a nice empty city as well and the bits of rubble were charming in their own way. Of course, Charles was also the type to go and visit a previous battlefield on her off-duty time so...

[Gus Kalendra]

Gus sniffed and scrubbed at his nose with the cuff of his sleeve. The air was so clean – or at least cleaner than it had been where he'd grown up, in the Skids of Coronet City – that his body almost didn't know how to react. Though he'd been loitering by the 'port exit for a good ten minutes, no one had turned up. No one looked eventually remotely like they were on the look-out.

A minute or so passed and Kalendra spotted a young woman, who the crowd was passing around. She was scanning the area, but not with the wide-eyed wonder of a tourist. Gus wandered her way.

He lifted his chin at her. “What's up?”

[Charlotte Tur'enne]

What's...up...? What, was this guy too lazy for a proper pick up line? Of course he was pretty much the only human within sight, so that probably made her the same within his vision. Or maybe she was just over thinking everything. Pick up lines... right, like that would ever happen.

"Just admiring my handy work." Her shoulders shrugged slightly with the words. "Well, not all mine, I guess."

[Gus Kalendra]

“Your.. handy work?” With one eyebrow lifted, he turned his eyes upwards and scanned the rooftops. Did she mean the architecture, or somethin else? The raised eyebrow became a frown as he looked back down and felt a smile tugging at one corner of his mouth. “Hey, I know that accent. Corellia?”

[Charlotte Tur'enne]

"Damn right! The best kind of people come from Corellia." There was a sort of cheeky air to the way she had said it. Combined with a small smirk that said she knew damn well the type of people who could pick out a Corellian accent that quickly... and it usually meant they were also guilty of owning such a thing.

For a moment Charles considered asking some stupid question like what was another child of Corellia doing in a place like this... but that was fairly obvious. All humans were there for one reason and one reason only. So that lead to another perfectly honest question that was about the same line of thinking...

"So, you with Intel or SpecForce?"

[Gus Kalendra]

- and like that, there was his in. For a guy who'd come up amongst the swoop gangs and bangers of the Skids, it was almost too easy. Back home they had code, slang and initiation rites, all of which made operating under the nose of CorSec possible – but Bothawui wasn't Corellia. The planet wasn't under Imperial occupation and there was no need to hide allegiances behind tags and colours.

“Uh, Special Forces. Supposed to be someone meeting me here but I guess they flaked out.. or this is some kinda test,” he added, with a sheepish grin.

[Charlotte Tur'enne]

Charles wanted to smile and proudly proclaim that it felt pretty damn good to be able to talk about work so openly without feeling like they'd attract every Imperial garrison within the galaxy. There was almost a pang though when it came to thinking that it was here on Bothawui that she was able to do it, but not at home. At least not yet. She knew the day that plans were laid down for the liberation of Corellia, she'd be first in line to sign up.

Thankfully before that line of thinking could turn any real emotion up within her, Gus continued on, bringing a bit of a laugh from her.

"A test? Sounds like some dren the Spooks would go and pull on you. I find our kinds of tests a bit more straightforward."

Charles put a finger to her lip and regarded the man.

"Hmm... of course maybe it's one of the other regiments pulling something on you too... maybe one of the SpaceOps, or Rangers... they always seem to have some sort of ego thing they need to prove. Of course the HWSs aren't much better."

It was as if she was speaking while systematically ruling out where exactly the man fit. A bit of a game for Charles, maybe a bit of a test for the other guy. It was amusing either way.

[Gus Kalendra]

“SpaceOps?” Gus drew back, his forehead creasing and lips pursing into a dubious smile. He folded broad arms across his chest and shook his head. “Nah uh. They ain't getting me nowhere near an airlock.”

His attention shifted between the girl, the crowds and the city. His smile was easy, but his mind was on alert. In unfamiliar territory, it was a force of habit. More than that, it was essential for survival. Kalendra lifted his chin at her again.

“Which regiment you in?”

[Charlotte Tur'enne]

"The fancy one no one talks about with black blocks hiding a lot of text on our mission reports."

Attempting to keep a straight face as she made the statement was difficult but Charles managed to pull it off... for a little while at least. Eventually a lopsided smirk couldn't help but tug at the corner of her lips.

"Dren, that makes me sound like I'm somehow wrapped up in Intel don't it?" The smirk persisted as she shook her head slightly.

Finally her eyes raised to look at the guy again and she shrugged her shoulders.

"Honestly, frink if I know. I'm technically back where I belong with the Fifth but I'm still running about with a mixed bag. Not sure if we even count as part of a Regiment. I don't know, that sort of technicalities are above my pay grade, that's for damn sure."

There was an added bit where Charles was tempted to say that despite all that it was worth it to be involved with Dorn, but it just couldn't get formed without sounding all cheesy so she let it be.

Instead she looked at the man up and down again and nodded somewhat to herself and somewhat to him.

"So you going to tell me who pulls your strings or do I get to keep guessing?"

[Gus Kalendra]

Kalendra caught the look she'd given him. It was a look he'd seen plenty of times before. In the Skids of Tyrena city, it was a sizing up, just one glance in which you tried to take the measure of a man from his clothes, his gear, even his posture. Gus carried himself with certainty, as a warning to anyone who was trying to suss out where he stood on the food chain. “Uh,” he rummaged one hand inside his holdabll and pulled out a small, narrow data-chip. He thumbed one end of it, flicking through strings of what read like nonsense. “UCS? Mean anything to you?”

[Charlotte Tur'enne]

"Yeah, buch of meatheads. Well-trained and generally well-meaning meatheads as long as you aren't on the wrong end, but meatheads anyway." The smile she held the entire time lent itself for the fact that Charles may or may not have believed her assessment of the 3rd Regiment.

She eyed the data-chip in his hand warily before looking back to the man.

"Frink, don't tell me you're a new recruit or something."