A Day At The Races

[Aaron Belargic]

(OOC: There's already a plot of sorts set for this thread. Read a few of the first posts to check out what it is. If you'd like to join in, and want to know more about where the story is going, PM me :) Evil people especially wanted.)

The smoggy skies above Nuba City were as crowded as humanly possible, and then some. Grey-blue cloudbuses swooped in-between each other, skirting around the haphazardly organized skyscrapers that made up the cities horizon. Even from such great heights, the lights of the nightlife could be seen, garish and bright. Everything was in hues of orange and yellow, with great search-spotlights swooping periodically across the barely visible stars. This was not entirely the norm for Nubia, but at this time of year, anything went. It was time to celebrate. The Nubians were a hard-working people, known for their industrious nature – but also for their ability to party as hard as they worked. Nuba City was already in the throws of the annual celebration, the primary reason for the high number of in-coming passengers to the city proper.

One of the cloudbuses bobbed out of the traffic stream and began its decent towards the commercial space ports below. It was carrying passengers from a relay flight, that had originally departed from the hub worlds. Among those on board was Aaron Belargic, who leant brazenly out over the railings that ran the perimeter of the transports walkways, trying to get a better view of the world down below. Smiling, he glanced back over his shoulder and spotted his traveling partner for the duration of his stay on Nubia. He paced over to where she sat, brimming with excitement for seeing a new world.

“Couple of minutes and we’ll be setting foot on Nubian soil. Exciting, no?”

[James Prent]

Space travel was as nauseating as she'd remembered, but now that hyperspace was far behind them, James was looking forward to the adventure. She grinned at Aaron as he came back from the railing, and nodded. "Yeah, although it's not so much different from Coruscant, except there aren't as many tall buildings. I bet it's a lot different once we get down there, though." For one thing, this city only ranged within a set area, wheras on Coruscant there was no such thing as a forest or a naturally occuring meadow.

James stood up, slinging her bag across her shoulders and joined him at the railing as the cloudbus began it's final descent into the spaceport. She felt small next to the taller padawan, and clutched at his hand instinctively as the 'bus touched down with a slight jolt.

"I don't know how pilots steer these things, but you'd think they'd do a better job than this..." Nervousness clashed with her overwhelming excitement, and soon the pair were gathering up their bags and heading out to set foot on Nubian soil. "What exactly are they celebrating here, again?" James didn't release Aaron's hand, afraid of being swept away by the pushing and shoving passengers and lost on a strange planet.

[Aaron Belargic]

A rotund creature with six arms slung bags and suitcases out of the buses small cargo compartment. With only bringing hand luggage, the two Jedi were lucky enough to avoid having to queue with a myriad of other aliens to find their badly manhandled belongings. Already peddlers were beginning to approach the crowd. Most everyone arriving was a tourist, and so locals would be hoping to capitalize. There was a boon of people uneducated to cultural and economic customs, who could be swindled easily. Tours and the like were offered, with a couple of salespersons even approaching the two Jedi. Luckily, a large party – a single family of almost twenty – distracted the swarm, bringing them like moths to a flame.

“I know it’s in here somewhere,” Aaron had begun rummaging through his bag, now that they were out of the tightly packed crowd. Digging through what he had packed, he pulled out a handful of tickets. Taking a moment to sort through them, he turned one the right way up and read, “The Nubian Palace… sounds up market!” He rose his eyebrows for emphasis, nodding.

“We can check in anytime tonight, apparently. So if you’d rather do that first then have a look around, or look around first then check in… or just hit the sack now.” Aaron paused a moment, “Your sack. I mean. It’s a double room,” he stumbled over his words, so instead gave a vague motion at the tickets. “Oh! Oh and they apparently have these … Solar gardens in the hotel. It’s a huge gaudy tourist resort, but it was the only place that wasn’t fully booked.”

[James Prent]

She ducked in close to Aaron's side as they were nearly swarmed by sellers of cheap duraplast souvenirs, but they managed to move through the crowd with little difficulty. "Solar gardens?" James hugged her bag close to her chest as Aaron led her through another group of disembarking tourists.

He appeared to be waiting for her to make a decision, and she thought back over what he'd said. "Ah...we should probably check in and then take a look around the hotel. That way we won't have to carry our bags with us everywhere and worry about someone stealing 'em from us." James grinned, "And I don't mind staying in a tourist hotel, 'cause I am a tourist! I've never been anywhere like this before."

The pair stepped on top of some advertisments imbedded into the pedwalk, and James tried to read them while they walked by, twisting her neck around, but then giving up. "What do you have in mind for tomorrow?"

[Gav Mortis]

The Nubian Palace, thought Gav, was a rather grandiose name and one which would be more fitting to a below par hotel or cheap restraunt trying to sound impressive. However, he had quickly discovered that his destination was widely considered the most luxurious on Nubia and it was certainly the largest. Two days had passed since the Sith had made a particularly low-key arrival on planet, thus avoiding the brunt of the tourist influx and giving himself time to become familiar with the enormous resort and more importantly the whereabouts of some of its more prestigious clients. Then it was this morning that he had made arrangements to contact his elusive associate sometime in the evening; the time and location had been confirmed and now, sat alone at a table in one of the hotel bars, he sipped his drink and played the waiting game.

“I’m switching to whiskey,” Gav informs a waiter as he passes, stopping him in his tracks and lacking in the courtesy to apologise for interrupting, continued with authority: “I’ll have a double Corellian Reserve; after stopping off on Corellia on my way here last week I developed quite a taste for them; and no ice.”

Then after handing him his half empty glass of beer, Gav sent the bewildered young man on his way to fetch his beverage. The leather of his seat squeaked beneath him as he relaxed and heaved out a sigh of satisfaction. He was determined to enjoy the night despite the chaos and noise which followed the tourists wherever they went and it just so happened they had chosen this bar above the others but the Sith wasn’t going to let the ruckus get to him and he would sit back and have a good time. That was until his contact would arrive and reveal to him the nature of his being called here and the man behind his mystery of a mission.

[Aaron Belargic]

“Tomorrow? Tomorrow is the big opening race, that’s why there’s so many people here… nothing like leaving it until the last minute to arrive,” he smirked as they continued on walking.

“I can’t believe you’ve hardly been off-world from Coruscant, James… usually it’s part of your training to travel around but then I suppose your Master has been very busy. Maybe you’ll get more chances in the future? The council always seems to be in need of representatives for diplomatic missions.”

Aaron spotted a rotating sign that was advertising the Palace, thus followed it and subsequent similar signs. “Looks like we’re headed in the right direction,” he nodded up at the neon arrow.

[Helketar]

OOC: This is my first post on this forum. Here goes...

IC: The sleek spacecraft soared down towards Nuba City spaceport. It was not noticeably of any particular loyalty, civilian probably. It was named Sky Blade tough it was not written anywhere on the craft. Klarn Helketar sat in the pilot's seat, his hands resting on the controls. Is this the right planet?, he thought. Normally Klarn wouldn't hunt bounties placed by hutts but he had checked the target and it was indeed someone that Klarn would not mind killing, someone who deserved death. As the ship began to land at the spaceport, Klarn reached for his helmet. He attached the headgear to the neck of his armour. The indicators on the visor came to life and began displaying Klarn's statistics. 'Life signs normal' appeared on the visor.
"I never would have guessed I was alive." Klarn breathed, tapping the control button on his wrist to remove the text. Finally, Klarn pulled gloves over his hands so that no part of his red Twi'lek skin could be seen. Klarn liked to keep a miscellaneous humanoid shape in public and so his helmet was built to hide the two tentacles that sprouted from his head. With all armour attached, Klarn reached under the control board and pulled out a metallic case. He tapped the combination on the number pad and the case opened. Klarn took his two blaster pistols out of the case and holstered them on his belt. Next he took several metallic pieces out of the case and clipped them together to assemble his sniper blaster rifle which he hung over his back. Finally Klarn took out a scabbard from which the hilt of a sword protruded. He attached it to the belt that ran over his shoulder and across his back.
"You better be here, Vrun." Klarn said under his breath as he walked out of the Sky Blade and onto the landing platform. Signing his ship into the spaceport via a droid that scampered around, Klarn left the terminal and walked onto the streets of Nuba city.

[James Prent]

"Feels good to stretch my legs!" James laughed, "I missed my morning run today. Seemed weird not to have one."

Her hair was getting a bit longer, and she impatiently tugged at it, trying to work the ends behind her ears to keep it out of her eyes. "As far as diplomatic trips, I went on one, with Master D'an. It was... interesting." She felt her mouth pop open as they walked past a huge green space. "Is that a park?"

Musicians played on a stone courtyard in the middle of the grassy area. The atmosphere everywhere was that of a carnival. "Ah, anyway. I - I think we're here." The pair of padawans looked up at the gaudy hotel, liberally decorated with neon and glittery decorations. "Oh my."

[Helketar]

Klarn looked up at the holo-sign suspended above him, ‘The Nubian Palace’, this was the place that he was supposed to meet Vrun. A strangely fancy establishment to be meeting with scum like Vrun Gleers. Klarn sighed and shook his helmeted head before striding confidently into the building. He headed straight for the bar room. As Klarn came to the entrance two human security guards approached him.
“We shall need to take your weapons. You will get them back when you leave.” One announced.
“Certainly.” Klarn replied politely, removing all of his weapons from the various belts that crossed his armour. The guards took each one, labelled them and then placed the weapons carefully on a nearby rack. Klarn walked to the bar and took a seat. The bartender approached the black armoured figure of Klarn.
“Can you breath in that gear?” The barman asked in an attempt at humour. Klarn glanced back and forth, taking in the various different races in the bar before coming to the conclusion that another Twi’lek would bother no one.
“Actually I think I would like a breath of fresh air.” He replied and pressed the release button on his helmet. He pulled the headgear off and shook his head, enjoying the sensation of having his lekku freed from the confined helmet. He placed the helmet near his feet.
”I’ll have corellian ale. Large glass. No ice.” Klarn said and the bartender went to get his order. Klarn looked around the bar more thoroughly while he waited for his drink. There were a few other Twi’lek present in the bar. They were rough looking, disfigured by heavy scarring and were wearing shabby robe-like garments. It was a wonder that they were even allowed into the place looking as they did. Klarn made a slight noise of exclamation as he realised that he was the only Twi’lek there that was not horrendously misshapen. In fact, Klarn was quite a handsome Twi’lek. His head and face were well shaped, his lekku symmetric and his red skin was smooth and uncreased. His eyes were dark and could change from being cold and piercing to friendly and joyful. He was tall and lanky but still strong, agile and athletic. As Klarn considered the other patrons of the bar, the bartender returned with his drink. Klarn handed over a few credits and lifted the glass to his mouth. Now, to wait for Vrun.