Bankor

The Trunk, an old freighter, sat in one corner of the hangar bay that was likely reserved for auxiliary volunteer forces and other unlikely combatants. Its side passenger ramp was lowered and a tarp had been used to drape the front to form a makeshift door, likely to save the hydraulics of the old ship from rising and lowering the ram several times throughout the day.

Dressed in a loose shirt and sweatpants, Teffa descended a few steps until she found a seat, dangling her legs out on the side. She watched the hangar go about their morning with a cup of caf, suppressing a yawn back.

"Another captain here to bring supplies, huh?" The zabrak held up his hands as a gesture of good faith and then placed them back at his sides. "Now, unless I slacked too much as a kid, I'd say that the Chiss aren't part of the Republic. And you aren't wearing a uniform either."

He blinked and feigned mock surprise. "Oh, but I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm Marvo." His lips twisted to a smirk. "And who are you then?"

Teffa perked up when she was spoken to and gave a quick glance behind her in case she wasn't the one being addressed. It wouldn't have been the first time she thought she was the centre of attention only to have someone behind her speak up as intended.

"Oh, me?" She said with a smirked. "I thought driving a ship around makes me more of a pilot than a captain. Are we? I can't say I keep track of the politics. I'm not! I'm Teffa. You want to sit down? I got plenty of stairs here."

Her hand gave a gesture to the stairs of the ramp.

"Maybe if you were flying a starfighter, miss, but that there's a freighter. That makes you a captain." Marvo let out a deep laugh. "You're eccentric. I like that." He took the seat as offered. His eyes stayed towards the rest of the hanger instead of her. "It's nice to meet you. Tell me, Teffa, what do you see in here? It's not a trick question. I just want to hear your thoughts."

"Hah! All right, so..." she gave a few easy-going nods, getting into the grove of being a captain. "Captain Teffa, I like it!"

Teffa looked off toward the rest of the hangar as what Marvo was doing and gave two big blinks in thought. "...Ooooh, I don't know if I'm the right person to ask that question unless you're asking me personally. I can't say I've ever been in a warzone before during my time abroad. In danger, sure, but who hasn't? The regimented life seems neat, but mornings, I don't know if I can do mornings..."

Just as she said that, she stifled back a yawn.

"Yeah, Captain Teffa," he echoed with small, enthusiastic nods.

The zabrak's smile faltered due to confusion within him but he decided to not let it show too much. "You're not one to abide by the rules, huh?" His bravado started to make a return. "Tell me, Captain Teffa, if you haven't been in a regimented organization like the military, then how did trouble come to find you?"

Teffa took a sip from her cup, although there was some slurping as she abruptly cut her sip short. She let out a quick cough and shook her head. "Noo, I never said I don't abide by the rules," First rule hanging out at a new place or planet was to not stick out obviously, she had enough ways to do that. "I'm just not used to the whole morning thing, that's all! Actually! I was hoping to get a sense of what everyone did with their mornings here."

She darted her gaze about the hangar to show that she was really hard at work doing that.

"I mean, there are a million ways to get into trouble without trying to find it..." She said carefully. "Wrong place, wrong time. Looking at someone funny. Saying something about one's parent in jest after they said something about your parent in jest..."

Marvo smirked and started pointing out the people in the hangar. "That crew over there is usually the last to leave. They're relaxed. They don't pay attention to much. And therefore, you can tell they have nothing to hide." He then pointed to a squad of Republic soldiers. "Their patrol routine is easy to follow. Sometimes I wonder if they're just there for show."

He then turned to her. "Well, Lady Luck is a fickle woman, isn't she?"

"Or maybe they managed to pull some strings to get a really easy peasy shift?" She brought up at the direction of the Republic trooped that passed by.

She took another sip from her cup and gave an anxious chuckle. "Ah, well...I guess I should know best, as much as I don't want to. I've been courting her a while but I'm hoping to take a break from that relationship. Moving things from one place to another seems pretty fun so far, even if it's doing it on the up and up! The credits aren't nothing to write about but at least I'll sleep better...if on a worn out mattress with a sore shoulder."

"Ha! Perhaps so. But that sort of soldier would be easy to bribe, right? If you were the sort of woman to do that sort of thing."

He shook his head amicably. "That's no way for a captain to live. A captain's ship, interior and exterior, is her life!" He shrugged. "Yeah, Lady Luck can be like a rampaging nexu, but she can also be very sweet, very kind. She likes to give us simple folk life's necessities."

Teffa held up a hand and gave a defensive wave. "Ooh...I'm not going to fuss around with whatever goes on with the Republic here, even if it is for a cushier place. I don't want to find myself suddenly recruited into the Republic fulltime accidentally."

She held a hand to her lips as if speaking to Marvo in secret. "So..I'm still trying to get the hand of this captain thing. I'm learning as I go! I'm hoping that I'll find those necessities or get into her good graces once more. Maybe I'll get lucky enough to upgrade a few things or even to something else. Sure, might be the wrong place to do that but I'm sure there might be an opportunity to trade up around here. Would you know? What's your thing around here?"

"Right." He blinked and then nodded. "A soldier's life doesn't fit either of us."

Marvo then smiled. "Ah, yes. What I do might be good for an entrepreneurial captain, such as yourself." He gestured to other ships within the hangar. "I deal in exchanges and delivery of goods and services. Among that, of course, includes ship upgrades."

She held her cup with both hands and gave a shrug. "I doubt they'll have a place here for what I do, whatever it is that I do, anyway. Besides, I don't know if I could do this sort of thing everyday. Whatever it is that they do everyday."

"Oohh, that's interesting..." She murmured with a hint of interest and soon dialed it back with a narrowing of her eyes. "Also, sounds expensive. I mean, I can't really buy more than a few rations at the moment and I'm hoping to mooch off of base camp..."

"Whatever it is you do," he echoed. He glanced at her ship and then looked at her. "A captain is not being paid well for making these deliveries? What a shame." He smiled. "You would be right that it is expensive for me. However, again, I deal with exchanges, captain. You work for me, I help you out, that sort of thing."

"Am I supposed to be paid well? I guess I haven't really noticed with the money vanish from my account or maybe they're supposed to give me the money after I leave..." She murmured to herself in confusion, this galactic trucking thing was entirely new to her. On her haul, she was still getting transmissions from random people who were looking for the previous owner of the Trunk.

"Ahh, exchanges," she said with a few knowing nods as she finished her cup of caf and placed it aside, that sort of credit-less exchanges was something she was familiar with.

"I thought I was the captain around here," she said with a quick smirk and gave a hapless shrug of her shoulder. "Alright, what sort of work do you need going around here?"

"Well, anyone good at their job is meant to be paid well, right? And surely you wouldn't admit to being a poor captain," he suggested with a grin. He then gave a soft shrug. "Has the Republic not paid you yet for your services?"

He nodded. "Yes, you're the captain of your ship, but ships are often given jobs by employers such as myself. As for what work I have for you, I have too much cargo to transfer and not enough frigates to transfer it."

"They probably have, my account just usually sends up being a black hole of funds with the number of people who keep tabs on it. I should have asked for the credits in person," she said with a few pensive nods to herself, making a note for next time. "See as I do have some credits on me, I must be at least in the positive!"

"Too much cargo to transfer? Are we talking about lots of mechanics parts? Scraps? Valuables?" She asked at first before waving her hand off, it wasn't her business and he didn't have to humour her with an answer. "Sure! My ship is pretty vacant save for myself and Arbee. When and where?"

"The day I am without any credits is the day I am dead," he said with a whimsical sigh. He smirked at the Chiss beside him. "I think you should adopt that motto too, Captain Teffa."

Marvo glanced back at her ship's cargo hold. "Mind if I take a look? As for the cargo, I will start you off with basic supplies. Unfortunately, it will not be incredibly lucrative to start with. I hope you'll understand. As for when and where, I need deliveries made to the Resistance and Republic camps for the duration of the war here. Afterwards, who knows, we'll work something out."

"That would probably mean I know how it's like to be dead..." She mused in thought. There was perhaps some truth in that, thinking back to her previous misadventures.

Teffa chuckled with a hapless shrug. "I'm not exactly looking to get rich in a hurry around here. I don't know if there's much I can spend around here. This isn't exactly a pleasure cruiser or luxury capital. Anything is good, especially if it affords me some rations on the way to my next stop, wherever that might be."

She glanced backwards. "Um, sure...I mean I didn't exactly expect guests today. Let's see."

Getting up from her seat, she made some quick steps up to her ship and flipped a few switches. First, the spotlights came on and then they were quickly shut off. Then, she found the right button and the front ramp was lowered. It revealed a rather sparse interior, save for some rudimentary loading equipment that came with the ship. There were some laundry lines were created between the pillar and the walls. "Um, just ignore that bit." She quickly quipped.

Marvo looked her over casually. "Well, you seem alive to me, Captain Teffa. I don't hire dead men, let alone dead women. Anyways, I'm sure my pay will let you have more than a few rations," he added with a smirk.

He did not hide his glance at the laundry lines but he also did not focus on them. Instead, he began to check the dimensions of the cargo hold. "Right, right." He turned back to her with a businessman smile. "This will do nicely. We can get you started in a few days."

Teffa placed her hands on her hips and gave a few encouraging nods when he found the dimensions of the ship to his liking. Truly, she would have been pretty cheesed if she had become the owner of a ship that couldn't do its job very well. "Great! I'd figured this was the ship and the captain that you were looking for."

She said as she offered her hand to shake. "Sooo...I guess you'll send me a message or you'll look for me?"

He took her hand with a firm grasp and smiled. The man then turned her hand over and placed a device in her hands. "Here. We will keep in contact via this commlink." He started to walk towards the ramp but then stopped to look at the Chiss woman. "Did you have any questions, Captain Teffa? Otherwise, I should attend to other business."

A special commlink, now she had a feeling this was something that had to be kept private for whatever reason. She gave a glance at the commlink and bobbed her head twice. "Sure! I'll keep it on me, most of the time. As for questions, none at the moment. I'm sure there will be many once the work starts. Obviously, you'll answer whichever ones you want."

"Excellent. I look forward to working with you, Captain Teffa. You can expect a call and a delivery in short time." He gave a nonchalant wave and walked off through the hangar. His head wandered about as he continued to case the rest of the ships for their potential.

"Great!" She smiled broadly at her newest employer. His wave was returned enthusiastically after he descended off the ramp. It looked like she had a job! hopefully, the pay off was decent. Getting enough for a buy-in would be a good start.

/scene?