Bankor

Teffa entered the recreation hall with a loose piece of cardboard with ration heating instructions on it that she had been using as a fan to desperately stave off the heat. Were deserts supposed to be this hot? Did they ever change in temperature, maybe a rain or a snow day? She slumped down at one of the tables reserved for games, fortunately, positioned at one of the spots where there was an air blower to make the area more hospitable. "Who wants to fight over a desert, anyway?"

At an adjacent table another woman sat with her feet up. She let out a puff of air with her nose at the Chiss' comment and spoke up, "Maybe the command staff is mostly Jawa."

Teffa had sat down with her elbows on her knees, her coat wrapped around her waist and the cardboard in one hand as she fanned herself. She looked over at the other woman and let out an irritated groan. "Ugh, that would explain why I haven't seen them around. Too short to be noticed and they're probably not even bothered by the heat!"

She chuckled and nodded, "Want me to find the thermostat and turn down the temperature in this room? Make it feel a bit more like home for ya?"

Teffa perked up at the request and sat up straight in her seat. "Oh! Is that something that you could actually do for me? Because that'd be great."

Her gaze slowly veered to the rest of the hall with a hint of doubt. "Hm, that'll probably just cheese someone off from enjoying their treasured desert heat sauna, however..."

"Just need to give the switch a good blast after we change it down... that'll keep 'em from getting it all sweaty in here." She said with a smirk.

"Let me go see..." Delmi stood up and walked around the room a bit before leaving down a hallway. A few seconds later some cooler air began flowing through the vents. Delmi came back around the corner and found her seat again, "Now we'll see if someone gets pissed or not. Name's Delmi by the way."

"Whew, thank you for that! My hero!" She chuckled after Delmi returned with the cool air blasting into the room. That did far more good than just sitting under some shade while still slowly baking and getting sand blown into your eyes. "If they get pissed off, we'll say it was some Jawa that did it. That'll probably confuse them for a short enough moment to make my escape. I'm Teffa. Well, Captain Teffa, of the Trunk."

"Ooh, a captain." She said with a smile.

"What brings you and your ship out here? Military contract?"

Teffa let out an anxious chuckle and shook her head. "No, I wish I was set up like that! Or maybe, I don't. I'm not too sure with these Republic military types and I figured I hang out here for a bit to get a feel out of them. Maybe they'll even give me more excuses to take their money. They seem all about action and liberation. I managed to pick up one of those last minute jobs to have food and blankets shipped down here. I got their food and blanket, they get me as a bonus. Sorta!"

"Ah cool." She said with a nod.

"Yeah... everyone is pretty focused, huh? All this solidarity is kinda different... I've been on Nar Shaddaa for a while. This is like another galaxy."

"It is something. You probably don't start a war and only act half-assed about it. I would imagine that they are really into their cause and that they are in it to win it!" She said before glancing around the hall to see if there were any Republic officers around to nag on them. "Apparently, they keep pretty close eyes on everyone to make sure they're doing something. I guess that probably is the rest of us? What have you been doing for them so far?"

"Shootin' stuff. Making sure people don't steal stuff. I'm a killer by trade... just using my skills to kill some baddies for free now." She replied.

"Killer for free..." She murmured with a grain of thought. "Killing is a pretty expensive skill and to offer it for free, you must have a reason for that. Were you from this world or have an agenda? Even soldiers don't exactly kill for free, they have a stipend and benefits they have to maintain."

"Mah... I lost an arm here to a mando when I was doing some business and they happened to attack... The Republic compensated me for my losses and gave me a new state of the art arm... Was told I didn't owe them anything... But I'm not the type to take charity. So, I'll pay them back until I feel the balance has been covered."

"They outfitted you with a free arm, just like that?! I guess it could have been free, outside of personal obligation. There's nothing wrong with feeling like you owe someone, just kind of surprised that they didn't recruit you into the cause full-time."

"So uhhh... yeah... My pops used to be in the military long ago. Seems to have known the commander of this mission... and the Republic kinda screwed over my dad, kicked him out of the service for something he didn't do. I'm thinkin' maybe Commander Malcolm or someone important like... felt bad about that and wanted to repay my dad through helping me or something... I dunno."

A thus, they gave you a handout. Or, a helping hand. "Oh...Seems very late for that. It would have been better if they could have helped your dad beforehand but that's probably way beyond me. So you have some history here, and probably with war in general. Are most wars like this?"

She shook her head softly, "This is actually my first war. I'm familiar with fighting... but never something on this scale. Dad trained me as a kid until he died when I was 14... so somewhere deep inside of me is this weird like forgotten discipline... But this is a new thing for me too. Kinda wonky at times to be honest."

"You too? At least you're used to fighting and killing. I typically dive under the table or take cover behind the bar," she smirked momentarily as she stopped fanning herself with the ration instructions. It had gotten pretty cool around here and it was more like it than the sweltering heat. "Sorry about your dad. I guess you had to owe it to him by following in his footsteps. At least, for a bit."

"Uhh... kinda... Not so much though, maybe... I dunno. Like... he was really into the whole 'army' thing for a while... But when you get screwed over royally by all the folks you had shared so much with... anyone can get a bit bitter. He didn't hate the Republic, but I don't think he like wanted me to join up with them either. Just wanted me to be safe, strong, and self-reliant."

There was a quick look of bemusement on Teffa as she tried to understand the reasoning behind it all. Must have been a pretty complex ordeal. "More so the people he was with than the Republic, that seems fair. Kind of hard to judge a place solely on the people but the people do make up a bulk of it. Everyone seems...reasonable so far. First time I've ever run into a Jedi Knight. They were also doing normal stuff, too."

She nodded, "Yeah. Me too. Seem normal enough. Besides all the talk of destiny and stuff."

She then asked, "So what's your story?"

"Eh?" Teffa said with raised brows, seemingly confused as to what she was asking at first.

"My story...ah, well..." She hesitated at first as she looked down at the table she was sitting at in thought. "Nothing as great as yours, that's for sure. The Trunk and the droid wasn't always mine. I was hanging around a spaceport with no debt on my back finally but no money either. I managed to weasel my way into a game of sabacc without much on the line to start and had no business being at, a lot of grizzled people were at this table with stories as high as an Imperial spire. I managed to get one of them to put their rig on the line. Fast forward here, I have their rig and their job. I don't know if that's supposed to be much of a prize but at least it got me off the spaceport, right?"

She nodded, "Better than being stuck somewhere with nowhere to go and nothing to do, that's for sure. You grow up in the whole Chiss Ascendancy scene?"

"It wasn't a warzone but that didn't mean that someone was unlikely to shoot at you. The people here seem nicer," she chuckled. "At least with a ship, I could go anywhere else on short notice."

It was pretty had to hide the colour of her skin. "Yeah? Kind of? One of the satellite regions at least." She mused for a moment if she could have become a politician if she didn't choose to slum it.