Dorn: A Star Wars Story

18. Pirate - Part I

"This feels a little ridiculous," Nyra spoke as she turned to me wearing a makeshift full face helmet. 

"I think we look wicked," Randd's voice was utterly distorted through her vocoder, prompting Nyra to turn to her with a start. "Listen to how I sound! I'll crush your skull with one hand, shab!"

"Calm down, Ensign," I couldn't help but laugh listening to the usually quiet Randd acting like a mass murderer. I guess it really was always the quiet ones you had to watch out for. Not that I could say much. I too had gotten one of the full head helmets with pointy bits sticking out that made me sound like I was ready to kill everything within ten kilometers of me and was having more than a little fun talking for the hell of it. "But first... If you try and hassle me for docking fees one more karking time, I'll rip your arm off and feed it to my Akk Dogs for sport."

Randd cackled evilly, and it just made Nyra look anxiously between us as I too started giggling furiously.

"You guys are messed up..." Nyra muttered as she crossed her arms as Peavey approached with her own helmet up under her arm.

"Are they saying regrettable things again?" She sighed as Nyra nodded. "General, aren't you a command officer?"

"I am, and yet, I am still a lowly trooper at heart," I put one hand over my heart theatrically and got Freis to laugh, too. Truth be told, getting to go undercovers and drop the pretenses was nice. The pomp that came with the titles got real old real fast, so getting to relax a bit and just... be myself... was refreshing. 

I turned to see Robin and Hipshot adjusting each other's masks and heard Robin ask, "Does this helmet make my head look fat?"

"No fatter than usual."

"Words hurt."

"Not as much as these greaves do," Rook grumbled nearby as he tried his best to pull on the mish-mashed pieces of armor. "Ugh, this is gonna chafe... General, please tell me this op won't take long."

"It'll take less time if you all stop whining," Peavey strode in dressed in the sleek pilot's outfit we scrounged up for her. "We look like a right bunch of scoundrels."

We had to custom make Tarkona's helmet, but he did look rather fierce with his missing lekku. He chuckled rather darkly, "I've always wanted to be a pirate."

Balos sat next to him with his own helmet sitting in his lap, "I wish you wouldn't."

I saw Jag staring at himself in the nearby mirror that Randd had set up for us to check ourselves over and carefully arranging his armor and the myriad of bone medallions splayed on leather ties across his chest. "This isn't a beauty contest, Montferrat!" I called over to him, my voice distorting through the vocoder.

"But General," He turned dramatically to me, "I'm a pretty pirate."

Horran stared at all of us from the doorway and shook his head as Novaran walked in dressed in a sleek cybernetic get-up that managed to make him look not like a Chiss. "General, I think we can bass Novaran as a Pantoran with an eye condition, if anyone asks," Horran gave the Chiss a good-natured jab to the ribs with his elbow, though Novaran seemed almost a bit offended by the suggestion of being something other than... well, himself. Humor wasn't his strong suit.

"I just wish we didn't have to take the Bracca Bound for this trip," Randd pulled off her helmet and groaned as she sat down. "I want to take the Summa."

"We'd set off so many radars pulling up in an Imperial cruiser," Peavey shook her head and put one fist on her hip. "We could explain a lot, but commandeering a ship like her? That's still out of the question. Plus, us being on Pubbie scanners doesn't help."