“`After a short break on Kasiya Darrio has already been picked up by the Regent aboard the Eternal, the flagship of The Exchange. After a day or two in hyperspace, the vessel arrives in the Arx System, and planet Arx - homeworld of The Brotherhood.
The ship descends through the Arx Shield Gate, landing in the upper portion of the Sorasu Desert.”`
“So, what kriffing thing am I looking for this time?” Darrio placed his hands on his hips and glared at Zxyl.
“You’re not looking for anything. I’m going to show you. Come along, Darrio,” the Dathomirian-Mandalorian said quite confidently, exiting the Cosinga-class Heavy Corvette once the loading ramp had lowered into the rough, hot sand.
Darrio let out an exasperated sigh, but followed suit. “How’s she doing, anyways? The girl I so heroicly rescued from being blown to bits?”
“Better,” Aisha chimed in, following after Darrio, “She has a long way to go, but she’s doing better. I’ve been working on her day and night to try and figure out what the kriff they did to her in that facility. She refuses to open up, or doesn’t remember.”
“Bit of column A, bit of column B, probably,” Darrio shrugged. “She was in a bad way when I found her. Surprised she had the energy to ask for help.”
“She didn’t ask. She hasn’t said a word.. too much trauma. But I’ve been helping her anyways. Even I am a bit out of my scope though.”
The three Mandalorians entered into the sand, with Zxyl leading the way away from the shop towards a sand dune.
The group continued for a short while, eventually reaching and scaling the sand dune - which was not all that big - with little effort. As they crested the top, a large swath of a lower valley in the Sorasu Desert came into view. A short while from the bottom of the dune they were standing on, partially buried in the sand, was an Imperial-era AT-AT walker, which appeared to have fallen forward on it’s legs and now rested peacefully in the dune.
“There it is,” Zxyl stated matter-of-factly as he put both hands on his hips, admiring the view.
Darrio looked at the fallen AT-AT, then back at Zxyl, then back to the AT-AT.
“Look, Zxyl. I’m sure you have your reasons. Appius seems to like you for whatever fracking reason, and I like a nice romantic stroll through the desert as much as the next guy, but what the hell are we doing here?”
“We’re going to fix this thing up,” Zxyl nods.
Darrio looked at it, then back to Zxyl, then back at the AT-AT. “Frack off. You’ve gotta be kidding me. Do I look like a mechanic to you!?”
“You don’t need to be, for what I have planned. Structurally, it’s still intact. We aren’t restoring it functionally,” the Dathomirian-Mandalorian quipped as he started down the dune, “We’re going to turn it into a bar. Any repairs that are needed to make that happen, I can handle. You’re here for the manual labor and obviously; drink expertise.”
Darrio practically grinned from ear to ear. “Now you’re speaking my language!”
He gave Zxyl a hard pat on the back.
“Where do we get started?”
“First we need to clean out an area for the main entrance. Following that, get to work on the inside tidying things up and making sure the lifts work. There’s a lot to do.”
“You want it somewhere that can be easily seen. Maybe get a couple of spotlights that can shine into the sky during the night. It’ll really catch the eye.”
“I don’t think so. The point is for it to be a hidden gem. It’s staying right here, too.”
As the three Mandalorians approached, Zxyl took a lap to examine the shape the outer hull was in. He wasn’t overly concerned with the legs, but making sure the rest of it was structurally intact was important. Giving an all clear, the three Mandalorians proceeded into the first level of its body through a hole in the side.
“First thing’s first. I want you to clear out all this sand,” Zxyl declared as he kicked a bit of the large amount of sand that had blown inside, “then we’ll work on clearing out any derelict equipment and unnecessary electronics before we wire the place up. Every inner panel is going to need to be removed. There’s some equipment in the Eternal that will help you.”
Darrio gave a small nod and returned to the Eternal to fetch said equipment. He had no idea what he was about to find.
Anything and everything you might need for turning the derelict AT-AT into a bar is there in the main hold, including all of the furniture that will eventually be installed.
Darrio grabbed the first trolley of equipment, and pushed it down the ramp into the scorching heat of the desert. An idea came to mind.
“Don’t suppose you have a jetpack I can borrow?”
“I do not. I’ll be there shortly to check on your progress,” Zxyl lamented as he disappeared into a different part of the Eternal to attend to some Council biz.
Darrio kicked a pile of sand as hard as he could. Fracking typical that the head honcho would leave the dirty work to literally anyone else.
That raised the question though, how was he going to move the sand?
He searched through the trolley, looking for a jetpack, or at least a set of thrusters he could use.
There's a shovel.
Darrio cursed loudly at the sky. Of all the fracking things he could have in a galaxy where technology was so advanced, he could have the most advanced tools to do the job…
He was given a goddamn, mother fracking, kriffing shovel.
Darrio grabbed the infernal tool, mumbling obscenities under his breath. The sooner he was done with this, the better.
Damn it, it was hot, though…
There is water on your little hover trolley!
Darrio picked up the water, popped the lid and guzzler it down his throat like it was the living waters itself.
He picked up the shovel, and with a deep, buried loathing in his heart, he got to work cleaning the sand.
“Of all the asanine, stupid things…”
Darrio cleared the sand, albeit begrudgingly. He waited with arms folded for Zxyl to finish whatever Regent-y shizz he had to do.
Zxyl arrives! He takes the trolley away from you. But returns with a bunch of furniture. He brings up a small holoprojection of what he wants the upper level to look like after all the furniture.
He also says that he forgot to tell Darrio to just remove all the now non-essential consoles and cockpit controls, so… Darrio must remove the furniture from the trolley before basically destroying the cockpit via demo and hauling it out.
Darrio went red in the face, and not from the heat either. He began remove tbe furniture from the trolley, mumbling obscenities in whispers as he dropped a sofa on his toes.
“Dank farrik!” Darrio exclaimed, giving it a hard kick. This bar had better be worth it!
“Patience, Darrio. Patience…” mused Zxyl.
At least Zxyl was going to haul away all of the old cockpit electronics and whatnot for Darrio as it came out. :)
Darrio couldn’t look at Zxyl as he worked, otherwise, he’d snap. Where the hell was his help!?
He began to slow down as the heat started to get to him. The desert was unforgiving. His clothes stuck to him as he could taste salt on his lips.
Darrio grabbed some water to quell the oncoming headache that started coming on. Slowly, but surely, the furniture was unloaded and placed in position. Darrio decided to take a break, taking a seat on one of the sofas.
“`Zxyl does indeed help, coming back a short while later to do the finishing touches like lighting, the "back room”, tidying up, as Aisha stocks the bar full of glasses and booze, straightens up the furniture, etc while Darrio sat on the sofa.
When it was all done, the Regent poured a glass of the finest stuff they had. He and Aisha stood there waiting for a minute.“`
Darrio wasn’t about to join them. He wasn’t invited. He knew better when he hadn’t had a drop of alcohol himself to interrupt where he felt he wasn’t welcome.
“Darrio,” Zxyl beckoned, using a hand motion to call the man over, “This drink is for you.”
Darrio blinked, but then rose to his feet. He carefully approached Zxyl, and took the glass from his hand. He gave him a small nod. “Thanks…”
“No, thank you. The place looks nice. And although the hidden cameras we installed before your arrival caught some frustration, you were fairly patient about the whole ordeal.. which was the purpose of this trial. When we get back to the ship, I will return another piece of your armor. But first…” The Regent explained as he trailed off, pressing a button on his Mandalorian vambrace gauntlet. A second later, the small lift in the corner began to rise, revealing the Voice of the Brotherhood. He stumbled off the lift, approaching the group.
“Dank farrik Zxyl, what took so long?! I’ve been down there for hours!” He exclaimed as he studied the establishment. It wasn’t perfect, but exactly what he was hoping for, “Nice.”
“It took Darrio a little longer than initially expected,” Zxyl retorted as Aisha poured the sweat covered Voice a drink as well.
“You don’t say,” Adenn bemused sarcastically, wiping some of the perspiration from his brow, “We’re going to need refrigeration in the cellar.. and air conditioning up here. Why did we choose the desert of all places?”
“What? It was ripe for the taking. And before all that, we need a name.”
“Akaan'lar Rat Pizza & Child Casino. I have spoken.”
Zxyl raised his hands a little with an ooookay motion. When the debate was finally settled, Idris flipped a coin onto the bar in Klars’ direction.
“Take this,” the red and black armored Mandalorian said a little more seriously, “You’ll never pay for drinks here as long as you show this medallion.”
Darrio caught the medallion. He inspected it for a moment, admiring the expert craftsmanship. An ear-splitting grinnappeared on his face. Free drinks? He liked this place already.
He raised his glass to the Regent, the Voice, and Aisha. “This is the way!”
He then downed his drink.
The three nodded in approval, before going amongst their own stuff. Darrio, Zxyl, and Aisha retreated back to the Eternal, where Darrio was given the upper body section of his armor back.
“We’re going to take you back to Kasiya. I’ll notify you when we’ve prepared your next trial,” Zxyl stated as H.A.L. instructed the crew of the Eternal to prepare for lift off, “This one was fairly easy. The next one, will not be so.”
“Bring it,” Darrio said, pounding his chest confidently.