Aboard the Fireblade, Docking Bay 1313
Orbital Space-Station, Hosko, Hutt Space
19 ABYRain rubbed her eyes and sighed. It had been weeks since last she'd had a decent night sleep, and even longer since she'd had a decent meal. She new that she looked horrible, but it was something she hadn't been able to remedy lately. She looked at her reflection in the forward viewport and grimaced.
Her violet eyes seemed dull, and had bags under them. Her hair, no longer the vibrant red it had been eight years previous, was a shoulder length deep brown. She'd had it dyed after her conversation with Raal. It made her less visible to those looking for her. Her face looked sunken and weathered. She blinked several times and sighed.
"When did I get so old?" She asked the woman staring back at her.
Well you could have just stayed with the VE. A voice in her head said. Rain sighed and closed her eyes. The argument she had been having with herself for the last five years was getting worse. She furrowed her brows and frowned. That voice sounded far too much like Havock for comfort.
"Great now I'm going nuts, now I'm hearing Havock." She rubbed her face again and sat forward to pear at the navicomputer. "Where can I go that isn't going to get me killed before I have my answers."
VE space you dimwitted red head! That one sounded far too much like Jaenna's voice and had the added effect of straightening Rain's spine.
"That would be too much like running away." Rain murmured. The voices stopped for the time being, but the former VE sergeant was sure that they would be back to plague her. She didn't like to admit it, but she was glad that she had something that she could still hold to from the past. Havock and Jaenna had become the friends that Rain had always wanted and needed.
"One day I'm going to wake up and find them yelling at me for leaving in the first place." Rain muttered as she put in the coordinates for Bakura in to the navicomputer. As the coordinates locked in Rain turned to her comm and flicked it on. "Hosko Station Security this is Captain Rain of the Fireblade requesting permission for docking exit."
"Fireblade, this is Hosko Station Security, you have permission for take off. Docking bay thirteen-thirteen is clear. Safe journey." The man's voice crackled over the comm. Rain grinned. One of the reasons she'd chosen Hosko to hide was because she had contacts that wouldn't turn her into the Hutts. The head of the security for docking procedures was a long time friend and former smuggler that Rain had run with in the early days after the VE. They had saved each others lives and both knew the other would continue to do so for as long as the other lived. "Copy, Hosko, over and out."
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Rain sat up straight, her heart racing and her breath quick and ragged. She felt as though she'd been running or fighting, or both. She also noticed that she'd been sweating. That wasn't something she did on a regular basis or most of the time in tense situations. What had she been dreaming? She looked around groggily trying to remember where she was and what she was doing. She was sitting in the pilot's chair aboard the Arwed Frieghter that she had dubbed the Fireblade. She had a light woolen blanket covering her arms and torso suggesting that one of her droids had saw fit to cover her. She hadn't even remembered falling asleep.
She let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding, and stood up wincing as her cramped muscles stretched then relaxed. Feeling hungry she made her way out of the cockpit, leaving one of her R5 units to monitor there progress through hyperspace. In the small space provided for the common area, Rain made her way to the ration packs she had stowed there. Taking one from the top she sat herself at the small table and began to eat.
She let her mind wander back to what she may have been dreaming, but for the life of her she couldn't remember what it was. Scowling as she finished her meal, Rain threw her garbage into the trash receptacle and she headed back up to the cockpit. "How much longer, Raid?" She asked the astromech clamped into the co-pilot's spot. Raid, a red and black R5 unit named for RAIDERS squad of troopers in the VE Army, let out a few twitters and beeps in reply to the question. Translated on the console fore her, Rain read "Two hours and twenty-five minutes to reversion."
"Thanks." She mumbled and returned to the back for a much needed pass through the sonics. She'd hate to misrepresent herself on the only other planet she had called home.