Eastbound voicetest

[sergeant_slick]

They'd caught him. He knew where he'd slipped up, not that it mattered now. They'd marched him off to... nothing, probably. Not even a show trial, they wouldn't want to risk anyone knowing. Probably just execution. No, it'd looked like prison then execution, if he was lucky. If he was unlucky, the Kaminoans would take him apart first.

He'd only had a little time then, trying to plan a way out. Hard to do with a concussion, he couldn't make thoughts stick in his head for very long. Lots of stupid ideas came up, over and over. None quite as stupid as what actually happened, though.

Suddenly, miraculously, he was somewhere else. ...Just his rotten luck that this somewhere else was also prison, with execution still on schedule. Somewhere out in the middle of nowhere, primitive cells, gruesome-looking guards, nobody speaking Basic.

Until suddenly that changed too, because somebody shoved a sparkly bracelet in his hand. This was absolute dream logic, probably the fault of the concussion, but he was not questioning it. He was banging out of this place, as soon as his cuffs were unlocked.

Somehow he managed to sneak onto a boat, and get away clean. Clean-ish. He'd stripped off his plates, packing them up tight in a former sack of something-or-other, and only had to give one crewcritter a bit of brain damage to get out at the port. Easy. Apparently he'd been an idiot to not just try this the thousand times he'd fantasized about escaping, but it was done.

He was still going to stand out in his blacks, though. He kept to quiet corners for a while, stealing anything clothing-shaped as he went. After a while, he almost blended in. All he needed now was--

Oh thank hells, something with a hood. He'd be taking that now.

Comments

[jeoha]

One had gotten away. That was the message. One of their kind had shown up in Unhalad's prisons again and been rescued, but was gone before they could get him where he needed to go. So, it was Lee Chang's work to go and find him and clean up.

It wasn't as hard as it would have been, a month ago. Lee Chang was starting to pick up some of the local lingo even when he didn't have his quartz handy, thanks to grudging if patient tutelage from his bodyguard. He'd been selling furs in the city for long enough now that he blended in - or at least as much as a man who was used to living in a palace could ever blend in.

So it was that he caught the nervous whispers about someone other shifting around the area. At first he was worried that it was about one of them, that they were drawing attention to themselves, but after a few hours he managed to narrow down the source.

Just as the man was trying to lift a cloak from a nearby open window, hung to dry.

He cleared his throat quietly from behind him.

"Don't. Not worth it."

Lee Chang would know - he was fully decked out in leather lined with soft white fur, carefully stitched to his size. Sometimes being a fur trader had its perks.

[sergeant_slick]

He didn't startle, though it was a close thing. Of course, something had to go wrong.

He half-turned, glancing over the man. Civilian. Probably, anyway, his clothes looked fluffy enough. Someone who looked and sounded like they were used to being important.

He wasn't done in yet, though. And he had learned his lesson from the past few days. Most important thing when important people almost caught you: don't let them know.

He could play the good, dumb little soldier for a little while longer. "What d'you mean, sir?" He held up the cloak. "This? Somebody just left it here."

[jeoha]

Lee Chang tilted his head, gaze narrowing ever so slightly as he considered.

"Mm," He finally agreed, though it was impossible to tell if he fell for the act of if he simply acknowledged it. "And so we will leave it, too."

"Some people have resources they don't know they can tap, yet," He continued eventually, convinced all the more than he had the right mark after the man spoke. Even with the crystal, he knew he wasn't speaking the local tongue. If anything, he sounded like he spoke the language that Mingyu and Archeval shared.

He crossed his arms over his chest, breath misting in the air as he casually leaned against the wall.

"Friends they don't know they have. Friends that made sure they got what they needed, to understand those around them."

[sergeant_slick]

That's it, just keep the Shiny face on. Wasn't like it was particularly hard at the moment, his head was still throbbing and it was difficult to concentrate. The officers had knocked him out cold, and he'd smacked his head on the floor too, not that he could remember it. There was still dried blood in his hair, in any case.

Which was part of why it took him a long minute to blink his way through all that sideways talk. Didn't help that he was hearing an unfamiliar language overlaid by the translator bracelet. Things had just gone in a direction he hadn't expected, and now he was playing catch-up. Was this person saying they wanted to help?

He slowly put the cloak back down. "Well I've only just got here, sir, so I don't think I've got any resources. None that I've been made acquainted with, anyway."

[jeoha]

Luckily - or perhaps unluckily, based on how slick wanted to see it - Lee Chang was getting used to this, a bit. Though their last rescue had gotten everyone out at once, the process of explaining and getting people to lower their guard enough to work together was a long one.

I only just got here was as good an indicator as any. Even most of the merchant ships that came in and out of port carried crew who'd been in and out of Sa-Hareth. The only truely new ones were them - the strange, fabled few.

"You do. You were given one during your escape. A crystal, that means you can talk to me as I can talk to you, despite not speaking each other's language." He pulled out his own, waving it a little to let it glint in the light.

"Such resources are unfortunately given out to those of us who the current warlord would very much like to get rid of, so I suggest that you come with me, and I can fill you in when we're in a slightly safer place."

[sergeant_slick]

Seemed like he'd read it right. He was being offered help.

Sure. And that'd gone great the last time, hadn't it?

But on Christophsis he'd at least had intel. A ground-level understanding of what was going on and who was the bigger threat. Here? Not a clue. All he knew was that underneath the Basic translation, the voice he was hearing didn't sound like the locals.

Maybe. Again, head injury.

This was stupid as all hell. But he did need more information. He didn't like this, though.

"Sounds like the decision's already been made for me, then."

[jeoha]

"Adversity tends to lead to strange but necessary friends," He agreed, the tiniest hint of a rueful smile on his lips as he gestured for the clone to follow him away. Somewhere louder, somewhere where they could walk through the streets and talk in lowered voices and not be overheard.

Waiting for the man to fall in beside him, Lee Chang talked lowly but clearly as they walked through the freezing-cold streets of the city. "You aren't alone." Was the first thing he said, letting that sink in a few seconds before continuing: "There are a few of us. None of us from this place, or even aware of it, until we arrived. Most of us waking in terrible conditions. Those of us who've been here the longest - or, I should say, the longest of this current endeavor - have only been here a little over two months. We're still adjusting, too. To the world. To the structure. To how beholden we are on those who set us free to begin with."

[sergeant_slick]

He'd still managed to get away with stealing some local clothes, at least. He hid his black-gloved hands in his sleeves as best he could while still keeping a hold on the sack of armor, though he couldn't do a damn thing about his boots. It was the one bit of his kit he couldn't hide.

You aren't alone wasn't actually comforting right now. "Is there anyone here who looks like me, sir?"

[jeoha]

"Who looks like you?"

The question was such a profoundly confusing one that for a moment he frowned, then thought very very deeply. No, not that he could think of. But he wasn't thinking of clones, of course. He was trying to think if he had seen anyone he might identify as the man's family.

"... No. I'm sorry. There is no one else here from Joseon, either - my home. Some have found family, but- I cannot say that I have met any of yours."

[sergeant_slick]

Alright. Good, even.

Wait, why'd he felt so relieved about that? He shouldn't. Or maybe that was the propaganda talking.

"Ah. Shame to hear that."

A couple of seconds of poorly hidden conflict passed in silence.

He wasn't sure whether he wanted the rest to hear about what he'd done. More clones needed to start thinking about freedom. But the only ones who'd be spreading the word were the Jedi and their lackeys, and they'd made him out to be a monster.

"If any of my brothers show up, hopefully I can surprise them."

If he could just get a chance to convince the rest, without Jedi or their pointless war getting in the way...

He tried to shake himself out of it, start observing the basics of his surroundings. Craning his neck and staring up at the diffuse light of the clouds did precisely nothing to tell him about the system they were in, but it did make his head throb queasily, and he stumbled a little into whoever-this-was.

"Sorry. Took a knock on the head, still a bit scrambled."

[jeoha]

Lee Chang kept half an eye on him, but didn't interrupt the clear introspection, though he could only barely guess at its content.

When Slick stumbled, Lee Chang was quick to catch his arm, feet planting as he offered solid support. He glanced back behind them to meet Ylsa's eyes in the crowd, following them at a far enough distance as to not look suspicious but close enough to keep an eye on. She raised an eyebrow in a silent question and he shook his head minutely. No need for intervention. He was fine.

"Most of us are, when we rouse," he murmured to the apology, making sure Slick was stable before releasing him. "Some far worse than you. Your apologies are not necessary."

He started walking again, but slowly, careful to be within reach if the man should falter again.

"There's a place that we've gathered, outside the city. Relatively safe, for a given value of safe. But safer than being alone and stranded here. I don't recommend staying on the streets - they've been looking for us, and they won't care that you were only recently released. And the consequences for being caught... Mm."

[sergeant_slick]

He righted himself as quickly as he could, wincing in annoyance. Should've remembered. It wasn't like this was the first time he'd gotten hit, he knew what it did.

The fact that he'd gotten handled lightly in prison was bothering him, though. Though honestly he'd been expecting to get his shit kicked in. "Where is this? Is this Republic territory, or..." He glanced up again at the city around them. Could be Sep space. Could be a Hutt-controlled planet, could be anywhere, but he couldn't imagine that the Republic would let him go that easy. Maybe this was a prison colony.