[RO] PAD Edgar Drachen and PAD Turel Sorenn

The Lighter Side Bar and Grill
Menat Ombo
New Tython
One Week Prior to the Battle of Purity Rock, 37 ABY

“Have you tried this Corellian whiskey? It’s so hard to find good Corellian whiskey, I’ll have to remember this place after this whole occupation business is over.” Turel slid a full highball glass across the table to Edgar before sitting down to enjoy his own.

Edgar took a healthy swig from his glass then slammed his free hand on the table, “Whooo that’s stout stuff! Sure beats that swill they pass for booze on the Arthos.”

Turel chuckled, “well most Jedi aren’t whiskey connoisseurs like us.”

“Their loss. Here’s to being men of sophisticated tastes.” Edgar raised his glass for a toast.

Turel clanked his glass against Edgar’s in a toast, “To sophistication.”

Edgar glanced around the noisy bar to see if anyone was within earshot of their conversation before continuing, “Did you ever imagine when you joined this outfit that we’d intentionally get tanked up to disturb the peace and land ourselves in prison? That’s not exactly Jedi-like.”

Turel swirled his glass around for a second. “Never in a million years. Though, I sort of left the ‘how’ out when I pitched the idea to Liam about us infiltrating the prison. I figured the less he knew the better.”

“Oh that’s the best part. A little disorderly conduct and vandalism never hurt anyone...much. Besides, Liam wasn’t born yesterday, I’m sure the old fox had some inclination of what we’d have to do to get inside.”

Turel stared into the bottom of his glass, “Well it’s not like this is first time we’ve been in prison together. Remember that stint we did together on Selonia, what was that, like three maybe four years ago?”
Edgar reclined in his chair and put his feet on the table. “How could I forget? I remember the day you arrived like it was yesterday.”

“Really?”

“Oh yeah, it’s not every day a scarred up cyborg shows up in the slammer and gets pelted with rotting food.”

Galactic Alliance Detention Center #42 a.k.a “The Nest”
Selonia
34 ABY

Just returning from morning chow Edgar received the best piece of news he ever got since being locked away in this “institution”: his extremely large, annoying and downright smelliest roommate was transferred to a different cell block and for the first time in a long time he finally has his own private suite.

“My prayers have finally have been answered! That disgusting piece of bather fodder Rangu Zem is finally gone! It’s going to take me a week to get the stench out BUT it will be so worth it.”

Edgar’s mind started racing with ideas on how to spread out and make his expanded living quarters his own. The dreams and plans started small but then grew to grandiose levels in his own mind. He almost forgot he was actually in prison till he got a strong push on his shoulder spinning him around and almost making him lose balance.

Edgar regained his balance to see his jackass neighbor Aurren Carn staring at him.

“Hey there Brainy, are you missing Rangu already? I didn’t know you two were so close! I hope you gave him a nice kiss before he left,” Aurren said with a big grin on his face. Ever since Edgar arrived both Rangu and Aurren made his life difficult. They were also the source of his new nickname, “Brain the Fist”. Edgar at first hated the name but slowly grew to not only like it but found it did fit his personally to a degree.

“Yeah Right Carn, I got rid of one of you dumbasses now I can only hope I wake up to find you gone. Then I just might kiss the first guard I see.”

Oh I’m sorry to break the news to you Brainy but I’m stuck in here for at least another 5 years and I believe you’re here for at least another 2 years so you’re not getting rid of me anytime soon.”

Before Edgar could say a word the guards started screaming for the prisoners to get in their cages for a mandatory lock down for new prisoner transfers. Apparently today was the day a new batch of unfortunate souls made this their home for a while.

Edgar remembered the day he arrived and every one since then. There is a tradition in which the newbies get pelted with smuggled rotten food from the mess hall as their welcome to the Galactic Alliance Detention Center #42 on Selonia or as the prisoner’s affectionately call it ‘The Nest’.

Edgar always wanted no part of it and always sat on his bunk and read whatever book he could get from the prison library. It was a hobby he picked up to help him get through the long days and night on the inside. This time was different: as he turned to head to his bunk his cell door flew open and a guard dropped a small box of rotten food on the floor and as he relocked the cell door.. “Here you go boy, it’s your turn to welcome the new guests and you better have a good arm today”.

“Hey wait a min give, these to someone else…” Edgar’s voice trailed off noticing the guard was swiftly walking down the block with not even the intent of turning back around let alone hear him.

“Well, well, well Brainy gets to be a man today,” Aurren bellowed from the his cell. “Now the question is will he actually be a man and nail one of the newbies or will he chicken out and get the yardstick instead? I’m so hoping you miss I have been waiting for my chance to knock you around a bit.”

As Edgar listened to Aurren talk gleefully about the odds of him getting the yardstick, which is the nice way of reminding him that anyone failing to take part in this wonderful tradition was subjected to a good week of routine and random beatings. Some of these beatings Edgar had been witness to. Since the guards did nothing about these attacks, Edgar on a few occasions rushed in to protect the victim only to get a beating himself and subsequently thrown in the hole by the guards for starting the fight.

Just as Edgar inspected the box of rotting food the new prisoners were already marching to the center of the block; a nice open area where all the prisoner could see the newbies. Once they were all lined up and awaiting their cell assignments is when the “tradition” was supposed to start. Since they had already been processed, strip searched, showered, and handed their first week’s worth of linen, the idea was to douse them in rotting food and make their first week that much worse.

As his targets lined up, Edgar made the decision to go with this tradition and chose the biggest guy in the line and pelt him once or twice so he could just go on about his day and not have to worry about repercussions later. So he quickly scanned the newbies and instantly found his target: an average size man with what looked like a cybernetic arm who seemed to think he was a badass.

So with his target picked Edgar quickly grabbed two good handfuls of ammo and once the guards finished chaining the newbies to the wall. Once the guard was out of the way that’s when Edgar threw a large rotting piece of meat directly at his target and nailed him square on the left side of his face. Within seconds more food rained down on them as the newbies reeled from the first salvo and were obviously pissed. Edgar threw his second volley and a nice juicy hubba gourd landed on the guy’s chest splattering him and his “new clothes”.

Feeling satisfied with his work he took the remaining food and handed it to Carn who like the rest of the inmates was screaming, cheering and hollering as loud as he could. He quickly grabbed the remaining food from the box and threw it at the newbies.

Edgar turned away washed up in the little sink he had in the cell, sat on his bunk and started reading his book trying to drown out the remaining noise of the inmates and the guards regaining order to finish processing the new inmates.

After about 20 minutes of yelling the guards got thing under control and started dealing with new residents of the Nest. After what seemed to be another hour Edgar again heard the guard unlock the cell door and walked in with none other than the new inmate Edgar had pelted with food just a little while ago. As Edgar sat in stunned silence the guard spoke.

“Well Mr. Summers meet Brain the Fist… You guys will be roommates for quite a while. I’m sure you two will have a lot to talk about. Especially on how both ended up being roommates”. With that the guard left Mr. Summers standing in the middle of the cell still dripping of rotting food and smelling of it too.

Even before Edgar could say a thing all he could hear was That Jackass Carn laughing his ass off in the next cell.

The rotting food covering Turel’s prison garb was not the worst smell he had ever encountered, but it was easily in his top ten. He had never actually been in prison before, despite a long and storied criminal career. Working as an enforcer and lieutenant for the Hutts had its privileges and one of those privileges was avoiding prison time. Still, Turel wasn’t entirely unfamiliar with how things went on the inside. The first day was always the worst as the prisoners had to establish dominance and the pecking order. This nasty food ritual was just one way the existing prisoners put the newcomers in their place. “It will take more than some rotten leftovers to dominate me,” Turel thought to himself.

Turel removed the shirt of his prison uniform, revealing the full extent of the scarring on his hardened torso. He began washing his filthy shirt in the cell’s tiny sink while sizing up his new cell mate. “Brain the Fist”, what kind of name was that anyway? There had to be a story behind that. Turel also pondered “Brain’s” age; he had to be 19 or 20, far too young to serve serious time.

Edgar was sizing up Turel up as well. He was overcome with curiosity over Turel’s scars and broke the awkward silence. “I assume there’s a good story behind those scars and your arm.”

Turel answered in a nonchalant manner as he wrung his shirt dry, “Someone tried to kill me. He failed. Now he and the person who hired him are dead. End of story.”

Edgar wasn’t buying what Turel was selling, “You can cut the tough guy routine, we’re going to be spending a lot of time together and it will go by smoother if we cooperate.”

“I answered your question.”

Edgar rolled his eyes. “Uh huh. How long are you in for?”

Turel exhaled in frustration. This “Brain” character was clearly a talker, talkers could be dangerous. “Look kid, I know you’re just trying to make small talk but I’d prefer to keep my business private.”

Edgar felt optimistic. His new cellmate, Adrian or whatever his name was, hadn’t tried to kill him, beat him up or rape him yet. That was a good sign. Edgar would take moody and private over a swaggering jackass any day. A cell mate playing the brooding stranger bit would at least stay quiet and leave him be. It was the next best thing to having a cell to himself.

“Well suit yourself. Mr Summers was it? My name is Edgar but people call me “Brain the Fist.”

Turel made sure to maintain his cover identity, “Adrian, you can call me Adrian.”

“Well Adrian it’s nice to have a cell mate with manners for once.”

Dining Hall, “The Nest” Prison, Selonia
Three Hours Later

Turel acquired a clean prison uniform shortly after arriving and followed Edgar into the chow line. The pair got their food and sat at a table by themselves. Turel gave the room a cursory scan. The dining hall was a typical prison dining area complete with catwalks overhead and utensils dulled nearly to the point of uselessness. The guard staff in the “Nest” was a mix of Correlien and Selonian guards, hence the name. The female Selonian guards were affectionately referred to as “Space Weasels.”

Turel decided to pry his new cellmate for information, “So how long have you been here?”
“About a year in, with about a year to year and a half I believe. How about you? How long are you in for?” Edgar was happy his brooding cell mate was opening up.

“Six months.”

“What for?”

“Attempted ship theft and resisting arrest.”

Both men resumed eating their dinner when Aurren and a few of his burly cronies walked up to the table. Aurren walked behind Edgar and patted him on the back. “Well look here boys, Brainy is on a first date with his new boyfriend. How cute.”

Edgar stabbed his meat loaf with an unusual amount of force. “Get lost Carn! I’m not in the mood for you today. ”

Aurren laughed and his cronies followed suit. “Awww Brainy wants some time alone with his boy toy.”

Turel continued to eat his dinner like nothing was going on and calmly said, “I think someone is jealous. Sorry Carn you aren’t my type.”

Aurren glared at Turel. “Ohhh newbie’s got a mouth on him. I love the mouthy ones. Brainy, you need to teach your boyfriend some manners or I will.” Aurren moved to the other side of the table behind Turel and moved his cup like he going to pour it on Turel’s head. “Here, some punch should help you cool off…”

Aurren’s sentence was cut off by Turel reaching up with a lighting fast reflex and grabbing Aurren’s arm in mid-motion, stopping him from pouring the cup. “No thanks, I already had a shower today.”

Aurren’s eyes grew wide with rage but he couldn’t break the iron grip of Turel’s cybernetic hand. Aurren’s posse set their trays down and began to bow up like a fight was getting ready to go down. Turel slowly released Aurren’s hand as he jerked it away and dropped the cup, spilling punch on the floor.

By this point the guards on the catwalk had begun to zero in on the scene and began training their stun guns at the group. Aurren glared at Turel, “We’ll settle this on the yard tomorrow newbie.”

“I look forward to it,” Turel smiled as the posse walked away. Edgar sat across the table from him still fuming.

“I hate that guy. I hope you fight as well as you run your mouth. I’ve been looking to kick his ass for a while now.” Edgar enjoyed a good fight and Carn had a good beating coming his way. He liked his new cell mate, this guy was alright.

Turel just smiled and finished his dinner.

As the two roommates walked back to the cell block,Turel spent the entire trek back surveying the prison and asking his young roommate about how things worked around here. Turel slowly realized that Edgar was giving him only really half answers and really not paying attention to him at all.

“So Edgar where is the best place to hide a body around here? This way I know where i can stash your dismembered body when i’m done with you tonight.”

Edgar still clearly not paying to much attention; responded, “Well, assuming you don’t get caught getting there, over by the waste treatment plant would be … WAIT?! What did you say!?!?

Turel stopped walking, turned to Edgar and smiled a little bit, then quickly tried to defuse the situation. “Relax Buddy, you were so deep in thought over there you seemed to be completely out of it and I needed to bring you back to answer my questions about this place. What’s the matter, kid? You’ve been so quiet since our run in with that koochu. Are you alright?”

Edgar was staring so intently into Turel’s eyes that even he was not exactly sure if he should be ready to defend himself from this kid or not. For a short while there was a tense quiet between the two prisoners. Given, Turel’s vast experience with reading people he figured either one of two things were going to happen: in the next few seconds either this kid was going to lunge at him or he was going to break down right there in front of him. The inner turmoil inside this kid at that moment filled up his eyes like a Tatooine sunrise.

Before the confused borg could say anything, Edgar’s body immediately stiffened like a board. Within a split second the Hutt thug prepared himself for combat, but the kid just as quickly relaxed his muscles and only softly said, “It’s none of your damn business”. The kid quickly stepped around Turel and headed back to the block at a much faster pace than before.

He only caught up to him as they started climbing the stairs of the rack to get to their cell. Turel was amazed how many prisoner’s this block held there was about 5 floors of cells with about 100 to 150 prisoners per floor. When they finally got to the 4th floor and were just about to get to their cell. Turel tried again to speak to Edgar when all of a sudden there was this god awful screaming and racket behind him and it was getting louder as it got closer to Turel.

Both prisoners turned around to see what what making all the noise when they saw a out of control droid heading right for them and just stopping within a few feet of them. “Good evening gentleman. I’m just here to remind you that I am a droid and I am here to serve your needs. Please don’t forget that.” With that the droid ran to the railing and threw itself off the 4th floor crashing to the bottom and smashing into a thousand pieces.

Both inmates stood there stunned then looked at each other and just started laughing and with that all the tension that was created melted away as they entered their cell together still laughing about what the heck that was all about.

Cell Block B - Cell #SE75
3 hours after lights out

A warm breeze crept through the cell and onto Edgar’s face as he continuingly stared at the ceiling as he has done since lights out. His mind had been racing ever since they left the mess hall. Thoughts of home, his childhood, his mother and to his dismay even thoughts of his father crept into his mind.

Thoughts of happier days. The days before his father left them for good; before his mother got sick and he had to choose this life to earn money for her care, of course before she died. For the first time in a long time he remembered having a happier life at one point and he started to quietly weep in his bunk. In those first brief moments he quickly remembered where he was and shook himself out of the past and back to the present.

The young man couldn’t explain why these thoughts suddenly flooded him. All he knew was that there was something about his new roomate that seemed so familiar: almost like he knew the man for years; like they almost had a connection that made them think and act together in unison. Edgar laughed to himself and thought, “This has been one strange day and tomorrow will be no different. If this new guy really thinks that ass Aurren will fight fair tomorrow then he will be in for a huge surprise”.

After a few more mins Edgar’s mind quieted down and sleep took hold of him as he closed his eyes and dreamt he was in his ship flying in hyperspace peacefully relaxing watching the stars go by. It was the best sleep he had in a long time.

The Dining Hall the next morning.
The boys finished their breakfast and headed out to yard for their ‘morning recess’ as Turel jokingly called it. This was about the time they realized they had yet to see Aurren this morning. “I figured at least he would taunt us in the cantina,” Edgar commented, “But alas he isn’t there and neither is the rest of Aurren’s little gang”.

Just as he was about to comment to Turel about the likelihood of a much bigger fight than they both expected someone big grabbed his arm from behind and forcefully threw him to the ground. Turel spun around found himself face to chest with a very large man that Edgar knew all too well. “Rengu?!? I thought they transferred to out of this place?” Edgar questioned the brute.

“Oh no they just moved me to another cell block. Apparently some prisoners in my old block complained I was beating them too much and I know you wouldn’t know anything to do about that would you Brain?”

Edgar felt emboldened and firmly stated, “Of course I know about it! I organized all those prisoners myself. I had to stop you from terrorizing them even more than this place already does! I had to get rid of you and even now you’re still not gone!”

Edgar stood up like a shot and without warning jumped at his old roommate, swinging wildly and missing him completely. In his haste Edgar slipped on the gravel under his feet and lost his footing.

“So you want a piece of me too like your boyfriend here wants a piece of Aurren! Well in that case, 20 minutes in the abandoned equipment shed on the other side of the yard and we will see how tough you two are!”

The hulking mass of meat turned with a smile and walked in the direction of the shed. In all of the fights Edgar’s witnessed Rengu had not been beaten yet, so in his estimation this day would either become one of his finest days or his worst.

“You had to stir up the mynock nest didn’t you?” Turel questioned

“I wish I could say I’m sorry but that fracking son of a bantha deserves to be put in his place!”

Turel looked in the direction of the shed and noticed the brute had just arrived and was greeted by Aurrin and what looked like 4 or 5 friends. “Well this Peedunky has definitely got me into a bind now and here I am the stoopa that has to get us out of it,” Turel said to himself.

The odds were definitely not in their favor. Turel counted Rengu, Aurren, and five goons in a confined space; assuming his young cell mate was a decent fighter it was still seven on two. Those odds would give a martial arts master pause. Edgar was a brave kid but his slip and fall performance a moment ago did not put Turel’s mind at ease.

“Have you ever fought these guys before?” Turel asked as the pair walked to the shed.
“I’ve fought Rengu before, but not Aurren.”
“Did you win?”
“…Not exactly.”

Turel exhaled deeply, resolved to the inevitable outcome of this fight. “You know we’re probably about to take a beating right?” Edgar nodded in grim agreement. Both knew the probable outcome but both also knew that the consequences for backing down were worse. Turel slapped Edgar on the back, “Well kid, let’s go put those sleemos in their place. Their goons may get us but we’ll make them pay dearly for it. Just don’t let them see you sweat or you’ll be their schutta forever.” Edgar resenting being called kid, but he was strangely motivated by Turel’s grim words.

The cell mates walked into the shed and each paired off against their respective opponents: Turel with Aurren and Edgar with Rengu. The five remaining goons formed a circle around the combatants and deliberately blocked the exit once Edgar and Turel entered.

Aurren spoke first. “Well well, looks like Brainy and his newbie boyfriend decided to show up after all. Time to teach the noobie some respect.” Turel gave a cocky smile in response while he tried to read Aurren’s stance to get some indication of the brute’s fighting style.

Rengu gave a hearty laugh. “You should have scurried off while you had the chance Brain. Now I’m going to have to put you in the med ward.” The hulking giant of a man cracked his fists. Edgar was suddenly beginning to regret his decision to pick a fight and really starting to regret his decision to enter the shed. Edgar glanced over at Turel who winked at him.

Turel walked right up to Aurren, “So are we going to fight or are you just going to whisper sweet nothings in my ear all day?”

Incensed, Aurren lunged at Turel, “I’ve had enough of your…UMPH!” Turel interrupted Aurren’s sentence by moving inside the brute’s reach and landing an elbow to the abdomen. Aurren stumbled backward, momentarily stunned and further enraged.

Turel assumed a Broken Gate ready stance. “You talk too much.” Aurren charged him in a blind rage. Meanwhile, Edgar had seized on the moment to attack Rengu with a flurry of desperate blows which the giant blocked effortlessly.

“Is that all you got?” Rengu counter attacked with a palm strike to Edgar’s chest that sent him flying into the wall of the shed. Two of the goons had to jump out of the way to avoid the hapless prisoner careening through the air.