Set the in the world of Star Wars: The Old Republic, Odette Lise is just another smuggler trying to make a living running weapons and other valuables across the galaxy, and not asking questions. Except she's not just another smuggler! She's the ad...
Odette and Corso had to do a lot of skirting around the rocky, sandy hills to get to the entrance at the base of the volcano. The guards became more organized and militant the closer they got. They hid behind a sandy bluff watching the guards mill around. Odette's irritation grew as the minutes passed.
"Any bright ideas?" Odette said, looking at Corso.
"Besides running in there guns blazing? No," he said.
"And we're not doing that," she said. "I'd prefer to get to Skavak in one piece."
"This is more than about your ship, isn't it?" Corso said. "More than the shipment."
Odette eyed Corso warily. "What makes you say that?"
"Before they died, I would have done anything for my family," he said. "I would have walked across shards of glass in my bare feet if it meant that they could be safe and happy."
He waited for her to say something. She looked away from him.
"It just seems to me that the way you keep putting yourself in harm's way doesn't seem to be something you'd do just for a payout," he said.
"It's not," Odette said finally. "My father's on our ship. And there's only two reasons why my ship hasn't blasted out of there - he's either captured in a way he can't get out of, or he's dead."
"What makes you so sure?" Corso said.
"My father is the most crafty son of a gun you ever met," she said, not able to help the smile that tugged at the corner of her mouth. "He can get out of most any prison or binding, and what he can't break out of he can usually talk his way out of. But he hasn't."
Corso nodded his head. "I'm glad you told me," he said. He paused. "Why didn't you tell me before?"
"Because, farm boy, it was none of your business," she said. "But I suppose it doesn't matter now. There's only two likely outcomes. First, we go in there, get blasted to bits or arrested in the first thirty steps and then get blasted to bits, and I never see my ship or my father again. Or second, we somehow manage to get past Dareg, Skavak and several hundred separatists, get my ship out of a volcano in one piece, then get the shipment to Rogun the Butcher without him blasting us to bits, and then I see my father again. After all that, you won't be able to avoid the acquaintance.
"Well, when you put it like that," he chuckled.
Odette put her head in her hands. "I just wish I could think of a way we could get in there without being seen." A headache was quickly developing. Nico would have had a plan. It may have sucked but at least he would have had one.
"We could always do the oldest trick in the book," Corso said.
"What's that?" she said, giving him eye daggers.
"Knock out a couple of guards, steal their clothes and then go in like we're separatists," he said.
Odette stared at Corso like she'd never seen him before. He squirmed a bit under her gaze.
"Fine, forget -"
Odette started to laugh. She couldn't stop. She held her sides and was nearly wheezing before she could control herself. "It's so stupid and simple, it will probably work."
The self-effacing smile came back to Corso's face. "Then let's get some guards."
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