Hoth: Blood and Ice

Pipka strolled into the command center. He had briefly checked out the area earlier, but wanted to take a closer look and see what there was to see.

Generally, on the Turtle, he stayed clear of the cockpit so the others could focus on the task at hand. He knew he could be distracting, others found it difficult to not pay attention to him. He couldn't help that he was so engaging.

That was when he saw them, one of the masked Imperials. They seemed to be finishing a conversation. Were they just putting their mask back on? Do they take it off then? Maybe now would be a good time to approach and ask these questions.

Putting on his 'making new friends' smile, Pipka walks up to the stranger and introduces himself, "Hi, I'm Pipka, I like your mask."

Luth looked up at him. She had never seen someone who looked like Pipka, but... hey, cool. The Sith nodded and said in a feminine voice. "Oh, thank you. It's a pretty great helmet, I'll admit. I'm Luth Khalan. Nice to meet you, Pipka. I don't think I've met anyone quite like you before."

Looking down at himself, he replies, "I'm a Chadra-Fan, from Chad, not many of us get to leave, and we aren't usually so blue. I dye my fur... for obvious reasons."

He looks back at Luth, "It is pretty cool, much cooler than my helmet." He pulls out his own helmet with large sensors that look like bat ears. "I noticed a lot of the Sith here are wearing helmets and masks. Are you all part of a clan or something? None of the Sith I knew before wore masks like these."

"I mean... They aren't really obvious to me. Why did you dye it?" She asked curiously.

"Oh... Well, we all have different reasons. We didn't get together and all decide we were going to wear face coverings. In my case, it's just very protective armor, and it's warm." She took off her helmet, revealing a pale face with vivid red hair and freckles across her nose, turning the helmet to look at it. "This type of suit always has a face-hiding helmet."

"Oh yeah, I haven't mentioned yet, I'm a crewmate on the Turtle. They raided my masters and I joined up rather than going back to Chad. And well, we can't be the Blue Crew with a little gray Chadra-Fan."

He watches with trepidation as Luth removes her helmet. "Oh! I like your braid. Maybe I should try some red next time I dye my fur, then I could look like a fiercesome warrior." He follows up his words by striking a pose.

"You've got a nice face, you should keep it uncovered. People like Nudimsu should cover their faces, he always looks so judgey. People say he has both resting and active bitch face."

"Oh, you'll have to send me a picture if you do. That sounds like it would look cool," she agreed.

Her smile brightened at the compliment, and she laughed. "I'll give it some thought. You know, I don't actually know if I've talked to Nudimsu before... Though by that logic, you should also not take to wearing a mask."

"I'm amazed, you're the first person I've met on this mission who didn't know Nudimsu, Hacha, or Durasay. I'll have to introduce you to them later.

Well, I want to wear a mask to look tougher, sometimes. On our jobs, I'm kind of the muscle of the group." He puffs out his chest a little and might be flexing under his armor and thermal cloak.

A look of realization comes across his face, "Oh, is that why you wear the coop looking mask around, to look tougher? I guess that's important when you're a Sith.

The Sith masters I served always made sure to be rougher with the slaves when other Sith were visiting. I didn't think that made them look very tough, but I'm not a Sith, so maybe I just don't understand."

"Please do. I might've run into them and just don't remember," she admitted. "I do need to look tougher. I don't really have a very intimidating face."

"Well, people bully those weaker than them to feel like they have power and control. They might have been intimidated by the other Sith."

"I don't think it matters how you look, it matters what you do. Nudimsu says, 'Actions speak louder than words.' usually just before he tells me to blow something up."

Pipka thinks about her comment for a bit. "That's true, but if we know that weak people are the ones that show off their power, then wouldn't the ones that hide their power be showing off more power, so then wouldn't it show more power to not show off your power...

but theeen if you don't show off your power, it will look like you're trying to make it look like you have power by not showing it off, meaning you don't actually have power to not show off....

but theeeeen, you would need to show off your power to really hide your power to hide that you're hiding your power and showing that you're not showing off power by showing it off and do have power because you don't not have power and....." by this point, Pipka is gently swaying in circles trying to resolve this conundrum.

"True," she agreed, trying to hide an amused smile as he goes around in mental circles. "See? This is why I just don't bother with any of that and stick with doing my job."

Broken from his feedback loop, Pipka responds, "That is a very reasonable solution. But that does bring another question to my mind.

About your job, what would you say... you do here? I know the Jedi came as part of the Republic's humanitarian mission after the pirates took down the Baraliner. Why is the Empire here?"

"We were hunting pirates, as well," she replied with an amused smile. "A military escort was taken down. Interesting coincidence, isn't it?"

"Really, I guess we kind of have the same job then. Well, the Republic mission wanted to negotiate with the pirates and then we were hired to help with leverage for the negotiations or help if the negotiations didn't go as planned.

Oh yeah, the crew was talking about that, us translating out of hyper space at the same time and the pirates launching the attack so quickly and then distress beacons with both Republic and Imperial signals leading us to the base. Definitely a trap.

I hadn't heard that the pirates had taken an Empire ship. Did you know anybody on board?" He adds with a clear note of sympathy in his voice.

"Wouldn't that just give them the chance to get stronger?" She asked, then shook her head. "Not that it matters what we intended now. I suppose."

"I didn't know anyone."

"I guess they just wanted to come to some agreement so another ship of refugees isn't shot down.

I think that there's always going to be people like the White Maw and if you get rid of them, someone's just going to take they're place. The trick is to make sure whoever is there knows to play by certain rules, and if they don't, you eliminate them until someone who will play by the rules takes over.

A little piracy never hurt anyone... well not too much anyway, but we can't let them going around blowing up ship's full of people. That's when people like you and me come in to stop them."

"I suppose I can see that perspective," she nodded amiably. "There are merits and flaws to both approaches, I think."