Hoth: Blood and Ice

After her nearly last-minute venture in the cold to procure some game, Aurilie made her hasty return back to base for shelter before the blizzard made getting back difficult. It was a bit strange that the base was turning from a shelter to a place with legitimate accommodations in a short amount of time. She had gotten word that the hydroponics were ready to be used, which would make her job a bit easier. The local ecosystem would likely thank them for not taking too much from their population too.

She removed her hat and walked over to the tomatoes that were growing on the vines. It almost seemed like a while since she had food that wasn't packaged or preserved.

"Kinda weird ow they grow this stuff so fast isn't it." Came a voice from nearby. "Kinda feels unnatural, especially if you've seen how long it normally takes." Soren finished as he approached the older woman. He'd come by himself to check on the food situation. A man couldn't expect to survive on an empty stomach, especially if you took the weather into account.

Hard to motivate yourself to work in this cold without a proper warm meal in your belly.

Aurilie lifted her gaze up from her inspections of the tomatoes and turned to regard the approaching mercenary. "Less strange than you may think. Modern tampering of plant breeds and seeds allows them to flourish in most worlds, even enduring harsh climates within reasonable limits. I have to admit that even an old-fashioned House like mine has relied on such engineering to have a proper yield of valleyberry grow during the first thaw so that we could manufacture our regional wine. That said, natural plants have that authentic edge but I'm glad to see these red fruits in any form."

"I am Prince Aurilie Alde of Mount Joral," she introduced herself.

Soren would be surprised if there were any natural plants on Hoth... There probably was somewhere, if he really thought about it. He just had ;ittle idea of where they would grow or what they would look like. "You're right though, it is nice to see em. Will be even nicer to eat them." Fresh veggies did a person good after all. "We could all do with some good food after the lst few days after all."

"But, nice to meet you Prince Alde. I'm Soren."

"Forgive me for fawning over simple crops. Since the first day, my mind was already set on hunkering down in the base and just sustaining ourselves on ration paste with the occasional instant meals. We didn't exactly land with much and the situation was obviously bleak for many of us. They are a pleasant sight for weary eyes to see what they've been growing around here and a few of these things with actual colours in them." She quickly inspected a tomato on a vine before leaving it be.

"Well met, Soren. So, what brought you here? Prior to the incident with the pirates, of course."

"Nothig to forgive really. Can't say that my main worry over the last few days hasn't been food either." Which was true. They had shelter of a sort and water but food that wasn't rations had been hard to come by. "I was really happy when those Ortolan's showed up and had a supply of food with them to sell."

"As for me? Work mostly. Was brought on as a extra gun by some of the people of the Republic. Just in case things didn't go well with there pirates about." He was pretty sure the client had died in the pirate raid though. "How about yourself? Can't imagine it's easy to get away from rulign your domain."

"I'm quite sure that the ortolans were very happy to find themselves with a surprise customer base in the middle of nowhere, so the relationship was at least beneficial to all of us. When you're in the middle of an ice ball, customers are obvious few and the prices magically become inflated." She gave a shrug at that. There wasn't much else to say about it, considering she left the market rather quickly before they could be given a goat that they had to take care of. Then again, she supposed a place like this could suit it?

...The issue was what to do with it back home, knowing how the petting zoo nerf coaxed Aurilie to adopt them all.

"I don't we expected a heavy military engagement but we are happy to have you around. You likely didn't expect a long haul like this," she frowned momentarily. "But thank you for your continued service. As for myself and the other Alderaanian royalty you might have seen, we were all here to initially support the humanitarian efforts directly and deliver much-needed supplies to the refugees. It's something that we've done from afar for so long without first-hand accounts of the hardships. Seeing as the difficulties at home have been mostly settled, we wished to do our part to help the Republic as a whole. Unfortunately, I had to take a leave of absence from both my kingdom and my children."

"Better to be safe then sorry as far as Military engagements go. At least that's my opinion on the matter." As much as he had one, and as it turned out they had needed a few more guns then what they otherwise planned to bring along. "I'm guessing you didn't expect the long haul either then. With leaving your children behind and all."

"Still I hope we can figure a way out of here before too long... Before days start turning into months at the very least." Though it did seem a little unlikely at this point in time.

"I confess that I haven't done many of these operations to have a good grasp of how long but I think I was told by initial measures that it would be around just a few weeks? That was the number I was given but my wife is the expert when it comes to logistical matters and campaigns. I suppose arriving on the planet is the objective we were aiming for at least but now we're the ones who need help as well. I'm very thankful that we had the right mind to leave our children at home, as much as it pains me. If there were here, however," she said as her gaze swept around the hydroponics. "I feel that I would be in infinitely more distress."

"We aren't entirely on our own when it comes to our predicament. I'm sure the Empire have also found themselves in a bind. They have to be if they're also here."

"Yeah, this isn't exactly the place I'd want to bring children. Too many places for them to get into trouble, well among all the other difficulties we have." It would likely be enough to drive a parent half mad. Well, if they weren't a bit unhinged already. Kids seem to do that kinda thign to you.

"But what I've seen of things kinda like this, well anywhere from a week to a month or so is standard. You stay too long you start draining the recources of the folk you are here to help." At the mention of the imperials he nodded.

"Likely as not. I can't think they were expectign this either."

"I don't think we even had supplies to last that long initially, I had assumed that we would be the first of many supply convoys to provide relief to the refugees. Not that just but preferably work out a system to get them homed and citizens of the Republic. Now we're out supplies and barely fending for ourselves." She glanced at the hydroponics and looked around. "It seems doubtful we can start a farming industry to make up for that, although it would at least allow us to fulfill our mission.

"I haven't spoken to many of them at length but I kind of wonder how they're coping with this little combined effort. From what I've heard about them, they likely revel more in having control over...everything more. However, if this semblance of democracy is making them sore in the slightest, they seem to be hiding it well."

"With as many mouths as we have to feed ourselves that seems pretty unlikely." The hydroponics facility provided a lot in the way of food, but not enough to juat give away willy nilly. Not at least as far as he could tell. "We might be better off hunting some of the local wildlife if we are trying to provide some food for the refugees." Or buying a couple herds of ghoats from the Jo fellow.

"Yeah, can't say i know much either way myself." He reached a hand up to rub at his chin. "I did see a handful of them pitch in to get rid of the sludge though. Which I suppose says soomething for some aof them at least."

"That admittedly was a bit of wishful thinking on my part that we could be so self-sustaining that we could completely recover from the unfortunate circumstance. Still, we've been able to accomplish a lot in a short three days. I would have never thought this would be possible, especially not among mixed parties. I am happy to be proven wrong here." She said, despite her continued reservations of the Empire.

"Oh, right, the sludge," she nodded on that note. "Never mind on their commitment then. That couldn't have been an easy effort in the slightest."

He shrugged. "It could just mean some are more commited then others, or that they want it to look lie they are committed." Sith weren't supposed to be the most cooperative of people after all. Not as far as he had heard.

"So I'd say still keep one eye open. Just to be on the safe side." Of course that could just be his paranoid mercenary side talking.

Aurilie found herself in agreement on that. "Of course, I'm sure all of us will exercise some discretion on the matter. It's only been a few days and I'm still wrapping around my head that we've managed to escape a blazing ship explosion, more or less. Let's also focus on what we know too. So, where did you serve or do before all of this?"

"All over really." Soren replied with a shruge. "After leaveing Dantoonine I traveled to a few nearby outer rim worlds. Got by chasing small bounties and doing some bodyguard work for the most part. Ended up being on Nar Shaddaa for a few years, plenty of work there for Mercenary types. Had to leave after a while though."

He shook his head. "It's not the kinds of place you want to stay long. After that it was back to wandering. I don't have a ship of my own. So I kinda just go where the money takes me."

She raised a brow at that. "And where anyone can take you, I take it? I imagine not having a ship will force you to be at the mercy of the company you keep. Despite its reputation, you didn't stay in Nar Shaddaa for a short amount of time, so it was an enterprising residency at least? What was least attractive about that world on your account?"

"Pretty much. A ship of my own would be nice, but it's also a wad of money to keep it flying and I just haven't convinced myself to shell out the cash as of yet." Maybe in a few years? Who knew.

"But yeah, I mean there were a lot of opportunities on Nar Shaddaa, and a lot of ways to make some easy credits. There were always bounties to pick up after all. I suppose the worst part about it was the Hutts?" HE shook his head. "For the most part you just couldn't trust em. They would easily sell you out to make a credit." At least the ones he had met.

"But I understand that all commerce runs through the Hutts and as a result, all employment too. That must make it difficult to avoid them even if you wanted to. That sounds like it would be oppressive, gauging by their reputation. So long as you don't ruffle any tails, it shouldn't be an issue then?"