Hoth: Blood and Ice

"Yeah. I'm trying to go for less murder at the moment, but Draahg may be too much of a problem not to remove... if Baras doesn't get to him first."

"Yes. That's part of why I was so sure earlier. All of us have a piece of the puzzle. We won't solve it if people are hiding pieces."

"She's... still Vaylin. Not under Valkorion's thumb, didn't kill Senya, and not hostile to us at the mom. So... good enough."

"Still, I find it very unlikely that in the end she'll throw her lot with savages rather than her own kin."

She paused.

"What pieces do you think I can be hiding?"

"She killed her own father. Under the right circumstances, anything's possible. As to what pieces you could be holding... I don't know. I didn't know you knew anything about Draahg's nonsense, for instance. That's the problem - you don't know until you know."

"Fair enough. But if you want to ask me something, I will answer."

"I'm not familiar with as much going on outside the Vaylin situation as I'd like. The pirates and other issues. Do you have anything you could fill me in on in that regard?"

"My collaborators had a talk with one Captain Syrian today. W tried to make an arrangement, but they won't cooperate with us. More likely with the Zakuul. For the time being, they are likely to be sorting out their own power struggles, however, though I can't tell how brief or long that could be. The one among them called the Immortal has claimed primacy over pirate lords due to superior tech, the same that got us down from orbit, but I am unsure if he can hold it. Curiously, the tech hasn't been coming from the Eternal Empire, but probably from some secretive beholder species called the Gree, makers of our base droid. Those Gree have been testing our mettle to unknown ends. For instance, they dispatched us to dispose of a killer robot of their making some time ago."

She paused.

"If pirate tactics are about to change, we'll know that the leadership has changed and has probably shifted from reliance on the Gree to reliance on the Zakuul."

Ah, this was territory she's more familiar with. Only semi-known enemies with cheap tactics or advanced tech or some other advantage. That was practical and tangible, something that could be analyzed. Not big ideas that she was too stupid to have a valid opinion on, or deep emotional introspections that never led anywhere good.

"Interesting. Do you know if it's at all similar to the Eternal Empire's tech, or do the advancements focus on different areas? How'd the... uh... killer robot thing go?" The sound of more finger pads tapping against plate.

"I don't know much about Zakuul or Gree tech to compare. The latter seems distinct though. The killer robot was a bit anticlimactic even though it had felled Baesal Zyn. In the end, he got concurrently sliced into and slashed asunder by me and one Tethys Carrack. The droid that serves as the voice of the Gree was pleased with the outcome."