[Chase]

Back in the gym Chase was on the treadmill again, hitting a soft but steady pace for endurance. Grabbing the bottle of water she drank as much as she washed her face with quick, brushing it off her face from the chin up and off with a flick past her hair. Pilot fatigues showing the sweat from the exertion already.

[Garth Wayne]

Even at this hour, the heat was stifling. Naked from the waist up, Garth was pounding heavily into a boxing bag, obviously working out frustrations of some sot or another. It was obvious from the discarded water bottles in his immediate area that he'd been at this for a while.

Pausing to drain another bottle, he glanced around and saw Chase running again. Girl likes her cardio He thought to himself as he offered a nod of acknowledgement in her direction.

[Chase]

Chase, raising a half filled bottle in her hand, wave back as she kept on running. They weren't exactly the closest of positions so she returned her focus to running for a bit. Keeping it going hard, not wanting to stop, couldn't stop and wouldn't stop. Better than yelling across the gym for the moment.

[Garth Wayne]

Watching as one of the droids buzzed about picking up the water bottles for them to be refilled and reused, Garth wandered over a little closer to his Lieutenant and laid his workout towel on the leg press.

"How's the campaign been treatin' ya so far Tenant?" He asked as he tweaked the digital hydraulic resistance up to his first workout marker and settled into position.

[Chase]

"War's hell," Chase said with a directness and false seriousness that only lasted for a few seconds before she cracked a grin, "but I'm still here and I'm still doing the good work of the Republic day in and day out. Nice, sometimes, when you find a few others that are willing to put in their sweat for it but seems to be in short supply nowadays."

[Garth Wayne]

"Apart from...the obvious few..." Garth grunts as he powers through leg day . "Most people...see 'emselves as victims...need savin more than...bein saviours."

The resistance eases as he finishes a set and mentslly counts out his cooldown.

"We need better recruitment."

[Chase]

"Maybe," Chase took a drink, "but it's the people up top that have been really getting to me. War with the Empire still has 'em thinking in terms of what we can or can't afford. Forgetting what we're supposed to be to these people, forgetting that we're supposed to be swinging in and saving the day rather than worrying about the end dime. Talkin' big about how we can't do this, or can't do that, and damn it all it feels like I'm the only one in the forsaken room that's actually willing to fight for these people."

[Garth Wayne]

"You know ya ain't. Just that them up high has their own orders, from politicos and such what 'ave no idea what really goes on."

Garth sets his legs, ready to start his next set.

"Jus' remember there's still some of us, who still cling to the reasons we joined up. I jus' go where ahm told, an if my superior orders me to form up..." He leaves the rest unspoken, fairly sire Chase gets the message.

[Chase]

Chase shook her head, "Yea, something like that." Jogging for a few moments in silence she came back.

"By the way, tossed your name up to that Jedi... uh, Tethys I think her name was. Seems to have an op in the works and might be needin' a pilot. Can't very well fight the war by myself so I put your name up for grabs, she seemed to agree on the thought that you'd be a good one to rely on. Be ready to have something come of that 's all I'm sayin'."

[Garth Wayne]

Ties everything together huh Garth thinks to himself as he recalls a conversation with Aran a few weeks ago.

"No prob, she seems like a good 'un. Had a bit of a chat with her yesterday. Prob'ly be a few days 'fore she recovers from that shoulder wound. So what the bigwigs got you doing latrly anyway? Recon? Escorts? Bombing raids?"

[Chase]

"Lotta... running around, today at least," Chase said, casting a glance off elsewhere... inside, for a moment, "think I have one more thing left to do. Don't you mind that though, Republic knows what Vando Nee did and so do a good deal of anyone else who matters. Did what I could to make sure that bastard doesn't escape from the justice that's due him."

"What kinda fight did your Jedi friend get into though? Talked to her before, didn't seem the.. well, fighty type. Seemed too Jedi to me but then what do I know?"

[Garth Wayne]

"Was something about rescuing hostages the Mando were using as target practice. It were an obvious trap, but what else could they do. We ARE the good guys after all."

"Just the sorta fight ya'd expect a Jedi to find huh?"

[Chase]

Chase grimaced a bit, but hid that behind another sip of water from the bottle, "Guess we have your friend to thank for when we didn't show up the other day. Helped keep some people alive that might notta been. And yea, just like a Jedi I guess," Chase finished with a smirk.

[Garth Wayne]

"Permission ta speak freely Tenant?" Garth asks as he tries to put his thoughts in order.

[Chase]

"Not if it's something I don't wanna hear," Chase kept a good straight face. Still, she relented, "Hasn't stopped you before. Go on."

[Garth Wayne]

"Ya doin' ok? After that resistance douchebag, and what happened to that l'il boy."

There's genuine concern in Garth's voice. "Ya know there weren't nothing else ya could've done."

[Chase]

"I think this is the point where this conversation ends," Chase said, looking directly ahead as she bounced from the motion of the treadmill.

[Garth Wayne]

Chase bounced, and Garth's gaze never left her eyes. It must have been serious.

"Then ya may as well put ano'er fucking rip on my file Tenant, sir. Of course that'd need explanation and ah'd have to explain what happened out there. Assaulting our allies would get you grounded faster than a jack rabbit's twitchin' hind legs. So ye can talk to the brass, all formal like, or ya can talk to me. Your call, sir."

[Chase]

Chase seemed to stop, only the meeting of the eyes and the tenseness of that gaze and the cold anger that hid behind her eyes made the moment any more special than someone just turning off a treadmill and stepping off it backwards. Never did she take her eyes off him as she took her towel and started to wipe down her neck and face as she approached him.

"Let me tell you something young buck, cause here's what you need to know. First, don't you ever even think about threatening me again. You do that and you'll regret it I promise you that. Just because you think you've got the upper hand here you think you can push me around? Nah, I've been pushing back against bigger and scarier guys than you my whole damn life. You ain't gonna scare me kid. Second, Vando Nee is a traitor and a criminal in the eyes of the Republic. Sending his own damn people in with bombs strapped to their chests, pathetic waste of a man and the Republic knows it. You tell that story, they've heard it before, all I did was handle a man who'd just admitted to terrorism, I put a damned terrorist up against a table."

"And, by the way, it's already been put down in my report just like that, just like it was. So do me a favor, young buck, next time you think about trying to pull something like this? Make sure your kriffen gun is loaded first, you got me?"

Chase balled up her towel and tossed it down at Garth's feet, "Good."

As soon as the towel left her hand Chase was moving toward the showers.

[Garth Wayne]

"Ah may not have your rank Tenant," Garth snarls as he paces after her, unaware for now of her intended destination.

"But ah'll be damned if ah let that stop me lookin' out fer a friend. Ah ain't the most well spoken around here, sometimes mah mouth opens 'fore mah brain's engaged. Ah just, ah know what it's like t' keep that stuff bottled up and if y'll excuse the language yer' a hard bitch t' get through to."

"It's part of why ah look up to y' as a pilot. Ah know why y' acted like y' did, and if you hadn't ah might've." Garth reaches out and claps a hand on Chase's shoulder. "Mah approach may've been wrong, but m' concern is real. Just....just don't think yer alone m'kay?"

[Chase]

Chase looked to him with the same look from before, one might have suspected she was about to give him a bit more but... "Yea, I know, Garth." Chase's voice came to be more neutral than the flame of anger it had been before. Taking a deep breath.

"Now.." she glanced back toward where she had been going, "mind if I go take a shower now?"

[Garth Wayne]

Glancing up, Garth noticed the signs for the women's shower and took an instinctive step back.

With a gleam of humour in his eye, Garth leans in and sniffs Chase before taking another few steps back.

"Might be best fer all our sakes that ah let ya do just that Tenant."

[Chase]

Chase walked off toward the shower and turned back to point at Garth as she said, "You're on thin ice! Thin kriffen ice!"

[Garth Wayne]

"No other way to live Tenant Chase, push it to the edge 'member." He quips over his shoulder as he heads back to the punching bag to resume his workout.