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 Posted: Wed Jul 12, 2017 2:11 pm
The Corruo - Holding Cell on the bridge Ensis
Ensis payed little attention to the reaction of the crew, at first she did not even notice that Cidreau remained standing, or had spoken. Something wasn't right, she concluded, while still trying to catch her breath. Her eyes traced down her own arm and despite her old wounds now being visible, she looked fairly normal once more. At least, like a healthy being somewhat should. However, she could not feel herself strengthening, nor gaining any energy from the Force.
She had managed to heal herself to a degree, but felt utterly spend with nothing left to give. Everything had been taken by Visum, every last reserve and spirit she had collected over the years. She had nothing but her own power now and she had very little of it left at the moment.
Her legs felt like they would give out at any moment and no amount of anger lend her the power to keep standing. She let herself drop on the small bench that was positioned in the back of the holding cell, clutching the edge with both hands to keep herself sitting up.
This really did have to end, but with her losing most of her power to Visum, she would be a poor match for both Neiva, Venia and who ever else had joined them. She needed someone powerful in the Force to rebuild her strength, to take their spirit from their body and use it for her own, much like she had done with with her former master and fellow students. Their power however, she no longer carried with her, it had all been spend on and taken by that blonde abomination calling herself Visum. Visum herself however, she was... peculiar. As if she was emptied somehow, already, yet still able to live. No, she wasn't option, at all. She would need someone like Sephis, if only that traitor were still here, or some other Force user who might be by her or himself.
Her eyes flickered of towards the shape close by to her, only now aware that someone hadn't moved and had spoken to her, the words slowly coming to her mind in realization.
"Admiral... Cidreau Rice." She repeated his title and name almost carefully, as if she might misspeak them. "Your voice..."
Ensis tried to stand up from the bench, but a sharp pain stung in every joint of her body, forcing her to remain seated as she winced.
"You're the one that took the shot." She spoke, matter of factly, pretending like everything was still fine. "At Visum." She shortly clarified, before continuing. "I thank you, Admiral... for your loyalty. At least I know now, you can be trusted unlike most others here... Please, make sure that none of Visum's crew leave here alive. I want them all executed, whether they surrendered or not. It can't be trusted to leave anyone alive, that is loyal to Venia."
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Posted: Wed Jul 12, 2017 2:35 pm
Naboo - Theed Elysia
Finishing her caf, she put the cup down and looked back to the datapad in front of her. There was plenty of information about Kal Rem, from about 6 years ago and prior, but nothing after that. Considering the difficulty on getting this bounty in a city like this, for a moment she considered trying to get payed simply by forwarding his location to the client source that posted the job.
She took the datapad of the table, and slid it back in her purse. Standing up from her seat, she glanced back in the direction of his house and with an affirmative nod to herself, she walked over in a quick stride, her heels tapping the pavement in rapid succession. The moment she stood infront of his door, she rang the comm unit to his apartment. She knew he wouldn't be home, but the few seconds she waited gave her the time she needed to study up his place closer. She pretended to look through the transparisteel window as if she was expecting someone to come up to the door, taking in as much of his place of habitat as she could.
She tapped the comm-unit a second time, then turned her back to the door, looking around to see if anyone seemed particularly interested in her being at his door, but for now she didn't notice anyone or anything out of the ordinary. Glancing back at the door one last time, she quickly proceeded to walk off in a huff, as if she were offended by the absence of the person living there.
Perhaps she really should just contact the Sith and hope they would pay her a little anyway, for disclosing his whereabouts. She'd have to think about it, for now it would have to wait as she had to bring her shipment back to her friend on Nar Shaddaa.
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Posted: Wed Jul 12, 2017 6:47 pm
Naboo - Theed
Liera hadn't chosen the Gungan district just for the view. Clustered and busy urbanity crowded thick and close to the river bend. Liera led Kal along a roadway busy with traffic. The pedestrian traffic was mostly office workers, clustered into cafes and restaurants along the stretch, crowding street-side tables beneath rows of towering neon signage. They were beneath soaring towers, higher still against the clear blue sky. They crossed at a pedestrian crossing, into the mouth of a huge, open mall flanked by holo-displays, the awning-style ceiling stretching over them many stories overhead. Everything in this place, Kal noted as they walked, was technological. Other regions of Theed had many stores with traditional clothes, ethnic restaurants, chic fashion, and ornaments. The Gungan district, it seemed, was all radical technology. Clothes stores sported displays of wild hair, neon colors and body piercings. Technology stores abounded. Display sets and vehicular upgrades, which accounted for a good half of the Alliance consumer technology market, Kal recalled hearing one economist saying... A particularly plush-looking shopfront advertised an upstairs surgery with "the latest advances in sensory enhancement technology," and another announced a special package deal to "get a visual and audio upgrade." Kal nodded at the frontage as they passed. Kal knew that legal professionals got such operations conducted and paid for by their employers.
"Sounds real quality..."
"Oh no," Liera said, unconcerned. "They're not too bad. Everyone here is registered, licensed and legal. They're just low-class establishments for people who can't afford better. You wouldn't catch a professional there, legal or otherwise."
Kal's own commanding officer had capabilities that would have gotten a public citizen arrested, but Kal also knew that not all public citizens abided by those restrictions. He had no doubt that the man walking beside him had numbered among them, before his Royal Security Forces days. Maybe that was part of the attraction of joining. For his comrade Amuzak, in particular, Kal could well guess.
"Where do the illegals go?" Kal asked.
"I'll show you."
Liera led him into a nondescript corridor off the main mall between two Gungan restaurants, and past a few small shops beyond. The corridor turned left at a decorated Gungan-style gateway, and an even more nondescript flight of stairs headed underground on the right. Liera led him down with the confident stride of someone who knew precisely where he was going, dark boots rattling a quick descent. A passageway opened to the right of the stairs, past the stairway's faded wooden railings. Kal stared about in astonishment as they reached the passage and kept walking. The passageway was gloomy, the lighting a poor industrial fluorescent, shadowy in patches. The floor was worn and untended alum, the walls little more than the alum base of the buildings above. Torn posters adorned the walls, new plastered over old. There were pictures advertising what might have been music, parties or other gatherings... It was hard to tell. The writing was mostly a combination of Gungan characters, Huttese, and something that Kal vaguely recognized as stylized Basic. The Force allowed him to intricately understand most languages, but reading them was another matter entirely. There were no doors along the immediate stretch ahead. There were only posters and the occasional graffiti.
"Wow... This is the first genuine dump I've seen since I've been in Theed," Kal remarked.
"You haven't seen anything, yet," Liera said, his long strides eating up distances quickly. "This is just the first level. The planners weren't as omnipotent as they like to pretend. There were lots of sites like this underground, intended for storage, parking underground manufacturing, whatever... As the city grew it became apparent that some of them weren't viable for their original designation. No one wanted them. The official real estate agencies wouldn't touch them with sanitary gloves. They got bought up and renovated by whatever groups could find a use for them, and being underground, they're not made accountable to the style police."
Sith or not, Kal's shorter legs had to hurry to keep up with Liera's. Kal reached out with extra sensory perception and sensed an awful amount of life down here. Kal gave Liera a sideways glance. Liera shrugged and reached into his right pants pocket. He withdrew the blaster Kal had spotted long before, and handed it to him. Kal took it wordlessly, withdrew it briefly from the tight holster, and gave it the usual inspection. Once finished he tucked the holster into thigh pocket, checking the safety a final time before pushing the blaster into his shoulder holster beneath his jacket. The passageway ended at an open doorway to the right, blocked only by a curtain of dangling beads. Liera brushed through it first. Kal followed to find himself on a walkway a level above the broad, open floor of what looked like a restaurant, more decorative than he'd have guessed from the passageway. There were suspended lights and decorations along the ceiling above a floor filled tables. A large, open bar rested along the far side, the wall behind stacked with a profusion of drinks. A stairway led down to the floor. Kal eyed the lights and holography rigging along the ceiling corners.
This place would come alive at night. Now, it was empty and echoing, table surfaces bare. A woman polished glasses and arranged drinks behind the bar. An astromech serving droid wheeled backward among the tables, polishing and preening. Kal kept an eye on the droid as they made the floor. It was not a common sight in Theed, most restaurants preferring living service to automated. The presence of it made Kal suspicious of all kinds of unsuspected internal networks. Droids of any kind could integrate into that. There was no telling what a few technical wizards could implant into its software. The woman behind the bear appeared to be jovial.
"Liera, what brings you down here at such an hour?"
"Hi, Demha," Liera said, walking over to lean upon the bar.
The bar was cut into a wave shape, stools along the bends. Kal remained behind by one of the tables, fully immersed in his senses and watching the short server-droid that wound its way among the tables. The air conditioning whirr was particularly loud... They were under a retail complex, two levels down. The air venting most likely wasn't even connected to the main system above. It would have been all separate, as would the power grid, and, of course, the communications network would be different. It was highly inefficient, unless someone was paranoid enough to want to limit all points of access, which explained the complicated way in which they took to get here, discouraging unwanted use. There was a certain smell in the air that caught his attention, as well. It was a self-recycling purifier from the air conditioner. He knew that smell very well from space stations and other self-contained facilities. Usually, the facilities making use of the purifier were military in nature. Now, there was this limited entry, single-passageway leading down to a restaurant, manned by a single sentry, plus a droid, while all the others who lived and worked down this way would surely be fast asleep from a long night's activity. He was beginning to form an idea of exactly what kind of place this was. The woman behind the bar was dark-skinned. She took a better look at Kal who took slow steps out from behind Liera, keeping the server-droid in view and seeking a better look at the room's sensors. He'd found four camera so far.
"I'm looking for Duonra," Liera said to the broad woman. "Is he around?"
"Oh, gee... I don't know... Lots of people looking for Duonra lately, you know...? Lots of people... I could check," the bartender explained. "Oh baby! Liera, who's your new partner...? My faith in you is restored, cute boy! Much better taste that other amphibious schutta..."
The bartender leaned heavily forward on the bar, the open top buttons of her blouse revealing copious amounts of cleavage. Curly, red hair draped over it. The bartender was grinning unpleasantly. Liera smiled broadly. Kal ignored them, having sensed something familiar. Kal tried to pin down the sensation, probe where it was coming from and receive a reply. Whoever's presence he was sensing, it was dark. Could it have been one of the Sith from the Imperial delegation venturing out of the embassy? Kal could think of several possibilities for people he might run into from his previous life. There were many life forms down here. Kal couldn't imagine they were all Sith. There was likely only one, and finding them would be like looking for a TIE fighter in a gas giant. This was a living warren of independent people, an underground haven. The bartender continued to watch Kal as he strolled, her eyes trailing up and down appreciatively. She seemed to be in much-aggrieved conversation with Liera now while Kal was distracted. Her hands were wide and imploring. Duonra, Liera had brief Kal in the remainder of their lunch, as a close associate of Ias Av's. He lived down here with his own little tribe of friends, fellow technicians the lot of them. They amassed considerable fortunes through legal work and paying taxes like any regular citizen, which provided an effective cover for all his other favorite activities. Kal felt a response to his senses. It was of lethal, merciless intent.
"They've been breached," Kal announced the instant he sensed it. "I'm sure this isn't the only way in. Someone's inside. I can't pin exactly where. They're hiding from me."
Liera pulled his blaster from the back of his waistband and leveled it at Demha's chest with the cool expression of a man about to pull the trigger with no remorse, at all. Kal calmly drew his own blaster and approached the server-droid. Demha stood frozen, eyes wide and previously expressive mouth firmly shut. Kal strode back over, grabbed her arm, and yanked her flat against the bar. With some assistance from the Force, he pulled over the bar counter.
"I see Imperial shields you got from the Black Sun don't seem to be working today, Demha," Liera said, tracking his blaster to follow Demha. "I just know you constantly check on your security..."
"How big's the leak?" Kal asked, now pointing his own blaster down at Demha.
"Could be really big... Not many people use Imperial infiltration tactics around here," Liera said. "Narrows down the options... Demha, talk."
"About what...?"
Kal gripped Demha, still lying on the floor, with a crippling Force Grip. He knew from experience that if he squeezed any of Demha's limbs any harder, her bones would start to break.
"As you probably just figured out, I'm a Sith," Kal told the bartender. "Talk or I'll cut your arms off. Who's in there and what are they after?"
"Crown Fours... They want Duonra," Demha gasped as she was released from the grip. "They think he helped Ias Av. Revenge, you know... Not real happy boys... Don't like to be screwed around..."
"Let's go," Liera said, moving out away from the bar.
Liera was headed across the floor to a pair of doors in the far restaurant wall... Kal saw the left door move, snapped his right arm out and fired into the door, sending the emerging tumbling forward, clutching his stomach. He tumbled slowly. Kal recognized the blaster that he was dropping. He looked at his long cloak and jacket. The gunman had wild hair. The blaster was a BlasTech E-11b rifle, a heavily modified and expensive version of the stock Imperial E-11, hardly befitting even Theed organized crime. He guessed what was coming after that. Liera's blaster was only coming up to meet the falling threat. Kal sprinted across the table-strewn floor, across the doorways as heavy slugthrower fire erupted, shredding tables, chairs and walls in a deafening roar as he reached the side wall at full acceleration.
"Liera, get down!" Kal shouted over the successive thudding of rounds.
Kal sprang up along the vertical wall, getting three meters up with some assistance from the Force. He held himself at the peak of his jump with the Force and moved himself slowly backward over the length of the room, angling for a shot from mid-air. More rounds struck the splintering doorway, already shredded from the other side. Then Kal bumped into the wall on the other side of the room. He slowly lowered himself down. The man he'd first shot was starting to get back up, apparently not fatally wounded. He was reaching for his weapon. Kal shoved the man back into the broken door, forcing him to take the brunt of the remaining onslaught. He noted the hardened blood pooling down beneath the wounded man, and pushed him through the broken door. With still no view of the second gunman, Kal used the first wounded one as a shield as he touched down on the floor again and sprang forward, sprinting toward the now-empty doorway. The firing had stopped and the second gunman was stepping out of the way of his levitated comrade just as Kal came through the doorway. A powerful Force Push sent the second gunman crunching into a wall. A left kick landed in the falling man's gut, causing him to pull up into the fetal position. Kal aimed his blaster at the second gunman and fired, for good measure. He put a shot into each gunman's skull, ceiling their fates. The corridor beyond was clear.
The doorway Kal had just come through was a nuisance, so he kicked it off its hinges, taking pieces of old wall with them. He spun, one-armed, back around the corner, in time to find Liera already going through the second doorway. Kal swore. He raced back through the doorway after Liera. Kal peeked his head out around a corner, to make sure it was clear before coming around it. An alarm sounded. The alarm would likely activate traps and security seals. Kal looked back one more time at the restaurant, which was now in ruins. The bartender was scrambling back behind the bar for cover, miraculously untouched amid the shattered kindling of chairs and tables. The huge swath of devastation included a vicious line of holes through decorations and paintings along the far wall. The server-droid wheeled gingerly through the ruin, a previously concealed grip reaching to remove bits of wreckage. The droid was not so smart, after all.
"I'm going after Duonra," Liera announced abruptly via Kal's holo-comm. "Scout out a different corridor."
"No way... You stay where you are and wait for me... You go in there uncovered against this lot, you'll get killed," Kal argued, unclipping the communicator from his belt loop.
Kal stepped quickly onward, still not having caught sight of Liera, but looking to follow after him.
"Kal, I can't wait," Liera said shortly. "You follow the corridor that should be coming up on your right... Get there fast and..."
"Liera, I'm ranking combat operator here," Kal protested. "I'm giving you an order, Liera!"
Kal received no response.
"Liera, you kriffing lunatic!" Kal said into his holo-comm.
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Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2017 3:09 pm
Corruo - Holding Cell on the Bridge
Cidreau remained kneeling, though he lifted his head.
"My Empress, what of the bridge crew?" Cidreau queried. "Does anyone remain that can be trusted to man the stations?"
Cidreau had no idea what happened to the bridge detail. He hadn't seen any Admirals among the assembly, least of all a Grand Admiral. Cidreau was sure Darth Stryfe wasn't present to assume command while Ensis recovered, either.
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Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2017 12:13 pm
Corruo - Holding Cell on the Bridge Ensis
Ensis looked passed the man, through the opening of the cell door to what little she could see was left of the bridge. For a moment her gaze was fixed with such intense, it was almost like a droid that had just shut down. Her memory replayed the moment Visum had come bursting onto the Bridge, blasting the door straight through the Bridge personnel closest to the entrance, her crew pouring in behind her and blasting at everything that moved.
"They're dead." She spoke bluntly. "Most likely, all of them."
Her eyes fell on the familiar form of a metallic cylinder on the floor, close to the entrance. Ensis' lightsaber, while it had been broken during battle, perhaps it was a good plan to repair it as soon as possible, especially as long as that vermin was still on board.
Her hand reached out to it, her mind focused on the object, as she tried to pull it towards her. The saber didn't move at all, earning a muttered curse from Ensis, whom in frustration tightened her hand in a fast and slammed her fist in the wall behind her.
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Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2017 12:27 pm
Naboo - Theed Elysia
Her hand hovered over the transmit button in her ship. For a moment she hesitated sending out the message to the Sith delegation of the Bounty Posting Centre. Then, in one swift motion she erased the entire message and turned in her chair, so her back was against the console.
Her dress lay crumpled on the floor, as she herself was once again dressed in her armor, making sure her gauntlets were on secure and functioning, right before she rose to her feet.
"I must be out of my mind..." She grumbled to herself, strapping on the jetpack to her back. "...if I'm going to let someone else in on my lucky find. Get yourself ready, pretty boy... you're going to be my prize catch of the day."
She put her helmet on over her head, and closed the hatch of her class 720 freighter. She re-configured all systems to track down Kal Rem, then prepared the ship for lift-off. Tonight was going to be a night to remember for all of Theed. She didn't really have plans to return to here anyway.
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Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2017 11:34 pm
Naboo - Theed
Kal moved off at a light, springing jog down the dark corridor, reluctant to leave those blasters behind, but with nothing to carry them in. Anyway, with Force-assisted aim, fire volume wasn't an imperative. The feedback he was getting from peoples minds in this basement area was a mess. It was difficult to get a clear feeling on anything. Some of these people, evidently, were Force-sensitive themselves and were reaching out to the Royal Security Forces interloper, telepathically probing him for some type of response. Kal winced as a wave of confusion swept over him. He just needed to find the possible points of entry for the infiltrators. The corridor ended in a T-junction, a broad alum hallway illuminated by flickering lights. Kal looked quickly each way, found it was empty and ran right. With corridor ambience like this, Kal reckoned this would be a cheap place to live in. There were locked doorways along the sides as Kal ran, residents typically asleep at this hour. If they weren't asleep, they wouldn't be coming out now, as Kal hard blaster fire echoing from where Agent Liera could have been... Kal couldn't tell where the fire was coming from. The sound rattled around the hallway.
Kal tried his communicator again and received no response from Liera. Kal took a hard left down a dingy, narrow corridor, edging sideways past big sewer pipes. His booted feet scuffed echoes off the walls. The air smelled different, and that told him something of the ventilation, too. He paused at the opening to the next, large hallway... The hallway stood empty and again flickering with light. Heavy doors lined the walls with irregularity, security keypads prominent by each. There were sounds of footsteps close by and voices. The ventilation continued to hum. Kal continued onward to the next corridor down. This must have been the main residential area. People lived here, isolated, cut off from the teeming masses of the city above. It was a gloomy existence, Kal registered vaguely beyond the overpowering adrenaline. He darted left, ran along several doorways and spotted a stairwell doorway. He grasped the handle and yanked, flattening himself to the wall alongside.
The door trap exploded, debris and dust erupting violently across the hallway. Kal ducked straight into it and rattled down the stairs beyond, figuring the device was a recent plant, again military-grade. The small size of it meant it was an anti-personnel explosive, probably a single thermal-detonator with a laser trigger on the door frame. It had been planted low on the opening side, as a standard operational booby trap to cover an exposed flank. The lower stairwell door had one, too, this time on Kal's side of the door... Kal took aim from the stairwell bend and fired. Everything vanished a in a flash of blinding debris through which he ran and dived, rolling out into the hallway beyond. He shot the gunman who was ten meters away, still flinching from the blast, then snap-rolled up into a spinning side kick on the poor, unfortunate soul who'd been sheltering beside the door frame. Kal Forced Pushed the second man through the air, making him bounce diagonally off the wall. The second man tumbled and bounced in a spinning flail of limbs. Kal rearranged his shoulder holster back into place as he resumed his fast jog. The man he'd pushed was still alive, thanks to body armor, and his kindly impulse to keep the Force application weak. The far end of the corridor would not have been beyond him.
The man Kal had shot was still alive, as well. He'd only shot him in the lower abdomen. Kal had seen the blaster bolt burn through, but a quick check with the Force indicated he was conscious. He had a shaved head but for a central strip of hair tied back into a long ponytail. His visor was askew. The man was also adorned with a black trench coat, rings and a few tattoos. Kal reckoned he was a mercenary, getting his jollies on some gunslinging fantasy. He had serious weapons. He wasn't brandishing a hold-out blaster, but he was likely receiving his credits from the Crown Four... It must have been a great life for the anti-socially inclined, utterly disconnected from the grander scheme of reality and consequences. Kal knew a bit about that life. He'd lived it before Naboo. Further, distant sounds echoed from the corridor beyond. He heard two blaster shots... Kal aimed his pistol straight ahead. With the flank penetrated, it would probably take the remainder another few seconds to respond... A rifle appeared around a corner ahead, scanning... Kal shot it and accelerated explosively as a grenade came around. It was an adhesive grenade. Kal was beyond its radius before it exploded, firing low as he hit the gunman's legs. Kal came back around the corner as fast as he could recover his momentum and spared a brief check of the downed man as he sprawled screaming and convulsing. There were five smoking blaster holes in his long pants, but Kal guessed the man had bacta patches on hand to treat them. He'd probably pass out from the pain, soon enough. Further progress was locked by a magnetically sealed door across the corridor. Kal smashed it off its hinges with a Force Push, not caring about the alarms it surely triggered throughout the complex, and proceeded around the twisted gate, noting the trailing of wires connecting to it.
Kal crouched low, blaster pistol leveled at the heavy security doorway ahead that terminated the corridor. An obvious camera hanged over the doorway, and the door itself was some type of heavy alloy. There were chip marks around the frame where it appeared to have been rigged into a standard door frame. Kal guessed it was locked tight like a bank vault. He shot the camera, which exploded in scattering fragments. Whoever was inside must have already known he was here. Subtelty was pointless, in Kal's eyes. He summoned a powerful Force Push and tried to remove the door from its hinges like the last one... The door shook, but remained where it stood. Kal tried again, mustering as powerful a push as he could. A small dent in the center of the door was the only result. Kal swore. He holstered his blaster pistol and ignited his lightsaber, carving a large hole for him to walk through. Whoever was on the other side would definitely know to expect him, now. Molten slag dripped to the floor next to Kal's feet. Kal went over the carve a second time, just to ensure the cut was clean. Kal suppressed a profane statement as the heat from the melting metal began to agitate his hands. Stepping to the side of the carved metal, Kal executed another Force Push with one hand, propelling the vandalized metal into the space on the other side. Strangely, there was no response to his breaking and entering. Kal pivoted on his heal to be in front of the entryway and sprang through the opening. Someone had beaten him inside. A broad living room spread to the left of the narrow entrance hall across which the damaged door slab was now obstructing.
A huge hole gaped in the living room's ceiling, a pile of melted alum scattered upon the alum floor. He recognized the lightsaber technique immediately. He'd just used it on the door. Someone had cut a clean hole through the alum ceiling. Kal edged forward, blaster pistol slowly pivoting, examining the hole through one side of his peripheral vision, noting the details. The partition to the second half of the room was low, the interior space spanning a broad alum floor. Low, dark furnishing sat in dim lighting. A big screen rested on a wall above the dining room table. For the lightsaber entry, there was very little damage, and the heavily secured residence maintained its intended feel of dark atmosphere. Underground technology specialists like it, Kal guessed, edging past the main partition into the broad living space, noting the holo-displays and trailing wires about the thick sofa. There was a broad bank of display screens surrounding twin chairs in the far corner by a fish tank. The floor beneath those units, Kal was with little surprise, was soaked with blood. Kal rounded the side of the display arrangements and found a body sprawled, blaster pistol limply in-hand. There was a lightsaber wound through the head and a jagged cut that must have been made with a solid blade across his neck.
This was a professional kill. The display screens were off, connecting cables ripped clear. The body had been pulled far enough aside to allow one or two people to sit in front of the terminals. They could access them, get what they'd come for and leave the way they'd come in, through the ceiling. Kal took a deep breath, blaster pistol unerringly sighted upon the darkened room. Kal knew exactly what this operation was. He'd done them himself before he was Sith. He could have been revisiting the scene of his own past history, only he'd have hoped to put a hole through this half-competent technician's shoulder, not his head. There was no need for it, normally. Someone was very strict on orders. Kal did a fast search of the apartment's other rooms, finding only empty, if moderately flashy, residential quarters. There were two bedrooms and a bathroom, all recently occupied and occasionally littered with empty cans. Datapads and technical manuals of varying descriptions were scattered about the place. He finished his search in time to hear a scuffing of sound. Then the sound came through the door. Kal reached out telepathically and immediately realized it was Liera. Liera wasn't bothering to slow down, evidently having guessed who'd caused the carnage outside. he came in, paused briefly to consider the scene in the living room, then came striding over to where Kal was re-examining the body by the terminal cluster. He was breathing hard, but by no means did he look exhausted.
Liera's right hand grasped his standard-issue RSF pistol, its muzzle glowing red hot. Liera looked surprised, but only a little. He paused at Kal's side to consider the sprawled body on the floor, and the precision of the lightsaber wound. He exhaled with a hard grimace. Kal moved to a covering position in the center of the room as Liera stepped over the body and began examining the monitors around the work station.
"This wasn't any bunch of amateur assassins," Kal told Liera without preamble. "This was professional combat operations... The only professional combat operations in Theed who aren't working for us just arrived in the Imperial Embassy.""
"Sith...? Yeah, I'll buy that," Liera replied. "How'd they get in and make a hole without triggering alarms?"
"Same way the Empire always does it... I think that's what I picked up before," Kal began. "It wasn't the Crown Four thugs, at all. It was the Sith. The Crown Four must have put people to cover their flanks, then discovered they'd been beaten here. I'd guess they've gone off to look for them."
"Yeah, well, they better hope they don't find them," Liera commented, peering behind one terminal unit to examine the damage. "This is all blasted... No prints or anything... Any more bodies...?"
"Nothing... If there was anyone here, the Sith took them with... This guy's probably only dead because he resisted and the mission briefing didn't include carrying injured targets," Kal said.
"Um... I reckon, instead, they got out early," Liera argued. "Someone tipped them off. There's no point in hostages. The data's in the mainframe. You get that and get out. Hostages just get in the way."
Liera straightened up, glancing about. He bit absently at his bottom lip. He looked halfway between boyish indecision and cool consideration. His dark-browed eyes narrowed with a certain intelligent intensity. Kal nodded, following the logic.
"What data?" Kal asked. "Ias Av's contacts, locations...?"
"Stang, if they got just a quarter of what these guys are invovled with, it'll be a lot more than just Ias Av," Liera answered, giving Kal a skeptical look. "That's Ul Oayaf. The Royal Advisory Bureau has been trying to get enough evidence to bust him for the last three years. He's got access formulations to parts of the network even Mihabri's not allowed to have. Assuming this was Imperial Sith, who's it likely to be and how many?"
Kal took a deep breath. He looked down at the sprawled corpse before them, vision fixed upon the precise hole in the head. He visualized the number of troops required to infiltrate, cover, execute and fade... He paused, garnering a wary look from Liera. He didn't blame Liera for being nervous.
"I'd reckon a single tactical section, five Sith, probably acolytes and lords," Kal explained. "They'll be decked out for black ops... Real silent stuff, nothing dramatic... Their intelligence will be excellent, to get in like this without detection."
"Yeah, well, we got a lot of Imperial contacts after your arrival, but we were never going to get all of them..."
Kal didn't like this. Liera performed a brief inspection of his blaster, handling it with an easy familiarity that raised Kal's suspicion of Liera's previous associations even further. Liera shook his head, pausing beside the pile of alum beneath the ceiling hole, eyeing the melting rim cautiously. He gave Kal a quick, distracted look and started to climb. He jumped and caught a handful of rim one-handed.
"...Let's go," Liera groaned, hauling himself up. "We might still get something if we move fast."
"This job's a half-hour old, Liera," Kal said as Liera disappeared out of sight. "They'll have gotten out within five minutes the way these guys operate..."
"Uh-uh... These guys have at least two other contacts down here in the warren," Liera argued from up above. "If they got in this quietly, they'll have searched those places, too... You coming?"
Kal followed Liera up, restraining his frustration with an effort. He found himself in an upper apartment room, after a Force Leap, with similar furnishings and lived-in appearance. He had no time to check, and Liera was already headed out the front door, which was closed. Evidently, the Sith had come in quietly through that entry way. Liera paused to let Kal edge into the hallway. Liera moved to press forward, when Kal exited... Kal froze him with Force Stasis, levitated and pivoted him around. Liera blinked at Kal in dazed alarm as Kal fixed him with a hard stare. Telepathy was probably smarter in the hallways. Kal wanted to make an audible point, though.
"You didn't say anything about other sites," Kal whispered harshly. "What else haven't you told me?"
"Kal, look, this is very important..."
"Do you know why I was given fairly free reign to operate as I saw fit within the Empire?" Kal asked. "The older Darths knew I'd kill them if they messed around with my life, and they knew it was unlikely I'd challenge them undisturbed. Do you think I should be left in the dark?"
Liera blinked again, somewhat stunned at the threat. Kal was not always calm and collected in the RSF. Kal kept his stare dangerously direct. Liera took a hurried breath. He nodded, briefly.
"Kal, this isn't a Sith operation," Liera began. "There are civilian concerns here and you don't know all the angles..."
"You don't kriffing tell me anything," Kal snapped. "Who are these other people and why didn't you tell me about them before?"
"Kal, they're just more contacts of Ias Av's," Liera explained. "I didn't think it'd be that important..."
"For Skywalker's sake! Liera, when you put me into a firefight, you tell me everything! When it comes to survival, I'm not negotiable," Kal delcared. "You got me? Now, where are these people, and how can we get there?"
Liera wasn't frightened. Kal dougted he could ever bluff Liera into thinking he might actually hurt him. Liera was only wary. It was about time he was. Kal released him from the Force Stasis.
"You take the northern passage up ahead," Liera suggested. "I'll get the other.. These Sith... Could they get into your mind?"
Imperial training, Sith techniques... Kal made a face. Liera tugged his shirt back into place as if nothing had happened. His eyes flashed with an unexpected smile.
"It's possible," Kal admitted. "I'll keep my mind shielded... I'll meet you at yours. I move faster. Liera, if you get in their way, surrender... They'll know we're here now. They'll know it's you, and they're not going to want to kill RSF operatives. You can't shoot your way out. It's just not possible, right?"
"I'm learning," Liera said, leaving at a jog.
Their paths diverged at the first cross-corridor, Liera's headed left while Kal bolted ahead. His vision scanned for any signs of telltale movement. Kal ducked and scanned at the next T-junction, finding only another empty length of dingy corridor... Sounds echoed. Kal could hear soft footsteps and voices from several hallways down.
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Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2017 9:00 pm
Corruo - Holding Cell on the Brdige
Cidreau kept his gaze leveled at Ensis. His eyes did not stray from hers when she extended her hand.
"It must have been a swift assault, Your Highness," Cidreau remarked, probing for more detail. "The Corruo had ceased all contact with nearby ships shortly before the officers were summoned to the bridge. No distress calls had been sent out."
Cidreau thought other things, like maybe there were distress calls because Visum had help on the inside before her assault. The atmosphere in the hangar bay, when he arrived, was indicative of one expecting an intrusion. Cidreau had thought it was to keep him out. Perhaps it had been to keep people in. With no communications about hostile boarders to any nearby fleet ships, Visum had either managed to get to the bridge undetected, a feat not yet accomplished by any hostile boarding action, or defectors jamming the Corruo's communication signals. She had to have had some help.
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Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2017 11:31 pm
Naboo - Theed
Surely, some of the locals had awoken to the commotion and braved the outside. Kal resolved to factor unarmed civilians into his anticipation, pushed off of a wall and kept running. He took a right through a wide doorway, scarred alum on his left. He'd stepped into an open space littered with empty crates and boxes. He guessed it was a warehouse space, ignoring the darting slither of a fanned rawl across the corridor before him. The air smelt stale in this underground corridor. More of the lights were out in this section, plunging sections of the echoing hallway into shadow. There was another cross-corridor ahead, the air smelling different as the ventilation currents changed, and a big, ragged hole sat in a wall on Kal's left... He stopped, his back to the right-side wall at the T-junction. Something wasn't right. This hallway was getting increasingly dank and crumbly. There must have been dirt between here and the surface. That would explain the damp. Theed have been largely built on a rain-soaked river delta, was chronically wet. The soil gathered a lot of moisture and care was taken in building plans to avoid too much underground construction as it would displace the sponge-like qualities and cause the rivers to overflow. Kal reached out with the Force and felt that Agent Liera was putting a gap between them.
Kal ran, fast, trusting the Force to guide him to back to Agent Liera. Empty corridors echoed, and Kal kept his foot steps light, springing on his toes with the reflex of long operational practice. He happened upon an apartment. There was no security barrier for it. The door had been smashed open. The contents of the apartment were strewn about the inside, but after a quick inspection Kal determined that there were no bodies this time. He darted back out and on down the adjoining corridor, an open elevator shaft upon his left. The doors to the elevator had been forced open. Carbon scoring marked the alum at the floor in front of it. He glanced cautiously inside and upwards, blaster pistol ready... The shaft zoomed high and empty. There was no physical obstruction blocking the way. Kal holstered his blaster, took a moment to tense the leg muscles, and leaped. A telekinetic push with the Force propelled him up two levels and he grasped onto the track that the lift would have gripped had it been present here. He had barely begun to pry open the doors to the elevator shaft at this level when he felt a strong, telepathic probe reaching out to him from somewhere distant. Kal immediately recognized the methodology of the contact. Much like how he did it when acting aggressively, it was blunt, brutish and intended as a warning. A Sith was cautioning him from following. He latched onto the sensation, trying to link minds with whoever it was. The Sith resisted, trying to cloud Kal's mind and dimish his or her own presence with the Force...
At that moment, the track to which Kal clung activated abruptly. Kal forced the doors open telekinetically and kicked off of the track. He landed into an open hallway, people in formal robes making way for the man diving out of the empty elevator shaft. It was an abrupt shock of alternative locations, the surrounding suddenly bright and gleamingly corporate. He drew his blaster and then set off running at a loose gait. An alarm went off. Surely, security guards would be on their way to investigate the elevator disturbance. Kal reached out with his sense again and found that the Sith that had contacted him had mostly done a poor job of concealing themselves. Security guards rounded the corner up ahead. It was a pair of suited guards armed with stun batons. Kal kept his blaster lowered and moved forward at a walk, confusing the guards' minds with his own telepathy.
'You don't need to see my identification," Kal said softly as he passed them.
Confused and dazed, the guards stared forward for a second, looked back at Kal, made eye-contact with each other and then moved forward with a shrug, offering no questions. The wall to Kal's right was all transparent, overlooking the road outside. Glass doors opened onto an open-air cafe overlooking the street below... He darted through, skipping quickly between tables and startled diners toward the far right corner of the balcony. He grasped the railings and looked out toward the river. He could see a four-lane road, traffic banked at the lights of an intersection. There were crowded sidewalks and pedestrians walking in the dark. It was a typical scene in the busy 'Gungan District.' Another block beyond, the street ended in greenery and a walkway skirted the broad expanse of river. Kal reached out towards the Sith again. There was a brief disorientation of distorted vision as the Sith tried to counteract his actions. Then came a clear fix on the Imperial illegally operating in Theed. Kal could place him as being between here and the river, moving slowly. Kal frowned, staring at the crowd of people up ahead. There, in the throng, was a man in a heavy jacket, pockets on his sleeves and pants. That looked very much like his old attire as an apprentice. He had black skin, dark sunglasses in the night time, and his hands were in his pockets.
This Sith was a cocky sleemo. If Kal could detect him, surely any other Force-sensitive in the area could have, as well. Certain criminal types, especially when occasionally featuring fallen or ostracized Jedi, would have picked up on it just as Kal had... A waiter approached Kal, surely concerned by the consternation of the other patrons at Kal's rude arrival. Kal hurdled the railing before the waiter could consider asking something. There were yells of desperate alarm from behind Kal as he fell... The broad awning covering the building's entrance spread directly below at a downward slope. Kal hit it feet and backside first, sliding to the rim before leaping off with a kick. He aimed for an empty space of sidewalk he'd spotted on the way down, hit and rolled. Then he set off running as pedestrians around leaped or stopped, startled at the man who from from the sky. Kal ran comfortably fast, weaving between pedestrians and certain their numbers would block him from view at this distance... Ahead, the lights on the cross street were changing and he putt on an extra burst of speed, edging onto the road to avoid collisions... Traffic swerved to avoid him. He caught a glimpse of the man up ahead as he neared the cross-street before the river-side park, strolling apparently unawares... A speeder leaped the grass-verged curb opposite with a hiss of repulsorlift.
Men leaped out of the speeder. Kal's target vanished with explosive speed into the doorway of a corner building, the five men from the speeder pouring after him, obviously armed beneath their expensive jackets. Kal was already moving faster in long, Force-assisted leaps, registering a lot of tense emotion from his target's occupied building. This was not the Royal Security Forces that Kal was about to barge in on. Kal reckoned he'd just found the Crown Four in person, this time without their violent and well-armed mercenaries. The man they were after was a fool for reaching out to Kal in the way he did... It could have been that the Sith in question was a mere acolyte, or new in Theed. He slammed the wooden door open with the Force into an entry foyer, finding two employees sprawled upon an open nightclub floor... Holo-displays and pazaak tables littered a space towards the back. Kal could hear blaster fire coming from upstairs.
"RSF! Which way'd they go?" Kal yelled at three startled employees working on the dance floor lighting system.
There was a stunned silence, shattered by three tough and tattooed Weequay who rushed from a side doorway, blocking his path. They looked menacing. Kal registered the sprawl of tattoos across thick-muscled arms, connected that with the blaster fire that they weren't reacting to, and realized to his extreme displeasure that this was a Crown Four establishment. These guys looked like they were Black Sun, a powerful and infamous crime syndicate... Kal recalled they were one group out of six, despite the name.
"Boska! This is private property!" one of the Weequays declared, pointing toward the exit. "The RSF isn't allowed here! Boska!"
Blaster fire erupted from above again. Heads snapped around and Kal moved. One grabbed at him and he jabbed them in the stomach. He Force Pushed the second back into the doorway he came out of and shot the third one in the thigh. He raced through the side door that he pushed the second Weequay through and ascended up a stair well before he could recover. He reached out with the Force again, searching for the Sith's location. The Sith was on Kal's level. There were other life forms on this level, too. There was more blaster fire ahead. Corridor walls and doorways fled past him as he took the corners bouncing off the suavely deep green walls. He could hear only too well that some of that blaster fire was automatic, and from what he could sense with the Force, Kal guessed it wasn't coming from the Black Sun. Whoever it was, they were coming up a stairwell down the next corridor... The stairwell loomed ahead, and Kal slid feet-first along the shiny floor surface... He saw the dark figure appearing at the top of the stairwell and yelled "RSF!" He smacked the side of the corridor with his feet and braced. Covering blaster fire erupted as the gunman ducked back, Kal ignoring the ill-aimed fire that smacked the walls about him.
Kal fired ten bolts back into the stairwell, hitting banisters and railings. Kal knew he hit nothing, even as the wood splintered, but hoped to scare the Sith back down the stairs... He remembered, vaguely, that he wasn't supposed to kill him. Something dark lobbed over the stairwell as he lay braced on one side... He tensed a leg and kicked off in barely a split second, hurling himself back down the corridor with the Force, rolling into a ball. Kal uncoiled as the grenade exploded behind him with a thump that rattled the walls, spreading chemical adhesive all about. He knew foot steps would be coming even before he heard them, rolled quickly to a crouch by the wall in barely enough time for a black figure to fly fast by the corridor mouth... Kal snapped fire with a one-handed reflex, knowing even then that he'd scored multiple hits. The lack of impact holes in the far wall confirmed it. He scampered through the adhesive sludge, pressed his back to the left wall and leaned right... Even without seeing, Kal knew there was no body lying there, having heard the foot steps continue onward at a frantic pace. They may have been wearing body armor, but Kal had aimed for the legs. This Sith was fast, and well armed. It gave him a bad feeling. There were yells and foot steps from back down the stairwell.
Pursuers were climbing up the stairwell. Kal set off in fast pursuit himself, not wanting Black Sun enforcers to try tackling this particular gunman, even if they were only criminals. He skidded to a halt at the next corridor, snapping a fast look around...
"Freeze!"
"I'm RSF!" Kal yelled back at the voice from the stairwell. "Stay back and I'll get him!"
"RSF, my kriffing exhaust!"
Kal spun about the corner in time to avoid a volley of blaster fire that burned the plastered walls. He'd be spaced if he was going to tolerate that poodoo behind him... He had enough to worry about in front. He snapped a quick look around the corner, blaster out left-handed and fired two fast shots into the adhesive... Multiple screams and yells of "my kriffing arm!" emanated from behind Kal as he moved off at speed. Kal was content that pursuit would now pause for a long moment. The gunman was not hard to follow, even if he was doing a good job at now clouding Kal's senses. Kal slid up against a door that hung partly off its hinges. He moved past it, ducked through a bathroom to the frightened yells of several sheltering patrons in the toilet stalls, and skidded for acceleration. Kal smacked off the right wall to enter sideways into the next upward stairwell. He leaped up onto the adjoining flight to save time, sprang through that doorway and shoved off hard left, leaping for a flying kick at the end doorway. The door burst open as Kal flew foot first and dropping, blaster out. The blow hit him unexpectedly in midair from the side, and he snapped a right fist back into hard contact, losing balance to thump the ground shoulder first. He was fighting in a storeroom, with boxes and junk surrounding him. A man had waited for him by the doorway.
Kal had lost his weapon. Kal had thumped his attacker in the head, hard. He tackled him over backward now, locking his blaster arm and fighting for leverage even as they somersaulted, Kal's victim re-gripping to counter. Suddenly, the Sith found a hold, twisted and kicked with force that flung Kal hard into the nearby wall. His grip on the Sith's jacket held and spun him hard about to a crouch. Kal came off the wall and spun for a full-power kick that smashed the Sith flying sideways, hammering awkwardly off of a wall with force enough to fracture stylish brickwork. Then the Sith fell out of sight behind some boxes. Kal grabbed up his fallen blaster. He looked about to see if the Sith had dropped his own.
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Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2017 2:57 pm
Naboo - Theed
"Looking for this...?"
Sephis had stood up from behind the boxes while Eccen had been peering around. His stance was awkward. He grit his teeth in an ugly smile as he tried to withstand the pain from the blaster fire the Echani cyborg had burned him with earlier. He'd managed to diffuse most of the projectiles, but they'd still left smoking black marks on his skin. He was aiming his own B-55 blaster, a repeating weapon, dead center at Eccen's chest. Eccen stared at Sephis' blaster weapon. It occurred to Sephis, that despite the fact that he was face-to-face with an old acquaintance, Eccen might not recognize the former Grand Admiral. As a Gurlanin, Sephis Stryfe had the option of appearing as just about any person or species he pleased. He generally took on a human form when he was not in his natural one, but never as a naval officer has he assumed this form, thus Kal would certainly not recognize him. His pigment changed, shifting from very dark to pale. Short blonde hair grew out from Sephis' previously bald head. He grew about three inches. His eyes remained unchanged, orange and penetrating, like Eccen's, yet not artificial. Sephis limped around the boxes and stepped before Eccen, not four meters distant. Sephis smiled further, in an ugly manner
"Kal Rem, do you remember me...?"
Sephis was more than amused. He was genuinely pleased to see the young Darth.
"I have heard so much about your activities since the Brood invasion," Sephis continued on. "This is amazing. I had expected we would meet again, but not so soon. This must be the will of the Force."
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Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2017 7:11 pm
Naboo - Theed
"I remember you!" Kal shouted with incredulity.
Kal was in no mood for pleasantries with someone pointing a blaster at him. Past the incredulity, he suffered a cold tingle up his spine. Sephis Stryfe was a Sith now? No, he was Force-sensitive but *never* that powerful. Kal shook his head in amazement.
"What are you, of all people, doing in Theed?" Kal queried.
The cold tingle got worse. Stryfe appeared very pleased, for someone he'd hit with blaster fire and hit full-force into a wall. There was commotion downstairs. People were moving and shouting. Kal could hear police and RSF sirens. Somewhere downstairs, someone shouted.
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Posted: Fri Jul 21, 2017 6:41 pm
Naboo - Theed
Sephis sighed. He could hear foot steps from somewhere down the corridors. He backed away, headed for the rear window across the store room, which was within leaping distance of a road, an escape for a Force-user. Eccen tensed before him.
"Patience... I must go," Sephis advised. "Don't look for terrorists, Kal. They aren't important. The game is elsewhere. I apologize."
As soon as Sephis was out that window, he knew Eccen would be after him. He shot Eccen twice in the stomach.
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Posted: Fri Jul 21, 2017 11:19 pm
Naboo - Theed
Kal wasn't expecting Stryfe to open fire. He doubled over with painful force... He could hear a window shatter. An repeating blaster clattered to the floor in front of him. Kal watched the Grand Admiral spring onto the windowsill and leap into the night. Several long seconds later, Kal made to move for his blaster, and realized that it kriffing hurt. Gasping, he fell to one knee, holding his mid-section. Stryfe was a sleemo. Stryfe was an utter, kriffing sleemo. A downward glance showed two small holes in Kal's shirt, and a light, creeping red wetness. His stomach muscles refused to untense, cramped tight and painful. The cramp spread into his back, and down through his hips... There were more voices, getting closer, and he staggered back to his feet, desperately ignoring the pain as he staggered toward his blaster, lying on the floor amid stacks of crates. He squatted, wincing in pain, picked up the pistol, and checked it reflexively.
"Oh schutta... I'm going to get you, you little sleemo," Kal muttered to empty air as the pain got worse. "I'm really going to get you..."
Everything on the blaster appeared to work. Every movement hurt. Stabs of pain shot through Kal's stomach... The adrenaline was wearing off, and when that happened, the pain was more visceral. Foot steps rushed the doorway. Kal trained his blaster on the opening.
"RSF! If I see any weapons, I'll shoot first this time!" Kal yelled.
"This is our kriffing premisis, you schutta!" came the harsh reply as the resounding foot steps stopped prudently short. "Private property... Do you royal morons even know what that means?"
"Civil emergency! Do you know what that means?" Kal retorted loudly enough to carry well beyond the immediate corridor. "It means you point a blaster at me, and I'll blow your kriffing head off!"
"Kal, do you read?" Agent Liera's voice resonated through his communicator. What's your location?"
Liera sounded out of breath. It was impossible he hadn't realized he'd gone the wrong way, since the shooting at this Crown Four establishment had been close-by. Kal could sense a mass of people descending on his building. The RSF was probably erecting security barriers. Kal brought his communicator up to his mouth with one hand, keeping his blaster pistol trained on the door with the other.
"Liera, I've got a stand-off here," Kal reported. "I hope you've been following what's going on..."
"How do we know you're even RSF?" the voice from the corridor inquired. "Where'd the guy go? How do we know you're not a fraud? You could be working with him!"
"Ten minutes, Kal... I'm nearly there," Agent Liera assured Kal.
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Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2017 11:39 am
The Corruo - The Bridge Ensis
"There are traitors on board... I am sure of it."
Though it was in answer of Cidreau's speculation, her attention did not seem to be on him, speaking the words mostly in conclusion to herself. Her hands moved down to her left boot, unclasping it, then doing the same for the other. Slipping off both, she left them on the floor as she slowly stood up once more. Without the heels, her footing was a lot more stable and within a few seconds of assuring herself she wouldn't fall over, she continued to walk bear foot out of the holding cell and back on the Bridge itself.
"I want to know what ship they came in on..." She spoke, expecting Cidreau to be right behind her. "Then, I want to know exactly who they spoke to, who gave them clearance to enter... and allowed them to leave the hangar to the Bridge without sending notification."
It was clear that whoever was responsible, would not live long enough to apologize. For as long as she had been Empress, she had never once punished anyone with death for failure, but this time, she would tear them apart. Violently.
She was about to pick up her lightsaber, when one of the commucation officer's suddenly stood before her. He looked rather nervous and seemed to swallow as their eyes locked.
"M-m'am! There has been report that, er... someone accessed a Bounty Listing from our office, for I.D. confirmation. It's an older listing from 6 years prior, but... Darth Isani at the time, put it on high priority, so I thought I'd report it. It concerns a renegade Sith named Kal Rem, he seems to have been spotted on Naboo."
The man had Ensis' full attention. The location of another Sith, one that already had no affiliation anymore with the Empire before she became the Empress. The chance he'd have help would be very little. He would make the perfect candidate for her to drain him of his power, before Venia's Sith would strike again.
"And on Naboo where, exactly?" Ensis asked, suddenly seeming more revitalized than she had mere seconds ago, purely from the joy and adrenaline from this most lucky moment. She dismissed that thought, quickly, there was no such thing as luck. She had survived an attack on her life and now this, the Force was on her side.
"The city of Theed, m'am. I have the exact location of where he was spotted for I.D. on file."
"Good, you are dismissed. Send all data to my personal fighter."
"Yes m'am!"
As the officer left, Ensis turned around swiftly to face Cidreau.
"I want the hangar on lockdown, no ship wil go in or out except for mine, or with my explicit permission." She ordered, picking up what remained of her lightsaber off the floor in between sentences. "Admiral, can you get the Corruo to fly us to Naboo? A solution to our little Sith problem has come on our path..."
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Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2017 12:07 pm
Naboo - Theed Elysia
There were other ships in the area surrounding the building. She stayed her distance for a while, until she had located his exact location. Turning off the thermal view on her helmet, Elysia returned her visor to back to regular vision, instead of the zoom function she had been using to find him.
Keeping the hatch of her ship open, she returned to her cockpit and sat down in the chair, turning the ship towards her target. For a moment she hovered in place, until she took in a deep breath, then pushed her thrusters forward.
The ship flew straight towards the RFS personal already at location. Her hand moved over to a panel on her right, after setting new auto-pilot commands, she pulled the lever on the panel and released the steering stick with her other hand.
Turning on her chair, she activated the ship's weapons and shields, which in turn turned off the ship's cloaking abilities, making it's presence known to all authorities in the vicinity. Right after, two missiles fired from her ship, straight at the floor above Kal Rem.
The moment the missiles hit the target, and blew open the building above her target, Elysia was already standing back on the loading hatch, waiting to be just near the building, before jumping off.
As the moment hit, she let go of two flash grenades to mask her descent, then dropped out of her own ship. As Elysia fell, the two grenades exploded, blinding anyone that would look in her direction. She looked up and watched her ship move over the building, the class 720 freighter would continue to go at top speed and leave the planet atmosphere with a short jump through lightspeed, then re-enter the atmosphere in a different location and return to her landing pad. Her auto-turret would hopefully deter any pursuers, but this would mean that she would have about 3 and a half hours to go, before she could re-board her ship with her Bounty. That's a long time to get caught, then again, the Sith did pay a lot for this one to make it worth the try.
Her jetpack burst flames from the back as it turned on, landing her safely through the hole she blew in the wall. Kneeling down, she immediately turned on the blowtorch on her gauntlet and began to cut through the floor. If she was correct, Kal Rem would be right below her. She would have to make this swiftly.
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