Open I Need Your Clothes, Your Boots, And Your Starfighter

[Naxa]

Like the male with his book, N4-X4 kept the rifle and punch cards on their own person. But they were still willing to load other valuables onto the hovercart. There were a few more antique weapons that the droid could probably purchase on the black market but having them here was far easier than spending credits or tracking them down elsewhere. A micro-missile gun, disruptor pistol, a lightfoil, a set of kyuzo petar and a deucalian bowcaster were placed on the hover cart to name a few.

The droid's white photoreceptors turned to the fellow thief after hearing the compliment. "As are you." They said, returning the nod similarly. The organic was not manufactured like a droid, but their experiences had evidently conditioned them in a way that allowed them to work efficiently. By code or by training, they worked well.

The droid took a small detour before joining the other two thieves. They found the room where the CCTV footage was being kept and recorded. Unhooking a thermal detonator from their belt they tossed it into the room on a delay before walking away to rejoin their cohorts. The explosion behind them would certify that all records of their presence had been wiped from the penthouse. They did not have any more time to waste on the bodies of the other droids so would have to risk them having a storage backup in their bodies.

With their haul ready for transport, they took the turbo lift to the ship waiting for them. But there was more than that ahead. The two droids were dispatched quickly enough by N4-X4's partners, saving them the trouble of dismantling more. Their guard remained up just in case there were more defenses lying in wait. But none revealed themselves, yet.

"Advisement: I will pilot." The droid volunteered their services as they entered the parked ship. Their programming included an expansive list of ships along with the ability to adapt to a variety of new vessels. But they expected a forty seven percent chance that the Zabrak would protest. The droid did not want to keep the vessel for themselves. N4-X4 calculated they had better reflexes than the woman, at least for now. Maybe with a few years of experience that could change. If the lead-thief disagreed then the BX unit would accept the decision and act as co-pilot.

@Myra @Dread

 

[Vebria Dun]

Vebria pushed the hovercart to the ship and pulled out her datapad. Moments later, the ramp would lower and extend, allowing them to board. She pushed the hovercart with their ill-gotten gains into the hold of the ship and deactivated the repulsors. The Zabrak nodded at the droid's request. "Fine by me. Let me run through the systems while it starts up."

Vebria sat down in the co-pilot's seat and started the ignition sequence. The Aggressor-Class Assault Fighter roared to life and she keyed up the necessary systems, plugging her datapad into an access port. A litany of files and images spread across the screen. "This has some major upgrades. Thrust de-limiter, military-grade maneuvering jets..." Her voice trailed off as she squinted at the screen. "No way this has..." The Zabrak looked up from the screen, checking the controls. "Ah, here." She grinned. "Cloaking device. Once the ship is airborne, we might be able to use that to get away. There's a cave on the planet surface that's large enough to hide this in if need be, I've already scoped it out. I'll add it to the nav." She deftly keyed in some coordinates and a blip appeared, substantially far away from the city. "Or if we're able, we can leave the planet entirely. I know a place on Nar Shaddaa we can use to land." Vebria began typing again, the hologram map zooming out and placing another blip on Nar Shaddaa.

She scrolled through the datapad a few more times, nodding. She turned to the droid. "I've discovered an AI in the ship's systems. I might need a moment to crack it. Will you be able to run hyperspace calculations if we need them while you're piloting?"

 

[Cerberus]

His partners went to the cockpit, while Cerberus chose to stay in the cargo hold alone. He was certain his partners could get the ship going without him, and here he could be relatively free to do what he needed to keep the ship protected during take off, if needed.

In the cargo hold, as well, was the hovercart with the Sith tomes. His crimson eyes hovered over them. Abruptly without warning Cerberus began to feel his focus slip away again, as the tomes, including the one on his belt, continued to whisper to him. This time however the alluring voices began to grow in volume in his head. For a brief moment in time, Cerberus felt lulled by the whispers. Nearly nodding off to sleep he stumbled forward, falling to his knees, where he managed to get ahold of himself for long enough to punch the floor hard. "GAH," left his lips from between clenched teeth, as the sudden sharp pain from the punch shot up his arm, forcing him to wake up.

This, whatever it was, was badly timed because suddenly the sound of starfighters approaching made him realise why he was sensing danger. Maybe the thieves triggered an alarm, maybe the owner had tried to contact his security droids, or some other thieves were attacking; whatever it was, these starfighters were after them. What was worse, it dawned on him that it was his religious duty to protect these tomes.

Promptly Cerberus looked through a nearby back window and reached out with his left hand and with the Force. He wrapped the Force around a small part of the closest starfighter, the best he could do with his current power. The temperature around him dropped significantly as he did; icy cold air began to crawl along the ship floor and an inky unnatural yellow colour flickered in his eyes when he yanked the starfighter part violently to the side with the Force. This caused the starfighter to sharply veer off course and violently and abruptly collide into the side of the building, exploding in an awesome show of light, fire and ship parts.


@Darasuum @Myra

 

[Naxa]

The droid began working on starting the Aggressor up and even going so far as to slice into the ship at his own controls. The two of them working together would make quick work of any counter measures the ship possessed. Just as the Zabrak reported, so too did Naxa discovered the extent of the ship's modifications. The stygium cloaking and the A.I. were the most notable discoveries for the droid but it said nothing and focused on preparing the ship for take off. N4-X4 had been looking into finding a consistent source of stygium or hybridium for their own purposes so this discovery peaked their interest.

"I am not an astromech but I will do my best. The navicomputer will suffice. I will take us to Nar Shaddaa." The smuggler's moon was beyond the local authority's jurisdiction and it also distanced them from the scene of the crime. The cloaking system was all well and good but the longer they stayed on the planet the more likely they would encounter another obstacle to overcome. The droid had a few major coordinates committed to its memory banks and the smuggler's moon was one of them. The navicomputer would do the rest of the work. If the A.I. was 'convinced' to assist then it would make the process much easier as it essentially acted as the ship's astromech.

"Laser cannon controls located. Orienting to aft. I suggest you begin returning fire until we have cloaked." The droid oriented the shields to also defend against incoming laser cannon fire. Whether it was the female or male, the droid did not care. One enemy contact dissappeared from their sensors though the BX had not expected it to be gone so quickly. It did not bother wondering and brought the ship into a steep climb to head towards the outer edges of the atmosphere and in turn, the gravity well of the planet. In that time they would make hyperspace calculations to the Y'Toub system where both Nal Hutta and Nar Shaddaa resided.

"Cloaking." After breaching the atmosphere the droid depowered the laser cannon, not wanting it to reveal their location or draw any unnecessary additional power. The expanse of stars and blackness of space ahead of them would be a perfect backdrop for the Aggressor as it cloaked itself from both vision and sensors. N4-X4 adjusted course to prevent any desperate attempts to shoot at nothing from the chasing starfighters before reorienting themselves for an appropriate hyperspace jump. In a matter of minutes they would safely be entering the blue tunnel of hyperspace.


@Myra @Dread

 

[Vebria Dun]

Vebria nodded, setting about bypassing the AI's voice lock. In a matter of minutes, it had been reinitialized and ready to go. She set it to begin hyperspace calculations while she took control of the cannons. They weren't far from the penthouse, but were already being tailed by a small squad of fighters. The Zabrak took aim and blasted a barrage of bolts through one starfighter's cockpit, and took out another's wing. She readjusted, aiming for the new group coming from the left, and began firing. Before she was able to take them out, the ship hit the atmosphere, and the droid cloaked the ship and depowered unnecessary systems.

Vebria waited for the ship to hit hyperspace before standing up. "Good flying, droid. I'm going to explore the ship a bit." She walked off towards the cargo hold, tapping the butt of her rifle on panels as she went. In the cargo hold, she checked the hovercart to make sure the vase was still intact. She could easily sell that to a back alley collector in Nar Shaddaa. The armored male was there as well, looking at the books Vebria assumed were his spoils. "Books, huh? Let me guess, Sith tomes?" She continued tapping on panels.

@Dread @Darasuum

 

[Cerberus]

A heaviness all but took over his body after doing away with the lead starfighter. He'd used quite a lot of Force quickly but mostly he was still fighting against the lull of the whispers. It didn't seem to matter much in their escape, however, as his partners managed to get the ship off ground and safely into hyperspace.

He managed to get himself to his feet once the ship was safely in hyperspace. First thing he did was walk to the hovercart, where he grabbed a tome. His crimson eyes began to gaze around the cover of the tome. Thoughts on its beauty and religious value were interrupted, unfortunately, and it was once again because of this zabrak girl.

This was not ideal with everything going on; Cerberus was not exactly sure how much control of himself he had right now, and despite not liking the girl, there was no reason to hurt her. He also had no desire to engage the droid either, especially since he'd gained some respect for it. All of this and the woman's tendency to talk a lot prompted his growled and annoyed answer, "I have no interest in your incessant prattling."

Cerberus grabbed up the last few tomes and turned, walking towards the zabrak but planning to pass her to find a room in the ship. "I need to meditate and study, do not bother me," he said plainly, uncaringly to an extent, but not including the fact that he did not trust himself right now. He wasn't concerned with where the ship planned to land either, anywhere was fine, so he didn’t bother asking despite how long the trip might be.

@Darasuum @Myra

 

[Naxa]

"Good shooting, organic. Understood." The deep droid voice replied to the woman. The droid of course had flown well. It was in their programming and adapted skills. A robotic confidence was ever present in their demeanor. Nobody wanted a droid that was unsure of themselves. It would be like a stove that only might cook your food properly or a washing machine that maybe would set your clothes on fire. Naxa always did what they were supposed to do, with some minor incalculable chance of phenomena.

The Hunter remained at the controls of the modified Aggressor and continued to run diagnostics. The ship's shields had taken some hits but were already recharging and would be at full strength before it reached Nar Shaddaa. The BX commando communicated with the ship's A.I. and analyzed the remaining systems.

The droid took note of its transponder codes, navicomputer records, energy signature, range of operation and more. There was a chance that N4-X4 would cross paths with the Zabrak again and not on friendly terms so they wanted to have all the intelligence possible. Chances high it would be difficult to detect the assault starfighter but the droid wanted to make sure it could recognize the ship for what it was if it ever became an issue.

N4-X4 left no trace of their meddling. A routine diagnostic was all that would appear on the ship's logs. The rest of the trip would go smoothly provided the other passengers did not cause a commotion. Everyone had earned their rewards and would go about their business richer for it. The machine remained on guard for the duration of the travel in case any of their companions felt like becoming overly opportunistic but otherwise remained in the cockpit.

End Thread​

@Myra @Dread