A Crimson Dawn

Jahn Harlan

Character
Independent
Rank
Citizen

Character Profile
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OOC
Ecclessey
Joined
Mar 2, 2020
Messages
18
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9
The kolto bath had done wonders to his skin, but not in a way that it glowed with health. The kolto had managed to not only heal whatever internal damage the crash had done, but also healed the scar tissue from third degree burns that had covered about sixty percent of his body. Jahn had been lucky he crashed during a broadcasted race and one onlooker knew to get him to the nearest emergency medical center. Too bad it was owned by the kriffing Hutts, though. They didn't care for Core World Insurance papers and as payment simply took the keys to Jahn's ship. Better to lose a ship than your life, right? Too bad it was a luxury barge.. it was probably worth about a dozen of these bacta treatments at least, but the Hutts... well, Jahn survived, that was the only important thing.

The Zeltron moaned as he swung his legs off the bed and sat up straight, "Oh my head-". The recovery had physically diminished him, making him skin over bones with some added metal pins in those bones to keep them in one piece. He was heavier than he had ever been and his muscles no longer had the strength to keep him going, at least not at the rate he was used to. "Where are you going?" a sleepy voice from behind him asked, but Jahn didn't even bother to turn around and look at the Twi'lek girl, "-need something to dull the pain," Jahn replied. He meant the headache, at least right now, but the Twi'lek had a different kind of pain in mind, "I can give Rico a call," she said as she turned under the covers and searched for her datapad, "He'll drop of some glitteryll in-"

Jahn stood up and waved her mute with his right hand, "My funds dried up." His pink skin was unnaturally pale and both his spine as the bolt attached to it were clearly visible, making his naked body a rather unappealing sight. The Twi'lek remained silent and Jahn felt her eyes burn into his back, "Mom cut me off," he explained. Mama Harlan had send someone down to Nar Shaddaa to pick her son up after his the video of his crash reached Zeltros, but when they discovered Jahn to be living in some spice den and emptying his accounts to the benefit of local spice dealers, she made the tough call to -finally- cut him off. The Twi'lek didn't seem to understand, "Don't worry, baby-" she said, "-you'll find a way to pay Rico, and me." the latter words trailed off and Jahn had almost forgotten that the girl hadn't just spend so much time with him because of the free spice... he was racking up quite the bill with her, too.

Seeking support against the wall to get him pants on, Jahn finally turned his head towards the Twi'lek and nodded in an attempt to reassure her that he'd get the credits. She smiled, typed something up on her datapad, no doubt an order with Rico, and lowered the covers to reveal parts the Hutts had invested quite a bit of their own credits in. She winked, "these will be waiting for you."


***​

Half an hour later the Zeltron native entered Rico's office and the tanned human grinned, "Jahn! You didn't have to come pick it up!" he opened his arms as if he was going in for a hug, but seeing as Jahn was one of his customers and lived in one of his filthy spice dens, he wasn't actually going to touch the Zeltron. "Pick what up?" Jahn asked, being able to guess what was coming next, "Veesa ordered a few vials of Glitterryl on your behalf, you didn't know?" Kriff.

"Truth is," Jahn began as he shook his head. His forehead was already covered in sweat and his arm was itchy in anticipation of another injection, but by some miracle he kept some clarity of mind. "She shouldn't have put in the order. I don't have the credits."

Rico frowned and shot a look at the large weequay standing in the corner, who moved towards the door and locked it. If it went ugly it was best to have it handled with some privacy. "That's too bad, Jahn-" now it was the human's turn to shake his head as he sat down behind his desk. "-because you already owe me. For yesterday's spice. For the bed. For the company. That's a few hundred credits you're in the bag already, what do you think, Miko, three- fourhundred?" he looked at the weequay as the latter moved up behind the frail Jahn, "Five-hundred and twenty-five credits, Rico sir."

Rico pretended to be surprised that his estimated was so much lower than Miko's, "Really?" his eyebrows were only raised for a second before lowering back into a pensive frown as he grabbed his datapad from the desk and started scrolling. "Miko's right. I was about to charge you what I charge my friends, but-" he paused and opened a drawer in his desk to reveal a blaster pistol, "-my friends don't rack up debt they can't pay."

Kriffing jokers, Jahn thought, but then he already felt himself slipping. A spice dependency was hell. Kriffing Hutts and their practice of injection Glitterryll into the patients of the medical centers. Kriffing perfect racket, Jahn would give them that. He fell for it like a sucker.

"M-maybe," the words were difficult to get passed his lips, "-I can pay in other ways?" Unbeknownst to him the weequay behind him flashed an eager smile, but Rico didn't seem impressed. "Look at you!" he laughed as Jahn suddenly realized that this was probably how they got Veesa as resident candy of that spice den. Paid for her parts, got her hooked on spice post surgery and then made her desperate enough.. "You're skin over bones! One thrust from Miko and you're dead!"

Jahn felt the heavy hand suddenly taking hold of his shoulder and the warm air of Miko's breath reaching his neck. Karking kriff this was bad! "I-I can drive," he argued, but Rico shook his head, "you can crash." but it did seem to make the human think and before Jahn knew it he told Miko to back down, "I suppose we can take a gamble on you."


***​

Acid rain was pouring down by the time Jahn reached the Blackwell office and the hand-me-down hood only barely protected him from the number three killer on the moon. He was clutching a security spike in his right hand while he was careful to keep his left in his pocket on account of it shaking too much due to withdrawal. "Kriffing Rico," the Zeltron lifted his head to look for camera's but it seemed Rico's intel was right; there were no camera's covering this particular door. No reason to call it off then..

Normally one would try to run away instead of robbing one of the galaxy's most powerful megacorps. Get off planet, get clean and then get back for the girl and live happily ever after. Too bad Jahn knew he didn't have it in him to get clean. He never had to work for anything in his life. This... this high-risk job would have him set for a week with only ten minutes of work.

He pushed the spike into the door's control socket and let the program do its work while he looked left and right into the streets. Empty. Not even Nar Shaddaa natives ventured out to the corporate offices at night while it was pouring acid rain. It took the spike twenty seconds, but the door opened and closed after the Zeltron dashed inside.

The interior was clean, white with blue accents, and polished. It stood in stark contrast with the rest of Nar Shaddaa and was everything Jahn remembered these megacorps to be. He took off his hood and cloak and tossed them on the floor near the door to be picked up on his way out. He didn't want to leave a trail of acid raindrops through the office on the chance that the patrolling guards would notice. Taking off his cloak revealed a new-looking black shoulderbag that contained the 'tools of the trade' for a scriptkiddie; a datapad and port scanner. Rico had given it to him in case he needed to get into the Blackwell data-tower to get the location of the chip he was meant to steal. A chip.. that was all. Steal a single data chip and he'd be fed, spiced and kriffed for a week. Sounded too good to be true. Apparently there was some kind of cybersecurity algorithm on it that would disrupt Crimson Dawn operations on FWA worlds.

Jahn made slow progress, stopping before every corner and waiting at least four seconds each time hoping not to hear a guard walking his way. He had made the -probably smart- decision to avoid the security room despite it being the most likely place he could find a workstation that was still logged into the Blackwell server. Instead he went up, taking the stairs and making sure to avoid any camera's along the way. All of it took an awful lot of time and that made it even more surprising when of all people he could encounter it was a Zeltron secretary that almost bumped into him. "Oh!" she exclaimed, startled and as she stepped back she realized that the pale badly dressed man in front of her definitely wasn't an colleague. "Who're you?" she asked, slightly alarmed, but intuitive that this fellow Zeltron wasn't going to hurt her. Jahn smiled awkwardly, "I'm not sure if I'm supposed to say."

It stayed silent for a moment and then she nodded, "deniability?" she asked and Jahn nodded, "something like that-" he grimaced, the focus on not getting caught had distracted him from the withdrawal symptoms and the shoulderstrap of his bag was starting to cut into his skin. "-but I'd appreciate it if-" she interrupted him by shaking her head, "I'd lose my job." To his regret she started backing away towards the closest intercom panel, cautious enough to not be too obvious, but obvious enough to force Jahn into an action he really didn't want to take. Suddenly dashing forward, he managed to tackle her to the floor before her hand reached the panel. "Get off of me!" she cried and dug her nails in Jahn's neck as his hands wrapped around the sides of her head, lifted it and smashed it against the cold hard floor. When the back of her head collided with the floor for the fourth time he noticed her grip on his throat getting weaker and by the seventh time her arms dropped to her side and he opened his eyes to see a pool of blood quickly spread. There was a thorough sadness dropping over Jahn as well as shock as he let go of her head and -with some difficulty- moved to sit up straight. "I'm sorry, but-" his voice died out as he realized that the only reason he had just killed this young Zeltron woman was because he wanted a hit of Glitterryll and another night with the Twi'lek prostitute. There weren't enough words in his native tongue to express the utter disgust he felt over what he had become, yet it still didn't trump his desperate need for another fix.

He took her keycard and let her body lie in the pool of blood. There was no point in hiding it if he couldn't immaculately clean the floor too. It took him only a minute to find her workstation and as suspected it was still logged into the Blackwell server, so Jahn put the bag on the desk, retrieved the port scanner and the datapad and went to work. Few minutes from now he'd know the location of the chip... hopefully no one else worked so late.

***​

It took him seven minutes to reach the sealed room that -according to internal messaging- housed the target chip. Once again a security spike made quick work of the door and Jahn found the chip the size of his little finger. "All this for you?" he muttered incredulously. The chip would help stop a multitude of crime on FWA worlds and most likely cause the imprisonment of several Crimson Dawn cells across the Core. Still, it was so small..

Pocketing it, the Zeltron turned around and headed straight for his exit, a feat that took him almost fifteen minutes. He passed his victim, but looked up and away as he did to avoid having to deal with the consequences later on. The guilt would disappear over this week's Glitterryl and the spice would most likely make him forget he had killed her anyway.. that was the only joy of being addicted to a memory-erasing drug.

Outside the acid rain greeted him again as if time there had frozen, ten minutes more and he was out of the district all together. Rico would reward him and maybe let him keep the datapad and scanner.

 
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