AC:K - Cracks in the Ceiling

[Kalladrrl]

A bass-toned and fairly expressively vocabulated voice rumbled through earpieces as the War Master’s speech was rendered in Basic, his words direct and terse but not unkind as he laid out objectives. This operation was too sensitive for holographic communication.

“Your target is a moderately successful spice mine. The mining process over centuries has weakened the upper levels of many of the mines of Kessel, like an eroding tooth succumbing to decay. Deploy your payloads on marked supports, detonate them and disappear in the resulting confusion as they seek to contain the threat to their profits. They’ll scurry like a mound of ants trodden on by a bantha.”

A dark chuckle that rippled with rich depth, natural in contrast to the stiff vocabulation, closed the transmission.

@Dread @Narsi

 

[The Eternal (Vex)]

Vex arrived in some regular looking work clothing wrapped over her armor, and a backpack filled with explosives to set. She wouldn't seem out of place in the outfit; she'd even gotten a little dirty to blend in more. And of course, she'd smothered her Force signature. There probably wasn't that many people here who could sense signatures but it was better to be safe than sorry, she thought.

Her task was simple. Place the explosives at key points, press the trigger and bail. This was what? The fourth time she'd been on a mission like this? It was always risky, but she was confident that their disguises would help them through it.

This time she wasn't with Kalla. Instead, Narri had accompanied her. While Vex hadn't personally worked with the woman before, she'd heard tails of the womans abilities. Many people sung her praise so Vex was happy enough to have Narri along.

As she entered the mine she passed some workers, giving them a short nod confidently. A few nodded back, the rest grunted or ignored her. Vex didn't mind; she'd probably be grumpy too if she worked in this place.

@Narsi

 

[Narri Emrour]

Another day another mission, or at least that's what most might've said. For Narri however this was actually the first one she'd gone on in over a month, and maybe only the third one done happily. And why wouldn't she be happy...it was KESSEL, and a spice mine at that. Sure she was there on business, very destructive business, but she'd be having some fun while she was here too. Already there was a small sack of polstine spice hidden by her waist, a freshly stolen reward for mission completion. Of course, she had all her usual gear as well, armor and weapons ready for the potential conflict. They were there to blow the place after all, for which she had a small satchel of bombs, which some people would certainly disapprove of.

To help conceal her identity, not that her armor really painted her as anything specific, she wore a dusty old cloak and some rags over it all. It was the kind of thing anyone might wear, and allowed her to blend in well with the other nobodies. A quick suppression of her force presence and the disguise was complete, just another worker in the mines. Her partner was similarly disguised, the red headed Sith walking in a few meters in front of her. Her name was Vex, a very powerful Sith involved with the Black Hand, or so she'd heard. Whatever she was, Narri had heard enough good things to not be concerned about incompetence, and that as all that mattered.

They were entering the mine proper now, passing a few of the workers along the way. They seemed desolate, rightfully so probably. In her research into the glories of spice Narri had found the production process to be...very hardcore, and decidedly unenjoyable to be involved in. She slouched a bit, trying to project a similar air of grumpy anger whilst looking about. Hopefully this slight distance between them would both prevent people from thinking they were together, and give Narri forewarning about potential traps or attacks. Of course she had to watch her own back too, something she was paying acute attention to. @Dread

 

[The Eternal (Vex)]

Blending in and concealing her identity simultaneously, Vex had no trouble reaching the first location to place some explosives. Unfortunately, there was a group of nine men near it. It looked like they were on lunch or slacking off. The Sith could come back to the spot later, but it'd be a waste of time and there were methods to get rid of people without making a scene.

Vex walked in front of the group, coughing before speaking up, "Excuse me." All the mens eyes went to her, though mostly with annoyed looks. One of them went to answer but Vex cut him off, "You will get back to work."

All of them paused for a handful of heartbeats before replying, "We will get back to work." Vex pointed further up the mine. "Further towards the entrance." They all nodded again. "Further up the mine." With that, the men went back to work.

Once they were all gone and no one was nearby to see them, Vex went to work; placing the first few explosives by a pillar and burying them in the dirt so no one would stumbled across them if they came back. There was another pillar nearby that Narri needed to place some of her explosive by; Vex assumed the woman would do so, so once she finished her own task she stood up and continued her journey.

@Narsi

 

[Narri Emrour]

Narri stopped and watched for a moment as Vex approached the first site, and all the people around it. She was ready and waiting in case they took issue with the other Sith and attacked. Not that Vex would need help, not with a group of unarmed miners like this. But they WERE partners for this task and you never knew what kind of surprises the galaxy had in store. They spoke briefly, a slight tension evident, and after a slight pause the group began to move away. Narri waited until they were mostly out of sight before nodding to Vex and heading for a nearby pillar.

Looking around carefully, she saw nothing and crouched near the support. Still nothing, she reach into her satchel and pulled out one of her explosives. Thankful for those holo-tube videos that made this much easier, Narri quickly went to work, trying to be as quick as possible. Unfortunately luck was not quite with her today, as when she was almost done she heard something approaching. Hurriedly, she checked the last wire and shoved a few rocks on top of it, turning to find another miner striding up to her. No...that wasn't a miner...it was a fat little human in a dusty suit, with a clipboard and hardhat too.

The little toad came right at her, without a hint of fear, and immediately started invading her personal space. It was amusing, considering he only came up to her chin, when he thrust his stomach and chin out in an attempt to belly bump her backwards. An effort that succeeded as Narri had no intentions of making such contact and quickly backpedaled. The official followed, shouting now.....which was less amusing, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING THERE MINER? BACK TO WORK RIGHT NOW!" Oh right...she looked like a worker, and now people were looking at them...Narri swore under her breath and cut the man off with quiet placating words. "Yes sir, right away. I'm heading there right now, just a quick break is all. I'm very sorry." The quick and easy acceptance brought the man up short, staring at her with surprise in his beady eyes before simply nodding. That was all Narri needed, setting off after Vex towards the next point. She sighed when the sound of footsteps followed her...glancing back quickly to find the man following.

Well that was just great, now they'd have to deal with that in addition to the mission. Well....this was a mine, it would have a few quiet areas to deal with this kind of issue.
@Dread

 

[The Eternal (Vex)]

Vex was a little annoyed when a toad-thing interrupted Narri, though luckily he hadn't seen her bury the bomb. He yelled at her to get to work and Narri played her part without drawing too much attention her way. Vex was already up ahead and assumed Narri would follow her, while keeping a safe distance between them.

Hopefully, Vex thought, they could lure the little thing into a dark corner or something similar. Thinking about it, she remembered there was a sharp turn soon to get to the last area. Right after the turn would probably be the perfect place to do the deed. She could probably do away with him there without attracting anymore attention, assuming no one was near it.

Turning the corner just out of the toads sight, she took out her lightsaber and aimed it towards the perfect spot. Once Narri passed Vex, Vex placed her thumb over the trigger. With her senses out, she knew it was safe to attempt this; no one would see or hear her unless the toad managed to scream before the deed was done.

The moment the toad turned the corner, Vex ignited her crimson saber right into his ugly head. He was small enough that she basically took out his entire face with the beam. He plopped to the ground at the same time as she unignited her saber. For some reason his burnt flesh smelled like something cooked for her in a five star restaurant during her vacation with Kalla, which caused her to grimace. It disturbed her somewhat, but she needed to focus. Putting away her saber, she wrapped the Force around the toad and tossed it into a barrel of spice. Shoving it's body so it sunk as deep as possible. If the barrel survived the explosions, she doubted the spice heads would care about a dead body being in their stash.

They reached the last spot with little trouble, placing the bombs throughout several spots now though still burying them enough to keep them out of peoples sights. Once done, she nodded towards Narri's direction to let her knew she was done. Without a single word she walked back towards the entrance. If no one stopped her or Narri, Vex would leave the mine and return to her ship. She'd given Narri the trigger to set off the bombs so she didn't have to worry about that part, assuming Narri safely set off the bombs and escaped.

/exit thread

 

[Narri Emrour]

Narri followed after Vex passively towards the last area, carefully monitoring the fool behind her. He was getting annoyed again that she hadn't started working yet, she could tell by the way his face had visibly reddened each time she looked back. Either that or he was just getting tired from the walk, he certainly didn't look to be in very good shape. Whichever it was, Narri was getting worried he'd start shouting again and draw a crowd, when they were so close tooo.

Suddenly though...everything seemed clear, as Vex turned a corner and the sound of her footsteps stopped. The moment had arrived then, Narri kept her composure and continued walking, acting as if nothing had changed. Sure enough, as Narri went around the corner she found Vex waiting off to the side, lightsaber in hand. Narri gave her a smirk and kept walking, looking about to ensure they were alone. Yup they were, and the foolish toad was still following right behind her, all eager to enforce his pathetic authority on an employee.

It was over in an instant, the hiss of a lightsaber heralding the briefest gurgle, and then an odd scent filled the air. Narri turned back, finding Vex stuffing the corpse into a drum of spice. That was a shame, to ruin a perfectly good barrel of goodness, though it was about to be caught in an explosion anyway. Together they continued on to the last spot and placed their explosives, thankfully devoid of any more encounters like the last. Well that was that then...now they just had to detonate them, an honor that belonged to Narri this time. She returned Vex's nod and headed over to another barrel of spice, taking another small sack out of her pocket. Five minutes later she was following in the other Sith's footsteps back out of the mine. Again nobody stopped her, though she could hear conversation asking about where a supervisor was. Ah well, they wouldn't be worried about that for much longer.

She waited until she was back on the freighter she'd chartered, telling the pilot to take off and hover above the mine for a moment. Then, when she had an excellent vantage point, her hand sought out the trigger and pushed the button. It started as a simple rumble, the briefest flash of light visible from above, and then the rumble grew into roar as the mine began to collapse in on itself. It was surprisingly quick, and even more surprisingly boring to watch, but it was done in the end. Signaling to the pilot, Narri pulled out her reward and took a seat.

Happy time
@Dread @Rexx
/end thead