Ask Nar Shaddaa Breaking and Entering

[Nick Shaw]

Nick found himself all over the place. Most of his career had been spent on Coruscant but since his promotion he had branching out more and more. That didn't mean he liked the Outer Rim any more than he did before, in fact, he hated it this far from the core. Being a cop was already uncomfortably dangerous, but here it was doubly so.

He had finished his business and was about to make his way back to Coruscant when he got the dispatch, somewhat surprised he was familiar with the location. He had been to Dr. Elin's lab before and had encountered the woman several times before.

The lab had supposedly been broken into. While one of the local Rangers would likely be a much better fit for the case, there was no one else. If anything, Nick could gather the initial information and pass it off to someone more knowledgeable of the crime landscape here.

He made his way to the lab, exhaling as he took in the scene. Even in the lobby it was clear the place had been ransacked.various papers were thrown everywhere, furniture was toppled over. If anything, it seemed over the top, like someone was trying to hide what they were looking for. Though it was possible the Doctor had just pissed off the wrong thug..

There was no one in the lobby so he made his way further into the lab, stepping through a glass door that had been broken out. "Hello?" He called out, boots crunching on the glass.

 

[Riley Elin]

“Let me GO!” Nick would hear a screech and realize it came from Riley. She was putting a fight in a room further down the hall and to the right. Her work had been locked away and the men that raided this place weren’t too thrilled about that.

“Tell us where the samples are, bitch!” An audible smack echoed, followed by a pained grunt from Riley. She spat out blood, and she was restrained by a man while the other proceeded to hit her. They looked like hired thugs, and their patience was running thin. They had come here under someone’s orders to collect the samples she had that would work towards a cure for Frenzy.

Riley’s fellow scientists had been murdered, but she was left alive only because she had hidden the samples. She was no hero, and she would break and hand the vials over if the torment continued. She was bleeding from her mouth and her face was swollen and bruised.

“I...don’t know what you’re talking about-”

Smack!

“That’s a kriffing lie so drop the act.”

 

[Nick Shaw]

Nick was about to call out again when he heard the woman yell out. He froze, pressing himself against a wall as he drew his blaster. He peeked around a corner, seeing the bodies of two people wearing lab coats laying on the ground. He crouched down and reached for his comm, calling for backup but there was no answer. There were no reliable local security forces on the planet or at least ones that weren't bought and paid for by the various criminal enterprises than littered the planet.

He moved forward, staying low, stopping at each of the bodies, and pressing fingers to their necks. There was no pulse, but judging by the still smoldering blaster wounds, they hadn't been dead long. His dispatch had been for a break-in that had already occurred, not one in progress. Various possibilities ran through his head, but he forced himself to move as the crack of another blow striking flesh echoed down the hall. Moving silently down the hallway, another blow sounded as he reached the door

The woman was clearly Dr. Elin, and he heard at least two other voices in the room where the conflict was taking place. With his heart pounding, he leaned around the corner with a raised blaster at the two criminals inside. "Sector Rangers! Step away from the woman!" he shouted. The two thugs had set aside their weapons as they had continued beating Riley. The one furthest from Riley moved first, lunging for the blaster on a table. Nick took aim at the diving man and fired his blaster, striking the man as he fell the ground.

 

[Riley Elin]

The thugs got the hint almost at once when Nick fired a shot that he meant business. The man holding onto Riley slammed her to the ground as he fumbled to get at his weapon, slow enough for Nick to fire another shot. It was very clear none of them had been prepared for any interruptions, not on a planet like Nar Shaddaa.

“Ain’t no Rangers out here!” One of the men gruffly called out to Nick, grabbing a nearby syringe and shooting it at Nick like a dart. It would almost be comical if not for the immediate danger of the situation. Sector Rangers had little to no jurisdiction out here, and Nick would have to act quick to diffuse the situation before the thugs called for backup.

Riley was scrambling to get her bearings, glancing up to spot Nick. How did he know to be here?! The Ranger had a penchant for showing up at the right time - he had, after all, been the person to save her from the lab the first time they met.

In an effort to make herself useful, she grabbed a vial from her labcoat and shattered it. She used a glass shard to jam into the side of one of the thug’s legs, causing him to cry out in pain and miss the shot he had fired at Nick.

Riley didn’t stop to see what happened to the thug, quickly crawling on all fours to get away from the chaos. She ducked behind a nearby filing cabinet, strongly beginning to rethink her line of profession.

 

[Nick Shaw]

As soon as Riley was thrown to the ground, it gave Nick a clear shot at the thug who was quickly put down. The action gave the final attacker time to throw a syringe of some sort at Nick. These obviously weren't the ordinary street thugs, and Nick had expected such a deft movement.

The needle plunged into his shoulder as he ducked for cover. He muttered out several curses as he thought about the viruses the Doctor was known to working on. As Nick reemerged, the remaining man shot at him but missed when Riley stabbed him in the leg with a broken glass bottle.

The man cried out as he looked down, looking for the woman who was scrambling away. Nick stepped out from cover, needle still in his arm, and fired three more shots. Each slammed into the man before he fell to the ground.

Nick quickly scanned the room, not seeing anyone else before looking up and down the hallway, not seeing anyone else in the immediate area which didn't mean they were out of danger yet but at least had a few minutes. "Did you see anyone else?" he asked Riley as he pulled the needle out of his arm. "And how kriffed am I?" he said holding up the needle. He thought he felt his arm tingling, but hoped it was just an active imagination.