Burning Bridges

[Kae'Leigh Tameris]

[fancybox2]

NAR SHADDAA
0600 Hours

Nar Shaddaa is where this all began, and it will all end if we don't complicate the Empire's efforts to restore Network Access! Go the Smuggler's Moon and collapse routes, corridors, and tunnels leading to Network Access! It may not stop them from repairing the HoloNet, but it will considerably slow their efforts, if not outright delay them!

Event Link ; Dice Rolled ; Deadline: Feb 26th
@EmilyHuene ; @Critas [/fancybox2]

One good thing about planet-wide blockades was that if you already lived on the planet....you didn't need to sneak across. Was it good luck or bad luck that Kae'Leigh had been taking refuge in her new Jedi mentor's home for the past month? Not that it mattered either way because her old apartment was only a few levels away. Even still, her luck remained to be seen. For now it was good luck because it meant Kae'Leigh and Prax could do what needed to be done quicker. It was bad, because if anything went wrong...they were stuck here.

They'd gotten word of the Galactic Alliance's plan to take Nar Shaddaa and Kae'Leigh was on a short list of slicers recruited to make sure everything went according to plan. Through the incursion on the Smuggler's Moon, Network Access—the hub controlling the HoloNet for the entirety of Imperial Hutta—was knocked out. Its backup generators were destroyed. Its main generators overloaded. And then Network Access itself was sliced to pieces for good measure. This resulted in the HoloNet for the entire province going dark. Billions of communications in, out, and through Imperial Hutta went silent. Broadcasts went out too. The consequences of this have manifested overnight.

It seemed that the Galactic Alliance wasn't to be taken for granted any longer. They were a serious threat and now Kae'Leigh was here to make sure they'd stay that way. She'd returned to her temporary home to hide out for awhile when she heard that the war was coming to their doorsteps. It seemed several parties were interested in the system now that the holonet was down. The Imperium naturally wanted to reclaim what was there. The Old Empire -the dissident Sith who were rebelling against their own kind- wanted to take the land from their brethen as a sort of revenge play. According to her new Mandalorian friends they wanted to just see Nar Shaddaa become independent. While that's what the Galactic Alliance hoped too, they were hoping the system could do more than just live without rulership. Kae'Leigh hoped they'd fight back.

They'd gotten the call early that morning that the battle was going to be right at their doorstep and if they didn't act now then they could lose Nar Shaddaa all over again. Kae'Leigh quickly got dressed in the best suited-outfit she could find. Dressed in a new outfit that was a tailored ranger scout armor, she strapped her utility belt to her hips and holstered her favorite R-5 blaster pistol to it. Unlike when she and Ayasha -their other fellow Padawan- went out recently in the same outfit, she would not be bringing along a very special green lightsaber that Vu'thari had let her borrow. He told her it had belonged to his grandfather. Ayasha as it seemed had also used this for some time, but had now come to make her own. So it got handed down once again. Boy didn't she feel special.

"Are you ready to go, Prax?" she would ask as she came back out into the living room. "We aren't going to have much time once they start slipping through the blockade."

Their mission would be simple. The Sith would likely come and try to get the holonet back online. Kae'Leigh and Prax were going to make the trek as difficult for them as they could. And what better job for a slicer would there be? She'd make a code so wicked they'd never crack the darn thing. And to help her out with that, she'd be bringing along her own personal KLT series astromech which she nickname Johnny. When she first came to Vu'thari's, she'd sent Johnny away with her spacecraft and all of her belongings. She knew she couldn't bring them with her where she was going. Well a certain Mandalorian sister wanted to borrow the vessel so it just so happened little Johnny would get to stay with them for the time being. Perfect time right?

 

[Prax Dek]

When you live your life as a slave in a particular place, any news where that place was about to burn was welcome in the extreme. Prax had grown up a slave on Nar Shaddaa and when the Galactic Alliance had told him that the place was about to come under attack he was overjoyed. He wanted to do anything he could to help bring down the Hutt supremacy.

He had been assigned to watch over one of the slicers they had picked for the mission, someone he was familiar with. Although he and Kae’Leigh had stepped off on the wrong foot so to speak he held no grudges and would do his job. It didn’t mean that he completely trusted the twi’lek quite yet, but it did mean he would do his bit for this mission.

Nar Shaddaa was currently in a network blackout and Prax was watching through one of the windows in the apartment. He could see the chaos in the streets below and the people running here and there, looting and generally adding to the mayhem. He was ready for this mission, he had his own ranger scout armor on, minus the helmet he carried under his arm. His R5R rifle was across his back and his R5 pistol was riding in a holster on his right hip. He had a bandoleer of grenades across his chest from left shoulder to right hip, full of surprises for anyone that decided to discourage their efforts. Tucked in at the small of his back, was his twin lightsabers. He decided they would only be used if they encountered other Force users.

As Kay’Leigh entered the room he nodded that he was indeed ready, “As ready as I am going to be. This is a big moment for the Alliance and for the people of Nar Shaddaa.”

He put on his helmet and gestured for her to lead the way as they moved to leave the apartment.

 

[Kae'Leigh Tameris]

Returning to the main room she looked over Prax up and down. She was always in awe of his many tattoos that covered his body and had found herself staring at them from time to time. He'd likely caught her doing so a few of those times, but up until now he'd yet to say something about it. She thought about getting one in the past, but her fear of needles brought a firm "no" to that idea. Her eyes then drifted to his armament of weapons and she knew he was ready. He said as much to her question and added how important this would be for both the Galactic Alliance as well as the people on Nar Shaddaa.

Prax then put on his helmet and ushered Kae'Leigh to the door. She nodded to him, her lekku tails bouncing as she did. She'd open the door and walk into the hallway and out the building she'd done hundreds of times over. But coming out into the street was a view she did not like to see. People were rushing around shouting. There was a tin garbage can that someone had set something on fire in. And papers were flying all over the place. Wasn't this the digital age? Where was all this paper coming from anyways?!

"So where do we start...?" she'd ask herself, though Prax could feel the need to answer if he wished.

Moving South from Vu'thari's apartment she carefully headed down the road. For now there weren't too many people out and about in this area. But that all changed when a loud roar of engines shook the street. Kae'Leigh backed up and saw some Imperial craft pass overhead. Kae'Leigh gulped. That was not good. She would give Prax a worried look and then press on. If the Imperial Republica was already here, troops would not be far behind. She was sure riots would be starting soon as people came to protest the Empire's troops.

Kae'Leigh continued onward and they came to a bridge crossing from one district to the other. She stopped for a moment and put her hand on her hips. An idea was forming in her head. If she closed up the bridge any of their ground troops would be stranded on this side of the wall. They could always take a shuttle across, but that meant doubling back to their landing zone and grabbing one. This also applied for tanks if they thought to bring any down.

Turning to Prax once more she would ask, "Hey! So I've got an idea. I'm going to go jam that place up. You watch my back while I do so alright?"

Taking out her blaster she gave him a mischievous smile and ran over to the maintenance room off to the side of the bridge. The door was locked and she didn't even have to try the handle to figure that out. She made sure to creep up from the side so the guard at the window wouldn't see her coming. Opening up a panel that was a mere keycard reader she inspected the wires and laughed to herself. So simple. She pulled one out and the whole system shut down. So much for a lock now.

Quickly, she'd kick open the door and point her blaster to the very confused and clearly inebriated guard. She imagined he didn't get paid much for the gig. "Time to go, shift's over."

Maybe it was the gun in her hand, or the fake the guy was so high out of his mind but he stood from his chair and walked out. Kae'Leigh was...rather confused by it. But hey. Beats having to shoot some innocent guy. As soon as he left she'd shut the door. She knew it wouldn't lock due to her breaking the wiring outside. But she hoped Prax was still out there and he'd be keeping an eye on her. Looking out the window she made sure that no one was on the bridge, then started looking at the switches. She pursed her lips for a moment and did a basic guess work of how the lights worked.

After turning the red lights to signal no entry, she began fiddling with the controls to raise the bridge. Not so complicated for someone who worked with computers for a living. The bridge would grind its gears, clearly not being used as often as it should, and both sides came upright. Now the fun part. Pulling out her tablet she would log into one of the ports into the bridge's monitor and begin opening up her platform. It wasn't a decent slice, compared to what she could do if she owned an actual slicer's dock, but it would be enough to cause some trouble from any Imperials trying to get across. Unless someone specifically knew how to slice like she could, they would need a droid of some sort to fix the damage she'd done. And what were the odds any Imperial squadron would be around with a handy dandy droid?

 

[Prax Dek]

Prax followed the twi’lek through the city. He really had little idea what exactly they were going to do to make the chaos around him any worse. He did know that was their mission, so he kept his eyes open for opportunities along the way. When they came upon the bridge, he heard Kae’Leigh tell him she wanted to jam that place up. Prax understood what she meant and when asked to watch her back he nodded his helmeted head in the affirmative.

Prax watched as she entered the maintance room off the side of the bridge. As she did so, he wandered over to take up an overwatch position on the room. He leaned against the wall about ten meters away, watching the door to the room. He was close enough to react should things go pear shaped and yet far enough away to appear disinterested in the room to a casual passerby.

As a man walked out of the room, he stood and watched. The man looked back over his shoulder back at the room and then started to run. He wasn’t shouting an alarm or anything which puzzled Prax. Then again perhaps this had happened in the past and the man knew better. In this area of Nar Shaddaa, calling law enforcement most likely ended with you getting a beating. Better safe than sorry, Prax moved towards the door to the room, he wanted to be within a few running steps of the door should unexpected guests arrive for whatever reason.

@EmilyHuene

 

[Kae'Leigh Tameris]

Now that the bridge was up Kae'Leigh would unplug her device and stash everything back in her bag. She dusted off her hands in a symbolic gesture, though no dust had actually collected on them. She also nodded her head making sure that she was pleased with what she did and then headed out. She looked around, not seeing anyone, until she had an urge to look up and saw Prax waiting for her. She waved and smiled at him and would lightly jog over to him; her lekku bounced behind her as she walked.

"Everything's shiny here, friend!" she'd say to him as she approached. "Any trouble on your end?"

As luck turned out no one had come to bother them at all. Perhaps it was because everyone who lived in this part of the city were already there. The Imperials would eventually swing by this way, but they'd be long gone by then. Kae'Leigh smiled and would pull out a small datapad and start searching for maps of the area. She pointed to three other spots and brought them to Prax's attention.

"There are still plenty of places we can slice into and cause some trouble for the Imps. What say you and I go knock a few out, eh partner?"

~END THREAD~
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