Plot Nar Shaddaa Diyu See That

[Maxims Tionson]

Subtle investigation eh?

With seemingly half of Hutt Space suddenly, literally, eating itself it seemed rather odd to Max that he and his allies were assigned to investigate bio-organic stimulant companies on Diyu. Of course there was evidence that the two were linked but it felt so very much like trying to find out why someone was bleeding out from having an arm torn off rather than actually doing something about the bleeding.

Still, he knew better than to assume that what he was doing was less important than actively protecting people from the effects of the plague. If they could fix the plague at the source it should make it far easier to deal with the ongoing crisis. Rubbing at his beard almost absently, he waited for his ally to arrive as he observed the outside of one of the largest factories.

He had his lightsaber hidden to avoid any nasty run ins based on the Hutt Saber bounty and was instead visibly armed with his stun baton and a vibrosword strapped to his waist where his lightsaber was usually strapped more openly. Looking over the defenses of the factory he tutted slightly. It seemed to him that the place was far too heavily defended for something as innocent as a factory.

Then again this was Hutt space; who knew what security was enough?

@Srota

 

[Kyp Eridan]

Investigation, it was just research by another name. Well, it was pretty hands on research, less dusty tomes and terminals and more going out and hunting things down. He hurried down the way to the rendezvous point. He had made sure that he caught transport on a tramp freighter to avoid calling too much attention to himself. He wore simple garb, plain tunic and trousers, but not such that it would call himself out as a Jedi. Slung up his sleeve where he could reach it if needed was his lightsaber, but he never used that if he did not have to. He preferred to trust in his abilities with the Force. After all, the Force had brought him to that request for assistance in Hutt Space, and thus to this investigation. Clearly his skills would be needed.

He approached the other now, standing a safe enough distance from the largest factory, and cleared his throat. Hoping to draw his partner's attention. He was an unassuming man, simple, plain, but his partner could feel the strength of the Force within him, could feel Kyp reaching out with his own feelings to confirm that this was his contact. You could never be too careful, and with this open connection to the Force, he would be ready to react should he be incorrect.

@Nefieslab

 

[Maxims Tionson]

Time to make an entrance.

Usually this would mean trying to sneak in past security or fighting through said security. But taking one look at himself and at Kyp, Max was struck by a thought; they looked so incredibly normal! Well when someone looked so aggressively normal it was almost like a special kind of camouflage in and of itself. Combined with an excuse that might actually hold muster? Well that might work.

Max smiled a little bit at Kyp but otherwise didn't say anything verbally to the other Jedi Knight. Instead he projected confidence into the Force that seemed to suggest a vibe of 'follow me'. Walking right up to a guard post, Max smiled a little bit at the lone guard behind his protective screen.

"Evening - wondering if you could do us a favor of letting us in please?"

The guard eyed him in surprise.

"Um... we don't have any delivery orders..."

Leaning in slightly, Max spoke to the man as though he was a conspirator.

"Listen, buddy, we're from the union. And we're looking to do a bit of an unofficial check around the factory, see if everything is on the up and up even when they're not on notice, you know?" He smiled wider, "Have you been getting your full union benefits?"

Now utterly engrossed, the guard grimaced before pointedly turning off the security holos and looking around quickly.

"We don't even get dental."

Max looked to Kyp as though this was a regular occurrence.

"They don't even have dental..." he repeated with a sigh, "Alright buddy, just give us a security-level key pass and we're take a look around ourselves, alright? We'll report any violations we find right to the union and we can get you sorted."

The security pass was in his hands and Max and Kyp were rushed through the security checkpoint without another word nothing short of five seconds later. Max flashed the keycard, opening the locked door to the distribution center. When the door closed behind them, he spoke quietly to Kyp alone.

"Think we could take some holos while we're here?" he grimaced, "I do actually kind of feel bad for the guy because that is a terrible union situation."

Spoiler: Dice

We're from the union

Spoiler: Gif

@Srota

 

[Kyp Eridan]

He had not expected that they would have to cross such hurdles. He probably could have expected as much, but he was never good at such things as planning ahead, or dealing with people. Which was why he was pleased when the other Knight projected a sense of confidence in the Force and directed Kyp to follow his lead. He walked, moving with a purpose to follow his partner, and approached the guard. He said nothing as Max spoke, bluffing their way through as Union inspectors. It was a good bluff, and he would have to file that away for later.

They were inside a few moments later and Max had spoken, clearly joking. He looked back at the other Jedi, and smiled, an easy smile that projected a sense of confidence that he did not actually feel. He tilted his head a bit and said "That really is a bad Union representative, maybe we should have a talk with them once we have what we came for?" He let out a short bark of laughter, before looking about at the plant itself. Now that they were inside, he would need to find their way to the target. Locating a place where he could take cover behind a pillar and keep himself out of the eyes of any passers by, he closed his eyes and let his senses reach out, seeking the bio-organic stimulants they were seeking.

It took him a while, leaning there in the shadows, his eyes closed, the murmur of his mantra, before his eyes snapped open and he collapsed to the floor, winded, barely able to move. There had been something hindering his ability to access the Force, keeping him from finding the location of the Bio-Organic stimulants. Well, it had taken nearly all he had, but he had found it. He fought back the urge to vomit, then rose shakily to his feet before looking back at Max.

In barely a whisper, he spoke hoarsely at last. "I... I found it... it... is to the right." Once he was steadier on his feet, he set off walking, but it was clear he was winded now.

@Nefieslab

 

[Maxims Tionson]

Yes Max was definitely going to be talking to the union about this place. Not only was it beginning to look like it was something of a death trap but the benefits that an employee could look forward to were meager if he was trying to be charitable in his description. He really hoped that what he had seen so far was the exception rather than the rule but considering they were in Hutt Space, he was honestly more surprised that unions were even a recognized thing here.

Following along with Kyp, Max kept his hands close to his weapons. Although he did not relish being a warrior, Max was more than ready to be one should the worse come to pass. And he had been fortunate enough so far to come out on top when, inevitably, shit did hit the fan in spectacular fashion.

Placing a comforting hand on Kyp's shoulder as he recovered from the taxing use of the Force, Max frowned a little bit at the way that Kyp was moving now. It was gingerly, as though uncertain and off-balance. That might come back to bite them he knew but he wasn't about to try and bench his ally.

"Alright Kyp - I'll take point."

He didn't mention why because they both knew why but neither of them wanted to draw attention to it. As they reached the door to the next area, Max was surprised to find that the door was on an automatic trigger to open as soon as someone appeared in the doorway. Equally, there was a camera drone that was programmed to immediately turn to look at the people entering such a restricted area.

Cursing, Max gripped it with the Force, slowing it's turn long enough to get both himself and Kyp inside and behind a stack of crates. When he released the drone it observed the door before doing a quick sweep. They were, thankfully, behind it so it didn't spot them before it floated up to begin a long and looping search.

"I think they'll have noticed that. We need to either make sure we can be stealthy or bluff our way through further. Anything in the crates?"

Spoiler: Dice

The Security is beginning to get suspicious

@Srota

 

[Kyp Eridan]

Kyp was still panting, carefully being helped by Max through the halls, making their way to the target. It certainly hurt their ability to hide, and he knew it. As such, when Max offered to take point, he said nothing and merely nodded, falling back, even stopping for a few moments to catch his breath. It took them some time, but they were able to make their way as a pair to the door, before Kyp pulled him behind a stack of crates.

He stumbled, almost falling over completely, hitting his head against the wall. But he seemed to be fine after that, and at Max's urging, Kyp began digging through the crates. "Junk... Junk... More junk... Junk... even more junk.." He look over to Max and offered a quick smile, and said "I swear, why can't the Hutts keep their spare employee uniforms where we can easily get them?" It wasn't a very good joke. In fact, Kyp inwardly groaned at it. It had sounded better in his head, that was for sure. No matter, it was out there now and he would have to own it, he supposed. He continued rummaging in silence, and when, at last, he pulled out a pair of ill-fitting uniforms and lab coats, and passed them to Max.

As he looked up, prepared to slip into the darkness behind the crates, his eyes met those of the guard. The guard had just come around the corner, never seen by Kyp. That was a big problem, for he could see the understanding in the Guard's eyes. This Nikto was going to call for help any second now. He used his right hand and gave Max a bit of a shove, hoping the other Jedi would understand. The Force acted in mysterious ways, Kyp supposed, and given the sheer effort he had to put into using it earlier, he was pretty sure that the Force was telling him that they needed to fail. But the lives of others could be at stake, so he was going to do his best to hope that was not the will of the Force, and hope that above all, Max had a solution. Because he sure as kriff did not.

Spoiler: Dice

Oh no So Close

@Nefieslab

 

[Maxims Tionson]

The fact that the crate was full of junk was annoying but it wasn't something he was going to lose sleep over. He honestly doubted they were going to find evidence of wrongdoing by the company, connected the virus, in literally the first room they went into. The Force worked in mysterious ways but there was "mysterious" and then there was "suspicious". Max was far more comfortable with a situation if it started to go wrong and then needed to be corrected; it felt more honest.

Plus he was of the opinion that if the Galaxy screwed you over once and you clawed it back then it was less likely to screw with you a second time.

It was usually a hope in vain but he was willing to try damn it.

Dressing quickly, Max threw his outer robes into one of the now empty crates and threw a lab coat over the top of his armored sections. He made sure to close the labcoat tightly to hide the fact that he was clearly not wearing a shirt and tie underneath it. Spotting the guard with Kyp, Max took a deep breath and decided it was time to Talk his way out of another situation.

Stepping out from behind a crate as though he had ever right to be there, Max drew the full attention of the guard immediately. Hopefully that would mean that Kyp was completely ignored and he could do something if this went wrong. Max looked up as though he was only just noticing the guard.

"Oh! Didn't see you there!" he joked with a little smile, "Honestly, would it not be better to have this area more brightly lit? Might fall and break my neck out here."

The security guard tensed and then relaxed in short order. Seeing someone actually come out seemed to put some of his fears to rest, especially when he saw that the guard seemed amused.

"You know how it is Doc - Chancy throws a request up to the board and it gets spiked back down in record time. It is, after all, a Tuesday!"

The security guard and Max managed a convincing laugh himself. It appeared he had managed to stumble his way into an In Joke which put the guard at ease.

"Ah well - you done here Doc? You know you shouldn't be here."

Unfortunately the guard was also keen to escort Max out... kark. Okay he hoped that Kyp had at least a vague idea even if he didn't quite have a plan yet.

"Lead the way my good man! Back to the grindstone for me eh?"

Spoiler: Dice

Guard likes us!
But not enough to turn a blind eye

@Srota

 

[Kyp Eridan]

Well he was alone, at least for the moment, as the security guard escorted Max away. He hoped the other Jedi would be able to catch up, Kyp was not sure he was ready to handle whatever lay within the secure room. Kyp closed his eyes, thinking for a moment. There was no way he could get through this as he was now. He would have to trust in the Force. He reached out, closing his eyes for a moment, centering himself. The Force would aid him in his task. The Force wanted him to solve this problem, and so he trusted it would aid him in entering the room.

It took mere moments, then, with a grinding of gears and servos, the door squealed its way open... loudly, drawing the attention of all involved. Well, looks like the Force wants us to do this the hard way... Using his connection with the Force, he reached out, and pulled, yanking as hard as he could to pull the guard back into the crates, using enough force to knock the man out.

He turned, anticipating that max would follow him, and that was when he saw the 2 men standing by the door. Well... this was going to be awkward....

@Nefieslab

 

[Maxims Tionson]

Well it seemed that things were turning out louder than they had planned.

Sometimes the best plans of womprats and wookiees went awry in the face of the Force. And it seemed that the Force had decided they were beyond the stealthy approach they had practiced before this. The guard being thrown into some crates was the first warning Max had that things were going to be escalating to a more openly violent level and he was ready for it. He was fine to escalate to violence but it would be a cold day in the Galaxy before Maxims Tionson resorted to lethal force.

Grabbing his stun baton from his waist, he activated it and threw it hard. With the Force as it's guide it struck home, the stun end slamming into the forehead of one of the guards, sending him to the ground as a shuddering mass. Before his ally could so much as shout, Max had crossed the short distance between them and grabbed him by the head.

Pulling the guard down to the ground, Max ground the startled security guard and pressed upon him with the Force. He pressed upon him the need to SLEEP and it took only a second of struggling before the guard was lightly snoring. Max stood up and called his stun baton back to him with the Force, slipping off the guard's security keycard as he did so.

"Let's go Kyp."

Spoiler: Dice

Max used Stun Attack! It was super effective!

@Srota

 

[Kyp Eridan]

Kyp watched as Max took down the two guards by the door and grabbed the security keycard off of one of their belts, leading to an open doorway. Kyp stepped through and into the laboratory. Racks and racks of chemicals filled the room, arrayed near a variety of fume hoods and more. Clearly this was the center of the operation. Kyp made his way to the nearest rack of tubes and began looking around, searching for test tubes of the new bio-stimulant.

"I'll get the samples, Max. You get pictures or other evidence."

Kyp had no trouble locating the right ones, the vials were surprisingly well labeled for illicit substances and it took him only a few moments to locate the one he had wanted. Grabbing one of the vials marked XG-1175-A, he pulled out a small case and slipped the vial inside. Better safe than sorry, he figured. He kept looking through for a few moments, noting and taking samples of a variety of chemicals stowed away. These criminals were not very smart, leaving things so easily recognized out. The last vial stowed away, he turned to look over at his companion.

"Well, Max, I have what I need, you got the pictures?"

@Nefieslab

Dice

 

[Maxims Tionson]

Taking pictures wasn't hard.

Max let Kyp handle the physical appropriation of the assets they were here to investigate while he documented everything they had found with pictures. Some of them were saved to a physical drive and some of them would be sent immediately via a secure connection to the holonet.

The important thing was that they had everything they needed and it was time to get out.

As Kyp was finishing up, Max busied himself with some of the chemicals that weren't mission critical. Falling back on some chemistry he had learned as part of the police on his homeplanet, he grinned a little bit. He never would have thought he was going to use his bomb disposal training to create a homemade bomb to escape a chemical plant.

It was the small surprises that made life worth living he supposed.

"I got it and our exit." he grabbed the volitile mixture he had created within it's beaker and he threw it with the aid of the Force, to where it smashed against the far wall and exploded violently, "Made the exit."

The wall was, in fact, an outer wall that was shared with the street. To a regular person the jump to the street below would be dangerous but to someone with the Force it was a simple matter of strengthening their bodies to stick the landing. Thankfully neither of them had their lightsabers out or visible so this wasn't going to go down as a 'terrorist act' by the Jedi Order.

Once the truth came to light about this company he doubted anyone would care anyway.

"And we're home free! Time to report this back."

/Exit Thread

Spoiler: Dice

Dynamic Escape!

@Srota

 

[Kyp Eridan]

Well, that had gone better than expected, Kyp thought to himself, even as he watched Max drop to the street below. And so, Kyp ran after, jumping through the hole his partner had made and dropping to the street below. He reached out with the Force, using it to slow his fall. The ultimate impact was no heavier than as if he had stepped out of a door on the street level. He looked over at his partner and said simply. "Well, see you back home."

With that, Kyp walked away, joining what pedestrians were walking in the street. He hoped that Max had gone in the opposite direction to help avoid any potential tails. It was going to be a long journey home, especially without his own ship....

/Exit Thread

Spoiler: dice

Stuck the Landing