Ask Corellia Gambler's Folly

[Darius Gal]

The streets and skyways of Corellia hummed with activity as commuters hurried their way home, to dinner, or to evening shift positions. Glittering lines of airspeeders filled the dimming evening sky like a golden lattice of blinking lights. Darius was not here to sightsee or be a tourist. No, like millions of people he was here on Corellia for business. Unlike millions of people he was here on Syndicate business. Technically speaking, that is. This little plan of his was the beginnings of a pet project, and if played right could land himself and higher ups in the Zaa Fenn quite a bit of cash.

One particular Corellian was headed home soon - a Kel Dor. Darius wanted words with this particular Kel Dor, and to secure that he'd invited a bounty hunter droid along on this little trip to the planet that tried to be Coruscant yet somehow failed in every way. It had taken a tremendous amount of work to find a suitable...candidate. He wanted a target that worked in a certain field, a target that had a weakness they could exploit. This one had a gambling problem, it turned out. A few holocalls were made, a friend of a friend who knew someone looked into it and wouldn't you know it? The poor sod was in debt to one of those backroom place. Darius had gone through a list of employees of the target corporation - Blackwell Automata - weeding out those who were either too low on the ladder to have access to anything other than the water cooler, those too well compensated, or those that, judging by their social media presence, were all around corporate dickwads that wouldn't cooperate without the application of torture.

So here they sat in a landspeeder parked around behind the Kel Dor's condo unit. Darius was in the guise of a Duros he'd encountered a few times at some bar - one of the regulars. Nowhere on this planet. He tapped for a few seconds on the screen of his datapad, running the remote port scanner functionality built in. This guy had a guest holonet connection set up, one that wasn't password protected. He shook his head - what an idiot. Very shortly he would be able to invade the entirety of the home network, see if the condo had an alarm system and, if so, disable it from the comfort of the speeder.

While that program was running, he turned his pale purple, red-eyed head to look at IG-55. "This isn't strictly a bounty, but you'll be paid regardless," he explained. "What we're really doing is an interrogation. I want you for muscle, intimidation, and physically controlling him if needed. The target's name is Dbo Karath, and he's indebted to Harkiss Taran, a local...crime...figure. You and I are going to play the part of his enforcers. I highly doubt this guy will have the credits to satisfy his debt, so we'll be asking a lot of very detailed questions about everything he does at Blackwell." And by a lot, Darius expected to be there all weekend, which was why he decided to get this going at the end of the work week rather than in the middle of it. They would have plenty of time to make sure everything was ready to go for the heist. To be entirely fair, it was hardly a heist. Darius didn't have anything quite so elaborate planned. "It's important that you get as much of his speech as you can on recording. After we get what we need from him, I'll let you know when to terminate him. I don't want any loose ends suddenly developing a strong sense of corporate loyalty. And I'll need you as a getaway driver in a few days. Any questions?"

@Charles

 

[IG 55]

IG-55 was made for the soul purpose of serving his creators as an assassin, fence, bouncer, enforcer, getaway driver, and bounty hunter. This job was no different than of the others he did; just another Smash 'n Grab with a side of interrogation before execution. Darius was new to the droid, but from what IG could find on the guy, he was a worthy acquaintance to make and a potentially important contact and source for future endeavors.

"We shall be successful, Darius Gal." The bounty droid stated as he slung his RT-97C over his shoulder and holstered his DL-44. To be frank, IG-55 could care less about who was indebt to who or what the Kel-Dor's story was. Money, and recognition was all IG wanted to claim. He curiously watched as Darius began working on the condo's security systems, as he could've done it instead in less time with less effort. Instead of dwelling on the curiosities of mankind, IG-55 unlocked the front door with his droid manipulator arm and drew his blaster pistol, carefully assessing the entirety of the condo with just a few scans from the droids many photoreceptors and life-form pinpointing programs that allowed him to create his own little radar of everything and everyone around him within a certain vicinity.

"Subject is upstairs. They will not know what hit them..."

@Clayton

 

[Darius Gal]

Darius watched as IG-55 went ahead and plugged into the building right away. Droids. He resisted the urge to shake his head. At least he'd be able to make excellent use of the machine's straightforward efficiency. Returning to his screen, the only security of note that he could find in the network was a deactivated front camera, likely to offer some semblance of security while Karath was not home. Despite the fact that it was currently offline, he made a mental note to purge the system of any recordings and backups when they were done.

What he did do though was remotely disable the holonet router, setting it into maintenance mode. He was maybe being a touch paranoid here, but Darius really did not want any calls for help getting out of this condo. The "duros" entered the condo after IG-55, closing the door behind him and locking it. The condo was modestly decorated - it was by no means a luxurious, expensive home. That didn't mean the Kel Dor had little taste, however. What decorations did exist were sensible and rather pleasing. Art - reproduction prints, of blurred cityscapes hung on the walls. A few wrought steel sculptures added some ambiance, and on a bookshelf there was a model frigate, gleaming without a speck of dust.

While examining the condo's interior, Darius paused to undo the button on a smart, gray suit jacket, allowing the silk material to open up, revealing the grip of a pistol slung under one armpit. He wore no tie, he wasn't that formal, and the collar of his shirt was popped open. He'd gone for professional in an intimidating way. Darius was dressed well, but there was no mistaking that it was merely a pretense. The information that the target was upstairs was acknowledged with a nod of the head, and he pushed ahead of the droid to softly climb the stairs.

Dbo Karath was indeed on the next floor, currently with his head stuck behind the bulk of a holoprojector. From the sound of things, he was busy uplugging and plugging stuff back in to figure out why the holo connection had suddenly quit. Darius moved quietly into the room, feet falling on the carpeted floor as he walked away from the door, allowing IG-55 to cover that exit. He cleared his throat, which caused Karath to immediately startle, and spoke. "Mr. Karath, Mr. Taran is wondering why you haven't paid your debts," he said in a calm, low voice, in a tone that suggested that there should be an obvious answer.

Dbo turned, tried to back away, and stumbled slightly as his foot caught in a mess of cables. "I, what, shit. Um. I don't recognize you," he edged out, watching the pair from behind the lens of his face mask.

Darius frowned impatiently. "Do I look like I care whether you recognize me? The only think I care about is how your dumb ass is going to pay your debt." He motioned towards IG-55. "Sit his ass down for me so we can have a little conversation."

@Charles

 

[IG 55]

IG-55 did as he was told and grabbed the Kel-Dor, receiving a little bit of a fight from the alien, so IG grabbed the fool by the back of his neck, jabbed him in the back of the ribs, and as Darius Gal ordered, sat his ass down.

"Do not resist. You now have two hundred and seven bones left in your body for me to break." IG noted. Darius had quite an interesting job set up for the two of them and the Bounty Droid enjoyed his company. He was up front and kept things simple- something 55 wished every partner had as far as attributes went. Most of the time he had secret keepers who were set on not sharing a piece of information necessary for the job, which led to unpreparedness for several terrible and utterly revolting consequences. Others were meat heads who had the intellect and wisdom of a rock and preferred fighting everything head on. Darius was a good mix between the two, and hopefully their outcome would end in success and money- weren't those the same thing?

Time was ticking until the slicing job Darius did with the security systems went back online, so this interrogation had better go smoothly and efficiently like the rest of the job had gone

@Clayton

 

[Darius Gal]

Dbo visibly flinched as IG-55 grabbed him, and tried to pull away but to no avail. The droid's grip was as strong as, well, steel. With an audible oomph, he landed on the couch, immediately arcing the side his broken rib was on away from the cushion. "Augh, frak dammit. I have seven hundred credits I can pay. That's enough for a down payment. I've got a bonus coming up in a month. If I had the thousands of credits available on hand I'd have paid it off I swear," the Kel Dor hissed around the pain of his broken rib.

"I'm afraid that is not good enough," Darius shook his head in feigned disappointment. "You are past payment plans. If you can't afford to pay in full now..." He stood and went over to the holobox and ripped it out of the wall. "You are going to pay in another manner."

"What do you want, the condo? My speeder?" asked Dbo, glancing warily up at IG-55.

"Your condo? Do you think Mr. Taran wants something in payment for a debt that requires him to make further payments of his own? No. You are going to give me accurate and detailed answers to as many questions as I feel like asking about your job at Blackwell." At this, although Dbo's mouth and eyes were covered by his breathing apparatus, Darius could see that Dbo visibly tensed and leaned away from both Darius and IG-55. "Not complying would be a very bad idea," Darius warned, gently brushing aside the front of his suit to make the butt of his blaster pistol more visible. "We have all weekend to spend with you if necessary. There are no calls for help leaving here. Nobody is coming to help you."

"Blackwell...that's my career. If anything is linked to me then...they can blacklist me from the entire industry," the Kel Dor pleaded.

Darius frowned and handed over a notepad which he had written down a set of questions regarding Dbos login information and passcodes for everything from entryways to voicemail, to email, to file access, his computer, etc. It was a start to a very long interrogation. "IG, you have a nice, logical mind. Would you be so helpful as to explain to Mr. Karath here why it's in his best interest to cooperate and what will happen if he lies in response to any of my questions?"

@Charles

 

[IG 55]

The Kel Dor couldn't move as IG-55's hands were placed firmly on his shoulders, puling him back into the chair if he tried doing anything. Then came Darius's proposition and IG almost immediately began processing all the possible ways he could get this alien to scream and grovel.

"With pleasure..." IG muttered, swiftly placing a clawed metal hand over the Kel Dor's mouth to muffle any screaming that would about to come after the droid moved his other hand down right above the elbow, twisted the arm back, and pulled. IG-55 felt the pop of the alien's shoulder dislocating and so did the Kel Dor as he was now fighting back tears and would've been screaming blood marry if IG didn't a hand over his mask.

Speaking of which, "Next, I'll pull off your mask if Darius thinks he can hear you too well. Without something to cover your mouth, you'd be speaking crystal clear, now, wouldn't you?" Threatened the droid as he continued to hold the unlucky soul down for the rest of the interrogation. Maybe Darius's slicing skills were far better than IG-55 had intended them to be as the security systems were still down. Oh what a duo they made- hopefully IG and Darius finished here soon so they could get their long sought after pay.

@Clayton

 

[Darius Gal]

Darius had to admit, the droid was certainly an intimidating force - one not to be trifled with. He allowed the Kel Dor a few moments to whimper through the pain of having a shoulder be forcibly dislocated, but only long enough for him to come back into focus. "Write down the information. Of course, that information is easily checked...which I will, and if it's not right, then, well, IG will show you the meaning of 'taking the gloves off', so to speak."

Dbo mumbled a halfhearted agreement, doing his best to remain unnaturally still so as to not aggravate his injured shoulder. With an abundance of caution, and a shaking hand, he wrote down his passcodes, usernames, and passwords. From that they moved on to more detailed questions. "What entrance do you use when you get in to work? Is there anyone who greets you, any security people? What are their names?" Was a simple enough line of questioning, but as time went on the questions evolved to more complex subjects such as what projects he'd left off over the weekend and would pick up again when he got back in, what the file system they used was and how it was organized, what access levels did he have regarding information, what he had to do to access schematics.

They talked about who his immediate coworkers were, their names, his usual level of office talk. Darius asked, and Dbo answered, sometimes hesitatingly, sometimes with a little forceful persuasion from IG-55, about what development projects Dbo had immediate access to. The Kel Dor's voice grew heavier as time went on, the man clearly realized that he was giving up access to serious corporate secrets. The only thing that seemingly kept the Kel Dor going was a desire to remain alive at the end of the ordeal. Occasionally Darius would circle back to previous lines of questioning just to see if a consistent answer was given. He was not familiar with the Kel Dor's physiology and body language, and it was difficult to get a clear read on the guy as unnaturally still as he was, thanks to IG's grip, but he didn't think he spotted any lies.

Throughout the process Darius kept careful notes on Dbo's answers. Interrogation was one thing, but he was going to have to study all of this information and know it without having to look it up. He'd have to play a convincing enough Dbo Karath to fool the man's coworkers for the hours it took to navigate the Blackwell systems, and to retrieve data and make his way out without raising alarm. There was a lot that could still go wrong. But, at the very least, one step was out of the way.

"Thank you," said Darius wearily, finally setting down his stylus and datapad. He resisted the urge to rub his eyes. "There is one last thing we need, and your debt will be considered paid."

At this, Dbo let out a twisted sound that was something between a sob and a laugh. "Spirits, what else do you need? I've already sold my company, my career, to you lot."

"Your breath mask. IG, if you will," he answered coolly. Usually identity theft was not this...personal and bloody. Corporate espionage was typically a process that either relied on finding a disgruntled and vindictive employee, or a hacking attack that took days, weeks, even months to successfully gain access to otherwise tightly guarded corporate computer systems. All of that took resources and manpower. Darius was still low on the chain within the Syndicates, and his resources were limited. But what he did have access to was his species' natural abilities. It was one of the reasons why clawdites were viewed with suspicion by many in the galaxy. It was why he almost never went around in his natural form, or at least, not without a helmet or mask on.

"When you're done with that, let's take a break...and then you can start quizzing me on some of the stuff he told us. Might as well make the most of the weekend," he sighed.

@Charles

 

[IG 55]

"Isn't it my lucky day. Looks like I'm prying it off anyway..." Muttered the bounty droid as he began prying off the the kel dor's mask. Of course there was a lot of fighting back, but that was to be expected, but with only one good arm, the kel dor was not going to be able to win this fight. This was the kind of action that IG-55 actually didn't relish. If the droid had a stomach, he'd feel sick to it right now.

After a gruesome fight, IG had the mask in his hand and gave it to Darius. He honestly didn't feel too great about it but his controlled comments and blank metal expression that could never change wouldn't give away any sign that IG-55 was almost disgusted with himself. IG-55 imagined the money he was promised, which helped greatly with the whole situation and then began processing the security systems link, making sure it was still down.

"Should I put him out of his misery? I think death by suffocation might keep our tracks clean if anyone decides to investigate, but my coding seems to be...difunctional. I pity the man."

@Clayton

 

[Darius Gal]

He couldn't help but grimace as Dbo struggled to gasp for air in an atmosphere that was toxic to him. Suffocation was a painful way to go, and the sounds that the alien was making were horrible to listen to. It was a relief then, that IG-55 suggested putting the poor bastard out of his misery. Darius nodded sharply, looking away. "Do it. We only need to fly under the radar for a few days. After that I don't care what cause of death they decide on."

Ordering another person's death was an unpleasant feeling. He knew that in this type of life, violence and murder went hand in hand. He'd guided others, having hacked into security systems, into the most efficient or safe way of taking down rival gang holdouts. Many had died, but then Darius had only been an incidental cause of it. This was different. It was his order. Theoretically it hasn't been necessary except for permanently tying up a loose end. The death of Dbo struck Darius as sensible, safe, one of the few ways to be absolutely certain the alarms would not be raised while he was in the Blackwell building. As a concept, an idea in planning, it seemed proper.

As an action, though...Darius did not know how he felt about this.

To distract himself from these thoughts and complicated feelings, he set to work on the breath mask, which contained a tiny vocabulator unit. He took his bag from where he'd left it at the entrance to the room and began to set up his computer and assorted tech, including tools to work on electronics if needed. "I will need those audio files you recorded," he said, looking up briefly at IG-55. "While I work on this, why don't you search the place? Lock doors, shutter windows, find anything of value and gather it up. If you see what looks like an employee keycard and chain code, I will need those too."

@Charles

 

[IG 55]

IG-55 drew his blaster, in a jerky yet swift quickdraw, aiming directly for Darius before he could do anything.

"I'm afraid you don't need my audio files, Darius Gal. But Crimson Dawn does." The droid threatened, backing the Clawdite to the wall. It was already planned out and everything; First IG would shoot Darius in the head before shooting the kel dor in the chest. He'd fire a shot at the doorway where IG and Darius entered and then place the droid's DL-44 in dead alien's good hand. Then, after the skin-changer was dead, IG would fire a few shots of his weapon and then place it in Darius's hands making the whole scene look like they happened to kill each other in a duel.

The bounty droid kept the muzzle of his heavy blaster pistol only inches away from Darius's face.

"Any last words, Crymorah Scum?"

@Clayton