Heist on Utapau

[CaptainWolfgang]

For a moment, the Nos Monster seemed to look directly at Vandis. Its slanted alien eyes seemed to be peering through the darkness. In the low red light, Kalo wasn't sure if the beast even had its eyes open. It stared at Vandis for what felt like forever, then twisted over itself back into the water, taking off in the direction of the stone.


Kalo stayed quiet for a minute longer and then let out the most desperate sigh he'd ever made. He started rowing slowly, then picked up speed until they finally reached the shore.

By Kalo's account, they were almost at the Varactyl pens. The characteristic womping noise of the large lizards was a sign that he was right-- but since it was night they were few and far between. As the trio approached the end of the farmland, they noticed the lights over the varactyl pens were also switched into a red glow, but the incubation building behind them seemed to have its lights on. At the very edge of the farmland there was a grain elevator which gave a great vantage point over the pens.

The pens themselves were inhabited by sleeping Varactyls, with Dactillions sleeping in roosts on platforms nearby them. The occasional worker could be seen walking around, but most of them seemed to only pop outside for a short time before returning to the incubation building.

"Alright gang, here's the plan one more time. Aerena is going to go in there and convince one of the scientists to open the incubator. It'll take some persuasion, but these Utai aren't very smart. Say you're here on a research assignment and you will probably be okay. If they ask why you're out so late, just say your homeworld is nocturnal or something. She will then knock the guard unconscious and prop open the device. Vandis, you guard the front door until Aerena gives you the signal that the incubator is open. Run in and put an egg in your backpack. I will obtain a hover-cart from the supply closet and load it up with four eggs. As soon as we're back in the open, I'll want you covering us, Vandis, so get that rifle ready."

He stopped to consider if he'd overlooked anything yet.

"Oh, right. We'll regroup at the boat. I don't want us to be in the open. Whoever gets there first, take a look out for that Nos Monster. If it is still around, get rid of it any way you want. When we cross the swamp, get to the barn. If we're being followed, then take a speeder. If we're still in the clear, then there's no reason to draw attention to ourselves. Is everyone clear?"

 

[Venk]

Vandis felt the weight of his rifle in his hands. He was ready to get this over with, to get the eggs and finally get some credits rolling in. He nodded at Kalo's plan. Until he got the signal from Aerena, he would sit in the boat, peering through his rifle's scope at the door and surrounding area.

 

[JessieTaylor]

Aerena nodded. "It's clear as crystal, Captain." She confirmed before heading for the incubation building. Pausing outside the door, she thought for a moment. If she was going to play student, she had better do something with her blaster. She took it out and put it in her backpack, dropping her holster on the ground beside the door. She took a deep breath. This was it. She opened the door quietly, revealing a scientist staring right at her. She smiled disarmingly and asked, "May I come in? I was told this was the incubation building." She stepped inside without waiting for a reply and looked at the first incubator. "And so it is, I gather." She looked at the scientist again after gazing at the incubator for a moment with a look of interest. He was understandably in a confused and wary state. She smiled again and spoke with an air of excitement. "I'm a student. I'm here on a research assignment. My tutor assigned me to a month long research assignment on Varactyls. This is the first week. I'm researching the eggs. My tutor arranged it with the people in charge. They said to drop by anytime, that there were people working here around the clock and to just ask someone to open an incubator for me." The scientist looked at her questioningly.

"I'm sorry. I don't see any need to open an incubator, but I would gladly tell you about Varactyl eggs." The scientist said somewhat suspiciously.

Aerena's face fell, and she didn't have to do much faking there.
"But... I'm not very good at remembering spoken information." She said.

"Don't you have a datapad? How do you expect to learn anything from me opening the incubator, anyways?" He asked, growing more confused. Another scientist walked over, out of curiosity.

Aerena smiled and shook her head. "I'm sorry. I always forget. I look like a normal human. On my planet, we don't consider ourselves to be human. We may look similar, but we have many differences. Our race is nocturnal, and we possess a power that ordinary humans do not. Whatever we touch, the history and facts about the objects will pass into our minds, the memory of the knowledge we gained staying with us until we let it out, whether through speech or writing. If you let me touch the eggs, that is how I will learn about them. You don't have to worry. I won't break anything." She pleaded reassuringly.

"I don't know..." The scientist pondered for a moment, torn between his curiosity as a scientist -wanting to observe this new phenomenon- and his doubts. After a moment's consideration, he relented.
"Alright, but only for a moment." He told her.

She smiled. "Thank you."

The scientist opened the incubator, and looked at Aerena. She smiled, though she wasn't thinking smiley thoughts.
Oh, great. Now what? Why did I bother? Should have just come in with my blaster in his face...
She set her backpack in the opening and unzipped it. "Sorry, I have to get something quick." She muttered, and that was the truth. Grabbing her blaster, she quickly pointed it at him and backed away, leaving the backpack in the opening. She swiveled her blaster from the other scientist in the room, to the one by the incubator. He had dropped the cover in shock, but the backpack kept it from closing. She motioned them over to the wall with her blaster. "Alright, face the wall, both of you. And don't make a sound or you are dead." The one that had opened the incubator kind of spluttered angrily, but he didn't say anything. She had them kneel down, then brought her blaster down hard on each of their skulls. They were out cold. She dragged them into a corner behind an incubator, where someone who entered the room wouldn't see them. She took their lab coats from them and replaced her backpack with them. She then ran to the door and waved, to let Vandis know that it was open. That done, she quickly loaded one egg into her backpack, and holding one under her arm, she ran outside, snatching up her holster as she passed it.

 

[JessieTaylor]

(OOC: Sorry about the delay, I didn't get a chance to post until now.)

 

[Venk]

As soon as Vandis saw the signal he ran inside. He unzipped his backpack and managed to just barely fit two eggs. He checked the scientists' pulses, to make sure they were alive, and smirked.
"Rest well. Your fate would have been much...colder, had you met with me." With that, he scoped out the area with his rifle before moving back outside towards the boat.

 

[JessieTaylor]

As Aerena arrived back at the boat, she set the egg she was carrying on the ground. Better to take out that creature now. She picked up some rocks and cast them into the water. Nothing. She threw a few more into the water. After a few seconds, the creature reared its ugly head from the water, much closer than Aerena expected it to. She took a step back and fired several shots into it from her blaster. It let out a screech and closing its eyes, its head falling to hit the water with a large splash. Then it was still. She got into the boat and rowed over to it. She checked it to make sure it was dead, and returned to shore. She saw Vandis approaching as she put her holster back on and put her egg into the boat.

 

[Venk]

"So it's okay for you to kill the creatures of Utapau, but if I do it its wrong?", Vandis asked, in what he hoped had sounded like a joke. He was also loading his eggs onto the boat, and was trying to alleviate the tensions between them.
((OOC: we should probably wait for Wolfgang))

 

[JessieTaylor]

(OOC: Okay. Bumping...)

 

[CaptainWolfgang]

(OOC: Sorry folks, E3 and other responsibilities kept me busy for a few days.)

---

The Nos Monster took a few shots, but it collapsed into the swamp water with a slow moan. By the time Aerena checked on it, the beast had already begun to sink.


Kalo arrived at the boat with the hover-cart, which had four eggs resting in containers on it, strapped in with belts that had blinking red lights on the locks. The cart itself was long and thin, and lifted off the ground by about a meter. "Start off toward the barn." he ordered before turning his attention to Vandis. "Don't go in the barn, but when you get there, take the speeder bikes. Use these clamps to attach the hover cart to the back of a speeder. Load everything into your ship, but don't take off until I get there." He paused for a second, looking a bit unsure. In the dark red lighting, his face was hard to read, but something about his stance seemed uneasy.

"The cart should hover over the water, but you guys have to get out quick. This is all riding on you. I'll be along soon."

Not bothering to explain, he turned around and made a brisk jog back to the facility, with his left hand on his right shoulder, and his right hand gripping a bloody blaster.

 

[JessieTaylor]

As Kalo jogged off, Aerena turned to Vandis. "Something's not right. I don't know what the heck he got into, but I'm going to follow him. You can do this alone. I'll cross with you, then take the boat back to this side. Unless Kalo plans to haul a boat over here or swim across, he'll need a ride back. Hey, we can't have the Captain dying on us, it's his contact that's going to buy the eggs." Maybe her motives weren't completely mercenary -although that played a part-, but nothing but mercenary would make sense to Vandis. Besides, she didn't want to get stuck with being alone with Vandis for a whole trip to Bespin. She didn't like leaving him to himself, she didn't trust him, but what else could she do?

 

[CaptainWolfgang]

By the time Aerena had finished explaining, an alarm had started to blare. At first it seemed like they might have been detected, but when the Utai workers began to pour out of the building they gathered together and talked calmly, slowly walking toward the swamp. They weren't looking for anyone, but a dense crowd was obviously forming. If they were going to leave, now was the time.

=====[ INSIDE THE LAB ]===

Emergency sprinklers began to douse the lab, and blinking yellow and red lights seemed to reflect off of every surface. Kalo clenched his jaw and slowly walked toward a Pau'an scientist, cracking his bloodied knuckles while squinting his eyes. He'd been stabbed on his way in, but the assaliant was laying dead on the ground. Now there was nothing living between him and the Pau'an.

"Y-You!" the scientist stuttered. His voice was cracking, and could hardly be heard over the fire alarm. "After all of these years! Why are you here? Where are your masters?"

"I'm my own master, and I believe that people should get what's coming to them. So I'm going to play a game with you. You're going to bet on who would win in a fight. You. Or me."

The Pau'an looked at Kalo angrily. He knew he was outmatched physically. "That's preposterous. You would."

"Unfortunately for you, you're right." Kalo said, grabbing the Pau'an by the back of the head and bringing it down on his knee. The scientist cried out, and begged for Kalo to stop.

Kalo didn't seem interested in talking back to him, but eventually he did. "Halon Gree. Slave fighting pits. Five years ago. You made me kill an innocent man for entertainment. Nobody was in the mood for a fight, but you had to have one. You put a bet on me. You know how the Hutts are, they love to gamble. An innocent man would still be alive if it weren't for you. And you thought you could just... go back down to a lab somewhere on Utapau, and I wouldn't find you? That I wouldn't remember a name? That you didn't have enemies who would get me close to you? You are the first on a long list, Gree."

Halon Gree's face became still. He looked back at Kalo. "So you're here to kill me... over a game? You think that's justice?" he spat. "It won't bring your friend back!" Kalo grabbed his collar and threw him onto a table before punching him again in the throat, silencing him further. He fastened a noose around the scientist's neck, made of the same leather belts that he had used to keep the egg containers on the hovercart.

"Not justice," Kalo said through a scowl, "But I'm a very consistent man, and you just bet that I would win. I'd hate for you to lose your little game."

Kalo jammed a handful of credits into the scientist's mouth and kicked the table out from under him. The Pau'an's body kicked and struggled for only a few seconds. Before long, Halon Gree's body was hanging lifelessly.

 

[JessieTaylor]

OOC: Bumping...

:shock:ER, eh? Oof. Glad you're doing better.

 

[Venk]

((OOC: Sorry guys, was in the ER. ))
Vandis simply nodded and got to work with the boat. He attached the cart to it, waited for Aerena to get in and started making his way across. He stayed silent until they were in the middle of the lake, when he said, "You know by the time you get back, it'll be too late, right? There's gonna be a lotta people there and two, maybe one, of you. I'm not saying don't go; I'm just warning you."

 

[JessieTaylor]

Aerena nodded her head solemnly in reply to Vandis. After a few more moments of silence, she looked at Vandis out of the corner of her eye. The further they went, the more seconds ticked away, the more she didn't like the thought of letting him go back to his ship alone. Would he take off and leave them behind, even if he didn't have to? Just take the eggs and run? Keep everything to himself and leave them stranded on the planet? She didn't put it beyond him. Actually, she was afraid that it was exactly him. She shook it off her mind. It didn't change anything. But... As they approached the opposite shore, she glanced over her shoulder for a moment, but couldn't see much.

 

[CaptainWolfgang]

((OOC: Shame to hear about the ER, glad you're doing better mate!))

---

====[VARACTYL PENS]===

Captain Kalo Wolftenn paced back and forth in the lab near a window. He was waiting for the Utai to start returning to the lab so he might make a quick escape, but that didn't seem to be possible now. He was dripping wet from sprinkler water, but luckily the only blood he'd lost was on the dirt by the swamp. The Pau'an had spotted him and Kalo was stabbed in the shoulder, but luckily he found a foam to seal the wound in the vet clinic. The knife the assaliant used was now safely tucked in Kalo's jacket. The assaliant had returned to the lab to protect the scientist, but in his panic, the scientist shot him. If The Force was kind, then authorities would think this was all a murder-suicide.

I had better get back to the situation at hand, Kalo thought to himself. The murder had numbed his senses for awhile, and he wasn't thinking straight. At this point, he wouldn't be surprised if Vandis and Aerena were either at the landing pad or the bottom of the swamp. Now was a time for a daring escape. He paced back and forth more, searching for ideas.

Then he looked at the lab's security control console.

====[FARMLANDS ACROSS THE SWAMP]===

Aerena and Vandis found themselves in a tight spot, but it was clear that returning to the laboratory would only get them caught. The Utai workers were at the far end of the swamp now, conversing calmly about when they could return to work. It was clear that a fire alarm had gone off by the lack of search parties being deployed. They weren't being hunted, but they weren't clear either.

Of course, a fire raised its own set of problems. If there was a fire rescue squad on the way to investigate the damage, they'd probably need to take the nearest landing pad.

Without warning, the lights over the Varactyl pens clicked to life, and all the gates sprang open. The characteristic womp womp of the Varactyls seemed to start all at once as they took off toward the swamps. At the same time, Dactillions squawked sharply, flapping their wings and lifting into the air, scattering in all directions. The sharp lights made them appear as backlit shadows from the ground. From that height, the Utai workers had no way of knowing that Captain Kalo Wolftenn had decided to escort himself to the docks on the wings of one of such mighty beasties.