Ask Plot Hot on the Trail

Maxims Tionson

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Orphans were being taken from their beds at night.

Literal orphans.

If the reality of it wasn't so incredibly sickening it would be so cliched that it would be outrageously ironic. Instead the reality of such a cliched trope made it circle all the way from horrifying, to surreal, to ironic and all the way back round to horrifying again. Max had been granted access to the bedroom of the most recent missing orphan alongside a sector ranger and already he had some kind of idea as to what could be to blame.

Like a bad smell of mold, the Dark Side hung in the air of the room. It was faint. Dark Side user had been in the room but there was little evidence that the Dark Side had been used in any meaningful way here. That meant that while he had a suspected culprit type, he didn't actually have any leads so far and for that he would need to investigate.

His own investigative skills were rusty but that's why he had Ranger Hackett.

"Ranger Hackett."
he nodded to the other man, "Good to be working with you. The Force is giving me some insight but I'm afraid it'll take some good old-fashioned detective work to track them from here."

Time to get to work.


@Faster Than Light
 

Alton Hackett

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The galaxy is going into dark times. From what happened on Corellia with the deaths of those Rangers and... now this.

With the Jedi Knight Maxim Tionson, he would be looking into the abduction of children in this orphanage. And these orphan disapperances are coinciding with this vault robbery in the capital city, which lightsabers being used in it. Nobody at this orphanage has seen anything out of the ordinary, no witnesses or anything. They appeared, got what they came for, and disappeared like ghosts as quickly as they came. Same with all these abductions.

"Good to be working with you too Master Tionson" he nodded back, as a non-force sensitive normal person, he isn't sure on how to address his Jedi partner. "What kind of insight does it give you?" Alton was curious. Putting on some plastic gloves, he'd be able to touch things without leaving his finger prints all over the crime scene. He would then step in closer inside the room and then start looking examining things all across the room, after some time. "No signs of struggle." one would not be able to tell anything bad happened in here. Not even a knocked down lamp. Looking at the door, then going over to the windows and looking at them and testing them. Nothing on that front. "No obvious evidence that the culprit in " he would say. "Although this one window is unlocked and the others aren't" he'd shake his head.

He'd look out at the window outside towards the trees to see if anything can be found. Nothing out of the ordinary, until he started look towards the ground. Are those some faint footprints he sees as he's squinting his eyes? "Got some foot prints out here I think". He'd open the window up full and hop on the other side. Striding over and having a look, he'd find that they tracks don't go very far. "But they end here. Whoever did this, they came from this direction" he gestured that way.

So, they have a general direction of where the culprit might have came. But that's it. They still need more leads if they want to find out where the captors and their abductees are and they could have gone anywhere at this point.

@Nefieslab
 

Maxims Tionson

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"Call me Max."

It was perhaps a little bit out of place for a Jedi to ignore his own rank but Max held little personal connection to his rank. Instead he was far more interested in putting the ranger at ease. Force Users were often the subjects of tall tales amongst non-FS people and he found it best to try and humanize himself before people if he was going to be working with them.

Looking around the room, Max reached deeply into the Force and took in a deep breath both physically and metaphorically. Almost immediately he grimaced as a lance of pain sliced through his mind. The Dark Side clung to the room in such a way that it was clear that it had been used in the abduction itself but there was nothing more concrete.

He placed a hand to his forehead to attempt to massage away the sudden headache.

"The Dark Side was used here but... it is masking how it was used."
he admitted with a scowl, "I'm sorry but without further time and study I won't be able to reconstruct what happened in this room. Time better spent on the trail I believe."

Gracefully exiting the building in the same manner as the Ranger, Max noted the observations made by the Ranger and listened and reached out with the Force again. Again the Dark Side made it's presence known and added to the throbbing pain in his head but... but it was definitely from their kidnappers and it was distinctive to say the least.

He scowled a little bit.

"It leaves a distinctive mark however."
he muttered as he pointed down the alleyway that the footprints had led into, "We have a direction and we have... fear... anger and... impatience. They were in a rush, a hurry to get somewhere. I don't think they ventured very far from home for this abduction."

Max glanced at the Ranger as he followed the trail.

"I think we might be able to find that kid."




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Alton Hackett

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Alton nodded along with Max as he explained what he felt. "And hopefully the others as well". If Max's assessment is correct, and hopefully for everyone's sake it is, the kidnappers shouldn't have gone too far. Seeing as how these darksiders have been pulling off all these things across the planet, at the very least didn't think that these guys would be off planet, at least not yet.

Once Alton would get into the alley way, he'd look around. Straight ahead leads into the local city, then in the middle there would be a way right. The tracks head right "This way" he'd lead on as he would carry on in that direction with haste, as every second count.

At the mouth of the alleyway, there would be three warehouses in view, both all looking old and don't look like anyone is using them at a glance. There would also be other factory buildings as well. Looks like they are in an industrial district. "Maybe in one of those abandoned warehouses?" The trial seems this way and a warehouse would be a perfect chance to stage all this and if Dark Siders were also emptying a vault then maybe the stolen goods reported earlier could be there as well.

Although they maybe be closer, they still have a lot of ground to cover before they find them. And even then there is no certainity they haven't made it elsewhere.


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Maxims Tionson

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Abandoned warehouses?

Well they weren't going to advertise their whereabouts but they weren't above indulging in some cliches as they tried to hide from the law it seemed. Every two-bit kidnapper in every holo-serial since the dawn of time had hung out in abandoned warehouses and it seemed as though they weren't ones to rock the boat.

Of course the situation was so far removed from a relaxed atmosphere that he wasn't going to comment on the cliche being played straight by the kidnappers. Instead he took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"Let's hope the children are alive."
he muttered quietly to himself as he reached down and withdrew his stun baton from where it had been holstered at his waist, "We should approach with stealth - see if we can't get past any outer defenders."

There were five people lingering around one of the warehouses and they looked... well they looked incredibly suspicious and Max wasn't in the mood to ask them politely. But he was also not the kind of person to go in guns blazing either considering it would potentially harm the efforts to free the children alive.

"Alright let's approach quietly..."


Moving forwards, Max made sure to hug the shadows as he approached with his non-lethal weapon at the ready. Unfortunately for him although he got closer, it didn't really give him any better odds as they still seemed to be fine with being clustered together.



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Alton Hackett

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Alton nodded as he deferred to Max for direction on how to go about this. Stealth is the best route, as a direct approach would make things messier or worse rather than help, especailly since they are evidently outnumbered and have little information on what exactly is here. So being sneaky it is.

Alton would follow Max's lead, he had his pistol in his hand as well, just in case., set to stun as well. Although he does wonder how much good he could do with it if these guys actually have lightsabers on them.

Approaching, they soon have to stop because the people outside keeping watch are in the way. Although the Ranger and Jedi remain out of sight with the cultists none-the-wiser, they are blocking progression. Looking around and seeing what can be done, he'd see a good size rock close by. Not very big, but it'd be enough.

Looking towards Max, he'd toss the rock off to the side away from their path as they were watching in various directions. The rock suddenly got their attention. One cultist, gestured his head over towards there, sending 2 over there. They didn't raise any alarms yet and they weren't in a hurry.

"Now is our chance to go around."

Of course, going through the front doors is still not a good idea.

@Nefieslab
 

Maxims Tionson

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Knowing that they had to get moving, Max was glad that two of the guards had moved away from the building because it meant he was going to need to fool fewer people. Focusing on the Force, Max reached out with both hands and thrust them forwards. Rather than using the Force to attack, he wrapped it around himself and Alton, while adding just a touch of confusion to the remaining guards.

The illusion took hold and suddenly Max and Alton looked identical to the two guards that had just left.

Waving Alton to follow him, Max strode up to the leader of the guards. Said leader stared at him blankly for a moment before Max added a layer of the mind trick on top of the illusion and suddenly no one saw anything strange about their friends coming back from a different direction to the one they'd left in.

"What are you doing back here?"


Max jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the disguised Alton.

"He left his blaster in his bunk and neither of us remembered our keycards to get back in."


It was a weak excuse - but when you looked identical to their allies and their minds were slightly addled? The leader grunted a little bit before handing Max his own keycard and nodding over to the front door.

"Use mine and try to remember next time."


Max nodded in agreement before using the keycard to unlock the front door. Once Alton was through with him, Max would lock the door behind them again. This time he jammed it shut by short-circuiting the controls subtly. He turned to the ranger.

"The illusion will break very soon - we will need to hurry now that we're inside."



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