Event Imperial Gold!

[Marissa Hesse]

​

Even with the Zaa Fenn’s tendrils stretching out into the Eriadu underworld, Marissa knew that even if they consolidated what remained outside their reach on the planet they still would hardly be making a dint in the Syndicate. What they needed was a score that would catapult them and their monopoly, and let them step themselves up offworld.

What they needed, was Tarkin’s vault.

If one read up on Eriadu’s history it wasn’t too long until it’s time under the Galactic Empire revealed itself, and the early Empires greatest son had been born there himself: Willhuf Tarkin. Of course, Marissa herself had no respect for a man like that, but she did deeply appreciate the rumours that littered the texts she perused of a certain vault the man had left on his home planet, of plunders treasures, artifacts, art, credits, and all else a high society scumbag could help himself to. And, if she had to admit it to herself, in many ways she too was a high society kriffer much like the rest, even if she had fled so much to live life a little differently.

And so it was that, leaving the city to its festivities, to which the Boogaloo Club the Zaa Fenn operated had thrown itself quite the event, Marissa and a trio of members from their little family sped off into the planets mountains. Racked with foul rain and wind, the beep of the tracker grew faster and faster as the team arrived in closer.

That they were chasing a myth gave her some pause at the start, but in truth robbing something like Canto Casino might as well have been as mythical until they did it. And as a discrete landing pad fell into view, Marissa couldn’t help but feel a sense of relief, something she kept below a stoic outer image of confidence,

“Now in there” she gestured past the brewing storm “is the score of a lifetime” it wasn’t the first time she’d promised such, but she hadn’t failed to deliver yet. And today was no different.

If they could be back so she didn’t miss the annual Eriadu City orchestra’s Boonta’s Eve concert, it would be a blessing. Certainly at least before there traditional closing my rendition of Strazo’s “Rishii March”. But what awaited them inside undoubtedly had other plans, it always did.

Touching down on the landing strip, rain lashed against the speeder cabin and echoed about them. Marissa looked back at the assembled crew: Preef and her had done more than enough together at this point she hardly felt she needed to justify this to him, they always had each others back. But as for Tresshk and Gareth, something like this made it feel like she had something to prove. Pursing her lips she pulled her blaster from the dashboard and slipped it onto her holster,

“Meet you inside”

@Eccles
@Rorren
@Versok

Spoiler: OOC

Alrighty treasure hunt is up! We can do around of intros and then we’ll be using dice to spice it up from then on out, let’s make something cool!

 

[Preef Callo]

Preef sat next to Marissa, his feet up on the dash and his trusted blaster twirling between his hands. He honestly had no idea who this Tarkin really was, or had been, but there was no denying the weight his name still carried in Eriadu City. As usual it was the promise of credits and other material wealth that motivated him, although whenever Marissa came to him with a new plan or scheme he didn't really need to be convinced. It was thanks to her that he was regarded as a vanguard within the Five Syndicates.

Now, Tresshk and Gareth were both heavy hitters and potential enforcers that just happened to have both been introduced by Preef. If they proved to be useful then Preef would look good as well, but if they were to make a fool of themselves....

After the shoot-out on Ryloth the rodian's left shoulder felt a bit sore. Sure, the bacta spray had miraculously fixed most of the tissue damage from the bolt, but it was still stiff and raising his arm above shoulder height send a sharp pain through it. Let's just say that if it had been his right shoulder that was hit he'd either be six foot under the ground or back on Tokadana in retirement. He was lucky, but he didn't feel so invincible anymore.

"The boss and I-" the rodian started once Marissa pulled her blaster from the dashboard and he was forced to move his legs out of the way, "-we've done this a thousand times." Going into a secure place and getting out with potentially millions of credits in loot? It did remind Preef of both Canto Bight and Coruscant. What was implied that if they failed today, then Preef would be blaming the Matukai and the Trandoshan.

Stepping out in the rain, his usual tunic was protected from the weather by a long brown coat that opened up near his waist to allow a quick draw of his blaster if it was needed. He didn't see the need to protect his head.. and why would he? He was rodian.



@Nightfall @Rorren @Versok

 

[Tresshk]

Tresshk shifted as he side-eyed the well sized miraluka beside him. He’d never seen the muscled male, nor did he have anything personal against him, but some part of him was already preparing for a rivalry with this ‘Gareth Gin’ guy. He was the up and coming Zaa Fenn muscle! And he wanted to prove himself to Marissa, and perhaps even to Preef as well. It was in his nature to want the recognition, ever since he’d been raised in the Falleen fighting pits, and with a distant memory of his people’s goddess, the Scorekeeper. It was those same pits that taught him if he wasn’t the strongest fighter, then he wasn’t good enough. It certainly didn’t help the trandoshan’s growing uncertainty with the miralukan that his bulky form was taking up almost all of their space along with his own, cramming the two together in the back seat of the speeder while the two much smaller figures took up the front seat. That was the luxury he supposed of being the boss, and the boss’s right hand man...

“Hsssk...Are we there yet?” Tresshk grunted with an annoyed rumble in his throat, looking back forward and out the front of the speeder’s cockpit. Oddly enough as he made the comment, the trandoshan watched as they came up on a rather old-looking landing zone, which had some courageous vegetation attempting to overcome the generations standing Imperial metal. Vegetation or not, the base certainly didn’t have the appearance of something in current military operation. Dust and dirt and debris covered spots of the landing pad, and no soldiers were there to meet them. However, it was likely all four plunderers knew well enough that this Vault could not be approached without caution, nor would it be unprotected even after more than a century had passed.

Tresshk emerged from the shuttle with his goggles and thermal jacket on, both helping him somewhat in the climate of this planet against the cold and wind. The very tall trandoshan was all too happy to stretch his body as he set his hard-lock container down, as well as the AZ-7 light repeated that he came with. The container was not there for plundering loot, it was more of a personal back, just a very secure one. And that security was due to the six blast charges he was taking along, which he opted to call ‘code breakers’. No need to fret about codes to locks if there was no more lock left...It was Tresshk’s favorite way to make an entrance.

With his back satisfyingly popped and his limbs properly stretch, the 6’6” t’doshok hooked his container to his bandolier and the AZ-7 strapped over his shoulder, moving up to meet Preef and Marissa.

@Marissa Hesse @Preef Callo @Gareth Gin

 

[Gareth Gin]

It was not the first time the Miralukan had taken part of an operation like this one, but it was the first time he was promised such an amount of treasure, he didn't know much about that Tarkin guy other that he was an important imperial dog who died, but if her leader was right, which was probably the case knowing her reputation, the riches inside the vault would grant them a big advantage against their rivals and foes, allow the family to develop further.

Gareth could feel some sort of animosity from the Trandoshan towards him, Gareth didn't know what it was exactly about but he knew it probably wasn't anything too serious, maybe he felt threatened by having to work with another big guy, seeing how the boss probably brought the biggest muscle to the mission for a reason, or maybe it had to do with the fact that the two of them were too big for the back seats, which was actually slightly pissing Gareth off as well. Anyways, if the Trandoshan wanted to turn it into a competition, which was probably the case, seeing how their life was a competition because of their religion, the Matukai would gladly oblige, a good competition brought the best of all contenders anyways, and Gareth always found fun in the sport of bashing heads and seeing who has the biggest kill count.

"You will have done this a thousand and one times by the end of this Preef" Gareth responded, sensing the landing pad ahead, they just had to get to the vault, not a hard objective, but Gareth doubted no one was defending the place, maybe Tarkin left security droids active just in case, maybe the First Order remnants, or even the new Sith, took the place, or there could be just a small pirate gang or some beasts living in there now, which were easy to take care of, but something was most likely in there.

The Matukai left the vehicle right after Tresshk, cracked his knuckles and joined the rest of the group, wearing no armor except for the Matukai gloves, which, besides the force, were also his only weapons. Other than that, not much other than his usual attire and a jacket to protect himself from the rain, not like he needed anything else anyways.

@Rorren @Eccles @Nightfall

 

[Marissa Hesse]

Approaching the vault entrance Marissa kept her head down and her collar up to hide from the rain,

“Let’s open this thing up” she didn’t want to be staying out here any longer than she had to, not in this sort of weather. Pushing up she made sure to keep her footing solid as the wet metal floor threatened to sweep them all off and down the mountainside.

Before them the vault door was a towering metal blast door, clearly intended to make sure even someone who found it wouldn’t exactly have an easy time getting inside. Marissa bee-lined to the console by its side, ready to try and get them access. She’d purchased a reasonable quality computer spike some time ago for a little job on Naboo, but as she slid it into the console she was instead greeted by an eye-like camera, no larger than a fist that protruded from the wall. As the console screen rapidly scrolled through security settings, the eye took her in, assessing her person with a feeling she at least interpreted as an antagonism. An antagonism made clear when the console fried her computer spike and the cameras flickering light flashed from yellow to red,

“Imperial Code Not Authenticated...
Activating Level 3 Security Response...
Have a Nice Day...”

As quick as it appeared the eye slid back into the wall, only to be replaced by repeating security blasters that slid out of the wall in its place on either side of the blast door, an energy shield meanwhile shimmering to life across its face, raindrops sizzling against the hardlight,

“It’s never easy is it?” She muttered to herself as the blasters revealed themselves. As bolts began to ripple out across the docking pad, Marissa threw herself against the vault wall directly beneath, sliding her blaster out and slamming a trio of bolts into the turrets underside, ripping through the metal. The other one still fired away across the deck, and there was still the trouble of the energy shield across the blast door if they wanted to get out of its line of fire.

An omen of things to come, she had no doubt.

@Eccles
@Rorren
@Versok

Spoiler: OOC

dice thread here! 24 for security strength, so reasonably difficult. And 60, a success, to destroy one of its components.

 

[Preef Callo]

Preef had been minding his own business trying to keep his left shoulder as still as possible and doing his best to ignore the rain splashing on his head. He should've brought a head, after all. Having complete faith in Marissa he didn't step closer to look over her shoulder as she tried to slice into the door, but sudden red flashing lights and alarms did snap you back to reality real fast and as such Preef saw the two hatches on either side of the door open up.

Wasting no time, the rodian gunslinger drew his blaster pistol and planted a bolt against the turret's muzzle just as it was coming out of the hatch. Extending his arm to a straight line he fired again, and again, to make sure the turret was down for the count. He was fast, as usual, but what the others didn't know is that he was internally cursing and wincing from pain... the sudden motion had send spikes through his left shoulder and upper back somehow and he had some difficulty keeping his composure.

Preef was glad they brought Gareth and Tresshk, for a gunslinger who might not be able to sling his gun wasn't much of use. He should've rested more after Ryloth.. he would after this. A nice kolto bath, some bacta sprays and the luxuries of the Zaa Fenn penthouse would get him back blasting in no time.

@Nightfall @Rorren @Versok

 

[Gareth Gin]

Gareth stood a bit behind Marissa as she took care of the door, keeping a metaphorical open for trouble, and sure enough he found it, the alarm went off and they got shot at, the others moved out of the way but Gareth decided to stay right in the middle and deflect the bolts that came his way with the intention of attracting the shots instead of his team, not too long after, the two turrets were taken care off by the boss and the vanguard.

So, the Matukai moved towards the shield, taking a good look at it, putting a hand on it to see if it was the kind of shield that only blocked blaster fire or something else, realizing that it was one that did indeed block his hand as well, even stinging it a little. "Yup, that's gonna be an annoyance" Gareth was not tech-savvy, he had no idea how to take care of the shield, it probably had some kind of generator somewhere, but Gareth certainly didn't know where it was located, alternatively, they could use the explosives to create a hole on the wall, but chances are they would need them later, so Gareth kept quiet and waited for the others to figure it out.

@Nightfall
@Rorren
@Eccles

 

[Tresshk]

Tresshk was casually approaching the large wall of metal and blast doors when chaos started to erupt around him. Ray shielding went up, and like a nest of angry hornets, blaster bolts began to rain down from above as twin autoturrets emerged from spaces in the metal. Some dossh curses left the large large reptilian's mouth as he dove to the ground, blaster fire strafing the spot he had just been in. He quickly rifled the strapped weapon from his shoulders to start returning the hail of shots, only to curse once again as he aimed down the scoped sights only to see smoldering remains of both turrets. Like many chaotic happenstances, the excitement was over in a matter of seconds, and Tresshk was a little annoyed he'd missed all the fun. He supposed that's why Preef and Marissa were in charge, they really did have the experience that kept them on their toes. That, and blasters that were quickly pulled from their hips. He was hauling a heavy blaster and some rather delicate payload with him, making it not as easy to just quickdraw. Oh well, with a greeting card like that, Tresshk knew there would only be more fun to be had on this little adventure.

"Don't think we're sssetting off any alarms for anyone that'ss not a hundred and fifty years old, right? I'd hate for some sssith to come by and claim our loot belongss to them." Tresshk spoke up as he walked over to Marissa, pulling the hardcase from off his back. He lifted it with a suggestive and almost excited grin, offering his special and explosive services to the Zaa Fenn leader. He would be all too glad to test the resilience of the shield and the metal himself, but he knew this was a group mission, and he was trying to prove himself as a reliable asset. If he went off the rails and just started blowing holes in walls, -limited- holes that they could need later on, then he might not give the human the best impression...even if it may have been an accurate one.

@JMSix @Nightfall @Eccles

 

[Marissa Hesse]

"I should hope anyone who followed that Empire was quite dead by now" Marissa replied to her Trandoshan ally, though what she even knew of the Sith, there was magics tucked away in their knowledge that let them do things some thought of as quite unnatural, and not something she had to admit she wanted a part of. Too bad really that the Sith presence on Eriadu was as significant as it was. The hope at least was that, with the festivities occurring all across the planet, any watchful eyes on a place like this would be otherwise engaged. Which meant, she hoped, that using a small bit of the blast charges wouldn't draw too much attention,

"But let's keep an eye out, shall we?" she took one of the charges offered up by Tresshk and returned to the door. Scanning the energy field she couldn't help but follow the door to its right side exterior, the humming of power coming from within. With luck, she thought, this was the energy fields power source. A discrete little detonation would tear it up and open the way for them. And, they would discover, she was right.

In a sense.

Planting the charge, she waved the group back a safe distance as the timer ticked down. A short, sharp explosion shot back into the metal of the doorway and destroyed the power relay, the energy shield lifting and the door sliding open. But there would be no time to celebrate her success. The rock-face into which the vault was constructed shook for a moment, a crack echoing in the pass above them,

"Inside, now"

She ushered the team inside as rocks fell from the mountain above them, dropping down and missing her by the slightest of margins, but not missing their speeder, which took blow after blow from the tumbling rocks and small boulders that fell in, crashin through its windows and bonnet, leaving it smoking on the landing pad outside. There was no guarantee it was still flyable after that, or if it was, only very, very dangerously,

"Let's just hope Tarkin had a soft spot for vintage speeders" she said, half joking, half serious. This little venture was not starting well. She looked at her partner Preef and silently sighed,

"Why don't you take point from here?" excusing herself from leadership for a moment after what she admitted was a disappointing display.

@Eccles @Versok @Rorren

 

[Preef Callo]

Preef rushed inside at Marissa's command and soon found himself staring into an Imperial-style corridor. Dust had gathered everywhere and the air was somewhat musty. The corridor itself was spartan, just how the late Tarkin liked his stations to be and none of the promised riches were on display so far. It made sense, Preef guessed, for only criminals like Dryden Vos were keen on displaying their wealth and collection of artefacts.

"Don't worry, boss-" he replied to his favorite human as she relinquished command to him, "-I'm sure the hard part is already done." Oh how wrong the rodian would turn out to be.

Taking point, Preef was a bit too confident as he took large strides into the dark unlit corridor. "He look at that," he said to the group just as he reached a T-junction with ten neatly lined-up old battle droids stood, a thick layer of dust covering them and their blaster rifles. "Heh, we need more security droids at the penthouse?"

He hadn't said it or beneath the dust one pair of eyes suddenly shone bright and the unmistaken sounds of internal systems powering up could be hear echoing through all three corridors. <<Engaging security function three-dash-alpha>> its robotic voice sparked, <<Engaging Security Alarm. Hostiles Detected>>

Oh kriff

@Nightfall @Versok @Rorren

 

[Gareth Gin]

Gareth quickly got inside the imperial building as rocks fell behind them, taking out their speeder, well, crap, seemed like they would have to walk their way back home unless they got another vehicle, that was certainly less than ideal. The corridor inside was...boring, to say the least, the Imperials really didn't really bother making their place look more appealing, and the fact that the place had been abandoned for quite some time didn't help either.

After his Rodian boss opened his mouth, Gareth couldn't help but wince slightly, something was telling him shit was about to get worse, a lot worse, maybe it was the force, maybe it was simply his instict, but the Miralukan decided to stay even more alert now, and, not to his surprise, they were suddenly staring at 10 droids which seemed to be activating, things could get very ugly very fast, so of course Gareth decided to take action, he was ready to finally do something.

"<<Engaging Security Alarm. Hostiles Detec->>" the droid didn't even get to finish its sentence before Gareth got right up it's face, using a burst of force speed to suddenly approach the mechanical guard, his right fist raised up, the Miralukan calling to the force to make his strength even greater as he clenched his hand and striked hard at the droid. His Matukai gauntlet going through the droid's head which was finished with just that punch. Sparks coming from the droid's new hole in the head as Gareth took his arm out, using the other one to grab the droid and put it on the ground without making so much noise.

Gareth looked at the other three members and then pointed at the droids, not knowing if the right choice of action was destroying them or not, on one hand, they didn't seem to be waking up yet, but they could turn on any second now, Gareth did take him out before he could call the alarm, but he really didn't trust those droids.

@Eccles @Nightfall @Rorren

 

[Marissa Hesse]

With Gareth nailing the droid before it could even wake up, it seemed as if it had missed its chance to signal its allies. Now the group were simply left inside the darkened hallway, watched by the sleeping eyes of the security droids who lined the walls. Marissa simply put a finger to her lips, indicating silence, and then began to move deeper into the compound.

The building itself was still largely intact, even after so many decades of disuse. Lights might have flickered, rain leaked in from spots in the roof, but for the most part they seemed to be moving through a building that was built to last. Though one who lacked some essential maintenance in the meantime.

All the better for them, in truth. If everything had been online no doubt their journey would have been a tougher one, and any worse and they'd be digging themselves inside, not walking.

Not that everything was simple though. Moving through one of the security doors deeper in, sparking wiring made it open and shut with a fierce speed all on its own, one that if they were caught between would have done some nasty damage to them. With a slippery floor and a shaky half-light from above, it wasn't exactly a pleasant experience. But nothing they couldn't handle jumping through, as Marissa did now, nearly catching her coat inside as she slid her frame through and into the bowels of the vault.

The space past the door felt older, untouched, as if few went here even when everything was still working. If her intuition was right, then they were near the vault.

They just needed a way in.

@Eccles @Versok

 

[Preef Callo]

Marissa stopped at what she clearly thought was the vault and at this point the rodian eased up, holstered his blaster and lit up a cigarette. "Well," he smiled towards Marissa and placed the smoking stick between his lips, "That was easy enough." The treasure of the Grand Moff was now theirs and the Zaa Fenn would use it to continue their domination of the Eriadu underworld and beyond. His left hand went for the door console and sure enough the after pressing it the door slowly creaked open to reveal...

....nothing.

Some empty crates, some broken artworks but mostly just a whole lot of dust. "Kriff," the cigarette almost dropped from his lips as his mouth opened in surprise. "guess this isn't the rumored vault," he muttered. Clearly the rumors had said it was a vault filled to the brim with art and other valuables, but this... this wasn't a vault.. maybe it was once, but right now it was nothing more than an ordinary empty room. It had clearly been emptied by the old Empire, or maybe even the First Order, ages ago..

Preef blew out some smoke in a failed circle and his shoulders dropped a little. "Big stronghold for nothing," he sighed. Thick durasteel walls, an interior that would survive a bombardment and possible a still functioning reactor down in its lowel levels.. maybe that could be their treasure?

Spoiler: OOC

So I rolled an 11/100 to find the vault, so there's no way we can get the treasure. I do think that based on this thread we can do a short mission pack (or single thread) to renovate it and make it a Zaa Fenn stronghold.

@Versok @Nightfall

 

[Gareth Gin]

Gareth waited patiently as Preef opened the door, but on the inside he was quite excited, he had always been quite adventurous so when he was told they would try and find riches, artifacts and art inside the vault of a legendary empire moff, he couldn't help but feel like that, he tried to look stoic, but there was this grin on him all the time, like the grin of a kid who was about to open a life day gift.

...Of course, Gareth went from grinning to groaning real quick after discovering that the vault was, indeed, empty, nothing in it, no credits, no art, no artifacts, just some dust "...Force damn it, knew this had been a bit too easy...Now what? " Gareh asked, not knowing what they wanted to do now, they not only didn't win anything, they also lost their speeder, they had to either get someone to pick them up or walk all the way back...Neither of those sounded like a pleasant time.