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[Arla]

Arla glanced over at all the equipment that Envy had prepared and tilted her head to the side.

Are you coming in with me? she asked, a bit surprised. Envy gave an impression to Arla that they were more of a "stand off and perform" type.

Arla moved over to look at the blueprints and data logs that Envy had constructed, examining them closely and trying to commit them to memory as much as possible.

No, the front door wasn't an option, but scaling the outside could potentially be an option for her, though she wouldn't admit it yet. So was teleporting to the roof, though, also not her preference as a first choice.

She looked over the devices that Yvon handed her and stashed them in a small pouch along her belt. Okay, she said, trying to think about how all of this was going to work.

Are there any surrounding buildings taller than it that I could get roof access from? Or drop down onto it? she asked, eyes still sweeping over the readouts.

Do you have an idea of where the leadership is? she asked. She guessed not because otherwise it probably would have been in the briefing.

I can go alone. Set up these triangles and then plug in the stick, she said, and that really was about as much as she was comprehending of the technological side of things.

She holstered all of her weapons save one duskblade that she left behind, and moved over to the window again, looking at her best entry point.

 

[Yvon]

The question of whether Yvon was going with or not, well... They weren't surprised considering they had worn a full kit as well. "Not if I don't have to." They said truthfully. It was much more comfortable to support from afar, but sometimes even a skilled slicer like Yvon had to get their hands dirty. "Hope for the best, plan for the worst."

An age old adage that Yvon always tried to keep in mind. Better to be in their kit and ready to fight instead of being caught with their figurative pants down.

"I've narrowed down possible locations for the leadership to two likely locations." Tapping the datapad to light up two specific areas within the stronghold, one on the second floor, the other, a whole segment that lit up underneath the building.

"This room here seems to be a hardened executive office, with a large bedroom attached to it, seems likely to be the targets primary residence and work space." They said, pointing out the second floor rooms. "Alternatively, there seems to be an underground level to the base, though I was unable to retrieve any information on what it might contain. Storage, bunker space. Not sure. If he's not in the primary residence than that would be the next best."

Yvon didn't like relying on this much guesswork. There was one thing they knew though for certain. "I can however confirm that the target is in the building." They played with the datapad for a moment to project surveillance camera footage from the hotel room of a red skinned twi'lek entering the building. A readout with information about the man as well as the mugshot of a red and tattooed twi'lek also floated for Arla's view "He entered the stronghold last night, hasn't left as far as I have been able to confirm.

"The roof of this building should be tall enough... Depending on what you're planning." The room they were in was already slightly above the height of the stronghold roof, with several more floors to go up still. Yvon watched Arla strap up and peak the window, noticing the remaining blade on the table and wandering over to examine it, noticing it's excellent craftsmanship. "May I?" Yvon asked, referring to the blade.

@Phoenix

 

[Arla]

Those were words that Arla could get behind. Proper preparation could often change the outcome of a situation. Arla only nodded in agreement but said nothing else for the moment.

Those are not close together, she said, looking at the fact that the two possible locations were on completely separate levels. It also might mean that she could catch them in movement, though. It was a lot of distance for them to cover if the alarms went off as well.

She'd have to make due either way.

That's good, she said in response to the confirmation that the target was in the building. That was an important piece and Arla looked down at the improvised targeting package. The red-skinned Twi'lek was who she was looking for then.

Envy wandered over to the other duskblade and Arla nodded.

Yes, be careful. It is very sharp, she said.

As long as the roof is above that one, she said, heading toward the door unless she was stopped. Arla had to be honest, they made quite a good team. Envy putting together routes, targeting information, and intel, and Arla executing on it.

I'm on channel 5.1, she said, indicating the comm channel for them to contact each other on.

 

[Yvon]

"I'd be disappointed if it wasn't." Yvon said, offering a slight smile with the words as they picked up the weapon, testing it's weight and balance. They moved into a guard position, flowed through a few moves before nodding and setting it down.

"A good weapon." Yvon said approvingly. It had been some time since they had held a swords, not since leaving Begali. Memories from home started to well up in the stoic slicer but were quickly quashed. Now was not the time for sentiment.

Arla left the room and Yvon locked the door in several places behind her before returning to the desk and donning their helmet. It only took a moment to tune to Arla's com channel.

"Test." Yvon said, leaving the voice scrambler off. Once they had confirmation that they were in contact, Yvon would head over the the window, peaking through the blinds.

"Leave one of the signal boosters on the roof when you get there." Yvon stated. It would be easiest to connect to the initial booster there, giving them what would hopefully be a solid signal into the building.

@Phoenix

 

[Arla]

Confirmed, she said in response to the test call. She wasn't used to having an eye in the sky or someone who was at her back or in her ear, but that was okay.

She made her way up to their own roof and broke out into the breezing night air now that the sun had set. She had no doubt that the criminals were probably even more active now than during the day, but at least the darkness would conceal her initial entry, which was what she was more worried about.

Understood, she said as she looked across the gap. It wasn't too difficult of a jump, really, but once she was inside, she knew that things could turn form 0 to 100 real quick. Well, that was why she was going for the stealthy approach to begin with.

She took a deep breath, already feeling the adrenaline beginning to perfuse her limbs and cause her stomach to tighten up.

She reached out to the Force, letting it flow into her, forcing it to flow into her as she took several steps back before leaping across the gap. She let it wrap up around her, slowing her fall before her feet slapped against the ground of the roof followed a moment later by both of her hands.

She leapt to her feet and started moving with haste toward the rooftop door, the crunching sound of gravel under her feet causing her to wince with every step, but it was inevitable. She moved over and hit the controls for the door that leapt open to the smell of stale air and cigarra smoke.

 

[Yvon]

Yvon stood at the blinds, helmet hud zooming in as they waited for the show to start. Once Arla hit the ground and activated the booster the slicer would return to their seat and get to work, but until that happened there was little they could do except watch. They were surprised when Arla came into view. Yvon wasn't sure how they expected Arla to cross the distance, but simply jumping and then landing a bit roughly wasn't one of the thoughts that they had had. They were left with only questions as they returned to their station.

Returning to their chair, Yvon started their scanner searching for the signal booster's encrypted signal. So far no dice but if Arla wanted any support then she would have to activate it at some time.

The door slid open in front of Arla, the smell of stale indoor air and cigarra smoke wafting out into the open night. The stairwell down was dimly lit, narrow, and seemingly rarely tread. A noise filtered through the lone door that led into the top floor of the building, loud enough to drift up the stairs and into the night but too muted to tell if it was music, machinery, or something else.

@Phoenix

 

[Arla]

Arla dropped the booster at the entrance to the door and headed down inside the building. The stale air only became stronger, but she was unperturbed, instead letting the Force flow through her to gain a sense of the world around her.

She reached down and pulled her hunting knife from its sheathe as she stalked along to the upper floor, heading in the direction of the offices that she was told were supposed to be on the second floor.

Stairs? she whispered into her comlink, hoping to find the proper direction to get below. For the moment, she saw no one on this level, but she knew that wouldn't last long. Wherever the noise was, she was sure the people were there, too, but for the moment she wasn't at the noise yet.

 

[Yvon]

As soon as the booster came on Yvon got to work. It only took a brief moment to lock in on the signal of the booster. Issuing a scan through the device, Yvon quickly realized there was an issue before Arla could even make it down the stairs.

"Stop, don't go further." Yvon said, hoping they got the word to Arla in time. "I'm detecting a camera on the other side of the door. Give me a moment." Words said, Yvon tapped away at the keys as they isolated the camera's signal back to wherever it was sending it's signal. After a few moments of running algorithms to break through the camera's firewall, Yvon was in.

"I'm going to run a loop on the camera." Which they proceeded to do as they grabbed a ten second recording of the empty hallway beyond and ran it back, over and over. "You're clear, empty hallway ahead."

With that done Yvon started attempting to decrypt the main firewall in order to access the greater camera system. That would take time however and Arla's request for stairs was met with a brief pause as Yvon called up the holodiagram of the building.

"Down the hall, right, left. There should be a service stairway on the right side. Careful though, I haven't gained access to the rest of the camera's yet." They warned as they continued to attempt just that.

@Phoenix

 

[Arla]

Arla spat a curse as Envy declared that there was a camera on the other side of the door. She stopped short and looked around, hoping she hadn't triggered it already. But this was why it paid to have a slicer.

Moving, Arla said, hurrying forward as soon as she'd been given the all clear.

Right and left, she told herself, drawing it out in her mind as she committed the instructions to memory once again. As she moved to the stairs to go another level down, she hid another of the signal boosters, deciding for one on every floor or close to it.

She reached out with the Force, letting her mind sweep the halls ahead and sensing... something off. She wasn't sure what it was, but it was like a surge of energy flowing through the area. Something mechanical, perhaps? A droid? She couldn't be sure.

Can you see the next hall? she asked.

 

[Yvon]

Yvon watched Arla move away from the camera, down the hall to disappear around the bend on their screen, being able to see the un-looped version of the footage. The algorithms were clocking through hundreds of variable codes a second. Everything was going well... until Yvon's screen blanked out to be replaced by two words.

Game Over​

"Fuck!" Yvon screamed at the screen before yelling into the coms. "We've been made! They have a slicer too, a good one. It's all sideways! Get out!" The Echani practically yelled into their comlink.

"We'vshhehrehhheade! Thescrreeahhhchhchhchlicer too, shehehhcii good kkkkkhhh. sshhhrreeekkkdeways! kkkkchchhhhshshhout!" Was all Arla would hear before a security droid busted through a door, turning it's head to train it's photoreceptors on Arla before rushing at the infiltrator.

Yvon slammed their fist on the table before eyeing the cameras. So far so... No, there. A hit squad of Paladin's were rushing across the street from the stronghold towards the apartment complex. That was all they got to see before the camera's went black too, the various images replaced by laughing pixelated skulls. Grabbing the cables that connected the rig to the apartment's power supply, every screen went black as Yvon ripped them free before busting open the casing of the memory module and yanking the hard drive.

"Alright. Alright. I'm gonna. I'm gonna kill them." Yvon said to themselves after gathering their thoughts. They turned and swept Arla's dusk blade from the table where she had left it. The door bolts were quickly unlocked and Yvon exited the room, flicking a throwing knife down the hall where it stabbed into a camera that they had set up themselves only a day prior. All that preparation. All that time and money. All wasted. "I'm gonna kill that fucker." The hot anger was slowly draining from their voice, beginning to be replaced by a cold sense of purpose as they proceeded down the hallway.

Roll to avoid detection by opposing slicer: 1/20
Roll for camera slicing attempt: 4/20

@Phoenix

 

[Arla]

Arla had no idea what Envy was saying, but the intensity of the tone and the panic in the Force told her that something was wrong.

Envy? she asked, but received no response. Instead, she was greeted by the sudden appearance of a droid that was all lethal intent. She reached out her free hand and sent a telekinetic blast into the droid, but the speed of the conjuration meant that it did little more than knock the droid back a few steps. It was sturdy, and that was bad.

Arla swore and leapt back as it came back at her again, swinging with both arms as she ducked under its arm and sidestepped, slipping her knife away and pulling the Force to her.

Her fingers curled up in a sign, and she let the condensation in the air solidify, summoning up a beam of ice and thrusting it forward toward the droid's neck. It bounced off the back of the droid's armored head and Arla cursed again.

Her anger and frustration poured through her and she channeled it into the Force. The droid became outlined by green fire as she held it in place, letting the full weight of her rage crush down on it. Metal began to twist and bend as it lifted off the ground, crunching pieces together until it was a ball of twisted metal.

She didn't even have time to recover when the door at the far end of the hall burst open to the sight of several more thugs, blasters up and firing.

She leapt back and to the side, doing a beautiful dance of evasion against them as she scrambled back to the far end and up the stairs she had descended.

Well, this is bad.

 

[Yvon]

Yvon recovered their knife from the now busted camera and made their way to the floors service panel. They flung it open, perhaps a little harder than necessary, exposing the circuitry and wiring that channeled power and communications to the floor. A few moments were spent messing with the power until they had a few bare wires ripped free, carefully. Touching the wires together in sequence, the lights on the floor flickered on and off in a sequence. Yvon hoped that Arla was back on the roof by now, and if she was, she would see the lights on the floor flicker on and off. Naval code that indicated distress. Even if she didn't understand the codes sequence, it would be clear that something was amiss.

Satisfied, Yvon let the wires hang and walked away, flicking on their low light vision as the hall fell into darkness. The kill team was likely closing in by now and if they were anything like a trained group, they would probably be coming in from two directions. Glancing one way down the hallway towards the turbolift, then the other towards the stairs, Yvon chose the latter. Swiftly running towards the stairs they got there just in time to hear booted feet rushing up the winding staircases that led up the apartment complex.

They waited in the darkness of the floor, turning their low light vision off, slim against the wall next to the stairwell door as the steps grew closer. They would know what floor Yvon was on, but they would be walking from a lit stairwell into a darkened hallway.

The door slid open and the point man stepped through and into Yvon's blade. The Echani stabbed into the man's throat as he pushed into the dark hallway. They stepped into the stairwell, pushing the man forward to tumble back, dead, onto his fellow gang members.

A blaster bolt flew wildly, another absorbed by the dead man as Yvon continued forwards, throwing the knife to hit the rear man in the shoulder before leaping forward and slamming into the second man of the group, dusk blade first. Panic and blood filled the hallway as Yvon tumbled past the third and fourth man and onto the landing below, rolling up into a crouch to turn and slash at the Paladin who had just tugged their knife free from his chest. The dusk blade carved a swath out of the back of both his thighs and he collapsed to the ground, blood flowing. Yvon drew a second knife and prepared to finish the group as the three remaining Paladin's rounded on the slicer's new position.

Roll to ambush kill team: 13/20

@Phoenix

 

[Arla]

Arla was just booking it now. This was not working out as planned, and while she weighed the potential of simply powering her way through the base to kill her target, she knew that intelligence was probably better than brute force.

She scrambled back to the roof and looked to the apartment roof. She let the Shadow wrap around her, its green flames enveloping her as it swallowed up her entire vision, and when it faded, she was on the roof of the apartment, making her way back to the slicer.

She didn't know why she was drawn back, but she could sense that things within were wrong.

She wasted no time, following the sound of the blasters as she pulled the duskblade from its sheathe. As the other Paladin's rounded the corner on Envy, Arla slammed into them from the side. Her blade caught the first one across the throat before they even saw her, and her other hand shot up, sending a hail of conjured ice shards into the face and chest of the next man.

That left only the next one - the one closest to Envy - left that needed killing. If the slicer didn't get to him in time, Arla would "happily" finish her grim and bloody work.

 

[Yvon]

Yvon didn't know where Arla came from, or how she had gotten back that fast. The questions didn't even register in their mind however as the woman slammed into the Paladin's with lethal fury. Yvon didn't slow down for a second though, not with another blaster moving to point at them.

The dusk blade lashed out, catching the barrel of the blaster and knocking it away as a blaster bolt erupted from it's barrel to slam into the wall. The blade swished around and down as Yvon closed the distance, lacerating the man's blaster arm before ending him with a thrust to the throat as they stepped in.

"They counter slic- More of them!" Yvon started to explain before ducking back around the corner going down as blaster bolts erupted from upstairs to spatter against the wall. The other half of the kill squad must have made it up the elevator and not finding their target in the darkened hallway, moved on the rest of their teams position.

"Run!" Yvon shouted, motioning down the stairs. The two of them were in a dangerously bad position now, downstairs from a squad of what the slicer could only assume were hardened gangsters. There was a flick of concern that crossed over their face as they saw ice shards protruding from the face and chest of one of the dead, but no time for questions as boots pounded on the steps of the stairs leading down to them.

@Phoenix

 

[Arla]

For a slicer, Envy seemed to be able to handle things pretty well. That was another good thing in the slicer's favor.

Envy started saying something, but before they could go on, the fighting broke out again, and Arla couldn't disagree: it was time for them to go.

We need to get out of this building, she said, but not just the building, the entire area. They couldn't afford to be near a criminal stronghold when they'd just stirred up the hornet's nest.

Arla darted down the stairs, bursting onto the bottom floor and heading in the direction of the alley on the far side of the apartment building from the gangster hideout. They received an immediate look of shock from a homeless man in the alley with their dripping bloody blades and battle garb, but he seemed to know better than to try to get in the way.

Arla scrambled down the alley and skidded to a halt, looking at a dumpster and hoisting herself inside. Arla was no fan of hiding in a dumpster, but Envy would find it absolutely appalling. It would, however, get them out of the line of fire.

 

[Yvon]

Yvon agreed wholeheartedly with Arla's words. The mission was scrubbed, at least for the time being. They needed to get out. The pair booked it down the stairs, crossing the apartment lobby and rushing out of the emergency exit to the rear of the apartment building. They weren't sure how far behind the Paladin's were and there was no time to turn around and check. Speed was of the essence.

Into an ally, past a homeless man, around the corner they ran making their way further from the stronghold. Yvon's stomach curled as Arla hopped into a dumpster and they almost kept running. After a moments hesitation they jumped in as well, landing amidst the weeks trash before closing the lid behind them. Thankfully, Yvon's helmet kept the majority of the stench out, but the germaphobic slicer knew that the smell would probably linger in the helmet for days.

Skin crawling with disgust, Yvon waited with Arla silently as footsteps rushed past the dumpster. They couldn't wait couldn't wait couldn't wait to hop out and finally breath fresh air. But they had to. This field of work had certainly taken them many interesting places. From sewage lines to dumpsters.

@Phoenix

 

[Arla]

And they waited and waited and waited and waited. Seconds ticked by into minutes, and Arla started counting in her head. She knew how easy it was to lose track of time in high stress situations and what one could estimate was five minutes was actually half that time. She wasn't going to leap out too early and be killed.

By the time she finally counted to 300 and all footsteps had resolved, she finally propped the lid up slightly and peered outside. There was no sign of anything or anyone, and she flipped the lid back before jumping out, holstering her weapons.

We need to get out of here and back to the docking bays, she said, knowing her ship would be a safe haven unless Envy decided that there was somewhere else that would be more suited to holding the pair while they regrouped.

 

[Yvon]

The minutes ticked by, the stench of rotting garbage slowly leaking into Yvon's suit and helmet. The time was spent clutching the bloody dusk blade in one hand while Yvon desperately ran over everything that had happened in their head. What had they missed, where had they gone wrong. Right from the beginning probably.

Arla gave the all clear and they hopped out of the dumpster and back into the empty alley. For how long it would be empty was unknown however and Yvon nodded in agreement at Arla's decision. "I don't have a safe house prepped, your ship is the best bet." They hoped it was the best bet. Whoever had sliced their system back at the apartment... They were good. Yvon had cut the power and pulled the hard drive to hopefully prevent them from getting any useful information, it had been a blank to begin with. But who knew what they had managed to grab before Yvon had cut them off.

"This way" Yvon said, motioning Arla to follow as they led the way through one of their more discreet pre planned routes to the hangars. Yvon was obsessed with information, preparation, back up plans, so of course they had several exit strategies. Perhaps they had been too cocky not to plan for a failure and have a fallback position. Not a mistake they would let themselves make again if they could help it.

@Phoenix

 

[Arla]

Back to the ship they went, and the trip - fortunately - went without incident. Arla climbed aboard and let Envy come up behind her.

I'm going to wash this smell off. You can use the spare shower in the guest room, she said. After the world's fastest shower - because she didn't really trust someone else in her ship - Arla reemerged with wet hair and clean clothes, heading to the kitchenette and starting to make food.

Whenever Envy finally emerged, Arla would comment.

Tell me what happened, she said. Clearly the cover had been blown, and from what Arla could tell, it wasn't on her end. They needed to plan and decide the course of action from there.

 

[Yvon]

Thankfully the trip back to the ship was uneventful. Yvon followed Arla up and into the belly of the beast, only a little bit paranoid, glancing over their shoulder.

Yvon nodded as Arla pointed them in the direction of the spare shower. Not one to waste time, especially when it came to burning off gods knew what bacteria had crawled their way into their suit, the Echani took a fast and scalding shower that left them pink with heat from near burns.

Not about to crawl back into the stinking jumpsuit, Yvon settled for the slim pants and shirt they had been wearing underneath. So far they couldn't detect a hint of the garbage stench but they weren't sure whether some little germs had hopped a ride or not. Exiting out of the heat, Yvon stepped right into the fire as Arla started to grill them. Not unexpected or unreasonable.

"The Paladin's must have an in house slicer. Damn good one too. They must have rode the signal booster back to my rig. Locked me out before I could do anything." Yvon shook their head as they pulled out a datapad and brought the metrics on the base back up. "I've been thinking about it since..." They admitted. Someone else had got the best of them and that pissed them off severely

"I've been trying to figure out what I missed, and I think this is it." They pulled up power metrics from the city, a graph springing up for the city sector. "The power draw from that region is high compared to other sectors of the city, especially considering the general poverty of the area. Remember that basement level? I think perhaps it's a big server room for some crazy big slicer's rig."

@Phoenix