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[Cipher 7]

DOW

The bark of Seven’s blaster broke the silence of the warehouse. Smoke leaked from the muzzle lazily as his heavy lidded eyes stared down at his latest work.

Why do I do this? He thought as that familiar tang of disgust welled up in the back of his throat. He swallowed it down as a thin trickle of blood seeped from one of the numerous cuts across his target’s body. The duro had been tough, but it didn’t matter how tough you were. Once someone started collecting their pound of flesh, answers always followed.

Jacen pulled his lighter and with a quick flick of his wrist lit up a cigarra as he set to cleaning up what was left of the Duro.

BRRRR-BRRRR-BRRR!

Jacen frowned. The burner phone in his pocket was going off. That was odd considering he was deep undercover in enemy territory. He debated ignoring the call, but his quest for answers had awakened his curiosity and he couldn’t help but pull the device. His baby blues scanned the iridescent screen and his frown adopted an air of appraisal before breaking into a small smirk.

“This actually looks kinda fun,” he said to no one.

Seven sat at the dining room table in the safehouse cleaning his weapons while smoking a cigarra. He was dressed in military BDU’s and a tank top. His gear was meticulously set up across the table, and he was cleaning the twin barrel of his RSFK. His glanced at the chrono on his wrist, his accomplice should be here any minute. He’d worked with Four back when he’d first been elevated to Cipher and he wasn’t sure if he was excited or anxious to see them again.

He wondered if any of his old contacts we’re still around… he wondered if any of his old wing were still around. Then he ashed his cigarra and let the memories of the past fall away. All that mattered was his current objective.

@Remileah

 

[Cipher Four]

___Four stroked the smooth plasteel weapon case lying in her lap, emerald eyes transfixed on the murky reflection staring back at her. She turned her hand to face her palm upwards, observing the contours and creases. Her fingers drew in slowly, closing into a loose fist as the features on her face softened. With a quiet sigh, the woman momentarily closed her eyes and opened her hand again, her thumb rubbing against her fingers.

___"We have arrived, madame."

___Four's eyes opened as the droid monotonously announced their arrival. The speeder slowed before stopping in front of an unassuming-looking building, the safehouse where Four intended to meet Cipher Seven. She cleared her throat, opened the door, and stepped out with the case, pausing briefly to ensure she had all her belongings. After her cursory inspection, she began approaching the door to the building as the droid silently piloted the speeder away. Opening the door, she stepped inside and navigated through the abode to the secret entryway to the secure safehouse where Cipher Seven should be waiting.

___When the lift reached the bottom, the doors hissed as they opened. Four scanned the room, her eyes immediately focusing on the man sitting at the table. Her eyebrow twitched as she saw his attire, casting a momentary glance down at her choice of clothing strikingly similar to his. With a shake of her head, the Fiani stepped into the room.

___"Cipher Seven," she stated in greeting. "It's a pleasure to see you again."

@Zay

 

[Cipher 7]

As the door hissed open, Seven’s hand had slipped to the butt of his holdout blaster. The woman standing in the doorway wasn’t Four, at least, not the one he’d met. A good Cipher is an anxious one. General protocol in this situation was simple, he would initiate a known passphrase and she would respond with the answer. If she did not. He’d pull the blaster behind his back and put her down, and report the mission as a bust.

Was he being paranoid? Of course, that’s how he’d stayed alive this long.

“Before I call you Four, I have a question,” his heavy lidded gaze bore into her verdant eyes, “What do the shadows prove?”

Once she gave the correct answer he’d relax, taking his hand from the blaster behind his back, “Pleasure is all mine,” he responded absently as he returned to cleaning his weapons.

Across the table from him was a datapad with the mission details. He’d been over it a few times already and he wasn’t particularly keen on trusting someone to have his back from afar, even if it was another Cipher. Luckily, he didn’t have a choice. This job ran hand in hand with work he was already doing for the Cartel. The gang in the dossier was one of the names on Nor’baal’s majordomo’s list.

Once again it felt like he was juggling one to many live thermal detonators… Now he just hoped one of them didn’t go off early.

@Remileah

 

[Cipher Four]

___Cipher Seven's reaction came as no surprise to Cipher Four. The subtle widening of his eyes, the hurriedly recited inquiry to ask her to verify her identity, and his motion to draw the blaster from his belt—she knew it all, having been in positions similar to the one he was in now.

___"That you must have a dark side to be whole," Four answered without missing a beat. As Seven relaxed and repaid Four's greeting, she nodded. "Not the Cipher Four you were expecting, I assume," she commented rhetorically as she approached the table, setting the metal case on the floor next to the chair. The woman slipped gracefully into the seat, reaching out to take the datapad to review the mission details. She remained silent as she perused the information, and once Four was satisfied, she laid the datapad on the table again.

___"Everything here lines up with the briefing I was given," she sighed. "You're boots on the ground while I run overwatch. I've picked several locations after surveying layouts, footage, and pictures of the surrounding area," Four said, reaching into her jacket pocket. She removed a projector puck and tossed it onto the table. Once it settled, a shimmering blue hologram emanated from it, showing a three-dimensional recreation of their area of operation. On the hologram, several regions lit up in yellow.

___"These are the spots that provide the most coverage," Four elaborated. "Which one I go to depends on how you want to handle this: what direction you would prefer to approach from, which path you would prefer to follow, and whether or not you want to keep things covert or not," Four said, laying her hands on the table. "I've accounted for as many variables as I can, but I'm not beyond improvising should you find all of these routes disagreeable."

@Zay

 

[Cipher 7]

Seven didn’t respond to her statement as she approached. He didn’t need to hear the sound of his own voice confirming what she assumed.

Thankfully, things went right to business. He was tired of playing nice. He was tired of maintaining a facade. His time in the outer rim had given him a level of freedom he hadn’t experienced before. Orphan to delinquent, delinquent to pilot, pilot to cipher. He wondered how many more Four’s he was going to meet. Seven took a drag off his cigarra and then let his baby blues drift to the holoprojector flickering into life on the table.

Seven had been over the dossier a handful of times and had committed it to memory, but his eyebrow raised when Four produced a holopuck and started going over the finer details of the job. He had to stifle a chuckle as he listened. He’d forgotten what it was like to work with professionals. His jobs recently had been simple and bloody. That was all the average outer rim gun could handle.

A satisfied smile settled on his lips, “Covert is my preference.”

Seven reached out a hand and spun the projection around displaying a cluster of buildings just south of one of the possible objectives.

“I’ll start here, wait for dark, make entry, verify the operation, then flush out the trash…” His eyes flicked up to hers, “Then you take it out, sound good?”

It was Seven’s turn to show his cards, of course he only shared what he felt was necessary for success, wouldn’t be smart to just blab everything he’d learned in nearly a year of undercover work. He slipped his datapad out, and slid it to Four.

“This is Velchesmo,” on the screen was the visage of a Deveronian with a wicked sneer and a scar down the right side of his face. “He’s the head of this op. He’s been a pain in the supreme slug’s ass for a couple years now, dude’s only gotten more bold since Peef’s retirement.”

He took another drag from his cigarra, then said, “I have a few questions I need to ask him, if you'd drop him without killing him, I’d owe you one.”

They weren’t friends, and the mission was pretty implicit about Velchemso’s death, but he needed an edge on Nor’Baal’s Majordomo and he had a pretty good hunch this devaronian was the one to give it to him.

@Remileah