Open Coruscant Rangers, Assemble!

[Douglas Hudson]

That horrid press briefing done, Douglas had summoned as many Rangers that were in the area as he could back to base. The order was to meet in the internal briefing room, where assignments were usually handed out to whoever volunteered. If no one picked up a case, Rangers usually got voluntold to do them. As much as the Chief didn't want to be so hard to people that he knew were already having a tough job out there, the pursuit of law and order didn't let up and allow crimes to just be ignored. That was perhaps one of the best parts of being the Chief of the Sector Rangers, only HE could tell his men and women what to do and set his own rules. He'd be as easy or as hard as he needed to and always kept his door open to problems and complaints. It was usually the newbies that did the latter, with most being either laughed out of his office or told to close the door as he ripped them a new one. Rangers that played games usually didn't last too long, something he was quite fine with.

Today, though, was a bit different than normal. There was something serious going on, which meant that it had spiraled out of control already and was a source of panic for the people the Rangers were supposed to protect. That's why the call had gone out to everyone in the area who could make it, with a holoconference set up so those who weren't could attend. Anyone who couldn't make either request would get talked to later. Douglas was going to make sure that no Ranger was left out of this briefing. He looked at the time, seeing that it was a few minutes before what he'd given his Rangers as the starting point. He picked up his datapad to get a few details up and ready to deliver, idly noticing anyone filtering into the room to be on time. It was important that the Law was always on time, of course, though even better if it was early. He hoped to the high heavens that he wouldn't have any latecomers this time. Not for this.

[[OOC: Open to Sector Rangers only. A good chance for the rank and file to meet and hear from the boss directly.]]

 

[Corran Velt]

It is important that the Law always be on time. If a meeting started at the hour, it was of the utmost importance to arrive at least ten minutes before. If one wanted a meeting to run on schedule, you needed to be ahead of schedule yourself. Corran entered the briefing room with his uniform as pressed and professional as he could appear. His shirt was tucked in and jacket buttoned up to the collar. Boots shined and pants creased. It wasn't often that Sector Rangers were called back to Coruscant after all. Besides, it felt good to be back in the Core Worlds after his time on the Outer Rim. People obeyed the rules on a more consistent basis and you were less likely to get shot in the back at a bar. Depending on the level of Coruscant you strayed to, anyway.

The briefing room had a few individuals already present; some sitting down and chatting in low voices or others moving about with various duties. Aides for Chief Hudson, most likely, or perhaps just office staff for Headquarters in general. Unfortunately, Corran didn't see anyone he knew in particular. "I'm sure those cowboys will 'mosey on in' whenever they feel like," he grumbled under his breath. With some time left before the briefing began, the rust-blond Ranger spied a spot in the middle of the seating area that was far enough away from others as to allow seating for others near him but also be close enough to the front of the room to get a good look at Chief Hudson and listen in on their new orders - should they come. Corran sat down with good posture, for respect and longevity of his spine both, and waited for the room to fill.

 

[Kal Zyn Dross]

Kal managed to get into the briefing room just in time, cursing himself for almost being late. He'd really gotten his head into the investigation recently, trying to reach out to his friend Max with the Jedi to try to set up some kind of interview. He wasn't going to try to arrest anyone, he just didn't understand everything as much as he wanted to. The man seemed trustworthy, though he'd still try to verify what would be told to him just in case. With a case this big, he couldn't just take people at their word or assume anything about anyone. Literally, the wellbeing of the people they protected was at stake.

As he sat down, the Tiss'Sharl looked around and noticed how...empty the room was. He glanced over at Douglas, knowing the man would notice the lack of people as well. He visibly winced, knowing that the Chief could get quite angry for such things. This wasn't something to just blow off, it was an order from the Chief himself. Heads could roll, though hopefully they wouldn't. They needed as many Rangers as they could get, and perhaps there was an excuse. Maybe they were already working on the case, or had been assigned something already to work on. Hopefully that was what was happening. He waited for the man to start speaking, his datapad out to take notes.

 

[Leon Terrick]

Leon sighed as he hurried through the halls of HQ hoping to make it to the meeting before it actually began. He wore a new tan jacket that had white sleeves and the Sector Ranger Emblem on the bicep of either arm. His clothes under the jacket were freshly laundered, his boots freshly polished and his beard had a fresh trim. While he had a reputation of being a 'Cowboy' while in the field, he knew how to act and dress for the occasion. He reaches the door just as it was closing from another Ranger entering it and squeezes through just behind the Triss'Sharl, pausing just inside the door to look around. The room was pretty empty but he did spot a familiar face in Corran. He removes his hat and runs his other hand through his hair before nodding toward the Chief.


"Pardon Chief. Sorry for the tardiness." He says before making his way to sit near Corran, nodding at his fellow Ranger. "Good to see you, Corran." He says softly as he sits down, laying his hat on the table in front of him and turning his attention to the Chief. He knew what this meeting was about and hopefully it would give them all some better insight on how they needed to act toward the Jedi. He had met a few and had nothing but good experiences with them. Take Oren and Mila, together with Zad the four of them took down a hefty slave shipment and saved a lot of innocent people together. He would have to wait and see what was expected of him moving forward.

 

[Zad Ruzed]

Music OOC

Spoiler

Zad Ruzed

Spoiler

If Zad Ruzed were to ask himself how he had found himself strolling through the streets of Coruscant, he would probably end up with the same answer: his speeder was due for repairs and he didn’t feel like catching a cab. In his mind, the reasoning was reasonable, as some swoop gang had shot up his vehicle and the last taxi that served him had an arrest served in the taxi, so there was that. But, as he walked across the pavement, he fought to deny the truth. Dang Corellians and their Corellian whiskey. The spacers just had to pour him another shot, and then another, and then another, on his first visit to Ke-Ke’s Cantina and their tenth visit to both it and Coruscant. No, stars forbid you leave the Sector Ranger alone. No, just thank him for his services, buy him drinks, and talk about boats all night. He shook his head at the whiskey, the Corellian boys, his own shameful self and the look that Douglas Hudson would give him upon first sight. Here we go.

There he went, up the terribly tall steps, flicking his cigarette upon the ground and hearing some Ithorian winge over some cigarette striking his three-toed foot. The outside chorus was lost to thin air as Zad stepped through the entrance of SR HQ, greeted doll-faced Daulfay at the reception desk, and took a lift to the level of meet-here-and-talk-stuff, his headache going up with him. When the elevator doors opened, he popped a pill that Daulfay had given him like the doll she was and descended the corridor to the bottomless pit that awaited him. Gah, what’s wrong with me? I should be content. Content to know that we’re finally going to plan all the fine ways to kick some doors in and the faces behind them. Jedi, though? No. Not from what I've seen. I just don't buy it. I just...I...I need to pee.

One restroom break later and Zad found himself outside the briefing room, gazing at the door as though he might have knocked on it and ran away as much as opened it and walked inside. He decided to do the latter. Sure enough, Chief Douglas Hudson was there at the ready like Zad’s former drill sergeant, watching the datapad with one eye and the door with the other. With a whistle of relief under his breath, Zad looked for a seat, content with knowing that, by some universal miracle, he was on time. Ah, looky here.

Smiling too broadly for the amount of booze left in his system, he hovered over an aisle and sized up the two men sitting down: Leon Terrick and Corran Velt. A universe that’s somehow still small. “Fellas,” he acknowledged them, sinking into a nearby desk. “Chief,” he nodded Hudson’s way, tone suddenly as serious as his face. Placing his datapad on the desk beside a bottle of water, Zad looked around the room, spotting aides and adjutants, and a Tiss’shar who looked about as ready to eat crime as Zad was to eat bacon. Ahh, that was it. He recalled. There was bacon in the puke.

 

[Douglas Hudson]

Okay, at least SOME people managed to show up. He'd have to have a stern talk to anyone who missed the briefing, though for the moment he was giving them the benefit of the doubt in that they were watching the holofeed he was sending out. Or they were working on what they were about to start talking about. To those that DID arrive, though, he had a briefing to start. The time had just moved on to the appointed minute, so he cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. With a flick of the finger he put the pictures and video from his datapad onto a holoprojector behind him. It was the same as from the Hutt's broadcast, what they already had but hadn't released due to the ongoing investigation.

"All right, let's get this started, I don't have a lot of time. Literally the whole Alliance is breathing down our necks and I will be DAMNED if we let the HUTTS of all people keep ahead of us. I know most of you know, but we got to follow protocol. Not long ago the individual caught on the recording here used strange powers and weapons to kill Durr the Hutt's son, along with other victims as collateral damage. His motives are unknown, yet we have some Rangers already directly following this man's trail. For now, he is Suspect One, our priority target for apprehension. If you come across any information regarding him, report it immediately. If you try to arrest him, exercise extreme caution. He can shoot kriffing lightning from his fingertips, I don't want one of you to come across a morgue slab on my watch." He looked each of the Rangers in the eye at this, stern but caring. He felt like he was their father figure sometimes, which only made him want to drink more than he already did. Years sober, though, ever since took the job.

"Secondary to the main investigation, we have...this." He touched a button on his datapad, changing the picture to a Jedi that had been captured on camera. Some lines of data appeared, detailing what they knew of the sect and their armaments. "This is a Jedi, yes, the same as the old stories about the fall of the Old Republic. They're apparently trying to rebuild in the Outer Rim. I've had reports that some of us have been working cases with them, but other than that we don't know much about them at all. They're the only ones we know that have the same kind of weaponry and abilities that match Suspect One. I want some Rangers to go find them and question them about anything you can: what the hell their power is, the reason for their weaponry choices, any creeds or ideals, anything that could help us understand the mindset of the criminal. Seems they have a base somewhere in the Outer Rim, but we've had sightings all over the galaxy at this point. They're the only ones who seem anything similar to Suspect One, so if you feel it is warranted bring them in. Again, exercise extreme caution. Anyone with these kinds of powers can be a wild card. Now, before I continue, any questions?"

@Die Shize @Grifter @Insalius @TerranSteel

 

[Trys Aran]

Ooc: phone post from a cruise ship. Sorry guys.

Trys had managed to shuffle in directly before the chief began to speak. In truth, she was buried between leading the investigation for the serial killer that had been wreaking havoc in the lower districts, and now she was pulled into investigating people that shot lightning out of their hands.

She was dressed in a simple jacket and pants, nothing really distinguishing her from a civilian outside of the badge and a concealed blaster. She was partial to the detective demeanor more than the space cowboy type. Trys hadn’t had the luxury of meeting many of her fellow Rangers recently as she had been operating off world.

After the chief finished speaking, Trys stepped forth, “Chief, I have some additional insight,” She began. She pulled out a datapad and projected it to a bigger screen for all to see. They would see footage from a prison where two people burst out and immediately used lightsabers and lightning on police guard, “This was taken from a prison on Dathomir. I was following up on the trail of a being similar to the one we saw on the Hutt footage. There were also similar reports from a warehouse here on Coruscant itself.”

Trys didn’t reveal yet that she personally knew Talak. In fact, she had been drugged and actually present in a different room during the footage of Talak butchering the Hutt that now made rounds across the galaxy. She wanted to figure out what to do with that information first before exposing it to everyone.

“Everyone,” Trys looked around the room, “I have reasons to suspect that there is more than one of these beings. And... it feels like there be a group of some sort. This is entirely guesswork at this point, but it’s worth exploring,” Trys turned to face the chief, “During the Dathomir investigation, a man came and introduced himself as a Jedi. We didn’t believe him but he demonstrated abilities that suggested such. He referred to those violent criminals escaping the prison as ‘dark siders’,” Trys shrugged, “I’m not sure how much stock to put in any of this, but I’m certain there are pockets of people like that with some violent and others not. One thing is for certain...They have the ability to be truly dangerous.”

 

[Corran Velt]

Corran’s predictions were only half true. Leon Terrick happened to arrive right on time. Punctual. Corran liked that. The other Ranger had also spiffed himself up quite a bit from the garb he wore on Randon. When Leon greeted him and sat down, Corran gave a quick nod, “Likewise, Mr. Terrick. You clean up well.” For a moment there, the blond-haired Ranger was concerned that he would have to sit through this briefing alone.

Mere moments later, the rugged gunslinger Zad Ruzed sauntered into the room. The great irony was that just as Leon had put on his best, Zad appeared mildly disheveled to Corran. “Hair of the dog, you think?” He whispered out of the corner of his mouth to Leon, not really expecting an answer.

The Chief began almost as soon as the final entrances sat down. Precise. Corran liked that too. His briefing was to the point and, well, brief. The assailant and murderer of Durr the Hutt’s son was titled Suspect One. Chief Hudson wanted the target brought into custody, but not at the expense of his Rangers lives. His gaze seemed serious about that too. In his private thoughts, Corran didn’t care one iota about some dead Hutt lord’s son. Why should a Ranger care if some underworld boss got mixed up with some religious fanatics and wound up dead? Some beings in the universe might be better for it. It was the worried, if not panicked, general public that was the issue. If they needed protection, or illusion of security, from saber-wielding cultists, that sat with Corran just fine.

The Chief of the Sector Rangers moved onto the secondary priority - the Jedi. A few images went by showing the laser-sword of the Jedi and what information they had on the sect. The Jedi Order was to be investigated - thoroughly. What powers they had, why they used such unique weapons, their ideology. Everything to get to the bottom of their intentions and what those like them are capable of.

Corran couldn’t help but dwell back on Ember Blaze, the Jedi that had saved and healed him on Ryloth. She had powers and abilities that appeared super-human, if not fantastical. There was no way he could locate her, but it did grant him an understanding of what he would be up against if Corran ever did confront another member of the Jedi.

As soon as Chief Hudson had finished his briefing, another voice called out from another part of the room. Corran turned in his seat and leaned back to see a woman. She looked tough. Not the frontier-type tough but the could-knock-you-flat-in-a-dive-bar type tough. Claiming she had additional information on the situation, a datapad she held was soon presenting new footage. Her explanation of the footage came to a critical point. A Jedi on Dathomir had warned of ‘dark siders.’ Beings with similar powers and weaponry, but not of their group.

To Corran, that opened more questions than answers. Were the dark siders part of the Jedi? Were they a splinter group or internal coup? Ideological deviants or another organization entirely?

The female Ranger was certain about one thing: these dark siders were extremely dangerous. “Think you could take down something like that?” Corran elbowed Leon next to him as the footage displayed lightning shocking the police guard. Regardless, they would have to figure a way to. Corran waited for the Chief to proceed with this new information.

 

[Douglas Hudson]

Douglas had been just about to move on to assignments when Trys had spoken up. He'd been waiting for a status report from her and this couldn't have come at a better time. Technically it was bad news, the possibility of a hidden group of criminals with powers that outclassed the common gangster by far, but it was SOMETHING to work on, a point of direction. "That's some good work. I want a report of what you've found out on my desk as soon as you can, and I'm assigning you to this case as lead investigator, Ranger Aran. Anyone find anything out, send it to her and copy me in." He gave her a nod of approval, perhaps one of the most he showed to anyone. He wasn't one to be overly sappy.

The Chief's face went more stern, though, as he continued speaking. "We still don't know what we're working with, though, so we still need an investigation into the Jedi. I've read reports of some Rangers working with these Jedi for one reason or another. I cannot discourage that any stronger, going forward. To the public, they don't distinguish between these Jedi and 'Darksiders', so us working with people that can use these powers and weapons will make it seem like we're allied with them somehow. We're supposed to be the symbols of law and order for the Alliance, so just like if we were to work with the Cartels to bring someone down, it would look bad. The people lose trust in us and we're all done. If I hear of any of you working with a Jedi going forward, I will NOT be lenient" He knew some of his Rangers would not like this order, but the public perception was more important than some hurt feelings. If they lost the trust of the people, the Rangers were done.

There was one last thing Douglas wanted to order, something he'd been mulling over for a while before Suspect One's little rampage. Perhaps it was time to capitalize on things. He hated to use a crisis like this for these kinds of reasons, but he had to work with what he was given. "My gut tells me that even if this is all solved tomorrow, the hornet's nest that is this galaxy has been kicked square in the jewels. We have to keep up, or we'll be left behind if things escalate. So, to anyone not working an active case, I want you to reach out to what worlds and governments you can. Work with them, and what companies and groups are willing to deal with us, so we can start building up some more offices and safehouses for future work. I especially want to try to get a foothold in the Outer Rim, as that seems to be where people want to disappear when trying to get away from us. You're all big boys and girls, use your discretion and just don't make us look like damn idiots. I try not to hire them in the first place. You've got your orders, dismissed!"

With a salute, he makes his way down from the podium to head to his office. He has another meeting soon with some other Rangers with possible information on Suspect One, though he doesn't know quite what to expect, though. Things were getting damn busy and it wasn't likely to calm down anytime soon. Studying the history of the galaxy as much as he could, he noticed there would be years of seeming peace or just the status quo before something happened to make everyone lose their collective minds. Perhaps this was one of those times. If it was, then he would be ready for it. He'd whine about being a year from retirement later, when the galaxy was safe, or at least sane.

[[OOC: The Chief has left, but talking can still continue for now. When the thread quiets down enough I'll close it, but the Sector Rangers now have their current orders]]

@Die Shize @Grifter @Insalius @TerranSteel @Sreeya

 

[Roland Rook]

Roland stood at the back of the group. His hooded helmet slightly above the average height of the others. Both his thumbs were hooked into his belt, framing the buckle at the center. The Mandalorian's body only moved when there were new projections from Trys. He only saw her face in profile when she looked around. The Chief already had his attention but the information that the Trys had provided grabbed his attention. It was new information. It was enough to make her lead investigator on the case. Wonder if that's what she wanted...

His eyes focused on the recordings involving lightsabers, committing it all to memory. It would not be necessary to do so now. Roland would end up staring at them again and again for days to come. Hearing the Chief say that they were not to distinguish between them made things simpler. The man was going to reserve judgement in his own way when the time came. The Jedi along with any force user, had a history with the Mandalorian people and that gave Roland a different angle on this whole thing.

Nobody in the room, save for Roland knew that he had been on Nar Shaddaa. He had data for the Chief, a recording of the entire series of events that took place in Grubba's fighting arena. In a few minutes he would show it to Douglas. In fact, he did not see Duke around. He needed to talk with his fellow Ranger too.

When Chief Hudson left the meeting so too did the Mandalorian Ranger. He would get a copy of the recording Ranger Aran had. For now he had his own recordings to present.

@Die Shize @Grifter @TerranSteel @Sreeya @Insalius popping in an out