Syndicate Mission - Flesh Currency

[EmilyHuene]

[beebox2=96%] TITLE: Flesh Currency

DETAILS: Nar Kreeta, trade world in the northern (S-10 currently not showing on the map) sector of Hutt space. We have it on good information that a fresh shipment of slaves is making it's way to a stash house for later sale. Why work for our own when we can take it from someone else?

OBJECTIVES:
+Locate the merchant vessel before it reaches the stash house
+Board and commandeer the ship
+Eliminate any threats

SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENTS:
+The buyer may be Mandalorian. If he shows, capture him alive[/beebox2]

@TheBrokenMadMan ; @Topher Ridge ; @Namira Heart

 

[Panda Hermit 98]

The Expanse Sick Bay, 09:47

The Expanse was a relatively small ship, minimal crew needed, it boasted a modest arsenal should any hostiles come by, it possessed a fully stocked Med Bay should anyone get seriously hurt, and it was fairly maneuverable too. Speed constrictions aside, by virtue of being a good ship for a battle and small enough to make a decent stealth vessel, it was the ship chosen for this little expedition to Nar Kreeta. Despite those stated benefits, Sota had her own reasons for wanting her ship to be the transport for the agents, and they lay in the Med Bay, currently sealed with her inside. At current, she was in the middle of synthesizing the latest batch of bio-gel for her implants, her power supply would do her another few hours before running out so it was a necessity by this point. She didn't want them to see it, she didn't want them to sense the weakness, better that way; the idea of being permanently deaf was bad enough, but it quickly became a nightmare when you had two killers in your home with you.

At current speed, they would reach Nar Kreeta in half an hour, and the other two were busy with keeping the ship running, she had let them pick between engineering and navigation. She absolutely refused to let anyone other than herself or the automated droids sit in that pilot's seat, there would be hell to pay if either one of them tried it. For that matter, there'd also be hell to pay if they tried to eavesdrop, but she was sure the ship's firewalls were enough to keep them at bay, she had designed them herself so they were next to foolproof...so far anyway...

 

[Namira Heart]

Mazikeen sat at navigation. It was simple enough for her to handle reading their coords and keeping them on the propitiate path to the planet. She was mostly mentally preparing for seeing the cages of slaves they would be taking. She would use the word rescuing except that was far from the proper wording for it. Mazikeen sighed softly thinking of the words she was going to use to sooth the incoming slaves and help them follow. They were used to commands so show them kindness and they would practically be eating from your hand. Part of her tugged at the thought she was helping send them right back into their meager existence, but she also knew she had no capability to change any bit of that. She would play her part as the good little pet she was. It was her place. Mazikeen turned her attention to the maps and coords again. She had been pleased in navigation having a bit of control and say so in how they travel. The droids piloting had listened to her. The only thing lower than a slave is a droid it seemed. They would be well of for a bit so she stood and paced a little stretching her legs and thinking again of entrapping slaves. Her loyalty was to the syndicate, she reminded herself.

 

[Topher Ridge]

Ju simply lounged back on the rather uncomfortable bench. The woman who owned the ship as said they could take positions at different parts of the ship but Ju saw no need to lower himself to such menial tasks. Instead he used this time to mentally prepare for the mission ahead. He doubted it would prove very difficult to steal the ship, though to get information on the buyer would probably be harder.

He was distracted by the site of the slave girl. She had gotten up and was now pacing around the bridge. He could tell from her body language that something serious weighed on her mind. He honestly wondered why the girl had even been appointed to the strike team. From what he saw at the party she was at least basically trained in self defense, though he had yet to see her full capabilities. He just didn't want the possible novice to drag down himself and Sota, the former of which he knew was a competent combatant.

As the thought of Sota he looked to the medical bay that was down the hall. The mando had been in there for quite awhile now at this point. Curisoty wouldn't get the better of Epicanthix however and he checked his personal chrono and saw that they should only be 30 mins out from the target. He stood and made his way across the cabin to a table that he had early laid his gear out on. He did a brief check on all his gear and began go arm himself. He was going fully loaded for this run as they had no idea what kind of security these slavers had put in place.

He looked to Mazikeen as he holstered his pistols on his sides.

"You look nervous. Will this be your first time taking a life?"

Ju continued to load himself and stared at Mazikeen in order to get a better read on the girl.

 

[Namira Heart]

Mazikeen noticed the other arming himself and looked at all his weapons. She grabbed her feather looking daggers and strapped them to the guarders on her legs accessed by the splits up both sides of her skirt. A couple simpler daggers were strapped on the top of her knee high boots. She was mostly a melee fighter but she strapped her pistol to her waist. She usually used it to help disarm her enemy.
"You look nervous. Will this be your first time taking a life?"
She looked up to the other and simply shook her head. She had been sent on a mission by Caiden before, just once. On that mission she was responsible for three deaths. She struggled then but she got over it quickly. "I have taken a few before. I am mostly thinking of the lies to feed to the slaves to make them cooperate long enough to switch them over to our slave collars or steal controls for theirs."

 

[Topher Ridge]

Ju kept his eyes on her as Mazikeen explained her apprehension of the upcoming mission. He clicked his tongue.

"I see. Dwelling on the slaves will do you no good. They've made their choice to stay in servitude. If they truly wished to be free, they'd die for the right. You're job is simply to make them follow...and kill anyone who threatens that objective."

Ju eyed Mazikeen still as he slipped his vibroknives into their sheaths. He wondered how what he said would effect the slave girl, particularly the part about fighting to be free.

@Namira Heart @TheBrokenMadMan

 

[Namira Heart]

Mazikeen unexpectedly would begin to laugh," Choice...." She smiled. " I mean no offense to you of course but you apparently know not of what you are talking about. Death is not so easily a thing faced in a slaves position and normally in not an opportunity rather you will live in pain endless scarring pain." Mazikeen sighed and returned to navigation checking their vectors making sure coarse was still good.

 

[Topher Ridge]

Ju considered her words. He chose not to press the matter. He finished his load out and smoothed out his suit jacket and checked the chrono on his datapad. They were only 5 minutes out from the target now. It was odd that Sota(@TheBrokenMadMan) had yet to join them. He eyed the med bay doors and narrowed his eyes slightly. It annoyed the man that she had practically demanded that they "choose" a job on her ship then left the 2 to their own devices.

He slowly sauntered over to the door and pulled his data pad and ran a wire to a small access port to the door controls. He began to slice into her systems and growled to himself. This one was paranoid. She had personal firewalls on most of the ships systems. Ju could eventually crack them, but it would take longer than the time he had. He put his datapad away and left the door. What could she have possibly been doing that required so much security.

@Namira Heart

 

[Panda Hermit 98]

Waiting...so much waiting...

The synthesis was always somewhat unpredictable, experimental chemicals and all, but it's never taken this long before. Sota was starting to get impatient once the onboard navcom informed her they were 5 minutes out, if this took any longer then she'd have to abandon this batch, it degraded after 10 minutes if not injected and converted immediately. Thankfully it wouldn't come to that, a few moments after deciding to take a premature bite into her recovery sandwich, the fabricator echoed it's satisfying 'ping' noise throughout the room, and Sota scrambled out of her chair to collect the batch before it was too late. She darted from her chair beside the door to the far corner of the room, where the fabricator lay, and primed the syringe for reception before opening it up, revealing the vibrant blue liquid resting in it's petri dish.

With her meds in hand, she came back to her chair and turned off her MedBay's alarm before wrapping the straps around her chest and wrist. She was thankful that she had only taken one bite out of the sandwich, it was always useful for when she got the munchies afterwards. She held the syringe up against her ear, the tip searching for it's target for a moments before finding the small open slot jutting out of her mastoid bone. She inhaled sharply and exhaled softly, listening to the gentle thumping of her heart and trying to calm it - despite it's good intentions, her body always seemed to do itself more harm when it tried to prepare for the side effects. The needle plunged, the gel flowed into her brain, and then she just sat back and waited...

It didn't come at first, for a few moments she thought she had escaped side effects this time around, but then the tightness came. The feeling of dread washed over her as her chest drew in without breath and her head began to sweat. A few moments later, and her limbs lost all feeling as her brain ejected, and all of a sudden, it all felt far away, like a bad dream, like she was just watching herself seize and convulse violently instead of actually feeling it. It seemed an interesting watch, her limbs just losing all control and flailing around wildly, her eyes rolling back into her sockets, even her pained breaths that barely took in more than a few wisps of oxygen among imaginary waters that filled her lungs and threatened to drag her into oblivion. Now though, she could feel herself being dragged back into the brain storm, the feeling of her pounding and convulsing chest overtook her, her legs spasmed and contorted into unnatural shapes that stretched her to breaking point, and even her vision was glazed over in darkness, but just as quickly as it came, it was gone...

Slowly, her senses returned to her, one by one. She first became aware of the headache pounding and burning against her skull, then she came to realize that the burning was actually the thick beads of sweat trickling down her soaked head. Her vision was a little blurry, but that would pass, it all would in a few moments, for now, her free hand shot up and searched the table for that sandwich, which she quickly devoured like a rabid dog once it was found. Seizures were a common side effect of the Bio-Gel, but it was a necessary sacrifice to keep her hearing intact, don't want to be left at a disadvantage. Once she felt more herself again, Sota undid the straps and left the sickbay, neglecting to clean herself up. As a result, she came out looking rather sickly and disheveled. "We'll be there in a few minutes, suit up" She said.

 

[Namira Heart]

Mazikeen watched as the other seemed attempted to hack the doors that Sota his behind doing god knows what. Maz simply walked around a bit looking at the different monitors and controls for the ship. She pulled one feather blade and twirled it calmly on her finger. A sound of doors opening caused her to turn and see Sota coming from the other parts of the ship.
"We'll be there in a few minutes, suit up"
She took quick note of the sickly look the other bore. She came over to her swiftly, "Are you okay? Do you need anything?" It was in her nature to of course serve. She kept her subservient posture and had her eyes cast down. She rolled her blade over her knuckles till it fell into her firm grip and then secured it to her thigh. She was well weaponize however the only weapon seen on her would be her pistol at her hip. The rest were hidden. She was ready to go but she needed to tend to Sota if she was ill.

 

[Topher Ridge]

Ju had stepped away from the door by the time Sota came stumbling out. She lookled rather haggard, which only made the Epacanthix more curious about what she was doing in the med bay. He simply stepped closer as the slave girl saw to Sota.

"I'm ready, let's get this done."

@Namira Heart @TheBrokenMadMan

(OCC: Sorry again for the delay and the short post. My schedule is just a bit demanding right now.)

 

[Panda Hermit 98]

After exiting the Med Bay, Sota shuffled into the cockpit and relieved ANDROZ, her autopilot droid, the lanky machine giving a small salute before moving to the storage room and shutting down. A quick check of all systems revealed that Navigation was spot on, they could all see the ship now and they would land practically right on top of it if they kept going. For now though, Sota pulled back on the accelerator, the ship slowing to half speed, they didn't need to be on the ship just yet, preferably she would let her short range sensors give the ship a full sweep to see if there were any hidden surprises or special modifications done to the ship. Engineering was still within safety limits, but it's efficiency rating had dropped by a noticeable margin, someone hadn't done anything.
"One of you was lazy" She said, walking past them and down the corridor to the armory containing her weapons. All things considered, it wasn't much; many weapons racks and armor stands dominated the room, and there was a large tactical table in the middle, hooked up to the sensors, but the only weapons and armor here were Sota's standard armaments: The MP FRAB Rifle, her two CMBP-12 Blasters, a small box of grenades, and a single set of Vagabond Armor with all it's various mods. In the corner lay her workbench, littered with the entrails of her latest project: a sniper rifle the size of a small purse, collapsible into an inconspicuous container.
After fitting herself into her armor, she quickly stripped her weapons and gave them a clean (despite them looking spotless) before exiting out into the front area again. "Maz, is the sensor sweep finished? If it is, could you give me the readout?"

 

[Namira Heart]

Mazikeen moved to the controls where the reading was being done she analyzed the results as they came and began planning a way through their somewhat decent defences. When Sota returned and asked her for the complete reading it was ready. "They have the basic cannon defenses and they currently have a shield up. I recommend burrowing a virus into their system which could be sent through to them easily we could use that malware to provide a back door into their systems dropping their shield and at least delaying the gun fire while we take out what we need and then we will be met with their people when we board."

 

[Topher Ridge]

Ju ignored Sota comment about laziness as his fellow One Ring took the controls from the pilot droid. It was in no way his job to watch any of the systems on her ship. She worked for some of the most successful slavers in the galaxy and as he knew, One Rings were given more than enough pay to afford a slave or 2.
He simply watched as Sota ran her scans of the ship and then went to what he assumed was her ship's armory. He would move over and look over the readout over Mazikeen's shoulder. The ship didn't seem to be too well defended. A few forward defense cannons and a basic shield. As Sota returned in her armor she would ask the slave girl of all people about the readout. Ju nearly scoffed until the slave spoke with a remarkably spot on answer. He eyed Mazikeen more closely now, either this slave was far more capable then she let on, or she was more capable then she even realized. Ju nodded and brought out his data pad and sat at communication terminal.

"Well said slave girl. I can supply the virus. I always have a few security worms ready for when the time comes. We'll have to move quickly once the shields go down as they'll probably make a rush for their stash house."

Ju wired his datapad to Sota's systems and put out a call on an open channel to the slaver ship. The call was met by a rude creature on the other end.

"Yeah what you want! We got important cargo here. Don't have time to chat koochoo!"

Ju's fingered worked quickly, with the now open frequency he would broadcast the security virus to the slaver ship. Within a few moments the ships systems would come up on his data pad.

"UH hey...you dere slimo!"

He cut the channel and assumed either Sota or Mazikeen were at the helm now.

"Shields down in 3...2..1...now"

@Namira Heart @TheBrokenMadMan

 

[Panda Hermit 98]

Sota simply nodded to the One Ring and quickly jogged back to the cockpit, getting the thrusters primed and ready. Along the way, the ship notified her that an unknown device was connecting and she just punched in a quick code to allow Ju into the system. She let out a deep breath as the worm's progress came up on the screen and the captain's gravelly chalkboard voice blasted through the onboard PA (sounded like an asshole). Before the worm finished, she quickly tapped her ear.
"Comm, check" She said, hearing the feedback in her earpiece; mission success depended on the quality of your equipment, and it never hurt to show some respect and check it before each mission. The whole time the virus was making it's way through the ship, Sota was putting a small trajectory heading into the computer, set to activate the moment the shields were down. Sure enough, as soon as that familiar blue bubble flashed and fizzled, the main cannons immediately began to move up and toward their forward weaponry, blasting it to smithereens. Without missing a beat, Sota leaned in on the thrusters, moving the ship up and quickly initiating the docking protocols, the other ship would be unable to escape when they were attached.

 

[Namira Heart]

Mazikeen seeing herself unnecessary in the invasion tech-wise readied for docking. As the ship attached Mazikeen was at the bay doors prepared to invade the other ship.
"Comm, check"
"Frequencies are clear on my end."
She tied her hair up into a messy bun on her head to keep it from her eyes. As she crossed over she figured the others would be close behind her. The ships armed members were slow to the uptake as the alarms and other functions of the ship struggled to function properly with the virus. She tucked herself behind a corner before being seen by the amassing forces. She whispered in comms, since she didn't see the others boarding yet."I am counting about 10 men in the bay weapons prepped."

 

[Topher Ridge]

Ju quickly set another quick little surprise for Hutt crew and un-tethered his datapad from Sota's ship terminal. He drew his one of his SP-30s in his right hand and moved to join the others by the airlock and felt the ship rattle as they secured themselves to the enemy ship. The doors slid open as Ju's worm still gave them full access to the Hutt ship.

"Comms clear, mission is go."

He saw the slave girl enter first and waited before entering behind her. The lack of blaster fire and screams signaled that the enemy crew was waiting to ambush them. Good. He swung around and fired a few shots to keep the pathetic fools in cover as they moved to peek out. He'd given them his position but that was just what Ju wanted. As one of them shouted out his position Ju's surprise was revealed. All lights to Hutt transport cut out and would remain that way for 2 minutes. Confused yells could be heard down the corridor. Now was the time to strike.

"Slave go."

He was willing to bet that even in this darkness this surprising slave girl would have little trouble and he figured Sota was experienced enough to know how to fight in the dark. Before the crew could get their bearings he moved down the short hall to the open crew bay, he could hear the yells and shouts for light. He honed in on one voice and opened fire. A quick double tap of his blaster was rewarded with the sound of a body falling to the ground. The crew would fall into almost complete chaos now and began to fire blindly into the darkness. Ju kept moving and squeezed off another 2 shots in the direction of a blaster discharge. Another body fell dead. The darkness only making it easier to tell where the Epacanthix's next kill would be.

@TheBrokenMadMan @Namira Heart

 

[Panda Hermit 98]

The darkness came as naturally to Sota as silence did now, with each silent footstep, she closed on her prey, dispatching them with a quick stab of a knife into their necks, nice and quiet. Ju's loud and fast approach was a useful distraction whilst she darted in and out, stabbing and thrusting and weaving from victim to victim. When the gunfire finally ceased, she stood tall, eyes glaring down the hall. This ship had no escape pods, no means of getting away, all it had was her ship, and no one but these three and the slaves were coming back aboard.
"If you run, you might live, but if not...I will kill you" She said lowly, her voice echoing down through the hall, quiet, but 100% sincere.

Whether or not they listened was irrelevant, Ju could take care of the stragglers, for now, she took ma's arm and led her through the skeletal remains of the once shining and proud vessel, coming to a stop outside the cargo bay. "Ready hun?" She asked

 

[Namira Heart]

Mazikeen moved through darkness with other the soft glow of her eyes appearing before each of her own victims. She would remain hidden before rising up in front of them and slitting their throats.
She followed Sota further through the ship to the cargo, the people. She ignored being asked if she was ready and ran fo the first cage. There was no sign of a guard so she stepped back pulling the pistol from her side and shot the lock off. "Come now you're safe." She ushered the slaves to follow her has she opened the next two cages ending up with about ten slaves total. "We're gonna get you out of here." She found it easiest to operate on half-truths. She would begin to usher the slaves back towards the ship.

 

[Topher Ridge]

Ju fired his blaster one final time and the cabin was quite. He heard Mazikeen and Sota head for the cargo hold, but Ju had other plans. The lights would soon after flicker and come back online and Ju made his way to the head of the ship, his pistol raised in case any stragglers emerged. He tapped the control panel and the door to the cockpit opened and Ju's pistol spit 2 more bolts into backs of the pilots before they could reach for weapons. They looked to have been trying to get the out of control systems in check before his arrival.

He unceremoniously pushed the 2 pilots out of the pilot seats and looked over the haywire systems. It seemed despite his work they managed to get a transmission out. No doubt a warning to the buyer. It didn't matter much at this point, they would soon have what they needed, they buyer would have just been a bonus. He stood and made his way back to the cabin and saw the slaves being herded onto Sota's ship. He counted at least 80 slaves. A good score for the Syndicate. He'd join the other 2 as the last few slaves made their way onto Sota's freighter.

"If that's all of them, we're done here. The ship will head on a crash course once we disengage."

At that he made his way back to Sota's ship confindent that the slave girl could usher their merchandise into the cargo hold.

@TheBrokenMadMan @Namira Heart