Ask The Abolitionist

[Maxims Tionson]

Having an election debate in the courtyard of the planet's most famous museum sounded like a good thing for PR and a good thing for the people as well since they would be able to see their candidates standing before them answering questions. It was, quite simply, hell for a security detail and heaven for an assassin trying to make a move on one of the candidates.

The candidates weren't out on the stage yet but already the number of civilians milling around in front of the stage was in the low thousands figure. Security forces were seeded throughout and atop the nearby rooftops as well. Still, the entire situation didn't sit well with him. Max shuffled slightly in the dressing room of the woman he was supposed to protect.

"You look nervous, Master Jedi. Should I be worried?"

Sybil Everview spoke with such serene confidence that Max almost didn't sense the underlying emotion running through her - the fear that something could go wrong and harm either herself or, more worryingly, her family.

"Of course." he responded without lying, "But have confidence that myself and my partner will be able to keep your safe. We are trained for this sort of thing and we both have a wealth of experience. You shall be protected."

He didn't mention that, as a Jedi Shadow, Hannibal might actually have had more experience from the other side of an assassination attempt. Not that the targets selected by the Shadows were to be wept for. He turned to his partner as their charge went about being decorated and pampered ahead of the bright lights, cameras and the pressure.

"Should one of us stay near the stage with her?"

@Mr. Teatime

 

[Hannibal Grayza]

There was little hiding the mix of emotions laying underneath a politician's mask. It was little different than a noble's countenance of control and calm. Putting aside the fact that a Jedi could sense such things, Hannibal tended to pick up on subtle little ques, facial twitches, or muscle tension. That said, Sybil was rather good by the young Jedi's estimation. Her tone in particular, an important thing to keep under control when speaking to crowds or dealing with fellow politicians, seemed to always be what she wanted without seeming acted out, forced, or rehearsed.

Hannibal half smiled, half grinned down at the older woman in response to her question. He appreciated her courage and drive regarding the proceedings out in the open, but the situation did make keeping her and others safe something of a complicated affair. But Hannibal's intuition hadn't failed him yet. He'd probably be dead otherwise, if not missing a limb or two. The young Master couldn't exactly see the future, but when it came to the here and now he was unusually sharp. Which was probably why the general energy surrounding the event was making him quietly uncomfortable. He turned to look at Max.

"I would think so, yes. Has the stage already been checked?" It probably had been, but it wasn't underheard of for explosives to be placed in all sorts of places. There was also the problem of subtlety. "How obviously Jedi we appear to be is another question. We can blend in or not. There are pros and cons to both." A Jedi obviously guarding the stage could prove a deterrent, but it could also encourage one to try harder. Harder here meaning explosives. Snipers were relatively easy to prevent with patrols, but a Jedi standing nearby made such a thing very difficult on its own. Hannibal was primarily concerned with attempts at closer range than rifles. More assassinations had been carried out with a blaster pistol from an open angle than anything else.

From his prior reading, Hannibal had noted the Zygerian personal preference for relatively close combat and intimidation value, but a third party contractor might think differently. There were many angles to consider here, including the possibility of hiring a Force user of some kind. At least in that eventuality they'd have trouble hiding from two Jedi.

"Also, which one of us?"

@Nefieslab

 

[Maxims Tionson]

Had the stage already been checked?

"Local security forces under supervision of her existing security detail."

Which meant - yes it had been checked. But that it meant very little to them and Max would be checking it again. It wasn't that he believed the teams involved were incompetent or even that they had missed something. More that Max wanted to be thorough to a degree that some might consider paranoid.

He considered it good practice.

"I think the one checking the stage and staying close at hand should be visibly a Jedi." he admitted with a small nod, "The disguise should suit the role and if we are to act the part of visible guardian then we must be visible. The other... much less so, yes."

Max looked himself up and down, dressed in his obviously Jedi robes, before making a point of looking Hannibal up and down.

"Well one of us looks like a monk and the other one looks like a boyband member crossed with a model. I wonder which of us will fit in better with a crowd?"

@Mr. Teatime

 

[Hannibal Grayza]

Hannibal got the intent behind what Max said loud and clear. Both men had fairly significant influences from outside the Jedi Order and handled things differently from what might be considered standard, in their own little ways. Hannibal's mother had been some variety of wandering mercenary or bounty hunter most of her long life and had tried to jam the lessons she had learned along the way into her son's head even after he had formally become a part of the Order. Rather than paranoia, it was more like a healthy amount of learned caution.

Max's second point about appearances wasn't exactly wrong. He'd worn traditionally cut Jedi robes about three times in his life, and when he wore something that could even be classified of a robe it was something made to his own preferences. To that end, at that particular moment he did look rather unlike a Jedi. His lightsabers were even clipped to underarm mag holsters hidden beneath his cloak. He looked more like a wealthier local than anything else. Which fit his needs just fine, all things considered.

"Fair enough!" the young Jedi replied. Max being the obvious Jedi could also potentially imply he was the only Jedi around. Which would be excellent for Hannibal's flavour of work. Plus, it turns out the kinds of openers an assassin might use also often work out for taking down assassins themselves. His tactics were generally geared toward working around the reaction speed and danger sense of Force users. Assuming a potential assassin was the close range type, Hannibal might well have the advantage. This was also assuming anything happened at all, of course. Max's face might scare them off beforehand.

"I'll keep to the crowd, then, no problem. What's the next step?"

@Nefieslab

 

[Maxims Tionson]

Well Max was glad they had skipped the comedy sketch about which one of them looked like they were a boyband member because that would have been more than slightly weird. Instead they each accepted their roles and suddenly they needed to move. Time was growing short and if their charge was late to the podium it would be seen as a sign of weakness on the political stage. He didn't agree with that assessment but what did that matter eh?

With the assignments sorted out they needed to know what they were actually doing.

"You make your way through the crowd - see if anyone seems nervous or angry in the Force if you can." he smirked, "Otherwise? Just think about where you would be standing if you wanted to take a shot at the stage."

Hannibal was a Jedi alright but he was a Jedi capable of many things in the name of a Greater Good. Did he think that included assassinations? Well, he wasn't entirely sure but he was sure enough that Hannibal likely had a good enough idea how to go about it even if it was only for the purposes of foiling other assassinations.

"I'm going out to the stage now to check for any devices."

Walking out onto the stage in his Jedi robes, Max tried to appear the absolute pinnacle of Jedi Serenity as he probed the Force. Almost immediately the Force was screaming at him that there was danger nearby. Worse, now that he was actually on the stage he could tell that it was not danger in a small area either. Picking up the pace, he stepped up to the podium and paused for a moment.

It couldn't be this bad could it?

That her security were THIS compromised?

He opened the drawer on the podium and breathed out through his nose even as he touched his com-link to speak to Hannibal.

"The security detail is compromised. The podium is rigged to blow with a coaxium bomb big enough to destroy this entire building." he grimaced as he noticed the countdown, "Countdown started. We have 9 minutes."

Long enough to evacuate their charge... but nowhere near enough time to evacuate the people safely. So he immediately reached into the podium drawer and began to analyse the bomb.

Spoiler: OOC

We got a big ol' bomb!

@Mr. Teatime

 

[Hannibal Grayza]

Well, that's not good. Hannibal had just about gotten into the crowd when the commbead in his ear transmitted Max's message about the bomb. Coaxium bombs weren't exactly unheard of, but they were particularly expensive considering it was a highly volatile hyperdrive fuel. Some would just leave a vial of the stuff out somewhere to heat up and explode on its own, but if this bomb was purposefully designed the detonation would be much greater. What a wonderful day this was turning out to be.

Hannibal made his way through the crowd closer to the stage, tingling running down his neck with increasing intensity as he approached it. Yup, that was danger all right. The question was, what to do about it? Frankly that would depend on how the bomb was arranged. Coaxium was stable when cooled and basically inert when frozen, but that would require a fairly overt usage of the Force to accomplish unless someone happened to have a flash freezer handy.

"Is it connected to anything that you can see, or is it free standing? Approximate dimensions?"" he asked through the comm while keeping his eyes on the crowd. If worst came to worst, his seeker droid could potentially fly off with it. Ego's memory was regularly backed up, but the droid body itself was more or less disposable. Ideally they could disarm it, but a back up plans were sort of Hannibal's thing.

@Nefieslab

 

[Maxims Tionson]

Well it was a coaxium bomb and everything he knew about coaxium was summed up by the simple piece of advice he had been given as a kid growing up - if it was liquid and moving then it was already too late to write your last will and testament.

He cursed as he ran his fingertips over the sides of the bomb.

"Liquid form." he muttered half to himself and half to Hannibal, "It's attached to a device that is... slowly heating it up."

If it got too hot it would become too excited and it would blow violently.

He found what he was looking for.

"Ah... and it can also be activated remotely. I'm willing to bet if they see me tampering I'll have a few seconds at best." he admitted with a hum, "Sounds like a problem all right. Checking for anti-tampering measures now... kind of late but whatever..."

He was a little bit nervous for sure.

@Mr. Teatime

 

[Hannibal Grayza]

Ah. Well that wasn't great, but it was probably workable. Unless whoever had the controls to the bomb was an idiot they probably wouldn't be among the security detail and Hannibal didn't like to bet on the stupidity of others. On top of that, the number of people around and the closeness of the explosive were throwing off his sense of danger. Like a magnet near a compass, the potential danger of a dude with a bomb control was vastly overshadowed by an actual bomb, so there was no reasonable way to track the remote down. This narrowed down the options a tad, but it wasn't exactly hopeless.

Hannibal began to focus on the Force, stretching his senses the short distance to the podium in front of Max. He could feel the bomb, in the vague way one looking for droids could feel them, but he would need a little time to isolate the coaxium core. Once he could isolate the heat and potential energy of the coaxium he would be able to draw the heat from it, freezing it and allowing Max to remove it safely without triggering it. Assuming there wasn't some kind of secondary bomb or other failsafe, of course.

"Check quickly. I'm going to try freezing it as quietly as possible. Once I do, remove the core so we can move it somewhere else."

@Nefieslab

 

[Maxims Tionson]

Good thing Max worked well under pressure.

Working at some of the bindings, Max loosened how the device was affixed to the podium. Listening to Hannibal's plan, he nodded in understanding even though he knew his ally wouldn't be able to actually see the gesture. The movement helped him to keep calm and in control as he found the anti-tampering device he had sought out before.

Which was also going to be the end result should the thing be detonated remotely.

A concussion weapon designed to explode with a shockwave rather than an actual explosion. It would excite the coaxium and cause it to explode violently. But by itself it shouldn't be too dangerous.

"Found the anti-tampering device but I have an idea on how to handle it."

Even though it was still risky.

"On your mark Hans."

And if they were wrong? Well he wouldn't live long enough to regret anything so that was a plus, right?

@Mr. Teatime

 

[Hannibal Grayza]

Inhaling slowly, the Jedi Master focused his attention and the Force on the little point of energy that was the coaxium core of the bomb. Doing this without looking at the thing took time and precision, but precision had always been Hannibal's strong point over raw power. Once the energy was focused, all he needed to do was use it.

"Go in three, two, mark," he said quietly over the comms, exhaling slowly and slowly closing the fingers of his left hand. The thermal energy in the coaxium core was drawn rapidly away into the Force, the moisture around it forming a thin layer of frost in a matter of seconds while the fuel of itself shifted to the dark silver of inertness. The amount of ice around it was limited due the lack of gathered moisture, but the thin layer that was coating the core was solid. Hannibal kept the core cold, and would do so at least until Max had removed it. It wasn't a large target, and it didn't take a great deal of energy to freeze something that small, but the concentration required in this case was certainly up there.

@Nefieslab

 

[Maxims Tionson]

He totally had a plan.

The fact that said plan was dumb had occurred to him but he didn't have much time to workshop the idea with Hannibal and he was abiding by a ruling principle of the Galaxy; if it was dumb but it worked, it wasn't dumb. So it was currently dumb as shite but he was hoping really hard that it wouldn't end up staying dumb.

Closing his eyes, Max made his peace with the Force - it didn't take very long all things considered. He didn't exactly have a whole mess of regrets or unfinished business. On Hannibal's marked he pulled the coaxium device free with his right hand even as he clasped his left hand atop of the anti-tampering counter measure.

Said counter activated, emitting a shockwave that was designed to spread out and cause the thing to explode regardless. It was supposed to - but no one who had made it counted on a Jedi using the Force to absorb the kinetic energy of the shockwave as it was being produced. Essentially he leeched the force out of the attack to the point that it was no longer cohesive and it fell apart in it's waves, no damage caused to the device.

Unfortunately for Max all that kinetic energy had to go somewhere and with him unwilling to channel it through the rest of his body for fear of setting off the device in his right hand, he left it in his left arm. Gritting his teeth, he staggered backward as his left forearm broke in two places.

"Device secure..." he hissed through the com link, "Sustained damage to my left arm. Any sign of anyone looking mightily peeved at the lack of a boom?"

@Mr. Teatime

 

[Hannibal Grayza]

How Max had only managed to lose an eye was both a mystery and blatantly obvious at this point. But hey, if it works. Hannibal swept the crowd when he received a positive reply, dropping his concentration on the coaxium. It would take a while to heat back up and the young Jedi had other things to pay attention to anyway.

Was there someone looking peeved? Well, as it turned out, kinda. There was a spike of fear and anger nearby that really shouldn't be there unless the person in question suspected the Jedi on the podium had just disabled a bomb. So naturally Hannibal headed toward it, slipping back into the crowd. It was nothing like the chaotic sea of bodies on Nar Shaddaa and the sense of panic seemed to be mounting.

The young Jedi would bet so much money it was the panicked looking guy repeatedly tapping something on a datapad and looking up at the stage from a position near, but away from, the crowd. There was just no way it wasn't, right? In the would-be assassin's defense, the kind of bomb they'd used would normally be more or less foolproof. Good thing Jedi cheat, eh?

Hannibal snuck up behind him from the crowd, keeping his presence subtle. Casually he looked over the man's shoulder at the datapad, seeing literally only a basic UI interface with a series of readouts and a trigger button. How artless. Efficient, though. Hannibal moved over to the man's right and gently tapped on his right shoulder with his right hand. "Excuse me-" The man seemed to react poorly, twisting around to face the sudden touch, hand flying into his jacket, head spinning- and his jaw firmly met Hannibal's left elbow as he turned, sending him into a brief flash of unconsciousness.

Hannibal caught the man and his datapad as he fell, placing him down gently and tossing his holdout blaster into a nearby bin. He'd be fine, though doubtless his jaw would hurt for a while. The young Jedi looked down at the datapad, raising an eyebrow at the program running. "Well, I found a guy with a trigger on a 'pad. I'd bet someone noticed me take him down just now," he said through his ear comm, looking over at the man who was already staggering to his feet.

"Oh no, please, don't run," Hannibal said, mostly to himself in a sarcastic tone as the man began to escape. The Jedi moved after him at a similar pace, "chasing" him away from the crowd. Between being found out and the blow to the head he was probably a little disoriented and might lead Hannibal to someone else, ideally whoever was supposed to be watching over him. If there even was anyone.

@Nefieslab

 

[Maxims Tionson]

Well that was about how his own missions went he supposed. Using the Force, he tightened how his armour and robes wrapped around his damaged arm, grunting a little bit at the pain as he forced the clothing to act as a more rigid brace than it otherwise would have been. He flexed his fingers slightly before deciding it was decent enough to be moving on with.

That Hannibal had found a trigger man was not a surprise but, in fact, rather expected welcome news.

"Are you sure he's not just trying to desperately swipe right?" he asked with a laugh as he handed the remains over to a newly arrived bomb squad, who looked at him like he was mad, "Bomb squad are here to take away the remains."

He was glad he had washed his hands of the thing honestly. Grimacing in pain again, he went back toward the changing room of their VIP. Max hummed slightly.

"Our VIP is heading out to the stage - I'll stand with her in case of the secondary attack. Good hunting, Hans."

There was always a secondary attack when it was conducted by an actual assassin and not some local idiot paid to take the fall. If there wasn't one? Their VIP got to look like she had the backing of the Jedi. If there was one, she would happily accept not dying as a good sign of things to come, politically speaking. So when she stepped out to the podeum to begin giving her speech, he was stood slightly to the side of her.

@Mr. Teatime

 

[Hannibal Grayza]

Somewhere in the back of his head Hannibal wondered if he should be billing people for stuff like this. He was pretty sure trained professionals charged top credits for security and counter-agent work. Of course he'd been paid to act as security before but that was through his father's agency on Naboo. This wasn't. Maybe he'd look into it. The Order could probably use some donations or something seeing as Jedi was technically a volunteer position.

But back to business. Off he was chasing some moron who was hopefully leading the young Jedi into a "trap". If this thing was professional there'd be some kind of overwatch nearby ready to send in the cavalry. The kind of bomb used implied there was at least some degree of money behind the attempt but one knows what they say about assumptions.

The man awkwardly jerked left and then twisted right to duck into an alley with all the poise and grace of a blind rancor, half-tripping over a garbage bin on his way. Hannibal smoothly jogged after him, beginning to doubt his original hypothesis of professionalism. But surely he had some kind of backup. They'd show up. Any time now.

@Nefieslab

 

[Maxims Tionson]

Oh boy the crowd was rowdy for their VIP.

Like seriously - he hadn't seen a crowd this hyped since the last time The Nexus played yet another 'Last Tour Ever' gig on Naboo and that crowd had stampeded so much they'd caused a minor earthquake at the time. Still, it wasn't Max's job to measure crowd attendance or even give a damn about the exact nature of her speech.

She was anti-slavery and that was all he needed to hear.

Stalking around the stage just behind her as she began her speech, he looked over the crowd and not just the crowd but the passing traffic and the rooftops that had some kind of over-look as well. Tutting a little bit, he lightly touched the com in his ear as he spotted something out of place.

"Domed building on the right - sixth floor, third window in."

Movement in a window that had been closed and shuttered not a moment ago... the Force flared in warning and Max responded, tackling the VIP to the ground as the blaster bolt smashed through the podium, setting it's remains alight as it did. Covering the VIP, he made his way from the stage with her, ducking a follow-up shot.

"Looks like sniper team is one of the back ups Hans!"

@Mr. Teatime