The Long Fall

[Mad Dog]

3 Hours Before

Cade's Sunskimmer-Class Starbird touched down on Ord Antalaha, his partner for this mission, Link would be arriving soon.

As Cade walked the streets of the capital where they were to execute their mission he must of seen dozens of vendors and merchants, trying as hard as he could to avoid becoming side tracked Cade still had to return to his ship to drop off the broken astrodroid he'd purchased.

After an hour and a half or so, Cade found what he was looking for, a tall enough building to provide a perfect look over the city, as well as a view of the target building, as tall as it was.

Cade climbed the building and set up on the rooftop with his long range Type-12 Fusion Rifle, and his stabilization device.


@Killtec

 

[Killtec]

Link strolled through the alleyways of the city, making his way to the destination. As a professional killer, it only made sense he was chosen for this. After all, he was on his way to kill some people.

He wasn't sure who they were, but he knew it wasn't his place to ask questions that were insignificant to the completion of his contract. Of course, his contract with the Kjlljk Protectorate wouldn't be up for the next five years, but he couldn't complain. It was easy money and good job experience, not to mention room and board was paid for. This would be just like his other assassinations, should everything go according to plan.

Get in, get out.

The boy moved like a wraith through the streets, hardly making a sound as he traversed the crowded streets as a breeze. He approached his target building, and immediately began running through all of the possible entrances and exits in his mind. He'd reviewed schematics for the places beforehand, but things like windows and ventilation systems were never accounted for in the architectural designs he could scrounge up.

Within metres of the building's perimeter wall, Link sent a short message to his partner over a private frequency.

Asset in position; confirm acquisition of objective?

@Mad Dog

 

[Mad Dog]

Cade, utilizing his thermo sensitive scope,"Copy that asset, I have eyes on three of the objectives, the fourth is still mia possibly on site but out of its standard position, objectives one and two are on floor twelve, objective three is on floor fourteen. I will advise if objective four is spotted. High ground standing by, over." Cade finished taking a deep breath after his long statement.

His having been chosen for this mission was not quite as clear as Link. Sure Cade had killed more than a handful in his life time, and his long range sniping abilities could be described as capable but when he was approached by the Kjlljk Protectorate's leader and tasked with a secret mission to be kept private from all Protectorate officials other than herself, he could in no way refuse and expect not to punished some how by the Ex-Sith.

Still though, Cade took a quick lick of his spiraled KIK-Dust and returned to his active checking of the very high storied building the two were sent to.

 

[Kori Buor]

It must have been hours since the two men had first entered the building, or at least, that's what it felt like it had been. For the man who had taken the moniker of Star Warrior, the slow passage of time might as well have been the life cycles of stars. Obviously, sitting and waiting patiently was not his forte; thoughts ran through his mind of possible outcomes of the conversation he was about to have, his mind wandered the myriad paths the discussion could take. And after he grew bored of that he began examining the waiting room he was in, viewing it's strengths and weaknesses and how he would defend, or storm the building. The windows all seemed to be made out of hardened transparisteel capable of taking a couple of blaster cannon rounds before failing, which made sense, government buildings shouldn't be too vulnerable. Most of the doors seemed simple with basic locking mechanisms, though he did notice that a few of the secured doors had specialized electronic reinforced triple deadbolt locks; very hard to get past without some serious firepower or the right passcode. As he sat there his mind ran through the numerous things that could be happening and what he could be doing as he sat there, effectively helpless.

Sighing, Ral Vizsla looked at the man sitting next to him. His name was Kalan, and be did not recognize him so he figured whoever he was they had not met before, which was fine. Ral saved the man's face away in the back of his mind as be spoke. "Hopefully they don't make us wait too much longer, I don't know how long I can make it before going stir-crazy. I hate sitting and waiting on people who find themselves too important to be punctual."

With the crumbling of the Republic it's fall was inevitable and everyone was starting to realize it, so the Dominion had begun sending good-will teams to begin discussing overtures of peace, support treaties, and even possibly alliances of some sort. Nothing concrete yet, but Ral's job was to gauge the receptiveness of the notions. To this end Ral was wearing his full panoply of war, sans helmet which remained at his side; he was trying to make a statement about Mandalorian power, and he and the Dominion had made it abundantly clear that they did not mean any harm to the government officials, but they would take affront to being requested to relinquish their weapons. Thus they had been allowed inside while still fully armed.

Finally a young female exited the adjacent room with a bright, youthful, and energetic smile on her face, alerting the two men that they were now allowed to speak to Raffi Adisen, one of the highest ranking officials in the government he was either the third of fourth from the top in terms of succession. Entering the rather lavish room, Ral noticed that a double thick pane of transparisteel protected the only exterior view of the room which Adisen faced from behind his work desk. Motioning to the chairs before it, Ral took a seat in the center chair facing the official, while giving Kalan a glance that asked him to stay alert during this meeting; Ral had been nearly assassinated too many times already. Removing one hand from the hilt of his sword Ral spoke with a smile. "Official Adisen, it is a pleasure to finally meet you in person. I am Ral Vizsla, diplomat from the Dominion, and this is Kalan, he is also a diplomat of sorts. Now, let's get down do business, what can the Dominion offer you?"

 

[Prudence]

Kalan was quite enjoying the couch that he found himself presently seated upon. Of course he had assessed the room when they'd entered, and had noted the easiest escape routes, as well as the structural capability of the windows and doors, but there was no reason to obsess on that for the rest of the time he was waiting. Instead the Mandalorian was sitting on the couch, his feet propped up on a small stool that sat before the couch, and a holomag in his hands. He was flipping through the pages, his eyes scanning the images and bubbles of text on each page. Kalan still had his helmet on, as he was not as much the diplomat as Ral was. Kalan was instead more a wingman for this meeting, incase something were to go awry. He would allow Ral to look the amiable speaking one, while he would stay the armored sentinel.

Ral's voice interrupted his reading and he turned to look at him, "I wouldn't rush it lad. This waiting room isn't so uncomfortable, anyways look at this mag, I think Ate Kupton got implants.. Again." He turned the screen towards the bored warrior, but he seemed to pay it no mind. Instead Kalan just continued flipping through the pages, before eventually setting it down beside him. If this was going to take longer, he would just take a nap. His helmet was set to alert him if there was a significant amount of movement so he wasn't worried about being ambushed.

Just as his eyes were squeezing shut he heard the doors swish open, and they were beckoned on. Kalan stood quickly and retrieved his A-140 from where he had propped it against the wall, clipping it back onto his chest harness. Silently he followed Ral into the meeting room, his hands resting on the rifle. Ral took a seat in front of the desk and cast him a look that Kalan had seen plenty of times to recognize, Stay Alert. Kalan gave a nod and didn't sit, instead he leaned against the wall. His HUD was in tactical mode, scanning for potential threats and cycling between infared and regular viewing modes. When Ral introdeced Kalan he offered a simple nod, before returning to his previous task.

 

[Killtec]

Confirmation was all that Link needed. Ready to go, he flipped on he signal jammer, closed his eyes, and focused. Slowly, his physical appearance began to shimmer as if he were a mirage, before ultimately disappearing like one. Bending light and sound around him with the force, Link stepped around the corner of the perimeter wall and strolled behind the guards at the front gate. Coming within range of his jammer, the security feed for the guard booth cut to static for a few moments before returning to normal. The guards in the booth had their throats slit, but a culprit was nowhere to be found.

Link walked to the building's service door, opening it with one of the key cards he'd swiped from the guards. Surprisingly, no alarm had gone off yet. Link made his way to a stairwell, that generally being the safer option for undetected travel, and began his ascent up the stairs. His signal jammer cut out the security feeds as he went, so he stopped using the force as a cloak. A single bead of sweat rolled down his forehead, and he wiped it to the side as he quickly traveled up the stairs.

Other security forces were notified, finally, of the booth guards' status, and a small team was sent to investigate. There was a decently sized number of civilians in the lower levels of the building, and the staff wanted to avoid mass panic, however those administrators near the top of the political chain were notified of the situation.

 

[Mad Dog]

Cade watched through his scope as one of their targets on the fourteenth floor stepped out onto a balcony and lit a cigarette. "That sure is a nice shot..." Cade had to fight himself to keep from taking the shot, as taking the shot would jeopardize the mission and possibly put his partner at risk. So there he sat just watching, still canvassing the building for their fourth target.

@Kori Buor

 

[Kori Buor]

The comment about the implants did not go unnoticed and even elicited an amused grunt from the Vizsla warrior as he took a sideways peek at the screen. Inside, Ral was just getting settled into his seat, or as well as he could in his suit of Mandalorian armor when the official's private comlink went off. Nodding politely at Adisen as the man excused himself to answer the call, Ral looked to Kalan and raised his eyebrows in equal parts annoyance and boredom. Turning back to look at the official, the Mandalorian could see that the color was slowly draining away from his face and the faintest signs of sweat starting to bead up at his hairline was becoming obvious; at least it was to him.

As the man hung up from his conversation he was beginning to look like a ragged ghost."Sir, are you alright?"
Ral asked politely, not sure if he had just received some bad news. "Perhaps we should reschedule for another time or see someone else?"

The man shook his head after taking a moment."No, it's not that," he said rubbing the perspiration from his forehead. "I just received word that there has been an apparent attack on one of our guards. I haven't heard how badly it is, but I've been instructed to remain in this room and to see no one else besides my own guards... I'm not even sure who would want to do something like that!"

Looking back at Kalan, Ral stood up and looked around the room. Besides the three of them already in there, it was empty, that was when Ral took to peering out the large reinforced window to see what might be beyond. "Got anything, Kalan?" He asked after a moment. While Adisen might not be truly worried yet, Ral was already alert and ready. Part of him wondered if it was just a random attack, or if this was the precedence to something much larger. With one hand on his blaster pistol on his hand and the other on the grip of his vibrosword he looked back at the official. "Well, if you don't mind mister Adisen, I would like to remain here with you until this situation is resolved... I'd feel much safer from in your office."

 

[Prudence]

Kalan had just been resting against the wall, his attention on the conversation between Ral and the man that he was talking to. He visibly turned his head with attention when the man's commlink went off, and he answered. Typically these business types muted their comms, or deferred them, when they were in meetings like this. The fact that the man had taken the call likely meant that it was an important one. The display of fright on his face seemed to confirm the assertion.

Kalan was already standing up straight as Ral interrogated him, baiting the information from his lips. The man revealed to them that one of the guards had been attacked and the man had been ordered to stay in his office. The office was practically a fortress, which was a plus for them, but the attackers would likely be converging upon it. Ral was already cycling through comlink frequencies, and for just a second he witnessed something weird. The comms seemed to fade away to static, before returning. It did it once more, and he began to realize what was happening.

Kalan gave a short nod, "One of them has a signal jammer. As he's moving through the complex it was causing intermittent interference with my comms. I'm gonna switch to thermal sights and give it a look. You stay in here." He clicked on the thermal mode on his helmet, hit the door controls, and stepped into the room outside the office. He had his A-140 raised, and was scanning for anyone coming towards them.

"Come on buddy. Show your face so I can drop your ass like yesterday's news."

 

[Killtec]

Alright, Link. You've done this, like, a bajillion times before. Easy in, easy out, easy money. Nobody knows until you're gone what's happened. Right?

Link took a deep breath as he came short of the floor his targets were on, just a flight of stairs away. Standing up straight, holstering each of his weapons, he pulled down his hood and began to walk normally up the stairs, like someone going in to work. The illusion fooled most people, and if they ever seemed skeptical he shut them up, or stalled for time by demonstrating how good he was at whatever he was faking.

Confidently opening the door and leaving the stairwell as he walked onto the target floor, he was greeted by a terrifying sight - one that he'd hope to never see this early in his contract killing career - a fully equipped Mando, with his sights trained directly on Link.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Link's hands almost instinctively raised themselves as he addressed this new surprise. "Easy, there. I'm just here doing my job, sir. No need to shoot anything, or anyone for that matter. I've never seen you around here before, what's your name?"

 

[Mad Dog]

Cade maintained a visual on the tower, one target remaining outside on the balcony of the fourteenth floor, looking down, at what Cade couldn't see, and the other two in their respective offices two floors below. Still no sign of the fourth.

"C'mon, where are you?" Cade whispered to himself.

 

[Kori Buor]

Hearing Kalan's voice over his earpiece, Ral nodded back at the other Mandalorian. The plan was sufficient to him as he could defend himself and the official they had just been speaking to and Kalan could help secure and clear the offices. It was a fairly typical thing to do; one man would secure the interior with the VIP, the other would make sure there wasn't a threat about to overwhelm them or breach in through a wall. "Confirmed, Kalan. Go take your walk, I'll make sure everything is secured in here with Mister Adisen."

As Kalan moved for the door, Ral would turn and face the official. "Can you think of any reason why someone would want to attack a guard? Are there important files in the building, something that's not public record? Is there a group angry about something or some new policy or action that's creating a radical group?"

"Well, of course, to the right person there's plenty of information around here that could be worth a lot on the black market. Though, I don't recall there being a bill that was passed lately that might cause someone to want to attack a guard."

"The use of a signal jammer suggests some level of planning and sophistication, whoever is doing this is not someone to be trifled with. It is likely thet are looking for something with a lot of surveillance on it, what has the most eyes on it?" Ral replied quickly and thoughtfully. Signal jammers weren't cheap pieces of tech after all. That meant planning and money, and it definitely meant this was bigger than a random act of violence or the desire to take out a guard. These things made Ral curious as to who might have been behind the attack.

Suddenly, Ral can hear a commotion from outside the office as someone had stumbled upon Kalan. Likely, it was just some office tech, but as a precaution, Ral secured his bucket on his head and activated his tactical package and immediately noticed the strength of the signal jamming. That was far too strong and that put the son of Mandalore on edge. Drawing his pistol, Ral moved a little closer to the door, but far enough away still that should there be a blast the wall would absorb it.

@Prudence