Open Nar Shaddaa Trouble in the Streets

[Talak Rand]

His questions about her receptiveness to the Force were answered as they came upon a droid that stood in their way. She crushed its head completely and left it on the ground, and Talak didn't do anything about it. He just watched since she clearly had this under control.

He made his way into the next room and glanced around the office of the Crimson Dawn lieutenant. It seemed the man had a taste for big game hunting. Trophies littered the walls: tauntaun heads, Wookiee pelts, even a gundark head. All that were presumably hunted by the man whose office this was. Dangerous man, he thought to himself. Good to know. In addition, there were a variety of old writings and antique items. A collector as well, but that much Talak already knew. It was why he had come here. He wanted to know who this man had sold something to and where to find it.

From the corner of his eye, he saw another person drop down from the grating and Talak's vibrosword was in his hand before the man had even hit the ground.

The kid reached for a blaster, and that pissed Talak off. Really pissed him off. Talak wanted to pull a simple job and apparently everyone decided they were going to follow him around. At least the woman had a reason, but this one... Talak didn't even know why he was chasing them.

Get lost or I swear I'll gut you, he said, voice barely above a growl. Even without the Force, the kid would feel a chill creep up his spine. This kid barely looked like he was out of his teen years, but Talak wouldn't hesitate to put him down if he had to.

Slice the console. I'll deal with this clown, he told the woman without taking his eyes off the man. That pistol wouldn't be too much of a problem. Even without a lightsaber, Talak had the Force as a weapon, and it could outmatch a blaster pistol any day of the week. Throughout the entire exchange, Talak stood alert for any hint of trouble or the slightest intent of the man to fire. The Force was his warning, and he would respond accordingly. @Dread @Casmer

 

[Lilith Vye]

Alais walked through the door and around the corner quickly, feeling that sense of trouble again and hearing the man's next instructions. He wanted to take on this stalker himself? Alais shrugged and waved her hands flippantly in the air as her answer, then simply followed those orders. The weirdo had some strange powers, so she assumed he could handle himself. Plus she was in a different room than the stalker currently; with a wall between the stalker and her, Alais was safe for the moment. However, she'd remain alert while sitting at the console anyway.

Only a few strides brought her to the lieutenant's office desk. His console was switched off, so she took out her datapad first to set some things up. As she powered up his console, she slice dthrough all the layers of security. If anything, she felt guided when she sliced just like when she fought.

When she was done with the security, she started to run several programs on her datapad. The weirdo was super vague about slicing this console, but she assumed he wanted her to find this data manifest. All the programs aided her in the search, flagging and mining files with certain key words and lines of code.

@Phoenix @Casmer

 

[Duke Winters]

The vehicle came to a stop in front of the building, Duke glancing out the window before looking back to the officer that was accompanying him, a Rhodian named Bo, "We got a call out here?" Bo picked up his datapad before responding, "Yeah, some caller found a group standing outside a building before breaking into... a ventilation shaft? That's all it says, the caller didn't give a name." Duke smirked to himself, no one ever gave a name on Nar Shaddaa, it was always better to play safe and be completely anonymous. He was glad Bo accompanied him, he knew the officer wasn't in the pocket of any gang and could at least be counted on to watch his back.

The speeder was shut off and both of the men got out and linked up on the sidewalk, "Well, call reported ventilation shaft, let's go find it." They walked around the building for a few moments before finding the grate on the ground in the alley with a speeder right beside it. Immediately both officers drew out their blasters, approaching the speeder at a brisk pace with their blasters drawn and aimed at the windows. When Duke approached the passenger side, he gripped the handle before opening the door as wide as it can go and peeking into it with his blaster first. There was nobody inside and that meant whoever was breaking in was already inside. The two glanced at each other before Duke pointed to their own vehicle, "Call it in Bo and after that go through the front door. I'll go through the shaft and radio where I am." Normally a warrant was needed for them to enter the building but witnessing a crime in progress, well that erased the need for a warrant entirely.

"You sure about splitting up?" Duke had already started to climb onto the speeder and up to the grate, removing his coat and throwing it aside to reveal his blast vest and badge. "Yeah, now go, call it in." Bo nodded before running off toward their speeder to go radio in for more reinforcements to the location. When he reached the grate and heaved himself into it, his size proved to be a hindrance as he could barely fit into it and had to contort his body in order to start climbing up and to wherever it would take him. His blaster was still drawn and at the ready, in case he dropped in right on the criminals but he would have to deal with it when he crossed that bridge.

@Phoenix @Dread @Ryfybert Wylt

 

[Ryfybert Wylt]

The man that stood before him was of a different sort than Wylt had expected. Not that the bounty hunter could see the man's face very clearly, it being partially hidden by the headdress he wore. Wylt had had weapons pulled on him before; he'd been shot at, beaten, even run over by an angry street urchin on a swoop bike. But he had never experienced the aura that emanated from the man. It pulled at him and held him off at the same time, and it swept Wylt in a sense of dread he had not felt before.

"I knew there was something odd about you," Wylt spoke aloud his thoughts. "You're not a common thief, are you?"

There was a dampened metallic sound coming from the opening of the ventilation shaft above Wylt. The bounty hunter took a few steps forward toward the man, lowering his weapon slightly so as not to taunt an attack. "You hear that?" he said, beckoning to the ventilation shaft. "This trio is about to become a quartet. Your little heist has attracted quite a lot of heat and, by your reaction, a lot more than you had expected."

Wylt spoke with the feigned confidence of a young man, but even so, his hands were not shaky as they held on to the blaster pistol. "Competition, perhaps?" But whose? Mine or his?

"Doesn't matter anyway," Wylt said. "If you've a bounty on your head, which I can only assume you do based on tonight, then there's no chance I'll let you leave this place." He leveled the blaster pistol with the man's head, ready to fire if he made a move.
@Dread @Phoenix @Orbit

 

[Lilith Vye]

It only took seconds for her programs to find and bring the flagged files onto her datapad, especially since there wasn't many that met all the search criteria. Nor was a data manifest large. It was a tiny blip compared to an application or OS. The job was done and then, with a single tap of her thumb, she ran the same program to irreparably destroy the lieutenant's console and the data on it.

When she stood up from the chair she spoke again, although she purposely spoke deeper and with more rasp, "I have it. No point sticking around." There was a short hallway in the office that lead to a backdoor, which she noticed and headed to right away. The security system was down so using a door wouldn't trigger anything, and she wasn't about to go back in the hallway with the stalker.

She was out the back door while one ranger was still in the shaft and the other was walking along the front of the house. Quickly after she'd blend into the passerby's and go with the flow, heading down an ally at her earliest convenience. She assumed the weirdo was smart enough to follow since she had the data he wanted.

@Phoenix @Casmer @Orbit

 

[Talak Rand]

Wrong, was all he said. Not that he expected to be able to reason with this guy, but it was awfully incompetent of him as a bounty hunter to chase someone down because they might have a bounty. Especially when that assumption was wrong.

Talak was about to throw himself into the fight when he heard his partner quietly say that she had the data. He had to agree, no point in a fight if he could get away.

Talak extended a hand with an open palm as if to implore him to leave them. Look, do you really... he started, but the reality, was that the Force tugged at the door controls and the door to the office snapped and locked shut, separating the two combatants. Without the power of the Force, the man wouldn't realize how it would happen and Force users were incredibly rare these days. A partner, droid, sliced door, or even malfunction were a million times more likely.

Talak anticipated the man might still fire, and he darted to the side as well, meaning any shot fired at him would miss and with the door closing there wasn't time for a follow up shot.

While the thief didn't know who was coming through the shaft, it would actually work out quite well to his advantage. There was no way that a sector ranger would believe that someone on Nar Shaddaa - where no one apart from this sucker ever did anything out of the kindness of their heart - broke into someone else's house to attack a pair of thieves out of the kindness of his heart. No, the sector ranger would almost certainly assume that the bean-owner was the thief and attempt to arrest him.

Talak, meanwhile, made his escape and followed after the woman, disappearing and taking to the alleys while the bounty hunter tried to search for a way either into the office or around it. Either way, it would cost him precious seconds and enough time for Talak to easily disappear on a complex and crowded world. @Orbit @Dread @Ryfybert Wylt

 

[Ryfybert Wylt]

It seemed like all doors slammed shut on Wylt tonight, both figuratively and literally. He didn't know how the man did it, but the door to the room behind the office suddenly slid shut. He fired his blaster at the man, but it went into the wall where the man had stood less than a second ago, and then the door settled in its frame with a loud clang. How did he- , Wylt thought, but then his mind came to the obvious conclusion that the other thief must have been a slicer. She had hacked the door controls and put Wylt in this predicament.

Wylt ran to the door and pulled at it hard, but it wouldn't budge. Looking at the door console, it was clear to him that attempting a hack was not an option; his slicing skills, if you could even call them that, were far too inferior to get it done in time. And time was running out, because whoever was climbing through the ventilation shaft would emerge very soon by the sound of it.

Wylt looked around the office. The only other doors there would likely propel him further into the apartment, and Wylt knew how his presense here already made him look. Even the ventilation shaft stopped short of the antechamber; whoever built this place wanted it to be as well protected as possible.

Lights from a passing speeder outside fell upon Wylt and made him look at one of the large windows. The expression on his face changed, and he ran toward the window, looking out. There was a ledge - a small one, but a ledge nonetheless. If he could get out on the ledge, he might be able to circumnavigate the antechamber and get to the thieves before they disappeared. And perhaps more importantly he could escape the premises before the individual in the ventilation shaft emerged into the room. If the newcomer was a lawman, Wylt knew exactly how this would look. And without an official bounty fob from the Guild, he was without the little jurisdiction he could have had.

There was no handle on the window; it seemed it was not meant to open. Wylt swore under his breath. If he had had his gear with him, then he could have used his glass cutter. What maniacal impulse had led him to untertake this without the proper equipment? He blamed the long shift at the caf shop and, he had to admit, a level of youthful ignorance.

If I ever do this type of shit again he thought, stepping back from the window, then I'll ask Maggs's old friends to give me a hiding I won't be soon to forget. Then he raised his blaster pistol and shot the window pane a couple of times until the glass shattered. However, before he could move over toward the window and climb out onto the ledge, he heard the tell-tale sound of someone emerging from the ventilation shaft, and froze.
@Dread @Phoenix @Orbit

 

[Duke Winters]

Duke heard blaster fire at the other end of the ventilation shaft and made him scuttle faster. It was incredibly cramped and wasn't all too comfortable but now speed took precedence. When he reached the end and jumped out and into the room, he immediately glanced around before finding the man by the shattered window. Duke's blaster was raised and aimed right for the center mass of the man, "Freeze right now! Sector Ranger." If the man tried anything to escape or use his weapon, he would get a blaster bolt directly to his chest. The badge was on the shoulder strap of his vest as well, confirming his words for him. "Drop your weapon right now."

After a moment, he realized it was only one person out of reportedly three. There was a scorch mark on the door as well, indicating he was shooting at something or someone at least that was behind it. Reaching for his radio with his blaster still on the man, "Bo, I have one apprehended, the other two are M.I.A. Have you run across them?" Bo took a second before responding, "No, they haven't come through the front." Duke made a face before radioing his partner again, "Shit, check the back or nearby alleys." Bo, who was still on the main level rushed out the building with his blaster drawn as well, turning around the corner and heading down the alley to find anyone that stood out or was escaping from the direction of the building.

Bo checked in a little later, "I can't find anything. I'll come back towards you, we at least got one." Duke didn't respond, his eyes just on the man across from him with his weapon at the ready. "Drop your weapon and get on your knees. This is your last warning." He couldn't tell what the man's next move would be but he hoped that the man would make the smart choice and put down his weapon.

 

[Lilith Vye]

Having left no finger prints physical or digital, leaving only a random stolen car and with no one following behind her besides the weirdo, she felt comfortable enough to leave the area entirely. She wasn't going to do the hand over anywhere near the building. No, she'd do it closer to home but not too close. Since she was wearing an outfit that covered most of her body, head and face, no one would be able to identify her even while close to home.

She looked back one more time to make sure the weirdo was still there, before disappearing into a crowd with him. She was bent on finally getting the information she wanted.

/exit thread

@Phoenix @Casmer @Orbit

 

[Talak Rand]

Talak had gotten what he had come for... or at least, his "partner" had gotten what he had come for. That was good enough for him for now. He knew he would be asked a whole slew of questions, but he could handle that if it got him the manifest. The entire job had been a bit more of a hassle than he had intended, but surprisingly no one had ended up dead.

Talak didn't take long to take to higher ground, using the Force to cloak himself so that he couldn't be seen by those who might be hunting him. When he was satisfied that he was a safe distance away, he would reappear to the woman again.

Overall, things could have gone worse. His face was covered and he had gloves on. No one could link him to anything involved, and no one had wound up dead. And, again, he got what he'd wanted. Could have been worse. Now I better find the girl, he thought to himself.

//Exit

 

[Ryfybert Wylt]

Sector Rangers?

Wylt couldn't believe his own bad luck. Not that he would have welcomed a third thief to the party, but with the two thieves gone the scene did not make him look good in the eyes of a Sector Ranger, unless said Ranger was both blind and a fool. Had it been another thief, Wylt could have turned to aggressive tactics to solve the situation. There was no way he was going to attack a Sector Ranger - that would be a very definitive farewell to his career as a bounty hunter and a very clear step toward lawlessness.

Wylt did as the Sector Ranger ordered and bent down slowly to put his blaster pistol on the floor. Perhaps even slower, and with his hands raised, he turned to face him.

"I know how this looks, officer," Wylt said. "However, I am, like you, a lawman of sorts. I'm a bounty hunter, and I came here in pursuit of an acquisition. They disappeared beyond that door there, and every moment wasted here is a step closer to them getting away."

Wylt hoped that it would work. There was a partial truth in it, given that Wylt had not been the accomplice of the two thieves. It was his own foolishness that had propelled him down this path. Maybe his wits could get him out of it.

@Orbit

 

[Duke Winters]

The man found sense and bent down before placing his blaster on the floor and disarming himself. That still meant nothing to Duke as weapons could still easily be hidden on the man and he kept his blaster aimed at him. "It's too late now, they're already long gone. That just leaves you and you're going back to the station to answer a few questions about those people that managed to getaway. If you answer truthfully and you're credentials checked out, you'll be released." He then flicked his head towards the blaster, "Now kick that towards me and turn around."

Footsteps could be heard outside and eventually, the door opened to reveal Bo as he stepped inside with his blaster drawn as well and aimed at Wylt. He went and collected the man's gun before approaching him and pressing him against a nearby wall. While Duke would have his blaster aimed at Wylt, he would be frisked by Bo for any other weapons before being cuffed by the Rhodian. "Well, at least we got one of them." If Wylt was cuffed, Duke would finally holster his blaster before stepping to both of them and gripping onto his arm. "You're coming with us."

Bo and Duke would lead him out of the building and into their speeder, one of them keeping guard the entire time and ready to stun Wylt in case he tried anything to escape. If he was speaking the truth, then he would be released if he was chasing a target but as of right now it looked like breaking and entering. There were some questions that needed answers and hopefully they could be provided.