Ask Wasn't Expecting Paradise

[Miri Kryze]

Zeltros wasn't Miri's first choice to go to on vacation. A vacation for her was a good hunt on Dxun, or Saleucami. Getting a fresh kill- probably something with horns that she could drink out of afterwards. Zeltos was the opposite. She flipped through the pages on her data pad, laid across the couch in the main area of the ship. Her scatterweave covered beskar'gam covered her entirely, except the helmet which was laid on the coffee table next to her. Most people would have taken the armor off, but she was comfortable in it; like it was a second skin.

Miri didn't know much about her Apex companion. They didn't talk much on the way here, but she waited for them to come out of the backrooms. Having only just landed on Zeltros, it would be good for them to formulate a plan. Miri was okay with walking around in her armor, but it would draw undue attention. The contract was to make sure nothing happened to the girl on spring break, and drawing attention to the fact that had hidden protectors wouldn't be so good. Alternatively, Miri could keep to her marksmanship thing; stay to the rooftops and out of sight and let her companion do the stalking. Worse came to worse, she brought everything she needed to blend in on Zeltros, tight black dress and all.

She hated wearing nice clothes though. Jace had made her wear them numerous times for their bounty hunts, while he got to wear full armor. Always left her exposed and without all of her weaponry. She felt more naked without a blaster than she did without clothes.

Aside from the alcoholic beverages, there was nothing on Zeltros that really interested Miri, aside from the promise of a substantial amount of credits if no harm came to the college girl. The chiss Mandalorian couldnt' help but wonder what her companion would think of the situation. It would take some getting used to, working for Apex, but so far they had yet to disappoint.

@The Good Doctor

 

[Aden Archer]

Aden as he was walking to the main area of the ship was looking over the contract on a datapad.

Escort of Yanis Tarf Yanis Tarf is the spoiled daughter of a wealthy businessman from the corporate sector. Recently, the young woman has been the victim of kidnapping threats. Despite this, she has insisted on taking a trip to Zeltros for spring break. Her father has hired two of our operators to ensure that nothing happens to her.

Assets Assigned: 1-2 PCs
Payout per teammate: 40,000 credits

If Aden had to be honest about this, this really shouldn't be that difficult of a mission. The Senior Contractor already had a strategy in mind and had requisitioned some equipment in order to make this possible. Aden - wearing his armor and his other bounty hunting gear - came in with a durasteel case in his hand. Just in case that isn't needed, he brought other things with him.

Coming into the main area, she would see the pantoran Mandalorian, whose apparent bright red-eye condition stood out for a moment. Aden has encountered so many Mandalorians over the years he's pretty familiar with them. Although there aren't many of them, they are good warriors with a distinct culture and creed that's readily accepting of many species.

"Good day, Miri. Pleasure." the Senior Contractor nodded his head with a smile. After they would do their introductions and stuff, he would then ask "Ready to get started with the plan?" This would be the first time working with this particular member of Apex, but the spacer has a good feeling about this.

@TheDudeMike

 

[Miri Kryze]

Miri stood up, here scatterweave armor barely picking up any of the light of the ship. She gave the man a silent nod. The fact he was wearing armor was a good sign. It meant armor was in his plan. Her helmet found its way to be pinned between her forearm and hip. Though the briefcase did catch her red eyes. Miri jerked her chin toward it. "A surprise?" she asked, lifting her gaze to his.

"I'm ready. Where do you need me?" Miri's first taste of Apex was working on a hunt with Arla. She knew there was a hierarchy of command, and she knew she was at the bottom of it. It didn't bother her though. Credits were credits, and there was no where her blaster rifle couldn't touch. She just hoped Aden's plan involved her having the rifle with her. Her pistol would do in a pinch, but it wasn't home. From the looks of him though, her whole hunting loadout could come along. There were too many planets for Miri to keep track of every law on every one.

To make her point of flexibility, she pointed at the dress draped over the coffee table. "Armor or dress?" she asked. With her armor, she could melt into the shadows, if there were any; get to the roof tops with her jetpack, have tools outside of blasters to use. With a dress she could blend in, but concealing her pistol would be... difficult. She'd been on hunts before, but never protection details. She supposed they weren't much different, really.

@The Good Doctor

 

[Aden Archer]

"Alright" he said as he would put the case down on a table. And then he would pull out a deactivated A7-TR droid from it, and then sit on the table. "We will observe at a safe distance while trailing her around in a speeder, and in the meantime, we can use one of these to keep a closer eye on her, while streaming video feed from this datapad." That way in case they can't get a good view from a speeder, they have another angle to see her through

"Our client perfer it to let Yanis enjoy herself as much as possible." he would also lift a datapad from the case and sit on the table. "We will watch what she is doing. If any trouble pops up, we will be ready to intercept." he said. "I arranged an airspeeder for us to ride in. I can fly it. And you can watch Yanis on the video feed." That was it really. "If she goes into a building, we will park somewhere close and see if the drone can peer through the windows." The Apex Contractors would be able to to keep their distance away from the VIP, let them enjoy their vacation without the presence of armed guards hovering around them. Yet at the same time, Apex would be able to alert to trouble and be ready to intervene in a moments notice. "Also, we will be acting as their chauffeur service".

"If things start to go off the rails, we are getting paid to make sure she is safe and nothing happens to her, not if she enjoyed her spring break or not" Ideally for someone who has kidnapping threats against them, they would be careful. But it may not turn out that way, sometimes people throw caution to the wind.

"You can wear whatever you are comfortable in as long as you are ready for combat at any given moment." He said. If she perfers wearing her iron skin, that won't be a problem. But if she feels like she wants to dish-out some hurt while wearing a dress, that is fine too.

"Any questions?"

@TheDudeMike

 

[Miri Kryze]

Miri breathed a sigh of relief when Aden mentioned using a droid to keep an eye on the girl. It meant they would be relatively out of sight in the airspeeder, and she could wear her armor comfortably- and wield all her weapons. Lifting her helmet, slid it over her black hair and sealed it in place. Hidden by her black visor, Miri let a smirk spread across her lips. It was clear how the man had made it to Senior Contractor. The plan was good, concise, and most importantly, simple.

"No," Miri said, shaking her head. Keep surveillance, stay low in the airspeeder, cart them around where ever they needed to go, and be ready for combat. These were all things Miri was already ready for by default. The dress was all but forgotten in a moment, as she gathered her E-11D blaster rifle, Westar-35 blaster pistol, and vibroblade. The pistol was holstered on her right hip, the blade sheathed on her left. The rifle, she cradled in her arms, as relaxed as a Mandalorian could be.

"Let's get to it," she said. Miri took the datapad, cradling it with her rifle. Without needing prompting, she turned toward the ramp and started toward it. No doubt the airspeeder was nearby, if not right outside.

@The Good Doctor

 

[Aden Archer]

"Alrighty then" he said after Miri signaled she was ready to go. The planet is set, and soon they will link up with the client's daughter.

Later​

"Thank you both for picking me up and taking me where I need to go. It's spring break and there is lots of fun to be had here." Yanis said as she boarded into the rear passenger seats of the speeder they are in. Aden could just smell the pheramones in the air of Zeltros. Yuck. "Alright Miss Tarf, where would you like to go?" Aden asked of her. She would then respond "The Great Mall in the Paradise District" she giggled. "I am going to meet with my friends there and we are going to have a blast shopping. Hope you both have a good size cargo compartment in here."

Is it just him, or does Aden feel she's really annoying already. Rich brat. He would glance momentarily at his partner.

Unfortunately, the pantoran Mandalorian wasn't spared from the rich girl, as she would start with a barrage of questions towards here. "So you are a Mandalorian? Wow. Don't see too many of those around here." she has only gotten started. "So is it true that Mandalorians chew nails and can spit napalm?"

---

Fortunately they would arrive and then stop. "Here we are" Aden said. "Be careful Miss." as the young lady started to leave "One second" Aden would throw her a spare comlink. "Put that in your pocket or something. It's on our channel. Let us know if something starts to unfold" The spacer thought of that at the last minute. Maybe it would prove useful. Maybe not. Aden thought about letting her borrow a small blaster pistol, but thought that might be a bad idea.

Now the young lady would rush off to meet her group of friends. Aden would look around the viewports and didn't see anything out of the ordinary. "Ready to deploy the droid?" he looked to and asked Miri. Time to start getting eyes on her. The mall was a large building, so it would be easily for the bird-like droid to remain inconspicuous while staying above ground.

@TheDudeMike

 

[Miri Kryze]

Miri's had decided to spare the girl the sight of her in her helmet, letting her black hair hang down to her shoulders and showing off her red eyes. She followed the girl with her gaze, almost regretting taking the mission on in the first place. The girl was louder than poultry being hunted by someone that always missed. Miri much preferred to hit her targets, and the comforting silence that the hunt and the kill brought around her. Except this time she had to protect the squawking beast.

"I am," Miri said. Her voice betrayed none of her internal thoughts, nor did her expression which rested with a slight upward curve of her lips and slight squint of her eyes. She was a huntress, but she knew how to be pleasant all the same. The helmet was for the resting bitch face. "I've met a few who would certainly try." The amount of chest thumping Mandalorians she had dealt with over the years was more than anyone deserved in one life time.

When the girl exited the craft, Miri donned her helmet again, turning to Aden with a slow nod. Miri got to work unpacking the droid, linking it's optical sensor with her helmet and a datapad. A small display appeared over her left eye in her, giving her half of her own vision and half of the droid's. The same feed she was recieving in her helmet displayed on the datapad, and Miri set the datapad up in front of them so that they could both see it and control the droid if need be, though Miri imagined it was mostly autonomous once given a target.

"She's a talkative one," Miri said, looking to Aden for any last minute adjustments to the droid before releasing it into the wilds of Zeltron.

@The Good Doctor

 

[Aden Archer]

"You can say that again" Aden would say as he nodded his head at her, signaling that the droid is ready to be sent off to keep an eye on the VIP who is wandering off in the Great Mall. "Everything looks good". The droid would be able to keep an eye on her on it's own while the two look on, it can also follow additional voice commands with the built in com-link in it.

---

An hour would pass, the droid would still have eyes on her. She is shopping with her friends, she has both hands full of shopping bags. The two had the pleasure of watching her spend tons and tons of money, mostly on luxury brand clothing. It was really just hard to watch. He nearly muttered 'Rich people problems', before remembering that he too is rich, although he doesn't spend it on vain stuff.

Still, the rich girl and her friends are insufferable to watch.

He would then ask to his partner. "So, do you think any of these threats are credible at all?" he would muse. Sure, the money is good. But still this would be a test of Aden's patience.

@TheDudeMike

 

[Miri Kryze]

With the droid off and away, Miri kept her eyes on the small display inside her helmet. Even as they watched for an hour, she was still, quiet, and focused- as a huntress would be on a hunt. It was a strange hunt, this one, but still a hunt non-the-less. At least that's what Miri was telling herself to keep herself entertained. Stalking and waiting were fun when hunting, but sleep inducing in every other aspect.

Aden's voice broke her focus. She turned her black visor to the man, remembering that the display in her helmet of the droid's feed moved with her. That was always a nice feature to having it in her helmet. Threats were a credit a dozen. They came and went as fast as the people that issued them. For the rich, they were something to heed and worry over- but for Miri it was all just talk. People that intended to do harm usually didn't talk about doing it prior. The ones that did were either amateurs or trying to be martyrs.

"From anyone we have to worry about, no," Miri answered finally, turning back to her front. "It's the ones that didn't make threats we'll have to watch for." Miri watched the girl spend more credits in one store than her entire clan had in their treasury. If Miri wasn't working for Apex, being one of the kidnappers looked like a good idea. Credits were credits, and hunting animals wasn't as fulfilling in the credit department.

@The Good Doctor

 

[Aden Archer]

Aden nodded his head in agreement. She is right, it's the one devil you don't know that one should be most concerned about. The threat looming in the shadows versus the obvious one.

---

Almost two hours later, they were still going on. "Are they still in there?" Aden was getting a bit annoyed, although not raising his voice or getting outwardy angry. Looking through the feed again, they are elsewhere in the Great Mall. Their little shopping group got even more shopping bags. If there would be one image that would capture materialism in it's essence, that would be it right there.

As the shopping group were going about their day, there would be the sounds of glass shattering and falling on the ground, and then a whole squad of heavily armed and heavily armored mercenaries dropping on the ground via jet boots. The squad of men were toting rifles in their hands and obviously meant business.

"You are coming with us" one of them spoke and pointed towards Yanis. Her and her group were all scared as they all dropped all the shopping bags they had.

Aden saw the feed, right when the mercenaries dropped into view. "Ecliptic Mercenaries..." Aden remembers fighting them before, he recognized them by their armor. Aden grabbed his rifle that was in arms reach and quickly put on his helmet. "Lets swoop in and rescue her." Aden would then exit the vehicle they were in. His jetpack would activate and then he would fly above the Grandmall, looking to get on top of the building and then come in through the glass ceiling the Ecliptics came in through.

At least there is one thing they can count on for now, they don't want to kill Yanis, they want to take her. They can still save her.

@TheDudeMike

 

[Miri Kryze]

Miri watched the armored mercenaries descend and surround the girl. The one place civilians never looked- up. It was a good tactic, one that Mandalorians used often. The mercenaries would make piss-poor Mandalorians though. Their prey had less survival skills than a womp rat. Miri preferred to hunt creatures that had to be taken down quick or they would fight back. The more horns to drink out of afterwards, the better.

As Aden sprang into action, she followed. Miri's jetpack ignited and roared to life, propelling her upward and over the Grandmall. She shifted her right hand to the pistol grip of her E-11D blaster rifle. While they were in the air, Miri synced her helmet's coms with Aden's so they could speak without being right next to each other. She doubted the mercenaries would use grenades or thermal detonators with the girl around, but she wasn't going to take chances and stay next to Aden to find out.

"Alive or dead?" Miri asked. She meant the mercenaries. If Aden wanted one or two alive for questioning, it wouldn't do for Miri to have her blaster rifle set to kill. Though... she did have other tools available to her for capturing. She would probably keep one alive regardless of his answer. Aden was the superior here, though. She'd follow his lead.

@The Good Doctor

 

[Aden Archer]

"At least one alive" he replied. Information could be useful in the future. The Ecliptics are competition. They get the right bit of info, their competition can be ended. Though, suffice it to say, unfortunately Yanis' vacation is cancelled. Once she is rescued, they are taking her off planet and taking her back to her father/parents.

For Aden personally, the Senior Contractor was using his lightning rifle, it will stun them unless he decides to fry them.

Soon after, the mercenaries then came up through the glass ceiling they broke through with their jetboots and then landed on the ground, toting their rifles of course. Then two more mercenaries also emerged. One has the girl captured over his shoulder. "Help me" the girl yelled repeatively as she would struggle in-vain. "Keep them away from us" the Ecliptics ordered. While they are making their get-away with the target as they continuing to ascend in the air, the mercenaries that just landed would take aim and fire.

Not wasting the opportunity, Aden took a concussion grenade and threw it at the four grounded mercenaries. That would either catch some or send them scattering to get away from it. Either way is fine.

The grenade was tossed and the Ecliptics saw it and moved in any way they could to get away from it. While doing so, he would snap off a few shots from his lightning rifle, nailing one and then stunning him. That just leaves four more to the ground.

"You able to take care of these? I'm going to rescue the VIP." he asked, as he was readying to fire up his jetpack, he would look in the sky towards the girl's captors.

@TheDudeMike

 

[Miri Kryze]

At least one alive? Miri could manage that. Her thumb switched the selector switch on her E-11D blaster rifle to stun. It was just in time for the group of four mercenaries to fly up through the glass. Only one was caught by the concussion grenade Aden had tossed. More for Miri. She gave the man a slight nod without looking at him, focusing her entire attention on the four. Her jetpack disengaged and she fell to the roof, landing on a beam rather than the glass.

Raising her blaster rifle with one hand, stock tucked tightly in her shoulder, and her left fist, she aimed both limbs at two different combatants. A squeeze of her trigger sent a stun bolt into the first, and activating her bola launcher, the second was snared almost immediately at relatively point blank range by the bola. Whoever the mercenaries were, they would rue the day they messed with a Mandalorian and her hunt.

The snared mercenary shouted some obscenities as he struggled to get free, the stun bolted one dropped like a rock. The third raised his own rifle, but was too slow for the huntress. Miri shifted her aim, clamping her left hand around the handguard securely and pulled the trigger. Another stun bolt screamed through the air, dropping the third mercenary.

The fourth was just coming around after the concussion grenade. He looked up only to see Miri within arms reach. She grabbed his neck with her left hand, aimed her rifle and right gauntlet down at his knees and released a blast from her repulsor. The man’s knee caps reversed, followed closely by Miri muzzle thumping him with her blaster rifle upwards into his chin.

Everything was going according to the huntress’ plan, until the bola’d mercenary managed to break free. Miri only found out when he tackled her, sending them both crashing through the glass ceiling.

@The Good Doctor

 

[Aden Archer]

Pushing some buttons now on his wristpad, he would then take off quickly into the air with his jetpack. Although the Ecliptic Mercenary thugs had a head start, Aden was gaining ground- or air in this case against them as his jetpack is faster than their jetboots.

When Aden was closed the distance, he would aim his lightning rifle towards the Ecliptic duo and then started with the one with the rifle. The spacer fired a few shots and the Ecliptics would become aware of their pursuer. Two missed, but one connected and was shocked. The enemy mercenary would falter but would regain their proverbial footing in the sky.

Aden had to admit, he always wanted to have a gunfight in the air.

Blaster fire would come from the Ecliptic but Aden would skilly evade by maneuvering in the air. Once he had an opening, he and and pressed the trigger a couple more times, one lightning bolt would connect to the other Ecliptic. The ecliptic would spasm in midair, his jetboots would shut off. Fortunately, the poor Ecliptic wouldn't have to witness his own death falling down to earth.

That just leaves one more in the air. As the kidnapper would still try to make his get away, Aden would now hone his sights and direction on him. The kidnapper would then draw out a blaster pistol while holding the girl in his other. He would then fire some blaster pistol shots from on high. Aden focused on maneuvering around to keep himself from getting hit while trying to figure out a way to release the girl.

"Miri, you doing okay?" he asked on his comlink. He isn't sure if hes too far away from her at this point but he tried anyways. Looking behind him, there are no Ecliptics trying to give chase that he can see. So she must be doing good.

@TheDudeMike

 

[Miri Kryze]

Miri was no stranger to getting tackled, or falling. Falling from this height with someone twice her weight on top of her was new though. Luckily, Miri had a jetpack. She ignited the pack, spinning them in the air just before they landed so that the Ecliptic landed first on his back and Miri could use him as a cushion. Not that it still wasn't painful. The mercenary was wearing armor, and armor hurt like all hell when hit. For Miri's part, only a grunt escaped her lips at the fall, and she was able to ignore most of the pain to scramble to a kneeling over the mercenary.

Her fists crashed down in a hail of blows on the mercenary's helmet. She pulled her vibroblade from its scabbard and activated it. Right after punching with her left hand, she drove the vibroblade up under the man's helmet, feeling it bite tender flesh instead of armor. He went limp almost immediately, the vibrations making quick work of anything the blade touched. Miri let out a long exhale, sheathing her vibroblade and holding her side. She'd have a bruise or two- maybe a cracked rib. Nothing permanent.

"Fine," Miri said into her helmet's comlink. She looked up at the hole they'd left in the glass ceiling and ignited her jetpack again, flying up and out of the mall. Both stunbolted Ecliptics were still out cold, but Miri wasn't taking chances. She moved to secure both mercenary's with cuffs. "Nothing a stiff drink wouldn't cure. You?"

@The Good Doctor

 

[Aden Archer]

"Copy" he replied back. Back to the situation he was in, he was able to catch up to the kidnapper. And up above, he saw a speeder come into the picture. It's not his speeder, he knows for sure. It's for the kidnapper. If the kidnapper gets on the speeder with the girl, then it's over and the contract is a failure. He must not allow it to happen.

"If only had a rocket launcher..." he muttered to himself. Then Aden remembered, he had a rocket launcher on his jetpack. On his helmet, he would acquire a target on his helmet's heads-up-display. At this time, the kidnapper would then start to fly to it. With a target-lock. Aden would fire it. The missile would come from his jetpack and it would hit directly into the speeder, slamming into it, piercing it, and then exploding. The speeder would then fly into the ground on Zeltros, inconsequentially into some grasslands.

Now that Aden had a good shot at the kidnapper, just before the Ecliptic could react, he would raise his lightning rifle and snap off two shots into his center of mass. The shots connected, the guy was shocked would now be falling to his doom. Yanis is released, and Aden would quickly accelerate to catch her in his arms after stashing his weapon away. "I got you" "Thank you! You saved me from those awful people!" "Don't mention it" he said professionally. "How can I repay you?" "Your father has that covered"

Eventually, Aden would ease on his jetpack and land on the ground and release Yanis to where she can now stand freely, then he would take off his helmet. He would then com Miri again. "The VIP is secure and in my possession. Hostiles eliminated, no more in sight." he said.

After looking at his wrist datapad, he can see that he doesn't have a lot of fuel in his jetpack left. He would then look at Yanis. "Alright Miss It's time to go. We are getting you off world and returning you to your father. Vacation is over.""But I still have a lot more shopping i need to do...-""No buts""Awwww"

@TheDudeMike