A new motivation

[Jacen Voidstalker]

Roadin did one final check of his gear as the airspeeder moved between skyscrapers at terrifying speeds. The blacked-out transport moved with barely a whine as their droid pilot twisted and turned between the buildings. The artificial lights from the windows they passed were little more than a blur, almost akin to the streak of stars as a ship entered hyperspace. Yet no one paid any heed to their reckless journey; this was a team of professionals.

“Everyone good?”Roadin asked. Six pairs of eyes looked out at him from beneath black makeup. Each gave a curt, affirmative nod. This was the third bank they’d hit in the system so far. Each operation had gone smoothly. The Hutt Cartel provided the Intel, paid off the people on the inside. All they had to do was follow the plan.

“Perimeter alerts have been disabled, we’re good to go.”

“Approaching drop point.”

The speeder descended swiftly and came to a complete halt over the squat building. All six alighted and the speeder vanished into the night sky within a second. They moved out in pairs towards their entry point, coming to a halt at the edge of the roof.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

A small guardhouse protruded from the main structure. A single guard lay dozing on duty. One pair carefully helped each other down from the roof, another moved up to the guard house. Roadin shouldered his rail carbine. The weapon fired electromagnetically accelerated flechettes at below the speed of sound. Deadly and silent.

“Place the patch,” he whispered into his comm when the guard was focussed in the opposite direction. One of the other team members reached down from above the guard house and cautiously placed a small black device on the window on Roadin’s side.

“In three…two…” came a whisper in his ear. He lined up his shot and carefully depressed the trigger. At the same moment the small device sent a sonic shock through the window, shattering the near-impervious portal.

The noise of the glass hitting the ground sounded excruciatingly loud in the night, but Roadin was more concerned about the accuracy of his shot. One of the other men in black dropped through the window gracefully.

“Good shot,” came a quiet whisper.

“Slice the access door,” Roadin replied.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

Several feet of Quadranium separated them from their goal. They were deep within the facility, having already successfully disabled and crossed several durasteel barriers. Two men worked on the opening mechanism, a glowing datapad illuminating their painted faces.

“How long?” Roadin asked at a whisper.

“Ten minutes,” came the quick reply. Slower than expected, but they had spare time. The datapad showed a complex series of circles as it cycled through crypto to find the right challenge response. They were in a wide storage room, at least ten racks lined across the room. Nothing they contained was of enough value for them to worry about. It was the last vault they had to breach. Precious metals were still used to hold currency, but they were after something far more valuable. Data chips that securely held crypto currency worth millions of credits.

There was a knock on the door.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

“Did we leave a guard?”

“The roster said only three?”

“Quiet!” Roadin snapped as he slowly lifted up his carbine. He waved two of their group towards the door. They took up position either side of the door, one with the stock of his repeating pistol tight to his shoulder. The other grasped the door handle and pulled.

The door swung inwards. Nothing happened. Jockas stepped into the opening, turning his weapon back and forth as he scanned outside for the source of the sound. He turned back to the group and shrugged. Then he vanished. He simply flew out the door as if pulled on a string.

Something appeared in the doorway. A set of brown robes, the hood pulled down to cover the face of the wearer. Beneath the robes a battered and burned metal breastplate was visible. There was a series of pops and several of the lights above them shattered. The Jedi vanished.

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

“Keep it tight! Keep working on the door!” Roadin kept held his carbine tight as he scanned their surroundings. There was a snap-hiss and he turned to see an orange glow from the racks to his right. As one the group formed up, weapons ready. Stan kept working on the vault door.

There were two blue flashes behind them. Stan fell away from the vault door and Bran went down, both hit by stun blasts from behind. Roadin sighted the robes through the shadows. He fired a quick burst at them. Nothing happened. A shadow flitted above them. The robes fell to the ground, empty.