A touch of evil

[Veena Reshma]

Manda| Evening|Berejor city

It was another rainy, despondent day in Berejor, and for once the filthy city looked as dirty as it was under all that glitz and glam. It had been a slow month, with more reports flooding in of another gang shootout occurring in Hoylin with as many as fifteen dead and wounded. The Umbaran cartel's warpath in the underworld against the declining powers of the Falleen mafia and local gangs had proven ever reaching and brutal in its scope. If her reports proved correct, then the latest string of murders in Berejors damp streets was more than just a series of isolated incidents. One victim from the commercial district, an Echani droid merchant by the name of Egred Tamoor, was discovered face down in one of the many winding side streets with his throat cut and eyes missing.


It was grey out, the suns rays obscured by the thick industrial smoke emitting from the nearby factories, the clouds dark and foreboding behind the distant city skyline. In Veenas experience, these types of murders usually happened in the dead of night, when the sidewalks were slicked wet and the bars pouring out their sad clientele onto the streets; not when it was bright outside. But it was noon when Egred had departed his shop, and there was nothing to suggest anything was amiss with the Echani prior.

While Berejors police secured the crime scene and handled the ever-growing crowds of onlookers, the minister set up shop in a nearby abandoned apartment block. With several pieces of surveillance equipment and portable computers installed while her team secured the building for the ministries purpose. A remote signal was sent through a remote comm channel utilised by the ministries many birds for private communication. If she were to test their mantle as instruments of the Exarchs, then this would be their trial. And if the brutality and cunningness of the Umbaran cartel were any indication, then they would be in for a fierce uphill battle.
[member="Shakti Sweet"]
[member="Ingrid L'lerim"]
(If i missed you in tags, please excuse me as my tagging is messing up for certain names )

 

[Nika Satari]

Noon the previous day.

There was a careful balance to adhere to as a successful hitwoman. Too much indifference and you’d be caught by some eagle-eyed law enforcement member or victim hell-bent on revenge. Too little and you couldn’t pull the trigger. Nika took extra care to ensure she wouldn’t be caught off guard nor red-handed. The half Umbaran captain preserved every detail of previous targets in a series of encrypted drives which were stashed in various safety deposit boxes located in multiple cartel hideouts. As an added measure of safety, they were stripped and unreadable without their matched pair. Sure, it was a nuisance if she ever needed to retrieve the data on a whim, but the security was well worth the payoff when it came to masking your footprints.

Nikas ring of cartel hitmen and footsoldiers had scored several dozen hits throughout the month, with several notably being men belonging to the Falleen mafia. Killing, it's the most natural thing in the world. Just point, pull the trigger, and people go away. Oh how the times had changed for the underworld, only eight centuries past had the Falleen, and their black sun syndicate ruled supreme. Now reduced to just their home planet and a few distant planets in CIS space, the Falleen mafias circle of manpower and influence, was gradually being squeezed as the Umbarans moved in their turf.

Now Manda was just one of a few stops for the Umbaran cartel or Nerina syndicate as it was better known to some, it had no significant rival presence like Hoylin possessed. But Nikas lord required that Berejors underworld be secured, as Manda could prove to be an essential waypoint for their smugglers bringing in weapons and spice. If it meant getting her hands dirty again, then that was of no concern to her.

Egred was the poor soul's name, an Echani merchant of minor repute. He was known for his gambling and had amassed over thirty thousand credits in debt to the Umbarans. The ruling heads of the Cartel would've merely left the fool alone, as intimidation always proved successful in getting back what the victim owed. Unfortunately for Egred, loose lips betrayed the man as it came to be known to the Umbarans that Egred turned informant to the Black Bhal'lirs. This small act of bravery amidst a sea of fear sealed the man's fate.

The payment for the murder appeared in the hideout after dark when Nika came back from the hit. That was how things got done. Go about the daily routine. Waste an hour datapading details back to the boss. Come back to a thick envelope and a data transfer of ten thousand or so credits into one’s holonet bank account.

Business as usual.

 

[Ingrid L'lerim]

Location: Manda | Berejor city
Equipment: Bio link
Actual look: actual look
Tags: [member="Nika Satari"] | [member="Shakti Sweet"] | [member="Veena Reshma"]

---

Ingrid was doing her nobility duties, two planets, double problems, less time. She was tired a bit, and just want to be with her husband. Reverie and dreams. And last time they speak about family, Tubrok wants to become father. Any other time maybe Ingrid agreed with him, but not this time. Now… just didn't have time to become a mother. She can’t denied to want a child, but she has limits.

The duties, yes, she received the signal, and she knows, she needed to go Berejor city, to Manda. She ran the file, another war, underworld war, many casualties, terror, brutality, panic. Sounds of war, sometimes beautiful to her. She took her weapons, her armor and other stuffs. Ingrid used her own ship to reach Manda. When she landed on Berejor city activated her shadow matrix, to wear her new look. New look, old name, Valeria Ragal, the Red Witch, her alias.

During the travel she try to read everything about this Umbaran cartel and the Falleen mafia. She didn’t want to arrive to the abandoned apartment block without seeing through the case. The Witch wanted to prepare for as many things as possible, because this was an enemy territory this time. When Ingrid reached the meeting point’s area she sent a short text to the remote comm channel.

”I need a specific coordinates and time to the meeting. Everything looks quite here, but we never knows… - Red Witch”

After she sent to the message, she cowered and waiting to the answers…

 

[Kelsie Sylvan]

Kelsie honestly wasn't sure why they didn't just go and murder a few Umbaran gangs.

Really, did she have to get called in on this? The guy was murdered. It happened. So what if it happened in broad daylight? That just meant that there was someone in the city that had a little more finesse than some of the others. They could deal with whoever it was once they went and raided the gang's HQ. Made Kelsie a little excited to do so.

The young woman was already sitting in the command centre of the old apartment block they were set up in. She was leaning back in an old recliner she'd dragged up there, throwing a grey exercise ball against the wall. She didn't plan to talk much -- these people were spies, if they knew what Kelsie was really like they would be sure to use it. She was honestly less concerned with the whole cartel business than she was with this new Ministry. Kelsie's skills were well-suited to such work -- but she was already bored with it all.

"So when are we gonna get started?" She asked to no one in particular.

[member="Veena Reshma"] [member="Nika Satari"] [member="Ingrid L'lerim"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Wearing: Armor| Pathfinder Boots | The Forgemaster's Ring | Ring of Stasis | Sofitor
Wielding: 10 Czerka knives | 2 Nastirci Combat Knives | Copero's Wail | Fire and Smoke (lightsabers) | Combat Gauntlets | Knight Obsidian Sword | 2 Dissuader K-30 Pistols with Glitter Bullets
Tags: [member="Kelsie Sylvan"] [member="Ingrid L'lerim"] [member="Nika Satari"] [member="Veena Reshma"] [member="Shakti Sweet"]

These were not the Knights Obsidian. Scherezade sighed, looking straight ahead. It was… Easier with the Knights. She'd fit in there like a glove to a hand, always knew what to do and how to get it done. But she wasn't with them anymore. No. Following several events, Scherezade deWinter had been reassigned. Ministry of Secrets. Spying, infiltration, being… Not just a Blood Hound anymore, but a bird. It was different. She didn't know yet if it was good different or bad different.

Sighing, she ran through the file again. Manda, murder. Sure. She'd done that hundreds of times before. All she needed was to get to the body so she could ride its blood and gain knowledge that would otherwise take much longer than most cases could afford before the trail went cold. Bird or Knight, Scherezade was still the Blood Hound, and she knew of no others with abilities such as her own. She was a Human, all right, and her powers relied on the Force. Yet still, with the lack of other Blood Hounds around her, what she found by riding the blood was rarely held up as court evidence in any case. Perhaps… Perhaps with this ministry, it could be different.

Arriving at the apartment in her usual walking armory appearance, she glanced around at the people already gathered. One, she recognized. The others, she did not.

Considering that a former mission partner who then had gone by the name Jaqueline was asking about when they could get started, Scherezade grinned and waved at her. "I suppose once everyone that was summoned is gathered," she answered with a careless shrug, "so do we have easy access to the corpse or do we need to break into morgues again?"

 

[Razelle Breuner]

It seemed like there was an acute dichotomy in almost everything the Confederacy ever did. They had money, and were largely comprised of professionals. That meant that everything they were involved in was smothered in shiny things. Cutting edge tech, gleaming screens and polished speeders. It all looked smooth and clean, but that was always put into sharp relief with how messy it got the second the human element got involved. They pushed forward with every plan, all at once, and the result was this mangled lump of chaos that everyone had to sort through on their own.

Back in the First Order, there was no "human element." They all might as well have been droids. Everything proceeded with surgical perfection and all the compassion of a detention center. In the Galactic Alliance, there was no smooth, no clean. Everything was always messy, because that's how they'd done things. Under assault from all sides, they had to react. Either of those methods sounded more functional, more practical than this half-and-half crap the CIS always seemed to be attempting. But then...they were both gone, and the CIS was still here. Maybe they were onto something.

Case in point. They were investigating a targeted civilian hit conducted under the cover of gang violence. They had a proper center of operations, full of flashing screens and shiny computers. They had their own robust comm system and regular contact with other elements nearby. And they were are this happened at all, which meant their fundamentals were sound; informants, data farming, or whatever else had led them to an inconspicuous single element of a massive, whirling storm. All that sounded great on paper, but Razelle was an untested X-factor sitting in an empty room with two murder-bunnies who looked more interested in finding some viscera to roll in than they were in legwork.

Children. Why was she working with children?

With a sigh, Raz tapped through one of the many datapads they'd made available for the team to use. "No need to rush to breaking and entering. Planetary security isn't terribly hard to manipulate. We can probably get clearance." She shrugged and flicked the page downward, absorbing more information about the victim. Very mundane. Worked his way up from nothing to own his own dealership, so he probably had a few skeletons in his closet. They'd need to toss over his paper trail in order to find out why he wound up as an example. "It'd also give us a chance to start establishing a liaison. Local five-oh probably knows more than we do. An insider would be great."

There was a chirp, and Raz opened a text communication on her datapad. Field agent. Raz double-checked the list of handles assigned to this mission, flicking her datapad over until she was satisfied with what information she'd been allowed. Another fresh face. That'd explain why she was having navigation trouble. After just a moment, Razelle sent a reply. <"Xesh 280.75, Yirt 155.30, Zerek 20.3">

Alright. Keep the kids focused. "Using local flavor to cover a hit like this isn't the sort of thing a solo player would do. That suggests we're dealing with a larger entity, but we've got no real evidence as to who. Might be the Umbarans or the Faleen, sure, or it might be a third party that we have no information on. Smokescreens are tricky like that." With a frown, she turned to Scherezade and nodded at the entrance to the commandeered apartment. "Watch the door, kiddo. We've got company coming, and she didn't authenticate."

[member="Scherezade deWinter"] | [member="Kelsie Sylvan"] | [member="Ingrid L'lerim"] | [member="Veena Reshma"]​

 

[Shakti Sweet]

Location: Berejor City, Manda - Base of Operations
Tags: [member="Veena Reshma"] | [member="Kelsie Sylvan"] | [member="Scherezade deWinter"] | [member="Ingrid L'lerim"]

---

The mute had been summoned. Thankfully, her training with the Exarch kept her within the reach of Genosis - so the trip to Manda had been made with expediency. Though, in truth, she wasn't sure, once she'd arrived, that the need for her to rush had been as urgent as they'd made it seem.

The redhead crouched quietly in one of the shabby corners of the small apartment that they'd designated as their command centre, gently rolling the heels of her hands along the tops of her thighs rhythmically. Her eerily sharp green eyes scanned the group in turn as they spoke, but there wasn't much for her to do at present. It seemed that a good number of those gathered were responsible for the collecting of data, if not the distribution of assets... It seemed that only herself and the young woman tossing the small grey ball about were actually here to do the dirty work.

Glancing over at [member="Kelsie Sylvan"], the Firrerreo tilted her head slightly. So this was another of the Crows then? She seemed young, but that was no true indicator of skill... If they had the same talent requirements that she herself possessed, then this woman was not to be taken lightly. The other host of women in the room seemed much more interested in the information that was piling up about... Was it a murder?

Strangely enough she was struggling to focus, since her talents ran to violence, and there was a lot of sitting around happening at present... She wondered if she could maybe do a caf run or something...

 

[Ciri Jade]

Location: Manda - Berejor City​

Tags: [member="Veena Reshma"] | [member="Ingrid L'lerim"] | [member="Kelsie Sylvan"] | [member="Scherezade deWinter"] | [member="Razelle Breuner"] | [member="Shakti Sweet"]​

​

Cartels. Mafias. If she didn't know any better, she'd swear she was still back home. Ciri knew there were other crime lords within the galaxy from the data she had seen from those on the Smuggler's Moon. That said, to look into a murder was not among the top things she believed would happen upon joining the Confederacy. At least, not one of a merchant. Regardless, information was out there waiting to be found. But first, she would need to meet with the others who had been summoned.

Distracting herself, she pieced together what she knew. If it was anything like the Hutt Cartel, a credit trail would be left somewhere. Had that been the case, it was doubtful a team like this would need to be gathered unless the trails were hidden quite well. All that she knew of the Hutts would need to be put aside as these were new players to her and the acquisition of data would be a welcome challenge.

En route to the meeting point, she cross-checked data regarding usual activity of both the local Falleen Mafia and the Umbaran Cartel. Any information on the local gangs could be useful, especially if she needed to dissect their methods.

"They've been quite busy." Her voice barely above a whisper.

Despite her desire to detour and gather more information, she kept on course. Ciri wasn't independent anymore, she was a Raven now. Whether she could trust anyone remained to be seen. The last thing she needed was a blade in the back from an ally.

 

[Mellifluous Magenta]

Celessa
Post 1
Equipment: PROJECT CATSUIT | CS-21 Combat Stealth Suit (Appearance), ACS-208 Wrist Charric, Flayer Tactical Combat Knife, Murdock Stealth Blaster Rifle, PROJECT GARUDA | Corvus-type Chronometer
Location: Berejor City, Manda - MoS Apartment Block
[member="Veena Reshma"] [member="Nika Satari"] [member="Ingrid L'lerim"] [member="Kelsie Sylvan"] [member="Scherezade deWinter"] [member="Shakti Sweet"] [member="Ciri Jade"]

Listen and learn.

Celessa maintained a quiet, yet attentive demeanor as idle bits of conversation began within the apartment which served as a semi-discreet command post for the operation against the burgeoning Umbaran cartel. It was believed that the recent spate of murders and violence which had plagued the streets of Berejor for more than a year could be traced back to one of the Umbaran cartels. Even though most evidence pointed to the Umbarans, it was also possible that the murders could be the work of the Fallen mafia and the local gangs, both of which were likely growing more desperate as their power waned amidst explosive growth of Umbaran influence in the criminal underworld of Berejor City.

Having read up all she could on the details of the mission during the long journey from Geonosis, Celessa still felt grossly uninformed on the entire situation. However, she didn’t need to sweat the details too much. In truth, she had very few real skills outside of killing and staying unnoticed. While those were the main skills of her specialization, Celessa didn’t like feeling useless or twiddling her thumbs. At the very least, she wanted to look busy and like she knew what she was doing, even if she was the most clueless person in the entire apartment.

The ruby-eyed woman decided that she would pay close attention to the blonde-haired woman with a datapad in hand ([member="Razelle Breuner"]). She seemed highly-professional and detail-oriented, That alone was enough for Celessa to figure out that she needed to listen to whatever this woman had to say.

Having taken a seat at one of the data terminals, the short-statured assassin continued to pore over details relating to the operation. In her main tab, she had opened a report about the recent rise of the Umbaran cartel and its effect on the balance of power within the criminal underworld of the Mid Rim, Wild Space, and Outer Rim territories. In another tab, Celessa had pulled up a database of Umbaran criminals, specifically those who were still at large and dangerous. The other tabs were an assortment of reports, articles, and databases of a similar nature. However, valuable and useful information was still quite hard to come by…

Only time would reveal the truth.

 

[Kelsie Sylvan]

The young woman's face broke into a grin as she saw her companion from a previous assignment wander on in. "Hey, I only broke in because they were closed and I didn't want to wait... and I dunno about you but I find it pretty satisfying, knocking down a door." She was pretty happy to be assigned with Madelena again -- this would be easy. "Good to have you onboard. Guess we can just grab the body and find who did it with you, huh?" Reassigned to the Ministry... basically Kelsie's story.

Her eyes settled on Razelle -- it was just a guess, but she assumed this one had enough experience. Kelsie couldn't really do any sort of logistics anymore; all her codes were outdated by about eight hundred years. But having someone to watch her back on the comms would be nice, and all these other agents were basically mutes. "C'mon, just having a little fun. If we don't gotta, we don't gotta... still, I'm not too keen on updating myself on all this. Give me an objective and we can work it out, yeah?" She was pretty pumped -- set her loose in any direction and she'd start tearing up the track.

[member="Celessa"] [member="Veena Reshma"] [member="Nika Satari"] [member="Ingrid L'lerim"] [member="Shakti Sweet"] [member="Ciri Jade"] [member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Wearing: Armor| Pathfinder Boots | The Forgemaster's Ring | Ring of Stasis | Sofitor
Wielding: 10 Czerka knives | 2 Nastirci Combat Knives | Copero's Wail | Fire and Smoke (lightsabers) | Combat Gauntlets | Knight Obsidian Sword | 2 Dissuader K-30 Pistols with Glitter Bullets
Tags: [member="Kelsie Sylvan"] [member="Ingrid L'lerim"] [member="Nika Satari"] [member="Veena Reshma"] [member="Shakti Sweet"] [member="Razelle Breuner"] [member="Celessa"] [member="Ciri Jade"]

Moving to the door, one of Scherezade's knives slid into her hands. There were a hundred other ways she could take down a potential enemy, some of them would never even leave a trace of hers behind. But there was something about the brutality of a blade in someone's body that excited her, that made it her preferred method of taking lives. Not even the weightless beam of a lightsaber could compete with that, though pulling someone's blood out of their bodies ran a second favorite.

Scherezade listened as Razelle had her own words to add. Get a local liaison, an insider. It… Was hardly how Scherezade did things, but she wasn't about to argue something that while on one hand might take them longer, might actually work and seemed to be something the others gathered were in favor of doing as well. Or well, at least no one had anything against it to say.

"We're wasting time here," she pointed out, "I don't have enough info on any of you, so here is what I propose; there's one of those infamous criminal clubs not too far from here. If we think it's the Umbaran cartel or anyone else, that would probably be a good spot to find leads. We need people there. We also have some intel about a drug meeting and we could use two people there. Whoever is left should do the local liaison thing that was suggested. All these venues would open up pathways of information to us. Additionally, I need to get to the body. My abilities will let me glimpse at the last minutes of our corpse's life to see what happened there. So let's split up. I'll join the local liaisons, now who wants to go where?"

​

ETA: We're splitting into three objectives and graphics will be up later today.​

​

Objective 1: Criminal Club​

Objective 2: Spice Meeting​

Objective 3: Local Liaison​

 

[Mellifluous Magenta]

Celessa
Post 2
Equipment: CS-21 Combat Stealth Suit (Appearance), ACS-208 Wrist Charric, Flayer Tactical Combat Knife, Murdock Stealth Blaster Rifle, Corvus-type Chronometer
Location: Berejor City, Manda - MoS Apartment Block
[member="Scherezade deWinter"] [member="Veena Reshma"] [member="Ingrid L'lerim"] [member="Kelsie Sylvan"] [member="Razelle Breuner"] [member="Shakti Sweet"] [member="Ciri Jade"]

Finally.

She had not wanted to speak it herself, but Celessa had been growing bored with reading pages and pages of analytics and data, most of which she would find of little use in the field. After the tall and voluptuous woman took charge of the situation, Celessa immediately turned away from the screen of her data terminal and locked eyes with the strikingly green-eyed assassin. Although Celessa had only read a few details about Scherezade through her personnel report, she had heard about her prolific kill count and mysterious reputation through the grapevine. For Celessa, Scherezade’s exorbitantly high kill count was something for her to aspire to. Although her short-statured appearance belied her true purpose, killing had been the entire point of Celessa’s creation. She hadn’t undergone what had almost felt like years of flash-training and conditioning to simply act as a spy, even if some parts of her job called for that. Her true desire was to be where the blood was thickest and the danger most acute. She only tolerated the boring parts of her job because she had to, not because she wanted to.

“I can volunteer to spy on the drug deal.” Celessa stood up from her seat as she spoke. “If I spot a target of particular interest, I’ll stun and interrogate them for information.” The ruby-eyed assassin finished as she adjusted her the chronometer on her wrist. “Are there other targets of interest I should be looking for, other than the ones detailed on the files? I don’t want to miss anyone who could be important.”

 

[Ingrid L'lerim]

Location: Manda | Berejor city
Equipment: Bio link
Actual look: actual look
Tags: [member="Nika Satari"] | [member="Shakti Sweet"] | [member="Veena Reshma"] | [member="Kelsie Sylvan"] | [member="Celessa"] | [member="Scherezade deWinter"] | [member="Ciri Jade"] | [member="Razelle Breuner"]

---

After she sent the request for the coordinates Ingrid received them from [member="Razelle Breuner"]. Just sent back a confirmation and she headed to the building. She arrived to the meeting point when [member="Scherezade deWinter"] started to talk. She just nod to everyone, she didn’t want to disturb anyone with her words.

As she saw many agents are gather here, maybe too much for this simple job. She worried about maybe this a trap to neutralize the new Ministry. Ingrid hoping she was wrong and this mission just a top priority case. She tried to consider the possibilities, which part is the best to her. She don’t know much from this planet, or the illegal organizations here. Just what she read on the files; and that was not much.

Sometimes she was not satisfied due to the fact she always worked outside of the CIS’s borders, not inside. She knows lot of things about the rest of the galaxy, but she felt she knows nothing about the CIS. Of course that was not true, but… the “old” assassin/agent learns until her death.

Her all thoughts are took only a few moments, and now Ingrid knows the answer. Maybe she doesn’t know much from Manda, but her capabilities… her skills can be of help to anyone. And if no one need she help, she still can try something alone. But first, she’ll offer her help.

”If you don't mind, I'll join you.” she said to [member="Scherezade deWinter"].

 

[Razelle Breuner]

Ooh, initiative! That was new and unexpected! Razelle looked over at Scherezade and gave a quick grin, silently proud of how her duckling had adapted to a disadvantageous situation. With a quick nod, Razelle stretched and took a seat at one of the shiny new computers. Her fingers danced across the interface for a few moments as she brought up relevant information, agent dossiers, and surveillance.

No one here seemed interested in coordinating the damn thing. So it fell to Raz. With another couple of taps, she linked her datapad to the system and started organizing a comm network. She'd need frequencies, handles, deployment... It was going to be a little dull, but honestly, processing and analyzing intelligence fell just as neatly into her skillset as retrieving and utilizing it. This was fine.

Pulling up a document on her screen, she skimmed it quickly. Not a bad asset. Multiple qualifications. Experience in the field. Callsign... "Hawk, yeah?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at the redhead in the cap. An agreeable attitude wasn't vital to a field operative as long as she could fake being likable long enough to talk to people. "Got a lot of superlatives in your file. We'll trust you with knuckledragging for leads." Hound work, normally, but Scherezade was preoccupied.

A moment later, after a tap or two, Raz took off her jacket and got comfy...which meant lighting another stimstick. Three today. Gods, she needed to cut back. "We'll need someone coordinating from here. Comm frequency Osk-83-Resh-17. Ping me so I can record your comlink codes." She stopped, narrowing her eyes at the screen. The CIS was in league with the last people she'd used one of her callsigns with, but they didn't seem terribly...active. Or observant. And she definitely couldn't use her old handle, Pru had made sure that one was as good as dead.

Fuck it. "I'm your Albatross, ladies." She took a long drag on her stimstick, then sat back in her chair and offered an idle grin over the top of her computer console. "Maintain communication whenever available. Whenever it won't compromise you. Relay back what you learn, what you're doing...everything." Razelle rolled her eyes and tapped her stimstick against the desk, knocking off the ashes. "That whole 'right hand knows not what the left is doing' mess isn't good for business."

She was forgetting something. What was she forgetting? Looking around the room, Raz eventually noticed what had actually escaped her attention. Which was kind of impressive, frankly. Inclining her head at the quiet redhead, she raised an eyebrow quizzically. "Not much of a talker. What's your story?"

Att: [member="Kelsie Sylvan"] | [member="Shakti Sweet"]
Also: [member="Ingrid L'lerim"] | [member="Celessa"] | [member="Scherezade deWinter"] | [member="Ciri Jade"]

 

[Shakti Sweet]

Location: Berejor City, Manda - Base of Operations
Tags: [member="Kelsie Sylvan"] | [member="Razelle Breuner"]

---

Hurry up and wait was the name of the game today, it seemed. Between their orders to fall in with haste, and then the lack of further direction, it appeared as though the Rooks were going to be left to get things rolling. Shakti perked up a touch as [member="Scherezade deWinter"] spoke, clear green eyes watching her with interest as the busty brunette spouted off a few possible objectives and provided them with some direction. Better than crouching about in the corner she supposed. Joints cracked in protest as the mute stood, though her momentum ceased as she heard Razelle address her.

What was her story?... That was a loaded question. Between years of fleeing violence along the fringes of the galaxy and recent months being battered and abused by the newest addition to her life... The Firrerreo was not about to delve into her life story with this woman.


The redhead moved from the corner she'd selected as her starting point to their little get together and strode towards the computer that the Rook was seated behind. Fingers flexed as she gently laid them against the tables edge, leaning forward a touch and glancing over top of the screen at the blonde. She lifted her chin a touch to bring attention to the large collection of scars that ringed her throat like a macabre choker, one of her hands lifting as a fist to press against her lips. Whether the Rook knew GSL or not, Shakti was letting her know she was mute.

She proceeded to move her hand in a series of simple, abrupt gestures - giving the Rook a quick breakdown of her skills. Budding Force user, skilled with blades, obviously excellent at keeping quiet... Her skills leaned heavily into the stealthier missions, most especially assassination if it was on the table.

 

[Kelsie Sylvan]

"Yeah, Hawk. And hon, don't hit me with long slang words," she replied to the white-haired woman. She didn't really mind, but leads... she hated having to start from scratch. Investigations could be fun, occasionally, when there was something to go off of. Here there was -- they knew the Umbarans were slinking around the streets of Berejor, but still they didn't get to roll in and murder some fools. Rather annoying.

She took off her Theia glasses and toyed with them for a moment, quietly hooking up to the comms frequency the rook had recommended and pinging her on her system. It was time to do something. For real this time. The young woman got out of her seat and moved over to the Albatross, putting on her sunglasses. The woman had reminded her to double check her own CDF profile once in a while. Maybe she should add her real experience to the list, garner a little notoriety... after working for the Ministry a bit. Being well known wasn't exactly good for an intelligence agent, and Kelsie was already memorable enough.

A mute, huh. She didn't fully understand all the signaling from the redhead that had been called over -- her own experience with sign language was more Death Trooper and Storm Commando standard communication when going dark. She wasn't so sure on how useful the woman would be when, you know, talking with someone to pull up leads. Hopefully she was observant; then Kelsie wouldn't actually need to pay attention.

The young woman stretched, patted herself down to make sure all her gear was in place, then nodded to Razelle. "Alright, Albatross, where shall we fly?"

[member="Razelle Breuner"] [member="Shakti Sweet"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Wearing: Armor| Pathfinder Boots | The Forgemaster's Ring | Ring of Stasis | Sofitor
Wielding: 10 Czerka knives | 2 Nastirci Combat Knives | Copero's Wail | Fire and Smoke (lightsabers) | Combat Gauntlets | Knight Obsidian Sword | 2 Dissuader K-30 Pistols with Glitter Bullets
Tags: [member="Kelsie Sylvan"] [member="Ingrid L'lerim"] [member="Nika Satari"] [member="Veena Reshma"] [member="Shakti Sweet"] [member="Razelle Breuner"] [member="Celessa"] [member="Ciri Jade"]

Leaning against the wall, Scherezade folded her arms across her chest as she gave the others a few minutes to speak amongst them and decide where they wanted to go. None of those gathered knew who the actual Minister of Secrets was, who it was that sent the orders from the top of the chain. Persons of contact, people who worked with them, others who could be useful, sure. But the person between the Vicelord and them? Nope. That was secret, and as additional orders were not sent down the chain, it was up for them to split into groups and get what was needed to be gotten.

It wasn't like with the Knights Obsidian. With those, Scherezade knew exactly who was who and who knew what to do. If this meeting had happened with the Knights, she would have been calling the shots and telling the people where to go. It would have been easier for her. But now… Now it was the learning curve. But she noted each and every one of their faces. Soon enough, she would learn what they each could do as well.

[member="Celessa"] was the first to speak. Scherezade listened, noting the pink of her eyes, and it made her smile. The petite woman wanted to hit the drug meeting, and to that Scherezade could only nod. She had little doubt that their meeting was being listened to by the higher ups. If anyone thought this was a safe space, they'd be sorely mistaken. "If any additional information pops up, you'll be notified," she said to her, "until then, use your judgement, and remain as discreet as possible. This is one of those missions where we don't want to leave a trail if we can help it."

Next came [member="Ingrid L'lerim"], who entered the room moments ago and was spared the agonizing wait, and wanted to join Scherezade's sub-mission. She nodded to her as well. That was one and two so far.

[member="Razelle Breuner"] was next, taking the initiative of being the coordinator. Scherezade smiled and hid a whif of pride about her godmother's actions. Albatross. It was different than the Jane she had to call her last time they went on a mission together, but Scherezade was nothing if not flexible. Wordlessly, the Sithling punched the comm frequency into her little machine.

Looking at the other redhead, [member="Shakti Sweet"], Scherezade's own glowing green eyes rested a moment. She knew the woman – she'd seen her next to her brother, [member="Ephraim"], before. But they had never spoken; not Scherezade and Shakti, not Scherezade and Ephraim. For all she knew, her brother was as much of a stranger to her as this woman. Perhaps more so, since she was just about to work with the woman and get to know her a touch better. Watching her quietly, Scherezade made no response as she realized what that first move meant. Mute. Then came the motions, the sign language. The only motion therein that she recognized was Force User.

Can you do telepathy?, Scherezade asked her using telepathy via the Force, we might not be able to communicate with sign language while in the field. Though not all the women – wait, only women? And so many of them red of hair? – gathered here were Force Users themselves. It would be left up to the cooperation of Shakti and those who'd be on the sub-mission with her to make it work.

And last was Jaquelin. The last time she'd met her, the woman had taken a feather off her armor. It was ironic, considering now both of them were birds of feather – in more ways than one.

"Those of you who haven't chosen where to go, you have five seconds," she said, turning to the door, "you," she motioned to Ingrid, "with me. We'll all keep our comms open whenever possible."

And with that, Scherezade left, though she did pause downstairs to make sure those who would join her had the opportunity to do so.

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[Damien Wynter]

Equipment List​

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Location: Berejor City, Ministry Apartment​

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Tags: [member="Scherezade deWinter"] [member="Kelsie Sylvan"] [member="Ingrid L'lerim"] [member="Nika Satari"] [member="Veena Reshma"] [member="Shakti Sweet"] [member="Razelle Breuner"] [member="Celessa"] [member="Ciri Jade"]​

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​Damien hadn't said a word yet, something extremely uncharacteristic of him. Of course, that wasn't entirely his fault. His writer had just typed up his character sheet last night instead of studying for his Physics final like any smart person would do. Nevertheless, there he was, in the back of the room fiddling around with his trusty powerblade.​

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He mulled over the proposed objectives in his head. Surveying the club sounded fun, but he wasn't sure he could entirely trust himself with alcohol anymore after the incident last week with that double-amputee Twi'lek girl and the bottle of Namana liquor. No, definitely not the club. The drug deal caught his attention, but it sounded a bit too cut-and-dry for his taste. If he wanted to kill a few menacing dealers all he had do was go behind the Tibanna gas station three block from his apartment. No, not that one either. That left the liaison job. It sounded like a good time with potential for adventure, plus he got to hang out with that cute girl dual wielding those fancy lightsabers. That settled it, it looked like he was about to go do some real spy work for the first time since he graduated the Crow pipeline.​

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Slipping the powerblade into its boot sheath, he followed deWinter out the door of the apartment and into the derelict hallway of the abandoned building. He couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy and he looked at the Sith's array of high-grade equipment. She carried an exquisite sword with small crystals decorating the pommel. Songsteel, by the look of it. He almost whistled. He probably wouldn't make enough credits in a year to afford something like that. Oh well, at least he had a vibroblade going for him. A great weapon, really. Powerful, reliable, blows up in your hand if it even comes in contact with electricity. He just hoped they didn't run into any saber-jockies during this little trip of theirs.​

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As they waited for others to join them, Damien did his best to strike up a little conversation with the Sith Lord. Maybe a bad idea, but he wasn't the type to shy away from social interaction given the chance. "So, what's the plan for getting in? I'd agree that we could probably grab the body without causing a scene, but getting access to a recent murder victim is going to take a bit of finesse. I was thinking we maybe call the station, use our tech to pose as some kind of health officials. We could tell them the body is contaminated and we need to transport it away immediately to our labs to run some tests. They'll let us right in, we nab the body, and nobody will ever be the wiser."​

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[Zane DeZorroe]

Location: Manda -Berejor City
Objective: Unclear
Equipment: 2 Lightsaber Shotos, Plastoid Breast Plate
Tags: [member="Damien Wynter"] [member="Scherezade deWinter"] [member="Kelsie Sylvan"] [member="Shakti Sweet"] [member="Razelle Breuner"][member="Celessa"] [member="Ingrid L'lerim"] [member="Ciri Jade"]

Oz also hadn't really said, anything, as if he was literally not there mere moments ago. Maybe he was still processing the events that lead him to this very moment. Since the last couple of days had been very turbulent for him. First by finding someone on his personal ship after a mission claiming to be working for confederate interests and that they'd like to employ his services again. Which certainly confused Oz since he never really worked for the confederacy, which after he explained that the agent informed him that they'd been pulling some strings behind the scenes for him, and that they had some mutual interests that could benefit both parties, but namely CIS. Figuring that this was there way of having him be voluntold what to do he wouldn't protest.

A few days later here he was, in a room with several other individuals who he imagined didn't have the same experienced as he did. But from there lack of perceived organization they were new as well. But not wanting to jump to conclusions he simply waited out the interactions until the end. The woman known as [member="Scherezade deWinter"] seemed all to eager to leave, pulling some people along as she did so before counting down for people to decided on what they were gonna do.

"Well, perhaps I could go mingle at the club with my unparalleled charisma." He joked, before his pale eyes glanced towards [member="Celessa"] "Unless you'd like some help? Since you might be in for a tall order." He let out a slight chuckle, clearly emphasizing the word "tall" in his statement as a comment on her height. As he spoke he was literally looking down on the women from the size difference between the two them. Despite his choice of words, Oz was still being genuine with his offer to help the women out.

 

[Mellifluous Magenta]

Celessa
Post 3
Equipment: CS-21 Combat Stealth Suit (Appearance), ACS-208 Wrist Charric, Flayer Tactical Combat Knife, Murdock Stealth Blaster Rifle, Corvus-type Chronometer, ODM System
Location: Berejor City, Manda - MoS Apartment Block
[member="Scherezade deWinter"] [member="Oz Verde"]

“Okay. I’ll keep my comm link on in case more new information comes up. Thank you, Ms. deWinter. I'll be on my way.” Celessa replied to Scherezade as she pushed the chair in her desk and walked over to the utility locker to add an ODM System to her kit. With quiet efficiency, the ruby-eyed assassin quickly strapped the harness of the mobility devicer around her slender torso.

She shifted her gaze when she heard the one of the few men in the apartment directly address her as she strapped on the last few clamps across her torso. The man’s height joke elicited a stark blush on her tan-skinned features, and she coyly turned her head down as he stared down at her.

“Mhmm...perhaps.” Celessa replied. “But be careful not to hit your head on the ceiling on the way out.” Celessa quipped back in an odd departure from her usual shy manner as a soft grin manifested across her heart-shaped visage. “And before you say anything, we’re not going out the usual way either. That would be hmm...too obvious, now wouldn’t it?”

Before the white-eyed Arkanian could say anything more, Celessa gestured to the man with her fingers to follow out of the room. Once she was outside the room and within the hallway, Celessa walked all the way down to the end of the hallway, and even past the normal stairwell and elevator. After holding her chronometer up to what was seemingly a large cabinet which was built into the wall so that the system could verify her identity, the cabinet doors opened automatically and led into a particularly cramped and dark stairwell. As Celessa had playfully alluded to before, the ceiling was barely tall enough to allow the Arkanian to comfortably stand up straight and in parts the ceiling sloped down to the point where the man would have to slightly bend his knees to fit. Fortunately, the stairwell seemed to accommodate Celessa just fine.

“I never got your name, by the way...” Celessa said to the Arkanian as she began to descend down the stairwell. Although she had seen his name in the reports, she felt awkward talking to someone without asking them herself. After all, most reports only listed formal names and omitted nicknames.