Private And the World Will Turn to Ash

[Darkwire Prophet]

[Soundtrack: Lawless Lands by The Sword]​

The taxi speeder was not driving fast enough. It never was. She was always a fifteen minutes early and now she was already five minutes late. This farkled meeting had been cursed from the first day she'd heard the name Adhira Chandra, Senator of Balmorra!

"I'm sorry, but can you go any faster?"

"Sorry, CorpSec put up a slowzone here. This is as fast as we go."

Frustrated didn't even begin to describe Sola's state of mind. Still, she brushed a small whisp of hair from her face, putting on a pleasant smile as the holocom in the back of the speeder chimed. She knew who it was, she always knew. That dreaded pit in her stomach, birthed in the early days of her job as Marlene Starlight's Executive Assistant had never really gone away. It just seldom came out these day, but it was here now. Tugging at her seams, trying desperately to unravel her frayed composure.

It wasn't possible, Sola Ember's stitching was immaculate.

"Hello Marlene," she answered in a cool tone. Patient. Understanding. Sola was there for Marlene, whatever the problem, whatever the time of day, whatever her own personal issues. Reliable, trustworthy, that's what made Sola Ember into Marlene Starlight's own right hand.

"Is she there yet?"

"Yes, I'm at the landing pad now, her ship is just landing." A lie, but a small one. Sola could see the empty pad from her vantage point in the speeder, just small and far too distant. The Senator's vessel was already on its way through the atmosphere, soon to touch down on the pad. The woman mentally urged the vehicle's engines faster. It was no use, she was neither a Jedi nor a goddess. Unable to change the fabric of reality, all she could do was reassure her boss's anxiety.

"Good. You know what I want, get it done before Sun's little pet disrupts the whole thing."

The hologram fizzled into nothing as the line went dead. Sola sat back in the speeder car, letting her head touch the padded rooftop. A momentary lapse. That's all this was, just a moment of storm before the calm.

Sun's little pet, Marlene meant Rhéala Aleyv, whom Senator Chandra was scheduled to meet along with whatever toadie Manfloon had sent this time. Sola had listened to the bitter mutterings from Marlene for days before she could present her plan to undercut the meeting. It wasn't her fight, whatever these DireX had between them, Sola could only do her best to survive it. It was an open secret within the Corporate Authorities' inner circle that a good assistant was all that stood between business as usual and full-blown civil war.

In which case, this might be considered a border skirmish. Waylaying the Galactic Alliance representative's scheduled meeting wouldn't hamper her negotiations with the Corporate Authorities, merely set the tone for it. Starlight Industries was in need of more credits, and the Alliance was in possession of worlds with an excess flow of credits. It was a simple exchange, far more sensible than the convoluted offers of financing and tourism that Sun or Xopsaloff were surely going to propose. And Senator Chandra seemed like a sensible enough woman to understand.

Deep in her thoughts, Sola sat forward in shock as the world lit up around her for a split second. The flash of light stung her eyes, and once she could see again, she could vividly make out the green fireball where the landing pad used to be.

She couldn't seen if the Senator's ship had landed yet, or if the other DireX welcoming members had arrived. The conflagration was obscured by flames, and the increasing number of speeders turning to head away from the volatile area. It seemed that no one wanted to be next in line for an assassination today.

"I'm taking us back to the office," the driver said as the speeder began to turn.

"No, no! Absolutely not." Sola's mind burst into action, the earlier panic somehow gone. She needed to make a call. Not to Marlene, that was the last person who would be valuable in a storm like this. The Corporate Authorities were looking at a full diplomatic incident, a warmonger like Marlene Starlight would only make things worse. No, this kind of problem required the use of a more flexible tool. "Keep us within sight of the pad, I don't care if you have to dodge or bribe CorpSec to do it."

The driver's only acknowledgement was to turn the speeder back towards the mayhem, nimbly weaving through the traffic jam that was quickly forming in the rush to flee. Good. A lock of hair fell in front of Sola's face again, but she left it there. Instead, the woman leaned forward, pushing the button to raise the privacy screen and turn the rear of the speeder into a secure compartment. "I have someone else I need to com, privately if you don't mind."

Darkwire Prophet

>> * --xING! COMM\ \\
<\URGENT JOB FOR DARKWIRE
<\HIGH RISK, HIGH PAY
<\Locate Adhira Chandra, Galactic Alliance Senator of Balmorra
<\Her starship was last seen entering Denon atmosphere, a datapacket is attached with more information
<\There has been an assassination attempt on her person, she may be in danger or in hiding
<\Keep her alive until retrieval
<\Do not let the Corpos interfere!

Adhira Chandra Daiya Gray Venasir Kadora'Tra​

 

[Kadora'Tra]

​

Another day, another crisis.

Kadora'Tra wondered briefly what it must be like to be a normal citizen, unconcerned with the political maneuvering of shadowy executives, or the constant almost paranoid need to mobilize security from all different parts of the planet of Denon. It must be nice, peaceful even, to be anyone other than a CorpSec officer as high ranking as she was.

Diviak had a meeting with a foreign dignitary from the "Galactic Alliance" along with rival DireX Luminous Sun. Kadora'Tra couldn't help but to roll her eyes in private in regards to the name of the "republic" nation in the Core. There was nothing galactic about, except it residing within one. It was like a primitive nation on some backwards world like Parcellus Minor declaring themselves a "Global Alliance" while only claiming influence on a single continent.

Admittedly though, she didn't much care about the other nations outside of the Corporate Authorities of Denon. This is where she ultimately grew up and knew best. She knew it was actively corrupt and probably evil to someone's standards, but she had power here. However small it was, she was better off here than anywhere else, in prime position to claw and grab at any more power within her reach. Some day, she would be the one calling the shots, instead of being told what to do.

While Captain Kadora'Tra stood on the landing pad where Adhira Chandra was intended to arrive, along with the rest of Diviak and Sun's personal CorpSec details, she had to endure the company of Rhéala Aleyv. Small talk wasn't exactly her specialty but she took a stab at it since it seemed everyone decided being late was a good time.

"So... how often do you get to meet off-worlders?" She probed amateurishly as a 17 year old might.

Then, the world on the pad went into Chaos...

Daiya Gray Venasir Darkwire Prophet

 

[Gray Venasir]

Life on Denon had been good lately. Since Gray had moved to this planet, that meaning using it as his main planet to park his ship, life had only been better and better. Work there as a Shadowrunner for Darkwire was good, the local cantinas were good. All in all, one of Gray's best descisions.

Gray was sitting at a bar, enjoying a drink with a few people he had met a few times, and watching a holoshow. The show was some sort of sport, though Gray didn't know what kind. And honestly, he didn't care. He was there to relax in good company, not get riled up about a team losing at something.

"...and then he said 'no, you take the shot'. So I did shot, only it was that cowards leg and not the target." Gray's story was met with roaring laughter, some of it sounding drunk. "Man, is that true?" one of Gray's companions asked. Gray sat down, took a big sip of his drink, and slammed tha glass on the bar. "Yeah, of course. At least some parts... were not complete lies. Just, you know, greatly exaggerated," Gray answered quietly.

Then suddenly, Gray felt a buzzing. "Excuse me for a moment," he said before getting up and walking over to a quiet part of the bar. There, he checked the message. "Lets see, urgent job, high risk, senator of-." Gray's heart stopped. The senator of Balmorra was here, on Denon, and in danger. It was long ago that Gray had been on Balmorra, and he had left his noble heritage there behind, but it was still his planet. He had to find this senator Adhira Chandra, before the Corpos did.

"Sorry gents, but something's come up and I have to leave," he said as he went back to the bar to toss the credits he owed to the barkeep. Once outside the bar, he contacted his droid on his ship. "Shiney, important job. Connect to the Denon mainframe, and check what happened at the landing-pad I'm sending the coordinates to now. I'll tell you more later, okay." All he got was annoyed whistles from the astromech, but there was a confirmation that the droid would do it in there. "Now, who else is on this job?" thought Gray as he walked towards the landing-pad, and trying to conntact a few other Shadowrunners

Adhira Chandra | Kadora'Tra | Daiya | Darkwire Prophet

 

[Adhira Chandra]

"The negotiations were short..."
​

As the Alliance diplomatic transport entered the atmosphere of Denon, the glow of the sprawling ecumenopolis loomed in the wide viewing window of Adhira's compartment. The dusky Senator perched menacingly behind a pristine white desk and turning briefly from the datapad in her hands to glower out at the city below. She had been assigned a number of troublesome diplomatic missions in her short political tenure, but her meeting with the so-called Corporate Authority of Denon was already proving to be a nuisance.​

"So... who is in charge?" she said finally with a hint of frustration in the deep tenor of her voice. Adhira was a prominent voice in the Alliance and she used that voice most often to speak out against corporate interests so the idea that a corporation controlled entire systems' worth of territory did not sit well with her.​

"The Corporate Authority of Denon...The ExO acts as the Head of State, but the Executive DireX Board oversees the day-to-day functions of government -- we will be meeting some of their representatives at the landing platform," chirped a Rodian attache from the other side of the room.​

Adhira grunted, clearly dissatisfied with the response. "As long as they don't try to sell me something, I think I'll manage cordiality," she teased, running a wizened finger along her jawline as the buildings began to grow larger in her view. Throughout the cabin, a melodious chime interrupted the silence and the ship's captain alerted the crew to their imminent landing. It as not long after that the A.S.V. Providence slowed over the landing pad and with a slight jolt, lowered to the ground.​

Accompanied by the attache and two members of the Senate Guard, Adhira carefully navigated the ramp that was now protruding from the center of the ship. A few meters away she could just make out the forms of the individuals she assumed were present to greet her. Mustering all of her diplomatic training, the Senator plastered a bright smile on her face as her feet finally found the shiny surface of the landing pad. However, the smile faded when an alarming crackle roared into the commlink in her ear. ​

"-problem-..........-secure-....-incoming!-...-" ​

​

The Balmorran felt her body heave forward with tremendous force as heat radiated on the back of her neck. Suddenly she was on the ground trying feverishly to blink away the spots in her eyes, but the temporary blindness turned out to be the least of her worries. Something warm and wet was trickling down her neck and everything around her sounded distant - muted. A short distance away the lifeless body of the Rodian lay next to a heap of blue robes. As she turned to look back at the ship she was horrified to find that in place of the large freighter was just fire and smoke.

Adhira was still disoriented from the blast, but her survival instincts told her that she was not safe. The old woman attempted to hoist herself onto all fours, but the sharp pain in her side took her breath away. Desperately, she clawed at the cold metal, managing to drag herself behind a nearby storage container. The commlink was gone, her datapad was gone, and her crew was gone. She needed to get as far away from the landing pad as quickly as possible, but to do that she was going to need help.

Gray Venasir Kadora'Tra Darkwire Prophet

 

[Daiya]

The image turned out far more spiky than she expected, and the girl frowned at her results on the holojournal. The small, vulpine creature was known for its jagged coat of crystals, she just hadn't expected her rendition to look so uneven and alien compared to the animal the HoloNet depicted. Even her colorful addition to the normally-grey creature looked odd. She sighed, biting her inner lip, and looked back up at the rooftop plaza laid out before her. She could work more on the critter later, the straighter lines of the Denon setting in which her creation would live at least gave Daiya a reprieve from fretting over its bristly exterior.

Her legs kicked under her as the teen girl worked, swinging freely over the long drop-off that bordered this edge of the Blue Flame's rooftop. It didn't bother her that the precarious seat she'd chosen was hundreds of meters above the nearest rooftop or walkway, or that it was exposed to an unrestricted lane of speeder traffic. Those were just facts of life on her homeworld, Daiya couldn't have survived to adolescence without first overcoming the constant reality of near-danger on the ecumenopolis. What did bother her was when some of the more cavalier speeder drivers decided not to follow the lanes, swerving out to obscure the backdrop she was trying to draw.

The datapad chimed, drawing out a sigh in response. Still tortured by her lousy skill at drawing a more complex body, Daiya felt the frustration creeping into everything now. She jabbed a finger at the device, saving her work and then flipping out of the current app to read her messages. The typical clutter filled her list of notifications, and as she was about to ignore the lot of it, a name caught her eye.

Gray Venasir. She had missed a message from him, sometime within the last hour. She frowned again at her own mishap, but couldn't help the edges of her mouth from tipping up. Though the smuggler's presence had been known to her for some time now, Daiya kept forgetting to find time to meet up with him intentionally. For once today, it seemed, fortune was smiling on her.

She glanced up, offering a silent thanks, before playing the holo-recording of Gray's message.

Daiya sat back after she was finished, a curious expression drawn —with far better results than her hands were capable of— over her face. It took a few moments to investigate the incident Gray mentioned, and the new urgent job offer on Darkwire's network. The teen eagerly tapped the controls she'd need to send a response. "Hey Gray. No I hadn't seen the posting on Darkwire until you told me. High risk, high pay? I dunno, Tawrro's been kind of in 'a mood' lately, you know? He's all," Daiya's voice shifted downward, as if the Wookiee's words could be imitated by vocal range alone. "'You take too many risks, Daiya. You're still young and have much to learn about how the galaxy works. Someday, you'll get in trouble and I won't be there to save you,' and blah, blah, blah. I'll check with him real quick here, maybe he's having a good day."

Elation ruled her heart as Daiya made her way back down from the roof, re-joining the thin crowd of the Blue Flame. It wasn't a mealtime or happy hour yet, so only the day crowd was present. Tawrro and Shenn had their heads together, scheming about whatever the two old army buddies did when she wasn't around, a crowd of empty glasses standing forgotten on the table in front of them. The teen rolled her eyes, wondering how the two could even manage to walk after so much alcohol.

"Are you sober enough for a job? There's an urgent one, pays a lot," Daiya asked, watching Tawrro's eyes turn slowly toward her. The big Wookiee gave her a skeptical look, but said nothing. The teen itched in the silence, waiting only a few moments before blurting out an answer to the unspoken question. "We're not murdering anyone or anything, sheesh. Some visiting Senator from Balmorra came, someone shot at her, and now she's hiding. We just gotta find her and babysit, eeeeaaaaasy creds!"

It was Shenn who spoke instead of Tawrro, after a series of hemming and hawing. Daiya hadn't expected the old Chandrillan to really care, but he seemed to know who she was talking about. "Hard woman. Too smart for her own good. Deserves better than to be stuck with a bunch of blowhards." The girl had to giggle at that thought. Weren't all politicians blowhards, anyway? "But she'll defend the representation of her people to her last."

"See, Shenn seems to like her, so she must be decent. Not a Corpo, just someone who fell victim to the blowhards," she pointed out, suppressing the giggle this time. Tawrro gave her a weary sigh, then a short growl. But he started getting up from the table anyway, eliciting a grin from the teenager. "Maybe it'll be enough creds to pay off the ship, too! And Gray actually sent it to me, I didn't 'go looking for more danger,' Tawrro. He'll be there, too, so we've got backup already!"

It took him long enough to get ready, giving Daiya enough time to send an update to Gray and find out where to meet him. By the time they were seated in the speeder taxi, on their way to the rendezvous, the girl was back to her earlier focus. "What do you think so far?" she asked, showing her companion the drawing on her holojournal. The girl gave a little annoyed sound when he growled a question about it. "It's supposed to be a Vulptex, see? And he has a scarf on, because Denon is probably colder than his homeworld."

She turned to lean back into her seat before putting the drawing away, "It just needs a little more work, and it'll be practically lifelike!"

Kadora'Tra Gray Venasir Adhira Chandra​

OOC: Shenn Rosham gave his permission for the use of his character.

 

[Kadora'Tra]

​

The world shook with fire, and Kadora'Tra fell to the ground from the blast. Her head aching, she reached her hand to her forehead and felt a bit of slick wetness clinging to her fur. Looking around, she spotted Rhéala Aleyv in a similar, albeit unconscious state. All around her a green smoky haze seemed to proliferate through the air. She tried standing up to drag the surviving dignitary out of harms way, when bizarre figures began to coalesce out of the shadows. Unfortunately, the smoke seemed to be more than it appeared, as she immediately began to tear up and cough immensely.

Although none of the figures appeared the same, they all shared similar motifs of purple stipes bisecting dark greens, and they bore gas masks over their faces, unperturbed by the eerily green gas surrounding them. They carried weapons of some kind, but her vision and hearing began to double and her sense of depth perception began to loosen. It was difficult to make out more details, and felt her muscles relax beyond her control.

Pushing her breathe outward, she began to intensely flex her muscles to command control over them again, and grasped her Baton. Her vision began to clear enough for her to see one of the masked figures raised its rifle at Adhira Chandra . A pair approached Kadora'Tra, one jogging towards her companion while the other leveling his rifle towards the CorpSec Captain.

"Yaaw!" Kadora'Tra made the mistake of exclaiming as she launched herself forward, feeling the gas once again invade her senses as she swung her baton. It must have made her movements clumsy, as it appeared the masked figure hadn't even moved before saying,

"You Corpos deserve what's coming to you." Then the figure pulled the trigger and a yellow net enveloped itself around Kadora'Tra, and numbing pain seeped into her body, beckoning her to unconsciousness...

​

Eventually, Kadora'Tra woke up. She wasn't at the landing pad any more, the green haze gone but its effects lingering in her head ever so slightly, with a pounding headache. Whether that was due to the gas or the explosions she wasn't sure. She tried to reach up and inspect the wound, only to find her arms bound behind her, along with her legs planted firmly to the ground. Sitting in a chair she looked around, her mouth dry as cloth... when she mumbled something to herself, she realized it tasted like cloth too, because her mouth was gagged.

The room was dark and hard to make out, but it was clear what had happened.

She'd been captured.

Daiya Gray Venasir Adhira Chandra

 

[Gray Venasir]

The authorities had already placed locked down a lot of the ways to get close to the landing-pad. Which, in itself, was a good thing. But not if you wanted to get closer to it.

"Any news, Shiney?" asked Gray, while he was looking out a window facing the landing-pad. The smoke coming from it was thick and dark. Not a good sign. The droid answered with it's usual whistles and beeps. "The authorities have locked down entry points to area, and stopped trafikk in the general vicinity. They have sent people to search the pad, but I doubt they will find whoever did it." Gray looked on for a few seconds, before answering the droid "You're probably right on that one, SH. Unless some upstart radical group, they'll have planned a fast escape with the senator." The droid only gave a sarcastic remark in return.

Gray left the building he was in, and continued to make his way towards the location. The authorities had just mobilized to lockdown of the area, so it was an easy challenge to get past the first guards. After he got around them, Gray noticed he had recieved an answer from Daiya. So far, the only of his allies that had answered his request for help. He listened to it, and almost laughed out loud of her imitation of her Wookiee companion. But the messege did imply that the two of them would be helping him. And the update messege confirmed it, when Daiya asked where they would meet.

Finding a good rendezvous wouldn't be easy. It would have to be close to the landing-pad, so they could check for clues, and find the senator. "Shiney, any good meeting places near the pad?" There was a moment of pause, where the droid was checking, before the answer came. And the answer was in the form of coordinates. "What the hell is this, SH?" The droid sounded pretty annoyed as it answered. "It is an abandoned apartment building, right next to your target location. You can meet with your allies there." Right, good. They had a place to meet, plan, and bring the senator when they found her. Hopefully, the terrorists wouldn't suspect them of using a place that close to the explosion. "Daiya, meet me at these coordinates as soon as you can," he sent her.

The building wasn't too far away, so he'd probably have time to check for any suspicious people around there before the teen and her Wookiee arrived.

Daiya | Adhira Chandra | Kadora'Tra

 

[Adhira Chandra]

Adhira felt her body go limp as her back pressed hard up against the massive metal crate behind which she had managed to conceal herself. The ringing in her ears from the blast was finally starting to dissipate and the spots dancing across her line of vision were becoming less of a nuisance, but she still felt the earth-shattering pain of the impact in her chest. Coupled with her respiratory problem, she struggled to draw breath but managed just enough to keep her self conscious. "I swear to Ashla," she gasped quietly to herself, wincing at the pain, "the next time I see Emmen I'm going to throttle him."​

The Senator fumbled with her communicator in a vain attempt to restore functionality but stopped suddenly when she heard the hard padding of armored boots behind her. It was difficult to be certain whether the sound was of Darkwire guards coming to her rescue or that of her would-be assassins. As she was beginning to realize, the Corpos had very loose authority over their territory. This was all the more reason to regret the trip.​

She waited until the sound had passed in the direction of the ship to risk a glance out from behind cover. A platoon of highly armored troopers in purple and green adornments were hoisting up a few survivors and inspecting the detonation. It did not take a genius to know that they were not sent by the officials she was set to meet. As she was peering over the top of one of the crates her communicator hummed to life with a loud twinkling sound. Alarmed, Adhira ducked behind and attempted to silence the device, but the damage had already been done. Hastily, she fumbled to record a message.​

"My name is Adhira Chandra, Emissary of the Galactic Alliance. I have been taken hostage. They wear green and purple. I am not sure how long I have. Hurry."​

It was all she could manage before the sound of footsteps drew too near. She shoved the communicator between two crates and shielded her head.​

"FOUND HER!"​

A dark sack was forced over her eyes and she felt two strong hands lift her into the air. She was officially a prisoner.​

​

When Adhira finally felt her frail body come to rest and the dark shroud lifted from her face, there was no more comfort in the confines of her new habitat. The room in which she found herself was just as dark as if the hood had been left on, but something was different. She could sense the presence of other lifeforms. "Hello?" she dared in her most quiet voice as she heard the rustling of another nearby. Curiously, she had been neither gagged nor bound but found no relief in this development.​

She was still weak, but shifted her body as much as she dared to make as little noise as possible until her delicate cloth shoes pressed against something that had the same give expected from the flesh of another being. "Hello?" she said again quietly. Gently, she reached her hands out into the darkness until they were met with a fuzzy unfamiliarity.​

Adhira withdrew for a moment, fearful she'd encountered a monster, but she relented and reached out again until her wrinkled fingers found purchase on what felt like a wad of cloth. A gag. She tugged at the gag, pulling it down over what she was assumed as a chin and scampered back against a wall of the dark room. "Hello?" she said cautiously for a third time, hoping now she would receive an answer.​

​

Kadora'Tra Gray Venasir Daiya Darkwire Prophet

 

[Daiya]

So, yeah, thanks for the info. If you hear more, you'll message me back, right?

Daiya sent off the message with a flick of her finger, tapping the button on the app she used to talk to some of her contacts. This one had her base offworld, but tended to have enough connections and holo-streams that she could tap into the feeds on Denon as if she was right there. As tough as that sounded for the teen, her slicer contact made it seem easy.

The girl grinned to her screen, before looking up from the datapad, suddenly self-conscious. Daiya didn't always enjoy using text to hold conversations, they had a much greater impact to her in person. Plus, it was hard to tell if someone was being truthful if she couldn't even see them. Trust, but verify, as Tawrro always said. That was hard enough in person, over comms or text made it next to impossible to trust anyone sight unseen. And they were both too far away to make use of the tattoo she had gotten recently on helix of her left ear. Luckily, her contact today was someone she had known and met before on a couple occasions, so the CryptNet-connected app was merely the convenient medium for them to communicate.

Daiya looked across the speeder at Tawrro as he switched off the comlink he'd been holding in his meaty hand, handling the small device deftly. The teen had only been mildly listening to her Wookiee guardian's conversation, focused more on her own updates and the information her contact had sent her. "What did Dreks Mald have to say this time?"

An answer returned in the Wookiee's customary language of growls and barks, and there were a couple she didn't know this time. "What do you mean by crystaline renegades?" Daiya frowned as Tawrro explained more, each layer becoming less clear to her as she squinted at her partner. "Okay, they're from Quarzite which is controlled by the Corpos. But they want to be included by the Corpos? Like how, picked first for the next Corporate Hoverball team?"

Tawrro let out a barking chuckle, but lifted his hands in a picture of ignorance. It didn't make sense to her, a bunch of Quarzite renegades being involved in the kidnapping of a Galactic Alliance Senator. Their goal didn't make sense, and their target made even less sense. The teen gave her head a frustrated shake, letting out a disgusted sound as she tried to work it through. The politics of it all gave her a headache.

The girl's head cleared as soon as the speeder reached the coordinates Gray had sent to her. She jumped out of the vehicle's confines onto solid ground again, but her feet were as light as if she was walking on air. Daiya's impatience danced around the platform as Tawrro handled the payment for their ride, and a twirling gaze took in the world around her. They were close enough to spy the damaged landing pad where the Senator had landed, and been quickly whisked away from by her kidnappers. A good vantage point, but it didn't do them much good overall if their target was gone already.

One last twirl before Tawrro joined her made Daiya gasp aloud. She spun back around to catch sight again, falling to her knees in the process, but whatever it was had gone. Like the Senator, vanished into thin air, but just for a moment the girl had caught sight of a pink scarf around the neck of a small, vulpine creature with a jagged coat of crystals.

"What the—?" the girl asked, then shook her head. No, just her eyes playing tricks on her. She giggled at the circumstance, and how silly that would be. Daiya stumbled a little as she righted, grabbing the hand Tawrro offered to steady herself, then used it to lead him toward the apartment Gray had indicated in his message.

Once they were inside and Daiya had suffered the necessary pleasantries long enough, she found herself blurting out, "Gray, this job is craaaaaaaaaa-zy! You will not believe some of what we learned on the way here." The teen indicated Tawrro with a toss of her blonde hair, grinning at him before turning back to her smuggler friend. Gray surely had something to tell himself, so she clasped her hands in front of her, bouncing them idly to temper her impatience. "But maybe you already knew that, huh? You tell me yours and I'll tell you mine."

Kadora'Tra Gray Venasir Adhira Chandra​

 

[Kadora'Tra]

​

Kadora'Tra struggled in the darkness against her restraints. Though she wasn't as blind as a human might be in this level of darkness, she could still make out vague shapes, and she soon became concerned when one of them started to move. Fear of the unknown was a common enough fear that didn't normally bother the Farghul as much as others, but being bound and gagged seemed to amplify this anxiety to a claustrophobic degree. CorpSec may have beaten the appearance of fear from her as a young girl, but the fact remained she was still a young person in a very vulnerable position.

They couldn't beat the private moments of her life out of her, try as they might, what they didn't know they couldn't hurt.

"Hello?" An accented voice called out, and for a moment her movement stopped, her breathing heavy and labored under the gag. Unsure of herself she remained quite a moment, until what was clearly a human approached her, grasping blindly and accidentally stepped on her bare toes. She let out a little frustrated yelp before they called out to her once again, quietly as they could it seemed. Another prisoner? She thought briefly, it wouldn't make sense otherwise, but at the same time it didn't make sense that they were unbound in the same room with a bound Kadora'Tra. Then she saw the vague shape of the human reaching out towards her face, and Kadora'Tra closed her eyes trying to look away so as to not have her eyes gouged out by a bumbling blind person in the dark. The hand pressed against her fuzzy cheek and withdrew almost immediately.

Kadora'Tra groaned, rolling her eyes in the dark. Never felt a Farghul before, huh? No, I'm not a monster... She thought to herself. The human again called out a quite hello, as she reached out again and found purchase over her gag, pulling it down. Gasping for a bit of air without the obstruction, she went right to work.

"Yeah hi, try not step on my toes, please?" She said without masking her irritation, "Is that you Rhé?" In hindsight, it was a silly question since she didn't recognize the voice, but she couldn't think quite as straight as she wanted to be thinking. Perhaps residual effects of the gas attack. She thought. Her ears perked up, hearing something.

"Wait, quite. I think I hear something outside." She whispered intensely as she focused on the minute sounds beyond whatever room they were being held in, it was hard to make out the details but the voices were loud, despite being muffled. Her human companion was not likely to hear them, which is why she recommended they be quite...

​

"Congratulations! You have single handedly sabotaged our whole rebellion! You were supposed to capture at least one DireX member, which I told you was going to be Luminous Sun, Marlene Starlight, Diviak Manfloon, Larz Blackheart, or Qanatain Xopsaloff. Instead, you have brought me a foreign dignitary, some Corporate Aide, and oh! A damned house cat! So not only did you fail your mission spectacularly, you have now caused an international political incident!"

"I'm sorry commander, our intel said-"

"I know! What the damned intel said, I briefed it to you."

"Yes, Sir."

"We have to turn this around fast. We can't release them without exposing ourselves, and other than the dignitary of a Democratic Nation, our other captives are essentially worthless. Aides and CorpSec are dime a dozen. Our only leverage right now is ransoming a properly elected official... how the hell are we supposed to get support from the broader galaxy if CorpSec gets to play the part of a hero in attempting to rescue this karking woman?"

"I don't know, Sir."

"That was rhetorical, damnit! It was a mistake apparently, letting you think to begin with, clearly. Get out of my sight, you're lucky we need every hand we can manage... now more than ever."

Although Kadora'Tra wasn't able to hear all of it, giving the varying pitches and volumes of the speakers, the CorpSec Captains was able to piece together enough of the conversation to get a fuzzy picture of what was going on. It was pretty clear that her capture, along with with whoever she was with - dignitary - was a big mistake. They had a different target in mind, and given her experience she inferred they were looking for someone higher up the Corporate ladder here on Denon.

They seemed rather upset about democracy, and garnering support. She heard something about leverage or ransom. She began to paint a picture in her mind:

Whoever these people were, their subordinates grabbed the wrong people, and have now dug themselves too deep into a mistake they can't reverse. They were concerned about their image to those outside CAD, but were now backed into a corner within an unsatisfactory light.​

​

Kadora'Tra could work with this.

"You're Adhira Chandra , aren't you?" She said after she was done listening, "I'm Kadora'Tra, I'm so sorry I let this happen." She laid down the self-pity thick, "These are very likely pirates trying to elevate their status. We've been having issues lately keeping them in check. Very recently one of our Cloud Cutters was assaulted by pirates who were also holding hostages for ransom, only now I fear they have become emboldened by their success. I don't know which group they are but I can hear them talking about Ransoming you. They might be after me too since I locked up a number of those pirates responsible for the Sakedo Tower Attack." Kadora'Tra whispered to the Senator, laying every bit of charisma she could manage to convince her that CorpSec were the victims here. It was almost too easy given recent events, to make a solid connection. She wasn't sure if these "revolutionaries" were going to come in and talk to them and undo what she was planting in Adhira's head, but if these rebels were dumb enough to capture the wrong people, she was certain she could continue to manipulate their words enough to keep in the Senator's good graces...

... she hoped so for her own sake.

Daiya , Gray Venasir

 

[Gray Venasir]

"Tell me something I don't know."

Before Daiya and Tawrro had arrived, Gray had tried to get a good picture of the situation. From the building his droid had found for them, he was able to get a good look on the landing pad the Balmorran senator had landed on. And truth be told, it wasn't much to see anymore. Some smoke was still coming from the shipwreck, the authorities had arrived and were looking around, and some droids were flying around. Probably looking for clues. But other than that, nothing. The terrorists were long gone, as expected.

"Well, for starters, the kidnappers are gone. Along with the senator, and probably everyone that were on the landing pad. They couldn't have gone too far, so I've had Shiny try to map out places they could be. Over a dozen so far, and without knowing anything about these terrorists, it's impossible to eliminate out places they can't be."

It was all a matter of variables. If these people were poor, big expensive hideouts could be taken out of the algorithm. Or if they were only made up of Rodians, it was unlikely that they would hide in places with mostly humans.

"But I did find out why Adhira was travelling here. Apparantly, she was to meet with someone on the DireX board, or their representatives at least. Don't know who had sent a representative though. But I'm guessing that they were taken along with the senator. These terrorists probably wouldn't risk killing someone the DireX trusted, and feel their wrath."

Gray didn't have much experience with the DireX. It was only one of them he had met, Larz Blackheart, on Parcellus Minor. And it had only been very briefly. But they were all authoritary figures, which was reason enough to not like them.

Gray walked over to the window, to take another look at the landing pad. Nothing had changed since he last checked. It looked like they were trying to find the cause of the explosion, but it was hard to tell from this distance. And while he looked at the wrecked ship through the window, Gray was thinking that it might have been a mistake to bring Daiya into this. She was only a teenage girl, and though she had lots of experience doing this kind of work, and could look after herself, she should be allowed to be one. Gray loved her like the little sister he never had, and he would never expose his little sister to these kinds of things. But, it was Daiya's life, and she had chosen to spend it like this.

"So, what is it you found out?"

Daiya | Kadora'Tra | Adhira Chandra

 

[Adhira Chandra]

Adhira was relieved when the voice that responded seemed to come from a friendly individual... or rather, friendlier than the people who had manhandled her moments earlier. It was still too early to tell exactly who the enemy was on Denon, but for the moment the senator felt safe enough to rule out her cellmate. "No, my na-" she stopped short of responding as the girl urged her to be quiet. Had this been any other situation, Adhira would have scolded someone for shushing her. Given the circumstances, though, she closed her mouth tightly and leaned in the direction of the voices.​

Even had her ears not been ringing, the older woman doubted she would have been able to register much of the conversation. She heard CorpSec which was a term she only loosely understood in relation to the governance of Denon... she also managed to work out the word democratic and at least one of her favorite expletives. As Adhira's eyes adjusted to the dark room she could now see that there was a dim light shining through gaps in the ceiling enough to illuminate the outline of Kadora'Tor. A farghul... she observed with interest. The old ears of the Balmorran were incapable of discerning the conversation beyond their little prison, but she suspected Kadora'Tor's feline-like senses might have gleaned some information.​

"You're Adhira Chandra, aren't you?" ​

"Uh- I- Yes, I am.," she said, a little taken aback at the sudden shift in conversation that had made her a captive audience. She listened as best she could to the farghul girl as she began to elaborate on a plot by a group of space pirates who were plaguing the corporate interests of Denon. Her dark eyes narrowed on the girl as she continued to talk about hostages and ransoms and her ransom and some tower. Despite the fact that Adhira's head felt like it was inhabited by a trio if kowakian monkey-lizards fighting over a bucket of marbles, she still had enough experience in espionage and diplomacy to begin to try to piece things together for herself.​

Finally, she waved her hands at Kadora'Tor to keep her from talking again while she rubbed her temples. "For the sake of getting out of here, Kadora'Tra, I forgive whatever you did to let this happen and appreciate your concern for my wellbeing. Now, as for this ransom business... if the Alliance gets word of my location, it will not matter who was responsible when the fleet is sent to retrieve me, so we need to get out of here quickly and discern the truth of these matters." The Senator began ripping off her skirt to reveal a more maneuverable, tight-fitting navy blue bodysuit. Whatever came next, Adhira was not going to be weighed down in 10lbs of embroidered silk.​

The old woman had started to position herself like she would attempt an escape, but as she did so the door to the room opened and a few of their captors entered, indicating they were doing to speak. Spooked by their sudden appearance, the Senator once again pressed herself against the back wall and glared at them.​

​

Kadora'Tra Gray Venasir Daiya ​

 

[Daiya]

Daiya gave Gray a teasing wink in reply to his cynical comment, but she said nothing. The apartment he'd found for their use was sparsely furnished, so Daiya pulled herself up to the high counter that separated the kitchen from the living area, perching on its edge as if a tall stool. The girl left the living room's pair of armchairs for Gray and her Wookiee companion. But Tawrro's intuition skills today were low —she blamed the alcohol— so he took a standing position in the middle of the flat instead, his back to the wall. Daiya just shrugged and tossed her head, giving her focus to Gray as he elaborated on his findings from the window.

So far, the smuggler wasn't saying much Daiya didn't already expect. Abducting a high-profile target and just...staying out in the open...would have been a bad plan. The girl swung her legs out idly from the counter as she listened, but stopped after a moment, there wasn't enough clearance under it for a good leg-swing and she frowned as her foot hit the cupboard backing. Daiya's face quickly turned into a grin at the thought of the kidnappers executing such a bad plan, regardless, as it would have made their job incredibly easy. Maybe too easy.

At the mention of his droid and the dozen locations, Daiya tossed a look to the astromech sitting in the corner. She wasn't overly-keen on relying on mechanized intelligence, she much preferred the organic variety. Like Gray, who had discovered the truth behind the kidnapping.

"It must not be any bigwig Corpo if the job was offered to Darkwire to rescue them," Daiya pointed out. She tightened her toes against the bottom of her boot soles, hearing the slight whirrrr as the wheel popped out from the bottom of them. The girl tried to stifle a chuckle. With Tawrro a bit out of sorts and Gray facing the window, the girl gave her legs another experimental swing.

This time, the hard thud of the contact was replaced with a softer oomph as the wheel connected instead, spinning as her foot rolled down and forward off the cabinet side and in front of her again. Pleased with herself, the youthful Darkwire agent answered Gray in a chipper voice, "So, apparently some political group got wind of Ms Chandra's meeting, and they thought there'd be some bigwig showing up, too."

Daiya gave one last swing of her legs against the cupboard before retracting the wheels and hopping down. She joined Gray at the window, looking out to where the older smuggler was watching. It was just the landing pad, the one Gray said was unimportant to them, so she turned to face him instead. "They call themselves the Quarzite Anti-Exclusionary League. Right, Tawrro?"

The girl looked over to the big Wookiee, who nodded confirmation. She gave a serious nod and carried on. "This QUAEL group only showed up recently, so they don't have a big footprint on the HoloNet yet. Just a holosite and some marketing stuff, I guess it's a local group on Quarzite and not much more." Daiya shrugged, not quite understanding the intricacies of it yet, but regurgitating what her contact found out. "But they did show up in a few places here on Denon already. They're not using the CryptNet for some reason, so it's all out in the open, if you know where to look. And I know a gal who knows where to look, and she found them popping up all around a shop in Baker's Row."

Daiya grinned coyly at her smuggler friend, giving her head a slight jerk toward the door, "Let's go ask them a dozen questions."

Kadora'Tra Gray Venasir Adhira Chandra​

 

[Gray Venasir]

QUAEL? Quarzite Anti-Exclusionary League? Name didn't ring a single bell. But it was a lead. A lead they could follow up on right away, it seemed. Gray walked over to his astromech, and knelt down in front of it. "Shiny, scour the local databases, and find what you can about this QUAEL, as well was any organized groups that has been around Baker's Row, okay?" The droid gave a whistle, which almost sounded excited. That would be a first time for the little droid. "And stay here. Daiya and I will check out the shop this group has been around. I'll keep my comm on, so you can contact me if you find anything."

Gray got up, and grabbed his jacket from the chair he had thrown it on when they arrived. That was when he noticed the way the big Wookiee looked. "Um, is Tawrro in any position to come out with us? He looks kind of... not in the game. He been drinking?"

"Anyway, we need to hurry. Every second could mean death for the senator. I think I know a shortcut to the Seven Corners." With that, Gray walked over to the door, where he had hung his hat. He put it on, and checked that both his guns were in their holsters. For all he knew, this Quarzite group could be violent. Especially if they were invlved with kidnappers and terrorists.

The trip to the Seven Corners didn't take long, thanks to the shortcut. "Okay, so where is this shop?"

Adhira Chandra | Kadora'Tra | Daiya

 

[Kadora'Tra]

​

"Hopefully it doesn't come to that, Senator. There isn't a chance these terrorists will last on-" Then the room flooded with light as the purple and green regalia of the QUAEL insurgents entered the room where she was tied up, and Chandra free.

"Ah, I see you've well acquainted yourself with the Corporate snake honorable Senator." A pair of insurgents came out from behind the speaker and circled them, blasters in hand.

"Don't play coy terrorist, I'm not the one holding hostages! Hasn't Denon suffered enough of you pirates?" Kadora'Tra leaned forward in her chair, still bound but full of venom in her voice.

"Pirates? If fighting for our freedom is piracy, than so be it, but notice the constraints upon our guest. You are lucky to be alive, no one else fared as well. Be grateful." The lead insurgent raised a hand.

"Grateful for blowing up my colleagues and almost killing us? Is that the freedom you're fighting for? I will always fight against murderers and lawlessness." What the insurgents couldn't see, was that the claws on Kadora'Tra were slowly cutting the bindings on her wrists behind her back as she pressed forward.

"Lawlessness?!" It seemed the Farghoul had struck a nerve in the insurgent, who stepped forward with a furrowed face. "You want to talk about lawlessness while thugs in uniform round up and arrest neighborhoods for loitering on corporate property? Corporate property left unpurchased by the natives who live there, the same natives forcibly employed to pay a debt they never had? Denied the rights afforded to all employees of CAD because of a debt that doesn't exist... does that sound like justice Captain Kadora'Tra?" His face was now right beside hers, and unlike the purple faced Kage, the feline was smiling.

"No, it sounds like you're just distracted, which is exactly what I wanted." Obviously, the Kage's face changed from furrowed anger to surprised shock as the flash of her claws came across his face...

Adhira Chandra Daiya Gray Venasir

 

[Adhira Chandra]

When the door to their would-be prison opened, Adhira retreated from the sudden light, allowing herself to press hard, back against the cold metal wall behind her, and shrinking away from the individuals who seemed to be their captors. Clearly, they had no love for Kadora'Tra, but she still could not fathom how the had led to her own capture. It was obvious there was more to Denon then met the eye, but Adhira had no desire to suss out the subtleties now.​

"I demand you release us to the custody of the Denon authorities-" she attempted to bluff her way to release, but they seemed very disinterested in her presence, a fact that made the old Balmorran Senator all the more frustrated. Instead, the kidnappers were engaged entirely with her new feline companion. Adhira had now been the subject of kidnap twice in her political career and she had learned enough from the first event to know when to take advantage of her perceived irrelevance in a conversation. She was, after all, just a feeble old woman. An important and very valuable feeble old woman.​

Silent now, she slid along the metal wall to a place where she was very near the blaster of one of the "terrorists" as Kadora'Tra had named them. ​

"No, it sounds like you're just distracted, which is exactly what I wanted."

​

In the same moment that the feline humanoid lunged, so did Adhira. The old woman pounced on one of the captors closest to the door, smacking the blaster from his hand and onto the floor. There was a split second of shock, enough time for her to clamor onto the floor, take the blaster into her hands, and fire. She closed her eyes tightly and fired several blaster rounds blindly in the direction of the QUAEL insurgents and while most of them did not find their mark, when Adhira reopened her eyes she was delighted to see that she and Kadora'Tra were the only two left conscious. ​

"Hmph..." she pushed herself to her feet, blaster still in hand, "now... how do we get out of here?"​

Gray Venasir Daiya Darkwire Prophet Kadora'Tra

 

[Kadora'Tra]

​

While Kadora'Tra used her natural feral strength and faster reflexes to mar her captors face, sweep him off his feet, and steal his consciousness with a swift bop on the head, the feline youth found herself surprised (and pleasantly so) to hear blaster shots that weren't directed at her or her cell mate. In fact, after a couple seconds of confused shock, upon realizing who was wielding the blaster, she gave the Senator a sudden smile.

"Forgive me Senator, but it seems I rather underestimated you!" The CopSec Captain stooped down to their former wardens, and collected a blaster of her own, along with what seemed to be a primitive radio device. They likely used them to avoid cyber-interception, but she found their use of it to be partially foolish.

"As for how we get out, thankfully these three heroes just gave us all the tools we're going to need. If I know anything about Corporate Modus Operandi, we just need to make ourselves as visible as possible. I have no doubts that some form of operation for our recovery is already underway." Kadora'Tra briefly tested out the controls on the radio, squeezing it tentatively, and listening for a response.

~-~Last on net, last on net, say again, your transmission didn't go through, over.~-~ The tiny voice somewhere on the other side said, eliciting another smile from Kadora'Tra. She then grabbed one of the gas masks the insurgents had been wearing and tentatively brought it to her face for sizing, before finding a place to hook on to her belt. She grabbed a second one, and slid it across the floor to the Senator.

"The masks might come in handy if they try to gas us again. Stay behind me Senator, this might get a little hairy." The young woman asked of her elder, as she stepped through the door with a well-trained military grace in her movements...

Adhira Chandra Gray Venasir Daiya