Faction Do Not Pass Go//DARKWIRE IN JAIL

[Callista Volpe]

"I-... I'm not signing that crap alright?! you expect me to believe that I'll be walking out here without any charges? I may be young... but I'm not stupid!"

"Would you like free, legal counsel so that you can be confident that the offer is real?" she asked. "I was there too and I saw what happened myself. Recorded it as well. I know you didn't really mean to hurt anyone but got caught in the panic and looking out for your friends."

Callista paused to take a sip of her caf.

"The offer is entirely real and you can take your time thinking about it."

The offer was real. The motivation, however, was far from honest. She was helping to build a picture that countered the narrative of corporate oppression. The kid was just a little piece of this. No one cared what happened to him after today.

 

[Yula Perl]

Yula went for the water first. Fumbling for the glove box, she unlatched the cover and retrieved a plastoid bottle. Water had never tasted so good, and Yula was getting into the annoying stage of dehydration. She hadn't had anything to drink since before the protest.

Dagon's words didn't cause her to flinch, but a few drops of water went astray into her lungs. Coughing against her arm, she glanced over at him. Ashla, what a sight for sore eyes he was. Even in all this mess.

Yula cleared her throat, thumping a fist gently against her chest. "…Not surprising." Capping the water, she let the bottle rest against her leg for later. The smell of caf had roused her somewhat and cupping her hands around the travel mug was a welcoming warmth.

The Shadowrunners were getting bolder. Many of them were teenagers, kids who had to learn to fend for themselves. It was hard enough on Denon, but being slapped with the terrorist label would be CorpSec's excuse to use excessive, brutal force in retaliation. It would complicate an already complicated situation, and not just for herself.

At least Yula had an out. If it came down to the wire she could run and hide, away from CorpSec's reach, away from Alliance space. Many others could not. Her nails dug into the caf cup.

"...Any word from the Alliance?"

Dagon Kaze

 

[Cartri Keswoll]

Callista Volpe​

"N-no... I'm fine. I don't want any of your "legal" mumbo jumbo" he mumbled back, unimpressed by the way she was trying to lure him into a corporate trap. Upon hearing that she recorded his crime, his eyes raised a brow in a questionable expression.

"So you must have filmed the c-chaos in its... entirety right? Or let me guess, you'll only show the people what y-you... you want them to see?"

No matter the result of this interrogation there was no way he was going to get out of this punishment. The worse case scenario was spending the rest of his miserable life in prison, but even the corpo's had some kind of mercy not to do that. Upon the investigator asked him to think about it, he did just that. No one or no shred of evidence was going to save him now, maybe it was best just to give in and test fate...

Cartri looked down to the deal and slowly began to show a face of defeat, almost as if he had given up fighting against the woman and her demands. Raising his cuffed hands he awkwardly put them on the document and began signing the paper.

With a sigh he slowly slid the deal back to the investigator, his head lowered and looking miserable. Although, that soon would be the case. As Volpe came to study the signature, something looked awfully wrong "Signed, the cooperate pigs" was written in place of his name, blaming them for what happened instead of himself. Slowly, a pained giggle began to escape from the teen's lips, at the same time he visibly winced from every time he laughed. All while staring straight at the investigator with determination...

 

[Callista Volpe]

Callista barked out a laugh of her own. She shook her head slowly from side to side.

"Well," she started, sliding the datapad back off the table. "I have plenty of people to talk to today so you can go back into a cell for the night. I'm afraid it'll be shared."

He wasn't getting one on his own this time. No, he would be sleep alongside the most depraved murderers and gang members they currently had in the block.

"I hope you think this stance it making a difference. It isn't kid, but I hope you feel its worth it. See you tomorrow morning. I'll bring a more age appropriate drink for you. Something with fizzy bubbles."

 

[Kadora'Tra]

I remember... pain.
Sometimes.

I was numb, actually. Like little tingles all through my body.

Little flashes that cut into me.

There was something wet in my hands, dripping on me. I don't know where it was from.

It's caked in my fur and hair now, dried up and caked. I want to rip it out.

I can't feel my hands. Where are they?

Why can't I move? What's wrong with me?
Why is it so dark? Are my eyes open?
Who's there! Stop copying me!



I tried to be quiet after that. It wasn't hard, she was mean, and I am scared.
I shouldn't have gone. I shouldn't have trusted her. Why did I believe I could change?

You're lonely.

Why does that matter? I've been alone since forever. No one takes care of me except me.
Wait, don't go. Please.

Please!




Please...

​

It didn't feel natural to Lonnie.

The shiny badge weighed on her uniform like a boulder resting in the hammock of her sagging deflated heart. It didn't belong to her. This wasn't how it was supposed to find its way to her. She missed its real owner. She missed her soft, warm fur and the dotting attitude she presented in the burn ward. Even her hissing and howling when Lonnie forgot something, she missed it all.

Lonnie saw the holos, read the report, spoke with the officers involved with the arrest; trying to fit it into her frame of reference was like pushing a building through a sewer grate. It just couldn't be done. It couldn't be believed if something so ridiculous had actually happened. It was something she would have to see.

"Congratulations, Captain Lonnie." What was there to congratulate? How could he dismiss her so quickly? That was not the response she had expected of Diviak on discovering his star officer allegedly brought so low. It was as if she had died, and Lonnie was to pick up where she left off seamlessly. Like a machine. Lonnie was not a machine, but she could be good at pretending she was.

She had to see it for herself.

She would regret it.

Kyle stayed behind with the other officers at her request as they let in the newly minted CorpSec Captain for a visit to the highest security prisoner in the block. The corridor was dark and had only a single entrance and exit. It was bathed in dull red emergency lighting. The standard light panels seemed to have been ripped out of their placements. Claw marks stretched across the walls, ceiling, and floor. The violence here hung in the air like a haunted memory.

Finally, after releasing a breath she didn't realize she was holding, she engaged authorization to open the outer shell.

The Durasteel exterior slid open slowly, allowing red rays to illuminate the dark interior. Matted blood-soaked orange fur, metal bindings elbow and knee-deep, a muzzle holding a head back in place, a sprawled out dirty star with intensely yellow and turquoise eyes reflecting back Lonnie's horrified expression. Uneven breathes in the individual rose dramatically as a muffled unrecognizable scream tried to break through its bindings. Hatred and violence radiated from the dirty animal, the semblance of a person completely removed. All that remained was rage and blood.

Lonnie hissed, chirped, and growled her words to Kadora'Tra trying to give her anything she might understand.

The only thing Lonnie could make out from underneath the muffled roars was, "Please."

Unable to bear it any longer, Captain Lonnie left her childhood behind, as the final crimson rays left Kadora'Tra's sight.

 

[Dagon Kaze]

The sudden rasp coughs snapped his arm over her chest in an instinctive reaction as if he was shielding her from an invisible threat before pulling it back when the choking subsided. Seeing her battered the way she was in the station had sent him into an alarmed state there was no coming back from soon. Who could blame him? There were no prospects of the war ending soon; his padawan had fallen to the Dark Side; his girlfriend had been beaten to a pulp and tomorrow would be labeled a terrorist -- Dagon couldn't be anything but overzealous in protecting what remained of everything he held dear.

Yula didn't seem too surprised with the news and Dag would've killed a man to see what thoughts were running in her mind about it. Would she double-down or would she back off, run? Would she find another way to do what she did -- a change of methods? Put a mask on? Become a Jedi? Playing guesswork with biased -- and frankly selfish to some -- outcomes wasn't getting him anywhere. The worst side of it was the small part inside him wanting to scream 'I told you so'.

"...Any word from the Alliance?" the question surprised him. Yula had less trust in institutions than he did.

"Mhm." Dagon turned the volume on the radio. It was on almost every channel. Even the corpo PRs had a hard time paraphrasing.

"...bill by Senator Denko-Durren of Epoch proposes a response plan to last night's violent riots. We remind our listeners the riots were spearheaded by the criminal organization called 'Darkwire' whose members are known for numerous robberies, murders and racketeering schemes. The bill proposes the restrictions on corporate stewardship -- which a number of experts have already condemned as anti-free enterprise act -- and strengthening the presence of Galactic Alliance Marshals on Denon which has been seen by political analysts as a gruesome overreach from the federal government into state's rights. We have invited Druna Zapal of the Escrow Institute -- a think-tank on public policies based on Aargau -- who has publically criticized Senator Denko-Durren's bill as a quoting 'an instrument befitting the Imperial regime to the north' to discuss the situation but before that a word from our s--" Dagon shut the radio off, a frown creasing his brow. Every little help was welcome but the raven-haired Jedi knew it'd not change anything drastically except the Alliance giving CAD more headaches every step of the way and maybe easing Dagon's access as a Jedi to various police records and other crime archives due to Auteme.

But in the bigger picture--

"--just another reason why I wear the mask." he muttered, "The Marshals are gonna get thrown into an unending spiral of bureaucracy and if they push too much - CAD can leverage the terrorist label, and the last thing Coruscant wants is being seen as a terrorist sponsor. Especially with the SILK route prospects into former Confederate space." politics was the last topic of interest to the Knight but he knew well that if you're not turned on to politics politics will turn on you. "At best, it'll give some breathing room." he sighed.

"Yula--" he began, then sighed again, "--pink... I'll bust you out as a rioter today but as a terrorist? -- tsk..." his curiousity to know what was running inside her head began to peak.

Yula Perl

 

[Cartri Keswoll]

Callista Volpe​

The corpo was right, His rebellious act didn't really help the case in the slightest. Even so, no matter the result they were going to find a way to put him behind bars "Will be shared? you mean I'll be with..." Cartri said in realisation as the cocky smirk began to fade away from his lips. He'd be eaten alive in there, considering most of the crimes other people were in for.

Cartri sulked to the Corp as two seccers came in and hooked both of his arms, forcefully raising him to his feet and dragging him to the door "F-fizzy?! who do you think I am! you st-" was the only thing he could blurt out before the door shut behind them and muffled his words.

It didn't take long for Cartri to be thrown back into a cell, this time with people who were considered the most heartless people on the planet. When he first entered, the possibility of them picking on him was second to none. Although, when the guards threw him in they didn't seem to take much notice of him other than giving him a judgemental look. A few of them had kids of their own back home and didn't dream about picking on a kid way smaller than they were. Who knew they had a heart...

In the morning, the same process was repeated. However, this time he sat there in silence and refused to answer a single question she threw at him. Cartri was sick and tired of wasting his breath to deliver their demands, at this point, it was simply a lose - lose situation. By the time their interview reached ten minutes, the teen has already received his juvenile detention letters.

He was to spend a month in the Juvenile correctional facility, infamous for the brutalities and gang culture that was present inside. The time didn't seem that long, but for Cartri it was going to be the longest days of his life.

As a parting gift, some fizzy pop was provided for him for the journey there. Of course, they had to add salt to the wound, cocky karks...

 

[Yula Perl]

While Yula coughed into the crook of her arm, Dagon threw an arm across her chest. The protective gesture surprised her at first—after pulling away and making a face at the pink tinge of spit and phlegm on her arm where she'd coughed, Yula look to Dagon. Pupils dilated, muscles tensed, he was in defensive mode. No doubt about it, and she couldn't blame him. Not with everything that was happening, and her choice to engage in the protest—and eventual violence—caused a fresh wave of guilt to sweep over her.

Or maybe that was nausea from swallowing too much blood.

The motion of the speeder, the harshness of the sun, the pounding in her head and the aching in her limbs…Yula felt like she was in withdrawal again, after being dropped from the roof of Sakedo tower and run over by a series of vengeful trucks. The impending lecture, though softened, still made her head rattle. The word salad on the radio didn't help either, but she caught snippets. While piecing them together, she fished through the glove box for a pair of sunglasses. The ones Dag had used while unknowingly busting her aurodium heist, now broken. She didn't mind the crack spiraling through one of the lenses, as long as they dimmed the world around her to a manageable level.

"--pink... I'll bust you out as a rioter today but as a terrorist? -- tsk..."

"I'm not a-"

Yula paused, slipping both hands underneath the shades and rubbed at her eyes. Whether she wanted to be a terrorist or not, CorpSec would make that decision for her. Maybe she should jump into it feet first and take their power away. Maybe…no, that would only serve her own feeling of justice. Best to hang back, see what the others do.

With a ragged sigh, she leaned back heavily against the headrest. "I never thought it would get that bad. I meant to record it, sure, but I didn't think it would—ugh. Someone caught me, y'know. I was able to stream on the holobroadcasts for a few minutes, but someone traced the signal. Sliced my eye. Who knows how much they found, or if they could pin it on me."

Her nails tapped against the dash as she thought. Dark, ugly bruises dimpled the skin beneath. "Best move is to lay low for now. See if the others are okay." Hopefully CAD would give the Shadowrunners a moment to breathe and collect themselves in the aftermath. They had to be smart about their next move, because terrorist was a hell of a title. Execution-worthy, if not a hefty prison sentence.

"Who knows, maybe I'll need a mask." She grinned tightly, lips cracked at the corners. "Just promise to send me care packages while I'm locked up."

Dagon Kaze

 

[Dagon Kaze]

Beaten to a pulp, hell, barely even walking on her own two feet and her heart still wondered about the welfare of her comrades. Whether Dagon agreed with Darkwire's approach or not mattered little, a faint smile still tugged at the corner of his lips -- she always found a way to remind him why he'd fallen in love with her.

Then the smile faded, replaced by the glare as she joked about getting locked up again, "What you'll need is to think very, very carefully on what you're going to be doing and how going forward." his words came out as an order.​

Yula Perl

 

[Yula Perl]

"What you'll need is to think very, very carefully on what you're going to be doing and how going forward."

Yula squinted and pinched the bridge of her nose. So the lecture did eventually come, just in a different way. And not as judgmental as usual. Dagon was right though, she'd have to really think about how she wanted to handle things going forward. What would forward even look like? Was forward even possible, or had CorpSec crushed Darkwire's spirit in one blow? Would they scatter back into the shadows, conspiring to hit CAD back like a cadre of vengeful roaches?

Did they have the resources? The numbers, the tech, the ideas, the time—organization would be key. Being plucky and angry wouldn't be enough. They'd need men on the inside, bribes, the support of the populace, the-

One eye fluttered open, peeking at Dagon as he drove. He was another factor, probably the biggest one in this equation. They both had their own sense of justice, and Yula had been asking him to compromise on his own. And he had, sometimes.

"I know." She muttered. "Even I know how much of a landmine this can end up being. Whatever comes next, whether I'm involved or not, won't just be small potatoes."

Exhaling slowly, she leaned back, head against the rest. It was still pounding, but the caf made her feel a little more alive. He always made good caf.

"When we get home, I'm borrowing one of your crime boards."

There was a lot to account for.

Dagon Kaze