Ecstasy of Sap

[Adder]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOr0na6mKJQ​

A gentle gust of wind, hot and dry, swept across the plains as a single steel-tipped boot touched the red rock. Soon it was followed by another, and with sure steps, the owner made her way towards the settlement in the distance, orange dust rising up behind her to swallow her form.

The town she walked in seemed mostly dead, though Adder blamed the sun scorching down from its throne in the zenith of the clear blue sky. She'd only braved the short walk from her ship to the main street, and already she was sweating under the heavy jacket draped over her left shoulder. Not her first choice of attire for given the local clime, but you had to look the part of a cop in places like this, or nobody blinked twice when you tried to invoke the authority of one.

Then again, people often didn't give two chits even when you were dressed appropriately.

Her gaze lingered for a few moments on the shimmering image of the tower looming far above the other buildings of Barons Hed, and then the woman hastened for the shadow offered by one of the gambrel roofs of the houses lining the alley. She let a relieved sigh escape her as she entered the cool bliss of the shade, and without hesitation, the woman pushed open the swing doors inside what looked and smelled like the local watering hole.

"Gabriel Sionoma?"

Subtle had never been her style. Besides, what better way to take measure of a man than to call him out in a room full of drunkards, lowlifes, and other assorted scum? His reaction would tell her everything she needed to know about the Sheriff, and then some.

[member="The Revenant"]​

 

[Gabriel Sionoma]

"Three?"
"Aye...three." The man held up his fingers, a pinky, ring, and middle. "Three's as many as I can give 'er."
Gabriel lifted his hand to his mouth and shook his head. "You know that's a good deal for exchange, Higgs? Hardly makes it worth my time."
The Baron, looking more a smuggler now than local nobility, nodded and lifted his hand hands to shoulder height. "I don't know what to tell ya Gabe. I got a family to feed as well."

Gabe jutted out his bottom lip in thought, long distressed coat his recently favored garb when in town. It helped to fit in, especially in the cantina district. "How are they by the way? You got your boy to the doctor?"
"Yeah, still can't figure out what's wrong with him."
"No?" Gabe recalled a time on Dromund Kaas, Reverance plummeting into the abyss. But before that, he had exploited a genetic failure in the local resistance through shatterpoint. He wondered if he was at that level yet. "Tell you what. You give me those three head of cabbage. I'll pay you..." He scratched his beard. "80 percent of your asking price. And you bring your boy over to the homestead. I'll take a look at him."

He held out his hand. Higgs narrowed his eyes before shaking on it. "That's a fair deal right there. Much appreciated Gabe." The locals knew the man wasn't any form of doctor. But he had expertise in anatomy and with Ava back at the homestead, he figured they were pretty well placed to sort the situation out. Bartering was never about making the deal in Sulon, it was about socializing. And just then, the swing doors opened with a flap and resounding sound. The sort that called to the attention of Gabe. It wasn't often someone walked in, declaring his name in such fashion. Clicking his fingernail against the bar top, chipping a piece of enamel, he squinted at Higgs. "Tell the wife I said hello. And I'm serious about bringing your boy around. Don't make me come looking for you."

"Scouts honor..." Higgs said with a smile, hand up in some odd gesture, as he eyed the shorter woman and walked back to a table.

Turning from the bar, he eyed the woman through irises of honey brown. She seemed upright enough though she obviously didn't know the area very well. Or maybe she did, enough to know to find Gabe here. Not his typical locale but Higgs was here for the day, socializing while the local inspectors analyzed his crops for illegal pesticide use. Just a formality. Scratching his beard, he pushed out from the stool and laid some credits on the bar for his finished drink. He approached the woman, ever inspecting, as he flared his nostrils with a sniff. Despite how well he had done on Sulon, the planet was more or less neutral towards the Galactic Alliance. Some favored them, others not so much. And the saloon was a mix of both, local gangs likely in congregation with eyes cast in their direction.

Gabe was as hands off as possible with the temperament needed for governance. It was likely why he had done so well, at least that's what the commissioner had told him. Looking from her to the swinging doors, he tensed his jaw as the room went back to the normal boisterous predilection. "We can talk outside or we can talk in here. If the latter, you'll have to soften your tone for me." He looked back to her, long red hair and the tattoos to compliment. He leaned forward, volume approaching a whisper."You're from the Alliance, I take it?"

[member="Adder"]​

 

[Adder]

Sure enough, the whole room slowly quieted down, all manner of faces, eyes, stalks, and maws turning to face her. Adder didn't blink, regarding them all with a calm indifference as her eyes searched for the one man in the saloon she did want to talk to.

There.

He slid off a barstool on the far end, his bright eyes finding her artificial ones through the whirlwinds of upset dust motes hovering in the stale air. She smiled, and tilted her head to the side, letting her long red hair tumble down her back.

"We can step outside, no problem," she replied, and led him back the way she came, sparing a quick glance over her shoulder to check up on the bar. Nobody cared.

"Yes. Didn't like it on Sullust, used to be a cop… they said Barons Hed would be the place for me. They said to look for a man called Gabriel Sionoma. The Sheriff." She didn't look convinced she'd found the right man. Having traveled as far and wide as she had, Adder knew that law enforcement could take many forms, but a long leather coat seemed… too clichéd, somehow.

"Something you need help with?" People always needed help with something. It could be as innocuous as fixing a busted repulsor coil or as sinister as becoming an accomplice in murder. Help, in and of itself, was just another service, and Galaxy was always full of people willing to pay for a service. Always would be, if you ask Adder.

[member="The Revenant"]​

 

[Gabriel Sionoma]

"Sheriff huh?" He smiled, looking along the thoroughfare of the main street leading towards the cantina. He nodded for her to follow him, long boardwalks of wooden slats guiding their path. It wasn't that Sulon couldn't have been upgraded to more modern means, but as this district was considered historical, it was more less impossible to change things. "Its not a true title, not anything held by the Sulon Law Enforcement division." He wondered if that fiery red hair was a choice or natural. He couldn't fault her for the tattoos, he held his own for a life that preceded this. Those his weren't as precariously placed. "I'm currently a leader of the SLEEG, Sulon Law Enforcement Expeditionary Group."

There was no title for it that he can think of, consultant being the closest thing. Sheriff was closer to a term of endearment that locals had towards him, capability in fighting and standing down brutes encompassing a means to resolve most issues without extensive damage. "When not working for the Alliance as a member of the Hounds, I do roam this area as some semblance of order." He spoke quietly as they continued to walk, him catching view of a couple of children playing a hop scotch game in a dusty ally between two buildings. Stopping, to look at them, he turned to the woman and scratched his beard.

​"Help with something, maybe. But not from someone I don't know..." He narrowed his eyes, curious if she was in fact the right choice. He was hesitant in trusting someone who claimed to be from the alliance without having firsthand knowledge of them. Putting out his hand, he smiled. Not fully trusting, not fully on guard, somewhere in the in between. "I am Gabriel Sionoma. From the Alliance, with whom have you worked or interacted?" Maybe a bit of data mining into her experience might ease any tension there might be over the current issue at hand. If the dust and lack of rains weren't obvious, the problem resided around control of water. A simple resource in other areas, it could be as gold on Sulon during the right season.

[member="Adder"]​

 

[Adder]

She followed the taller man without comment, but her eyes remained trained on his back like a hawk's – or an eagle's, if you've a taste for irony – watching him for any suspicious moves. Sulon was safe enough only as far as settlments in no-man's land went, which wasn't far at all. Besides, she still couldn't be sure that she was talking to the real Gabriel Sionoma. Anyone could've stood up from the crowd in that saloon and thought to play a short con with an obvious outsider.

Tough luck for them, picking on a seasoned cop. But Adder kept her face empty, her back staight, and kept walking.

"That's one long-ass name," she snorted, and noted where his weapons were holstered. "I think I'll stick to Sheriff, thank you very much." Nothing to thank him for, yet, but she had a feeling they'd know where they were at soon enough.

As they stopped in a dusty back alley, her first instinct was to take a few steps back; give herself space to react if he tried anything. The narrow stare, the distrustful quirk to his mouth… something wasn't entirely right. Her hand drifted along her belt towards the stock of her Westar, but halted abruptly when the man spoke again.

"Marshall Voidstalker," she glanced down at his proffered palm. "Marshall Talith," she reached out and clasped it with her own, warm metal squeezing warm flesh. "Grand Marshall Rhen."

"That good enough for you, Sheriff Sionoma?"

[member="The Revenant"]​

 

[Gabriel Sionoma]

"Yes, a long name..." He spoke with a raised eyebrow, well aware of her body posture as was possible given the circumstance. Apprehensive, tense, perhaps deserved given the location. Though she did very little to hide such a thing, he wondered what sort of work she had actually done. Was she a hammer when he needed a surgical blade? "Jacen is a good friend, baby sits my children from time to time." Well, not his children any more, but that was a level of complexity he wasn't quite ready to share with the woman. Considering the obvious lackluster form of trust currently shared.

He proceeded to continue the walk, holding out an arm with a datapad bracer along the forearm. Clicking across it, he cracked his neck and briefed her. For the most part, it was an inactive part of town, businesses working on taxes and orientation for market place licenses. "Recently, we've had issues with depletion of water sources throughout the region surrounding Barons Hed and the like. Water, here on Sulon, is largely supplied via Tap Trees which run through the infrastructure and supplies everyone with condensed reservoirs." He lifted his arm, tilting the interface for her to see. "The red portions of the map are reported occurrences of depletion. Supplies have been cut off by vandalism to the aquaducts that run beneath the surface of the city." He looked towards the woman. "Think large drainage structures or geothermal vents, the sort they have on Sullust."

He rolled his shoulder and shut the datapad off. "The thing is, I can't get help from the local law enforcement because they are inherently tied to the problem. Biased, they might fly off the handle and disrupt the investigation. Which is why I need help from someone I can trust, outside of the SLEEG." He paused, mid step, and looked back to her. "So how about you tell me your name and we start trusting each other? Because this is a problem right now, we don't have time for the usual development between partners." Likely temporary, they would have to come to terms with the notion that perhaps they were both qualified for this work and simply hope it was the case.

[member="Adder"]​

 

[Adder]

The sudden reveal of information caught her off-guard, and Adder let her impassive mask slip, quirking a curious eyebrow.

"You've got kids?" She expelled the question with a dry laugh, as if somehow the idea amused her; it did, in fact, but not for the reasons one might expect. [member="The Revenant"] looked rugged, like a man that had seen crap, and then some, and certainly not like a father.

Oh, well. She'd seen stranger things in her travels, and one Sheriff who happened to have children wasn't quite enough to throw her. It had been enough, however, to break the ice, as it were, and Adder found herself nodding emphatically as they continued along in the shadow of the overhanging roofs, listening intently to his brief. The map that blinked into existence on his datapad was telling enough on its own, but the insightful commentary certainly revealed a bit more.

"Well…" she drawled, a smile pulling at her lips, "I guess I can't say no to a buddy of Jacen's. I'm Adder." Always with the nickname, but she could hardly offer the full one after taking a piss out of a long name mere moments ago. It would look exceptionally bad. Or amusing. Probably a bit of both.

"Anyway, you're the local, so I figure good cop, bad cop out of town? We have to start as soon as possible." The watering hole they'd left a few minutes ago looked like a perfect location to the redhead, but perhaps there were seedier joints still. Barons Hed wasn't that small a settlement, and there were bound to be crime-riddled districts somewhere.

The Sheriff would know where, and then the rest would follow.

 

[Gabriel Sionoma]

"Aye, I've got kids..." He was, by no means, a father. An issue that he couldn't change, children given up for the chance to offer them something better. But the fact remained that he was biologically as capable as any other man to make mistakes. Or in this case, to create two beautiful creatures.

He gave a flare of the nostrils as he stopped, narrowing his eyes towards a certain store front. Fixing in on it, he wiped his mouth, straightening his beard, as he looked back towards the woman. "Adder? Maybe you'll tell me how you came about that name. When time is on our side." He dropped his hands, nodding for her to look towards the storefront, as he slowly cracked his knuckles. He wondered what type of snake she might be. Perhaps the sort that was quick to strike, given a moments glance and chance for threat to be interpreted as present. Or maybe she was more akin to the world of lurkers, diving deep beneath blades of grass with vibrant eyes piercing out, waiting for the proper moment. Hopefully, whichever it may be, it wouldn't be the sort to see her stepped on, starting something that could have been prevented.

"We've already started our work..." The steps they had taken would lead them directly to a water vendor, recently increasing import of condenser stations from off world. The likes of which would have severe environmental impacts, creating a negative feedback loop, further decreasing the rains that occur over the moon. "That is a storefront for a local...well, a gang. But the sort with a business license. They profit off the sale of canister water, more emergency than anything else. But they've recently ramped up their game." He sniffed and looked back towards Adder.

"I know the owners son, a black sheep some 20 kilometers out of town. Grows beasts of burden. He's told me about this movement the group has made, towards more dubious and lucrative means. And I intend to question them directly. Might get a bit hairy. You ready to jump into the deep end?" There were no pools to speak of, no oceans to swim in. But the fine line between sketchy business dealings and outright criminal activity bred the need for compromise from those intending to keep the peace. A gentle touch, he wondered if she had the mentality for it.

[member="Adder"]

 

[Adder]

She gave a slow nod to his affirmation, and tucked the bit of information away for later. Fathers were a double-edged sword, and the many she'd known in her time had only confirmed this innate knowledge. Nonetheless, she would trust a man like that; trust him, at least, that he would try to make this world better for his children, rather than worse.

"Maybe," she acknowledged, a hint of a smile to her voice. It wasn't a yes, nor was it a no; for all her qualities, Adder was the slippery sort, never given to staying in one place too long. That had only ever ended badly, for her and others around her. She'd be loathe to repeat the mistake again, and though she did not know him, [member="Gabriel Sionoma"] seemed like a good enough man.

Falling in step with the Sheriff of Sulon, the redhead was content to simply listen to the thankfully short, yet still descriptive a brief of the current situation. While they walked towards the shop, Adder shrugged the jacket back onto her shoulders, hand lingering on her hip just a moment longer. Not because the weather had suddenly turned cold, mind you; the jacket was made of toughened leather, with a shell spider silk lining. An old thing, and apart from her trusty Westar also the only one she'd kept from her days on Coruscant. It had been a gift from her Captain – the first one, before he'd gone splat in a tragic accident – after she'd made one of the bigger busts of her career.

'Something to keep you safe off-duty, Adder' he'd said, three days before he slipped and broke his neck in his apartment. Ain't no jacket gonna protect you from that sort of danger, but the redhead was nonetheless glad to have it around. It had saved her life more times than she could recount, and only stood second to the matte Westar sitting snugly in the shoulder holster slung over her back.

"And here I thought we were already there," she said with a wink, eyeing the vendor in front of them. The paint was peeling off the rusting sign above the door, and some of the letters seemed to have been torn off, spelling out BRONN'S WA R in a faded black font.

"I'll put on my best grim bad cop face, and glare at them while you ask the questions. They'll let something slip soon enough," spoken with an almost disproprotionate amount of confidence for an outsider, but then again, Adder had dealt with her share of criminals, and knew how to read most people like an open book. And if not people, then their surroundings would give them away.

It was inevitable.

Brushing the unruly red mane from her face, the woman strode to the door and pushed it open with enough force that the small bell above them was still tolling even when both of them had long come to stand in front of the counter, one with a smile, one with a scowl.

 

[Gabriel Sionoma]

The way she strolled in was indicative of her confidence, at the very least. While she had the endorsements and the large words, the skill behind the sentiment remained to be seen. And hopefully, with the way things could go, it would remain that way. The best sort of firearm was the type that was holstered. And when the bell finally stopped it's jingling and jangling, he gave a cross wise glance to the woman before turning his mahogany view back to the front desk and the small figure of a man sitting at the desk. The way the yellow light flickered beneath the emerald cover, it gave a reminiscing view of the stuffy banks one might find on the fancier planets. The sort of decorations and decor that gave lofty notions of elevation. All trapped in a box in the dust bowl of a dry Sulon drought.

"Here to see your boss..."

Gabe ruffled his jacket, straightening it out, as he gazed down towards the beady black orbs against the Sullustan's face. The way he looked back, absent minded in gaze, gave Gabe the impression that they were about to hit a wall. And then those eyes turned down towards the docket, finger tracing across appointments etched in anachronistic parchment. The sort that the former wrath favored, the feel that came with the textures of work and permanence.

"Name?"
"You know my name."
"I do. But I'd like to hear it from you."

The little figure gave a smile as he looked from the Sheriff to Adder, ears wiggling with a weasel smile and eyes that might have sought for something more than words. The Hound squinted as he approached the desk, placing his hand down upon the peeling laminate covering the faux grain.

"Gabriel Sionoma."
"New Deputy?"
"None of your business."

The little man crossed his arms, something between a gurgle and laugh escaped his deviated and plump lips. Dripping and covered in a fluid not far from sweat, Gabe caught a whiff just in time to lean back, slightly miffed.

"Name's not on the list."
"That the case?"
"It is."

He nodded as he turned back towards Adder, giving the impression thatt hey might be leaving. But as he saw her expression, the deception was over and through all the quiet of the room, he could hear the short figure shift in his chair. Withdrawing the dissauder from his hip, he turned and fired a single round into the ceiling mounted security device. Sparks and smoke shot out as the gun strafed down towards the desk keeper, his hand still on the switch that activated the turret.

"Not very welcoming of you..." He looked towards Adder. "Got that bad cop face ready? I assume we are about to have company."

[member="Adder"]​

 

[Adder]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Just as promised, Adder kept her bad cop face on through their whole exchange. One of the benefits of having eyes that were no longer quite yours was that she could easily keep watch of the sketchy desk clerk even as she continued to catalog the contents of the room. If what [member="Gabriel Sionoma"] had warned her about held even a grain of truth, that they couldn’t afford to be caught with their pants down. There was a lesson she’d learned pretty quickly on the beat down in the underbelly of Coruscant, and it had only been reaffirmed with alarming frequency in the last decade of hopping from planet to planet.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Ambition[/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px] made sentients far more dangerous than any other sentiment. Love, hate, greed, sheer callousness… none of them could hold a candle to the lengths an aspiration-crazed individual would go. If that person happened to be a criminal as well, then you had better come prepared.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]So Adder did her job, and scanned the small foyer for all she was worth. The peeling paint, the musty smell of old files, the kitschy decor… they all contributed to the strange sense of nostalgia rising in her chest. The place reminded her of stereotypical scenes from books she used to read, and if those books got anything right, the moment was soon approaching when the sullustan would lose his nerve.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]To expedite the process, she offered him a lopsided smirk.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]Sure enough, the man jumped the gun, but Sionoma was ready, his own weapon in hand.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“You should’ve waited,” she spoke and gave a sage nod to the shaking clerk. He turned to face her with his glassy eyes wide open, the thick lower lip trembling ever so slightly. Adder quirked her head incrementally, smiling a small smile.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“I really wish you hadn’t done that, though. Would’ve saved us all a lot of trouble.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]With that, the woman rounded the desk and promptly ducked, narrowly avoiding the panicked swing of something vaguely pipe-shaped that the wielder longed to bury in her skull. Instead, the man got a fistful of metal to his gut as Adder recovered. There were two more men rushing down the corridor behind the desk, but she had her own hands too full of thrashing sullustan to deal with them.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]She growled and kicked at the door to slam it in their faces, but it would only hold so long as it took them to draw their weapons.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.6667px]“Do something[/SIZE][SIZE=14.6667px]!” she hissed at the Sheriff as she struggled to subdue the man without having to kill him.[/SIZE]

 

[Gabriel Sionoma]

He was hoping he wouldn't be right. But the sounds of hard soles against cheap flooring, the sound of swift movement through the hallway, and the way the iron pipe cracked against the duracrete wall that had been painted a thousand times over. The slow motion of the chips falling to the floor, the way Adder gut shot the figure, it all indicated things to come. And before she could profess the need for him to do something, he was already there.

Hopping over the desk, hand planted against the edge, he landed flat on his feet to press palm against the door. Interrupting whatever bout Adder might be having with the Sullustan, Gabe wrapped fingers around the small figures collar and flung backwards. Rolling through the air, clipping his leg on the desk upon entry, he smacked into the entrance way doors and crumbled to the floor. Unconscious, but not dead...hopefully.

Perhaps this was closer than Adder had anticipated Gabe getting, and perhaps the Sheriff didn't have time to care about that. Events like this were just the sort the ice breaker they needed. No time to be standoffish, waist deep in the foxhole.

With the arm recoiling from the toss, he pressed his presence deep into the bones of his knuckles. With the swing back, timing intended to collide with doors just as the men on the other side attempted to push it open, he powered a force push simultaneously through. Breaking the metal hinges, the door flung inward, knocking one of the men over and landing flat on top of him. The other stood shocked for the moment as he was faced with the larger frame of the Sheriff. While he was more likely to take the route of pacifism, when it was the right path, it seemed in these moments that he would remind himself of his sibling and the tendencies they once shared.

Looking over to Adder, his eyes darted to the desk. "Check the parchment and desk. Anything regarding recent transactions or location of a ledger. I'll take care of this one."

Steepling his fingers, with his pistol holstered, he stepped onto the broken door, further encumbering the one underneath it. As the other guard stepped back, Gabe withdrew a pair of metal cuffs. The sort that seemed just as anachronistic as the parchment and decor, spots of rust against the eroded steel. "Come quietly..." Another pipe, another dodge, as Gabe leaned forward and drove his knee hard into the stomach. Amid the shock of the strike, he grabbed the man's left arm and spun him. Cuffing him in an awkward position, more arm wrapped behind neck and strapped at a contorted position, Gabe kicked the man hard in the back, sending him sliding across the dusty floor. With the combatant unable to move, Gabe looked to his right -towards a set of stairs that descended into the building.

He could hear the faint sounds of discussion, footsteps and the flicker of shadows against yellow hallway lights. He looked back towards Adder, hoping she had found something worth discussing. If not, they'd be heading down where he assumed the boss would be.

[member="Adder"]​

 

[Adder]

Everything that followed happened quickly, like these things are wont to. [member="Gabriel Sionoma"] vaulted over the desk in billowing cloaks, reminiscent of a bat. Or he would have been, if Adder weren’t too busy keeping the door closed. A nasty crack announced the impact of sullustan flesh against the store entrance. She was still picking herself up from the floor when the sheriff reappeared beside her. Too quick, instincts screamed at her.

The next moment confirmed what her gut was telling her from the start.

Another damn Forcer.

She would’ve laughed – dry, resigned to the cruel humor of the universe – but they had a job to do. Work always came first, even when your life was laughing in your face.

Turning her back on the pair, Adder attacked the desk. It kept her mind and hands busy, kept any dark thoughts at bay. Instead she descended upon the paperwork like a woman possessed, scanning the documents and datapads for anything remotely incriminating. They didn’t need much, between the two of them. A trail; no, a shadow of a trail would do. Mere breadcrumbs to go on, if nothing else. Official or not, she was still a cop, and once she’d caught the scent of blood, she didn’t give up easy.

“Found something,” she called out to the man. “Log from two weeks ago says they hired a couple of temps to distribute and install some condenser stations. Here,” she handed him the datapad, the line highlighted. “Two days earlier there’s this transaction receipt. Someone here put the charge on the store’s tab. See those? That’s all the chit you need to make a frakking ANFO.” And you didn’t need fertilizer bombs if all you were doing was installing some machinery.

“How were the aquaducts damaged?”

 

[Gabriel Sionoma]

Found something. He heard the words as he peered down the staircase, making out shadows on the walls and listening to words he didn't immediately understand. The majority of the criminal enterprise on Sulon wasn't composed of humans, despite a large amount of the law enforcement being human or near human. For those reasons, they often didn't speak basic or anything resembling civilized conversation. Like speaking in tongues and codes, they used every method they had to deceive and conceal intent. Of course, that intent was often trivial and held no resemblance to the typical criminal activity.

Stepping back through the hallway, the crunch of bits of door left in his former wake gave introduction as he re-entered the lobby. Taking the datapad in hand, he looked over the logs with a thumb placed between his teeth. Not for biting, just simply comfortable as he thought. He raised his eyebrow as she continued, suspicious of how she so quickly jumped to the conclusion of ANFO bomb construction. After all, Sulon was an agricultural planet even during times of drought. They simply had to cart in water to make up for lost reserves. Though since he had taken to replenishing the Tap Tree, that hadn't been as much of a concern. Needless to say, fertilizer was almost as vital as water itself.

His suspicion was staved for the moment as her conclusion landed on proper footing.

"Explosives." He said quietly as he looked her in the eyes, diverting back to the holopad. "Sulon so rarely sees use of explosives for such means that older regulations still classify it as vandalizing. Modified with lethal intent." He mentally sighed, knowing how stupid that sounded. But despite how close Sulon was to Sullust, the epicenter of the Galactic Alliance and the biggest target of reprisal, there was very little true crime that occurred on the small moon. And it often involved small claims: land disputes, resource disputes, so on and so on. It was a load of disputes with no bite to match the bark.

SLEEG had obviously gotten lazy. And as such, the suspected leak in the information barrier had led to drastic events occurring. He shook his head and handed the datapad over to her. "That's too much material. The explosions were minimal so far but with that amount listed here, they could disrupt supply through the entirety of Baron's Hed."

[member="Adder"]​

 

[Adder]

“Shivit,” Adder puffed out, brow furrowed. “That’s crazy. How old are the regs? A thousand years?”

“Yeah, I was afraid of that. Frak, I hate bombers. Usually means they’ve got a mess up in the attic.” She shook her head, tapping her temple to illustrate the point. Frowning at the datapad for one last time, the redhead tucked it into an inner pocket on her jacket and checked the powercell of the Westar.

“Any idea what’s below?”

They’d dragged the two unconscious criminals behind the desk and bound them so that the only thing they could do was blink. Adder finished it off by stuffing their mouths with torn pieces of their overalls, then rejoined [member="Gabriel Sionoma"] at the top of the stairwell.

For all they knew, they’d be walking directly into a trap. Considering the leftover explosives materials, the thought was none too encouraging.

 

[Gabriel Sionoma]

He shook his head and frowned. "No, unfortunately foresight is not among my list of talents..." He pulled the pistol from the hip holster and ejected the cartridge. Enough rounds, he thought, as he slid it back in and yanked the slide back. With a click, he looked towards the two criminals and inwardly smiled. He had to admit, it was pretty entertaining to see them eating their own overalls.

Waving Adder on, he approached the stairwell with some semblance of delicate step. The discussion had simmered down and he wasn't about to inform them of their presence. They were a rambunctious crew, given that their banter hadn't been entirely interrupted by the sound of gunfire. Looking to Adder as he set up against the wall, he dropped the pistol low, aiming it towards the floor. "I'll lead down. Watch my back and we'll see what we can spot."

Stepping quickly, yet quietly, down the stairs, Gabe pushed forward. The walls were the same sort of rusty orange and yellow, spattered with spots of dirt and what he could only assume was mildew. Flakes of paint were curled away, likely from the humidity, and the grey unpainted floors appeared to be heavily populated with dust bunnies. One flight of stairs was all it would take to reach the basement of the place, though given his knowledge of the city, he knew the buildings went much deeper.

Propping up against the wall, he peaked over quickly before patting the wall next to him with the pistol. She might be a step higher than him, but if she went any further, she would likely alert the congregation to their location. When she was setup, he whispered.

"Four total, square table. Looks like a round of sabacc." Pointing with his pistol across the entrance from the stairs. "There's an access point to another hallway just there, but we need to cross without them seeing." Unless they wanted to alert the whole facility. If they were caught, they'd need to silence these individuals quickly or risk rousing far more suspicion than they needed.

[member="Adder"]​

 

[Adder]

Four voices drifted up the stairs, and though she couldn’t understand much of the language, the inflections were telling enough. Excitement, anger, defeat. The emotions bled into the expressive melody of the dialect, and as she peered around the corner, it all fell in place. Sabacc. The underworld’s favorite game, tied only with Pazaak. Adder liked neither. Too many unknowns, and too much opportunity for cheaters to capitalize on.

If they were aware of what had happened upstairs, they were certainly top-tier actor material. Judging that unlikely, Adder settled for the more plausible option; they didn’t have a clue. Engrossed in their game – pretty high stakes, judging by the color of the chips in the middle – the four criminals were paying little attention to their surroundings. That was good.

“There’s a fusebox to the left of our door,” she mouthed, gesturing in that direction. Trouble was, it was on the wrong side of the wall. “If you can confuse them with some magic trick for a few, I can short-circuit the lights. We’ll make a run for it. It’s close enough.” Her walk through Baron’s Hed may have been short, but it was enough to reveal a number of important details to her keen sight. One of them was poor maintenance. A glitch in the wiring lasting a few seconds would surprise nobody.

At least that’s what she hoped.

[member="Gabriel Sionoma"]

 

[Gabriel Sionoma]

He caught himself almost glaring. But it stopped quickly on the spot, realizing that it was the same sort of jab that might be delivered by [member="Jacen Voidstalker"]. Perhaps a far different topic, but their delivery was there. Instead, his free hand lifted to his chest. Patting, he searched his left pocket. Then he patted his right. Shaking his head, he looked Adder dead in the eyes. "Sorry, forgot my rabbits at home."

He actually did need to get rabbits. Good for fertilizer for vegetables. He added it to a mental list as he turned his head back to the table. Just a part of the eye past the wall, he focused on the men. Trying to be creative, without giving away the whole ordeal, he took a moment to study the individuals. One of them was quite large, given his species, and seemed to have a friendly enough face. Another one, he couldn't seem to make out due to angle, had a massive bald spar and a long scar running from ear down to mid back. The last was a stern individual, the sort that hid their emotions well enough.

"There we go..."

He hit his mark, just the slightest nudge of telekinesis at the cuff of the sleeve. As soon as it hit, a few cards fell out from his sleeve. Based off the quick glimpse, Gabe thought he saw a Queen of Air and Darkness, The Idiot, and a 2 of staves. Gabe leaned back and nodded to to Adder as he heard the chairs scoot out from the table. Screaming started, though it resembled growling more than anything else, and Gabe held up his hand. Three fingers.

"On the count of three..."

It was then that the sound of violence erupted and the Sheriff mentally sighed. Well, now was good as any time. The three swiftly changed to a thumbs up sign. "Go!"

[member="Adder"]​

 

[Adder]

She wanted to growl this was no time for jokes, but only managed to choke back a laugh. Good thing the players in the other room just burst out arguing over who’d cheated whom and for how much. Typical.

The Sheriff nodded, and Adder dashed to the left, plastered to the wall. With a hydrospanner between her teeth – Force knew where she kept it – the woman made quick work of the old panel. Mechanical eyes assessed the contents much faster than a human could, and by the time the box had fully swung open, Adder was already throwing a wrench in the wiring. Literally.

The lights made no objection to their unscheduled respite, flickering out like good little pawns. The fight continued unabated; passions flaring too high now. Green eyes switched to thermal, and Adder winced a little at the sting in the back of her skull. Never was particularly pleasant – that’s what you get when the government pays for the damages. C-grade cybernetics.

Without another look, she made a beeline for the other door, hoping that [member="Gabriel Sionoma"] was already ahead.