Faction Escape from Eden (Darkwire)

[Doc Painless]

Denon, District 9
Eden Shopping Center
​

"Indenture 270941," the CorpSec trooper boomed, his voice made strange and monstrous by his tinny helmet speakers, "return to your holding area immediately. Failure to comply will result in disciplinary action. This is your only warning."

A hunched, grizzled old man stared up at the trooper's shiny faceplate, seeing his own terrified features reflected in the polished metal. "Please," he said, his voice quavering, "I'll go back, but we need more food. There are twenty of us in there, and what you're giving us is enough for maybe five. We're having to take turns eating, and some of us are sick, and..." The trooper cut him off by slamming a heavy glove down on his shoulder, the impact of the blow nearly driving him to his knees, and then seizing him by the joint. "Your allocation of food has been determined to be sufficient to maintain labor readiness," his captor replied. "You will return to your holding area."

It didn't take much force to drag the old man along, but the CorpSec goon used plenty anyway, half-dragging him up the corridor and wrenching his shoulder painfully. He looked up as he went, reflecting bitterly on how quickly things had gone wrong - and bizarre. This was the Eden Megamall, the commercial heart of District 9. Neon signs glowed above their heads, the bright holoscreens displaying animated adverts for products of every kind - cookware, makeup, furniture, cheap fried food. But it wasn't a mall anymore. The barred gates used to close all five thousand of the shops were down, shutting in fifteen to thirty newly-indentured citizens of Denon.

Before it'd been a mall, Eden had been a prison. Now the CAD had made it a prison once again.

After the collapse of Denon's voucher system and the assassination of Xopsaloff, the CAD's bursar, the Corpos had seen their carefully planned economy fall apart. No longer could they pay their employees in corporate scrip, forcing them to buy only what their employers provided while the execs sucked up all the profits of their labor. But they hadn't been willing to give up the wealth and power that system had given them... so they'd simply started to "indenture" their employees, forcing them to work in exchange for food, homes, and utilities. They called it a temporary emergency measure while Denon was in crisis. In truth, it was using slave labor to maintain their profits.

The indentures were supposed to be only "essential workers", but an awful lot were known Darkwire sympathizers.

The old man was neither; he was just somebody that no one would stand up and advocate for, a convenient target for the press gangs because he wouldn't be missed. He'd tried to keep his head down, staying out of politics and keeping inside the bounds of the law, quietly working until he could retire. For all the good that had done him. Now it seemed likely he would work quite literally until the day he died, because rumor had it that the indentures here in Eden were on track to be shipped to Belazura. The former resort world was now a ruined mass of strip mines and industrial processing plants, a shadow of its former beauty. Worker life expectancy there was measured in weeks.

Freighters took off from Eden's landing pads every day, ferrying shiploads of indentures to those filthy mines.

As they moved up the corridors of the shopping center, they passed squad after squad of CorpSec troopers, all armed with deck sweeper stun blasters and riot batons; they didn't want to damage the merchandise. Not too much, anyway. More terrifying were the GV/3-series guardian droids, hound-like machines with grasper jaws, retractable blade incisors, and even a built-in blaster. The old man had seen them run down would-be escapees, their clawed, magnetized feet flying, alarms blaring from their canine mouths. He couldn't guess how many troopers and droids roamed the twenty-level megamall, but it had to be a huge number, a massive CorpSec mobilization.

The pair of them finally reached the storefront for Tantalize, the multi-species lingerie store that had been the old man's prison cell for nearly a week. The corner of the metal gate had been pushed up, to allow someone to try and wriggle out to look for food. The bony old man had been the only one skinny enough to go. The CorpSec trooper cycled the gate open and roughly shoved him inside, then closed it, stomping on the crooked part until it snapped back into place. "If I have to come back here," he warned, hefting his riot baton, "you'll all regret it." Then he turned on the heel of his polished boot and was gone, leaving the twenty huddled indentures to their captivity.

Finally breathing out, the old man stepped forward. Thank the Force the guard hadn't thought to check his pockets. "I got a few packs of wafers and some noodles from one of the food carts," he said, and the pathetically grateful looks the others gave him as he passed out the food broke his heart. It was all meant to be hydrated before eating, but no one cared that it was dry and powdery and tasted like chalk - it was something to fill their stomachs. It might well be their last meal, the old man reflected bitterly, or at least their last meal on Denon. The indentures in the electronics store across from them had been shipped out to Belazura the day before.

He looked up through the bars, up to the landing pads so many levels above, and wondered what came next.

​

>> * --xING! COMM\ \\
<\ATTN ALL DARKWIRE ON DENON
<\This is our last chance to rescue thousands of political prisoners
<\The Corpos have "indentured" countless Darkwire sympathizers and civilians
<\They're bound for strip mines on Belazura if we don't free them
<\Infiltrate the Eden Megamall
<\Release everyone you can and get them to safety
<\We have freighters bound for Wann Tsir standing by
<\Expose the Corpo slave-labor scheme for the GA senate to see
<\BONUS PAY IF YOU MAKE A BOLD STATEMENT

 

[Zole]

Bold statement.

Zole didn't care much for politics, but she very much did care for bonuses. She'd had plenty of time to consider what a bold statement would be; she had been observing the shopping complex for every days. So far nothing had come to her.

Zole had time because she'd been observing from a distance. She hadn't even risked sending in a drone for a closer look. Security was tight to the point that she couldn't see how the Corp was going to make a profit.

There were so many guards they were either going to need a force large enough to clear it out floor by floor, or a distraction of they hoped to get the prisoners out safely.

 

[Xan Deesa]

In the chaos of cyberspace, Xan drifted idly. Everything was seen and heard by her. Atrocities across the galaxy, very questionable browser histories by countless people, messages of all kinds floating through the holonet. It had become a bit of a hobby to eavesdrop on conversations between people. The happy messages, the sad messages, the arguments between couples who didn't know how to confront each other face to face. If only they knew that their "encrypted" messages still needed to pass through the Holonet which in turn meant she had full access.

But all of her twisted amusement halted when one message drew her attention. A Darkwire message. If she had a body still, her reaction would be a mixture of laughter and enraged shouting. A bold statement. As if vandalizing a bank, wrecking trains, broadcasting a warning and blowing up a space station wasn't enough. Did they want something more drastic than a karking how-many-kiloton explosion in space? It irked her that her memory was gone so soon already, it irked her that she couldn't find Cartri online on the Holonet anywhere. She might not be human anymore, but she was still capable of feeling emotion, she was certain about that now.

Darkwire needed a reminder of who their heavy hitter was.

She knew that she wasn't the same anymore. She had changed. But she reassured herself that it was justified because everything else changed as well. The CAD were changing their approach, Denon was changing, the rules were changing.

Yes, she didn't have a body anymore. But the static glitching on every Darkwire member's datapad was more than a simple oddity. It was her voice, her little hint that there was something going on. She knew that the others would say she was now full of herself but kark them. She would tell them straight to go do what she did for Darkwire.

Safe to say, Xan was pissed at the situation.

**********​

A message was sent out a few minutes after the Darkwire broadcast. An unknown contact with a simple image for the profile pic. "Who's up for a little shopping trip?" the message read.

As much as she hated the fact, she couldn't get into the systems as fully as she wanted to. She needed someone to get her inside of their systems. She was going to need someone to jack her into any sort of data port connected to the mall in order to take over.

She hoped that someone would respond...


@Open for partnering

 

[Cassus Akovin]

Everything was changing these days, and it was hard to keep up.

Cassus had lost count of the number of Corporate profiles he'd killed at this point. He had never been on to go for the kill before, but the assassination of Qanatain Xopsaloff had awakened something in him. The loss of friends and family had driven him to a bad place, and it didn't show up in his behavior when he was around the rest of the Shadowrunners. He acted the same way as always did, slightly aloof, maybe irritated, but rarely emotional.

He took on missions for Darkwire, and sometimes he went on his own. Darkwire was being hunted down for what they did to CAD, but Cassus hunted them right back. As far as he was concerned, this was a war, and this was his fight. Cassus was no stranger to prisons, having broken out of more than a couple, though he was pretty sure this would one of the first times where was going to be breaking in.

It felt good to him, righteous even, that he was doing it for the common citizen as well. The last time he was "involved" with a prison breakout was coaxing an albino wookiee murderer into a corpo mansion during the big Groundquake of '64. Getting disadvantaged people off-world to Wann Tsir was a major upgrade in his book. Though of course, by virtue of getting the innocent off-world, that left more ne'er-do-wells on Denon.

Good, more of a headache for those corpo bastards. Cassus thought.

Then, he saw a new message. He responded immediately.

> I hear there are some killer sales right now. Let's make sure it lives up to the hype for the scum that set this up.

Cassus jetted through emptied streets on his swoop bike, hoping for trouble...

Xan Deesa Doc Painless Zole

 

[Doc Painless]

The manhole cover slid sideways, scraping loudly across the pavement, and Doc Painless crawled out.

He was getting good at navigating the forlorn maintenance tunnels, abandoned industrial levels, and broken utility corridors that crisscrossed Denon's underworld (the literal one, not the criminal one, though they tended to go together). He'd had to; they were the hunted man's highway. On a planet where everything was wired and connected, where every storefront and street corner boasted facial recognition and a swipe of your fingertip could pull up custom advertisements based on everything you'd ever purchased, it was hard to stay off the grid. The only way was to keep to the parts of the city-world that were never meant to be seen, the rusty armature beneath the polished surface.

The Doc mostly stuck to Smogtown these days. The lawless, penniless, pollution-choked shantytown was a rough and tumble place, but nobody karked with the only trained medical professional they had; nobody wanted to kill the golden quekko, so to speak. The street medic did much the same as he'd done up in Baker's Row, providing treatment for bare-bones prices... which he often accepted in the form of food, energy cells, or (in one notable case) the loyalty of a formidable Houk bouncer for his makeshift clinic. But sometimes the Doc heard of something happening in the levels far above that demanded his attention, even his intervention, and then he used that underground highway.

The intolerable sentient rights abuse at Eden was one of those things. It was why he'd put out the Darkwire posting.

Hauling himself out of the foul-smelling (but thankfully dry) abandoned sewer line, the Doc moved into the shadows of an alley near the megamall's lowest level. He checked the blaster he carried now, ensuring it had a full charge, and then holstered it. The naive part of him hoped he wouldn't have to use it, but he knew better by now. The training he'd gotten from Shai Maji had toughened him up, body and soul, and he had accepted that he was going to have to leave parts of his old ethics behind in order to keep fighting the good fight. And there was no telling if anyone else from Darkwire was left in any position to answer his call. They'd all been hunted relentlessly since Xopsaloff.

He didn't stand much of a chance of doing this all by himself, but he couldn't stand by and do nothing, either.

Moving over to a tangled knot of exposed wiring, the Doc identified the cable he'd need to jack into local comms and cams. Threading it through the others, he disconnected it from the box and hooked it into his own datapad, letting the machine start to break all the encryptions it could. He wasn't an expert slicer by any means, but he wasn't bad, either. When the street medic checked his CryptNet messages, though, he noticed that he'd already received a couple of responses... responses that might include some runners much better suited to this part of the work. "Shopping carts are ready to go," he wrote back, along with the coordinates where he was starting to jack in.

Then the Doc waited. He could certainly use some allies, and maybe Darkwire wasn't totally on the run just yet.

Zole | Xan Deesa | Cassus Akovin​

 

[Xan Deesa]

A couple replies returned to her. A couple replies from some familiar faces. She knew Cassus, heard a lot about the boy. But they never actually conversed all that much. Same with the Doc. She heard a lot about him and knew about his chop shop on Baker's Row. But there was no denying that they were Darkwire. And just like her, Cassus wasn't a background player. They might have rarely worked together, but their job was the same. Though it wasn't Cassus that gave her the entry she was looking for.

Surprisingly, the Doc was the first to get a connection to the mall. A rather big surprise for Xan. She figured that Cassus would be first. Though she wasn't complaining. She needed a connection and the Doc was kind enough to provide it.

She let herself into his Datapad and was tempted to watch for a bit as he struggled to slice into the systems. But that was just low, even for her. So instead she took over his device. His screen would go blank and her face appeared, flashing him a mischievous wink. "Thanks, Doc. I owe you one." she quipped before her face disappeared and his screen returned to normal. However things changed quickly for him as he was suddenly in their systems. Xan, however, was having a field day as she infiltrated anything that was an electronic system in and around the mall.

She opened a connection to the agents joining in on the attack, not afraid to let them know who was calling. "Alright chooms, you had your fifteen seconds of fame. Now do you wanna know what's going on or shall I just sit back and watch?" she quipped with a smug tone in her voice. "You guys better move it, by the way. It looks like things are brewing in there." she continued on a more serious note.

Doc Painless Cassus Akovin Zole

 

[Cartri Keswoll]

"Come on kid... you don't want to do anything stupid now do you?" the man growled as he tightened his grip on the knife, a smirk going to his buddy beside who seemed to be beaming with confidence. After a brief chase, they had cornered a wondering ginger, who was simply minding his own business and making his way to a spot beside his mission objective. Unfortunately for them, he had just reached a dead end. Cartri slowly backed away from the pair, a scared expression spread across his face from the situation he was in "Ohhhh look at him! I think he's going to cry" the other man laughed before suddenly almost coughing his lungs out

"L-leave me alone... I-I don't want any trouble" he trembled before he felt his back touch the wall. His eyes widened as the man without the knife began to approach, a smirk spread across his lips "Come here you little brat, how about w-" was the only thing he could say before the boy rushed forwards with speed and slammed a powerful knee into his midsection. The thug lurched forward and fell to the floor in complete agony, his lungs struggling to get air. The knife looked in shock and glared at the kid, whose expression and stance looked like one of calm and confidence "What the... you'll pay for that you little nerf!" the grunt shouted, running forward to slash the sharp knife across his chest. Although, he wouldn't get far.

Cartri swiftly raised his hand and used the force to roughly tug the knife out of his hand, in turn making him stumble in his direction "Maybe you shouldn't be so clumsy!" he said gladly as he jumped to the right and extended his leg out, sending him flying face first into the wall and knocking him out cold with a sickening thud. The teen slowly wiped his hands and glared at the man trying to crawl away on all fours, his mouth coughing up a storm of lifelong smoking "Hey! you still haven't taken my credits yet!" he said to him sarcastically before running and driving another kick into his gut. All the petty thief could do was gasp for breath and whimper like a hurt animal, one that had just received a piece of his own medicine.

After almost a year of Xan's training, it has almost changed him into a different person. He had grown naturally stronger from the exercises that his mentor had thrown at him as well as the specialised fight training that allowed him to look after himself in situations like this. He had come a long way since the training session, and it was clear he had a lot to owe to the person who pretty much gave him a second chance in life.

"Listen here you low life piece of crap. If you ever pick on a kid again I'll do more than a warning, you hear me?" he said as he extended his hand out and carefully hovered the knife over to him. Grabbing it in his hand he playfully examines the sharp toy, visibly making the man squirm below "I may be blunt right now, but sometimes I can be sharp..." he grunted, suddenly throwing the knife beside him and making the thief jump. With a small chuckle to himself he began to walk away, confident that he had reached the pair a lesson to remember "Give your friend my condolences for his teeth..."

Now that short intervention was over with, he made quick progress to his watchpoint. It was just above an alley next to the mall, a place where he was able to observe the whole complex in full. As he turned into the alley, there was meant to be a ladder. Instead, there was a more than familiar person. His body was turned and focused on a datapad, probably talking to the rest of Darkwire who was sure to be doing their own thing on this mission. Cartri quietly came up behind the Doc and turned his hand into a finger gun, jokingly pressing it into his back and putting on his best tough guy voice "Your credits or your life..." he said with a small giggle before changing his tone slightly "Just my luck, a medical professional all alone. Maybe you could help me out with a few things huh?"

Xan Deesa Doc Painless​

 

[Anakin Stormrunner]

Now playing as: NIM

Nim had never been a leader. There had always been others better suited to the role, and she had never felt the need to step up. She was a child, after all.

Nim had never been a leader. Not until she was thrown into the Eden labor camp. Surrounded by strangers and trapped in the small confines of a child’s toy store, Nim had been forced to take the lead. It started small, with the sharing of stories in the darkened confines of the cell. Stories of freedom, of red birds and the Great Wyrm that was sister to them all. Then it was organizing help, a way to send messages through the different slave quarters. At night, she would pry up the corner of the gate and shimmy out, slipping food between the cells. Some were overflowing with people, while others held only one or two. Nevertheless, they all got the same rations. She would send stories too, and medicine or tools when she could. Depuran held the latter closely, but if they were careful they could sometimes slip into the pharmacy between guard shifts and nick some supplies.

Things began to change when more Amavikkan began to arrive. Something was wrong. More and more were caught by the day, delivered in groups too large to be unrelated accidents. They were forced to work among the others, but were kept separate and alone at night. A poor attempt to keep their ideas and stories away. Nim found herself as the only liaison for her people. She knew this prison intimately and could slip into places that the depuran couldn’t. She knew the maintenance tunnels that crisscrossed the mall, too narrow for any droid and too widespread for the guards to fully cover. Of all the people trapped here, Nim was the one who could reliably reach them. Nim was the one who knew their stories and had built up a relationship with the other slaves. She was only thirteen, but she was the one who had taken the lead.
With her people here, she spent her time between helping her friends and learning from her people. A Grandmother taught her how to catch the insects and rodents that skittered through the shadows, and in turn she taught it to her quarter. The green twi’lek who always snored showed them how to glitch out the heater in the bathroom to flash cook the food.

Thoughts spun across her mind as she kneeled in the darkened room. She was alone, but for the ever watching gaze of cameras. She was silent, but for the constant buzz of her thoughts. She’d done so much. She’d helped so many. Her stories had spread like wildfire through the work camp. She’d done so much and she had so much more to do. Lists upon lists of tasks and goals and achievements to reach.

Lists upon lists that she would never finish, never even get to. For she sat, alone and scared, in the center of the mall. Her hands chafed against the metal cuffs and her hair stood on end from the force of the open circuit, the rope of lightning that connected the thick metal rings to the tall pole in the center of the room. She was trapped. More than that, she was destined for execution by morning. There was always the chance that she’d be caught, but Nim never paid it any mind. There had always been more important things. Now that the moment had come, the child couldn’t help but wonder if she’d done enough. Her mind cast back to the broken shelves and children’s toys that she had been forging into weapons. Sharpened bits of broken plastic toys, tied or melted or glued onto spears or knives. Metal poles ripped from their place on the wall and carefully placed back to hide their functionality. Small droids disassembled and any sharp piece or heavy parts squirreled away for later use. There was a chance to escape, if they all worked as one and got incredibly lucky. It was something she feared as much as she hoped for. It was something she would never get to see.

In a few hours, Nim would be dead. She’d be dead, so what was one last show of resistance? She opened her mouth, and began to sing. In the quiet of the mall, her voice echoed and bounced until it filled up all of the space. It hurt to sing. Her desert dry throat screamed in protest but still she sang. She sang of freedom, in a way that the depuran could not understand. She sang of Tena, the first of their prophets. The one to befriend their elder sister Leia and the one to free thousands of their people. She was the one who their masters captured and condemned to hang. She was the one who Ar-amu saw and took away. As she stood there before thousand, with the noose before her and the hutts behind her, there was a flash and fire descended from the sky. When it had cleared moments later, not even bones remained. She wove the story in the air, with words that the masters wouldn’t understand.

She didn’t stop when a depur approached her. She didn’t stop when he stood before her. She didn’t stop when he yelled and raged at her to be silent. She didn’t stop until he slapped her across the face. Even then, the music kept going. It echoed across the mall in her voice, strong and sure despite the rasping and the cracking that came with too little water.

Nim smiled at the guard with blood stained teeth. “Or what? I'm dead by morning anyway.” There was nothing more they could do past her own public execution. At least, nothing that would ensure her silence. The depur knew it, but he was smarter than she gave him credit. Without response, he wound up and punched her in the jaw. Teeth went flying as the bone fractured. He walked off, content in the thought that her singing was done.

Alone once again, Nim closed her eyes and leaned her head against the pole to which she was chained. In the morning she would die, but tonight she had given one last shred of hope to those who could hear.

Around her, the air still hummed with her voice. “Tena light the fire, The night is closing in.”

Xan Deesa

 

[Zole]

Are we all doing shopping puns then?

Her message came back slightly delayed. Zole wanted to make certain the messages couldn't get traced back to her current location. That took concentration. She didn't want to get caught out focusing on information coming through her implants whilst out in the open.

Sharing was caring. Zole uploaded key images and information she'd gathered the hard way.

I've had my eyes on the sale some time. Best have a party trick in mind.

The connection being passed on from the inside gave a real time view from several feeds. Useful, precise information. At this moment in time it merely confirmed what she knew: the prisoners were well guarded. A conventional approach would need an entire platoon to pull off.

 

[Doc Painless]

The Doc had intended his little slicing experiment mostly to give himself a relatively secure HoloNet line, and to see if he could get into any of the megamall's internal cameras. What he got instead was quite a shock. He nearly dropped the datapad when Xan's face flashed up on it. He hadn't seen her since the mission to kill Xopsaloff, that fateful night that had changed so much for all of them; so far as he'd known, she hadn't made it out alive. But they'd only really known each other through such desperate missions, so if she was going to reveal her survival to anyone, it probably wouldn't have been him. All of them had been forced to go to ground in the wake of the Corpo crackdown.

Honestly, he was just glad to see that someone else from the old days was still alive and kicking.

"Uh, yeah, you got it," the Doc replied, chuckling. Xan was better at slicing than he was by a long shot, and had already infiltrated the mall's systems more fully than he ever could have... and in a tiny fraction of the time that even the most basic hack would've taken him. With her on his side, maybe Darkwire had a chance at pulling this off. Long odds had never stopped them from trying before. "Okay. If you've got eyes and some system control, Xan, can you find us an entry point? We've got to figure out how to open the shop gates and get the prisoners out to our freighters." The real problem, of course, was going to be pulling that off without the guards putting a stop to it.

Then something pressed into the Doc's back, and he stiffened. Had security found him already, maybe detecting Xan's intrusion? Was the mission over before it could really even begin? "Your credits or your life..." came a gruff voice from behind him, and the Doc actually relaxed. Compared to getting arrested, jailed, and tortured, getting mugged was pretty easy to handle. If you'd lived on Denon more than a year and you'd never been held up, you either lived in a really expensive part of the megacity, or you were a seven-foot Houk that no one would dare try to mug. The Doc's one worry was that the mugger would probably take his datapad, which would be... highly inconvenient.

Before he could say anything, though, the voice - a little different this time - chimed back in. "Just my luck, a medical professional all alone. Maybe you could help me out with a few things, huh?" How could this guy know he was a doctor? He wasn't openly carrying any of the tools of his trade, and he wasn't in a district where he was well known for his now-lost clinic. And that "gun" poking into his back felt pretty... bony? The Doc slowly turned around, letting out a relieved little chuckle when he saw who was at the other end of the finger - Cartri Keswoll, another veteran of the Xopsaloff mission. "Really had me going there," the Doc said, grinning. "It's good to see you again, Cartri."

It was strange, the way the Darkwire community worked. Both of these people - all three, once Zole chimed in - were folks he'd only met once or twice, people he knew mostly by reputation and association. But when push came to shove, none of them thought twice about banding together to fight back against Corpo exploitation, even in the midst of the biggest crackdown on opposition the planet had ever seen. "Agreed," the Doc replied to Zole. She was right; there was no way they could storm this place. The Corpos had so many guards that paying them in credits would have to be unprofitable; they must be offering them other benefits of some kind.

Free housing, top-quality food, power, the Corpos could grant these things - things in demand as Denon's economy collapsed.

"I'm open to suggestions," the Doc finally said, addressing the three runners who'd approached him so far - virtually, physically, and over the comm. "We need some way to draw the guards off, or incapacitate a bunch of them at once. And then we need a way to get the cells open and clear a path for the prisoners to get to our ships." He shook his head, dreading even saying what came next. "There's no way we can get everyone. This place is huge, five thousand shops, all packed with people. But everyone we rescue matters, and every worker the Corpos lose puts more strain on their system. Sooner or later, it has to break down."

"But we need to figure out our plan to actually get there."

Zole | Xan Deesa | Cartri Keswoll | Anakin Stormrunner | Cassus Akovin​

 

[Xan Deesa]

"Oh don't even flip, chocolate chip. I'm all over there now." her voice came over the Doc's comms before she cut out again. His stunt gave her everything on the building. She was in the system, taking over and gaining more eyes and ears on the inside. The prisoners, the guards, the routines, the plans, it all opened to her as she infected their system and overwhelmed it. Soon it was all her, with just an appearance of nothing changing. It was little more than a few seconds, but for Xan it still felt like hell. She kept spreading, growing and developing into every piece of technology she gained access to. This had to be what crazy people felt like when they went on about voices and figures plaguing them. The only difference is a bolt to the brain wasn't an option for her. She was now eternal.

But that made her journey for revenge so much better. She would take over, one terminal, one datapad, one commlink, at a time. Until there was nowhere for the DireX to hide from her...

Her attention snapped out of the trance it fell into as she became one with the mall's systems. Singing echoed through the halls and she followed it through the cameras until she located a curious sight. A figure chained to a pole. She was clearly hurt bad... and chained with remote releases. Perfection. Switching views, she scanned the guard locations, building layout, prisoners, and entrances. Just in time as Zole commented on having a party trick. "How's this for a party trick?" she quipped into her comm as a minimap popped up in the corner of her HUD. Cybernetics were going to get really fun at this rate. Minimaps popped up on every Darkwire member's HUD if they had one, be it a mask or cybernetic eyes.

She turned her attention back to the prisoner chained to the pole. A nearby holographic projector turned on and displayed Xan in front of her in all of her neon glory. "What's up, choom. You look a little like crap. Sit tight, there's something in the works. Be with you in a sec." she quipped quickly before the hologram disappeared again. Just in time as a guard rounded the corner to check up on their VIP.

Back to DArkwire, she had cameras on each member as they got ready for the mission ahead. What she didn't expect to see with the Doc was the one person she was trying to find for weeks.

"Cartri?" her voice muttered inaudibly over the comms, hopefully too soft for anyone to pick up.

This wasn't supposed to happen. He wasn't supposed to be there. She carefully orchestrated a meeting with him and a Jedi to keep him out of these situations. What made things worse was the fact that she couldn't find it in herself to face him. Not like this.

The shock kept her occupied for a few seconds but she came back relatively quickly. "Idea for an entry. You guys are the diversion. Use the air ducts and sewers for entry. Some of you can even set up something by the mall entrance to draw attention. Once you guys are set and the attention is off the prisoners, I'll open their cages. Let the horde overwhelm the guards from inside. After that, we need to move quickly and take control of the ships and get out before backup arrives." she explained with a distorted and altered voice over every Darkwire comm part of the operation. She didn't want to let Cartri know it was her. He shouldn't find out. Things wouldn't be the same between them, she was sure of that.

Cartri Keswoll Doc Painless Zole Anakin Stormrunner Cassus Akovin

 

[Cartri Keswoll]

Doc Painless Xan Deesa Zole Anakin Stormrunner​

"I thought so Doc, it's good to see you again," he said with a chuckle before pretending to put the finger gun back into his pocket. He had known painless for a while now, considering he had seen him on missions and Darkwire meetings. Although, he never had a chance to really have a proper conversation with him until now. Cartri stood beside him and listened to the conversation he was already having with other Darkwire members, his face focused and more serious compared to his joking manner only moments ago. They were trying to figure out a way of getting inside and getting everyone out, which sounded like a harder task than it was.

"You're right... not everyone will be saved from this one mission alone. But like you said, as long as we make it count it will definitely put a cog in their corporate machine" he said openly to Doc and everyone in the call, his arms slowly folding in though about the situation "If we somehow find a way into their main control room our lives will be made a whole lot easier. It's just a matter of getting there which will be the problem..." he said with a sigh before hearing a voice on the call that sounded oddly familiar.

Cartri tilted his head to the inaudible sound in confusion, his eyes squinting slightly as the voice momentarily changed into an altered voice. Whoever it was, they explained that there was a way through the sewers and air vents, an entry which Cartri despised equally. To be fair though, the voice had a solid plan.

The teen slowly looked to the doc and tapped him lightly on the shoulder from behind "Do you know who that is?" he whispered curiously, seeing if he had any ideas of the person's identity. Keeping his eyes glued to the datapad, he decided to ask the mysterious person a question "Do you know how many guards or hostility we'll be facing?" the teen said, deciding not to ask anything more so he didn't annoy whoever was at the end of the transmission.

"Because I fear there will be quite a few inside, maybe outnumbering us 10 to 1. This means if one of us gets captured we may not even be able to save our own teammates. Please, everyone, be cautious and be at your best if that's the case. " Cartri warned nervously, almost as if he didn't like the look of the situation already.

 

[Anakin Stormrunner]

"Wait!" She hissed, but it was too late. The woman was already gone.

Who was that? She had seemed familiar, if only vaguely. It was an enigma, one she desperately wanted to solve. Lost in her thoughts and theories, Nim didn't notice the guard. It wasn't until his heavy footfalls stopped before her that she recognized his presence.

"Finally got you to shut up, have we?" The Twi'lek sneered down at her. Normally she would have snapped. Sands and steel, if it had happened even a minute ago, she would have snapped. The urge to spit vitriol and rage was held at bay by the knowledge that she'd soon get to stab him. All thanks to that woman. Who was she? She was obviously skilled if she could hack into this place, and something about her seemed familiar.

She reminded her of another pink haired woman, brought to the chelik-ta by Ar-Ipuda. The stakes had been high then, perhaps even higher, but she wasn't in the middle of it. She was just another face in the crowd, watching as Anakin and this outsider worked with the other adults to form a plan. This couldn't be right. Nim had heard the rumors, just about everyone had. Darkwire had finally gone after one of the Direx members and killed him. They said Xan died in the attack. Yet now, this woman looked almost identical to her. There was only one way to find out.

Nim locked eyes with the guard. "Guess you don't like my taste in music eh?" She ignored the pain in her jaw. it was only fractured, she'd be fine. The guard blinked and blinked again, clearly trying to process the sudden conversation. "Shut-"

"It's too bad I don't have access to the sound system. I've got quite the playlist. I'm sure you'd hate it." Green skin flushed, turning from olive to a dark forest. He was angry, good. With the Twi'lek's attention on her face, she flicked her eyes towards the sound system above then to the camera behind it. She jerked her head back and turned the motion into rolling her neck to disguise it.

"Maybe I'd play something by Stormrunner. He's one of my favorites." Behind her, directly in sight of another camera but out of view of the guard, she made the Basic Sign for slave, wrists locked together and hands loosely fisted. Let's just hope this woman saw it.

The guard was still glaring at her, and with the feeling of power still on her tongue, se decided to push it. "Or perhaps I'd play something by Sands and Steel." This time she referenced a real band, once more catching the gaze of a camera. "I'd suggest Dream Again. Definitely one of their best. A great song to get your blood pumping. Good for a fight or two, if you catch my drift." Maybe it was frivolous, but she always loved music. There was something poetic about starting an uprising to that song. Sure, you didn't get the full story if you didn't listen to City of Dreams after, but there was a reason you had to listen to the other first. You couldn't fight for freedom until you knew you were enslaved.

With her message sent, she stopped talking. It wouldn't do to anger the guard and get her jaw fully broken. Now she just had to wait.

Xan Deesa Zole

 

[Zole]

Doc Painless Xan Deesa

I'll deal with the mall entrance, she replied by text over the connection.

Zole let the corner of her lips twitch upwards. She unzipped a heavy bag of equipment and slid a device underneath the sniper rifle. Servo arms unfolded and gripped the rifle.

"That makes it two versus and army," she muttered to herself, heading for the stairs.

A few minutes later she emerged into the wide open space in front of the mall entrance. One this had been parking for land speeders. Now it was barren, but for the duracrete blocks they had used to protect the front entrance.

A beam of light cut across the darkness. Zole stood in an oval of light, continuing to walk forwards.

"This is a secure site! Visitors must head to gate B!" called one of the corpos behind the barricade. There was one above them directing the search beam.

With her hands down casually at her sides, Zole walked forwards. She continued until she was close enough for them to see her hands were empty.

"This entrance is closed!"

Zole looked up towards the search light, squinting until she could see it and the guard beside it. Two red dots appeared on her HUD. Centre of light, guard's head. Labelled 1 and 2 respectively.

"So the mall is closed?" she called out, buying herself a few more steps.

"Hands up, turn around!"

Their patience was over. Zole started to lift her hands, but pointed one finger at the light.

"Pew, pew."

Two bolts lanced overhead from the distant, remote sniper rifle. The light went out. The guard above lost his entire head in a flash.

Zole drew the hand cannon that was holstered against the small of her back and darted to one side. Suddenly enshrined by darkness the two guards lost her for a fraction of a second. Enough time to down them both with a few bolts.

"There's the distraction..."

 

[Daiya]

She had heard of the Eden Megamall, of course.

More than just from scuttlebutt over the holowaves or from teenage dreams of a shopping spree she could never afford. The young shadowrunner, ostensibly a z-runner now as well, had heard of Eden from the mouths of those rescued from indentured servitude on Belazura. That was the fancy name Diviak Manfloon was giving to the slaves pressed into service, with more of them arriving every day, to work the ever-expanding sprawl of his mining empire on the planet.

ZINO was working overtime just to avoid falling further behind. Scenery Is Not Obscene, but spelled Zcenery for Zenie. It sounded lame to her ears, but apparently Sun had suggested it and Zenie liked it. So did her fans and followers, who adopted the convention to call themselves Z-runners, and that was that. They had more things to worry about than how hip their name sounded.

Like where all the indentured workers were coming from. Some were from distant parts of the galaxy, like those bought with cheap promises from the collapsing empires in the outer rim. Yet most came from the worlds of the Corpos themselves, harvested like the once-protected forests of Belazura, used up and then discarded when their use was no more. She had seen it before, countless times, but it hurt all the more to learn that some were coming from her homeworld of Denon.

Her search led her down the rabbit hole of the CryptNet. Beyond countless speculation, a few shills, too many trolls, and a conspiracy theory that almost seemed convincing, the answer seemed almost too obvious. Daiya had nearly convinced herself it was just another conspiracy theory, before she saw an advert by someone whose profile picture caught her eye somehow. A simple question, Who's up for a little shopping trip?

Eden.

The building was practically squat next to the soaring arcology of Sakedo Tower, but it was still immense. Some of the shops on The 301 used to have locations here, and the teen remembered older patrons regaling tavern crowds on youthful stories of running wild through Eden's spacious interiors. Now it was a forlorn shadow of those vibrant stories, trying desperately to remain the rundown, decrepit derelict of days gone by. Even to Daiya's single pair of eyes, it was hard for the defunct megamall's activity to go unnoticed.

CorpSec goons stuck to the shadows, but still patrolled on a schedule. A starship, all its lights off and coasting in on repulsors alone, landed at some loading bay around the side. And for a building that was supposed to be abandoned, the smaller exhaust ports were surprisingly active with trickling plumes of steam that could still be seen from the right angle.

No, Eden was still alive, and that meant that at least some the rumors were true. It gave her contact an additional layer of credibility, too, not that the girl had needed total assurance to come anyway. Daiya was set on this venture from the moment she had seen the contact's image. It reminded her of someone, or something, she just couldn't remember who yet. Her own curiosity needed satisfying on that front, too.

Okay, I'm in. Tell me what you need. That was the cue for her contact to go wild, and soon her facemask streamed full of schematics, ship rosters, and what looked like live feeds from inside the megamall-turned-prison. Daiya's eyes took in as much as she could before they glazed over, and she sent another message to her contact. Stars, you're like a machine with this stuff. I just need a way in and a target, I don't have time for all this analysis.

She would have liked to send it to the rest of the Z-runners, but the girl wasn't lying about her time. Daiya would just have to hope her contact was willing to share it all again, when that data could be more than just for bragging rights. Her mysterious contact seemed to have some swagger that way, especially in the way they had never revealed their name. Daiya had taken to calling them SkullBones for their profile image, a name that never seemed to quite fit. When she had more time, she'd come up with a new one, or just ask her contact directly.

Daiya waited only a few seconds before a quiet rumble alerted the girl to another starship on approach. She didn't need to see it —though her facemask could easily show her— to know what it meant. Another batch of prisoners ready to be shipped off to be worked to death. On Belazura, or elsewhere, and all for the profits of Corpos. She set her jaw and sent another message to SkullBones. I found a target. Get me in to that ship loading place. Then she picked herself up from her perch on the roof overlooking the complex, and hurried down to start her journey.

If the teen had her way, none of those ships would ever fly again.

Zole Xan Deesa Doc Painless Cartri Keswoll Anakin Stormrunner​

 

[Doc Painless]

It felt good to be around these people again, falling back into that easy camaraderie shared by those who'd stood together against impossible odds a time or six. Whenever the Doc felt totally overwhelmed, spiraling down into the depths of a black depression in the wake of his clinic's loss and the increasing brutality of the Corpo regime, it helped to remember that his Darkwire comrades were still out there... but it was even better to see them, to speak with them, to work side to side with them. They might have taken a beating in the wake of Xopsaloff's death, might have been scattered across Denon and beyond, but they weren't broken. Not yet.

Long before the Doc could have so much as finished hacking the megamall's security cams, Xan was already all over the place. It didn't take long for her to get them all a complete map of the place, the readout quickly popping up imprinted on the Doc's cybernetic eyeballs. Her casual, self-assured attitude was infectious, and the street medic found himself beginning to believe that - against all odds - they might actually find a way to pull this off. He was no brilliant criminal mastermind, but he'd known for a long time that all he had to do to achieve the impossible was assemble the right team... and that team was quickly coming together.

He nodded along with Cartri, the man's reasoned, sober words bringing him back down a bit... though not in a bad way. The runner was right, of course. This could easily backfire and get them all thrown into Eden, or more likely an even deeper hole, some Corpo black site where they'd never again see the light of day. Or even a neon street sign, which was a much more common sight than actual daylight this far down in Denon's planet-spanning megacity. "Into the control room, past the guards... with the right distraction and entry point, we can pull it off, but you're right: we'll have to be careful. If we have to break off, we'll do it."

Even if it meant leaving the prisoners behind, because getting caught helped no one.

Cartri whispered a question to him, and the Doc quirked an eyebrow at the man. He knew both Xan and Cartri as sort of work friends, so to speak, but he was oblivious to any of the interpersonal drama that was going in within Darkwire... so he unknowingly barreled right ahead into potential relationship disaster. "Uh, yeah, that's Xan Deesa," he said, offering a grin. "Have you two met? Hell of a slicer. She was there in the Xopsaloff raid. I wasn't sure she'd made it out, but we're lucky she did. She's going to make this a hell of a lot easier." He had no way of knowing the effect his words might have on either of his fellow runners.

Before he could think any further about that conversation, Zole's transmission came in: the diversion was underway. "Copy that, Zole," the Doc replied. "Stay safe out there." An alarm blared out across the mall as the mercenary's sniper fire slammed into one of the guards, panicking the others. Through Xan's link to the megamall's systems, the Doc could see that it was working: multiple squads were converging on the entrance where Zole had struck, trying to react to what they thought must be an impending mass attack from that direction. It wouldn't clear out everyone, not by a long shot, but it would misdirect plenty.

"Okay, go time," the Doc said, heading for the sewer entrance Xan had highlighted on his retinal minimap. "Once we get in there and further distract these CorpSec goons, Xan will be clear to open the cages, and we'll get this riot going." With a great heave of his mechanical arms, he ripped the sewer grating off the wall and tossed it down behind him, casually tearing away a couple hundred pounds' worth of durasteel bars. There were definite pros to going mechanical over biological. The stench of the sewer hit his nose, and he grimaced, quickly disabling that particular sensory input. He eyed the sludge dubiously, then sighed.

"This... is going to be gross. Showers all around when we get back."

As he got ready to crawl through the sewer tunnel and the air ducts beyond, the Doc tapped the blaster at his side. He was slowly getting used to the weight of the thing, this killing tool he'd never wanted to use. But it'd gotten easier after the first time, after Shai Maji had coached him through the guilt and the fear, and he knew he was going to need it to mount the distraction Xan needed to make the riot a success. He also expected to need it in order to shoot his way out, reaching the ships with the "indentures". What he didn't know yet was that his young friend Daiya was already all over that one...

Zole | Xan Deesa | Cartri Keswoll
Anakin Stormrunner | Daiya​

 

[Xan Deesa]

On the other side of the commotion, Daiya was getting ready to move out and proceed with her part of the mission. Xan was in a tough situation when it came to Daiya. She didn't want to let the girl know it was her either. However, she was listening in quite clearly on the meeting between Daiya and Cartri since the girl neglected to turn off her devices. That evening was a disaster on many levels. Not only did she manage to figure out that Cartri was a mess, she also figured out that her apartment was a mess and that the two needed to have some sense slapped into them. She had an idea on how to do that.

Opening a comm channel with Daiya, she decided to give her clear instructions. "Okay, let's do this." she spoke as Daiya's HUD cleared up to give her easier information to process. "Those ships need to be ready for use, you're not taking them out. The other Runners are gonna help to free the prisoners and they're all gonna need a ride out. You'll have to clear the landing area and keep it locked down. But this is gonna be too dangerous for just one person. Sit tight, I'll send another Runner your way." Xan explained with her heavily altered voice. Simultaneously she had sent a message to Cartri, ordering him to go help another Runner by the ships. "You're gonna have to lock those ships down. Make sure they're ready to use once the prisoners are out of the mall. Here's the location of the other Runner you're working with." she explained to him as she sent him the location.

Inside the mall, the beaten prisoner was sending her a sneaky message. Behind the guard, Xan's hologram reappeared with a bright smile and thumbs up in the air to show that she got the message. The song was quickly located and ready to play, all they needed was a distraction to start the party. A distraction caused by Zole at the gates with her assault. Instead of alarms blaring when the guards realized what was going on, the song started to play at full volume throughout the prison to throw off any suspicious sounds. The plan was moving along perfectly. At this rate, they would infiltrate the fortress in no time and she could free the prisoners... then she heard it.

Her name.

In the Doc's cybernetic eyes, a clip started to play, only the entire clip was filled with multiple copies of Xan that all expressed their frustrations. The clip disappeared and Xan's face appeared for a second. "Preem job, Doc." she grumbled before she disappeared.

Her cover was out the window and she expected some sort of reaction, especially from Cartri. So she decided to just let the truth out. "Yeah, it's me. No, I'm technically dead. It's a very long story, just focus on the karking mission." she rambled. "Cartri, get to the ships. Daiya is waiting to engage. The rest of you guys, get moving, I'm releasing the prisoners, they only got a minute or two left for badass revenge with a musical score." she ordered them all with irritation thick in her voice. "Get them out of there and to the ships, you can help them escape from there."

Immediately the prison turned into a warzone. The cells opened and the guards, with their attention on the front gate, were taken by surprise when the entire prison turned on them. Any automated defences refused to engage, Nim's restraints released immediately, and any communication between the sections of the mall was interrupted with more obnoxious music.

Doc Painless Daiya Cartri Keswoll Anakin Stormrunner Zole

 

[Cartri Keswoll]

Zole Xan Deesa Anakin Stormrunner Daiya Doc Painless
​

"Xan...?" the boy said to himself quietly when the Doc unintentionally spilled the beans, Leaving Cartri to stare at him with a mixture of confusion and anger crossing across his face. No, it couldn't be. If she was really alive Xan would have contacted him by now, instead of leaving him to rot in the shabby apartment he had made into a dump. Composing himself for a second, he finally answered the doc's question after a brief silence "Me and her were roommates. Not only was she my friend, but my mentor" he commented with a hint of sadness in his voice, indicating that he still somewhat missed his old pal.

"I'm sorry doc, but wherever you got that idea of her being alive was clearly falsified. Xan's gone... let's just leave it there already" Cartri mumbled, not believing his words for a second as he looked down to the datapad to see a magnificent display of facepalms with Xan's face on it. All he could do was stare expressionlessly at the video, unimpressed by how hard Doc and the rest of them were trying to convince him she was alive. It was almost laughable when she started speaking in Xan's voice, whoever it was they did a fine job of capturing how she spoke "Please, can we please just stop with the pranks now?" he said aggressively, his eyes rolling from the whole thing "I don't know what you're trying to get out of this but it isn't working! especially when you think me and Daiya are going to work together. The girl hates me now, and I doubt she won't hesitate to blast my head off on sight." He added, his thoughts running back to the incident in the apartment "I'll do what you ask, but please leave me alone after that..." the teen said as he turned and walked next to a manhole, his head lowered in a sulk as he waited for the doc to open the manhole.

"Not only are you trying to mess me around, but you're sending me down a sewer again?" he said to the Doc as he made short work of the cover and climbed in, soon followed the boy who scrunched his face in disgust and climbed into the more than familiar stench. The worst thing about it was that they had to crawl through other people's business, which made him wish they found a random vent he could crawl through for one mission only. But no, now he had to risk stinking for the next few days "Why does it always end up like this" the boy gagged, his face turning pale from how strong the smell was.

"What's your play when we get out of this hell? I'm not really sure of the layout so I'll probably have to guess and hope for the best that I bump into a pissed Daiya rather than a guard" Cartri said from behind his hand, which was trying its best to defend against the disgusting smell reaching his nose "And please, do you have anything I could use to block my nose? I'll try anything at this point" he pleaded as they crawled further into the abyss, both of them getting close to the entrance which led into the mall

 

[Cassus Akovin]

1. Cassus is on his way to Eden via Swoop Bike
2. Virtual Xan connects to Doc, informs Cassus and Zole of brewing activity
3. Cartri encounters some muggers and mugs them, meets Doc
4. Nim demonstrates resistance to the corpo's cruelty inside Eden
5. Zole uploads images and assesses a whole platoon would be required for a conventional approach
6. Doc meets with Cartri, communicates with Cassus and Zole a path would need to be open to aid in the escape of prisoners.
7. Virtual Xan uploads a HUD of Eden for the Shadowrunners on the mission, suggestions a distraction at the mall entrance.
8. Cartri suggestions caution
9. Nim talks about music and sends messages to the cameras
10. Zole causes a distraction at the Mall Entrance with remote sniper fire
11. Daiya nicknames Virtual Xan SkullBones, and makes her way to a ship loading dock
12. Doc lets loose the Virtual Xan is Virtual Xan to Cartri, enters the sewers to reach the Indenture Ships that Daiya was at
13. Virtual Xan admits to Cartri that Virtual Xan is Virtual Xan. Tries to direct him towards Daiya to assist in clearing out the ships for the other Shadowrunners to use. Prisoners are released.
14. Cartri gets punked, follows Doc into the sewers towards Daiya

Swoop Bikes were a wonderful ride and a real release for Cassus, and in the right hands, they could be extremely maneuverable despite their reputation being crude and lacking finesse. Through an overabundance of instinct, Cassus brought the Swoop Bike almost a kilometer over the surface before dive-bombing towards the ship docks. A Shadowrunner had started a distraction at the front entrance, but Cassus was going to bring it up a notch and distract their focus.

As he entered the airspace of the Dock, he could see the guards start manning imported E-Web Cannons serving as make-shift anti-aircraft platforms. They were too slow or unaccustomed to using them, as Cassus unleashed his own volleys of blaster fire from his Swoop Bike's blasters. He expertly adjusted his flight pattern as he descended to make predicting his position impossible for these corpo novices.

Quickly, Cassus landed at the Docks with the swoop sliding across the ground, spinning about as Cassus timed blaster shots at the remaining emplacements. Now it was just the stragglers with their own sidearms, but Cassus wasn't interested in them.

"Smacked the bees nest at the Docks, no more E-Webs but plenty of bees. Going into the mall now..." He said, hoping his virtual benefactor got the message across, as he boosted himself through the doc entrances, blasting them open into the Mall...

Xan Deesa Cartri Keswoll Doc Painless Daiya Zole Anakin Stormrunner

 

[Daiya]

Other shadowrunners were here?

It was a thought that gave her momentary pause as the girl hung suspended from a water supply pipe running down the side of the building that had been her perch. The reliable fire escape was still around the corner, but she had picked her way to this side of the building with an eye on the loaded speeder truck that was now lumbering its way toward her. Or, as she planned it, directly below her.

The young shadowrunner waited until the speeder truck was still a few meters away to let go, dropping farther than she would have liked to meet her target. Her stomach flipped over itself, and though she tried to steady herself and loosen her limbs, Daiya still hit the top of the vehicle with enough force to wind her. Daiya fell flat against the truck's roof, unwittingly masking herself from detection while her chest heaved and she tried to pull life back into herself. It took some doing until the girl could finally breathe easy again, all the while the speeder truck glided along, its operators blissfully unaware of their newest piece of cargo.

"Why didn't you tell me?" The teen's low hiss was barely audible even by her facemask's sensitive speakers. Daiya didn't explain further, grimacing in silence to herself during the ride instead. She couldn't spend time arguing with her contact now, though she did intend to argue! SkullBones seemed oblivious to her needs, Daiya had already made plans for going it alone. Now she had to figure out how to keep someone else from fething them up.

She had gone over the plan with the Z-Runners back on Belazura. It was straightforward enough not to need much in the way of details, which was mostly how Daiya liked her plans. Find how Belazura was getting its new shipments of slaves and stop them from coming. A lack of new workers would choke out the mining industry and leave Manfloon scrambling enough for ZINO to take advantage. Daiya knew they were planning some new propo push, but she hoped that returning with news of her success could propel them to move beyond speeches and posters at last.

Underneath her, the speeder truck rumbled as it slowed on approach to the loading bay. The teen crawled to the edge, cautious as she leaned over the side to peer below. Some helmeted Seccer —a Devaronian, going by the protruding horns from his forehead— was directing the truck driver to stop. Most of the attention was being focused toward the large starship that was gliding in on repulsors now, its underbelly dropping close enough that Daiya could have stood up and touched it.

CorpSec's presence in the loading bay seemed to be tied up in supervising, the teen noted. She counted only a half dozen brutish-looking goons at the perimeter, with a few more on the other side of the ship where she couldn't see them. The rest of the Seccers seemed to be in charge of the actual workers, and from the workers' garb and demeanor Daiya guessed they were slaves themselves. Worked to the bone before shipping themselves off to Belazura? The sight only made the teen more upset, and she clenched her fists to stop them from reaching for her blaster.

No, she needed to keep up the stealth for a while.

Sensing her opening, Daiya moved to the rear of the speeder truck and climbed down. She crawled underneath the truck, its repulsorlifts keeping the vehicle hovering just millimeters above her. She was getting too big for tight confines anymore, and the teen grimaced at the notion. Setting her jaw, the young shadowrunner focused on her task instead. She tapped at her facemask's controls and her view flipped to another mode.

"Stars, you weren't kidding that this is dangerous for one person," Daiya spoke into her mask's comlink again as she scanned the hull of the ship across from her. Now she wished she could have brought another one of the Z-Runners along. At least then the teen would have someone who understood the goal. "But I still hope your other runner isn't coming soon."

She kept talking, mostly as a comfort to herself, muttering in a low voice. "I think that could be it...there's a panel nearby but it's probably rigged to alarm...oh, of course it would be over there...so if I cut in about 14 meters from the rear of the engine pod..."

Daiya moved her arm to her waist, on the opposite side of her holstered blaster, and found the edges of the plasma torch with her fingers. With her other hand, she switched her mask mode back to visual, trying to scope out what her approach would be to the starship. With so many of the CorpSec's goons watching, she needed more cover...or a serious distraction.

Perhaps she could convince SkullBones to supply one.

The girl grinned as she piped up again, talking to the voice on the other end of her comms. "Tell your other 'runners to find another way out. Because I'm definitely locking these ships down. Permanently."

Zole Xan Deesa Doc Painless Cartri Keswoll Anakin Stormrunner Cassus Akovin​