Bullets and power-cells
DENON
DISTRICT 9
DISTRICT 9
Objective: Find Zerø
Weapon: 'Revy', "The Klaive" - PDW
Equipment: PCA/EA, Priddy Plates, x2 Hutt Cartel Kidnap Jabber Rings-One on either hand, Force Warning Necklace Pendant, Paralyzing Lipstick, ENVC-370 Bodyglove, Tinfoil Hat Band, Earsculpt Comlink, Magno-grip Formal shoes
Augmentation: PGEM-SAP "Amber Eyes"
Ship: The Tourist
Droids: x6 Nuisance Engine Mark I Droids capable of producing Nuisance Droid Mark I and SD-3 Firebee Security Droid, two separate crates of Jitterbugs
Her personal ship was lonely. Cold. Dull gray made up the walls and ceilings of the space faring craft. Broken up only by the airlock bulkheads and geometric interior. Even the cabins were little more than utilitarian with how little she had actually flown in the thing. Not yet filled with useless knick knacks from far flung places to distract her from the relatively dull surroundings she found herself in.
Spartan and purpose built from her own hands.
Entirely unforgiving when she woke screaming at memories that played out through her dreams turned nightmares.
Cold sweat covered her. Labored breathing as though she had been able to run for her life in the throws of her reliving of the past. The scaly hands of that now dead chit-head still feeling like they were dragging and scraping along her skin. The hissing words ringing in her ears. Her whole body shook, the blanket irritating her skin as she tried to bundle up into it.
As though it might fend off the invisible things that chased her behind the closed lids of her eyes.
The soft crackle of a transmission eventually cut through the static of her mind. A sharp inhale as the blip of a waiting message pushed her to stand. The cool air of the ship giving her gooseflesh as she crossed from the bed to the desk in her master cabin. Sliding the earsculpt into place, she was greeted by a familiar voice.
<<Hey. Finally. How'd you sleep?>> Matthew piped into her ear. Her mouth opened. Frozen in the truthful response she wanted to give him. Even a lie was going to be seen through given how many times he had come charging into her cabin to find her in that state.
Screaming and winded, unable to see through the haze of that twisted dream world until she'd rode the current till the end. He'd sat with her, cradled and rocked her. Listened silently offering nothing more than company while she cried. Gasped for air and cried until she felt there was nothing else to give.
Humor was almost lost to her. The dry biting tone something that was becoming more and more common as her nerves wore on. As the rage and loathing slowly steeped into her bones and being.
<<I'd have slept better in a Confederacy prison cell. What did you find?>> She snapped across the line. Even across the comm line she could hear the soft chuckle.
Only lightly reassuring as she began to dress herself for the evening.
<<Zerø's definitely home. Sending everything over. I'm stuck on this rooftop till you get here so. If you could. Make it snappy princess.>>
She was already in a foul mood. While the information was welcome, the impromptu nickname struck the wrong cord as her fingers paused over the buttons of her blouse.
<<Call me princess again and I'll cut your tongue out and eat it in my stew.>>
The laughter across the line slowly shifted to an uncomfortable clearing of his throat.
<<I forget you're Atoan sometimes and that's an actual threat more than teasing. Sorry. Won't happen again Sour.>> The quick response back had her finishing the buttons before sliding into her black slacks. The information was pulled up on a holo-screen. The ensemble donned as she reviewed what he'd gathered throughout the day.
Patterns. Patrols. Faces and vehicles to watch for. All Zerø's gang in some measure. Pathways in and out. Most of those visible didn't wear anything more than a chest plate. Weapons seemed to vary from person to person. Almost preferential rather than uniform.
Sloppy.
The disdain in her grimace at the sight didn't have to be hidden as she donned her own chest plate. Protecting the shield harness beneath and giving her the outward appearance of a business woman rather than someone about to deal out the wanton chaos she began earlier.
OOC Edited here FINAL TIME I SWEAR
By now the 16 meter long containers had been emptied. She instructed the rental drivers to drop the shipping containers off in the middle of the street side by side. The length running the street while the width was just enough to let a body pass between them on either side. Or in between if one wasn't claustrophobic. Relief supplies for a frostbitten district. Medical and building supplies to supplant what was missing from the doctors tent. Building supplies for those that had less than suitable dwellings. Ranging from a spray foam to simpler repair materials. Warm clothes and other vitals to keep the people inside of their homes. The rear of those containers however held the engines of her chaos.
Lying in wait for her return. Churning out the little droids it was programmed to produce enmasse.
The rear wall and floor of the cargo containers would slowly help those taking supplies out of the front portion. Pushing the remaining goods closer to the front entrance and giving her Nuisance Engines room to build more spider-like droids. Likely the crates were more noisy than they had been when she had delivered them. The faint clicking and clacking of tiny legs scampering for personal room. Filling the hollow vessel with haunted sounds as night began to descend.
The soft hum of mechanical wings eliciting more than a few stares from those that shuffled along the streets in their final run home.
Finishing her preparations, she let Matthew know she was leaving. The large and industrial style land speeder with a covered cargo bed waiting for her outside the Tourist. The two spare Nuisance Engine Droids in the Tourist loaded themselves inside the cargo bay of the speeder as she used a repulsor sled to load up two extra crates of smaller and more focused droids.
Confirming when she would arrive, as well as confirming the details in a personal message to Ivory. Concern lanced his words, worried about collateral as she assured him it wouldn't be so much of a problem.
The speeder ride was a quick one as she perceived it. Recalling the route Matthew drove there with alarming clarity. The augmentations were doing their job it seemed given her cognitive abilities having flourished so well. Now it was just getting used to the constant buzz she heard.
The only other detail on her mind was the strangers that had hung around well after the relief crowd had dispersed for the evening. Unknown people lingering in points of interest like street corners and alleyways. Action alleys that might have been an avenue of escape between the cramped living spaces. Spaces that had sprung up between the small local stores for this and that. Food or other vitals that had closed and opened for a while with something else. Eyes watchful enough that even Matthew had taken extra care getting to the apartment construction site that was the newest project in the area.
Even being a former Agents marine, he'd been overly cautious about his position with the extra unknowns in the designated operating area. The last thing either Matthew or Niki wanted were interlopers to her plan. Hopefully they did nothing more than watch. In the best case, they helped. In the worst.
She'd hoped sincerely that she could keep her promise to the good doctor she had warned.
The front of the containers were indeed empty. The double doors of both firmly shut. Even opening them revealed nothing more than a solid wall blocking access inside. The back portion of the containers seemed solid at a glance. Those with much keener eyes than Zerø's gang could see the soft recess of access panels though. If any cared to look at them.
Ivory had already remedied the issue of the snow problem in the District on her first visit. Corporate goons having messed with the environment controls and tried to push the people out or freeze them where they were. Something that Niki had not known until the two had spoken a bit later about Niki's plan in the area. Niki had been assured that she would have help from Ivory, and been given a signal to activate when she arrived at her containers to draw together the assistance Ivory had promised her.
The efforts Ivory had put into ridding the district of Corporate influence had its benefits. The slow warming of the entire district turned the once snow covered jungle of duracrete and neon lights into a slush filled mess. Streets slick and running with water where it had melted down completely. Pockets of icy mush still decorated the spots where industrialization or homes didn't take space. Namely corners of buildings and where the trash was placed. The alleys partly clogged with scooped piles of the half frozen slush piles to clear walkways.
Foot prints could still be made out where it hadn't melted through completely.
While the containers remained, the relief tent had been taken down. Or moved from what Matthew could tell. He'd taken Niki back to the spaceport and missed the cleanup of the whole operation of the charitable doctor after Niki's warning to him.
Largely the civilians had cleared out, returning home with what they could carry in the trips back and forth.
Zerø's gang had retreated home once the slush had begun to form. The threat of damp clothing, finding a slick patch, and the urge to catch a fix beckoning them back.
The containers were several blocks away from the large inset building that housed the majority of the Zerø gang. An old warehouse conglomeration that spanned nearly a whole section of city block on all sides. A former company building that leased the spaces out for storage. The threat of physical violence paired with bribes had made it easier to part with the property to the gang. One which Zerø found to be a perfect hideout in District 9. The warehouse structure had predated a number of the houses, a slow and eventual shift from the glory days of high living and lavish livelihood to the squalor that the corporate interests on Denon kept the population to.
The apartments and small businesses surrounding the gang's headquarters wouldn't receive the brunt of what was to come. But the night was not going to be a quiet one when everything kicked off.
The whole of the district was largely dark in their fabricated night, the patrols of Zerø's gang becoming less and less frequent or well equipped as it neared the midnight hour. Most of those walking the foot paths were either strung out on spice and walking off their high, or simply favored the night time hours. Bickering between a few of them would mark them out in a relatively silent district.
Eerily silent.
The kind of quiet that had once been explained to Matthew as an instinctual knowing that all living things had. The weight of danger that pressed down on those souls that didn't have the numbness to violence or willingness to dispense harm unto others. A weight that warned them to keep hidden. To keep quiet. To ignore what wasn't coming their way.
Matthew's perch in the unfinished apartment building granted him a good vantage over the area they'd be working in. It wasn't near the height of the cloud breakers that Corsec had on the planet, but even 8 stories up with an open framework was still high enough in his spacefaring life. Nearly reaching the ceiling of the District, another building had been demolished to make more cheap living space in the growing population of the destitute. The unfinished structure was little more than a cheap complex to house more poor souls for the corporate work grind. Hurriedly put together before construction ground to a halt with the sudden snow storm.
He peered over the edge, his deep purple clothing blending into the shadowed backdrop behind him. The electrobinoculars zoomed in where a gang patrol had passed through to scan for any changes in the landscape since he had spoken with Niki. The spot beside the Sniper rifle they rested almost worn slick with how many times he had picked them up and put them down.
He knew Niki had reached out to the woman that had saved her. And had confided in Ivory that she wished for the whole of Zerø's gang to burn for what they had done. He'd picked Niki up when she'd stabilized enough to be transferred. Had sat with her through the entire process of growing the new tissue and grafting it. Had helped her brush her hair and even helped with skin care while she was incapable of moving from the nerve pain she was going through.
He'd wished she had let it go. Wished that Niki had moved on and not let the idea of revenge sink in. And the assurance that Ivory had called in assets to help Niki with this attack on Zerø's headquarters had been nerve wracking itself. What was Ivory bringing to the table? Who for that matter? What he'd been able to scrounge up on Moonveil had been nothing more than a front company if he had to make an educated guess. It was too little information with too many variables for him.
But he wasn't calling the shots anymore when it came to Niki.
His electrobinoculars settled on those strangers that had lingered, or had moved in without his notice. It was possible they were the assets that Ivory had promised. But from up here, he couldn't confirm that detail. And he'd been told to remain hidden until Niki said otherwise. Something that bothered him tremendously as he watched the headlights of a familiar land speeder appear on the entryway to the district.
The back and forth between Ivory and Niki had detailed meeting her people near the containers that still remained in the middle of the road. Blocking off access through this street. A few grumbling voices had protested when Niki had dropped them off. But it would be more difficult for local authorities to interfere with the direct route blocked off.
The detour around her blockade approached an hour in total.
The large cargo landspeeder Niki was driving came to rest behind the two containers. Further blocking off access into the street. She waved a hand to the dark shape of the construction site, knowing Matthew was watching as she pulled herself out of the speeder and walked to the back. Similar to a large moving truck, the whole thing drove like a floating brick.
At the back, she kicked her shoes against the frame before pressing the button to unfurl the access ramp. The two extra Nuisance Engine Droids slowly lumbering out of the back of the speeder and down the ramp under their own power. Niki herself disappeared into the back of the covered bed and opening the two crates.
Spider sized droids chirped happily to see their creator as she patted one affectionately. Taking out the controller, she radioed Matthew to confirm she was alright and prepared. Then used the code Ivory had shared with her to signal those unknown assets that she had been promised. She wasn't going to complain about getting help. Especially if that was who had been scoping out the area while she had been sleeping in the spaceport.
She waited patiently at the back of the cargo speeder, the large droids settling beside the thing as the sound of machinery inside each whizzed, popped, and hissed before a small Droid appeared from the exit hatch alongside what one might have called its head. The controller in her pocket, she pondered getting back into the speeder to fight off the cold as she waited for someone to approach her.
A face to face with Ivory would have been preferred. But desperate times she supposed.
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