Public I'm not a lady, I'm a journalist

[Holly Starstorm]

HNN Headquarters

Mr. White, the editor and chief of the HNN digi paper was staring out at the Coruscanti skyline with a troubled soul. His star investigative reporter was missing. She had been undercover investigating a criminal syndicate and had suddenly gone silent.

“Sir perhaps she just forgot to check in?”

“Great shades of Elvis Jimmy! Holly is a professional. She is the best investigative reporter Ive ever seen but she is reckless snd headstrong. If she is silent its because she got herself into something too big for her britches!”

Jimmy nodded. They all knew how Holly was.

Just then a woman entered and turned on the holo screen.

“Sir you have to see this.”

---

The image was of two armed Duros standing next to a woman who was tied to a chair. She had a bag over her head but long strands of blond hair were visible. There were bloody spots on the bag, as if wounds had bled through.

“This message is for The Galactic Alliance. We demand half a million credits or the HNN reporter Holly Starstorm dies tonight. We will be in touch.”

The screen went blank.

---

“Get me the defense force, CorSec, someone in the Senate. Hell call the Jedi. Get me someone in here now!!”

Mr. White slammed his hands on his desk while his staff scrambled to obey.

 

[Onrai]

Coruscant

A blonde woman was idly scanning through her datapad, searching the holonet for any interesting news or information regarding major galactic changes. Suddenly, a large number of pings began to hit on all the hot new social media networks. Posts were being quickly deleted, but the video being commented on was still traceable to its source upload. She watched as the two armed Duros made their statement.

"This message is for The Galactic Alliance. We demand half a million credits or the HNN reporter Holly Starstorm dies tonight. We will be in touch."

Her eyebrow raised, she headed to an alley. This was a situation she was unlikely to resolve with her present facade.

Holly Starstorm

 

[Wendell Mortimer Glolmark]

Holly Starstorm Onrai

Location: An “abandoned” skyscraper in The Works of Coruscant

Wendell Mortimer Glolmark was sitting in a swivel chair, speaking to the two actors whom he had “hired”. They had just finished filming a recording demanding 500,000 credits from the Galactic Alliance in exchange for the news reporter known as Holly Starstorm. Both of the actors were wearing masks of course, which resembled the Duros species. As they spoke, the video was being posted across the Holonet.

“Thank you for your co-operation.” Wendell told the two actors. “Naturally, I am going to need to keep both of you here for a bit longer for the event that we need to make anymore… statements.” The two actors looked at each other nervously. “But Mr. Glolmark, you only said we had to do one video, and then we could leave.” said one of them. Wendell intertwined his fingers menacingly. “No really, I must insist that you stay.” he said, as one of his G-1 Security Droids pointed its arms at the backs of the actors’ heads. The two actors agreed to stay.

A few minutes later, Wendell decided to check in on his hostage. After making sure his voice scrambler was activated, he walked into the room Holly Starstorm was being held. “So, starting to regret the decisions that lead you into this situation?” he asked with a condescending tone of voice.

 

[Holly Starstorm]

Holly was sitting in a small room beyond frustrated. She was not sure if the people who had grabbed her were part of the crime syndicate she had been investigating or if they were just opportunistic captors.

When the door opened and one came in she got to her feet.

“Who are you and what do you want with me? If this is some political statement I hope you realize kidnapping the press is a war crime. You can’t just keep me here!”

She stamped her foot in frustration.

Wendell Mortimer Glolmark Onrai

 

[Onrai]

Wendell Mortimer Glolmark Holly Starstorm

The first clue was in the video itself. Still in a human-like form, the avatar of Onrai chose for the time being to pursue a more practical approach to resolving the situation - she checked the video's metadata to see whether or not there was anything indicating the particular datapad or network node the device had initailly used to record and transmit the footage in question. That would, at least in theory, help narrow down the location. If not, there were only a few other practical options that could be pursued before she would have to try and use a bit more in the way of foresight.

 

[Wendell Mortimer Glolmark]

Holly Starstorm Onrai

Wendell listened to the reporter’s response to his question. Well, this reporter certainly was not afraid of him. He decided to indulge her a little bit. “Who I am, is not a question I am not going to answer just yet. As for what I want with you, is ransom credits to fund a righteous cause. Your bosses at HNN will be providing that shortly, after which I will allow you to leave alive.” Most of what Wendell had said was the truth. Except of course, the detail about the “righteous cause”.

Meanwhile, upstairs the two video editors were watching the media reactions to their latest work. There was certainly quite an uproar. After all, the press rarely took kindly to one of their own being kidnapped. Another thing that was getting a good deal of attention was the Free Duro movement. The movement was more or less a fringe group with very little real following, but apparently the Galaxy was taking the idea of them being behind the kidnapping, and running with it. Now, all they had to do was wait for someone to cough up the ransom credits. They were so preoccupied with their own success to notice that they had forgotten to remove some important metadata from their “masterpiece”.

 

[Onrai]

The metadata within the video detailed two things of particular importance - the address of the device that had been used to release the message onto the holonet, and the specific conduit by which the device maintained its connection to the holonet. With this information, Onrai’s fingers flowed into the datapad, shadowed essence giving her an insight she could never have had as a mere mortal. Her form grew more and more insubstantial, and the datapad fell to the ground as a wisp like mist of shade began to waft into the atmosphere, the datapad falling to the ground, blowing its power source before slowly turning to dust as though it had been exposed to harsh conditions over millennia.

She was on her way to perform an exceedingly unlikely rescue.

Holly Starstorm Wendell Mortimer Glolmark

 

[Holly Starstorm]

"Who I am, is not a question I am not going to answer just yet. As for what I want with you, is ransom credits to fund a righteous cause. Your bosses at HNN will be providing that shortly, after which I will allow you to leave alive.”


“I see, so you are extorting HNN for financial gain? That is really slimy of you. Why don’t you let me help this righteous cause? The people of the galaxy can be persuaded to donate to help others, but I doubt they will be willing to help you in an Alliance prison!”

Wendell Mortimer Glolmark Onrai

 

[Wendell Mortimer Glolmark]

Holly Starstorm Onrai

Wendell began walking around the room, his metal feet clanging loudly on the metal flooring. “If I were in your position, I do not think I would be so critical of my captor’s methodology. Just because I agreed to let you leave alive does not mean I agreed to let you leave unharmed. Fortunately for you, I do not plan on using a tactic as pathetic as torture any time soon.” Wendell said.

Outside, the star Coruscant Prime was just roughly halfway through its daily journey through the sky. While it did not show on his concealed face, Wendell was beginning to worry a bit. The HNN surely would not wait much longer to release an official statement promising him the credits. Unless of course, they were in fact willing to sacrifice Holly Starstorm.

Near the foot of the skyscraper, several G-1 Security Droids were patrolling the abandoned slums surrounding the building. One of them was proceeding, when it observed something unusual. It seemed to be some kind of energy concentration floating down an alleyway. It decided to follow this energy concentration, to see if it had any particular pattern to its movements.

 

[Onrai]

Well, apparently she had been noticed.

The security droid that had observed her amorphous form was clearly a threat. While it did not initially appear imposing, it was clearly designed to patrol some sort of perimeter - likely a perimeter around wherever Holly was secured. Her avatar sought to utilize the power stolen from Ooradryl and claimed has her own to drain all energy from the droid in question, leaving it an unpowered husk. She was unsure whether the machine had any sort of functional resistance to energy-draining weaponry, but it was the best option.

If she was successful in doing such, she would attempt to become a ghost in the machine, seeking to possess the powerless husk in order to similarly access the data within - such would potentially fry its memory cores if she was unsuccessful.

If she was not able to, she would seek to send lightning from her shadowed tendrils to strike the droid and kill it. Whether such worked or not was unclear.

Wendell Mortimer Glolmark Holly Starstorm

 

[Theo Vereen]

Theo just happened to be on Coruscant visiting with his mother when the message went out about Holly Starstorm . He remembered seeing her at some events, and on the holo.

But would the Alliance pay to get her back.

Aside them that he considered it would be good to find her and secure her release. Can't have everything thinking the GA was a pushover and their people were hijacked whenever.

He didn't know so...well how do you start to look for someone who is kidnapped. He imagined that they would contact the news agency she worked for. Theo began looking up where that was on Coruscant.

Onrai | Wendell Mortimer Glolmark