Into the Badlands

[Armand Temi]

Location: Republic Capital of Yutan​

​

Sitting in his office in the Republic Capital of Yutan, Senator Max Rumor reviewed the holotape from the assassination attempt on the Madame Secretary’s life, which occurred a couple days ago on nearby Nubia.

He then lit a cigar and gazed out of the window for a while, watching the Yutan civil servants plodding along, back and forth, back and forth, in the government building courtyard.

Max then reviewed the holotape a few more times and finally paged, his assistant, a Parwan named Marzell who floated into the office on his four tentacles. Stubbing out the cigarra, Max looked up at the hovering sack of air who was his secretary. The Yutan Senator enjoyed calling him a “windbag,” and yet Marzell never reacted to it… not until Max was called into the Human Resources government department and given a stern warning about “bullying his coworkers.”

“But he is a literal bag of wind,” protested Max with a smug, poodoo eating grin. “I was just calling him exactly what he was.” And then for that particular remark, he had to watch a slew of holovideos about workplace harassment, which of course, he had Marzell watch for him.

“What do you think watching that footage?” Max asked as he took his fingers and grabbing the holo screen widened the shot to center in on one individual. It wasn’t the assassin however.

Marzell shrugged and in choppy basic said, “Here’s a list of intelligent agents that the Republic uses-"

“Save your breath, Marzy. I have my own contacts from when I was a lawyer on Nar Shaddaa.”

The Senator opened his datapad and pulled up his contact list of infochants. He’d been out of the Smuggler’s Moon scene for so long many of the transmissions just bounced back when he tried to send a message. Finally he made contact with someone on his list who he’d never worked with:

//sending encrypted transmission…

To: [member="Scarlett Orion"]
From: REDACTED

If you can make it to Yutan, meet me at the The Badlands tomorrow at 1pm for lunch. I have an assignment for you.

//encrypted transmission ending…

The Badlands was only hostile-sounding in name. Once Ms. Orion made her way to the Yutan cantina, she would see that it was relatively upscale, not necessarily a government watering hole, but an establishment for the more wealthy and important figures of the Republic capital.

 

[NightSister]

Slamming her apartment door shut with a sign, Scarlett whipped out her datapad. As much fun as performing was, she'd been denied her favourite kind of fun - espionage - for far too long and she missed it desperately. Her eyes widened as she saw an encryted transmission streaming to her screen.


From: REDACTED
To: Scarlett Orion
If you can make it to Yutan, meet me at the Badlands tomorrow at 1pm for lunch. I have an assignment for you.

She'd heard of Yutan and the Badlands, but never been there in person. However, she saw no reason to let that stop her. Quickly she found a set of coordinates - it was just parsecs away from her current residence near the Expansion region. After checking that her usual equipment was still safe under her bed, Scarlett went to sleep anticipating the next day.

The following afternoon, she arrived on Yutan dressed like a businesswoman but armed like a soldier, at the badlands right on time to hear about her assignment.

[member="Max Rumor"]

 

[Armand Temi]

Senator Rumor was already in tucked away in a shiny, red, leather booth in the rear of the badlands, waiting for Miss Orion. When he saw a raven-haired beauty enter the high-end cantina, he knew it was her right away. Her wardrobe was corporate, but her eyes held a no-nonsense stare. With legs for parsecs she walked close to the well-dressed Senator, and he nodded, eyebrows raised to get her attention.

On the table in front of him was a small, discrete holo unit where he planned to show the camera footage to the agent to get her take on the threat level as well as if she could find the individual in question.

Her target was a man; she was a woman. Max wouldn’t judge how, when or where she got her information – only that she got it. Some of the best spies slept their way through bedrooms to gather the most highly sought after intelligence in the galaxy. Who could blame them that the males of the species were fairly predictable, most of them only after one thing.

Senator Rumor sipped his martini and lit a cigarra, crossing his legs, the expensive hem of his trousers exposing even more expensive shoes.

[member="Scarlett Orion"]

 

[NightSister]

With a quick scan of the cantina - a rather nice one, Scarlett had to admit - she had found the man she was looking for; a handsome aristocrat nodding at her with lifted eyebrows. Taking care not to draw attention to herself, she made her way to the booth he was at and sat down in the seat opposite him. Normally she would wait to be invited to sit, but the longer she stood the more people paid attention to her, and when she was being the Viper nobody was ever meant to notice her. Any other time, of course, she would milk attention for all it was worth.

In a split second, her eyes flickered as she studied the man from head to toe, taking in every detail. Expensive clothing, relaxed posture, tall, smokes cigarras, rather good-looking...and that was all she needed. The next time they met Scarlett would be able to spot her latest employer from parsecs away.

Now that the spy part of the introduction was over, Scarlett put on her best smile and extended her hand. "Redacted, isn't it?" she said jokingly. "In this profession, I'm known as the Viper. Pleased to meet you."

[member="Max Rumor"]