Private Midwinters Night Heist

[Cartri Keswoll]

Location: Blue Flame, Seven Corners
Tags: Yula Perl / Zole

"Milkshake please, surprise me." The ginger haired teen said to the waitress, who quickly nodded and went off to sort his order.

It was almost midnight at the Blue Flame tavern, a peak time of day where everyone met up and talked nonsense about their daily lives. Thankfully, Cartri was saving himself the boredom of talking to drunk regulars and doing something more productive. With his bag beside him, he zipped down his black hoody and chilled for a while until the two fellow runners arrived. People of which he hadn't talked to before.

From what he had heard Yule had been around Darkwire for a while and apparently used to be linked with the Jedi. Curiosity as to why she left such an honorable position came to mind, but it probably wasn't appropriate to ask considering it was going to be personal. Even so, he was still determined to pick her brain anything that could become useful in his training. That wasn't the only thing about her that intrigued him too. He was sure to have seen her in a shock boxing live stream the one time, an event that got driven into chaos from multiple factors. She must have a good story for that...

Zole on the other hand was someone he only saw a few times and knew very little about. From the times he'd seen her she looked pretty cool, especially with the way she handled weaponry. According to some rumors, once she set her sights on a target she rarely missed. In terms, she was an expert for hire, a sharpshooter who didn't bat an eye.

After some time the waitress came back with a glass of light blue milkshake with a straw sticking out from the top. Cartri smiled at the staff member and scraped out some credits from his pocket, as well as a nod of thanks for her services.

Having a treat before the storm was a much needed relief, you never knew how these data heists went, especially when it was to do with a high ranking official of a corporate machine. Everyone returning safely would be a victory in itself, but getting any sort of data from that lunatic will be the cherry on top. Who knew what they'd find buried away, but it was clear the kark was hiding something...

 

[Zole]

"You can surprise me too," Zole said as she sat down before the bartender could leave. "As long as its something clear and guaranteed to hurt tomorrow."

Always woh the teenagers who couldn't hold their drink. It was amusing when it was Daiya and Brie stumbling about after one cocktail, but this was a proper job.

A heist required a treat when you were going to have to carry it out with unpredictable teenagers.

A shot glass was placed beside the black and red stripes credit chit Zole had placed down. A long stream of something suitably clear poured from a height. Zole picked up the glass and dropped another credit chit down. The shot glass came up, was emptied, placed down next to the second chit and summarily refilled.

 

[Yula Perl]

"Water, please."

Yula plopped down on the other side of Cartri. She beamed infuriatingly at the bartender, who wrinkled his nose at the sober order.

It was an unusual turn for the normally lush Zeltron, who boozed it up on the regular.

"Extra ice."

The Shadowrunners, she'd discovered, weren't particularly enthused by the idea of camaraderie. It had been a departure from the vague bond shared by the Judges of the Outer Rim. Folks on Denon were more guarded.

"You guys are Cartri and Zole, right? I'm Yula." The brief introduction was chased down by a gulp of chilly water and followed by a toothy grin. "Nice to finally put names to faces." She leaned her elbow on the counter, idly crunching a few chips of ice. Cartri she'd heard of from Daiya, and Zole through the grapevine.

"You guys ready to party, yeah?"

Up and down went the eyebrows. If they were as good as she'd heard, there was a reason they were still around.

Cartri Keswoll Zole

 

[Cartri Keswoll]

Zole Yula Perl​

Not long after the milkshake arrived Zole turned up in all of her cold glory. They didn't share a word as she made the bartender grab a shot glass and a drink that could only be described as a painkiller for the mission ahead. Cartri watched on as the woman gulped one after the other, his chin resting on his raised hand in a bored fashion

"I can't wait to work with you..." he mumbled to himself in a hopeless tone

Thankfully, a more considerate runner came to the table. Yula got herself standard water and ice and politely;y created a conversation compared to the hardened mercenary "That's us" he said while raises his head back up and giving her a friendly nod "I'm ready to roll Yula, but I'm not sure about Zole. I doubt she'll be able to walk by the time we get to the house" Cartri remarked with a small smirk before gulping down some of his milkshake.

"You hang out with Daiya right? I think I've seen you on one of those underground fight streams some time ago. What I heard things got a bit wild" Cartri chuckled as he shot a glance to the drinking Zole, his eyebrow raising from how much alcohol she had already.

 

[Zole]

"Can't wait to work with me..." Zole echoed over her glass. It was tipped back, turning Cartri into a blur as she downed a second shot.

"I tell you what kid," Zole said, pointing to the youth. She had the glass held in a claw grip as her index finger pointed at him over the rim.

"Can I call you kid? On account of you being an actual, you know, child?" She asked rhetorically.

"This is just enough to take the edge of my day ahead of what is to come. I'm ready, an actual professional, and willing to work with you. A child. So, if the thought of working with me makes you so very miserable, you wanna find another third?"

She placed the glass back on the bar and looked at it. She wasn't considering having another, but she wanted to see if either of the others would protest.

 

[Yula Perl]

"Ehhh…" Yula cringed with her lips against the glass. The shockboxing fix had been blown by Dagon Kaze , Jedi, Vigilante, Boyfriend. Oddly enough their values were similar, but the way in which they conducted those values caused a lot of headbutting.

That, and she'd gotten her ass kicked on a livestream, under the pseudonym Pinkapalooza.

Thanks, Daiya.

"Yeaaah, she and I partnered for that one. Unlucky it got shut down in the middle." Dag slept on the couch for two weeks after that stunt. She crunched thoughtfully on the ice chips, assessing the cybernetic woman and her response to being called out on drinking before the job.

She shrugged. "As long as you know your limits. If you're bad at your job, you wouldn't have made it this far." She jerked a thumb at Cartri. "Him too."

"After the job's done, we can see which of the three can hold their drink the best. Speeeeeaking of the job-" She placed her glass down.

"I'm a tech specialist, and I hear you are too, Zole."

Cartri Keswoll Zole

 

[Cartri Keswoll]

Zole Yula Perl​

Cartri listened closely to the mercenary with a judgmental expression, his head shaking slowly to what she had to say. He hated to admit it but in some ways she was right. He was only a kid, and she had every right to deny working with him as a professional in the field. Sighing to himself, he gave off a brief shrug before forcing himself to answer honestly

"Fair enough..." grumbled the kid, knowing he had nothing to counter her more than true remarks. At least Yula seemed to be more approachable when they spoke.

"I'm not surprised Daiya was a part of it, anything with her involved seems to go into chaos one way or another" Cartri smirked, who was always game to joke about Daiya whenever he got the chance.

"And hey, wait a second. I'm not touching alcohol for a long time. Especially after what happened when I was with Daiya out of all people!" complained the kid, his glare looking between the pair "But by all means, you two can go at it while I laugh at you both getting into a drunken mess"

Giving himself a brief cough to get serious, he nodded to the fact both of them were talented tech specialists "I know my tech but you two are probably worlds ahead compared to me. Whatever you need me to do, I'll happily oblige"

 

[Zole]

"I can do technical, but I figured I was going to be there...blunt instrument...in this little party. And I'm good at telling you when people are about to crash the party too."

Zole could access technology through her implants or through the Force itself. Always left her with a murderous heachache.

Her foresight was a useful danger sense, both in the more immediate term that could make it seem like she could dodge blasters and the vague longer term. Unfortunately her cybernetics had made it less acute and her drug abuse had made her paranoid. It had become hard to tell what was the Force and what was her imagination.

Zole had left her glass on the table. If anyone had challenged her further she might have had another shot it two just to spite them.

"We wanna go somewhere quiet and work out who is doing what?" She asked bluntly.

 

[Yula Perl]

"We'll see about that!" Yula slapped Cartri on the back with a hearty laugh; she was in a chipper mood, properly hydrated and ready to make trouble.

Chugging the last of her ice water, she too left her glass for the miffed bartender to reclaim. "I saw a broom closet back down the hall." Yula teased, half-serious as she slipped from her stool. She'd done worse in worse places, something something Zeltron.

"Cartri, how's about you tell us more about our target? I think you're the one with the most intel."

Cartri Keswoll Zole

 

[Cartri Keswoll]

Zole Yula Perl​

Jumping slightly from the slap off his back, he rolled his eyes in an unamused expression. Even he knew one drink of alcohol could send him loopy, to say he couldn't handle his drinks was an understatement

"Good point, even though the broom closet is a decent choice, there is a room in the back we can use. Let's go talk round there" the boy explained as he got off his stall and walked into the private room, which was mainly used for gambling parties and other shady business.

Leaning up against the wall, he looked between the two scruffians and began explaining who they were after "As you know from the brief, we'll be going after a corporate official. His name is Iacen Tane, CEO of Horiztech industries. He recently started up the company on Demon to promote their new wrist devices, ones that can pretty much do anything with a tap of a button. It's a big deal for everyone on Denon, especially those who want to spend cheaply on a useful watch. However, a person on the inside has leaked a few details regarding the design, such as a chip that monitors every little bit of your activity. Conversations, your location, and anything that could be useful to use as a weapon. If we can ruffle up the guy and get proof of this claim, we can leak it and spoil the party for the corpos excited about watching peoples business"

Smiling from ear to ear, the thought about making a few pompous karks angry was going through his mind like an excited kid on his birthday "I doubt he'll be heavily defended, but we'll see about that when we get there"

 

[Zole]

she was in a chipper mood

That made precisely one of them. Zole wasn't certain if she wanted to laugh at the broom cupboard remark.

Humour was held in check by a strong sense of is this really how you saw your career panning out?

"A CEO of something like that could well have some security droids tucked away. Anything from humanoid battle droids to little floating drones. I wouldn't rule it out."

Zole turned towards Yula.

"I assume you can isolate his household from the wider 'net to stop him sending a distress signal? We'll still have to deal with any security on site."

She smiled at that last point. Zole's addictive personality could be drawn in many different directions. The adrenaline rush as as much of a draw as body modifications or spice.

 

[Yula Perl]

"H-horizon Tech??"

Yula balked at Cartri while she processed his explanation. "Is that…I'm not…oh. Oh, Horiztech Industries. Right, right." She swallowed in relief, wondering for a hot second if Horizon Tech, the small garage she ran would be called into question. She wasn't monitoring customers through bugs, not yet anyway. Maybe for Darkwire jobs, but not when she boosted speeders and tooled around with droids.

"There are a few ways we can play this—we can rough him up for a confession, or have him do it willingly and record him secretly."

"Either way, Zole's right. We'll have to cut him from the grid so that he can't raise the alarm, and we'll probably encounter some kind of security force. What we don't know is how big it'll be."

Rummaging through her bag, she took stock of her tools—a few slicing devices, her datapad, stun grenades, a pistol, and a vibroknife.

"What do you guys think? I'll kill his net access, then we probe around to see what we're up against?"

Cartri Keswoll Zole

 

[Cartri Keswoll]

Zole Yula Perl​

"You're not wrong Zole, these CEO's could have anything up their sleeves so it's probably wise we be more cautious than usual," he suggested, before looking over to Yula with a brief smirk

"Something wrong Yula? seemed like you had a bit of a brain glitch there" the boy chuckled this time, always having great pleasure in having a laugh at people's misfortunes. Yet, it wouldn't last long when Yula mentioned how big the security force would be at the estate. Wiping the grin from his mouth, he switched to a more cool expression and answered ith what he knew

"What I've heard, it's a team of at least seven guards, possibly more. Even though they are few in number, they are armed with the latest security protection. These boys are advanced..." Little in number but armed to the teeth, this was going to be an interesting heist.

Cartri watched as Yula put various tools on the table, nodding slowly to what she had to offer "Seems like a plan Yula. At least when we know he won't be getting any help our actions can get a bit noisier" he smiled to both of them, a nod going to Zole "If there's anything overlooking the house, would you be able to pick off any hostiles from a distance?"

 

[Zole]

"Not really, no," Zole replied, tilting her head from side to side as she considered it. "Anyone outside and on one side of the property sure but not a clean sweep.

"From above I could provide cover if they get a message through to a tactical squad or he has guards in another house. If we think Tane might be paranoid enough to have a team in another building overlooking his home we might be biting off more than we can chew," Zole laughed.

"Might best best to get a plan of the building, get eyes on it and work out an approach.

"If he does get an emergency call out what's the contingency? Are we bailing or are we going to kidnap the CEO?"

 

[Yula Perl]

"Uh…I'm good, aheheh." Yula grinned awkwardly while smoothing out the hair at the sides of her temples. "Just misheard you, is all. Glad we're on the same page."

She didn't elaborate on that, not when there were bigger, tastier fish to fry.

Zole brought up an interesting point.
"On it." Yula began typing furiously on her datapad, reaching out to all of the spaces on the dark net that might have a schematic of Tane's home, most of them being Shadowrunner networks.

"I hope it won't come to that, Zole." Her lips pulled back in a cringe. "Taking a hostage adds another layer of danger. I'd say bail."

Her datapad pinged, heralding the newly produced loading bar.

"I've got something, but it'll take a while to download. Should we head over?"

Cartri Keswoll Zole

 

[Cartri Keswoll]

Zole Yula Perl​

"No problem" he chuckled back to Yula with a smirk, before putting both hands in his pockets in a relaxed fashion. These two were quite the opposites in many ways, but he was certain both were skilled in their crafts.

"It may be best to get whatever we can and bail before any more of them arrive. The three of us won't last long ain't an army of fully kitted security personnel"

Escaping with their lives and fighting another day was for the best. Even if they failed, more chances would present themselves in the future.

"Sure, we can start heading over there now. Make sure to grab what you need on the way out" he reminded them as he went back to the bar and picked up his bag, throwing back over his shoulders with ease. When both were ready, he went through the entrance and began to lead them to the house in question.

In all honesty, it wasn't too far from their location and a good enough time for the plans to be downloaded. Walking beside Yula, he glared down into the datapad with a bit of curiosity "You found anything beneficial on there? or are you watching a shock boxing live stream?" The boy joked to the fighter herself.

 

[Zole]

Zole knelt down beside a duffle bag she had carried from a vehicle. She took out a compact repeating blaster and clicked the attachments into place. If she was going into a tight space with guards and security droids she was going to want something she could stay mobile with.

If advanced security meant personal shields then she was going to be in trouble. By that measure the boy hadn't sought an entire battalion to lay siege to the man's home so she assumed there were limits to his personal security.

She locked her shoulder-mounted scanner into place. For now she left it offline. If the CEO was a truly advanced set of security systems then they might pick up something like an active life form scanner. She went for the old fashioned way of looking. Not that her eyes were old fashioned, both were synthetic.

"Can't see him yet, want me to walk the perimeter?"

 

[Yula Perl]

"Hey, there aint much else to do while the map loads." Yula chided in defense before tilting the datapad Cartri's way. "It's not a livestream. Highlights from last night's match."

Another ping followed by a popup signaled that the map was done loading. Yula switched windows, bringing up a holomap projection while Zole was kitting up. Yula stared at the rotating floorplan—it didn't give much detail beyond the general layout of the rooms and location of ventilation shafts. They'd have to find out where the main security hub was on their own. "Can't see where or what he has set up—" Yula muttered. "Once we get in closer, we can figure out what we're up against. I'll cut off his access from the grid, but if we ax the whole security system right away, they might take notice."

She turned to Zole. "Good idea—let us know if you can find a decent way in. I'd say either here, near the kitchen vent, or here, near the septic runoff. But there might be, uh, more appealing options."

Cartri Keswoll Zole

 

[Cartri Keswoll]

Yula Perl Zole​

"Oh... well I heard it was a good card. The main event was a spectacular fight, I'm sure you'll enjoy it" Cartri replied, his eyes now and then wondering back to the datapad to catch up with the latest fights. Although, as they got closer Yula switched windows to the map in preparation for their upcoming heist.

He nodded to what Yula offered for possible entrances, and of course, one included a vent. Cartri sighed from the very thought of jumping into a dusty tight space again, but if it was the best option it was a sacrifice he had to make.

"If the vent is big enough I can probably wiggle myself into the kitchen and open up a few entrances from the inside. The only problem is how many guards are in there, they could be all over the place" the boy mentioned as he looked at his two companions individually with a slowly rising grin "You don't need to worry about that with me though. They won't even know any has been there by the time I've let you two in"

It was a big risk considering he didn't know the security they processed, but there was a good chance he'd be able to open an entrance of some kind one way or another.

"You're right about knocking off the system, anything like that would put them on edge. Wait until we're all inside before we pull any tricks like that, by that point we will all be set"

 

[Zole]

Zole gave a sharp nod and took off from the group. Leaving Yula to ensure she'd sliced any redundant back doors into the security system and Cartri to find the vents she did a sweep of the perimeter.

She found that the tallest luxury apartment block on the far side had mostly been sold to off-world investors. It meant that those few left inside were remarkably trusting of strangers who claimed to own an apartment. She managed to find an overlooking balcony for a view of the target's house.

Zole left her long rifle on a remote tripod. It wouldn't have the power to pierce what would be shielded glass, but there could be an opportunity to use it. The remote connection gave her a bird's eye view of the house.

If help was going to arrive, she assumed it would come by air speeder and land within the grounds of his house itself.

Zole returned to the others to report back. She couldn't see any guards around the edges of the property, just one light on inside.