Night of a Thousand Secrets (Masquerade Ball) - PM for invite

[Corruck Kazen]

Corruck found this building to be a pleasant surprise to his expectations. It was a decent size and was cleaned amazingly. Those two factors alone would have made it a party place that he would want to go to, but it helped that he had a reason, multiple reasons actually, to be there. The building smelled of a certain degree of cleanliness that suggested to Corruck that it had recently been washed and well taken care of. He knew why he was nervous, probably because he was currently on a Red Raven planet, however he tried to get beyond that fear and to enjoy himself.

He had a plan to engage, a slight deception to put out into the media. The Secret Room was the key. He could get the one bit of information he wanted out into the galaxy and that would be the beginning. There was a certain ship, the Destiny, that needed to disappear. It was already well hidden by his own work, but now he needed to make sure that anything he had the ship do would not be attributed to him. He had prepared a small 'speech' that he would give to the host in the Secret Room.

Ah, but he was getting ahead of himself. For now, enjoy and take a break. Corruck had taken some old designed clothing that he had wanted to be made up while ago and had them taken from pieces of material that were to be found around. It had been something simple and natural in appearance, to his eyes at least. The suit had been quite comfortable, however it did not give a cover for the face. Its original intent had been for some other formal balls and whatnot, but he had never been able to go due to joining the Rebels taking up a lot of time. He wore with the suit a mask that covered the entirety of the right side of his face. The side that wasn't scared by the blowtorch that Dredge had used to mar him permanently.

He found his way eventually to the Secret Room, however it was unoccupied. As such, he waited outside. He took a drink and waited, without making it obvious what he was waiting for. He had heard of this [member="Eugene Leopold"] and the company he had made. Corruck was intrigued by the man's openness on his goals. Corruck wished that he could be so open, but he assumed that there would be too much resistance to make it possible for his goals to come true.

 

[WelshGuy]

He smiled to the other guest as he heard him talk to Yuroic, as he noticed more and more guests arriving as well as the host himself walking down the stairs. Yuroic noticed that there was a Twi'lek dressed as a fighter pilot Yuroic felt a fiery anger inside him until he noticed the missile embedded in the helmet and found himself chuckling. He also noticed that she was with a Miralukan a race he had heard of but had never seen in reality. He soon realised that the party was going to very interesting indeed.

Yuroic looked to see the other guests before finishing his drink and start walking around as the other guests mingled with each other, he decided to try the champagne, having not had it before and living near the refugee sector of Nar Shaddaa meant that champagne was not high up on the list of available stock. He took a long sip of the champagne and nearly choked on the bubbles, coughing slightly before deciding to drink some more.

 

[Armand Temi]

Any party guests - if not too close to music or other noise - would hear the sound of glass breaking as the Disrupter Rifle bolt shot through the window pane and flew towards Eugene Leopold's head. Eugene was standing by the open bar and just happened to lean in to ask the bartender if they had any Fizzy Bip, when he heard the bolt whiz by. The rifle bolt eventually took out a tower of champagne glasses that were arranged in a pyramid on a table. The glasses crashed down and a burning, sizzling hole was left in the mansion wall. Eugene could only imagine Dilbert's reaction but now was not the time to dwell on it.

He ran over to one of the masked attendants who called the security team to go investigate. The Rebels were also alerted via a group message over their main frequency that Eugene Leopold was attacked in neutral territory and if anyone was in the area, could they help assist?

Eugene was used to being chased, punched, shot at and tormented but to think of someone targeting him right now still made his cowardly heart beat in his chest. Bringing a bodyguard with him he dashed to The Secret Room. "Oh hello there," he said to the fellow Rebel standing outside. "It seems there is an attacker outside but security is investigating," he added sounding frazzled. The man in front of him looked like he would have no trouble with any type of attacker, unlike Eugene.

"But come with me," he said opening the door. "Let's sit down and have a chat."

[member="Corruck Kazen"] [member="Solan Charr"] [member="Pauul Farrlo"] [member="Juwiela Melec"] [member="Sannika Brynn"] [member="Yuroic Xeraic"] [member="Darth Arcanix"] [member="Jaster of clan Awaud "][member="Aleksandyr Gaillard"]

 

[Preliat Mantis]

Preliat's hands gripped the knife strapped to his forearm, bouncing it in and out of the sheath. He was told to come here. He blinked for a moment, tapping his foot on the ground, before he stood up. He hated parties. He hated dressing up. His helmet slowly lowered over his head, and he adjusted his hair to make sure it didn't get caught in the magnetic seal. Then, the shot rang out. Disruptor rifle, from the distinct sound. Someone meant business. But so did Preliat. The shot had to come close- and whoever made it had to be mobile. His HUD clicked to life. He didn't have it on beforehand, so triangulating the shot with tracking software was not going to happen. But Preliat was a hunter. So the question was- how would he do it?


As Preliat's eyes drifted over the mansion- he wouldn't park the speeder right next to the window, practically. Preliat reached across his chest, removing the M45 rifle, and leveling the stock against his shoulder, and aimed to the engine block of the speeder while the driver was otherwise occupied. A single, well-placed, heavy shot went straight for the engine block of the speeder. The speeder wasn't high enough to kill anyone inside, but falling very quickly and unexpectedly could give him the jump he needed on the would-be assassin.


"Down, down, down you go, down below. You have a rendezvous, and I, to my pledged word, will make sure you do not fail that rendezvous."


[member="Pauul Farrlo"]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Solan Charr"]

Taeli sighed as she watched the disrupter beam almost kill the host of the party as she and Solan re-entered the mansion.

"It wouldn't be a rebel party if you guys weren't getting shot at in some way," she said, amusement in her voice. "I believe you owe me a dance still, regardless of assassins and disrupter beams disintegrating someone or something. And believe you me, you are not growing on me Mr. Shade, I just have bigger fish to fry."

 

[Gorba the Hutt]

[member="Eugene Leopold"]​

​

A miss!
​

"Aw kriff dis guy," Pauul grumbled at his bad luck, sitting up straight and stuffing the rifle between the front seats. Time to bug out.

"Punchy we go furz exfil?"

An inaudible reply came across the headset.

"Ok, wiseguy."

Maybe he'd missed this time, but 'ey, if at first you don't succeed try, try again.The Rodian grabbed the T-77's controls and started to swing the air speeder away when a plasma bolt came out of nowhere and burned straight through the hood, barely missing the engine block.

"BEEEJO!" swore Farrlo, accelerating toward somewhere, anywhere, dozens of kilometers away, with a coughing air speeder that trailed wisps of smoke.

[member="Preliat Mantis"]

Exeunt​

 

[Corruck Kazen]

Corruck went to check his blaster holster, out of habit due to the situation. Of course there was nothing there, he had not worn the holster and had not brought any of his weapons as this was supposed to be a relatively peaceful ball. Though, he could always go to hand to hand if needed, his right arm was a mechanical replacement for the one he had lost at the same time as his left face. He would have to be cautious now that he was aware that there could be enemies about.

He followed [member="Eugene Leopold"] quietly into the Secret Room, making quick glances around. He was fairly sure that the room was safe, only one visible entrance, light cover, and a generic beauty to it. He took a seat on one of the chairs while preparing himself for the moment. No going back now, he thought.

He started saying, "You certainly know how to throw a party, even if there is someone trying to get you now." He wanted to stay cordial, not letting his nervousness show through.

 

[Jaster Awaud]

[member="Eugene Leopold"]

Jaster didn't know what this guy was goin on about, but the threat of an assassin in Red Ravan territory, not much of a shocker. So he stood and looked at the man, "Fine, lets go little man, me and my men are free of charge, strengthen with the alliance I guess."

Truth be told Jaster was just sick of the bartender only allowing him shot classes at a time and not a whole bottle. Free drinks his ars, but what was he to do, he wasn't interested in females, enough of those at the medical station, and chatting seemed boring. He needed something to get his mind off his daughter leaving so this would suffices.

He followed the man to his secret room, Jasters two body guards followed them closely as they walked past the enterence. They had there blasters in there holsters and scanning the area for weapons. 'For the love of...' Jaster thought as he got his scans back, a lot of rebels liked to carry there guns on them, possibly for protection or looks or just cuz they had them. This made the job a little harder.

 

[WelshGuy]

The bullet whizzed into the room as Yuroic grabbed a second glass champagne, he placed the glass back on the tray and looked around to see if there was anyone in the immediate area that could have fired the shot. His amazement in everyone's calm about the situation made him feel uncomfortable it was just completely bizarre.

Yuroic walked slowly towards the exit, his curiosity on the potential killer made it unbearable for him as he withdrew a miniature telescope in which he peered to see a speeder with a smoky trail. The unfortunate part was that he knew it was moving too quickly for him to intercept or interrogate the wannabe killer. Yuroic sighed as he felt he had let justice fail with the killer getting away.

Walking back into the mansion he sighed as he took another glass and drank deeply, his body language was clearly shown to be downtrodden as he scratched the side of his face that wasn't covered by the mask.

 

[Armand Temi]

"Thank you," said Eugene. "Your name is... Corruck, right?"

When he joined the organization, Geneviève Lasedri had given him a dossier with names and holopics of the Alliance agents under the stern warning that wasn't to publish any of that information to Wookiee Leaks. And while the urge to actually leak the information would haunt him, he wanted to make sure he instilled a modicum of trust in his new employer. Plus Geneviève was attractive and he would probably spy on her at some point - for personal reasons only - but presently he would keep his word.

He opened up his datapad and connected to the Wookiee Leaks encrypted network. "You can think of this room as a confessional booth. Feel free to tell me anything and everything. No detail is too small to spare." Eugene poised his hands to begin typing when man began to speak.

[member="Corruck Kazen"]

 

[Preliat Mantis]

"Cowards."


The stoic Mandalorian lowered the rifle, heading into the party. Security made a point to stop him, but he just took off his helmet, and gave them a glare. It was hard to take away a Mandalorian's weapon, even moreso difficult to wrestle them from a Field Marshal. Then again, Preliat was a friend. He did, however, hand over the rifle. No point in carrying such a weapon in this environment. Would draw way too much attention. He took his helmet into his hands, thanked the security team, and moved inward.


[member="Darth Arcanix"] reeked of something he did not like, as he passed by them and [member="Solan Charr"]. He sneered and moved forward, rolling his shoulders as he moved past them. The Wolf began to simply mingle, but did not speak with anyone- yet.

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Darth Arcanix"]

"Now now my dear, time is but a waste and you should let yourself enjoy it while you can. If you were so sour to everything you will let your life pass you by while those around you succeed in places where you are not even close to reaching." He smiled as he turned and bowed to her, catching the passing stare of the man with a raised brow before returning his full attention to Arcanix as he straightened up and stepped forward witha hand out to her in order to start the dance. "If you would miss Diathim, i would hate for you to walk away now when in the middle of this festive room."

 

[Corruck Kazen]

Corruck nodded at the question, it wasn't too much of a surprise that his name was known. They hadn't been introduced, however Corruck had gone through some files recently and this man's name had come up as a friendly and a collaborator with the Rebel Alliance. That was good, it meant that at least part of this man was trustworthy. The other part though, the part that Corruck was really caring about, would probably be far too willing to publish the information he was going to give. Corruck counted on this.

Corruck smiled weakly, a fake gesture, one that he had forced so that his statements would be hopefully taken in the proper light. "Good, I'll start with a pretty juicy tidbit then. My company ReCal had been developing a special weapon for orbital bombardment, nuclear fission bombs. The weapon, during testing, showed promise, capable of wiping out a small city. I even had a ship built for the specific purpose of using these bombs."

He watched carefully for [member="Eugene Leopold"] reaction. It might tell Corruck how this information would be passed on into the HoloNet. That didn't matter too much, but it was also fun to see most people's reaction to the use of nuclear power as a weapon. Most of the time fission and fusion were used as power sources on some planet. The few people he had told often responded with shock at the possibility. That was his job as General of the Rebel Alliance, or so he could claim. To create new and innovative ways of fighting the enemy while lowering body counts preferably on both sides.

 

[Armand Temi]

"That's juicy indeed," Eugene said his fingers flying across the keyboard. He couldn't get this leak up fast enough. Since they were at a social event, the slicer was expecting to hear less newsworthy items like so-and-so entered rehab or Joe Schmo Senator was caught cheating on his wife. Not right off the bat, "Oh by the way, I'm building a nuclear bomb in my basement."

"Anything else you'd like to add? For example, are you still building the bomb? And hypothetically speaking if you went to use it, who would be your very first target?"

[member="Corruck Kazen"]

 

[Sannika Brynn]

"Well, you look like a real leader now." The 'Imperial' pilot slapped her gloved palm on the red shoulder of eyeless Isard's uniform. "But I think I've blown myself up enough on the sims lately. Yeah..." She had been learning some new maneuvers in recent months, but everyone was quite thankful that she had only tried them virtually so far. A crumpled fighter and a greasy green mark would not be good for cleanup. Or the bills. Or the twi'lek pilot who might have met her unfortunate but swift demise.

She was interrupted from the Rogues' little chat by some guy nearby. He apparently though he would impress her with some obviously made-up story. "I made some of the ships you saw outside." Sannika laughed on the inside but simply turned to him and grinned behind that angular 'mouth'.

"You mean those uglies?"

Then a shot rang out.

[member="Juwiela Melec"], [member="Aleksandyr Gaillard"]

 

[WelshGuy]

Having had enough of the inaction that had happened over the shot fired Yuroic approached the two women, the Twi'lek and Mirakulan, he could feel his temper rising, whether this was down to the drink or whether the injustice that had occurred, he knew that he was getting dangerous with his rise in temper but he hasn't been one for control. Not alot of control although.

Hi, excuse me. Sorry about this but why isn't anyone more concerned about the shot? Yuroic growled as he talked to the ladies, feeling very confused as he spun around, looking at the others whom seemed more interesting in sharing secrets and talking to each other.

[member="Sannika Brynn"] [member="Juwiela Melec"]

 

[Corruck Kazen]

Corruck let a frown crawl across his face. "That is where the problem lies. I had my company build about fifty of those bombs to arm the ship... Right before the ship was stolen."

That last bit of information was not true, the ship was still in his possession, just hidden away in an uninhabitable system. He had targets, mostly Sith and enemies of the Rebels at this point, however he didn't want to use it yet. He had time its use for the perfect moment, when there was the possibility of war. His goal, the removal of the ability to use the Force by all in the galaxy. It was a goal that would be far too difficult to advertise for all to see. There were too many people who would attempt to stop him. The galaxy wasn't ready yet. not yet.

[member="Eugene Leopold"]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Solan Charr"]

"Watch yourself, Mr. Shade," Taeli replied, taking his hand to be led onto the dance floor. She didn't pay any mind to the man that had walked past and sneered at her. She really didn't care about any of the beings here, not really, no. She had come to speak with the man she was dancing with, and that was it.

"You might think you know me, but you'd be surprised I think," she said. "I'm far more complex than you give me credit for, but then I wouldn't expect someone like you to understand completely."

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Darth Arcanix"]

"No, i dont know you at all and to be honest i probably will never know Diathim, nor do i ever expect to ever try to learn about your past or your future as we are still enemies..." He started to move his feet as he began to dance with the woman before smiling as he continued to talk to her. "And nor would i expect you to understand me ever Arcanix, because you can't."

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Solan Charr"]

"Oh give me a chance to," she said, smiling back a bit as they started to dance. "Let's see, you can be highly irritating to people, mainly girls, when you hit on them. Part of that is just a flirtatious attitude, trying to project an image of carefree-ness, but part of it could almost also be you crave attachments to people, to have them acknowledge you in some way. You are loyal to the people who have earned a place in your heart, whether they be friend or loved one, but . . . oh there's that darkness in you. You lose control of yourself if one of those people is injured or killed. Admirable really."

Twirling away for a moment then twirling back in, she continued her analysis. He didn't know she was Lorrdian, well Corellian but raised on Lorrd, so she was very good at reading people because of her culture's focus on watching for silent communications.

"You are also confident in your abilities, especially when wielding your scythe. You have a strong moral code, on top of high intelligence. Judging by just these first few dance moves, you are highly flexible, but your eye sight is slightly poor because you have to squint to read something a bit far away. Have I missed anything? Sorry, I tend to ramble when my academic side takes over."