Of Ashes and Crystals: Investigation thread

[John Ash]

Bounties were interesting things. They could be things that would waste your time seeking to fulfill them or they could be windfalls of credits that got you through the next month or two. John was always hesitant to take up a bounty because of how often they low balled them on a profit to danger ratio. But then you get bounties like this one. A [member="Kham Nakgul"] had a bounty of 60 million credits on his head. How did he gain such an astronomical bounty you ask? According to [member="Petrovska Crystall"] , the one who had placed the bounty, this karker had committed war crimes on Christophsis. The only issue was the bounty claimed the man needed to be brought in alive......

John couldn't resist that large of a bounty. Credits were everything out in the galaxy and 60 million could get him any thing he wanted. So he copied the information on the bounty from his screen at home to his holopad. He stood up when it was done and started to head towards his speed biker in the hanger below. He needed to go talk to an information broker and start learning everything he could about his targets. Good thing he lived on Nar Shaddaa where information on nearly anyone was able to be found for the right price. He knew just the broker too for this job.

 

[John Ash]

Nar Shaddaa flew by as John rode his speeder bike down street. Lights, metal, concrete. It all past by him in a blur. The bounty had said this Kham Nakgul had a ship named the Renegade. He would need to look into what kind of ship it was. It seemed that people's ships told you a lot about them. Sort of how John's ship told you that he had stolen a Naboo ship at one time....or made you think he was from Naboo. He didn't like to think people associated him with that hell hole of a planet. He had Naboo on his mind again, great. Why did he ever take up that job there recently?

John ended up at the broker's place before he knew it. The place was in the nicer section of the city with actual rules and authority figures. He liked coming here, but his line of work rarely lead him away from the poorer districts of the city. He left his bike in the private speeder garage then went inside. The interior was covering in screens and holoprojectors with all kinds of information and different news feeds crossing them constantly. It was still nice looking despite that though. A Devaronian man walked out from the backroom. He was wearing a fine, black suit which caused his red skin to stand out more. His horns had the tips cut off so that they were flat. He smiled as he saw his customer and said, " John! What brings you here today?"

" A bounty. A Kham Nakgul." John replied as he pulled out his holopad. He handed it over to the Devaronian as he added, " According to the bounty his ship is called the Renegade. Can you pull up anything on a ship by that name for me Kaerve?"

Kaerve took the holopad over to his systems and began to run the bounty through his system. A grin spread across his face as his eyes lit up with excitement. He said in a tone brimming with greed and friendliness, " For a 60 million bounty, anything my friend. As usual, my friends rate is 10% of the bounty should it be completed. If it can't be completed, then we can work out a price later. Now, lets find out everything we can about you Kham Nakgul."

 

[John Ash]

Kaerve was a little chatty as he hunted down information on John's current target. The Devaronian was excited at the potential of gaining 6 million credits should the bounty be turned in by John. Normally this kind of behavior would get on John's nerves because of how off-topic it was and how much time it wasted, but him and the broker went way back. He had to learn some harsh lessons to make it this far on Nar Shaddaa, and he had thankfully avoided some of them due to Kaerve taking some interest in him. He had bought some information from a young John many times and informed him of a few lucrative jobs. It was not an exaggeration to say that Kaerve was the reason John was even here today.

Kaerve grin shifted to one filled with confidence as he turned a screen around. All kinds of files and sources of information began to pop up. The Devaronian said, " I managed to find out plenty on this Kham Nakgul. He is a prince of some planet called 'Angamar' that is in Mandalorian space. I'd suggest not hunting him there. The Mandalorians are on high alert while they are probing the Silver Jedi. Seems he is in exile though and someone else is on the throne. He is not just a member of the Mandalorians though. Seems he has some kind of connection to this group called the Collective. He has been spotted with a pistol exclusively used by that group. It also seems there is some hints at ties to the Iron Empire, but I will need to look into more. It is just rumors on that end right now."

John looked over what was on the screen as he listened. A few connects to major factions, but he didn't control his own people's ruling government anymore. There was some useful bits from this, but it was hardly enough to go off of. He said as he continued to look over the data, " What else do you have Kaerve? Knowing to avoid Mandalorian space just isn't enough for this one."

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Laira tapped a few keys in the cockpit of the Tachyon Explorer, currently masquerading as Laira Darkhold's Far-Runner. First the Ion Scrambler, second routing the communication through a common holocommunication terminal. Yeah, whoever felt like tracing it would know the communication came from Kuat, the first stop on her trip to Chazwa, but with all the ships in the area and her's keeping the specific origin point masked in a layer of protection, she would likely go unnoticed.

//Encrypted
//To: [member="John Ash"]

Hi there mister Ash. You don't know me, but I notice you've taken an interest in a bounty on the CIS membership. Word to the wise, they have a vault on Metalorn. Yeah, you might have to fight through some layers of natural defenses because of that, however the pay off is probably worth it.

A Skakoan named Gorm mentioned that a Two Billion (2,000,000,000) credit transfer to that facility was being made in hard currency from Duro. Yeah, that's right. Physical credits not electronic transfer.

Anonymous Tipster
End//

Laira grinned to herself, pleased with the message.

 

[John Ash]

Kaerve frowned as he looked at the screen once again. He said as he began to go through more information, " Oh I made a mistake. It is Agamar not Angamar that is in Mandalorian space....Still avoid them. Bunch of blood thirsty savages. Rather deal with Tuskens than Mandalorians. At least those sand people won't chase you to the other side of the galaxy for spilling their blue milk." John chuckled a bit after hearing that. It was true and everyone knew it. It was why few visited Mandalorian space unless they absolutely had to. Alderaan was the only exception but that had more to do with it being more or less sovereign still. It would be best if he could find a neutral world to engage the target on.

John's holopad chimed as a message arrived on it. Kaerve picked it up and held it out as his eyes remained glued to his screen. John took it and opened up the message. What it had to say was interesting to say the least. It seemed someone had found out where the CIS was keeping their credits and from where it would be coming from. It even mentioned the name of who owned it all. This was brilliant, but he couldn't figure out how to work it in with his hunt for this Kham even if there was some connection between them. He was just going to save it for now and use it later. It was 2 billion credits after all.

After a few more minutes, Kaerve said, " Alright I got some more information. It seems the target won this company, Titan Industries, from an auction. It was renamed to Angamar Enterprises after the transfer of ownership. Mid sized company so likely to have a few ships. Seems to make everything except medicine, droids, and biotech. All of it is either in Mandalorian space, soon to be Iron Empire space, or close to Mandalorian space. There is registration of his ships around Christophsis and going to the planet Maramere. I can't find too much more than this on his movements. Seems he is looking for resources and allies though. Maybe work that angle or hit up his facilities and draw him out?"

John listened to the Devaronian as he spoke. There was certainly plenty of information here. He could use some of it, but he wanted to know more before he attempted to bring the guy in. Caution was the hunters best friend after all. He said, " Thanks Kaerve. Can you download everything to my holopad for me? I think I will head to Christophsis and see what I can learn there. Might head to Maramere if I don't get enough from the first trip." He held out his holopad as he spoke, which was immediately taken by the broker. As the red skinned man got all the data gathered up onto John's holopad, John added, " I'll have 50,000 credits ready to be transferred to you if I should die or fail." Kaerve just gave John a toothy grin in response. They had known each other long enough that they didn't need to speak to confirm something with each other.

 

[John Ash]

John had to head back home. He had to drop off all of this information he had onto his computer there and grab his ship. Christophsis would be the best bet to finding out about this guy and what he was like. He also needed to store this message he got onto his closed circuit system to make plans around that later. Today was turning into a real surprise for him. A bounty that was irresistibly high and information on the location of a vault owned by the CIS. No one would care if he pulled off either of the jobs too. It was looking like things were getting interesting for John and the prospect of having enough credits to retire at the ripe old age now was high.

Ashenhearth came into view as John turned down his road. He parked the speeder bike in the speeder hanger and climbed up to his room. Everything was as he had left it. He was always worried he would come back to find his place robbed. He really needed to set up some defenses and security measures, but that required credits he didn't have off hand. He walked over to his computer and plugged his holopad into it. He began to upload all of the data he had obtained from Kaerve onto his open system. It was going to take it a bit, so he decided to use the time to go get ready for his trip.

After nearly ten minutes, John walked over to his computer. He slipped his pistol into its holster. All of the data was now where it needed to be, so he swapped which computer his holopad was hooked up to. The message needed to be on his most secure system just in case. Call him paranoid, but things happened when you lived on Nar Shaddaa. It didn't take long to load, so he had his holopad back fairly quick. He went to the ladder and climbed up it to his landing pad. His Naboo fighter was waiting there for him as always. He had gotten rid of the gaudy chrome finish long ago, which was more to his taste. He climbed into the cockpit and set the navigation computer to head towards Christophsis. Time to find out what this guy he was after was like. The ship got high enough up then the hyperdrive kicked in and he was off.

 

[John Ash]

Christophsis came into view as the ship left hyperspace. It was a big floating ball of crystal. One that now had scorch marks all over it from being bombarded from orbit. The planet's security was tight following the CIS's unwarranted assault. They had come to make Christophsis bow down to them, but ended up being torn apart by the Imperial Remnant and their own divisions. The target was part of that assault on the planet, and that meant they had information he needed. They could tell him about the man's fighting style and tactics, which would make things easier on his own end. So he flew down towards the planet after getting clearance from the defensive fleet.

The situation on the ground was interesting. It seemed only military assets had been targeted during the raid, and the brutality of the assault had wiped out most of the troops. Why the Confederacy of Independent Systems was interested in a world that literally only had one resource, crystal, was targeted was beyond him. He just needed to go around and ask people what exactly had happened, and what they knew about this Kham Nakgul. So that is exactly what he did, one person at a time.

After what felt like too long, he had talked to more people than he cared to count. The story was always the same. The target had flown in with ships, opened up fire on the planet, then just ditched the moment the Imperial forces arrived. The man was a coward it seemed and didn't take risks. Either that or had some other goal in mind. It was impossible to say exactly why he had not set foot on the planet itself, but the facts showed that he hadn't. Combined with the other information he had gotten from Kaerve, it seemed like his original idea would be the best one after all. He got back into his ship and flew up into the atmosphere. He needed to head back home and prepare for the hunt. He had a few things he needed to get his hands on before it happened.