[Open] Hunting the Benefactor - Investigation / Tracking

[The Upright Man]

[Theme]

Deep within the bowels of Nar Shaddaa was a lonesome nightclub. The VonSchlitchen sat on the line of poverty and wealth. In some ways, it separated them and in others it brought them together. Rich and poor congregated in the club, but the building itself was the last line of neon lights to be seen before the ocean of slums that clung to the outer rim of the sprawling city. It was here that Lily Rose resided, though few knew of this. The music was loud and deafening at all hours of the day, and night. Purple and blue lights flared the room whilst female dancers swung their hips and swayed their bodies to the beat of the rhythm. Drunkards slumped over tables and slouched in chairs. Shady dealings were taken in the darkened corners whilst a host of sociable party-goers crowded around the bar. A staircase led up onto a walkway above the room and further into a set of apartments that was regulated by the owner of the nightclub. A bouncer stood by the stairs, ensuring no one without permission entered such an area.

One of the three rooms was occupied by Lily Rose. Single room with a view out onto the city. It wasn't clean, but not overly dirty either. The room had a white sheeted double bed. A plethora of posters decorated the wall. To the left was a large monitor with a direct connection to the holonet. The right held a thick titanium locker. Inside was her arsenal. The ASL-XI, AMR-1 Anti-Material Rifle, MP-77 and countless ammunition. He knew all this. The Upright Man. He was one of the few who knew how to find the often elusive assassin, and with all her cybernetics, she was more machine than she was Keshiri. She lay behind him, naked and drawing on a deathstick, and he the same. He too was bare, and his body was adorned with many scars. "I got what I wanted," Lily purred, "Now I'll give you what you want." She reached out for the controller belonging to the massive monitor and flicked over to a holonet recording, it was pre-recorded footage in the archives of the Holonews. The title read, 'Chief of Senate Election Speeches.'

When Lily pressed play, the Upright Man slowly lowered his smoke. He was shocked, perhaps a little too much. He knew that face on the screen as she stood up to the podium to deliver her speech. Her words became a dribble to his ears, more focused on finding his datapad. He was quick to dial up the Ravens, hot-wiring straight to Cryax Bane through the bounty he posted, he held up his datapad to show him visual footage through the datapads camera, pointing it at the monitor screen. "I found your woman," Upright Man said, and he repeated the words that the suspect spoke in her speech, "Geneviève Lasedri of Chandrila. If you get me the first flight off Nar Shaddaa and to the Republic capital, and I'll bring back your girl."

[member="Cryax Bane"]
[member="Geneviève Lasedri"]
[Reference: Election Speeches]

 

[Cryax Bane]

When the Holocall came in, Cryax Bane knew it was critical. It came in on the untraceable line he had set up for the bounty that he posted for the murderess of Lysle Rigger, former leader of the Red Ravens. When he hit the "answer" button, a man with a shaded face appeared before him in glowing blue three dimensions. The man's camera was poised on a screen before him, the face that graced the monitor unmistakable. The woman he'd seen fleeing the Solida Hesk Estate, with what he assumed to be Lysle's blood on her hands and face. The killer herself was in the midst of giving an acceptance speech for the Republic Senatorial Elections. According to the unknown bounty hunter, Geneviève Lasedri was her name.

Cryax's heart beat excitedly in his chest. He finally had a name to finger for his good friend's murder. He would see to it that Ms. Lasedri and everyone she loved were going to bleed until they were cold, dead husks. Did it matter that Ms. Lasedri was now a powerful politician in the Republic Sentate? Not one bit. Cryax had been garnering powerful allies across the galaxy in both the military and corporate spheres, such as the One Sith and Titan Industries. He would have her on her bloody knees if he had to call in favors from every contact in his Datalogger.

"Consider it done," said the Chiss to the shadow-faced hunter. "The credits for transport will be wired to your account. Keep me abreast of developments."

[member="The Upright Man"] [member="Geneviève Lasedri"]

 

[The Upright Man]

The Upright Man stood from the bed, and cancelled the call to Cryax Bane without further word. "Get dressed, we're going hunting," he said to Lily. Reluctantly the woman crawled out of the sheets and moved for the locker in the far corner, she thumbed in a series of digits and the door frame open. He was impressed, the sniper was massive. It was no doubt an anti-materiel rifle, but from the word on the streets, she only needed one shot. The size of the slugs that type of rifle could launch was enough to send even the most god-like of Jedi into total oblivion. Hopefully she wouldn't need it. Lily began to suit up, pulling an armorweave body glove over her, and attaching various pieces of plating. The Upright Man was quick to get dressed, and holstered twin .48-caliber Enforcer pistols.

As they left the room, he began to contact Spook, a local Slicer that was rumoured to live deep beneath the world of Nar Shaddaa, a place where even the authorities couldn't get to. A myriad of crushed, ancient cloud cutters that had been built atop of. That is all that Nar Shaddaa was, an ever-reaching city-world. Every day new buildings were being constructed, and the old rotted in the deepest, darkest depths of the world, where even the sunlight could not find its way. "Spook, locate me the nearest bounty hunter available for contract." Silence filled his ears, then a small crackle over the datapad, "I've found one, Ms. Drezyan. I'll ping her to your location." The Upright Man wound his way to the front of the nightclub, Lily Rose at his side, the heavy sniper rifle slung over her back.


[member="Malica Drezyan"]
[member="Cryax Bane"]

 

[Malica Drezyan]

NAR SHADDAA, RED SECTOR​

The Sabacc table was filled tonight and watchers-on made it seem even more crowded. Malica Drezyan, buzzed on Correllian Brandy, smoked a deathstick over the back of her chair. Shamelessly, she used her wiles to distract the players with the taste for her species; her skin-tight black flight suit was zipped down a little too low and her smile was a little too big, often accompanied by some cocky comment such as: "Hitting a the drink a bit hard over there, Karro? Your cards certainly show it. Learn to hold your liquor before you join us at the table." Malica both hated and loved Nar Shaddaa. On nights like these when she got to entertain, it felt like home.

Her datapad beeped with a new transmission. She devoured the bounty listed in a single glance, threw her cards in, careless about losing her share in the game. It was a pittance compared to the sum that had just flashed across her datapad and filled her with a lust for credits. She rose and took her helmet in the crook of her arm. "Gotta go, boys. Maybe you'll play better when I'm gone," she smirked. The table roared with protests, but Malica had already donned her helmet and was heading upstairs out the door. She checked her datapad again. Her destination was the Von Schlitchen, a nightclub not far away and a location with which she was familiar.

Malica arrived on her speederbike. She spied a pair amid the sparse crowd outside the nightclub, drawn by the female bearing a heavy sniper. After parking her bike, she removed her helmet and approached the couple. She fished a pack of deathsticks out of the pocket of her flight suit and offered them to the two hunters, then took one for herself and lit it. "Malica Drezyan, at your service," she winked, still a little high off gambling and brandy. The amount of credits the bounty had detailed bought them her manners. There was something about the Smuggler's Moon, too, that made her arrogant; perhaps the fact that after all these years she finally felt like she'd put a reign on it. She took a drag off her smoke and the let it hang off the corner of her mouth as she returned the pack to her pocket.

[member="The Upright Man"], [member="Cryax Bane"], [member="Geneviève Lasedri"]

 

[The Upright Man]

A speeder bike roared down the laneway, a plume of smoke billowing down behind it. The skin-tight black flight suit-clad woman was a sight to behold. Lily was covered head-to-toe in her armour, and the Upright Man looked like his armour was made up of security riot gear and odd bits and pieces thrown in here and there. "A pleasure, Malica," The Upright Man said, "Call me Upright, and this is Lily Rose," he motioned to the fellow hunter. "I've identified our target as someone known as Geneviève Lasedri of Chandrila, she's running for Chief of Senate within the Galactic Republic. I'm certain we'll find her on the Republic's capital, all we have to do then is locate the senate apartment complex and find her room number. If not there, then we'll keep looking. Five-million, split fifty-fifty could keep us floating for the rest of our lives." Upright hiked a thumb at Lily, "She's just along for the ride."

"My slicer is booking us the next flight on a refugee ship to the Republic capital. He can hook us up with some identification passes if we cross any security checkpoints. He'll get us through clean. We just need to find an infochant to get us the information on the whereabouts of this woman, so we can finish the job." Lily butted in, "Unless, that is, if either of you are a pilot. I've got a contact, old bounty hunter, Julian Solo. He upped and vanished when he quit the business, but he still has his ship lingering around. We get the ship, Spook gives us some details and we can bypass the security checkpoints and have our own escape-ship." Upright nodded, "Good, we'll do that, just lead us to the dock." Lily mumbled something under her breath and moved for a garage beside the nightclub, clearly the storage facility for those living in the upper apartments above the club.

Inside the garage was a double-seated speeder bike, and Lily took it. Upright clambered onto the back, locked his hands around her waist and made sure he was secure. Coming off one of these at two-hundred kilometres an hour was not ideal. She revved the engine, and roared down the laneway that the other huntress had come. Other speeders were quick to move out of Lily's way as she drove a wedge down the thinly corridors that divided the cloudcutters. When they arrived, they would arrive at Spacedock L17, with a docked BT-7 Thunderclap.


[member="Malica Drezyan"]

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Geneviève Lasedri"] [member="The Upright Man"] [member="Malica Drezyan"]

[Republic Capital, Anaxes(Or Bilbringi, which ever it is)]

Solan yawned as he watched another senate meeting conclude from the side lines, he had decided to take some time off and with Aeizori at his side... not like he could get the Ruffer to figure out he wasn't her master, he smiled and headed for a certain door where he waited for the newly made Senator... or what ever her position was. Didn't really have the easiest time, sure getting documents as a representative from a planet called Eclipsta was easy... mostly because they weren't even faked. But the girl at his side calling him master by accident already got him one weird look and another almost arrested him until twenty minutes went by of convincing them he wasn't actually a slaver. But hey, now he waited out side the senate halls, for one Raven haired senate member that he loved to irritate.

 

[Malica Drezyan]

Malica followed Upright and Lily. She was impressed with their apperance and the with the swiftness they took on the bounty. These were the kind of hunters she enjoyed working with. As she followed Lily on her own speeder by keeping Upright's back in sight, she wondered why he had stated the bounty was split in half, rather than in thirds. Of course, Malica wasn't moral enough to speak up on an affair that would lower her share, so she kept quiet. It wasn't her business anyway and she knew too well to not investigate the details of a relationship. Lily must have been a frequent navigator of the streets of Nar Shaddaa; Malica came close to hitting a few vehicles as she followed them to Spacedock L17.

Malica parked her bike a removed her helmet. She stared up at the BT-7 Thunderclap. "Very nice," she purred, waiting for an invitation to board and the arrival of their pilot.

[member="The Upright Man"], [member="Cryax Bane"], [member="Geneviève Lasedri"], [member="Solan Charr"]

 

[The Upright Man]

Upright admired the semi-ancient vessel in front of him. It dated all the way back to the Old Republic, but technology had been stagnant for thousands of years now, few advancements had occurred, so the Thunderclap was about as good as a second-hand speeder. "I'm surprised you keep the access card on yourself," Upright remarked, and Lily moved towards the ramp. She reached up, and where one would usually swipe the access card, she swiped something else. She waited a moment, there was a peep and the ramp lowered. "I don't, but it's always handy to copy someones access slipped." It took a moment for it to register in his head, and Upright said, "Ah, so he isn't letting you borrow this, not that I care, not like he can chase us with his own ship when we're the ones flying away with it." He began to make the climb up the ramp, turned at mid-height and motioned for Malica, "It's now or never. Two-point-five-million or nothing. You going all in?"



[member="Malica Drezyan"]

 

[Malica Drezyan]

"'Nothing' is not an option," she smirked and ascended the ramp at his call. Semi-ancient or not, as long as the Thunderclap got them to the Republic Capital in one piece, Malica wasn't afraid of a bit of turbulence. She followed Upright and Lily inside the ship, anxious to get started on their plan to capture their target Senatorial candidate, Genevieve Lasedri. She brought up Ms. Lasedri's information on her datapad and took a seat within the main haul of the ship. "Tell me about this Ms. Genevieve Lasedri," she called to Upright, figuring Lily was busy preparing the Thunderclap for their pilot. Malica was already formulating a plan that involved stealth; to infiltrate an election event meant you had to think like a politician. While she prefered to walk a tightrope and go the way of disguises, false identities, and charisma, she wondered what Upright was thinking.

[member="The Upright Man"], [member="Cryax Bane"], [member="Geneviève Lasedri"], [member="Solan Charr"]

 

[The Upright Man]

Upright moved through the ship after Malica had accepted the offer. It was a then-and-there situation, either she accepted, came along, possibly faced death at the hands of the senate guard, and if not death, then a few million richer. Or continue life as normal. He moved into the cockpit and sat in the captain's seat, "A lifetime of smuggling from Bonadan to Imynusoph, it teaches you a few things." He glanced over his shoulder, face hidden beneath the dark visage of his faceplate, "Our target is largely unknown. Once we arrive on the capital, I'm making a beeline for the public library. You'll find that public servants have their career information public, maybe we can find a few things about her there. I suggest we start there, once done there we try and locate an infochant, otherwise Lily can go and attend the senate meetings, at least the ones open to the public, and watch her. We might be able to follow her and see where she lives, but that might not be for a week or two once we arrive, maybe more, depending on how long this investigation will last. We don't want to kick her down door, guns blazing, and find out we've got the wrong apartment. That type of stupid behaviour by bounty hunters is what gets them killed. A bounty hunter is part investigator, part assassin." He thumbed the ignition, engine roaring to life. It was not long before the ship began to hover above the ground, and began slashing its way across the stars.

 

[Malica Drezyan]

Malica followed him into the cockpit and leaned on the threshold of the room and the hallway. She listened to his words and nodded, "I agree. Only the foolish fire first. An assasination must be handled carefully." A flashback of a previous bounty of Senetorial canidate Jonas Narr came to mind. While she prefered the way of stealth and silence the infamous [member="Darth Naefas"] had chose a more direct attack. The memory wasn't altogether unpleasant, but she was happy to have a chance to mingle with kindred spirits and go about this mission with caution.

"Perhaps I should visit the public library?"Malica suggested. Upright's shadowed face seem conspicuous to her and, again, with the promise of a fortune, he had bought a larger amount of politeness than Malica usually had to offer.

[member="The Upright Man"], [member="Cryax Bane"], [member="Geneviève Lasedri"], [member="Solan Charr"]

 

[The Upright Man]

The bounty hunter turned around, voicing his agreement, "You would do better off, personally. While you go to the public library, I'll go and take a visit to the underground. I'm sure I can get my hands on an infochant down there, and if not, well I can talk around. I'm sure that if someone has been running for state, then there would be some rumours running around." With the Thunderclap underway, and the void dotted in distant stars becoming a brilliant series of white streaks, the B-17 was well on its path to the Republic capital. Upright held the controls like a seasoned pilot, though he wasn't adjusted to this type of craft, that was clear. He was more suited to something less armed, more mobile. A light freighter. "What do you specialise in?" he asked her.
​

 

[Malica Drezyan]

She watched the stars through the front window as the Thunderclap advanced into Hyperspace. Splitting the task of research and finding the infochant between them was a shrewd move. "I specialize in stealth and sedation," Malica replied, trying to keep the arrogance out of her voice. To bring this much cockiness to a mission might jinx it, but sometimes she couldn't help it. "I'd be more than willing to go undercover if the situation calls for it."

It was exillerating to walk among wealthy politicians; Malica enjoyed posing as an escort, probably too much. Older politicians were drawn to her because she could disguise herself in jewels and a gown well enough to fit in at an elegant party, but wore a hint of Nar Shaddaa sleaze like perfume. Should they need to get close to the target and/or gather fresh information, Malica was confident she could complete the job. For now, flipping through holograms in the library suited her just fine. She couldn't remember the last time she had been asked to strictly use her brain to aid a mission, a realization that caused her to chuckle.

"What do you specialize in?" she asked, returning the question.

[member="The Upright Man"], [member="Cryax Bane"], [member="Geneviève Lasedri"], [member="Solan Charr"]

 

[The Upright Man]

Upright tossed a glance towards Malica, and wondered silently where Lily was on the ship. He answered Malica, "Unless you call quick-thinking a speciality, well, hand-to-hand combat is my thing. I was a professional sportsman not too many years ago, out in Mandalorian space. You'll quickly realise that for those gunning around, if you've got something that'll protect you from being shot, getting in close will do more damage than any gun could, while still keeping them alive. Other than that, small-arms fire. I'm not good, but with MFTAS, I don't have to be good." The ship suddenly lurched, and the white streaks once more became a void that was blemished by trillions of distant stars. "Aside the local infochants, I've got Spook to contact the Spynet to see if they can procure any information on our target. That reminds me, while you're in the public library, see what information you can get on the senate guard - en case we run into those folks, which we will."

 

[Malica Drezyan]

Malica listened to Upright list his skills. She tossed an approving glance his way. "Sounds like you'd make a good ally in a fight and a bad enemy," she joked. Malica looked down the corridor behind her, seeing if Lily Rose had appeared from the recesses of the ship.

"You got it," Malica responded to his command. She had encountered the Senate Gaurd on a previous mission, but was never required to meet them in combat. No doubt the information she gained from the library about the Guard would be useful in during preparations to capture their Senatorial Candidate. Malica thought of her personal arsenal contained in a bag attached to her speederbike. She reminded herself to take inventory before they landed in case she needed to restock once they arrived. She cracked the knuckles of her long fingers, watching Upright's strange reflection in the front window, now contrasting with the white streaks of stars.

[member="The Upright Man"], [member="Cryax Bane"], [member="Geneviève Lasedri"], [member="Solan Charr"]