Dominion Shadow Empire: Time is of the Essence | EE Dominion of Anthan Prime

[Felmorante L'lerim]

But Ours Have Just Begun!

Equipment: Haywire I Armor over Viper Mk. I Skinsuit, Duraglide Boots with Boot Rockets
Dark Purple pair of Wrist Dazzlers, 7 Whimsy Knives, 3 Glitter Grenades, 2 Giggle Grenades, 1 Pink Vapor Grenade
Objective: Find the boom thing!
Tags: A ARS VAMI Vidalu Na'an LE-03 (Leigh)

She listened to the adults talk, not entirely sure of what was happening as the volume of the one severely outshined the other. A motion to follow was made, and she did just that. With less pep in her step that usual to avoid being the next one yelled at as they spoke into the thumb voice thingy. They were looking for the boom boxes. Spicy party favors.

Wondering silently if she should save one or not, there was little thought given to much else beside bumping into the woman. Actually, that did spur another thought.

"If there is no boom, won't they come back to see why?" Her eyes were a bit wide at the thought of someone coming to look for their failed explosion. Someone to play with, maybe.

 

[Vidalu Na'an]

Equipment : One(1) shoto lightsaber, One(1) standard E-11D blaster carbine, One(1) industrial-strength syntherope (50m), Libeta (under eyepatch), One(1) encrypted comlink transmitter
Ship: Standard-kit HWK-290 light freighter
Tags: LE-03 (Leigh) , A ARS VAMI , Felmorante L'lerim​

"If there is no boom, won't they come back to see why?" Her eyes were a bit wide at the thought of someone coming to look for their failed explosion. Someone to play with, maybe.

Na'an pinched her nose and let her eye squeeze short, trying to process it all. She was starting to get a headache, between Leigh's assessment and Arrogant Intelligence Guy now threatening her as if being in charge of the situation was actually the thing that mattered. "It doesn't matter that they'll come to see why," she sighed, her voice very deliberately calm. "I'm not going to let innocent people die as pawns in someone else's game."

She pointed back behind the kid, towards where Leigh had indicated the administrative building would be. "If you want to help, there's a building three clicks that way that's a likely target. Go in, find the bombs, and if you can't disarm them at least make sure nobody approaches or touches them. My contact's working on an evac as we speak."

She gave the kid a wan, tired smile through the rising pulse in her head. The affect was a bit...weird, for a kid this old, but at least she was offering sincere help.

As you prefer. We have the position if you want to come with my team as this time we are on the same side. If it weren't a literally explosive situation I would package you and deliver you to EE willingly given the tone. I have only one problem. I don't have real bomb squads, if your friend is then he should join the party. We find the bombs and then? Not exactly our field. I have people watching the casino, and the warehouse is probably where our dead body spent so much time. We go to the warehouse with or without you, send your friend to the casino. When he finds some armed wokiies in the company of a prison face, it means he has found my team.

...

"Uncle can you hear me?". Ars Vami's thoughts were interrupted by the Vales' male twin who called him uncle even though they weren't really related. "If that rebel balloon is right about the mines I have a solution to zero our losses and perhaps those of civilians if we have at least another thirty minutes." "I'm sending all of our modified droids back in Batuu to use them as mine killers. They have reinforced shields and AI autonomy for the job, as soon as we find some we will have a better idea of the situation and then we adjust." Ars Vami smiled for the first time and then on an open channel he said: Rebel of my boots I advise you to wait for me to leave to leave the planet or you will not get out of the atmosphere alive. You're lucky we don't throw ballistic missiles from orbit causing a massacre of civilians. We have missiles capable of knocking down an Isd if hit in one of the nerve centers so you are welcome if you show up at the casino but lower the crest, the kid you heard is 17 years old and as a hacker he is worth more than you since we enter your communications when we want.

"Yeah, yeah, you're a big boy with a big brain, threatening people for no reason, I get it."

And now to deal with the source of her headache. Na'an let her hand drop, leveling a tired gaze at him and just...let him talk. Something about dragging her to the Empress because of her tone....calling some unnamed rebel a balloon, or of their boots? Were those some kind of insult? "I've done literally nothing to you," she said when he was done, "and I'm not the half-child, half-threat you've been talking down to. I'm fine with going to the warehouse. We're already on our way there, see?"

She waved at the path she had already been cutting through the crowd. In the few minutes of his monologuing, they had already gone another half-click by walking standards.

"And if your team is actually smart enough to handle the casino," she continued, "then I'm glad to let them. Just don't...don't pretend you're in charge of me, okay? I'm not in this by choice."

She let that sit with him, although she suspected it wouldn't matter, and continued sidling her way through the path the dockworker had made across the boardwalk. The warehouses were a series of large, unobtrusive buildings at the back of one street corner, all of them guarded by a series of security droids built into the walls.

All of them but one. One of the warehouses had an entrance guarded by the inert husks of said droids. It seemed that whoever had set the bombs, was either incredibly sloppy, or strong enough to be unconcerned about anyone who would walk into the building to accost them. Na'an took a deep breath, dropping her robe against the warehouse wall as she sidled up to the unlocked entrance. She felt outwards, looking for any life signs inside, and found one--two--five, at least---and the dim shapes of what were probably droids of some sort.

Quite a lot of droids. Between that and the state of the dockworker's body, Na'an was betting on the latter. She pulled out the comlink again.
"I'm at the warehouse. Any chance you can cut the lights?"

 

[LE-03 (Leigh)]

Equipment: Passive/Active Holonet comm system, multi-phase arm cannon (part of chassis), Five (5) standard thermal detonators, One(1) 50-meter syntherope coil
Tags: Vidalu Na'an , Felmorante L'lerim , A ARS VAMI

Inside the ship, Leigh allowed herself the tiniest wince. Her human had been ashore for only a few minutes, and already she sounded so tired. So much for letting her have fun playing sabacc with the Force. Fortunately, her connection to the local infrastructure had made some progress. She had not penetrated security enough to trigger evacuaton codes yet, but base electrical circuits were far, far simpler. "The lights in the warehouse will be cut in approximately thirty seconds. I recommend you remove your eyepatch for improved visibility. Allowing their eyes to adjust for approximately two minutes would allow you to blind them with contrasting light--as long as they do not catch you first."

She hesitated before continuing, ratcheting up the comm volume marginally to indicate that her partner's tail was being addressed directly. "I hope I am not being presumptuous to assume at least one live capture would be preferable to killing everyone inside," she said in a clipped tone. "We have no guarantee the live signatures are not prisoners, and any who are not are a valuable resource."

 

[Ingrid L'lerim]

Lady Ingrid L’lerim Ragal Terassi Vandiir
Eternal Empress of the Eternal Empire, Lord Commander of the Wardens of the Shroud
The Red Witch, The Night Queen, Lady Stuztala, Head of the House L’lerim, CEO of the HPI Consortium, Archon of the Primyn Group​

Location: Anthan Spire, Anthan Prime
Equipment: Brynja coat (not wear) | Hersir Imperial Uniform | Viper Mk. I Skinsuit | G1 OmniLink || The Last Gift | Empyrean gland
Tag: Frank Sterling | Open

[ Maybe I should just end it all... ] ​

Ingrid watched as the soldiers set about evacuating the place and escorting the guests to a more distant point. Meanwhile, even more have become ill or in critical condition. Most or everyone seemed to get the poison. Or maybe it spread in the air?

"Roger that! They may have an antidote, you try to find out; more and more people are sick here."

The next moment she heard the beep as the earplug slammed into the wall and probably the connection was broken. She couldn't do anything for a while now, she looked through the Force to see if the man was still alive, and yes, she felt her and there was someone with her. Even before she received the telepathic message from Frank, she used the Force to check for toxins in her own body. But it wasn't; probably regeneration had already overcome it, or since she had nothing to do with an average organism, it no longer mattered.

That's when the telepathic message came from Mr. Sterling, and she didn't have to think about the answer.

~ All right, I'll see you there! ~

With this she set off in the direction of the security room, where she arrived a few minutes later…

 

[Malicar]

KALIDAN - SIX YEARS AGO
Blackness. Something heavy weighed against his leg. He tried to lift it to no avail. He could not help but feel exposed, helpless. It was not a good feeling. It never was. He vaguely recalled the explosion. But the sense that the danger was still present could not be shaken. The chiss was no stranger to the dangers of assassination, betrayal, war, and the overall brutality of violence—which is why he had the presence of mind to survive, not panic. He knew this attack would come, but not this fast. Not this close to home. He had underestimated the intelligence gathering capability of his enemies and the enemies of Tacitus—and now death loomed. They knew that Malicar Raith had the ear of the Emperor and served as the Eternal Empire’s pipeline for logistics—assassinating the Chiss was a no brainer…but Malicar had not looked at the threat objectively. In short, his arrogance had put him in this spot.

But Malicar was a survivor. By all rights, he should have been dead. But both of his bodyguards covered him up at the last minute. They were dead, their parts scattered. He would pay his respects to their grave and their surviving families another day—the Chiss always took care of his trusted. However, today he could not allow their sacrifice be in vain. Survival was the only goal…

With all his might, he pulled his leg from the durasteel beam that had his leg in a vice. Finally, adrenaline kicked in and the chiss was able to slip free from the debris with a stifled scream of pain. Smoke was still heavy in the air. Sounds of whimpering, crying, and the occasional scream could be heard all around him, revealing that not all had been vaporized by the explosive that was set off…with the intent to kill him. He imagined the body count was massive. But he had finished his meeting early. Calling an audible, the shipping tycoon left before the trade deal was set to be concluded. The trade deal went poorly. Malicar mused that for once in his life a deal went sour. It was the seconds that saved his life—most that were close to the point of the detonation were instantly vaporized.

While he was determined to leave this place as quickly as he could amidst the death, destruction, smoke, and fire, there was more to be done at the scene before he left. In fact, he needed to ensure to the outside world he was dead—his time as the Black Sun Vigo had taught him much about survival against his enemies. He left scorched trinkets of his in the debris. But he would need more…

Tearing a small vibroknife from a hidden sheathe at the small of his back, he set his ring finger down, and raggedly separated the digit from his hand, grimacing in pain. One of the nearby pieces of debris was still burning. He pulled a hot piece of metal from the flame and roughly cauterized the hand to prevent blood spillage. Malicar unceremoniously tossed the digit into the flame. Investigators would find the trinkets and the digit, assuming the rest of his body was vaporized—at least that was the plan.

He pulling himself weakly to his feet, he dragged his useless left leg behind him. Malicar surmised he was leaving moments following the blast, so he could feasibly leave without fanfare. A nearby man laid prone, obviously dead, clothes just short of tatters. Barely breaking his stride, the chiss ripped off the hooded cloak that the man was wearing and hastily donned it over his body and head. Taking the emergency stairs, Malicar left the capital of the Eternal Empire, determined to disappear until the time was right. Such was the sacrifice for survival—all ties would have to be severed, without contact: businesses, assets, and those close to him…he was quite certain there would be attacks all over Eternal Empire space, but such would have to be pondered another time…

_____________________________________________________________________________________________
PRESENT DAY​

Anthan Prime Investment Company
Dockyard Sector
City of Anthan Spire
Planet of Anthan Prime
For six years, Malicar had managed to stay under the radar and evade those who sought to kill him. But publicly, he was pronounced dead, killed in the bomb blast. His ruse had worked, so now he was off the grid. It took him weeks to get a full picture of what had happened. Tacitus’ enemies had been brazen with his disappearance. The attacks were devasting and much of the leadership was annihilated, but Ingrid L'lerim had survived and quickly took control, which was good for the Eternal Empire. His companies were still operating. HPI, a corporate conglomerate loyal to the Eternal Empire, had taken over his companies with his death—such was the way of things with no real heir to his own “Empire”. However, there his lawyers were a shrewd, corrupt lot. There was verbiage that would transfer all those assets back to him if he was alive.

Do I even want that life again? Is that the road I wish to travel? Do I pick back up where I was or start anew? If there is an opportunity to take another path, this is it…

Karisa had somehow survived, of which Malicar was quite thankful. Initial reports were that she was dead. The shipping mogul dealt with his sorrow and determined to move on. It was what he had to do. In time, he discovered she was alive and no longer a part of Eternal Empire. He knew this life would not last for her, much like her life with him in Black Sun—Karisa still had strong heartstrings tied to the Ascendancy and her ambition had always been there…she would never be content anywhere else, which Malicar knew to be the case. As such, he had no intentions of interfering or reinserting himself back into her life to complicate matters. She would prosper and find her way back into the chiss nobility once more—Malicar’s path would never take this path again, despite his unreasonable loyalty to the Ascendancy, which hated/tolerated him. It was a pleasant chapter of his life that had come to a close…

And so it was, in “death”, Anthan Prime became his home. It was still close to the Eternal Empire, but far enough out of the limelight that he could stay hidden for the rest of his life if that was what he desired…until now.

For the most part, the Eternal Empire had recovered from the coupe and resumed their slow crawl crawl of expansion across the galaxy, extending its reach from system to system. Now, they had found Malicar’s little corner of the galaxy. But he was not ready to rejoin their lot, not in the way he once was among them—there were still too many questions. While he had done his research subtly while on Anthan Prime, he no longer had the intelligence network, resources, or assets to make such an endeavor manageable. Not to mention, he could not use his name to obtain that intelligence—which made gathering information painstakingly slow. In truth, he was supposed to be dead and that is how he intended it to stay for the moment.

The difficult part of starting over was the beginning. And so Malicar became self-made on Anthan Prime. Through less than honorable means, he acquired enough capital to start a small investment company. He did well for himself, paid the bills and gave him a chance to reflect.

Shipbuilding and shipping has been kind to me, but this road may look different for me now…

Which brings us to today—a day that was certainly different than the usual droll boredom. His small company was being evacuated because of a bomb threat. Part of his “being dead” was to wear a rebreather that covered his entire face. Complete with gloves, it has impossible to tell what species he was. He had worn this type of garb since the beginning. Under the guise of a being that had difficulty breathing the air of this planet, those he worked with simply didn’t think anything about it at this point.

Hurrying out of the administrative building with the rest of the “herd”, Malicar glanced around, taking the bomb threat fairly seriously—this area was not a place that kind of thing just popped up randomly. The area was far too sleepy for this kind of thing. To boot, something was off about the voice that was conducting the evacuation.

Wait, I know that voice…

His keen eyes scanned beyond the herd. Then he saw her.

Na’an? What is she doing here? Are the Eclipse Rebels resisting this takeover in some way? Is she involved with this bomb—on one side of it or the other?

Malicar found the familiar face pleasing. They had crossed paths a few times. In fact, he had covered for her months ago during a rebel raid on one of his business deals.

What a mess that whole thing was…

The force-user would be a key source of information for current events, for sure. There were pieces he was missing and she would know them.

But can I trust her?

Vidalu Na'an was…different. Perhaps that was why she appealed to Malicar. But his instincts were usually right—he decided he could trust her…at least for the moment. In fact, it would be the first time she had more bargaining power than he did: he had no bodyguards, very little in the way of resources, no political clout…just him. There were many secrets between them and neither one of them had acted on any of that information in a negative way. Indeed, perhaps there was an odd trust that had been built.

Veering through the masses, he took a detour and separated himself on a route towards Na’an. She was in a hurry and seemed focused on what she was doing. She wasn’t dressed for “war”, so it could have been that she stumbled onto this chaos…

If the AI is evacuating people, then Na’an is involved in this bomb bit, but how?

Malicar decided he would ask. He had been “dead” for six years. It would be the first person he spoke to that knew he was alive. He followed her to a large warehouse where she crept up to the entrance, much like a military breaching team.

She is about to attack…

He began walking up behind her as soon as she pressed against the building. He heard her communicating with someone over a comlink. Not wanting to startle her (although he suspected she could sense him), his palms were out in a non-aggressive stance and he said from the undisguised vocabulator, “Hello Vidalu…long time. Of course, my timing is horrible, as usual. Maybe I can help and then we chat after this business is done—whatever this business is?”

 

[Vidalu Na'an]

Equipment : One(1) shoto lightsaber, One(1) standard E-11D blaster carbine, One(1) industrial-strength syntherope (50m), Libeta (under eyepatch), One(1) encrypted comlink transmitter
Ship: Standard-kit HWK-290 light freighter
Tags: LE-03 (Leigh) , A ARS VAMI , Felmorante L'lerim , Malicar​

Ars Vami clapped his hand on the woman's shoulder, signaling him to wait to take the pill. After a short message from orbit and shaking his head he opened a channel with the ballroom. "Tom, find the bodyguard of the empress and give them your communicator. I have to talk to both of them and quickly". Then turning to the woman: “Tell your friend that he has company with her. Anyone near his ship who isn't a Wokiie is likely a terrorist or an EE agent. They caught him sneaking into local security, they don't have a clear position but they're not stupid. " Then addressed to: to the bodyguard of the empress: Hi we are acquaintances of the empress, we helped Batuu and we know about the situation at the party but we have other problems out here. My frigates are about to violate a lot of local laws to save the planet from a terrorist attack and we don't have time to even fight with your ships in orbit I have to warn the empress to avoid accidents between mine and your ships ". Waiting for an answer she saw someone who was difficult to identify due to her mask and hood.

...Yeah, she wasn't taking whatever random pill this starbrain had given her. Not after threatening to hand her over to the Empress, not after telling her whatever he claimed it could do was untested, and especially not after literally getting on the comms with the Empire in front of her. She stared down at the little tablet in her hand, wondering if she could palm it and just hold her breath through whatever overkill was in that stupid gas. The stranger didn't seem to know anything real about her besides the fact that she'd been somewhere on Batuu, she could probably get away with it, but was that worth taking the risk? Could she get on the comm with Leigh and ask her without alerting him? No, he was too close. He'd hear.
"I wanted someone awake to talk to," she grumbled under her breath. "Everyone in this gorram galaxy's so intent on being the Big Badass In Charge they just go around wrecking people and never learning anything, how am I the dumb one when everyone's busy shooting heads and snapping necks and stunning all the witnesses--"

He began walking up behind her as soon as she pressed against the building. He heard her communicating with someone over a comlink. Not wanting to startle her (although he suspected she could sense him), his palms were out in a non-aggressive stance and he said from the undisguised vocabulator, “Hello Vidalu…long time. Of course, my timing is horrible, as usual. Maybe I can help and then we chat after this business is done—whatever this business is?”

​

The voice cut through her frustration like a stunbolt. Na'an pivoted on her toes from where she was kneeling, pocketing the pill to come face-to-face with a tall man in a mask. For a second, the familiarity of the voice was the strange part--confusing--and she blinked her eye up at him owlishly, trying to process where she knew that voice.

And then she inhaled, and whatever the Force had in her now reached out and joined what was under the mask. Felt it, and knew it like she knew herself. Like she knew her own breath. It smelled like sunlight coming through a city window--cold and warm all at once.

"Oh."

What the blazes he was doing here could wait. Where he had gone, abandoning his promises of helping the Eclipse, could also wait. The words that came from her lips next were completely unplanned.

"That's a real rebreather, right? With a proper filter?"

Na'an rose to hold out her hand to Malicar expectantly, her eye abruptly calm.

 

[Malicar]

"Oh."

It was about the response he had when he first saw Vidalu, but he had the advantage of taking a moment before approaching her.

“Yeah, I know. Lots of thoughts. I am there.”

She continued.

"That's a real rebreather, right? With a proper filter?"

It was not quite the response he was expecting, but she was right smack dab in the middle of shenanigans, so he was sure there was reason enough for it.

“It is indeed a filtered rebreather--you have plans for this little charade I am maintaining?”

Na'an rose to hold out her hand to Malicar expectantly, her eye abruptly calm.

Without question or pause, he grasped her hand and allowed her to guide him, if that was the intent.

“While I enjoy a good waltz with a beautiful woman, I am sure what comes next will be far from such a scenario, won’t it?”

Vidalu Na'an
A ARS VAMI
LE-03 (Leigh)
Felmorante L'lerim

 

[Vidalu Na'an]

Equipment : One(1) shoto lightsaber, One(1) standard E-11D blaster carbine, One(1) industrial-strength syntherope (50m), Libeta (under eyepatch), One(1) encrypted comlink transmitter
Ship: Standard-kit HWK-290 light freighter
Tags: LE-03 (Leigh) , A ARS VAMI , Felmorante L'lerim​

Na'an couldn't help but snort as the businessman slid his hand into hers. She stood, but rather than guiding him towards the door, she simply pulled until his head was at her level, bending him almost double in the process.

"It's cute that you think that," she said, and released his hand to unclip the rebreather from his jaw.

As she slipped off her eyepatch and slipped the mask onto her own face, Na'an couldn't help but wonder at how comfortable she'd gotten with such gear. She'd never liked having her face covered as a youngling, but as her and Leigh's time in the Unknown Regions stretched on, more and more whispers of the Ghost--the name the people had given her, whether she liked it or not--had made masks or helmets a necessary part of her work with the Rebellion. She'd never lit on a consistent look, but maybe if things like this kept happening, she should have something on hand just in case. At any rate, once the mask was on, it didn't really matter whatever the intel guy had been saying. It didn't even matter that she was fighting when she should be on shore leave. The Force had settled into her bones, and that meant Go Time.
Na'an turned back towards the warehouse door with the stun grenade in one hand, and unclipped her shoto from her belt with the other. When she flicked the ignition with her thumb, the entire space thrummed with crimson light, and she thrummed alongside it.

"Going in," she said, positioning the blade. Two quick slashes would cut through the door, letting her burst in right as Leigh cut the lights. "I'm taking at least one of those people alive and conscious. Malicar, if you've got other people on some ship like he says..."

She paused, considering. "I dunno. You two figure it out. Like you said, this ain't a democracy. Door's coming down in three...two..."

The door thumped--the kind of dull, electrical noise of a lot of industrial lights all turning off at once. Leigh had made it into the systems right on time. The living voices inside bellowed, clearly startled by the sudden darkness. Before they could get their bearings, Na'an sliced once, twice, and before the cuts could cool reared back to kick the door inwards and launch herself right into the droids' midst.

Malicar had said this would be no dance, but then, Malicar had never seen Na'an's Ataru.

 

[Frank Sterling]

Equipment: Hades corp uniform, M-18 pit viper, Speed reload cylinders, combat knife, Gen 2 armor, Surgical field kit

Frank would toss the man into a holding cell in the security area before beginning to bandage his face and chest seeing Ingrid just as he began bandaging his face. "feel free to work him over Though i feel his vary cooperative if he doesn't want to deal with me anymore." Frank jestered to the table with a rifle magazine and small vial. "i don't know but that small vial might be a cure in the case our assassins here accidentally infect themselves."

 

[Ingrid L'lerim]

Lady Ingrid L’lerim Ragal Terassi Vandiir
Eternal Empress of the Eternal Empire, Lord Commander of the Wardens of the Shroud
The Red Witch, The Night Queen, Lady Stuztala, Head of the House L’lerim, CEO of the HPI Consortium, Archon of the Primyn Group​

Location: Anthan Spire, Anthan Prime
Equipment: Brynja coat (not wear) | Hersir Imperial Uniform | Viper Mk. I Skinsuit | G1 OmniLink || The Last Gift | Empyrean gland
Tag: Frank Sterling | Open

[ Maybe I should just end it all... ] ​

By the time Ingrid arrived at the cell, the assassin, who was a human man, was already in the cell. Frank didn't look too good in the present state. The assassin did not seem to give himself up cheaply. Yet amateur work that let him be captured. Unless he had real to lose or it was just intentional. The Empress did this more than once in her younger years when her work required it.

"You call a doctor droid to take care of your injuries!"

Told the man. What followed this, it depended on the assassin how clean or dirty would be. Ingrid had learned a long time ago how to interrogate and torture someone and she was damn good at it. So, if necessary, she will torture the man to find out the truth about who sent him and why. She never enjoyed doing this, it was just a job for her. Not to mention that it can last a long time. That's why she wanted to find an easier way. Who is sick and infected… they might not have too much time.

She reached out in the direction of the other's mind with telepathy. There, however, she came across something very well known to herself, which she was not very happy about. If she forces it further, the man will be killed. This would probably not have been recognized by most, they would have just moved on. Ingrid also learned from the fact that she had used this method before.

"Damn it! The drug is not there, this person is just a sacrificial pawn. There is a mechanism in his mind that kills him when someone tries to extract information from his mind by telepathy, Force, or technology. The same can prevent a person from talking about something they shouldn’t. Someone really wants to keep their secrets…"

 

[Frank Sterling]

Equipment: Hades corp uniform, M-18 pit viper, Speed reload cylinders, combat knife, Gen 2 armor, Surgical field kit.

Frank walked over to the man's gear after Ingrid did her interrogation. Frank Had by this point finished bandaging his wounds As he grabbed the blaster rifle and bandolieer has he looks over to ingrid "With all due respect My lord my wounds can wait after all I'm an expendable asset a soldier and a mercenary. Until my mission is over and you and your people here are safe i will continue my mission, my internal bacta systems are implying the necessary drugs and medical to my body to heal the wounds." walking to the door of the security area he looks back to Ingrid.

"with little time left to save those hurt i won't waste any more time, they might not be my people but i can't let them die on my watch." Zipping up his jacket and tightening his bandoleer he checks the map he has on this building. "I'm going to move and clear every floor for any of the assassins but...."

Frank stopped for a moment as the wheels in his head began turning Picking up the vial that was with the assassin's gear. Handing it to Ingrid.
"This isn't a cure however it's the poison. i just realized that if these assassins are the same as that one they will all be this way to keep info from leaking. They weren't given a cure but more poison as they were expendable."

 

[Malicar]

"It's cute that you think that."

The chiss was pulled down to her level and the mask was unclasped from his face. Instinctively, the former shipping mogul pulled down the hood. His glowing red eyes narrow at the human and quips with dripping sarcasm, “I see your sense of subtlety and décor has not dissipated. Fabulous.”

Looking back, he just ignores the person with them and adds to Na’an as she affixes her “newly acquired” mask to her face and prepares to breach, “Sooo, not a good time to chat, obviously. I will endeavor to catch up with you following this…whatever this is.”

"Going in. I'm taking at least one of those people alive and conscious. Malicar, if you've got other people on some ship like he says…I dunno. You two figure it out. Like you said, this ain't a democracy. Door's coming down in three...two..."

Malicar looked over at the other and back at her, “Hard pass on joining him, thank you. Not blowing up either, so on you.”

His gauss pistol slid into his hand from the small of his back, underneath his billowing cloak, ready to follow the force-user in after the grenade(s) did their work…

Vidalu Na'an
A ARS VAMI
Felmorante L'lerim
LE-03 (Leigh)

 

[Ingrid L'lerim]

Lady Ingrid L’lerim Ragal Terassi Vandiir
Eternal Empress of the Eternal Empire, Lord Commander of the Wardens of the Shroud
The Red Witch, The Night Queen, Lady Stuztala, Head of the House L’lerim, CEO of the HPI Consortium, Archon of the Primyn Group​

Location: Anthan Spire, Anthan Prime
Equipment: Brynja coat (not wear) | Hersir Imperial Uniform | Viper Mk. I Skinsuit | G1 OmniLink || The Last Gift | Empyrean gland
Tag: Frank Sterling | Open

[ Maybe I should just end it all... ] ​

" Maybe, but a good military leader also knows when to sacrifice or save their men. This is not the day of sacrifice."

She told the man and not to turn back. The Empress was still watching the assassin, she would have gladly dug herself deeper into the man's mind, hoping she would be fast enough, but she knew shee couldn't be that fast. Maybe a Maniac level AI would be able to do it, but that sort of thing wasn’t feasible and Maniac wasn’t available either. And of course the AI wasn't capable of that.

Ingrid turned around when Frank handed her the vial with the liquid. Nodded at the man's words, only to agree that it was certainly not an antidote, it was much more likely that it was indeed a poison. So she couldn't let that fall into the hands of the enemy. Thanks to Adrian, she was already familiar with chemistry and things like that, so the red-haired woman would do it herself at home or here in the right conditions.

"Go, but don't kill yourself. There is only one thing I can do to save everyone. We have the poison, hopefully we will be able to synthesize the antidote from it. In the meantime, everyone here needs to suspend the functioning of their bodies to stay alive. I see no other solution than carbon freezing."

In fact, she had already made the decision that she would do so, but she still looked at the soldier to see what he thought of it; for he is risking his life for those who are here.

 

[Frank Sterling]

Equipment: Hades corp uniform, M-18 pit viper, Speed reload cylinders, combat knife, Gen 2 armor, Surgical field kit. Blaster rifle

Frank looked back to Ingrid "I will make no promises I can't keep my lord but i will try not to die if that's what you wish, Ill buy you as much time as i can to get these people into a suspended state However to limit casualty risks ill patrol this floor to minimize the chance of an assassin trying to sabotage that Plan." grabbing his blaster rifle and loading it up before doing the same for his sidearm frank injected himself with a stim from the surgical kit before looking back to Ingrid one last time.

"May the odds be ever in your favor my lord." And with that frank left the security room to begin patrolling the surrounding area so that those infected would be able to safely get their carbonite freeze without complications furthering their situation.

 

[Rath Nihro]

Objective: Long Live the Empress
Equipment: Sk-RS MK. IV Armour, Nelvaanian Sword, KC-95 Ace of Spades, Vibrodagger, KC-47 Hybrid Strike Rifle

Imagine Rath’s surprise when he was informed that he would be leading an investigation regarding the unfortunate events that occurred at a most recent ball. Multiple nobles had fallen ill, and many had perished from the sickness. Originally Rath was meant to simply stand guard over the investigators, but over the comlink he was just informed by their superior officer that Rath was to lead the operation. Anthan Spire was a capital the Rath wasn’t familiar with as he rarely ventured out this far. Not without his Aegis as a Warden.

Currently, Rath is in a dimly lit room that has a wall of monitors as technicians work swiftly to watch the feedback from the previous night. The intimidating helmet is held at his hip as his face is exposed for everyone to see who he is, yet the yellow eyes of corruption scanned the monitors as his mind worked to break down what had occurred. However his focus was momentarily disrupted when he noticed a small presence to the side before a soft, timid voice spoke.

“E-excuse sir… Excuse me sir, but I have that list you requested.” Rath glanced over to see the same asa’nyx with dark white striped fur garbed in technician overalls. In her hands was a datapad that had a list of names and photos of each person that had attended the ball. He silently takes the data pad into his hands and begins to scan through the list. Majority of them were nobles, or at least someone with high standing in the Unknown Region. What he was looking for was simply getting a grasp of who all was supposed to be there. If an outsider infiltrated the ball then they could possibly single out that person, and it was a bit fortunate that the majority had gathered in the main lobby for the ball. If the food was poisoned which seemed likely as that was the only thing the victims shared in common. Yet something Rath noted was that not everyone who ate and drank the food fell sick. Which suggests that whoever placed the poison was only targeting specific individuals. A cold comfort resides within him as Rath secretly hoped that whoever did this missed their target.

However, he also cannot rule out the possibility that one of the other nobles might have attempted to poison their rivals. The asa’nyx was fidgeting as she displayed anxiety and nervousness.

“Thank you, Spark. Take this datapad to Nuadia and have her analyze these people’s backgrounds. Anything from reports to articles.” Rath calmly instructs as he hands the datapad back to her. As Spark accepts the device into her hands, she has a sense of uncertainty.

“Nuadia is the Data Engineer, she’s over there.” The young man directed her with a shift of his eyes as Spark turned around to see a focused woman with long red hair. Wordlessly, Spark rushed over as a bothan with two gold earrings on the left ear came up to Rath with a datapad in hand as well.

“It would seem your intuition was correct, Officer. The food and drinks were indeed poisoned. However…” Rath’s full attention was directed to the bothan who was named Ber Mon’nev, and he was also the analytics manager from a medium scaled company within Anthan Spire. With a turn of the datapad that revealed a name with a small description on it. Dentriton Toxin as it were, but the mere sight of it begged the question from Rath.

“That poison induces intense pain and paralysis, but that wouldn’t have been enough to kill anyone.” Ber’s expression raised a brow as if he just found a kindred spirit who thought the same thing as he did.

“Precisely sir, which is why I dug even further with the help of Dr. Ren that the poison itself worked too slow for anyone to catch. Dentriton is painful yes, and we would clearly be able to see if someone was experiencing something like that in the feed before us. Even then, look at this man here…” Ber pointed out a human dressed sharply in a purple tux that was in the middle of chatting away with some company and had a intricate glass cup in his hand (whiskey glass). The man gradually demonstrated signs of fatigue and even stumbled around a bit.

“The man was drinking, so he probably was too drunk for that…” Rath started to say before the man suddenly collapsed against a smooth white wall. The sudden change of action brought an idea in mind, or rather a thought that it wasn’t Dentriton at all. With a quick tap on one of the technician’s shoulders, Rath pointed out the man in the purple suit.

“Follow the feed involving this man here. Find out what he was doing beforehand and after that specific time.” Swiftly the technician had one monitor rewind back an hour and had another monitor continue playing the feed. The man, after stumbling that caused some alarm with the people he was conversing with, appeared to apologize and retreated to the halls. After tracking him down, the man had retreated to the refresher and that was where they lost sight of him. The technician looked over his shoulder as he was unsure how to proceed from there.

“Keep an eye on that feed.” Rath instructed before he turned his attention back to Ber and his voice lowered into a whisper.

“If memory comes to serve correctly, and if that man comes out unconscious then I fear the poison we’re looking at is called Manax-root. Follow up with Nuadia and Spark regarding the nobles’ backgrounds and see if any are known for illegal dealings.” Rath hates the thought that this was an inside job, but Manax-root was a lethal substance that’s difficult to get a hold of. Because of that, Manax-root is often sold at high prices, but such prices wouldn’t mean too much to the noble with decent wealth. Ber nods his head in agreement and treks over to the two technicians. Leaving Rath’s mind to dwell on the foreboding matter.

 

[Ingrid L'lerim]

Lady Ingrid L’lerim Ragal Terassi Vandiir
Eternal Empress of the Eternal Empire, Lord Commander of the Wardens of the Shroud
The Red Witch, The Night Queen, Lady Stuztala, Head of the House L’lerim, CEO of the HPI Consortium, Archon of the Primyn Group​

Location: Anthan Spire, Anthan Prime
Equipment: Brynja coat (not wear) | Hersir Imperial Uniform | Viper Mk. I Skinsuit | G1 OmniLink || The Last Gift | Empyrean gland
Tag: Frank Sterling | Open

[ Maybe I should just end it all... ] ​

Ingrid even nodded to Frank as he left. And the woman spoke into her communicator.

"Here Empress L’lerim speaks; start carbon freezing those present at the event immediately. There is no exception! There is a good chance everyone is infected and the poison is fatal in all cases, even if everyone has a different duration of action. Until we have an antidote, all it takes is for them to survive. No one should accept a negative answer, let everyone hibernate! This is an order!"

After Kalzeron, there is such an enemy here as well; the same probably. Who were they and why did they show up now? These were very good questions; she very much hoped that after analyzing the poison they would get an answer to this question. After all, this was the most important thing for the Eternal Empire. And now she did what she had to do. By the time she got back to the crowd with the poison, the soldiers were already escorting the people to the right place.

She looked at them emotionlessly as two soldiers went into the assassin's room to take care of him. Ingrid wanted to make sure everyone was frozen. If it was, she headed for one of the labs; it was time to take the poison analysis more seriously.

Maybe she can find a solution here…


//Last post.//

 

[Frank Sterling]

Equipment: Hades corp uniform, M-18 pit viper, Speed reload cylinders, combat knife, Gen 2 armor, Surgical field kit. Blaster rifle

Frank patrolled the area until the last of the civilians were processed making his way back to his slagged armor he put all the salvageable remains plus helmet into his back injected another stim into him and sought out a medical Droid. while waiting he sent a message to Ty stated the job was done and would be expecting payment shortly before keying up his comms and contacting the empress.

"Well my lord I'm going to rest and recover I look forward to working with you in the future."
[last post]

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Edit. Delete!

 

[Vidalu Na'an]

Equipment : One(1) shoto lightsaber, One(1) standard E-11D blaster carbine, One(1) industrial-strength syntherope (50m), Libeta (under eyepatch), One(1) encrypted comlink transmitter
Ship: Standard-kit HWK-290 light freighter
Tags: LE-03 (Leigh) , A ARS VAMI , Felmorante L'lerim , Malicar​

The fight itself was over in seconds. Na'an wove through the cluster of droids like a dancer through a stand of bamboo, her blade flashing to slice head and limb and chassis as she moved. Her eyes-half-closed, she could register the sound of shouting and growls--the arrogant man's Wookiees, at least, were no bluster. She let them take out the ones on the outskirts, counting on their mechanical need to adjust to the sudden dark to take care of them.

Her focus, as she'd said, was on the living. As Leigh had projected, there were five of them: two humans, tied up, with three more standing over them carrying blasters. They'd trained the blasters on her from the moment she burst in, but the arrival of the Wookiees had pulled away the attention of two of them. The third, then. Na'an swung her shoto around her body, blocking one-two-three blaster bolts as she closed the distance, then slammed into the tallest of them. The being--a human male, the fall of his hood revealed--stumbled at Na'an's sudden weight, then fell, with Na'an landing on top of their chest and her first, still holding the stun grenade, half-lodged in their mouth.

"I'm going to talk," she growled. Malicar's mask didn't change the tone of her voice, exactly, but added a harsh, artificial note that sent a shiver through the human's body she could feel through her legs. Interesting. For someone willing to murder innocents, this man was wonderfully easy to terrify. "You're going to answer," she said silkily, leaning into it. "If you lie, I'll give you to the Wookiees. Got me?"

The man nodded, his breath hitching. Na'an nodded in return, loosening the grenade slightly. "Attaboy. First, the bombs. We know about the ones in the administrative building, and the casino, and in the docks. Are there any more?"

The man shook his head; his teeth scraped her knuckles. Na'an leaned in until, had she taken the mask off, she would have been close enough to kiss him; his heartrate quickened under the skin of her wrist. He was panicking, sure he wouldn't believe her; his eyes tracked wildly, as if looking for some expected answer that would satisfy her. Na'an snorted again--for a terrorist, this man was a terrible liar.

"Okay," she said finally, and she could feel the fall of the man's chest as he exhaled in relief. "So you know your little operation's failed. Now, for motive. Who sent you here? What's this about?"

The man's breath, uneven from her weight on his chest, stopped entirely. Now, rather than looking at her, he'd looked to the other two beings. One of them had already fallen at the hands of the Wookiees, but the second was fighting remarkably better than someone untrained would have been able to. From this angle, Na'an could see the head of the fallen being--specifically, the high, pointed forehead as it rolled away under a massive hairy foot.

A Cerean. Another Cerean.

The recognition sent a bolt of something icy down Na'an's spine. She leaned down into the man's chest, pushing the stun grenade roughly further into the man's mouth. She flicked the ignition of her shoto to deactivate the blade, then brought the hand up to meet his eye. "Oooooh, don't think I didn't see that," she said too urgently; she could feel herself smiling shakily under the mask. "I bet you'll recognize this, too."

She drew the symbol--three bent lines around an empty core--in the air just in front of the man's eyes. In response, the man's eyes widened in terror until she could see the whites all the way around. He twitched for a moment, the muscles of his arms tight as wires, before he started to thrash under her, forcing her to lean in to keep him down.

"Blast it, stop!" she said roughly, fighting him. If she leaned too much into his head she could hurt him, make him choke on the grenade, or even just get thrown by the heavier being, but damn it all, she wasn't done. "Just tell me what it means! Why the temple, why the Cereans, why--"

But he was gurgling now, a horrible wet sound, and through the Force Na'an could tell something had gone wrong. She removed the stun grenade from his mouth, still untriggered, but the thrashing wouldn't stop. He must have had something on him--a capsule built into a molar, a sensor built into his wrist she hadn't had time to check, something--but he'd managed to trigger it despite the hold.

"No, no no no--"

She got off the human, hoisted him up to a seated position, even held his head upright in her hand, but she could feel it was already late. The human chuckled, spitting out wads of foamy spit, and looked at her with a horrible knowing in his eyes.

"You know," he said wetly against her fingers. "Old stones always call."

That phrase again--old stones, old stones, why does he know the old stones--deepened the icy feeling in Na'an's gut even further. And the man must have felt it in her, just as much as she felt the knowing in him, because he spent his last breath laughing at her confused alarm. But it wasn't at Na'an he was looking at when he died.

It was at Malicar.

 

[Felmorante L'lerim]

SOMETHING WICKED

Equipment: Haywire I Armor over Viper Mk. I Skinsuit, Duraglide Boots with Boot Rockets
Dark Purple pair of Wrist Dazzlers, 7 Whimsy Knives, 3 Glitter Grenades, 2 Giggle Grenades, 1 Pink Vapor Grenade
Objective: Complete the objective.
Tags: A ARS VAMI Vidalu Na'an LE-03 (Leigh)

She had been given a task. Something to do and be helpful at too. Fel did not wait after the directions were given, heelie boots engaged as the rockets scooted her across the shipping yard with ease. Until she found a spot that was cracked and had her tumbling.

The ladies words were still in her mind as she face planted. The taste of blood on her tongue a stark shock as something in her mind rose sharply before settling.

Implementation of facet shift. Source, external source of damage encountered while enacting objective. Enabling shift to A-48 facet. Suppressing C-71 until goal completion.

Her hands had spread while the familiar voice rang inside her head, warning her about what was to come. Thoughts scrambled, her physical voice gone as something shifted and burned. Her muscles tensed, seizing as her teeth ground and sweat beaded on her forehead.

The burning subsided.

She stood quickly, silent as her eyes took in her surroundings. Hands patted her garments, feeling the knives before her goal rang loud and clear. Directions recalled, she wove between crates and boxes while drawing a blade from its hidden holster.

Weighing it while she walked, she found the center of balance before frowning sharply. A poor throwing implement, but she at least had a better idea how to handle it. The handle flipped from a thrust grip to and ice pick grip, further familiarizing herself with the weight as she kept herself from being seen more than once by those still present.

A specter passing through, intent on the warehouse she had been instructed to clear. Her steps were carefully measured, the easy fall and rise making no sound as though she were a loth cat stalking.

The warehouse emerged into sight as she flexed her wrist, a twitch of surprise as a port opened on the wrist device she wore. Examining the cables quickly granted her insight before relaxing her wrist and shutting the port.

The corner of her vision she spotted the rocket assist mounted towards her upper calf, quickly setting them in a different position to propel her foot downward before spotting the large doors of the building.

She pondered a moment, leaning to pie the corner of a stack of crates as she spied piping leading to a second story and granting access to the walkway leading inside.

There was no smile as she moved with grace towards the piping and scaled. No inner thoughts to betray her actions as she moved forward, her goals appearing in her mind as she moved forward.