Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos

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The Big Empty

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Slum District G17 | Coruscant

The Slums. No one really ever chose to be there, it's just the hand they were dealt. No matter where you shine a light, it always produces a shadow. Even in the Coruscanti underworld, the downtrodden live in the shadow of the more fortunate. That shadow provides an outlet to an evil which would exploit it to commit atrocities against their fellow citizen. To that shadow to do battle with that evil are the officers of the Coruscant Security Forces.

"CSF Homicide.", Kellyn said confidently, flashing his credentials as he strode through the holographic crime scene tape Permitting entry of him and his partner, the Guardian police droids stepped aside and continued to maintain a perimeter. As with any crime scene, crowds were gathering to catch a glimpse of a body, and reporters to feed the information to the masses, even if it meant interfering with an investigation.

An alleyway - how typical. He'd been on the force for coming up on four years now, and he'd proven himself to be something of an enigma. Still, even at the cost of his peer's sanity, he flaunted the very traits that saw him bypass his peers. This was no intelligence work, but the methodology and analytics of it all had more overlap than one would think. Kellyn approached the body and knelt as the uniforms stepped back to continue taking notes.

One dead Rodian, slumped against an alley wall behind an outdoor incinerator. The wrists were twisted in an unnatural fashion, a large burn mark on his abdomen. Kellyn picked up the victim's wallet and looked inside. Credits were still there, but ID and other credit chits which might identify him were absent. Whoever did this at least had common sense, and that was the very worst sense for a criminal of this type to have. It made his job that much harder.

"What do you see, Erantes-do-Nascimento?"

[member="Joy Erantes-do-Nascimento"]
 
Coruscant, Slum District G17, Crime Scene, Undetermined Time | Hurricane




"Do you have to say that every time? The badge says Valeria, you know." As her partner knelt next to the poor Rodian, Joy stood behind him with crossed arms. Crime scenes, they never got easier, but this one was particularly gruesome. Leaning past Muir to get a better look at the corpse, her eyes were drawn to the unusual wrists, "Uh, hm. He... Looks bound. Restrained somehow, fried like a dune lizard in the sun. Awful way to go if that's how it went."

Lingering on the buggy, dim eyes of the victim, the detective pulled her gaze away to look at the gathering throng of pedestrian and reporter alike. She didn't hide the growing disdain, "Privacy's too much to ask these days. Without the crowds, though, this is as good a place as any to dispose of someone. Didn't burn him enough, though. Rush job?" Scratching at her forehead for a moment, the Nyriaanan moved past her crouched partner and the victim to the incinerator, carefully surveying the machine but careful not to touch too much -- If she set it off by accident, that'd give the cameras a show all right, "Nothing in his wallet?"





[member="Kellyn Muir"]
 
"Does it now?", he mocked.

He also noticed the nearby incinerator, and the idea too floated his mind that something could have interfered before the killer was able to finish the job completely. No... If it was a botched job, he wouldn't have bothered to take the identifying information out of the wallet in the first place. And it certainly wasn't a robbery with all the credits in there. A few hundred wasn't enough to grab attention in many places in the galaxy, but in the Coruscanti underworld, people have been killed over less.

"Just the creds...", he said as he began to drift into thought. He propped himself back up and looked for the stripes. By the edge of the police tape, he stood talking to his guys. Whether he was about to issue a statement or just managing crowd control, he was the one in charge of the scene. He turned to the officer not more than a couple meters away and told him to get his sergeant.

"Blaster mark, missing identification, and a way to get rid of everything?", he summed up talking to himself, deliberately loud enough for his partner to hear what was going on in his head. He turned his head upward to do a quick scan of the adjacent walls. "There's got to be a camera somewhere."

Snapping his fingers, he pointed to one.

"What is it, detectives?", the sergeant asked irritably. Great. One of those officers.

"No one filled us in when we arrived. You want to brief us, or do we not do that anymore?", Kellyn quipped. He ranked below sergeants in both authority and seniority in most cases, but his brash attitude in dealing with some was a gamble. Often times though, given the gravity of the situations, it would catch them off guard and their demeanor would quickly shift to a more compliant one. Such was the case here.

"First on scene was Gonzales over there.", he said, pointing past Valeria. "We're canvassing for witnesses and evidence, still. No luck on recovering the murder weapon, but it looks like it was a blaster."

"Thanks.", Kellyn said, dismissing the senior peace officer. His arms now crossed, he turned to face the body once more, leaning slightly to Valeria to mutter discrepancies in the sergeant's usefulness.

"What do you say we go find where that camera films to?"

[member="Joy Erantes-do-Nascimento"]
 
Coruscant, Slum District G17, Crime Scene, Undetermined Time | Hurricane




"Ahh," She nodded, a pleased grin flashing across her face, "Got it. Probably one of the chithole dives around here, honestly." Sticking her hands into the pockets of her marked windbreaker, Joy moved to take up Muir's flank as she passed by the dead Rodian, her mind already starting to try and fit the pieces together of what could have led to that poor man's death.

So far there weren't enough to make a pretty enough picture. Pressing her lips together into a thin line, her eyes wandered around to the various businesses surrounding the alleyway. To the left, a rather grimey looking cafe. And then to the right, a somehow dirtier bar. Both looked rather decrepit, but somehow fit perfectly into a crime scene.

Sighing, Joy looked up to her partner with unexcited eyes, eyebrow raising, "Take your pick, Muir. 50/50 shot, though they might not even let us look at the records without a warrant. Put on that winning smile, time to charm the locals."





[member="Kellyn Muir"]
 
Kellyn let out a wry smile at the notion of charming the locals. The very notion suggested there were fun times ahead. Going outside the boundaries of the police line, the detectives approached an iron green door, their first obstacle. It was almost comical how something so trivial could be so challenging. Only for this duo, it wasn't.

"Coruscant Security!", Kellyn said loudly, pounding on the door with a closed fist. The shop was closed, but whoever owned it would be with them shortly. Shops around these parts more often than not had someone affiliated with it residing above. Often times, it was the owners, and they were the store's only employees. Help could get expensive, and the cost of two properties even moreso.

It had been a solid minute with no response. Kellyn pounded on the door, repeating who they were. A short while after, a groggy Sullustan opened the door.

"Oh feth me. What do you want?", he said irritably.

"You have a security camera in the alley. We need access to the footage."

Rubbing the back of his head, he spoke again in that same irritable tone.

"You got a warrant?"

"Yea, right here.", Kellyn said, drawing his service pistol as he forced his way inside. Too disgruntled and too tired to do anything about it, the Sullustan played ball.

"Where is it?"

"Closet behind the counter, top shelf."

Pending confirmation from his partner, he'd take the gun off the shopkeeper and dismiss him back to his slumber upstairs. They were cops, not gangsters. They needed the video, not to send a message. If anything, he did that when he came in.

[member="Joy Erantes-do-Nascimento"]
 
Coruscant, Slum District G17, Crime Scene, Undetermined Time | Hurricane




Joy suppressed a mildly amused expression at Muir's 'diplomacy', sliding past him into the shopkeeper's abode after offering a simple nod in response to his glance back to her. It was a rather cramped used parts store, various heaps of metal and circuitry piled about on counters, on shelves, on every conceivable makeshift surface. And, of course, everything reeked of motor oil. Coupled with the dingy lighting and the awful ventilation, one thing was for sure.

This was definitely a Coruscanti storefront.

Nose firmly wrinkled, the Detective continued into the store following the directions the Sullustan owner had provided. Through a wide doorway, behind the main counter, and with a flick of the handle the cabinet indicated opened to reveal... Nothing. Well, not nothing, as after a second a screen appeared from a hidden holoprojector, displaying the alley in its current state of police tapes and forensics droids.

"Now... Let's see what we can find when we re-wind. Muir, do we have a time of death?" In reverse, actions began to unfold, as Joy watched her own arrival with Muir, the CSF cordoning off the area, the crowd arriving. All of it streaked past backwards, the speed increasing with every passing second moved backwards in time.





[member="Kellyn Muir"]
 
It took a few moments for him to fully recollect the details Gonzales had given him.

"Ed said it was right around 04:20. I didn't see a coroner out there, though.", he said, with hardly a shred of confidence.

Kellyn holstered his weapon as he looked around the dark shop. Dusty and messy, as most small individually-owned shops were. He didn't know who'd buy wares in a place this downtrodden, but he had higher standards than what some of those in D17 had.

"Where the feth are they!", he heard a voice shout from outside. Muir's stomach sank. The captain was on scene, and he didn't sound happy.

"Keep at it - I'll be right back!", Kellyn yelled quietly to his partner. He opened the door and proceeded outside, and almost immediately the captain was making way toward him. His face was beet red, and there was little doubt it wasn't from the police lights. "Yes, sir?", he asked politely. He knew how to handle boss types like this.

"What are you doing? Where's Valeria?", he snarled.

"Detecting, sir.", he responded as ambiguously as he could. "We found security footage, we're trying to see if it has anything useful."

"In there? I saw you come out, Muir. I don't think anyone in this neighborhood is likely to open their doors for you at this hour."

"Well, sir, it is rather chaotic now. If we didn't wake him, the crowd outside certainly did prior to."

With an audible grunt and scowl, the captain yielded. For now.

"If I get any complaints, you're out of overtime for the month.", he said before returning to discuss with the sergeant on scene.

Ensuring the captain wasn't turning around, Kellyn scuttled back into the shop.

"Please tell me we found something."

[member="Joy Erantes-do-Nascimento"]
 
Coruscant, Slum District G17, Scrap Shop, Undetermined Time | Hurricane




That's not good.

Joy's focus heightened as Muir went out to buy her time, scrolling backwards in time faster now. 5:30, 5:50... 4:40...

She scrolled right past 4:20 and saw absolutely nothing abnormal.

Frowning, Joy quickly scrolled forward again, ensuring to go slow, almost frame by frame. Chit! There was nothing, just an empty alleyway. No, not nothing, there had to be something, anything... She had limited time, so Joy opted to make a copy of the recording in that specific time frame instead of repeating it over and over and wasting even more time, pulling out a datapad to make the transfer with. Her first instinct screamed one thing.

Someone had wiped the tapes, either broke in to do it or somehow did it remotely. Perhaps with further analysis they could figure out whatever had happened. One thing was for sure though, this wasn't just a random killing. Professionals were indeed involved, and that made her blood run cold.

Shutting the cabinet after the copy had completed, she turned just in time to see Muir re-enter and her expression answered his question completely, "The tape's fething clean, but I'm putting creds on somebody tampering with it. Hopefully someone at the station can give it a deeper analysis." Joy held up the datapad, indicating the video now had a second home on that device.





[member="Kellyn Muir"]
 
Kellyn rolled his eyes as he sighed in disappointment. How could there be nothing? Kellyn was about to join her in the back too see if what she said really was true, but by then she came out with her datapad in hand. It's not that he didn't believe her, he was just in disbelief there was nothing. How?

This was beyond their realm of expertise. Kellyn was nuanced in more social and political affairs and was a far cry from adept in technology and the like. He didn't know was Valeria's specialties encompassed, but it'd probably behoove him to learn them sooner rather than later. They were an effective duo now, but could admittedly stand to be more harmonious in the discharging of their detective duties.

Groaning, Kellyn moved to the door. No point in sticking around here. They saw the body, they had uniforms canvassing the scene for evidence and witnesses. The forensic team would uncover any DNA or other identifying information not normally immediately available to the investigators on scene. There was no point for them to be there anymore. The door jingled as he pushed it open, once again revealing the nosy crowd and busy worker bees working on the crime scene. Kellyn did his best to walk behind the crowd to evade detection. Fortunately, he was one of the cops that wore the badge on the belt and it was far less noticeable than those who wore it on their chest or around their neck.

"Mario will want to take a look at this.", he said as it became clear they were heading to their patrol speeder. "I'm driving."

[member="Joy Erantes-do-Nascimento"]
 
Coruscant, Slum District G17, Scrap Shop, Undetermined Time | Hurricane




"Ah, yes, Mario." Joy muttered in almost sullen agreement, "I think he hates me. Ever since I karked his coffee order, man..." Levity slipped into her tone despite the circumstances and the semblance of a smile dripping with sardonicism formed, the tablet tucked safely under her arm as she moved to follow him. If detectives truly were blindly loyal dogs as some criminal types claimed, then at least this one had a scent, and with a scent came a solid lead and a body in jail.

A couple reporters and pedestrians threw glances at the pair as they moved away from the scene towards the speeder -- Really, anyone and everyone was getting stopped by the small crowd of 'concerned citizens' armed with cameras and questions as they tried to exit and leave, though the holographic police line and crowd management droids were enough deterrents to keep them at bay. A couple weakly called out questions, too faint to hear, no doubt constructed to string along an angle. Down this deep? Journalism lost its touch. The precious cargo stored on the slim tablet found a place in the side-door of the speeder as Joy moved to take the shotgun seat, glancing over at her partner for a split second across the vehicle. And even as she pulled herself into the chair, she couldn't help but bring it up.

"Sounds like the Cap' gave you a hard time. Do I smell probationary duty in our future?"





[member="Kellyn Muir"]
 
"Probably for me, at least.", Kellyn jested. "No worries though, I'll send you an invite. I'm sure the captain will approve."

As the doors of their unmarked patrol speeder whirred to a close, the engines spun up and they began rising. They went from zero to one hundred real quick, and soon they joined the rest of the traffic in the Coruscanti skylanes. This case was strange. Most criminals in this part of the underworld were either too stupid or too careless to cover up trace of their misdeeds. There was a third, though seldom observed motive for not doing so: confidence. Though none of them applied here. A tampered tape, whilst evading detection no less, was no small feat for someone in G-17. If Mario wasn't able to yield anything from this, Muir feared this case would join the already thick stack of cold cases at the precinct.

Only minutes later, a large well lit building bearing the seal of the CSF came into view. Significantly smaller to the other precincts topside, this one still managed to tower over the other buildings in the slums if only to remind them that the law was watching. The engines began to wind down as the ship descended onto a parking platform.

"Thanks for meeting us out here, Mario.", Kellyn said as he stepped out. The thin figure looked almost ghoulish as he waited by the doors leading inside.

"Muir.", he greeted curtly. Glaring at Joy, he pulled Kellyn closer. "What's she doing here? You know I don't like girls."

Not bothering to conceal his amusement, Kellyn answered. "She's my partner, Mario. You'll get used to her. Maybe."

Standing back up straight, he flicked his head to get Joy on line with them. "What do we got for the man, Erantes-do-Nascimento?"

[member="Joy Erantes-do-Nascimento"]
 

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