The Panatha Job

[Jorus Merrill]

PANATHA​

PACANTH REACH​

FRINGE CONFEDERATION​

The starship Gypsymoth was, by all accounts, an unexceptional light freighter. Unlike most unexceptional bulk freighters, however, it had a cloaking device, which activated about a second after reversion. Its captain had picked a fairly busy transit zone, a system sector where Epicanthix freighters were constantly entering and exiting hyperspace. Customs stations weren't too far away; Panatha was heavily autocratic, after all. There was every chance they might notice that a ship had just arrived and instantly vanished -- or there would have been, if the Gypsymoth had been the one jumping. Instead, it was clamped to the outside of a bulk freighter, a normal and scheduled shipment from a boat whose captain owed Jorus a favor. The little cloaked YV-929 broke away from a gap between hull and engines, and carried on through the traffic towards the planet. On the off chance Panatha had a rare, expensive crystal gravfield trap, the Gypsymoth stuck with the traffic to make its gravitic signature impossible to pick out.

Beyyr, Miktik, and Iron Giant were busy elsewhere in the ship, leaving the cockpit for Jorus and [member="Ayden Cater"].

"Some say he's dead. Not a lot of hard data out there after the Pubs nabbed him. But the Zambrano clan rules this planet -- most autocratic world in Fringe space, maybe includin' the Rakata worlds -- an' if he really did have these holocrons yer after, like the old Empire files mention, they might be at the palace. Place is monstrous huge. Friend of mine got a holopic, smuggled it out to me -- check it."

He brought up an image on the dashboard holoproj. "It's on the largest peninsula on the east coast of the central continent. All around the bay, here, there's a string of sunken ships. They say it's from the last rebellion. Didn't go so well, from what I hear, but information's hard to come by. No idea what we're up against, what we'll have to sneak past."

[member="Darth Vornskr"]

 

[Ayden Cater]

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

"I don't know, Merrill. Are you sure this is the Zambrano palace and not a homeless hovel?" Ayden rolled his eyes at the obscene decadence that was on display in front of him. He never did understand the idea of putting your wealth on display like this. To him, it was just begging for someone to come in and steal your valuables. And that's exactly what he had in mind when he had contacted Merrill about the possibility of a job. He had learned of the elusive man's talents and decided to put them to use for the ultimate good. "Any more subtle and I worry that we might have had to go door-to-door asking for the place." He pulled a mesh hood out and turned it over in his hands before putting it to the side and standing up to stretch.

"So what's our angle of entry? Front door is gonna be too guarded and I doubt Kaine left a key for us to use to get into the back." Ayden ran over a mental check list as he scrutinized the holopic. Places like this tended to have several different entry points, not all publicly known. "Security is gonna be tight on the inside too, I'm sure. Sentries on every floor, probably guarding the inner vault at all time. It's not gonna be an easy job." He tapped his chin thoughtfully. This was certainly a difficult task, probably closer to the nigh impossible end of the spectrum. But that was fun for a Corellian, beating the odds, and Jorus seemed to have a preternatural penchant for hitting the longshot. Yet another reason to have the man as part of the job. "Our best bet is probably going to be watching the place for a few days, get a sense for their outer patrol patterns, see if anyone regularly comes and goes. Not the fastest way in, but probably the safest."

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Ayden Cater"]

"Agreed. The slow play's the smart one here. If we're going to take a couple of days to scope things out, we'll need a base of operations." He touched the holopic. "Right here, the base of the seawall, away fromthe docks and the coastal defense stations -- we can verify that with the popup sensor node, little thing the size of a shockball on a stick, pokes up through the cloak bubble. Gypsymoth can hover long-term, especially with Beyyr and Miktik aboard, and the cloak's a lot more stable than it used to be. We leave the ship cloaked, right above the water. I've got low-profile hoverpacks to get in and out, and I'll draw a chalk mark on the seawall where the ship's at. Grabbed a couple of those Levantine Scanpacks for the deep mapping, but I'd prefer we do most of our work with the wrist bits Silk made for ya -- got those in the locker too.

"Oh, and everyone here is Epicanthix. My hair's dark enough, yours...maybe. There's dye in the 'fresher 'less you want to take your chances."

He steered the Gypsymoth down through the atmosphere, slow. Reentry at most speeds had a flame, but most of that was contained within the ovoid hibridium field; they looked like a meteor, but a small one, routine. He saw little, just flame and the black cloaking bubble behind that; he steered by instinct, and brought them down to the seawall's base.

 

[Ayden Cater]

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

Ayden stepped out of the refresher a short time later, his hair considerably darker. His facial features had been altered a bit as well. His chin appeared more pointed, his jaw less square. Yet the most striking change came from his eyes. Epicanthic folds had been added to his the corners of his eyes, completing the disguise. As he walked back into the cockpit, Ayden dropped a small, square container in Jorus' lap and looked at him with a grin. "Unless you want to take your chances." Inside was a gummy material and a small brush he had used to make the folds. "At least this way we'll be able to walk around out in the open."

While sitting there, Ayden frowned. "There's one last hurdle we need to overcome. Epicanthix are completely immune to having their minds read with the Force, but any of them with the Force could certainly pick us out of a crowd. Unless we hide our Force signatures." He sat back and considered potential solutions aloud. "Ixetal Cilona won't mask us. We don't have any ysalamir." Pausing, he looked at his hands then back to Jorus. "I might be able to hide our presence. We'd have to stick pretty close to each other for it to work, and I don't know how long I could keep it up. Unless you have a better idea."

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Ayden Cater"]

As Ayden spoke, Jorus got to work on the eye disguise, squinting at himself in the 'fresher mirror. He emerged, brushing cosmetic powder off his Rebel Alliance signet ring. "Yeah, I've got some, ah...here, let me dig'em out."

The region just aft of the Gypsymoth's bridge had more than a few lockers, some of them weapons-grade and code-keyed; Mara Merrill spent much of her toddling time on this ship. He squatted by one, pondered the code for a second, then came up with a couple of rotund pendants on utilitarian chains. "Taozin amulets. I may not be stupidly wealthy anymore, but I kept a toy or two -- that, and my sister may have her challenges, but she knows her critters. This right here is genuine A-grade grub skin nodule." He slipped one over his head and tucked it under his shirt. "They won't make ya totally disappear from the Force, but they'll muddy the waters more than enough."

He tossed the other Taozin amulet to Ayden and moved to the next locker over for scanpacks and repulsor pods.