[IC] Hammer Squad [Star Wars SAGA]

[TridentOfMirth]

Your ship, a "gently used" Wayfarer-Class Medium Transport, bursts out of light speed above the watery world of Dac. The planet's oceans gleam in the light of system's two great suns. Ships of all sizes, makes and models whiz past. You cannot help but be impressed with how popular Dac has become. Many on the world yearn for freedom from the Republic. Many do not. Perhaps the war will come to Dac. Perhaps, one day, you will find yourselves waging open war upon the planet, in support of its freedom-loving inhabitants. In support of democracy. In support of liberty. But, for today, Dac remains firmly under the Republic's thumb. Normally, the squad would be sent out in a CIS military vessel, one equipped for any contingency but today... Such ships would quickly signal to the enemy that a shadow operation was taking place. Such attention is decidedly undesirable.

Your head bows for a second, looking at the datapad before you. It has the mission briefing pulled up. The document stated that the last known location of the scientist - Fo Thals - was in a recently de-gentrified section of Wildwater City called "The Hub". The Hub was a large project initiated by the founders of the city to create a central location for the city's Avant Garde artists, writers, poets, etc., however, the high commercial rents and lack of affordable housing quashed such ideas. The Hub quickly transitioned from a highly desirable place to live into a decrepit slum, a slum filled with off-worlders, vagrants, drunks, the dreamless and drug addled starving artists. Fo Thals was, like most in the Hub, down on his luck. Many years ago, Thals worked at one of the most prestigious universities on the planet, far off in the capital but, after a few scandals, his grants dried up faster than spilled water on Tatooine. Since being fired from the university, Fo Thals has bounced from one thankless job to the next, finally landing a good gig at a small startup called Seed Systems Interstellar. The company creates biotech used in terraforming lifeless moons and planetoids into garden worlds. By all accounts, the scientist was doing quite well for himself. Your document indicates that he was the leader of a hundred-man team. His savings accounts skyrocketed. He even purchased a new condo in the nicer section of Wildwater City. CIS documents do not list what Mr. Thals was researching. That information is classified; need to know only. Whatever he was researching, it must be important - why else would the Senator risk sending a team in to locate Thals and extract him?

The document lists five locations where the scientist frequented:

- Sig's Bookstore & Cafe, a popular meeting place for younger people in the Hub
- The Gentle Pillow, a love hotel located in the red light district
- Crystal View, a new ritzy condo block (where Mr. Thals purchased a condo three weeks ago)
- Enchanted Living, the sleezy apartment block where Mr. Thals lived until he purchased his new condo
- Seed Systems Interstellar Corporate Campus, a small warehouse located in the shipping district of Wildwater City

For this mission, your ship's detachable cargo pod has been equipped with three Zephyr-G Swoop Bikes, all painted a non-descript brown and black. Additionally, the pod has come equipped with a Rian-327 Airspeeder, modified with a canopy and amphibious seals, which will allow it to traverse underwater.

"This is Wildwater traffic control calling," states a harsh, disinterested voice on the coms, "You have been cleared to land in docking bay 49. Due be aware, there has been a rash of missing property recently. The docking station is not liable for any lost or stolen items." The ship's astromech, an old black and pink R4 droid, whirls and beeps, asking if it should take over control for the landing.

Regardless of who pilots the ship into the docking bay, land it does. Out the cockpit window, you can see several small repair droid running up to assess the ship and tabulate any needed repairs. The ship's alabaster-colored protocol droid butler waddles up, "Sirs and ma'ams, the droids outside are most dreadful. Foul, loathsome things. Shall I shoo them away before they damage your new ship?" The TC-series protocol droid was common enough throughout the Trade Federation. Aging, surplus units were farmed out to most diplomatic ships and sites across the Confederacy. This one, in particular, seemed to detest small droids, complaining about them endlessly. "Please masters, I must insist that those nefarious little imps be sent away! For the good of the war effort!"

Spoiler: Wayfarer

Show

Here is a link to the Wayfarer-class Transport.

Your ship does not currently have a name. What will you name it?

[Thundercracker]

Taro Dunn

physical description:

Spoiler

Show

A little short for a human at 5'8", Taro Dunn is of slim build, and typically wears a dark vest over a light, long sleeved shirt, and dark pants. His hair is brown and cut short enough to stay out of his face but long enough he can flip it from one side to the other. He sports a narrow scar across one cheekbone, possibly from a vibroblade that missed his eye by an inch. He usually carries a pair of mean looking pistols, one on each hip, even when travelling through hyperspace.

Over the trip Taro Dunn got to know his teammates a little bit. He was former Onderon military defense force, and spent a few years as a mercenary. He was good with his pistols but preferred to let others do the talking. If anyone cared to learn more he'd have no problem engaging them.

Spoiler

Show

let me know if you'd like more in depth getting to know each other RP.

"No, that won't be necessary," Taro said to the droid dismissively.

"So looks like we've got five places to investigate, where should we go first?" he asked, "I'm thinking the love hotel. People say stuff they shouldn't at places like that."

[TridentOfMirth]

TC-5QN pulls himself away from the "horrifying" view outside the ship to make eye contact with Taro. The droid then hesitantly replies, "I-if you say so, master. I will trust your judgement." 5QN then returns his gaze to the window, a sense of uneasy dread filling the cockpit. Under his breath, you can faintly hear 5QN whisper, "By the maker," as it watches two small droids haul a fuel line over to the ship.

[Darkstorm]

A tanned, tall, muscular man with a feral look on his green eyes drops from the quad laser station into the deck as the ship lands.
“This was extremely peaceful” he exclaims with both regret and surprise as he rearranges his raven dark hair.

Looking at the droid and his reactions he wonders why it hadn’t been memory wiped. It sure looked like it was time for it, but better to play along with it now. Some of these droids could become more touchy feely than sentients and Alares hated drama “TeeCee you keep an eye on them. If they do something strange please inform us. I don’t want the Edgehawk damaged.”.

Alares was, surprisingly, fond of the Wayfarer they were traveling in. Not as advanced as most of the CIS ships, the alabaster ship had something of a rugged charm he was used to. The asymmetric design made it stand out and the small patches of repairs showed history. The new parts that stood amidst older ones gave it character and reminded him of himself now. A new arm, which he was used to now. A lesson learned; a question raised.

He unknowingly caresses the arm as he thinks about the battle, about death, but before his humor darkens he answers Taro “In brothels there are only two things tight – security and lips. They won’t reveal information unless we come from their boss or are full of credits.”

He looks towards the others and adds “Of course there's always giving them a beating. It can open lips, but it bring unwanted attention to us, and can spook our prey. So, wherever we go, we should approach this slow and steady.”

[Phobia]

"But you do realize these droids simply have a job to do?" Alina said, her British-accented voice chirping up yet again, often commenting on things whenever the mood struck her. Which was often. Despite being a very knowledgeable student in the academy, Alina had no hand for droids and so rarely acknowledged them. "They are merely tools of their master's will, as are you." She figured that would probably be sufficient for the mechanical nuance to clang two lines of code together.

"I'm fairly sure going to such a place is forbidden for a Jedi." The Sullustan spoke up stiffly when talk turned to going to the Love Hotel, "And we are certainly not giving someone an undue beating. Our task is merely to pick up a passenger and return them and that is precisely what we shall do. We have been given this individual's last known address, one condo at a place called Crystal View, I say we simply go there to his home and retrieve this Mr. Thals before things become more complicated." She said, smugly assured in the wisdom of her choice, confident that they would all soon be swayed by her infallible logic.

Alina was glad they were merely here to pick up a passenger for transport back and wasn't asked to do something untoward by her Father and the CIS War Effort. It would be difficult to merely refuse her Father after reuniting now, and he had been so kind to her. Finding someone and escorting them reminded her of diplomatic missions for the Jedi Council which pleased her, it was a return to normalcy- she briefly looked over at her compatriots and remembered that one location may be a Love Hotel before swallowing back from anxiety. Well, it was almost a return to normalcy.

"Come now, let us not tarry, and may the Force be with us."

[Thundercracker]

Taro

“Fine whatever,” Taro replied.

Spoiler

Show

im ok with going to the condo first.

[CardTrick]

Tessh didn't say anything at all in response to traffic control as he followed the city's landing protocols and subsequently flipped the switches to power down the ship's engines.

A few minutes later, he comes out of the cockpit and catches the tail-end of the discussion about where to go looking for their extraction target. As he throws in his own opinion, the voice coming from his modulator is notable for sounding very mechanical, "Some of us can't exactly go strolling through well-to-do places without drawing attention. So its probably best if we split up into two groups. One hits his old place and the brothel. The other his new place and the book store. We holler if we get eyes, or meet up at that warehouse if we don't."

Not that anyone could likely tell beneath his mask, but Teesh's eyes briefly scan the group, recalling from their short time together thus far, that pretty much all of them seemed to have all the social graces and tact of a Savrip, including the smug Jedi, "Should probably bring the talkie droids along too. Leave the mech to keep eyes on the ship and be here to start the engines if we need to bail all fast like. Just my two credits."

[RandomLunatic]

"TC, we're honest trader folk. None of this war talk now, y'hear?" Gage chided the droid in his folksy drawl. Despite his tone, his warning to avoid letting their allegiance slip was deadly serious.

"Y'all just want to hit up a brothel on the company cred, don't you?" he asked with a smirk. "Y'all can go. I'll go with the missus."

[TridentOfMirth]

The party exits the Edgehawk and ventures off to their destinations.

Spoiler: Condo

Show

The team heading towards the condo piles into the heavily modified Rian-327 Airspeeder. The craft's black frame is accentuated by a large red stripe running along the side and back of the vehicle. A thin red pin stripe traverses across the hood of the vehicle, along the canopy and back to the trunk. This is a civilian airspeeder, first and foremost. Built for middle class and upper class people on worlds like Coruscant and Corellia. The hull has been modified to work both above and beneath the waves. Although the CIS engineers made the patch look good, it was not perfect. Your well honed eyes easily spot the places where the original frame and the additions meet. Regardless, the speeder is fast, with a surprising amount of pep. The Crystal View condo block is located on the other end of town, far from the hustle, bustle and noise of the port. As you head west, the buildings become nicer and nicer, the people walking about become wealthier and happier. The condo is a massive high-rise, built like a Mon Cal cruiser, with organic curves and bulbous protrusions. The building is beautiful to behold, a one of a kind. It stands in sharp contrast to the other sky scrapers nearby that are built in a more traditional, galactic-standard style.

Following the traffic signs, the airspeeder is led to an underground parking garage. A Mon Cal valet rushes out. He is wearing a vibrant azure suitcoat with striking, black, zigzag zebra stripes. "H-hello. Greetings and salutations. W-welcome to the Crystal View, where the views are spectacular and the service exceptional!" The employee looks the party over once or twice and quickly picks up on the fact that you are not locals. "A-a-are you here to meet someone specific? I can ask the front desk to page them if you'd like. Those who live here are usually not fans of... Drop ins. Our owners seek privacy in all matters. I hope you understand."

Spoiler: Apartment

Show

Hopping on the black and gold Zephyr-G Swoop Bikes, the team headed to the apartments zips past the repair droids, out the open-air ceiling at the port and races off to the slummier part of town. The Zephyr-G Swoop Bikes are an older model but popular out in the mid and outer rims. The bikes were cheap, easy to customize and, above all else, reliable. The Rian-327 Airspeeder, that the other team took, would probably stick out like a sore thumb in the seedier part of town. The speeders were the craft of choice for the well off. These swoops were perfect for the rugged individuals that thrived away from the politics and the byzantine civilization of the core.

The sleazier part of town definitely lived up to its reputation. Refuse littered the ground like sand on Tatooine. Drunks stumble around the street with half empty bottles in their hands. You look at your chronometer, it is noon. Drunken day drinkers. Lovely. A police officer stands on the corner eating a cooked fish on a stick. He watches a Mon Cal woman in a thick coat get mugged. He nods Rodian mugger. The woman protests and screams for help. No one lifts a finger.

The apartment block is built in a very utilitarian, brutal style. Thick concrete slabs with small windows. The building was constructed on the edge of a pier, it extends for 60 meters in the sky and an unknown amount beneath the waves. The entrance is small, guarded by a rigid barred portcullis. A gungan strides out. He is drenched in water. He pulls out a datapad and smiles. He waves to the Mon Cal police officer.

"Mesa thinksa thisa gunna be a bombast day. Ooo, yousa eaten' a kooby fish? Mmm, mesa may get onesa on mesa's way back."

The officer rolls his big eyes and turns his back on the gungan, pretending not to see or notice the man.

The portcullis slams down behind the gungan. "Yikesa! That was closesa. Mesa almost had to go back for new pantsa!"

A droid eye on a stalk shoots out of the wall near the portcullis. A deep voice states, "Your rent is due tomorrow. Do not forget or else we will incinerate your belongs and change the passcode on the door."

The gungan makes a series of cartoonish movements to protest but before the man can spit out a rebuttal, the droid eyes jets back into the building.

[Thundercracker]

Taro

"Don't worry we don't want to be here any longer than we have to," Taro said, "we're here to pick someone up, but his comlink doesn't seem to be working. Do you have a directory down here or do we need to go to the front desk for that?"

[Phobia]

Alina was quiet in the speeder and was grateful that it wasn't a complete junker. She wondered why this passenger cart was modified so heavily, but ultimately she found the subject of mechanics rather dull so didn't dwell on it. The bookish Jedi would rather be reading a book on Galactic History right now or maybe a nice fantasy epic- she'd left all her holonovels back on Coruscant when she had left with Master Oro expecting to return. That was getting to be a while back now.

Alina almost visibly flinched at the approach of the Mon Calamarian, but was quick to notice that it, of course, wasn't Master Oro. The strong and cruel Jedi would never let his voice quiver. She swallowed and waved sheepishly to him, not one for idle conversation, nodding to Taro as he took the lead.

[CardTrick]

Tessh was his usual pleasant company on the ride over to the slum apartments, which were apparently closer to the docking bay then the brothel. Along the way he gives the mugging in the alley they pass about the same amount of notice as the nearby police officer, as his focus is more on the fact that apparently Thals' old apartments despite being a slum were still also a gated community. Fantastic.

Cutting glances at Alares as the comical scene with the soaking wet Gungan played out before them, after the gate droid retracted, Tessh turned to his own droid and in Ubese ordered, "Uggh...Janeane, see if this... fine fellow... knows the target. Tell him... I don't know... we were supposed to meet him the docking bay or something. Just... whatever."

Deftly swinging her mechanical leg of the swoop, the J9 unit immediately proceeds over to the Gungan, and in a polite feminine voice makes inquiries, "Greetings and many pardons, but my master would like to know if you're familiar with his friend, Fo. He didn't show up when we landed and we're trying to figure out where he might have gotten waylaid. He was living here until recently, so master thought he might perhaps be visiting with other friends here. Might you be of assistance, or perhaps simply buzz us in?"

[TridentOfMirth]

Spoiler: Condo

Show

The Mon Cal valet nods, "T-the front desk would be best." He looks Taro over and holds out his hand for the keys. "I... I will go park your car... The front desk is just inside."


The condominium is beautiful inside. Everything seems to be made from crystal or glass, including the walls, the furniture, the art and all of the hanging lighting fixtures. Like the exterior of the building, everything has an organic, one of a kind feel. The main hall is twenty meters wide by forty meters long. Several small shops line one side of the hall, including cafes, restaurants and boutique clothing stores. Opposite the stores, the condo overlooks the beautiful, shimmering sea. Lots of yachts and boats are out in the water, cruising around. One of the yachts, an expensive looking one, is playing host to a big party, complete with scantily clad models. Even from quarter of a kilometer away, you can make out the outline of an very rotund Hutt.

The front desk is located at the far end of the hall. A human stands at the desk. She has long flowing raven black hair and deep brown almond eyes. She smiles pleasantly as you approach, "Welcome to the Crystal View Condominium, where the views are spectacular and the service exceptional!"

She has much more practice with the tag line than the valet did, the phrase rolls off her tongue with ease.

"How may I be of service to you today?"

Spoiler: Alina

Show

As you stand in the main hall of the condominium, you sense... Another force user is nearby.

Spoiler: Apartment

Show

The Gungan is taken aback by the droid, "Hellosa. Mesa name be Kal Sal. Yousa want mesa to let yousa insidesa? Mesa thinkin that is a bad bad idea. Mesa could get in trouble letting riffraff droid inside! Also, mesa behind on rentsa and mesa havin' no job. Mesa gotta go earn some money... Somehow... Or else mesa be livin' on tha streets! And yousa know mesa not made for street livin'. Itsa dank and cold on tha streetsa. Mesa no likin' tha cold! Wesa gungans made for swamp livin' - humidsa and warmsa. Gungans be dyin' if we exposed to tha coldsa. Plus, mesa not havin' any coatsa! Howsa mesa supposed to live on the streetsa? Itsa makesa no sensesa! Hey, yousa master wouldn't happen to havinsa some extra creditssa I could borrowsa? Mesa would pay you back nextsa week, when mesa... New jobsa starts! Yeahsa mesa startin a new job nextsa week and needsa a loan to tide mesa over. Iffin yousa's master havin' the bigsa pockets and the kindsa heart then mesa might be able to opensa tha gatesa for you..." The gungan flashes a very wide smile at the droid.

[CardTrick]

After hearing the Gungan out, Janeane unceremoniously turns back towards the speeder bikes, addressing Tessh in his native tongue, "I'm afraid the organic has indicated no affiliation with the extraction target, master."

To which an annoyed Tessh, offhandedly responds in kind, "Yeah, I heard."

Shuffling in place a bit, Janeane then adds, "If its an consolation, master, based upon the their statements and a cursory psychological profile of the subject evaluated against the sociodemographic data for this area, I estimate an 87% chance of them meeting some manner of horrible demise within the next six planetary cycles."

"You know, that's actually... thanks, Janeane."

"You're welcome, master."

With a nodding glance to the gate, Tessh then switches to basic to inquire of his squad-mate, Alares, "So, you want to try inside or just move on to the brothel? Even if Fo still has friends around here, the mere chance of having to deal with that would be enough to keep me far away."

[Darkstorm]

Alares just shakes his shoulders while trying to sort what the Gungan was saying.

"Let me try, if it doesn't work we'll go on to greener pastages." he whispers.

Turning to the Gungan he says "We're here to deliver goods to a friend. Fo Thals. Do you know him?" he stops looks at the Gungan and adds "If you help us locate him, when we find him, we'll give you part of the pay."

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Alares will burn a Force point to get Proficient in Persuasion and roll (1d20+4)[13]

[Phobia]

"Wait." Alina placed her hand on Taro's arm, "I sense a wibble in the Force. There is another Jedi here." She whispered to her close-by companions, her step dropping back from the Mon Calamarian. She ignored the lady at the front desk and reached out with the Force itself trying to find this other presence.

Spoiler

Show

Sense Force (As a Full-Round Action use this ability to actively sense other Force-users out to a range of 100 kilometers. If you succeed on a DC 15 UTF Check, you know how many Force-users are with range, their approximate distance and direction from you, and whether you've met them before or not.)

(1d20+10)[28]

[RandomLunatic]

"Well that's funny. I thought they only stole kids," Gage muttered back to Alina, discretely flicking his carbine over to double-shot mode mode and looking around for robes.

((Perception - (1d20+6)[7]))

[Phobia]

"Do not speak ill of the order. They are far more righteous than one such as thee." Alina shot back, giving him a glare before returning her thoughts to sensing out this other Force-user.

[Thundercracker]

"Do not speak ill of the order. They are far more righteous than one such as thee." Alina shot back, giving him a glare before returning her thoughts to sensing out this other Force-user.

“Yeah, that’s what I’m worried about...” Taro muttered.