Neia Kahleesi
Syvris System
Piloting the Maiden Neia did the last systems check as she brought the vessel down on a berth on the surface of the moon, turning around she looked at Mirelle standing behind her while she and the other cockpit crew were working at the controls. "Can you tell the others we are about to touch down and prepare to disembark?" The jedi nodded, dressed a little less conspicuous than she would back on the station in the Kwenn system, her sabers hidden under her clothes but easily within reach.
She walked out of the cockpit and headed to the sections where the others were, Maaike was looking over her slicing tools and equipment while the Twi'lek courtesans and HK-51 were checking to make sure their weapons had a full charge pack in them. All of them, save the assassin droid, were looking up as Mirelle approached. "We are about to land according to Neia."
Maaike smiled ruefully and patted her tools before covering them up and placing them in her satchel, securing it to her waist. "Let's hope this will not turn out to be a disaster in the making."
Mirelle frowned when she heard her say that. "Bit of a pessimistic view, I hope you are confident in your skills, because if this warehouse has any security we probably need you to disable them."
Still smiling Maaike shrugged, "Oh I'll manage, one thing I'm wondering about is why you are going along with this? I mean... aren't jedi all... well, not into breaking and entering, theft, all that?"
She rubbed her cheek a bit embarrassed and then looked down on the ground. "Wellll.... from what I understand this man who the warehouse belongs to makes some shady deals on the black market and is on par with the Syndicate if not worse apparently? And it isn't as if the jedi have been paragons of justice lately, we all had to do what we had to do to survive. We aren't stealing from someone who funds charities or something similar and I promised to help out Neia for giving me a home, people I trust... a family. So no I don't have a problem, you?"
Maaike smirked and got up, stretching. "Oh no problem at all, will be like old times."
Meanwhile back at the cockpit Neia was talking to Vette who was following them in her vessel, Passing Shadow, "You found a place to land?"
Vette's holographic image nodded, "I have Neia, I will be joining you and the others shortly on the ground, think this won't be as easy as it looks?"
Neia shook her head, her eyes looking out of the front viewscreen as Syvris's shadowport came into view. "When has it ever been as easy as it looks? No I am expecting trouble of some kind." She smiled and spared a glance at Vette's holographic image. "I rather have my best friend there with me as back-up if things go rather sour."
The Twi'lek operative chuckled and smirked, "Also a bonus that your best friend is also a expert marksman. Anyway I'm cleared for landing, see you on the ground in twenty." With that she signed off, leaving Neia to pilot her ship to her assigned landing spot after which she and the others would meet up with Vette on the ground as promised before making their way to the warehouse.
Following the information given Neia and her people make their way through the streets of the shadowport to a warehouse section, meeting less and less people on the streets as they go. Soon enough the street is abandoned save for themselves and they stop in front of the warehouse belonging to the black market dealer. It appeared currently not occupied and in service. On the right was a large loading dock for ships and speeder transports to deliver and pick up goods, the loading dock doors were sealed naturally of course. On the left was a more common door, probably for the employees, it was locked as well but had a console panel to the side, which seemed to require a keycard of some kind to enter.
Neia looked at the warehouse, she felt some foreboding for some reason and turned to Vette and HK-51. "You two, please circle around the warehouse, look for any sign of occupancy or guards then report back." With a nod both Vette and HK-51 went into separate directions to circle around the warehouse, front to back looking for anything out of the ordinary.
After a number of minutes both report back, HK-51 seems certain no meatbags were inside the premises, Vette als agreed that it seemed the warehouse was empty, besides that her enhanced eyesight had spotted a back entrance to the warehouse, cleverly hidden at the side in a passageway between another warehouse. It also had a console panel but it had appeared older and less maintained than the one at the front.
"Thanks Vette, HK. Let's try that backdoor, from the sound of it that panel is easier to slice into, though I can't speak for that, not the slicing expert here." She turned to Maaike, "You ready to do your specialty?"
With a grin Maaike cracked her fingers. "Love to, give me a moment and I'll see if I can slice that door open or perhaps see what kind of security we can expect." She said, eagerly brandishing her slicing tools as she urged Vette to lead the way and once they had arrived at the backdoor motioned everyone to back off while she went to work with the panel.
While trying to get around the security protocols Maaike accidentally slips her hand and crosses a few wires she shouldn't, freezing in place but it seems, on the surface at least, no alarms were set off, though she had no idea if there were any silent alarms. She murmured that she could keep trying though. With a click the locks of the backdoor were disengaged but she did not open the door yet, turning to Neia. "I can open the door, but I do not know if there is a alarm attached to it, I can keep slicing and see if there is a alarm and shut it off, or just open the door and take our chances, your call."
She bit the bottom of her lip and sighed, "Try to see if there is a alarm system... just... don't set it off while searching for it please." She looked to the others and gestures for them to keep a lookout for anything.
After a while Maaike didn't find anything or she had already disables it and opened the door, closing her eyes and holding her breath, only to release it wit ha sigh and open her eyes when no sirens or anything of the sort were heard. "We have gained entry it seems Neia."
She nodded, hardly relieved, they seemed to be able to get in, but would they come out again. "Vette you take point, HK you are second, me and the commandos will follow up with you Maaike and you Mirelle taking the rear, let's go in and see what there is to see."
What there was to see was a rather dark, dimly lit warehouse, large stacks with crates of all sizes were stocked together, labels here and there of what was what. Searching for one container, a small one at that, would be a rather momentous task. Near some of the stacks were cranes and lifters obviously designed to reach the top shelves and get the crates from there down to the ground.
Vette looked up some of the stacks and the paths between them. "So... how do we find that one specific cargo crate?"
Smiling Neia reached for her datapad with the information that had been given to her by her contacts. "The crate is labelled Jabiim vegetables, spoiled. Probably a false listing to draw away suspicion as for where to find it. Well I imagine, or hope at least, that there might have been consoles near the stacks that contain information about the warehouse contents and with a simple search function can locate it. That or find the main office and look for warehouse manifests of the contents there." She pondered, "Don't want to spread out too far... Ok we split up in teams of five, each of us taking one of the courtesans with us." She nodded to the Twi'leks who had their blaster pistols out and at the ready. "We can cover more ground that way but I want us to keep in constant contact and as soon as a team finds a terminal or the head office, report in and guide us to your location so Maaike can work her slicing magic again."
Once divided they set out in search for a console or anything that might help them to look for the cargo crate.
The only sound were the soft footsteps of the burglars as they wandered around the stacks Mirelle and the courtesan with her almost getting lost in the stacks before they managed to find their way out and bump into Maaike and the courtesan with her. Eventually a sudden transmission burst came over the communicators and it was Vette's voice, announcing they had found the main office or at least what she thought was the main office and described how they got there. HK-51 was about to respond to the meatbag he understood and would make his way there when he suddenly leveled his blaster and aimed at the third row of a nearby stacks, the courtesan following suit. "What?" She asked.
HK-51 was silent for a moment and then came the sound of something scuttling over the crates, getting closer and closer, before it suddenly... stopped. After a pause the sound did not return and the courtesan relaxed a little. "Vermin?"
"Skeptical Remark: Perhaps. Eager Anticipation: Let's hope it is not vermin but something that means us harm so I can kill it." With that he lowered his blaster carbine, somehow ,despite his droid features, one could almost see he was dissapointed he didn't get to shoot anything.
Eventually all the teams were reunited at the main office which was a closed section and once again appeared to need a passkey of some kind to enter.
Without even asking or looking at Neia, Maaike already stepped forwards with a grin to unlock this next puzzle.
The next puzzle appeared to be of a newer generation than the security on the backdoor and Maaike activated a protocol she really shouldn't. The door remained shut, what was more a yellow light next to the door suddenly turned red and a tremor was felt by everyone. Maaike had bigger issues however she saw what was coming and quickly let go of her slicing tools and jumped back, putting distance between herself and the security console as a power surge went through it, ruining her slicing tools, but luckily for her did not shock or harm her in any way thanks to her reflexes.
It was clear however, this time a alarm of some kind was activated, the repercussions of it would soon become clear.
Maaike was cursing but Neia paid no regard to it. "Well there we have it now, no other way but to try and blast that door open I suppose." She gestured to the Twi'lek courtesans to come forward, they were trained in demolitions and grenade use they could probably find a explosive way into the office, without blowing it completely up. "Everyone stay alert, I think we will have company soon." Maaike was grumbling going over her ruined tools with a sigh, she had coem attached to those tools over the years.
No sooner had she said that or her words came true, HK-51 was the first to notice, hearing the same scuttling sound as before and sharply turned around to look at a far section of the stacks they had all come from, sure enough something came into view, making the noise. Vette turned a moment later, just in time to see the first emerge. A droid of some kind, scuttling on six legs though both the photo-receptors of HK-51 and Vette's eyes were drawn on the heavy repeating blaster attached to the underside of the robotic 'spider'. Upon seeing them it blurted out a series of clicks and whistles, which HK-51 could understand as it was a variant of a droid dialect. <"Identify yourself or die.">
Vette kept her eyes on the droid but spoke up, "Neia... company is here and it doesn't look friendly."
She turned away from the courtesans working with demolition charges and widened her eyes at the sight. "Security droid of some kind?" She asked out loud, hoping anyone could confirm that.
HK-51 let out a sound of wonder. "Amused Clarification: It seems to be a security droid, yet it should have fired when it should. It just asked us to identify ourselves or die. Foolish machine, the meatbag who programmed it to protect this place should have it open fire at once when it encounters intruders that are not recognized."
Vette hissed, "Let's not give it ideas."
"Agreed." Neia replied, "HK you could speak to it? Perhaps you can convince it should leave us be and that we are supposed to be here?"
There was no need for that, while the security droid could only speak a droid language it was well capable of understanding galactic basic and when it heard the assassin droid it knew these were intruders and opened fire with it's heavy repeating blaster. But the five blastershots were shot wide and did not hit anything, at the same time as it was shooting it let out a loud screeching sound. Which was answered by several similar sounding screeches all around the warehouse followed by rapidly approaching sounds of scuttling robotic spider legs. Meanwhile the courtesans told Neia it would take at least three minutes to set up the charges properly in the right proportions.
Neia cursed, "Shoot it! You, you and you, keep working on blasting that door open. Everyone else, defensive positions if you can and destroy that droid and any of its friends that are no doubt converging upon us! Activate your shield generators if you've got them!" She finished shouting, opening fire with her blaster along with the others at the first droid.
Neia and HK-51 were reacting faster than the others blasted the security droid apart, HK-51's precision shots doing most of the damage however while Maaike it turns out, discovered her blaster had a dry power pack and needed to replace it, quickly because other spider droids, all armed with repeating blaster cannons scuttled into view from the pathways between the stacks and some on top of the stacks. All in all, eight droids had arrived and were opening fire.
One fired at Neia the blasts impacting on her shield, thankfully being soaked up but seeing as it was a barrage of several blasts the entire shield was completely depleted after the barrage. Maaike managed to duck out of the way as the droid targeting her fired, its shots going wide while she put a new charge pack in her blaster. Two spider droids, who had witnessed HK-51 being the main target for his shots on their fellow security droid opened fire on him. He managed to evade the first barrage but the second hit him full on and actually managed to sever his leg with the blasts. Thankfully HK-51 was a droid and had no fear of bleeding out as he landed on the ground and managed to crawl upright and resume firing if he wished. He was just not as mobile as before and could probably not evade a second barrage.
Mirelle had her lightsabers out and ignited and this prompted two more droids to select her as a target. The first fired and the blasts were aimed perfect, Mirelle however decided to deflect them right back at the droid's power supply and as the blasts hit him there it suffered a rather severe case of being torn apart to pieces as a explosion wracked its spider-like body and it dropped off the stacks, forcing the other droid to quickly step out of the way, foiling it's aim at the jedi.
Another fired at Vette but she rolled out of the way, too nimble for now to allow herself to be hit like that. The last fired at the Twi'lek courtesans but their armour and shields soaked up the hits, for now.
Seeing HK go down Neia shouted to Mirelle, "Go to HK-51 and protect him! Now pick your targets and fire. Vette you and me fire at that one, HK and Maaike, the one over there in the stacks, guards, focus on the one shooting at you all!" Mirelle meanwhile obeyed Neia's command and went to HK, ready to deflect incoming blasterfire, she could use a ranged ability to perhaps inflict damage as well but instead decided to call on the force to instill her friends and comrades with courage and strength as she used the force power valor.
The spider droids quickly scuttled into cover behind cargo crates or stacks of the warehouse, only HK-51 somehow manages to shoot and destroy one. The two Twi'leks firing had somewhat worse luck as their weapons jammed somehow.
The spider droids seemed to have time needed to adjust their aiming as the next barrages all shot wide, the Twi'lek courtesans forced to duck for cover while trying to get their blasters to work again. The last spider droid scuttled over the stacks rapidly and turned its cannon in the direction of Vette and opened fire, emptying the charge pack of its weapon but to devastating effect. It burned through her personal shield and then impacted on her armour, penetrating it and hitting her square in the chest. Her eyes wide as she fell backwards, still alive and breathing but badly hurt.
Neia looked with wide eyes at Vette, holes appearing in her armour as her shield dissolved and she fell to the ground of the warehouse. "NO!" She exclaimed and squeezed the trigger of her blaster at the droid that had done this, the others firing too, if able. The Twi'lek courtesans quickly asking for their comrades to toss the mblasters that werent jammed so they could also return fire at once.
Seeing this and feeling her force valor being in effect she decided to become more aggressive as well. Tapping into the force to gather a bunch of loose objects, sicne this was a warehouse that ought to be easy and hurl them at any spider droids that were in close proximity of each other.
It was utter chaos as blastershots were fired all over the place but hit none of their intended targets, Mirelle's boxes hitting empty air as the spider droids quickly scuttled to cover, Neia herself suddenly felt the grip of her blaster become hot and only due to a sense of warning threw away her blaster just as it overheated and exploded, in fact not taking her hand with it which might have happened if she had been holding the blaster still.
Meanwhile the demolition charges the three Twi'leks had been planting were set and went off as soon as they backed away, the controlled charges doing their job unlike everyone else at the moment as the door was unable to withstand them and was blown open but more importantly allowed the three courtesans to rejoin the others in fighting off the security droids who were about to open fire again.
Perhaps too eager for the kill of intruders the droids fired again, most missing once more, the one firing at the Twi'leks managing to keep them in cover, another, who had its charge pack emptied firing at Vette attempted to charge at Neia but tripped over one of the crates hurled by Mirelle and needed to get its footing back. Mirelle meanwhile was rather hard pressed as two of the droids fired on her but her protective bubble managed to soak up the hits that came through her deflective parries, while one of the droids was screeching out 'error, error' as its own blastershots returned to him and destroyed him.
Seeing the one what had shot at Vette go down Neia gritted her teeth and retrieved her electrostaff, charging at the thing before it could get up again and see if she could destroy it with electric shocks from her melee weapon. The others kept firing while Mirelle put up a new protection bubble around herself before using her electric judgment force lightning on a target.
HK-51 and the Twi'leks managed destroy another spider droid each, HK on his own while the Twi'leks needed to combine their firepower to bring the other down. Mirelle's green lightning missed it's target while Maaike just missed, shouting out she was never good with shooting. Neia meanwhile had to halt her charge as the spider droid reared up and lashed out with one of it's legs like a spear. Neia was able to stop just in time and not impale herself on the droid appendage.
The droid facing Neia decided to lash out with its legs, trying to stab and tear into her. The one who had been shooting at her still saw it had a high chance of hitting it's fellow droid and went for a new target, firing with the other two who were still operational.
Neia managed to block the strike coming at her with her electrostaff, the others were not as lucky, Maaike's shield was hit by a full burst of one of the droids, while Mirella was also saved by her force protection. One of the Twi'leks was not as lucky as she became somewhat perforated by the droid's blasterfire riddling her through.
Neia was looking for whatever controlled this droid's actions, it's central processor or the like to make a strike at it and hopefully kill it swiftly while everyone else resumed firing. Mirelle leaving HK-51 to charge at one of the spider droids to get it within melee range of her sabers.
Noticing what might be the droids central processor Neia lashes out against it and scores a hit, electric surges coming through making the droid spasm and shudder before it collapses to the ground. Probably determined to avenge their fallen sister the remaining courtesans open fire with well-aimed, controlled bursts from their blasters. Destroying the remaining spider droids without effort. The last sound being a mighty crash as one of the spider droids crashes from the stacks to the ground below. No sound of other security droids are heard approaching.
Taking a deep breath Neia was shivering all over, leaning on her electrostaff as she took stock of the situation, HK-51 seemed only irritated at the loss of his leg, probably his saving grace that he was a droid. Her heart stopped however upon seeing Vette still lying on the ground and she rushed towards her, checking her pulse, feeling there was one still and that the Twi'lek operative was breathing still. "Mirelle! Get over here! Quickly!"
The jedi answered the call deactivating her lightsabers but instead of hiding them placed them at her belt. Kneeling beside Vette she reached out and placed her hands on the wound, concentrating on the living force to help heal the wounds Vette had suffered. They were all rewarded with Vette coughing and spluttering, blinking as she looked around. "Am I dead?"
Neia let out a sigh of relief and laughed letting the pent-up nerves and fears lift off her shoulders. "No, you are not, sorry if that is a disappointment."
"Oh no, I like living... besides, Boher still owes me thirty credits and I intend to collect those, but not over my own dead body thank you. I am okay Neia, just need to stay in a medical bay for a while I think." She said, wincing as she traced over the blaster holes in her armour. "Thankfully I didn't only invest in a personal shield but also some armour."
Making sure that Vette would stay alright she asked Mirelle to look after her while she went to the courtesans and looked down at the dead commando. "We will not let her remain here, make sure she is brought back to us so we can give her the burial she deserves back at the Nova Retreat." The other courtesans nodded, their faces neutral, one of them handing the blaster of their fallen sister to Neia because she had lost her own. "Thank you." She murmured, placing the blaster at her waist and then looked at the door of the office. "Time to get moving again." She said to herself as she went in to look for a manifest of any kind to look for the crate labelled Jabiim Vegetables.
It seemed that the owner of the warehouse clearly liked order because Neia needed barely any time to search the records for what she needed to know and found the exact location of the cargo crate in question, as well as the best route from the office to get there.
Surprised that she found it so quickly she gave the task of retrieving the crate to Mirelle and two of the courtesans while she, Maaike and the other courtesans would do their best to carry their dead and injured to the backdoor entrance to get out of this place.
Mirelle and the two courtesans didn't run into any more spider droid security droids and found the crate, it was a small cargo capsule, barely able to contain anything it seemed and yet Neia's contact had informed her the contents were quite valuable, it could be carried by a single person. One of the courtesans picked it up and carried it to the exit and within moments they had rejoined Neia and the others.
They left through the backdoor and headed back to the street, once they reached the street they were bathed in light from a speeder spotlight, revealing the silhouettes of four humans, blasters drawn and aimed at the group. "Hold it right there... drop your weapons. The boss would like to have a word with you all." Came a voice from the speeder.
Neia cursed silently, were these in the payroll of the black market dealer? Had they also activated a alarm that alerted him wherever he lived? Either way, she had wounded with her, even one of her people dead and had no desire to be captured and possibly tortured. Luckily most of her people had comlinks implanted under their skin so all she had to do was whisper to them. "I want grenades thrown towards those people and everyone else open fire with blasters. Knowing Maaike and the Courtesans would hear her, perhaps Mirelle too with her jedi senses. "Now!" She exclaimed and raised her blaster to fire.
Their waiting party was utterly surprised by this course of action and one of the leading humans was shot between the eyes by Neia, the grenades and other blaster shots meanwhile went wide as they were blinded no doubt by the light from the spotlight. This caused the men to open fire however in retaliation.
It was brutal, Neia, Maaike, HK-51, Vette were all hit by the blasts, all went down to the ground, not moving at all. Only the Twi'leks and Mirelle managing to evade the blasts. The nafter a moment HK-51 started to curse, that all meatbags were flawed and idiots. HE was still talking and yet had been hit by several blasts.
Mirelle had looked on in horror as almost every went down but hearing the assassin droid speak made her wonder, no hope that whatever these people shot with was not lethal. "Take them out!" She shouted hopign her force valor effect was still inspiring them all while she let out a blast of lightning.
The lightning from Mirelle hit two of the humans who dropped down, twitching. The same voice as before cursed loudly, "A forceling!? Poodoo! Shoot her, shoot her! That one is worth a million credits!" Then he cursed again as several blasts of the Twi'lek courtesans impacted the speeder chassis. However all they hit is empty air as they suddenly have rather bad luck after such a fortuitous starting salvo. Meanwhile HK-51 had crawled himself upright and managed to get his blaster carbine out ,eager to shoot at some meatbags.
Well apparently whoever they were wanted to turn her for a bounty, she had no intention of letting them. "Focus on the speeder! I will keep that last man on the ground busy!" She said to the courtesans before bursting out of cover, igniting her sabers, making herself a target and hopefully giving the courtesans the time they needed to neutralize that speeder.
A charging jedi is something the enforcer hardly ever saw so he was quite shocked to see a woman with two lightsabers charging directly towards him, she was upon him before he could squeeze the trigger of his blaster and two saber stabbed him through the chest. The people in the speeder meanwhiel were distracted as several stray shots of a crippled assassin droid flew over them, distracting long enough for one of the Twi'leks to get a lucky throw and land a frag grenade in the open speeder. "OH F-" Was all they heard before the speeder was engulfed in a ball of flame.
Mirelle blinked, looking at the devastation, she had actually hoped they would be able to use that speeder to quickly get away, but this was also a good outcome she figured, quickly deactivating her sabers to went to the Neia and the others. She let otu a sigh, "They are alright!" She shouted at the courtesans, the blasters must have been set to stun. It would mean however they would not wake up for a long while, she glanced at the warehouse, it had room for ships landing, hadn't? She turned to two of the courtesans. "You two, go to where we have the ships berthed and get them over here, we can't carry everyone with just the five of us that are able to walk properly."
The nearest courtesan nodded. "So get our ride off this world to here, got it." The two commandos went running off at once to carry out the command, promising to be there soon.
After a hour with the roar of engines came the Maiden touching down, the Passing Shadow followed, it's arrival silent thanks to its more stealthier configuration. Both ships descending their ramps with the courtesans quickly coming out, one of them reporting she saw several speeders heading towards the warehouse district.
"No time to lose then." Mirelle responded, "Get everyone aboard the Maiden. You flew Vette's ship here, you can fly it back Nova Retreat." The courtesan ndoded but helped first getting everyone aboard the Maiden before quickly running back to the Passing Shadow and get aboard, lifting off at the same time as the Maiden to make their escape off this world and get out of the system to return to the Nova Retreat as soon as possible.
As they lifted off a number of speeders stopped at the warehouse, several cannons on the speeders opened fire but proved ineffective as the ships sped off. One lone man stepped out of the leading speeder as the ships vanished from view and watched them leave. Balling his fists as he started to suspect what might be missing from his warehouse. "Recover my droids... and recover any usable images from their memory cores. I want the bastards found who stole from me..."
Summary:
HK-51 lost his leg, needs repairs
Vette, wounded (chest and stomach injury), needs 2 weeks of recovery
1 Twi'lek Courtesan dead
Neia, Maaike & Vette are also all unconscious due to stun blasts?
Obtained a cargo container, not opened yet.