Aria’s nose wrinkled distastefully against the smell as they descended into the Undercity once again, snorting a derisive laugh. “Tell me about it. Maybe if it smelled less like a Rancor pit it wouldn’t be quite so bad.” as they passed the newly minted night club, she regarded the hostesses impassively, before catching the teasing glint in her partner’s eyes.
“Indeed. I do recall telling you there was no point in making all the fuss if it was going to get thrown aside before you even gave it a proper look.” they shared a chuckle as they rounded the corner and checked the map, the Champion scanning their surroundings for any less obvious signs of their smuggler counterpart. Surprise surprise, she thought, he isn’t here.
“I’m beginning to regret thinking he’d actually be helpful.” she snorted dryly. Hearing Junoco’s voice unexpectedly projected from their navigation device caused Aria to jump in surprise, a hand instinctively flying to the lightsaber hilt on her right hip.
“I’m a little concerned about your grasp of Basic, Junoco. When you ask someone to meet you somewhere the general premise is that well...you’re ACTUALLY HERE when we arrive.” Aria’s eyes followed the red lines as they branched out across the projected map of the Undercity, the Champion huffing softly in response to her partner’s comment. “It’s probably better that we don’t. It’s probably illegal, you know how smugglers are. Can’t trust them as far as you could throw them.”
The Champions followed the pathway Junoco had laid out for them, arriving at the underground prison facility some twenty minutes of travelling later. As Malu had claimed, the entire facility was devoid of life forms...except for Junoco of course, who was loitering in the front courtyard and grinned smugly as he raised a hand to wave at them.
“Long time no see, eh, my Force using friends!”
“ ‘Skinny twat’ was an accurate descriptor.” Aria muttered under her breath as the Champions passed through the front gate to join him. Taking note of the pristine condition of the boundaries designed to keep the convicts inside, she mused aloud. “No signs of blaster fire or damage at all, means whoever it was that did this knew what they were doing and the guards never saw it coming....right?” another glance was shot in Junoco’s direction. “Could they have hacked the security systems and deactivated them? Is there a way to get into them and check?”
The smuggler grinned jovially and headed towards the main building with the two Champions in tow.
“Let's head inside and find out, shall we?” the trio proceeded inside with caution, to find the prison exactly as they might have expected: the lights were still on, the hallways mostly pristine except for a few scuff marks and chunks of missing paint that could just as easily have been ordinary wear and tear. A few security droids marched down the hallway on their regular patrol route, stopping in alarm as they spotted the three new faces though before they could raise their blasters to fire, Aria took a step forward with her hands held out in front of her.
“Woah, woah hey! We’re non-hostiles! General Garza sent us!” Garza’s name seemed to placate the droids, who looked the trio over before nodding to each other and proceeding on their programmed route. While intelligent enough to predict possible movements of prisoners and respond to help stop them escaping, the droid’s circuits had either been tampered with or they simply weren’t capable of the cognitive functions to notice it was….odd, that there were no prisoners left to guard, or wardens to give them orders.
Junoco made his way across the reception area to the terminal at the front desk, tapping away at the keys as he worked on accessing the system while Aria and Yerbol examined their surroundings in more detail. A few spots of blood on the ground around the desk terminal aroused some suspicion, the Champion crouched down to examine them, chewing her lip as she glanced up at Yerbol and Junoco again.
“This is the only sign we’ve seen so far of anything like a struggle. And it’s little enough to pass off as something as simple as a nosebleed. I don’t like this.” sighing, Aria reached for the holocommunicator in her pocket, turning it over in her hands absently as she spoke her thoughts out loud.
“I know it’s a disturbing thought but...is it a possibility that this was an inside job? That one of the wardens was a plant by whatever organisation these Force users Malu was tracking, to find Soto and help her escape?”
Member
Sapphic Pigeon
Tim the Yeti
FulgrimLives
Jengem
OathMaker
Punished GN
Fetzen
Ti
Lexisheeps
