Ask A Shard of Truth

[Acklay]

"Alright, here's what I found out."

In the back of the Afterlife, tucked away in a private booth away from prying eyes and eavesdroppers, Mars had spread her findings out across the table. It was a strange mixture of paper and hologram, with the paper bits being quite old. Terra would be able to see an old journal flipped to a page with an illustration of a very geometric crown. In the holograms was information displayed about a man and his residence on Nubia.

"That old emperor? Palp-a-something? Well, it turns out he had a crown of sorts. The thing broke, but apparently, the remaining bits are valuable to force users."

Mars had kinda sorta stumbled upon this info by accident, but she knew an opportunity when she saw one. Who knew what sort of money someone would pay for this, especially if they had all the other pieces? She blew up the image of the man's residence - a very opulent manor in a someone hoity-toity part of Nubia's capital, Nubia City.

"He's a, quote on quote, collector of rare items. I found some chatter online about him having found a new item for his collection - some "broken piece of jewelry.' " Mars made air quotes where appropriate. "What do you think? Worth investigating?"

tag: @Phoenix

 

[Terra Lanris]

Terra had made her way back to meet up with Mars when she heard about a potential job that the other woman had dug up. Afterlife had proven a great place to do business like this, and they were afforded all the privacy they needed for planning.

Dawn does love a good artifact hunt, she said, moving around to look at the scraps of paper and holoprojectors. She didn't really trust Force-users or their toys, but there was no denying that the things sold for a small fortune to the right people.

Get all the pieces, call the Jedi and the Sith, let them have a bidding war for it, she said, smirking at the thought. She could just see it now. They'd need proper insurance, of course, but the idea of Jedi and Sith bidding against one another was amusing to her.

Nubia. I haven't worked there before. ISC space, she said. While the ISC wasn't at war with any of the Syndicates currently, she'd prefer to keep it that way. Not that they were wanting to alert the authorities in general.

Done any recon work yet? Thought of a team size? she asked.

@lizziie

 

[Acklay]

Mars laughed. "Sure would be," she agreed. The idea of calling in the Jedi and the Sith to bid on this piece, should they actually nab it, sounded both nothing short of entertaining and a mess at the same time. How did one ensure you didn't get swindled by whoever won and showed up to take their prize? Luckily, they didn't need to worry about that quite yet.

"ISC space, but the guy isn't affiliated with the government at least." Mars switched the hologram projection from a view of the manor to the guy himself. He was old, wrinkly, but had that same look in his eye as every other decrepit old man with a collection of odd items. "His name is Sion Shif. He used to be in charge of some big astromech factories, though he's since retired. Apparently, he's got a bad temper and is anti-social, but his daughter Sofie hosts monthly parties at the place. That's probably going to be our in." She quickly pulled up a picture of the daughter, who looked nothing like him, and like she'd had more plastic surgery than Mars had cybernetics.

"Other than poking around on the holonet for information... no, not much recon. I did, however-" Mars paused to fish around in her pocket for the items she wanted to show. "-manage to forge tickets to the daughter's party."

Despite Mars' own reservations about going to a fancy party, it'd be the best way to get a lay of the land. What was the inside security like? Where was the party going to be located in conjunction with the vault or wherever the shard was held? If they could speak with the daughter, could they manipulate her into confirming if he had the shard or not? These were all questions that could be answered, plus Mars would be able to hack into the system(s) there and potentially see for herself. Team size they could figure out later.

tag: @Phoenix

 

[Terra Lanris]

Terra frowned as the picture of the man of the hour came on the screen.

He's seen better days, she said. He looked like he was about as old as the artifacts he collected, though she also knew that with age could come experience. She'd be unwise to underestimate him.

Hobnobbing? she asked, an unenthusiastic tone in her voice. She wasn't much for social niceties and would much prefer to sneak in or even muscle their way in than pretend to be some social elite.

Alright, I guess it's as good an opportunity for recon as any, she said after a moment with some hesitation. She flipped through some things on the table before her eyes fell on something.

Not just antisocial, he gets all his food delivered to his house. He never goes outside at all and has an extensive droid security force, she said, eyebrows raising as she said it. Oh, this would be interesting indeed...

@lizziie

 

[Acklay]

Terra didn't sound enthusiastic about playing rich girls and sneaking their way into a party to get info, and Mars was with her on that. She was still convinced it was the best way to do things, even if most of their time was spent away from the activities. Getting caught as a nosy guest was better than just being an intruder.

"He gets his food delivered?" Mars perked up at the revelation. That could certainly be a useful tidbit of information. "The droid security force will...need to be dealt with somehow...yeah."

They'd need at least an extra person for this, if not two more, but the less the better for payout's sake.

"So, you down for a bit of hobnobbing?" Mars asked, flashing the invites again. It'd be more than that, of course. They'd have some work to do while they were there.

tag: @Phoenix

 

[Terra Lanris]

---​

As it turned out, she didn't really have a choice about whether she was down for it. The decision had been made for them both because this was the only way to do it. The trip to Nubia had gone off without a hitch and the pair had taken some time to purchase dresses.

Naturally, Terra had strapped a holdout pistol to her inner thigh, but with any luck at all, they wouldn't need it.

They'd rented an expensive speeder and Terra pulled it up to the gate, handing the forged tickets to the droid guard out front.

They were waved inside moments later, and that was the first step. Also the step that meant there was no turning back.

Good work on your passes, she said. You make those with your slicing skills? she asked, curious exactly how the woman had managed to forge them.

@lizziie

 

[Acklay]

Dresses were not Mars' thing, so she'd picked something to give her the best freedom of movement without being too revealing. It was long-sleeved to do a bit to cover her very noticeable metal arms, too. Since there was only so much she could hide under the dress, Mars brought with her a vibroknife and her port scanner. If it came down to it, Terra would have to do the shooting.

"Less slicing and more...sleuthing. One of the guests flaunted her tickets on her socials. They were partially covered, but it didn't take too much more searching to recreate them." There would never be a shortage of the wealthy flaunting their wealth online, and as long as that was the case, Mars would never have a shortage of opportunities.

The inside of the manor was extravagant, and it deserved every bit of meaning from that word. There was an excessive amount of gold trimming on everything, and there were enough plants to call it a greenhouse. "Shit, they must have an army of servants to clean this place..." A protocol droid informed them that the main party was in the main hall, so they veered off that way.

"I'm going to need to connect the port scanner to the network, so I'll need to find somewhere to slip off," she whispered to Terra. "See if you can get any info from Sophie or the other guests?"

tag: @Phoenix

 

[Terra Lanris]

Terra's face scrunched up slightly as Mars talked about what they needed to do.

You mean I have to socialize with these people? she asked. Already she'd received some scowls that were clearly directed at her horns, and it made her want to headbutt one of them. But that wasn't the thing she was here to do and it would only draw a great deal of undue attention to them.

How about we go poking around first? she suggested.

And she started doing just that... she headed through the lobby - which had a staircase leading up and a guard droid standing at it - and into a side room. and past a very long table of hors d'oeuvres for the guests to enjoy. People mingled in the side room and she saw a guard droid standing at a staircase leading down.

Lots of restricted areas of the house, she said. Thinks we can make a ruckus to distract the guards? she asked.

@lizziie

 

[Acklay]

"Yeah... Yeah that sounds better."

Mars had just caught sight of one of the scowls, and she felt a pang of sympathy for Terra and a sharp intake of dislike for the men and women giving her dirty looks. She assumed it was for the tiefling's horns. Though Mars was not hot headed, her tendency to mimic the emotions of those around her meant Terra's frustration was creeping into her own skin.

So, Mars followed Terra, though her eyes remained curious to the place around them.

"A ruckus?" How?

Mars drifted off into the mess of people, looking for her target, the host. She wasn't hard to find, but Mars didn't approach her. Instead she slipped past her and whispered something rude off in another direction. By the time Sophie turned around to see who had insulted her, Mars was out of sight and another pair of women were subjected to her wrath. "You little b–!"

"Her temper is as bad as her plastic surgeries," Mars repeated to Terra with a giggle as she returned. One of the guard droids had left it's post to deal with the situation, presumably to escort the ladies out as punishment for their "rudeness."

tag: @Phoenix

 

[Terra Lanris]

Terra watched as Mars smoothly set off a fight between the host and a pair of women. Yes, this was much better than... starting a fire or something, which as a Tiefling was just her default way of causing distraction.


Bit of a petty one, isn't she? she said. Made Terra feel less bad about stealing from her. Not that Terra really felt that bad in the first place. These people were rich and pompous, which meant that they didn't need the artifact, and they could use knocking down a peg or two.

She flicked her head to the side to indicate they should head to the staircase. It was only as she crossed the threshold that she realized it went both up and down. Their luck!

She headed up, making it to the top in quick order. She could already start to feel the adrenaline pumping, but there shouldn't be many guards up here, right?

An office? Is that what we're looking for? she asked. Seemed like where the right kind of data terminal would be, and Terra started moving down one of the halls, peeking into various rooms for any sign of an office.

She could hear the sounds of the partygoers from the balcony overlooking the lobby at the far end of the hall, but they weren't in a position to be able to see the partygoers yet.

@lizziie

 

[Acklay]

"Office would be good, yeah, but I only need to be within twenty meters of their router. So if we can just find out where it is..." ...they wouldn't necessarily need to be inside, which made things easier, if only slightly so.

Mars also went about peeking into various rooms, but after traversing the entire hallway, she was unfruitful in her attempts. The rooms were either various, near-spotless, and clearly unused guest rooms or something other than an office.

"Maybe they keep the routers downstairs?" There was also much more to explore up here, but they need to be quick. They could only venture so far before "looking for a bathroom" became an invalid excuse.

roll to find room: 9/20, failure
tag: @Phoenix

 

[Terra Lanris]

Terra continued on down the hall alongside Mars. She had pretty much given up on the idea that they were going to be able to easily explain this away if they were caught. But that being said, it seemed most of the guards were interested in keeping people from getting upstairs more than patrolling the upstairs.

She kept looking around as Mar suggested it may be downstairs. Could be over there, she said, pointing across the lobby to the other side of the upper floor.

Getting over there will be more difficult, though, she said. It wasn't impossible, but they'd have to basically crawl to hide behind the railing overlooking the lobby area and try to sneak past the top of the stairs where people might see them.

Unless you think we can find another way around? A balcony outside or just like... shimmying along a ledge? she suggested, hopefully.

@lizziie

 

[Acklay]

"A balcony outside or shimmying along a ledge..." Yeah, that sounded safe. Little to nothing of what they did was safe though, and it wasn't a bad idea. If there was a convenient ledge outside. "Let's look and see!"

After checking to make sure no one was inside, Mars entered the nearest room and crossed it to reach the window and the little fake balcony just outside. To their luck, there was a bit of a ledge! Mars eyed it suspiciously, then looked back at Terra to ask, "You think this is good?" The other balcony, across the indoor one to safety, was only fifteen or so feet away.

tag: @Phoenix

 

[Terra Lanris]

Terra followed just behind Mars, casting a glance back over her shoulder to make sure no one was looking before slipping into the room. Her tail was flicking around in anticipation and nerves as she headed toward the balcony. She didn't love heights, but as long as she wasn't having to leap from the heights it'd be fine!

Yeaaah, it'll be fine! she said, nodding with more confidence than she really had. She hiked up her dress and her tail wrapped around the railing as she hoisted one leg over and then the other. She clutched on to the side wall, shoving herself between the railing below and a small ledge above to shimmy down, only releasing her tail grip when she absolutely had to.

She made her way along a few more steps before her tail latched out onto the next railing, continuing to shimmy over until she hopped onto the next balcony.

Yeah, that was always so fun. She shook her head out, looking ahead to see if there was any sign of any guards in this area before glancing back to see if Mars was making it across okay.

@lizziie

 

[Acklay]

Terra went first, and Mars followed closely behind. Though she wasn't scared of heights, she definitely didn't want to fall, so the cyborg woman made sure to be careful as she inched her way across the ledge. Once she was close enough, Mars latched onto the next balcony's railing and hoisted herself over, joining Terra on the other side.

"All clear?" If Terra gave her an affirmative, she would head into the area and take a look around the room for herself. Another guest room. "This guy sure has a lot of guest rooms for a recluse," she commented. Everything was perfectly placed and in order, but there were smooth layers of dust wherever she looked behind the decorative objects. It seemed to her like they didn't get used much or dusted all that well.

Mars exited the room first once she confirmed that the hallway was clear and that the balcony overlooking the party was now to their left and not their right. It was, which meant they were golden.

"If it's not up here, it's probably downstairs," she whispered as she went to start checking doors.

tag: @Phoenix

 

[Terra Lanris]

Terra gave a nod that it was clear and they proceeded onward. Surely it would be up here. They wouldn't give their guests access to the room that had sensitive materials in it, right? And no one wanted to have their office in a basement.

Her face twisted up in an almost pained expression as something crossed her mind.

What if it's in the basement? she asked. Oh, she didn't like that idea at all.

She was about to check another door when she heard the sounds of people inside... people who - from the sound of things - were engaged in some... close interactions with one another.

She shook her head at Mars who could probably hear the sounds at this point as well.

Problem was, it seemed somehow, someone had discovered the lovebirds were up here, and Terra heard the sound of clunking footseps up the hall. In a half-panic she started pointing to one of the rooms, scurrying to try to get inside a different one to hide before the droids arrived.

@lizziie

 

[Acklay]

"Basement...downstairs...yeah. Not good, but...let's just cross our fingers."

Before she could add anything else, Mars too noticed the sounds of the ol' horizontal hokey-pokey coming from the room Terra had just checked. Her face twisted up into a mixture of amusement and distaste, but they didn't have long before a new sound showed up. The Tiefling quickly pointed to another room, and without hesitation, Mars quickly followed her in. Her hand grabbed the door as she crossed the threshold, and once she was inside, she spun around and slowly inched it closed until it was barely ajar.

"Guests are not permitted in this part of the manor." The droid's robotic, monotone voice was quickly joined by the apologetic, panicked sounds of whoever was in that room. "You have five minutes to clothe yourselves, otherwise, I will escort you out as you are."

There were more apologetic and panicked voices, then the sound of the door closing as the guard droid presumably left them to get dressed. Mars could just barely see the droid through the crack in the door, but he seemed to pay no mind to the room they were in.

Not wanting to speak, and knowing Terra had heard its words as well, she quietly lifted her hand from the wood and shrugged. They were stuck here for the next five or so minutes, it seemed. In the meantime, Mars moved away from the door and pulled her port scanner out from under her dress to see if she could get any amount of signal from this room.

tag: @Phoenix

 

[Terra Lanris]

Terra hunkered down in the room, her heart beating fairly hard, but glad to hear the droids didn't leap right to shooting people. If they got found out, hopefully it would just mean a stern reprimand rather than a blaster bolt.

Terra's eyes flicked around impatiently as she waited for the droids to leave, though it didn't move quickly. For the moment, she just felt kind of like a lump. Uselessly just waiting.

She scooted over toward Mars, annoyingly looking over her shoulder to see if anything was happening. Maybe they'd get lucky? Terra actually crossed her fingers at her side as she looked.

She moved over to put her ear to the door again, but the droids were still out there. So she started wandering around the room, lightly picking through books and files to keep herself occupied. Evidently, she was a restless and impatient person.

@lizziie

 

[Acklay]

"Network found...connecting...connecting..." Mars chewed on her lip while she waited on the port scanner to see if it would magically connect. Though she wasn't quite that lucky, some luck did find its way to her. "...can't connect...low signal?" A low signal meant the source was nearby!

Her eyes lit up and she whipped around to tell Terra, only remembering they were hiding at the last second. She froze with her mouth wide open as she was about to speak, then slowly closed it as a sheepish expression crossed over her features. That would've been a potentially big oops. Instead, she just pointed excitedly to her port scanner and mouthed, "It's nearby!"

To see if maybe she could catch a signal on the other side of the room, she got up and began to try again there. If it didn't catch, they would at least know what direction it was in. Hopefully, the droid would be gone by then.

tag: @Phoenix

 

[Terra Lanris]

Terra's face lit up as she scurried over to look at the screen. She held up both of her thumbs as she waited for the sound outside to die down. They were so close to what they wanted!

After a moment, she poked her head back out into the hall and looked up and down without signs of anyone nearby. She slipped out again and made her way down the hall, finally finding a door at the far end that was locked. That was a sign...

Keep watch, she whispered, reaching into her purse and pulling out a small knife. She pried the panel off the door's controls and started going to work, stripping away one of the wires and hotwiring them together so that they could get inside what she assumed was the office they needed.

It took several minutes, but she had experience with this. The door slid open and she smiled widely, standing and making her way inside.

@lizziie