Assassination or Slavery

[Tank]

Theme


Two days ago.​

Lirax, a tall pale Muun, walked into a Mercenaries United safe house. He’d been in contact with the startup mercenary group about potential investments. Lirax was a middle of the road banker, nothing spectacular, nothing out of the ordinary. Apparently that’s what attracted the MU to him. They believed he wouldn’t do anything too risky and wasn’t in the public eye enough to let anything slip about the MU. Lirax had brought along a brief case with potential investments that he had contact with. Essentially he was a middle man, bringing prospective investments to the MU and brining in substantial amounts of money from the MU to those businesses.

Hours later Lirax walked out of the safe house with an identical briefcase; this one however was filled with two million credits worth of credichips. He had successfully brokered a deal between the MU and CoruChem. It was a chemical plant in Coruscant. The current war had propelled them from a simple chemical plant to a full blown war production facility producing missiles and war heads.

The Next Day. Hours before the invasion of Coruscant.​

Lirax had heard about the invasion of Coruscant from other bankers. They were all pulling their investments from Coruscant businesses as a preemptive precaution. Lirax had done the same. He redacted his deposit to CoruChem, packed up, and left Coruscant. With two million credits in his pocket he flew to Bothawui and bought a small condo attempting to wait out the war.

At that point in time he hadn’t really thought he was stealing from the MU. He was simply saving the MU from a potential disaster. Unfortunately, Jet Pirone, the MU’s head banker, hadn’t seen it that way. He put out a bounty on Lirax’s head the second the transaction didn’t go through to CoruChem. Lirax knew that the MU’s own men would be on his tail in a matter of days. He bought a blaster pistol and hired his own personal henchmen.

The Rodian, Fiir’ton, was a professional mercenary. He’d set up barricades around the apartment and taught Lirax how to shoot a simple blaster. The duo were by no means lethal, but maybe, just maybe they would be able to hold off whomever the MU sent their way.
The apartment was simple, a single door opened up to the living room. There were two bedrooms on the opposite wall separated by a bathroom. There was a line of kitchen appliances on the wall to the left of the entryway.

There was nothing for it now. Lirax would just have to sit and wait. Wait for the MU to come, wait for his doom to come. If they did he would make his stand here. Maybe he’d be able to get out of this mess with his life, maybe he’d be able to get out of this with his money…

 

[Ten10dix]

Bothawui didn't agree with Karl. It wasn't really the planet itself. The planet was fine. Nice. Sunny sometimes. Rainy other times. Kinda cloudy in between. No, what Karl didn't like was the native species of Bothawui. Bothans had a knack for intelligence. Not "smart sciency" intelligence. They knew things. A lot of things. Karl didn't like people knowing lots of things. His job was to blend in, to be an unknown. "Unknown" was not a concept the Bothans seemed to respect, or even know. Karl smiled. He had made a joke. Bothans didn't know the concept of Unknown. Was that a joke? He decided it probably was a joke, just not a good one.

He sighed, looking around. He had been observing the apartment for around a week now. Different personas each time, of course, so as to not raise suspicion. Today he was sitting on a bench opposite the apartment, reading the paper. The Rodian seemed to have erected a few barricades of some sort in the area, not that they would help much. He looked down at his expensive watch. He decided that, since today was the day they'd be moving in, he's wear something nice. Black stripped suit, sunglasses, nice tie, polished shoes. It made him stand out slightly, but he decided he deserved to be extravagant from time to time. He looked up at the newspaper he was reading, glancing at the Rodian as he made his hourly patrol around the premises. The sunglasses not only stopped the glare from the sun, which always annoyed him, but also allowed him to look at anyone without them knowing it. Plus they were stylish.

He glanced at his watch again. The other two should be here soon. They were supposed to phone him, after which he would walk away into a nearby alley, and form their they would discuss how to take this guy down. But they were late. Well, he was early, but he was hot and annoyed so he decided they were late. He sighed again, and continued reading the newspaper.

 

[Saul Perth]

The winds of Bothawui whipped past the mercenary Viktor Thule as he piloted a rented speeder bike to the designated location. The wind didn't phase him, it would take a little bit more than a breeze to punch through his full suit of heavy body armor, painted orange and black. When matched with the large SI-80 pump action shotgun on his back, the ensemble was far from subtle, but subtle wasn't his job.

His approach path was already provided, calculated to minimize the chances of being seen. He arrived to find the location empty, he checked his chrono to reveal that he was a bit early. It was just as well, he still had a bit of work to do. Using the seat of the bike as a makeshift workbench, he set four flash grenades out before him. With duct tape and simple wire, he secured the grenades into a square and linked all the pins together. Finally, with a small tool, he busied himself adjusting and synchronizing the timers of the grenades. As he worked, he thought about what to call what he was assembling. He smiled under his helmet and settled on a Weapon of Flash Destruction.

I love my job.

((OOC: I'm sorry I said Weapon of Flash Destruction.))

 

[Fantasy Liver]

Audric scowled as he began to walk towards the assigned meeting place. Bothawui didn't agree with him either. Although, no planet really did anymore, Bothawui was starting to irritate him. He didn't know where he was. He patted his blaster comfortingly as he walked the streets. No one appeared to want to mess with the big Abyssin ex-boxer but he wasn't taking any chances. His one eye narrowed when some poor human had the misfortune to stare at him for a second longer than Audric would have liked. The human scampered off, yelping. He glared before walking towards one of those comlink booths (OOC: Pardon the phone booth reference) and dialed Karl's number.

Assuming Karl picked up, Audric cleared his throat.

"Hey. I'm on Moudama Road. How do I get to your location." Audric asked his fellow mercenary, sounding as cordial as he could.

 

[Tank]

Hustle and bustle. That's all Lirax saw as he peered out of his bedroom window down on the street below. He'd taken to watching the streets, hopefully if anyone did decide to come for him he'd be able to spot them before they arrived. Fiir'ton was in the main living room. His eyes were trained on the front door, blaster pistol in his hand and safety flipped off. Lirax had begun to feel sorry for the Rodian. If the mercenaries did arrive they would probably kill the Rodian before he had the chance to do anything about it.

At least Fiir'ton was being payed well. One thousand credits, that's all it took to buy the life of a man these days. Of course with all the low-lives in the galaxy Lirax was slightly upset with himself for not finding a better deal. Lirax pushed the thought away and continued to stare out the window. Maybe this would be another quiet day.

 

[Ten10dix]

His comlink beeped. He took it out, and listened to the voice. Hard to tell who it was. Voice indicated he wanted to appear nice. Two mercenaries working with him on this mission. The first was Audric, an Abyssin mercenary. Karl hated the Abyssin. Primitive, unintelligent and unrefined. Not that he would say that to their face, as they were also normally quick to anger and used to violent. Not a good combination, really. The second was a Mr Thule. Human mercenary, as equally unstable as the Abyssin, or so Karl gathered from the intel he had on them.

He sighed as whoever was calling asked for directions. Damn thugs, didn't they ever read their briefing? He replied, using a casual tone, angling the newspaper slightly to cover his lips. Couldn't be too careful in this line of business.

"We meet in the alley next to the Galaxy Shop."

He cut the call off, folded his newspaper and stood up. He continued to speak into the comlink as he walked away, in the opposite direction of the alley and turned right, getting out of the line of sight of the apartment. He circled back to the alley where they were supposed to meet, and as he approached the two mercenaries he smiled and took off his sunglasses. He decided to change his facial features up a bit for this one, instead of completely redesigning them. He had pale green eyes, dirty blond hair, and quite a large nose. In addition he had put on some subtle make up to change the color of his face slightly. By now he was an expert at this, and it all looked pretty natural.

"Greetings Audric, Viktor. You don't mind me calling you by your first names, do you? My name is Trevor Lorn, a pleasure to meet you."

He smiled, putting on a slightly Nabooish accent. They were both heavily armed and their posture suggested his intel was right: They both looked very dangerous.

"The target has an apartment just down the road from here. A single Rodian is guarding the residence, and the Muun rarely leaves. It is safe to assume he is expecting trouble. I would suggest one of you circles round to the back of the apartment, making sure he doesn't escape that way. I will distract the Rodian, and the other one of you takes him out while his back is turned, silently if possible. No need to alert the locals. We can then acquire the target with little to no trouble, if things go our way."

He smiled again. He dearly hoped this would be over quickly. He had no wish to stay in the presence of these men any longer. Hopefully things would go his way, and they wouldn't interfere. He had a contact who promised to buy the Muun off him for a nice little sum of credits, on top of what he was getting payed for this.

 

[Saul Perth]

"The target has an apartment just down the road from here. A single Rodian is guarding the residence, and the Muun rarely leaves. It is safe to assume he is expecting trouble. I would suggest one of you circles round to the back of the apartment, making sure he doesn't escape that way. I will distract the Rodian, and the other one of you takes him out while his back is turned, silently if possible. No need to alert the locals. We can then acquire the target with little to no trouble, if things go our way."

"Fair enough," Viktor replied, his voice slightly distorted by his helmet's filters. "If you two think you can handle the Rodian, I'll take the back door. Just give me five minutes to get into position."

He turned to proceed to his post, but paused and turned after a second.

"If I hear a blaster shot", he patted his grenade creation, "shield your eyes."

 

[Fantasy Liver]

The Abyssin former boxer nodded as he was briefed. He could tell that Victor thought he was a thug but he didn't let it bother him. He never did care much for what two-bit mercenary scum thought of him. Now that he was two-bit mercenary scum, his opinion didn't change.

"Oh, I can handle anything this Muun can throw at us." Audric said confidently. "As long as you do your job. Go around back." he ended, curtly.

 

[Tank]

Fiir'ton was still seated on the couch in the living room eyes fixed on the door and feet propped up on a coffee table. He was working on yet another cup of caff and silent as always.

Lirax was watching the pedestrians on the street below. There was increased activity and a few suspicious looking men coming and going.

"Fiir'ton...I'm going to be taking a bit of a nap. Wake me if anything happens will you?" Lirax closed the bedroom door and locked it. He knew they would be coming for him soon, today, in a few minutes. He needed to get out of the apartment as quickly as possible. He took the sheets off the bed and began to tie the ends together. Thank goodness he had had the bright idea of renting a second floor apartment and nothing higher. Lirax worked as quickly and furiously as possible.

 

[Ten10dix]

Karl left the alley, and walked by the house, stopping suddenly and turned. The Rodian wasn't outside anymore. He spoke into his comlink.

"The Rodian is inside the house. I'll knock on the door. Viktor, you go through the window after that. We won't be able to do this silently. Audric, you make sure the Muun doesn't try to escape out the back. We can still do this relatively cleanly."

Karl walked up to the door. He crouched to one side of it, and raised his hand up. He didn't know if the Rodian would automatically shoot as soon as he heard a noise, but he didn't want to risk it. He knocked, shouting out quite clearly "This is the Police, open up!". That would hopefully startle the Rodian, giving Viktor an edge. It could also scare the Muun into running right into Audric. As soon as he heard Viktor going through the window, he himself drew his own blaster and bashed the door down, pointing the gun and ready to fire.

 

[Saul Perth]

"The Rodian is inside the house. I'll knock on the door. Viktor, you go through the window after that. We won't be able to do this silently. Audric, you make sure the Muun doesn't try to escape out the back. We can still do this relatively cleanly."

Things were beginning to escalate, Viktor had to move fast. Not wanting to waste time on a more mundane approach, the armored merc leapt back on his rented speeder bike and piloted it up and around to the second story window. Now that they had activated their comms, Viktor could hear every word Trevor said. Viktor could see the Rodian approach the door, blaster drawn. He hadn't noticed Viktor on his bike, so he made a tactical decision.

"This is the Police, open up!"

Just before the Rodian bodyguard's hand touched the panel to open the door he was stunned by a loud crash and shower of glass. He snapped around but couldn't quite comprehend what just happened. An armored man, a large one at that, had managed to fly himself and most of a speeder bike through the tiny kitchen window. The combined mass of Mercenary and speeder bike remains crashed into him, causing all three to fall in a heap against the opposite wall.

Viktor's vision slowly returned as a hazy blur. The Rodian lay beside him, his neck twisted at an unnatural angle. The sight of Trevor bursting into the room reminded him why he was here, there was still a Muun to catch. Slowly and shakily, he forced himself to his feet and stumbled after Trevor.

 

[Fantasy Liver]

Audric nodded and headed around to the back, blaster undrawn as of yet so as to avoid suspicion. As he went around back, he growled at a bum in an alley near the backway to get out of the way.

 

[Tank]

Lirax’s concerns were immediately confirmed. Only moments after he had finished tying his sheets to the bed post there was a loud knock on the door. Lirax began working more furiously. He threw open the bedroom window and tossed the bed sheets over the side of the apartment; providing a rope from him to climb down.
“Open up this is the police!” Lirax heard a muffled voice yell through two doors. Seconds later he heard a crash and a massive roar of what sounded like an engine coming from the living room. Lirax scrambled down the rope in a flash. He wasn’t strong or dexterous, his species as a whole was rather ungainly, but staying alive was a good motivator for pushing his lanky body beyond its normal bounds.

As Lirax landed he surveyed his surroundings. The alleyway was completely abandoned except for a lone malicious looking Abyssin. Lirax knew immediately that the Abyssin wasn’t there for a noonday stroll. Lirax pulled his blaster pistol from his hip holster and began firing down the alleyway. At least he thought he was firing. The darn blaster pistol was doing nothing as he pulled the trigger. Lirax assumed his Rodian body guard had put the safety on but Lirax had never handled such a weapon before and didn’t know how to take the safety off.

Lirax settled with throwing the pistol at his nemesis and hoped it would slow him down at least a little. Lirax turned and ran down the alleyway away from his fiend. Lirax’s species was not made for speed an unless he could find some salvation at the end of this alleyway the Abyssin would catch up with him very soon.

 

[Ten10dix]

Karl heard an engine. Then a crash. Then a few grunts. What in hell's name was happening in their?

He opened the door, blaster pistol up and ready to shoot. The Rodian looked dead, violently thrown against the wall by Viktor and his speeder bike. Speeder bike? He moved quickly, no time to wait around. Setting his pistol to stun, he began to look around the room. Three doors. He kicked open the first door. A bedroom, by the looks of it. Nothing here. He kicked open the second door. Bathroom. Cursing his luck, he kicked open the last door and saw a window open, some form of rope made with the bed sheets hung out the window. He rushed over to it, just in time to see the Muun rushing into the alley. He was tempted to fire a few shots, but didn't want to attract too much attention. The speeder could be seen as an accident. Shots couldn't.

He glanced back, saw Viktor shaking off the crash. He turned back to the window and started to climb down.

 

[Saul Perth]

With his head a little clearer and his vision slightly less blurred, Viktor stumbled into the bedroom in time to see Trevor disappear down the makeshift rope. Blast it. There was no way a bedsheet would hold the combined weight of him and his armor. Carefully and almost reluctantly, he dangled himself from the windowsill and used his considerable upper body strength to give himself some forward momentum before letting go. His forward motion allowed Viktor to tuck and roll as he hit the pavement, transferring atleast some of the impact force into rolling motion. It still hurt, alot. Driving himself forward, he forced his wobbly legs to pursue the three blobs in front of his blurred eyes.

 

[Fantasy Liver]

"Whoah!" Audric exclaimed, visibly surprised by Lirax's sudden appearance. He immediately put his hand to his holster but then thought better of it and, instead, began sprinting towards the running alien, prepared to tackle him.

 

[Tank]

Lirax dared to look back as he reached the end of the hallway. As he did so the closest thug, the Abyssin, tackled him. He now counted three men in this party and one of them was in full battle armor. These men were very very serious. Lirax yelped as his body was taken to the ground by the man. He was able to wriggle his thin and wiry body out of the Abyssin's grasp.

"Please! Please don't hurt me!" Lirax pleaded as he backed away slowly from the three men now facing him. "I have your money, I can pay it all back just don't kill me please!" Lirax was relatively young for his species and had a lot to live for. He'd made one simple mistake and he was now going to pay for it more dearly than most. He should have listened with his friends told him to be careful dealing with mercenaries.


Lirax didn't know if his plea would work but it was the last play in his book. And he certainly wasn't going to leave anything off the table when his life was at stake.

 

[Ten10dix]

Karl caught up with the Abyssin, just in time to see him tackle the Muun to the ground. He walked over to them, and knelt down. Young, by the looks of it. Pleading for mercy, nothing to suggest he was faking the fear plastered on his face. Easily broken. That should bode well with his contact. He smiled at the Muun, and put on the most reassuring voice he could gather.

"In a bit of a pickle, are we? All we want is the 2 million credits you stole. Send it back to the people you took it from, and we'll simply let you go. Simple, eh?"

He took out a small datapad, handing it to the Muun. All he would have to do is enter his details and send the money back to the M.U. electronically. Then the fun can begin.

 

[Saul Perth]

"In a bit of a pickle, are we? All we want is the 2 million credits you stole. Send it back to the people you took it from, and we'll simply let you go. Simple, eh?"

"I'd hurry and do it.", Viktor said coldly, placing a hand on the large SI-600 Revolver on his hip. "Ammo is cheap. My time isn't."

 

[Fantasy Liver]

The Abyssin kept on pinning the Muun to the ground, though he smacked him upside the head.

"Make it snappy, bantha fodder. Consider yourself lucky that we'll let you live." Audric spat, making himself look bigger.