Fixing what isn't Broken

Darmus Onn

Character
Independent
Rank
Citizen

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Eccles
Joined
Jan 7, 2020
Messages
142
Reaction score
86


[Subject: Job Offer

Dear mister Onn,

Czerka Corporation has taken notice of you skills pertaining your investigations on the HoloNet.

Our Security Department is thoroughly impressed with your Class 3 Sector Monitoring (SM) Dataplague and your accomplishments in your field.

We would like to cordially invite you to our offices on Coruscant for a meeting about a potential job offer.

Kind Regards,

Tycho Hulas, Chief Information Officer Czerka Offices Coruscant.


The plastic cup of noodle soup had long since chilled as Darmus sighed again, the palm of his right hand rubbing his forehead as he read the message over and over. It was flattering to get an offer from Czerka, sure, there was no question they'd be able to triple his salary and make his existence a lot more relaxed. So he should be elated, shouldn't he? Only problem.. how did they even know about his dataplague? Someone in the service must've told them, sold it to them even and it wasn't uncommon for rangers to leave the service after Coruscant... and no one blamed them.

Still, having his dataplague used for corporate espionage? What rubbed him the wrong way about that wasn't that it'd be used for profit instead of the pursuit of justice, but that he would be the one missing out on all those credits. The fact he placed less weight on his supposedly unwavering dedication to justice than the prospect of a payday made him think the apple didn't fall that far from the tree, after all. Had he, now almost fifty, finally grown up to become just like his parents? Kriff, why shouldn't he? He had dedicated much of his adult life to weeding out smalltime criminals, hacking away at an underworld support system without ever even making a significant dent in any of the five major syndicates and what did he have to show for it? An apartment on the lower-mid levels of a Coruscant megabuilding, mostly long dead friends and an unfathomable amount of sorrow, loss and grief. Now someone might be offering him a whole lot of credits for the only thing he really did accomplish in life and he should turn that down for what? Be the next ranger to die by some random Sith? Get decapitated or tortured by the Big Bad Evil while no one is left to really care about it..

Kriff it.

[re: Job Offer

I'll be there tomorrow. 9 am. ]


Strangely there was no regret. Just the easing of his headache and a returning appetite.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

That morning he got up at four, dressed in his best corporate-lite suit and took a droid-taxi to the undeground rail. The station was closer to his apartment than the upper levels that could enjoy the morning sun and Darmus realized he resented that. Thirty years ago he was a simple cop on Coruscant and his job was scouring the HoloNet for gang-presence and the gather as much information as possible on the rising influence of the Five Syndicates. Even back then the skycrapers closed in on him. Not being able to go on a leisurely ride with a speeder bike and having to pay a fortune just to watch a real sunset, that's what almost broke him as a young adult. He still remembered how happy he was when he finally got to join the Sector Rangers and travel the rim worlds.

Then he accepted a Core-world job to escort a rookie ranger and everything just.. No, he couldn't blame Corran. Darmus was the one that had lost his nerve after getting shot and couldn't cope with the Sith Order suddenly becoming a focus point of ranger operations. His failures got him stationed on Coruscant again.. desk duty, Net-support and low-risk planetside investigations. It's not that he wasn't good at it, in fact, thanks to his dataplague he managed to bring the work he did twenty years earlier to a next level. He was effective, cut off criminals from their slicers while other Sector Rangers or even the Coruscant Security Officers themselves could swoop in and arrest the malcontents. Slowly but steadily he thought he was making a difference and yet gangs like those in the Lower Five just kept getting more powerful, gain more influence and bodies. He was that lone ranger trying to win a shootout against an army of outlaws holding just his hand blaster. He was tired and running out of ammo.

It took three hours to reach the other side of Coruscant and another twenty minutes for another droid-taxi to get him to the Czerka Regional Offices, where he was greeted by a chrome-plated droid, what else. "Darmus Onn, I have an appointment," he simply stated, thinking best to omit the ranger title, <<Ah yes, Sector Ranger Darmus Onn. You have an appointment with Tycho Hulas at nine.>> its eyes flashed blue for a moment while Darmus internally cursed him out over adding in the ranger bit, fearful as he realized he was over people knowing he was there on personal business, <<Welcome to Czerka's Coruscant Offices. Take the elevator to level 334 and report to the receptionist.>>

Doing as he was told, Darmus kept his head down and didn't look at the corporate facade of cleanliness and art appreciation. He knew the art on the walls in the reception could be priceless to the ordinary Coruscanti citizen and that was really all that mattered to a mega-corporation. Not the fact it was painted by the last great painter born on Alderaan, or portrayed nature's splendor on a planet long since ruined by refineries and factories, mined dry by the very corporation that now proudly hung its image on their walls.

The elevator was faster than he was used to and for a moment he even felt slightly light-headed as it ascended roughly hundred floors every twenty seconds. When the door opened the receptionist was already standing ready to greet the old man and she was clearly used to visitors holding the walls of the elevator for support and having a dizzy look in their eyes. "Sector Ranger Darmus Onn, I presume?" she asked in an overly sweet voice and Darmus couldn't help but notice, once he regained himself, that she was surprisingly young. Early twenties at most. Her intonation and tone of voice was very similar to that of the droid. Perhaps it was a coincidence, or perhaps Czerka wanted all their employees to mimic the same style of customer-contact they programmed into their hospitality droids. Darmus was slow to nod and step out of the elevator, "Just Darmus, please-" he asked with a broken smile, but while she looked overly attentive, the receptionist made a little enthusiastic jump and ignored him completely, "Welcome to Czerka Information Division Offices Coruscant Sector, Ranger Onn. Mister Hulas is waiting for you in his office," she gestured towards the large glass door at the end of the hallway. Darmus found her smile less sincere by the seconds, "Can't miss it."





 
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