Ask Nothing Could Go Wrong

[Zash]

There had been a quiet unease between the Syndicates and the Empire ever since the conflict between Preef Callo and Empress Andruil. Small skirmishes had taken place between the two ever since, but nothing that resulted in outright battles or the like.

He and another Acolyte had been sent out to gain some artifacts from Crimson Dawn, but as one might expect, advertising being a Sith was inadvisable.

They'd managed to hitch a ride to the world on an unlabeled Imperial transport, but as soon as they'd been dropped off, the crew had left again. That meant having to find their own ride off world, and that hadn't really been planned out for them.

Brilliant.

The two had split up to gather supplies and Zash made it back to their rendezvous point - one of those hotels that people only stayed at for a few hours - first and started going over his gear as he waited for Ashla to get back.

 

[Ashla Ti]

Ashla had come to realize that she liked being undercover, doors opened up that would not have if you openly broadcasted that you were Sith. It was nice to roam the streets and know that the dirty looks you got from a grouchy looking Dug was the same dirty look everyone got, and not something reserved for "Sith scum". It also made shopping a whole lot easier, mind tricks were so much easier when the target didn't know they were facing a Sith, just that knowledge alone would sometimes work in their favor.

Such was the case as she made her way back to the rendezvous point, having almost everything on her little shopping list, expect for a few odd ends which were more for fun than a necessity. Dressed in a courier's outfit, she didn't seem out of space when she walked into the hotel. Arriving at the room without much incident, she dropped the bag laden with supplies onto the bed, letting the contents spill out for Zash to examine. Fake IDs, a couple of jackets with a local courier company's logo on it, and some other odd ends, likely enough to get them started in the right direction. Of course the really important acquisitions from her trip, the candies and baked goods were in the messenger bag slung from her shoulder and across her torso, which also had a hidden compartment in which her weapons were concealed. That haul she kept to herself, at least for now.

"What do you think," she asked, gesturing at the supplies, "enough to sneak around without making it obvious that we're sneaking around?"

@Phoenix

 

[Zash]

Zash was still looking over several pieces of his equipment when she got back. Supplies for bypassing alarm systems, a blueprint of their alleged location of interest, and of course his own lightsaber repair supplies were all arranged in an orderly fashion upon the bed.

As she set down her own bag, his neat and orderly supplies were thrown into total disarray. There was the briefest moment of distress or frustration that flashed across his face before he pushed it aside. After all, she did manage to get a lot of good gear and equipment for them, so he couldn't be that mad.

It looks good, he said with a nod, looking down to see the baked goods she had brought as well and letting out a quite "hm" that was more to himself than to her.

Word is the artifacts are kept in this building, he said, pointing to a map that he pulled out from under a brownie. But to be honest, the information from the locals is pretty crap. I'm not sure it'll actually be there, he said. He knew enough about this stuff to know that intel was one step away from being useless, and he hoped she knew that as well.

 

[Ashla Ti]

As Zash examined her "shopping", Ashla picked up a cookie and began eating, a shortcoming of the Togruta physiology. Having multiple stomachs, along with a rather active metabolism, meant that she could wolf food and drinks for longer and pull off some rather disgusting party tricks, but it also meant that she was hungry pretty often.

Leaning forward to examine the map, she picked up the brownie Zash had displaced and began munching on that as well, and reached forward to tap the map with a finger that left a chocolate smudge on the map.

"Those buildings there," she said through a mouthful, "right next to it, are they tall enough to give us a view of the building with the artifacts?" She tossed the last of the brownie into her mouth and reached for the map once more to circle the general area around the building, leaving a few more chocolate smudges. "Anything in that area really, something we can recon from?"

@Phoenix

 

[Zash]

He didn't have a problem with her taking food for herself - better to not have growling stomachs or distractions on the mission - but he did mind the brownie smudges she was leaving on his map!

Can you, please! he said, somewhat exasperated as she got the second smudge on there. He grabbed one of the napkins from the bag and started wiping the chocolate away only to see that she was getting more smudges elsewhere.

He let out a sigh and gave up, deciding it probably wasn't worth the argument or the time it would take to clean everything up.

He pushed his mind back into the "mission planning" stage and tried to think of the answer to her question. The buildings she pointed to probably were large enough for that if he had to guess, but he hadn't looked at them yet himself.

Uh, probably, he said with a nod, grabbing his datapad and projecting a small, three dimensional display over the bed that would give them an idea of the height differences.

With the right gear we might even be able to cross from one to the other, he said, zooming in as much as he could (which wasn't very much) on what looked like a balcony on the building they were trying to enter. He didn't fancy a Force-assisted leap to his death and they didn't have the money for something like a jetpack.

Maybe some sort of climbing equipment, he said, though even that seemed like it could have its issues. It was one possibility and probably one of many.

@Wit

 

[Ashla Ti]

She stopped chewing at his exclamation, noticing the smudges on the map and connecting the dots. Swallowing the rest of the brownie with an audible gulp, before looking around and picking up a piece of paper from her bag and wiping her hands and her mouth on it.

"Sorry," she said meekly, a not entirely apologetic smile on her face, "my bad." She crumbled the piece of paper into a ball and tossed it to the side, wincing as she saw it bounce off the rim of the small dustbin and land on the floor besides it.

"I actually might have something that can help!" She said as she picked up the bag of supplies she had brought and started rifling through it, looking for something that she couldn't find. Dropping the bag, she looked around on the assorted items littered atop the bed, before her eyes went to the crumbled piece of paper next to the dustbin.

She gave a weak chuckle as she walked to the corner of the room to pick it back up and carefully opened it up and tried to flatten the piece of paper as she walked back to Zash. Giving him an apologetic glance, this time actually appearing a little ashamed, she held out the paper with the numerous chocolate smudges on it for him to expect.

"Local construction crew is looking for help, painting and the like. They probably have what we need," she said, trying her best to avoid looking at the smudges on the flier she had used as a napkin, "could even provide a cover to explore the area."

@Phoenix

 

[Zash]

Her initial "apology" didn't seem very sincere or compelling, but even if it was, there was nothing really to say. As long as she didn't keep smudging everything.

Zash watched what then proceeded to unfold in front of him in mild disbelief. How had she gotten this far being this... sloppy? How had the instructors at the academy not beaten this out of her? Stars knew that Zash had had it beaten out of him, but that was long before the academy. Maybe her instructors were different?

When she finally realized that what she was looking for was wadded up on the floor next to the trash bin and had been used as a now-chocolate-covered napkin, the look on his face was one that was clearly less than impressed.

On the bright side, once again, the redeeming quality was that what she was pulling out was actually useful. He begrudgingly and definitely silently admitted that he'd rather have a messy partner who was helpful than a neat partner who was useless... a neat partner who was helpful would have been great, though.

Okay, then, I guess we have our entry way, he said with a nod, noting down the numbers for the construction crew in his datapad. If he were better at this he'd be able to memorize it, but to be quite honest, he was good at a lot of things but that wasn't one of them. He was insightful enough to know that he wouldn't remember it if he tried, though, so that was half the battle.

Alright, you ready to go or do you need to... like shower first to wash off all that chocolate? he asked. It occurred to him that she probably could shower fairly quickly on account of not having hair. He wondered what that was like. Odd.

He pulled out his datapad and started ordering up a Spuber to take them over. The idea that they were taking a Spuber to go on a mission was comical, but they were working on limited opportunity here. Renting or stealing a speeder could come later.

 

[Ashla Ti]

"A shower?" She asked with a teasing chuckle. "That's cute. Have you seen the brutes the folks in the streets here? The messier we are the more we'll fit in."

Still, not being completely oblivious to his reaction to her messiness with the chocolate, she did head for the washroom and wash her hands and face. Emerging a few minutes later as he was ordering the Spuber, she helped pack up their supplies, ready to leave by the time the spuber arrived.

"Greetings customers," the droid behind the spuber's wheel greeted them as she pulled up outside the hotel, "I am WH4K, your chauffer unit for this ride. Can I offer you a water, or a death stick?"

Raising an eyebrow at the suggestion, she leaned in to whisper in Zash's ear. "Death stick? Are you sure you used the right app?" Not waiting for an answer, she stepped into the speeder and shuffled over to the other side to let Zash in after her. The ride started smoothly enough, but they were but five minutes out when the lights behind the droid's photoreceptor turned a menacing red.

At the same time a small panel slid open in front of them and a bright green gas slowly stated spilling out. "Greetings customers," the droid said, its voice sounding more sinister with the change to its eyes, "this is a shakedown. If you want the antidote to the poison you're breathing in please transfer ten thousand credits to the account number displayed in front of you. You have two minutes."

Ashla turned and stared at Zash, trying her best to not breath in the gas as she asked the thought racing through her head.

"What crazy app did you use?"

@Phoenix

 

[Zash]

Zash had used the Spuber app! Just because this planet was a piece of trash didn't mean that was his fault. Everyone here drank, smoked, and did spice. It was just the way of things down here. From one point of view, the droid was very polite for offering them both a deathstick.

After all, the speeder didn't smell like deathsticks.

Things were going fine as they rode along until they weren't going fine. Zash's face contorted into disbelief as the droid started trying to not only extort them but extort them out of 10,000 credits.

Was this a joke? Did they look like they had 10,000 credits? They were taking a Spuber to a minimum wage job because they didn't have their own Spuber. He briefly considered trying to explain this to the droid but realized it would probably just kill them and dump their bodies.

This thought snapped through his head in the fraction of a second, which was immediately replaced by another. If there really was a poison and antidote then the antidote had to be in here somewhere. The droid had already pulled off into an alley so that it could do said body dumping and Zash... may have acted a bit impulsively.

His lightsaber lit, slamming through the seat in front of him and carving straight up through the droid's entire body in an instant.

We need to find the antidote, he said hurriedly and trying not to sound as panicky as he was as he reached to the front seat to unlock the doors so that he could swing around to the driver's side and start trying to find a vial of some sort on the droid.

It could also be released from a button in the vehicle like the gas was, he said, realizing now that he had never actually smelled any sort of poison or gas in the vehicle?

 

[Ashla Ti]

"Antidote?" Ashla said as loudly as she dared without inhaling too much of the gas. She was still a little shocked by how things had turned out, but caught on quickly enough and as Zash jumped ahead to search the front of the speeder, she started feeling along the speeder's interior to try and find a button, or vent, or something. Getting more frantic with her movements as time passed, she finally gave up and reached for her bag, digging round inside to pull out her blades.

Yanking her shoto out as quickly as she could, she pointed it upwards and watched as the blade came to life through the roof. Cutting a crude circle more or less big enough for either of them to pass through, she pushed as she finished slicing, sending the separated section of the roof flying away. "Forget the antidote," she shouted at Zash, pointing towards the roof, "we need to get out of here!"

She pushed off from the speeder's floor and launched herself into the air, landing somewhat clumsily on the street outside, coughing and wheezing till her attention as drawn to the distinct sound of weapons being primed. She looked up through tear stained eyes to find three thugs standing in the alleyway, blasters and a repeater rifle pointed at her.

"What the hell," the filthiest looking of the trio said, his eyes glued on the lit lightsaber still in her hand, "no one said anything about a stinkin' Jedi!"

Assuming that they were accomplishes of the droid, probably there to dispose of the bodies or rob them of their possessions once the gas had dealt with them, Ashla stared them down for a moment, noticing the shaking hands and uncertainty on their faces. They were obviously used to victims who were unconscious, definitely not ones that were alive and kicking, much less wielding a glowing stick of death.

"Boo!" She said instinctively, just to see their reaction, and grinned widely as she was rewarded by the sight of the trio almost jumping out of their skins.

Rookies, she thought as she waited for what was to follow, don't just stare at the first threat to step out at you, be prepared for what's about to come next!

@Phoenix

 

[Zash]

Ashla managed to cut her way out of the vehicle and... well, they weren't dead. That was a plus, though the sound of others nearby now shouting about "Jedi" set him on edge. First off because he started looking for Jedi before realizing the idiots were talking about he and Ashla.

Secondly, he was on edge because he was pretty sure these jerks were here to kill them. He could still feel his throat threatening to seize up as he struggled to look through and see them. He forced the air from his lungs and forced in fresh air as he blinked through to see his enemy.

And then he leapt at them. It seemed Ashla had a more passive approach to the situation, but Zash was mad. He was mad that someone had tried to kill him and also a bit mad that they'd mistaken him for a Jedi. Mostly the former, but a little of the latter, too.

His saber flashed back to life and he swung it around in a smooth motion, cutting one of the thugs cleanly in half in a display that was pretty horrifying to watch.

Little help! he shouted back, hoping she would help engage the other thugs so that he wasn't all on his own in this little skirmish.

 

[Ashla Ti]

Ashla enjoyed the look of pure horrified shock that crossed the faces of the thugs as the "Jedi" jumped one of them and just cut him in half. As the other two stared at the smoking remains of their friend, Ashla let go of her blade and as it fell towards the ground she grabbed it with the Force. The moments that Zash's attack had bought her had been enough to allow her to recover a little from the effects of the poison attack and focus on the Force with enough control to pull off this little trick.

Her palm opened, fingers pointing straight at one of the surviving thugs, and her blade followed the gesture, flying through the air and straight through his head. By the time her blade swung around and came flying back to her hand, ripping through the thug once more for good measure, his body fell lifeless to the ground.

"Keep that one alive," she called out to Zash as she got to her feet, twirling the still lit blade at her side, "ask him what was in that gas was, will you?"

Confident that he'd be able to subdue the last thug without killing him, or at least willing to take a risk on seeing if he was up to that, she didn't interfere and instead moved towards the speeder. Grabbing hold of one of the passenger side doors, she slashed at it with her blade and ripped it off, whatever gas hadn't already escaped out of the hole in the roof starting to spill out.

"Remind him of the folly of lying to a Jedi," she called over her shoulder as she proceeded to methodically rip off the other doors, letting the gas out faster so that she could search the speeder, "that ought to get him talking." If they did need an antidote for whatever that droid had exposed them to, then they needed to find it fast. And if it wasn't in the speeder then she hoped the thug knew where to find it.

@Phoenix

 

[Zash]

Zash leapt at the final thug, hand reaching out to wrap around the man's throat and slamming him forcefully into the wall. He placed his unignited saber blade up against the man's belly as Ashla went about looking through the vehicle.

I turn this on now and you probably won't die if you get medical help in the next hour or so, he said. But you'll be crapping out of a bag for the rest of time if you're lucky. So I suggest you start telling her what she wants to know, he hissed angrily. His eyes still looked like murder and his thumb hovered threateningly over the ignition button.

He was pretty sure the guy nearly wet himself and it now occurred to Zash that he probably wasn't much older than the pair of Sith were.

I don't know, man! Don't do anything crazy. I don't think it's even real poison. It's just supposed to scare people! I'm just here to get the money and go! he shouted as if saying it louder might make it more convincing.

He threw the man down to the ground and slammed his boot down on the man's back to hold him in place while Ashla continued searching the vehicle.

See if you can pull navigation data from either the droid or the speeder, he said to Ashla, hoping they might be able to track the source of these jerks and maybe even use it to their advantage. If some scum got killed in a turf war between these people and their real target then that was just great.

 

[Ashla Ti]

Ashla was already ruffling through the speeder's interior when she heard Zash's words, and after finishing looking through the glove compartment she pulled out her datapad and fished around till she found a connector cable. Hooking up to the speeder's central console, it didn't take long for her to get access to its systems. As she launched a query to pull the speeder's navigation data, she spotted something else and pressed a few buttons as the data was being downloaded.

Reading what was showing up on her display, she let out a chuckle before a notification popped up to inform her that the download was done. Scrambling out of the speeder, she walked over to Zash, and held up the datapad so that he could see the map she pulled up.

"Looks like this spot here was the most common destination for our droid friend," she said as she had the map zoom in on a cluster of buildings, "looks like a warehouse of some sort, not too far from here."

A few more quick commands brought up a route from their current location to the warehouse, showing a path that was less then 10 minutes on foot.

"Want to go check it out?" She asked as she gave the man under Zash's foot a quick glance, before leaning in to whisper so that only Zash could hear. "And he's telling the truth about the gas, just some sleeping gas. Apparently you double pump the break pedal to start and stop the flow, why we missed it."

Straightening up, she gave the thug a quick kick before asking him a question. "The warehouse, you've been there before? What sort of welcome will we find at this time of day?" They could just scout around once they got there, but if they did get some info from the thug then all the better.

@Phoenix

 

[Zash]

Zash grunted as she mentioned the warehouse and the brake being used to activate the gas. He didn't feel better about having missed it, but he told himself there was nothing he could have done on that front.

All right, yeah, let's go to the warehouse, he said with a nod. Then he looked back to their prisoner. They couldn't take him with them and he wasn't eager to let him go warn his friends about the impending arrival of two "Jedi."

As Ashla asked what they could expect, the guy looked back and forth between the two uncertainly. I'd answer her question, he said, giving his best intimidating face that was really just... okay. The subtle tapping on the lightsaber hilt in his hand seemed like it did a slightly better job of motivating him, and he started stammering.

Uh... yeah, I... it's hard to say. There's probably a handful of guys there right now. Five or six? Couple'll probably be stoned and the others... look, I don't know, man, you gotta believe me, he said.

Sounded simple enough, but things rarely went as well as they sounded.

Up to you if we kill him, he said to Ashla. He didn't have strong feelings either way. Probably a safer option than letting him go or knocking him out. He was just a petty criminal after all, no one would miss him.

He started heading out as she decided and walked at a brisk pace, waiting for her to catch up.

How'd you wind up on this assignment anyway? he asked.

@Wit

 

[Ashla Ti]

As Zash walked off Ashla took a moment to decide what to do, and having made up her mind she let out a quick punch that knocked him out cold. Hopefully they would be done with their work here and long gone by the time he came to his senses, and once he did she was sure he would begin spreading stories of Jedi killing his friends and threatening to kill him. If the rumor spread then all the better, and if not then no harm done.

Leaving the unconscious thug in the alleyway, she rushed to catch up to Zash, and fell in step besides him. "Well," she replied to his question, "I kind of volunteered." She put her hands in her pocket and her steps fell into a rhythm as they started navigating towards the warehouse. "I got into some trouble with some acolytes on Dormund Kaas, messed with some dorm prefects and they ultimately caught on. Had to promise to help them earn some favor with some of the Lords. And there's nothing they like better than gifts of rare artifacts. Even the most powerful are susceptible to bribes."

Moving aside to let a droid to walk past between the two of them, she was silent for a bit before asking Zash a question of her own. "What about you? Are you a hunter of artifacts exotic and rare? Or did someone force this assignment on you?"

They would continue walking through the streets, Ashla checking her datapad now and then to guide them towards the warehouse, and about ten minutes or so later they were more or less there. Stopping a block down from the warehouse, Ashla stepped towards the shadows under the building that lined the side of the walkway, and gestured for Zash to follow.

"Up there," she said as she pointed towards the roof of the warehouse, where a slender figure could be seen walking about, holding something in his hand that was too small to see, but likely a cigara from the trail of smoke following in its wake, "guess at least someone's at home. How do you wanna do this?"

@Phoenix