Ask Coruscant Opportunist

[Acklay]

She'd been back on Coruscant much more than she would like recently, but business was business and opportunity was opportunity. The fall of the New Republic combined with the 'nexus' (or whatever) on Coruscant and the riots in the streets was almost the perfect time for something like this. Almost.

The woman would still need a hand - or a couple of hands - to pull this off. That's where Blackhand and Tarkona came in. She'd never met either of them, but it wasn't hard to look into them. They were both at least familiar with the more criminal side of life. They were both looking for credits. She trusted them to be competent enough to complete the job and stay alive to collect their payments.

For now, Mars rested her back against the graffitied wall of bar called 'The Refuge.' Both Byt and Lissa would have received a message from an anonymous number about a week ago, giving them a brief overview of what they were being hired to do.

> Go to the bar called 'the Refuge' on Coruscant and meet a woman there. Her name is Acklay. She will brief you further.
> Come prepared.
> 5,000 credits will be wired to your account 25 galactic standard hours after the mission is complete.

The woman, who the two would know only as 'Acklay', wore her mask and a quarter-sleeve top that showed off both of her shiny, cybernetic arms. Other than that, she wore baggy clothing, her pants full of pockets and a jacket tied loosely around her waist. She held a datapad in one clawed hand while the other casually scrolled down whatever contents were on its screen.

She would wait for them to arrive.

@Pendleton @Panda Hermit 98

 

[Byt Tarkona]

It didn't take long for Byt to decide he loved Coruscant. Buildings as tall as a mountain, a maze of duracrete and transparisteel with people from all walks on the walkways that crisscrossed like webs. It had been a long walk from the Starport where the Hammer was docked, but he liked it that way; enough time to take the planet in, get a finger on the pulse and see what exactly he could get away with. He's already spotted a few corners where he could make a killing pushing Glitteryll to the local drunks falling in and out of Cantina's and bars in the Recreational District this "Refuge" he was meant to meet the contact at was found.

He rounded the corner, the collar on his brown flight jacket popped up high to stave off the worst of the chill in the air, his Lekku curled to sit on his shoulders and drape down his front as he swaggered towards the neon bar sign picked out with the name "Refuge." He adjusted the gloves and datapad strapped to his wrist, tugging them tighter as his eyes narrowed. Most people seemed to be going about their lives, this way and that as they wandered across. He slowed his pace as he spied a woman leaning against the wall, seemingly in no particular hurry to go anywhere. He rolled a shoulder and stalked over.

"Nice hardware." His Basic had always been accented, often coming out as forced, but he lifted his chin towards her exposed arms as he came to a stop before her. Besides the open jacket, he had a white shirt on beneath that was likely a size too small. As usual, he had his cargo pants tucked into the cuffs of his black combat boots, his DG-34 hanging low from a quick-draw holster on his hip. His Lekku briefly twitched as he gave her a measured eye, head tilting slightly. "Acklay?" He asked, simply.

@Panda Hermit 98 @lizziie

 

[Lissa Blackhand]

Well, this was quite the trip, she had started her journey from the Outer Rim, made her way to Taris, then Trandosha, then further in, and now here she was - Coruscant, the Core World. For what was meant to be a wander while she thought about what to do with her life, it was surprisingly linear, still, she went where work took her. She had recieved a message some time ago directing her here, specifically to a bar named The Refuge, nice place if a little beaten up in places. Given the timelapse for the meeting, Lissa had been visitng the bar for the past few days to make sure nothing untoward was gonna happen, keeping an ear and an eye out. True, she wasn't nearly famous enough for that kind of sting, but it passed the time regardless.

The day of the meeting, she arrived in her swoop and entered the bar to find a few new faces, including two that definitely didn't look like normal drinkers. That was probably Acklay then, and she was packing some nice cybernetics too. Lissa was quick to stifle the months old train of thought about upgrading her own hardware, be it through guns, armor, or chrome, that wasn't a train to get on right now, instead just walking over to the booth and sitting down next to them.
"Room for one more?" She asked, sitting down besides the Twi'lek. "Acklay?"

She'd packed the essentials, rifle nestled under her armpit hidden beneath her coat, pistol in it's holster, a grenade or two fixed to her belt next to her vibroknife and some extra blaster packs in her pockets.

@lizziie @Pendleton

 

[Acklay]

Acklay was keeping an eye on her surroundings, even if her tilted chin made it appear as if she was entirely engrossed with her datapad. So when Byt entered her field of view, spotted her, and began to head over, she looked his way just as he opened his mouth to speak. "Thanks," was her reply, a grin forming under her mask. Unlike the Twi'lek she had no thick accent. She had the neutral voice of someone who spent more time abroad than wherever she was born, making it hard to pinpoint where exactly the woman was from. Coruscant was the answer of course, though Omega Station had been her 'home' for years now.

"Mhm." 'Twas her indeed. She was glad to see he'd come prepared, as she'd asked. Guns and practical clothing at the ready. It wasn't long before the second hired hand found them against the bar wall - this time it was Lissa, dressed in a coat and walking with the gait of someone holding something under their arm. Acklay raised an eyebrow, though she relaxed when the woman asked if she was who she was. "Mhm," came the same nonverbal response.

Time for business. "I'll let you two introduce yourselves," she said, pausing for a couple of seconds to allow them to do just that. She didn't know if they wanted to go by their first names, last names, both, or something else entirely. She certainly wasn't one to judge, not when she went by another name entirely at this point. But hey, every slicer needs a cool name, no? "We won't be talking here though, so follow me."

With that, Acklay pushed herself off the wall and immediately rounded the nearest corner, taking her straight into an alley. She expected the two to follow, listening for their footsteps to make sure they would. The slicer pressed a button on her datapad, unjamming the street cameras as soon as she was out of their range.

"What do you two know about the failure of the New Republic?" It was recent news. Coruscant had been in some sort of chaos since the Chancellor was revealed to be a Joiner, and now that it was cut off from its former government, everything was in a sort of limbo. But sometimes information could be hard to come by, so she was only expecting them to know that it had happened, and not much more.

@Pendleton @Panda Hermit 98

 

[Byt Tarkona]

Byt folded his arms, opening his mouth as he seemed set to press more about the hardware when he heard the footsteps approaching behind. He tilted his head back as they were joined by a third who he swiftly gave the once over. He relaxed when she asked the same question as he had done moments before.

"Byt Tarkona." He dropped his chin as he introduced himself, glancing down at her hand as he offered his own to shake. "Appears I'm the only one without hardware." A toothy grin followed, his smile full of sharpened teeth. He retracted the hand, shaken on not, and fell lockstep behind Acklay as they set off. He kept a weather eye on his surroundings as he listened. He may be in love with Coruscant, and he had his usual street wits, but this was still all foreign to him. His arms remained folded for the time though, a clear sign he was keeping away from his blaster.

"Heard it on the Holonet before the flight over." He sniffed, eyes darting to a particularly clear patch of graffiti on the nearby wall. 'Not Your Soldiers' scrawled out in blue, paint flecked and old. "Something about gearing up for another war, people got sick of it? Don't know much beyond that, other than that means there'll be some ripe fruits for the taking." He grinned again, the twinkle of mischief in his eye. It was one of the reasons he'd left the Glitteryll pushing back on Ryloth; at times like this, folks make a name for themselves. And credits, plenty of credits.

@lizziie @Panda Hermit 98

 

[Lissa Blackhand]

Lissa looked over the Twi'lek, noting the single blaster strapped to his hip and a shirt that appeared to be a tad on the tight side. Seemed juuust a tad twitchy too, maybe a newbie? She'll find out soon enough, best not to ask right now, focus on the job. She took his hand, shaking it firmly.
"Lissa Blackhand," She replied. It was getting easier to say now, must be true what they say, any change acclimates itself well enough with repetition and dedication. She couldn't help but feel slightly embarrassed in the back of her mind, but it sounded cool! She couldn't afford to backtrack now, she picked the damn name and she was gonna make it one to be taken seriously.

She followed the pair out into the alley, taking note of Acklay's fiddling with her datapad. Hmm. When they stopped and she asked about the more recent political developments, Lissa sighed softly. "Same here, bits and pieces, some people are saying the NWA is falling apart too, like a chain reaction, but I haven't heard anything specific. What did happen?"

@lizziie @Pendleton

 

[Acklay]

"Former chancellor got outed as a Joiner," Acklay said offhandedly as she continued down the alley. The two of them would already be very aware of the Killik threat that the Galaxy had faced - or, in some cases, was still facing. The pheromones the bugs released could be utilized to 'join' sentiments with the Killik hivemind, forcing them into the hive's cause while still retaining their memories. They were imposters - wolves in sheep's clothing. "War, failing economies... all of it. Now there's a 'Dark side' nexus on Coruscant and the heart of the Republic itself has devolved into chaos."

Coruscant had never been a peaceful place, but the ongoing riots had made it worse. Businesses had even moved off the planet, fearing the instability, but the chaos also provided an opportunity. Acklay would take full advantage of that.

There was a hovercar up ahead. "One of you will drive," she stated, vaulting into the backspace and leaving both the passenger and driver seats open. "The coordinates are already input. We're heading for the local government building," she further explained. "Once there, the two of you will provide a distraction for me while I extract the data I need. After, we'll head off to the next location."

She was being somewhat intentionally vague about exactly what she was doing, just in case things went south and one of them wanted to snitch. She would give them the information they needed as they would need it. It was safest for all of them that way.

Acklay settled into the seat and pulled out her datapad, input a long password, then began working on something. She trusted whoever drove to drive well.

@Panda Hermit 98 @Pendleton

 

[Byt Tarkona]

Byt took it upon himself to slink around to the far side of the vehicle, double-checking everything was in place before he climbed behind the driving pillion. He checked over the controls; he was used to driving a few types of vehicles but as their contact went into a little more detail, he decided it was never a bad thing to be too thorough.

"Distraction?" He questioned, thrumming the hovercar to life as he waited for Lissa to get into the passenger seat. He tapped at the central console to ensure he was going the right way before spooling up the motor and beginning to climb. It wasn't far, but they had time to talk. "What type of government building we talking about? The type with clerks and topiary, or the type with canons and turbo lasers?"

He veered on to the route that had been plotted out for him by the nav, taking his place among the eternal traffic that seemed to stretch to the horizon on worlds like Coruscant. He spared a glance to his companion once again. "What you got up your sleeve then, when it comes to distractions?" He nodded towards Lissa's arm. "That thing for show, or will it come in handy?"

@Panda Hermit 98 @lizziie

 

[Lissa Blackhand]

Listening to Acklay go on and on, Lissa started to get the sneaking suspicion that she picked a bad time to come to Coruscant. War and a tanking economy was just par for the course - she grew up on Nar Shadda, she was used to living in pits that were falling to bits - but the Chancellor being a joiner? That was a recipe for disaster, not to mention at raised the question of how the Kiliks could even get access to him to begin with. Also, she had no clue what a Dark Side Nexus was, other than a metal name for a band, but she figured it would be wise to keep away from it.

She got into the passenger seat of the car after gesturing to Byt that he was free to take the wheel and looked at Acklay warily. They had arrived armed, were immediately going to a government building, and they had to provide some kind of distraction while she grabbed something. It didn't exactly sound half-baked, but it did sound like the kind of plan that would leave them out to dry if it went wrong, or even if it went right.
"I agree with Byt, where are we going specifically, and what kind of distraction would work best?" She asked, nodding along. "I get it if you don't want to tell us everything, you're the client after all, but you can't make a brick without duracrete, we need info to make sure you get the distraction you need."

She looked at Byt as he inquired about the arm, with Lissa grumbling slightly. It was a glorified prosthetic, but she couldn't help but wonder if it could be something more than that. She was willing to change her name to reflect her defining physical trait now, why not go a little further with it? Some more cybernetics surely wouldn't do her any harm (as long as they were done right), would they?
"Just a prosthetic I'm afraid, can shoot a blaster well enough still. As for distractions...I have a grenade." She said, smirking.

@lizziie @Pendleton

 

[Acklay]

"Don't worry, this isn't my first streetfight," the slicer said dryly, eyes still trained on her datapad as she responded to Lissa's doubtful words. "The former - worst they'll have are a few armed cops hanging around, but they shouldn't be an issue to any of us specifically."

After ten more minutes, Acklay would push off the seat and lean forward, inserting her torso in between Byt and Lissa to show the latter a hologram projected off her datapad. The image projected was that of the front of the local government building, and it was the typical sort as well. A length of stairs led up to the doors right from the street where citizens were passing by. The point of view seemed to be that of a camera's.

"I want you two to incite a protest - a riot, a mob, whatever - in the streets outside the building," she explained. Using her finches to 'pinch' the image, she rotated to the side of the building with a bit of a jump halfway as the hologram switched point of views (and cameras). "I'll be entering here. Once inside, I'll be keeping minimal communication." The less evidence of her theft, the better. "Once I'm out, you two's signal to disappear will be the power going out in the building. Hopefully, they'll blame the protesters in the chaos."

Acklay fell back into her seat, crossed her legs, and stashed her datapad for the moment. "Just try to avoid escalating it too much or we might be dealing with the sector police too."

@Pendleton @Panda Hermit 98