Shadow In Alderaan, Part 2

[Spectre (Old)]

Aldera, Alderaan

Three-hours after the events of Part 1*
​

Three hours removed from the Hutt Cartel Vigo Spectre and his associate Parvis met with the new Queen-Elect Lucille Antilles for the first time. It was an interesting visit to say the least, but a little too interesting for Jack Lawson's tastes. The Vigo not only had to go to good amount of lengths to prove they could be trust worthy, but also had to prove they are capable. Spectre was posioned by the Queen after drinking some tainted tea, if not for some quick thinking by the two, then Spectre may not have lived past that day. He's broke into prisons, infiltrated places, stood down the business end of a tank, but it was a cup of tea of all things that was the closest to bringing his stint as a Vigo to an early end. But fortunately that wasn't meant to be it's not in the day's agenda.

Now, Queen-Elect Lucille had tasked the two with infiltrating the manor of a lesser Alderaan noble house by the name of the House of Lyndon. This house was said to have been useful to her during the election process after the previous Queen of Alderaan passed away, but now that Lucille sits on the throne, they are now becoming a hindrance and Lucille wants them to be shown the error of their ways. Spectre cares not for all the noble politics and the scrabbles that come with it, the only thing that matter is that Spectre and Parvis are on a job. Parvis is getting compensated for his work today, but Spectre isn't doing this for credits, instead he is doing this to establish relationship with the Queen, capitalizing on the fact that she has entered an alliance with the Hutts to secure her place on the throne. The benfits of such a relationship are between the Vigo and the Queen are pretty obvious, but it will become more apparent in the long-term than in the short-term. Imagine having Alderaan's Senator as a contact.

Now, the effect's of Lucille's poison have completely worn off by now and out of his system thanks to the antidote, thankfully. Spectre has all his standard equipment and gadgets on him, and a pair of gloves in his jacket pockets. Spectre would be lying low in cover, having a good view of the manor from the side. It has a elegant fence around it, there a gate at the front. Typical. The aim is to go in, get what they came for, and then leave. "You ready for this Parvis?" he would ask his subordinate. Almost time to get this show on the road.

@Nefieslab!

 

[Parvis]

Parvis had never felt like this about a woman before – especially about a woman who had tried to kill one of his friends! – but he was definitely sure that he might have a little bit of a crush on Queen Lucille. If the rumour mill in the Cartel hadn’t started stories that she was actually gay, Parvis might have held out some hope for there being something between them. But he supposed if she was gay then the chemistry he had felt during their meeting was nothing but his own imagination.

He would get over it, he was sure.

On the plus side – they had met with a Queen of a Core World and neither of them was being executed for something so he had that to add to the list of his life’s achievements. His mother would be so proud to learn he had visited a genuine Queen!

But all of that? All of that could wait until they had finished their actual mission and that was something they would need to be getting on with now. Dressed in his armour rather than his suit, Parvis was prepared in case things went sideways and violence was needed in the extreme. It was a medium set of armour too so he could still manage to be stealthy if that was what was needed in this mission.

Lucky that, huh?

“Ready.”

He confirmed as he began to crawl the distance between their cover and the fence. They were at the side of the property and the fence was hardly well protected or even well observed from this side. As he reached the fence itself, he drew his vibroknife and began to cut away at the metal links of the fences before pulling back enough for a crouched person to move through.

Holding the links open with a leg, Parvis knelt on the ground with his rifle raised and ready to sight down any targets that came there way while Spectre was moving up.

Lesser House or not, Parvis wasn’t playing around with security unless he was the one who got to strike first.

@Faster Than Light

 

[Spectre (Old)]

The Hutt Cartel Vigo nodded in approval of Parvis' words was the are ready as he was putting his gloves on (Lucille wanted discreteness, and Spectre isn't going to leave fingerprints lying around. When Parvis says he is ready, he is ready no doubt about it. The guy has a good future ahead of him in the Hutt Cartel, you just can't find driven people like him in the Cartel. Parvis didn't waste even a nano-second of time getting into action. He would be closely to the side behind Parvis as he was crawling towards the fence. The political situation was something that must be taken into account, the guards have probably not been challenge as this is a peaceful planet even with the Great War that had happened.

But perhaps they aren't quite expecting Lucille to be making moves against them right now seeing as they supported the Queen before her ascension to the throne. They are crying foul now after the fact, but there isn't any way they can be expecting skilled Hutt Cartel operatives to be coming their way. There is now an opening in the fencing courtesy of the Cartel basadi, the Vigo can now make his way in while Parvis is standing guard for a hot second and holding the links open as he makes his way up. He would then ended in a crouching position as he pulled his BP12 blaster pistol from his shoulder holster. While the security hasn't noticed their profiles, it's best not to leave anything to chance. Alright, now what that, the coast is clear. Now there is how to get in the building. They could go through the windows on the first or second floor (they'd need teamwork to get up to the second floor), or go through the luxurious courtyard in the back. Spectre looks towards the buildings rear as he is seriously considering that route, and he would look towards his partner, seeing what his body language would suggest (or if he has anything to say) to make sure they are on the same page

@Nefieslab!

 

[Parvis]

Once Spectre was through the fence, Parvis waited only long enough for the slicer to be on the other side with his blaster up before making his own way through the hole in the fence. Once he was through he was back on his knees, rifle up and ready, as he scanned in as many directions as was reasonable for any more threats. There weren't any that were making their way any closer so Parvis was content to try and move up instead.

Seeing Spectre looking towards the courtyard, Parvis thought about it for a moment before shaking his head slightly. If they were going to try and kill people here? Then yeah, he would have agreed with Spectre about taking the courtyard path - carving their way in through security.

But they weren't here for that - they were here, essentially, to deliver a message and messages were much more intimidating if you could deliver them, seemingly, without actually needing to engage the security. He gestured to the second story window before moving to show Spectre his grapple line launcher on his armour,

"Let's get in, send the message and we can then leave." he suggested to Spectre as he urged Spectre to cross the gap and stand flat against the wall of the building anyway, "We don't need to go through the front door - let's give the message that we can get to them without them knowing how. Let them know that we have our ways."

But, ultimately, the decision was Spectre's and he would abide by it.

@Faster Than Light

 

[Spectre (Old)]

"Alright Sounds like plan" the Hutt Cartel Vigo said. Now that Parvis puts it like that, that makes way more sense. Spectre doesn't have a grappling line on him nor does he have an ascension gun on him, (although maybe he should invest in one after this mission is done) With that, he would follow with his associate's advice, crossing the gap and standing flat against the wall, he would still hais pistol in hand, ready to fire just in case. Parvis' plan to start on the upper levels is a very good one, they probably don't have what they are looking for on the bottom floors anyways, and that would be less to fight through and less stuff in their way. Hopefully though this means of getting in the buildin won't alert anyone inside the building. "Ready to go when you are." Spectre would affirm to Parvis, ready to latch on to him whenever he is ready to work his grappling line magic. Time is key too, they should strive to make this quick, the longer they are here, the more chances there are of getting things wrong, but they shouldn't be sloppy, although this kind of mission does carry risks since they didn't have much time for prep work and they don't know what all is on the inside.

@Nefieslab!

 

[Parvis]

Right.

Time to make a Force-damned entrance!

His right forearm had his grapple line launcher attached to it so Parvis steadied himself and aimed carefully before activating his armour's function, the grapple line shooting straight up to the edge of the roof and embedding itself with enough strength that the line would support the weight of both Parvis and Spectre. Rather than doing something stupid like grabbing Spectre and ascending like that, Parvis turned to his cartel ally,

"I'll ascend first then throw the launcher back down to you - affix it to your forearm and ascend after me." he told the other Cartel man with a tilt of his helmet, "Try and hurry... I might not be alone."

Bracing himself, Parvis activated the retraction setting on the grapple line and began to quickly ascend, making sure to keep his feet braced against the wall so that it was like he was rappelling up the wall, just with the assistance of the gadget to make it a little bit easier on him. He had fired to line slightly to one side of the window so he didn't climb over it but rather around to the left of it slightly. He was just above the window and to the left when the window opened and he froze.

"Could have sworn I heard something..."

Kriff.

Taking a deep breath, Parvis moved himself until his feet were braced above the window before kicking off at the same time as he changed the controls to let him descend a little bit. As he kicked away from the building, he descended and came swinging back in feet first.

"What the...?!"

Parvis detached the grapple attachment from his arm as he flew in through the window feet first into the Alderaanian guard. As the launcher would descend back down to Spectre, Parvis would find himself sprawled on his back with a guard moaning in pain in a similar situation. Knowing that surprise might not last too much longer, Parvis forced himself to move, lunging his entire body forward onto the guard, driving the air from his body just in time to keep him from crying out.

The two men scrambled to get an advantage until Parvis managed to jam the fingers of his left hand into the man's mouth to physically stop him from being able to call out for help... and then the man bite down and Parvis was the one who had to stifle a scream. With a twist of his left wrist, Parvis growled behind his helmet as his wrist-mounted hidden blade erupted forth and impaled the man underneath his jaw and straight into his brain from below.

The pressure on his finger stopped and Parvis was able to pull his aching fingers from the man's mouth as he just stopped for a moment to breathe, nothing that the room they had arrived in was probably a spare bedroom. It was nicely decorated and clean but had no real personality.

A guest room if ever there was one.

Groaning in pain, Parvis drew his pistol and held it at the ready, the door to the bedroom thankfully closed. He licked his lips nervously behind his helmet, ready to gun down people should they open the door but really hoping that Spectre would get up here and they would have some good luck for a change and the situation wouldn't escalate.

@Faster Than Light

 

[Spectre (Old)]

And nobody heard the commotion that went on in the room Parvis killed those people in. Good. Spectre liked that idea better of Parvis going up and passing down his grappling line attachment. He wasn't a fan of people touching him and he isn't that much of a fan of touching other people unless it's needed. As soon as Parvis tossed his attachment down to him, Spectre was ready to catch in mid air and he did. He detached the computer spike attachment on his left wrist (and storing it on his person for later) and put the grappling line launcher on in it's place. Spectre would aim to hurry up as he suggested, only he had to find the sweet spot to aim towards and fire to land it, eventually getting the room in the same manner Parvis did. Once he is firmly inside he, would see a dead body, blood everywhere and Parvis groaning in pain. Whenever Spectre doesn't have an eye on him, things seem to get really bloody, he noticed that on Corellia. One moment he's in an apartment room trying to talk to his old college buddy about joining his cause, then the next thing he knows, there's blood on him and a dead cop. How weird?

"You alright?" the Cartel Vigo would ask Parvis. If Parvis wants his grappling launcher right now, Spectre would be more than happy to give it to him at this point. If/when he does so, Spectre would still have his pistol in his right hand, nearly leveled as he approaches the door. As nobody heard the commotion that went on nobody is coming, although he isn't quite for sure, but they can't stay held-up in the room forever. Spectre would slowly turn the door knob and slowly open it. Nothing on that side of the hallway, and he would peak around and see nothing on the other side of the hallway. At least if someone sees Spectre, they might assume he is a nobleman guest given how dapper he looks, not so much for Parvis. "Alright, the ghost is clear." he would inform Parvis. Now they can move. To that end, the Cartel Slicer-Vigo would move against the adjacent side of the wall, then moving towards the corner the wall taking a peak, so far so good, and he would look towards his associate and gesture that they are clear to proceed. Alright, the two are here for some sensitive information that would do well to keep this House Lyndon out of Lucille's affairs. The best place to find this would be a restricted area, probably electronically locked.

@Nefieslab

 

[Parvis]

The commotion wasn't loud enough to have alerted anyone else and that was, in a word, excellent. Parvis was still clenching his hand into a fist, still very much aching from the way the man had bitten him. Straightening up slightly when Spectre arrived, he breathed a sigh of relief and gratefully took the launcher and refitted it to his armour. The corpse was going to be an issue but nothing that could be done about it for now. Instead of disposing of it, Parvis just checked to make sure everything was alright on his person before moving up.

Nodding to Spectre, he tilted his helmet to one side to imply he was smiling,

"The man had a set of teeth on him."

Nothing more than really needed to be said to be honest.

Parvis moved up with Spectre out of the room until they reached the corner before holding a hand up. At this point they had the option of going left or right and he knew that there were other objectives they had aside from the data. He nodded to Spectre,

"Split up?" he suggested, "We can cover more ground and maybe nab the kid while we're here as well. If I find the study I'll com you so you can come and splice it... doubt my computer spike would work better than you after all."

Nodding to his friend and ally, Parvis would move the opposite direction to the one Spectre went in, pistol held up in his right hand and his knife held at the ready in his left, bracing his knife against his pistol so that he was ready to either shoot or stab or both at the same time if needs be. Moving forward, he made sure to slowly ease the doors open, not getting discouraged when he found nothing within the rooms.

Hopefully Spectre had more luck.

@Faster Than Light

Spoiler: Pose

 

[Spectre (Old)]

Well, apparently the guard bit Parvis from what he could piece together from his statement. Ew. Gross. Spectre and Parvis don't know where all those teeth have been. Anyways, moving on. Now that the two are in the hallways about to make their move forward, he would respond to Parvis' idea for splliting up from here to cover more ground."Sounds good. I'll com you if I find anything as well" he nodded his head toward his partner. He had his blaster pistol at the ready, and when Parvis went off his way, Spectre would peek around the corner once more and taking another look, he would see a door way with a combination keypad on it. That might be what he is looking for. Spectre would then advance, moving as swiftly as possible, trying to make a whole lot of noise but not be moving at a slow pace. When he arrives at the keypad, he would take out his computer spike attachment and remount it on to his left wrist, with it snapped in place. This attachment will allow the Hutt Cartel Slicer/Vigo to just stick the spike in the device and then it would work it's magic. And before too long, the computer spike would crack it. Dang. Maybe Spectre's getting so good at this that these mundane security solutions just aren't cutting it, or he gotten lucky, or both. Once inside, he would help himself in the study, being sure to close the door behind him as he slowly goes inside with his pistol leveled and closer to his shoulder. There are no potential threats inside. The study is a nice, tidy one. It has paintings on the walls, a nice wood-polished desk with a sleek terminal on it. He would then communicate to his subordinate via his comlink on his findings. "Spectre here. I think I found the study." He would say quietly.

With that, he would then take a seat in the nice black space-leather office seat, and then kick the terminal from it's screensaver mode. Now, the terminal is password protected and it needs a password. Ideally, there is probably some sort of thing where if you put too many passwords attempt on there, then it would lock the terminal. Hmmmm, what will he do now?

 

[Parvis]

Parvis had to admit that going down this corridor, checking so many different rooms, and finding nothing was getting to be a bit of a drag. He knew that there were people here and it was setting his teeth on edge to know that but yet find no actual people aside from the guard he killed at the beginning of their infiltration. He was working his way forwards still when he got confirmation from Spectre that he had gotten the target.

Sweet.

"Confirmed, Spectre." he replied briefly over the com, "I'm continuing the search for precious cargo."

Peering around a corner, Parvis could have sworn that he had hit pay credits when the wife of the head of this house exited a bedroom with a young girl. The girl looked similar to the woman and it took him a moment to click - the little girl was a first cousin of the current head of this House.

Someone viewed as a child before the head of the house and his wife were blessed with a kid of their own... of that was precious cargo alright.

They were walking further down the corridor from him with two guards following behind them... alright.

Alright he had this.

Not bothering to be too stealthy because he needed to be quick, Parvis moved as quickly as he could without sprinting to fall upon the guards from behind. His knife came down into the throat of the man on his left and his pistol pressed against the spine of the guard on his right. He fired twice, the blasts muffled by the body of the guard in front of the weapon. Leaving his knife embedded into the throat of the guard on his left, Parvis lunged forwards, wrapping an arm around the little girl's mouth and pointing his pistol up at the wife.

The wife had been about to scream but frozen upon seeing that he now had the little girl.

Parvis gestured to the two guards,

"Move them - into the bedroom." he commanded the wife, his voice coming out distorted, "Or I kill the kid and take you instead."

She shook her had and began to drag the corpses into a nearby bedroom with Parvis' gun pressed against the kid's temple as a threat that wasn't at all implied. He tapped his com-link quickly,

"Secured precious cargo." he whispered to Spectre, "Have the man's favourite little cousin and his wife at blaster point. We have room for one - advise which target to acquire."

It was Spectre's mission after all.

@Faster Than Light

 

[Spectre (Old)]

Alright, rather than being dumb and trying to guess the password, Spectre would use his computer spike on the terminal mounted in his left wrist once again. With the computer spike once again in use, it would work it's magic, but the spike doesn't seem to be working on the terminal just yet, although it will in time. On the comlink, is hearing Parvis, oh? He found the 'favourite little cousin' and his wife, but they can only take one. Lets see, the little cousin would be easier to take back, and it will be a whole lot easier for blackmail to use a child instead of a grown wife. This is a no-brainer to him. "Splendid. Lets go with the cousin, shall we?" that was his answer. "Oh and make sure to knock the other out, and probably the child too." Parvis most likely already knew that though, it goes without saying. After all, they don't need anyone screaming and hollering. The wife would be screaming to the guards, and the child would be a nuisance to carry around with them as well. With that, Spectre would once again be putting focus into slicing through the password security system on the terminal. It will break soon enough.

@Nefieslab!

 

[Parvis]

Alright... time to move on.

He had the cousin and as Spectre so helpfully pointed out, the wife wasn't needed. Nodding to his unseen ally, Parvis smacked the cousin on the side of the head with his pistol before pistol whipping the wife to the ground. Once on the ground he let the cousin drop for a moment as he climbed atop the wife to choke her out... stopping only when she was out of it but not actually dead. Stepping away from her, he closed and locked the door before grabbing the cousin again. This time he made sure to hold the small child in front of him as he began to make his way back to the extraction point.

Hopefully Spectre would be done soon.

As he was carrying the cousin back, Parvis growled in annoyance as two guards rounded the corner... and right into his waiting pistol. He shot four times, two for the chest of each unsuspecting guard,

"Moving back to the window with the precious cargo." He acknowledged to Spectre, "Finish up and we can go on home."

Hopefully Spectre would be done soon.

@Faster Than Light

 

[Spectre (Old)]

As expected, the computer spike finished, later than expected at the end of the day, there really isn't much that Spectre can crack through. Once he is in, he would get a data vault from on his person and set it next to the terminal while plugging the datavault in to the terminal. The data vault is a data storage so if there's any files to grab it would be put on there. Afterwards, Spectre eyes would be glued to the screen as he navigates his way through towards some more sensitive information. Sure, the Cartel Vigo-Slicer could probably just download the whole computer on there, but that takes a lot of time, Get what they need then get out of here. Spectre is able to read quick and navigate through any terminal with speed, which is a point in his favour, but they don't have all day. Soon, he would find himself onto financial records for the household, which is getting transferred to the datavault. Also records on all the concrete assests as well. Navigating a few more, does he see missives regarding Queen Lucille? Oh, that's going on there. While the Queen always knew that this lesser house always trying to undermine her in any way, they don't have plausible deniability any more. Plus while the cousin, access to their records, any blackmail attempts will shut down this house. Good enough. Spectre would hear Parvis on the comlink. "Acknowledged. Almost finished" Just a few more moments, he would see the glass of fruit tea on the desk while he is waiting. Now that it's done, Spectre would unhook his datavault, close out of all the tasks on the terminal, and begin to open the door, still trying to keep quiet while advancing.


@Nefieslab

 

[Parvis]

Ah looked like they needed to get themselves out of here then eh?

He gestured for the wife to come closer, as if to speak to her, before hitting her across the head with the butt of his pistol, knocking her out cold as he carefully applied a sleeper hold to the kid. Making sure he was cutting off blood-flow but not air, the kid slumped out cold against him and he checked her pulse and breathing.

She was fine.

Putting the kid over his left shoulder, Parvis made sure he had his pistol raised and ready as he began to make his way back to the entry point they'd used. As he was walking quickly he could hear a guard had found the wife and was trying to look after her now but he didn't seem to have a com-link on him.

That meant they had quite a fair bit of time.

"We've got a single guard alerted but he's busy." He relayed to Spectre as he hurried into the first bedroom they had entered through, finding it empty aside from the corpse, "I'm back at the bedroom we entered through. Advise haste."

He checked the line was still there, which it was, and checked below... and there weren't any guards milling around in the area. He attached the grapple device to the line again so automate the descent before waiting for Spectre. Once his partner would show up he would urge the dapper man to go first,

"You have the data - go first and hit the retract button, it will come back up for me and the kid."

@Faster Than Light

 

[Spectre (Old)]

Well, it's a good thing the study wasn't all the far from where the Cartel team's entry point inside the building was. Spectre could hear from across the other side of the room the chatter of two women who are coming up from the stair well just as he exited from the study. Just as his partner suggested on the comlink, he would be heading towards that bedroom, taking long, swift steps out of there, the door was left open, but it won't matter. He would be out of there before the two ladies would realize what's going on in time. And because of the guard's positioning, the Cartel Vigo would evade him as well. He then see Parvis back in the the bedroom with one of the two items on the list, someone to ransom. There is no time for pleasantries, they need to get out, the guard Parvis warned him about is no doubt calling for additional back up as they would be dilly-dallying. "Alright" he would acknowledge Parvis' advice. And so down he goes on to ground level, and he would make sure to push the retract button so Parvis can use it to get the kriff out of there as well. With that, Spectre would have his pistol drawn out and ready, once Parvis and his cargo gets on the ground level, Spectre would be ready to make a run for it the way they came in. They may not have done this without some blood being shed and making some noise, but Lucille will get what she wants. Reporting to the authorities would be useless, and the blackmail will prevent any of it even if it could possibly work.

 

[Parvis]

Parvis grinned as his ally got out the window and down without any issues. He grabbed the device on it's return up to him and strapped it to his right arm again, stepping out of the window with the child held tightly against him. As he descended he thought he could hear someone actually opening the door to the bedroom but by the time that happened he had already landed on the ground and had detached his arm from the line.

Urging Spectre forward, he grinned beneath his helmet at the cry of alarm that sounded from inside the window as the slicer ran through the gap in the fence first before Parvis followed him.

There were a few shouts after them but none of them would risk shooting at them while he had the cousin over one shoulder and they were rapidly now fleeing beyond the effective range of the blaster pistols the guards were armed with. They had a speeder hidden just a short distance away that would get them back to neighbourhoods controlled by Lucille's forces directly.

Upon reaching the speeder car, Parvis laid the small child out on the backseat before taking a pair of plastic ties he had and tying her wrists together... before strapping her in with the seatbelt. He shrugged at Spectre as he sat in the passenger seat, removing his helmet to reveal his face for the first time as the slicer started the speeder and they made off with the data and the cousin.

"So... think this is enough for Lucille to accept if I ask her to dinner?"

A man could but hope.

/End Thread

@Faster Than Light