Ask Someone's Been a Bad Boy

[Jon Antilles]

Armed with his shiny new credentials that identified him as Flynn Rider, private investigator, Jon wandered through the shipyards looking for his contact. Dressed and armed like a man of the law, no lightsaber on him, he felt comfortable in the role he was playing. Mostly because he had an actual Ranger to work with. Sure, he might now have the means to actually move about the Core without drawing attention, having an actual Ranger on the job would just make this so much easier.

Word had reached him of a fleet of ships departing the shipyards with no official Republic records to support their deployment, and the good samaritan that he was he had decided to follow up on the lead. He had of course reached out to the Rangers with the info, and they had been more than eager to accompany him once they were able to verify his leads. It wasn't really hard to hide a fleet just vanishing, and this seemed big enough for them to investigate. Though he was sure part of their involvement was also to keep a dumb PI from running around snooping without supervision. Still, he didn't care what their motivations, as long as they were here.

Spotting his contact, he walked over, spotting him near one of the shipyard's flight control stations. "Yo!" He introduced himself as he approached with a hand raised in greeting. "Alton, right? I'm Flynn, should we get started?"

@The Good Doctor

 

[Alton Hackett]

"Yep." Alton nodded his head towards the PI and waved back. It's been too long since Alton had some field action. The young ranger has been stuck doing mostly desk and paper work, and other boring routine work. Works been slow for the Sector Rangers, but suddenly it's picking up again, and his work is taking him to Kuat, more specifically it's shipyards.

Alton was equiped with is normal assortment of gear, Core Worlds-esque urban casualstyle clothing over his blast vest, a blaster pistol, and the a mark of his position in the Sector Rangers, a badge displayed on his belt along with an ID card tucked away on his person if need be.

This could be big, New Republic proprietary ships not at the shipyards without the New Republic's knowledge of where they are at. There are many questions and it's on the Sector Ranger and the PI to straighten this stuff out. "Lets do this".

Alton would then lead the way down a hallway, moving past Kuat Drive Yards employees going about their jobs, but noticing the ranger and the PI wondering if something is going on before continuing on their their routines. After going through a door, they would come towards a terminal, and then what appeared to be a supervisor. Alton would whisper to his PI partner. "I'll talk to the supervisor, if you get the terminal" The kuati would likely protest the terminal, but the Ranger would be in his authority to shut it down since this is an active investigation from the New Republic itself.

@Wit

 

[Jon Antilles]

Jon followed as the Ranger lead the way, and nodded in agreement to his suggestion. Divide and conquer, simple, yet effective. "Copy that." He replied as he moved towards the terminal, and even as the woman at the terminal was about to complain he pulled up a chair from the next station and interrupted her with a disarming smile.

"Hey," he interjected with a slight tilt of his head, "what's a girl like you doing in a dump like this?" The question, obviously not what she was expecting, caught her off guard and whatever protest she might have prepared died in her throat. Jon, well aware of the effect he had on women, pushed on. "Why don't you help me get the information we need, and I thank you with a nice little dinner afterwards? Come on, it'll be fun." He knew, just as he was sure that she did as well, that legally she couldn't really keep the info from him, but what she could do was let him try to search through their records on their own, which would make things a lot harder for him. So, getting her to help would make all the difference. Thankfully, his little trick worked, and he saw just the hint of a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth before she returned her attention to the terminal.

"Okay, what do you need?"

Jon smiled, and leaned forward to look at the terminal over her shoulder, well aware of the glance she gave him on their sudden proximity. "There was a large sale recently, I'm sure you know which one. I just want to know what was sold, and on whose authority. Shipping manifests, inventory, authorization records, departure logs. The lot of it."

As the woman started typing away at the terminal, compiling the information he was looking for, he looked over his head to see how the Ranger was doing. If things were really as fishy as he thought they were then there was definitely a lot more to be found that might not be on any records.

@The Good Doctor

 

[Alton Hackett]

"No wait, stop right there" the supervisor raised his hand out with authority as the two came in and Jon started talking to the lady at the terminal "Stop or I'l--" the supervisor started to shout in protest, but was cut off by Alton, who interjected, he would gesture towards his Sector Ranger badge that was displayed prominently on his belt, and then he would take it off and display it in full view. "Sorry there, this is a Sector Rangers investigation coming from the Republic, warrant and everything. We are authorized to search what happened to missing New Republic government military vessels." That put the supervisor in his place, who quietened down. "I'm Ranger Hackett. You're a supervisor right?" the employee would nod to confirm "I'm just going to ask a few questions." he prefaced, letting the KDY supervisor what is going down. But suffice it to say, PI Flynn has the terminal all to himself

"First question: What do you know about the missing New Republic ships? Do you have any insight as to where they are?" the Sector Ranger would cross his arms. "Uhh, I don't know, I uh..." the supervisor started stuttering and scratching his head. "You don't know what happened to millions of credits worth of New Republic military hardware? Including frigates, many starfighters? And a whole battleship?" he sarcastically question. A battle cruiser is a huge, huge ship. Not as huge as that oversized star destroyer that was at Kashyyyk, but still huge. And that said, the battlecruiser is New Republic property, and it's whereabouts being unaccounted for is a very big deal. Alton was glaring at the supervisor at this point, but he looked over towards the PI to see how he was doing, looks like he is accessing the terminal with the help of that one lady. He'd glare back at the supervisor. What will the next answer be...

@Wit

 

[Jon Antilles]

Jon followed Alton's interaction with the supervisor as he kept his eyes on the terminal in front of him, his focus still on the woman he had tricked into helping him but just keep and ear open for trouble, or any unexpected developments.

"Here," the woman said as she slid back from the terminal and let Jon take a look, "this is all I could find." He handed her a datachip, asking her to transfer the info onto it, while he quickly glanced through the list. The Rangers would like to have their experts analyze all the info, but in the interim he wanted to make sure if anything stood out. One entry stood out, simply due because of how odd it was. A sale of millions, to a Grace Star of the Outer Rim Territories, for a hearty amount of products. Even for someone like him, who wasn't an expert in financial forensics, that stood out. What company was named Outer Rim Territories?

"This one," he said as he pointed at the entry, "can you pull up more on this one?" The only response he got was a nod as the woman rolled her chair up to the terminal once more and began typing, and within moments had more records pulled up. Jon kept watch as she worked, reading as the information came up, and immediately noticed something. The invoice was listed within minutes of the ships being marked as sold, and the source was the Senator, from aboard a frigate in orbit. "Can you pull up visitor logs for the Seantor's frigate at this time, any any communication logs that coincide?"

His thinking was simple, for there to be a sale there had to be a buyer, and Senator's communications might shed some light on who this Grace Star was. It didn't take long for the information to be ready, and flight logs showed a ship boarding the frigate minutes before the transaction, and leaving around the same time the fleet started shipping out. Even his helper, a technician and no detective, was able to connect the dots. "That.." She stared at her console, before turned up to look at him. "That can't be right." Jon stared at the screen, and processed what the screen was saying. The Senator had been here that day, and not only that, he had had a visitor. One Grace Star, who paid millions for unspecified items. Likely a fleet of ships the Senator had no right to sell.

"Hey," he called over his shoulder to Alton, "I think you better take a look at this."

@The Good Doctor

 

[Alton Hackett]

To be frank, Alton wasn't sure if the supervisor was either genuinely oblivious or he was just playing like he knows nothing. However, he looked at Flynn when he called for him, he would walk away from the supervisor without saying anything further to him. "Find something?..." he only had to look at the terminal screen for himself. The Senator of Kuat himself and a visitor, Grace Star. "So the Senator of Kuat.." he muttered aloud. "Can you pull up what is on the transaction, also what time did it occur?" he asked the lady, the good lady at the terminal tapped some more buttons and then scooted so that the Ranger and the PI could see the monitor.

And what was on the monitor was... not good at all. A whole Starhawk battleship, Nebulon D frigates, and Twin-Tail Fighters. All that are supposed to be proprietary Republic ships. Who is 'Grace Star'? What could they want with a whole fleet including a krifing battleship? Outer Rim territories? This reeks of bad record keeping, or a bad cover up. Not only that, the transfer of credits was approved to Kuat Drive Yards during the time they were there, there were no other transactions around the time period that Grace and the Senator were there together. Alton would then ask Flynn "After we are done looking into this, we should probably look at any other transactions that have any trace of Senator Vaz on it"

@Wit

 

[Jon Antilles]

Jon nodded, agreeing with Alton's suggestion. If this turned out as bad as it looked, it put the Senator under a lot more scrutiny. But there was something else he wanted to check, something that seemed almost redundant now.

"Could you pull up the cost of the missing ships, and compare them to the amount on the invoice." More commands were typed into the console, and the results were close enough that Jon began wondering if they had somehow lucked their way into cracking this little case already? The trail was simply too strong, the evidence lining up a little too well. "I think," he told Alton as he stared at the figures on the screen, "it's time we find out who this Grace Star is."

"The ship the Senator used," he asked the technician, "it wouldn't happen to be in orbit, would it?" She checked, and sure enough it was there. The frigate happened to be sitting in orbit, not on any sort of assignment at present.

"Need anything else from here," he asked Alton, "or should we go give ourselves a tour of this ship?" If the Ranger agreed with heading for the frigate Jon would ask the technician to transfer all the data onto the datachip, and hand it over to Alton. And then they would begin the walk to the nearest hangar bay, to get on a shuttle to the frigate.

@The Good Doctor

 

[Alton Hackett]

"Just a second" Alton said. "Ma'am did you see any other transactions that are connected to the Senator?" the woman would nod, and pull up one more up on the screen, this one done more recently. "Klatooine" he echoed what he saw on the screen. He would look at the invoice as well. "More of the Nebulon Ds, some Raider-classes, and more Twin Tail starfighters. Once more to organization name 'Outer Rim territories' and the person being 'Klatooinian representative' this time. The Senator was present at the time of the transaction, there were no others." Same as the last one. This.... was just odd.

"I think we are done here" he said, as it stands right now, they have a decent case against the Senator. It is only a matter of time before rather distinct veseels will be spoted on Klatooine. "Alright, it's time for that tour" he snickered. Alton would take the datachip that had all relevant data including this new discovery.

---

A shuttle got Flynn and Alton onboard the frigate not too long ago. The officers aboard it were really reluctant to let the PI and Ranger aboard, but the ranger had a warrant and probable cause to take the investigation onboard the ship. They were just doing their duty, but this is an Republic investigation in the end.

A duty officer would escort the two towards a control panel near close to the docking rings. "Here you are, from here you will be able to get records, surveillance, and other data of visitors aboard the ship". Alton would nod towards the officer "Thank you" he would turn back to his partner "Alright Flynn, see what you can dig up on the terminal, I'll ask the good officer some questions".

@Wit

 

[Jon Antilles]

Once aboard the shuttle, Jon followed after Alton, and at the Ranger's order moved towards the terminal with a nod. He was about to turn on the charm when he noticed a sour faced old lieutenant seated at the station. The man just glared at Jon, and the Jedi chuckled to himself as he realized his favorite weapon had just been neutered. Very well, he thought to himself as he stared at the lieutenant for a moment, can't always have it easy.

"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to step away from the terminal." He spoke to the lieutenant in a stern, yet polite, voice. And though the man glared at him for a moment, he nodded and complied. He was a military man, and though he might not like Jon and Alton being here, he would comply with orders. Jon had always liked that about men like him, and his opinion of the man changed for the better. Giving him an appreciative nod, he slipped into the seat he had vacated, and began typing. "Alright," he muttered as he started working, speaking as much to himself as to anyone in earshot, "let's see what we have here."

He took a minute or two to get used to the system, but though not exactly the same as what he was used to, having never spooned around the systems of a ship so big, it was similar enough to most ships produced by the Kuat Driveyards, some of which he had flown, that soon enough he was navigating his way through the files in search of what they needed.

"Okay, flight logs." He referenced the exact date and times for the sale, looking up the info on his datapad, and started cross-referencing it with the ship's logs. Sure enough there was an entry that matched, a ship landing on the frigate not long before the sale, and leaving soon after. And leaving just as the fleet started shipping out. The ship was registered to one Grace Zann, and Jon's eyes furrowed as the name struck a bell. He knew that name, as much time as he had spent in the outer rim, he would have had to be bling and deaf not to. But he did not want to believe it, because if it was really who he thought it was then this was an even bigger mess than he had first thought. He quickly typed a few more commands, and pulled up the feed from the hangar comms, and managed to catch an image of the buyer, one good enough for Alton to hopefully run through the Ranger database. If this Grace, be she Star or Zann, had a criminal record then they would know exactly who she was.

Thinking he had enough for now, he pulled the complete records from the trip onto another datachip, and once Alton was done speaking to the officer he gestured for the Ranger to come over. "I think this is big, but you should check to make sure. You think you can run facial recognition on this? Maybe reach out to any friends you might have in the ISC to run it by their systems as well?"

@The Good Doctor

 

[Alton Hackett]

Alton would be back with the officer nearby that just escorted them to the terminal a bit ago. He did have some questions that needed to be answered, they would be in earshot of Flynn. The duty officer understood this was for an investigation so he would answer questions, and these questions were being recorded on Alton's datapad which he had in hand. "Alright then, so no one gets on or off this ship without you knowing about correct?""That's correct" the officer said. "Did a person by the name of 'Grace' meet with a Senator around this time. Or any Klatooninians on this time?" Alton showed the screen of the datapad that had the date and times the credits transfered were approved to the shipyards ""Correct on both counts""Did you catch what they were discussing or what they were here for""No, I did not" To be frank, the last question didn't matter too mcuh, it was the first two that confirms that they definitely did meet, and the logs and everything from eariler further prove they made a transaction for government property. "Thank you for your corporation" then the officer would then back away, glad to not be in the line of questions but still watching the investigators

Looking over at his partner Flynn, he would look see that's he's wanting him over. Alton would look at everything, and it's not looking good. Alton saw whats on the screen, he'd see a clear image of the lady, this 'Grace'. Grace Zann is a Crime Lord, a major figure in the Syndicates in her own right, taking over planets, taking over Kowak shipyards..etc She's a recognized figure by this point.

"Well then, great work Detective Rider." Alton would nod his head. "Is there anything else you can think of while we are here?" Alton couldn't think of anything else, he saw a datachip plugged in the terminal so it looks like he has the relevant data pulled into it.

@Wit

 

[Jon Antilles]

Alton, as Jon had expected from a Sector Ranger, was thorough and wrapped up his questioning to get even more info to help them get to the bottom of this whole fiasco. Jon didn't really have more to say, or ask, it seemed like an open and shut case. They already had so much. So when Alton asked if there was anything else he wanted to check Jon couldn't really come up with anything.

"Nah," he replied as he pulled the datachip out and held it out for the Ranger, "I think we're done here." They had done what they could, pulled up a lot of information, good information. Now it was up to Alton to take this information to the right parties. To see the right actions be taken in response to what was very evidently a pretty strong criminal case. So, with their work done for the day, the two would leave, to go their separate ways.

/End Thread

@The Good Doctor