Ask The Sleheyron Straight - Does Not Compute

[Nor'baal Desilijic]

The Sleheyron Straight - Does Not Compute​

Maz Pyke had rapidly become one of Nor’baals least favourite sentient beings, aside from his mother - of course. For years she had eluded his efforts to assassinate her, and it had caused him no end of stress. She had dodged bombs, training Nikto Assassins, and even three seperate campaigns of poisoning. He had almost given up trying to get rid of her. Almost.

It was as if Boonta himself had given the gift that would change his fortunes. One day, quite by chance, his guards had brought in a former member of the Pykes, now in debt to the Hutts due to his poor luck at the races. He had traded the location of Maz Pykes datapad, and in return had only seen one of his hands removed.

Truly, Nor’baal was merciful.

Thumbing the holonet call on, he spoke to the two people he had contracted for this job, and got the mission underway. <Maz Pyke gee doth wa sahna du mah wuona che roy, an ateema fa doth tee-tocky bai eeth ba wen bai uen doncepteza. Dah mee holopads doth bu bekia see uen cahtana bahpola, jaa du bu Pykes Bunko dah tah danko. Uba doth bai banbonzay bu sokdhea doi don bu bahpola, apenkee cay bu ahe kanu du pea doth doth han- an moova mee fa bai heee pinahbesa cay bin- bimhee.
> he grinned, and turned off the communicator just after he said his final words to the duo <Cha flunka mi.>

OOC - Welcome to your mission @Eccles and @homewrecker. This is a self-DM mission, so if you need me before the closing post, just ping me here and I'll get right on it.

 

[Davik Lorso]

The last noodle of Davik's noodle soup disappeared behind his lips as he greedy slurped it in. Somehow, where you went in the galaxy, there was always a streetside noodle-bar from which you could see important places no matter the weather. Which was a good thing, because tonight it was pouring acid rains down on the planet and there was barely anyone walking by. Even the cook of his streetside noodle bar was too busy watching the Huttball game on his datapad.

"I kid you not," Davik told his companion seated beside him, "I saw it as plainly as my name is the Iron Kowak," the jury was still out on that one, but at least no one could really recognize him as the Davik Lorso from a few years ago. He had died his hair, added some tattoos, some eyeliner and most importantly he changed his working name to Lavik Dorso.. or, the Iron Kowak. Armsdealer and smuggler extraordinaire. "Captain Rav Haskeen bested that giant Emryc Thorne," the latter name was said with a bit of disgust, "with a single well-placed hook. It was a sight to behold, truly and-"

The holo-communicator in his pocket suddenly started beeping and he had barely placed it on the food bar they were sitting at when a minitature holo-projection of Nor'baal the Hutt appeared. Fortunately it included subtitles. As the Hutt spoke Davik's personav pinged as well as it uploaded the location of the object they were hired to steal. "Huh, would you look at that," he tapped Hex on the shoulder and motioned over to a large sandstone building with a private landing pad on its rooftop. "We were literally eating noodles a stone's throw away."

Kriff. The Pyke Syndicate had always had the best smugglers credits could buy. Maz Pyke was no kriffing exception. She was great -a nearly peerless smuggler- and her datapad no doubt was filled with the locations of secret stashes, smuggling routes and hidden landing pads all over the known galaxy. It was something of a holy grail for smugglers like Davik, but there was no telling what else would be in that vault. Priceless paintings? Peggat fortunes? And all they had to bring to the Hutt was that datapad? -- no mention of not being allowed to slice it and copy its contents to their personal devices?

Too good to be true, but worth a shot. Eager to get his hands on all that treasure, Davik put down his now-empty bowl and pocketed the holo-communicator again. "Bad weather. Almost night. I say we grapple to the rooftop and go from there. What do you think?"

@homewrecker

 

[Barnabus Poppington]

Hex's day was just getting worse and worse. Not only was he off-world, but the planet he was on was an absolute dung heap. Acidic rain splattered the ground around them while they sat under the flimsy shelter of some rusty noodle bar that, going from the pale slurry of worms that remained untouched infront of the young man, specialised in food poisoning. Atleast the pay was good he kept reminding himself. There was something else too, he was assigned to work as a team with some second-rate nobody who just would not stop talking. Hex kept both hands on his holopad, staring unblinkingly at the rapidly scrolling screen while his thumbs typed coding as if it were second nature.

Hex brought his eyes away from the screen for a moment to look at his white haired companion, who's lips continued to flap in his direction. Iron Kowak? Stupid name Barnabus remarked to himself, the irony apparently lost on him. Hex's rolled his eyes so hard that he almost felt his retinas snap. He opened his mouth for what must have been the first time since they'd met

"Do you ever shut-' beep beep beep

He was interupted by a high pitched beeping coming from the man's pocket. His holopad was quickly placed on the bar top and a projection of Nor'Baal the rotund was sprayed into the air. Why did he call this idiot and not me? Hex caught himself feeling jealous, before snapping his eyes to the hologram and listening. He almost felt sick watching that reptiles tongue flop around outside it's grotesque body. Just as quickly as it had arrived, the hologram of Nor'Baal slithered back inside the other man's holopad and then they both received an alert ping, the location of the item they were going to be stealing.

His 'partner' tapped him on the shoulder, which prompted a quick and cold response "Don't touch me." He used one hand to wipe the spot where his fingers had touched his jacket. The odds must have been a million to one. The place they needed to go was literally visible from where they were sitting, it's sandstone silhouette standing out against the dusk skyline. That was the mark but how on earth were they meant to get in?

Now Hex, even though he'd never admit it, was relatively new to the game. He'd only been in the field for a job twice and both of those were relatively low risk. This was his first taste of a true mission persay. But him being new didn't mean he was stupid. Anything that someone like that disgusting viper Nor'Baal wanted had to be valuable and if Nor'Baal wanted it, then so did Hex. The Pyke Syndicate were notorious smugglers and he had done a background check on Maz Pyke, she was one of the best, so he could only imagine the contents of the holopad were probably highly coveted underwold plans, smuggling routes and stash locations. He was going to copy the contents of the holopad, purely with the intention of backing it up just incase anything were to happen to it and it got damaged, of course, and then send it to himself.

The other man quickly came up with what could barely be called a plan of action and Hex, face back into his holopad and fingers typing away didn't even justify him with a glance upwards. "And where exactly do you plan on finding a grappling device?" He spoke in a disinterested and slightly venomous tone of voice, already working a code that would allow for a quick transfer of data from Maz Pyke's holopad to his own when he got his hands on it.

@Eccles

 

[Davik Lorso]

Davik hadn't worked with brats before, but as a favor to Nor'baal and their special business relationship he hadn't mind to take a young slicer along for some low-risk experience. Right now, though, he was beginning to regret it. "You're right," he said to the kid barely half his age, "Maybe you should try to slice the building's security from a subnet-port nearby-" a capable slicer could use a port scanner to scan the area for holonet-networks and then physically plug into one that connected to the building. Crack a few firewalls from there and the kid might be able to open digitally locked doors and disable the camera grid. That is.. if he had the minimum amount of required skill and talent to be actually useful as a scoundrel in the Five Syndicates. "-then I'll go get some grappling hooks from my ship."

As good a plan as any, right?

Davik simply assumed the kid agreed, or rather, he didn't give him a chance as he threw a few credits chips on the bar for the noodle-soup and walked out into the rain with the hood of his coat up to protect his face from the acid.

It took him five minute to get back to the Catscratch, which was registered at the spaceport under the false name of 'Wet Kitty' and another five to warm up the engines and.. in anticipation of whatever Maz' vault might include.. free up some space in the cargo hold. On the way over to his ship he'd been thinking and swiping a datapad from a vault and making a clean escape.. sure, that could be done by climbing up and rappelling down. Thing is, Davik was way too curious what else might be hiding in the secret vault of a smuggler of Maz Pyke's caliber. A bit too curious, perhaps, but he could fit a lot more riches in his ship than he can in his pants pockets.

By the time he was able to lift off he hoped that the young slicer would have found his point of entry into the subnet and was beginning to take care of the camera's on the roof, because there was not enough room to land in a blindspot.

@homewrecker

 

[Barnabus Poppington]

"You're right,"
"Obviously."
"Maybe you should try to slice the building's security from a subnet-port nearby-"
"Obviously."

Hex continued typing into his holopad, nearly finishing the final lines of code for his data transfering dataplague, while the man continued laying out the 'finer' details of his plan. Anyone with two brain cells to scrape to together could work out that a capable slicer could use a port scanner to scan the area for holonet-networks and then physically plug into one that connected to the building. Destroy a few firewalls from there and Hex would have complete control over their mechanical doors and camera grid. Obviously.

It took Hex a minute to finally look up from his holopad's screen and realise that the old-timer had walked off to inact his half of the master plan. Huh. Hex was shocked he was able to make such a quiet and unceremonious exit, not that he'd have listened to it anyway. The young man stood up and pulled his hood over his head, pocketed his holopad and removed his portable scanner from one of his trouser's thigh pockets. After narrowing down the options for what it was scanning for, it's display began pinging some small purple dots in the area. Deciding to get off the public streets he slithered into some of the backally passageways and started making his way closer to the building their bounty was located within to find the first Holonet-Network that connected to it's mainframe.

It took him about 5 minutes of walking before he found it. It was located inside a small shed sized building designed to protect it from vandals and other delinquents. But there was no delinquent quite like him. Hex quickly looked around to see if anybody was nearby before he approached. The door had a simple keypad protected lock - reaching into another one of his trouser pockets Hex removed his Scramble Key. He knelt down and attached it to the keypad before activating the device. 10 or so seconds later and the red LED light at the side of the keypad flashed green, the door hissing as it's locks were released. He peeled his scramble key from the lock and opened the door just enough so that he could slip inside.

A minute later and Hex had his holopad fully wired into the access ports. He extended both hands with his fingers latticed together until they cracked and began slicing. He uploaded his own pre-saved dataplgue specifically designed to take firewalls out for only a few seconds, long enough for him to bypass the other paultry security fassets such as passwords without letting anyone know that something was going on. Once he was officially inside their network, the firewalls re-established themselves behind him creating the illusion that nothing was out of the ordinary. Now it was time for the real work to begin.

He'd save the cameras for last - because the sooner he messed with those the more likely it was they'd notice that something fishy was going on. He instead opted to siphon the network grid for the buildings digitally secured doors and created a new administrative ID 'H3X' and link it to his holopad. Once inside the building this would effectively turn his holopad into a Master Key, allowing him to unlock and seal any door that was shut via a computer rather than physical keypad/lock. Now it was finally time to blind their security systems.

Rather than disable their cameras completely, which would only arouse suspicion and alarm among any security in the building, he instead set the cameras to a 1 second loop. Anyone who examined the camera feed might realise that the time displayed is no longer moving but it was a hell of lot more subtle than the camera simply going dark. Satisfied with his work, Hex pulled his cables out of the Holonet-Network and took a moment to bask in his own talent before storing all of his equipment and components back inside his cargo-trouser's pockets. He peered back outside through the crack in the door to check if the cost was clear. After he was sure nobody was watching he left and began walking back to the rendesvous spot where he hoped his old geriatric partner in crime hadn't fallen asleep or something.

 

[Nor'baal Desilijic]

The Glorious Jewel, Private Yacht of Nor’baal the Hutt

Hanging in orbit above Sleheyron, Nor’baal the Hutts ‘war yacht’ held a commanding position over the inbound shipping making for the world. From his command deck on board, the Hutt looked out over a dominion he hoped soon to be able to call his own - and laughed. His revere, however, was cut short by the jangling of the chain affixed to the base of his throne.

Duula was playing up again.

Ever since he had acquired his latest dancer, during a layover from Hutt Space, she had been nothing but trouble. Nor’baal had thought the young Twi’lek would at least have been grateful to spend such a large amount of time in his presence, but no. The whining little menace had been thrashing away at the chain since he’d picked her up, not three days ago!

He had half considered having her thrown out the airlock. Pah! the Hutts tail slapped on the floor as he chuckled to himself. Nor’baal loved throwing people out of airlocks, was good to seem ‘em pop!

Sadistic thoughts however, were soon pushed aside as the Hutt refocused his attention on the row of screens in front of his throne, providing Duula with a rough slap across the face as he turned. After all, there was work to do. Bringing his pudgy hands down to the screens, he began to tap away - a button there a lever here. Soon he could see through the ‘eyes’ of a probe droid he had sent to tail his two mercenaries on their mission; so as to better follow their progress (and to watch for treachery!). Lavik was flagging behind, Hex out in front getting on with the job.

And then he left!

Nor’baal slammed his right hand into the arm of his throne as the ‘Iron Kowak’ did a runner - midway through his mission. Sure, Nor’baal had done the exact same thing to him several times over, but he was allowed to, he was the Hutt, Lavik was the human. Did he not understand how things work! he grumbled, moving the probe droid up to Hex and activating the speaker, which naturally turned on with an all-to-loud burst of static feed.

“HEX, CAN YOU…..CAN YOU HEAR ME?” Nor’baal shouted in basic down the microphone, to make one-hundred per cent sure the man could, in fact, hear him.

 

[Barnabus Poppington]

Hex kept his hood up and head down, nose buried into his holopad. He'd finally finished the last few lines of coding for the dataplague that would copy the contents of Maz Pyke's datapad to his own. Even he couldn't resist letting out a small chuckle to himself as he stored the malware into a secure file. His fingers kept typing away on the holopad however - this time he was just playing a video game until he was abrutly snapped out of his stupor by a loud, staticy-y voice yelling at him.

"HEX, CAN YOU..."

He nearly jumped out of his skin, sliding backwards on the slick wet ground but managing not to fall on his ass completely. A small drone hovered infront of him. How did he not hear it's approach? How long had it been watching him? And how did it know his name? Hex slowly moved his hand to the inside of his jacket, feeling for the grip of his blaster pistol and getting ready to blow the drone to bits - but like the focusing of a camera the static began to clear up and the voice spoke again with greater clarity.

"CAN YOU HEAR ME?"

He recognised the voice, and his eyes drew tight into a squint as he tried to remember where he'd heard it before, and then it hit him. He'd never heard the hideous creature speak Basic before but even through a second-rate microphone he'd know the sound that repulsive slug's tongue made as it flapped around in it's mouth anywhere.

"Nor'Baal? What do you want?' Hex said in a quick, almost snappy tone before he remembered who he was speaking to "Err... Your royal excellency." His tone much more palletable the second time around.

What the hell was going on.

@Nor'baal

 

[Nor'baal Desilijic]

"Nor'Baal? What do you want?'

It was times like this that Nor’baal wished he had the foresight to ‘equip’ all of his mercenaries with internal detonators. Surely the impending threat of your head being turned to mush by the masters irate button pushing would increase motivation?

"Err... Your royal excellency."

Nor’baal grumbled, his irateness at Hex’s lack of respect for his august position being replaced by a low simmering fury. This mission was going south, and fast. He fumbled with the droids controls, causing the little probe to wiggle erratically in the air before the Hutt finally stabilised it, as he grumbled a little more.

“We have a pr-” the Hutt cursed his recklessness and quickly corrected himself “You have a problem. Your partner, Lavik Dorso, has done a runner on you - meaning I need to come and collect the datapad, and provide mission support in personally.” Nor’baal practically spat the last word, so obviously disgusted at having to get involved in this mission himself.

“Your lacklustre choice in business partners,” Nor’baal decided to blame Hex for the choice to hire Lavik, despite Hex having nothing to do with said choice “...was reckless. Now hurry up and get me that datapad!”

 

[Barnabus Poppington]

"He's gone?" Hex quietly bit his lip with a seething rage when the royal slug insinuated that the pensioner he'd been paired with going AWOL was his fault, but this was quickly replaced with a delighted grin when he re-processed the information. He was gone! "Thank the Void, that old Kriffhead talked too much." A trait that he and Nor'Baal shared apparently as the horrid slug clumsily flew it's scouting drone infront of him.

"Now hurry up and get me that datapad!” it hissed. Honestly, Hex didn't really know what good having the Hutt tagging along, even if was just via drone, was going to do. And as much as that geriatric old fart irritated him, he was proving himself useful - he'd promised grappling gear to get the pair ontop of the building. With such an option gone just as his partner was Hex had to come up with a plan of his own. After a few button presses into his holopad he brought up a small holographic replica of the Pykes Palace. Using two fingers on the screen, spreading his pointer and thumb apart caused the hologram to zoom in as he examined the layout closely. It only took him about 5 seconds to find it.

An emergency fire exit leading up the side of the building, all the way to the landing pad on the roof. Without the old man's ship, that became his new way onto the roof. From there he could use his new holopad masterkey to bypass the doors. Or perhaps the vents would be the safer option, allowing him to avoid any guards that might be present. That was Hex's main concern. He'd never really thrown a punch before in his life, let alone fired a blaster. If he was going to do this it had to be as quietly as possible. While he wouldn't admit it, the young slicer was actually kind of nervous. He looked up from his holopad and faced the drone infront of him.

"Yes Nor'Baal, your great excellence' flattery often hid the sound of spite 'I will get you your datapad - but i had an idea - if you'd humbly allow me to present it to you for your most superior consideration." He was going to have to be sick into a bucket after that one.

 

[Nor'baal Desilijic]

At least now the whippersnapper was showing him the due deference and respect he deserved, Nor’baal thought as he jabbed away at the controls, leading the probe droid forward. Whilst he did so, the Hutt instructed his protocol droid to issue the relevant commands to the bridge of his yacht, and get the vessel into position for the extraction part of the mission.

'I will get you your datapad - but i had an idea - if you'd humbly allow me to present it to you for your most superior consideration."

Nor’baal stopped the probe, and turned it to face Hex, as if that would somehow help him communicate with the man any clearer. “YES MR. HEX WHAT….” cursing the Hutt slammed the volume of the probes speaker down and continued.

“...what did you ha-”

He cursed again and rammed the volume back up “- DID YOU HAVE IN MIND?” he gave up trying to get the correct volume, as the yacht dropped down into the world’s atmosphere and made it closer to the rendevous.

 

[Barnabus Poppington]

Hex visibly whinced as the volume of his Hutt Boss' voice rapidly bounced up and down like. "Apologies Nor'Baal sir before we proceed, your drone, it has dirt at the back of it - allow me to clean it for you." He approached the drone and walked around to the back of it, holding it firmly in place with one hand while he inserted the cable from his holopad into a dataport at it's back. With a few button presses, he managed to link it's speakers up with his commlink ear piece - causing the hutt's drone to speak directly into his ear instead of broadcasting their location and their intentions to every sentient species in the local star system.

He returned to the front of the drone and dusted his hands off. "Much better - nice and clean." He would not let the Hutt know that he had silenced him. He buried his nose into his datapad and began typing.

"My idea, sir, was that while I could simply provide you with the datapad - what if instead i could siphon all the data that is on the holopad into my own' he paused, basking in his own genius for a moment 'and bug the datapad to frequently send me updated versions of it's contents - essentially giving us unlimited access to all of the disgusting Maz Pykes' future plans' he looked up from his holopad with a straight expression

'all while leaving her none the wiser - as a missing datapad that important is most certainly going to raise an alarm among the Pykes. They'd cancel any schemes they had inside it essentially rendering it useless."

Maybe he had used too many words for the slug to process, so he gave the idea a moment to marinate in the air while it processed it. "What say you sire? It is, after all, your decision." He gave a light bow into the drone's camera and reminded himself to hack into Nor'Baals accounts later and do something embarassing.

Not only would this plan be more effective, atleast in Hex's opinion, it would also keep him valuable to the Hutt as his own holopad would be his only means of accessing the information which he so desperately coveted.

 

[Nor'baal Desilijic]

“No.” the Hutt replied almost immediately “I must have the pad itself. What you do with the data on it is entirely up to you, copy it and send it to me, track it - I do not care, the pad itself is what I need.” the Hutt stressed.

He paused, considering the merits of the man's plan a little further as he piloted the probe further toward their destination. “Very well.” he added “Allow my probe to see the pad, place it in the probes manipulator.” Nor’baal pressed a button, prompting two small arms to drop from the side of the probe “You can then do as you please with it.” the Hutt said with finality, as they arrived at the vault door.

 

[Barnabus Poppington]

He must have the datapad itself?

Hex pondered for a moment. Why? Surely the contents of the pad were what was important. This was like coveting the Chest and not the Treasure within. No - Nor'Baal may be simple but he's not that simple. The scheming slug was up to something, he had to be. It couldn't just be about having it as a trophy or some other vain purpose could it. Hex considered for a moment and then realised who Nor'Baal was. It could totally be about having it as a trophy or some other vain purpose.

Hex continued to think on it while he turned around and headed towards the Sandstone Building. While he walked he brought up the mini-holoprint of the building once more and exmined it further, formulating his plan of attack. Him and Nor'Baals floating orb reached the back fire-exit without issue, simply crouching past the one sleepy guard on duty. With a deep breath Hex put one hand and one foot onto the ladder and began climbing...

​

It had taken them over an hour but finally, after lots of ladder climbing, closet hiding, close calls and vent crawling - according to Hex's holoprint of the building they were in the vents right above the front the Vault door. Peering door through the slits in the grating Hex could only see one person sat at a terminal outside. The Pykes success would seemingly be their own downfall as they must have assumed that nobody would ever try to steal from them.

Hex had come this far all he needed to do was dispatch of one guard. How hard could that be? People did it all the time in holovids. Just a clean whack to the back of the head or something. Hex's train of thought was interupted by a metallic creaking noise. "What th-" Before he could finish the grate he was putting his weight on gave way and he fell from the vent and landed directly ontop of the guard. Both of them dazed and confused Hex, sat on the floored man's back, quickly grabbed the back of his head and lifted it up before smacking it into the metal floor rendering him unconscious.

Hex crawled off the man and sat down, leaning his back against the desk the man had been sitting on breathing heavily. That was technically the first fight he'd ever been in. With a groan the young man pulled himself back to his feet, heart racing and looked at the terminal and then at the Vault door. "This is how they open it - just give me a minute to slice into their security and override the lock." He limped over to the computer, sat in the chair, cracked his knuckles and began typing.

 

[Nor'baal Desilijic]

Gradually, the Hutt was getting a little defter in his handling of the probe droid, and he ensured to keep it close on the tail of his erstwhile compatriot, Hex as they made progress. Floating the probe up next to Hex as he scaled his ladder, and dropped it quickly behind the tumbling man as he fell through the grate. Far above in the yacht, Nor’baal smiled at the combative prowess of his latest hire - once again, a good recruitment decision!

Astounded by the acrobatic capabilities of Hex, and entirely unaware that the whole charade had been a total accident, Nor’baal reminded himself to have the ma heavily sedated next time he came before him. Meanwhile, the yacht made its final approach to their rendezvous point, getting ready to collect Hex and the datapad.

“Hurry up Hex, we don’t have much time before the next patrol.” Nor’baal shouted through the headpiece, aware as he spoke, that he had not actually informed Hex before now, that the Pykes had a complex patrol system in place.

 

[Barnabus Poppington]

Pulling the cable out of his holopad once more he plugged it into the terminal and began to slice through the security. Coding and data rapidly scrolled upwards on his holopad's screen faster than most people were capable of reading but Hex kept a straight face and constantly darted his eyes around the screen taking it all in, as if he were in a trance. And then in a moment of clarity, he saw it. There. He put a finger on the screen and it stopped scrolling, a small piece of code being highlighted.

He'd isolated the codes needed to begin unlocking their vault's door. That was when what Nor'Baals little droid had said finally hit him. His head snapped upwards and he turned to look at the droid, his hooded eyes almost burning a hole directly into the droid's metallic casing. "You mean this whole time you've had their patrol plans mapped out and you kept this to yourself?" He almost couldn't believe he was saying it. Just when he thought he knew how stupid this slug could be it just kept lowering the bar.

Hex had to act fast. He grabbed the unconscious Pyke under the arms and carried him over to a nearby locker and with a hefty grunt, slammed him inside it. Walking back over the original desk he grabbed Nor'Baals droid and crawled underneath the desk, bringing his holopad which was still connected to the terminal with him.

To anyone walking into the room, from the front atleast, it would look as if the Pyke guard who had been sitting there had simply abandoned his post.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Hex and Nor'Baal were hunched underneath with Hex rapidly typing into his holopad trying to crack through the Pyke's digital protection that was keeping their vault door sealed. One of Hex's ears perked up when he heard the SHUK noise of a door sliding underwards. Someone was in the room. He tried to remain unphased and focused on his work.

Bringing up the old security grid tab from earlier, he used his master account H3X to isolate individual systems. He could hear the other person in the room getting closer to the desk. Rapidly typing, he entered a new line of code and sent an instruction to a specific set of digital devices on this floor alone. He set off the fire alarm. He'd hoped that by isolating it to this floor it would serve to only cause the person about to discover them to, if not flee the building entirely, atleast leave to investigate the source of the alarm and to get him the hell away from this room.

If it didn't... well... He atleast had Nor'Baals droid to take the first blaster shot for him.

@Nor'baal

 

[Nor'baal Desilijic]

With a definitive clang the embarkation ramp of the Glorious Jewel, private yacht of Nor’baal Desilijic, smashed down onto the landing pad of the Pyke residence, and the Hutt appeared at the top of the ramp under his own power, his retinue in tow.

Totally unaware of the predicament his employee was currently in, Nor’baal was instead focused on keeping to schedule, and getting his datapad into his hands as swiftly as possible. He was also exceedingly keen on avoiding a conflict with the Pykes if at all possible.

Spotting a few Pyke guards wandering up to the landing pad, weapons in their hands, he snatched up his comlink, and grumbled down it, into the headset of Hex. “I’m on the roof, landing pad B. I reckon you’ve got ten minutes before this place is swarming with guards. I’ll hold them off.”

He shut the comlink off and waved his protocol unit forward, who teetered down the ramp toward the Pyke guards. “His Grand Immensity, Nor’baal, wishes to engage in commerce with your Mistress.” is squeaked, unconvincingly, as the guards, keen to avoid an incident, messaged through to the throne room.

Hoping this had bought them a little extra time, Nor’baal anxiously waited for Hex to make his way up to the landing pad.

 

[Barnabus Poppington]

Hex watched in silent anticipation as a pair of Pyke boots slowly stepped infront of the desk. Fortunately they didn't seem to notice the terminal's screen actively moving as Hex sliced through it's security. Just as he was about to pull the chair out from the desk and reveal Hex's location, the alarm protocol finally tripped. A high pitched ringing rang out all over the vault's floor of the building and the Pyke, confused walked off to try and find the cause.

As the door closed shut behind it, it exhaled a satisfiying SHUUK noise at the same time as Hex. That was far too close. With a groan he rolled out from under the desk and pulled himself to his feet. He put his hands into the air and bent backwards, causing a loud series of cracks of ring out from his back.

“I’m on the roof, landing pad B. I reckon you’ve got ten minutes before this place is swarming with guards. I’ll hold them off.” His earpiece spoke to him and Hex rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I'm on it." With a smug confidence Hex brought his pointer finger down on the 'Enter' key of the Terminal and the Vault door behind him hissed loudly. Several metallic latches along the side screeched as they were pulled into the walls, unsealing the door.

Hex was expecting some sort of mist to roll out of the vault or confetti cannons to pop when the doors opened. He stood disappointedly with arms crossed as no such fanfare arrived. He unplugged his holopad from the terminal and put it back into his jacket, slowly walking inside the vault.

"If I were a highly prized datapad.... where would i be?" He scanned the room before a glimmer caught his eye. He walked towards it slowly, looking over his shoulder to make sure the coast was still clear. "Golden Case. That's the one." He reached out and took the case into his hands, examining it thoroughly. "This is what all the fuss is about, huh?" He wasn't impressed. He waved the case infront of the stupid little probe droid's pincers.

"You wanted this? Take it." Hex shoved the holopad so hard into the probe's manipulators that it almost got knocked out of the air. Perhaps he was still a little bitter his plan had been rejected by Nor'Baal. "Come on then - do whatever it was he needed you to do and then we're getting out of here."

@Nor'baal

 

[Nor'baal Desilijic]

Catching the holopad, the probe droid quickly turned it over and, with a deft motion, prodded at the stylised logo of the Pyke family on the back of the case. With a click, the logo slid back to reveal a small metal shard, which the probe remove, before retracting its arm back into its metallic carapace. Then, with no ceremony at all, it dropped the holopad, and sped off.

"Mission accomplished." Nor'baals voice echoed through Hex's headpiece, as above him on the landing pad, the Hutt made his excuses, as the Pykes withdrew inside to confirm he truly was here to 'undertake business'. Sliding back up the ramp to his ship as they did so, Nor'baal ordered the yacht to fire up its engines and make ready to leave.

Returning to the lounge on board, Nor'baal checked the time. If Hex was not on board within the next five minutes, the Hutt would simply take off and leave him behind. It wasn't anything personal - just, good business.

 

[Barnabus Poppington]

Hex caught the datapad before it hit the ground. He cocked his head. All of this was for some little piece of metal in the back of it? He didn't even care about the contents? Hex's eyes rolled into the back of his skull. He looked at the datapad and shrugged. He could still make money from the contents he supposed, and stuck the cable from his Holopad into it's dataport. He deployed the dataplague he'd written earlier which almost instantly copied all the information from the datapad and stored it into Hex's own. Running back into the Vault he returned the Datapad to it's original position as best he could.

Now how was he going to get out of here. He looked up to the vent he dropped out of. Far too high up for him to jump and climb back up. He looked at the door that lead into the room and walked up to it, opening his door-opening network he'd hacked into earlier. With a quick button press the door opened, revealing an empty hallway. Hex pulled his hood up and followed the digital plan for the building to find a side staircase.

Dipping into closets and various nooks and crannies to avoid detection anytime someone was near, he eventually came to the bottom of the staircase and took a deep breath and began running up them. One flight, two flights, oh my god, oh my god there's more, so many stairs oh holy god, Barnabus had never realised how unfit he was.

Hex finally reached the top of the stairs and peered outside to see if Nor'Baal's ship was still there, and thankfully, the slug hadn't abandoned him just yet. With a deep, and much needed, breath, Hex unlocked the door and began walking nonchalantly towards the ship. He looked at the Pyke guards briefly. "She sent me to see what it wants." He said and he thought it was atleast somewhat convincing. Whether or not they did didn't matter because he was already walking up the boarding ramp.

With a push of a button, the Yacht's walkway would slither back inside and close. Hex immediately fell into a seat close to the door and began breathing heavily once more. Those stairs had beat the shit out of his lungs. "From now on, I'm not getting out of my chair for anything less than 20k." He slumped himself out of his chair and went to see his slithering master.

 

[Nor'baal Desilijic]

The undulating Hutt nearly jumped for joy when the holo pad bearing droid made its way up to him, just as the yacht took off with Hex on board. "Hex, you have done well." Nor'baal remarked in a rare display of affection for anyone other than himself "But do not be so disheartened, the Desilijic always reward good work." he chortled, catching the tail end of the man's remunerative concern.

Waving toward a large chest to the side of his recliner, which contained an item of slicing gear he felt Hex would find most useful, the Hutt returned his attention to the small key that fell from the back of the holopad, and erupted into his trademark booming laugh.

A job well done.

/endthread.