Ask The Third Option

Terra Lanris

Character
Independent
Rank
Crime Lord

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Phoenix
Joined
Jan 15, 2022
Messages
290
Reaction score
86
d7g249e-64711ebe-1f21-41e1-9a01-01ff1e0d7d06.jpg
Back on Omega again, and this time for not only another recruitment, but also a larger move. It was an opportunity to get a deeper foothold onto the planet, and word was there was a local that had gained quite a reputation for stealthy work.

Terra waited in Afterlife, the new front for most of the business she was conducting, and a great place to grab a drink as well.

It was her third drink already and she wasn't even starting to feel the buzz. She thumbed the blaster pistol on her hip for the briefest moment, wondering if it was going to come to that. If everything went to plan, hopefully it wouldn't. If things didn't go to plan...

Well, that was one of the many reasons she was bringing along backup. If she could pull another person into Crimson Dawn and solidify its power on Omega, that was all the better.
 

Acklay

Character
Independent
Rank
Holorunner

Character Profile
Link
OOC
lizziie
Joined
Mar 10, 2022
Messages
142
Reaction score
24
Mars hadn't been on Omega for long - two weeks max - but she had found the time to pick up a few jobs while she was here. Slicing jobs were often boring and weren't always the most profitable, but they were easy to come by. Contract killings were much more interesting and paid well, but could come with law enforcement baggage. She'd been doing a lot of sabotages recently, too.

Now, another client was on the horizon. Mars arrived to the Afterlife dressed inconspicuously and began to look for the Tifeling woman. Once she found her, the cyborg made her way over quickly.

"Terra?" Mars afforded her a smile as she slipped into the chair across from her. "This is quite the establishment." She liked the name - the Afterlife. It reminded her a bit of a bar her old gang had frequented. "So what's the four-one-one?" She was itching to get her hands dirty.

tag: @Phoenix
 

Terra Lanris

Character
Independent
Rank
Crime Lord

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Phoenix
Joined
Jan 15, 2022
Messages
290
Reaction score
86
Terra looked up at the other woman as she arrived. She was almost as eager as Terra was, and she was choosing to evaluate that as a good rather than a bad thing.

You must be Juno, she said, motinioning for the other woman to take a seat. I'll be straight with you. I'm not just interested in hiring you for this job, I'm looking to recruit you long term, she said. The statement might come as a shock, but Terra had done her research. She knew what she was getting herself into and many people found the idea of a consistent paycheck alluring. The fact that it was coming from a major crime organization could be either a good or bad thing.

This job's a break in. A local gang and merc group called the Blood Pack works out of the lower levels. I've cut a deal with their second in command and I'm looking to remove their leader, she said. It was putting a lot of trust in the other woman out of the gate, but that was the nature of this business. They were both professionals.

There's rumor that the leader's been skimming from the rest of the gang. I want your slicing skills to break in and recover that data, she said. It was a high stakes job, but not quite a contract killing. Not yet. Terra was still... more uncomfortable with murder than most in the Syndicates. She'd kill if she was forced to but otherwise it was usually a last resort.

@lizziie
 

Acklay

Character
Independent
Rank
Holorunner

Character Profile
Link
OOC
lizziie
Joined
Mar 10, 2022
Messages
142
Reaction score
24
"I prefer Mars, but yes." She'd been going by Mars since she was fourteen, so it was a bit weird to hear anyone other than Bryn or Moxes call her by it.

"Long-term recruitment?" Terra's revelation did come as a surprise, but not necessarily a bad one. It'd been years since she'd been a part of a group as she'd avoided getting too comfortable with any one organization. Mars had not yet been willing to let go of her old gang for a while. But now? "Maybe it's time to move on to bigger things."

"I'm interested," Mars would respond, leaving the proposition open-ended for now. She figured there was no reason to hash out the details of that immediately when the break-in was probably Terra's way of scoping out her competence anyway.

"That I can do," the cyborg said in response once the details were revealed. It was a slicing job, but definitely a bit more high stakes than the usual jobs she got. "And the leader? Do you - does second-in-command - want the leader dead?" Sometimes it was better to cut off loose ends before they unraveled further. Mars would do what was asked of her, regardless.

"When do we leave?"

tag: @Phoenix
 

Terra Lanris

Character
Independent
Rank
Crime Lord

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Phoenix
Joined
Jan 15, 2022
Messages
290
Reaction score
86
Mars, she repeated with a nod. The fact that she was interested was a good sign, and Terra didn't press the issue further at the moment. There was no reason to yet.

I imagine when official evidence comes out, the second and the rest of the gang will do what they do to thieves, she said. They weren't called the "Blood Pack" for nothing. She may not have been killing him, but she certainly was facilitating his death. He should have known better. In this business, stealing from your partners was a mortal sin.

Whether we deliver him bodily will remain to be seen, she said.

We leave now if you're ready. Or do you need any gear? she asked, looking down at her datapad for the path to their target in the underbelly of Omega. The underbelly of the underbelly. You knew it had to be a nice place.

@lizziie
 

Acklay

Character
Independent
Rank
Holorunner

Character Profile
Link
OOC
lizziie
Joined
Mar 10, 2022
Messages
142
Reaction score
24
"I came prepared," Mars assured her as she stood. She had her pistol, her vibroknife, and her visor tucked underneath and out of sight in her coat. Once they were out of the Afterlight she would pause to secure her visor to her face, taking only a few seconds to attach it to the inclusions by her ears and the seams on her cheeks. "Lead the way."


On their way there, Mars busied herself with her own datapad, tap-tapping away at the screen as she edited some sort of code on the screen. A short cord connected it to a port scanner.

"Have you been down here before?" Mars would ask out of the blue as she looked up from her datapad. She'd worked a few jobs down here, though she couldn't say the "underbelly of the underbelly" was pleasant in any way. It reminded her of her home back on Level 2077 - poor. It was the perfect place for a gang like the "Blood Pack" to get their grip in.

tag: @Phoenix
 

Terra Lanris

Character
Independent
Rank
Crime Lord

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Phoenix
Joined
Jan 15, 2022
Messages
290
Reaction score
86
I've been in most of Omega, she said. Built into an asteroid, it was part city, part mine, and part space station all rolled into one. Although exponentially smaller than a planet, it served Terra's purposes well. It's influence had grown significantly after AMS infected much of Hutt space. The place became even more packed with people fleeing the infection and had become quite a thoroughfare for criminals of all types as well as the poor.

Blood Pack runs most of the streets down here. They mostly run protection rackets and do off-world merc and bounty contracts, she said. If Mars was new to Omega she likely wasn't familiar with the intricate workings of the station's gangs.

She drove the speeder down, landing on one of the streets shortly thereafter. Terra grabbed her custom helmet from the seat, slipping it on over her horns to obscure her face for the coming... infiltration.

Our building's two blocks down on the right. If we can avoid killing people that'd be great. These're going to be my employees soon, she said. No point in blooding her own people against each other.

Your job, you call the shots, she said. While Terra may have been footing the bill, she'd called in an expert for a reason.

@lizziie
 

Acklay

Character
Independent
Rank
Holorunner

Character Profile
Link
OOC
lizziie
Joined
Mar 10, 2022
Messages
142
Reaction score
24
"That's good." Terra knowing her way around meant she would be able to make up for Mars being a newcomer to the city. And if the Blood Pack ran the streets down here, Terra and her Syndicate having struck a deal with the gang would secure their influence on the asteroid world. "Smart." Once the current leader's crimes were exposed, that was.

"Unless you know how secure this place is going to be, I'm going to want to nab some high ground and get a lay of the surroundings." If at all possible, Mars never went in blind. In order to get into their system, she was going to have to get physical access to a computer terminal. She had her port scanner prepared, but the computer spike built into her armor would work as well. If things went smoothly, the latter probably wouldn't be needed.

"There." Once they were a little closer than two blocks away, Mars pointed out a building with scaffolding lining its walls. It went up enough that they'd be able to get a good look at the building and find the best way in. The cyborg woman began to climb up, then offered her right hand to pull Terra up. If she took it, she would be pulled up quickly and swiftly by the mechanical muscles in Mars' arm. "Now, let's see..."

Mars activated the thermal mode in her visor and used the scout HUD to zoom in on the building. "I'm getting three heat signatures around the front of the building where the front door is, and one sitting out back." That left the sides open, but there only seemed to be one window and it was a story up.

"If we coordinate, we can knock the guy out back. If we're quick, we should be in and out before he wakes up."

tag: @Phoenix
 

Terra Lanris

Character
Independent
Rank
Crime Lord

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Phoenix
Joined
Jan 15, 2022
Messages
290
Reaction score
86
Terra looked up at the building in question and nodded. Let's go, she said. She started heading up, climbing the scaffolding and taking the offered hand, noting the power with which it seemed to lift her.

Neat trick, she said. She didn't know just how modified the woman was (or even if she was just a human replica droid actually), but that seemed like a useful augmentation.

She looked down and remembered how much she didn't like heights, feeling the adrenaline coursing through her even after all these years of thieving. It never seemed to go away.

Right, she said with a nod, hand dropping down to her blaster and switching it over to its stun setting before pulling back the hammer and loading a charged heavy shot.

Unless you've got a quieter way to knock him out? she asked. Blasters weren't incredibly loud when buried against someone's skin, but they were hardly silent either.

@lizziie
 

Acklay

Character
Independent
Rank
Holorunner

Character Profile
Link
OOC
lizziie
Joined
Mar 10, 2022
Messages
142
Reaction score
24
"A blaster to the chest from this distance?" Mars bit the inside of her lip and debated. It was a bit too risky for her liking, but unfortunately, she hadn't brought her own rifle along. If Terra could time the shot with another sound or some distraction, it might be enough to cover it up completely.

"Hold for a second." Mars took her visor off thermal mode and began to scan the surrounding area to look for something that could help. If they were lucky, they could coincide the shot with something already happening. Upon looking around though, there didn't seem to be much happening. "It's probably going to be better to knock him out the old-fashioned way. Follow me."

Mars dropped down the scaffolding to the ground, then made her way toward the building. The guy out back was leaning against the wall with a spice cigarra in his fingers, hardly paying attention to much going on around him.

"Head that way and see if you can get his attention. The second he moves, I'll knock him out and we can nab his keys and get inside." A sharp jab to the back of his neck and he'd be out cold. It shouldn't kill him, but he'd probably wake up with the nastiest headache of his life.

tag: @Phoenix
 

Terra Lanris

Character
Independent
Rank
Crime Lord

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Phoenix
Joined
Jan 15, 2022
Messages
290
Reaction score
86
Terra made no argument with the change of plan. She didn't think it was a great one herself, but she wasn't some stealth expert. If she tried to knock someone out in hand to hand combat it was more likely to turn into a noisy scuffle than anything else.

Will do, she said, following after her partner as she headed to a more advantageous position.

Her eyes flicked around the area looking for anything she could use to gain an advantage in distraction. Eventually, she just settled on something simple and stupid.

Just be ready to hustle she said to Mars before making her move. She walked down the street like normal and as she passed by the thug turned around, picking up a bottle off the street and throwing it at him.

Hey you... she said before launching into a string of expletives directed at the man and his gang. It certainly got his attention and he started moving toward Terra, leaving him with his back to the cyborg killer.

@lizziie
 

Acklay

Character
Independent
Rank
Holorunner

Character Profile
Link
OOC
lizziie
Joined
Mar 10, 2022
Messages
142
Reaction score
24
Mars should've probably asked for a more discrete way of getting his attention, but it worked, so it worked for her. Before the man got two steps forward, Mars closed the distance between them and delivered a quick jab to the exposed back of his neck. He crumpled like a tower of cards, but she caught him before his head hit the ground. Once she got the key card from his pocket, she laid him down out of sight.

"Well, it worked." She'd put the awkwardness of it on her for not being more specific. It'd been a while since she'd worked with another, let alone led the operation. She'd dwell on it later. "He'll have an awful headache when he wakes, but he should be fine. Let's go."

The woman used the keycard to unlock the backdoor, and once she was sure there wasn't going to be someone right inside to spot them, she slipped inside.

"We need to find a computer terminal or an ethernet port." There wasn't much in the room they were in now other than a couple of boxes.

tag: @Phoenix
 

Terra Lanris

Character
Independent
Rank
Crime Lord

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Phoenix
Joined
Jan 15, 2022
Messages
290
Reaction score
86
Terra got the impression that wasn't what she was supposed to be doing, but... well, as Mars pointed out, it worked! She was making this crap up as she went along and every small, ugly win was still a win in her mind.

He'll get over it, she agreed. Her hand dipped down to brush against the pistol at her hip again, hoping it wasn't going to come down to that inside.

She followed as Mars slipped the door open and she ducked inside.

Top floor? she asked. That was where fancy people (and fancy people wannabes) put their offices, right?

She moved lightly on her feet, keeping low as she peered around a corner and caught sight of a trio of men sitting around playing some sort of game on a table in front of them. There was a turbolift on the far side of the room, but there were bound to be other ways up, right? If not, they'd have to find another creative (and less obvious) route to creating a distraction.

@lizziie
 

Acklay

Character
Independent
Rank
Holorunner

Character Profile
Link
OOC
lizziie
Joined
Mar 10, 2022
Messages
142
Reaction score
24
"Top floor..." She wasn't wrong. It was always either that or the basement, and basements weren't exactly common in buildings on Omega. As far as she could tell, at least.

Mars followed Terra, thermal vision on, and spotted the men. The turbolift was spotted soon after, but the man-obstacles in their way ruled that out as an easy route.

"Stairs!" If there was a turbolift, there were probably stairs somewhere too. Probably or hopefully. Not every building adhered to fire regulations, and who knew if Omega even had them? It wouldn't hurt to look.

"Let's see if we can find a staircase," she whispered to Terra as she backed away from the doorway and back into the hallway they'd come out of to check some of the closed doors. Unfortunately, there was no 'STAIR' sign, so they'd have to check every door.

The first door Imani checked was locked, which she took to mean there weren't stairs behind it. Who locked the staircase? "Next one..." The next room was again, more storage, but someone was dozing off in the midst of it. She gently closed the door, then continued to check doors. If Terra hadn't found one already, there were only a few left.

tag: @Phoenix
 

Terra Lanris

Character
Independent
Rank
Crime Lord

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Phoenix
Joined
Jan 15, 2022
Messages
290
Reaction score
86
Terra wasn't actually a stranger to stealing things, and this actually felt a lot like stealing things. Creeping around in foreign buildings looking for a particular prize. She couldn't help but find it all familiar, and she wondered if maybe she'd made the right decision by turning back to a life of crime.

She tried to examine the different doors, passing by one that looked like it led to a bedroom and another to a bathroom. Eventually, she pushed open one of the doors and found nothing other than stairs beyond it.

She motioned silently toward her companion, waving her over and pointing toward the room before slipping inside and starting the ascent. The building was only three stories tall, and they passed the second floor without any issue before emerging onto the third floor.

All good. Until the next problem arose. The office at the far end of the hall was the one that they needed to enter, but through a crack in the door, Terra could see it was occupied by the leader of the Blood Pack.

She silently wondered to herself if they could just stun him, but thought that was probably not wise... okay, time to think of something new and out of the box.

@lizziie
 

Acklay

Character
Independent
Rank
Holorunner

Character Profile
Link
OOC
lizziie
Joined
Mar 10, 2022
Messages
142
Reaction score
24
Terra found the staircase, and Juno fell in behind her when she signaled its location. They made their way up quickly, but once upstairs, another problem presented itself. Someone was in the room where they needed to be.

It wasn't so much as a shit moment as it was a sigh moment for Mars. Two options immediately presented themselves to her: one, wait for him to leave or two, cause him to leave the room. Since she didn't know how long that first option would take, they would need to find a way to get him out.

"Are there fire alarms in here?" Starting a fire would be stupid for a couple of reasons and causing damages probably wasn't the move since these people would be working for Terra soon. That being said, it didn't mean there weren't other ways to trigger a fire alarm.

Mars motioned for Terra to get out of sight, then moved to the nearest fire alarm she could find. She pulled a lighter out of her pocket, lit it, then held it up to the device. After a few moments, it began to scream, and Mars quickly found refuge wherever Terra had gone off to.

The sound of cursing erupted from the office, and the leader exited the room in a frustrated power walk. Once he was out of earshot, Mars would say, "We'll have about ten minutes." In general, every time she'd pulled this stunt, that's what she got. So they needed to hurry. Mars made a beeline for the office and once inside, located the computer terminal, and got to work.

tag: @Phoenix
 

Terra Lanris

Character
Independent
Rank
Crime Lord

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Phoenix
Joined
Jan 15, 2022
Messages
290
Reaction score
86
Terra picked up the signal to hide and slipped into a nearby side room, mostly closing the door but leaving a slit for her to peer out of. As Mars set off the fire alarm, Terra couldn't help but wince, the sound was both painful and grating, but hopefully that would mean the man in the office wouldn't just ignore it.

She opened the door for Mars to slip inside as well and flipped out the light. The pistol slipped gently and silently from her holster as she stepped further back into the room and into the darkness. The man went by outside, yelling profanities at no one in particular and Terra could barely make out Mars's statement about having ten minutes.

No time to waste, then! she shouted over the alarm, motioning for the slicer to keep moving.

For her part, Terra moved to one of the sides of the door, pointing her stun-setting blaster at the door in the event that someone stumbled upon them. Of course, she shut the door and locked it as well. Something told her they may not have much time at all.

@lizziie
 

Acklay

Character
Independent
Rank
Holorunner

Character Profile
Link
OOC
lizziie
Joined
Mar 10, 2022
Messages
142
Reaction score
24
Time was of the essence, but luckily, Mars had taken the time to prep for the slicing part of this during the speeder ride here. The port scanner had done it's job of getting into the system, which meant... "Good, program's running perfectly."

Her "prep" from earlier was creating a simple but fast acting searching algorithm to comb through the network's databases to find the location of their targets crimes. It would take a minute for it to search everything, and probably another minute for the program to download the data to her datapad, but she hoped they would have enough time.

"Data's downloading," she shouted just above the fire alarm to Terra. "One minute and we're out of here!"

tag: @Phoenix
 

Terra Lanris

Character
Independent
Rank
Crime Lord

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Phoenix
Joined
Jan 15, 2022
Messages
290
Reaction score
86
Terra nodded at the report, feeling good that things were going well and within one minute they would have what they needed. Unfortunately, they only had about thirty seconds.

The angry-looking leader of the blood pack with his hand on his blaster came marching back up to the office. The exact reason that he had chosen to do this was a mystery to her, but she got the impression he knew.

The blaster shots placed into the door a moment later confirmed it. Terra switched her blaster back to regular power and shoved it toward the crack in the door and fired repeatedly. Not to actually hit anything, but so that she could make the man on the other side back up and think twice.

Hurry up! We gotta go! she shouted, knowing this probably meant they'd be going out a window instead of a door.

@lizziie
 

Acklay

Character
Independent
Rank
Holorunner

Character Profile
Link
OOC
lizziie
Joined
Mar 10, 2022
Messages
142
Reaction score
24
Now it was a shit! moment. "Shit!" Mars ducked instinctively when the blaster bolts were fired through the door but didn't move away from her position. Terra shouted for her to hurry up, but unfortunately, there wasn't much she could do to speed up the download. So Mars gritted her teeth and prepared to disconnect the port scanner the moment the progress bar ticked to 100%.

"98%...99%...100%!" Mars shoved the port scanner and datapad into her pocket and made a beeline for the window. "Done!" She wedged her fingers underneath the lift, pushed it upward, then peered over the edge to judge the fall. It was about 35 feet, roughly, since they were up on the third story, but there was a close enough building only about 20 feet down and about eight from the window.

"Use the opposite wall to slow your fall!" she would advise Terra before crawling through the frame and letting herself fall. Her heels dug into the wall behind her, and once she was far enough down, she pushed off a bit and made contact with the other wall. The impact stunted the speed of her fall enough that she was able to fall the rest of the way and roll out of it safely. Her boots weren't happy, but they were replaceable.

tag: @Phoenix
 
Top