- Joined
- Jan 5, 2019
- Messages
- 20
- Reaction score
- 8
There was a rumor Metropolis had heard in the Grunge of residents being snatched off the streets. They would supposedly be found a day or two later at the railways or sewers by swoop racers, minus their interiors. Metro had confirmed it with his own eyes, having asked to see a victim at the morgue. It had the usually hard boiled district spooked. More spooked than usual, at any rate. Gangers shooting and being shot in the streets they understood. But random residents disappearing and then only to be found neatly gutted? It was sick. Even the area's experienced killers were offended by this business.
Metropolis of course had his own selfish motives for helping. He wanted to gain the trust of the district to build his own business. Nothing too bad. Just a little stashing and smuggling, arms food and medicine destined for the front lines of the war, and spice destined for wealthy areas the war hadn't reached. And what better way to gain trust for his own enterprises, ones that could build some prosperity for locals, than to take out an enterprise that was harming them instead.
Metropolis was fairly certain this was economic activity. It was too regular, too precise, yet the victims seemed to have nothing in common other than their district. All of the targets were of a vulnerable area. Aliens no one cared about. And given the timing and haphazard dumping it was clearly an afterthought. Typical of the dumping most industries made, just much more grisly. It showed the work was being done close by, however. Metropolis guessed that was for freshness. Back home on Umbara, it was the same way industrial fisheries did it. They would freeze and process their catches on board the same large ships they caught the fish on. They didn't need that on dry land though. There were plenty of abandoned areas that would serve just fine in the Grunge. And the merchandise was clear enough. It was what hadn't been found.
After asking around for a location that had people and refrigerated transports coming in and out of it regularly, but were not known to be locals, gang activity, and much less understood. After a few false starts, he narrowed the probable processing location down to a warehouse. Stalking it from a blind, it was a refrigerated truck, and the furtive behavior of the occupants that gave it away. He didn't need to read their minds to figure it out, but when he did it confirmed it. This was not the kind of place any sane food warehouse would be located.
The guards seemed few and the ways out many. The manner in which those ways were used also seemed idiosyncratic. Opening a door when you were trying to hide from others shouldn't take so much work, and yet they would sometimes fiddle with them. Typical of people evading their own booby traps or signalling others not to fire on them when entering. But in order to shut down the operation they probably needed to take down the leadership on top of the defenders. Trashing the place would probably not suffice. The operation was likely rolling in credits and could simply pop up someplace else, just likely better hidden. It was not optimal, but any help he brought along would likely need to split up to cover all the exits as a result. At least that was Metropolis' initial plan.
However, assuming there were traps, they were probably not meant to protect the facility, only to delay an attacker long enough to allow escape. Splitting up would force attackers to go stealthy and slow at first, and then quickly and recklessly once their cover was blown, risking a trap rigged to blow catching them in the face or getting overwhelmed by defenders, all alone. It seemed folly playing by the rules set out by the enemy. So Metropolis instead decided to form one squad. It would blast a smoking hole into the center of the facility. Quick as possible. Sheer firepower, and initially mass, to overwhelm the defenses. That was why he was currently throttling a stolen LK-6800 towards the weakest entrance of the warehouse arrayed in full, and aptly named, Brutus assault armor. He had some under-armor used by swoop racers underneath, used to protect you from shocks, typically when you had to jump off your bike before it careened into a wall. His stuff was in a duraplast case, designed for pilots not to pop open upon being jarred. Inside he had put in three extra frags for quick room clearing action, along with his usual kit.
His partners in arms, brought on with no names given, none asked for basis; were given the option to ride along in the back of the truck with the doors open, or to wait - more rationally - outside the warehouse entrance. The one the truck was speeding towards. There they would be in a better position to secure the opening the truck would make from there, rather jump and roll out the truck, tumbling about the street uselessly for a few, but very important seconds.
They had also been briefed on everything Metropolis knew about their target. Few guards, probable booby traps, needed to blast through in quick fashion to get the boss. Taking out any airspeeders or transports was also a high priority. So if the boss ran he would just die sweaty. It was likely any of vehicles present would be behind the door they would be breaking through. It was the largest one at the back, designed for loading and unloading, and therefore also the hardest to secure. His partners were also given the codes to tap into the facilities' outside facing cameras Metropolis had obtained, so they could from a datapad see what the boss presumably could, from his own room.
The timing had been picked for an hour and a half before Nar Shaddaa's 'dawn'. Despite being a few levels from the surface most denizens still slept at roughly the same hours, and he was hoping they would catch the boss snoozing at his heaviest. If they were lucky he'd even sleep through their own special wake up alarm. But probably not for much longer. And of course the most important thing, if his partners had joined him on the truck, they were to jump when he gave the signal. It was important not to become part of the warehouse door they were trying to take down, if they were to unleash hell.
@Ecclessey @Faster Than Light