Wicked Ones 2 - Worse Than You

[Eddard Thul Drast]

Eddard and Demolly had managed to get the slicers to give them an invitation to join them at their slicing den so they were expected. Demolly wasn't able to make it however so Eddard had decided to take along Talik instead. The slicers knew that he was a slicer and he was hoping that he could just pass Talik off as his girlfriend or something.

He was almost certain that Talik hated the idea but the simple fact of the matter was that Eddard needed back up and that cover was the easiest way of getting her in alongside him. Approaching the doors, they were waved through by the external security, leaving them alone inside the entrance area to the warehouse that had been kitted out to be a slicer's wet dream.

Checking he still had his weapons on him, he glanced at Talik.

"Smile at least." he told her with a small smirk, "I'm not much of a smiler so at least one of us will have to smile."

They'd get suspicious otherwise.

"You got your weapons?"

@Kayenta Moenkopi

 

[Talik Kru]

Moving through what passed for a security check she frowned taking in their surroundings. The warehouse was a veritable treasure trove and her suspicious nature was made uncomfortable by the ease with which they gained access.

Turning her head, all she did was hook her thumb into the waist of her skirt and shake her head in the affirmative. Dressed in a crop top that marginally exposed her mid-rift, the slitted skirt was only cut to the knee making her attire a good deal more demure than the get up in which they first had met.

The requested smile appeared; one that would melt mynock, even going so far as to employ her eyelids to give them a slightly hooded look as humans were wont to do. Of course she had her lightsaber, strapped to the inside of her thigh beneath the skirt. It was certain Talik was not having the time of her life.

It hardly mattered, however. She could play her part and perhaps the slicers would let her in alongside of Eddard. And if everything went according to plan, well she stopped believing in bedtime stories long ago.

@Nefieslab

 

[Eddard Thul Drast]

Talik really was able to just turn the charm on wasn't she? Not for the first time, Eddard wondered if it was a race thing and if it was, if it would be acceptable to mention it. Instead he just resolved not to mention it and just move on. It was an advantage and Eddard was certainly not above doing whatever it took to get an advantage when he needed to. And almost immediately they were having to put it to the test - the slicer he had met with Demolly was here.

"Keep an eye out for the spoofer tech." he whispered to Talik before smiling and waving to the slicer, "Just me I'm afraid!"

The slicer raised an eyebrow, looking slightly put out.

"Where's your friend from before?"

Eddard scratched the back of his head in a display of nerves, slipping into an easy-going persona as easily as he pulled on a pair of worn gloves. One arm snaked around Talik's waist to hold her comfortably, and perhaps a touch possessively, in front of the slicers. Every move was calculated and pulled off to perfection.

"She couldn't make it - I hope you don't mind I brought my girlfriend?"

A wide and genuine smile appeared on the man's face as he shook his head, clapping a hand onto Eddard's shoulder and patting him, quite literally, on the back.

"No problem at all!" he looked between Talik and Eddard, "You're a cute couple and I must say that it is refreshing to see someone from this neck of the woods going against the norm for love."

... that kind of applied to him, even if the person he professed to love wasn't actually currently present. He just smiled and removed his arm from Talik's waist.

"Care to show us around?"

The man agreed and they started to do a circuit, taking in more information as they did so.

It honestly looked to be more on the 'criminal' side than the slicing side it had to be said. There were six guards but only two slicers actually working on their tech.

@Kayenta Moenkopi

 

[Talik Kru]

Nodded her head Talik immediately turned her attention to the approaching slicer as Eddard addressed the man. The thing was the spoofer tech could look like just about anything. At any rate it seemed the moment to see if their ploy would work was already upon them. Playing her part in the deception, she leaned into Eddard smiling up at him before looking at the slicer with interest. The slicer didn’t seem to mind one bit, even going so far as to clap her partner on the back. At his complimentary words, she lowered her face with a shy smile on her lips before pushing away lightly when Eddard removed his arm. Regaining her own footing, she looked around.

An expression of obvious awe crossed her features before pivoting to look at her ‘boyfriend’. ”I had no idea you were so connected sweetie”, she said like a woman who’s man had just scored a point in his favor. Suddenly Talik’s eyes darted to the slicer and her posture seemed to express a certain embarrassment, her hands drawing together to clasp before her. Falling silent she kept to the back of the pair as the tour proceeded.

She saw a couple people working at tables tinkering with their gadgets, and the guards spread throughout the warehouse. Letting her attention wander from the conversation, she looked likely to stay out of Eddard’s business while she gazed at the cool gadgets on the shelves.

Slowly her path would veer, bit by bit, from Eddard and the Slicer, whose name she didn't know. That was fine by her, she thought before sighing and casting her eyes toward the two men. Less to explain if things went sour. Now if the guards would buy her bored significant other routine, she would see how far her tether would go. ♦

Turning on her heels, she wrapped her arms about her waist and took a good deal of time gazing up and down the shelves. Heaving her shoulders she paced lazily along the aisle listening for footsteps. A look back over her shoulder toward Eddard showed only one guard was paying attention. Well if she could lure him away, that would be one less to have to deal with later.

It suited the purpose of checking back through the aisle well enough, only she hadn’t gone further than halfway along the row before the sound of the guard calling caused her to turn round. ”Sorry miss, can’t have you getting lost. This way please.” Even if he was polite about it, the man was not going to just let her take a self guided tour through their stores.

”Oh!”, she replied softly looking about the darkly lit edges of the aisle and moving closer to the guard. ”I’m sorry, this place is huge…”, she laughed nervously. It annoyed her, not getting to finish her search of the shelves for it would leave a black hole in her mental map of the warehouse. There was no help for it as her access was effectively cut off.

Along the way back to her partner, she had to wonder how powerful this black marketeer. Her difficulty was in imagining anyone having bulk quantities of the spoofer tech. It was just too valuable. With that thought she set her sights toward the slicers working at the tables before her escort returned her to the others.

The guard paused just a couple meters from Eddard and his compatriot and his whole posture made her think that walking past him to return to her partner’s side would be refused. Talik stopped near the guard and hooked her thumbs in the waistband of her skirt, ”I see, still not done.”, sighing she scuffed the toe of her boot on the floor a bit before settling her weight between her legs to her satisfaction.

@Nefieslab

 

[Eddard Thul Drast]

While Talik was given the freedom to roam around, Eddard was just kind stuck where he was, chatting aimlessly with the main slicer about coding and other such nonsense. Eddard knew enough to understand some of what was being said and he had done some more research before the mission but damn if it wasn't hard to keep from just stabbing the man to shut him up. Honestly, there was nothing he would have liked more than to stab the damn man but no, he was going to be good.

The idea of blowing their cover before he got all the information was what decided it for him and he pushed the conversation a bit more instead.

"So tell me - where exactly do you assemble the spoofers?" he asked the man with a disarming smile, "I'm curious to see your set up, you know?"

The man smiled at him and nodded his head, eager to show off the tech that his men were working on. It seemed odd to Eddard that the man was so eager to show off his product but far be in from him to stop the man when he seemed to be genuine in wanting to show just how much he loved the work he did. Eddard followed the man to the workstation where both of them were working on mechanical attachments that would be complete with software already.

"Here you can see them being made!" he explained with a smile, "Nothing big like the old ones either - this baby is the size of my fist! You can hide it practically anywhere in a cockpit!"

Cockpits did tend to be pretty messy.

Time to press his luck.

"And where might the completed ones be?"

This seemed to be a step too far. The slicer frowned severely.

"That kind of question is out of line!"

Eddard hummed.

"Then I guess I'll have to apologise." he declared before glancing at Talik, "Sorry dear but it looks like we're going to have to go loud."

Igniting his lightsaber in his right hand, through his clothes, pierced the lead slicer straight through the heart. At the same time he drew his blaster and shot the guard standing beside Talik square in the face, killing him instantly.

@Kayenta Moenkopi

 

[Talik Kru]

The Twi’lek continued to sigh from time to time, fidgeting with the cuticles of her fingers, shifting her weight between one foot and the other, and even giving the guard a peek at her thigh as she scratched an itch; poor dead guy, at least he had gone out with a smile on his face!

By the time his blood was splattering through the air, Talik was on the move her lightsaber leaping to her hand with but a small pull at the force. Naturally everyone in the warehouse snapped to attention from the carnage that had just awakened in their midst. It was truly going to be a cake walk, there were only 2 slicers pissing themselves at the tables and those five guards rushing up on the two Sith. Truthfully given the slim numbers of personnel on hand, her whole presence had been redundant. At least that is how things should have turned out, on any other given day but this one it would.

Even as she ignited her lightsaber the sting of the blaster volley struck her wrist sending her weapon spinning through the air to skid along the warehouse floor somewhere in the shadows. It soon became apparent why there were only six guards on hand as blaster fire filled the air. These sons of leeches were a trigger happy lot and kept her leaping through the air and dodging ricochets left and right as she scrambled to retrieve her saber.

But this was not had been the deciding factor for the head slicer in only having 6 men on hand for this clandestine meeting. A slight whirring drew her attention as some mechanism had been triggered and the section of the warehouse upon which the tables with the two slicers tinkering on their gadgets began to sink into the ground rapidly to some depth below. She could only think their dead leader had been cheeky enough to have their prize out in plain sight.

Her path to retrieve her saber had taken her away from the tables, the trap door hiding the freight elevator upon which the tables had been, slid shut. Just the barest glimmer of her lightsaber’s handle could be seen where it lay against the far aisle of metal shelves. Again she drew on the force, her blade shooting through the air to land firmly in her outstretched hand.

Not content to just riddle the two Sith with blaster fire, the guards began displaying an incredible level of martial skill rushing forward to attempt and bring them down. The two who came at her continued to fire their blasters keeping her on the move, suddenly leapt into the air to land upon either side of Talik. Her arm shot out unleashing the red arc of her lightsaber swinging for the man on her left and sliced through his blaster rifle. He barely missed a beat before spinning round to aim a kick for her head. She pivoted and dropped down into a low leg sweep of the man on her right who leapt into the air back flipping harmlessly out of reach of her arcing blade. They were good and kept putting the pressure on the Sith, her blade sweeping through the air was evaded every time. Even though she was able to parry their blaster fire, she couldn’t manage to ricochet the bolts into their ever changing positions.

She had quite had her fill of toying around with the boys and drawing upon the force she swept her arm in a wide arc, the push of her power sending the men flying through the air were slammed into the far wall before sliding unconscious to the floor.

@Nefieslab

 

[Eddard Thul Drast]

Gods be damned the merchandise was getting away!

He couldn't fault Talik for it however considering it wasn't something that she would have been able to stop even if she had been in a position to try. So instead he would let his frustration out on people who deserved it - namely the guards. He was quite done with them after all and he meant to prove it.

Drawing his pistol, Eddard smoothly began executing the men that Talik had knocked unconscious and fired twice at those she hadn't. As expected, the enemies were either on the ground already or distracted by Talik's display because it took barely a moment to gun them all down.

Except it didn't actually help.

By the time he had finished shooting, the slicers were down in their underground area and the freight elevator seemed to have gotten itself stuck in position.

Fantastic.

"Talik... call a taxi." he told her with a small frown that morphed into a small smirk, "Then throw the driver out because we're chasing them down. Chasing them because I doubt, very highly, that they are just sitting in a panic room. No... this feels like an escape attempt to me."

He set about cutting through the elevator to get down to their level but he was reasonably certain that they would be on their way to get gone by the time he managed it.

@Kayenta Moenkopi

 

[Talik Kru]

The heads of the men exploded before she had taken two steps. She turned to look at Eddard, and grinned not caring who took the Coup de grâce. Flicking the cell off, the saber went dark, though she kept it to hand as she watched him finish off the rest. Nodding her head she thought, ’perfectly extraneous’.

”Won’t be but a smidge”, she replied as she tugged at her crop top then shifted her stance to gaze out toward the entrance where the two goons stood outside. ”I’ll just take this call outside”, she said heading for the doors. With her eyes watching for signs of the two outside making a move to respond, for it was beyond her to think they hadn’t heard , she slipped her hand down the inside of her skirt to draw out a communicator and ordered a taxi.

Expecting the guards to rush through that door at any moment, she had to reassess maybe they weren’t that dumb and she cast her eyes to the roof for skylights or hatches through which an attack might come. All was quiet, so that by the time she got to the closed warehouse doors, she had to reassess their hearing. In fact, it was too quiet. Slipping her comm back into the inner pocket of her skirt, the woman reached out and pressed the panel to open the door.

The hearing of the guards was just fine, for they stood there with blasters ready. Their intelligence was just as good for they had called in back up, six more to be exact. Talik’s left arm brought up her saber, igniting its lazer, then slicing through the wrists of the left guard sending blasters shooting, literally, into the air until the fall to the ground caused the fingers to let go. The initial blaster from his rogue guns took out three of the guards, the newly arrived back-up, before the last shot fired put him out of his misery with a blast to the head.

As she moved, the slice taking the man’s hands, her stance widened but one step with her right hand extended to clasp onto the pommel of her saber at the end of its initial swing. With her center of mass redirected to her right leg she pivoted back to the left swinging her blade in a two-handed style to cut the second guard in half. At the end of that swing, her weight shifted on through to her left while the right helped to propel her into a forward somersault into the air. Right out the door she leapt with plenty of open space to accommodate the movements of the Ataru Form.

The remaining four guards were not so green as to stand there gawking but recovered fast enough to return fire but she evaded their fire through the air and righted herself to counter with each shot with her light saber. Slowly she advanced upon them deflecting their blasts, forcing them to back against the lip of the landing dock to stay out of her reach. The rush of traffic below was too much for one of the guards to resist and he looked down, just as the man in front of him retreated knocking him over the edge.

The last three were startled just long enough for her to cut through them quite easily. Turning round she looked back into the warehouse to see how Eddard was coming with the freight elevator when the shot whizzed right past her head, narrowly missing. Whirling around she saw the man hovering with a jet pack leveling his blaster right at her. Her arm raised the saber deflecting the blasts of his rifle back on the man sending his corpse flying out into traffic.

Looking around Talik Kru just shook her head. The taxi cab driver, when he arrived, was sure to see the mess she had made. Hopefully she could dump the bodies off the dock before he got there and just pulled away with a big, NOPE - SO OFF DUTY!

@Nefieslab

 

[Eddard Thul Drast]

Eddard didn't have to monitor Talik - he trusted that she would see her task through and he would do the same with his own. He wasted no time on her as he cut down into the garage area with his lightsaber. Arriving at the garage area took a bit of work but when you were making a door with your lightsaber?

Well you tended to do alright.

Cutting into the garage through the elevator doors, Eddard smiled very faintly at the slicers. They had just finished loading up a speeder truck that was just pulling away. He was...

Well he was angry.

But there was no reason to shout or whine about it. When you got angry as a Sith - you just needed to find another way to let the anger out. The anger had to be channelled appropriately. So rather than attempt to go after the speeder on foot, he instead stalked forwards.

And despite their pleas and despite their cries; he cut down the unarmed slicers who had made the spoofers in the first place.

And then he calmly left the garage and hopped in the back of the taxi that Talik had managed to steal for them.

"I believe we're done here..." he pointed to the truck that was making it's get away, "And there's our prize."

Spoiler: OOC

Feel free to end this one here

@Kayenta Moenkopi

 

[Talik Kru]

Talik was able to get the landing dock clear of the dead before the taxi driver arrived, and once he had it was merely a matter of course of relieving him from his conveyance. Well, mostly the use of the voice on his weaker will. Leaning into the side of the taxi she said ”You want to get out and go for a walk”, then stepped back as the cabbie exited the vehicle. He turned and began walking away right off the edge of the landing port and into the traffic below.

Taking his place it was but a few moment before Eddard hopped in the back and directed her attention to the truck pulling away. ”Guess we better not keep them waiting”, she said before speeding off into the night.

[ end thread ]

@Nefieslab