A box of crystals for ME......

[Gray Raxis]

Gray had to do a duty for SocMin Fed here recently, which was odd for him since he had gotten the company running well enough they didn't really need him. The problem they had though was something they didn't know how to address. On the planet of Aeten 2 one of the crates of stygium to be sent to the Mandalorian Empire for a project there had vanished. No one knew what had happened to it other than it had been signed onto the shuttle to head out, and then when it made it to the destination it wasn't there. Somewhere along the way, the crate had just poofed into thin air.

Gray landed his ship at the mine on the surface of the planet and stepped out of his ship. He was decked out in his Mandalorian styled armor with his pistol strapped to his left leg, and revolver on his right. On his back was his sword Calm and hung next to the revolver was his light saber hilt. He was ready for a fight, because he honestly expected pirates to be involved. Their activity had gone back up recently in the sector with the lack of authorities. So Gray had devised a plan, and he needed to start at the mine to make it work. He walked from his ship into the mine itself......and never came back out.

 

[Gray Raxis]

Everything at the mine cared on as usual. Every worker moved with the easy rhythm of the everyday job. Every ship, every crate, every crystal was accounted for. The mine was just as it had been intended to be to be the most efficient and profitable. The only irregularity was the fact that the Wolf Fang was still docked in the landing zone, but it soon lifted off and left. All was how it should be on the Aeten 2 mine. And just as things should be, a shuttle soon landed right on time to the landing area to be loaded with the replacement crate of stygium to be sent to the Mandalorian Empire.

A worker came out of the mine pushing the crate from the safe place it had been originally. The task went as it always had with the steady sound of mining from the tunnels behind him to the hum of the shuttle's engines on the landing bay. It was hard to believe a crate just like it had been stolen recently, but it had and it was on the minds of every worker at the place. They had seen their boss show up to the mine because of it and the only explanation for the theft had been betrayal. Everyone knew what would happen as well to whoever did that in this company, so they all moved along their tasks trying to ignore the thought of what would happen to the poor nerf herder who backstabbed Justice Shipping and the Mandalorian Empire. The crate got finished loading in the midst of all of this and the shuttle soon was on its way.

 

[Gray Raxis]

The shuttle hit hyperspace and began to head on its way. The precious stygium crate that was the ships most valuable cargo was hidden away in a safe spot on the ship. There were no armed guards or mercenaries on board, just the pilot and co-pilot of the ship. Both of them human males with black hair, but the pilot was older than the co-pilot was. They had flown together several times and had figured out each other's habits well. They could fly the shuttle together with their eyes closed if not for all of the debris along the way. They had finally hit the half way mark through their trip as well. It was time for them to relax and take a break while the auto-pilot did its job.

The co-pilot got up and said, " I'm going to the back for a drink. Care for anything? Coffee with a little bantha milk in it and two cubes of sugar right?" The younger man smiled to the older one as he finished asking.

The older pilot chuckled and replied back, " Am I that predictable now? Sounds great and thanks for doing that for me. i'll try to take it easy on you when we play our next round." The older man gave him a playful smile.

The younger man shook his head and left to go get the drinks. He had been gone for several minutes before he returned with two cups in his hands. One contained a light tea that smelled like it had some kind of berry in it, and the other held a cup of coffee that was tinted a light brown from the addition of the milk and sugar. The older man took the cup from the young man with a smile. As the young man got sat down, the older man took a drink of his cup. The younger man watched for a moment before he took a drink of his as well. All was going how it normally would upon the route to the Mandalorian Empire.

 

[Gray Raxis]

Several minutes had past since the younger pilot had gotten the refreshments. He sat sipping on his still hot tea as the older pilot began to nod off. His eyes just wouldn't stay open and his head kept falling towards his chest. He felt as if his entire body was exhausted from a full day of work, yet he hadn't done much yet. He must be getting older than he though he was, because soon enough he could no longer fight off the effects of sleep. The older pilot's head fell forward into his chest with his eyes completely closed. The sounds of light snoring began to drift from him as a sign that he had completely passed out.

The younger pilot watched the older one fall asleep suddenly, and grinned wickedly. He got onto the ship's controls and turned the auto-pilot off. He disengaged the hyperspace travel and watched as the ship came to near an asteroid field. He slowed the ships down and avoided hitting any of the deadly space rocks. As he came to a stop, he made sure the shuttle was positioned near a larger asteroid and would not be hit. Afterwards he activated a signal and sat back. He sipped on his tea with satisfaction.

 

[Gray Raxis]

The co-pilot waited around for several minutes, all during which his older pilot co-worker snored away in oblivious slumber. He had finished his tea off some time ago, and was contemplating cleaning it and the older man's cup when a ship suddenly rounded the corner. It was a light freighter that could house possibly two or three people and had a image of a naked twi'lek woman painted onto the side of it. The co-pilot started up the shuttle and slowly drifted it up next to the freighter and docked it with the other ship.

The co-pilot had the crate out of it's hiding place and waited on the other side of the air lock. He was relaxed as he stood there, and smiled when the doors suddenly opened up. Two people came into the shuttle from the freighter. Both of them male rodians with heavy blaster pistols strapped to their legs. The co-pilot called out to them as soon as he saw them, " Right on time as always. Here is that second crate of stygium as promised."

One of the rodians, clearly the leader, said back, " Good, and here is your delivery fee for it. We will have your cut of both crates as soon as we get them both sold on the black market. It would be best if this be our last job for awhile. Don't want to have some Mandalorians snooping into what is happening to their crates."

Both parties nodded and parted ways. The rodians took the crate into their light freighter and the co-pilot waited to disconnect the air lock. The job had gone smoothly and no one was going ot be the wiser. It was business as usual for the theft of valuable resources inside of neutral territory.

 

[Gray Raxis]

The rodian pirates had gotten the crate into their hangar and watched as the air lock was detached from between the ships. Everything was going smoothly for them a second time. The rodian leader pulled out a communicator and said, " Checking the crate. Be ready to shoot that karking thief out of space if he has fooled us. Be ready to shoot him even if it is. Mind decided against loose ends on this little operation." He put the com away and opened up the top of the crate. Inside was stygium crystals just as had been promised and should be. He smiled in the way a rodian does and pulled the com out again. " Let em go. We got the crates and he might be useful again later." The rodian put his com back up and shut the lid. He pushed the crate over next to another one that looked the exact same as it.

The rodians left the hanger and went towards the ship's cockpit. An air of smug satisfaction was about them as they did. Another heist pulled off perfectly, and that Justice Shipping company would likely be blamed for it by the Mandalorian Empire. Let them go at each others throats! But they were wrong. The job had not gone well for them, because after they were out of the hanger the new crate had part of one of its side pop off and slide to the side. Out of the opening came an armored figure. As the figure stood up it was clear this was no ordinary armored figure but one in Mandalorian style armor. Gray had successfully smuggled himself onto their ship. A classic move for him when it came to infiltrating pirate ships.

 

[Gray Raxis]

Gray got stood all of the way up to his full height. His muscles were screaming at him right now after having been cramped up in the crate for so long. He had ordered a crate be modified to allow him to be inside of most of it with a thin layer of stygium crystal over the top where the lid was located. He then had ordered for his ship to leave and wait for him to activate his tracking beacon. Once that was done, he ordered a shuttle to arrive to take the new crate to the previous destination, and gotten himself placed inside of it. From there it was just the waiting game until this moment had arrived.

Gray's planned had worked perfectly, but he still hated how long and painful it was in that box. He wasn't afraid of cramped places, but he could completely understand why people were by this point. He kept on stretching his muscles to work out the soreness and to bring back their flexibility for the soon approaching task. These pirates were about to have a bad day on their hands, but they just didn't know it yet. Gray had the element of surprise as well right now, so maybe that would work out for him. As soon as he thought that though, footsteps could be heard heading his way.

 

[Gray Raxis]

Gray quickly pulled out his blaster pistol from his left leg and pressed himself flat against the wall. He switched the gun into stun mode and closed his eyes. He focused on the force and allowed it to flow through him. He began to look through force sight around himself and through the wall. He saw that the footsteps belonged to only one of the Rodians, and they were heading straight for him. Why would they be coming back now? Was one of them stealing some of the crystals to sell themselves? Likely was what was going on, but it wasn't about to matter much.

As soon as the Rodian came around the corner, Gray shot them with a stun bolt. The rodian was unable to react at all and twitched violently as they crumbled to the floor with little sound other than their body hitting metal. Gray rushed over to the stunned target and examined them quickly to make sure they were not going anywhere. They weren't because they were completely out cold. Gray pulled out a pair of energy shackles and slapped them around the Rodians arms and legs. He picked up the bound prisoner and put them next to the crates. One pirate down, one maybe two more to go.

 

[Gray Raxis]

Gray swiftly yet silently advanced to the cockpit of the ship with his pistol still set to stun in hand. He looked out with force sight the entire way to make sure no one could sneak up on him, and sure enough he didn't. There were two people remaining and both were Rodians from the look of it. They were both sitting in the cockpit as well and seemed to be chatting about what they would do with their profits. One seemed to want to hit up Nar Shadaa for the bars and strip clubs. The other was more interested in buying a house somewhere nice and relaxing with a bottle of bourbon. Both were nice ideas for Gray on things to do, but the two of them were not going to get the chance to do them.

Gray didn't wait as he came close to the cockpit. He popped into the door and shot the first one with a stun bolt, knocking them unconscious. The other turned around quickly in shock and tried to draw their gun. Before the Rodian leader could pull out his heavy blaster pistol, a stun bolt hit him and began to shock him furiously until he was out cold as well. The ship came to a stop a short distance away from the asteroid field, and had thankfully not hit hyperspace yet. Gray counted himself lucky for that, because he could not pilot the ship if it did. Things would have just ended up in disaster.

Gray holstered his pistol and went to bind the newly stunned Rodians in much the same way as he had the first one. He took them back to the hanger as well and laid them all far enough apart they couldn't hope to get to each other to help each other out of their bindings. He double checked them all to make sure they had no vibroblades on them, and was surprised to find out they didn't. Odd group of pirates they were, but it played into his hands. They felt so smart for their little trick to steal the stygium crystals, yet were not smart enough to recognize a trap. Course few pirates ever did seem to catch onto his decoy crate tactic. They fell for it almost every time....

 

[Gray Raxis]

Gray activated his tracker and then went to the cockpit. He needed to send out a message to the person who had paid for the stygium crystals, and figured he could do it while he waited for pick up. He got there fairly quickly and went straight to the com system. He typed in the place his message needed to go then said, " This message is for [member="Isley Verd"] . This is Gray Raxis, and I wanted to inform you I found your crate of stygium crystals as well as apprehended the ones responsible for it's theft. They are currently alive and bound, and I will transport them to you in one piece to face judgement. The co-pilot on the shuttle that the replacement crate was suppose to be on it working with them and should be arrested as soon as they land. I will bring you everything in my ship as well and will meet you at the agreed upon meeting place." He ended the message then sat back in one of the chair. The job wasn't so hard this time around, but he was just lucky the pirates were this small of a group as well.

The Wolf Fang did not take long to find him and connect to the light freighter via air locks. He transferred the crates over to his ship's hanger bay. He made sure they were secure then went and got the pirates. He threw them into his ship's jail cells and activated them. The pirates were now officially prisoners of the Mandalorian Empire. He went to his cockpit afterwards and sat down in his seat. He looked at his droid Key and said, " Alright Key, lets finish this delivery to Isley and get paid. We even got ourselves a light freighter as a bonus to sell." The little droid beeped and set them out in hyperspace to where they needed to be.