A Shark and Child Story

[GhostOfProtocol]

Brokellia​

850 ABY​

​

The galazy was healing from it's problems. The Omega incident had come and gone, but a number of people felt the sting from the galaxies problems. Many Correllians were still recovering from Netherworld, the Omega incident was the final straw for many. The galaxy had entered a time of peace but for how long would it last? That was the worry for many, war was destined to come again. War always come, it had come for over 900 years, since the Clone Wars. The Clone Wars had been lost to time now, there had been too many wars since then.

One family lay splinted, but not due to the galaxy wide problems. Alicia Frost was a problem child, that's what she was always defined as. Since her dad had taught her the skills of the smuggler she'd become a pickpocket, a theif and a crook. Her mother hated it, she was a politician and she for one didn't want her name tarnished by a silly daughters antics. It took time to for her to finally decide to take a stand and kick her daughter from the house. Alicia was nineteen, she could fend for herself and her mother wanted nothing to do with her.

Alicia walked past her target slowly, days after being kicked out. He was an elderly man, her target. He was a smuggler type, someone who looked like he wouldn't miss that DL-44 that hung as his side. She walked past him slowly, fingers closed around the small penknife in her pocket. She pulled it out as she passed, cutting the rope holding the blaster to his side. Grabbing it, she ran. He shouted, she was long gone, scaling up the wall next to her, jumping down the other side. She never allowed the old man a look at her face, Corsec had nothing on her which was nice.

Less to delete from the system.

She continued running, just to be safe. The blaster, her blaster, was attached to her side now via the clip on it. She ducked into a small alley, panting as the pursuing members of Corsec ran past. She climbed the wall at the end, walking back out onto the street, lowering her hood. She wanted to steal someone's home keys, blasters were good for protection when she finally left Corellia...Brokellia, but she wanted someone's house keys first. She wanted access to a terminal to forge herself a free way off the planet. Free was always nice.

She continued to walk, happy with the day's loot. The blaster was a nice touch to her collection, and the few credits she had taken was food. She was content with the taking.

[member="Ghorua the Shark"]

 

[Ghorua the Shark]

LOCATION: INDISCLOSED​

EQUIPMENT: IN BIO​

CURRENT MOOD: INTRIGUED​

Unseen by all, a small shape hovered over the streets of Brokellia, taking in and sending information. It observed an area, beeped to itself, and moved on. The small sphere zipped over clueless pedestrians, too caught up in their own troubles to look around themselves.

Suddenly, the little droid stopped, picking up on something. It twirled, and zeroed in on something. A struggle. A face.

The ACS-301 Modular Probe Droid squeaked in recognition, and relayed the information to it's handler.

---​

Somewhere dark, a dim flicker of light played across a large, round face. A message typed itself on a datapad, alerting the mysterious figure to the presence of who he was looking for. A thin smile, revealing sharp, bright teeth, played across his large figures.

"Well, then. Let's see if she's everything my contact said she was." A voice, impossibly deep, impossibly smooth. "Let's begin the test, shall we?"

A quip of affirmation, and the droid ended communications with it's owner.

The Shark couldn't keep an amused smile from his face.

---​

Alicia would find quite the sight waiting for her.

As she passed an alley, she would hear a scuffle. A small probe droid, of the same ilk as the first, was doing battle with a pale Massiff. The beast was snapping at the droid, who was staying just out of reach. In the droid's manipulators...

A keycard. Specifically, a keycard to a ship.

The Massiff jumped, snapping her jaws at the small orb, catching part of the underbelly, but doing no serious damage. So far, seemingly neither of the entities had seen the woman.

It seemed as if luck had just smiled upon the slicer/pilot.

Of course, Ghorua never put much stock in luck.

- [member="Alicia Frost"] -

 

[GhostOfProtocol]

She heard the scuffles before she saw them.

She was headed towards a small cafe, intent on getting food to get through the next twenty or so hours. She had never been one of those to eat in excess, even more so now that she was homeless. Her goal was a few slices of Bantha Steak and a bottle of Bantha Milk to last, that would keep her going for another day. That's all she cared about, going another day. She just wanted to survive until she could get herself off planet.

Begin fresh.

She saw the droid, continuing to walk. She never payed much attention to the street fights, they seemed common place on Correllia. However, she stopped and backtracked, wondering why a droid was fighting a Mastiff. She noted the shiny thing the droid's manipulator. On a closer inspection, she realised exactly what it was. She shook her head, climbing quickly up onto a rooftop, watching over the fight. She dropped down behind the Mastiff, quickly sprinting towards some boxes.

She needed to play her cards right. Both droid, nor Mastiff had seen her and she crept out softly. She saw the Mastiff start leading the droid closer, and she grabbed they keycard from it. She sprinted, non stop as she climbed up onto a small ledge, jumping up onto the roof. She kept running, jumping down the otherside, breaking into a sprint as she ducked into the cafe she was aiming for. She pocked her keycard, panting.

"The usual"

[member="Ghorua the Shark"]

 

[Ghorua the Shark]

One moment, the droid and the Massiff were doing battle, fighting like tiny titans in the dim glow that permeated the dark alley. Neither seemed to react as a blur came and went, the droid blissfully unaware that anything had been taken. But once the woman was gone, a voice emanated from the droid.

"Bones, yield."

The beast immediately ended it's assault, panting happily. The droid itself calmed, turning it's ocular lens to where the woman had disappeared. It affirmed something, and zipped out of sight.

- - -​

Upon closer inspection, the card contained an identification chip for a docking bay in a nearby spaceport. The space seemed to be rented out to a cargo ship christened the Tribulation.

The port was only a few blocks away. As was a hidden ally.

- - -​

​

"Quick little thing, isn't she? That's a positive mark on her resume."

- [member="Alicia Frost"] -

 

[GhostOfProtocol]

She dropped the bread into her bag, sipping the milk carefully before capping it and doing the same with it. It was a ritual to come into this cafe every morning and pick up her supplies, one that she could possibly break if he cards were played right. She sat down in the corner, removing the keycard from her pocket, scanning over it. It all seemed too easy, like someone had let her get the keycard. It was something that played on her mind as she located the identification chip. The chips were always difficult to find, but once found they were the easiest things to crack into, to find out what ship it belonged to.

She left the terminal a few minutes later, heading towards the spaceport. The ship's transcoder registered it as the Tribulation, a name not uncommon for a ship that was rented. Her mind though, still trying to play tricks on her. It all felt too easy, it smelt like a trap. It made no sense for a droid to carry a keycard to a ship, unless the keycard was meant for someone. She shook her head as she entered the spaceport.

She had the gut feeling she was right.

She stepped out into the docking bay softly. The boarding ramp was down, something that made her access to the ship easier. Most rental ships would have inbuilt security proceedures that would need to be bypassed. It wasn't difficult, just time consuming. Alicia sat down in the cockpit carefully, removing a small datapad from her pocket. She connected it into the ships console and began typing in specific lines of code to try and confuse the system and crack into it.

If anyone wanted her, now was the time.

[member="Ghorua the Shark"]

 

[Ghorua the Shark]

Ghorua observed Alicia's progress through the city, and along his little test, with a perked brow. She was not only fleet of foot, but also had slicing speed to match. She expertly crack open the card, and made a beeline toward the port. Ghorua assumed she would think something was amiss, but the Herglic figured the allure of either a new challenge or a cache of free credits would be too much for her to pass up.

From the little he knew of her, he could only assume that was the case.

He viewed passively as Alicia approached the Tribulation. Ghorua could tell from her step that she was cautious as she entered. The Shark prepared himself.

As the woman entered the cockpit, and got to work cracking the rented ship's systems, she would feel something slightly off. It would be more instinct than anything, a sudden feeling that something had changed. Without a sound, Ghorua the Shark had sneaked up behind her. How he'd done that was a little trade secret of his.

An incredibly tall being, plated in heavy white armor, rested its weight against the doorframe. The helm-less face, dark and round, held an amused grin, displaying rows and rows of sharp teeth. His blowhole flared, emitting a sharp hauum. And his weapons.

Oh, the weapons.

"Having fun, Ms. Frost?" Ghorua tried to look as non-threatening as one could with an armory's worth of gear and a smile that could bite heads off. "I'm glad you received my invitation."

- [member="Alicia Frost"] -

 

[GhostOfProtocol]

She wasn't expecting the noise, she wasn't expecting the man. She jumped, instictivly standing, blaster in hand. She didn't stand a chance, the man was a shark, clad with more weapons than a First Order armory. Her eyes danced over him, questioning how he knew her name. She lowered the weapon slowly, something about an invitation. It all made sense in her head, she just had to connect the dots and think about it.

"You. You set me up"

She glared at him, reattaching her blaster to her waistline. There was obviously a point to all of this, a reason. He wouldn't just let her infiltrate a ship for no reason. Either he wanted to get her shot by Corsec or he had a reason to want her. Either didn't seem fun, it was rare a shark called but when one did they tended to be scary karkers who would eat you with no remorse. She liked her limbs, both arms and both legs come in useful sometimes.

"Who, what are you and what do you want with me? Surely kids are not on your "I must eat this" scale, we have nothing on us"

[member="Ghorua the Shark"]

 

[Ghorua the Shark]

Ghorua's eyes traced the woman's motion for her blaster, and didn't move a muscle. Any wrong moves, and this meeting could go downhill very fast. The Herglic's dark eyes examined her, almost daring her to try her luck. He could almost see the gears turning in her head, as she quickly accepted the situation, realized what it was.

An offer.

Ghorua visibly relaxed as Alicia lowered her weapon. He let out a relieved sigh. "Well, I'm sorry about the theatrics." Ghorua pushed off from the wall, his head nearly scraping the ceiling. "It was hard for me to find anything on you, Alicia. Frostfall. However you want to go by."

A knowing smile played across his expression. "Not impossible, however. I sent out a feeler in the underworld, looking for a slicer. Thankfully, my feeler was picked up by an anonymous tip. Said you'd be here. Gave me some info, and let me loose."

Ghorua knew a lot less than he led on. Most of what he knew was inferences and educated guesses. Thankfully, Ghorua was a good guesser. He had to keep some mystery about him, after all. "I needed to test you before I told you anything. Nothing too big. Just needed to see how you operate. Obviously," Ghorua gestured around himself, "... you passed."

"As I said, I need a slicer. For a job."

"A big job. The kind of job that'll set you for years. Interested?"

- [member="Alicia Frost"] -