Arik Andees
RETIRED
NUBIA
Tallera Downs
It had happened again; not that it wasn't inevitable - but with a man in his position in life, sleep wasn't a thing to be embraced, but to be feared. Arik was human after all, and sleep deprivation would only last so long before the body just shut down - no matter how much stimcaf you poured into it. He partook of small naps here and there, but rarely did he even attempt to crawl into bed for a dose of a REM cycle. Those were where the demons hid, and lay in wait for Andees to return to the sector of his subconscious where they could playback every horrific detail of why he was no longer a Corsec officer. Even now, adding insult to injury when Corellia was basically a leveled sector of space filled with debris that had once been a thriving core planet. He'd never get the answers he sought now, the answers that had eluded him ever since he was dismissed from Corsec and had to greatly adapt to several new lifestyle changes. No matter how much he had tried to put off the idea of sleeping, it never would last long enough - and the darkness had claimed him. This time he had woke up on Nubia, in a motel about fifteen clicks from Nuba city itself in a strange hotel room to which he didn't remember having a connection to before. Then again, he didn't even know what day of the Galactic Standard Week it was.
The combination of a slowly awakening body, and the complete and utter fog that clouded his mind from days of a coma like state slowly faded. Shadows of the rotary fan overhead clipping the light into fragments while his form lay sprawled on the bed-sheets. Still dressed in casual attire, clothes he normally wore when out on assignment with his trench coat hung over the back of a single desk chair on the far side of the room. Over that, the strap of spacer's leather that held twin Republic issue M8-37 blasters - at least those hadn't been stolen during his time clocked out of reality. Groggy and completely out of his element, the infochant shifted on the bed, rolling over to the default datapad that laid bolted to the furniture. A tap on the display lit it up to show he had been out for three days, far as he could figure. The display also indicating that not only was he checked in under his own name, but that he had selected a week's time for renting out this particular room. He had two days left by the counter, and he wasn't even sure where he was at the moment.
"Chaos take me..." uttered the infochant as he rolled to a seated position and placed his face in his hands, trying to sweep away the lathargic state of sleep that had overtaken him. For Arik this wasn't new, this was very old news - but still not that pleasant. He had lost days to this blackout - and it wasn't the first time either. This pattern had started years ago, and it was something he tried to actively avoid. Stimcaf helped, but not enough to stave off this forever. It took him about ten minutes to right himself, clean himself up in the sanitizer before strapping the pistols to his chest and shrugging on the overcoat. That's when he found it, a single index sized flimsi in his pocket. An address was burned into the film - the typeface was generic but the address was anything but. He didn't immediately know the place, but he knew how to find it at least. Where this had come from - he had no memory, just like the last three days of his life. All Arik did know - is that he had to follow the clues he had and try and suss out what this was linked to - after all, it was his job.
A Standard Hour Later
Tallera Downs was the premier spot for Ronto racing, a very popular core world sport featuring animals just shy of the Taun Taun breed on Hoth. These mounts though, were meant for speed, not sustainability on frigid ice planets, and people came to race, trade, and watch the spectacle from one a rather famous track and bar. Normally a place like this could be a good spot for sources, information gathering, and people watching. Drop points and illegal activity notwithstanding, it was a fairly reputable place to spend an evening, and you could also make some bank if you were lucky enough. Unfortunately tonight was not the case as the normal amber and yellow hues of house lighting gave way to the crisp rotating beacons of red and blue as Republic law enforcement was already on the scene. The crowds on either side of the entry way to the track's main foyer were being bathed in the crimson and sapphire light display as Arik pulled in from the southeast atop a speeder that he'd rented outside his hotel.
"What in the nine Corellian hells...?" Arik asked in a hushed tone while dismounting the speeder and tugging on the lapel of his jacket. The security hologram line circulating the peremiter kept the public out, but let the officers in. There were a few dozen of them, along with some other vehicles that had brought the company towards the spot in question. Arik hadn't had a chance, or the thought to listen to the Republic bands, so he was working off of instinct, and the flimsi that led him to this address. Thankfully he had something with him that would not only let him breach the barrier, but actually get some information - albeit reluctantly from the agents in charge. Striding forward to the first patrol unit, Andees raised his Firemane Industries Infochant badge, flashing it at the Trandoshan's face.
"Arik Andees, Infochant - ongoing investigation." It only took a moment for the scowl to appear before the patrol reluctantly stepped aside, and Arik clipped passed him pocketing the badge and heading towards where the actual problem was. Four white sheets spotted from the inside with crimson vitae laid over the four sections of a cut up corpse. A woman in her early twenties - laid out in a cross section, and sliced clean through. Corners, a medical team, and several other agents were milling around - including a few taking witness statements. The corpse apparently had been found a few hours ago, after one of the main gates of the races had triggered, and the body fell in four sections onto the pavement just outside the entrance. Raising a hand to his mouth in disgust, Arik's eyes shifted looking for who was running the show - enough to get some potential answers from this grizzly crime scene.
[member="Marcus Foster"]