Private Damask Rose

[Cromwell]

Osaka Bar-Restaurant,
Coruscant w/ Rika Hiro
♫

The tall suited man, one of many, stirred the ice in his whiskey glass. Browse faintly knit together glared at the golden spiral that took him away to a past he'd longed to forget. The high-pitched, excited chatter and clinking of polished forks and champagne glasses were his reality now. Gone were the brutish thuds and grizzled looks of an Allied Marine's mess hall. They had died during the Imperial Civil War. Buried with the Allied Dream.

The stirring stopped as Hunter Stark's ears twitched at the clicking of heels approaching his way. His gaze lifted up from his drink to meet the lithe form of the Atrisian lady he was to meet. Eyes drifted beyond her, looking for any suspicious tail, then settled on the woman before standing up and pulling the chair opposite to his own for her to sit.

"Miss."

To all curious eyes in the luxurious establishment - this was merely another date between two individuals of the higher society.

In fact, it was so much more.

The charming smirk abated as soon as the curious eyes of patrons were satisfied.

"No tail?" he asked warily, then after her confirmation continued, "Harrsk's doubling down on operations in the Core--meaning we'll be seeing each other more often going forward." Hunter explained, then paused as the appearance of a server to take Rika's order cut him off for a moment, and only after that did he continue, "--so... what's the situation?"​

 

[Rika Hiro]

Rika Hiro|COMPNOR|Intrigue in little Atrisia
Tags:// Hunter Stark

Music

Little Atrisia was a home away from home, where Atrisias homesick and those of its diaspora called it home. The familiar sight of neon-lit streets that were a mainstay of little Atrisia's grubby confines, choke-full of residents from other levels of Coruscant or just curious visitors looking to buy a trinket or visit one of the many seedy bars and establishments in the red light district. Between the tight little markets and stalls or the noodle bars that lined the streets with Atrisian vendors shouting special deals, another presence at this level held greater power than the police that patrolled the streets. An unspoken yet omnipresent power that dominated the diaspora who etched out a living in the jewel of the Alliance, Atrisias own gangsters, the Sekiko Kaibatsu, a large cartel that owned much of the red light district and exerted a pseudo control over the level as a whole to the point where even the police were not willing to make an actual move.


It was a perfect base for the Imperials to operate out of and have its members meet up. They need not fear the tattoo clad Kaibatsu gangsters. They were already in COMPNORs pockets, a marriage of convenience edged out between their matriarch and the head of intelligence operations in the core. Kaibatsu bars and other bases made perfect locales for meetings and briefings on the latest goings-on in alliance space.

Osaka was one of those places, a fine little establishment where Atrisian gangsters threw their hard-earned money gambling while other patrons surveyed the fine array of drinks imported off-world at a high premium. Rika cut a different appearance to one her fellow agents knew her for, eschewing her biker jacket and short hair in favour of long flowing black locks, a dress, coat and heels that made her look more like a dainty vanity obsessed Atrisian socialite than someone who could actually kill.

"Hey there."

"Not that I know of?" Rika replied almost innocently, putting a hand against her chest in feigned shock as she manoeuvred opposite Hunter, taking up a seat and signalling for a drink from the bar.

"What about yourself? any suspicious figures follow you out here?" she asked back in a sly joking tone, pulling up a small mirror and checking herself as she applied lipstick before putting it away back in her handbag.

"SIA is still scrambling over the death of Elane of Kuat, they lost several experienced agents on the ground during that fiasco, and with the rise of crime in the core and senatorial security 'issue's', they're as stretched as ever."

Rika smiled, turning to graciously thank the waiter for the glass of Corellian red before taking a little sip and placing it down in front of her.

"Do you drink much?"​

 

[Cromwell]

Osaka Bar-Restaurant,
Little Atrisia, Coruscant w/ Rika Hiro

"What about yourself? any suspicious figures follow you out here?"

"Just you." he jovially huffed a chuckle. His eyes sized her up and down as she drew out a makeup mirror from her small handbag. Black, silken locks neatly flowed down her shoulders opened up the fine strokes of her face. The designer dress wove around the lithe curves of her torso before it revealed long, slender legs gleaming against the night light. It seemed the clandestine operations in the Core had shifted from bolt-hole covers to high society penthouses.

Hunter didn't mind, at all.

The grim and tense nature of their work would always benefit from at least a more pleasant view and experience in between to loosen up. Clear the mind, but without getting complacent.

Maybe he'd grow to appreciate these civilian duties away from the mud and grit of military intelligence more.

"SIA is still scrambling over the death of Elane of Kuat, they lost several experienced agents on the ground during that fiasco, and with the rise of crime in the core and senatorial security 'issue's', they're as stretched as ever."

"Mhm." Hunter mentally noted her reportings; his sole exposure to the ISB's operations within the Core had all been on paper. Hardly enough to build a proper understanding of the situation. He may hold seniority in years of ISB service to Rika, but she was Bastion's person here. She walked the walk.

They had to build a good rapport.

"Do you drink much?"

His brows lifted up, caught off guard, before he looked at his half-full glass of whiskey. A sly smirk curved his lips, "Only on dates in Little Atrisia." he finished his drink with a gentle gulp and ordered another round. "Come here often? To keep covers up or blow steam off?"​

 

[Rika Hiro]

Rika Hiro|COMPNOR|Intrigue in little Atrisia
Tags:// Hunter Stark

Music
"Only on dates in Little Atrisia." - Hunter Stark



"A date?" She feigned surprise, looking around jokingly before looking back at Hunter and smiling and continuing, "Does this mean you're footing the bill?"

Rika hoped he would; Osaka bar prices were high for an establishment this many levels down; she'd run up a tab of her meeting other agents here for drinks or to relax in her own time and flirt with local gangsters for fun and intel.


"Oh, you know... I hang around here for work purposes and fun, I can come here and have my ear chewed off by a drunk gangster for hours talking about past glories, or I can come here and find out about the latest ongoings in the underworld."

She pursed her lips in contemplation, staring at her glass of half-full wine before taking another light sip and placing it down in front of her.

"Better than whatever mud hole they had you in, I imagine."

Rika much preferred being in this urban metropolis hellhole than whatever backwater planet they sent Hunters kind to, at least on Coruscant all you had to worry about was extortionate prices and low bar idiot criminals who'd occasionally try something and have nothing but her boot to answer to.

"Did the little angel and his boyfriend Massad send you down here?"

The little angel was the alias Don Belkora was known to deal under in secretive communications and circles, an ironic alias if anything given Don was never little nor an Angel. Rather, he was one of the most vicious senior figures in the organisation, being far more willing to plot with criminals and resort to anarchist terror tactics to further the organisations ambitions. ​

 

[Cromwell]

A silent chuckle escaped his lips at the bill remark. She knew as well as he did that the tab was open on the Emperor's name.

Might as well take that opportunity to the fullest. Look for the priciest drink on the menu and make those pencil pushers back in Harrsk sweat.

At the mention of Belkora and Massad, the agent's jaw clenched visibly. Sewers rats like those should've been nothing more than just expendable tools in the pursuit of order and peace -- not fully pledged members of the Bureau with rank plaques over imperial uniforms.

"No." he cooly replied, "Thankfully." taking another sip to wash away the distaste in his mouth, he then leaned back and produced a stygian-colored cigarette case. A far cry from the rolled tobacco or squashed packs they were issued on the field whether as an Allied Marine or as an intelligence officer attached to the Imperial Army. This was a new, more refined position and the Bureau had taken care of facilitating that image.

"The Bureau's throwing more numbers in the Core--" lightning up a cigarette and blowing a puff of smoke, Hunter slid the case over the table to Rika, "--luckily for me, I got posted to Little Atrisia with the Emperor's card to spend." he joked, a smirk tugging his lips, "Might as well have fun before we get to business."

Rika Hiro
​

 

[Rika Hiro]

Rika Hiro|COMPNOR|Intrigue in little Atrisia
Tags:// Hunter Stark

"No?" she asked inquisitively, almost as if she was unaware of Hunter's visible annoyance at the question. Rika enjoyed teasing him like that, it was amusing to her and Hunter's body language spoke much more than a simple no did as a response.

"They're both professionals; the little angel's gang have already been responsible for a dozen or more deaths and kidnappings of SIA and alliance personnel in the core; we all serve the same cause, don't we? So what does it matter how we attain such results? It's the outcome that matters."

Rika laid back and shrugged, picking up her glass and finishing the last slivers of wine as she examined the glass and put it back down.

"But it doesn't matter, leave the talk to the next meeting; for now, we can have fun, right?" Rika smiled, grinning from ear to ear as she signalled for another drink from one of the passing waiters, who nodded and moved to refill her glass promptly with more Corellian red.

"To fun times," she raised her glass, "Cheers."​

 

[Cromwell]

The means did not matter, but the 'little angels' and co. should have never been given any plaque. Their intents were purely avaricious and when galactic peace and order were finally achieved - they ought to be disposed of in the same way all other ruthless criminals were. Hunter's thoughts never materialized in words but merely in silence, Rika caught it and shifted away from the topic to something more pleasant.

Drinking overpriced liquor and enjoying the little downtime they have in between their service to the state.

"Cheers." the glasses clinked and he ordered another refill, before also leaning back with a cigarette in his hand, "Do you not smoke?" he jerked his head at the cigarette case on the table he had left, "Is that part of the disguise? Speaking of high society -- is that what the SIA has you dressed in or is that you spending the Emperor's cash on a date?" the agent smirked, softly probing more about his new partner.

Rika Hiro
​

 

[Rika Hiro]

Rika Hiro|COMPNORIntrigue in little Atrisia
Tags:// Hunter Stark

Music

"Sometimes," Rika replied to Hunter's comment about smoking, "to calm the nerves, you know, and to fit in." she smiled awkwardly, picking up a cigarra and taking the lighter with her free hand, bringing it up to her lips and lighting it before taking a drag and exhaling.

Smoking was so prevalent among COMPNOR and the ISB, and you'd think it was a requirement to join or even be considered for recruitment. It was almost ritualistic in how Hunter, Belkora and the rest of the senior personnel would religiously chain smoke and run through entire packets in singular meetings alone. Rika had tried to keep up with Massad once and had paid for it by spending half her time coughing her lungs out and smelling like a Hutt cigarra factory.

Amusing to think that death from smoking had likely claimed more agent fatalities than gunfights and murders actually did.

"Both, it helps to look the part and have the cash too," Rika certainly didn't dress like this out of the field, her actual hair length was much shorter and she preferred jackets and spacer pants to dresses and jewelry that made her look like a pretty thing. But it paid to look the part; after all, everyone was playing some kind of part or act in the intelligence community.​

 

[Cromwell]

She held the cigarette awkwardly, that same way you'd see catwalk models take a few drags behind the scenes away from the glitz and glamour of the camera. Rika seemed to meld with the crowd of the upper class roaming Little Atrisia fairly well, at least to Hunter. Had he not received a visual brief on her prior, his eyes would've set on her only by the laws of attraction rather than recognizing his new Bureau partner in the Core.

"I'll admit, the disguise is working." Hunter threw a suggestive, lopsided smirk her way before he took another sip of his drink, "Is this your first assignment with a partner?"

Rika Hiro
​

 

[Rika Hiro]

Rika Hiro|COMPNOR|Intrigue in little Atrisia
Tags:// Hunter Stark

"Why thank you, yours works too," Rika pointed out, slyly hiding her smirk with another sip of her drink while putting her still lit cigarra down in the shared ashtray between them.

"I've worked with some others, but I'm mostly solitary, not out of choice, though; the committee had me sent straight out of basic training and straight into the SIA academy to pose as an academy brat aspiring to fight in the name of the alliance." Whatever that was supposed to be, it seemed the alliance flaked harder on its own ideals than the late great moribund Confederacy did and that whole bloated bureaucratic mass was a strange marriage of different contradictory governing bodies and schizoids with light sabers.

"I'm sure a fine Galidraani man like yourself isn't without company."​

 

[Cromwell]

It made sense. Double agent missions were the hardest to pull off. It was where the strain of living two lives truly showed. A part of Hunter's assignment to Rika's post was making sure her loyalty to the Empire remained unshaken. Hunter was to serve as a constant reminder -- an anchor in a sense -- to her real identity: an agent of the Empire.

An agent that turned out to be an appealing Atrisian on Coruscant? He couldn't complain.

"I'm sure a fine Galidraani man like yourself isn't without company."

Drowning what little remained of his whiskey, the agent rose from his seat leaving enough credit chits for the bill and a generous tip on top, "Not for tonight at least." Hunter slid the pass for his hotel accommodations on the table and headed towards the exit.

Rika Hiro
​