Damn Dirty Thieves!

[Riz Carter]

[member="Einhardt Al'Kuhn"]

Sober gaze looked away from the passing buildings, signs, and other speeders. Traffic was light this time of day, which was nice. Reinforcements were on their way. They'd have the bakc-up they needed.

Fingers grabbed her blaster and checked the power-setting. Hadn't been charged since early yesterday. She looked up to Ein.

"For his sake, I hope you're right." Arm put on the wrist shield she'd gotten for herself.

 

[Subject 37]

[member="Riz Carter"]

He frowned for a few moments. This was all a little surreal. His head still hurt and part of him thought that he might have been hallucinating just a little. The thought was silly of course, he knew what was real and what wasn't, but...his head shook. "I wouldn't..."

Ein trailed off as they turned another corner, his eyes wandering towards what appeared to be a warehouse at the end of the street.

"Get too comfortable." He told her. "They might not shoot, but there are other things."

Not traps, but experimental designs that could hold him and Riz. "Just be careful."

Ein said as the speeder finally came to a stop.

 

[Riz Carter]

[member="Einhardt Al'Kuhn"]

"I'll be careful," the detective shot Ein a look. "It's MY job. YOU be careful." The speeder door opened with a pop and she got out, blaster gripped loosely in one hand and down at her side. She made it a point to walk over to the doors.

Locked and required a scan.

Honey-brown orbs looked up and along the building, checking for vantage points or anything that seemed out of place. Looked okay so far. "Back-up is coming soon. After you open this door you should wait in the speeder, Ein."

 

[Subject 37]

[member="Riz Carter"]

She was probably right, but that didn't meant he really had to listen. He slowly placed the shield on himself, fidgeting with it for just a few seconds before he nodded to himself and slowly approached the door.

It was heavy durasteel, blast quality. A lightsaber would be able to carve through it, but short of that one would be hard pressed to actually breach this thing. He frowned for a moment and wandered over to the access panel, pulling back the metal sheet that covered the electronic display. Before long Ein began to enter the sixteen digit code. "There's cameras."

Ein told her.

"They'll know we're here." He pressed the enter button. "I can't turn them off."

Not from out here anyway.

 

[Riz Carter]

[member="Einhardt Al'Kuhn"]

"That's okay," she whispered. Free hand dug out her badge and she held it up in the air as the door slid open. The message was clear. If they were watching when they entered, they'd know it was Coruscant PD. Didn't mean she would verbally announce it, though in case they weren't watching.

Sliding in front of the CFO, she moved first. There was a set of stairs off to the right. And in front of them was a maze of crates and boxes. Head turned and she quickly mouthed back to Ein.

,Get back to the speeder and lock the doors. '

 

[Subject 37]

[member="Riz Carter"]

Ein thought about that for just a few moments.

The safe thing to do was of course to listen to Riz, she was technically in charge here and it was her show. However he also knew that ifnshe went in there alone it would likely mean some very bad news for her. She might get hurt, or worse; killed.

A frown pulled at his lips. ”Wait.”

Ein called to her in a muted whisper. He really didn't want her to come to any harm, not when she was here because of him.

”You Shouldn't go alone.” He really meant that too.

He didn't want her in danger.

 

[Riz Carter]

[member="Einhardt Al'Kuhn"]

Inwardly, she sighed. There was no way she was going to talk Ein out of this. She was a detective and she could see it in his eyes. Kark it all. She was certainly going to have a talk with him after all this.

"On my lead," she whispered and pointed up to the stairs, blaster raised. Sweeping around the crates as she went, footsteps brought her to the first step.

 

[Subject 37]

[member="Riz Carter"]

Ein sort of wished that he'd taken a blaster from the armory along side the shield he now had. He wasn't exactly the best shot, in fact he wasn't practiced at all, but at the very least it would have been nice to have something to point at someone and tell them not to move. He frowned for a moment and then gave her a nod. "Okay."

Perhaps he'd have to start carrying a blaster.

The idea wasn't all that bad, and as Riz slipped through the door and he followed after a second later the Financial Officer couldn't help but wonder how the hell they had gotten here. It seemed odd to him that an employee of Vanir would go so far, for practically no reason.

"There." He pointed down a hallway. "That's the main storehouse."

 

[Riz Carter]

[member="Einhardt Al'Kuhn"]

The detective gave a silent nod and headed in the direction Ein pointed. Stopping at another door, it swished open. They were met to a cackle of production machines and conveyor belts. Honey-brown orbs squinted up to the master controller's room.

There was movement from two figures behind the open-air room. One of the figures pointed down at them and froze. Maybe it was Ein's cohort?

She raised her blaster. "Coruscant PD. Hands up and FREEZE!" The figure did the opposite. He ducked and ran.

Riz cursed and fired off a few stunbolts. THey sizzled into the metal of the control room. With a sudden whiz, hovering manufacture droids suddenly turned toward herself and Ein, trying to snatch them up in their claws. "MOVE!" Riz shoved Ein out of the way as one came in close.

 

[Subject 37]

[member="Riz Carter"]

Ein immediately backed off.

It wasn't like he was trained for this or anything, but any idiot could run away when it was time to run away. Ein stumbled for half a second before half turning and then booking it right down the hallway that they had been in before. "This is just silly."

He said to himself as he fumbled around a corner, turning to grab Riz and pull her with him just a second before another bright red blast struck the wall where she had been standing.

The warehouse wasn't supposed to be something you shot inside, mostly because everything here was explosive. The idea that a stray bolt would strike some cannister or ammo dump wasn't out of the question, and the fear that something would happen became very real.

"Around the left." He pointed to some crates. "Go from there."

 

[Riz Carter]

[member="Einhardt Al'Kuhn"]

"Feth," she swore in another language too. The heat from the blaster bolt singed the fabric on her shoulder. "Yeah. Go, Go!" Turning and letting Ein get a head start, she fired behind them as the droids pursued. Most of them had clenching claws that hands that were trying to grab Riz and the CFO.

Take the where she had no idea. And didn't intend to find out.

Scrambling behind one of hte crates with Ein, she took a moment to catch her breath, keeping her blaster up.

"Back entrance to their lab room somewhere?"

 

[Subject 37]

[member="Riz Carter"]

"No." He shook his head.

Unlike her he didn't seem to be out of breath at all, though that was probably because he had a personal trainer and a dietitian. He sort of had the upper hand in that regard, not that he was going to bring it up to her any time soon. Particularly not in this situation.

"Maintenance." Ein said quietly. "It loops around the top of the building."

His lips thinned. "Could get tight."

At least no one would be able to shoot at them from outside though. The walls were thick duracrete covered in titanium, mostly in case of explosions.

"We should be able to loop around." He explained. "Get them from behind."

 

[Riz Carter]

[member="Einhardt Al'Kuhn"]

She certainly passed all her PT exams, so maybe Ein was just superman. Heh.

Riz nodded and peeked around the edge of the crate, firing off a shot at one of the pursuing droids. Hit it in the power-source. With a whirring whine, the droid puttered, smoked, and began crashing toward them.

"Lead the way," hand came up and went to shove Ein forward. "Time to gogogogogo!"

Crashing droid was incoming and fast.

 

[Subject 37]

[member="Riz Carter"]

He let out a curse as she pushed him, his hands tightening around the edge of the ladder as he pulled himself up the first rung and into the maintenance shaft.

"Be careful." Ein called down to her as he pulled himself up into the shaft.

Though they'd be safe from blaster fire but they were moving into a place with a lot of moving parts and some really hot pipes. It was best not to jostle around and move too much lest you touch something that burnt your skin straight off.

That wasn't even mentioning the ray shields. "Come on."

He stuck his hand out to help her.

 

[Riz Carter]

[member="Einhardt Al'Kuhn"]

"I'm a detective Ein. Haven't made it this long by being super reckless." Riz gave a brief, lopsided grin up at the CFO. The droid came in hot.

"Feth," cursing, she jammed the blaster in her belt loop and jumped. Work-hardened fingers wrapped around Ein's hand as she scrambled up. The crashing droid's claw reached up and grabbed at her leg, catching her boot. She grimaced and brought her boot up to try and kick it off as she dangled from Ein's hand.

"Pull me up!"

 

[Subject 37]

[member="Riz Carter"]

Upper body strength be damned. With one powerful yank Ein grasped Riz and began to pull her up into the vents. The act wasn't actually as hard as one might assume, he was able to use his own body as a sort of counterweight to actually yank her up and out of where she had been standing in the warehouse.

"Come on." He told her, practically yelling.

Blaster bolts were still sounding out every now and again and in truth he was scared that his detective was going to get shot in the back. He tugged on her arm, probably almost tearing it off as he tried to pull her out of the warehouse and into the maintenance shaft.

As he fell back he dragged Riz up and into the maintenance hall.

 

[Riz Carter]

[member="Einhardt Al'Kuhn"]

Feet dangled. Heel shoved off the droid's claw. Arm socket protested and burned but she didn't cry out, not even when something hotter than an iron-rod jumped up and buried itself between her shoulder-blades.

A hiss went through her clenched teeth as she went up and up, flying through the air and over, slamming onto Ein's chest.

"Owowow," she hissed and rolled her shoulders, face still buried against the fabric of Ein's shirt. For a moment, that's all she felt. Pain. Searing and burning. In the back of her mind, she knew she'd been shot. Feth, she'd been shot before. She'd be fine. It was just getting over the initial burn.

 

[Subject 37]

[member="Riz Carter"]

"Hey hey hey." He repeated the words, holding her close for just a moment.

This wasn't exactly the type of situation that Ein was used to, inf act it would be a lie to say that he'd ever experienced anything like this before, but a part of him felt more than a little bit of sympathy for the burn that Riz had just gotten.

"You're good." Ein told her. "You're alright."

She would probably find his words incredibly annoying, but in truth he had absolutely no idea what else to say. Ein wasn't exactly the best when it came to comforting people, more so in a situation where they were getting shot at. What else was he supposed to do? "Deep breaths."

 

[Riz Carter]

[member="Einhardt Al'Kuhn"]

"Hrnnnnnggggg," the pushed a breath of air through clenched teeth. "Eeeeeeyahh, I'll be fine." Head lifted, face drawn and set to a grimace. Palms pushed flat against Ein's chest and she gradually pushed herself up. The shaft was tall enough so she could sit up at least. A smoky and burned smell lifted from the back of her jacket and shirt.

Sitting up, practically on Ein's lap, the detective maneuvered her jacket off first. Twisting so her back was to the CFO, she looked over her shoulder. "How bad does it look? Can you...there's a bacta patch on the inside of my jacket pocket. Could yah put it over the wound?"

Flesh was a boiling bubble of angryness.

 

[Subject 37]

[member="Riz Carter"]

He frowned for a second, glancing at the wound and giving a grimace.

Ein was as no doctor, but he'd seen his fair share of burns, cuts, and bruises. As far as those go there wasn't much that he could do, the bacta patch would probably help more than he ever could. He fumbled around for a few seconds and then pulled the patch free, looking at Riz with a measured amount of sympathy.

”This will probably hurt.” Burns were the worst kind of injury.

He took a breath, then gently placed the patch onto the burn.