Public Incursion at Varunda Nine (edge of GA territory)

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

For the first time in many years, the door was locked. Ashin tapped her card again.

"Deferred maintenance?" murmured Jaccath, her Massassi tattooist/pilot, in a joking suggestion. Ashin was this place's most infamous student and donor. Ashin's access to particular labs — including this remote, secure lab in the jungle — had been a tacit understanding since before Jaccath was born.

"New management, at a guess," she said over her shoulder, a reference to the Galactic Alliance acquiring much of her homeworld's region. She took a long, careful look around the lab — a fence, an access road through the jungle, a handful of clustered buildings with few university staff on site. Loathe to damage the door lock, she raised one hand, touched the lock with the other just so, hissed a word in Kissai, and the door slid open.

"A little flatter on the vowel, Captain," said Jaccath, slipping past her with ease that belied his spined bulk. He moved to check the rooms in case anyone was here.

Ashin, meanwhile, conducted the unlocking incantation at the primary volatiles lab and went inside alone. This facility had acquired metallurgical samples from the Longjumper's Mark intergalactic expedition. She meant to take a look. Take the samples, if necessary or desirable. If the rules change, adapt.

There were, of course, security cameras all over this quiet research site. If any of the remote sector's Alliance or Jedi presence had flagged her ship, the cameras might tell them who'd come calling. Her name was known around here.

 

[Kael Virex]

Time: 18:39, Local time
Location: Laboratory Service tunnels, Beneath Facility
Mission: Snatch and Grab material for interested parties.

Asset retrieval was hardly a new game for OPEX, the buyer however was. The mission was simple, get in while avoiding detection and grab the material. It seemed simple enough, Isolated site, security cameras and skeleton crew, this was hardly a mission that a group of Ex Imperial special forces couldn't handle, and the premium they were charging for the job was sure to keep them on track.

Infiltration happened early, a shuttle coming from the Shield-maiden (An ancient Dreadnought cruiser that had been mostly retrofitted with new tech and an AI based control suite) was to land in a nearby town, the team would come into the space port, and dress in plain clothes. Once they made it to their rooms, they geared up and unloaded their weapons, slipping into the sewer systems and following them out of the city, before making their way into maintenance tunnels. It was tedious, sure, but safe and easy. Following some old schematics provided by the contact, they traced their way here... On the opposite side of this wall what was supposedly a lab. The samples, some kind of material research project that had the contact pay a heavy premium for delivery.

"Tech, you get those cameras down yet?" Kael's voice was rough from years of fighting and abuse that his face did not show. He always had something of a baby face, even now.

"Yessir, cameras are coming down now. On your right sir is a service hatch, when cameras come down it will slide open, Watch your head, it's low." Both men spoke quietly. The other 4 didn't let out a whimper. There was a slight flicker in the tunnel as the men stacked low on the service hatch, Kael waited for a squeeze on his shoulder from the man behind him.


Squeeze

The door slid open and the men silently slid into the main room, carbines pointed up. Each one scanned their corner, and after each man said clear, they turned towards a hatch that was labeled "LAB MAIN" and stacked up on the door, preparing to enter.

"Move."

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

The main lab space was set up in transparent divisions with endless possible configurations of equipment. No scientist, Ashin peered at labels, cases, status screens, log books. It seemed like her information was accurate: all the samples here — rocks and metals, mostly — came from the extragalactic expedition. She was scrutinizing a priceless and likely-looking chunk of transgalactic asteroid when her comm pulsed twice against her thigh. Instinct suggested reasons why Jaccath would message instead of returning from his search of the small facility.

SOLDIERS IN HALL AT LEAST THREE TEN SECONDS

SHIP, she messaged back — telling him to get clear and into the forest, get to the yacht, prep it for liftoff — and took very quick stock of the situation.

This lab space offered little reliable cover. She had a simple lightsaber on her belt, and wore her usual black armourweave robes. If she cut through the back wall, she'd be in a hallway with a few options for escaping the building.

Instead, she drew a deep breath, let it out, and surrounded herself in a tight shield of Force protection, her speciality. That exhausted all remaining time.

The lab door opened, leaving her face to face with Kael Virex and company.

 

[Kael Virex]

Bang

As the flash bang went off, the 6 men stormed into the room single file and dispersing.

"Contact Front!" One of the men screemed as he slammed his carbine into battery and began opening fire in Ashin Cardé Varanin direction.

Kael flipped a table over and braced himself behind it, before standing and firing in the being's direction again. Not to be caught up on what was supposed to be an easy mission, he screamed to the men "Rush forwards, Secure that sample." Setting for a second, before one of the men rushed forward, dropped to one knee and began suppressing. Kael stood to bound as well, sprinting directly for the sample in the middle of the room.

Just a few meters to go!

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

The Force carried the impression, the foresight, of light and sound and deafness and pain. Explosives, then. Ashin redoubled her focus on the second skin of Force protection and squeezes her eyes shut.

A bare half-second later, a flashbang detonated at close range. Light speared her eyes right through the eyelids, sound smashed at her defenses and punched into her ears, and she flinched away.

The energies she'd wrapped around herself coiled tight by instinct. Sustained weapons fire ripped into her armourweave robes; what tore through met her arcane defenses and hammered her off balance.

She stumbled back and down behind a bank of lab gear. Anger, so hot and familiar it was almost joy, spiked through her profound new headache. Conscious that this cover would last only moments — the lab's sprawling segmentation and transparisteel internal walls made her far too easy to flank — she drew her lightsaber but kept it off. Smoke wafted around the holes in her robes. She could see her own belly from what would have been killing shots.

In search of time to cut herself an exit, lightning. Lightning everywhere.

Kael Virex

 

[Kael Virex]

Head down, move move move! That was all that was racing through Kael's head as he sprinted to the storage unit. He quickly dropped to one leg and reached around the far end of the container, twisting a dial that released the material storage unit. The entire box shifted with the sound of whizzing air. Kael reached in, grabbed the samples quickly, and shoved them carelessly into his pack. As he looked up, he watched as lightening struck one of the operators, intentional or not, it arched across his armor and struck his neck. His body convulsed and dropped for a moment.

"Force user, Let's get out of here. Grab Him!" Virex sprinted towards his men, avoiding archs of lightening. The youngest man on his team, barely 25, let out a scream as energy arched off one of the walls and struck his vambrace, punching right through and scorching his arm. The team reformed, one of the men who was still okay grabbed the pack on the downed operator and began dragging him towards the door whilst Virex and the rest laid suppressive fire.

Reaching for his galac-tac rt-74 radio, he began barking over the comms.

"Contact. 1 times, non-human force user. Very powerful, two casualties. One critical, one stable. Need immediate Evacuation Falcoln-1. Preparing to make our own exit."

As the lifeless operative was pulled through the hatch, Virex slammed the button to close it behind them.

 

[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

Ashin's lighting died as that concerted covering fire sent her clear off her feet. Her armourweave was good, her Force protection much better, but it still felt like hammers and nails. She swayed on her feet and, just as the door shut, fell to her knees. Her eyes ran with the aftereffects of the flashbang, and her hearing was numb and her ears felt swollen deep into her head. She got up and surveyed the damage.

Professionals. Real professionals, here on Varunda Nine. Get in, get a target, deal with the obstacle without distraction, get out, take their fallen with them, all in a matter of what felt like seconds. It was just about a privilege to get shot up by people like that.

Ashin eyed the remaining lab gear and various things that might or might not be samples at this point. One of the rocks she'd noted earlier — a chunk of deep-interstellar asteroid that felt cold to the touch — disappeared into her ragged robe. She stumbled for the back wall and cut her way out with three brisk, arcing motions, then broke a window and headed into the jungle.

 

[Kael Virex]

Virex and his able-bodied troops pushed the emergency over-ride as the facilities main door creaked open. He and 4 men rushed out, securing a perimeter.

"Status Report!" Virex yelled

"4 good to go, one stable, one critical"

Virex yelled for a man to toss a flare. The bright orange light blinded for a second as the sound of the dropship, which had to now been loitering a few kilometers away, pulled close. As the shuttle came in to land, 4 Mercenaries stepped out to hold a perimeter while 2 of the men loaded the unconscious troop into a stretcher. The younger, less injured man pulled himself up into the ship whilst Virex continued to survey the landing Zone.

Ashin Cardé Varanin

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[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

As Ashin cut through the back fence, the evening light shifted orange and bright: a flare to call in an evacuation ship of some kind. Her comm was shrapnel snagged in her robes at this point, but she knew Jaccath's mind well enough to send him a quick clear message: stay grounded and in cover. I'll come to you.

Anger still had a grip on her. She weighed it and considered whether she had the focus to survive a counterattack from a dropship right now. And all of that weighed up against the main metallurgical samples that this team had stolen. That made the difference between a small project and a large one. Trivia versus something grand.

There was no point in taking a stealthy approach or trying to get clever about it. The dropship would likely have spotted her red lightsaber.

From the jungle's edge, she threw it underhand, a lazy pitch but accurate, at the cockpit.
Kael Virex

 

[Kael Virex]

"We have contact, Duck!"

The scream was too little too late as the lightsaber bounced off the cockpit and cut a whole into the engine before flying back towards Ashin Cardé Varanin . All of the men, save for wounded, unloaded quickly from the ship, a full squad sized element of 13 men posted and began firing in the direction the lightsaber came from at the silhouette of the alien in the distance.

"Men, grab the Machine gun from that drop ship, hurry. Pilot, once they are off limp the ship the hell out of here!"

One of the soldiers grabbed the samples from Virex's pack, before he and another sprinted sprinted at breakneck speed towards the open side hatch of the bird, storing the samples before grabbing the raised tripod and gun, and awkwardly carrying them out towards a small stone wall in the field. The ship, with it's engine smoking, lifted lightly off the ground in an attempt to flee with the casualties. Virex yelled to the Squad radio operator to begin transmitting coordinates to the shield-maiden for another transport to come, as well as a QRF to re-enforce. The troops, whilst caught off guard, quickly fell back on their training and began rushing in fire teams towards the target while Virex and the machine gun team readied the gun for heavy fire downrange.

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~~From Shield-Maiden~~
- Falcon 1, message received, Quick reaction force beginning deployment, Estimated time of arrival is 15 minutes.
- OPEX 1-1, help is on the way.

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[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

A little engine damage opened up options, but not for this exact moment, not smashing gunfire from the air with lightsaber and forearm. The number of soldiers involved, and their approach to deployment, made this situation untenable. That was hard to handle. Much as Ashin felt it important to learn how to lose rather than escalate, it rarely got easier.

Nor did it help that her primary option at this scale, a Force Storm, would have long-term impacts on her relationship with her homeworld. No, better to settle. This wasn't the place.

She turned and ran into the dense jungle, calling on the Force for speed to deal with the bruising punishment she'd already taken. Whether the soldiers would follow at speed was an open question.

In short order she reached her sleek Naboo civilian yacht and got up the ramp. "At least one ship," she called to Jaccath, slapping the hatch control. "Subcapital. Head for the city, there's air defenses."

And possibly, ironically, Alliance forces.

Kael Virex

 

[Kael Virex]

"Transports Inbound, ETA 5 Minutes."

The voice over the radio was clear as day. As Ashin Cardé Varanin fled into the jungle, the troops began falling back to secure the perimeter of the landing site.

"Get that probe droid up operator, trail her!" Virex barked. The operator, indistinguishable from the rest in his OPEX operator equipment, dropped his pack to the deck and pulled a small AUORP (Autonomous Observation and Reconnaissance Probe) droid from his backpack and activated it. After a moment, it lifted off the ground and shot off towards Ashin, at a distance she hopefully wouldn't notice. Before long, the warping and chopping sounds of two transport shuttles smoothly touched down on site. As the hatches flew open, the troops quickly placed the disassembled gun in the rear, and began to load in. Virex, wanting to have visual, climbed into the transport with the drone operator.

"Any updates Operator?"

"Yes Sir, the target appears to have reached a ship. Looks to naboo civilian type craft. Orders Sir?"

"Is she near a settlement?"

"Not yet sir, what's your call?"

"Transmit the coordinates to the shield-maiden, get the bridge on the line, prepare one strike, HE on target, launch on my command." The operative nodded as Virex stood up and moved towards the cockpit, ducking as he entered the hatch. "Pilot, get us the hell out of here. And fast."

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- Message recieved, weapons on standbye.

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[Xun of Throne]

Kael Virex | Ashin Cardé Varanin

City, Financial District:

"In short, the bioprospecting team's analysis of initial samples from the indigenous flora have several potential applications which could be developed for a dynamic market entry."

Xun lounged in a chair at the end of a conference table, idly tracing the rivets in the chair with a finger as he listened. He wore a single shoulder gossamer robe and regretted the choice. The air was far too cold in here. He arched a delicate brow as a door opened and his head of security entered, a Nikto by the name of Ungokta, who movedquickly to his side and leaned in close, whispering in his ear.

The representative from the company's Exotic Resource and Extraction Department continued to drone on.

"Minerals, I think you are up next and by far have the most-"

Xun held up a finger, silencing the speaker. His single arched brow continued to climb as Ungokta whispered a report.

"And?" Xun asked after he finished.

"And we need to get you to a secure room while we contain the situation."

"Meeting adjourned, please excuse us." He let the words hang in the silence that followed until the department reps took the memo and left. When the door slid closed behind them, Xun looked back to Ungokta.

"Do you have contact with the flagged vessel?"

"No, but we ran it earlier..." the Nikto's face was as hard to read as usual, weathered and unmoving, but Xun could see the concern in his eyes. Whatever the results of that flagged vessel, they did not seem good. "They're heading this way - fast."

Too fast for mere civilian purposes? If it worried Ungokta, Xun supposed it was so.

Xun steepled his fingers, elbows resting on the arms of his chair. "Unfortunately for you, this is the most interesting thing that's happened in weeks. As enthralling as patenting local medicines for sale is, I'm staying here. Pull up the holos and see if you can make contact with those inbound."

"Sir, with respect, you're not-"

"A visiting dignitary?"

"A military commander..."

"Perhaps I don't need to be, let's see."

 

[Kael Virex]

"Sir, it appears we are receiving some kind of transmission on an open channel. It's unencrypted."
The radio operator looked up toward Virex, hunched over in his seat with the radio nestled between his legs. Connected to it was a small terminal, held firmly in the operator's hands.
"Should I respond, sir?"

Virex reached his hand above his head and felt along the wall behind him, tracing it down slowly until he found the chair's manual release. Pulling the lever, the restraint went limp. He pushed it up and slid out quickly—if not a little clumsily.

He walked up to the man, peered at the tablet, and rubbed his chin lightly. Surely the being they were tracking wouldn't be calling her aggressors... right?
He turned to the probe operator.
"Any update?"
The man simply shook his head.

Virex looked back to the radio operator and extended his hand for an earpiece.
"Patch them through."

The ship rattled and shook as it broke through the lower layers of the atmosphere. A metal creaking echoed faintly as Virex, from a distance, peered out the porthole—he never liked this part too much. But that was irrelevant right now. He reached up and flipped on the earpiece.

"Director Kael Virex, OPEX."

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Ashin Cardé Varanin Xun of Throne

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[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

Impact — turbolaser strike, maybe, Ashin thought as she sprawled in the yacht's bridge door — turned everything beyond the viewports to flame. Shield indicators went from green to pulsing red. There was a slower wrenching, a squeal of metal that she took as the half-retracted landing gear dragging into the ground. Jaccath, a far better pilot than Ashin, got them up above the blazing tree canopy again. "Dropship looks bound for low orbit," he said over his shoulder, slewing the yacht through tall trees and the city's outlying structures. "Landed cruiser firing. Strap in, Captain."

Ashin staggered up and shrugged into the restraints of her usual chair, which had a broad set of secondary controls. She shifted all remaining shield strength to port to guard against that cruiser, which she glimpsed only as a low-slung gray shape hidden by forest and hills. There was a town over there, a nice place where she'd taken Spencer Varanin for Varundana food once or twice in the Fringe days. Wiping it off the map wouldn't sit well.

The sensor screen showed only a few ships — that landed cruiser some distance away, the rabbiting dropship high above, two shuttles back at the research site, and a couple of New Habat University's small science vessels and Timber Exchange freighters keeping their heads down. No useful support or shelter other than the spaceport proper, which had old but solid defenses for the city of New Habat.

"Spaceport," she said.

"We're being hailed. Unknown."

"Ignore it. Tell the port to—"

She cut off as strong shields bloomed around New Habat. Jaccath pulled up and the yacht skimmed up the edge of the shield dome.

"Put the city between us and that Dreadnought, Jaccath, let's make this work for us."

Kael Virex Xun of Throne

 

[Xun of Throne]

Kael Virex Ashin Cardé Varanin

Director? OPEX?

Xun looked at his head of security, who had gone very still.

He hit the mute button.

“OPEX?”

“Fel remnants turned mercenary. Professionals. That other ship, the one we first flagged, is refusing the hail. Sir, we really should get you out of here.”

Xun unmuted.

“This is Galactic Alliance Senator Xun,” hardly. Of Byss. In name only, more or less. At least, that’s what the senate records still showed. He hadn’t been in ages, automatically casting his vote with the Commerce Guild bloc. Not that this Director needed to know that.

“That was a weapon discharge from the cruiser,” Ungokta said, interpreting data from the sensor readouts he had pulled up.

Not a low orbit race after all.

Xun’s lips thinned.

“We are detecting hostile actions near your vessel. Are you in need of assistance?”

 

[Kael Virex]

"Hostile Action?"

Virek smiled for just a moment, knowing that the man on the other end couldn't see, before reaching up and muting his comm and looking at the radio operator near him. "How would they know we are firing off rounds? Kinetic rounds at that. Is that a spectrum thing, or are they just within line of sight?"
"Unclear sir."
"Right"

Virex unmuted his comms with one quick movement before continuing. He took a deep breath and then started, "Negative, assistance is un-needed at this time. We are on a strict timeline to retrieve material from a lab on world, our boss on the executive board send us in case anyone had tried to enter- seeing as the site had been down for some time. That's when the individual denying comms appeared and attacked our security team." Once again, he fought the urge to smile- seeing an opportunity to tie up this end without having to risk civilian casualties. "The being is unknown race, force user. Consider them armed and dangerous. We are returning to our cruiser in orbit. Please utilize caution while approaching them."

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Xun of Throne Ashin Cardé Varanin

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[Ashin Cardé Varanin]

Jaccath slewed the yacht to a halt and brought it down just outside the city shields. The damaged landing gear creaked and snapped with the starship's weight.

"We've got the city between us and the cruiser. Screens clear for now, Captain."

Ashin dug out a medical sterilizer from a side panel and got to work on her wear and tear, which was very different from relaxing. "Give the spaceport a standard distress call, open channel, audio only. Ask for a small shield window and a repair berth. Identify me by name and let's see what happens."

Kael Virex Xun of Throne

 

[Xun of Throne]

Ashin Cardé Varanin | Kael Virex

Armed and dangerous.

Xun shared a look with his security chief.

Well, it appeared matters might be winding down instead of escalating. The OPEX shuttle was headed for rendezvous with its cruiser - in the opposite direction of the fast-approaching Naboo-type vessel. Unless of course, they were lying.

"My sympathies, Director. These are dangerous times."

At that moment, Ungokta whispered another update under his breath, "Naboo vessel is pinging the spaceport. They've linked me in with their Crisis Action Center. You'll want to hear this."

"Director, if you can linger in orbit, perhaps the Alliance can assist in resolving this situation. Wait one," Xun said, muting his comms afterward, then nodding to Ungokta.

The security chief patched them into the Spaceport's CAC line and they heard the distress call coming from the Naboo ship, with a request and an identification. Xun's forehead scales rippled yellow for the briefest of moments. "Can you pull up that name in the database?"

Ungokta did, revealing an Alliance folder on the named individual with numerous warning labels and classifications. It started scrolling across the hologram. It went on. And on.

And on.

"Oh my."

A few moments later, Xun had informed the OPEX ship of his intention for a nonviolent resolution, inviting that they send a representative to the spaceport to "discuss" the matter under security guarantees of the Alliance detail on site. Whether they accepted was up to them.

He had also applied some gentle pressure on the spaceport authorities to grant the incoming Naboo ship their requested berth and shield window.

Then, against the fervent objection of his security team, he made his way toward the spaceport bay for the incoming vessel. If the OPEX Director accepted the offer of then perhaps join him soon.

 

[Kael Virex]

"Director, if you can linger in orbit, perhaps the Alliance can assist in resolving this situation. Wait one,"

"Apologies senator, but we really must be going. The executive is expecting these samples, and we are behind schedule. Good Day sir."


The ship arched upwards at a steep angle towards the Shield-Maiden, engaging exit thrusters. The force was harsh enough that Virex had to grab hold of a handle to stop from falling over.

Within just a few minutes, the Shield-maiden was within view. For a moment, Virex expected the senator to state more. There was no chance that OPEX was sticking around long enough to have their ships and data taken. No reason to risk future work with the alliance over a one time payment of 500.000 credits. The alliance was a goldmine of opportunities.

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- "VSOG 1-1, we have eyes on your shuttle. You are cleared for landing."

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