Just A Hired Hand (Xalus)

[Kamon's OOC]

After the events of the Order's attack on the Caldera, Leos found himself back on the Eidolon and making his way down the hyperspace arm in the deepest reaches of the Caldera that would eventually take him to Nfolgai. But first he'd make a stop at Svolten. There was a delivery of sorts that he needed to make there, a receiving and rebroadcast station that would pick up signals from the previously placed transceivers that were still operational. It could then send those broadcasts out of the Caldera to be picked up by the Order.

The corvette came out of hyperspace and sent a burst transmission to the planet to acknowledge their presence. The vessel he was in had no association with the Order, so he was relatively safe. They landed at a small spaceport, and Leos disembarked. Several members of the crew did the same, and they took a bunch of large crates with them on a hoversled, heading off to complete their mission without him. His presence wasn't required, just his crew was.

That left him to wander. It was a small city that they'd come to. Small enough that his corvette barely even fit in the spaceport. There were plenty of people milling about, almost as if they were unaware of the battles that had raged a short time ago throughout the Caldera. They probably weren't, actually. Given that it seemed the Silver's hadn't reached up this far before the Order had come crashing in on them, they probably weren't even aware that the Silver's had broken into the Caldera to try and claim the Sith worlds.

Lucky them. It spared them from the chaos. He walked among them, just listening to the sounds.

[member="Xalus"]

 

[Xalus]

Jobs came and went. Almost always, they bore the signature of someone important and the task was always the same: kill, capture, or protect the person of interest. Their affiliation didn't matter to Xalus. Nothing particularly mattered to him except for the number of credits attached to the message and the promise of even more to come should the job be completed in a timely manner. More resources to fuel his corporate expeditions. Managing a company wasn't something his kind were known for, but the Gen'dai owed much of his success to his financial administrator.

Incidentally, he was on a job once again. Kill some Sith follower, his followers, and then collect his payment all in one fell swoop.

Easy enough.

The Cerberus lurched out of hyperspace in the Stygian Caldera. Immediately, the ship's long range sensors and receivers began to decipher and track all transmissions pinging within the system as well as running checks on all of the IFF signatures of the vessels in the sector. Not too many. Mostly cargo freighters, automated mining platforms, and several civilian vessels. The only ones that stuck out were a corvette sized vessel and some cruise liner that had been rumored to carry high profile passengers - even Sith. Thankfully, both had landed on the same planet.

Xalus, along with several squads of his recently minted droids embarked on a small shuttle. Hailing the air traffic center of the planet and gaining entry was easy enough. Now all he needed to do was track and kill.

It wasn't like he'd done it a thousand times before.

[member="Darth Ignus"]

 

[Kamon's OOC]

Something seemed out of place about all of this. On one hand, he was certain that the Jedi hadn't landed on the world as of yet. They were spreading like a ravenous cancer, but they hadn't come to hunt him down. He'd have felt that for certain. What he felt now was a sort of ominous premonition that something just wasn't right. It was annoying enough that he stopped, turning his head to and fro, as if expecting to suddenly see someone coming at him, or perhaps to recognize someone that he knew. He saw nothing, though. There were plenty of people milling about, doing their shopping or just socializing with one another, but nothing stood out to him.

So why did he have that feeling?

Drawing out his comm, he radioed back to the ship.

"Captain, have any new ships landed? Any suspicious ones?"

There was a pause of silence. This was likely due to the man checking with his crew and confirming in public records. It wasn't unexpected, and it didn't perturb him much.

"One. It pinged our IFF on the way in. Why do you ask?"

"Send someone to check on it and see who's disembarking. I have a feeling we're in for some trouble."

"Yes, sir."

A guard would be easy enough to send. They'd just poke around, and see who came out before relaying their findings. Could be trouble, or it could be nothing. Ships often scanned their destination before arrival, just to make sure everything was calm and friendly. But he had that nagging suspicion that trouble was afoot, and if it was, he wanted to know the danger before it arrived, as he was likely going to have to deal with it himself.

[member="Xalus"]

 

[Xalus]

The little shuttle landed promptly following their clearance by air traffic control. A simple procedure really, and Xalus was surprisingly pleased with the effectiveness of his false transponder codes of both his orbiting battleship and all of the craft associated with it. Automation and technology really did make the galaxy spin 'round and 'round. They were marvelous inventions and the Gen'dai craved the knowledge and the technical aptitude to be able to create them, but he couldn't wrap his mind around more difficult concepts such as calculus or computations.

Handling things with firearms and explosives was so much easier. 1 bullet + 1 bullet = 2 bullets. Math.

Be that as it may, he had quite the assortment of droids to assist him with whatever he needed. Several of them peered about in the shuttle, their crimson photoreceptors shining with curiosity as their processors worked to their max.

"Scout the area. Do not get caught and do not cause any trouble, just report to me." Xalus grumbled, absentmindedly thumbing the safety of his assault rifle before magnetically clipping it to his backplate. Another quick movement saw the hulking, armored form pull a cloak over his frame before departing. Most of his droids did the same, filing out in cloaks at periodic intervals before drifting into the crowds.

[member="Darth Ignus"]

 

[Kamon's OOC]

The scout would take note of the shuttle, but by the time that he had, several individuals had already left it. What he did notice was the last few individuals leaving at sporadic intervals, all wearing cloaks which made it hard to see who, or what, they were. The only thing he could really determine was that they did seem suspicious. In the grand scheme of things that meant nothing at all and even though he reported the activity as suspicious, he couldn't really explain why it was, or what they should do about it. When the information was subsequently relayed to Leos, he didn't know what to make of it either. Could be nothing, or it could mean someone was up to no good.

He turned down a back alley and allowed the Force to flow through him as he felt out for his surroundings. Somewhere he felt a strong sentient being, but they were far too distant on the planet to be the source of the mysterious shuttle and its cloaked individuals. The result: nothing new learned. He frowned to himself as he came out of the alley on another road and approached one of the many eating venues. He'd seen far too many to be normal, which left him wondering how they remained open.

Inside he found a surprising bustle of activity. He had to wait several minutes before he was seated, and several minutes longer before he was waited on. That was alright with him because he wasn't in a hurry. It was more or less a waiting game for him while his team set up the receiver network. That meant he had time to sit down and enjoy a bite of the local cuisine while he waited to hear from them. Incidentally, it allowed him to wait and see if anything interesting would come of this group of cloaked individuals that had arrived on the world. Considering how many people were wearing cloaks, he'd have to rely on the Force to alert him to danger.

For the moment he enjoyed his glass of water while he waited for his nerf steak, medium with some onions and scalloped potatoes, to arrive.

[member="Xalus"]

 

[Xalus]

The galaxy was quite a large place. Granted, his near thousand year existence in such a place had seen him to nearly every corner of it, none of that altered the scope and size of the great cosmos. His occupation throughout those years had entailed finding people and either killing or harming them, so he'd learned a thing or two about finding people. Though he only had two eyes, they were accustomed to zeroing in on strange mannerisms and things that were out of the ordinary.

If a Sith was here, he didn't necessarily assume the crimson critter was off slaying Jedi on the world. Especially so since both of the great nations had been destroyed. Jedi fled, Sith fled. They didn't have time to fight; survival was the most important thing. This Sith, whomever it may have been was obviously doing that. Supposedly it was one man - but the Gen'dai had learned not to expect so. And he'd learned the hard way.

"Anything?" The mercenary grumbled, his hulking gait slowly drifting through the main streets.

"Negative, master. We are still searching, however. Shall I request additional units?"

Xalus sighed. "No. Not yet." At least these things were smart enough to provide sensible suggestions.

[member="Darth Ignus"]

 

[Kamon's OOC]

Still nothing. This was getting a little bit on the perturbing side, especially given his feeling that danger was imminent. Fingers drummed lightly on the table in front of him. When his steak came, he ate about half of it before dropping credits on the table and rising. It wasn't going to do any good just waiting around for whatever danger was coming. It would find him eventually, considering it was going to take some time yet for the crew to get the equipment set up and running. That was the important thing here. Avoiding danger wasn't the top priority, though he certainly would have preferred to do so. Fighting was more of a bother than it was useful.

The notion that the cloaked individuals were involved in the feeling he had was basically guaranteed. No doubt they were the danger. He left the diner and walked out into the street. It would be pretty obvious to the droids and their master, if they spotted him, that he was the Sith they were looking for. He wasn't exactly trying to hide what he was, especially since he was wearing his normal robes rather than his armor set. Add in the decidedly yellow eyes and he'd be hard to miss.

"Captain, I'm preparing for probably combat. What's the status on the installation?"

"They've reached their destination and are proceeding with install. Probably an hour to get everything set up and self-sufficient."

"Good. Keep me informed of any changes."

"Yes, sir. Be careful out there."

He closed the comm line and waited. If they were coming for him, they would come soon.

[member="Xalus"]