Private Lost, Found, and Bloody

[Jasper Kai'el]

Lost, Found, and Bloody
Coruscant, 1312
Tags: Corin Trenor

​

"We're working with some Hutt Space Consortium remnants."

Jasper had begun to relay the details of the mission to Corin, who would be tagging along. After his return, Jasper thought it would be good to get the man interacting with people again, or at least put forward his best effort to try to connect with his former leader. With increased underworld activity following the collapse of the HSC, the knight also recognized that Corin's time on Denon would make him a good fit for helping wash out any would-be gangs that tried to step into the vacuum that the Consortium left behind.

"A swoop gang that participated in the open warfare up on 1313 a while back," he continued, "Nasty bunch. Went around attacking civilian targets to draw away Jedi efforts." Jasper remembered the day pretty well. It was back when he was a padawan. The sight of a Hutt in traditional shell armor was very much seared into his brain. "They've rallied behind a Balosar named O'Zen Slauthgard, been quietly carving out the Consortium's old holdings. The gang's been trying to stay off the radar of larger orgs, but a recent scuffle with a rival has put some eyes on them. Well, the rest is pretty self explanatory."

That's how they wound up here. It was the remnants of a shipyard, one that once sat on the surface of Coruscant eons ago. As the Coruscanti built up, it was buried, briefly serving as a hangar before eventually winding up as one of thousands of abandoned facilities that littered the underbelly. The two knights were perched on an old security booth at the edge of the old shipyard, looking on at the site from the cover of a ledge. Jasper lowered a pair of binocs from his face offering them to Corin so he could get a good look at the entrance.

"Been watching this place for a few weeks now," Jasper added. "From what I can tell they have at least twenty-five to thirty men, Slauthgard included. They've got ten Starhawks, five out at a time in daily patrols of their territory. Super paranoid lately. Worried about another gang moving in and assimilating them. Seven men guard the perimeter of the main warehouse at any given time. They're lightly armed, but at least one of them has a flamethrower. I figure we scale the lower guarded back side, slip in through the roof entrance, take care of the big boss and fan out from there. Nab who we can and send the rest scattering."

Jasper turned, offering Corin a grin. He was pretty sure the knight was used to operations like this. Denon was full of crime like this sort, after all. Watchmen of such a planet would no doubt have plenty of experience raiding compounds like this one.

"Well, any other details you can't live without?" he asked.

 

[Corin Trenor]

IN THE LIGHT vol. 1
Issue #1
Jasper Kai'el

"I can live without a lot less," the Jedi recluse smirked wryly. The faint glimmer in his eyes shone brightly with the passing lights of speeders and craft that deigned to dwell so low. With his frame leaning on the bars of the old booth's overlook, he peered through the pair of binoculars with their chiming noise of zooming and calibrating tinted through with a low-light reading green. The usual suspects, Corin silently mused; a batch of Weequays and Niktos and Rodians. The make up of a batch of misplaced Hutt thugs, vying for the scraps in the wake of Gorba the Hutt's untimely death and the remodeling of the Galactic Underworld.

If there was ever a time to stake claim to turf, it was now.

Denon saw them moving in too, and the thought forced Corin to swallow down those old urges. That was a local problem now, someone else's mess to clean up in his absence. With the major troublesome powers thrown to the wind, maybe now systems like Denon can get the attention they deserve and finally become fixed. The nagging voice in the back of his mind would argue otherwise though.

Lowering the lenses from his face, Corin offered the binoculars back. "Sounds like a plan; removing one and two will sort out the rest."

Dagon never liked those methods. His ridicule and complaints were endless, though where was Dagon now? Far flung into the bottomless void, maybe never to return.

"How come you wound up with pest control duty, anyways?"

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Coruscant, 1312
Tags: Corin Trenor

​

"How come you wound up with pest control duty, anyways?"

"On accident," Jasper admitted. "I came down here chasing kyber after Ilum. There was a bit of a surge in smuggling force artifacts after... well, you were there. After I realized that nobody else was doing anything down here, I sorta just kept comin' back."

Admittedly his schedule didn't allow for as much underworld work as he used to do. Jasper's focus would be shifting soon. Recovery would take the forefront in only a matter of time, and he wondered how likely it was for some other Jedi to take up clean-up work down here. He accepted the binocs, taking a moment to assess the unfurling situation before tucking them into the pocket of his flight suit.

"Opening in their patrol," the knight stated. "Let's move."

With a single, clean motion, Jasper bounded over the railing of the security station's roof and landed with a silent tap. After Corin followed suit they could begin to make their way to the back of the warehouse.

 

[Corin Trenor]

IN THE LIGHT vol. 1
Issue #2
Jasper Kai'el

"Sounds familiar," remarked Corin with a touch of thoughtful reflection.

He moved with an unexpected swiftness, vaulting the railing his larger frame leaned itself on mere moments ago. The soft tap of his footfall was louder than that of Jasper's, though near inaudible all the while. The days in the thick-aired streets of Denon spent beneath gloomy sunlight and choking conditions flooded into his mind like a poisonous memory, the same to be said of the endless nights bathed in neon light and the pattering of rain over him before a hearty strike met what it never needed to. He was always quick on his feet, so used to darting about unseen, creeping in the shadows out of eye sight.

Corin shot through the gap in the patrolled vision, Jasper alongside him. A spotlight shone brightly over their area, drifting back and forth while the two covered themselves behind what amounted to a thin and jutting support pillar. "Close." The often wayward Jedi commented wryly.

"C'mon," he nodded once the moving light was sent elsewhere, "let's get a move on."

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Coruscant, 1312
Tags: Corin Trenor

​

"C'mon," he nodded once the moving light was sent elsewhere, "let's get a move on."

"Right," Jasper nodded back.

The spotlights had drawn a little too close for comfort, but he had some experience avoiding being seen. Recently, anyways. Back when he had first started chasing kyber, Jasper put no effort into keeping himself hidden until absolutely necessary. It had nearly gotten him killed. Iris helped him back to his feet, but he very much didn't ever want a repeat of that day. He was far more methodical now, at least for a mechanic. Some things would end up being on the fly.

Once at the edge of the building, the knight wasted no time climbing, his mechanical arm hooking into a seam between the durasteel frame to start the climb. It was manageable, a path of barred windows and torn edges of outer plating providing a clear (though tedious) path to the rooftop. Sure enough, as Jasper had expected to find, a lone guard was at the top, manning the spotlight just above them.

"Just a sec," he hissed down to Corin. "We got some muscle up top."

Jasper moved for stable footing before leaping into the air, utilizing some force enhancement in his jump. The Rodian up top had very little time to react, let alone think, when the knight came down from above. His organic elbow would connect with the thug's dome, knocking him out cold. Jasper didn't dare use his mechanical arm for such a thing ever again. He wasn't accidentally killing a man today. Before long he had peered back over the ledge.

"You're clear."

 

[Corin Trenor]

In a similarly effortless bound, Corin rose up alongside Jasper. The forcefully slumbering Rodian was spared little more than a passing glance while the two continued to creep ever close towards their intended target. With a swiftly extended arm, Corin grasped a hold of the spotlight with the unseen albeit ever present Force and held it in place while softly taken steps taken closer let deft fingers switch it off.

"Almost." The ever absent Jedi remarked near-slyly.

Low and crouching, the expertly silent and hasty steps had taken Corin nearer towards the various windows above flashing in. Examining the sights below.

"Is this the usual for those kyber thieves? I can't see we get many out Denon way."

Jasper Kai'el

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Coruscant, 1312
Tags: Corin Trenor

​

"Not too uncommon" Jasper muttered, "The undercity is full of abandoned places like this. Most criminals thing no one will come lookin' for them here. Some just like smuggling Jedi artifacts under their feet. Outcome is the same. The black market for the stuff is lucrative, so it isn't exactly going anywhere either."

The locals were the ones that took the hit in all of this. That's what frustrated Jasper the most. The knight was quick to move across the rooftop, scanning for something very specific. Finally, his eyes landed on a lone hatch, just at the far end of the roof. It was rather robust, with a padlock system that had long since rusted. The door was clearly very old, indicative of the structure's age.

"Here we go," he grinned. "Maintenance hatch. Facilities like this had internal access to critical systems like ductwork and electrical lines. Made it easier to manage all the equipment they ran. This should lead right in to the warehouse's crawl space."

Jasper crouched down, assessing the padlock. It was unresponsive, obviously, but it was worth a shot. Given the poor state of the hatch, it seemed feasible to pull it off it's hinges pretty easily. He tore away a section of the hatch and secured his mechanical hand on the inside, pulling it up. With a metal creaking, followed by faint pop, he had it off, though he did so slowly and methodically as to not make too much noise.

"Right then," the knight nodded. "After you."

 

[Corin Trenor]

"Crawl space?" Questioned the Jedi with a lift in his brow, sighing so shortly after. A faint smile creased across his often rigid mouth. "Crawl space," he confirmed with the soft shake of his head, entering the cramped and closed in passageway. It never much fit the dimensions of Corin, the thin or small. It was a struggle to say the least.

Rearing back as best he could, he spoke softly. "Is it always the... subtle, quiet approach with you?"

Jasper Kai'el