One More Night

[Vulpesen]

The soft crunch of snow beneath his boots reached all the way up his ears with each measured step as Vulpesen wandered across the surface of Naboo. Behind him, a small team of VSF Jackals, their weapons hidden int he black cloaks that were used to ward off the drifting winter frost. It was a quiet night with not much going on the the way of the locals. No major festivities. No Rowdy Crows fromt he bars that closed down. No high society. Hardly even a particularly sublime day at work had happened to make any noise. Instead, it was simply a dull moment in one of the beautiful planet's lesser known neighborhoods.

Of course, so long as the Valde was around, dull was not a constant. Even as he marvelled at how loud a boot in the snow could sound in complete quiet, Vulpesen slipped a clawed hand into his coat, letting it wrap against the pistol within. Slowly, durasteel slid agaisnt the leather holster until it pointed at the door before him. It had been two weeks since the Vitae had been informed that gungans were coing missing form the local population, and in those two weeks, Vulpesen had worked over time to handle it. not because it had galactic concequences. Not because the gungans were paying some obscene ammount for the Vitae to take extra care. Not even because the force called him to do it. He simply needed the distraction. And stars help the men that were about to provide that distraction. They would have no idea of the five men that stood stacked just outside their door.

Spoiler

Feel free to join in any capacity you want. A foe behind the door. A local Law Enforcement seeing something suspicious, or perhaps a wnadere or citizen happening across a strange scene. Strangers and friends are all welcome.

 

[Abigail Meredydd]

Abigail had never really been to Naboo before. At least not with anyone knowing, that was.
A while ago however, she had intercepted a message containing cryptic clues. After studying it she had come to understand it had something to do with the gungans on Naboo. What it was all about, she hadn't been able to tell, but the place where she had found the message alone gave her enough reason to look into it. Besides, she had always wanted to properly visit Naboo, so why not. The Republic could definitely miss her for a couple of days.

Dressed in a dark cloak with a hood to conceil her identity, she roamed around, as the details she understood in the message hadn't been quite specific. After a while of walking around, she had noticed the area to be unusually quiet. A sign she was at least in the right area, perhaps?
Then she stumbled across a group of people walking towards... somewhere. These people, dressed in dark clothing, didn't seem to fit in with the quiet surroundings. Not that they were standing out or anything, it was just that anyone walking around didn't fit in with the almost abandoned place. Abigail decided this could be her best chance of finding something worthwhile, so she started to follow the group. At first, she stayed quite a bit behind, not wanting to let the sound of her boots on the snow to give her away.

When the group stopped, so did Abby. She wasn't just going to sit around though. She was growing increasingly curious as to who she was following. Because of this, she sought out through the Force, seeing far ahead of her own vision. What she then saw was... not something she had expected. The man she had seen caused her to stand up and quickly make her way over to the group. Sitting still was only going to make her feel cold anyway.

Before Abigail even came close, a few of the individuals turned around, eyeing her down suspiciously, which wasn't unexpected considering the sound of the snow crunching under her feet. She stopped, not wanting to cause any unnecessary trouble. Then she turned her attention to the man she had recognized.

"Good to see you, Valde", she spoke with a light and friendly voice. Perhaps Vulps would recognize her voice, perhaps not. All Abby know what that it was a pleasant surprise to meet someone she knew - sort of anyway - so far from home.

[member="Vulpesen"]

 

[Vulpesen]

It was more than a few looks. A pair of blasters readily shifted to point at [member="Abigail Meredydd"], though Vulpesen simply smile das he faced the door, not needed to look to know who it was. Her presences in the force was enough, and her voice wiped away any doubts. "Friendly, stand down. Good to see you Abigail. What brings you to this neck of the woods?" His men turned away from the newcomer and back to the task at hand while Vulpesen's pistollevelled on the door another hand extending in preparation to breach at a moments notice, even as he spoke to the woman behind him. "Kinda busy here. We think theres some sort of slaver operation going on, but we aren't sure. Just about to find out, though."

 

[Abigail Meredydd]

Abigail smiled under her hood as Vulpesen recognized her. It was nice to know that Vulps knew her well enough to do so.

As the men were told Abby wasn't any danger, they turned around before Abigail could even greet them. She slightly waved her hand towards them, but they had already turned their backs on her again.

"Alright then," she whispered. "No greetings." She then returned her gaze towards Vulps, or, towards his back anyway.

"I knew you were up to something the moment I saw you. You just aren't the type to go and have a nice stroll through the snow at night, are you?", she chuckled. Then she straightened her back, cleared her throat and spoke a bit more seriously again. "But it seems then that we are here for similar reasons. I caught wind of what I suspect to be kidnappings, and that might very well be linked to your... suspected slaver operation."

"So," she said as she walked forward, so she stood amongst his men," needless to say, I'll be joining you."

[member="Vulpesen"]

 

[Michal Straden]

1 Week Earlier-

"I swear if Haboo gipped me..." Michal thought to himself, "I'm going to kill that good for nothing slug." He frowned even more intensely. He stabbed his shovel into the frozen ground and dug where the holomap instructed him the bunker would be.

Earlier this week , junk trader and treasure collector Haboo the Hutt had a lead where Michal could find hidden imperial treasure from the old days of the galactic civil war. Allegedly there were hundreds of old republic era paintings stolen by an imperial grand moff who, after discovering that the Emperor had died, hid the paintings away in a secret imperial bunker deep underground. Allegedly.

As it turns out, Haboo had indeed sold Michal a bad lead. "Blast it!" Michal yelled. he threw down the shovel in anger and made his way to the town he had been staying at.

Michal went down to the closest cantina and ordered a Corellian Whiskey. He noticed that the regular bartender, an older Gungan gentleman, wasn't there.

"Hey, new guy, where's the regular guy that serves?" Michal inquired as he slammed another shot.

The barkeep then rambled on about how Gungans were turning up missing. Which gave Michal a great idea.

"If I save these Gungans maybe there will be a cash reward." Michal mumbled to himself thinking of how he could profit.

The bartender looked at Michal confused. "What are you saying?"

"Maybe, just maybe, if I manage to even find these Gungans, The families will be so happy they'll pay me whatever." Michal continued mumbling to himself.

The bartender got closer to Michal, "Buddy, are you alright?"

Michal stood up and exclaimed "I will find those gungans and return him safely!"

The one other patron in the bar raised his drink and slurred "I'll drink to that!"

As Michal approached the exit. The bartender yelled to him "Wait! aren't you gonna pay for that!?" he pointed over to the Corellian Whiskey.

Michal turned around and yelled back "Sir, I'm paying with hope. Hope that I will find these missing Gungans. Hope that they're all safe somewhere. Hope that they pay me for finding these missing few. Good day to you sir!"

Present:

All of Michal's leads came to this house. Why this house? who knew. he had been observing it all day, and there had been seemingly no activity. There had been talk of the Gungans being captured by slavers.

"Who in their right minds would want a Gungan as a slave?" Michal said to himself as he looked at the house from a distance with his Macrobinoculars. suddenly he noticed several men walking through the street. Michal zoomed in on the men and noticed they were armed and armored. This was a paramilitary unit if he had ever seen one. Possibly mercenaries hired by the slavers to make sure there was no trouble transporting them out of the house? Seemed likely? Maybe a group hired by rival gang of slavers. It didn't matter, though Michal knew he wouldn't be winning a straight up fight with these guys. He thought a stealthy approach would work. Maybe he could infiltrate this group by acting to be a representative to the slavers?

His ideas continued as he looked through the macrobinoculars. A woman approaches the mercenaries. She must work for the slavers. Probably the hostess or something before the head of the operation comes out. That doesn't make sense these guys are about to break into the house. Or maybe she's apart of the unit? "Doesn't matter." Michal thought to himself. Michal needed to come up with something quickly. Something devilishly simple.

Michal walked out towards the group of people. when he was about 20 yards away he stopped.

"Hello there." Michal called out to the people. Michal quickly continued not wanting to be shot. "Now before, you decide to drop me, just know I have 20 marksmen surrounding the house. You drop me and I guarantee you'll all be dead before I hit the ground. So, now why don't you drop your weapons, and tell me where the karking Gungans are!"

[member="Abigail Meredydd"] [member="Vulpesen"]