Our Collective

[thegreatbeyonder]

Back on Arian's ship the crew awaited word of what happened.

"Was there really a firefight?" The security chief asked his captain.

Arian threw a dismissive hand in his direction, and went back to the captain's quarters to freshen up. Presumably his boss did the same in the passenger wing. The large freighter that Arian commanded sat lazily in the bowels of the city. It needed a lot of space to land anywhere, as the typical landing pad would not do.

Inside his room, Arian swapped clothes. A fresh pair of pants, a clean shirt, and a different jacket. He also washed his face and threw on some hair gel. He chuckled afterwards. Dressing up for crime wasn't exactly on his bucket list, but of course each crime lord had their nit to pick.

When ready, the gunslinger left his room and made his way back to the exit. Waiting for his boss before they departed to meet this Deego.

 

[Lemon]

Fett heard the eery hiss from Ar'ekk's mask, though he'd seen and heard worse in his lifetime. His gaze shifted upwards to the Jedi as he came into speak, hearing those words, and remembering the mercy given to him - even for a Jedi, he seemed a little more in touch with the dark side. Although he offered nothing in return but a steely eyed stare, steely visor stare rather.

The Bounty Hunter moved about, his aim still on Munin as he looked towards Gorba, he still expected to be paid, after all he fought off the Mandalorians and contended with this Jedi long enough. Unfortunately for him it seemed as if Gorba wasn't interested in paying him. Shame.

[member=Ar'ekk] [member=Gorba the Hutt]

 

[Soundwave]

AU-R0RA's targeting lasers remain on the Jedi Padawan's head, slowly walking off to the side as she got Koda out of her line of fire. She was ready to simply fire, but waited to see what further action might be taken, either from her associates or the Hutt. Once she was in a more proper position, she would stand her ground, keeping her arm leveled at Ar'ekk's head.

[member="Koda Fett"] | [member="Ar'ekk] | [member="Gorba the Hutt"] | [member="'Faceless'"]

 

[Faceless]

Having successfully waved off the Jedi's vessel from doing anything foolish, Faceless was able to land and find his way to where he had last spotted his comrades. The sniper was sat above on the roof, watching over the masses though simply keeping a watchful eye and a vantage point upon everyone else; the fighting had stopped however, though he wasn't too confident that this ceasefire would last, he'd listen closely to the Hutt, waiting for whatever agenda he was about to push. He'd keep tabs on the Jedi and other figures in the room, rifle lowered but ready to raise if anything were to kick off once again.

[member="AU-R0RA"] | [member="Koda Fett"] | [member="Ar'ekk"] | [member="Gorba the Hutt"]

 

[Kalak the Raykkan]

[member="Arian Lenar"]

In his cabin two Dalan already waiting on him to serve.

Hardy hands removed the suit for him, supporting him where necessary, before freshening up his skin with moisturizer and other cremes to hydrate his skin. Nar Shaddaa might have come close to the smoke and ashes of Raykka, but it was dreadfully unequipped when it came to the right hydration levels of its air. Spending too much time out there, waltzing around, it dried his skin out and that wasn't pleasant at all. It had nothing to do with the exertion of force he had to employ to punish Figgs, of course.

Nothing at all.

Sometime later Kalak exited his cabin and met up with Arian and Pike at the ramps. "Now that we are all presentable to meet with the illustrious Deego... let's get on with it." It wasn't really his favorite pastime and if there was some other opportunity he would have gladly taken it.

But... sometimes you just had to accept an unfortunate situation, if you wished to profit.

"Are we ready? Yes? Good." Then they went down the ramps, into the already waiting speeder.

 

[thegreatbeyonder]

Arian piloted the speeder too, of course.

He flew them deep into the city. Though that was a very relative thing when the entire world was the city, of course deeper than where he parked his ship. The roofed airspeeder prevented their getups from being ruined in the wind and by the smog. Only those who couldn't afford better used open airspeeders in the skies of Nar Shaddaa.

Anyone who looked out the window would notice the Hutts traveled differently. Using large air yachts to ferry them and their crew around, effectively they were mobile palaces owned by one Hutt family or another. Only a few had the finances to afford a personal one at any rate, and certainly not of the likes they were about to meet.

By speed they were nearly there, covering an incredible distance as Arian dodged the flow of traffic and brought them nearer to their destination.

"We're almost there, boss. Do you want me to park up front?" He asked.

 

[Kellyn Muir]

Jest continued his business on the holonet terminal, occasionally glancing at the armored woman accompanying him. He was sure that they were both on the same side, though he couldn't shake the feeling that she was just holding a leash. He didn't bother to make conversation. They weren't friends and he didn't pretend to be. He hardly knew her.

After.

After this was all over, then he could take the time to familiarize himself with those in the Collective. For now though, he had a job in front of him. As the screens of text moved through his eyes, his fingers continued moving ever quickly, running seemingly incomprehensible script.

"The security grid is down now. It'll reboot and be back online in three minutes. Any longer and it'll raise some serious alarms.", he transmitted to the remainder of the group. Turning to Hazel, he gave her a heads up.

"It's unlikely anyone is tracing us right now, but be on the look out just in case." He put a few countermeasures in place and didn't expect any problems, but as the saying went, there's always a bigger fish.

[member="Hazel Zanteres"] | [member="Janeth Farr"] | Everyone else actually doing the thing​

 

[Darth Imperia]

818-K wasn’t good at that whole waiting thing. In fact, aside from stealth and karaoke, waiting was the thing she was worst at. So while Janeth did just that, 818 got busy. Metal heels landed with a thud against the pavement, and the cheery cyborg began surveying the area.

The Pazaak Den showed the highest concentration of life signs, as was to be expected, but 818 didn’t expect that to be their target – Ganks were not known for their tendency towards gambling, games of chance, or, really, anything besides the gratuitous application of violence. No, it was much more likely that their targets were milling about in any number of the older, more dilapidated buildings nearby.

She probably would’ve known for certain if she hadn’t been listening to Heavy Isotope during the debriefing, but oh well.

--

[member="Janeth Farr"] | [member="Malen"]

 

[Malen]

The slicer got of his speeder, having arrived at the locating that they needed to be. Looking around, he did not notice any enemies, nor could he sense anything via the force.

Even though he continued working on whatever was needed to slice the Gank's cybernetics, he knew that even if they were aggressive, there were always the odd ones in the group, those that could be effective leaders within the Gank's ranks. He didn't want to give them any tools to work with, so he began taking away any tools that they needed.

Taking a credible guess that the cameras were connected via the holonet, Malen decided to use this strength as a weakness. Within seconds, a program he had created had already discovered where their local network was. Using another program, he used brute-force to crack their passwords. Now, while they thought nothing was wrong, and that they had control, he also could see whatever cameras they had. With all their locations displayed, and being able to be controlled by their datapad, the Epicanthix hybrid would be in a position to cut off their eyes, and possibly have fun with it.

[member="Sanguinaria"] / [member="Janeth Farr"]

 

[Janeth Farr]

With the trio ground side and two slicers hard at work, Janeth pushed directly ahead.

No, the Gank Killers did not reside in a Pazaak Den, though it did employ at least two Gank guards which were standing outside the entrance. The species may not have been amiable, but most were more than capable of working with other organics so long as the pay was right. They always found some way to sate their violent urges in the form of bounty hunting and fighting. Their true destination was a retrofitted warehouse only a block down the road.

She received news from Jest that the security was down, and they were only a few seconds from the entrance.

"Malen, I want them blind now!" She walked right through the metal door, where three Ganks turned to meet them. They stared her down for a moment and then drew her weapons.

Janeth looked over to Sanguinaria.

"Take care of them."

[member="Sanguinaria"] | [member="Malen"] | [member="Jest de Rous"]

 

[Hazel Zanteres]

"Understood." She gave Jest a slight nod, looking over to him for a moment before returning to her terminal. Everything seemed to be going smoothly, nothing abnormal was cropping up through the local network and news.

Hazel remained mostly silent, not bothering to strike up a conversation with the man. She had a similiar mindset to the slicer, opting to focus on the mission at hand rather than needless chater.

There would be a time for all of that later, although she was rather amused at what their reactions would be.

The Hapan turned in her seat and looked around, her helmet's visor picking up readings on everyone else in the cafe. People threaded into the establishment, got their orders and either left soon after or took up a seat in one of the booths.

Currently there was nothing out ordinary, no one was watching them or coming after them, at least presently.

[member="Jest de Rous"] | [member="Janeth Farr"]​

 

[Lok Xiangu]

Unfortunately for Ar'ekk the two Mandalorians he attempted to kill would be futile. A combination of their training and the Mandalorian Steel plates of their armor would be resistance against the blade of the lightsaber. It was not as tough as Mandalorians Iron, yet they shared similar properties only Mandalorian Steel was lesser to beskar. They would make distance between themselves and the Jedi, preferably near the entrance above the ceiling while protecting themselves from danger.


As for Lok, during the whole engagement between the Jedi and the Bounty Hunter(s), he had managed to slip out from Koda's whipcord by cutting it loose with the wristband blades on his gauntlet. His position would be a whole different one and Koda wouldn't have him pinned down from below.

"Let's get outta here, fellas. I think we've sent the Hutt a message," he ordered to his allies via encrypted commlink. Killing a whole lot of retainers employed by the Hutt and a small number of Ganks with little forces was, to him, an impressive accomplishment. But it was now to retreat or face graver consequences. The remaining of Lok's men would use their jetpacks and escape through the ceiling of palace going to whatever safe distance away from Gorba. For Lok he would have to make the trip on foot. The Outlaw made a sprint for the main entrance while shooting blasters at Gorba, the Jedi, and the Bounty Hunters with his personal shield on.

"Until next time, folks."

[member="Gorba the Hutt"] [member="Koda Fett"] [member="Ar'ekk"] [member="Evoros"]

 

[Darth Imperia]

818-K was on the job before Janeth opened her mouth. Hypercognition Subroutines - too taxing on the agent's brain to use for any considerable length of time - activated, and for a few seconds, time slowed down around the living weapon, giving her a half-minute's leisure to observe and plan.

Three Ganks. All carrying snub-nosed blaster carbines - kitted for indoors confrontation. That made things slightly more complicated, but 818 was good at adapting. In slow motion, the Ganks rose their blasters, and Janeth's distorted voice filtered through 818's Audio-Sensors. Hypercognition wound down, the world slowly returning to normal speed as our cyborg anti-heroine made a few hasty calculations, and then did what she did best.

The nearest enemy got a kick to the back of the hand delivered with machine precision. Metal met flesh and bone with a satisfying crunch, and the Gank made a pained noise, which was then quickly silenced by a punch to the throat that left him writhing on the ground, gasping for breath. Moving altogether too fluidly for something made primarily of metal, 818 continued the assault by capitalizing on the confusion her sudden burst of gratuitous violence had caused. The Ganks were hardened mercenaries, true, but the sight of someone going from "completely stationary" to "impromptu tracheotomy" in the space of a decisecond was disorienting no matter how experienced you were.

By the time the other two had recovered (admirably fast, 818 had to admit), it was already too late. Gank #2 got decked in the face - and while his helmet protected him from, say, a cracked skull, the impact stunned him severely enough that 818 could wrench the blaster from his grip and shoot him in the throat with it. Gank #3 weighed his options. He was outnumbered, his pack-mates had just been brutalized, and this psychotic metal schutta seemed to take a sick delight in mutilating throats.

So he dropped his weapon, and raised his hands.

--

[member="Janeth Farr"] | [member="Malen"]

 

[Malen]

"On it." Malen replied. Before she had even given the order, the slicer had already been hard at work. He quickly began taking out any cameras that were closest to this location. While [member="Janeth Farr"], and [member="Sanguinaria"] took out of Ganks, Malen had the best part of the job, and he intended to have as much fun as possible.

As each camera continuously shut down, the up and coming slicer decided it was time to use the Ganks' weapons against them. Wanting to maintain their anonymity, Malen began compromising their comms. It had first began with using an old-trick, using a fowk bomb to attack their systems' defenses. Then(with some luck), he was able to use a brute-force attack to get as many sys-admin passwords as possible, his cybernetics logging them into his memory.

The neutral Knight then decided to proceed with stage two of his attack. Like many slicers, he had a bunch of programs ready to be deployed. Using a voice-modulating program from the previous communications the Ganks had used, he immediately began to state they were being attacked in multiple sectors. What was the fun part about it was that Ganks would fight against each other, as he had added there were enemy Ganks taking out their men, and wearing their armor in a bid to infiltrate them.

The third, and final part of the plan had been to create a sniffer, wanting to get any transmissions that were being done. His deep-learning program would analyze their threat level, and he would then proceed from there. Anything that was a threat to them, he would know immediately, all in a span of a few seconds.

 

[Janeth Farr]

The Gank perimeter was now in chaos thanks to Malen's slicing, and Sang managed to eliminate their most present threat. When the final of the three guards decided to surrender, Janeth drew her blaster sidelong and pressed the trigger. A blast of hot plasma impacted the unarmed warrior square in the chest, dropping him like a sack of rocks at close range.

She said nothing of the event and pressed forward, moving now through the second and final door inside the main compound. Although most of the Gank Killers were now scattered by the false alarm, there were still a considerable number of packs concentrated in the large open space.

With their clan leader sat atop a throne made of scrap on the far side. He wore a large armoured powersuit, with lengthy cables connecting him to a series of makeshift computers on all sides. This was how he coordinated with his clan. This is what made them so effective, and yet it was also what made them so limited.

Because Jest managed to break into the regional network, a certain someone had already been seeping into local systems. She now had access to the Gank within. Like a virus she began to slowly infect him through his cybernetics, forcing impulses into his mind. This sent a series of high-pitched and garbled communications to all the Ganks connected to his technopathic network. They cried out in pain as their minds were being assaulted by overwhelming sensory input.

"This is the day of your ascension!" Janeth's words echoed within the open warehouse. "You are now witnessing a small measure of the power which compels you. A power that can either destroy you... or it can uplift you." She searched the crowd as they collapsed around them. Some incapacitated, others merely exhausted from the pain. The clan clan leader crawled through his open shell after forcing a disconnection from the suit.

Between the gibberish, Xira had also tunneled subliminal statements into their subconscious. Words that now echoed more clearly after the assault ceased. That pain turned into ecstasy, a revelation of the new path they must follow. The clan leader managed to stand up, but just barely.

"We... Follow you..." He spoke.

Not too soon after would many of the Gank Killers in the district join the fold.

[member="Malen"] | [member="Sanguinaria"] | [member="Jest de Rous"]