Private The Dancer and the Assassin

[Kai and Gerda]

Spoiler: Gear

Lite-Brite Cortosis Weave Armor | Heated Vibrodagger | Blaster Rifle

The Harlock blasted out of hyperspace above Nar Shaddaa with a jolt. Alyosha, sitting in the co-pilot’s chair, grit his teeth as the ship creaked and groaned upon reentry.

“Chit, did you hear that?” Theo Vathek exclaimed beside him, his blue hands on the controls. “What the feth is this ship made of? Duct tape and toothpicks?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if it was held together that way, considering how I got it,” Alyosha replied.

Theo shook his head, humming in disapproval. “You ain’t gonna redo the whole thing, but can’t you at least scrape those decals off? I feel like I’m in a chintzy pirate ship. I guess that makes you Long John Silver. Or, no—I’m Long John Silver, clearly, and you’re fethin’ Captain Hook...”

While Theo went on rambling, Alyosha gazed out the window at the planet. Somewhere near here, the luxury yacht owned by the crime lord Tosh Rylance, the Firewalker, floated through space. Thanks to a cloaking device and some signal scramblers, no one but Tosh himself knew the ship’s exact location, and he could only be contacted through a special private comm channel reserved for assassins and bounty hunters in his employ.

The plan he had laid out for himself and his crew was to sneak themselves aboard by pretending to be bounty hunters bringing in their catch, then take the ship from the inside. Alyosha knew the comm channel—he’d used it himself many times back when he was still working for Tosh—but he would remain silent and allow himself to be brought before his ex-boss in chains. Or stun cuffs, rather. Let Tosh believe that he had submitted out of fear for his brother’s life, so he wouldn't expect it when Alyosha buried his vibrodagger between his shoulder blades.

That was the other thing… he couldn’t sense Val. Their Force bond, while not broken, had gone curiously silent. Tosh was smart, so no doubt he’d found a way to dampen Val’s Force abilities, probably with an army of ysalimiri or some other such method. Still, the blank spot was… unnerving. And given how little he knew about the Force, Alyosha couldn’t outright dismiss the possibility that his brother might already be dead.

If he was, Alyosha would be sure to prolong Tosh’s suffering for as long as possible.

Not wanting to waste another minute, they opened up the comm. "Greetings, Firewalker!" Theo yelled into the mic. "This is the Harlock. I have Mr. Alyosha Drutin aboard, ready for delivery..."

He was met with garbled static, then a familiar voice cut through the silence.

"Hello, Harlock. We are delighted to hear it. Sending our coordinates to you now."

Arryn Jhanson Val Drutin

 

[Arryn Jhanson]

Location: The Harlock
Allies: Lucien Dooku & Alyosha Drutin

Arryn had signed on for a job, a means of potentially making a great deal of credits, enough to leave him living comfortable for the foreseeable future. Alyosha Drutin was looking for some rough looking types to take on the appearance of a couple of bounty hunters, a means to infiltrate and overrun a wealthy rival of his, or some sort of thing. The details didn't honestly matter to Arryn, the objectives were simple enough, get in and rough up the crew, survive and take the ship for their employer. What could go wrong?

Arryn had his M1 Aegis Blaster Pistol holstered on his right hip, otherwise wearing a rugged looking attire, jeans and a scruffy looking hoodie with a black leather vest overtop, a hat atop his head to keep his hair from falling down over his eyes. He was unshaven, unkempt and every part the look of an Outlaw, for that was the life he lived and did so of his own volition.

"Hello, Harlock. We are delighted to hear it.
Sending our coordinates to you now".
​

Arryn stood in the background, his role in this was one of support and muscle, however he listened attentively and gave something of a small smile when he heard the first part of their job had worked out. Now they just had to walk tall until they got to the guy in charge and sank a couple blaster bolts into his chest.

 

[Be'iqaronn]

(Here with permission, also I will fix links later today)

Tags Lucien Dooku Arryn Jhanson Alyosha Drutin

Sitting in the Harlock, Renn scraped the grime off his R82 using a knife. He sat quietly not looking at anyone who enters or leaves the room, though he took note of them. Recapturing a bounty that you have been paid for is usually frowned upon, but it is rarely done, and only the biggest bounties can warrant that action. Renn saw it as a second paycheck.

Weapons loaded and cleaned, such a Renn looked like someone who didn’t like he wanted to get his hands dirty. But impressions can deceive many, clean means many things to people of his profession.

As they neared their destination, Renn stood to find where everyone was to join the party, when he found Alyosha, he stood quietly weapon over back and Revolver at hip.

 

[Alyssa Shinobu]

Alone and surrounded by people who (hopefully) all shared her interest in saving Val Drutin Alyssa sat crossed legged atop a pile of crates in deep meditation. She knew of Val's Force sensitivity and if he was still alive she should have been able to detect his force signature...But she couldn't...It was a strange feeling as if his life had been...muted. She knew he wasn't dead for if he was she would have felt his presence still lingering around...But it wasn't he was just absent. Even then in a way she could still sense him or rather the empty wound in the force that was where he should have been. She was only a padawan she had no experience with such things, but she did know of them.

Certain artifacts. machines or even animals could disrupt or even obliterate someone's connection to the Force so it was a possibility that these such things were used on Val...But who on this wretched world would know of such powers? The young Jedi OH sorry I mean Bounty hunter awoke from her Force-induced trance clear-headed (somewhat) and eager to begin the mission. She had already failed to save Val once, in fact, she probably scared the living daylights out of him but even then she was convinced that this time would be different. She observed the other crew members one of them Arryn Jhanson seemingly legitimate enough and the other Alyosha Drutin focused on saving his sibling, rightfully so of course.

But out of everyone here, Be'iqaronn worried her preeminently mostly because she had already seen what he was capable of...So many people died that day. Besides he was one of the main reasons she was you know ARRESTED! She wasn't going to let him slide by on this one! The girl got up from her seated position and approached the only ACTUAL bounty hunter in the room her dark cloak billowing behind her as she folded her arms a scowl appearing on her face.

"You got me arrested! And placed on the coruscant most-wanted list! And beat mercilessly by an officer who I..." Her voice grew timid, "May or may not have attacked...But that's not important! What do you have to say for yourself?!?"

Lucien Dooku

 

[Kai and Gerda]

There was some slight commotion behind him as Alyssa Shinobu began berating Be'iqaronn over some perceived slight he had done to her at an earlier date. Shaken from his grim thoughts, Alyosha turned around and called out, "If you two have a problem with each other, save it until after the mission's over."

He had only a vague idea of what connection the two had to Val. Apparently the girl was a Jedi padawan who had tried to save Val from being captured on Coruscant, only to get arrested herself. On the other hand, Mr. Garrick had been part of the competition to capture Val, but he had lost to a pair of tech-savvy hunters and was now looking for a conciliatory paycheck to balance it out.

The chase of Val on Coruscant had been so disastrous, it was in the news for an entire week. Every eye witness who came forward had a different story to tell and their own ideas about what had occurred. From what he gathered, Val had discovered he was being pursued and fled from the hunters just a few minutes before he was supposed to perform at the famous Galaxies Opera House, and from there the situation had unraveled, causing multiple traffic-related deaths in the skies above Coruscant, a swarm of confusing police activity, and numerous arrests. Still, the cops had clearly failed to protect Val from being whisked away and delivered to Tosh.

The third member of their little party, Arryn Jhanson , seemed to be in it purely for the spoils Alyosha had promised in his initial broadcast. He had been quiet so far, standing guard a few feet behind Alyosha's seat. More than any of the others, he looked the part of a rough outlaw. That would serve to their advantage.

As the ship floated toward the Firewalker's coordinates, the radio crackled to life again. "Harlock, this is Tosh Rylance. I would like to speak to Alyosha, if possible."

Alyosha blinked, trading baffled glances with Theo. "Doesn't he expect me to be frozen in carbonite, or at the very least incapacitated?"

Theo shrugged. "Bounty hunters only freeze the ones they don't mind dying on 'em. Cause you gotta remember, that chit is dangerous. You can die in there. Your body will be preserved more or less forever, but there's no coming back to life then."

"And Tosh stipulated that I had to be left alive," Alyosha murmured. "I'm no good to him dead."

"So you gonna talk to him or not?"

Alyosha gnawed on his lip. "...I guess I have no choice. I'm assuming he wants to make sure I'm alive..." He pressed the button to activate the microphone, took a deep breath, and said, "I'm here, Tosh."

"It's good to hear your voice again, son."

The familiarity with which he spoke made Alyosha's skin crawl. Moreover, Tosh had never called him 'son' unless he was preparing to inflict some abject humiliation upon him. 'Son, I'm afraid your mother has been arrested,' was one use of the phrase he remembered well, along with 'He'll be all right, son, don't you worry' as Alyosha had watched the slavers drag his baby brother away.

"What do you want? I'll be there soon. These people are going to deliver me right into your hands."

"Yes. I can hardly wait." Tosh sounded like a perversion of the father of the prodigal son, rejoicing at Alyosha's return for all the wrong reasons. "Your brother and sister are here too. It'll be a family reunion, minus your mother of course. I look forward to seeing you again."

Alyosha tensed. He had been hoping that his sister Jolene wouldn't be on the ship. Because if she was, he didn't know what he would do, how far he would go. Now he knew that she was there, and he was unprepared for it.

He knew only one thing for certain - she, as an assassin in Tosh's employ, would stand in their way. His sister loved Tosh with all the willful ignorance and irrationality of one who cannot stop loving a parental figure, regardless of how evil and twisted their actions are. Tosh was a replacement for the father who had been taken from her - in fact, she seemed to think Tosh was better than her natural father, who never gave her the praise and validation she so craved. Alyosha couldn't understand it, but then Tosh had always favored Jolene over him.

It occurred to him that he would likely see his sister dead within the next few hours. It was a sobering thought, to say the least. He could never bring himself to hate her the way he hated Tosh or his mother. She was, after all, his sister. They had grown up together, trained together...

Alyosha squeezed his eyes shut, trying to regain control of his raging emotions. When he opened them again, the Firewalker loomed before his eyes. The vessel had temporarily lowered its cloaking device to allow them to approach. Theo directed the Harlock to the docking port, and the ship trembled as the freighter latched onto the yacht's extended umbilical.

"Looks like it's time to rumble," Theo said, wiggling his eyebrows at Alyosha. He held out the stun cuffs.

Swallowing hard, Alyosha held out his hands and let his pilot snap the cuffs around his wrists. They were not clasped properly, allowing Alyosha to remove them, but they looked convincing enough for their purposes. These "bounty hunters" were going to board the Firewalker as if they were there to deliver Alyosha, and then they were going to take the ship from within.

 

[Val Drutin]

In the formal dining room aboard the Firewalker, Val Drutin awoke from a groggy drug-induced slumber.

"Ohhhh, my head..." he groaned. Leaning back into the chair in which he was seated, he stretched the sore muscles in his back, aching from the uncomfortable position he had slept in. "Man, couldn't you guys at least let me sleep in an actual bed...?"

He frowned, looking around at his strange surroundings. The long rectangular table before him was set with folded napkins, silverware, wine glasses and porcelain plates. Val was seated near the head of the table, his body strapped at the wrists and ankles to his chair in a way that particularly agitated the hyperactive dancer. Oh, and he couldn't feel the Force at all, which was all the more distressing.

"What the--?" He craned his neck, hearing a weird scratching noise behind him. A wooden stand with vines snaking across it was propped up near him. A pair of small lizard creatures were the source of the noise, as they slowly crawled around amid the leaves and vines.

Val recognized them immediately from holovids his old master had shown him. They were ysalimiri, tiny creatures which had evolved to create Force-dead bubbles around themselves in order to evade a predator species that relied heavily on Force-sensing their prey. The lizards were kind of cute up close, but they were also the reason why he couldn't use any of his space magic, so Val wasn't exactly happy to see them.

His lightsaber was also missing, but that was no surprise - part of the reason he wound up in this position in the first place was because he'd left it on board his ship on Coruscant. So he was not only completely unarmed, he was also totally defenseless now.

"Great. Just great!" he muttered. With some wriggling, he managed to turn the chair ninety degrees to his left, looking incredibly silly all the while - and that was when he noticed there was a woman standing over by the door, watching him with an expression of contempt on her face.

"Uh... hi," he said.

She went on glaring at him, her lip curled in disgust. He squinted at her, a strange thought occurring to him.

"Do I know you?"

The woman didn't reply. She seemed massive compared to him, especially clad in heavy armor, and she was carrying a sniper rifle strapped across her back. Strawberry blonde hair fell just past her shoulders, and her round face, with its triangular features, had the look of a sneering, petulant child.

"I know you from somewhere," Val repeated, refusing to be deterred by her obvious loathing for him. He tapped his fingers against the armrest, straining his brain and trying to remember who she was. "Yes! Actually no... wait, yes! I know!" He extended his finger toward her, then faltered. "...never mind."

She sighed deeply, as if the entire silly exchange was just one more nail in the proverbial coffin of her hatred and annoyance, but still said nothing.

"Jolene," he said suddenly, his tone abruptly serious. "It's been eleven years. I didn't recognize you." He gestured with a tilt of his head to the ship. "Tosh is here, isn't he? What does he want with me? I mean, it's not like he lost much when he sold me to those slavers..."

For a brief moment, Jolene Drutin glanced at him with stormy blue-gray eyes, her emotions unreadable. Then she looked away, staring at anything but Val.

"Fine, be that way, fire-crotch" he grumbled, then went back to scooting his chair around until his backside was sore, trying to find a way out.

Arryn Jhanson Alyssa Shinobu Be'iqaronn

 

[Arryn Jhanson]

Location: The Harlock, boarding The Firewalker.
Allies: Alyosha Drutin | Be'iqaronn | Alyssa Shinobu .
Objective: Rescue Val Drutin.

"Looks like it's time to rumble."
​

Arryn turned to look back to Be'iqaronn and Alyssa Shinobu following the remark from Theo, Alyosha's man and possibly his second in charge if Arryn had to make a guess. "There's a whole ship ahead, full of people ready to scrap it out with. Save it till we're onboard" he called back to the pair of them, "Time to earn our pay" he added, giving them both an incentive to sort their chit out.

Drawing his Blaster Pistol from it's holster, Arryn double-checked the firearm and removed the safety, the power-cells giving an audible whine as the charge sounded in the rear of the barrel, power building in preparation for the pistols use. It was his only weapon, save for a vibro knife that was sheathed at the back of his belt as a last resort; otherwise the blaster in his hands held a fair pace when set to burst-fire and Arryn was confident that he could put down the opposition without needing to resort to stronger grade firearms.

"What're we expecting to run into on-board the Firewalker?" he asked Theo, whom seemed to be preparing Alyosha Drutin for the 'delivery'. "Mercenaries are one thing, but Force Users?" he added, not much liking the idea of having to contend with their ilk. For the typical Outlaw, a Force User was beyond a doubt, like walking into a furnace and expecting not to get burned.

 

[Be'iqaronn]

Looking at Alyssa Shinobu he lets out a sigh, "You should be glad, it would've been harder to escape an untied rope." Fighting her ever would be fruitless, and less a fight and more a slaughter. His armor had enough Cortosis to shut down a lightsaber. He decided to just listen to their conversation but eventually walked off, while carbonate would be an easy way to fool them. No one in their right mind would just freeze themselves.

Flipping out his Kinetic dagger he just started to hit it against a wall to charge up the better, eventually he walked into a dark room, hitting it against a wall quietly. It all was eerie, like someone locking a door in their mind. In Renn's eyes it didn't matter, just another room. He stopped and flipped a light switch and just sat down, taking off his helmet and sitting down.

Renn wondered what Val has done, and what has caused people willing to pull him out of a jail. If so, more people may pay a lot for him, and to pull him back out. When they started moving he went to join them, as they were handcuffed he waited quietly for what he was supposed to do. (EDIT)


Sorry if this looks obnoxious, (BUT I Added something to the very end, just to rejoin you guys.)


Val Drutin Arryn Jhanson Alyosha Drutin

 

[Alyssa Shinobu]

She was angry...INCONSOLEBLY angry, But for the sake of the mission, she had to put her personal detest towards Be'iqaronn aside and focus on the task at hand, Saving Val Drutin from...Actually come to think of it Alyssa had no idea who was holding Val, to begin with. She asked this question of him multiple times and while he could have been lying to her Alyssa believe he honestly didn't know who wanted his head on a platter. His (who she could only presume to be) friend Alyosha Drutin was being handcuffed in the cockpit which made her realize that maybe he was wanted too.

He must be because if he wasn't the ploy wouldn't work so adding 2 and 2 together she deduced that maybe HE knew why they were wanted. She approached the now handcuffed Alyosha

"Alright, I've had enough misdirection! Will you just tell me why the two of you are wanted!" Her statement was less like a question and more like a demand but in her defense, she did gain a substantial criminal record over that very inquiry. It was then that Arryn Jhanson began his own inquiry into the nature of their mission.

"Yeah what he said! Sorry, but your cryptic message didn't exactly provide many details! And also how do we know that whoever is on the Firewalker doesn't know about our little ragtag group here!"

Alyssa tapped her foot expectantly awaiting an answer only for her stance to be thrown off by the abrupt pull of the tractor beam emitting from The Firewalker. She pulled her hood over her head, adjusted her cloak and dawned her recently acquired Mask. For this mission, it was imperative that she stayed in disguise both so she wasn't recognized...And because if Val sees her face...He's probably going to want to strangle her...

 

[Kai and Gerda]

Alyosha was about to ask one of the others to hold onto his weapons until they could get aboard—it would be difficult to explain why their “bounty” was fully armed—when Alyssa Shinobu butted in with her ill-timed questions. She was followed by Arryn Jhanson , who at least seemed to have done some decent guesswork and was asking about more pressing matters.

The assassin sighed, preparing to run through the abridged version of his and Val’s complete history with Tosh Rylance, but Theo started laughing right as he was opening his mouth to speak.

“Listen to jailbait here interrogating you. You’d think she’s with the feds! Look at her face—ooooh, Al, if you don't talk you’re gonna be in trou-ble!”

Alyosha rolled his eyes. He liked Theo as a pilot and as a friend, but he tended to talk too much.

“You picked a bad time to start asking questions,” he told the padawan. “But long story short, I tried to kill Tosh Rylance back when he was a Black Suns crime lord. That’s why he put a bounty on me. When no one managed to catch me after a year of living on the run, he put another bounty on my brother. Val didn’t do anything—he’s just being used as bait to get me back here.”

Would she find it shocking or hard to believe that anyone with the right connections could post a bounty on an innocent civilian, regardless if any actual crime had occurred? He wouldn't put it past her. Jedi training evidently didn't include a lesson in reality.

He pointed toward the Firewalker with both his handcuffed hands. “Technically I’m taking the bait. And you’re right, Tosh probably does suspect something, but that can't be helped. I'm not going to stand by and let him kill Val. Your job is to put him at ease, make him think you guys really caught me. Once he lets his guard down, that’s when we strike.”

He turned to Arryn. “Theo will stay here with the ship while we go aboard. The crew is all droids, so they shouldn’t be a problem. Tosh has six bodyguards, all of which are highly trained warriors. They consist of a Wookiee, a Noghri, a female Twi’lek, and three humans. Only the Twi’lek is Force sensitive.” The corners of his mouth twitched slightly at some amusing memory pertaining to her. “And she’s no Jedi. She doesn’t have a lightsaber or anything like that. She isn't even trained, or at least she wasn't trained properly."

“The only other person I know of who may pose a threat is Jolene, but she’s not Force sensitive. If there's anyone else on board, I don’t know who they are.” And he couldn’t sense them either, but given how limited his Force training was, that wasn’t surprising. Of course, it could be tied to that weird blank spot he felt where Val should be...

“Anyway, would one of you mind carrying my weapons? Just until we get inside the ship. I don’t want to look suspicious.” He removed his vibrodagger from his wrist and held it out to whoever was willing to take it, along with the blaster rifle strapped to his back. The fact that Be'iqaronn had briefly gone off to sulk wasn’t a good sign, but he seemed like the sort who would be much perkier once the fighting started.

“We’ve got to get going. They’re waiting on us.”

 

[Val Drutin]

“Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, JOLEEEEENEEE,” Val sang at the top of his lungs. He had been doing this for the past several minutes, keening from the confines of his dining chair. He was serenading both his sister and the ysalimiri lizards, though the latter were clearly enjoying it far more than the former was.

His singing was interrupted by clanging and whirring noises coming from the exterior hull of the ship, sounds he distinctly recognized as a tractor beam activating and an umbilical being extended. Sure, there was no sound in space, but the machinery ships used could cause quite a ruckus regardless, all of which was audible within the controlled confines of the vessel.

He turned to Jolene. “What’s that all about?”

This time, she deigned to respond to his inquiry, albeit with her eyes fastened to the ceiling in permanent irritation. “Alyosha is being brought in. Some bounty hunters caught him.”

Val stared at her. In an impressively short few moments, there were tears in his eyes. “You’re wrong,” he said, his voice quivering. “Yoshi can’t be captured. He can’t be!”

“He probably turned himself in for your sake,” she muttered. “Though I can’t imagine why he would bother. You’re not worth the trouble.” She reached around and removed her sniper rifle. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter. Once he’s safely aboard, I’m going to splatter your brains all over this dining room.”

This flipped the switch in Val from upset to appalled. The tears were still falling when he shrieked, “Are you serious?! That’s completely uncalled for—what did I ever do to you? I’m just a dancer!”

Her eyebrows rose. “A dancer?” Then her lip curled. “I guess you really are a son of the circus after all. Not that it changes anything…”

She was already aiming down her sights at him. Val squirmed.

“Hey! I’ve got money! Lots of money! I’ll pay you if you let me go!” It wasn’t working. “I’ll—I’ll get you free lifetime tickets to the Galaxies Opera! And—You can have my ship! She’s a luxury yacht even nicer than this one!” Okay, that was a lie, but still. “Come on! I’m your brother! So what if we have different fathers—”

Just then, the door opened. A green-skinned Twi’lek woman entered and put her hands on her hips.

“Jolene, quit tormenting him!” she ordered.

Jolene reluctantly lowered her sniper rifle and glared at the Twi’lek. “What do you want, Yori?”

Yori pointed over her shoulder with a green thumb. “All the rooms are bugged, remember? I heard you threatening him and ran over to stop you. Tosh wants to use him—he’s Force sensitive.” Turning to Val, she smiled broadly. “Hi there.”

Val gaped at her in shock, then began screaming. “No! Not you!”

He writhed in his chair, desperate to escape. In his mind, the madman saw her as the same green Twi’lek girl who had hidden in his dressing room, stolen his underwear, and stalked him whenever he was on Coruscant. That girl was only a hallucination, but he couldn’t tell the difference between reality and fantasy.

“I’m trapped in a horror movie! I’m having a nightmare! Force help me! Shoot me! Blast me into space! Don’t leave me alone with her!”

Yori looked confused. “What’s with him?”

Jolene shrugged her shoulders. “Word around the stars says he’s insane. Like, literally. Stark raving mad.”

“That’s a pity,” Yori murmured. “Hopefully the mind wipe will help him.” She turned to go, but stopped to wag her finger one last time. “I know you don’t like him, but can’t you at least try to be civil?”

As she walked out, Jolene sighed between grit teeth. Val was still spinning like a top, fighting in vain against his restraints. Until Tosh gave her new orders, she was stuck babysitting her nutty kid brother. Wonderful.

Arryn Jhanson Be'iqaronn Alyssa Shinobu

 

[Arryn Jhanson]

Location: The Harlock, boarding The Firewalker.
Allies: Alyosha Drutin | Be'iqaronn | Alyssa Shinobu .
Objective: Rescue Val Drutin.

Arryn moved to take Alyosha Drutin's belongings, specifically any weapons or possible contraband that might have their targets alerted to the whole charade. "I don't usually ask in this sort of situation but you reckon we should rough you up a bit first?" he looked first to Alyosha and then back to Be'iqaronn and Alyssa Shinobu . "Every time someone's taken me captive, I've come out of it with a number of scrapes and bruises...-The odd broken nose here and there" he shrugged his shoulders indifferently, "Just a thought" he added, getting the sense that it wasn't the most hopeful suggestion out there.

"Noghri I can take. They're not easy but Force Users are a different story and they're not easy to bag...-I'll leave that to one of the others" He informed their game planner, Alyosha and his crew mate, or co-pilot...Whatever they were to him. "I haven't brought much with me, I've got my Blaster and I can fight. Know my way around a terminal pretty good, but lightsabers aren't my thing. Especially the holier than thou act that usually comes with them" he smirked a bit.

It wasn't that he disliked the Jedi as a whole, simply the ones that had taken him in for questioning in the past. Arryn wasn't the type to play things by the book and that typically pissed off the do-gooder sort. It was also precisely why this sort of job had appealed to him.

 

[Be'iqaronn]

Renn walked back quietly, his blade charged, on his way he had grabbed his R82. Looking down the barrel he slid the fifty caliber rounds in it and considered between birdshot or buckshot. He ended up loading with buckshot and holding onto the birdshot. Then he loaded his XR-18 with all sniper rounds, any other bullet would be for if shit hit the fan.

When he walks up quietly standing there, his R82 across his chest and XR at his hip. He didn’t quiet know his role in the fight, if he’s backup or if he is part of an act. Maybe he would even be handcuffed. Either way he may have given many bounties to this place, he would probably be known. “So what is my role during the breach.”

Alyosha Drutin Alyssa Shinobu Val Drutin Arryn Jhanson

 

[Alyssa Shinobu]

Alyssa cleared her throat as Arryn Jhanson mentioned not wanting to face Force wielders a what she supposed was a hint of fear in his voice. He wasn't wrong to be cautious, in fact, he was probably wise to do so but Alyssa still had to make her usefulness known to the man.

"That's why we have ME. I've taken on the master of the Knights of Ren!" Alyssa reached for her waist and unhinged her Saber hilt its Durasteel compounds glistening in the light "There is nothing these guys can throw at me I can't handle!" Her words were filled were bravado yet her mind was filled with a deep-seeded comprehension, There was no telling what was in there! Alyosha Drutin hasn't seen Tosh in years and as far as she knew no one else here even knew who Tosh was so there was no asking them! Guess she had no choice but to go in blind...A worthy challenge, one she hoped wouldn't prove to be her undoing.

Compressed air filled the chamber as the airlock opened revealing a squad of 5 droids their models having been modified for combat. Well, guess it was showtime...

"Finally! In the time it took you guys to get here we could have collected 4 more bounties! Tosh must really want this guy to have put such a high price on his head!"

Be'iqaronn ​

 

[Kai and Gerda]

Arryn Jhanson suggested roughing Alyosha up. Given what they were trying to do, adding fresh wounds to his body just before combat wasn't exactly the best idea. But Alyosha went ahead and reached up, pushing aside his shaggy hair to reveal a bandaged wound on the left side of his forehead. He still couldn't remember how the hell he got hurt in the first place (although Theo had reluctantly admitted that he may have been the one who attacked Alyosha in a moment of drug-induced paranoia. Go figure.). Wincing a little, he peeled away the bandage, revealing the dark bruise and a scabbed, half-healed cut in his brow.

"That should do it." Tossing the bandage in the trash, he looked up in time to see Be'iqaronn approach, his weapons locked and loaded. The crew was clearly eager to get down to business. Arryn had called the Noghri, which left the Wookiee, humans, and the Twi'lek...

"I'm not looking forward to facing the Wookiee," Alyosha said with a shrug. He gestured to Renn. "You can take on whoever you want, as long as you do your part."

Alyssa Shinobu 's bravado was amusing, but at the same time Alyosha was a little worried. Jedi training or not, she was still just a kid. Sure, he was already taking on contracts at her age, but that was because he'd had no choice. There were plenty of occasions during those early days when he was nearly killed carrying out a job... though seeing as she did have some experience, maybe he was underestimating her. She seemed intent on taking on the Twi'lek. The mere thought of her Force-sparring with Yori almost made him smile, but the funniness of the idea was swiftly undercut by the seriousness of the operation. For all that she used to be nice to him, Yori would also likely die today.

His thoughts were interrupted by the opening of the airlock and the approach of five combat droids. Ignoring Alyssa's comment, one of the droids stepped forward and asked in a mechanical monotone, "Where is Alyosha Drutin?"

"I'm right here," Alyosha spat, injecting an appropriate amount of bitterness and malice into his tone. It was easy enough—he was filled to the brim with more than enough hatred for Tosh.

The droids surveyed the crew of bounty hunters. "Thank you for your services. We will take him from here."

"Hold up," Theo replied from the cockpit. "We specified we were only accepting cold hard cash handed over by Tosh himself. We won't accept no bounced checks or funny money through the Holonet."

Alyosha resisted the urge to smirk. This part of the plan had been arranged before there was even a crew assembled for the mission. Alyosha knew Tosh preferred to pay via instant transactions, but he had bent to the whims of more anxious clients who wanted the security and assurance of holding actual, physical credits in their hands when they got paid. Tosh's flexibility was one of the reasons why he had been so successful in the Black Sun. Back when there was still a Black Sun, that is...

The droid hesitated. Alyosha could practically see the data in its head transferring to the ship's main computer as it decided what to do next. After a moment, the droid consented. "Very well. Follow me."

And they were off—minus Theo, who stayed aboard to keep the engines primed.

Alyosha marched behind the squad of droids and in front of the rest of the crew, keeping his chin up and his eyes level. There were cameras installed throughout the ship, and he wanted to put on a good show for Tosh, let him believe this was really happening. He knew that if he overplayed the role of the submissive, coming across as beaten down and defeated, Tosh would find it suspicious. If he kept looking defiant and pissy, like he was furiously looking for a way out of this situation, Tosh would love it.

The airlock to the ship closed behind them, and the one leading onto the Firewalker ahead of them slid open with a hiss. The droids clanked aboard, followed by Alyosha, then his ragtag crew of "bounty hunters". Once they were all inside, the airlock closed. The rescue mission had officially begun. There was no turning back now.

"For all his talk about how excited he was to see me, Tosh didn't even bother to meet me at the door," Alyosha muttered. "And what about Val? What's that all about? He couldn't wait long enough to get me, so he decides to come after the kid he sold into slavery because he was too weak to join his little assassins' training program?"

His verbal complaints were an effort to disguise his internal concentration as he reached out with the Force, searching the vessel for hostiles—and for Val. He was greeted with the usual coldness of droids when it came to the former, punctuated only by the cluster of sentient guards surrounding Tosh's quarters, but there was still no sign of Val.

There was, however, a curious blank spot in one particular area of the ship: the dining room. Alyosha frowned, and sent out a silent ping through the Force to Alyssa, trying to draw her attention to it. His attempts at sending his thoughts to other people through the Force had so far been pretty uncoordinated, but she should have received the simple nudge. It served as a warning—if their fighting led them in there, as it probably would if Val was inside, she wouldn't be able to count on the Force unless they figured out what was causing the blank spot and neutralized it.

Ahead of them, a human figure emerged from a door on the right. Alyosha recognized the swaggering walk of Barryl, one of Tosh's bodyguards. He thought of himself as a space cowboy, carrying a blaster pistol on each hip. In direct contrast to him was Nadia, another human, who followed directly behind him. Clad in a hot pink skintight bodysuit, she looked more like a supermodel than a mercenary. Alyosha once saw her climb up the body of a man twice her size and break his neck with a single twist of her long legs. But she preferred to throw knives, with which she had impeccable aim.

"No need to go any further, folks—I've got your money right here," Barryl said, holding up a metal briefcase.

Ah, a snag. They needed to get to Tosh directly so they could murder him, but he was hidden behind locked doors deeper in the ship. Alyosha turned his head slightly, glancing back at the others. As their prisoner, he couldn't exactly give them orders. They would have to decide for themselves what to do in this situation. The cameras were trained on them; if they chose to attack now, it would alert Tosh, the other bodyguards, and the droids. If they refused to accept the money, Barryl and Nadia would want to know why they were being unreasonable in their demands of the ruthless crime lord Tosh Rylance. After all, Tosh's tolerance could only be stretched so thin before it would break...

 

[Arryn Jhanson]

Location: The Harlock, boarding The Firewalker.
Allies: Alyosha Drutin | Be'iqaronn | Alyssa Shinobu .
Objective: Rescue Val Drutin.

Arryn turned, his hand moving straight to his Blaster holstered at his side as the airlock hissed and groaned before opening to reveal the droid.

"Thank you for your services. We will take him from here".​

Arryn simply shook his head in disagreement, turning to glance back towards Theo as the man argued their case. Direct hand-over and pay to the man in charge, smart and also ensured their objective location. Ajay preferred to know where his credits were coming from.

Behind him, Alyssa Shinobu had mentioned her being a Force User. Arryn hadn't spent a lot of time among their type, though he knew well enough of the Jedi and the Sith due to the Holonews reporting every major battle that went up between those folks. Frankly, it was encouraging to know they had one on their side, it was his first time working with a Forcer.

Moving on ahead, he walked with the group as they were led onto the Firewalker.

"No need to go any further, folks—I've got your money right here".
​

Between Barryl and Nadia, the latter was far more appealing on the eyes. "Well hello there..." Arryn remarked smugly greeting the woman, lifting his head in a half nod of acknowledgement, a cocky smirk painted across his face; "I can see why someone'd join this outfit" he added, glancing to Barryl with a little insinuation behind his tone, suggesting there was a personal affair going on somewhere there.

"We're here to speak to your boss, sorry folks. I don't make a habit of dealing with the help, we're professionals here after all and if he wants his man, we'd like to have some face time. It's only respectable between business partners, you see" his tone had flattened and that humor that had been there previously was all but gone. Arryn eyed Barryl now, gaze unwavering. It wasn't a cold stare, but rather a focused one. A certain air of tension present about him, the feeling that he wasn't playing anymore, and wasn't likely to enjoy being told 'No',

 

[Be'iqaronn]

Renn stood there watching them. He would add to the conversation if he needed to, but for now he was going to learn more about them. While they responded to a comment he didn’t care about, Renn was reading through schematics and documents. If he was invading somewhere he might as well learn a lot about it. The schematics were pretty useless, just how he thought it would be, cells and security rooms.

The documents had a lot of black marks on them, not meant for the public. So many of the high level secure areas and personal were unbeknownst to him. Although if need be a jailbreak could be caused to start a riot. It would make getting past the guards easier, but they could have their ship stolen or caught in the crossfire.

Alyssa Shinobu Arryn Vahn Alyosha Drutin

 

[Alyssa Shinobu]

On one hand, Alyssa was only pretending to be a bounty hunter and knew nothing about the profession or its customs. On the other hand, with the little knowledge, she had of these ghastly business transactions Tosh was acting hastily by any account. From what she had heard bounty hunters usually at least got to SEE the person they were selling to and yet these guys were taking every opportunity to stop them from getting anywhere near Tosh. Maybe they were suspicious...Maybe they already knew what they were planning and had set up a trap or something, NO! She couldn't think about that right now, She had to act on the assumption that they still possessed the element of surprise that everything was going according to plan.

Without warning, Alyssa's attention was pulled from her thoughts and towards a "beacon" of sorts like a plea for attention. Every Force user had a special talent they were good at and that includes Alyssa, her affinity, in particular, was an extreme grasp of Pathokinesis or the ability to both sense and control the emotions of others. Alyosha Drutin's beacon was misdirected and unfocused much like hers was during her training but still noticeable. With something blocking Val's connection to the Force leaving a warped hole where he should be, Alyssa was unable to sense that her companion WHO WAS STANDING RIGHT NEXT TO HER was Force-sensitive. She really needed to pay more attention.

Trying to be as discreet as possible she reached out sending a ping of her own and with it a message or rather an inquiry. What the hell is with these guys? They seem really eager to get us away from you! Sure their whole job was to secure Alyosha but that didn't make this any less conspicuous. But there was a greater task at hand, getting past these two cronies Tosh sent, they were easily the most...Expressive thugs, she has encountered...Finding out how to get past them could be...difficult. Conveniently Arryn Jhanson had already got the ball rolling for her.

"Speaking of yer boss, he seems pretty intent on giving us ze old slip! And no offense but I tend not to take payment from cronies!" This is where Alyssa either sold it to Tosh's goons or lost it And by it she means her life. With surprising speed, Alyssa wrapped her arm around their "Prisoner" and held a small dagger to his throat the small tip of the blade drawing a single drop of blood. Obviously Alyosha couldn't do anything right now but Alyssa was almost 100 percent certain she was going to pay dearly for this stunt later...If they even make it past these two that is.

"After all...What's stopping me from hauling me and pretty boy off to someone equally as eager to collect?"

Be'iqaronn

 

[Kai and Gerda]

Alyosha received Alyssa Shinobu ‘s ping and tried to silently answer her question while Arryn Jhanson did his best to diffuse the situation.

Tosh is a hermit. He doesn’t really trust anyone, not even his guards. I don’t think they suspect us yet. This is just a standard procedure pissing contest—

Alyssa seemed to take his message to mean that they should ramp things up. He resisted the urge to push the girl away as she held a knife to his throat, drawing blood. The kid was going too far, but there was nothing he could do about it.

Unfortunately, Nadia and Barryl took the defiant and aggressive responses of the “bounty hunters” in stride, paying little heed to the thin trickle of blood running down Alyosha’s neck.

“I would’ve thought Alyosha here’d tell you,” Barryl replied. “Tosh doesn’t receive petty mercenaries and two-bit hustlers in person. Only his emissaries—that’s us—deal with the likes of you.”

“Barryl,” Alyosha growled through grit teeth. “She’s got a knife to my throat.”

“I can see that. But I’m calling her bluff. She kills you, there’s no bounty to collect. And if y’all leave, you’ll find no one else wants Alyosha Drutin.” Barryl grinned. “Except maybe the Sith. I hear they have a bounty set up on all Jedi. Not as much as yours, but still a pretty penny.”

He held up the briefcase. “Or, they could surrender you now and take this here eight hundred thousand. Sure would spare them the disappointment.”

Alyosha kept his face blank, but paranoia twisted his gut as the situation grew only more tense. One of the many pitfalls of hiring strangers to come along on a personal mission was that you didn’t know if you could trust them not to turn on you at the earliest opportunity. He found himself eying Be'iqaronn in particular, knowing that he was a real bounty hunter who had tried to capture Val.

“You’ve been a real pain in the ass,” Nadia snapped, throwing in her two cents for good measure. “More trouble than you’re worth. I always wondered why Tosh kept you around, since Jolene was his favorite. If revenge is all he's after, he should just hire someone to kill you.”

"I've wondered the same thing myself," Alyosha muttered sarcastically.

But Nadia shook her head, her tone cooling. “He wants you to take over for him. He’s gone soft. The Black Sun is no more, and he wants a way out. You’re his heir.”

Puzzled, Alyosha strained against Alyssa's grasp in order to sneer, “I don’t want to be his heir."

“He can give you all of this. He’s been talking about it ever since you left, Alyosha. You’re the prodigal son who will inherit everything if you just come home.”

Alyosha stared at Nadia and Barryl. He could believe that what they were saying was true. Just about any harebrained scheme in the galaxy could germinate from the mind of Tosh Rylance. Arrogant, pedantic, too-hasty Tosh, who sold a child into slavery because he was too stupid to bother giving him a midichlorian test, too narrow-minded to consider that perhaps the weak, unstable little boy he was condemning might have some worth after all—

His hatred for Tosh was glacial, but in that moment he was forced to consider what he really cared about. Killing Tosh and taking his ship? He’d do it gladly. But more than that, he wanted assurance that Val was out of danger, away from all this, and free to be himself. And he wanted it now.

Snapping the chain of the fake stun cuffs, Alyosha yanked Alyssa’s arm away from his neck and lunged forward. He stretched out with the Force, pushing the droids out of the way, and flung himself at Barryl, aiming for his legs. Alyosha was upon him faster than he could draw his blaster pistols from their holsters, knocking the space cowboy off his feet. The two men crashed to the floor as the droids opened fire.

 

[Arryn Jhanson]

Location: The Harlock, boarding The Firewalker.
Allies: Alyosha Drutin | Be'iqaronn | Alyssa Shinobu .
Objective: Rescue Val Drutin.

"Argh shit!" Arryn growled in alarm as Alyosha Drutin launched forward at the two Guards standing before them, accompanied by a droid escort. They could've maintained their bluff, especially if Alyosha was to be made head honcho of this whole charade, they'd not have wanted to see him hurt and Arryn would've happily shot the man in the shoulder, a non-fatal wound to see them through the door and push their story of being serious about their want to meet face-to-face. Instead the group were thrust head first into a fire fight...

Arryn's right hand went for the Blaster Pistol holstered at his hip and drew the M1 Aegis with immense speed for a Non-Force User, clearly experienced in gun-slinging, he whipped up the pistols cross-hairs aimed at the droids and fired off round after round, drilling the armored wardens in the head with two bursts per droid. Not waiting for an invitation or an order, Arryn stepped sideways to the wall and crouched low for the nearest cover whilst keeping his sights on the enemy. Alyssa Shinobu was wrestling with one of the larger enforcers and Alyssa was a Force User herself who could handle her own business. Be'iqaronn was somewhere nearby and no doubt about to unleash covering fire overhead of their employer.

The shots from Arryn's Blaster hissed as the Silencer compressed all sound and air was expelled through the ventilation of the barrel. With the three closest droids down for the count, he toggled the pistol's firing mode from semi-automatic to burst-fire mode, three rounds per pull of the trigger, taking the blaster into both hands to steady his aim whilst moving forward, keeping low and ensuring he wasn't to be a stationary and easy target to acquire.