The Great Malastare Bank Heist

[Cathul Thuku]

By now IGR was the largest financial fixture in the Malastarian landscape, and also one of the big-ticket financial fixtures of the Alliance and the light-sided financial world. When some protests are held regarding financial regulations, most of which were at the planetary level, the main go-to location for the Malastarians for such things wasn't the Malastare Narrows location anymore, but in Pixelito, the planetary capital. The corporation has outgrown the Malastare Narrows building Ugohr commissioned, but IGR still had a datacenter in there. Today, some of the more radical protesters claimed that Cathul was sold out to the dark side of the Force, but they had no evidence to back up their claims. Little did they know was that some bank robbers, posing as protesters, would take advantage of the protest for cover, and enter the premises of the corporate headquarters, whose basements featured vaults. Near the main entrance of the corporate headquarters, the crowd of protesters, well into the thousands, chanted and whatnot.

"Chop from the top! Chop the dark side!" the first set of protesters chanted.

"Too big to fail is too big" the second set of protesters chanted.

Meanwhile, Cathul was in the corner office at the top floor of the building, and she sensed something was amiss. So she prepared her suit of beskar armor and lightsaber, as was the case in such protests when they occurred, and descended down the turbolift so as to reach ground floor. And she had to use both alchaka to keep calm, as well as Force-heal to prevent her ears from bursting in such a rapid descent. But before the turbolift cabin was done descending to the ground floor, she used the recording system to record a message to be used by the corner office.

"Direct all inquiries to Privago while I'm off to deal with the disturbance on the ground floor"

[member="Lt. Sage"] [member="Sal Katarn"] [member="Jodi Chapman"]

 

[Dorano121]

Jodi Chapman's chip beeped warningly at her as she slithered away from the crowd, pulling her beloved and over-sized blaster out of the bag slung over her shoulder.

"I know," she hissed angrily at it, twitching reflexively. She'd spent too much time trying to hunt down the Napper, and she war running low on time. The bank heist offered enough hours to claw her way back to safety - and better yet, a few of the protesters had bounties on them. Do-gooders always did, especially do-gooders who went up against rich people.

[member="Lt. Sage"] [member="Sal Katarn"] [member="Cathul Thuku"]

 

[Sal Katarn]

"So you botched the mission."

"No."

"Boss says you botched it."

Sal rolled a shoulder and glared at his partner, Pa'al, a Duros.

"Didn't botch it."

"Hey, I'm just repeating what the boss says."

"Hm."

The two SIS investigators stood to the west of the crowd against a relatively uncrowded building, near enough to the bank.

Katarn crossed his arms over the front of his black poncho and leaned back against the wall. Amber eyes scanned the crowd of protestors.

"Isn't that why we're here pulling babysitter duty?" The Duros took out a cig and stuck it in his mouth. He spoke the last few words with it clamped between his teeth.

"No."

"Then what are we doing?"

"Investigatin'."

"Investigating what, a bunch of sign waving fanatics? Economic downturn. Systemic oppression. Case closed. Can we go home now?"

"No."

Pa'al knew damn well the reason the boss sent them here had nothing to do with a protest and everything to do with an anonymous tip.

Just enjoys bein' a pain in the ass.

Sal popped his jaw, shifted his back against the permacrete wall, and settled in for a wait.

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"One, two, three, four, this is karking class war" a protester screamed in a megaphone.

"A Jedi banker is not a Jedi" another one screamed in another megaphone nearby.

Knowing that some of the latest attempts at robbing the headquarters used protests as a cover, Cathul had every reason to be nervous, as she stepped outside of the turbolift cabin, seeing the entire protest being held outside, with the many signs using several different scripts to write the slogans on them. She was away from Malastare when the last robbery attempt was made on Malastare, and she did not know the outcome, only that protests were used as a cover. It was entirely possible in her mind that the GAG or the SIS would be there, for what she knew, especially since Malastare was an Alliance world. It was also entirely possible that the last protests made the authorities a little on alert when protests happened at corporate headquarters, then again she knew that Malastare did not have the strategic importance of Thyferra, Sullust, Fondor, Elrood, Naboo or Coruscant. She remained at the security station, amid security screens, with Cathul only intervening if vandalism began to be suspected.

"Stay alert, there could be bank robbers hidden inside the crowd"

"Roger, roger"

"Slicers, are there any intruder alerts?"

"Not yet, but we may never know"

[member="Sal Katarn"] [member="Ranga Desilijic Boga"] [member="Lt. Sage"] [member="Jodi Chapman"]

 

[Dorano121]

The last piece of her beloved blaster slotted easily into place. Jodi nearly purred with satisfaction as she fitted the butt of the gun against her shoulder and slipped around to the side of the bank, seeking a small, unguarded door or other unassuming entrance she could infiltrate. As of right now, she was planning to hit the protesters on the way out instead of on the way in, but if she had to make a quick exit, she'd throw some lasers into the crowd to distract her pursuers - probably the do-gooder types, since the bank was apparently run by Jedi.

[member="Cathul Thuku"] [member="Sal Katarn"] [member="Lt. Sage"]

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"Knowing that the main entrance will be assumed to be heavily guarded, we know that the latest attempts at robbing this place were not only using the protests as cover..."

"What else, boss?" the security supervisor asked Cathul.

"Station security guards at the evacuation exits: bank robbers will make attempts at picking those locks"

"Roger"

If there was one point where she knew would be a possible entry point for bank robbers that do not wish to engage in vandalism, and not wish to face the security on the main entrance, that would be the evacuation exits, regardless of whether they are on the ground floor or in the basement parkings. Speaking of which, some security guards were moved into position to cover the main evacuation exits, organic and droid. The building's HVAC systems couldn't be accessed from the outside on ground floor, and the pipes were too narrow for human/Near-Human robbers. They would need As-Aki accomplices for doing such things. Cathul stayed alert in the Force even when protesters were getting louder and louder, using megaphones at maximum, shouting a number of chants, and GAG/SIS personnel were around to watch over signs of vandalism outside, either by protesters or by bank robbers.

[member="Jodi Chapman"] [member="Sal Katarn"] [member="Lt. Sage"] [member="Ranga Desilijic Boga"]