The Midway Roon (Ashhearth Association): PM to Join

[John Ash]

Roon was starting to become a more profitable trip the longer John stayed on the planet. First he found out his old friend Kaerve was still alive and basically had taken control of Nunura's crime scene, and now he had the best factories in Nunura pumping out Ashhearth Industries' products. Now he learned of a city with a spaceport and a roonstone mine that was up for grabs. The only stipulation was that local gangs were fighting over control of the city and the mines.

This was the kind of situation that John loved. This was all about violence, domination, and out maneuvering those between you and what you wanted. It is the purest form of business. So with his business at Nunura done, he flew his ship to the spaceport at Midway City. He had made sure to get a new set of clothing that was the kind of leathers you might see on a mercenary or outlaw. He had his pistol on his right hip and a belt with some additional gear bought at Nunura before he left. He was ready for some conflict.

After John had gotten out of his ship, he helped [member="Emilia Delane"] out. His workers would be arriving to the planet soon, but he didn't want to wait too long on getting a start on this opportunity. He looked around the place. Looked pretty normal on the surface, but he picked out the lookouts and scouts for the gangs fast. They didn't have to try very hard to hide without Imperial forces around to stop their activities. They only needed to be keeping careful of each other. It was like being on a Hutt world.

John turned his attention to Emilia. " Ready to get your hands dirty?"

 

[Gaia Sunaris Cadera]

Emilia knew how important Roon was to [member="John Ash"] and Ashhearth industries. It needed to be cultivated, grown, and expanded. The planet was a mine, literally, for high quality, expensive natural resources that would benefit almost any production that Ashhearth desired. As such, it had been her and John's goal to acquire as much influence on the planet and in its cities as possible. A spaceport and a roonstone mine was something that would be extremely valuable for the company, and as such, it was their goal to take it.

Emilia wore simple blue jeans, a blue shirt, and black boots. This wasn't a day she would dress nice - after all, she was going to get her hands dirty. She still had the blaster that John gave her when they first arrived on the planet, safely holstered in her pocket.

Emilia took a glance around the area they were in after John helped her out of the ship. Emilia also noted the lookouts and gang activity - specifically, she could only point out some of the gangs guards out and about in the street. It was small - small tattoos, wearing certain colors in certain places. Telltale signs of gang activity.

The biggest thing she noticed? There were no Imperial forces in the area. Heck, there hadn't been many even in the other areas of the planet. The Empire had no control, in truth, over the planet. "The Imperials are in bad shape, eh," she whispered to John as she glanced around the area. "We better get moving. We shouldn't stand out too much, but we are new faces."

 

[John Ash]

" Nope. Imperials abandoned the planet. Could barely repel a small pirate band let alone our association." John responded as he studied the area again. " I don't plan to keep a low profile if things are like this. No Imperials means we can do what we want. Time to give these locals a choice to fall in line and join up or get out of my new city and mine."

John patted Emilia's shoulder then began to head towards the nearest gang member. As their eyes locked, the thug just froze up. John kept his gaze steady and pressed forward without missing a step. After a moment the thug yelled out as they drew their blaster pistol, " Stop or I'll shoot! I'm not scared to kill nobody!" In response to this all John did was drew his pistol and shot the thug in the shoulder twice. The shots rang out and caused a panic. The other thugs in the area just watched for a moment then ran off into the city, including the friends of the one who got hit. The thug's hand gave out and dropped the weapon to the ground.

As the thug bent to pick it up, John said, " Touch it and die." The thug froze in place. John was almost on them. The thug felt a rush of flight or fight kick in, but made the wrong choice. As they rushed to try and tackle John, two more shots hit them in the head and chest. The thug dropped to the floor with a small pool of blood beginning to form. John just walked around their body to their gun. He picked it up and holstered it on his left hip. He holstered his own pistol back as well.

John turned to [member="Emilia Delane"] and said, " Let's go. Got them in a panic. Best we capitalize on the fear while we can." With that said he looked back into Midway City and began to walk into the city. His introduction had been made. They knew what he was about now and what he would do if they dared to draw on him. The operation to take the city under his control for Ashhearth Industries and the Ashhearth Association had begun.

 

[Gaia Sunaris Cadera]

Heh. They were basically gone from the planet. Sad, considering the continuing collapse of the Galactic Alliance. "Rest in peace," she muttered. It seemed that nobody knew how to run a major government anymore - except the few major powers that were left. It seemed that the age of Empires, Vicelords, and the sort would end up reigning supreme for the next galactic wave. Who knew when supposedly light sided factions would return to the galactic stage.

No matter, in truth. [member="John Ash"] wanted to go the shock and awe path. That was fair enough - not really in Emilia's MO, considering she was an agent. But she could work with it. She knew how to shoot a blaster and duck behind cover while being shot at. All things the woman could do quite well, in truth.

It took barely any time at all for John to make his move. That was fair enough, in truth. She followed behind John as she pulled her blaster out and began to aim it towards the man. She analyzed the area around them before focusing her attention back towards the man that John just shot in the shoulder. The others seemed to scurry away like roaches. She watched as John finished the man off with a shot int he head and chest. At least Emilia didn't have to get herself dirty for it, after all. "Once we get it over, some of these goons might be good and loyal employees for the right amount. Probably not a lot of amount, either," she said quietly as she tried to gauge the wealth of some of the thugs.

"Let's do it," she nodded as she holstered her blaster and followed after John. So far, so good. It was only a matter of time.

 

[John Ash]

Everyone had cleared out of the area in the port that John and [member="Emilia Delane"] were in. Normally security would show up if this kind of thing happened, but there was none to be found. The place was in worse shape than John thought. The order and peace of daily life was missing it seemed and any Imperial presence that might have offered some was nowhere to be found. This got a slight smile from him. It was the perfect conditions for a take over by his company and the Ashhearth Association. He nodded to Emilia after her response then got going out of the port with his gun still in hand.

The first thing that happened after John set foot out the port entrance was a pair of goons yelling bloody murder. Something about how he killed their friend and was going to pay and blah blah blaaaaah. One had a rifle and the other a pair of old blaster pistols. John motioned to Emilia at the one with the pistols to signal him out as he target then he began to shoot at the one with the rifle. One. Two. Three. The casings from his pistol hit the ground rather silently as the shots echoed about. The rifle guy was actually wearing some armor so the shots didn't drop him like the one from the port, but it did injure and knock him back. It seemed they had a personal shield as well expecting blaster bolts. The slugs just ignored it and passed right on through.

As the goon got their barrings back, John just advanced forward at a steady walk. His aim moved up from the armor to their head and he shot twice more. As the slugs hit home, he slipped the expended clip from his pistol into his hand. He switched a fresh one with the used one in his pocket and clicked it in. He scanned the area. Again people were fleeing in a panic. A few of the rival gang members had hung back to watch, which gave John a chance to study them quickly. There was something off about this as no matter which group he looked at they all had this same symbol on their clothing. He said to Emilia in a low voice, " We need to find one of their bases. When we do, slice into their systems. Find out everything you can. Got it?"

 

[Gaia Sunaris Cadera]

She gave a smirk as the port population quickly vanished. That meant they were talking which seemed to be [member="John Ash"]'s ultimate goal. Shock them, then take over. It made a good strategy. Similar to an overrun with force, then claim victory. This was more of an emotional victory they were going after - people desired calm, peace, and he was shaking up the things that were making it not very peaceful. The lack of the Imperials was devastating it seemed. The type of behavior that occurred would have never occurred if the Imperials were still in control.

Granted, all intelligence pointed to the demise of the Empire anyway. In truth, it was just gangs and stuff that were attacking each other. Anarchy. Fear. Chaos. It was something that Ashhearth could eliminate on the planet. And so far, it was looking very promising.

Emilia caught the nod and immediately pulled her blaster out and began to aim. It had several charges. She shot him three times - one in the stomach, which bounced off his armor. One in the groin, which made it through. The man tried to shoot but was taken aback so fast, he dropped one of his weapons and shot the other but the cell just flew into the air, hitting some building.

She shot one more at the forehead - it pierced, surprisingly, and the man dropped dead with a small drizzle of blood seeping out the open wound. At least blaster bolts cauterized wounds a little. Not fully, but some. It'd be a lot messier.

Emilia nodded as John spoke to her. She also noticed the symbols on their clothes. She also noticed that both the weapons were the same make and model. It seemed like this groups of people may have actually been part of the same organization - but with the collapse of the Imperials, the groups fell apart and made rival gangs. "I think they're in a quasi-civil war," she said quietly to John. That was just the assumption, of course, but it seemed to be the case.

 

[John Ash]

It seemed what fragile peace these people thought they had was now shattered as three gang members were dead within less than an hour of John and Emilia's arrival. The Imperials were around to maintain peace and whatever delusion of stability the gangs brought was gone. The news would spread around the city. People would begin to lose trust in their safety and the power vacuum would need to be filled. Whoever the big players in the city were would need to make some hasty, rash decisions on what to do about the outsiders. Hopefully one of them even got ballsy enough to approach John about him helping.

While John bent down to scavenge the personal shield off the goon he dropped, [member="Emilia Delane"] responded to his earlier remark. A civil war eh? That would make sense. That would make a lot of sense. John had seen this kind of fighting before on Nar Shaddaa after all, so he was dumb not to pick up on that himself. He handed the shield over to Emilia, which she needed with the lack of armor she had, and said, " You are probably right. Let's find that base and gather more information. I'll clear it out and you slice into their terminals. If they are in fighting then there should be plenty to learn from one location's database."

John stood up. The street was quiet, but he knew the city wasn't. Too many eyes had seen both events for it to not be alive with gossip and rumors. Their best bet was to go after the group the three belonged to. It would atleast keep the illusion they were here for certain people. They might even think it was about a bounty or a hired hit. The more mind games they could play with the local bosses the better. John wanted to not just take the city and mine, but the people's sense of choice. They only had two options now that he was here. They could join and work for the Ashhearth Association and his company or they could leave either by removing their bodies or him removing their souls from this plane.

There had been more on the dead thug than just the personal shield. It seems they also had a holoprojector as well on them. John turned it on. A small map of the city popped up. It was color coded and had symbols marking warehouses, hideouts, and bases for each gang. He looked down at the corpses and noticed the color of their symbols matched one of the sections. Fool had given them the hardest piece of info normally to get. He said as he handed it over to Emilia, " Looks like we have our target. Get that shield up and take the map. Focus on staying safe. Can't afford to lose you. Too valuable." With that said he got began to head towards what was hopefully that gang's base of operations. Even if it wasn't though, they were still going to get what they wanted. This city was just ripe for the taking.