You just cant trust a hutt

[Sempra the Hutt]

There was nothing like a good pipe to lull once senses. It made him relax, sometimes it made him fickle. But most of the time it made him relax. For most species the sheer amount of alcohol and spice would be lethal. But to a hutt it proved little more then a trip to happy land. The throne room in the white palace was filled with sounds of slow exotic music and the light steps of agile dancers performing to amuse the ruler of the palace and his more prominent trustees spread out among the tables.

The smoke and sweat stirred the senses of most, an exciting sensation to many. There was an athmosphere of immprtality. Here they were, the untouchables as they used to call themselves at times.

Sempra yawned and put down his pipe. There had been a slow period for a while. Everything in his little self created criminal emporium was working well, each piece perfoming what they were meant to do. It was almost as if troulbe was a necessity as proof of this...

In the corner his eyes he noticed the holocom blinking. He sighed and pushed the highly entoxiated slave who was supposed to inform him of incoming transmissions away from the throne. It had hardly been his fault, the slave had merely inhaled the fumes from Sempras spice pipe, a dose large enough to make any lesser species tripping hard. But Sempra did not see it that way and he made a mental note to punish the slave at some point.

He checked the signal. It seemed to originate from Valc VII. Sempra blinked, the drugs still in his system was slowly being pushed away by his hutt regenerating abilities. This was not something he expected. Waving his hand to the dancers they seized immideately and retreated to the back alcoves of the room.

He then opened the transmission.

A small blue character came to life on the floor in front of him. It looked around for a bit as if surprised. Surely he had been waiting for a while. Then he realised he had been forwarded and dropped to a knee.

"Allmighty and generous Mogul, Wise Sempra Besadii Dhakun." he began with a nervous tone.

"I... I am afraid our latest shipment using the Aurora connections was stopped by the customs on Valc VII." he continued wetting his lips nervously.

"They found and confiscated the spice my lord. Arrests are being made and ... " the man swallowed hard.

"... and I dont think we have paid them enough to keep silent. They will find out about me and Kraezer. What are we going to do?" he begged.

Sempra narrowed his eyes and growled. The slaves nearby moved away as they felt the rumbling anger stoking up in their master. This was bad news for sure. Aurora Industries had been an excellent purchace for Sempra. Not only had it granted him a large extra income, but it also had given his spice dealers new ways to deliver its product to the more refined parts of the galaxy, opening up for conctacts that was harder to get without a well established and legit company as Aurora.

Taking a deep breath Sempra hid his anger behind a well trained mask of cunning and played sympathy.

"Do not worry Mr Brask. I will send someone to extract you. Your services will be paid for and so will those of your team. Try to sweep any evidence of our connection away and instuct Mr Kraeser that his life too can change, as long as he makes sure to retrieve those blueprints they are working on in his department. Tell him that no one will ever hear about his little spice problem and that someone will fetch him as well once the deed is done. You both have done the right thing and it is soon time you got some reward for your hard work." Sempra instructed.

The blue man bowed his head and Sempra switched off the projector. Then he lifted his newly purchaced Ambassador gun and pulled the trigger. The slave was lucky. Before Sempra had gotten this gun he had prefered more painful deaths. But the hutt had found a taste for the high noise and heavy recoil the revolver offered. It made him more at ease and functioned well to provide a certain anger management.

[member="Taeli Raaf"]
[member="Solan Charr"]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Sempra the Hutt"] [member="Solan Charr"]

Erilnar - Aurora Headquarters

Taeli was watching the media feed coming from Valc VII, her right hand man Jaxson had let her know something was going on in that system involving some employees in that system.

"Large spice shipment found within shipment of turbolasers components," she read aloud, her eyes narrowed. "Customs officials in the system stopped the shipment after it was picked up that a small amount of glitterstim spice was reacting from one of the crates. When opened, a large shipment was found within the container valued at roughly two million credits. Arrests were made in connection to the shipment, no word yet from the CEO of the company on how such a thing was possible."

"Something we should figure out ourselves," Jaxson said from where he stood near her desk.

"Indeed, contact Solan and ask him to go to Valc VII to investigate," Taeli said. "I'll be preparing a statement to the media. This is a headache I really didn't want . . . and now I'm thinking someone else was involved in this."

She had warned Sempra she didn't want to risk her company if he tried to use such things for illicit shipments. She didn't have proof it was him . . . yet, but they would find who was behind this.

 

[Sempra the Hutt]

Mean while Kraezer from engineering had just recieved a messge from his partner in crime, Brask. The dose of spice he had taken this morning was taking the edges of his nervousity but still... this was not good. Not good at all. But he had little choice.

He walked the long corridor of Aurora development center. Passing a few colleuges he noded stiffly as he passed. Sweat broke from his fore head as he produced his security card and showed it to the camera eye. The door to the engineering opened up with a hissing sound.

He stepped inside, trying to act as if it was just another day at work. But it was not. He was about to conduct industrial espionage. And for a notorious crime lord in the distant outer rim.

"Hey, I thought this was your day off?" the voice was friendly as Lena placed her hand on his shoulder. Kraezer flinched. and turned. Good dont let her suspect anything... please...

"eh... hey Lena.... no. Well yes it was ... but you know, the new project. They ordered me in.. so here I am..." he tried a smile but felt unsure if it resembled a grimace.

Lena furrowed her brow but shrugged.

"well, let me know if you need any help."

"Sure.. thanks.. but I better get to it..." he swallowed and moved away.

[member="Taeli Raaf"]
[member="Solan Charr"]

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Sempra the Hutt"] [member="Taeli Raaf"]


Solan was already on the way when Jaxson left the message for him on the ship via the holonet. There were three things that annoyed Solan be all else. And in no particular order of enjoyment of burning, it was Slavers. Genocidal murderers. And people using his stuff to commit criminal acts. "Thank you for the information Jaxson, on the way now to check out whats going on on that planet. If you could forward me the files on the employees that have been arrested and the Manifests for the shipments that would be appreciated. I also want security footage from our facilities there... OH and by the way. Tell that beautiful Diathim of a woman hi for me, seeing as she neglected to call me in person. We really need to get you a Girl though Jaxson, unless you have one already. I do need to stop by the office more often."

His hand left the console. He liked Jaxson, that man was trustworthy and professional. Something Solan could be himself at times but at this point he knew Taeli expected the person that he was. Plus Taeli knew his flirting was all empty, otherwise she would not be hit on ever. And that would send the wrong message surely as he smiled.

Touching the console once more he pulled up the chronometer, checking the estimated arrival and staring at it. Twenty minutes, just enough time to get ready for a little bit of investigation into this little hiccup in operations. There was a good thing about letting Taeli normally be the public face, when most thought of their boss they thought it was Taeli... The funny thing though was that when something went wrong she handled the Media. Solan though, he had no quarrel about bringing someone down on their knees and making them talk. Not that he would do it to his employees... but someone was trafficking spice, and Solan suspected it was no employee doing this.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Solan Charr"] [member="Sempra the Hutt"]

"Jaxson, make sure to tell Solan no killing unless absolutely necessary," Taeli said as Jaxson would send along the needed info to Solan. She was busy crafting her statement to the media about the situation, her workers saying a gaggle of reporters had gathered outside. Something like this was unexpected for her company, and she was not pleased at all.

"I want these people questioned and I want to know where they got those drugs," she added, getting up and straightening her dress.

"Yes, Miss Raaf," Jaxson said, sending the information to Solan Charr as his boss left the office. As he heard Mister Charr's comment, he couldn't resist answering by saying, "If you must know, I have a thing with a cellist named Audrey, Mister Charr."

Meanwhile, Taeli walked outside and sighed internally as the cameras turned to her and she stepped up a to small makeshift podium with the Aurora Industries logo on it. Her lilac colored dress catching the light a little bit from the armor-weave woven into it.

"I first want to say that Aurora Industries is taking this matter very seriously as we do not condone nor support criminal activity in any way," she began saying. "The situation in the Valc system is unprecedented in our company's history, and we are working with local planetary authorities and our own team of investigators to discover just what caused this."

Seeing a hand raise, she pointed at the reporter.

"Do you think that someone has been using Aurora shipments as part of smuggling ring, and if so, why was this not caught sooner?" the Chiss reporter asked.

"Judging by the size of the shipment captured by the authorities, I can only conclude that someone has been using our shipments in that system and possibly elsewhere to move drugs," she said, and even the crowd could tell from her narrowed eyes she was not happy. "An operation of this side would need to be carried out by a large criminal network, this is not just some opportune moment. If any employee or . . . stockholder is found to be connected to this, they will immediately face termination. I do not condone any sort of criminal activity from those that are part of this company."

More hands raised and she sighed internally again as she started to field the reporters. She hoped Solan would find out what the feth was going on soon because she was not in a happy Jedi calm mood right now.

 

[Sempra the Hutt]

Inside the White Palace Sempra watched [member="Taeli Raaf"] and her disguised accusation toward him. He growled and grabbed the nearby slave girl. Her life hanging on a string of hope, that the hutt would forget her due to the pressing matters at hand. Sempra had wanted to amuse himself with watching his favourite beast, the Garguanta feast on a worthless drug addict of a slave. But the mood failed him. He simply pushed her aside and showed his displeasure at the near by servant, his pale looking albino slave.

"Make those transitions faster!" he roared at his underlings. "I knew that woman would be trouble!"
This was not going to be a pleasant night at the palace.

--------------------------------------
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Brask ran into his appartment. He threw himself at his computer and started to rip it apart. Every bit, circuit and whatnot was tossed into the fire of his fine apartment. An apartment no ordinare technician usually could afford. He had bought it about a month ago, using Sempras money - it had all seemed to good to be true, and obviously that was a correct assumption.

His mind was rushing. What had he forgotten? what other proves could possibly save his arse? He shook his head. If only Kraezer got his job done Sempra would send some sort of extraction. He tried to breathe calmer. He should wait and not do anything rash he decided.

[member="Taeli Raaf"]
[member="Solan Charr"]

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Sempra the Hutt"] [member="Taeli Raaf"]

"Im sure shes a cute one Jaxson. Make sure Taeli gives you a big enough bonus to get her something nice." With that his ship was moving into the port and he had to go and see about those that were caught and what they said. "Eve, i need a fake ID involving a investigator sent to interrogate them. Printed in two minutes, find the man with the closest Physical appearance to me and replace his picture with mine. I want a scan done of where they are keeping our crates and i want to know how many people there are currently secured and how many are missing. I don't want a single bit of information untouched and please do not get me caught? Ok?"

He waited long enough for her to do as he asked, the ID was easy enough to do, as was the location of the people and the goods. But the rest of the information she would have to work on while he worked and he was fine with that. As long as it was done and he would not have to return to his ship in his own cuffs. With that done he fixed himself up in the Viola coat, put one of the blasters he carried on his waist and secured his saber out of sight and up his sleeve. That would be all he needed for this and that was absolutely fine.

After all, his hands were much easier to use in terms of keeping the informant conscious.

 

[Sempra the Hutt]

There... finally the files had been downloaded. At least as much as he dared to take. It would be a while before anyone would notice the breach. But time was all he had right now and he did not plan on gambling with it.

Kraezer swallowed and looked around him nervously. He pulled the datastick from the computer and stod. Unsure if anyone had noticed his little escapade he tried to walk casually away again.

"All done?" Lena looked up behind her work station and smiled. It startled Kraezer.

"Yeah... it... all done. See ya later Lena..." he tried. He knew the sweat on his forehead must be visible and knowing that he looked supsicious did not help him.

"Are you alright? You look like you need a visit to the med bay."

"Nono.. I am fine. Just need to get some sleep. thats all. See you later Lena." he threw at her and pushed forth to get out of there.

Lena watched him leave. This was odd. Kraezer was a party animal, he loved socialising and flirting beoynd reason. And he had not been sitting at his usual work station this time.

Sighing she shook her head and returned her attention to the work.

[member="Taeli Raaf"]
[member="Solan Charr"]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Sempra the Hutt"] [member="Solan Charr"]

Half an hour later, she had finished fielding the reporters' questions and was not in the best mood. Her suspicions were high as she strode back into her office, extremely high. That much spice, being moved in such a way, spoke to her as being part of a larger operation. She knew Sempra was in charge of something illicit, she wasn't sure how involved he was in the resurgent Hutt Cartel, but she had her wonders.

"Jaxson, I need you to check something for me," she said as she sat down and her right hand man came in. He didn't seem particularly happy now either, but then he put his work very seriously.

"Have a feeling, Taeli?" he asked, knowing his boss's powers as a Force User firsthand.

"I want you to run checks on all our current projects, look for any unusual access to the mainframes in our outlying facilities," she said. "Smuggling spice is one thing, but if whoever is in charge of this knows we're coming, he might make a move to gain info before we freeze whoever it is out."

No direct names were said, but Jaxson understood Taeli's message. The HQ was connected, one way only to avoid hackers and slicers reaching the HQ mainframe connection, to all other site mainframes to coordinate work projects. With Project Bastion in full swing now, she was extremely cautious in letting any of that info out. Luckily, the Valc system did not have anything attached to it, but it still was responsible for producing some of their older models when they had been Krayt Industries.

 

[Sempra the Hutt]

Sempra drummed his fingers together nerveously. This was a big setback for him. But just as the news had reached him about the custom find he had cut that planets operation. Having all the funds transfered away. the crew there had been living high life fro some time. On Sempras money. Now they had failed him and he left them with nothing.

He had wanted to stay longer with Aurora. there was much to learn from such a big company, but fore most it had given him an opening into a large new market. With the legit name of the Aurora his spice had reached whole new markets. It had really been what he had needed to breach out frmo the outer rim and into the core worlds. He was established now, but it was still a tough set back to loose Aurora. It provided him with a steady income and he had hoped that Ubrikkian industry could have spiritedf away some more knowledge on modern sjip building. Hence, he found himself to have ordered industrial espionage.

He sneered and looked to his pale slave assistant,

"Inform that idiot Brask to send the information in bits and pieces. I do not want it traced to the white palace. No direct proof."

"Yes my lord, " he bowed. "That will assure our safety but might raise the stakes regarding how much intel we get yours excellency." he added.

The hutt merely grunted, aware of the situation he still did not want [member="Taeli Raaf"] or that pesky [member="Solan Charr"] to be able to prevent direct evidence on him being behind this.

 

[Aithne Charr]

Solan smiled down at the face of one of those caught with the spice. As far anyone knew he had full authority to do what ever need be done to get a response out of this man and it was something he planned to do as he started to speak. His voice came out strict and clear as he had no room for any joking today. "You were caught, trying to smuggle spice off this world using Aurora's legitimate business ventures. What i want to know is your name, why and who it is that was sanctioning this." He smiled as he moved closer to the man's face and started to look at the hand.

"Oh and if you decide to lie to me at any time, i will know, and your fingers will be the first thing to be broken. And do not think that i wont, because for every wrong answer, a new finger becomes shattered and if you dont give me what i want then i will enjoy moving from your fingers, up your arms, and into your rib cage." His hand hovered over the man's, facing up towards the ceiling and beginning to curl up.

[member="Sempra the Hutt"]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Sempra the Hutt"] [member="Solan Charr"]

Taeli was sitting at her desk, looking over the data stream coming in from Valc VII. The Force was giving her a nagging feeling that something wasn't right about this. Smugglers and their overlords might decide they needed some leverage or in a last ditch effort, steal trade secrets to profit from them. Valc was involved in developing their older line of things, but that still meant access to certain designs and projects to keep them up and running.

"Hmm, interesting," she said, noticing a small anomaly in the access logs for some of the tech designs there. One of the workers had accessed the system from a terminal not registered to his ID code, not completely unusual by itself, but it was strange because the employee was not scheduled to work that day. She was very strict about her people coming into the office on their days off considering how busy they always were while on the clock.

"Jaxson, I want you to lock down all transmissions bearing the ID signature of this employee out of the system," she said. "Get our slicer team on it and get me a visual and audio feed from whatever computer he might be accessing. I want his transmission records as well, I want to know where he was sending any messages."

"Yes, ma'am," Jaxson said, sending out the orders to the people in the Valc office and to the HQ slicer team to get to work.

 

[Sempra the Hutt]

Nervous fingers pressed down the diggits of the message. Brisk could not belive this was happening. His dirty money had bought him his life style but now they suddenly meant nothing.

Pealrs of sweat started to run down his forehead as he nervously looked around him. The computer processed his orders and then suddenly it was sent.

He took a deep breath. Was he good now. Would he be picked up? He looked into the skies as if some ship would appear like a miracle in the sky and take him away from all of this. Take him away to start over somewhere else.
Keaeezer had done his part and now Brisk had finished his.

The hutt should be pleased.

For a moment he felt very much afraid that Sempra would have abandoned him here. But after a moment of waiting the sky finally was broken by a roaring freighter touching down just outside of the city limits.

[member="Solan Charr"] [member="Taeli Raaf"]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Sempra the Hutt"]

Just as the man thought he was saved from any sort of retribution, the freighter exploded in a ball of flames and debris as three Aurora Security Pulsar fighters roared out of the sky and opened fire on his getaway. Behind them, two dropships burst from the clouds, their sides open and men rappelling down to arrest the man.

"On the ground now!" the security sergeant yelled, blaster rifle aimed at the target. Brisk, fearing for his life, immediately complied. Stun cuffs were place don his wrists and then ... a holo-image of Taeli appeared as the sergeant set a disk down on the ground.

"You're going to tell me who you are working for," she said, her violet eyes hard as gemstones. "And it better be the truth, because I will know if you are lying."

Even as she spoke to the man named Brisk, the security personnel were combing over the destroyed freighter's wreckage for any signs of affiliation. It would only be a matter of time now.

 

[Sempra the Hutt]

As the ship exploded Brask fell pale and shivering he got to his knees holding his hands behind his neck.

"Dont shot! I surrender!" he squealed.

Brisk was a man not built to resist interrogations or the delicate offers made by the shady elements that he had gotten involved with. He would talk, he would give whatever he could in exchange for immunity and protection. But he knew that the hutts were not to be disregarded easily either. With his future ensured he would however offer what he knew.

That the hutts had paid him... no not only paid him but threatened him and his family to do their bidding. He was not a bad guy, was he?
And thus, he gave himself up to the security detail of [member="Taeli Raaf"]

The shipwreck was from an untagged modified freighter. YT series. A longer and more thorough search would reveal information in the nav-computer that the ship most often flew in hutt space.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

After half an hour of interrogation that Taeli had attended by holo, she was absolutely livid in her office. Going through a Jedi breathing technique to give her some sense of calm, she activated her comm array, and using Aurora tech to brute force their way into the system by piggybacking on the transmission IP from Brask, a shimmering blue image of Taeli would appear in the White Palace in front of Sempra.

"This is a common courtesy call, Sempra, but I'll cut right to the chase," she said, her violet eyes hard as gemstones as she gazed at the criminal. "You're out, your shares are forfeit to me. I have you on corruption, smuggling, industrial espionage. You violated our agreement, which I honestly expected from a Hutt. You just made a very powerful enemy today, and if you so much as blink in Aurora's direction again ... I will end every single scrap of your holdings."