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Ruby

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  1. A breaking newsreel competed with the arrival of Faust at the Coruscant Memorial for priority across the galaxy. The farther away from the Core one managed to travel, the more prevalent this auxiliary broadcast became. Flashes of turbolaser fire were punctuated with the screams of humans and aliens alike. Raven Zinthos Shows Her True Colors. Giant explosions leveled buildings in a domino effect that wiped out entire city blocks running hundreds of stories down to the forgotten undercity of Nar Shaddaa. Palpatine's Empire Lives On. The wailing of a small Bothan child was the only sound juxtaposed with the whump of blaster cannons and the crackle of flames in the background. Merciless Terror Comes Without Warning The looming Imperial fleet, their ships carrying all the terror they had wrought on the galaxy only mere decades before, encroached as hundreds of ships fled the Smuggler's Moon like mynocks deserting an out-of-control starfighter. The face of a terrified human man came onto the camera, soundless, but his lips moved in an utterly recognizable way: Help. Help us, please.
  2. Ruby

    Nar Shaddaa

    Breathless and panting, the Twi’lek skidded to a stop in front of Ruby’s desk. “It's the Empire!” “Ktah,” Ruby spat. She was pacing in front of the large window in her office, staring out at the chaos that had erupted in across the Smuggler’s Moon. “Those bastards have guts coming here.” The moon had flown under the radar of multiple galactic wars; for the Imps to come here now meant bad news for the free agents who operated out of the moon. “And of course, they come right after Emerald and Sapphire leave,” she muttered to herself. Her mind whirled with thoughts. There was little chance the moon could defend itself; while almost everyone on the moon had at least one well-armed ship, they weren't unified enough to cause a threat to the Imperial ships in orbit. Besides, smugglers, pirates, and thieves usually weren't interested in working together to defend anything. Running was their MO, and Ruby didn't doubt that many were already in the process of getting out of dodge. She was tempted to do the same. But on the other hand, the Gems would lose much if they gave up their holdings now. Even if the Imperials set up shop, the underworld networks would have power vacuums. It was a huge risk, but it was possible that there might be further opportunity for the Gems in the wake of the Imperial attack. It all depended on just how far the Imps went. Ruby didn't think they'd slag the moon, but the old Empire wouldn't have hesitated to do so, and she wouldn't put it past this new Empire. The third option was a classic pirate move: set your sails to take advantage of the way the wind was blowing. She could perhaps strike a deal with these Imperials. They were anti-crime, but she was sure they weren't anti-credits. If she made a deal to leverage the Gems’ skills and networks legitimately, perhaps the Imperials would let them keep their power. Then when they grew bored or tired of holding the moon and weakened their grip, business could resume as normal. All these options flew through her mind at the speed of light. She didn't have the luxury of thinking things over; she needed to make a decision, and make it quickly. Compounding her frustration was the lack of response or communication from their erstwhile Sith partners. Turning to the Twi’lek underling, she growled, “Set up a communications relay, ping the emergency contact, activate the Naptime protocol.” The Sith would hear about this, that was for sure. In the meantime, she’d buy time as all of their liquid assets were transferred to offworld accounts. If Nar Shaddaa was anything, it was unpredictable, and watching the political shifts and tilts in the galaxy, the Blood Gems had known it was only a matter of time before one side or another tried to make an example out of the Smuggler’s Moon. With the Naptime protocol in place, multiple things happened. All across the moon, throughout the Gems’ expansive networks, contacts went into hiding. Funds were transferred, businesses shut down, doors--literal and digital--shut and locked as their people went into hiding. Elsewhere, cameras of all sorts activated. Unused traffic cameras, left over from a failed attempt by one of the Hutts to enact some order on the volatile moon, now flickered to life and began streaming their data. Floating surveillance droids turned their cameras to the skies. Air taxi dash cameras swung around and pointed forward, their views joining the streams of information being routed through a small, out-of-the-way holonet broadcasting company the Gems had acquired. Two Gran and a human worked furiously at their computers, selecting from the multiple angles all the cameras across the moon were providing, and started a live broadcast of the Imperials’ conquest of the moon, highlighting the overwhelming force the Imperials were bringing to bear, interspersing images of the Imperials’ wrath with video of frightened civilians, choosing the most innocent-looking denizens of the moon. The human provided a running commentary of the scene, his voice shaking in horror at the appropriate moments. For Ruby’s part, the Chiss ordered all but her immediate staff to return to their homes. Tarvil supervised the final transfer of data to their offworld backups, then quickly planted himself at her side in the Gems’ immaculate public office. They had never used the room; it was massive and open, with one desk large enough to land an X-wing on--and clean enough to as well. But it would be perfect to entertain any Imperial delegation that decided to make their presence felt. Ruby sat behind the desk, Tarvil to her right, her face the impassive mask that was normally so intimidating to non-Chiss. The lights of the imperiled moon, green turbolaser fire from the Imperials mixing with yellow explosions and the many-colored neon signs, cast strange flickering shadows in the room from the transparisteel window that served as its back wall. The only other light in the room was a small desk lamp, and Ruby’s glowing red eyes. An invitation issued on a wide-spectrum broadcast to the Imperial contingent was clear and simple: the Blood Gem Pirates invoke the right of parlay.
  3. Ruby

    Nar Shaddaa

    "Child's play," the Chiss quipped sullenly. There was little doubt in the minds of anyone present that she was sulking as a result of being relegated to administrative duty while the other two had been gallivanting about the galaxy. But in the meantime, the Gems' accounts had flourished, and the presence of the heavy-handed Imperials had driven much of the black market trade in the sector further underground, which meant that business was booming on Nar Shaddaa. "We also made sure your pulse mass mines worked," chimed in Emerald from behind the red-head. "And oh, they did." Ruby nodded, but made no other comment. Gesturing ahead of them all to where Tarvil was waiting to greet them, she suggested, "Let's go get drinks. I have a lot to fill you in on."
  4. Ruby

    Nar Shaddaa

    Turning her red eyes onto Dorjoola, Ruby smirked at him. "You can't run--er, slither--away from this, Dorjoola. We both know that your ability to complain about cheating or breaking agreements was forfeit after you drugged Emerald. The Families will be after you, and then everything that happened here will be exposed. You'll be finished." The Chiss toyed with the butt of her blaster in its holster. "Or," she began again with a shrug, "you could sign the assets of your organizations over to us, we can fake your death, and whatever heat the Families try to bring will just disappear. It's your choice." Bulbous eyes studied her as Dorjoola seemed to be weighing his options. "Done," he croaked finally, holding out a grubby, oily palm toward Sapphire. "No!" screamed Syddro. "They're playing you! I know they are!" Ruby shrugged once more. "What choice do you think you have? If you want to take your chances with the mercies of the other Hutts, be my guest." That shut Syddro up effectively, and after a brief interlude where they all adjourned to sign the contract, the whole of Dorjoola's operations on Nar Shaddaa belonged to the Blood Gem Pirates. "Come on," Ruby said with an elbow in Sapphire's ribs, "we should go check on Em. I bet Tarvil has her by now."
  5. Ruby

    Nar Shaddaa

    Unable to even pretend she was still unconscious both of her friends up and about and causing a ruckus, Ruby gave up. The hangover she had was no joke, and every little noise seemed to be amplified ten times louder than it should've been. Grumbling curses in Cheunh that would horrify civil company, she extracted herself from the corner of the sofa as Sapphire flitted here and there about their apartment still on a high about the holiday. “Caf,” she growled at the red-head, echoing Emerald's statement, “or Life Day or not, someone is going to suffer.” Holding a hand to her temple she turned towards the hallway to take her turn in the refresher, unaware that Em was lying in a heap squarely in her chosen path. With a yelp, she toppled over the blonde, landing in an uncharacteristically ungraceful jumble of limbs. Ruby halfheartedly swatted at Emerald as she extracted herself from the mess, deciding that maybe it would be a better and safer idea to crawl down the hallway. “What in the nine Corellian hells did you two do to me last night? I haven't been this hungover since the last time we were on Tatooine.”
  6. Ruby

    Space

    With a few well-placed taps on the datapad she gripped between her hand and elbow, the Chiss finished the inventory of their latest haul. She glanced up at Sapphire, who entered the cargo hold with a question. Scrolling down to the summary on her inventory page, she grinned, the whites of her teeth in stark contrast to her cerulean skin. "Not half bad for a half-baked plan," she said drolly. "Looks like twelve cases, at ten warheads per case." Placing the datapad in its mount on the wall of the hold, she turned back to the others, her brilliant eyes scanning between the two of them as she brushed back a lock of hair that had fallen in her face with a practiced maneuver. "Did I hear something about Hutt space?"
  7. In true Blood Gems fashion, when something when wrong... It went very, very wrong. One moment Ruby was standing in solemn silence alongside the corporal, her inner monologue anything but quiet as she maintained a stoic glare that prevented any of the personel in the hangar from staring at her for too long. The next, chaos took over as Ruby just barely caught the blur that was Emerald hurtle down the boarding ramp of the shuttle and disappear behind a pile of barrels. There was no other warning before the klaxons and alarms began wailing across across the hangar bay and the fire suppression system started dumping foam on everything. The stolid grimace on Ruby's face morphed into an almost maniacal smirk when Sapph suggested the use of explosives to aid their getaway. "With pleasure," she replied over her comlink as she surged into action, any other words she might have said swallowed up in the cacophony that her compatriots had created. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Em disappear back onto the shuttle, and she seized a hidden explosive from where it had been concealed in one of her pockets, but as she moved to lob it at her target the corporal stepped in front of her, blocking its trajectory. A quick uppercut to the jaw solved that problem, and as she spun gracefully, using her momentum to whip the thermal detonator at the door with deadly accuracy and sprint toward the boarding ramp all in one smooth motion. She slapped at the of closing mechanism as she ran past it, the ramp hissing shut far too slowly for her tastes. "Shavit, Sapph, get us out of here!" she yelled toward the cockpit and felt the shuttle surge beneath the soles of her feet as she continued into the cargo hold to take stock of their plunder.
  8. Ruby glared at Emerald, her scowl promising revenge for the use of that moniker before she turned her attention back to the final touches on their work. Satisfied with the end product, she let the droids ferry the crates over to the cargo hold of the shuttle and left to go change into clothes that weren't covered in grease and explosives residue. When she returned the loading process was done and there was nothing else to do but proceed with their plans. “I swear, if they reverse engineer that thing and it comes back to bite us, I'm not going to be a happy person. Good thing the rest of these are duds,” Ruby griped as they boarded, taking their respective places and getting settled in. With Sapphire and Emerald stowed away aboard the shuttle inside of specially constructed shielded smuggling compartments, Ruby navigated the vessel toward their destination, waiting with bated breath as she transmitted over her credentials as Marin Pirou of Lorell Distributors, almost expecting something to go wrong and for the Blood Gems to have to hightail it away from Hapes yet again. But the Hapan ship never opened fire on them, and soon they were docked with the larger ship. Marin walked down the boarding ramp to meet the Major's aide, and after introducing herself extended a datapad to her. “If I could just get your signature for final approval, Corporal, I'd be glad to have my droids assist yours in transferring the cargo.”
  9. Ruby

    Space

    Ruby had grown increasingly retrospective while her companions conversed, retreating to the part of her mind that was extremely analytical without really realizing she'd done so. Her brain had started to go into overdrive when the discussion had touched on modifying one of the mines in question, and he r fingers flew over her datapad screen as she immediately began to compile a list of parts they'd have to acquire, tools she'd need to do the job, and- Sapphire's question pulled Ruby from her reverie and she jerked her head up to see the brandy that Sapph had set down in front of her. She didn't respond at first, electing to lift the glass to her lips and tilt it back, letting the alcohol roll across her tongue and down her throat, savoring the burn as it did. With a soft sigh, she set the glass back down, rolling her head to either side of her shoulders to crack her neck while she formulated a response. “Couple things, one:” she started, ticking off her count on her fingers as she went. “If we can get our hands on a dead one of these, it might make this a whole lot easier and faster. I can probably get schematics off of one of my contacts if I need to, but building a gravity well from scratch isn't exactly a picnic. And two: if this is going to work, this is going to have to be a hard, fast sell, meaning we're going to have to come up with a REALLY good idea on how to improve these things, and then we're going to have to hope that it doesn't come back to bite us in the rear at some point in the future, because if I design what ends up being our demise at some point in the future. I am NOT going to be happy.” She downed the rest of the brandy, letting the silence punctuate her speech. “Do I think we can pull it off? Yes. Is it going to be easy? I highly doubt it, and we're not going to have much room for error at all.”
  10. Ruby

    Space

    “Of course you didn't pay attention, I swear, sometimes I gotta do everything...” Ruby snorted as she pushed herself up off the floor, dropping back onto the couch. She pulled her datapad from one of many pockets and flicked her fingers quickly over the screen,flipping it around to show Em and Sapph after she found the schematic for the item in question. “All right, Hapan pulse-mass generators. Derived from the Empire's gravity well projectors, they have, more or less, the same effect as an interdictor, just with a few minor issues. First, after we launch them, we have minutes... Ten at most, and that's if we're lucky. Second, unless we can find someone who knows how to modify these things without killing us all, once they're on, they're on until they run out of power. So our target can't get away, but neither can we.” Ruby shrugged, turning the screen back to face herself, fingers moving lightly over the screen as she zoomed in on parts of the blueprint here and there. “All in all, we've done riskier things. Next best thing to having an actual interdictor I'd say, and we can launch them from the torpedo bays.” She leveled her gaze at Sapphire. “I'm going to assume that you have a plan for acquiring these already?”
  11. Ruby

    Space

    In retrospect, it was probably a very, very good thing that neither Emerald nor Sapphire had eyes on Ruby while they put the Glory through an impressive set of space acrobatics, because she was sure that one them would have had some choice words in multiple languages to toss her way if they had. With Sapph at the helm and Em acting as marksman, Ruby knew that her skills as resident demolitions expert would come into play soon enough, once they boarded their target. Until then though... she waited, continuing to roll the thermal detonator from hand to hand almost without thinking. Left palm: on. Right palm: off. Back and forth, watch the light blink. One... two... three... Off again, well within thirty-second timer that she'd modified onto this particular detonator. Ruby rolled the explosive back into her left palm, flicking the switch absentmindedly, and glanced down to admire the belt the she had slung across her neck, and the red gem embedded in the mag-buckle. Faintly, she heard Emerald yell from the turret well and she winced, remembering too late the mass of tangled wires she'd left in there after their last escapade. And that's when everything started to go wrong. Just as she started to roll the thermal detonator back to her other hand, the Glory surged into motion as Sapphire gave chase to their target, throwing Ruby from her chair and the explosive from her hand. “Ktah!” She spat the Cheunh word as she struggled to her feet and leaped across the room after the rolling detonator, more curses in multiple languages spilling from her mouth as she imagined what Sapphire would do to her if she set off another explosive aboard her ship. Ruby had just managed to get her fingertips on the silver orb when her pilot compatriot threw the vessel into another set of twists and turns, eliciting another round of swearing as she lost her grip on the detonator and had to launch herself off of the wall after it as it rolled away. It wasn't enough, though, and she landed, stomach first, a few scant feet away from it as it continued on spinning path. Knowing she had precious seconds to spare and seized by a moment of genius, Ruby grabbed the belt that was still somehow around her neck and whipped the mag-buckle end at the detonator. With a clank, it caught, and Ruby released a breath she hadn't released she was holding with an audible whoosh she yanked it back to her and it slapped into her palm, thumbing to switch back to off in one quick motion. A split-second later, she felt the ship shudder as it jumped into hyperspace, and Emerald came running back down the corridor. Still lying on her stomach, Ruby looked up at her partner in crime and offered a lopsided grin as she held up the glittering orb. “Crisis averted!”
  12. Ruby

    Space

    Ruby grunted in frustration at Sapph's words,, knowing all too well just how thorough that ship's surveillance system was. "Kriffin' figures," she muttered, resisting the urge to pound her first on the control panel, knowing how her compatriot reacted to damage to the vessel. "Nothing about this job is going right, and I'm getting sick of it." Not for the first time, she wished that they had talked Emerald out of this and gone after a different target. This hit was making her feel like an amateur, not to mention the guilt that was still plaguing her about leaving Em to the mercy of the ship's security team. She sat there in silence as Sapphire worked her magic, the only sounds in the cockpit the clacking of datapad keys and an occasional beep from the navicomputer regarding their flightpath. Ruby chewed nervously on one of her fingernails after another, reducing them all to nubs. Finally, she couldn't take the silence anymore and glanced back over at Sapph. "Find anything yet?"
  13. Ruby

    Space

    Cleaner and slightly less tired that she had been a few hours prior, Ruby sat in the cockpit next to Sapphire, anxiously awaiting their conversion to realspace, the vibroknife spinning nervously from finger to finger betraying the stoic expression on her face. At the nav computer's insistent beeping, she reached over and pulled back on the hyperdrive lever, bring them out of hyperspace. She stared silently at the Star Destroyer-turned-luxury liner looming in front of them, a growing sense of dread gripping her. "I hope this works," she muttered to Sapph, the vibroknife continuing its journey back and forth across her knuckles as she tried to ignore the desperation she was feeling in her guy. "I really hope this works."
  14. Ruby

    Space

    Ruby sighed as she heard Sapphire's footfalls coming toward her, pushing herself into a sitting position leaning against the wall as her partner came into sight and announced her plan. ”So what do you think? Will it work?” Ruby tilted her head slightly to the side, considering what Sapph had laid out before her. “I think it's probably our best bet,” she said honestly, reaching for her towel and mopping the sweat off her face. “ I honestly can't think of another way we'd be able to get Em out of there.” She glanced down at her chrono, checking the time. “Three hours? I'm gonna go hit the 'fresher and get a few hours of shut-eye before this goes down. Wake me when it's time?” She slung her towel around her neck and headed back toward the main lounge, pausing in the doorway and looking back over her shoulder. “And Sapph? Sorry for snapping earlier.”
  15. Ruby

    Space

    Sapphire's last words twisted a knife in Ruby's gut, reminding her of her failings. Combined with her exhaustion and her proclivity towards volativity, it was too much. "I know we can't just leave her there," she growled, pushing herself out of the chair. "I never wanted to in the first place." She stalked out of the cockpit before she said something she would regret. She knew that Sapph was really just thinking out loud, trying to strategize a way to get Emerald off of that kriffing casino, but all it was doing right now was reminding Ruby that she had abandoned their friend. She wanted to hit something. Hard. Unfortunately, her punching bag was still stashed in the Onslaught's cargo bay, since she'd seen no reason to bring it on this particular mission, so she'd have to make do. Time slowed and blurred for her after that, as she found an empty corner of the Glory's cargo bay and ruthlessly pushed herself through repetition after repetition of push-up, sit-ups, and any other exercise that she could think of, anything to take her mind off of the fact that Emerald was still sitting in a cell somewhere instead of here with her and Sapph like she should have been. She would keep pushing herself until she literally dropped from exhaustion, if that's what it would take for this feeling to go away.
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