Talus

[Mellanie Devanus Vevut]

While the Jedi handled the speaking, Mellanie listened and observed. The overlay in her HUD told her the foreman's life signs were reading the Skakoan equivalent of stress, but he didn't appear to be deceitful. The Jedi would know better than her on that side of things. When he mentioned the ensign, Mellanie noted a small change in Aelyn's posture. The visual cue was enough to cause the Mandalorian to quickly begin a search for any 'Ensign Daint's working on Talus. It came up negative rather quickly, but that didn't perturb Mel--it was likely the Skakoan was misremembering the man's name.

 

As Aelyn began to question the foreman further, Mellanie disabled her external helmet speaker with a glance, then used her helmet's built-in comlink to contact Aiwah's office. A muffled conversation later and Mel reactivated her speaker. "This ensign is not from the governor's office," she muttered quietly, just loud enough for Aelyn to hear. An idea popped in her head, but after a moment, she dismissed it. It was unlikely the GA's special investigator could have arrived and spoken to the foreman in the time it had taken for the two of them to examine the body and travel over here.

 

Meanwhile, she piggybacked on Aelyn's question. "We'd like to meet with him and compare notes, you see," she said at normal volume. "Also, would you be willing to give us access around the site so we can investigate ourselves?"

[Dante De Luca]

Tegg nodded.

 

"Absolutely. Fen, get some more badges." The intern opened a drawer, producing two more VIP badges for the Mandalorian and the Jedi. Tegg scratched his head, continuing.

 

"I think his name was Daint..Danta? It started with a 'D' anyways. He went into shaft B not too long ago, he wanted to check the site of the most recent accident. I offered to send someone to escort him, but he wanted to see it by himself for some reason."

 

Tegg pointed to a chart on the wall depicting a layout of the mine facility. "You can access shaft B from the entrance just out there. There shouldn't be many workers left on the site, just inspectors and assessors if anyone. Show them your badges if there's any trouble, they all answer to me, anyway."

 

A note of genuine concern came across his modulated voice. "Just...be careful in there? I know you can probably take care of yourself, but this many accidents happening so close together is just a bad omen."

[Aelyn]

Aelyn smiled pleasantly. "Thank you, Foreman, we will," she affirmed.

 

Heading back outside, the young Jedi tried to orient herself. She'd never been on a mining site before, but at first it didn't look that different from a construction site, and she'd seen plenty of those back home on Coruscant. The ground was unpaved and there was a whole lot of heavy and unfamiliar equipment lying about loosely organized. Large floodlamps dotted the area, hunched over as though examining anyone that walked beneath them into the broad swaths of the site each illuminated. Under some of these lamps lay stacked crates of what Aelyn assumed was the actual product -- the ore that was being dug up.

 

A bit curious since no one had seemed to mention just what the whole pursuit of this mining endeavor was that had the Skakoans so eager, Aelyn walked over to one of the long black crates. As she did so, she was startled to note that whatever was inside seemed in tune with the Force. She could actually sense whatever was in there.

 

She glanced over her shoulder back at the office, considering asking permission to open the crate, but she decided not to bother the foreman and pried the lid open herself just for a peek. Inside were neat rows of long, slender, carefully-packed clear crystals that practically buzzed in the back of her mind in a way that was intensely familiar. "Oh," she said, placing the sensation. "Kyber crystals."

 

The Techno Union's greed made a little more sense now. Kyber crystals like the one in her lightsaber she had claimed on Dantooine were very rare and extremely valuable. The sheer number of credits that had to have been changing hands for the rights to mine this deposit had to be astronomical. Suddenly she wondered if they already had buyers, and if it was a military contract related to the brewing conflict going on in the galaxy.

 

Shutting the case again, Aelyn tilted her head toward the mine shaft ahead of them through a permacrete archway emblazoned with a reddish block Besh. "Shall we?"

 

Beyond the arch was a box of helmets and a sign with instructions to take one with which Aelyn complied, then a long elevator shaft down into Talus' crust. Beside the enormous hole was one of the prodigious machines that had bored it, itself a droid of some kind that was currently powered down and being recharged from a field generator. Another droid stood on the elevator, and Aelyn showed it the badge the Foreman had given her. "Can you take us down? I'm looking for the Ensign that came this way recently."

 

The droid beeped an acknowledgement and pulled a lever and the lift started down into the darkened shaft below them, which was sporadically lit by rings of lights tacked onto the metal lattice that maintained the tunnel's structure. "I guess we'll know him when we see him," Aelyn said to Mellanie with a shrug.

[Mellanie Devanus Vevut]

Well that explains my headache, Mellanie realized as Aelyn revealed what they were mining here. Now that she knew the source, she could almost hear the low buzzing that she hadn't been consciously aware of until now. "I didn't realize Talus had kyber crystals," she commented as they headed to the turbolift.

 

She remained silent as they entered the shaft, ignoring the required helmets. Aelyn's, she noticed with some amusement, was too big on the Jedi's head. As they sank lower and lower into the earth, Mel began to feel a little oppressed by the thought of all the dirt and rocks above them. She wasn't claustrophobic, but it was a little unnerving. Thankfully, when the lift doors opened, they revealed a open cavern with high ceilings. Droids and beings labored throughout the area, and the noise of their mining echoed in a cacophony of noise throughout the chamber. Beings from all over the galaxy were represented, although there was a slightly higher percentage of Drall than anything else. Despite the business, it was obvious that this mine had been damaged. The back right of the cavern was collapsed, and even from this distance, Mellanie could see dried blood stains spattered on some of the larger rocks.

 

As they took in the scene, it became quickly obvious who they were looking for. A man stood in a GA uniform talking to one of the Drall near the caved-in area. Mellanie gestured to him, and they headed over.

[Dante De Luca]

Dante paused, looking away from his active conversation, then excused himself as he turned to face the two newcomers. Somehow...he knew they would be there. An interesting anomaly to query later.

 

"You must be the Jedi and the Mandalorian. My designation is Ensign De Luca, but they refer to me as Dante. The Talusian government has filled me in on the relevant data. I was just checking out the mine, and already have two promising leads. Shall we continue?"

 

Dante was matter-of-fact and rather brusque, though he didn't mean any ill will by it. It was merely how he was, having been raised by droids. It was also probably why he was transferred to a small picket ship currently running maneuvers in Corellian space, and why the captain of that ship assigned him to this when additional aid was requested.

 

At the least, Dante's proficiency when it came to handling data would not go to waste.

[Aelyn]

Bowing in greeting like most Jedi did, Aelyn introduced herself. "I'm Knight Aelyn Talis," she said before indicating the Mandalorian. "This is Mellanie Vevut."

 

She studied the Ensign for a brief moment. Human or close, his most remarkable features were his prosthetic eyes which betrayed neither any emotion at their arrival nor any clear indication of where he was looking, which was mildly unsettling since she couldn't make eye contact with him. There were no immediately visible clues as to why he had prosthetic eyes -- no obvious scarring around them, for example. That plus the fact that both eyes had been replaced probably meant that he had gone blind at some point in a way that wasn't fixable by bacta, which was rare, or he'd opted to have them installed because he liked them better than normal eyes.

 

In any case they made him difficult to read and his terseness didn't help either.

 

"Certainly," she said, taking it in stride and keeping her usual casual tone in her Coruscanti-accented Basic. "Before you fill us in on your leads, though, can I ask how long you've been looking into the case? We just came from a meeting with the Governor and she didn't indicate that the Galactic Alliance had already sent someone down."

[Dante De Luca]

"I have been assigned to this case for the last fifty-seven galactic standard minutes. The ship I was assigned to is performing military maneuvers near to the planet, and the captain placed emphasis on getting me here quickly. I spent the shuttle ride downloading and analyzing the relevant data that was relayed as requested, and decided here was the most prudent place to start finding additional facts."

 

Dante cocked his head, staring peculiarly at Aelyn.

 

"I understand the Jedi and Sith can somehow tell when each other are near. Have you detected any Sith nearby? It is pertinent to existing facts."

[Aelyn]

Aelyn twisted her lip. "Well, actually, the dark side has a way of clouding a Jedi's perception of the Force," she said thoughtfully. "Think of it like something on a river bed stirring up a cloud of mud and silt -- you can tell that there's a disturbance there, but can't necessarily see what's causing it."

 

She was experiencing all kinds of unusual things with her senses so far today. Not only had the Skakoan delegation been equipped with something that had completely blocked her ability to read them with the Force, but since then things had gotten murky. "I do sense danger here," she said. "But if it's caused by a Sith Lord I couldn't say."

 

The idea was decidedly alarming. She'd had to contend with the dark side before, especially on Naboo, but encountering a Sith Lord that was her equal or greater in experience and training would make this way more dangerous than the mining dispute she'd been told to expect. Simply put, it was a possibility she didn't know if she was equipped to handle. "What makes you think one might be here?" she asked.

[Dante De Luca]

Dante keyed a few buttons on the datapad he was holding before passing it to her, demonstrating what he started to explain.

 

"These are images of the remains the morgue forwarded me. I noticed distinctive markings on the flesh and ran a reconstructive algorithm. The symbols appear to be a kind of tattoo used in Sith rituals, though when I cross referenced them through the GA's database, they don't match anything in particular. Their order seems atypical, more structured and rigid than traditional symbology suggests. At the least, it is interesting. It is uncertain if the Sith are involved, though if they are this appears to be something we have not yet come across."

 

Dante gestured back toward the mine.

 

"The only other lead I would like to follow up on other than a routine check of the mine is the local communications node. Files were deleted, though there should be temporary records kept of all files passing through the local nodes in the event of an investigation such as this. At the least, there may be a chance something was transmitted and forgotten about.

 

"Of course, Master Jedi, I was instructed that you have the lead on this assignment. The next move is yours to decide."

[Aelyn]

"If you send me a copy of the image, I can check them against the Jedi archives," Aelyn suggested. "They might have something the GA doesn't."

 

She brushed a stray lock of her long red hair back away from her face. "Might be best to split up. I won't be much help with the technical stuff, so I'll leave that to you. On the other hand, the Force allows me in some cases to get a sense for past events that happened in a location or with regards to a specific object, so if I do a quick lap around the mine I might be able to pick something up that someone else would miss," she stated. The Jedi glanced at the Mandalorian. "Mellanie, your choice who you want to go with."

 

That settled, Aelyn picked a tunnel and started off down it, beginning to stretch out with her senses. The world around her seemed to slow as she drifted into a trance-like state so she could focus on what the Force was telling her. She began by listening with her ears, picking apart the layers of what she could hear -- first, the scuff of her footsteps and rustle of her robes; then the quiet hum of idle machinery; the gentle buzz of electric lights. The air was close in the mine and there was a profound silence once she peeled away those layers, but then far underneath was what she was seeking: the constant deep tone that she could have been imagining entirely. The background noise of the universe existing.

 

Within that note was the Force, expanding to fill her awareness and then projecting far around her. Everything her eyes could perceive about the mine was just a shadow of all that there was to know of it. She quickly received an impression of the emotional character of the place, imprints left there by the people who worked on it. Humans and aliens, men and women and droids. The sense of routine... but at times with undercurrents of other things, even urgency and workplace stress.

 

She continued to walk and listen, waiting to see if the Force had a more specific tale to tell her.

[Dante De Luca]

Dante nodded, quickly downloading the files to a spare data cylinder and handing it over. If she had an upgraded comlink or datapad, Aelyn could freely access the information later at her convenience. He bowed as she left, signifying his obedience. It was one mannerism from the galactic culture that he'd learned, though he tended to use it awkwardly in most other situations.

 

Dante looked about, noting a fenced yard containing heavy equipment, and spoke to the Mandalorian. "I will investigate that area. One death is recorded to have happened there recently. Do you have multi-spectral imaging sensors on your helmet? If so, they might be useful in the search of the mine." Dante looked back to the heavy equipment yard, not bothering waiting for a reply, as most people didn't give him one anyways when he attempted small talk. "Your presence would be appreciated but not required." Dante tapped his eye prosthetics, miming a 'wink' to the best of his ability, though he had no outward way of showing it. Yet another awkward attempt to fit into a culture that he was still alien to.

 

With a bow, he walked to the yard.

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

A security camera swiveled slowly, zooming in on Aelyn. Concern quantified from expanding probability tables, potential counteraction task lists formulated slowly with each passing second. This was not expected, but it was not something that could not be dealt with. But certainty limits were reached in extrapolation scenarios, action was required.

 

And a̰̲̣̳̘͜ctio͍̻͘n would so͍̻͘o͆̌̇͂̄̓n be taken̜̤͚̱̲͖.͏̠͙̮̼̰

 

.

[Mellanie Devanus Vevut]

As Aelyn headed off, Mellanie turned to follow Dante down towards the other accident area. She would be no help to the Jedi other than to watch her back, and from what Mel knew, Jedi didn't need anyone watching their backs. The GA ensign, however, was someone she could protect, if things came down to it. Suddenly, she was struck by her line of reasoning. This wasn't a hostile situation. Why was she instinctively making decisions based on a combat mindset? Was it just culture seeping through? Or was it something deeper? She couldn't shake the bad feeling she had had about this whole thing that had started the moment the Skakoan had exploded, and had only seemed to grow stronger since then.

 

Once they reached the area, she began some detailed scans, feeding the data into the new VI program she had been tinkering with. Some of the data displayed on her HUD, but she sent it to the screen built in to her metal forearm. "First scans show nothing out of the ordinary," she said. She showed Dante the readout. "Although there seems to be a strange trace particle on that crane arm over there."

[Aelyn]

The tunnels seemed to grow darker around Aelyn as she walked. Her eyes drifted closed and yet as in tune with the Force around her as she was, she had no problem navigating. She was following a current.

 

It took her a few minutes to reach where it was leading her, but she could feel it strongly by the time she got there. An item, sitting on top of something about waist high. She grasped it, her eyes still closed... a smooth duraplast surface caked with the dirt of the mine. There was a slight dampness to it. But in the Force there was a story there, the impression left by an event. She focused and it expanded to fill her mind....

 

------

 

"He had to intervene again. Eventually it's going to draw the wrong kind of attention."

 

Two Skakoans walked down the tunnel. The speaker was holding something but Aelyn from her cloudy perspective couldn't make it out.

 

"He knows what he's doing," the other responded. "Mining sites are dangerous places. We can handle the attention if it comes down to it."

 

"What if someone finds the Foundry?" the first asked.

 

"Not a chance. It will soon be too late for that anyway. You worry too much. Why are you carrying that thing around anyway? It makes you look like you had something to do with it. Put it down and let's get back to work."

 

------

 

Aelyn opened her eyes. She was holding a dusty and cracked mining helmet. She flipped it over and saw that there was a splash of red that had trickled out onto her hands.

 

Gasping and recoiling in disgust, she dropped the helmet and it clattered onto the tunnel floor. She searched desperately for a moment and found an oil rag sitting on a mining machine nearby and she used it to wipe her hands off, smearing them with black but getting the blood off.

 

She stood for a moment, the sound of her quick breathing filling the tunnel around her until she got it under control. The Skakoans were behind the disappearances, and they were hiding something at a place called... the Foundry? Where was that?

 

The Jedi Knight turned around and hurried back up the tunnel to find Dante and Mellanie.

[Dante De Luca]

...n͏͔̫̳̟̬̲̼o̾̓ͣw̫͓.

 

 

-------------------------------------------

 

Dante nodded to the Mandalorian, approaching the crane to inspect it. His own ocular prosthetics could see incredible detail, but they were not outfitted with sensors that allowed him to see much outside of the normal human range of vision. The AI who raised him wanted him to feel as human as possible, but right now it almost felt like a hindrance.

 

As he approached though, the crane slowly lurched to life, maneuvering a large claw over Dante. Immediately Dante tensed, knowing this wasn't supposed to be happening. As the claw was released into a free fall, Dante dove sideways, narrowly escaping being crushed. As he rose from the ground, moving away from the crane, he noticed several figures begin to shift from behind some of the other equipment. Loader drones, used for heavy lifting in the mine as well as some of the more heavy-duty operations. Six in total, they lumbered forward.

 

Dante slowly backed up to where Mellanie stood, debating what to do. None of this felt right.

[Mellanie Devanus Vevut]

As the crane claw fell, Mellanie was already in motion, her reflexes instinctively causing her hands to go to her blasters. That wasn't an accident. She drew the pair of them and darted to Dante's side. "You alright?"

 

More movement caught her eye and she turned towards it, planting her feet. Several heavy mining droids started moving towards them, and Mellanie didn't hesitate. Shoot first, ask questions later. She opened up on the droids, raking them with blaster fire. Their carapaces were thick and tough, but Mel aimed for the joints, intent on putting them out of commission and ending the threat they potentially posed. Her heartbeat accelerated rapidly, her breath ragged, and her vision tunneled until all she saw was the droids and the crystals in the rocks around her like tiny pinpricks of light.

[Aelyn]

As Aelyn moved back up the tunnel the way she'd come down, her strides lengthened. The general foreboding she'd felt during the vision had blossomed into a very present sense of danger. A little bit diffuse, maybe not focused on her directly, but it was building fast. It was like an itch, persistent, demanding attention.

 

She shrugged her cloak off her shoulders and suddenly the distinctive report of blaster fire echoed up the stone hallway. She took a deep breath and her lightsaber leaped to her hand, pulsating power and confidence that she still didn't feel absent its comforting weight in her hand, turning a frightened girl into a Knight.

 

Suddenly she was upon them, azure blade springing to life, the Force carrying her in a mighty bounding leap towards what appeared to be half a dozen load lifters bearing ominously down on the relatively-small forms of Mellanie and Dante, some of which were already weathering a crimson barrage from the Mandalorian's blaster pistols.

 

No longer thinking but giving herself over to instinct and the guiding hand of the Force, she struck. Two slashes in an x-pattern executed mid-leap. They were met by a thick armor plate, and though the blade found purchase, it did not give as much as she had anticipated and the target both withstood it and retaliated with mechanical precision, swinging a large gripper-claw at her place in the air. But she foresaw the attack and bounced herself to the side, narrowly clearing what would have been a bone-shattering impact.

 

Aelyn landed, lightsaber flashing back around to her fighting stance as though she'd been doing it her whole life. She stood apart from Dante and Mellanie, forcing each droid to prioritize a target and hopefully split their numbers. "The Skakoans are behind this!" she called out to them. "We're no longer safe on Talus."

[Dante De Luca]

The attempt on Aelyn from the drone crippled the droid, a severed hydraulic line only made worse by the movement now only immobilized the lumbering bot. The other five plodded slowly and silently forward, only equipped with digging equipment. The Mandalorian's blaster shots merely impacted on the plating of the joints on the remaining drones, but two found purchase on the sensor array of one of the drones, and unable to see its surroundings it began veering into the path of one of the others. It was working, for now.

 

Dante was hoping this wasn't going to turn into a dangerous situation, but he was prepared. He activated his cortical implant, flooding his brain with neurotransmitters and altering his perception of the events proceeding around them. He dropped the dtatpad he held, unsnapping the holsters for his slugthrowers and drawing them. In a swift motion he unloaded their magazines rapidly, targeting exposed hydraulic lines and other detected vulnerabilities. Though the slugthrower rounds were even less effective than the blaster rounds against targets like this, the pinpoint precision shots would serve to weaken or cripple areas that the Mandalorian was targeting, making nearly every one of her shots more effective. As his weapons barked their last shots, Dante deactivated the implant, slowly coming back down off the natural high it afforded him.

 

Two more drones immobilized, the final one approached the trio, but stopped short, going idle. A single Skakoan worker hurried from among the rest of the heavy equipment, rushing toward them as fast as he could, waving his hands. "Please! I disrupted the local transmitter but it will be back online soon! You have to get away from the machinery!"

 

A shot echoed out from behind him, a single high energy blast catching the Skakoan in the back. Another cloaked figure left its position from within the heavy machinery, retreating away from the trio. Dante glanced at the others, before breaking into a sprint to chase them down, scrambling to reload his slugthrowers as he did so.

[Mellanie Devanus Vevut]

Clearly not all the Skakoans are involved, Mel thought as the one fell to a shot in the back. Dante took off running, and she did the same. As she did, she flicked the switch on one of her pistols, and when she had a clear shot, took it. Ion rings expanded out of her blaster, making contact with their target.

 

Running up, she planted her feet and aimed directly at the being's neck. "Don't move."

[Aelyn]

The droids proved to be no match for Mellanie and the Ensign thanks to some precision shooting and Aelyn realized they probably hadn't even needed her help to fend off the attack. For some reason one of the drones was still standing though when it suddenly ground to a halt and a Skakoan ran up. Aelyn squinted at him, trying to make out what he was shouting and if he could be one of the aliens she'd seen in her vision when abruptly he crumpled.

 

"Kriff!" she exclaimed when she realized what had happened, raising her lightsaber blade again and preparing to chase down a murderer for the second time in one day. There had been so much death surrounding this already... what was happening here was spiraling out of control rapidly. She considered it her foremost responsibility as a Jedi Knight to guard life, and the fact that two people had been cut down in front of her in just a few short hours made her feel maddeningly helpless.

 

But there was still something she could do. There was still justice.

 

Mellanie seemed even more on top of it than she was. Even as she moved after the cloaked assailant, the Mandalorian planted a stun bolt on his back with yet another impressive shot. Aelyn quickly caught up with her, closing down her lightsaber blade but keeping the weapon in her right hand as she used her left to draw back the being's hood and check for signs of consciousness.

[Dante De Luca]

As Aelyn pulled back the hood, Dante squinted, recalling the facial features of this particular Skakoan he'd seen recently.

 

"Isn't that the intern from the foreman's office?"

 

He holstered his slugthrowers, allowing the other two to deal with the incapacitated assassin.

 

"And the other one mentioned shutting down the local transmitter...perhaps these droids are being controlled remotely? If so, a skilled hacker might be able to reactivate the local systems soon. Faster, if they have backdoor access or accomplices like this one here. Knight Talis's assessment is correct: we are not safe here. How should we proceed?"

 

Dante looked to Aelyn, visibly concerned, but she was in command here. They now had two leads, but both could grow cold fast. And whoever was behind this was still at large...this whole mission was beginning to uncover a conspiracy that Dante knew they shouldn't have simply stumbled across, and whoever was at the center of the spiderweb would now certainly want them dead.

[Mellanie Devanus Vevut]

Aelyn revealed the being to be Skakoan. No surprise there, Mellanie thought. What do these guys have against us anyway? Perhaps it's related to that...slime?

 

Dante identified the man, and suggested they move on. While we waited for Aelyn's decision, the Mandalorian started scanning the area. If she could find the transmitter, maybe they could take it out of commission and buy themselves more time.

[Aelyn]

"We need to get out of here," Aelyn said when everyone looked to her for a decision. She indicated the Skakoan with a scorch mark in his back. "I don't even know for sure if this one is dead. If someone can carry the stunned one back to the lift, I should be able to float the other one there with the Force. We need to get them both to the local authorities and question the assassin."

 

She looked between the two of them. "Let's move," she urged them, calling on the Force to lift the injured-or-dead being off the ground and move him back towards the elevator down as fast as she could manage. It was admittedly a bit difficult to concentrate on the task with the threat of impending danger, but this kind of application of the Force came easier to her each time she used it.

 

They managed to make the lift before the droids came back online. As soon as Aelyn set the alien down and started the lift ride back up, she pulled her commlink and called the local authorities. "This is Knight Talis. We have a casualty and an unconscious prisoner who shot him. We need an ambulance and law enforcement at shaft Besh at the quarry immediately."

 

She cut the call once they'd acknowledged. "I think our best plan is to try to question the prisoner," she told Mellanie and Dante. "In the mine the Force showed me an echo of an event where two Skakoans were talking about the recent rash of workplace accidents and how one of their agents is behind it," she explained. "They seemed afraid we would find a place they called the Foundry. I have a strong feeling that if we can find whatever that is, we will start getting some answers."

 

The lift continued up and Aelyn resisted the urge to pace anxiously, instead trying to remain calm so she could focus on what the Force was guiding her to do. It was just hard with this much on the line.

[Dante De Luca]

Dante dropped the stunned assassin on the ground gingerly but not exactly gently as they made it to the lift and began ascending.

 

"I estimate several minutes before our backup arrives. You mentioned a Foundry? I wonder if that means they brought an automated factory here. It's not uncommon in large scale operations like this, and they would have been able to produce all their needed equipment on-site. Expensive, but effective. I don't remember seeing it on the layout the foreman showed me, but that kind of facility would need a lot of space, it wouldn't be easy to hide."

 

He looked down, refocusing his optical inputs on the unconscious Skakoan.

 

"We should probably wake him, but I'd rather it were in more controlled conditions. I have no real means to wake him, though...perhaps a sharp pain? I am rather unaccustomed to interrogations."

[Mellanie Devanus Vevut]

Mellanie shrugged. "I doubt waking him will be difficult. But you're right, we shouldn't do anything until he's in a secure facility. We could take him back to the government's holding cells--unless you think they're involved with all this," she added, addressing Aelyn.

 

The lift doors hissed open before the Jedi could answer. A squad of armed police immediately aimed their blasters at the occupants, but after a tense moment, recognized them and lowered their weapons. An ambulance landed a moment later, and medical personnel piled out. Everyone was looking to the Jedi for answers and direction.

 

Mel raised an eyebrow behind her buy'ce. It was a good thing Aelyn seemed to be in charge of the situation, because someone had to be, and Mel was just glad it wasn't her.

[Aelyn]

Aelyn shrugged. "A holding cell should be fine, but interrogation is a harsh word," she said. "The Governor has her own agenda, but CoreSec won't deny us a chance to talk to the prisoner." At least she didn't think they would. So far governments seemed only too happy to work with her as a Jedi, and the Governor had requested all three of them get involved here.

 

As the lift arrived, it turned out that Dante's estimate of how long it would take CoreSec to get on site was way off and they wouldn't have a choice anyway. The place was already swarming with uniforms. Aelyn stepped forward, pointing down at the incapacitated alien at her feet, her Jedi robes brushing past him. "Here's the casualty," she called out to the officers. "See if you can get him help. This other Skakoan is the one who shot him."

 

There was a medical team on hand and they swept in to the injured being. Other officers moved to remand the prisoner, and a captain approached Aelyn. "I assume you're Knight Talis?" When she nodded, he continued. "If you don't mind, can I ask you to come with us to the station, ma'am? We need to hear your account of what happened in the mine."

 

"Of course," Aelyn answered. "I'm happy to cooperate. But I have my own investigation as well. I would like to talk to the prisoner as soon as he is in custody."

 

"I can permit you to question him once we've initially processed him," the officer answered.

 

Aelyn glanced at Dante and Mellanie. "That's fine. Let's go."

[Dante De Luca]

((Guys, I am so sorry. Last week was absolute hell for me, and I'm still picking up scraps and forging forward as best I can. I am still committed to taking this wherever you guys want this to go.))

 

Dante nodded, following Aelyn. He spoke aloud, but quietly so that few outside of earshot of the three could overhear him.

 

"I fear we are running out of time here. If there is some larger conspiracy at work, this is definitely going to draw attention in the bad kind of way. By the time we are done questioning him, whoever or whatever is behind all this is highly likely to leave and cover their tracks. I am also concerned that electronic warfare has played a significant role in the case thus far, as such I will attempt to remotely find anomalous activity and communications regarding the mine on the trip back to the station. Depending on the skill of whoever is at work here, they might be able to clean their digital footsteps very quickly."

 

With that, Dante went silent, attaching a cable from his datapad to a small port hidden under his hair near the back of his neck. He kept just enough of his focus to follow Aelyn and recognize times when he'd need to pay more attention to relevant conversations, but the majority of his attention shifted to the task he'd given himself. As the link to the holonet established, lines of code were fed directly to his consciousness, and he began sifting and untangling the mass of information swirling in his head.

[Mellanie Devanus Vevut]

After they had given statements to the police, they were cleared to see the prisoner. Dante stayed back and lifted his hair, revealing a port in the back of his neck. Mel looked on with interest. He must be a cyborg, she mused.

 

She and Aelyn continued to the cell, where the Mandalorian crossed her arms. "I'll follow your lead, Jedi," she said before they entered. "But if we need to, I'll play bad cop." She supposed that was what was to be done in this situation. She hadn't ever interrogated anyone before, but she assumed the Jedi, even though she was new at this, had.

[Aelyn]

While Dante got to work on his alternate solution, Aelyn busied herself as much as she could by interacting with the CoreSec officers.

 

Unfortunately other than getting her telling of events down in the mine, they mostly seemed to want her to wait around. Whatever they thought of the trustworthiness of a Jedi Knight, it was clear they wanted to hear each individual's telling of the event individually to make sure they got the most accurate version of it. The prisoner himself was whisked off to some other part of the precinct when they arrived, still unconscious from the stun blast or just starting to come around. Aelyn was confident that justice would eventually find its way to him, but the law was slow and her matter was urgent.

 

And so when an officer finally came down the hallway to where she was sitting, she immediately perked up. "Can I see him now?" she asked.

 

The officer nodded. "You and your associates are cleared to question him, Knight Talis," he responded. "But he hasn't been the most forthcoming. Please come this way."

 

The cop led the way to a part of the hallway with two adjacent doors. He opened one of them, showing that it led to an observation area with a one-way pane for viewing into what was behind the second door -- a small room with a table and a stun-cuffed Skakoan sitting stoically behind it, another one standing behind him equally stoically. "That's his legal counsel," the officer stated, pointing at the standing one through the pane. "I'll be watching in here. You might consider not all going in at once."

 

Mellanie offered to play bad cop, and Aelyn shrugged. "Um, okay," she said, thinking about the holofilms where she'd seen this done. "Maybe you two observe with the officer here. If I'm not getting anywhere, I'll make up an excuse to step out for a moment and we can switch."

 

A moment later she opened the door and tried to look confident. "Hi there," she said lightly to the two aliens inside as she moved to sit down. "We met down in the mines but I'm afraid we didn't get to introductions. I'm Jedi Knight Aelyn Talis, and I have a few questions."

[Zalis Krales]

Zalis found herself sitting within a room filled with a mixed group of individuals. She eyed the crowd as small talk was already ensuing. Directly to her right was Bakkull the Hutt and his traveling crew. The orange and turquoise Hutt seemed to be dozing in and out of sleep and beyond bored by the small talk. He brought with him a female H’nemthe, two male Barabels and a male Gran. The H’nemthe kept her eyes locked on Zalis, to which she found slightly amusing. Next was the Pykes. Graak sat with a group of seven behind him, the largest showing of force. She cared little for whatever looks they threw her way. Next to them was the Crymorah family. Phoosk, the overly muscled Rodian sat with two Weequay and a Wookiee behind him. But not just any Wookiee. He had managed to recruit the dark furred Jathrrro to his entourage. That fact alone worried her slightly, but not enough for her to show anything. To her direct left was Kivro, the Zeltron leader of Crimson Dawn. He brought two droids and a blue S’kytri with him. 

 

Behind her stood Ve Livan, the Yarkora she had managed to pick up during the fiasco that took place at Outer Haven, which was the whole reason the families were gathered. She also had about six droids out on her ship, but only Ve did she bring in. The display of force seemed rather compensating and didn't at all provide anything to what was being presented on the table today. Granted, she also knew and understood why others did what they did. Her show of one was a power move alone in itself to the rest of the group, and one that she was sure was a part of the quiet side conversations that didn’t involve her. She looked out the window for a moment, one of the only catina’s with an elevated room in Dearic, which her view overlooked the Akazi plains. As she stared out the window, a voice suddenly broke through her own thoughts. 

 

“... And a show of Imperial allied forces gives weight that Zalis knowingly broke the truce by removing competition from herself, giving Black Sun a complete upper hand in moving her goods throughout the galaxy!” Graak made an emphasis to his point by slamming his hand hard upon the table. Zalis annoyingly turned her head to look directly at him. The Pykes were locked tightly in the expansion race with Black Sun and Crimson Dawn. The Hutts didn’t seem to care so much about the affairs of the other syndicates, but rather maintaining their own few ports. How they managed to hold Nal Hutta and Nar Shaddaa with the Imperial forces holding base there seemed to be a mystery to her. She turned to look at Phoosk to see what sort of indication he would have on the development. Almost as if on cue, he spoke rather bounty to everyone. 

 

“Imperial forces or even those allied to them does not point to Zalis, Graak. There are many things here that need to be discussed, finger pointing isn’t one of them. Black Sun lost the Kessel mines to the Imperial Allied forces a while back if you remember, along with the Black Sun fleet getting into such a messy situation along with the Jedi at Dark Sun Station… Zalis has been hard at work covering Black Sun from the eyes of the Imperials. She wouldn’t risk calling them in to remove competition for her.” The Rodian turned and offered a smile to Zalis, a sloppy one at best. She kept her annoyed face present. She decided to take her own turn in talking to keep things from spiraling away from what was indeed a bigger problem. 

 

“I was present at Outer Haven. They moved in quickly and hard. I barely got out, and anyone else who got out indeed fled to ground quickly. The population that didn’t make it out… as soon as they can they will. Calmin turned that place into a drive of dependency upon the vices of life. And the downfall of that place isn’t worth noting, outside of more outlets opening up. No one here owned that area or had any claims upon it. The freeing up that it does is open to all of us, outside of a selling point. And I was sent there to deliver a ton of spice to Calmin to collect a debt for Mamoi. If I had been caught, it would have fully ended Black Sun. Luckily, I avoided being caught on any camera and avoided patrols while there. But it doesn’t take much thought or intelligence to realize that Mamoi sent me there to get caught. It brings up a major concern. Are the powers that be on Nar Shaddaa really getting brave enough to take us on like that?”

 

<< We have been pinned on Nal Hutta for some time. Nar Shaddaa’s markets have gone to lower levels with fear of the Imperials and their damn knights purging our crews daily. It makes us want to reconsider our deal of letting each family have a place on Tatooine. I am very grateful that our operations on Bothawui and Ryloth have not been discovered yet. And there is rumor of war coming directly at the Imperials over our space… >>

 

“Maybe you should expand in our direction. Crimson Dawn isn’t afraid of what those dogs can do. Base yourself on a planet like Dathomir and you’ll do just fine. We only have to worry about Black Sun attempting to step on our toes, to which they have come close…” Zalis leaned in now with a smile towards the Zeltron. “Oh, poor Kivro, afraid your pheromones aren’t enough to keep your clientele? Is Taris too close to your precious Mandalore? Take a hint you doshing bantha, beskar isn’t there anymore. And even if you did find any, you’ll need a Mandalorian to forge it. You’re better off reviving slave trading on Thalassia.” 

 

“ZALIS. Enough. All of you. Your points are taken.” Graak repositioned himself before continuing. “As the eldest member of this family, I think that we are all within a new game here. While I don’t think anyone has an answer or solutions yet, the very fact that Outer Haven was taken down does show us something. The Imperials are no longer stagnant towards us. The Sith Empire may have lost it’s drive, giving more opportunity for the Imperials to target our families. For now, this is what I’m proposing until we know more of what is shaking out. Kivro, start moving your mobile captains into positions to help aid the Hutts in getting their feet back on the ground. Bakkull, get off Nar Shaddaa. Let a power vacuum take place there to see how the Imperials respond. Phoosk, I need for you to help find new trade routes for the Pykes to move spice again. Your teams always tend to have an ear to the ground. Zalis, for now, you can stay put with Black Sun. But use your other companies to stir the pot if you can. Keep the Imperial integlinece off of us as we make these moves. Does everyone agree to these terms? At least for the next three standard months?”

 

Zalis watched everyone first as they all slowly agreed. She felt uneasy about it, as there seemed to be too much room to operate for her while others didn't. It almost felt like a trap. She couldn’t decide if it was worth agreeing to these terms or not, but when everyone now turned towards her, she decided to slowly nod her own head. While it may be a trap for her, she had the resources to keep herself a step ahead, just as soon as she found out what the actual trap was.