Episode 2: My Kind Of Party

[Azaria]

[KendleRJ]

"The man's a drinker... can't hold his liquor, can he?" Boomer gave a measured look at the others. "He'd need someone to help him back to his quarters instead of lying on the deck somewhere, embarrassing the Empire..." She grinned for a brief moment and then shrugged. "Lesser of two evils... sorry I acted before consulting the consortium. I thought a quorum was only for the Imperial Senate, and isn't that sort of what we're doing here in a half-assed way?"

Tags (or no)

No time to dwell on what might have been, or what wonderful possibilities might have come... because not a single one of them was acting as a team, or a whole. They were just piece meal, and if she had to stay behind in order to cover their collective asses, then, well, she would. She'd already set up a contingency for them all to escape, in case they couldn't find a better way out. And now, she was paired with the 'consummate professional'. Why was she so not impressed? She took a deep breath, and hefted the rest of her bombs to set. She guessed that the Night Witch was not on their menu. Sighing inwardly, she referenced her own layout.

"C'mon, Harvey," she said under her breath. "Let's get our part done." Nodding to the others, Boomer said, "See you on the Bridge."

~Tags Team Sabotage / Team Finesse

[BanksAT]

[T-Prime]

[KendleRJ]

"I'm detecting a degree of hostility, here." Jarion observed, "I'd save your ire for the imperials who are about to jump down our throats."

"Special reading you took?" Boomer said easily and leaned down to place the next charge.

The was a voltage spike in Jarion's ocular implant, and that always meant trouble was coming.

"If anyone else asks, the security phrase for this section today is Imperius 2-3-7-8." He announced to them all. Had he managed to get that information just a half second sooner they might have avoided this potentially dicey situation. This was why Jarion had always worked alone.

If anyone asked, she'd give the code. And without an attitude. If he wanted hostility, she could oblige. But she grudgingly admitted that he was right... focus on the task at hand, and then worry about the rest. It would have been better had she trusted even one of them to do what they said that they might, but no one had proved themselves yet. Even Harvey.

But, the night was young.

~Tags Jarlion / Everyone

[T-Prime]

[KendleRJ]

"Nothing quite so fancy." Jarion admitted, "Though you are agitating slightly in the infrared range. Might want to get that looked at."

"Why Harvey," Boomer said, her eyes twinkling beneath her hat, "I do believe you just said I was hot." She bit her lip and grinned wryly, moving to the next location, and setting the next charge.

Tags Everybody

[T-Prime]

Jarion was formulating a scathing reply to Boomer's banter when the soft sounds of footsteps echoed into his cybernetically enhanced ears. Once again he chastised himself for not paying attention earlier and letting the ill-fated Captain sneak up on them.

"Incoming." His whispered up the ladder.

Jarion had a blaster in one hand, and his stunner was primed in the other. The discharge from either would disrupt his stealth field, maybe even set off the alarm. Hopefully it wouldn't come to that.

[Melissa Richards]

The party was getting rather boring to Sayana. She kept enough back from Tav to continue her chore of watching her. It really was quite a chore. Her skilfull eyes took in the whole picture watching for anything out of the ordinary. Still no signs of trouble. There didn't seem to be a real timetable here, or if there was, maybe it wasn't being stuck to. Or, it could be their paying leader was waiting for the others to make their move before Team Finese made theirs?

That last minute arrival who had joined the team was also someone to be wary of. She watched him too out of the corner of her eyes, looking straight ahead, a ready hand ever close to her weapons of choice, but never touching them or the knife so as to stay away from suspicion...

tags

[Sjet]

TEAM FINESSE

The ringing of a wine glass filled the hell, silencing all conversation and bringing to the attention of all a single man. His features were regal, if slightly overwrought, as though he was attempting to out do everyone in the hall in looking aristocratic. Of average height, and bearing a head of long blonde locks, he smiled down from a raised dais with a beneficent smile on his face. Were it not for the dark grey Imperial uniform he wore the man would have fit in perfectly with the aristocrats gathered here. But then again Moff Kuras had been chosen from one of Kuat’s lesser noble houses for that purpose: to a bridge between the fiercely independent Kuati families who ran the shipyards and the Imperial government who ruled them.

“Ladies and gentlemen.” he said in exacting pronunciation, as though working hard to smooth out the high brow Kuati accent that fought to emerge from a cultured Imperial throat “I am pleased to see so many of the Empires loyalists here among you tonight. What I am less pleased about, I am sorry to say, is that there is an rebel plot amongst us.”

To Dexon’s credit, he hid the wince well.

“There are those among you who recall, romantically as the past should always be, the halcyon of the Old Republic. Its splendor and grandeur a beacon to all civilised societies as to how order and peace could be achieved.” Moff Kuras continued, taking a sip from his wine glass “And yet...was it not such a Republic that allowed corruption and rivalry to undermine its rule? Was it not that same Republic that allowed a powerful paramilitary force to upshur the law in favor of its own? The justice of a lightsaber is final and swift, with no room for appeal or mercy. The Republic is recall in our minds as it should have been, but not as it was. That dream of a new Republic free of corruption and megalomania will never come to pass, not until we realise it has in the form of our glorious Galactic Empire. Those romantics and dreamers who recall only the parts of the dream they wish to remember, want to bring the Empire to its knees by murdering countless civilians in their terrorist attacks. They hide as sneak thieves in allies, awaiting a chance to strike and murder.”

He smiled thinly, gesturing to one of his underlings.

“Tonight it is my honour, as a native of Kuat, and as serving Imperial officer in service of our Emperor, to present to you the newest weapon in peace and prosperity.” he said, his voice rising as a deep rumble began to shake the room slightly. The party goers all looked to one another, and Team Finesse shared a quick glance to make sure Stormtroopers were flooding into the chamber to arrest them. It was only then that Dexon noticed two things: the ceiling was getting higher, and the large armored view ports over the wall to ceiling windows were beginning to rise up. Like a syringe plunger being drawn up, the floor was sinking into a recessed room below the ball room, dropping down into a armoured coupla that pushed out into the centre of the construction yard.

All around the party goers was revealed the massive internal space of the construction yard, its five massive conical berths light with high intensity lighting arrays and the busied industry of thousands of workers. And largest of all was the iron grey prow of a finished interdictor cruiser, its massive gravity well generators glossy and new like boils on a buttock. The name ‘Stellar Web’ could be seen painted on the pointed bow in blocky letters. Dexon frowned at that, recalling the name of the finished Interdictor cruiser as ‘Night Witch’ not ‘Stellar Web’.. He turned to make sure his confusion was mirror in the face of distant Tav or murderous Shadow, only to see…

He turned his head to the other side, as many others were doing, peering into the five cone like hollows of the ship yards construction berths. for in each bearth, attended by small craft and droid workers, were FIVE finished and operational Interdictor Cruisers: Stellar Web, Steel Breeze, Constrictor, Midnight Queen and the Night Witch. The intel report had read one finished prototype, and four barely started hulls with months left until they were even ready for their space trails.

Not even Boomer, impressive though her resume` was, could bring to bear firepower of a magnitude fit to destroy a extra quartet of Imperial warships.

“The Interdictor Cruiser will be a tool of peace that will see traitors and rebels alike pulled from their dark holes and brought into the light of fair Imperial justice. No longer will a Jedi’s blade or the open bribe hungry palm of a Republic administrator be ready to decide the fate of nerdowells. To night we will witness the launch of true justice into the galaxy!” Moff Kuras finished, raising his glass in triumphant toast.

There was riotous applause, both from the Kuati nobles who were seeing credit signs before their eyes with new ship orders, and from the Imperial officer roped in to pad the party out with Moff Kuras supporters. In that moment Dexon leaned over and whispered into Lucky Dex’s ear.

“We’re going to need a bigger bomb.”

“This project could not have been completed without the tireless work of brave men and women of foresight and integrity. And we have one of them here today: might I present Chief Scientist Dandmar Beswick. Loyal son of the Empire, and father of new age of peace.” Moff Kuras smiled, and with a wave of his hand indicated a man with a smooth almost hairless physique in a formal looking smock. He stood to one side of the room, looking for all the world like one of the serves with his near full glass in hand.

“Now, please, continue with the celebration. in a short while you will be among the first to see these ships launch on their missions of peace, and I am honoured to have you here for their commissioning.” Moff uras stepped off the dais and was immedaitly intercpted by Colonel Verrs, his aide de camp. A hurried and whispered conversation ended with a snarled hiss from the Moff, who stormed out of the party with his aide in tow.

“Damn that Needa!” Kuras growled as he pushed past Shadow with as much force as was polite for the setting “Why they put a booze hound in command of my new cruisers I’ll never know! I want him found Verr’s and propped up on the bridge of the Night Witch for the launch ceremony. We have an hour before those ships must be underway, and I will not have my word besmirched by his need to empty every bottle of that golden tap water he can find!”

TAG-Shadow and Tav, you have found your target in the hairless scientist: enjoy.

+++

TEAM SABOTAGE

Boot heels turned slowly into whispered discussion, and around the corner walked a pair of technicians in white smocks and clean room bag booties. The two human men were in a animated discussion, hands moving the air before them to illustrate points and references.

“Your hypothesis is flawed, and you should feel bad.”
“Well at least I’m not parroting word for word what another person has told me! Verifying first hand data is good scientific process-”
“For a first year student from Myrst University, sure. But given the work The Professor has been doing for us, and the leaps and bounds his theories are allowing us to make, we can’t wait around to verify his data.”
“Hyperspace theory states-”
“Ebbers First Law states the same, but allows for a null field gravitational lensing effect to be used. If we apply the Professors gravimetric data to Ebbers First, as I suggested to Commander Needa before you chased him off about that stupid party, we could revolutionise the Imperial Fleet! Hutt Spit! We could revolutionise the galax-...hey what are you lot doing here?”
“Yes what Kuati Drive Yard workers doing here?”
“You’re not meant to be here.”
“But they are here, so obviously they're meant to be here.”
“I was getting to it.”
“In your usual long winded way. They're probably here to sort out the air circulation system in the Professors chambers.”
“I thought that would be a Imperial fleet issue?”
“Do you want me to recite the fleet manual to you? I swear if you weren’t my bunk mate I’d have thrown you out an airlock.”
“Why I never!”
“I’m shocked you ever have considering your blindness to Ebbers First Law of hyperspace physics that any deck hand knows off by heart.”

The two techs, now stood with Team Sabotage to the front and Jarion hidden behind them, regarded the motley crew for a moment. The first one, the one with the high preaching tone and the optics over his eyes, reached into a pocket and pulled out a data card and placed it in Azaria’s hands.

“This. Is. Data card.” he said in the slow fashion of a parent talking to a simple child “Will. Make. Door. Technical. Cell. Four. Open. Fix-”

“Oh for the love of binary!” the second one snapped, a rotund pigish fellow who glowered at Boomer “Fix the damn air circulator or I’ll have you reported to Commander Needa. The cells down the corridor on the left, the card will let you in. And remember, do not speak to the...Professor. Understand?”

TAG-Team Sabotage...whats this? But surely the head scientists is at the party?