Death in the Sky: Session 6

This was a little short since we had to play on a weeknight due to conflicting schedules over the weekend.

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Ellors watched, fascinated as Nei sang to her computer in the light tones of the Omwati language. Nei looked at Ellors and smiled. After she was sure he was not paying attention, she gave a command that she had built into her device that would show code input on the screen. While this was happening, Nei took the opportunity to install an obfuscated backdoor that could only be accessed (and therefore detected) by using an Omwati interface. With that done, Nei continued working on the code. Once she was finished, she looked over a Ellors.

"So, do I get to see how you formed that security field? That was quite impressive."

"Oh...that..." said Ellors, mysteriously. "That was simply a field jammer that I...modified." Ellors, turned to look at the code that Nei had added to the system. "I see what you did there," he said pointing to a subroutine Nei had added. Nei got was a little nervous because that was the subroutine that contained the backdoor, but she didn’t show it. "You’re adding a layer of encryption to every access to our holonet address. Very nice."

"Well, it should prevent further slicing from other individuals such as myself."

"Indeed it should, I’ll let Mr. Orden know that you have sealed our security hole," Ellors said as he punched a few keys into his pad. Suddenly the door opened and Odon was standing there.

"Right this way, Ms. Sobri," Odon said as he stepped to the side and motioned into the hallway.

"So, I don’t get to see the field jammer, then?" Nei said sadly as she stood.

"There is no time for that, Ms. Sobri," Odon said. "If you’d please come with me."

Nei turned and followed Odon out of the room.

Dex and Liora, could see a door-droid standing at the Skera Heights, where Odon’s penthouse was located.

"We need to check and see if this place is up to code. Let us in." Dex said as he hurriedly approached the door-droid with a slightly grumpy attitude.

Satisfied with Dex’s explanation, the droid stepped to the side as the door slid open. "You will find the superintendent’s office down the hall and to the right, sir. Suite 1019," it said as the mechanical hat on its head tipped.

"Sigh. Thank you, Mr. Doorbot," Dex sighed as he walked through the door.

"No problem, sir. Please, my designation is 3n-7ry. Most people call me 3n for short."

Inside, the apartment foyer evoked the architecture that was popular in the Republic about 1500 years ago, if Dex was not mistaken. However, either the building had been deliberately built in the retro style, or the lift system, computer network interfaces, and security systems had received some serious upgrades. There were comfortable looking sofas built into the corner looking out over the street. Near the sofas was a front desk. A screen on the wall displayed a directory of the residents, and next to that was a row of lifts ready to take anyone to the appropriate floor.

"Alright, Liora, we now have two options. Either go floor by floor, or we try to locate Nei through research."

"Let's try to locate Nei." Liora responded to Dex.

Dex continued walking to the front desk, and asked the receptionist, "Where do you keep your main computer, we’re here to inspect the datacore and make sure it’s functioning within acceptable peramiters, I’d hate for it to shut down, or worse blow the whole place to bits. Or you could just let me sign off on it without actually checking anything, its up to you."

"Hmm," the receptionist said, checking her schedule. "I don’t see us scheduled for an inspection today. Who sent you?"

"Well of course it isn’t scheduled! Who schedules a surprise inspection? There are lives at stake here, and all you care about are schedules! I’m half tempted to just leave and file a report on you!"

"Oh, you bureaucrat types are all the same," she said. "You all think that your little bit of the pie is so important. Well let me tell you what. I’ve been here for 3 years and I have never heard> of a surprise data core inspection."

"Look, I’m having a long day. I’m not a bureaucrat. Look at my clothes. I only have this job because I know machines and didn’t have any other job. If I mess up, they’ll likely fire me, and I’ll be back on the street selling death sticks. So, please just let me take a quick look at the main computer." Dex pleaded somberly.

The receptionist looked at Dex and her face softened a little. "Okay, I’ll let you in this time, but remember to schedule the inspection next time," she said as she grabbed an ID badge, swiped it and handed it to Dex.

"thank you."

No session this week

We didn't have a session this week because one of the player's had a conference to go to. This gave me the opportunity to get to the nearest Free RPG Day vendor and pick up a couple of goodies. I got the Battletech/Shadowrun quickstart and the 13th Age adventure.

Death in the Sky: Session 5

Nei paused for a moment to collect her thoughts, trying to weigh how dangerous he was. He is presumably very high-ranking if not the head of the Black Sun. Should I feign ignorance? No, that would not do well. The truth, then. "Well, to be honest, you're security is quite complex as it is. If it had not been for the particular program I used, your database would not have been compromised. I was trying to find information on Mr. Pell's speeder crash and sent a complex search program that inadvertently infiltrated your database. I can help your slicer design a security specifically against my program. Or I can sincerely promise not to slice through your database. I have never broken my word."

"Oh, no, my dear," the noble said. "I need you to fill whatever holes in my security grid that you found. If you are agreeable to my terms, I can get you started right away."

"What are you terms?" Nei asked hesitantly.

Darro settled into the oversized back of his chair and placed his hands on his lap. "In return for your arms remaining attached to your body, you will upgrade my security grid as much as your abilities allow."

Nei thought for only a moment. "If I can work with your slicer, I am sure our combined effort will provide a very strong security grid."

"Agreed," said Darro as he held out his hand to Nei.

Nei reached forward, but paused, "What happens after your security grid is fixed?"

"That depends on the quality of your work," Darro said as he motioned Odon to take Nei away. "Take her to Ellors and see if she can do anything with him."

 

"Khrad and Odon…" Zhar'sara said as she tilted her head as if trying to recall the names. "I can't place them, but our organization is large, and I don't know every associate by name." A datapad appeared as she pulled it from a compartment in her desk and she began typing into it.

""Wait, you mean you aren't all friends on the holonet?" Dex said sarcastically.

Liora just sat listening patiently while Dex was gathering useful information.

"Do you have any logs with names, that we can go through? any records?" Dex asked.

"You are free to use my system to access it. Just don't do anything that will get me into trouble, Dex."

"I never do anything troublesome."

"Sure," the Twi'lek winked as she passed the datapad to Dex. She stood up and walked to the door. Looking over her shoulder she said, "I have to go check on things in the bar, but make yourselves at home." With that she walked out of the office and the door slid shut behind her.

Dex took the liberty of sitting back at her desk. He grabbed her datapad and leaned back, resting his legs on the desk. He took a glance at what it was that Zhar'sara had typed before leaving hoping it was a message.

Careful, Dex, they are Darro Orden's top torpedoes. Dex had just enough time to read it before the message dissolved, and the datapad showed a standard interface screen.

Liora scooted her chair closer to Dex so she could see the datapad. "What did you just read?"asked Liora.

"Hmm? Oh, no its just a picture of Zhar'sara. But there's nothing on here, lets try the library." Rising from the desk, Dex set the datapad down.

"Alright." responded Liora while following Dex's lead and stood up to follow him out of the office.

They left the club, and got into a new taxi. Dex instructed the driver to take them a block away from Darro's apartment.

 

Odon took Nei to a room that had some of the most impressive equipment Nei had seen in a while. It was dark, or would be if it weren't for a dozen or two screens and holo projectors lighting up the room. In the center of all of it, a thin human sat.

He was facing away from the door, but as it opened he said, "Hey, Odon, is this the slicer that got into my system earlier?"

"Don't give me that, Ellorrs. You know who she was. You probably heard the entire conversation." Turning to Nei, Odon said, "Nei, meet Ellorrs Trehalt. He's the best slicer Mr. Orden has been able to hire. Once you get over his skills, you'll find he's just a cocky kid."

"A pleasure as always, Odon." Ellorrs said as the door closed a little early on Odon. "Sorry about that, I'll have to get that bug worked out!" he yelled after the door shut. "I like to mess with him, he can be a bit stuck up," chuckled Ellors. Turning around, Nei could see that Ellorrs was wearing a pair of custom data-goggles. The slicer took them off and looked at Nei for a second. "Hmm, you're prettier in person than the HoloVid."

"Thank you? HoloVid's are usually not the best relayers of tridimensional images, although Professor Allacorps has made surprisingly effective strides in that field. Did design your data-goggles yourself? What filament did you use?"

"Why yes, I did build them. They use a Tramar Siquil filament," Ellors said as he turned the goggles over in his hands. "Come on, let me show you the system."

"Indeed. We should begin. Your security grid is one the most impressive I have encountered!"

"Thanks, wasn't quite good enough though," Ellorrs said.

"Nothing is ever perfect, especially technology."

Turning to the nearest holo readout, Ellorrs began touching it. "This is the primary system control," he continued, tapping an orange box in the hologram which expanded until it engulfed the whole hologram. "Here is the firewall array. This one," he pointed at a red one, "is the one that you breached. I built and coded them myself. 90% of the hardware are Cyrim 569.2s, but I cross-compiled them for the Yanar Digital 2208 processor."

"Impressive! I'd like to take a look at the source code. Perhaps I'll be able to see something that can be optimized," Nei pulled out datapad and attached her Omwati interface.

"What's that?" Ellorrs asked.

 

The taxi came to a rest in an expensive neighborhood, and Dex and Liora stepped out. Darro Orden's skyscraper was visible towering over all the other buildings around. Dex and Liora got out of the taxi (Liora paid the driver, while Dex stared off into the distance). Once the Taxi had taken off, Dex spoke, "Those goons work for Darro Orden. That skyscraper is Darro's, his apartment is inside. don't mention his name, or black sun. There's a chance Nei is in there.. or dead. and it's likely we'll be dead if we go in there and say the wrong thing.. or look at the wrong person. you ready to go rescue our friend from the tower of doom?" Dex gave Liora an unenthusiastic half smirk. "How about I just keep following your lead. Since, ya know, I know nothing about dealing with this level of rabel." Liora quietly said to dex.

"Here's the plan, we walk in like we know what we're doing, all confident like. Once inside we'll figure out what to do. when someone tries to attack, we'll just kick em in the face.. wait no thats a horrible plan. let's just stick to looking like we know what we're doing."

"Face kicking, good plan!" Liora replied with a laugh. "Sure we totally know what we're doing." Liora retorted sarcastically.

as they were about to enter the building Dex suggested one last tip, "oh and dont have any negative thoughts." He then opened the door and walked forward while casually surveying the layout.

Death in the Sky: Session 4

As Dex was approaching the hangar where the speeder was, Liora appeared from an alley and motioned Dex to follow her. Wondering why Nei wasn't with her, Dex followed.

Around the corner when Liora felt safe enough to talk she'd related all the information of Nei's abduction to Dex. Liora then told him that they were members of the Black Sun.

"And why didn't you two drive off? I gave you the keys for a reason." Dex said irritated.

"Oops! I forgot about them," shrieked Liora as she reached into her pouch and felt the keys. "I was sitting in the back," she stated in her defense.

Dex slapped his forehead and sighed, "So now we can't just tip toe around the Black Sun while investigating, we have to go knock on their front door and ask 'Hello! You kidnapped our friend earlier. Is there any chance you haven't killed or sold her yet? And, if she's still safe, could we have her back?' I have a feeling this won't end well."

"Well, I'm just not sure how to fix this. Don't you have someone you can contact to try to get her back?" asked Liora.

"I may be able to convince someone, but most of the people I used to know aren't overjoyed with me," Dex replied.

"Anything is worth a try to get Nei back, since Malik will be very upset that we let the best slicer at the office be person-napped," Liora reminded Dex.

Dex grunted, and if his eyes weren't a solid color, they would have rolled. He started walking down the street, "Follow me. Zhar'sara may be able to help."

"Jerk....Let's just try to retrieve her!" Liora slightly shouted at him. Liora followed without another word to Dex.

Dex hailed an air taxi and gave the pilot the destination for Zhar'sara's neighborhood.

Nei awoke in a dark room. Dim, purple light filtered in from panels at the base of the walls. She wasn't sure how long she'd been out or where she was. She remembered Khrad grabbing her and injecting her with a hypo-syringe. The last thing she saw as she lost consciousness was Liora jumping out of the speeder and running.

"Ugh...Where am I?" She wondered aloud as she sat up and her head swam a bit. She took inventory of her belongings and found that her datapad and her emergency communicator were there, but there was a security field keeping them from connecting to the holonet. "Well, can't call out, then."

As her eyes focused and adjusted to the odd color, she could tell that the room was about 3 meters by 2 meters. There was a disposer and a hover-buffer. It appeared she was in a janitorial locker. The door at the end was sealed, but it did not seem like the room was meant to hold someone for an extended period of time.

I wonder, would it be more prudent to attempt escape and hope for the best or to wait and not antagonize my captors. A wise decision requires more information. Who could the boss be? She pulled out her datapad and began searching through the data stored on there for any clue as to the identities of either Khrad or Odon. The data on Deell's gambling debt that her search had returned had come from a highly secured datastore. When she checked her logs to see where that data had come from. It was definitely a secret Black Sun datastore that she had compromised, and someone had noticed.

"Oh, bother." Well, that explains it. I should have been more careful with the camouflage program. Maybe I can calmly explain that I was not after them...Yes, of course that will work. Wait, now my inner thoughts sound as sarcastic as Liora and Dex. I've been around them too long... Nei began probing the security field for weaknesses, looking for a backdoor or a way to forge an access code, but to no avail. They must have an extremely competent slicer. Hat's off to you, sir. She then turned her attention to the physical door, first pressing her ear to the door listening for any sounds without.

Nei heard footsteps getting louder and then stop just outside the door. She quickly and silently returned to the position in which she awoke, replacing her datapad in her pouch.

The door opened and revealed Odon standing at the door.

 

The air taxi came to a rest in a very busy district. Even though it was night, the light from the curbside stores was so bright you couldn't tell. Zhar'sara's bar was called "The Silver Swoop" and was about half a block down the street.

"Alright, this time stay close, I don't need two missing persons," Dex said as he paid the taxi and started walking towards the bar.

"Okay." was Liora's response and the only word she had spoken to Dex since getting into the air taxi. She then walked behind him very closely.

Once inside Dex saw the bar was still as busy as it had been when he worked there. Over in the corner there were the gambling tables where Dex had made and lost a couple of fortunes. There were screens showing up with various sporting events throughout the galaxy. One was the Boonta Eve Classic that had the interesting twist this year that a human boy was participating. This, of course, was a pirated signal from Hutt space, but Zhar'sara had ways of getting around that.

In an effort to seem at least some what inconspicuous, Dex went to the bar and ordered a Selonian Black Hole. The bartender turned to make the drink. Liora followed Dex's lead, took a seat and ordered the same drink to keep from looking out of place. The bartender looked up from Dex's drink and nodded.

The noise level in the bar increased noticeably as a spectacular crash appeared in the podrace on the screen. Suddenly all the screens replayed the crash, and the bartender motioned for Dex and Liora into a door.  The duo quickly and quietly moved through the doorway.

The hallway on the other side of the door was a stark contrast to the room they had just been in. Where everything was bright and promoted an jovial atmosphere in the the bar, the hallway was dim, and sparsely decorated. Dex knew that the bar was a facade. The real business was done back here. He made his way to the end of the hall and the door swooshed open revealing Zhar'sara's personal office.

Her office was starkly decorated just as the hallway had been. As long as he knew her, Zhar'sara had been all about business.

"Dex, old friend, what brings you to the Swoop today?" she asked as she looked up from a pile of datapads sitting on her desk and rested her elbows on the desk with her hands folded underneath her chin. Her lekku fell gracefully down her back. "Did you come to ask for your job back? I always have a few people that are a little behind on their bills."

"you dont need me, im sure if you just asked politely, they would give you more than they owed. But what i'm here for has to do with your friends.. and one of mine. she was taken earlier, along with my speeder. I don't suppose you've heard anything about this?" Dex explained.

Zhar'sara nodded her head. "I haven't heard anything about it, but if my friends are involved, I would suggest you tread carefully. They make mistakes sometimes and pick up the wrong person, but they do not like those mistakes pointed out. Those mistakes have a tendency to be erased," she said.

"That's why i came to you. I was hoping you could help me handle this quietly. No one needs to get hurt. You know me. I don't have any friends that could do any damage, so the whole ordeal could be easily forgotten by both sides."

The orange Twi'lek sighed, dropped her hands to her desk, and said, "I'll look into it for you, but only because I like you, Dex. I'm not going to promise you anything, and I'm not going to stick my neck out for you too much if it comes to that. So, who is it that was taken?"

"Her name is Nei Sobri. She's an Omwati. Two goons took her outside of a tavern while I was inside."

"A Trandoshan female named Khrad and a Devaronian male named Odon," chimed in Liora.

 

Nei let Odon shake her just long enough for it to appear that she had been asleep.

"Ugh, my head...where am I?" Nei reenacted her original waking moments.

"That's not important right now. Here. Drink this," the Devaronian said as he handed Nei a cup filled with a sweet smelling liquid.

"What is it? Not to be rude, but I am not in the habit of ingesting unknown substances."

"It's a little serum to relieve the effects of the drugs we had to inject into you."

"Indeed. In that case, thank you," Nei replied as she took the drink and tasted the sweet beverage before draining the cup. "Now what happens? I assume I have been brought here to meet your boss who wishes to remain anonymous. Should I expect a brief interview and dismissal or a more eventual release?"

"The Boss never told me why he wants to meet you. He just told me to pick you up and bring you here," said Odon.

"Indeed. When, then, will I be so privileged with his acquaintance?"

"Now that you're awake, he's ready to see you now," Odon gestured towards the door.

Nei stood up. "Lead the way, then, Odon. I must admit I am rather intrigued." I also want to meet your slicer! To see through my camouflage and create such an effective barrier... As Nei followed Odon out of the closet, her mind became somewhat giddily preoccupied.

Outside the hallway was a very expensive looking apartment. Odon led Nei down the hallway to a lift and pressed a button to call the lift. When it appeared, he ushered her in and keyed a code into the security pad on the inside. The lift began moving upwards. After several minutes, the lift came to a stop and the door opened. The suite outside the lift was about half a mile above the nominal surface of Coruscant and a wide vista of buildings could be seen out the windows. An older human with short cropped hair sat behind a large desk. It was Darro Orden, a wealthy noble from Corellia.

"Ms. Sobri, so glad you could join me today. I've been looking forward to meeting you. Please have a seat," Darro said as he gestured to one of the seats in front of his desk.

"Thank you," Nei replied as she did so. "I am afraid I cannot return the sentiment - I had no plans to make your acquaintance, this evening, Mr. Orden. My only assumption is that perhaps this is related to the investigation I and my partners have been conducting. Perhaps you were a business partner of Mr. Pell?"

"I never met the late Mr. Pell," responded Darro. "I invited you here to address the matter of a breach in my security system. I thought you might have some insight into how I might keep it from recurring." The old man flashed a very devious smile that reminded Nei of a street cat when it had cornered a small rodent.

Death in the Sky: Session 3

The speeder glided smoothly as Dex deftly maneuvered in and around the skyways of Coruscant until finally coming to a rest in hangar of the Green Glowstone Tavern.

"You two stick together, this place is kinda shady." Dex warned his two partners as he hopped out of the speeder, and strolled into the tavern.

"I will stay here.  I need to write a subroutine to slice the central database that will look for and collate data on 'KV'", Nei stated as she continued working on her datapad.

Liora pulled out her datapad to check to see if she had received the autopsy pictures from her informant yet. The holo-images had appeared, the body of Pell was clearly identifiable, but the body of Aschansa had been so mutilated it took DNA testing simply to determine that it was in fact the body of a Gran.

Turning back Dex said, "Then you two should stay with the speeder.  Here are the keys.. Oh! And if anyone drives up and offers you something, don't go near them."

"Yeah, yeah as if we don't know not to talk to strangers in a shady part of town," Liora said in a mocking tone.

As Dex walked up to the door of the Tavern, a female Herglic stopped him. "What's your business in here?" she asked.

"Oh, you know, I heard this place had the best soup in the sector, so I just simply had to try some of it and see if it was good enough to bring my mother here. She hasn't been feeling too good lately. See, she went swimming last week and caught pneumonia," Dex said sarcastically.

The large Herglic leaned in to Dex's face. "Sorry, bub, this joint ain't mom-friendly. Breeze off," she said as she motioned with her thumb down the alley.

"Now don't be that way. I've been here before, I just want to relax a little bit with a friend I'm meeting here," Dex assured the guard.

The guard relaxed a little, "Glad to see you have a little honesty in you. Don't let it get out, or you might be chiseled." Then, the guard stepped aside and ushered Dex into the tavern.

"Thankyou." Dex muttered as he walked in.

The inside of the tavern was thick with smoke, like gray veil had been lowered over the entire place. Dex stumbled a bit as he stepped down and headed for an open table. As he sat down, Dex searched the room nonchalantly for a familiar face. Of the few patrons who had noticed him, Dex could feel that there was at least one with a definite dislike for him.

"Moonrider," the familiar voice said from behind Dex. "Are you here to cause more trouble?"

"When have I ever caused trouble?" Dex said. As he turned to see who he was addressing, Dex continued, "I may even buy your next drink." Seeing that it was Wyla Chamra, the owner of the tavern, Dex smirked and said, "Or I suppose you don't drink your own cheap stuff, do you?"

"KELDA! Get this...man...out of my place at once! If you let him in again, you're fired!" yelled Wyla.

The large Herglic appeared in the door and moved towards Dex. "Sorry about, this, but gotta do as the boss says," whispered Kelda as she picked Dex up, flopped him over her large shoulder and moved back towards the door.

 

Mumbling to herself and punching on the datapad, Nei began writing her routine. "Let's see, I want to see if there is anyone connected to Aschansa that might be KV.... Check for a con nection to Pell as well... Mmm hmmm... Oh, I should look at when the gaps in Aschansa's records started….yes, and check for other gaps as well..." Nei's line of thought trailed off into her head as she became more focused on her task. To create the most intricate program, Nei attached her Omwati input device and continued by apparently singing her commands. With the last notes and keystrokes, she applied a forged profile and sent it off into the holonet assured that it would both do its duty and remain undetected.

It was only about half an hour later when it returned the information it had gathered. The SecForce had not been keeping an especially close eye on Aschansa or Pell. The normal information about the daily activities of someone of Pell's status was available, but nothing especially remarkable. There was an interesting note about Barret Athaka Pell's twin brother Deell Pell taken from an unofficial, highly secured database. Apparently, the word was that Deell was a bit too loose with the credits and had gotten in some pretty bad debt with Black Sun. Barret Pell's financial records showed regular withdrawals that were never accounted for in his finances that could be linked to Deell's debt, if the information could be trusted.

Aschansa had even less information because of the lesser celebrity status. There was an interesting note about Aschansa. A sizeable sum had been withdrawn from Aschansa's credit account recently, but it was a withdrawal and not a transfer. As far as the gaps in Aschansa's background were concerned, deep scanning of Coruscant Immigration Administration's tertiary archive data banks had resulted in a partial record of Aschansa's DNA.

Once Liora saw that Nei had completed her programming she shared all the Intel with her that she had received from her informant.

"Well, that is quite intriguing.  I wonder if there was more damage on the driver's side or if perhaps the mutilation of Aschansa's body was intentional.  We still need to investigate the cause of the crash.  There has been a similar effort to mutilate his digital identity.  I still do not know who KV might be, but someone withdrew a large some from Aschansa's credit account.  Pell's account had regular withdrawals possibly to cover his twin brother's debt to the Black Sun," Nei informed Liora.

"I'm quite not sure if there was more damage on the driver's side, but I can check with my sources," Liora replied.

"Also inquire as to the cause of the crash.  I will research Pell's brother."  Nei began her routine research.

"Will do." Liora said as she opened her messenger on her datapad and sent her informant a message. Asking him if he could give her the cause of the crash and if the drivers side was damaged more than the other side.

At that moment, a Trandoshan and Devaronian walked up to the speeder.

"Would you be…" the Devaronian looked at his datapad… "one 'Nei Sobri'?" he asked.

"It is considered only polite to give your own identity before asking that of another." Nei replied with guarded cordiality.

"We don't hafe time for thisss," hissed the Trandoshan. "Thisss isss her. Let'sss jussst take her to the bosss."

"Who is your boss?" asked Nei.

The Devaronian ignored Nei's question and turned to the Trandoshan. "Calm down, Khrad, there is no reason to not remain civilized. I'm sure Miss Sobri would be more than happy to meet the boss, wouldn't you, Miss Sobri?"

"Who is your boss?" Nei repeated patiently.

"Now, now, Miss Nei, please don't force me to make a mess here in your...beautiful...speeder. The Boss likes to remain anonymous until such time as a mutual relationship has been established. He does invite you and your attractive companion to meet with him as soon as possible, and the Boss's invitations are not the kind that can be refused."

I'm sorry gentlemen but you have some miss information it seems." Liora finally spoke. She quickly jotted down the address of her speediest associate and handed it to the chatty one and said "Here is where you can get the correct info on this Nei person you are looking for."

The two just looked at each other, and then shook their heads.

"We are awaiting our partner.  If you will give us the address at which your boss would like to meet, we will follow when our third partner returns," Nei added.

"Thisss isss ridiculousss, Odon," hissed Khrad as she pulled a very illegal looking blaster. "You two are coming with usss. You aren't coming later, and we aren't going sssomewhere elssse. You are coming with usss now."

 

Once outside the Green Glowstone, Kelda set Dex back down. "Now, I can't let you back in there. Hopefully your friend will catch up with you somewhere else."

"No worries, kitten, I forgot the scum actually came into work."

Kelda blushed a little, but remained quiet.

"I bet you see most of the people who come in here, have you seen this guy?" Dex asked producing a hologram of the man he had seen at the crash.

Kelda studied the hologram for a minute. "Yeah, I sometimes see him with a few Black Sun. I think he might be a bodyguard."

"I mean have you seen him today? He's my friend I was supposed to meet."

"I haven't seen him today. He's a tough customer, if my instincts are right. You should be careful around him."

"Thanks, but don't worry, I can handle myself. " Dex started to walk away, then turned around, "Oh, and one more question, do you happen to know where he's staying?"

"Nope, I never get involved in Black Sun business as long as it stays outside this place."

"Alright, well thankyou anyways, if you do see him could you let me know?" Dex said as he held out his nonbusiness datacard.

Kelda took the proffered business card and placed it in a pouch on her belt. "I'll let you know if I see him," she said.

Dex smiled and said, "Thanks, you seem like a good person, better than this place for sure." he then turned and went back to the speeder.

Death in the Sky: Session 2

This session was cut off short because of weather. That is not a joke or hyperbole.

 

The screen flashed through a series of beings checking various facial recognition algorithms until it finally flashed a Nikto named Kuna Bravanc on the screen.

"The holonet recognizes the person of your inquiry as being one Kuna Bravanc," Nei informed as she delved into his background. "His record only conclusively shows some minor infractions, however, the authorities suspect he has some connections to the Black Sun...There is nothing further available with these resources. I think this is a lead worth following."

"The Black Sun? This could get pretty serious." Dex cautioned

"Stories involving death are always serious. But, yes, the involvement with the Black Sun is both concerning and intriguing."

"Yeah, especially since they kill people, and there’s possibly an entrepreneur who was killed."

"Well, I say that we pursue this lead. I also need to use a secure data pad to make a transaction really quickly." commented Liora as she pulled out her data pad and followed the given instructions to transfer the credits and contact her new informant.

After a few minutes, the text Yes? appeared on Liora’s datapad.

Please send all information to this address as soon as you have received it. Liora typed in reply.

Will do, came the response.

Liora then signed out of the secure channel and put her datapad away. She then rejoined her colleagues.

"Which lead should we pursue first, the morgue or the Black Sun?" Nei was asking.

Dex suggested, "I don’t want to accuse the Black Sun of anything until I have more information. They aren’t innocent, but that’s no reason to poke a gundark."

"Quite so. I meant should we first go to the morgue or immediately seek Kuna Bravanc."

"Let’s go to the morgue, I’m curious to see who the passenger was," Dex said.

"I'm up for the morgue as well, but shouldn't we check in with Malik first?" Liora suggested.

"I can contact him on the way," Nei proposed as she got in the back seat of their speeder and began typing up the initial report.

"Leave him be. He’s just a grumpy old man who just sits behind his desk and yells at us to do all the work. No need to bother him ‘til we‘re ready to be paid." Dex asserted as he jumped in the driver’s seat.

"He did request that we contact him as soon as we learn more than what he first received. You’d better transmit a report." stated Liora.

"Do as you will," sighed Dex. "In fact do call him up. Tell him I need an advance on this one. It could get dangerous and I want to have some money to leave behind to my children before I die."

"Dex, you do not have children to whom to leave money. But I will relay your implied concern," Nei said as she finished up her report and sent it.

Dex started up the speeder, punched in the navigation coordinates, and took off towards the morgue.

 

It only took about 15 minutes to maneuver the airways and arrive at the morgue. There were a few SecForce officers standing around, but for the most part, the place was dead.

After parking the speeder, the three walked up to the officers.

Three of the officers were too busy smoking to pay any attention to the trio, but the fourth turned to them and asked, "Can I help you?"

"We are just here to identify a body. It could be our great Aunt Tupla. We are the only people available to come make the identification." lied Liora.

The officer looked at the other officers, shook his head ever so slightly, turned back to Liora and said, "Not buying it, sister."

"What, can’t you see the resemblance?" Dex asked sarcastically.

"I am so offended. Our mother would call you a numbskull because you can't see past your own prejudices on how you think a family is supposed to look. We are adopted! Why do you think I can speak your language." Liora shouted with conviction.

"Look, me and my colleagues here are supposed to keep the morgue clear. You can come and identify your aunt later, but for now you gotta scram," the SecForce officer said as two of the others dropped their cigarras, stamped them out, and put their hands on their blasters, ready to draw.

"Perhaps I can illuminate the situation: My colleague is practicing her undercover techniques," Nei began in her most winsome and diplomatic tones. "(You can see why she needs the experience.) We are investigating the crash of Barret Athaka Pell’s speeder and would like to see the the Gran and Cerean if you would be so kind as to show us."

The officer crossed his arms, "No dice, doll. Orders is orders."

"In that case," Nei continued, "Might we use your communications room for a short time?"

"You can’t enter the morgue until the chief takes it off lockdown. He doesn’t want anybody snooping around for a while."

"I see. Thank you officer." Nei returned to the speeder with Liora and Dex in tow.

"Alright, I suppose we should go visit Mr. Bravanc, and see what he was doing earlier today." Dex suggested to the group.

Liora’s datapad beeped. The Cerean’s body has been positively identified as Pell. The Gran’s remains are in too bad shape to positively identify, but it is assumed that it is Pell’s chauffeur, Riyan Aschansa. There are no DNA records on Aschansa in the system. Liora knew it was very strange for someone with such a high-profile job to have no records. There would normally be immigration examinations, hiring examinations, and he would have been required to perform yearly check ups by someone as important as Pell.

Liora related the information that she just received and then asked Nei, "Can you check up on this Riyan Aschansa character and see what you can find on him?"

"Certainly," Nei pulled out her datapad as she slid into the back of the speeder.

Liora followed Nei into the speeder, anxious to hear more about the chauffeur. She also thought to herself that her credits were well spent.

Once seated in the speeder Liora pulled out her datapad to reply to her informant. Thanks for the information. I would also like to see pictures and the autopsy report asap, she typed.

Nei’s datapad spat out some information about Aschansa, but there were a lot of gaps that were not normal in Coruscant’s HoloNet.

"Hmmm, how odd...there is quite a bit of information lacking on Aschansa. In the meantime, perhaps we should seek out Bravanc." Nei began to search for the missing gaps in Aschansa’s profile. The system logs showed that various sections of Aschansa’s official profile had been deleted recently. The logs simply had the mnemonic KV as the identity of the one who had deleted the profile.

Dex, started up the speeder and headed towards the Green Glowstone Tavern.

Death in the Sky: Session 1

"Liora! Nei! Dex! Get in here!" shouted Malik Schmidt, editor of the Galactic City Herald, from his office.

"Coming, sir!" called Neo as she entered the office.

Liora got off the comlink with her newest informant, Cutter Dahn and headed to Malik's office.

Dex finished reading the paragraph in his book, set it down and casually strolled to the office.

"Thank you so much for joining us, Dex," Malik sarcastically quipped. "Word just came in. Barret Athaka Pell's private speeder crashed. The SecForce is on their way. I want you guys to give me a full report."

Everyone knew Barret Athaka Pell was the president of Pangance Dynamics, and one of the wealthiest men on Coruscant, if not the galaxy.

"So what's the scoop that you received on this little crash?" Liora asked of Malik.

Nei pulled out her datapad and opened the file she already had on Pangance Dynamics to review and amend it. She noticed that Barett owned a custom enclosed PL-90 Luxury Speeder.

"The news literally just came over the SecForce comchannel. There isn't even any feedback from the SecForce since they haven't arrived yet. The report says that the speeder exploded on impact, and there is no word on who was in the speeder when it crashed."

"Alright, well I'm gonna go contact my informant on the link then I'll get right over to the scene." commented Liora ask she exited the office.

"Contact them on the way. I want to be first on this one," replied Malik.

"Yeah, yeah that's what I meant." Liora mumbled under her breath.

Nei got into the back seat of the company speeder and began monitoring for any reports on the HoloNet as well as researching background on Barret Athaka Pell and his Luxury Speeder.

Liora punched in the link number for Cutter and waited till he answered the communication. Cutter Dahn replied that he hadn't heard anything about the crash yet, but he would keep his ears open. Liora thanked Cutter and ended the communication. Then she hopped into the speeder next to Nei.

As they approached the crash site, they could see SecForce had cordoned off the area and weren't letting anyone through. SecForce officers recognized the Galactic City Herald speeder and waved it through. At the crash site SecForce investigators had already begun examining the wreckage and bagging up the (admittedly quite few) larger pieces for more detailed analysis at the labs.

"Why was the speeder so obliterated?" Pondered Nei aloud. She then went to the speeder crash and looked for the speeder's computer core to download while using the excuse of instructing the camdroid to make hologram recordings should anyone question or being so close to the crash. The data was incomplete and damaged and the SecForce wasn't going to let her do it if they caught on, but she managed to insert some computer spikes and get the data that was there without any officer noticing. She then examined the crash itself to see if anything looked odd or out of place. Nothing jumped out, so she went to some nearby officers.

"Good day, officers, I'm with the Galactic City Herald. Would you care to comment on whether or not there were any survivors?

"No, ma'am, there were none," one of them replied. "But we found two bodies in the wreckage."

"Any idea who they were?"

"We only know that one was a Gran and the other was a Cerean. We have no further comments until positive identification is made and relatives are notified," the officer said.

"Cerean? Is it possible that Pell was a casualty?"

The SecForce officer had no comment.

"Where were the bodies taken?" Nei continued.

"The bodies were taken to district 8011's morgue 38."

 

While Nei and Dex were looking about Liora noticed one of the SecForce officers that was alone cataloging the evidence and went to speak with him. "Sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if you have been able to see anything that could have caused this wreck from the stuff you have gathered so far?" Liora asked the officer.

"Based on eyewitnesses, it seems like the coolant pump failed and the power generator overloaded, but that's just speculation until the lab has had a chance to analyze it," the Ithorian officer replied.

"So do you think that the craft's engine was tampered with?" Liora questioned.

"I do not have the analysis to determine that at this time," she said.

"So what would a girl have to do to get a first look at the analysis once you have it?" Liora asked the officer.

"That depends, how much do you want to see it?" asked the Ithorian, quietly.

"Well, I'd be willing to come to some type of payment agreement with you if you were willing to be one of my full time informants." replied Liora.

"If you can keep me happy, and out of trouble, I could probably let you in on a few of the inner workings of the SecForce. Here…" the Ithorian whispered as she surreptitiously dropped a data chip on the ground.

Liora looked around to make sure no one was coming up on their conversation and said, "How much to keep you happy?"

The Ithorian straightened up. "I'm sorry ma'am, but I can't give you any more information than I have. You'll need to move along. The SecForce will have an official press conference when we have our findings," she said in a slightly louder than necessary voice.

"Thank you for all your help officer." Liora stated as she bent down to tie her boot lace and she picked up the chip. While kneeling she slipped her comm number into the side of the officer's boot, stood up and walked away toward their own speeder.

 

Dex scanned the area to see if anyone looked suspicious. He recognized that a man skirting the crowd outside the cordon and moving away had a guilty aura about him. Dex nonchalantly made his way towards the man's direction, and told his cam droid to go higher than normal to get a holopic of everyone on the scene, especially the guilty guy. The droid climbed higher and snapped the pic. The guy ducked down an alley and disappeared. Dex dashed towards the alley and looked for any sign of where the man went, but there was no sign of the man anywhere. finding nothing left to find. Dex returned to the gathered crowd and started asking the crowd if anyone saw what happened.

A rodian with a slight build and wearing a sanitation suit said he'd seen the entire thing.

"How did they crash?"

The rodian got really excited. "They were flying towards the financial quarter when the speeder began whining. Flames appeared in the repulsors and it fell from the sky. It exploded right before it hit the ground." He used his hands to reenact the scene as he described it.

"Who all was in the speeder?"

"I couldn't see who was in the speeder. It was a custom job with screened windows," said the rodian as his hands crossed each other indicating just how much he could not see.

"was it just the pilot, or were there passengers?

The rodian crossed his hands again, "Like I said, I couldn't see anything."

"Who are you, what were you doing?"

"My name is Ween Tomu. I work at the sanitation plant and just finished my shift. I was walking home when I saw it happen. I recognized the speeder as being Barett Athaka Pell's and immediately reported the crash on the public comlink over there," he said as he pointed to a comstation on the side of the street. "The wreckage was still on fire, and the passenger section was completely destroyed, so I didn't approach it."

"Alright, thank you for the info. if you think of anything else let me know." Dex said as he handed Ween his data chip.

 

Liora went back at the speeder and used her datapad to check and see what was on the chip that the officer had dropped on the ground.

The chip showed that the officer was named Moza Moomo, and had a secure account number along with a small amount of info detailing what kind of credits were needed in order to ensure exclusive reports on certain inner workings of the SecForce.

Having read the information on the data pad, Liora removed the chip and dropped the chip into her secret pocket inside her vest.

 

At the speeder, Nei began decrypting the information she had retrieved from the speeder. "Nothing looked terribly out of place at the crash site," she relayed to her companions.

The data from the speeder's computer core had been damaged, and was incomplete. Nei could tell that the data would need to be analyzed by a fractal algorithm in order to be recreated. She had the equipment back at her lab, and the process would have to wait until she had a chance to get back there.

 

"Nei, can you run this guy through the system and find out who he is? i think he's involved somehow." Dex said as he showed Nei the guilty guy on his viewscreen.

"Certainly," Nei began to research. "There were two casualties: a Gran and a Cerean. The officer wouldn't identify the Cerean as Pell, but it's not an illogical jump. The bodies were taken to District 8011 Morgue 38"