Strife in the Business District! (Romeo)

[Vipervertical]

Toshiko scowled, checking her wrist-chrono for the third time in the past two minutes. He was late. She had specified the exact time he should arrive, yet he was already three minutes late. She supposed that it was to be expected of a mercenary like this, but it still bothered her. She exhaled deeply, keeping in check her emotions. She had to face this encounter with cool logic, getting emotional would be very detrimental. Still…

She turned her gaze back towards the transparisteel wall that made up the fourth side of her office. Unending lines of traffic made bright lines through the night, illuminating that which the buildings themselves didn’t, which was little. One needn’t worry about being afraid of the dark on Coruscant, for it never truly went dark here. It was a beautiful sight, yet it did little to assuage her doubts about the plan.

This Romeo, no doubt an alias, would have to be very highly skilled to command such a bounty. The risks she was taking simply by inviting him into her private office were tremendous. Should he wish it, he could kill her effortlessly. She held no doubts that her security team would be remotely fast enough to stop him, and she was hardly a fighter herself. She could only hope that her offer was high enough to protect herself from any sort of other deals he might have taken.

The bounty was no real concern to her. It was high enough to demonstrate he was skilled enough to make serious enemies, but not even remotely as high as she made in a month. But he was dangerous. That much was certain. If she let him roam free like this, there was little doubt that he would eventually get hired by a rival company, and she was not so certain she would be safe from him. This was clearly a risky situation, but it was the decision she had come to.

She checked her chrono again. It told her nothing that she didn’t already know. Another deep exhalation before she turned back to the view of the city, standing with her back to the door with her arms crossed against her chest. Tosh hated waiting.

[Karl the Unfettered]

In truth Romeo had shown up three hours ahead of time, taking the opportunity to inspect President Mokona's security measures here in the Czerka offices. They were impressive, to be sure, a full complement of hardened guardsmen and all manner of surveillance and mechanical countermeasures; none of it any good against him, of course. He had also left a few 'surprises' of his own here and there, just in case this meeting turned out to be a trap and by chance he could not get away, the 'surprises' would ensure he did not go alone.

But really, when it came down to it walking in was all too easy. He'd put on a nice coat and cleaned himself off, practiced smiling and being superficially nice for a day or so beforehand, and walked into the building all charm and witty jokes; it was child's play to cause minor malfunctions at the checkpoints he came across, and waltz on through with his weapons and ordnance still on his person. From it was as easy as acting like he belonged there to avoid scrutiny while he went about his little 'inspection'.

But he had to head on up eventually, and at the stroke of being four minutes late exactly the door opened and he strode into Toshiko's office. "President Mokona," he began with a bow, "allow me to apologize for the delay. Your security team is quite enthusiastic about their jobs." He straightened and waited for permission to sit down, and examined her while he did so. She reminded him of a stunted Epicanthix, but he wasn't about to say so out loud.

The assassin thought about what sort of deal he might have been offered if any of Czerka's competitors had known about this meeting of his; he was certain they would pay dearly to have her taken out of the picture, along with the entire Coruscanti branch of the company. Fortunately for her he had not received any such offers, and anyway he would want to hear her own offer before deciding one way or another. He had no doubt at all in his mind that she was thinking about the bounty on his head, hence the precautions he had taken while coming up.

[Vipervertical]

The chrono silently marked the slow progress of time. Moments before she gave another futile examination of its readout, the door finally opened with a soft click. The hinged door was a technologically outdated device that was as practical as it was fashionable. Tosh smiled as she turned to face her guest.

”Not at all. I do hope they didn’t give you too much trouble. Please, have a seat.” She gestured to the expensive chair in front of her desk before sitting herself in the large seat behind it. From there she took a good look at the dangerous man that she had taken such a risk with. He was tall and surprisingly handsome in a sort of stoic way. Her face gave nothing away as she silently processed his appearance.

”I have an errand that needs doing. I believe you are the best man for it.” She cut right to the chase while keeping her words vague enough to prevent any sort of scandal should a recording of this conversation reach unintended ears. ”I’m willing to double the offer you received earlier should you prove successful.” It was a substantial amount, but would hardly even register on her account. And if things went well, she wouldn’t even need to pay him.

She slid a small datapad containing the details across the desk. It was cliché, but it was also effective. This way she would have no involvement with his actions. Of course, this mission wasn’t actually illegal in any way. It was simply easier that he thought it such.

The datapad contained the coordinates of a warehouse right at the lower edge of the Upper City, almost in the undercity. It also detailed the item in question: Another datapad marked with Czerka’s own seal. In addition, a time limit was included that gave him only a few hours to reach the warehouse before the object would be moved to a more secure location. The reasons for the mission and the contents of the datapad in question were predictably absent.

[Karl the Unfettered]

Romeo took the datapad, scanning its contents intently. A fairly standard retrieval, nothing stood out to him about the particulars, which in itself stood out; most employers gave their mercenaries rather more intelligence concerning a job than this, which led the man to believe it was a trap after all. But he'd been in traps before, and was rather good at turning them around on his would-be trappers; he'd never gone against Czerka, though, at least not directly.

"No, they weren't much trouble at all," he replied as he put the pad down. "But they did delay me, however slightly. And I would gladly take the offer of more money, even though the job is ridiculously easy." He stood up, smiled down at her and bowed politely. "In any event your deadline doesn't leave me much space to dawdle, so I should be off. I'll be back before the end of the day." He turned and went out the door again, closing it carefully behind him.

Unlike entering the building, his exit was quick and purposeful; for one, he took the elevator, and strode straight out the front door without saying anything to anyone. His speeder was a fast one, and he arrived at a place above the warehouse in question, where he could observe from a safe distance without being seen. He parked the vehicle and got out, walking to a promontory of twisted steel, possibly the remnants of another building or walkway; whatever it was, it allowed a fine view of the place.

Stretching out prone, he took out a pair of high-precision distance viewers and held them to his eyes, zooming into the appropriate level, and watched the place for a while, to get a feel for what he was walking into.

[Vipervertical]

((Things get a little different here. Tried to pull it off best I could.))

He didn’t seem at all suspicious after looking over the datapad. Instead he immediately rose from his chair and headed for the door. ”Do remember to bring it back here for payment. And try not to cause anybody…trouble.” Tosh watched him go, a slight smirk present on her lips as the door shut behind him.

Her chair swiveled about to face the bustling cityscape. She watched a speeder zoom by, silently musing if it might be his. If things went according to plan, this Romeo would be locked up by whoever posted that bounty and no threat to Czerka. Either way, this night was going to have an interesting end…one way or another…

There were two guards at the entrance, a Rodian and a human. She’d hired the two from a front organization that belonged to Czerka through a string of companies that would take the best hacker days to figure out. They were meant to be expendable; cannon fodder should things get ugly. But mostly, they were for show. They gave the appearance that the contents of the warehouse were important enough to require a guard.

There were no patrols, and only a single security monitor aimed at the small walkway leading to the warehouse. The entire set-up looked just large enough to ward off scavengers, yet small enough to avoid drawing unwanted attention. A common tactic for guarding things that were truly valuable.

[Karl the Unfettered]

Hm... two guards, one camera. Likely more security inside, of course, but that was to be expected; if it was a trap the place was probably full of thugs, if not than it'd still be a fairly simple in-and-out extraction. Romeo wondered what Mokona thought she was pulling; all this for a simple datapad? Hardly.

Once he had a plan he put it into motion, climbing down the urban cliff that loomed above the warehouse. His jacket blended in with the stark color of the metal, and the noise of the vast city-planet further concealed the already-minute sounds of his hardware and weapons jangling; for the rough patches he had a small grapple gun to carry him through the air, and he was soon perched atop the warehouse directly over the two goons. It was a simple matter to drop down on the Rodian hard enough to kill him from the impact, and smash the human's throat before he could properly react.

With the two of them down he searched the human for a radio; finding one he signaled trouble over the airwaves, then grappled back to the top of the warehouse where he hunkered down and prepared to watch who, or what, would respond to the false cry for help. If the chance provided itself he would throw a few grenades to thin their numbers and skew the odds even more; if not, well, he'd look for a skylight in the roof, break it open, throw some ordnance down and jump in guns blazing.

Romeo loved a good plan.

[Vipervertical]

The comlink did, in fact, connect to several other guards in the area, all of which were inside the warehouse. The only door in the warehouse that wouldn’t allow a small freighter inside slid open. A Twi’lek and a Trandoshan came out warily, blaster rifles at the ready. The Twi’lek immediately ran to the downed men, checking their vital signs. Once he indicated negative, the Trandoshan began a slow sweep of the area while the Twi’lek pulled a comlink of his own from a pocket.

The door had slid shut behind the two, the electronic lock beeping readiness for a keycard. The two guards didn’t seem to even notice as they went about their business. The Twi’lek was rapidly fiddling with the comlink while the Trandoshan patrolled the walkway, wary and ready for whatever danger took out his fellows.

[Karl the Unfettered]

From the roof, Romeo couldn't help but smirk. Amateurs, didn't even look up. He cracked an incendiary grenade and let it fly, timing the throw so the device exploded in mid-air, engulfing them both in its high intensity flames; the screams of the guards as they were engulfed was music to Romeo's ears, and he grinned cheerily, humming something obscene and waiting for more guards to burst out and be obliterated.

He swiftly got bored of that, though, and wandered over to one of the skylights in the roof. "I fell into a burning ring of fire," he said to himself as he kicked the glass in and threw a couple frag grenades down into the space; not all in the same direction either, but angled and thrown in different directions to cover as much as possible. He waited five seconds for the explosions to erupt and the screams to start before dropping down himself, landing on his feet with his matched shotguns in hand.

A normal person would have broken both their legs and possibly half the rest of their bones from such a maneuver; Romeo's legs barely even creaked from the impact, and he didn't even straighten up fully before spinning in a full circle, blasting at anything that moved, lunging to one side in the same motion. He rolled, came to his feet and spun about blasting at anything that moved again.

Finally he stopped, backing up so his back was against a wall, reloading his weapons as he moved. "I'm supposed to be looking for a datapad," he announced, on the off chance anyone was still alive. "Might anyone tell me where I can find it?"