The Thief and the Brand (Romeo)

[Zarkan]

Slybia peered through her outwardly opaque visor at the exterior of Kuat Drive Yards laboratory seventy-two. The laboratory was tucked in a densely packed region of Kuat surrounded by offices, laboratories, and even a small amount of residential housing. The small cyborg had been watching the building since shortly after sunset from the shadows of the roof of a squat single story eatery. In the hours since she had learned much that she could never have discovered from the building plans alone. She had watched how the security moved through the quilted blanket of darkness and light cast over the whole facility and knew that it was nearly time to make her move.

When Slybia had initially been presented the contract by one of her most trusted contacts on Fondor she had refused. She already had experience getting on the wrong side of one of the great empire's security and knew that Kuat was one of the Republic's crown jewels, but over the next days, the offer continued to swirl in her mind. The thought of seeing what was supposed to be a revolutionary new hyperdrive not to mention what other secrets and gadgets one of KDY's top labs would ultimately contain was simply too big of a temptation for the chronically curious woman to resist. She knew that this would likely be the most difficult contract she'd taken on in many years an opinion that was reinforced when she finally acquired the buildings floor plans from an intermediator. The facility relied heavily on automated surveillance, but like all surveillance, it had holes, more interesting and problematic was the facilities small arsenal of questionably legal security droids hidden throughout the facility.

Slybia dropped her musing as the Zeltron security guard turned the corner after several hours of watching the guard patrol she found that he snuck off for about ten minutes after each patrol. Reaching down she placed her hand on her neutralizer both to reassure herself that it was at its proper place and to ground herself. Taking a deep breath and allowing the cool filtered air from her environment to flow through the pores in her neck and deep into her lungs the light woman dropped the 11 meters from the roof to the ground landing gently and almost soundlessly, before shooting off in a sprint skirting the edge of sight of a camera before darting across the street and into a light strip of trees bathed in darkness.

Peering from behind on the trees and out of the darkness a silvery seen quickly darted across her eyes as thin nictating membranes swept across her eyes from the outside in. As the membranes slid back across here eye sensors in the thick lens implanted over her eyes lighting up multiple dots across the building as the lens began to add thermal and electrical radiation imaging to her field of veiw. For a moment Slybia was distracted marveling at the beautiful twinkling lights all the sensors and lights painted across the building's facade. Shaking herself out of the short reprieve slybia chastised herself; she, after all, was on a contract and a fairly short time limit.

The young woman zipped out from the cover of trees allowing her digital memory and augmented sight to guide her through the net of sensors to the building's facade. Comming to the foot of the wall slybia lept before grasping onto a power conduit protruding from the wall climbing, like she was now, up the wall to the roof. She reached the top of the conduit and pulled herself up over the side of the wall and into the cover of the low wall surrounding the roof shortly before the Zeltron guard made his way back around the corner of the building.

Sagging slightly in relive slybia let out a slow breath before carefully and quietly moving between the climate control units and ventilation shafts crisscrossing the roof. While it had been rare occasions during her scoping of the facility she had seen staff including security sneaking up onto the roof for a dose of fresh air as such as the suit clade woman moved across the roof she kept to the shadows with a wary eye scanning the roof and a hand resting on the pistol on her left thigh. Several minutes of stalking across the roof later she reached her target. Sliding a metal panel off gently slybia slid herself into the tight ventilation shaft, while shafts like this are too small and winding for most humanoids the artificially created cyborg is both smaller, lighter, and significantly more flexible than most humanoids.

Descending carefully down the shaft slybia eventually reached a ceiling vent that opened up into a server room. She paused scarcely willing to even breathe as she strained for any sound that would betray movement below her. After several moments the infiltrator was satisfied that everything sounded as it should and proceded to slide the vent up and out of the way slowly and as quietly as she could manage. Folding her body nearly in half she rolled in the tight shaft to slip her feet out in front of her before sliding out of the vent and into the server room. Pulling out her pistol with her left hand she slowly scanned the room before spotting an interface terminal. Approaching the terminal slybia slipped a small device designed to crack into a copy data from servers without detection out of her suit pocket before inserting it into one of the many ports dotted along the casing of the computer. Slipping back into the shadows between the servers she hunkered down to wait for the device to finish it's work desperatly hopeing that noone would enter the room and if they did that they would notice nothing and continue on her way.

[Karl the Unfettered]

At the same time Slybia was sneaking through the labs, police detective Carmen Brand was visiting her brother in law, who was a shipwright employed by KDY. She loved her sister, and got along decently with her husband; he was nothing like Brand's dead fella, which was a large amount of points in his favor.

He was always happy to show her around, of course, and it was a good chance to get a subtle look at the security and the safeguards in place. KDY had their own dedicated security forces of course, but they had to liaise with KCPD and they weren't always forthcoming with issues and glitches; Republic security, they claimed, when they bothered saying anything.

It never failed to bring a snort out of her. Like, what? Did they really think the citizens of Kuat weren't concerned with the well-being of the Republic as a whole? Whatever.

In any event, Brand was following her brother in law around listening to him talk about his latest projects. One of which was a revolutionary new hyperdrive, or so she understood. She could wrap her mind around more techno-babble than most folks gave her credit for, and had little difficulty following along.

Eventually they came to the server where all the results were kept, and of course Brand went in too, along with their security escorts; two guys in light armor, each with a stun stick and a light blaster. "This is where all the data is being kept," her brother was saying, flipping lights on and proceeding to the terminal. "Let me just call it up and-"

"Fenris, wait!" Brand said suddenly, her attention drawn to the open grate Slybia had left behind. "That's not supposed to be open, is it?" She got blank stares in response, and rolled her eyes. "You two, fan out and search the room. Fenris, lock the doors." She drew her custom revolver loaded with tranquilizer rounds, and joined the two security goons in searching the room for anything strange.

Fenris, slightly bemused but unwilling to cross her sister-in-law's instincts, went to close the door and lock it. Then he went to shut that vent.

[Zarkan]

    Slybia's body tensed when she heard the sound of the room's sole entrance slide open. Her hopes that it would only be a single janitor droid or researcher were quickly dashed when she heard the sound of four distinct footsteps entering the room. Sucking in a small amount of air before quietly glancing around the left side of the server housing. The first thing she noticed was the grey plasteel armor of the KDY security guards following a red-headed woman with a formidable looking holstered weapon and finally, leading the whole gaggle an unassuming looking man in a KDY technical jumpsuit. Ducking back behind the rack slybia took a deep breath and tightened her grip on the handle of her pistol hoping for the group to poke in and go back into the hall without noticing anything strange.

    The small cyborg's breath hitched when she heard the woman call out. Closing her eyes slybia released a slow breath from her mouth she loathed fighting, fighting hurt people, and slybia didn't like hurting people. She had left the vent open to facilitate a quick and easy escape, but even with her speed and agility, there wasn't any way she could shimmy up the vent under fire. Sliding her hand into one of the pockets sewn onto the midsection of her suit one of her three-fingered hands grasped a palm-sized disk. Pulling the stun grenade out of her pocket the young woman bit her lower lip gently she could hear footfalls moving around the room both the heavy steps of the armor-clad security as well as the softer footfalls of the humans moving. 

    The security would need to be dealt with first she thought. One set of the heavy footfalls stopped to her left and rear a slight squeak indicated the guard turning. Taking the opportunity to lean out around the left side of the server; taking aim with her pistol she could see the guard couched slighting while looking between two servers. The thin green beam of the laser slid down the guard's leg before painting a section of his body glove in the gap between plates for his armor. Taking a slow breath and gently squeezing the trigger of her Neutralizer a quiet electrical hum and an almost inaudible sound of air moving was the only indication of the weapon's firing much greater, however, was the eleven millimeter round's impact on the guard a split second after it's three prongs dug into the man's leg electricity surged into his body. Collapsing with a clatter into a heap as he spasmed to the floor slybia guessed that the guard would be incapacitated long enough to be essentially out of the fight and pulled back into the shadow of the computer. 

    Slybia knew the other guard at the very least would be moving to check on the noise. Sliding her thumb along the top of the disk cradled in her left hand she depressed the button set into its casing before throwing it forward and to her right, bouncing it off the rear wall and up into the open section at the center of the room. She heard a soft thud as it struck the floor, standing up slybia counted the remaining three seconds before the grenades detonation. Just before the load roar and bright light tore through the room she screwed her eyes closed and shot out over her current hiding place across the open. Opening her eyes while her ears were still ringing she slid under a table shoved between two server banks and readied herself to take out the second guard.

[Karl the Unfettered]

Whoever was in here... dammit, why couldn't Brand have a rational tour of the facilities now and then? This was exactly what KDY hated to have get out, was shit like this that put everyone's safety and security at risk. She had no patience for their rationales and justifications ("if people knew we were being broke into so often, no one would trust us!" yeah well, spend less on executive compensation and more on fucking security, morons! or cooperate with the police when we need you to!), and her only concern was preventing shit like this from happening.

Her and the guards had fanned out, when one of them was attacked. "Stun gun," she muttered, listening to the tell-tale thrashing and choking of a man being electrocuted. The second guard whirled and moved to investigate, but Brand stayed where she was, straining her eyes for the shadows between servers...

A metallic glint caught her eye, and she watched a small object fly through the air, bouncing off a wall and landing in the center of the room. "GRENADE!" she shouted, throwing herself into cover and shielding her eyes and ears. Odds were it was a stunner or something, no way would an intruder risk live munitions in this place; sure enough, there was a punishing THWUMP! and a blinding flash, both of which Brand had covered herself from.

Hardly had the flash died away but she was back up, racing to cover the area she thought the grenade had come from. "Come out!" she yelled, checking beneath a table. What the- a girl...?

Her mind didn't let her question things; all it saw was a person-shaped huddle beneath that table, and before she knew it she was firing at center mass. The bullets weren't lethal, they didn't have a full powder charge, but the impact would hurt badly and the drugs injected would take them out in seconds. Not to mention the loud report of the gun going off at this close range!

[Zarkan]

    Slybia gritted her teeth as the woman's clapping footsteps neared her hiding position, of course, she'd run into someone who's training didn't consist of a day a year on a range and a three-hour class. Slybia was still taking quick short breaths when the booted feet stopped in front of her cubby, she shudders slightly, she could hear the woman's breathing above her. "Come out." the sound of the woman's voice cut through the silence as did the sound of creaking leather. Slybia met the redhead's eyes for a moment before the huge pistol drew her attention. Already considerable in size the cyborg's eyes widened and she writhed her body like a snake trying to avoid what she expected to be certain death, but at this distance, there was no hope of getting completely out of the way in time. The concussion of the shot pained her ears and hit her in the chest like a charging animal. The round ripped through the thick layers of her environment suit and punched through the thin silvery layer of titanium and plasteel that covered her slim prosthetic left arm.

     She didn't know how much damage the round caused and she couldn't focus on that now. In a panicked haze, she lashed out with her right leg aiming for the woman's legs before, without even waiting to see what impact her flailing would have, shot out from under the table like a coiled viper. Drawing ragged short breaths she ran as fast as she could across the room, vaulting over a table, around the corner of a server bank and right into the remaining security guard with a resounding crack of her helmet into his cuirass. They tumbled to the floor in a heap of limbs the much larger man tried to restrain her, but he expected a normal humanoid with normal ranges of motion, not a writing contortionist. She managed to slip out of the man's grasp scrambling backward on the tiled floor just far enough back to grasp the handle of her pistol, lost in the collision, the man had rolled onto his hands in knees.

    Slybia Raised her neutralizer while her body was trembling slightly from fear and adrenaline her hands were almost completely still as was the pistol in her hands. The man was halfway up now he locked eyes with her from under his light plasteel helmet for just a moment his jaw tightening just before she squeezed the trigger. The shock round struck the man in his unprotected shoulder knocking him onto his back from the impact even before the electricity started to cause the man to convulse. She took a deep breath still resting on the floor and winced, her chest hurt she feared she may have cracked a rib in the impact with the security guard and she could still barely hear any noise over the sound of ringing in her ears. She slid herself back into the darkness and squeezed herself between two servers and into a small almost pitch black gap between the banks. Risky as it was she needed to catch her breath before she could make another move.

[Karl the Unfettered]

While all this was going on, Fenris was approaching the terminal again. He had enough sense to keep his head down while his sister and the security team were having it out with the intruder, but this stuff was his specialty and he couldn't let any potential sabotage get by. "Nothing obvious," he muttered, scrutinizing the strange device attached to the terminal, "looks like just a normal security tunneler..."

Working quickly, he accessed the terminal itself and stopped the download, then he replaced the download with a nasty virus, and initiated a network lockdown that would prevent Slybia or anyone else from accessing KDY data without admin-level access and biometric authorization for 48 hours.

Of course his bosses would want to know why... but he was confident security footage from this room would vindicate his decision swiftly. As the lockdown went into effect, the screen turned red, and Slybia's device was forcefully ejected; whatever data was on there now would be corrupted by his virus, and whoever tried to access it would be answering questions for whatever local sex crimes unit happened to be in the area in very short order...

That done, he swiftly made his way to the door, slipped out, and locked it down behind him. His sister-in-law had the access codes to unlock it, whenever she got around to subduing their little punk. He'd only get in the way now.

Meanwhile, Brand was reloading the spent shell in her revolver, determined to handle this punk before she did more damage to KDY. "You're done, bitch! Surrender now and you might survive!" she called out harshly, striding toward the second guard trying to subdue Slybia. But she writhed away and electrocuted the man before Brand could reach them, and was writhing out of view once more.

That told the detective that this person was fragile, unwilling to fight in the open. One or two more good shots should take her down, she reckoned. "It's just you and me, punk! This room is locked down! You've got one more chance to come quietly!" she yelled, approaching the gap where Slybia was hiding.

[Zarkan]

    Slybia's chest ached as she sucked air in from the pores along her neck and her heart pounded in her chest. The cyborg could hear the woman's footsteps padding towards her hole. The woman's voice sliced cleanly through the soft hum of cooling systems and electricity emitting from the server towers. Slybia's mouth turned down into a grimace as she processed what the woman said, she knew a lockdown limited her options considerably. She mulled over her options if she could slip past the woman she could fry the door lock, but then she would in all likely hood run straight into a company of guards and they would likely be aiming to kill. The vent above would likely be shut off from the outer world the ventilation all running through some great scrubber in the facility. She heard the woman just beyond her hole and tensed looking down at her pistol.

    Slybia knew surrender was her best option she certainly had secrets enough that she might be able to secure release from the bargaining failing that there would be more opportunities to escape. "You are quite rude." her soft melodic voice barely rising above the background tinted slightly electronic as it left her mouthpiece. She sighed the sound just be the barest leaking of breath before speaking again. "Alright, I'll surrender, but not to KDY." the cyborg once more furrowed her brow."I've dug through too many companies secrets to be willing to trust them." Her mind drifted back over the information she found in the secret munnilabs data cache years ago with a slight sudder. "If you want me to come quietly you'll need to get republic security." Slybia thought for a moment before adding quietly. "Please."

[Karl the Unfettered]

"I'll surrender."

The rest of her words were meaningless; Brand felt a vast relief wash over her, and she moved in to make it official. "I'll do my best," she replied, pulling a set of cuffs out and turning Slybia away, rotating her wrists to face outward from each other and then securely cuffing them. "You're under arrest for B&E, espionage, sabotage, data theft, assaulting a police officer, assaulting security forces, hindering a law-abiding citizen's pursuit of employment, and use of illegal weaponry in a secure environment. You have the right to remain silent..."

She went through the list of suspects' rights as she shepherded the diminutive corporate spy down the hallway, surrounded by more KDY goons. Brand's badge was a shield staving off their ire, but it was obvious they really just wanted to throw Slybia out an airlock and be done with her. Which, if Brand hadn't been there, might very well have been her fate!

But the detective was by-the-book, so that wasn't an option.

"...do you understand your rights?" she concluded, pausing to look down for acknowledgement. And to breathe a little. Suspects' rights got more numerous every six months, it seemed...

[Zarkan]

    Slybia slid her Neutralizer back into its holster on the left thigh and then slowly slide out between the server units. The woman was only lightly breathing through her mouth as she half turned and cocked her body to examine the redhead. Slybia could feel the slightly dulled sensation of her hand wrapping around her prosthetic arm through the nerve impulse units implanted into her body. Turning the cyborg complied with the motions of the officer, but she couldn't stifle a soft whimper when the movement of bringing her arms together strained on her injured right side. That was almost certainly a rib crack she surmised as the pain faded slightly.

    She took stock of her situation as the woman pushed her out into the grey utilitarian hull way. Slybia knew she could easily get her hands in front of her whenever the woman let up on her death grip on her upper arm, she might, she mused even be able to slip her hands out of the cuffs altogether, but this was clearly not the time they were headed out of the building and for now that was the priority. She huffed as the redhead began to read out her crimes. "Sabotage?" she muttered sulkily to her self. "I didn't do any sabotage." Her face pinched into a slight pout at the accusation, before a quick glance around changed her priorities. All around them the halls were packed by KDY goons and further in the distance she could catch quick glimpses of some less than legal security droids waiting just out of view. This, she thought, was definitely not the time to attempt escape. More than one of the guards wore cruel angry expressions on their faces and with how trigger-happy as corp sec tended to be any attempt would meet not only with her own death but probably that of the officer reading her rights and half the staff of this floor. Slybia hunched and pulled into herself under the uncomfortable stares of all the eyes and silently allowed herself to be pushed down the halls.

    Just before they reached the security checkpoint before the entrance the woman paused looking down at Slybia's hunched form and took a sharp deep breath before asking her if she understood her rights. Turning to looks at the woman she once more studied her face before nodding slightly and speaking in her typical soft and quiet voice. "Yes, I." Slybia was cut off by the loud sound of a door zipping open the very loud voice of a seemingly very angry man. Her head snapped back to the entrance as she saw a corpulent human in a suit yelling in barely contained fury at a protocol droid hurrying alongside him. Further behind she could see a pair of particularly large and twitchy hired bodyguards.

    It took a minute for the man to notice the pair and when he did he quickly screwed his blotchy face into a slick greasy grin. "Hold on a moment officer." trying his best not to look as angered as he was. "A few moments of your time." Slybia went back into her balled upstate no one, she knew, who behaved like this was ever good news.

[Karl the Unfettered]

Brand was glad she was cooperating. When a suspect cooperated, the system had an easier time cooperating in turn. That was how it was, and always had been or will be. Of course it was also possible that her attitude was more to do with the swarm of KDY goons surrounding them, but Brand wasn't scared so why should she be?

Well, until the suit appeared out of nowhere to block their path. Brand cursed to herself.

"I'm afraid we don't have a few moments to spare, sir," she replied smoothly. "I've just apprehended a dangerous fugitive and she needs to be processed into custody immediately." No doubt the little cyborg didn't look especially intimidating at the moment, but that was beside the point.

Her brother-in-law appeared then, slightly out of breath as he shouldered his way through the goons. "Sir, if it's about the network lockdown, that's on me," he insisted. "I'm the one who initiated it when I isolated her infiltration attempt, and witnessed the detective's efforts to subdue the suspect."

Looking over, Brand could see Fenris had something in his pocket. The data slicing tool? Hopefully he hadn't gotten his prints all over it. "We're wasting time, sir, please let us by," Brand insisted, as sirens and flashing lights converged outside the building. Huh, someone had called the real police; hopefully one of them had some rank to wave around in her favor...

[Zarkan]

    "Now, now." the man said is voice a laced in a sickly sweet tone. "She is firmly in had and our security is more than adequate to prevent any escapes now that they know about it wouldn't you say." As the suit finished a squad of KDY grunts moved into the room. Slybia's eyes skittered around the room this, this wasn't going the way she had hoped. She focused on the man's face as she started digging through her cybernetically augmented memory.

    The man's flashed into a tight-lipped grimace for just an instant before being schooled back into a fakely pleasant smile."KDY thanks you for your quick thinking son I'll make sure you're rewarded for your timely service." Despite the man's attempts to sound polite, a strong dismissive tone hung over his voice as he spoke to the technician. "Now, now officer there is no need to be in a rush our guest is clearly not going anywhere and we do have a few matters to discuss." Slybia could see the man's face flush red as the muffled sounds of siren's could be heard in the entry. The man quickly dropped the pretense of civility then spinning around to his two lackeys and ordering them to stall the police. "look officer." he turned back to slybia and the taller woman restaining her. "I have a very simple proposition for you officer how many credits do you need to give us the woman and pretend this whole affair never happened I'm sure credits are better than those hours of filing pointless reports."

    Slybia finally managed to put the face to a name and more importantly a file, but cops could be notoriously easy to buy off on these corp worlds and while she could bargain her way out of republic security it was far more likely KDY would just make her disappear. "Mr. Scrille how are Mrs. Scrille and Ms. Hanor?" The little cyborg looked the man in the eyes as she spoke and felt a slight rush of pride as the man paled. "I assume things are still going well with your considering the amount of money you're still laundering from KDY accounts for her." Slybia turned her head and looked at the woman before continuing. "He has a deal I have a counter deal that man is responsible for a number of crimes and I have the data files to prove it." She paused unsure of how far to play the card before swallowing and continuing. "All you have to do is give me to republic security and they're yours."

[Karl the Unfettered]

Brand sighed in irritation. How many times a week did some fool or other try to bribe her? And they were always so plebeian, trying to offer her money. Maybe that worked for other cops, but not her. She didn't do this for the money, she did this for the work itself, for the chance to do the right thing now and again. And if the right thing meant bringing in a mid-level KDY exec for Bribery, Obstruction of Justice, Threatening an Officer...

Well, she could probably keep listing charges off all day just from the past ten minutes, but they didn't have all day.

"You have one chance to get out of my way, Scrille," she replied in a hard voice, her grip on Slybia's arm tightening. Her other hand slid along her belt, grazing casually against the surface and coming to rest on the butt of her pistol. Concealed in the belt was a short-range transponder, which would broadcast an emergency signal to all nearby KCPD forces; she hadn't wanted to use it here, but with reinforcements just outside and this goon planning Gods-knew-what, she wanted backup sooner instead of later. "I'll happily bring you in right now, and I don't even need her intel to do it."

A few seconds later the doors flew open, and several of her fellow officers bustled in, yelling for the guards to stand down, for Scrille and his lackeys to get out of the way. "Don't let him leave!" Brand yelled in a commanding voice, staring at Scrille with hard eyes. "He's a suspect in this investigation." She looked down at Slybia and didn't let go of her, while the uniformed officers surrounded the exec and glared at the security goons.

[Zarkan]

Alphonso Scrille's face turned beet red with anger as his face twisted into a grimace the first genuine expression he'd had since he entered the building. His mouth had just begun to open to reply to the detective when the officers began to storm in. His eyes shined with a desperate light as his lips twisted into a nasty grin. "Don't listen to her officers she and that little thief planned this from the start." He motioned to the guards as he finished. "Detain them so the officers can properly question them." Slybia could tell the KPD were divided most looked confused while a few followed the detective's barked orders and a pair had started moving towards her and the detective presumably to do as Mr. Scrille had requested. The sounds of more jackboots moving down the hall to the left drew her attention. More security she thought and from the sounds of it a good deal of it.

Slybia turned and whispered low enough she hoped only the detective "He's going to try and run when the next security team barges in here." Her eyes examined the man despite his best attempts to remain outwardly placid a slight tremble in his legs showed that he was swimming in adrenaline. Scrille's goons entered behind the officers just moments before a large group of KDY security entered from the left drawing the attention of the police for a moment, but a moment was all he needed having covered two good backward steps in the time it took slybia to notice something flashing. Her eye's widened with recognition just as the goon jerked his arm and a round metallic object first bouncing and then rolling across the floor.

[Karl the Unfettered]

Goddamn corrupt corporate toadies. Sorry Fenris, she thought silently, taking a tighter grip on Slybia. "SHOOT THEM!" she shouted, yanking her revolver out and firing at Scrille; the hollowed-out tranq rounds struck him center mass, and he only managed a few more steps before wobbling on his feet and falling flat on his face. She didn't even notice the stun grenade before her reactions had her kicking it back at the KDY goons; still running on instinct she dropped to the floor, pulling the slicer down with her and shielding her from the rapidly devolving fracas around them!

Naturally it was over quick, the disciplined KCPD officers making quick work of the more numerous but lesser trained security goons. "Detective! Detective, where are you?" shouted a voice over the surrendering goons. Brand stood up, hopefully with Slybia still in hand.