A Chink In The Plans

[Val - Warning:Contains Sarcasm]

The blurred lines began to retract and form the white specks in the background against the endless black void. Ahead, the grey planet Coruscant magnified rapidly as the Command Ship decreased speed and entered the orbit of the planet. Around them dozens of other ships and stations maintained a similar orbit around the planet. The Command Ship slipped into a position facing the planet. Kiqua sighed with relief. This whole episode was almost over, thankfully.

"Send our ship ID codes and prepare a dropship. I'll be accompanying the prisoner and guards to Spaceport 29 Alpha. Contact the Republic Armory in the area. We need those M31 Scythes transferred aboard to replace the old weapons." She slid on her jacket from the back of her chair and holstered the blaster pistol she had left in the chair. She went through what would be going on in her head as she made her way towards the armory. The ship computer noted her absence from the bridge and beeped alive.

"The commanding officer is away from bridge. Lieutenant Johans has the bridge."
So I take the dropship to the bridge. I have my jacket. Datapad. Weapon. ID. Take the prisoners to the Spaceport. Drop the prisoners off with the Spaceport security. Apply to Command for new orders. Acquire M31s. I don't think I'm forgetting anything.
She entered the hanger, the dropship already being loaded with soldiers and the three prisoners. Other supplies had already been loaded aboard. She stepped onto the dropship, taking hold of a bar to steady herself. The doors slid shut and two men ensured they were sealed correctly. The pilot engaged the engines and seconds later they were blasting through space heading towards the city planet and Starport 29A.

[Anackis]

He looked at the data pad and nodded to himself, It was confirmed, he finally found her. She had made of fool of him, HE was the master and she, she was a mere pawn in the game. Now he had but one problem, getting there.

Shi'tan glanced around the spaceport noting the odd number of military units milling about as if they had something of real value to do. This could only mean a transport was coming. He did not care what that transport contained, only that it was a possible exit.

Shi'tan moved forward, his steps deliberate as he approached an officer. The man turned around looking at him a bit annoyed, "You can't be here. I'm gonna have to ask you to leave." the officer said.

Shi'tan smiled and stared into the mans eyes, he wondered if using the force was even needed with this fool, "I am Ambassador Jul'fardo. You are to escort me to the transport."

The Officer blinked then stood at attention, "Ambassador, I hope you had a safe journey here. The dropship will be arriving shortly."

Shi'tan smiled, "Good. It would be a shame if I did not reach Metellos on time."

The officer raised a confused eyebrow, "Metellos? Why would you be wasting your time in a dump like that?"

Shi'tan narrowed his eyes in impacients at the officer, "I would thank you to not pry into the political affairs of others." He pulled a little more at the force emphisising his urgency, "I trust you will inform them of my urgency."

The officer nodded, "Yes Ambassador, as soon as they land."

[Val - Warning:Contains Sarcasm]

The dropship skimmed low through the imposing valleys formed by the towering buildings of Coruscant. The bridges used for public pathways and vehicular transportation were similar to the rocky archways of the desert. The dropship swooped low beneath the bridge, coming within feet of the supports which would cause a major disturbance if hit. Their pilot was smart though. He was experiences and knew how to handle the 'bird', as he called her. They came close to the spaceport now, and it was in sight from the front screen.

"Admiral, we have confirmation from the Spaceport that we will have a force waiting for us at shuttle bay 17. Armed patrols and a prison escort." Kiqua nodded, her lekku dropping from her shoulder. One of the soldiers motioned as if to help her replace it, but she glared at him. He withdrew the hand. It wasn't a piece of clothing that had came loose, it was part of her body, and it wasn't to be touched at will. Especially not without her permission, and especially not her brain tails. Not after that time when the pirates attacked. She took the dangling tchun and slipped it back onto her shoulder.

The dropship was close to the spaceport now. The engines reduced their power and the handing proceedures began. There was much less of a tilt forward and the pilot announced to prepare for touchdown. A few seconds later the dropship made contact with the landing bay and the doors were able to be opened once again without the risk of someone being ripped out into the vacuum of space or plunging to death by hard concrete in the city streets. Kiqua was amongst the first to leave the dropship, heading towards the nearest entrance to complete the prisoner handover details.

[Anackis]

Shi'tan watched the dropship as it landed with ease. A moment later the door opened and people began to move. Shi'tan followed the officer as he approach another Twi'Lek, obviousely of upstanding rank. With a quick saulute the officer acknowleged her, "Admiral," he began, "we are ready to transfer the prisoner. Once we have completed the transfer, Ambassador Jul'fardo, will be joining you."

Shi'tan made a slight bow in greeting.

[Val - Warning:Contains Sarcasm]

Kiqua stepped inside the spaceport, feeling the warm aid assault her skin. She enjoyed the shift from the bitter cold of Coruscant outside. The air outside was icy and unwelcoming, probably one of the reasons the traffic on Coruscant was so thick, like a swarm of locusts milling around the entire planet, feeding from the fresh air and leaving only damaged pollutant in it's wake. One of the officers from the spaceport security approached her as she entered the well prepared area. She was about to respond concerning the prisoners when he mentioned something that wasn't at all what she had intended to do at all.

"Uh... excuse me? I don't believe I know any Ambassador, and he sure as hell isn't getting on board my ship with just a fancy name. Where is he?" She looked around. Whoever this Ambassador is he had a lot of nerve thinking she was just going to give up command of her ship to any layabout who came around brandishing a title. If he had anything less than orders directly from the head of the Republic Navy she knew exactly where she was going to tell him to shove them.

[Anackis]

Shi'tan stepped forward, a calm smile on his face. With a curtiouse bow he acknowledged the Twi'Lek commander"Greetings Admiral, I am Ambassador Jul'fardo. Please do forgive the kind Officer. I fear the stress of this prisoner transfer had him tense enough." Shi'tan was tired of wasting time. The force flowed through his words like a calming stream, "I thank you for your kindness in taking me to Metellos. I'll see that your superiors are informed of your generouse actions for the growth of the Republic."

[Val - Warning:Contains Sarcasm]

The Ambassador seemed to be an adept speaker. Kiqua could feel her being swayed by his words. Indeed, a cunning political tool, one that would be invaluable in manipulating the opinions of others when it would suit him best. She didn't like the way his facial expression didn't seem to support his words, however, and her eyes narrowed. She could see that he was not expecting her reaction. She monitored his body language and the way his lekku were not in synch with his tone of voice. A voice inside her head was screaming for her to deny him the place on the ship.

But then the soothing feeling was washing over her again and that voice disappeared. A nagging doubt as to whether it was a right voice to listen to crept over her and she paused, her face neutral and not as threatening as it had been mere minutes ago. She knew the answer she was going to give. She was going to tell him to do things she wouldn't tell that annoying Ensign on the 17th deck. But that was then, and this is now. All her body pointed towards the same direction, and though she hesitated she followed what seemed to be the correct course of action.

"Very well Ambassador. Our dropship is just outside, and I'll be leaving with you just as soon as I finish this paperwork."

[Anackis]

Shi'tan noticed the Admirals deminar relax and smiled to himself. Under other cercumstances he might have pressed her more, but he knew when to stop, "Thank you, Admeral. I shall try and not be a burdon to you on your ship." Shi'tan stepped aside with a polite bow, letting the military do what they needed.

For a moment Shi'tan thought this Twi'Lek's mind was stronger, that his attempt to sway her mind would not work. He would have to avoid any pressing conversations with her.

[Val - Warning:Contains Sarcasm]

Kiqua observed the Ambassador board the ship. That nagging feeling was returning for some reason, but she dismissed it. She lost line of sight as the other Twi'lek boarded the dropship and the admiral returned to the current situation to take care of the three prisoners she had to hand over.
"Are you alright admiral? You changed your mind rather quickly there."
Kiqua looked up. One of the starport security. A petty rent-a-soldier. She turned away, rolling her eyes and exhaling nasally.
"I'm fine. What decisions I make are none of your business." The soldier didn't answer, deciding against continuing a conversation with an already agitated female.

Strolling towards the desk nearby Kiqua began to answer questions detailing the events leading up to the first prisoner's escape, and the subsequent recapture, plus capture of the other two prisoners, whom were charged with terrorism, perverting the course of justice, damage to public property, speeding, stealing a vehicle, driving without a valid license, damage to private property, use of illegal arms, use of illegal explosives and violation of probation. The numbers would add up to around 110 years in prison each. Kiqua knew they'd be out in less than 10. The prison system was always skewered when it came to anything less than an assassination of a major figure.
"If that's all the information you need I'll be returning to my sh-" She turned around, her attention caught by one of the security guards. His eyes were focused on her, but not the face. "Nice uniform, isn't it?" His eyes shot up, mouth half open but speechless. She marched out without another words. Pigs, just like when she was in training.

She boarded the dropship without another word. The rest of her men filed in after her. They weren't the best behaved men, but they weren't as disgusting and corrupt as the public services were. Her men could be trusted in a firefight at least, and had control of their eyes. She exhaled deeply, trying to fight the urge to return in there and give the men a piece of her mind. No, they'd like that too much.
"Let's get back home, pilot." The pilot agreed, kicking the engines back online as they rose from the landing pad and made their way back through the chaotic swarm of Coruscant.

[Anackis]

Shi'tan sat quietly. The soft roll of the ships engines sifting through his ears. This would be a long journey.

[Xef'se]

The Fused Power-Coil dropped out of hyperspace in high-orbit over Coruscant and powered down, with only life-support active. It was virtually undetectable. Xef'se used his antennae to send a message to his sensory lieutenant, Carefully perform a long-range scan for life-forms on that Republic Cruiser yonder. My gut tells me that we've hit upon a good one. he also sends a message to his "advanced computer officer" (AKA Hacker) Also, I want identification on that ship. Transponder codes, crew roster, designation. Knowledge has brought us success before, it'll do so again.

The ship funneled slight amounts of power to the scanners and holonet receiver, and symbols and statistics flooded Xef'se's monitor. Apparently this ship was commanded by Admiral Kiquan'Pide. Intercepted communications -Xef'se reminded himself to commend his hacker for good work- stated that an important visitor was on its way up. Thus, profit. Influence. The Republic's armed forces, Naval or otherwise, would give Xef'se's crew proper respect for such an attack.

Xef'se gave a rasping shout, "Come on men, women. We need this ship to appear as if it's no more than a harmless freighter," he turns to his hacker, "Nef'tin, I know this may be hard, but you need to mask our energy signatures. In all but visual scans, we should appear to be nothing more than an enormous, cruiser-sized bulk freighter. You'll work with the Sensory Lieutenant. Now get on it!"

The hacker nodded and clicked out a quiet confirmation of orders before gesturing over the Sensory Lieutenant. Xef'se turned to his navigator, "Get us moving. I want us going on a moderately high speed towards that cruiser. Have us stop just out of visual range if possible, and if we're too far to shoot, so be it. We want to surprise the bigwigs over in that Cruiser."

Xef'se smirked out of the viewport. By the time the dogs figured out their ruse, it would be too late, and they'd be forced to hand over any valuables.

[Val - Warning:Contains Sarcasm]

The dropship began to shake and the bodies inside began to sway from side to side. The turbulance only lasted a few seconds but it was more than Kiqua was intent on experiencing. She was glad to finally reach the cold stillness of space. No turbulance here, just smooth flying to the hanger. And then they could leave this forsaken place. She never did care much for Coruscant, it felt so dead to her. Not like living aboard artificial conditions in a metal box was a big change, but at least the people on the spaceship didn't try and pretend the spaceship was a plant or something. The people on the planet seemed to still believe they had a planet. Hardly. Coruscant was a city, the planet was dead.

Her inner thoughts had inadvertedly managed to help her miss the few minutes between the atmosphere's bouncy ride and the dead space until the hanger. They had already covered most of the distance and the dropship was already arranging itself to enter the hanger. The men disembarked, and Kiqua indicated for the Ambassador to follow her towards the well equipped living quarters, usually reserved for VIP visitors. She wanted the Ambassador to stay out of her way while they travelled, and would prefer not having officials from the Navy snooping around on allegations of misconduct or something. She punched in a code on the door and the doors opened to a well lit, beautifully furnished room.

"In here if you don't mind Ambassador. Is there anything you will need?"

[Anackis]

Shi'tan sat quietly as the dropship ascended. The rough turbulence only lasted a moment but he didn't seem to notice it. He knew Kiela, had trained her and taught her in the ways of the Force, of the dark side. She would sense his presence when they got close enough. He would have to choose his movements carefully.

Shi'tan glanced up as the ship jolted. They had arrived at the hanger. The Admiral motioned him to follow and he did so without a word. She escorted him to an elegant room, Shi'tan thought it might even be larger then the Admiral's own, it would do. Shi'tan entered and glanced back as the Twi'Lwk addressed him.

"This will be more then adequate, thank you, Admiral" Shi'tan stood there patiently waiting for the Admiral to go about her duties. He had planning of his own to complete.

[Val - Warning:Contains Sarcasm]

Kiqua nodded, closing the door behind her and leaving the Ambassador to do whatever duties he had to do. She was not really concerned with the requirements of politics, her job was at the bridge and it was far more important than discussing whether a 1% rise in salt taxes was needed. It seemed a thankless job to her, and it also seemed so for a reason, as they all tended towards corruption at one point or another. She and her men were doing the dangerous stuff here, and it's her men that deserved the bonuses that the politicians got and added to their evergrowing stacks of cash. They were like ogres guarding their greedy wealth.

She arrived at the bridge, with the voiceover recognising her return, and she took over command once again. Not much had changed, as she had been down on the planet far less than an hour, so no one had switched stations yet.
"Anything to report?"
"Not much Admiral. We had the last arms aboard us twenty minutes ago, and we're in the process of distributing them from the hanger to the armories in the ship. The full distribution should be finished by tomorrow morning."
"Good. We'll need to go through the proper use of the weapons with the men, so I want training sessions set up throughout next week so that everyone knows how they work. I don't want deaths because someone left the safety on."
"The Corellian authorities have also been trying to contact you, Admiral. They want a full report of the incident at CorSec from you by tomorrow morning."
"Bah, silly men. They don't even have a headquarters for the security force, how can they demand anything of me when I don't even have a place to send it to?"
She'd get around to the report, but she sure as hell wasn't going to go out of her way to tell the Corellian secutiry how badly they sucked at military issues.

[Anackis]

Shi'tan dropped his fake smile as the door closed behind the Admiral. The foolish woman with her foolish pride. Shi'tan was disgusted by the frailness of her mind and the ease at which she was swayed. Still, for his better interest, he decided to remain in the provided room until arrival on Metellos.

He moved slowly across the spaciouse room sitting himself on the floor at the foot of the bed. Shi'tan closed his eyes letting the force surround him. It was here, in meditation, he would make his plans.

[Xef'se]

They came within visual range, and Xef'se ordered the target to be magnified. By the moons of Yavin, that thing is huge! he thinks to himself, then leans over into the PA microphone on his chair's armrest and announces, "All crew, to battle stations. If the Republic command ship starts shooting, we'll need to be able to strike and leave. We are at orange alert. NOW!" he barks into the PA, then says to his bridge crew "bring us along side that ship and turn off our sensory cloaks."

He turns to his Comm officer, "Dammit... I don't like negotiating at a disadvantage... open hailing frequencies with the Republic Command ship."

The officer answers with a curt nod and taps a few buttons before turning to Xef'se and nodding again, at which point Xef'se starts speaking, "This is Xef'se Alin of Xef'se Alin Research Corps, and captain of the Fused Power-coil, to Admiral Kiqua. I know you're in there somewhere, my hackers are very good. Please respond, as I believe that we can both profit from a deal."

Xef'se finishes and leans back, waiting for a response.

[Val - Warning:Contains Sarcasm]

The Comms officer called her over and she grudgingly complied, approaching the individual who had a concerned and perplexed look on his face.
"What is it? Orders from Coruscant?" The comms officer shook his head, deciding instead to hand the headset over to the admiral. She slipped one earpiece over an ear and positioned the microphone a few inches from her lips.

"This is Xef'se Alin of Xef'se Alin Research Corps, and captain of the Fused Power-coil, to Admiral Kiqua. I know you're in there somewhere, my hackers are very good. Please respond, as I believe that we can both profit from a deal."
Hackers? This didn't sound very legal to her. She consulted a map of the area around the ship, noticing the small vessel that had appeared next to her own.

"Why...!" she began, before realising they may have had cloaking devices that allowed them to sneak up on the ship. Very clever, and she ignored the perplexed looks of the comms officer who waited for her to finish the sentance. She consulted the screen again. The vessel was too close to attack, since debris and backlash from the short distance would damage her hull. She tapped a button on the terminal and began to broadcast.
"Very well Mister Alin, let's hear this offer. I hope you won't take too much offense if it results in rejection. Hacking usually isn't a good prelude to a conversation."

[Xef'se]

"Admiral I am pleased that you responded. I bear no ill intentions for the moment. The hacking was just necessary for basic information which isn't readily provided. I like to know who I'm talking to, you know.

Xef'se subtly sends radio signals to his gunnery officers, ordering them to stand down for the moment. He thinks to himself, I could probably get us out of the whole pirate business altogether. It was interesting, but you know how these things go. I'd end up swinging sometime or another. He looks up again, smiling to himself and resuming his speech, "I hope you will forgive me for the hacking. It provides an excuse for unnecessary bias. Now, let me continue with my offer. I have been looking for a place to settle down, stop my various pirate operations, as my crew is a simple research corps after all. In exchange for asylum and, I will pledge further research on the part of my Research Corps to the Republic at a nominal fee, as well as the services of my ship, the Fused Power-coil.

Xef'se gestures to his Hacker, who smiles deviously and transmits an E-Brochure to the Admiral, bypassing multiple firewalls, to put it on a terminal near her.

"You can read that over when you want to. It's safe, no bugs. That would be unprofitable in the long run, to bug it. Now, if you want, you can scan my ship. I'm sure you will find that for its size it is quite useful. Surely you and the rest of the Admiralty should be able to see its value," Xef'se croons with a slight rasp, trying to pitch his value over his history. He stands up and walks over to a small Verpine with one antenna, and whispers in his ear, "Be prepared to escape if they say no and prepare to attack."

He sits back in his chair and awaits another reply.

[Val - Warning:Contains Sarcasm]

Kiqua moved towards a terminal and ordered the men to begin to scan the ship. There didn't seem to be anything of concern there, but the mention of pirates hadn't struck a good chord with her. If there was one thing she couldn't stand, it was pirates. If there was another thing she couldn't stand, however, it was damaging her own ship from firing too close to another ship. She looked at the brochure as it came through. It was certainly like nothing she'd been used to seeing. Useful pirates? What a quirky idea.

"Very well, we'll see how this goes. I'd like you to bring your ship around to our docking bay. The armed guards will be a necessity for our own protection, I hope you understand. I'll have them escort you to quarters, and we'll see how it goes from there. This could be interesting..." She ended the transmission. Interesting, yes. Interesting indeed. She had been hoping to find such types of people to add a project she was undertaking. She was hoping to establish a branch of her crew... a special staff...

[Xef'se]

Xef'se leans back and, very humanly, sighs. What in the name of pestilence and sloth was he supposed to do? It sounded like a trap, but if it wasn't, it was too valuable a chance to miss. He leans over to the PA speaker on his armrest once more, and speaks, "My friends, researchers, comrades. Prepare to dock. We may be done with our lives of petty thieving and piracy. Isn't that a good thing? It probably is, and we're about to find out. All hands, to your quarters and prepare for further orders. Oh, and Drone Squad 1 to me for when we dock."

The ship slid smoothly to the hangar, and a ramp came down with Xef'se and his guards coming down. Xef'se held a portable computer in one hand, and a luggage carrier in the other. He looked up, raised his snout, and took a breath, before looking around for people of importance.