Ballroom Blitz

[Dire Wolf]

((for the sake of sanity, I'll have her just start briefing.))

Lanara's forest green eyes slid open sadly. Green was her color for happiness and, for a fleeting moment, that very color dominated her iris. It was tinged with shades and playful streaks of violet, the color her eyes held when she felt love. A light smile also tugged at the corners of her lips during that light nap that she'd allowed herself. Those multi-colored eyes blinked once in an attempt to cut through the thick haze that fell over them while she slept. It was only until after her vision cleared that she realized that her dream was just that; a dream. The color in her eyes quickly drained into nothing but a lifeless, steel grey at the realization.

A sigh came from her form as she picked her head up off of the unyielding metal of her desk. An almost subconscious groan told the woman that she'd spent far too much time planning for the operation that she was given to lead. In truth, Lana hadn't gotten much sleep at all since that whole mess on Tatooine. Ector must have known it, too, because he was perched up beside her head... simply looking down at her with that robo-avian gaze of his. "Did you have a good rest, Lady Lanara?" He had to be joking. He really did. She hadn't had a good rest since Force knew when. "Shush. I gotta fool-proof this op 'fore oh-eight-hundred."

"Lady Lanara...."

"Ector," she didn't look up from her datapad, "if you don't shut up this instant I'll give you over to some jawa junk hoarders that will find you fascinating." For once, her voice was clear and concise. Any hints of her accent were gone, and a tinge of irritated orange wove through the gray of her eyes.

"... its oh-eight-twenty."

"Fracking hell! Why didn't you wake me up!? Piece of junk metal!" Without hesitation, the woman gathered up her many datapads of intelligence, blue prints, and planning. The droid, of course, didn't realize that her question was more rhetorical than anything else. "My system clock is not active, Lady Lanara." Orange went from simply weaving and slithering its way through her lifeless grey eyes to completely dominating it. "Then how the hell did you know what time it was?" "There is a clock on your desk, Lady Skysiri."

She'd never wanted to slap him off of the desk and into the wall more, but she had no time. Instead, she shot him a quick glare through eyes plagued with orange threads before she swirled off and rushed towards the designated meeting room, picking up her messenger bag along the way. She had all of the various datapads that were clutched in her arms dumped into the bag before she got halfway out of the door. Lana wouldn't be late, but she'd barely have time to set up the briefing when she got there. "Wow Lan," she huffed, "good thing you ain't one of those REMF paper pushers yet?"

Her stride was long and fast as she rushed down the length of the cavernous hallway towards the briefing room. The distinct whine of Ector's jets roaring behind her reached her ears, and she threw her shoulder violently at his attempt to land on it. There was no way in hell that the bird was going to use her as a perch, especially after that snark he gave her a few minutes ago. Ector, of course, tilted his head in confusion before backing off to silently fly along behind her.

~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_

A stray strand of blonde hair was flicked away in irritation before the woman went back to feverishly typing on her ruggedized datapad. Those lifeless grey eyes followed the font as it sped across the screen because of her rapid-fire keystrokes, quickly scrutinizing each detail of the plan. It was simple. Simple was good. Simple meant that there weren't nearly as many things that were subject to "murphy's law". Simple also meant that it was harder to screw up.

Lanara completely ignored the people as they slowly streamed into the briefing room, deciding to devote all of her mind power to transfering the plan from her head to the document rather than chit chat with the people she was to be leading. Fortunately, the last one barely walked through the door by the time that she finished her brief. A light honey color slowly invaded the grey in her eyes as she looked up at the small group of people, smiling lightly at the plan she'd formulated in a relatively quick amount of time.

"I don't know if all of you have met me yet," that light smile of satisfaction came through in her tone, "I'm Staff Sergeant Lanara Skysiri, Republic Task Force one-four-one. I'll spare you anything else, and get right on to the briefing." With that, she picked up a little remote and pressed the "next" button on its surface. The image on the ancient-style datapad-projector shifted over to the next slide, which was a blue print of the building where the Imperial ball was to take place. Multiple corners of the building had a small red circle somewhere close to it. Each of those circles also had a name of the person to plant a bomb within it. There was one last circle in a seemingly random utility room, it was outside of the main ballroom. Her voice was also stunningly clear, which was completely contrary to her accent most of the time. "This is where the a good deal of the who's-who in Dantooine – Sith nobility and military will be having their ball. Its not an overly-complex job. Get in, plant the bombs, get out, and watch the fireworks."

Lanara stepped out of the insanely bright light of the projector and looked back at the blueprint, at each of the dots, before shifting her head back to the people she was to lead. "We are going to be masquerading as the waiters to infiltrate the building, and each of you will find a suit that's your size. Now," the rilan paused, "They do have a high grade weapon detector at the entrance. So guns of any kind are a huge no once we get into the building. Knives and the like are fine, so long as they aren't visible." Lan pressed the button again, and a picture of a high explosive charge slid onto the projection. It had a small keypad on its face to tune its frequency to the detonator. "We have more than a few high-explosive charges to plant, and each of you have your designated corner. The code to set the bomb to the detonator is, '3711'. Don't forget that. If you don't key it right, the bomb won't explode when we hit the detonator.

"As you can see. The charge itself is about a pound, which by itself is more than enough to blow that buidling to kingdom come. After that, you are all to get out in a reasonable manner. Leave one at a time, and in intervals. If we arouse suspicion too soon all of this will be for naught, and our one chance to cut the head off of the snake will be gone forever."

She sighed, that was truly the one point that would make or break this mission: the exfiltration. Shortly after that, she motioned up towards the circle in one of the maintenance rooms. "After the last one makes it out of the ballroom, I'll slice into the terminal and lock down the ballroom to prevent the 'honored guests' escape. Once we retreat to safe distance, we detonate the charges and crack open a few brews."

Another heavy sigh signalled the end of her briefing, and she allowed her weight to fall back against the wall. "Any questions," she asked as her arms crossed below her breasts. It gave her a rather appealing look about her frame, as she wore was a tight-fitting tank top and a pair of tan khaki cargo pants. So long as they listened to her briefing, she didn't care.

[Deleted]

Early morning found Saerith alone in the garage which wasn't unusual to the say the least. She was always in the garage, what was unusual was that she wasn't working. Instead she sat on her own Grayback speeder both legs hanging over the side. At her side was a small droid that was for the moment inert, doing whatever it was he did when not occupied. Despite their presence the shop rang with stillness. neither moved each for their own reasons. Saerith stared down at the floor not really seeing it. In her mind she relived those last moments at the conflict where Xander had lost his life. No matter how hard she thought she couldn't remember why she had left. What had driven her to escape and leave Xander to die? Escape was a specialty of her's but that wasn't something she had even been thinking about at the time.
Slowly the minutes passed and still she sat there in silence.

If her familiar had not suddenly shifted she might have sat there for hours deep in thought. Slowly she turned and looked at him. He was staring quietly up at her. "Time to go" he said simply. Saerith frowned and her familiar sighed. "You are supposed to be at that briefing remember?" The memory came back, she was going on a mission tonight, her first one for the DLA since she joined. "Right, Let's go Hax" Hax was the name she had come up with for the familiar... after learning about him it had just seemed to fit. The small reptilian droid crawled up along her arm and perched on it's hind legs on her shoulder.

She hadn't had him for very long but had already adjusted her outfit so he could crawl up without injuring her arm. "I don't understand why I have to come, it's not like I can go on the mission anyway" Saerith smiled slightly. "you have anything better to do? besides I might miss something and need you to fill me in" The little droid shifted a bit on her shoulder and simply responded "Fail" Saerith sighed again, Hax said a number of things she didn't understand. Like using the word Fail on its own, and someday soon she would have to find out what "Pownt" meant.

She entered the briefing room and took her seat. She couldn't help but feel a twinge of nervousness. She would probably be like that before all her missions... assuming she made it past this one. She began to fidget slightly as her apprehension grew. She might have continued had Hax not applied some pressure to her shoulder and said "Calm down, you'll be fine" Not really sure why Saerith took some comfort in the familiars reassurance. Her fidgeting stopped.
her eyes focused on Lanara, she wasn't really sure how she felt about the woman. At first she had blamed her for Xanders death but not anymore. If anything it was her fault. Her own lack of combat skill had made her near useless and Xander had died for it. Lanara had probably saved her and others from the same fate.

She sat and waited while other members of the DLA filed in. Waiting was one of the hardest things to do, she preferred to be in motion. Time dragged on and Saerith took to observing Lanara. The women was working on something although what was unknown to Saerith. Before she could ponder too long the last member of the DLA arrived and Lanara introduced herself to the lot of them. Saerith was somewhat surprised to find out she was leading the mission but quite suddenly felt better about the whole thing. She had seen Lanara in action. It was impressive and Saerith doubted they would be in better hands with anyone except maybe Dutch himself.

Then the briefing began and Saerith listened. As it was explained she began to feel like she actually had a chance at performing well. Bombs were something she could handle and without weapons there was no prospect of a gun fight. Certainly that was in her favor unless they were found out of course. Then they would all be gunned down with no way to fight back. It would happen that way if they were found even if they did have weapons. Taking the Sith had on was just not going to happen. A slight glance at Hax found him looking intently at Lanara. Probably taking Saerith at her word that she might miss something and need to be filled in. It wasn't needed. Saerith hadn't been serious about not paying attention. She wasn't out to get herself killed.

Saerith smiled slightly at the thought of sipping a beer while they watched the building full of Sith explode. Her Familiar applied a slight pressure to get her attention. "Hear all of that?" he asked and Saerith's smile grew a little wider. "Yeah I heard all of it" A sideways look from Hax and a slight mumbling that sounded a lot like "Don't know why you brought me then" Saerith continued to grin but stayed silent. She was already rather fond of the droid. She knew she would have brought him along if she could have but the mission parameters didn't seem to have room for his talents. Glitch would be handling communications and likely there wasn't anything in the building she couldn't slice her way through on her own. Now she just had to wait and see what Lanara wanted her to do.

[/-Amy-\-Foxie Lady-/]

Kiala stood in a corner of the briefing room, the same corner she had been standing in an hour before any of the others had arrived. She had been grounded up until this point for her actions during her attempt to rescue Xander and Saerith. She immediately tried to think of something else. The death of the zeltron had hit her harder than she was likely to admit or tell. The only sign that anything was wrong was that she had reverted back to her normal distant, almost cold self. Where as she had started making friends and such, now she only talked to Saerith and Kabira, and then it was only rarely. She had continues Saer and Kabi's training but without the teasing, and only talking when she had to. The rest of Kiala’s time was spent in the solitude of her room, listening to Zeltron opera.

She came out her private thoughts as others began to file in. She checked her watch and found out that Lanara was running late, and a if the thought had prompted it, the soldier came in and sat down working on something and not addressing those few who had gathered. Kiala didn’t know what to think of the woman. She had only seen her and had yet to actually hold a conversation with her, but she had to have sand...it took sand to make a halo jump. Kiala stood quietly, dressed surprisingly similar to Lanara in her black tank top, camouflage pants and black combat boots polished to sheen. On her right hand she wore a single combat glove, there was no need for one on her left, as the entire arm was cybernetic.

There was a flutter of wings and Prudii landed on Kiala's shoulder. Prudii was a black raven with purple eyes that had already earned a reputation of being a trickster, silverware, watches and other small shiny objects tended to disappear, to be returned to the owners later by Kiala.

As the meeting got underway Kiala gave her undivided attention to Lanara. The woman knew what she was doing. Her plan was simple, but good. There was very few areas for something to go wrong, except for one thing Kiala could figure. When Lanara asked if there was any questions Kiala raised her hand.

"Kia Starseeker, former republic marine. Its not so much a question, but these scanners, would they pick up on my cybernetics?". Kiala was fairly sure that the republic soldier was a skilled enough observer to know that her arm wasn’t the only cybernetics she had. Her eyes were covered by her sunglasses. Kiala taps her sheathed beskad against her legs, producing a muffled sound of metal on metal sound. She reached up her empty hand and removes her shades, her eye's glow a brighter blue than normal for a moment.

[Dire Wolf]

An almost elegant eyebrow arched upwards on Lanara's soft face as she watched the banter between Saer and her reptillian droid thing. It looked vaguely familiar to the AER series of droid, and perhaps was a later model. Something told her that she should have gone to the meeting that Ector told her about. "Ector," she spoke without looking towards the avian droid, "no." The little white droid was about to fly over and strike up a conversation with his brother, and ask him just what model he was in the new line of REA droids. He belayed the action with a single, dissapointed slump.

The voice of a woman rang in her ears, and caused those now stone pebble grey eyes flicker over to its source. It was abhorrent. An otherwise pretty woman was marred by a robotic arm, and her legs were far too bulky underneath those camie pants to be natural. Cyborgs were frowned upon in the universe, and Lanara happened to be one of the folks that did the frowning down upon. Her slight look of disgust quickly turned into one of dissapointment however, as the woman announced herself as a former Republic Marine.

She was a sister.

Lana's face cracked a small smile as she shook her head unconsciously at the question. "Not unless your cybernetics 'ave built in blasters 'r slug throwers. From our intel, 'looks like th' weap'n detectors look fer gun powder 'r an electro-magnetic field. If one's detected, it goes nuts until its deactivated. If ye' don't 'ave 'nythin' but a blade on that robotry, you'll b'fine." A small glint in the blonde's eye could be seen as she pushed herself off of the wall and walked past Ector, beckoning for him to perch up on her shoulder like a pirate. The whine of his thruster packs engaging where hardly loud, in fact they were barely an annoyance to the woman as she felt the weight of his metal frame touch down on her shoulder. "ooh-rah. Show up at th' hangar by oh-nine-thirty bright eyed 'n' bushy tailed."

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Lanara nodded in approval as she looked at herself in a mirror. Her shoulder length blonde hair had been tied up in a tight bun behind her head, the fair skin of her neck exposed for all to see. The Rilan woman's outfit was a simple but elegant, and was the very same one that a ballroom server would wear. A simple white blouse was covered by a black vest with a big neck and a short belly. A single stilletto switchblade knife lie hidden underneath the fabric, just bellow her belly. Her black work pants compelted the work of professionalism, and each pocket held a razor-sharp knife within it. Her massive combat knife was attached to a sheath on her calf, its hilt facing down so she could easily pull it free.

As always, Rem's feather lie in a protective case on a necklace, beneath all of her clothes. She didn't care that no one could see the necklace, as it was for no-one to see. It was hers, and hers alone. Her hand pressed the feather's case against her chest at the thought, and began to think of Rem. He'd told her to do that, before he died. Every time she thought of him while holding the feather, he'd know. He wouldn't know what she was thinking, but he'd know that she was thinking of him. Lana still liked to think that whatever bond he had with that feather would let him know that, even though he died, she still had him in her heart.

Don't look now, Lanara has a soft side.

With a sigh, she cast her now deep blue eyes down towards a switchblade that was waiting to be put into a pocket.Truth be told, the woman was never outstanding with a knife. Lan knew the basic principles of knife combat, and could easily incorporate them into her martial arts and gunplay, but she had learned to never rely on it. If her adversary pulled a knife, chance was against the woman that his skill at wielding a blade would be better than hers. Knife fights were very voliatile things, and generally ended extremely quickly. The one with the most skill prevailed. Always. If two people who were about the same when it came to a knife, both would end up bleeding out on the ground within five minutes. Guarenteed. Which was precisely why she relied more on her Teras Kasi and ability to stop the knife from hitting her, rather than solely on an inanimate hunk of steel.

The blonde knew to never go for the center torso with a knife, as she would with a blaster, but rather to attack the extremeties to ensure that the enemy couldn't respond back. Slicing a man's bicep, shoulder, thigh, or calf was a very efficent way to immobilize him until either a doctor or a helluvalotta kolto stitched him back up. That information, and a combat knife, mixed with an intimate knowledge of Teras Kasi, meant that she would truly be a fearsome foe with a rifle. At any range.

Another nod bobbed the woman's head downward, those honey colored eyes mirroring the satsifaction that coursed its way through her heart. Those eyes shifted over to the shining suit of matte black power armor that was held up on a stand on the wall, and the snub-nosed crew-served class style heavy repeating blaster at its feet. Ribbons of a deep violet began to twirl and thread through the soft honey eyes, revealing the pride that she felt for the pieces of equipment. Her magnetic accelerator pistol was also close by, though it was on her desk.

Without hesitation, she snatched it up and strode towards the hangar bay. While she couldn't bring the pistol inside the actual ballroom, she could either leave it in the car or plant it somewhere outside. Not bringing a firearm would be an idiotic thing to do, after all. Those multi-colored eyes flicked from place to place absently as her mind began to conjure up situations, and her reactions to them. Not much could go wrong on this op, but the cyborg's reputation gave the blonde pause. If she decided to do something off op, without thinking, it could get everyone killed and possibly destroy the Dantooine Liberation Army altogether.

Lanara then vowed to keep that woman in check, and do her absolute best to make her life hell should she screw up. Those honey colored eyes flicked down to the pistol shoved in her waist band absentmindedly, almost to say that anyone who screwed up terribly enough to jeaprodize the DLA would be at the recieving end of a hypersonic ten millimeter slug.

Once she finally made it to the hangar, she slipped the pistol into the center console of the borrowed speeder and slipped into the driver seat. The drive to the ball wasn't a terribly long one, just under an hour, and she'd make it painfully clear to them, mostly the cyborg, just how important this operation was. "Shouldda brought Ector," she left him behind because he'd attract too much attention, "frackin' bird has frellin' eloquence."

[Bones]

Jay's eyes flicked open as the light began streaming through the blinds on his bedroom wall. He sat upright, running a hand over the stubble covering the top his head. He swung both legs out of the bed, holding his head in his hands for a moment before standing upright. He knew what he had to do today. He knew that to save the lives of many, he had to take the lives of a select few. "The end justifies the means." He whispered quietly to himself as he stared out the gap in the blinds, over the Kylah Plains.

He ran downstairs a few moments later. He could hear his traitorous father in the next room. How his own father could betray his own neighbours was past Jay, but that wasn't the problem at hand. The problem was getting out without drawing suspicion. "I'm heading out. Meeting a few people then going hunting for those rebels. See if we can pick up some bounties." He lied simply, walking outside before his father could protest. He immediately stepped to the silver and red speeder parked just outside. The Calamaro. His pride and joy. A pride and joy he would now drive to meet the others.

-----------------------

He sat silently, listening as Lanara talked them through the operation, the explosives and the overall plan. He lifted one of the charges, turning it this way and that to get a good look at it. He smirked. If something as small as a one pound charge could bring down a building, then could it actually be possible for something as small as the DLA to bring down the Sith's terror-hold on the once peaceful planet? His smirk became a smile. Of course, anything was possible.

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He looked over himself in the mirror as he rolled up the sleeves of the white, long-sleeved shirt he was wearing. He stopped them just under the elbows, enough to hide the knife that was now strapped to his bicep. Formal wear. He detested it. So uncomfortable and impractical, but he could hardly go wandering into the Sith Ball wearing his finest, holiest work clothes, could he?

He sighed, picking up his vest and sliding it over his shoulders. He turned slightly, before saying to himself, "Well, Jay, you really scrub up nicely." He turned, walking out of the small room, back towards the main hangar. On the way he stopped, collecting a blaster rifle from the armoury. He weighed it in his hands, before wrapping it in his coat, and continuing on his way to the hangar.

He spotted Lanara instantly and walked over, sliding into the rear seat of the speeder, positioning the blaster wrapped in a coat in the foot well. "I thought it might be handy to have some extra firepower incase we have trouble getting out. It's well hidden, so it won't be noticed." He told her bluntly.

[Deleted]

Saerith had to admit she liked her job, too bad it wasn't the only one she had to do. The stress of her upcoming mission found her underneath one of the DLA's own speeders. It had needed some work and she had only been able to doze off for a few hours. the thought of her first mission was getting to her. Hax, would you please hand me that? she asked pointing at the wrench that lay just out of reach. The little droid made something that sounded like a sigh and then pushed the wrench within reach. "Thanks" she said. Hax made a grunting sounding in response.

Saerith couldn't hide the smile. It was pretty fun to mess with the little guy. He was always absorbed in some sort of deep thought or at least she hoped that's what it was. He sure did spend a lot of time staring at walls and such. A quick turn of the wrench and she was finished. With a heave against the side of the speeder she rolled herself out from underneath it and stood stretching the muscles of her back.

She hit the ignition and the speeder came to life with a steady purr. A satisfied nod and a small smile. It always felt nice to breathe life back into a machine. Which was odd considering it had never been alive to begin with.

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Saerith emerged back into the garage feeling self conscious. She had never really worn nice cloths and she felt awkward in them. She had done what she could to hide the tattoos on her face and hands. Most were covered by the clothing she was wearing. She loved them but had to admit that when attempting to hide in plain site the tattoos were a give away.

Slowly she approached Lanara and another whose name she didn't know. Hax trailed along behind her on the floor rather then her shoulder. His claws would destroy her guise in seconds and she didn't have any cloths to replace them with. "Looks like we're one short" She glanced around checking to make sure Kia wasn't lurking in a dark corner. She did things like that.

"but if I know Kia she's around here somewhere" Saerith stopped talking after that. Her stomach felt like it was tied in knots and it was only getting worse. Thoughts of the people whose lives would be in her hands kept running through her mind. Not just the DLA but the Sith as well. Certainly they deserved to die but that didn't make it any easier on her. Saerith had never killed anyone. Somehow she had managed to avoid during her time on Nar Shaddaa. Running from trouble had done a great deal to keep her out of it.

Hax sat close by her feet once more staring blankly off at the far wall. Saerith focused on him for a moment. Hoping it would bring her some momentary comfort, quietly she pondered what it was that was going through the little droids 'mind'. She could only imagine that it must be something profound for him to be thinking so hard on it. Lightly she tapped him, attempting to rouse him

it had no effect. A slight frown creased her face. When... if she got back from this mission she would have to get to know him better. So far all she had done was antagonize him and ask for help with work. It really seemed a shame. It seemed she had a lifetime friend she had been ignoring and now the threat of possible death was waking her up. she tapped him with her foot again this time enough to make him move. "what"? he snapped at her.

She couldn't help but smile a little. He was so easy to antagonize. "you don't have to come out here and wait too you know, my room is probably a better place to go and do nothing" Saerith found it immensely difficult to read his emotions but she had the odd feeling he was glaring at her. "Nothing? you think I've been doing nothing? Do you have any idea what you just did? I was healing a raid! Now the tank is going to die and then the whole raids gonna wipe! Maybe if the off tank were better they could pull it off but the guy is a newb and his gear sucks and even if the OT does manage to get the aggro off the DPS after the MT goes down the back up heals is a newb too! It'll be at least three days before we can do the raid again! My repair cost is going to be sucktastic! Thanks a lot!"

Saerith's blank stare only seemed to irritate the familiar further. "I'm surrounded by scrubs." he said as he turned his back on her and trotted away. Saerith couldn't remember ever having been more confused. Slowly she turned to her companions for they had definitely been close enough to hear the little droids rant.
"do either of you have any idea what he was talking about?"

[/-Amy-\-Foxie Lady-/]

Kiala smirked at the comment about a blaster concealed within her cypernetics. She lifted her left arm up and closed her cybernetic hand and a one foot long blade came out from beneath her hand.--"No blaser, only this". As the meating broke up Kiala made her way to her room to make her preporations.

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Kiala walked into the the hanger dressed most of the way except for her tie hung loose about her shoulders. She hadnt the foggiest idea as how to tie the blasted thing. She had left behind all weapons, save for her knives. Two in the small of her back, her larger curved combat knives. Her other two were strapped to her calves. She wore a pair of plain white gloves to cover her hands. She looked around the hanger and saw Lanara, Saerith and a young man she had only met once or twice but whoms name she had never bothered to learn.

She carried her beskad in one hand, the obvious mandalorian weapon might stick out like a sore thumb tot he trained Republic Marine she was walking toward, but she would explain it only when asked. Reluctantly she set the blade down in a locker and closed it. She hoped she wouldnt need it...that would be bad.

She walks up to Lanara and nods her--"Are we all here??....and can some one help me with this blasted thing"--points at the tie around her neck. Her hair was tied in a neat bun. She looked nothing like her normal self..and rather uncomfortable in her clothing. She had always been seen to wear either tight black leather, or loose fitting slack and a tank-top.

She smirked at the droids rant and answered Saerith--"A MMORPG...an online game. They are rather fun, alot of people in the service play them on there down time...if they arent off getting drunk or in trouble. They can help distract you when your on down time in the middle of a war zone"[/purple]