Colonies (Open RP)

The merchant ship jumped out of hyperspace, heading towards the new space station colony. "We gonna be rich boss, just knows it," a greedy looking Rodian said to the captain. "Quiet, we're getting an incoming messsge, patch it through," the captain hissed at his rodian pilot.

The rodian obeyed and patched through the message, just static. "Why would they do that? Stupid Colony," the rodian laughed. "Shut up, before i space you," the captain said, getting annoyed by his pilot. Then a low quiet voice spoke in the message, "Send reniforcments, we've been atta...." The sound of a blade going through flesh played through the speaker. Then the message was cut out.

The captain stared into space, "Pull the ship back, get us back in hyperspace, before anything spots us." "No argument there," the rodian said, he was nervous. The ships alarm went off, something was on an intercept course with them. "Jump now, we got to...," the captain was cut off by the ships power going offf, they were hit with an Ion cannon.

They were dead, the captain thought to himself. Just then a huge ship came into sight through the view port. Looked of sith origin. "Maybe we can strike a dea....," the rodian said, but was interrupted as the lazer cannons opened fired on the merchant ship. The ship was destroyed.

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Owen was in his office, aboard his ship. Suddenly a holo-figure appeared on his console, scared the crap out of him. His ship had very high security, no petty hacker could get in that easily with out Owen finding out first. After closer examination of the figure, Owen knew that the man was republic. "Greeting Mister Keez. I hope I'm not bothering you," the man said casually. "Oh no, not at all, I'm just sitting here in my private office, doing my taxes," Owen replied sarcastically. "Good," the man didn't get the joke, "I'm ordered to offer you a contract Mister Keez, and after reviewing over the possible associates, your former republic ties made you the most suited," the man said, still in a mono-tone voice. "Most suited? Or the only one that you could trust? Either one, I won't do it for free and I'm not exactly cheap," Owen was quite the opposite of cheap. "Yes, we understand that. We offer to pay you 50,000 credits each, by each I mean that you probably don't work alone. We've heard about your ties in a criminal group," the man put emphasis on criminal. "Yes, thats good. Now what do you want done?" Owen liked money. "Republic colonies are getting destroyed. We'll not destroyed, but all the members are brutally killed. The republic is spread to thin to guard all colonies, and our investigators are busy at the moment, which is where you and you comrades come in," the mans tone still had not changed. "So, you want me and my commrades to investigate and stop what is happening? Thats all fine and dandy, but this is pretty big. I say 10,000 extra credits for all who come with me," Owen knew the republic could not spare forces, but they did have money. The mans face cringed, "Yes, 10,000 extra for all is possible. Now, I'll send you the location of the last attack. Good luck Mister Keez." The Holo-figure cut out.

Owen could sure use an extra 60,000 credits and he was sure some of his friends would enjoy it to. He sent out a message to the GTC's base which would then send it out to all GTC members.

"Greetings Comrades, I have a contract available that offers 60,000 credits to every person involved. Meet me in the Corrupt Politician Bar and Grill on Alderan, we'll discuss details there." the message read.

Owen set his ship's course to Alderan, he could use a good drink and a Sandman special.

Volar swiveled in his seat as his ship, The Regal Star MK II, cruised along shortly after taking off from Dantooine.

"A measly 10,000 credits. These contracts are getting weaker"

Disappointed, Volar lowered the credit file and looked out the front of the cockpit. He always pondered what was out in the universe. Something bigger than what was around now. He was getting lost in his thoughts when he saw that his console was bleeping. He patched it through

"Message from GTC HQ. This message has been forwarded from a Mr. Owen Keez. Stand by"

Volars' interest was piqued, and he sat rather impatiently, waiting for the message to come through. A chance for credits, please, I can barely afford a Golden Pew cocktail as it is

"Relaying message now:Greetings Comrades, I have a contract available that offers 60,000 credits to every person involved. Meet me in the Corrupt Politician Bar and Grill on Alderan, we'll discuss details there"

Finally, ACTION!

Volar re-opened his console and typed in the hyper-drive co-ordinates for the Aldreaan sector. 'Maybe there are some hot girls there too' The Regal Star jumped to hyper-space.

Jax had been sleeping in his ship when suddenly he heard a beep comin from his comm link. He grumbled to himself at being woken up and checked the message. It was from Owen Keez, a contract which payed 60,000 credits to each person involved. Jax considered the offer. If the contractor had contacted Owen first then it could possibly mean some heavy combat, as Owen was a former trooper. "Ah whatever, I could use some action" Jax said to himself, and he entered his cockpit and started up the Blue Raven. Once he had left the docking bay, he entered the coordinates for Alderaan and hit the hyperspace switch. As the Blue Raven flew the the blue vortex of hyperspace, Jax made sure his duel blasters were in good condition. He had not been involved in any heavy fighting in quite some time. 'I hope I still got it' he thought to himself.

Owen jumped out of his speeder and pressed the alarm. He had a house on Alderan, a place where he could relax, while not on a mission. He opened the door of the bar and saw the normal people, the Ithorian bartender waved to Owen. He walked by the waitress and asked, "If you run into a couple people who don't know where there going, send them to my table in the back. Thanks." Owen continued to the back of the bar and found a large table, and took a seat. Another waitress took his order, fried nexu legs. He sat there waiting, not sure how long it would take for others to come.

The Regal Star jumped out of Hyperspace. From the front of the cockpit Volar could see that the ship was headed directly for the planet of Alderaan. He shutdown his console and brought up the manual controls for the ship. He then dived down into the atmosphere, keeping correct trajectory angle before he came to a small settlement that was described to him. He slowly touched the ship down on a landing platform, gathered up his gear, and disembarked the vessel. As he made his way across the landing platform he was approached by a rather over-keen looking dock worker.

"100 credits to land here sir, those are the rules"

"What? 100 credits? I gave advanced warning that I needed to use this station, you had plenty of time to prepare"

"But sir-"

"50 credits. Have a nice day"

Volar flicked the credit chip up into the air with his thumb and the dock worker caught it. He looked at it then looked back up at Volar with a scowl on his face before walking off.

Upon exiting the space-port, Volar stopped and admired the scenery for a while. So green, so calm, so peaceful. It reminded him of Dantooine, but with fewer Kath hounds. He then lifted himself off of the wall that he was leaning on and jumped in the nearest transit vehicle. He pulled out the data-pad that Owen had transmitted his address to and handed it to the driver. At once they took off, the speeder screaming over the plains of Alderaan.

An hour or so later, the speeder approached the area where Owen said they were to meet. He paid the driver, then looked down at his datapad.

The corrupt politician bar and grill, eh? Sounds nice...

Volar looked up and saw that he was standing almost directly in front of his intended location. Well that's embarrassing

Volar slowly opened the door and walked in. It seemed fairly dark overall, with a few dim lights around the bar and a few of the rear-side tables.

"Excuse me, miss-" Volar did not finish. In the far corner of the room he could make out the unmistakable figure of Owen Keez.

He walked over to the table and outstretched his hand. "Ah, my good friend Owen. What service can this humble little smuggler offer you today?"

Owen looked up from his fried nexu legs and wiped his hands off on a napkin. The smuggler, Volar Odias stood before him. "Hey, Volar. Good to see you again." Owen extended a hand. "Feel free to order what you want, I'll just add it to my tab, its a rather large tab. Anyways, I don't want to talk much about 'it' till the others have come. I don't want to repeat myself, for the fact that other people may hear it. Telling you once would lessen that risk." Owen said as he picked up another leg. "I recommend the nexu legs, there rather delicious today."

Volar shook his hand.

"That doesn't sound like too bad an idea"

Volar sat himself down on the seat directly to the left of Owen. He then snapped his fingers a few times and beckoned the waitress.

"Fried Nixu legs please. Oh, and also, a glass of gooma juice, thank you"

He smiled at the waitress, she then smiled back before heading off with his Order.

"Nice place, this"

Jax landed the Blue Raven at a starport on Alderaan. It had been a while since he had been to this planet, there was not much smuggler activity here compared to other locations. The lush green landscape was much more soothng than the deserts of Tatooine though.
He left the starport and quickly hired a speeder from a nearby shop, and asking for directions to the Corrupt Politician. As he rode the air felt good around his head and face.
He parked just outside, and carefully stepped into the bar, carefully scanning the room. He quickly spotted Owen sitting at the back, and as he walked towards him he also noticed newly promoted GTC employee and fellow smuggler, Volar Odias. He nodded to his two companions and as he sat down he motioned to the waitress. "A glass of Ice coffee if ou please, I want to be sober for now" he said.
Jax then turned to his comrades and said "So, is this it?"

Volar turned and smiled when he saw Jax approach the table.

"Good to see you again my friend. I know little more than you, unfortunately. Owen is keeping his lips sealed until he knows we are ready. Why don't you grab a bit to eat. The fried Nixu legs are delicious."

Volar turns back to his food and began to eat more. After a few moments he looked up and wondered why no one was speaking. He looked up at Owen and waited for the Trooper to say something.

Davan was sitting in his office when he received the message from Owen. It was very tempting, even as the head of a criminal organization there were still mundane tasks and Davan was growing sick and tired of them. Also it was an excuse to return to Aldaraan, although Davan often delayed it he liked the feeling of going home. It was decided, he packed up his things and headed for the Lingering Twilight.

He fired up the engines, he was looking forward to finding out more details about this Job. He typed in the co-oridnates for the nearest spaceport to the meeting area while his ship took off. He wouldn't take him long to arrive.

"Glad you could make it Jax," Owen took a drink of his juice. "But just as Volar said, I don't want to say anything about the contract till everyone's here." Owen set the glass back down. "I just happen to have a couple decks of pazzak in my pocket, anyone intereseted in a friendly game, while we wait?" Owen said with a grin on his face. He reached into his pockets and pulled out a couple decks of pazzak cards.

"I'm up for some Pazaak, as every Smuggler would be" said Jax as the waitress brought him his Ice coffee. He took a sip and sat opposite Owen, as he dealt out the cards.
'Poor fool, doesn't know what he's getting himself into' thought Jax, who had stripped many players of their credits playing Pazaak, often having to flee afterwards.

Owen handed out the cards and began.
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A game later Owen had lost everytime. "Hmm, maybe I should stick to spectacting this game, instead of playing," Owen said with a grin and tossed a few credits to Jax. "Thats for the world record of beating me in record time," Owen said with a laugh. "Maybe you two want to play each other, but I don't think i can handle another game like that. Two smugglers should be a good duel though."

Volar nodded at Jax. May the better smuggler win. Volar began to deal the cards, before looking up and acknowledging Gado Rickas' arrival.

"Welcome to the party mate."

He looked back down at the table. He was losing this game fast. He looked up at Jax and just thought 'How?.

He looked back at the others "I would imagine that Davan would be arriving shortly. Jax and myself are here, and I doubt Davan would want to miss out on the fun the other smugglers are having"

Jax smiled to himself when he saw Volar's confused look as he easily beat him at the cards. "Ah don't feel bad my friend" he said "Your not the first to lose to me, and I'm sure you won't be the last. Let me buy you all a drink". Jax then called over the waitress and said "Ale all round for my comrades, and could I get some nexu legs, I hear their delicious".
When the waitress brought over his food, he ate up, thinking to himself 'Where the hell is Davan'.

Davan landed at the spaceport and mae his way straight for the meeting place. When he got there it seemed empty and rather quiet apart from one corner of the place. Before he even focused on them he knew these would be the members of the Galactic Trade Commission.

Davan strolled over and nodded to his comrades. "Owen, gentlemen" He then took a seat at the table, waving the waitress away who was hovering.

"Before you tell us anything Owen just want you to know, this is your mission so it is your command just think of me as an advisor if you need one" Davan tapped his fingers on the table, he was very eager to find out the full details of the job Owen had for them.

"Alright, now that we're all here. I think its time to tell you what this is all about," Owen looked over his shoulder and nodded at the Ithorian bartender who wen and put a screen across the back of the room for there privacy. "WD-27, come in with the data-pads," Owen said into the com-link he had on his wrist. Seconds later, Owen's battle droid came in with a pile of datapads, one for each of them. And it passed them out between them. "Thanks, you are dismissed to the house," Owen said to the droid as it bowed and left the screened room.

"A couple days ago the Republic contacted me. Something seems to be happening to there colonies, and there scared shitless. They may not say it, but they are. Without people willingly going to there colonies, they lose a lot of valuable resources needed to keep there fleets afloat, and cities working, and the republic has offered us a generous sum for solving this problem," Owen pointed to the data-pad.

"I've collected all the information my pilot Jec has wound up in last couple days in here. There has been a total of eight attacks, all of them had no survivors, no emergency transmissions, nothing. They were all just brutally killed, theres a picture on the next page of the data-pad," OWen showed his data-pad to the others. It was a brutal scene, heads were chopped off, stomachs torn open, eyeballs missing, and heads completely smashed. "They died in melee combat, not blaster marks were found, except for the stray marks on the wallls which were determined to have been fired by the colonists," Owen went scrolled to the next page on the data-pad. "The only real evidence of something have been there was this video, recorded by a merchant ship sending supplies to the colonists," Owen played the video. (It was the complete top part of the very first part.) Owen rewinded back and paused it on the sith ship at the end. "I've been inspecting this image for sometime now, it looks of sith origin, but I've never seen it in the sith military files before. My thoughts are that it's a classified new sith capital ship, or we're dealing with a faction we haven't seen yet," Owen paused and took a sip of his juice.

"All of the attacks are situated in less populated areas in the outer rim, so the republic is keeping it under wraps. They've also offered a bonus of 10,000 credits if we keep it that way," Owen put his data-pad down. "My pilot Jec is in the outer rim with my ship investigating the colonies, he's been sending a lot of information but most it is all the same. One day the colony is running smoothly, then when the next supply ship reaches the colony, they find everyone slaughtered. I say we begin our search close the last attack, in the Atrini asteroid system. Jec has found out there in another colony just south of the fields. " Owen straighted his back, "Any questions? "

Jax felt a little uneasy in the stomach after looking through the datapad. He was already starting to regret comming."All died in melee combat and were torn to shreds?" he said "Seems to me like they were killed by either wild beasts or a bunch of blade wielding maniacs. I'd be willing to bet that whoever is doing this is testing something for use in open battle".
Jax then turned to Owen "How exactly are we going to carry out this search?"

"Good question Jax, I've seen a pattern in there attacks, they seem to attack every two or three colonies in the area, then move to a new system. And since there has only been one attack in the Atrini asteroids fields, I'm betting that another attack will happen there soon, very soon," Owen replied to Jax's question, seeing his face when he looked at the pictures gave Owen some entertainment.

After seeing Gado's necklace Davan gave him an odd look "Right fair enough, anyway Owen, as long as Jec keeps providing us with info he can find I have no questions currently. I say lets get going, we don't know how soon teh next attack will be"

Volar looked to Davan and nodded.

"I agree, the longer we wait, the more chance that we fail to prevent another attack. Forgive me, but I should leave now to adequately prepare myself for this mission. I'm going to head back to the Regal Star and prepare her for launch. You all know my Comm-frequency. Contact me with further details as they arrive"

With that Volar left the cantina and made his way back to the space-port. He boarded his ship and began to get his gear together. He made his way to the engine room and checked that everything was working the way it should. He then entered the cock-pit and opened his console. All systems seemed ready.

"Good, I'll send the coordinates to the asteroids to your ships," Owen nodded to all of them and left the bar. He didn't have to worry about paying, they would just put in on his tab.

Owen jumped in his speeder, and drove off to his house. A couple minutes later he reached it. WD-27 had already packed everything, and they were ready to go. They walked out to the back deck of his rather large house, and a landing pad was about 30 feet to the right of the deck. On it sat the small fighter Owen would be piloting. Since his ship had top of the line sensors he let Jec take it, it may make it easier to find hidden clues. So Owen was stuck with the small star fighter, Spaceless.

It was cramped but Owen and WD-27 managed to fit themselves, and everything else into the ship. "WD, send the coordinates to the artini asteroid field to everyoone who was in that meeting," Owen said to WD, while he flipped on all the necessary switches. "Yes master," There was a pause, "Messages sent, "I shall go take postion in the top turret Master, I don't like sitting in the co-pilot seat." Owen nodded, he would have more elbow space now. His starfighter only had two seat, then a turret on the top of the craft, put together with a small cargo space in the back of the ship. To get to the turret, to the cargo space, to the pilot seat. You had to crawl through a tunnel. Needless to say, it was a small ship.

Spaceless' engines, started up. And Owen took the ship up to the atmosphere, then continued into space. Once calculated, he initiated the hyper drive, and the stars slowly turned to streaks as picked up speed. Once they reached the right speed, Owen turned on auto-pilot. He planned to catch up on some sleep on the way there.

Jax finished his nexu legs and coffee, threw down a few credits on the table, and went out to his speeder. He rode back to the spaceport where he returned the speeder and paid for his docking fee.
Once he was back onto his ship, Jax saw that Owen had sent them the co-ordinates to the Artini asteroid field. He launched the Blue Raven and flew out of the atmosphere before punching in the coordinates and hitting the hyper-drive button. He then put his feet up and once again begun checking his pistols.

Volar strapped himself in and grabbed the controls. The Regal Star lifted from the landing pad with a deafening roar. The ship pointed its nose to the sky and shot out into the atmosphere. Volar tapped his console and set the Regal Star into hyperspace.

He would find the journey rather boring, often switching between pilot and co-pilot seats, swiveling on chairs, tapping away at controls to fully figure out the back-up specifications and drives of the ship. Nothing he hadn't already figured out, but it was something to do.