On hold

"What?!" Jacen yelled in disbelief, as the TSR logo floated on his screen. "They put me on hold!!"

His R2 unit warbled something. Jacen didn't understand everything his droid said, but he did understand the sarcasm in it.

"Ok, Kay...I get the idea. They're busy people..." He sighed. "Keep monitoring this channel. Once we come off hold, send them the standard Fury greeting message...the 'Master of the Furies' one. And try and set an appointment up...we'll swing by on our way to Couprii."

Kay-Four bleeped and clicked. "Let me know if they reply." Jacen patted him on the top of his dome-shaped head. "Night, Kay."

* * *

Later that night, a light blinked on the datapad. In an instant, Kay-Four began transmitting. A holographic image that Jacen had recorded began to transmit.

"Greetings. I am Jacen Dantarno, Master of the Furies. I am contacting you to offer you my services, and those of the mercenaries under my command. We specialise in Surgical Strikes, Covert Assaults, Insurgency and Retrieval, and of course, Assassinations. We have the capacity to attack from both space- and ground-based platforms, and have enough equipment to ensure our mission is a success. Information has been transmitted along with this message to detail how to contact us. I look forward to working for you."

The image vanished, and a few lines of code scrolled across the screen before it went dark. K4 clicked. He was nervous. If someone replied to the message, it would rely on his code slicing to make sure it was relayed to the right place. If he'd done anything wrong...he let out what sounded like a sigh, powered down, and "slept".

Sasseeri tossed the flimsy on the desk, and snorted. "Merrrcenerrrjies? Sjince when do the Rrrangerrrs hjirrre merrrcs?" The printed copy of the message that had been received the night previously was regarded almost scornfully. "jI'd send thjis back to hjim wjith a bomb jif jI could."

Mercenaries were too untrustworthy to be hired to patrol the space lanes, and certainly undesireable for the real operation going on behind the scenes at the Sector Rangers. Besides, the other operation had no need of more man power.

But this Jacen... The message sent had been holographic and pre-recorded. If the fuzziness was taken into account, he wasn't bad looking for a hyuu-mann. Sasseeri tapped a manicured nail on the printed picture her secretary had uncovered on the holonet. It was a few years old, but the half-breed Cizerack imagined the man a few years older... more mature.

Perhaps it was time for branching out. She pressed the button for the intercomm. "Contact Mrrr. Dantarrrno. Arrrange a meetjing, tell hjim we arrre jinterrrested jin hjirrrjing hjim." Her secretary affirmed the order, and Sasseeri sat back in her office chair, looking at a picture of Sanis Prent. A new toy would be a welcome distraction. And if he failed to be an adequate distraction, then she'd just have to look up Mr. Prent and remind him that although the leash was long, it was still a leash.

Jacen yawned as his fighter dropped out of Hyperspace a few minutes from the edge of the Couprii defence perimeter. He was on a solo mission. Someone wanted a New Republic Ambassador dead...Jacen had got hired. He sighed as he angled his fighter towards his target destination. He noticed fighters drifting around in the distance, but took little notice. His fighter looked New Republic enough. Most outland NR pilots probably wouldn't even think he was out of place. He cruised steadily along. Then Kay beeped.

A message loaded up on Jacen's screen; a reply from the Sector Rangers. Something about plans for them meeting up. Jacen watched the message through a few times. There was something that didn't seem quite normal, but he couldn't put his finger on it. A niggling feeling in his gut told him to be careful. He'd have liked to believe that it was his tiny control of the Force trying to make an appearence, but he knew that it was only the instincts the Empire had blessed him with. When situations seemed too good to be true, they probably were.

He pushed those thoughts aside. Right now he had a job to do. Someone wanted Ambassador Klaan dead. Killing Klaan meant money, and prestige. Money translated into more equipment. More weapons. Prestige translated into more work, which in turn translated into more money. Killing Klaan would keep Fury alive. Not that Fury needed much help in that regard. While there was still a battle going on, the Furies would still be fighting. That was the way of the warrior.

Jacen narrowed his eyes as his fighter sped towards the planet of Couprii. The sign of agression was pointless...even if anyone was able to see him from this difference, the vision-enhancing visor he wore would have hidden his eyes. Still, he did it anyway.


(OOC: For the sequence of events following directly, look for "Empire's Lost Children" in the Storytelling forums. For those that immediately precceed, Poseidon's Gade, SFF; "Tell me where to aim, and I'll shoot" [the night before], and "The Big Green" [the morning after])

ooc: I'm confused as to whether you wish this thread to continue or not. /ic:

(ooc: sorry...I meant to post again, but I got sidetracked. Mind if I carry on in a couple of days? I've got a storytelling thing and a roleplaying thread that I want to finish off, so I can tell you what happens. Its important to what I wanted to talk about...didn't expect it to take so long. Sorry. I might as well get the arrival bit started...I can probably ad lib most of it now...)


IC:

Jacen's fighter shuddered a little as it dropped out of Hyperspace. It had been a long few days, and an even longer trip through Hyperspace. Ah well, he sighed. At least I got some sleep.

Kay warbled something about picking up comm signals...Jacen cast a half-hearted eye over it, but it made little sense. "Wha?" he groaned. Kay translated. "Oh," Jacen replied. "We are not alone." He glanced down at his sensor display, and saw the yellow dots that represented unknown targets buzzing around here and there. They're were more than enough of him to turn his fighter into a cloud of debris. "We're very not alone."

Jacen angled his fighter around, heading towards where many of the yellow dots seemed to be. "I guess thats where we're meant to be going," he muttered.

* * *

As Jacen's fighter sped closer to Coruscant, he was glad he'd made a few modifications to its appearence. The grey and black design it'd sported while he was pretending to be a New Republic SIU Officer had been replaced with the black and red colour scheme of his team, and he'd dressed in a one-piece black jumpsuit, trimmed in red to match his fighter. He ran his finger round the collar, and flexed his arms a little. The suit was supposed to offer him some protection against blaster shots...the material it was composed off was supposed to absorb the energy, making mortal wounds survivable. But it was new, and the material was still a little tight. It would soon stretch to fit him, but it hadn't yet. Also, the full payload of Proton Torpedoes sat in front of him made him feel a whole lot more secure. Granted, it wasn't much in the grand scheme of things, but it was better than nothing.

"I miss my visor," he said randomly, running his fingers through his hair. Normally, he'd at least be staring through the tinted screen of his visor...but right now, all of the colours seemed so normal. He opened a compartment in front of him, and pulled out a pair of sunglasses. He flipped them open, and slipped them on.

Kay, his Astromech, made a noise. The word 'Moron' appeared on the screen.

"Takes one to know one," Jacen muttered.

* * *

Jacen tugged the peaked cap down onto his head as he strode away from the fighter. He stopped, reading the news headlines scrolling past, wondering if the shockwaves of his little escapades had made it this far yet. "Obviously not," he said with a sigh, rubbing the fledgeling beard growing on his face.

He leaned closer to the transparisteel window, trying to catch his reflection. At least he didn't look like the person that the security forces would be looking for. Now all he needed to do was hope he didn't run into that Jedi. He doubted his disguise would fool her.

He sighed, tugged on the collar of his trench coat, and walked off across the bridge, wondering where on Coruscant he'd find TSR.

ooc: No problem. I'll edit out these OOC comments in a few days. :cat However, we're not likely to be meeting you in space. I was hoping you would get back in contact with the Sector Rangers, like visiting their building on Coruscant. /ic:

ooc: Aaah. Coruscant. Of course. Lol. Couldn't think of where to be...lets just say that I'm on the fringes of the system...Jacen might not be too popular with the NR right now. Start readin' "Empire's Lost Children" if ya wanna know why. ;) He'll be wanting to take it slow entering into the system, and as such, he'll be in "disguise". I'll have stopped off and had my fighter re-painted too, I won't be wearing my visor, and I won't have shaved in a few days. But I'll explain that in a mo. Better go edit my post, to add in a bit more. lol.

I'm afraid you don't know what the Sector Rangers do.

The Sector Rangers run security for convoys on the trade lanes, as well as police for smugglers and illegal activities where planetary law enforcement cannot reach. They are a quite legitamate operation, and well known in the parts of the galaxy that they reach, which is the galaxy along the main trade routes, and the Core.

So, they should be very easy to find.

And, since our characters have never met, whether you are in disguise or not is irrelevant.

The disguise isn't for you. Its for the NR...they probably don't like me right now. And Jacen has never been to Coruscant before...so its not as if he'll remember seeing a TSR building from the bistro where he had lunch one time. He'll need to find a map or something first. Coruscant is a big place.

I thought TSR had something to do with Black Sun...or is that just me being dumb? If not, there's probably no point bothering with this thread...you'll probably want to arrest me or something. So unless you'd be willing to discuss an amnesty for my ships, as we're attacking Imp targets, or maybe you'd want us to police the region of space we'll be in (we're going after a Warlord, initially)...*sigh* Sorry for the inconvenience.

ooc: Well, in fact, the Sector rangers are a cover operation for Black Sun. A very legitamate, extensive cover. But the cover only works as long as it's a secret, so you might go looking for Black Sun, but you wouldn't find the Sector Rangers, Black Sun would find you.

Or, if you're looking for the Sector Rangers, you would most likely only contract with the Rangers and the legitamate side of the business. Unless you were something Black Sun wanted and so they'd risk exposing themselves to you. It isn't something someone off the street could just accidentally run into.

If you've never been to Coruscant before you probably don't know where to find the right people who could put you in touch with Black Sun. If you contacted the Rangers, that means you want to contract with the Rangers. Legally.

However, I'd still like to do a meeting with you, if you're willing still. /ic:

ooc: Yeah...still up for that. Maybe I can be working on a cryptic message from someone. As in "Maybe the Sector Rangers can help you." or something.

I'm sure you'd probably be able to work out who I was from seeing me wandering around at TSR HQ. My disguise isn't that good. Its just to fool the less intelligent people...more intelligent people like yourselves would probably work it out.

What exactly I did isn't 100% yet, but if you read Empire's Lost Children over in Storytelling, you'll get the basics. If you want, I can spoil it for you, and PM you a basic plot outline.

If I then end up in a seedy bar somewhere, you could maybe send in your cronies to pick me up?

ic: ...