Spice Mines

If Vasari noticed Janos' scan of the dead scientists cell she made no indication of it, and did nothing to hinder the process or even mention it. Truthfully she was still attempting to focus her mind upon the future of the thief, possibilities and eventualities of what was to come.There she stood, hand on hip waiting for him just like she had years earlier - only then she had been wearing much less, and he was on his knees for an entirely different reason. The memory caused her skin to flush and she scowled shaking the memory out of her head no sooner than he finally picked himself up to follow her. She scoffed and turned on her planted heel walking down the dimly lit corridor that would have seemed like the twin Tatooine suns to him even after a small stay in that dank dark room.

"Your eyes may linger where they wish but keep your hands at your sides or you will be bound again - this time the process will be much less enjoyable."

She lead him through the narrow twisting corridors full of pure oxygen and steadily increasing brightness - her hips swaying probably only a little more than what was normal as he tailed along after her. Eventually she had led him back to the Wardens own office - the two troopers stationed outside moved to bar her passage, but with her hood thrown back and her scowl turned towards them they rethought their choice in baring her passage and allowed her to step through the threshold into the Wardens office.Vasari strolled into the warden's office as if it were her own and looked him dead in the eye when she spoke.

"I have need of your office Warden, you may wait outside if you like..."

The look on the Warden's face was one of pure outrage as his shocked gaze passed from the Zabrak Sorceress to the freed prisoner and back again barely registering the woman's words as he was rising from the chair behind his desk."You've gone to far, Witch! How dare you release this man without my authority!"Vasari rolled her eyes and with a slow measured movement she raised her hand from her cloak producing the long hilt of a double bladed lightsaber and slammed it down upon the desk that she was already halfway around as she nearly shouted her reply"Get Out, Warden!"The warden began to move, but whether he was afraid of what she would do, afraid that she was insane, or by some more archaic means - he obeyed her command and exited the office without further protest.

Vasari continued to circle the desk leaving her saber hilt on the far end as she made one half rotation and sat on the other corner of the long desk - the saber quite out of reach. Raising her leg, which caused the skirt to fall down once again, she kicked one of the two chairs back from the desk towards Janos before sliding herself up onto the desk leaning back to rest her hand upon the hard wood desktop her eyes once more falling upon the ragged thief.

"Sit down before you fall down... And tell me more about this Safe you've risked your health and freedom to learn about."

"I need an ocular implant." Muttered Janos, rather seriously. Truth be told, as much as he wanted to stare, he could just barely see the blurry outline of Sparky and her cloak as they walked down the halls. Through the halls he walked, a hand on the wall to his left to help guide him. All the while the lights got brighter and brighter - but, thankfully, by the time they reached the office of what was presumably the Warden, he was able to see significantly better.


The Warden's protestations, combined with the two stormtroopers out front, told Janos all he needed to know about his current situation. This was not a scheduled visit, and the Warden had no idea what Vasari was doing. It also meant that Janos had, somehow, been planted smack-dab on the First Order radar - for how else would Vasari have been notified of his presence here? All his priors were in Republic space. Not that he'd been caught. They had no reason to raise an eyebrow at Janos.


Janos watched as she circled the desk, taking a seat on one end - opposite of her lightsaber, he noted, not that that meant anything with her force powers. That was when he noticed what else was on the desk. Some rolled up clothing, and a utility belt - with a stun gun holstered. On the ground, a pair of boots and a pair of vambraces - apparently inspected then tossed to the ground. "Oh...son of a gundark! Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy!"

His things. Of course. He had let himself be captured with all his regular possessions on, so that he would have them when he made his escape. He hadn't considered how it would look, though, to a paranoid Imperial Warden. High-tech lockpicking tools, security door descramblers, computer probes, and more; clothing and gear optimized for stealth and climbing. The man probably thought Janos was planning on breaking into the prison; or, rather, trying to break somebody out. It was no small wonder that he was so upset over Janos - and no small wonder that Vasari had found out about his presence here. "Sithspit! I'm in their system. Retinal scans, vox-prints, biometrics - the works! Sloppy, amateurish mistake!"

Collapsing into a chair, Janos covered his face with a hand. And, for several seconds, had to gather his composure. It wasn't over. Just because they had ID'd him didn't mean anything. It only mattered if got caught, or if he got spotted by a security droid. There were workarounds. He had to focus on the problem at hand. His hand coming down, he leaned forward and stretched out a hand to his utility belt - moving slowly and deliberately, as not to make Sparky think he was going for his gun, he retrieved his med-kit from his utility belt, cracking it open and rifling through it.

"Why so interested in my job Vasari?" He said, using her actual name for the first time. "In the past, you could care less about my obsessions...what's changed? Or, rather...what do you know?"

The ancient D5 Mantis, christened 'Spear' by Galdaart Fel (but being in possession of an IFF tag that labelled it property of a security outfit based on Aargau) approached the beacon for the Spice mines of Kessel. It wasn't hard to spot. Basically, anything that wasn't barren rock stood out, and there wasn't much of that on Kessel. Calling over his shoulder, Fel hollered at the two other passengers aboard the 'Spear.' Five minutes!

Activating the comms, he signalled their approach control. First Order mining operation, this is the 'Spear,' inbound to your position at this time for prisoner transfer. Pre-cleared for landing on platform three, Roger?

Taking the medkit out, Janos jabbed himself in the arm with a pair of stims - adrenal and a bio-processor accordingly. Taking out a small cylinder, he hooked it up to his arm, plunging a short needle into a vein - almost immediately the device went to work. A small bacta pump, the device pumped bacta into the blood, circulated it, then filtered it out to recycle it once more. While not as good as full bacta immersion, it, combined with the stims, would do wonders for his state of health.

Like a white surge, a dunk in cold ice-water, he felt the chemicals surge through his body - and combined with the bacta, he leaned his head back and sighed. It felt like three days sleep and a hot meal, combined with an energy drink. He felt karking amazing.

Idly, he listened to Sparky's words. While he didn't doubt her and her master's ability to eliminate his message, he did indeed wonder if they could take care of it before anyone else saw it. Only a sith dealt in absolutes; or at least that was how the old maxim went. Janos had the feeling quite a few people had seen it - and while ole' Sparky was trying to make it out like she was his only the hope, the truth was that he still had Dutch. Dutch, and a whole slew of other options. As such, he looked into her eyes, rather bored, as she straddled his lap.

"Spark, really, do we have to play all of these games? Let's cut to the chase, we could really- ZZZZOW!" He was cut off by the sparking of electricity - the infamously annoying force lightning that the Sith were oh so fond of. "Kark! Kriffing hell Sparky."

But that moment of hesitation, just before he had been shocked - it hadn't gone unnoticed. She had tilted her head, and had used her peripheral vision to look at the cameras in the room. What was she worried about?

"...Fine. But because I'm bored. Hear me? This bores me." Struggling a little bit, he dug around in his medkit, bringing a ration-capsule up to his mouth, chewing it thoroughly before swallowing and continuing on. "It's a vault on Mygeeto. The Dressian Kiolsh Merchant Bank, in Jygat. Its under the ice; subterranean. DuraTech put one of their phrik bonded magna-lock safes down there, guarding...something. Dunno what's actually in it, but rumor has it it's some kind of crystal. This would be in line with Mygeeto itself - planet is full of crystals - and the fact the vault is owned by a Moff, well, it lends some truth to the matter."

He paused then, turning his head to regard the door behind them. It was just a guess, but her unease - however slight and brief - combined with the Warden just being kicked out, gave him something of an unpleasant idea.

"We're in for a fight, aren't we." He said flatly, matter of fact.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




Dutch Callahan (okay, his real name was Duin Calaunb, but how many humans could actually say that?) was taking a nap on his cell's cot, enjoying his four hours of sleep. In all honesty, the work, while gruelling, was not as distressing for him as it was for some of the other species here; Sullustan's were a subterranean species, at home in tunnels and in the cold and dark. And, while the food was subpar, the cell uncomfortable - and the guards, well, horribly xenophobic - altogether it wasn't that bad. Kinda like a taste of home. Of course he was fairly certain he would be getting out of here pretty soon; Janos always found a way out, or in, whichever direction he was going.

He was just finishing a dream about a ravishing Sullustan Fem, when the sound of weapon fire awoke him. Sitting straight up, the smoke stinging sensitive eyes (hey, light-dimming drop-tacs only did so much), he was greeted by a towering humanoid droid. Nearly immediately, he began screaming in a high-pitch soprano; in the way only a Sullustan can. All the while, he gibbered in Sullustese, the already fleet sounding language sped up to practically unintelligible proportions.

"OH-VAYA! Ah-be-hareh-ah-hareh-bit-o-E-mu-lor!"
(OH GODS, what have they sent to my cell? You're going to interrogate me, aren't you!)

This was followed by the Sullustan running to a corner of his cell, smacking his head on the wall several times, before cowering in general.

"Te’ill-the-tee-yairee u-Deh-ac-ah-oh!"
(You're some kind of proto-type! Oh God, they're going to test it on me!)

It went without saying, that the Sullustan didn't hear the metal beings words - nor did he care.

Fel moved fluidly over the controls, feathering thrust, and making sure they didn't deviate from flight path. He found that his mouth was dry, and a light, cold sweat stood out on his brow. He had activated weapons systems on takeoff, and now activated shields, double-front, just in case anybody on the ground got careless, or trigger-happy, or both. Fel brought up the tac HUD, and sighted the mouth of the mine-shaft. Flipping the weapon select over to the capital-ship grade turbolasers, he locked in the coordinates, just for good measure.

Ready... right. Ready. I think I'm good. I mean -- I know I'm good here. I get less-good out there. He inclined his head, indicating the ground, or anywhere outside the ship, for that matter. Looking over at Ellie, he smiled. I can pretty much guarantee everything will be just fine, as long as we stay aboard the 'Spear.' Out there... well, anyone's guess. But I sure am looking forward to it. Yes indeed.

Flipping on the comms once more, Fel called it out to the control center. Purgatory mining control, Spear on final. Touchdown in 3-0 tics. Out.

Melia stepped into the flight deck, fully geared up. Her E-11D was slung at her side, and twin DC-17 pistols were holstered at her sides. Her Tactical armour was nothing like the custom, one-off suit she wore in years past, but was serviceable, and fit her well. A quick nod to Fel told her she had everything she needed. Concentrating on final approach, Fel retracted the third weapon pod, and dropped the gear, just in time for a perfect three-point landing. He exhaled deeply, even as a few FO troops approached the landing pad.The pilot did not shut down the ship, but kept her running, engines and all. It would serve to create enough noise outside that they could press the conversation indoors.

OK. Let's do this. The game begins now. Everybody who didn't pass basic acting 101 had better button up, and roll with it. Nobody shoots till I give the signal. And if you shoot, you shoot to chill. Savvy?

There were no immediate questions, so Fel stood, pocketed the datapad he had loaded the ship's tac HUD onto, checked his DL-22, and grabbed the only remaining long-arm aboard, an A-280 which was also primed, and slung. Descending to the hold, he grabbed his dirty whites, and smacked the planetfall ramp release.

As they descended, Fel made out the Sith Infiltrator on pad Two. Shit. This just got a whole lot harder...