Fox hunt part 2

Fox drops down into an alley from a vent and smiles when he sees a holo-com, "Perfect." He runs up to it and checks to see if it works. It does and he taps in a senator's number.

Palpatine stops Chuchi in the hall, "Ah, Senator, I wish to speak to you."

she stops just outside her door and looks up at him, "About what, Chancellor?"

"About Fox. I hear you both were quite close." he says with a friendly smile.

She smiles, "We are. How did you know?"

"It's not hard to notice when he does most of his more impressive poses around you." he smiled.

She blushes, "Yes, he does overdo it sometimes."

his smile turn serious, "Did he tell you about any poison?"

"Yes. But he was quite vague about it. Why do you ask?" she asked growing curious.

he hands her the data pad, "This is Fives Autopsy report. Notice anything... peculiar?"

She reads it, "This doesn't say anything about poison. Why would Fox lie?"

"I believe that he is not the person you once knew, my dear. He saw something that wasn't there and acted on it. Most likely out of grief. I tried to stop him, but he would not listen. Once he's caught, I hope he'll listen to you."

"I as well." she opens her door and spots her com beeping like crazy, "Will you excuse me, Chancellor? I have a call."

"Of course, Senator." he turns and walks off. Chuchi shuts the door and taps the table com. The image of Fox appears on her desk. He clearly had grown a bit impatient for the first words she heard was, "...not on the toilet, or giving a speech..." he clears his throat and stands to attention, "Senator Chuchi. I have information and it can't wait."

"Commander Fox, is that you?" she asks in surprise, "What happened to your hair? Why do you have a bald spot? Where are you?"

Fox looks around, "Do you want the long, or short story?"

"Short."

he nods, then speaks rapidly, "Palpatine is an evil sith, Fives died knowing the truth, he used me to cover it up and now I'm his only loose end left. I had my chip removed."

She thinks for a moment, "Palpatine's a sith? Don't sith use the force?"

"He threw me at the wall, and he's evil. He's a sith." Fox states, crossing his arms.

Chuchi holds up the data pad, "The Chancellor gave Fives autopsy report to me. It says nothing about poison."

"Of course not." he states, anger behind his eyes as he looked away, "He erased it."

"He also stated that you wouldn't be the same man I knew. Honestly, you aren't acting any different." she said with slight relief, "Why did he use you to cover it up?"

He looks up at her, and growls, "I'd find the answers."

"Is there a way to prove it now?" she watches him nod, then look around at the sound of something. "What's going on?"

he looks her in the eye, "Camera probes. I'll contact you soon." he shuts off the com and takes off running.

She nods sadly, "Be careful, Fox."

Fox sprints through vents, alleyways, and crowds. He makes his way to a bar on the lower levels and walks in. He sits on a stool with his head low. A probe camera floats by the window. The bartender notices the sweat, "What happened to you?"

"Jogging." Fox states. He puts a credit on the table, "I need an answer."

"A clone huh?" the bartender takes it, "What's your question?"

Fox looks around, then whispers, "Know of any ships sneaking in illegal contraband?"

"There's one in loading dock fourteen A, level 342. Not that far from here. It's taking off in an hour."

"Thanks." he gets up, then sits back down, "Can I have a water?"

Fox arrives on the dock and sees a couple people of different species lifting and dropping crates onto a floating platform. One guy was busy cleaning up the bags of Spice that fell out of a box he dropped. Fox hides behind a docked shuttle, smiles, pulls out his guns, and sets them to stun, "Night-night, Scum." he fires a bunch of rounds with near perfect accuracy, stunning them before they could find proper cover. A few found cover and started shooting back, intent to kill. A shot gets too close to Fox's head and he changes tactics. He opens the shuttle door and hot wires the engine. It lifts into the air and he shoots the crates, sending Spice everywhere. The people cough in the powder and start getting high. A few regular police hear the shots and head towards the docking bay. Fox lands the shuttle and waits until the spice settles before coming out. He stuns them all and he takes a jacket off one guy and a hat from another. After shaking them off thoroughly, making sure not to breathe, he slips them on, nods at the fit, then leaves, brushing off once outside. The police come in from another door and see the mess. They check the men. "This one's alive." "So's this one." "I got another one." they cuff them one by one and toss them in their cruisers, their cloth armor protecting them from the orange dust. One sets up police tape. A probe camera floats over, takes a few pictures of Fox's footprints, then sends it to Thire.

Thorn sat in Fox's tiny office full of data pads. He had his head on the desk with his hands in the air, one held a data pad. Thire walks in, "How is progress?"

Thorn looks up, "Slow. I'm up to the twenties." he points at a few rules, "Rule 23; Time is lives. Every minute you waste, someone dies. Rule 24; You have a comlink, use it. Rule 25; Just because they look innocent, doesn't mean you can let them wander." he pauses for a second, "It's just a bunch of common sense nonsense."

"Not everyone has common sense." Thire takes the data pad, "Like droids."

Thorn smirks, "If they had any, we'd all be dead."

"If all clones had it, the war would have been over two years ago." he hands it back and turns away, stating while leaving, "I'm heading to Fox's last known location."

"Take me with you." he gets up, "And that's an order."

Thire sighs and lets him follow, "Bring the rulebook." Thorn groans and takes the data pad with him.

Thire looks at the foot prints in the dust. Thorn walks over and is stopped mid-step by Thire's arm. He takes his eyes off the data pad, "Is that his tracks?"

"Yeah." he squats over the prints and follows them with his eyes, "Looks like he stopped to get something, then left through the east exit." they follow the footprints until they stop in a puddle of alcohol someone spilled, then followed those til they ended in the middle of an alleyway. Thorn turns to Thire, "We should get the hounds to follow his scent from here."

"Can't. Unless you want to pay for vet bills."

Thorn blinks at him, "Wait, I have to pay the bills?"

"Prison warden handles the credits, along with a hundred other duties."

"No wonder he ran off." Thorn changes the subject, "How do we find him then?"

"Simple. He wants to talk. We just have to find his contacts... or contact." Thire turns and walks away.

Commander Thorn nods, "Yes, find his contact and interrogate him until he spills his location."

Thire walks back over, "SHE might not know his location, but Fox may contact her."

Thorn blinks, "She...?" he turns and follows Thire, "How do you know his contact's a she?"

"Fox only has one friend outside of work. Senator Chuchi." he thinks for a minute, "She's likely the only person he trusts right now. We may be able to trace his whereabouts through her com."

"Let' do this."

Fox leans against a wall and looks up at one of the many clocks spread around the town. Between how tired he was and having no idea what 8:12pm meant, he figured that it was late. He looks around and spots a large old building. He wander inside for a bit before spotting an even vaguely soft spot to sleep among the many poor and sick residence. He lies down and pulls the cloak over himself like a blanket. After a minute, he spots a lonely child coughing. He goes over and curls up next to her, carefully putting her on his torso. After awhile her shivering slows down and he falls asleep.