Annabeth Chase
She was just about ready to fall asleep when one of her very few friends entered the Republic Security sector HQs operations center, a woman around her own age by the name of Silena Beauregard. Annabeth had gotten a desk to work through files.
She and Silena were the youngest members of the Senat Guard's Investigative branch and had become unlikely friends. When they had first met, Annabeth had been flabbergasted at how the bubbly, flirty, and beautiful girl had gotten into one of the most exclusive investigative organizations in the republic. She now knew.
Despite the very early hour, Silena entered the office with perfect hair and makeup. She even somehow managed to pull off the duty belt.
"Annabeth!" Silena greeted her brightly and gave Annabeth an embrace. "I've been reading up on the case on my way here, any updates."
Luke stifled a yawn and nodded. "Yeah, we are presuming foul play. Two of the Senator's employees were unaccounted for this morning. We finally found the Secretary at a party with her husband, Malcolm is talking to her right now. Our counterparts on Onderon are talking to the wife and a maid is still AWOL.
Luke pointed at one of the large screens mounted on the wall and the profile of the female in question popped up, showing the image of a pretty pink-skinned Twi'lek. On the neighboring screen, her profile popped up.
"According to her file, her name is Ciana Naminte. Born on Ryloth approximately nineteen standard galactic years ago. She has been employed by Senator Dare's family for two years now. Apparently, Corellia's planetary governor granted her papers after Senator Dare vouched for her. We have no record of any formal education or prior connection to the Senator's family. She was last seen yesterday afternoon when he told another employee she was going out for a short walk."
"This could be a motive," Silena pointed out, looking at the image of the young woman thoughtfully. "I've run into this story too often with Twi'lek. Some desperate girl offering her service to a rich Senator to get off Ryloth. She gets abused until she can't take it anymore and snaps?"
"We thought so as well," Luke confirmed. "Which is why she is currently our lead suspect. Especially because this sort of arrangement is not that rare if I recall it is how Malcolm met his significant other. That is beside the point. How would some little Twi'lek get her hands on toxins, custom-designed for use by clandestine organizations?"
"We will have to ask her when we find her," Silena said with a shrug.
"Anyway, Malcolm and Republic Security are currently trying to track her down," Luke summarized and Silena scowled. "What about Matis's people, can they help with this? We are stretched pretty thin at the moment."
Luke shook his head. "Nah, they left early last night to look into some election fraud allegations on Pantora."
Annabeth knew that if the girl disappeared off into Coruscant's underworld they would be very hard pressed to ever find her. The longer the search for the girl took, the harder it would become to track her down. They all knew it, so while relying on Republic Security to actually prosecute their little manhunt went against the grain it was their only viable option. But that was how it always was wherever they went. The mandate they worked under had intentional restrictions placed on it and while they had theoretical arrest powers just about everywhere in the Republic, especially on Coruscant, the reality of protocol forced them to let local authorities officially take the lead. The restrictions were meant to allow them to get back to their main job, playing fact-finders and guard dogs for the Senate, and not grow into some galaxy wide police force.
"So guys," Luke finally announced, glancing at the clock. "Time to head back to the Senate to brief the Chancellor. In the meantime make yourselves useful. Beauregard, you help Malcolm. Annabeth, I want you to begin exploring others. If our runaway Twi'lek doesn't turn out to be the guilty party we will have to settle in for the long haul so better explore our options while the trail is still fresh. Just remember that you are officially only assisting that part of the operation. We don't have the jurisdiction out here. We arrest no one, so make sure it's one of them slapping the cuffs on regardless of who kicks down the doors."
"This isn't our first round," Annabeth reminded him tiredly, and Luke scowled, "Just saying."
It was both dry and tedious work. The problem with high-ranking politicians was that there were many parties that might wish to end them. That list seemed especially long for the senator of Corellia, a world ruled by a semi-feudal system that also happened to host a significant number of quite powerful crime syndicates.
Any number of rival houses or criminal enterprises could have considerable motivation to remove Senator Dare from power. Corellia and its very pro-industry posture, especially in the arms sector, had bought her many enemies. Both rivals like Kuat, Fondor, or the Mon Calamari had reason to disrupt Corellia's very solid political presence in the Senate.
Then there were the world's political rivals who, the peace and prosperity faction led by Chandrila and Annabeth's own homeworld, Alderaan. Despite their aspirations for peace, Annabeth knew too well that Alderaan's noble houses were perfectly willing to murder to achieve their goals, and if they saw Senator Dare as a threat to their peace, some radicals might be tempted to drop him. That was unlikely though, in Annabeth's opinion. While intrigues and assassinations weren't rare on her homeworld, it was waged between the noble houses, rarely with outsiders. Besides, the Sith invasion of Alderaan had very much shaken her people's pacifist ideals to the core.
Finally, there were the Sith and their empire.
The seemingly never-ending war with the Sith was currently winding down again due to both sides having suffered heavy casualties among hardware and personnel. Annabeth had no illusions though that it would heat up once the arsenals were stalked. Still, unless chaos for the sake of chaos was the goal, Senator Dare's death would accomplish little but nurture the political will to fight the war to its bloody conclusion, whenever that was. There were also much more relevant targets on Coruscant than one Senator. Then perhaps, Annabeth reasoned, the Sith did not think they could easily get to those.
For what felt like hours Annabeth poured over files and records, cross-referencing financial records with official business. There was an abundance of sketchy arms deals in Corellia's books, but nothing out of the ordinary for a man of his station.
Finally, Annabeth paused, realizing she was scratching the surface of an investigative avenue that would require an army of forensics accountants months to assess and analyze, regardless of how good she was with numbers. With a mild shrug, she took a deep sip of caffeine and was about to go back to the list of Senator Dare's least favorite people when Malcolm approached.
Her half-brother, an athletic young man with sandy blond hair and gray eyes very similar to her own looked even worse than she felt. He was pale and had deep rings under the eyes, the telltale signs of a man working fifty-hour weeks while supporting a pregnant Twi'lek at home.
"We found her," was all he said. "You know, Ms. Naminte?"
Annabeth nodded and rose from the desk she had commandeered. "Where?"
"Top-level, sector C twenty-five. Heading through the club district," he announced. "Had the security droids head her off and we are now tracking her from the air. She is currently heading west with an as-of-now unknown male."
All exhaustion suddenly evaporating Annabeth and Malcolm returned to the command center and joined Silena and a number of senior Republic Security officers gathered around a hollo display, following two figures as they made their way down packed streets until they finally disappeared into a thirty-floor building with a free plaza in the middle, one of the countless identical residential buildings that could be found just about anywhere on Coruscant.
"Do you want to call in the Senate Commandos?" Silena asked.
"Is our suspect on the premise of the Senate?" Annabeth asked.
"No...," Silena replied.
"So no Senat Commandos," Annabeth said and turned to the republic Security Officers. "You guys got any tactical teams on standby?"
"Sector Tactical is already tied down in a hostage situation downtown," the senior officer replied gruffly. "They might be free in five minutes, or ten hours."
For a moment Annabeth weighed her options. She could either call in the military and end up being subjected to additional hours of paperwork or she could also keep it simple.
"You got enough uniforms for a perimeter and a team?"
"Yes, Ma'am," the captain confirmed.
"So, how about we go pick her up? Your department gets the laurels and my superiors will be satisfied that this matter has been put to rest."
That too was only partly true, unless this was a crime motivated by personal abhorrence this matter would not just be over. But for the sake of this argument, it served her well.
"Very well, Agent. I will order that a perimeter is set up. I take it you would like to join the door-kicking part?"
"If possible, yes Captain," Annabeth confirmed.
"Fine, any requests for your team?"
"Officers Hazel Grace and Officer Cadet Frank Zang," Annabeth announced, naming the first members of republic security that came to mind. The request was random enough that others might think she was playing some hidden game, fully playing into the perception of her being a spook, and the two officers in question were far enough down the chain of command to dare make any lateral movements on her. At least that was what she hoped.
The next half hour or so passed very quickly. Annabeth sent Malcolm home. For one, he had a girlfriend to take care of, and for another, Annabeth and Silena would have to catch some sleep soon. Luke and Malcolm would take over at that time.
After returning to their speeders she and Silena put on their tactical gear, replacing their belt holster for thigh holsters, and put on a set of ablative carapace torso armor and their lighter shoes for boots. Additionally, Annabeth retrieved her GR-14 TX from her trunk. It was designed as a heavy blaster pistol, but with the handrail beneath the barrel, it served just fine as a short rifle for a woman like Annabeth while also providing her with something that packed more of a punch at close-range fights.
"Expecting trouble?" Silena asked pointedly as she tied her long dark hair up in a bun.
"You know me, always am," Annabeth replied with a weak grin and strapped the blaster's gun sling across her shoulder.
They tracked their target to a habitation spire not too far from where they had first acquired then and their team entered the building less than half an hour before dawn. After tracking Ms. Naminte to an apartment about two miles upwards they landed Ms Levesque's speeder in a small hangar and then quickly proceeded indoors. Annabeth, with her GR-14 TX took up the point, moving up the left wall with her weapon leveled. Officer Levesque and Silena had blasters drawn behind her with Frank wielding a shock baton in his strong hand, keeping his own blaster holstered for the time being.
Of course, things didn't go exactly as planned. Halfway down the dark hallway, a door opened and a young human family with a little boy appeared from an apartment just as they passed, only freezing when they found themselves staring down the muzzles of three blasters.
After realizing what they were aiming at Annabeth hastily switched her aim back down the hallway while Hazel and Silena quickly lowered their weapons. "Republic Security, get back inside until we are gone," Hazel ordered, keeping her voice low.
"Yes, Ma'am," the father replied and hastily closed the door.
Finally, they reached the target door and stacked up, Annabeth pulling a key card from a pouch in her belt and holding it to the lock. After counting down from three fingers, Annabeth held her law-enforcement override card to the lock it clicked and blinked green and as Annabeth stuffed the card back into the pouch the door opened with a pneumatic hiss.
Not having the numbers for a hard raid they slipped into the flats, the lights under their barrels staying off for the moment. The apartment was about the size of Annabeth's and while being tidy though it was fairly obvious that it lacked a female touch. The furniture was too lackluster and random, not untypical for students in their first apartment. The entertainment setup however was clearly well thought out and funded, compared to the rest of the flat at least. It was also fairly obvious that the occupant was working on a tight budget.
First, they quietly searched the flat's living room before searching the bathroom and finally stacking up in front of the one bedroom. All things considered, she was impressed by Zang and Levesque. Especially Zang, bearing in mind his considerable bulk, was moving very quietly.
It was Silena who moved in first, opening the bedroom door and pushing it open, allowing Annabeth to peek into the bedroom and raise her compact blaster rifle and flick on the light while Silena too brought her own blaster to bear. "Wake up!" Annabeth ordered the two forms under the covers. "Republic agents, raise your hands!"
Both jerked awake and sat up, squinting at the light in confusion but dutifully raising their hands. One was the Twi'lek they were looking for, wearing a nightgown. The other, a human male, roughly the same age. "What's going on?" the male asked, fear and anxiety letting his voice quiver. The Twi'lek however was completely petrified, her delicate arms shaking as she squinted into the light source. It was then that Annabeth was almost certain of the girl's guilt.
"Zang, Levesque, take them into custody," Annabeth ordered sternly.
Her own pistol raised Hazel led the way into the room, Annabeth and Silena lowering their own weapons as the two officers crossed their firing solutions and raised them again when they had cleared it. From there it was relatively straightforward, Frank and Hazel put restraints on their two targets before their group led them out.
"Hey! What's this about," the male asked. "The cuffs are too tight, I know my rights!" he then complained.
"Shut up," Annabeth ordered and keyed her earpiece. "Two in custody. Roll in forensics and prisoner transport."