Chapter 25
The Corellian Job
Bran Antilles was irritated as he approached the large conference room on Corellia two. Why the clients always wanted to have the chief engineer present when the produced their shoddy designs escaped him. This is how it always went, they produce a design and expect them to bow down in wonder before it. Heavens forbid you start pointing out the glaring flaws you can see on first look.
He spotted the rest of the sales team waiting on him. With a sigh he picked up the pace. Looks like there was no dodging this meeting now. His old friend Alastair Horn gave him a sympathetic smile and a slap to the back.
"Smile, Bran. Maybe this group will surprise us all."
The group entered the room where the customer was already waiting. A woman was seated in a chair overlooking the construction docks. Two woman behind her. Six mercenaries were spread out in the room, two male four female. The last person was seated at the woman's feet caressing her calves. Bran wanted to roll his eyes at the stereotype.
The Zeltron woman stood up and sultrily rubbed her hands over her minimal clothing to smooth it. Reaching down she touched the tattooed lekku of her twi'lek pleasure companion.
"Later pet, time for work first." She purred, throatily
Bran noted with displeasure that some of the junior attendants had become distracted by the display, as he was sure it was meant too. Alastair gave a small frown as he noted it too. Some demotions were sure to be in some peoples future.
The Zeltron slinked closer. The high heels she wore clacking on the tiles. Her stride designed to pull all eyes on her. Bran shook his head slightly to clear himself of the pheromones she must be excreting. Did she really think she was the first Zeltron they have dealt with. His implant would negate any pheromone she excreted. Something was wrong here, but he could not place what.
He looked closer. Pointed ears, check. Pink skin, check, dressed like a high class prostitute check. Attempting seduction right of the bat, check. What was wrong here? It hit him, the ears. They were too small for a Zeltron.
"Gentleman, please before we discuss my proposal. Shall we get more comfortable?" She spoke throatily, with a slight chuckle
The others went to their chairs, a glaced look in their eyes. Warning bells were screaming in his head,Bran wanted to touch the alarm bracelet on his arm. One of the female mercenaries was suddenly right beside him. How did she get there without him noticing.
"There is nothing to worry about. Everything is fine. Relax there is no cause for alarm." The young voice whispered to him.
He let himself be led to a chair. There was nothing here, surely the security officers watching the room would have burst in here by now if something was wrong, after all they were trained to deal with subversions attempts.
"That's right, no need to worry, it is just another boring meeting. Relax have a drink, everything is fine."
Now that the soft voice mentioned it he saw the bottle on the table. The seal was not broken so surely it was safe to drink. The others were already having a drink, surely he could have one, it was nearly lunch time anyway. The drink was not Correlian reserve but it had a nice kick and a pleasant fruity taste to it, Why not have another as the voice was urging him too.
Idly he noted as a ship jumped close to the station and made a run for the maw. Stupid idiots won't get a ship that way, did they not know that trying to blockade run was attempted nearly daily. Really he must find out what this fruity drink is, it is quite nice. Six drinks in and he was feeling the kick, six? When did he have the extra four?The pleasure pet was now pouring for him, Suck it Alastair, having to deal with onlyone of the executives the divine creature brought with her.
"That's right,I get the pet and the pretty young merc." He slurred
"You will only get us if you tell me everything about the databanks you know, Think of the pleasure you will get if you do, who can it hurt, it is not like we can do anything with that knowledge."
The pet and the mercenary was now rubbing his shoulders, urging him to enjoy it. Watching the security craft chase the intruder was amusing. Why should he not enjoy the moment?
Carth grimaced as he swung around again. Despite the upgrades the engines have received the pursuers were closing in slowly, He rolled and a set of ion blast shot past. The comlink chirped
"Release the fuel." He ordered
Juhani operated the mag lock to the external hull and the fuel and coaxium containers detatched.
"One away." Jihani reported.
He kept running and twisting
"Two away"
He came in for the last stretch.
"Three away."
He gave a sigh of relief.
" That is it we are out of here."
He run for the edge of the gravity well, T3 spooling up the hyperdrive. The pursuers falling back slightly as they saw him trying to withdraw. The Hawk went into the blue.
Terri, Bastila, Mission and Fay hastily pulled on the armour that had been brought in for them in the cases they had brought with. Lilith, Xena, Melissa and Lance were pulling large discs from the tops and bottoms of the cases and set them up by the chairs in which the executives were now rolling around in, in dazed stupors. Canderous and Karana was busy watching the doors. In the security office below a single thought was running through the heads of the personel watching the cameras
"Everything is fine, it is just another boring meeting."
The shift supervisor looked at his brand new chronograph, selling the camera crew schedule had brought him a hefty bonus from security. Reporting all attempts at subversion really paid well. The stupid smugglers seemed to think that by subverting a camera crew they were in the clear, surprise suckers the camera crews were rotated every forty five minutes, leaving you with a fifteen minute window maximum.
The interior crew were standing by the was counting of the seconds in one hand.
"Now."
Four sets of the confuse droid technique hit the cameras and they exited the door. In the security room the supervisor jumped up as the camera's glitched. Before relaxing as the returning image showed the executives being plied with alcohol by the women. The twi'lek and the zeltron now dancing closely together, the dance escalating as time went. The new camera crews looked in surprise as the images appeared on their screens
"As a married man, I should not be watching this." One technician spoke
"As a loyal company employee it is your duty." Another snickered.
"Boss, we are keeping the recordings right. For training purposes of course." A third called to the supervisor.
Melissa looked through the feed of the turbolift camera Mission had just sliced into. A few more clicks and Mission tapped her shoulder.
"The lift is ours."
She turned to her small group. On the other end of the shaft she saw Terri's group ascending as they had gained control of their lift.
" Mag lock now." She ordered.
"Already done." Karana answered
"Mission, down. Everyone clip on"
Their lift lowered. The wind of the movement buffeting them as they descended the shaft standing on the turbolift roof. They felt the lift slowing, as it approached the designated floor.
"Grappling hooks, now. Boots off" Melissa ordered.
Three grappling lines shot up the shaft and slammed into the duracrete of the shaft. The group of five spun in the air for a moment before stepping onto the wall. Mission and Fay, clipped to Canderous and Karana respectively. Melissa ignited her lightsaber and cut the hydraulic cable securing the lift door and it sprung open. Stepping through the group huddled close to the door entrance. Using the force Fay closed the door and Melissa spot welded the door in place. Anyone watching the door logs would most likely dismiss the readings as a faulty sensor as the lift was four floors down when it stopped.
Mission was watching the outline of the revolving camera's uv spectrum.
"Go now." She called.
They sprinted past as the camera was in a temporary blind spot. The passage door shut close moments before the camera would have lit upon it. Switching frequencies in her visor, Mission now looked upon the laser grid that led to the databank room. Melissa touched her shoulder.
"You good?"
Mission gave her a flirty smirk.
"Pay attention, it will be a while before I dance like this for you again."
Melissa gave her a quick kiss.
"Tease, you know I just have to wiggle my butt and you will do whatever I want."
Mission took a deep breath and centred herself, She slowly lowered herself to a prone position. She slid for a few moments before turning sideways. Touching the wall with hands and feet she walked up it slightly before turning around. Placing one foot down she swivelled her body before standing straight again. Swinging her body as if she was stepping onto an imaginary pole, she moved on. Moving up the passage she was making slow but steady progress to the door. Melissa being transfixed by the graceful swaying of her girlfriend, as she stepped through the alarm grid.
"Close your mouth, you are drooling" Fay whispered in her ear.
Mission stepped into the doorway to the control room. Getting into a handstand she placed her feet against the wall in a split before pushing herself off from the ground. Walking on the narrow wall she approached the terminal. The terminal resisted her slice for a few moments before she accessed the system. Stepping from the wall she stood in a comfortable position after disabling the floor sensors and the laser grid. She tapped her comlink twice.
The returning taps came moments later. Counting to fifteen before she opened the main program. As a last failsafe the system was designed to never reveal the information unless the other terminal was being accessed at the same time. Opening the freighter list she started her download. A few moments later the taps came again and she de linked her datapad.
The security team cautiously approached the turbolift as the doors opened and closed continuously, the interior lights flickering, blasters at the ready. The door opened again showing an empty interior before slamming closed again. One raised her comlink
"Delta five, five to central. Looks like a malfunction on the lifts, no activity noted.
"Copied, will update maintenance and have them come check it out."
The two person patrol was about to turn and return to their cubicle when the door opened again and a force pulled them into the arms of two waiting armoured figures.
The two groups met in the launch bay for the maintenance shuttles. Lancelot and Mission linked their datapads and the final step fell into place as the ignition codes connected to the freighters and their locations. Bastila and the Terri were the first to leave with the twins for their shuttle. Lancelot, Canderous and Fay stepped towards theirs, leaving Mission, Melissa and Karana with the last.
Two containers casually followed in the wake of the slow moving shuttle as it approached a medium freighter as it hung in the black, a few lights flashed as the shuttled docked. Moments later the shuttle detached and moved away. The external hatch remained open. The faint green of emergency force shield lit the doorway as the two containers drifted closer to the open hatch and through before the hatch closed.
Moving through the darkness of a dead ship was eerie. The only light being given by small torches and the only sound that of their respirators as they moved the fuel towards the engine room. Melissa thankfully lowered the containers as they reached their target room. Pulling a hand pump from her backpack Karana connected it to the larger container. Mission was busy unscrewing the access cap to the fuel line. Karana handed Mission a tube and plug to connect to the access cap and started pumping the handle of the fuel container.
Melissa lifted the smaller container and moved to the hyperdrive engine. Connecting her container she started pumping coaxium into the hyperdrive tank. Mission was closely watching the door to the bridge.
"Electronics off, patrol inbound." She called.
They stood still as the blue light of a scanner flashed through the main viewport before a green light replaced it. Detecting no movement or electronic emissions the patrol craft moved off. The sound of pumping continued as they manually filled the tanks. Melissa took over from Karana as her container emptied first.
Karana moved to the pilot seat and kept her hand ready on the primary actuator. Two taps came over the comlink and she slammed down on the button. There was a slight whine as the emergency power kicked on. The fuel pumps whined as they kicked in, power flickered before stabilising as the main engines came on line. Tapping the ignition codes in, the security lock on the control panel deactivated and the controls unlocked. Karana pushed the accelerator forward and the freighter jumped into motion. Mission and Melissa hastily strapped in. Melissa switching on the nav program and starting to spool up the hyperdrive. The com channel was going ballistic and they could see patrol craft converging on their position. Two other flashes of lights showing the launch of the other freighters.
"Hang on kiddies we are going for a ride." Karana stated, with a grin.
Klaxons were sounding in the control room of Corellia two. Air traffic controllers were uselessly shouting at the rogue freighters to stand down. The pilots of the internal Maw patrols were screaming that their craft could not keep up. The Captain Air Group was shooting at the flight crew chief as they were busy refuelling the outer patrol craft interceptors. The three freighters flashed past and went in to the blue. Control chief Oneill turned to the incident clock wall. The sign above it happily stated days since last succesfull theft. It had been kept ticking over since it was placed there since the last major upgrades to the station ten years ago. The clock it replaced never having been reset either.
"Reset the clock."
Oneill gave the successful thieves a mental handclap before motioning for his assistant to take over. Stepping from the room he started his way to the managerial section for the inevitable meeting that was about to be called for all section heads.
Melissa slowly released the breath she was holding as the blue light of hyperspace was flashing past the viewport. She heard Mission squirming in her seat behind her, breathing loudly.
"Mission you okay back there?" She asked
"Sort of." Came an embarrassed reply
Melissa unbuckled herself quickly and spun her chair around.
Mission was still squirming, her blue skin tinged a bright blue as she looked at the floor.
"Mi, what is wrong?"
"Nothing." He voice was high pitched
Mission jumped from her chair.
"Going to the refresher." She squeaked out
Mission rapidly left the cockpit. Her footsteps echoing as she entered the passage. Karana grabbed Melissa's arm as she was about to follow, She gave a dry chuckle, her eyes were dancing with mirth.
"Let her have a moment. If she really need you she will call you."
"What is going on?" Melissa demanded, worried
Karana started to sing the words to a song that had been popular for a while in the core worlds, especially to those of school age and newly working
"You and me baby, we are nothing but mammals…"
Karana roared with laughter as the credit dropped and Melissa seemed to light up the room with her blush.
"Oh." Melissa gasped
Head of security Dax Garibaldi stepped into the board room and took his place next to the Manager of Corelia two before the board of the CEC. The room was shrouded in silence. The Selonian acting as the head for the board of inquiry looked around her to the other members of the panel, before looking up to the board members, being given the nod she continued.
"Inquiry in the breach of security, and theft of three stock items from the storage installation known as the Corellian maw. The incident occurred five hours previously to the instigation of this board. Present are the board of directors of the Corellian Engineering Company, the panel advisors and the Managerrial staff of the facility known as Corellia Two."
She waited for a moment to read the statement that appeared in the terminal in front of her.
" Does anyone have any objections to the presence of any mentioned here?"
When none come, she continued
" Known facts at this time is that the facility was infiltrated by a group of ten beings who subsequently feloniously attained company property to whit three CEC Two Thousand series medium freighters."
Garibaldi stood up and straightened his uniform.
" The panel acknowledges head of security, Mister Garibaldi." The Selonian stated
Garibaldi walked to the podium to the left of the table amd connected his datapad to the port supplied.
"Good evening Ladies and Gentle beings. My report starts with the fact that at twenty hundred hours camera supervisor Kal Geyon had been approached by two females as he had been spending time at a local establishment he frequents in his off time. He was offered a substantial amount of credits for information on the camera crews going into operation the next day. Following instructions he gave information on the designated crew."
"Excuse me, head Garibaldi. Instructions, designated crew?" A member of the panel asked
"A security protocol we put in place. A crew is picked and kept under surveillance, in case an attempt to suborn security the personell are under instructions to supply their names and addresses to the person enquiring. All money received is to be handed in for processing and tracking."
"A deliberate weak spot then."
" Yes. Surveilance has revealed that the operators had been approached by several females we have so far been unable to identify. No overt attempts were made to bribe or threaten the designated crews. They reported the contacts promptly as required. Blood test have revealed no foreign elements, chemicals or pheromone traces. The crew acted in a normal fashion after reporting for duty. Having been forewarned we kept a close eye on any meetings occurring at the base and on staff returning for duty."
Garibaldi opened the datapad and a visual feed was starting to play.
"At zero nine hundred a group wishing to purchase a fleet of ships of their own design arrived for a scheduled meeting. They were scanned on entry and no electronic subterfuge detected by the droids on security detail."
" But obviously something is wrong as we cannot see their faces from the feed." A board member stated.
"That is correct. The crew that had been compromised had come on duty to observe the conference room, they reported no abnormalities. The sales personel and chief engineer had entered the room and was incapacitated. A short acting error occurred in the recording equiptment. When vision was returned moments later no change had occurred in the room as all could be accounted for. Internal security camers had not picked up movement in the passages outside the room. Two turbolifts had been accessed. Neither of the lifts had been to the floors on which the databanks reside and the passive alarms were not activated. The inner controls to the doors to those floors had been cut open by an extremely high density energy source."
Garibaldi poured himself a glass of water and took a deep swallow.
"Logs indicate that the databanks were accessed at the same time as required by security protocols. At this time I should mention that an attempt at blockade running had been attempted. The external interceptor craft had been able to drive off the interloper. At zero nine thirty emissions had been picked up by scanners in the central control room as the craft were activated. The three craft were able to escape containment. The internal craft were unable to match the speed of the stolen vessels and the external interceptor craft were unavailable for pursuit and interception due to maintenance being performed on them at the time."
Garibaldi cleared his throat.
" Moving in on the conference room we found our personal incapacitated but unharmed, old technology live model decoys were in place of the infiltrators."
" Do you know how they circumvented the camera systems so completely?"
I can only speculate at this time." Garibaldi stated
" Please, speculate."
" The sales personal once they recovered mentioned two facts that was consistent with all statements separately obtained. One all the infiltrators had some sort of tribal tattoos covering their faces. Two some of the females used some form of mental coercion to get the staff to be compliant."
Garibaldi pointed out the blurry facial images.
"The technicians could not explain as to why the cameras failed. In desperation I contacted the old head of security and as a friend asked for advice. He mentioned an old device that once sown into clothing could send impulses that disrupts cameras, leaving a corona of white light. However no electrical impulses were detected. He postulated that using a radio active isotope could achieve the same effect. My theory is that the tattoo ink contained such an isotope. He also had a theory regarding the mental coercion. This was substantiated by salesman Horn."
"What was the theory?"
"When the infiltrators entered it was observed that one appeared to be Zeltron. The sales personal and chief engineer were issued the standard nullification implants that dealt with pheromones. However salesman Horn and engineer Antilles reported that the implants never activated. Salesman Horn has a relative that is an active member of the Green Jedi, he stated that the coercion was similar to what he had experienced at the hands of his relative that had been done to him on his request. They were initially coerced to start drinking, no unreasonable requests were made of them at this time so they had no reason not to comply or fight against the instructions."
"Then the drunker they got the easier it became to control them." A panel member stated
"Yes."
"So what your investigation is showing at this time is that we got ripped off by a bunch of rogue Jedi chicks?" A board member summarised.
"The long and short of it, yes." Garibaldi replied." I contacted the green Jedi and had a consultation with them prior to arriving here. After ensuring that the necessary non disclosure agreements were in place they were shown the footage and recordings. They confirmed that the manipulation was consistent with a technique referred to as Force persuade. The error in the cameras could have been caused by another technique called shock droid, though they were hesitant to commit a probability to that."
The head of the board of directors motioned for Garibaldi to step back before calling for a recess. The board stepped into the room set aside for them. The chief director gave a brief chuckle as he poured himself a drink.
"Of all the possibilities of someone finally succeeding to steal a craft this was one, no one had predicted."
"Not quite correct." A female voice came
The chief financial officer was reading through a handwritten book. The book was a legacy of all the previous boards in which all bets were recorded.
"Fifty years ago, board member Amitola predicted a theft through rogue force users. With this being the first successful theft from the yards, her descendants win the pool which as of today was standing at three hundred thousand credits."
The board members looked at one another, before the chief director finally spoke.
"Options. Do we announce that the record has been broken or do we try to suppress it."
"I say we announce it, too many people already know for it to be kept quiet indefinitely. Allocate overtime payment to security in the short term and upgrade security long term as every two bit smuggler and thief will likely try their luck now." Another spoke.
"I concur, the odds of another rogue force user subverting security should be neglible." The Chief financial officer offered her input
The general consensus was to disclose. The chief director broke a straw into pieces and placed it into his closed fist.
"Now shall we draw to see who gets the pleasure to complain to the council on Coruscant to police their rogues?"
Four shops were hanging in the black before two light cruisers exited hyperspace. Docking in short order to the cruisers the ships jumped into hyperspace again.
Hours later the two cruisers exited hyperspace on the edge of the Dathomir system and headed towards a seemingly abandoned space station. The four freighters detaching and making their way to the station. A hatch opened ad light spilled into the black as the six craft entered the facility.
On landing the ten were given bottle of solvents and directed to the shower rooms to go wash of the henna and isotope mixture. Stepping from the Hawk, Carth looked around him.
" I have been here before." He stated
"It is possible. This was a republic repair dock before being sold." Annaka said behind him
"And I am guessing we know the owners." Carth replied drily
"Unlikely, it was bought by the clan of elders to be converted to a station for the workers that is working on reclaiming Concord Dawn. Mandal motors will be along in the next few days to add the hyperdrive engines to the superstructure so that it can be jumped to orbit over Concord Dawn." Annaka said
"If I may ask, what happened to the planet?"Carth asked
"It was hit by a directed asteroid. During the war a group of destroyer captains from the Republic landed on the surface and used their engines to push the asteroid in the planets direction. One of the destroyers failed to detach when its engines burned out"
"The Valor of Duros?" Carth asked, recalling the name of a missing destroyer.
"Yes, we found the remnants after the strike. Then Duros burned as our people did."
Carth bit back the retort he was about to offer. Hearing this, it put a new spin on one of the worst atrocities of the war. Exceeding the Cathar massacre in scope, the burning of Duros was considered the worst attack made by the Mandalorian war machine but before now the reason for the attack had been unknown. The crew and officers of the Duros crewed ship had had a reputation for being hardliners, the disappearance of the ship had never been explained before. He heard the woman walk away before getting lost in his own thoughts.
Melissa walked into the crew lounge to join the meeting, dragging a towel through her hair to dry it. She was dressed in athletic pants and a short top.
"Missed a spot, cousin." Xena said, pointing to her back
"No. Just something new I got." Melissa replied
Karana pushed her slightly to the side to take a look.
"Not bad. Benny did good work there." She said
Terri motioned for her to turn so that she too could inspect the image, her skin returning to her normal colour after having taken the antidote to the morph. With a sigh Melissa complied.
"Might get one for myself, that is really good work." Terri observed.
"You do not find it objectionable." Bastila remarked
"Her body, her choice." Terri shrugged
"And the cat on her chest?" Juhani asked
The twins looked at the tattoo.
"Clan Sigil. Did not actually take note of it." Lillith remarked
"A cultural thing then?" Bastila querried
"You could say that." Karana shrugged, revealing her sandpanther tattoo.
The arrival of the elders marked the end of the impromptu show and tell session. Taking a seat the older women opened the meeting. Darai spoke first
" As is customary after a succesfull raid the spoils need to be distributed. Lancelot as the raid leader and executor of the plan the first pick is yours."
Lance leaned forward in his chair.
" I wish to claim one of the ships, I will of course pay out the difference in the value of the spoils to my party."
"Any objections." Marina asked
Xena cleared her throat. All eyes turned to her.
"Not an objection but a suggestion. The second ship should go to our cousin to mark her first raid with the clan." She said
"I second that." Karana added.
The motion was carried by the mandalorians present despite Melissa's objection. The third ship was to be sold to defray the costs incurred on the venture and the profits to be equally split.
Lancelot led the way outside and walked to the first ship, a bottle in hand.
"I name thee; Fay's Chance." He said.
He broke the bottle on the crafts hull and the alcohol ran down the hull as the christening was completed. Melissa was handed a bottle by Lillith and pointed to the second ship.
"Give her a good name." She said
Melissa walked to the second ship thinking of a name. She looked up at the ship, her ship. Grasping the bottle by its neck she raised it.
" I name thee… The Satin Claw."