Dark Secrets (Closed, Structured RP / Short Story Finale)

((This is a closed RP designed for a small group that is slightly less freeform than The Swollen Shaak Cantina'and follows a specific storyline who's direction is governed by the players actions & decisions. I really need a small group for this RP and I am limiting posting to the four players listed below. Sorry to everyone else, but fear not! Rumours abound that Sureshot is starting his own RP as well; so we'll see all you others there
As with all other RP please remember to read the RP Rules before posting. Thanks, and have fun!))

((AREA TRANSITIONS: When your character is ready to move to / from a location please indicate by putting at the end of your post. Once all players have indicated this, the Narrator can do a scene change. ))



Dark Secrets

Characters:

Creed Dekkar

– Human/Male Special Agent (Player: Sureshot)

Nex Deus

– Talortai/Male Force User (Player: Nex Deus)

Lilin-Duana Hylo

- Human/Female Sith Warrior(Player: Harewood)

Ril Tresv

- Umbaran/Female Spy (Player: PrioryJK)

Minor Characters / NPCs:

Ree'tak – Twi'lek/Female (Played by LW) (Holographic communication)
White Mercy Receptionist - Human/Female (LW)
White Mercy ET-74 Comm Droid - Droid, 1st Degree (LW)
Raiflaine - Human/Male Bounty Hunter (Raiflaine/LW)
Fuza 'Fuze' Macoy - Twi'lek/Male Smuggler (BlackHeart/LW)
Daxx - Advozsec/Male (Played by Sureshot, Comm only)
S00-Z - Droid, 1st Degree (Played by Sureshot, Comm only)
'The Man' - Unknown (presumed human/male) (Played by Lunarwolf)
Nyalii - Draetho/Male Kid (Played by Lunarwolf)
F0-R3-GE 'Forge' - GE3 Protocol Droid, 3rd Degree (Played by LW)
Darth Mourness - Rattataki Sith Inquisitor (played by LW)




One of "The Mysterious Falleen" 's many safe-houses dotted about lower Coruscant. This particular one is located in a bunker-like shelter at the end of an alleyway behind a spice merchants stall in one of the many markets dotting these darker streets.



As Creed, Nex Deus and Raiflaine stood in the room with the lights lowered, the rest of the noise of Coruscant had been blocked out by the sound-proof walls. It had been decided that whatever Ree'tak had given Creed on the Holodisc was liable to not only be important, but for selected ears only. Her disappearance after the meet and the Cantina and subsequent failure to check in was worrying, but this disc represented their only real lead.

With the disc in the Holoreader, pressing the play button brings up an image of Ree'tak in translucent blue, flickering in and out slightly as if struggling to maintain the recording. The light illuminates the room, casting long shadows. The sound crackles in and out, then finally begins to stabilize:

'I this thing on? Damn farkled piece of crap! I just wanna make a comm-recording!' The image of Ree is seen to visibly hit something out of shot - presumably the holorecorder - as the image shudders violently then fully stabilizes.
'Aaahh.. that's more like it.'
A sudden and decidedly serious expression falls across the image of Ree'tak's face.
'Creed. I'm really sorry to put you in this situation. If you're reading this it means I am in trouble, and I have had to instigate a contingency plan I was worried I might have to use even before I set foot in the Cantina to meet you all. I was hoping that I would be clear for a while, but if you're viewing this it means I've been spotted again. At a guess you either got this from my corpse or I gave it to you. As I make this, I'm praying it is the latter option.'

'Look, I know it might seem like I've been chewing the luna-weed, but honestly I have my reasons. I really do want to work for your employer but I have a...' the image laughs, nervously. '...small problem I need to sort out first or else its a moot point. I have at least one individual tailing me and they want to silence me, Creed. Viewing this you would have probably assumed I have gone into hiding, and you would be right. I'm still here on Coruscant, but I'm moving around, keeping my head down. These guys are insufferable bastards and they will catch me eventually. I have a week, tops.'

The image of Ree looks around then, as if making sure she is not being overheard then leans in closer to the Holorecorder and her voice becomes a whisper.

'I've seen things. Things they didn't want me to see, things they are not preparing to buy my silence with. They want me dead, as that is their cold efficient way. There is no point going after the guys trailing me, they are but a head to a multi-headed serpent. Kill them, and more will come. The only way to put this situation to rights is to sever the head at the source. Creed, I really need your help – yours any anyone you think you can trust. A small strike team could move undetected where an army cannot. I've checked what hidden records I can find on you and I know you can fight. I pray to the Goddess you can help me here, otherwise my days are very much numbered.'

'I cannot tell you much more now, this recording could fall into the wrong hands. I have a second recording with my findings on installed in the sub-routines of a 2-1b medical droid working in White Mercy Medical Facility here in Lower Coruscant. It will surrender the recording to you or a human male who knows the pass-phrase. I hope you're memory is good Creed, because the pass-phrase is the first thing I am due to say to you in the Cantina! If it is not Creed reading this, sorry boys! That droid will not give up the info by force, its set to detonate if tampered with.'

The image of Ree looks around again nervously.

'My time is up. I've got to go and meet you all in the Cantina. Look for the droid, Creed. There are only eight of them at the medical facility and the one you want has a replaced left arm after an industrial accident, its the same model but it a different shade of grey. Good luck, I'm counting on you....'

The image flickers and goes out returning the room back to semi-darkness.....

"So what do you think boys?"
Creed gently rubbed the lower half of his face in a quizzical fashion.
"I mean, I hardly know Ree but from my first impressions, she seemed like a gal I could learn to trust. A hunch I know, but in a hazardous job such as mine your instincts are something you learn to trust, as I'm sure you'd all agree?"

He still wasn't sure whether or not to fully trust his comrades , but they had all previously proved their worth in some form or another at the Swollen Shaak Cantina a couple of nights ago.
"If we're gonna do this guys we're going to have to stay inconspicuous. The girl certainly seems like she's gone and thrown herself in the deep-end and I don't want to attract any unecessary attention."

He lept up from his chair and clapped his hands together, eagerly awaiting the response to his next question...
"Some thoughts right about now would sure be good!...."

With a supportive grunt and nod, Nex began to speak.

“I agree. I am rather curious to know why she is being chased and sought after.”

Nex pauses to think to himself, crossing both of his arms. ‘The only way to put this situation to rights is to sever the head at the source. That’s easier said than done.’

Turning his attention back towards his three companions he continued his conversation.

“The main problem is that we do not know how long the body of this “Serpent” is. Not to mention we don’t know just how many heads it truly has.”

Nex turned towards Creed while lowering both arms and placing his hands on his belt.

“I also agree that extra attention could cause annoying delays that would ultimately end with a large supply of dead foes. But honestly how many Talortai have you seen in all your travels? I have searched for many years and have yet to find one of my kind. That in itself will no doubt draw unwanted attention. I believe it would be best if I were to stay cloaked until needed. Of course where we go from here, I leave up to you humans to decide.”

Nex walked over and placed his back against one of the walls.

“I vote we take them all down piece by piece starting with the ones tailing her. But that is only because I prefer a good fight instead of idle chitchat. One might even provide further information about their leader.”

"i dont like this one bit, I mean do we even know who were going up against?" Raiflaine shakes his head. "Also do you even know the password for the droid, because you were quite out of it at the end of that meeting i'll be suprised if you could even remember the day."

"And as...Nax...here pointed out he does stand out like a bantha, is it even wise to bring him along at all just in case?" Raiflaine smiles slightly, shrugging "no offence there..." Raiflaine busies himself checking over his gear.

((I spelt you name wrong there on purpose nex ))

Creed lit up a cigarra and paced two and thro' across the floor.
"I understand you're concerns friends and I share them too, trust me. However, we need Ree' and if the boss wants her back then what choice do we truly have?"
He knew that by throwing in the old line about the boss it would get their credit-hungry minds ticking.

"Give me a second to think here..."
He contemplated to his himself what Ree'tak may had meant by 'a password'. He had seen and heard many things that evening, not to mention being shot in the arm and subsequently passing out.
"Ah frink! She could've said anything to me that night and I doubt I would've known! I was knocking the sonic servodriver's back like they were going out of fashion and having a dose of the happy stuff from Aliendra certainly didn't help my cause!"
He kicked the nearby table in anger and sent the object flying into the wall.

"I guess we're going to have to play it by ear."
He picked up his equipment and sighed as he left the room...
"Lets roll out, we have a medical facility to pay visit."

(( The Party travel to White Mercy ))

Setting: White Mercy Medical Facility

From the outside, White Mercy was nothing to look at. Gun-grey walls and a simple square structure made it blend in with just about every building around it, as if they had been constructed as part of a set built to order – and on a budget.
Only the people of various species bustling in and out of the building gave it away as somewhere of importance (civil importance, at least) and the large neon sign indicating the name of the facility that hung above the entrance lit up the Galactic Basic text in a luminous white colour:



Inside the facility was quite different: Clinically clean and almost garishly bright compared to the dark exterior, the walls were a creamy white colour with neon signs indicating different areas of the hospital, this time emitting a faint greenish glow. The main foyer had ample seating and many plants (mostly synthetic) as well as tasteful décor such as paintings designed to calm the mood and sculptures of varies items; mostly abstract in nature. A holo-map glowed faintly on the left just as one entered the foyer, indicating that there were four storeys total to the building: the entrance floor (being the current position), a basement and two floors up which presumably held wards and surgical theatres. A large vid-screen hung from the ceiling showing the news of the day, both Coruscant -specific and galactic in nature though no sound came from it, a tiny flashing symbol in the bottom-right of the large screen indicated the sound was muted.

The whole place was disturbingly empty until it became apparent that the patient waiting-room was off in one of the side rooms to the left, which through clear doors many people could be seen seated.

The vast majority of the foyer was taken up by a large administrative desk behind which sat an attractive human woman somewhere in her early thirties with honey-coloured hair tied up in a loose pony-tail and a highly-focused look on her face as she studied a terminal and typed away furiously on a keypad. Dressed in a simple white outfit that looked more administrative than medial, she was joined by an ET-74 Comm Droid who was accessing a different terminal on a wall behind her.

Creed spent the whole journey to the hospital trying to mentally transport himself back to the night where he and Ree'tak had first met. 'What could have been her first words to him?' The question was gnawing at him like a Gizka to an electrical cable......and then it hit him, S00-Z, the droid from the Swollen Shaak was present during their brief introduction! Yes of course! She would know!

He dissapeared out of the building quickly whilst holding his Comlink to his mouth. It didn't take long before someone answered. Creed recognized the voice straight away, it was Daxx, owner of the once standing Swollen Shaak Cantina...
"Daxx 'ere what d'ya want?"
Fully aware that Daxx wouldn't be in the most pleasant of moods after returning from his 'vacation of sorts' to find his cantina spread out all over the city, Creed decided that using his voice pattern device to disguise himself may be a wise decision. After all, who knows what the owner may have heard?
"*Ahem*.. are you the owner of the Swollen Shaak Cantina?"
"Yeh, who wants to know?"
Creed could tell that the Advozsec was not in the mood for any games, and with good reason.
"Good day to you sir. I'm calling on behalf of Utilitech because I hear you've been having problems with your WA-7 service droid? If you will allow me, I would like to speak with the product and make sure that everything is running in tip-top condition?"
"Is it gonna cost me anything cause I got bigger problems to deal with?"
"No, this is a free service that we offer to only our most favoured of customers."
"Arrr...go ahead, but don't be long. This droid has got a lot of work to do around the place!"

Creed could hear the droid bumbling about as it always did in the background and as it approached the comlink he could hear Daxx screaming all the obscenities under the sun toward the hapless overworked droid.
"S-0-0-Z customer relations model WA-7 speaking, how may I help you?"
Creed removed the voice device and quickly responded...
"Sooz! It's me, Creed."
"Oh greetings sir, how may I be of service to you today?"
"I need to you to access your databank and find a conversation between myself and a young female Twi'lek by the name of Ree'tak."
"Of course sir, just one moment please."
'The droid sure could use a tune up' he thought to himself. He could hear it accessing it's memory databank down the comlink, and thats not the sign of a healthy droid by any means.
"Subject: Ree'tak found sir. Where would you like me to start the playback?"
"I need to know the first words she said to me as she entered the cantina?"
"Of course sir.....accessing...."
The droids voice transformed into an almost eerie synthetic representation of Ree'tak's....
"The name's Ree'tak, and you've just got to be Creed!"
Creed punched the air in delight and praised S00-Z for her work..
"Sooz, I could kiss you right now!"
"Why thank you sir, although I am not programmed to undertake such a task."
The droids remark made Creed chuckle as he walked back into the hospital.
"Thanks for all your help Sooz, and give my love to Daxx!"
He closed his comlink and turned to his colleagues with the grin of a Nexu tatooed across his face...
"The password....I got it!"

"Good man! now all we got to do is find that damn droid were looking for, we only got a make"
Raiflaine runs his fingers through his hair
"any idea how we go about looking for it? do we just stop the droids at random and try the code or what? never been one for the bucket of bolts my self."

Creed's thoughts travelled back to the ploy he manipulated Daxx with.
"I have an idea. Let's tell that receptionist that we're here to repair the 2-1b model and see if she can point us in the right direction. After that anything thats said to the droid must by me. I know the code and I don't want anyone screwing it up ok?"

He approached the woman at the desk and took a deep breath....
"Excuse me miss....we've been sent by GoCorp to check to see if your model 2-1b droid is still functioning to a satisfactory standard... "

As the woman typed away furiously, it was difficult to tell whether she heard the group approach. Upon hearing Creed speak to her however, she stopped typing immediately and looked up at him, smiling in a 'trained-to-do-so' manner.

'Good Day to you Sir, and welcome to White Mercy Medical Facility. If I could just see some identification and security details for your company, I will bring up the necessary information for you to be about your duties.'

The Comm Droid whizzed around behind the desk performing many administrative duties simultaneously.

"One minute please, my associate has all of our details."
Creed turned to look at his comrades, giving them each a wide stare of disbelief. He then shuffled over to his Talortai companion and moved in closely so that he could hear what he had to say.
"She wants ID. Nex is there anyway you could try and use one of those fancy mind tricks of yours? I mean she's only a receptionist so I can't see her being that strong-minded!"

Nex nodded and headed towards the administrative desk while the woman was back to typing on the keypad. He looked up to see the droid working on another terminal behind her.

‘Hopefully I won’t get any problems from that thing.’ Nex thought as he turned his attention back to the woman.

“Excuse me; we have other places to go and we are running late. So if you don’t mind we would just like to do what we came here for so everyone can get on with their day."

With a small wave of his hand he continued his conversation.

“You won’t need to see our identification and will let us pass without further questions.”

The woman looked up and smiled.

'Thank-you sir, everything appears to be in order.'

Passing him a datapad with a multi-layered map of the hopital on it, Nex could see eight green blips moving around on two different levels of the hospital - 3 on the ground floor and 5 on the floor above.

'These are the Droids you're looking for.' She replied jovally.

'Have a good day, Sirs.'

Raiflaine leans over to Creed an wispers

"Are you sure that was needed, i hate it when they do things like that!"

He looks over to Nex

"So, Nax we know were we heading with that do we?"

Creed turned to Raiflaine to adress his concerns.
"Hey, we got a job to do here and if it means using dirty tricks to get where you gotta be, then I'm all for it."
He turned and whispered to the rest of the group.
"When we find this bot, don't say a word, got it?"

"Fine! lets go" Raiflaine said with bearly conceald desgust

“I don’t think that will be a problem.” Nex said as he walked towards Creed. “The droid apparently only responds to you humans. Here.”

Nex handed Creed the datapad and looked over at Raiflaine.

‘Amusing little human.’ Nex thought to himself.

“I do not know what droid is the one we seek. There are three on this level and five above us.”

As the group moved throughout the facility looking for the specific droid with a replacement arm, they found the ground floor to be a futile search. Each of the droids seemed a replica of the one before it in both design and personality, a different serial code marked on their chest-guard the only clue that they were not the same encounter over and over again.

As they ascended the structure their task proved more successful although it was not until they came across the second Droid on that floor that they had any real luck.

Sure enough the group found the Droid in question folding sheets preparing to dispense them throughout the wards on that level of the facility. Its left arm was every so slightly off-colour from the rest of its frame, a clear indication that it was a later model and had been replaced.

They had found their Droid.

Creed signalled the others to stand back as he approached the droid. He really didn't know what to expect. He'd come across rigged droids in the past that had been set to detonate when a target made contact with them, and it was common knowledge amongst his kind that this was a preffered way of dealing with problems. He approached the droid cautiously, taking one slow step at a time.
"The name's Ree'tak, and you've just got to be Creed..."

The Droid paid Creed or the group no heed as they approached, carefully folding blankets and sheets at speed with ease like some ancient origami master folding his one-thousanth paper crane.

Upon hearing Creed's words however, it immediately stopped what it was doing and placed a half-folded sheet on top of the pile. Its head bolting up with extreme speed as it turned its whole body and moved toward Creeds voice.

The sudden shift in movement and speed was enough to make all the group feel ill at ease, especially Creed who was half-expecting the damnable thing to attack rather than talk.

'Ah, Mr Creed Sir! I have been expecting you.' The Droid said, as the group visibly relaxed.

'Mistress Ree'tak gave me a message to relay to you, Sir. It is a holographic flight recording and audio-transmission. Whilst I can play it here for you, it has been suggested that the material in question is private in nature and would be best viewed in a private location. I can do this if you so wish as it is part of the sub-routine of my current protocol, or I can produce a hard-copy of the data for you to view in your own time.'

With its pre-programmed speech complete, the Droid seemed almost to go into stand-by, awaiting a response. Whatever had been done to the Droid had overwritten most of its major protocols making it seem more like a computer terminal than the advanced VI that it actually was.

Creed seemed relieved that the droid wasn't rigged at least , although it's comments suggested that someone could be watching their every move. He decided to take the droids second option.
"Gimme the hard copy tinman and I'll be on my way."

Nodding in response, a hatch opened in the Droids' chest and a small holodisc encased in a robust trasparent alloy ejected and into its hands.

'Of course, Sir. As you say.' The Droid replied, passing the container to Creed.

With its sub-routine fully run, something in the Droids' VI brain seemed to reset as it immediately went back to the sheets and picked up on the fold it had stopped making to speak to the group.

Then, as if to reinforce its change in protocol it looked up and addressed the group as if it had never seen them:

'Good-day, Sirs. May I help you?'

Back at Creed's safehouse:

Placing the holo-disc in the recorder the group watched as the image flickered and stabalised, and a terrorfied-looking Ree'tak came into view. The picture was shaking about and she could be seen to be struggling to hold onto various things to keep herself steady. In the background was the cockpit of a vessel and as the sound kicked in it brought with it the confirmation that the Twi'lek was on a starship, and that it was under attack:

'Brix! Argh, I hope this transmission records... it might be my last words.' she said, scrunching up her face in a contorted look of disgust. 'Yeah, 'cos THAT's not too depressing.'

A sudden explosion rocked the image again and the young Twi'lek let out a shriek.

"Creed? Creed? Damnit I hope you're getting this...I'm under attack from...from, well I don't know who they are! I've seen some odd shunfa and I cant risk it on an open comm-call, so this is going down in a recording.'

Another explosion.

'Crink it! Now I have an electrical fire! Aaaaaaah, be right back!'

The image flickers and changes, a sign that the recording had been stopped and resumed. Upon her return, Ree'tak seems to have a slight head injury and is bleeding from one of her Lekku.

'I was hoping we'd lost them, but they're still following us. Damn! how far do we have to get from this skragging system!' Shaking her head she leaned into the recorder with a resolute and determined look on her face.

'I don't know who these people are... I don't recognise their ships or any of their insignia. Maybe you can, I don't know. Switching to external cameras.'

The image changes to a view of the top of Ree'tak's Class 720 Frieghter The Pathfinder, and then pans round to reveal the hull of another ship following, firing lasers that are narrowly missing the smaller ship. The camera zooms in and re-focuses on the persuing vessel, a slender and deadly looking fighter which didnt resemble any known ship currently in use. Utterly black with no visible bridge to speak of, the only adornment was a symbol on both sides of the vessel - presumably an insignia of some kind - which looked similar to an A-Wing if viewed from above.

As the image returns to Ree'tak, she is looking visibly worried.

'See? I have no idea who these people are... I was just passing this way moving some...uh..."goods" for a client when I picked up a distress beacon coming from the planet...'

Again, the image shakes to the sound of laser blasts impacting on the shields.

'Arrgh! Which is Rafa III by the way, in the Rafa System, so I went to investigate. I know, I know, Ignore it next time! Well if I don't get my Choobies to Coruscant there wont BE a next time!'

A large explosion knocks out the sound and image for a second.

'Heh. That was a close one! guess these freaks can shoot straight!' Adjusting something on the recorder Ree'tak exhaled deeply.

'I've just uploaded my other recording to follow this one, it should start directly after.' After a sigh and rubbing her eyes from exhaustion, she continued.

'The distress call was from Jedi, four of them or so it said. I managed to get in contact and agreed a place to pick them up...but....well, when I got there there was only one guy, but he had...er... friends.'

Hanging her head in shame for a moment, a tear could be seen to drop from behind her Lekku then as she looked back up her eyes were welled up.

'I couldn't help them! There was nothing I could do...they....oh Goddess, Creed... I can't fight these people! I'm no Jedi! I....I'm on my way to Coruscant. Hopefully your employer will be able to help me. I wont be able to keep visible for long, but maybe this will go some way to explain things..'

Hanging her head again she pressed something on the holo-recorder and the image flickered and changed.

Changing between two external cameras on The Pathfinder, the ramp on this ship seemed to be down as a human dressed in the robes of a Jedi Knight was backing slowly towards it, his light-saber glowing a florescent green against the dark brooding atmosphere of Rafa III. Approaching him was a group of five individuals; three Human, a Duros and a Rakata. The Humans were all dressed alike, identically to 'The Man' who had approached Ree'tak in the Swollen Shaak Cantina when she and the group had first met.

The Jedi takes up a defensive stance as the four approached, but as he uses the application of Force Telekinesis the wave of his hand does not send his opponents spiralling back as it should, in fact they do not even break their stride. Confused, the Jedi pulls his light-saber back, ready to strike if neccessary as the group produce cortosis blades. When they refuse to stop their advance, seemingly unaffected by the Jedi's powers, he swings the light-sabre and severs the lead aggressors arm.

Amazingly the Human does not even slow his advance, seeming to utterly ignore the pain caused by the light-saber as the group descend upon the confused Jedi and dismember him with their blades.

The Holovid ends with the ship taking off with the group trying to get aboard the vessel as the loading ramp is closed, the various body-parts of the jedi sliding off onto the ground as the group hold on until the ship reaches the atmosphere. Incredibly the five still manage to hold on despite the lack of oxygen, only falling off as their bodies completely freeze and stiffen, unable to continue gripping on to the outter hull.

(( Aplogies for the slight God-modding, but nobody had posted in 7 days and i wanted BH and Red to get a chance to join - EDIT: I see Red beat me to it, as I was writing this! Cheers Red!))

The low throbbing hum of a passing air taxi barely broke the silence. Wide flat shafts of light swept across the bedroom, gone as quickly as they appeared. The stillness was as much a part of the room as the tall narrow windows or the rumpled satin sheets laying on the unmade bed. A dusky orange glow dimly illuminated the chamber sifting down from between long shadows cast high on the ceiling by the horizontal blinds.
A tiny indicator gleamed on the bathroom door panel reflecting acid green pinpricks of light off a pair of crystal tumblers sitting empty on the bedside table opposite, one still bearing a smear of lipstick on the rim. A dry towel laying discarded on the floor was keeping the automatic door open.
The opulent fittings in the windowless room centred on a large sunken bathing pool almost imperceptible in the dark. The meagre glow bleeding in from the adjacent room failed to penetrate the perfectly still water filling the oval pool.
Another set of passing headlights sent bars of light running through the suite. The brief illumination flared over the pool and seemed to linger in the bulging eyes staring sightlessly from beneath the glassy surface.
A pre-programmed instruction activated the bedroom blinds and darkness wrapped it’s forgiving embrace round the scene. In the bathroom, under the water, the gaping mouth continued it’s silent scream into the black.

Creed turned to his cohorts with a look of concern.
"Load up the Zenith, we 're heading to the Rafa system..."
He paused and grabbed Nex by the arm and then moved in closely so that Raiflaine couldn't hear what he had to say.
"...Are you sure you want to join us on this mission? From that holovid it looks to me like Ree may well be in some kind of trouble with the Sith. I can always talk to the boss about making some enquiries into Ree's dissapearance as he has strong connections within the empire. I just didn't want to speak on your behalf old freind, because although you're the most experienced when it comes to dealing with this scum, you're also a valued member of this agency and I'm sure the man with the plan would rather have you alive and kicking".
He patted the Talortai on the back as he left the safe house to prepare the Zenith for flight.