Log:Learning Hex-perience Interlude: Gotta Know Where You've Been

Getting up to speed and figuring out the next moves

OOC Date: April 27, 2016
Location: Arcadia HQ
Participants: Stavros, Zhu Yan, Javi Malek, Siya, Lowkeyyy, Kasia Ciph, Kelnas, Arcadia

Long story short: Arcadia finds what it needs to pull off the job.

The whole story:

The rooms above and behind the the Blue Light are incomplete. It's sealed against the elements, but its former use as a dusty, musty storage unit is still evident in the form of a few boxes. Part of the floor is nicely carpeted; the rest is still the bare duracrete from before.

They've had to spring into action faster than expected, though, so a ratty couch and several mismatched chairs, some folding, one reclining, and one that looks like a legit office chair with wheels are scattered around the room. There are also some computer terminals in front of a few of the chairs.

Siya is here, working her way through files 'borrowed' from Corbel Industries. So is Javi. So was Stavros, but he stepped away for about an hour. Now, he returns, walking up the stairs that still don't have a rail and stepping through the doorless entry-way. The fortress isn't built, and security is nonexistent. He calls up, "Is everybody here yet?" He takes up the rolling office chair again and glances at the computer terminal before looking around.

"Nooooooope!" was the cry of anguish, pain, despair from somewhere outside. Such fire! Such melodrama! It could only be the incomparably magnificent and slightly late Zhu Yan. Indeed, there was a stomping up the stairs and rapid footfalls before the man skidded into the room, his hair aflutter and his hands and mouth full of what looked to be a greasy kebab roll from one of Nar Shaddaa's more reputable roadside carts. The man knew gourmet cuisine when he tasted it.

"Mmmm," he said eloquenty, then swallowed. "Okay. I'm here. This it?" Zhu Yan, the picture of knowing-what's-going-on, ladies and gentlemen. He looked around the room at his partners in crime. This LOOKED like it!

Javi works best when she's on her back. That is to say sitting any which way than normal, as she's got her legs slung over the back of the ratty couch and her head is hanging down towards the floor with a file held out in front of her as she flips through holopages of data. "You better have brought enough to share with the class." She warns Yan at the smell of food, her stomach immediately rumbling.

Siya is typing away at the computer, bringing up files and digging through stuff. She pauses just long enough to sip a sweet carbonated drink through a straw. When Stavros calls out, she spins in her little spinnable stool to look back at him. "Well, you know I am here. Found some interesting tidbits.. slipped the stuff over into this folder marked Naughty Stav." She smirks, pointing to the file with a well-manicured finger.

Weighing nearly twice as much as everyone else that had come into the office before him, the wookiee's footsteps are audible long before the wookiee appears, joint hanging in one corner of his mouth, acrid smoke trailing behind him. The wookiee stops and looks around the 'office' and raises a brow. "What a crap hole."

Kasia is just a few short steps behind Stavros, thuogh she doesn't call up to the others. She doesn't really need to, she'll be visible enough once she steps into the room, looking around at the people she's seen a whole lot less of in the last week or so. "Hey." A hand lifts and she gives a general wave around, moving to try and take a seat on the couch beside the inverted Javi.

"Great!" Stavros looks back at his terminal for a moment. At Lowkeyyy's Shyriiwook assessment, he replies without looking, "It has potential. A little floor, some furniture, actual walls, and it'll great." He reads something carefully, flicks on to the next file, and grins at the last file in the Naughty_Stavros folder. "Okay, this is it. We've got this."

The Zeltron man gives a broad over-the-head wave to those assembled. "Javi, look at the Naughty_Stavros folder. Should've been called the Naughty_Cepter folder." Then back to the business at hand. He stands up. "Okay, guys. I think everybody knows we're trying to steal back some black market prosthetics for Hex, right? He's been better, and is short an arm and a leg."

"So, thanks to some good old-fashioned detective work and shady-as-hell contacts," Stavros nods towards Kasia and Lowkeyyy, "We figured out which freighter went missing and who's most likely to provide the cover for bringing the goods down to Nar: Corbel Industries. Corbel looks legit, but it's got a rat: Anton Cepter, the COO, is providing invoices and transponder codes and itineraries for pirates who want to sell their take."

"So now," he looks at Siya. "-we've got the schedule for the ship that's bringing in the cybernetics, and Cepter's criminal partner: Libate, a Sugi gangster." He claps his hands together. "Now we just need to make sure we're there to take the shipment, and that nobody traces it all back to us. So, Cepter's gotta go down."

He pauses, then throws out, "The floor is open for discussion."

"Oh, and Yan, bring everybody up to speed on yesterday, too," Stavros adds.

"Mmmf?" asked Zhu Yan quizzically around his lunch. Then he swallowed. Don't get any ideas. "Black market prostitutes?" he asked, also quizzically. Then he realized that that was NOT what Stavros had in fact said. Though honestly the man could probably use some black market prositutes right about now.

Moving on. "Javi, we'll have to go end to end. Romantically." Such a powerful statement. Delivered so very deadpan. It was like he'd noted something interesting in the newspaper. MOVING ON. "Right. So. Mister Interceptor here, which is what I'm gonna start calling him because his surname is Ceptor and he's intercepting things, is really the only person in the mix who can we can finger as the ringleader." Yan was walking, pacing, waving his kebab around as he spoke. One couldn't do a briefing whilst sitting down. It lacked the flair.

"CEO Yawnsmith is too much of a father to his company to get involved in something so shifty, so he's out. He also hurts business deals with informality but that's beside the point." Briefings were fun, see? "Troubleshooter Darsten I can't rule out as being involved. She's slick, professional, played the game, and has that sort of arm-ripping attitude that gets my loins in a tizzy." Pause. "Sorry for that visual, but it's apt. Very powerful, very dangerous."

As Kasia settles beside her, Javi shifts her body so that her head is soon invading the other woman's lap, resting on her knee unless otherwise forced away. One leg lulls to the side, hooking over the arm of the chair. "Yeah, send it over." She says to the digital file, opening it once it's received. "Well according to his horoscope, he is destined for love and when the red moon rises, he can expect a visitor from his past...shit..wrong file." There is a little motion of her finger for Lowkeyyy to come join the couch crew before she's stabbing it at her holopage again. "So Cepter's partner is Libate. We need to pit them against each other." She intones on the tale end of Yan's briefing, sounding so frail and weak because SHE WASN'T FED. "Cepter's already skimming the books, but I bet we could stir things to really start the fire between them."

Siya sways back and forth in her seat as the men speak. She glances to Javi when it is her turn before a smile curls up on her lips. "Well. If you want to have Libate to turn against him, we could somehow get the information descretely to Libate.." She eyeshifts. "The information that Ceptor is skimming off the profits -before- Libate gets a part of it.." She lifts her cup back to her lips, sucking out the sweet beverage. When satisfied, the beverage is set back to the side, "I could try that. You know, we could also just outright blow his cover and expose him to the CEO, Mister Yawnsmith. Or, is there a reason we don't?"

"So basically what you're saying is you're just going to tear this down and build a new building?" The wookiee tilts his head at Stavros, querying. Kasia, Javi and Siya are given warm smiles whether or not they look his way, hasn't seen them all in a while, one never knows. Low listens to everyone talking about stuff that he has absolutely no clue what they are talking about, and a lost look combines with the slightly hazy stoned glaze of his eyes. Low grunts. "I've gotta see a man about some drugs..." The wookiee seems to remember something when saying this and inhales a deep drag of his joint, it seems pretty stout, brings tears to a person's eye. Low exhales as he turns to walk out, a trail of smoke billowing out of his nostrils and following behind him as he moves back to teh steps to leave.

Kasia doesn't seem the least bit bothered by the head that settles into her lap, lifting both hands out of the way until Javi finished shifting around, and then they lower again, one coming to rest on the lap invader's shoulder. The smile from the wookiee is noticed, and though she looks a bit more tired than usual, Low gets a warm smile in return. As each person speaks, she looks to each and listens, curious, but having nothing to add presently, she keeps quiet.

"I'm not sure, Siya," Stavros says. "We don't want to be traced, though, and that means we couldn't do it directly. They'd dig to find out who knows enough about their business to blow the whistle on Cepter, I think." He spins his chair back to look at everyone.

Wandering into the building like the proverbial Cat, Kelnas looks around the place quiwtly and lets out a low whistle around the rollie cigarette hanging from his lips. It was a hidden talent of his, being able to whistle with a cigarette. Looking at all the people going through things, he chuckles. "Revenoors comin'?"

"Mm mm." Even with a mouthful, the negative was clear on Yan's part. Swallow. "Won't work," he reiterated, now annunciating properly. He was still pacing, occasionally 'accidentally' waving the kebab over in Javi's direction. Jackass. "Interceptor has been responsible for their greatest innovations and implementations. To Yawnsmith, he's pretty much a son. What we see as revealing him, he and the rest of the company will see as a," and his intonation changed to that of a public relations speaker, "vicious slander on Mister Ceptor, and on the company as a whole, and we will not stand idly by and allow such horrible people to fabricate evidence of wrongdoing."

Yan was still pacing thoughtfully, an odd look for the self-admitted careless idiot. He flipped back to his normal tone to continue. "Plus it does nothing for finding the cybernetics. What we can do, though, is arrange things to get him to nail himself to the wall." He gestured at Siya. "Sowing seeds of discord will do the trick. Pile up the pressure until he cracks and explodes, and does so where Yawnsmith, Troubleshooter, and the whole company will see."

"And how do you propose we do that in short order?" Javi asks of Yan from her position laying in Kasia's lap. Lowkeyyy's retreating form gets a casual middle finger, but mostly because she's jealous about that drug thing. And likely starving by now, thanks to Yan's waving foodness. "Our window isn't very wide to get the cybernetics Stubby needs." A pause. Glance up to Kasia. "No offense...unless you're into that kind of thing."

Siya ahs softly at the explanations provided to her. "Such a sad state, but that does make more sense now." She chin taps a little. "Ok, I can send a private message to Libate then. If you so choose. It would be anonymous. I would send just enough information to him so that he knows without a doubt he is being conned. However, I think that we need to wait until we get a hold of the cybernetics.." She pauses. "You know, has anyone spoken to Raim about getting cybernetics for Hex? He has a shop and is able to apply them.."

Kasia glances up at Kelnas, smiling at him slightly and motioning to the open space on the couch with she and Javi. "None taken," she says, quietly, looking down to the woman in her lap. "Just don't say that to him right now, okay?" A pause, and then she adds, "And don't tell him I asked you not to." She glances up at Siya, head shaking slightly. "We don't need to get someone to do it, we've already made arrangements to have that part of it, it's just getting the actual cybernetics for him, then I'll be able to take them to the doctor."

"This is also about making piracy of medical supplies less profitable and knocking out at least one part of the black market," Stavros points out. "We can do more good making these freely available to those who need them." He taps a few keys on his terminal, then claps his hands once.

"That still leaves us with the acquisition part." He scans everyone's face. "I'm thinking our best liars and a pilot for accepting the shipment. Of course, that won't work if the real black market folks show up for the goods, so we'll also need a team to prevent that from happening. I figure we bring our most deadly people to handle that - though if we don't have to use violence, all the better. Shooting and stabbing people draws attention."

He looks at Siya, then Javi, then back up at Kelnas. "Kel, do you know anything about Libate? Sugi gangster? If he-" He looks back at the screen. "She? she - is the sort to take betrayal personally, we might be able to remove Cepter by making it look like he's responsible for this shipment going 'missing.' If Libate looks closely, he _is_ dirty. And we can make him look dirtier."

"So out of all this, which is our primary objective?" Yan asked, finally sitting his ass down next to Kasia on the one free spot of the couch and held out the half-eaten kebab to Javi. Her pining had paid off. "Because as far as I can tell, we got three things to achieve. One, get a new arm and a leg for Hex. Two, nail Interceptor. Three, nail these pirates. And," big 'And', "we still have to get paid somehow.

GIMME! Javi's hand goes to the kebab with such lightening reflexes her holopad nearly becomes a casualty in the process. That's one sure fire way to get the scavenger to shut up. Stick food in her face.

Moving to drop onto the couch beside Kasia, Kelnas winks at the woman. "Hello Gorgeous." Taking a deep drag of his cigarette, he looks down at Javi and nods. "Haven't seen you for awhile Jav. not since you tried to pelt me with recyclables." Considering Stav's question, the Wroonian grins around the cigarette. "She's a Gangster Stav. Of course she takes things personally. Never dealt wiht her myself, But I know the stories. I also know she had a thing for her Capo at one point. And then she didn't. Last I heard, 2/3 of the guy had been found...along with the Stripper he'd been stepping out with."

Siya frowns softly, "I think our first objective should be our team mate, Hex. He comes first, one hundred percent. Though, if we fail in getting these cybernetics, we should go to Raim. I am just saying." She seems legitimately worried for Hex's well-being now. "After that, I say Cepter should be the second objective. The pirates are doing what pirates do. Cepter is a deceitful man. He must be punished for what he is doing."

Kasia scoots as much as she's able with Javi in her lap, trying to make room for both Zhu, who gets a smile, and Kelnas who gets one as well. "Hey." She tilts her head to rest it against Kel's shoulder, gaze settling on Siya as she speaks. "Hex is the priority, and he will get cybernetics whether this works or not. This is just the method of getting them that doesn't have me selling everything I own to see that it happens." A pause. "If we're going after deciteful men, we'll end up going after half of Nar Shaddaa," she quips. "As for pay, I imagine that some of the cybernetics can be sold? There's surely a market for them, reserve some for those who need it and can't afford it, cover our costs that way."

The Zeltron man shakes his head. "You said Cepter runs this whole cover operation, Yan. If he's gone, a lot of stolen goods will be a lot easier to catch. They'll need a new way to hide." Stavros raises both hands and shoulders in a shrug, tilting his head to the side. "I don't want to leave loose ends for anyone else to follow up on. If Libate takes out Cepter and Corbel strikes back at Libate, I'd call that a win. Even with no payday."

"Getting paid means stealing from somebody involved - probably the one we're setting up to get taken out," Stavros says. "Unless he's got a pile of credits lying around somewhere that we can take, that means a bank transfer. And if there's a transfer they can't account for, it'll show that there's someone else involved."

He looks at Zhu Yan, his expression a trifle apologetic. "I'm not going to risk operational security for a wad of credits. This job, it's about the goods, not the money." He half-smiles at the 'Corellian.' "I'm sure we'll have opportunities later to profit from bad guys without compromising the mission. Though," he stabs a finger at his terminal, "We should check his apartment. Great place to find more dirt, or incriminate him, or find loose change."

"Never said the pay has to be liquid. Ain't nothing stopping us from robbing the pirates, yo," Yan said, his smile returning and his arms out in a 'hey whatever works' pose. Although there wasn't much room with Kel suddenly smooshing him into the armrest. He stood up carefully, popping out of the lounge and the cluster of bodies. Oh, breathing space! "Plus, you know me. I know plenty of guys on plenty of planets who can make merchandise disappear. It's kinda my job." Smuggler! Right!

Where did that kebab go in such short order? Javi's stomach, that's where. The empty stick is waved around like a conductor directing a piece of music. "Lemme go see if I can find the schematics on this dude's place." And with that she's hoisting herself out of Kasia's lap. "Don't worry, love. I won't call him Stumpy to his face. I have /some/ tact. I just usually leave it in my other pants."

Draggin on his cigarette, Kelnas wraps an arm around kasia's shoulder and lets smoke curls from his nostrils as he watches Zhu. "No...wait, come back. i was just starting to feel close to you Yan."

Kasia seems mildly impressed with the speed at which Javi inhaled the kebab, watching the stick carefully as it's waved around. Not the eyes! She settles in against Kel, one corner of her mouth tugging up into a small smile. "I didn't figure that you would, but there are just-- some people are--" She's protective is what, that's really it, and she breaks off the line of thought with another smile. "Thanks."

"True," Stavros admits. "We'll add 'look for pirate op details' to the break-in to-do list." He grins, leans the office chair back, and crosses his arms behind his head. "We're almost there, guys. We've got a few days to set up the pickup, and we'll hit Cepter's home as soon as we can be sure he's not there. Things have been smooth so far, but let's not get cocky. Something will eventually go wrong, and we'll improvise and adapt. We can make this work."

He looks down at the duracrete floor. "And I'll see if I can give the contractors a kick in the bum, too. This place needs to be more comfortable and legitimate, so that we don't look so suspicious hanging out."