Sub-Zero (A M/S RunOn - Talos Erinos and Socorra)

Galeres HQ
Aedile’s Office
1500 Hours

Talos Erinos was hard at work when the harsh tone of his desk’s built-in intercom buzzed.

“Prelate Erinos? Your apprentice is here to see you, sir” the voice of his aide-de-camp crackled.

Looking up from his current project, Talos reached out with the Force and depressed the ‘talk’ button. “Very good, Sergeant. Send her in”

Seconds later, the automated door to the Aedile’s office whooshed open and admitted the lithe figure of Jedi Huntress Socorra, clad in her standard attire with twin DL-18 blaster pistols strapped to her thighs. So used to protocol was the former savage that it wasn’t until the Journeywoman rose from her genuflection that she took notice of her Master’s desk.

“What the hell?” she asked, her pale eyes taking in the thing that was flopped on the synth-wood surface.

The body of a Lethan Twi’lek, clad in an expensive and nearly immaculate gray flightsuit…nearly immaculate because of the three holes that had been punched through the Twi’lek’s chest.

Taking notice of his prodigious apprentice for the first time, the Galerian Aedile looked up and raised his right hand with his fingers splayed.

“The fifth this month, Soc. The karking fifth!” the newly christened Prelate seethed, his breath ragged as he continued to tackle the pile of flimsy that was stacked ankle-high on his desk.

To the best of his ability, Talos tried to work around the corpse of the Twi’lek, raising both arms and legs as he searched for various correspondences and letters before grunting in annoyance and pushing the body off of the desk entirely.

“Uhh…the fifth what, Master?” Socorra asked, her mind drawing a blank as to what the Erinos was talking about.

“Assassin!,” Talos roared, throwing up his hands in exhaustion, “The fifth karking, frakking, son-of-a-hutt assassin this frakking month!”

Trying her best to suppress a smirk, Socorra stood by in silence the Aedile and Army Major continued to purple the air with a mix of Basic and Mando’a curses.

“I mean, really! The Clan hasn’t been back in-system for a month and a half and my Family has jus-just..put Sashar and Zandro’s deaths behind us and already the frakking d’Tana’s are making good on their death warrant on me” he continued, his voice cracking on the last sentence.

Snorting in derision at his own weakness, Talos sprung up from his desk and made a beeline for the wetbar that sat snugly against the far wall. The Aedile poured himself a generous glass of netra’gal and took a hefty gulp before locking his sapphire eyes on his apprentice’s pale azure.

When the Prelate made no move to continue speaking, the Huntress made her move:

“Are you done, master?” the Consul’s Attache asked.

Talos’ head dipped once. “Yes”

“Ok,” Socorra said slowly, “Then what do you want me to do?”

In a literal blur of motion, Talos threw a datapad at his apprentice and smiled to himself as he watched the bronze beauty fumble with it; his increase in power, courtesy of his promotion, had once again allowed him to catch his apprentice off guard.

“For starters, I want you to find out everything you can on this chap here,” Talos said, gesturing with his tankard to the dead Twi’lek, “His name is Bo’Umar and I’m pretty sure I’ve seen him on the DIA’s BOLO* list, which you’ll be able to access with your Attache log-in. When you’re done with that, I want you to find a nice hotel, four or five stars, on Corulag and make a reservation for two. Then pack a bag” he finished.

“A hotel reservation? Pack a bag?” Socorra repeated in confusion and annoyance; it was beyond her why her master was ordering her to make vacation plans when she was on the cusp of being named a Knight of Arcona.

“Aye. We’re taking a…vacation, of sorts” the Galerian deputy confirmed.

The Huntress blinked a couple of times and shook her head in exasperation. “And what will you be doing…my master?” she asked, putting the slightest bit of sarcasm on the last two words.

Although nothing overt happened, the space between the Obelisk Prelate and the Jedi Huntress seemed to crackle with an underlying intensity and Socorra could swear that she felt her windpipe constrict ever so slightly.

“I, my apprentice, will be showing our friend Bo’Umar here the exit. Then back to running the House…what else?” Talos Erinos replied evenly.

“Now go” the Obelisk Prelate demanded.

Deciding to trust in her friend, master, and superior, Jedi Huntress Socorra bowed and withdrew from the Aedile’s office.

After a brief speeder ride to the Army Corps Intelligence Center and through its thorough security procedures, Socorra quickly headed to the archives. The installation was still nothing short of amazing, much bigger on the inside than she thought in her first visit. She could have only dreamt of getting her hands on their databases before joining the Brotherhood. Now the former criminal just simply needed to walk in.

The Sergeant on duty in the archives gave her urban attire a once-over, a slight questioning look to his face.

“Can I...help you?”

The Dark Jedi could see clear as day that what he really meant to say was, The hell you doing here?

She threw her ID on the desk and crossed her arms over her chest. “I am here on request of Major Erinos, and am in a bit of a hurry. I need all of your info on known assassins and their parent affiliates, especially by the name of Bo’Umar.”

The Sergeant snapped up her ID and took a moment to verify it and her claim. Apparently satisfied, he turned to his console and got to work. Impatient already, Socorra looked around the desk and the room. Save for the immense repository of information collections, it was rather spartan. She spotted a couple plaques and creeds that slightly grabbed her attention, one in particular:

Manui Dat Cognitio Vires.

The Krath smiled inwardly. Knowledge gives strength to the arm. How so true.

Her attention turned back to the NCO, whom she was starting to become annoyed with. His typing compared to her own was soo slow. Ugh, just let me do it. You type like a frakkin’ bantha.

As if he overheard, he wrapped up the work and handed her a datacard, waiting to see if she needed anything else. Popping it into her datapad she perused the information and nodded to him. With a “thank you” she left and made her way back to the barracks.

Socorra turned on the terminal in her quarters and started giving verbal commands to it to navigate through various hotels and packages on Corulag, using a secure connection. While flipping through them she started packing a bag for their trip there. After years of uprooting everything and leaving quickly, she had gotten used to packing light. But, knowing Talos’s penchant for surprises, she tossed in a few items of everything just to make sure she had all her bases covered.

Satisfied with one of the packages presented, she reserved it under Talos’s alias and account of Jon Hale and added one “guest” to it. Switching gears, the information broker popped in the datacard and began working on the information given. It was aggravating working with a single screen, but it’d waste time to find a secure office and get it all loaded and ready again. After a decent amount of time spent analyzing, disseminating, and preparing, she made her own presentation and left for Talos’s office to give him her report.