Contract 004 - Maaks

Marick

29-11-2010 23:30:34

Marick looked up from his terminal to see a young Miraluka standing before him.

"Back from the rouges, I see." The Arena Master stated softly. "Welcome back, Maaks."

"Good to be back," he answered curtly.

"I'm assuming you're not here to chat, though." The Hapan's nimble fingers flashed over the keys of his terminal as he reviewed a few files. Though young in age and rank, Marick knew that Maaks had more experience than the typical Jedi Hunter. Yes, this would be perfect. Blinking only once the entire time, he turned his attention back to Maaks.

"I have an A-Class missions for you. Should help shake off the rust." With the flick of the wrist, Marick hurled a small data pad at the "blind" Jedi Hunter. Seeing through his limited command of the force that by this point had become elementary, Maaks caught the pad dexterously between his fingers. "Don't worry, it's an audio pad."


Maaks nodded his head in approval. "I'll take care of it," the Miraluka said as he turned and exited the office.

======
Audio-Begin:

Contract 002
INFILTRATION
A-CLASS

Target: R.O.U.D Industries - Warehouse
Location: Selen

R.O.U.D Industries has warehouses scattered all over Selen. Intel has pinned down the location of one in particular that we believe has been smuggling experimental drugs in through typical cargo shipments and dispersing them on the streets to the poor and using them as test subjects.

Your mission is to infiltrate the warehouse and to procure evidence proving the operation to be true. Once you have the proof secured, report back immediately. Once we have the evidence, strike teams will be sent in to handle the rest. Again, your mission is solely to infiltrate the warehouse and retrieve the data/proof.

The latest satellite scans are attached as well. From what we can tell, minimal security, no more than 40 employee's registered. Be wary of leaving behind too many bodies, as we don't know who may or may not be guilty in this case, and we wouldn't want the guilty getting away before the strike team comes in.


======

Maaks

05-12-2010 17:33:32

Orchestral music played softly in the cockpit of the Different Beat. It was stationed
at the Giletta Spaceport for the next few days. Its owner's memory flowed about it
in every spectrum of emotion possible, flowing in and out of a freshly lit cigarette.
Maaks had done his homework and was contemplating the many angles his first job
could be accomplished in (as well as taking an opportunity to relax). He breathed
out slowly, letting his born-blindness take over and his sensitivity to the music
flow. A pause in the music brought the sattelite image to his mind and seemed to
move with the flow of ascending notes. He fell into the image, reclining into his
seat. It was a small warehouse complex, one larger building and two smaller ones
to the direct south of it. A guard’s room overlooked the smaller pair. There was an
office for around 3 out of the 40 usual employees, the rest either sent on delivery or
retrieval which Maaks guessed to be around 4 or 5. The 7 guards were generically
armed but were most likely only useful for the gate and would probably be somewhat
lackadaisical due to a simple routine. Not that he would count on that, of course. The
rest of the employees arrived early morning and left mid afternoon, with the big wigs
in the office leaving slightly later. From the beginning, Maaks refused to take the
initiative on the mastermind behind the useless drugs operation and focused more
upon the most likely place in which the drugs would be kept. This, however, required
more hands-on work in Maaks' opinion. He stubbed out his cigarette to get ready.

The young Miraluka was a Journeyman of the Dark Jedi Brotherhood. He had apt
skill in the Force that some would risk their lives for. He had been taken under the
wing and been a lover to one of the most desired men(in good ways and bad) in
the Galaxy and was even given training by the infamous Bounty Hunter. He still
hated hiking. Due to the clamp-down on non-militant craft flying over the large
city of Estle, Maaks had to make his way to complex on foot. Walking through
the city was fine, jumping over fences, avoiding street-based officers and security
cameras was fine, but climbing up rocky and ridiculously placed cliffs began to
irritate him. It was a given that a warehouse would be situated on the outskirts of a
city, it was just unlucky that Estle happened to be built into the side of a mountain
that, in places, had far too many levels. Roads weren’t an option as a level of stealth
was required even throughout the day and therefore the 'back route' was necessary.
From the waist down he was armed, quite numerously, and wore a plain dark Kama
over it sheepishly. Well, it sort of covered the 4 pistols he carried. With an almost
exaggerated arrogance, he made his way up his final heightened obstacle and came to
the lip of a small canyon. Beneath it, of course, was the complex.

"Thanks for relaying the direction Zephyr. Send the blueprints for the buildings to the
PAL...please"

On screen attached to his right wrist, a small blue image indicating the internal
structure of each building appeared. He studied them for a while, made his choice on
his first target and promptly sat, cross-legged and watched. His trip had pushed long
into the day and sundown was imminent. His planning was, in his opinion, enough
preparation to make before making his entrance so he simply waited for everyone to
leave. Simple enough. Except this time it wasn’t. After pulling nearby plants apart for
30 minutes a deep whirring sound became audible from behind him. He froze,
expecting some kind of ridiculously armed vehicle heading towards him to apprehend
him for loitering, however it turned out to be far more sinister. The sound was coming
from a large transport vehicle, clearly outdated. There was a sudden stir from inside

the complex as three guards exited, two to open the gate and one to 'greet' the driver.
It didn’t take a genius to figure out something was out of place with the delivery time.
Somewhat irritated, Maaks circled his way around the canyon’s lip, keeping low so as
to avoid being spotted on the horizon. When he realised there was no more cliff to
walk around, he took a break and drank in the scene. Not only had the vehicle arrived
inside the complex, but the driver was out of the vehicle and was receiving a most
exaggerated dressing down. Even the guards looked embarrassed. Maaks decided
right there and then that there would be no necessity for violence and felt almost
guilty at having brought his arsenal. He sighed and crept backward onto his belly. His
nerves were beginning to shake. This really was his first job alone. There was no
safety net or anyone else to really give him a hand. It was up to him. He contemplated
this feeling for a moment as his loneliness gave him the chance to. Keeping the kinds
of things bottled up was a usual activity for him in the Brotherhood, as weaknesses
were quickly utilised as opportunity. It was all very stifled and he suddenly felt
claustrophobic. It was for this very reason that he had left the Brotherhood, left
Arcona and his mentor before when the opportunity arose. He felt very uncomfortable
at that point, truly considering his place in the world and the reasons for taking the job
when he was startled by the vehicle’s boom. He scrambled forward and peered over,
releasing his full hold on the Force to his senses. Dimly he made out the driver
moving the transport slowly out and away from complex. No guards remained, but his
boss did. Maaks observed this man through the Force as he watched the transport
move off out of sight. He was middle-aged and quite healthy. A somewhat uptight
feeling was emanated from him, but as Maaks delved deeper he found a strong worry.
This was enough to nearly defeat Maaks. He didn’t deal well with good people,
especially when he was doing something bad that could possibly affect them. Taking a
deep breath, he placed his hand on his waist, pressing and pulling out a stopper.
Exhaling, he turned over onto his back to which a quiet click then slightly audible pop
shuddered under his weight. He stayed like that for some time, the light from the
quickly fading sun reddening the sky; not that he had ever seen the sky, but the red
was enough. He smiled and touched his chest, the emblem of a Phoenix engraved onto
his sleeveless jacket. It was like a second skin to him, but for reasons other than the
fit. Maaks the Jedi Hunter chuckled to himself and brought his legs up to sit his feet
against the ground. Slowly he shuffled himself towards the edge, shadow covering his
now grinning face.

"...Here we go, bud." He pushed off and fell silently.

Maaks

10-12-2010 06:48:56

The lengthened shadows cast intricate outlines of shapes over every surface. The darkening rim of the canyon encircled the entire area, gradually stealing the light and colour of the 'out of town' complex. Maaks was impatient. Night was too distant and the determination he had mustered was fading. The time to act was in the small corridors of stealth provided. 30 seconds here, 10 seconds there; with perfect execution the Miraluka’s slight frame slipped noiselessly from between the shadows of the small number of trees around the complex. There were only two guards on the perimeter patrol, walking side by side and talking about insignificant things. They weren’t paying attention. Facing the directly north wall of the larger warehouse, Maaks watched as two guards joked together whilst loitering on their designated route. Of course, a tall fence, albeit without barbed wire stood in the youth’s way, supported by sturdy metal poles.

"Perfect", muttered the now-crawling adolescent. He paused for a moment, listening rather than looking for a well-timed execution and suddenly sprinted. It only took a matter of seconds for Maaks to move behind the vision of the guards and leap silently onto a support pole. His movements were graceful as he flipped, bending his body to the extremes and crouching nonchalantly at the top. It was at this point that he surveyed the full area through the force for the last time, taking note on the positions of the guards (most being in the tiny barracks) both outside and inside and also of the boss. They all seemed to have repetitive movements. It didn’t take much to get onto the roof silently and he moved closer to the corner of the warehouse. Thinking back to his previous planning of the job, he remembered a specific detail about the internal arrangement of the larger warehouse and took out his lightsaber. The guards would be out of earshot. He winced imagining the slicing and burning sounds should he make a mistake. Just as he was about to activate it however, he thought twice. A large banging roof piece wasn’t exactly the stealthy approach he had hoped for and just like the cliff, brought his hand to his back, pulling from it a palm sized disc attached to some micro-wire. He pressed it into the area he wanted to cut, and grip down, ignited the lightsaber directly into the roof. Maaks jumped at the low rumbling sound as he hastily cut an uneven circle in the roof and was almost pulled down the hole with the sheer weight of it. Thankfully his common sense kicked in and he deactivated the lightsaber before anything else. Clipping it back to his belt, he eased the roof piece to the floor with a dull clank and dropped into the warehouse.

It was dark and dusty. There wasn’t much else to say about it. Thankfully the Force was not hindered by light and Maaks walked unabatedly throughout the myriad of crates and metal boxes. Initially, the Miraluka had planned on monitoring an entire day through the Force to pick up on any irregularities. Unfortunately, this teenager did not have the patience. He called up his full control of the Force and let it fuel his senses. Walking slowly carefully around the obvious difference between the stock of miscellaneous items was the older dust covered boxes and the newer slightly fresher looking ones. Through the Force this was a different matter and a selection of boxes immediately rose in importance. Around the inner walls of the warehouse were the larger and heavier boxes and in the centre were several parallel shelves with the smaller and lighter ones. These he went for first, following the trails left behind by the Force. They were too generic to really pinpoint on a specific box, moreso to a collection. Stopping in front of one, Maaks studied it closely. Sealed and airtight with some scrawl on most likely left by a member of staff, it also adorned a small barcode and code number. Allowing himself to simply stand in front of the box and do nothing- he hoped that some hint may appear but, to no avail. He was just about to move away when a whisper in the Force brought him straight back. He retraced his movements and the same little whisper drew him closer to the answer he was looking for: the code. A bit baffled, Maaks stood back and observed from afar and then looked at the box next to it. The code was ascending from the next, it was the same shade of red and he even checked the font. This was becoming irritating for the Miraluka. Through his force-assisted vision he determined from the uneven hole he had previously cut that it was night.

"Shab this is taking too long..."

This was the moment where he got a little sloppy. He walked up and down the aisle observing each and every box and finally cracked, touching, shaking and even smelling the thing.

"What the shab is so-"

It wasn’t difficult or complicated and didn’t require a lot of brainpower. Licking his thumb, Maaks rubbed it over the code, becoming more frantic as he did so. With a slight smile, he walked quickly to another box and did the same and shouted out with glee. Blushing furiously and somewhat panicked he stepped back and observed his work quickly and drew out the lightsaber. He activated it without care and cut the first box completely in half, it falling apart and bags of sickly green powder flowing out.

"You sneaky little di'kuts."

The strike team was summoned immediately to the scene. The guards shouting out profanities were promptly disarmed without consideration. It was kind of sick for the cause of this hilarity to be laughing uncontrollably from the nearby cliff. Though needless to say, the entire situation hadn’t exactly brought out his best virtue. Massaging his face he looked to his route back somewhat grimly and began his trek back.

<[]>


"Exactly, they were keeping the actual packages and used old boxes to transport the drugs in with the current code attached. It was really quite simple, though I'm not sure if that points the finger to anyone actually working there."

"I see. The strike team will most likely frighten everyone enough to bring out any suspicious individuals. R.O.U.D has already been informed and will be pursuing an internal investigation so that we can discover the perpetrators. Most likely its some little crime syndicate that got a little bit too conspicuous."

"Well that’s good. Anyway, I'll be there in a moment for debriefing, talk to you then."

Disconnecting the call, Maaks sighed and turned about to leave when a thought popped into his head.

"Hey Zephyr, take my calls for me, I think I'm gonna take a dip in the tub." Chuckling to himself, the young Miraluka began to disrobe, allowing his clothes to fall all over the floor, much to the irritation of a frantically beeping astromech droid.

Marick

13-12-2010 17:17:17

|===O===|

Debriefing:

As per the contract request, Maaks infiltrated the warehouse undetected and found conclusive evidence for the strike team to do their job.


Missions Grade: "Satisfactory"

Notes:

Technical - Very sound. No glaring errors, except for, you know, adding "u"'s into words like color...but I guess I can let that slide.

Story - Straight to the point. This was the weakest part, I felt. I wanted a little bit more from the finish. I wanted to see more of an ethical dilemma for Maaks, being as young as he was and the nature of what the smugglers where doing. I was actually much more sucked into the intro post, and then the second one just seemed like going through the proper motions...

Style - ..but that's not to say it wasn't well written, because it was. The flow was easy to go with and I never had to re-read a sentence to understand what was going on.

Other Thoughts:

For your first mission, I'm extremely impressed. Considering Maaks had no help and was alone on this, I think you wrote your character very well and would like to explore other characters, possibly having him overhear a pair of guards talking about giving drugs to the helpless, and Maaks reaction to such in knowing that he can't kill them for fear of being detected. Overall, though, very impressive, please keep the requests coming as I think you can develop into a power-hitter for Arcona as a writer.

-W