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Post by Kael Serasai on May 27, 2011 11:28:34 GMT -5
The investigation was beginning to draw up more questions than answers, Kael thought dejectedly, as he rode in the passenger seat back to Renn's place.
Still, something was nagging at the back of his mind, and he didn't need to think too hard about it to discover what it was; he and his Master had investigated the Maw a few years ago, and shortly after that had encountered a cult of Dark Jedi. The connection was so obvious, that he didn't want to voice his thoughts, but then something else struck him.
"What if" he began, sounding thoughtful, "our Dark Jedi doesn't clear his nav cache at all? What if those are the only places he travels to in that ship?"
"What of it?" Jon asked, pulling up outside Renn's place and powering down the speeder. Clearly, Kael wasn't speaking much sense, in investigative terms, and was raising pointless questions.
"What I mean is... well, if he only uses that ship to make certain journeys, then it may not be his personal vessel" Kael said, hoping he was being clear.
"You mean it's being provided by someone else?" Jon asked, catching on.
"Yeah, which means our Dark Jedi is on some sort of assignment here. And his contracter is likely at one of the locations we found in his nav cache".
Kael didn't know if it was a convincing argument, and it also seemed to point away from their prime suspect, Rikter, but right now they had other things to attend to, which Jon duly pointed out. Both men exited the speeder, and made their way into Renn's place, to see what exactly the mysterious black fluid was, and how it could be linked to the brutal murder of Senator Henriksen.
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Post by Trenton Vinh on May 27, 2011 22:53:39 GMT -5
"Its a Hurlothrombic compound, but has been mixed with X-1 poison!" announced Renn with enthusiasm, his eccentric features shaking with delight.
"I don't know where you pair got this toxin, but the chemist is brilliant! Its ingenius."
Jon had never heard of X-1 poison or Hurlothrombic compounds, and his confusion showed on his face.
Renn seemed disappointed, as if he had expected the pair of detectives to share his enthusiasm immediately.
He sighed and tapped a command on his hoverchair, which carried his slightly overweight form towards the vials contained within a centrifuge.
Renn pointed to the first of three vials, and condescendingly started his explanation,
"Hurlothrombic gas is a substance that fills organic beings with a state of intense fear, paranoia, or terror. Now, normally, this would only affect a regular person for a short period of time if it was injected, inhaled, or otherwise consumed..."
"But..." Jon said at length, and Renn smirked and continued on, now pointing to the next vial,
"But when mixed with X-1 poison, it becomes much more potent."
"What does X-1 poison do?" Kael asked darkly, sensing it was ominous.
Renn said, "X-1 poison is a very rare substance, that targets the brain tissue. It deteriorates thought processes, making its victims sluggish, confused, delusional. It is also highly addictive, and withdrawal from it would cause wracking pain, convulsions...and eventually death."
Jon eyed the vials, now understanding quite how deadly there indeed were, "So together they would make someone paranoid and delusional, as well as destroying their ability to properly think and understand situations..."
Renn nodded, and Kael added, 'And, while under the influence and at the mercy of a dark-siders manipulations, could lead a good man to murder an innocent politician."
Jon froze, and turned to look at Kael. He was right.
"Our Jedi could be innocent...sort of. He performed the murder, of that we have no doubt. But if these substances were in his bloodstream, along with his mind left defenseless to the will of a dark Jedi, he could have been forced...Hell, the dark Jedi could have simply told him to kill Henrikson."
Jon felt partially elated at the new understanding, but also disturbed. Anyone with the brains and wit to pull something like this off was someone well connected, and very dangerous.
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Post by Kael Serasai on May 31, 2011 4:44:48 GMT -5
Once again, something was nagging at Kael, something to do with the X1 poison in their midst.
"This poison... what's in it?" he asked Renn, whose eyes seemed to light up at the question.
"Well, this particular strain... who knows?" the scientist asked. "But I could easily seperate its components given time and credits for the task..."
"No" Kael cut in, not wishing to complicate matters. "It's not necessary. Do you know where X1 originates?"
"It was originally created by the Malkite poisoners, on Malkii..." Renn answered, visibly wondering where Kael was going with this.
Kael had begun to pace again, HoloNet reader in hand, flipping it open and shut as he tried to connect something in his mind.
"Malkii... the Mortex sector... Lotide!" he suddenly exclaimed. "Senator Rikter has familial connections on Lotide, it's in his public file!"
He flipped open his HoloNet reader, found Rikter's file (which he'd bookmarked from his earlier excursion into the life of the despicable Senator), and tossed it to Jon.
"I know it's a loose connection" he admitted. "But from Lotide, he'd have access to the resources needed to produce X1, and there's a lab on Lotide which used to belong to the Empire, but I'm fairly certain the IAC purchased a lab in that sector last year" he said, hoping Jon would see his argument as a case against Rikter; a case which they could confront him with.
"You do a lot of reading, boy" Renn smirked at Kael. "You're right, the IAC did purchase that laboratory. The Malkite Poisoners aren't ones to share their secrets, but with the proper resources and an R&D lab at your disposal..."
"You could replicate the poison yourself" Kael finished. Both men looked at Jon, and waited for his input.
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Post by Trenton Vinh on May 31, 2011 13:44:50 GMT -5
Jon, as he heard the two men converse back and forth, and as he buried his nose into the datapad to read the file, felt a smile creep up his features.
He looked up to find both of the others staring at him, and he said, "Well...it isn't much, but its a lead, and it could have merit. I think we should definitely follow up on this."
then his smile faded, and his forehead creased in confusion, "What we don't have is a motive. Why would Rikter gain from killing Henrikson? He doesn't seem too inclined to run for Chief of State..." he paused, "Maybe they had conflicting views on some things, and Henrikson's popularity would help him pass laws and win votes that Rikter didn't want? Or perhaps there's another candidate he would rather have for Chief, but would he really be willing to murder because of it?"
He paced slowly, wishing the answers would spring out of thin air,
"I know he wants the Jedi ousted, and that could be why he did this, but I don't know if that's why he would have caused this. I feel like there's something else behind it."
He shrugged, "I suppose everything will be revealed when we get some more evidence."
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Post by Kael Serasai on Jun 3, 2011 13:12:31 GMT -5
Jon's words seemed to make sense, about there being no motive for Rikter if he was involved in the killing, but it didn't stop Kael from wanting to confront the Senator directly.
"I know, we need more evidence, but... GET DOWN!" he yelled, ducking and dragging the disabled Renn down with him to the floor.
The second his head ducked below eye level, the transparisteel windows in the front room blew inward, spraying broken shards which sliced into everything in their path.
With no warning other than a stab of danger at the back of Kael's mind, Hell had opened up in Renn's place. Blasterfire rained in through the front and back windows, the skylight was peppered with rounds from a repeating slugthrower, and outside the roar of engines could be heard, growing louder as more windows imploded.
The skylight finally blew in, sprinkling a fine haze of razor-sharp barbs downward among the larger chunks of broken transparisteel, and Kael dragged Renn to relative safety beneath his workbench.
"How did they track us?" Kael yelled above the noise, forgoing the assumptive stage and jumping directly to the conclusion that someone had somehow caught onto them, and followed them here.
All he heard in response was the crack-boom of a concussion grenade taking out the front wall, and he felt rather than saw the multiple gunners piling in over the rubble.
Unsheathing and igniting his lightsaber in one fluid motion, Kael sprang upright and was instantly assaulted by blasterfire. His platinum blade cut and weaved its way through standard defenses, nothing too exertive, batting blasterbolts into the walls or ceiling where they could do no harm.
Taking a moment to snatch up the vial of X1, he deflected another series of bolts, then vaulted behind the workbench so he could look for Jon in the smoke and assess their situation.
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Post by Trenton Vinh on Jun 3, 2011 14:32:07 GMT -5
Upon being dragged to the floor, Kael had in fact saved Jon's life. The blasterbolt that would have struck his chest instead grazed his shoulder and burnt some skin on his neck, leaving him in pain, but not seriously wounded.
Kael was up again in an instant, his lightsaber batting blaster bolts aside.
Jon drew his blaster and poured shots back through the window and what was now a gaping hole in the wall.
In between his spewing obscenities, Renn cursed something about how all the fraggin' credits on Coruscant won't be enough to repair the lab.
His mind racing, and doing his best to ignore the tender stinging of his left shoulder, Jon tried to understand how they had been found out. Either the Merc they had left in the apartment had managed to have time to contact someone -- most likely Rikter -- before the Coruscant Security Forces had converged on him, or someone had been on their tail since before then. Possibly the Dark Jedi whose ship they had broken into.
Or perhaps someone hired by Rikter had been following one or both of them since leaving Rikter's offices.
Judging by the amount of weapons-fire being poured into the cramped lab, they wouldn't be living long enough to find out.
Fleeing was nearly out of the question due to Renn's crippled leg, but they had to get out. If the people attacking wanted them dead, which they certainly seemed to, they wouldn't hesitate to toss a few more grenades in and ensure the job be finished up quickly.
Jon looked around from behind his cover and wondered if there was something they could use to distract or divert the attention of their attackers for long enough to risk escape.
He found himself staring at a pair of pressurized gas canisters. Unsure of what could be in the tanks, Jon took a chance -- and shot the closest of the two.
They were resting against one of the still-intact walls, and when shot, the tank careened across the room and flew out the now-ruined wall.
A pair of shouts could barely be heard, and a loud bang gave Jon the assumption that he had done something right.
The blasterfire ceased for a split second, then resumed once more.
Jon yelled to Kael, "We need to do something drastic. If we get out of here, we're heading straight to Rikter to have a nice little chat!"
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Post by Kael Serasai on Jun 6, 2011 10:54:10 GMT -5
With blasterfire pouring in more frantically following the exploding gas canister trick, Kael only just heard Jon over the noise and Renn's moaning.
"Drastic?" He said through gritted teeth. "I can do that..."
Leaping over the workbench, he tossed his blade into the smoke, where it vanished, and screams could be heard issuing from the other side of the shattered wall. While the blade completed its spinning arc, Kael focused his attention upward, where he could sense more gunners with slugthrowers preparing to take their shots through the broken skylight.
With a confused yell, three men were pulled through the shattered glass and landed with a crunch on the floor, one of them being driven head-first through Renn's workbench.
No sooner had the men landed, when his lightsaber returned to his outstretched palm. Barely a second later, flashing cylindrical objects rolled out of the smoke, coalescing around Kael and Jon's feet.
"Down!" Kael shouted, though he didn't recall opening his mouth to do so. He was centred now, a conduit of the Force, and it guided his actions without impedence. With one hand, he pulled the three dazed gunners away from himself and the others, scooping the grenades up with them, and with the other he pulled the remaining gunners from outside into the building through the broken wall.
No... not with his hands, though they were extended. Again, the Force flowed through him to see his will done.
Both parties of gunners met with the grenades bouncing along between them, and just as Kael ducked, the whole parade blossomed into super-heated flesh and organs, garnished with blood pooling out onto the floor and a cloud of flame baking the walls and ceiling. The roof sagged as walls threatened to blow outward, and the fried sprinkler system tried half-heartedly to douse the fire.
Renn swore louder. Kael offered him a helpless shrug. Jon had asked for drastic, and the lab was a mess anyway, so he couldn't really have made things any worse.
After waiting a second or two for the dust to settle, and satisfied that there were no more thugs trying to fry them, Kael stood up and surveyed the damage.
"Drastic" he admitted, slotting his lightsaber hilt into his holster. Renn simply grunted in defeat.
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Post by Trenton Vinh on Jun 8, 2011 1:29:29 GMT -5
Jon exhaled slowly as the chaos came to an end.
Igoring Renn's groaning about how every fraggin' time Jon asks for a favour he gets something blown up and that every fraggin Jedi is off his rocker, Jon said to Kael,
"Thanks for the save...I forgot how useful it is having a Force-User around. I used to spend a lot of time around some guys similar to you a few years back...you're as crazy as they are."
He paused and added, "And that's a compliment."
Renn rounded on Jon and opened his mouth, having finally gotten past his shock and now growing furious, but Jon cut him off before he could speak,
"I know what you're going to say, Renn. And I will make sure you're reimbursed. In fact, with the insurance money and the pay you'll get from me, you'll be able to buy a much better place than this old dump. Consider yourself lucky."
Renn said softly, "And will you buy me an assistant lab droid?"
Jon smiled, "Yes, I'll get you a lab droid. And maybe its a good idea to invest in some security drones too..."
Renn replied brightly, "Or, you can never come see me again, that way I'll never have to worry about anything bad happening!"
Jon shrugged and turned back to Kael once more,
"Well, my friend. I think its time we paid Rikter a nice little visit. He will probably be at the Senate Rotunda, the Chief of State is supposed to make some big announcement."
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