Alderaan - Love and Intrigue

Well, they didn't have a plan; but when did heroes *ever* need a plan? They would just walk in there, Delmi and Layne, trust in the Force, maybe butt some heads, and walk out with... something? Prisoners? Intel? Casino chips? Layne of course, was fully armored and armed, which might be a potential issue... but that's where the butting heads part might come in.

Delmi was not in the best of moods as they walked into the Casino. In the words of the nobility she was already 'Rather put out' due to a bomb blowing up in her face an hour ago. It made her a bit more reckless than normal... but it was the time for action.

The guards at the front don't hassle them about their weapons. The interior is a multi level structure, of dozens of floors of machines, tables, and delights to tantalize the eyes and empty purses.

In the center is a large aurum statue of a Hutt, a dozen meters tall.

Delmi's mind went back to her days on Nar Shaddaa...

What is it with Hutts and giant effigies of themselves?

"Well... how do we get ourselves a meeting? Jedi card?"

Huh, no hassle? She wasn't sure if she liked that; it implied they thought they could handle any troublemakers starting fights and what not... which probably meant they *could* handle such things because presumably a lot of credits got made in a place like this and people like that generally weren't incompetent enough to not have any security in place. Only question was whether such security would be *sufficient* to deal with a crack-shot veteran and jedi.

She shrugged at the question, "Way I see it, we just walk up to where we think the offices are gonna be, keep walking until someone stops us, then demand to be seen by the slug in charge. Let's 'em know we're not going to take no for an answer, and... hopefully the very visible lightsabers at my side will make them think twice about trying to challenge us. Alternatively, we could ask nicely, but that just shows weakness to these types and since we don't have anything to offer we'd probably just be laughed at. But I suppose that's less risky than bowling on through and getting locked down in a fight after all. Up to you how you want to play it, I guess."

She scoffed once through her nose, "I'm not exactly in the 'nice' mood. Let's take the direct approach."

She shrugged, "alright, follow my lead then I guess."

At which point Layne would look around for what seemed like the most likely route to wherever they might find the Hutt in charge; and then made a straight line toward it while doing her best impression of her younger angry self. Fortunately, Layne hadn't lost her ability to be very scary indeed. The black armor and lightsabers helped, of course.

The guards intervene a few times but eventually they bully themselves to a penthouse suite some fourteen floors up. The office of the Hutt, itself. The guards try to intervene but eventually let them inside to find a large palatial penthouse office with a few dancing girls of varying species and a hutt lazily sitting on a floating palanquin.

Behind sitting a desk is a woman behind ray shielding with very familiar guards.

After a second the girls run screaming out of the room taking this moment to run for their lives and they see the Hutt is dead… his life fluids leaking out on the floor.

"That's a shame..." Delmi said as her hands went to her blasters.

"His fluids are green. I hear that's the color of the good Hutts..." She said off the cuff... obviously not being serious.

As soon as she heard the screams, Layne unclipped the darksaber and started drawing on the Force to bolster her defenses, readying herself for anything; then saw the corpse. Well, she didn't know the Hutt but if he was anything like the average speciment of their species she wasn't likely to lament the loss at least. But these people... they were clearly well organized and informed if they knew to hit this place in this manner...

...or maybe Layne and Delmi should've invested in stealth devices to hide their movements. That was an option too.

Ray shielding was the next thing to see. Then the same guards and... possibly the same woman as before? Delmi's mother?

"...you can start talking now," Layne said calmly.

(Committing 1FR to Sense, will commit the other to Enhance if given the time)

“Stubborn, determined, and alive,” all good qualities.

“You see a hole and you keep digging. You could easily stop but you won’t, not even when the hole above you threatens to fall and kill you. You keep digging to what purpose? Maybe that is the true definition of insanity.”

“In another life I might have been proud, but right now, it’s a liability,” the woman said from behind the Ray shielding. Behind her was a waiting air-speeder hovering smoothly.

"A liability to what?" She said as she coolly pulled out her blasters and walked towards the ray shielding.

"You're the one blowin' shit up. Startin' shit between the Houses. Killing people... For what?"

Some of what the woman was saying might as easily have applied to Layne as it did Delmi, but it was obviously meant for the daughter's ears. Layne would've been content to let that play out in silence, if not for the fact she needed answers as well. As the conversation passed between the two women, Layne's eyes scanned the room, looking for anything that might help them bypass the rayshield or maybe get rid of that waiting speeder before they could escape with it.

"Because she thinks she's fighting the good fight, getting rid of both the Sith and the Jedi," Layne said as her eyes continued the search. If she wouldn't find anything like that, then hopefully her words would at least cause unease in the woman. After all, the only way she'd learned of their purpose was through the Force, and she was pretty sure they couldn't intercept *that* kind of communication.

[can I try and perceive something that might aid us here?]

“Because people like her have brought this galaxy to it’s knees,” she said gesturing to the Jedi.

“You killed the Hutt the moment you stepped foot on Delaya. You could have and should have let this go, but you are too much like me. I should have seen it sooner, a blind spot I need to resolve. It’s a shame, I could use an agent like you.”

She turned her attention to Layne and added, “It is the only fight. Since the beginning of recorded history, your two orders have brought galactic civilization to its knees, time and time again. War between your two fanatical religious orders is inevitable. Yet we repeat this cycle, as if it that will change.”

OOC: Daunting Perception check.

"Yeah," she said, giving up the search and looking the woman in the eyes, "But it isn't because of our orders. It's because people suck. There will always be people like the Sith who want to take and hurt, and there will always be people like the Jedi who stand up to them. And they will have power either because of the Force, or because they have big spaceships with big cannons attached. And yeah, there will always be people who get caught in the middle... but so what? You think you can change that? You *can't*. Getting rid of the Sith and Jedi will change nothing. Someone else will just pick up the pieces and start the whole thing all over again. All you'll have accomplished in the grand scheme is adding more death to the mix."

Daunting Perception: 1eP+1eA+4eD 1 failure, 1 threat

Delmi's expression turned sour at the woman's comments. "How the fuck am I supposed to be like you? You left us high and dry when I was a baby... I am who I am because of the man you chucked aside like garbage..."

She continued to walk forward, "If you needed an agent... there were years you coulda come... talked... done anything when I was killing people for a living! Now I show up to talk and you fuckin' blow a building up in my face..."

Delmi looked as best she could for what was surely set up for them... "So sorry... Mom... If I ended up a 'blind' spot for you. I'll try not to inconvenience you any further."

----

D4 Casino Perception Check: 1eP+2eA+4eD 2 successes, 2 threat

“And look where you are now, still trying to find an angle… still willing to fight, just like me,” she responded her eyes following Delmi’s look as she found a hidden power conduit system but given the power draw of ray shielding disabling it, especially forcefully will black out the structure for several seconds and anyone on turbo lifts would plummet to their deaths, but of Course a Hutt would spring for the safety protocols… surely.

Also this high up the life support system disabling would be catastrophic in the thin air. But it would get the job done.

The woman said to Layne, “So it’s naïve to try because people are bad? Jedi wisdom at it’s best.”

Delmi’s blaster turned towards the conduit.

“Come with me Mom and tell me all about how we are alike.”

She pulled the trigger.

There were things Layne wanted to say in reply to the woman. Point out the hypocrisy of her trying to play idealist, for one.

But then things started *happening*.

Everything goes dark as ion energy arcs out and knocks her bodyguards down. The woman was blown off her feet and although there was probably lots of collateral damage that Layne could feel through the Force they had the jump on the woman.

OOC: The motional turmoil of the death and damage involved gives Layne 2 Conflict.