Nar Shaddaa

It was actually kind of convenient for her that the Red Light District wasn't all that unimaginably far from the Imperial Compound. She hadn't shot herself in the foot by staying with Zeno for breakfast, and approaching it somewhat leisurely had probably helped maintain her cover. Still, that discussion had been perfectly timed. She got a room at a questionable motel for a couple of hours and scoured the room for bugs while she waited for her arrival.

Skullduggery (Cunning), Avg.: 2eA+1eP+2eD 2 failures, 2 advantage


She was really bad at looking for bugs.

"My, my, aren't I the lucky one." Naveera strutted forward, gazing longingly at Asra. She gave the sniper a peck on the cheek before plopping herself on the bed. She suddenly shorted out a nearby bug and looked back at her fellow spy. "I can't believe you missed that one. You practically left it open."

Asra gives a long sigh, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "Apparently I'm bloody blind. I can't believe it either. Thank goodness you caught it."

"Always good to have two sets of eyes. Well, the only thing they'll be thinking of now is that they'll be missing a romantic interlude."

"I'd offer to make it more convincing, but I don't think you're into that sort of thing," she jokes before continuing. "So, first things first. You know about Darth Hoshi's campaign in the Outer Rim, of course. Apparently she's starting to run into cost issues, not too surprisingly. She's looking to ally with the biggest fleet in the region around here, the Nova Devils. Rumun Gol spoke to their Queen, Thaya Kess, yesterday, and she's interested by wary about further dealings with the Sith. She wants information on a Hutt treasure ship she has her eye on from Lord Zeno Deathwright in exchange for the alliance. He has a Rodian with her information. Deathwright was originally going to use them as leverage, but with Darth Hoshi involved, he's going to go with the Rodian to try an make this alliance. He's heading out this afternoon on Rumun Gol's ship, the Greyspectre to the Seven Devils. It's time sensitive to him because he was originally planning with others to lure the pirate queen into a trap using the treasure ship."

"He's probably having the Rodian transferred to the other ship soon if he hasn't already done it. Rumun Gol's assessment was that if they went for the plan for eliminating her, it would have sent piracy in the region into chaos, with no central figure leading them."

Naveera propped herself up to an upright sitting position on the bed. She listened to the report and then nodded. "Alright. And what's your assessment of this 'chaos?' Do you think Darth Hoshi could take over from there or do you think they'd remain unaffiliated?"

"I don't think she could take over. Gol sure didn't seem to think so, from what he was saying," she assesses, sitting with the chair turned around. "Too many small cadres would develop. It would be difficult and expensive to get enough of the little groups on her side to compare, sort of like buying in bulk versus a bunch of little individual things. In the mean time, they'd be disrupting the hell out of everything."

"I see. I also heard there were Republic assets interested in this treasure ship. How do the Sith plan on allying the Pirate Queen to Darth Hoshi with them around?"

"My guess is getting to it and her first. Like I mentioned, they're heading out in only a couple of hours to deliver the information, and the alliance they're proposing is based on the information, as I gathered, not necessarily on her getting the ship." She adds, "If not that, they may try to find a deniable way to eliminate them."

Naveera paused and then remained silent in thought for a few moments. "Will you be helping them in this mission then?"

"No, they haven't called on me," she said. "I overheard it, rather than being called on. Though I can offer to join if need be, probably."

"This might be a bad call," she murmured to herself. She let out a sigh and looked to Asra. "Would you be able to pull the trigger early, take out the Pirate Queen, and convince the others that it needed to be done? All the while, we could leave evidence that the Imperials were, in fact, behind it. Shell casings and the like."

Asra let out a soft breath. "It's possible, but it would be dangerous. I have reason to believe Deathwright can sense emotions. My intent against Kess might be apparent. I'd have to be very careful there. Plus, he's likely to check when I try to convince them."

She takes a small breath through her nose. "We could get me there separately, but knowing the time and place of the meeting, especially when they're putting effort into concealing it, could put the suspicion on me. You might have to extract me following the op."

"Extract you completely, you mean?" Naveera let out a sigh and looked out the window. "Shit. We need to figure this out ourselves. Do it right." The twi'lek turned back to Asra with a slight frown. "We can't let Matthias be the one to decide."

She got to her feet and began to pace around in thought. "How certain do you think Kess' alliance with Darth Hoshi would be? If they aligned, it could be disastrous. But on the other hand, the intel you deliver is valuable."

Her brows furrow and she pulls a leg under her. "Something up with Matthias?"

"They seemed pretty certain of it." She considers it. "If I could get in close enough, I could play it by ear, see how the talks are going, and take her out if the alliance seems to be going forward for sure. Alternately, if any of the lynchpins are destroyed - the information or the treasure ship itself or both - that would probably end the talks for now, and we could take her own and end the threat of the alliance permanently relatively more on our own time frame."

"Matthias would put you in danger without blinking an eye. That's how he operates."

Naveera nodded. "Do you think you could actually get rid of all of the information? Or destroy the ship itself? I suppose keeping that out of the Empire's hands is also a worthy effort."

She shrugs, looking over at Naveera. "A deep cover agent has to be a disposable asset if something happens. There's no reason he should hesitate. The only problem is if me being in danger could potentially compromise other people and plans."

"Anyway, the ship would presumably be easier than the information. I don't know much about the ship itself, but presumably a few of the right kind of devices and it can be destroyed. The information would be more difficult, involve picking off multiple people in a very short span of time."

Naveera shook her head. "No wonder you were chosen for this job."

She nodded. "I'm not sure if you'll have the time to set up charges. Would you?"

"Well... not much in the way of substantial connections to anyone, and I was a slave," she says with another shrug. "It does kinda make sense."

"Depends on how fast she goes for the ship and if we know where it is. If I go now, I should have time. I'll need a ride, though, preferably fast, and the charges." She taps on her leg. "Have to make sure she can't recover the treasure, either."

"Proving my point again," Naveera lamented.

"I'm not sure if we could secure enough explosives in the amount of time we have. Do you have a plan in mind for that?"

She sighs. "No, not without drawing undue attention, and my resources aren't unlimited. Ugh, and no matter what we do it might be hard to either pin blame on the Empire or at least keep it off us."

"Especially if Republic assets have shown an interest in the situation with Kess before."

Naveera nodded. "Maybe it's best if we just kill Kess. The Republic might be blamed for it but the disorganized pirate crews wouldn't be a threat, would they?"

"True... Though we should do something. We need them disorganized, not all pissed off at us," she says with a nod. She takes a long breath and exhales. "I could take the blame. Claim something smelled fishy about it and I followed them. Or I wonder if we could make it look like it was an Empire set up to draw them out...? Zeno was originally plotting to use the Rodian as leverage."

"What if you went in incognito? Shoot the pirate queen and then bail." She smiled weakly at Asra. "But if you don't kill her, the Empire might claim it was the Republic, which is true."

She nods slowly. "The pirates aren't exactly super organized even with Kess. If they think it's a setup when I fire on them from the Empire's side, they will ideally just start firing."

"The Empire might look for the information leak, with regard to knowing the time and place. Rumun Gol's ship has a couple of crewmembers... One of them could be set up to take the fall. Transfer unmarked credits into their account or something."