Making the Biggest Splash Possible

[Ettagar Veir]

The district of Haiee'rathee was a bustling one, filled with the startling divides that one expected of the large ecumenopoles in the galaxy such as Imperial Center (or Coruscant, if one's tastes went in that direction), and Denon; Carshoulis Prime was quite obviously trying to advance to be included in that distinguished company.

At least, that was Ettagar's opinion. It was quite different from Imperial Center, whose colours were dark and grey, though bright colours often painted the sky and the lights of various buildings would change to accentuate this holiday or that sale. Denon's colours were similar, but the greys were brighter, and there were more plazas and parks of natural ground interspersed throughout the sprawling districts. Carshoulis was bright. The predominant colour seemed to him to be a tie between a riotous yellow-golden colour, and the metallic grey of durasteel. There were bright blood reds and verdant greens hanging from almost every stall in the bazaars. Ettagar liked it, would have loved if he could have blended in more; but sadly that wasn't the case.

So he caught a speeder-cab, and asked the driver about the district a bit, before quite confidently asking him to be taken to a hotel in the area. The eye that glanced back at him was a sharp discerning one, but the Veir boy's inherent confidence and bearing of supreme disinterest (at least to the driver) 'impressed' the driver, who thought to himself (when translated correctly):

'This forrrda acts just like a woman.'

This thought prompted the driver to look closely at the human and stop cursing the lack of human drivers to take this fare, but soon he was concentrating on driving, wondering what sort of galaxy lay outside the cluster to allow such a difference in cultural norms. Well, it was more like 'what the hell is going on when men can act like women?' but that's beside the point.

"Verrry high end there," driver said conversationally.

"Yes," the human responded, looking out on the bustling district; his eyes focussed on the large brightly arrayed villas as they passed.

"Which one is the Meorrrei one?" he asked, slightly impressing the Cizerack driver with how close he had managed to come to pronouncing the name correctly.

"Meorrrei? Jyou have business therrre?"

Ettagar smiled as if something amused him greatly.

"Why yes," he said, leaning back in the seat. "Yes I do."

Slightly put off by the oddity of the response, the driver pointed out the villa.

"That one."

The forrrda nodded. "Very nice."

He paid the driver, giving out a bit of an extra tip, and looked up at the hotel, and then admiringly at a couple of Cizerack women who were walking by.

The hotel where he was staying wasn't far from the villa area, so he was directed to the foreigners' section of the hotel, where he placed his bags on the bed and began to assemble his plan in his head, and the blasters which he had hidden within various places in the bags.

"Time to send a message," the bounty hunter said, looking at the assembled DL-44 (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/DL-44_heavy_blaster_pistol) in hand, and placing it in its shoulder holster. The LL-30 (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/LL-30_blaster_pistol) was safely tucked away on his hip, hidden by the longer jacket he wore, despite the warm temperature here. He picked up a small bag from a larger case, and opened it, smiling at the sight of the thermal detonators and sticks of composite dynamite.

Today was going to be a good day; he was sure of it.

[Ettagar Veir]

"Yes?" the tinny voice at the end of the comm unit asked, and Ettagar could tell this one wasn't one of those cat-people.

"Yeah, I were wond'rin' ef I could get some droid-service? This room's somethin' of a mess."

"Right away sir, and please enjoy your stay."

"Oh I will. No worries about that."

It took some few minutes for the protocol droid, an older version, to press the comm button to his room.

"Hello? I am P-3R0, human/cizeri relations."

"The droid to clean my room?"

"Er, yes."

"Oh! Just a moment."

The door slid open, and the droid walked in saying, "Good morning sir! I will endeavour--"

Ettagar didn't waste any time in shorting out the droid with a tazer, and closing the door.

[Ettagar Veir]

Fifteen minutes later, P-3R0 left the room, carrying a large black bag, and entered the turbolift, meeting a fellow worker within, who assumed the bag to be laundry. The worker left three floors later, and P-3R0 left the hotel through the lobby.

The sight of the protocol droid walking down the avenues of Haiee'rathee was odd, but not so unusual as to cause more than a second glance, or a raised eyebrow.

It grew progressively more odd the closer it came to the Meorrrei villa's section; and coming upon the villa itself, the droid opened the bag, pulled out a thermal detonator, and tossed it against the front gate. The resulting explosion caused the droid a distinct sense of satisfaction. With an aplomb that could not have been duplicated by anything other than another protocol droid, it pulled an E-11 blaster rifle from the bag as well, and began to shuffle into the villa.

[Taataani Meorrrei]

The thunderclap of the detonation had Madam Meorrrei bolting up from her massage table in an instant. It was sound that wasn't just heard, it was most certainly felt. In that same moment, she was surrounded by her adjacent manservants. The Zeltron who had previously been kneading at her bare back quickly draped her Ithorian silk robe over her naked contours as the others scanned for trouble. Taurrifar quickly palmed his discrete personal blaster and slapped the wallcomm.

"What jusst happened?"

Inwardly Taataani's first manservant knew, and so did Taataani.

"That was a bomb."

Blue eyes that were almost always so sure and so commanding wavered a moment, as she looked down to think.

"Taurrifar, mjy guarrdss, call them now!"

Who could possibly try to attack her, and in such a publically violent way? This was almost certain to draw the police in as well, not that the thought gave Taataani any comfort as she was spirited away to a more defensible location in the villa.

[Ettagar Veir]

P-3R0 had been expecting more resistance from the very beginning. Perhaps, it reasoned, the humans and cizeri were too slow of reflexes to react properly to its attack. Its visual receptors picked up movement, and the freedom-fighter pointed its weapon and fired. It picked up another detonator from the bag, and tossed it towards the doors of the mansion, causing another large explosion.

“Die, organic scum!” it cried, and fired a short burst of bolts at the crouched guards near the doors and coming around the sides of the mansion itself. The droid realized that its position wasn't one of great tactical strength, and so it plodded to the side of the destroyed gates, using some errant metal and some of the natural foliage that decorated the front lawn as cover, though what cover could do for a grey plated protocol droid was debatable.

In the meantime, farther away, the man responsible for the attack was making his way to a building situated to the South-East of the villa, where he could more easily make his own insertion without trouble from the guards. Within moments, he had opened the view-port, and readied a veritable harpoon-gun, to which was connected a strong cable. His room, higher than the villa itself, offered a prime position to allow him to use gravity to make his own entrance into the villa and... make a splash; one that would get the attention of his mark.

[Daanarri Meorrrei]

"Momma!" Daani screamed, running in towards the house from where she'd been playing in the yard. "Taurrrifar!"

One of her mother's newer manservants caught up with her, scooping her up and tucking her under his arm as he loped towards the house, black smoke rising above the bayyossa trees behind them.

"Whats gojing on?!" Daani tried to ask as she bounced up and down, trying to twist around and get a better view of whatever it was that was happening.

[Taataani Meorrrei]

"jI don't know."

The manservant answered her as he kept carrying her along to the library, which had been pre-planned as probably the most defensible location in the villa. While not as good as a panic room, it was reasonably centralized and offered only one entry point.

"We'rre gettjing jyou to wherre jit'ss ssafe."

Another explosion hit, and his ears fluttered as he instinctively ducked lower.

Meanwhile, security was moving to intercept the threat. Rawlston Quinn's security forces, assigned to long-term protection of the Meorrrei family, had four operatives on hand to offer security services, and each of them responded instantaneously to the threat. Within seconds, they had the attacker's position, and two were moving to positions that would allow them to fire on the deranged droid. The other two defenders gathered with Taataani, Taurrifar, three other manservants, and the children in the library. Taataani met Juurrohai at the doorway, taking Daani into her arms and spiriting her to the back of the library.

"jIt'ss okajy ssugarrplum, jit'ss okajy."

[Ettagar Veir]

The estate was everything he'd expected it to be. Well appointed, luxurious, and lightly defended; the stuff of his dreams. Ettagar's shot hit over a window, but off to the side a bit, on the third floor. He set the cable on his side, and slid down, lifting his legs at the last second to break through the weaker glass and land in a richly decorated room.

“I love me job,” he sighed to himself, and pulling the LL-30 from his shoulder-holster, he set off into the hall, staying as quiet as possible. His Verpine pistol stayed comfortably hidden in its other shoulder-holster. He lifted his wrist to his mouth, and whispered, “I'm in. Begin protocol 2.”

P-3R0, outside by the gates, reached into the bag and pulled out two more thermal detonators. The two security guards running up to draw shots on him had been placed exactly where the droid had expected them to be. The droid tossed the explosives out from his position to theirs, and the resulting explosions had him cackling in glee.

By this time, the front courtyard of the villa was pock-marked with scars from blaster bolts, and visibility was low due to the smoke and dust thrown up by the multitude of explosives. Small craters littered the area as well, offering the Droid a short span of time in which it could make its way to the house under the cover of smoke and dust. P-3R0 took his chance, and shouldering his bag of explosives, he made for the house as quickly as possible.

The smoke and dust cleared, but the droid had somehow managed to make it into the front doors of the villa. A few parting shots flew from him, and he disappeared into the mansion. Outside the walls of the estate, sirens could be heard in the distance, and if anyone had bothered to look, smoke was rising from another location.