You quietly grumble to yourself as you stand still. Octavia is getting ready for this political meeting of hers, and she's left you by the door of the briefing room to stand guard.
You. Are. Bored.
She's speaking with this orange male Twi'lek diplomat about something you can't hear and probably don't care about. Honestly though, the boredom is not the worst thing about this. The Wonderbolts are in this room as well. All four of them. You and Soarin' may be on opposite ends of the room, but you've barely looked away from each other the whole time you've been in this room.
Along with him, Spitfire is standing in front of him. The other two pilots you don't know the names of are on either side of him. They haven't looked away from you either. They are both female. One of them is a human with deep orange-red hair, a bit darker than Spitfire's, while the other is a Pantoran with white hair that almost looks like it's being blasted back off her head. She's the shortest member of the Wonderbolts. Half a head shorter than Spitfire.
The worst part about this is that Soarin' is all the way over there, and he's still alive. If you weren't on the job right now, he'd be dead. He's probably thinking the same thing. Only difference is he wouldn't stand a chance against you. Not even with those other three pilots fighting with him. They wouldn't make a difference. They'd just die with him.
There are two Republic soldiers standing near you, along with a couple of local guards. You're using the term 'guard' here lightly. These guys look like they just rolled out of bed. They're obviously amateurs. One of them wasn't even holding his rifle correctly when you walked in. They all looked at you in fear when they first saw you. They knew they wouldn't last a second in a fight against you, and they showed it very clearly on their faces.
You're surrounded by the weak, and you're in a political building, doing nothing, while someone you hate is still alive, and there's not a damn thing you can do about any of it. This is your hell.
You continue sitting there, watching the politicians have their talking contest and accomplishing nothing, when your comms beep in your ear a moment later. Your HUD indicates that it's on a private channel, which means that it's Sunset. Thank the Force.
You press a button on your gauntlet and turn away slightly, making sure to speak softly. "Hey, Sunset."
"Anon, me and Pinkie got a lead on these looters." She replies. "Think you can meet us?"
You sigh softly. "I don't know. Octavia will want to keep everything political, so I don't think she'll let me go look for looters. She wouldn't approve of something happening under the table."
"Politics are a waste of time. Just make something up, like a security breach or something." She suggests.
Not a bad idea.
"Alright, let me see what I can do. I'll get back to you." You deactivate your comms and look back to the group. Unsurprisingly, nothing seems to have changed.
This is just a briefing meeting, so you see no harm in bringing something to Octavia's attention. You walk toward her.
She notices you, but continues to speak to the Twi'lek. Once you're closer to her, you stop and wait for her to finish.
"...yes, and that is why I am here. Excuse me." She turns back to you. "Yes Anonymous?"
You clear your throat. "Sunset said that she thinks she saw some movement around the perimeter and wants me to check it out with her. It shouldn't take too long, but I'm going to patrol around the compound for a while when I've finished, just to be safe."
She nods at you. "Very well, Anonymous. Thank you."
"Of course, senator." You bow a little and turn around to head toward the door.
You pass by the guards and give one of them a glance just for fun. He's visibly nervous as you pass him and exit the room. Once you've finally left the room, you exhale and walk down the empty hallway.
Once you reach the end of the hallway, you make a left and head back the way you came. You contact Sunset again as you walk.
"Hey. Did you get out?" She asks.
"Yeah. I've got a few hours." You reply. "Where are you?"
"We're in the courtyard in the center of town." She says. "Just in front of the Republic's office building."
You nod. "Alright, I'll be there soon."
You deactivate your comms and continue quickly down the hallway. After making lefts and rights, you enter the entrance hall and head out the door into the courtyard.
It only takes a moment before you spot Pinkie standing on a bench with a wide smile on her face, waving her arm back and forth erratically at you while screaming, "ANOOON!! WE'RE OVER HEEEERE!!"
She's about as subtle as a marching band. It's hard to believe that she's a master thief.
You make your way over to her and Sunset. "What did you guys find out?"
Sunset crosses her arms. "Well, these looters make themselves known to the militia on a regular basis. They are not heavily armed, but they are fast. They have swoop bikes."
You fold your arms as well. Too bad you don't have your swoop bike here.
"What about defense? Does this militia do anything?" You ask.
Sunset shakes her head. "They can't. Most of them are just farmers."
Your eyebrows shoot up under your helmet. "Oh, so those guards I saw in the briefing room just now weren't the disabled people who get stuck standing around all the time? They are it? They are the ones charged with defending the Jedi ruins?"
Sunset nods and exhales. "Yeah, I know. It's... It's embarrassing."
You groan and rest your head in your hand. The thought almost makes you want to side with the looters. This is just sad.
You slump your shoulders. "Okay... So they're fast, lightly armed, and you said they make themselves known?"
Sunset nods again. "Yeah. They always ride in by the militia HQ."
"That makes them arrogant..." You say.
Pinkie speaks up. "That's what I was thinking too, with how close they are to the militia HQ when they go in. There's tons of other ways to get to the ruins, but they only go in that way."
Their overconfidence will be their downfall. If there's one thing you like as much as getting paid, it's putting stupid people in their rightful place. Why? Because you can.
You place your hands on your hips and look at the girls. "Alright, let's go take care of them. Hopefully, we can get a little bonus from doing this."
"Maybe we should take some of the stuff these guys found from the ruins, just in case we don't get anything extra." Sunset suggests.
"Spoils of battle. Good thinking, Sunset." You say. "That stuff has to be valuable."
If you do get a bonus from the Republic though, you'll return anything the looters stole. As a show of gratitude. You have no intentions of leaving this planet empty-handed.
"Speaking of stealing, Pinkie, do you think you can find out where this militia base is?" You ask her.
"Oh, I already did! It's on this datapad I swiped from the Republic while Sunset was talking to the droid!" Pinkie smiles and pulls out a datapad from behind her.
Sunset looks at her. "I didn't see you grab that."
You take it from her and turn it on.
"Well duh!" Pinkie says. "That's the point, Sunny!"
You smirk when you hear Sunset scoff and Pinkie giggle. Despite her quirks, it is pretty cool how easily she can steal stuff.
Once the datapad is on, you press a few buttons on your gauntlet and your HUD brings up a progress bar. A few seconds later, everything on the datapad is downloaded into your helmet's system. You give the datapad back to Pinkie.
"You want me to give this back to them?" She asks.
You shrug. "Give it back, throw it away, I don't care, as long as you get rid of it. We don't need it anymore."
Pinkie shrugs and walks off while you transfer the downloaded info to Sunset. Once she's got it, you bring up a local map and discover that the militia's HQ building is about 700 meters southeast of the compound you're currently in. It looks like this region of the planet mostly consists of rolling hills and plains. Perfect for swoop bikes.
Everything south of the headquarters becomes a labyrinth of tight canyons and ridges. That could be useful. Your jetpack probably wouldn't be able to keep up with a swoop bike out in the open, but in there, they would have to move slower if they didn't want to crash.
You zoom out on the map a bit and discover that the Jedi Enclave ruins are about 3 kilometers from your current position, inside the labyrinth of canyons.
You mark the headquarters' location and close the map. "Alright, I know where we're headed."
Sunset perks up a moment later. "Me too."
Pinkie walks up and stops next to Sunset, looking at you both with a smile. Her hands are empty.
"Alright, let's head out." You turn around and lead the girls toward the compound's nearest exit.