Carth slouches along with the others as they make their way towards the flight control room. This must be what he assumes seems most 'civilian' in stance, however if anything he draws more attention to himself, it would be pretty clear he had spent too much time in the navy. As the three take up position around Armatta, Carth makes an act as if he was stretching his back while muttering "'nothing to see here" to himself. Perhaps he was hoping people would take this as some kind of subliminal message as they passed by.

Casual..

Andja busies herself with the pilfered datapad, trying her best to block both Armatta and Carth from prying eyes.

( Deception : 3eA+2eD+2eF 2 successes, 2 threat, 1 Light Side, 1 Dark Side

I’m not going to flip our last DP to use the dark pip, but the light pip can cancel one of the Threats).

As Armatta works on the console for a few moments, there are a few bleeps before the turbolift hisses open. Carth is the last to make his way inside, walking backwards as he eyes the crowd in front of him before the door shuts. The lift begins to rise at an accelerated rate. Letting out a sigh of relief, he turns to face the jedi. "Alright, that went better than I thought? What now?" Looking up above him he lets out another sigh, almost bracing himself as he watches the ascent. "I hope you guys are fast talkers if this all goes sideways. If we're lucky maybe it'll be quiet".

His hopes were not proven accurate when the doors to the lift open. They find themselves in the control room of the spaceport, at the top of the tower that overlooked a good portion of this level of the city. The room was lines with banks of consoles and several rounded areas allowed controllers to be surrounded by several terminals at once for full work efficiency. These areas were occupied by complex looking droid units, whole the front rows around the walls and by the large full length windows were run by 'organics'. Most of them were well dressed humans in formal attire, but there were some aliens here or there. A few of them turn to face the newcomers, inquisitive looks on their faces. They looked like they were expecting something from them.

Meanwhile Zoroku and Silun begin to follow their targets while Zalen hangs back near the impound hangers. "I'll keep an eye on this place for you all, make sure no one goes off with your ship". Despite Silun attracting some attention from passers buy (a sullusten is something of a rare species on Corouscant), but ultimately the guards do not see them. Following them through the station, they eventually reach a set of reinforced vertical opening doors at the end of a dead-end corridor. This part of the station was mostly abandoned, only with staff and security around the place. One of the guards stoops to punch in a code on a pad by the door, and with a mechanical clunk it slowly opens. Looking inside there seems to be a pristine white room with orange trim running across the centre of the walls. The room seemed to be a waiting room of sorts, and empty energy cells can be seen down one side of the room for prisoners presumably. A second corridor leads further into the area, curving out of the sight. The guards step through, and the door slowly begins to shut.

Andja weaves her way awkwardly through the consoles of the control tower, until she stands before the expectant-looking personnel.

“Good day to you. Our team is conducting an unannounced audit for the Health and Safety Council. Please continue your operations as normal. Our inspections should not take long, or disrupt functions in any way. Thank you for your cooperation.” The Cerean woman looks down at her datapad and taps it importantly. “Let’s get on with it, shall we?”

The Jedi hopes it is enough, subtly weaving the living Force into the bantha poodoo she is spewing. Institutions hate safety audits, but compliance is mandatory, and cooperation is always best. Hopefully it buys her team enough time and leeway to do what they need to do..?

One of the individuals watching the new 'engineers' has a confused look on heir face. They open their mouth to speak, but a second is quick to cut them off by raising a hand. Looking back to the jedi they take over with an exaggerated smile. "Of course, of course. We understand, you're just doing your job. Do you need us to help with anything? I can show you around if you need". It would seem that the risk of a bad audit can sway people to help out with the jedi's investigations.

As Silun follows behind the guards with Zoroku, he watches them make their way into a different room. Fearing that they'll lose their chance to listen in on where this unauthorized shuttle might have gone, he dashes towards the door, only to be stopped short as it closes in front of him. He hisses a word in Sullustan, then turns back towards Zoroku, irritation evident on his face.

Armatta, a.k.a. Maji Mavigon, slid quietly into the seat before a vacant console. There were no neighbouring operators - living or droid - and she'd picked a console at the opposite end of the control centre from where Andja was holding forth about health and safety regulations. Krios and Carth helpfully stood between Armatta and the rest of the room.

Her slicer gear had been made with compactness in mind, which made it easy to slip it into place and dive into the spaceport's computer systems. Armatta found the remote controls for the maglocks on the impounded Jedi vessel and entered a quick series of commands to release it.

As she carefully backed out the system, one recently circulated memo from Spaceport Security caught her eye.

Interesting ... I'll make a copy of that for later perusal.

Finished with her task, she cleared the console and tucked away her slicer gear. Peering around Krios' muscular bulk, she caught Andja's eye and gave her a quick nod and smile.

Inside the impound hanger, there is a soft clunk noise that emanates from the ship that dominates the area. The guards and droids that were in the hanger turned at the sound of the noise, confusion on the organics faces. "Is this ship scheduled for leaving" one asks another as they move towards the vehicle.

Meanwhile sat on a set of fuel barrels was the only other person in the hanger, Ive Virdas. They had been following instructions and bringing this ship to Corouscant when they had been diverted by the Corouscant air force to here. Since then they had been forced to remain in the impound hanger 'at the request' of the senate. They still had their equipment, but the door to the hanger was locked. They had largely been left to their own devices so long as they didn't try to leave.

Zoroku would take out the slicing spike and turn on the Speaker the computer had to speak with the pilots inside, his attempt to slice may have failed but he could try to get them to open the doors freely. " Hey is anyone in there?" Zoroku said in his Dude persona, " I'm a new Pilot here, and well I forgot the codes to get in Man." he said then waited for a response

Caught by a sudden thought, Armatta held up one finger in a "just a moment - or even a few minutes" gesture and slipped back to the same console.

First she checked the fuel and provisions status of the impounded vessel. I'd better get its proper name too, or at least the serial number.

Then she carefully set up the dataspike and her slicing gear. The spike did its duty, helping her past the system security which would normally have protested her actions. It took only the work of a few commands before communications were cut off between spaceport's traffic control and the the impound hangars. That should hold for six hours.

Again, while carefully backing out of the system, she found something useful. Today's my lucky day, apparently. ... Oh Force, I hope that I didn't just jinx us!

The now-dead dataspike was removed and hidden in her mechanic's tool kit for a later, discreet disposal, and her slicing gear packed away again. Console cleared, she stood up and sauntered back to Krios and Carth.

"I believe that we're done here," she murmured quietly, as she gave Andja a firm nod, one of the "Now I'm definitely finished!" category.

As Zoroku works the coms, he hears an exasperated sigh from the other side of the door. "Alright, hang on, I'll come and open it". Before too long very faint footsteps can be heard from behind the reinforced door. The pair had perhaps a few seconds to plan their next move.

The woman hovering near the team of jedi in the control centre would smile brightly at Armatta, nodding her head rapidly as she makes to leave. "Well I hope everything was to your liking, miss. If you need anything else please let us know and we'll see what we can do". Unsurprisingly she seems keen to see the back of the 'investigators' as she half follows them to the door.

When the jedi had left, Armatta was able to investigate the information that she had acquired from the consoles of flight control. It seems that Armatta had managed to access the incident reports from the system, of which one stood out. There had been a small shuttle had taken the wrong flight path leaving Corouscant, almost causing a sever collision in space. The ship had apparently been chartered for a journey to the planet Cathar, one of the many local businesses run from the spaceport. However shortly after it left a man claiming to be the pilot reported the shuttle as stolen. What was so strange about this was that despite the severity of all this, a not had been attached to disregard this case. Not only that but the order had come from an official in the senate.

"Hmmm," Armatta murmured to herself, then turned to Carth Onasi.

She showed him her datapad, with the information which she'd snagged in the system. "Take a look at this. Do you recognise the name of the Senate official who signed off on this very suspicious-looking 'ignore' order?"

As Zoroku and Silun prepare themselves, the security door hisses open to reveal a tired looking security officer. It was in fact one of the two that Silun had just tried to follow, he must have doubled back. Scratching his chin he glances between the pair for a moment. "Alright, what is it? You forget your security passes before lift-off or something?"

Taking the data pad from Armatta, Carth's brow furrows a little as he reads the contents. "Not personally" he says in a low voice. "But you see the mark here? I recognise that. This senator is a veteran from the war. Karath saved his unit when they were pinned down by mando's. I wouldn't be surprised if he felt like he owed Karth a favour". Looking up at the jedi he gestures back out towards the exit of the spaceport. "I can't leave this unignored, I need to show this to the senate guard immediately. Will you be alright without me?"

2 minutes ago, Rabobankrider said:

Taking the data pad from Armatta, Carth's brow furrows a little as he reads the contents. "Not personally" he says in a low voice. "But you see the mark here? I recognise that. This senator is a veteran from the war. Karath saved his unit when they were pinned down by mando's. I wouldn't be surprised if he felt like he owed Karth a favour". Looking up at the jedi he gestures back out towards the exit of the spaceport. "I can't leave this unignored, I need to show this to the senate guard immediately. Will you be alright without me?"

"One moment," Armatta said, working with her datapad. "I need to make some copies of this information before I pass it on to anyone else. There!"

She quickly transferred the relevant files (including enough origin data to support its authenticity) to Carth's datapad. "That should be enough to get suspicious minds to dig further!"

Armatta looked at Carth, debated internally a moment, then gave the surprised man a swift hug. "Thank you for all your help! We - I was in quite a pickle back there on the lower levels, and I realise that you didn't need to help - but you did, enough that we've got some good leads now instead of none! And I promise that I'll try to keep the chaos to a minimum. Good luck on your side of the investigation!"

Slightly embarrassed at her sudden effusiveness, she stepped back and almost hid herself behind Krios' bulk.

"I need to sort some things out on the datapad before we talk to anyone else," she muttered to the air in general and then found an empty seat beside a planter.

After gathering her thoughts, Armatta set up a message in the Holonet, primed to be sent if she didn't send an update within the next two hours. Addressed to the Council Masters, the message explained Carth Onasi's role - and help - in the investigation so far, and that he was taking a copy of the attached files to the Senate Guard.

Carth would be taken aback a little by the hug, but would eventually pat the younger figure on the back comfortingly. "You know, not everyone would be willing to defy the senate to try and do something right. I respect you and your friends for what you're doing. I really hope that you catch Karath. Listen don't underestimate him, he's not a fighter himself, but he's the smartest tactician I've met second only to Revan. He's been ahead of the republic for months, he will have planned for this as well.

Clearing his throat the captain steps back a little from the group. "Good luck, all of you". With that, Carth turns and begins to walk away at a hurried rate. Now the jedi were on their own, but they had made progress, and that was something.

On 9/11/2020 at 6:48 PM, Rabobankrider said:

As Zoroku and Silun prepare themselves, the security door hisses open to reveal a tired looking security officer. It was in fact one of the two that Silun had just tried to follow, he must have doubled back. Scratching his chin he glances between the pair for a moment. "Alright, what is it? You forget your security passes before lift-off or something?"

" Yeah, That and the Coruscanti King Pins lost their most recent Bowling match." Zoroku says in his Dude persona Voice " I was a bit bummed this morning must have left the things at home, Man." He said knowing that Bowling wasn't the most popular sport on Coruscant by a long shot it would be an easy deception if he and Silun were to be questioned.

The guard turns back into the corridor, watching Zoroku with an odd look from the corner of his eye. "Riiight, well if you have your flight plan or ship details and pilots ID, we should be able to sort your clearance. Nodding with his head he gestures for the pair to follow. "Come on, I'll take your through".

The security officer leaders the pair through the well lit corridor into a large open floor area. The walls were painted white with an orange strip running across centre of the wall. There were benches running the back wall with energy cells, one which had a despondent looking iridonian sat in the centre. To the right was a doorway into a large room with a solid glass window that showed a variety of stamped storage lockers. Dead ahead was a second doorway that judging by the window set in the front was some kind of office. The bulk of the room was taken up with desks with console set up here and there. Security officers were sat at the desks working or gathered in a corner of the room on a set of stacked crates and barrels, eating and chatting amongst themselves.

The officer gestures to an empty desk as he turns back to the jedi. "Alright, take a seat, I'll be with you in a few minutes".

Wending their way through the crowd, Armatta, A-Djana and Krios waste no time in locating the section of spaceport dedicated to chartering flights and private shuttles. A wide series of corridors were dominated by colourful and cramped stalls and offices. Many were advertising ships and exotic locations on holo-vids, with others using word of mouth from sale figures stood outside. The corridors were packed with customers, and it was difficult to force their way through, but eventually they are able to reach what looks like the source of the shuttle mentioned in the report Armatta had acquired. It was a small place compared to many of the others, and the paint on the walls had begun to peel and flake. Moving inside the jedi dressed as engineers were hit by a muggy atmosphere that squeaky fans try desperately to dissipate. The office was unocuptied for the mostpart, with the exception of two people. Sat behind a high desk with their feet up was a young twi'lek with deep purple skin. They were reading a datapad with an uninterested look while an older man dressed in traditional pilot gear sat upright in a small bank of seats along the sidewall. His head was tilted back and he had a bloodied hanky clutched to his nose. Behind the desk was a second door, but this one was shut. As the jedi enter the twi'lek looks up at them, not losing the bored expression.

“Oh” Krios grumbled quietly. Holding a hand up to his nose recalling his first sparring match with his master where he learned to keep his guard up and hold his tongue.

“I remember my first one” , he said through his fist.

He glanced over at Andja to take the lead and shrugged slightly, a bit nervous.

Andja gives the pilot a nod, and approaches the desk to address the Twi’lek. “Hi, Andi Jana, Jana Recoveries. My investigation service is interested in helping you recover the Pilot Fish. We are a small company, like yourselves, and understand that you may have already written it off as lost.. We are willing to take the case with no up front costs, if you would just be willing to advertise our success, and provide recommendations to other small businesses who might require our services.”

”Now then. Tell us everything you can about the vessel’s cargo, client, itinerary, occupants.. and of course, we will need to debrief the pilot.”

The pair sat in the shop look to Andja as he begins to talk, the twi'lek at the desk taking more interest as the pilot tries to catch some blood that had slipped past his handkerchief. Taking her feet off of the desk, the twi'lek takes a while to look Andja up and down with a quizzical look. "Investigation service? Aren't you people engineers?"

Andja looks down at the coveralls she is still wearing. “Some of us are, in fact. But this attire is for another job, which I cannot discuss. I’m sure you can appreciate client confidentiality. Shall we get started? And please, don’t leave anything out, however small or seemingly unimportant.”

The Jedi looks up expectantly, and readies herself with her datapad, to record and take notes.

After a few minutes, the guard comes back to slump down into the chair in front of Zoroku and Silun. Tapping a few things onto a datapad he glances up at the pair. "Alright, you wanted to get new passes right? I'll need your details to sort that. Anything else you want while you've got me?"

Across the spaceport, the twi'lek would shrug, generally uninterested by the whole thing. "The shuttle didn't have any cargo, it's a charter shuttle. You know, people can hire it out as a, sort of galactic taxi, I guess? Some old guy came in asking about hiring the shuttle for a trip to Cathar. Don't know why anyone would want to go there, what with the mandalorian attack and all. He pays no problem, but when they get to the shuttle he pulls a gun on Keis there! Smack him in the face with it and takes off in the shuttle". She shrugs again before continuing. "Not much more to say other than that. Look, is the insurance going pay out for this?"

“We will keep you apprised of the investigation. Perhaps our findings can help support your insurance claim. Thank you.”

Andja nods her chin toward the pilot. “We would also like to debrief the pilot, see if there is anything else he might have seen or heard, that might help us.”

The twi'lek shrugs again, gesturing to the pilot. Leaning forwards in their chair the pilot looks up at Andja. Still with the handkerchief to his nose, he speaks in a nasally voice. "Not much more to add really. The guy was asking to go to Cathar, I told him there was nothing there, but he said that wasn't my concern. We head down to the hanger and I tell him I ain't too comfortable going to that deathworld. That's when he pulls a pistol from under his cape and cracks me in the face with it. He was wearing some kind of navy uniform underneath, high ranking by the look of it. Anyway when I got down he shoves past and takes my ship!"