Galactic High

"Come on Sephy, pick up!" Alora panicked as Nika prepped their loadouts. Chiyo was busy typing away on one of Sephy's comm pads to try and initiate the tracker software they had agreed to use as a precaution, but it was slow going due to some kind of interference on the other end.

"Sephy's usually the most alert among us, I doubt anyone will be able to ambush them without them getting an emergency message to us," Nika reasoned. "And Jack's tough, no way they'd get taken out that easily. There’s not much on the bounty board to go on and the photos aren't even that clear."

Alora nodded in hope as she checked to make sure she had everything "Chiyo, how is the search going?"

Checking the coordinates now. Chiyo replied as she frantically typed away before finding the location, only to raise an eyebrow and turn to give the other two they looked.

On seeing the 'bruh' look of Chiyo, both Alora and Nika knew exactly where they were, with Alora being the first to respond after a few dumbfounded moments, in a manner highly unusual for the Eladrie...

"You've got to be fucking kidding me…"

****

"I won't know how long I'll need until I slice in. I just need you to distract all of them while I sit out of sight and loop the cameras for a few hours. Don't worry, it won't take long!"

"What do I even say to distract them?" Jack called out as Sephy moved to lean against the nearby district wall.

"I don't know! Just something crazy enough to keep them busy!"

'Great' Jack thought. As he strode meaningfully over to the Prefect's security checkpoint he couldn't think of anything. Knowing he had to come up with something yelled the first thing that entered his mind.

"Mukle darned cult! Ere namblies be keeping me wee men?"

The words were out of his mouth before he could even think.

The entire batch of Korrigans lept up to keep an eye on him, a few loosely gripping their weapons as the leader addressed Jack.

"What is your business here, sir?" he asked in a professional but cautious manner.

Jack was in the shit now, so he may as well just roll with it.

"I'm looking for about 40,000 credits worth of stolen lawn gnomes!" Jack yelled, too late to back out of this now.

"Lawn gnomes?" the lead guard asked curiously, before one of his compatriots interrupted him.

"He may be a victim of the Killer Klowns attack," another of the Korrigan prefects added quietly. "I'm really sorry sir, we don't have your lawn gnomes here. It is possible they were taken by the Killer Klown instead. I'm really sorry for your loss, sir!"

"The Killer Klown?" Jack exclaimed, trying to drag the nonsense out. "Are you trying to say that some wee tosser dressed like a clown stole me gnomes?"

"That's very likely, sir," one of the Prefects answered in a neutral tone. By now he had attracted a crowd. Certainly all the Prefects he could see were focused on him. He hoped Sephy knew what she was doing...

"How do you know that Killer Klown tosser took me gnomes? Are you one of them murkle darned cultists?" Jack asked in false accusation. He doubted he could keep this up much longer without getting shot, but he had to try.

"No, we are not affiliated with the Killer Klown at all; in fact, his cultists barely penetrated this sector," the lead Prefect replied, now visibly annoyed. "You are better off taking up your business with the Killer Klown."

"Very well laddie! Where can I find this Killer Klown so I can kick his wee arse?"

At this the Prefects gave each other surprised looks. "He was last seen headed North East into the uncolonized territories, though his cult got scattered after the fight. We wish you the best of luck in eliminating him Mr…."

"Henderson," Jack replied, coming up with the first thing that entered his head.

"Good luck, Mr Henderson! We hope you find your… gnomes."

"Appreciate it laddie, you lads are alright. Cheerio!"

And with that, Jack turned around and quickly lost himself in the crowd. Once he broke the line of sight he quickly walked over to where Sephy was, only to find her doubled over in barely stifled laughter.

"That's got to be the worst distraction I've ever heard!" she finally got out.

"Oh come on," Jack sighed with a smile. "As long as it works. Did it?" He asked, his expression slightly worried.

"Oh yeah, it was easy. Sliced it in a couple of real-time seconds. I basically jacked into cyberspace and got a quick backdoor access. System is the exact same the school uses for its minimal-tier security. I've looped the camera feeds and disabled the alarms so we should be good!"

"Okaaay," Jack slowly replied, the technobabble completely going over his head. “So now we've just got to find a way into the building, right?"

"Yep, it's basically a district in itself so we've got to get past the wall," Sephy whispered seriously. "Luckily the warehouse building is built against the wall so we should be able to jump from a nearby building…."

"That's a hell of a jump to make!" Jack exclaimed, suddenly more wary of the plan.

"Or!" Sephy interrupted with a grin. "We take a maintenance hatch I found and sneak in underground now that the alarm is deactivated. Could only do that from the front entrance, so that's the hard part over with!"

"Sure .." Jack replied unconvinced. "So as long as the alarms are off we should be able to ferry stuff back and forth right?"

"Precisely!" She grinned "Or we chuck it over the wall onto the other roof and hope nobody sees!"

"Alright, sounds like a plan." Jack exhaled, feeling the anticipation building even more. "Let's do this!"

Sephy led them to a hatch against the sector wall down a deserted alleyway. Had she not pointed it out to him Jack might have assumed it was just a part of the sector wall at a glance, but a closer inspection showed the telltale groves and bolts of the hatch. Looking around carefully to make sure they weren't followed, Sephy pried it open and they both quickly slipped through before closing it behind them.

"I worked on that a little while ago," Sephy explained. "Mag-locks galore which took me a while to shift. Probably wasn't part of the original construction, which is good but still a pain. One moment."

In the low darkness, Jack saw Sephy pull something out of one of her pockets before pressing it against one of the walls. The light flicked on to faintly illuminate the tunnel of dull, dusty black metal.

"This isn't connected to the wider tunnel network underneath the station," Sephy explained. "Which is great because whatever lives under there isn't friendly in the slightest. Great if you can sneak by, but bad if you're caught."

"And here?" Jack asked, crouching behind Sephy as they made their way deeper.

"Just a disused neighbouring hatch, they were often made to better connect allied districts over millennia. The Prefects or whoever occupied the sector previously clearly knew about it at some point since there's a laser grid I switched off, but that's it. It's likely they don't know or acknowledge it now, so we should be good. Ah, here!"

They'd reached the end of the tunnel to find another hatch above them. "No mag-locks or anything so this should be easy...ah!"

"What's 'ah' for?" Jack asked, raising his eyebrows.

"It's not moving," Sephy grunted as she pushed against the hatch

"Are you sure?" Jack grinned. "Try putting your back into it!"

"Oh, that's how it is, huh?" Sephy growled as she pushed harder to no avail. "Why don't you come over here and put your back into it?"

Giving an exaggerated sigh, Jack swapped places with Sephy and felt around the edges. It didn't seem like it was blocked by anything that he could see from the minimal light coming from the cracks; it was probably just stiff. Jack moved into position and adjusted his footing.

"I think they must have sealed it from the other side somehow," Sephy sighed. "Looks like the mission is a bust, it's gonna be impossible to-"

Jack shunted up hard, slamming his shoulder into the hatch as it burst open.

"Or you could just do that," Sephy added excitedly as Jack raised a hand to shush her.

They spent several moments there in silence before Jack sighed in relief.

"Doesn't look like we were heard," Jack whispered as he slid the now loose panel to the side and peered up.

All around them were mostly neat piles of metal crates, with one of the stacks spilled on the ground. Seeing and hearing nothing, Jack immediately climbed up and moved the heavy crate back into a pile next to the hatch to hide the opening.

"Holy crap that's a lot," Sephy whispered as Jack gave her a hand.

"How do we even get these open?" Jack asked, not seeing any kind of physical latch.

"We're not, they're either empty or just have school supplies in them," Sephy replied as if that should be obvious. "Good stuff should be upstairs.”

"What kind of stuff?" Jack asked, cursing himself for not asking this beforehand.

"Anything confiscated, should be money there too!" Sephy whispered as she led the way carefully up a nearby set of stairs. "Might be some really valuable stuff there!"

"Alright."

Jack kept silent as they snuck up, keeping his eyes and ears out for any guards. They had seen the patrols on the outside of the building that were routine to a fault, though they didn't know as much about the inside. The electronic security was disabled though, and no lights were on, so they were likely in the clear for now.

"So we have a few rooms to hit here," Sephy quietly spoke. "Server room should be first, I want to make a copy of the inventory report and see if there's anything interesting, otherwise we're just floundering about taking lucky guesses. Good thing it lights up like a Cassava brothel on the security system. Should be this way!"

"Anything I should do while you do your thing?" Jack asked.

"Stand around and look pretty?" Sephy chuckled in a whisper. "Maybe start grabbing some stuff?"

"Sure, got any bags?"

"Oh…"

"What's 'oh'?"

"I forgot to bring some!"

"Crap." Jack thought for a few moments. "If there's a cloakroom or a lost and found, I can probably grab some bags there. Might have spotted one by the stairs, you cool with me checking?"

"Sure," Sephy replied a little uneasily. "Just don't be long."

"If I bring as many as I can, we can start ferrying stuff back to the manhole," Jack reasoned. "Though we still shouldn't leave a trace if we can help it."

"Gotcha!" Sephy grinned as she turned and snuck into the server room, plugging in her gear before hiding under the desk in case anyone wandered by while she was sliced in.

Her commlink softly buzzed before she quickly dismissed the notification. This was a time to be stealthy after all. They were probably just checking to see how the date was going, so Sephy made sure to remember to tell them all the juicy details later!

The corridor was eerily quiet as Jack made his way to the stairs where he thought he saw clothing. Even if there weren't any bags there, he still knew how to make a makeshift bag out of a t-shirt, though carrying the loot back to the house would be problematic.

Fortunately, Jack was right as he spotted the assortment of densely packed clothing lining rack after rack. Carefully sliding open the unlocked door, Jack quickly snuck in and kept his eyes and ears open for anyone else. Looking around, the room was quite large for what it was, having several internal floors where more clothing was stored. With a deep, nervous breath Jack started moving along the rows, keeping low and keeping an eye out for anything interesting.

While Jack was able to pick up a few bags, many weren't that bulky and were quite small. Though Jack knew that beggars couldn't be choosers in a situation like this, he did groan internally when the only decently sized bag was bright pink, with a pattern of some kind of fluffy animal. He considered leaving it behind, but common sense eventually prevailed and he hooked it on his shoulder with the others.

The clothes were also heavily mismatched, with some being the size of tents, while others had many more holes than Jack would ever need. He did try and keep an eye out for clothes that would suit him, however, stopping when something caught his eye.

Moving aside the surrounding clothes Jack raised his eyebrows at the find. The back longcoat and accompanying tacticool belts and straps certainly looked practical, but it reeked of edgelord cringe. Deciding that it would still be preferable to wearing the same clothes day in and day out Jack put on what he could without it restricting his movement, chucking the rest in a bag, along with a nearby Hawaiian-like shirt to counterbalance the edge. He kept the coat and the straps on though, to make use of the pockets and storage space. Sighing to himself, he carried on down the rows, collecting bags and other items of clothing. Though he knew he looked like a school shooter, that point was rendered rather moot considering it was apparently a daily occurrence here.

He worked quickly, checking some of the visible pockets for anything useful. Credit chips, data drives, and other knick-knacks - even a switchblade that Jack played around with before pocketing. He'd twatted around with similar tools during his time with the scouts, so he knew it'd come in handy.

Eventually he gave up after several minutes, figuring that he'd be taking too long if he stayed any longer. They were here for the good stuff, after all!

Slowly peeking out of the door, he gave a sigh of relief that nobody was around. So far, so good!

He kept silent as he snuck back to the server room, looking around for the elusive Skritta.

"Sephy?" he whispered.

A thump under one of the desks with a grunt of pain answered him as Sephy crawled out from underneath, rubbing her bumped head.

"You certainly took your time!" She grinned as she looked at the additional gear Jack was wearing "I take it you cleaned it out?"

"Clothes for me, and bags for the loot," Jack whispered back with a smile, handing several of them to Sephy. "Now where's the good stuff?"

"Slightly more complicated than that," Sephy grimaced. "We'll get stuff here, but while you were playing dress up I took a look at some of the Inventory references. Apparently, there's way more overflow sites than I initially realised, along with some heavily encrypted stuff. I've sent it back to my terminal at the house, but if I'm right, we have a lot more paydays on our hands!"

"So what's wrong?"

"Not necessarily wrong, but I was hoping for some more stuff here…"

"Don't worry about it, we're doing well so far and it hopefully gives us a lead for something better down the line. What do we have here?"

"Basic stuff. Clothes, mechanical parts, stuff that hasn't been categorised yet and some weapons…"

"Weapons?" Jack grinned. "Nice! And Didn't Nika say she wanted some machine parts for her security bot?"

"Yeah …" Sephy thought. "Yeah, that's a silver lining! Less good loot but we can get stuff for the house!"

"Alright," Jack replied with a reassuring nod. "Which room do we hit next?"

********

"How in the name of the goddess did she manage to persuade him?" Alora groaned in annoyance as they quickly hurried past another district checkpoint. "He's normally much more sensible than this! And why won't she answer the comm?"

"Well she's probably got it on silent to stay stealthy." Nika shrugged. "And honestly, she can be pretty persuasive at times …"

Doesn't mean she has an excuse to ignore it. Chiyo grimaced. I can't reach out to him at this distance either!

"Better in there than out here at least," Alora muttered as they passed another group of alert-looking hunters.

"How's your cloak looking?" Nika whispered to Alora. "You've got a bounty too thanks to the Mal’kars."

"Well enough, I look like Sephy to those that don't know better. I expect my bounty will be dropped in time, but Jack's keeps increasing. The sooner we are out of the city walls, the better!"

On the plus side, if his bounty keeps increasing he'll be left alone by the locals if they think it's too hot. Chiyo reasoned.

"That just means the actually dangerous ones will seek him out," Nika growled. "We've gotta get him readied up when we get back."

"Agreed," Alora confirmed. "But we need to find him first."

******

"So far so good! Chiyo's gonna love those banned books!" Sephy whispered in admiration as they gently stashed several bags of their loot in the tunnel where they came from. She was super glad that Jack was strong enough to carry that many bags - just doing one at a time would make things sooo boring!

"Clothes, nicknacks, some mechanical stuff, confiscated drugs and some cash. What next?"

"Magical items and components, weapons and a room for said special items,” Sephy replied with a smile.

"Special items?" Jack asked incredulously. "Why didn't we start with that one? What makes the stuff special compared to magic and weapons?"

"Haven't a clue," Sephy grinned. "Let's go find out!"

"Hopefully we have enough bags, I gotta see this!"

They snuck back up with a practised routine. The first and second floors were now cleared of suitable loot, leaving only the top floor. Though Jack reassured her that they were doing well, he could sense that Sephy was a little disappointed that their payday wasn't going to be as lucrative as she had hoped. The credits they had swiped so far was apparently a reasonable sum, though the many types of currency would have to be worked out later. Sephy had also promised that they could fence off what they didn't need or want over time, so at the very least they wouldn't be poor again for a while.

If they finished the heist without any issues…

As they created the top of the stairs, Jack suddenly thrust his hand back, signalling that they should stop.

"What?” Sephy whispered.

"Lights are on here," Jack whispered back. "Might be someone else here."

"Can you hear anything?"

"Not yet, just stay alert. Is there a room we can hide in so we can wait and see?"

"Weapons Room is close by."

"Lead the way, slow and steady."

"Gotcha!"

They both kept as quiet as they possibly could as they made their way to the weapons room, listening out for anything. They didn't hear much except for some kind of low hum that Jack just disregarded.

They had just gotten inside the room when they heard it. The hum, only louder this time.

"Oh no!" Sephy gasped in horror. "That's a Zero-Zone droid, has to be!"

"I take it that's bad?" Jack asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Jack, if it finds us it'll kill us!"

The hum got even louder. Whatever this thing was, it was heading their way. Sephy began hyperventilating as she tried to think of something before Jack quickly grabbed her and pulled her into a nearby empty locker, closing the door quietly just in time as they saw through the grille what Sephy was so afraid of.

A floating white and chrome bulk entered the room. Almost eerily silent with only the low hum of its propulsion system, it rotated and started moving, making the same perfect mechanical right angles every time it was just about to hit a corner. Both of them held their breath as it passed them, and Jack got a better glimpse.

It didn't consist of much physically, with an obvious main cannon and a red light, most likely its optical scanner. There was also some sort of translucent field surrounding it too. Couple that with Sephy's clear terror of the thing and Jack knew he didn't want to mess with it!

They finally found the courage to breathe again.

“Holy crap,” Sephy whispered. “Good move, thank you.”

“You alright?” Jack murmured back as he checked the door. The bot continued further down the corridor, turning to the right before the buzz suddenly ceased.

“Better now, sorry I froze up. We’ve had issues with Zero-Zone droids before and that was with the others. The droids can only see what’s in front of them but the guns are quite strong. They run out of power quickly so I’m guessing the docking port is back there. When there’s not an alert they usually patrol close.”

“Good to know. We'd better not hang around too long if they're getting more active."

"Agreed. Let's see how much you can carry. These weapons are gonna be heavy!"

"I can carry a lot of these," Jack confirmed, picking up a long-barreled rifle of some kind which didn't actually weigh that much at all. "But they're bulky as hell and I only have two hands, not to mention they're gonna make some noise."

"Hmmm," Sephy pondered. "Could wrap them up in some of the clothes to muffle the noise?"

"Could do," Jack agreed. "Still some risk though, maybe save this one for last?"

"Yeah," Sephy conceded. "Magic and special rooms first!"

These rooms were not far, being on the other side of the corridor, so the two of them snuck down, keeping alert for any voices or other strange noises.

"Holy shit," Sephy gasped, pointing through an unusual glass door into the room. They could see several Zero-Zone droids through the glass connected to what could only be charging ports. There were lights blinking yellow, but otherwise there was no noticeable movement…yet.

"Can you jam the door?" Jack whispered. "Stop them from getting out?"

"I can jam the door, but I doubt that'll stop them for long; they'll force their way through unless they have an alternative path."

"Better than nothing. Gives us time to escape if they activate." Jack sighed. "Do it."

"Yes boss," Sephy joked as she began working on the door controls. "Done," she grinned. "Made it look like a glitch in the controls."

"Good," Jack grinned back. "What special and magic stuff are we looking for anyway?"

"Magic isn't really my thing. I can do some stuff, but I'm nowhere near Alora or Chiyo. Probably better than you, though!" She snorted. "Fuck it, we'll grab whatever."

"And the special room?"

"Might be more complex," the Skritta muttered as she examined the pad for the door adjacent to the droid room. "Keep watch for a few minutes - if I'm still under and there's trouble, just carry me. It'll be a hell of a headache but shouldn't cause any long term damage!"

“Shouldn't?" Jack began to ask as Sephy slumped against the wall. ".....and she's gone."

Jack thought about going back to the weapon room and starting on packing some of the gear up but he knew he couldn't with several kill-bots right next to them.

Not hearing anything he looked out of the nearest window. There was no glass on any of the ones they passed, just uniform holes open to the outside, so there was just enough to give a slight cool breeze to help calm him down. So far so good. This was the home stretch with the best loot. Don't lose it now…

He heard a soft grunt from behind him as Sephy returned to the real world.

"Sorry Jack, this one's a bust. Security is too tight, a completely closed system. I tried my best."

"Don't worry about it." Jack grinned. "Haul's still good, let's check out the magic stuff and make this our last trip. Running out of bags anyway, and we have weapons to bring down too!"

"Yeah, you're right. Let's fill up these bags then we can worry about how to get it all home!"

******

It didn't take long to finish up. The magical lockup unfortunately didn't have any magic artefacts or scrolls of power, but was mostly composed of reagents used in rituals according to Sephy, who, despite being disappointed, still filled up several of the bags. Jack had no idea what any of the stuff was worth, though he realised that several of the wands and potions were probably good finds.

Unfortunately, once Sephy had gone through the weapons she quickly discovered that many were either broken, worthless or just not that good to warrant taking, mentioning that the special room probably had the best stuff due to the extra security. Still, they filled up the remaining bags with what was left before they snuck back downstairs to their escape route. It was only when Jack carefully placed the manhole cover back into place that he allowed himself to breathe a sigh of relief.

With Sephy at the other end, Jack started sliding the bags down the tunnel towards her, still keeping his ears open for any noise, while reflecting on what they had just done.

Holy crap! With a few near misses they had actually pulled it off! The security was terrible, and they had covered their own tracks so well that the Prefects wouldn't discover the heist had occurred for a long time, if at all!

"That's the last one!" Sephy called out. "Gods above and below that was easy! Apart from the special lockup, an absolutely flawless performance from the both of us!"

"Yeah," Jack grinned, as he started making his way back….

Before a grid of bright red lasers activated less than an inch from his face.

"Fuck."