11-23-2016, 10:03 PM
Surrounded on all sides, above and below, by endless white, Kelly walked. He realized he could probably summon up a faster means of transport than simply placing one hobnailed boot in front of the other, but there were advantages to the slow route. It gave him time to think, to test himself, and to do a little preparatory research.
The first thing he'd done upon returning from the Frozen Fields was to do a powers-check. It had gone quickly. He'd succeeded in firing off a powerful bolt of psychic force on the second try, but hadn't been able to manage anything stronger or more coherent than that - the level of control he needed just wasn't possible yet.
That was acceptable. It was a problem that would fix itself if he was patient, and in the mean-time he'd just have to make up the difference with tactical skill and sound strategy. The logistical flexibility afforded him by Omnilium's unlimited creative potential would certainly help with that.
As he made his way through the Nexus, the traveler turned his powerful mind once more towards his immediate plans.
Coruscant was the obvious place to begin laying the foundations for his future activities for several reasons, but two stood out above the rest: The Empire was the most powerful, most centralized source of authority in the Omniverse, and it was also the most likely to cause him far-reaching problems down the road. It was likely, if all went well, that he'd end up in competition with them, if not outright opposition. This made it utterly vital that he establish connections there parallel to the military and political establishment as soon as possible.
As he pondered, Kelly undid his ponytail and shook out his thick brown hair. There was frost in it from his journey through the frozen fields, and as the ice melted in the balmier temperatures of the Nexus it was making his head damp. With a mane as dense as his, it would stay wet for hours if he left the hair-tie in.
His scalp prickled as it began to dry, and the traveler considered his options: Underworld, Corporate, or the Underground?
It wasn't an either-or question. Gaining a reputation in the criminal world and contacts in the profit-driven corporate sphere were requirements. Getting involved with rebel activity was a a high-risk/high-reward proposition, with a fairly high likelihood of accelerating events outside of his control. Unless a rebel cell approached him with an extremely compelling proposition he wasn't planning on getting involved in anti-Empire activity until much, much farther down the road. The question then became: which of the remaining two options should he focus on first?
Kelly had already decided that he would build his criminal identity as a smuggler. It was a risky business, but one that rewarded careful preparation and planning. It had growth-potential, and if he did well it would rapidly gain him a reputation for competence and reliability. Entry should be relatively easy as well - according to the AMBR database, crime of all kinds thrived in the lower tiers. People moving contraband were always looking for new couriers. If the traveler searched hard enough, he'd find something.
His corporate dealings he was still unsure about. He would have to see what opportunities were available. One thing he was certain about was that he wasn't going to use his real name when conducting business, of either kind.
The corporate side... Alan Mayhew. It's a name that could belong to anybody. As for the other, I think... Riot. As a criminal, I will be Richard 'Rick' Riot. It's not quite clever enough to be irritating, but still memorable enough that people will -
In the distance, lightning flashed, interrupting the traveler's train of thought. The far-away sound of gunfire and explosions made a hollow, echoing whisper in the emptiness. Kelly took out his telescope, and spared a moment to investigate. It looked like the group Kelly had spotted near the fountain during his earlier wandering in the Nexus were doing their very best to tear each other apart, and even more fighters had joined the battle. Deciding he'd been wise to stay out of it, he returned to building his strategy.
The approach to the criminal side of things is solid enough. I'll have to get my hands on an engineering diagram of the city - a multi-tiered structure as large as Coruscant has to have maintenance ducts and emergency passages that would be useful for a smuggler.
The approach to the private sector on the other hand...
Kelly triggered his new wristcom's dataverse link, and the semi-transparent interface appeared in front of him, a matrix of colored windows, icons and text hovering at a fixed distance from his face. He'd figured out the basics of using the interface after he'd summoned the device during his earlier data-binge, and it was intuitive enough.
Without slowing his stride, the traveler ran a search for job postings in Coruscant. When the results came back, he enlarged the window, spent several minutes scrolling, and then frowned. Most of this was either 9-to-5 garbage or government work. He didn't want a career with some fly-by-night accounting firm - he wanted access!
Kelly cleared the window and refined his search parameters. Contract work: Security, Internal Auditing, Corporate Investigation. This time, he made sure to specify 'for Primes'.
The results came up. He smiled thinly, and only on one side of his mouth. This was more like it. He read through the list, making a mental note of promising prospects, until finally coming to one that really stood out.
"This place has Pepsi?" he said aloud, stopping in his tracks. His eyes narrowed, twinkling like blue searchlights in a cave as he read.
'Looking for applicant with background in security/law enforcement, tactical operations/investigation for contract related to industrial counter-intelligence. Must be competent, discrete. Must be willing to take payment in the form of the cool, refreshing taste of Pepsi/Justice. If interested, please ask for Pepsiman. Apply in Person ONLY'
There was an address, which a quick search confirmed to be the PepsiCo HQ for the Omniverse.
Kelly thought hard and fast. On the one hand, the ad sounded profoundly odd, and might be a prank of some kind. There were certainly other jobs that were less weird - but there would also be more competition for those. Most people willing to do contract work were going to demand actual payment for their time. Kelly, however, was not so concerned about that. He expected to get paid well-enough for his criminal enterprises, provided he covered all the angles, which meant he could be a little less selective with his legitimate business dealings, at least at the beginning. The important thing to start with was to get a positive reference he could use to secure further work, and this looked like it was a pretty good bet.
Provided he could do the job. Provided it was real. And Provided it wasn't taken.
I suppose that decides it then. There's no time-limit on beginning a life of crime - but assuming it's legitimate, this is an opportunity someone else might snatch out from under me.
He would start with the Pepsi job, and see what he could do about furnishing himself with a map of Coruscant's internal passages after it was done. With that in mind, he spent several more minutes trawling Empire news-sites for Pepsi-related information, and was unsurprised when he found nothing remarkable. They wouldn't be contracting out unless they wanted whatever it was kept very quiet. The traveler would just have to find out what he was applying for when he applied.
Kelly closed the dataverse interface, and resumed his trek, turning his mind to what he would do if his plans failed. If he couldn't break into the corporate sector on the first try, that wasn't a total loss. He'd keep looking until he found a toe-hold, and work from there. He'd make one if he had to - blackmail was always an option when dealing with corporate-types.
The extralegal activities would be riskier: criminals didn't take kindly to couriers who lost their merchandise. In the event he failed as a smuggler he might have to start his own gang purely out of self-preservation if he wanted to continue to operate on the lower tiers. In the worst case, if everything somehow fell apart beyond repair, Camelot was the next most powerful 'verse - he'd apply the lessons of his failures in Coruscant and start over there.
The traveler nodded firmly to himself, satisfied for the time being. It was still an extremely general sort of strategy-tree, but it was a start. If he was patient, and methodical, and made sure to get it right the first time, he could build a power-base here. And once he had that, he could begin to expand. He'd have to make sure to keep an eye out for opportunities to gain an advantage or improve the overall situation along the way....
Ahead, Kelly could see the smooth steel gate to Coruscant getting closer, looming larger as he closed the distance. The white-armored Storm-trooper guards were watching him approach.
He smiled again, with both sides of his mouth this time. No matter how this all went it was going to be educational, and even if it was a disaster, that meant it wouldn't be a total loss.
The first thing he'd done upon returning from the Frozen Fields was to do a powers-check. It had gone quickly. He'd succeeded in firing off a powerful bolt of psychic force on the second try, but hadn't been able to manage anything stronger or more coherent than that - the level of control he needed just wasn't possible yet.
That was acceptable. It was a problem that would fix itself if he was patient, and in the mean-time he'd just have to make up the difference with tactical skill and sound strategy. The logistical flexibility afforded him by Omnilium's unlimited creative potential would certainly help with that.
As he made his way through the Nexus, the traveler turned his powerful mind once more towards his immediate plans.
Coruscant was the obvious place to begin laying the foundations for his future activities for several reasons, but two stood out above the rest: The Empire was the most powerful, most centralized source of authority in the Omniverse, and it was also the most likely to cause him far-reaching problems down the road. It was likely, if all went well, that he'd end up in competition with them, if not outright opposition. This made it utterly vital that he establish connections there parallel to the military and political establishment as soon as possible.
As he pondered, Kelly undid his ponytail and shook out his thick brown hair. There was frost in it from his journey through the frozen fields, and as the ice melted in the balmier temperatures of the Nexus it was making his head damp. With a mane as dense as his, it would stay wet for hours if he left the hair-tie in.
His scalp prickled as it began to dry, and the traveler considered his options: Underworld, Corporate, or the Underground?
It wasn't an either-or question. Gaining a reputation in the criminal world and contacts in the profit-driven corporate sphere were requirements. Getting involved with rebel activity was a a high-risk/high-reward proposition, with a fairly high likelihood of accelerating events outside of his control. Unless a rebel cell approached him with an extremely compelling proposition he wasn't planning on getting involved in anti-Empire activity until much, much farther down the road. The question then became: which of the remaining two options should he focus on first?
Kelly had already decided that he would build his criminal identity as a smuggler. It was a risky business, but one that rewarded careful preparation and planning. It had growth-potential, and if he did well it would rapidly gain him a reputation for competence and reliability. Entry should be relatively easy as well - according to the AMBR database, crime of all kinds thrived in the lower tiers. People moving contraband were always looking for new couriers. If the traveler searched hard enough, he'd find something.
His corporate dealings he was still unsure about. He would have to see what opportunities were available. One thing he was certain about was that he wasn't going to use his real name when conducting business, of either kind.
The corporate side... Alan Mayhew. It's a name that could belong to anybody. As for the other, I think... Riot. As a criminal, I will be Richard 'Rick' Riot. It's not quite clever enough to be irritating, but still memorable enough that people will -
In the distance, lightning flashed, interrupting the traveler's train of thought. The far-away sound of gunfire and explosions made a hollow, echoing whisper in the emptiness. Kelly took out his telescope, and spared a moment to investigate. It looked like the group Kelly had spotted near the fountain during his earlier wandering in the Nexus were doing their very best to tear each other apart, and even more fighters had joined the battle. Deciding he'd been wise to stay out of it, he returned to building his strategy.
The approach to the criminal side of things is solid enough. I'll have to get my hands on an engineering diagram of the city - a multi-tiered structure as large as Coruscant has to have maintenance ducts and emergency passages that would be useful for a smuggler.
The approach to the private sector on the other hand...
Kelly triggered his new wristcom's dataverse link, and the semi-transparent interface appeared in front of him, a matrix of colored windows, icons and text hovering at a fixed distance from his face. He'd figured out the basics of using the interface after he'd summoned the device during his earlier data-binge, and it was intuitive enough.
Without slowing his stride, the traveler ran a search for job postings in Coruscant. When the results came back, he enlarged the window, spent several minutes scrolling, and then frowned. Most of this was either 9-to-5 garbage or government work. He didn't want a career with some fly-by-night accounting firm - he wanted access!
Kelly cleared the window and refined his search parameters. Contract work: Security, Internal Auditing, Corporate Investigation. This time, he made sure to specify 'for Primes'.
The results came up. He smiled thinly, and only on one side of his mouth. This was more like it. He read through the list, making a mental note of promising prospects, until finally coming to one that really stood out.
"This place has Pepsi?" he said aloud, stopping in his tracks. His eyes narrowed, twinkling like blue searchlights in a cave as he read.
'Looking for applicant with background in security/law enforcement, tactical operations/investigation for contract related to industrial counter-intelligence. Must be competent, discrete. Must be willing to take payment in the form of the cool, refreshing taste of Pepsi/Justice. If interested, please ask for Pepsiman. Apply in Person ONLY'
There was an address, which a quick search confirmed to be the PepsiCo HQ for the Omniverse.
Kelly thought hard and fast. On the one hand, the ad sounded profoundly odd, and might be a prank of some kind. There were certainly other jobs that were less weird - but there would also be more competition for those. Most people willing to do contract work were going to demand actual payment for their time. Kelly, however, was not so concerned about that. He expected to get paid well-enough for his criminal enterprises, provided he covered all the angles, which meant he could be a little less selective with his legitimate business dealings, at least at the beginning. The important thing to start with was to get a positive reference he could use to secure further work, and this looked like it was a pretty good bet.
Provided he could do the job. Provided it was real. And Provided it wasn't taken.
I suppose that decides it then. There's no time-limit on beginning a life of crime - but assuming it's legitimate, this is an opportunity someone else might snatch out from under me.
He would start with the Pepsi job, and see what he could do about furnishing himself with a map of Coruscant's internal passages after it was done. With that in mind, he spent several more minutes trawling Empire news-sites for Pepsi-related information, and was unsurprised when he found nothing remarkable. They wouldn't be contracting out unless they wanted whatever it was kept very quiet. The traveler would just have to find out what he was applying for when he applied.
Kelly closed the dataverse interface, and resumed his trek, turning his mind to what he would do if his plans failed. If he couldn't break into the corporate sector on the first try, that wasn't a total loss. He'd keep looking until he found a toe-hold, and work from there. He'd make one if he had to - blackmail was always an option when dealing with corporate-types.
The extralegal activities would be riskier: criminals didn't take kindly to couriers who lost their merchandise. In the event he failed as a smuggler he might have to start his own gang purely out of self-preservation if he wanted to continue to operate on the lower tiers. In the worst case, if everything somehow fell apart beyond repair, Camelot was the next most powerful 'verse - he'd apply the lessons of his failures in Coruscant and start over there.
The traveler nodded firmly to himself, satisfied for the time being. It was still an extremely general sort of strategy-tree, but it was a start. If he was patient, and methodical, and made sure to get it right the first time, he could build a power-base here. And once he had that, he could begin to expand. He'd have to make sure to keep an eye out for opportunities to gain an advantage or improve the overall situation along the way....
Ahead, Kelly could see the smooth steel gate to Coruscant getting closer, looming larger as he closed the distance. The white-armored Storm-trooper guards were watching him approach.
He smiled again, with both sides of his mouth this time. No matter how this all went it was going to be educational, and even if it was a disaster, that meant it wouldn't be a total loss.