[Solved] [Episode III, pt. i] Patrolling the Streets of Old Nardolin

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  Hayk could hear boots in the alley around the corner. Standard issue UniStar troops, from the loud clopping on the pavement. Hayk quickly hoisted himself up onto the awning of the building he'd been standing in front of, and ducked down behind the sign for the restaurant, which he just realized was for one of Dark Fried's sit-in chains, rather than one of the more fast-food type places. I should have hid inside the restaurant, Hayk thought to himself. He peeked over the sign to look at the street below, as two UniStar employees came around the corner, with shiny guns, and somewhat more militaristic armour than normal.

  This was the fifth patrol he'd come across today. There was definitely something happening in the Old Nardolin region of Columex, but what, Hayk had yet to discover. Hayk was still receiving information from the virtually undetectable subroutine and chip he'd put into the Gonk droid on Lianna, but it wasn't transmitting much relevant information about Columex... in fact, there seemed to be tension in any of the transmissions being sent. People's voices were more hushed, or they chose their words more carefully. There was no indication that they suspected the droid had been tampered with, and it would take a very skilled individual to determine what had been done to the droid. No, this was something unrelated... everyone seemed on edge.

  The diplomats representing the factions of the galaxy would be meeting sometime in the next two days. It hardly seemed like a coincidence that the UniStar employees were acting even more shady and secretive than normal. Hayk was beginning to suspect that UniStar knew about this private summit, and the thought unsettled him. What was happening here? UniStar troops were patrolling as if they were on parade in the streets, there was still no word from the Missing, nor any news yet as to what had happened to them. And, days before a secret meeting, UniStar had gone from a dead, run into the ground corporation a few months ago to a commonplace sighting when you went to the market to buy groceries.

  As much as Hayk didn't like to wait for things like this, he suspected that he'd have to wait until this gathering storm broke.