Private Addicted to Violence

[Vergessen Contii]

Now playing - Dirge From Dark Side

Contii's fingers rhythmically tapped against the table's surface. Zar Kevdac sat across from him, seated down with 4 small glass vials filled with black liquid.
The space was dingy, with a crackling light hanging above them. The cold steel surrounding them trapped the cold temperature in the room, leaving Contii shivering.

The way his body shivered didn't invoke pity or any sense of vulnerability but served to highlight the uncanny way Contii's tight flesh wiggled, the way he violently shuddered in the darker half of the room bringing the room's temperature down to freezing hell.

"4 samples - a deliciously heavy dose. This supply here will keep you comfortable during our little acquisition, but more will come once we've secured the target."

Contii's other hand slowly collapsed on the table to reveal a small syringe in his palm. "Insert the syringe into the muscle layer above the heart. The substance is subcutaneously absorbed, so don't go aiming for any veins out of habit. Junkies will be junkies..."

Contii's eyebrow raised, expecting a reaction from his bluntness. Instead of retaliating, he continued to speak:
"I don't loathe the junkie, in fact I envy the junkie."

"You know what I despise? Perfection. The perfect world, a perfected piece of art. It DOESN'T. EXIST."
Contii slams his hand against the table in a fit of quickly fading rage, leaving Contii's expression content and inquisitory.
"The junkie lives in pursuit of the pleasure despite the limiting - fading happiness of every little puncture to the forearm. There's always a stronger feeling to chase, another dawn to stave the withdrawals away."

"My target aims to crumble my efforts to EVOLVE. I've provided the details in the folder on my person, although... I'd like for you to take a sweet, sweet hit of what I'm offering, just so you know what you're fighting for..."

Like a tempting demon, Contii inserted the contents of one of the vials rested atop the table into his syringe and presented it to Zar Kevdac.

"It's called Blitz, it's the drug of dreams - if there's something to fight for in this world, it's this feeling..."

 

[Jakharl]

Most junkies did not make Zar nervous, he'd been around spice-heads and twitchers since he was a kid, so there was little about addict behavior that spooked him anymore. The only exception was preachy junkies, those were never stable, and it looked like his new boss was a preacher. The Arcona kept his aloof cool throughout Contii's tirade about perfection and addicts and the value of being completely blitzed. Zar couldn't argue that last point, he was probably 50% salt by body mass at this point, but the rest had his fingers rubbing nervous little circles into the upholstery.

"I know a thing or two about...evolution." He said, trying to sound nonchalant as he flicked the vial of salt around his neck lazily. "This stuff hits my species like a bottle of glitterstim."

He looked down at the cocktail on the table in front of him and the needle held across the table. This wasn't the first time Zar had been ordered to shoot up for a contractor, although this was the first time he was actually uneasy about the prospect. Spice and stims were one thing but this guy was shaking so hard Zar was amazed he hadn't worn a friction hole in the couch. But still, he'd (probably) taken worse before, and he almost certainly would again, so he undid his outer jacket, unzipped the front of his blast vest, and held just above the injection point.

"Well, bottom's up." He grumbled before plunging the syringe into his chest. The needle stung, what came after was worse.

Vergessen Contii

 

[Vergessen Contii]

Most junkies did not make Zar nervous, he'd been around spice-heads and twitchers since he was a kid, so there was little about addict behavior that spooked him anymore. The only exception was preachy junkies, those were never stable, and it looked like his new boss was a preacher. The Arcona kept his aloof cool throughout Contii's tirade about perfection and addicts and the value of being completely blitzed. Zar couldn't argue that last point, he was probably 50% salt by body mass at this point, but the rest had his fingers rubbing nervous little circles into the upholstery.

"I know a thing or two about...evolution." He said, trying to sound nonchalant as he flicked the vial of salt around his neck lazily. "This stuff hits my species like a bottle of glitterstim."

He looked down at the cocktail on the table in front of him and the needle held across the table. This wasn't the first time Zar had been ordered to shoot up for a contractor, although this was the first time he was actually uneasy about the prospect. Spice and stims were one thing but this guy was shaking so hard Zar was amazed he hadn't worn a friction hole in the couch. But still, he'd (probably) taken worse before, and he almost certainly would again, so he undid his outer jacket, unzipped the front of his blast vest, and held just above the injection point.

"Well, bottom's up." He grumbled before plunging the syringe into his chest. The needle stung, what came after was worse.

Vergessen Contii

Contii's expression lit up. He didn't feel offended by Zar's nonchalant look, but instead offered a complacent smile in response. The corners of his charred lips crookedly peeled back, and suddenly fell into a serious grimace.
"I want you to keep that attitude during our operation. We are not friends. This is a contract."

Contii's third arm slowly snaked its way from beneath his robe, clutching a thick folder between the digits. He used two of his hands to flick through the book, while the third pulled out a small document from one of the sleeves.

As he put the page close to his eyes, wincing from the small flickering light above hitting his sensitive optics, Zar was beginning to inject the substance into his chest.

The sting of the needle was the only sensation at first, as the world behind Zar's peripheral vision seemed to slip away into a blurry darkness. Then, euphoria begins to light up the dopamine receptors in his head. His nerves begin to numb; the feeling of his bottom pressed against the chair also dissipating, forcing the illusion of floating in a body of water. Then came the muscle contractions, the fibers tightening into denser tissue, until Zar Kevdac's entire body felt like a solid block of concrete.

All the while this was happening, Contii was prattling on as usual, but with a hint of sadism curling his lips with every raspy word as his eyes gleamed over Zar's now twitching body.

"First of all, those samples are diluted, so your cerebrum won't release ALL the energy from your compound muscles or exhaust your adrenaline. It'll last longer too, but I suggest if you start to feel muscular exhaustion or atrophy... Take another one. I'll need you on your feet for this entire expedition, and this should last you for however long we'll take."

"Second of all, our target is a previous contractor of mine, and he's ignorant to his planned assassination. We'll be personally confronting him together, but I don't want you getting itchy with your trigger finger immediately. You let me do what I have to do with him, and you'll never see me again - and with boxes of BLITZ to keep you company."

Contii would give Zar a moment to digest the information, watching him writhe with ecstasy in his chair, feeling his strength grow and his anticipation grow faster.

 

[Jakharl]

What struck Zar was the perverse combination of intense, full-body itching combined with feeling like he was encased in duracrete. His body was numb and sluggish, completely unresponsive, the only thing that seemed to be working was his searing nervous system, that left him writhing and twitching in his seat. What little focus he could muster was spent in those first few seconds (or hours?) wondering if this is what is twitchy friend was taking.

"K-kriffing..." He could barely muster a curse to take the edge off, thankfully the worst of the paralysis began to wear off, although the urge to scratch his scaleless skin of still remained.

"Alright...you want...your ex wetwork guy....You pay in...you called it Blitz right...?" Zar was having a hard time remembering what words were or how to speak them, but he was fairly certain he had the gist of the job.

Vergessen Contii

 

[Vergessen Contii]

"It's such a unique feeling. The drug rips you from reality... You feel impervious, your muscle function is accelerated... You can't feel pain... Stone could crumble at your touch. You ever dream you could be the strongest thing on the planet? This is it -- the closest you'll ever get to being a demi-god in this fragile universe."

Contii immediately got up from his seat - he figured Zar got the gist. Three tall men dressed in rags and equipped with strange, dingy prosthetic limbs silently entered the room and began to escort the two outside.

---

Now Playing - Smells Blood

Coruscant - Underworld - 1313

They were inside a small shack compared to the bar it was attached to. Random people hollered at the exiting group- Contii snickered, seemingly humored by the surrounding street trash.

"I already know the address... This must seem so cruisy, right? Right?"
Contii was now insistent and full of pep, discarding the chilling persona from earlier. The henchmen escorted them shoulder to shoulder, one trailing the back end of the group. The man in the back's face was... Off. He was human in appearance, but the skin around his head looked... Draped over. His nose was crooked and his eye sockets sagged across his own irises. How was he able to navigate behind them?

"D-3! Pick up the pace back there, we're all gonna walk off without you!"

Like a clingy pet, "D-3" began to jog in a frightening gait. The remaining human arm flailed behind the body weightlessly, while the prosthetic arm ending in an empty socket held still.

D-3 loomed behind Zar, staring lifelessly into the back of his head. The five men stopped and packed themselves into an empty air taxi. Thankfully, Zar was spared being pinched between the three cadaver-like men and got to sit right next to Contii, who operated the Taxi seamlessly towards an unknown set of buildings.

Something was off.

 

[Jakharl]

Zar didn't feel like a demi-god, he felt like he was demi-dead. Maybe it was his biology, or a consequence of his other vice, but it wasn't until he was already sitting in the taxi that he began to actually feel something positive. He felt...sharper, stronger, more aware, and with that came the growing awareness that something was very wrong here. His new boss had already given him some truly unsavory smells and heat signatures to work with, but now that he was in an enclosed space, the remaining goons in the back were setting off every sense of danger Zar had. He crossed his arms slowly, bringing both hands closer to his disruptor holsters.

"So, what can you tell me about the target, I was a little...distracted during the debriefing back at the other place." Zar asked, trying to make conversation as he scanned the taxi for any signs of danger.

Vergessen Contii

 

[Vergessen Contii]

"Oh, you'll know who they are and what they look like when we see them... Speaking of..."

Contii pointed a gnarled finger towards a discreet building at the back of a series of apartment blocks. A small two-story housing complex with all the curtains drawn and the lights off was lit dimly by the faded streetlights.

"Mmm... I can see a few of them peeking through the windows. Did I mention they were expecting us?" Another troubling revelation to reinforce the danger of this expedition. They were entering the lion's own maw, but Contii couldn't look happier.

"We'll start off with "light negotiations"... They won't give up the target so easily - one of the men in there has a particular attachment to them. He'll probably fight with maximum abandon, so I suggest once we breach the entrance after things go south - which I'm expecting them to - I'll have to ask you to first aim for the gentleman with the short brown beard and bald head. I'm not sure what other weapons he managed to secure from my stockpile, but I wouldn't want somebody to spontaneously detonate when I back them into a corner."

As the air taxi hovered closer to the parking lot of the complex, the building began to stir. Some of the curtains were gently folded back to flash the barrels of blasters; the sound of marching footsteps echoed from the top of the building down to the bottom. As the crew of five confidently landed in the middle of the street, the three henchmen exited the vehicle first to survey the situation.

"No preliminary gun fire? At least they're patient... Let's go" Contii exited the driver's seat and circled around to the back of the taxi. His accomplices proceeded to open the boot, heaving out what looked like a massive black suit of armor.

---

Now Playing - Sternritter Theme

Contii outfitted himself with the suit of armor. Black segmented hexagons of armorweave covered everything below his neck - a mouthpiece molded into the shape of a silver bottom row of teeth crowning the design. Contii had removed his robe to reveal one of his species traits - a third fully functional arm. His armor was fitted with an extra prosthetic arm buckled onto the other side of his body, completing the symmetry of his multi-limbed form.

He tapped at the air for a moment - the form of an orange hexagonal shield screeching to life, before quickly fading back out of existence.
"Good news, as always... Shield's operable. Now Zar you've got a handsome selection of meat shields to hide behind. You can stay behind "mwah" until this thing needs to recharge, or the boys can huddle in front of you... Hehe."

While Contii was confidently preparing his armaments right in front of his enemy, the frightened men behind the door - raw with anticipation - took the first step at diplomacy.

"CONTII! LEAVE HER OUT OF THIS! IT WAS MY FAULT!" The man's desperate cry fell on deaf ears as Contii pulled a small cylindrical object out of the trunk and equipped it around his waist.
"You know that's not possible Vi'no! I've got some impatient friends out here who will happily take her away with MAXIMUM effort. You and I both know my capacity for violence..."

Contii, along with one of his henchmen shielding his body from the front, slowly walked towards the entrance. Complete silence filled the empty space as the single henchman first went back and retrieved a blaster attached to a cybernetic limb from the air taxi - directly inserting it into its own empty prosthetic socket before leading Contii along.

"Defy me one more time and this door comes down..."

"SHE... STAYS... WITH ME!"

"Zar, you heard him! Spike yourself with some of that good stuff... And open fire."

It was only a single moment before plasma began to tear through the door.

 

[Jakharl]

Zar knew a bolt-hole, mattress-walled safehouse when he saw one, even spiced. He'd been on both sides of a barricade like this before and he was still here to remember those old times, so he knew how these sorts of operations went. The Arcona was a tad surprised that they didn't just light up the taxi when it pulled up out front, and even more surprised when Contii stepped outside with no consequences, so he followed suit.

"I'm starting to feel a little under-dressed for this party." Zar muttered as he adjusted the straps on his disruptor holsters and fixed his blast vest. As Contii and his...whatever these things were, huddled up for defense, Zar took a spot next to his employer near the front, but behind the defenses. He wasn't one to hide behind lackeys, but he wasn't one to stand on an open firing range either.

"You know..." He whispered as the revealing conversation between Contii and his ex-employee unfolded. "You could have mentioned this was a snatch and grab before hiring me. I would've brought something with less kick."

Zar didn't mind kidnapping or being lied to, but the lack of tactical foresight left a bad taste in his mouth. Thankfully, a quick touch of salt left a very good taste in his mouth, and a pleasant, calming tingle that took the edge of the worst side effects of the Blitz. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to be double-dosed during an active firefight, but Zar was here for a good time, not a long time.

Vergessen Contii

 

[Vergessen Contii]

Now Playing - Combat Theme
The first few bolts simply ricochet off the shield that suddenly sparked to life around Contii. Without a second thought, he plucked the small cylindrical hilt from his waist and ignited his blade.

He swung it a few times to strike away the strays aiming towards Zar, and then twisted the bottom of his lightsaber hilt to reveal a secondary interlocked weapon. The smaller blade activated, and the additional prosthetic arm wielded it by rapidly rotating around the wrist. A spinning razor of plasma tore through the door to reveal a group of four disheveled men clutching a small girl. They ceased fire for a moment, only to stew in the terror that broiled the room.

"No... She didn't mean to... You can't just-"
"I can do what I want with my property. Just because you're attached doesn't mean I can gleam over its flaw."

"You can give her up now and our scuffle will end without any further interrogation. I'll leave you all alone. But if not..."
Contii stepped aside to make way for Zar Kevdac and his "Made Men". They all encircled Zar like a barricade of bodies and aimed their weapons towards the terrified people.

"I'll kill her, then all of you. But not immediately. I'll use you for everything you're worth before I finally turn you into a slave."

The bearded man across the room - Vi'no - simply gazed at Zar helplessly.
"You can't trust him-- you can't... You just can't...."

He pulled a small blaster pistol from his jacket pocket and aimed steady.
"Killing you now would probably be better than what he plans to do with you..."

 

[Jakharl]

Zar's already wide eyes went wider when he saw Contii flick out some kind of bizarre, elaborate lightsaber-type weapon and rip clean through the tiny fortress like it was made of paper. His sense of disquiet was growing by the second, over the thrum of the drugs in his system and the promise of pay. Nothing good came of messing with 'sabers, nothing good at all.

The scene inside the room was fairly pathetic, four disheveled men and a little girl sitting in a terrified huddle, although it was probably more comfortable than the huddle he was stuck in with these...creatures of Contii's. One of the men inside drew a blaster on him, Zar saw his aim before he'd even cleared his holster, but he let the man fire and take out one of his little bodyguards, just to see what would happen.

This situation was starting to reek of trouble and Zar wanted to see how it played out a bit more before deciding who's side he was really on.

Vergessen Contii

 

[Vergessen Contii]

Contii noticed the conflicted expression on Zar's face as he looked back to address his intervening group.
"Oh, don't look at me like that. You know less than you realize, and I don't have the time to tell-"

Fire suddenly traded between the two sides of the room, taking out one of the Made Men in the back and quickly shutting Contii up. "Screw it... Zar! Put your head up!" Contii does not know how to say the expression "heads up" correctly.

First "blood" was drawn, and two Made Men quickly side-stepped in front of Zar, taking the brunt of a couple of plasma bolts and leaving a small sightline between the shoulders for Zar to return fire. Both of them lost an arm, and one of them then quickly ripped the remaining limb off the other and inserted it into their handicapped extremity. They both then barreled forward to maintain the attention of gunfire, circling around either side of the enemy. This gave Zar the advantage to move forward behind the safety of a Made Man if he decided to get closer to the enemy.

"THAT ONE'S GOT TWO BLASTERS NOW! FOCUS ON HIM!"
"The armless one's leaning in front of the armed Made Man... They're trying to close the distance while keeping the weaponized one safe... SOUTH, NOW!"

Another example of Contii's miserable instinct. "South?" The men that boarded up the second story of the building were now firing downwards into the ground floor. Contii's cybernetic limb spun the smaller lightsaber horizontally, hovering the blade over Zar like a parasol shielding rain.

"CONTII'S A METRE FROM THE ENTRANCE... MADE MEN ARE FLANKING LEFT AND RIGHT --"
"You're going to ruin the fun..."

---

Now Playing - Epiphany - (Kaiji Theme)

Contii extended his arm and Vi'no's world was cast into a dark blur. He was being choked by an unknown source and was unable to further lead his men's aim at his enemies. The small girl that hid in Vi'no's arms was released and began to visibly panic. Then, the girl's expression rested into a neutral frown after coming to a mysterious conclusion.

She sighed. Her face unfolded like an unfurling maw of silver needles. Every individual blade that gave shape to her face inverting into a metallic shell. Her stance was splayed - her fingers unwrapping into a series of jagged digits, and her hair erupting into a wig of fiber-thin wires. She had turned inside out into a shiny, lithe android.

"Why couldn't you just leave us alone?"
"Because you're a murderer. It was a flimsy machine learning model on my part - you inherited the savagery of necessary evolution. What's the easiest, forthright method to protect you and your family? For a cornered animal, you just... Kill people you don't like."

"And I will murder MORE! Why even bring me back... If you were just going to take me away from him again..."

"God giveth, and god taketh away. You should've stayed in your lane."

 

[Jakharl]

Naturally, it was time for all Hell to break loose in the apartment as men with blasters seemed to crowd in from every direction while these Made Men creatures threw themselves between Zar and any shots aimed at him. He appreciated the gesture, to an extent, but he much preferred to do his own dirty work. Disruptors flashed up and around the constructs as Zar sent bolts of crackling energy into anyone stupid enough to poke their head out from cover. Even he had to admit Contii made a damn fine product, the combination of Blitz and salt in his system made the Arcona feel sharper than he had in years. Men collapsed, screaming and clutching at rapidly disintegrating wounds until they finally crumbled into piles of sizzling ash on the floor.

"Is there some room in the back where they're keeping all these bastards!?" Zar barked rhetorically, before he turned and noticed Contii racing up the stairs into blaster fire. The man was deranged, no doubt, but he was also a paying client and Zar was the only one allowed to shoot his contractors, so he broke free from his bodyguards and headed for the stairs.

Vergessen Contii

 

[Vergessen Contii]

As Zar ascended the staircase, the sound of searing plasma and clanking metal ensued. The android had lunged towards Contii and began shredding through the plating on his shoulder.

The bearded man across the room was guarded shoulder to shoulder by his own men, who opened fire at both the android and Contii.
As Zar finally clambered up the last step, feeling the guardrail crumble in his hand from his enhanced grip strength, he saw a smile quickly fade from Vi'nos lips as they exchanged looks from across the room.

"Y-you! Uh... He's released some sort of killer robot into the building, and it's turned on him! Quick! Shoot that bastard before they both decide to attack you!"

Contii wasn't in the position to immediately correct Vi'no's lie, as his longer blade struck the android off his body while the smaller one shielded against the stray blaster fire.

"She was a show of my good will, and you squandered it. You're going to keep lying to everybody in the room? Such a disgusting trait... There's no room for delusion on my planet, so I haven't quite picked up this habit myself yet."

"Though I've fallen victim to what you call... Lying by omission."

The Made Man equipped with two blaster arms was gunned down by the men guarding Vi'no, but the armless one sauntered on and proceeded to belly flop into the middle of the room with little grace.

"They're not just pretty faces..."

Click.

The droid blew up at the press of a button, which was attached to Contii's waistband. One of the men guarding Vi'no fell into the hole left in the floor; divided in half by the shrapnel flying out of the explosive cadaver. As the floor caved in further, the fried corpses below were buried under the rubble.

The android acrobatically leaped from the blast radius, clutching Vi'no in its arms while leaving the remaining guard to panic in his own blood.
"WE HAD A GOOD THING GOING ON HERE! WE TOOK YOU THINGS ACROSS WORLDS! We... Socialized your people - gave you places to live, food... Water... Why would you do this to me...?"

Contii grinned in retaliation to Vi'no's desperate gamble to play to his better nature. For all he knew, he had none.

"You were the primary financer of the slave trade subjugating my planet, and yet you had the nerve to come to me, screaming for your poor daughter back from the grave. Cancer, right? Fool... I gave you a chance to live peacefully with her image once more, but you abused her innate ingenuity and killed one of my ambassadors. You turned her into a weapon - manipulating her learning capacity to absorb espionage and assassination tactics. She would no longer sing songs of love and beautiful white lilies... You took that from her. Or should I say... You would've taken that from her regardless.

The android screeched in the direction of Contii and Zar. Looks like they were all that were left in the building.
"Mister Zar Kevdac... Time to work for your money."

A small ventilation hole opened up on the shoulder of Contii's armor. He then plucked a small can of RAGE from his belt-strap and inserted it into the shoulder. Smoke welled up behind his mouthpiece, and inky blackness covered Contii's eyes.

Now Playing...

"BEHOLD!"

 

[Jakharl]

"...what in the actual..." What Zar found when he reached the top of the steps could only be described as a kriff-show. Contii was tangled up with some kind of shrieking, weaponized android child, Made Men were dropping like flies, and people were screaming about slavery and wasted opportunities. If it wasn't for the cocktail of substances in his bloodstream, he'd likely have a splitting migraine at this point, but if there was one thing it was easy to figure out in this situation, it was who to shoot.

Zar moved around the remaining Made Men again and began laying shot after shot into anyone left standing, but the droid...thing caught him off-guard for a moment. It managed to bob and weave through his shots as it ran down the hall toward them, but Zar managed to trick the creature by firing once at its right shoulder, causing it to dodge left, right into the path of a quick second shot that caught the android center-mass and began to rapidly cave in its chest cavity.

"I better be getting overtime for this..."

Vergessen Contii

 

[Vergessen Contii]

The android clenched the new hole in its body. Could it... Feel? Or was it some artificial interpretation of feeling... Regardless of the existential epiphany, the android suddenly disappeared.

---

Now Playing - Self-Embodiment of Perfection

The soft tapping of metal on concrete reverberated down the stairs behind Zar.
"It's getting away!"

Before Contii pursued the loose droid, he frisbeed the smaller lightsaber blade at Vi'no, executing him on the spot.
"Mmm... Satisfaction. Anyway-"

He briefly glanced at Zar, offering him a quick and cheeky nod before jumping down the hole in the floor.
The plating on Contii's wrist separated, giving way to a small audio device.

[^]"Wächter! We're giving chase to the unit now. Huff.. I uh- ack... Breathing... Running..."
[^]"You can walk and talk, my lord. The "Fleshgait" isn't going anywhere far. The tracker you inserted is fully operational."
[^]"Eugh... Alright... Uhm- [*sound of Contii operating a small device*]- is our perimeter covered?"
[^]"Naturally. Albeit - my lord... Vi'no's execution is a proclamation of war against the Outer Sect Slave Trade..."
[^]"Look... Personally? I wouldn't start a war with an entire planet. Cut the channel - I need to focus.]

Contii had reached the back of his Air Taxi and pulled out a few small metal vials from the boot. He inserted one into the port of his armor and rejuvenated his breathing. It was sort of like an industrial asthma puffer.

In the near distance, the sounds of multiple footsteps echoed down a few different alleyways. It was all converging at this very moment. Contii leaned against the boot of the air taxi, waiting for Zar to arrive outside as he stabilized his breathing

"Your perception is flawed, machine... I coaxed you out here for a reason..."

He was preparing to pull something else out of the boot... The sound of metal feet trampled across the ground and up across the walls - windows cracking and glass indentations forming across the android's path.

This wasn't a raid... Contii was just going hunting.

 

[Jakharl]

"I'm on it, I'm on it!" Zar tried legging it after the droid, but after all the rough handling the building's structure had taken today, he nearly stumbled when the steps started to give way underneath him. He managed to reach the ground floor with his feet still under him, only to find Contii waiting for him, having apparently leapt down through the hole in the second floor.

"Smug..." The Arcona grumbled as he followed Contii out the door and back to the taxi cab. He was only half-paying attention to the conversation he overheard, something about slavers and gang warfare, that didn't concern him. What did concern him were the multiple footsteps, heat signatures, and smells he detected closing in on them.

"Boss, I think we've got party crashers..."

Vergessen Contii

 

[Vergessen Contii]

Before Contii could pull the mystery item out of the cab's boot, his audio receiver barked alarming warnings at him.

[^]"My lord, be advised my precision bio scanner has picked up organic heat signatures. Those aren't the reinforcements of Made Men approaching..."

---

"Party crashers indeed..." Contii smacked his lips as he realized he had underestimated the situation. Vi'no had enough wealth to afford an entire bunker armed to the teeth, so why was he holed up in some forgotten apartment down here with barely any defense?

The answer?

"Vi'no was the bait."

The collective sound of combat boots stomping towards them became increasingly apparent, as the shadows of men stretched across a nearby alley wall. The Fleshgait took the opportunity of confusion to reveal itself again. It was scaling the front wall of the building everyone had just exited and loomed above Zar with chittering mandibles of metal.

In its clawed fingers, the cadaver of a "Made Man" was silently being... Consumed. The biomesh on the partially consumed droid was being unraveled into a fiber thin flexi-steel thread. It looked like someone slurping up a bowl of noodles... The hole that was left inside the machine started to weave itself back together. It was shoddy - looking more like a spider's web that was woven right inside the Fleshgait's torso, but the purpose served to reinforce the more fragile mechanisms within, and keep interconnected pieces attached.

"Zar... This is perfect. The Disruptors melted through the flexi-steel composite on her... Look - you'll get additional compensation if you keep her head intact... Most of the Fleshgait's specialized equipment is installed in the optics relay, so nothing expensive will be lost..."

"Should stop screaming if you remove its head from the neck too... Just don't get a hole in the cranium"

Contii continued to anxiously tamper with the mysterious object in the air taxi's boot, trying to get it ready before --

---

... As if on cue, teams of men kitted with suits, ties and exterior body plating arrived on the scene wielding an assortment of weapons.

Three teams of about a dozen each, all jogging out of the alleys and into the street to encircle both Zar and Contii.

"Zar Kevdac... Handle her for me..."

Contii's arms slowly elevated from inside the air taxi's boot. A tiny hexagonal device with a button on top was clutched in his hand. He quickly pressed it without a warning, and the sound of crawling and clattering could be heard from inside of the house.

The Made Man unit that the Fleshgait was currently consuming suddenly roared to life, vocalizing repetitive, rhythmic tones. It was calibrating.... It peeled itself out of the Fleshgait's arms and barreled towards the inside of the house again. It made desperate long leaps to clear distance... Its arms dangled freely in the air like a marionette being thrown through across a room

The small army of slave-trade mercenaries watched on in a mixture of intrigue and disgust.

...

There was silence for a moment. Even the Fleshgait held still in anticipation for danger, but the mercenaries could only gawk as a pair of three gun barrels rotating rapidly pushed out the door.

Now Playing - Judgement

It was some kind of multi-limbed abomination... It walked on 12 appendages like stilts - cybernetics gathered from the bodies of the three Made Men brought to the operation. The now inoperable components had been repurposed into the amalgamation. It walked on multiple sets of arms and legs, and three blasters organized in a triangular barrel like a minigun were equipped at the front, where one single head remained. The face was... Exposed. The synthetic skin of the jaw revealed the bio-mechanical teeth underneath, while the eyes were overcast by the dimming streetlight, presenting the "Hydra" as some kind of mythological monster.

Contii grinned, displaying the Hydra behind him as it towered over everybody.

"Look, fellas..."

"I just came back here for my property, alright?"

 

[Jakharl]

"Damn right I'm getting additional compensation for dealing with this thing!!" Zar was not one to panic, but the...thing that crawled out of the building trailing fibers and fluids caused some alarm. So did all of the men closing in from every side. So did the thing that Contii apparently attached himself too, but that one was at least on his side.

The Blitz and the salt were starting to wear off, and he had no time to top up between rounds before the cackling thing came barreling out of the house and straight toward him. Zar dove to the side, narrowly avoiding the raking claws and tried to catch the Fleshgait in the back with two shots only for it to dart out of the way just in time. The Arcona trusted Contii to handle the surrounding goons, less out of any sense of camaraderie and more because he figured the guards would be too busy trying to kill Contii to bother with him and the android.

Vergessen Contii

 

[Vergessen Contii]

The Fleshgait flipped and rolled like an experience acrobatic. It dove out of the way of Zar's line of fire and erupted into a disorienting scream. The wall faces of each surrounding building began to crumble and vibrate rapidly.

Even if the Fleshgait had dodged the few earlier attacks, Zar Kevdac's first shot into her torso was slowly disintegrating. Since the Fleshgait could not intercept the "Hydra" droid and consume its biomesh components to recover, it decided to attack with reckless abandon.

From what Zar could see through the haze of slowly debilitating drug withdrawal, the Fleshgait began to rake its claws across the ground, shooting up streaks of hot sparks up into the air as it ran towards him.

---

The goons that surrounded them were more preoccupied with the hulking mass that was the "Hydra" crawling around the middle of the street. It released a rain of plasma hellfire onto the quickly receding group of enemies, who returned fire with little effect. A few were killed in the brief clash until most of the henchmen had successfully found cover.

Contii's shield absorbed any stray bolts going towards him, and he decided to personally take action. Contii made a mighty leap across the road towards the other block of apartments. The hunt was on - slave trade henchmen silently prowled around behind the corners, hoping to get the drop on Contii, or at least to wait out the Hydra's onslaught. Some hid in buildings, holding innocent's hostage for safety.

Unfortunately for them, Contii wasn't going to humor their strategies. He stared down at his own fist and flexed it for a moment... Then he threw it into the nearest corroded wall face a few men hid behind. As his hand pierced the veil of concreted, he caught someone's neck between his fingers.

The small lightsaber blade affixed to his cybernetic limb spun with an audible buzz. It quickly cleaved through the body of the caught henchman, and Contii then almost danced across the space between him and the other absconding opponents in a few articulate flips. They had no time to turn around and fire, as Contii had already lunged upon them and diced them into little, tiny pieces.

---

"DAMN IT! ROHAN'S DEAD! UNIT THREE'S ALL DEAD-"
Another apartment wall was caved in, revealing a small family of four harboring one of the fugitive henchmen. His blaster was held squarely on the head of a shivering human mother. Contii seemed to recoil at the sudden ultimatum, but he knew that in this life, he would not limit himself to two choices at once.

"HEY nerf herder... I'LL DO IT! YEAH, WHERE'S THAT SMILE NOW, HUH?!"
"Mom...?"
"Honey... It's going to be okay..."

Those gentle and consoling words from the mother inspired Contii to make his decision. They would not die today.

Suddenly, the "Hydra" funneled through the other side of the building, catching the henchman off-guard. It slid across the floor and gripped onto the henchman and dragged it outside to join the rest of the bodies.

Contii hid the small receiver he clicked just now back into his belt pouch. The family was traumatized, but they were alive to be traumatized.

By now, most of the henchman had been executed, either by being leisurely cleaved through by Contii or brutally mauled by the Hydra.

---

Zar Kevdac was now faced with a flurry of swipes towards his eyes, throat and veins. It was agile, yet its desperation caused it to fumble in between its swings, giving Zar the perfect opportunity to land a fatal blow.

 

[Jakharl]

Zar might not have been holding up well, but it was clear his opponent wasn't either. The Fleshgait's chest cavity was slowly starting to disintegrate bit by bit, exposing vital systems and causing its overall integrity collapse. Of course, that would only work in Zar's favor if he kept his head on his shoulders, and that was easier said than done.

He ducked and dove around the wild swings, its chaotic flailing was hard to predict but it also left big gaps in its movement, ones he could exploit. After a particularly vicious swing left one of its claws embedded in the duracrete walkway, Zar lunged forward and jammed a disruptor right into the cavernous opening in its chest before angling up and firing. The decay would spread fast up from the center of the chest and toward the head, and once it got to the neck Zar would be able to yank the head free before it started to break down.

Vergessen Contii