Private After The Nightmare

[Helix]

In orbit above Tarnac, shortly after the Battle of Thyferra​

Tarnac was not, to most perspectives, an attractive world. Merely to walk its surface was to risk the wrath of freezing mud, toxic rain, and of course, continent-sized radiation storms.

One such storm was ravaging the planet's surface now. From above, it was beautiful, a whirling phantasmagoria of purplish light that sent its brilliance far into the surrounding space.

Occasionally, the brightest of these energy flashes managed to illuminate the bridge of the Metanoia, transforming every bizarre instrument and arcane device present into nightmarish and alien shadowscapes.

It was a small vessel, but one he'd taken a liking to for things like this. The less attention this meeting attracted, the better.

Helix hunched in his command chair, swirling a drink of something expensive in one hand. He'd pillaged it from the bombed-out ruins of a posh-looking estate on Abregado-Rae, managing to seize the stuff before the fungal carpet swallowed it whole. Sadly, that hungry organism had taken much material plunder from the horrifying battlefields left over.

It was an adequate beverage, but not quite to his tastes. Mercy had rather clued him in to the relative benefits of ale instead. Ale was honest and unpretentious, two virtues he had increasingly come to value.

He'd had some prepared ahead of time, painstakingly tracking down whatever mystery brew his restaurant staff had managed to secure before on Corellia. A huge, refrigerated tanker of the stuff loomed nearby. Not cheap, but assuming his incoming visitor could be trusted, all of these little costs would be more than worth it.

As their last meeting had taken place on her turf, this one would be on his. For all his many, many faults, Helix was a gracious and accommodating host.

"Sir, your erm, guest has arrived." Came the chirping voice of one of the bridge droids. The machine sounded nervous, with a distinct tone of trepidation entering into its cold electronic whine.

That would be her, then. His droids were not easily frightened or shaken. They had faced a thousand horrors on a thousand battlefields, and each was a career killing machine. That particular unit had stacked bodies in almost every corner of the galaxy.

Mercy had a way of pushing past all that.

"Kindly send her up." Came the calm reply. "And be quick about it. Any damage to the hangar comes out of your allowance."

Helix set his fancy drink aside, instead filling up a sizeable tankard of the ale. He'd need it for what was coming.

 

[Mercy]

Helix

It was a good thing too that Helix ordered the droid to be quick about bringing Mercy in.

When she was left alone to her own devices, without anything immediate to occupy herself with, things had a way of... Exploding or otherwise receiving grievous harm.

Not exactly a stellar start to cause property damage to his ship.

Then again, it would be ironically apt, considering the first time they had met and the damage incurred to Helix's shuttle back then.

Instead it didn't take long before Helix felt the footsteps before even hearing them. The subtle tremor in the metal, like a seismic event but condensed and localized.

He couldn't feel the Dark Side after all, so that and her footsteps were the main things to clue him in.

Before Mercy stepped foot onto the bridge and made her presence official.

"Helix, darling. I see you can make yourself comfortable even in space. How delightful."

A beat.

"I hear you had a lot of fun in the industrial zone. I trust Abregado-rae was everything I promised it to be for you?"

That wasn't why Mercy was here, of course.

But she was curious how the droid had fared on the surface of that wretched world.

 

[Helix]

Tag: Mercy ​

Helix didn't turn his chair around at first, though he felt her presence long before he heard her. A shaking in the deckplates, like the footsteps of doom. Mercy had her subtler moments, to be sure, but generally speaking she was an avalanche. Impossible to stop once the slide had begun. All you could do was work around it and hope to remain unburied once it was done.

Once she'd spoken up, then he spun his seat to face her, timed precisely (and dramatically) with a brilliant purple flash from the rad-storm raging below.

"It's usually functional more than comfortable. For example, I don't always bother with a breathable atmosphere, but let it never be said that I'm an unwelcoming host."

He waved one hand lazily, and a chair fit for her own great stature melted upward from the featureless metal of the deck.

"You'll be pleased to know I finally found that ale you seemed to be so fond of before. A small, but gifted local brewery. It's now mine, an associate of my restaurant."

He almost curled his blank metal visage into a smile as she asked about Abregado. Right to the point, or at least, a point. Never one to stand on ceremony too much, was Mercy. It was always a jarring transition to go from his unctuous public persona to a little brute honesty, but here was someone he never needed to keep up appearances for. As before, it was refreshing.

"My after-action report contained all the tedious facts, of course, but you're a very busy woman. In short, yes. It was an enjoyable enough scrap for what it was, and an excellent testbed for one my machines in the process. I think the frankly-staggering casualty figures speak for themselves."

"The flash of a chemical detonation, the stink of sizzling meat in the air, and of course, the ever-present screaming. I've seldom seen a more aesthetically-pleasing battlefield. I'll be scrubbing fungal matter out of the Landslide's treads for months, but I'd say it was more than worth it just for the experience alone."

"I'm pleased to see that you yourself survived intact through both that battlefield and Thyferra. Quite the victory march, all told."