Public At the Darkwire End of the Street

[Darkwire Prophet]

"Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood Morning, Seven Corners!"

"You're listening to Radio Free Sakedo, all the day's news and nourishment you need in one, single holo-feed!"

"Come on now, Griggs, there's got to be more happening than you can fit in our show."​

"There sure is, Kyp, but we're going give it the ol' Corpo try anyhow. Or at least until some Seccer busts us for sitting on their balcony."

"On that note, CorpSec was hanging around 142nd Heights yesterday with plenty of mean faces and flashing lights. The Seccer-band feeds were all wired up about some cyborg with a mask and two repeating blasters. And from the sound of it, that was just the distraction."​

"Wait, just the distraction? What was the main event, a polka-dot bantha on a hoverboard?"

"If that was the answer, CorpSec would be crowing like they just arrested your ex-husband for showing skin in the wrong alleyway. They're being tight-lipped, which must mean it was something pretty embarrassing."​

"He always left me more frustrated than embarrassed."

"Both, Griggs, it's always both."​

"They probably have something in common with the beings in traffic right now. Sounds like there's a massive clog on the trams, roads, and airspeeder paths right now, you got the skinny Kyp?"

"It sure isn't a bantha on a hoverboard, but polka-dots are still fair game if they're toppings for ice cream."​

"Ice cream?"

"Some kids decided to heist an ice cream speedertruck, right in the middle of the road. And with the traffic all backed up, including the airways with lookie-loos, not a single Seccer's responding."​

"Maybe they're waiting for a coupon?"

"Or they're all visiting Lorda Sam's for their blow-out sale. Place has been going for twenty fetching years now, and going out of business."​

"I used to go there all the time as a youngling. What happened?"

"Same thing that happens to all the good ones, Griggs, rent goes up and business goes down. No one's got business loyalty anymore."​

"At least not while Corpos are known better for arresting the community than building the community. Didn't your grandma just get thrown in the slammer last weekend?"

"She said that was a misunderstanding."​

"What's to misunderstand about a sweet, old lady? It's the new reality these days, Denon's going to chit in a cargo crate ever since the old ExO wound up being the head of Darkwire himself."

"Not that you'd know it from anyone who claims to be one of them. Read enough darknet forums and you'll hear of five different Darkwire leaders."​

"Since when do you read the darknets, Kyp?"

"Since our holo-feed turned into a shadowfeed. I hear the Seccers now, Griggs."​

"That's our cue to scram. Until next time, this is Radio Free Sakedo, signing off."

OOC: This is a casual thread meant for telling small, side stories that don't belong anywhere else. They can be your character's or not, and need not be related to anything your character or CAD/Darkwire is doing at the moment. It doesn't even need to be in Seven Corners but should be somewhere related to Denon or CAD/Darkwire's story. These stories can be one-off vignettes or even a short mini-series if you prefer.

All are welcome to write: Darkwire, Corpo, friends or acquaintances.

Some ideas to get you started (besides the above holo-feed broadcast):

Spoiler: Your Morning Routine

What does your character do from when they wake up to when they appear in a typical thread? When do they wake up, where do they live? Do they clean up, dress, eat, or do they just roll out fo bed and figure out the rest as they go? Give us all the trivial details.

Spoiler: I Was a Twilight Belt Dusker

Follow a Dusker, a member of Denon's lower classes, as they goes about their day. Their day from wake to sleep, taking public transit or a speeder to their job or errands, interactions with CorpSec, perhaps witnessing (or perpetrating!) a crime or three, nearly getting hit by a speeder, and perhaps being outside to enjoy the brief hours of indirect sunlight in the Twilight Belt.

Spoiler: CorpSec on the Beat

It ain't easy being black & red, there's local businesses to shake down, there's investigations to follow up on, and there's bosses to please. Maybe their quota is down this month, or there's a disturbance to respond to, but any way it turns out a Seccer's got some heads to bust and arrests to make.

Spoiler: I Need a Doctor

A Discrete visits an underworld doc of questionable caliber, and winds up worse for the wear. An implant goes haywire, or a new one gets installed, and some ripperdoc is all that stands between them and chip-brained psychosis. Just how wrong could it go?

Spoiler: Kyp & Griggs' Excellent Adventures

You met 'em. You love 'em or you hate 'em. And you want to know more about it 'em? This is your chance. Write out the excellent adventures of our intrepid pirate broadcasters from the intro above and take them wherever your imagination (and the harried corners of Denon) lead.

 

[Valery Noble]

Outfit | Weapon | Appearance

Location: Denon
Items: Necklace

Why did every trip to Denon have to end in disaster?

This was the only question on Valery's mind as she walked through narrow alleyways in some district she had never heard of before. Her hand covered the bleeding wound on her side, and she was already looking a bit pale — she needed a doctor and the only option was someplace nearby that likely wasn't even properly registered.

Using her shoulder, she bashed open the door and stepped over to the first person she spotted; a woman in what looked like civilian clothing, but somehow was still considered the only nurse here.

"You're bleeding," she said with a worried tone as she studied Valery for a moment.

"Yeah no shit, I was stabbed," Valery said without her usual calmness. At this point, she wasn't quite sure how long ago it had been since she was suddenly stabbed by the stranger she had tried to help, but she was starting to feel weaker by the second and needed the help before she'd collapse from the blood loss.

"Right, come here," the lady said, and with her help, Valery was brought to the medical table. Or well, the kitchen table they had placed some white sheets over so it somewhat resembled a medical table. It didn't exactly make Valery feel more comfortable, but it was better than bleeding out on this forsaken world.

Open​

 

[Xeno]

Denon
Tags: Valery Noble ​

Denon was a proper mess when it came everything about the way the world functioned. Disparity of wealth, an underworld rampant with despots, and whatever it was that the Darkwire was doing behind the scenes... That was only scratching the surface. Xeno had been here before. No assassin can claim a successful career without being sent to Denon at least once. This time, however, Xeno intended on solving problems rather than create them. At least, that's what his intentions were. The Sith assassin turned questionable vigilante hadn't spent much time on the planet before finding trouble. A small gang in the lower levels, nothing to write home about. That was until he took a blaster bolt to the leg. Unfortunately, this was the same leg which had been recently injured while securing a Sith Holocron not too long ago. The wound reopened, spilling the Human-Nagai hybrid's blood at a rate far more profusely than when it he initially got it.

So there he was, laying in the corner of the shadiest health establishment he had ever been in. Xeno would've patched up the wound himself, but he couldn't exactly afford to replace medical supplies at the moment. As he lie there on what was, by all accounts, nothing more than a folding table, the nurse helped another patient in, a woman with a lean, muscular build and eyes that had a particular flaming hue, one of which was accompanied by scar. Her side seemed to have been punctured by a small to medium sized blade, rather severely from the looks of it. This isn't what interested Xeno. It was the woman's Force sensitivity. Even in her current state, Xeno could feel it. He had a knack for picking up on Force talent while he had been forced to hunt his long-dead master's enemies. She hadn't picked up on him yet though, at least not that he could tell. The light over his table was dead, and she seemed to be preoccupied with her own state.

"Bleeding out?" Xeno asked the stranger. "Guess that makes two of us."

He didn't usually socialize, but Xeno was beginning to get better at that sort of thing. What better time to strike up a friendly conversation?

 

[Under Foot]

[ uptown funk ]
​

"That's our cue to scram. Until next time, this is Radio Free Sakedo, signing off."

The sound of the radio was drowned out by the loud beep sound that the garbage hauler made as it was backed into position. A pair of manipulator arms reached out to seize hold of the dumpster, before turning it over so that the refuse inside spilled out into the cargo area of the garbage truck.

Hopping down from out of the pilot's seat, the small fox-like alien made his way toward the back of the large landspeeder. As the dumpster was automatically returned back to the ground, the Squib pulled a lever and then punched a control on the side of the truck that triggered the trash compactor to work. A mechanical whine cut through the alleyway, before a grinding noise gave way to a successive series of crunching sounds as the trash was pulverized.

That left the sofa that was left out by the side of the road.

A perfectly good couch. Maybe some wear on the arms. And a stain that might have been pizza sauce. Or blood. But, other than that, it was a decent couch.

"Elle-Four," the Squib called, summoning the boxy labor droid that was collecting the piece left on the side of the street for garbage pick up. Motioning toward the sofa, the Squib then made his way back to the pilot's seat at the front of the garbage hauler.

A cup of caf had gone cold more than hour ago.

The day started early with trash pick up.

Rotating the radio over to a music station, the Squib's ears seemed the bob in time with the music as he leaned back against the truck and took a sip of his caf.

The smell of dumpsters. The sound of the trash compactor. The smog filtering out what little daylight trickled down through the towering spires that shot up like needles pointed at the sky.

Nothing like another morning on Denon.

 

[Hex]

Location: Denon waterways
Tags:

The first night...​

Spoiler: Equipment

• 
  A blaster pistol - no ammo

Spoiler: Hex dialogue colors

Poor Hex hears voices in her head

Hex speech to others
Hex speech to herself

Hexes inner voices
'...Neutral...'
'...Doubt...'
'...Anger...'
Coloured '.....' are also words that Hex can hear , but I decided not to write them to reduce clutter

Is it really possible to be surrounded on all sides by billions of people, and yet, still be the only person in the galaxy that knows you exist? Hex knew it was possible, and right now she knew what it felt like. She sat, numb, wrapped up in her long blue braid. The girl was alone, having arrives on Denon that day. She had almost nothing when she left Coruscant, and the traffickers took what little she had left to pay for her passage here. Hex had fled the gang enforcers with what little she could carry and headed for this place. At least she had been told that Denon was a place to find work, a good place of opportunity for someone as scrappy as her.

'...we need to eat...'
"I don't want to..."

Hex hadn't eaten for nearly two days. The hunger knawed at her stomach, but as she looked at the meagre rations she had been able to scavenge, she lost the desire. A half eaten burger bundled up in dirty tissue with pair of deathsticks stubbed out in the bun, a fitting meal for someone as deserving as she.

'...just eat it...'
'...You're no better than the rats and its good enough for them...'
"But we can..."
'...we've looked, there's nothing else...'

Tears rolled down her cheek as she pulled out the butts and wiped away as much ash as she could, before devouring the morsel hungrily. What was her life? Would anyone notice if she just....? She looked down at the empty blaster pistol, not even her gun could provide her with that mercy. How many times had she survived for want of saving a bullet for herself? It took her last reserves not to just toss it into the murky water.

Hex sat for a moment with the empty wrapper on her knees and pondered her options, her mouth tasted like ash but the growl in her belly was momentarily silenced. The blue haired girl began to unlace her boots as she sat in the shadows of a small bridge, at least their loyal leather still held strong after her hard life pounding the streets. She neatly sat them beside her and dangled her feet into the cool water below. The sensation was of coolness, accompanied by the tingling as a thousand chemical began to bite at her skin, reddening the area to a line just below her cut off shorts, she laid back on the hard pavement and stared up at the glowing buildings that disappeared into the clouds above.

Hex was sure she heard footsteps coming, but the echo was hard to judge, so she gently just turned her head and watched down the pathway. No one appeared for several minutes as the steps got louder against the otherwise quite of the deep lower levels. Eventually, the source of the sound appeared on a small gantry a dozen metres above, and cross the river at right angles. Two young women, one with what looked like blonde hair, walked, oblivious to the vagrant teen below them. And then they were gone, who were they? Were they nobodies like her? At least the had each other it seemed.

Hex turned her head to face back up to the sky as the polluted water continued to burn her legs, the fire reminding her that she was, unfortunately, still alive.
​

 

[Valery Noble]

Outfit | Weapon | Appearance

Location: Denon
Items: Necklace

"Bleeding out?" Xeno asked the stranger. "Guess that makes two of us."

Hearing the voice, Valery blinked and turned her fiery gaze to the corner, where she spotted a figure on another table. Despite the lack of light, her eyes met his, suggesting that they were more than just oddly colored. She could see him just fine and nodded in his direction to acknowledge him, "I suppose it does, but it'll be fine. The wound isn't too deep," Valery said before the nurse forced her to lay down and helped her along a little.

Cleaning the wound was the most painful part, but Valery showed very little response to it all and clenched her jaws together while her hands curled into fists. She was tense for a bit, but by the time the nurse left, she had relaxed and remained there for as long as the medical staff here wanted.

"How are you holding up over there?" she finally asked, now able to continue the conversation again.

Xeno ​

 

[Xeno]

Denon
Tags: Valery Noble ​

Xeno was slightly surprised for a moment. Despite his mask hiding his face, the woman seemed to lock eyes with his. They weren't just for show. There was something about them that clearly changed how she perceived the world. He was caught off guard by this, but it seemed to be no more than a quirk of her species, though interesting nonetheless. The nurse cleaned her wound, departing from the room.

"How are you holding up over there?"

"Great," Xeno replied sarcastically. "Just a flesh wound... not a new one either. A blaster bolt reopened it. It seemed to be a weaker model too. I probably would've been fine if I hadn't been stabbed a while back, but here I am."

Strange. She seemed friendly, and not the manipulative Sith kind of friendly. Perhaps a Jedi then? Xeno hadn't encountered many Jedi after killing his master, but most had assumed him to be Sith. He didn't blame them. Sith had a tendency of killing their masters and taking their place. Turning on his meant nothing. That wasn't much of a concern of his. They were both wounded. What interested Xeno more was why a Jedi would come to Denon. Shadier planets like it didn't usually take kindly to Jedi patrolling their streets.

"This isn't exactly the nice side of town," the hybrid began, speaking with an inquisitive tone. "You come down here often?"

 

[Valery Noble]

Outfit | Weapon | Appearance

Location: Denon
Items: Necklace

"That sounds rough."

Valery's eyes shifted to his injury for a moment, but she was focused on something else. Now that she was recovering, her senses had picked up on his Force-sensitivity. In their current states, it didn't really bother her, nor was she interested in getting too deep into that. She just wanted to be patched up and leave this planet behind, hopefully never to return.

But that's what she was hoping for the last three or four times she came here too.

"This isn't exactly the nice side of town," the hybrid began, speaking with an inquisitive tone. "You come down here often?"

She chuckled, "More often than I'd like, that's for sure," Valery admitted before she gritted her teeth and forced herself up to a sitting position. Her eyes remained fixed on the figure in the dark, whose face was covered even in a medical center like this. That was highly unusual.

"Do you rely on that mask, or just like it too much to take it off?" she asked in a somewhat joking manner. Their situation was crappy enough as is, so she tried to keep the mood up as much as she could. "Not that I blame you for covering up out here. I'd rather not be seen hanging out in these parts either."

Xeno ​

 

[Xeno]

Denon
Tags: Valery Noble ​

"Do you rely on that mask, or just like it too much to take it off?"

“That one’s hard to explain,” Xeno admitted. “I don’t think I could go into that without boring you with philosophy. If you want a more practical answer, I have a bad habit of making enemies of… interesting people. It’s harder to track down a man with no face. Doesn’t make me any harder to shoot though…”

He winced as his nerves began to flare up along his leg again. Whatever medication he had been given to reduce the pain hadn’t taken effect yet, or was useless to begin with.

“Jeez,” he sighed. “My luck has been awful lately.” He paused, thinking about what had led him to where he was. “You ever feel like the Galaxy is out to get you? Like you have a chip on your shoulder you can’t shake? That’s what I feel like right now. Like a punching bag.”

Xeno wasn’t sure why he was saying all this. It must have been the blood loss.

 

[Agatha Io]

Objective: I need a Doctor

The Dusker Children surrounding the strange sight in the deep alleyways of Denon, the Neon lights of its expensive corporate skyscrapers shining from above, had never seen anything like it.

It seemed to be a blasted away, shredded body, half it's head missing and burnt. There had been a battle. A pile of dead lower city cyber augs and a completely destroyed and on fire small building behind them.

One of the children spotted a dropped Energy Sword hilt based off that of a foil. It was out of the range of the destroyed body, which leaked dark green blood everywhere.

It's muscle tissue was also green.

It was...moving...

"We shouldn't be here, Felgrex. We should go. Let the Corpos have it."

"We can't." said Felgrex, a red skinned Zabrak boy of about 12, in a dusty, hand me down clothes.

"Can't? Why not?" asked Hremik, a green skinned Mirialan girl dresses much the same.

"Because..." the boy answered. "I know what this thing is. See that?"

He pointed to a discarded hilt. It glistened in the neon lights over the construction sight.

"My bro's got ties to the market, see. He showed me stuff he sold to those corpo feths. I saw an energy sword just like this. He said it came from an Android that was able to self repair."

"So the feth what. What's it got to do with us?" asked a Neimodian child.

"Because..." Felgrex answered, heading over to her open , generic E-Wing that was painted white with a red shield and the symbol of a medkit and pulling out a surgeon's bag. "Whatever this thing is, it's a doctor."

"It could kill us rather than help us."

"I don't think this thing's got too many friends on Denon." Felgrex replied.

"But if Corpsec catches us with it...if the gangs catch us with it..."

"They'll just take it and beat us. At worst, we're back to square one." Felgrex argued.

"It's different. This tech? This tech is stuff people kill other people over. This tech is stuff that gets you knifed rather than paid. It's radioactive. We should ditch it and leave." the girl argued.

"No one's here yet." Felgrex said quietly. "No security cameras. None of the really fancy sensors. Corpsec is putting out a dozen different fires in each of a dozen different sectors around this one. All the gangs in this area are fighting one another. Either nobody knows about this yet, or they do, but they simply got so much chit to deal with they simply can't afford to send anyone else at the moment. You got a better idea? Like how to afford a doc? We leave it now, we'll never get another chance like this again."

Hours later...

They had dragged it through the most secluded alleys they knew of in an old tarp along with it's Equipment and the bag of spare clothes they had found. In an old long abandoned comlink shop they had finally rested, unable to carry it any further due to waning strength.

They had gotten far away from it, of course. Felgrex had its Rifle, which he found were loaded with explosive rounds, pointed at it the whole time the "corpse" was busily lashing itself together.

It took four hours. None of them blinked as they watched the tarp.

Finally, it started to shuffle.

("Sleepy Alien" by Jerry Goldsmith Plays)

"Rest of you. Out. No sense in all of us buying it if it goes berserk." Felgrex ordered.

The other children ran out of the old computer chip room they had thrown it in.

It's head poked out from under the tarp. Felgrex struggled not to vomit.

On one half of her face was a beautiful, fair skinned woman, hair on her scalp only fuzz but Rapidly regrowing.

But the other side, was unfinished, green muscles flowing over an Obsidian skull, the eye in its socket still not grown back.

"Don't move. I got your gun. Pointed right at your head."

"Little one, you have me at a disadvantage..." The creature said. "Is there something specific I did to upset you?"

"Are you a Doctor?" The boy asked.

"Yes."

"Who made you?"

The creature smiled, only it's head visible from the tarp, and his blood ran cold.

"Don't play stupid. Surely you have some idea, or you wouldn't be pointing a gun filled with explosive bullets at me."

"You're one of those Nuetralizers. Made by Darth Xiphos."

"A fan?"

"No." the boy answered.

"If you wanted a payday, you'd have already turned me over to the corpos..." The Biot reasoned. "You want something. What?"

"I need a doctor."

"If you had wanted a doctor, you could have just asked.

"I'm paranoid."

Agatha shrugged. "It's a good instinct, I'll give you that. Please state the nature of the medical emergency." (The Hologram, formerly a Werewolf: 90 XP)

"It's the district I live in. People are poor and sometimes they get cyber upgrades, sponsored by corpos, so they can get outta the slums. But certain people are getting sick from these weird implants and they're getting worse. My sis got one by spending the last of her creds, my bro's missing, and I ain't got the money to treat her. I need help. I need to know where the implants come from. I got access to stuff. Stuff for droids. One of a kind. You help me out, I'll give you all of it."

Agatha blinked.

"Bribery is unnecessary. I am perfectly willing to help."

Felgrex went wide eyed. "You'll help? Serious?"

"Yes. I am. Now please stop pointing that gun at me."

The boy lowered his rifle and tossed the bag of clothes by her side, along with her gun and energy sword, and left.

Agatha exited out of the room fifteen minutes later, fully regenerated, wearing a silver gown of armorweave that exposed her shoulders and collarbone, wearing dark blue heels. She look like she could be corpo. Her hair hung long and golden from her shoulders.

Despite her symmetry, there was the unnatural precision, the smooth skin, that gave away how not human she was.

"My ship?" Agatha asked a grim faced Felgrex.

"You E-Wing was seized by Corpsec an hour ago."

Agatha sighed.

"Greaaaaaaat..."

"We managed to get your doctor's bag."

Agatha paused.

"Then we are still in business." she replied, perking up. "Now, Children, lead me to your home..."

Agatha walked the streets of Denon's under belly a pale, silver clad vision with deep blue eyes, contrasting the dirt and grime of a used corporate hellhole. The Children followed close behind. Some of the gangs observed but kept their distance, as despite her beauty she was holding that rifle.

"What were you on Denon for?" asked a Neimodian child, a boy.

"I was seeking a rare set of discontinued Healing Field Generators. My seller promised I had a purchase. Turned out to be an ambush. I'm actually rather fortunate you happened along when you did." Agatha answered. "My name's Agatha by the way."

What kind of Droid comes back from all that?" he asked.

"A very well designed one." Agatha replied as she saw two gang members approaching, each heavily augmented.

"Gentlemen..." Agatha called out politely, handing Felgrex the rifle. "What can I do for you?"

"Pretty lady like you shouldn't be walking around with such a big gun. Makes people think you're hostile. That you're here to start something."

"It's a dangerous place. Not like you aren't armed."

"Yeah, but there's a difference. We own this street."

Agatha blinked.

"Ah. And we reach the Crux of the matter..."

Agatha's expression hardened.

"You wish me to pay you."

"Nothing extravagant of course." said one of the heavily cyberized gangsters.

Agatha let out a sigh.

"Normally, that's the sort of proposal that gets a man's neck broken. But because I don't need these little ones to see me tearing your limbs off..."

Agatha reached into her pocket and pulled out a few large, gold coins, giving two to each.

"More than a thousand credits. Now I suggest you feth right off. Because if these children get so much as one scratch from any treachery from you or your friends, I'm going to be very angry. So don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry." (HULK SMASH: 1000 XP)

The gangsters were about to laugh until the sensors in their eyes gave them massive warnings about her strange physiology.

Agatha gently pushed the gangsters aside and led the children through them...

 

[Valery Noble]

Outfit | Weapon | Appearance

Location: Denon
Items: Necklace

"It's harder to track down a man with no face. Doesn't make me any harder to shoot though…"

Valery chuckled in response, "Yeah, seems like they caught up to you anyway." She wasn't going to say it out loud, but she understood the idea of masking up quite well — she was once a Jedi Shadow and those missions always required her to mask her identity completely. But that was behind her now, so she rarely wore masks nowadays.

Her eyes then shifted down, to the tear in her outfit the nurse made to properly get to her injury. It was all wrapped up now, but she still felt a bit sore. Luckily the Force would help her recover from a cut like this very quickly, so her discomfort wasn't going to last too long.

"Feeling like people are out to get me? Yeah... something like that," she chuckled and looked back over at him, "It's part of being a Jedi, especially if you're as active at the front as I am," she continued, confident that he already knew that she was a Jedi, given his own Force-sensitivity. So there was no point in trying to hide it.

"But there are other ways to attract trouble too, as I'm sure you know quite well."

Xeno ​

 

[Xeno]

Denon
Tags: Valery Noble ​

The Jedi casually revealed herself to be such, quite to the surprise of Xeno. Bold, he though. She must have deemed him as no real threat, a first as far as Xeno was concerned. Perhaps this indicated a change in his track record with Jedi.

"But there are other ways to attract trouble too, as I'm sure you know quite well."

“Very true,” the swordsman nodded. “I can’t say I ended up shot by being a passive observer. I’ve ruffled the feathers of a fair amount of individuals with the financial means to see me dead. Guess I’m too stubborn to keel over.”

He paused for a moment. Clearly, this woman was like no Jedi he had met thus far. She had mentioned being ‘active in the front.’ Front lines perhaps? She certainly seemed the type to lead the charge against the Sith. His master had isolated himself from the greater Sith Empire, or whatever they called themselves now. The Maw, Xeno recalled. It really didn’t matter. The Sith didn’t change. Despite this isolation, it was hard for Xeno not to hear about what the Sith were capable of. From that angle, he could respect someone who was not only in the business of leading the charge, but seemed to be capable of keeping themselves alive in the process.

“‘Active at the front,’ huh?” The half-breed echoed. “You certainly seem the type. I respect it. Even if I was Jedi, I’m not big on the whole ‘leading’ thing. Not exactly my stile.”

 

[Valery Noble]

Outfit | Weapon | Appearance

Location: Denon
Items: Necklace

"A little bit of stubbornness goes a long way sometimes," Valery said with a faint but noticeable smirk. Her will to survive and make it back to her family and friends has always been vital to her — so in a way, she was too stubborn to let anything get to her as well. Somehow, she always fought to make her way back home.

Xeno then continued about her comment of being on the front and even deduced that she was a leader out there as well. It brought a gentle smile to her lips, "It's not for everybody, and I can't constantly be out there either. Which is why I'm out here; to handle what was supposed to be a simpler mission."

She chuckled and patted her side, "But even simple assignments can get rough sometimes." she then paused for a moment and looked him up and down. His presence in the Force felt refined, suggesting he had some kind of training. "What is it that you do? You don't seem like the type who is Force-sensitive but never tapped into it."

Xeno ​

 

[Kadora'Tra]

Spoiler: CorpSec on the Beat

It ain't easy being black & red, there's local businesses to shake down, there's investigations to follow up on, and there's bosses to please. Maybe their quota is down this month, or there's a disturbance to respond to, but any way it turns out a Seccer's got some heads to bust and arrests to make.

How long had it been since Lonnie had taken over for Kadora'Tra? Only so many months had passed, but it felt as if had been years. Her tear and blood-soaked face roaring simultaneous rage and placation confined to the dark. As far as Lonnie knew, that is where she remained. Gone, truly gone.

The CorpSec Captain stepped out of the cruiser her Lieutenant, Kyle, had been driving for her.

"Over here, Captain." A sergeant beckoned the pair over to the Mining Union Coordination Center (MUCC). The Trandoshan woman and her human translator were escorted past the cordoned-off section of the blocky brown office building. Though there was no mining to be done on Denon, it still served as excellent office space for representing the union and managing its bureaucracy across the galaxy.

It seemed that the local residents had different ideas about the MUCC on Denon.

"Showed up overnight. Our brains have already run an analysis on the style and pattern, trying to match any rap sheets in our database. Unfortunately, once the egg heads got what they needed and we started having it scrubbed... it won't come off. Worse, parts of it seem to be, growing? We're not sure." As the Sergeant briefed her on the details of what was supposed to be a mild disturbance, Lonnie looked over the side of the building which had now become a canvas for graffiti.

The ugly brown building had become "beautified" by multi-colored floral arrangements the size of people, connected by green vines, grass, and moss. There was a waterfall depicted framed by an opening between trees and a sunrise peeking over mountains in the background. Lonnie could also identify what the Sergeant meant, some of this wasn't just static paint, it was definitely moving - growing - and was starting to wrap around the corner of the building.

Something about it looked familiar. Lonnie hissed and rumbled.

"She says to expand data analysis to Belazura, this isn't a Denonite." Kyle spoke for her, while she watched a new flower blossom. One she had once given to Kadora'Tra.

 

[Xeno]

Denon
Tags: Valery Noble ​

"What is it that you do? You don't seem like the type who is Force-sensitive but never tapped into it."

"That's... complicated to explain," Xeno hesitantly began. "I'm... in the business of looking for particularly dangerous things. Dark artifacts, you could call them. They find their way into circulation in the underworld for all kinds of reasons. Curiosity... temptation... simply because some warlord wanted it on their mantel. It doesn't really matter in the end of the day. As long as things like that are loose, people die." The swordsman paused, gathering his thoughts before continuing. "I owe a debt to the Galaxy that requires payment."

Even if it had been unwilling, the blood of many were on his hands. Perhaps the argument could be made that it wasn't his fault. He had been a slave; a tool utilized by the will of a wicked individual to siphon the lifeforce of those in opposition to him. Xeno didn't care. He made the conscious action to follow orders to preserve himself. Innocent beings and guilty consciousnesses don't mix. The swordsman didn't let his internal torment show in any way. His voice remained composed, maybe even the slightest bit bland.

The mask helped.

 

[Agatha Io]

Agatha and the children at last reached their neighborhood, and she immediately understood why Felgrex's situation had been so desperate he had turned to her for help.

The neighborhood was in an advanced state of economic decay. It looked like it had been meant to be more upscale once, fine carved facades still on many of the buildings. But time and corporate neglect had allowed it to give way to the gangs and other ills until it was just another sector in downfall.

The too perfect looking Biot drew stares in the ruddy streets, the neon lights casting overly smooth skin in an odd pallor.

Her weaponized heart swelled with pain as she watched the wretched signs of hopelessness. The Jedi claimed they brought light to oppressed worlds but did worlds like this ever change? The world Laertia Io herself had lived for years on, Nar Shaddaa, was still the cesspool of crime and darkness it always was.

Places like this seemed to be permanent miasmas of despair. Could even House Io come in here and correct such madness? Perhaps, but only with the bloodiest and most fiery of purges.

The gangs all turned their heads as she walked down the street to an apartment that had a bunch of blaster marks on the front.

An old man with graying hair only on the sides and in gray clothing with a cane and a Cybernetic Arm sitting on a rocking chair in the hall frowned as the too precise in movement Biot now started following the Zabrak child.

"Fel? Who..."

He stopped. He peered closer.

"What is this?" he asked a second later, in a much quieter voice.

"My name is Agatha. I'm a Doctor." Agatha explained crisply and confidently.

"Where are you taking this...thing?" The old man asked the Zabrak boy.

"To help my sister. She's the only one who would help."

"I haven't seen her here before, and that dress? She's definitely not lower city. Corpo? One of their 'products'?" he asked with a sneer. "What are you charging this poor boy? He ain't got nothing to pay you with. Money ran dry days ago."

"My services are being offered free of charge." Agatha answered.

"Nothing's free on Denon." The old man grumbled. "There's always a price."

He went quiet, peering a little closer at her.

"Who made you? Which Corpo? You look like something a Corpo would sell."

"I assure you..." Agatha answered, using her Organic care subroutines to placate him the way she would an irritable patient.

"I am not a product of any corporation on Denon, nor am I aligned with any corporation on Denon. I am but a visitor, repaying a favor to these children for helping me out of a difficult situation earlier. I have no ill intent, nor any desire to charge them for services rendered or resources expended...and I promise to leave once I have helped them."

His eyes flickered, aged mouth frowning harder.

"Eh, I believe you. Corpos know what's going down on the streets. They'd never bother sending anyone. It's your skin, kid..." The old man muttered. "It does anything funny, run for your life."

Felgrex stared at him deadpan before nodding and preceding ahead to his room.

The apartment was clean and Agatha saw it was well lit. There were a few possessions and, mainly it was stuff about the glitzy life in the city above them.

Agatha immediately fixed her eyes on the Zabrak lying in the sofa. She looked pale, almost withered under the blanket, and she immediately got out the med scanner from the bag she carried and ran it over her.

"What sort of implant did she receive?" Agatha questioned.

"Noo...noo... something..." Felgrex answered.

Agatha's eyebrow raised.

"Ah, Noological Implant. That was her ticket out. Turn herself into a genius. Infamously expensive, even for those made with inferior materials." Agatha noted, prying open the eyelids and shining a light. She saw the surgical scar on the frontal lobe.

"Even if the inferior models were sold at a discount on the black market, the people here still couldn't have hoped to afford them. And the Corpos wouldn't waste time on studying the effects of poorly made tech on random populace samples...they'd gain nothing...unless it's not actually a Noological Implant..." she mused to herself pacing back and forth. She turned to Felgrex.

"The degradation to her frontal lobe is already significant, and increasing. If I had gotten here a week ago, I might have been able to salvage it with some regenerative medicine and emergency radiation treatments." Agatha said patiently. "As it stands...we will have to operate, and replace it entirely..."

Felgrex paused. "With what?"

"One of the advantages of my design...I am a near universal doner..." Agatha explained. But we cannot do the surgery here. The risk of infection is too severe at this point. It must be conducted in as sterile an environment as can possibly be managed."

"What if we don't operate?" Felgrex asked.

"Then your Sister will not live past another week. Nor will anyone else who has received this Cybernetic Implant." Agatha answered flatly, the other children watching intently.

Felgrex frowned but then nodded.

"I know where to get somewhere clean to operate. But it won't be easy. There's a chop shop crew 'ere in this area..." the boy answered. "They claim they salvage and recycle, but it's a chop shop and everyone knows it. They got themselves a hot item. A Luminary Class Explorer... that's got a med bay. That could help us."

"It will have to do. This crew, that works the chop shop. How much trouble could I expect from them?" Agatha wondered.

"They aren't a friendly lot, nor are they the type to be distracted by looks...'cept for one guy 'mong 'em. A Corellian. He's the guy running the register. Also helps take apart the ships. Dunno if he'll go for Androids though. Even ones as...well made...as you are.

Agatha smirked. "You'd be surprised."

Felgrex shrugged. "Maybe. Charmin' the Corellian might get you in the door but don't expect it to work on the mechanic. He can spot tech a mile away. Only way he'll look at you is as a payday."

Agatha blinked, filing away the information. "Does he have rivals?"

"Nobody in this area." he answered.

Agatha sighed. "Drat. We'll have to be a bit oblique about this...how connected is he?"

"Connected. All the gangs in this area and pirates in this sector, they use him as a fence. You take him out, you'll bring so much heat on our heads our organs will all be somebody else within three days."

"Don't fret. There are ways to win a battle without firing a shot..." Agatha assured him. "Supreme Excellence consists of this."

Forty minutes later...

Felgrex noted the unsettling ease with which Agatha had taken control of the situation. Of the apartment. She had immediately taken her time diagnosing the children for any injuries or illness and caught two early, immediately administering medication before helping clean up some small messes as Felgrex described the level of security around the salvage yard the shop operated from and the level of resistance she could expect. She had even made them all food from the fridge.

Felgrex had then taken to show her what he had that could help.

Felgrex was an enterprising sort, and had nabbed a number of interesting items...

Felgrex watched as the Android clinically examined them, checking for any defects and modifying her strategy to work with what was available.

(Fallen Order Upgrade Sound Plays)

(Agatha has received new weapons and items!)

Weapon/Item: LIGHT RING

Spoiler

Small Ring that emits a light that can open mechanical locks. Capable of momentarily blinding an opponent. This ring is fashioned as a silver band with the light emitting gem shaped like an eye.

Item: MICRO SONIC VIBRATION INJECTOR

Spoiler

Too that allows in section of chemical compounds without breaking skin via sonic Technology

Item: NAMANA LIQUOR

Spoiler

A bottle of fine Namana Liquor, stolen by Felgrex

Item: NORBUTAL

Spoiler

A paralytic drug

Weapon: STUN GAS PROJECTOR (WRIST MOUNTED)

Spoiler

Wrist Mounted version of weapon that projects non lethal knockout gas> Limited Reservoir

As she inspected them, she noticed Felgrex staring at her.

"No one's going to get hurt. I promise." Agatha assured.

"House Io doesn't have a good record of not killing people."

"You mentioned you weren't a fan. I'm sensing it's something deeper." Agatha said politely and in as non offensive a tone as possible.

She was not prepared for his response.

"My Father was an employee at a corpo. Maw captured him when was on assignment. Made him a slave. He died at Rhand, when your boss fired on the Worldship they kept him prisoner on. As for my Mother, she was a Jedi. Your boss killed her at Ziost."

The boy walked out, and Agatha was speechless.

 

[Valery Noble]

Outfit | Weapon | Appearance

Location: Denon
Items: Necklace

Now that really caught her interest.

When he explained that he was searching for Dark Side artifacts with the intent of keeping them away from people who could never truly understand them, she began to visibly smile, "It's a good way to make up for past mistakes — those artifacts can't ever be underestimated," Valery said but her tone already suggested that she had a lot of experience on the subject.

"I used to be a Jedi Shadow, so hunting artifacts and other creations of the Dark Side was, well, my focus. So I understand the need, as well as the difficulty of the job you're doing," she continued with a more appreciative smile, but there was something else she wanted to bring up as well. Something about the debt he felt he owed the Galaxy.

"Just know that you shouldn't feel like this path needs to last forever. There should be a time where you've redeemed yourself, and you can focus on living your life the way you want to."

Xeno ​

 

[Xeno]

Denon
Tags: Valery Noble ​

The swordsman let out a sigh. The problem was that he did feel like this road he was on had no end. Even if he was able to move on, there were hundreds of people out there just like his past self: Beings dictated by fear, killing those in their path as to not be killed themselves. Realistically, Xeno could very well walk this path to his grave. How could he ever live a normal life after everything he had been though?

“I appreciate the sentiment,” he began, “but I don’t know if I can do that. I may not even be capable of living a normal life.” The swordsman shrugged, almost sounding the slightest bit regretful. “Not that it matters anyways. I’ll probably end up dying out there eventually.”

Even still, her words were still clinging to the back of his mind. Could he have lived a normal life? Perhaps if his parents had been spared their fate, he could have. A lifetime where his Mother’s eyes never lost their light… where his Father was free of his shackles. Such a thing was never possible. They were both long gone now, worked to death in a mine some twenty years ago, put through the grief of being dragged away from their homeland and separated from their son. Maybe they thought their boy had a better chance out in the unknown. If so, they were blissfully unaware of the monster he would be forged into.

 

[Valery Noble]

Outfit | Weapon | Appearance

Location: Denon
Items: Necklace

Valery frowned at his words, again because she recognized herself in them. Or well, her old self. There was a time, prior to her stasis, when she had been so devoted to her work that she never allowed herself to live a normal life to any capacity. She went from one battlefield to another, and back to the Jedi Temple to train or teach others. One day, it would lead to her death and that would be the end of her existence.

But since then, so much has changed for her.

"I once thought I'd never experience any of the good things in life, but I was proven wrong. It just took me a long time... much longer than it should have," Valery admitted with a soft smile. "It's possible for you as well, as long as you open your mind to it — it's never too late." It was a realization that had struck her years ago, and it was very much possible it would never hit Xeno, or perhaps he just didn't want things to change.

But if he wanted it, she was confident that it was possible.

Xeno ​

 

[Xeno]

Denon
Tags: Valery Noble ​

“…Perhaps,” Xeno remarked, frowning under his mask. In truth, he had never really stopped to consider if living his own life was even a viable option. “I need time to think about it…”

The swordsman began to think about when that would come, or what it would look like. Maybe it was possible, just not yet. Xeno couldn’t retire just yet, not with the guilt weighing on his chest.

“Alright, I’ll strike a deal with you,” Xeno continued after pausing to think. “The day my mask comes off is the day I put all of this aside. I… just can’t do that now.”