Private Bolts and Bounties

[5-WCH (Switchblade)]

The bounty hall on Denon had become a second home for the droid.

While the stuck-up rich people of the Galactic Alliance may have moved in and taken control on the planet, there was no way that they were ever going to rid it of all its criminal activity. Hell, the planet ran on crime. And that is why professions such as bounty hunting were still as high paying as they were. Well, for the right people at least. Walking through the maze that was packed full of people and businesses, Switchblade made his way to a doorway located in a darkened alleyway.

Once the correct passcode was inserted into the lock, the doors would slide open and reveal the hub of activity. Tucked away on the lower levels of Denon, the bounty hall was the place for any and every bounty hunter there was. No matter if you are from the Outer Rim or the Unknown Regions, all hunters have been here.

Stepping inside, he was treated with the smell of sweat, blood, alcohol. Sometimes his artificial senses benefited him. But not this time. Skipping past the rookies drooling over the latest tech the Guild had to offer, the droid moved back towards the exclusive bounties. Not exclusive to droid's, but exclusive to the best of the best. Hunters that never failed to get a target. Hunters that did jobs quick and without a mess. Hunters that brought in good credits to the Guild.

The droid's name was starting to become popular among the hunters. This was both a blessing and a curse. Popularity can make you rich, or get you killed. All depends on how you played your cards.

Walking over to a table in the back of the room, the droid sat down, surveying the room. Once clear, he would configure his hand to the socket formation and plug into the nearby outlet. From there he would log onto the system, connecting himself with it. After that, he would search the DarkWeb and Bounty Board for his next target. Hopefully one that paid well.

Xan Deesa

 

[Xan Deesa]

In the void of data, binary codes and programming, Xan drifted around. She saw everything, she heard everything... she knew everything. She was used to it by now... but it was still disturbing. She would likely never be free of this nightmare. She would be cursed for eternity to no longer be a living being. She would be a thing, a bit of programming stretched throughout the entire galaxy and infecting every bit of hardware and software she comes into contact with, voluntarily or not.

But the worst was never to feel again. Never to taste or smell again. To never be able to smack Cartri on the shoulder or hold someone close. Everyone had their answer for the price of freedom. She thought she had as well. The next time someone tells her 'everything', she would have quite a bit to say.

This suffering, this pain, was brought upon her by the very people she fought against. In a twisted way they helped her out. But now she was out for revenge. She wanted to get back at them. Unfortunately their security was tight, so simply literally sliding into their DM's wasn't an option. She needed to hijack systems in order to get in. So that's what brought her to keeping an eye on every Bounty Hunter's Guild she could find... which was every one out there. She even went a step further, scanning the members and looking for suitable candidates to use. But there was another reason as well.

In her experience, assassin droids and the like were the only things that could come close to her old body. But finding one with access to the Holonet was a trick. Only the most advanced ones could do that... and they weren't the type to just drop in out of the blue. Safe to say, she was quite surprised when a droid plugged into the BHG systems and turned out to be the exact type of droid she was looking for. She took a closer look, peeking into what made it tick and scanning him with the cameras in the building. It was perfect.

Like a crashing wave she streamed into the droid's systems and immediately tried to take over... however something stopped her. Upon closer inspection, it wasn't a typical droid. By the look of it, the only thing distinguishing it from a human in terms of cognitive function was the body. This wasn't an average droid.

She was so caught up in this confusion that she didn't realize she opened a comms channel with the droid. "Wait what the kriff?" she spoke up, quite surprised. "Okay, what the kark are you, choom? Seriously, you're not just a random droid." she continued, sounding rather embarrassed by her failure to assimilate the body. Taking over this one wasn't going to happen overnight.

On the droid's eyesight, Xan appeared in the seat across from him. A slightly glitching and overly flamboyant hologram, but it was her. She leaned forward, glaring at him as she tried to figure him out. "You're not just an average assassin bot, who made you?" she asked curtly.

5-WCH (Switchblade)

 

[5-WCH (Switchblade)]

A small spasm ran throughout the droid's body.

He was not scheduled for a mandatory diagnostic test for another three days. So why had one run just not? Maybe his sensors were tripped by some unknown code within the holonet. It has happened before, so that was more than likely the case. Ignoring it, the droid continued to search for another bounty he could fulfill.

That was when the female spoke.

Snapping his head upwards, the droid activated his scanners to see who it was. The surprise in their voice didn't just seem general, but more directed towards him. After quickly eyeing the room around him, the closest female was twenty nine feet four inches away, and this voice sound much closer. The next series of sentences confused him even more.

"Show yourself now. I don't have time for games."

Drawing his pistol, the droid raised up the blaster in a defensive position. They could be ready to strike at any moment. Suddenly the figure appeared across the table. The barrel swung towards the women, aiming right at her head. What his processors couldn't figure out though is why she was a hologram.

"That information is classified, especially to fleshies like you. Who are you and why are you here."

This wasn't time to play games. He wasn't interested in trying to find answers. They were going to be given whether the women wanted to or not.

Xan Deesa

 

[Xan Deesa]

A devillish grin appeared on Xan's mask as he trained his pistol on her. He proceeded to question her as she leaned back and rested her holographic legs on the table. To the rest of the building, he was pointing his blaster at an empty seat across from him, but in his optical processors he was staring down a snickering Xan. "Choom, you're more fleshie than I am right now. All you're doing is threatening a seat across from you." she quipped. "As for who I am... I'm getting a little tired of that question." she admitted with a hint of irritation.

In his view an image appeared of her rap sheet as Xan sat upright again. "Kriffers still didn't update it. Typical. They think they got rid of me. Joke's on them. The least they could do is add 'destruction of a kriffing space station' to the list." she commented as it disappeared. "I'll just come clean, not like you can do anything to me. I'm already in your head. I wanted to take your body. I'm a little short on a body right now and you made a prime specimen. Only issue is you aren't a typical droid. It'll take me a lot longer than I'd like to wipe your personality and replace it with mine. So, Switch, I'm here in your dome now with a proposition." she explained casually as her image leaned closer to him as if telling him a secret.

"You're a hunter and not a bad one at that. And judging from your records, you'll be a big help for me. I want a body, preferably one of your models. I'll lend you a hand to get you any target you're after. Personal or business. And in return you help me with info on where to get a preem slice of droid like yourself." she explained, the sheer amount of confidence quite evident in her voice. "One look at your memory banks and I can guess there's a name or two you wouldn't mind flat-lining. I'll even throw a fat bonus on top of the target prize." she quipped with a smug look as she disappeared and reappeared next to him with an arm draped around his neck.

5-WCH (Switchblade)

 

[5-WCH (Switchblade)]

The droid looked around at his surroundings, making sure he hadn't caused to much commotion with this current situation.

Slowly, the gun was lowered from his hand and set down onto the table. He wasn't going to be able to blast this woman, so for now he could only wait. Personally, he hated waited. Waiting got people hurt, or killed, two things that he wasn't actively searching for right now. Suddenly his processors shifted focus onto the image that somehow appeared onto his HUD.

"Xan Deesa. You are a part of Darkwire. Can't say I have heard of you though."

While he face could express no emotion, that droid began to get worried about being told he had been hacked into. This wasn't not supposed to happen. Mainly because his programming was coded to fight against it. How was she able to bypass it? But his worry quickly changed to frustration with the mention of his brothers and sisters. Shrugging his shoulder, the droid tried to remove Xan's arm from around himself, only to watch it pass straight through.

"You will never, and I mean NEVER, mention my brothers and sisters again. No price you say will make me lead you to them. Now you either get out of my head, or I wil manually restart and erase you myself."

Getting up, Switch quickly tried to exit the Bounty Hall. He wasn't going to let the other hunters possibly see a moment a weakness he was having.

Xan Deesa

 

[Xan Deesa]

Xan wanted to short him out for the comment. It was probably very vain, but how the hell did the entirety of Denon just forget her face overnight? Was she going to have to plaster it on every billboard, screen and hologram to remind people? Her situation only got worse when he ensured her that she wasn't going to get a droid like him for herself. "You can restart and format all you like, I'll be right back the moment you make any sort of connection." she quipped casually as she watched him leave his seat. "Okay fine..." she grumbled.

Her hologram disappeared for a while as he exited the building and made his way into the streets. Though she returned with a snicker as she materialized upside down in front of him. "Told you!" she quipped as she stopped walking on her hands and stood in front of him. Her reputation took a bit of a dive when her hologram suddenly started to T-pose as it walked with him, floating beside him as her voice distorted. "Hot damn, how terrible is the signal in this area?!" she called out.

Soon she got a decent connection again and held up her hands to stop him. "Okay, look! I need a body. I don't care if it's some crappy thing in a junkyard somewhere. Just help me get a body and I'll help you out with whatever you need." she practically begged. "I can get into any network anywhere you need me to. I can throw a fat bonus your way, whatever. Just help me get some sort of body going." she continued as her hologram closed the distance for her to look directly at his faceplate.

5-WCH (Switchblade)

 

[5-WCH (Switchblade)]

Looks like getting rid of this girl was going to be harder than he thought.

He watched as a pitiful attempt was made to get his help. Walking right up to her, the droid stood only a few inches away from the hologram, staring her down. He stood silent, contemplating what he should do next. No part of him wanted to help, but he didn’t want this girl bugging with him for the rest of time.

Letting out a mechanicalized sigh, the droid finally spoke.

“There is one, and only one way I’m going to help you.”

The droid held up an intimidating finger, furthering his seriousness. He couldn’t even believe he allowed himself to help this girl.

“I need any and all information you can get on a Zeltron named Zaavik Perl . Where his current location is, who he is with, what he ate last night, favorite alcohol, mother’s maiden name. All. Of. It.”

Zaavik’s name had appeared very high on almost all bounties boards within the Galactic Alliance space. Murdering some high-class official can get you there. And now, Switch planned on claiming the bounty.

But first, he had to deal with this little glitch in his programming.

 

[Xan Deesa]

Xan blinked at his demand. Frankly it sounded far too easy for her, while it sounded like he was expecting it to be extremely difficult. "Wait... that's it?" she asked him with a confused look. "Okay uh... you want me to send you the stuff to an account? Print it out or something?" she asked him with a smirk.

"I figured you'd ask something way more difficult for me to do." she quipped as her hologram disappeared, however her comm connection was still open with him. "I'm just gonna upload it to your database. You can sift through it as you like." she quipped as she started her search. Usually it would be like searching for a needle in a very big stack of needles, but luckily the droid and bounty board narrowed her search tremendously. She had a name. In no time she had a face. A few minutes later, every camera in the galaxy that wasn't locked down in some sort of secure network was searching while files were explored containing links to the target. Even if the cameras were secured, piggybacking into a network through a careless user's connection made it easy as well.

She was everywhere. Eyes and ears in every corner of the galaxy that had some form of connected technology. There was no way for anyone to hide from her omnipresent nosiness as long as they so much as touched on civilized life.

Every bit of info that she could find on his target was uploaded into his memory. Down to the finest details she could get on the Zeltron, his family members, his location, even his search history.

"Alright, grumpy bolts, there's your info." she spoke up as her hologram reappeared.

5-WCH (Switchblade)