Public Chasing a Rumor On Samovar

[Westenra Mina]

The Android was fascinated by the Force. The way it could seemingly do anything.

Westenra ran forward letting the chunk of metal rip a hole right through her chest, spilling bright, glowing red blood. But it did nothing to phase her. She kept running as though she hadn't felt it.

Her flesh wriggled disgustingly as she sprinted, detecting the presence of Ionic energy build up in Lord Venari , multiple tactical options playing out in a microsecond in her brain.

The world slowed from her perspective, the chest wound already forty percent sealed and climbing, her X-Ray mode indicating the unconcious muscle twitches in his arms a few microseconds before the ionic pulses actually traveled down them for discharge through his hands. She had already executed a forward buzzsaw flip, the sword in her hands turning her into a literal buzzsaw due to the sheer force and speed with which she had executed the flip. The flip carried her straight over the energy discharge towards him, but that was only a feint for her real plan. She wanted him to think until the very last second that she was gonna try some crazy buzzsaw attack on his face, which would have been, like, totally awesome, but Mother had specifically put warning protocols in her programming about attempting buzzsaw attacks with swords: they looked awesome, especially when executed perfectly, but were simply not efficient.

At the very last second, she twisted her body away from his skull, deliberately not landing directly behind him but a few meters behind his left where she then sprang forward, black fangs in her mouth extended as she pounced forward in an attempt to sink those fangs into his neck, so she could non-lethally drink his psychic energy and render him unconscious, and if she successfully got a grip on him, she would use her superhuman strength to restrain him. But he might befast enough to dodge this, and if he succeeded, Westenra would follow up with a series of vicious, precise sword attacks aimed at his face and head in a completely randomized pattern in an attempt to thwart his brain's Force-Aided Predictive Algorithms. (For this was how the Android perceived such things.)

But she had been very close when she landed to his side, and the nature of her design made her highly resistant to choke and grip attacks. The attack could very well succeed.

Because while Venari was well prepared for androids, he was not experienced at fighting vampire androids designed by an actual Vampire with a back ground in hunting and murdering Dark Side Users. And if he was, then well, he deserves all the perk points he spent on The Destruction Tree.

Either way, she had to end this fast in any way she could. The lives of The Astapovas and Jacen Nimdok were in danger, and the longer it went on, the closer AMCO would get...

Zara Tate

Draconis Caesar

 

[Lord Venari]

Both delight and frustration coursed through the Sith Lord, force-based ionization torrents typically near-tethered themselves to the intended target in a similar manner to lightning yet the machine was still fast enough to evade the dual streams. With its momentum only further accelerating the droid's already considerable speed it blew just over him and to his left. Venari lunged right putting distance between the two, where he would remain uncontested. The Sith Lord came to a stand only to meet with black fangs swiping across the space he had just occupied. A bewildered gaze fell on the biotic machine, what are you, Venari thought.

Its barrage wasn't over just yet, the machine sprung back into action with a flurry of swings from its vibrosword. Venari leapt back but it wasn't enough to dodge the initial strike. Her blade cut across his stomach as he took to the air and the onslaught only continued. The gold hue of his skin paled to silver, a marked trait of his kind. Each following swing came close but Venari's force imbued speed managed to mitigate the worst of the damage. A few slices landed across the Sith's lower body as the droid's attacks followed his series of jumps, but he had endured worse.

As it followed through with its vicious offense, mounds of snow were reduced to lowly piles and wetted ground, the summer palace was setting a new scene for their stage play. Around the heated structure snow didn't last long. Light accumulation mixed with dampened grounds was their surroundings, as the radiating heat melted it away.

"We got em boys. The Sith is right over there!" The snow-touched captain of the defending police force shouted, "Who the hell's that chasing him?"

It was time to spring his four-pronged trap. First, one of her extended slashes dug slightly into his bicep, it was of no consequence for the machine was not the only one who healed naturally. The Firrerreon's wounds sealed shut. Next, from behind the machine, his personal saber activated and this one would not be crushed with its phrik base. The Sith lord snatched his last spare from the air and spun out of her attack swinging at her midsection. With the momentum of his slash he took to the air. Venari couldn't confirm which, if any, of his saber strikes landed with the machine's liquid-like body but he wasn't done.

Blaster bolts tore through the air, the source of which was the third piece of the puzzle. With the swing of his free hand Venari viciously tore into the minds of the defensive line and commanded, "this beast wishes the Astapova's dead, fire on it now!" The mind broken authorities unleashed a flurry of blaster fire on the droid. They weren't the most accurate but it'd was more to keep the machine busy. Finally, the pièce de résistance, the Sith Lord's application of Mechu Deru. With it, one could understand and manipulate machinery through the force. It was not an art Venari had perfected, but with it he would divulge the Biotic's secrets at the least and should he manage to implant his own will in the machine - the perfect assassin, a new tool of destruction would be his.

AMCO Westenra Mina Jacen Nimdok Zara Tate

 

[AMCO]

A hint of something strange, yet very very dead; later. A truly gorgeous painting, which he really had to discuss with the Astapovas; later. Taking the stairs two at a time, he moved resolutely upwards, ever upwards, a spark of cold hatred visible on his features.

He had come close, so close, and now the knowledge was lost forever. A travesty, and one that would be avenged.

All but throwing open the door to the attic, he looked around, seeing no one of note... and forming a Force Barrier when the window suddenly exploded. What the hell? "Do you really think some low explosives will kill me, you son of a Hutt! Just wait until I get my hands on..."

Having strode up to the gaping hole the window had occupied, he came face to face not with that bastard from before, but with a woman in the process of scaling the wall. "Who in the Nether are you!? Nevermind, have you seen a pointy-eared philistine in robes?"

To her, he would likely seem just as strange - a seemingly unarmed young man in a dashing suit, he looked harmless enough, yet he and the items he wore reeked of the Dark Side's pervasive taint, the byproduct of countless hours of pushing at the boundaries of what was possible.

Zara Tate & Jacen Nimdok | Lord Venari & Westenra Mina
(OOC: Your posts were rather vague, you know, so I just did something and hope it works. If not, tell me.)​

 

[Westenra Mina]

The moisture in the air at last started to catch up with her, making her form glitch and skin start to slough slightly off the bone as she fought, glitching combat programs only having partly analyzed his regenerative qualities tasting some of his blood that had dripped down the blade during a momentary pause in the fighting. His blood had a semi-sweet taste to it. Her systems were already analyzing its midichlorians. Interesting bio-structure...she began to wonder if it might be possible to replicate it within herself...but this was not the place to do it. The Sith was still a threat. But the moisture from the snow was making it more difficult to maintain cohesion.

The situation was made worse when her enhanced hearing detected his lightsaber activating and speeding towards her. It cut a deep trench into her mid-section, then part of her face, then sliced through four fingers, causing her to rapidly defend as best she could while viciously counter attacking in turn, aiming for his shoulders and hands to make it more difficult for him to hold his weapon, still constantly on the semi-defensive, when she detected the sound of police showing up. While dodging his blade she saw him "hack" the programming of the police (For again this was how she perceived such a thing.) to fire. Westenra refused to truly risk killing one, and resolved to do it the slow way, even though it would cost her.

Slowed by the moisture glitches slightly, a few bolts tore through her chest as she flipped and spun towards the police, chunks of her getting blasted off, exposing meat and a bloody skeleton in certain places, at one point even blasting half her head off and staggering it, allowing it to be further riddled with blaster bolts, but it still fought much faster than the police could aim and shoot, its blade slicing through their weapons followed by precise, pressure point attacks with her free hand that had already regrown its fingers to their throats, to painlessly, non-lethally paralyze them and eventually render them unconscious, still getting blasted to chit by the remaing cops all the while, now screaming in fear at how, though she was little but a skeleton with exposed, glowing red muscles holding its structural integrity together at this point, and being still further affected by the snow due to the exposure, it was not dying. But it gradually downed them too, even as its reflexes and speed dwindled to only three times faster than a human in peak condition, until it was alone with Lord Venari once more, regenerating very quickly, all police painlessly disabled and rendered unconscious. Its free arm had been blasted off by a shotgun and lay twitching in the dirt...

The biot's remaining muscles and now heavily exposed, bloody skeleton wriggled as it experienced his Mechu-Deru for the first time.

Warning. Warning. Unknown System Breach Method Detected her brain's systems declared to her as she staggered towards him, feeling the attempt go all the way to her core programming as she shook. Only her almost fully organic nature prevented it from being an automatic success. Her system was well programmed and began throwing every countermeasure it could think of to prevent the hacking attempt, but the effect persisted as Venari attempted to subsume her will to his.

In an emergency, last ditch countermeasure, she hacked her own system, introducing temporary run-time errors in her brain to cause her body to produce enzymes that temporarily made it more difficult for signals from outside sources to be conducted directly to her brain and flesh. This heated her body up fast and dangerously, but she at last defeated the Mechu-Deru attempt, purging the system hack from her brain, and was about to attack him again, when she heard more sirens in the distance. They were bringing reinforcements. They would be here soon. She had seen some of the police shouting for back up as she engaged them on their comlinks.

Realizing she would soon be in a Logan versus The Ravagers-type situation (With Venari as Zander Rice), The Biot decided it was necessary to retreat, as it refused to put any more in danger than it already had. The round unfortunately went to Venari.

This time.

The Biot spoke the only thing it had bothered to say since the fight began.

"Your blood has a tart taste to it. Interesting. But tart." And then it was sprinting away from him at superhuman speed, minutes before more policeman would arrive. It had to find some way of catching up with Jacen Nimdok . There must be another way to him, she thought as she retreated...

...and leaving the arm that had been blasted off still on the ground...

Zara Tate

AMCO

Draconis Caesar

 

[Zara Tate]

Adrian poked his head out the attic window and came face-to-face with Zara scaling the wall. Whom, luckily enough, had seen Nimdock slither out onto the roof likewise. So, with her expression as one of sumptuous shock, yet sudden and quick honesty as well. She pointed quickly upwards.

"He went that way."

Then she shrugged and quickly scaled up the metalwork to the roof. Arriving presently. She ignored Adrian and locked eyes with a smiling ninja high above.

"There you are!"

The good ninja shrugged and pointed down the roof towards a very familiar and quickly retreating, pointy-eared philistine.

"Darling? Quick question. Was, um, he with you?"

Zara raised an eyebrow in surprise and looked back towards Adrian. Who was probably on the rooftops by now anyway.

"Nope. ...Was he with you!?"

"HEY! YOU UP THERE!"

Both Zara and the ninja swiveled to see a group of police officers shouting up at them from the ground floor.

"HEY! YOU STAY RIGHT THERE! YOU'RE ALL UNDER ARREST!"

Both Zara and the ninja woman sighed.

"Ugh." "Ugh."

What the feth was wrong with these people?

"Tell me where the shard is!" Zara shouted up at the ninja on her tall tower balcony.

"Hmph. As if."

The sly woman swung about the balcony and perched herself on the railing's edge. As if to jump.

"Finders. Keepers!"

And with that, the performing cyborg smiled and fired off a grappling round towards the neighboring structures. Quickly making a grand escape by swinging her lithe body across a grand and vast distance. Disappearing into the blizzard's white fog beyond.

"Damn it!" Zara kicked.

She knew she'd just lost her best, (and probably only,) chance at recovery.

Poo!

Jacen Nimdok | AMCO
ooc: sry 4 vague. wanted to see what ya'll would run with it and fill in the blanks. lulz.​

 

[Jacen Nimdok]

With the full brunt of the strengthening blizzard blasting his front and his competitors gathering at his back, it seemed Nimdok was in truly dire straits. The archaeologist was unarmed, and while he had allowed Lady Astapova a glimpse of his true nature in order to save her from the gatekeeper’s hunger, he couldn’t afford to blow his cover to the other players in this game.

The attic windows were occupied by his pursuers, and the ground was very far away. Even if he did manage to get down, there would be the police to contend with, not to mention any other potential opponents who might be lying in wait.

Nimdok pressed his back against the heated roof and closed his eyes. It would have been easier to simply skinshift into a snowbird and fly away from here, or a beast who could dart down the walls far faster than the ninja woman or Zara Tate . But those options were closed to him.

Perhaps I should get into the habit of bringing weapons after all, he thought grimly. Though a blaster would be no match for his current foes anyway—

A grappling hook snapped against the edge of the roof close to his feet. Nimdok’s eyes snapped open and he leaned cautiously forward, peering down into the white. He could not see through the snow anymore, but there was a rope leading into the fog.

Seeing no other choice, Nimdok climbed down the rope as fast as he could. At the bottom, his feet touched a stone balcony, and a pair of hands ushered him through a doorway into startling darkness.

“Mr. Nimdok!” Lady Astapova exclaimed. He heard her voice and felt her hands on his arms, but he could barely see her. “Where on earth have you been? I was afraid you’d been taken by the Sith!”

Behind him, a youth was hurriedly removing the grappling hook, which fell from above and clattered loudly onto the floor. After shutting the doors against the blizzard, the young man pressed a button and sealed off the opening.

At last, it dawned on Nimdok. The Summer Palace had gone into complete lockdown. All entrances and windows were closed and barred by durasteel. The police were still outside attempting to deal with the emergence of several strange new threats—the battle between Lord Venari and Westenra Mina having so alarmed everyone that they felt it necessary to turn the Palace into an impenetrable fortress. The lack of interior lighting was intended to allow all power to go into fueling the shields… and the heating was beginning to go as well.

“You’re the one who destroyed the crystal?” the young man—a haunted-sounding Lord Andrei Astapova—asked.

“Yes,” Nimdok replied. “I’m afraid the two of you have placed yourselves in danger by helping me. I am still being pursued by the Sith.”

“But what do they want from you now that the crystal is gone?” Lady Astapova asked.

Nimdok shrugged. “Revenge, I imagine.” Even as he spoke, his hand drifted to his pocket, feeling the outline of the crystal matrix.

Andrei moved closer to Nimdok’s left. “How many people are chasing you?”

“One of them, a young Sith, is chasing me for certain,” he said, referring to AMCO . “The others’ motives are more difficult to discern. Have you encountered anyone else?”

“There was another Sith outside, fighting some sort of… thing,” Andrei muttered. “The police attacked it, chased it off from what I could tell.”

“Is anyone else in the Palace itself besides the two of you?”

“There shouldn’t be…”

 

[AMCO]

She felt like... was she a Jedi? If so, she was the most helpful one he had ever encountered.

Shrugging slightly, he began to follow the woman to the roof - being unused to climbing in general, let alone freezing walls, he arrived later than she might have expected, though still early enough to see her conversing with another attractive woman - a shame he was busy - and get shouted at my the morons that passed for local law enforcement.

Even a minor noble of Serenno was superior to the monarch (or whatever) of this frontier dungheap, but they apparently thought differently.

Seeing no trace of the pointy-eared man, he swore under his breath - swearing that only redoubled when he heard the audible clang of metal shutters sealing off the window he had just left through. Fething hell, this was just not his day. Just who was this slimy bastard?

"May I recommend you telekinetically seize her, next time?" Smirking with amusement, the Sith pulled a lightsaber from within his suit jacket, ignited the crimson blade... and started cutting through the roof. The time for subtlety was over - at the very least he would recover the remains of the creature he had so briefly spotted - whatever it was, it had reeked of the Dark Side.

Zara Tate & Jacen Nimdok | Lord Venari & Westenra Mina​

 

[Zara Tate]

Zara's cheeks grew three sizes as she pouted aloud from loosing her cyborg quarry. Worse yet, the well-dressed dark gentleman from the window had just flourished a crimson lightsaber and scoffed at her inefficacy. Because, of course there were even more wild players in this strange frost-bitten city. Goodness! Did nothing ever happen reasonably in her travels anymore. Poo and poo'diddly.

Zara waved away Adrian's comment and let him finish his wayward cutting. She was quite done with this little adventure in fact. And probably, with this whole moldy gray planet too. So she sighed in relief and looked somewhat more potently towards the incoming blizzard above.

"Hmm. The cloak of my more pressing escape, rather."

She pointed her ears towards the din of police below. Naturally, they were confounded by the suddenly fortressing mansion all around. Lucky for her, I suppose.

"Well. Enough rooftops for one day. I'll just take my leave then. Bugger all. And hopefully never see this planet again in a lifetime. Umph."

She swished a turn and made for the rooftop's edge. Un-allied with any party member thus far and with her muddled adventure to find a Sith mystery quite confounded. Zara decided to take her golden dagger and her empty phrik doll, and finally leave the scene in full.

"Well then. Time to go I suppose. Ta ta o' frosty Samovar. Till we never meet again. Bah."

Then she leapt into the billowing storm and disappeared upon the squall. Naught to be seen again.

. . .

/exit thread

Jacen Nimdok | AMCO​

 

[Lord Venari]

Gleaming into the "mind" of the machine was an odd experience. It was cutting through the walls of a labyrinth until you reached its core, only to be blown back out. Typically, the application of Mechu Deru preceded a swift and thorough takeover of the machine victim, but this was no ordinary droid, or more accurately a Vampiric Biot. In some ways it was very much alive. Fortunately, he hadn't been forced to destroy it. Unfortunately it had gotten away.

A bloody gash across the Sith Lord's shoulder healed, as did the rest of his body, his skin warmed to a pale gold hue. Venari approached the abandoned arm of the Biot; a trembled mess of goo wrapped around lifelike bone. To his left the main entrance of the Astapova's palace had been sealed. The structure made into a fortress. He'd return to task momentarily, first, there was something he wanted. With a telekinetic grasp he lifted the appendage into the air where it went limp. He then took a vial from his belt and placed a sample of the liquid-like skin inside.

The main body escaped after staving off the implantation of his will, but he had learned all he needed. It's composition; its strengths, weaknesses. The snow alone would wear it down after a time; the heated estate had only further accelerated the process, forcing it into retreat. More importantly though, he could reconstruct it, even improve upon its already astounding capabilities.

Sirens wailed in the distance, reinforcements from the local garrison would soon arrive to bolster the few police still conscious on the premise. All the Sith saw were more pawns on the board, but that too could wait.

Venari raised both hands and attempted something he'd never done before. The Biot was capable of healing from less than the arm albeit with exposure to certain radiation. To avoid the process of a compete reverse engineering of the Biot he’d have to be fast, but first the Sith would establish his will as the basis for whatever was to come next. His mind was split, two tasks to be accomplished simultaneously. He shut his eyes and recommitted to his efforts of Mechu Deku whole simultaneously implanting since of his own dark side energies. The uncontested application of Mechu Deru alongside his force intrusion would serve to bond the remains to him. The limp arm squirmed back to life, unable to fight back. A moment later it gave out. Reconstruction would take time and resources but for now he did what he could.

The Sith Lord left the arm to float around him while he returned to his original mission. He approached the sealed entranceway and removed his comlink.

"Adrian, it appears the entire castle is locked down. I don't suppose you retrieved the holocron and evacuated the premise before the lockdown, did you?" Venari asked while his two crimson blades began cutting into the entranceway. Until he received confirmation from the Knight, the Sith Lord would assume the worst.

AMCO Westenra Mina Jacen Nimdok