Public Club Euphoria

[Westenra Mina]

The Melissa aboard The Sail Barge stared at Laertia as she slept on the couch, her three rabbits snuggled next to one another, all sleeping on her thigh. They were here the next two weeks, so Laertia could relax all she wanted.

Moya was putting the finishing touches on the tea.

"Moya..." Melissa spoke softly as she sat on the counter across from where Moya was preparing the tea, not wanting to wake her sister with loud talk as Meleena and Melinda played Atrisian Checkers.

"Yes?" Moya asked.

"What do you think scared Laertia on Kattada?"

"She's struggled with post traumatic stress for years. Nightmares. Flashbacks. But I've never seen her in that state before. She barely even knew who she was."

"A version of me watched her assemble that lightsaber we sealed up in Resin." Melissa replied, chin resting on her hands. "She seemed frightened of the crystal itself."

"She is right to be." Moya replied. "Even I was skittish when I felt the power in that thing for the first time."

Melissa, well aware Moya's design was Force Sensitive due to weeks of getting to know each other nodded.

"Why are both of you scared of something you could probably destroy with a blaster bolt or a sledgehammer?" Melinda called out in a whisper while Laertia slumbered, her injured brain often needing lots of rest to reduce the migraines.

Melissa gestured to Melinda. "Took the words right out of my mouth."

"One does not merely destroy a Force Relic." Moya replied, steeping the tea. "There could be unintended consequences. Its a lot like dealing with radioactive waste...even the most mundane solution could have unintended consequences to yourself and the environment."

"Such as?" Meleena asked.

"You could accidentally kill yourself in the attempt, or risk horrible mutations, warp the physics in a localized environment, or all three."

"Why not put it in an airlock and eject it into a star?" Melissa pondered. "Even a Black Hole would at least trap it."

"But what would happen when such powerful magic reaches the center of whatever is 'at' a black hole's center? Do you wanna be the one to find out what happens? I sure as hell don't. I don't want to risk tainting an active star with it either. That stuff's bad enough when it alters organics." Moya pointed out.

"Seal it away in a tomb?" Melinda suggested tentatively.

Moya paused for a second, thought about it as she poured honey into Laertia's tea.

"An effective stall tactic. Somewhere remote, difficult to access. Boobytrap it enough and you could keep it reasonably well protected for dozens, possibly hundreds of years. Problem is, Tomb Security is defeated all the time by determined explorers. All the best, most remote locations have already been discovered and plundered. Scouting for a new one would be an expensive and time consuming process. Time and Resources we simply cannot afford to divert to.

"Then why make it at all?" Melissa wondered.

"Better it be in Laertia's hands then those of the enemy. If the enemy does get it, it'll have to be stepping over our cold corpses. (KHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!: 300 XP)"

"I've never seen her this happy before." Melinda commented.

"Melinda, you've never seen her before today." Moya pointed out.

"I'm going by Melissa's memories." Melinda replied easily.

"The wonderful world of Extreme Cosplay mixed with Starfish Biology." Meleena joked, beating Melinda again at Atrisian Checkers.

Melinda paused. "I don't get it, I have the exact same programming and you are defeating me."

"You keep one eye on Laertia."

"I'm just worried..." Melinda replied softly, Laertia shifting slightly in her slumber.

"I think we should consider surrendering it to the Jedi Council." Meleena suggested, part of her programming in this guise was to act like the responsible one.

"Then some other person has it when we might need it." Moya replied. "Like I said, it's kind of hard to get rid of a Force Relic like that. Even with its drawbacks."

"Where did it come from?" Melissa asked. "One of me was there with her when the Atrisians gave it to her as thanks. But where did it come from?"

"I've been doing some digging. I charmed some information out of an official and they said it once belonged to a Jedi Heretic who was possessed by strange Flame Magics, with which she rained horrific Pyrokinetic curses upon the armies of a cruel tyrant that ruled Atrisia at some point in its ancient history." Moya answered. "They called her Cidd Cinndurr."

"Cidd? It sounds like the name of someone we know..." Melissa trailed.

"Syd Celsius. Could be a coincidence..." Meleena postulated.

"I don't believe in coincidence." Moya replied, bringing the tea over and rasing the shutters, looking over the beautiful city scape free of fireworks. She whistled at the rabbits and they woke, hopping off.

Moya stirred Laertia awake.

"Sweetie? We're here." Moya whispered.

Laertia blinked, smiled as she saw her and took the handled cup. She got off the sofa and went to the view port. She had never experienced this level of luxury before. But more important was the fact she had a large family to enjoy it with. She didn't know how to process being this happy. It was a foreign experience. She felt hot and cold and nervous but happy.

Laertia took a sip of tea and her damaged brain registered her favorite type of honey in the tea.

She spun around on her sisters and her mother slowly.

"Wanna seez a majic tricc?"

Moya smiled. Her sisters instantly gathered at the sofa to watch.

Laertia took in a deep breath and released a puff of smoke from her mouth that should not have been possible, the smoke forming into a wand.

"How the feth did you do that?" Melissa asked, genuinely fascinated.

Laertia smiled and took out what looked like a small seed. She tapped it with the wand and a fissure opened bellowing smoke that quickly dissipated, leaving a pile of gold coins in its place.

"How the feth did you do that?" Moya asked, having never seen that trick before. She hadn't used the Force to do it.

Laertia grinned.

"Myy littull seekretz..." she answered.

Laertia picked up one of the 'gold coins', unwrapped it, and ate the chocolate inside, staring out at the cityscape. Her sisters all chuckled as the rabbits hopped onto all three of them, which they began petting immediately while Laertia went to stand next to Moya and watch the city below...

Meanwhile...

The Melissa in Club Euphoria had ordered a Mandalorian Club Soda (Don't even bother asking what's in it: The answer would just be annoying as it has a chemical that is normally highly lethal in even small amounts mixed in with a 'partial' antidote. Good thing what they did put in was not lethal enough to kill, despite having been the main ingredient in a number of warhead payloads)

Just sitting at the bar provoked more stares. Melissa didn't even have the pheremones on. Robert Palmer almost certainly would never have known where the money went where she was concerned. She partly picked up the conversation Ayreon was having with Inanna Harth as well as the sound of Ingrid L'lerim offering her assistance. Experience in this field, eh? Given how concerned they all were and sounded it was rare for them to have to deal with something like this.

She kept calm as they sealed off the building, watching the unsure woman give herself away with obvious tells, like she was inexperienced. Melissa looked away as her eyes sweapt over the area she was sitting. But when her eyes fell back on the crowd Melissa had gone from the table, turning heads as she walked, until she was standing right next to the woman.

"You should act more casual when trying to exfiltrate." Melissa said quietly, knowing the other biot knew it could not afford to be discovered.

"Don't look at me." Melissa said quietly. "So...what's the play? Fire up your pheremones? You wouldn't make it a quarter of a block before the authorities were on you. They'll be looking for someone suspicious and you currently check all the boxes." Melissa said before turning to walk off. "Food for thought..." she said casually, waiting to see what she would do at a distance.

 

[Ingrid L'lerim]

Ingrid L’lerim
The Red Witch; Emperor's hand; Director of Blackwatch; Baroness of Vengard, Head of the House L’lerim​

Location: Club Euphoria, Zeltros
Equipment: Dress | make-up
Tag: Ayreon | Inanna Harth | Westenra Mina | Open

Fortunately, Ingrid was able to control her emotions perfectly and how visible they were on her face. That’s why no one could see on her face how surprised she was given full power to do anything. When she thought that AMCO had given her some rights, wasn’t guessing at just that, but just to learn or investigate a few things here.

”What have you done handsome?” she thought.

Didn't send it telepathically to her lover, it was just a single thought. She looked at the mercenary watching him sternly, suggesting that he hoped the other would not expect to give any explanation for this, especially to a mercenary. Luckily, she was a great talent to watch sternly – or any other way – because she was a great actress. Fortunately, the HRD answered instead, the next question was also preceded by the droid. She just nodded at them.

”I can use the Force a little, we can walk through the nightclub quickly, as inattentively as possible. I suspect the biot trying to cause chaos sometime to distract us and try to get out while the problem is over.”

For the time being, Ingrid was waiting for the call to end, where the HRD was probably talking to Ms. Hoole. Only heard the words of the droid, not the woman, so there wasn’t too much relevant information in the conversation to her, so she would have gone inward with the mercenaries to look for the biot, but he turned back for another moment.

”Someone stay outside with him to be safe. Let's go to the main entrance first. Keep a weapon on hand for me if I need it. I can’t hide in this outfit and I don’t want to scare civilians. If we find it, you and your men try to protect civilians, I'll deal with the biot.” she said to the mercenaries.

As they entered the building from the outer alley, Ingrid reached out to the Force again and tried to completely cover the room they had arrived at. With her gaze, she scanned the crowd as she walked through the hall. Saw a couple of more suspicious people who weren’t too confidence-inspiring, but she felt them in the Force, so she didn’t pay more attention to them.

She didn’t behave suspiciously, she walked completely naturally, so that she would be the least conspicuous despite her provocative appearance. She paid equal attention to the Force and her eyes, while looking through the crowd, the exits, hoping to find that attacker…



// OOC: I'm not intentionally writing to find Ingrid the biot she's looking for, I'm trusting you whether she'll succeed or not, I don't know what you're planning.
OOC2: It wasn’t the conversation inside the building, it was in the back alley, I don’t know how much it bothered the Robert & Melissa duo to listen. //

​

 

[Inanna Harth]

"You should act more casual when trying to exfiltrate."

The biot froze up, all movement ceasing as an unnatural stillness took over its limbs. Now people were definitely staring, the heads that had turned to follow Melissa across the floor fixing their gazes on the statuesque figure beside her.

"Don't look at me. So… what's the play? Fire up your pheromones? You wouldn't make it a quarter of a block before the authorities were on you. They'll be looking for someone suspicious and you currently check all the boxes. Food for thought."

As the mysterious woman turned and walked away, the biot loosened its posture, letting its arms drop to its sides. It knew it had badly botched its first mission, and now its only goal was survival and escape. Did it trust the mystery woman? Not exactly, but it dared to hope and clung to any scrap of help that came its way.

There was a commotion outside as a man tried to force his way through the entrance. “I’m from Archangel!” he protested. “I’m here to repair the damaged HRD! Let me pass!”

The biot felt a twinge of conscience, hesitated, then decided it couldn’t hurt to try. Squirming its way through the increasingly chaotic crowd, it reached the bouncer barring the man’s way and said, “Tell him he should go around to the back entrance. I heard that’s where the HRD is.”

As it spoke, its pheromones kicked back on. The bouncer stared at it for several seconds, his mouth agape. Frowning, it added, “Why don’t you let me go out? I can take him around to the back.”

“Sorry miss,” the bouncer mumbled. “I can’t let you go.”

“Then at least let the poor man in,” it pressed, resting a hand lightly on his shoulder and smiling reassuringly. “I’ll get him to the back alley through these crowds.”

Nodding, the bouncer tore his eyes away just long enough to usher the droid mechanic inside. Before he could get swept away by the current, the biot moved in. “You’re here for the HRD? I can take you to him.” She offered the man her arm.

Raising an eyebrow, the mechanic hooked his arm through hers. “Sorry about the wait. I saw in the report that the droid was assaulted—is that why the place is on lockdown?”

“Oh yes. Poor thing was attacked by some sort of strange creature that took the form of a human. They say it’s still on the loose somewhere in the building.” She shuddered. “Really, they ought to be evacuating people, not keeping them all penned up inside like this. I heard it shies away from crowds, but it’s enough to make a girl nervous.” She clung a little closer to him. “Especially since we’re going into that dark spooky alleyway in the back. But you wouldn’t leave me all alone there, would you?”

“Of… of course not,” the man replied.

“Silly me, I haven’t even introduced myself. My name’s Lydia. What’s yours?”

The man hesitated, having momentarily forgotten his name in the fog of pheromones surrounding him. “...Frank?”

“Right down this hall here, Frank.” She continued to pull him along toward the back door. "Did your report say how badly he was hurt?”

“Droids don’t hurt, exactly. They can’t feel pain like we do. But they get damaged, and… uh, yeah, he’s in pretty bad shape. Fractured spine.”

“Goodness.” She rested her free hand over her heart. “It’s a good thing he can’t feel pain, then. Will you be able to fix him up, good as new?”

As the door in front of them slid open, he echoed, “Good as new. I just have to get him to the mobile repair unit parked outside..."

“Wonderful. The boss will be happy to hear that.” They passed through the doorway. “Would you mind taking the lead?”

“I-I don’t see why not—”

She moved behind him, holding his hand as they walked into the back alley. The biot peeked over the man’s shoulder, and saw with relief that her gamble had paid off. The redheaded woman with the Force was gone, leaving only one mercenary to guard Ayreon.

“It’s still operational?” Frank gazed in disbelief at Ayreon. He rattled off a series of numbers, then said, “Shut down immediately.” The HRD slumped forward, his broken body going limp.

The mechanic knelt on the ground, then gestured to the mercenary. “Help me pick him up.”

Staring at the biot, the mercenary slowly crouched down. Together they strained and struggled to lift the heavy HRD. “Here, let me give you a hand,” the biot said, adding her strength to theirs. The two men were surprised by how much weight she could carry, but didn’t question it as they moved Ayreon out of the alley.

***​

“You want what?!”

Inanna winced at the harshness of Hyde’s voice. Speaking slowly through grit teeth, she repeated, “I want to buy the HRD from you.”

“Which one?”

“The club bouncer, Ayreon.”

“Right, the one you beat that Mirialan up over.” His tone turned suspicious. “Whaddya want him for?”

“Why do you care?”

“I dunno. Maybe because I’ve been hearing some stuff about you, Ms. Hoole. Not very nice things.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Some rumors have reached my ears as of late which connect you to a certain evil empire.”

Inanna groaned. “Marty, the club is now owned by a fething Sith. Your new boss is a Sith Lord.”

“What?!”

“I’m sorry to be the one to break it to you, but it’s true.”

“But… but that’s got to be illegal!”

“It isn’t. The laws on Zeltros don’t stop anyone from owning a business based on their… religious views. That would be discrimination, which is wrong.” Sighing, she tried to get the conversation back on track. “Look, do you really want to sink a bunch of money into getting Ayreon fixed right when the club is just starting to prosper? Let me take him off your hands.”

“Absolutely not!”

“Marty...” Inanna warned. Her speeder was pulling up to the starport.

“What would a Sith Lord want with a nightclub? I mean—I just—”

“Marty! I’m running out of time here. Will you let me have the HRD or not?”

“Ohhhh, I get it now.” He chuckled. "That's what you meant when you said you got this job because you knew the owner personally."

"Yeah, because I've been an undercover agent in the Sith Empire for over a year now, and you are currently impeding my investigation."

"Huh? But she said—"

“You need to stop listening to gossip,” Inanna interrupted impatiently. “I need that HRD. Name your price.”

Hyde grunted. Whether Inanna was actually a Sith agent or not, he couldn’t resist a chance at profit. “I’d give him to ya for four million,” he said. “But with the added cost of repairs, it’s really more like five million.”

“Five million credits?” Inanna whistled. “Cais ned’jin. Ayreon, you’re expensive.”

“Can’t afford him, huh?”

“Oh, I can afford him,” she shot back. “Barely.”

“Well, you better meet with the Archangel people about claiming him before you go. They’re the ones who control his product license.”

She paused, her hand resting on the speeder door just as she was about to open it. “They’ve already taken him in for repairs?”

“HRD was just picked up, according to my datapad. It's a mobile repair unit, so they won’t have to take him somewhere else—they just fix him up in the back of their truck.”

“Couldn’t you go down and tell them?”

“Nope, you gotta be there for the tradeoff, or else it’s no deal.”

“Are you forgetting that there’s a biot on the loose there, one that specifically wants to kill me?” she growled.

“I don’t make the rules, honey. That's just the way things are done around here.”

“I’m not risking my life over rules and regulations! I’ll wait for this whole thing to blow over, then I’ll come and pick him up.” She opened the door and started to get out.

“Six million credits,” Hyde murmured. “Seven million if I have to wait longer than a day...”

Inanna closed her eyes, muttered a string of Shi-idese curses under her breath, then slammed the door shut. “Take me back to Euphoria,” she ordered the driver.

Westenra Mina Ingrid L'lerim

 

[Westenra Mina]

Aboard the Sail Barge Melinda and Meleena's head rested on Laertia's shoulders as they sat on the couch listening to classic Zeltronian Flute Music played by Melissa. Moya had put the rabbits away and was reading another poetry book on a leather recliner. Laertia's hands were clasped in those of both Sisters, Laertia herself in a near hypnotized state, lost in the novelty of being surrounded totally by loving family. She wasn't even slightly worried about an assassination attempt.

Becoming what she was had not come without consequences. She had pissed so many people off ripping and tearing until it was done she could never afford to stay in one place permanently. They never bothered sending simple bounty hunters anymore. She had slaughtered enough Mandalorians, cut her way through enough Haxian Brood strong holds (Or even, during one particularly infamous incident, strangling them all.) that it was generally understood sending a Bounty Hunter of the type necessary to properly kill Laertia would command such a high price for quality and competency that it was simply out of the price range for many of her enemies, and besides, even The Bounty Hunter's Guild could lose only so many of their own to shotgun or Cryo Spray ambushes in retaliation for sending even one after her or Moya before they took the hint.

Laertia was rediculously good at making people take the hint.

But she got high tier enemies with rare loot and most of their perks put into One Handed along with Destruction all the time now. These were not simple Sith Assassins they sent. Laertia could crush most of those types. They sent weirdos. Specialists. People who had specifically trained to kill her. She was good at hiding most times. Most times. But with reinstatement as a Jedi she was getting found easier. You don't do the things she did at Atrisia like killing Sith Warriors and their Abominations with a chainsaw, BFG-ing them, burning them, freezing them, killing them with heavy clubs, stomping their head flat, straight up Sub-Zero-ing their sorry asses by ripping their head and spine clean off, impaling them on burning debris, John Wick-ing them with assault shotguns, slamming their faces repeatedly into the hulls of burning vehicles, ripping them in half Bishop-style, and last but not least being fairly certain she had killed at least three with a pencil (Seriously, how do you do that?! In a packed battlefield?! Where the hell did the pencil come from??!! Why have the last few sentences been completely italicized?!!!!) without announcing your return to the game pretty much.

"So tellz meez..." Laertia spoke.

"Tell you what?" Melissa asked, ceasing her playing.

"Tellz meez abboutz 'yorr' muthurr..."

The three blonde sisters glanced at each other.

"She was once a Jedi Consular who saved all of Atrisia twice in its ancient past." Melinda answered, clasping Laertia's hand tighter. "She is a very great Swordfighter. She's as good with the Katana as you are a lightsaber."

"Dhey putz hurr onn Speshull Prawjektz?"

"Sometimes she was given engineering tasks that vexed standard technicians. But all her research was clandestine otherwise. Done without Council Approval." Meleena supplied.

"Counncyll approovullz iz ovuhrayteddz." Laertia replied softly, watching the city. "So whyyd shee leevez duh Orrduh?"

"It wasn't by choice..." Melissa said quietly. "She was altered against her will. The alteration forced her to stop being a Jedi. The loss of her identity as a Jedi hurt her for a very long time."

"I'mm sorreez tuh heerz ittz." Laertia said not judging. She had been altered not by choice herself. Used. Manipulated. Betrayed. Horribly betrayed. She still wasn't taking that bit well deep down.

To distract herself, the scarred Jedi rose.

"I reekwest yorr purrmisshun tuh paintzz yooz...allz threez ov yooz."

All three of her Android sisters let out a squee of delight and went to get the supplies...

Meanwhile...

The Melissa at the Club Euphoria had picked an alcove that kept her in the shadows as she watched her completely compromised copy con her way out of the building.

"Well done, Sister, well done." Melissa spoke, getting up from her seat...she located a security guard moving through the crowds and apprroached.

That was when she turned on the Pheremones. They worked on skin contact, and the victim often received much higher doses. He got a concentrated dose.

"Hello Handsome..." she whispered, flooding his body with military chemicals.

"You and me should take a walk...outside..." whispered Melissa in his ear.

The man could only nod almost mindlessly as he escorted her out of the building...


Ayreon

Ingrid L'lerim

Inanna Harth

 

[Ingrid L'lerim]

Ingrid L’lerim
The Red Witch; Emperor's hand; Director of Blackwatch; Baroness of Vengard, Head of the House L’lerim​

Location: Club Euphoria, Zeltros
Equipment: Dress | make-up
Tag: Ayreon | Inanna Harth | Westenra Mina | Open

For now, Ingrid looked through the other part of the room, only from the corner of her eye to see someone coming into the main hall from outside and walking with someone toward the back. However, the rest of the part was clean, so she tried to turn to the couple, who she could see now that they were heading for the back exit, where the alley was. At least that was the case with her eyes, for through the Force she could only see the man.

”Got the attacker! Now he's going back to the HRD with a man. Send people around the alley. It can't escape! Have your people have an EM or ion weapon if it can be solved.”

She told the mercenary, who was with her, took the vibroblade she had previously handed over from him, and then hurried toward the back. Previously, the biot had not taken notice of her, but it did not mean that it would not attack others in the event that it felt its existence was in danger. She hurried down the hall and then down the hallway she had been driving before.

However, apparently late, she opened the door where the HRD used to be, but now there was no sign of either the droid or the mercenary. Looked around quickly and at the end of the alley Ingrid saw who she was looking for. A man, a mercenary and a woman, and the HRD. Of the four, she did not see the droid and biot in the Force.

”Stop her, do not let her leave, the woman is the attacker!” she shouted after the company.

Not wanting the attacker to escape, she used Force speed to bridge the distance as soon as possible. And if she did, tried to cut the back of the biot with the vibroblade, hoping it could cause her any injury that could slow her down.

​

 

[Ayreon]

Frank, the mercenary, and the biot had just reached Frank’s truck when Ingrid gave a shout from the other end of the alleyway. Now, yelling your intentions to attack from across a great distance does not a successful assault make. Upon hearing Ingrid shout, the biot had time to react before the sorceress struck. Wrenching Ayreon away from Frank and the mercenary, she dodged the vibroblade, which instead hit the back door of the truck, metal rattling against metal.

“What the hell?” Frank blurted. Still high on the biot’s pheromones, he merely sounded bewildered by what was happening in front of him. And to be honest, the sight of a redhead in an evening gown speeding into view wildly swinging a vibroblade was pretty baffling if you weren’t already in-the-know. “What’s going on here?”

The mercenary who had been helping him carry Ayreon was at least cognizant enough to reach for his stun gun, only to be stopped by Frank. “Don’t shoot! You’ll destroy the HRD!”

"Lydia" held the deactivated Ayreon in front of her like a human shield. With her enhanced hearing, she could hear the mercenaries’ boots as they surrounded the area. What should have been a quick getaway had become a Sullustan standoff.

“Look,” the biot began, smiling vaguely as her pheromone production went into overdrive, filling the air around her. She was still worried about the redhead (presumed) Jedi, who could likely resist the effects, but the others were easily lulled into a stupor. “I don’t want any trouble. I’m leaving now, you see?” She started to back away, still clinging to Ayreon. Fooled as the others might be, her current configuration took around fifteen minutes to repair most wounds, so she wasn’t taking any chances if one of them did manage to snap out of it and fire at her.

Did she fear destruction? Not really. In fact, the tormented soul bound to her body longed for death. But her master could simply send another copy, hopefully one that would be more successful in its mission. It was capture she wanted to avoid. Capture meant her fate was uncertain.

Westenra Mina Ingrid L'lerim

 

[Ingrid L'lerim]

Ingrid L’lerim
The Red Witch; Emperor's hand; Director of Blackwatch; Baroness of Vengard, Head of the House L’lerim​

Location: Club Euphoria, Zeltros
Equipment: Dress | make-up
Tag: Ayreon | Inanna Harth | Westenra Mina | Open

One sure biot was damn fast because it dodged Ingrid's attack. The two men stood pretty confused in front of events, but that wasn't important to her now. She had nothing to do with them, but with the “woman”. Not to mention that the stiletto heels and the evening dress, with the special sleeves of the clothes, weren’t specifically suited for anyone to fight in. And because it was expected to attack Ingrid anyway after she spoke. But she had to stop them. After the biot dodged her first attack, Ingrid did not attack again. She got the time she wanted.

”Then the HRD is destroyed, the machine is secondary” she said in a completely frosty voice.

The biot tried to kill a living creature, so if a machine - which could be replaced - had to destroy in order to capture the assassin, she had no problem with it. Anyway, she came from a society where droids were secondary and replaceable in every way. Ingrid, if not resistant to pheromones because she is Force Sensitive and user, she is also trained to be a spy/agent to have great resistance to mind-altering drugs and poisons, and of course effects, so she has learned to overcome their effects.

”No, you won't leave this place!”

Ingrid could feel the pheromones being used by her opponent, but because of her training, she was easily able to combat that effect. It was at this time that she loved that every law enforcement and military force in the Eternal Empire had a helmet, they would not be affected by the pheromone, but here she did not know what effect it would have on the mercenaries here.

”Shoot the attacker!” she issued the order without looking at the mercenaries.

She said this militarily, in an ice-cold voice. If the soldiers didn’t do it for some reason, she would try to pull one of the mercenaries' weapons to herself with telekinetics. She was a sniper, shooting something like this up close could not be a problem for her.

​

 

[Westenra Mina]

As the Sail Barge traveled at a slow, gentle pace aboard the cityscape, Laertia painted each of her sisters and her mother in a meditative position, all in a group shot now. Laertia had used telekinesis to greatly speed up the process, using it to manipulate multiple objects at once. Pencils to draw the sketch, paints mixing themselves, brushes applying them to the image. Melissa marveled at how Laertia could keep track of so many tasks at once, then reminded herself that Laertia's ability to retain martial knowledge and to coordinate complex strategy in active combat would naturally lend itself to being able to keep track of multiple tasks. Laertia's brain actually was extremely resilient, all things considered...the fact that she had lost none of her knowledge at the lightsaber, could work out complex tactics, said a lot about the kind of damage her brain likely would have to suffer to render her permanently unable to fight.

In minutes it was done. Laertia had used mostly oils, but the effect was almost lifelike. Melissa had seen the strange things Laertia had painted aboard the Blessing of Loste, to see something not quite so abstract was an interesting departure.

"Letz itt dryyz..." Laertia said, turning on the fawcet in the luxury kitchen with her mind and floating the paint materials to the sink, washing them, drying them, then floating them back into their supply box.

They gazed upon it once they were off the couch and all of them squeed in delight, hugging her. Laertia's damaged brain awash with the feeling of genuine safety. She let them surround her, all hugging her at the same time.

"Letz doo summthyngz yooz forrz wantz?!" Laertia suggested excitedly.

Her mother and her three sisters paused, all clearly thinking...

Fifteen minutes later.

They had gone outside on the open air observation deck in order to enjoy the starry sky--and to play holographic ping-pong.

"When the original me was first activated she had a conversation with Karlie Lynn Destat about how we all come from star material. Its given me a new perspective on our relationship to the universe. We're all technically, connected." Melissa spoke as she reclined on a long folding chair staring up at the Zeltron Sky.

"Duh Foyce konnektz all lvvyng tingz." Laertia said, sitting next to her, sipping a glass of ice tea (With natural, if slow acting painkillers and mood relaxants added by Moya). Melinda leaned against the railing of the barge, watching the vast celebration below, the wind blowing through her golden hair. Meleena and Moya were locked in fierce ping-pong combat across a hologram projecting table.

"Speaking of connections..." Melinda trailed, not looking at them. "We should tell her."

"Tell her what?" Moya asked.

Melinda stared at each of her blonde counterparts.

"Shee wantz tuh tellz meez I'm duh duhhcenndannt ov Howce Li-Ves byy bludd." Laertia said idly.

Her three sisters and Moya stopped what they were doing.

Melissa turned to face her. "How long have you known?"

"Who told you?" Melinda asked, stunned.

(Cutaway of Laertia eating sushi with Darth Themis.)

"Duzzint mattuh..." Laertia answered.

Melissa took Laertia's hand.

"We were always going to tell you. We just...were not sure how to break it to you..."

"I knowwz..."

"Our mother may be a distant ancestor, but you are still related to her by blood. You are very precious to her. You are the only actual Li-Ves left besides her. Before you, she thought she was the last."

"I'mz no leeduh iff dhatz wut sheez hopinz..." Laertia replied sleepily, taking another sip of tea.

"Mother is quite aware of your medical difficulties." Melinda assured her.

"She would never ask such a thing of you unless you wanted it. She knows you will never want it. But she will not allow the only blood relative she has left to be without protection. If that protection must come in the form of a family so be it." Melissa explained. "It is a role I happily accept. So you see Laertia...we really 'are' Sisters...from a certain point of view..."

"Yoo ain'tz heerinz anny komplayntz frumm meez..." Laertia spoke, seemingly completely unworried as she drifted off to sleep...

Moya was silent as she processed this revelation, resuming her ping pong match with Meleena...

Meanwhile...

The Melissa at Club Euphoria had made it past the security, claiming she was an undercover health inspector. The pheremones had done the rest.

Once she had isolated him in an alley, she had fed on her escort non-lethally, her flesh bulging and wriggling under her black cocktail dress as she drank his psychic energy atop a roof, her flesh going back to normal as she stripped off the clothing, shifted her flesh to make it resemble a metallic pink catsuit, vomited up her smuggled lightsaber, and followed the sounds of conflict, sprinting across the roof until she came across Ingrid L'lerim , Ayreon and her target. The biot had already survived an initial attack, and Ingrid had ordered mercenaries to shoot her. That her reprogrammed copy was not trying to beat every motherfether pointing a weapon at her within an inch of their life like Melissa or any other version would have spoke of a human like fear of mortality. She did not trust the durability of her own design. She looked unsure.

Melissa had no such weakness. She used the stored psychic energy in her to execute a powerful jump that landed her silently behind the mercs, executing a vicious spin kick that knocked one violently into another with superhuman strength, her pink cored, red aura lightsaber shooting out of her hilt to deflect a spray of shots back at an attacker, without killing the shooter when the bolts hit their knee, blonde hair whipping about as she used the stored energy in her cells to mimic a Force Push, which manifested as a purple tinged wave of psychic energy that issued forth like a pocket of air traveling up to the surface of a volume of water, slamming into him and knocking him back while her lightsaber lopped off an arm. A merc managed a lucky blast with a shotgun that took half her head off, making her stumble backward. He gaped in horror as she turned to face him, a giant hole in her skull, the skin around the wound bunched up and distorted, leaking glowing red blood that quickly began to seal. He tried for another hit but she tackled him, sinking fangs into his neck and feeding even as her back was ripped open by more blaster wounds that sealed quickly due to the amount she was drinking his psychic energy in before chucking him into the shooters behind her, the wounds fully sealed as her fist crashed into a nose so hard he went flying into a wall face first. He was in a coma (and would be for the next three days before he awoke somehow with his lifelong fear of clowns gone.) before he hit the floor.

The other mercs tried to fire, but a bolt of purple energy emitted from her hand mimicked the effects of telekinesis as it struck a metal trash bin, ripping itself forward, clipping one soldier and throwing off his shot. She took a few shots to the chest before cutting off the shooting arm of the attacker. The rest bailed.

Melissa turned to her reprogrammed copy.

"Go! Now!" she yelled at the other biot (Model Citizen: 100 XP).

She looked right at Ingrid.

"I'll keep her busy." The Android added.

She held her blade straight up and to her side in an Ataru ready.

"Nice night for a walk. You should take one, Lady. Fresh air would do you good." Melissa warned, ready to attack...

 

[Ayreon]

“Shoot the attacker!”

Before any of the mercenaries could work their way mentally through the fog of pheromones and actually shoot the HRD or the biot, they received an unexpected visit from Melissa. The parking lot behind the club suddenly erupted into a full scale firefight as they tried to shoot at the new threat, only to be swiftly dispatched.

"Go! Now! I’ll keep her busy."

Lydia’s eyes were wide with very humanlike surprise as she stared at Melissa. The biot immediately released her hold on Ayreon. With a loud thud! the HRD dropped like a ragdoll onto the pavement, his left arm bent at an odd angle beneath his bulk. Lydia meanwhile took off running, intent on getting lost in the open streets of Zeltros.

Frank, who had taken cover behind his truck during the fight, risked a peek outside at the sound. Seeing the lot strewn with mercenaries either lying unconscious or too badly wounded to move, he glanced at the two very intimidating women who were left standing, then at Ayreon, considering the likelihood of him getting fired if he failed to retrieve the droid before it wound up as collateral in the next fight scene. Given that he was already in trouble with his employer, it was very high. Groaning, he awkwardly entered the fray, his hands held up to show he was unarmed.

“‘Scuse me… just gotta take care of this droid before y'all start fighting… very expensive product, y’know… don’t want to damage it any more than it already is… it'll only take a moment.”

Huffing and puffing, he dragged Ayreon into his truck. As soon as the HRD was secured, he slammed the door shut and latched it. The engines roared to life shortly after and the vehicle sped away, tearing out of the parking lot and taking to the skies.

Westenra Mina Ingrid L'lerim

 

[Ingrid L'lerim]

Ingrid L’lerim
The Red Witch; Emperor's hand; Director of Blackwatch; Baroness of Vengard, Head of the House L’lerim​

Location: Club Euphoria, Zeltros
Equipment: Dress | make-up
Tag: Ayreon | Inanna Harth | Westenra Mina | Open

When the mercenaries didn't fire immediately, Ingrid already knew they were affected by the pheromones, at which point she wanted to get herself a blaster rifle, which she couldn't do because she was preventing another biot from arriving. There were two of them !? This was already starting to get a little too annoying for the woman, so she sent a more telepathic message to AMCO .

”Handsome, if you're done with your work, don't come here today. This place is full of biot assassins, I just ran into the second one… when I’m done with them, I’ll go home to you!”

The date was really over and they would occupy themselves with something else at the man’s residence when Ingrid got home. And the new biot apparently wanted to win an escape route for the other, who even let go of the HRD and then started running. Make no mistake, Ingrid didn't want to catch the biot because it attacked the woman, she didn't care about that. But yes, it all happened at her lover’s nightclub, and Adrian might have come here today. And she didn't want to put him in danger.

She didn’t deal with the fixer when he hurried to the HRD, she didn’t even look at him. Now she had really reached out to the Force, and with telekinetics she pulled the mercenary’s weapon to her hand.

”No, you're not going to keep me busy!” she said coldly. ”Take care of her! And I'm borrowing this.”

The next moment she disappeared, used Force Cloak and also hid her power in the Force. Not even the machines, nor the Vong, could see through her. It was completely invisible and imperceptible. She didn't want to waste time. Swung forward, jumped up to the vehicle they wanted to put the HRD on with telekinesis, and then the next building, which had a low enough roof - so good 7-8 meters perhaps - or a fence, didn’t deal with it. She ran through this, reaching out to the Force again, accelerating her movement using Force Speed again.

She ran until she could catch up the fleeing biot, jumping off the roof so she could hit her opponent. During the jump, she also used the help of telekinesis to tried to accurately kick the back of the fleeing biot and thus tried to tilt it to the ground. At least she hoped she could do it all.

​

 

[Westenra Mina]

Laertia stared at a miracle of modern science the Zeltronians had as fast food. There was seemingly nothing they had that didn't also have a vegan version.

She stared at a bacon cheeseburger made entirely of vegetarian materials like cleverly disguised eggplant and crisp veggies prepared in such a way that they resembled and tasted like bacon. She wasn't sure what the cheese was made of, but it was a hundred percent veggie material.

It was the centerpiece of a very large meal that consisted of the aforementioned burger, a plate of Vegetarian Sushi, and a decanter of fruit juice. Her sisters and mother sat around her at the table on the open air deck. There were candles. The Androids were each doing something different, since none of them were capable of eating (Or, in the Io Android's case, not human food.). Moya was balancing the months expenditures on her datapad, Melissa was copying the poetry from Moya's book to her memory database, Melinda was busy sniffing the unlit incense piece from a set of meditation aids Laertia had brought aboard while Meleena was examining the Kasha crystal that was also from the set. Laertia made note of how Meleena seemed fascinated by crystals--twice now Laertia had caught her gazing in fascination at the towers of faceted crystal that they passed by on the Zeltros landscape.

She took a bite, chewed experimentally. It tasted like a bacon cheeseburger. Chefs were brilliant. Laertia found herself suddenly wishing she had been either a chef or a baker. Nearly anything would have been preferable to being a Killing Machine.

"What does food feel like, when it goes into your stomach?" Melinda asked in fascination as she heard the contractions of muscles sending the food to Laertia's belly due to her enhanced hearing.

"Yoo knowwz dhat feelinnz yoo gettz whennz yoo dojj a shott too duh hedd dhat wudd havv kylled yooz? Dhat feelinz ov ruhleef att not beeeingz dedz annd wutnottz?"

Melinda nodded, going by Melissa's memories on the matter.

"Tinkz dhat, but onn duh innsydez."

"Ohhhhhh..." her sisters responded in unison.

Laertia used a knife to cut off four small pieces. The Android's gained no nourishment from food and would rapidly break it down as invasive material, but she wanted them to try it. Nearby plastic forks floated themselves over via Laertia's mind and impaled a piece, one going to each.

Melinda eagerly tried her sample. She chewed, her brain for a moment unable to process the sensation of her tongue tasting something other than the occasional small amount of blood when she had to feed due to Melissa's memories providing a basis for reference at all before she started to smile. They all started to smile. This made Laertia smile.

"So Sisterrz...I'vv bennz thynkinz..." Laertia said after swallowing another bite. "I honesttlee cann'tz tellz yooz izzint Foyce Sunnsuhtyve in dhat staytez yooz arr innz. Mayybe yoo shud joynez duh Jedi Orduh. Silvuh Jedii Orduh tuh beez exaktz."

Melissa raised an eyebrow.

"Interesting suggestion." The blonde biot noted.

"Dhey knowwz Moya's a droydd. Dhey don'tz knowwz yooz is. Dhis iz vewy uzefull. To allz ov uss." Laertia explained before taking another bite. "Dhis playce wuz chekked fer buggz, ryte?" she asked after swallowing.

"I own the company that rented us this sail barge at a discount via another identity. The droids were checked by one of my Mother's knights before being allowed aboard. We can talk safely. I'll have their memories wiped afterward as an extra precaution." Melissa answered.

Laertia shrugged, took another bite, chewed, and swallowed.

"Dheze Zelltronn cheffz..." she remarked idly. "Arr geniussezz..."

Another bite. 007 long chews and a swallow as she gathered her thoughts.

"Yooz threez gotz ann airr ov ruspektuhbiluhtee I wyll nevuh pozzess...itt onnlee maykez sennze wenn yoo tinkz abboutz itz. Yoo canbz muuv higherrz uppz...receive bettuh rezourrzes...bettuh intell..."

"You want us to be your personal spies." Meleena spoke, clearly intrigued.

"Yooz alredee aktin az myy bodeeguarrdz. Nott muchh ov a stretchh." Laertia justified, floating a piece of sushi to each family member. They took a bite, each smiling a little more. Laertia poured herself some juice.

"Yurr duh purrfekt deep covuh operaatyvez..." Laertia justified again. "Dhey'z seenz yorr fayce arroundz mee butz dhat iz all dhey seenz, Melissa."

Melissa considered it.

"One does not casually infiltrate The Jedi Order. If we are discovered, its serious consequences for everyone." Melinda warned

"Dhatz onlee iff dhey figgurz outz duh truuthz..." Laertia trailed, taking another bite.

Meanwhile...

"Motherfether..." the Melissa that had been deployed to Club Euphoria swore as Ingrid L'lerim pursued the biot that had held Ayreon hostage, disappearing. As Melissa was not a true Force Adept, merely excellently mimicking some of their traits, she could not pierce the cloak and perceive her. For most this would have been a serious problem.

But Ingrid had two problems with this approach.

The first problem was that they were clearly after the same creature. The second was that Ingrid, while she may have been able to hide herself, she could not fully hide her indirect effects on the environment.

For example, Since she could not directly detect her, looking for evidence of her passage was necessary.

Even a powerful Sith will not help but leave dead skin cells floating in their wake. Everybody leaves little flakes of themselves everywhere they travel. After ten seconds, her vision modes were singling out these particulants in the air, her ears detecting the changes in air pressure as Ingrid passed through the atmosphere in pursuit of the biot, whose own chemical signature Melissa had long since zeroed on. She began pursuit, only to be blocked by five or six more mercs.

Melissa had no patience for level five enemies worth only three XP. She ran towards them, executed a superhuman leap over them then broke off at full speed after Ingrid and her reprogrammed copy, sustaining a shot from behind that blew her chest open but she kept running, the wound starting to seal as she focused on the evidence Ingrid left behind as well as the biot.

She was closing in on them quickly with her lightsaber igniting...

No Sith was giving the Technology of the Vampire known as Nine Lives the slip so easily...

 

[Ayreon]

Though she was wearing a club escort’s silvery high heels, Lydia had no trouble running. She managed to get just outside the bounds of the pleasure resort, reaching an area dotted with a handful of shops and restaurants, before Ingrid caught up with her.

Her droid sensors picked up on the tertiary signs of the sorceress’ passage, much as Melissa's had, and she narrowly avoided being knocked flat on her face by swerving away from the descending Ingrid. Whirling around to face her opponent, Lydia raised her empty fists, her chest twitching with a vague, distant memory of what it was like to be out of breath.

Technically speaking, she had been ordered not to directly attack Ingrid L'lerim under any circumstances, for much the same reason Ayreon had been ordered to give Ingrid free reign of the club. Her connection to AMCO meant that she had, ahem, friends in high places whom the biot’s master did not wish to enrage.

But since the firecrotch witch simply refused to give up the chase, self-defense had become the only logical (and perfectly justified) option. And after seeing her fellow biot Westenra Mina decimate the mercenaries and face down a Force User without fear, Lydia felt rather inspired, to say the least.

Even before Melissa arrived with her lightsaber, Lydia was in the process of delivering a staggering stiletto-clad kick to what she hoped was Ingrid’s face. Whether the blow actually connected, she’d follow it up by lunging at the sorceress like a trapped animal, fangs out and teeth gnashing.

***​

Once the speeder truck had left the club far behind and taken to the pleasure barge-filled skies of Zeltros, Frank turned on the mobile repair unit. A series of bright overhead lights winked on, revealing a complex system of machinery and equipment. Holograms flared to life, robotic arms twitched and whirred, and a computerized voice announced, “Systems online.”

“Okay, let’s get this over with,” Frank muttered. He pulled Ayreon onto a conveyor belt, where scanners began running up and down his body, and removed the HRD’s jacket, tie, and white shirt. Then he sank into a chair that was bolted to the floor, heaved a sigh of relief, and turned his attention to the holograms.

Since the actual manual labor of repairing the droid was handled by the machines, his job was to review all the files available on this particular HRD and make sure everything went smoothly. He got to see the list of previous owners—the Taris Lower City Police Department, followed by the old managers of Club Euphoria, and now Gildenleaf, Inc.—as well as the full database of all the HRD’s capabilities, which included forensics gadgets and gizmos leftover from his days as a police detective. Ayreon could virtually reconstruct crimes based on evidence found at the scene, analyze biological materials such as blood, DNA, and drugs in real time, yada yada...

As he read through the files, Frank’s lazy, indifferent attitude was suddenly replaced by heightened interest. He leaned forward, his widening eyes scanning the information rapidly. “Entechment, seven years ago… Five years ago, complete m—complete memory wipe?!”

Running through the records, he searched for the exact specifications of the operation, motivated by a foolish hope that he might be able to restore the HRD’s memory. But the wipe had been thorough and irreversible. The damage had been done. Whoever Ayreon had been prior to his purchase by the old club owners was gone forever.

Frank sat back, stunned. “They deleted the poor guy’s soul,” he murmured. Casting a pitying glance at Ayreon, he ran a hand through his hair and exhaled. “Go ahead and start the repairs. No significant anomalies detected.”

Mechanical arms set to work, opening the HRD’s innards and poking through his wires. The whole operation didn’t take more than ten minutes. But during that time, Frank received a strange call. He was too busy to pick up, so it went to voicemail.

“You’ve reached Frank Tulsa, droid repairman for Archangel Research & Design. I’m not available at the moment, but if you leave your name, number, and reason for calling after the beep, I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. Beep.”

“Ugh, come on! Pick up the comm, I know you can hear me!” Inanna Hoole replied. Devoid of its usual seductive tones and saddled with a noticeable Shi’idese accent, her voice was also garbled by background noise. “I’m right on top of you! If you don’t pick up, I’m breaking in!”

Raising an eyebrow, Frank picked up his comlink. “Hello? Who is this?”

“Inanna Hoole! I just bought Ayreon, and I’ve got to get off this planet now!”

Frank glanced at his screens. The repair was nearly finished. “He needs another three minutes in the oven. If you’re in that much of a hurry, I could have him shipped to you…”

He heard a speeder horn honking on the other end of the line, followed by Inanna growling between clenched teeth. “Three minutes is fine. But pull this thing over before I wind up a smear on somebody’s windshield. Force, this was a terrible idea...!”

She hung up. Frank, blinking, spoke to the astromech droid driving the truck. “Duke, find the nearest parking space, and be careful of how you drive. Apparently there’s a customer on the roof.”

 

[Ingrid L'lerim]

Ingrid L’lerim
The Red Witch; Emperor's hand; Director of Blackwatch; Baroness of Vengard, Head of the House L’lerim​

Location: Club Euphoria, Zeltros
Equipment: Dress | make-up
Tag: Ayreon | Inanna Harth | Westenra Mina | Open

Indeed, Ingrid used to perform this kind of fighting style in armor, where there was no need to fear environmental influences, as in the present case. In a situation she left no trace at all. Now in the dress dressed for a date, this advantage did not prevail. For the same reason, she was sensed by the other biot as well. Since they could perceive it in this way anyway, she didn’t bother to hide. It cost quite a bit of energy anyway. She was visible again.

She turned to face Lydia in an already visible form as she saw the other biot approaching her, with a lightsaber in its hand. She wasn't even particularly worried about it, but she has only a blaster pistol and the vibroblade wit here. Though she would have been really happy to have her own vibroblades with her. At least they were lightsaber-resistant, this dagger certainly isn't. It was Lydia who attacked her for the first time with a kick. Ingrid danced aside from the attack, defending herself with her hand, which the biot cut a little with the heel of the needle. She then raised her pistol and tried to shoot the biot in the face up close.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t the kind of woman to note to these that they apparently want to anger several Sith Lords - including AMCO . She hoped the security forces would arrive here soon, all she had to do was gain time. Since they were machines, they would have needed EMP, but perhaps other voice-based attacks were also effective against them. And to do that, she already knew what she wanted to do.

She tried to position herself so she could stop Lydia from leaving and hopefully the other biot, Melissa, would arrive as well. When they were both close enough, she made a dangerous attempt, but hoped to use it to some extent. Ingrid attacked the two biot with a Force scream at once.

​

 

[Westenra Mina]

Aboard the Sail Barge...

Melissa watched as Laertia casually worked on a portable computer after everyone had gone inside. Laertia was carefully modifying its internals, while Moya worked on modifying an Avionics implant near the counter. Melinda and Meleena worked on a set of strange looking powerpacks.

"So wut're yooz tooz wurkinz onnz?" Laertia asked, adding a stolen military grade transmitter to the computer internals.

"Power Sources..." Meleena answered. "Mother works with very specific types of energy. Capable of incredible effects."

"Wut kyndz?"

"Protection against telepathy, detection by Force Users. All the stuff one needs." Melinda added.

"So wennz dooz I getz tuh meetz hurrz?"

"Soon. Mother must attend to the needs of her house on Atrisia." Melissa answered, idly examining a medical text.

"Y'know, Sister, I've seen your armor designs. You could go into business..."

"But dhen everywunz knowwz howwz my tek worrkz."

"Hmmm...true...but what about your cybernetics?" Melinda wondered. "Its not hard to figure out cybernetics."

Laertia paused, considering this.

"Maaybeez..." she agreed.

"What're you doing to that computer?" Moya asked.

"I gotz tuh thynkinz...all yorr pursuhnallyteez werr programmedz intuh yooz, rytez?"

"More or less. My brain was a blank before they stuck a wire in me." Moya confirmed.

"Mother used the same for me." Melissa confirmed.

"I'mz buildingz sumthinnz dhat cannz servez az a backkuppz fer yorr myndz. Ann emurrjennsee cudz arize."

"Are you sure you can transfer back ups successfully, Sister?" Meleena asked. "You've barely studied the technology that makes us what we are."

"I'vv haddz tuh dooz mayntuhnance onn Moya fer yeerz. I'mz pretteez familiierrz wythh howwz hurr braynez wurrkz." Laertia explained, fitting a stolen number of Gabonna memory crystals inside the innards of the laptop.

"I fygurez, I gotz a reesunuhbull channce ov lerrnyng howz yorr brayn wurkz."

"You're gonna love our Mother's lab." Melinda gushed.

"I'm working on an auto pilot implant so you can summon the Blessing." Moya explained.

"Where did you get that Dynamic Class replica? I thought they didn't make those any more." Melissa asked.

"Itt belongedz too myy byolojykull parentz."

Moya raised a brow. "When did you learn this. You've always told me previously the ship's origins were a mystery."

"I lurrnedz tingz onn Atrrizzia..." Laertia admitted. "Inn fakt...I gotz kynda a connfesshun..."

Her mother and sisters all focused their eyes on her.

"Wee gotz ann exxtra guesst heer tuhnytez. Comingz reel soonz."

Moya's eyes widened.

"Who?" she asked.

"Yoo'll seez..."

A butler droid came into the lounge.

"Lady Io, a transmission from a Lambda Shuttle, requesting docking."

"Letz itt dockz..." Laertia said, ceasing her work momentarily.

"Rytez onn tymez."

"Who did you invite?" Moya asked. "Uri?"

Laertia snorted at this for a second but then paused. It occured to her that she was suddenly sad that she had not thought to do so.

"Mayybeez nexxt tymez."

Deeply curious as to who had been invited, Moya and Laertia's sisters gathered at the docking port of the craft with Laertia.

Laertia opened the docking umbilical hatch, and a woman dressed in a simple metallic gray gown, wearing a much younger version of Moya's primary face in public with ebon hair tied in Princess Leia type pigtails stepped aboard.

Every Android's eyes widened. Laertia only smiled.

"Evrywunnz, I'dz lykez tuh inntroduuce my Grand Muthurr, Moya De Lifte."

The Android was instantly at attention.

"The Creator!" Moya Virtu hissed in surprise.

Darth Themis fixed a mutated bronze and dark green set of eyes at Moya. Her alchemized nature made her come off as an ordinary Light Adept to any Force User in range.

"Creation! A delight to see you." Themis spoke, hugging her first then Laertia.

"Thank you for all your hard work keeping her safe. You are a success beyond my wildest hopes..." Themis assured a still totally stunned Moya.

Themis glanced at the other androids, whose psychic fields made them come off as Light Side Sensitives, and could not tell the difference.

"So, what're you ladies doing for fun?" Themis asked, not letting on she was a Light Side Sith Lord. Only Laertia knew this.

"I wuzz tinkyngz we cudz playyz caatch uppz..." Laertia suggested. "Ovuh Eyece Kreem Floattz."

"I love Alderaanian Vanilla. If you have any Pear Soda, I'll show you one recipe your mother Lysandra was addicted to."

"I maykez a grate sunndaee..."

Moya the Android knew the swelling of happiness in Laertia was not faked. But something about it all seemed...off.

What was Laertia's game?

Meanwhile...

As the Melissa deployed after the reprogrammed copy closed on Ingrid L'lerim she saw a sudden, very sharp set of muscle contractions in the throat and a sudden sharp, intake of breath.

Mother's combat programs were top notch. She had learned much since first dueling The Amalgam.

Like learning to recognize a Force Scream...

Evasion protocols already calculate the given radius, moving her body without the biot consciously thinking.

She was too close. Her only chance of evasion was to go forward, flipping and then breaking into a slide on the surface, just barely evading the attack radius, though her flesh still shuddered as the sonic energy traveled just above her.

Breaking out of the slide, she transitioned to a sweep kick, not knowing if it would hit...

Ayreon

 

[Inanna Harth]

First came the shot with the stun blaster, aimed directly at Lydia’s face as she lunged, fangs flashing, at Ingrid. Had she not recalculated her trajectory to evade it, the barrel would’ve gone down her throat and blown her insides out.

That said, the shot still singed the side of her head. Ion energy sparked along her form, warping her flesh. She was lucky. Lydia’s form had the highest resistance to electric attacks like this. The damage wasn’t too bad.

She was still careening forward, intent on biting and paralyzing Ingrid. The contraction of muscles in the sorceress’ throat went unnoticed, for the biot was already upon her, grabbing any piece of cloth or limb she could reach, about to chomp down on the nearest exposed vein—

She was hit dead-on by Ingrid’s Force-enhanced voice. The scream rapidly overwhelmed her and wrenched her away. She hit the ground, a scrap of the sorceress’ gown clenched in her fist, ripped from the sheer black gauze trailing from her shoulders.

The compromised copy shuddered. She was overheating. Shutdown was imminent, unless she could get away to safety and repair herself. Fear clutched at her with icy fingers. The ghost in the machine experienced something akin to sleep paralysis whenever shutdown occurred. It was still aware, but it couldn’t move, a mouthless prisoner unable to scream, caged within regenerating flesh.

Melissa skillfully slid across the ground underneath the sonic attack. Lydia saw her unaltered sister aim a sweeping kick at Ingrid’s leg designed to incapacitate her. She struggled to rise, flesh writhing, but couldn’t. She could only hope that Melissa could keep Ingrid occupied until she had a chance to repair.

As she lay there, she wondered why her master had bothered to modify her in the first place. There had been no instruction manual or blueprint for the Sith Lord to follow—she was mysterious, illegal, and stolen technology, after all—so he had conducted her reprogramming based on instinct and intuition, trial and error, learning more about her and how she worked as he went along. Then he had bound a dead person’s soul to the biot in lieu of a personality, someone too weak to fight against the biot’s reprogramming, but fully capable of making decisions based on more than reason and logic.

Yet the Melissa biot clearly had things more under control than Lydia ever did. Perhaps her master would realize, after this immense failure, that he was better off using the original unmodified copy he had captured, which was currently lying in stasis in his laboratory…

***​

As soon as the speeder landed, Inanna hopped down off the roof. Windblown and fraying around the edges, she flung the back doors open and clambered inside.

Frank blinked at her, quickly discerning that she was nervous, annoyed, and most likely all out of patience. He stood up, his empty hands on display, and quickly moved over to the table where Ayreon lay. “Ms. Hoole?”

Inanna nodded. “I bought this droid from the previous owner. Call if you don’t believe me. Whatever the repairs cost, you should be able to charge it to my account. Right now I’ve got to go, and he’s coming with me.” Pointing to Ayreon, she started toward the table.

“Just a moment.” Frank stopped her, glancing over at the screens. “Well, another ten seconds, to be exact…”

It felt like the longest ten seconds of Inanna’s life. She watched the numbers tick away, finally reaching zero an eternity later. Frank double-checked Ayreon’s systems one last time, then rattled off the same numbers he had earlier in the alleyway. “Activate immediately.”

Ayreon jolted, sitting bolt upright. His head swerved as he looked around, discerning his surroundings. His eyes landed on Frank, then on Inanna. “Ms. Hoole. Are you okay?”

“I've been better.” She smiled in spite of herself. “But we’ve got to get out of here. Hyde sold you to me, we can leave together.”

She grabbed Ayreon’s clothes. The HRD was quiet for a moment. “My product information has been updated. I am now the property of Inanna Hoole.” He took the clothes from her and started to get dressed.

Frank fidgeted in the corner. “Hey, uh, before you go—you should know what you’re getting. I don’t know the whole story, but I looked at his logs, and I saw that he’d had his memory wiped…”

Inanna looked at him, her brow furrowed. “What are you talking about? He’s a droid, of course he’s had his memory wiped. They have to have it done every so often, don’t they?”

“Well, in this case, he wasn’t just some droid that was manufactured by Archangel.” Frank stepped toward her and lowered his voice. “He was enteched. You know what that means?”

“Yes,” Inanna replied, beginning to understand.

“He was a living being once. His consciousness was copied into a machine body, this one. And that was what was erased in the memory wipe.”

She glanced over at Ayreon. He had put on his shirt and jacket and was now adjusting his tie. “Do you know what the original person’s name was?”

“You mean the model for his consciousness? No, we don’t have that in our records.”

“What about who authorized the wipe?”

“I don’t know. Look, you’re his new owner, you’ve got access to all his documentation. If it’s in there, you should be able to find it.”

Inanna sorely doubted that Archangel would let her see everything, but there was no time to argue now. “Thanks for your help,” she said, then hopped out of the truck. Ayreon followed her.

"May I ask where we're going?"

"Somewhere other than Zeltros."

"That is not a very precise destination."

"Well, do you have any ideas?" Inanna asked, shrugging.

"What is your current objective? To find a safe place to hide from any assassins out to kill you, or to investigate the incident at the club earlier this evening?"

Inanna slowed to a halt and sighed before turning to face him. "I don't know yet. I'll figure it out later, once we're sailing through space in my little courier ship."

Ayreon tilted his head. "If you have any intention of getting to the bottom of this, you will need to stay here on Zeltros until the biot is apprehended or destroyed."

"How do you know it won't escape and come after me again?"

"Because it is currently on the news. According to the live footage taken from an overhead speeder, it appears to be severely damaged." He paused. "There is also another biot currently engaged in combat with Ms. L'lerim."

Inanna smiled thinly. "Yep, definitely time for us to go. Taxi!"

Westenra Mina Ingrid L'lerim

 

[Ingrid L'lerim]

Ingrid L’lerim
The Red Witch; Emperor's hand; Director of Blackwatch; Baroness of Vengard, Head of the House L’lerim​

Location: Club Euphoria, Zeltros
Equipment: Dress | make-up
Tag: Ayreon | Inanna Harth | Westenra Mina | Open

The end result was half. Ingrid had no idea what the second biot, what was joining the fight, because it seemed like a perfect killing machine so far. She was able to hide from even the best Force users, but the machine noticed her easily. Then even before the attack, do it recognize the Force Scream and know what was the attack?! This was starting to be ridiculous. She was already sure that heads would fall here for letting such things onto the planet.

She managed to hit her target with the scream, who was paralyzed for that, at least she managed to achieve that. The other, however, avoided it. As she was still attacking, the biot was able to twist her leg, however, the fall could already be corrected by Ingrid. Although her dress was torn again, it tore by the other biot, but she was able to dampen the fall and after a loop, she had already popped up and faced her opponent again.

She couldn't say she didn't hurt her leg where she was hit, but she was already fighting with much greater pain. The most important thing has already happened. The biot was just unable to fight was what she needed. Stood in the attack position again, and at that moment she heard what she had been waiting for minutes ago. The rescuing army heard these from two directions, from the front where the biot had originally fled, and from behind her, from the direction of the club.

”I think that's the end of it!” she said coldly.

Since very high-ranking individuals were involved, it would not have surprised them to intervene from the highest circles as well. On the one hand, AMCO ’s club and employees were in trouble, and on the other hand, Ingrid was also a noblewoman and the CEO of an extensive consortium. Not to mention her other ranks, though they mean nothing here.

Roughly six vehicles arrived, three from each direction. Of these, three were Adrian's "heavy artillery" and the other three were men from local security forces. As Ingrid told her lover what she was fighting, so did their people bring EMPs with them, among other things…

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