Private Don't Get Captured

[Amea Virou]

The night was getting on with age. It was dark, and yet it was still full of neon. Dulled lights from the main street bathed this particular back alley with a vast spectrum of colors that seemed to change and shift with each beat that blared from beyond the thick durasteel walls of a nearby drug den. For the last five minutes Amea had been hot on the tail of this particularly stubborn errand boy. While she considered herself a most capable runner, this chase was one that had seen the two lovebirds push through from one close call to the other before it all finally came to a head in this very spot.

And that was to say quite literally so. Though he had tried to swipe at her — with a modicum of success to boot — she had finally found herself in a spot to end this. With her hands latched onto the man’s shoulders in a vice-like grip Amea would place her forehead against his nose with a speed unlike anything he had ever felt before. The man fell over limp yet clearly conscious and Amea would finally allow herself the chance to simply breathe.

The stench of trash was hard to miss. With each breath for air that Amea would heave for she felt the taste of week-old shrimp linger on her tongue. The back of her thumb smeared the blood that poured from her nose across her cheek, but at least it kept it from reaching between her lips. Her eyes began to wander around the alley to take in the miserable sights before she finally peered over her shoulder to try and find her partner.

No doubt all he would have to do to find her was to follow the trail of chaos that they had left in their wake. She preferred a more subtle approach, but when a man such as the one currently unconscious held the type of information that he held she was willing to make an exception. Besides that the original plan had gone south roughly an hour ago at this point. The fact that they had their target in a state to be retrieved at all was a miracle in the first place.

And so there Amea stood, hunched over something that could be mistaken for a corpse as she heaved for air and tended to her bleeding.

Jerec Asyr​

 

[Jerec Asyr]

Amea Virou

"Aghplth-"

Jerec swiped ineffectually at a drip of unclassifiable fluid from far above. It had a smell he did not appreciate.The neon-drenched back alley was colder than he'd like, but he took off his jacket and discarded it immediately. There was no way that crap was coming out in the wash.

"Good catch. You're fast." Faster than him, anyway. Admittedly he'd slowed down a little while back when it became clear that Amea was going to catch the messenger boy.

"He's out cold? He's out cold." Jerec squatted over the target and started going through the usual places - pockets, belt, boots. "Where's the card, lessee..."

 

[Amea Virou]

"Thanks, seems half a decade of running away from my problems has worked out for the better after all, huh?" Amea wheezed and chuckled under her breath. She let in a deep breath and let go of her knees before she straightened herself out again and watched as Jerec sifted through the man's pockets and other hidden compartments. "Check his back pocket. Swear I saw him put something in there before he high-tailed it."

The streets beyond the alley were unusually quiet given the ruckus that Amea had caused in pursuit of this man. Her eyes set on the entrance to the alley again to see if anyone was coming their way but so far it seemed as if the coast was relatively clear.

"Think someone tipped them off?" She asked and turned back to look at Jerec. "You don't add that kind of security on a whim."

Jerec Asyr

 

[Jerec Asyr]

Amea Virou

"Hey, if running from your problems was all it took to get fast, I'd have clotheslined this guy at class-point-five."

He checked the back pocket and came up with a wallet in synthetic spacer's leather. Contents included some spare wupiupi, ID, and a credit chit, all of which he pocketed. There was also a condom in a well-worm wrapper.

"Looks like buddy was living on a prayer," Jerec said, and tossed the unused but probably expired prophylactic in the nearest trash pile. "And was it just me or did those security guys talk like incels? Maybe we're tracking down a conspiracy of the sexually frustrated and, you know, stupid."

 

[Amea Virou]

"What made you think that? The fact that they had a twi'lek skull as their logo, or the literal writing on the wall?" Amea quipped yet again and knelt down by the unconscious man. "When I see someone has spray painted 'No woman is safe from Chad Solo' in their HQ, the first punch comes free of charge."

She prodded at the man to make sure he was still breathing, and sure enough there was just the slightest groan that parted his lips.

"Question is why a bunch of freaks like this would gather. Their leader didn't exactly look like your usual basement dwellers. Chiseled chin, short hair and stubble. All the tells of someone who does -- in fact, kark -- and goes through extraordinary lengths to do such."

Jerec Asyr

 

[Jerec Asyr]

Amea Virou

"See, that's how they getcha. I can guarantee two things." Jerec got up and tossed Amea the datacard they'd been looking for. "One, that guy firmly believed his chin or nose was a couple millimeters wrong somehow. And two, forgive my mansplaining but there's really almost zero difference between an incel and a self-proclaimed pickup artist. Up here, anyway." He tapped his skull. "It's all about what they quote-unquote deserve from the ladies. Okay. We've got the card. That's sort of the job done. But I saw what looked like some really decent loot back at the headquarters and my wallet's emptier than this guy's."

In fairness, the courier's wallet was empty because Jerec had just stripped it out.

"You down to burglarize? No pressure, I'm just saying."

 

[Amea Virou]

Jerec Asyr

The chip found her hand and Amea immediately went ahead to scan its contents onto the holodevice around her wrist. It was a long list of locations, yet what purpose they held was not clear to her just yet. A frown spread across Amea’s lips as she ran her eyes over the details.

Jerec shared his thoughts on these people and Amea couldn’t help but nod along. No person could ever owe a part of themselves to another. It was a form of objectification that Amea had always seen the one natural response to. Given what she had seen in that compound there was no doubt that these people were planning something nasty in particular.

“I’m already guilty of assault, burglary is basically a step down.” She spoke with a growing grin. “Just, hold up for a second.”

“Henry, can you run a cross-reference on these co-ordinates?” She spoke into the light of her device that was still running the numbers of the list from the datachip.

“It might take a bit, but yes.” A tinned imperial voice called out from the device. “Are you up to-”

“Yep.” Amea muted the device and got up from the ground. She raised her arm back towards the alley’s entrance. “I’ll let you take the lead for this one, if you don’t mind.”

 

[Jerec Asyr]

Amea Virou

"Hey, it's my pleasure." Jerec patted his gun, which he hadn't had occasion to use tonight just yet. "Tricks of the Trade Arc Light ion concussion gun. It's like a hard right cross that'll neutralize gear right up to and including Mandalorian armor. Love this thing."

A brisk walk got them back where they'd been. They'd started chasing the courier right outside one particular unit in a ramshackle two-story apartment complex. Flickering light played off the slat blinds. No lookouts were in sight, no nothing. Jerec sidled up and peeked between the slats.

"Feth. Looks like they're customizing the brain of a sexbot. I don't recognize the gear but it's going in where the ethics chip would be. Okay, I don't want to dwell on this too much-"

He'd been more or less whispering. The whisper rose into a yelp as a door slid open right at the edge of his peripheral vision. A guy with leather pants and no chin whatsoever stepped outside to light up a cigarra. The incel froze, staring at Jerec.

No, not at Jerec. At Amea.

 

[Amea Virou]

Trick of the Trade was a name that Amea was familiar with. To some extent because Runi never seemed to stop sending her information on their latest articles, but to an even greater extent because they had some genuinely impressive articles. In the end the only reason Amea didn't have a gun for herself was because, well, she had her fists. And when those failed her she already had a small tool that she had made on her own.

"That looks like a Series X, fourth model off the production line. Worth a pretty penny." Amea said in response to the man's observation on the droid. She caught his glance and slowly rubbed at her neck, "We all smuggle stuff we're not proud of."

Yet for all that their sneaking was worth it seemed that Amea's presence had been noted. A man frozen in place stood his ground before the two would-be intruders, his unlit cigarra falling from between his lips to the floor at the sight of a woman. It wasn't like her to make the first move in an engagement.

"I don't usually shoot first," Amea whispered to Jerec. "But you might."

The man before them slowly began to reach for his hip, his lips shaking and shivering as he struggled for words.

Jerec Asyr

 

[Jerec Asyr]

Amea Virou , sexbot smuggler. Not that Jerec was judging. He still ran the occasional cargo of mild spice, and guns, and other things with ethical questions attached.

"Well, I mean-"

The incel drew a comically large heavy blaster pistol that smashed a hole in the window through which Jerec had just been spying. Shouts rose from inside the apartment. Jerec fired a heartbeat later. The Arc Light's shaped-charge ion blast broke the incel's nose and took out a couple teeth. "You karking CHAD!" he yelled at Jerec, which, so far as profanity went, was a new one.

Jerec ducked blind return fire and pulled back behind an ornamental hedge that provided the slimmest of cover. Another Arc Light shot put Leather Pants down for the count, but his associates in the apartment were just getting in gear.

 

[Amea Virou]

There was a brief moment of silence before chaos erupted yet again. That was the second time in a single night's span. Amea ducked behind a crate and withdrew her pistol and began to load it up with cartridges. When it came down to it there was either incendiaries, explosive, or stun rounds. As far as making a lot of noise went, it was fair to assume that Jerec had them covered. Stun rounds felt like it was the better choice. Not that they deserved it, but because the others were a bit more overkill than was called for.

"I think he likes you." Amea spoke between the shots that were being exchanged. As the final cartridge found its spot in her gun the device on her arm began to vibrate. She turned it on and came face to face with a much worried AI.

"What's new, Henry?"

"Camgirls." The AI said with as much of a worried voice as it could possibly have simulated. "The adresses are all camgirls, some of who have gone missing over the last few months."

Amea's eyes went wide. She had expected them to be desperate, but nothing quite that despicable. With a newfound determination to end this once and for all her glance wandered over to the gun in her hand, eyebrows furrowing in disgust. "I should have loaded the karking incendiaries."

Jerec Asyr

 

[Jerec Asyr]

Amea Virou

The shock of the revelation punched through Jerec's focus. A blaster bolt almost took his head off. He didn't really react.

"Nah, other folks live here," he said. "You made the right call."

The Arc Light roared again on its strongest, shortest-range setting. He set about smashing holes in the walls that sheltered the enemy. And they definitely were that. Not rivals, not threats, not anything else he would happily shoot at.

"Just realized where I've seen those chips before," he shouted over the noise, crouched behind the hedge. "Memory storage, the human kind."

 

[Amea Virou]

Human Memory Storage, missing camgirls, and tampered 'sensuality droids.' Disgust quickly turned into anger as the image that slowly unraveled before them turned into a darker shade of brown with every new slither of information that they pieced together. Amea had dealt with illicit smugglers before, but nothing quite like this and not on this scale. Slavers were a certain kind of scum that had to be dealt with accordingly, and these people were no different.

The dust from the holes that had punched into -- and through -- the walls began to settle over the area and offered a small shroud that separated Amea and Jerec from their intended targets.

"Pincer move?" She called out to him. "They're trapped inside, all we need to do is cut off their escape routes."

Jerec Asyr

 

[Jerec Asyr]

Amea Virou

"Don't know about that," Jerec yelled. "The building looked pretty thin - there might be a back window or door on the west side."

They'd thoroughly ventilated the big east windows into the living room where the incels had been modding the droid. The main door, just around the corner to the left of the window, was a smoking mass of splinters by now. Smoke and the last of the window blinds cut visibility by a huge fraction.

The hedge that Jerec had used for cover was in rough shape too. He'd pressed his luck long enough. He pulled back and started circling around the north side of the building. There was another window, closed and undamaged. He stayed low and stuck to the shadows as he went past, but he didn't see a thing in what turned out to be the shabby, grimy kitchen.

 

[Amea Virou]

Amea shrugged as they pushed away from their cover. As Jerec seemed to take the southern wall, Amea went for the north. She wasn't a strategist. Most of Amea's battles had been fought in smaller confines where her abilities could come out to play. On a scale of one to ten, well, marksmanship didn't exactly have much of a place. Starlships, vacuums, getting spaced, and all that.

Quick on her feet Amea lept through the broken glass, her hand reaching out to grab a nearby bat that with one swift swing would strike one of the undesirables against the temple. He recoiled, stumbled back and raised his gun in the confusion. With the trigger pulled Amea felt a sharp pain against her gut but she pushed against the pain.

"One of them is inside!" One of the incels called out. "We need to get out of here!"

Jerec Asyr

 

[Jerec Asyr]

Amea Virou

"Quick!" one of them yelled, and shoved another out of the way. "Get the copy-wiper on that fem!"

There was a machine, human-portable, a jury-rigged mess. Jerec caught sight of it as he bulled through the back window gun first. The machine looked like flash-learning gear, but reconfigured all to hell.

It all clicked: the sexbot, the memory chip, the vanished camgirls. If the incels managed to wrestle that machine onto Amea's head, not only would it wipe some portion of her memory, it would copy some portion of it too, for future use in a droid programmed to love, honor, and obey. He knew it deep down, maybe intuition, maybe a real revelation from the Force. Either way, he knew it.

Jerec holstered his nonlethal gun and picked up a table leg with a protruding bolt. He proceeded to see red.

 

[Amea Virou]

One went for her arm, with an easy parry. Yet as the one behind her lept for her back the other would smash his open palm against the side of her head with the unmistakable sensation of metal piercing skin. With sheer panic, Amea let her mind seep into the device as it kicked into gear, but at that point it was already an uphill struggle. Her vision grew blurry and her body went limp as inside of her mind raged a battle against a literal machine.

A life’s worth of imagery began to flash before her, all of which grew increasingly hard to tell apart as piece for piece the machine began to tear one memory after the other from her mind. It started with the imagery of a brown haired woman whose name grew difficult to tell. Addison, Adrianna, or… Amanda. No sooner than the thoughts had crossed her mind they were gone. Scattered to the winds like ashes of a past that had never been hers.

More images of a family, of a sister and brother that cared for her and that she cared for. Anna and Michael, their name also seeping into the winds along with those of Karen and Devin’s. Gone was Marcel, Logan, and all of the friends that this other person, this… Krystal Trevain? Kale Teller? Much like at the end of a broadcast, the screen went dark and in its wake lingered only the one name that held any importance: Amea Virou.

Where once there had been two, there was now one. An unwitting liberation of personas, a forgetting of the past and a weight off of a single woman’s shoulders. A confused Amea woke out of her daze to a world that refused to stop spinning. Against the backdrop of her own heart beating intensely against her chest she only heard the pained screams of men getting what to many was an overdue wake up call.

The new girl touched the device at the side of her head and tore it off of her temple to hold in her hands. It was hard to find focus in any of this. What this device was, how much of herself that had been saved by the person she had once been, remained an enigma to her.

Kaili Talith’s parting gift was one of freedom. Though her body was no longer her own, perhaps in the end that was for the better. Amea glanced at the chip in her hand and gently pocketed it as she pushed herself up from the floor.

… Where was she even?

Jerec Asyr

 

[Jerec Asyr]

Amea Virou

The local cops should've been there by now. That they weren't suggested this crew had connections. And since they probably would've called the cops 'chads' and felt all manner of contempt and envy, that suggested the involvement of a third party - someone different and influential. Whoever was supplying or buying the modified droids, perhaps. Whoever was making the camgirls disappear after their memories got stolen.

Jerec slumped back into the scarred-up room where Amea had just pried the machine off her skull. There was blood on his hands, his shirt, his knees. He tossed a splintered table leg into a corner. He'd felt better.

"You alright? I tried to get that off your head but it wouldn't go, and then this one Kiffar..." He shivered and leaned against the nearest wall, cradling his fractured left arm. "Sorry. There's no girls here and the droids are fried. Nobody's dead but some of'em might die. I think we're done here."

 

[Amea Virou]

Jerec Asyr

She crumpled over and grasped at the gunshot in her stomach. The spinning didn’t stop and the blood that poured from both her nose and stomach did very little to help make it stop. Though covered in blood, Amea would cling to Jerec’s shoulder with a grip that gave her weakness away. Her vision finally cleared and she could witness the death and destruction that had happened here. Jerec had been efficient. Brutal, but also efficient in his takedown while Amea napped.

She moved her foot to let the tip of her boot nudge against one of the thugs’ head.

“See?” She coughed as she tried to laugh and let out a wet exhale. “I helped.”


Her eyes set for the windows and the gathering crowd outside. “Think we can get out of here? I think I need medical attention.”

 

[Jerec Asyr]

Amea Virou

Jerec's eyes went wide. He took Amea's weight as best he could. "You and me both, lady. Feth, you're gut-shot. I didn't see it. Think I swung too high and took out the lights."

There were, in fact, bloody splinters in the wreckage of the room's light fixtures. He stepped over a groaning, smashed-up incel in a wobbly way to get through a door, and helped Amea over the obstacle in his wake. "Out the back," he said. "No crowd yet, not much lights. Fronts onto kind of a shared...used to be a lawn."

They stumbled through the broken back door. Withered grass crunched under his boots. He dug out a comlink. "Quekko? Sending you a location ping. We need a pickup soonest."

Amea had met Quekko briefly. The little avian Apokka liked her and had pecked her shin to prove it.