Bounty Don't Switch Me Off [Darkwire + Open]

[Ishani Dinn]

The Wall, Denon
The Depths

The apartment was pitifully small, fit only for a single occupant. Dim lighting obscured the claustrophobic corners, but failed to make it seem more vast than it was. It only looked darker and grimier.

Ayreon stepped inside, his shoes sinking into a pink shag carpet covered in black oily stains. There was very little furniture, and all of it was obviously scavenged from castoffs and garage sales, covered in years’ worth of wear and tear. But the placement of each article was odd. A big dining table was set up in the middle of the living room, accompanied by an ottoman instead of chairs or a sofa; a bookshelf stood in the kitchen, upon which were displayed a wide array of spices still sealed in plastic wrap, and a lamp meant to be placed on a table was instead sitting on the floor. In other words, it looked like the place had been furnished by a robot who didn’t fully understand how human beings lived.

Before he could properly investigate the residence, Ayreon’s hearing filtered out the background noise of heavy machinery, picking out fast approaching footsteps in the corridor. He quickly looked around for a hiding place, reluctantly choosing the closet. The door opened mere milliseconds after he shut himself away, finding it mercifully devoid of both clothing and hangers.

Through the voyeuristic panels of the closet door, he saw a droid enter the apartment. Clad in a loose gray gown, it was feminine in design and coding, but lacked the realism of an HRD like himself. The stylized machine-woman was made of colored metals—wine, eggshell, plum, aquamarine—and covered in wires, including a mane of tubing which crowned her head in lieu of hair. Something about her disturbed him, or at least gave him pause. Whether it was the vestigial sexuality of the hourglass figure and the long eyelashes which framed her unblinking blue-within-blue eyes, or the fact that she bothered to wear clothing, he couldn’t pinpoint any particular reason for such a reaction.

As she walked past him toward the kitchen, his eye was drawn toward a second figure still standing by the front door. A man wearing a leather jacket, an ion pistol in his hand, watched as the droid rummaged around in the kitchen cabinets, most of which were totally empty.

“Hey,” he snapped. “Enough of this chit. You know exactly where it is.”

The droid paused, then crouched down to access a cabinet to the left of the filthy sink. Reaching inside, she pulled out a small package.

“Put it on the counter,” the man ordered. “Now move over to that closet and stay there.”

The droid did as she was told, backing away toward the closet door behind which Ayreon stood. He didn’t have time to puzzle over this stroke of bad luck, however. Pulling out his needler, he flung the door open, took aim at the very surprised man, and pulled the trigger. The thug went down, rendered unconscious by a tranquilizer dart in his neck.

Startled, the droid seized his ion blaster and pointed it at the intruder. “Wait!” Ayreon exclaimed, holding his hands up. “Don’t shoot!”

She clearly had a well-developed sense of self-preservation. Thankfully, she hesitated. “Who are you?” she demanded.

“My name is Ayreon,” he replied. “Are you Andromache?”

Rather than answering, she asked another question. “What do you want? Why were you in the closet?”

“The closet was a quick hiding place. I’m here to help you. Messala has put a bounty on your head. If you don’t get offworld soon, you’ll be dealing with much worse than this.” He nodded toward the snoring thug. "What was he doing here, anyway?"

"I owe his boss money. It isn't easy getting steady employment when you're built for one purpose and one purpose only." She scrutinized him. “How do you know about Messala?”

“My associate and I are investigating him. You may be potential evidence—but don't worry, we aren't going to deactivate you. If anything, we just need your testimony.” He paused, hearing noise in the corridor again. “Now isn’t a good time for questions. We need to leave now.”

Andromache grabbed the package from the counter before following him out of the apartment. At his questioning glance, she replied, "It's just credits. All that I have left." It was obvious that she didn’t trust him, but at least she was complying. For now.

Ayreon opened up a comm channel to his associate, Bithia. “We’re on our way. Is everything ready?”

“Negative!” Her response was uttered in agitated low tones. “Do not return to the ship. Location has been compromised. Find other transportation. I’ll catch up with you later!”

The line went dead. Taking it in stride, Ayreon glanced at Andromache. “It looks like things are about to get a little hectic. Stick close to me.”

Furch Lund | Cassus Akovin | Kranak Vizsla | Open

Spoiler: OOC

Here is the link to the bounty listing. While this thread is aimed at Darkwire characters due to the setting, it's open for anyone to join. This will be an exciting action-oriented thread, but I ask that writers refrain from doing anything that might derail the main story. Don't come crashing through a wall frothing at the mouth with a nuclear bomb strapped to your back. Thanks and have fun!

 

[Jerec Asyr]

SMOGTOWN
THE DEPTHS
THE WALL
DENON

Despite being located near the Lungs, the unauthorised yet tolerated slums known collectively as Smogtown are ironically famous for their abysmal air quality, a problem only made worse by ramshackle housing and a lack of accessible healthcare. While by all accounts unwilling to uphold law and order amongst its impoverished masses, Globex's security droids are utterly merciless when it comes to protecting Facilities and even more so the Lungs - any "active scavengers" are likely to disappear. Permanently.

...and thus, thieving crews poking around the Depths would pay a premium for a good getaway vehicle. That's where Quekko's Choice Ship Emporium (Lum Rouge, Seven Corners, stop by anytime) entered the picture - that and the chop shop angle, weaving speeder thieves' supply and facility thieves' demand into a harmonious whole. Jerec didn't take many driving jobs himself. Tonight things just went sideways.

Then they went sideways again. If Jerec retained a smidgen of luck, it was this: the Globex security droids used flamethrowers when they slaughtered the thieving crew. The crew boss's comlink, with one of Jerec's burner numbers inside, did not survive. Even more saliently, the crew got killed before Jerec pulled the getaway speeder up to the back of the target factory.

All that to say, Jerec was laying low in a modded but unobtrusive speeder near the Smogtown slums. Five stories up, a burst pipe was making it rain. Gritty drizzle sluiced down the windshield and made him deeply grateful that this speeder had a roof.

He squinted through the downpour, wary of patrols but also just people-watching to kill time. Another couple hours of this and he'd slip out of the Wall and head back to Seven Corners.

Ishani Dinn

 

[Furch Lund]

LOCATION: Seven Corners

Within the private hangar of the Quekko's Choice nested the S-161 Luxury Yacht known as the Lunar Belle. She had just made a return trip from the core and from the foul language echoing out from within the ship, it seemed she was in need of tender loving care. "No more......" The latero growled in seething anger. "No more kriffing animals aboard my ship!" Furch dipped his hands into bucket of cleaning solution, clinging onto two soaked rags venting his frustration loudly. No one was aboard his ship, sides his BB droid that was hiding in the engine room for obvious reasons. The target of his anger was the mess that his last client had left behind. An Old upper-class woman of the human variety and her brood of loth cats that she had let free roam the Lunar Belle during their trip.

A Job was a Job, but Jerec Asyr did the latero spacer raw on this one. A milk run he said it be, easy creds. There wasn't enough credits in the galaxy worth experiencing the smell of the Loth Cat urine that Furch was suffering through. "I am gonna have to fly her into the nearest sun" He doubted with near tears of anger forming. The Lunar Belle was Furch's prized possession and she had been desecrated by fluff balls from hell. He knew he should of spaced the old lady and her cats out the airlock the moment she let the cats out from the cages. He is certain there was a son-in-law here on Denon that would of paid handsomely for that to had happen.

The excessive cursing and fits of rage would continue as Furch obsessively cleaned the ship.

Ishani Dinn

 

[Kranak Vizsla]

Location: Denon, The Wall, Headed to The Depths
Local Time: 02:21
Date: -DATA CORRUPTED-
Objective: Retrieve the Droid named “Andromache” Either Intact or Destroyed
Ship: M-30S Krayt Gunship
Equipment: Loadout 1 (Minus the ECM 598 Medical Backpack)
Tags: Ishani Dinn | Jerec Asyr

Kranak had never been to Denon before. The city felt alive, more so than Coruscant, but it appeared way less crowded compared to it. The air was also much, much more cleaner than Coruscant. It was a nice change of things, but life was probably just the same as you’d get on Coruscant. Maybe even more brutal if that was possible. <Enough sightseeing.> He was quick to recall he was on a bounty mission as he walked past the inhabitants of the city on the streets, moving to his target location with moderate haste while following the path his HUD had laid out for him to reach The Depths.

His target’s general location was within an unsavory part of The Wall, called The Depths. He had done some information gathering about the area involving his target before he got to the planet with his ship. “The Depths'' were never intended for the residents of the planet to live at that part as that level featured vast refineries, autofactories and the likes. It was somewhat out of sight and out of mind. Perfect for criminal activity, as well as a great hiding spot for his bounty. There was a chance he could draw some attention from The Depth’s residents, he assumed. It wouldn’t be the first time he had to fight off street trash while in the pursuit of a bounty.

He assumed the job wouldn’t be that fun, thinking his target wouldn’t really put up a fight. It was a “womb droid”. It wasn’t designed for combat at all. Normally he wouldn’t take the contract, as his primary motive was the thrill of the hunt, but he needed to make some quick cash at the time, after his last transaction of ammunition for his weapon platforms and fuel for his Gunship.

--

He was closing in on the general target location now when he entered The Depths. He stood next to the entrance of a back alley by the shadows and reached for his DRK-1 Probe Droid. It’s repulsors activated and stood aloft in the air, waiting for Kranak’s directives. He fed the probe mission related data using his wristlink and dispatched the probe to pinpoint the exact location of his target. His probe droid left his line of sight as it gained altitude and speed to execute its new set of commands it received. He reached for his Westar-M5 and pulled it over his right shoulder and kept it slung on his chest, with his right hand clutching the pistol grip. He set his Westar-M5 off safety and watched the live-feed from his probe droid on his HUD as it flew past the ceilings of various types of structures. He wasn’t given the pinpoint location of the bounty, so he would have to find the droid first. He assumed his target would be somewhere near Smogtown, but he had his doubts. The droid could be anywhere in this level. Kranak would lean against the wall behind him by the back alley with his guard up, scanning his surroundings mostly while he checked the live-feed occasionally as he waited for his probe droid to pinpoint his target’s exact location within The Depths.

 

[Ishani Dinn]

“Before we go any further, I must ask,” Ayreon began. “What became of the child you were carrying when you ran away?”

Andromache paused on the staircase, staring at him. It was a valid question. She'd been pregnant when she escaped, but her stomach was obviously flat as a board now. But how did he know? Well, he knew about Messala, her creator and the one who had put the bounty on her head, so why not? “I left him at a hospital right after he was born. Anonymous dropoff. I don’t know where he is now. Probably adopted by some family.”

“What species was he?” Ayreon pressed. He kept walking, expecting her to keep up.

She resumed her descent. “Because I was calibrated to human specifications during gestation, he will appear human until he reaches puberty. Then his true nature will be revealed.”

“Which is?”

“Sith Doppelganger. A type of Sithspawn.”

“Clearly. Will he grow up to be a menace to society?”

“Not if he’s raised properly,” she replied wryly. “Though he’ll bear the touch of the Dark Side woven into the very fiber of his being.”

"The Force, you mean. The 'Dark Side' is merely a term for an individual's moral alignment."

Rather than responding, she ignored him, clearly not interested in a debate over something that didn't affect a droid like her. Ayreon didn't ask any more questions.

Ayreon managed to get Andromache out of the apartment complex without incident. It was only after they passed the threshold of the exit that things began to go wrong—starting with the appearance of a DRK-1 probe droid searching the area. To human eyes, it would appear as little more than a small dark silhouette against the night sky, obscured by the pollution in the air. But Ayreon's magnified vision saw it for what it was.

“Wait,” he said.

Andromache stopped, looking at him in confusion.

“Your ion blaster, please.” The HRD held out his hand, still looking at the probe. She handed him the ion pistol from earlier. He aimed at the hovering probe and squeezed off a couple of shots.

Whether they hit their mark or not, Ayreon didn’t stick around to see. He grabbed Andromache by the arm and took off, darting around the corner of a building, through an alleyway, and into a veritable tunnel of collected metal scrap in an effort to lose the scouting droid.

The route carried them directly into a trap. Five gang members, their weapons already drawn, were waiting for them at the end of the tunnel. “Get down!” Ayreon hissed, shoving Andromache to the ground on her side behind a rusted metal crate. He pulled out his sidewarm, the SH-9. This was no tranquilizer gun; it fired slugs that tore into the cheap ferrocrete walls the startled thugs ducked behind.

“Hey! What the feth?” One of the gangbangers yelled. “Who the hell are you? Corpo? Cops?”

“He’s a cop!” Another wailed, the pained tones of his voice making it clear that he had been struck by a bullet. “He shoots like one!”

Andromache glanced toward Ayreon as the HRD reloaded his gun, taking in his stance and the precise way he held his weapon. Was that what they meant? How did one “shoot like a cop”?

“We just want our money back!” The first thug snarled. “Your droid owes us, sleemo! Either you or her gotta pay up!”

“Now is not the time,” Ayreon replied, his calm demeanor almost comical given that one of them was sobbing in the background. “I suggest you forfeit the debt. Trust me when I say you’re in over your heads with this one.”

“Screw you!” An ion bolt scorched the air near where Ayreon was crouched behind cover.

The HRD did not hold back this time. He advanced, firing at the thugs so they were afraid to come out, then entered their territory. When he needed to reload, he resorted to the needler again, knocking out the stragglers. When all five were dispatched, he turned to Andromache. “You can come out now. Let’s go!”

She got to her feet and followed him, avoiding looking at the bodies. Somehow she didn’t think this guy was a cop, at least not anymore.

They emerged from yet another alleyway to a street near the slums. A broken pipe rained down on them, the fluid leaking out so filthy it hardly deserved to be called water anymore. Ayreon rapped on the window of the speeder parked directly beneath the downpour, intending to hijack the vehicle on “police business”—only for the transparisteel to crack against his knuckles. Andromache jumped, startled. The HRD stared at his hand in disbelief—did he not know his own strength?—then ducked as another shot rang out from somewhere above, ricocheting off the roof of the speeder.

It seemed the whole neighborhood was joining in on the hunt.

Jerec Asyr | Furch Lund | Kranak Vizsla​

 

[Jerec Asyr]

Jerec's first clue to the impending gunfight was when a Dark Eye probe droid zipped past. His second clue was the gunfight.

Slugs and blasterfire cratered the lovingly reconditioned getaway speeder. And while that's more or less what getaway speeders are for, the unexpectedness of it inspired a yelp and an extremely abbreviated startup sequence. The sequence wrapped just as a prettyboy knocked on the viewport hard enough to crack the transparisteel. The young guy and the fancy droid with him ducked as it became clear they were engrossed in said gunfight. Central to it, in fact.

Jerec pondered his odds of pulling a three-point turn away from the violence while up close and personal with at least one dangerous person. He weighed those odds alongside what might be an opportunity.

The passenger doors, front and back, clicked open. The compromised window slid down.

"All aboard that's going aboard, kids."

Also, Jerec tapped out a quick local distress message on a Spacer Guild comm. Furch Lund had a ship nearby, due to circumstances that were definitely not Jerec's fault.

Ishani Dinn Kranak Vizsla

 

[Kranak Vizsla]

Location: Denon, The Wall, The Depths
Local Time: 02:24
Date: -DATA CORRUPTED-
Objective: Retrieve the Droid named “Andromache” Either Intact or Destroyed
Ship: M-30S Krayt Gunship
Equipment: Loadout 1 (Minus the ECM 598 Medical Backpack)
Tags: Ishani Dinn | Jerec Asyr | Furch Lund

His HUD indicated his probe droid had found its target as it brought up the live-feed on a large display, taking up most of his HUD. He saw the bounty he was after, but there was someone else with the droid. <Another bounty hunter?> He thought to himself as he zoomed in on the two. No, he wasn’t a bounty hunter. At least he didn’t look like one at the time. The droid was following him somewhat willingly, it appeared. He turned the probe’s camera back at the man again and saw he was looking back straight at the probe. He tilted his head to the left in intrigue. Did he just spot his probe droid? Kranak then saw his bounty pass a blaster pistol of some sort to the man. He grabbed the pistol, aimed at the probe and fired off three shots. Two of them missed its mark by a few inches, but the third one struck the probe. The live feed was all choppy now. He wasn’t sure how extensive the damage dealt on his probe droid. It was still operational at the moment, but it could go down at any time. He needed to act right now and close in on his target. His HUD had marked the last known location of his bounty and the man on display as the live-feed minimized. He broke into a sprint to reach their location, with his rifle on a low-ready position. They were about sixty meters away from him to the north.

He ran through the narrow streets, running past pedestrians and parting the crowds that were on his way and took an alleyway to his left that would lead to their last known location. It was then he heard blaster fire erupt from his twelve o’clock somewhere deep in the alleyway. He continued sprinting towards the blaster fire in the narrow alleyway, but the firefight was cut short. It didn’t take long for him to reach where the firefight had happened. Multiple gunmen, numbering at five were all lying on the ground unconscious. His bounty and the man he saw earlier was not within his sight-lines. Later, he heard the echo of another blaster, in the alleyway. It didn’t sound too far away. He broke into a sprint within the alleyway once more, making his way to the second source of the blaster fire. The blaster fire led him out of the alleyway and into the streets, close to the slums.

This street was pretty empty at the time. There were no pedestrians walking about with just a few airspeeders parked on the sidewalks. There was no trace of a firefight here, or his bounty and the man accompanying the droid. They had to be somewhere here. They could not have gone too far. He attempted to use the probe’s unstable live-feed to locate them if he could. The probe was loitering a hundred meters altitude above him. It’s camera flickered into life. The camera was still working, albeit intermittently. It’s camera was fixated on one of the air speeders in the streets, the one under a large sewage pipe. The contents of the large pipe was pouring down hard on the convertible airspeeder. He turned off the live-feed immediately and started to approach the convertible airspeeder with his rifle raised, assuming a fighting stance as he did so. [“Step out of the airspeeder with your hands up!”] he shouted. His voice was further amplified in its intensity by his helmet’s built-in voice projector. He knew they wouldn't comply if they were in that airspeeder, but it was worth a shot. He was about five meters away from the convertible airspeeder now, approaching it from the side. If it were to suddenly start up and drive away, he would quickly fire off his grappling hook on his right vambrace -after letting go of his rifle- at the airspeeder to stay in pursuit of his target.

 

[Ishani Dinn]

“All aboard that’s going aboard, kids."

Ayreon reached back to pull Andromache into the speeder. But before he could join her, another voice shouted from down the street.

“Step out of the airspeeder with your hands up!”

The HRD’s logical mind made a decision in a matter of milliseconds. Ignoring the command, he climbed into the speeder after Andromache. “Punch it!” he told the Ithorian driver.

Seconds later, he heard the thump of a device attaching to the back of the vehicle. “He’s got a grappling hook,” Ayreon announced after glancing through the rearview window. “Can you angle the speeder to smash him against the nearest building?”

Andromache stared at him. “What?” Ayreon asked, his tone and expression as impassive as ever. “If it works, it works.”

Jerec Asyr | Furch Lund | Kranak Vizsla​

 

[Jerec Asyr]

The grappling hook made a substantive crunch. Jerec accelerated before Ayreon finished talking. "Don't tell your grandma how to suck eggs," he gritted out. A dumpster ripped half the back bumper off and his eyes went wide. "Well, ryv."

A glance backward verified that, yes, Kranak Vizsla was still attached even if the bumper wasn't. In the moment it took Jerec to glance back, the speeder sheared through an incautious droid. Wires from the droid's head snagged on the front armature. With a deep sinking feeling, Jerec recognized a corpo security bot. A cop.

"PULL OVER," said the head. Jerec slewed the speeder through grimy streets regardless. A few blocks of this and he could maybe burst into open air, which came with its own set of problems.

"You're paying for all of this, by the way," he said to the two folks who'd hopped in.

Ishani Dinn
Furch Lund

 

[Furch Lund]

Location: Seven Corners

A beacon signal obnoxiously rang from the bridge catching the attention of Furch who was down on all hands and knees scrubbing the floor of his ship. Normally he would be grouchy with the interruption of task, but this was an emergency beacon and like any spacer worth their salt, he leaped to his feet and hurried to the bridge. The beacon was from a known source with the intel popping up as Jerec's codes. Ironic that they very man he had been cursing for the last few hours is now in need of help. "This is going to cost him....." He smiled at the redeeming thought.

Furch climbed up into the pilot's chair and began pre flight system checks while at the same time sending a comm to Jerec " You actually better be in danger and this not being an accidental butt call"

Jerec Asyr Ishani Dinn Kranak Vizsla

 

[Kranak Vizsla]

Location: Denon, The Wall, The Depths
Local Time: 02:26
Date: -DATA CORRUPTED-
Objective: Retrieve the Droid named “Andromache” Either Intact or Destroyed
Ship: M-30S Krayt Gunship
Equipment: Loadout 1 (Minus the ECM 598 Medical Backpack)
Tags: Ishani Dinn | Jerec Asyr | Furch Lund

The tall, heavily muscular Mandalorian heard a muffled voice coming from the airspeeder’s interior. He couldn’t hear what exactly was said, but shortly after the airspeeder’s repulsor engines came to life. The man that scored a hit on his probe droid must’ve urged the airspeeder’s driver to start up the engines. He quickly let go of his Westar-M5 -as it was tightly slung on him at all times, it dropped on his chest- and raised his right arm and fired off his grappling hook before the airspeeder got away. The grappling hook set itself at the rear of the vehicle, and moments after he felt his feet lose contact with the ground as the vehicle pulled him strongly. Shortly after he clinged on the airspeeder with his grappling hook, the vehicle’s rear end struck a dumpster before it took off from the ground, ripping off the rear bumper. He swiftly activated his rocket boots and pointed his feet slightly downwards and boosted himself upwards to avoid colliding with the debris. He deactivated his rocket boots shortly after and leveled himself with the rear end of the vehicle. He felt the rush of adrenaline in his veins from the pursuit now. He might’ve been wrong thinking this bounty mission would go uneventful. <This will certainly be something to remember.> he thought with a smile on his face, hidden underneath the helmet. He caught a glimpse of the passengers within as he dodged the hazard. He saw the man and the droid Kranak was after sitting beside him. He was unable to see the driver from that angle, though.

His Kama rippled violently while in flight. Looking down, he saw they were starting to rapidly gain altitude. They were picking up speed rapidly as well, zooming past other transports in the air. The streets below turned into a blur. He wasn’t sure how long he could cling on the airspeeder with his grappling hook. In case he was somehow ripped off the airspeeder, he decided to throw a homing beacon at it. With his free left hand he reached for his large pouch to retrieve the homing beacon. Upon activating it, he threw the device at the rear side of the vehicle. The small beacon magnetized on the rear end of the vehicle with a soft, satisfying thud. After making sure he could locate them once more if he lost sight of them, he pulled his A-180 holstered on his left Kama holster and raised it at the vehicle’s rear windshield and discharged his blaster pistol a couple of times. The blaster shrieked with each pull of the trigger, firing off red blaster bolts.

Some of the red blaster bolts shattered the rear glass of the vehicle as they penetrated their way into the speeder's interior, but some of the bolts glanced off the upper roof as the blaster bolts struck it in a weird angle. He couldn’t see if he scored a hit on the man, the droid or the driver. It was hard to aim accurately at his current state. He was constantly rocking left and right. The fact that he was firing with his non-dominant hand also played into their hands. He would fire more accurately if he was using his right, dominant hand but at the time he couldn't, as the big Mandalorian was trying to stay grappled to the vehicle at the time, using his right vambrace. As he continued firing, he was trying to take out the man that neutralized those five thugs from earlier since he was in his way of reaching his bounty. He would have to take him out of the picture first before seizing his bounty. He would start to shoot in short intervals to score more accurate hits, trying to stabilize his aim as best he could between each shot.

 

[Ishani Dinn]

“Lie flat against the seat,” Ayreon ordered Andromache as the ship pitched erratically, screeching around corners and smashing into a police droid. “I’m sure he’ll start shooting—”

As if on cue, a hail of bullets punched through the rear window. The hunter’s aim was off, and Andromache had already ducked in her seat, but Ayreon was more interested in protecting their driver. Rather than ducking down, he stood up on his knees, shielding the Ithorian with his body as much as he could. Several bolts struck Ayreon’s torso, blackening his suit. One managed to strike right below the knot of his tie, burning clean through the fabric. The tie fell onto the seat, severed.

Looking as annoyed as an HRD could be, Ayreon leveled his slugthrower pistol through the now shattered window. His aim was equally poor—and not helped by the speeder taking a sudden drastic turn that caused sight of Kranak to temporarily disappear behind a building just as Ayreon pulled the trigger—but he kept trying, squeezing off shots until he had to reload again.

***​

Elsewhere in the Depths, Bithia slogged down an alleyway, keeping to the shadows. Her flesh was warped by heat and damaged by fire, bubbling and wriggling in a grotesque manner as her body struggled to regenerate. The charred tatters of a flight suit hung from her scorched figure. She was blinded, melting, and badly in need of a snack.

What had happened to her involved a poor choice of parking, Globex security droids armed with flamethrowers, and a ship that was now too damaged and too overrun with enemy forces to repair in time. Assuming it could be repaired at all—those droids had really done a number on the engines.

Bithia and her associates were now without a ship, and Bithia herself was packing enough traumatic injuries to kill a human several times over. Good thing Bithia wasn’t human anymore, and couldn’t feel the pain of her wounds. It did make her life a whole lot weirder, but that was par for the course these days.

She hobbled her way right into a hobo camp. The occupants scattered, running away screaming in horror at the sight of her. But one gentleman, apparently deaf as a post, was facing away from the group and didn’t see them leaving nor her coming.

A few minutes later, with the vagrant snoring on the ground, a well-fed and fully repaired Bithia wiped the blood from her mouth, sighed, and headed out. She had no idea where she was going, but she figured she should probably try to find a way out of this dump. The fact that her clothes were still burned to hell wasn’t going to help matters. She should probably reconfigure to one of her other forms. Preferably one that had built-in garments.

Finding an empty alcove, she gave the lower half of her face one last swipe for good measure, got down on one knee, and started to change...

Jerec Asyr | Furch Lund | Kranak Vizsla​

 

[Jerec Asyr]

...while at the same time sending a comm to Jerec " You actually better be in danger and this not being an accidental butt call"

"Oh burn salt, Furch - no, wait wait wait."

The multilimbed spacer would hear the telltale signs of a getaway drive intermingled with a gunfight.

"My speeder's getting shot to feth. We're in The Wall, heading ingo open air, low on the south edge of the arcology, just emerged maybe...eighty meters above ground level-"

A stray shot ripped the comlink out of Jerec's hand in pieces.

His Kama rippled violently while in flight. Looking down, he saw they were starting to rapidly gain altitude. They were picking up speed rapidly as well, zooming past other transports in the air. The streets below turned into a blur. He wasn’t sure how long he could cling on the airspeeder with his grappling hook. In case he was somehow ripped off the airspeeder, he decided to throw a homing beacon at it. With his free left hand he reached for his large pouch to retrieve the homing beacon. Upon activating it, he threw the device at the rear side of the vehicle. The small beacon magnetized on the rear end of the vehicle with a soft, satisfying thud. After making sure he could locate them once more if he lost sight of them, he pulled his A-180 holstered on his left Kama holster and raised it at the vehicle’s rear windshield and discharged his blaster pistol a couple of times. The blaster shrieked with each pull of the trigger, firing off red blaster bolts.

Some of the red blaster bolts shattered the rear glass of the vehicle as they penetrated their way into the speeder's interior, but some of the bolts glanced off the upper roof as the blaster bolts struck it in a weird angle. He couldn’t see if he scored a hit on the man, the droid or the driver. It was hard to aim accurately at his current state. He was constantly rocking left and right. The fact that he was firing with his non-dominant hand also played into their hands. He would fire more accurately if he was using his right, dominant hand but at the time he couldn't, as the big Mandalorian was trying to stay grappled to the vehicle at the time, using his right vambrace. As he continued firing, he was trying to take out the man that neutralized those five thugs from earlier since he was in his way of reaching his bounty. He would have to take him out of the picture first before seizing his bounty. He would start to shoot in short intervals to score more accurate hits, trying to stabilize his aim as best he could between each shot.

As if on cue, a hail of bullets punched through the rear window. The hunter’s aim was off, and Andromache had already ducked in her seat, but Ayreon was more interested in protecting their driver. Rather than ducking down, he stood up on his knees, shielding the Ithorian with his body as much as he could. Several bolts struck Ayreon’s torso, blackening his suit. One managed to strike right below the knot of his tie, burning clean through the fabric. The tie fell onto the seat, severed.

Looking as annoyed as an HRD could be, Ayreon leveled his slugthrower pistol through the now shattered window. His aim was equally poor—and not helped by the speeder taking a sudden drastic turn that caused sight of Kranak to temporarily disappear behind a building just as Ayreon pulled the trigger—but he kept trying, squeezing off shots until he had to reload again.

Now, in theory, getting shot up was what getaway speeders were FOR. That didn't make the experience any more enjoyable. Jerec flinched every time a shot whined through the vehicle's cabin or thunked into Ayreon, who seemed unusually durable. As in, not dead by now. The Durasteel Twink's lack of obvious pain response suggested either amazing armor or an HRD like the ones Darkwire had tangled with lately.

The speeder soared out of The Wall and into a more open stretch of disused industrial whatnot, still fairly low to the ground.

"Come on, Furch..."

 

[Kranak Vizsla]

Location: Denon, The Wall, The Depths
Local Time: 02:28
Date: -DATA CORRUPTED-
Objective: Retrieve the Droid Named “Andromache” Either Intact or Destroyed
Equipment: Loadout 1 (Minus the ECM 598 Medical Backpack)
Tags: Ishani Dinn | Jerec Asyr

Spoiler: OOC

Apologies for the late reply, I'll try and post more often.

The chase -if you could call it that- was getting lengthy now. Too lengthy for the Mandalorian’s taste. He started to think of ways he could force the speeder to land. He could potentially harm the airspeeder’s repulsors below the vehicle and force it to land or -even better- crash the vehicle. The bounty he was after could also be turned in with the bounty terminated, as long as he had physical proof of the termination of his bounty. While he was considering his options, his train of thought was disrupted when the man in the airspeeder opened fire at him with his slugthrower pistol. Some of the slugs missed him. A few slugs struck the dome of his buy’c, bouncing off it harmlessly. But some of the bullets had struck the wall a few meters in front, sending small ferro-concrete chunks towards the Mandalorian. The chunks bounced off his beskar’gam, causing no damage to Kranak, only some discomfort. He returned fire with his pistol, but he was still heavily swaying. The red blaster bolts from his A-180 vizzed by the airspeeder, missing.

Moments after returning fire at the human silhouette inside the vehicle, he activated his rocket boots to position himself to see under the airspeeder. In a moment’s notice, he would be out of sight from the passengers in the vehicle. From this angle, the Mandalorian had sightlines on a couple of the repulsors. He leveled his blaster pistol towards the closest repulsor and softly pulled the trigger. Some of the red blaster bolts struck the repulsor, with some missing the target, or hitting other components in a weird angle, ricocheting off the vehicle. However, mere moments later, sparks were sprinkling out of the repulsor he shot at while letting out a metallic whine. He felt the airspeeder losing speed as a result, but the Mandalorian wasn’t sure if this amount of damage was enough to bring down the vehicle. To make sure it was enough, Kranak would try damaging or completely destroying the next repulsor closest to him with his blaster pistol.

 

[Ishani Dinn]

The Mandalorian disappeared underneath the vehicle, out of sight of Ayreon’s slugthrower. Preparing for a surprise attack from a different angle, Ayreon checked the side of the speeder, looking out the windows, but Kranak didn’t jump out and start shooting.

“Blowing out the repulsors? He can’t be that insane,” Ayreon said out loud. “Then again, they usually have jetpacks, don’t they?”

The repulsor which Kranak blew out was directly beneath him, and likely due to Ayreon’s considerable weight, the speeder started to pitch to one side in midair. Ayreon grabbed the back of the seat in order to keep from falling against the door. “Switch sides with me!” he commanded Andromache.

She crawled across the seat, keeping her head down in case the bounty hunter started shooting again, and Ayreon moved into her former spot. The vehicle righted itself, though it was still a little unbalanced. He hoped the Ithorian driver knew what he was doing.

Jerec Asyr | Kranak Vizsla​

 

[Jerec Asyr]

The ramshackle getaway speeder could only take so much punishment.

"Uh, sorry folks, this speeder can only take so much fething punishment."

There were red lights all over the control panels.

"Look at the red fething lights."

The speeder skewed back and forth as weight and damage distributed themselves asymmetrically.

"And stop fidgeting. Stop fething shooting too."

They were out of the Wall now, skidding through city canyons and losing what altitude they'd gained. Jerec was deeply regretting going full Samaritan. Every dozen layers or so, the city had broad routes for pedestrians and ground vehicles. All of the above scattered as Jerec brought the speeder down hard.

He slowed way down first, though, in hopes of smushing the Mando under his undercarriage. Petty but satisfying.

Kranak Vizsla Ishani Dinn

 

[Kranak Vizsla]

Location: Denon, Unknown (To Kranak) Parts of a City
Local Time: 02:29
Date: -DATA CORRUPTED-
Objective: Retrieve the Droid Named “Andromache” Either Intact or Destroyed
Equipment: Loadout 1 (Minus the ECM 598 Medical Backpack)
Tags: Ishani Dinn | Jerec Asyr

The damage on a single repulsor was not enough to bring it down, but it somewhat slowed down the air speeder. Upon shooting the next closest repulsor however, things took a different turn. Sparks and thin columns of black smoke jutted out of the second repulsor he shot, violently rocking the speeder. They were now rapidly losing altitude. They were coming down crashing into the city from the skies. He was having troubles holding on to the air speeder but now, it would be a good idea to let go of it and track the vehicle using the homing beacon he planted on earlier using his HUD. Quickly making the decision, he used his rocket boots to level himself behind the speeder and detach the grappling hook line from his right vambrace. With a hoarse metallic click, he was no longer grappling on at the back of the air speeder.

He was starting to enjoy the idea of freefalling. His first experience was during an operation a few months back in Felucia. He felt the same excitement in Denon as he did in Felucia. Reliving the experience put a big smile on his face as he followed the air speeder on a freefall. The big Mandalorian kept around fifty meters distance between him and the air speeder as both fell. They were rapidly going through a number of levels of the city during the descent. Kranak’s surroundings, things and people within his peripheral vision turned to a blur; with the rush of air violently rippling his black Kama. He saw the air speeder landing on two levels below the Mandalorian. It was a rough landing, but the driver must’ve had some talent to land the thing in its current condition. He shifted his position mid air quickly into a high crouch stance; his boots pointing at the ground. He was still on a rapid descent. A few moments later, he would activate his rocket boots to slow himself down. The Mandalorian rolled forward upon making contact with the ground to dissipate the kinetic energy from the fall. Kranak then holstered his A-180 to his left Kama holster and reached for the Westar-M5 still slung on his chest. He only then felt the stinging pain on his right shoulder. He checked his right shoulder to see his wound. There weren't any open wounds. Nor did he feel a broken bone. He then remembered how he was pulled from the ground when he had used his grappling hook in pursuit of his target. He was strong -and fortunate- enough to not have a dislocated shoulder, but he was in moderate pain when he moved around his right arm. The Mandalorian probably did not feel the pain earlier due to the adrenaline rush he had when he was in the air. Regardless, it was nothing some bacta could not fix. He’d definitely get some bacta after this.

He grabbed his rifle nonetheless, soldiering through the pain. He gasped and let out a muffled grunt as he reached for the rifle and raised it towards the air speeder. He had landed about twenty meters away from the air-speeder. He only then realized his surroundings. He saw the scattered civilians on either side of the street; their eyes were widened in confusion, and maybe in fear. The traffic on the street stopped as drivers looked at the big Mandalorian in complete confusion. He didn’t like the attention from the civilians. They could complicate things in his line of work. Who knows, maybe one or two of them were -or already have- called the police. That would certainly complicate things. With that in mind, he would need to move fast. Focusing back on his current task at hand, he quickly stood up and assumed a combat stance as he started to approach the air speeder, with his Westar-M5 raised. The Mandalorian was not seeing any movement from the driver or the passengers within the air speeder from his angle. They could not be knocked unconscious. The landing was rough, but he assumed the “impact” wouldn’t be enough to knock them unconscious.

The Mandalorian approached the air speeder from the right side with his trigger finger resting on the trigger, leaving about a five meters space between the vehicle and himself. [“Step out of the vehicle with your hands up.”] he commanded, his sonorous voice sounding collected.

 

[Ishani Dinn]

The landing could’ve been better, but neither of the two droids in the backseat were significantly damaged by the impact.

“Are you hurt?” Ayreon asked the Ithorian driver. He could hear the Mandalorian calling out to them through broken windows, but he elected to ignore him for now. There were too many people around, and the hunter likely knew that if he started shooting here, he’d only get himself into trouble.

Jerec Asyr | Kranak Vizsla​

 

[Jerec Asyr]

Kranak Vizsla Ishani Dinn

OOC/ Sorry for the delay, kept forgetting.

IC/ Jerec cracked his neck - quite a process for an Ithorian - and unbuckled. "'M fine," he mumbled, somewhat concussed. He put his hands up, opened the door, put them up again, and lurched out of the speeder. Feth, but that Mando gunslinger had him dead to rights.

"Sorry, kids, this is the end of the line."

 

[Kranak Vizsla]

HUNT FOR ANDROMACHE

Location: Denon, Unknown (To Kranak) Parts of a City
Local Time: 02:29
Date: -DATA CORRUPTED-
Objective: Retrieve the Droid Named “Andromache” Either Intact or Destroyed
Equipment: Loadout 1 (Minus the ECM 598 Medical Backpack)
Tags: Ishani Dinn | Jerec Asyr

"Sorry, kids, this is the end of the line."

[“Get on the ground! Hands where I can see them!”] Kranak shouted at the Ithorian driver that stumbled out of the driver’s seat on the right, close to him. Not a moment later, the giant swiftly turned to his right, his Westar-M5 pointed at the Ithorian; the rifle’s stock couched underarm, close to the giant’s hip.

Letting go of the hand guard, the Ori’ramikad unholstered an A180 blaster pistol from his left Kama holster, keeping the blaster pistol pointed towards the right back door of the air speeder, where his bounty and the man is seated at.

Glancing at his back over his left shoulder, he could hear a set of sharp sirens wailing in the distance. He did not have much time left. He needed to move quickly.

Swiftly turning his attention back at the speeder close to him, he landed a strong right kick on the air speeder’s back right door, on top of its hinges. With a metallic clatter, the door crashed to the ground; its hinges gave way with a snap under the giant's armored feet.

[“Get out of the vehicle, now! Hands where I can see them.”] Kranak commanded, his cold and lifeless visor gazing at the man that protected Andromache. The Mandalorian kept his blaster pistol pointed at the man’s cranium, and his Westar-M5’s barrel pointed at the Ithorian; the stock of the rifle couched underarm. ["No sudden moves."]