Public Escape

[Kuxirra Tano-Bonteri]

Kuxirra shrugged. "I don't know if I'm in trouble. Ever heard of Dr. Veinstein? I was one of his experiments in the labs that got destroyed last week. My designation was Subject 643. It's the only name I know." When asked if she was hungry, she nodded. "Yeah. Thanks."

 

[Kardek Alpha]

Kardek processed what she had said. It was apparent that she had been through a lot.

"No, I can't say I've head of him." Kardek said with a lowered voice. "What kind of experiments?" This is the kind of stuff that Kardek hated most... People getting their identity ripped away from them... becoming objects or tools for others to exploit. Sounds like Dr. Veinstein might be his next target... that is, if the doc is still alive.

 

[Kardek Alpha]

Kardek shifted in his chair with irritation at that fact that she didn't even have a name.

"And I'm not calling you that horrible number. What about..." He looked at her, trying to figure out a name that could fit the little Togruta... Then he smiled...

"Mini?" He offered. Anything was better than "Subject 643".

 

[Kuxirra Tano-Bonteri]

Kuxirra nodded. "Mini it is. And we were genetic experiments. I'm a super soldier. I could easily kill you in a hundred different ways in under a minute. But I won't. Not just because you helped me, but because it hurts when I see others in pain, and to be the cause of that pain..." She shook her head. "When I see someone in need, I need to help them."

 

[Kardek Alpha]

Kardek was definitely taken aback by her comment about being a super soldier, not even to mention her cockiness at saying she could kill him 100 different ways. Kardek couldn't help but let a smile fill his face. Man, she was a little fire ball!

"Ok, Mini the super soldier. Try not to kill me just yet, at least until after we eat." He laughed as their food finally arrived, motioning for it to be placed mostly in front of Kuxirra Tano-Bonteri . "So I guess I miss judged you when I saw a little girl all on her own without anyone to help her." He mused. Then he shrugged and continued, "Well that does make me feel better actually, knowing you can hold your own."

He looked at her with interest as she shared her deep conviction about helping those in need. Seems like, above all odds, this rugged ex-bounty hunter and this cute little Togruta girl had much more in common than he ever thought possible.

"I respect that." Kardek stated as he looked down at the food and began to pull a little bit onto his own plate. "I think there are a lot of people in this galaxy that need help. Good for you."

 

[Kuxirra Tano-Bonteri]

Kuxirra nodded and started eating. "This is really good!" She said. When he said a lot of people needed help, she nodded again and swallowed. "I know. I've heard of people who help others. They're called..." She looked up for a minute. "I can't remember the actual name. SJC is the abbreviation, though. Silver Something Concord, I think. If I remember correctly, 648—he's like my brother—and 73 and 414—obviously they're other experiments—went there. I call 648 Slip, short for Slipknot. I can't remember why I started calling him that, though, but he has green hair, and before you ask, no, it isn't dyed. 73 has red hair and eyes, so I call him Red. I don't remember why I call 414 Algo, but his hair is white unless he's in pain. Then it turns black."

 

[Kardek Alpha]

Kardek listened to her as she talked, taking the opportunity to get a few bites of food in. He definitely had a different perspective on organizations and coalitions than she did... Even those who are actually doing some good in the galaxy. After she had finished, he nodded and began to respond.

"Ya, you're probably referring to the Silver Jedi Concord." He stated, wiping his mouth with a napkin. "Nothing against them, I just find those kind of groups to be restricting." He leaned back and looked intently at Mini. "You see, the bigger your group is, the less they actually get done. There are councils and governments and politics and bureaucracy..." Kardek shook his head and laughed, "And what ends up happening is that you won't always be able to help the people you want to help, or even do it the way you feel like you should. You'll need to submit a request, then some other people will need to discuss it in a committee... and trust me... they don't know what you know or feel what you feel... they're disconnected from the need. That makes it harder to be.... empathetic." He took a swing of his beer, then placed it back on the table.

Then Kardek leaned forward, putting both arms on the table with hand folded, looking straight at Kuxirra Tano-Bonteri . "Or you could join me if you wanted to... Help exactly who you want to help, however they need helping... do it your way... bring real justice into real life situations." Kardek paused for a moment, then shrugged as he leaned back into his chair and processed what he had just said. "But I'm sure you could do some good with the Jedi, don't get me wrong. Everyone's wired differently."

 

[Kuxirra Tano-Bonteri]

Kuxirra thought for a bit, then shrugged. "I'd still like to meet up with them, but I've got a feeling that I should spend some time with you first."

 

[Kardek Alpha]

Kardek nodded, giving her a smile. "It's nice to meet you Mini." Kardek reached out for a hand shake "My name is Kardek by the way, and this here is Alpha..." He motioned towards the Assassin Droid that was seated beside him.

 

[Kuxirra Tano-Bonteri]

Kuxirra nodded. "Nice to meet both of you." She smiled. "Just a little heads-up: I was told that I have this thing called ADHD. And another thing called autism. Side effect of the genetic stuff, I think. I get distracted at the slightest movement."

 

[Kardek Alpha]

Kardek nodded in response. Then he raised his eyebrows as a thought came to his mind.

"You know, I'm kind of a genetic experiment myself." He pulled his hair back to reveal a scar on his forehead. "Got shot in the head. It was fatal." He then motioned to Alpha. "In order to save my life, they gave me a cybernetic implant. I have an active neural connection to this guy right here..." He patted the droid on the shoulder. "Alpha is an extension of me... without him, I would die in a matter of minutes. Pretty crazy."

Kardek took the last drink from his beer, then focused back on Kuxirra Tano-Bonteri . "Well, I'd better get going. My ship is in a hangar bay not too far from here... You're more than welcome to join us for as long as you'd like to Mini..." Alpha pulled out some credits and placed them both the table to cover the bill. "I can even help you find your friends in the SJC." Kardek liked the girl... she was spunky, spoke her mind, and apparently was a pretty good soldier to top it all off. If he could help her, he was willing to.

 

[Kuxirra Tano-Bonteri]

Kuxirra nodded. "That's pretty cool." She stood to go with him. "Thank you again for your help." She shifted her quarterstaff back to her back.

 

[Kardek Alpha]

The three of them made their way out of the restaurant and towards the Hanger Bay. As they entered the hangar, Kardek's ship stood before them. It was a Dynamic-Class Freighter, which from the outside seemed like a pretty standard smuggling ship. However, the inside carried quite a few surprises.

Kardek stretched out his arm towards the ship, "It's my pleasure to introduce you to The Harbinger." He said with a level of pride filling his voice. He hit a button on his belt and the exit ramp lowered, but as they approached the ramp, eight mercenaries slowly came out of hiding from the midst of the storage in the hangar bay. Kardek instinctively drew both NN-14 blasters, pointing them in the direction of the mercs.

"State your business!" Kardek demanded as the Mercs faced off against them from across the hangar bay, weapons drawn. One of them, wearing dark red armor, motioned with his head towards Kardek in a mocking fashion, "Well I guess that would be you, son!" He said with a dark and gritty voice.

Alpha raised his Heavy Repeater rifle, ready to unleash a barrage of fire towards the Mercs. Kardek sensed movement coming from behind them as well. "Well Mini..." He said softly as six more Merc's settled in behind them, blocking off any hope of retreat, "I'm sure glad you're a super soldier right about now. Hope you're ready for a fight... but if not, just get inside the ship and we will take it from here."

 

[Kuxirra Tano-Bonteri]

"I have a feeling we won't be able to escape under l unless I help. I'm not saying I doubt your abilities or anything, though." She said, pulling out her quarterstaff.

 

[Kardek Alpha]

Kardek nodded, seeing her ready herself for confrontation. He turned his attention toward the Merc in red armor who had spoken earlier. "Did Arhabar send you?" Kardek yelled out. That slimy swindler who couldn't pay him from earlier is probably the reason for all of this. Trying to get out of his debt.

The Merc nodded slowly, confirming his suspicions. Kardek shook his head. Here we go. "Listen... Arhabar owes me money for a job, but as far as I'm concerned, the debt can be cleared right now if you just call your men off... No harm, no foul." Kardek was not personally concerned about his odds against the 14 Mercs, but more so about the fact that Mini would be caught in the middle of everything.

The Merc responded with arrogance, shaking his head at Kardek. "Common son, at least go out with your pride still in tact!" He went to motion for the other Mercs to attack, but Kardek shouted out abruptly, "WAIT!" The man paused.

Kardek took a step forward and pointed at the man with irritation, "Arhabar probably told you that I'm just a smuggler, and that I would be an easy target. Well he's got it all wrong! I've been building my rep with that ugly slaver for months now so that I could get close enough to his boss to put a blaster bolt through his head. I'm your worst nightmare, and if you do this, all these men will be dead, and it will be blood on YOUR hands Merc!" The merchant looked around the cargo bay, musing at the obvious number advantage that he had against the three that seemed caught in the middle of his trap. Finally his eyes turned back to Kardek, and he gave his response...

"Fire!"

The hanger erupted with blaster fire as the two parties engaged each other. Kardek focused on the eight in front of him, including the one in red armor. He had both hands out in front of him with both blasters blazing. Blaster bolts from the Mercs began to ricochet off his beskar Chest armor as he moved to the left for a little bit of cover behind some cargo. The eight in front of him started to go for cover as well, but two of them were already riddled from his blaster fire, their bodies crumbling to the ground, dead before they hit the floor. 6 more in front, 6 behind.

BBBBRAT-AT-AT-AT-AT-AT-AT-AT-AT

Alpha's Heavy repeater Cannon lit up the 6 mercs that had been behind them. They all dove for cover as the cargo started to splinter apart around them. Two of the Merc's flew backwards as their bodies received the devastating impact from the cannon, finally sliding down to the floor lifeless. Kardek had instructed Alpha mentally to watch over Mini, making sure she stayed out of harms way. Alpha continued to release his volley of blaster fire, keeping a watch out for the girl.

Kardek dove out from his cover, aiming his MM9 rocket while in mid air and fired. Cargo exploded that had been cover for two more of the Mercs, sending the shrapnel through their bodies as they flew backwards and hit the ground.

Kardek put his back against a container and made a quick assessment, knowing exactly what Alpha was seeing and doing through their neural link. 6 down, 8 more to go. He glanced over to see how Kuxirra Tano-Bonteri was doing.

 

[Kuxirra Tano-Bonteri]

Kuxirra used her quarterstaff to deflect blasterfire headed towards herself and her friends, sending the bolts harmlessly to the ground

 

[Kardek Alpha]

Kardek and Alpha were able to take the rest of the Mercs down rather quickly as Kuxirra Tano-Bonteri aided their efforts. Finally the hanger was quiet again. Kardek walked past the fallen body of the Merc in red, shaking his head at the unnecessary bloodshed.

"We should get out of here" he said, motioning them all inside The Harbinger. Once inside, Alpha went straight for the cockpit and started the takeoff sequence. Kardek took Kuxirra Tano-Bonteri and showed her to her quarters. He also handed her a Hologram of the ship so that she could easily get her bearings, as well as a security clearance card. "Your here in C Quarters." He said, knocking on the door. "And im just right down the hall." Kardek said, motioning in the direction of his personal quarters. "I'm going to go to the cockpit and figure out our next step. Feel free to get cleaned up or rest, and then your welcome to join us in the cabin whenever you're ready."

Kardek went to leave, then paused, his head slightly down. "Hey... sorry about getting you caught up in that back there." With that he headed for the Cockpit with a sense of guilt and anxiety for having just put the poor girl in the middle of a firefight.


(OOC: Welcome to the Harbinger! Here is the ship layout. Your room is Quarters C (19). Alpha and Kardek will be in the Cockpit (1) When you are ready to join them. You have Security clearance to access grey-colored rooms as well as your quarters and the cockpit. Let me know if you have any questions!)

 

[Kuxirra Tano-Bonteri]

"It's fine. As a soldier, I'm supposed to be able to handle that type of thing. It's hard for me, but I cope by defending rather than attacking, and if there had been survivors, I would have contacted the authorities to get them medical attention." Kuxirra called after him as she headed to her quarters to check it out. It was much better than the labs. Then again, most anything was. After a minute, she headed to the cockpit.

 

[Kardek Alpha]

"Hey kid." Kardek smiled at the young girl as she entered the cockpit. "Here, grab a seat." He motioned her towards one of the open seats. He then opened a holo projector in between both of them, displaying a map of the galaxy.

"So there's are your options miss super soldier." Kardek looked through the star map and the girl and winked, "I can get you here..." He pointed at one of the planets that was being projected. "This here is Commenor. From what I can gather, that is the place to be if your with the SJC. Maybe you can find your friends there." He then rotated a dial and pointed at another planet in the outer rim. "Or, you can tag along with me for a while and we can go the the lovely paradise planet of Kerest." He shook his head and laughed, "Ok, to be honest... you're probably going to hate it. It's a frozen wasteland." He looked up at Mini. "So, what will it be then?"

 

[Kuxirra Tano-Bonteri]

Kuxirra pointed to Kerest as she sat down. "I think I'd like to get a little experience under my belt first. That way I won't be entirely surprised if I go somewhere new with the SJC."