Hunting in the Dark.

[Drogh]

Drogh needed money, his wealth was drying up like a drought, just enough to keep him going. Drogh of course wasn't really one for direct confrontation, but he was some what desperate at this point for money and even a very risky job, such as this was worth it. The job was simple, find a gangster of Coruscant known as "Fosk Gra", a Rodian that had caused quite a bit of trouble for a notable amount of people, they didn't care how he was removed from the picture, but Drogh had plans. He would kidnap him and see how much of a ransom he would get, dangerous? Of course it was, killing a gangster was one thing, kidnapping and holding onto one was another. He was liked and valued by his gang, some typical underground gang, one Drogh didn't care to remember, really they are all the same, just slight differences in style and name so they don't get confused when killing each other.

Yet there was some thing rather interesting about this job, instead of going alone like he usually would, he in fact had a "friend". This "friend" was a droid of a bygone era, the Clone Wars, a war centuries old, and a lot had changed by then, he was lucky not to have found a B1 battle droid, that although hundreds of years old can still be found, some even still working after all that time. Yet he had almost hit gold when he had found a Commando Droid, a one that was fully intact. Drogh knew little how it ended up here, but that didn't matter, the droid was dying for a objective, anything to have a meaning, and Drogh could easily exploit it, although still weary of it, Drogh trusted this Droid more then most.

Drogh was, as he usually once watching from the shadows in a dark alleyway, he was still trying to locate where this Rodian was, he had a rough idea but could not pinpoint it. He scouted with his eyes, looking with his piercing pale eyes at the crowd that shambles around the streets of the underground. He was still waiting on that Droid, one eye for the droid, the other for the Rodian.

[member="BX-3435"]

 

[BX-3435]

//objective set == find [commander]//
BX-3435 scanned the crowd as it moved through the sea of sentient lifeforms, matching each face or distinguishing feature to its internal database, looking for the one it had been contacted by. BX-3435 wasn't sure what the contacter's actual title was--actually received an error when it looked into its internal database--so the title merely defaulted to the title of BX-3435's previous officer. The inaccuracy was acceptably minor but marked to be changed later.

BX-3435 had some trouble moving through the crowd in the areas where it grew thickest, but it moved along well enough. It had taken some initiative not to stand out by wrapping some stray cloth around its graffiti-ed main compartment, in the hopes of somewhat disguising its angular form, but most of the passerby who looked at its unobscured faceplate didn't seem to notice or care.
//--possible database match found--//
Notifications blinked on its view range as BX-3435 turned subtly towards the shadows of the alley across from where it had stopped. Gently buffed by the crowd, it struggled to see over the heads of lifeforms to confirm whether the darkness there actually matched what it could dredge up about its new commander. It was nigh impossible to tell from this distance with so many other lifeforms in the way.

 

[Drogh]

Drogh could easily spot the machine walking among the crowd, how hard was it? The machine had a almost unique to it, although many machines shuffled among the organics, this one was easier to spot them most. Drogh tighten his eyes as he began to carefully take a step out of the shadows, appearing in the synthetic lights, the toxic and acidic smell roared though Drogh's noise, the mob like crowds walking in every direction, the run down shops and markets, with shouts of many species, Coruscant, although a old and run down capital, had still not lost all of it's power, and still held on to what remnants it still had, which were no doubt, not small; although far form it's former glory. Drogh moved up to confront the old droid about the job, he began to sweep though the crowd like a ghost, making his way towards it in a rapid speed.

[member="BX-3435"]

 

[BX-3435]

BX-3435 noticed the shadow's movement almost immediately, its sensors locking on, keeping the form in its sights. The figure was clearly approaching, making its way through the crowd in an almost graceful manner--the manner of someone practiced and aware of their extents; BX-3435 cataloged this in its database, carefully collecting information. Nothing thus far conflicted with the droid's expectations of the commander, especially as the form grew closer and its features more distinguishable, though it maintained a careful stance and cautious view. The lights blinked overhead as BX-3435 waited for the figure to make its way over.

[member="Drogh"]

 

[Drogh]

Drogh saw the metallic figure clear, he stepped right up towards it, he had almost ghostly, frail appearance, his long thick cloak covered nearly his entire body, it was however unclean, filthy to put it crudely, disgusting, reeking of chemicals, smelling of fluids one would rather not know about, yet it still maintain it's darkness, it's shadow despite the filth that was blanketed over it, of course this wouldn't matter to a droid. Drogh gave a brief look, up and town at the droid. He noticed the cloth, the droid wasn't a fool and had taken some consideration, it was a Commando after all, Drogh expected much from this droid, as old as it was, it could still prove useful. "Find Fosk Gra, we kidnap him and sell him for ransom, we know he is hear, I suggest we scout the entire area, and quickly before he retreats into the gangs lair." Drogh barely had a commanding tone, it was far to quiet and ghost like to sound remotely authoritarian, yet that didn't matter, Drogh hoped that this droid would obey him, but even still, this Droid might kill him, turn or him or simply refuse to do what he says, old droids have a habit of disobeying or even assuming their own "personalities", at least some would say, just take any B1 that has been alive more then a few days. However he tried not to plague his mind on thoughts of betray, he simply wanted credits and this job to be done.

[member="BX-3435"]

 

[BX-3435]

BX-3435's programing set to immediate work at the spoken commands, with the ease of practiced familiarity.
//objective set == find [Fosk Gra]//
if objective == complete, then notify [Drogh]
....
?DatabaseQuery? == Fosk Gra//
Pulling up all available information--Rodian, middle-aged?, affiliated with several notable Coruscant gangs--BX-3435 began again to survey the crowd, this time for a potential hostile rather than a potential ally. Moving to kneel on a nearby crate, tucked against one of the underground's walls, so that it was a head over the crowd, BX-3435 scanned the sea of creatures for Rodians.
//--possible database match--//
Notifications blinked as its view zoomed in on the form of a Rodian--who, standing off to one side of the space where the crowd thinned somewhat, seemed to be haggling with a shopkeeper of some sort. It was impossible to tell for sure if this was the Rodian in question at this distance, but warning messages highlighted the dark shape of a blaster in a holster at the figure's hip.

Stepping off the crate, the droid motioned quickly in that direction. Its voice modulator gargled softly and ineffectually, its message distorted and incomprehensible--but, at least, appropriately quiet.

[member="Drogh"]

 

[Drogh]

Drogh saw the droid point his thin metallic fingers at the Rodian, he had served well so far. Piercing his eyes forward he did indeed see the Rodian, taking slow steps Drogh began to move his way towards the Rodian like a ghost, maneuvering like a shadow around and though the crowds of countless species, with a certain grace, it was almost as if he was like water, moving with such elegance and fluidity. As he got further, he noticed he wasn't alone, along side him was various of his "friends", just as dangerous as he was, armed with what ever blaster and viro-blade the dying market could offer, they had that "'ard" look about them some might say, scars going across down their faces to prove it, mostly human but some other Rodians were there in their crowd. He was more or less threatening the shopkeeper, him and his crew began to slowly descend on the poor soul like clouds of darkness, Drogh knew that taking them alone would certainly end up badly, so Drogh waited for the competent and war-droid that he waited for patiently, he began to fade into the crowd, in and out constantly, long enough to see what Fosk was doing, but short enough that he would never look behind him to see if some one was staring.

[member="BX-3435"]

 

[BX-3435]

BX-3435 watched Drogh melt into and move his way through the crowd towards the Rodian, his form popping up here and there on the droid's sensors. Predicting, to some degree, which side of the group he would go to, BX-3435 made his way through the crowd--slowly to avoid suspicion--to the other side of the group. Pulling its standard issue blaster and glinting blade from their holsters but hiding them behind its cloak, BX-3435 got into a ready position and looked to Drogh to give the command to strike. It'd already calculated a 65% consecutive headshot likelyhood of the three gang members standing closest to the droid, or 96%, 80% and 68% likelyhood individually, taking into account plausible reaction times and instinctual movement...

[member="Drogh"]

 

[Drogh]

Drogh gave the droid a quick glance, he saw him cloaked and clear in the crowd, Drogh readied his DL-18 blaster. Drogh knew that within seconds this would be a blood bath, Drogh know that they could easily take them off guard, a few shots and there would be nothing more but charred holes in some corpses. Drogh deiced that the time to strike was now, getting a onlooker, a human female, and pushing her into Fosk, the Rodian stumbled and finally fell, within those few seconds Drogh opens fire, shooting one of the thugs in the back, it was close to enough to the spine, if he didn't kill him, Drogh certainly crippled him. Sadly, Drogh wasn't quick enough, a gangster had gotten time to take out a blaster, however Drogh was smart, before the crowd erupted into a chaotic hoard like run, he had enough time to dive back into it, the gangster shooting a random person as the streets carry on walking. Yet those few seconds were gone, people knew what was going on and chaos soon insued, the authorities would be here soon, like a storm the crowd began to become chaotic, mad dashes for safety, some brandishing their own weapons, but the vast majority ran as fast as they could.

The shop owner ducked behind his counter, the other gangsters aware of what was going on, and Drogh finally exposed, no crowd to hide him. He him self opened fire, corpses began to fall, but he knew death would be soon if his droid friend didn't help now.

[member="BX-3435"]

 

[BX-3435]

BX-3435 sprang into action the moment Drogh opened fire, striking the two nearest it but missing the last as they ducked. Its primary functions focused on the fight, moving in to pull one off-balance thug into a meat-shield arrangement while its secondary sensors kept track of its' ally, watching Drogh blink on and off its radar as its comrade used the crowd's chaos strategically. However, its view plane lit up with warnings as Drogh's crowd cover evaporated:
// - imminent danger to : ally - //
[detected]
Guard.protocol launching
. . .
Calculating several plans of attack and each's likelyhood and degree of success, BX-3435 made a quick decision to throw its meat-shield into the group of thugs nearest Drogh--it wouldn't be much more than a momentary detraction as the thugs would rebalance quick;y, but if Drogh acted fast (and BX-3435 had no doubt related to the expertise of its employer), he could make the most of the fight's interruption. They needed to act quickly to snag Fosk Gra before the authorities showed up anyway; they couldn't afford much time for a fight--or injury. They needed to end this fast.

[member="Drogh"]

 

[Drogh]

Drogh was quite overwhelmed, a mad man charging with a viroblade took a swipe at Drogh. Drogh with his reflexes narrowly avoided the attack, taking a bit of cloth down as he swooped around the man, punching him in the ribs. Before could Drogh could get a shot, the man with his grizzled face and raging eyes turned around with great speed and violence, slashing at Drogh across the face, backing up to avoid a lethal attack, however Drogh suffered a glancing strike that struck his mask, causing a scratching sound of metal, like claws against flesh. Saved by his mask, Drogh backed up firing into the man, but that was to close. Drogh look to his side, a Kel Dor of all people was holding a large blaster, knowing that he had not the time to react, Drogh could only pray the droid would save him.

[member="BX-3435"]

 

[Riamah]

Walking around the familiar market, Ra heard the now almost familiar sounds of blasters and bodies hitting the ground. She shook her head and stepped out of the way as the stampede of vendors and customers turned and ran in her direction. In the chaos, only Ra remained calm and neutral until she could clearly see what was happening.

The scene in front of her, now almost empty, consisted of a rodian, droid and that strange man she had run across not too long ago. There were a few other people around and one still alive had his gun pointed at Drogh. His life was on the balance.

Though new to using the Force, Ra opened herself to the river she was fully aware of now flowing around her. Her eyes went from gold to white in a blink. The iris matching and you can't see her pupil at all. Using the Force, she accelerated her deftly thrown knife to hit the Kel Dor in the middle of his chest. She watched as he fell down, gurgling on his own blood, not being able to breath. He hand futilely trying to pull the knife out.

At the end of their last meeting, Ra had wished to never seen Drogh again, but that was before she learned she could use the Force.

The light faded from her eyes and she watched all of them at the same time or did her best. She approached with her hands open, showing she held no weapon currently in them. If they were going to shoot her, then there wasn't much she could do with knives to stop them.

[member="BX-3435"] [member="Drogh"]

 

[Drogh]

Drogh was taken of guard, expecting, or rather hoping his metallic friend would save him, some phantom had saved his life, till he looked where the blade had come from. Recognizing the little one, if only a bit, Drogh heavily doubted he'd ever see the young girl again, although his memory of her was small but unpleasant. She came towards him, unarmed, what a foolish girl. Drogh opened a shot directed at her, he cared very little where it hit her, because his attention was focused almost entirely on Rosk, before the Rodian could get a shot, Drogh charged forward, knocking him of his feat. Getting up quickly, Drogh smashed his foot against the face of the Rodian, a yell and odd almost echo like yell in pain came from the Rodian, not to mention the crack of bones. Grabbing Fosk firmly, holding him up, holding his DL-18 to his temple, Drogh called out to the droid. "Move, now!"



[member="BX-3435"]


@Ra'a'mah

 

[BX-3435]

BX-3435's circuits registered an error, as the Kel Dor thug approaching Drogh fell to the ground, clutching his chest. That wasn't one of the scenarios predicted. In fact, a complete outsider assisting had only about a 0.5% likelyhood, to low to be any sort of probable. But, there was no denying it: a strange young girl with glowing eyes had just thrown a knife at Drogh's assailant. And he had tried to shoot her.

BX-3435's processes rushed to correct the discrepancies; surely it was missing some vital information, one puzzle piece to the picture. That's when it clicked: they had history. A complete outsider would likely never intervene, unless they were, in some way, previously involved. And Drogh would likely had paused a moment longer, to consider this ally of sorts, if he had not already formed an opinion of the stranger.

But the droid didn't have time to rationalize that now--Drogh had issued a command and it rushed to follow. Throwing the limp body of the thug it had been holding into a clump of the few remaining thugs, knocking them off their feet. Without hesitation, BX-3435 moved up to a defensive position behind Drogh and reequipped its blade, protecting him from any of the remaining thugs' bright ideas and ready to make a hasty retreat should Drogh call for that.

[member="Drogh"]
@Ra'a'mah

 

[Riamah]

Drogh sent a wild shot in her general direction, but it hit one of the stalls nearby and not her. In the commotion of the now almost finished battle, Ra was able to slink behind a thug both the robot and Drogh had missed seeing. A knife appeared out of the sleeve of Ra's shirt and she reached up to slice the man's throat. Before he could make a sound, he fell to the ground as quickly as the Kel Dor had previously.

Quickly wiping her knife on the now dead thug's clothing, she hid it back in her sleeve, hoping to be able to retrieve her other one. Ra watched as the droid flung a body against a small group of others that fell over and took its place behind the strange pale man as if protecting him.

She still showed no visible weapons when she stopped walking closer to the two of them. Only the rodian remained even slightly moving and moving was putting it oddly as his face was smooshed in at odd angles, but was somehow still alive. He was held up by Drogh and had a gun pointed at his head. Ra let out a sigh, wondering if she should defend the poor creature or let Drogh kill him.

No, there was a reason, even if she didn't know it that this alien was going to die. Feeling she was being watched, she left off her quest to get her knife out of the Kel Dor's chest until later.

[member="BX-3435"]
[member="Drogh"]

 

[Drogh]

Drogh got the Rodian over his shoulder. Drogh ran though the crowds, he ran though people, he soon became part of a running tide, a wave of people running from the fight as he caught up with them, thankful to have the droid some where near behind him, yet Drogh could not run within the crowd for ever, they had to hide. Looking around he dashed his head around every where, looking almost desperately for a place to hide, anything, any where. Sirens and yells became more of a blur, as the sounds all mashed into one mashed noise of horror, yet the mood soon died down, the brief violence had sub-sided, order was being reinstalled. That meant only one thing, the authorities were here, as the sirens came it was then succeed with shots from blasters. Drogh frantically rushed towards an alleyway, he knew he was spotted, but that didn't matter, he could of just another person within the crowd, a cloaked figure was almost the norm in such a multi-culture planet as Coruscant and a mask was hardly anything noticeable. Drogh took a moment to breath, noticing that his victim was unconscious, Drogh allowed him self a small smile.




@Ra'a'mah



[member="BX-3435"]

 

[BX-3435]

BX-3435 shadowed closely behind Drogh's every step as to not be lost in the crowd. It knew they needed to find somewhere to lay low for ransom or somewhere to escape to, but it hadn't been informed of this part of the plan's details, so it could only really follow Drogh, waiting for orders or instructions. In their quick retreat from scene, it had lost track of the small girl creature, and that worried it; without knowing Drogh and the stranger's history, it was difficult to calculate an accurate likelyhood of the stranger being a threat--somewhere between 30% and 75%, too large a percentage to tell for sure.

A slight quieting of the panicked crowd had BX-3435 looking up; the authorities had arrived--time to hide.

[member="Drogh"]
@Ra'a'mah

 

[Riamah]

[member="Drogh"] and [member="BX-3435"] quickly left the scene of their crime, but not before Ra had seen the direction they went. She bent over, picked the knife out of the Kel Dor's chest and wiped it clean as fast she could as well as his blaster. Ra blended into the now growing crowd around the bodies in the market. None of them noticed her participation in the skirmish or they would have stopped her. Letting out a small sigh, she watched the droid in the distance (it really stood out to her) and followed, but not close enough for either Drogh or the droid to see her clearly.

To cover her white hair, Ra pulled the hood of her cloak up along the way out so be further less noticeable by the two she followed. Something about the whole situation puzzled her. The rodian though beat up, was alive. Why would the strange man do that? She followed her targets through the people, hunting them like prey.

 

[Drogh]

Drogh was breathing in a rapid pace, fear was starting to sink into him. He watched from the alleyway, the darkness like a cloak, staring out, he saw the crowd shamble about, yet flashing lights began flare up, droids and creatures of flesh alike, in their uniforms began to spread out, a small force as gun-fights are nothing out of the ordinary, but a threat none the less. Drogh began to control his breathing, calmly. He turned to the droid, with his metallic mask, the mask was faceless, emotionless, and with words that were like icey wind, "Kill him, it's too risky, we will take a new hostage, you saw that little girl I hope, she will be our new victim." His words had a subtle hate in them, yet it was dulled with a emotionless dry voice.


[member="BX-3435"]

@Ra'a'mah

 

[BX-3435]

BX-3435, without hesitation, wordlessly and silently executed the hostage Rodian with its blade. It was a direct order after all, and the Rodian, now dead at their feet, was what tied them to the earlier firefight; what they could do to wash their hands of the earlier incident would help throw off the authorities. But it worried slightly about the change of target; its sensors had lost the small child in the crowd during their hasty retreat. They would have to move around if they wished to find her again. Unless she stumbled upon them first, of course.

They needed leave the alley anyway--needed to be as far away from the body as possible if they didn't want to be connected--so, it supposed it didn't pose that great of an obstacle.

[member="Drogh"]
@Ra'a'mah