First Reply I Am Here

[Voxum]

The Second Great Hyperspace War was over. Peace had returned to the Galaxy. Or at least Alliance space. On the surface, at least. Peace bred opportunists. Criminals of the lowest kind. Petty thieves, speeder jackers, jay walkers. Voxum watched from their perch, their cybernetic scanners sorting through all manner of information. From photoreceptors to audio scans across the police radar they certainly had every right to be on and weren't secretly listening illegally. No, everything they did was by the book and completely legal.

That's what it meant to be a Hero.

A call came through. A purse snatcher. Close, too. Real close. Actually-

Voxum dropped from their perch, slamming onto the sidewalk shortly after to crack the tile. Just before the purse snatcher. They made sure their landing was clear, but now the droid face of the Jedi stared down at the all too surprised thief. Who immediately panicked and fell back.

"Do not fear. I am here. Now return the purse you stole."

 

[Toltec]

Voxum

The face of the purse snatcher was contorted, twisted, frozen in fear as he stared at the Iron Knight. An otherwise calm night out, the criminal made no signs of understanding Voxum's demands and remained as still as a statue. The purse dropped, but it seemed as if it glitched straight through the ground. A towering mechanical humanoid, a droid of unknown make and model, stepped from around the corner with an outstretched arm. In his palm, Toltec gripped the face of the criminal, lifting his well clear of the ground as the criminal's feet dangled.

A violent glow was emanating from where the droid Toltec's palm covered the man's face, as the man was struggling.

The frozen and holographic visage of the criminal, glitching and dropping the purse, dissipated, as the droid turned off his handheld holographic projector with his free hand. He regarded this newcomer, this "Iron Knight", as the criminal still struggled weakly in his grasp.

"All yours, friend."

He kicked over the real purse on the ground, over to the newcomer.

 

[Voxum]

For a moment, Voxum stared. Processed. The reaction was somewhat expected, given the drop. But to be scared stiff? What was- Oh. A hologram. A sophisticated criminal! They should have expected as m- An unnatural chill crept over the Shard's crystal like form, hidden with the large droid body. They turned their head, photoreceptors falling on the other droid. Then to the criminal struggling in their grasp.

They didn't move to the purse as it was kicked over. Instead, they stared at the criminal.

"They are captured. I must ask you release their face. They seem uncomfortable."

Toltec

 

[Toltec]

Voxum

"Yeah, he's dying."

The thief was now laying on the ground, as the large droid's gears and motors whirred as he sat down on an air conditioning unit in the alley way. The man was weakly punching at the iron grip of the gray mantled droid, the yellow glow from his hand burning brighter around the man's face but seemingly not burning the thief's skin.

"It's no matter of yours, you may take the purse and carry on, friend."

Toltec didn't seem much bothered by the company of the other droid and was very preoccupied with his struggling captive.

 

[Voxum]

"Dying?"

Their fists tensed. The man was indeed struggling. Dying? The Shard couldn't make sense of it as they watched. They were suppose to move, right? Right! Voxum stopped hesitating and sprang forward, metal hand reaching out to snatch the other droid's own. To try and pry those fingers off and force the machine to let the poor man go.

"I cannot allow you to kill this man, even for his crimes! Release him immediately!"

Toltec

 

[Toltec]

Voxum

Toltec took a step back, swinging the man's limp body out of the reach of the Iron Knight. His face's mechanisms which worked to emulate complex expressions of humans turned into a face of bewilderment and confusion.

"Allow? On whose authority?"

The man's face continued to glow white hot as Toltec's other hand stretched out to Voxum, attempting to hold him at bay from interfering. "He is dying, friend, there is nothing you can do to save him. Nor do you look like any sort of Alliance patrol, unless you are just refusing to announce yourself properly.

Again, this man is dying."

The man weakly struggled against the glowing hand of Toltec as he pressed the humanoid up against the duracrete wall of the alley, the crunching of bone almost heard in the nights' quiet.

"I am saving him.

And you want a purse. I think we're all winning here, if you would just take it and go."

 

[Voxum]

The expressionless face of the droid stared back at Toltec, but the Shard within was alight with emotion. Confusion, concern. They moved to knock the hand aside, reach out for the human struggling to stay alive.

"He's dying because you're killing him! I am Voxum of the New Jedi Order, put him down, now!"

Panic and fear did little to let the Padawan focus. They were desperate to save the man, but certainly not trained in any sort of real combat to stop the droid.

Toltec

 

[Toltec]

Voxum

Toltec dropped the man and placed his hands in the air, cocked at the elbow.

"Jedi? Fascinating."

The man began slowly squirming, the droid's handprint left behind on his face like a burnt brand, but it didn't seem to have damaged the skin too much. It wasn't like his skin was ablaze, it seemed like it had more been briefly bleached by ultraviolet light, leaving the skin bereft of any possible red tinge.

"You've got it, Jedi.

Should I.. back away... or can I get a badge number...?"

While the hulking frame of Toltec was doing it's best to seem non-threatening, there was an plethora of scans emanating from his ocular sockets over the body of the Iron Knight. This Jedi looked like a droid, but there were no known Droids capable of being Jedi, or at least as far as Toltec knew...

 

[Voxum]

Voxum practically dove by the mans side to inspect him. Though, that was about as far as they got before they froze. They had no knowledge on how to help. No knowledge on what to do, what to fix. Organics, how their bodies worked, Voxum hadn't had the chance to properly learn that. Just knew enough not to kill them by accident. Hopefully, anyway. As far as the scan went, they seemed to be absolutely a droid.

At least until the processing center. There was none, and a weird gap in their chassis. Right where the Shard themselves actually were.

"Just- Step back, yes. And tell me what you did to them while we wait for the rest of the Police to arrive."

Toltec

 

[Toltec]

Voxum

Toltec seemed unwavering but obedient, tense but somber. His steady metal voice grinded out a response through what sounded like gravel as he followed instruction and took a step back.

"You're on Denon, Jedi.

One of the largest battlegrounds between scum and villainy this side of the Core.

This man is a thief in what seems to be, judging by the graffiti surrounding us, Painted Gang territory - and he wasn't wearing their colors. He's living -er, mostly living - on borrowed time. You'll be lucky if the cops decide to come here before daybreak. Too spread thin and too little karks to give about streets past 14th. Just you and me, and the Organic here.

How 'bout we just accept what happened here, you tell me to put my hands down, and we both walk our separate ways before someone gets hurt."

 

[Voxum]

"Their bodies are weak. If we don't help them when they don't help themselves, they'll die. I will not abandon them."

It felt right to say. Very Jedi like, almost like they'd heard it before. They had. One of their teachers, when they asked what their purpose was as a Jedi. What it meant for someone who didn't have flesh or a body or death lingering over them. They didn't understand it, what death meant. But right now the man was hurt. Voxum reached down to lift them up onto their shoulders.

"We can go our separate ways, but I will take him with me."

Toltec