Private Less than Human

[Hacks]

Coruscant. A dangerous city for Hacks, which said a lot for the Darkwire shadowrunner. She was routinely hunted on Denon, but here, they had space wizards to hunt her. She still couldn't wrap her head around the idea of the Force, she had never met a force user before. It sounded like fairy tales, but for as long as she could remember almost every war in her lifetime had been the direct result of this mysterious force. It sounded more oppressive than the Corporate Authorities on Denon or the dozens of crime syndicates in Hutt Space. A brutal regime marked by endless war and religious zealotry while parading around as a democracy. At least the Corpos or Hutts didn't pretend to have your best interests in mind, they were honest.

Hacks banished the line of thought, her four hands kept in four pockets of her maroon leather coat. Her eyes danced across neon signs as she looked to identify a mechanics shop called Night Stop. She had heard through word of mouth she ought to check out the mechanics work and get a tune up for her aging cybernetics. She couldn't disagree, and had even the forethought to bring a new implant with her to the meet. A little something extra to keep her safe in the days ahead. An advanced combat system implant.

Hacks came upon a garage with two roller doors and a side entrance for customers. However tempting it was to just simply lift the roller doors and call out for the woman, it wasn't the friendliest way to meet someone about to mess with your internal wirings. She shook her head with a slight grin and thumbed the access panel to the customers door. With a hydraulic hiss it parted way for her and the tall shadowrunner entered. With four cybernetic arms, cybernetic legs and most of her spine replaced by further enhancements, she was quite the mod-junkie. Certainly a hard days work for this mechanic.

| Vang Azusa |

 

[Vang Azusa]

Location: The Night Stop Workshop, Night District, Coruscant
Tag: Hacks

---

"Now stay welded," the owner of the business yelled at an annoying point on a swoop bike. Compared with the large scale area she had to work with, she mostly kept this airspeeder to the back of the large work space. Mainly to give clients a lot of space to mingle and bring in their desperately in need of repairs vehicles. It was entirely made of a durable metal, each repulsorlifter was equipped with a large wheel to allow transport on both land based and aerial terrain. The paint work was plain, with a heavy amount of steel like grey and back used. In large red letters was the name, 'The Freedom' along its sides. It was her pride and joy, aside from the workshop itself. Seeing another point that needed welding down before it broke apart, Vang lighted up her plasma torch and set at it, not noticing her business partner was speeding to the customer entrance.

The door to the workshop slide open with a satisfying, depressurizing hiss, as a small R3 astromech a large base on its back holding a variety of tools wheeled into the room with Hacks in it. The words, 'G3-G3' were welded onto its main body via a metal tag. The small droid stopped and using he cameras scanned Hack's face and body against its data base for anyone that matched her appearance. A soft security measure since the local gang liked to intrude on Vang from time to time to remind her that they were in the area. They butted heads so often it was like they were both Jedi and Sith of the most extreme types in a single room. Finding a partial match to a known trouble maker, the astromech instantly began to chirp and beep before zooming back into the workshop. Vang knew the sound all to well. The droid was giving her an alert to the data base anomaly.

Switching off the tool in hand, the weld half complete, she rolled up her sleeves and walked into the small room, the counter only a quarter of the room's size to make space of the small droid's port. Now making a swift march to Hacks was a woman with red and blue gradient hair, and purple eyes that looked somewhat mechanical. Her clothes were almost a cross between street savvy and mechanic. A jacked covered her stained shirt, jeans that were equally stained and torn in places despite being made of heavy duty material. Welding goggles rested on her forehead, marks around her eyes where she had just recently removed them. Her boots stomped against the ground before she eyed Hacks. "I'll say it once and only once," the woman yelled, holding her arms bent with her forearms away from her, "You ARATIZENZs Gangsters are NOT welcome in my workshop!" With that, her forearms began to unfold, where some lined marks on her arms lifted and retracted to and away from rising hidden metal mechanisms. A long Cybernetical blade like a sword on each arm reared before extending to well over twice her forearm's total length. Each blade vibrated softly, the generators making the weapons mono-molecular edges even more deadly.

The menacing sight was the best she could muster. She was faster than most of the local gang, something she attributed to her regular runs and lengthy rides around coruscant to hone her reflexes. Just a single dash forwards and a swung arm and this four armed woman would be torn in half. Vang's eyes moved to this new person's arms, not seeing the usual patch. Pausing in her advancements, Vang squinted at Hacks before asking, "You are with the ARATIZENZs, right?" All of them usually wore a patch on their arms. A way of identifying each other to stop accidental fights and killings against one another. The small droid rounded the corner of the doorway only slightly, giving a worried, low and slow beep.

 

[Hacks]

Hacks leaned against the counter and picked at her teeth with her fingers, listening to the mechanic yell from within the shop. The slicer started to have serious doubts when she heard her complain that her previous welding hadn't held. Did she really want someone like that fiddling with some of the most delicate parts of her cybernetics? Maybe not. She pushed off from the counter and moved to leave when the astromech rolled into the shop. "Howdy," Hacks said with a tip of an imaginary hat.

Warnings flashed across her augmented glasses, she was being scanned. Hacks made no move against it or to hinder the droid. Hacks was a well known shadowrunner in Darkwire, her crimes would be pinged. Attacks against the Jedi Temple, the Galactic Alliance Senate, and countless dozens of corporate assassinations, sabotage and market manipulation on Denon. "Whatcha' doing that for, eh?" she asked but before she could get an answer it had fled deeper into the shop. Then from where the astromech had fled Hacks began to hear violently aggressive yelling. Geez, she thought, someone was upset.

When the mechanic came out, head looking ready to pop with barely contained rage at the misplaced thought Hacks was a gang member in her shop. Then her arms folded outwards, metal plates sliding apart, synthskin folded, blades extended outwards. Deadly things. Hacks looked at her and frowned, "Mate, don't make me damage your toys," she warned coolly. Four arms crossed against her chest, staring her down. Worse came to worse she could inject the cybernetics with a virus, shut down the systems before she could swing. Thankfully, it wouldn't come to that.

The mechanic blurted out that gang name again and Hacks tilted her head, scratching at her undercut. She began a quick inquiry, accessing the local law enforcement registry. The slicing was quick, efficient. All performed by her augmented glasses, lines of code written by the minute movements of her eyes. A brute force attack on the firewalls protecting the database, a quick search enquiry before the IT nerds could respond. Aratizenz. Street gang. Then she was kicked from the servers. It had only been a few seconds.

"No," Hacks replied, "I'm not with them." She uncrossed one of her arms to wave a finger towards the bladed cybernetics, "No need for that." Then she placed her hands in her pockets, "Names Hacks, just blew in from Denon. 'Eard you can tune me up."

Vang Azusa

 

[Vang Azusa]

Location: The Night Stop Workshop, Night District, Coruscant
Tag: Hacks

---

Standing now before a four armed woman with no patch on her person, Vang had her doubts over her droid partner's deductions. Whilst she valued her friend of a few years, she also thought she was a great judge of character. This was easily what helped her pin the thugs for what they were. while calling her most valued cybernetics 'toys' riled her up internally something fierce, she still wanted to at least know whether this was a decently paying customer. Eyeing Hacks, the mechanic took her time to lower her arms, the blades still out. The infinitely sharpened blades hummed with a dangerous nature. One wrong move and she might even cut up herself. A dangerous double edged sword that gave amazing yield and reputation. She had to pay a large sum of credits on the black market just to get the cybernetics. That was excluding the fee to get them installed by a highly skilled surgeon.

Glancing back at the droid, still poking its head around the corner, as much as an Astromech droid could. "Gee Gee," Vang's name for the droid that was way better than G3-G3, "How much was the match again?" The droid ran up to her, chirping all the while. The ending rant from the assistant was that Hacks was a 65% match to the cyber freak of the local gang. A real spice head and an annoyance in her side from time to time. Luckily she hadn't seen him recently. Must have smoked himself to death from the spice. She could hope.

Sighing, Vang retracted her arm blades, the skin that encased them stealthily folding back to form complete human arms again. "Sorry about that, Hacks. Can't be too careful with those Spice Heads running around," Vang's stance altered so she had her right hand on her hip, the left hanging loose by her side. "Gee Gee can get REALLY protective of this place. And of me," Gee Gee chirped with a quick beep to show it agreed. Without the blades on her arms out, Vang looked like a reasonably professional mechanic. "Well, let me start over," she said, clearing her thought shortly after before giving her best greeting. "Welcome to the Night Stop Workshop. I'm Vang, the owner and best mechanic this side of Floor 1329. What can I do you for?" Professional was right on her money with her polite customer service tone. Something that she had to perfect from time to time before she opened the workshop.

 

[Hacks]

Hacks eased her shoulders as Vang's cybernetic blades retracted, dipping her head slightly in agreement with what the woman had to say next. "Spice dealers are bottom of the barrel scum," Hacks said, the words were filled with venom. She had sympathy for the addicts hooked on the stuff, but they weren't on the good side of her books either.

"I don't mind fresh starts," Hacks said and waved for Vang to make her new introduction, smiling as she listened. "Good to meet you choom," she dug into her coat pockets and tossed a chip across the counter, "Cranial upgrade, requires a mechanics knowledge and a surgeons steady hand. Combat booster." She then leaned against the counter and added, "And a quick diagnostic to the rest of my systems, make sure they're singing true. Think you can handle it Vang?" she said it like it was a dare, smiling at the mechanc.

Vang Azusa