Objective 4: BYOO
Daro had
indeed seen something on his dog's sensor feed. Specifically, he had seen a detailed feed of
Haon Hafey
launched out of a window, and then got stuck to a comm antenna, severely damaged. Daro had sprung into action, without asking for permission, taken the directions from
Matsu Ike
, and run out of the meeting with his Dog close behind him. Before clamouring into the service tunnels, he slammed back a Stim Tea and a Root Tea, making sure he had the right juices in his system before he could get stuck in combat.
Getting through the tunnels had been tricky. They were only large enough for small service droids to traverse, and only just barely large enough for an average size human to crawl through. For a Dornean in heavy armour and enough gear to make a mandalorian blush, a little creativity would be needed to make the small journey. Daro had removed his jetpack, tied his wrist mounted whipcord to it, and had his dog attach its own miniature harpoon and towcable to the jetpack. The dog then led the way through the tunnels, dragging the jetpack — and thus, Daro, in a chain behind it. The droid seemed to not even struggle, being extremely strong for its small size, and sporting magnetic feet to secure its footing for every step… but Daro found this to be a bit humiliating as his armoured body was dragged through the tunnels. His face kept deadpan as the armoured spacesuit screeched against the walls with his arm over his head.
He took this short moment to remember his reasons for going through with this. Not many beings had been told, but it had actually been Daro who had "rescued"
Haon Hafey
at the battle of the Spindle IV pirates. And by rescue, it meant Daro had recovered the HRD's head. Daro had looked into those flickering, glitching eyes as he and his fellow marines had been on salvage detail after the end results of that bloody battle. He had been relieved when the technicians back in
HMS Shii-Cho had diagnosed the head as "saveable". They had taken it away, and Daro had not heard anything about it ever since. The company that Haon ran was still operating, and people had moved on to other parts of salvage and recovery.
For Daro to see Haon on his dog's scopes had come as a shock, and seeing the HRD get launched out a window into space with droids on his tail had sparked a need to take action within Daro. After 150 years as a navy man, Daro knew that some heroes were worth saving, and the man — or
machine — that had willingly sacrificed himself for the lives of others at the battle of spindle, was a good man to save in his books.
The Dornean and his battle dog finally reached the airlock, which was a little larger than the tunnels, and Daro proceeded to put his jetpack back on. He then closed the inside door set his dog droid on the metal surface of his jetpack where the dog locked on with magnetic feet. Daro then punched the outer door release button, and the two were launched out into space with the atmosphere.
They started at a bit of a tumble, but he quickly got their flight under control with a couple skilled bursts from his jetpack. He then took stock of the situation around him. His dog also began running scans of the area. With his own eyes he saw threw him off for a moment. A hat. Curious?
He performed a couple short thruster bursts and moved over to catch it in mid spin through the void. It was a nice hat.
Score!
Daro wasn't entirely sure where the hat had come from, but he had to admit; he loved the style! Elegant, yet rugged contours, with a nice
wide brim for hot environments, and fine leather… This was a hell of a find!
He gently released it from his grasp and gave it a small push so that it would drift up to his dog on his back. His dog, Hal, then dutifully clasped it gently in his teeth for safe keeping.
Then, a ping chimed up from the feed from Hal, and Daro looked at the small window that opened in the display on his HUD. There were coordinates to the location of a small wreckage that was slowly drifting away from the space station. Daro felt his guts twist as he began to fear the worst. He lit up his jetpack for an extended burn until he was on a hasty intercept course with the drifting mass, and then deactivated his pack for the rest of the trip to save fuel. The world inside his helmet was filled with nothing but silent dread as he closed the distance. The wreckage grew as he got closer, turning from a tiny, shifting blob to an undulating tangled mess of wires, fabric, and synth flesh. Daro clamped his eyes shut from the horrific scene, and deep down, he knew exactly what it was, even before Hal could send the technical data to his HUD.
~I'm so sorry, Daro. Did you know him?~
The voice of his suit's
Angel Navis Operating System, nicknamed
Tin Can echoed in his head through his
Holy Communion Neural Implant.
"Nice of you to chime in. I haven't heard from you all day" Daro murmured aloud, so that the microphone in his suit's comm could hear his voice for Tin Can. Daro had the option of speaking with his thoughts through the neural interface, but he preferred it this way when it was convenient.
~I haven't been keen on distracting you. Being a bodyguard takes focus and I have suit functions to keep me busy. Anyways, did you know him well?~ Tin Can repeated the question.
"Not really," Daro admitted,
"but he was one of the big-wig heroes that made a real sacrifice to protect the Spindle system. I was the one that found his head when the salvage operations were happening. It never gets easier to watch someone get mutilated like this after you already saved them once from the brink of death. Even as a 170 year old man, these things don't lose their edge."
~I understand. Perhaps you should save what you can of him? Carry his memory?~
"Eh…" Daro hedged,
"if I kept mementos of every man, woman, bug, or bot I lost, I'd have to own a storage facility. But this one really stings for some reason. Perhaps it was the ugly nature of the battle of spindle… is there anything worth keeping?"
~I'll get Hal to do a scan~ there was a pause,
~there are a couple refurbished antique blasters, and what looks like an eye with some droid brain circuitry attached still. I wouldn't count on being able to recover any of the sentient software, but it's the closest thing to dog-tags I can find. Is that worthwhile?~
As soon as Tin Can pointed out the blasters and the eye, Daro saw them right away. The one blaster was within reach, and still in a disattached hand. The other was within whipcord range. Daro quickly gathered both in their respective means and inspected the weapons closely through the visor of his helmet.
For a droid,
Haon Hafey
had impeccable taste! Old-fashioned heavy mandalorian blasters with extensive updating, made from quality songsteel… they looked like they were from the Revan era! Daro gave the one blaster an appraising twirl on his finger and felt chills run down his spine at the way they balanced.
Oh… I hope he wouldn't mind…
A small pang of guilt hit him as he tossed aside his old regulation blaster and stuffed one into the newly emptied holster. Obviously, the guilt wasn't enough to let Daro ditch these sweet puppies into the void, though. He'd
definitely be tinkering around with these later… He didn't have a second pistol holster, so he kept the second blaster gripped in his left hand. Carrying things in space was a pain, but
this was totally worth it.
With a small burst of his jetpack, he collected the eye, which was floating nearby. Like Tin Can had said, it was attached to a little morsel of brain circuitry, but it was definitely trashed… there could be some data stored, maybe even memories, but Daro severely doubted that Haon was in there any more. Death of the previous owner of the eye was pretty much confirmed.
He gripped the eye carefully in his right hand and lit his jetpack back up, steering for the station. He decided to make his way to the docks, which would give him a chance to store his finds on the ship he came in on. Maybe there was a loved one out there somewhere that he could send Haon's remains to…
Grand Shepherd Burtch
as he spoke. "Economics will be beneficial to our endeavors it has proven one of the better ways to make a middle ground." She said it and well didn't know much, grand admirals were usually used by imperial groups which could be either straight or terrible and want to rule everythign through violence and fear or reasonable and present a differing ideology... and then there were two women that she didn't know but bowed her head. The comment about their outfit was something she wasn't sure how to respond with...
Hanna Ike
was the only one who asked her if she liked her dresses and it was partially a trap. Still she looked at
Willow & Ivy
offering her bowed head and a smile. "You both look lovely." She wasn't certain about their order... it was different to her which was in itself a surprise that she didn't let go across her face or her mind enough. MOtioning for them to join at the table and someone asked a question. "There is two maintenance airlocks for repair drones located between this room and the ones next to it." She said it and held out a hand for the AI to work and direct it as hardlight overlayed the walls to show. "I would recommend being careful, the repair ways are a tight fit and only really for drones or the biots to move around."
