Looking for People, Places, and Things

[Laira Darkhold]

(This is to complete the Development Thread Laminanium and is told from NPC Point of View)

Draco seemed to be in a mood today. I was taking him to meet a friend of mine, a brilliant droid programmer from back in the day. He had left to go find a different programmer but came up short on Coruscant, so he made me drop everything and haul myself out to Felucia to find Vern Rauter. Like I had told Draco, the man was brilliant with droids, probably not so brilliant about choosing places to retire, but then again I live on a Sith infested rock in the Core.

“Hey Draco, tell me again why we couldn’t have taken a speeder bike through this forest?” I rasped through deep breaths. I wasn’t as young as I once was and walking through a jungle had worn me out already.

“Because it’s too loud and might draw the attention of the wildlife. If you’d be quite we make it to the settlement in a few minutes. Its only five more kilometers away,” he whispered through his annunciator, doing his best to be quiet wearing a hulking suit of armor. He was such a jerk sometimes, only Five more kilometers like that’s not a long distance. Well maybe not for him, he could just fly over a kilometer with no problem.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Hike seven kilometers through dense jungle while its raining will you? You have to come with me after last time I went and couldn’t find who you were looking for, Benji. Draco was already on my nerves and walking in front of me all calm and quiet like was pissing me off. A lot. I was already out of breath, and weezing through every breath, while he just kind of strolled along. “I need a break, Draco.” I rasped through breaths. I collapsed into a sitting position, swallowing air through gulping breaths.

“That’s not a good idea, up on your feet and move. Up the hill. Now.” He whispered again turning to face off to my left.

“Screw you, I ain’t going anywhere till I have caught my breath.” I said looking at him. I was pissed off, but he just kept taking slow steps off to the left. “What the hell are you doing?” I asked changing my expression to a quizzical one.

“Keeping that Acklay from charging” He said nodding off into the woods. And sure enough there was a large crustacean-like creature slowly advancing through the dense jungle, glaring at us with beady eyes. It looked hungry, and was probably not going to settle for less than one person today.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

“I said on your feet, Benji. On your feet and start walking up that hill. Run once you hear it charge.” Draco said calmly, his hands moving slowly towards his large blaster rife, a blaster rifle I had built for him. I got on my feet as fast as I could haul myself up and started walking at a panicked pace up the hill. From the top I would be able to see the settlement we were heading for, but for now, I was staring straight ahead, away from the advancing acklay. I could hear the occasional twig snap and would jerk forward, but I caught myself. If it charged it would make a lot of noise I figure, so I might as well not make it charge early.

“Benji Drop,” I heard from the base of the hill as Draco shouted. I did as he told me, but I couldn’t imagine as to why he wouldn’t change his mind about me getting the heck out of here. By the time I rolled to my back to see what was going on, Draco was in mid-flight, his rifle blazing out hot bolts of plasma into the Acklay’s chest and back as it charged out, roaring from the brush surrounding it.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Draco landed in a big tree, blasting down towards the beast rather than engaging it up close and personal, but the big beast, charged the tree, causing it to shake violently and I could hear it creaking and cracking even from where I was. “Get moving Benji, it isn’t paying attention to you anymore,” Draco barked over the comm. “Get going,” he barked again. He was the most impatient being in the galaxy sometimes, then again he was distracting the big beastie in order to save my life. I dragged myself back to my feet, my muscles ached already but adrenaline pumped through my veins and urged me forward.

I could hear the acklay slam into the tree once again, the trunk of the tree splintering as it cracked and tilted towards the ground. I turned when I got to the top of the hill to get a better look at the situation. Draco was having a rough time with it. The beast’s armor was resistant to blaster’s apparently and the tree was already falling, slowly tilting away from me, and picking up speed. Draco wasn’t in trouble yet, but he didn’t really have a good way to kill the monster that I knew of. He had a crap ton of weapons, but nothing really to deal with the heavy armor the beast had evolved to have. Furthermore he was running low on ammunition for his rifle. He didn’t exactly bring a full load to wander through the forest with.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

I started to back off the hill. I know Draco’s gonna kill this thing. I mean he’s wearing my tech and shooting the hell out of it with his rifle. He took off from the falling tree and found a different vantage point, but from above he wasn’t really having good luck piercing the Acklay’s armored hide. So rather than continue to fire from above the beast he, landed only long enough to get his bearings then took off and landed on the ground about thirty meters from the beast. Almost daring it to come after him. He put away his blaster rifle and drew his pistols, clicking them over to slugthrower ammunition. As the beast charged him, he returned the favor, running forward pistols in hand.

As they closed on one another the Acklay attempted to lean out and bite at him with its razor filled maw, but he dove forward and towards the ground, missing its teeth by only a few centimeters. He twisted in the air and landed on his back, beneath the creature and fired both of his pistols in rapid succession. First two brilliant white lights extended from the barrels, bathing the acklay in fire, then two loud pops, from small explosions detonating from within the beast’s shell as two High Explosive rounds found their mark. Still burning the creature continued to run forward, almost screaming at its misfortune. The magnesium shards embedded in its skin, searing it with white hot flames, urging to go find water instead of prey. The beast took off through the brush, leaving a trail of smoke and small brush fires behind it.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

I ran down to where Draco remained. He was still lying on his back, and it looked as though the acklay had stepped on him during its hurry to leave, and despite having never been stepped on, I would say it wasn’t a good thing. “Hey, kiddo, how are you holding up? You alright?” I said as I got to his side. He sat up with a grunt and held his ribs with his left hand.

“Yeah, I’ll make, ugh,” he moaned a little as he stood up on to his feet. He must have some broken ribs. “Come on, we got to move. I need a doc, and you need to find your buddy out here on this rock. How come I always get hurt when we go on errands for you?” Draco asked mockingly. Seriously, he just fought an acklay and he’s already joking around, he must be more seriously injured than I thought. He always gets a good sense of humor once he was bad off.

“Yeah, you need a medic alright. I think you should wait here, maybe up in one of those trees while I go back to the ship and get us a speeder bike.” I said, glancing around. I didn’t like the thought of walking through this jungle with acklays around without some back up, but he wasn’t really fit for combat.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

“I have a better idea. How about I fly over to the ship and get us a speeder bike. Next time, I should just settle and take a speeder bike in the first place, huh.” He said dryly. I could see he was struggling to breath, and flying would be a little more difficult, but it would be a short trip, and he would be back within minutes instead of taking almost an hour at a slow plodding pace to get to the settlement.

“That sounds like a good idea to me, just get back in a hurry.” I tried to steal a look at the Digital Life Support monitor on his chest, but I couldn’t get a good look at it before he turned around and set himself to take off.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can, I wouldn’t expect to be gone more than five or so minutes. If I’m gone too long, head back to the ship and scrap me off whatever surface I’m on, kay?” He remarked just before his jetpack ignited and rocketed him away off towards the ship we had arrived on Felucia with. He disappeared into the jungle canopy after only a few seconds, a little wobbly flight path, but not bad considering his injuries.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Draco had been gone quite a while. Almost ten minutes as it stood, and there was still no sign of him. The wild life had already begun to perk up since he left, with squealing, hooting, and other animal noises. It kind of sounded like the animals were discussing which ones of them got to eat what parts of me. About the time it sounded like they had made up their mind and began to hoot and holler in all directions, I could hear the sound of a speeder bike approaching. He was travelling rather slow, but with all the dense underbrush and jungle around that was understandable, it was just that he still seemed to be wobbly on the bike.

“Took you long enough,” I said when he pulled up alongside me.

“Yeah, yeah, hop on and drive. I am having trouble keeping my eyes open.” He moved back on the saddle to give me enough space to sit in front of him and take control of the bike. It was a smooth ride the rest of the way to the settlement. Not much trouble from the wildlife this time. I guess Acklays command rather large hunting grounds. It took us about five or six minutes to arrive outside the gates of the settlement and Draco had steadily gotten worse. He must have some serious internal hemorrhaging to be this bad off.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

“Halt, who goes?” A guard above in a tower called as we arrived.

“I’m Benji Idiro of ArmaTech Combat Systems. My friend here got hurt by an Acklay on the way in and needs medical assistance.” I could hear Draco grumbling behind me, but I wasn’t taking no for an answer this time.

“Come on in, medic is on the way.” The guard said. The people out here were good folks, willing to help each other in times of need. The medic came running up and I motioned towards Draco, who was listing around at this point.

“What happened to him?” the medic asked as he began pulling off Draco’s chest piece.

“I got into a slugging match with an Acklay, but you should see the other guy, ha.” He stifled a laugh as he stood up from the bike.

“It could have been a lot worse buddy, but it looks like you have some severe internal bleeding and a ruptured spleen. I’ll need to take him into surgery,” the medic said as he shifted his attention to me. “How about you?”

“I’m fine, but I am looking for an old buddy of mine.” I addressed the guard this time, allowing the medic to get back to work on Draco. He had Draco on a stretcher and was already putting in an IV. A medical droid was buzzing around him pretty steadily getting him prepped for surgery.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

I watched as they moved him into a medical building. “You, ever heard of a Vern Rauter?” I asked the guard.

“Vern Rauter. Yeah, I heard of him. He does maintenance on our droids from time to time. He’s pretty good with them too. He normally hangs out down at the cantina in the middle of town if you’re looking for him.” The guard said, turning to go back up to his vantage point.

It was a leisurely stroll through the settlement, and it wasn’t hard to find the cantina the guard had spoke about. It was a pretty building with lots of lights, and about as many patrons. I had to muscle my way into the building, but sure enough, there at the bar was my old friend.

“Vern, how long has it been?” I said as I approached him.

The old man turned and his face brightened up, “I would guess Project WARLORD,” he said with a smile. “And even then it was only little bits of time and then the completion party. “I think you were Project Manager for that, so it was probably ten years.”

“Well I came by because a friend and I opened up a company called ArmaTech, and well, I can program, but you are the best I know that isn’t contracted out or hasn’t signed no-competition agreements with other companies.” I was pretty sure he would be interested.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

“I haven’t done anything like that since I retired, and it pains me to say this, but no. I ain’t looking to be part of an old timer’s club of retiree’s. I am comfortable and happy out here. There’s enough quiet and enough action for me on Felucia. But what I will do is refer you to somebody I know is on the market. My daughter, Kira. She’s pretty good and she’s looking for work. Last I heard from her she was out on Ord Mantell.” I was disappointed he turned me down, but he wouldn’t have referred someone else if he didn’t think they could do the job.

“I guess I’ll check her out soon. For now I gotta go check on my partner, he’s pretty rough off last I saw him.” I left, a little weary, and a little depressed that Vern wasn’t interested. But I guess he was right. The reason I agreed to do all this with Draco was because I had gotten bored with retirement, and he wasn’t bored yet. Draco seemed to be doing alright. He had only had minor bleeding from the spleen due to compression. The medic had said he would fully recover within a few days with regular bacta treatments.

“You doing okay buddy?” I asked as I approached.

“Yeah, I’ll make it. How about you? Did you get what you needed?” He looked at me, still groggy from anesthesia.

“Not exactly, but I do have our next location. Ord Mantell. A woman named Kira Rauter, if you are up for it.”

“Then let’s head out. You’re flying”

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Sixteen long hours sitting in a ship is awful. Sixteen hours flying that ship while Draco sleeps off his injuries is worse. I have no idea what to do if we get yanked out of hyperspace by pirates, or sith, or whatever might attack us while in space. Draco had assured me before he went to sleep that the trip was mostly through Republic and unaligned territory, and then he complained I was a worry wart, then he passed out from his pain medication. His ship was old and grimy, and it was slow going from the far outer rim to Ord Mantell, but it was necessary. We really needed a droid programmer and with Vern out of the picture, his daughter was the next best lead we had. Ord Mantell was a mountainous planet with a relatively sparse population outside of its cities.

I flicked on the comms and requested permission to land, “Howdy there customs, I need to land in the Casino District if that’s alright.” I said as I transmitted Draco’s ship’s identification.

“Permission granted YT2400807. Continue on indicated course to docking bay.” The customs officer said over the comm channel with quite a bit of static. It wasn’t hard to keep the ship steady, though it rattled and rocked on re-entry into the atmosphere.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Draco was still woozy from his ordeal on Felucia with the Aklay, but he looked a lot better. He had his swagger back and was walking upright and holding his head up tall again. Sometimes I forget he can be extremely intimidating, especially when you blink and his pistols are drawn and in your face. We walked confidently in front of me, ignoring pretty much everyone we passed, while I glanced in everyone’s direction. Either he wasn’t as skeptical as me, or he was just more observant. He led me to a local government building and walked up to the clerk at the front desk.

“Hey, I need to do a database check for somebody. Gotta bounty out. I followed the lead here, person is here under an alias and I have a small list.” He smiled as he spoke to her, what a card, playing the whole I’m chasing a bounty angle.

“I’m sorry but I can’t give you access to the personnel database without proper clearance sir.” The woman said, looking up from behind her desk, “But if you gave me the list I guess I could go run a search for you.” Part of her compliance had to be because he was standing in full armor and weapons in the middle of a government building, the other part had to be because he sold the persona perfectly, with the crooked smirk and wink at her when she stood up.

“I’d be much obliged if you would. Here is the list of known aliases.” He handed her the list and turned to look at me as she walked away. “See told you I could do it.”

 

[Laira Darkhold]

“You said nothing of the sort. If I remember correctly, you said ‘hey watch this’ right as you got off the ship and didn’t tell me any kind of plan or anything.” I growled at him, he did this crap all the time, and just assumed I would be smart enough to play along with him. “You did the same crap on Felucia when you just decided to go one on one with that acklay, and didn’t tell me anything. You just expect me to read your mind like I’m some sorta Jedi Mind Reader.” He held his hand up, siliencing me as the clerk girl walked back into the room.

“Here you are sir. One Kira Rauter living here in the city according to this.” She handed him a sheet of flimsi with a picture of a young woman and data listed on it.

“Why thank you miss, here, thanks for your time” Draco said winking yet again and handing here a one hundred credit chip. He turned on his heel and started for the door, not even looking at the sheet of flimsi in his hands yet. I had to hurry to catch up to him as he walked out the door into the street.

“Aren’t you going to look at it Draco?” I asked as I caught up to him out on the street.

“Yeah, here you look at it and tell me about it why don’t ya.” He said without looking at me and pushing the sheet into my hands.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

“Well?” he said impatiently, as he walked into a cantina. He was always a little impatient, but I think his injuries are wearing on him and he is already trying to hurry up the mission along so he can recover fully.

“It says she’s employed at a place called Garanzo’s Mechanics and lives in an apartment about a block from there.” I said reading off the flimsi calmly. It wasn’t the best detailed list we could have gotten. But for winging it talking to the census clerk it was pretty good. She must have liked Draco. “Garanzo’s is on the other side of town and is already closed so she’s probably at home.”

His eyebrow rose slightly. “Home, this early on a Benduday? Come on old man, she’s twenty four in the casino district with tomorrow being her day off. She ain’t at home. So that’s where we are going after I get a drink. We can let ourselves in and wait for her, eat her food, and help ourselves to her booze. Then we will just sit and wait on her. I am sure she won’t mind too much old buddy.” Draco rose from his seat and walked for the door. I tossed a few credits on the bar and followed him out. I guess he might be right. She might not freak out about an armed mercenary sitting in her living room.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Well, Draco had been dead wrong. Not only had she not shown up, but we must have tripped some kind of alarm because know the law enforcement have arrived. They were knocking on the door, already and Draco was still standing in the middle of the room, a corellian ale in one hand the other empty but at his side near his pistol.

“Draco, come on. We can leave through the window if we hurry.” I called to him as I attempted to pull the window open. It wouldn’t budge and I was starting to panice. “Help me with this and we can just leave.”

He didn’t even turn around, he just put down his ale and secured his helmet to his head. “Four officers in the hall, two on the fire escape, ray shields and emergency lock downs are active for this building. Only the law can open this door or that window without heavy artillery, and I would like to avoid killing six random police that haven’t done anything wrong, so get down on the floor and put your hands on the back of your head.” He said to me as I could hear the police being to count down. I scrambled to the floor as fast as I could and covered the back of my head with my hands. “Ears on” he said, and it took me a second to realize what he meant. I was barely able to cover my ears when the screech started.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

The sonic neutralizer powered on and blasted out its debilitating tone right as the door and window snapped open revealing six law enforcement officers wearing tactical gear. The downfall of their current situation was that they lacked ear protection. I did as well and it hurt. My eyes vibrated and my ears popped under the assault. Draco was quick and had his pistol in his hand before they could react to his sonic weapon. Three quick stun blasts knocked two of them to the ground and a knife edge chop with an armored gauntlet stunned a third. The two behind him had ducked out of the building, retreating from the sonic assault. Draco had begun to be fired upon before he could engage the fourth officer but he was quickly upon the man striking him the face with a big left punch before dropping three stun blasts into his belly, sending the man falling towards the ground.

The other man, the only one still standing leaped on his back and began wrestling with Draco. I started to rise but then I heard yelling coming from behind me as the two officers on the fire escape began to fire wildly into the apartment, hitting both Draco and the officer several times. Draco was relatively fine, but he was injured from before and was now taking fire.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Draco dropped the now wounded officer to the ground and returned fire to against the two on the fire escape. He was burning them down under a withering hail of stun bolts. I couldn’t quite understand what would compel them to continue forward after seeing the other three get taken down. I didn’t have to wonder for long, as the rear officer produced a T-21 and opened fire with it. Draco took the first bolt in the chest and the second in the abdomen before he could power on his shields, and even then it was going to be only a short time before those failed. I knew his ribs and chest must be on fire after absorbing that much force, and he staggered backwards before he fired off a slugthrower round send a high explosive round into the shoulder of the second officer. I heard a loud pop from a small explosion, a bloodcurdling scream, and heard something hit the floor. “On your feet,” I heard, muffled from my exposure to Draco’s sonic weapon, “It’s time to go.” He scrambled up, still a little dizzy and nauseous.

“What happened?” I asked as I turned to see the officer going into shock from losing his right arm. The arm laid in the floor, cauterized from the explosive but still dismembered. “Why did you do that?” I slurred out again as I spun around to follow him.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

He stomped over to me and slung my arm over his shoulders bracing me with his other arm. He lead me out of the room and out of the building as quickly as I could manage. I could only assume he was going on pure adrenaline, but he was still going strong. “I did what needed to be done. He had already shot his partner and was gonna waste somebody else if he didn’t go down.” I finally replied as he swung a speeder door open for me. My head was still ringing, but my vision had stopped swirling and my guts weren’t twisting anymore either.

“I understand, it was just shocking, ya know.” I said clutching my head and staring straight forward as he climbed in.

“That’s why you don’t fight, cause you would have to see ten times worse than that, a hundred times every battle.” Draco wasn’t much for talking, but I guess he had become rather cold to death and conflict. “She called to police on us, not some automatic alarm system.” He said as we started away. “No alarm system dispatches six officers with heavy weaponry first thing.” He must know more about the law enforcement system than I do, because it didn’t seem like a whole lot of fire power.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

“She’s gonna disappear if we don’t find her Draco,” I said finally realizing what he was implying. “We have to find her before we leave.”

He didn’t say a word; he just slammed on the brakes and turned the speeder hard, causing it to slide to a stop. Then he floored the accelerator taking the speeder down an alleyway. At the far end I could see a figure sprinting away as fast as it could. I could tell the figure was female, and I guess that meant that this must be Kira Rauter. She ducked into a building and Draco smashed the vehicle to a stop. “Take the wheel and get to the ship. I’ll meet you there. If the law tries to take you in, leave the planet. I’ll find another way off the rock.” And that was all he said as he climbed out of the vehicle and activated his jetpack. I coughed from the exhaust, and couldn’t see for a second. When my vision returned I saw him smashing through a second floor window, and climbing into the building. It took a moment to realize that I needed to leave. Draco had just been in a fire fight with the police and was now chasing a woman through a building; it couldn’t be long before more police showed up and arrested me.

“Always ditching me, leaving me after raising hell, I oughta” I mumbled to myself as I pressed the speeder out of the alley and started driving sensibly back to the space port. I guess this is the best way to lay low.