[OPEN] Morally Questionable/Good Citizens Do Their Part - Lok Senator Hunting

[Macrosoft Mack]

[member="Edward Blake"] @All-Interested

Blaring music, inadequate seating, and a distasteful amount of organic lifeforms. Mack's creators would call this fine establishment a cantina, but the droid preferred the term cesspool. Unfortunately, the ancient assassin droid was not here to kill the local cantina goers. No, this fine establishment on Lok was simply a stepping stone for a far greater plan, which sounded contradictory when the droid processed this "thought".

Great plans and the planet of Lok did not complement each other. Lok was a dust ball, and a horribly mismanaged dust ball at that. The ruling class of Lok had an interesting reputation in the Outer Rim. Mack suspected that if every senator in the galaxy came together to vote for an example of "what not to do" when ruling an organic tribe, Lok would win the vote. Which is why I am here, Mack reasoned.

Someone had posted a hefty bounty on a representative from Lok. The target was Senator Horib Leman, age 57, and the bounty would only be complete upon proof of death. When Mack had inquired why, the bounty poster provided a list of atrocities committed by the charming Senator. The list included everything from poisoning water supplies, to enslaving a small village to build a maze in the middle of the wilderness for no discernible purpose.

Senator Horib Lehman was not the only strange individual in this bounty's proceedings, the bounty contractor had also done something extremely unusual. The contractor recommended that a team of hunters was assembled specifically for this bounty. The droid had also inquired as to why this was the case, but had received no answer from the contractor on this issue, which would normally violate the fourth tenet of the bounty hunter's guild. The contractor ignored the droid's question, and instead stated that each hunter would receive a payout of 40,000 credits upon proof of completion if the individual hunter had already registered for the bounty and had checked in with a bounty board through a terminal on Lok before the Senator's death. Naturally, the droid demanded a 20,000 credit down payment. Because the contractor's money had cleared, the droid found itself standing in this wonderful establishment.

Mack had been tipped off that the Senator frequented this wonderful establishment. However, Mr. Leman had not entered the cantina for at least three days according to the building's security records, which Mack had just accessed through less than legal means. Mack was about to leave the cantina when an official Lok government broadcast began playing on holo-terminals scattered throughout the room, and on those screens Mack saw the one and only Senator Horib Leman.

 

[Edward Blake]

"This swill tastes like piss!"

Edward Blake, also known as The Comedian, threw a cup of whiskey to the floor of the dingy cantina, swearing a storm. If this were any other patron, they would've been ejected by the numerous shady thugs that were called bouncers, but one look towards the man was all that was needed by most to know not to kark with him.

Blake readjusted the straps of his leather body armor and stood up with a grunt. Lok was a cesspit of a planet, sure, but the Comedian had been to many worse places. Being a black bagger usually took him to sewers and more illegal establishments, where he usually defined the definition of wetworks with gusto. He was on the dustball of a planet for one reason: to kill or capture (but when does anyone capture when you get the option to kill?) a Senator Horib Leman. His employers were a very angry group of people, fed up with the Senator's various atrocities, and they wanted justice. Or a round to the brainpan. Either or would suffice.

There were others working on the assignment that The Comedian was supposed to link up with here. One was a droid. He had already saw it. The seasoned soldier didn't trust droids. They broke. In the head. There were others, too. Blake wasn't sure who they were yet, but they'd probably make themselves known to him soon enough. Edward didn't mind working with others, as long as they were up to his standard. But he didn't know anything about who he'd be working with on this op, and that made the older man slightly upset.

A government broadcast interrupted the usual programming of the cantina, and there he was. Senator Horib Leman himself. Now, to catch the rat bastard...

Blake made his way over to the droid, pushing by a few unlucky patrons who were in his way. Placing his fingerless glove on the machine's robotic shoulder, the soldier took a drag of the cigar that was perpetually hanging off the right corner of his lip and exhaled, right into the assassin's photoreceptors.

"You should know who I am, droid. Who the kark are you?"

[member="Macrosoft Mack"] [member="Meraal Vaun"]

 

[Meraal Vaun]

Meraal had never really appreciated the Vaun estate before he landed on Lok, but now the corrupt home of his youth looked much more preferable when compared to the egregious amounts of dust he had to clean from his weapons and armor after landing. "Barkeep, I'll take a Vasarian." Meraal said, as he hastily slammed a credit chip down on the bar counter.

"Sorry sir, we have a two brandy limi-" The barkeeps warning was cut off by the sound of Meraal slamming two more credit chips down onto the counter.

"It's your funeral" said the barkeep, as he walked off to tend to the drinks of other patrons.

"Don't worry, I'm just celebrating cleaning all of this course sand out of my gear. It's just so course, rough and -" Before Meraal could finish his sentence, he was cut off by a loud and annoying public service broadcast. "Turn off this osik!" If I wanted to watch some old guy give speeches while I was drunk, I would bring a 24 pack to my book club! Turn it back to the Taris-Classic!" Meraal was really too drunk to focus on whatever message this politician was giving, but he was still sober enough to know that pod racing was far more enthralling than whatever the current broadcast was.

Meraal heard some gasps coming from some patrons somewhere behind him, and for a moment he sobered up enough to see a fellow drunkard and what looked like some sort of protocol droid standing in extremely close proximity. "You two either need to get a room, or kill Senator Shebs up on that screen." Meraal said, as he got off his chair and approached the two in a drunken stupor. "In a perfect world, a man can sit down, get drunk, and watch podraces. Instead I have a droid and a drunk to work with. So, how do we get him off the air so that I can watch my races?" Meraal said, as he pointed to the balding politician occupying a holoscreen positioned in the center of the cantina.

[member="Edward Blake"]

 

[Macrosoft Mack]

"Statement: The pr0cess of analyzing you wou1d be much simpler if you h4d n0t blown smoke into my ph0toreceptors"
"Processing.. Processing... Pr0cessing.." The droid's facial recognition software finally matched the man's face through the smoke.

"Analysis Complete: It is good to see you here 0rganic, I know your kind can have difficulties with being punctu4l.
Statement: Y0u w1ll have to excuse any errors in my sp33ch patterns. Adolescents recently tampered with my v0ice module, and now I talk like a ####### fax mach1ne." The droid said, with his attempt at vulgarity being censored by a loud, electronic screeching sound.

"Observation: Sm0king is highly haz4rdous for organics. In f4ct, by smoking, there is a 87.4 percent chance that -." The droid's recital of a mundane statistic was cut short by the realization that a drunken mandalorian had just stumbled into the group, and had volunteered to eliminate the two bounty hunters' target.
"Statement: Dragging along this Mandalorian drunkard would undoubtedly increase the probability of mission failure.. However, I w1ll allow you to decide the mission parameters. After all, killing organics is 0nly fun if there is challenge involved."

[member="Edward Blake"]

 

[Edward Blake]

The Comedian looked briefly over the drunk Mandalorian. Their type was hard to kill, thanks to armor and superb training, but he knew just the chinks in the armor to hit. Not that he was planning on killing the guy standing there. It was just always useful to know.

"Shut up, trash compactor. You there, Mando. You just bark or you got some bite, too?"

The operator sized up the drunk guy in front of the two, seeing how he would react. If Blake liked him (unlikely) then they could join the two on their little escapade to take the Senator aboard the Pain Train. He, of course, wasn't going to tell him about the lucrative profit of the task, enough to let the grizzly rancor of a man retire in some beach planet with too many annoying amphibious creatures. That information was best withheld at the moment.

The soldier glanced at the droid next to him and blew more smoke from his cigar in it's photoreceptors, just to tick it off. Aside from the annoyances, it was fun seeing their protocols react to unusual situations.

"Watch this, you hunk of junk. Listen up, buckethead. You see that Trandoshan by the corner booth? Yeah, go up to him real nice and easy and beat the living chit outta him. And his buddies. Yeah. Go do that."

The Comedian elbowed the droid and snickered lightly, speaking just low enough for it's audio processors to catch.

"This should be entertaining."

Indeed, there was a motley group of aliens crowded around a booth in various stages of intoxication. The leader seemed to be the Trandoshan, looking quite intimidating.

Eddie awaited the show. It was more to relieve his boredom and less to prove the Mandalorian's mettle. Ah, he supposed it was a little of both.

[member="Macrosoft Mack"] [member="Meraal Vaun"]

 

[Meraal Vaun]

Meraal stood for a solid thirty seconds before the request of the stranger processed in his mind, "Oh, don't worry about me nurr voddd, there's a lot more bark to my bark.." Meraal noticed that his words sounded extremely slow as they exited his mouth. "What was your name again? I don't think we've properly introduced ourselves... Anyway I'm glad that you lot are folk of action, otherwise I doubt I would ever get to watch the Taris Classic." He may have been drunk, but Meraal realized that Senator Leman was most likely being played on every holoscreen across this miserable planet. Whatever it took, he would get that senator off the air.

Meraal looked over to the corner of the cantina the stranger had been looking at. There was a small crowd of aliens gathered around one very large Trandoshan. The lizard had to be at least 1.9 meters. "This is going to be.." Meraal didn't even finish his sentence before he began walking straight towards the towering Trandoshan. Halfway through his walk, Meraal devised his plan.

"Hey Trandoshan! I have a special delivery for you!" Those were not the right words to say, as the Trandoshan now looked both tall and angry. Meraal heard the Trandoshan speak some words in Dosh as it began walking towards him, "Oh man, I was really hoping that you would be able to speak in basic.. Oh well, come a little closer friend, I've got the package on my belt here."

Meraal lowered his voice so that he could barely hear himself speak above the volume of the cantina's music, "Closer.. just a little closer.." The Trandoshan was practically standing on top of Meraal now, Meraal put a hand on his belt as if he were about to pull something out of it, and just as planned the Trandoshan arced his head down to observe Meraal's arm movement.

Big mistake pal. Meraal shot up onto his tip-toes and brought his helmeted head down hard into the head of the Trandoshan. Meraal's quick headbutt was followed shortly after by the sound of a loud, sickening crunch. "That sounded painful" Meraal said, now comfortable enough to speak with normal volume through his helmet. Meraal pulled his head back up to inspect the damage inflicted upon his foe. Instead of holding an intimidating presence in the room, the Trandoshan was now sprawled out across the cantina floor in a heap of scales. Even though the Trandoshan did not look like he would be getting up to fight anytime soon, that did not stop his friends from arming themselves with blunt objects in preparation to attack the armored Mandalorian, who was now dizzier than he had remembered being moments before.

[member="Edward Blake"]

 

[Macrosoft Mack]

"Query: You call yourself 'The Comedian' right? At least, that was the call sign that the droid had received from the bounty boards.
Statement: I th1nk I finally understand why that is." The droid said, as its cold, unblinking photoreceptors focused in on an event which could only be described as a spectacle. Several of the cantina patrons had gasped and moved away from the booths surrounding the now immobile Trandoshan. The patrons who had gasped in shock and moved away would be the least of the drunken Mandalorian's problems.

"Analysis: There are at least six organic lifeforms arming themselves with inferior forms of weap0nry. There is a 99.8 percent probability that those six organics retaliate to avenge their fallen comr4de." The droid stated, as he detected multiple organics scrambling to arm themselves with a variety of common-place objects. Possibly out of fear of dealing with additional legal, moral, or theological repercussions, not one of the organics had drawn a blaster. Instead, the aliens were equipping items such as drink glasses, cutlery, plates, and to the droid's astonishment, one of the aliens had decided to roll up a newspaper as a weapon of choice for fighting an armored Mandalorian.

"Commentary: I have nev3r seen such ill advised armament for the purpose of armor penetration in my four thousand years of service. Indeed, this will be entertaining." The droid muttered to the Comedian.

[member="Edward Blake"]

 

[Edward Blake]

Blake grinned wickedly as the Trandoshan went down with a well-placed headbutt. Smart. It looked as if the Mandalorian was a decent strategist, at least.

"Yeah, I'm The Comedian. Is that a karking newspaper? Oh, this is gonna be good!"

Eager to see the ensuing smackdown, Edward picked up an abandoned glass of juma and chugged it down, ignoring the watered flavor.

"Kick their asses, buckethead!"

[member="Macrosoft Mack"] [member="Meraal Vaun"]

 

[Meraal Vaun]

It's a good thing I'm wearing armor, Meraal thought. Meraal hardly ever got drunk, but this was a rare occasion - he was celebrating his birthday on the backwater. Fighting fellow cantina goers who could by no means properly harm him would now be a special part of his celebration. Four humorously armed aliens descended upon him at once, while the other two hung back, looking for a good opening from which they could hit the Mandalorian.

If Meraal had been sober, he might have tried to do some unarmed, fancy incapacitating techniques he had learned from several of his father's spice runners, but instead he just sort of stood their as his attackers hit him. A bothan with only one arm hit Meraal's chest plating with a drinking glass, which backfired horribly and caused the bothan's one good hand to become embedded with glass shards.

While Meraal was busy laughing at the unfortunate Bothan, a jawa with a hydrospanner knocked him off of his feet and onto the cantina floor. While laying there, Meraal contemplated his existence. A Jawa with a hydrospanner, a Zabrak with a fork, and an Ithorian armed with a newspaper are all whacking me on my helmeted head on my birthday. I guess it beats being a senator. However, what unsettled Meraal the most was the fact that a living being had decided to attack an armored man with a newspaper. Maybe the Ithorian had purposefully equipped itself with a horrible weapon, Meraal thought. The only Ithorians Meraal had known were pacifist, maybe the Ithorian wasn't actually trying to accomplish anything. Either way Meraal was going to have a fun time exacting vengeance on all of them.

Meraal did not stand up, instead he simply raised his body off the floor a little, raised his left gauntlet, and let out a short burst of flame from his flamethrower. The flamethrower had only been active for only one full second at most, but it was enough to burn the Ithorian's newspaper armament and also completely engulf the jawa in flame. And with that Meraal assumed a position of laying flat on the floor.

[member="Edward Blake"]

 

[Zxthunder]

Drai Kor sits calmly in the dark corner of the cantina, keeping his robes across his body and his hood low across his face while watching the bar fight that had started from across the room. Are those the buffoons really the assassins i was suppose to meet? Drai Kor thought as he watches a Ithorinan hit a fully armored Mandalorian with a newspaper, i guess this is what i am going to have to work with. He thought, as he was already out of his comfort zone as he has never gone to assassinate someone before but he knew he had to stop Senator Horib Leman as he had caused too much suffering for so many innocent people.

Drai Kor start to walk slowly up to the strange group , robe lightly dragging on the floor, as the Jawa has just been engulfed in flames and the Mandalorian is laying on his back on the floor looking as drunk as could be with out being dead.

Edward Blake Meraal Vaun Macrosoft Mack

 

[Macrosoft Mack]

"Observation: 1t has been at least 1306 years since I have last heard a Jawa scream that loudly. Do n0t ask about the first time. The situation was...compl1cated."
The droid attempted to say this to the Comedian over the sound of the screaming Jawa running past them.

"Analysis: It w0uld se3m that the Mandalorian has c0mpleted your 'qu3st'. I v0te that we bring him with us, if 0nly to give us an additional meat-sh1eld during our hunt."

The Mandalorian's shenanigans had not went unnoticed by the other cantina scum, and Mack noticed that other organics were now trying to keep their distance from the droid, the Comedian, and the Mando. Except, there was one organic who seemed to be focusing on the odd trio.

"Statement: My sens0rs det3ct an organic m3atbag approaching us from acr0ss the room. Oh, and by the way, my designati0n is HK-2473, but my cre4tors called me Mack." This was perhaps the most personal information the droid could ever reveal to an organic. The second most personal thing of course being the droid's weapon of choice.
"Commentary: The 0rganic appro4ching us must b3 an0ther hunt3r. Surely, no other 0rganic would be stup1d en0ugh to approach us after this display."

[member="Drai Kor"] [member="Edward Blake"]

 

[Zxthunder]

Dria Kor walks up to the robot very calmly. "Hello my name is Dria Kor and yes i will be aiding in the fall of Senetor Horib Leman but i am not an assassin, its just that he needs to be stopped."

He once again looks at the Mandalorian laying on the floor, He open a open hand at where he was sitting a second ago, a staff comes flying across the room from where it was propped up against the table going in to his hand. its made of a dark wood with a curved snake like shape with a Intricate grain running through it.

He then poked the Mandalorian in one of the small gaps in his armor with his staff. "are we doing the job now or maybe we should wait till the morning?"
Edward Blake Meraal Vaun Macrosoft Mack

 

[Meraal Vaun]

Meraal shot up off of the floor as he felt something poke him in the ribs. After a second or so of standing Meraal discovered the source of his prodding: a Kel Dor had walked up and joined the merry band. It was also at this point that Meraal had an amazing revelation.

"So...you're telling us that you're 'Drai Kor' the Kel Dor?", Meraal failingly fought to stifle a hardy laugh. He had no idea why he found alliteration to be so funny at the moment. Meraal then noticed the Kel Dor's ornate staff.

"Yeah, yeah... I'll be good to fight. Vasarian soothes my mind before ops." It normally wasn't the amount of Vasarian Meraal had just consumed though. "The real question is, do you think you can make me a table after we kill Senator Shebs up there?" Meraal said, pointing to both the Kel Dor's staff and the holoscreens displaying Senator Horib Leman.

[member="Drai Kor"] [member="Edward Blake"]

 

[Zxthunder]

Dria Kor let out a little chuckle then responds "i am no wood worker my friend, i am just looking to stop the pain and suffering of other people through out the galaxy"
He sits at one of the stools at the bar. "I am read to go when you guys are then"

He starts Meditating clearing his mind for the task they have ahead of them.

@[member='Meraal Vaun'], Edward Blake Macrosoft Mack

 

[Macrosoft Mack]

The droid rechecked its memory banks, making sure that the data there had not been corrupted. After confirming with his memory banks on three separate occasions in the time span of two seconds, the droid had confirmed its worst fear.

"Observation: Ah, a Jedi. I th0ught your kind was ext3rminated a thousand or so years ago during the Clone Wars." The droid said, its terrible audio module causing the words to be spoken in between what can best be described as a symphony of fax machine noises. The news that the Jedi had survived while the droid was deactivated disappointed the droid. Meat-bags connected to the force were much harder to kill on average than standard organics.

However, the Jedi may still yet be useful in the hunt for the Senator.
"Query: Can you p1npoint the l0cation of the Senator through his l1fe signature, Jedi? If not, it will take me appr0ximately 37.9 seconds to narr0w down a geographical area in wh1ch we can search for our target." The droid had seen Jedi hunt targets through the force during the Clone Wars, but he was not sure of the capacity of the Jedi which stood before it.

[member="Drai Kor"] [member="Edward Blake"]

 

[Zxthunder]

The droid rechecked its memory banks, making sure that the data there had not been corrupted. After confirming with his memory banks on three separate occasions in the time span of two seconds, the droid had confirmed its worst fear.

"Observation: Ah, a Jedi. I th0ught your kind was ext3rminated a thousand or so years ago during the Clone Wars." The droid said, its terrible audio module causing the words to be spoken in between what can best be described as a symphony of fax machine noises. The news that the Jedi had survived while the droid was deactivated disappointed the droid. Meat-bags connected to the force were much harder to kill on average than standard organics.

However, the Jedi may still yet be useful in the hunt for the Senator.
"Query: Can you p1npoint the l0cation of the Senator through his l1fe signature, Jedi? If not, it will take me appr0ximately 37.9 seconds to narr0w down a geographical area in wh1ch we can search for our target." The droid had seen Jedi hunt targets through the force during the Clone Wars, but he was not sure of the capacity of the Jedi which stood before it.

[member="Drai Kor"] [member="Edward Blake"]

Dria Kor thinks for a moment, his eyes close, then he opens them.

"No i do not think i can track him through the force, It is easy to track someone that is connected to the force, one who draws upon it because they leave marks there and you can easily trace them marks back to the maker, however someone who is not connected to the force is very hard to find and people that know how to make them selves invisible to a force user is even harder. Short answer is i can not find him, or it would take time to do so, which is good meaning he is not a force user." He says in a rambling manner but in a calm voice.

"also i'm no Jedi i have no Lightsaber but i am very strongly connected to the force if that is what you mean." He adds at the end as he turns his mind back to thinking and meditating.

Edward Blake
Macrosoft Mack
Meraal Vaun

 

[Macrosoft Mack]

"Statement: Understood, Jed-" The droids servos whirred loudly as an ancient and long obsolete storage method rewrote its parameters to properly address the not-Jedi force user standing before it.

"Correction: Understood, org4nic." and with that the droid walked over to a terminal hanging on the wall and plugged itself in.
"Explanation: I am interfacing with th1s facility's connecti0n to the holonet." In the time it had taken HK-2473 to say this, it had already connected to the holonet and began scanning for the source of the senator's broadcast. The droid pulled up a map of the planet of Lok in its databanks, and began crossing out locations which were either disconnected from the holonet due to power outages or locations which were uninhabited.

Thirteen seconds passed before the droid said anything to its colleagues, "Analysis: It s3ems that I have found our target."
The droid increased the volume of its voice module for all around it to hear.
"Declaration: The vainglorious sen4tor is currently giving his addr3ss from a l4ndmark in the Northeastern hemisph3re of the planet."
"Observation: We are in the Southwestern hemisphere of Lok."
"Query: D0es anyone have transportation f0r four, or shall we improvise?"

[member="Drai Kor"] [member="Edward Blake"]

 

[Jim Pehico]

Jim cracks his knuckles. This was the moment he was waiting for. The party hears a voice from a man sitting at the bar.

"Gentleman, I hear your in need of a pilot." Jim says, sipping on his lum. "The only problem is that I'm currently ship-less. that being said, if you help me steal a ship and get away with it, I'll do the rest of your job for free. Do we got ourselves a deal?"

Jim stands up, slams the rest of his lum, and waits for a reply.

 

[Macrosoft Mack]

The droid quickly refocused its sensors on a young organic human male, whom had just seemingly entered into the hunters' team.

"Statement: Your timing is impeccable, org4nic." Mack wondered how much of the group's conversation the young human had heard.
"Declaration: I 4m HK-2473, but you may call me by my creators' designation 'Mack', if you w1sh." The droid said, now facing the ship-less pilot.
"Addendum: Do you kn0w our group's obj3ctive, organic? You m4y not be so optimistic if you know of our intentions." Due to the fact that the human wanted the group to seize a ship for him, the droid reasoned that the human was comfortable with crime. However, lifeforms were so complicated, and often times would not commit crimes that they deemed worse than littering, or in this specific case grand-theft.

[member="Jim Pehico"] [member="Drai Kor"] [member="Edward Blake"]

 

[Jim Pehico]

Jim looked at the group of killers, did Jim really want more authorities on his tail? The truth is he didn't care to, however if he is able to get a nice enough freighter, authorities wouldn't' matter. When it came to killing, he really didn't care as long as they had it coming to them, and from the looks of this band of misfits, this senator certainly had it coming to them. Jim thought about the droid's statement and replied

"Mack, if you get me a good enough ship, I could care less if you destroyed a whole system, to be honest. C'mon let's go to the nearest hangar and go window shopping, boys."

Jim lead the group to the door.