Proper Representation

[Vera Mina]

Planet: Dohmus Prime (http://starwarsrp.net/topic/133595-dohmus-prime/)

Arrived by: Charted Space Flight

Wearing: Lawyer Suit (http://starwarsrp.net/topic/139755-lawyer-suit/)

Armed with: Legal Tender (CIS combat pistol)

Specific location: Dohmus prime country side.


Burials.

Vera personally thought they were messy. Less efficient then cremation. And time consuming.

Alas, Vera had not anticipated having to kill while negotiating a weapons shipment for the Atrisian military, and unfortunately the now dead Rodian she had met while discussing their business in the woods away from prying eyes in the city had seen her accidentally cut her arm on a branch, spotting the white blood that gave away her non-human nature. The underlay she was wearing had fixed the damage, made it vanish.

But Vera could not make his memory vanish, as she was not like her creator. Her...mother...

Being designated Nine Lives first daughter, albeit an artificial one, did not disgust the biot strangely. She felt nothing for Nine that approached love...she wasn't capable of that...but that being said...she had not rejected the designation either.

At the very least, she had developed a sense of...belonging. Nine had loosened the reins on the artificial Sociopath, giving her standing, express permission to kill, both in order to build her own powerbase as well as keep her designation as a organic assassin droid secret. That Nine had done this in spite of knowing it could result in such situations as her current one, dropping the Rodian's body, weighed down by stones into a lake from a rocky cliff in the middle of the woods, His stalks, eyes, and identification removed along with his clothing, which she had shredded and disposed of in a seoerate process after having shot him in the head. It would not have been her first choice. But Vera absolutely could not afford being exposed, especially not by some two bit arms dealer. A pity really...she'd been developing a rapport with him...she'd have to get her weapons some other way.

Vera overlooked the body from the cliff as it sank into the lake. After checking to make sure nothing had gotten her suit or her dirty, the blue eyed, curvacious, middle aged looking Biot with long black hair, her white dress clinging tightly to her frame as she walked down the road from the cliff to the nearest wilderness aid station, to order a taxi air speeder to take her back to the city, not knowing another business opportunity was on the horizon as she made a slow steady walking pace in her heels down the flat road, looking out of place in the rural area with a vacant smile and dead eyes. Vera was beautiful no matter the guise. But in the right circumstances, that smile and the beauty simply was out of place.

Such as now, on a lonely dirt road, the biot smiling for no real reason, which made her unsettling, especially with the blaster pistol clipped to her belt. It was close to evening on this tranquil world. Vera decided to enjoy the sights and sounds, even though she preferred classier settings, and began whistling to pass the time as she walked, arms not moving, her movements unnaturally precise...

[member="Voph"]

 

[Kyyrk]

Voph stirred. And felt pain. Lots of pain. He coughed, sending water flying as he did so. He breathed in, and continued sputtering as he sucked a mouthful of water. He pushed himself up, or tried at any rate. His arm gave out from under him. He collapsed back into the water with a splash, and tried to raise himself with his right arm instead. It was a little sturdier, so he put more weight on it. He began to crawl up towards the shore of the lake, the world swimming around him. Focus. He needed Focus.

When he reached dry ground, he rolled over and collapsed onto his back, left arm instinctively curling towards his torso. He began to check over himself. Puntured side, metal had gone straight through his armor. Numerous cuts and blunt force trauma all over his body. Then he remembered. His ship had been shot down. Small arms fire, he remembered. Crew was probably dead, but he was still alive. Barely. His arm was burnt and charred. Flamethrower tank must have ruptured. He gritted his teeth, stifling any groans of pain. He was also aware that his crest had been knocked loose in the blast, leaving his empty eyesockets revealed for all to see.

But at this point in time, he was far more concerned with the state of his armor...If one could even call it that any more. His lightsaber was till gripped tightly in his right hand, but it was waterlogged. Wouldn't be usable for another little bit. Voph forced himself to his feet, a noticeable limp in his left leg from more shrapnel. And it felt like a broken bone. He pushed forward, calling on the force to hold himself together as he scrambled for cover. Whoever had attacked his ship would certainly attempt to finish the job...

[member="Vera Mina"]

 

[Vera Mina]

Vera had barely even made it down the road when she heard a crash from behind her. She looked up on the road and saw flaming debris. Something had crashed.

Common sense told Vera to stay out of it...at first. Both because she didn't honestly care about any possible survivors and two because it was a simple rule of crime-committing: The longer you linger at your own crime scene, the greater the chances of you being caught.

Still though...curiosity won out. The Biot decided to investigate and trekked back up into the woods, pistol drawn.

She wasn't planning on killing survivors...one unexpected corpse for the evening was problem solved. Any more would become an issue she could not easily make go away.

Might even be a reward for it...

The Biot spotted more wreckage in the woods as she advanced through, detecting the scouring of weapons fire on burnt pieces of melted hull. They had been attacked. Vera was not prepared for combat beyond a pistol and her fantastic accuracy with it, programmed by Nine. She needed about three hours and total privacy where she knew she would not be discovered or interrupted in order to be considered a major threat.

But Vera was a threat all the same, however minimal.

Vera soon came upon [member="Voph"] and given his injuries and expression, the artificial sociopath knew not to crack a smile.

Instead, her programming and ability to fake empathy kicked in and she slowly approached, face becoming an all too convincing mask of concern.

"Sir?! Oh my gods, are you alright?!" she called out, thanking her stars he had bigger concerns than that corpse at the bottom of the lake.

She saw lights behind him, and knew in his present state (and also based off the fact that she had tortured people to the state the survivor was in) that he was likely in no condition to fight.

Her eyes then fell on his lightsaber. So that explained a bit. But he was still messed up.

The searchers came out of the woods behind him and Vera's eyes widened as she spotted Mandalorians in all white armor, with black visors, wielding golden chrome blasters.

"Get down!" The sharply dressed Biot yelled, drawing her pistol targeting protocols locking to her victim's helmets and firing two quick successive shots, processors triagulating and compensating for the two mandalorians attempts to dodge her and hitting them in the visors, blasting them apart.

"Sir? Are you the only survivor?" Vera asked, faking worry and panic at killing someone as she looked at the wounded man. Her curvacious form cautiously approaching him again.

"We should leave. I doubt that was all of them..." she spoke in hushed tones, sharp blue eyes studying him already with her emotion reading circuits.

 

[Kyyrk]

Voph hurled himself forwards, rolling in the air to land on his back, arguably the most uninjured part of his body right now. His right hand came up and prepared to fire arcs of lightning at his attackers, but the woman dropped them easily enough. He was resilient, even now so many centuries later. And for that he was thankful. He struggled to his feet, and returned the lightsaber to its clip at his belt. His brow furrowed as he turned his blood-soaked face towards the woman. A jagged cut ran down his face, oozing blood across his nose and eye socket.

Woman was a strong term. What stood before him was clearly meant to look human, but he could see it was no more human than he was. Voph pushed past her, not pausing at the look of panic on her face. No one was that panicked and capable of the shooting she'd just pulled off. "Cut the act. You're right, there's more." He nodded into the trees to his left, veering towards the trees to his right. "Five more."

He hobbled along surprisingly well considering the broken bone. That was probably due more to the sturdy armor holding it in place than it was his skill with the Force. "If there are survivors, they know where to meet me." He was panting slightly under the exertion. He didn't stop though. Those Mandalorians were coming for him. And he knew their kind well enough to know they wouldn't have a seconds hesitation burning down the forest if it meant they could find him. He pulled out his comlink, and cursed under his breath as he tossed it away. Destroyed in the crash. For now, he needed shelter. Some place to hide long enough to patch up his wounds. Would the woman follow him? Probably. But she wasn't aiming a blaster at his head right now so she was not a concern...

[member="Vera Mina"]

 

[Vera Mina]

As quickly as [member="Voph"] dismissed her perhaps overacted attempts at concern, the worried look melted from her face as easily as it had been plastered on and Vera became calm looking as she spun her pistol. He was perceptive, this one, then again Force Adepts supposedly were. Vera realized she would have to work on her acting more, and perhaps come up with a way to decieve even an adepts truly honed senses. She had never gone up against one, and such a thing might be useful should she ever need to kill a few, which she had been eager to learn how to do for some time now, not so much for the sake of academic curiousity and satisfaction as it was sheer bloodlust.

Vera didn't think often on her own heartless nature. It was just how she had been made. She had activated perfectly aware of what she was, and how cruel she could be, and spent as much time as possible indulging in violence when she could. She didn't want Voph dead however. Anybody putting this much effort to killing him meant he was powerful. Important. Someone worth knowing. Someone worth making an ally of.

Vera simply wasn't capable of feeling sad should Voph die in all this. It just wasn't in her nature. Sometimes, that lack of feeling held the faintest glimmer of curiousity as to what such a sensation would be like but often this glimmer was dismissed by the sadistic biot. She turned when he mentioned five more, her enhanced eyes making out the five proceeding quietly towards them from the cover of the brush.

"I'll handle this. Move ahead..." she told Voph quietly, placing herself between him and his killers to reduce the risk of him being hit before attacking.

She opened fire at the visors and joints for those are the most vulnerable places on Mandalorian armor, the Mandalorians shot back even as Vera ducked behind a rock, using predictive targeting algorithms to best place her shot, firing ahead of where they moved, rapid firing as she downed two shooting at her, making others scramble in retreat. It was difficult to manuver in the dress. It had not been built for combat per se, more to keep her alive for unexpected encounters.

Like now. Still was a pain to move around in when being shot at. She shot a blaster in thermal vision and it exploded in her attackers hand, killing him instantly, the last one fired a wrist rocket at her and she targeted it as it left the mount on her foe's arm with split second timing, making it burst in mid air close to her actual target, who caught fire, desperately trying to put the fire on him out only for it to speead as the shrubbery caught fire. Vera decided to leave him to burn alive, which spome volumes as to the cruelty she was capable of.

She noticed one slug had gotten through, grazing her right arm, which now bled white blood. It was sealing quickly though, due to the underlay in her dress, geared towards repairing biot tissue. Soon there wouldn't be a scar. "Oopsie." she remarked dryly.

The curvy 'woman' soon rejoined her new companion. "There is an emergency lodging about two kilometers walk from here. Those Mandalorians in white armor. I've seen them in historical texts. They are known as Clan Hades. Nobody's seen them in centuries since the end of The Gulag Plague. I wonder...what are they after you for? Do you remember what happened immediately before the crash?" She asked. Voph might know something significant without realizing it.

Vera realized she had forgotten her manners.

"Oh, and I'm Mina. Vera Mina."

(Clip of Bond Theme Plays)

Her name was the product of a deliberate lack of imagination on her creator's part. A play on the phrase Very Mean which she had done her best to live up to, such as now, though given she was escorting this gentleman to safety, it could be considered a mild subversion.

"And your name?" she asked politely, cold, souless eyes betraying only a clinical curiosity as to who he was, the way a mortician catalogues a corpse. He could very well be one soon, depending on the severity of his injuries or inability to fight. She was quite vulnerable at the moment, only her pistol protocols were active in this form. Everything else was geared to philanthropy, law, and PR management.

But if she had time to shift...Vera would become quite dangerous, dangerous enough to actually help him significantly...

 

[Kyyrk]

Voph, in the mean time, had been taking shelter behind one of the trees. Leg. Fix the leg first. He pulled his emergency medkit off his belt, paused for a moment, then grabbed the pain killer. Bone was broken, but aligned properly. And nothing that surgery couldn't fix later. Voph quickly repacked the medkit, knowing that this was no place to try and dress the wounds. He pulled himself to his feet, leaning against the tree as the world spun around him for a moment. The force could not sustain him forever.

The...woman--droid, really--fell in stride beside Voph, pointing him to the shelter. Voph wasted no time getting underway. "My name is unimportant. As is their reason for attacking me. They want me dead, that's all that matters." He limped along, head turning slightly every so often. He was looking around. Always aware. "Not a clan I'm familiar with." He paused after a moment to catch his breath. "What are you? Assassin droid? Combat model? And more to the point what are you doing out here?"

[member="Vera Mina"]

 

[Vera Mina]

Vera tried not to frown at the answer [member="Voph"] gave. Damn, that was inconvenient. It was always so irritating not knowing why someone or something wanted to kill you...Vera had picked up two assassination attempts in her lawyer guise based on how hard she had owned them in the courthouse. She tortured the attackers both horribly aboard Castle Morpheus but that was an anticipated hazard...she had been expecting to be attacked after screwing someone out of their inheritance.

Vera perked up at his question. Well, she had assumed the responsibility of escorting the injured man, and she respected how perceptive he was, even if she had briefly considered killing him once he had made her aware he knew what she was.

"Oh, I'm worse...I'm a lawyer!" she joked. "Its just that well...I 'occasionally' end up having to kill someone. As to 'what' I am, exactly...I'm afraid I can't get into detail...a girl has to keep 'some' secrets. As to what I was doing...well...heh heh..." she chuckled delicately, "Legal matters can be such...sensitive things..."

Vera continued walking with the injured man. And they soon came to the shelter, a dome shaped building of brown bricks surrounded by grass, reliefs of animals carved into the surface. Vera drew her pistol, cautiously opening it its automatic doors. There was nothing there. But there were a few wilderness supplies, shelves of warm, folded clothes and a small bed. There was a very small window, but at a bad angle to see an attack. But as she walked in , she noticed loose floorboards.

Her white dress out of place in the wilderness setting, Vera turned to Voph.

"This area will not remain defensible..." she told her still nameless companion. "Our main advantage is the advance scouts are dead: We probably bought ourselves twenty to thirty minutes. Enough to think. That armor of yours is busted to all hell..." Mina asserted. "If I were you, I'd get it off. With your injuries it'll only slow you down. Not to mention make you easy to identify..." she remarked, keeping the lights off in the shelter, watching out the window for signs of jet pack flares with her thermal vision.

"Clan Hades got its start around The Gulag Plague. They were the originators of an emergency army composed of terminally ill Mandalorians called The Phantom Legion. They defended Mandalorian worlds under threat of total collapse by the Plague...but when they grew too large, everybody in the clans thought they would try to conquer Mandalorian space with a literal army of the dead and demanded they surrender most of what they had gained and dissolve the Legion. To everyone's amazement...they did...and then they disappeared. I do believe you have the rather unique honor of being the first to be targeted by this clan in over four hundred years..." Vera trailed, before correcting herself...

"My apologies...dubious honor..." the Biot said with a small smirk to Voph. "We have to figure out some way of getting you to safety in a populated area. I would have brought a comlink, but, well, I didn't anticipate being caught up in all this, and with what I was doing...oh, never mind what I was doing. I'd just have to lie to you anyway..." Vera joked.

"So tell me...what do you remember before being attacked. Every little detail is important. Especially since it seems for the moment you are my...'client'...you may know something without realizing it. If you can figure it out, it might give us both a good idea for a strategy. We will have to move soon though, I hate it when Mandalorians chase me, personally. You have to kill all of them before they take the fethin' hint. Bah! Annoying! So annoying." the artificial sociopath remarked, rolling her eyes.


Meanwhile...


The white armored Mandalorians each assesed their losses in the woods. Obviously, killing this target was going to take longer than expected...he was still armed apparantly...

The leader of the squad transmitted a request to their command vessel above.

"Call in The Asset."

And not long after, a white shuttle had detached from an ancient, saucer shaped cruiser, heading down rapidly...

 

[Kyyrk]

As soon as Voph had stepped into the shelter, he was stripping off unnecessary armor, keeping only his boots and right gauntlet on. He sat down on the nearest available surface and began tending to his wounds. He certainly knew what he was doing, but seemed...inexperienced. As if it had been some time since he'd dressed wounds. And he certainly was no expert. His work did not bear the marks of a trained medic, but rather someone who had repeatedly had to dress his own wounds. "Assassin droid, then. Killing someone out for a walk, were we?" Voph's bloodstained face turned towards Vera. He clearly didn't care if he was right or not, judging by the look on his face.

"Ship was in low atmosphere, took us down with handheld weaponry. Wager they were tracking us the whole visit. They knew the ship was when I was most vulnerable." He grunted as he set his leg, and began wrapping it up to immobilize the broken bone. "Scouts were lightly armed, but still impressively so for a scout. They were banking on killing me on the ship, but not ones to take chances." He stood, and grabbed a shirt off one of the piles of clothes. He used it to wipe the drying blood from his face. "If we're lucky, they'll be stupid and think they're dealing with a Jedi." He tossed the shirt away, and turned to face Vera. "If we're not lucky...well..." Voph trailed off for a moment. He'd swore he was leaving this life behind. But in this instance...his back was against the wall. He offered Vera his hand. "Darth Voph, formerly of the Sith Empire."

[member="Vera Mina"]

 

[Vera Mina]

Rodreegoe's theme: "The Man With The Golden Gun" by Lulu

Spoiler

https://youtu.be/ko3_6AviC3c

The Mandalorian who stepped out of the shuttle was a giant in white armor with a black, T-Shaped visor, his frame a burly and wide. The symbol of his clan, a snarling, three headed dog, adorned his breastplate. At eight and a half feet he had to stoop to exit the shuttle and towered over most of his men, his gauntleted hands ending in sharp, retractable metal talons. A golden chrome cryoban continuous laser rifle was held by him, a large, custom jetpack.

Every white armored Mandalorian still combing the forest for clues as to what killed their scout team stopped and stood at attention as the Asset, also known as Rodreegoe Hades entered the search site where [member="Voph"] had pulled himself out of certain doom. Rodreegoe was slightly irritated at having been awakened from Cryo--this 'Voph' should have been a relatively easy kill...Clan Hades had taken down far more over the centuries, and bigger.

"What am I looking for, Reordan?" Rodreegoe asked in a deep, yet surprising crisp and quiet voice, drawing homself to his full height over a frequent partner of his, the Mandalorian Reordan. Technically, Rodreegoe was in his thirties but cryo had extended his shelf life. Reordan had been in Clan Hades far longer and was valued for his experience. The older Mandalorian had his helmet off, his skin looked like baked leather and he was middle aged, with short cut nearly white hair and an eye patch over his right eye.

"Precision job. Found a body at the bottom of the lake. Rodian." Reordan answered.

"The target took out the Rodian?" The Giant rumbled with inquiry

"Nah. He was here before the Target got here. Execution style. We got someone else here besides Voph."

"Tracks?" Rodreegoe asked.

"Dirt road. Lots of wind. Muddy in some parts." Reordan answered grimly. "We got partial tracks. One man, injured. Lots of blood specks leading out of here, and another, more indistinct set of tracks. Possibly a woman's."

"Could Voph have killed the scouts?"

Reordan shook his head. "Negative...these tracks we found indicate severe injuries, judging by the amount of blood. I think his lady friend took care of our boys. The Rodian also. We weren't told this guy had back up."

"What do you make of the woman?"

"Crackshot, judging by the hits. I'm tempted to say assassin, but something doesn't feel right...the tracks we found indicated high heels...what sort of assassin wears high heels?"

"The kind that wasn't planning on fighting tonight." Rodreegoe rumbled again. "I will deal with them. You send your men to cut off all possible exit routes in a sixty kilometer radius...the country side is dotted with wilderness relief shelters, especially this close to a population center. My money is on them hiding in the closest shelter they could find."

"In that case, should we not simply accompany you?" Reordan asked.

Rodreegoe shook his head, staring at the corpses of their fallen brothers. "No. Whoever this woman is she killed all our scouts with what seems to be a simple blaster pistol. More men would just be distracting. Besides...this could be quite the entertaining hunt. Maintain comms. I should be back within the hour, hopefully with both their heads...

The giant Mandalorian cleared away from the rest of them, activated his jetpack and rocketed upward with a great roar from his pack spitting out white fire...

Meanwhile...


Vera smiled at his question. "It was a nice night for a walk..." she answered coyly, watching him repair himself. The sight of his blood and wounds excited the Biot, made her want to kill again.

When he offered his hand Vera grasped it and shook it, a slight hint that she wasn't what she seemed being in the way her skin felt. It was warm like skin, but had an almost rubber like texture, stopping just short of feeling slick.

"A Darth? Well that would explain why you are still alive. And its not unusual for a Darth to have enemies, sometimes ones they are not even aware of." Vera mused, before her eye caught something bright in the sky through that window. Her eyes made out someone on a Jetpack.

"My, my, they want you dead..." Vera remarked, looking at the loose floorboards. Voph still wasn't good to move. Vera began prying loose the floorboards.

"You are in no condition to fight, I'm afraid, and there is too much open ground between here and the next significant amount of cover." Vera said, making sure he could fit in it, tossing his damaged armor down there also to avoid as many clues as possible. "You hide here...I will...trick him..."

 

[Kyyrk]

Definitely wasn't human. Or any species Voph had dealt with before. Definitely a droid of some kind. He released her grip, and stepped back into a corner. "I will be in no condition to fight when I am dead." But in spite of this combative gesture, he seemed smart enough to know that there was more to life than simply marauding one's way through it. He turned, and walked towards the door, muttering something under his breath. He knelt down, gaze focused intently on the door as the Force began to turn and shift around him. A familiar feeling that called to him across a great distance. It had been quite some time since he utilized his favorite trick...

He stood, and turned towards the corner. His mark had been chosen. "You'll have one shot. I don't know what kind of state I'll be in, but it's a chance I'm willing to take. You'll know when." Voph turned, and crouched down in the corner, calling on the force once again. The effort was nauseating. Or maybe that was his injuries catching up with him. But soon, there appeared to be nothing in the corner. Merely a faint glimmer of where the now-invisible man crouched, before even that faded away. Granted, it wouldn't help if the Mando had the right sensors. Which Voph assumed he did. That was the plan after all. All the man had to do was step inside the building...

[member="Vera Mina"]

 

[Vera Mina]

Vera looked with a keen interest as [member="Voph"] disappeared from normal view. She blinked once, concentrating as her processors switched to X-Ray vision, spotting his skeleton. Impressive. Most impressive. Vera had not yet fought a Force User, but she had heard many of them were capable of such things. Her own creator was capable of it but had never demonstrated it. She noted the locations of his skeletal injuries, filing them away for reference in her torture database later on, in order to inflict maximum pain on victims.

For Vera, a day without someone getting hurt by her was like a day without sunshine...boring...

The Biot then turned her attention to the skeletal structure of the Mandalorian outside. Though the Biot was not actually capable of experiencing fear, she did know when she was up against a very serious threat, and frowned. This was not going to be easy. She had to think fast, as there had not been enough time to tell Voph the plan.

The Mandalorian, a giant of a man in all white armor, slammed the door open effortlessly, stooping down to come in properly. Vera, knowing lying would do no good, merely smirked at him, knowing she had to keep his eyes on her.

The giant Mandalorian grabbed her by the throat and she struggled to breath.

"Is there something I can aid you in?" Vera asked. "I handle all forms of disputes if its representation you are looking for."

"Where. Is. Darth. Voph?" Rodreegoe Hades growled in a deep voice, his massive frame like a rancor in the small shelter.

Vera sighed, knowing this next part was risky, but having little choice to give Voph whatever opening he needed. But he'd likely think she was done for.

"You look big enough to eat him. Have you checked the latrine for results?" Vera asked in that ever so polite tone amidst the choking she experienced.

The Mandalorian's arm blade popped out, pointing against her chest. "One more chance."

Vera sprang her trick then and there, and her hands reached out and forced him to stab her right through the chest and into a lung, hoping the underlay could fix it before she lost consciousness. Though her chest bled red, Vera vomited white blood on his face plate, the viscosity of which was reminiscent of glue. Her vision cut as Rodreegoe yelled as he flung what was temporarily a corpse off his blade, the biot sprawled to the floor, having grabbed one of his pistols, still bleeding white out of her mouth as the giant Mandalorian struggled to get the thick flowing mess off his visor, temporarily blinded...Vera fired his pistol at both legs, using her enhanced hearing to place her shots due to the fact she had lost proper blood flow for the moment, but soon started to lose consciousness...whatever Voph was planning, he needed to act fast...