I've been playing a lot of Starsector lately (thanks sseth) and I don't think I've been sucked into a game like that since I first started playing Civ 5 seriously. Seriously, it's so much goddamn fun. It's like space Mount & Blade mixed with the Spore space stage.
On a different note, did you guys know that Coca Cola is fucking canon in Star Wars now? No, I'm not fucking joking, I'm dead serious. It's at Galaxy's Edge and the bottles look like little thermal detonators. I don't like the idea of there being fucking Coke ads in Star Wars. I'm fine with there being a Coke analogue or something, but not straight up fucking Coca Cola. Get it away from this decaying corpse of a franchise.
Anyways, I finally got off my ass and finished Val's look; here she is: imgur.c.o.m (slash) a (slash) KUzxuA3, and in case you missed it at the end of the last chapter, here's the other girls: imgur.c.o.m (slash) a (slash) EZlxg75
I've done some significant overhauls to the Nax card, made his waist thinner since Rance apparently has one of the widest goddamn waists for an anime character (technically an eroge but that's neither here nor there) and I also made the head bigger. I'm thinking of scrapping the stubble though. There's just no way I can get it to look good in Koikatsu, no matter what I do to it.
The man needs to shave, goddamnit!
Anyways, enough of my rambling, read and review this chapter.
There was a slight bump against Lexi's hand. At first, she ignored it, and then it happened again, so she pushed whatever it was away. That resulted in a very heavy thud against the floor, and a series of angry electronic warbling and gurgling, causing Lexi's eyes to shoot wide open to find that she had just pushed Arfive over in her sleep. "…The hell'd you expect?" Lexi tiredly asked, and Arfive gurgled a series of angry responses nonsensically accusing her of doing the same thing. "…Touché, you beeping trashcan."
Sitting up, Lexi yawned rather loudly, and then glanced at the wall chrono. "Ngah, what time is…" she mumbled, rubbing her eyes. She shifted her foot a little and bumped into something metal, diverting her attention from the chrono to the object. It was a deactivated Threepio head.
Initially confused, Lexi realized who it belonged to, and what it was doing there. "Ah, hell. We were supposed to get the Threepio body yesterday, weren't we?" Lexi remarked as she picked the head up and rubbed the photoreceptors, having already answered her own question. Arfive beeped out an affirmative as he righted himself. Glancing back at the chrono, Lexi's mental fog had cleared enough to where she could probably see well enough to check the time.
Just a quarter past eight in the morning.
"Damnit, that's pretty late." Lexi complained as she got up and stretched, almost pulling her top off in the process. "I'll just grab something from the 'con and let those two make whatever they want when they get up..." she continued to mumble as Arfive trailed after her like a loyal pet.
Evidently having noticed his trailing, Lexi turned to him. "What, you coming with?" she asked, Threepio head tucked under her arm, and Arfive chirped out an annoyed yes. "Fine by me." Lexi said as she turned the digital notepad attached to the conservator on. Grabbing the pen from its holder, she scribbled down a quick note.
'Gone to the droid shop, took Arfive with me. Make something to eat yourself.'
Setting the pen back where it belonged, Lexi grabbed a protein bar from the conservator and immediately made for the door, Arfive trailing her.
The exterior of Broxin Mechanicals wasn't really what Lexi was expecting. What she imagined it being was just a shop on the side of the street with a sign over top, maybe with a door guard or something.
What she got, however, was a small fortress. A duracrete wall spanned both ends of the street, with doors the size of the sidewalks on both ends for pedestrians to walk through. In addition, barbed wire spanned the whole length of the wall, and if that wasn't enough, there were battle droids guarding the doors.
Not regular B1s, not some obscure model, but rather fully stocked B2 Super Battle Droids. Lexi had forgotten just how tall a B2 actually was, and these units looked even taller than normal.
"ZELTRON FEMALE." the Super closest to her declared in its deep, monotone voice. "IDENTIFY YOUR PURPOSE IMMEDIATELY."
Caught off guard by the sudden request from a six foot tall killing machine, Lexi jolted a smidge, before catching herself. She didn't know just how trigger-happy these droids were programmed, and the last thing she wanted was to get wasted by a bunch of Supers. "…I'm here to trade." Lexi calmly said, and the Super stood up straight as it processed this information.
"UNDERSTOOD, ANALYZING SPEECH PATTERNS." the Super said, before making electronic whirring sounds, staring Lexi and Arfive down with its red photoreceptor. There was a short pause, and then the photoreceptor turned blue. "YOU ARE CLEAR TO PROCEED." it bellowed, and the pair of them quickly went through before the Super changed its mind.
The entrance to the actual shop was certainly unique. It was the front portion of an MTT cut out and put into the building, with stairs leading up to the hatch, plus an Astromech access ramp. Lexi and Arfive both went up and into the building with little trouble, and the first thing they were greeted with was a highly synthesized male voice yelling.
"Are you shitting me?" the voice yelled from behind a pile of droid parts. "Another shipment?" he queried, exasperated at whatever he was being informed of. Slowly walking further into the dimly lit store, Lexi saw who the voice belonged to.
A man of average height, clad in tattered red robes with gold trimming with cybernetics and augmentations covering his body, barely leaving any room for skin, was hunched over the counter, a single light fixture dangling from the ceiling lighting his features up. Half of his face was covered with metallic plating, but he wasn't paying attention to Lexi, at least for the moment, so she took the time to poke through the piles of droid parts.
Obviously, there were the common droids you would see in basically every droid shop around the galaxy. R2 and R4 units, a few R5s, Threepio droids, some CZs, and then some that you wouldn't normally see, like B1s in storage mode, rolled up Droidekas, at least one rusted B2, the head of a Dwarf Spider Droid, half the legs of a Crab Droid, and then some oddities, like the head and right arm of an IG-86, and a strange rust-colored droid head with what looked like a large grille around the nose area.
Rubbing the photoreceptors of the droid head, Lexi set it back on top of the droid body she had found it on. "Look, I don't care what you do. Hire more guards, arm them better, whatever, just don't lose the next shipment. I'm cutting a thin enough profit margin as it is. I can't afford to keep sourcing droids and then losing them to this asshole because he intercepts the shipment without fail." he advised, before finishing his call. "By the Maker, I must have the worst luck when it comes to employees…" he mumbled under his breath as Lexi made herself known. "Oh, a customer!" he said, suddenly perking up. "I'm Wilrand Broxin, owner and proprietor." he said in a much more jovial voice than beforehand. "…I'm going to assume you heard my conversation?" he asked, lowering his voice to be much quieter. It almost sounded like he was… afraid? Lexi couldn't particularly tell on account of all the static and synthetic sounds in his voice, but it sure sounded like it.
Lexi nodded once, and Wilrand gave out a static filled sigh. "Yeah, I was afraid of that." he moped. "Look, business isn't doing too great, I won't lie. Doesn't mean I don't have stock to sell." Wilrand said, before his eye shifted from a light blue to an unnatural green. "Just that things could be better."
Nodding once, Lexi leaned over the counter. "…I heard something about shipments getting intercepted?"
A small data screen appeared in Wilrand's eye. "Yeah, shipments of droid salvage from the lower levels keep getting intercepted by the Transhuman Ascendancy, specifically one of their droid engineers. A Duros by the name of Baal Sti. Crafty little bastard, that one."
Arfive chirped out a question asking about the Ascendancy, his head rotating around the shop curiously. "The Transhuman Ascendancy are a splinter group of the old Synthskin Union from a few years back. Buncha whackjob cultists that view cybernetics and augmentations as the next step for sentients everywhere." Wilrand said, before pointing to himself. "I should know – I was one of them."
"How'd you get out?"
Wilrand held his hand out, and a blue hologram of a skull with cybernetic attachments around the left eye socket with three orbiting spheres appeared. "I didn't. I'm marked for death for being 'heretek'. Hence, the Supers and the wall. Good deterrence against those borged shitters coming for me." Wilrand explained as the hologram flickered out. "Now, why're you asking? You a hired gun?"
Lexi gave Wilrand a sly, knowing look. "I may know a couple. Depends on the pay."
"Five thousand credits for the job plus whatever you can take home from his place."
"I'll run it by 'em."
Wilrand put one arm on the counter, and the other by his back. "Fine by me. If they don't take it, we never spoke about the subject." he said in a cautionary tone of voice, particularly eyeing Arfive. "That goes double for the Astro."
Lexi nodded, and then Wilrand stood up straight. "Good, now that that's out of the way, what can I get for you?" he said, the synthesizers in his voice changing to make him sound more like a holoshow host.
"Do you have any headless Threepio units?" Lexi asked.
"I think I do. Let me go check in back." Wilrand said, before disappearing behind another mountain of droid parts.
Ten minutes later, Lexi left carrying a box with the disassembled arms, legs, and body of a Threepio droid.
Lexi pushed the box against the door and grabbed her passcard, swiping it against the reader. There was a short beep-beep-beep, and then the door slid open, causing Lexi to accidentally stumble forward from the sudden lack of support. As soon as Lexi regained her footing, she immediately set the box of parts on the floor, turning to be greeted by Kyra's feet hanging over the side of the couch, and Nax looking at her. "Took you long enough to get back." Nax quipped, causing Kyra to sit up.
"Hey, Lex. Whatcha got in that box?" Kyra asked, and Lexi nudged the box with her foot.
"Threepio droid parts for Zeethree."
Nax practically sprang to attention, fully turned around in his seat and staring at the box. "No shit?" he said, before getting up and checking the box. Opening it, Nax pulled out a matte gold leg. "…Wrong color, but I don't really care. We can get it rechromed down the line." he said, looking down the leg socket. "Wiring looks intact, too. Hope that Wilrand guy isn't running a scam."
"I doubt it." Lexi replied, glancing at the viscom. "Anything come in from Eath or Vopa?"
Nax shook his head no. "No new jobs, didn't get an update on that thing we took from the Synthies, and haven't heard squat about that girl."
Reaching into her coat, Lexi pulled out her datapad. "Well, in that case, I got a job from that droid shop owner, Wilrand." she said as she showed the datapad's information to Nax and Kyra. "A competitor keeps intercepting his shipments of salvage from the lower levels. Only reason this guy is still in business is because he's with the Transhuman Ascendancy."
"Who?" Nax and Kyra asked in unison.
"One of the Synthskin Union offshoots that Vopa mentioned. Major transhumanists and religious nutjobs. They think cybernetics are the only way for people to 'transcend', whatever the hell that means." Lexi explained.
"They sure sound like a fun bunch." Kyra joked, finally sitting up properly.
Lexi huffed and crossed her arms. "Yeah, well, if your definition of 'fun' is shooting at cyborgs and augs that need B2s to protect yourself from, then I think you're a little crazy." she snarked, and Kyra's eyes narrowed.
"They can't possibly be…" Kyra said, trailing as Lexi showed her a picture of some Transhuman goons. All of them were significantly enhanced, and scarcely resembled human beings. "…You know what? I take it back. Those guys do not look like people I want to upset." she said, her voice lightly trembling, before she nervously laughed.
"…They don't even look like people. What the hell?" Nax said, his expression a mixture of intrigue, shock, and disgust.
Lexi nodded sympathetically, and set her datapad back in her coat. "Anyways, this guy's set up nearly halfway across the planet, in the Bu'lal district-" Lexi continued, before Kyra interrupted her.
"How's he intercepting the shipments if he's set up halfway across Coruscant?" she asked, and Nax glanced at her.
"He's supported by a fragment of a gang that was large enough to cause a multi-year long shitstorm in the Underworld, Kyra. Even if they're not as powerful as they were a few years ago, a fragment of them still have considerable reach. Not to mention, they're a religious organization, so add that in, and they've probably got a significant amount of soft influence from followers." Nax noted and explained.
"Soft influence?" Kyra repeated.
"People that aren't strictly involved with the organization, but still follow their teachings or whatever. People involved in an organization are what I consider 'hard influence' since they're doing most of the actual legwork, while bystanders that support them are 'soft influence'." Nax said, resting his arms over the couch. "Picked the term up from some spacers after some Rodian tried running a religious scam back in Mos Eisley before Valarian shut him down."
Lexi stretched briefly, before sitting on the couch with Kyra and Nax. "…Anyways, the job's about five grand-"
"With that kind of risk? Hell no!" Nax immediately interjected, and Lexi shot him an annoyed look.
"I wasn't done. The job is five thousand credits, plus whatever we can salvage from the guy's base. I don't know how much he has, but Wilrand'll probably pay a pretty chit if we can haul everything out." Lexi finished, sounding a tad miffed that Nax interrupted her before she was done talking.
"…I'll have to think on that, then." Nax consigned, sitting back into the couch, and Kyra nodded in agreement.
Kyra locked eyes with Lexi and proceeded to gently nudge Nax. "I'm with him on this one. Facing just a few of those borgs and augs does not sound like how I want to spend my day, and that's not even talking about the possibility of guard droids." she said. "I either want to do this stealthily, or not at all."
Lexi shrugged as she slid the datapad back into her coat. "Sure, whatever's fine with you. Salvage'll probably pay damn well if we can get the freighter in there, or if he's got a cargo speeder, but it's up to you guys." she said, before stretching. "So, what were you two doing before I got home?" Lexi asked, tossing her arm around Nax's shoulder.
"Channel hopping without much to do. Speaking of, check it-" Nax said, turning the viscom's volume up so that the news report was audible.
"-Six Stormtroopers were killed yesterday in a brutal incident of gang violence." the female holocaster said, her voice clinical and clear, and her face unfazed. "The troopers reportedly attempted to peacefully break up a physical confrontation between two groups of gang members, but were gunned down. This is yet another in a string of brutal attacks on Imperial officials in the lower levels of Imperial Center."
The three of them leaned in closer to the viscom, and an image of six covered Stormtrooper bodies was shown, with the Synthskin Union warehouse just so happening to be in the shot.
"The suspects are currently unknown, but are suspected to be a rival gang at odds with the remnants of the Synthskin Union. If you, or anyone you know has information regarding these suspects, report it to your local Underworld Police barracks immediately." the holocaster advised, before clearing her throat. "This was Fay Tultra from INN, signing off."
"Looks like we made the news." Nax quipped, before standing up and heading to the box of Threepio parts.
Kyra stared at him, slackjawed. "…Have you as much as entertained the idea that the Empire could come after us for this?" she asked, horrified that their deed had become public knowledge.
Lexi nodded once. "I'm gonna have to agree with Kyra on this one, Nax. I'd rather not get thrown in prison for murder and have some thug take me by force, just because you've got an itchy trigger finger." Lexi said, before her pupils seemed to shrink in realization of what she just said, and she blushed.
Nax grabbed the Threepio torso and examined it. "I didn't think of it at the time." he replied, flipping the torso over to look at the back.
"Shocker." Kyra snarked, and Nax turned his head to look at her from the corner of his eye.
"But." Nax sharply said. "I have thought on it now, and I don't think it's ever gonna come back to us."
"And why's that?"
"Think about it logically – you have Stormtroopers, presumably someone's personal guards since I've never seen a detailed emblem on the ones in Mos Eisley, going into a known gang hideout to buy a slave and even associating with the slavers openly. Imagine the scandal if that got out."
Kyra's mouth briefly hung open as she considered Nax's words.
"The story about it being an incident of gang violence is almost definitely a cover story run by the slavers and whoever those Stormtroopers were working for, and besides that, the description is probably as vague as 'two Mandalorians' and MAYBE a Zeltron. Do you have any idea how many Mandalorians and Zeltrons are on Coruscant right now? Because let me tell you, it's not a small figure in the slightest."
Lexi combed through her blue hair with her fingers. "…And if they know what we look like?" she poised, seeming ever annoyed at Nax's cockiness.
"The ship's not too far away. We can always bolt if they ever come knocking. Bug out to the Rim again."
Lexi buried her face in her hands. "…Nax, you're an idiot." she said, only half serious.
Nax rolled his eyes at the comment. "Guess I'll have to prove that I'm not, then." he said as he flipped the torso to look inside. "Gonna need to fix Zeethree."
"Oh, really now?" Lexi teased. "What, you think I'm gonna fall head over heels for you when you do?" she said, getting a cheeky grin while Kyra, Arfive, and Katy all watched the exchange in silence.
Nax silently snorted through his nose, smirking. "That's the idea, yeah." he quipped, knowing full well where this would lead. "Unless you'd rather help me rebuild him?"
Lexi blinked at what Nax just said. "I…" she stammered, staring through Nax. "…You're on!" Lexi said, vaulting over the couch to get at the box of parts, grabbing the whole thing and marching into the kitchen, unpacking it.
And so began the long, arduous, and painful process of rebuilding Zeethree from scratch, something Nax wouldn't have been able to do alone, with a very flustered, embarrassed, and droid-savvy Lexi helping him.
"Looks like that's it." Nax said, looking over the assembled, although headless Threepio unit. "Now all we need is the head." he continued, grabbing the head off the counter and positioning it over the neck, spine extended and ready to connect to the head. Slowly lowering it down onto the latch, Nax made sure not to bump the droid or any of the delicate wiring, and successfully connected the head to the rest of the body.
Gently nudging Nax to the side, Lexi stood up on her toes and carefully began to re-attach the wires, working within the confines of her memory of how the Threepio head connected to the body. There weren't too many wires she had to memorize, but there were enough that if Lexi didn't pay attention, she would easily lose track of herself and possibly damage Zeethree.
Lexi connected Zeethree's brain to the 'spine', with the audio and photoreceptors quickly following suit, albeit with some strain trying to connect them. The motor joints were next, and after a quick scan, Lexi realized she was done, and fell flat on her feet again. Nax silently understood what this meant, and latched Zeethree's head on fully, before reaching into the torso and turning him on.
Zeethree's photoreceptors flashed bright yellow several times, before stabilizing. "H-h-hello?" Zeethree said, looking around at his surroundings quizzically. "…I feel different, somehow. Strange. What has happened to me?" he said, staring out the kitchen window as Nax made his presence known.
"Zeethree, can you hear me?" Nax called out, waving his hand in front of Zeethree's photoreceptors.
The protocol droid immediately shot to look at him. "Master Strag!" Zeethree prissed, waving his arms comically. "It's so good to see you!" he continued raving, sounding overjoyed.
The smallest hint of a smile appeared on Nax's face. "You too, Zeethree. We got you put back together, so you should be all good now. No more being a useless head for you, huh?"
Zeethree blinked, and his upper torso tilted back a bit. "'We'?" he queried, and Lexi made her presence known.
"Yo, tin-man." she greeted casually with a halfhearted wave. "I'm the one that fixed you up. Mostly."
Zeethree leaned closer to Lexi. "My apologies," Zeethree said politely. "…but I do not recognize you. Are you a friend of Miss Kyra's?"
Lexi closed her eyes and nodded. "Mhm. I'm Lexi Sapphyra – the reason this mouthbreather has a roof over his head." she joked, pointing at Nax, who gave her a dirty look. "We're on Coruscant, Level 1313."
"Imperial Center, you mean." Zeethree politely corrected, and Lexi snorted.
"Hell no I don't mean Imperial Center. Nobody calls it Imperial Center except for the Empire. Everyone I've ever talked to calls it Coruscant. That's what it's been for thousands of years, and that's what it'll stay as, Imperial renaming be damned." she said proudly, chest held high.
"I see." Zeethree said, before turning to Nax. "Master Strag, where is Miss Kyra?"
"Went to bed an hour ago."
Zeethree nodded. "I understand, Master Strag."
Just then, Katy and Arfive rolled into the kitchen. "Ah, Arfive!" Zeethree bellowed. "It's so very good to see you again – and from my intended height, too!" he said cheerfully, and Arfive chirped back. "…Have you put on weight, Arfive? You look a bit more… portly than I seem to remember."
Arfive began to angrily chirp, scree, and whirr at that comment. "How rude!" Zeethree said, shocked at the profanity being spewed from the droid. Zeethree then switched his gaze to Katy, who was curiously staring up at him. "…Do my photoreceptors deceive me, or is that a T3-series utility droid?" he asked, and Katy chirped a positive back to him. "How very strange to see one of your kind! I had assumed that most of you had been deactivated or destroyed." Zeethree commented.
Nax nudged Zeethree a bit. "By the way, that T3 unit was Thel's. She's called Katy, and Arfive got her fixed a few days ago."
Zeethree stared at Katy, studying her. "Ah, yes, I do remember something about Thel having a T3 unit. Speaking of – where is he, Nax? You two are usually inseparable, I would have expected him to have come with you to Coruscant." Zeethree innocently asked, and then it hit Nax that he hadn't told Zeethree. All signs of happiness and glee vanished from Nax's face, replaced with a deadened stare. "…Master Strag?" Zeethree asked.
Taking a long, slow breath, Nax stared through Zeethree. "…Thel was…" he choked, clearing his throat. "Shot. By Kyra's slavers. He's… he's gone." Nax stammered.
Zeethree's voice toned down significantly. "Oh, my…" he said, shocked. "Master Strag, I'm so terribly sorry, I had no idea, I didn't mean to-" Zeethree prattled, worried that he may have offended his master.
"No, no. It's fine, Zeethree. I just…" Nax said, exasperated, before walking away. "…Just need to get a shower, is all." he mumbled under his breath, clearly lying.
Zeethree was tempted to follow and apologize profusely, but held back. Lexi quickly came into focus. "…Let's make sure you're all well and good. Don't want you shorting out all of a sudden." she said, tapping his photoreceptors a few times.
"…Yes." Zeethree said, staring blankly into the empty hallway. "Yes, that would be good."
Kyra was in bed, reading a holobook by the window, letting artificial moonlight fall on her with the bedside lamp on when Nax came into the room, looking exasperated, tired, and dead, all at the same time.
Wordlessly, he got into bed with Kyra, who's eyes appeared to shimmer in the false moonlight. Closing the holobook and setting it on the window seal, she turned over to Nax. "…Is something wrong?" she asked sweetly and softly, resting her head against the pillow.
Nax didn't answer her question, choosing instead to keep staring at the wall. He didn't even bat a glance at Arfive when the astromech quietly entered the room. "…Nax…" Kyra said in that same tone of voice. "If something's wrong, I'd like to know. I am your partner, after all." she said softly, stroking the side of his face.
Letting out a heavy sigh, Nax turned his head slightly so that he could look at Kyra from the corner of his vision. "I'd rather not say, Kyra."
As if she had been expecting that question, Kyra gave him a swift roll of her eyes, before shutting the light off and getting closer to Nax, pulling him into a hug. "Well, just know that whenever you do want to tell me, I'm here for you." Kyra said, trying to comfort Nax.
By the time the words left her mouth, Nax had fallen asleep, his hand on her arm as a sign of acknowledgement. Kyra soon followed.
Nax found himself staring up at the night sky, but something just… wasn't right. The stars were all wrong – there was no airspeeder traffic, no skyscrapers. Nothing man-made. Nax felt a strong gust of wind at his back, and turned to see that he wasn't on Coruscant.
He was back on Tatooine, at the homestead. Involuntarily, Nax stepped forward, and in one swift instant, the homestead caught fire, and he stopped to watch his old home burn.
Was this… happening right now? Had squatters accidentally burned the place down?
His question was answered when he suddenly moved much closer to the fire, feeling something wet on his hands. He looked at them, and saw them covered in fresh blood. As soon as his brain registered that fact, he was ripped again even closer to the fire, near the graves, which weren't there, strangely.
In a half of a heartbeat, Nax was faced with the decomposed corpses of both Trax, and his dad. In shock and disgust, Nax tried to step away, to turn away, to do whatever he could to get the bodies out of his sight, but he just couldn't. Some unseen force, more powerful than he, was forcing him to stare at the bodies.
"Your fault." a deeper version of Nax's voice said to him, with a metallic reverb and lingering presence to it.
The corpses skulked closer to Nax, coming further into the light of Tatooine's moons. "They're dead, and it's your fault." the voice said to him, sounding closer now. Nax thought the corpses would move closer after that, but instead he found himself at the Insurgent base in the box canyon, now partially buried under the dunes of Tatooine. Feeling a rush of wind at his back, Nax was moved to the open grave of Val, her body still in there, although it wasn't decomposed like dad's and Trax's were. She was still the way he saw her last, and still in the same position. Legs straight, arms over her stomach, rifle by her side.
"How pathetic you must be. You couldn't even protect the love of your life." the voice taunted, sounding even more close than before. "She's dead because you took too long, you know. You could have saved her. But you didn't." it continued, giving off a malicious laugh. Nax glanced up from the grave and quickly spotted the dim, shadowy apparition of himself sitting down, one foot hanging over Val's body, grinning at him, showing fangs. "How about her friends, her family? You couldn't save them either." the figured said, its mouth not even moving an inch, and Nax was quickly assaulted by mental images of each and every Dewback member and insurgent that he had seen at the base.
When the barrage was done, the scene shifted again, this time to the cargo hold of the Bantha. In the cells were cloaked, shadowy figures, but in the one nearest to the stairs on the left, there was another mirror image of himself, as well as Kyra, Thel, and Lexi, all behind bars, with Lostur and his goons standing right outside, blasters at the ready. "Ah, my favorite." the voice said, nowhere to be seen, before there was an audible snap of his fingers, and the scene replayed itself.
"…N-no… no, no, no, no, no…" Nax mumbled in repetition as he watched the scene play out exactly how he remembered it.
"I remember him telling me a story about how he ran some slimeball slaver cowards off a frontier world." the apparition of Nax cockily said, blissfully unaware of the consequences of his words.
"Don't say it!" the real Nax shouted, to no avail.
"That wouldn't happen to have been you, would it?" it finished, still not aware of what was to happen.
"No!"
Nax saw Lostur's apparition reach for his S-5. "Close, but worded very poorly." he said, remaining calm, cool, and collected, before drawing the blaster and shooting Thel in the head. Everyone stopped still as soon as the shot rang out, and the malicious shade appeared in front of Nax, baring fangs.
"You got your best friend killed." the shade taunted, giving off an almost Cheshire grin. "You can't even keep your mouth shut to save your friends. Some hero you are." it continued, before putting its hand on its hip. "You disgust me."
Nax balled his fist up in anger and took a swipe at the shade, who simply ignored the punch, letting Nax's fist go through. "How typical." the apparition said, before disappearing. "You can't understand something, so you try to kill it to make it go away."
"Go to hell!" Nax yelled, before falling to his knees in shame.
There was a short, tense pause as the apparition drew breath. "…I'm already there, and you're living in it."
With that, the voice disappeared, leaving Nax alone, his vision slowly faded to black.
Nax glanced outside the window of the magtrain, Kyra and Lexi at his side, both of them holding on to the poles in the crowded space, sticking as close to him as they could. It still boggled Nax's mind just how foreign Coruscant was to Tatooine. At the speed they were going, Nax had only ever seen sand dunes and hills roll by that fast, never skyscrapers that reached into an artificial ceiling of duracrete, or airspeeder traffic flowing right alongside the train and keeping pace.
His thoughts were interrupted by a bump in his left side. Shifting his gaze, Lexi was looking up at him, fingers over he commlink. "Remind me why we're taking the train instead of just flying to the district in our ship?" she asked, barely audible over the chatter in the car, even through the commlink.
Pressing down, Nax stared at her through the viewplate. "'Cause the Empire won't let a ship through to a district under lockdown, and even if they did, a YT-1300 nobody's ever seen before showing up would seem a bit suspicious, wouldn't it?" he answered, scanning the crowd with the helmet's scanner. Didn't seem like anybody had bounties out on them. "The Velen Quarter is about as reasonably close as we can get, anyways."
"Besides that, we're not going there to start a fight. We're just gonna scope the district out." Kyra chimed in, patting Arfive on the head as he happily chirped over the comms. "Speaking of, you got a plan for how to get in? From what I could tell, the place is all walled up."
"Get in through a vent or some kind of service tunnel. Shouldn't be too hard." Nax said as the train slowed to a halt, and the doors opened to the Velen Quarter. The four of them were the first to get out, and they immediately sidestepped the crowd. Directly ahead of them was a T-junction in the street, with the Bu'lal district just a few blocks down the street. Or it would be, if there wasn't a massive wall reaching all the way up to the next level, with massive neon banners over it stating "QUARANTINED DISTRICT, KEEP OUT", alongside the standard Imperial flair of throwing their damn banners over everything.
Near the large pressure-sealed door were seven hulking figures, barely illuminated by the neon above them, but they had to easily be nine feet tall. Front door definitely wouldn't cut it. Whistling over the commlink, Nax directed everyone to follow him down the street on the right, further away from the entrance and hopefully into a back alley. "Lexi, you're a native – what were those things guarding the entrance?" he asked, brushing past a Rodian.
Lexi toyed with her hair as she glanced back at the street the figures were on. "Dunno." she said, clearly unsure of what she saw. "I've heard stories about how the Empire patrols anything below level 300 with Hazard Troopers, and those things patrolling looked awfully similar. Maybe they've walled the place off and covered it up as a biohazard?" she proposed, poking her head over the railing, and immediately getting vertigo.
"Maybe." Kyra replied, checking and charging her '44. "All I know is that I don't want to cause problems for them. Or the cyborgs we'll probably find in the district."
The group continued to walk in silence, heading about five blocks down from the magtrain station, before walking down a street on the left that led straight to the wall. They then turned into an alleyway marred with an obviously lack of maintenance or even basic sanitation. Heading further into the alley, Nax spotted a dimly lit grate that appeared to have steam coming out from underneath it. Stepping over and turning his night vision on, he peered in, and it quickly registered that the drop would be one-way, but not impossible. "Arfive." Nax quickly and suddenly said, his tone almost deadpan, before gesturing to the grate. "Your fusion cutter, if you'd be so kind."
Arfive chirped, leisurely strolling over to the grate. He leaned over the first latch, one of the panels on his torso flinging open, and a manipulator arm extended, fusion cutter already primed and at work. The three of them simply stood around, waiting for Arfive to finish, and after a short wait, he had the hole open and ready for them to drop in. First was Kyra, then Lexi, then Arfive comically falling face-first into the hole. Nax edged his way in carefully, making sure to re-place the grate where it had been before. Hopefully anyone who came by wouldn't look too hard at it, and then he dropped, hitting the duracrete floor with an audible thud as Arfive turned his light on, flashing it over the tunnel.
"Let's get going." Nax said, pressing forward through the service tunnels in the general direction of the district.
Ash Voot walked the streets of the Ka'ath district in silence, her barely meter tall height making her effectively invisible in the crowd of pedestrians. Slowly, she felt a twitch in her hand. Raising her arm up to the nearest light source – a neon shop sign, she remembered something the cyberneticist told her.
"You're probably gonna be experiencing phantom pains for the next few months. Sorry, but there's nothing I can do about that."
As if she could see right through the fake skin, the image of a metallic, skeletal hand projected itself through her viewscreen, the feeling of the hand that she used to have and the one she had now mixing together to create a confusing, mind numbing pain. Her hand felt like it was both still attached, and that it had just been cut off.
She exhaled slowly, sticking both hands in her pockets and looking up to see a young man looking at her from the door to what looked like a cantina. The scanlines on her viewplate must have went off as soon as she looked at the man, and he quickly fled back inside. She thought of entering the cantina to maybe find some help with what she was looking for, although decided against it, walking past the windows, hearing drinks clinking, the cantina band playing, and cheers all around as the warm lights inside shone down on her.
She walked for another five or so blocks, when a lightly synthesized voice gradually became audible to her. "Come, augs and cyborgs! Join the Transhuman Ascendancy! Throw the shackles of society off your arms and legs, for you have nothing to lose!" the man said. As Ash got closer, the owner of the voice gradually became identifiable. He was of average height, wearing a long, blue robe with silver trim that reached down to his shoes. In his arms was a small stack of datapads, probably handouts for his organization.
Ash slowly approached him, unseen, before tugging at his robe. "Excuse me." she said in a joyless, monotone voice heavily impacted by speech synthesizer glitches.
The man turned to face Ash, smiling warmly at her. She had to admit, he was attractive. Clean shave, strong facial features, blue eyes you could get lost in. Except there was a small 'spine' of augmentations running along the side of his cheek. "Ah, a fellow cyborg." the man said, his synthesizer shifting to a more friendly tone. "Have you come to join the Ascendancy?"
Ash crossed her arms and leaned on her leg. "I was already planning on it." she replied, her tone unchanging. "I just need directions to the Church of the Maker."
The man nodded in understanding. "I see. Normally I would give you a datapad to look over, but it seems you've already made up your mind." he said, before handing her a datapad. "The directions are on these datapads anyways. May the Maker's will guide your path." the man said, bowing his head, before returning to his duties.
Ash quickly found the location of the Church, and began to head there at her own pace. After all, it wasn't like she was in a rush to get there.
After an almost twenty minute walk, Ash was greeted by a grandiose building that eclipsed her memories. The Church didn't match the surrounding buildings. They were dull and grey, while the Church was warm, decorated with ornate gold and silver trimming. Red banners adorned the street and front of the church, bearing the symbol of the Transhuman Ascendancy. There were also four guards carrying light blaster rifles that, aesthetically, appeared to be bullpup weapons. They were adorned in the same general kind of robe as the street preacher, but their robes were a dark grey with silver trimming, and their faces were concealed by combat masks similar to Ash's.
She slowly approached them, and the first one on her left held his hand out. "Hold there, stranger." he said, and Ash stopped moving. "What brings you to our sacred grounds?" he asked, seeming genuine, his voice lacking the synthesizer that Ash and the preacher had.
"Redemption." Ash replied flatly, her synthesizer heavily glitching.
"Many people have said the same, so I must ask; what can you offer us?"
"My skills. Send the following phrase up your chain of command;" Ash said, before clearing her throat. "'The Starbird that burns may never die, and it will burn thrice as bright, until its watch is ended.'" she said, reciting it from memory.
The guard looked at her like she was insane, before deciding there was no harm in humoring her. He pressed down on his ear, opened comms with his superiors, and repeated the phrase. There was a long pause, not only from the commlink, but also from the guard, before he finally stepped aside. "There'll be someone waiting for you inside, ma'am." he said in a far more respectful tone.
Without exchanging another word, Ash headed into the church.
The interior had certainly changed since she had last been here. The walls had been completely re-done with beautiful gold paneling, with red carpet leading further down the hall and up another flight of stairs. The ceiling had been apparently raised, and now large tubes and wires dangled from the ceiling, pulsating with a blue energy that was beyond Ash's knowledge. In addition, the walls had artistic interpretations of the Ascendancy's beliefs done in with stained glass – visual depictions of digital transcendence, cybernetics, and mechanical augmentation littered the halls, and as if to make the religious fervor ever more apparent, she could hear faint chanting coming from what felt like everywhere, yet it was all distant, regardless of its actual source.
After a short moment to herself, Ash heard footsteps, and turned to see two tall men in pure red robes carrying vibrostaves with axe heads over their shoulders. They stopped several paces from Ash, silently motioning for her to follow. On edge, she obliged them, and they led her further back into the church, taking a right at the end of the entryway to lead into a tight hallway decorated with red carpeting. At the end of said hallway was a chromium lift treated with gold, which the three of them entered. The one on Ash's left started the lift.
The two men continued to stare stoically ahead, unmoving and infallible in their duties. For all Ash knew, these might not even be men. These could be Magnaguards, now that she thought about it.
Before she could actually ask, though, the lift came to a stop, and the three of them moved into a large, grandiose throne room of sorts. There was another carpet that led up another small set of stairs to an elevated platform. On top of the 'throne' as it were, clad in crimson robes with bright gold trim, was a man who had augmentations and cybernetics practically growing out of his body, seemingly connected to the throne.
"Leave us, Vanguards." his heavily synthesized, albeit familiar voice commanded with supreme authority. The 'Vanguards' bowed their heads respectfully, and returned to the lift, leaving the room.
There was a short, awkward pause as the man waited for the guards to presumably be fully unable to hear them. When he was sure they were gone, his head, or at least, what Ash assumed was his head, was now focused on her. "Voto." he said, and Ash winced at the name. "Why have you returned to me?"
Ash kneeled in front of the man. "…I seek your guidance once again, Grand Ascendant." she said, her tone low and quiet.
"…You seek guidance?" the Grand Ascendant scoffed. "After you abandoned us, our mission, to chase delusions of grandeur with rebellion?" he continued, before standing up from the throne, wires and tubes detaching from his body and falling to the floor, slowly approaching her.
Ash refused to stare up at him, her old instincts of submission and obedience finally kicking in after years of being dormant. "You openly defied me and abandoned our order, yet here you are, wanting to be let back into our ranks." the Grand Ascendant continued, staring down at Ash. "Tell me, Voto; why should I grant you the privilege of returning to us?"
Ash swallowed, steeling herself. "…I thought the rebels I joined gave me a purpose. Something to fight for." she said, lowering her head even further. "…They were all killed in an Imperial raid like you said would happen. I was the only survivor." she continued, staring at the floor. "My spirit was broken by that, and I lost all will to fight the Empire."
Ash couldn't tell what the Grand Ascendant was thinking. "And were you surprised by this?" the Grand Ascendant questioned.
Hesitating briefly, Ash exhaled. "…No." she said flatly.
Briefly making sounds of consideration for her response, the Grand Ascendant's feet shuffled slightly. "…Back to my original question; why have you returned to me?"
Exhaling sharply, Ash continued to stare down at the Grand Ascendant's feet. "…After the raid and my… enhancements, I mulled over what led me to that point..." Ash said, her tone muted. "I came to realize that my arrogance had blinded me from the path you had laid out for me. My cybernetics made me realize that now, more than ever, I needed the Ascendancy. I've come to beg for your mercy, and for a chance at redemption for my transgressions."
The Grand Ascendant was silent, and Ash, unmoving. After a short period, the Grand Ascendant spoke. "You may rise, Voto." he commanded.
Ash did as was told of her, slowly rising to her feet, staring the Grand Ascendant in the face, or at least, what was left of it.
"You were one of my most trusted agents, but your transgressions cannot easily be forgiven. I can, however, put you on the path to redemption, if you truly do desire to rejoin us." the Grand Ascendant advised.
Ash remained quiet, before swallowing again, staring directly at him. "I am your blade in the dark. Body and mind, I am yours to command, Grand Ascendant." Ash recited.
The Grand Ascendant nodded once. "You remember your oath well." he said, before taking a more relaxed position. "There is a Duros in the Bu'lal district by the name of Baal Sti. He is one of our informants, but as of late, he's become something of a loose end to the Ascendancy."
"And loose ends need to be tied up." Ash finished for him.
"Correct. Prove your loyalty to me by eliminating him. Permanently."
Ash bowed her head. "…Yes, Grand Ascendant." she said obediently.
"…One more thing." the Grand Ascendant said suddenly. "In all official communications that are not in person, refer to me as Alpha-Three." he said, and Ash nodded once in understanding. "Now, go." he said, pointing back towards the lift.
That's that chapter done.
I'm gonna temporarily put this story on pause while I finish out the last chapter of Grimm Retreat, which is basically whatever I had of chapter 13, plus a highlight reel of what would have been sorta 'key' moments for the story. I've been thinking about doing this for a while now and have done some work on it, but I wanna get it done soon-ish which means pausing Pulsar Company.
Best guess for the next chapter? Late September, but then again I fucking run off of goddamn Valve Time so it's anyone's guess.
Write your reviews and criticize my shit thanks
'Till next time.
-Tweak