Private Bacta and Biotics and Blood, Oh My!

[Jack Sandrow]

ATRISIA
In front of an immense Bio-Bacta tree

Jack had been called here, more than anything. The properties of this tree were unlike anything he had sensed before; it was a beacon of life, of renewal, of regrowth. Its presence here, rooted and growing as a symbol of rebirth was a subtle and somehow implacable impression of the Force into the galaxy at large. He first felt it a month ago - chalked it up to a weird ripple through the Force. When he passed by from Yavin to Endor he was sure of it. And here, kneeling cross-legged in front of it with his hands gently buried in the dirt, he couldn't be any more sure of it.

This was something he had to be here for. This was something he had to experience himself.

He wanted one for himself, too.

Obviously it would be rude to just take a clipping without asking first, but it wasn't like he knew anyone here. Hell, he didn't even know what part of the planet he had landed on, just that he needed to be here.

Help me to see you. Help me to learn you. I want to know what you are.

---

Sera Mina

 

[Sera Mina]

Wearing: This

Armed with: Gorgeous looks, Charm


Objective: Investigate


Sera Mina looked out across Atrisia's mountain and lakes from a balcony in the Castle she had recently purchased. It was a fifteen million credit home, modest by the standards of a Trillionaire. But so gorgeous to behold with it's classical Atrisian style.

After a slew of recent invasions and battles, both Nathan Bloodscrawl and his Fiance, Vera Mina , had basically decided to throw caution to the wind, and finally get married. It was going to be a big day soon. They were getting married in a traditional Atrisian ceremony in secret.

She wouldn't describe what was between her Mother and soon to be legal stepfather as Love in the way most sentients would understand it. It was more Mutual Attraction/Healthy Respect for one another. Mother had chosen to marry him in her red headed Espionage Guise and take the name Alice Bloodscrawl while using that appearance. It was a precaution in case Vera had to defend him in court...what was the point of being married to one of the most ruthless lawyers in the Core if she couldn't represent you due to potential conflict of interest? As "Alice" she would be able to assist him more thoroughly in his field operations. Nathan was not some air headed fool with more credits than sense--He did his killing up close, like his soon to be wife did.

Tactically, financially, and perhaps on some level even emotionally, they were perfect for one another. They were staying at Mother's own palace like estate until the wedding day.

Sera had otherwise been doing what she did best... building connections between Bacta-Works, the company her Stepfather had founded in secret, and the various governments in the Alliance.

It still amazed her on some level that Nathan wasn't angling to take over the Galaxy through sheer economic might. That all of it, all of it was simply to put him in a position where, if the Jedi Order wanted to get him out of the way, they would have to negotiate with him to do so, as opposed to going in Sabers blazing. Nathan's real weapon was credits and his mind, not Lightsabers and The Force. He supplied the people they claimed to fight for, and was secretly in charge of possibly the most ambitious Humanitarian Relief Operation in the Galaxy, gradually taking on the immense weight of the Refugee crisis to try and ease the crushing financial burden the Alliance was facing. This, from the father of the eventual monster that had pettily tried to spit on the shoe of Auteme right as the Bryn'adul crisis was kicking off.

The more she thought on the situation between Nathan and his actual daughter, the more tragic it became to her. The Father was becoming what people had hoped the Daughter would be. The Father, for all his coldness, had more nobility in a torn edge of his pinky fingernail, than his daughter did in her whole body. It was utterly perverse, how things had turned out for him, having to become the sort of person he had likely hoped his Daughter would grow up to be.

The furnishings of Sera's Castle were lavish and rare, another twenty million alone having gone into their purchase. Funnily enough, Sera realized the more expensive a purchase, the more she quickly forgot about it.

On the Estate, she had installed a particular large Bio Bacta Tree in her vast backyard when one of the motion sensors near it chimed at her desk.

Sera, who had been enjoying the view went over to check it, and grew perplexed.

Someone was in her backyard? After all the security she had set up?

Sera sighed. She sent for two Battle Droids made by her company, and directed them to Apprehend the Intruder and bring him to her for questioning. The Heavy Droids did so, stepping into the Balcony and activating their built in Jetpacks and sped off to find Jack Sandrow ...


Meanwhile...

The tree didn't consciously respond to Jack...

Nonetheless, there was a memory. Carried down from those the tree itself had been cloned from.

Jack would possibly catch flashes of men and women in distinct, horned armor, directing bright grassy fields full of scientists in rows of trees just like it. The echo of purpose, of the Light Side, carried from the tree to Jack, even though it wasn't aware it was saying anything.

But soon, he would hear the approach of the flying Droid Security, about to land to arrest him...

 

[Jack Sandrow]

What is all this.... Jack frowned slightly, feeling the echoes of the tree's life quietly seep into his fingers. There are more of you? How many? Where?

Cold hard reality snapped back into focus as a mechanical voice barked behind him. He stood in a hurry, dusting off his hands. "Sorry, repeat that?"

"Surrender immediately, trespasser, or we will use deadly force."

Jack's eyes widened and he immediately froze in place. "....Uh... Yeah, yeah no problem," he murmured, getting to his knees slowly, hands going to his head as he looked around. Quiet garden, no people... Aw no, he was... He was in someone's personal property, wasn't he. Crap.

"Yeah, I - I surrender unconditionally. I don't want to fight."

The mechanical monstrosities marched close, slapping a pair of cuffs around his wrists. "Follow."

"Yup."

Jack stood before Sera Mina a few moments later, hands behind his back and well-manacled. "So, I do have an explanation," he murmured, unable to make eye contact at the moment. "In my personal defense, I genuinely did not see any security measures, I thought this was an open area." He shuffled in place, eyeing the droids beside him. "Sorry, ma'am, are these necessary?" he asked, shaking the cuffs behind him. "I'm not going to run or anything."

The tree was still quietly calling to him, but that certainly wasn't relevant right now.

 

[Sera Mina]

Sera sighed as she examined Jack Sandrow .

She folded her arms, shimmering long, yellow silk dress perfectly smooth.

"Note to self, install harsher security measures..." she said aloud, more to herself than him.

"Take the cuffs off." she instructed the Droids, who removed the manacles.

This entire place is private property, along with everything in it's radius..." Sera said to him. "Now...who are you and what were you doing with that Bio Bacta Tree? That organism is patented technology. Only authorized care specialists are allowed to be around them."

To be honest he didn't look like the sort she would expect to be a thief, but they came in all shapes and sizes these days.

Little did she know that as she interrogated Jack, a real, actual threat was slowly making its way across the compound, armed with silent weapons and computer viruses. Kage Mercenaries had been hired.

Their mission? Seize the Bacta Tree at all costs...

 

[Jack Sandrow]

"I genuinely didn't know, and I apologize," he bowed his head slightly. "I was not aware it was patented technology, though I suppose I should have guessed. I've never encountered anything like it before." A moment passed, before his eyes raised to meet hers. "I'm not sure how self-evident it is, but I have a... let's call it, a unique connection with nature. I can sense flora on a level that, to my knowledge, is available to only a scant few species in the history of our galaxy. If the name 'Neti' or 'Drengir' mean anything to you, suffice it to say, I'm along those lines."

He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, a bit awkwardly. "So when that tree spoke to me, I couldn't help but answer. I... what is it? I know it's probably proprietary and all that, but... I need to know. I'll sign any forms you need me to, I'll keep my mouth shut about the whole thing but it's... It's a need, not a want."

Jack swallowed, hesitant but hopeful. "Please. I'm not expecting you to understand, just sympathize a bit." He eyed Sera Mina , a bit worriedly. "Please."

 

[Sera Mina]

Sera's bio organic databases, precise software dedicated to psychology scanned him for lies. And found none.

"That tree is a Bio Bacta Tree. It makes Bacta. How it makes it, and where the tree is grown is my business. Proprietary information. I've already told you more than I feel comfortable telling..." Sera replied.

Just then, the lights cut out in her office. She immediately went to the Balcony as the light somehow began to dim, then go to extremely faint levels all around her and jack, and indeed, the whole estate.

She turned to Jack Sandrow and the Droids still close by.

"What the hell?" she wondered before she just barely saw dark armored figures sprinting across the Grass to her Castle.

"Assassins..." Sera said rushing to the terminal built into her desk, typing in commands out of rote memory as she could barely make out the light on the computer screen.

"They're using some sort of Device to darken the area." Sera spoke to Jack as the Office drew it built in armored shutters down.

"Can you fight?" She asked Jack.

 

[Jack Sandrow]

Jack closed his eyes, bowing his head slightly as he tilted his head to listen to the world around him. He could barely see anything... but then again, sight wasn't everything. He could sense the grasses' annoyance at being so rudely trampled underfoot, could feel the world shy away from the maleficent presences. One hand reached up in a familiar Force gesture, as the figures dashed towards them, yards and yards away. "I can fight. I need some soil." The hand clenched tight, and the grass suddenly sprouted violent spikes, razor-sharp as he requested the ground itself to fight back.

While certainly not enough to stop all of them, Jack let a small smile quirk at his lips. The blood of one, two, three of the armored figures was seeping down into the dirt. Three husks of useless armor lay sprawled on the ground, impaled with a thousand and one needles of grass. "Or some nutri-gro packs, if you've got any."

His head tilted the other way, and he put his hands together, suddenly. "Who are they?" he asked Sera Mina , pulling a long green falchion seemingly out of his palm. "And do we have any support? Or is it a party for two?"

 

[Sera Mina]

"We have the Droids who brought you in. I'm still getting the security fully installed in this place..." Sera said, barely making out how Jack Sandrow had killed some of the Intruders.

Sera tried to reach security, but found her transmissions were being jammed. That is when she opened her drawer in and removed a small Pistol with a ruby finish and black grips, attaching a suppressor to it.

"Never leave home without it..." Sera quipped.

"I knew I should have waited..." she complained. "They're here to steal the Bacta Tree! And possibly kill me as well!"

She turned to the exit inwardly cursed her luck. It was a sobering reminder that even with her design, she wasn't infallible. She could make mistakes. Tactical analysis wagered the odds were in her favor that she could afford to plant a tree here with only moderate Battle Droid security.

She was tough. Not Frontline model tough, but she could handle herself. Time to see if her model's enhanced intelligence was worth anything. Nathan had been training her, but she had never actually been in a battle before.

She had been meant to be the face, not the pistol.

"We can't stay here." Sera emphasized. "If they can jam our transmissions, they can cut into our security proto--"

A shutter nearby exploded inward, and Sera was flung back, her violently smacking into the archway of the balcony and tumbling to the ground as the black armored Kage Warriors stormed in just as Sera got to her feet...

 

[Jack Sandrow]

Jack yelped as the explosion knocked him back too, though he was able to skid to a stop before hitting anything behind him. "They won't get the chance... This is a horrible way to make introductions!" he called out, racing forward and ducking under a hail of blaster fire as the falchion sliced almost effortlessly through armorweave, catching here and there on the phrik. Two halves of one guard toppled to each side, and Jack didn't stop. Inwardly he was processing three things at once: 1. The phrik armor would make his sabers useless. 2. Their Force signatures were abnormally small - whether by design or by happenstance he didn't know. 3. Sera Mina probably had no natural protection of her own, and he was running on fumes.

He called to the tree, then. Asking a question of it. In the milliseconds before a blaster was lowered towards his face, he called again. The tree answered, curious.

And then a blaster shot rang through the air as Jack crumpled to the floor with a caved-in, smoking face.

 

[Sera Mina]

Sera had just recovered when she saw Jack Sandrow .

He was dead. Someone was dead on her watch.

As one of the Kage Warriors leveled a pistol at her, Sera snapped into action, combat databases making her somersault forward, elegantly kick the pistol out of his hand just as he started to pull the trigger and execute a follow up spin kick that not only broke his neck but sent him flying into three of his surprised accomplices. A fourth drew an electrosword, slicing for her. She elegantly twisted out of the way of each of his attacks before ramming her knee into his stomach so hard he was flung into a wall behind him.

The other three recovered and attacked simultaneously, and she reacted as Nathan taught her, employing her design's natural strength and durability into an object of sheer brute force, fists and legs smashing ribcages and skulls. Until she had crushed her three attackers in the frenzy.

Sera was just starting to get confident, get pleased with herself, when she turned and saw a Kage Who had just entered the room, holding a pistol at her face.

The blast annihilated the skin on her face, partially exposing muscle and bone as a second shot flung her out of the balcony window, where she crashed to the dirt and grass in a twisted heap, momentarily dead as the Assassin fled the scene. They had only thirty minutes to secure this place and get that tree ready for transport...

 

[Jack Sandrow]

There was a soft gurgle from the pile of Jack, before the body began to push itself up to its feet. The face crackled and flexed back to its natural shape, the expression reshaping from surprised and aghast to annoyed as it reformed. "Gghhhhuuuhh... I've got to stop doing that," he muttered, and called out to the tree a third time. It answered, and a large branch began to creak back, before flinging forward a massive length of branch, thunking into place at his feet. "Alright, let's... fix this." He grabbed at the air, pulling backwards as sheets of bark and phylum began to peel through the air, wrapping around his form into a more useful shape.

With glowing blue veins and toughened bacta-soaked armor, he leapt from the window, crashing down with a long sword between the neck armor plates of a previously unaware assassin. "Hi. Surrender now, and you all live," he warned, letting the body fall to the ground before him.

Blasters were already swinging towards him so he grinned, invisible behind the warped plant armor. "Or not. I was getting hungry anyway." With inhuman speed he raced forward, reaching out with one clawed hand, grabbing the head of one assassin as he crunched. His blade lashed out, slicing through air, phrik, armorweave, flesh, armorweave, phrik, air. Another body crumpled to the ground as Jack ripped the crushed helmet off its previous owner, severing the neck along with the motion. "Your blood is my fuel."

Distantly he was aware that Sera Mina had fallen, and with a quick sidestep he pulled some grass blades together to thicken and armor up into small platings, covering her in a thin shell to give her some momentary protection. He wasn't sure if she was alive or dead, but... hopefully she was playing dead like he had been.

 

[Sera Mina]

It was the first momentary defeat she had ever suffered.

As her databases came back online she felt a rush of many things. Fear first and foremost. Fear at having come so close to death.

Then, anger at who had momentarily gotten the better of her.

She ripped herself free of the protective grass strands that Jack Sandrow had formed around her. Partly blind. Muscles and skull on her face partly exposed.

The Assassin's, already too caught off guard by the living Plant Man, had no answer for the deformed creature that sprinted towards her attackers at high speed, somersaulting through swords and blaster fire, first now caving in faces with repeated strikes, silent as she vented her wrath.

Her Mother had been made as a cold blooded killer. Curiously, she hadn't wanted that for Sera, despite still being very much a cold blooded killer and had encouraged her to listen to Nathan to avoid becoming too much like her.

Yet as Sera savagely broke one attacker's neck, she felt like she was starting to understand why Mother preferred being a warrior. She didn't like the sensation, having spent too much time around Nathan.

The Attackers were soon fleeing. Sera grabbed one of their pistols and aimed but her legal databases stopped her. Shooting someone who was fleeing you was risking an attempted murder charge. What had happened just now, however, still fell in the Self Defense rule.

Sera looked at Jack, her face starting to slowly but surely repair itself. Everything was basically night time as long as whatever was generating the Darkness remained.

"Well...you've certainly seen some things you weren't supposed to." she said, a metallic tone to her damaged voice box. No sign of wires or machinery on her, and she had red blood and burnt muscle tissue, but she clearly wasn't human.

"I suppose I simply have to put you under contract now." she muttered. "The pay is good by the way.

She turned, and started running back into the Castles where she could hear her security Droids shooting.

"We have to figure out where they are keeping whatever is generating the Darkness...your powers, can you use them to find where it is?" she asked as she ran...

 

[Jack Sandrow]

"If it's Force-related, I can find it. May take me some time, but I can find it. If it's not Force-related, well then I can't help you much. Still finding my way in this brave new world." He took up step alongside her, keeping pace as he slowly regenerated his abilities, the falchion disappearing into his arm as well.

A few beats, and then he queried, "So if it's not too rude to ask, what are you, exactly? I wasn't aware I wasn't the only one who could grow back a face after having it blasted off." Sera Mina 's contract did sound intriguing, for what it was worth. And if he could get his mitts on the bacta tree? So much the better.

He skidded to a stop in between a few corridors, lowering his head slightly as he let his Force senses extend outward. Feeling for something out of place, something that meant to conceal. The bacta tree did prod him with a curious nudge, and he advised it to keep wary and smack any intruders upside the head. Non-lethally if possible, for an interrogation. Lethally if necessary, just to keep safe and all that.

"Alright... I'm reaching out. I'll let you know if I feel anything."

 

[Sera Mina]

Sera, as she headed back into the Castle, to the sound of Battle Droids shooting, answered the question.

"Complex." she said as a one word answer to Jack Sandrow about what she was.

The highly advanced Biot was still running it through her head. How had she miscalculated? How had she not seen it?

Was it overconfidence, or simple failure to appreciate the danger?

Was there a difference?

She relied more on hearing than sight at this point, as she was still in the dark. She made her way back to her office, where she spotted The Kage removing their dead from it.

"I'll handle this..." she whispered to Jack

Upon spotting her, Sera reacted with inhuman timing as she dodged shuriken with elegant twists of her saffron garbed body, reflexes allowing her to catch one and fling it into the eye of its thrower, closing the distance, fists cracking jaws, pulling a knife from a sheath and stabbing it's owner in the head.

Sera was shocked at how easy killing came to her. She had never used her combat abilities to this extent, not even in training.

The enemies in her area were dead soon enough, and she went and retrieved her pistol, and a Light Scan Visor, which greatly amplified what little light there still was.

Meanwhile, the blades of grass whispered to Jack about a strange electrical disturbance to the east of the castle, about 150 meters...

 

[Jack Sandrow]

His head tilted, and then he ran, sprinting almost silently through the corridors. Footpads whisper-quiet on the very expensive tiles. The soft whoosh as his armor zipped along from intersection to intersection. Then he was at the wall, where he must have hopped over a couple hours ago.

He tensed, then sprung upwards, claws digging into the walls as he clambered up the stone. Eventually reaching the top, he waited a moment to collect his bearings, then leapt forward, catching some air as he tucked into a roll. And onward he ran, grabbing a branch as it extended towards him. The branch was already reshaping in his hand, elongating and thickening, the sapwood within curling and shrinking down into dense slugs.

Finally coming to a stop about 10 meters away, he knelt in the bushes to see what lay before him. Alright.... where are you...

Sera Mina