A Race to the Finish

[Lok Xiangu]

Bounty hunting was an occupation that Catya once thought and considered to do after she deserted the Grand Army of the Republic. There was an indefinite amount of bounties that she could pursue and bring back to her contractor for a handsome lump sum of credits. She could have done that many years ago. She could have made some contract with the Galactic Alliance on agreeing she would be paid for bringing outlaws and enemies of the Alliance to justice, but she chose the profession of a rogue law enforcer. But why? Her answer while it may be illogical or dimwitted was that she didn't trust any galactic governments. Not the Galactic Alliance, the First Order, Silver Jedi Order, or any kind.

After her time serving with the Galactic Republic, she had radical skepticism on all faction in this Galaxy.

Plus, she didn't serve any person and sure as hell wouldn't do the bidding of someone just because they had some beef with someone else and posted some bounty in their head.

"Bounty hunters only hunt for the money and fame," she simply said to her Force Using mysterious associate.

And then the Delarn stopped in her tracks. The woman somehow knew of her surname...just from Catya's own datapad? She faked her death all right during the One Sith invasion of Togoria. The vigilante had to lie, but with her stopping in her tracks she knew she gave away some part of her information. But it was still worth a try.

"I don't know who this Delarn is, but I bought this datapad used from someone. But the reason I am here is to hand out competent justice to these thugs, and that's it."

She quickly then changed to topic to Kaili's Force Powers. "So you a Jedi or something?"

[member="Kaili Talith"]

 

[Kaili Talith]

[member="Catya Delarn"]

Wasn’t that true. Bounty hunters hunted for money and fame, but that hardly meant they didn’t also do the occasional good. Obviously it was more often than not a case of ‘not good’ most of the time, but sometimes they were not.

The woman stopped dead in her tracks and Kaili felt a content smile grow on her lips. There was a nerve there. Few people ever expected their names to be name dropped, she couldn’t blame Delarn for being surprised. Maybe she was hiding, or maybe she was just creeped out by a stranger knowing her name. Kaili certainly would have been creeped out by the latter. Regardless, it was obvious that she had caught her off-guard.

“Uh huh,” Kaili did not buy the lie. “Sure thing.”

Then, was she a jedi? “I don’t know, are you a vigilante out to attack one of the biggest up-and-coming crime lords this side of the galaxy?” Kaili asked as she continued walking down the still eerily empty hallways.

“Doesn’t matter what I am, only what I do.”

 

[Lok Xiangu]

She could hear that tone in the woman's voice that told Catya that she didn't buy her lie. It really ticked off the Delarn that someone knew of her identity just by her datapad. She came to the hypothesis that the woman also used the Force to find out Catya's surname.

What was she going to do about this? There were some codes of honor that she had to follow that restricted her from protecting herself. Killing was out of the question, but no one said anything about knocking her out whether it be from a concussion or being drugged. One of those two options worked. Did it made Catya look like a thug? No doubt it would, but she couldn't allow someone to find out the rest of her history as there were remnants of the old Republic and she could be brought to a military tribunal. And she was not going to prison just for doing something that she thought was right.

Or maybe she wouldn't do anything and trust that the mysterious female would keep her mouth shut.

"Isn't that obvious, lady," she replied back in an irksome tone due to her identity being known.

The last part she didn't say anything, but she did continued to follow the woman down the grim hallways.

"Is there anyone else besides us and these bloodthirsty droids?"

[member="Kaili Talith"]

 

[Kaili Talith]

[member="Catya Delarn"]

But there was a fire burning inside of that brunette.

The final door came up before them. A heavy door with a lock to match. Kaili turned around, raised her finger at the woman’s remark and kept it pointed in her face.

“It is not the droid that is bloodthirsty, it’s the one that made it.” She scoffed before lowering her finger. “There are no more life signs outside of this room right here, other than the two of us.”

“Because these droids were not meant for what they are doing right now. They are suffering and we’re finding the ones responsible for it.”

With no further ado the doors swept open and Kaili stepped in without waiting on Catya.

“You’re welcome to join me, if you want.”

 

[Lok Xiangu]

If she points her finger at my nose again, she's gonna get it for reals.

The vigilante thought to herself as her companion lectured her about the hostile droids that they had encountered. To Catya, droids were droids. Just hardware with complex programming and coding in order to do the biddings of their master or creator. Such as construction, assassination, military, and many other versatile occupations that droids could fill in.

Sounds like a droid fanatic to me, jeez.

Just the way that Kaili talked sounded like those few people that cared about droids and found them as more than metal with software as their genes, and Catya did not share those beliefs. Then something clicked in her mind. A hypothesis.

"Something tells me that you're the creator of these droids, or that they belonged to you," she simply said to the woman. In fact, if she was able to recover one of the droids and do some deep investigation on it, she might get a clue to her companion's identity. Just to even the score between the two.

"If it means taking down whatever remains of this cartel, then sure," the Delarn responded back and entered the unknown with the stranger.

As the two entered, there was the spirit of evil, corrupt, villainy, and ominous in the room. There was some lighting in the room to decipher environment of it, but it was at a low setting. Not to mention the lighting had a color bloody red in it with some of its lights flickering, not knowing when the bulb would stop producing light. It was a large room with metal crates littered and stacked everywhere, some opened and others sealed. Those that were opened had a mixture of parts that looked to be for droids, weapons, and munitions that also sprawled on the durasteel floor. And speaking about the floor, it was coated and painted in blood. Some of red belonging to a humanoid, and others of different color symbolizing of them being an alien.

With that saying there were bodies all over the room with droid corpses nearby. And was that a droid assembly line? It was and in the middle of it, and it was delivering its perverted droid army to another room that was adjacent. There were also hooks that hung organic bodies by the muscles attached to the shoulder blade. Stairs were at every corner which led up to railings leading to different places.

And the last piece of detail was the balcony that oversaw everything with rooms connected to it. Perhaps the crime lord was hiding in their with their cowardice, or he was dead.

Serves him right if he is.

"Calling it now something big is gonna screw us."

[member="Kaili Talith"]

 

[Kaili Talith]

[member="Catya Delarn"]

Kaili had rehearsed this very well.

“Creator? Do I look like I could create these things?” The disguised little Kaili moved her hands in a circle in front of her face and then up and down the sides of her body. “I bought these from Happ, on Onderon.”

Owner’s disguise it was. It wasn’t all that far from the truth anyway.

They stepped into the boss’ lair and things didn’t really help. He seemed to have a mood set in there that made Kaili question whether or not the choice of decor in the hallways was truly her droids’ doing or his. It reeked of bad mojo, and with the production line…

Kaili’s lips thinned and shuffled. Reverse engineering.

“Well feth,” A deep voice rumbled through the room at both Kaili and Catya. They came from speakers. “I’ve followed you both on the cameras. You have no reason to be here. Much less you, little girl.” He meant Kaili. “The Jedi lose you or something?”

“Don’t matter. You are here, you have seen my operation, my… Ascension.” The man held back a laughter. “Say your prayers, kids. No one’s around to hear them.”

The doors opened and in stepped a small army of repurposed droids, all of Kaili’s make.

“You take right and I take left?” She let a nervous chuckle ring as she placed her back against Catya’s. “They are just… Roughly two-hundered-and-fifty, maybe?”

 

[Lok Xiangu]

Yep.

They were fethed and screwed alright ever since that mysterious, deep voice boomed out from the sound system that was installed in perhaps every corner of this compound. Their every footstep was recorded and seen by cameras which was completely odd because Catya didn't see any cameras. Maybe she didn't pay close attention to her surroundings or they were just well placed. After all, most of the hallways and rooms were both dark and ominous.

What perplexed the Delarn was the stranger's dialogue. Had he and her mysterious companion met before? Well, that didn't really matter at this moment. What really did matter was how she and the disguised Kaili going to do with the army of reconfigured droids. They were the same ones that they had encountered which meant awful aiming, but when they were in a big, open place like right now that really didn't matter.

"Yeah, and hope for the best," the vigilante said as she too pressed her back against the Talith. "I really wished I brought a fething droid popper." At least just one.

"Take this and don't lose it," the Arkanian Offshoot said and gave one of her blaster pistols to Kaili, leaving up to the girl to take it or not, "now find cover." With that, the vigilante then rushed to one of the metal crates in the scenario and began to fire red blaster bolts while receiving retaliating hostile fire which was a mix of slugs and blasters.

I hope she has some voodoo Force stuff up her sleeve.

[member="Kaili Talith"]

 

[Kaili Talith]

[member="Catya Delarn"]

Droid popper. Kaili scrunched, it was the last hurdle to get over. Anti-tampering, anti-EMP, the things that secured her place on the market if she so desired. Obviously she didn’t, but it was no secret that EMP had a way of outright murdering a droid and if she had her say, well, that simply shouldn’t be legal. Then again, Kaili also acknowledged that her views were extreme at best. She knew better than to voice them, if one was to put it that way. Fanaticism drew people away and painted you as a loony, neither of which helped all that much with anything.

The droids grew closer and the menacing laughter on the intercoms grew louder.

“Okay, so, maybe you were right.” Kaili said and grabbed the blaster from Catya’s hand. She closed her eyes and remained in the wide open. Focus shifted to the droids that surrounded her and she began to trickle herself down their nerves, their processors and memories to find the golden key, the one thing she knew the bandits had control over.

A stray blaster missed her by the narrow, orange eyes opened with fire behind their gaze. The hologram was switched off and the face that Catya had once seen seemed to fold itself inwards until finally the young black-haired girl that she had been accompanied by was replaced by that of a pissed off blonde with skin as pale as it got without looking too sickly.

The droids all stopped dead in their tracks running their IFFs and coming up blank. It was a safety measure that she had embedded deep within their AI. She wasn’t going to fall by pride, she wasn’t that stupid. The droids all took aim at Catya, surrounded her with their improvised weapons raised but not firing.

“No, you will not hurt her.” Kaili shouted out. “I am your god, your creator. You will listen to me.”

The droids lowered their weapons in unison. Metal clanking spread across the room as all droids refocused on their creator all at the same time. “Okay, that’s… Okay.” A surprised Kaili chuckled.

“No! This is not how it- STOP!” The once-menacing man called over the speakers. “These are my- STOP!”

“Initialize factory reset protocol B-B-four-oh-oh-one-A. Terminate.” Kaili commanded the droids. A very high-pitched and loud beep spread in unison across the room once more as they all hunched over and shutdown. Taking a moment to calm herself down Kaili tossed the blaster back to Catya.

“Come on, let’s go get this fether.”

 

[Lok Xiangu]

The Delarn was occupied with shooting red blasters at the droids, cursing to herself as she noticed that it took more than one or two shots to disable one from duty. Kinetic slugs harassed her body that was protected by plastoid plates, yet did cause bruises to her skin. As for the blaster bolts, her bodyglove indeed absorbed it, yet it did penetrate some areas of her plastoid plate, leaving scorched holes in them but her bodyglove protecting her from critical injuries.

Then the Vigilante glanced over to her companion was dumfounded of what she was doing. The woman was standing still not doing anything.

What the feth is she doing?

But what caught her more surprised was that the woman was under another identity. A ticked off blonde with pale skin. And then something strange happened. The droids did not focus their weapons of the blonde. All of them then went to point their barrels at Catya.

Are you fet-

That thought came to a halt when the synthetic creatures belayed their actions from the orders of their master. "I thought I was gonna get gang banged for a second."

And that would've been an embarrassing way to go out. The menacing voice that they heard early was nothing more than just whiny one. So much for being a big man. "Let's get this over with," the Arkanian said and led the way towards one of the stairs. All was left was this crime lord and nothing more.

"I'll blow up the whole place! I'll take y'all with me!"

"You talk too mu-"

And then walls began to rumble and loud sounds echoed for all to hear.

"Oh, hell no. You're not getting off that easy."

[member="Kaili Talith"]

 

[Kaili Talith]

[member="Catya Delarn"]

Kaili began walking as the ground began to shake. Desperate men resorted to desperate measures and this man was getting pinned in a corner. It was too late to slow down now. The ceiling began to crack and Kaili proceeded to sprint towards the man’s lair, not so much for his sake as her own. The virus that had destroyed her droids were still somewhere in the vicinity and she was not leaving until she had it in her hands.

“We need to destroy the virus that he made.” Kaili called over her shoulder at Catya. “If he releases that there could be more lives lost.”

Her boots clanged against the metal floors. “Ideas?”

 

[Lok Xiangu]

What was much more important to her? Destroying a virus that could corrupt millions upon millions of droids that the individuals of the Galaxy used, whether it was for military or civilian purposes? Or catching an outlaw and put him in a cage that he rightfully belonged in? She was a servant to both the law (her version of it) and justice, but this was one of those scenarios that brought some internal conflict within her.

Save countless of innocent lives in favor of letting a felon loose? Or sacrifice them just to arrest some fugitive?

There was no time to think and consider what to do, and how it would affect things in both the short and long term.

I...uh...what...oh, come on.

"You search around his office for it. I'll chase him and if things aren't looking good, just get the heck outta here," she shouted at Kaili which wasn't really intentional, but with all that was happening it caused her adrenaline to flow through her veins and take things very seriously.

Once they entered the mysterious man's lair which was full of documents, unfinished spice joints, datapads and computers, some firearms and ammunition, and a whole bunch of other things. Perhaps in one of the datapads contained the virus or some clue to it. But what interested Catya the most was a backdoor that was left half open.

"The blasted fether got out through there," which was pretty obvious, yet something that the Vigilante stated due to her emotions revolving around the current situation both her and Kaili were. Both of her pistols were out and she ran like hell to catch up her target. Behind the backdoor was another hallway that contained more series of corridors or intersections. She had thought she lost her target, but she could hear footsteps that echoed from the walls.

With some hope in her spirit, she chased the footsteps and took a right. Either the felon was wanting to get out into some alley and blend in with the inhabitants of the space station, or was making a run for his getaway ship.

[member="Kaili Talith"]

 

[Kaili Talith]

[member="Catya Delarn"]

It wasn’t a hard decision at all. People died all the time, and if that meant one person died for the sake of the rest it was a price that had to be paid. The outlaw was traceable, the virus was something that could spread from unit to unit until eventually the situation would be so hopeless that there would be no other choice for Kaili but to recall all of the droids of this make. It was the selfish choice, but it was quite frankly also the only choice Kaili cared to make.

She entered the office with the vigilante and quickly closed herself off from her senses the second she felt the spice float through the air. She held her breath and refused to let a single breath fill her lungs. There had been times when she had come across spice, felt its entrancing snare wrap around her mind and clouded the truth. It was in her blood to be drawn to it and she did her best to avoid it. Controlled breathing through the force had always served her well in these situations. It was what she was doing now and it was what she would continue to do for as long as she could hold it up, blocking herself off from both the taste and smell of the room beyond that of the residual experiences that seeped in no matter what.

A nod was sent in Catya’s direction as a way of showing that Kaili agreed with her plan.

Hands started shifting through the piles of documents and datapads in an attempt to find something, but what it was wouldn’t be all that obvious at that moment. Kaili could have used the force, but she was already focusing on not breathing.

She had to act on intuition for this one...

 

[Lok Xiangu]

Both of their footsteps bounced and echoed off of the durasteel walls; one racing for his freedom, the other trying to strip him from it and imprison him. What surprised Catya the most was that in the series of hallways and corridors, there weren't any doors that led to another part. It was all open, but closed saving for the door that she just entered and perhaps the other one that was somewhere around here.

It was like a maze; no, it was labyrinth. With no end to it as it appeared to the Delarn. She could only follow the sound of the footsteps of her target and not stop until she came to some conclusion.

Thankfully there weren't any mirrors everywhere. Her mind was already going mad as she felt going in circles, not being able to find the criminal or find some door to escape from this.

A ghastly laugh joined in the melody of the echoes of racing footsteps, mocking her. It was rare for Catya to show any sign of fear or weary, but the frustration and determination plagued her. Then when she turned a left corner a new instrument joined in the harmony. One that comforted Catya, but it was lethal. A ringing sound of a blaster bolt that struck her squarely on her chest. It burned a whole through her plastoid plates, but her bodyglove absorbed it. The attack also caused her to fall to the ground, and her pistols scattered.

The Delarn's attacker, the mysterious crime lord, stood above her and would stoop low to try to wound her with a vibroblade.

[member="Kaili Talith"]

 

[Kaili Talith]

[member="Catya Delarn"]​

If Kaili had to guess she would say that the biggest most meanest console would be it. Problem was that there weren’t just the one, there were two and they were spread across the room and granted a wall of their own. It became a game of eenie-meenie where the only real difference was the fact that she most likely had to check both of them. Walking up to the first panel, the one that was the closest to her, she began to flick its switches and buttons to probe for a reaction. Her mind begged for her to ease up and let it seep on through into the machine, but she couldn’t take that risk.

The buttons beeped at each press and Kaili would take it as progress having been made.

At least until the alarm signalled and a red text started to flash in her face.

​

‘Continuing Upload — 56%’​

The girl panicked and began shuffling through the console. There was nothing. Eyes set on the console on the other end of the room. Maybe that was it. Her feet clamped down hard on the ground in a sprint to get there.

​

‘Continuing Upload — 61%’​

 

[Lok Xiangu]

Her attacker would try to impale her right in her abdomens with the lethal vibroblade, but would be unlucky as Catya fortunately caught his hand with both of her hands. The two were then struggling; one intended to land a lethal wound while the other did her best to counter it. While the Delarn was lucky to catch the crime lord's attack she lacked one thing against him: raw strength. The man was lean, yet had much more power than the vigilante, thus outmatching her in that aspect of their brawl.

Mere seconds passed and the criminal was closing in inches between the blade and Catya. If it was a normal knife, she wouldn't be too worried about taking a stab; however, it was a vibroblade. Even a glancing blow meant a gaping wound for her or to anyone.

Then adrenaline flew through her body and her reflexes kicked in. With all her might she pulled the knife towards her, but not at her abs. Catya intended to pull it above her shoulders and give some of her own damage at him. And so she did; but things didn't go out as planned. The blade still stabbed her slight below her left shoulder in which she screamed out in pain as a gnarly wound was given to her and would continue to do so as the knife vibrated within her flesh. Muscles and tissues were torn and blood was spilling out of her. Lots of it too. Nevertheless, she would attack the crime lord with a right fist at his throats making him to grasp his neck and struggle to breathe for air. The Delarn then pulled the knife out of her shoulder, causing much more pain for her, and stabbed her opponent right in the left thigh.

Hearing the man screaming out in pain while reaching for air was weird, yet disturbing. The male got off from the vigilante and was on the very cold, durasteel floor as he was fighting for air and life. As for the Arkanian Offshoot, she would crawl for one of her pistols with the intention of killing the man.

[member="Kaili Talith"]

 

[Kaili Talith]

[member="Catya Delarn"]

Feth. It was getting tense.

Kaili looked at the console in horror. It was getting too close. The virus was too close to being uploaded.

‘Continuing Upload - 78%’​

Enough was enough. Kaili let go of her control over her lungs and let the force flow through her in full. A deep breath filled her lungs with diluted air as the force began to flow through her anew. Her pupils dilated ever so gently as the second-hand smoke took its effect on her. The console exploded with a loud bang as the ventilation system roared to life. Every single intercom speaker in the area hissed with a loud and high-pitched noise before sizzling out to die. Blasters exploded in a wide radius indiscriminately. Droid arms popped, and fell apart as Kaili lost control of herself and attacked the very installation itself.

There would be nothing left of it at this point.

She fell to the ground panting in exhaustion. A longing glance set upon the spice on the table.

“No, not that.” Kaili muttered under her breath. “You know damn well better than to succumb to that.”

Yet was she really? Her mind screamed for it. The taste had been great, what would a proper dose be? Her knuckles whitened in an attempt to get a grip on herself again.

“Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up.”

“Feth.”

 

[Lok Xiangu]

She got it. Her hands were around the alloyed pistol after she dove for it from her feet and hands. A strange, warm feeling came inside of her that felt like being secured and safe. Securing the victory over her opponent and being safe from whatever harm that was left. There was no way the inevitable wouldn't be delayed any longer from the nasty attack Catya did to the crime lord.

Just as she turner around on her back so that she could take away the man's life, she felt cold.

A knife impaled her right in the guts. Blood erupted from her and her muscles were being torn from the vibration of the weapon. The villain cackled with laughter, but Catya didn't produce any noice from her mouth. She was stunned and speechless. The knife kept on driving through her. She had to stop it before things turned from serious to critical.

On repeating mode a good amount of blasters went through the man via center mass and collapsed to the ground beside the Delarn. He was dead and lifeless as the blasters went through his lungs, heart, and whatever organs that she pegged. The blaster pistol dropped from her hands and with all her strength and energy she took out the bloody vibroblade out of her and tossed it aside. More and more blood was coming out of her and the Vigilante tried to stop the bleeding with her hands pressing down. It would be, however, useless.

She made no other sudden movements other than her hands pressing done on her stomach and breathing weakly. Her voice was also weak, but that didn't stop her from rarely muttering, "Help."

[member="Kaili Talith"]

 

[Kaili Talith]

[member="Catya Delarn"]

Kaili had to get out of there. Eyes set for the door before moving to stare in the direction she had last seen Catya head in. The idea to just leave did cross Kaili’s mind, she had no reason to help this vigilante out. Their usefulness to her had already passed and the virus was stopped. The spice that slithered through her mind like a snake made things hard to focus on. She had to act fast and in the end she chose to go save the temporary companion. The silence had lasted for way longer than Kay would have thought likely and no one had come through the door yet.

Running along the corridors she found the trails of the vigilante’s struggle and at its end the vigilante herself.

“Chit.” Kaili whispered as she knelt down by the woman’s side. “Just hang on.”

A cannister of bacta was released from the blonde’s belt and she proceeded to apply it to Cat’s leg and other wound, the one she could see.

“This will sting a bit.” Modified bacta. Less painkillers, higher heal rate. “Also burn.”

“Don’t scream.” Kaili urged the black-haired vigilante to comply. “Just in case there are more of them around.”

Then eyes set on their little crime lord. “I take it their head honcho is dead?”

 

[Lok Xiangu]

It was odd and weird to be in this situation. A situation Catya would most likely forget if she was miraculously saved from near death. She faded out, then that willpower to stay alive and to breathe brought her back to reality. It was a repeat, and an annoying one. It was like her life passing by her eyes.

And for some odd reason she was tearing up. Behind her helmet wet droplets skidded down her face which ruined part of her makeup which was applied poorly and was a bit too much. The only thing that made her look attractive, human, and normal.

When the slicer came to her side and spoke to Catya, the vigilante didn't speak back to her. With everything going there was little strength for her breathe or even open her lips. The burning from the bacta being applied to her wounds did, however, gave her strength to twist and turn away from the medicine which would make things harder and messier for the two of them. Her mouth did open, but no syllable was produced from her vocal cords.

"Help...up..." Catya weakly murmured to her companion as she requested aid to get up.

[member="Kaili Talith"]

 

[Kaili Talith]

[member="Catya Delarn"]

It was just as equally odd that Kaili would care. Catya had been a rogue variable throughout this entire ordeal, yet here Kaili was trying to care for her when under most circumstances she would have left the woman be. Perhaps she felt she owed her it, or maybe it was just cruel to leave her behind like that. Either case Kaili would get her arm under the vigilante’s shoulders to lift her up on her legs to stand, leaning the other woman against her for support in case she needed it.

“Wow, you’re a lot heavier than you look.” Kaili grunted under the weight of Delarn and her armor. “What’d you eat before this?”

Humor always worked, right? “It doesn’t look good though. Try to walk with me back to my ship and we’ll see about getting you patched up properly, alright?”

“Think you can do that, mean girl?”