DEV Thread: The Exile's Carapace, Ta'ek Viss's Personal Armor

[Keaton Yeates]

Secret Communication between a mysterious Hutt and a mysterious Rodian:

Rodian: Your employee was responsible for the death of Jala? This is an OUTRAGE!!

Hutt: Do not be so quick to point fingers. This one is different. He's strong and fearless. I've kept him around for this long because of his skills.

Rodian: So, the once-mighty Hutts have become unable to manage their own associates? This is why Jabba was killed, this is why our business has become so scant these days! We are considering investing elsewhere, if you cannot even admit fault for the death of my own kin!!

Hutt: I was not the one who held the blade, and i will not accept responsibility for this. However, we are willing to accommodate you, provided you are willing to assist us in return.

Rodian: Go on....

Hutt: Have your finest technicians build a suit of armor to contain him. We will exile him to Tatooine, and monitor him closely. I owe my cousins on Tatooine a favor, so I will present them with my best fixer for the next 5 years.

Rodian: He kills my nephew, and you would have me commission his killer a suit of armor? Are you mad?!

Hutt: Make sure it cannot be removed, add a homing beacon to track him, and means of controlling him with chemicals. If he tries to double cross us, or remove the suit, make it lethal.

Rodian: how much are you willing to spend on this contraption?

Hutt: Whatever it takes. He is a valuable asset, make sure he stays protected and useful to us. In return, we shall pay the sum for the armor, and you will receive additional compensation as well. Make sure the armor doesn't bear any serial numbers, company emblems, or traceable markings. I will see to it you are able to properly fit the armor to Viss's body.

Rodian: Very well, sir. It shall be done.

(End Communication)

The Hutt activated his holotransmitter one last time, signalling to another associate.

Hutt: Keep eyes on the Rodian, and make sure his dev team is all accounted for. Once the armor is complete and Viss is fitted to it and ready for relocation, deliver Viss to the transport. Kill the rest, and raze the complex to the ground. None can ever know what we have done.

Bounty Hunter: As you wish, my lord.

(End communication)

 

[Keaton Yeates]

Ta'ek awoke to the sensation of something piercing his neck, followed by sinking into liquid blackness.

When he woke again, he had no idea how long he had been out for. He had no idea what day it was. He didn't even know what month it was. All he knew was he had to-

"Blarrrrghhhh!!"

Ta'ek vomited as the light flooded his vision. He head exploded with pain and his body fekt strangely heavy. As his vision cleared, he realized he was in the medical wing of a starship, most likely a frigate class or cruiser, judging by the size of it. A medical technician stood close by, watching.

"Ahhh, you're awake," she replied with an overly sweet smile that Ta'ek sensed wasn't meant for him as much as for show. Not that it mattered, it would take more than a flash if teeth from some balmy lab tech to curb his anger. He went to move, when he realized....he simply couldn't. He loomed down, and saw his entire body was encased in a suit of dark, grey tinted armor.

"Yeah, you won't be able to move until we arrive on Tatooine...."

"What?!" Ta'ek demanded. "What is this?"

She shook her head dismissively.

"Remember Jala Pagardo? The Rodian you were told to cooperate with on your last OFFICIAL assignment? The one you cut down for no real reason other than your own twisted sense of pleasure?"

"There was nothing pleasurable about it. That moron wouldn't shut up. Even after I sliced his guts open, he was still jabbering on in that huzzy-buzzy rodian babble that all speak. Something about regrets, vengeance, and blah blah, same thing I hear from every fool who catches my blade. What of it?"

"Well, his family was pretty upset by the manner of his death. And they are pretty avid financiers of your employer's activities. So that whole vengeance speech? Here we are."

"So what this is an exile?"

"So to speak, yes. Until things have settled down on Nar Shadaa, in about 5 years, you will be relocated to Tatooine and forced to wear this armor. It will track your movements, as well as provide surveillance on you, lest you try to betray the Hutts to gain leave the planet. Oh, and one more thing. If you try to remove it, you will die. Aside from the various pacification systems the suit has, it also has a euthanasia system that can be activated with a single button press, and even if you bypassed all that (yoi wont, its impossible), it's neurolgocally bonded to your brain. Removing the suit without unbonding yourself from it will result in yoir body going into terminal shock. Invariably fatal."

Ta'ek was silent.

"On the bright side, it does have life support systems, as well as a rebreatber mask, and it will protect you from harm. The Hutts still value your skills, and are prepared to allow you to serve the next 5 years on Tatooine to repay your debt to them."

"Haven't really given me any alternatives have they?"

"Death, if you prefer."

"Of course. Always the easy way out. The cowards way out. Do you take me for a coward?"

"That I do not. Which is why you'll serve the next 5 years without a problem, correct?"

"I suppose in have no choice," Ta'ek resigned.

 

[Keaton Yeates]

In the days and weeks that followed, Ta'ek became used to the armor's encumbering nature. The fact that it had been bonded to him made the armor feel like it was part of him, which, he reminded himself, it was.

He began to use the connection he felt to the armor to try to deduce where the various implements the Labbie had mentioned.

As he did, he seemed to hear the same voice he always did, whispering in his ear:

"Electrical pacification collar, located in the neck".

"Chemical Pacification system, located within the back plating".

"Euthanasia administration system, located in the chestpiece".

"Surveillance systems, located in the rebreather mask, sensor relays in the the shoulder plates".

He would have to works subtly to disable them all without the Hutts euthanizing him first. So he decided to start there.

"Chestpiece," he thought. "Simple enough."

He picked up his hydrospanner and went to open the chest plate up, when he found the suit stopped him.

"Great, another failsafe."

He focused intently on his goal. He pictured the Hutts back on Nar Shadaa who had sent him away. He pictured the face of his first master, whom he had murdered at age 12. He drew on every day of struggle he had faced in his fight to stay alive, and knew he must once again survive. As he came to this conclusion, he felt his willpower resonate within him, and the suit moved to his command. Slowly but surely, he began to remove the deadly chemicals the Hutts had devised to have pumped directly into his aorta. He would have his freedom, if not also his revenge. He had survived the last 22 years of his life. He wasn't about to die now, not when he had so many enemies that still needed to pay dearly....

 

[Keaton Yeates]

"Euthanasia system neutralized," he thought with the slightest hint of satisfaction, more than he usually allowed himself.

It had taken 6 hours of surgically-precise extraction to remove the 42 different chemicals that had been designed to cocktail into an incredibly fatal venom. One false move, he would have been dead within ten seconds. But he had once again survived the ordeal. Now he moved to his next task, as the whispers guided him.

"The surveillance systems need to be jammed so you can remove the other chemicals".

Drawing once more on his pain and suffering, Ta'ek steeled himself and embraced the suits neurogical bond. He forced his will though the nanocircuits, and into the various sensors that provided feedback to the Hutts. He felt his mind project the desired information into the sensors, and something told him that it would work. It had to work.

He grasped the controls for an old mining claw that he had salvaged from a Toydarian's shop, and used it to open the armor's back plating. Luckily, the amount of chemicals amd pumps were much less complex than the euthanasia system, so he was able to remove them all in a about an hour. Just as he'd finished, he revived a hologram from one of the Hutts' operatives. He would have to call it a day for now, there was work to be done. Little by little he would escape. He had 5 years to serve, what was one more day?

 

[Keaton Yeates]

*3 days later*

The Hutts had kept him busy the last few days, but so far seemed unaware of his tamperings to the suit. Just as well, the slimy swamp worms weren't fond of people trying to betray them. He had killed many species in his days as a mercenary, but never a Hutt. And he knew, despite their gluttonous and corpulent reputation, they were the galaxy's leading crime lords for a reason. He wasn't afraid of anyone, anything, or any place. But he wasn't trying to defeat himself. He needed to play along a little longer, just to buy more time.

And it did. He was a me to neutralize the electric collar without much trouble, the removal of the euthanasia and pacification systems had made it easy, being its only safeguards.

Safeguards that weren't supposed to be able to removed.

"Even if you bypassed them all (you won't, its impossible)...."

The lab tech aboard the unknown ship's words echoed in Ta'ek's mind:

ITS IMPOSSIBLE....IMPOSSIBLE....

and yet, somehow, he had removed them all. The last thing that stood in his way was the Surveillance system. He had been able to allow them to operate while sleeping, only disrupting them during the day when he needed too. Doing this had also given him a deeper affinity for his armor, letting him feel every part of it through the connection they shared, the shackles that chained him to his prison.

He could allow the surveillance system to survive a bit longer, his next assignment presented him with a glorious opportunity he could aggird to pass up, and he needed the Hutts to know he was doing the job for them. At least for now.

It was a simple job, really. A heist involving some medical supplies. The usual goods, bandages, bacta serum, and various other chemicals needed for the manufacturing of illicit drugs. But he needed some bacta for himself. Slicing cleanly into the security terminal, he entered the medical facilty under cover of night. The heist went off perfectly, and he delivered the products to his "benefactors" himself.

"Enjoying the gift the Hutts Commissioned for you?" Jeered a male Twi'lek in the gangster's stronghold.

"Yeah, it's great," Ta'ek replied. "A real life-saver...."

The Twi'lek laughed, obviously assuming this comment was made in the spirit of sarcasm.

"Good, they don't know".

He returned to his barracks, and went back to work.

Again projecting the image he wanted the Hutts to see into the surveillance sensors, he began modifying the euthanasia and pacification systems, converting them into Bacta-Injection systems. His knowledge of machines was vast, but this would have normally been something he would have considered beyond his skill.

Still, as he worked, new ideas flashed into his head, guidimg him ever onward to this vision, all the while the whispers seemed to tickle him somewhere between his earlobe and the base of his skull. They seemed to be coming from inside him, although he couldn't place where. He just had learned not to argue with them. 22 years of them proving true had taught him better. 22 years was longer than many slave boys lived on Nar Shadaa. But he wasn't like them. He wasn't weak. And so it all came together beautifully. After 12 hours of painstaking calculations, cannibalization of various parts, and an imsane amount of retrofitting, the Bacta System was active. By slaving the bacta system to his Life Support Monitor, he ensured it's success, even going so far as to slice his own cheek open to test the systems response time. It was instant, the neurological bond he shared with the suit saw to that. Now he needed to deal with his final roadblock....

 

[Keaton Yeates]

Ta'ek set about removing the surveillance system. This would be tricky. He needed to hold out til the last minute before killing the feed entirely. He had an idea, but to pull it off, the plan would need to be executed flawlessly.

He built the replacement application first this time; he wouldn't have time to construct it afterwards. Using various sensor relays he had taken from Ships, Speeders, and even protocol droids, he created the final piece of his masterpiece: an environmental analysis system, that would be able to provide Ta'ek with information on air quality, as well as temperature, radiation readings, and enable him to listen in on nearby communications. It would also be taking the place of the homing beacon the Hutts had installed within the surveillance system.

He took a deep breath, and held his new EAS in his hand. He quickly pulled the surveillance system from his suit, and installed the EAS. Easy enough, it was built to exact specs to fill the space perfectly. Now he was ready. It was time to find a ride off this rock. He didn't have much time, the surveillance system would alert them soon that it had been removed. Hooking it up to an external power cell, he threw a blanket over the lens to appear as if he were in bed. Than he quickly and quitely made his way into the dark streets of Tatooine, ready to make his bid for freedom.

 

[Keaton Yeates]

Location: Streets if Mos Eisley

Objective: Test Exile's Carapace to ensure optimal performance.

Field testing was necessary. Ta'ek would need to ensure his armor was ready. He had already tested the Bacta system, it had all functioned fine. Now he needed to test the rest:

Step one: Test the sensor relays in the EAS.

Ta'ek was certain he could find something listen in on. As he stalked the dark streets of Mos Eisley, he suddenly felt the transmission in his mind.

"All's clear here, sir. Nothing to report," he heard a man say.

"Excellent, lets keep it that way."

The other voice was undeniably Weequay, judging by the language it spoke, as well as the gutteral intonations therein.

There were always Weequay on Tatooine. There were always Weequay anywhere there were Hutts. And growing up around the Hutts and their employees, Ta'ek was neither a stranger to, nor fond of their preference for employing Weequay for body guards. Formidable as they could be, he could not conceal his disgust at their notion of Religion. Religion sickened him, he had always viewed it as a crutch for the blind and weak. A cushy lie for those who feared death. Ta'ek did not fear death, but he knew he was not meant to die yet. When his time came, he would relish the release from this world, and all its painful implements.

"Your mind wanders. Still it," the whispers seemed to say.

Ta'ek shook his head vigorously.

"At least the EAS seems to work."

He willed hself to embrace his nanocircuits again, this time attempting to focus on where the signal was coming from.

In his head, he pictured a small machine shop, with scattered and trashed Speeder bikes littering the facade. He made toward it, determined to test the other modifications, as well as scratch that itch that had become so insatiable lately.

He was going stir crazy. He had to kill something, and get off this accused rock. Otherwise, he may just lose it.

 

[Keaton Yeates]

Location: streets of Mos Eisley

Objective: Find the Machine Shop

Ta'ek felt himself being drawn towards the shop, and after a few moments began to wonder on the fact.

He noticed the longer he had been bonded to the armor, the deeper a connection he shared with it. It was now to the point that he felt the world through the suit. As he pressed on, he let the sensors guide him onward.

He passed a starving child on the way, as well as a few other miserable slum folk. As he continued to look around, he felt more and more sickened by the fact that they were alive. They sat in their own filth, cowering. Begging. These were things he had never done, and, he re-vowed, would never do, his entire life.

He shook his head in disgust, more focused than ever to end the life of that disgusting Weequay...

 

[Keaton Yeates]

As Ta'ek neared the shop, the EAS readings grew louder. He began to hear the whines of machinery and the him of the generators keeping the shop powered. Since it was linked to his brain, it displayed information of interest and highlighted threats for him, without the need for a HUD. He could see the Carapace's prompts with his own eyes.

It highlighted a control terminal, which he began to slice.

He felt his mind meld with the machine, and between his knowledge of machines and the suit plugging him in, his willpower allowed him to dominate the system with barely a few thoughts.

The door clicked open, and he entered the building without a hitch in stride.

 

[Keaton Yeates]

Location: the machine shop

Objective: kill the weequay, but field test the Exile's Carapace first.

Ta'ek walked in the door and looked around. The weequay was standing by himself, the shop otherwise empty. He was the security. Ta'ek brandished a sword.

The weequay shouted in alarm and drew his blaster pistol. Firing a round at Ta'ek's chest. The bolt collided with the armor, and the impacted was felt. It held.

The weequay fired another round which also failed to pierce the armor. Ta'ek felt the bruises left under the armor heal almost immediately as the bacta serum within his IV system tended the superficial wounds. He closed the distance and sliced the blaster in half. The weequay fell over a pile of parts, scrambling to get away. He grabbed a vibroblade off the table, and it hummed to life. He brandished it menacingly, although it was obviously for show, the weequay was visibly shaken.

Ta'ek crossed blades with the guard, but his technique was sloppy and haphazard. Good soldier's swordwork, decent mercenary swords work.... But Ta'ek was a far greater duelist that any normal mercenary. He parried, shunted, and dodged the weequays blade, until he decided to test the armor again. He felt the vibroblade glance off his armor, and the vibrations cracked his rib. He grunted from the pain, and the weequay anticipated victory. Ta'ek felt the bacta already tending to his run, and within ten seconds, it would be healed. Ten seconds he might not have. He continued to parry the sloppy attacks, until he felt the pain from his rib subside. As it did, he parried one last attack, performing a riposte strike, beheading the weeuqay I'm one swipe.

Take looked around at the room, then at his chest.

"Imitial field test analysis: successful."