Half Measures

[Hira Mitsae]

Techno Union Territory (=TUT?)​

Hypori​

~~~~​

[member="Charlotte"]​

Saiba Group was the owned subsidiary of a huge conglomerate called Ty’rel Holdings, formerly known as the Neuro-Saav Corporation. It was the Saiba Group which assimilated the Neuro-Saav expertise in cybernetics and other experimental technology, and it was Saiba which had been experimenting with the poor girl, otherwise designated as CH-01-1812-1520-2005.

Of course, Darell Irani did not know about CH-01-1812-1520-2005. Which was not a dodge of blame or anything, if he had been approached about the project he would have signed off on it without thinking twice. He wasn’t a nice man, and never claimed to be. The reason why he didn’t know was simply because a man can only have so much oversight when it comes to an enormous conglomerate such as his.

So when Charlotte escaped, Irani was in a meeting, obviously. It took the Saiba Group remnants some time to get a response out, but eventually Irani’s datapad was beeping with an urgent message. A message which was received with a slightly raised eyebrow and a gesture that indicated the meeting was over for now.

A transporter left the government building a few minutes later, and a baseline was established. Hypori was partially owned by Irani- such was the ways of fecking over Alli Wren. The point was, first objective would be containment.

Irani did not believe in half measures.

 

[Fabula Caromed]

Cherek-01-1812-1520-2005, covered in blood and smelling of blaster fire, had managed to make it about two miles on foot before she realized that she was utterly starving. For...however long she had been a "guest" of the Ty'rel cyberbiotics division, she had always had nutrients directly injected into her body. This was a matter of necessity while muzzled and a matter of convenience afterwards. She had spent too much time in induced sleep to be able to handle her own nutrition otherwise.

So, leotard hiking up her rear and without any shoes, the young ginger tapped into her wet computer almost immediately after she figured she was clear of lab influence to find the nearest fast food joint. The credits she'd swiped from the eviscerated, half-incinerated, or generally brutalized corpses of the doctors and security staff who had tried to stop her escape would get her food, some new clothes, and maybe a cheap hotel room until she could support herself. Computer skills like hers would probably be worth something to someone.

And if not, she could always keep killing people.

Almost a dozen dead, mostly security staff. Not bad for a frightened girl in a leotard with confiscated weapons. Well. not bad on the subject of murder. On the subject of humanity, she could probably use some work. Her morals felt appeased with the knowledge that, as of yet, she didn't have any real experience interacting with people. That and the computer in her skull handily excused (to her) her own inability to sympathize with the people who were trying to kill her. Unfortunately, she also realized that she was beginning to think of murder as a tool rather than an unfortunate accident.

Cherek-01 sighed as she sat down outside a place that smelled strongly of grease and checked the holonet for some clips of people ordering from a fast food place. She needed to have some frame of reference, both here and in the realm of the value of human life. Her own seemed to be wort a multitude of credits; how much was everyone else's worth?
[member="Darell Irani"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Charlotte"]

Triangulation, the process of determining the location of a point by measuring angles to it from known points at either end of a fixed baseline, rather than measuring distances to the point directly.

One standard hour after Cherek-01 escaped the facility and left a swath of blood, amputated limbs and death in her wake, the Saiba Group had finally managed to restore some measure of order within its Hypori-branch. A call had been made to the CEO himself and they were now tracking the rogue cyborgized entity, tracking through the various hardware-software modifications which had been installed.

One of which was a tracking device, the other was DUSThttp://starwarsrp.net/topic/41380-dust/. It was through these two processes that they were already close to her tail, but it would still be a while before they would be able to properly get to her.

Urbanized playground, making sure that there would be zero or at least a minimized risk of civilian casualties, it was all a matter of playing it quiet and subtle.

Irani didn’t like to play it quiet and subtle, so it was that he left his persona as a businessman behind for this portion of the mission and came to as a Sith. Nobody would be surprised when a black-clothed individual with burning eyes was seen running through the streets, the Galaxy has had many experiences with these type of individuals by now.

Soon.

 

[Fabula Caromed]

Okay. So. She was supposed to walk up, find something on the menu she wanted, order food, then pay for money and wait at a table for her food to be ready. That was how fast food worked. [note saved] Cherek-01 stepped up to the counter, entirely ignoring the strange looks she was getting from being stained in blood and blaster scoring, and offered the closest thing to a smile that she could manage. "Two deluxe nerf burgers, please...and a cherry cola."

The kid behind the counter - he didn't look much older or taller than Charlotte herself did, but he probably hadn't spent his formative years in a lab - simply stared in shock and confusion for a few seconds. "Y-yeah...fifteen credits," he stuttered out shortly. "...Hey lady, you okay? You look a little-"

"I'm fine," Cherek-01 responded, cutting him off with an impassive shrug. "I'd really just like to eat, if you don't mind. A dozen questions aren't going to do me any favors." The boy seemed to take this as a proper answer, turning to the next person in line after the redhead dropped her money on the counter and backed away. Whatever happened, Cherek-01 really didn't want to be answering a billion concerns from people who had no idea what was going on and never would.

Hopefully her food would be ready soon, so she could eat solid food for the first time in...ugh, who knew how long? Stupid Sabia Group.
[member="Darth Carach"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Charlotte"]

The area shifted from city-plausibilities to local area plausibilities, they were getting closer to her by the moment. Some of those locals at the fast food joint decided it would be better for their physical and perhaps mental health to simply leave the building, who knew what all that blood could mean, right?

One enterprising individual had the presence of mind to try and send out a call towards the local police station, of course only after leaving the joint and putting some mileage between him and the coo-coo lady.

If the call went through it would be quickly intercepted by more… pleasant parties who would be very interested to hear about this blood-streaked individual who seemed to be in the general area of where they would be searching.

Carach was getting giddy at this point.

 

[Fabula Caromed]

Food! Glorious food! Cherek-01's burgers arrived in a matter of minutes, and they were gone almost immediately thereafter. Of course she could and really wanted to taste them, but at the moment what was more interesting was the feeling of solid food in her stomach. Instead of the gushy fluids she'd been pumped with for as long as the pile of roadkill she called a brain could remember, she was chewing and swallowing physical matter, and it wound up in her stomach to be dissolved by natural acids. New feelings!

The cherry soda was...less interesting. It was fizzy and had a bite to it, but come on. More fluid? If she hadn't required something to wash this new nerfburger experience down with, she would've skipped the damn thing altogether. Cherek finished not a few minutes after her food arrived, then stood to leave with her soda in hand. Okay, food achieved...what's next on the list?

Clothes. What she was wearing was tight, covered in blood, and did not conform to human modesty standards (according to a quick holonet search). She'd need pants, or a skirt. A top would also help, to cover up the blood stains and scorch marks. And shoes, to protect her toes from things like broken glass. Why hadn't she stolen clothes during the escape?
[member="Darth Carach"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Charlotte"]

Call was placed, sent through, traced and eventually they had her. Right on screen too, that was the beauty of a nation that was under constant corporate surveillance. They weren’t on Nar Shaddaa and the hand of SpyNet was in every metaphorical pie here, the operator patched it through to the Sith Lord who was currently sitting on a roof not far away, giving him the laydown of the situation.

Target was on the move, didn’t seem to be hostile right now, people weren’t running away in fear of being disintegrated which was always good. Ain’t no need to have the situation deteriorate entirely, no? Would only turn a messy situation into something something thermonuclear.

‘Acknowledged.’ and Carach tapped out of the commlink, brought up the HUD over his eyes and started running.

His figure turned nondescript, quite literally so.

He was suddenly not all that interesting anymore, eyes would slide right off of him. As if the minds simply couldn’t find it in themselves to really pay attention to the man.

Carach was now a background noise, zoned out.

 

[Fabula Caromed]

Clothes! Things to cover her body! Cherek-01 once again noticed that people were sort of turned off by her presence, and once again didn't care. She had just clawed her way out of captivity from which people were destroying her mind and surgically altering her body. She had a right to walk around and be alive as much as the next person, and she'd be damned if someone was going to stop her just because she smelled like entrails.

The salesclerk involved in getting her outfitted seemed to be more than a little unnerved. Cherek-01 ignored the woman's reservations and browsed the store anyway. What did she need? Pants. They seemed to come in an arbitrary number of sizes and styles. Tight [leggings] that seemed to be only skin paint, tiny [shorts] that didn't even cover 80% of her lower body and made her wonder why she'd bother wearing anything at all...the whole thing confused her greatly. And then here was the whole thing about skirts, which seemed to exist simply to give everyone a view of what she was apparently expected to keep concealed.

Clothes made no sense.

The escaped cyborg found herself some jeans, a slightly baggy sweater (like she cared what temperature it was outside, with her body cooled by cybernetics), and some simple boots that, through trial and error, she found to be both comfortable and secure. By the time she'd found a full set of clothes and tried them all on, people were finally starting to trickle back into the store after the madwoman with the marks of death and violence all over her had scared them out.

Chances are Cherek-01's clerk had never been so relieved to make a sale in her life. Not because the redhead was spending a lot of credits, but rather because it meant she would leave. The moment the woman handed over her credits was a huge burden off her shoulders; no longer was this potential murderess her job.

Of course, Cherek-01 had only a vague idea of the other customers' distress, and even then she didn't really care. Now she didn't look like she'd killed her way out of a privately militarized research facility, which was a step in the right direction. Food, clothes...what was next?
[member="Darth Carach"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Charlotte"]

And there she was, less scruffy and bloody, but still unmistakable the woman that he had been looking out for. She had managed to retrieve some new clothing to blend into the crowds, which meant that she wasn’t entirely too stupid, perhaps Saiba had done a fairly good job on this one. Though it seemed they had failed when it came to proper security protocol and making sure that the cyborg killer would actually listen to its creator.

Control chips, instant fail-safe protocols, those things needed to be installed. Then again, those things could be misused by someone who used Mechu-Deru, then again? Someone who used Mechu-Deru didn’t even need those things to shut her down in the first place.

The beauty of the Force, no?

Carach reached out, not towards her, but instead towards the crowd around her. The bustling conglomerate of people walking around and making it impossible to properly pin her down and make this entire operation work.

Suddenly people found reasons to be elsewhere.

Cameras were deactivated to further minimize outside interference. In the meanwhile the local security forces and Saiba were establishing a net around them, far away though. They wouldn’t be called in, unless she managed to escape.

The Sith Lord pondered his next step and finally dropped the White Current Immersion, just as he landed on the ground. Eyes on the prize.

 

[Fabula Caromed]

As she gathered herself to move on, Cherek-01 noticed something rather curious. There were less people around than there had been when she walked in. This was inconsistent with holonet recordings of retail center activity. Conclusion: something was wrong. If she had been even remotely sane, she might have attributed it to the fact that she had walked in in her skivvies and smelling of violence. Being blissfully unaware of what people should have been scared of, she instead attributed it to something normal people never had to even worry about.

She was "obviously" being tracked by Sabia/Neuro-Saav.

Her eyes did a quick scan of her surroundings and noticed a boatload of nothing. Clothes, the odd person who was, for some reason, walking away from the store she was in. The owners of the shop chose this specific moment to go check their inventory. All of the makings of an ambush, but none of the physical evidence to base her conclusion on. Regardless, Cherek-01 remained vigilant, and thought to move to a more defensible locat-

[humanoid male; no visible armaments] His approach was unobtrusive enough for the cyborg's eyes, multi-spectrum as they were, to not notice him. He was obviously a professional. Cherek-01 struck a martial arts stance that she didn't remember learning, her body shifting according to muscle memory. Her voice was remarkably calm when she addressed him. "Capture or kill?"
[member="Darth Carach"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Charlotte"]

‘Capture.’ the Sith Lord replied smoothly, his voice holding the perfect pitch for oratory purposes, too perfect to the ears of a HRD. Almost as if he wasn’t entirely human, almost… as if he had been created in a lab, to serve as a tool for the purposes of a different man.

Almost… as if they had something in common.

Carach ended his stride with enough space between them to make an immediate assault awkward and slightly difficult to accomplish, his posture didn’t signify threat or assault, it was relaxed and simply waiting for her first move to happen.

As an afterthought he added. ‘I really don’t want to fight you, my apologies.’

 

[Fabula Caromed]

Cherek-01, being completely new to the world, didn't have any experience with manipulation or lies...or much of anything else, come to think of it. When a man who appeared out of nowhere said two conflicting things, one of which was non-hostile, the poor dear's wiped brain could not put two and two together. She didn't drop her stance.

"Irrelevant. I didn't want to forget my whole life and be programmed like a droid, but here we are." Snark, it seemed, ran deeper than common sense or experience. Her eyes zipped around, continually checking for ambushes, traps, or any other dangers. Unfortunately, her brain was human, and keeping up with both data halos, surveillance, and discussion with another person was a bit too complicated for her to do all at once.

So...less learning. That annoyed her, but if she got out of this alive she'd have plenty of time to ask some more questions. At the moment, other things were more important. Behind the counter would be defensible if she had a gun. With nothing but her hands and feet, it'd be best for her to be behind as much concealment as possible, but still have space to move. This position would be sufficient as long as they didn't have snipers.
[member="Darth Carach"]