Private I Don't Forget

[Arekk]

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<+>----------+**+----------<+>​

With a rapid-fire of inputs into the terminal, Arekk had completed the program he had been working on for the last two weeks for a DarkNet client. A slight frown tugged at the corners of his lips, drawing them down as he straightened up and took a step back from the terminal. Hastily, he drew the blinders over the balcony doors, smothering out any prying eyes which possibly could have been watching.

The ECPD had been cracking down on each and every slicer and netrunner known in cyberspace due to a new regulation established by Ethos City's government.

The new mayor, Che'kari Linvox, had been elected not long ago by promising to turn things around in the ecumenopolis by getting rid of its criminals once and for all. Arekk had to be careful to avoid detection furthermore considering his head was at the top of the most wanted list.

H4L had been away on business for a week now as she had taken a new line of work, legit and away from the spotlight, which brought a considerable amount of credits for both. The slicer himself preferred to stick to his old ways but that was becoming more dangerous as each top slicer/netrunner met their ends either in a body bag or imprisoned forever.

Tucked away beneath the protective layers of Arekk's coat, the faint ringing of a datapad resounded.

Brilliant cyan illumination flared in the man's face with the drawing of the datapad closer for inspection. A message appeared...

H4LCY0N
​

 

[H4LCY0N]

status :// UNKNOWN
locale :// ASOPORT, CARLAC

Months had passed since the A.I. had said her temporary farewells and reluctantly departed from the place she had come to view as her home, leaving behind the man she owed much to. It wouldn't be long, she had told him originally, just a few weeks, maybe a month at the longest. Truthfully, she had known it would be much longer- she had known the complications she could have expected and she had planned accordingly. Of course, what she hadn't told him was of these exact things.

Why?

Why would she keep such pertinent information from the one person who would expect her and worry for her?

Perhaps, as she blurred the line between what it was to be human, and what it was to be created by them, she didn't want to worry him. He had enough on his plate, and he had already given her so much. But even still, kept from returning home against her wishes and buried neck deep in trouble, H4L had no choice but the send a message.

It was the first time Arekk would have heard from her since her departure from Ethos City:​

'01100110 01101001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01101101 01100101'​

Attached was a file, a blurry, pixelated snap of a skyline framed by towering ice and frigid mountains and faintly, in the edges of the frame, neon lights gleamed off the snow and glaciers.

Carlac.​

Arekk ​

 

[Arekk]

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<+>----------+**+----------<+>​

"Feth."

Arekk rushed to connect the datapad to his computer terminal to immediately scan the image sent by H4L. The message was encoded with custom code that only they knew how to break, the words 'Find me' were as clear as they could be.

H4L was in danger.

Series of algorythms worked in impressive unison to recover any useful data from the image provided by the A.I, the results coming in just a matter of seconds. The program revealed the EXIF data that would provide Arekk with H4L's exact location or at least where this picture was exactly taken.

01001001 00100111 01101101 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101101 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00101110.

Without hesitation and in clear haste, Arekk gathered all the necessary equipment including weapons, gadgets and supplies and put them in a large bag before making way to his NX-249 Airspeeder. The dashboard lit up almost immediately, the sound of a jingle welcoming its driver.

"Take me to the spaceport, make it quick."

And with that the vehicle's autopilot system engaged its thrusters and sped away from the slicer's garage, making way for the local spaceport where Arekk's ship awaited. Once there, the slicer departed Lithios to make way for Carlac at once.

"Hang in there. I'm coming for you."

H4LCY0N
​

 

[H4LCY0N]

M E T A H U M A N
DR34MCH45ER
CARLAC - 0221 LOCAL TIME

The flickering symbols arranging themselves across the HUD of her augmented lenses confirmed his receipt and clarified his action. Good, she knew she could trust him to be on his way. The A.I. released a soft breath, some habit she picked up in her months acclimating to interaction with organics, something they did to steady themselves when faced with stress. Synthflesh bound fingers tapped against one another behind her back, kept bound by metal cuff she knew she could break, should worse come to worse. All she had to do was wait and bide her time. Surely, the thugs of the gang that captured her were too inept to bother with around-the-clock supervision, as much she had confirmed by keeping track of the hours it had been since one of them had last approached her.

Yet, they were not so inept as to leave her completely alone, no, she sat anchored to the frigid pipe under the hawkish gaze of a camera.

Her job had been a simple one, disrupt the movements of the cogwheeled gang lurking in growing numbers beneath the capital city of the planet. The easiest approach, of course, had been to infiltrate their temporary base of operations and inject a nasty virus into their system, hijacking and sabotaging their records and communications capabilities. Unfortunate it was for her then, that she did not anticipate a skillful netrunner to be patrolling their data and monitoring their systems.

Had they not subdued her and thrust her into a grimy, frigid basement, perhaps she would have been impressed.

But there was no time for regrets, especially now.

A sudden slam in front of her roused her from her false slumber and she lifted her head, fixing her dilating eyes on the man who entered the room and glowered at her with distaste. "Got word you've been misbehaving." He said, flashing a nasty smirk, "Netty told us you sent out a message." The burly gangster crouched down, planting his elbows on his peaked knees, and reached out with a tattooed hand, seizing Hal by the chin. "You calling for backup, huh? You gonna be a good girl and tell me who you contacted, or am I going to have to carve the transmitters out of that skull of yours myself?"

Indifference was her weapon, her tool, and one she found was far more effective in handling those who thought themselves high-and-mighty than firearms or blasters ever could be. Such was the expression written on her dirt-streaked face with her cold, judging stare piercing into the man looming over her. "I ordered some take out, silly me," she challenged with a sardonic smile, "I should have asked if you were hungry too."

Wherever Arekk was, she hoped he would hurry.​

Arekk​

 

[Arekk]

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<+>----------+**+----------<+>​

The ship that Arekk had borrowed for the journey wasn't top of the line by any means necessary but its cloaking system and custom data transmitter meant that the slicer could relay any type of callsign or code clearance to allow him past any planetary security checkpoint.

There was a tremor in the Force and Arekk could sense it. Something felt wrong, aside from the obvious peril that Hal encountered herself in, a buzzing sensation at the top of his dome that wouldn't dissipate.

Out of the blue, two TIE/VS Vector's intercepted his path and fired upon the vessel he was commanding causing it to lose power immediately and crashing landing in the middle of the snowy Carlac landscape. Considering how damaged the ship was it was a miracle that anybody made it alive which is why nobody decided to check the aftermath.

Electric wiring sparked everywhere and thick black smoke emanated from within the remains of the crashed ship, Arekk still strapped to his seat. The bag he had brought with remained secured under the dashboard in its secret compartment. The slicer's eyes slowly opened followed by a groan of slight pain, blood running down his cheek, feeling like he had just woken up from the worst hangover possible.

They knew he was coming, of course, and because of that Arekk had to get out of there fast before someone came to finish the job.

"Kark me, it's cold." He said to himself while trying to reach for his bag. "Hal, you better be alive."

With that, Arekk left behind the crash site to begin the search for Halcyon. She couldn't be that far.

H4LCY0N
​

 

[H4LCY0N]

M E T A H U M A N
DR34MCH45ER
CARLAC - 0231 LOCAL TIME

The receptors netted throughout her synthetic skin rapidly fired off their signals, alerting her processors to the damage inflicted. She teetered, pausing half-leaned over, face shrouded by the gritty, dirty strands of blonde curling from her crown. Irritation flickered across her battered face and she swelled her breast with a breath, swaying back to straighten herself upright against the pipe she was anchored to. Blue trickled from her damaged nose, racing over her lips to trail off her chin and splatter against her lap.

"Ohoh, so you're one of those replicas, hm? Good, you'll net us some pretty creds after all." The thug chuckled, dusting his knuckles off on his trousers. He rose, pacing to the left and crossing her field of view once more, passing in front of her. "But what do we do with you in the meantime, hm?"

Hal stared at him with nothing but boredom written across her face, ignoring the integrity warnings displayed across her glowing eyes. Synthflesh was easy to repair and replace. Her patience, however... not so much. "I can think of a few things." She said, tilting her head to the left. Behind her, the sudden release of pressure around her right wrist relieved her hand of its bind. No action was taken further.

"Why don't you come here and let me show you?"
​

Arekk​

 

[Arekk]

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<+>----------+**+----------<+>​

Carlac's weather was unforgiving and relentless. Arekk knew the consequences of trailing the snowy terrain without proper equipment but his military training and experience would allow him to survive even the hardest of conditions.

Thirty minutes of walking through the cold and deep snow seemed like hours and without any sort of man-made structure in sight he reslly wondered if this would result in his demise, however his doubts would dissipate rather quickly as in the horizon a tall electric fence covered what seemed to be a camp of sorts, a flag waving in its middle core.

"This must be it." The slicer ushered to himself as he made his way towards the fence. "Average security systems, two turrets. Seems like a garrison."

Arekk was able to spot a small locked panel on the electrified fence which would allow him to temporarily disable the activated defense mechanisms so he could infiltrate the base. His datapad screen flickered as lines of code worked its magic once plugged into the dataport of this said panel, a small hum following the deactivation of the electricity-protected fence.

To make his life easier each and every place in this small fortress was labelled accordingly: Medical Bay to his right and the prisoner ward to the left.

"Can't be that easy."

H4LCY0N
​

 

[H4LCY0N]

M E T A H U M A N
DR34MCH45ER
CARLAC

A scoff blew the strands of dirtied blonde from her features as she smirked at the unconscious man on the floor, lifting her hands to twist about the opposite wrists, soothing away the tension wrought by the cuffs. The heels of her boots found purchase against the gritty steel floor and she rose promptly, kicking over the man's arm from her path before snatching the holstered blaster from his hip. Swiftly then, she raised the weapon and blasted the camera, knocking it from its mount. It wouldn't be long before the other members stationed around the garrison made their way to her, descending upon her from all the levels of the warehouse she had seen as she was being escorted in.

She would have to be quick.

Hal wrenched open the door and swept out into the dim corridor, blaster held at point, and swayed down the path on high alert.

Across her field of vision digits and values arranged themselves in seemingly nonsensical orders- encoded by her own craft- inputting commands to trace back through the thread tying her internal systems to Arekk's datapad, and she found he was not far away. Boldly, she sent him another message, posting herself against the corner where the wall broke to lead up the stairs:​

'01100110 01110010 01100101 01100101 00101110 00100000 01001111 01001101 01010111 00100000 01101111 01110101 01110100 00101110 00100000 01101100 01101111 01101111 01101011 00100000 00110100 00100000 01110111 01100001 01110010 01100101 01101000 01101111 01110101 01110011 01100101 00100000 00110000 00110000 00110110 00101110 00100000 01101000 01101001 01100111 01101000 00100000 01110011 01100101 01100011 00101110 00100000 01110111 01100001 01110100 01100011 01101000 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 00100000 01100101 01111001 01100101 01110011 00100000 01110101 01110000 00101110 00100000 01100100 01110010 01101111 01101001 01100100 00100000 01110000 01100001 01110100 01110011 00101110 00100000'

Footsteps descending caught her ire and she tightened her grasp on the grip of her commandeered blaster, preparing to ambush the approaching group.​

Arekk​

 

[Arekk]

01001001 00100000 01110111 01101001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01100001 01101100 01110111 01100001 01111001 01110011 00100000 01101000 01100101 01101100 01110000 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00101110

<+>----------+**+----------<+>​

Arekk followed the designated path towards the prisoner ward where Halcyon was most likely being held, going down the stairs until he was met with the first barrier of security. To the right was the security guard's box where the terminal to open all doors in the facility was located.

His datapad displayed the received message through Arekk's cybernetic eye through a state of the art user interface. The slicer replied promptly before moving to the guard's sentry box to disable any and all security systems including the cameras.

01001001 00100111 01101101 00100000 01000000 00100000 01110000 01110010 01101001 01110011 01101111 01101110 01100101 01110010 00100000 01110111 01100001 01110010 01100100 00101110 00100000 01010011 01100101 01100101 00100000 01110101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 01110010 01100101 00101100 00100000 01100011 01100001 01101101 01100101 01110010 01100001 01110011 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01100001 01101100 01100001 01110010 01101101 01110011 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01101111 01100110 01100110 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 01100001 00101110 00100000 01100010 00100000 01100011 01100001 01110010 01100101 01100110 01110101 01101100

To their dismay a silent alarm was triggered which explained why most if not all of the guards in the prisoner's ward were absent from their posts. Intercepted transmissions would reveal that the whole base was on alert due to an escapee.

Without further ado, Arekk made his way to the warehouse that Halcyon had designated as their rendevouz point, staying in the shadows and away from the spotlights strategically placed around the base. Guards roamed with heavy weaponry and vicious Massiff's.

H4LCY0N
​

 

[H4LCY0N]

M E T A H U M A N
DR34MCH45ER
CARLAC

It was dark in the belly of the warehouse and even darker in the central room. The irritating whine of the overhead lights buzzed out, crackling amidst the clamoring gang members as they shuffled and arranged themselves with consideration to cover any possible escape routes. Not so they could re-capture their prisoner, no, their patience had long since worn out in that regard. They no longer cared how many credits selling a replicant on the black market could fetch them- now it was about avenging those fallen who it had gunned down. Their brothers and sisters in defiance and dignity, whom they had lived alongside for years now. The New Imperials on this world had tried to snuff them out, yet they had endured and spread across the galaxy; they were not to be bested by a lone woman and whoever it was she had summoned up for assistance.

"Security systems are offline!" A cybernetic woman with a crown of woven wires nestled atop her brow called from the catwalk overhead, gripping the railing with such furious intent her knuckles paled. "Kill that whore and let's go! We've got an intruder somewhere! Find them!"

Her cry was met with a chorus of affirmation from the footies beneath her.

The noose was tightening its hold around Hal's neck, and she could feel it, the pressure mounting. The longer she waited to learn their paths, the more hostile the situation was becoming, especially with Arekk's message still hovering across her vision. Weighing the possible, calculated outcomes in a matter of milliseconds, the replicant delicately placed her empty blaster on the ground beside her and peered around the container she had found refuge near. Massiffs. Chit. She doubted they were familiar with her scent, though it was most likely they were entirely familiar with the scape of the building and the scents of its handlers- meaning one which was unfamiliar stood out. Even if it didn't know her specifically, it could pick her out in the scentscape.

Swiftness swelled in her legs, surging with what little power she could spare from her waning cells, and she sprung from her hiding place to sprint across the narrow distance between her previous cover and the next. Stealth would be her only way out of here, lest she wanted to endanger Arekk further. Him coming here was dangerous enough, and his blood was certainly not a sight she was fond of seeing. The heavy, industrial shutters of the window stood in her path now, barring the interior of the building and its cargo from the unforgiving hostility of the climate. Hal checked to her left, her right, and quickly glanced upward. No one was coming this way, not yet. If she could pry the shutters open and punch them out of place, she could escape.

It was decided.

The replicant jammed her fingers into the lip of a middle shutter, straining against the seal. The synthetic flesh of her digits split apart under the pressure, straining to expose the steely skeleton and its countless wires and servos beneath, though she persisted enough to force the shutters apart slightly, exposing a stream of the moonlight from outside within.

And, a familiar face.

Arekk.

Hal stared at him through the blinds for a moment, dazed, momentarily, at seeing him again when it had been so long.

She was covered in a generous amount of dirt and grit from her time as a captive, and her false hide was littered in a number of cuts, bruises, and bloodstains. "Hi," she whispered lifelessly, digging her exposed fingertips into the metal of the shutters further, buckling them slightly, "there should be screws on that side. Hurry."​

Arekk​

 

[Arekk]

01001001 00100000 01110111 01101001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01100001 01101100 01110111 01100001 01111001 01110011 00100000 01101000 01100101 01101100 01110000 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00101110

<+>----------+**+----------<+>​

"Hey."

She was fine. That's all what mattered in that instant, the relieving sight of Halcyon on the other side of the window was enough to put his thoughts back together for what would become the hardest of escapes they had to face yet. Soldiers continued to roam the base in high alert, clutching to their heavy assault blasters with itchy trigger fingers, hungry loyal Massiff's at their side.

Without waiting, Arekk followed Halcyon's instructions and began to undo the screws on the window with a specialized tool. The screws were of a heavy industrial quality but they were no match for instrument used as the frame came undone thereafter.

"Grab my hand." He said while reaching within with his righty to grab her. "We don't have much time. There's a ship we can take from their docking bay not far away from here. I've got the codes to use it."

In the blink of an eye, one of the spotlights shun on Arekk and blaster fire rained upon the slicer causing him to retreat in the shadows with Halcy, one of the shots impacting him on his right shoulder. Blood covered his iconic leather jacket.

"Argh!" He moaned in pain while reaching in to the depths of his jacket to grab his K-16 Blaster Pistol and handing it over to her. "Looks like we'll have to shoot our way out of here."

H4LCY0N
​

 

[H4LCY0N]

M E T A H U M A N
DR34MCH45ER
CARLAC

She grasped his hand, hoisting herself up over the window frame and dropping onto the outside, unbothered by the cold despite her exposure. "It's great to see you," she said then, managing a smile that lasted until the guard on the tower beamed a spotlight in their direction. Rather than freeze, the A.I seized Arekk's hand and dragged him with her, but not quickly enough for him to avoid a blast to the shoulder. The yelp of pain resulting from it was enough to fry her systems to boil, and she released his hand, eagerly taking the blaster and twisting herself around to guard him as she returned fire.

"Lead the way, I don't remember this place!" she shouted over the screeching hellstorm blazing over them, shoving a hand behind her to snag another power pack from his pocket to keep on hand. She tucked this under the shoulder strap of her tank top to free her arm up for deployment. Mechanics set in motion as she ran backward, sliding and locking into place with soft hisses, momentarily exposing the inner workings of her synthetic limb. Electricity crackled and charged up, her hand itself shifting to raise a series of four coils from her knuckles. Clenching her fist in the direction of a lunging Massiff saw the beast disabled by a nasty jolt of electricity, leaving it to whimper and writhe on the snow, stunned temporarily.

"What happened to your ship?!" She asked, charging up another taser-shot and leveling her arm in the direction of the pack of beasts sprinting towards them. She understood the beasts' plights, it seemed, and showed them far more kindness than she did their organic masters. The reptilian creatures met a volley of electrical blasts whilst their handlers got the business end from her toy, painting her figure briefly with each strobing flare of the muzzle.

An idea came to mind as they neared the gate and she fixed sight on the spindly legs of the tri-pod tower straddling the fence. Blaster shots impacted her torso, scorching her top and punching a molten hole through her synthflesh, though she was unbothered beyond the integrity warnings flashing in her eyes. "Don't stop running forward, I'm gonna topple the tower!" Hal declared her intent before pivoting swiftly, already compressing the trigger of the blaster to charge up a thermal shot. The cold exposure would render the steel far more brittle so when heat and force were applied it should crack. If she were to strike the front leg of the tripod scheme, the whole structure would be thrown off-balance and left to fall forward.

Augments aligned with inhuman precision as she ran, locking her arm into the precise position for a perfect shot despite her stride, and she fired.

The heated shot punched through the metal of the front leg, weakening it enough for an eerie silence to settle.

For a moment, the A.I. thought she had made a mistake.

That was until the groan of buckling metal echoed over the chaotic yard.

Shouts of surprise and confusion called from the tower as the guard scrambled to evacuate it, not nearly in enough time, while gravity set into motion. A loud, snow-scattering crash bellowed in front of their path as the tower careened down on top of the gate, splitting it wide open for their passage. The disturbed snow pillowed out, blanketing their escape behind a wall of white and scattered ice.​

Arekk​

 

[Arekk]

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<+>----------+**+----------<+>​

"This way!"

Arekk brought up the holomap through the user interface of his cybernetic eye, pulling up schematics and blueprints of the base. The docking bay was located past the now destroyed guard tower so they wouldn't have to tread through dangerous territory for long, just enough to survive the incoming wave of soldiers.

The truly vicious circle. You get hit, you hit back. It's not only expected, it's demanded. NIO soldiers were trailing Arekk and Halcyon by the dotted line of empty shell casings that they left behind.

"It blew up. They knew I was coming, crash landed in the outskirts." Arekk casually replied while they made their move to the docking bay. They were at the back door already. "Come on, let's go inside!"

Once they had reached the docking bay's interior they would be able to spot two vessels: A XT-62 Cataphract-class Main Battle Tank and besides to its side the YT-2400 light freighter that would take them home. But all of the sudden a bomb went off, turning snow into liquid gold. A pillar of fire lifted the remains of the tank straight up into the air.

"We need to get the feth outta here! Get in the damn ship NOW!"

Arekk rushed along with Halcyon into the depths of the Corellian freighter, with him taking over the captain's seat and firing up the engines in record time. Their escape would be narrow as tanks and heavy artillery headed their way.

The ship levitated gracefully and with certain haste Arekk flew away from the base, firing his way out with the vessel's blasters until they reached the desired altitude to make the jump to lightspeed.

"Here we go!"

H4LCY0N
​

 

[H4LCY0N]

M E T A H U M A N
DR34MCH45ER
CARLAC

Right on his heels, Hal sealed the ship door behind them and hustled down the corridor to the gun chamber, where she quickly hopped over the seat and planted herself down to cover their escape. She doubted anyone or anything would come chasing after them, but she wasn't about to risk their escape. Straps secured her into position and, rather than grasp the controls manually, she overturned her hand and drew out the line threading interconnectivity into her systems. Quickly dialing in, she closed her eyes, allowing her systems to integrate into the ship. Her body was temporarily left behind, secured into the seat.

The gun mounted beyond the ship's cabin whirled about, tracking their trail for the time as they increased speed and breached the atmosphere, preparing for the jump into hyperspace.

When she greeted him next, it was over the intercom of the ship: "I knew you would find me." Her voice cooed, "Thank you for the rescue, Rabbit." She took a few moments to familiarize herself with the much older tech the ship had to offer, and when she had done as much, she came back to him. "How's your shoulder? There's a medbay on board, though I'm unsure if the bacta stock is worth checking out."​

Arekk​

 

[Arekk]

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<+>----------+**+----------<+>​

Their escape was successful, no enemy ships would seem to be tailing them. The Corellian freighter drifted through space via lightspeed with all shields engaged and in autopilot which meant Arekk and Halcyon could relax even if it was for a little bit.

"No need to thank me, Hal. I said I'd always find you." He said casually while holding onto his injured shoulder. A hole had penetrated through the fabric of both his leather jacket and the shirt worn underneath. Blood soaked through both. "It hurts but I've dealt with worse."

Arekk got up from the captain's chair to roam around the freighter's interior, checking each and every room possible. Stopping before the medbay, the slicer bopped his head inviting Halcyon along with him. He sat by the small medical bed before pointing at the glass panel behind the A.I.

"See if there are any supplies there."

Nothing but silence covered the vessel.

H4LCY0N
​

 

[H4LCY0N]

M E T A H U M A N
DR34MCH45ER
HYPERSPACE

"Right then, now that we're clear...." Her voice trailed from the speakers as she sorted her way through the network, funneling her systems right back into the vessel she had come to occupy. In her chair down the way, the replicant moved faintly, waiting patiently for her body to catch up and reawaken. The longer she was away from it, the longer it took to reactivate, though this time around, it was a bit slower than excepted. Damage could do that. Combine the exterior damage with the low power and one would have a rather discontent A.I. Such was the case now.

"Just a moment!" She called from her chair, slowly unstrapping herself and rising with the aid of the armrests, "Body is a little slow, power is low." She paused after that, marveling for a brief second at her unintentional rhyme. Huh. That was interesting.

Minutes ticked by and Halcyon finally waltzed into the medbay, drawing the spare power pack from her shirt and placing it, along with his blaster, beside him on the table. "Oh the memories," she hummed, chuckling softly as she looked him over. "Seems like wherever I go you're going to get shot, hm?" A hand reached out to gently ruffle up his hair before she drew away to open the cabinet, disregarding her "wounds" for the time being. Coolant was cheap to replace, blood? Not so much. "It looks like there is plenty for you here, what a relief." The inflections and emphasis in her words and tone had improved dramatically since he had first met her- she really didn't seem like a cold, calculating machine anymore.

That line was as blurry as it could be.

Hal seized a bottle of bacta salve, disinfectant, and a roll of bandages from the kit stowed in the cabinet and moved back over to him, reaching after the collar of his jacket to remove it. "At least it didn't puncture completely, there's a little bit of good news for you. Oh, well, besides the fact that I'm back from the job."

She flashed a playful smile.
​

Arekk​

 

[Arekk]

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<+>----------+**+----------<+>​

"Getting shot comes with the job. Besides, I like to make it a little dramatic from time to time, you know it."

Arekk laughed in pain while holding onto his wounded shoulder, his gaze locking onto Halcyon as she moved around the medbay rummaging through the medical supplies available.

They had escaped the claws of death once more but how long it'd be until they luck ran out? How many more rescue missions until something really, really wrong happens?

It made him ponder a lot.

"How are you holding up, need me to take a look at you?" He asked after realizing that Halcyon was in a worse shape than him. Being in captivity for that long would've taken a toll on the A.I. She wasn't invincible. Sometimes more human than a replicant. She could feel and think as good as him now. "I'm glad I got to you in time."

His jacket slipped away in a graceful manner and shortly after he'd remove his shirt to reveal his bare torso. Arekk's back was covered with old scars from battles of the past, you would think the slicer himself was a walking war monument of sorts.

"Did you complete the job?"

H4LCY0N
​

 

[H4LCY0N]

M E T A H U M A N
DR34MCH453R
HYPERSPACE

"I did, yes." She answered, drawing the lid from the container clutched in the opposite hand, though she paused when she was about to dunk her fingers into the contents, remembering the damage to her synthetic flesh once it was in her sight again. "Hold on. I... can't use these." Hal placed the container of salve down and tore off some of the bandages from their roll, scooping it up with that instead. This was placed aside and the disinfectant was prepped instead. "Okay, here comes the sting." Generously, the A.I. spritzed his wound with the spray, covering it to ensure no bacteria had found refuge within its inflamed edges, despite the harsh climate he had obtained it in.

They couldn't be too careful.

"I'd like for you to look me over- my systems aren't showing any severe internal damage, though it seems like my gyroscopic servo may have received some heat damage indirectly- I feel a bit dizzy when I'm standing straight." After wiping off the excess spray, Halcyon took up the bandage with the bacta salve and gently brushed it across the burn, pressing it into place tenderly as she went. "Let's get this situated first..." She kept on with it, winding the bandages beneath the pit of his arm and tucking them back under themselves securely, "...and for being a good patient-" Her lips pressed against his forehead after and she smiled, still, dusting her hands off on her leggings. "Had to inject their systems with some pretty basic malware- that's what I was working on for a bit before I left."

Gently she sat down on the table next to him and overturned her hands on her lap, laying them on her thighs to waggle the exposed tips of the metal fingers. "It was a pretty big contract, we'll be able to take that vacation we've been talking about for quite some time. Surprise." ​

Arekk​

 

[Arekk]

01001001 00100000 01110111 01101001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01100001 01101100 01110111 01100001 01111001 01110011 00100000 01101000 01100101 01101100 01110000 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00101110

<+>----------+**+----------<+>​

"Sit right here."

Arekk stepped down from the medical chair and patted it, motioning Halcyon to take over his spot. She had it much rougher than he did when it came to injuries as multiple sections of her body required maintenance at once.
The slicer carefully tended to his companion's wounds with specialized tools and whatnot, only him could perform the repairs needed to have her systems in optimal condition. Much as she did with himself, Arekk knew exactly what Halcyon required.

It didn't take him long to perform the initial diagnostics and then mend her dizziness.

"Does that feel better?" He looked at her with a quizzical expression. "Give it a try. Run a self check up."

Holding onto his bandaged shoulder, Arekk tapped some information into his personal datapad, keeping a track of sorts of the day's happenings. Treatments, supplies used, resources? All accounted for, it was easy to keep track of their spending.

"Hah, yeah! Nothing like a relaxing day at the beach on Iloh, throw in a couple of drinks and the sun resting on our faces. We've earned it."

H4LCY0N
​

 

[H4LCY0N]

M E T A H U M A N
DR34MCH453R
HYPERSPACE

"I confess, I don't understand why 'ganics love the beach as much as you do." She jested, countering his remark with a little jab, "But, I look forward to experiencing it myself." A deep, verdant orange hue swallowed the glowing lenses of her eyes, exposing the internal machinations at play beneath the surface. She was running a self-diagnosis sweep, analyzing her systems in the meantime.

"This will take a while, no doubt. You should look around and see if you can find something to eat-" She was always so concerned with that, wasn't she, "-you should eat." In the meantime, she stood up and moved over to the exam table properly, placing her damaged hands down on the surface to inspect them closely. "The synthflesh patches in the cooler at home, we still have them, yes?"

One metal finger flexed against the shredded, splintered synthetic skin it emerged from the surface of, spewing some of the off-blue liquid pulsing through her veins further. "This was supposed to be temporary anyway, the durability rating wasn't especially high, but-" Hal sighed, "I had hoped it would prove at least a little more resistant than it obviously did."​

Arekk​