Private Jungle Creatures

[Inanna Harth]

Refugee Sector, Nar Shaddaa

Less than an hour ago, Inanna had gazed out at a skyline studded with starscrapers as tall and shiny as Coruscant's. Now she couldn't remember what the upper levels of the ecumenopolis even looked like, the descent into urban decay had been so rapid and all-consuming. She had never much liked city-planets—she was a jungle creature, after all—but the sprawling slums of Nar Shaddaa reminded her of a jungle. Here the sunlight didn't reach, and predators stalked their prey.

Why her niece, Ashmedai Hoole, had had run off to this Force-forsaken place remained a mystery. The teenage Shi'ido had stolen a ship, but didn't cover her tracks properly. Whether out of ignorance, or because Ash wanted to be found, Inanna didn't know. But she intended to chase the girl down and drag her back home before she could get into any more trouble.

Rainwater from last night's storm trickled over the floor beneath her feet as she walked, mixing with dirt and trash. Graffiti lined the metallic walls. Gang signs, criminal symbols. Someone had sprayed a mocking parody of the Jedi Code on a slab of duracrete.

Something stank. She wasn't sure if it was from the unwashed bodies of the vagabonds and refugees, or perhaps a sewer leak. Oh, and she was being followed. Probably someone who meant to rob her. She'd let them tail her a little while longer, until she could lose them or get them before they got her...

Cato Harth​

 

[Cato Harth]

Cato had grown well accustomed to the endless sprawl of Nar Shaddaa a long time ago. Sure, it was a broken, polluted cesspool of crime and violence, but it was his broken, polluted cesspool of crime and violence. Existing here was a skill one had to learn, and not many got more than one chance. For Cato, it was second nature. But for others…

Well, it was pretty easy to pick out a newcomer. And if it was easy for him, it was even easier for the moon's more unsavory types. Like sharks, they could smell the fresh blood in the water. And that meant Cato had to go to work.

His suit was still being perfected. Even a techie like himself had trouble working with the scraps Nar Shaddaa had thus far offered. But overall it managed to serve its purpose: Stealthy, lightweight, and most importantly, anonymous. Any longer running around beating up criminals naked-faced, and Cato probably would've found his likeness plastered across every screen on the moon, with a nice little bounty listed at the bottom.

From a walkway above, he watched the mysterious woman cross through the warren of slums, and saw a duo of unscrupulous types take the same path not long after. As expected, he wasn't the only one following. Cato moved in closer, until he settled on a rooftop just above their intended path. There was glint from one of the thug's hands: a knife. His cue.

"Head's up!" Cato shouted at the last possible moment, landing on the nearest one and ensuring his defeat with a punch to the dome. The second found his hand bound by a fibercord whip, launched from a device on top of the masked knight's wrist. Unfortunately, his other hand was still free, and the man scrambled for the pistol in his holster.

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

"Head's up!"

One of the two hooligans who had been tailing her was assaulted by a mysterious masked figure, who jumped down and knocked him out. He then attempted to subdue the other one, but wasn’t quite thorough enough.

A blaster bolt rang out. Inanna dodged it, palming her lightwhip and lashing out. The whip plucked the pistol from the thug's hand, sending it skidding across the pavement. She closed the distance and punched him in the face, putting him out of commission.

The entire encounter was over in less than a minute. Inanna turned to the masked man, frowning. “Who are you, and why did you help me?” she asked, her suspicion plain.

Cato Harth​

 

[Cato Harth]

Cato watched with no small amount of surprise as this alleged damsel in distress pulled out a lightwhip, efficiently disposing of the second goon before he could, "Damn, nice. A lightwhip?" He commented rather casually, before standing up a little straighter. Her suspicion was only logical, seeing as he was a mysterious masked man who appeared out of nowhere to attack two strangers.

The knight looked at her for a few moments, the mask betraying no emotion beyond a blank stare, "It's my job. But telling you who I am kinda defeats the purpose of a mask, y'know?" He gestured to the two lightsaber hilts on his waist, hoping that might get his Jedi nature across.

"You, though…" Another blank pause, "What's a woman like you doing in a shithole like this?"

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

“Your job?” She looked him up and down. “You couldn’t have picked a better uniform?”

She doubted Nar Shaddaa had a police force, or if they did it was an entirely ineffective one, given the rampant crime. This guy was probably a vigilante or the neighborhood watch, at least.

His next comment made her privately scoff. A woman like me. She deactivated her lightwhip. “I’m looking for someone. A runaway. I tracked her here, and I’m not leaving without her.”

Taking a step closer, she smiled, suspecting he'd respond better to honey than vinegar. “You wouldn’t happen to be good at finding missing people, would you?”

Cato Harth​

 

[Cato Harth]

Cato shrugged, "I like it. The idea is more that it doesn't really get seen." He deactivated the various lights spread across the suit, effectively making his entire silhouette look like a shadow, then turned them back on.

"Runaway? Hell of a place to run away to." The knight looked idly at their rundown surroundings. "Then again, if you're trying to disappear, not a bad call."

She smiled, and he smiled back under the suit, none the wiser to any intent to manipulate. Not like the opposite method would've stopped him from helping anyway, "The best you're gonna get on this moon. Whatever counts for police on Narsh are just glorified Hutt enforcers."

Cato mulled over the admittedly barebones description she offered, before asking, "She come with anyone? Do you know?" Going solo was a dangerous gamble. But stranger things have happened…

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

Inanna couldn’t help but be impressed at the suit in silhouette mode, her eyebrows rising and her mouth tightening in a begrudging smirk.

“Disappearing, maybe.” She sighed. “She’s my niece. War orphan from Lao-mon. I’ve been looking after her, but…”

She trailed off, unwilling to admit she hadn’t paid Ash nearly as much attention as she deserved. Maybe that was why she had left.

Her smile returned momentarily at the word Narsh, finding the shortening amusing, before fading away again as she answered, “I don’t know. It would be just my luck if this turned out to be a teenage elopement.” What a place to elope to, she thought, finding the idea more and more unlikely the longer she considered it.

“She stole a starship and abandoned it near here. My starship, to be exact.” Hence why the police hadn’t gotten involved yet. Inanna wanted to resolve the matter privately. “And I know she has an interest in taking back the homeworld. Was following a lot of fringe political types.”

Terrorists, she thought but did not say. Fal Gore, Laertia Io, those folks. Radicals.

Cato Harth​

 

[Cato Harth]

Cato listened intently, even if the suit didn't show it. The words 'teenage elopement' got a cringe out of him though, "I would certainly hope not. This would be uh, quite the place for it." He similarly thought it unlikely, but you never know with teenagers…

"You found the ship? Is it still in one piece?" He'd half-expected opportunistic scrappers to tear something like that apart in an instant. Cato put a hand up to his chin in thought, trying to piece together the information. Her word choice wasn't lost on him either. Fringe political types. He could hazard a guess at what that actually meant. The knight said nothing on that matter, however, something else she pointed out did suddenly register. "You said Lao-mon, that's…"

Cato's head cocked to the side, "You're Shi'ido?" Like he were both making an observation and asking for confirmation.

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

“It’s a tough ship. And it has defense measures to deter thieves.” Namely, an electrified hull. “If you want to see it, I can take you to it.”

Then the topic of her species came up. “Yes.” Inanna gave him a curious look, wondering why he would've latched on to that detail in particular. “But Ash—Ashmedai Hoole is her name, by the way—is a juvenile. Her shapeshifting abilities aren’t fully developed yet.”

Retrieving a datapad from somewhere on her person, she pulled up a picture of a thin, pale girl with black eyes and white hair. She could’ve passed for human, if not for the fact that she had four arms rather than two.

“It would take her hours of concentration to shift enough to become unrecognizable. I don’t think she would’ve had that kind of time and peace of mind yet.”

Cato Harth​

 

[Cato Harth]

"Hm." Cato nodded. He had simply never met a Shi'ido before (or if he hadn't, he didn't realize it). It stood out because of their unique biology and historical reputation for isolationism.

Nonetheless, Inanna ruled out his most immediate concern, "Better for us, then. A fully-developed shapeshifter in these parts might as well be untraceable."

"If you think she might have left any evidence of where she might be going on the ship, it may be worth checking out. If not, I've got a little hideout where we can try a search through the net. I've got some expertise in that field." He raised is hands to mimic typing on a keypad. "You know you niece better than I do. Your call."

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

War and genocide have the tendency to do away with isolationism. The only Shi’ido left alive in the galaxy right now had fled Lao-mon.

But that detail wasn’t really relevant. He hadn’t asked.

“I checked the ship. Nothing was amiss. Although I may not have been as thorough as I thought.” Inanna shrugged. “Might as well try both.”

She started to walk past him, heading back the way she had come, but then stopped at his shoulder. “Since you can’t tell me your name, what should I call you?” she asked.

Cato Harth​

 

[Cato Harth]

"Works for me," Cato shrugged, and gestured with a sweeping arm, "Lead the way."

She stopped just beside him, and asked what to call him. The knight seemed to freeze a moment as he considered, "Uhhh-" Was this his chance to dub himself with some kind of alter ego? A title to inspire hope in the innocent and fear in the guilty? Just like the heroes from him childhood holocomics.

Nah, that'd be lame.

Besides you can't give yourself your own superhero title.

"Shit. Just… call me Cato." His name alone wouldn't be so bad, right? "What should I call you?"

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

No fun superhero name? Oh, well. “Nice to meet you, Cato. I’m Inanna.”

She led the way back to the docks, where the stolen courier sat. Inanna had painted it black, finding the racer colors too garish.

Inside, the ship was slightly cramped. Everything was neat and tidy, as if it had been recently cleaned.

“Well, here it is,” she said, gesturing to their surroundings. “Hey, you didn’t get hurt beating up those guys back there, right?”

Not that she cared or anything. She just didn’t want him bleeding on the carpet.

Cato Harth​

 

[Cato Harth]

"Inanna…" Cato repeated, as if testing the name out. He watched her as she walked past, standing still for just a little too long before he suddenly skipped a step to catch up, "Cool."

As they approached the ship, he whistled. It was small, but (he could only assume) expensive. The knight approached curiously, only to stop when Innana asked her next question, "...Oh. No, I think I'm good. Neither of 'em got any hits on me. I did get a bit of a cut earlier brawling with this big trandoshan guy, should probably get that checked at some point-" He stopped, realizing she probably didn't care that much, "Nevermind. A-anyway, let's see; It looks pretty well cleaned out. Most everything that isn't nailed down is gone. But, maybe if we're lucky, she still left something behind. Do you mind-?"

He gestured to the main console, but waited only a moment before attempting to access its data logs. "Not much. If she did have any communications on here before arriving, they transmissions were deleted. But with a little bit of magic, I can still re-access the logs." He seemed to open up some sort of operating system, searching through hidden files to find the cache of 'deleted' information.

"Let's find out if we're lucky…" He clicked on the first file, and waited for it to load.

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

“A cut? Where’d you get cut?” Inanna asked, betraying the fact that she did, in fact, sort of care. She didn’t like people being in pain. “I have a medkit, if you want…”

"... Do you mind-?"

“Go ahead.” She watched as he got to work hacking the comms. Sure enough, it revealed transmissions received from a location on Nar Shaddaa. “Can you trace those down to the exact coordinates?” she asked.

Cato Harth​

 

[Cato Harth]

He blinked, though once again it wasn't obvious, "Oh. Um. Across my chest. Got me good with those big ass claws of his." Cato laughed awkwardly, "But I'll be fine, really. We can worry about it later. Your niece is a lot more important." A pause, which he then broke with a clear of his throat, "Thanks for the offer, though. I appreciate it."

The transmission came through, and revealed a few coordinates. "Already on it," Cato began inputting the coordinates right away into his datapad, which was itself souped up with all kinds of modifications and attachments, "Looks like… I dunno, somewhere right on the outskirts of the Refugee Sector. I've never actually been down that street I think. Most of it's vacant now."

A fact which would make for an excellent cover in the event that someone needed to attend any discreet meetings or hideaways. Cato got out of the vehicle and stretched, unable to hide a faint wheeze from the pressure on his chest wounds, "Might just spare you from taking a trip to my trash hole of an apartment after all. If she's still there, this should be all we need."

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

He refused to use the medkit, though he did at least thank her for the offer. “Maybe later, then,” Inanna said softly. “After everything is said and done.”

Cato traced the signal to a largely deserted street on the outskirts of the Refugee Sector. “Let’s go.”

She followed him out, but paused when she heard him wheeze. Her eyes drifted toward his chest, frowning, but she didn’t remark upon it. He had said he would be fine…

The coordinates led to an abandoned house. Inanna wasn’t stupid enough to waltz up to the front door, so she instead headed for the side, peering through windows clouded with dust and grime.

“Can’t see anything,” she said in a low voice. “Do you sense any life forms in there?”

She most certainly couldn't, but then Inanna couldn't feel with the Force even on a good day. Her senses might as well have been limited to just the five.

Cato Harth​

 

[Cato Harth]

Cato nodded. The offer was hard to resist. In a place with normal health services, or under the hand of someone with a little more medical experience, the injury wouldn't be so bad. But Cato didn't have that luxury, living on Nar Shaddaa and having to avoid revealing most of his injuries, for fear of a connection being made between himself and the masked vigilante. Ironically enough, he wasn't even in costume when he got into the fight with that trandoshan, but the risk was still too much of one to take, in his mind. The knight had worked off worse, right? He'd get better at sewing himself back together over time…

They tracked their signal to some decrepit home, presumably abandoned from an outside look. Cato slid up to the window beside her, and shut his eyes. He reached out through the Force, picking up on the presences inside, "A few. I can't tell if any of 'em are Ashmedai, though." An undercurrent of potential danger raised the hackles on his neck, "Seems like trouble, regardless. I'm not getting a good vibe from this group." He shrugged, "Only one way to find out, right?"

The knight grabbed a saber from his hilt, and readied himself to launch into the house at a moment's notice. He'd wait for a signal from Inanna first, however.

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

“I don’t see how you could tell if one of them was her. You’ve never met her.” Perhaps Cato was implying that Shi’ido had some special feel to them in the Force?

Whatever vibes the Jedi was getting, his solution was to charge in lightsaber blazing. Inanna stared at him.

“It’s been a long time since I was at the Jedi Academy, and I dropped out anyway—but aren’t you supposed to avoid attacking first?” she asked in a tone that was deceptively sweet. “If these people are anything like what I suspect, they hate Jedi on principle. I’d rather avoid a firefight as long as my niece’s life may hang in the balance, so…”

They needed a new plan with less violent intent. Perhaps because she was a shapeshifter, her mind leaped at once to charade.

“Would you be willing to take your suit off?” she asked. Then, realizing how that sounded, she quickly added, “For a disguise. We’d pretend that we stumbled upon this place by accident.”

Cato Harth​

 

[Cato Harth]

"Well, sometimes you can make out certain things about the people you're sensing. But I'm not getting much here," He looked at Inanna expectantly, "You're obviously familiar with her. You're not getting anything?" She commented that she had been a part of a Jedi academy. Whatever limitations there were to her abilities, he was unaware of.

Inanna had a point, he supposed, when it came to jumping in guns blazing. It tended to be the only option most people gave him on Nar Shaddaa, but he seemed to loosen some of the built up tension in his muscles, and relent to another route.

“Would you be willing to take your suit off?”

"Well when you put it like that-" Cato started, all too ready to tease her wording. He stopped almost immediately after, however, and gave the idea some thought. Ultimately, the knight was skeptical.

"I don't have anything else on me to switch into right now," He gestured to the form fitting suit, obviously with little room to store a whole spare outfit, "So unless the plan really is for me to walk in there in the buff then I'm not totally sure what good it'll be." He huffed, still not wanting to completely dismiss the idea of a less bullheaded approach. It was her niece's safety that could very well be on the line.

"Look, there are… a lot of people on this moon, that would love nothing more than a look at my face. So they can stick to a stake on their front lawn. I wear this dumb thing for protection, for me and anyone who's bothered to get close to me." Cato seemed resolute in that, if nothing else. Nar Shaddaa was home to the worst of the worst. Any retaliation would likely be extensive.

"Would you be alright going in solo? I could wait out here and eavesdrop. The second something goes south, I'm in, and they're off guard." Cato waited for some kind of response. Unless her plan involved something more in depth than he was thinking, that was the best he could offer.

Inanna Harth​