Public Limbo

[Hacks]

Far below the nauseatingly tall towers that pierced the clouds, deep in the filth and decay of millennia forgotten, where rodents as large as speeder bikes prowled and the water had become acidic, the miserable citizens of Denons lower class lived. Hacks couldn't remember how long she had been lost in this destitute labyrinth. She could hear a horrible, electrical crackle near her temple, a cybernetic implant connected to her brain had malfunctioned and was effecting her memory. She had tried bashing her head against a wall at one point out of animalistic desperation but it had only served to give her a concussion and worsen her woes.

Although time had become an abstract concept she couldn't quite grasp, becoming lost in the months or even years she had spent down here, she remembered her routine nightmares she suffered well. In the grey, foggy haze of her dreams a CorpSec officer cuffed her arms and dumped her body from the back of their speeder truck. She fell into the dark abyss between the gleaming cloudcutters. The fall should have been fatal, but by the grace of the underworlds filth she landed in month old softened garbage that had overflown an alleyway. She remembered the smell of rotten fruits, she wanted to gag and throw up but pain was overwhelming her senses. One of her arms had dislocated from the shoulder, her temple leaked blood. Her glasses had completely shattered, irreparable. The chip inside the glasses was flattened underneath her body on impact.

She wondered occasionally if those glasses could help her as she wandered the streets to beg or find scraps to eat. Her enhanced mind a mess of static interference and crashing programs. She couldn't remember where she last left her broken glasses, nor how she had come to be in that speeder in her nightmares. At times, she couldn't even remember herself. She walked the lowest streets of Denon alone, confused, scared. Had it been days, months, or years? Would she ever find her way back, or better yet, find herself?

 

[Xan Deesa]

In the sprawling ocean of networks, devices and connections of the galaxy, the depths of data that constantly flowed around her and forced her to acknowledge everything going on, Denon was the one planet that always held the most focus. It was her baby. The planet that gave her a purpose and a life. The planet that robbed her of that life and force her into a prison that felt like it would hold her forever. The planet that she felt she owed something... and the planet that she felt owed her something as well.

But of all the denizens that roamed the sprawling planet's streets, there were a number of faces and connections that stood out the most to her. Names that resonated with anyone who joined Darkwire in their fight against the Corpo regime of Denon. Hacks was one of those.

When she still had a body, Xan had barely interacted with her. The cyborg had disappeared off the face of the galaxy without anyone knowing what had happened to her. But ever since she was robbed of her body, forced to be an AI and released into the Holonet like some sort of virus, Xan saw everything. Heard everything. Knew everything. So when the familiar face passed old security cameras or sensors that fed to nobody in particular, Xan immediately took note of the girl... and helped herself into the cyborg's heavily altered body. What better way to introduce one's self than to piggyback into their systems and appear as some wacky spectral figure out of a music video in their eyesight?

In her eyesight, Xan appeared as a stuttering hologram that quickly managed to stabilize. The connection was weak and her body was severely damaged, but Xan managed to keep a faint connection. The flamboyant Shadowrunner appeared against a wall with a casual smile as she glanced over to Hacks. "Well hot damn, choom, you're actually still alive?" She spoke up, only for Hacks to see and hear. "Don't freak out or anything. Trust me, I'm on your side." She reassured with her hands in the air, hoping to not spook the girl too much. "You got some serious damage. Do you... remember anything? You know where you are?" She asked calmly as her hologram stuttered slightly. A concerned look filled her gaze as the former Shadowrunner slowly pushed off the wall and took a few steps toward her.

Hacks

 

[Saija Kwann]

I'm down in Stink Town...that was my nickname for this part of the Seven Corners known as the Suicide Slums. My buyer had to make a deal on the down low, and this place was as down low as you could get. Not many people would think to look for high tech computer hackers down in the dumps, though it wasn't unheard of.

Once the credits were transferred to my account, I had delivered the package, one of my special recipe malware apps. Now that the deal is done, I head back towards the Hollows where my partner Kronn is waiting in the speeder. He's up my exhaust port about getting the hell out of here and back to the ship.

I don't know what it is. A feeling that "Something's wrong," I mutter to myself out loud. Before Kronn can ask what it is, I cut off the commlink so I can concentrate. Underneath my cloak, my hand goes to my sidearm. After scanning the various people moving along the dilapidated city streets, I spot the anomaly...when I look down I can see a spot of blood. Then another. And yet another. It's fresh. I can smell it.

Instinctively, I follow the trail, careful not to look like I was tracking someone. Soon, I locate the source of the bleeding; it appears to be a young to middle aged human female in distress. Well, relatively speaking for the denizens of the Suicide Slums; in addition to the head wound, her gait is limping. She's holding her arm as if it's injured. Looks like she's been through a Sarlacc pit and vacced out after 1000 years. When I get closer, she smells like it too. Covered in fresh grime and trash. Even some of the other slum people give her a wide berth.

Reminds me of myself many moons ago. I shake off a distant memory and decide if I'm going to do something then I'm gonna just farkin' do it. I'm not good at this. Asking if she's OK is stupid, she's obviously not. So it comes out more liek "Hey, you don't look too good." Trying to sound helpful and not insulting.

I pause to hear your reaction, unaware of the cyber-invader in your head.

Hacks ; Xan Deesa ; OOC - you posted right before I was going to but that's cool if you all are cool with it

 

[Cassus Akovin]

Cassus had a lot to distract him these days, his life pulled in so many directions at once it was difficult to keep track. Corpos to kill, imposters to track, and emotions to sort out in healthy and unhealthy ways. There were still some days, however, when he found himself to be idle.

Tonight was one of them, scrolling through a contact list with far too many of them offline... permanently. Nostalgia had hit him as he remembered what life had been like before Xopsaloff's assassination. Before Darkwire became so bold as to cause CAD to completely collapse into near anarchy.

That's when he saw a name he had written off as dead, briefly come online.

" Hacks ? That's... not possible." Cassus rapidly cycled through emotions, always paranoid by the very real fear of imposters taking on the names and appearance of the dead. Denon was filled with digital and mechanical ghosts, and Darkwire was all too familiar with having to exorcize them. There was also the flare of hope, that a runner had returned to the shadows. He needed to make sure he wasn't imagining what he was seeing as the name came online again, so he contacted one of the only people he consistently trusted to say he was an idiot.

>> Daiya , you are never going to believe who I just saw come online. Take a look at this.

He uploaded a screenshot just in case the name went offline again, as it seemed to flicker on and off randomly.

Saija Kwann Xan Deesa

 

[Hacks]

The piercing whine of a speeder trucks siren split the sky as it whizzed past, followed by a half dozen speeder bikes. Their lights flashed bright crimson and deep blue, slowing fading into the night as it became too small to track with her eye. She stumbled down the block, at the end of the path was a clean drop a good five hundred meters down to an industrial nightmare that managed this districts waste. She figured if she could find a way down there might be food, and perhaps some tech she could pass off for creds.

Sudden sharp pain stabbed at her frontal lobe, her ear picking up the sound of faint electrical crackling. A figure appeared up ahead, near the cliff-like drop. Another holo-ad she thought with a grumble. When her chip was broken, it had enabled malware to jump and infect her cybernetics. Every now and again it presented itself as her lower cybernetic appendages going limp, which made it hard to walk around with two dead-weight metal arms. Other times advertisements appeared in her vision, blurring her sense of reality as they teased her with the allure of spice dens, underground gambling club and the occasional brothel run by the cartels.

With the hologram distracting her, she didn't even notice the white skinned Twi'lek in her path. "Hey, you don't look too good," the woman said as Hacks brushed shoulders with her, the slicer gave her an empty look and grunted. She had heard that a thousand times since she found herself like this. She didn't trust strangers. She couldn't. Many had come to her offering help, but would as soon rescind that help if she didn't do as they wanted. Some had even tried to kidnap and traffic her. Thanks to the coincidental good timing of her cybernetics malfunctioning, she freaked them out enough that they ran as her lower arms twisted around unnaturally and a dart shot from her metal wrist.

She wondered what use that type of weapon could have been to her, but the memories were a grey fog she couldn't penetrate. The holo-ad malware spoke, "Well hot damn, choom, you're actually still alive? Don't freak out or anything. Trust me, I'm on your side." Hacks paused in her stride to the edge of the slums. She was only a few feet away from the drop now, her eyes glancing for stairs or a lift to take her down, or even a garbage chute she could slide down if she deemed it safe enough - at least as safe as it could be down here. Her brow furrowed as she turned to the hologram and heard it out.

"You got some serious damage. Do you... remember anything? You know where you are?" Hacks tilted her head slightly and breathed out a slow sigh, "Fuck off," she said bitterly, "Another scrap-doc trying to coax me into their shop to strip me of my arms?" she asked. She hiked a thumb towards the white twi'lek, "She with you? Help drag me back to the shop?" Her eyes darted from the hologram, the twi'lek and the closest garbage chute that lead deep, down into the vast waste management complex. She wasn't losing her arms, not today.

Where a normal human would have two arms, Hacks raised those arms to reveal another pair below them. Cybernetic implants hooked straight into her vertabrae and connected to the chip in her head. She turned and darted on all six limbs, using the cybernetic arms to propel her faster than humanly possible. The metal fingers digging into the duracrete ground and churning up bits of stone and dust in her wake. Her lower arms threw herself towards the chute, lying her body out flat as she slammed down into a sudden dark and grimy tunnel. She slid faster and faster, months of gruel and grease from assorted garbage lined the chute, lubricating it and giving her a little too much speed than she bargained for.

Hacks knew she had to slow down somehow or it wasn't going to feel nice on her legs when she hit the bottom. Her cybernetic arms moved opposite to one another and pushed outwards against the walls of the chute. Sparks ignited the darkness, the sound of loud metal bangs trumpeted up and out the chute. Her hands ground her down to a near-halt and she began to ease herself down the chute slower this time. She could see the bottom, only a little less darker than the chute itself. A pile of garbage as large as some of Denons own buildings greeted her as she left the chute and landed atop it, queen of the trash.

Cassus Akovin | Saija Kwann | Xan Deesa

 

[Saija Kwann]

Hacks tilted her head slightly and breathed out a slow sigh, "kark off," she said bitterly, "Another scrap-doc trying to coax me into their shop to strip me of my arms?" she asked. She hiked a thumb towards the white twi'lek, "She with you? Help drag me back to the shop?"

That kind of reply was to be expected. But something is off. Like she's actually not talking to me, but someone next to me. Her follow up reply confirms it.

She turned and darted on all six limbs, using the cybernetic arms to propel her faster than humanly possible. The metal fingers digging into the duracrete ground and churning up bits of stone and dust in her wake. Her lower arms threw herself towards the chute

"Fleekin' fark!" I gasp in surprise when she engages her cybernetics, which catches me completely by surprise. She's on the move before I can say anything further.

Why in the name of the Queen Mother I'm doing this I don't know. This wasn't my first trip into the sewers running underneath the Seven Corners. I holster my weapon and strap to my nose a respirator I keep for when the smell of Stink Town gets worse than usual. Still, I hold my breath before I dive into the nearby manual access hatch separating the street level from the underbelly. The pungent stench that comes out after I lift the manhole cover makes orbak patties smell as fresh as a Naboo breeze.

As I descend into darkness, the flare of a glowrod jammed between my teeth illuminates the vicinity around me. My gloved hands grip the ladder rails as I climb down eventually hitting bottom. As I scan the immediate area for you, I call "Hey! Come on out! I'm not trying to scrap you I'm trying to help you!"

Hacks , Xan Deesa , Cassus Akovin , Daiya

 

[Daiya]

"No fething way!"

Daiya stared at the message on her screen. No fething way. The young shadowrunner checked the screenshot again, it was plainly obvious what she was seeing. It just wasn't possible.

It had to be a Corpo trick. A trap.

There was no way that it could be the real deal. Not after all this time. Someone like that didn't just disappear without warning and then reappear just as suddenly. Honestly, the teen considered, she should have expected this. Darkwire should have been prepared for the possibility that someone would take advantage and make these claims. Besides, why the feth was she taking the word of Pool Boy, of all beings?

She had to find out for herself.

Dark attire helped the teen blend into the shadows, guided only by the tiny indicator on her facemask HUD. Everything else was turned off and toned down, even her striking blonde hair was pulled back against her scalp in a tight bun. That didn't stop every hair on her body from being stiff with alert, nor did it engender the young shadowrunner from taking a cautious approach. She wore her 434 blaster openly, not slipped into one of the inconspicuous holsters her armor provided, ready for whatever tricks or traps awaited her.

She hadn't taken the direct route, but Daiya was still tracking the signal from the level above her. She was close enough that her HUD had more information, but it was still impossible to truly figure out what the figure was. For now, it was just a dot before her eyes, with readouts and data scrolling imperceptibly alongside it. In her mind's eye, the girl envisioned what she was about to face. Some imposter who had dressed themselves up as the erstwhile shadowrunner? One of the lingering doppelgängers, escaped from the destruction their brethren suffered at Darkwire's hands?

Daiya held her breath as the signal moved closer to her. It drew near at an alarming rate, and she glanced up as if able to see it. All she saw was the level of Denon around her, the filth and decay of the Suicide Slums. She let out some relief as the signal blinked out, her body fooled into thinking the threat was past.

Yet there was no doubt about it, whoever the signal was, whatever it was, she was about to face the new face of Hacks.

She pulled her weapon free and held it in front of her, stepping forward cautiously until a trash chute near her exploded with a succession of new garbage. Daiya wasn't reading her mask's display anymore, instead she was running toward the garbage pile on instinct. Driven forth by a need to meet the threat head-on, the teen set her jaw and raised her blaster toward the trash pile.

"Whatever you are, come down from there. Slowly." In some ways, Daiya's commanding voice surprised even her. So much had changed since last their roles had been reversed. When Hacks had been in charge and she was just a shadowrunner. Darkwire had started looking at her, to her, for reasons she couldn't quite fathom. Still, they needed someone to see there, so when the need arose Daiya often found herself standing in it.

"Twitch and I'll blow your brains out. Come down slow-like," she reminded the figure. This doppelgänger or ploy that was not Hacks. Couldn't be Hacks. Hacks was dead or gone now. She couldn't be willing to hesitate to whatever this thing was. "I've got a heavy blaster and I'm a pretty good shot."

Hacks Xan Deesa Saija Kwann Cassus Akovin​

 

[Xan Deesa]

Xan barely got a chance to look at the new arrival. The angles were bad and their location left her in a difficult position to spot whoever else was in the area. But she had enough to work with to figure out who the other person was. "First I've seen of her. She looks nova, though, check her out again!" She spoke up. She was about to make another comment but Hacks took off like an animal.

In Hacks' vision, Xan was gone for a while as she made her way down the chute and landed in the mountain of garbage deep in the bowels of Denon. The signal was spotty as hell but she tried to make do with what she had at her disposal. "You serious? Stand still, I can't do the realistic holograms like this." She groaned as her hologram returned, this time floating around wherever Hacks looked. Another issue she had was a severe lack of visuals. Down in the depths, there were no cameras or devices to use. All she had was Hacks' own senses to use as the cyborg moved around. It was frustrating, if she had to be honest. Though in the ocean of connections she did pick up a few devices close to the proximity. One was close to Hacks, most likely the Twi'lek from earlier... the other was Daiya. She hoped that Hacks and Daiya at least had some proper interactions... and that the girl's face looked familiar.

"Yo Daiya, it's ya Xandroid clocking in. Take it easy... she's seriously beaten up, her systems are a mess. Just... try not to spook her." She spoke into Daiya's comms out of nowhere, her avatar appearing in the corner of her HUD as well. This situation was tense and one wrong move could lead to disaster. Though her own presence was likely not helping. Having a technological omnipresent ghost invading one's mind was never a fun experience.

"Yo Hacks, take it easy. These people are your friends. You remember Darkwire? The fight? Any of it?" She asked Hacks gently. They had to cool her down... probably literally as well as figuratively. She decided on reaching out to the next comms system to infect. "Yo tailhead. Slow down, you're asking to get attacked at this rate." Her voice erupted from the stranger's commlink as well. This was going to be fun. Stuck in the head of a busted up cyborg, scaring a girl she hadn't talked to in a while... and then having to explain why a random voice was in a stranger's commlink.

Not having a body sucked.

Hacks Daiya Saija Kwann Cassus Akovin

 

[Hacks]

Hacks scrambled in the rubbish. A foul odour hit her nostrils as rotten fruit was accidentally squeezed between her fingers. She flicked her fingers and wiped the juices off on her pants. Not that it would do any good, she was incredibly dishevelled. Her clothes were a clear indication of her mental state. Her once vibrant outfit was now dull and grey from constant wear, marked by grease stains and sweat marks. Her boots were practically worn through, the soles barely present.

A glowrod in the distance warned her of her pursuers, followed by the Twi'lek shouting out, "Hey! Come on out! I'm not trying to scrap you I'm trying to help you!" Hacks was ready to hit the ground running when she heard another, softer, voice, "Whatever you are, come down from there. Slowly." Hacks glanced to the gun then back to the girl. "Twitch and I'll blow your brains out. Come down slow-like, I've got a heavy blaster and I'm a pretty good shot." Hacks hesitated for a moment, her upper arms raised in the air in surrender, but her lower mechanical arms remained firmly at her side, fingers flexing. "You're just a kid," Hacks breathed out, clearly not taking Daiya's threat seriously.

Another gentle voice prodded, "Yo Hacks, take it easy. These people are your friends. You remember Darkwire? The fight? Any of it?" Her brow furrowed and for a moment she felt as though the fog clouding her mind had lifted, triggering something deep inside of her. It had felt familiar, but it didn't feel safe. Something about Darkwire screamed trouble. As soon as the moment had passed the haze returned, a sharp electrical crackle tickled her temple. Motors in her right arm sputtered then quietly hummed, stressed. Hacks suppressed the gentle voice and directed her voice to Daiya, "Or what?" she asked, eyes scanning her surroundings. Exits, distractions. Something, anything.

Daiya | Cassus Akovin | Xan Deesa | Saija Kwann

 

[Daiya]

Just a kid? Daiya narrowed her eyes at the boisterous speaker. She didn't want to call the dirty figure Hacks yet. It wasn't Hacks, it couldn't be Hacks. Sure, it looked like the woman, down to the pair of mechanical arms underneath her real ones, and even sounded like her with plenty of that punk sass she had brought as a leader among Darkwire, but even CorpSec knew about that. Anyone with enough credits and time could pull off a convincing fake.

Besides, the real Hacks would have known how much this kid could do.

"Yeah, but I'm a kid with more firepower and better reflexes than you, I'll bet," Daiya spat back at the woman. She wasn't buying this yielding display, either, keeping the blaster trained on her adversary. Still, the sight was rather comical to her, the woman covered all in garbage and holding up her arms in surrender. It was something Daiya had never expected to be on this side of, and the mirth bubbled out of her lips. She tried to clamp down on it, but the best the teen could do was turn it to her advantage, "I saw how you flopped out of that garbage chute with all the grace of an Ortolan."

Daiya's giggles were finally cut short by the sound of, another, familiar voice in her ears.

She hit the side of her facemask with a free hand, as if that would shake off her disembodied companion. Xan's digital form was an incredible resource at times, but now it was just annoying. Daiya scowled when her actions did nothing, and as she realized how they would look to anyone else, at least grateful that she could freely scowl and stuck her tongue out inside her mask for good measure. Switching off her external speaker, the teen put her tongue to good use. "Xan, you know how far the Corpos will go to confuse us. I'd rather shoot first and fix things later."

Daiya resisted the urge to fold her arms. She missed talking with Xan in the real, it just wasn't the same talking to her voice and some creepy avatar on her HUD. Her words were laced with undirected frustration as the young shadowrunner issued her terms of compromise, "Or use some of your slice-whiz hackery to make sure she's legit. Can't trust eyes or ears anymore, Xan, and the Hacks I knew disappeared before we had the tats to prove who was real."

"Or what?"

The teen's mouth twisted for a moment, irritated once more by the woman's imitation-punk retort. She gestured with her blaster down the garbage pile, returning its aim to settle back on the woman's chest. "Or what do you think?!"

It didn't exactly take a ripperdoc to put the pieces together here.

"Feth it," she spat, willing to make one more pointless overture. "If you really are Hacks, the real Hacks, then come down. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm not a Corpo or some bounty hunter, I'm a friend." The young shadowrunner knew it was dangerous to share that, but it was the last chance she had. And she was fairly confident in her ability to shoot first if she had chosen wrong. "I'm Daiya, remember me? Remember the heist on Belazura? Remember the arena on Devaron?"

Maybe Daiya could at least stall for long enough to let Xan make absolutely sure this wasn't Hacks.

Then the trigger-happy teen would happily make good on her threat.

Hacks Xan Deesa Saija Kwann Cassus Akovin​

 

[Saija Kwann]

...She decided on reaching out to the next comms system to infect. "Yo tailhead. Slow down, you're asking to get attacked at this rate." Her voice erupted from the stranger's commlink as well.

Someone just hacked my commlink and has eyes on my position. I had deduced the wounded girl was talking to someone else back there and now that same someone else was trying to talk to me. I silently remove my commlink from my pocket and then crush it under my bootheel.

"If you really are Hacks, the real Hacks, then come down. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm not a Corpo or some bounty hunter, I'm a friend...I'm Daiya, remember me? Remember the heist on Belazura? Remember the arena on Devaron?"

I catch up to the girl, but someone else got to her first. I hold my glowrod high enough to see who it is...it's Daiya . And right now she's got the trash-covered girl in check with a blaster. From the sound of their conversation Daiya knows her, but she's also not taking any chances. Neither am I; still shrouded by my cloak, my hand once again slides downward to the hilt of my blaster. I saw what she was capable of with those mechanical appendages of hers. I set the weapon to stun; at this point I'm of a mind to just shoot first and ask questions later.

As the girl ponders the questions put to her, I whisper to you, Daiya, with a tone of concern and urgency, "Real or fake, she needs medical attention."

(ooc PS - I notice I provoked an angry emote; that was entirely in character, nothing personal)
Hacks , Xan Deesa , Cassus Akovin

 

[Hacks]

Tension was ripe. After Daiya had said her piece there was a stillness in the air. An unsettling quiet that fell over them. Hacks didn't budge. The low drone of a speeder bike passing over and the distant hum of an ancient trash compactor was all that could be heard. Hacks flexed her hands, the mechanical fingers audible as durasteel joints extended out then compressed in. A bead of sweat rolled down her forehead. The air was potent with a foul odour that could only be likened to what one would imagine Jabba the Hutt must have smelt like if he were left to decompose under Tattooines sun for a week.

"I don't know who Hacks is," she said, "You got the wrong dude." The name had felt familiar enough, perhaps someone she had once known or heard of in passing. "Just leave me alone, I don't know where Belazura is or Devaron, much less been there." she pleaded, "I don't want to have to hurt you. I'm not exactly in the business of ragdolling kids around." She was going to have to make the first move if she wanted to escape from these thugs alive. She didn't know what mind games they were trying to play but it wasn't going to work on her.

Her mechanical arms jolted for a moment, there was a sharp squeal and grinding as the cybernetic extensions flexed in a way it wasn't designed for. Her chip was getting worse. She could feel it inside of her head, a scratching sensation. Her brow furrowed, a slight wince to her eyes. She had to move, now. Then she bounded. As she had done before, she dove forward and propelled by the weight of her going down the hill of trash, but also the strength of her servo arms literally throwing her forward, she hurled towards the two faster than any natural human, she was closing the distance between herself, Daiya and Saija. Then she leapt at Daiya, all four arms extended outwards as if to welcome her in a great hug - although far from as friendly as one.

Daiya | Saija Kwann | Xan Deesa | Cassus Akovin

Spoiler

As it has been a week since my last post I will just continue, sorry Xan. I just don't want to lose wind from my sails on this thread.

 

[Cassus Akovin]

Despite being the son of one of the most technologically proficient persons to grace the galaxy, Cassus never found it easy to scour over lines of data. It was his forte to break things and find people. However, in this ever-changing environment, Cassus had to find ways to adapt to a world marred by technological replicants. Thus whenever the dead seemed to be alive again, he got into the habit of comparing the metadata associated with cybernetics. Almost everyone on Denon had some form of technological footprint on their person, and Hacks was full of footprints to choose from.

He remembered an encounter on Altier where he had tracked a similar signal of Hacks to the planet. Although he had a run-in with another Bounty Hunter after the same thing, inevitably, the trail went cold. Thanks to a friend or two in low places, he gathered some metadata before the signal was busted. He opted to keep a hold of that data at the time because he was still hoping it would help track her down and keep a baseline profile of everyone he ever met to better identify the corporate fakes that had been running around the past few years.

Darkwire and Bounty Hunters on Denon weren't the only ones to pick up on the corporate duplicates messing with everyone's reality, which made comparing his findings to an open-source database much easier. It was never intuitive for him, but he made do. He learned just enough about the subject to reprogram his Tracking Fobb to scan an individual for what he was looking for. The time it took to reprogram the Fobb is why it took a bit longer for Cassus to arrive at the scene after roping Daiya into the situation.

Arriving by swoop bike, Cassus parked nearby to the scene, seeing familiar faces. Unfortunately, he wasn't the only one that seemed to be attracted to Hack's situation. A procession of goons came marching through the deep slums with bizarre chromium scrap metal wrapped around the tops of their heads and a huge individual carrying a large backpack with strange wires and coils of metal. Immediately, a static began to fuzz over Cassus' HUD. Some kind of ranged electromagnetic interference? Digital jamming? Whatever the case may be, they began to approach the trio.

"Git dat 'borg! No lettin' it gets away dis time! We need dem Corpo parts!" One of the smaller ones hollered.

"Ah! Oh no, Corpo slaves already pawin' at our loot! Blast 'em!" Another said, pointing towards Daiya and Saija Kwann .

His helmet retracting so he could see, Cassus ran towards Hacks and pulled out his modified Tracking Fobb. He tried to get it locked on to scan her while they were in a tussle with Daiya. He only had a moment or two before he would need to intervene. With his other hand, he pulled out a blaster pistol and began firing at the chrome-domes.

"Hacks, I think you got bigger concerns than wrestling with Daiya. Those nuts want to strip you apart!" Cassus yelled over the din of everything that was happening.

Hacks | Xan Deesa

 

[Daiya]

The girl found the contours of her mouth sloping down, a growl burning in the back of her throat. She should just shoot and end this now, why was she playing with this Corpo plant? The obvious answer wasn't easy to stomach, and Daiya pushed it down beneath the bile threatening to turn her stomach. She set her jaw, her gaze locked on this woman as others shifted around her.

"Well, she's gonna need a lot more medical attention if she doesn't listen," Daiya told Saija, tensing to hold herself steady when the Twi'lek nearly startled her. The young shadowrunner's nerves felt raw today, everything was making her jumpy. If only this imposter would stop pretending she was Hacks, her day might get a lot easier.

Her day was about to get a lot harder.

A squeak escaped her lips before the young shadowrunner could regain enough of her wits to fire her blaster, her eyes flaring wide as the cyborg woman leapt from the garbage pile straight down to her! Six-limbed, the creature loomed large in her vision, and for a moment she was held aloft in breathless wonder. A wonder punctuated by two, blazing red blaster bolts that hit each one of the woman's organic shoulders. Which still left four of the limbs unaccounted for she crashed into the teen, sending them both tumbling to the ground.

Daiya grappled with her opponent, her body on automatic even as she knew it was a losing fight. It was like wrestling with a Wookiee, the cybernetic arms of the woman were relentless.

Someone screamed and cried, and the girl wished they could be quiet.

She was fighting for her life, after all!

It barely occurred to her that the voice was her own, even as her throat grew hoarse with the effort. She could hear someone talking, it might have been the cyborg, or Xan, or someone else.

It was all just noise to her.

Noise to accompany the pain she felt coursing through her body as the girl fought to keep the cyborg from tearing her apart. Daiya felt her facemask fly away, her fingers cut and bleeding as she lost control of her blaster.

With nothing else inside of her but fear and instinct, the teen's limbs flew at her attacker, kicking and hitting in a desperate attempt to rid herself of the cyborg woman. She had fallen for it, whatever Corpo plot had sicced the imposter upon them, whatever nefarious intentions it had for Darkwire —and gruesome end for the teen— they would come to pass now.

All because she hadn't shot first and asked questions later.

This time Daiya knew it was her screams. She cried out with her last ounce of effort, no holds barred in her attempt to dislodge the faux Hacks.

Nothing else mattered to her then.

Hacks Xan Deesa Saija Kwann Cassus Akovin​

(OOC: Hits called with permission by Hacks )

 

[Xan Deesa]

Things were spiralling out of control and if Xan had a body she would be strangling the lot of them out of frustration. The tailhead shattered her comm while the rest of the lot were simply ignoring the kriff out of her. If Daiya or Saija had brain implants she would have given them a very good idea on how they were getting on her digital nerves.

And of course it had to get worse. Through Hacks’ vision she noticed Saija sneaking up on Daiya. ”Daiya, the talhead is sneaking up on you.” she warned before another concern had to be addressed. ”For kriff’s sake everyone! Play together nicely, please! Daiya, it’s the real Hacks but her cyberware is karking fried! She needs help.” She broadcasted loud and clear from any and every connected device on the lot of them for them all to hear. ”And Hacks, stop being difficu-hey!” Hacks took off once again to escape from this nightmare. She understood what she was feeling. She likely comprehended it much better than most.

Then things only got worse. ”Heads up, you lot got a wild Cassus and a bunch of thugs moving in on your position.” She reported as she spotted them through some cameras. But her visuals were cut when one of them got closer. ”W-w... Dai... d-destr... backp...” her signal stuttered until her connection broke completely.

She wanted a body so badly. If there was a time she wanted to punch a wall or or a person, it was now. Herding a bunch of womp-rats would be easier than a bunch of angsty Denon teenagers all running around...

Hacks Daiya Cassus Akovin Saija Kwann

 

[Saija Kwann]

Her brow furrowed, a slight wince to her eyes. She had to move, now. Then she bounded. As she had done before, she dove forward and propelled by the weight of her going down the hill of trash, but also the strength of her servo arms literally throwing her forward, she hurled towards the two faster than any natural human, she was closing the distance between herself, Daiya and Saija. Then she leapt at Daiya, all four arms extended outwards as if to welcome her in a great hug - although far from as friendly as one.

My eyes are locked...I see it. The tips of my head tails twitch with anticipation as I begin to pull the trigger. But by the time the stun beams are there, Hacks is gone, charging like a crazed Orbak at me and Daiya ...

A squeak escaped her lips before the young shadowrunner could regain enough of her wits to fire her blaster, her eyes flaring wide as the cyborg woman leapt from the garbage pile straight down to her!

...Daiya grappled with her opponent, her body on automatic even as she knew it was a losing fight. It was like wrestling with a Wookiee, the cybernetic arms of the woman were relentless.

I can't get in a second shot, so I whirl my blaster around in my grasp, ready to pistol whip the back of your head. As my arm raises up before I drop the blow, one of those cybernetic arms "flicks" me away like a bug. To me it feels like getting kicked by an Orbak and I go careening a few meters away, winded and stunned from the viscious blow. My glowstick and blaster fly out of my hands as well.

Arriving by swoop bike, Cassus parked nearby to the scene, seeing familiar faces. Unfortunately, he wasn't the only one that seemed to be attracted to Hack's situation. A procession of goons came marching through the deep slums with bizarre chromium scrap metal wrapped around the tops of their heads and a huge individual carrying a large backpack with strange wires and coils of metal. Immediately, a static began to fuzz over Cassus' HUD. Some kind of ranged electromagnetic interference? Digital jamming? Whatever the case may be, they began to approach the trio.

"Git dat 'borg! No lettin' it gets away dis time! We need dem Corpo parts!" One of the smaller ones hollered.

"Ah! Oh no, Corpo slaves already pawin' at our loot! Blast 'em!" Another said, pointing towards Daiya and Saija.

His helmet retracting so he could see, Cassus ran towards Hacks and pulled out his modified Tracking Fobb. He tried to get it locked on to scan her while they were in a tussle with Daiya. He only had a moment or two before he would need to intervene. With his other hand, he pulled out a blaster pistol and began firing at the chrome-domes.

"Hacks, I think you got bigger concerns than wrestling with Daiya. Those nuts want to strip you apart!"

As I'm recovering, my hands are on the ground searching blindly for my weapon in the dimly lit trash dump. And now we've got more company, both good and bad. But I don't have time to exchange pleasantries with Cassus Akovin as he and the new arrivals begin shooting at each other. "Fleekin Fark!" I curse as I dive for cover.

While some of the creeps concentrate on Cassus, a few others begin to fan out, trying to get to me. Force knows what they would do with a dancer. The only thing I've got to use is an ion spike in my utility vest. I keep to the dark shadows as the goons search. When one of them walks past me, I sneak up and stab him in the back with the slicer's hardware. The sudden burst of voltage acts like a stun baton and he seizes up immediately, firing off a wild shot that whizzes by his own guys. I've only got a moment to disarm his blaster, but once it's in my hands he's out of commission...

 

[Hacks]

Hacks leapt at Daiya, in an instant the blaster barked out two shots. Superheated plasma raced towards her quicker than she could react. The first skimmed her shoulder, scorching her jacket with a red hot mark where it had brushed her, she wasn't so lucky with the other. In an instant jacket and flesh melted and instantly cauterized the wound. The sheer white of her shoulder bone, now marked black with burnt flesh and muscle, stuck out where her shoulder had once been. Her right arm instantly fell limp and she shrieked as she collided into Daiya.

Adrenaline shot through her, but hardly enough to keep her to focus for long. This was a losing fight, she knew it. Her cybernetic arms furiously whipped about at Daiya in animalistic desperation, clawing and whacking her. Any coordination for a proper fight had gone out the window through the pain. She halted only for a second to see the shadow of Saija approaching from behind, Hacks spun an arm around just long enough to hit the Twi'lek with unnatural cybernetic strength, sending the woman flying into the trash. It must have looked as though a child carelessly throwing a doll away with the ease she had performed the action.

Then she was back on Daiya. Hacks needed to move, now. She wasn't looking to kill the kid. Cybernetic arms reached down and gripped the girl and hurled her away. Hacks stood on trembling legs and took a step forward, seeing Cassus and the others. For a moment she wondered what had happened to the hologram that was speaking to her. Her eyes looking around grew dark and heavy. Another step forward, she began to careen and she fell into the trash face first. Lights out.

 

[Daiya]

Her whole body cried out.

The cyborg woman was impossibly strong, leaving Daiya's efforts to resist only harmful to herself. Her flesh scraped mercilessly against the unforgiving metal arms that assaulted her, opening cuts and forming bruises where it met against the faux Hacks. There was little reprieve, just once when Saija approached again and was flung away, which only afforded the teen a moment to spot the woman's wounds.

Daiya's shooting had burnt apart one of the woman's shoulders. She didn't have time to register the revulsion in her stomach at the sight of rendered flesh and muscle, the young shadowrunner's only thought was to drive home her closest arm, fortunately her dominant arm, into the spot where her blaster had done its work. "Get the feth off me, you 'borg schutta!"

Faux Hacks did not like that very much.

She screamed as the woman's last act was to launch her through the air, tossing her as casually as a piece of trash. Daiya felt her hip impact, and then her body spun as she landed at an off angle on the bottom of the trash heap.

Daiya's legs climbed up the side of the pile while the rest of her laid sprawled on the ground. Every part of her hurt, but she gasped first with urgency to refill her lungs. Only then could she register the violent pain spreading out from her hip, lighting every nerve of her bloodied and beaten body on fire.

She screamed once again. After that, Daiya had little air left to do much more than cry. She gasped between sobs, her chest heaving upside down on the trash pile, wanting only to lay there forever until she didn't hurt anymore. Her mind would not let her rest, though, wired with survival instincts on high alert, it whipped her eyes around to survey the scene and prepare for the woman's renewed attack.

An attack which wasn't about to come. The woman was laying on another part of the trash pile, planted face-first into some of the nastiest garbage Denon could produce. Daiya could barely muster a hint of satisfaction at the sight, her eyes were still moving and hunting. They found a bunch of goons facing a familiar figure who was shooting at them.

"Cassus?"

The noise came out as a croak, barely audible to her own ears. Daiya was fighting through her pain and tears enough to try to speak any more. Instead, she tried to stand up.

Her hip did not like that very much.

Waves of pain rolled over her, starting another round of tears. But the girl couldn't just wallow again, they were all in trouble if she didn't help Cassus fight off...who was he fighting? She couldn't make out what they were, beyond strange. It was the last thing on her mind as she rolled tortuously over onto her stomach, and then lifted herself up with her hands.

Daiya crawled, whimpering and hobbling with a hip that screeched every time she put weight on it, to where her blaster had fallen away. Her sole arm and leg gave way as she reached for it, and the teen barely cared. Her fingers wrapped around the handle of her trusty weapon, and the young shadowrunner brought it out in front of her as she rolled again, over her good hip this time, to get a good shot at her targets.

All of the rage and pain she felt poured into her weapon as Daiya fired again and again, screaming, until her blaster ran out of gas.

Hacks Xan Deesa Saija Kwann Cassus Akovin​

 

[Saija Kwann]

I look back to the trashy cybergirl ( Hacks ) who had swatted me away like a bug and to Daiya ; the former looked incapacitated, the latter was unloading her blaster pistol at the thugs. One of her shots hit the strange antenna array strapped to their backs...I recoginized it as some kind of jury-rigged hyper-frequency scrambler. I join in with Daiya in the shooting, aiming squarely for each guy's jamming equipment as they tried to run for cover. Between our shooting there wasn't much chance of them getting away. And that wasn't factoring in Cassus Akovin , who had taken his own fight to the cyber thugs trying to strip us of anything they could use or sell.

When things settle, I check on Daiya and the girl on the ground. "Are you ok? We should think about getting the fark out of here. And get her to a bacta tank. Maybe you too."

 

[Daiya]

The blaster clicked with an empty chamber.

She still pulled the trigger a few more times. Her frustration bled out into the blaster, into the shots that had taken down the goons. They lay, limp or lifeless, on the street now, yet the teen still felt like screaming. Her throat was hoarse, but her body was still wracked with pain. It coursed through her, making her pull the trigger a few more times.

Daiya laid her head on the unforgiving street. Its putrid smells and greasy texture lit her senses on fire, though her head stayed still. She was too angry, too hurt to care. The teen had been in circumstances like this before, but always with someone who rushed immediately to take care of her. This time, she just laid sprawled on the street, whimpering softly until the Twi'lek approached.

"Yeah, I think I'll be—" a squeak at the back of her throat caught the girl midway through her rise. Daiya collapsed back onto the ground again, groaning at the sharp pain that raced through her side again. Her hip was on fire, and it made her head feel fuzzy. "Not okay."

The young shadowrunner hated admitting it. She hated the helplessness, the whimpering. Even the satisfaction of putting down the mob of goons, whoever the feth they were, didn't balance out the sheer amount of useless she was in the moment. The teen bit her lip, and it felt like just a pinprick next to her hip. Still, it was something she could focus on, and the teen used it.

Pulling at her satchel, groaning all the while, Daiya managed to get out her datapad. Sturdier than her last, and swaddled in a cloth to protect it, the device had survived the onslaught of Hacks and her most recent attempt at flight. Relief barely registered on her mind, the girl thumbed through her contacts until she hovered over one in particular.

Doc Painless

Her thumb mashed the key, and she composed a quick message to him with their location. Sent via the CryptNet, but with her highest level of urgency —ALL CAPS and four exclamation points!!!!— the girl hoped the doc would see it soon.

Daiya looked up at Saija and Cassus, both still up and walking. Pain etched across her face, but she bit her lip harder to keep from outright crying. Calling to one of them, the teen reached out her hand. She hadn't realized yet how much it trembled. "Can you help me up? Just over to those boxes?"

Hacks Xan Deesa Saija Kwann Cassus Akovin​