Looking For Someone... (HK)

[Noah Corek]

[member="HK-36"]

Coruscant
Lower Levels

Noah sighed as he sat in the speeder looking at the entrance to a seedy bar that wasn't really different from the hundreds of bars that littered the lower levels of Coruscant but this one was different.

Two Hours Eariler
Coruscant
Upper Levels
Omega Pyre Main Base of Operations on Coruscant (OPMBOC)

Noah sighed as he walked into the briefing room and was immediately saluted by officers and enlisted in the room alike. "At ease and sit the hell down." Noah barked to the men who immediately took their seats after the order from their superior officer.

Walking up to the holoprojector in the middle of the room he flipped the switch to turn it on and immediately a image of a olive green skinned Rodian popped onto screen. "Alright listen up we have a new man on the hit list. This is the new number three after we eliminated Bendu Forez last week." Noah informed them as he transferred the necessary files to each of the presents datapad.

"This is Liton Neeku. He's a well known information broker and arms dealer/smuggler who made his name and fortune by selling both info and weapons to the Coruscant underworld. The problem is he's grown a little larger due to the chaos caused by the invasion of Coruscant and now instead of supplying the underworld he's selling his services to terrorists, pirates and mercenaries all over the Core, Mid and Outer Rim. That's why we've been contracted to find and eliminate him. We'll split up into two man teams and cover multiple areas. All pertinent info will be sent. Good luck ladies and gentlemen, and good hunting."

Present Time

Now here Noah sat with a cup of caf in the cupholder and a cup of insta noodles cradled in his lap. "You know this reminds me of a joke...." Noah teased his metal companion.

 

[HK-36]

[member="Noah Corek"],

The droid was sitting in the speeder, taking up the shotgun seat next to Noah, his long spindly legs bent and pressed up against his chest, taking up all the room he could in the tiny speeder. Apparently it was enough to question the length of the name Omega chose for its base of operation on Coruscant for the droid and Noah, two rather large beings, to end up with an overtly small speeder being assigned to them.

As Noah spoke up, HK turned his head slightly to him, his arms hanging loosely at his sides, without enough room in the small vehicle to put them on his lap,

"Oh yeah, what is the joke?"

The machine asked as he moved his fingers to fiddle with the radio, setting up the holo-transmitter to connect to Abregado-Rae's Holo-Radio frequency, tuning in to play some droid jizz while they waited.

 

[Noah Corek]

[member="HK-36"]

Noah chuckled as he began to tell the joke.

"A blonde was trying to sell her old speeder but was having a lot of problems because the car had 250,000 kilometers on it. One day she told her problem to a brunette that she worked with. The brunette told her: "There is a possibility to make the speeder easier to sell, but it's not legal."
"That doesn't matter," replied the blonde, "if I only can sell the speeder."
"Okay," said the brunette. "Here is the address of a friend of mine. He owns a speeder repair shop. Tell him I sent you and he will turn the counter in your speeder back to 50,000 kilometers. Then it should not be a problem to sell your speeder anymore." The following weekend, the blonde made the trip to the mechanic. About one month after that, the brunette asked the blonde: "Did you sell your speeder?"
"No," replied the blonde, "why should I? It only has 50,000 kilometers on it."

And this showed why Noah was paid to kill people and not tell jokes.

 

[HK-36]

[member="Noah Corek"],

((Sorry for the pause! Atrisia, it.. it was a mess))


HK turned to look at Noah as he went through his joke, listening to him in silence. When the soldier was finally finished the droid didn't said anything, he only turned back to look out of the speeder, over his knees pulled up to his chest, before confessing,

"I have so much regret in my life at this very moment."

He would turn to look at Noah again,

"So who is the target we are here for? The command did not give me any details about the mission before stuffing me into this speeder."

HK paused, searching through his memory banks,

"Leon Neeku was the guy's name?"

 

[Noah Corek]

[member="HK-36"]

Noah only rolled his eyes when HK rattled off his little joke about regret. "Oh shut up you rust bucket. You're starting to sound like my daughter." The sad part was it was a bit true, Noah's daughter Melissa refused to bring any friends over partly because her father had a weird sense of humor and also partly because she was afraid he'd shoot any of her males friends.

"Liton Neeku." Noah corrected and then gave the non-organic a side glance. "Old memory banks not what they use to be?" Noah teased.

"Anyway the guy's a scumbag. Typical info broker and arms dealer. He use to be small fish but after the Alliance took over here and pushed the One Sith out a lot of the former underworld crime bosses were killed in the process. Now he's about the third most important arms dealer and info broker in the Core and Inner and Outer Rims. Intel has it that he frequents this bar. So when he comes me and you are gonna step out of this tight ass speeder, get the stuff I have stashed in the trunk and take him down and haul his ass to jail. Sound like a plan?"

 

[HK-36]

[member="Noah Corek"],

"Old memory banks not what they use to be?"

At Noah's words the droid pointed out towards the Coruscant's walkways,

"You dislocate a guy's shoulder right now and I will have it set so fast and so good it will make your head spin."

Surely that would prove that HK still had it, either way focusing back on the task at hand the droid nodded,

"Well it looks good on paper, but if this guy is such a major target and it would be this easy to intercept him, how come we are sent to do this only now? And why did his competitors just not exploit this predictable weakness to take him out already when he was rising to power?"

The droid looked out towards the cantina's entrance,

"Something tells me things will get much more complicated than that, just be ready for action at any time."

But those missions were never as easy as they seemed and pretty much always something went wrong.

 

[Noah Corek]

[member="HK-36"]

"You dislocate a guy's shoulder right now and I will have it set so fast and so good it will make your head spin."

Noah full out burst into howls of laughter at that one. "As much as I would love to see how me going out and dislocating someone's arm and you trying to set it in literally one of the worst sectors of the Lower Levels would play out, I'll take you word for it." Noah explained to him after his laughing had died down.

When Noah heard his question he sighed and shrugged. "One of the things I loved about the old days with the Boss, Sarge, Kerrigan and Alcori was that when there was a wrong we didn't have to wait for some nerf herder politician to approve it or some general or admiral who hadn't picked up a weapon or flew a starfighter in years to give us orders. That's was one of the reasons I was glad to leave the Republic metal-head. But anyways we're doing now so better late than never." Noah admitted with a shrug.

And at his final comment Noah laughed. "HK it's the Omega Pyre. When has shit ever gone right for us?"

 

[HK-36]

[member="Noah Corek"],

"Well it could be worse."

HK answered with a shrug of his own,

"We could actually be the Republic, we still do not need to answer to the Senate, and although sure, on Coruscant we need the local governor's approval to grant us jurisdiction for the operation each planet gets to handle their own business. Hell, on Abregado it is still Protectorate law. The citizens even started to call me the Lord Protector again."

The droid looked away to scan over the building again,

"Although now I suppose it is as meaningful as when the Imperial Remnant Warlords claimed to be Emperors."

HK glanced back to Noah about his comment on the Pyre,

"That is why I am cautious to begin with, I do not know how we ever got things done with the Bando Gora or why we even bothered planning to begin with since things were out the window pretty much the moment Kerrigan started to throw her telekinesis around."

The machine motioned with his head towards the cantina's entrance then as a shadowy figure, hidden by the darkness near the bar's doorway approached the establishment,

"Is that our guy?"

 

[Noah Corek]

[member="HK-36"]

"It's the same on Fondor and Thyferra too. I can't count how many times I've been smiled at by citizens and thanked. It's good to see that they at least remember what we did for them and not just flock to the Alliance."

Noah chuckled when HK told how he wondered how anything got done. "Determination, skill and a whole lot of fucking luck, that's how we got things done HK." Which if they were to be honest that was how a lot of things got done in the Protectorate and even more so in the Pyre.

Noah looked at the figure that was entering the cantina. Grabbing a datapad from the center console and pulling up a holo image of Neeku's face. "Yup that would be him but where is his-" Noah's sentence was cut off as the unasked question was answered. Out of the two alleys next to the came Neeku's security. Six BX-Commando Droids all armed with BlasTech BTI-CC13 Blaster Rifles.

"Well shit. Guess we're gonna have to go loud then. Good thing I packed what I did."

 

[HK-36]

[member="Noah Corek"],

"It was about 90% luck, 8 determination, and then 2 skill, at one point Cira wanted me to go on sniping duty so I grabbed a submachine gun."

As the man neared the corner with a squad of BX's the droid would shake his head,

"Pwah! What are you worried about? It is just those old CIS models, and the old pre-Darkness series at that, they do not even possess ionization buffers."

HK would wave Noah's comment off,

"Trust me, to you it may be intimidating but to me it is like facing a group of old homeless grannies, we had protocol droids designed more efficiently than those guys."

The droid would reach to open the door of the speeder and push himself out,

"The only reason they are still around is because of how cheaply they can be made or acquired, just let me have a chat with them."

And with that the droid would wrap his black chameleon cloak around himself, activating the stealth mechanisms to literally vanish into thin air as it rendered him invisible to a naked eye.

 

[Noah Corek]

[member="HK-36"]

Noah rolled his eyes when he heard HK disregarding the Commando Droids.

"You do know that it is possible that just like you they've been-" And that was when he heard the door to the speeder shut "upgraded." Bringing his hand up to his face Noah sighed and got out of the speeder and walked to the trunk. Opening up the trunk Noah began to mutter.

"You know sometimes I wonder why I even try. Logic just goes right out the window." He said to himself as he pulled his gear out of the trunk. His cloak, blast vest with magazine pouches and chest holster, CQCR, M9-T11's, Honor Blade, a couple of flashbangs, a couple of frag grenades and a thermal detonator.

Slipping his vest over the infamous Omega Pyre fatigues of digitized greys and blacks Noah grabbed a few magazines from his gear bag and slipped them into the magazine pouches, a pair of them were also Tungsten Cored Rounds. Next he slipped one of his M9-T11's with a suppressor into his chest holster and slid a few mags for it into magazine pouches on the left side of his midsection. Finally he slipped his other M9-T11 into his thigh holster, put his Honor Blade into a sheath at the small of his back, hanging his grenades off of his vest and threw his cloak over him, making sure to pull his hood up. Racking the bolt on his CQCR Noah began to walk towards the Cantina with it hung loosely at his side.

 

[HK-36]

[member="Noah Corek"],

If the droid even heard Noah's complaints concerning his plans they would go unanswered and ignored.

The group of droid bodyguards following their target would disappear within the cantina, once inside Noah would be able to take in the dark, dank atmosphere of the place, sounds of electric jizz and techno-pop filled the establishement, few people were dancing on the designated dance-floor portion, most were in their booths or at the bar, either chatting it up, making all sorts of illicit deals, or just enjoying a drink in their lonesome.

The group they were tracking moved slowly through dark entrance of the club, occasionally illuminated a flash from the dance-floor to the beat of the songs played overhead. Noah would be able to see one of the droids in the back stumble slightly, as if something grabbed its leg and pulled it back, a slight manipulation by HK from one of his handy grav-gloves, giving him the ability to somewhat use telekinesis. Soon enough, a hand extended out, as if from thin air, behind the droid guard as the rest of his group did not notice it falling behind and left it. The hand touched the back of its head with a single finger and there was a soft flash of a spark zapping the other droid's head, its body went rigid and it started to fall back, suddenly grabbed by some unseen force and disappearing as it was wrapped by the invisibility cloak.

A door to the nearby conveniently-placed maintenance closet would open and close quickly as unseen presence moved inside it. Few minutes later the BX droid walked out holding its blaster rifle, scanning the room it would find Noah and give him thumbs up before moving to rejoin its group.

"Where were you?"

"Servos locked up."

"Roger-roger, get that looked at."

"Roger-roger... You prick."

"What was that?"

"Roger-roger."

"Roger-roger."

"... Roger-roger."

"Roger-roger."


Suddenly, next to Noah a pair of glowing red photoreceptors would appear before the rest of the droid materialized itself as HK dropped his cloak, slinking in next to the merc,

"Alright, I am in, copied my mind into one of his guard units."

The machine explained in low whisper. Hopefully nobody else saw any of those hijinks among the mostly dim lighting and all the distractions of a usual busy bar and club.

 

[Noah Corek]

[member="HK-36"]

Before Noah entered into the cantina he decided to grab something else from the speeder. He had decided to grab his helmet and gauntlets from his armor. Slipping his gauntlets Noah made sure to check all of his gear in them, vibroknucklers, tacpad, holoprojector, electrified whipcord and mini flamethrower. Slipping his helmet on a running a few diagnostics checks Noah made sure all his gear was secure under his cloak and nobody could see it before walking into the cantina.

When Noah walked into the cantina the bright lights and loud noises were a bit distracting and more than a bit annoying, gladly Noah's helmet had audio and visual dampeners. Taking a seat at the bar Noah flagged down the bartender, a Zeltron woman who could definetely be described as sultry. "What can I get you hon?"

Looking up at the drink menu Noah shrugged. "Surprise me." Noah grunted out. To which she smiled, winked and walked away to fix her patron a surprise. After she left Noah looked at the bottom right hand corner of his Heads Up Display where his helmets motion tracker was. While in a place this it didn't serve it original purpose it did serve the purpose of detecting people coming towards him, which there was right now.

Placing his hand on the pistol on his hip Noah was about to pull it before HK's voice came from behind him and told him what he had done. "Good. See what information you can get from the droid and what Neeku say's and then we'll plan what to do."

 

[HK-36]

[member="Noah Corek"],

"Standard stuff."

HK replied to Noah in a hushed mechanical voice as he asked about the information BX carried,

"He gives them frequent memory wipes, the bastard, so they do not carry much valuable intel, but I do know now the location of their last safe-house, the one they came here from. So, we could try to arrest him here and now, take out two of his droid guards, let him escape with the other one and the one controlled by me, and then take him in with everything he has stored in there."

The droid offered,

"Or we can just take him in right here and now, and then go to his safe-house anyway and loot the place. We could always just let him get away with it while being spied on by me in that BX, but that ruse is going to last until they will get the next memory wipe, so pretty much not long after he will get to his current safe-house."

Either way, it looked like it would all end the same way, with them going to the safehouse with or without that sleemo captured.


Meanwhile, HK-BX stood at his post with the other droids, keeping watch over Neeku as he begun making a deal regarding some deathsticks or blasters with whoever his contact there was, or started to hit on some Twi'Lek, or whatever it was shady crime operatives did in cantinas and night clubs on Coruscant.

 

[Noah Corek]

[member="HK-36"]

While they were discussing things the bartender came back and plopped down a tumbler in front of him. "You said surprise you right? Well I gave you what we call the Pyre. Abregado-Rae Lager, Fondorian Ale, Thyferrian Beer, Naboo Wine and Bespin Gin. I'd figured you'd like it. Do you want anything hon?" After taking HK's order, or more likely lack thereof, the bartender walked away to take another order.

Picking up the tumbler Noah took a sip and smiled. "Damn that is good hooch." Noah whistled and set it down only to find a set of numbers and words on the side in Aurbesh. He smiled and raised it for HK to see. "Four years from being Forty years old and I still have it." Noah chuckled and slipped it into one of his many fatigues pocket.

Taking a sip Noah turned his stool around and stealthily observed Leeku and the four droids with him and-wait, four droids? "Well we now have a unknown, fuck. I remember counting six BX's outside which means he probably has two blending in in the crowd. Alright first thing first: find those droids and eliminate them, quietly and then we'll take out two of the other BX's while Leeku retreats to his safehouse with your hacked BX and his only other guard. Sounds like a plan?"

In a twist of karma, or maybe calculated revenge by Noah, he stood and stalked into the crowd not waiting for the droids answer.

 

[HK-36]

[member="Noah Corek"],


HK looked at the numbers Noah was flailing in front of him,

"That poor girl,"

The droid muttered before looking at the waitress,

"It must be so hard, being constantly blinded by the crippling weight of her daddy issues."

He quipped. Of course when she asked the droid what he would like he probably muttered something about watching the life-force slowly escaping out of Sith eyes as he crushed them a long and silent death, then clarified that nothing and thanked her.

"Those droids are not much issue-"

HK pointed out, but apparently Noah was not interested in listening to him much as he pushed himself off of his stool and moved further into the cantina,

"They literally deactivate themselves if you push them over."

The droid did the same, pushing himself off to storm deeper into the crowds, hissing after Noah,

"And just because you added one part to my plan and then repeated the rest does not make it your plan."

Before the two split their ways among the crowds, one going left, the other right.


Scanning through the organics it would not be hard for HK to pick out the energy signature of another droid, especially since BX's were able to mask their voices and wear suits of armor as disguise, but neither really helped them out unless somehow they managed to find a club outfit that fully concealed their droid nature.

Passing by one of the patrons, who was currently busy chatting up- let's see here- a Weequay lady, sure let's give one of the more prune-y wrinkle ridden races some love, HK would grab his fruity drink in a tall slender glass, snatching it out of his hand in one smooth motion.

"Hey!"

The patron protested, without looking back HK made a side-waving gesture with his hand, activating a burst from his grav-glove to manipulate the stool the man was currently sitting on, causing it to spin and the patron to look away, being forcibly turned towards his Weequay paramour. Fortunately for most NPCs being telekinetically manipulated was enough to have them shut up, either way HK, still holding the fruity drink, pulled his black cloak around himself, activating its stealth systems as he disappeared once more.


Finding the BX a pair of glowing red eyes would appear behind it before a tall glass materialized itself, protruding from the stealth materials confines as its edge tipped just above the nape of his neck where it met and connected to the droid's torso. The fruity alcoholic liquid was poured, seeping into the join, connections, and circuitry deeper into BX's chassis.

Suddenly the commando droid begun to spazz out, flailing its limbs as sparks flew from its body with crackling noise as slowly it crumbled to the ground, trying to fight the malfunction, pushing itself off of the ground for a second before the mechanical muscles gave out, its systems shutting down.

The people around them gasped and backed away from the malfunctioning droid, creating opening that was perfect for HK's showmanship as he deactivated his cloak and cast it aside off of himself, appearing as if out of the thing air, deactivated lightsaber in one hand, tall drinking glass in the other. The crowd gasped once more as the droid knight made his appearance, dropping the glass down on the remains of a BX droid as he looked across the club towards Leeku.


Hopefully Noah would use the distraction, or already did his part, to take out the other BX droid so the two could begin tightening the noose around Leeku and move on to the next part of their plan.

 

[Noah Corek]

[member="HK-36"]

Noah scoffed when HK popped his little crack about his age. "Several things Mister I'm So Old my Original Body is a Design from before the Mandalorian Wars." Noah's voice would echo through HK's comm piece. Noah was currently sidestepping and moving through the crowd looking for the droid. In his opinion this was one of the most diverse cantinas he had seen. Mon Cal, Quarren, Weequay, Aqualish, Human, hell even a few Geonosian's and a Tusken Raider.

"One: She looks to be about in her later twenties to early thirties so not really much of a age gap." Noah informed his metal friend as he finally spotted his target at the far end of the bar close to the bathrooms. Walking past the droid making sure to look as inconspicous as possible as he walked in to the bathroom the droid was standing right outside.

"Two: Like I've been saying the could very well be updated. Just because they look old doesn't mean they are obsolete. Kinda like yourself." Noah told HK as he got into the bathroom, closed the door, turn off the lights, activated a his MFTAS system so he could see, drew his blade and cracked the door so he can observe outside the bathroom and wait for a distraction.

"And three: I never said it was my plan. I just added a part and agreed to use your plan." Noah informed him. And that's when it happened. Noah knew it was HK that caused the droid to malfunction but the crowd didn't and that's exactly the distraction he needed. While everyone was distracted Noah flung the door open wide enough to reach out, grab the door and drag it into the bathroom, thrusting his blade through it's chest twice and it's head once.

Dumping the droids lifeless corpse into the corner and walking out of the bathroom Noah made sure to slice into the electronic lock and lock the door so no one would get in and raise any alarm over the dead droid. "Two down two to go." Noah said both to himself and HK as he sat down at a card table a few meters away from Leeku and asked to be dealt into a game of Taris Hold Em Poker.

 

[HK-36]

[member="Noah Corek"],

"Oh good, at first I was afraid all of those things were going to be prepared arguments as to why it is alright for you to have relations with younger women."

The droid quipped back over the comm-link,

"And you remember when we fought the Confederacy, they had plenty of resources and newer tech, and their droids still sucked in combat or doing pretty much anything, they could not even defeat Gungans while having them outnumbered."

Either way, going back to the task at hand, the droid still stood over the deactivated vessel of a BX droid, crowd of people looking at him although his target, Leeku did not seem to notice him just yet. HK looked around at the club-goers, they stared back at him. It was then that the machine decided to improvise and busted a move, doing a little robot dance as he chanted to the people,

"Now do the HK, do the HK, do the HK, do the HK, and do the HK."

Some people joined him in doing the dance, chanting the words as well, most only stared in disbelief and decided to leave the area before the machine caused more distraction. Either way, this was going to go on for some time.


Finally the machine decided he had enough of appeasing the crowds and moved on once more, pushing past the bystanders to begun to move closer and closer towards Leeku. As the tall droid made his way towards the man, followed by a trail of complaints of disgruntled public who was forcibly moved out of the machine's way, hopefully Leeku would finally notice the being, and hopefully it would be enough to send him scurrying back to his safe house.

 

[Noah Corek]

[member="HK-36"]

Noah chuckled as he watched the semi-flash mob that HK had started. "Oh I hope this place has internal security cameras cause I am for sure spreading what you just did through the entire Pyre. That was some of the most fethed up dancing I've ever seen." Noah informed his friend and then threw a few chips into the pot at his table, not really caring what the others at the table thought about him seemingly talking to himself.

"Yeah but those were your cut of the cloth standard battle droids designed to overwhelm with sheer numbers. These are commando droids possibly upgraded to be on par with elite human soldiers." Noah explained as he showed his cards to the table causing them to groan as he won for the third time in a row.

One of the members of the table, a scarred Twi'lek stood and his hand drifted over his blaster holstered on his hip. "You're a fething cheat! That guy you're talking to on that earpiece about that Pyre shit and such is helping you!" Of course as soon as the word 'Pyre' left the man's mouth Neeku's head shot up and glared directly at the table.

Noah laughed at the Twi'leks accusation. "Dude why would I want to cheat on some low stakes card game in some Lower Level cantina? But if you want to make such accusations then things might get a little ugly." Noah informed him as he drew his own sidearm and put in on the table, smiling at the man all the while. Of course trying to prove he was a tough guy the Twi'lek reached for his gun, until Noah drew one of his vibroknives and skewered the man's shooting hand on the table.

Reaching forward Noah grabbed the man by one of his lekku and brought the man's ear to his mouth. "Listen to me. Unless you want to love your hand you'll repeat after me loud enough so the entire bar can hear. I'm sorry. I didn't know you were a member of the Kawanis Gang." Noah threatened the man. "I'm sorry! I didn't know you were a member of the Kawanis Gang!"

"I'll watch my tounge next time." "I'll watch my tounge next time!" At this Noah withdrew the knife from the man's hand and shoved him away.