Faction Part One: Looking in the Mirror [Darkwire]

[Darkwire Cultist]

​

Reputation is everything, perception is reality, and unemployment sucks.

These are the three pillars by which Darkwire has lived by since its inception. Building a reputation by cutting off the top of a cloud cutter just to get at a vault, changing peoples perceptions by discretely removing certain people in power, and making certain that no matter what the network was decently employed by someone. The organization hated the Corporate Authorities simply by virtue of existing, but that didn't mean their money was worthless. On the contrary, since the moment they started operating on Denon they have found themselves intrinsically tied to the hip with the moral-less business big wigs, either on the run from CorpSec or doing their jobs where they can't.

That is, until very recently.

Rumors. Rumors can be a powerful ally, but when they are turned against you, they directly attack all three pillars that founded Darkwire. The right words at the wrong time can damage a reputation, and if those words spread, that perception becomes real, and now suddenly we're all out of a job.

It started with a mission no one remembers taking, a corporate kidnapping that apparently went sour, and the mark got killed. Then there were other jobs Darkwire supposedly took on, stealing illicit cargo for a gang from a rival and then dropping it the moment they ran into CorpSec, a botched corporate assassination leading to a contractor being exposed, market fraud with Darkwire running with the contractors money.

Shadowrunners no longer ran, Contractors had their contracts dried up, and they only discovered that something was wrong by following up with their old contacts. They were not happy to see them again after "their last job", and explained to the confused criminals exactly as the rumors said - Darkwire was karking up, badly, and the Underworld was tired of it. On good faith from prior business, Darkwire members are given opportunities to redeem themselves in a new job. It was running smoothly for you, until you saw them.

It was like looking in a mirror, except everything they did was wrong.

A person with your face, wearing your clothes, speaking with your voice. Who is this alternate you? And why are they so bad at something you're so good at?

OBJECTIVES:

1. Complete your job​
2. Figure out who this doppelgänger of you is
   

   • Stop them from screwing you over​
3. BYOO: If there's something else you want to explore here, write your own story.

Spoiler: OOC

Hey Darkwire!

This is intended to be the first in a series of threads revolving around the mystery of alternate versions of you running around and causing amuck. For this thread, feel free to come up with any kind of job, maybe ask your corpo writing buddies to give you one, partner up with Shadowrunners or Contractors, and just have fun! If you're a corpo, you're encouraged to hand out jobs, or possibly investigate on your own strange accounts of the same person showing up in places at the same time. Maybe you're dealing with your own identity crisis?

While on your job, feel free to encounter your doppelgänger or evidence of their presence. You can handle them however you want to, the main story here is how your character deals with their alternative version screwing up their reputation.

As for the nature of the doppelgänger's themselves, they may seem very similar to the delusions you may have had on Parcellus Minor (Nanotripping), and their motives are not entirely clear. Something seems to be bigger than them, pulling their puppet strings for some nefarious unknown purpose. You might discover through some series of actions that they are not exactly organic either, or at least not entirely. Think about replicants from Blade Runner, except they are replicating you!

If you got any questions you know who to ask!

Spoiler: Tags

Airal Thamne
Aren D'Shade
Brie Jaxx
Cassus Akovin
Chloe Santhe
Daiya
Extari Kanos
Gray Venasir
Hacks
Shira Varanin

Please take a look at our tag list here to be added!

 

[Kadora'Tra]

Reputation is everything, perception is reality, and unemployment sucks.

These were tenets that did not apply solely to the likes of Darkwire, but held just as true within the corporate world, and right now Kadora'Tra was having a very hard time dealing with the first two and dreading the third. The CorpSec Captain left the personal abode of Diviak Manfloon holding her throat, coughing just a bit. If her fur didn't catch it, one might even see her sweating.

Her meetings with the Corporate Exec have been... intense as of late.

Failure had been following her for some time now. The beach on Belazura, Sakedo Tower, getting captured with that Galactic Alliance Senator... her employment prospects were starting to diminish, and the Farghulian was desperate for a win these days. Recently, she had been busy coordinating raids on recent missions being conducted by Darkwire. To her surprise, she had been successful in the sense that the forces under her command had been succeeding. While that was enough to keep her afloat for now, what she really needed was a win all for herself.

That didn't mean she wouldn't employ every bit of help that she could muster in order to get it for herself.

"I need a few contracts written up for an investigation," She spoke into a communicator to her subordinate Kyle, "There have been... discrepancies in personnel files that Diviak is concerned about. I want to see to it personally, and I don't want anyone from CorpSec looking into it except the ones I approve of. Understood?"

"Understood Captain Kadora'Tra, I actually have a few already waiting for employment." He responded, and what he said surprised her slightly.

"Who?" She questioned while briskly walking, fixing her fur and uniform as she went. He listed off their names and her nose scrunched in annoyance.

***
​

The CorpSec Captain walked into a briefing room with a handful of contractors, some of which she had worked with before. Some whos reputations had been soured with her before... but she was desperate, and she'd take even these rejects.

"Listen up," She commanded attention to the CorpSec personnel, as well as the contractors that showed up. "Some of you I'm wondering why I even let you in, after the last time I employed you, but right now, I don't care about any of that. Right now, I need a job done, and from what I hear, you're all looking for employment." She narrowed her eyes at all of them.

"If any of you, so much as sneeze in the wrong direction, you can forget about a paycheck, I will personally cuff you to a speeder and forget about it." She straightened up.

"Any questions?" She looked down on them, exuded arrogant frustration.

@Open to any number of contractors!

 

[Venku Bralor]

Grey ears flicked at the volume of the woman in front of him. You'd think that because of her big ears, she'd know that some of them had more sensitive hearing that the humans and human like species that seemed to dominate the galaxy. None the less, she was right. Venku did need the job, even if he wasn't completely sure what he was getting in to. The force had been annoyingly vague, giving only the impression of clocks and idea of boredom. Wait and see. He almost snorted, Venku was horrible at waiting. Usually when he was stuck in one place, things tended to not so spontaneously combust.

The truth was, Venku had been hearing some odd rumors. Rumors about him and other members of darkwire messing up big time. Now, he couldn’t speak for the others, but Venku was a competent investigator. He was good at what he did and these rumors painted him in the exact opposite light. For an investigator with an already small client base, this was worse than bad. He could barely find any jobs before these rumors. Now he couldn’t find any.

Kadora'Tra​

 

[Xan Deesa]

Things have been...odd...as of late. Neon spray paint in areas she never even visited before, her handiwork -albeit a lot sloppier- on targets that weren't even her targets. Either she was doing some wacky stuff while being blackout drunk or someone was impersonating the impersonator. Safe to say, she didn't like either option. And she hadn't been that drunk in a while, so it was definitely not the former. No, this was something way off.

She wandered to the meeting place and was rather surprised by the fact that they were meeting with people they got stuck with on a regular basis. She made sure her mask was in place and her pistol's holster was unlocked. If something went wrong, she'd be ready.

She made her way to the meeting room and glanced at the other members. "Guess I'm in the right place." she commented as she took a seat next to a rather peculiar fellow ( Venku Bralor ). "Who let the cat out of the bag?" she jested, her holographic mask curling into a grin. "I'm just messing with you. Name's Xan." she introduced herself, offering him a fist to bump. Though her demeanor shifted when a kid ( Kadora'Tra ) entered and started giving them a pep-talk. She blinked as the girl chatted away but she still made sure to listen. When she was done, Xan raised a hand to ask a question.

"Did your coach never teach you how to do a good pep talk in school?" she asked her in quite a serious tone. Though a smile was threatening to break through her calm and serious facade.

 

[Hacks]

[ T H E M E ]

Aranetta slowly closed her fist, the new limbs felt far from alien to her. She missed the familiarity she once felt in her cybernetics, now feeling like a machine. Since returning to Denon with Cassus a month ago she'd cut ties with Darkwire and went underground. Vanished from the radar. She was struggling, holding memories she didn't understand, places she had never been washed over her. Was she Hacks? or something else. Distant memories plagued her thoughts; feeding tubes down her throat, suspended in a sphere above the floor, plugged into a machine by a dozen different cords, she hunched naked in a pool of bacta, scared. Someone tall and dark watched her inside the sphere, as technicians fed her information. The mans eyes seemed to glow gold, stark against his grey leather-like skin. Then he smiled, horribly sharp teeth and a black tongue.

"Hacks? C'mon mate," Puke said and it broke her out of her reverie. She turned and feigned a smile. The other punks and skinheads gathered close to her, and Pukes put an arm around her shoulder, "Midnight cafe will cheer you up," he said. She nodded and followed them down the dark streets of Denon. Foreign paths she vaguely recalled. The pitter-patter of rain gently washing over them masked what welled up in her eyes. She watched her reflection in the store front windows as the group passed them by. For a moment she thought she saw herself walk by and took a double-take. "Woah, she looks like you Hacks," Rat said, hiking a thumb towards the retreating woman with four arms and short cropped black hair. "Yeah, funny that," Aranetta said.

Hacks walked briskly, pulling close her jacket and covering her head with a spiked hoodie as the rain began to fall. She slipped into a crowd moving towards the slums. Laughter broke the dull mood of Denon and her eyes danced across the street where she saw a rowdy crowd of punks and skins, and someone who looked remarkably like her. Uneased by the sight she slipped a hand into her jacket where a blaster rested and kept walking, turning her head down to avoid their gaze. She had a job to do.

Since returning to Denon on her own a month ago Darkwire had gone dark on her. She had lost connections to their network and was trying to re-establish herself. Her access to the CryptNet was denied and no matter what she tried she couldn't break the code. She needed to find other Shadowrunners and see what happened. There was something big coming, CorpSec were out in numbers in the streets lately but her connections with insiders on the Direx Board were quiet on why.

An hour had passed and the rain began to fade, above high in the night sky, entangled in a thousand crisscrossing wires was what happened to be the top floor of a skycutter, cut clean from whatever tower it had belonged to, and now hung suspended in the air. Her old hideout. If she could get up there, back inside the vault, she had a good chance of contacting the Shadowrunners.

 

[Spark]

"Really? I do not have time for this..." Spark said as he was staring at the receiving end of a Corpo's blaster. He was standing in an alleyway cut off by three Corpos.

"I'm sorry but we have to detain you. You're wanted for kidnapping and murdering a Corporate Executive. So I'll ask you again. Come with us quietly." The leader said as he stepped forward.

Spark tilted his head, he hadn't kidnapped anyone for a while. "Are you sure you got the right person?" Spark asked as he rose his hands in the air.

One of the officers pulled out a datapad and faced it to Spark. A security footage began to play. It showed Spark pulling a VIP and ultimately shooting him when he didn't follow.

"Are you saying that is not you? Because from my view that's the same mask, outfit and arm." The officer said as he gestured to Spark's Cybernetic arm.

Spark stood silently for a moment. That couldn't be him, he would never botch an easy job like that, plus it wasn't his style to kidnap someone in full gear like that. Spark shook his head. "I'm telling you Officer that's not me." the Shadowrunner said in a calm tone. The officers stepped forward. "Looks like you guys don't belive me...well you know what they say. If they doubt, knock em out." Spark said as he knocked the blaster out of the first officer's hand and jumped back. The Shadowrunner then grabbed a shock grenade off his belt, primed it, then threw it at the patrol.

A few moments later, an eruption of electric would fill the space. The three guards would be knocked unconscious.

"Shocking!" Spark said as he crouched near the uncontious patrol. It was strange, there were rumors going around that he wasn't the only one to have an impersonator. Spark had to get in contact with Darkwire to find out what was going on.

He stood up and sighed. "Guess date night is canceled." Spark said as he stepped over the bodies. His doppelganger was out there giving him a bad name. His only hope would be to go on a mission and lure the poser out..


[Open tag]

 

[5-WCH (Switchblade)]

Doppelgänger. Copy. Duplicate. Same, yet not. That could only be one person.

5-WCH sat in a restaurant while he watched the crowd. Humans ate their food. Trandoshans played a game of Sabac. Aqualish were dealing drugs in the back. Seemed like a normal night. That was all until the notification popped up on his datapad. He looked down at it, beginning to read it. Apparently Darkwire was under fire...and lots of it.

The notification said that we needed to watch our backs. Something was going on outside of their control. People started showing up that were calling themselves by our names. Ruining our reputation. He scrolled down on the list, then in bold words he saw it:

Possible Targets

There it showed pictures of many off the group's members. Except it didn't. Even for a highly sophisticated droid he could barely spot the details that separated. Each photo had a name above it, as it was the person they were copying. He contiued to scroll until he got to his name. That made him stiffen. His two alive brothers, Fortune and Infinity, were together. They protected each other, and were on his side. There was no way that they could have turned on him. Intrigued, yet confused, he scrolled down.

The door of the restaurant busted open. Five Coruscant police officers looked around the room. One of them split off to show a photo to the waitress. The others drew their pistols. From there they searched booth to booth. So far they hadn't found who they were looking for. That was until the waitress pointed. Her finger led to me.

"Show me your hands!"

No thanks. He dropped a few credits on the table as the officers ran over. This was the exact reason he chose a window seat. Driving his left elbow into the glass it broke, shattering over him and the ground. He vaulted himself of it the building as gunshots rang past his head. In a dead sprint he ran for his ship, the Razor's Edge. A couple of blocks later he got to his ship, but he could hear the officers behind him. Quickly getting inside he fired it up. Bullets started to hit his ship's shell. No time to fight though. Lifting the Razor's Edge up he took off into outer space.

Once it seemed like there was no more trouble he pulled back out the datapad. The stars glistened out of his viewport, but it wasn't the view he was interested in. Scrolling back down he found what he was looking for:

Switchblade's Possible Doppelgänger

Slowly his Durasteel finger scrolled. He didn't want to see who it was, but he also did. The picture appeared in front of him. Silence. He sat in silence for a good minute straight. The datapad dropped to the floor. Laying on the ground it displayed a photo that couldn't be true.

It was 2-WCH. His brother. The one he watched die right in front of him.

@Open

 

[Gray Venasir]

"Wow, easy there, pal."

The end of a pistol barrel was pointed straight at Gray's face. This was far from the first time that had happened, but it was the first time that a friend had held it. At least someone Gray still considered a friend at the time of the pistol holding. It was Gray's pazaak partner Dirhka, a Duros, who was now threatening him. Which was all very strange. The two of them were good friends, and not once had Gray cheated him while they played, It was the two of them who cheated everyone else.

"What is the meaning of this, Dirk?" The Duros looked pretty mad as he stood there, the hand holding the blaster shaking. There were no one else nearby. They were in a sparsly used alley on Denon, after all. "Don't play stoopid with me, Nine-finger," the Duros growled at him. "Did you not tink I wouldn't come for you, after you left me for ded?"

Left him for dead? What was that supposed to mean? It was several weeks since thay had seen each other, since Gray had been occupied on Parcellus Minor, and then on the vacation on Belazura. "Look, I've been away for some time, you must have mistaken someone else for me." That statement only seemed to anger the Duros further. "Do not mokk me, Nine. I saw your face, your scaar, as you beat me, and took the slaves we were s'posed to free. Even put shook collars on them, you mak me sick. And what was with that little girl that was tagging along, huh?"

Not only was that wrong, it was a grave insult. Gray would never in his life take slaves. If it was one thing he hated, it was slavers, and now he was being accused of being one. But he could now see why Dirhka was angry. The two of them had often tried to play pazaak against owners of slaves, and gambled on their freedom. Technically on the slaves themselves, put they always set the slaves free after. But this imposter was now taking slaves, and making people believe that Gray was a slaver.

Gray needed to fix this, and fast. "Look, Dirk, let's just-" Gray cut of mid-sentance and grabbed the blaster, yanking it to the side. The Duros had never been very fast with reflexes, so he was pulled along with the blaster, only to be knocked out with a steady punch to the head. He fell uncounsious to the ground, and Gray knelt down next to him. "Sorry, Dirhka. I will make it up to you, but I need to find this imposter first." And with that, Gray left.

Denon was a big world, so finding a single person wouldn't be easy. And what if this imposter had spoiled Gray's reputation with Darkwire. That could not happen. He took out his communicator, and put out a message to the other Shadowrunners, telling them to double-check that he was really him if thay saw him.

@Open to anyone

 

[Kadora'Tra]

​

Kadora'Tra's eyes narrowed at Xan Deesa 's comment. Obviously, none of these scum would know that she grew up orphaned, and only became something after being taken in by CorpSec's Disaffected Youth Program. Coaches were things for school girls, and the only thing Kadora'Tra had ever been was a Cadet. By clawing her way up and through others, she had given herself power. Liberated herself from poverty by grasping every opportunity she had and clawing any opposition to pieces.

Second did not suit her just fine.

"No, she was a dick." She said flatly. She motioned with a hand, and CorpSec personnel handed papers to the contractors in the room.

"These are the persons of interest. You need to find their locations, report them to me, and keep them where they are for collection. I don't care how it's done, just get it done." Her voiced was heavily laced with irritation and arrogance.

"Do any of you have non-useless questions?"

Xan Deesa Venku Bralor @Any Contactors!

 

[Xan Deesa]

Xan listened to what the girl had to say with a smirk. "Apple doesn't fall far from the tree, it seems." she quipped to herself as she let the girl continue her speech. They were handed papers containing the details for their missions. Xan studied it from top to bottom then looked back to the girl. "Yo kittycat. Any details on who these people are? Or, more importantly, resistance we'll be facing?" she asked her on a much more serious note.

While the rest of the meeting was going on, she quickly pulled her datapad out and opened her messenger.

"Oi bish. Wazzup. You heard any of this weird shiz? Stuff like a dude impersonating you? Just checkin jf it's not my imagination.
*if"

She quickly typed away and sent to Spark before looking back to the girl. She was planning on taking this...but this thing of someone jacking her style was what really bothered her. Hopefully this CorpSec job would give her a chance to do some homework of her own...or at the very least, earn some money and rep back.

Kadora'Tra @open

 

[Venku Bralor]

Tags: Kadora'Tra Xan Deesa @open

Ears flattened and mouth parted into an almost snarl at Xan's cat comment. The vocabulator picked up the low growl directed at Xan and projected it into the room, a low rumble to human ears. If there was one thing he hated, it was someone making a jab at his species.

Snapping back to attention as Kador'tra spoke, venku found himself snorting at her comment. . She had spirit, he'll give her that. Although he wasn't quite sure what else she had. She seems to have stumbled upon a negative reputation lately too. Odd, considering that almost everything before that was in her favor. Clawed her way to the top, had a pretty decent record of success, followed by these sudden failures. Something was definitely wrong here.

"I got one." his tail curled behind him, lazy in it's movements. "How do we contact you?" It was probably a pretty simple answer, but best to cover all bases to avoid and unwanted surprises.

 

[Dara Naevo]

Dara got lucky. She hadn't been affiliated with Darkwire and their shennanigans quite long enough for anyone to go to the trouble of replicating her. It hadn't been long since Sentiri had brought her to Denon. In that time, Dara had managed to get her arm fixed up just enough to stop it from glitching; she'd had the good fortune of just enough credits to buy a glove to cover it up too. Still, it rarely lined up with her neural pathways and Dara made sure to never use her left hand to hold a blaster.

The Twi'lek had picked up a contract already, she arrived at the meeting spot in the shiny new jacket she'd yoinked from Sentiri's closet. She didn't sit down yet, she just watched the other contractors bicker and discuss the situation at hand. She reviewed her datapad - it was lightening fast, atleast compared to the old model she'd had since her Alliance days. Something about dopplegangers, none of it made much sense. She struggled to take it seriously.

Her silence was broken at the kitty cat comments, she made a breathy laugh - not quite triggering her vocabulator.

"Sorry," she said, hoping nobody paid attention to her social faux pas, "am I...the only one who...hasnt got a double?"

Dara wasn't used to this at all. She was baffled that these guys even had meetings, maybe there was something to this little gang after all. Still, she reminded herself not to trust anybody too soon. Her intentions were to work alone.

"I don't get it. Who has...that kind of tech. Who'd you piss off?" she said, looking unamused.

 

[Spark]

PING!

Spark's datapad sounded with a notification. It was a message from Xan, and Spark instantly opened it up.

"Oi bish. Wazzup. You heard any of this weird shiz? Stuff like a dude impersonating you? Just checkin jf it's not my imagination.
*if"

Spark sighed, at least it wasn't just him. He began to type a reply.

"Yes.
But I haven't met him face to face yet, and don't exactly know where he is....
But you know what they say about copycats.
They die.
Where are you?"

Spark would send out the reply. The Shadowrunner continued his way out of the alley and into the crowds. It seemed as if something fishy was going on. The man would take out his datapad again and message Xan.

"Got any extra info that might help?
Don't think locating the copycats will be easy. But maybe they claimed contracts in our names?
Thanks. Luv ya"

Spark smirked slightly as he sent the message. Now where would he find someone impersonating him. He sighed, resting his hands on his head as he walked.

Apparently this whole thing just blew up. Darkwire is being warped by impersonators, and on top of that, they're not even getting the job done right.


Xan Deesa
@Anyone

 

[Xan Deesa]

Her datapab pinged and she quickly checked the screen. She smirked at Spark's comments before typing her answer. "CorpSec place. They got sum shweet job offers atm. So I'm grabbin one while pickings are slim." she sent him before resting the datapad in her lap. It pinged again and she read over his messages.

"Should be ez pz for us. We kniw our own patterns. As for info, nothing. Where are you btw? Thinking we can work together on this if you're close enough. G2g tho, chick in charge is shouting again. Luv u." she replied to him, her smirk not faltering for a moment. She put her datapad away and checked her papers. "Well if you're done screaming like a banshee, Ima head out. I'll bug you if I find anything on this dude." she excused herself, folding the paper up and slipping it into her jacket pocket. As much as she didn't want to do anything for the girl, she needed the money.

With everything set, she left the building and glanced around a bit. She pulled out her datapad again and opened her message with Spark. "OI! Where are you?" she sent him before starting to walk in no particular direction. Once under a roof, she pulled the paper from her pocket and read it over once more.

Spark @open

 

[Kadora'Tra]

​

Kadora'Tra's eyes really couldn't get any narrower for Xan Deesa without completely closing. She had a thick skin though, and as annoying as it was to be constantly reminded of her species through "cutesy" pet names, she had to play it cool headed... as much as she could manage anyway.

"Our information is limited at the time, and resistance should be an expected given who these discrepancies are emulating. Notable members of the Darkwire organization, and even a few Corporate profiles appear to be popping up in unexpected places." The CorpSec officer elaborated as much as she could. Didn't any body read the papers she handed out? She found herself wondering.

"You'll be provided a secure com line." She waived a hand, and along with the papers, Venku Bralor and the others present would receive a small communicator, easily held in a pair of fingers. It was surprising how light weight and small the form factor was considering it was built by the corporate portion of "CorpSec".

"Not everyone has a 'double', as you call it, but the ones in reports appear to be significant in some way. We don't know yet as of this time if their is a technological component involved, but it is a possibility. The Bounty Hunters Guild for example has been known to employ high tech assassin models capable of replicating flesh to a high degree of accuracy. We need to secure these marks, and dissect them if need be. Their disruptions will end tonight." Kadora'Tra closed a fist into her palm, in response to Dara Naevo .

As Xan Deesa made her exit, Kadora'Tra grew tired of giving a briefing to criminal failures.

"You are free to leave at this point... or stay I guess if you have questions, but my patience is growing thin..." She said with her mouth in a thin line.

 

[Dara Naevo]

Dara was very intruiged by the mention of dissection. Things seemed tense among this crew, she wondered how long she might be able to tolerate them. She looked briefly at Xan Deesa, who was gone almost as soon as she'd arrived.
The Farghul was done speaking and she looked about ready to punch somebody.

"I'd wager...they are droids," she suggested, "clones...too complicated. Not worth...it. Droids better, let's hope d-droids. Nobody is...going to the trouble of cloning each of you...no offense."

The Twi'lek gestured to the door, "well? L-lets split up and look for c-clues, huh?"

 

[Spark]

Spark read through the messages Xan sent. Apparently she was at Corpsec for a job offer since they were rare these days. The Shadowrunner smirked as she said she was getting yelled at by a lady. 'That's Xan for you.' Spark thought as he made his way to her location.
Soon enough he would be coming up on the Corpsec building, Spark not wanting to be seen: stopped some distance away from the building. Soon enough Xan would exit and look around before ultimately sending a message to him again.

'OI! where are you?'

Spark smirked as he watched Xan started to walk away, pulling out a piece of paper and reading it.

The masked man would make his way to Xan and peek over her shoulder.

"A love poem- for me?" Spark let out an exaggerated gasp. "Always wanted one of those. Never got one though, think a lot of people were put off by the mask."

"That was supposed to be a joke, but y'know..." He said with a sigh. This whole impersonator thing was stressing him out. "Anyway, is that a lead of some sort?" Spark asked as he walked next to her.

Xan Deesa

 

[Daiya]

[Post Soundtrack: Off With Her Head by Icon for Hire]​

It made perfect sense at the time.

The trio of male beings, a Gamorrean with oily lips, a leery-eyed Duros, and a Human with far more hair on his arms than his head, had been on the opposite street corner. She had crossed the street to get away from them, yet apparently that wasn't far enough. The trio had gone from loudly chatting among themselves to calling to her from across the way. The Duros even held up a datapad at her, prompting the teen to quicken her pace to get out of the camera shot or whatever they were doing.

That led to the chase.

Daiya was more sickened than frightened as she ran along. Their words followed her faster than their legs, shouting out, "Hey, pretty girl!" and "Stop and turn around for us, won't you?" Cat-callers didn't normally bother her, they usually fell silent when Tawrro appeared or she slipped into the crowd, but today she just couldn't seem to shake them.

The girl wasn't sure if she had started running before or after the first blaster shot came, she was only sure of the need for it.

Her heart pounded in her chest as the girl took to the side streets, tunneling her way through crowds that the trio seemed to easily peer over. Daiya's shorter legs pumped as she ran, dodging and spinning to avoid other being in the street, trying as she might to evade her pursuers. These were her streets, her domain, but somehow the goons behind the girl had that in common with her.

Now Daiya regretted convincing Tawrro to let her split up!

The jobs had been slow in coming in, if at all. Or worse, once the Darkwire teen accepted them, the contractor suddenly pulled out or their contact never appeared. Daiya couldn't figure out why they were suddenly being ghosted. Tawrro talked about visiting with some older contacts for jobs, which prompted her to suggest some of the same. She would even consider hitting up Eiko again if it meant a return to a steady income. And the pair had always worked faster in parallel, even if that was a little riskier.

She just hadn't expected such risk to come from a bunch of cat-callers.

She ducked into a storefront, pretending to shop as she made her way towards the back. A display of datapads gave her a reflection of the front, the trio of goons stood straight in sight through the window display in front of the store, waiting for her. Daiya grinned to herself, and found an employee near the back of the store. Pulling a credit chip from her pocket, the girl placed it in her hand as she said, "I think your sign at the front needs fixing."

The store clerk nodded as she winked at the lady, passing by as the clerk went up toward the front and switched the translucent signs at the front to an opaque color, blocking the view of the goons outside.

Daiya pushed past the counter toward the back, and out through the rear door. Out in the loading space, she jumped down off the speedertruck dock, picking up her pace again in another direction. One the goons wouldn't know about.

She hoped they took the hint and called off their pursuit.

The girl couldn't fathom why they were following her so doggedly. First the ghosting for jobs, and now some street-side harassers. If this kept up, Daiya was going to have to take Jairdain's offer to come visit at the Silver Rest, and take a break from Darkwire for a while. She shook her head, dismayed at the rotten luck that led her to consider becoming a silly Force Wizard instead.

And just when she started to feel like she had shaken her pursuers, slowing down to regain her stamina again, Daiya spotted the skinny Duros poking his blue form and datapad out from a crowd again.

She ran.

He followed.

Only one this time, but one was enough. The teen was old enough to understand what could happen to her, alone and vulnerable, if someone decided she was easy prey. Daiya certainly hadn't tried to make it easy for the slimy Duros, but something was making him continue to chase her. If he was some creep looking for more youths to despoil, she had a few blaster bolts with his name on them.

Dashing down busy streets didn't seem to work. Changing directions at intersections didn't seem to work. The Duros followed her at every turn, every choice, as if he knew what she would do.

Her feet slammed against the walkway as the girl made an abrupt decision, turning back a meter to sprint into an alleyway instead. It wasn't recklessness that fueled her choice, not totally. The girl moved quickly, finding an exposed ladder on the side of the buildings still opposite her pursuer. Taking the rungs two at a time, Daiya scrambled up the side of the building upon a ladder that could take her out of sight.

Too late. The Duros entered the alley fast enough for her to catch sight of him before passing up through the bottom of the next city level. "Chit," she swore under her breath, lucky to still have enough for an expletive.

On Denon, most neighboring city levels were nigh indistinguishable from another, but that gave Daiya an advantage. When she reached the top of the ladder and stepped out, the girl quickly ducked behind the array of trash receptacles she knew would be waiting on one side of the alley. She waited, spending the time to take her blaster out of its holster. She was only going to have one chance for this.

The Duros walked past, cautious but hurried to follow his prey. He didn't know that their roles had swapped until Daiya stepped out behind him, blaster trained on his head. "Who the feth are you, and why are you following me?"

He didn't hesitate, and in a blur of motion the blaster was knocked from her hand. Daiya fell back as she lost grip on her weapon, but had the sense to roll out of the way before the goon could attack the spot where she had been. A creep, and a violent one! Just when Daiya thought her adrenaline levels couldn't raise any more, her heart shifted into a higher gear as a real fear grew in the pit of her stomach.

The teen knew she was next to useless in a hand-to-hand fight, much less against an opponent bigger than she was. She twitched, her muscles tensing as she picked herself up again, looking at the next place she would have to dodge. Left, some part of her said, and she willingly followed, watching the Duros spring to the right instead. Daiya gritted her teeth, resisting the urge to let out a sound from frustration, putting the energy instead into whipping out her holdout blaster.

She didn't hesitate.

He didn't either.

The Duros' heavy form dropped on top of her, the blaster hole through his back still smoking by the time she could pry enough of him off. His lifeless form rolled uselessly to the side as the teen pulled herself up against the trash containers, breathing heavily and staring, wide-eyed, at the body of her attacker. Her heart pounded so hard, Daiya couldn't even think. All she could do was look at him, wrapping her arms tightly around drawn-up legs, and shrink into the smallest form she could against the alley shadows.

When she could think once more, not to mention breathe, Daiya finally had the presence of mind to find the datapad the Duros goon had so faithfully pointed her way. The girl hated every sensation as her hands searched the body, a loathing that rippled through her very core. A being that had wanted something so ugly from her, even without knowing his intentions she knew they had to be disgusting. It wasn't enough that he was dead.

Daiya finally managed to wrestle the datapad out from its deceased owner, then backed quickly away from the Duros' body. She took one more look at him, her mouth fixed in an unending frown, before turning away. She only stopped long enough to collect her dropped blaster, then left the alley for good.

She didn't get far before stopping in her tracks.

Booting up the datapad as she walked, the girl started to comb through it. What she found shocked her more than a sleemo's perverted fantasies. Daiya nearly dropped the datapad in surprise, a feeling quickly followed by confusion. That only deepened as she read on, discovering a detailed dossier and a report on a contract that was never completed. One that had been assigned to someone the Duros had been instructed to find, by any means necessary.

Her.

It didn't make any sense at all.

 

[Xan Deesa]

As Xan studied the piece of paper, she felt someone sneak up from behind. With her one hand she carefully drew her blaster and angled it past her body as the stranger approached. When she heard his voice, she relaxed and gave a smile. Something was bothering him, that was for certain. She turned to face him, giving him a tap against the forehead with the barrel of her blaster. "I'm not a writer, but I can come up with something if you ask nice enough." she quipped, flashing him a wink as she holstered her blaster again. "You shouldn't sneak up on my like that, I nearly put a hole through you and my jacket." she continued as she grabbed his arm and yanked him along to follow her.

"Yeah it's a job. Pay's meh, boss is some kid desperately in need of a good ass-kicking and a ball of yarn, but it's doable. Though between you and me, I didn't know CorpSec did the child soldier thing. Not something I'm used to seeing." she explained as she walked, reading over the page. "Gotta go find this dude and secure him for retrieval. But it's the least of my worries." she continued, folding it up and slipping it into her pocket. Though once they passed an alley, she yanked him in and put her blaster up against his chin. "What's the joke I told you that night you spent at my place?" she asked him with a cold voice, using her other hand to restrain him against the wall as she threatened him.

With everything going on, she was terribly on edge. The fact that he also mentioned having a copycat was only adding to her anxiety. If her suspicions were correct, her own 'copy' was not someone that she could leave alive. She just hoped the Spark she was talking to was the legit one...

Spark

 

[Mir Nehrahn]

Objective: 3 - ish

"What the heck is that thing?" The nasal voice of the Duros interrupted Mir's observational process. The Ithorian turned to regard his tall, blue friend, standing in the doorway of Mir's laboratory underneath the Blue Flame. The Duros had an expression that Mir had come to recognize as one of surprise. The Duros mouth was open, his unblinking eyes narrowed, his posture rigid in the shoulders but loose in the hips. Mir had spent a considerable amount of time observing his friend. The powers of telepathy were beyond Mir's ability. But years of exposure had allowed him to gain insights into his friends. He frequently tried to apply those same preceptive principles to other beings but frequently found that sentients were greatly varied and unpredictable. Sometimes he was right. Most of the time he was wrong. So the scientist had ceased trying to read the body language of others.

But reading Kur and Stannon was a necessity. As his friends, they often provided him with insights on the moral quality of his actions. As a researcher, Mir always pursued knowledge, no matter the consequence. Only through the application of someone else's will would Mir's work have any perspective. But Mir cared not for such things. His only desire was to understand and create. He could not help if his product was used for something sinister or something benevolent. Kur and Stannon had much better perspective on right and wrong. They helped direct Mir in a way he simply couldn't on his own.

<Synthskin. Synthflesh.> Mir turned back to his project. The synthetic tissue looked as near lifelike as Mir deemed possible, as if a living thing had been flayed from bone cleanly and precisely and blood had solidified in place to make the clean cuts possible. What was missing was the bones, intestines, and any other organ a living organism would need in order to actually be alive. But the skin was identifiable enough to give anyone looking at the empty cocoon of imitation flesh the distinct impression that they were looking at something that could have been alive. And the skin greatly resembled the Ithorian himself.

Kur's face twisted in simultaneous horror and fascination. "Your... project?"

Mir nodded, still focussed on the synthetic tissue. "I was contracted months ago to produce a lifelike proximity of synthflesh appropriate for human and alien physiology. The contractor specifically requested something that could bleed and fool temperature sensors if need be. They were impressed enough with my initial results that they bought my designs and contracted me for the skin. In exchange for the skin composition designs, they offered me some biotech in return that was quite intriguing."

The Duros sharply pushed out a breath. "Mir. I came down here because we just got a report that Darkwire agents are seeing doubles of themselves running around. I don't suppose you know who contracted you?"

The Ithorian blinked. Doubles? After the briefest of seconds, Mir put together what Kur was insinuating. That his synthflesh designs were being used for these doubles. But that seemed like an extraordinary waste. "No. The contract was anonymous. And the technical designs I received are just designs. I never received any material."

"Well, great."