Size Matters Not

[Ghorua the Shark]

The three remaining guards, one of which being the incredibly competent bounty hunter, ducked behind the doorway, dodging the Chadra-fan's bolts. The female hunter glanced behind her, most likely to bark out orders to the guards, but her breath caught in her throat.

How the Shark had snuck up behind them was his own little secret.

The two grunts were quickly dispatched, their heads slammed together by the massive force of the Herglic. They crumpled into heaps, blood quickly pooling from their concaved skulls. The female hunter went to draw her carbine, to light up Ghorua, but quick as a Force-user, he had his grip around the barrel. He crushed it easily, and waggled his finger in front of her visor.

"Leave. You didn't see anything." Ghorua grabbed a bag of credit chits, and placed it in her palm. She tested the weight, tossing it in her hand. "And I'll make it worth your while."

It payed to have a nasty reputation.

The Shark could smell her fear in the air, as she quickly pocketed the credits, and stepped out of the massive Herglics way, and began a brisk walk away. She was a veteran of Hiobbo's, but even she knew it was better to be on Ghorua's good side than the slimy Hutt.

Ghorua the Shark stepped into the room, marveling at the strange droid, and then noticing the smaller form of B'enor. He deactivated his voice disguiser, and huffed. "Quite the mess you almost got us in. You got the info?"

- @B'enor Benjeel -

 

[B'enor Benjeel]

Ben picked himself up from the floor and brushed off, as if his mechanic’s suit weren’t dirtier than the floor, which it was. He didn’t peg a bounty hunter named the Shark to be the mercy or charity type. Turned out, he was. He could have easily killed the bounty hunter, instead, Ben watched him give her a bag of credits and send her on her way. He shrugged. Whatever gets the job done.

“Quite the mess you almost got us in. You got the info?”

Walking over to the now slightly toasty terminal, Ben responded smugly, “Do I have the info? Let me ask you this, does a borgle bat’s bum pucker in a power-dive? I don’t just have one lead, I’ve got two! Sure, you could look at it like we almost got into a mess, or,” he held up a finger as if about to make a great point, “you could look at it like I found an awesome new toy.” He twitched his head in the direction of the droid.

“Say hello to your little friend,” with a flourish he pushed a button on the control panel using the finger he had been holding up.

The three-cord bundle at the back of the droid’s head popped free, the clamps holding it two feet off the ground opened, and with a heavy clunk, it landed on the floor. Small accent lights around its body started glowing orange.

The Squid’s slave programming booted up. Programming that was supposed to make him completely loyal to Hiobbo by being the first person he saw. Looks like it wasn’t going to work out like that, as the Squid was now analyzing the Shark.

An excited, cheerful male voice erupted from the Squid, “Mommy! Is that you?!” He held out his arms for a hug.

Ben stared up at the Shark, a giant grin spread out across his furry face, “You’re welcome.”

[member="Ghorua the Shark"]

 

[Ghorua the Shark]

Ghorua looked over to the tiny figure of Benjeel as he shrugged, the Chadra-Fan not voicing whatever concerns he had about the Shark's methods. Ghorua could easily guess what was tossing around in Ben's head. Ghorua didn't expect the slicer to understand. No matter what method, walk of life, species, or even faction, all bounty hunters had an unspoken respect for each other. Not many dared a life so dangerous, and there was something to be said for that. Like it or not, Ghorua believed all hunters shared a Code they didn't even know they had.

The musings of a scholar in brute's clothings.

The massive shape of the Herglic stepped into the room, inspecting the immediate vicinity. He let his slicer talk, but something strange caught his eye.

A droid.

Ghorua turned his helmet to look down at the Chadra-Fan as he talked, and then switched on the strange droid. The Shark's suit immediately picked up the energy rushing into the body of the strange amalgamation, and it fell to the floor. Ghorua absentmindedly placed his hands on his holsters, cautiously staring down the droid. Then it spoke to him, like a child.

"Erm... Okay, Benjeel, what do we have here?" Then, to the droid; "Who... Are you?"

The droid seemed to take an immediate liking to the Shark. He didn't know if that was a good thing or not.

- @B'enor Benjeel -

 

[B'enor Benjeel]

Responding to the Shark, frankly unsure, Ben said, “Well, this is… a… droid… that I found in… a lab... and I wanted it. You know, I’m really not that sure what it is, but since I’ve never seen the model, plus the fact that he was built in Hiobbo’s lab, he’s either a bounty hunter, or, an escort droid…” He looked over at the hulking, acrobatic mass of durasteel next to him, “And, based on his size and build, I’d guess he’s a bounty hunter, unless Hiobbo likes his escort droids big and hard… um, no pun intended.”

“I say we keep him. He really seems to like you,” Ben grinned, “and depending on what you’re into, and which of the two options he is, that could be good or bad.”

[member="Ghorua the Shark"]

 

[B'enor Benjeel]

ignore

 

[The Squid]

The Squid lowered his arms, “All right, you’re not the hugging type. That’s cool.”

Then, his accent lights changed from orange to purple.

A more intellectual voice came from the droid to answer the Shark’s question, “I’m Spanner, and that was Spark, though I suppose you’re referring more to this physical form as a whole than to our individual artificial intelligence’s in particular, since we haven’t yet met. In that case, I am, or… we are… a new bounty hunter porotype design. However, I get the feeling all four of us weren’t supposed to be in the same body. Fascinating!” He looked around his physical form before the accent lights changed again, this time to light blue.

“I apologize for the others, master, it seems we have unfortunately all been downloaded into the same body. Nevertheless, we are at your service.” The Squid kneeled before the Shark, “My name is Core. We are most honored to learn.”

The accent lights changed for the third and final time, this time to red. The most masculine of the voices emerged, as the Squid rose from kneeling, “All this talk is heartwarming and everything, but I say we bust out of here,” the Squid quickly shifted into a fighting stance, “then talk about our feelings… or not, either way, we should kill someone!”

[member="Ghorua the Shark"]

 

[Ghorua the Shark]

Ghorua's attention was pulled away from the droid by Benjeel's jesting mood. Ghorua gave him a slight chuckle for his troubles, and returned his gaze to the droid. "No thanks, Ben. Organics are fine by me."

Then the thing spoke.

Or, the things.

Ghorua's helmet began tagging parts and electrical outputs on the droid as soon as it began to converse, and the pieces began to fit together, both in his HUD, and in his brain. Hiobbo had been bragging for some time that he had something 'big in the works'. This must have been what it was; a droid.

Correction, a team of droids.

The Shark, after a moment of deliberation, removed his helmet, revealing his face. Round, large, dark, eyes with equal parts caution and humor. He stood up straight, all the way up to his ten-foot-five height, and chuckled. "Well then, good day to all of you." Ghorua found a bit of an authoritative edge catch his voice. "I am Ghorua the Shark. That," he said, gesturing to the Chadra-fan, "is B'enor Benjeel. We'll save a proper introduction for later, but for right now, I could sure use your help."

"We may need to use some violence to escape this palace." A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.

"Does that tickle your fancy, gentlemen?"

- [member="The Squid"] - @B'enor Benjeel -

 

[The Squid]

“Does that tickle your fancy, gentlemen?”

Responding in quick succession to the Shark’s question, Hammer enthusiastically said, “Now we’re talking! The big man’s growing on me.”

“If that is the master’s wish, I will dutifully follow.”

“Hmmm, there is likely a scenario in which we escape without getting into a firefight…”

“Don’t ruin this nerd!”

“You didn’t let me finish. I was going to say that, while there likely is such a scenario, it would be interesting and potentially beneficial to test the combat capabilities of this body. Therefore, I say, let’s do it!”

“Phew, for a second there I thought I was trapped in the same body as a sorry excuse for bantha fodder.”

“Glad to know...”

Now, humorously delayed, Spark screamed, waving his arms in the air, “WOOOOO! Totally radical! let’s do this. Look at us, our first firefight as best bros forever. Isn't this great!?”

Ignoring Spark, Hammer proclaimed confidently, “One of us should take primary. And with that settled, that one is going to be me.” He reached both hands behind his back and pulled out two assault blasters that had been clipped to his back into view, one in each hand. The other three reluctantly internally allowed Hammer to take primary, for now.

“After you, big guy.”

"It's hammer time!"

The other three rolled their eyes virtually.

[member="Ghorua the Shark"]

 

[B'enor Benjeel]

Watching the Squid’s multiple different reactions to the Shark’s question made Ben feel a little less safe about being around the droid, well, actually, a lot less safe. Surely even Hiobbo wasn’t dumb enough to put four very different AI units into the same bounty hunter droid. And yet, here all four of them were, sharing the same magnificent form. He looked over his shoulder at the scorch mark etched into the droid’s command terminal.

“Frak…” he mumbled.

This was likely going to get hairier than an Ewok trying to defeat the Empire with sticks and stones…

And then the droid pulled two fully loaded assault blasters from his back.

Who keeps loaded ammunition in the blasters of a prototype?

Oh yeah, it’s Hiobbo…

Ben looked at the Squid then at the Shark, significantly dwarfed by both, and relieved that they were on his team, at least for now.

“After you, big guy.”

“What he said.”

Ben cocked his blaster.

[member="Ghorua the Shark"]

 

[Ghorua the Shark]

Well, it appears as if I've won over the peanut gallery...

Ghorua the Shark didn't know what to think of this strange new entity.

Apparently, neither did Ben.

At least Ghorua wasn't the only slightly confused one.

"After we get out of this mess," Ghorua activated his comm to B'enor, keeping his words secret from the droid. "... We'll run diagnostics on this thing. Make sure it's safe." Ghorua brought his slugthrower pistols up from their holsters, and gestured out of the room.

The Shark jogged down the barren hallway, checking his corners. He saw a contingent of Hiobbo's guards, and growled to himself. At least eight thugs were rushing down the hall, presumably checking on the disappeared contingent Ghorua and B'enor had dispatched. With a tired sigh, Ghorua looked behind him at the pair of strange characters. "Eight. Light 'em up."

Ghorua flipped a switch on his pistols, and flipped out from his hiding spot, firing the two weapons in a cacophonous symphony. Surprisingly, Ghorua didn't strike any of the guards. The slugs fired from his weapon exploded against the walls around the thugs, each shot releasing a blast of sickly green smoke. Ghorua had effectively created a thick fog of Fex-M3, immediately sending them into a group coughing fit.

A perfect way to test the strange droid's abilities.

- @B'enor Benjeel - [member="The Squid"] -

 

[B'enor Benjeel]

“After we get out of this mess… We’ll run diagnostics on this thing. Make sure it’s safe.”

“You read my mind. Even if they aren’t crazy, the fact that there are four of them stuck in the same killer robot means they’re going to need a lot of time to sort themselves out – before I trust’em witha gun… or two. Shorty might be able to help them through that. Hopefully,” Ben whispered into his comm.

The Shark called out the incoming hostiles, before blasting the group with his slug thrower. Surprisingly, the incoming group didn’t just drop dead. Instead, noxious gas burst from the slugs, enveloped them, and instantly drove them into a mass of couching.

Before he could do anything, the droid ran past him into the hall. Not wanting to be left out, Ben sprinted toward the hallway where he saw the droid running straight toward the enemies. Emerging from the lab doorway, Ben fell into a controlled slide across the hall, during which he let loose a flurry of blaster bolts, exploding one unlucky Aqualish’s head, and hitting a Barabel multiple times in the torso, before looking behind him at the Shark, giving him a cheeky wink, and finally sliding into the open doorway across from the lab.

 

[The Squid]

Not waiting to be told twice, or once, Hammer sprinted into the hall after the big man called out the incoming soldiers, then fired off his weapons. Please don’t kill them all, he thought before emerging from the lab. Instantly analyzing the situation, Hammer’s spirits rose. Not only had the big guy not killed all of them, he hadn’t killed any. Instead, they were all in the beginnings of a serious coughing fit. The big guy really was growing on him.

Out of the four, Hammer much preferred close quarters combat. In fact, the closer the better. He wasn’t going to waste this opportunity by just blasting a few sitting ducks from down the hall. As he ran toward the group, he flipped both his assault blasters in midair to grab them by the barrels for optimum pistol-whipping position.

Just before he closed the distance, a flurry of blaster fire zipped past him, expertly exploding an Aqualish’s head and riddling a Barbal’s torso.

He swung around, sweeping a Bothan off his feet with his left leg before smashing his head in with the butt of his right hand blaster. Smoothly moving into the next attack, he Grabbed the nearby helmeted head of a Gand bounty hunter who, thanks to his helmet, was beginning to recover from the Shark’s assault, and the fleshy ugly mug of a Gamorrean guard, and slammed them together. Easily killing the Gamorrean and likely knocking the Gand out for awhile. Two Twi’lek’s each got a friendly duresteel elbow to the jaw with bone shattering force, just before a Trandoshan was met with a foot to the face and then a blaster-butt to the chest.

Standing in the middle of the neurotoxin cloud, obviously unaffected, Hammer flipped both blasters around to hold them normally. He was about to say something cool, when Spark butt in…

“Oh man! I told you it was Hammer time! That was sweeeeeeeeet. Did you see us!? The big guy was all like, eat smoke, and the little guy was all like, pew pew, and we were all like, hiyah, pow, hiyah…” Spark said moving around as if in a cartoon fight.

[member="Ghorua the Shark"]

 

[Ghorua the Shark]

Ghorua was pleasantly surprised, to say the least.

Not by B'enor, although his shooting was indeed impressive. The droid, whatever it called itself, charged forward without hesitation, a flurry of flashing metal and stray blaster shots amid a cloud of dangerous gas.

When it was all over, Ghorua couldn't help but whistle. "That was... Impressive. Fast. Efficient." Ghorua reloaded his slugthrowers quickly, making sure not to discard the unique clips. "I have to say, I'm impressed."

Then, as an aside to the Chadra-fan, "Even if they're a little green around the edges."

"Let's get out of here. I'd rather not stick around when Hiobbo finds out I've betrayed him."

- [member="The Squid"] - @B'enor Benjeel -

 

[B'enor Benjeel]

By the time Ben pick himself up off the floor and walked to the edge of the doorway he slid through, the fight down the hall, or rather, whatever you wanted to call it, was already over and the droid was making weird gestures and sounds.

“Even if they’re a little green around the edges” said the Shark to Ben.

Ben looked up at him, way up, with an expression equal parts surprise, disbelief, and amusement at the idea that the droid was merely ‘green’.

“Let’s get out of here. I’d rather not stick around when Hiobbo finds out I’ve betrayed him.”

Ben nodded, “Or that we’d stolen his droid… and turned him into an idiot savant of death.”

With that, he took out the comm connected to Shorty, who was still plugged into the palace mainframe. The best part about being a slicer, is playing with other people's stuff. “Shorty, party’s over, let’s turn out the lights and lock up, shall we?”

This time, Shorty knew exactly what Ben meant.

The palace plunged into darkness. Then the faint red glow of emergency lights illuminated the hallway. Not far away, blaster doors slammed shut, locking all around the main hall.

“When ya gotta go, ya gotta go, and I think, we should go. So, after you boss. Let’s go find your lady friend.”

 

[The Squid]

When the lights shut off, the Squid stopped his horsing around, but not because it was dark.

Awash in the dim red of emergency lights, the Squid’s own accent lights changed from orange to a cool blue. “Time to stop playing around. This is serious. We're going to look ridiculous in front of the master.” Core scolded the other three, particularly Spark, in hushed tones.

Then, he looked over at the Shark, having heard his praise. “Thank you master. That means a lot coming from you. Of course, it could have been done more strategically, and with more precision, but I suppose Hammer did get the job done quickly,” he gestured down the hall, “Lead the way. I am eager to start learning from you, and to begin our training, if you will have us.”

[member="Ghorua the Shark"]

 

[Ghorua the Shark]

Ghorua walked over to the droid, stepping over broken and bruised bodies. He smiled, the action covered by his helmet. He patted the droid's shoulder, aware that it wouldn't feel it. "I certainly will have you. But, I can't guarantee I'll remember your names."

"We'll have to come up with something easier to call you."

---​

​

The Whalebone wasn't pretty by any standard. The Yevethan Cargo ship, at this point, was almost a hunk of junk. Despite being heavily modified in the ways of steering and weaponry, the thing looked like it was about to fall apart. Ghorua had put the ramshackle machine together 6 years ago, from the remnants of his family's criminal empire. His rushed job hadn't passed the test of time, however. It would need to be replaced soon.

Despite this, it had quite comfortable seating.

Ghorua lounged on an enormous chair, at the helm of the console, simply staring into space. The three entities had left Hiobbo's in a hurry, although whether the Hutt had ever known who it was that was destroying his squads, Ghorua didn't know. Hopefully, Hiobbo would forget about the whole fiasco. Hutts had the trait of being blessedly ignorant about the lives of their workers.

He had told B'enor to run a diagnostic of their new companion in the cargo hold, then sat down, and piloted them up into the atmosphere. He'd told them specifically to not go into his bedroom, and the reason might seem apparent, if one listened. Faint scratching and barking sounds came from the door to his room, vicious and hungry.

Ghorua wouldn't be surprised if Bones ate his Chadra-fan slicer whole.

The cargo hold had a station for repairs and diagnostics of various technology, but also a few choice items. In one corner, covered by a tarp, a set of enormous weights, including a gigantic pair of 400 pound dumbbells. Then, there was a Force cage, closed off in a section of the ship, almost unseeable.

The Shark had toted too many beings to count in that thing.

Ghorua went over the comms, a bit of huff in his voice. "Hey, do we have a location for Kay? Where am I flying my rustbucket of a ship?"

- [member="The Squid"] - @B'enor Benjeel -

 

[The Squid]

“We’ll have to come up with something easier to call you.” The Shark said on the way through the palace to his ship.

Core thought for a moment then turned to Ghorua, “Perhaps you could simply call us Student?”

Accent lights turned orange and Spark enthusiastically said, “Forget Student, no, no, we should be called something really cool. Like a superhero, or…” he pondered momentarily, “a supervillain! Not exactly sure what side we’re supposed to be on. Oh! Let’s be the Fantastic Four, that has a ring to it!”

Accent lights quickly turned red in a furious response and Hammer proclaimed, “the Fantastic Four? Seriously?! That’s the best you can come up with?! What are we, four supermodels or something? Don’t be ridiculous. We should be named something that will strike fear in anyone who dares even whisper our name. We should just be, Death. Yeah, that’s perfect” he looked around, impressed with himself, “Death is coming for you.”

Red gave way to purple and Spanner somewhat cautiously interjected, “Well… we could be called the Squid? It alludes to our multiple AI’s. They’re intelligent, cunning, and deadly hunters. Plus, we can do this,“ he said as he raised his two arms, each of which quickly spawning four smaller arms each, for a total of ten, the same number of appendages of a squid.

His argument seemed to win the others over, and in a rare moment of continuity, all four agreed on something.

Coming full circle, Purple gave way to light blue, “Yes, from here on, we’ll be known collectively as, the Squid.”

 

[B'enor Benjeel]

Ben finished assembling the physical connection between the Squid and his? Their? New robo-therapist, Shorty, when the Shark’s slightly moody voice came over the Whalebone’s comm, “Hey, do we have a location for Kay? Where am I flying my rustbucket of a ship?” Ben looked up from his work for a moment, then back down to Shorty, “Our murishani pateessa [bounty hunter friend] sure doesn’t skip a beat, does he?”

Shorty whistled an agreement.

“Well, something tells me it’s a bad idea to keep the big man waiting, I better go give him the good news. You know what to do.”

Another acknowledgment sprung from Shorty as Ben collected his tools. The Squid, already powered down, would be, in a sense, coached through the various issues involved in having four controllers fighting over the same body. In reality, it was really more like a complex, elaborate, N – dimensional hypervolume matrix of ones, zeros, and other higher parameters crossing between the two droids. Despite being powered down physically, all four of the Squid’s Al’s would be communicating with Shorty the entire time. Ben didn’t know how long something like this would take, but he had a feeling it’d be a while.

Walking across the cargo hold, where they’d put the Squid, he passed a set of enormous weights much bigger than him. As he passed Ghorua’s bedroom, from which they were all banned, the sounds of scratching and barking within was enough to make him not want to go in, no matter what the Shark said.

After entering the bridge, he placed a small projector on the control panel and switched it on. A hologram of a recorded video feed came to life above it. The blue tinted video was a high angle shot, recorded by one of a nearly infinite number of traffic and personnel cameras throughout the galaxy.

The galaxy made for a surprisingly difficult place in which to disappear.

Ben started explaining that the face and figure projected had been scanned by some of the best facial recognition programing in the galaxy and that it was revealed to be, none other than, Lady Kay, without a shadow of a doubt. The odd part of the video, was that she seemed to happily walk, completely of her own freewill, into a slightly dilapidated old cloning lab from hundreds of years ago. Despite being a very old cloning lab, and despite clearly needing some work, the building was still in much better shape than it had any right to be. The time stamp of the feed also said it was recorded days after her disappearance.

“So, to answer your question, you should set course for Commenor, specifically, these coordinates, which I pulled from the video feed,” Ben said, handing the Shark a piece of flimsy on which were written the very specific coordinates for the observed building, which happened to be located in a populated coastal city.

[member="Ghorua the Shark"]

 

[Ghorua the Shark]

Ghorua turned the upper half of his body as he heard the door open, glancing around confusedly before remembering to look down.

Kark, Chadra-fan are short.

Ghorua watched a video placed before him, squinting. There she was, Lady Kay, walking into a building on Commenor, on her own volition. Ghorua rewound the recording, and played it again, looking hard. The building she was walking into was a clone factory. An old, old clone factory.

Something about the situation sent shivers up his spine.

"Kay loves Commenor..." Ghorua started, piecing together information. "She wouldn't leave a power vacuum in the government just so she could have a secret vacation at a run-down cloning facility. And I've been looking myself for months! How come I never got any reports, that she was in..." Ghorua squinted at the coordinates. "... Rockefeller City."

"I have a bad feeling about this..."

---​

​

The Whalebone exited hyperspace above a peaceful, sleepy Commenor. The lush greens and blues of the planet would mask the fear and indecision infesting the people since the Lady's disappearance. Ghorua had spent plenty of time on the planet, visiting where the Lady was last seen, looking for any clue as to where she could be, with nothing to show for it. Perhaps she had been right under his nose.

"I'll fly us down to Rockefeller," stated Ghorua, eyeing the viewport. "If you could go rouse the droids... Shorty, and... Whatever the four decided to call themselves. Octodroid, or whatever." Ghorua's mind had lingered from the conversation, his eyes blankly staring into the nothingness of space.

- [member="The Squid"] - @B'enor Benjeel -

 

[B'enor Benjeel]

“Yes captain, my captain,” Ben responded, smartly saluting the Shark before turning to exit the bridge. Clearly, the weight of the search weighed considerably lighter on him than on the Shark. A fact that wasn’t likely to change, since Ben had no history with the Lady, while Ghorua was clearly backloaded with nothing but.

As he strolled past Ghorua’s room, a sharp growl pierced through the door, startling Ben’s sensitive hearing. He jumped. “I’ve got to find another way to the cargo hold,” he mumbled to himself.

“Shorty, is our new killing machine ready to go yet?”

“Woooooop”

“Frak, even the Shark has a bad feeling about this building, we could use a hand… or ten. You sure you can’t do a rush job?”

Shorty gave an answer akin to, “Only if you want an unstable, ten-armed killer android backing you up.”

Ben sighed in defeat, “good point.”

He exited the cargo hold. Looks like the Shark and Ben would be doing this by themselves… He jumped again as he passed the Shark’s room.

“Karking beast…”

“Octo-bot? Squid bot? robo… whatever is still in therapy, it’s just you and me,” he called out as he reentered the bridge.

​

“!”!”!”!”!”!”!”!”!”!”!”!”!”!”​

​

Upon cautiously approaching what appeared to be the main entrance of the slightly worn down facility, Ben stared up at a rather large industrial door. He shrugged, looked over at Gharua, as if to say, here goes nothing, and did the only thing he could think to do when presented with a giant door.

He knocked.

Moments later, a speakeasy peephole slid open, revealing the distinctive eyes and tusks of a large Aqualish. The creature’s tusks clicked a few times before rasping in a deep voice, “What you want?” The gatekeeper’s black eyes then moved away from the Chadra-Fan, finding the infinitely more imposing form of the Shark. The Aqaulish recoiled for a moment from fear and surprise.

Ben, emboldened by the Aqualish’s brief reveal, cleared his throat and said, “We’re here to see Lady Kay and as my very large friend would attest, it's in your best interest to open the door.”

The Aqualish huffed through his tusks at the mention of Lady Kay, then let out a knowing chuckle, “You hear to see the Lady? You and the rest of the planet pateessas. She booked solid for months! Most popular chik youngee [dancing girl] we ever had. Maybe I interest you in another chik youngee?”

Ben looked up at the Shark, eyebrow raised.

[member="Ghorua the Shark"]