Private The New Hope

[Darth Themis]

Meanwhile, in orbit above Kashyyyk...

Only a single thing had escaped the vision of Darth Themis that day.

A certain hyper advanced Android that had come to the world in order to find some form of closure.

She was a one of a kind achievement. A triumph that her creator had never succeeded in truly replicating, due to being designed and created during a mentally unbalanced state.

At the same time she was a next to impossible achievement, she was, in many ways, a monumental failure as well.

Theoretically, she had been designed for success, to be able to pursue any path in life that would lead to it. More than two decades in the running now, and she was still an anomalous curiosity, unknown save as a monstrous urban legend that had shown up in the war against the Mawite Sith, and faded from memory (but perhaps, not infamy) not long after the war ended.

She could reconfigure her appearance almost endlessly, but for the last year or so, had remained in the guise of an award winning Psychologist. A far cry from the bloody moniker she had obtained during a particularly savage battle to defend a Jedi planet, in the guise that Moniker had now become permanently attached to.

Lynda, The Demon Of Jedha.

Few remembered anymore how the name had struck fear into the Mawites, how even the possibility that she was in the area could send whole squads of Maw, whole divisions running for their lives. In the battle of Jedha, the Android, having gone insane from Post Traumatic Stress at having been buried alive at the sacking of Coruscant, trapped for days, digging countless dead children out of the rubble afterwards, AND coming to what was left of her home to find the Maw having cruelly killed her pet rabbit and pet turtle, had carved her way into their ranks, leaving such piles of dead in her wake that the Mawite Commander himself had come out simply to delay her from slaughtering any more of his forces. She has killed so many, and in such godless, painfully gruesome ways that the Alliance themselves had become frightened of the psychopathic behavior she was exhibiting in battle, even as they continued to use her.

The Demon of Jedha had become the Mawite's Boogeyman. Her massacres of them many, and relentless from the word go. Though the Mawites lived, many STILL dreaded the idea she was out there, waiting.

Nothing could have been farther from the truth.

No one was less eager to see that persona's return than the one who had been trapped as her, unable to let go of Lynda's pain and insanity and guilt without quarantining the form and all the data associated with using it in her database, after which the remorseful Android, having at last become scared of herself, had retreated back into the civilian life, this time determined to stay there, having no more appetite for death and destruction.

She had come here, because for her, this was where it started. Where everything began to go wrong.

Where she had first started getting to know her one time adopted Sister, and Themis' failed student, Laertia Io.

If there was one being that could be said to have had a direct hand in how that maniac was able to become so powerful, she would be at the top of the list, and the worse part was she knew it. Not only had she been betrayed, her heart had been broken in the end.

And so it was, that she, whose real name was the by this point almost never used alias Westenra Mina , had come to Kashyyyk, in plain civilian clothes, anonymously, walking to where the Silver Rest had once stood, and once more, tried to make sense of where it had all gone wrong. Had she just loved her adopted sister, who could give her the human, familial love she had desperately craved from other sources so much she had willingly blotted out the danger from her logic processes?

Westenra, currently going by her Alias of Lorna Prynce still had no answer. It was not the first time she had come here, wanting closure, and not finding it. But still she searched.

So when the strange men in the white and gray robes had come out of the woodwork, armed with shotguns, the Android not able to fight without taking on a guise dedicated to combat, has held up her hands as she had walked through the foundations in surrender. Her ship had been seized, and a scanner had been run over her.

"Readings are inconsistent. I'm...detecting organs and blood but the atomic signature seems...off..." one of the men said as she was forced to her knees in the tall grass.

"Could she be an HRD?" one asked.

"Her? No way. She doesn't look flawless enough..." the one with the scanner replied.

"THAT'S your criteria?" the one who has asked sputtered. "Look at her! She's practically super-model quality!"

"But there's still flaws! HRD skin never has flaws like that!" the other protested.

"What were you doing here?" another questioned.

"Refugee survivor," Lorna answered. "I came here to make peace with some old ghosts..."

"You picked a bad time..." he replied, leveling a shotgun at her face.

"You don't wanna do that..." she replied. "That is a very bad idea to do that to me."

"Lemme guess, you're a big shot back home and someone will pay handsomely for your safe release..." the man in the robes replied. "You core-ward types are all the same..."

"That is true. Someone would pay. But that's not what I had in mind," the Android said.

The barrel pressed against her face.

"And what did you have in mind?" the man asked.

"Off the top of my head..." she trailed. "First, I'm going to grab you and use you as a giant club to kill this man with the scanner next to you...then, while you're still dazed and the three others in the distance are starting to panic, I'll rip your shotgun out of your hands and hurl it like a spear into the chest of one of those three, grab you by the lower base of your spine, paralyzing you for the rest of your life as I use you has a human shield to close the distance while they riddle you with shotgun fire in a desperate attempt at survival, only for me to inflict fatal injury by the application of sheer kinetic force from using your entire body as a murder weapon to bludgeon the remaining two to death."

It was rather quiet when she added, almost as an afterthought...

"And then...if you're still alive after all that ...I was thinking of breaking your neck..." she replied matter-of-fact like. (She took the ice cube trays out of the freezer!: 400 XP)

The man in the robes smiled.

"And just how do you plan to do that?" he asked, bemused.

"Y'know how your friend said I couldn't be an HRD?" she asked. "He's right. I'm a Biot."

Her movements were so swift and violent in the next fifteen seconds it was dizzying, and then, just as she had told him she would do, she broke his neck at the conclusion of the violent ordeal.

The Android stared down at her now blood soaked hands. The violence didn't feel foreign to her, as she had hoped it might.

It brought her back to bad days, and she wondered if she could have handled it differently as she backed away, terrified at how easy it had been to slip back into death dealing.

It was moments like this where she wondered if she truly possessed a conscience at all.

As she tried to flee, she didn't realize her actions had just given Darth Indoloro his potential in...for when the Elders arrived after she had fled the scene after the massacre of their personnel, one of them had spotted her as she fled into the shadow lands, cited her as a suspected Force User, and the whole expedition in the shadowlands went on alert to look for her, promising a great reward to whoever could capture her alive, a transmission that was in no way encrypted due to the emergency when, after leading Indoloro out of the temple and back to the Lambda shuttle she had first rescued him in, she had gone in the ship due to a Force vision and turned on the communications suite.

"Attention all elders! A suspected Force User has murdered a number of us! A great reward is promised to whoever brings her in alive!" came the transmission.

Themis folded her arms. She hid her surprise at seeing Westenra in her visions now. Another unexpected thing, but this one would be turned to her advantage. The Bright Lord of The Sith would not be deterred.

"Obviously, Lord Indoloro, we don't want to truly do their work for them. But I see in my visions that what they are after is not a Force User. But a deadly Android I have had past dealings with. But she is as much a victim of her own failures as the others around her were."

Not that different from ME, in some respects, the cynical thought from her subconscious said to her.

"Find the Android, and disable it. It's weak to full water immersion. But do not let them destroy it, whatever else you do..." she told him, bringing up a map.

"This is where my visions tell me the main group in the shadow lands is concentrated. My advice? Introduce yourself to them BEFORE pursuing the Android on their behalf. They always get suspicious in the futures where you introduce yourself AFTER capturing the Android..." Themis told him.

"Good luck, Indoloro. From here on our, it shall be up to you...but I have great confidence in you based on what I see so far. I will be watching closely. You might not always see me, but I WILL be watching. Closely."

Themis walked off the ship.

"Take the speederbike in the cargo area to meet them. Should be a fifty minute ride. Go slow. There are so many trees here in the shadow lands that above a certain speed you're just asking to run into one..." she said as she stepped off the exit ramp.

"One more thing Lord Indoloro..." Themis said, turning to him, as she had another vision.

"In three days, when the sun hits your eyes at precisely three hours past noon...duck..." she advised. "Don't ask why. You'll understand afterwards why you did..."

Themis left Indoloro, formerly Logan Halo , to pursue his mission...

 

[Logan Halo]

TAG: Darth Themis

Darth Indoloro had taken one last wiff of his 'medicine' from his respirator. The effects swelling inside his mind as the dopamine, and serotonin were triggered, and he became acutely aware of the Force, it was bending all around him, as a serpent. How fitting, since he was no indeed a Serpent, tasked with slithering in the Shadowlands of Kashyyyk to find the Android that had just slain Elders of the Path. Indoloro removing his mask to reveal his hazel eyes and golden bangs, he took off his black robes with the golden stripes, and instead put on Blue ones that were the sign of the Path. His Master had advised that he make and introduction, to speak with these Cultists who's creed was most unusual. From his brief time with them he had divined that they felt the Force was a fire, and that it was not something to wield. The Bright Apprentice found that a curiosity, and a potential threat if they were to become overzealous in their denials of the Great Mystery. Usually those blessed with the aptitude to access their Midi-chloria either became Jedi or Sith, inclined towards the Light or the Dark, not making war in their ideology on the Force as a whole. His memory of Darth Traya, a enigmatic Sith who declared war on The Force might be useful with these Elders. Indoloro had been studying in his free time sages and sadists who had known how to channel the strength unseen.

The Mission was simple, to gain the trust of these Cultists and to do that he had to hunt down a murderous Android. Logan would have much preferred it be a Wookiee or Sith Lord, Andriods were not keen on creeds, and they were harder to to manipulate than humaniods. The mention from His Master that she would be watching confirmed his suspcions that this would serve as more training, to assess his progress as a Light Sith and see if he had it in him to be more than a Sith Derelict. In truth Indoloro was glad that she would be watching over him, he felt his connection to the Force, the unique bond to it in this baptism of serpents stronger when she was present.

He kept in the recesses of his mind the instruction to drop in three days time when the sun hits his eyes. He did not question her, he trusted her impeccably. So he came to the Speeder and took a seet on the brown leader and took the handles, and with a swift kick, he made the engine come to life, it rumbling and making him tremble in his blue mantels. For a moment he felt this minor quake, and let it combined with the drugs he had ingested sooth him, closing his eyes he began to feel The Force all around him, and then opening his eyes once more, he hit the accelerator and the bike sped off, realing a loud vroom as he was darting at base of the Great Trunks of the Wookiee World. Light peaking down in little holes like stars in heavens of the great shade caused by the behemoths of the tall trees. A front light of his bike would let all know his approach, when saw gathered by crates and a lamp, men in blue robes. He came to them, and brought the speeder bike to a hault, and stepping over, his cape swaying, and his lightsaber concealed at his back belt so as not to reveal his true allegiance, he approaching them. The Elders looking at him drew Electro Net Guns and Launchers, all being charged with current. One of Elders, a Gran, with his distrinct three eyes, and yellow skin came to Indoloro,
"You are the New Blood.. have you renounced the Fire? Have you pledged yourself to not know the Destructive Force that tears the fabric of the Universe apart?"
Indoloro gave a bow of his head,
"I have. 'The Force is a Fire that no living thing should feel."
He had memorized that mantra of the Path and at the utterance the group of Elders seemed at ease, through he would not place confidence in their relief, for many even beings that did not wield the Mystery were capable of guile.
"The Murderor had headed deep into the Shadowlands.. we have hired a Tracker, a Wookiee, who will help us pick up the trail. It should not be hard, since it is not entirely human, its cybernetic smell will be easy for the Tracker to distinguish from the Hunters down here," said the Gran.
Indoloro gave a nod, he walking to one of open crates of Electro Net Launchers, taking up one in both hands and examining the harpoon with netting that was closed as if a umbrella closed, and electro current running through it.
"You know how to handle one of those?"
Indoloro gave a nod, to which the Gran said,
"Good. Our hope is to achieve one of two objectives. The first is capture, and to remand this violent Andriod into the proper custody to gain credits to help build our foothold here on Kashyyyk. The second and more likely objective is that these electro weapons will fry their cybernetic parts and sped them to death, avenging our fallen brethern. Either way, this Murderer will rue the day they interfered with the Path!"

Indoloro seeing a Electrostaff took up the metal rod with its ends that at the press of switch created voltz of purple that lit up his face. He taking it slung it on his back, and took the Electro Net Launcher on his shoulder. Arriving in no time was the Wookiee, his left eye covered in a patch, and his furr on the tips was silver gray. He gave the customary growl, and the Elders stirring with their weapons began to follow. Indoloro watching the Wookiee which was sniffing and inspecting foot prints, it letting out growls, which the Grant said,
"Good! Lead the way my Furry Friend!"
Indoloro felt something, it was what his Masters on Korriban had called a tremor in the Force. Was there someone else in prusuit of this Android? No doubt if it had vexed these Elders, it might have incited others to hunt it down. For Logan the goal was to build trust with the Elders, certainly taking down the Murderer would hlep establish that in an accelerated way, but if he did not, he could still build bonds on this Hunt, and that was his secondary plan. He had three days, and he would make the most of them...

 

[Westenra Mina]

Westenra ran through the forest, running from what she had just done, fury building.

The Demon of Jedha in her programming wanted to escape from her, seek revenge. The Psychologist part of her coding told her that would be an extremely bad idea.

It was best to just run.

Lorna was making a beeline for the shadowlands. There was so many crashed starships half buried here she was sure she would be able to effect repairs on at least one of the wrecks. Enough to get her into space at least. Or at least find something that would allow her to call for help.

Lorna had run, ever deeper into the shadowlands, fleeing the hunting parties she knew were in hot pursuit. She didn't want to kill anyone else today.

As she expected, making her way through swamplands, the animals staying away from her due to her strange scent, she came across the remains of a crashed light freighter and quickly ventured inside, praying to whatever God would hear the prayers of a Biot that the comms system could be fixed because she had taken one look and knew it would never fly again.

She made her way through a wrecked, burned out main hold to the cockpit. Surprisingly, the communication system looked relatively intact. But if she got a signal out, it would not be encrypted... anyone could hear it.

Lorna took the risk. Because unless she went from Lorna to full on Demon of Jedha, she wasn't going to get very far.

She ripped open the maintenance panel and began hotwiring it, hoping there was still enough juice from the ship powerplant to get one last transmission out before it died.

She hoped someone friendly was in the area.

"Attention! This is Wraith-Actual to Theta-Ear (Code calling out to any House Li-Ves or House Bloodscrawl forces in the area). I...I am in serious trouble and need pickup...over."

To her surprise, there was an immediate response. And a familiar voice."

"Lorna?" called out the voice of Nathan Bloodscrawl ...

"Yes! How...how did you pick up so quickly?" You in the system? This line isn't secure."

"Yeah on business. What's up?"

"I...I'm being hunted...guys in white and gray robes!"

"Sounds like business is taking a back seat. I'll come get you... tracing your transmission..."

The cockpit partly exploded and flung The Biot back as she came under attack from a hunting party of the same group Logan Halo was trying to ingratiate himself into. This one was separate from the one he was in. It was blind luck they had detected her.

The Biot began running for her life as the hunting party, armed with grenade launchers, gave pursuit...

 

[Logan Halo]

The Wookiee was on the scent, and leading this Scouting Party of Elders on the path.. for the time being Logan tried to stifle his connection to the Force, to bury it deep down. He was not certain if these Elders could feel the pulse of the Living Force or if they could feel it and simply rejected it. It was better to play it safe and totally untilize Electro weapons.

The Wookie was following a scent, and let out a Rawr in the direction of a downed vessel. Kashyyyk above was all trees and primitive huts of the Furr Balls, bellow was crashed ships from the stars that had all the conviences of Coruscant, though vines and other foliage had begun to grow over them. The Elders with their Net guns, and a group of those armed with lethal weapons, shotguns came together.
They began talking,
The Gran saying,
"We lay claim to her because she killed one of ours."
A gruff man with curly crazy hair said,
"Get in line! This thing has killed lots of people and we have bounty!"
The Eldar sighing,
"We do not want a qaurrel with you. If it is agreeable, we combine our numbers to increase the chances of victory?"
The Bounty Hunter nodding,
"Alright.. its not like you are armed with lethals, so any friendly fire would only stun my men and tie them up. In fact, if you capture her first.. I will let you have a moment. Our bounty dead alive is possible, dead acceptable."

The Groups began to enter the ship, in two by two formation. One Snare Shooter with One Lethal, their flashlights scanning the interior. Indoloro could feel something, a tension in the air, but he refused to reach out and call upon His power, he was there to observe and "know their enemy," these Elders of the Path. He tried to employ his training from Darth Themis , moving about the ship as serpent, allowing himself to not walk as the others did, rather his foot steps erratic. Observing this the Grant said,
"What are you doing? Dancing?"
Indoloro responding,
"When approaching a Predator.. if you walk in erratic patterns, it confuses them how many there are coming, and will force them to retreat rather than attack head on."
The Gran blinking his three eyes said,
"Alright.. I will try."
The two began walking, taking steps in odd circular and sqaure patterns, so that boots hitting metal floor rang all over, and concealed their number...

 

[Westenra Mina]

A fist punched through rusted wall plating, grabbing the Gran and pulling him through the small hole she had made with her arm, killing him very brutally as his mass didn't match the hole, leading to a horrific result with his body, just as two force fields went active, cutting off four from the rest and Logan Halo , and Lorna burst through wall plating, crushing another beneath it as it pressed him against the interior hull. Panic shooting ensued as black metallic fangs slid into place and she viciously bit into the throat of another, pulling him into the opening she had burst through just as the force fields failed.

There was no sign of Lorna or her victim as the others poured through the hole into the other section of the crashed ship. There wasn't even any blood, just a hole that led back out into the swamp...

Lorna ran for her life, lower chin covered in her victim's blood. They wouldn't find the one she had taken, even with scanners.

She waved through the trees in the swamp, even as blaster fire rang out behind her, the survivors starting to give chase.

All the while, the Demon of Jedha's coding all but begged to be activated but Lorna resisted. They had to give up. She could have killed more of them had she wanted during her ambush. But they seemed just as determined as ever.

12 gauge buckshot ripped through her back and exited out through her abdomen but the Biot was made of stronger stuff. They would have to try a LOT harder.

A 12 gauge slug blasted her left hand off, leaking glowing red blood that trailed behind her as she ran. The wound already starting to regenerate...

Meanwhile...

Nathan had traced the signal in his TIE/HU, a used starfighter he had purchased anonymously. He never liked Alliance type Starfighters. Imperial designs were always superior to him, with the sole exception of the A-Wing. This was an opinion he shared in common with The Amalgam .

He flew high overhead monitoring the situation with his scanners. Unfortunately, he couldn't take the fighter down as there was too little room to land...

So he put the ship farther away into a relative clearing in the shadowlands, landed, hope out and hooked his double bladed lightsaber to his belt, pulling out a pump action shotgun and ammo belt, wearing his typical black biker leathers.

And like and absolute Terminator, he began calmly pursuing the group pursuing Lorna, teleporting to reach them faster, following the sounds of gunfire...

 

[Logan Halo]

Indoloro came up the Gran which laid dead after being violently takne into the wall. The Target had made quick work of many of the Elders and Bounty Hunters, closing the three eyes of the poor soul he stood up and called upon His Power. She left a elusive trail.. her signature in The Force only distinct because Logan now had been expose to her left behind cells, a strange assortment as they were, was she synthetic as he was led to believe or something more? Getting her scent was now achieved, and he left the ship, following it into the forest, he heard Cycler Spray Guns, they were not discreet. Taking the Electo net gun, Indoloro caste it aside, taking The Electro Staff in one hand and drawing from his back waist his lightsaber hilt.

He made his eat to a gorge where he found fluid dotting, and a dead hunter, his gun torn asunder. Taking the staff he dug it into the ground, and he igniting his lightsaber, the bright yellow jasper blade humming and giving light in these Shadowlands.

Indoloro began to slowly walk, feeling for Her, knowing he was close. She was wounded, which meant she would either assail him in a last ditch effort to escape or try to hide, the second option was no longer open to her for he was clearly able to discern her unique signature.
“You are not as you seem.. synth.. vampire.. or something more?”
He let his voice echo, and what answer came would be part of his training…

 

[Westenra Mina]

"I am...a relic..." Lorna replied, hidden but nearby.

"A nightmare from old wars...who is herself the progenitor of nightmares..." she continued.

The Demon of Jedha begged to be released from within the darkest recesses of her coding but Lorna resisted. She didn't want to give it to its mad urges and homicidal tendencies. She had done enough of that for one life time.

"Who are you?" She called out softly, stepping out from the shadows, the wounds on her abdomen almost fully healed, and her blasted off hand almost fully regrown. She released the military grade pheromones her body produced into the air, a cocktail of synthetic chemicals so potent that they could potentially affect even powerful Force Users into being open to suggestion.

"Tell me..." she said pumping them into the air through exposed skin. Tasteless. Odorless. Invisible. She didn't want anyone else to die. But she would not allow herself to be captured...

"Why are you helping these Fanatics?" Lorna pressed. You don't carry yourself like they do. I doubt you've even been on the planet very long..."


Logan Halo

 

[Logan Halo]

Logan heard her voice, the projection perhaps meant to either conceal her exact location or to intimidate, he was in great danger, she had the advantage. He took his lightsaber and laid it on the ground,
“Nightmare.. is life not at times a nightmare? You are being hunted, though know I am not a Hunter.”

He felt some pity, often those with a harshness or violent disposition were scarred within and she might have been something else had other circumstances been afforded her.
“A Relic of old wars? I am afraid I know only some of them. My education was complete.. my interest in history of the more recent eras though.. lacking.”

He took a step back from the weapon, and raising his hands behind his head.
“I am not with these Cultists, I have come to do reconnoissance for my Master. They are potential threat, for their creed declares the Force as evil.”

Indolorio stood there exposed, he did not wince or even betray concern. If this was to be his end, it was by far better than suffocating in space in his saraphogus. At least here he might make a valiant attempt to defend. The truth is, when one was faced with a nightmare, a monster, you could either lash out and try to destroy it, or bend down and surrender, letting it know that you see past the rough exterior and clouds it carries. He hoped the gesture would be appreciated, he wanted to continue his training under Darth Themis, and yet he was outmatched here, he could tell by how this Nightmare had torn apart Bounty Hunters, men who’s profession was taking down great threats. There was also a strange aura about her, and he was keen to understand it before he died.. if possible…