Private The Older Sister

[Meleena Bloodscrawl]

Wearing: Armorweave Catsuit (Metallic Crimson)

Armed With: Herself

Objective: Humanitarian relief.


Since Nathan had been injured, losing his left arm, Meleena, a hyper-advanced biot coded to be the 'older sister' to Nathan, had called off her other assignments in order to look after him and help him get back to a decent state of health, mentally speaking. Losing an arm had taken its toll on him. He was a quiet man, but losing a limb seemed to have made him more reflective, more uncertain.

As his designated Sister, Meleena sought only to help him. It did not fail to catch her attention that Nathan had received the exact same wound his daughter had once received. He was no doubt going through some internal conflict with the similarities between him and her pre-cult self having increased.

As Nathan was on the move even now in his TIE/SRRET, Meleena had opted to accompany him on an assignment given to him by the Council; to aid a colony world seemingly under relentless attack by Mercenary Forces hiding in the vast forests. They were rumored to have taken hostages. With Alliance Forces stretched thin, and House Bloodscrawl requiring all hands on deck, Meleena had accompanied him so he would not be quite so lonely for a change on his journeys.

"What do you think we'll find there?" Meleena asked as they came out of hyperspace.

"Same thing I usually find..." Nathan replied as he sped to the dense, forested colony world. The Alliance had not had a chance to send any real military to the planet, still focused on driving out Dark Empire holdouts on other worlds near the core.

"And what would that be?" Meleena asked.

"Trouble..." Nathan replied. "It will look odd if I go lethal. But you have no such restrictions."

"Nathan, I was coded to be more hesitant to kill than you. My programming even has it that I should advise against killing as much as possible." Meleena reminded.

"I understand that. But to truly grow as an individual, you must learn to recognize moments where you may need to step beyond your programming..." Nathan trailed. "Laertia Io carefully controlled the world view of the Androids she created. If House Bloodscrawl is to be different, we must not do to the Androids we have created or accepted among us like what House Io did...we must show them perspectives outside our ideals, or we will only end up repeating the mistakes Laertia made. We must stand on more than an ideal...those ideals have to be able to stand up to reality."

"That includes me..." Meleena said.

"Yes. It does." Nathan confirmed...

The ship landed and Meleena was the first one out, and found a colonist in torn, bloody clothes waiting for her and him.

"Thank the Force! They sent a Jedi, finally!" The Colonist said. "We've been suffering hit and run attacks from the forest for days!"

"How frequently are the attacks occuring?" Nathan asked, brow furrowing as he looked at the village below, which had traces of smoke wafting up from buildings. It was nighttime, the moon of the world was full a pale orange ball amidst a sea of stars.

"Every four hours. Our ammo is low. So are our medical supplies..." The colonist answered.

They were led through damaged streets full of filled body bags. Nathan was aghast, Meleena realized through her emotion reading databases. He hid it well but it was her nature to understand her family. Nathan wasn't nearly so cold as outsiders painted him to be. He was just so deeply traumatized by endless horrors after endless horrors, each new, and their own brand of hell, that he simply no longer knew how to process it all except to decisively crush what caused the horror.

He had never wanted to be a hidden warlord. Had never wanted the Clone Army. He really had been trying to make Bacta-Works legitimate, and rely on his wife's private army instead. But their presence had changed all of that.

It had worn even him down.

It saddened Meleena. There were some wounds even family would never be able to heal.

The med center was in shambles. Heavily injured colonists lay on gurneys everywhere...

"This doesn't make sense. Your colony isn't special...you have no valuable resources. And the size of your colony is small. The ferocity and frequency of the assaults doesn't make any sense..." Meleena asserted.

"Tell that to whoever is doing this..." The Colonist replied. "We are due for another assault in a half hour by my estimate..."

"Meleena, I need you to scout those woods. Find out where they are." Nathan said. "Engage at your discretion if at all possible...I'll stay behind and defend these people. They're on their last legs..."

Meleena nodded. "Good luck Nathan. Stay safe..."

Meleena departed the med center, walking past curious onlookers subconsciously repelled by her out of place beauty in such an environment.

She processed Nathan's earlier words. She normally preferred to avoid killing, but she understood the lesson he was trying to impart.

In the face of such a threat...what was the alternative?

Fifteen minutes later...

Meleena Bloodscrawl had used her heavily upgraded body's Personal Concealment system to cover her approach to the woodlands, enhanced senses looking for threats. She was still considering her adopted brother's words when she encountered what looked like a Mawite Warband, setting up an artillery position.

Mawites? Meleena's digital mind mused. What are they doing here? And in such numbers?

Meleena crept up on them and decided to do some distracting. Though she didn't want to kill, even if the ones were Mawites, the continued targeting of the Colony was not going to be tolerated...

She shut off the stealth field, her flameshock implants in her arms going active as she projected a stream of flames from both arms at the ammunition pile closest and then ran at superhuman speeds as it detonated, flames spreading through dense woods.

Meleena went into cloak mode again as she saw Hoardes of Mawites descending into the area she had just blown up.

Reluctantly, Meleena prepared to kill again...

 

[Meleena Bloodscrawl]

The Mawites searched the woods for their prey, their next assault having been momentarily interrupted. Meleena stalked them, her cloaking field rendering her silent and invisible as she got behind one and quickly and silently broke his neck, using her super human agility to withdraw, but not before taking his grenades...

Explosions erupted across Mawite ranks, flesh scorched by Plasma as Meleena uncloaked, her Nuetralizer Claws popping out between her knuckles as she violently slashed into their ranks, ripping open a confused squad that had been distracted by her grenade tosses. Her Dovin Basal Heart pounded, increasing the gravity around her victims and slowing them down in her immediate radius.

But even as she killed them, a part of her winced every time she did. She questioned if Death was actually necessary. But these were Maw worshippers. Reasonable simply wasn't on the table. They themselves had proven this.

She knew that, yet she still questioned. It was the way she had been programmed. To be more hesitant to kill than her other sisters. To be the voice of reason to stop her adopted brother from going too far in his crusade.

Foes like the Maw were the biggest challenge to those sentiments. She was not blind to the suffering they had inflicted, and continued to inflict. She was fully aware that, on an intellectual level, it was a kill or be killed situation. The Maw always made it a kill or be killed situation.

Meleena's fists and legs shattered Mawite limbs and skulls, her onboard weapons more than adequate. Nuetralizer Organic bodies were built for this sort of fast, direct combat.

Her Dovin Basal heart slowed incoming projectiles allowing her to better dodge as she quickly killed the others in her immediate area.

Her enhanced senses detected the launch of missiles and artillery shells being launched in her general direction.

The installed bio organic weapon systems in her eyes went active and pink maser beams shot out, obliterating the projectiles before they could fall. She fired the lasers right at the other crowds of Mawites, even as some projectiles finally found their way into her flesh, blasting holes into her torso. Red blood leaked out of the wounds as Meleena pressed on. Nothing vital had been hit but Meleena knew she had been sloppy. Thing was, Meleena didn't get into fights unless talking and diplomacy failed...

The Biot Eye masers lanced out, swiping through trees and Mawites. Trees fell onto squads from all sides and beams seared through flesh, bone and armor like it was butter.

The Mawites were in full retreat now. Melissa, even Melinda would have pursued to continue inflicting casualties.

Meleena was not her sisters. She would kill no more than necessary. Besides, her initial orders were to scout and find where they were operating from...

The Biot went into cloaking mode again, intent on following the survivors.

She crept silently through woods as the Mawites made a careful retreat. Her enhanced vision allowing her to easily detect the booby-traps they waded through and left behind to slow her pursuit.

Meleena floated above the traps, patiently following the Mawites to a tunnel that had been hastily dug, covering it with more camouflage and booby-traps in the entrance itself.

Her Organic databases marked the exact coordinates and she floated away, silent and invisible...

Ten minutes later...

"They're underground..." Meleena explained to her brother, arms folded after arriving back at the Colony med-center. "I interrupted an artillery strike of theirs."

"Damn the Mawite crazies..." Nathan grumbled. "What made them come here? What could they be after?"

"There are enough of them that there is no reason to resort to such overwhelming force..." Meleena asserted. "From what I observed, Nate, there are enough here that they could just march on here and slaughter everyone remaining."

"Yet they're holding back...why?" Nathan mused, rubbing his chin.

"Meleena, I'm going to go to that tunnel network. You go around this Colony..." he whispered. "See if there is anything out of place..."

Meleena nodded, hugging him.

"Get back safe..." she said.

Nathan silently nodded back and Meleena sauntered off to begin her investigation...

 

[Meleena Bloodscrawl]

Meleena drew stares as she sauntered through the ruined colony. She was INCREDIBLY beautiful. And completely out of place because of it. Her catsuit adhered to contours so tightly it might as well have been simply body paint covering her as she moved through the crowds of the wounded and frightened before stopping in what looked like a crude, domed city hall that had been hit very hard by artillery fire. She saw melted stone. Some of the embers still glowed.

Meleena's organic tactical database observed the pattern of the shelling. The number of blast marks around the building, cross referencing the damage she had seen so far.

The first Artillery Strike was the most concentrated, centered on this building. A different payload was used in comparison to the rest of the shell craters here. Judging by the slag, it looks like plasma munitions were used to destroy the Hall, and in unusually high amounts. Everywhere else got hit with fragmentation shells. Meleena realized. She quickly sought out one of the colony security guards, a wounded young man in a brown jumpsuit with dark hair, tanned skin and a bandage covering his eye.

"You the one who came with that broke-ass lookin' Padawan?" The guard grumbled.

"Yes, and for your information, that 'Broke-Ass Lookin' Padawan is my brother." Meleena replied evenly.

The Guard shrugged. "I don't see the resemblance, honestly. What do you want?" he muttered.

"I want to know more about the attack. That building..." she said, pointing to the half melted and burned Dome structure about three stories high. "That one was the first hit, wasn't it?"

The Guard nodded. "They took out the Mayor, the Chief Constable. The Chief Medical Officer, AND the head of The Engineering department. Along with a whole lot of other good people."

"They used plasma based artillery shells. Far more than what would be needed to destroy that building." she pointed out

The Guard blinked...

"Y'know...yeah. Compared to every other time they shelled us, the first time was overkill. And it was all concentrated on that building. Maybe they ran out of Plasma Shells?"

"I doubt it." Meleena mused. "They're more than likely saving it for the end. But why resort to distance killing? There is maybe seventy of you left. The number of Maw I spotted before they retreated indicates a number four to five times that, all very well armed. They could probably kill the rest of you just sending maybe thirty at best."

"I feel so much better..." The Guard snapped. "Why tell me this?"

"I mention this only because this is unusually restrained behavior for Mawite War Bands..." Meleena replied. "Was there anything special about that building to warrant the plasma shelling?"

"Naw. It's just old duracrete. Three levels to it...and a basement..." The Guard answered.

Meleena raised an eyebrow. "Basement? What was in the basement?"

The Guard shrugged. "Dunno. Never went down there. There...there was one other thing..."

Meleena's head tilted. "What?"

"That building...it was already here when we first arrived. Money for setting up here was tight. Finding a perfect central building to set everything up around seemed like a no brainer... wasn't anything wrong with it, as far as we knew. Just an abandoned building."

"Did it ever occur to any of you there might have been a reason it was abandoned?" Meleena asked, hands going to her hips.

"We scanned the place for all sorts of hazards. No disease, rodents, or any other environmental anomalies. It was a perfectly usable, structurally sound building that had simply been abandoned. No idea what it's original purpose was. There were no markings. No records. No furniture when we came. No telling who owned it." The Guard answered.

"It was obviously important enough to the Maw to relentlessly hit it with Plasma Artillery..." Meleena pointed out. "Is there a way underneath the building?"

The Guard nodded. "We dug old maintenance tunnels to set up power systems for the Central Hall and everywhere else here. I don't know how intact they are though...they were never made to withstand artillery barrages..."

"I need to get down there..." Meleena insisted. It's possible the Basement might have survived. If I'm lucky, there will be a way to reach it from the tunnels...this isn't coincidence... there's a reason that building was hit first and hardest."

The Guard, still creeped out by Meleena's immaculate, out of place appearance, only nodded. Everyone was creeped out by her.

"Follow me, there's an entrance to the tunnels in the machine shop..." He said.

Meleena nodded and began to follow him, noting his agitation and trying not to aggravate it further...