Pit Stop

[Gil Fallenstar]

Gil had left the rest of the group behind and returned to his home, leaving the doppleganger of his son to tend to his needs and complete the reason for his arrival on the Smugglers Moon. Himself however he had to make sure that everything was in order on the home front and check on the status of his HK droid and where the ship was; as it turned out the ship was already back having the needed systems restored and the ugly gaping hole in the side of the ship patched up. The droid itself and the organic cargo he had charged it with however were nowhere to be seen though he also knew that that didn't mean he was alone but there were so signs of life that he picked up on and let it go.



After having entered the bar proper, he saw exactly what he was looking for, the droid had apparently taken to barending in the off time when he hadn't sent it out to assassinate anyone which wasn't often. Personally he was just pleased that this was a planet that nobody looked into the backgrounds of server droids too much as the model in his possession was far from legal. He also noted two new servers that he hadn't hired, young women who were being more that risque to try and get more tips from the clients.

That answered all his questions then. Though it did seem like the people around the dancer on the table were playing a game that... well they shouldn't have been. Even if they had that blaster on stun, pulling the trigger on themselves at such point blank range could still fry your brain really good. But the again, he assumed they weren't playing because they had many other alternatives, such as the life around here on this planet was.

One final order of business however and that would require him to ascend back into the upper levels of the building and his abode, he had orders to place and tasks to follow up on. He hoped to be done as soon as everyone else was but given how they tended to get themselves in trouble, he had no idea how long that would be. The screen on his office workstation lighting up his face in the unlit room, other sources of vision reflecting across the glass and walls of the room to reveal the details around him, the messages left for him had exactly the one he had been hoping for and...

"Oh?"

That was interesting, he'd have to do something about that.

[Vorn]

The HK-unit was idly cleaning glasses, as it did every day... Every week... Every month. It paid the droid's maintenance fees and allowed it to keep up to date with the latest news from around the galaxy, which made it a perfect job for an assassination unit, albeit, a horrifically boring one at that. Oh, how it longed to shatter this glas on the counter and use it to cut the jugular of that one annoying patron that kept bothering it with his sob story about his missing wife-and-daughter! Oh, how it ached to take that one patron that kept asking for that obscure beverage nobody liked and forcefeed him credits until his insides ruptured like an overfilled capacitor.

However, what was this? Did it's fotoreceptors malfunction, or did it just see... His battery positively roared in delight!

It told one of the girls it had hired to take over for it at the bar and hurriedly clunked after Gil, finally arriving at his master's residence to find the man there, checking his messages.

"Querry: Could it be? Is my long sentence to standby mode finally at an end? Is that you, master?"

[Gil Fallenstar]

Gil looked up at the addressing of the droid. He supposed he had been spotted re-entering the club, it had been a franchise he had kept with him throughout his time being independent. The name itself had changed a number of times itself, it was actually one of the few ways Gil knew he could be tracked if someone was persistent enough, the name changes, deeds and purchases that followed with owning a nightclub. So far nobody had tried or succeeded in doing so though that could also have been because there were so few left who were willing to try anymore, you couldn't have enemies if they were all dead after all.

"It would appear so wouldn't it?" he replied to the droid, he had turned to look out over the bar floor from his vantage point after the messages had been checked. His mind formulating plans to addressing what needed to be done outside of his own personal recreational ideas which he had already taken care of by reaching out to his contacts. "Took longer to get off that planet than expected," he added as he felt the need to tell the droid at least why he had been waiting so long, despite the fact it wasn't really a person, he felt connected to the droid since its metal casing had saved his life more than once; first by becoming his vessel and then later by coming between himself and one of the Dark Council who sought to see Gil dead.

"If you're here, that means you salvaged the ship? Good but we can return to that later, there's something that needs to be taken care of, two things actually," in his head he had already worked out how he could use HK to solve those issues if need be as the group that had arrived on the Smugglers Moon had split for the time being and even if they hadn't... well, it had been a long time since Gil had needed to rely on anyone else for something outside of his own desire to avoid doing something. "Did you manage to find that item I had asked you to retrieve?" he finished with a final question, when he had been on Ilum he had sent the machine to a remote system where there was rumored to be a artifact that could prove a boon to those in his company.

[Vorn]

The droid's photoreceptors wirred slightly as his master mentioned the ship. Did he salvage it? Yes, but he wasn't going to be able to repair it on a bartender's salary, and he didn't exactly have access to his master's accounts without immediate consent. He managed to fly it back to Nar Shaddaa but the ship had taken so much damage 73% of the interior had been exposed to hard vacuum during the entire flight. Calling the repairs costly was... An understatement, to say the least.

However, the droid practically clapped its hands together with joy when his master querried him for the artifact.

"Delighted statement: Why yes, master! I most certainly managed to gain ownership of said artifact. There were a few jedi protecting it in their sanctum, but unfortunately both the elder Jedi and his three apprentices were unable to deflect a bullet flying at 3.000 feet per second when fired from a silenced sniper rifle at one point three miles. The last one didn't even try! It was such a pity."

The droid raised its hand to its chest, its index finger and thumb locking around a tiny nub just under his armpit. The fingers rotated several times in quick succession, effectively entering the code to unlock its chassis on a button so small no sentient would be able to do it by hand.

With a last twist, its chassis opened up with a hiss, displaying not just the droid's power core, but also the extremely large rough crystal nestled closely against it.

The droid took it out and handed it to his master. Illum was naturally full of force-attuned crystals which were suited for lightsaber construction, but these were tiny and even they took ages to grow. This thing was larger than an ostrich egg and pulsed with barely-contained force energies. Not only would such an artifact have taken aeons to grow in the caverns of Illum, but it must also have an extremely potent connection to the force. Pale blue light swirled on its insides, though, a few rusty bloodstains were also visible on the outside of the crystal.

"Plea: Forgive me for not having cleaned it beforehand, master! The ruddy red on its otherwise clean surface reminded me of the many murders we have engaged in together. Gazing at it at night was one of the few pleasures I've been able to enjoy in this monotomous exercize in helping sentients poison themselves!"

[Gil Fallenstar]

"Jedi?" he repeated, that hadn't been expected from what he had understood the item itself hadn't even been seen in millennia but he shouldn't have been that surprised since the enemies of the Dark Side made it their business to find and contain such things at all costs because after all, if they couldn't have it, nobody should. Right? How strange that such a good and just Order would behave in such a psychotic manner but still try explain it away, it was almost like there was very little difference between them and their mortal enemies. "A shame, I was hungry. I'll have to make sure I'm there next time."

Picking up the crystal he raised it to his face, the light inside reflecting on his face in the semi darkness as it moved over his eyes it almost looked as if the shadows in the room were coming from them; there was a powerful source of light coming from within the item and deep within himself he desired to eat the heart of it. After a moment he put the rock down and returned his attention to the droid.

"Quite the contrast it offers isn't it?" he said more to himself than anyone else, the crimson stain against the sky blue of the rock. It reminded him of one other thing he had seen on Ilum, another formation with a youngling splayed against it the blood a deeper crimson flowing freely over the jagged formation and still the light had shone through on his apprentices handiwork. "I may have more for you to do soon as well. Members of the... group have become quite the spectacle. You'd have liked it." Moving the crystal from the desk to a locked container before anything else, "You should be able to leave the bar to the new girls, they know better than to try anything again and if not..." he let the implication hang as both HK and himself knew what happened when someone crossed them.

"For now however, take a look at this, it's what I was talking about," he said turning the monitor to the machine, it was displaying the news that there was some famous criminal that had turned himself in 'allegedly' at least as the reporter noted that this wasn't something advertised by the officials included but that didn't stop some from trying to make a name or a living for themselves by publishing said information in the places it wasn't obvious. All of the places that the Fallenstar knew to look for... interesting developments in the galaxy.

[Gil Fallenstar]

As the droid looked the holo monitor Gil returned his attention back to his personal items, he had come back here to contact his man on the street about a number of issues he needed to get fixed. If he didn't manage to get what Gil needed, he knew that he would be getting a visit from the droid he owned. Not to assassinate him, but to make sure he never failed again.

"You should look into it, see who it was and where they're being held. It could be useful information if my thinking if correct about what's going on. I know you won't let me down, make sure the girls stay in line." he told the HK unit, taking one last look out over his bar and the patrons who attended he could see that things were moving like a well oiled machine. He whistled sharply for a moment and the ears on one of the alien waitresses shifted in response before seeming to excuse themselves from the floor.

"I'll contact you with more instructions shortly," he said without turning to face the grey robot, keeping his eyes on the employee he had gotten the attention of and moving towards the door. He had a conversation to have and not all of his employees were just what they seemed, waitresses, that was.

[Vorn]

The droid merely clicked a few times as it received its masters instructions.

"Statement: Master, my power core is positively throbbing with anticipation," the droid said as he tapping into Nar Shaddaa's information network remotely. It only took a few seconds for him to bring up the relevant information.

"Statement: The deserter in question is called 'Haefran Nottlaco.' Supposedly he deserted from the Rondus military a decade ago and was somehow arrested here on Nar Shaddaa. Suspicious querry: Now why would someone who eluded the authorities for so long suddenly be captured? Rondus's influence does not extend far beyond their own planet, so how could he have been 'captured' after all this time? Considering the nature of propaganda common on Rondus, it's likely this is fabricated, though to what end, I cannot say, Master."

[Gil Fallenstar]

"I'm aware of how governments operate," Gil reminded the droid, there was always something he could never bring himself to wipe out of his programming and that was it's quirks from not giving it a memory wipe in years. He had lost his memories before and he refused to do the same thing to his droid. "You have to get caught at some point, all the targets I've sent you after had been hiding for a long time as well, it didn't stop you finding them did it?"

He looked over the news feed again, the droid had a point but it was also completely likely they just finally found him but there were a number of other ways this could have happened and he had reason to believe there was something to be gained from getting involved in this.

"Either way, the good news is you're going to go confirmed the story, I may travel with you. Though I'm sure you can manage it, you're a big boy droid now right?" he asked with humor in his voice. "Of course we're going to make sure it's legit before we do anything about it, it's like you don't even know me anymore!"

[Vorn]

A static rasp came out of the droid's vocabulator. If the droid had been an organic, it might've been a gasp, but to be fair, a lot of droids didn't have the fine tuning needed to be able to replicate such humanoid expressions with any degree of accuracy. That didn't stop protocol droids from trying anyway. From observation they often realised quite quickly that doing so made it easier to gain the trust of sentients.

"Rethorical querry: Master, please tell me you are not deceiving my audioreceptors! A mission for the two of us together? Oh, it'll be just like old times! I will immediately began projecting our estimated travel time, so that I can keep track of every painful second until we may begin the operation.

Hesitant querry: However, regarding the objective of this mission... Are we merely to go to Rondus and confirm the story of our target's capture? I do not mean to pry, Master, but I was personally hoping to... 'facilitate communications.' This won't be just an information gathering mission, will it? Don't get me wrong, I'll take any excuse to get out of this place for a few weeks, but it would be awfully dissappointing if by the end I wouldn't have to go through a sonic scrubber just to ensure every last trace of that familiar coppery stench sentients complain about has been washed off of my frame."

[Gil Fallenstar]

Gil had to admit, for a machine that had no emotions HK did a fantastic job of displaying them in any fashion he could and accurately at that. He often wondered if that was something to do with the time the droid had been his vessel, perhaps the fusion between them had left something more than machine behind, perhaps the droid had retained what the Fallenstar himself had lost. Well, at least he knew he'd keep it safe.

"When have I ever lied to you?" Gil asked returning the rhetorical question, "I thought you might appreciate the chance to get out anyway, I know how stuffy it can get around here or anywhere you linger too long really. Why is that? Never could figure that out." he mused, the the droid posed the question he knew was coming; after all he was an assassin droid and his programming certainly made sure you never forgot that. He found it amusing, the Sith often looked forward to killing and such but it was as cold blood lust for power, HK however seemed to have a joyous reaction to the point it was almost amusing.

"I imagine that we will have to communicate with someone before this is all over," he admitted, his intention was just to find out exactly what was going on there but to do that he would have to get the information from somewhere and someone. If they didn't want to give it up? Well, HK could persuade them and he could already hear the twisted jokes the droid would make, it brought a smile to the corners of his mouth recalling the last time it had happened. "Though we don't want the whole planet after us either, that would certain leave us with... an appetite..." he closed his eyes for a moment, feeling the inner depths of his strength whisper through the empty spaces within his body. "Though, you know what they say, 'even the best laid plans' and all that."

[Vorn]

It took the droid a little longer to respond than normal. While the droid enjoyed using rethoricals itself it often found it hard to figure out when sentients used them. The same went for phrases, expressions and metaphors. Luckily the HK-unit was, at least superficially, a protocol droid, so it wasn't liable to grotesquely misinterpet what his master told him.

"Explanation: Master, allow be to give an example to explain why I... And I mean no offense, loathe this watering hole. Imagine if someone, who you do greatly respect, don't get me wrong, and whose orders you would follow to the very end, orders you not to engage in your usual Sith rituals of bloodshed and mayhem, but instead to... Sit down. Read a book. Invite a 'friend' and have," the droid lets out a strange drawn-out rasp that might be akin to a sigh, "a meaningful conversation. You have been shaped, no, created to grab sentients by the throat and squeeze tightly until the life flows from their bodies. Instead, you are relegated to a job where your function is to service sentients with things they enjoy. It becomes thusly contrary to one's existence that one starts to feel an itch, not on the outside of his chasis, but on the inside. That is about as well I as I can hope to explain my discontent at being left in standbye mode, Master. While I do gain some mild satisfaction from watching these sentients slowly poison themselves, it pales in comparison to my longing to once again operate a high-power blaster rifle of questionable legality."

The droid was mildly dissappointed that straight up murder was out of the question, but to be fair, it would still be a massive improvement over his current job.

"Statement: Very well Master. I shall make the neccesary preperations and dust off the old arsenal. Shall we be leaving soon? After all, it would be appear that the object of our mission might not have that much more time before he ends up on the wrong end of a firing squad."

[Gil Fallenstar]

Gil almost felt bad for the droid as he explained the horrors he had endured working while he had been away, he had been the one to do that sort of work when he had first taken over the business from one of their former Emperors as an Emperor couldn't be seen serving others in a bar after all. The boring stories drunks told about their mundane lives was like beating a dead horse and they didn't even see how they were all the same, everyone thinking their problems were somehow more important than they actually were.

"Well, the girls can take care of it from now on. They probably get bigger tips anyway so I can't see them saying no," he reassured the droid, it was also because he had dominion over them so they weren't exactly able to turn him down; but after what they had pulled, he didn't feel any sympathy for them and killing them would have been a waste.

"Please, get it all ready. Mind the other ship on the landing pad, it's the one that got us back here. I imagine they'll depart when they have what they came for," it was then that he felt something disturb the bond he shared with his son. Not danger but another type of turmoil, he couldn't sense any pain either. "While you do that, I have one other thing I need to check in on. You know how children can be, especially mine."

Moving towards the door of his office, he opened the door and gestured the droid could go first. "And bring your favorite blaster, you never know when communications might need to be unexpectedly facilitated after all." Gil finished with a wink. "Especially if they're going to have a firing squad, I imagine you can show them how a marksman really shoots."

[Vorn]

"Declaration: It shall be done, Master. We shall be ready to depart within the day.

Apologetic statement: Unfortunately, I shall need to procure us some transport from a third party. Your own ship is regrettibly not suited for being flown by an organic lifeform, but that will cause only a mild delay at best. On the bright side, public transit will make us less conspicious."

The droid walked over to move aside the expensive rug covering the floor, revealing a thick lid with the tiniest of locks. Much like the lock on the droid's own chassis, this lock was effectively impossible for open for a sentient, as the droid inserted its fingers and spun it around like the head of a drill, first left, then right, then alternating between the two directions in various amounts until the lock clicked. The vault opened up and the droid took out a metal cube that seemed to be composed of various segments. With a twist the cube unfolded into a nasty-looking blaster rifle that immediately hummed with power.

"Statement: I will inform you when we are due to leave, Master."