Open Maw That Meets the Eye

[Naxa]

THEME​

N4-X4 had only been working for the Bounty Hunters Guild for a few weeks. Today, the machine had been contracted to recover a smuggler by the name of Jibson Blyth. The smuggler was the primary target and was wanted dead or alive by members of the Five Syndicates. The commando droid did not particularly care what the man or his men did. But in his research of his target and the information provided by Naxa's client indicated the smuggler captain was a skilled pilot and navigator since he was know for flying the some confidential hyperspace routes. There was a bonus in it for the bounty droid as well as a calculated belief that it would boost N4-X4's reputation as a reliable service provider. Perhaps the droid would even learn a few new routes around the galaxy.

There was a secondary reason why the droid had accepted this contract was the fact that Blyth had entered. The target was believed to be hiding out on Tol Amn, a planet which had fallen into quarantine recently. The smuggler likely knew this and hoped nobody was foolish enough to follow him. But he had not planned on a droid taking on the job. The risk of infection of any sort was impossible, save perhaps for a data-plague. But Tol Amn was at an optimal location and its hyper wave buoys were virtually unguarded in the current quarantine status.

There would be more than one member of the crew for the droid to take down and he needed to recover their bodies. Finding their ship and blasting it out of the sky was not going to be a logical decision. The logical place for Blyth and his crew was somewhere on the surface. The storm wracked sky cast the planet in an early darkness. Rain had been drizzling since the commando droid had arrived but that was expected. The droid wore his plain cloak, primarily to keep himself and his equipment dry and prolong its life expectancy. +If you can be one thing you should be efficient+ He said aloud as he was followed by his seeker droid. The saucer shaped automaton said nothing in response. +There is still a 37.1 percent chance the client has hired other bounty hunters. There is a 02.4020 percent chance the other hunters are inorganic.+

The droid approached the treeline and ahead he could see a small town. But it was clear something was wrong because there were no artificial light coming from street signs, vehicles or the buildings that made up the moderate town. It seemed absolutely quiet, save for the sounds of nature. The droid activated its personal cloaking device and head towards the town, alternating ever few seconds between his low light and infrared. But there was a complete lack of heat signatures as well. It was a good thing N4-X4 had parked his ship deeper into the forest upon arrival. The commando droid preferred his targets to not know of his presence, or rather, Naxa liked having the odds work in his favor.

PvP Enabled - death disabled​

 

[Nima Deleste]

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Nima was glad to find another job that didn't involve guarding, that is, until she heard she had to go to an infectious planet to kidnap some smuggler. However the pay was even better, and Nima was given a portable respirator and small oxygen tanks in order to prevent her from breathing in any harmful matter. The mission still felt like a pain in the ass, but it would give her a pretty good reputation.

Once Nima arrived at Tol Amn, she landed her ship in a forest of some sort. It was very foggy, but Nima placed it at a location where she would only have to walk straight back to find it. Before exiting her ship, she double-checked if the given coordinates were correct using her on-ship datapad. After confirming she was near the location, she put on her breathing apparatus, put on a pair of goggles, exchanged her small stylized cape for a cloak, and had her small surveillance droid, P.o.TC, to follow her. Unfortunately, the droid didn't have the ability to test how polluted the air was, so Nima had no idea how safe it was to remove her goggles or the respirator, and she had a limited number of small oxygen tanks on her.

After exiting the ship, Nima began making her way towards her destination. After walking for a decent amount of time, Nima stumbled upon a town not too far from her. There were no lights on, but Nima assumed that there could have been a power outage due to the rain. Wanting to confirm her suspicions, Nima turned to her droid and asked "P.O. can you pick up anything with your sensors?" The droid responded with numerous small beeps and whistles, saying that it couldn't detect any lifeforms and that the motion sensors can't work due to the storm. The fact that there were no life forms bothered Nima a bit, however, it could be possible that all the citizens left their homes due to the recent quarantine; there was a possibility that they had quarantine shelters located elsewhere. Nima's second assumption was that the smuggler and his crew were all droids that were hiding in the town and that they couldn't be picked up like that. It was risky, but Nima decided to make her way towards the small town using the cover of the forest and rain to her advantage.

@Darasuum

 

[Naxa]

+Move ahead ten meters+ The internal comlink on the droid and the one built into the ID-21 allowed the two machines to communicate wordlessly in binary. In a way, droids had their own telepathy. The seeker droid obeyed and moved ahead and continued at the same pace.

Rain continued to pitter patter, pooling on areas of the paved ground as nature gave way to civilization. The droid made an effort to avoid puddles and direct light. Even should the cloaking fail his scatterweave coating would make it hard to see him. It was perhaps a bit excessive but a droid planned for redundancies.

Approaching the closest building the the treeline, the BX commando droid looked back, flipping to infrared to see if there were any life signs or notable heat signatures from possible bodies. Thus far, N4-X4 had yet to find a single humanoid. The odds of that happening were, colloquially speaking, slim.

@sayso

 

[Nima Deleste]

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As Nima got closer she began to get wearier. She took cover in a nearby ditch and just observed the town from a decent distance. The town had to be a trap, either set up with explosives or a whole lot of droids. It seemed very plausible, the smuggler may have known that his location was tracked, so he set up his last known location as a trap. If the smuggler was known for flying dangerous hyperspace routes, then he was most likely skilled and smart enough to cover his tracks.


Brainstorming for a moment, Nima came up with a solution. If the town was filled with combat droids, then they most likely knew where Nima was already with heat sensors; however, they would be unable to track Nima's droid unless they had night vision; motion sensors would be difficult to use due to the storm. On the other hand, if the town is rigged with explosives, then Nima's droid would be able to easily find out as it wouldn't be able to set off any triggers unless the triggers themselves were motion sensors. The only problem with the plan is that Nima risked her droid getting damaged or completely destroyed, which she did not want. So, she would just wait in the cover of darkness just a bit longer to rethink her plan.

@Darasuum

 

[Naxa]

N4-X4 caught sight of the outline belonging to Nima. But it looked like she had yet to see him yet. His own droid was similar to the stranger's but he had not seen it in the darkness. So far she seemed to be alone. The commando droid sent its ID-Seeker droid to keep an eye on the individual so that he did not.

Coming around the edge of the building to see a dozen or so figures down the street. Further away, a block or two down, rose a ship from the building's skyline. A single scout ship rotated and then accelerated, quickly lost from view. Dropping its gaze back to the beings int he street he could see now they were different from other organics he had encountered before.

Flipping between vision modes Naxa saw torn chunks of flesh, ragged clothing and unkempt appearances. It was clear the beings in front of him were far from well. In fact, they were undead.

Like the Zeltron, these people had yet to notice him. However if he had seen the ship, so had Nima and the 'dead-ganics'. The dozen or so moving cadavers shambled towards the direction the ship had taken off and the droid was going to do the same. The BX commando droid calculated there was a chance the smugglers were using the dangerous beings to repel other organics. Regardless, if he wanted to access the hyperspace buoy later it would be best if he eliminated other potential interruptions, like a fast attack craft from a smuggling operation. The droid might even need to track down that scout ship later. Hopefully his target had not just departed.

@sayso