Metal Head

[Freyja Storm]

Bespin, a world of clouds, speeders and dodgy dealings. Freyja had been a few times during her three year stint in the outer rim, though she had only stayed for a few nights at the most in that time. It was usually a stopover for a job, or a place to pick up payment nothing more. She couldn’t deny the place had a natural beauty, the way the sun beat off the clouds like a shimmering gold wave was relaxing to watch from the view port of Cloud City. As she continued to stare out of the window she fiddled with the blaster pistol at her hip, flicking the latch off and on again. She could hear the populace walk back and forth behind her going about their day as if nothing was amiss. Their loud chatter was annoying and kept her from keeping a fully clear mind as she tried to decipher the pattern the security took out the window.


The view of the golden skies was mesmerizing that was true but Freyja’s eyes were trained on the landing pad to the east, it was a sea of activity as two freighters sat on the landing pads, a commotion of droids, workers and guards surrounded them. Unloading and taking stock of the durasteel and duraplast transferred from nearby mines. It would be processed by the great forges in the bellow of cloud city to form aerial speeders, droid parts and weapons. Materials like this would be a benefit for the growing Alliance that was why she was here. She had heard over the black-net about a large shipment of metals coming into the city and that it was not well defended and so Freyja would take the chance. She had put out a call over the net to those who supported their cause to see if anyone else local to help. She had given them a contact name and location and now she waited.

@Mithias

 

[H5PAD]

West of Landing Pad 127
Bespin

H5PAD strode through the exterior of the Cloud City with purpose. The droid had doubled back twice to ensure it was not being followed. Once the probability of non-detection came to an acceptable percentage, he proceeded to the rendezvous point for his present contract. The landing pads were extremely busy with merchants zipping on and off Bespin trading goods. Hale’s optics scanned the throngs of people until his eyes rested on the human named Freyja. However, he did not approach her immediately. The droid’s keen optics scanned the area to make sure no one was taking more than a passing interest in Freyja. After a few minutes of observing and the probability of that variable was down to acceptable levels, H5PAD came over to the rebel.


PERSONALITY STATUS: ANALYTICAL

DIRECTIVES
PRIMARY – Interface with employer’s contact, Freyja Storm
SECONDARY – Receive clarification on mission parameters
TERTIARY – Avoid security personnel


Standing next to her and eyeing one of the freighters that just took off, H5PAD activated his vocabulator, ”Greetings Freyja. I am designated H5PAD. You may call me Hale. Your contract is in order and confirmed. Hale is ready to commence operations...”

@Braden Drake

 

[Freyja Storm]

Freyja was shocked when the droid walked up beside her and called her name. She had even drawn her blaster and was ready to pull the trigger at the sudden interruption. Luckily some of this new found restraint kicked in and she lowered the weapon. She looked back over her shoulder to see if anyone had noticed and from the glance across the room it seemed as if no one had. "Droid, do not call me by that name." She hissed at him. Freyja hadn't expected a droid, to be honest to herself she didn't know what to expect, the contact had never specified his race or even if it was him going. Only that the contract had been taken up and that someone was on the way. "If you need to call me anything, use Octavia." She continued. "I would also advise a new designation for yourself as well."

Freyja moved further along the large window hoping the droid would follow. She stopped on the east side, facing the landing pad in question. "What are your specifications and capabilities?" She asked. The first freighter was nearly emptied the final checks being carried out by the ground crew before she took back off.

 

[H5PAD]

West of Landing Pad 127
Bespin

H5PAD just stared at the woman as she spoke, but the lack of expression on the droid could be deceiving. Hale was processing her requests and preferences, reestablishing protocols for the contract as she spoke.

"Droid, do not call me by that name. If you need to call me anything, use Octavia.”

The droid went through logical deduction with the specifics not being specified on the contract. However, this was typical of any contract. Changes, amendments, and adjustments were inevitable and often necessary. Most assassin droids could not process such changes and continue to work within the contract, but most did not possess the advanced heuristic processor found on H5PAD…

”Confirmed and will comply.”

“I would also advise a new designation for yourself as well."

”Advisement received. Reconfiguring..”

Quickly, the droid reconfigured his directives…

PERSONALITY STATUS: DECEPTIVE

DIRECTIVES
PRIMARY – Maintain fabricated persona for Freyja Storm and H5PAD
SECONDARY – Receive clarification on mission parameters
TERTIARY – Avoid security personnel


He turned back to Freyja after a couple of seconds and replied with a voice that flowed more inline with sentient speech patterns—but also sounded a bit like a used landspeeder salesman, “Octavia. I am designated AP-6. A servant droid who will be accompanying you on your trip…”

"What are your specifications and capabilities?"

It took a couple of seconds before the droid replied, but the mechanical vocabulator was active and speaking again, “H5PAD. I am designated for multi-role tasking. Programming that will be relevant to this contract are combat protocols, illegal access protocols, and as of 15 seconds ago, deceptive designation protocols."

@Braden Drake

 

[Freyja Storm]

Freyja nodded when the droid answered. She had expected as much in terms of his capabilities, no one taking this job and expecting to be paid would send a basic droid without some form of combat facilities. The access protocols though were a bonus. She nodded at the droid before taking a step off the raised platform by the window and into the crowd that was walking back and forth. "I am assuming these access protocols have the ability to hijack a secure video feed network and loop existing footage?" She asked as they passed through the crowd. "If we can get down the main hallway connecting the main structure to the external landing pads without being seen, we can make this a lot easier and a lot less bloody. Or oily in your situation." She continued on.

The corridor took a turn to the left, a pair of city guards were walking straight at the pair, luckily for Freyja, her large overcoat covered her weapons from view. She could probably get away with the blaster, but the rifle and vibro-sword would have been confiscated on arrival if she had not snuck them through a half-empty astromech. Being caught with them know would end with her either dead or in jail, never a good place to be when trying to steal twenty tons of durasteel.

 

[H5PAD]

West of Landing Pad 127
Bespin

"I am assuming these access protocols have the ability to hijack a secure video feed network and loop existing footage? If we can get down the main hallway connecting the main structure to the external landing pads without being seen, we can make this a lot easier and a lot less bloody. Or oily in your situation."

H5PAD followed her and made sure no one was paying undue attention to his presence. The droid’s gait purposefully changed to a more awkward, droid-like walk that seemed to blend in with other droids in the area. Those on Bespin who knew a lot about droids did not need to see H5PAD move normally—the droid was far too sure-footed and deft for run of the mill droids. His deceptive protocols were in full effect now. The menacing optics that glowed red were now a soothing turquoise hue. The only weapon on H5PAD now was his blaster pistol hidden in the bottom of his supply pack over his shoulder. In a vocabulator voice that was infinitely more pleasant than the assassin droid’s normal voice, the answered quietly, ”Octavia’s assessment is correct. AP-6 can confirm his ability to replicate the tasking you described. AP-6 will follow Octavia’s lead on the tasking ahead.”

The pair traveled down the corridor passing merchants and security as they went. A protocol droid in front of them, but just when it was about to pass them, H5PAD spoke to the droid in binary, “ "Wee wooo beep bop vee zot".

Quickly responding to H5PAD's inquiry, the protocol droid was extremely helpful to the “servant droid” and described multiple places near the landing pad area that fit that description. H5PAD thanked the protocol droid and noted the locations on his internal navicomputer for future reference…

@Braden Drake

 

[Freyja Storm]

The pair made their way quickly through the corridors around the city. It was a maze of construction, seeming to have formal planning before the next layer was added. It took a further ten minutes to navigate their way around and down to the levels near the docking bays. "Locate a terminal, we need to loop the feed for that corridor." She said nodding towards the main passageway down to their destination.

Whilst the droid did its work, she pulled off her overall if they got seen any further it wasn't going to matter if her weapons were covered or not. Freyja gave each weapon a quick look over, losing the vibrosword on her back from its sheath, unclipping the blaster at her hip and swinging the rifle around to her front. She raised it up to eye level, aiming down the corridor encase anything came through the door. She was ready, know she only needed to relay on the droid.

@Mithias

 

[H5PAD]

West of Landing Pad 127
Bespin

The assassin droid was evaluating hundreds of variables as they walked: frequency of foot traffic, frequency of ship takeoff/landing, frequency of security patrols, analysis of armament, positions of recording devices, and the list went on.

"Locate a terminal, we need to loop the feed for that corridor."

H5PAD nodded and responded in his “normal” mechanical voice quietly, ”Affirmative. Hale will contact you on the comlink when it is done.”

PERSONALITY STATUS: DECEPTIVE

DIRECTIVES
PRIMARY – Infiltrate space scouted previously that possesses security terminal and view
SECONDARY – Avoid security personnel
TERTIARY – Contact “Octavia” for next directive


Taking to its clunky gait again, H5PAD was now fully in the behavior of a servant droid, complete with appropriate greetings as he passed people, his LEDs possessing a light blue hue instead of the ominous red, and a shift in its movement, that mirrored the walk of typical servant droids.

The first space he came to one that the protocol droid described. It was a space that had a view of Landing Pad 127 and possessed a terminal that could access security features in the immediate area. Acting like he belonged to where he was going, H5PAD waited until the hallway was clear and then accessed the room. Inside was a sitting room with the intention of providing hospitality for special guests to wait for their loved ones as they arrived on Bespin…

PERSONALITY STATUS: ANALYTICAL

With that, H5PAD locked access to the small sitting room and strode over to the terminal on the wall next to the window. Using the switch provided, he darkened the large viewport, so that visibility to the space was minimal. It was used to block out bright light, but this served H5PAD for obscurity just fine.

Walking over to the terminal, the assassin droid extended his scomp-link connection from his forearm and interfaced with the system. Triggering his computer spike, the droid began the tedious process of navigating the system without being detected. Time passed with the droid taking his time to remain undetected in the system. Finally, the droid accessed security and navigated to the holocams directed to Landing Pad 127. Analyzing the live feed, the droid picked two minutes of feed and made a comprehensive analysis of the frame to loop in the front and the frame to loop at the end until the droid was satisfied they were near identical. The droid was pleased with a 97.564665% match on the frames. However, before he looped the holocams, he made sure to place a backdoor access in the system so that he could quickly access it again if needed during this operation. Security would sweep the anomaly aware the next day, but he only needed it for the next hour.

Satisfied it was in a place where it could begin, H5PAD looped the recordings and triggered his internal comlink, “Objective completed. You may proceed.”

@Braden Drake

 

[Freyja Storm]

The go was green, as her old Imperial instructors would say. Freyja rested the butt of her rifle into her shoulder and took a deep breath before pressing the opening button to the main walkway down to the Landing Pad. The corridor was long and empty of any cover. It was a killing galley just waiting for someone to walk into, and that is exactly what Freyja did. Stepping through, she noticed two guards walking away from her. 'Not Good' she thought, if they turned they could gun her down in a minute, but if she started firing and missed, the stray bolts flying out of the end of the corridor might alert more guards and again she would be gunned down. She needed to close on them quickly before they either got away or turned around and strike.

She broke into a jog, keeping the blaster raised its sights on the right-hand guard. She made the ground quickly, only about twenty paces away, her footfall must have finally reached them as they both turned around at the same time. Freyja fired two shots into the first guard, two clean hits, a clean kill. She fired another two into the left-hand guard. One hit him in the shoulder sending him flying the other flew past into the Landing Pad beyond. 'That wasn't good.' "AP, get down here now. It's about to get hairy!" She shouted down the comms as she continued to run.

 

[H5PAD]

West of Landing Pad 127
Bespin

"AP, get down here now. It's about to get hairy!"

It was not the perfect start that H5PAD calculated, but such an eventuality was certainly within the limits of probability. The assassin droid logged out of the system, retracting the scomp-link as he did so. With the recorders on loop, H5PAD performed some quick calculations and quickly decided to don a full hooded cloak from his shoulder bag. Unfurling the black cloak and draping it over his metallic frame, it made sure to keep it with as much coverage as possible. While there were not many witnesses to the Landing Pad…yet--H5PAD made sure to cover all the bases.

“Confirmed. Enroute to the objective.”

The assassin droid reared back his metallic fist and drove it home on the glass panel leading out to the landing pad where “Octavia” was just stepping out. As the droid was about to strike the glass, the pneumatic fist triggered from its left arm, shattering the thick glass in hundreds of pieces. Not wasting any time or movements, H5PAD took two solid steps and jumped off the two-story building down to the landing pad. Just as the assassin droid was about to hit the ground, it triggered its jetboots, mitigating the impact of its fall. As soon as its metallic feet hit the pad, it sprinted towards the freighter…

@Braden Drake

 

[Freyja Storm]

Freyja rounded the corner to see a half dozen guards walking in her direction, weapons raised. There was at least another half dozen coming down the pad. She scouted down quickly into cover as the guards opened fire on her position, taking a quick look over the large container she cowered behind she spotted the third and final freighter had landed, its pilot just leaving its cockpit. She only had a few minutes to get there before they took the ship back up and out of her reach. A crash of glass and the burning of jet-boots signalled the coming of Hale the droid, to the scene.

"AP, we need to get to that freighter as soon as. The guards are secondary." She shouted over the blaster fire. Freyja would give the droid the first move, she didn't want to get blown up in this firefight, but she didn't mind if the droid for hire did.

 

[H5PAD]

West of Landing Pad 127
Bespin

"AP, we need to get to that freighter as soon as. The guards are secondary."

Sprinting across the landing pad, he replied in the comlink, “Confirmed. Initiating opportunity for egress.”

With that, the assassin droid cooked a smoke grenade, timed its detonation and tossed in in between the path to the target freighter and himself. However, it was ahead of him, so it was in a good position to allow Freyja to come through the smoke to the objective. Skittering along the landing pad, it began to billow thick gray smoke, covering a portion of the broad landing pad. H5PAD pulled his blaster pistol and began laying down covering fire. The smoke did not hinder his shots, cataloguing hostiles and then correlating them to his motion sensor…Freyja was omitted from that target list. Alas, the assassin droid was not trying to kill any of the guards, but sufficiently suppress a few while Freyja made her way to the freighter.

Before coming out of the smoke, H5PAD sensed the movement of the pilot, who changed direction and started rapidly heading back to the ramp. Triggering his jet boots once again, he set himself on a straight course to the anticipated point where the pilot would be. Exiting the smoke, H5PAD slammed into the pilot with a fist (not a pneumatic fist), forcing the pilot to the ground before he got to the ramp. Spinning around in a crouch, H5PAD laid down continuous covering fire for “Octavia”…

@Braden Drake

 

[Freyja Storm]

Maybe she needed to hire this droid more often, he was a far sight better than half of the other people she had worked with over the past few years. She tried to make a mental note to keep the job offer details in case she needed to contact him. But that was quickly lost as she charged through the smoke. She kept her rifle close to her side, not taking any shots as to not show her location through the dense smoke. The wind outside on cloud city was strong, so she only had a minute at best to get across before the smoke cleared and she was a sitting duck.

She sprinted as fast as she could to get to the other side, Freyja watched as the droid shot over the top of her, more graceful than she expected a hunk of metal like him to ever be. She felt worse for the pilot who took a rather hefty metal fist to the head, that was going to hurt that was for sure. Freyja ducked down as the droid opened fire at the guards behind her. Running past her droid guard she ran up the loading ramp of the Mynock Freighter, the engines were still warm which was good. Throwing her rifle into one corner she jumped into the seat and started the flight prep to get the ship underway. Freyja could hear the blaster fire getting heated, she needed to get out of there quickly. As soon as the ship came fully online, she hit the throttle, taking off slow enough for Hale to get on if need be, before closing up the loading ramp and taking a swift dive into the clouds below. She needed to lose any of her potential pursuers before making the jump to hyperspace. She flew under the clouds for about twenty minutes before finally raising her head, punching the throttle and heading for space.

____
End Thread.