[Fic] Star Wars: Assassination Protocols

[Sabretooth]

We're glad you finally updated, RC.

 

Apparently your writing quality has not yet suffered disuse atrophy...

[RC-1162]

well, thats great to hear. thanks man.

hopefully ill get a 1000 word plus chapter for your continued reading pleasure by tomorrow evening.

sit tight all!

[Jason Skywalker]

Cool chapter, seems the Hunter Killer Droid is finally getting onto the business of Bounty Hunting.

[RC-1162]

well, at least somebody got it .

[igyman]

It's... alive!! Seriously, I'm glad that this fic wasn't forgotten, but it was a long pause. As for the chapter (you said you wanted criticism), it was... *the moment of anxious anticipation* good. Not many things happened, but the dialogues were very nicely done. When it comes to spelling, I only noticed one tiny mistake - a missing apostrophe at the beginning of HK's comment on protocol droids (the one with self-obsessed in it).

[RC-1162]

well, thats pretty well done for a comeback, i would say. thanks all! stay tuned.

[JediMaster12]

RC is alive again. Great chapter. That conversation with Goldenrod and R2 was amuzing though I think HK would have been better off calling R2 a bucket of bolts. Still glad to see that he kept the meatbag phrases. His logic concerning Mandalorians and humans is amusing. Glad you're back and keep at it.

[RC-1162]

thanks, JM12, i'm working on the next chapter now. i'll just proof read it and post it maybe today evening or tomorrow morning.

[RC-1162]

The Trandoshan looked unsatisfied as he sized up the person standing in front of him. He looked to be thinking, which was rare for his species. Tarrk was the officer in charge of getting new recruits for the League of Independent Bounty Hunters.

 

“You don’t look like bounty hunter material to me,” said the Trandoshan. “Maybe a desk job on Cosuscant will give you all the excitement you need.”

 

“Looks can be deceiving,” Eric growled, making his voice as deep as he could and scowling. “Give me a shot and I’ll prove it to you.”

 

“Besides,” chimed HK. “I am the most advanced piece of kit that a meatbag brain could develop. The two of us are an excellent team.”

 

“Whatever you say,” said Tarrk, still unconvinced. “I’ll hand you your first assignment, but first you need to place your thumbprint on a statement that absolves the LIBH of any harm you may come across.”

 

“Alright,” Eric agreed, and placed his thumb on the datapad that Tarrk handed to him, but not without carefully reading the fine print first.

 

“Okay, so here’s your first target: a Rodian named Fargo,” said the Trandoshan as he handed them a datapad with all the information they would need about the target’s lifestyle. “He owns a private AI software company on Corellia and lately he’s been sending artificially intelligent R2 units and other such models to us in an attempt to record our secrets to sell to the Bounty Hunters Guild: a rival community. Your mission is to take him out and wipe his personal computer of all plans, research files and anything related to the work of AI. Good luck.”

 

“Thank you,” replied Eric, taking the pad and glancing through it. “How do we contact you once the job is done?”

 

“Set your broadwave transmitter to the frequency listed in your pad and send four signals through that. Once done, somebody from our group will meet you here on Polis Massa. You will receive your payment once you give us a bit of proof of your kill.”

 

“Alright, we’ll set off now.” Eric said with a nod. Tarrk nodded back and walked off. Eric and HK did likewise towards their ship.

************************************************************************

Corellia was a very nice place to be in if you were interested in pleasure instead of business, but the Hunter Killer droid and his smuggler companion were now fixed on locating a certain Rodian named Fargo.

 

“So, where do you reckon we should start?” Eric asked HK as they walked through the urban streets.

 

“I need a computer terminal. Once I get my hands on one, nobody can hide from me,” replied HK.

 

“Trouble is, we can’t just walk into a HoloNet Café and hope to hack into the databases of private companies. We’ll be tracked in no time.”

 

“There are plenty of homes around here, I should believe?” HK suggested.

 

“I’m not gonna break into anyone’s house.”

 

“It’s the cheapest and easiest way of getting what we need. If we get traced, the person who lives there gets caught.”

 

“Yes, and we ruin the life of someone we don’t even know.”

 

“Life is like that. It’s a hunt or be hunted galaxy.”

 

“You must be getting some perverse pleasure in saying that, aren’t you?” Eric said as he looked around.

 

“As you say,” HK waved it away. “Shall I deploy my scanners and find a vacated spot?”

 

“Okay,” Eric finally agreed and watched as HK’s photoreceptors flashed alternatively between blue and green and the droid swiveled his head 180 degrees from right to left and back.

 

“There,” HK said, pointing around 145 degrees from his right. “As I understand, that’s an office building of a telemarketing company and they have the night off, so the security will be on relative minimum.”

 

“Okay, so we get in, get to a terminal, get what we need and get out.” Eric said. “And try to take as less time as you can.”

 

“That will depend on how fast we can get in and out as my skills on the computer terminal will get us through that in no time.”

 

“How modest,” Eric remarked as they approached the building under discussion. When they reached the door, however, the news was not very good.

 

“A numerical lock,” HK reported, staring at a keypad set into the wall, numbers glowing bright green through their translucent silicone covers. “I have no idea what the limit for these codes are and under those circumstances, there could be well over a billion possible codes.”

 

“Okay, so let’s try another building,” Eric said, starting to walk away.

 

“No other building in the immediate area is unoccupied,” HK reported. “And the sooner we get rid of the Rodian, the more we get paid.”

 

Eric sighed and came back up to the panel. Not taking his eyes off it, he brought out a small screwdriver from his survival belt and began work on removing the panel. Once done, he pulled it out to reveal the mess of multicolored wires snaking out of its rear face. With an expert disposition, he clipped a few wires with a small penknife. Stripping the plastic insulation from some, he crossed three pairs of different wires and the durasteel door calmly slid open.

 

“Hotwiring is the key to survival for a smuggler,” Eric commented as the pair made their way into the building. HK marched up to the security guard’s console and punched in some commands. Conversing with the computer via his input keys, HK’s mechanical fingers were almost a blur on the surface of the terminal. He accessed the city’s data files and searched for all information regarding a Rodian named Fargo. The system spent the next 0.15ths of a second scanning and displayed its results.

 

“We have a match,” HK announced. “Fargo Laquisst: Chairman and Owner of Elements Microsystems, specializing in AI technology. Apparently his office is just a twenty minute walk from here.”

 

“Alright,” Eric said. “Get the route and let’s move.”

 

20 minutes later they were staring up a tall building with a neon signboard in the front screaming ‘Elements Microsystems’.

 

“Time to get to work,” HK mumbled.

[Jason Skywalker]

Good chapter, and with a cliffhanger! I should try that.

[Diego Varen]

Good chapter, and with a cliffhanger! I should try that.

 

Agreed. RC is finally back with a vengeance!

[RC-1162]

hehe. yeah, i sure am. thanks guys. i gotcha hanging on the edge of your seats now, dont i?

[igyman]

A telemarketing company in the SW universe, heh heh, very good RC. A very good and amusing chapter. Keep it up.

[RC-1162]

w00t! just noticed: 1000+ views! kewl!

thanks iggy, im glad you enjoyed it. now all i need is JM12's and Jae's seal of approval

[JediMaster12]

Hey RC. That was a good chapter. HK is putting to use his logic that it is to hunt or be hunted in the galaxy. You are either predator or prey. That bounty hunter guild thing was a nice touch.

[RC-1162]

thanks JM the bounty hunter guild was inspired by the Bounty Hunter Wars series.

 

to all: i'm moving over the weekend to i don't know how often i'll be able to access the net, so if i can ill get up one more chapter tomorrow, otherwise i may get one up on tuesday or wednesday.

[Jason Skywalker]

Ah, no worries, plenty of things to do while a new chapter isn't coming out. Good luck with the moving though.

[RC-1162]

ok, i managed to scrape this out. here you go. i'll be moving tomorrow so i might not post at all for the next 4-5 days. depends. but when i return, there will be a chapter waiting, and i mean it this time .

 

TEN

 

It was late night so Eric did not expect anyone to be present in the EM office building at the time, but HK mildly surprised him by reporting that he scanned several sentients in the top levels of the buildings and one of them was a Rodian, located in the Chairman’s office. Needless to say, their target was close. Now Eric panted as he climbed up the stairwell of a neighboring building, struggling to keep up with the untiring assassin droid trumping up the stairs in front of him.

 

“Why didn’t we just take the turbolift?” Eric gasped, ready to kick himself for not asking this question earlier.

 

“If you had paid attention to the notices posted on the walls in the Ground Floor, you would know that this building is scheduled for demolition in 3 days. All power has been cut.” HK replied, not looking back.

 

Just then, Eric stumbled and barely managed to save himself from going over the rail and falling 35 stories by grabbing HK’s strong metal right arm.

 

“That explains the lack of light,” Eric muttered as HK helped him up and he regained his breath and balance.

 

“Shall we move?” HK suggested impatiently. Groaning, Eric yielded.

 

“What’s the rush? If he’s so busy he won’t leave his job behind and go home.”

 

HK did not reply to that and continued climbing. 15 stories later, Eric was in agony and felt blessed that they had reached the terrace of the building. He flopped on the ground, hyperventilating and grasping his cramping thighs.

 

“Here, let me help,” HK said and ejected a tiny syringe needle from his right index finger. Surgically inserting it into Eric’s elbow joint vein, he injected a solution into the latter’s bloodstream. Within 10 seconds, Eric’s muscles relaxed and he began to breathe a bit more properly. Getting to his feet, he thanked the droid.

 

“What was that?”

 

“Hyper-oxygenated blood plasma,” HK said. “Whoever heard of an assassin droid with medical supplies stored in it? But since it was there, I treated you.”

 

“Okay,” Eric said, stretching out his muscles. “Thank you. I’m just not used to such vigorous exercise.”

 

“Don’t mention it,” HK said as he surveyed the opposite building and looked for the best line of fire. He shifted positions along the waist-high wall till he was satisfied with his aiming. Going down on one knee, he began adding components to his custom blaster. He added an elongated firing chamber to the stock short one and screwed in a one inch long silencer to the end of that. He removed the scope and replaced it with an infra-red scope and swapped out his blaster pack to a more lethal projectile-laser based ammunition. Eric watched with wonder as his companion worked and finally set the sniper rifle on the edge and put his photoreceptors to the scope.

 

“You are a walking army, HK,” Eric commented as he crouched down to watch the droid’s handiwork.

 

“That statement is my pride and joy,” HK replied. “I strive to maintain it.”

 

“Well, you don’t need to try very hard,” Eric chuckled.

 

HK set his scope and brought the crosshairs on the blue-red-white-green-yellow infra red image of Fargo and held it to millimeter accuracy. His metal index finger snapped back and the blaster silently recoiled, a bright red bolt escaping without a sound from the end of the barrel. It pierced the glass window of the Rodian’s office, shattering it, and hit the Rodian dead center in the back of his head. The inertia of the projectile in the bolt’s core knocked him a meter forward and he ended up flipping forward over his desk to the floor, dead. Finally, HK zoomed in with his built-in scopes for telescopic vision and took a holograph of the scene in Fargo’s office.

 

“Another job well done,” HK remarked as he dismantled the extra components of his blaster and carefully put them away. “Now lets go haggle over our credits.”

 

“Haggle?” Eric echoed as they made their way down the stairwell again, though slowly this time. “Isn’t the price usually fixed?”

 

“It is,” HK admitted. “But a few hundred extra credits won’t harm anyone.”

 

“I don’t think they’ll be impressed enough with just one kill to hand us that much, HK,” Eric said skeptically.

 

“No, but a blaster in the face might prompt them enough.”

 

“Do you want this to be the shortest jobs of our career?”

 

“No, I was just joking. But persuasion might do the trick, and smugglers usually have a great skill in that.”

 

“Damn right we do,” Eric said, grinning.

 

The rest of the long journey down was spent in small talk and the trip to the spaceport was uneventful. Within 15 minutes of reaching the spaceport, they were off, back to Polis Massa.

************************************************************************

“So you say this is the legendary HK-47 unit that a Sith Lord of the Old Republic hand crafted,” said the figure across Tarrk the Trandoshan.

 

“Yes, there’s no doubt,” Tarrk grated back in his gravelly voice. “Its vocabulator has not been changed and we have been able to match its speech patterns with records we managed to dig up. In addition, it appears it’s body frame has been rebuilt. There are several minor structural differences in its frame and color scheme. But it’s as lethal as it has been rumored to be. It made very short work of Fargo Laquisst.”

 

“Hmm, this is very interesting,” the figure said. “No doubt we shall have nothing but profit with it serving in our Guild. Maybe I can even personalize it as my bodyguard.”

 

“The droid is largely independent, sir,” Tarrk replied. “The human it’s with is only its friend. It has been calibrated to feel emotions as well, or so I gather.”

 

“Nothing a memory wipe won’t handle,” the figure replied. “But what do you mean ‘emotions’?”

 

“With several slicers working together, I managed to retrieve a scrap on information from a private call its fabricator made to one of his acquaintances. It seems he developed an integrated circuit which would enable droids to feel as humans do.”

 

“Highly improbable,” the figure commented. “But interesting, nonetheless. Lets wait and see as the duo of man and machine climb our ranks.”

[Diego Varen]

Another good Chapter RC. I'm looking foward to more and good luck with the moving. Will there be any updates on Galactic Conquest II too?

[RC-1162]

thanks, Pottsie and Jase.

GC is presently on standby, since i just got back to writing, i want to take it relatively easy. i'll try to update it on christmas and new year.

[Sabretooth]

Good one, RC. Keep up the stuff!

[igyman]

Very nice, RC. The assassination scene was done really well. The only thing I would have added would be an extension of HK's ''Don't mention it.'' comment. I would have added ''Really, don't. I have to maintain my reputation.'' or something like that. (feel free to use it, if you want.)

[Jason Skywalker]

Great chapter man, just seemed a little fast.

 

Keep it up anyways!

[RC-1162]

thanks, all!

@ iggy: i made that line very short to somewhat highlight the fact that HK wanted to get underway with the assassination

[JediMaster12]

Nicely written. Somehow I get the feeling that HK isn't one for persuasion but you made that clear with the suggestion of the blaster to the face. A good read as always RC. Hope the move goes well.