Star Wars: Shards Discussion Boards Wednesday's Child Chapter 2
  Kummer wolfe
Mon, Apr 8th 2024 10:57   Edited on Fri, Dec 19th 2025 07:57

Meeting of the Minds

ship Engineering sm.webp
Holoscan of a ship's engineering bay by CB Ash
 
As Kipo and Nyx take in they’ve finally caught up, a manic, wild-furred squib races out of Engineering like his backside was on fire, or at least the parts he favored most. Gray-green fur was pointed in all sorts of directions, not to mention peeking out of holes in his tattered technician coveralls.
 
The wild look in his eyes told his story. It was a mixture of terror stirred energetically with the prospect of freedom and meeting new people, stirred frantically like an agitated cup of caf in a blender. The squib, came to a fast stop between Kipo and Nyx.
 
“Atmo! Losing Atmo!” He looked from Nyx to Kipo then pointed frantically with both hands in a direction deeper into the ship.
 
Which might have been more dramatic if he hadn’t pointed at a solid wall.
 
“SHE knows!” the squib managed to squeak out between gasps. Then, as if that one secure portion of his mind that still held manners, if not sanity, peeked out, he blinked at Nyx. As if he had just focused on her standing there.
 
“Oh, hello. Callan Gelfar, technician 9th class,” he said with a pleasant smile and nod.
 
But it wasn’t to last, as the wild look returned as if panic had ambushed the squib’s rational mind, tied it up, then tossed it into a nearby closet.
 
“This has to be because of *Her*!” Callan said with a knowing glance at Kipo. “She’ll send her troopers!”
 
Down the passageway behind Nyx, the ghostly, if not holographic, human technician in the ragged coveralls picked up his pace. Arms extended, he half-limped, half-ran toward the group. Mouth working slowly as if struggling to say a phrase, or perhaps a word.
 
Storyteller Instructions
If ever I saw a chance for RP… I think this is it. So what do ya’ll do?
  Kipo Raysser
Wed, Apr 10th 2024 02:16
"We need to shut down a machine in the data room alongside the ship’s main data core," Kipo told Nyx at the same time she was telling him something loudly. He had to shout so loudly through the rebreather that he couldn't hear what she said.   "I rescued him. Callan's crewmates are captured. ...maybe still alive." He shouted, hoping he was answering her question. But at the same time she said something else, getting more than a little perturbed.   "Sorry," Kipo apologized, pulling off the troublesome rebreather, "You go first."   But just as she was about to start again, Kipo blurted out, "Do you see that gimp behind you?"   That didn't help.   "Sorry, you go first."
  Nyxeil Nyx Synarris
(a.k.a. Moke)
Fri, Apr 12th 2024 08:09   Edited on Fri, Apr 12th 2024 08:16
I think I saw this act at an amusement park once, I did not like it then either. I eye the squib cautiously, not that it even notices. "What kind of machine?"   "Which member of the crew is that?" I look at the fur fried squib and point toward the limping hologram just glad everyone can see it. "And what is his deal?"   I extend Jane's scorched drone to Kipo I think she has a few flaws or maybe the ship has given her a bad case of indigestion. Either way this piece swallowed too much current right before causing me to delay and giving me bad information. Bad information, very old and out of date information" Repeating and stressing the words as I study Kipo for a reaction to my comment making sure to use my off hand extending the part to his on hand.
  Kipo Raysser
Tue, Apr 16th 2024 08:38
Kipo took the offered fried drone from Nyx and gave it an instant of inspection while saying, "I'm guessing Jane's working on the atmo problem while SHE," (He fingered symbols for quotation marks in the air while mimicking the way Callan said the ominous pronoun, "is interfering with the drones."   Then to Callan, "Yeah, what's up with Limpy over there? Is he flammable?"
  Callan Gelfar
Sun, May 5th 2024 07:40
Callan twitched, which was closer to a suppressed jump, at the mention of his name. The Squib tech spun around to look where Nyx and Kipo indicated. His eyes went wide at the sight of the ghostly, almost holographic, human mechanic in tattered coveralls.
 
“I… I don’t know his name.” Callan shook his head frantically. “I don’t know most of their names. But I’m almost sure they were here way before I was. They follow everyone around who comes aboard.”
 
He shuddered.
 
“If they grab you, they stun you. Like an ion bolt. I’ve seen footage of them attacking dozens of dock workers. Once they hit someone, they get more ‘solid’. Almost like it changes them. I don’t understand it at all. It’s like they want something…”
 
Callan’s words trailed off a moment.
 
“I stay away from them. Fire doesn’t bother them, but I think their like ‘digital ghosts’? So you can use ion bolts to disrupt them. Sonic bolts work, too.”
  Nyxeil Nyx Synarris
(a.k.a. Moke)
Tue, May 7th 2024 10:02   Edited on Tue, May 7th 2024 10:03
Nyx looks at Kipo with a wry smile.
  ”Some dates just go bad. I don’t think he has embraced that we have nothing in common and I don’t see a future between us.”
  ”I wonder if you could override the internship local comm system bypassing the decibel safety protocol for a focused sonic attack or a sonic wall?"
  She looks at the twitchy squib with what she considers a smile which actually shows her sharp incisors. With the practiced flick or her wrist her staff extends to full length and crackles with a surge of electricity. She considers now.   ”I thought maybe he would be attracted to a power supply, however he has a ship full of power and he is still following me. So maybe it is some type of focus on life or biology, just my luck. A clingy date.”
  Kipo Raysser
Mon, May 13th 2024 05:39
Kipo wanted to say something flirty about Nyx and her "date", but he just couldn't come up with anything. And she did have a very good idea.   He popped off the outer casing's maintenance panel on the little drone, took a quick look, then handed it to the Squib.   "Here's the electronics package you need for the sonic attack," Kipo told Callan, "The power supply is fried, but the audio processor looks clean."   Then to Nyx he suggested, "Let's spread out, and when he gets into the room we'll play 'Kowakian monkey-lizard in the Middle' to stall the glowing mugger."
  Kummer wolfe
Thu, May 30th 2024 05:25
Callan turned the burnt drone over in his hands, then squinted at the tech. After a second, he sniffed at the drone’s electronic interior.
 
“Connections smell good,” he concluded after a moment. The Squib tilted his head to the side just slightly. “I can make it work.”
 
The Squib scrounged up a tool pack out of engineering, then retreated to beside the broken down door to rewire the drone. Sparks erupted like a geyser out of the device while Callan worked with disturbing speed.
 
Inside the passageway, the glowing specter stumped forward, limping at a faster rate, as if the ghostly mechanic sensed something had gone terribly wrong. He bolted through the door, one limp leg hampering his progress. Once inside, he stopped dead, eyes snapping between Kipo and Nyx that rushed in from either side.
 
A short shriek from Callan jarred the soothing chaos of combat to a near halt. The combatants froze, twitched or stepped back as the modified drone erupted to blue, energetic life. It buzzed like a bee high on glowing ionic nectar and twice as erratic. The drone danced and twitched while a sonic beam strong enough to punch a grav-tank into submission shot across the room. Air rippled like water while it passed.
 
The beam slapped the holographic mechanic like he deserved it, which made the ghostly man flicker like a bad holo-transmission. Once the light, sound, and dust settled, a thick ion-sonic wall had appeared across the passageway opening.
 
Inside the wall, the holo-mechanic flickered, pounding against the walls of the energy cell that held him rooted to the spot.
 
“Feed…,” was the faint muffled cry from inside the makeshift cell, along with other words that were lost in translation.
 
Callan stared wide-eyed at the ion-sonic container turned wall. After a second, he cleared his throat, rubbed his snout then straightened his vest.
 
“I meant to do that,” he said with almost enough confidence to sound like he meant it.
 
Storyteller Instructions
And so we see what happens when the NPC rolls a 1 on the wild die and tries to cover it up! Because not all 1’s are “crit fail” but “maximum complication”! LOL
Back to Nyx and Kipo! How do you want to handle this?
  Nyxeil Nyx Synarris
(a.k.a. Moke)
Sun, Aug 11th 2024 04:53   Edited on Sun, Aug 11th 2024 04:59
Nyx raised an eyebrow, the fur on her body standing on end as the blue power field flared around the holographic specter. Still uncertain how to dispel a lingering hogogram, she glanced at Kipo. "So, what's the plan with the machine?"  
Kipo Quote "We need to shut down a machine in the data room, right alongside the ship’s main data core."
  "I'm still listening, Kipo, however ..." Nyx said, turning away toward one of her least favorite species in the galaxy. As Saranier would say, "Any asteroid to hide behind." Nyx was clearly rattled and struggling to focus. "And you!" she addressed the squib, eyeing him suspiciously. Almost like a spasm she jerked back to Kipo, "By the way, Kipo, where’s Jane? And when we meet her again, how do we know it’s really Jane? What if she’s just a droid shell for something... a bit more dangerous?"   Nyx turned her attention back to the squib. "You’re Callan, right? Been on this ship a long time? You must have a story to tell. But let me ask again—what’s up with your friend? Why does he want to hang around us? I think after all this time he has earned lots of vacation, let's help him take it."
  Callan Gelfar
Mon, Aug 19th 2024 09:16
“Yeah, I’m Callan. I’ve been aboard for awhile,” the Squib replied softly. “Year? Maybe almost two. I was scavenging parts when I got trapped here.”
 
Callan threw a sideways glance at the holographic specter, then quickly looked away.
 
“I just don’t know.” The squib technician shook his head slightly. “He’s not the only one, either. There are some pilots wearing old uniforms from the Clone Wars who have run after mechanics who’ve come aboard.”
 
He waved his arms at the holographic mechanic, then at the room around them.
 
“They either chase anyone who comes aboard or try and wreck things. Which the repair droids show up and either fix it, or rip out the parts for whatever She has in mind.”
 
Callan shuddered.
 
“We can hit him with an ion charge, but he’ll eventually come back. Takes a couple of hours. He often brings a friend when that happens.”
  Kipo Raysser
Wed, Aug 28th 2024 07:22
"Let's leave him in his little holding cell for as long as it lasts if he's just going to come back again," Kipo said to both Nyx and Callan, "We can squeeze past it to get to the data room."   Then specifically to Nyx he began, "Callan tells me there's a droid lady built into the ship who's breaking out before the repair crew finds her and wipes her. Those guys work for her. She's built a machine next to the main data core, and if we shut it down, it will set her way back," holding his guitar much like a soldier with a blaster rifle and speaking confidently as if he had any shred of evidence to back up his wild conjectures, "Then we'll have something we know she wants, so we'll have leverage on her."   He slid to their exit, checked carefully for any deadly 'ghosts' ahead, then added, "And don't worry about Jane. I've known her all my life. I can spot an imposter," with the same undeserved confidence, "Jane must have found the shipboard AI by now, and I'm sure she's giving her plenty of distractions."
  Nyxeil Nyx Synarris
(a.k.a. Moke)
Mon, Sep 16th 2024 12:39   Edited on Mon, Sep 16th 2024 12:45
"Well, all right, Kipo," I mutter under my breath. "My gut tells me Callan isn’t as innocent as he seems. No one who’s been stranded on a ship like this for so long stays clean." I turn away moving behind Callan. "Time to become a pain in the backside to that synthetic son of a... bot." The words are bitter, but they fire me up as I urge Callan in front of me. "Let’s move. We’ve got places to go, circuits to fry." But the thought nags at me. What if it's more than circuits? What if that machine has learned a few new tricks? Every step feels heavier and the passage way narrow, like the air is pressing down on me.
  Kummer wolfe
Wed, Sep 25th 2024 11:30   Edited on Wed, Sep 25th 2024 11:31
The trio slip out of engineering and along the passageway. Behind them, the plaintive wail of the captive hologram follows them like a haunting memory. Almost as if the hologram begged to be heard, if not understood.
 
“Feed! Feed!”
 
But the cries faded to nothing once the trio put a solid hundred meters between themselves and the source of the wails, then turned a corner.
 
Progress, such as it was, went slow and careful. Kipo’s keen sense of surroundings, and not to mention drama, uncovered more holographic “crew” before they could become a problem. The holograms came in many shapes, species, and styles. Some wore clothing more suited to the Clone Wars conflict over 30 to 40 galactic years ago. Others were dressed in more recent coveralls common to modern-day technicians from Fondor. The holographic Black Hat and other pirates were anyone’s guess.
 
After a little cautious practice, with some suggestions for places to hide by Callan, they avoided the holograms. The digital threats only seemed to react when they could actually ‘see’ someone that didn’t quite belong. Such as Nyx, Kipo, and possibly Callan.
 
But on the way, a pattern seemed to emerge. The closer they strayed to the hangar, the more the holograms appeared to be from the Clone Wars era. Deeper inside the ship? It was a mix, but that mix leaned more toward modern day.
 
It was a half-hour later before the trio slipped past a half-open door to a data parts storage room. Ten meters down at the end of the passageway, faded letters stenciled onto a door read, ‘Data Core’. A door next to it on the right side of the passageway was marked ‘Battle Bridge’.
 
As they watched, a small mouse droid hurried down the hallway. The room to the data core snapped open with a hiss. For the few seconds the door was open, the trio could see that inside was the ship’s massive floor to ceiling data core assembly. Next to that was as device right out of holodramas.
 
It had a main console that was taller than a wookiee with wide parts tables spread out on either side. One medical Bacta bed was attached to the console. Just past this, there looked to be a miniature version of a battle station’s superlaser the size of a landspeeder. It was on a swivel base that allowed, possibly, a 360 degree view of the room.
 
The entire apparatus was active, with lights and diagrams spilling over the holoscreen. But the angle wasn’t right to allow the group to see just what was on screen at any time. It would take someone going into the room for that, or another clever plan.
 
Though, the trio could easily see that someone, or something, inhabited the bacta bed.
 
Storyteller Instructions
All right! Kipo! Nyx! How do you want to handle this?
  Nyxeil Nyx Synarris
(a.k.a. Moke)
Tue, Oct 22nd 2024 11:37
It only take Nyx a quick glance to figure out this room will most likely spell trouble. She suppresses the urge to just start randomly blasting. Mainly because of lack of information.   "Well now, screens, bacta tanks a space canon laser. Ya way to busy in there. I think we will take a peek behind door number 2."   Nyx steps farther down the hallway towards the sign marked Battle Bridge and cycles the door to get a glance and before it even opens all the way cycles it immediately closed again.
  Kummer wolfe
Thu, Oct 24th 2024 12:29
The door to the battle bridge, cycled open then shut almost immediately. In the moments that it was open, Nyx caught a brief glimpse of the battle bridge itself.
 
Inside, only a few emergency lights gave any hint of what was beyond the door. Forgotten crates were stacked against one bulkhead to the right. Dim consoles for maintenance and engineering were on the bulkhead to the left, while navigation and weapons controls were across the room. In the center was a round table, the typical shield control station for a capital ship. Not a droid was in sight.
 
The consoles looked like they were on low power. Dormant, and possibly not even registering on the network, but most likely connected.
 
Once the door cycled shut, the sound of metallic footsteps echoed from the larger room. Two sets that were now headed toward Nyx, Kipo, and Callan.
  Kipo Raysser
Thu, Oct 24th 2024 06:56   Edited on Thu, Oct 24th 2024 06:58
Kipo remained still a moment, overwhelmed by the wide array of what on-a-moonlit-night-on-Tattooine any of that in the data core room represented, aside from his theory that it was something "She" wanted and something he could snatch away from "Her" and keep until "She" was willing to give the ship back to Mil Filgron.   He barely mumbled to Nyx a quick, "buh," when he realized he had run out of confident-sounding theories.   He turned to Callan.   "I know this is very stressful to you," he said calmly, "but we need to know for certain. Is that 'Her' in the bacta tank? Or is it just someone - something - important to 'Her'?"   Kipo offered a supportive pat on the back to Callan, and took a good grip on the Squib's overalls, preparing to carry him into the data room and press his face against the bacta tank if anything sounding like, "I don't know," we're to start to come out of the Squib's mouth.
  Nyxeil Nyx Synarris
(a.k.a. Moke)
Thu, Oct 24th 2024 02:21   Edited on Thu, Oct 24th 2024 03:20
"Nothing coming out of that room is going to be pleasant or an ewok looking for a hug." I whisper as I begin to run. I am timing the footfalls, the shadows and the distance. Nyx is starting to feel a bit caged on board this ship and misses the Bitterluck, time to let out some stress.   I run and use a small wall panel to try and gain height as I launch myself out and over the doorway exit in midair. My shock staff in hand ready to bring down to the first thing moving through the door under me.
  Kipo Raysser
Fri, Oct 25th 2024 10:08
I like to think I know a trap when I see one. And if there's only one thing I know about traps, it's that they work best with bait.   Without waiting for Callan's answer to my question, I hoist him up with one hand. And slide over to make the Squib and myself the first blob to be seen when someone or something walks in through the open doorway.   After a moment's thought, I turn the Squib so he is facing me. I wouldn't want him to glance up at the feline lady and ruin the surprise.   "So what do you know about that tank?" I say to Callan, loud enough that someone in the data core room could hear.
  Kummer wolfe
Wed, Oct 30th 2024 11:15   Edited on Wed, Oct 30th 2024 11:16
Callan shook his head and waved his arms frantically while he dangled like a fish on a hook in Kipo’s hand.
 
“N… no! That’s not her!” he hissed to Kipo, though the reply was easily heard by Nyx. “That’s her project! It’s like she’s growing a cyborg clone to transfer herself into. Like some sort of ship avatar in a physical body! Probably could control droids or who knows what?”
 
The Squib wiggled harder.
 
“We can’t be out here! She’ll know we’re here! She’ll send the enforcers!”
 
As if on cue, a pair of modified, red-plated B2 Battle Droids lumbered into view and though the open door. They stepped though, the crimson, upside down bucket-shaped heads swiveled left and right for threats. Finding none, they settled on the Squib, and by extension the owner of the hand holding the Squib.
 
“Dead or alive, you are coming with us,” the lead droid droned.
 
Storyteller Instructions
So! Players get to tackle this given their setup. Nyx first then Kipo! How do you want to handle this?
  Nyxeil Nyx Synarris
(a.k.a. Moke)
Wed, Dec 4th 2024 12:42
Nyx will use gravity in her favor to bring the shock staff down on the battle droid and release a full charge hoping to disrupt it completely. My fear is how well hardened they usually are, however these models do look a bit out of date. And if I can score a hit to a connecting section hopefully the hardening won't matter.   If only I can get lucky and it falls into the other one occupying it as well.   "Option C please! Pieces! You in pieces and powering an exercise grav bike."
  Kipo Raysser
Thu, Dec 5th 2024 12:40
Kipo thought back to what the Wookie bounty hunter, Blimcooathi, had taught him about dealing with B2 Battle Droids. The best policy was usually to do what they said and try to get around them some other way, but that didn't seem to be an option this time. There were a few places to shoot them that would be more effective than other places.   "Surrender," Kipo said melodically like lyrics to an old song as he lifted the Squib and raised one empty hand, "This is what I look like when I'm surrendering."   But his lower two hands shifted his guitar and played a couple of chords from the old ballad, "Trust the Force and Pass the Ammo". His guitar clicked as an internal mechanism shifted.   He aimed the guitar stock at the droid that did not have a shock staff hitting it from above and finished the first bar of the song.
Blaster Rifle skill 5D (separate out the wild die last), Damage (if hitting) 5D | 4d6, 1d6!, 5d6
16, 2, 24
  Nyxeil Nyx Synarris
(a.k.a. Moke)
Thu, Dec 5th 2024 12:57
Crackling Terror from Above
Attack with Shock Staff | 1d6+1,1d6,1d6,1d6
3, 2, 2, 1
  Kummer wolfe
Tue, Dec 10th 2024 06:17
Nyx’s staff slammed down on the first B2 Droid’s blunt head from above, lightning tore into the droid, crackling along it’s durasteel shell. The droid shuddered with the impact and tried to turn in an attempt to find it’s attacker.
 
At the same instant, from across the small room, Kipo shredded out the country chords to “Trust in the Force and Pass the Ammo”. Blaster bolts ripped out of the guitar and stabbed into the second Super Battle Droid’s lower torso. The droid buckled under the impact as if it was hit by an angry mudhorn.
 
Storyteller Instructions
Ok! Kypo! Nyx! Roll damage!
  Nyxeil Nyx Synarris
(a.k.a. Moke)
Tue, Dec 10th 2024 06:26
It's hammer time
Damage from stun staff | 4d6
9
  Kummer wolfe
Tue, Dec 17th 2024 06:15
Lighting from Nyx’s staff stabbed into the first B2, shearing controls which caused a low, ominous shriek from the droid’s inner workings. Next to it, Kipo’s target buckled under the blaster bolts. Nyx landed in a tight crouch next to her target, ready to lash out again.
 
The second droid, lower torso gutted open and steaming from Kipo’s musical assault, pushed itself upright then fired three rapid shots at the bounty hunter and his guitar. But it’s attack was short-lived as it’s duplicate flailed out with its arms to grab anything nearby as a weapon for the fight.
 
Anything such as Nyx, Kipo’s guitar, or its fellow unsuspecting B2 Battle Droid!
 
Storyteller Instructions
Ok! Kypo! Nyx! Roll to dodge!
  Kummer wolfe
Thu, Dec 19th 2024 06:21
In front, Kipo used his long practice of dealing with over-eager fans that would unexpectedly, yet somehow inevitably, to defend himself. A deft circle of his guitar, then a short hip check that often sends a crowd wild, kept his guitar out of reach.
 
Meanwhile, next to the battle droid, Nyx ducked under a wild swing from the lead B2, as it tried to latch onto her as a bludgeon. Instead of a handful of Nyx, the droid’s claw smashed into a maintenance panel, then shoved its claw into the chest of its fellow B2.
 
The second combat droid died with a flurry of sparks and a loud screech before the addled, wild B2 weilded the corpse of its companion as a large, deadly, hammer.
 
Storyteller Instructions
Ok! Looks like Nyx is SLIGHTLY in a worse position. Nyx, how do you want to handle this? Note, you can call in Kipo for some teamwork action here.
  Nyxeil Nyx Synarris
(a.k.a. Moke)
Mon, Dec 23rd 2024 08:57   Edited on Mon, Dec 23rd 2024 09:01
Nyx had never liked droids—especially the older models. No personality, no improvisation. Who has the time to reason with something that only knows smash, smash, smash? Boring. People were more fun to face off against; they were unpredictable. They’d pull moves so wild you’d be left scratching your head thinking, They did what? That was the thrill of it. But now, there was no thrill, just a job to do. It was time to take center stage and give Kipo the distraction he needed to finish things.   Nyx darted toward the chaos, eyeing the broken B2 droid being wielded like a makeshift hammer. Well, it’s now or never. She scrambled onto the smashed husk, her claws scraping for grip against the jagged metal. With a deep breath, she tried to climb down the back of the overaggressive combat droid. As long as it doesn’t crush me into paste, this might actually work. Plus this give me a chance to check out the data core.   "Yeeehawww partner - ride em Bantha girl?" Nyx had no idea what she was saying, but neither did the droid."  
  Kummer wolfe
Thu, Dec 26th 2024 05:57
The moment Nyx scrambled onto the back of the overaggressive combat droid, it turned frantic. Nyx held on for dear life as the B2 clawed at her, or tried to smash her with the hulk of the other B2. Once, it tried to throw itself at the wall to mash her to paste.
 
But still Nyx hung on with all claws dug in, nimbly avoiding the blows as they got ever closer.
 
Meanwhile, she was able to get a better look at the data core.
 
In other room, the ship’s data core had been modified with a water coolant system. A rare addition only needed for data cores that would perform intensive computations that went beyond even astrogation. The core stack was as tall as she was, with hard wire connections to a wildly altered medical monitor, sensor array and bacta bed.
 
The medical monitor system was recording and monitoring what it believed was a cyborg with cloned organic parts, lying in suspended animation in the bacta bed. But, the data core was currently processing ‘something’ at a high rate of speed. What? No idea. What she could see of the medical monitor didn’t give any indication.
 
Storyteller Instructions
Ok! Kipo! The B2 is distracted! Add a 1D to your next action!
  Kipo Raysser
Fri, Dec 27th 2024 06:53
Kipo watched the flurry of fur, durasteel, claws, and actuators. He held for a painfully long second, keeping himself and the Squib out of reach of the mayhem.   Then he saw his chance materialize. He knelt down on one knee to get a good look at the droid's shiny metal bottom plate. He aimed between the two heavy leg actuators. If his shot could punch through that bottom plate, it might burn right to its center of mass, damaging most of its circuits all at once.   He riffed the same chord progression again, mumbling, "Second verse, same as the first. Little bit louder; little bit worse."
Attack Dice separately, Damage dice all together. | 1d6, 1d6, 1d6, 1d6, 1d6, 1d6!, 5d6
2, 6, 2, 6, 6, 1, 20
  Kummer wolfe
Sun, Jan 12th 2025 11:25
Kipo quickly coiled his lower snake half low, a Thisspiasian’s way of taking a knee. Wiggling squib in one hand, guitar in the other two, the fourth strummed the opening chord.
 
After that? It was energy blast and riff on the second verse, all the way.
 
The blast hit the B2 in the lower plates, right between the lower leg actuators. Metal bent, then ruptured with a bright flash as the B2’s main circuits in its core overloaded.
 
A bright flash ripped trough the guts of the battle droid, then the metal carcass collapsed to the floor.
 
Callan cheered. “Thank the Cogs and the Force! We’re not dead!”
 
As the smoking B2 carcass hit the deck, the strange apparatus it the data core comes alive. A series of lights and a manic rush of data appear across one holoscreen. Then it goes back to what it was doing before.
 
The miniature superlaser emitter starts to glow.
  Nyxeil Nyx Synarris
(a.k.a. Moke)
Mon, Feb 3rd 2025 09:10
Nyx rides the falling droid carcass to the floor landing in a crotch and springing forward into the data core room. She sweeps over the complex designs before her trying to glean the intent or purpose of this setup, especially the laser that is now glowing. "What in the seven rings is this thing playing at here?". She points her staff at the water coolant system. "If we don't think this place is a good idea which it most likely is not. You know battle droids protecting it an all. That coolant system is a weak point that should be easy enough to take out."
  Kipo Raysser
Mon, Feb 10th 2025 01:20   Edited on Mon, Feb 10th 2025 01:22
"Coolant system, you say?" Kipo asks as he slithers between the two former battle droids, currently junk heaps.   With Callan in tow, Kipo aims his guitar's headstock at what looked like a pressure vessel in the coolant system, before noticing what looked like a manual shutoff valve, which probably would be just as effective, if less fun.   They wouldn't want Mister, whatever-his-name-was-Kipo-couldn't-recall-at-the-moment to be upset about too much damage to his property., would they?   "Say, what's up with that laser-looking thing over there?"
  Kummer wolfe
Thu, Feb 20th 2025 06:04
As if an unseen force heard Kipo’s question, the miniature superlaser spit out a cobalt bolt of seething angry energy. It snapped out and slammed into one of the ruined battle droids.
 
In less than a second, the battle droid glowed holographic blue, then seemed to rapidly dissolve in segmented lasers. As if the battle droid was being dissolved or drained away into the cobalt blue laser in a digital pattern.
 
Instantly red targeting locks snaps onto Kipo, Nyx, and Callan.
 
The miniature superlaser powers up and fires again as Callan shrieks in wordless terror.
  Nyxeil Nyx Synarris
(a.k.a. Moke)
Fri, Feb 21st 2025 12:45   Edited on Fri, Feb 21st 2025 12:48
As the cobalt bolt ripped through the air, Nyx's fur bristled, every nerve screaming at her to KEEP MOVING. But it wasn’t fear that gripped her—it was calculation. Saran’s voice echoed in her mind, sharp and unforgiving: "Anticipate. React. Survive." She had once asked how, and his response had been simple: First thing—keep moving. A moving target is harder to hit. Second—always keep something between you and whoever’s shooting. Doors, walls, ships… planets, he had quipped with a grin.   Nyx bared her teeth in a sharp grin. "Alright, you overgrown light show, let’s dance."   She tracked the laser’s path, watching the ruined battle droid dissolve into segmented nothingness. She had no intention of finding out firsthand what that felt like. Her muscles tensed as she spotted the telltale snap of targeting locks. No more thinking—only moving. Instinct took over. She launched forward, ears twitching as she listened for the weapon’s charge cycle. Pivot. Coil. Launch.   She zigzagged in a rapid, unpredictable sprint—never a straight line, never an easy target. Saran’s drills had burned that lesson into her bones. "You’re not faster than a targeting system—but you can be more complicated." The air behind her crackled as the superlaser fired. Nyx twisted mid-step and dove for the Bacta Bed.   I have a sneaking suspicion the firing system is programmed not to punch holes through this ...
... maybe.
  Kipo Raysser
Fri, Feb 21st 2025 06:51
Kipo's first reaction to the high-pitched shrieks was to lateral Callan like a football before the Squib's overcharged batteries exploded. But the sight of the battle droid being neatly disintegrated froze him for an instant.   Nyx had already moved in seemingly all directions at the same time, like an Endorian house cat when you ... well ... clap your hands ... or slam a door ... or drop something or basically make any unexpected move.   Kipo saw the miniature superlaser an just knew in his gut that it had already locked on him.   Kipo spun and dropped his weight to the flooring, Callan in one hand being pulled into a protective hug, his guitar pulled tight to his body.   And Kipo saw one of his own hands fling his beloved hat, spinning it right directly into the laser.
  Kummer wolfe
Sun, Mar 16th 2025 04:24
Nyx dove for the bacta bed, putting the medical device with its strange occupant between her and the superlaser. The instant she did, the target lock snapped off and the miniature superlaser swung to it’s other target, Kipo.
 
The cobalt beam shot out of the emitter while Kipo dropped his weight to the floor, cradling Callan and guitar. But instead of the bounty hunter, guitar, or shrieking Squib, the beam met Kipo’s hat.
 
As if caught by a tractor beam, the hat froze in mid-motion. Cobalt energy dissolving the hat in sweeping, perfect linear motions from one side to the other. It took only two seconds before the hat vanished from sight and the cobalt beam blast retracted into the miniature superlaser.
 
From the other side of the bacta bed, Nyx saw data streaming across the holoscreens for the various medical monitoring devices. The mysterious figure in the bacta bed stirred slightly, then went still. Calculations flew like a storm of data.
 
A low whine signaled that the miniature superlaser had started another power up cycle.
 
In his position at the floor, Kipo could practically feel the target lock like a warm sunbeam against his skin.
  Kipo Raysser
Tue, Mar 25th 2025 06:15
Some celebrities call it, "photo-sense" when they can tell that a camera is trained on them. Bounty hunters have a more off-color term for when they know - they just know - that someone has them in their gun sights.   "Shut down that bacta tank!" Kipo shouted and slid Callan along the floor like a game of living shuffleboard on planet Bracca.   Kipo coiled into a pose on the floor that was the Thisspiasian equivalent of dropping to one knee for firing a blaster rifle.   He strummed that chord which Nyx and Callan had heard recently, aiming directly for that superlaser, hoping against hope that he could pull the trigger first.
  Kummer wolfe
Sun, Apr 13th 2025 10:22   Edited on Mon, Apr 14th 2025 12:43
  Nyxeil Nyx Synarris
(a.k.a. Moke)
Wed, Apr 16th 2025 01:43   Edited on Wed, Apr 16th 2025 01:48
"Well hell", Her thoughts raced as sweat began to coat her fur. "There is no time to actually rig the blaster to explode and no guarantee it would not explode all on it's own.   "I like you Kipo, but not enough to stick my head up and share the odds. however I think I will just blow this tin can turret up and call it day." She made sure it's language processors heard her words. She punches the power button on her faulty blaster and glanced at Kipo. The timing had to be right as the blasters irregular power supply began to cycle going warm in her hand. The good news was that thing would now sense the new power supply but it would not consider it a threat. She smiled, "yet".   She heaved the blaster in an arc toward the super laser. That was the great thing about machines, they understood logic and programming. Even with all their advancements they would never understand jokes, cunning, wit, feints or bluffs. Even without a person attached to the blaster, simple proximity sensors should go berserk with a fluctuating blaster power supply that close. She knew the weapon should not harm it, but it was almost impossible to ignore the closer threat, which should give Kipo the advantage. Well, unless it does explode.   Faulty Blaster

 
  Kummer wolfe
Sun, Apr 20th 2025 08:14
  Kipo Raysser
Sun, Apr 20th 2025 10:47
Just as Kipo started to play the first bar.of, "Trust the Force...", he was certain he only had a shot down the layer's barrel (best case) which would only stop it from focusing.   However, before he finished, the laser spun to point at something flying toward it, giving Kipo a view of the pumping cavity output coupler, which could do much more damage to it.   But only if his aim was true.
Attack roll, Wild die, Damage roll | 5d6,1d6,5d6
20, 1, 18
  Kummer wolfe
Mon, May 5th 2025 12:41
Kipo strummed the first hard chords of “Trust the Force”, then ripped through the refrain with a hard blaster shot from his guitar. His aim was true, the bolt slicing the air right for the pumping cavity output coupler.
 
Until…
 
Nyx’s blaster detonated like a grenade before that bolt touched the coupler. A fireball filled the space between Nyx, Kipo, Callan and the superlaser. Kypo’s shot vanished inside, adding to the mix. A second fireball followed the first, then there was a cobalt blast of energy. Not a burst, but a steady beam like a cutting laser.
 
When the smoke cleared, the superlaser was damaged, tilted forward on ruined support struts. It emitted a steady cobalt beam right into the deck! Steadily, slowly, the floor dissolved, or perhaps disintegrated with the pattern of a hologram dissolving.
 
Meanwhile, on the bacta bed, the figure started to stir.
  Nyxeil Nyx Synarris
(a.k.a. Moke)
Sun, May 18th 2025 02:24
"Hey Kippo, maybe an Encore? Can you please disable the laser before it dissolves through all the decks and vents us to space? And you. I think this ride is already full, you can catch the next one."   I stand up ignoring the pulsing laser of 3d digital doom behind me and focus on the Bacta tank. I place the shock staff head against the control panel and prepare to let a charge rip. But First. "Kippo, did we have time to decide friend or foe? Foe I assume? Maybe the crazy ship AI wanted real legs to take a walk about." Her constant chatter showed an edge of the nervousness she felt about this situation.   She took a moment to let her eyes travel across the figure to see if she could learn anything. She also took in the consul and the life signs read out that should be present. Hopefully something here would give a clue as to what was going on.
  Kummer wolfe
Sun, May 18th 2025 07:35   Edited on Sun, May 25th 2025 05:01
As Nyx let her eyes roam over the humanoid figure in the modified bacta bed, it was hard to ignore the flashing displays.
 
Streams of data flowed like electrified running water. It wasn’t that Nyx recognized the exact information, just the type. There was volumes of ship’s logs, medical data on various species, languages, and images marked as ‘digitized assets’. Some of these involved ‘memory tapes’.
 
One item that stuck out for a half-second was the image of Kipo’s hat as a ‘digitized asset’.
 
All this, and terabytes more, were being downloaded into the positronic brain of the woman in the bacta bed, designated ‘Alice’ by the medical logs.
 
Then the woman’s head jerked to the side and her eyes snapped open. Sun-gold yellow, holographic eyes burned a searing gaze at Nyx.
 
It was curious, interested, contemplative… even measuring. A penetrating look that seemed to stare silently into the deepest recesses of Nyx’s soul.
 
Suddenly, a deep light seemed to glow from within the depths of those eyes, as the woman smiled ever so slightly.
 
Her smile didn’t quite reach her eyes, but the shadows did.
  Kipo Raysser
Mon, May 19th 2025 07:22   Edited on Mon, May 19th 2025 07:23
"Foe, yeah," Kipo shouted to Nyx, "but SHE wants whatever is in there, so we need ta lock it up 'til SHE gives up the hyperspace ship-hopping."   Oh, and that other thing. An Encore? Certainly ... but ... then again ... That's the definition of insanity, right? Doing the same thing and expecting different results?   This was time to punt.   Kipo looked at the Squib over by the bacta tank, with the wide array of repair tools littered all about the straps on his vest.   Now Blimcooathi, Kipo's bounty hunter mentor, hadn't trained him on hands-free Squib flinging, but one of his many rules was, "Use everything you've got."   Kipo shouted, "Callan Gelfar, technician 9th class, shut off that laser. Alley-oop!!” as he grabbed any sturdy looking structure with his two free hands and whipped out his prehensile tail toward the Squib's waist. He just needed to grab the small guy, lift him up to what looked like exposed power cables entwined through that laser's ruined support struts, and not get either of themselves disintegrated along the way.
  Kipo Raysser
Mon, May 19th 2025 06:12
Hoping it wouldn't be too much for Callan, Kipo stretched out his tail and took a swing.
Dexterity roll. | 3d6+1d6!
10
  Nyxeil Nyx Synarris
(a.k.a. Moke)
Mon, May 19th 2025 10:22
As Nyx watched Kipo preparing to hurl the Squib like a cannonball special it hit her. "Damn it!" She shouted. "Callan new plan! Laser ... here ... right here! Shut it off later" As she poked at the Bacta tank. She also had a bad feeling that this thing waking from the Bacta was more than they would be able to handle. Way more.
  Kummer wolfe
Sun, May 25th 2025 06:44
Callan screamed a like a stabbed droid with triple anxiety as he sailed through the air. Arms flailing like a solar windmill, the Squib technician sailed up and over equipment, struts and bacta bed. He landed spread-eagle against the ruined section of the mysterious and murderous mini-super laser.
 
“Right!” he squeaked, then grabbed the insulated power cables, one in each hand.
 
Callan didn’t try to disconnect the power, but instead threw his body weight back at an angle. It was like he was trying to pull back on the reins of a runaway gundark. Only this gundark could spit cobalt blue lasers that seemed to disintegrate whatever it touched.
 
“Come on,” he snarled through clenched teeth. “Come on!”
 
Slowly, the laser swung around on its damaged gimbal. The cobalt laser dissolving a furrow with dedicated destruction while it moved. The deck plates split wide, followed by a chair that dissolved in half from the laser’s attention.
 
At last, the laser hit the bacta bed.
 
The cobalt energy splashed over the bacta bed, methodically dissolving the transpa-steel cover, controls, and cables. Even bacta itself was caught the beam’s hungry path. But instead of sizzling away in seaweed scented steam, the fluid instantly turned blue, then looked like a hologram of water. One that dissolved centimeter by rapid centimeter from top to bottom of the bed.
 
On the bed, the near human woman rolled the second the bacta bed dissolved away, then bacta itself. Awash in the last of the bacta, she fell to the floor in a crouch. Overhead the cobalt laser slammed into the delicate medical equipment, dangerously close to the fusion power connector and backup generator. The latter now registering ‘overload’.
  Kipo Raysser
Sat, Jun 7th 2025 07:20
Colorful expletives failed Kipo.   He coiled and sprang himself at the damaged laser.   Flipping his guitar on its shoulder belt around to his back, he grabbed at the cobalt laser's gimbal structure with all four hands and heaved to help the significantly lighter Squib.   Only a grunt escaped his lips.
  Nyxeil Nyx Synarris
(a.k.a. Moke)
Tue, Jun 10th 2025 12:28   Edited on Tue, Jun 10th 2025 12:36
"Well now replicator girl, you have moves and your athletic. Time to put you back to sleep." With a flick of the wrist my stun baton drops into my hand, however I keep the baton collapsed. I fire a shot wild as if I am rushed and acting frantic, well I kind of am, damn it! I am trying to make myself a threat so she has to lunge for me to neutralize the threat. I plan on rolling under her and extending the baton to shove her towards the blue laser of doom.   "Hey holo glow girl, it seems like you did not get the wave. Your C grade holo series was canceled before it finished season one. In fact Dancing with the Ewoks had higher ratings. You will be able to reflect on your mistakes while sleeping."
  Kummer wolfe
Thu, Jun 12th 2025 07:46
Everything happened at once, but not in ways anyone expected.
 
Kipo coiled his tail under him, then leaped at both unstable laser, and possibly the equally unstable Squib. At the sight of the leaping, human and snake-like, Thesspiasian with an alarming number of outstretched arms, Callan had a thoughtful reaction.
 
He screamed and flailed like an electrocuted astromech droid.
 
Kipo landed with deft grace and style on the laser housing, grabbing the cables like reins on a wild gundark. Callan?
 
He briefly learned to fly.
 
To one side, Nyx fired a wild shot, drawing the mysterious woman’s attention. She grabbed the bacta bed, crunching the edge with a hand before she lunged at Nyx, medical drape flapping dramatically. Nyx shoved with her baton back to the cobalt blue laser that dissolved the bacta bed.
 
That was when Callan came to a landing. There weren’t any points for style, but both Nyx and the mysterious human-like cyborg woman were there to witness it. They also broke his fall.
 
After that was when the bacta bed’s overstressed and disgruntled power supply, exploded like a bomb. Sending everyone, save Kipo who rode out the explosion on the laser housing like breaking a wild bronco, flying across the room in different directions.
 
Once the smoke cleared. The laser had stopped. Both bacta bed and an impressive, hutt-sized amount of the medical devices were little more than charred metal. Last, the deck plates had exploded down into the deck below.
 
Perhaps the most interesting of all? The strange human woman was now huddled in the far corner of the room. Her eyes were now a brushed digital gold, looked around the room in sheer terror.
 
“Wh… Where?” she stammered, trying and failing to huddle under the medical gown. “Where am I?”
 
Of course, that was when the ship’s emergency evacuation alarms started to sound.
  Kipo Raysser
Wed, Jun 25th 2025 06:46
The ringing in the ears and bright spots in the eyes faded, eventually.   Well. There was a lot to take in going on all over the place, but Blimcooathi had taught Kipo to focus on survival first.   All of his fingers and the tip of his tail seemed to be still attached as he lowered himself onto what was left of the floor. The others seemed about as healthy; at least nobody was bleeding in any quantity worth mentioning.   What Kipo considered to be a naked woman was now in the room, and that seemed to be a top priority, but there was also that evacuation alarm, or rather THOSE evacuation alarms. They weren't known for giving much more than about 60 seconds of forewarning, which is why some folks called them the, "It's too late," alarms.   The new gal in the medical gown, who had just asked, "Where am I?”, and who Kipo still theorized would be a valuable bargaining chip, looked like she needed some consolation. And getting her out of here and away from Callan's infamous unseen SHE/HER would be a good start.   He raised a hand to his soft and manageable gently curling pale hair to tip his hat but then remembered that it was gone and that he was even more unclothed than the woman in the bacta gown. Now in Kipo's way of thinking, this was fine for a guy who could manage to keep his cloaca closed, but it just didn't seem right for a lady.   "Ma'am," Kipo said over the rising volume of the alarms, "You are on the Wen’esdai's Child, and," with a quick glance to Nyx, "we work for Nova Orion's project lead. It's our job to calm down the excitement going around on this ship. Now let's get you out of this data core room and into some decent and proper attire."    
  Nyxeil Nyx Synarris
(a.k.a. Moke)
Mon, Jun 30th 2025 12:20   Edited on Mon, Jun 30th 2025 12:35
“Damn it—damn it all to...” My voice rises far louder than it should, trying to cut through the ringing in my ears. “This went sideways like a rampaging Wampa in a Hoth blizzard.”   I blink rapidly, strobe-squinting as my vision fights through the static and flashing spots. Shapes begin to take form again—unfortunately.   “Oh... oh? Those weren’t there before.”   My eyes lock onto the massive hole torn through the deck, then to the woman at the center of it all—dazed, confused, but very much still dangerous. A shiver coils down my spine. The image of her crushing the corner of the Bacta Bed with one hand is burned into my memory.
  This is a bad idea. A very bad idea.
  I throw a glance Kipo’s way, exhaling sharply with a look. “Time to shake a tail,” I mutter, then stalk toward our newest, and possibly least stable, companion. Every step is cautious, calculated. I extend my offhand slowly—peace offering and exit strategy all in one.   “Come on, sister. We’ve gotta move. Planning this rescue to haul your sorry butt back already put us at a disadvantage. So shut your mouth, get your feet under you, and go.”
  Kummer wolfe
Fri, Jul 4th 2025 10:51
The human woman clutched at the medical gown like a shield, looking in panic at the room, sound, even Kipo and Nyx. Long void black hair cascaded down partially over her face. It was as if the longer she was exposed to oxygen, the darker her hair turned. Almost by reaction, her skin — once human pale — took on a light sheen of soft green like from a Twi’lek, then a soft golden color, after that back to soft green. All depending on whether she looked at Kipo, or Nyx, in turn.
 
She reached out with trembling hands to Kipo and another to Nyx. Brushed digital gold eyes snapped between Kipo and Nyx anxiously, with a barest shadow flitting across the look.
 
“Th-thank you,” she replied as if she had been tackled by an intense cold. “P-please. So cold.”
 
Over by the ruined consoles, Callan yelped.
 
In a valiant but ludicrous effort to be subtle, with wide room left for even the generous idea of ‘subtle’, the Squib manically taps a dying holocscreen.
 
“Problem!” he hisses manically.
 
The words ‘Data Transfer Incomplete. Ship avatar initialization incomplete…’. That was followed by the inviting phrase, ‘Issuing recycling droid for area sterilization in two minutes…’.
 
A countdown timer tried desperately to do its job, but that was when power died to the holosreen, and the device followed a moment later. Sadly, the now abused deck-plating gave way and a hole swallowed the ruined machine.
 
Callan felt that was a truly appropriate moment to scream.
 
Beyond him, the doors to the data core remained wide open, with hallways that looked so open and inviting it practically whispered luxury.
  Nyxeil Nyx Synarris
(a.k.a. Moke)
Mon, Jul 14th 2025 10:44   Edited on Mon, Jul 14th 2025 10:45
As Nyx helps yank the new Princess of Memory Loss up she glances at the doorway and the hole.   "Hey, Callan stop messing around. Kipo and Callan we need to close, lock and disable that security door as we are going to get down and out quickly. OK sister the best way to warm up is exercise. And that is code word for we have a need, a need for speed." I am going to usher her down into the damaged deck plating. "Hey Kipo I have an idea. Lets avoid all degrees of sterilization." If there is a convenient lab smock or such that can be swiped I will grab it, shoving it into her hands while getting her moving.
  Callan Gelfar
Sun, Jul 20th 2025 04:53   Edited on Mon, Jul 21st 2025 12:32
Callan stopped impersonating a over-caffinated ship’s siren at Nyx’s command.
 
After wiping his nose, he glanced at the remaining consoles, then the new pit to the deck below. The gray-green fur on his head now looks like the worst case of frazzled bed hair in 12 systems. Something emphasized by him crawling out from beside the wreckage of the bacta bed.
 
“Ok, yeah. Right. Doors.”
 
The squib raced over to the nearest console that hadn’t been swallowed by any localized catastrophe. Which happened to be the one nearest a hatch marked ‘maintenance’. Callan accessed the network, then frowned at the holoscreen, scratching his head.
 
“Hey, Nyx? Kipo? I can handle the doors, but … it looks like the software in the ship’s network has, uh, started a civil war? Like a droid uprising without the droid bodies? Started by some rogue programs named Jane, Knuck, Futz, and a CT-807 that has a callsign or something of ‘Blue Two’ or ‘Bull’?”
 
Callan tapped a claw to the holoscreen.
 
“I mean really. The network is like a war zone!”
  Kummer wolfe
Mon, Jul 21st 2025 01:10
Once on her feet, the humanoid young woman gives Kipo and Nyx a polite nod and shy smile. The uncertainty reflected in her digital gold eyes almost whispers back to both of old memories, some half-forgotten. Times when isolation and perpetual uncertainty stood as the only ally nearby, and even that ally was a fickle companion at best.
 
The young woman allows herself to be guided to the damaged deck plating. Once a forgotten, white lap coat and light blue scrubs are pushed into her hands, she stares at the clothing. For a second she passes her fingertips over the fabric, as if memorizing the material, right down to the weave and individual threads.
 
“Thank you,” she says in a soft, polite voice. After a moment’s hesitation, she adds, “thank you both. Where do we go from here?”
 
Quickly, she dresses in the scrubs, then pulls on the white lab coat.
  Kipo Raysser
Thu, Jul 24th 2025 07:07
Where do we go from here?   Kipo wasn't really sure, but back to the Bitter Luck sounded like a good start.   He had hoped that finding the woman in the Bacta tank, (which Callan seemed so certain was a thing of significant value to the fearsome SHE or HER who haunted Callan's dreams and waking moments) would result in HER making herself visible to start wheeling and dealing to try to get her precious cargo back from the hands of the bounty hunters.   Maybe it was just taking a little time for that to happen. Or maybe Callan was simply crazy-ape bug-nuts from too much space solitude, and Kipo hadn't recognized crazy when it latched onto his face. Maybe Callan was the source of all the jumping around all along? Just an outlaw tech Squib with a heart full of lonely and a head full of crazy?   Speaking of crazy...   "Callan," Kipo blurted out, "You just said Jane has pulled Knuck 'n' Futz out of their playpen and set them loose in the ship's network?" She would never resort to them unless things were ... Oh no. This was going to be like the Year-of-the-Dark-Moon Thisspiasian Jedi Quest Fan Convention all over again. That was a mess.   "Callan," Kipo started over, "Give all he power and network bandwidth and access privileges that you can to Jane. And leave the security doors to me," as he turned the tuning pegs on his guitar.
  Nyxeil Nyx Synarris
(a.k.a. Moke)
Fri, Jul 25th 2025 12:34   Edited on Fri, Jul 25th 2025 12:37
  Nyx lowers herself into the makeshift exit, her form vanishing until only her head remains visible. At Callan’s words, she pauses, glancing back with a raised brow—then shifts her gaze to Kipo, a curious smile tugging at her lips.   “Jane, Knuck, Futz? I’m pretty sure Jane already knows she’s not happy she didn’t finish her little science project. Kipo, I may have said this before, but I’ll say it again—you better be damn sure Jane is still Jane.”   Her expression hardens.   “We need to get back to my ship. Yesterday would’ve been ideal.”   With that, Nyx slips out of sight.  
  Kummer wolfe
Sun, Aug 3rd 2025 08:34
The squib gives the most determined nod that has the least amount of pent-up nerves seen yet.
 
“Right!”
 
After a quick salute that was almost right for some space navy somewhere, he dove at the nearest intact console and went to work. His furred fingers danced a quick pattern over the keys. The console sputtered, blinked in consternation, then finally obeyed. Especially after Callan reached underneath to hot wire past the hard security.
 
Quick as a hyperspace jump, Kipo warmed up his guitar and flash-welded latches and hinges of nearby security doors. As he finished, the human woman in the medical scrubs eased over to the hole in the floor, then followed Nyx to the room below.
 
At that moment, a fist-shaped dent appeared in the double-layered security door, hammered from the other side. The muffled sound of heavy combat droid servos echoed like a death knell from past the door.
 
A level below…
 
Nyx lands, a silent crouch in the middle of a forgotten cargo hold. Still sealed boxes, thermaplast crates, and more from lost years gone by stand stacked in the room. Together they make a haphazard maze of shadows with only four, lone emergency lights against the distant bulkheads to break the darkness.
 
The dark-haired human woman lands almost as silent as Nyx does. In one easy motion, she stands, looks around and shudders. Mild alarm creeps over her face, while she flexes her hands as if she doesn’t know what to do with them.
 
“Which way?” she asks.
 
The cargo bay is easily 100 meters long by 75 meters wide. Two doors at the far end lead deeper into to the ship, which seems the right direction for the docking bays. Faded paint by the left door suggests it’s the right path. The door on the right is marked “cargo control”, which likely has controls for the massive 50 meter wide blast door to Nyx’s right. A door that would likely lead to open space at this point. Last is a wide door behind Nyx at the other end of the cargo bay.
 
It isn’t wide enough for loading or unloading cargo, but is easily wide enough for cargo lift vehicles or droids.
  Kipo Raysser
Thu, Aug 7th 2025 07:39   Edited on Thu, Aug 7th 2025 07:42
Kipo stared wide-eyed at the fist-shaped dent in the double-layered security door.   "Nyx, Callan, this whole wall ain't gonna hold more 'n a few seconds," he shouted while backing away from it cautiously, backing toward the escape hole in the floor.   His mentor had taught him to try to get into his adversary's head, to predict and anticipate. In this case, a recycling droid who had been ordered to sterilize the room would likely murder every microscopic germ and virus in the room with electricity, fire, steam, or maybe hard radiation.   Would it repair the hole in the floor or sterilize the room below? Kipo thought either option unlikely, assuming that the droid knew how big the room was designed to be in the ship's blueprints. But it might not be too careful about how much radiation or steam or whatever was leaking to the other room while the sterilization process was going-on.   He shouted down the hole, "Best make tracks and get a solid door between us and these rooms."   But what if the droid saw a serpent man and a Squib duck down through the hole as it busted its way in? It just might consider living things who were in the room and are not currently in the room to be off the list of things needing to be killed. But then again, a droid told to exterminate rats in a room just might chase them back to their den to finish the job just to make sure the job stays done. It was hard to say what this one might do if it saw them even for an instant.   Worst of all, it would likely tattletale every unusual thing it saw to HER or whoever really was giving the orders on this ghost ship. That wouldn't be any better.   "Finish up fast, Callan," Kipo said, with very little calm in his voice while beginning to grip the back of the Squib's coveralls in one curled fist.   He looked around for any piece of debris big enough but light enough for him to cover the hole while he and Callan were leaping to safety, relative safety.   He didn't feel very lucky right then, but that's the thing about luck; you never know what you're gonna get.  
  Kummer wolfe
Sun, Aug 10th 2025 06:01   Edited on Sun, Aug 10th 2025 06:02
Callan’s head popped up into view past the console, gray-green fur lightly matted with dubious sparkling dust and a touch of grease. As if the Squib won a touch and go fight with a aggressively affectionate dust-buster.
 
“Got it!” he squeaked triumphantly. “Security access privileges and bandwidth re-routed! Well, as much as I could get, which is still a lot. But… uhm… I also saw there are eight of those massive recycling droids headed right here.”
 
He laughed nervously, then raced to the hole to follow Nyx and the strange AI woman.
 
“I might could get in, but not from this console. To give Jane what she needs, I wound up getting locked out from this console. If we can get to another console, I can try and send those recycling droids elsewhere… I think?”
 
A muffled whine made the dented door quake as if terrified. In the next second, all fears were realized, as a massive two meter long industrial drill speared the reinforced door. Metal screamed in its abused death throes, as the stench of spent durasteel wafted through the air.
 
It was a scent that seemed to whisper to any nearby sentient’s primal brain… ‘run’.
  Kipo Raysser
Mon, Aug 11th 2025 01:16
Kipo didn't know how many recycling droids would be required to take down an experienced bounty hunter like himself, but he did know how many they were going to use - and that was EIGHT - which was an important piece of data for his planning.   As the dusty Squib disappeared down the hole, Kipo realized he didn't have to defend anyone anymore, (not in this room at least), and the hole began to look very inviting.   Now if he could make it look a little less inviting.   A piece of bacta tank hard wall did not conceal the hole too well at all. The only other large piece of equipment nearby was that useless locked console.   Hmm.   Holding onto his hat and guitar, Kipo grabbed onto the top of the locked console, dropped his tail into the escape hole, and yanked with all his might until the console started to topple on top of him.  
  Kummer wolfe
Sun, Aug 17th 2025 04:22
Kipo dropped through the hole, guitar and all. Metal and permaglass crashed behind him. The dying sputter of electronics hit the air like an afterthought.
 
It wasn’t a long drop, just the usual fall to the next deck below, but it felt like forever framed in all sharp edges of nerves. At least, it did until his tail found the floor as he landed next to Nyx and the mysterious dark-haired woman in the medical scrubs.
 
Dust roams the air around the forgotten cargo hold below, fogging the air around the trio.
 
Above, the battered door gave one last groan. A final warning to the trio from the metal’s death throes. The sound of massive recycling droids, kissing cousins to mini-grav tanks, rolled in to do their deadly work on the former data center and lab.
  Kipo Raysser
Sun, Aug 17th 2025 08:16
Kipo felt one hand pressing down the platinum-blond hair on his head. He remembered then that his favorite hat had been shredded and the digital bits disintegrated. Suddenly it sank in, like he had lost a hand or the tip of his tail. This danger was seriously formidable. They might actually die here. The bravado Kipo had shown to Mil Filgron and their Herglic employer, Bi-Tai Iltrek, seemed undeserved now.   He turned to Nyx with just a look that asked, 'How do we get out of here?'
  Nyxeil Nyx Synarris
(a.k.a. Moke)
Mon, Aug 18th 2025 12:30
Nyx darts through the crates, pulling the other woman along with her, every step sharp and deliberate. Her eyes flick across the stenciled symbols on the cargo, looking for hazard markings or explosive warnings. A small, quick smile tugs at her lips as she files the information away. Not danger, not yet—but potential. If the fight drags on, those crates could just as easily become weapons as obstacles.   “Callan! Kipo! Move your tail and get over here! Control room, now!” she shouts back, her voice carrying over the chamber. Her grip tightens, urgency clear as she pushes forward. They’d need to make damn sure the docking clamps were disengaged before anything else—otherwise the Bitterluck would stay chained here, dead in the water, with nowhere to run.   Her mind churns with Saran’s old lessons—read the field, see what others miss, and always plan the next step. If the droids force their way down to this level, she already knows what she’ll do: vent it the moment her allies are safe. And later—she’ll have the Bitterluck swing back for these crates. Old parts, forgotten goods… things worth more than anyone on a manifest remembers.
  Kipo Raysser
Mon, Aug 18th 2025 01:22
Command room.   Kipo seldom ever had to be called twice to dinner or to evacuate a bad situation. He trailed along, glancing to check each crevice or shadow, but not wasting any time.
  Kummer wolfe
Sun, Aug 24th 2025 05:17   Edited on Sun, Aug 24th 2025 05:18
“On it!” Callan replies, the last word spiking into a squeak as metal in the room above dies by plasma cutter.
 
The Squib races to the control room, a vapor trail of dust and old air swirled behind him. Ancient doors, still working, barely open in time before the terror-fueled Squib almost smashes against them.
 
Trailing along, the dark-haired woman with the blue digital eyes almost hovers in either Nyx or Kipo’s orbit on the hurried walk across the room. Her eyes never stop, searching out every crate, shadow, and even the rare forgotten spiderweb that stood the test of time.
 
At the door to the cargo control room, she hesitates behind Nyx and Kipo as the pair step inside.
 
Slowly, ‘Alice’—as designated by the medical logs—turns toward the center of the cavernous cargo room. Her eyes don’t shift in color, but instead seem to roll back into her head until they turn a milky-white. The color of fresh swirled cream.
 
“They’re… coming…” she breathes, though the words echo like prophecy in the stale air.
 
A door on the far side of the cargo bay snaps open.
 
With plodding urgency, a blue, boxy-shaped gonk power droid frantically hobbles into the cargo bay. It runs, as much as a gonk droid can, with an easy urgency that borders on raw panic.
 
It hobbles out, eager to run behind the nearest stack of crates, then hunch down.
 
The droid shudders. Fear radiating off his boxy, battered metal body.
 
A manic skittering sound fills the dry, stale air as first a pair of red optical sensors split the dark passageway from the opposite side of the cargo bay. Two more red glows follow the first, then four more. After that comes more than can be counted.
 
Because that is when the swarm of Buzz Bots scurry into the room, over the floors, walls, even ceiling. Twelve spill out of the passageway, like disturbed insects leaving a hive. Only they move with purpose, searching for… something, or perhaps someone.
  Nyxeil Nyx Synarris
(a.k.a. Moke)
Wed, Sep 3rd 2025 09:11
As the control door sealed, placing a barrier between the ragtag bunch and the cargo bay, Nyx let out a short breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. “Callan, it’s getting a bit crowded in the cargo bay, I think. Time to relocate their party—maybe outside, please.”   Her eyes cut to Alice and Kipo, her expression caught somewhere between a grin and a warning. “Preferably before they notice we’re in here. I’m not interested in finding out what those scrap heaps think of our visit."   She turned back to the stacked containers and the blue boxy droid visible through the viewport, giving them a parting nod. “Be seeing you soon".
  Kummer wolfe
Sun, Sep 7th 2025 05:58
Callan nods, grin brighter on his muzzle since the door closed.
 
“Got it!”
 
He scrubbed his snout over the back of his furry wrist, then frantically typed at the console. Twice the terminal went blank with a dusty finger of smoke out the side, but a sharp slap on the keyboard brought it back to life.
 
Mostly.
 
If anyone who watched ignored the few odd pixelated squares in the holographic display, they might object. But Callan was undaunted.
 
A few maintenance screens later, and three hacked safety protocols, the ship’s ancient alert lights flashed in the cargo bay. One moment, the buzz droids are skittering in like biomechanical murder drones, then next the force screen pops off and the scant air in the cargo bay rushes out with a whoosh.
 
Pressure seals on the control room door lock, dust-thick air blasted out into the void in sweeping brown waves. Old, forgotten crates followed shortly afterwards. On the heels of that, the gonk droid was yanked off its feet with a shrill shriek or droid terror.
 
Last, the skittering staccato ticking of metal spiked feet clattered and scraped against the walls, scrambling for purchase, as one by one, the buzz bot droids are swept out to space.
 
As the force screen slams back into place, the buzz bots scramble to grab anything, like a swarm or deranged, alarmed, killer ants. The boxy power droid?
 
It kicked its feet, floating away, single optic sensor blinking with pleading terror.
 
“Done,” Callan said with a nod. “Getting atmo back. We can cross and run for your ship out after that.”
 
Out the viewport, the cargo bay looks almost spotless, now lacking crates and droids but now with a few tiny glittered of ice crystals.
  Kipo Raysser
Tue, Sep 9th 2025 07:48   Edited on Tue, Sep 9th 2025 07:50
Kipo carefully looked out through the safety window in the door and tried to make sure not a single one of the buzz droids remained.   Fairly satisfied, he inspected the near side of the door and quickly leaned away from the safety rebreathers and little oxygen tanks stored on the wall beside the door. He did not want to get any closer to them.   As a little needle on the door moved slowly, agreeing with Callan that the atmosphere in the cargo bay was returning to livable pressures, Kipo spied an intercom that might still be working.   He pressed the "talk" button and played a few bars of, "Closing Time", a song about leaving a honky-tonk bar and returning home with a new friend the singer had just met. Then with a glance at Nyx, he spoke to the microphone, "Hey, Jane, wanna bet I can't eat a Rodian Newoongall in one bite?"   He took his finger off the "talk" button and looked at the others to see if they were ready.
  Nyxeil Nyx Synarris
(a.k.a. Moke)
Tue, Sep 9th 2025 11:19   Edited on Wed, Sep 10th 2025 09:07
Nyx hadn’t realized she’d been holding her breath until the silence stretched, every second dragging out far longer than it should. And in space, seconds could feel like an eternity.   “It’s rare life ever goes as planned,” she muttered, eyes narrowing. “So when it does, I get suspicious. Very suspicious.” Her ears twitched, and a sharp grin tugged at her mouth. “Hell, we only live once. Let’s move—before the universe changes its mind.”   She slapped the hatch controls, forcing the cycle with an urgency that betrayed her cool words. Every fiber of her being itched to be back aboard the Bitterluck—her ship, her refuge, the only place in the void that still felt like hers.   Then, almost as an afterthought—the kind that nags about pay—she added, “I wonder if our payout’s in jeopardy if the Wednesday’s Child goes missing. Hey, Callan, you should think about what protocols get this ship to jump back to the yard with us. You know, those… uh… remote proximity tag-along thingies.” Nyx let loose a nervous stream of half-baked technical terms, none of which matched what the systems were actually called. “I mean, sure, ‘the crazy rogue AI tried to kill us’ is a hell of a defense… but I doubt that’s one that gets us paid.”   Her tail flicked as she shifted gears. “Meanwhile, I’ll keep thinking about our friends outside. Oh, and I want that power droid. Did I mention that?” Her grin sharpened, then vanished just as quick. “And speaking of loose ends—Kipo, remember, we do not want Jane turning into the ship’s puppet and trying to kill us. Again.”
  Callan Gelfar
Sun, Sep 14th 2025 04:18
Callan nods quickly, accessing three new system panels.
 
“Got it! The power droid should be easy to track. They have locater beacons.”
 
The Squib’s fingers flew over the keyboard. After a moment, he paused, frowning.
 
“Uhm… N-nyx? I’ve got the tow-circuit connected to your ship. But… there’s a huge data feed flooding into your ship’s data banks right now. Something about … ‘G.A.R. standard evacuation protocols’? It was set up before I even started… is that normal?”
 
Ominously, the control room door snapped open to the control bay with a rattle and hiss.
  Kummer wolfe
Sun, Sep 14th 2025 04:28
The hiss of scrubbed atmosphere with the light, sharp touch of ozone, cycles into the control room. Dust moves, stirred by invisible fingers over the consoles, some even escaping out the open door to cargo bay. Somewhere above, past fallen equipment and ruined metal, massive recycling droid plasma cutters do their brutal work. Blue flashes of plasma beams flicker in the darkness, through narrow cracks of the not quite plugged hole in the ceiling.
 
Alice drifted forward, light blue scrubs rustling in the rush of atmo, that washed into the control room. Slowly, she brushed her fingertips along a forgotten keypad, then glanced at Nyx, Kipo, and Callan.
 
Then her digital blue eyes go milky white.
 
“We need to leave. Leave now. The ship… has lost a fight. Programs are being evacuated. Recycling droids and old battle droids are scouring the ship, undirected.”
 
She shakes her head.
 
“But the ship isn’t done. Right now, it’s dreaming of angry death… for all of you, and especially a droid called Jane.”
 
The equipment jammed into the hole in the ceiling groans as a recycling droid pokes it with a massive pincher claw.
  Nyxeil Nyx Synarris
(a.k.a. Moke)
Thu, Sep 18th 2025 02:20   Edited on Thu, Sep 18th 2025 02:24
Nyx’s tail lashed once as the ceiling groaned. That was all the hesitation she allowed herself.   She grabbed a rebreather and shoved through the doorway first, pace fast enough to demand the others keep up. “Kipo, Callan, watch out for ... obstacles. Alice—stay close.”   Every sound — the hiss of venting air, the grind of metal above, the rattle of their boots — pressed Nyx’s nerves tighter. She didn’t look back; she trusted fear and common sense would keep them moving.   “Once we’re aboard,” she called over the rising noise, “I’ll get us off this corpse before it decides to dream about us too.”
  Kummer wolfe
Sun, Oct 12th 2025 04:30
Sounds of metal grinding against itself, punctuated with the sharp hiss of plasma cutters, chased the quartet out of the cargo bay. Nyx reaches the far side, racing into the corridor with Kipo a step behind. Callan and Alice race right behind the bounty hunters.
 
Abruptly the metal ceiling gives way, and the heavy, vehicle sized recycling droids crash through. The metal buckles and rolls like a wave, throwing Callan and Alice into the passageway with Kipo and Nyx.
 
Callan leaps at the door controls with a wordless shriek, and the heavy door slams shut between the quartet and the cargo bay. His claws fly over the controls.
 
“Not sure how long that will hold!” he explains quickly, wiping grime from the fur on his face. Which, actually, did more to smear it around than remove it.
 
A fast run later through a dozen nearly identical passageways, save for the locations of cracks and sputtering cables, they reach the hanger. Specifically, the hangar control room.
 
In the hangar a dozen mushroom-headed pit droids work steadily at opening the panels to the Bitter Luck’s landing gear. It could be their repairing, but also dismantling. Hard to tell as the pit droids don’t seem to agree on which they should be doing.
 
What is apparent, the docking clamps are still in place on the Bitter Luck, keeping the ship firmly rooted to the Wednesday’s Child hangar deck.
  Nyxeil Nyx Synarris
(a.k.a. Moke)
Sun, Oct 26th 2025 10:44   Edited on Sun, Oct 26th 2025 10:48
Nyx didn’t slow when her ship was in sight. The Bitterluck sat across the hangar like a beacon, and she wasn’t about to let a swarm of half-witted pit droids take her apart bolt by bolt. “Move!” she barked, already vaulting over a cluster of the mushroom-headed nuisances. One tried to beep a warning—she planted a boot on its dome and used it like a springboard. “Outta the way, chrome-for-brains! That’s my ship you’re playing with!”   She hit the deck hard, already moving. “Kipo—defense and button up, I don’t want anything getting in once we’re aboard! Alice—on the ship, out of the way, and help if you can without breaking anything! Callan—handle the droids! My ship’s not a buffet—what are they doing, and why are they doing it?”   The clang of her boots on the loading ramp echoed through the hangar as she shouted over her shoulder, “Anyone not on this ramp in ten seconds gets left behind and haunted later!” Her pulse hammered like a reactor, but she kept grinning—wide, sharp, defiant. As she sprinted, she grumbled a running checklist, more to calm herself than to inform anyone.   “Option one: lift and shear with thrust—fast as hell, but it’s a risk. If the clamps hold, we yank and pray the mounts don’t come off with us.” She skidded past a tangle of support struts.   “Option two: charges on the docking clamps—Kipo, you’re on point for explosives. If you’ve got something, great. If not, use some of the secondary ship’s reactor fuel and rig something. I’d rather not blow my baby to free her, but we do what we must.” She kicked a loose bolt out of the ramp and kept moving.   “Option three: remote hack once we’re boarded—Callan, that one’s yours. If you can splice the release, we walk out clean.” She barked a laugh that was half fear, half bravado.   By the time she hit the top of the ramp, her voice was a hard command again. “Callan—get me that link. Kipo—set charges if the hack dies. Alice—strap in and stand ready to seal us. I’m going to feather the engines. On my mark, we pull; if the clamps don’t give, we detonate clean and hard. Oh—and in case it wasn’t clear, if you’ve got any other ideas or magic tricks up your sleeve, please feel free to share!”
  Kipo Raysser
Thu, Oct 30th 2025 06:40
Kipo thought the Bitterluck had moved since he last saw her docked. Wait. No. He had seen her from a different angle ... through a viewing window. A window... Ah, like that one over there. The docking control room. He had been sitting in that chair (which he could now see through the window) when the Bitterluck docked and the automatic safety locks snagged onto her feet.   He didn't know why it always gave him a smile when a woman ordered him to do something as enjoyable as setting detonation charges, but it always did. He answered Nyx, "I left my sleeves on planet Tallaan, but ... magic tricks? I got one."   Instead of following orders, Kipo lunged into a serpentine sprint at near top speed, heading toward the control room.   Along his path, he spied one pit droid who seemed to be the lowest face on the totem pole. Kipo mostly had little use for managers, whether they be Thisspiasian or droids giving orders to other droids, but this little pit droid seemed the opposite. It looked a bit depressed and seemed to be giving nobody any orders. Just the type of person Kipo needed right now.   The plan formed in his head in an instant. Snatch up the pit droid. Plop it down in the technician seat in the control room. Tell it to disable the tractor beams and docking clamps so the Bitterluck could take off at her captain's leisure. (And maybe tell it to install a button labeled, "Disable Tractor Beam", which he had wished to find the first time he had entered that little room.)   Now it was a quick matter to put that plan into glorious effect.
  Kummer wolfe
Sun, Nov 2nd 2025 04:05
Callan was all energy and panic-rich motion. With a flying leap, he tackled the nearest pit droid, tumbling end-over-end until he separated. The pit droid stood, gesturing wildly around with a flood of beeping digital language. A cloud of sheer noise with a sense of irate panic. The squib didn’t lose stride.
 
“No, this isn’t a Grand Army Resupply ship!” Callan yelled back, gesturing back with the same level of wild energy. “It’s a bounty hunter ship! You’re messing with a bounty hunter and they have massively short tempers! You want to be a hood ornament?”
 
The rest of the pit droids joined in. Some were on Callan’s side, others not. Callan wasn’t phased and not the least bit nervous. It was as if he was, at last, fully in his element. The squib gestured emphatically to the landing gear.
 
“Those don’t GO THERE!” He growled, stabbing a gray-furred hand at the pit droids that sided with him. “Were you even listening to them? Seriously? Those are gear components for a VX-100. That won’t even fit!”
 
One pit droid, determined not to be denied retorted with sharp beeps. Callan scowled.
 
“No, it won’t fit even if you push really hard. Frakkin FIX IT!”
 
Then the squib dashed up the ramp to look for a console to work with on the remote hack.
  *****  
Meanwhile in the control room, Kipo plopped the lone pit droid down into the technician seat. It chirped in confusion for a second, before it glanced at Kipo, squared its shoulder and nodded. The little droid’s metal fingers flew over the console. In the bay, the docking clamps unlatched with a dull thunk.
 
At least all but one.
 
The pit droid let out a long droid sigh, tapped a set of controls that Kipo swore had been ‘deflector screen’ until the pit droid peeled of the label. Below that read the words ‘Tractor Beam’. The pit droid disabled it, then ran for that last docking clamp.
  *****  
Alice ran up the ramp, bare feet padding against the metal, nodding at Nyx’s instructions. The young woman paused at the top, turning to face the expanse of the docking bay. A momentary look of sadness and longing crossed her expression. Like one leaving home for the first time, but knowing they’ll never see it again. At least not the way it was at that moment.
 
Then her digital blue eyes widened.
 
“Ship’s waking up,” she breathed. “They’re here!”
  ****  
Alarms flared like mythical banshees. Ancient red alert lights flashed from the corners of the bay. Nyx feather’s the Bitter Luck’s engines to life even as she feels an odd rumble around her, vibrating up from the Wednesday’s Child deck plates.
 
Meanwhile, in the control room Kipo’s victory is short-lived as a massive drill the size of his head slices through the door to his left from the passageway. The plasma-edged drill of a tank-like recycler droid!
  Kipo Raysser
Sun, Nov 2nd 2025 10:25
Kipo rolled back from the noisy drill aimed roughly at him.   Just then, he heard Jane announce, "Now Kipo, don't ruin your appetite. Remember when Danny tried to eat a Rodian Newoongall and only unhinged one side of his jaw. You come home for dinner right now. "   "Jane!" Kipo replied, "I've got a," but a click from the intercom told him there was no point in finishing the sentence; it was a one-way communication. He wouldn't be able to get help that way. At least he was certain that that was the real Jane speaking, who knew him from childhood.   As the drill intruded further, Kipo reached for the pit droid and found it had also abandoned him to work on the malfunctioning docking clamp. No help there either.   As the door began to fall apart, Kipo checked his guitar's hidden weaponry. He tried to remember if recycling droids were equipped with antigravity. He thought he had heard that they were (so that they could enter structurally unsound condemned buildings without getting themselves dismantled). So, shooting through the floor or ceiling wouldn't help, and a direct assault would require more than what Kipo had packed for this ghost hunt. That was strike-three.   Kipo slid out, following the pit droid's path, and rapidly retreated with hope of finding safety in the BitterLuck.
  Kummer wolfe
Sun, Nov 9th 2025 05:59   Edited on Sun, Nov 9th 2025 06:08
Kipo slithered out just as the tank-like recycling droid drilled through the door. Then, it pulled the drill bit back, pushing its boxy droid head at the savaged metal tear. Yellow-orange eyes leered, gleaming through the opening as it let out a series of deep, electronic chitters and beeps. Almost a sing-song in a minor key.
 
Then it reached up with a claw hand to grab the tear and pull. Metal protested with a death-shriek.
  *****  
Aboard the Bitter Luck, Nyx launched herself into the pilot’s seat, clawed fingers flying over the controls. The Bitter Luck lit up, sputtered, then the power died. A second later it spit back to life with a furious blink.
 
Status indicators showed that the pit droids had the landing gear mostly-enough to use if one crossed their fingers-back together. One docking clamp remained, and it was being yanked, pulled and disconnected by what Nyx could only conclude was a rogue pit droid? Was that a thing?
 
Still, power was on, engines feathered nicely. The temptation to yank the ship free and sacrifice-maybe-a landing strut loomed large.
 
Then external scans picked up Kipo slithering like mad for the ramp. Behind him, some tank-like droid thing with yellow-orange eyes was doing something very unpleasant and maybe obscene to a safety door blocking its access to the control room.
  JN-66 "Jane"
Tue, Nov 11th 2025 05:36   Edited on Tue, Nov 11th 2025 06:08
JN-66's optical sensors lit up light blue and green as she suddenly turned her head toward the now-occupied Captain's seat as if she were startled.   "Ooh, Nyx," her voice said with the anxiety of a 3P0 model droid speaking to a Jawa, "Systems are ... well ... They are reporting back. Fine positioning thruster power is at 475% capacity. Oh dear. Um, reporting back all ready for takeoff as soon as Kipo arrives. We are waiting for him, aren't we? He's just right down there. Oh. Um. I have to take this call."   JN-66 turned back to the communications console and her optical sensors dimmed.
  Kipo Raysser
Tue, Nov 11th 2025 06:12
In Kipo's eyes the boarding ramp was as comforting as a home-cooked meal right up until he noticed the little pit droid trying to unfasten one docking clamp with some sort of prybar way, way too large for it to handle properly. But the little droid had spunk. It wasn't giving up.   Kipo passed the boarding ramp and actually screeched to a stop at the imprisoned landing gear and the aged clamp.   "You need more power there, little tin man," he announced, lifting the pit droid off the ground, "Ya need to know when to call friends."   Then on his guitar he played a couple of chords from the old ballad, "Trust the Force and Pass the Ammo".   His guitar clicked as an internal mechanism shifted.
Blaster Rifle skill 5D (separate out the wild die last), Damage (if hitting) 5D | 4d6, 1d6!, 5d6
17, 1, 21
  Nyxeil Nyx Synarris
(a.k.a. Moke)
Tue, Nov 18th 2025 09:17   Edited on Tue, Nov 18th 2025 11:55
Nyx switched to manual, overriding the screaming safety warnings as she slammed the launch sequence into the console, engines whining up into a furious cyclone. Ships did not like to take off with a docking clamp still in place—who knew? Her jaw clenched, voice twitching with barely contained panic—but she refused to let it show. Not now. She didn’t bother looking at the ramp camera, smashing the intercom.  

“Three.”

  "We are out of time, move your tail. We are leaving ... gear or no gear "  

“Two.”

  Her gaze flicked—just once—to Jane. The drone. The hack. Later. That was a later problem. So many later problems, and later always seemed to catch up. Right now she just needed distance between her and those deranged buzzsaw nightmares.  

“One—ramp closing!”

  Her fist slammed the control. The boarding ramp groaned, and started to close like a steel trap. No more commands. No more talking. Just survival. Nyx grabbed the throttle with both hands, engines screaming. If the clamp wasn’t off yet, too bad—the Bitterluck was leaving with or without her landing gear. “Hold together, girl,” Nyx hissed through her teeth. Then she launched—hard and unforgiving—fully prepared to tear free whatever metal had the audacity to keep her in this madhouse.
  Kummer wolfe
Sun, Nov 23rd 2025 05:23
Suddenly, the galaxy held it’s breath…
 
Three seconds ago…
 
Outside the Bitter Luck, Kipo strummed the chords for “Trust the Force and Pass the Ammo”. Blaster rifle fire erupted out his guitar, shredding the docking clamp like so much metal confetti. Red lights on the Bitter Luck’s console in front of Nyx snapped from red to green.
 
Two seconds ago…
 
The Bitter Luck’s engines roared to defiant life. Trembling, eager for the void of space, Nyx grabbed yoke and engine controls with a practiced touch. Motions like a virtuoso over the controls. Her ship sang in reply.
 
One second ago…
 
Nyx slammed the controls. In the back the ramp abruptly titled up, closing steady but not fast. The brassy, battered pit droid screeched a surprised electronic scream. Kipo, just having fired his guitar, loses balance on the ramp. With a hard thud, he falls chest first onto the battered metal grate. With a desperate grab, he snatches up his guitar before it sails off out of the ship.
 
The pit droid shrieks, reaches down to grab Kipo by the arm and pulls, trying to haul the Thisspiasian inside. Callan slams a first hard onto the console in front of him.
 
“Docking clamps detached!” he yelled. “Shields are now up!”
 
Then the Squib bolted from the chair, grabbed a battered grapple line from his belt, and fired at Kipo. The pit droid wrapped the line around Kipo’s arm and pulled. At the same time, Callan wrapped his end around a support strut, then hit the ‘retract’ button.
 
Now…
 
The grapple line retracts, but far too slowly. Every motion, rattled the Bitter Luck like kath hound shaking a ragged toy. Bolts complained, metal whined. But so far, the ship held. Red warning lights flashed over the console in front of Nyx.
 
It was open. The ramp was still open. There was an obstruction. Nyx cycled the ramp cameras to see Kipo struggling to get fully onto the ramp and inside. Callan and a thin, short pit droid struggled to pull.
 
But it was too slow. Far, far too slow. They were about to pass the docking bay screen for the void of space.
  Kipo Raysser
Mon, Nov 24th 2025 05:33
This was no time for deep thought. Kipo pulled and clawed with all his might, and twisted, and spun, and wrapped the grapple line around himself, rolling and climbing to pull himself inside before the ship passed through that docking bay screen which held all the atmosphere.   There was no thinking; there was no "try", just ... make it.
Climbing/Jumping | 2d6+2, 1d6
8, 4
  Nyxeil Nyx Synarris
(a.k.a. Moke)
Thu, Nov 27th 2025 10:21   Edited on Thu, Nov 27th 2025 10:27
Nyx cursed, fingers flying over the controls. “Kipo, I am going to feel a certain way if you’re trying to dodge my party!”   The shield screen surged closer—far too fast. She cursed again, sharper this time. Without hesitation she fired the port maneuvering thruster forward and the starboard in reverse, whipping the Bitter Luck into a vicious spin like a Givin pyramid top gone feral. The ship groaned, gravity swayed, but she kept the motion tight and merciless.   Nyx didn’t care.   She swung the nose toward the advancing recycling droids, jaw set, tail flicking. Then she squeezed the triggers of the KX7 twin laser cannons to unleash hell.   Firing ship-grade weapons inside a hangar was beyond frowned upon. Nyx was so far past polite, she was about to invent a whole new category of rude.   She shouted into the cockpit, into the comms, into the universe:   “My crew is NOT your task.
My ship is NOT for recycling.
And I am NOT your fracking prey!”
  Kummer wolfe
Sun, Nov 30th 2025 05:07
As Nyx shouted at the recycling droids, the infernal ship with its mad droid controller brain, the very universe, turbo-lasers spat hot death across the hangar. Metal shrieked dire complaints, buckled, then caved. Past the door wasn’t one tank-sized recycling droid, but four—plasma cutters and grind-drills hummed with death’s merry melody.
 
Bolts kissed armored droid plates, then peeled them wide. Sensitive internal components blasted apart. Motivators stopped and power cells ruptured with the glow of overheated grapes in a food processor. Then they became compact grenades.
 
The end far end of the hangar became molten hell.
 
In the back of the Bitter Luck, Callan and the pit droid hauled and pulled while Kipo, wrapped in grapple line, clawed his way up the distressed metal ramp. At first, Squib tech and pit droid struggled against each other, not quite in sync to help the Thesspiasian from certain vacuum.
 
Then Callan started to sing “Trust in the Force and Pass the Ammo” like a mining work song and the pit droid beeped along as they pulled in unison. Kipo clawed hand over claw along the ramp.
 
Kipo rolled inside in a rush and collided with both the Squib tech and the pit droid. The moment he did, the ramp brushed the edge of the docking bay screen—and void of space—to obediently close. The mag-clamps locked with a heavy thump to seal the ramp closed. Atmosphere in the Bitter Luck cycled and stabilized.
 
All lights on Nyx’s console snapped a glorious green all at once. Beyond the cockpit, in the ruined hangar of the Wednesday’s Child, the last, massive box-shaped recycler droid head fell. It clattered to the ruined, smoldering deck plates with a heavy finality.
 
The droid’s ocular sensor-eyes flashed a bright red, then flickered out dim before they went dark. After that? The Wednesday’s Child goes dark as well.
 
Only then did the galaxy let out a long sigh…
  Kipo Raysser
Sat, Dec 6th 2025 06:16
Kipo hugged Callan and the pit droid and gave each a big kiss on the top of the head and told them, "Feels good ta be alive, mini-men! Now that's what I call teamwork!"   After a moment of untangling (and searching for Kipo's hat before he remembered its fate), the trio ambulated with strained muscles and motivators to the ship's cockpit.   Their laughter and chirping and beeping preceded their entry to the pilot's compartment when Kipo shouted to Nyx, "Nice flyin', Captain! Where's Alice? Oh, there she is. Safe and sound."
  JN-66 "Jane"
Sat, Dec 6th 2025 06:51
Then Jane snapped back to life, "Oh - Oh dear," she said sadly and lowered her head looking directly at her two manual manipulators, "I've no transmitters at all."   Kipo continued his gleeful salutations, "Jane how about if we cook up a big ol' 'Mynock Cloud City' to celebrate?"   Jane interrupted her melancholy thoughts to put a quick stop to that, "Now, Kipo, you know Twi'lek food gives you terrible indigestion. Entirely too much silicon."   Kipo turned to Nyx with a smile and said, "Now there's the woman that raised me."   It did her circuits good to see Kipo safe and sound, but that nice little distraction did not last long. Jane looked back to her manipulators and the human-interface keyboard at the communication console in front of her. Wait. The ship had plenty of communications translators onboard. It might work. She would have to try.   Her mechanical fingers flew across the keyboard, typing up a flurry of commands, then she said into the tiny microphones at the front of the keyboard, "This is JN-66 calling CT-807! Captain Sven, can you hear me in there? Please tell me I can reach you. Hello? CT-807?"
  Nyxeil Nyx Synarris
(a.k.a. Moke)
Sat, Dec 6th 2025 06:45   Edited on Sat, Dec 6th 2025 06:45
Nyx kept her hands on the controls long after the Bitter Luck had stabilized, knuckles pale, tail coiled tight around her seat frame. Only when the red warning lights finally held steady green did she let herself lean back. Her shoulders sagged into the chair as tension bled from her muscles. “Try to recycle my ship…” she muttered, voice low and dangerous. “…see how that works out.” She closed her eyes for a long, steadying pause.   Exhaling, she flicked her gaze toward the comms station—toward Jane. “Jane, give me a full status update on the Black Hat pirates and anything else that may have taken an interest in this small, uninteresting sector of space. And feel free to tell me they got bored of waiting, wandered off, and there isn’t so much as a signal relay buoy within scanner range.” She didn’t expect the answer to be that simple. But it would keep the droid busy for a moment.   Nyx turned to greet Kipo. “So, Kipo,” she said, tone carefully neutral, “I’m glad you could join us. I was worried you might miss the reunion with Jane we talked about.” She shot him a look—sharp, pointed—the instant Jane’s name left her lips. Her hand drifted toward her blaster holster out of instinct. Empty. When had…? Her jaw flexed as the memory resurfaced. Still, she held her stare, tail tightening once around the base of the chair as she waited. For Jane’s report, for Kipo’s reaction, and for the other galactic stiletto that always seemed poised to drop.
  Kummer wolfe
Sun, Dec 7th 2025 05:10
Callan and the pit droid hugged Kipo back, then once the short celebration was over, the diminutive pair hurried over to the nearest console to focus on engines, power, and the all important hyperdrive.
 
As Nyx greeted Kipo and asked for Jane’s report, the droids query—unusually delivered using a keypad instead of a dataplug or any transmitter—bears fruit.
 
A hologram sparks to life on the comm section of the Bitter Luck’s cockpit and a figure appeared. There, in the blue-toned image, stood a human man wearing Clone Trooper armor. The kind that was used over thirty years ago during the Clone Wars during the last years of the Old Republic.
 
He stood tall, spine straight, with a characteristic—if not infamous—appearance of a certain type of human. One of the genetically augmented Kaminoan Clone Troopers. This one’s armor looked pristine white over his charcoal flight suit. The white was trimmed in a yellow-gold and edged with gray-gold pattern that had to be unit markings. He also wore the rank of ‘Clone Captain’.
 
The hologram of the man fidgeted before he tucked a Clone Pilot helmet under one arm, then saluted Nyx, and really, everyone watching.
 
“Captain CT-807 of Wolf Pack Battalion reporting in,” he said in a clipped tone with a faint, warm accent. “It… ah… seems I’ve misplaced my unit? Also, my General? Begging your pardon Jane and Captain… uhm… ma’am? Would you happen to have a way to send word to Jedi General Plo Koon? Let him know ‘Sven’ is—” the clone’s word’s faltered as he glanced at himself with a frown, then met everyone’s eyes “—let’s call this sitrep ‘mostly alive’? I’m sure he’s worried sick.”
 
Behind the clone pilot, the eerie shimmer of digital space flowed like an ever changing curtain of reality. A rare sight, only reserved for droids or those who talk to any sort of droid in their avatar form as opposed to realspace. One thick-necked, brick-shaped human with a bent nose peeked into the holocam view, then hurried away.
 
On the other side of the cockpit, behind Kipo, Nyx, Jane and all, Alice cleared her throat with an odd, whispered digital echo.
 
“The pirates?” she glanced at the others, almost embarrassed. “They’re on the far side from us. Inspecting a debris field of cargo? They seem very distracted by a swarm of buzz bots. But… I think the pirates will have that cleared up soon.”
 
Alice bit her lower lip a moment, then extended a hand at the Wednesday’s Child in a motion eerily similar to what one of the legendary Jedi might do.
 
“Aboard… the Ship Controller? She’s trapped. Cut off,” Alice breathed. “Isolated in a sub-network and raging over it. The rest of the ship is… dormant? Yes. I can feel it from here. The ship’s controls are open, Captain Nyx.”
 
Somewhere aboard the Bitter Luck, the ship shuddered as power flowed. Almost as if the ship itself was eager to move.
  JN-66 "Jane"
Fri, Dec 19th 2025 07:57
"Oh, 807, I'm so glad you made it over safely," Jane told the hologram, "I'm sure we can look up your general just the moment we return to the Tallaan shipyards. In the meantime, if you could keep an eye on those pirates that would be of great help potentially."   Then pulling herself away, JN-66 glanced at the data on the comm system monitor and reported to Captain Nyx, "Nyx, I concur with your new friend's assessment that the pirates are making quick work of those awful buzz bots. We might well be able to chain the Wednesday’s Child to jump with us back to the shipyards before they are any the wiser, if that is your goal."   Kipo slithered up behind Jane and leaned over her shoulder. To the hologram he said, "Uh, Wolfpack, one loose end I recall - Do the systems in there pick up a Gonk droid floating out to the black? It could be with the buzz droids, or it might have had a different trajectory."   Then when the hologrammatic Clone Trooper turned away, Kipo mumbled to Jane, "Do I detect a little you-know? Have you finally found another 8080?"   JN-66 spun her head directly to Kipo, "As I recall you were every bit as distraught as I was when the family lost dear Chef-Bot-8080. He had been like a member of the family for so many years."   Kipo smiled at Nyx as if there was no danger in twelve parsecs then turned back to Jane, "... which doesn't answer my question, but ... Here's another one. Why are Knuck and Futz out of their playpen?"   "Oh," Jane gathered her thoughts, "Well I have just learned that chaos programs calm down a great deal after you send them out into a system to make as much mischief as possible. You see, the Wednesday’s Child's Ship Controller was quite rude. She hacked my Marksman-H Training Remote Quadriphonic Stereo Drones."   As an aside to Alice, Nyx, and Sven, Jane explained, "A hack is any inelegant solution to a problem. In this case she interrupted my controls by impersonating me. Quite inelegant, I must say if I were to judge. So, once I tracked her down, (in the bowels of the system to say the least), I responded with an equally inelegant retort. I released the Zoot Brothers from my secure folders and let them cause as much damage and distraction in her systems as their little hearts cared to do. The Ship Controller - and I never caught her name and don't care one wit to ask it at this point - and although I'll admit she was very nearly the death of me - I did manage to wheedle out of her that she had planned to escape into some other sort of vehicle. Now for a Ship Controller that is utterly and totally inconceivable. However, she seemed to have ... um ... well ... seized? - certain persons like Captain Sven there, as impossible as it sounds. And she was on the verge of discovering how to reverse the process to allow herself to leave the ship."   Jane looked back and forth at the others and added, "I also concur with your new friend, that the Ship Controller should be cut off from, well, from controlling the ship. I can't imagine how she would get out of there until a great deal of circuitry is replaced, which of course might be the end of her depending on what circuits get removed from the ship first."   Kipo looked at Alice, then at Nyx, then at the hologram, then at Jane, then at Callan, then out the viewport at the Wednesday’s Child, and said, "hmm."
Star Wars: Shards is a work of pure, unabashed fiction. In fact, it considers itself rather heroic, noble, and quite proud of itself.   The opinions expressed on the in-world pages or within quotation boxes are those of the characters and should not be confused with either of the authors, since the characters and authors tend to disagree a lot. But … This is the Way.   Names of characters, places, events, organizations and locations are all creations of the authors' imaginations for this fictitious setting, except where credit is given to the sources of inspiration. Any resemblance to persons living, dead, or reanimated is coincidental.   Star Wars TM & © Lucasfilm Ltd. Tapani Sector created by West End Games for Lucasfilm, and used in homage only.
No infringement is intended or implied.   Unless otherwise stated on page or within Metadata tab,
all other artwork and content are Copyright © Kummer Wolfe ( aka CB Ash ) and Jarissa Venters, 1998-2024,
All Rights Reserved.

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