Ask Assault on Reclemation 00-00-13

[Trini Halrixien]

RAXUS PRIME, THE JUNK FIELDS, PRESENT DAY.

Trini Halrixien, grad student and, she now supposed, pilot, nursed her antique starfighter through the air, gritting her teeth as she flew.

"You tricked me! Take me back, take me back where you found me this instant!"

"Oh will you please just switch off!!"

Trini had been lucky to find new transportation after her repulsortruck had been shot up by bandits; rather stylish transport, if you liked fixer-uppers. In spite of her encyclopedic knowledge of Old Republic spacecraft and technology, she was unable to identify the mostly intact starfighter which had saved her from her pursuers, though she suspected it might be entirely custom made.

It had come with a passenger, though.

"Negative! You look like the Master, but you are not! The Master is coming back with help! If the Silver Bolide is not where the Master left it, how will they-"

"So this ship does have a name!"

"Well of course it does! But you are not the Master! Why should I tell you anything?! Take me back!"

The droid was annoying, to say the least. It was a genuine antique, a ZZ-series astrogator droid, which gave Trini at least a vague idea how old the vessel was. The old droid was not especially helpful; it had apparently misidentified Trini as its lost Master from a distance, but had recognized its mistake when she got close. After that, it had shouted at her while she made repairs to the old ship, which was largely intact aside from some damage to the sublight drive and life support systems. Luckily, its flight systems had been relatively simple to jury-rig, and Trini had been able to get moving again with it, at least under repulsorlift power.

Trini had not been able to shut up her unwilling copilot, but she had managed to lock him out of the ship's systems, allowing her to fly without the machine trying to take over and return them to the junk heap it seemed so eager to go back to.

It could still shout at her about it, though.

"Take me ba-!"

"Look, you got a name?"

The droid shut up for a moment.

"I-... I am ZZ-4A4."

Trini heaved a sigh.

"Alright... ZZ-4A4. I'm Trini. And I have had... I have had a day. Right now, I just... need to get back to civilization. Once we get where we're going, I promise, I'll let you go back to your junk heap, and you can keep waiting for your Master to come back. Who knows, maybe you'll get very, very lucky and he'll actually show."

The droid, whose head turret was located just in front of the pilot's instrument board, swiveled to regard Trini for a moment.

"Alright."

The droid swiveled back to face the canopy, and the, after a few moments of silence, turned to look back at Trini again.

"And... thank you. It has been... a long time, since I have flown. Even at this speed."

Trini couldn't help but smile a little at that.

"You're welcome, I guess. I suppose you are a pilot droid, this is sort of your thing... ZZ series, right?"

"Correct! Hi-Mech's top of the line!"

"Er, about 500 years ago, yeah."

"What was that?"

"ZZ, you know you were sitting on that junk pile for a very long time, right?"

The droid went silent, and turned to look out at the landscape again. The silence went on for several moments before he spoke again, the tone more subdued than previously.

"We are approaching Reclamation 00-00-13."

It was a few moments later that Trini brought the old starfighter down on a landing pad near the center of Reclamation 00-00-13.

The term "civilization" could only be applied to Rec 13, as most of the locals called it, in the same way that the term "meal" could be applied to a vending machine bantha pastry. Small, isolated, and indeed mostly automated, Reclamation 00-00-13 was a metal recycling complex, staffed by a handful of maintenance personnel who mostly oversaw the fleet of roving gatherer droids that harvested scrap from the surrounding landscape for the great smelters in the center of "town." The complex was built on a series of raised platforms, each about the size of a floating hydrocarbon extraction rig on an ocean planet. On it were the aforementioned smelters, hoppers for junk awaiting processing, and docking berths for drone barges, who carried away the finished product to factories foundries elsewhere. There was also housing for the organic crew, about 20 beings, plus a small general store, opened by an opportunistic shopkeeper who mostly served the scavengers of the region, and any doomed archaeological expeditions that happened to come through.

After landing, it took Trini several minutes to work ZZ-4A4 loose from the ship's droid socket, although she eventually managed with the help of some tools and anti-corrosion solvents. Eventually, she and the droid were standing on the pad.

"There's a Marshall stationed here, I think." Trini informed the droid. "I have to go over there and tell them what's happened to my expedition... you can stay or come with me."

The droid hesitated for a moment, before rolling up beside Trini.

"I will go too." ZZ-4A4 declared. "I participated in fighting off some of the bandits; the authorities may want my testimony."

Trini nodded, and started off toward the complex's administrative block, ZZ-4A4 trailing along behind. As they walked, Trini noticed that a few of the nearby landing pads were host to a few unfamiliar ships and vehicles.

"New people since I was here last..." Trini remarked offhandedly. "Hope they haven't met the bandits too..."

 

[Kal Zyn Dross]

Sometimes the search for Suspect One was fruitful, actually most all the time it was. Interviews and evidence on Nar Shadaa, questioning Jedi friends and learning about the Force, all of this and more were useful to his investigation. Coming out here to this...he didn't even remember the planet's name, for an anonymous tip? This had NOT been useful at all so far. The tipster was an old drunk whose blaster had gone off and he'd thought it looked like a lightsaber. Now said man was passed out drunk again in the local bar, not caring that he'd just wasted everyone's time on an important manhunt. Oh well, you couldn't win them all.

So, for now, Kal was using the local Marshal's office to get his report sent out before he left. His TIE Ranger was on one of the landing pads, ready to go once he was done, though for the life of him he was having trouble trying to word this thing in a way that didn't let the natural stupid just ooze out, nor his own snarkiness come through with some of the comments. At least the Marshall didn't seem to mind him hanging around a bit longer. Perhaps having another blaster in case of trouble was a comforting thing, which Kal had brought his gear just in case the lead had panned out into an actual fight. At least things were boring, he liked boring, usually.

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[Flynn Tabouillot]

Flynn's recent companions had changed... a lot. He had surrounded himself with runaways and thieves and mercenaries and everything in between but now he was off cavorting with scrappers and the like. Growling in frustration in the marshal's office, Flynn was, once again, explaining himself to the marshal in question.

"Look, I understand that there was a disturbance but that was hardly my fault." he reasoned before pointing to a short, stocky, man being visibly restrained by his barely-dressed wife, "It's his fault."

The man struggled and only stopped when the Marshal glared at him before turning his gaze to Flynn.

"He assaulted you, causing the disturbance, because he came home from scrapping to find you sleeping with his wife."

The marshal's deadpan was impressive. Flynn raised a single finger.

"And if anyone here..." he pitched his tone to the entire room at large, "Can point to the section of Galactic law where it says it is illegal to give a married woman what she had so very clearly been missing for decades...? I would see why I'm here. But I've broken no laws so... can I have my ship unlocked from the docking pad please?"

Seriously, this place was getting boring. The wife had been the only decent looker in the bunch too.

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[Trini Halrixien]

Trini was pointed in the direction of the local Marshal by several of the complex's inhabitants, making her way along the catwalks, stairways, ladders and turbolifts that wound their way through Rec 13's industrial landscape. She made her way into the residential section, which was scarcely different from the rest of the place; grime-streaked habitation modules were nestled in among the pipes and girders, their white plastoid walls and plastex windows streaked with grime from decades of exposure to Raxus Prime's polluted atmosphere. Many of the organics Trini passed wore breath masks of some description as they went about their tasks, and the droids were mostly spotted with rust or some other corrosion.

The marshal station was located on the "main drag" of the residential block, if it could be called such. It consisted of a few mostly vacant storefronts, a single general store, and an otherwise sleepy cantina that the members of Trini's expedition would occasionally descend on after a good day at the site. Tellingly, the station was located just between the cantina and the general store.

"...-ore of a man than you've ever been!!"

Trini came up short as she entered the station, only to be confronted by the scene unfolding between the marshal, one of the local scrappers, a female who was one of the few locals Trini had ever found easy on the eyes and a human male the young Amaran didn't recognize. The scrapper was in the process of bellowing at the stranger, with the woman trying to hold him back and the marshal looking nonplussed at the whole affair.

"Um... e-excuse me!" Trini tried to interject. "Please I-... I need help!"

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[Kal Zyn Dross]

Kal could hear the argument from the small side office he had been working in, something about it piquing his interest. Closing down his datapad for the moment, he slipped his head outside to try to get a grasp of the situation. Ah, it seemed to be some kind of lover's quarrel, or an interesting take on adultery. SOMETHING like that, anyway. The offender was definitely a looker, though. That was when he noticed the Amaran and the droid standing just inside the doorway, apparently needing some assistance but only able to see the local Marshal handling the rambunctious trio. Well, he WAS helping him out, so Kal decided to do his part to return the favor. Good thing being a Ranger gave him some unique authority.

Walking up to the Amaran, Kal gave her a smile and extended his hand in greeting. "Hey there, sorry for any wait. My name is Kal, Sector Ranger. What can I help you two with?" He looked at the droid curiously, something about it...He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but something about the droid was just a bit off, to him. His eyes took in every detail, trying to match it with information he already knew. It didn't come back with much, which meant THAT was probably why it was off. It was rare that he came across something he hadn't had much knowledge of, but he'd wait for the woman to continue before going further.

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[Flynn Tabouillot]

Well what did he have here?

A distraction!

Slipping away from the warring married couple and the law man, Flynn grinned as he slide a few steps over to stand in front of the small creature with the big ears and the blue hair. Weird that she had blue hair when she had white fur over 99% of her body but what did he know?

Probably thought he was weird for not having fur.

The beauty of perspective he supposed!

He grinned wider.

"Well lookie here little fluff!" he grinned, gesturing to Kal and then himself, "You came in here looking for help and you've got two strapping young lads ready and willing! What do you need us for?"

It honestly didn't matter to Flynn so long as it got him away from here.

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[Trini Halrixien]

Trini raised her eyebrows as a tall, reptilian alien made his presence known, entering the room to introduce himself. The little Amaran was amazed at her apparent good fortune!

She supposed after the sort of day she had just had, the universe owed her a solid, but still.

"You're a Sector Ranger?" She blurted? "Oh! Oh wow! I uh..."

Trini tried to collect herself, taking in a deep breath, letting it out, and clearing her throat.

"I'm... Trini Halrixien. I'm with the Holworth expedition. We've been excavating in the scrap fields about 40 klicks from here."

At Trini's words, the Marshal looked up, displaying mild interest. Trini's expedition had been the most exciting to happen in Rec 13 for many years, and many of the locals knew at least something about it. Of course, many of them couldn't see the difference between important historical artifacts and obsolete scrap, but still.

Trini continued.

"This morning the dig site was... a-..."

Memories came flooding back to Trini, and she shuddered, leaning down and gripping her knees for support. Her normally alert ears were folded back in distress.

"It was atta-... e-everyone is... oh gods...."

As Trini fought to get herself back under control, ZZ-4A4, who had been idling just behind her, took the initiative. Rolling around the Amaran's legs, he continued the exposition.

"Miss Halrixien's camp was attacked by bandits." The droid explained, briefly rotating his cranial turret to regard the young Amaran with what could have been concern, before turning back to the others. "As she related to me earlier, she is the sole survivor of her expedition. The bandits, evidently, spared none of her colleagues, but were not able to initially find Miss Halrixien because she hid from them."

The droid turned to Trini again.

"Is that summary of events correct?"

Trini had not quite finished collecting herself; she seemed to be having some kind of nervous breakdown. The stress of her escape had kept her going more or less since the attack, but now, in apparent safety, it was all crashing down on her. She nodded her confirmation, though.

ZZ continued, turning back to Kal.

"I am ZZ-4A4. After the bandits withdrew, Trini emerged from hiding and fled here. During her flight, the bandits discovered her, and dispatched armed beings to prevent her escape. She happened to pass by where my vessel was resting, and I used shipboard weapons to dispatch her pursuers. I can provide a more detailed testimony if required. As, I'm sure, can Trini, once she's recovered from her ordeal."

The droid looked serious.

"Marshal, Ranger..." He regarded Flynn for a moment. "...and other, there has been a mass murder, not 40 kilometers away."

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[Kal Zyn Dross]

Well, this escalated rather quickly. As the story went on, Kal kept a close look at Trini's face and mannerisms, as well as the interest that the Marshal seemed to have as she began to explain herself. The droid's erudite explanation also helped to clear things, though he still kept up his analysis of the woman's reaction. There were certain things no person could fake when telling this kind of story truthfully, unless one was a sociopath with no empathy. Trini seemed to be hitting all the right points to show that this was the truth, and as the droid spoke Kal pulled out his datapad to access the local Holonet for the office. With his clearance, it was easy to see that the dig site was authorized and, thus, real, so more items than not pointed at her story being true.

That, though, led to some possibilities that weren't the best to think of. One, it meant that there were a lot of dead archaeologists, a tragedy in its own right, at the hands of some now-dead bandits. Bandits that may not have been working alone. The droid said they had been dispatched, but it was folly to assume that was their whole number. Such beings were fickle, and would be incredibly wary of any witnesses to their deeds. This would paint a target on Trini's back, and with the overall manpower that this Marshal's office had...It was a longshot idea, but one worth considering. He turned to the Marshal to speak. "Marshal, at the very least this deserves investigation. Please call in some help, whoever is in the area. If needed, you can use my authority. I'll head out to take a look at the scene." He turned to look at the other man who had come up to offer help. A quick look gave Kal the feeling he was a criminal or swindler of some kind, but it seemed he was sincere in his offer. He'd start with that. "As for you, after you supply your name, could you make the young lady something hot to drink? She's clearly shaken and needs some comfort to calm down." It was a simple request, something even one of little skill could do. Not that he didn't think the man was without skill, but as of yet it was an unknown thing to the Ranger.

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