Ask Plot Nar Shaddaa Flesh Chrome Integration

[It0]

[ T H E M E ]​

Nar Shaddaa/Level 38
‘Duros Sector’
01:23

“Move along. Move along. Keep moving.”

The deep timber of the puny surveillance droids[prowler droid] vocal commands struck Nano as almost comical. As though perceiving the unspoken slight, the hovering disc-shaped droid swept in closer, it’s spotlight attachment momentarily blinding him. Its photoreceptor-lense spun tightly on its array as it focused in on his blinking face.

“Keep moving.” it commanded.

“Alright, alright!” Nano grumbled, flipping his collar up against the dazzling light. “Kriffin’ droids.”

Ghostly remnants of light danced in his vision as he quickened his step down the empty street. Why the Corellian Port Control maintained any sort of presence in Old Duros was a mystery to him. They were a joke forty levels up, this far down they were the object of open derision. The Gotal suspected it was simply keeping a watchful eye on its low-rent neighbors. So far as he knew, the CPC had never deigned to descend into Duros in person and soil their starched uniforms in the muck. Infractions were observed, noted and summarily ignored. CPC was probably only monitoring on the instructions of Durr the Hutt. Durr liked to keep an eye on things and putting creases in CPC uniforms wasn’t free after all.

He shifted the duffel pack from over his shoulder to beneath his arm. No taking chances. Not tonight. The stairs were decrepit and slick, though not from rain. It didn’t rain this far down from the upper levels. Any rain the upper levels got were filtered through layers of urban squalor and what little did reach Duros arrived as an oily, viscous stream of runoff. Nano tried hard not to think of what substance was squelching beneath his boots and took the stairs two at a time.

The repulsortruck was idling by the curb which he reached the lower level, Turk’s ugly mug leering impatiently at him from behind the wheel. He’d never been on particularly good-terms with the Corellian, but they were both Crymorah, which meant they had to stick together.

“Everything set?” Nano asked. Turk jerked a gloved thumb towards the rear of the truck in response. Nano skirted the truck and approached the open trailer. Barely visible in the darkness, a large rectangular shape was shrouded beneath a dingy blue tarp. Nano lifted the tarp’s edge and could make the dull-white stenciling on the case underneath: ‘Z-6 ROT. CAN.’

He tossed his duffel atop the tarp and then climbed into the cab. Turk wore a thin sneer.

“Lets get movin’.” Nano grunted. “Swoopers aren’t reliable even when you got somethin’ they want.”

--------------

It0 slid the auscultator across the massive expanse of flesh and listened intently for a prolonged moment. His databanks hummed as he analyzed and interpreted the gurgling squelches within the Hutt’s innards. Satisfied, he slipped the tool back into his medbag and consulted his datapad once more.

“It is my medical opinion that you are in fine health,” It0 said, leveling his gaze on the Hutt. “despite your best efforts to the contrary. Whatever would possess you to go on a hunger strike? That’s quite out of character for a Hutt such as yourself.”

The diminutive Hutt reclined on an expansive chaise lounge in the corner of his luxury living-suite. Outside, Nar Shaddaa shone and glittered in an every shifting array of lights and movement. The view from the Hutt’s personal pleasure yacht must certainly come at a premium. But when your father is one of the biggest spice pushers on the Smuggler’s Moon, It0 didn’t imagine cost often factored into such equations.

The Hutt emitted a throaty gurgle meant to pass as a sigh and belched a string of Huttese.

“Nevertheless,” the medical droid persisted, “you’ll hardly improve your situation by starving yourself to death. Now, regarding the bill…”

He was just in the process of remorselessly gauging the Hutt when his comlink chirped to life. Politely excusing himself, he retreated to the far side of the suite to answer the call.

“This is--”

“Doc!” the thin, distant voice on the comlink was equal measure panic and pain, “It’s Nano! I’m hurt! Bad!”

It0 accessed his memorybanks and pulled up ‘Nano’s’ entry. 32 years old. Gotal. Deathstick Addict. Crymorah Associate. Mild hemorrhoids. The 2-1B’s response was quick and perfunctory.

“Location and nature of injury?”

“Agh! Blaster wound. I-I’m in the Old Duros Sector. Kriffin’ swoopers. I’m on Drazaal Row…I-I can’t see Turk...I don’t know where he is...” Nano’s voice grew thick and slurry, “...hurry…”

The 2-1B approximated a sigh and turned to make his apologies.

--------

Somewhere on the Smuggler’s Moon, Doctor Illana Morata’s comlink chimed excitedly. On the other end was an infrequent patient of hers. A Crymorah henchman named Turk. He was his usual taciturn self, save for the emphatic grunts of pain that dotted his speech. He seemed to be hoping she made house calls to the Old Duros Sector...

@Kai
@Dr Ilana Morata

 

[Dr Ilana Morata]

-Theme-​

At the beeping of her comm pager, she sighed, leaning back against the pillows. Amber eyes narrowed in irritation, her low voice rasping.

"Kark."

She rolled over to her companion, then wordlessly slipped over him, picking up some articles of her clothing. Long white hair was tied back as she dressed with the crisp professionalism that a woman of her profession could muster, then gazed thoughtfully at her companion... and her voice rasped.

"Interested in coming with me to see a patient?" she glanced at Kai, tugging on her lab coat and stooping down to strap her boots onto her feet. Since this was the Duros sector, it would do to have some extra muscle... and besides, she felt like the Grysk could do with coming on some of her own side gigs as well. "I need an extra gun, just in case, and we're close to the area so it should be quick."

She wasn't pleased at the hour of this call, either... but at least this patient wasn't a total moron.

Besides, she had the feeling this was no ordinary call. Some extra heat would need to be packed, especially on such a slimy lower level.

@Darasuum @Tic

 

[Kai]

A worldess groan came from the Grysk only after he was asked a direct question. Kai's eyes felt like paper mache , his limbs were heavy and his mouth was dry. Sighing he rolled over to face up toward the ceiling with only his underwear on. "you know you hog the covers right?" His voice was deeper and more raspy than usual from whatever shouting he had been doing the night before.

The sandpaper like sensation in his throat was what mostly drove him to get out of bed. The Grysk needed water. Padding his way to the sink he got a glass. "Could be quick..." He reitorated the Doctor's words. Downing a fraction of a glass of water he followed it up with a very full glass of equally stale cold coffee. Shivering at the old and cold coffee Kai shook his head and grabbed the rest o his things.

<"Only cool kids sleep"> He muttered to himself as they left the apartment to head to whatever it was the Ilana needed help at. "so...you mind filling in the blanks." The bony fingers of the Grysk pinched the bridge of his nose as they made their way to the destination. If this was something that required preparation than it should have been said before they left. But since she said 'quick', Malakai hoped it was not going to turn into something extensive. Though he knew sleep was not going to return for probably another twenty four hours. Not without some help So he may as well deal with whatever was in front of him.

@Killa Ree @Tic

 

[It0]

“You’ll have to jump!” the cabbie yelled over the drone of the air taxi’s repuslorlift engines.

“Pardon?” the droid responded incredulously.

“Credits or not, I’m not landin’ my rig on a pad in the Duros Sector!” The cabbie gunned the engine impatiently. “Now jump or we’re both headin’ back up!”

Nonplussed, It0 took hold of his medbag and lurched awkwardly out of the vehicle, sprawling the four meters to the landing pad below. Thankfully, the blastcrete proved solid enough to support his weight. The cabbie’s ruddy face regarded him coolly and then disappeared as the craft pulled away and began the ascent to Nar Shaddaa’s surface.

As the lonely medical droid made his way through the outer edges of the Duros Sector and into ‘Old Duros’ proper, he wondered what had brought Nano to such a desolate locale. Likely spice. After all, what else did Duros have to offer? But spice was hardly a rare commodity on Nar Shaddaa. Odd that a connected Crymorah associate would travel such lengths to get it.

The crumbling edifices and skeletal lattice framework of corroding architecture gradually gave way to the rebuilt neighborhoods of Old Duros. Lights appeared in windows and along walkways, though not in any uniform configuration. Here, civilization was cobbled together via any crude resource or residual byproduct the upper levels had deemed too useless to keep. Still, It0 found a certain rustic charm in the dense, multi-textured shantytown. It was organic and spontaneous. The very attributes he found so fascinating in his patients. He was striding through the very innards of the Smuggler’s Moon.

Denizens scuttled from sight like roaches. Bad juju was afoot. Phishing his blaster from the medbag’s interior, he turned onto Drazaal Row. A wide avenue of shuttered businesses and half-flickering holo-ads stretched out before him. The centerpiece, surprisingly, was an idling and badly damaged swoopbike, keeled to one side. Curious, the droid approached.

“Thirty minutes or less or my treatment’s…” the Rodian managed before breaking into a shuttering cough. “...free?”

“Nano.” It0 said by way of greeting. He set his blaster on the asphalt and began pulling equipment from his medbag. A cursory examination revealed several blaster bolt burns as well as some likely fractured ribs.

“You see Turk?” Nano moaned.

“I have not.” It0 replied, applying a bactapad to one of the lesser wounds. “Should I have?”

“He…” another coughing fit. “...fell off the bike. Should be a-around. Kriffin’ swoopers.”

“Whatever possessed you to…”

Footfalls resounded on the empty street behind them and It0 scooped the blaster up and rose to meet them. Pointing the weapon towards the source of the sound, he called out in his most authoritative programming.

“Stop where you are! Be advised I’ve been equipped with combat bypass circuitry and am quite deranged!”

@Ilana Morata
@Darasuum

 

[Dr Ilana Morata]

She glanced in his direction when he at least groaned in response. His following words, though, made her subtly raise a white brow, and pause smoothing out her shirt, before she let out a slightly amused huff. "Funny, you weren't complaining two hours ago," she replied, shrugging her jacket on and pulling on heavy boots.

Soft rain came down outside; she pulled over her hood, and plucked out a face mask. If only cool kids sleep, you must be stone cold. The thought drifted at him. Truth be told, she was worn out too; but she had a feeling having him about would be a wise idea. Especially in the Duros sector. And they were close enough anyways for a good walk; perhaps it would clear their heads.

And down they went.

The deeper they went into Nar Shaddaa, the more ramshackle it became, and oddly... the quieter. Her senses prickled on high alert, carrying her bag but also her blaster. Soon, they would reach her patient... but as they rounded a corner, a harsher sound buzzed ahead of them.

A vocabulator.

She snorted in response, peering down the alleyway through the fine mist. Dim shapes ahead... one a skinny humanoid. "No need," she called out in response, voice cold and flat. "I'm looking for a patient, goes by Turk." If this was the wrong alleyway, she supposed she could simply go a back way... but she needed the creds, and she wasn't going to be slowed down by a junky protocol droid or whatever thing was going authoritative haywire back there.

If they were going to stand in her way, grabbing her blaster would be so easy... and if they had decent enough photoreceptors, they would have seen the Doctor's Insignia on her professional jacket.

Sometimes, professional armor had its' perks. But she wasn't going to entertain a twitchy trigger-happy circuitboard all morning, she woke up without caf and she would be in a very foul mood if he was going to make her life difficult.

@Tic @Darasuum

 

[Kai]

"yeah...cuz you were covering me two hours ago." He remarked flirtatiously. Kai made sure that he had his backpack with his usual gear. His skeletal hand passed over a mask, wondering if he should take it before ultimately just stuffing it in his backpack.

When she passed the telepathic thought to him he murmured momentarily in amusment and acknowledging the jest. The man put his hood up to keep the rain off his own head and followed the Doctor.

The Duros Sector was recognizable for what it was, even if Kai had rarely ventured to it intentionally. The man was mid yawn when he heard the tinny tone of the medical droid down the alley. "<Day's off to a great start>" The sarcastic mutterings of the Grysk continued as he casually tightened his grip around his blaster pistol. While Ilana had been diplomatic, Kai could feel her shared lack of patience at this point in the day.


@Killa Ree @Tic

 

[It0]

Two unfamiliar figures materialized from the empty pall of the street, the flickering neon of the surrounding buildings elongating their shadows. The woman spoke with air of constrained diplomacy, while the Grysk grew visibly taut.

“A pati--”

“Bout time you got here Morata…” a voice interrupted to his left and It0 swung the rifle accordingly to meet it.

Nestled behind a corroded condenser unit, a swarthy if haggard looking human huddled against a wall. One hand held a grisly wound on his torso while the other held a blaster squarely trained on It0. The droid recognized Turk almost instantly though he did look considerably worse for wear.

“...easy sparky.” he growled. “I’m not looking for a fight. Not another one anyway. I’m…” he groaned and seemed to momentarily blanch. “...too busy bleeding out on the street.”

The droid lowered the rifle and glanced inquisitively at the woman, presumably ‘Morata’. So another doctor was in the house? Fascinating. He wondered why both of them would be called to the same incident. But such curiosities would have to wait until the victims were stabilized. He turned towards the pair of newcomers.

“I am 2-1B serial number ‘IT-721X-00-079-21B’, designation ‘It0’.” he said matter-of-factly, casting the rifle aside. “If you need assistance securing your patient, I’m happy to lend a manipulator. I believe Nano can survive without my attention for a moment or two.”

Nano offered a shaky thumbs up.

@Darasuum
@Ilana Morata

 

[Dr Ilana Morata]

"Turk. Good to know you haven't bled out yet."

Her tone was wryly bemused, dry response. She began to lightly jog towards him, glancing at the med droid and his Rodian companion for a moment, then towards Kai. Most would have been quaking at blasters trained, but reality was she hardly cared. It was curious there were two 'physicians' called in, true... but what mattered more was keeping both of them stabilized.

"No need yet, It0. Attend to your patient first, but after that I may accept."

The moment she knelt close to Turk, the smell of blood wafted towards her, mingling with waste of all kinds and rust-laden water falling from old, thin roofs above. She set her bag down behind her, and slid on her gloves and mask, leaning towards him. "I don't want you to move yourself, but this will hurt," she replied calmly, glancing back towards Kai.

"Give me a hand, to lay him down?"

As they would, she would slip an absorption pad beneath her patient; if he was bleeding from the front, it would have been a slug, perhaps, and if it was a slug versus a blaster bolt, there would be plausible bleeding from behind as well. The pad would staunch it enough to allow her to work on his most pressing wound first, before checking everywhere else.

She peeled aside his shirt, and ducked her head to work, glancing towards Kai again, then Turk.

"This will hurt until you receive the nerve block; don't move. Kai, help me by holding down his arms while I repair."

She waited until they were both braced, and she lifted his arms. Hopefully he wouldn't instinctually take a swing at her; the shot of nerve-block was administered, and she wasn't going to wait for it to work, it would work as she did.

He would no doubt scream, but she tuned it out, instead focusing on stemming the bleeding and repairing the viciously abused flesh; mostly burned, but the biggest concern was the breach of the internal to the external. She began to move fast, cauterizing dead flesh and adding absorbent sterile pads internally, before beginning the long, arduous process of stitching him back together.

Hopefully, their new droid companion's own patient would not be such a difficult case to treat. But it was interesting... and she was curious why Turk didn't accept help from this droid.

Answers for another time, but for now, it was simply work. She would also have to possibly administer more synth blood, but priorities, priorities.

@Darasuum @Tic

 

[Kai]

Hearing the way the droid spoke made Malakai await until about halfway through his exchange before pulling out a fresh cigara and lighting it up. Things appeared to be handled at the moment by others with greater expertise in the specifics. That meant he was fine enjoying a momentary refresh on his buzz. Come on, I you could be a whisperer....of sorts. Two eyes made of smoke drifted into the air before dispersing around the ceiling. ...Want to do some pottery?

As he stood there, and everything that was out of his hands occurred, Kai's head looked up and around. His senses reaching outward to see if he detected anything around them. The gaunt expression sought signs of surveillance as always.

When Ilana called him over he kept the cigara in his mouth but brought both hands to hold the patient down. One hand came up to the side of the man's head after a moment and he would fall quickly into an unconscious state. "Boy, looks like he must have passed out from shock or something right?" He gave a glance to Ilana.

@Killa Ree @Tic