Ravensdagger_Overkill

Chapter Thirty-Four

Chapter Thirty-Four “HK, translate,” Taylor said as she rejoined her droid companion.She suspected that she had made something of a mistake with Asajj. That was entirely on her. She had recognized that someone was following her. That little tingle on the back of her neck had been one sign, but she also had bugs on every person and droid within her range-Antar Five apparently had a bit of a fruit-fly problem. Technically they weren’t fruit flies, or flies, but they were close enough that Taylor couldn’t help but make the comparison.In the end it had been HK-47 who had convinced her that they were being followed with a simple, “Observation: A meatbag is following us.”Taylor should have realized it was Asajj, she shouldn’t have looped around to corner the woman on her own, and she probably shouldn’t have been so threatening. Taylor wasn’t an idiot, she knew how she appeared sometimes.That effect, where a person saw or heard themselves and couldn’t help but cringe back at their own mannerisms was hard to avoid when they had control of a million eyes staring back at themselves all the time.So, she had come out as more threatening than she should have, and now she might have ruined her chances of making a good first impression with someone who might as well have been a co-worker.Asajj was walking a dozen paces behind Taylor, just outside of her range. The pale-skinned woman-Taylor couldn’t tell if she was human or near-human and wasn’t sure how to ask now-kept glancing at her with obvious, unmasked caution.“Query: Do you intend to give me something to translate, or do you plan on wasting both of our time? Statement: I am aware that meatbrains require an inordinately long time to process things, but you have always seemed quick on your feet, for a meatbag.”“Don’t call me a meatbag,” Taylor said.“Query: Did you wish for me to translate that?”Taylor shot HK47 a look that might have cowed... well, someone who wasn’t him. “Don’t be smart with me, we’re working right now. You can be cute when we’re not about to risk life and limb.”“Excited Query: Are you planning to lose more limbs, master?”“I didn’t say I was about to lose my life or what limbs I have,” Taylor said. “Be less bloodthirsty for a minute, I need to convince Asajj here to help us.”“Correction: Such a thing is literally impossible unless you were to alter my core programming, though I do understand the meaning you were trying to convey.”Taylor rolled the eyes of one of her bugs since it would have looked unprofessional to roll her own. It was a cute little thing she’d found tucked in a crate full of some fragrant fruit, with long stalks that gave it an expressive face. She imagined that dealing with invasive species must have been a nightmare in a spaceport, but for now she’d use that to her advantage.“Asajj Ventress,” she said. “Can I call you just Asajj?”“I don’t see why not,” Asajj said. Taylor was able to parse that entire sentence without help. She was growing pretty good at speaking Basic. Learning how to read it would have to come next.“Names are important. They tell you which meatbag is dangerous,” Taylor said. “But if you don’t mind me calling you Asajj, then that’s good.” Taylor gestured around her to the bare cement walls of the spaceport. Some effort had been made to make the place look decent. The architecture features some twisting columns and a few large windows that overlooked the world beyond, but there was no hiding a place designed for utility first. “This place is nice, but where is the... HK, how do I say terrorist in Basic?”“Translation: The word you’re looking for is: Terrorist,” HK47 said.“Those,” Taylor replied.“Do you mean mercenaries to work with you, or the Roshu Sune?” Asajj asked.Taylor nodded. “Them. The Roshu Sune. They’re the ones that did the bombings on Antar Four, right?”“They’ve certainly taken credit for the bombings,” Asajj said. “Will you be helping them?”“What? No, they’re terrorists,” Taylor said. “That makes them the bad guys, and we’re the good meatbags.”“I don’t follow,” Asajj said.Taylor rubbed at her chin. “HK47, I’ll need you to translate this one, I can’t say all of this in Basic without making a mess of it.”“Acknowledgement: Understood. I am ready to translate.”Taylor cleared her throat. “You were sent here by Count Dooku. He sent me this way too. Surprisingly, he didn’t specify what he wanted me to do here. I presume that he wants both of us to fix the problems that have arisen for the Separatists in this system. Dooku is pushing that political agenda after all.” She looked to Asajj. “What would you do?”This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.“Translation: Is this some test?” Asajj asked through HK47’s translation.Taylor frowned. “Maybe? I don’t know a lot about you. Count Dooku said that I would meet you here. He is very competent, from what little I’ve seen. I imagine he wouldn’t send someone that couldn’t complete the mission he set out. So, what would you do to help the Gotal Assembly for Seperation?”Asajj listened to both her speaking in English and HK47’s repetition in Basic.“I imagine you’re aware that jedi are coming? The Roshu Sune are targeting the rangers and some Republic facilities. I’d find their leadership, then guide them to be more effective. I know how to kill a jedi. What would you do?” Asajj asked right back.Taylor grinned. “I would start off the same. Find the terrorist leadership. Then, with the help of the Gotal Assembly for Separation and the local police force, I’d arrest the Roshu Sune leadership. Hopefully before the Jedi can intervene.”“Why?” Asajj asked. Her eyes were narrowed. Taylor imagined that she didn’t quite understand her reasoning.“Because we don’t want the Roshu Sune to win. They’re terrorists. A problem for the normal citizens of the system, even if they’re acting to help. Instead we remove them while promoting the Gotal Assembly.”“That won’t help them much, would it?” Asajj asked.Taylor shrugged. “We can plant fake information that the Roshu Sune were working with the Republic, that they were being helped by the party working against the Separatists. We can get the media that’s on the Seperatist’s side to talk about how the Republic did nothing, and how it was the proud gotal that solved their own problems. There are a lot of ways to win a city over, a world, a system. The best way, I think, is to make it so that the people want you to win.”“That doesn’t feel like the sith way,” Asajj said.“What is the sith way?” Taylor asked. It was an honest question.“Peace is a lie. There is only passion,” Asajj began. “Through passion, you gain strength. Through strength, you gain power. Through power, you gain victory. And through victory you are freed.”Taylor couldn’t follow what she said in Basic, but the words certainly had a rhyme and cadence to them that sounded almost poetic.“Addendum: Master, the words this grey-skinned, over-zealous Sith-wanna be spoke are a retelling of the sith code. Before you enquire, the code is a long-winded motto that some sith decided to live by. I have my own optimised version of such a code myself. It is comforting to have a reliable moral system to fall back upon.”Taylor felt something like cold dread in the pit of her stomach for a moment, but she had to ask. “What’s your code, HK?”“Recitation: Peace is nonoptimal. There is only slaughter. Through slaughter I gain knowledge. Through knowledge I become more efficient. Through greater efficiency, I become a greater tool for violence. Through violence, my purpose is fulfilled. There is no joy but overkill.”Taylor’s gut feeling was right. She shook her head. “Well, that’s all quite terrifying and interesting. But Asajj, to answer your... sort of question, I care more about being capable than being a good sith. Your code says that victory is important? Then why only rely on one kind of power to obtain that victory.”Asajj considered that for a long moment. “I suppose it’s one way of looking at things. It feels wrong not to pursue true, power.”“You mean power with the force?” Taylor asked. “Your abilities?”Asajj nodded once.“Do you think I’m weak, Asajj?” Taylor asked.“No, I don’t,” Asajj said.“It would be very easy to kill me though. We have spaceship here. Just shoot at me from space and there’s nothing I could do to survive. Fling asteroids at the planet, or blow up my ship while I’m on it. And no amount of power will save me. But that’s only with personal power. If I’m loved enough, if my enemies are worried about what those that care about me will do to them after they’ve killed me? Then maybe I’ll win without ever having to fight. I think that’s a great kind of power to have.”“You are a very strange sith,” Asajj said.Taylor shrugged. “I’m Taylor long before I’m Darth Khepri.”For some reason, that seemed to unnerve Asajj. But she didn’t have time to dig into that, they had work to get to.

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Chapter Thirty-Five

Chapter Thirty-Five “This is the place?” Taylor asked. She craned her neck back to read the sign above the entrance. It was a glowing board, set within a sort of sleek metal casing. She didn’t have the faintest clue what it said, exactly, but it was a nice, clean sign on an equally clean building.Not knowing what the sign said didn’t mean she couldn’t make assumptions based on it.Antar Five, or at least this one city on the planet, was clean. The buildings had fresh coats of paint on them, or were made of materials that didn’t weather, and the streets were scrubbed free of the kinds of grim she expected to build up with constant traffic.It wasn’t a utopia. Her bugs found plenty of trash, and a few camps on side-roads that clearly belonged to the homeless and destitute, but the city wasn’t a hole either.“This is it, yes,” Asajj said. “The Antar Five headquarters for the Gotal Seperatist Movement.”Taylor nodded. “Good, good,” she said. “Do you know the leadership?”“No, but Count Dooku did send word that I would be here. You as well, I imagine,” Asajj said.Taylor waited for HK47 to finish translating before she nodded again. “Great. Let’s hope we don’t make too poor of an impression. Are you familiar with good cop bad cop?”“Assertation: Master, may I play the role of bad cop?”“I was hoping that Asajj here could be the good cop while I played bad cop,” Taylor said. “I’m certain she can exercise some creativity and assure the nice politicians we’re about to meet that we’re on their side. Right, Asajj?”Ventress looked like she’d bitten into whatever the local equivalent of a lemon was, but she didn’t bow out or insist that she couldn’t do it.Grinning, Taylor straightened her back and stepped into the headquarters.The interior was appointed in about the way she expected a lobby to be. Large chairs, some empty space, a few pointless shrubbery things in big planters. There were some aliens lounging around, minding their own business.At the end of the lobby was a desk manned by a pair of vaguely humanoid robots.Taylor walked across the lobby to the machines and paused before one of them. “Hello,” she said.The droid spoke back at her, its tone and the speed of its reply too much for her to catch more than a few words. “Uh, we wish to speak to the person in charge,” she said.The robot replied to her too quickly again.“Query: Permission to begin bad cop routine?”Taylor considered it for a moment. “Granted.”HK47 shot the droid.Bits of shrapnel flew back into the space behind the counter while the whine of HK47’s handgun continued to echo across the room.“Sithspit,” Asajj said.Taylor didn’t know what that meant, but she added it to her vocabulary anyway.Stepping to the side, she paused before the second droid. “Hello, we would like to speak with whomever’s in charge here. We were sent by Count Dooku.”“Suggestion: Answer the query, you pitiful discount-rack excuse for a droid.”The droid looked at Taylor, then HK47, then past her to where Asajj, Tattletale, and the rest of Taylor’s droids were gathered. There were customers behind those, mostly people working hard to get out of the room.“One moment please,” the droid said in Basic.Taylor patiently waited a moment, until the few bugs that were on the floor above started to move around in something of a panic. She narrowed her eyes and focused. A lot of the people above were rushing to one person in particular, someone who was spitting orders and direction the others were hastily following.There were a lot of guns tucked away in the office above. Mostly holdout blasters, but one or two enterprising office workers had rifles.Taylor imagined it was some pretty unique office equipment in a city that seemed outwardly so peaceful.“Come on,” Taylor said. She moved past the desk and to a doorway. There was a stairwell on the other side. The door, of course, was locked.Sighing, Taylor grabbed her new lockpick from the small of her back, lit it with a snap-hiss, then jammed the saber into the edge of the doorway so that its lock melted off. She stepped to the side, then gestured into the stairwell. “Now would be a good time for you to go play good cop,” she said.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.Asajj eyed her. “Seriously?”“Consider it a test?” Taylor tried.It wasn’t exactly an ideal situation, trying to calm down panicky people who may or may not be expecting an attack. Still, Asajj stepped into the stairwell, and with a frustrated grunt, zipped up the stairs with a saber in each hand.“Commentary: You are aware that Asajj Ventress is unlikely to have received any training when it comes to social interactions, and my personality profile of her suggests that she is easily angered and prone to lashing out.”“Yeah, I know,” Taylor said. “Honestly, this entire thing turned into a mess the moment I mentioned bad cops. So we might as well give Asajj some experience while we’re here.”Tattletale bleeped and wharbled, and Taylor turned towards the R3 unit. “Partial Translation: The tin can is suggesting that you allow it to connect to the building’s network so that it can slice into its no doubt lacklustre security.”“That’s not a terrible idea,” Taylor said. “In for one crime, in for another. Go ahead.”The droid whistled an affirmative-sounding hoot, then rolled to the back of the counter where it jacked into a dataport tucked away there. Taylor waited, half her attention on the floor above where Asajj had reached the top of the stairs and was holding the door open.She was wisely keeping her head from poking around the corner. The office workers above had a lot of guns, and they were all trained towards the stairwell door. It looked like she was trying to negotiate with the gotal that had been giving orders to the others. Judging by the increasingly frustrated gestures Asajj was making, it wasn’t working out so well.Tattletale beeped and blorped and Taylor turned towards the droid. “Find something?” she asked.The droid squealed, then imitated a dial-up modem at Taylor.“Summary: The droid has found poorly-encrypted messages sent between the local leader of the Gotal Assembly for Separation and someone claiming to be an office supply seller. They are clearly a front for some sort of no-doubt illegal operation, one that isn’t used to operating with any sort of secrecy.”“So, the boss here’s talking to our Roshu Sune friends,” Taylor said. “R3-C2, can you track down their location?”The droid shrilled a negative note.“Can you give us some good guesses?” Taylor asked.This time her reply was a positive tone.“Okay, then that’s somewhere to start. If they’re even halfway clever, then they’ll be split into cells. We’ll need to play whack-a-mole to find the people in charge, and that’s just on Antar Five. It’s very possible that the main cell, and the leaders, are on Antar Four, a world away.”“Suggestion: Allow me to visit the most obvious local cell. Convincing Rhetoric: I am fluent in six million forms of enhanced interrogation.”Taylor stared at HK for a moment, then slowly nodded her head. “Okay. But, only on certain conditions. I don’t want to hear about this on the evening news. And keep losses of life to a minimum. These Roshu Sune people are only adversaries because it’s convenient to make them that way. It wouldn’t take a big change for them to be on our side, so we don’t want to eliminate them outright.”“Acknowledgement: I understand, Master. Excited Statement: I will ensure that no one is alive to remember my presence.”Taylor glared. “That’s not what I meant, HK47. Think of it as a challenge, if you want.”“Reluctant Acceptance: Very well then, Master. But only because I enjoyed my role as bad cop. I will endeavour to keep a record of the event in my memory banks for the foreseeable future.”“Right,” Taylor said. “You have fun now. And don’t get blown up.”“Statement: I will ensure that any explosive attempts on my person are disastrously fatal to anyone attempting them.”Taylor watched the droid go, then turned back to the counter. “Come on, Tattletale, let’s find a way upstairs. Asajj seems to have gotten things under control.”The droid blorped a questioning sound her way.“I can’t tell if you’re wondering how I know, or want to know how we’re gonna get upstairs.”One beep.“Just assume that I can see things around me, regardless of any physical impediments, alright?” She patted the droid on the top of its domed head. “Come on. Asajj looks a bit too smug with herself for her own good.”

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