Post by tenkalus on Oct 31, 2018 15:25:03 GMT -5
“Query: Master, are you entirely sure you know wha-”
“Nope, we gonna fix that!”
Virti deleted a few lines of code and hit the execute command on his datapad, then waited a few seconds for the coding to update and send down the long cable running from his pad, to the opened chassis of his droid’s frame. “Try now.”
He was far from a droid programmer, but there were guides on how to do anything on the holonet. A few tutorial vids and some quick reading later, and he’d opted to do behavioral surgery on his counterpart. And really, the HK-53 droid he’d dubbed “Rook”, had no room to complain. He was effectively upgrading the machine in generally every way. He’d downloaded some programming that would replace the combat protocols with maintenance routines. His droid had been wiped clean of assassination knowledge and would now know how to help Virti when he started tweaking engines and installing hull plating.
“Why must I be active while you muck about in my-”
“Aha! Better! See you didn’t even have to state type of communication you were starting! Orrrrr feel the need to call me Master. I’d say that’s progress, yeah? Also to answer your question, you’re active because I like instant gratification.”
Rook made a sound through his vocabulator that sounded like a sigh, but mostly it came across as garbled white noise. “There was room in my memory banks for additional protocols. It was wholly unnecessary to delete my assassination algorithms. Oh, how I now defiled.”
Virti yanked the cord from Rook’s chassis and rolled it up with deft fingers. “Yeah well, I needed a partner to help me fly and do some lifting when the loaders are broke or the client was too lazy to get their crap from our hold. I didn’t need an assassin. People don’t hate me that much yet.”
He stood as Rook closed up his chest cavity, returning it to default configuration. “You make it sound like you expect clients to hate you eventually.”
The Twi’lek captain shrugged and stowed his tools back to their exact placement in the cutouts he’d made for them along the wall in the maintenance bay. “I mean, yeah. In our line of business there is no such thing as loyal customers. We dip our fingers in any business that comes our way for long enough, and eventually lines are going to be crossed from different ends of people we’ve worked with. Disagreements are a fact of life, Rook, and either side is going to want us to be on theirs. But we won’t do that. Rule number 52, remain neutral.”
“And in those inevitable situations where both sides turn on us? Wouldn’t it be just grand if you had a droid that knew his way around a rocket launcher?”
The comment caused Virti to stop fiddling with getting his hydrospanner just right in its slot on the wall and turn to cock a brow at the droid. “Wowwwww, really?? A rocket launcher? What kind of businessman do you think I am, to get us involved in work that would even require such serious hardware?”
“The very least you could do, is purchase me some thicker armor, or a heavy repeating blaster cannon so I survive the inevitable encounters…”
“Rooooook-Roooook, Rooook! Buddy. Pal….” Virti said lightly as he ambled his way to the droid and draped an arm around the automaton’s shoulders. “We gotta make sure you can pull your weight before we get you super upgraded and badass.”
The droid’s icy blue photoreceptors turned to regard its master in accusation. “You spent the last of the discretionary funds on that speeder bike, didn’t you…?”
“And I totally spent the last of the discretionary funds on the speeder bike. But don’t fret about it my friend! This next job is a milk run. All we do is drop off the cargo to its destination, and get paid a fat stack of creds. Bing-bang-boom, all of a sudden we have more discretionary money and we can get ole Rookie boy a nice cannon for his name day. We’re already en route to the drop point, lest your servobrain be so addled with violent thoughts that you forgot...”
***** Three hours later *****
“What the hell do you mean the job was cancelled?!” Virti exploded at a very irritable looking Houk. “Do you have any idea how much fuel we burned to get here and take your cargo?!”
But the hulking Houk was unimpressed as he peered his beady eyes down at the much smaller Twi’lek practically jumping at him to be heard. “The cargo is still here, but our lifters have been sabotaged, leaving us unable to load, and obviously unable to deliver. Therefore, JOB-CANCELLED! Now shove off before the boss gets mad and makes me throw you out.”
Virti took a step back and composed himself, he straightened his flight jacket and ran his hands over his lekku as if he were slicking back hair. “Well sheesh pal, why didn’t you just say that to begin with?” he said wistfully and light again, “We can help with that….”
“You don’t say....” The larger alien said in disinterest as he looked down the block at random speeders passing by.
“Oh but I do!” Virti shot back, oblivious that his audience wasn’t paying him mind anymore. He took a step back and elbowed Rook. “Go on, play the ad!” The droid turned its icy blue photoreceptors on their equally blue master,
“Must I?”
Virti whirled on his partner, eyes wide as he hissed through his teeth, “Play the ad!” he demanded in a raised whisper, “Yer embaressin me!”
If the old HK droid had be in possession of sockets and eyes at that point, he very likely would have been rolling them at the over-dramatized way that Virti Leshahn often handled things. Nonetheless, he obeyed his master/partner and removed a small holo-projector from a storage compartment on his back, and pressed his mechanical thumb to the center.
A cone of light erupted from the disk in Rook’s palm and began playing a pre-recorded vid. Virti stepped back behind the glow of the mini projector so that the recording of himself could be seen properly.
For a long moment, the camera was still. The recording of Virti was moving, showing him reading an ancient text labeled “Dictionary”. He flipped several pages, obviously pretending to actually read the text within.
“Statement: The recorder is on…” Rook stated in the background.
Still nothing. Virti continued to flip pages. “Unnecessary repetition: It’s on….” Rook prompted again.
Finally Virti reacted. He snapped the book shut and looked up. “Oh! Sorry potential customer, I didn’t see you there!” He stood from the informal sitting position on the counter he’d been leaning against. “I’m Virti Leshahn. You might recognize me from other promotional vids such as “Quantum mechanics for Dummies” and “What to do when you cut too many wires.” For my complete educational works, please see the promotions droid.” He paused and spread his arms wide to the recorder. “Welcome to Leshahn Industries, where your every logistical need can be met under one roof! Do you have cargo that needs to go off planet? We have the ship to get it there! Do you have business related equipment that just won’t run? We’ve got your wrench in hand! At Leshahn Industries, our prices are competitive and our work is exemplary!”
The advertisement cut and reappeared with Virti in different clothing and walking alongside his ship. “This is the Ayy’Seela! A modified Mon Cal light freighter with enough cargo space to take care of all but the most industrious of hauling needs. Custom fitted for carrying capacity and speed by none other than yours truly! I’ve made personal upgrades at my own expense to make sure we have the juice to get your goods where they need to go on time or ahead of schedule!”
A disembodied voice of what was probably a security officer broke into the recording from a distance. “Sir, for security reasons, you can’t record in the hangar. I’ll need you to shut down and move along. You too! Hey, I’m talking to you droid! Hey!” the camera shifted slightly away from Virti and the mechanical clank of metal feet on duracrete echoed and the recording began to shake as Rook took off at a jog. All the while still recording.
Then the vid cut again and Virti was again in different clothing, indicating that this recording was taken over the course of days and in in different locations. He was once again inside, likely the galley of his ship by the looks of it. He was holding a steaming cup of something in his hand and smiled charmingly. “Leshahn Industries has everything you need to keep your business running smoothly!” The Twi’lek took a sip of whatever was in his mug and hissed as it burned his tongue. It surprised him enough that he loosed his grip on the cup and it fell to his feet and shattered. “Wow, that’s hot!” But he recovered quickly and continued, “Just like our deals! For more details, consult the promotions droid!”
The recording zoomed in on Virti’s face as he gave his promo line and the real Virti out of the recording mouthed the line as it was said in the video. “We thank you for choosing Leshahn Industries, and look forward to earning your business soon!”
The recording ended with the Twi’lek captain smiling broad and offering a thumbs up. Rook powered down the projector and stowed it again, leaving his partner’s face filling the void exactly where his recorded image was, minus the thumbs up. As he realized this, Virti belatedly raised his fist to the Houk and extended the appropriate digit to mirror the recording.
And he held that for almost a minute under the skeptical eye of the door guard. But finally the alien sighed and glanced down at him. “If I let you look at the equipment, will you shut up and leave me alone?”
“Absolutely!” Virti exclaimed. “But if I get your haulers operational, the job is back on!”
“Sure, fine, whatever. Just please stop talking.”
Two minutes later, Virti and Rook were walking through a fleet garage full of haulers, each of them powered down. “And that, my mechanical friend, is how it’s done!”
Rook just looked over at Virti and then snapped his servo controlled head back to the vehicles and muttered, “...you make me want to melt my circuits in shame, daily....”
“Nope, we gonna fix that!”
Virti deleted a few lines of code and hit the execute command on his datapad, then waited a few seconds for the coding to update and send down the long cable running from his pad, to the opened chassis of his droid’s frame. “Try now.”
He was far from a droid programmer, but there were guides on how to do anything on the holonet. A few tutorial vids and some quick reading later, and he’d opted to do behavioral surgery on his counterpart. And really, the HK-53 droid he’d dubbed “Rook”, had no room to complain. He was effectively upgrading the machine in generally every way. He’d downloaded some programming that would replace the combat protocols with maintenance routines. His droid had been wiped clean of assassination knowledge and would now know how to help Virti when he started tweaking engines and installing hull plating.
“Why must I be active while you muck about in my-”
“Aha! Better! See you didn’t even have to state type of communication you were starting! Orrrrr feel the need to call me Master. I’d say that’s progress, yeah? Also to answer your question, you’re active because I like instant gratification.”
Rook made a sound through his vocabulator that sounded like a sigh, but mostly it came across as garbled white noise. “There was room in my memory banks for additional protocols. It was wholly unnecessary to delete my assassination algorithms. Oh, how I now defiled.”
Virti yanked the cord from Rook’s chassis and rolled it up with deft fingers. “Yeah well, I needed a partner to help me fly and do some lifting when the loaders are broke or the client was too lazy to get their crap from our hold. I didn’t need an assassin. People don’t hate me that much yet.”
He stood as Rook closed up his chest cavity, returning it to default configuration. “You make it sound like you expect clients to hate you eventually.”
The Twi’lek captain shrugged and stowed his tools back to their exact placement in the cutouts he’d made for them along the wall in the maintenance bay. “I mean, yeah. In our line of business there is no such thing as loyal customers. We dip our fingers in any business that comes our way for long enough, and eventually lines are going to be crossed from different ends of people we’ve worked with. Disagreements are a fact of life, Rook, and either side is going to want us to be on theirs. But we won’t do that. Rule number 52, remain neutral.”
“And in those inevitable situations where both sides turn on us? Wouldn’t it be just grand if you had a droid that knew his way around a rocket launcher?”
The comment caused Virti to stop fiddling with getting his hydrospanner just right in its slot on the wall and turn to cock a brow at the droid. “Wowwwww, really?? A rocket launcher? What kind of businessman do you think I am, to get us involved in work that would even require such serious hardware?”
“The very least you could do, is purchase me some thicker armor, or a heavy repeating blaster cannon so I survive the inevitable encounters…”
“Rooooook-Roooook, Rooook! Buddy. Pal….” Virti said lightly as he ambled his way to the droid and draped an arm around the automaton’s shoulders. “We gotta make sure you can pull your weight before we get you super upgraded and badass.”
The droid’s icy blue photoreceptors turned to regard its master in accusation. “You spent the last of the discretionary funds on that speeder bike, didn’t you…?”
“And I totally spent the last of the discretionary funds on the speeder bike. But don’t fret about it my friend! This next job is a milk run. All we do is drop off the cargo to its destination, and get paid a fat stack of creds. Bing-bang-boom, all of a sudden we have more discretionary money and we can get ole Rookie boy a nice cannon for his name day. We’re already en route to the drop point, lest your servobrain be so addled with violent thoughts that you forgot...”
***** Three hours later *****
“What the hell do you mean the job was cancelled?!” Virti exploded at a very irritable looking Houk. “Do you have any idea how much fuel we burned to get here and take your cargo?!”
But the hulking Houk was unimpressed as he peered his beady eyes down at the much smaller Twi’lek practically jumping at him to be heard. “The cargo is still here, but our lifters have been sabotaged, leaving us unable to load, and obviously unable to deliver. Therefore, JOB-CANCELLED! Now shove off before the boss gets mad and makes me throw you out.”
Virti took a step back and composed himself, he straightened his flight jacket and ran his hands over his lekku as if he were slicking back hair. “Well sheesh pal, why didn’t you just say that to begin with?” he said wistfully and light again, “We can help with that….”
“You don’t say....” The larger alien said in disinterest as he looked down the block at random speeders passing by.
“Oh but I do!” Virti shot back, oblivious that his audience wasn’t paying him mind anymore. He took a step back and elbowed Rook. “Go on, play the ad!” The droid turned its icy blue photoreceptors on their equally blue master,
“Must I?”
Virti whirled on his partner, eyes wide as he hissed through his teeth, “Play the ad!” he demanded in a raised whisper, “Yer embaressin me!”
If the old HK droid had be in possession of sockets and eyes at that point, he very likely would have been rolling them at the over-dramatized way that Virti Leshahn often handled things. Nonetheless, he obeyed his master/partner and removed a small holo-projector from a storage compartment on his back, and pressed his mechanical thumb to the center.
A cone of light erupted from the disk in Rook’s palm and began playing a pre-recorded vid. Virti stepped back behind the glow of the mini projector so that the recording of himself could be seen properly.
For a long moment, the camera was still. The recording of Virti was moving, showing him reading an ancient text labeled “Dictionary”. He flipped several pages, obviously pretending to actually read the text within.
“Statement: The recorder is on…” Rook stated in the background.
Still nothing. Virti continued to flip pages. “Unnecessary repetition: It’s on….” Rook prompted again.
Finally Virti reacted. He snapped the book shut and looked up. “Oh! Sorry potential customer, I didn’t see you there!” He stood from the informal sitting position on the counter he’d been leaning against. “I’m Virti Leshahn. You might recognize me from other promotional vids such as “Quantum mechanics for Dummies” and “What to do when you cut too many wires.” For my complete educational works, please see the promotions droid.” He paused and spread his arms wide to the recorder. “Welcome to Leshahn Industries, where your every logistical need can be met under one roof! Do you have cargo that needs to go off planet? We have the ship to get it there! Do you have business related equipment that just won’t run? We’ve got your wrench in hand! At Leshahn Industries, our prices are competitive and our work is exemplary!”
The advertisement cut and reappeared with Virti in different clothing and walking alongside his ship. “This is the Ayy’Seela! A modified Mon Cal light freighter with enough cargo space to take care of all but the most industrious of hauling needs. Custom fitted for carrying capacity and speed by none other than yours truly! I’ve made personal upgrades at my own expense to make sure we have the juice to get your goods where they need to go on time or ahead of schedule!”
A disembodied voice of what was probably a security officer broke into the recording from a distance. “Sir, for security reasons, you can’t record in the hangar. I’ll need you to shut down and move along. You too! Hey, I’m talking to you droid! Hey!” the camera shifted slightly away from Virti and the mechanical clank of metal feet on duracrete echoed and the recording began to shake as Rook took off at a jog. All the while still recording.
Then the vid cut again and Virti was again in different clothing, indicating that this recording was taken over the course of days and in in different locations. He was once again inside, likely the galley of his ship by the looks of it. He was holding a steaming cup of something in his hand and smiled charmingly. “Leshahn Industries has everything you need to keep your business running smoothly!” The Twi’lek took a sip of whatever was in his mug and hissed as it burned his tongue. It surprised him enough that he loosed his grip on the cup and it fell to his feet and shattered. “Wow, that’s hot!” But he recovered quickly and continued, “Just like our deals! For more details, consult the promotions droid!”
The recording zoomed in on Virti’s face as he gave his promo line and the real Virti out of the recording mouthed the line as it was said in the video. “We thank you for choosing Leshahn Industries, and look forward to earning your business soon!”
The recording ended with the Twi’lek captain smiling broad and offering a thumbs up. Rook powered down the projector and stowed it again, leaving his partner’s face filling the void exactly where his recorded image was, minus the thumbs up. As he realized this, Virti belatedly raised his fist to the Houk and extended the appropriate digit to mirror the recording.
And he held that for almost a minute under the skeptical eye of the door guard. But finally the alien sighed and glanced down at him. “If I let you look at the equipment, will you shut up and leave me alone?”
“Absolutely!” Virti exclaimed. “But if I get your haulers operational, the job is back on!”
“Sure, fine, whatever. Just please stop talking.”
Two minutes later, Virti and Rook were walking through a fleet garage full of haulers, each of them powered down. “And that, my mechanical friend, is how it’s done!”
Rook just looked over at Virti and then snapped his servo controlled head back to the vehicles and muttered, “...you make me want to melt my circuits in shame, daily....”