Lost in Ashes [Open]

[Cassy]

Returning to Nar Shaddaa after a long journey in Wild Space searching for a client, the bounty hunter; rouge jedi known as Cassandra Novos was nearly home. Expecting the worst, after hearing of the carnage and war that had gripped the area in her absence she wondered how bad it truly was. As soon as she exited hyperspace; she however felt all she needed to feel through the force.

So much pain and death, it all hit her like a wave just by falling into orbit above the world. She even began to sweat a bit, although her facial expression didn't change much.

"This is...much, much worse than I thought it would be." saying it outloud to herself, she drew a response from her HK droid who would turn toward her. His silver still shimmering but somewhat worn, the yellow paint markings on him faded. "Well for once, all the rumors we heard appear to have been true." his mechanical voice would buzz as she shook her head. Knowing that her apartment was likely blasted into several locations or smithereens all together, she wouldn't turn her back on the only home she'd known since the Jedi Temple.

"Take us down."

Within minutes, she and Lucky were cruising over nothing but...devastation. Some random electrical fires were still happening. Hover-trucks moved below them cleaning as best they could as she heard yelling and even cries of sorrow through her mind in the force. As a powerful telepath, she did her best to tune everything out; but the pain and death here was immense. Finding an open area, the Century Eagle her faithful gunboat would spin and then land.

When the cockpit would open, she would raise her hood and put on her weathertech goggles; clicking and spinning them to adjust them to perfect clarity since without all the neons everywhere it actually was quite dark here aside from passing lights and overturned neon beams flickering scattered seemingly everywhere. Her tattered cloak blew in the ashes as she remembered lessons of masters past.

"The only thing I can do is stay calm and lend a helping hand in a situation like this..." with her lightsaber clipped on her leg; and grappling and climbing gear underneath her cloak she would lower her hood; revealing her long braided ponytail as she set off into the debris toward her old residential district.

[Cassy]

She began to hear screams over the flickering neons, as she neared her old apartment complex area; she saw a once golden statue of a hutt now shattered and spread across the ground in multiple chunks. It kind of made her reflect on greed, and where it could lead too if you let it; but her legs kept on moving as she turned her head forward. As she rounded the corner; she saw what looked like a woman about to be taken advantage of by a couple lowlifes. This was probably happening all over Nar Shaddaa at a time like this.

This planet had already been bad with this kind of thing before. What made matters worse is there was a child there present. With anger boiling up inside of her; she would move forward at nothing but a blur; leaving her HK droid behind with a blue flash in the air; the ring leaders head tumbled off to the ground with a sizzling sear as the Gammorean's tongue rolled.

The other two literally screamed, and stopped ripping at the ladies clothing as the human kid there just screamed even louder at seeing someone's head literally get chopped off. The buzzing of her lightsaber hummed loudly even over their screams as they tried to make a run for it.

With a small smile she merely raised a fist as they began to run in-mid air. They began begging for their lives as she would then slam them on the ground with flick downward. Raising her goggles off her face so they could look into her eyes before they died; they would actually begin to glow with an amber hue as she literally used the Force to dominate their minds. When she was firmly in control, she convinced them both that the other was trying to kill them and made them fight to the death. It was extremely brutal, with one crushing one right across the neck with a huge brick after pinning him to the ground. When he was done, he stood up in a panic and looked around only to be force pulled right into Cassy's extended lightsaber. With a horizontal flicker slash as he reached her he literally fell in two on opposite sides of her.

The kids screaming was beginning to get on her nerves, so she turned and gave him a look that caused the mother to scramble in front of him. Getting high on the fear a little bit, she shook her head and cut off her lightsaber as it hissed out.

"You should hide until a construction crew comes by....then find a way off this planet." she said as she moved on, climbing over some rubble as her HK droid walked by and gave them a comically polite greeting while he passed considering the situation.

"That was an exceptional display of elimination, even for you master. I loved every second of it." her HK chimed in as his heavy steps resounded off of the various piles of piping and general rubble they stepped over.

[Karl the Unfettered]

The 'shrooms had lost, the Republic and the Empire were at each other's throats again. Did it bother Vivi? Not especially, and she liked it that way; it'd keep not bothering her until she had a reason to let it bother her! That was how she did, after all.

What WAS bothering her was the newfound sense of... of empathy that had developed about midway through all this shit, and hadn't quite gone away afterward. Plus superpowers! She was trying to get a handle on them without having to bother anyone else, which was hard but she wasn't no quitter so she kept going. "Fuck off!" she yelled at some random beggar. Man! The beggars and vagrants had been multiplying! There were more of them every day, as people realized what little they had was gone. Goddamn losers! Why couldn't everybody be as tough as she was?

The beggar flinched but didn't stop begging, desperation etched into the lines of his face. What did he care if this heavily armed woman gunned him down? There was nothing left, no one waiting for him, no home to go back to; nothing but his addiction. He didn't say as much, but he didn't need to; Vivi's new senses told her everything. And she hated it.

The sounds of a fight distracted her from the grovelling human waste. "Git offa th' streets, pal, t'ain't safe," she muttered, absently flicking a cred chit to the ground and turning to go check out the noises. Behind her the man dived for the chit and stuffed it into his rags, then ducked away into the rubble; he'd heard the sounds too, after all, and he didn't wanna get involved!

Vivi skipped toward the ruckus, nimbly leaping up to the top of some rubble so she could get a good view. Wow, was that a Sith? Vivi thought all the Sith had left? Wait, no, a Sith wouldn't have bothered saving the broad and her kid; a Sith would have just pointed and laughed, or even joined in. And a Jedi wouldn't have been so callous in defusing the scene, so she definitely wasn't a Jedi. Neither Sith nor Jedi would allow an assassin droid to follow them around either, come to think of it!

"Hey Jedi!" Vivi yelled as she leaped down to ground level again. "Are ya lost? This ain't Coruscant!" Play dumb at first, get their guard down... it was how she did, after all, and it hadn't failed her yet.

[Cassy]

As soon as she heard the voice call out to her, her HK droid snapped to attention and raised it's rifle. But with a raise of her hand, he ceased and lowered his weapon. Not turning toward the voice yet, she would reply. "Believe me...I've spent enough time there for the both of us."

Using her telepathy she gave her a once over. She didn't feel any truly terrible thoughts or intentions toward anyone at that exact moment so within a matter of seconds, Cassy would turn to her. ".....I've lived here for some time after my life with the Jedi ended....I'm not running around just killing everyone I see...if that's what you're thinking." Turning and giving her a once over, the girl would look at her with her lime green eyes, her climbing gear making a little bit of noise as she took a step forward.

She would then introduce herself. "Cassandra Novos, ex jedi. Bounty Hunter....." that was enough for now she supposed. It would answer more questions than she cared for at the moment. Given her apartment was in several locations at the moment, blown to smithereens. Lowering her goggles on her face, the ponytailed young woman put them into a type of 'scanning' mode as it looked crystal clear like glasses only looking for lifesigns.

The girl she'd just met was very beautiful if she did say so; she wondered if she had a guy or something. After leaving the jedi Cassandra had become quite the hoe herself unfortunately with inhibitions she'd held in check being let loose all at once. Including murder, drugs, gambling. Pretty much everything her masters said was the Dark Side, she'd been into for quite some time. But in the end, she was just trying to live a normal life. But the Force always seemed to have other plans for her. For some reason she didn't feel the force from this girl, but...she felt like it was connected to her for some reason. Shrugging it off.

"I'm going to make my rounds here...and do my best to help anyone if I can." she stepped forward as her HK droid comically gave the other woman the 'i'm watching you hand sign' robotically. As it began to march away with it's somewhat heavy footsteps. "You're welcome to join me if you'd like....." the Force didn't lie, and she didn't feel threatened by this woman, despite her being HEAVILY armed. She would walk but at a decent pace so as not to leave abruptly should she choose to come along.

[Karl the Unfettered]

"Vivienne Hawke, but call me Vivi," Vivi replied. Ex Jedi, eh. How about that? She knew some could get pretty hung up on the distinction, so she decided not to press the issue for now. She had pretty eyes too, lime green wasn't a common color by any means. "Nice ta meetcha! Can I call ya Cassie?"

Then again, who was she to throw shade? Her own eyes were all fucked up after that shroom plague shit. At least the purple was pretty! Eye surgery wasn't really high on her list of life experiences after all.

"Nar Shaddaa was a cesspit before an' it's gonna be even worse now! Ain't no one gives a fuck who's rich enough ta do nothin' about it!" Vivi would be okay, she reckoned, as long as she was on Missus F's good side. As for helping people... meh, it might kill an hour or two and she had nothing better going on. Might as well!

She couldn't help but smirk as the Jedi played it cool and wandered off, and of course she skipped ahead to join her. "Bounty hunter, eh? Nailed any cute girlies lately?" She was pretty cute too, come to think of it. Maybe she'd like to...? Wait, no, they just met.

[Cassy]

"Cassy or Cassandra is fine....no need to be formal though. Novos will be what you hear among the slums and streets of the galaxies though." she said plainly without breaking her walk.

As the girl called Vivi skipped up next to her, and joined her at a brisk walk; the group of 3 continued through the ruins. The reports said that before the Republic and Empire managed to defeat the Chorus they had began constructing some superweapon out of...dead bodies. This thought was grim but interested her; since she thought the Force left a body when it died. Perhaps the Acheri functioned differently. With an inner shrug; she was distracted by the girls words.

"....I don't swing that way. Unless a man I'm with happens to want more female company." she would give Vivi a small grin, but her eyes said more. Eventually; they would happen upon a group up ahead. With a nod forward, she signaled her new companion. Her HK droid would step to the side with them.

"If we can find that Hutt and kill him.....we'll never have to pull a trigger again is all I'm saying." one of the heavily armored individuals seemed to say. It looked like he was holding some kind of gatling laser.

"Well, they're supposed to be pretty tough to kill, never blown up a slug before." another quipped, also heavily armored and armed.

"Seems like one of my employers survived....well, not that I work exclusively for them but....however much money they're talking about would probably be doubled if we could safely get him off this planet." Cassy would turn with her ponytail draped over her cloak, goggles on her head and with her light green eyes would nod to Vivi. "If you're game to make some money that is...." she would smile a small grin. With a nod she would step out.

"Couldn't help but overhear you guys." she would approach, raising her hands as their blasters pointed at her. Although she wasn't really threatened by this, she pretended to be wary. "I'd like to help you kill this Hutt...he's probably heavily guarded if he survived all this." she said motioning around her. With a wave, she signaled Lucky and Vivi to join her. When an HK droid stomped around the corner, the other bounty hunters got nervous and looked at one another. Knowing what those things were capable of.

"Look...you're hot for a scrapper, but that doesn't mean we're going to split any cash with you....unless you wanted to keep us happy some other way." the lead one said with a smug smile. With a smile in reply, Cassy with the force would reach out a hand and take his blaster from him as it would flip through the air and land in her hand. Pointing it back at him; the other two would raise their guns.

"I'm not your ordinary scrapper..." she said as she let the gun flip through the air with the force and float right back in front of the guy. As he grabbed it, she let it go with the force. As they conversed with one another briefly; Cassy would look to Vivi with her usual telling small smile.

"Alright since you're obviously some kind of Jedi or something we'd like to take you with us, we don't mind splitting it cause we're not sure how many guns are surrounding that damn slug." with that, their reply was met with a nod from Cassandra.

With Battle Meditation Cassandra would link her mind with Vivi's allowing them both to share whatever thoughts they chose too with one another.

"As soon as we find the Hutt we kill all of these guys as brutally as possible; save him, collect the rewards once we reunite him with the other surviving Hutts, likely they're on Nal Hutta." she would look up at the planet the smuggler's moon was orbiting to show Vivi what she meant. "Good deal?"

With that, Cassandra would walk up and introduce herself. Some of them would glance nervously at the lightsaber on her leg in it's satchel but they seemed trusting enough for her betrayal to work. With that, they would set off now a group of 6 through the ruins.

[Karl the Unfettered]

"I'm always up fer a bit a' scratch," Vivi boasted, noting her weird reaction to her flirting. Cassy stepped out in front of the- bounty hunters? assassins? in front of the guys and made her pitch, and Vivi strolled out too on command, casually swinging the enormous hammer and perching it over a shoulder. She didn't mind following orders when the people giving them knew what they were doing, and so far it seemed like this former Jedi knew her stuff. She definitely knew how to put on a show, at least.

"I like brutally killin' losers!" she fired back over the mind link without missing a beat. "Hella good deal!" Maybe Missus F wouldn't be so pleased about her doing favors for the Hutts, but Vivi figured as long as she got a nice fat cut of the proceeds it shouldn't be a huge deal? Or maybe she just wouldn't have to know?

No, that never worked, she'd find out eventually so it was best if she learned from Vivi herself. So. Handle this Hutt thing, put her best moves on this Cassy girl, then go straight over to Missus F and spill the beans and split the take! Everybody wins!

"Aw man, my favorite noodle shop's gone!" she declared with a gasp, pointing out the wreckage of a small diner with her hammer. The hunters just shrugged, they were as put off by Vivi the Hammer as they were the HK droid and the Jedi! "Well, whatever. I'm Vivi, but looks like y'all knew THAT a'ready! What's YER names?!"