Mechanical Maladies

[Rugs]

Time period: 1 year ago
Location: Farrfin
Participants: Locke Nemsee(me), T3-M6(casual)
Other Info: What happens when two bored minds come together? This...

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Farlhu. The capital city of Farrfin. Locke Nemsee squinted a bit in the bright light of the midday sun as he stepped off of the transport that had taken him to the planet. The world was known to be a haven for criminal activity, which is what brought the young Investigator to it. Locke had been on a series of missions to track down the source of some very illegal drugs and weapons that were being smuggled into Republic space, and the trail seemed to originate on Farrfin. Not surprising, he mused as he walked through the streets of the city, this place is hardly any better than Nar Shadaa.

He looked rather different than one would expect a Jedi to look. This was by design, since running around with Jedi robes on would more than likely only make his job harder. So now he wore the attire of a simple spacer: a light brown leather jacket with a cream colored shirt underneath, along with some black pants and boots. There was a utility belt around his wait, along with a holster that held his blaster pistol. Locke's lightsaber was hidden away in one of he pouches on his belt. All in all, there wasn't anything to give away that he was a Jedi, and that's the way he wanted to keep it.

Now, how am I supposed to go about finding this group? I don't have much to work with... He'd find a way. He always did. The group he was chasing after went by the name of the Starwinds, and they were supposedly based out of Farlhu. That was about as much as he knew. But the work of an Investigator was rarely easy; he had known that when he had gone before the Council to be considered for the position. But despite the job's hardships, he liked it, and so he just sighed and kept on going. With time, he'd either come up with some brilliant plan or stumble into something. Either way, as long as the job got done, he'd be happy.

[Casual]

T3-M6 looked around the city of Farlhu, as the men aboard the ship began unpacking their illegal goods. He had just hitched a ride with them on his way to Muunilinst and was ready to get off this ship and sate his adventurous hunger. He stayed within eyesight of the smugglers, as they had picked him up under the consideration that he was going to be their maintenance droid. This, T3 knew, was false. He would never allow himself to fall into the hands of criminals. If he was to be involved in criminal activities, it would be of his own will.

With a look around, he saw many different faces here, many who looked shadowy or suspicious, but according to talk and records he'd accessed, as well as some transactions he'd seen in records on Nar Shaddaa, he knew this place to be full of criminal activity, and that these men wouldn't be the only here. It was then that T3 decided he would ditch these men. They were headed in his direction after this, but he felt that if he stayed with them any longer, he might become property. So without any proccessing on his part, he turned, looked at the Starwind's leader, he looked back at T3, and with that, T3 whirred off with a distinct:

Booop

The smuggler was clearly shocked at their renegade, run-away droid's sudden actions and yelled at a few of his men to give chase. This served to prove T3's assumptions, as it may have seemed like a bit much to send men after a droid who'd only been with them a few days. After all, they were chasing him.

T3 took sharp turns, whistling and tweeting as he did so, as if this were a game and he was winning. Which, to him, it was. With each back-alley turn, the men were taken back further and further in their chase. Eventually, they could no longer see which direction T3 was taken. A look behind him as he moved told T3 that he had shaken them off. He gave a Wooop Wooop, in droid sounds, and turned around just in time to run into an unsuspecting man, dressed in what appeared spacer clothes, at full speed.

[Rugs]

Well, let's see, Locke thought as he continued down the streets of Farlhu, where to start? The young Investigator looked around him and scratched at the hair that was growing on his face. He usually kept it neat, and trimmed down to stubble, though he hadn't had the time to get to it lately, and it was turning into a short beard. Not that that was necessarily a bid thing; Locke thought it made him look like a harder man, one who spent too much time working to worry about appearances. "Or maybe I just tell myself that to make myself feel better," he grumbled to himself. "Anyway..."

He turned around a corner on a whim, since he still didn't have a clue as to where he was going. Perhaps I should start at a cantina. There are always more knowledgeable types at cantinas... It wouldn't be a bad place to start. Or perhaps a brothel, if there are any in town... An amused grin spread across his face as ribald jokes ran through his head, and the Jedi merely shook his head and laughed to himself. I guess I'll start with a cantina. If I can find one...

For about half an hour Locke wandered the streets, trying to get a feel for them. Sure, he could have asked for directions to the nearest cantina, but that wouldn't help him learn his way about the city, which was something he'd need to do. And he wasn't looking for just any cantina. He was looking for the worst cantina, the seediest cantina. Of course, on a world like Farrfin, every cantina was seedy, but he was looking for the bottom of the proverbial barrel. It was those sorts of cantina that usually held the kind of person he was looking for.

Although, as he had been wandering about the city, something had grabbed his attention. There was a droid following him. Strange... he thought, and kept on going. But as he went, so did the droid. He turned, and it followed. Very strange... Finally, when he had gotten tired of wondering what the little thing was up to, he stopped and turned to face it.

It 'Whooped' and made other noises at him, or at least he thought the noises were at him.

"What? I'm sorry, I don't speak... droid," Locke said, not attempting to hide the bit of irritation that he was feeling. He had a job to do and this droid was wasting his time. "So, uh, is there something you want, er... Droid?" The droid didn't stop though. Locke frowned in irritation, and came to the realization that the droid had been looking to its rear. This is why I hate droids, he thought. "Hey, just what is it you wan-" And then it turned its head around, but it was too late. It ran into him, and they both went to the ground in a tangle of flesh and metal.

[Casual]

As the two toppled in a twist of turmoil and entanglement, a shiny metalic object snuck its way out of the folds of the spacer's belt and landed beside him. Amidst the struggle, T3 was the only one to see it. This only caused further excitement and tweets as T3 now had a new adventure. It would be difficult to leave the capitol if the spaceport still had those smugglers on it, and the best way to get rid of smugglers is to alert them to some form of authority. Who had more authority over the peace and nonsense of the world than the Jedi. That was unless this man was a Dark Jedi or a Grey Jedi or something. The chances of that, T3 computed, however, were quite slim.

Tweet Tweet, Beep boop ba beep!

He told this stranger Jedi. Though the man seemed to respond with cluelessness and even irritance. This would have to be solved. Setting his audio features as high as they could possibly go, he let out a loud.

BLEEP BLOOP BA BLEEP BLA BLOOP!
(Does anyone know what I'm saying!?)

[Rugs]

Locke groaned loudly as his head hit the ground. The city seemed to swirl around before his eyes as he looked up and saw the droid next to him. The young Knight almost said something, but opted to lay his head back down and watch the sky as it boiled and turned funny colors. But his head didn't hit the ground. No, it set down on his lightsaber, and the Force must have been smiling on him that day, because had he set his head down just a moment earlier, he would have hit the ignition switch, which could lead to all kinds of trouble. Killed by my own lightsaber as it rolled along on the ground, he thought as he sat up and put his lightsaber back into the pouch on his belt, what a way to die.

He muttered something incoherent as he looked around, trying to clear the grogginess from within his skull. "Where am I," he muttered. "What was I doing?" His head was suddenly pierced by the loudest gods-forsaken screeching he had ever heard in his life. "WHAT THE HELL?!" he yelled back at the droid before punching it...

...which only led to him whimpering and shaking his hand from the pain of it hitting the droid's hard metal casing. "Stupid droid," he grumbled as he pushed himself to his feet, brushing off the dust that had gathered on his clothes as he did. "I don't know what you're saying," he said as he stood over the little droid. "But you're wasting my time. I have very important work to do, so if you'll just excuse me..." With that he turned on his heel and went the way he thought he had been going. "Stupid droid," he grumbled again softly.

[Casual]

In his efforts to help out the law, he recieved a punch to the head and a "What the hell?", which, didn't really phase him as much as it insulted him. As he computed this strange behavior in the Jedi as it got to its feet, shaking his hand. T3's first response was that akin to humor to the droid, who gave a few tweeting giggles.

I don't know what you're saying, but you're wasting my time. I have very important work to do, so if you'll just excuse me...

Now his computations were finalized, he settled upon the conclusion of irritance and frustration. Maybe a hint of anger. His proccessing led him to do what he found to be the logical solution to the problem presented. A shock-arm.

ZZZZAP

Right at the spacer-Jedi's rear, which, based on experience, was among one of the best ways to obtain a meat-bag sentient's attention. It seemed to work as an onlooker approached, elaborating that he could undertand what T3 was saying.

[Rugs]

Locke was still steaming a bit to himself in his irritation at the little droid. Stupid droid... How could it not see me? And then the screeching! What the hell was wrong with that littl-

The Force suddenly screamed a warning at him, but it came too late. The next thing Locke knew, he was jumping up into the air, as a rather unpleasant bolt of electricity slammed into... well, his hindquarters. Locke screamed a string of curses that drew looks from passers-by as he rubbed at the soreness that was creeping across his buttocks before turning his attention behind him to see who the culprit was.

And there it was.

That damn, dirty droid.

Locke had to fight to suppress the urge to both yell at and throw the droid into something; that wouldn't do anything more than draw attention where he was trying to remain hidden. "Okay, okay," he said. "You win. What do you want?" He scowled, realizing that wouldn't go well. "No, no, that won't work. I can't understand you..." As he pondered what to do about the situation, a glimmer of sunlight on metal on the edge of his vision caught his attention. Locke looked up and smiled wickedly. It was a protocol droid. He could use the protocol droid to make sense of what the utility droid was saying! Maybe... "I still hate droids," he muttered as he made his way over to the silver and gold droid.

"You there!" he called out, and the droid looked over in his direction. "Yes, you! Come here!" Locke wasted no time walking up to the droid and grabbing it bodily and dragging it over to the little utility droid. "Look, I need you to translate what this damn little droid is saying to me," he said in hushed tones that implied secrecy, "and you are going to do it, or I'll turn you into a pile of scrap, got it?"

"But sir!" the protocol droid exclaimed, "I'm just-" It cut of as it found Locke's pistol to suddenly be right next to its head.

"None of that," Locke said with that same wicked grin. By that time, they had made it back to the utility droid that was irritating Locke so. "Alright then," Locke said as he put his blaster pistol back into its holster, "what is it you want, little droid?"

[Casual]

Okay, okay. You win. What do ------ ...can't understand you...

As soon as the Jedi said "You win," T3 all but shut off all audio receptors. Ha! He had claimed victory! He was the best in the world! He had prevailed over the sentient. He had championed his cause, he had rallied the troops! Nothing could come between him and what he wanted. He came out of the elation to find a protocol droid under much distress. The peciuliar Jedi had apprehened this protocol droid and was dragging him over to T3.

"None of that." The Jedi said to his captive. "Alright then, what is it you want, little droid?"

T3 found this man's behavior amusing, for as he spoke, he held a blaster pistol to the head of the the clearly flabbergasted protocol droid. He gave a good droid-chuckle to which the protocol droid replied with a Silence you, I simply do not like to be handled in such a way. It was after this that T3 responded to the Jedi's question.

Breep bloop, blah bleep blah bloop, tweet tweet twa tweet boop bee.

Oh, my! This droid says he just escaped from a band of smugglers known as the "Starwinds" and requests that you assist him in their capture.

T3 gave an indignant slight shock of his shock arm towards the protocol droid and chirped, upset at his censored detail.

Ahem, "meat-bag."

With that T3 gave a proud "tweet" and retracted the shock arm, and awaited the response of the impatient and grumpy Jedi. He was gonna bring down these credit-suckers if it was the last thing he did...

[Rugs]

Locke's expression changed almost instantly when he heard what it was the little utility droid had to say. "You just escaped from the Starwinds?" He blinked in surprise. "Really?" To say that Locke was surprised would be a bit of an understatement. He usually managed to stumble his way through the phase of missions where he'd have to go about finding information to get to what he was looking for--it was expected of him as part of his job, after all. But rare was the time when such opportunity presented itself--nay, ran into--him. As he looked at the little droid before him, he could feel joy rising within him, and almost leapt up into the air in excitement. If the droid was telling the truth, then that meant two very good things. First, it meant that the Starwinds were, in fact, in Farlhu, and second, it meant Locke now had a lead to get him to them.

"Well, that's great news," Locke exclaimed. "But what were you doing with the Starwinds? And why did you leave them?" Locke looked over the little droid with a wary eye. "I mean, they couldn't have just let you go, could they?"


Locke crossed his arms and pursed his lips in thought. If what this droid says is true, then my job just got a whole lot easier... But what reason could he have for wanting to take them down? Do droids even think like that?

He noticed the protocol droid shuffling around restlessly as it stood there and smiled out it. "Hey now, don't go gettin' antsy on me now. You still have to translate for me, remember?"

"But sir, I have duties that must be do-"

"The hell you do," Locke cut in, still wearing that smile of his.

"Excuse me sir, but I don't know what you're talking abo-"

"Look," Locke said, motioing towards the pistol that hung on his hip to get the point across to the protocol droid, "I have a very important job to do. This utility droid can help me get that job done. You can tell me what this droid is saying, and as such, you are part of this job now." He laughed slyly, and imagined that, were the protocol droid capable of making facial expressions, the one it had would be either shock or horror, or perhaps a mix of both. The reason that amused Locke so escaped him, but even so... "You don't really have a choice in the matter. You can come along and do as I say, or I can turn you into a pile of useless metal. It's up to you, really."

"Are you trying to say that you are stealing me?"

Locke grinned again, and his stone grey eyes twinkled jovially at the protocol droid. "I suppose you could call it that, if you really want to. I prefer to say... borrowing, myself." With that he turned back to the utility droid. "I'm sorry, you can carry on now."

[Casual]

Well, that's great news, but what were you doing with the Starwinds? And why did you leave them? I mean, they couldn't have just let you go, could they?

Before T3 could respond, the Jedi spoke to the protocol droid, who was clearly becoming increasingly nervous. Both the protocol droid and the Jedi began to discuss the terms of the droid’s kidnapping and other such nonsense, from what T3 gathered, the Jedi intended to steal or “borrow” the protocol droid that he could translate for him. It was a novel idea, as the Jedi was clueless to what T3 was saying, and would prevent them from walking too many steps back. In other words, it was common sense. After the slight squabble he returned his attention to T3.

I'm sorry, you can carry on now.

Breep bleep ba tweet, broop boop ba beep boop

With a sigh, the protocol droid translated He says that he was hitching a ride with them on his way to a planet that is not necessary for you to know of.

Tweet tweet bleep bloop

And that he escaped because they planned to keep him. He says he needs them off of the starport that he may continue his journey. Sir, please, I really must hurry, my master ---

Before the droid could finish a clearly irritated sullustan approached the group.

Excuse me? Is there a reason you are wasting my time by speaking with my droid

breep bloop

Dammit, he says

[Rugs]

"I see, I see," Locke said as the protocol droid translated T3's beeps. "Well, you'll have to lead me to them." He was about to suggest that they head out when they got a very miffed looking visitor.

"Dammit indeed," Locke uttered with a sigh as the clearly irritated Sullustan approached them. He threw on his most charming smile as he turned to face the angry little alien. "Now sir, just what makes you think that this droid in particular is your droid? I'm sure there are other droids of the same make and model in Farlhu..."

"Oh thank the Maker! Master, this horrible man has tried to kidnap me! He even threatened to shoot me," the protocol droid cried out. And as the Sullustan's face grew dark with anger, Locke swore to himself that this particular protocol droid was going to end up in a scrap heap somewhere when his work was done.

"Is that so," the Sullustan said slowly, turning his head to glare at Locke. "I don't know who you are, Spacer, but give me one reason why I shouldn't report you to the authorities?"

"Because the 'authorities' on Farrfin--if you can even call them that--are barely capable of keeping the block around their headquarters clean, let alone the rest of the planet." Locke snorted derisively. "Farrfin isn't known as a criminal world for nothing, you know." Locke's friendly grin turned sinister as he rested his hands lightly on his belt, one of them kept pointedly near his pistol. "And, you don't what to report me because I can do some very nasty things to you before you could even think of moving a muscle. And, if you did do something, I guess I'd just have to split you open and dance in your entrails in the middle of the street. Savvy?" It was with some mild amusement that Locke thought on how some of the Jedi back in the Temple would have an aneurysm if they saw the way he was acting. Not that he particularly cared, mind you. For the time, he wasn't even supposed to be a Jedi; just a simple, space-faring man.

The Sullustan's face grew paler, and Locke knew his masquerade was working. Of course, he had no intention to harm the man, but the act had to be sustained. So, with just a touch of persuasion with the Force, he continued. "So here's what you can do. I have work that needs to be done. This protocol droid will be essential to that work. You can let me borrow him, and when the work is done, you can have him back and do whatever it is you do with him." Locke smiled again and spread his hands out in front of him. "Hell, you can even come along if you don't trust me. So whaddya say?"

{I'll let you decide what his answer will be, Cas}

[Casual]

{Awesome! It's like one of those "choose your own ending" books }

As the Jedi negotiated with the sullusian, T3 couldn't help but have a sense of awe at how the man operated. Previous data on Jedi dictated that they were virtually opposite this man's behavior. T3 began to doubt which side that lightsaber fought for. After a quick thought process, however, he decided that it didn't matter, the man was going to help him eliminate what stood in his way. That was all he really needed from him.

T3 watched as the sullistian stammered out his repsonse to the Jedi's ultimatum.

Eh, take the blasted droid, I don't need him for work today anyway. And there ain't no way in Hell I'm coming with you, you crazy psychopath. I ain't looking to make my entrails my extrails.

The sullustian walked away muttering something about crazy people, droids, blaster pistols and gizkas.

Tweet broop bleep bloop

Oh, my. Well... he says let's get a move on.

BREEP!

-Sigh- Meat bag

[Rugs]

Locke snickered as the Sullustan walked off into the city. Psychopath indeed, he thought snidely. You just scoot off and let me use your droid, and you'll be none the worse for it. The victourious Jedi's grin was more than a bit malicious as he turned his attention back to the protocol droid, who took a slow step back. "See? I have a way of getting things that I need for my work, and right now, I need you." Without a moment's hesitation after he finished speaking, he walked up to the droid and threw his arm around its shoulders, smiling at it in a wickedly friendly fashion. "I think you and me are gonna be best friends by the end of the day, don't you?"

"Oh, I don't know about tha-"

"Shut up. You know it's true," Locke said, still wearing that smile. "Now, let's move out."

With that, the group set down the streets of Farlhu. It was an interesting sight, seeing Locke with his two droid companions, but not so strange as to attract undue attention. Noon had come, and the streets were more crowded as people went about their business--shopping, going places to eat, etc--and Locke had to push past a few people who were too slow to get out of his way, but they made progress. Until Locke remembered he didn't know where it was they were supposed to be going. "So, T3... where are we going, again?"

[Casual]

T3 watched the antics of this Jedi and the sullustian with great glee. It was wildly and suprisingly entertaining for him, as the two determined that violence was the answer, which resonated somewhat in the bowels of T3's cynical side. They absolved their difficulties and determined that the Jedi could borrow the droid to use as a translator. When the matters were settled, the Jedi began walking in an undisclosed location. T3 decided to follow him, beleiving that this Jedi had a plan.

Brushing past people and shuffling around, they suddenly came to a halt. The Jedi turned around and asked:

So, T3... where are we going, again?

Resisting the urge to shock arm this increadulous and outragous Jedi, T3 humored him with a response.

Weep woop bleep boop bloop bleep

To which the protocol droid translated.

He says that the smugglers should still be at the space port, the one located directly behind you.