A disturbing transmission...

[Live Wire]

*supporting her apprentice LW and LD make it over to LV who has a worried look in her eyes*

LW: A vision?

LV: Yeah

LW: There seems to be an epidemic of those lately. I don't know what's going on but I dont like this at all.

*The three women make their way to Gav who turns in surprise at the sight of them*

Gav: I guess everyone got my message.

LW: Of course. We can't let you have all the fun now can we? DO you guys have any idea what the hell is going on. All I know is LL is involved which means there is no telling what we are up against.

*LW saw LV's eyes get worried when she mentioned LL*

LW: I am sure he'll be fine. He's resourceful.

*LV just nodds as the group keeps walking. LW keeps looking over her shoulder. She wasnt sure what was going on but she felt like they were being watched. Watched from everywhere by something that lived outside of the realms of the living force*

[Director Isard]

Somewhere in a private dining suite inside Intel HQ, Isard is just halfway through a most excellent meal of "Mynock Coronet City" - a spicy combination of marinated mynock strips with vweilu nuts and Ithorian chale, served in a delicious lum sauce - when the lights suddenly flicker on and off.

'Most strange,' she thinks to herself, as she stabs her fork into another piece of mynock. 'The illumination in here can not flicker, unless someone's been tampering with the internal systems. And I have been assured that that isn't possible. Hmmmmmm....'

Her thoughts are disturbed by the ever so grovelling, snivelly voice of her assistant, Jekaan Oludh, who is leaning over her shoulder and whispering into her ear (while sniffing out the food on her plate with fluttering nostrils).

"Madame Director, we have a little problem with the computer system."

The eyebrow over her ice-blue eye raises slightly in annoyance, and the fork with a new mouthful of mynock pauses in mid-air.

"Jekaan! Didn't I tell you not to creep up behind me like that?" Her voice takes on a milder tone. "I do not like to be disturbed during my rare hours of rest. What is this problem you speak of?"

Jekaan backs away a step, alarmed at the suave tone in her voice. 'Isard angry can be handled - Isard in good humour, and bad things happen. Frag! I better get out of the building as soon as I can.' He hurries his report therefore, giving her a rough outline of the strange problems with systems failures all over the Coruscant Intel Network.

Isard swivels her chair around, still holding the lum-sauce-dripping strip of mynock on her fork, and raises the other eyebrow, too.

"What have you done so far? Have measures been taken?"

A drop of lum-sauce slowly congregates at the lower end of the strip of meat on the fork, and finally falls onto her crimson uniform. Isard angrily wipes at it with her napkin, and the non-absorbant material of her pants once again appears spotless.

Jekaan watches every move she makes, wary of a sign of her anger rising.

"We have tried every counter-measure short of shutting down the entire system. At first, we believed it was an unknown virus that one of our enemies had hacked in, but it appears to be no virus at all - rather a signal of some kind. And..." He hesitates for a moment, watching Isard put the fork aside and dab her mouth with the napkin. "...and then we received a message."

Isard gets up from her chair, slowly. Her voice is a low growl as she speaks.

"Yes? What message?"

Jekaan takes another step backwards, to get out of her reach - just in case.

"I believe you should see for yourself, Madame Director. I have been unable to download it onto a datapad, as somehow nothing seems to work right now. The message is stored in the central computer."

Isard sweeps an angry stare over him, wipes her fingers on the napkin, and throws it on the table. Then she turns to the door and walks past Jekaan.

"Very well. I shall have a look."


(OOC: Sorry for butting in - as this takes place on Coruscant, I thought it was necessary to involve Intel, too, as Intel is based somewhere around there.)

EDIT: damn, forgot an end tag

[IMPLEMENT]

L-[LORD GUE]...m-m-must I explaaiiin everything////everything to you?

In e-e-exchange for your cooo-operation, I will bring y-you iiinnttoooo the fold. You wi-wi-will be my ssseeecccooonnndd.....avatar, and Iwillcrea---I will create my be-be-loved brood in y-your image.

If it i-i-isss poweryouseek....my o-o-offer to---my offer to you is, llliiimmmiiitttllleeessssss....

I w-will be the goddess...of the u-universe, andyouwillbe...my high a-a-archangel.

[The Lounge Lizard]

:: In a ravaged area of Coruscant, a sleek silver craft touches down on a landing pad. Inside the Oozaru II, LL frantically tries to hold on the last vestiges of his mind. Convulsing and screaming, LL desperately tries to gather together a stack of a dozen data voice logs that he has recorded, hoping against all hope somebody can find them. He tucks them away in a place the machines will not find them, and with a monumental effort, calls across the entire planet with the Force ::

~~HELP ME!!!!!!~~

:: Feeling his control slipping away, LL prepares one final act of desperation. He lunges to the weapons locker and pulls out a blaster. As he puts the blaster's muzzle in his quivering lips, the insidious echoes of the machine mother's mind thunder through him ::

//W-what are you doooiinnggg.....i-insect? You a-attempt to deennyyy---deny yourself paradise. I have grand de-designs for you, aaavvvaaatttaaarrr, and Iwillnotloseyou s-so easilyyyy.

:: LL pulls the trigger. The blaster whimpers, and the energy cell powers down ::

//A-as you can see....i-insect, I plannedforthiscontin-contingency. You cannot r-run from your dessstttiiinnnyyy....


:: With a piercing scream, LL drops to the floor, eyes fluttering into the back of his head. With one final violent spasm, he is unconcious. Minutes later, several hideously deformed people with machines and wires pierced in their bodies enter the ship, dragging LL away ::

[Lady DeVille]

*Standing beside her mistress, De'Ville is unprepared for the scream that rips through the Force. ::HELP ME!:: It must be LL. Live Wire, Lady Vader and Gav all stop talking, and the four Sith snap their heads around to look in the same direction.*

Lady Vader: Lets go!

[Lord Gue]

Ok, what all is it that you want, what kind of information on the force?

[IMPLEMENT]

I-I-I want eeevvveeerrryyyttthhhiiinnnggg. O-open your mind to m-me, and release the flo-floodgate ofyourkn---know-ledge.

Re-re-release your hesitaaaa-hesistation, human.

[Nupraptor]

::Sitting in meditation deep within an abandonded wing of the Jedi Academy, Nupraptor feels a tearing call from across the galaxy; encompassing pain he had never felt the likes of before. "HELP ME!", it cried. He fell over onto the ground, clutching his head. His mechanical eye flickered, unable to focus for several minutes. What... what was this? Bags, He thought. He knew the originator of this call: It was Lounge Lizard. But what could possibly have him at it's mercy like this? Nupraptor forced himself to stand, wobbling a bit. Something was wrong: something was WAY beyond wrong. he called his lightsabre to his hand, affixing it to his belt, staring uncertainly out the dust covered window in the room. Reaching out with the Force, he could feel the center of all this, like the black eye of a storm: Courascant. There was no time to delay. He hurried outside to the modified X-Wing that he had borrowed from a 'friend', hopping in::

[IMPLEMENT]

L-L--...[LORD GUE], do n-not dawdle inyourdeciii---in your decision.

//Searching_DataCluster1-0101//

...w-we have an uuunnneeexxxpppeeecccttteeeddd....anunexpected guest.

...I-I will\\\\re-return to you ssshhhooorrrtttlllyyy. Donotdisappoint-mmmeeee.....

[SHODAN]

::The sleek, black shape of the Interloper pulled out of hyperspace, approaching Courascant. The ship positively throbbed with evil energy as it's hull began to heat, entering the planet's outer atmosphere. Inside, SHODAN was positively writhing in anticipation of encountering this new entity. Within minutes, the ship cooly touches down just outside of the Palace, totally unmolested. Not a soul can be seen in the area: not one guard to so much as question the pilot of the ship, were there actually a pilot.

The security shield around the building dropped a moment later: child's play for one of SHODAN's ability. Several protocol walked outside the ship, striding in small steps towards the building. No sign of their master was readily apparent. They walked up to the gigantic double doors that served as the entrance to the palace, and stopped. Seconds later, the doors swung open of their own accord, and the droids continued on their way. Certainly, this AI would have sensed their entrance by now::

[IMPLEMENT]

I-I-I am not aaalllooonnneee....

Identifyyourself...s-so that my curi----my curiosity c-can be satiated.

[Live Wire]

*LW winces as she hears LL's scream. Her pulse quickens as the sheer desperation of the situation begins to sink in. She notices that they are all looking in the same direction but could that be where LL was?*

LW: Lady Vader can you get a fix on his location?

*LW tries to stretch out with the force as her former master does the same. But someone...or perhaps more accurately something was throwing LW's senses off. She sensed life everywhere but when she tried to probe deeper all she saw was blackness.*

[Lord Gue]

Feeling the prescence of both individual AI's, Gue still seeing nothing but the darkness around him says"Fine, give me a power greater than any other, then I will give you the information you so desire"

[SHODAN]

III-I-I-Impossible! ///Th-this Intelligence! It shows aremarkabl [a remarkable] sim-similaaaarity...

::Quickly SHODAN began to discreetly access certain datafiles that IMPLEMENT had not secured within her own database. Reading her system registry, SHODAN experienced, for the first time in close to a millenia, pure shock::

Her propro-program code is almost identical to miiiine. How can this be?

::Via virtual pathways, SHODAN sends an answer to the other machine::

I-I... I am SHODAN; Sentient Hyper- Optimized Data Acess Network. I am a goddess... and I have coooome, in search of YOU. IdenIden///Identify yourself to meeeee. I come with a... Proposal.

[DarthHERA]

:: finally making her way into the heart of the
city - the speeder fluctuating from uncontrollable
speeds to dead stops as the engine cuts out on a whim

Hera muses to herself at the unprecedented
electrical portents revealing themselves in this
historical city..."..never felt anything like this
before. It feels like im surrounded, but not a soul
is about.." Just as the bike cuts out on her again
for the umpteenth time and Hera drops it where it
stopped-kicking at it repeatedly in annoyance...a heartrending cry shocks her
into complete stillness as she hears ~"Help Me" ~

The voice she doesnt recognise - but the desperateness
is unmistakeable..."hmm, sounds to me like someone
is in dire straights, vunerable, perhaps.. exploitable hehe - just the kind i like. Maybe this "run" might not be a total loss after all.."

Hera moves on into the night-her motivation completely
selfish (unaware of what is at stake at this point).
Her every sense alert and primed to danger-and opportunity.. ::

OOC: just want to get clear where peeps are - LL just dragged from his ship, Gue in custody of Implement at ?
and Shodan has arrived at a palace of sorts. Everyone else
is kinda wandering the city - right?

[Nupraptor]

OOC - IMPLEMENT is talking to Gue at the palace, which SHODAN just arrived at.

[DarthHERA]

OOC: thankye Nup

[videl1999]

*Videl hears LL's scream in her head, and senses the pain in his ki* This isn't good at all....I've got to find him soon..*but before Videl can move, a low growl from Shiji stops her, and she looks out into the darkness to see several forms looming up out of the shadows. She ignites her saber and waits for them to get nearer. Once they get close enough, Videl powers up, and shocks them all severly, she then walks over to the nearest one,a large scarred Aratian warrior, and senses the tainted ki from Implement, she grabs him by the throat* Wake up, drone!*The warrior's eyes open quickly and he looks at the enrages looking Videl before muttering*
Please don't kill me, I'll tell you anything you want just please don't kill me!-Aratian
Tell me where the base of Implement is and I may let you live.....*Videl says coldly while glaring at the warrior*
Anything, just let me go.-Aratian
*Videl drops him* Now!
*the drone struggles to his feet and begins to lead the way as Videl holds her ignited saber to his spine to keep him from trying anything*
OOC: I'll be here till 12:30 pacific time tonight because my comp was shutting down repeatedly for no reason at all....damn thing.....

[Nupraptor]

OOC-

senses the tainted ki from Implement

Machine's have 'Ki'?

[Lady Vader]

*LV hears the voice... and it echos for what seems an eternity in her mind*

*she stares in the direction she "heard" it come from... she's almost paralized with fear... she'd never heard such an agonized scream... especially not one from LL*

*her blood feels like ice*

*distantly, she hears LW ask her if she can get a fix on where the "voice" eminated from*

*LV blinks*

LV: What? Oh, right.

*LV shuts all the rest of the living beings on the planet except for one... everything seems to go dark... she searches for LL... she starts to get anxious when finally she senses a very weak signal of his powerful presence... but it is faint... almost faded*

LV: There. *she points in the direction of one of Coruscants many landing bays* I sense him coming from there. But his presence is faint.

*without hesitation LV walks over to a parked speederbike and rips out the console wire door... wiring the speeder, she revs it up and looks back at the others*

LV: I'm heading towards the landing bay. You can either stay here and continue on to what you were going to do, or come with me. Either way, I'm leaving.