Eliel
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Posts: 57
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Post by Eliel on Jun 20, 2013 12:36:43 GMT -8
Beneath the layers of clothing, Eli raised her eyebrows. There were children here? Why? This place just got weirder than she wanted it to. But hopefully, the child was correct in calling the man her father.
After a few moments of static, the man spoke again.
No mention of the child. Either he was ignoring her for dignity's sake, or he was trying to pretend she didn't exist. Odd. Eli clutched the shell in her pocket as the doors opened, ice cracking and falling off as they moved. Eli stepped past them, out of the cold, into a small chamber. The doors slammed shut behind her. No, this place wasn't creepy at all.
A man approached the small room she was in from the other side. A guard? Scientist? Was she about to get gassed? Gods she hoped not. She actually liked living and it suited her just fine. The man pushed a button by an intercom and his voice filled the room.
Eli pulled off the fabric covering her nose and mouth so she could speak better. "Recovery. A friend of mine told me a ship was destroyed in orbit above here and wanted me to salvage an important component from the wreckage. It's not there. I was hoping you'd know something. Any debris impacts on the planet's surface?"
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Eliel
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Life is hard. Suck it up.
Posts: 57
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Post by Eliel on Jun 20, 2013 11:31:32 GMT -8
May I help you?
Damn it, this wasn't the time for pleasantries! Eli fought off another chill, growling as the icy air seeped insidiously into her clothes.
"Eli Terr and I'm freezing my butt off. Can I come in?" she asked. "It's a little hard to talk with my teeth chattering."
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Eliel
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Life is hard. Suck it up.
Posts: 57
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Post by Eliel on Jun 17, 2013 21:56:34 GMT -8
Cold. It just had to be on a gods-damned, gods-forsaken ice planet with no proper civilization. Hell, she would've welcomed a military base just for the chance to get out of the gods-damned cold. Eli trudged from the ship's ramp to the outpost's entrance, bundled in layers of winter gear and whatever clothes she'd found in the ship. She hadn't entirely planned on landing on Helska. It had been supposed to be a simple extraction. Show up, scan the wreckage, tractor in the memory core, get out. No ice, no wind, no cold.
Her hand gripped a fist-sized oval, black as deep space, in her pocket. It was a temporary housing shell for 02, nothing permanent, but it boasted a 180* visual field, a repulsor-lift, and a small jack that could hook up to just about any computer system. Not bad for a week and a half's work of prep. And if 02 found it cramped, well, it was only temporary. Eli doubted she could get anything close to the platform Leigh used.
Eli pounded on the doors and shifted her weight from foot to foot. Hopefully it wouldn't take whoever was inside to answer the door. Otherwise, she'd freeze before she could fulfill her promise to Leigh.
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Eliel
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Life is hard. Suck it up.
Posts: 57
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Post by Eliel on May 22, 2013 13:25:57 GMT -8
*A small freighter jumped into realspace above the ice planet, Eli Terr at the controls. Her scanners indicated a bunch of debris up ahead and she set course accordingly. Sitting back in her chair, she replayed the events of the last few weeks over in her head. Meeting a life-simulating droid with real emotions. Sneaking off to Yavin and off of Yavin with a freighter. Leigh's instructions on how to recover 02. All of it had a very surreal quality to it. She smiled and turned to the co-pilot's chair, about to comment on it to Ariel. But the chair was as empty as the rest of the ship. The words died on her tongue and she went back to looking out the viewport, guiding the freighter closer to the debris. She felt so distant from her twin now. Ever since their fight, they'd been growing further and further apart. Ariel almost felt like a stranger to her.
Her computers scanned over the debris, looking for that one vital piece: the memory core. But every scan came up negative. Eliel shook herself out of her rather disheartening thoughts and frowned. No memory core? Impossible. This was the place, this was the debris... Wait. There wasn't nearly enough debris for the kind of ship Leigh described. Had some of it been pulled onto Helska IV itself? She slowly punched in keys, bringing up known locations on Helska. None whatsoever, but a scan of the terrain revealed a small outpost on the surface a little ways from here. Eli brought the ship around the debris and headed into atmo. Someone down there might know what had happened.
But for gods' sakes, why did it have to be on a cold planet?*
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Eliel
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Life is hard. Suck it up.
Posts: 57
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Post by Eliel on May 8, 2013 21:01:28 GMT -8
*Eli looked into Leigh's holographic eyes, her grim hazel eyes locked on the blue irises.* "I want to recover her."
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Eliel
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Life is hard. Suck it up.
Posts: 57
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Post by Eliel on May 8, 2013 19:27:13 GMT -8
*Helska IV. Eli wracked her brain, trying to remember where in the galaxy that was. Outer Rim, wasn't it? If LE-02—she noted that of the three named, only Leigh had chosen a name other than her designation—was still out there, it would be possible to rescue the AI. Perhaps earn some favor by the gesture and unlock more secrets about the droids and their ability to not simply simulate and generate emotion but to experience it. Eli hopped off the counter and paced the length of the workshop, favoring her left ankle. If she could find a ship... But she was on Osarian. On Yavin, she probably could borrow a ship since she belonged to the Praxeum. Here... she wasn't so sure. She'd also have to ask Omas for permission to leave... or just slip out and apologize later for disappearing with a ship. Hell, she could probably plead her case since she was helping someone in need.
Oh the many, many ideas that were going on in her head. She needed a flimsiplast sketchbook.*
"Have to go back to Yavin first," *she muttered. Then she turned to Leigh again, excitement plainly written on her face. She itched for information.* "Helska IV you say? You're sure of this?"
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Eliel
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Life is hard. Suck it up.
Posts: 57
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Post by Eliel on May 8, 2013 18:28:00 GMT -8
*Laughing. She was laughing. A droid was laughing. How did that even work??? She'd heard of intricate personality programs, but none that had imitated spontaneous emotions so well. Leigh mentioned her creator, an Eliana Shan... Maybe they could meet up and Eli could dig through her mind to see how she did this. Then Leigh mentioned her sisters. Others. Droids like her. Sudden possibilities flooded Eli's mind and the rest of Leigh's explanation fell on mostly deaf ears. What if she could find one of these other sisters? Study how they differed in personality, what kinds of alterations had been made? What if one had an internal blueprint? Could she create something similar? Something her own?
Eli caught the gist of the rest of what Leigh said: cannon was a weapon (she gathered that, she meant what kind of weapon), powered like any other droid, hacker-pilot-human-like, felt emotion, yada yada— Wait what? Leigh... felt emotion? But that was... how did... That wasn't possible! Emotion was spontaneous, unpredictable. Droids followed programming and protocol. How did that even work???*
"You... You feel emotion?" *Eli asked.* "Like... Like how I feel emotion?"
*Well duh, she just said that. Eli shook her head, going back to her previous line of thought.*
"Where are the others? Your... sisters?"
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Eliel
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Life is hard. Suck it up.
Posts: 57
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Post by Eliel on May 8, 2013 15:43:00 GMT -8
"Eli." *Her reply was short, characteristic of her usual speech habits.* "Short for Eliel. I don't tell people that though. They get it in their heads that my nickname must be 'Ellie' and I don't really like that nickname."
*She hopped up onto the counter and cocked her head to the side. Leigh, huh? Made sense. Similar to the designation but distinct enough.* "Who designed you? Or is that too personal a question and I should just shut up?"
*Shut up, El, just shut up now. But her curiousity was too great to resist. She just had to know.* "Do you know how long your creation took? Are there notes or blueprints?"
*You can't read, Eli. Shut up, I'll learn if it means achieving this level of technology. Her mind was racing with ideas now.* "What are your functions? How does your holographic projector work? What's the cannon for? Do you run on battery energy or fuel tanks?"
*Shut up, shut up, shut up! Eli winced as she realized she was asking too many questions, some of them Leigh probably couldn't answer.* "... Sorry. I've just... I just never seen a droid like you before."
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Eliel
Member
Life is hard. Suck it up.
Posts: 57
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Post by Eliel on May 8, 2013 14:38:54 GMT -8
*Eli paused drying her face with a stained rag and turned to look at the droid. Dang, she still couldn't get over how cool the holographic projection was. Part of her wanted to touch the visor, just to see if LE would react. The rest screamed at her for even thinking about smudging the visor.*
"Yeah, I'm fine. My dreams get a little... active." *She finished drying her face then tossed the rag aside, leaning against the counter. So many questions to ask. Where should she begin?* "Do you have a nickname or something? Other than your designation?"
*Wow, Eli. That was terrible. And you thought your conversations with organics were bad.*
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Eliel
Member
Life is hard. Suck it up.
Posts: 57
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Post by Eliel on May 8, 2013 13:18:17 GMT -8
Level Three
*The hallways were relatively quiet. The hum of technology and electricity droned softly, nigh undetectable. Several of the workshops had been cleaned spotless, grease, oil, and cleaning solution mingling in the air. Save for the equipment, this realm of the Jedi Sanctuary was empty.
THUD.
Well, almost empty.
Eli groaned and sat up, her shoulder throbbing from where she'd landed on the floor. Damn dreams. She always fell off benches and worktables whenever she had the blasted things. Hell, she fell off bunks and beds still. Her ankle started to complain when she stood up but she ignored the pain. She'd lived through worse and a tweaked ankle wasn't anything to go to a medbay for. Rubbing her hands on the backseat of her trousers—gods what she wouldn't give to have her cargo pants back, she walked to the sink and splashed water on her face. She probably looked like hell. Tank top stained with grease and rust, a fresh tear torn in her trousers on her right thigh, dirt on her knees from where she'd knelt to find dropped nuts and bolts. It was a good thing she'd taken off the tunic before she'd gone to work on the droid earlier.
The droid. Eli looked over her shoulder at the gleaming sculpture of metal. Plates and transparisteel gleamed even in the darkened workshop, the oil bath she'd given it—her, Eli corrected, the droid had a feminine-aligned personality—working wonders to remove and cleanse the exoskeleton. LE-03 was a true piece of art and genius, even in whatever hibernation or powered down mode she was in. Eli wanted to talk to her, find out who'd created her, how they'd done it, how long it took, and if there were blueprints she could look at. With her vastly limited resources, recreating a technological masterpiece like this was only a dream. But hey, it didn't hurt to dream right?
Except when she fell off her chosen bed. Then it did hurt.*
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Eliel
Member
Life is hard. Suck it up.
Posts: 57
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Post by Eliel on Apr 23, 2013 19:39:10 GMT -8
It was Jago.
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