Let me go ahead and create a makeshift bio for Cackle.
Name: Cackle (A little girl would always try call him Cactus but when she spoke it came out as Cackle, and the name stuck.
Alias(s):
Specimen 369(Cackle was born and raised in a science lab)
Cactus Alien(For a long time, he didn't have an actual name so people called him this)
Big Green(His best friend calls him that)
Bran(Bran is a male alien alter ego)
Duukoul(Another male alien alter ego)
Xarica(Is a female alien alter ego)
Lucas(Lucas is a male human alter ego)
Tammy(Tammy is a female human alter ego)
Age: 483(Born in year 1539)
Species: Cactisapiens (Yep. He's a cactus alien)
gender: genderless but can be changed at will
Appearance(s): Cackle has the ability to change and alter his dna so he has many appearances.
Natural appearance- In his original state, he appears genderless, but can change his gender at will. He's an amorphous cactus with large spikes. Cackle's skin is emerald green, mostly soft smooth skin except for the sharp spikes along the edges of his body. He has two holes where his eyes should be, and glowing orange light fills those holes. His mouth is also glowing orange. In his natural form, he can change shape from a simple ball, to a large imposing manly humanoid shape with larger protruding spikes, or other shapes. He can also grow flowers. In his natural form, he usually takes on masculine humanoid shapes, but will sometimes take on a more feminine shape cause why not? Whatever.
Natural form Cackle wears no clothes except a backpack with all his clothes in it. He wears these outfits with his alter egos.
Bran- Bran is an alter ego that Cackle transforms into. While his base form changes in appearance, his alter egos always maintain the same size and appearance. Bran is a 6'2" ft. cherry red alien that appears to be in his early 40s. He has a gaunt body structure with a orange boney wiry exoskeleton. The boney exoskeleton covered most of his head and face like a helmet. His eyes are oval shaped and bug-like in appearance which sit on the sides of his head giving him full 360 degree vision. (Bran was his best friend. His best friend died. sad. Cackle likes to alter his appearance like Bran to remember his old best friend) (Bran's race is known as the Jaou)
Bran wears a white full body spandex suit with matching, a white lab coat, matching white boots, and gloves. When he becomes Bran, he acts and behaves like a nice caring doctor.(Cackle has studied various species so he actually can be a doctor). Bran is a very kind, generous, and open minded man.
Duukoul- Duukoul is a large male reptilian 8'5" ft. orange alien. He's extremely muscular, has soft but thick skin covered in smooth scales that shine like silk. He has two mouths. His second mouth is on his collar. Both mouths are wide and have large jagged teeth. His eyes are yellowish-green reptilian-like as well. He has large claws too, can see ultraviolet light and has six balls. (Duukoul's reptilian race is known as the Kargon)
Duukoul wears chainmail chausses, plated armor on his legs, thick hide boots, Thick metal bracers, no shirt so he can show off his muscles. Duukoul has tons of scar marks across his torso and arms. he's loud, outgoing, shameless, overconfident, loves fighting, biting heads off, and has thousands upon thousands of strange conspiracy theories from across the galaxy. 1/5 of them true. He will talk your ear off with theories if you let him.
Xarica is a purple skinned 9 ft. very tall and curvy female alien with 6 solid black eyes. Three on the left side of her face and three on the right. She appears to be in her late 20s and has long tentacles for hair. She's fairly muscular, and has very long fingers with no fingernails. She also has a very small stubble tail, and her head tentacles can sense emotions. (Xarica's race is known as the Serpha)
Xarica's outfit has strange alien symbols and patterns. She wears a loose gray tunic with matching gray pants, an open robe with a wide lavender silk belt around her waist. Fancy jewels and brass metallic parts decorate her outfit, and jeweled sandals. Xarica is a very strange woman that revels in bloodshed and speaks about strange alien customs and traditions that usually involve ritualistic sacrifices. She also likes to give massages. Especially when people are nervous or shy. Odd additional trait.
Lucas- Lucas appears to be a 5'7" ft. Chinese man in his early twenties. He has short black hair combed to the side, dark brown eyes, fairly tan skin, relatively muscular, average build, and has a burn mark on his left hand.
Lucas wears a long sleeved camouflaged shirt, a leather jacket, camouflage cargo pants, long white socks, goes commando, hiking boots, and a Nasa hat. Lucas claims to be a fisherman that loves learning about Nasa and space in general. Very friendly guy.
Tammy- Tammy appears to be a 4'3" ft. Greek girl that appears to be around the age of 11. She has long brown hair, bangs cut straight across at the eyebrow level. She is fairly small and has gray eyes, pale skin, a goofy grin, and a bandage over the bridge of her nose.
She wears a Star Trek science division t-shirt, a pink hoodie, green skirt with blue leggings, and pink slide on shoes. She's a bit of a nerd that likes to pretend she's a doctor. She acts far smarter than her age would suggest when she wants to.
Personality: Cackle's actual personality when he isn't being one of his alter egos is very calm and carefree. Every single one of his alter ego's display part of Cackle's personality but as a more exaggerated version compared to his true personality.
Abilities and Techniques:
assimilate- Cactisapiens can absorb a creature to gain its genetics thus allowing him to alter his dna and transform into that species of creature. Cackle swallows the target whole and the dna is assimilated into his body.
amorphous Cactaceae- Cactisapiens can grow, alter their dna, or change it completely. Though they cannot shrink. If a cactisapien wishes to become smaller, if must break off parts of its body. broken off pieces of cactisapiens make extremely potent fertilizer.
Spores(cactikins)- Cactisapiens can create spores which grow into cactikin. Cactikin are a small subrace of cactisapiens and are not true Cactisapiens. Cactisapiens still need partners to breed true Cactisapiens. Cactikins are ball shaped cactuses with glowing yellow eyes and mouth. They have small spikes across their body and four large spikes that serve as arms and legs. Cactikins can store water, the amount depending on their size. Cactikins can be anywhere from 1' ft. to 3' ft. in height. The larger they are the more water they can carry. Cactikins have a special property that allows the water stored inside them to be purified. Depending on how toxic or polluted the water, the cactikin can potentially become sick or die. Other cactikins can absorb toxins from their fellow cactikins to prevent this from happening. Despite Cactikin having sharp spikes, they are very weak to many possible attacks.
Flower power- The moisture inside Cackle's flowers can be used to close cuts, ease pain, and prevent infections.
strange facts:
-Cackle's has a rasp sandpaper sounding voice in his natural form. His voice changes with his alter egos.
- Yes, Cackle ate his best friend after he died. Very weird, but his friend was fine with it, and had expected Cackle would do it.
- The type of flowers that grow on Cackle are the ones that grow on moon cactus
-Cactisapiens can breed with other races (I straight up borrowed that one from mass effect Asari lore, this random added info serves no purpose other than kicks and giggles)
- Due to the experiments performed on Cackle, he can grow faster than normal cactisapiens.
-The race names were just made up. No deep thought was put into making them.
- Cactisapiens are near extinct
Backstory: Cackle was born in a research facility ran by Jaou, strange aliens that went extinct in the early 1600s. By this time Cackle had spent almost 50 years being raised and experimented on. At this point Cackle was known as Specimen 369, for he was not given an actual name. Specimen 369 didn't know either of his parents. Specimen 369 knew his mother was a Cactisapien just like he was, but Specimen 369 never knew if their father was one or not. Specimen 369 spent most of the first fifty years of his life as a spikey ball. He was accustomed to rolling around. Despite some of the experiments performed on him, the scientists were relatively kind to him and didn't punish him without reason. Though after a bloody war occurred. A bloody war between the Jaou and the Kargon. Most of the scientists at the facility would attempt to flee, only a few actually successful in their attempts. Specimen 369 was lucky and would be rescued by one of the scientists named Bran.
Bran was always the most kind to the specimens of the facility. Bran had a daughter of his own at the time, but still found time to take care of Cackle. The daughter was Branu(super creative). She was the girl to give Specimen 369 his name Cackle. Years later Bran's life would be taken by a kargon hunter. In Bran's dying moments, he managed to land a lethal blow against the would be killer. Cackle would go on to assimilate both of them. From this point in Cackle's life, he would go on to raise Bran's daughter, just like Bran had did for him.
, Cackle would assimilate him, and he would leave to start his own life.
Name: Cackle (A little girl would always try call him Cactus but when she spoke it came out as Cackle, and the name stuck.
Alias(s):
Specimen 369(Cackle was born and raised in a science lab)
Cactus Alien(For a long time, he didn't have an actual name so people called him this)
Big Green(His best friend calls him that)
Bran(Bran is a male alien alter ego)
Duukoul(Another male alien alter ego)
Xarica(Is a female alien alter ego)
Lucas(Lucas is a male human alter ego)
Tammy(Tammy is a female human alter ego)
Age: 483(Born in year 1539)
Species: Cactisapiens (Yep. He's a cactus alien)
gender: genderless but can be changed at will
Appearance(s): Cackle has the ability to change and alter his dna so he has many appearances.
Natural appearance- In his original state, he appears genderless, but can change his gender at will. He's an amorphous cactus with large spikes. Cackle's skin is emerald green, mostly soft smooth skin except for the sharp spikes along the edges of his body. He has two holes where his eyes should be, and glowing orange light fills those holes. His mouth is also glowing orange. In his natural form, he can change shape from a simple ball, to a large imposing manly humanoid shape with larger protruding spikes, or other shapes. He can also grow flowers. In his natural form, he usually takes on masculine humanoid shapes, but will sometimes take on a more feminine shape cause why not? Whatever.
Natural form Cackle wears no clothes except a backpack with all his clothes in it. He wears these outfits with his alter egos.
Bran- Bran is an alter ego that Cackle transforms into. While his base form changes in appearance, his alter egos always maintain the same size and appearance. Bran is a 6'2" ft. cherry red alien that appears to be in his early 40s. He has a gaunt body structure with a orange boney wiry exoskeleton. The boney exoskeleton covered most of his head and face like a helmet. His eyes are oval shaped and bug-like in appearance which sit on the sides of his head giving him full 360 degree vision. (Bran was his best friend. His best friend died. sad. Cackle likes to alter his appearance like Bran to remember his old best friend) (Bran's race is known as the Jaou)
Bran wears a white full body spandex suit with matching, a white lab coat, matching white boots, and gloves. When he becomes Bran, he acts and behaves like a nice caring doctor.(Cackle has studied various species so he actually can be a doctor). Bran is a very kind, generous, and open minded man.
Duukoul- Duukoul is a large male reptilian 8'5" ft. orange alien. He's extremely muscular, has soft but thick skin covered in smooth scales that shine like silk. He has two mouths. His second mouth is on his collar. Both mouths are wide and have large jagged teeth. His eyes are yellowish-green reptilian-like as well. He has large claws too, can see ultraviolet light and has six balls. (Duukoul's reptilian race is known as the Kargon)
Duukoul wears chainmail chausses, plated armor on his legs, thick hide boots, Thick metal bracers, no shirt so he can show off his muscles. Duukoul has tons of scar marks across his torso and arms. he's loud, outgoing, shameless, overconfident, loves fighting, biting heads off, and has thousands upon thousands of strange conspiracy theories from across the galaxy. 1/5 of them true. He will talk your ear off with theories if you let him.
Xarica is a purple skinned 9 ft. very tall and curvy female alien with 6 solid black eyes. Three on the left side of her face and three on the right. She appears to be in her late 20s and has long tentacles for hair. She's fairly muscular, and has very long fingers with no fingernails. She also has a very small stubble tail, and her head tentacles can sense emotions. (Xarica's race is known as the Serpha)
Xarica's outfit has strange alien symbols and patterns. She wears a loose gray tunic with matching gray pants, an open robe with a wide lavender silk belt around her waist. Fancy jewels and brass metallic parts decorate her outfit, and jeweled sandals. Xarica is a very strange woman that revels in bloodshed and speaks about strange alien customs and traditions that usually involve ritualistic sacrifices. She also likes to give massages. Especially when people are nervous or shy. Odd additional trait.
Lucas- Lucas appears to be a 5'7" ft. Chinese man in his early twenties. He has short black hair combed to the side, dark brown eyes, fairly tan skin, relatively muscular, average build, and has a burn mark on his left hand.
Lucas wears a long sleeved camouflaged shirt, a leather jacket, camouflage cargo pants, long white socks, goes commando, hiking boots, and a Nasa hat. Lucas claims to be a fisherman that loves learning about Nasa and space in general. Very friendly guy.
Tammy- Tammy appears to be a 4'3" ft. Greek girl that appears to be around the age of 11. She has long brown hair, bangs cut straight across at the eyebrow level. She is fairly small and has gray eyes, pale skin, a goofy grin, and a bandage over the bridge of her nose.
She wears a Star Trek science division t-shirt, a pink hoodie, green skirt with blue leggings, and pink slide on shoes. She's a bit of a nerd that likes to pretend she's a doctor. She acts far smarter than her age would suggest when she wants to.
Personality: Cackle's actual personality when he isn't being one of his alter egos is very calm and carefree. Every single one of his alter ego's display part of Cackle's personality but as a more exaggerated version compared to his true personality.
Abilities and Techniques:
assimilate- Cactisapiens can absorb a creature to gain its genetics thus allowing him to alter his dna and transform into that species of creature. Cackle swallows the target whole and the dna is assimilated into his body.
amorphous Cactaceae- Cactisapiens can grow, alter their dna, or change it completely. Though they cannot shrink. If a cactisapien wishes to become smaller, if must break off parts of its body. broken off pieces of cactisapiens make extremely potent fertilizer.
Spores(cactikins)- Cactisapiens can create spores which grow into cactikin. Cactikin are a small subrace of cactisapiens and are not true Cactisapiens. Cactisapiens still need partners to breed true Cactisapiens. Cactikins are ball shaped cactuses with glowing yellow eyes and mouth. They have small spikes across their body and four large spikes that serve as arms and legs. Cactikins can store water, the amount depending on their size. Cactikins can be anywhere from 1' ft. to 3' ft. in height. The larger they are the more water they can carry. Cactikins have a special property that allows the water stored inside them to be purified. Depending on how toxic or polluted the water, the cactikin can potentially become sick or die. Other cactikins can absorb toxins from their fellow cactikins to prevent this from happening. Despite Cactikin having sharp spikes, they are very weak to many possible attacks.
Flower power- The moisture inside Cackle's flowers can be used to close cuts, ease pain, and prevent infections.
strange facts:
-Cackle's has a rasp sandpaper sounding voice in his natural form. His voice changes with his alter egos.
- Yes, Cackle ate his best friend after he died. Very weird, but his friend was fine with it, and had expected Cackle would do it.
- The type of flowers that grow on Cackle are the ones that grow on moon cactus
-Cactisapiens can breed with other races (I straight up borrowed that one from mass effect Asari lore, this random added info serves no purpose other than kicks and giggles)
- Due to the experiments performed on Cackle, he can grow faster than normal cactisapiens.
-The race names were just made up. No deep thought was put into making them.
- Cactisapiens are near extinct
Backstory: Cackle was born in a research facility ran by Jaou, strange aliens that went extinct in the early 1600s. By this time Cackle had spent almost 50 years being raised and experimented on. At this point Cackle was known as Specimen 369, for he was not given an actual name. Specimen 369 didn't know either of his parents. Specimen 369 knew his mother was a Cactisapien just like he was, but Specimen 369 never knew if their father was one or not. Specimen 369 spent most of the first fifty years of his life as a spikey ball. He was accustomed to rolling around. Despite some of the experiments performed on him, the scientists were relatively kind to him and didn't punish him without reason. Though after a bloody war occurred. A bloody war between the Jaou and the Kargon. Most of the scientists at the facility would attempt to flee, only a few actually successful in their attempts. Specimen 369 was lucky and would be rescued by one of the scientists named Bran.
Bran was always the most kind to the specimens of the facility. Bran had a daughter of his own at the time, but still found time to take care of Cackle. The daughter was Branu(super creative). She was the girl to give Specimen 369 his name Cackle. Years later Bran's life would be taken by a kargon hunter. In Bran's dying moments, he managed to land a lethal blow against the would be killer. Cackle would go on to assimilate both of them. From this point in Cackle's life, he would go on to raise Bran's daughter, just like Bran had did for him.
, Cackle would assimilate him, and he would leave to start his own life.
"You gotta wake up Cackle! You just gotta!"
Cackle sat in a bed filled with sand. Three head lamps from different directions shined on the cactus ball. He looked over to see Branu attempting to wake him up.
"In a minute" Cackle said in his normal rough voice.
Cackle rolled out of bed, and began to grow, and grow. He rolled and rolled as he grew until he grew enough that he could walk on two legs. Cackle then reached the size of an adult. On his green skin, red spots here and there. Cackle walked outside as now his spikes began to fall off. His red spots began to grow, and bones began to form along his body. The cactus slowly began turning into a Jaou. He threw in his white outfit as well.
"It's a good time for breakfast, I suppose" Cackle spoke this time in a much softer voice, smiling and heading inside to cook breakfast for Branu.
"Yay!" Branu cheered.
"Let's see what we have here..." Cackle began muttering as he looked at all the ingredients. All sorts of ingredients that wiggled, jiggled, and moved on its own. Some of the food ingredients were slimy, others had tentacles, and there was one with eye balls that blinked.
He took a few ingredients ranging from fleshy purple cubes with throbbing veins, to a glass container filled with a glowing pink liquid that filled the surrounding area with a thick glowing cloud around the jar. The pink substance began turning a sickly yellow as it came into contact with oxygen. Cackle threw the cubes in the container before the contents inside the jar could turn yellow. He shuck it causing the cubes to swell and absorb all the pink substance. The purple cubes now a pale blue. Opening the container and watching the cubes slide out. The texture of the cubes was slimy and gelatinous.
Leaving it on the counter, it began to slowly shrivel up and harden. Though he grabbed a chunk of meat of gray meat , and diced it up. White liquids seeping from the meat as he diced it up. He placed the meat into a funny shaped pan and cooked it grabbing the cubes from earlier and crushing it in his hand. A powder substance fell from his hand, and sprinkled over the meat giving it a slight glow which faded after fully cooking it. The gray meat was now a shade of maroon. He also took two blue eggs, cracked them and scrambled them. Then grabbed two beakers from inside the fridge. One was a red liquid and the other a green liquid. Mixing them created a bright yellow mixture. Pouring it in a glass and serving the warm breakfast to the little girl.
A loud pounding on the door was heard. He gestured the girl to eat in a small room down the hall. After the girl went into the room, he pressed a button and an energy barrier covered the doorway. Moments later a hologram covered the energy barrier. Giving the appearance of a wall. Cackle went to the next room and began addressing and transforming into a large reptilian creature. He then put on the appropriate attire for the alter ego.
More knocking was heard. This time much louder. Followed by a loud gunshot.
"Coming!" Cackle said in a low guttural tone.
He opened the door and a large Korgan stood outside still holding his gun upwards.
"Duurkoul you bastard, you said you were going to the meeting today" the Kargon said.
The kargon was a friend of Duurkoul.
"And I will, Kraag" Duurkoul said.
Kraag believed Cackle to be a Kargon that lived by himself, unaware of the little girl that lived there.
"Let's go kill something! I'm bored. Maybe go invade that bug planet and burn some more houses down" Kraag said.
"Absolutely! Then we can go the club and get lucky" Duurkoul said.
"That's the kargon I know and respect! Hurry up and get to the meeting" Kraag said.
Cackle wasn't gonna do that today however. Today they were leaving planet for good. Cackle saved up enough money to buy an old transport ship in decent condition. A very old outdated spaceship.
Cackle went back inside and Branu had already left the small room as she too had a button to turn on and off the energy barrier/hologram.
Cackle snuck the little girl to the hangar bay and onto the ship. Kargon were still openly hostile to Jaou. Cackle had made arrangements to buy the ship a week in advanced and had finalized the ship's purchase three days prior to leaving the planet. Upon leaving the, the two began decorating the ship. This would be their new home now. The ship might have been old, but was fairly large and had 17 rooms.
engineering bay, circuitry bay, hyperdrive core room, a very large cargo room with cargo lift and a second floor, secret smuggling room, two large crew quarters, a surprisingly advanced medbay, cockpit, armory, turret room, loading room, docking/boarding room, main hold, kitchen, and two bathrooms.
The engineering bay is filled with tons of large machinery that run the ship.
The circuitry room has many machine parts like the engineering bay, but has more monitors and screens.
The hyperdrive core has its own room due to its large size. The hyperdrive core aboard this vessel was extremely large for a ship of this size seemed quite bizarre at the time.
The cargo bay is a large two story room featuring a a large cargo lift in the middle of the room.
The secret smuggler's cargo room is a subtle room built along the edges of the second floor in the cargo bay.
The medbay was extremely advanced considering the ship it was in. It held all sorts of medical equipment, tools, devices and three meditanks. People are submerged in meditanks to greatly accelerate the healing process.
The cockpit is where the pilot and co-pilot control the ship as well as six other people can comfortably sit.
The armory is pretty simple straight forward too, weapons, armor, and other possible ordinances can be stored.
The turret room has four turrets. Two automatic anti-starfighter turrets and two quad turbo lasers.
The loading room is a large bay area with catwalks around the entire room. Two starfighters can be placed in the loading room. Though years later Cackle will get anti-starfighters instead.
The docking/boarding room is a corridor that extends from the ship and is used to board hangar bays and other ships.
The main hold basically acts as a living room. It's where crew mates can rest and relax freely. there are plenty couches and chairs. The furniture was pretty old and ragged, but was still really comfy. Even aliens like to relax. There were tables and all sorts of board games and a futuristic alien gaming console with headsets. Basically a futuristic fancy VR machine. The players feel like they are actually in the game and can experience the feelings the virtual characters in game do. Over the years this room slowly becomes more and more decorated with pictures of Cackle's adventures. The three most important pictures that will eventually be added to the room are; A picture of Bran and Branu in1585 Bran was thirty-nine and Branu was Seven. This picture was taken two years before Bran rescued Cackle. The second photo was of Bran, Branu, and Cackle in 1587. This picture was taken three week's before Bran was killed. The last picture of of a very old Branu sitting peacefully in the co-pilot seat of the cockpit in 1689. This photo was taken three months before she died at the age of one hundred eleven.
The kitchen is filled with all sorts of cooking appliances, tools, and all sorts of strange food from across the galaxy.
The two large crew quarters are filled with bunk beds. No individual bedrooms. Though Cackle and Branu slept in different crew quarters.
The two bathrooms have exactly what you'd expect them to. A toilet, sink shower, and towels except really advanced and there is a tentacle inside the toilet cause aliens are weird. The toilets is voice activated. you tell it to flush. The 'tentacle is just there to help clean up, kinda like a budet shooting water to clean as well. You don't have to use the 'tentacle' if you don't want to. There is probably toilet paper too. The showers and sinks are shaped like bubbles and float.
Anyways... Two weeks after they left the planet they called home, they would take to space and would take on smuggling work. The pay was decent and the risks were extremely low. At this point in history, smuggling wasn't being taken too seriously so for years smuggling would slowly become more and more frequent and piracy would reach an all time high in the years to come.
Though for now, this wasn't a crew. It was a 52 year old cactus and a 13 year old girl. They had nowhere near the skill level to be great smugglers, which is why nobody ever expected them to smuggle. They got away with many close calls, and learned a lot over the years too. Becoming quite skilled in the process.
but back to the story... Two weeks after they left/abandoned their home planet!
They were sent to receive a crate of unknown and once they've secured the crate, only then would they be given a destination to drop the crate off to. What was in the crate? Where was the crate? There were many questions that didn't have answers given to them. One thing that they knew was it paid extremely well. They'd be set for life with the profit they would get for this. Plenty of red flags but they were all too eager to receive that payment.
They would arrive to the coordinates given. One thing that they didn't realize when they were heading to the coordinates was the fact that the crate was placed on a dwarf planet. A small outpost with 9 ft. walls and a two story building in the center stood right where the exact coordinates went. Cackle and Branu landed their ship a mile away from the base.
"Come on Cackle! Let's get it!" Branu said.
"I will get it" Cackle said.
"Yes! Together we are unstoppable!" Branu said.
"By myself" Cackle responded.
"All by yourself and your trusty partner Branu!" Branu said.
"Cackle will get the package while Branu waits on the ship" Cackle said.
"Waits on the ship after we get the package!" Branu insisted.
"Branu does not go to the base with me, nor does she get her brains blewn out" Cackle said.
"Cause Cackle is there to defend her! and I'm super fast! I'll have to drag you back myself!" Branu said.
"No" Cackle responded.
"Yes! That's final!" Branu responded.
"No" Cackle responded.
"Yes!" Branu responded.
This went on for a while before Branu put on crocodile tears.
Cackle looked at her sarastically before turning around to leave the ship.
"Wait!" Branu said contorting her facial expressions. Forcing herself to make a real tear roll down her cheek.
Cackle turned around and headed towards the boarding room.
"Please oh please oh please!" Branu Yelled running up to him grabbing his ankle.
"You stay with me, and be quiet or you stay on the ship for a hundred years" Cackle said.
"What?!?!" Branu yelled.
"This is exactly why I don't wanna bring you" Cackle said.
"B-b-but..." Branu stopped and placed her hand over her mouth.
Cackle went to get a space suit for Branu since she wouldn't be able to breathe on this planet. Cackle could store oxygen in his lungs. Cackle did throw a helmet on his head and grew his neck to prevent the little bit of oxygen in his helmet from excaping when he left the ship. Cackle also grew the rest of his body so he was now had the body size of a 7 ft. muscular man. They arrived at the base. Not too close as there would be eyes on them. Cackle would use some of his spore cactikins to try approach the base from the far side. 10 would suffice. Cackle and Branu would approach from the other side. Unfortunately this wouldn't go well as all ten of the cactikins would get shot down and leaving a bunch of soldiers confused and questioning if there were any plant creatures native to the small planet.
On the bright side, Cackle grew his legs an extra six feet in length, and stepped over the wall. Cackle being able to manipulate his body, broke off the extra six feet of legs, making him seven ft. once more. The legs he left behind would quickly decay and supply some nutrients to the planet. Whether this were enough for plants to grow was unlikely but possible. They were in a corridor. Nobody was there. This place didn't have a lot of men. They managed to sneak around. two guards walked down the hallway and were casually heading towards Cackle and Branu. Cackle gently placed a non-spikey part of his hand over the girl's mouth to keep her from yelling. By the time the guards reached where Cackle and Branu were there, they saw nothing.
"Did you hear something?" Guard #1 asked.
"Negative" Guard #2 said.
"Must be my imagination... I can't wait to get off this stupid planet. No bitches here. No casinos. The money ain't even that great" Guard #1 said.
"I'm looking at a bitch right now" Guard #2 said.
"Shut up! Let's finish our patrol so I can get fuckin' drunk. I smuggled some whiskey on planet. Want some? or are you gonna act like a smartass?" Guard #1 said.
"Roger that" Guard #2 said. The two guards walked off.
Cackle was right above the two guards pressing his arms and legs against the walls as he tried not to fall to the ground. Branu was sitting on Cackle's back careful not to get hurt by the spikes. Cackle lowered himself to the ground when they left. They found a stairwell that lead to the basement. Taking the stairs, the two went down another hall and hid inside a room when another patrol came by. Before the two could leave the room, the tracker they had leading them to the crate was beeping like crazy. It was right behind them. Cackle grew big, but needed a distraction if he was gonna get the crate out of there. The crate was metallic and had wires, and metal plates on it. It obviously looked important.
"What are we gonna do?" Branu whispered.
"I don't know" Cackle whispered.
"How are we gonna get this crate?" Branu whispered.
"I don't know" Cackle whispered.
"How are we gonna leave?" Branu whispered.
"...I don't know" Cackle whispered louder.
"What do you mean you don't know?" Branu whispered louder.
"Seriously? Did you hear that?" Guard #3 called out.
"Dunno" Guard #4 responded. The two walked into the room.
"Nothing" Guard #3 responded.
"Let's continue patrol. Nothing here" guard #4 replied.
As the two began heading out, Cackle smacked their heads together and placed them in the corner.
Cackle carried the crate and slowly began moving it. It was clearly taking a great deal of effort on Cackle's behalf. Though he managed to carry it through the door and around the corner. Branu ran back and forth making sure they didn't walk into another patrol or a patrol walking up behind them. Surprisingly they made it outside, and lifting the box over the wall was difficult. Cackle struggled to stretch his arms and lift the crate to the other side. He dropped it, causing the crate to thud. Cackle's heart stopped momentarily. The two managed to sneak over the wall as well. Cackle using his long arms to summersault over the wall. Branu holding onto his waist. Carrying the crate for a mile was difficult, but Cackle took a break when they were far enough from the base. They eventually reached the ship and headed into space. This went remarkably easy. Either the people at the base were incompetent, this was the wrong item/base, or they were badass, and Cackle highly doubted the ladder.
Well... it didn't take long for things to go to hell. Because not long after they took the crate and began flying off, a large war class ship had sent them a holo-message demanding they surrender immediately. The ship was far beyond armed to the teeth. No way they would win a battle against that thing. The warship would turn their home into scrap metal real fast. However their smuggling ship had a few things the warship didn't have. A hyperdrive core as powerful as the one in Cackle's ship. The hyperdrive in Cackle's ship was special. It was a expensive prototype that was intended to be mass produced but was stolen from the corporation that had built it. The hyperdrive core had been almost completely rebuilt to the point that it was impossible to tell who originally built it. How the original owner got their hands on it and why they sold it for so cheap was anyone's guess. Maybe the original owner was just crazy. No telling what story's the person could have.
Anyways, through a stroke of luck on Cackle and Branu's behalf, they managed to hit ftl speed pretty quickly. The ship took a few hits before it could reach ftl speed. The large warship would try pursue them, but would fail and ultimately call an arrest warrant on their heads. Cackle had assumed the people that shot at them were after the crate they took, but he wasn't gonna go back and ask. A day later they would be given a second set of coordinates. No idea where the coordinates would lead them. Just like the package location. Though they were in too deep to not follow through on the mission. They would have looked in the crate, but the crate had all sorts of wires and buttons on it. Cackle made the poor decision to accept the job, but he wasn't gonna be foolish and open the crate for fear of what could happen. They were past the point of no return and would need to continue.
Well safe to say, they didn't use ftl speed to get there quickly. While heading to the location, several ships had requested inspections. Who were they and what were they looking for? Cackle and Branu would pass each inspection, and as they reached the destination, not one but two ships approached their ship. One drifted in front of Cackle's ship, and the other behind it. They were outnumbered and had a strong firepower disadvantage. What's worse, a third ship. A dreadnaught class warship. It was smaller than the one they had escaped, but still very powerful. At this time Cackle was nearly about to freak out, but trying to keep a level reasonable head in front of Branu.
"Why are there so many ships here?" Branu asked.
"I don't know" Cackle said in his raspy voice.
"What do they want?" Branu asked.
"I'm not sure" Cackle responded.
"What's gonna happen to us?" Branu asked again.
Cackle sat there silently.
"Cackle?" Branu asked.
No response from Cackle.
"Are we gonna be okay? We're gonna be okay, r-right?" Branu asked nervously grabbing Cackle's arm.
"Y... Yes. Yes! of course little one. We will be, just fine" Cackle said snapping back into reality. He smiled at Branu, but all what Cackle could think of was 'how did he get them into this mess'. The answer was obviously staring him in the face, but he couldn't quite figure out how he could possibly get out of this mess. They couldn't escape like last time. They'd ram the ship in front of them. Turning or going another direction wouldn't be much better. Cackle had walked into the next room, and began to turn into Xarica. At the very least, when the people would see him, they wouldn't know he was a cactisapien.
Then it happened. Several people boarded the ship to inspect it. They wasted no time heading to the cargo bay. Most of the people looked throughout the bottom floor while two men went straight to the second floor. Which didn't quite sit well with Cackle. Not long after the others went up to the second floor along with Xarica(Cackle). One of the two men turned and looked at the other. He nodded and the other pulled out a device. This device seemingly did nothing. It was a jamming device meant to scramble communications within twenty feet. The device had a very short range, but was undetectable. The man who had nodded at his partner turned to the other soldiers, and point blank, pulled his gun out and shot one. then aimed for another. bam. Got him just before he could jump to cover. The others took cover and a firefight broke out in the room. The men being attacked couldn't contact their ship nor could they request reinforcements. In the meantime Cackle had hid behind some metal boxes before the fighting stopped.
Cackle looked between the cracks of the boxes. A confused reaction turned into a startled reaction. The two men were looking at the wall, but on the other side of the wall was the secret smuggler's compartment. Not too far from them was the crate he had taken. The second man looked at Cackle,
"Wh-" He was interrupted by the first man whom had shot the other men.
"Let me handle this... I'm expecting you to be a good girl and get me what I want, and I see to it that you get to leave here with your ship alive" The first man said.
Xarica was reluctant, but she went inside the secret compartment and went to the crate.
"Here it is, now take your crate and leave with it" Xarica said in a soft but firm tone.
"Smart move. Since you've been so compliant, perhaps you've earned a modest reward" The first man said placing a small stack of credits on a table. The money wasn't much. Just enough to pay for ship repairs, and buy food and other expenses for a week.
The two men ordered a crew of men to come over and secure the crate. As well as a few men to dispose of the bodies. He also contacted the other two ships and commanded them to leave to which they complied. Neither Cackle nor Branu would find out what was in the crate. Though evidently these reinforcements came. Took the crate and left, and the corpses. Leaving a purple alien and a little girl confused as to what happened. Well at least the two did walk away empty handed.