A Hunt for Sanctions

[Ultimatum]

"I am confident that the parts will work." Ultimatum was more concerned with the possibility of having to jury rig pieces, while they tended to work the certainty of that dropped considerably. He felt particularly concerned about the parts around the cores of the two droids. The lightening had damaged some of his more central components and they would need repair or replacement.

Taking the thin wire that had extruded from his back as his body followed orders, Ultimatum moved to his damaged left arm and manually forced the pieces of protective shell apart. He focused on getting to the wire connection, buried almost at the center of the arm, where a bone would have been on an organic. One nice thing about it was that inside the protective outer casing most of the components were held in place by wires and light tension, thus being able to move with little resistance. He pushed aside some of arm mechanisms and pushed a small hatch open on the inner circuit. He then pulled out the damaged wire, being broken and burned allowed the most destroyed part simply slip out. He then replaced it with the new wire, which slid into place, followed by the automatic repair spray that sealed the two ends to their new part, in this way completing the circuit of control. He tested his hand for a moment before closing the hatch and moving his components back into position before pushing the two covering plates back into place.

He looked to Zrixtas, now he could begin proper work on his friend. He was more concerned with the damage done to the Shard's droid body than his own because the Shard was immobile, or relatively so, without the droid body, making him vulnerable. Whereas Ultimatum could survive the complete destruction of his body and still be completely mobile. He began moving through the parts, removing that which was damaged as he asked, "Where is the most damage? Where should I focus my efforts?"

[member="Lord Zrixtas"]

 

[Lord Zrixtas]

Zrixtas began the internal diagnostic and didn't have to wait long for the diagnostic to come back with results. "My internal gyros and servo motors connecting to my limbs are damaged and the power wiring needs a new main line through my spine. Other than that it's not in need of immediate attention and I could do it while we go through the ship." He replied to [member="Ultimatum"]'s question as he opened his frontal chest and abdomen chassis to be worked on easier for his friend.

 

[Ultimatum]

"Very good. I will see what I can do with what we have here before salvaging parts." He helped open the chassis, trying to avoid damaging that which still worked. He moved his hands over various parts, holding them for his scanners to better see damages. The two areas most obvious were the two stated by [member="Lord Zrixtas"]. It was a mess, but fortunately nothing severely important had been damaged. He was still glad that the chamber containing the Shard's real body had not been battered. Having been specially made for it he was proud to see that it had not been broken.

He turned his attention to the leg's connection. Specifically he looked to the parts that were most obviously damaged. Most of it was electrical overload. That was actually a quite common problem with droids, especially in ships. An outburst from an engine might travel along the power conduits and some poor astromech might be working with the computer when the surge reaches it and overloads it. Normally permanent damage was avoided, but this electrical overload was much worse than a small engine surge. It was as if he had stood in front of a lightening bolt, which wasn't far from the truth actually.

He checked each motor and part to decide what necessitated a replacement and what could wait for later. He undid those pieces with fit the former and then memorized the parts so that he could then find replacements without having to carry around various components. After about five minutes he had finished one leg and smiled as he said, "I have come to the conclusion that you should not have stood in the way of that electrical blast." His voice was deadpan and completely serious, if not for the smile it could have been confused that the AI did believe what he had just said.

He began working through the other leg connection.

 

[Lord Zrixtas]

Zrixtas watched as [member="Ultimatum"] worked on his circuitry, with the force he had repaired his vocabulator to the best of his ability and despite a few distortions every so often it now worked well enough. He had one hand relatively intact which he used to hold or aid Ultimatum as he worked if he asked him to hold something or move something a bit to the side. When Ultimatum finished one of his legs and made his statement Zrixtas simply stared at him blankly before he began to giggle a little. "Well in that case I guess I'll avoid lightning storms from now on."

 

[Ultimatum]

"Very good. If it happens again your warranty will be void." He smiled as he replied. He was amazed at the giggle, not having believed that [member="Lord Zrixtas"] had set something like that in his circuits. He was amused and was glad that his Shard buddy was holding out well. He looked forward to getting the droid body up and running, they could probably move further in and find more droids, perhaps less damaged droids from which they could salvage better parts.

Only a minute or so later the other leg was repaired to the best or Ultimatum's abilities. This one mostly had parts that were in good shape, a few needed replacement. He held up a finger saying, "One moment." He walked to a droid nearby. It was frozen solid and Ultimatum had to smash the ice with his hands in order to reach the chassis beneath. This was then forced apart so that he could access the parts he needed. The legs were one of the parts most worn, but there was little frost damage which was good. He focused on gently pulling parts that he needed for his Shard.

He quickly came back to Zrixtas, carrying parts and components. He began putting pieces back into his friend.

 

[Lord Zrixtas]

Zrixtas moved his hand to his jaw and said in a very joking tone. "Oh NO don't take away my warranty." Before he laughed a little, he enjoyed the humor his friend [member="Ultimatum"] sometimes displayed it was a good diffuser of the current situation at any rate and it was enjoyable as well. Watching and helping were he could he moved his fixed leg to see it's range of motion and it was satisfying but he could only do it in short bursts until the main power line was fixed well enough. However to be able to move most of his body again even though he hadn't been able to move it for a short while it was still uncomfortable and it reminded him of the first century he had spent as simply a shard without a body to inhabit.
When Ultimatum recovered a few parts from a nearby droid he watched and helped once more until his other leg was fixed, at which point He stood up and moved one leg up and down as he got used to the new parts inside. His diagnostic program notified him that it was time to replace the parts in his legs but he simply shut it off since it would only annoy him for the remainder of the day given the parts his body was repaired with.
"I can move in short bursts now." He informed Ultimatum and then looked around a little bit better, however not seeing anything that could be of use to repair his main power line but then again they could just as well find it later inside the ship.

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum helped his friend up as he prepared to move. He knew that they would have to move further in to perhaps find pieces of better repair. He looked forward to getting his friend better fixed so that they could continue their journey. He was still very glad that the Shard had not taken damage, the droid body could be fixed much easier than the actual body of [member="Lord Zrixtas"], at least that was what he guessed.

Once the droid was upright, Ultimatum replied, "Then let's get moving, we will take as many breaks as you need. There is no rush after all I doubt that what we are looking for will be running away."

He began slowly walking down the hall, further in and hopefully closer to whatever was in this ship. He remembered though that he had seen somewhere else. If this was not the right place perhaps that other location was the correct one. Then again, there were probably things worth seeing in both places. If they did not find his AI here then he would simply have to find some more information first and then continue the search.

 

[Lord Zrixtas]

Zrixtas moved slowly as he could take two to four steps before having to stop for a second and then continue walking. "I have to say though I'm amazed your body isn't broken... new body with a different alloy?" He asked as he had noticed a bit of change in [member="Ultimatum"]'s body design but chalked it up to him experimenting with his form in the beginning. If there was one alloy he really wanted then it would have had to be a small chunk of beskar alloy to make the chassis around his actual body with, at least that way he thought he wouldn't have to worry as much about his true self when in combat.
"I've been thinking of making a new body only this time instead of durasteel I'd use Alusteel for the chassis, any ideas?" He then asked to at least hold up a conversation after the long silence that had been their trip to the ship and starting with a shared interest was always a good beginning anyway.

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum nodded to the first question, "Yes, Phrik. I am actually quite damaged, but the redundant systems still allow me to continue." He laughed at the ending. The way this galaxy was going he expected to have it tested before long. He hoped that the metal's supposed qualities were as good as the information he had picked up.

He listened to the concept of using Alusteel as a body. Certainly a droid body could be made of almost any substance. For some metals it just took a little more attention to detail. Durasteel was good for blaster resistant and general endurance, hence it was the most often used material for starships and vehicles. That was why he had found it most useful in his original body. He had used other metals as well, but this new one was made mostly of Phrik, aside from the internal components. He hadn't had enough to create an entire body of the stuff and he would not have done so even if he had had enough. Other metals were better for components inside a droid, truly it was amazing what those parts had to handle.

He decided to respond, [member="Lord Zrixtas"] "I think that would be an interesting idea. We could work on that once we get off planet. Have any other ideas for body metals?"

 

[Lord Zrixtas]

Zrixtas nodded to [member="Ultimatum"] when he answered his question. 'Phrik huh? could prove useful.' He thought before he listened to the other response from his friend. "Well I've been thinking about it for a while and while I'd have some tubing of Aluminium inserted so I can actually use force Lightning through my fingers, I might use a Duralium/Lanthanide mixtured alloy for the outer plating and use alusteel to reinforce the inner systems and perhaps a Diatium core so I don't have to charge as often, you might use that as well. Though on the subject of alloys or substances to use for a chassis there are a number to use such as Duraplast, Laminanium, Beskar, Matrix armor, Quadanium steel and Songsteel to name a few, I have been thinking on using Mullinine in any blade or tip on my body that I need to have perpetually sharp though." This was something he had spent quite a bit of time pondering over as the galaxy had so much to offer when it came to what to build his next body out of.

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum listened intently to his friend's ideas. He was amazed at how well [member="Lord Zrixtas"] had thought through most of this. Ultimatum was impressed and wondered at perhaps using some of the same ideas in future bodies, or updating current ones. He replied after his Shard friend finished, "I believe that those could be accomplished. Perhaps a line of various bodies for your use?" He grinned as he finished, Zrixtas did not strike him as a person who wanted lots of bodies. But then that was probably because he could not switch bodies in an instant.

He wondered which he would have preferred. For sharp edges perhaps this body's left hand would do, since it was also the one that had the Devaronian Blood-Poison crystals in the metal as well. He liked this body, lightsaber proof and strong enough to deal with most enemies. The next upgrades he would have to do would be to make it faster and longer lasting.

Spoiler

It was only moments later that the duo entered a large open area. Everything seemed covered in ice, a central column frosted over but obviously made of metal jutted up to the ceiling. Nothing was lit and the room was dark enough that most details were difficult to see, but gaps in the roof gave enough light and snow entrance to this space. Ultimatum moved to a console and scratched some ice off of the monitor, wondering if it would work.

"What do you think? This the place?" He asked Zrixtas, even though it still felt too soon he was giddy once more. He would not have minded it being here, after that little problem with the Sith he was glad that it wouldn't be long. Though he still could not shake that feeling.

 

[Lord Zrixtas]

Zrixtas seemed to raise and lower his shoulders a bit when [member="Ultimatum"] mentioned a line of bodies for him to use. "Well maybe a situational body or two wouldn't be a bad thing but I still don't know." He answered though they soon came into the room and he was a bit at awe over it. "Well it has a control room feel to it but I don't know if this is the central control room, this ships design has been quite alien to me." He answered as he pulled out one of his lightsabers and adjusted the length to that of a simple glow rod and used it to melt some of the ice away from the walls and console to help ultimatum.

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum was thankful for the lightsaber's warmth, it made his job just that much easier. He moved his hand across the screen to clear it of the quickly melting ice. Next he looked down at the controls. "Yes. It is quite different from what I am used to. The console here uses proper aurebesh though, even if it is an older set of letters." He clicked a few buttons, before seeing a button which seemed most like a power switch. He flicked it and waited a moment. A whirring sound could be heard, but the terminal did not change from a black screen.

Ultimatum was slightly disappointed, but not too surprised. "Well, hoped it would have worked. Let's see what we can do?" He turned to [member="Lord Zrixtas"]. "Can you look for any other consoles on that central station? I will try to get this thing up and running. Maybe the AI is in one of these droids, or it could be within this command console." He knelt down and pulled hard on the still slightly frozen cover over the bottom of the terminal. There was an the obvious damage of freezing parts like this. Computers were not as resilient as droids in that regard.

Beyond that, the terminal seemed to have taken a bash to it or something down here. Some of the components had been smashed inwards. They would need replacing, or at least he would have to figure a way to bypass those parts of the systems. He did know that nothing like the memory banks had been damaged, those were probably elsewhere in the ship, safely sealed off. Of course those could have been destroyed in the crash that brought this ship here. He could not help that, but he would not know if they were damaged until after the terminal was started up.

 

[Lord Zrixtas]

Zrixtas nodded and began to make his way around the room to melt the ice around what looked to be important areas. He then found a slight dent into a tube that ran up the side of the wall that seemed to be connected to the spire that connected to the main console which [member="Ultimatum"] was currently tinkering with. Taking out the rifle he had inadvertently kept as a sort of crutch for balance when his legs stopped every so often, he took out the power pack and punched the pipe open.
A few wires could be seen and one Zrixtas recognized as the power line. With a minute or two's worth of tinkering of his own he spent the power pack into the main power-line and after a few long moments the Ship seemed to sputter to life, it's power systems anyway as the datapad on the wall next to the doorway leading into the room came to life though the lights seemed to have all been too damaged to bring to life but at least now they had some power in the ship which hopefully would make some things easier.

 

[Ultimatum]

"Good job." He nodded to [member="Lord Zrixtas"] as he set the last part of the wiring into place. The terminal lit up with the whirring sound becoming more pronounced, until Ultimatum put the cover back into its place. He moved his hands over the keys, trying to activate something on it. At first nothing happened, but soon after icons appeared on the screen. First came the symbol of the old Sith Empire along with the word Fatality. This was followed by the symbol of Czerka. This was followed by some words about security and warnings. A screen then showed the schematics of the HK-51 unit, with data and number showing that it had been redownloaded to this computer after having been deleted at some point a long time ago.

The screen went black for a few moments and then opened to a main screen. "Okay. HK-51 is the model. These things were illegal at the time of these guys production. If I had to guess, the Empire bought some from Czerka and then lost the ship here. I don't think this is that place we are looking for. Thought an HK unit would be a good ally in any fight. Perhaps we can get one up and running. Want to try that?" Ultimatum turned to Zrixtas, wanting to see what his friend thought.

The computer had information on the fact that all the droids were damaged on the ship. That meant that it would probably take time to get one repaired using parts from other droids. Ultimatum did not expect it to take longer than three hours even so. In that time they could probably also find more parts to continue repairing themselves.

 

[Lord Zrixtas]

Zrixtas nodded. "That would come in handy though should't we also download the schematics for ourselves as well? I mean we could upgrade them to modern versions." He then said as he looked over a decommissioned HK droid that lay in the corner of the room. He moved to it and picked it up just to see it's legs fall off, 'right this will be useful' He thought as he placed it on the top of a useless console and began to strip the droids chest through as he looked through the parts. One part he found was an intact main power line though it was too short to be used as a replacement but should he find another of equal size he could splice the two together to make a whole power line to replace his damaged one. "Well we can always just kill time, after all there is a blizzard out there." He then said as he coiled the power line around his wrist for safe keeping for now, he looked towards [member="Ultimatum"] then as he spoke. "What we do need are some better tools."

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum was embarrassed at that. Normally he would have thought of something like copying schematics for later use. He wondered why he had not thought of it now, but it did not matter too much, he would enjoy working on something like this. It was often said that the older galactic powers were more sophisticated and more advanced in technology. Ultimatum would have agreed for one reason alone, over the last four to five millennia no substantial technological advancement had truly occurred. Laser weaponry had been around for that long and had never been upgraded or advanced, shield technology was much the same. Science was supposed to be an ever growing and expanding field, yet it was stagnant and had been for many years. He was disappointed with that, he was not scientifically inclined, he had not been built that way, it would take much time before he could program himself with the ability to create innovative and new technology. Until then all he could do was really just upgrade the old to become useful in the current galaxy.

He pushed a few keys before he focused his eyes on the schematics. He copied the information before switching to the next page. There were about ten pages of these schematics for him to copy before at last he could step away. He turned his attention to the other things that [member="Lord Zrixtas"] had said. "Yes. Tools. Probably somewhere on this ship, or what's left of it, there is a maintenance room. There is probably even an emergency supply right here in this room somewhere." He moved to a wall and began feeling along it, for the outline of a box or something. If there were a supply nearby it would likely be inside a small locker so that it didn't get shaken around too much or lost.

"What have you found so far, parts wise?" He figured he would ask as he moved slowly around the room, feeling about where an arm could easily reach.

 

[Lord Zrixtas]

Zrixtas looked towards [member="Ultimatum"] and moved his head from left to right a few times. "Well, I've found four servo motors, some plating and a few workable wires along with half a powerline." He said with a slight chuckle as he found how Ultimatum looked a little silly the way he was fumbling against the wall. Zrixtas stood up and left the disaselbed corpse of the HK he had looked through, holding the parts he could salvage from the droid. A part of him kind of liked it, it reminded him of when he was scrounging through a large tech dump from the clone wars. It was how he made his first body.

 

[Ultimatum]

It took a bit before Ultimatum responded with a short laugh, "This is the first time that I have had to build a droid like this. From the body that we first met in I assume that you have done this before, right?"

He continued to feel along the wall until a ridge was felt. He pulled his hand back and smashed a fist onto the ridge, shattering the ice that could be holding the door. However, it was nothing but a minor ridging in the ice, not the outline of a door so when he smashed the wall ice simply fell and a portion of wall was exposed. He bet that looked silly as he continued feeling along the walls. He wondered how many of those parts would be needed to repair a full droid as well as what [member="Lord Zrixtas"] would need. So far the Shard's droid body seemed to be doing alright. The replacement parts had not broken yet which was a good thing, of course it would not be until they put more exertion on the parts that it would be determined whether they were strong enough.

 

[Lord Zrixtas]

Zrixtas had to chuckle a little at that. "Well of course though the parts I used weren't nearly as old as these but then again these are pretty well preserved as well." He said as he stood up and moved to the side as he peered over [member="Ultimatum"]'s shoulder at what he was doing. "What are you doing?" He then asked curiously.