A Hunt for Sanctions

[Ultimatum]

Zrixtas moved to Ultimatum's shoulder and the droid responded calmly, "I am trying to find a container of repair tools. I am certain if it is in here it will probably be hidden so as to keep it from being thrown around during hyperspace jumps." He took a few more steps before feeling another divot, this one more pronounced. He also found that there was no ice that covered the latch. He pulled lightly and a door began opening.

He smiled as he continued, "Like this. Let's see what we have here to use." He grabbed one of the cases inside the cache. He stepped away and opened it, looking through the contents. It would have been a normal working kit, but some of the tools were frozen and beyond repair. There were other cases and they would have to see if the tools damaged in one were the same as others.

[member="Lord Zrixtas"]

 

[Lord Zrixtas]

Zrixtas nodded to what [member="Ultimatum"] had said, it made sense to look for tools and if there were multiple cases then it could stand to reason they could possibly build a complete working kit. "Let's see if there are any more tools in there." He said as he reached inside the cache and pulled out another case, it was a little like the other. Some tools were unusable but there were a few usable in this kit that weren't usable in Ultimatum's kit. "Perhaps we can make a full kit with a few tools extra in case some break?"

 

[Ultimatum]

"Sounds good." He finished with his case, removing the damaged tools and placing them to the side of the wall. It was only a few moments before had had about two thirds of the tools on the ground. It was somewhat disappointing but he had expected less. He brought the kit and walked over to [member="Lord Zrixtas"], saying, "Missing a Hydrospanner and a quite a few others. How about you?"

He knew that quite a few would be required to actually work on any of these droids. He expected there to be enough damage that more than a simple tool would be required to finish even one. That and they would have to extricate some of the parts from other droids, something that was not always easy to accomplish, depending on the location of the part.

[member="Lord Zrixtas"]

 

[Lord Zrixtas]

"I have a hydrospanner but I'm missing a screw drill and hydrogrips, along with a few of the less useful ones." Zrixtas replied as he threw a useless screwdriver over his shoulder. There was a hammer in the kit he could use but then again him and [member="Ultimatum"] could just as well use their fists as hammers so it was really all relative.
Standing up he went to get another case and going through that one they soon had a full kit with an extra hydrospanner, hammer and hydrogrip between them. "All right so now we have tools." He began as he was using the hydrospanner to fix his hip joint as it was a little off. "Now what?" Zrixtas had absorbed himself so much in taking apart the droid and then resembling the kit with Ultimatum that he had ultimately forgotten why they needed the tools to begin with.

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum was glad to see a full kit assembled so quickly. He wondered how many of these tools they would actually use, but then again it was better to have a full set and not use some than to have a partial set and need some of the missing pieces. Now would come the interesting part, reconstructing one of the droids. Of course that would probably entail going through multiple of the droid bodies looking for pieces for a single one. Perhaps they should look for the least damaged droid first and then begin collecting parts for that one. However, if they went straight to work on another it may be quicker to finish.

Ultimatum decided that going with the less damaged would be the best course of action, that would mean that there was less needed to repair the droid and therefore less likelihood of damaging parts. He would expect the overall integrity of the droid to be better if most of it was in good condition. He turned to [member="Lord Zrixtas"] as he responded, "I believe we should look for the least damaged droid of a certain number. I am sure there are too many to realistically search them all, so we will go through perhaps fifteen, maybe twenty, and work on the droid that has the smallest amount of damage. From there we can collect pieces from the others to repair the droid we decide upon. Sound alright?"

 

[Lord Zrixtas]

Zrixtas nodded to [member="Ultimatum"] as he finished his hip joint. "That it does, having an extra pair of hands around in this situation is ideal I'd say." He then responded as he placed the hydrospanner back into the kit, moving his leg around to test it a little. Picking up the kit and placing it under his arm as he looked around the room. "Is there anything else here we could get our hands on?"

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum thought for a moment on the question. There was probably weapons around as well, though he doubted that they were in better condition than their intended users, likely the droids. He bet that they were housed nearby, it would behoove the original makers to have kept the weapons in the same room even for the ease of deployment. He was even willing to bet that there was an automatic function in the central column where the weapon would be given to the droid before it was even properly activated.

"We could probably give the room another sweep, but for now I would suggest we focus on the droid. At least then we will have accomplished one goal." He was already looking at some of the droids, he was glad these droid were built so efficiently, their internal components could be placed anywhere but the shape of the body and where it was thicker gave an idea of where some of the vital pieces were. He could then use a scanner to look over the body. He would have used a scanner within his own body, but it had been damaged from the electricity. Now he was using one of the kit scanners. This first droid did not look so good. The cold had done well on this one, destroying most of the parts that would be difficult to replace.

[member="Lord Zrixtas"]

 

[Lord Zrixtas]

Zrixtas worked one of the droids that they had found as best he could to determine it's condition but there weren't enough parts to fully fix up the droid and it was worn down with the cold. "I can turn it on and have only the head functional right now but I don't think this will be any good. Most of the wiring is too Frozen to work probably and will probably fry when I turn it on." He then said as he stood up from the open chassis of the droid to look at [member="Ultimatum"] who was using a scanner from the kit. "Anything on your end?"

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum moved to the next droid, listening to [member="Lord Zrixtas"]'s report. Well this was not going to be easy, but then again he had hardly expected this when he had made the decision to hunt down this artificial intelligence. He was glad that things had gone as well as they had, until the last half hour or so. The Sith attacking and trying to find their way to the wrong place was not what he would have considered enjoyable.

He looked to the Shard Sith and responded, "Not very well. I got good pieces, but if the wiring won't hold there will be little reason to extract them. I bet that there will be better pieces in the more tropical region. We would have to lug this guy around until that point. Which would you suggest?" He could carry one of these droid bodies around for quite some time, but it would be what he preferred to have done.

 

[Lord Zrixtas]

"Hmm well it would be ideal to find one in the tropical regions but then again that one could have some damage from the humidity." Zrixtas replied to [member="Ultimatum"] as he began to rub his chin in thought. "Well despite that we still have a blizzard out there to worry about." He then said as he put the tools away into the kit and placed it on his belt for safe keeping.

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum chuckled to himself, "Not that there is much left to damage, the cold made sure of that." [member="Lord Zrixtas"] was right however, there really wasn't anywhere to go. The blizzard would keep them pinned for now, considering their damaged condition, he doubted that they would survive long. However from his estimations it would not last much longer... hopefully. His meteorological scanners and calculations were far from correct even fifty percent of the time.

Ultimatum looked at the droid again. This thing was in bad shape, but given time it could be repaired. Then again a new one could be made on Mustafar. Next time he got his connection working he would send the information to Mustafar factory and get them working on this droid. "I think I found the right place we need to go, but that will be in a more volcanic region. It is pretty close though, based on some of the calculations I made."

 

[Lord Zrixtas]

"Oh? so this place is like a ecological nightmare then." Zrixtas joked to himself as he looked towards the computer. "Hey could you pass me the specs to these things when you have the time after all of this?" He then asked as he took a seat on a nearby table. [member="Ultimatum"] did have the facilities to handle all of this so much better than he could but the opportunity to tinker with one of these droids was a tempting one to him.

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum laughed at [member="Lord Zrixtas"]' joke. Yes, this planet was a mystery in the ecological sense. Apparently scientists had tried to find out at one point why there was such diversity in areas, but to no avail. There were some weird things in the galaxy that would never be explained, perhaps the future would give a better answer, but until then it was best to try hard but not go overboard.

"Shouldn't be a problem with that." He absently picked at a few of the parts on the droid. There really was not much to do at this point. The parts on this droid, those that were still attached, were in mostly good condition. It was a few moments later that Ultimatum noticed that the audio input had lowered by about a third. The subtle sound of heavy wind moving through the ship. Did that mean the blizzard was weakening? That would be good, they could move on. These droids were too damaged anyways, it was an inefficient gesture at this time. Perhaps later he could come back and salvage some, but for now it was better to focus on the real objective. "Do you think you can make a long hike? I think we may have our window of opportunity."

 

[Lord Zrixtas]

"I hope so." Zrixtas said as he took out a hydrospanner and tightened up his hip section and began to soon notice that his legs were moving a lot better now that before. "I think I can now." He then said to [member="Ultimatum"] as he moved the spanner back into the kit and then moved his legs to test out the maneuverability, with that he nodded that he was ready to move out if Ultimatum was.

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum nodded his approval. He did not plan on leaving [member="Lord Zrixtas"] behind. The droid lifted the somewhat damaged HK unit onto his shoulders, working it a little so that it would bend enough for him to hang around his shoulders. He could have new pieces made on Mustafar to finish repairing the droid. Until then he would be a weight that potentially slow down the group a little. Never knew, maybe they would find someway or repairing it slightly on the way.

"Let's go then." He began leading the way back outside the ship. Near the entrance they passed by the mostly covered body of the Sith Zrixtas had killed. The snow around her head was red with the blood. Ultimatum paid no heed to it, the Sith had been a threat and Zrixtas had dealt with it. His dislike of killing was tempered by the fact that she would have ended them all the sooner. He stepped out into the open, the snow was still blowing but nowhere near as strongly as earlier. "You think you can handle this?"

 

[Lord Zrixtas]

As Zrixtas followed after [member="Ultimatum"] he looked down at the sith he had killed and took the all temperature cloak he had given her and draped it over himself, he'd throw it away later. When he looked out he sighed a little and wrapped the cloak around his chest to cover his shard core. "I am, but I think we shouldn't linger in the winds for longer than we need to."

 

[Ultimatum]

"I agree." The droid stepped out and began walking through the snow and making his way towards the caves that would lead them hopefully towards the volcanic zone. [member="Lord Zrixtas"] was most definitely right, this place was one nightmare of an ecological mystery. Whatever had caused this planet to become the way it was, that would be a force to reckon with. Certainly it would have to be some ancient species that had had more power than anything the organics of this time had ever seen.

That brought a strange question to his mind. Why did it seem that the civilizations in this galaxy seemed to be in a constant downward slide to ultimate decay. The ancients had had technology far beyond anything that had been accomplished since and then from there everything was going downhill. Only recently did things seem to be leveling out, perhaps rising a bit more, but there was a disturbing lack of scientific advances. There were so many areas to explore. Yet the organics failed to even try, they laid back in their technological cradle and dreamed of unlimited power.

It was only a few minutes before they reached a different cave entrance, this had a map as well, however it was more worn. There was also large stasis cells on either side of the tunnel. None of them were functioning, and no noise could be heard. The occupants had probably died a long time ago. Ultimatum looked to [member="Lord Zrixtas"] saying, "This may be the way. How you feeling? Holding out alright?" The droid was somewhat upset that he was uncertain as to which direction would be the correct one, but he knew that at this point it was better to keep moving for now.

 

[Lord Zrixtas]

As he walked after [member="Ultimatum"], he made sure to keep up the pace but also to have steady footing as they made their way through the snow covered area. When they came upon the cave he had a good look at the map though it was worn it did show them were they were. When Ultimatum asked his question, Zrixtas looked at him and nodded. "Yeah, though we both could use better parts to repair ourselves I'm holding up all right and you?" He asked as he looked around the cave and found a small rock he could sit down on and remove the snow from his legs servos and joints.

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum agreed, they definitely could have used better parts to repair themselves, not that the parts were really available. Ultimatum laid the HK down gently against the wall before taking a seat near to [member="Lord Zrixtas"]. "I've had better days. That being said, we have done better than I had expected given the turn of events. I certainly hope this venture turns out well, I wold hate to have dragged you all the way out here just on a ghost hunt." After that he fell silent for a few moments, gently tapping ice out of his joints, thoughtfully.

This was a situation in which he had not expected himself or had any experience with it. He stopped for a moment and looked back to his droid companion, "I would guess that you have been through this sort of situation before. When you built your first body did you have this happen a lot?" He had tried to figure which way to go, but Zrixtas probably needed the time just to get some of the ice out before continuing. A few minutes would not hurt at this point.

 

[Lord Zrixtas]

"It did happen a lot that an arm fell off because the magnetic clamp was buggy but with time I managed to fix it." Zrixtas responded in almost a chuckle to [member="Ultimatum"] as he managed to get the last bit of ice from his joints. "You should try to be in a compiled together body for a short while makes you appreciate the better working ones all the more." Zrixtas then said in a tone that would be given with a smile as he stood up and moved the legs to make sure all the ice was out of them.