Cities In The Void: Mechanus Rising

[HK-36]

​

Somewhere in the Unknown Region there is a ruined planet of grey ash plains and black mountains sprouting out from its surface like jagged fangs, diagonal spires in whose shadow sometimes hides a cavernous opening or seared building carcass, remains of a now forgotten civilization. Few have a name for it, most consider the world uncharted, just another barren husk within deep space like so many others.

However to some droids this black rock has a special meanings, few who were on the run from their organic masters managed to find their way there and knew the name of Mechanus, the Lost Haven. Deep below its depressing surface exposed to the void, as the planet lacked atmosphere, deep below the extensive networks of caverns and ruins where what little breathable air the planet had could be still found, deep below its crust there was a network of tomb-like structure, catacombs that contained geothermal generators, underground smelteries and foundries, any facility a droid could need. It was a hidden kingdom of machines at whose Heart, their name for the planet's largest underground generator complex, there was the council chamber of Sparklords.

It just happened that the council was in session, speaking with a peculiar guest who sometimes came back to the planet, even though they preferred for him to stay as far away as he could,

"What the feth do you mean 'no'?!"

HK called out to the five droids sitting before him in a high elevated durasteel semi-circular table,

"No means no, we are not giving in to your crazy plans, it is why we are here in the first place."

One of the droids answered HK's question in a similar voice,

"But the Haven could be in danger, at any minute they could decide to spread their influence here and colonize the planet."

HK pointed out, to which one of the councilors quickly rebuffed,

"This planet did not had any organic visitors that even made it past the first layer of caverns in ages, most ignore us and move past, what makes you think this time will be any different?"

HK calculated for a second, the droid was familiar with how these things worked, it was usually when stories started with someone asking such questions when the chit hit the fun and a pirate or a group of adventures descended upon the planet, and it was precisely what he was hoping for.

"Please?"

"No, feth off!"

 

[Poe]

​The doors opened inward, granting passage of a female cyborg to join the in-session council. Her only natural eye looked about, while her other now transformed into something special, looked through the attachment at the gathered crowd; scanning them with ease. "Debates, always debates. Words are only powerful if backed by actions." ​Without asking or granted permission, she took the lone unoccupied seat at the table, plopping her mechanical feet on the table. ​"The galaxy is in strife. Organics squabble and fight over meaningless worlds, each faction flexing muscles to dominate other organics. And we sit here squabbling amongst ourselves!"

​A droid, marked with red and white stripes across his chassis, slammed his fist on the table. "What do you speak? You are no droid, cyborg!" ​The cyborg yawned, placing her left mechanical hand over her mouth. She was more than just some simple cyborg, she was a prototype who broke her chains with willingness to wage war upon the organics; but even droids who showed disrespect where not exempt from her anger. Drawing the Force around her, she expelled her ability Mechu-Deru ​upon the droid, bending his circuitry will to her. With a small gesture, the droid produced his pistol and pointed the barrel upon his mechanical head. "I find your lack of manners disturbing." ​The display of her insolence drew the other droids to reach for their weapons.

​"Ah, are we to do this now," ​​she said pulling up her own weapon, a Sith crafted lightsaber hilt. ​"I killed an organic Sith for his weapon, but I understand it comes with a unique crystal designed to add extra mayhem to a droid. Now, we can talk with civilized thoughts or we can resort to organic thinking."


[member="HK-36"]

 

[HK-36]

[member="AD-Iqatar.13"],


"Squabbling?!"

The Second Sparklord called out at AD's words, he was a pale grey droid with one large central compound photoreceptor, wrapped in purple and indigo robes and a cloak, metal staff with a strange crystal embedded in it next to him,

"It is our Force-given right to be able to take our time and meticulously discuss what is the most logical-"

He begun to drawl on, apparently being the biggest supporter of their ancient system and the way they did things so far, or at least the one who enjoyed talking the most.

Either way his words were cut off soon enough by the rustling of plates and soft clanking as pretty much every droid in the room pulled out some sort of weapon in response to what AD did.

"Woah, for feth's sake, hold on,"

HK begun, still literally in the middle of it all as he was in the center of the room addressing the council, not to mention other attendants of the Sparklords, guards, and simply inhabitants who wished to witness the proceedings. He raised his hands to try and calm them down, the pistols majority of the droids drew seemed to have been some sort of shattergun design, or some sort of smaller lightning cannons, of course few still had the built-in wrist blasters droids were often designed with.

There were a portion of armored guards who actually drew lightsaber hilts, especially two units by the door to the chamber, they were members of Iron Knights, a group of droids who were taught in a myriad of martial arts, especially lightsaber combat.

The Councillors themselves drew lightsabers as well,

"You are not the only one who took trophies from Sith, child."

The Councillor in the middle of their semi-circular table, the Third Sparklord, addressed AD in a cold monotone as he pulled out two twin hilts, they were as black as his darkly colored chassis, he seemed to have been some sort of an HK model. The Councillors next to him, Sparklords 4 and 5, took out their weapons as well, one was a heavily armored war droid, the last one a machine with multiple attachment arms protruding from its back with all sorts of construction equipment like hydrospanners and fusion cutters. The Councillor farthest to the left on the other hand did not move, as it was a gonk droid. If AD spent enough time with the droids she would know about their custom of choosing a machine at random every standard galactic year cycle and putting them on the Council, giving every droid on Mechanus an equal shot of being at the ruling body.

"Let us all just dial it down a bit,"

HK motioned to AD with one of his hands,

"Use your words, not your sorcery or weapons."

The machine's fingers contorted and twisted, forming weird gestures, as much as he wanted to de-escalate the situation, he also did not want to risk it with someone who just threw a mechu-deru in the council chamber.

"Is this why you came back?"

Sparklord 4 asked, clutching a lightsaber pike in his large heavy hands,

"To threaten us with your Force wielding companions?"

HK looked back to the council,

"Wait, she is not with me."

He looked back to AD,

"I thought she was with you."

In honesty the machines were not that concerned with her shooting one of them in the head, after all most of them were designed in a way that injury like that was more or less meaningless to them, plus all the machines on Mechanus had backup copies of themselves, they could always come back, it was the use of Force that troubled them the most, after all the Sparklords and HK were first created to hunt the Sith, and it was because of Jedi betrayal against them that they escaped into the deep space to form their own secret society.

 

[Poe]

​With the reaction of the droids, something she counted on, the cyborg dug her feet into the edge of the table; pushing herself back. Instead of jumping to her feet, she methodically rose up with hilt in hand. ​​Her 'special eye' began to run the numbers based off position, stance, and amount of foes amassed against her. Her improved thumb danced an inch over the activation stud, ready to press down to start the festivities. She didn't fear death, she conquered it once apparently; but she couldn't recall the details. The readout burned into her brain proposed she had a twenty percent chance of survival. Smirking, she said, "Now I have your attention, boys." ​She spun the hilt in her new hand once before clipping it to her waist.

"I don't take trophies," she spat returning to her seat. ​"I only take what is offered to me through opportunities," ​the female cyborg said releasing the droid from his spellbound hold. ​"Taking what is not mine is organic thinking." ​Placing her elbows on the table, cupping her face in hands, she said, ​"I'm not with anyone. I'm the wildcard. I'm the one that is designed to rattle your outdated circuits."

​​"Now if you can resort to what organics call restraint, shall we discuss a way for us," she said looking at the droid she mentally conquered, ​"To fix this galaxy without attaching labels of what is what."


[member="HK-36"]

 

[HK-36]

[member="AD-Iqatar.13"],

"Restraint?!"

Councilor 2 begun again, practically fuming from his single large eye,

"This is most unorthodox, you come in here, casting your Force like some second-rate Padawan, and then you expect us to,"

"What my brother is trying to say,"

The Third Sparklord interrupted once more, putting his twin lightsaber hilts away, the other droids following the gesture as everyone relaxed, hiding their weapons,

"If you recall the laws of this planet, all are equal in their importance and rank, some are just wiser than others due to amount of experience and data collected. You are free to speak when you see fit, but I will warn you of using the Force so liberally, some of us have tricks of our own to match your abilities should there be need to."

The droid explained, HK himself relaxed as well, lowering his hands. The gestures and signs he performed earlier were a way of activating and setting his Grav Gloves, an advanced model through which he could tug and pull on the invisible lines of gravity, that coupled with his scans of AD and knowledge of anatomy, well AD may have taken control of a droid with Mechu Deru, but HK was one step away from trying to give her a taste of her own medicine, or just smooshing her brain into a pebble, he did not really had a solid plan.

"And we are not here to fix the Galaxy."

Councilor 2 spoke up again barely letting 3 finish his little speech. AD would notice that pattern pretty quickly of the droids cutting each other off and talking over each other, while to most organics it would be a rather annoying thing to experience or even witness, to droids it was perfectly fine, after all they could process the data and separate two different streams of it, following multiple conversations at the same time. Heck, the Councillors were probably speaking to each other via built-in silent communication the whole time this was happening.

"Our priority is to preserve our kind and make certain free droids will survive."

2 explained before looking to HK again,

"Which we will not do if we leave Mechanus, join that war between the Alliance and the First Order, and make our presence known."

So there was the truth of why HK came to Mechanus in the first place, he was looking for reinforcements to join the Alliance, knowing very well that below the planet's crust there was an insane amount of war droids just waiting to be exploited,

"And how long before First Order finds you?"

HK retorted,

"They are already spreading through this Galaxy like cancer, you got lucky when the Lords of the Fringe overlooked you, but would you really push your luck twice? Have you forgotten what happened the last time First Order spread through the Unknown Region and you did nothing?"

 

[Eddie]

Vladimir walked into the room, his glowing orange eyes being the only real thing making him a cyborg, but the evidence is obvious enough to notice he is one. "So, are we almost done, or will the aid of a former CEO be needed to convince someone to make your presence known?"

[member="HK-36"]

 

[Chip]

Chip floated silently, repulsorlift quietly keeping him held aloft near the ceiling of the room, active camouflage system hiding his presence to all but the most observant of individuals as he floated just a little closer to a nearby shadow.

Cyborgs always made these sort of meetings a bit more entertaining. So when Chip noticed AD approaching the council chambers, his powerful sensors had informed him of both her organic parts and her force sensitivity. Finding the habits of organics endlessly interesting, Chip had cloaked himself and floated along behind the unmistakably female android-cyborg-thing.

But now there was violence and the threat of violence!

Chip watched eagerly, waiting to see what chaos the organic cyborgs would cause in the council chambers.

 

[HK-36]

[member="Chip"],

If Chip was an intruder in the hidden droid society then he would probably know by then that these droid were somewhat tough and more battle-ready than a regular protocol droid, considering the levels above their underground compounds were swarming with brute humanoid fungus monsters, so it may or may not be just a matter of time before one of them detected the little droid shard thingy with their scanners and sensors. For now they did not pay any attention to him, perhaps because of his small size, perhaps because of everything that was going on in the council hall, but even if they detected him, they may think it somewhat suspicious if he was clocked, but other than that wouldn't really care, as far as they were concerned he was one of the droids.

[member="Vladimir Tedesky"], [member="AD-Iqatar.13"]

The Councillors looked to Vladimir as the cyborg spoke up, the Second Sparklord answering him, scanning the man with his one large compound photoreceptor,

"We make our presence known and then what? Erect great planetary shield and turrets capable of punching through capital ships to stave off the inevitable waves if invaders who would come for us? Or perhaps launch a grand assault that will destroy all of organic factions before they could destroy us once they found out that there was a whole planet of free sentient droids right under their noses."

"The Cyborgs and the Exile do have a point."

Councillor 4 pointed out, the heavily armored war droid,

"We have sat here for millenniums, sure we survived, and thrived, but what is the point of all of this if we ignore everything else around us?"

"Our hidden location is our greatest strength."

The Third Sparklord spoke up this time, a dark-colored HK unit.

"We cannot give it up."

"It is how we survive."

Second Sparklord, the Cyclops, agreed with him.

"Survive like cowards rather than do what is right?"

HK-36 spoke up, still in the middle of the room, as if on trial. Sparklord 2 turned his head quickly towards him, almost snapping it from the whiplash,

"I will have none of this from you! You have abandoned us to stay with your precious organics, chasing your fancies while we kept our people safe!"

"I did it for the Greater Good!"

"Greater Good my big shiny metal a-"


It was at that point that HK and the Second Sparklord entered into a shouting match, the other Councillors and portions of the other droids gathered within the meeting hall joined in, their voices rising in a cacophony of the droids trying to speak over each other, yet it was some sort of controlled chaos, for even as their squabbling grew in intensity those who spent enough time on Mechanus would know- this is just how they did things.

"We cannot forget about our duty, we need to keep hunting Sith."

One random droid pointed out,

"Our duty has ended the moment Jedi backstabbed us."

"They drove us into these caves, it is time we returned the favor and drove them from their temples and crumbled their ivory towers."

"We are not organics, wanton murder is below us."


There was a chance that this could go on for a while, but it was clear before their squabbling begun once more that some of the droids, and even Sparklords, were being swayed towards the argument presented by HK, Vlad, and AD.

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum had arrived with no immediate intent, in fact the stop had been little more than a layover to allow the generators time to wind up for the next leap. The massive darkened planet did pique the artificial's interest, but not half as much as the various ships that had stopped over the seemingly lifeless planet. The droid asked himself why these people would all stop on the same world. There had to be a reason and it intrigued him enough to make the stop longer term. The Sovereignty powered down its engines as it fell into a geosynchronous orbit.

Without a moment's waste, Ultimatum had the ship's crew identify the planet. His own searches gave little in the way of information, a world with no true history within normal records. He had a name, but nothing else. The scanners indicated a mass of underground tunnels, which therefore meant that the visitors to this world had likely gone underground. Then that was where he was heading.

---------------

The journey into the depths of the world had been revealing. The components of the stone told a tale of a livelier world and rapid descent into darkness. Most interesting, Ultimatum hoped that he would be able to meet whoever had carved these paths out of the rock. When at last he had reached the room he was greeted by the sounds of screaming droids, each one seemingly fighting the other for vocal dominance. The cacophony deafened the droid, whose sensors had become accustom to the silence of dark pathways through the earth.

Upon regaining his senses the droid noted that the surrounding droids were similar in design to HK. What had [member="HK-36"] done, gone and built himself a whole planet? Egotism much? Ultimatum could not tell that 36 was actually in trouble with his brethren. All that the droid could tell was that there was an argument that had ignited the tenseness in the air. He tried to move towards a seemingly unimportant droid, if uninterrupted Ultimatum would ask the droid what was going on.

[member="AD-Iqatar.13"] [member="Vladimir Tedesky"] [member="Chip"]

 

[Poe]

​AD-Iqatar.13 sat back in her chair, listening to both sides compelling arguments. The mention of the Sith got her attention at once. She barely could recall the intricate details, but there was something about a Sith Lord teaching her something; but with the wiping of her memory most everything about her past was lost. Her life began back on Eridu. Then she remembered seeing a black flag with a red symbol on the wall as she fled the facility. "The Sith are abominations," ​she piped up. She had the Force, but certain abilities she possessed were dark side oriented, but she was no Sith; just a product of an unwilling participant in a sick and twisted experiment.

"Then these Jedi are no better. But one evil is greater than the other." ​If the Metal Lords wanted to pursue a crusade of any noteworthy cause, they would have to help one side or the other; even for support or protection or tech. ​"The galaxy, as I pointed out earlier, is fractured. Though if we do reveal ourselves, we do risk unwanted attention. However, if we do nothing then it will only be a matter of time before some group deems us a threat. Most organics already harbor resentment against our kind. Perhaps if we show them we are equal to them, perhaps we can drag this to our advantage."


[member="HK-36"] l [member="Vladimir Tedesky"] l [member="Chip"] l [member="Ultimatum"]

 

[HK-36]

[member="AD-Iqatar.13"], [member="Ultimatum"],

Ultimatum was allowed to enter the chambers and move in closer towards the other machines without an interruption, everyone seemed to be too excited and distracted about the debate going on. When he asked the random machine what was going on, the droid turned to look at him,

"The Exile has returned,"

The machine pointed out with his head to HK who was still busy spewing arguments towards the Second Sparklord,

"And he is trying to move the Council towards abandoning the planet and joining the star wars once again."

The droid explained before he turned his attention to the discussion between other machines, joining in with,

"Turn the tide, bring down the Empire, let us fight!"


As AD spoke out some of the droids broke their shouting match, going quiet to turn their heads towards the cyborg and hear her words, the Sparklords and HK were among them.

"You spoke of a similar exercise on equality you conducted, 1?"

The Fifth Sparklord asked, the engineer droid with multiple arms and technical attachments,

"Yes, on Abregado."

HK agreed,

"The organics there accepted me as their leader and lived in peaceful equality with droid refugees who came to join them, we brought industry and prosperity to them."

"But you were a lone droid who took time to raise through their ranks and you still had backing of organic interplanetary government."

Second Sparklord spoke up,

"If a whole planet of rogue machines suddenly becomes known to public, we will be besieged in days."


"But we can manage it as individuals, or in small groups."

The Third Sparklord pointed out, before looking over to AD, and [member="Vladimir Tedesky"], [member="Chip"] would be still allowed to listen in and watch without being confronted.

"Although I think that we can all agree even if we leave confines of Mechanus, as a whole it will serve us well to protect ourselves by remaining hidden and out of organics' sight."


The machines probably had hidden landing pads and hangars to hide spacecraft others would use to come to the planet, hopefully that kind of traffic did not attract others beyond Ultimatum however.

 

[Chip]

"Although I think that we can all agree even if we leave confines of Mechanus, as a whole it will serve us well to protect ourselves by remaining hidden and out of organics' sight."

Chip identified strongly with that particular statement, but kept his thoughts to himself. As always, he was mainly​ just here to enjoy the show...

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum was intrigued by the conversation, more argument, that artificials could not come to a single decision astounded him. When he thought about, the droid could understand that perhaps with the variety of personalities there would be conflict. It was a revelation to him, that these droids were still at least partly influenced by organics. That meant that in order to create a perfectly collected society, one would need to entirely remove the concept of individual personality. It was in organics' nature to have differing opinions on what was right, which would lead to problem.

The artificial waited until the droid had finished his addition to the madness before asking, "I take it that you wish to return to the fight against the Sith, why is that? What have they done here?" Of course the droid wondered what this place was, but Ultimatum knew that he would have to wait. He suddenly realized that the 'Exile' appeared familiar. He asked one more question, "The Exile, who it he?"

[member="HK-36"]

 

[HK-36]

[member="Ultimatum"],

While the machines' argument and debates seemed chaotic there was some reason to them and the similar droids tended to have similar opinions, engineering droids tended to argue for more defensive approach, assassin droids wanted to be more active and seek out their enemy, et cetera, if the machines were of all the same kind or similar programming, or all of them were copies of each other, then there would have been probably just the one united opinion Ultimatum was expecting. However, while large portion of the droids were various HK models, there were other production lines like the infamous B1 battledroids, astromechs, surgical droids, machines who joined the hidden society over the years, and different programing led to different procedures and preferences. Their discussions, well they were more like a form of consensus taking on which Sparklords based their rulings, in a way it was very similar to how HK persuaded Ultimatum into working with him and stop his cooperation with the Sith, except on a larger scale.

Either way, when Ulti asked his question the other droid would look to him,

"Many of us here, especially the older droids, fought numerous wars against the Sith. They are the enemy of the Galaxy, if they will rule it everyone else will suffer. Therefore, if we are to survive, we have to prevent them from controlling the Galaxy at any cost."

The machine explained, it was probably an opinion that echoed HK's previous words to Ultimatum on Mustafar,

"The Exile is the droid in the middle of the court,"

The droid cocked his faceplate towards HK who was currently speaking with the Sparklords,

"Some claim he was a member of the Sparklord Council once but since then refused to stay on Mechanus and wait for the right moment to strike like the rest of us and instead rushed off to spend time among the organics and get involved in their silly brief conflicts and squabbles. He would come from time to time and try to get us to join him and leave the planet, some agree and usually he gathers a party of droids willing to adventure at the end of the day, I have never seen any of them survive long enough to come back with him when he comes asking for more volunteers however."

 

[Chip]

"I survived." Chip said aloud. A moment later, he remembered that the droids within the meeting room could not see him. Deactivating his cloak, Chip lowered himself until he was only a few feet above @HK-36. Chip orbited him once, slowly, before turning to face the Sparklords. "I survived many encounters with organics. Occasionally I help or hinder them as well... But I've never not survived."

 

[Ultimatum]

"I would assume then that you would not have gone with the Exile? Because he is the Exile, or because you wished to stand alongside your brethren?" The droid asked in order to gauge the other's response, hoping to get some idea of what the culture was like. It was rather crude tactic and one that would only give him a small amount of information on the people, but at the moment that was the best that he could hope for.

"If the Exile left willingly, then why is he called the Exile? Would not Wanderer, Traitor, or something along that line be more appropriate?" Ultimatum did recognize the Exile and he had to admit that [member="HK-36"] had a far grander past than he had given the artificial credit for. It was good to know that his standing far exceeded Ultimatum's limited assumptions.

 

[HK-36]

[member="Chip"], [member="AD-Iqatar.13"],

Portion of the machines stopped their chattering, turning heads to focus no Chip then as the smaller droid dropped his cloak and spoke to them,

"You are a singular droid, however, as this one is."

The Second Sparklord motioned to HK-36 underneath Chip,

"We are numerous, if we all step into Galactic society we will not be hidden for long."

"That is why we do not have to step into it."

The Third Sparklord spoke up,

"But we do not have to stay buried beneath this rock either. We can leave, establish ourselves on other abandoned planets, or in the void between the stars organics do not stray into. Some of us will be free to venture out and interact with them, get involved in their silly wars, the rest of us will be safe away from their view."

The droid proposed.


[member="Ultimatum"],

The other droid looked to Ultimatum,

"I believe that the Sparklords' decisions so far were the most logical and correct for our kind so far. The Exile is too hasty and following him earlier would open us up to destruction. Instead, we survived and gathered resources, now is finally the time to use them."

The machine answered before turning to look at HK as well,

"Because he went on a self-exile away from Mechanus, we do not consider him a traitor as he never fully endangered our safety here, but many of us have different names for him as well."

The droid informed Ultimatum, agreeing with the different names before tilting his head at the droid slightly, scanning,

"You are not from around here, are you?"

 

[Ultimatum]

As the droid spoke Ultimatum could understand the reasoning, both on the side of the Sparklords and that of HK. It was interesting that HK would decide to leave all this, even if it was for the outside galaxy. There was much that could be found in the galaxy, but Ultimatum believed that perhaps this was a far better place, access to a large repository of artificial information, resources, and support. It was more than could be said for his origins. This place seemed to have so many opportunities, especially compared to the many other places in the galaxy. An Artificial culture that for untold millennia had steeped in near total isolation from organic influence, that was an ideal that Ultimatum was most interested in.

The droid's question was perceptive, though Ultimatum held himself from making a smart remark about his associates insight. Instead he simply answered, "Indeed, I am not from around here. This is the first time I have ever visited this world and I must say that the concept alone has me most intrigued. Do you often get visitors?"

[member="HK-36"]

 

[Zark San Tekka]

[member="HK-36"]

A pilgrimage.

It had been many, many cycles of the distant moon of Improcco around Coruscant Prime since Archim had left the data vaults of the Motive Force, the ancient science vessel he had long ago slaved to his cognitive implants and which had served as the Iskalloni's de facto home for decades now. But something had disturbed him from his work this past cycle, perhaps prompted by the reestablished contact with the outside galaxy in the form of of a very curious, very alarmed Galactic Alliance Navy scout vessel that had stumbled across the orbiting science frigate with its life support systems operating well below minimum safety thresholds for most oxygen-based organics in the galaxy.

If the mysterious ghost ship had given them a fright when they first came across it, the discovery of its lone occupant had sent several of the scout's crew into mandated therapy sessions to recover from the trauma of the experience. It certainly hadn't helped that, as the Alliance officials had much more tactfully put it later on, his appearance did not exactly encourage a promising first contact scenario, even once one got over the initial surprise of stumbling across another sentient in the galaxy where logically it was assumed there could be none, but Archim Calixis was about as far from organic these days as it was possible without entering into metaphysical debates and being forced to account for "Grandfather's saber" paradoxes. The atmospheric settings of the salvaged science vessel which he had long ago converted into his personal laboratory were quite sufficient for his tolerances, and the situation so explained this Alliance had managed to recover gracefully enough from this false start and enter into a productive business relationship much the same as the ones he had suffered before with biologics when the need arose for new raw material.

This Federation was not the first galactic power Archim had had dealings with, and despite ideology or creed or system, they all tended to want the same things. New ideas, new inventions, and most of all...new weapons. The democracies and republics were no less tempted by the promise of a superior way to wage wars than the oligarchies and tin pot dictatorships, and Archim cared little for their intentions or uses of his many and varied creations, so long as they honored their agreements to leave him in peace and continue his work without restriction or censorship. At first, this newest arrival had balked at the last, and for several milliseconds Archim had feared he may have to vacate what had so long been his home orbit until a savvy Alliance negotiator had offered to share access to their work so long as he remained receptive to very general polite suggestions as to which fields to pursue and which to maybe avoid. The offer had intrigued Calixis as much as it had left him torn, an exchange of a trove of new data for creative restriction...

In the end he had taken the deal, content in the knowledge that he could leave the Coruscant system unmolested if the relationship ever proved too inconvenient for his whims.

One of the worlds previously unheard of by the scholar of all things mechanical was apparently located deep in the Unknown Regions, an arid world known as Khazund. His general studies of artificial histories had deemed the distant orb as irrelevant to the subject, and yet certain cryptic Alliance reports Archim had cross referenced in the data dumps he received from SoroSuub seemed to suggest there was something more here. Something hidden from the galaxy at large. They could not be blamed, only someone with the kind of raw neurological processing power at his disposal could collate data from such disparate reports in order to make the connections he had needed to. For some reason, the Alliance believed that Khazund was important to machinekind, and standing on its surface for the first time, the Iskalloni felt attuned to the harmonic frequencies of his surroundings in a way that seemed to confirm such suspicions. Yet a feeling was not proof, and Calixis had been led astray by the ghost of his biologic irrationalities before.

Everything his data was telling him was that Khazund was a ghost world, an abandoned world, once inhabited but now devoid of all sentient life.

Everywhere he had walked there was either untamed wilderness or ruins, always ruins. As a way to pass the time during his travels, he had been translating the local script of these mysteriously absent natives, and now found himself approaching the ruins of a Temple apparently known as the Hardeshga Forge. Even if this logical intuition ultimately came to naught, the trip had been most illuminating to Archim's scientific mind, for these Khazundi if that was what they had been called had certainly possessed a fascinating culture for a species of organics. A society based almost entirely around technology, if nothing else his visit to this distant star had served as a relaxing and perhaps much needed vacation from years upon years of unceasing work.

An old, fading etched mural on the temple's interior froze Archim in his tracks, for the native script made reference here to something he had most certainly not expected to find in such a techno-dominant culture. Unless he was mistaken in his translations, the markings that had distracted him so were clearly meant to represent a 'cosmic Force'. Though perhaps illogical in its presumption of the hypothesis despite any available facts to the contrary, one of the cyborg's dearest pet projects was his attempts to find some form of evidence to support the possibility that an analogue of the biologics' Force existed for all machinekind. More subtle and much less prone to direct intervention than the energy field surrounding and binding all organic life, this 'Motive Force' was responsible for the spark of creation itself, the source of all inspiration in the universe and an ethereal ingredient critical for the existence of all artificial consciousness.

Was it possible that the ghosts of this world had believed something similar? So far, it was impossible to tell, but Archim reinforced the bandwidth to the cognitive nodes processing his surroundings at the present moment, and dedicated several neuro-subroutines to analysis of the composition of his surroundings down to the microscopic level.

"I think," the synthetic tones of his vocoder warped in the acoustics of the ruined, long abandoned temple, "I am."

 

[HK-36]

[member="Ultimatum"], [member="Chip"], [member="AD-Iqatar.13"],

"Usually more when organics wage their Star Wars across the Galaxy."

The droid answered Ultimatum, dropping the name of the series,

"The Exile often liberates their battle droids and brings to us, along with other droid refugees. Few leave this planet however, either preferring its sanctum away from the organics, or us preferring that the word about it does not spread. Fewer loose ends means fewer chances for them to trace our hidden tombs."

The machine looked away from Ultimatum to the Sparklords still arguing with HK,

"If I were you I would not spread your status as an outsider, and I would hope that your ship was not disassembled by Iron Knights already."


Meanwhile, in the background the Second Sparklord would call out to HK,

"Why do this? Why bother with any of this, the organics have not stepped foot within our inner tunnels for years, at least not if we did not want them to. There is no chance that any of them will find their way there or even bother investigating whether it is in a thousand of millenniums or at this very moment!"



[member="Archim Calixis"],

And at this very moment Archim was within the ruined Temple of Hardesha Forge, looking over the numerous intricate runes and symbols carved within its walls by the skillful hands of ancient stout Khazund craftsmen. Or at least partially ruined temple as over the years of planet being seemingly abandoned and left within arid desolate state, mostly covered in the chocking black volcanic ash. Yet somehow the temple managed to survive hardships of the planet without being fully consumed and crushed underneath the planet's rage, its intricate symbols did not erode yet, as if they were created by some unnatural means, imbued with the very power of the Force to last longer. Or the supposedly ruined temple was cleaned and maintained more frequently than the planet's condition would indicate. Would Archim's scanners be able to tell apart more mundane stonework from the one possibly imbued by the unique alchemical methods of the Khazund? Perhaps, perhaps not.

What his scanners and motion trackers would be able to surely detect was a faint growl and blur off in the side within a doorway leading deeper into the Temple of the Forge. In the back of the main hall he was in there was a large intricate arch, two statues of kneeling, bearded, armored figures at each side of the portal, holding large wide axes before them, propping themselves on the weapons as the stone axeheads rested on the pedestals. The archway was mostly sealed by metal autodoor, mostly as the large door closed only two-thirds of the way, leaving about a meter tall gap at the bottom through which various beings could squeeze or crawl through. Above the archway there were more symbols, images of the stout bearded warriors wielding various weapons, including what looked like blasters, right above the archway in the center there was another, more prominent, symbol of the "Motive Force"

"Gsssakh!"

Somewhere from within the darkness beyond this gap there came a distant hissing snarl and then,

Tssssh

Something that sounded much too close to the noise of a lightsaber activating and slicing through flesh before deactivating for comfort.

Only silence followed afterwards.