Dungeontron 5000 [Metal Lords PvE Bounty Hunting Thread]

[HK-36]

[member="KeCholo"], [member="Ultimatum"], [member="AD-8"], [member="Lord Mettallum"], @Anyone Else interested,


"Hey, wake up, we are almost there."

HK would walk through the troop compartment of an Eclipse-class Stealth Corvette they were using as transport to nudge Ke's side with his foot, whether he was asleep or not, just to make sure that his Master of Arms is awake.

"Have you read the reports I gave you and prepared armor for combat in the vacuum?"

The droid asked, glancing between Ke and the companion he was allowed to bring with him. The machine settled on taking a stealth ship to their destination on the account of secrecy held around the Hidden Citadel and its locations, Ke and his friend were not even allowed anywhere near the cockpit when the coordinates were set and hyperlane route plotted, nor did HK wanted for anyone to trail them. Few organics ever saw the Hidden Citadel, a station cobbled together from remnants of installations and facilities that just few months ago were deep underneath the crust of Mechanus, a hidden droid kingdom at the edge of First Order space. Then in one historic moment for their kind the planet was ripped apart from the inside and the droid kingdom ejected into space, forming together into makeshift ships and stations to begin their journey among the stars.

"We are exiting hyperspace."

Came the voice of the Greycloak pilot over the comm system, one of the honor guard soldiers used by HK.

"Well let us hope you did."

The droid quipped before moving back through the corvette towards the cockpit.



Now Ke would have been allowed to follow the machine and enter the piloting room, if he wished, see through the view port that Hidden Citadel Mechanus, a large station sprawling out from a central black spire-like building like spokes on the wheel with networks of tunnels, compartments, and utility walkways hidden beneath it. Here and there old carcasses of ships would be visible within its structure, repurposed and molded to reinforce and expand the station alongside much older and sophisticated structures. Blackened and battered but still cyclopean in their size fashioned in accordance with some alien architecture, looking more like crypts and tombs than common buildings.

The corvette came in towards one of the station's many docking platforms to land with it, other Metal Lord characters like Ultimatum, Mettallum, and AD-8 were free to have tagged along on the corvette, but of course HK notified them of this trip and mission ahead of time, just as likely it was that they were already waiting for them on Mechanus to arrive.

 

[KeCholo]

[member="HK-36"] [member="Ultimatum"] [member="Lord Mettallum"] [member="AD-8"]

Ke'Cholo's snoring was slow, loud and methodical. He was awakened from his slumber by a jolt to his side from his new employer. Before fully awakening, he let out one last violent snore. Before he had even sat up, the droid had to audacity to question whether or not he had even prepared for this mission.

'' 'f course I have.'' Ke'Cholo said, throwing back the light sheet that covered him in his light slumber. Doing so revealed that the mercenary was only wearing a sleeveless cotton shirt and his underwear. He thought he saw the droid glance at him, perhaps in disgust.

''Take a picture, it'll last longer.'' he said, regardless of if the droid actually looked at him in his state of undress. Ke'Cholo sat up in his bed and put on his black pants and spotless white shirt. From here, Ke'Cholo slipped on his space suit over his entire person, and adjusted it to fit more snugly over his boots that he put on before. After this, the Duros attached durasteel plates to his upper and lower arms, upper and lower legs, chest, back, and groin using extra strength, military grade velcro. Over all this, his put his Warden's cloak, which fit snugly due to the added mass of the plates. Ke'Cholo made sure his Bodo Bass gunbelt and attached Phrk Westar 34's were still in the belt loops of his cloak, they were. Lastly, he placed his Hat with No Name into the inside pocket of his cloak as it did not fit inside the space helmet.

Ke'Cholo has opted to bring Ed, his personal droid companion. Ed was of only 7 EDGs in existence, odds were HK-36 had never seen a droid like him before. Ed was carrying his electrostaff along with two flamethrowers (that looked comically small on him). He barely fit into the hull of the ship, due to his large size.

Ke'Cholo entered the cockpit with HK and the pilots.

''Well I'll be...'' Ke'Cholo remarked, taking in the size of the station.

 

[Ultimatum]

"Apologies, its part of the security around this world. Sometimes I think they would have preferred if even I didn't know where the planet was." Ultimatum placated to the Vanguard, who he had decided to bring with him. After the rebellion on Mustafar he did not completely trust her, but from what she had said she had been betrayed as well. He wanted to keep her close in case it was a lie, especially since without him on the Sovereignty she would have clean run of the ship. Though he had thought of perhaps bringing one of the Redeemed, they were always open to exploring new worlds, Ultimatum had decided against it given that they were not always interested in fighting.

"I hear you. Though shutting down my legs is a bit excessive." The older woman spoke without a smile. She knew what Ultimatum thought of her, and she knew that she had to keep up appearances. The liberation of Mustafar had been merely the first step for the Guide.

Ultimatum and the Vanguard were behind the big droid that Ultimatum found both interesting and somewhat annoying. Not to be misconstrued, Ultimatum liked big droids, or vehicles. After all he had created the V-2s which were decent sized and the Escutcheons which were large by vehicle standards. But truly this droid was very large. It was not his place to judge though and so he kept quiet on his part. Answering the Vanguard he shrugged, "Just a precaution."

She nodded solemnly. That had always been the difficulty, the droid tended to be too cautious and that made her life difficult. She only rarely got communiques out to the Guide in time to plan for a raid or sabotage mission. The Extinguisher plan had been a stroke of pure luck that the droid had taken so long in getting the testing done. Even so the attack had nearly failed because of that storm.

When they began preparing for the landing, Ultimatum sent the digital command to reengage the V-1 legs of the Vanguard. She stood immediately and shook them experimentally. Taking a few steps she seemed to almost knock on the big droid that [member="KeCholo"] had brought, but decided against it. Instead, she turned back and began putting on her own gear. Mostly military stuff from Mustafar, with some equipment from LOOM's production line. Pulling on her helmet she clicked on the internal visor and switched her music on as she attached the armor plating into place.

Spoiler

https://youtu.be/ev7VRaVpUpA?t=20s

[member="HK-36"] [member="Lord Mettallum"] [member="AD-8"]

 

[Lord Mettallum]

Lord Mettallum awaited for ths ship to land. It surpised him that [member="HK-36"] and [member="Ultimatum"] both decided to bring organics on this mission. Going on comms Lord Mettallum asked Ultimatum and HK

"Exile and Unbeliever why in the makers name did you both decide to bring organics to this most sacred mission to rid the holy land of the Mechanus. Surely you do not think that organics can do a droids job. Personally I Lord Mettallum see them as a liability when dealing with the fungus"

Lord Mettallum was pretty annoyed that Hk and Ultimatum would bring organics to Mechanus even if the Metal Lords revealed themselves. Lord Mettallum Brought with him 50 IG-RM, 2 IG-100 and 1 IG-800. Lord Mettallum quickly made sure his vibro spear Duplex Hastam was working. Today Lord Mettallum was going to be soaking her with Fungus juice or what ever comes out of the fungus when he cuts it.

 

[AD-8]

AD-8 exited hyperspace in the piece of scrap he had bought from the nearest station to the base that was his cocoon for an age. He looked down at his weapon of choice, what looked like a normal gun. While on route he had made some modifications, it was now fully automatic with a vibro blade bayonet attached to the front and a more advanced cooling system. He steered towards the rendezvous point where he would meet the others. He didn't have a companion to bring but trusted that the others would look out for him.

 

[HK-36]

[member="KeCholo"],

"I am a droid."

HK pointed out to Ke as he told the machine to take a picture,

"I am always taking pictures."

He quipped before moving on to the cockpit.

"This is the Hidden Citadel, called 'Mechanus' after the planet we settled on first, the main shadowport of the Metal Lords. Most of us tend to stop by here from time to time, especially those who refuse to claim permanent territory and still travel the hyperlanes aboard their Kingdom Fleets, and it is the seat of power of the Sparklord Council."

The droid explained to Ke as their ship came down to land. Maybe the droid saw one of EDG's before, maybe he hasn't but seen reports on them, maybe not even that, either way he made no comment about his companion, although as someone who came down into those tunnels and corridors before, the droid would have probably chosen someone less bulky, but EDG would probably be alright, he was a droid after all!

"Organics are not banned from entering most of the station but some may frown upon your presence there, it is our sanctuary after all, majority of the upper layer is in exposed vacuum, there is artificial gravity but keeping your suit on or you will suffocate and freeze, and try to not attract too much attention. We will meet the party outside entrance into upper maintenance tunnels, some of the other Lords are meeting us along with Citadel's pathfinder team to guide you throughout the tunnels."

He gave a briefing before motioning for Ke and EDG to follow him out the ship,

"Come on, droids are never late."


[member="Ultimatum"], [member="Lord Mettallum"], [member="AD-8"],

Going out of the station they would step onto walkways, metal streets and alleys connecting to various buildings that made up the station, all exposed to the void. The station was a mixture of military and civilian installation and a city build upon an orbital platform, housing the population of droid nomads and those machines who decided to settle upon the Citadel and make their living there in peace, much like they have done so deep underneath Mechanus' crust before. The doorways to each building they passed were fashioned like airlock, leading into a short corridor where another doorway lead into building proper, suggesting that there was artificial atmosphere within the structures. Some droids they passed would give a look towards Ke and EDG, either judging the organic silently or looking upon the rare machine that accompanied him, most however seemed to just ignore him and carried on with their daily business. From time to time one would nod or make gesture to HK, which the older droid returned, silently, for in the vacuum not even EDG's heavy footsteps would make a sound. However, if Ke would scan throughout comm frequencies, there would be one on which he would begin to hear chatter from the droid around speaking to each other in the vacuum, their communication lines within the silent void.

Although HK forgot to mention the public frequency, Ke would pretty much need to find it, otherwise the meeting with the group would be pretty confusing to him as it would all seem silent without it.

"Sovereign Ultimatum, good to see you again, and you Vanguard."

The droid nodded to each in a greeting before looking to Mettallum,

"The Lord Mettallum, The Preacher."

He addressed the machine by his full official title, knowing how well the other Lord liked that,

"I see you are as cheery as ever. If the Jedi sacred temple on Coruscant would have issues with its sewage systems, I guarantee you it would be a droid maintenance team they sent down there. Is it not a fitting reversal that when we have a problem we sent organics to do our dirty work?"

HK quipped and motioned to Ke then,

"Besides, Ke here swears fealty to me and would like to prove his worth by performing a task for Mechanus, if he will survive this undertaking then surely he would be worthy of working besides us and of my patronage."

The droid proposed to Mettallum, before they were joined by their final member, AD-8,

"AD-8, you are looking better, still getting acclimated to the current age and political situation?"

HK greeted AD as well, remembering how him and Ultimatum ventured into the strange decrepit station to awaken and rescue the droid.



However before they could get too much small talk done, the group would be approached by a team of four droids,

"These must be the team of guides Sparklords have sent to us."

The leading droid would nod to them, he was an HK unit without much additional armor but multiple belts and bandoliers strapped over his chassis, carrying various tools and utilities, and multiple mechanical appendages sprouting from his back, coiling around his chassis or folding themselves close like tentacles, with more tools and grasping mechanical digits attached at their ends,

"My Lords, I am HK-36-5-38-283, I was the head of maintenance in the section of the deep maintenance tunnels where the infestation begun, these are the security team sent for us by the Sparklords,"

The droid spoke out in the default HK voice and turned slightly to motion to each member of their party, first there would be a tall, armored, regal droid with a crimson cloak pressed against his back and a deactivated lightsaber pike in his hand,

"IK-1-65, one of the new Iron Knight models forged and activated on the Citadel,"

The Knight nodded to them courtly as the maintenance droid motioned to another, a droid almost entirely wrapped in what seemed to be armorweave robes and cloaks, only a pair of blue photoreceptors would be glowing back at them from within the darkness underneath its hood,

"The Weaver of Ice, one of the few Technomancers the Citadel could spare, and finally,"

The Technomancer nodded as well as the head droid motioned to a black colored Astromech with dark duraplast plates strapped over its small rotund body,

"The Eyes In The Dark, one of the best Bladedancers who just returned from singlehandedly hunting down and clearing one of the remaining Bando Gora vessels."

The astromech beeped and chirped as they tended to do.

 

[Negative]

Honestly Negitive was intrigued as to why he was invited to this. event? he wanted to say event it had a ring to it.
casually he entered orbit and floated 20 meters above the surface.
slowly floating to the location of the others.
vocally he offered a greeting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzY099ihULs
sadly his ability to lower his volume was not that great

 

[Lord Mettallum]

Lord Mettallum just looked at @hk-36. The preacher was a fake title given to Lord Mettallum due to how religious he was compared to other droids and it was clear HK mistook it for his real title. Lord Mettallum started saying

"Exile you have gotten my title incorrect. My correct title is The Metal Lord, Lord Mett..." before he could finish his sound receptors heard the loudest sound ever and Lord Mettallum yelled in his native language of binary "01000010 01111001 00100000 01010100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01000110 01110101 01100011 01101011 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01001101 01100001 01101011 01100101 01110010 00100000 01010111 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01010100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01000110 01110101 01100011 01101011 00100000 01010111 01100001 01110011 00100000 01010100 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01001110 01101111 01101001 01110011 01100101 "

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum returned the greeting with a smile, perhaps he was the only artificial present capable of such expressions. Understandable, given that such facial movements were actually useless to the droid outside of physical cues. He had contemplated leaving the advanced wiring and systems required to create such physical manifestations out of his next body. He was still on the fence, it seemed that they were useful to other organics to portray his feelings and express complex ideas.

The artificial agreed with [member="HK-36"] against [member="Lord Mettallum"], though that was hardly a surprise given that the younger droid did not particularly like Mettallum. It was perhaps petty to judge him based on a single facet of his beliefs, but the other Metal Lord made it difficult to collaborate without some form of insult being thrown Ultimatum's way. The droid was certain that 'Unbeliever' was not a kind term, given that the droid was perhaps one of the most zealous believers in the Maker.

The Artificial Sovereign listened intently as the older guide HK unit explained the situation and then introduced the various other people who would be joining them. Ultimatum bowed to each as they were introduced. He stifled a chuckle at the explanation of the astromech, only droids would think to make something seemingly harmless like an astromech into a weapon of such danger. Ultimatum did wonder though about the HK unit, it had the same beginning designation as the HK Metal Lord. Would that mean that they were made in the same line? Which would be older then? Was it merely a fluke? Ultimatum had known droids in the past had been given similar, or identical in some cases, designations as other units, the main reason for this being different manufacturers. Then there was also the fact that there was a long line of HK units, most of which were millennia old by now and far outdated. Most HK's had been mass-produced, but then there were some that had been singularly made for a specific person. The droid wondered if this was anything like that situation, two droids built for different people who just happened to have similar numbers. It was an interesting quandary.

One that was interrupted by the arrival of the largest artificial Ultimatum had ever witnessed. It was impressive to say the least, to gaze upon what he assumed to be a droid that spanned so much space and yet remained as a single unit. Sure there were ships that he had designed that were controlled by droid brains, but they were not droids in and of themselves.

Then came the deafening boom that Ultimatum's assumed was its language. The smaller artificial sent the message through his servers in an attempt to retrieve a translation. At the same time he was concerned, Ultimatum did not know if there would be any way to get the massive droid into the caverns to aid in the hunt. The artificial wanted desperately to speak with this strange being, perhaps at a more ideal moment.


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

Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho9rZjlsyYY

The Vanguard followed the other droids without about as much interest as an ant had with a piece of dirt. However, when they exited the ship and she received a view of the ship she was struck with an awed feeling that drove out the thoughts she had had previously. Then it dawned on her, this was a world of droids. A whole planet filled with droids. Were these droids like Ultimatum? Well, often one liked to stay in company akin to their own likeness. So that meant a likely yes. The Vanguard realized the severity of the situation. Not only was Mustafar ruled by a droid, this might be where he came from. The very spawning pits of the evil that ruled Mustafar. Even if Ultimatum were destroyed, this place could spew out millions more just like him. What could she do against such reckless hate. There was no winning a war against so many droids.

Yet she remembered the sacrifices that had been made to get this far, the people who had fallen and those who had survived. She knew that this could not be allowed to continue, she would end Ultimatum and those that came after would be able to deal with the world someday. If indeed this place proved to be any danger to her people. Unlike Ultimatum, these automatons had done nothing against Mustafar yet. Time would tell.

Then came an impressive booming noise, her first instinct had been some form of cannon fire and she turned, raising her rifle in the direction to see a most fearsome sight. A droid the size of a starship. It was terrifying to imagine what that could do to Mustafar, yet at the same time there was the fact that with the weapons Ultimatum had unwittingly given to them they could defend against many of his forces. This thing, should it attack her people, would fall like Ultimatum would. She listened to the chatter over the comms, having been connected to Ultimatum's line so that he could keep track of what she said to the others. He was smart, not completely trusting her anymore, but it only took one misstep and she would be waiting for that day.

 

[KeCholo]

Meandering through the streets made Ke'Cholo unnerved, something he seldom felt. It seemed like every droid, drone, and mechanical thing stared at him with nothing but contempt and unbridled anger. Who was he? What was he doing here? What right did he have to invade our space, the only space where we can be safe from his kind. The assumption that he would not be welcomed by all and that some of the Metal Lords didn't have the best track record when it came to organics, was why he slipped a small ion pistol into his pants, just beneath the small of his back. [member="HK-36"] gestured to several droids along the way, but Ke'Cholo couldn't hear what he was saying.


''Channel 47, public, so don't say anything against...my kind'' Ed voiced over his private comms channel to Ke'Cholo, inserting the last part mocking the extremist views of some of the droids.

''Doesn't matter who does the job-'' Ed began.

''-just as long as it gets done, and done well.'' Ke'Cholo finished the droids thought. Ed's opinions and ideas were all self formed, as Ke'Cholo did not program them into the droid, instead letting him learn from his environment.

Eventually, the lot of them gathered around the entrance to the infested sewers, and made half-hearted introductions. Ke'Cholo opted to let HK-36 do the talking, and privately instructed Ed to do the same. Ke'Cholo had several ideas of exterminating the fungus, chief among them being dropping several barrels full of napalm along with a single lit match into the sewers and let the magic happen. But for now, he kept quite and awaited further instructions.

 

[AD-8]

AD-8 stepped off his ship and looked around, he was impressed, it isn't every day you see a space station that has been ripped from the bowls a planet. He clutched his gun in one hand and casually strolled towards the group and allowed himself to be led through to the corridors and walkways. As they grouped to meet up with their guides AD replied to HKs question

"Not much has changed," AD said in answer to HKs question "There's still Jedi and Sith, there's still pirates and merchants and there's still bounty hunters and smugglers." He continued before listing to the plan of the task ahead.

 

[HK-36]

[member="AD-8"], [member="KeCholo"], [member="Ultimatum"], [member="Lord Mettallum"], [member="Negative"],


The meeting would have been briefly interrupted by arrival of the giant Silentium ship, attempting to dock with the Citadel over their position, which caused for Mettallum to start streaming out profanities in strings of binary data, in response to the Silentium's overwhelming greeting,

"Ultimatum, try to calm the Metal Lord the Lord Mettallum down,"

He asked the other Metal Lord,

"Try stroking his chin, I heard he likes that."

HK proposed, of course that was a lie but he just wanted to see if Ulti was able to do it, besides, who knew, maybe that would actually calm Mettallum down. While that was being handled, hopefully, HK sent out a communication up to Negative hanging over them.

"Try transferring your programming to a smaller body temporarily, they are about to go down maintenance to deal with the threat we have been summoned for, your current ship form will be unable to enter the tunnels or help out without damaging the station itself. So if you wish to join with the party and traverse the dungeons of Mechanus, then you will need to be in a smaller body."

Hopefully the Silentium would comply, although even if Negative would remain in its much larger form, then they still could find something for it to do, probably speak with the Sparklords along with HK.



"Eeeeeither waaaay."

The other HK in charge of the party continued on,

"The good news is we were able to seal in the infestation when we first received reports of it so we will not have to chase the Ghablaresh throughout the whole maintenance network, bad news is the route we will have to take is not completely direct."

One of the HK-36-5's mechanical tendrils would extend out, turning its digits until they formed a holoprojector and emanating out a holographic map, L shaped,

"First we will enter the sealed section of public underground walkways and tunnels, this will be a fairly straight forward route taking us through the entrance behind me to a maintenance shaft which will lead us lower. Few Ghablaresh have been spotted throughout these walk ways but it is fairly safe."

The projection would change again, this time showing a much more winding and complex route, basically a maze of tunnels and pathways overlapping each other,

"The shaft will allow us to skip few maintenance levels that were sealed off before the Fungus could spread to them, the next leg of the journey will take us through the extensive Level 6 of maintenance tunnels and walkways. Ghablaresh presence is going to be heavy there so we can expect plenty of close quarter fighting, what is worse we received reports of Machine God cultist altars and shrines found throughout this level. It is very much possible we could come across their cult during our journey, if so we will probably have to eliminate them, they would not allow us to leave and reveal their identity."

Once again the projection changed, showing another, this time shorter maze, leading to an opening into a large chamber,

"At the end of our journey through Level 6 we will go through another maintenance shaft and go directly into Level 12. According to our reports the main Ghablaresh settlement is set up inside one of the reactor rooms where they were feeding off of the energy core's heat and radiation to grow and reproduce. There we will find Ghablaresh matron and patron, eliminate them, their hive, and all the other nests found in the sealed tunnels and we will cleanse their threat, at least for now."

The projection would then end as HK-5 continued,

"We must remember that we can come across exposed or lightly protected wiring and piping throughout our hunt, try to keep collateral damage to minimum as otherwise we might have to make stops to repair any vital systems we accidentally damaged or launch another expedition afterwards just for clean up and maintenance."

The droid would look over the volunteers then,

"Any questions before we set out to actually do this?"

 

[Negative]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVoU30ixHrM
negative answerd
transferring to a smaller unit.
this one was microscopically small as it floated to join the others.

only 1 cm tall. he joined the others
and greeted with a.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECKTCqmaMVo

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum looked incredulous for a moment. That was a rather distinct method he was told to calm [member="Lord Mettallum"] down. He had his doubts, but then again droids were often given very unique features. He wondered how the stroking of his chin would calm him. Perhaps it would work for other occasions as well, since Mettallum and Ultimatum were not the best of friends.

The droid turned to his fellow Metal Lord, the two did not exactly see eye to eye, figuratively or realistically. While perhaps intimidating to other beings, Ultimatum was not the least bit frightened by his cohort, whose consternation Ultimatum had already endured before. Should it come to blows, he did not believe it would, Ultimatum was certain of his abilities. Perhaps it would be an amusing gesture to be looked back upon with mirth. Only time would tell.

He was curious however, did Mettallum have physical receptors attached to his outer body? Ultimatum did not, at least not in his combat forms. It would have been intriguing to know why the Metal Lord might put sensors as such on the facial region. What purpose could they have? At this point Ultimatum was more curious than fearful. He was still uncertain whether it were true or not, but curiosity bested him.

"Lord, Lord Mettallum. It's alright, turn down your audio receptors." Even with his assuredness of the lack of danger, the machines hand was only tentatively outstretched to lightly scratch the bigger droid's chin area.

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

Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h3_QknNu3A

Vanguard watched as the droids spoke with one another. There was a moment where she wondered if these machines were completely mad. It was like watching a bunch of bumbling buffoons preforming some holodrama comedy of old. Perhaps it was simply that she did not understand them fully, or maybe they were indeed insane each and every one of them. She knew Ultimatum was insane, dangerously so. She therefore assumed that most closely associated with him were therefore at least nearly as insane.

She watched as her charge was moving to scratch the chin of a fellow robot. She shook her head and turned to listen to the older droid as he spoke. This was important information and she desperately hoped that the others would be able to remember it, she didn't pretend to understand all of it. These droids were very fragile and protective about their maintenance network. If they simply took better care of their tunnels this would never have arisen in the first place. Foolish droids.

The robots are capable of so much, but they seemed incapable of handling their own issues or even being proactive. Were they not aware of the natural fauna and the potential threats that it posed? Could they not have planned for it, perhaps built in some form of defense into the tunnels. There was no reason for this current situation to even be happening.


[member="HK-36"] [member="AD-8"] [member="KeCholo"] [member="Negative"]

 

[Lord Mettallum]

Lord Mettallum eyes turned pure red as he looked at [member="Ultimatum"] . Did he really just decide to rub Lord Mettallum's chin. After a couple of seconds passed Lord Mettallum grabbed Ultimatum's head with his left hand. Lord Mettallum slowly powered up the repulsor in his hand planning on making Ultimatum's head cave in due to the force of the repulsor. Lord Mettallum never thought Ultimatum would be so stupid and daring to even touch Lord Mettallum. Of course once he finished dealing with Ultimatum, Lord Mettallum is going to have to talk yo [member="HK-36"] for telling Ultimatum to do such a foolish act.

"Unbeliever I Lord Mettallum shall show you that the Maker is real and if you are right and he doesn't exist your well I Lord Mettallum am sure you understand"

Lord Mettallum wasn't in full kill mode and this was more a reaction and would stop once someone attempted to stop him

 

[KeCholo]

The droids around Ke'Cholo were all unique and had different personalities, some of which Ke'Cholo was already not fond of. There was one large droid who appeared and made loud noises, seemingly for the fun of it. Another droid, [member="Ultimatum"], seemed to have his wits about him but appeared slightly pretentious. [member="HK-36"] was, as always, cool and levelheaded. Must've been in his programming. Another of the droids, [member="AD-8"] , was quite and didn't say too much, Ke'Cholo liked him the most. Lastly, there was [member="Lord Mettallum"] , who Ke'Cholo was fairly certain had prescribed himself the title of ''Lord.'' HK-36 had jokingly suggested for Ultimatum to scratch ''Lord'' Mettallum's chin. Ultimatum had obliged and this action enraged ''Lord'' Mettallum, causing him to attack Ultimatum.

Ke'Cholo quickly reached into the small of his back and retrieved the ION pistol while saying ''Defensive Protocol!'' into the comm chat between him and Ed. Ke'Cholo fired the pistol once at the ground, by Mettallum's feet, only a warning shot. By this time, Ed had raised and activated his electro-staff, pointing it at the aggressor. Sights were set on the droid, Ke'Cholo aimed the pistol at his head.

''Put 'em down.'' Ke'Cholo broadcasted over the local channel, seeming more annoyed than anything else. However, this was a serious threat, if this droid would result to violence for such a simple act, his internal systems were clearly damaged. At least that's what Ke'Cholo thought.

 

[AD-8]

AD-8 watched with amusement as Ultimatum stroked Lord Mettallums chin but thought Mettallums reaction was a large overreaction, He obviously had no sense of humour. When [member="KeCholo"] drew his gun AD stepped between Mettallum and Ultimatum.

"Stop!" he shouted and the room went silent. He lowered Mettallums arms while saying "Save it for the fungi, all of you, we're not here to shoot each other."

 

[HK-36]

[member="Ultimatum"], [member="Lord Mettallum"],

"Oh wow I cannot believe you were actually going to do it, you madman."

HK quipped in amusement seeing how Ultimatum was about to actually stroke Mettallum's chin, however in his response to the situation everyone seemed to tense up and reach for their weapons, at least the NPC party they were speaking to, and Mettallum's guards no doubt would as well. HK just raised his hands, one was aimed in Mettallum's direction, and one towards [member="KeCholo"] and his pistol actually.

"Alright, let us all just calm down and remember the Code we have all sworn to uphold, one of its points being 'do not turn on your own kind', and that violence against one another would not only break it but soil the sanctity of this sanctuary, plus the mass of witnesses and Sparklords judging harshly those who bring this mess onto their doorsteps."

The old droid spoke out as he formed strange hand signals and gestures with his six-fingered hands. Mettallum was not the only one with repulsor weapon, and while HK's Gauntlets of Gravitational Mastery may not have been as powerful to crush a Phrik skull, they seemed to have been much more precise and intricate, they could bypass such things like shells and hull, if the machine wanted to he would have been able to mess with circuitry of Mettallum's repuslorlift and turning it off, his scanners giving him all the information on wiring and energy channels of the device that he need to know. Same for Ke's ion pistol, with one gesture and throw of precise gravitational anomaly he could disengage the wires he would need to render the sidearm useless. But HK would only do it if either one of them would actually attack to save Ultimatum's head or himself from being pulled into it through his vassal firing off his ion pistol, he wasn't going to conduct a premeditated strike on them though.

In fact the droid would glance to Ke, sending him a message directly to his HUD,

I probably should have mentioned this before but ion weaponry usually does not work on Metal Lord machines, it is really easy to build in immunity against such attacks, they work on most unmodified droids because organics who designed them wanted a failsafe way to shut them down quickly in event of a rebellion. EMP grenades are more of a threat, strong intense electromagnetic pulses and presence are not easy to defend against.

He explained to his organic vassal, hoping this was enough to get everyone to calm down and focus on the mission at hand. HK knew that Mettallum had a bit of a short fuse but he did not consider it to be that short,

"If this will still be an issue we would want to touch upon, we can do so later, in private, through proper means. We are not savage organics, we have rules and etiquette."

HK offered, looking over Mettallum to see his reaction, and glancing to [member="AD-8"] with a nod of thanks for stepping between the two droids and doing his part to defuse the situation. The droid also noticed that [member="Negative"] changed their vessel and floated down to them from the void above in form of a small Silentium drone,

"Oh that is cute, I would figure there would be some kind of happy medium between being giant ship and a tiny mobile chip, but that works too."


Meanwhile HK-5 the Glorified Janitor was just watching this while tightly holding a hydrospanner in case an actual fight broke out, his mechanical tendrils shaking from time to time in anticipation while the Iron Knight gripped his deactivated lightsaber pike, the Eyes In The Dark beeped and rotated the black dome sitting on its small rotund chassis, and the Weaver of Ice was moving its hands in similar fashion and gestures to the one HK was doing.

"Alright, come on, we have wasted enough time already."

The engineering HK unit pointed out,

"The longer we wait the more Ghabs there will be down there to cut through so someone take the Tiniest Metal Lord on their shoulder and we might as well move out."

He pointed to the small army Mettallum brought with him,

"The corridors will be pretty tight and narrow at times, I suggest our group goes first and pick one companion from your forces that will join us, the rest can give us some space and then follow in behind as reinforcements."

 

[Ultimatum]

Perhaps it had been a mistake to take the word of HK at face value on this occasion. But then at the same time it had been his own fault for not seeing the words as they were, a joke. Maybe he mad messed up. Just maybe.

The situation certainly was pointing to some mistake. His head was being slowly crushed in by the repulsor of his bigger associate. While the Phrik was capable of holding at first, the problem became one of timing. The clean metal surface could handle many forces, but there were limits even to metal's strength. The dome like structure had begun bending already and the change in position damaged some of the fragile components within. Fortunately Ultimatum was not an organic, with a brain in his head. The processing units for him were tucked away in his body, the complexities of his artificial mind had been designed for something larger than a droid brain and so he had to work with a larger unit. It was in his latest bodies that he had managed to overcome the sizing issue and have put a more advanced droid brain in the head.

Of course at the moment he was thankful he had been in this war droid form rather than the slight and less durable bodies he had built recently. He was heartened when the other Lords came to his defense, but then it probably should have been anticipated. Then again, it may have been more prudent to simply allow the course of actions to proceed, Ultimatum hardly expected, Mettallum to keep this up for long. The war droid had to have a limit of his power source. But perhaps the religious zealot would prove more responsive to the others than himself.

Whatever the methods, Ultimatum simply waited. There was no point in resisting as far as he was concerned. Come what may he would survive in some form or another.

------

Once more the droids proved themselves to be very sad excuses for human replacements. That was what all droids were intended for one level or another, to replace a living person in that job. They seemed so absolutely incapable of handling even the smallest situation. They had not even reached the tunnels yet! The Vanguard turned to the janitor droid, and listened intently. She looked forward to getting this over with, her initial fear of this world had quickly transformed into a definite disinterest. If all droids were like this, there was nothing to fear from their kind. It was probably a good thing though, to get this out of their systems before they all went into the tunnels where damage would be more long term. If Ultimatum died here she would definitely not shed any tears.


[member="HK-36"] [member="AD-8"] [member="KeCholo"] [member="Lord Mettallum"] [member="Negative"]

 

[Negative]

Negative sent out a few beeps indecating that he was ready to go.
admitadly being as large as he was had it's issues communicating was one of them.
he had less vocal skills than the average silentium.