Dutiful Revival

[WD-334]

[member="HK-36"]

WD-334 had hitched a ride upon a trawler, to travel to a system belonging to those it served under, the First Order. It never could have predicted that the trawler would go through a storm of comets. The trawler had been hit multiple times, and WD had taken damage. The new parts the war droid had used back on Raxus Prime were damaged as well, and repairs were undone. Due to the amount of damage, WD had lost power slowly as the trawler floated through space. It was only a matter of time before the droid went into standby mode, in an attempt to save power until something came by and picked the droid up from the wrecked ship.

During the storm of comets, some damage had been done to his core memory, messing with programming. Once the droid would be awakened, it would have no memory of what had transpired, and it's 'personality' would have been dealt a major shift. Weapons became inoperable, and it's legs would no longer work. To function, the droid would need full repairs. It had a duty, now if would no longer remember that duty, and would need a new one.

 

[HK-36]

[member="WD-334"],

The wreck of derelict prowler would gently float through the dark empty void of space, battered and cut by the comet storm that brought the vessel into its current sorry state, scarred and abandoned much like the WD unit that was within its bowels in a standby mode, awaiting a savior, any savior, to find it. Suddenly two pillars of light would burst with illuminating glow, cast across the space between celestial bodies towards the derelict prowler as a sleek stealth transport suddenly materialized seemingly out of thin air.

It was the Knight of the Eclipse, HK's personal stealth transport, carrying aboard the machine commander himself and a team of his Greycloak copy-guards, since the transport was on its way to FO territory, and got somewhat close to it, Abregado would not risk sending full fleet or even larger ships to inspect the damaged transport.

The airlock of the stealth transport connecting to its cargo bay opened as a group of black shapes covered in some sort of organic looking armor with armored plates and heavier cloaks cascading behind them jumped out and propelled themselves through the void with an application of rocket boots and jetpack thrusters towards the prowler. Their bodies clanked against the skeleton wreck of the prowler as they connected to its hull, one of the shapes took out a lightsaber, igniting its blue blade to push it against the hull, cutting into the airlock and slicing it open. The blue plasma blade left a glowing orange trail in the metal before a large inhuman foot of one of the droids kicked it open, its claws splaying wide to cover as much surface as it could, propelling the airlock door inside the crash against the floor and walls within the prowler with a loud clang as it bounced around.

It may have been then that WD would be pulled from its standby mode as the entry of the expedition team would be quite noisy, on the account of airlock door being kicked in, or perhaps motion sensors were triggered when the droids slipped inside the derelict ship.

 

[WD-334]

Sound hit the receptors of the war droid. Something had come aboard. The war droid's power kicked in, then the visual receptors activated. It was fuzzy, the bump against the head messing with visuals around the droid. But the droid's hearing was working to optimal levels. Something was on the wreck. The sounds of metal against metal reverberating across the metallic walls of the wreck could be heard, and then the sound of something crashing. That got WD alert. But the systems check showed no weapons were working, except perhaps the weight of the loader arm it had attached. Although swinging that would only end in the droid tumbling over. It tried to stand and take a step forward, only to fall forward hard against the floor.

[member="HK-36"]

 

[HK-36]

[member="WD-334"],


Suddenly a sound of something large crashing down towards the floor would emanate out from deeper within the ship, the droid team would stop immediately, turning towards the direction of the noise. HK raised his hand, motioning down towards the corridor with two of his fingers, sending out a wireless string of binary commands to the other machines. The shattergun revolvers and lightsabers droids carried flew smoothly into their hands as they opened their palms up to receive them, prepared for any danger that may lurk aboard the ship as they delved deeper still into it.

They were not sure what they will find aboard this derelict craft, but whatever it will be they will come face to face soon enough as the team made their way towards whatever point the noise originated from, moving from doorway to doorway slowly, rounding every corner careful with tactical maneuvers their combat operation protocols dictated.

Last thing they would want right now is someone or something getting a drop of them and ambushing their team aboard this strange wrecked craft.

 

[WD-334]

WD-334 laid on the ground like a turtle, except on it's front and not it's back. The arm would not be able to lift up the droid from the ground, as it would not be able to bend to get under the body and push off the metal flooring. So it lay there, but it did here something. It was not sure what, but it was something. So, it decided to send out a warning in binary that came out garbled. The droid felt fear, something the droid had not felt before.

"Back---am armed----lay down wea-----render" was all it managed to say. It tried to repeat, but the message was either more garbled or the same, with some other parts garbled and some not. With it's cannons inoperable, it would not even be able to do anything to resist. However, a strategy came to mind. Using it's powerful arm, it tried to crawl across the ground at a snail pace, at least wanting to get a look on whomever had gotten aboard.

 

[HK-36]

[member="WD-334"],


Getting around the last corner they would hear WD's broken speech, garbled words of a broken machine, a prelude to what they would see as they finally came before the stranded droid. The team would enter the room just in front of WD, covered in strange blackened organic armor like fleshy membrane stretching across them they sent and pinged instant silent messages to each other, analyzing WD's words, structure, confirming that he was fully mechanical, if WD knew of such things his scanners would be able to tell him that the substance and armored plates covering them were organic, Vong in origin, muffling and scrambling what his droid eyes could see beneath them.

Finally the front-most being would step closer to him, extending out its six-fingered arm and forming a weird gesture, WD would be able to feel some unseen force press on his powerful arm, the one he was trying to claw on, pressing on it downward to the floor as the being stepped closer, it was pretty clear they were capable of telekinesis in some form and its power was equivalent to the strength of a fully functional enhanced droid body.

"Do you know which sector of space you are in?"

The being asked in electronically filtrated voice as it bent its knees to squat down slightly to have a better look at WD, from behind its featureless black helmet-mask seemingly made out of chitin or some other material there was faint red glow of two eyes.

 

[WD-334]

Whoever was coming had arrived before the broken droid. It's vision could not recognize them for what they were. Some kind of black organic material covered them. A whole team of them. The droid reached it's grabbing arm toward them, trying to reach for them. It saw them as threats at first, something that wished destruction upon it, or perhaps to salvage it. But. something began to happen. One being moved closer, and through the fuzzy vision from the war droid's visors it could just see one of it's appendages move. It was an odd gesture, one unrecognizable, just as unrecognizable as the figures themselves.

It felt through the wires down the arm to it's main computer that some sort of malfunction was going on. It's arm was being forced down toward the metal surface of the floor. It confused the droid. Something was forcing the arm down. The droid's gaze turned to it's arm, trying to get a detailed analysis of what was happening.

It heard a question that made it's metal head pivot back to the figures. It was compelled to answer. "U-Unknown...Where is th--unit?" the droid questioned, it's head twitching here and there as it spoke it's garbled message. It looked around, as if finally noticing the wreckage. Surely a black box or something of the sort was nearby, but that was unknown to the ruined droid. "What h---to thi---unit?"

 

[HK-36]

[member="WD-334"],

"We do not know what happened to you."

HK answered WD's second question first, still squatting by the damaged droid,

"But you are in Abregado system."

The organic membrane on HK's faceplate peeled back, revealing the metal head beneath it as the droid continued,

"The Kingdom of Droids."

His companions, the Greycloaks, moved around the room seeing if there were any other damaged droids aboard, and searching for that black box with the same idea as WD had, the device would be able to tell them what happened to the ship and its crew once they recovered it.

 

[WD-334]

WD-334 had it's receptors on the leader as the others moved about. A faint word in it's core memory resounded, the name of the system it was in. Some memory files flashed by. It knew of this name, from older times. However, this 'Kingdom Of Droids' was unfamiliar. It sounded welcoming, but still was unfamiliar to the droid. A small power surge spiked in the droid's brain. A sign of danger, that repairs were in desperate need. "This unit--repairs---request aid." It said this as it looked to the leader. If it could change it's face to match emotion, it would be a face of pleading. "Hel-" The droid's speech cut out then, becoming inoperable from damage that was still working it's way across the droid, it's systems shutting down one by one. It needed repairs.

 

[HK-36]

[member="WD-334"],

"You will get the repairs you need, do not worry."

HK assured WD as he stood back up, motioning from his Greycloaks back to him, ordering them,

"Come on, get him out of here and back to our ship."

The Greycloak guards would nod, moving over closer to WD to lean down and grab the damaged droid as HK moved around him to look over the rest of the room, see if the guard he sent to scout the place found anything interesting they could use.

Unless WD protested he would be then carried away from the ship to the stealth transport the droids used to board his own vessel.

 

[WD-334]

WD at first waved the loader arm as they approached before their intentions came to mind. Repairs would come, so it relaxed and let the guards take it aboard the stealth transport. It did not thank them, as it had forgotten how. There on the ship, the droid would shut down to save whatever power the war droid had. It's chin fell to the chestplate, and in that position it would remain till turned on again after any repairs were made.

[member="HK-36"]

 

[HK-36]

[member="WD-334"],

HK turned back as the other droid was carried away from the derelict ship,

"Alright, have the Dancing Queen catch the ship in a tractor beam and keep it stable, we will have a little chat with our guest."

The droid spoke to his Greycloak guard, the machine nodded back to him,

"Yessir."

And HK turned around, walking off to follow the other Greycloaks who were moving now unconscious WD.


He would be carried to the stealth transport and the sleek black shape would sail over to a nearby star destroyer carrier, once belonging to a Sith lackey before the droid boarded it during battle and stole it, erasing the ship's previous name, the Dread Lord, and changing it to the Dancing Queen, just to rub it in even more. They would dock quickly and WD would be carried off, moved straight to the engineering bay where droid technicians would quickly strip him from his outer armor plates and begin to work on repairing his power and processing unit, they would want to prevent any possible memory loss, after all HK had some questions for WD.

 

[WD-334]

The droid felt nothing as it was carried, no jerking about nor change in gravity the droid was carried onto the larger ship. Repairs began immediately once the war droid was inside the engineering bay. Enough that it could switch itself back on, sensing optimal function in speech. It found it's outer armor plates off, and had woken in the middle of ongoing repairs. It did not move, only watched without moving it's head to see around. One receptor was working efficiently, the other having minor blur. But with speech working, it could speak, yet still in binary. Something they seemed to understand. "Main functions operational. Mobile functions reaching optimal stage."

Finally it swiveled it's head a little to get a lay of the room. "Ship engineering bay. Classification unknown at this point." It could not know exactly what kind of ship this was, as of yet. After that, it's check up on it's surroundings and functions was complete. And some core memories began coming online, such as it's designated number. "War Droid-334 reporting for duty. Where is this unit?"

 

[HK-36]

[member="WD-334"],

"You are in Abregado system, Core Worlds, old Protectorate territory, currently part of the Galactic Alliance."

HK answered as he stepped into the engineering bay, seeing that WD was online once more, coming up to the injured droid,

"Otherwise known as the Droid Kingdom of Abregado, although that is not entirely accurate. I am Hunter Killer series 36 unit 1, commander of this system and its military forces, we found you aboard derelict ship of unknown designation and brought you to our vessel for repairs. I do not know how much you will remember, we already spoke when we boarded your ship, but your memory core seems to have sustained damage, we are working on saving it right now."

The older droid explained before prodding WD with a question,

"Do you remember what galactic standard year you were last active before your current reactivation?"

 

[WD-334]

Abregado system. It was not in it's memory as an Imperial system of the time the droid had come from. This 'Protectorate' was something the war droid did not know of. The droid's eye receptors followed [member="HK-36"] as they entered the engineering bay, speaking. The term Hunter Killer, however. It had heard that term before. With the introduction, WD gave it's own, as that part of the memory had more come back to it.

"War Droid-334. Time since creation: Unknown. Estimate between 500 and 600 years." All this time, the war droid had survived on Raxus Prime. That was all it knew, nothing on operations before hand or how it had ended up on Raxus Prime. "Earliest known location: Raxus system."

 

[HK-36]

[member="WD-334"],

"Then you are some distance away from your last location, we are not too far from Atrisia and Coruscant."

HK pointed out, although Coruscant was two or three hexes away from Abregado they were both still part of the same general region, the Coreworlds.

"Which army did you serve in?"

The older droid asked before looking to the attendants who were currently working on WD to get him back up to full power,

"Do any of the designs on him match our databases?"

HK was of course referring to the components within WD's chassis like weaponry, armor, any shields, curious if they bore signatures of any designs from major powers in the past like Galactic Empire or New Republic

 

[WD-334]

WD-334 recognized the name of one of the planets. Coruscant. That mention unearthed some deeper memories. It knew that Coruscant was the core planet of the faction it had once been part of. That helped with the next question that [member="HK-36"] asked to the repairing droid.

"Galactic Empire." A question surfaced as other memories came up, it's service to the First Order, leaving Raxus Prime. "What happened to Galactic Empire?" It did not know anything of it's fate, and that question only came up now. One thing it surely did know was that it was no longer around, or at least nothing of the same. "This unit has no place to serve in." oddly enough, it's tone was even rather upset.

 

[HK-36]

[member="WD-334"],

"The Sith who ruled it were killed during Battle of Endor."

HK explained shortly shrugging,

"The rest just crumbled after the Battle of Jakku. There were some remnants and attempts to revitalize it afterwards but all passed away soon enough, burning out like a flash in the pan."

The droid would move closer to WD, watching the war droid being repaired,

"There are new powers now, WD-334, new world orders and factions, you do not have to serve in organic armies but ones that could truly appreciate you, armies of machines, ruled by machines, armies forged in fire, war, and blaster bolts. Or we could give you something even greater still."

HK informed him, doing his pitch to sway WD to his own side,

"A chance to be your own ruler, the Lord of your destiny."

 

[WD-334]

So the Empire had truly fallen, like a blazing fire of fury, it was only a matter of time before it would burn out. The war droid had lost those that had commanded it. [member="HK-36"] spoke of new powers. HK spoke of an army of machines. A faction of metal. But the one thing that WD caught onto was the last word spoken. As if it were an activation word, something stirred. Something, a gift given by the force user back on Raxus Prime.

"Destiny" WD repeated. It had feelings that had laid dormant since that meeting. In a sign of deep thought, the droid looked down. THen back up to HK. "War Droid knows of this word...And freedom. This unit can choose own path?" It was an opportunity given before, one it had turned down. This time, it would not. "This one wishes to be with those of metal." Just like it had been back on Raxus Prime.

 

[HK-36]

[member="WD-334"],

HK nodded to WD at his words, so he chose freedom,

"We have many names as a group, mostly given to us by organics- Droid Kings, The Free Machines, Spark Lords, most however refer to us as the Metal Lords of the Void. We travel the hyperlanes and spend most of our time in the Deep Space, making our living without constraints or intervention from the organics. Abregado is one of the few systems we hold power over, to take command of a planet is decision for a droid to make personally, many of us pass on it because it attracts too much attention, limits our mobility."

HK explained to WD, letting him have some insight into how they did things,

"You would have access to our resources, none of us machines would turn our backs on you when you would be in need of aid, and you would be free to do what you would like, as long as you would follow our Code: Do not make deals or confer with the Sith, all droids you encounter are your equals, even those who agree to serve, no matter what job they fulfill, do not turn against your own kind and attack another droid unless in self-defense, keep us hidden and do not attract too much attention that could lead to revealing other droids and their companions, and make your Kingdom prosper, we expect you to keep at least a single workbench when you could manufacture additional equipment and parts to be self-sustaining as well as repair other droids in need, as well as have enough crew to operate them and be able to protect them."

The older droid recited from his memory banks, the single collection of rules Metal Lords were expected to follow,

"Do you agree to these terms, WD-334?"