Relics and Jedi slicers

[Jessica Med-Beq]

Jessica has stumbled upon an old report concerning droid relics to be found on Agamar, dated back five years. At the time Jessica was not even able to use the Force and was a rather unproven quantity as a slicer and was but a rather senior corporate official with other projects. But now that Jessica was undergoing Jedi training, and with her master being regularly absent from her training, she was increasingly expected to conduct missions on her own, and not the least because she held a seat in the Senate of the Techno Empire. But with Vulpter and Castameer under her belt as a slicer, she feels more confident that she can reprogram the droid than she was when she first read the report issued by Catria, as an ordinary Jedi. That, even though local law enforcement authorities couldn't do anything. Surely Mandos won't notice a Jedi or two salvaging ancient droids from some graveyard, but here the transponder of her ship was identifying itself as a Techno Empire ship, as was the case for the past few weeks or so. Catria hands her the report, dating from almost six years:

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

Subject: [member="Aut-X"]
Date: September 2, 844 ABY

Reports are that a super tactical droid is running around on Agamar, codenamed Aut-X, thinking that the Clone Wars have never ended and that it is in command of a droid army at the Confederacy of Independent Systems' service. Rumors are that Aut-X and its army was left undiscovered from the Clone Wars era. It is unarmed at this time, but the threat level associated with the possibility of other dormant battle droids around him, super or not, makes Aut-X a highly dangerous opponent. Unfortunately, since the subject of this report lies outside Silver Sanctum space, I regret being unable to take action regarding this threat.

Recommended action: It is recommended that slicers be deployed in any attempt at neutralizing the threat, and reconditioning, including reprogramming, must be effected for the safety of Agamar, and that safe distance from the suspicious area must be maintained for the slicers being deployed. Also a security detail must be deployed as well.

Dr. Catria Turano, MD, MPH
Jedi Healer

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

"Catria, I know you treated your old position much like you would have an ombudsman position when you were in office. Can you tell me why you couldn't act based on the report?"

"I'm a Jedi Healer, not a slicer! No way I would have been able to recondition or reprogram a droid. At most I would have provided medical assistance to such a party. Plus Agamar lies outside Silver Jedi space. I had no jurisdiction to act based on complaints external to SSC space back then"

"That's a critical asset for the Techno Empire to obtain! The military chain of command is a little... starved. General Hexadros said as much. Plus I think I can reprogram Aut-X to serve the TE"

 

[Decimus]

Agamar. During the Clone Wars, it had been a Separatist-aligned world which had been heavily contested over by Republic and CIS forces. By the end of the war, the Republic had never been able to conquer it, and the planet had been left largely ignored for more than a decade after that. Due to the decision-making of a leftover Super Tactical Droid, however, the droid armies on Agamar never responded to the shutdown code used to disable the rest of the droid army. While said droid had faded into the annals of history, it's armies were not completely gone. Another Super Tactical unit, designated ''Aut-X'' which had been in storage aboard an abandoned Separatist Lucrehulk-class Core Ship currently grounded on the surface of Agamar had recently reactivated itself and the forces present aboard the old vessel.

While the droids and their weapons of war were old, their seclusion had kept the vast majority of said units remarkably well preserved and functional. Their relative peace had not lasted, however. A force of renegade One Sith and their troops had taken shelter nearby after escaping Castameer. Mistaking them for Republic troops, the droid army was currently engaged in a large scale battle around the old core ship. By the time Jessica arrived with her team, she'd find herself in more trouble than she realized....

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

Ouch, that was not looking good. Rogue One Sith forces were retreating from Castameer, where they were defeated by the ground armies of the galaxy, mostly Mandalorian, who basically live and fight by the blaster. They were also soundly defeated in space. But with the Mandos poised to attack First Order space, at least if TE intelligence reports were accurate, most of their forces, ground or space, were mustered for exactly that purpose, leaving their northwest flank mostly undefended. Never would Jessica imagine that she would be coming toe-to-toe aganist Sith Lords and their retinue of troops. But since she used her private Neimoidian Yacht, and modified its transponder to appear as either a Techno Union or Confederate, she would register as Confederate on the target's sensors. After all, the first Confederacy included the Techno Union, whereas the second Confederacy became the Techno Union and, later, the Techno Empire as it is known today. As they land on Agamar in pursuit of the rogue One Sith, they realize the rogue One Sith helmets have more in common with the Galactic Empire of that era vs. the Republican helmets she wore on Kashyyyk or the clone troopers' from the late stages of the Clone Wars.

"Jessica, remind me why do we have to engage the Rogue One Sith? All that I ever saw you in your dealing with the Sith is slicing" one of the organic crews for the mission told Jessica.

"That's a lot of Sith bucketheads. Assume defensive positions inside the bunker, and deliver suppressive fire"

"Why are we engaging the Rogue One Sith inside a bunker anyway?"

"As far as I'm concerned, I'll fight using the SI-74 from long range, then use my magic when they close in"

[member="Aut-X"]

 

[Decimus]

Jessica's expedition had arrived to find quite the battle going on. One Sith forces were attempting to assault Aut-X's core ship, but were being held back by the vessel's still functioning turbolasers and a hail of fire from the swarm of B1 Battle Droids amassed to fight them off. Aut-X surveyed the battle from the bridge of his ship via viewscreen, directing his forces to counter the efforts of their attackers. One of his commanders stepped forth, delivering the latest report on the situation to the Droid general. ''Sir! Another ship landed nearby. It had a Techno Union signal. Reinforcements, perhaps?'', the B1 said in a rather quirky tone. ''The probability of that is slim. My internal timer states we have awoken several hundred years after originally shutting down. We do not know the situation of the galaxy at large. Still, these new arrivals may yet prove useful. Take a squad to investigate and establish communications.'', Aut-X said, with a hint of curiosity in his mechanical voice. His Commander nodded, letting out a chirpy ''Roger Roger!'' before departing.

The Commander gathered a squad of B1 Battle Droids and departed from the ship's hanger in a Sheathipede-class Shuttle, flying above the battlefield before arriving near Jessica's command post. The droids left the shuttle quickly, plodding towards Jessica. Their leader eventually spoke. ''Greetings! I am B1-2932! My superior has sent me to extend the greetings of the Separatist Alliance, and to establish communications with whoever might be in charge here.''

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Greetings, B1-2932. Although the Separatist Alliance has fallen years ago, we have the same enemy as you do: the Rogue One Sith"

"Rogue One Sith?" B1-2932 said; Jessica feels that the battle droid was surprised. "Roger, roger"

"I shall brief you and your commanding officer on the current state of the galaxy later. For the time being, focus on the Rogue One Sith"

B1-2932 has no emotion routines; what emotions it did have, came from a design flaw. That, even though some B1s were known to offer some running commentary at times, much at the chagrin of the Clone Wars-era Confederacy, that she always referred to as the first Confederacy. The second Confederacy became the Techno Union, and, five years after its collapse, became the Techno Empire that she serves today. Z-5 droids formed the backbone of Jessica's landing force in terms of infantry, and she knew they were a lot better than any B1s/B2s these Separatist holdouts used to hold the centrisphere. As such they were to hold the TE's line while Jessica was attempting to negotiate with B1-2932; the Z-5s would soon find their matches in the form of enemy stormtroopers. But here she had eight B1 battle droids positioned to deliver suppressive fire, with two pairs of Korriban machineguns, and two battle droids to each machinegun. Luckily for B1-2932 and its shuttle there was no anti-aircraft to be found among the Rogue One Sith. Not even the AT-AT that was leading the assault, which is getting hammered by turbolaser fire alongside any other vehicles being deployed, was actually used as anti-aircraft. Catria was the only other organic in the landing party, and was mostly there for her to provide healing to Jessica, if she needed it, should actual Sith Lords attempt to fight her.

"The Rogue One Sith is closing in on our position!"

"Good: the enemy is splitting up to engage all of us: hopefully the Mandos will split the enemy line in two"

[member="Aut-X"]

 

[Decimus]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtP5lSQgll8

The battle beside the large Separatist core ship raged on violently. The AT-AT leading the One Sith's offensive had cut down quite a few B1's and B2's, yet the droid army continued it's relentless counter-attack. A large hangar bay door opened on the core ship, extending a massive boarding ramp down towards the ground as a second wave of Battle Droids proceeded to reinforce the others, this time reinforced by a column of AAT Tanks, which rained heavy firepower down upon the now surprised One Sith troops. The AT-AT was quickly brought down by the armoured column's combined firepower, causing it to topple over and crush a group of enemy troops, including one severely unlucky Sith Lord. This was the opportunity Aut-X had been waiting for. ''Second Company, begin your attack.'', Aut-X said as he signalled a force he'd quietly manoeuvred behind the One Sith's flank. Lines of B2 Super Battle Droids reinforced by several Droidekas proceeded down the hill behind them, letting out a volley of fire which cut down many enemy troops attempting to flee.

After a few minutes, the firing stopped. It was all over. The ambush had ensured few of the renegades had survived, and those that had were quickly rounded up and taken to the Sphere's brig for questioning. The droids quickly began establishing prefabricated defensive bunkers and sandbags around the exterior of the core ship while they attempted to begin necessary repairs on the vessel. Soon enough, another Sheathipede-class shuttle departed from the sphere, carrying Aut-X and a small squad of four IG-100 Magnaguards, each armed with their trademark electrostaffs. While old, they'd likely be able to take down most of the Z-5's gathered at the encampment, should negotiations sour. Aut-X strolled over to Jessica and his right hand B1-2932 with his procession in tow, a sense of pride in each mechanical step the Super Tactical Droid took. The fact he and his army had remained operational after all this time spoke testament to their survivability. Aut-X gazed at Jessica, inspecting her with his three eyes as he took in every useful detail. ''A jedi leading droids? How intriguing, though I doubt they'd stand up to my troops. My calculations indicate we have reactivated several hundred years late. What has befallen the Confederacy?''

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Since you mentioned that you reactivated, as you said, several hundred years late, I assume you must be referring to, and served, what we call the First Confederacy today. The date is 849 ABY, you spent 868 years under deactivation. And, in the First Confederacy's time, there were only two Sith Lords, both of which ultimately served the Galactic Empire, which ended up defeating your brethren back then. In the Second Confederacy's era, which ended about 15 years ago, already the One Sith had thousands of Sith Lords to deploy at a moment's notice, at least one of them has been killed today"

Much like the Second Confederacy had thousands of Force-users to deploy on equally rapid terms, predominantly light-siders when it collapsed, but also a few dark-siders. But that's as far as she know the Second Confederacy: when it ended, and what uses they got out of their Force-users. Catria, at this point, preferred to use Force-refraction to hide in another area, knowing that Jessica was better-positioned to negotiate with the rogue STD than she was, even though their knowledge of Confederate history was roughly equal. And the droid force under Jessica's command was, while not as numerous as those of Aut-X, stood down while negotiations between both parties proceeded. Plus there was another Sith Lord being captured that was brought to the party, having surrendered in an attempt to strike Jessica down at a later point. But what said Sith Lord (whose level as a Sith isn't relevant until the Sith effects an attempt at escaping) doesn't know is that Jessica isn't one's everyday Jedi.

"Whereas the First Confederacy included the [First] Techno Union, the Second Confederacy became the [Second] Techno Union. Which leads back to us the Techno Empire. In your time Jedi preferred to fight with organics at their side almost exclusively. Today, some of them are more droid-inclined than others, but most of them outside of Techno Empire service still fight alongside organics"

[member="Aut-X"]

 

[Taa Nul]

((Ignore this. Posted on the wrong character.))

 

[Decimus]

''Most intriguing indeed.....'', Aut-X said curiously, clasping his hands behind his back as he paced back and forth, pondering his response. ''I calculate that your reason for being here is not coincidental, however. You came here looking for me. The question is, why?'', the droid said, tilting his head.

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"The Techno Empire is using droids once again for combat. We tend to reserve organics for the high-level commands, and our current roster of organic commanders is a little... green. Even so, our supply of organic commanders is a little thin; you know about the challenges posed by using battle droids to engage organic armies better than almost everyone in our roster of organic commanders"

Jessica was chuckling at the mention of the droid having calculated that her reason to save Aut-X was nothing like a coincidence. But she was reminded that both Confederacies made use of organics mostly in command positions, and the Techno Union thereafter. Droids were the lifeblood of their military in all three incarnations of these factions. To all these factions, if you were an organic undertaking SpecOps kinds of things, doing things that not even commando droids would be doing, you were also a mid-to-high-level officer at a minimum, and often a general. Jessica was on the cusp of knighthood and hence on the cusp of flag-level command (in Jessica's mind a flag-level command is a term applicable to general officers in both ground armies and fleets, denoting brigadier ranks and above, or commodore and above respectively). Force-sensitives in Techno Empire service, when called up for military duty, While the Techno Empire was satisfied with her playing mostly a support role on Vulpter and Castameer, Cato Neimoidia and Agamar were the two instances where she actually did something on the front line. Her battlefield luck was rather extreme: either she was dealt a crushing defeat or she wins decisive victories. No pyrrhic victories or defeats.

"Too often do factions rely on organic combatants with the problems these cause. The Rogue One Sith failed to realize that resupplying an army of organics poses its load of problems: logistics, discipline, cost of training organic soldiers, cost of medical upkeep..."

[member="Aut-X"]

 

[Decimus]

''And you've come looking for my expertise. I must admit, I would not deny another opportunity to make my mark on the field of war. If you wish my loyalty, you will have it on one condition. My army goes with me. My comrades have served me faithfully against all odds, and I will not abandon them. Do this, and you will have my services.'', Aut-X said, with a rather serious tone of voice. He'd always had the one programming flaw of being protective of those under his command, something frequent memory wipes did little to erase during the Clone Wars. ''And if you wish to make a start, you can help by aiding me in repairing my core ship. It is extremely aged, but my engineers tell me it may fly again, with sufficient repairs......''

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"You will bring your army with you, pending repairs on the core ship. Once the core ship is repaired, you may use it in TE service alongside your army"

And to ferry it, she thought. Ringovinda StarYards' status as a major imperial corporate sponsor meant that she could bill repairs on ships that are Imperial property to the Imperial treasury, or write off the cost of repair for taxation purposes. Sure, by then the estimates of repairs to a core ship would probably go up to 25 million but that's if the damage was rather heavy. What was for sure was that a few waste heat recovery devices were musts on a reconditioned core ship that old, regardless of Jessica's actual talent with mechu-deru. And 2 Marcias near the bottom.

[member="Aut-X"]