To Sleep, Perchance to Dream

[K0VA]

​

Galaxy Core​

Abregado Rae System​

Derelict Frigate Bastion​

​

​

Amid a sea of stars, and systems known throughout the Galaxy as some of the most important and often visited sectors, the ambient still of the cosmos was immediately interrupted by the presence of a mechanical specter pushing out of hyperspace and coming into full view. An arrival of this nature was not out of the ordinary, yet the ship itself; an older Republic model frigate was in a shape that was far worse for wear. Even a cursory inspection would raise red flags as to how such a ship, could even withstand the rigors of hyperspace, let alone make the jump. Sections of the main hull were tattered and blown apart, all shielding and power to the main drive engines were dead and gone. The actual alignment of the vessel was sideways and drifting at an angle that bespoke of ruin and wreckage. A derelict shouldn't be exiting hyperspace without a hail, or at least a signal. Yet nothing came from this dark and foreboding presence.

At one time the proud and well maintained vessel would have been an ample warship to add to an ever expanding armada, and yet now it was nothing more than floating scrap. While the outside told the tale or woe, the inside was in further shambles, with entire sections of the vessel quarantined off by fallen debris and collapsed passages. The narrative of the whole was a tragedy, while its presence provided a mystery that had yet to be explained. This was a ghost ship at the moment, one who had been able to travel to the core without signs of life onboard, and no usable methods.

The mystery itself wasn't too hard to ascertain, as the systems onboard were barely registering, but had been storing power, drawing from every auxiliary, even life support and anti-gravity until the last known coordinates that were entered could be accessed after the lengthy time it took to charge the hyperdrive for one last voyage. Now that the trip had been done, all systems were offline, and only a residual amount of heat was even viable in the cold depths of space. While it wasn't reaching out or sending a distress call anymore, aboard the vessel, locked into a self-made tomb, there was a weak signal being pinged out every few minutes - a hidden boon aboard a deserted starship. What waited inside was the sole survivor of a massacre, finally making its way home. Or at least, what it had known as home in the last few cycles.

[member="HK-36"] | [member="Six-O"]​

 

[HK-36]

[member="K0VA"],

Rae, Abregado System,
Capital City,


HK was sitting at his desk inside his hidden office within his Catacombs on Abregado-Rae, structure known to the locals as Sepulchrum Apparatus, the Tomb of the Machine. He was not doing anything special, just going over the reports while balancing planetary budget and sending out orders to his underlings via wireless communications when suddenly the door to his office opened automatically and another HK droid stepped inside, one of his Greycloak guards.

"A ship just entered the system."

He delivered the news as if it was an event of great import, without looking up from a datapad HK answered,

"I am sorry you did not get the memo, but we are a trade planet, ships do tend to enter and leave our system from time to time."

Of course Abregado would still have sizeable space traffic in its orbit, being on one of the bigger hyperlane trading routes and bustling as an industrial and tourist world among other things,

"This is a derelict."

HK stopped immediately and looked up from his datapad, setting the little device down.

"How big is it?"

HK asked,

"A frigate."

His Greycloak copy answered,

"Contain it."



Few minutes later alarms would start to blare out within Abregado's barracks as planetary militia was put on stand-by and the Iron Company troops stationed on the planet were preparing for possible boarding actions, just the same planetary defense fleet led by the adventuring frigate the Siege Tower and the large super-carrier the Dancing Queen scrambled to intercept the frigate, [member="Six-O"] would be among the droids ordered to be on standby and prepared for boarding the derelict frigate, HK would sent for him personally.

If the IG did not knew why so much attention would be diverted towards dealing with a single frigate, he could always ask HK, besides he should have updated basic planetary history on Abregado by now, so he should know that in the past derelict ships showed up in the system before, one group brought to the planet an undead infestation the droid repelled quickly during the Dark Harvest event, another, a space-hulk, entered the system with some sort of hostile beings Abregado had to deal with as well. Either way, it would make sense for them to be wary of any derelict ships who would randomly enter their space by now.

A transmission would be sent to Six by HK,

"Six, stop being a jerk right now,"

He wasn't certain of where Six was or what he was doing, perhaps he was still on Atrisia, but the chances was that wherever Six was he was doing something HK would not approve of,

"A derelict ship entered Abregado space, we are going to board it on an investigation and artifact recovery mission, you are coming with the boarding party."

 

[Six-O]

A t r i s i a
Jar'Kai

Remarkable calculation, [member="HK-36"] had formed. His IG-Model minion indeed remained upon the battered World his Mentor had directed reconstruction of. Jar'Kai, a city threadbare and smashed. A mere frown of the former glory it may once had held. Efforts to restore a glimmer of that bygone dignity, were yet ongoing. Spearheaded by the machine that once had been a G0T0, but now strode upon it's own two legs. A monster. A demon of war and maltreatment.

Whatever kindness, whatever ambition and faith Three-Six put in IGa-60. It was not lost on the Droid; bicker as they may, the Iron Lord was becoming what the Organics may regard as brother. Of course, Six-O still appreciated that one day, in some way, HK-36 would succumb and expire. But, naturally--or, unnaturally---it would require doing by the claws of his own grasping appendages.

If this was not fraternal love, at it's finest, Six-O simply did not know what was.

Which, actually, he didn't.

"By Force, please stop! He's just a boy!" A woman wistfully begged.

With legs and arms splayed open, wrists with ankles bolted to a table coated thickly with slime and the excreta of more than a dozen victims, a teenaged male reside. Secured solidly, even as he twist and pull at the firm metal clasps that clutch him, he scarcely found any give at all.

"Grrghhllph. . ." he gasped, a hose involuntarily thrust down throat, drowning under the egesta of a hundred more prisoners just like him. Coerced menacingly to ingest and swallow gallons of filth and bile.

"Confide in me, the names of the Crime Lords I seek. . . " Six-O modulated with frightening indifference, "Then all of this will stop. You would like that, would you not?"

"You savage!" The mother cried, being held down, forced to watch the undoing of her child. "I don't know anything! WE ARE NOT CRIMINALS!!"

"M. . rrrghll.. om!" The youth gagged, hose retracting from his throat, an order Six-O made with simple motion of his arm.

"You have colluded with the Reki. Your male mate, and eldest offspring are documented associates. "

Fate, as it turns out, strode in favor of this family pair. Before Six-O had managed to extract the intelligence he so desired, a signal interposed the machines interrogation. How fortuitous for these lambs, the slaughter would require indefinite postponement.

"Iron Lord, I will make my way to Abregado Space immediately."

[member="K0VA"]​

 

[HK-36]

[member="K0VA"], [member="Six-O"],


While Six's enthusiasm towards hunting down and dealing with the Reki crime organization was appreciated, HK would probably have to make sure he understood the laws Abregado had concerning prisoners and torture, which were fairly limiting although they were going to be probably going to be reviewed in the wake of the mess on Kaeshana. Besides, all organics vacated Jar'Kai where Six's new domain laid, so pulling in organics for interrogation meant that he was encroaching on somebody else's jurisdiction, but that was more or less their problem to deal with until HK would actually find out about it and be able to step in and lay down the law.

Either way, he would respond to Six,

"Alright, come to the Dancing Queen, we will be aboard in orbit with the boarding party, have your equipment already prepared we will leave immediately."

And until Six would join up with them that should be that, until then the supercarrier would catch the derelict frigate into a tractor beam, probably making everything aboard shake and jitter suddenly when the ship was pulled into a stand-still, stopped by the Abregado fleet to make sure it would not get any closer until they investigated what resided aboard. That could have possibly been enough to re-awaken K0VA and anything else that could lurk beneath its shadowy hull.

Of course that depended on what kind of locks and restarting mechanisms was installed on the Shard's sarcophagus, but one way or another he should be awoken once more soon enough as Atrisia was not far and Six should be along shortly, and with him the intrusive presence of Abregado boarding party heading towards the frigate.