A Shadow in the Night

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum was silent after the initial answer. It made sense, after all not all information was available and it should have been expected to not know what they were looking for. There was little on the power in his history documents, but that too was to be expected. Information was not always easy to collect and secret organizations within powerful governments were even harder.

Ultimatum was planning a route when [member="WD-334"] expressed the inherent danger levels. The artificial shook his head, "It's alright, I'll take lead and try to scout around the thinner rock formations. It will take time, but wouldn't want you falling into the lava now would we. Is that okay with you?"

The artificial lord tossed a beacon into one of the rooms as they passed, there was just one more room now. The cloning room, which they would pass soon. Ultimatum would want to check on that room in particular. The cloning sphere he had purchased should still be intact, though he was concerned about any damages the small skirmish might have had on them. The artificial had not been able to check their condition when he left, due to the rather dangerous situation that had arisen during his departure. It wouldn't take long, perhaps a moment or two just to examine the one closest to the door.

 

[WD-334]

WD-334 gave a short nod of it's small head on it's short neck, giving the okay for [member="Ultimatum"] going forward to scout ahead. The war droid watched Ultimatum toss beacons into rooms, wondering how many were left to go. "How many rooms left to go?" the war droid asked. It sometimes had patience, but the feeling of excitement to finding out whatever it was, this 'Inquisitorius' Ultimatum had spoken of. "This unit will leave to the entrance, and await you there." It would also check up on the transport's guards through comms, just to see if anything was coming by. They couldn't be surprised, the droid did not wish this trip to end that way.

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum nodded, "I'll be there shortly."

As the bigger droid lumbered back towards the entrance Ultimatum broke into a sprint towards the final place he wanted to check. The cloning room. Something LOOM had not taken advantage of in its history was the cloning abilities granted it by the purchase of these spheres so long ago. He moved into the room and placed the beacon before checking the devices themselves.

Unlike the standard cloning pods, these were relatively small devices installed into the ceiling that projected a gravity bubble that encapsulated the clone. It was easy to miss them if one didn't know what to look for. The droid however did know and he moved underneath the first. The device seemed in fine condition, but there was evidence of scratching around the edges. Peering closer still, the artificial realized that the damages were of the sort normally connected to forced removal. Someone had attempted to break these off and probably take them for some purpose of their own. He wondered if this was the Guide's doing, perhaps the Vanguard would know. He would have to ask once he returned.

For now though, the droid moved back and ran back to the entrance. Ultimatum could probably have been heard long before he was seen. When he returned he spoke, "Alright, ready to go."

-----

The guards at the ship would have nothing to report, the area was perfectly clear and the storm didn't show any sign of weakening. The sensors were still functional for the moment, though that might change should more iron rocks be thrown into the air. However, for the moment there was nothing to be concerned about. They would continue to be on their guard, Sith were a tricky bunch after all.

[member="WD-334"]

 

[WD-334]

WD-334 gave a confirmative groan of a bleep then headed out to check on their outside forces. Everything seemed to be in order, at least to the large machine. Being on this planet, and all of these memories within the droid's database was bringing back memories of the many legions of stormtroopers and imperial officers the droid had worked with. So many memories, some it missed. The feeling of missing them, it was a very unusual feeling to the droid.

It was gone once [member="Ultimatum"] had arrived, and soon they were on their way to the next destination. WD-334 followed closely behind, being sure to watch it's step. Another slip could end very, very badly for the war droid. The time it would take to reach the volcano would no doubt be long for them to take. "Did you get everything?" the war droid asked.

 

[Ultimatum]

Indeed the larger droid was correct in his belief. The trek would be no short trip, fortunately however it was not to be a very long one either. Ultimatum had attempted to provide the route with the least amount of immediately danger from ground collapsing. The volcanic areas were obviously not ideal for walking safety, but even molten metal and rock only flowed in certain areas. It was rare indeed to come across a volcano where the entirety of the surface was covered in lava.

[member="WD-334"] had asked if Ultimatum had collected everything. The droid grinned bemusedly, "Everything? No, I have set the beacons for the devices and pieces that are most important. Truthfully it would be possible to continue work without any of the devices in there, but it would be far easier to continue where I left off with the stuff." The artificial lord was glad that most of the 'stuff' he was having brought back to the ship was digital in format, making it much simpler to move. This place was bringing back memories. Not the actual surroundings, he had never really traveled up into the volcanoes, but the world and its atmosphere. Memories of the times before that fall, before the First Order claimed the world.

"I don't believe I ever heard your story. You are an Imperial combat droid then? What happened?" Ultimatum was nothing, if not curious. Especially in regards to the ancient. He loved those things that had stood the test of time more readily than most. A sense of awe and strength was in those things.

 

[WD-334]

The war droid was interested in this 'work' that [member="Ultimatum"] spoke of, it had not seen nor been able to piece together everything there was to be known about Ultimatum's work, it wondered what kind of work exactly the other droid worked on. However, it did not ask as Ultimatum was first to ask WD-334 a question. Something about the war droid's past, and it made WD think back through it's memory banks.

"This unit is indeed an Imperial combat droid. Incinerator model." It used to have a flamethrower before it had fallen in battle. "I fell in the battle of..." The droid paused. It could not remember what battle it had fallen in. Not even the planet, or the system. Or the year.

WD saw the volcano ahead, all they would need is to start up the slope toward the peak, where the facility would no doubt be. Within the crater, or just outside. They had no way to be sure, not until they would arrive.

 

[Ultimatum]

An incineration unit. One of the most interesting design choices from organic weapons was the integration of fire into combat. Over the time of its use, the actual effectiveness of the weapon, when compared to more traditional firearms, had been proven to be less than suitable for most situations. Jungle warfare, or similarly related fighting in heavy foliage, did present a unique opportunity with incendiary weapons, but it was not entirely common to be fighting in such an area.

Despite all this, it was a weapon form that seemed to have captured the imagination of weapons designers. It was proven time and again to be a very effective morale fighting weapon, but it was added into more and more of the designs as years went on. Certainly it was an intimidating concept to organics, to have a droid that could effectively burn one to the ground before he could do anything. It was an impressive display of the use of a psychological weapon within the realm of physical weaponry.

It was unfortunate that [member="WD-334"] did not recall his history, Ultimatum felt as if he would be very different if he lost his memory of the past. But then again, perhaps the droid's brain was not designed for longer term use and thusly was not designed with a full fledged droid brain. There were many variations and Ultimatum knew that his was not a standard mind.

The volcano ahead stood tall and menacing, its top was wreathed in the ash that billowed from its many crevices. The bright red light from the lava shown brighter that that of the sun, its glow turned the flaming mountain into a red giant with many shadows along its surface, as if it were indeed a giant sitting, waiting for something to awaken it. Ultimatum visualized the path he intended on taking into a route over the volcano, attaching that imaging into his sight so that as he walked he could easily follow the line.

"Sorry to hear that. Do you feel any remorse for not knowing?"

 

[WD-334]

WD-334 felt nothing about having no memory except that it only wondered what exactly had happened, and that was it. No sadness, no remorse. The droid shook it's head. "Nothing. Emotion is a new concept to this unit." Something it still had to get used to. The large droid continued to follow along. They were nearing the top of the volcano, soon they would be able to see exactly what they sought out.

At this range, something was picked up. A ping, a faint one that could only be sensed by anyone on the slopes of the volcano. "This is correct location. Picked up a beacon..." It was a faint connection to something in it's memory banks, so it was surely Imperial origin. This was the place, where WD would uncover whatever secret awaited the pair of droids. It felt for a moment to ask [member="Ultimatum"] about his past, but then it past by the thought, it had no interest to learn as of yet. It was too eager to find the secret. They have come so close, and perhaps this secret would further the war droid's own war machine, a small army that it planned to form for the Metal Lords.

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum could understand that, he remembered when he had first had the emotions activated in his mind. The sudden overwhelming of his logical cores by the seemingly illogical collection of thoughts and feelings. It had taken some time getting used to, even now it still occasionally felt alien him to him, as if the strange thoughts were somehow not truly part of him. But as the old saying went, "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts." Therefore the emotions were an important part of him, and while he often attempted suppress them in order to collect a more overarching view, more often than not it was an important part of his being.

The artificial sometimes wondered if other droids truly understood organic emotions, most were simply designed with a singular personality that rarely changed. In fact, in most cases droids only developed true personalities, or emotions, from long periods without any form of memory wipe. Perhaps that was more akin to what a child was like, the very youngest of organics did not truly have a personality, that was created as the creature developed. Therefore did that not mean that droids were like the young? They developed personalities as they aged. Did that mean that droids were being kept from reaching their full potential? It was an interesting concept, but one that he doubted many organics would willingly contemplate. After all, if it were so then organics had been stifling culture growth of an entire species for millennia, an idea that truly did go in direct contrast to their usual beliefs.

Even as [member="WD-334"] notified Ultimatum of the beacon his sensors reported it as well. Ultimatum was now very curious, what could the Empire have hidden up here. There was much that was ancient on this world and most of it was Imperial at some level or another, but then most were not especially hidden. The Empire had never been one to hide things unless absolutely necessary. Nonetheless, there was a hidden pocket here that Ultimatum looked forward to discovering what it was that had been hidden up here. The additional sensors within the droid reported an entrance or some form of geological anomaly ahead, perhaps something to enter the facility or whatever had been hidden here.

"There is something ahead, it might be an entrance. This area is geological stable, it should be safe for you to walk as you will." The ground here was harder than that directly near the lava, certainly safer for the bigger droid now. And safer for the construction of something hidden. Then again, that did not entirely remove the danger of some sort of underground pocket. The metal in the ground made it difficult to sense deep into the surfaces. It was a near perfect defense against detection.

 

[WD-334]

The droid never came to wonder about the emotions it had been given, how organics handled them or how they even began. Such thoughts never came. WD may have once been curious, very curious about such things but now all it could think was battle, war, fighting. However one thing that the droid was very curious about, what was worth hiding within a volcano? Such a volatile location, and if the facility had not been destroyed it must have had some sort of shielding.

WD-334 began to quicken the pace behind [member="Ultimatum"], trying to catch up and see whatever it was that they had come for. Reaching the top of the slope, it saw what they had came for. Hanging above to pit of lava.

Spoiler

"Objective has been sighted. We have arrived, finally." If it were anything like Obsidian Base, a facility WD had liberated after being liberated from Raxus Prime, then it would no doubt have automated defenses. Old, potentially useless, perhaps even unpowered. WD-334 spotted a bridge from the slope. However long this place had been here, they had to test it would not fall. WD volunteered to go first.

 

[Ultimatum]

They at last entered into the volcano and the two gazed upon the facility. What an interesting place to hide something. Ultimatum was curious even more now. Ultimatum had no doubt that the place would have some form of defense, but as [member="WD-334"] was considering, Ultimatum doubted that they would not be very effective if they functioned at all. The true danger was the integrity of the facility.

"If you wish to go first, but be careful. I don't think I will be able to hold you should it break. I would recommend proceeding one at a time." Ultimatum did not want to over stress the metal of the bridging, while it might be able to handle one of them, he did not want to test adding a second.

Ultimatum had worked in buildings similar to this before, he had studied the architecture, when moving through the old Imperial facilities that had been on the world. It was interesting how the designs of buildings on this world were very different to standard Imperial architecture. The disparity struck Ultimatum as odd.

 

[WD-334]

WD-334 continued onward across the bridge. Yet, surprisingly it did not shake as much as the war droid believed that the bridge would be. Looking ahead, WD could very well see it was imperial. And not just because of the Imperial insignia upon the door at the other end of the bridge. The architecture, the droid had seen similarly built buildings. The war droid soon reached the bridge's end, where it waited for [member="Ultimatum"] to cross.

As it waited, it inspected the door, looking for a way to open. It could think of multiple. The door was old, perhaps bashing it down with it's large shield. Once Ultimatum would cross, the war droid intended to share it's strategies. "Multiple possible strategies; ram door with shield, success possible, structure of facility may be weak" it said, gesturing to it's shield. "Could cut through, will take longer." Plus any cutting gear would no doubt be with the droid team Ultimatum had brought with them.

 

[Ultimatum]

As [member="WD-334"] crossed the bridge Ultimatum waited for some form of drop or other complication to occur. There was a surprise to be found, in that the bridge neither shook nor gave. It must have been sturdy indeed to survive the tests of time and still remain strong enough for them. When at last the bigger droid made it to the other side, Ultimatum waited a moment or two, before beginning himself to traverse the distance. There was some small comfort in the fact that this bridge was far more likely to hold under his weight.

He passed over the fires of the mountain and came before his droid friend. The artificial being listened intently to his suggestions while looking to the doorway. Standard Imperial design, seen expounded upon in blast doors all over most Imperial ships and cities. The advantage was that they were effectively blasterproof, resistant to stress fractures from extreme differences in pressure, and difficult to break through. This however was a more affordable variant, less durable but still very effective of keeping what was within and what was without separated.

Both of WD's suggestions made sense, of course there were other potential options, though they were unlikely to help much. Ultimatum had a disruptor pistol on him that could quickly put holes in the door, but holes would do little to help at this point, at least in the sizes that this was likely to leave. It would have needed to be an Entropy rifle to be really useful here. But one of those were back with the droid teams and would take sometime to reach them. Ultimatum shrugged as he responded, "If you believe that the shield will not enact a complete structural failure, then it may be the ideal course of action. Go ahead."

 

[WD-334]

WD-334 looked from [member="Ultimatum"] then to the door after the other's response. A long pause...then it drew back it's shield and went to hit the door. Only for the shield to vibrate from the hard impact, and barely a dent in the door. A sizable dent, but that was it. It would take many more hits.

"....Explosives?" The droid asked, turning it's head down. The war droid could wait for one of them to arrive...There was a low-toned groan from behind the war droid, and it quickly turned to see the door slightly ajar, slowly the gap growing apart. It looked to it's shield, then back to the door. Looks like it had worked after all, jammed this whole time and not being able to open. "This droid's tactic seems...to have worked?" The door opened ever so slowly, groaning as it did. It was barely large enough to fit the war droid, but it would easily fit Ultimatum through. The war droid moved through the dark doorway as the lights began to turn on. "This place...how is it still powered?" It did not think of thermal power, for it did not know and that was no doubt the cause for power, from the volcano's heat.

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum watched as the shield struck the door. His mind followed the mathematical procedures to come to the conclusion that the impact of the shield was not enough to create a hole or otherwise force the doors inward. As the two watched Ultimatum prepared to suggest that they wait for some of the other droids to arrive with more powerful ordnance. While the artificial would not have recommended the use of explosives of a magnitude necessary to breach the entry, especially considering the fact that they were currently suspended above a pit of magma.

It appeared however that [member="WD-334"] was following the same thought process. "Perhaps an En-" The door began to open before he could finish and the droid turned to look. It was surprising, but Ultimatum decided not to question it. Surely the generators must have passed out of use by now. Even the greatest of reactors had a limited lifespan, most wouldn't last a century without maintenance or resupply. However the droid guessed that perhaps the doors had been made in such a way that when power was lost that the facility's doors would open, except something had caused them to jam.

Ultimatum responded to the initial query with a smile, "It would appear so. Let's see what we have here." As they entered the artificial lord realized that the power was indeed still on. It took another moment before Ultimatum realized the potential answer. Geothermal energy, a fairly unused source of power that was overlooked by most organic engineers. Truthfully this world was perhaps the best example of the potential of that form of energy source. It would make sense that the Empire set up the building to run on the heat of the world, after all there was not much else here and spacing was probably a bit of an issue.

"Best guess? It's some form of geothermal power plant. Perhaps this place was intended to source power to Imperial assets off world. But by keeping it geothermal it does remove a lot of the ability to detect this facility through elements usually found in most reactors. They built this place to hide. Hide what though?"

 

[WD-334]

It seemed as though the war droid's companion was equally surprised to find out that the door had opened just fine without barely any work against it. [member="Ultimatum"] followed behind the war droid, giving it's own analysis of how the power had remained online, as well as the fact of how it had remained hidden for so long. And unbeknownst to them, they were soon to find out what exactly was hidden. The hall seemed almost endless, doors here and there. No doubt containing data. But WD, it had this feeling, something was further ahead. An...intuition, not a common feeling for such war droids.

"There" WD said, pointing with it's shield. The door at the end looked rather different to all the others, and larger. Like it was meant for something larger than a normal being to fit through. This door seemed to open just fine unlike the other, except this room was dark. So very, very dark. WD could barely see silhouettes of rather tall figures. Was this what the droid had come for? "Light?"

 

[Ultimatum]

This facility was extensive. Quite large for a power generator. Thus Ultimatum discarded that notion. What then had the Imperials planned it for. They much to greatly loved their secret bases. As they passed down the corridors and through the hallways Ultimatum was struck by the sheer amount of information that must have been stored here. Perhaps a covert info dump site. Somewhere to store the information that was too highly classified for standard servers. Whatever it was, Ultimatum felt that there was some greater mystery here, and that [member="WD-334"] had to have had something important occur in his time in the Empire to have even a notion of this facility's existence.

They continued on, Ultimatum stuck near to WD, having some idea that the larger droid might have a memory jolt. Perhaps he would be able to recall something about this base. It seemed to happen a moment later, it was as if the droid knew something was behind the large droid. Ultimatum wondered if perhaps the facility was intended to house similar droids to WD, based on the sizing the door here.

They entered the room behind this massive door, which operated fairly well for its age. Inside, Ultimatum turned his vision to multi-spectrum. While still dark, Ultimatum was able to move to a terminal on the wall as he spoke. "Maybe the terminal will work. Let's see if the system is capable of working as well as the doors."

 

[WD-334]

WD-334 looked over to the terminal that [member="Ultimatum"] signaled toward, indeed it could very well activate the lights to this room. The droid walked over...then realized that it did not have adequate fingers on hand to use the terminal. So instead, the war droid looked back to Ultimatum. "No fingers." It stepped back, allowing Ultimatum to get to the terminal as WD turned to the silhouettes. It began to move forward toward them to take a good look while it could in the dark.

It began to move forward, one of it's feet settling onto a ramp. It almost tripped, and quickly locked on with magnetic locks, before disengaging and walking down slowly down the ramp. The droid neared the silhouettes. They looked tall, very tall in fact. Almost the same height as WD-334 itself. In fact, they looked almost...recognizable. "Ultimatum...this unit, these seem...something to this unit. Cannot place word."

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum nodded as he moved to work on the terminal. Imperial computing, one of the most disappointingly insecure systems he had ever had the time to deal with. This was a planet, as stated many times, that had been Imperial in hold and thus when he had been moving through old Imperial bases he had often come across Imperial computers. They tended to be dry and rather boring, couldn't handle sophisticated cyber opponents. Nonetheless this system seemed more secure than the ones he had dealt with. The security was actually somewhat effective, but turning on the lights was hardly an issue, given its non-security based dimensions.

However before he reached the point of activating the lights he heard a clang from the area WD was walking towards. Swiftly rounding, he noticed that the droid was now at an angle in some form of incline. A only a little later he spoke out. The artificial lord thought for a moment before responding, "They seem? Similar? Dangerous? Familiar? Impressive? Do you remember something yet?"

The droid continued clicking away at the terminal as he spoke, until there was a faint whirring noise and the lights were activated. At least, he sent the command for the lights to turn on, but it seemed the older computer was taking its time processing, or the system was just moving slower. Either way the lights should have turned on within a couple moments, perhaps longer. Hopefully they would still be intact enough to turn on at all.

[member="WD-334"]

 

[WD-334]

WD-334 could not get what it was, not until [member="Ultimatum"] gave the word it searched for. Familiar. That seemed right...WD prepared to give it's response over to the other droid before suddenly the lights came on, and WD froze up as it's visual receptors caught sight of something that the droid had been searching for. And it was not at all what was expected. A group of what the war droid knew to be some type of Dark Trooper, an old relic of the Empire's reign years ago.

"Dark troopers...this was worth the search." They had weapons, but the weapons were no doubt very old by now. And plus, better weapons of these times would no doubt be much more suited for them to wield. "We must be wary of activating them. They could be hostile" WD added.