Beauty and the Mechanic

[Janick Beauchamp]

"Those who would most suspect a rock wall to conceal a rock humanoid Sithspawn would be other Sith, or the spies they use, so I would think it's only the highest level(s) of sensitivity that could potentially warrant something more than mundane, technology-based security. Like the sort of facilities only the Circle of Lords would have access to, the sort of thing not even the highest-ranking NFUs or non-Lords in the chain of command would have clearance for"

Mundane and technology-based? Outside of Bastion, certainly they could make do with peons and ordinary alarm systems. But because Sith factions often tend to have the most vital facilities on their capital planet, only the facilities vital enough to warrant alchemical wards will be protected as such, and nearly all of them are on Bastion, she thought, while also being remembered about their lack of anti-aircraft, rendering such facilities vulnerable to airstrikes. But [member="Garith Darkhold"]'s question had her thinking furiously and perhaps even overwhelm her. From what she knew, a facility at that level of sensitivity she would be describing would likely be a vault filled with holocrons or Force-artifacts rather than any real intelligence or command-and-control kind of facility, and especially not starfighter facilities: what she knew about the SIth Empire's starfighter corps was that no Lord wanted to touch that with a 10-foot pole, and in fact there was no Sith at all among the flight crew, despite the promises of rapid advancement for Sith.

"Now that we have arrived at the end of the shaft, what's next?"

 

[Garith Darkhold]

[member="Janick Beauchamp"]

The double doors open revealing weapons aimed directly at them. Garith stepped forward with his right hand extended. “Stand down”, his gruff tone carried down metallic corridors.

Droids altered by mechu-deru vitae, technobest creations carrying blaster weapons and some with melee weapons. Upon command they lowered their weapons. “You will let my companion inspect you”, he voiced boomed with authority. The type of certainty that came with years of forcing under his tyrannical might.

“Go ahead a take a closer look. After that I will take you down to my forge”, he pointed down the corridor to his left. “Just do not go down the corridor to our right. That is Malice’s lab”, he then motioned to their right.

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

The sentry droids that guarded the entrance were visibly made much more dangerous using mechu-deru, while taking care not to go to the corridor on the right, and make sure to be walking the corridor to [member="Garith Darkhold"]'s left. Whereas the stuff she learned on Korriban, which led to learning the very basics of Electronic Manipulation, allowed for temporary overrides of programming, mechu-deru allowed for more permanent changes. To Janick, it looked more like programming changes than anything else. Pretty elaborate, yes, but what required the Force in the whole process of using mechu-deru was to give life to the machinery. She heard tales of how mechu-deru could be used to slice computer systems as well as light-siders using it, even though light-siders had to use it quite differently. The first reflex, prior to enduring this quest, was to just go to the person she heard about that could use mechu-deru and use Drain Knowledge on her to learn it, but decided against it because it would incur unacceptable risks.

"It seems that the main ingredient that requires the Force is to give a mechanical construct a life of its own, and higher level of skill can instill in one such construct higher levels of sentience and even intelligence"

 

[Garith Darkhold]

[member="Janick Beauchamp"]

“Yes true”, why not share a little of his past experiences. “It was not but a couple hundred years ago I had encountered such a droid altered in such a way. The droid was a Jedi and I had to encounter a few battle with him. I forget the Jedi droids name but he hung out a lot with the Jedi Master [member="Mak Manto"].”

“The very first time I had encountered a technobests is on Raxus Prime. There is a secret not many know why every once and a while more of these droids keep appearing on Raxus Prime. Long ago there was a Sith Lord who created an artifact far under the junk yards of Raxus Prime. Deep underground there is a vast tunnel net work. Within this tunnel net work is a laboratory. That is where this device resides. This device has the power to create new technobests. Be careful with the knowledge I just told you. Life is still life not matter what the form may look like or whatever the side of the nature of the force it comes from. People fear what they do not understand. Some people hate droids even. Some people may not care that these creatures are still living things. They will destroy them anyways even though they have not been harming anyone.”

“Any question of the knowledge I just passed to you? If not I shall take you to my forge.”

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"No, I don't have any further questions"

Raxus Prime and technobeasts? If what she heard about on Korriban was correct, Belia Darzu used Raxus Prime as a base to build those things; most of those were on Tython or so the legend goes. [member="Garith Darkhold"] would then lead her into the forge, where the main stuff she came here for was about to begin. She needed to make sure she didn't expend too much mental energy before getting in the thick of it, and yet the warning rang in her mind once more: Neither I [Garith] nor Malice has the patience for betrayal. Then again she was pretty far outside the mainstream Sith loop so she has little to no idea who to betray for, or who to betray against, to what end, or who could approach her to betray these two: she flew under the proverbial radar, and she will probably still remain that way unless the Sith somehow took proper care of airpower. That is, anybody wanting to exploit her to their own advantage in an inter-Sith feud would pretty much have to be committed to starfighter combat, at least enough to see where her own dogfighting skill fits and how her own ability, even limited, to conduct aerial campaigns would be of use, because even alchemists were more common among Sith than Sith that actually knew what to use starfighters for. But she realized that her stuff back on Utapau pales in comparison to the forge here.

 

[Garith Darkhold]

[member="Janick Beauchamp"]

“Very well then”, he said then turned about in the direction of the left corridor. Once again the sound of beskar and durasteel clanked together. The corridor was long they had already passed a number of doors and corridor spanning off of the corridor they were heading down. The doors were not visibly marked. What lay beyond them was currently a mystery. This was Garith’s section of the facility. What was he hiding behind these doors?

After walking down the corridor for a short amount of time Garith took a left. Again walking down this new corridor there was more closed unmarked doors and more corridors spanning off this one. There was an odd sensation to these corridors. It was a slightly disorienting feeling. Could there be some sort of alchemical presence on the corridors? There was a force imbued presence to these corridors. If one did not know what combination of corridors to walk the odd sensation could make then walk around in circles for days.

It felt like another half an hour had passed before Garith stopped at another door. At torso level to the left of a door was a key pad. No thumb prints or retinal scans. There was just a simple password entered in.
The double blast doors opened.

The door opening up revealed the room beyond. Upon Garith stepping into the room the lights flickered on. Directly in front of them was a large forge. It was of Mando’ade design but it looked augmented, maybe to imbue items with the force? Along the right of the forge was cooling pools and workbenches. To the left there were two opened doors. One leading to a storage area with useable items within two for crafting purposes, the other open door was a living quarters containing a number of rooms. Really it was like a small apartment with a larger the average pantry.

“Here we are”, he motioned to the forge. “Go ahead and look around and get yourself acquainted. In here it is safe and you should get to know the forge and workshop before we begin. If you feel hungry or thirsty there is food and drink in the living quarters.”

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

After feeling increasingly dizzy as she walked through this maze in a cave, perhaps she feels that she might have used too much of her brain trying to understand mechu-deru. Or perhaps that was the heavy presence of the dark side as she closed in on the forge, where beskar, durasteel and other alchemical items were being forged. Anyhow, that was one unpleasant training experience to her, where getting in was the key, and her alchemy master of the day, [member="Garith Darkhold"], was having an uneasy time getting her in and out. Yet, she knew that the premises were much more like a beskar forge like the one she saw on Coruscant while with one Stephanie Brown, but the tools, however, aren't foreign to her. Getting to know the forge and the instruments was pretty easy to her because she was immediately reminded of how the premises of Beskar Ring Forge worked. But she realizes that just infusing the dark side of the Force based on the blood content of the item was not going to cut it beyond what she usually made.

"Now I've made a grim realization: just spraying blood as a vessel for the dark side inside the object is not enough"

 

[Garith Darkhold]

[member="Janick Beauchamp"]

“You’re correct it would not be enough. Though this is not a true blood forge”, he pointed at his forge.

“I pretty confident my days working a blood forge are at an end”, Garith had children, children that would not understand. In truth they had a better understand from a curtain point of view. He had spent so long trapped within his own darkness that it had left him blind to the truth.


“Through this forge and system it uses it will allow us to work without the mess of killing a living person. There will be no need for using all the body within a victim and letting a forge to feed on their soul. You see this device”, he walked over to the forge. The device he picked up looked familiar if you were going to pressure wash a house. A spray nozzle attached to a hose. The hose was attached to a nearby wall.

“All the blood here is donated and there will be no killing”, what the Elder Kashi did not say the blood will be coming from unconscious clones from another room from somewhere else deep within this facility.

“Before we begin I would like to donate a memory to you. I’m asking your permission because if I just gave it to you that would be rude. I just simple wish to give you a memory of mine during a time when I seen Malice use Mechu-Deru. It could help you while trying to develop a talent with this skill.”

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"Yes, I will take that memory"

True, the place wasn't a blood forge. Yes, she used blood, but her source of blood is usually venipuncture, and alchemical clients are often subjected to that under the guise of blood testing so as to ensure that the alchemical stuff is not going to ruin their health, or so they would think. So I make a really, really efficient use of the blood? she thought, while the methods [member="Garith Darkhold"] used required, from the sound of it, much, much more blood than what she did. Or perhaps infusing life into a mechanical construct, as opposed to just infusing an object with the dark side of the Force, requires far more blood than alchemy alone does. Obviously, the larger the construct, the more blood will be necessary for the life to be given to the technobeasts. Just that she'd rather not get herself sick doing mechu-deru, and contaminated blood is useful if one wishes to confer poisonous properties but most of the time it is going to be a liability for what use of mechu-deru she has in mind.

"So the life-giving function of mechu-deru is the part requiring the blood? Or is it another step entirely?"

 

[Garith Darkhold]

[member="Janick Beauchamp"]

“The methods depend on your methods”, Garith stepped forward.

“It would be an ignorant assumption to assume that the Jedi or Sith path is the only path to the Force”, now a couple arms length away he continued to speak. “There are others. However the path I’m more familiar with to help you to understand mechu-deru is a dark one. Malice is a Sith so there for he uses a path of darkness to shape what he desires. What you do with it is up to you. To help better answer your question, yes the method you’ll be learning today will require a lot of blood. The more you use the stronger the enchantment. If a soul is consumed it makes the enchantment even more powerful.”

“The methods I will be using today to help inspire you will be Kashi in origin”, he believed it would be at least polite to tell her what form of skills he will be using. After all it will be affecting her to help her gain more knowledge. “Do you know what a Kashi is”, the question was a rhetorical one. “I am a Kashi, one of the last of a race that was nearly killed off close to twenty thousand years ago by a mistake of one Jedi. The Kashi Mystics was the origin of the Jedi’s legend of the Unifying Force. They were neither considered light nor dark. Some had chosen a path of light but very few were dark. The majority is what people refer today as Grey Jedi.”

“Now I will be showing a piece of my memory. It will be a short clip of my perspective of a situation. What will this do is trigger farsight. Through my sight I will lead you through a vision of a past event. Through it learn what you can from Malice’s actions. Through the Force you should be able to feel what he feels. Through your knowledge of technology and force alchemy you should be able to gain some knowledge that I can’t personally train you. Yes a large portion of this depends greatly upon you. I will just be opening the door, figuratively. That and I will be holding the door open.”

"I must give a warning though. This will be a temptation but do not do it. Our minds will be temporally connected as we tap into my memory and through farsight into the past. Stay only in the memory I show you. Do not look into any of my other memories. You’ll only find my darkness I’m trying to leave behind. You’ll just find thousands of years of pain and suffering. I had years to adapt to it. If you get all of it at once you could do irreversible harm to yourself.”

“As you see there is a risk to this. If you wish not proceed then we will not. It is up to you?”

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"I am under no illusion that Jedi or Sith have a complete duopoly on FUs between them. I must confess that the Kashi is not something I know that well. On a sidenote, I think attempting to learn what I can from this memory will eat up so much of my mental energy that it would be difficult to attempt accessing more memories: doing so with our minds connected may well force a disconnect between our minds, so I will proceed"

For sure going into that memory at a great risk will make me get started, over not going into that memory, she thought. She knew that was the very purpose of her visit to this place whose security measures are akin to the vaults on Bastion, and she would not want to waste [member="Garith Darkhold"]'s time by denying the request, even though it may mean that she may still be having some nightmares, some mental problems due to her carelessness if it came to that. She also realizes that, as a measure of courtesy, wasting somebody's time is dangerous and may make it unpleasant for future dealings with that person. So she gets ready to begin to delve into that memory, using farsight, of what Garith just evoked, while being mindful of not encroaching into other unpleasant memories. In fact she does not seem to be interested in such memories because, due to the warning given, those other memories lost their appeal to her.

 

[Garith Darkhold]

“Then it begins”, The Elder Kashi spoke.

With a step and a half Garith closed the distance. With a single hand he reached out to touch [member="Janick Beauchamp"] ‘s forehead. With the young lady’s permission Garith started to share a distant memory.

A memory of a long time ago…

It was open terrain of darkened stone and lakes of fire. It was a volcanic planet a place not meant for any meaningful way of life. There on this unnamed planet stood carved stone step leading up to a grander structure. The structure was open, no enclosed walls. At the far end of the structure was a large complex forge. Attached to the forge was alter that was attached to a pool filled with blood. Up at the forge it was a man.

Malice​

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Garith was up at the altar holding an evil looking dagger. Fresh blood dripped from the dagger upon the stone floor as new slaves were brought up by foul undead abominations. One by one Garith slaughtered these poor beings as Malice used the blood and souls to work his creations.

Malice worked for long hours crating a droid and thus imbuing it. The steps of making droids parts came to no surprise. The imbuing however was horrific barbaric slaughter of many lives and the destruction of their souls. The spells Malice and Garith spoke was spoke in ancient Sith. However this was the memories of Garith. As the words were spoken somehow it was translated so Janick could understand.

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

So not only blood is a vector for the dark side to be infused in it, it's also the technobeast's lifeblood, she thought, upon seeing the gory details of what was in the memory, that she has come to perceive as an inefficient process. With that amount of blood she could craft enough viruses for a herd of Sithspawn provided she had any real knowledge of genetic engineering. Janick realized, however, that crafting technobeasts required more blood than the sum of the blood required to alchemize the individual components. [member="Garith Darkhold"] must have realized by now that examining the memory has taken a toll on her own mental energy as the memory flashed in her mind. It was a lot for her to take in, and she realized that it would be difficult for her to gather that much blood, so unless she wanted to have Utai Magic Circle run a blood bank, or otherwise get a more blood-efficient way to get them made, technobeasts are pretty much out of the question for her. By now Janick was curling up, with her blood becoming much thicker, as a result of the content of the memories.

"Sounds like the hard part is collecting all that blood..."

 

[Garith Darkhold]

The Elder Kashi has his secretes. He had enough blood here but @Janick Beuchamp may not like the answers to how. It was answers he would not give. He would find a way to live like the Elder always managed. His children however, he was not going to jeopardize their lives for being careless.
“Well we have enough to do the job you wish this time around. Get some rest for now and when you’re ready the forge is open for you to use”, Garith pointed to the living area where Janick could get some rest.