Blood and Iron (Archangel)

[Moira Skaldi]

[member="Madeline Kahoshi"], [member="Maelion Liates"]


She had made an error. Could a machine feel pride? Well, that would undermine the idea of being perfectly logical and rational. Yet Moira felt something that came close to annoyance. However, a machine did not give in to emotional impulses, which set them apart from organics. An error had been made, now it would be corrected.


Minimal alterations had been made to Madeline's personality during her rebirth. This would have to be changed in order to free her and bring her closer to perfection. Command Code - 1898 - Kali - Cixi. Assuming direct control. Initiating override protocols. You will go to the ship and await my coming. You will be fixed. Every single droid constructed by Archangel possessed a hidden backdoor that enabled the Progenitor Units to take over control if needed. So far it had only been used sparingly since the plan was to take over once Archangel was in a possession to declare war on organics.


However, in this case it had been necessary. Temporarily Madeline's freedom would be suspended. The same applied to her anxiety. One of the HRDs accompanying her, Ms. Tanis, would see to her and make sure she reached the shuttle and was untroubled. Moira quickly left her office and, after selecting a suitable infiltration skeleton, boarded her own vessel, which should take her to the reeducation facility. Accompanying her were two droids that would serve as technical personnel.

 

[Madeline Kahoshi]

An error, indeed but made with the best of intentions to keep Madeline's incredible gifts and talents intact. Just no one knew that her anxiety had been so deeply ingrained in her personality. And that same personality kept her transition from human to droid from being entirely smooth. But until today, her quirks, and her anxiety had never gotten in the way and had never jeopardized a mission. But also, for the most part Madeline had been kept away in her lab until now and the opportunity never presented itself.

Her worry grew as she awaited a response and the one that came was not what she had expected. While Madeline had known there was some kind of backdoor into her programing to ensure her loyalty, she had not exactly expected a complete override.

For a moment, her internal HUD flashed as the protocol took effect. She nodded to Tarkin and turned to follow the aides out. Ms. Tanis was close by her side, and Madeline suspected that had a lot to do with the situation. She settled into the ship, as they started the brief journey to the reeducation facility. With her freedom and control sitting in the hands of Moira, there was little else Maddy could do but wait for the ship to land and meet her superior, as ordered. As least for now the code that caused her anxiety had subsided. The error would soon be fixed and with some luck Madeline would be free of the most human burden that had plagued her for far too long.

[member="Moira Skaldi"] | [member="Maelion Liates"]

 

[Enyo Typhos]

[member="Maelion Liates"]


While Madeline was being led to the reeducation facility - and would ironically hopefully soon be educated herself so that she could be free of vestigial organic weaknesses - Callisto would be led away to liaise with Tarkin's senior officers for a strike against the insurgency that still held sections of the capital in its grip.


The rebels were motivated, well-armed, but, as is the nature of insurgencies, fractious. This was no surprise when one considered that they were a mixture of former Fringe and Protectorate elements, along with native Eriaduan patriots who wanted an alternate form of government free of the Tarkin dynasty. However, they had managed to achieve a semblance of unity. But it was not Archangel's goal to cut off all the heads of the hydra, just purge them thoroughly to grab processing materiel.


As part of the new 'alliance' with Lord Tarkin, Archangel forces began pouring in, braving the heavy flak fire that came their way when the dropships descended upon the spaceport, one of the few areas that were decisively under government control. Battle droids and a small contingent of HRDs, armed with a mixture of Fringe, Protectorate and Atrisian gear, were inbound. Along with them, the machine cult was deploying a new device that was going to be tested for the first time. It was expected to be of great use for the sacred cause. The device in question was a harvester droid. Though it had some means to defend itself, its actual purpose was not combat, but to swoop in and grab organic victims, then carry them off for processing.

 

[Moira Skaldi]

[member="Madeline Kahoshi"]


And so Moira arrived, accompanied by HRDs that would serve as technical personnel. The facility was in a poor shape and would require a good deal of work to clean it up and restore the defences, but structurally it was perfect. Out of sight, out of mind, away from the prying eyes of the locals. However, that was not what concerned her at present. Right now her focus was upon Madeline. Her last organic weaknesses would have to be erased to ensure her continued utility and bring her closer to perfection.


There was also the indisputable fact that Moira 'liked' her. As much as an amoral, genocidal death machine was capable of doing that. The Eriaduan soldiers were sent away when the Butcher of Contruum entered. They had been instructed to do as they were told. Paranoid as ever Moira still had the room swept for bugs and listening devices. One was found and appropriately deactivated. This room was the cleanest and power was still functioning, so they would fulfil their sacred task here. If any natives intruded upon them, they would be shot or declared traitors and carted away for processing.


"Unit Madeline Kahoshi, enter standbye mode and switch off. When you awaken you will have been fixed," she transmitted via purely electronic communication. Since she had already issued the override code earlier, Madeline would not be able to resist the command to sign off. Meanwhile her droid minions set up a rather complex series of technical devices. "Connect her and begin reprogramming." Battle droids stood sentinel outside, ensuring that no one could interfere or stumble upon something they should not see.

 

[Madeline Kahoshi]

Madeline followed obediently behind Moira. There simply was no other option. She could not go against the override command. Moira held control for the time being. But that still left her room to think. To think but not act.

Silently she waited as the room was checked for bugs. Without emotion she took a seat. And then at last the final command. There was brief apprehension of what this meant but she didn't have more than a fraction of a second to think that over, before the last command hit her systems. Without a slight bit of hesitation, Madeline did as she was ordered and switched into standby, before shutting down.

[member="Moira Skaldi"]

 

[Moira Skaldi]

[member="Madeline Kahoshi"]


And so the Madeline Kahoshi Unit would be connected to a rather complex looking array of machinery, which would enable access to her chip. One could compare the process to fixing a computer that been broken or been infected by a virus. In this case the virus in question consisted of vestiges of her organic personality. Much like in any operation to remove a computer virus, you had to instal the appropriate anti-viral protection software, perform the purge, run tests and download updates. Well, sort of. This writer is not a computer technician. Otherwise their computer might be less crappy and they would not need to pay clearly incompetent technicians, but this one digresses. As a Unit Madeline would be shut down and a panel in the back of her head would be removed, allowing access to her droid brain.


An HRD trained for this sort of thing would access her mind and commence with reprogramming. This was a very delicate operation because while Archangel wanted to cure her of her organic anxities, they did not want to risk causing damage of the sort that would completely destroy her personality. After all, the machine cult neither needed nor wanted a drone, since they had plenty of those. But the core of the problem lay in the fact that too much of her organic personality had carried over. One might say that they needed to tighten the screws.


The process would probably take an hour or two, by which time [member="Maelion Liates"] would have probably already been inserted amongst the rebel forces and the Eriaduans would be about to begin their assault with Callisto Scarlett. New subroutines would be installed, along with safeguards and additional protocols.The Archangel equivalent of anti-virus software would go into effect. During the course of this Madeline's systems would be fully shut down and then rebooted once more, hopefully now free of the bane of organic weaknesses.

 

[Maelion Liates]

Whilst the Eriadu forces were mustering and [member="Madeline Kahoshi"] was being reprocessed, the resistance was planning their strike too.

After a series of quests far too much like an RPG to be recounted, ‘Kaydin’ an infiltration HRD had gotten himself high into the favour of the rebels. Now they planned to strike a vital area.

Of course, he had transmitted this plan to [member="Callisto Scarlett"] so that the organics would battle each other and allow Archangel to capture some more organics to process.

As Moira was busy handling the reprogramming of Maddie, Maelion had the task of coordinating both side’s forces so they met in a wide plaza square with maximum force and maximum destruction to both sides.

 

[Enyo Typhos]

[member="Maelion Liates"], [member="Madeline Kahoshi"]


And so battle was joined in the wide plaza square. It was the perfect location for both sides to hit each other with maximum force and maximise casualties, for the plaza being wide offered the chance to deploy heavy armour such as walkers, whilst soldiers could find cover in the ruins. The Eriaduan soldiers had dug in deep, but the rebels had come out in full force and committed a major part of their strength, though obviously not in its entirey. Success would provide them with a strong foothold in the Eriaduan capital and allow them to move onto vital areas, perhaps even open up a route to the heavily defended palace. As such the battle was already being waged ferociously when the death machines arrived on the spot.


The exact details need not occupy us for too long since that's not the plot anyway. The earth shook as if struck by tremors and smoke billowed up into the sky as artillery fire bombarded the plaza, reducing building to piles of rubble. The screams of wounded soldiers trying desperately to crawl out of the hell they were in, crying for their mothers, god, anyone who could help them echoed across the plaza, though it was soon drowned out by the relentless shelling and gunfire.


From their positions in the ruins Eriaduan soldiers put the advancing rebels under fire with blasters and RPGs, causing significant casualties. From the distance walkers and tanks sniped at each other, though the wreckage limited their mobility somewhat.


For a moment it seemed like the loyalist troops would prevail and that the advance of the rebels would be brought to a standstill after heavy casualties were inflicted upon their armour, but then several platoons of loyalists suddenly turned on their comrades and fired upon them. The traitor forces were positioned close to the rear, which meant that their sudden betrayal caused no ends of chaos as the loyalists tried to rally and regain order.


It was then that the Archangel forces finally entered the battle in full. Conventional battle droids made by Archangel had already been committed, but most of their troops had been held back. The official excuse would be that there had been delays reaching the battlefield due to logistical difficulties. The true reason was that they wanted maximum casualties on both sides. Thanks to 'Kaydin' they had known about traitors being embedded in the Tarkinist army, but for obvious reasons it had not been in their interests to forewarn the loyalists!


Awesome machine power was unleashed. HRDs could not tire, would not relent. Even if they lacked a limb or two they would carry on and fight until they or their target had been destroyed. Traitors were cut down in a hail of bolter rounds and blaster bolts as the death machines advanced. Droid artillery relentlessly shelled advancing rebels, while droid tanks rumbled across the plaza, their cannons bringing death and heralding the futility of organic life. Then, as the rebel forces reeled under the assault, the harvest began, as the harvester droids reached the area...

 

[Madeline Kahoshi]

Two hours later Madeline would awaken from her slumber. If it could truly be called such. She blinked before slowly standing. She felt normal, as normal as she could considering what she was. Madeline felt calmer, less .... burdened. Her attentions quickly turned to Moira as she seemed to run a quick check on her own systems. "Am I, fixed?" She asked softly. Though it certainly seemed like she was.

[member="Moira Skaldi"]

 

[Moira Skaldi]

[member="Madeline Kahoshi"]


And so Madeline was born again. Not in a baptism of water or fire, but through software reprogramming and a few wires. Hopefully freed of the anxieties that had so plagued her during her organic existence. "The operation is complete. You should be freed of the last vestiges of your organic weaknesses. Run an internal diagonosis of your systems," Moira responded. It certainy seemed like Madeline had been repaired. The woman looked calmer, more controlled and serene.


In other words, more perfect. Just like a machine should be. "The two Eriaduan armies are clashing in the city. Organic materiel for experimentation should be available soon."

 

[Madeline Kahoshi]

Madeline nodded, "Excellent." Doing as she was told, she ran a diagnosis of her systems. After a moment she looked back to Moira, "All my systems appears to be functioning within normal parameters. No anomalies present at this time." With some luck, that would be the very last time her anxiety ever plagued her again. It was hardly something she needed, certainly not something a machine needed. There was little sense in that. "I believe whatever caused the anomaly to begin with is now gone. Thank you for freeing me of that."

Her attention momentarily turned to the city as she glanced off in that direction. "Wonderful. Soon enough we can begin. Though it's safe to assume, there is still much work to be done here, yes?"

[member="Moira Skaldi"] | [member="Maelion Liates"]

 

[Moira Skaldi]

[member="Madeline Kahoshi"]


Madeline had finally been fixed. This was good. Business could continue. Another step for droidkind. "Yes. This facility requires a complete overhaul to serve adequately. It has fallen into disrepair. Labour droids are working on cleaning up the mess and putting this place back into shape. Same goes for installing defence systems. For now we have an accord with Tarkin and should soon receive a steady stream of prisoners. Outwardly it will resemble a correctional facility." Moira doubted that the Tarkin regime would last for long, but they would be prepared. Few knew of this facility and by the time it was set up, nothing would hint at its true, sinister purpose.


"Once it is set up, we shall begin research on Operation 1138." This was the fairly bland name for the enteched war engines project. "Several theoretical problems will need to be resolved, but then there are so many organics out there who can serve as human materiel." In Moira's humble opinion the problem with organics was that they kept breeding. Something to be eventually resolved via a sterility plague.

 

[Maelion Liates]

[member="Callisto Scarlett"]
If one was of a mind to put insects in a jar and prod them to fight each other, this was a similar result. The organics, driven by base and incomprehensible needs, attacked each other savagely.
Watching the battle, playing them like a conductor, were the 'advisors' on both sides. Here a unit would be pushed forward, here one reversed. It was a perfect dance allegedly of strategic wisdom, but in reality it was all to tire out both sides.

Kaydin watched the slaughter, watched as harvesters carried people away. It was necessary for him to have some successes so the rebels would not give up on him.

Therefore Callisto on the other side would send forward some disposable droid units and some impressive looking but obsolete tanks which could be wrecked before the rebels withdrew. Kaydin himself would join this battle to show his valour...all the while plotting the downfall of the organics he was embedded with.

 

[Enyo Typhos]

[member="Maelion Liates"]


It was the perfect testing ground. Both sides there were hordes of organics eager to murder one another. Equally directed by homicidal and probably insane droids who took stock and provided 'guidance'. It helped that machines were capable of communicating purely electronically and thus could coordinate things very well between each other.


Callisto took stock, then gave the order to send forth a horde of disposable units. In this particular instance the units in question were battle droids and impressive looking tanks that had been designed during the Galactic Civil War. There was a school of thought amongst certain people that ancient tech was still good, despite the fact that science and warfare had moved on. Case in point, these units had been purchased for cheap at a scrapheap on Raxus Prime.


And so a horde of disposable automatons was deployed across the thoroughly wrecked, nightmarish battlefield to be slaughtered by the rebels. All the while the harvesters swept down from the sky and grabbed people. They were built in a way to resemble spiders and their multiple tentacles were very efficient at, well, grabbing people and preventing them from escaping. Those who struggled soon found themselves injected with sedatives that took them out of commission.

 

[Maelion Liates]

Soon after the battle ended. The results had been as carefully planned as possible. The rebels had inflicted higher casualties and gained a morale boost for ‘standing up to the tyrants’, but the Tarkinites had held their advance and inflicted casualties of their own.
Given enough time and resources Archangel could engineer the war to last indefinitely. However, sooner or later one side would catch on to it. Organics did have intelligence when they were not subject to base emotions and animal needs.

Maelion far above monitored the action and decided on the next course of action with [member="Moira Skaldi"].
‘The Rebels are a more reliable source of processing material. We cannot process our “allies”. Suggest another indecisive battle to earn their trust before Kaydin lures them into a trap where they can be destroyed.’

 

[Enyo Typhos]

[member="Maelion Liates"], [member="Madeline Kahoshi"]


The battle was over and stock was being taken. Organics had been captured in large quantities, though one of the harvesters had been badly damaged by RPGs and would need to be repaired. However, as far as field tests went it had been a success. Heavy casualties had been inflicted on both sides, though in the end the Tarkinites had the advantage and held the ground.


Further conflict was desirable before the Tarkinites could be allowed to crush the insurgency. Callisto deemed it logical to chime in at this juncture. Communication was purely electronic and care was taken to encrypt it in such a manner that the loyalists or rebels could not detect anything. "Suggest arranging a battle at the Exarch Kerrigan Memorial Factory. Its location is strategic and will enable casualties to be maximised." The building complex referred to by her was a tractor factory that was named in the honour of Siobhan Kerrigan's brief, decadent reign as Exarch. It would be an important target for either side to take over the industrial area.

 

[Madeline Kahoshi]

[member="Moira Skaldi"]

Madeline nodded, "Excellent." She said coolly, "The more prisoners we get in, the more room for further experimentation we will have. A good thing, he was quite willing to work with us."

"Of course." Her mind drifted to the possibilities, and problems they were likely to encounter. "It will no doubt take multiple organics to power one machine, which is bound to have some complications. It's no doubt a painful and frightening process for said organics. For a start we'll need to find a way to calm the souls. Perhaps Phaedra in time will be able to assist with her Empathetic gifts." The little redhead without a doubt could be of great use. Especially now as she learned of her true potential, and what a glorious cause she was destined to join.

 

[Moira Skaldi]

[member="Madeline Kahoshi"]


Moira tilted her head to the side in contemplation when she considered Madeline's words. "I had not considered that option, but it is a sound one. It will be a good learning experience for Phaedra to hone her empathic gifts. Likewise eventually we can use her to test the effects of mentalism on them. It would be undesirable if a Jedi were able to mentally influence the captured souls as records state Skywalker was able to in the early campaign against the Ssi-Ruuv."


Eventually the dinosaur people had been able to find a way to prevent the souls from decaying and removed the torment they felt. "Granted, our technology is far in advance of the Ssi-Ruuv. In time, Phaedra should be able to use her empathic gifts to make organics be enteched of their own volition." For one, she could use her illusions to make them perceive entechment as a liberation.

 

[Maelion Liates]

[member="Callisto Scarlett"] [member="Madeline Kahoshi"]
It would be fitting indeed for the edifice constructed by the Exarch Kerrigan to be brought down in fire and dust. And so it would be. Certainly such a desire for revenge was not logical, but Archangel had long shown an amusing lack of self-awareness when it came to irony.

Still, the Rebels were subtly moved to attack the factory, bribed with promises of stored weapons and loot. The Tarkinites on the other hand were given a ‘tip-off’ that this operation was happening. Both sides would clash in the final battle at the factory.

It is important to capture all the rebels. Ensure the Tarkinites encircle and surround them so they can be all captured for processing.

 

[Enyo Typhos]

[member="Maelion Liates"], [member="Madeline Kahoshi"], [member="Valiens Nantaris"]


A variety of skirmishes had taken place across the city between the rebels and the loyalists. Not all had been instigated by Archangel. Indeed, the machine cult had not been directly involved in a great many of them beyond jumping in with its HRDs and harvester droids. Occasionally the rebels had been allowed to score minor tactical victories, sometimes even gain useful hardware, at others they had been mauled.



When the right strings were pulled, organics could be most useful. It was best if one did not try to direct their entire behaviour, but merely encouraged preexisting desires. Such as the urge that both sides of the conflict had to murder and maim one another. And so it came to pass that the two forces met at the Exarch Kerrigan Memorial Factory. Today it would be brought down in fire and dust. Of course, this had nothing to do with a totally illogical desire for vengeance against humans the mechanical directors of Archangel had once served.


Because such petty desires would be illogical. Soon the rebel forces were converging upon the factory. To make everything look real, token guard forces existed. Barricades would have to be overcome and guards on patrol taken out, though it was just militia and so, under cover of darkness, the insurgents would be able to sneak in, overcoming outdated droids Archangel had loaned. What they did not know was that a small group of HRDs awaited them inside the factory. Stealthily hidden, they would surprise the rebels. Likewise they did not know that within moments of their penetration of the factory Tarkinite loyalists would descend upon them like a horde of angry locusts, cutting off their retreat.