Brains,Brains Its Okay! [Levantine Sanctum Dev Thread]

[HK-36]

[member="Judah Dashiell"]
HK nodded in agreement,
"I will do so, and I will also see about contacting somebody for transport escort, should it ever come that I will need to call in the favor. Last thing I would want is to send you into war zone without proper protection."
He answered.

HK would lead them to the side of the building, a small elevator, somewhat hidden, was guarded by two Iron Knight troopers. The soldiers saluted HK and he nodded back to them as the doors to the elevator opened, allowing Judah and the droid Observer to enter. The elevator did not looked too impressive on the outside, but it was much bigger on the inside than it appeared, enough for a full squad of armored troopers to enter. Should Judah be experienced with metals he would be able to notice that it wasn't durasteel it was made from, it was phrik, an old phrik elevator, remnant of the Imperial rule over the planet HK inherited along with the building.
The control panel had about ten buttons, the fact they entered the elevator at a side of a dome most likely meant that all of the ten floors were under ground. None of the buttons had numbers on it, only mixes of two capital letters, they weren't arranged in alphabetical order either, it seemed that navigating whatever facilities they were going down into was rather difficult without knowledge of what exactly you were looking for.

HK pressed a second button on the right, one with letters "PO" and the elevator would jerk slightly before starting to descent.

From the speakers in the elevator muzak melody would begin to play as familiar voice started to song the lyrics quietly in monotone.
"You can dance. You can jive-"

HK motioned up to the speakers, looking to Judah,
"That is me."
He nodded, looking ahead at the doors to the elevator.
"Motivates the workers."

 

[Judah Dashiell]

[member="HK-36"]

Relaxing against the lift's walls, Judah took out his comm and checked it briefly. Elevator noises and the muzak filtered through, with HK's hand catching his attention to look upward. Glancing at the speakers with the monotone droid voice, he nodded. Personally he could not see the motivation in such a thing. Perhaps to work harder throughout the day to be done and finished to escape the muzak that filtered through certain areas of the governmental building.

"I see. Very....inspirational. Your workers seem to enjoy your presence a great deal. No easy feat."

Finished checking through his messages, the comm slid back into his pocket and it was back to staring at the wall with the muzak.Running a hand through his curly hair, Judah felt the elevator continuing to descend. The muzak featuring HK had stopped and had turned into a jazzy beach-like theme. Surprisingly, he noticed the theme and started humming along. It reminded him of home and a certain mermaid.

"Wow, we're really doing some travelling" he commented during a break of his humming along.

 

[HK-36]

[member="Judah Dashiell"]

"I have been around the Protectorate for a while, not since the beginning but before the Pyre was pushed aside and Protectorate became the main body of it. I served under Colonel Kerrigan, while she was the Battering Ram I was called the Siege Tower, I took many bolts and slugs to keep as many soldiers as possible, civilians as well, I got a column and then a building collapse on me to save refugees."
HK looked up at the speakers idly,
"After a while people started to appreciate it and the word spread."
He mused as the door to the elevator finally opened, leading them to a long, brooding, there was a door seen at the end of which and a couple of guard posts in between. It was hard to tell how many floors down they traveled but it felt more than four or two, which probably meant that the buttons on the elevator were not arranged in a numerical order either.

"Being under ground keeps us from the view, it is more hidden, and more secure, in case of bombardments or land invasions it makes these facilities easier to defend."

HK explained as he started to walk down the long metal corridor, gesturing Judah to follow. Well it wasn't like Judah had much other choice.

 

[Judah Dashiell]

[member="HK-36"]

"Very noble to save the innocent. I'm sure there is a park or statue in your honor somewhere. If not...then, well, perhaps there should be one. Nice to hear the word has spread though. So many have done great acts yet it is nothing but a small speck in our otherwise large and populous galaxy."

As the lift doors gave a soft chime, Judah didn't pay attention to the number of floors they had traveled. It honestly wasn't important to himself. He had no plans to go on a siege of the building or bother figuring out its secrets. He was a businessman, not a spy. Stepping off the lift and following HK, it was clear every attempt was made to make the underground areas feel less enclosed and claustrophobic.

"Makes sense. Very tempted to implement it myself. Well...sort of have with the underwater mining facilities. Given enough preparation, I imagine one could live there for a year or more. Same with this system."

 

[HK-36]

[member="Judah Dashiell"]
"I will have a planet to remember me as a droid who brought peace and prosperity, a better legacy than that of most of my kin, I do not need a statue, credits can be invested in better way."
HK answered and simply nodded to Judah in affirmation at the mention of under-water facilities. That was something the droid would have to note. Abregado had seas and an ocean on its surface, perhaps it was something that the droid would be able to implement.

As they walked down the corridor HK gave a nod to the first post of the guards and they nodded back, same was with the second post, it's not like there were many droids like HK walking around. Not even the old models of droids like him, not to mention those with his modified new body that wore commendations and orders of Protectorate on their armor.

The door opened and they would be let into a dark medium-sized circular room, HK's personal office. The door closed behind them once they were clear in the office and they were left in the darkness, the only source of light was the dull red glow of HK's eyes.
"Now that I think about it, I do not have much sources of light installed in here, I do not need them, really."
HK looked aside and did a gesture in the dark as the holo-terminal activated on one side of the room, filling the office with a slight blue-ish glow of the holo-grams. HK walked across the room, sitting behind a sturdy wooden desk and he would touch a button, few small lamps, used for emergencies by the looks of it, lighted up here and there, giving more glow to the room and letting Judah have a better look around.

The room was filled with paintings and trophies, much like the droid's apartment on Fondor was, except not as cluttered with Ropo care taking stuff or spare armor and weaponry for the droid. There was a collection of masks, Sith masks, taken from their warriors as trophies, there was an ancient mask made from bone, a Deathwatch mask taken from Tyrin Ardik when he was still young, and much more recent one taken from Darth Apparatus. Few lightsabers of different hilt designs were beneath the masks, although taken from different Sith than the masks, and then there were all those paintings. It would take quite a bit for writer to describe them all, so just giving their names and letting imagination due the rest should suffice. There was Siobhan Full of Wrath Conquering Bando Gora, a classic, Dragonsflame Being Yelled At In Coruscant Park By That Grand Chancellor Teenanger With Weird Feet, Tegeae And Siobhan Wedding With Cupid Ropos, Jedi of Old Republic Attempting Arrest of HK, HK and Siobhan Facing the Machine Dragon God, and Naked Delila In Dagobah Swamps With Ropo Paratroopers In Background. There were two specific paintings that would catch Judah's attention the most, at one side of the room the centerpiece was Lady Protector Cira Dancing With HK during the ball dance thing when they wanted to check how well his HRD body could blend-in, and on the other side was the painting of the ancient bone mask, white as ivory, on the background of contrasting darkness.

 

[Judah Dashiell]

[member="HK-36"]

Standing in utter darkness, Judah waited patiently as the dim lights came on. He found it slightly odd -- the total darkness -- but the Baron should have excellent photorecptors so lighting shouldn't matter in the slightest. Apparently he didn't get many non-droid guests however. Most would be a little put off by the darkness and weird masks on the walls. Yet he had seen worse. Everyone collected something. The Baron just seemed to collect masks and paintings. Or perhaps he painted them himself. Who knew.

"Very...uhmm....interesting office. " What other way was there to describe an office with paintings of multiple nude women and Ropos in action? Judah took a seat in front of the large desk, settling into the comfortable chair. "Quite the man cave down here."

 

[HK-36]

[member="Judah Dashiell"]

"They are all memories."
HK said looking up to the masks and paintings as he pulled out a panel from the desk, plugging in a datapad, the console beeped as it formatted the spare datapad, there wasn't nothing important on it anyway.
HK pointed to one of the masks, the one that belonged to Tyrin.
"That was worn by a Sith Knight responsible for sabotaging planetary shields on Keldabe during the Siege, I broke it off of him with a good swing just before. I am not sure what happened to him since then."
Little did droid know that Knight would go on to become a Sith Emperor, at least one of them, he pointed then to mask that used to belong to Apparatus,
"That was worn by Darth Apparatus, butcher of Donyanyd, I took it off of him after his death, I was the one to give him the last rites after he was slain at the hands of Miss Blake during the attempted sabotage of Fondor Shipyards. I have fought another Knight that day, he survived but I have taken his lightsaber from him and distracted them long enough that he was unable to infiltrate the facilities."
And last, HK pointed to the painting of Delila from where he saw the three ladies running mud-covered through the swamps of Dagobah,
"And that was on Dagobah, during the undead invasion, I saw a trio of ladies running through swamps naked, Major Delila, miss Thessa, and miss Tahira I believe."
He remembered Thessa from the time he has helped for her, Jorus, and others to take vengeance on Daxton, as Sammo, well not as much remembered as he has seen report by Sammo from it, and Tahira he knew from the time they had to diffuse those bombs in that one space station during the days of Vagrant Fleet.
"Either way, I have sold the pictures to the Protectorate, I believe a series of tasteful pin-up nudes have been fabricated based on them to boost the soldier morale. Their assets became our war assets."
So yep, HK just revealed to Judah that he was responsible for nudies based on his wife being slapped onto Protectorate fighters and lockers of soldiers. Well they weren't straight copies of the image of her, they went through space-photoshop so that resemblance was blurred and distorted, but if they seemed familiar, well there was a reason why.

The console HK plugged his datapad into beeped and he tapped the surface of it a few times, plugging in commands.
"This may take a while, my memory is being kept fragmented."
It was stored across many secure servers and databanks across the Abregado-Rae, kept in military or research bases, only HK had the codes to access it, and knowledge how to piece it together into something useable. Last thing he would want is for someone to access it without his knowledge. Fun fact about the password for it, it used 92 characters and it was a palindrome.

 

[Judah Dashiell]

[member="HK-36"]

Jaw slightly hung open. Not at the Sith Masks(which were impressive) or the paintings(impressive a droid created them). No, not at either one of these things. The fact that the Baron had so casually mentioned painting his wife nude and then selling the images. Tasteful or not, Judah wasn't exactly pleased with the fact soldiers all over the Protectorate getting their...ahem...personal pleasure from a stylized painting of his wife's assets.

Knowing [member="Thessa Kai"] though, she would laugh and tell him not to worry about it. Or....she would rip HK's head off in a fit of mermaid rage. It was hard to gauge her reactions, especially with the pregnancy hormones rolling through her.

"Oh take your time. I'm just going to be sitting here thinking about how my wife's breasts are plastered over every locker room and foot locker across the land."

All I have to do is get the brain and I'll be done with this.

 

[HK-36]

[member="Judah Dashiell"]

HK just looked up slightly, taking a pause in his work of decoding the memory files and piecing them together,
"I did not knew you married any of these ladies, I am assuming it was not Colonel Delila, I would hope that she would invite me to such celebration if she would be getting married."
Well it was not like Judah mentioned being married to Thessa before, at least the writer doesn't remember, and it should be a relief that the droid didn't keep track of what Thessa was up to out there in the Galaxy!
"Well this is rather awkward. And to be fair, they are also on Protectorate vehicles, especially gunships. Your wife's image heralds the bouncing steps of Protectorate war machine. Soldiers grasping the buns- I mean guns."
The droid was not going to make this any easier on Judah,
"Besides, she was the one who was naked in middle of undead invasion."

The droid looked down onto the screen, still working of decoding and piecing together memory data.
"Almost halfway done."
He commented to Judah.

 

[Judah Dashiell]

[member="HK-36"]

"Who? No. Thessa is the one with scales, like some mythical sea goddess come to life." The more the Baron talked though, the stranger the entire story got. Rather awkward was not what he would use to describe the situation. Judah sighed and was growing more than a little irate with the Baron's attitude during the entire situation. Finally, after the comment on the memory refragmenting itself, Judah leaned over the desk and stared into HK's optical receptors.

"Listen here. There will be no more painted images of my wife anywhere. No locker rooms. No ships. Nothing. Delete her from your memory banks if you have to.I swear, if I come through Protectorate territory and see more images you will be melted for scrap for my next project."

"Understood?"

 

[HK-36]

[member="Judah Dashiell"]
The droid simply glanced back to Judah,
"A duel could always be arranged."
He answered the threat, looking back to the console,
"And I hope your wife is well, I have given aid to the strike team sent into the Confederate territory in order to bring Daxton to justice for torturing her. Nasty business that was, the Confederacy likes to protect those that pledge their allegiance to them, no matter what crimes they are committing."
HK brought back the memory of the rather messy little operation

"As for the pin-ups, that is a concern you would have to bring before the Lord Protector or Colonel Corek, I have only one of the companies that make up the Pyre. Besides, the images released were based on the pictures taken on Dagobah, but they were heavily modified, as to avoid resemblance. And that has been long time ago,"
He would glance to Judah once more,
"They are most likely out of use by now, those things change every month or so."

He would look over to the console once more,
"What exactly do you need from my memories? Language and translation protocols, cultural references, and memories of the events that came to pass?"
It wouldn't be long now before Judah would have the droid brain template he needed.

 

[Judah Dashiell]

[member="HK-36"]

"Well...if you took care of Daxton...then, I'm in your debt once again"

Judah sat back down, wind clearly out of his sails. By took care of Daxton, he simply meant on the run. There had been a quiet lull in their lives without the Sith. Naturally, it was a constant threat. The subject of nightmares and late night anxieties. Yet the threats hadn't come to pass. The Sith seemed to have realized he had bitten off more than he could chew and merely slunk back into the shadows to wait for a moment to strike.

"No past events. Language, translation protocols and cultural references will be just fine. Its merely a protocol droid I am producing for the Sanctum. We've been encountering cultures not found in the mainstream and sadly a lot of information got lost in the Plague."

 

[HK-36]

[member="Judah Dashiell"]

"Too bad the Sith are not so easily vanquished, should you slay one, two more seem to appear from the shadows."
The droid would finish piecing the protocols and data together based on Judah's preferences.
"Alright, it shall be done. Be wary though, these constructs will be bit more quirky and normal, it is a price to pay for ancient knowledge and tongues long passed, but should you need to speak with a Tusken or Chiss, these will do the job."
HK would disconnect the data-pad once the process was completed, passing it over the table towards Judah,
"They will follow orders, they will not rebel, but be wary to treat them right. Not all droids were meant to be slaves."
He slightly leaned in at the warning before standing up,

"That should be all concerning that."

 

[Judah Dashiell]

[member="HK-36"]

"A number of my designs tend to be quirky, it shouldn't be a problem." Taking the datapad, Judah stored it safely in his jacket before rising. His shook the droids metal hand gratefully. "Thank you. No, they will not be slaves. Valued members of the Sanctum who will be vital in aiding us communicate with those we encounter. No maltreatment will come to them. Please feel free to visit the Sanctum to see anytime you would like. You're also welcome to visit Thess and I anytime."

With that, Judah was escorted back by the Baron's guards to the surface, back to his vessel to return to the Sanctum.