In Places Deep

[Ultimatum]

The cold bit Ultimatum through his entire body. The heat generation of his functioning was barely enough to keep his circuits from freezing up. This was the droid's first experience was an environment of extreme cold, and he was quickly learning why organics tended to avoid such planets. It was just so inconvenient to live in these conditions. At least he could simply connect a small heating unit to his internal power source should he require it, organics had to put on more layers in order to maintain warmth. Those organics unfortunate enough to be reptilian or in some other way cold-blooded had it even rougher, requiring an external heat source in order to survive. And the amount of food they had to eat, especially for those that worked in these conditions, the body attempted to keep warm by burning more calories on top of what had to be used in order to do one's job.

Despite this, Alzoc III was the next location for Ultimatum's LOOM. The cold environment was an additional testing ground for new equipment, after the extreme heat of Mustafar. Further it was also a location that would allow the easily collection of the rare Alzoc Pearls. While not as valuable as Aurodium or Nova Crystals, the pearls were considered expensive in most markets, which would aid Ultimatum in future payments to organics that would no doubt occur as his work began.

Of course, Ultimatum could not simply set up shop on a planet without first having the acceptance of the local government and own a plot of land. At this point he was merely scouting out potential locations to set up the facility, the next step would be to see if he could purchase it, a process that was simplified by the scans from the Sovereignty. The ship allowed Ultimatum to know what areas to avoid and perhaps locate potential pockets of the pearls. Thus far the scanners had revealed little that the droid could not have found easily on his own. Ultimatum looked forward to upgrading the sensors as well as many other parts of the old ship. As good as it was right now, the Sovereignty was only approximately normal for the current time's standards, which would have been absolutely impossible at the time the ship was originally produced.

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Walking into the central building in the city, Ultimatum shook himself to dislodge the ice crystals that had begun to form along the outside of his metal shell. He checked himself over to make sure that the largest pieces were gone before moving into the next room. He could feel the small beads of water rolling down his armor before a fan started blowing away the water droplets. After five seconds of constant air being blown over him, the droid believed he was sufficiently dry to step into the reception room.

A young man looked up from his desk and smiled as he spoke to the droid, "Good evening sir, do you have an appointment?"

"Yes, my name it Ultimatum and the appointment is in five minutes."

 

[Ultimatum]

The appointment proceeded as planned, there was an open strip mine that had been made by the old Empire several hundred years ago. When the Empire left Alzoc, the locals shunned the mine some believing that it was haunted by the souls of the slaves that had died while working there. There were also several other reasons that the mine had been left alone, for one the structural integrity had been compromised thanks to several centuries of snow building up and within. Then there was the fact that most of the easily obtained pearl had already been extracted.

For these reasons, Ultimatum was able to purchase the land at a pleasant discount. The artificial was certain that he could coax out more pearl and probably find more veins, if the tectonic scans from the Sovereignty had shown anything. There was also the fact that he intended on stretching how much he had with some specific tactics that he had picked up from some of his business associates.

With the purchase complete and the documents filled out, the droid moved back outside into the freezing weather. His timing seemed fortuitous for the blizzard he had dealt with when first arriving seemed to have subsided and the pale sun was now shining, though its warmth seemed to be of little help in the land of snow and ice. "Ultimatum to Sovereignty, the land I have purchased is in area 37.8, look for a mountain entrance. See you there." The droid sent the command up to his orbiting ship and then moved to the Fate. Now would begin the main work process of preparing the mining facility and testing areas.

 

[Ultimatum]

The trip to the mine was relatively quick, though it was long enough for frost to build up on the Fate's outer hull. When they reached the mine, they found themselves trapped within their own ship. Ultimatum and AU had taken to using the heat from the various weaponry, when fired safely out one of the opened slats, to try and melt the ice off of the latching mechanisms.

"How is the pistol coming? The chain gun is cold again." Ultimatum spoke to his ally while slowly lowering the heavy weapon to the floor before looking to AU.

The droid had been firing wildly out the small slat with the little pistol, which was beginning to pink around the end of the barrel. When spoken to she jerked back and tossed the weapon to Ultimatum with the closest thing to a grin her near immobile features could accomplish, "There, nice and toasty. I was getting bored firing the little thing anyways."

Meanwhile, MU was speaking over the comms with the PU units, "How does the mine look? Can you see anything from up there or are the cockpits frozen over?"

It was amusing to Ultimatum as the droid could only hear half of the conversation, some small bit of enjoyment in the menial labor that he was currently accomplishing. "Hey if we leave the engine on high wouldn't that help us?"

"Perhaps, but the cold outside is enough that the engines will probably barely run. Once the Sovereignty drops off the workers and equipment we can do some work on the engines to get them to run hotter while here." He held the small pistol up against the ice, trying to aim the hottest part directly towards the parts he needed to defrost. The pistol was of no concern to him, it being only a small hold out form that had never seen use. It was playing an important role here, helping Ultimatum get out to see his purchase. From what he was hearing from MU it was not good.

 

[Ultimatum]

The pistol was definitely warped now, Ultimatum could tell by the fact that his shots were nowhere near the point he had been aiming at. He thought that it felt like there were cracks as well, probably from the constant heating and cooling, definitely a bad thing for most weapons. It was fortunate then that the artificial had no intention of ever utilizing the small firearm, he planned on melting it down and putting it into another machine that he might be working on, perhaps even throw it into a molecular furnace to be turned into something beautiful. Whatever the purpose Ultimatum was certain that it would be a direct weapon no longer.

The two droids had switched positions, Ultimatum firing out into the landscape while AU forcefully tried to melt the ice around the opening mechanism. Her patience was by and far Ultimatum's inferior and she quickly grew weary of merely melting the ice. Now she was beating rather hard with the weapon once it was cold, hoping to dislodge some chunk. At first Ultimatum had protested, but after the first five minutes he had uplifted himself with the thought that a broken mechanism would have the same effect as a working one. Surely he would have to wok harder to open the door with the parts broken, but it was all the same to him.

"How is it looking?" Ultimatum grimaced as he heard a snap and then a clunk, he told himself not to look over.

MU relieved Ultimatum of the necessity, "You broke the chain guns?! We only have two of the buggers and you choose to break one to try and open a door!?"

A loud crack could be heard and this time Ultimatum looked around to find that part of the gun had been thrown at MU, by a flustered and irritated AU who then glanced at Ultimatum with a question, "Ready with that? Almost through the ice and the mechanism is getting a little warmer now."

Without a word he tossed the almost melting blaster to AU who instantly turned and began forcing it into the ice. Ultimatum wondered if perhaps he had made a mistake bringing the Fate and her crew with him. The Forerunner would have been less problematic.

 

[Ultimatum]

With a final push, Ultimatum heard a distinct snap and the door moved out about a foot. Grinning, the droid shoved hard to the side and the door slid with no small amount of noise open. The hot air from the inside blew out and a cold blast filled the small ship. The artificial quickly stepped out into the snow, savoring the sudden change in core temperature that the weather brought. The chill cooled his heated body and afforded him a greater sight of the area. He noted several trees that led to a small forest near to the mountain, yet he could also see a crevice running under some of the trees. He presumed that these were the signs of the cave ins.

Ultimatum had in mind what he would do, firstly it would be a matter of reinforcing those areas that were still open... No, before that it would be pushing out whatever creatures might have made this mine into their home. As callous as it might sound, the droid had no intention of sharing the space with wildlife, at least for the moment. After that and reinforcing what remained, they would move into careful excavation of the collapsed systems with regular heavy reinforcement and repair to the ground. Ultimatum also hoped to have more trees planted in the surrounding areas. That would lower the chances of future cave-ins, though the full effect would take a few years at least.

The transports began arriving, carrying hundreds of droids and thousands of tons of equipment and supplies. There was no plan of going back for a restock, though Ultimatum already had massive stores of supplies in preparation for any number of works. Should he run out now, he was prepared to have more sent from Mustafar, though that would slow his efforts considerably. The teams began to work immediately, at this point simply offloading supplies and preparing shelters for the more sensitive equipment. Work would begin on the mine itself in a few hours. In that time Ultimatum wanted to at least get an idea of the surrounding area.

 

[Ultimatum]

The temporary shelters were in place and Ultimatum had the sensors aboard those ships that remained on the ground set to watch weather patterns in case of a blizzard. Should inclement conditions appear, the artificial planned on moving focus to reinforcing inside the caverns. For the moment he was spreading out his work force. The first section, and largest, was moving in with non-lethal weaponry to scare off and remove the inhabitants of the mine. The second group had been sent out into the forest to gather saplings and locate spots of instability for those saplings to be planted in. Ultimatum had contemplated bringing in new species of trees, ones that would be more effective at the job, but had decided against it with the mentality of local conservation being of utmost priority. The third and final group was working to prepare the various construction equipment for immediate use in the mines once the first group had begun to accomplish their mission.

Thanks to having purchased the land and mine from a reputable source he had a somewhat thorough map of the location and had divided the subterranean building into sections. He intended on keeping the first group working through the mine and removing what they found until the area was considered secure. Only when each sector was confirmed to be secure would the third group begin moving equipment in and begin working on construction efforts.

 

[Ultimatum]

The plan was moving forward. It was surprising how many creatures had moved into the old mine and there was a lot of critters that needed to be removed still. There was this big monstrosity that had run further into the cavern when the sonic emitter had been used. The first area had begun to be reinforced and Ultimatum hoped that it would be quick work from there.

Ultimatum stepped into the mines and looked at the architecture. It was an old design, antiquated proof of its Imperial origins. Ultimatum would have preferred a more efficient method of mining. The rough cuts were hard and did not safe energy. But then the old Imperials did not really care for efficiency so much as appearances. The appearance of power and strength, something all organics seemed to fall into. They loved symbols, the ability to create an idea that meant something more than the physical limitation of that specific object. There was no direct reasoning for it, so Ultimatum was often left trying to discern its purpose and emulate it when dealing with organics. This was just another sign of that strange addiction to the greater than physical.

 

[Ultimatum]

There at last it was, trapped in a deep corridor, the droids had managed to isolate the beast into the corner for containment. What it was, Ultimatum did not know. He planned to have it shipped to his own facilities for identification and decisions therein on how best to proceed with it. If it turned out to be some creature standard here then Ultimatum hoped to return it to its habitat, if somewhat removed from the current location. If it was something entirely different and unknown to the world then it would be handled entirely differently. The creature was strong, unnaturally so for its size.

The artificial lord turned his attention back to construction efforts. "Get the mining equipment set up in the fourth quadrant if it is already prepared." It was.

Droid workers began moving the various equipment into the cavern. There were also some droids working to set up proper walling and various other quality of life placements at the entrance to the mine. The symbol of the old Empire, buried under the snow and ice was removed from its place and added to the scrap that had been collected. Most of the excess metal was destined for the Molecular Furnaces aboard the Sovereignty, to be turned into whatever was needed for the continuation of LOOM. He wondered though if the insignia of the Empire might have some better use. Someday, who knew.

For now though, the focus was getting the work done so that this mine could be ready for production soon.

 

[Ultimatum]

With the first area finally prepared Ultimatum's attention was drawn to the efforts above ground. A message from the droids explained that they had managed to move younger sapling to more ideal locations. The grid pattern might look unnatural for now, but once the trees grew more and other sprouts came up, the appearance would quickly shift back to the natural. Appearances did not affect the droid, it was effectiveness that did.

The artificial moved onto checking the system preparations. There was movement down in the lower levels still. And an underground lake of some sort, Ultimatum guessed that it was snow and ice that had melted and seeped down into the depths of the caverns. That would need to be drained in order to gain access to the locations where there could be more material to extract.

At the same time some of the droids had uncovered a collapsed part of the cavern. They discovered the remains of several minors and a suit of Imperial armor. There were many minors that had died in the mines, after all the Empire of old had cared little for the manual laborers. Their plans had been focused entirely on the higher people, not those beneath them. That was why the Empire had been doomed to fail. Ultimatum did not plan on making the same mistake.

 

[Ultimatum]

The shaft had been drained and droids were moving equipment into its depths. Ultimatum watched as the various signals that popped up on the terminal turned green. Indicating that the new supports were online and effective. The mining equipment was mostly online and prepared to begin as soon as the order was given. There was some minor word being done to add offices to the front portion of the mine. Most of the work had been finished and there was now soon to be a new addition to Ultimatum's collected materials, the famed Alzoc Pearls. They would be very pleasant to add to his future creations.

While there were some very minor difficulties, the droid was glad that everything had turned out alright. It was time to return to the Sovereignty and leave this world for now. He would return at some point in the future to conduct standard maintenance and just to ensure it was functioning normally. But that was the future.