Into Shadow, Under Shade

[Matreya]

Damien watched the youngling ignite the flames she did so, then instantly his power exploded outward on a combination of Tutaminis and his Pyrokinetic control. In seconds, all flames in the area were dwindling to nothing before vanishing, "What are you thinking!? First off, attempting to melt the crystals?? In what way is that logical?? We need the pieces to work the technology not liquid! Also, think first! Igniting a flame, even a cooled one, let alone those you conjured, could send this whole mine to the galaxies rim!! What do yoh think powers the machinery in this place? Combustive liquids and the like!!"

He did not mean to sound so harsh, as he understood she was just a kid, but it was such an unintelligent idea!

"If you cannot simply use your hands to do the work, wait outside. Guard...I don't know, the mine or something." With these words he went back to swinging his pick at the wall. Chunks of raw stygium fell to the ground in ranged size, from small like marbles, to heftier ones the size of a fist and bigger.

[member="Ultimatum"] [member="Pyro"]

 

[Kalyn Tal'verda]

Kalyn upon nearing the mine contacted her employer, some kind of investigator guy, those were her orders from the get-go. She grabbed a communicator and activated it.
"So what do you want me to do." She said
"So we know they are getting whatever this is legally, i have an entry on one of them, the man, he works for the primevil, dark jedi fellow, not much info on him though, i am still putting the girl through the system, the database seems to have trouble tracking her down, it is as if she does not exist, The droid you have been briefed on. well keep digging on this end, next thing we need is a small sample of whatever they are mining, any means necessary, Do not blow your cover. Hardline Out." Her employer said as the holocomm turned off.
Kalyn then stepped into the mine using her skills to avoid detection, she needed to get a sample from this mine, it did not neccessarily have to be one of their samples with the assumption that most of the material would be of similar quality. so she would dig through the mines until she could find something, She combed the base hoping not to be discovered.
[member="Darth Pikiran"]
[member=Pyro]
[member=ultimatum]

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum was a little surprised by the outburst from [member="Darth Pikiran"]. He had never really seen the man act in such a manner. Use his powers in a very overt way, yes. Rely on his ability to control people, or to in this case negate their powers, yes. Get vocally explosive on a person, no. He understood the organic's fear of explosions and death, saying that he was almost a Sith in Ultimatum's eye that was hardly a surprise. However the AI did not see any of the said machinery nearby. Of course the fumes of their fuel would probably ignite as well, but then one had to keep in mind that the air here was well ventilated to avoid people suffocating from poisonous gases. That would mean more oxygen in the air, increasing the raw explosion, but that also meant that fuel fumes would be less. Then there was also the fact that most equipment these days, of all sorts, utilized power cores, not fuel cells or liquid fuel. Batteries were the most common power source and while that didn't negate the fact there could be liquid fuel in this place it did make it much less likely.

He stopped his heavy strikes on the wall, both stone and crystals stopped falling around him in sizes ranging from fists to dust. He walked over to the other two. "Let's keep it civil alright. The last thing we need are hot heads in a tight confinement, no offense to either of you. How about we move closer to a vent if there is concern? If something happens there should be countermeasures that can deal with flames. She wanted to come and help. This is an owned mine and guard duty is probably not required or in fact wanted."

[member="Pyro"] [member="Kalyn Skirata"]

 

[Matreya]

Damien paused mid swing, and stared at Ultimatum a moment. The Droid was right his subconscious stated, but his conscious mind had recently been hectic and torn: able to show compassion, or be willing to explode on the most minor thing. He was torn on how to respond, part of him wanted to reach out into the Force and manipulate the gears that made up the Droids mind - effectively destroying his brain...

Nodding, Damien muttered, "Fine. Let's quicken this up then." Turning back towards the wall, Damien channeled his energies into Shatterpoint, looking for the lines that connected all the stygium deposits. When the time came, he would perform one strike, and crumble enough to be happy with.

[member="Ultimatum"]

 

[Ultimatum]

For a moment Ultimatum was uncertain if the organic would listen to him. He knew of some organics who seemed to take offense at remarks like the one he had made. There was on in particular that he could recall, a certain Sith who controlled Atrisia. That man had a pride problem and from Ultimatum's view, did not have the ability to take correction gracefully. He was glad to learn that this one could.

"Thank you." He turned his attention to the stone, hoping that [member="Pyro"] would continue relatively undeterred. He understood the dangers, he was taking the risks and he would take responsibility for any damages to the mine or personnel. Another stroke and small rocks fell like rain around his feet. He wondered how long he could keep this up until his arms would require a break for brief maintenance. He knew the strength of the materials, but not the overall durability for this kind of work. He had not seen himself doing this when he had built this body.

[member="Darth Pikiran"]

 

[Matreya]

Damien looked slowly from one point on the wall to one opposite it, taking in all the Force could show him. Like the webs of an arachnid, he could see how all of the ores and minerals in the wall came together to a single point. It was at this point that he stepped a bit further back, reached out with his telekinetic control to grip a small rock, and hurled it as fast his power could allow.

In the blink of an eye two loud cracks broke the solemn near silence, first being the rock breaking the sound barrier, next being disintegrating against the center of the webbing on the wall. For a few moments Damien waited, ears ringing, looking hard in an attempt to see through the cloud of dust forming...

BOOM!

Another crack, even louder sounded off. This time followed by the sound of crumbling mortar. With a wave of the hand the tunnel was freed of the dense smog that had resulted. There before them was several hundred pounds of stone encompassed stygium. Of course a great deal was unneeded ore and debris, but they could sift through to find the desired crystals.

Stepping closer he crouched down and began to do just that. Hefting a crystal roughly 30 pounds in weight he moved it to the side then paused to look at Ultimatum, "Want some of this? Or gonna work for your own? Don't mind either way." Then he resumed his searching for the optimum mineral deposits, "Your friend may do so as well if she wishes."

[member="Ultimatum"] [member="Pyro"]

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum looked to the crystal, it was certainly good for its sheer size. But for himself size was not so much an issue as was quality. He smiled as he replied, "Thank you, but I will decline." He looked at the crystals that fell with almost all of his strikes, looking for the imperfections that would define their inability to work at the degree he would prefer. Perfection was impossible, but it was best to take the very best. He wanted these crystals for a very important task and they would have to function perfectly or as close there to as possible. He could have been dramatic and think that his very plans relied on this, but that was not completely true. He had other avenues, this was simply the one he had chosen and was thus working towards.

He was impressed with the organic's strength. He believed that it was related to the Force, but he had not studied that quite as much as he probably should have. He was glad that the organic could accomplish this task with such apparent ease. He looked forward to finishing here, the heat was not quite good for his internal mechanics, which naturally generated their own heat and required cooling units. It was amusing that he had chosen Mustafar as his planet of control, it being a volcano and furnace, but he had chosen it because of the surplus of materials. There was normally a reason for things that he did, some did not always make sense immediately, but that was what it was.

He looked down at his handiwork, there were at least ten pounds of crystals that he would use and about double that of those that he would use if required to.

[member="Darth Pikiran"] [member="Pyro"]

 

[Ultimatum]

However, Ultimatum was intent on collecting all he could of the quality he required. A few more strokes and there was almost double of the crystals he intended on using. The others would be given over the mine owner, after all he did not have a special use for any extra he collected. He wondered what most organics would think if they saw a droid collecting stygium crystals. Probably that it was a runaway and needed to be sent back to its master. Or maybe that it was trying to build a stealth droid, closer to the truth but not quite.

He stopped as he dropped the pickaxe and began working on sorting the crystals, a relatively easy task given the crystals he was working with. His mind calculated the necessary steps to figure this out and he moved them into two piles. Those that he kept fell into the smaller section, while the lesser quality fell into the more substantive pile. The quality of the rejects ranged from better than average to horrible, but Ultimatum only kept the best.

"Well this has gone well. If I may ask what is your plan for the crystals?"

[member="Darth Pikiran"]

 

[Matreya]

(Feth!!! Was wondering why you didn't respond! Yet again my internet didn't save the post! Lol well it had basically been him glaring at Pyro and thinking nasty thoughts. So not a real loss.)

"Don't know yet. Have a few ideas. Mostly just did it out of boredom rather than necessity. Haven't seen much award for my existence recently." Damien said as he shrugged, "What about you?" As he said this, he spotted a worker further into the mine, "Hey! Bring a dolly or something!"

The man nodded, and in a few minutes a repulsorlift had been brought to them. Heaving his crystals up and on it, he left space for the droid to pile his own. It was a heavy job, boring as well, but it did have its merits. He could sell these. Or keep em for a future project. Who knew.

[member="Ultimatum"]

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum thought for a moment, it would not hurt to tell would it? There was no real danger to this man from the droid's project. "I hope to use it in an old ship. Back on Mustafar I have an orbital shipyard that is currently working on nothing more than one of those ancient Hammerhead cruisers. A little attempt at kidnapping me awhile ago turned sour on some pirates and I took control of the ship. Had some help of course. Now the ship has been sitting for months being repaired. There are only a few more adjustments required, these crystals are one of them."

A stealth capable ship like that would be incredibly useful for him. He did not need it for combat, he tried to avoid that as much as possible. But it would allow him to run through regions that he wanted to avoid entanglements in. But it would also work as a base of operations for when he wanted to leave planets and organics behind for a time. The stealth was the first and foremost part. The next two were small droid factories taking the space that would have been used for mess and living quarters and then the feature that he personally found most interesting, a molecular furnace. That would make this an entirely worth the effort.

[member="Darth Pikiran"]

(Ouch >.< I have never had that happen, but it sounds like it would be quite a nuisance.)

 

[Pyro]

(long story short: school crap, shiz hit the fan with tests and crap, wisdom tooth surgery and whole lot of other mistapfel like how I had a post ready for this thing that was three frickin paragraphs long and my computer died on me b4 i could save :mad2:.. sorry!)

Pyro cried out as she felt her fire extinguish and crumpled to the ground for a second. Refusing to look weak, she quickly stood back up and whipped around to face Damien, 7 almost taking control. Her red eyes seemed to darken, as Alpha 7's had been, but Pyro shoved Seven back down where she belonged, agreeing with Ultimatum. She didn't want to shed unnecessary blood for nothing. Taking a shaky breath, Pyro lowered her head and nodded slightly, ashamed.

"T-that was wrong of me, I don't know what I was thinking. Please forgive me, sir." She turned to Ultimatum and also bowed slightly.

"I also hope you will forgive me too, sir." Not saying another word, Pyro walked over to the pile of pickaxes and hefted a smaller one over her shoulder. Taking it back over to the slightly scorched wall, she raised the pickaxe and swung as hard as she could, actually managing to make a small crack in the sturdy wall.

A few minutes later a loud crack sounded and Pyro yelped and jumped at the loud noise. Turning around she saw the man sifting through a bunch of crystals that had fallen. When he asked if either of the other two wanted any of them, Pyro turned her head to look at Ultimatum; if he refused she might as well, but seeing how she had made very little progress on her side of the wall, decided to say yes. She walked over silently and looked at a few of the smaller bits, only taking three that looked like they could serve her purpose for tagging along.

"Thank you. These will be all."

As the man and droid conversed, Pyro sat down and stared at the ground, deep in thought. She had heard that the crystals they were mining at this very moment could be used to build a weapon that she had been craving to build for a long time - a lightsaber - though she didn't know the full extent of how to do so.

[member="Ultimatum"]
[member="Darth Pikiran"]

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum was glad that [member="Pyro"] was understanding and willing to back down from what probably would have been a fight. For a moment he had expected a fight, but his relief would have been manifest, but his face was more focused on moving the crystals he needed onto the small grav sled. There was only a little to move, not as much as could have been. But he was glad that he had got the greatest he could.

He looked to his little flaming organic friend and asked, "How about you, if you do not mind me asking? What are you planning on doing with your crystals?"

He was looking forward to getting back to Mustafar, with these crystals the work could be that much closer to finishing. Once these were added to the make up he could probably begin testing the ship out. He had grown weary of flying around in a ship that only needed a few shots from a capital ship to destroy, with the Hammerhead he could at last move around the galaxy with impunity, instead of having to fly around the Alliance space, he could cut through to move to the planets that he wanted to expand to. It was annoying to be trapped in the space of a government that he did not swear loyalty to. He was only glad that he had been given relatively complete control of the planet as long as he did not break out of the control of the galactic power that he was now under.

He looked forward to the day that he would be free of these people.

[member="Darth Pikiran"]

(It's alright Pyro, things happen and real life always takes precedence. No hard feelings)

 

[Pyro]

"Um, I heard that they make good lightsaber crystals." Pyro stated timidly, getting up from her sitting position. She made sure she was fully standing before dropping her selected crystals into a small bag she had been carrying with her.

"I'm thinking of going to the Grey Jedi to ask for help in creating it, since I am too unskilled on my own." Pyro had been trained in the ways of the Force, but only to a certain extent, since her body was created solely for pyrokinesis.

[member="Ultimatum"]
[member="Darth Pikiran"]

 

[Matreya]

Damien glanced her way, thinking silently for a moment. Before long he opened his mouth, silently remained so before closing it once more. As always his insanity made for odd choices.

"I can teach you, if you like." He offered, then gestured to the lift, "You can also carry your gems on here if you like."

[member="Pyro"] [member="Ultimatum"]

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum wondered how [member="Pyro"] would respond to the dark sider's offer. It appeared harmless enough, though Ultimatum had an issue trusting Sith and their only marginally lighter brethren. He did not believe that [member="Darth Pikiran"] would try anything harmful to his fiery friend, but it was a question of how his influence might affect her. He had always been interested in the building of a lightsaber. He had been planning to learn how to use one as a defensive measure and perhaps a way of discouraging organics from harassing him. He had heard that in the past droids had been built to utilize the traditionally Force user weapon. It was a question of updating his programming to allow the necessary changes to learn the techniques.

He wondered if a droid could make a lightsaber. He had heard that it was a Force related procedure. Thus making it unlikely he would ever be able to make one himself. But then, these days battlefields were littered with the dead, Jedi, Sith, and many other beside. Certainly he could collect a lightsaber from among them. It was a strangely repulsive idea to most organics, stealing from the dead. It was logical to him, use what the other could no longer.

 

[Kalyn Tal'verda]

Kalyn could not find any anywhere where she was, so she went deeper into the mines, there had to be a storeroom somewhere around here, then she heard talking so she found a place to hide, it was not the best place, just a small outcropping in the darkness, she would have to rely on the droid and company not to notice her, which would be hard with a dark jedi there with them, as she had no way of hiding her force presence. Kalyn would have to rely on pure luck to remain undetected
[member="Ultimatum"]
[member="Darth Pikiran"]
[member="Pyro"]

 

[Matreya]

Damien was waiting for Pyro's response, when a small tickle touched his senses. As always, his mind was open, and he was Reading his surroundings. So when the girl attempted to hide, it was a noted intrusion. Turning in her direction, he called out to her, "What do you need young one? We are payed for, as much as we can carry, so if its Stygium, just come on over. I can help you mine some as well!"

Glancing at his companions, he added, "There is a woman over there, she sensed, or saw, us and ducked into hiding. As I payed for this all, I hope it doesn't offend that I offer the services. Besides, maybe we will find a friend in her."

[member="Kalyn Skirata"] | [member="Ultimatum"] | [member="Pyro"]

 

[Pyro]

Pyro's eyes went wide. Training? From someone at all? Willingly? Pyro stared at [member="Darth Pikiran"] for a second before shaking out of it and stuttering her answer.

"Let me think about it for a bit, and I can carry my crystals myself."

Pyro also looked where the lady had disappeared. She had a feeling she might recognize the woman following them. She began to walk over, pausing to look back at [member="Ultimatum"], seemingly for permission. Her curiosity burst and she turned back around and walked towards [member="Kalyn Skirata"]'s hiding spot

 

[Kalyn Tal'verda]

Kalyn let out a conceded sigh, though she probably could get all of the advantages of both situations, and hopefully get out of all of the negatives, she would have to do the best tihng possible and come celan with these folks though first. Kalyn stepped out from her little alcove, into the light.
"Why mister i will have to accept your offer, but, first things first, you never found me, i got a sample without detection, and the stygium i got from a guy named Denron on tatooine, if you want any information on why i am here i will tell you what little i know about this job." She said
[member="Pyro"]
[member="Darth Pikiran"]
[member="Ultimatum"]

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum was surprised in a somewhat happy way that [member="Pyro"] appeared to look to him for advice or permission when it came to working with the others. He had not intended on becoming a figure of authority to the little organic, a protector perhaps but not this. He did not mind of course, it was nice to know that she would trust him enough to look to him in such a role. Perhaps he was taking it a little too far. He might have read too much in the otherwise simple expression.

Any questions on the matter would have to wait. He turned to [member="Darth Pikiran"] and replied calmly, "Fine by me." Then [member="Kalyn Skirata"] spoke. Most interesting, he might not have understood her completely, his ability with organic comprehension was still somewhat questionable. After some work done awhile back in order to understand the considerably old CBell-1 droid language had thrown his Basic understanding a little and he was still calibrating it. Most things he caught, but every now and then it would mess him up. He was interested though in perhaps hearing what this organic's employer had wanted to know about them, if that was what she had spoken of. He wondered if her employer were someone he was hunting on Mustafar.