Meeting the Past

[Ultimatum]

It was impressive, the degree of loyalty displayed by this organic. Ultimatum would not have expected such strong emotive allegiance with an organic, Sith, in particular, would have been the last he expected to do so. His experience, and knowledge, of Sith, suggested the opposite, that they were disloyal and prone to betrayal at the first sign of weakness. Ultimatum had no doubts about his current weakness, probably far the inferior to his older self. There was the question of whether this promise of protection would last. Or whether it would remain faithful to him, if revealed the truth to @Mythos. Perhaps the Sith would not trust the droid, or not believe that he was Ultimatum. It was a far-fetched tale.

"I hope to find the ship with as little destruction as possible." Ultimatum reasoned that perhaps he had been the one to send it out and therefore if it were captured that would have been Ultimatum's fault.

The robot watched intently as work continued, he was not affected by any space suit and so he had clear vision out into the stars. He could see the small points of lights that moved too quickly to be stars, but were ships arriving with all sort of equipment and materials. There was much work to be done, but it seemed that it was well on its way.

 

[Mythos]

Space was a hazard to be around even with a spacer suit, it was a greater hazard to be outside in an asteroid moving fast. This entire project would require something more than just manpower and technology, it would require a trained hand and precision. "Can't be worse than how we found it the first time" Mythos said, turning to face [member="Ultimatum"] with a datapad in his hands coordinating the next drop of Rhydonium cannisters and durasteel bars.

Two massive freighters flew above them, Mythos engaged the claws on his space boots to fasten himself to the rock so the engines of the ship and it's gravity did not knock him off. He had set up a command post here, surrounded with droids and his own men and a hologram of the final product with red highlights to whatever was under construction and yellow to whatever was already done.

"Half of my worry is that whoever took it disabled the hypedrive again, knocked out it's navicomputer and put down some dampers to the thrusters. If they did, tracking it down will be a feat of monumental proportions"

He raised his right hand and using his mastery of telekinesis brought down a massive beam and guided it down fifty meters from the command post. Who needs a crane when you have a Sith Lord?

A few calculations, powered the wells and fueled them, then Mythos gave the command. Down about two hundred meters were the artificial gravity wells with the engineers, on Mythos' command they powered them and the ground began to shake.

Mythos unclamped his boots and began to walk normally, now they had gravity, next they needed oxygen. "We work fast as always. The Lord of Industry himself and the King of Atrisia."

Mythos said, gazing above the stars as more and more ships popped in, their streaks lining the sky as progress was moving twice as fast as scheduled. Now Mythos would fill part of his bargain, he turned to Ultimatum and faced Upari.

"This is the darkside of the force" He said, raising his gloved hand as in space a dark energy began to pool into his open palm. His eyes flashed yellow as he focused the incredible power of the Sith into his hand. He was gathering a power called Force Blast, a projectile blast made from the raw power of darkness.

As quick as light and in a flash Mythos spun on his heel and sent the blast slicing through space and into a spiked rock not fifty meters from him slicing off the tip clean, leaving the smooth sizzling tip of the rock as a testament to his skill.

"Can you try it? Can you focus on the energy that you sensed from me Upari? Can you gather it inside you and allow it to fuel you?"

If he could not then Mythos would offer some incentive.

 

[Ultimatum]

"I hope you are right." Ultimatum really didn't want to have to be imprisoned again though for this ship. He didn't even know what it was capable of. Such a strange name for that ship. Perhaps he had been compensating for his lack of control in the galaxy when he named it. The droid agreed that it would be incredibly painful to locate the ship if the various systems had been disabled or removed. But, if he had sent it out before, then it was more likely that it was either waiting for something or perhaps meant to be found at a specific time. Certainly, his previous self-had down an excellent job predicting the current Ultimatum's movement.

Indeed the construction was moving forward with incredible speed. An excellent construction crew and @Mtyhos was taking advantage of his powers to make the work continue the work more efficiently. The addition of gravity did not affect Ultimatum too much, as he had the ability to release and activate his magnetic soles at a mental command. However, that ability paled in comparison to the powers that Mythos and Upari harnessed.

As the Sith began to pool the Darkness into his hand, Upari could feel its influence tugging at him. The Shard sensed the dark orb, and he could feel it moving through space as Mythos threw it as a projectile. Instead of allowing himself to recoil at the power, as he would have wanted to, Upari focused himself on it. Even as Mythos asked him to try and focus on the power, the Shard was searching through the Force to pull that power to itself.

Ultimatum could feel that something was wrong, at least it wasn't normal. The Shard's mind was trawling for the darkness, something that they had not done before. He had felt the darkness before, Byss was filled with the Dark Side, but then they had fought the corruption where now they were going to enter into it. The droid did not attempt to throw up resistance or protection against the Shard's mental shift. There was no emotion in the Shard as it drew the Force to it, calling upon an evil it had seldom thought of before. Ultimatum raised a hand and watched as a black mist seemed to form within it, but it did nothing more cover his robotic hand. There was not enough to create the weapon that Mythos had shown them.

 

[Mythos]

Once the gravity was in place everything could be done faster theoretically. Mythos had commanded the generators to be installed as soon as the gravity was engaged. The freighters coming down were a design Mythos himself had done and built in The Ancient Eye, there were not many of them but with this shipyard that would indeed change. Above to their right was a rather large mountain, they would drill inside it to place the generator and seal it with several layers of Duranium and highly modified plasteel and transparisteel to protect it. The generator bunker itself would have a shield generator for emergencies, allowing the shadowport to have power even while under attack.

The bunker he designed inside the rock would also serve as a barracks for infantry soldiers and the deeper chambers would house several squadrons which would deploy from tunnels naturally made inside the asteroid. Mythos designed the generators to run on Tibana Gas and Rhydonium fuel but the shipyard itself would run on entechment.

Everything ran smoothly, several freighters were already prepared and lined up outside the bunker, their workers piling inside with gear and resources to build and engage the generators.

While this was happening The Sith Lord's attention was focused entirely on Upari and the skill of the shard. Mythos' hand still fizzled from the force blast as he stood before Upari and watched as the shard gathered power. He knew Force Blast was quite an advanced skill, a weapon only Sith Lords with training in the arts mastered, but Mythos was a very good teacher and could manipulate the dark side of the force to suit his will.

"Good. I will aid you" Mythos said, his voice low and a rumble through the force itself. He extended his hand, the hand still fuming with dark energy and that miasma began to pool from Mythos' hand to the small maelstrom of Upari. Mythos began to use Force Drain but backwards, draining the force from himself and transferring that power to the shard.

The small cloud that the shard gathered on it's own now became a billowing flame, transformed from the small ember it was, it swallowed the shard whole and it's darkness made it impossible to see Upari. Mythos' hair was rocked back as if there was wind here in space under his suit.

"Flawless Upari. Now, unleash it"

It would be as easy as letting go of a rope being pulled from you. All Upari had to do now was focus his will upon an area and force through will the darkness to go in that area.

[member="Ultimatum"]

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum was impressed with the level of construction and how quickly it was taking shape. Mythos' workers were ambitious and hard working. This project would be completed before the week was out, the droid was certain. He was glad that the organic had included back of generators that ran on something other than entechment. There was no knowing if some future technology would find a way to disable that form of power, or if someone would be able to turn the spirits within the system against it, as had been done in the past.

As Upari continued to draw upon the Force, the Shard remained safely tucked away inside of the chest of Ultimatum's droid body, about where a heart would be for an organic. It could feel the corrupting influence creeping into its mind, as [member="Mythos"] pushed more dark power into it. The orb in the droid's hand, merely a Force manifestation, lost of the mist and transformed into a black flame. The Shard could feel the power, far greater than anything he had experienced before, coursing through him and the droid into that small fire. As the organic told him, the Shard released the power. The Shard concentrated his mind upon a nearby mound of rubble, far enough so as not to affect the construction or endanger anybody. The orb flew off as if with a will of its own. It sped as fast as thought towards that distant point.

 

[Mythos]

Teaching was an art as was warfare, Upari always had the power inside him, he just like so many others just needed the right nudge. Mythos was here to give that nudge in the right direction and he had the experience of dong such things, manipulating the force to his will, bending it to his vile desires. As the orb flew past him and delivered it's payload Mythos extended his hand along with it, feeling where it went and gliding it's trajectory ever so subtly through the vastness of this space rock directly into detonation. At the sight he extended his arms, the act of violence gathering the eyes of the nearby workers, some cheering knowing the power and attitude of their employer. "As easy as breathing once you are accustomed to it. That is the only task you shall have for the time being. Meditate on what you have learned, study it, let it fuel you. Once you have learned this basic truth, that the darkness you hold as a bladed weapon is the source of your power, may we continue. There is no peace, there is only passion."

No sooner had the words left his lips that the roar of a massive freighter of Magnus roared over, this one bringing with it a massive load of duranium beams, cut with lasers to the precise measurements to fit inside the drilling they had made here not a few hours ago. With the gravity down the command center was half way built, even half way it already had a standard life support system powered by the main generators. What before looked like a rock of no note was now buzzing with lights and colossal beams moved by cargo freighters. Thanks to [member="John Locke"] and his incredible designs Mythos was able to speed up the resource material supply line and the construction of his command center here in triple the scheduled speed.

The flotilla of the Clifford-class made their way into the orbital station being built, theirs was the cargo that would build the actual space station, not the shipyard. The Archimedes droids, the backbone of the underground constructions, had been there since the day before. Only their particular design could reach inside of the rock itself and make use of the naturally created tunnels for the use of cables and running fuel pumps of tibanna gas. Mythos had foreseen this, it is why they were here and Locke and Key mechanics was invited to the project if they so desired, under the guise of a business contract.

"Let us head to the command center, through it we can oversee what we have created in a better view. Upari, feel free to chose a place of your stay to your liking. I am sure i can create, with the help of Ultimatum of course, suitable quarters for you if you chose." Mythos said, a smile seen through the visor of his black and silver spacer suit as he moved over to the base of the construction site, over the hill where the stone that they had destroyed with Force Blasts stood. As Mythos walked over the hill and by the stone that he and Upari had blasted he regarded them, noticing his larger and more precise while Upari's was clearly raw and uncontrolled. It was like a lightsaber cut through the stone right beside a small thermal detonator blast. Precision was part of the training, it would come later, raw power was hard to control even for him.

Above the hill was a sector of the construction site, one of the many tibanna gas storage buildings, itself surrounded by security droids and an armory detail. Mythos envisioned the storage rooms protected with video recordings, soldiers and automated turrets at all times when finished. "What about you Ultimatum?" He said, looking over his left shoulder as he walked down the hill and to an All Terrain Infantry Fighting Vehicle called The Hellhound yet this one was special. This one was clearly all black, it was armored fully in sloped Phirk armor, it had the sign of the Sith Empire emblazoned on it's side. Inside were four Nubian soldiers of the NSF, armed and ready to transport them to the command center at the top of the mountain.

"You used to pack with you a defense system that was quite powerful" He said, gesturing to his ear. "Good thing i have a new body, the old one's ears still rang"

 

[Elline Adasca]

Of course one person waited for them within the command center, Elline herself sat within it suitably: bored.

Incrediably, immensely, extremely bored. She hated just sitting around waiting for someone to come, she was supposed to go and deal with some of the Ssi-Ruuk for one thing or another. She did just that actually, simply sitting around as she waited for the pair to appear, dully she checked her horrendously unimpressive nails (like the woman as a whole).

Ssi-Ruuk, such strange creatures. She wanted to see one up close, particularly up close. Like slicing it open and working it together into some lovely new creature.

@Mythos @Ultimatum

 

[Ultimatum]

Upari did not doubt that it would become easier the more often he practiced. It was like any power; training made it perfect and easier. A person's connection to the Force was very much like a muscle in how it became stronger with more work. The Shard would just need to find time and places to experiment and practice. A bustling planet like Bonadan would not have a lot of available open space for this sort of thing, so he guessed that Ultimatum would have to make a new building or room for the specific purpose of practice. It was a question of time then, Ultimatum was a busy droid and Upari could not leave the droid. They would have to figure something out.

Ultimatum followed [member="Mythos"] to the transport. The robot looked at the large organics, recalling them from a previous conflict on Coruscant. They had been an effective soldier, though Ultimatum had found that, as with many organics, were not invulnerable to the ravages of combat. Mythos made mention of some sort of system from his previous self. The droid turned his mind to the comms and spoke quickly in his mind, "What about defense systems? Anything that affects the ears?"

There was a lot of rustling followed by a door sliding open. "Need to go. You never talked about weaponry systems, at least not to me. Maybe Legion. Or Audrey." The comm turned off and Ultimatumw as left uncertain how to proceed. Could he continue the ruse? The droid was no longer certain.

"I do not recall that event. I'm afraid some things have changed since we last met."

[member="Elline Adasca"]

 

[Mythos]

Mythos walked into the center and with a sigh of releif took off his helmet and introduced his guest. "Ultimaum this is E. She is an Agent of the Sith Empire who has come to help us in our..." He paused to shoot a smile at the dark side servant and mull over the correct word. "Negotiations with the SiiRuuk before we engage in negotiations at all" He said casually, this was in essence how the Sith ruled in shadows, Mythos was about to start ruling from here. Her mission was what she had been trained, she was an agent, Mythos would send her to infiltrate, assassinate and any other deed that would help Mythos influence the closer Siiruuk Systems to him into a mutually beneficial agreement.

The Hellhound outside that had brought them in was waiting now to pick [member="Elline Adasca"] up, inside the phirk plated IFV was all the gear and equipment she had requested and more, as well as a nice advance on the money and a communicator. The construction outside however was now all in placing and bringing the guns and weaponry to be installed both in the Shipyard in orbit and down in the actual asteroid. Mythos had already set up a factory in Iego specifically to bring turbolasers here of the highest possible caliber for the defense of the shadowport within the realm of architectural reasoning of course. The freighters both clifford and custom began to bring those weapons in now and the space crews were tasked with emplacing them, once they had done that the Military crew would come to calibrate them and load them.

This would take some time so Mythos kept walking with Ultimatum through the deck to the officers command port and lounge past where the agent had been sitting. As soon as he passed the durasteel frame to her right he saw two of his Anubian guards flanking the entrance to this secret room. Once inside Ultimatum would see the prototype designs and blueprints for a new entechment design, missiles, weapons and rough early designs for various ships, this is where Mythos knew Ultimatum would love to be... But did he?

Mythos was silent at his response knowing more or less what had happened, or at least he thought he did. Once inside this room the gate closed behind them sealing them inside this pressurized room, Mythos' eyes locked on to him. He sensed Upari and he sensed that Upari could sense his thoughts, knowing that the dark side of the force was pushing him not only to action but to violence and destruction.

His lightsaber ignited almost out of reflex.

"There seem to be a lot of hings you don't remember" He said, his voice spitting venom and his eyes spitting the same, his hands tightened on the hilt of the black bladed songsteel lightsaber. "Old friend" He spat, five meters from his droid companion and sensing a betrayal of some sort or the quick and in depth explanation of past events lest the situation turn dire indeed.

[member="Ultimatum"]

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum gave a nod of his head to what he guessed was an assassin of sorts. That struck the droid as typical, though he wondered if she would be for setting up a situation for the diplomacy, or creating trouble if diplomacy failed. It was a question that Ultimatum realized that he really didn't want to know the answer to. He continued to follow the Sith Lord through the station, watching with keen interest at the various control terminals and coordination points. As a robot, it was impressive to see organics work together on such large scales when they inherently proved to be somewhat chaotic and individualistic. That they had accomplished the miracles of the early computers was a feat that always surprised Ultimatum when he thought about it.

Then came the secret room, containing data that caught Ultimatum's attention. As much as he disdained violence, weapons somehow interested him greatly. He moved towards one of the consoles when the droid heard Upari speak quickly.

"He's going to attack. Defend!"

As [member="Mythos"] pulled his lightsaber into existence, Ultimatum slipped his own into the palm of his hand and ignited it as well. The silver blade, with faint bluish light, sprang from the hilt and Ultimatum swung it into a defensive posture. "I did not tell you before, and I doubt you will believe me now. The Ultimatum you knew traveled somewhere, I know not, but I awoke in his body. I am the new Ultimatum, created by the old, for his strange reason. I only came to you because of a little information he left behind. I remember nothing except what the old one has left to me, and what I can learn from the people who knew him." The droid didn't expect Mythos to believe him, and so he maintained his mind preparedness for battle. Hoping that it would be enough.

[member="Elline Adasca"]

 

[Mythos]

The sight of the white lightsaber was a sight that Mythos did not expect to see, every single cell in his entire being both physical and in the force wanted to attack but his respect and honor for the Lord of Mustafar stayed his blade from attacking. He heard what the droid had to say with eyes bouncing from the droid to the lightsaber and back. Through his mind he wondered aloud, thoughts Upari could hear too. "You healed the crystal?... but how?"

His attention snapped back to the story that the droid had told, he could see no offensive stance and still held the black blade in shoulder but slowly he began to understand. [member="Ultimatum"] had gone somewhere and left this portion of himself or a creation of his own design behind in order to fulfill a specific mission that was at this time unknown to both of them and if Mythos knew Ultimatum, and he did, there was a perfectly logical explanation for that. Ultimatum had a plan, this part of him was clearly part of this plan whatever it was, Mythos would see it done. He moved swiftly and shut off his lightsaber regarding the droid and the crystal intently.

He sighed once he knew exactly what all this meant, Ultimatum, the fist real ally in this galaxy he had was gone and with him the Sovereignty and he could need Mythos' help as they spoke. He smiled finally and responded.

"There is nothing Ultimatum does that is strange when you look at it from a logical and mathematically sound point of view" He began, casually bringing up the holographic display and changed the urgency of the recon and stealth ships slightly higher than the corvettes, they would need to act the hunter for a while. "Nor does he ever do things without reason or purpose" He continued, turning to his right to regard him, trying to see what it was that Ultimatum would want him to see. "If you awoke in his body it was not because of chance" He said, glancing down a his lightsaber, something he had never seen Ultimatum carry before... Perhaps that was the first step into unraveling the mystery.

Mythos looked over ultimatum into the intercooling systems rooms, a large room behind Mythos' office that was still being built and thus largely empty beside a few generators. "Every angle Ultimatum took a building Mustafar was precise and flawless, only Ultimatum could perfect the creations of Loom and he saw you fit to wear his title and Lord of Mustafar" Mythos said, standing closer to the droid and smiling over his metallic shoulder gesturing to the room behind him. As they spoke outside them came the turbolasers and point defense cannons, L.O.O.M. technology was now the key factor, this was the most difficult part, mechanically and electronically making sure these guns worked properly.

"Before you learn who Ultimatum my ally was, you must first find out who You are." He said, passing by him and directing them to a place Upari could see already through his thoughts and the train of thought in Mythos' mind. Lightsaber combat was an art and a way of pushing out of oneself with the aid of the darkside of the force all those truths of the self and violence that the light could never deny, once centered in the force they would continue to a state that the previous Ultimatum could have never joined Mythos in. With Upari however this new Ultimatum could very possibly be capable.

Mythos knew of General Grevious of the Galactic Civil War, he knew he was a droid very proficient in lightsaber combat even besting several jedi masters singlehandedly but he lacked the force. This new Ultimatum had no such crutch and with the help of Ulapri could theoretically use it to fight in combat. General Grevious was so infamous for his ruthless tactics and impact on the war that his methods and strategies are still studied in military colleges. If a Droid with the teachings of a Sith lord could do that without the power of the dark side of the force what could one do with it behind him? Only slight concern passed through Mythos' mind at the moment.

"Join me in a sparring match Ultimatum. Show me who you really are"​