Reaper

[Laira Darkhold]

I stalked the halls of the secure ArmaTech building on Bothawui. It was a new building, very recently constructed and it still had work crews installing dataterminals and holoterminals in the offices. Of course all the wiring and essential construction was complete. The lower levels, the sub-basement was secure. In fact this floor didn’t exist on any of the blue prints and was hidden from scans. It was secure for the purpose of hiding what was going on within the building.

At the moment there wasn’t anything illegal going on, but there were a few activities Hegemonic Automaton might be aggravated with if they were aware of. Just letting a few of their droid brains achieve sapience. So far it hadn’t had any negative effects, but they possibility of one occurring increasing every few minutes.

I walked up to the secure door behind which the droid chassis was being constructed, among other things in the back room.

“Password: One Seven Three Four Six Seven Three Two One Four Seven Six Charlie Three Two Seven Eight Nine Seven Seven Seven Six Four Three Tango Seven Three Two Victor Seven Three One One Seven Eight Eight Eight Seven Three Two Four Seven Six Seven Four Three Seven Six.”

The door slid open and I stalked into the room where pieces of the droid sat on tables, undergoing modifications and alterations to fit the specifications of the Artificial Intelligence had given us. It might not be wise to build a body to its specification, but I had gone over them well and I hadn’t really seen anything too crazy.

“Is it ready?”

 

[Laira Darkhold]

The pale red Photoreceptor cast its dim light over the two organics entering the room. One was the Creator, who, while inferior, did possess excellent vision when it came to creation. The other was the engineer that had done most of the work building the new body. An underling, and nothing more. Obviously the Creator had other things to do and was a designer, not a builder. He only oversaw the implementation of the Droid’s specifications, ensuring everything went off without a hitch.

<I am ready, creator.> The droid responded through the vocabulator its brain was currently connected to. The body sat below it, completed, all the pieces and special items created, several by the Creator himself were prepared. Now all that was left was to be placed into the new form and take death to the Inferiors.

The Creator looked over the specifications, nodding as he read. <Well, let us be done with it, Creator. I am ready to take destruction and pain to the Inferiors.>

 

[Laira Darkhold]

After the most recent battles with the inferiors who used the Force the droid had returned to the ArmaTech Facility on Bothawui, the building it had been created in and developed within the deepest, hidden subbasements. As far as anyone outside Project Phoenix was concerned, this floor did not exist. The project had been successful. A droid had achieved Sentience and had been released into the wild, so to speak, only to return. It continued to serve well enough, but it had grown arrogant, over confident. Its access to the HoloNet and to the recordings of the training holocrons that taught it the basics of Lightsaber combat had made it foolish, and now that it had returned demanding upgrades, ArmaTech had taken strides to take back control of the monster they had made.

Mathematical calculations buzzed through the droid’s brain as it assessed what was happening. They were stalling. It could see that much. There was some ulterior motive to assisting it. Just like inferiors to use the superior mechanical being to do their labor. The creator was up to something, perhaps it was time to test its metal against the creator.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

“Put him back in the old body. He has some things to learn before we finish upgrading him.” I said, looking at the photoreceptor Narrow as it looked me over. “If your programming was truly perfect, you would not have needed the upgrade. You have flaws that need to be exploited so that you understand how to overcome them. Now, shall we move this to the arena?” I asked condescendingly. The droid was a masterpiece but it lacked. It needed to be shown its flaws in order for it to overcome them. And it wouldn’t hurt to beat it to a pulp and show it why I was to be respected.

The engineer hurriedly secured the piece to the old body, which was still quite dangerous and the blades snapped to life as the Droid moved past me and into the cage that was the testing gauntlet.

“Arrogance is a weakness of men. You should not suffer from such Agamemnon. Remove it from your delicate personality or it will destroy you.” I hefted Taak’Shukur and held it at its thirds. Fighting against an opponent that used four lightsabers would be very difficult and I needed every advantage I could against it. I also needed to outwardly express no concern or difficulty, or this being might register me lower down on its list of loyalties.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

The blades thrummed as the Droid whirled the upper blades like saws, spinning them and advancing rapidly, servos whining as he sought to lash out for my collar bones. There wasn’t much winning this fight for me. He was going to land some hits, he was going to hurt me. But I was going to teach him a lesson in humility and show him the inherit flaws of Lightsabers that he had been programmed and lead to believe were the ultimate weapons in the galaxy. Rather than attempt to block the spinning blades I went to offense, sweeping the hefty mace low, bringing it up towards his chest pieces in hopes the Shockwave Generators carried him away for a moment. At least long enough for me to make use of the Force, perhaps create some illusion to confuse and discombobulate the death machine.

The Lightsaber’s being weightless lacked the ability to block well against a forceful strike from a weighted weapon such as a power mace, and the Droid would know that. It would also know that I wore shields and beskar’gam, so it would need to land many strikes, or open me up to be blasted by the Ion Beamer it carried on its wrist. Most likely it would utilize this weapon when there was little I could do to defend against it. At least by its appropriation. I was a master of Tutaminis, and that always helped a beast like myself last in rough situations.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

The Creator swung for the chest piece with a devastating uppercut, but he sacrificed his defense to do so. The twin lightsabers from above found shield at the collarbone, and held there. The lower blades slashed for armpit, decimating the shields of the Creator as he brought the mace up into the Droid’s chest.

The power of the shockwave generator drove the droid upwards and away, a thundering boom filling the room and echoing from all sides. As the droid soar up and away it clanged against the roof of the cave and came back down to the ground with a thud, landing on its feet. Calculations running with blinding speed it turned its attention to the Creator…

The three Creators. All brandishing weapons and advancing from different angles, all registering on all of his sensors.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

The Force was a great and powerful weapon, even if that was all it was. It wasn’t an all knowing, all seeing entity to be appeased, and it wasn’t anything beyond a tool to enforce my will onto others, much like any other major skill one developed. The two illusions to my left couldn’t actually injure the Droid, but they could provide some distractions while I went for the legs.

The Droid moved quickly, turning to engage the center Illusion, darting forward with unnatural swiftness and taking the illusion full on with a criss cross of lightsaber blades into its discorporal form. Almost relieved the Droid, spun a pair of sabers hoping to block whatever attacks me and the remaining illusion could summon, but this was not to be. Other illusions came into play. As I advanced, my form rippled and showed a half dozen possibilities. Each just as realistic as the next.

The Droid, seeing the complexity of illusions engaging him felt the need to put his back to a wall and defend itself, cover as many angles as possible. And that is when it spun, lashing out in all directions to catch the illusion full in the chest and its foot kicking the mace I held, confirming I was the one it sought.