The Last Remnants (Roche Mine)

[Onrai]

"Soon..." Vitor smiled as he looked out at the Phrik-rich asteroid still in his possession. Though mostly carved out by the experimental mining vessel, there was still at least one last load to acquire - and this time, he had more direct help. The human replica droid he had won at auction, a unit he called 'Bianca' after its acronym, was now fully operation and ready for use to assist him. He was looking forward to gaining the assistance of it - no, of her.

She was a sentient being. Regardless of his programming, he would not let himself end up falling into the lie that she deserved no respect for being a machine underneath.

[member="Bianca"]

 

[Ellie Mors]

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qn7HvnMJZd4[/media]​

It had been weeks since her construction, the final product intended to be B14-NC4 known now as "Bianca", and she felt lighter than she had ever before. A body forged almost exclusively of phrik, replacing nearly every metal throughout the droid's schematics with the super-light and ultra-durable material, she was now truly a walking, talking, perfect killing machine, at least in the eyes of her creators and in the mind of her new owner. Her master, the human known to her as [member="Vitor Imperieuse"], had purchased her for an incredible sum during a secret "black market" auction, a sum which helped to rebuild her and propel her creators into greater wealth following their investment of those funds into the massive corporation known as Titan Industries.

Bianca stepped out from behind a slightly larger-than-her rock formation, her face cool and expressionless. The dark expanse of space was of no concern to her, not as it was to organics, as she breathed no air, drank no water, ate no food. Functional immortality, the company had dubbed it, though that was a cheap way to live if it meant a life of servitude. This one, Vitor, however, believed her to be more than just a shell of circuitry and methodical killing. Maybe he saw some resemblance in her to another, her short blonde hair framing her face - though she had the option of extensions to suit the occasion, should it ever come up - and her somewhat pale synthskin helping her green eyes to stand out. She wasn't fairly tall, either, but she was created with a purpose - to rip lives apart at a whim.

Yet here she was, standing atop an asteroid rich with the same substance which was used in the construction of her skeleton. Glancing down, her hand rising up from her side to enter her gaze, she gripped her fingers shut, marveling at how much lighter this body was, how hard she could squeeze without worrying about the materials which held her together from breaking. The moment passed and she let her hand fall back to her side as she looked towards the human. "What am I to do?" She asked, her voice as neutral as her expression. Designed for command, she awaited instructions.

 

[Onrai]

[member="Bianca"]

"No reason to be so formal..." He smiled as best he could. He was many things - but his programming skills were average at best. Bianca was everything that he could hope for in a droid - efficient in her performance, and human enough that it was easy to treat her as a co-worker, not a synthetic entity. "I want you to come with me." A motion of a hand would indicate to her that he required her assistance in a particularly important matter.

The two would travel down the central shaft of the mining vessel before soon walking down a corridor to a console. "Alright... We're nearly done depleting this asteroid of its Phrik and other useful metals. On this console, you'll be able to see the percentages of usable metals that're being refined from the ore. When the overall percentage drops to five percent of what we're intaking and refining, inform me and we'll stop mining." Once more, he gave a positive attitude, doing his absolute best to be cordial to the gynoid.

"Once we're done, I'd like to talk with you a bit further."

 

[Ellie Mors]

B14 nodded, aware that her master was clearly not the formal type - though she would have preferred it. If sighing was a method of cooling down a biological being's brain and nervous system, a silent hiss of air being pressurized and vented through her nasal passages and mouth were analogous to that. "Beyond the materials requested from the auction, in which you acquired me, is there a purpose for this phrik?" She asked, not quite certain that strip-mining an asteroid was going to provide phrik that wouldn't likely be put to use right away. Of course she wasn't inclined to know much, if anything, about whatever business the human was involved in - the trade of resources for money was often lost on her, being that she viewed herself as the former and beyond the worth of the latter, and thus saw more value in resources than credits.

She followed the man along the path regardless, of course, and kept close enough to him that she could be used as protection if the moment that might require it would arise. It didn't. The console he showed her gave highlight to the resources found on the asteroid, most important being the phrikite, and the various gases and such that lurked below - gases she doubted couldn't be used for a primitive fuel source. But they were here for the phrikite, as Vitor explained, and it took less than a moment for her eyes to fixate on the ever-changing percentage situated in the "remaining" column. She didn't believe the number however, which was hovering somewhere around eleven percent, but she wasn't going to contest with what was likely some kind of magnetic sensor and have no way to show it up. "It's nearing that soonish, judging by the numbers, but why stop at five? Wouldn't it be more useful to strip all of the ore? I don't think it'll naturally replenish quick enough in your lifetime." She replied, making good use of the humanoid lifespan, something she expected she would far outlive.

[member="Vitor Imperieuse"]

 

[Onrai]

[member="Bianca"]

"Yes." He nodded, "Plans are to use the remaining phrik for something special." He smiled - the entire goal of this was for it to be part of his payment for Bianca herself, but assuming there was any metal left, he intended to use it in order to craft some specialized armor for use by Bianca, Lilin, and Nox. Why them in particular - well, all three of them were considered important by him. With Bianca, he viewed her as less a machine and more an individual - one who deserved fine protection. Lilin was his daughter, and Nox his effective partner - why would they not need such important plate?

"The reason I want us to stop at five percent is because the asteroid's structural integrity is very low. If we continue to mine, there is a high chance, according to my calculations, that the asteroid will collapse in on itself. Practically all the power on this ship is rerouted to power the mining lasers - and any resulting debris from the collapse could cause us critical damage. That said - do you have any thoughts as to how we could extract all the phrik without risking such an issue?"

 

[Ellie Mors]

She nodded, not having taken that into consideration. A note, mentally, was taken to think about such things in the future, and glanced back at the monitor, which was nearing their desired cut-off. The mention of what could be done with the remaining phrik didn't really matter, she had no reason to ask further about its use besides the initial curiosity of the specific quota to stop at. Now, of course, she was not a droid that had been programmed specifically with mining in mind, so the question asked was a bit out of her depth, but being capable of advanced computations that humans were not gave her at least a little wiggle room in figuring something out. That, and droid frames like hers, skeletons really, were kept from bending and breaking like pipes - which is essentially what they were, glorified pipes - by filling them with a selection of hardening foam, liquid, and metals.

In theory what would cause the destruction of the asteroid would be its own weight being unsupported due to the removal of the phrik within it, meaning replacing that with something else of similar or greater durability would at least prevent it from happening as quickly as it would otherwise. "Do we have any duracrete hydrofoam?" She asked, watching the steadily-reducing phrik reserves with mild interest. It would likely help them if they pumped the asteroid full while they finished taking the phrik in, rather than stopping the process and starting again.

[member="Vitor Imperieuse"]

 

[Darth Metus]

Don't mess with the Mandalorians!

The mantra echoed through Skorri's mind: a bleak reminder of the day Grim ceased to be. That man had been a friend amidst a literal Hell: a fearless example of what it meant to be Mando'ade. Conversely, Skorri had managed to escape the blood moon of Onderon...yet in doing so, soon realized that fear gripped her soul. It wasn't an extreme aversion to monstrosities of Dxun's caliber. It wasn't fear of the unknown or any other abstract concept. Rather, Skorri found herself afraid of the modernity she did not understand. Having been reared in all but primitive conditions, the young Survivor found herself alarmed by creatures called "Droids." Starships gave her goosebumps. Base machines unsettled her.

That would not do. Being afraid was not the Mandalorian way.

As such, Skorri did what any beskar-wearing warrior would do: she confronted her fear head on. For the Survivor, this manifested in borrowing a bucket of rust and bolts from Nickel One and attempting to fly it. Now, problem number one was asteroids. Problem number two was Skorri had no fetching clue what she was doing. So, by nothing more than sheer dumb luck, she managed to steer the rickety thing past the largest of the asteroids, only to B-Line it towards a smaller one. Unintentionally. Brakes were a foreign concept after all.

As for those situated on the asteroid, any basic radar would warn of an incoming collision. High speed, freighter-sized object coming in hot. What's more, the thing blared a Mandalorian IFF; as to be expected in their territory. Precious seconds were all that stood between the Survivor, the mining vessel, and one helluva crash.

[member="Bianca"], [member="Vitor Imperieuse"]

 

[Onrai]

[member="Skorri"] [member="Bianca"]

SPIRALLINGSPIRALLINGSPIRALLINGSPIRALLINGSPIRALLING out of control was a ship with a Mandalorian IFF. Of course, given that the mining operation was going on before the whole Roche debacle, Mando ships being here were a bit surprising - but the last thing Vitor wanted was for anyone to be after him were something terrifying to happen.

Turning to Bianca, he motioned towards one of the tractor beam controls. "Snag it!"