@Ra'a'mah,
Somewhere out in forgotten parts of deep space, far away from any major shipping hyperlanes or inhabited planets, a fleet would exit one of the forgotten hyperlanes, routes once charted but lost in the pages of history due to becoming too dangerous to use, or simply records of them being misplaced after the Gulag Plague and the Long Dark that followed it. These abandoned routes have been home to this fleet, and others like it, for some time now, traveling between trusted shadowports, sometimes coming closer to neutral planets in order to trade for fuel, usually synthesizing what they needed from nebulae, asteroids, and solar winds and turning it into fuel and energy aboard their great, blackened refinery and forge ships.
Among those who knew of their existence, this fleet was known under few names, the Nomad Kingdom of Abregado, the Domain Above Denon, or Lord Protector's Kingdom In The Void. Whatever name it was called, the fleet was one of the largest nomadic kingdom-fleets of the Metal Lords, a group of self-righteous, aristocratic droids who not too long ago laid claim to space around Denon and Corellia. As suddenly as the Droid Space was born, it disappeared just as abruptly. One day the droids decided to return to their nomadic ways, taking most of the ships, stations, credits, and other resources they accumulated, while controlling various planets that fell under their influence, with them.
At the heart of this fleet there was a large, opulent station forged out of light-colored metal that stuck out on the black canvas of deep space like polished bone. It was basically a large disk with tall spires protruding from it like fangs on both sides. This was the Imperial Palace, the last station that would come out of the droid-shipyards that once hanged so densely above Denon they almost blocked out the city-planet's sun. and current lair of the droid lord. Within its bowels there was a metal sarcophagus, forged out of black, thick duranium, decorated with gold bronzium details, and surrounded by various protective, stasis, and backup mechanisms. For added security the station was filled with crew of various droids and drones that accompanied HK as his servants and guardians on his journey, not to mention the various other ships that swarmed around it. The fleet consisted of corvettes, frigates, cruisers, and other stations. Some of them were rather new, immaculate even as apparently they saw little heavy fighting since they were put into service, others were old and withered, with patched or tattered hulls, clearly scavenged and restored derelict ships that supplemented the droid navy. Aboard each there was even more drones, even more droids, their allegiance would be clear as on each hull, old and patched, or clean and new, there was the same marking. A dark, metallic-grey cog with a golden border and a pair of crimson photoreceptors in its center.
HK's personal reasons for leaving Denon and returning to his nomadic ways were centered around him just pretty much being too bored to stick around. Outside of the skirmishes with squid-men, occasional bout with pirates or Sith, and that once rebellion from a rogue Metal Lord they had to deal with, there was not much for HK to do. The droid had little concern with organic wars, unlike droid wars he saw them as frivolous and in the end meaningless, and Droid Space enjoyed peace and prosperity, compared to some of their other neighbors. In the end the droid considered all of his goals to be completed, he managed to build up their forces using the new resources, including fleets of new, larger, warships, restructured their droid and drone armies, brought to power new droid vassals and allies, and most importantly he managed to convince their larger neighbors, like CSA, FWC, and the GA to adopt laws supporting droid civil rights. It might be a problem now that two of those factions have disbanded, but to him that would still be a golden age for droids as his kind showed that there could be a world where organics and droids lived side by side in peace.
Still his rest would not be continuous, as occasionally his servants would bring the ancient droid out of his stasis, one such occasion was during the battle of Winter when someone pulled some strings and managed to transport the droid's sarcophagus out of his orbital palace and nomadic kingdom, with the machine still inside, dropping him in the middle of a battlefield, although seemingly HK managed to get away from that in the end and his metal coffin was brought back as well. It seemed that this was another case of his sleep being interrupted as the doors to his inner sanctum would hiss suddenly and open automatically, allowing a group of robed mechanical servants inside.
The robed droids would take their positions by various stations, pushing on levers and buttons, using their data jacks to connect directly into ports as the duranium sarcophagus suddenly shook with metallic grumble and hissed. The mechanical limbs supporting it up would adjust and move, turning to stand the sarcophagus upright as its stasis functions deactivated, and its defenses turned off.
Finally, the lid would open, moving aside to reveal the tall, skeletal droid body inside, forged out of light-silver metal plates that, much like his stationed, looked to be made out of polished bone. His arms were crossed on his chest, one over the other, his form stood still for few seconds before finally twitching slightly. Fingers closed and opened, trailing his metal claws over his chest plate as two crimson lights came to life within his photoreceptors.
"
Why have you awakened me?"
HK finally spoke up, letting his arms drop to his sides as he took a step out of his sarcophagus, pulling himself along with his large, almost reptilian in shape, legs.
"One of your vassals, the Lady of Merchants, Ra'a'mah calls for your aid. In her report she states that she is being hunted by Kainan Wolfe, now known as Darth Tacitus of the Shrouded Republic, along with bounty hunters he has sent against her. Our reports indicate that she is accused of being a Force wielder and of treason against this Shrouded Republic."
HK's body groaned as he took another step forward, stretching out his old limbs to re-calibrate them, moving alongside the metal floor towards a tall cylindrical container, much like a shower cabin, where couple of his servants were already waiting.
"
Connect me to our databases, have my armor ready, and get the Greycloaks mustered. I will come to pass judgement and plan of action on this shortly."
The droid informed his equally mechanical servant, who bowed silently before turning around to leave this private chamber and carry out the orders somewhere else, while HK stepped inside the metal cabin. The door to the tall container would close behind the droid, leaving him in silence before, from exhaust above, boiling oil would start to drip and wash over him, filling up the container with him still inside. While HK got an oil both, to make sure all his joints were properly lubricated, he connected himself to their data-libraries, starting to scheme and plot all over again.
Meanwhile, the stations hanged at the edge of a nebula silently, with its various warship escorts orbiting it lazily, while the industrial craft sped towards the colorful gases in order to collect them and bring them in for refinement.
Soon enough Ra would have her answer as she would receive a simple, encrypted, long distance data stream. All it would contain were galactic coordinates that pointed her towards uninhabited deep space, away from any high traffic areas. No doubt that was where HK wanted her to go in order to meet with him.
