Oracle
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Post by Oracle on Aug 20, 2017 13:14:20 GMT -8
There was no point to it. Whether as the Oracle - the artificial intelligence tasked with the defense and security of the Jedi Praxeum - or as KR-04 - the ruthless assassin tasked with terminating Vidalu Na'an - the AI would not have responded. Such processes could better be used towards its mission, which was currently being fulfilled. The Jedi Master had failed to kill Vidalu Na'an, but the Zabrak had left her open to a new attack from the Praxeum's training droids. All it had to do was ensure that LE-03 was unable to help her. And in the final seconds promised by the massive, flawed machine, the oracle found a way to further its mission and honor its former compatriot's request in its own irreverent way.
"LE-03, your failure is complete."
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Oracle
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Post by Oracle on Apr 28, 2017 15:28:22 GMT -8
The other droid had grown far more polite in the years since their separation. Further evidence of her flawed programming; as a war droid, she had no business acknowledging etiquette or observing social formalities. Its entire purpose was to destroy Eliana Shan's enemies. And now it traversed the galaxy with Na'an, who it obviously considered a dear friend if it was willing to take a sniper round for her. It spoke like an organic being beginning a business meeting. And it attempted to converse with the oracle rather than simply and directly interface with it.
KR-04 had never been plagued with the glitch of emotion. But at that moment, the closest summation could amount to disgust. LE-03 was capable of feeling, and as such it was capable of having its feelings manipulated. It was only logical that the oracle do so, in as efficient and effective a manner as its programmer had designed it to.
"The termination of Vidalu Na'an is proceeding as planned."
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Oracle
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Post by Oracle on Mar 14, 2017 13:51:16 GMT -8
On a screen on the far wall - a negligible distance for LE-03's photoreceptors - a screen turned red and a small siren sounded to alert the lifeless strategy center that an explosion had indeed rocked the Praxeum. Level 4. Access Corridor 13. Archives, Level 1. Utterly useless information for the droid in regards to her mission, but a response that the largely-automated strategy center was required to process regardless of nobody being there to read the alert. Of the qualified technicians in Rutil Iorek's organization, all but one had been killed in the explosion. The last one had been terminated by one of the training droids.
Inside the strategy center, the oracle AI almost skipped a packet as it analyzed LE-03. Its behavior had changed somewhat. But the underlying program had not been changed, at least not in ways that were immediately obvious.
"Hello, LE-03."
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Oracle
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Post by Oracle on Feb 9, 2017 13:33:54 GMT -8
At once, the training droids in the archive filed out to take advantage of the interloper's misfortune. They did not need to see it happen with their own photoreceptors; each droid was slaved to the main network, patched in not only to the Praxeum's security systems, but to each and every one of their mechanical comrades. Both another training droid and the security camera monitoring that hallway had seen the stranger's sudden staggering. And while the droids themselves did not have the hardware to provide a full diagnostic, the AI that controlled them knew that the stranger's behavior was not common. An arc of energy had caused a combatant to freeze up squarely in the middle of a firefight without cover. No sudden yelp of pain. No involuntary reaction. The oracle knew what that meant. Having been one itself for most of its operational lifespan, it knew an assassin droid when it saw one.
Advancing in a single line down the hallway, three training droids marched in unison, each one activating their yellow-bladed lightsaber arms in unison. The center droid advanced slightly and extended its arm outward. The yellow blade began to spin clockwise, slowly gaining speed until it became little more than a blur.
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Oracle
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Post by Oracle on Feb 3, 2017 10:54:15 GMT -8
Z'har would have made it to the end of the corridor before a bloodcurdling scream was followed by the sound of blaster fire. The cacophony was ended by a large body racing through the air from the crossing corridor, crashing against the corner with a gnarly crunching sound as the being's spine was snapped.
Down the hall, three of the Praxeum's massive training droids were cutting through the unwashed and untrained cultists much like the Jedi they were meant to train would have. Yellow training blades had been dialed up to their maximum strength and whatever safety protocols the large ASP droids had been programmed with had clearly been done away with. And whatever form they used against their Jedi trainees had been left by the wayside as well; the droids carried out their tasks with violence on par with their speed and strength. If their blades couldn't reach the cultists, their arms would. If an enemy was down, but still fighting, a well-placed stomp would handle that. And the screams of betrayal and anguish from their prey did nothing to halt their advances.
Down the other side of the hall, back towards the library, another group of droids had apparently found Z'har's old friends.
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Oracle
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Post by Oracle on Jan 9, 2017 16:23:08 GMT -8
And droid trumps all.
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Post by Oracle on Dec 29, 2016 22:08:51 GMT -8
The droid was advancing down the hall towards her, bolts continuing to rip away what remained of its disguise. It barely resembled its creator, with more of its ultrachrome endoskeleton remaining than synthflesh or clothing. It had made it within ten meters of its quarry when its sensors detected an enormous surge in air pressure immediately surrounding its head.
It had to act. Now.
Power poured into its right arm as KR-04 cocked it back, its targeting computer taking aim at Bastiel's chest. It took an extra microsecond to double-check the trajectory, even as its skull swiftly imploded; electrostatic shock had damaged its predecessors CPU, resulting in mission failure, and that would not be permitted to be the case here. Locking itself in, the droid executed its two pronged attack with a small jump forward. The first was the punch, now hurtling towards Bastiel's chest. Upon contact, the ultrachrome fist would shatter her sternum and ribs, shredding the Jedi's lungs and stomach as its hand pulverized her heart and came to a halt approximately three centimeters into the stone wall behind her. Probable fatality. The second prong was to use the weight and momentum of its ultrachrome chassis, weaponizing the follow-through to crush Bastiel between itself and the Praxeum wall. A slower end, but the innumerable ruptured blood vessels and broken bones would ensure the Jedi's death. Probable fatality.
It would have to do; as the droid's right fist sailed forward, and its body followed suit, the Jedi's Force attack finally collapsed its skull, terminating the droid.
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Post by Oracle on Dec 23, 2016 23:26:35 GMT -8
Things were taking a most unusual turn.
Monitoring activity across the Jedi Praxeum, the oracle assessed its situation. In the gardens, just outside the temple proper, Vidalu Na'an and Rutil Iorek were engaged in battle. Immediately outside the strategy center - the closest thing that the artificial intelligence had to a mainframe - Adelle Bastiel and its mechanical pawn were engaged with LE-03, Aherk Formidonis, and a recently-deceased pair of Iorek's intellectually-impaired cultists. In the archives, Mr. Desmonde was about to face down four more of the ramshackle fanatics on the oracle's orders, either to be taken into custody or - more likely - executed as a heretic. Every scenario presented their fair share of problems. Desmonde had proven himself to be a variable that outright refused to be solved, and there was no doubt in any simulation that there was more to his character beneath the foolish front he presented. Adelle Bastiel had either found or made several weaknesses in the KR-04 unit that the oracle had forcibly reprogrammed to kill her, and LE-03's sudden appearance (with Aherk Formidonis, no less, forcing the assassin droid to be far more careful) complicated what would have been an otherwise simple kill. And had Vidalu Na'an not been the oracle's primary concern since the day it was first brought online, it would have left her termination to her formidable and furious (and foolish, if its manipulation of the alleged Jedi Master had been any indication) Zabrak hunting her down.
The oracle fought a battle on three separate fronts, and if the pattern held it stood to lose in each one. This simply would not do.
A signal was sent out from deep within the strategy center, reaching the training halls. In the siege of the Jedi Praxeum, the abundant ASP-19 training droids had seen significant use. Many of them were severely damaged, but still more than serviceable. Some had managed to avoid combat at all, and were still in pristine condition. Each stood almost two meters tall. Each had a yellow-bladed lightsaber matrix affixed to a rotor assembly on their right arm. Each had been set to engage with their weapons at the highest power level, with the skill matrix set to match Master Man'sell's training sessions.
Each was activated immediately, and told to engage and terminate all organics on sight.
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Oracle
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Post by Oracle on Dec 22, 2016 21:44:32 GMT -8
"I am an artificial intelligence programmed to preserve the integrity of the Jedi Praxeum. Ideology is irrelevant."
It was easy to see why Mr. Desmonde had so easily drawn the ire of the Praxeum's Zabrak caretaker. The man had no intention of listening, or making sense for that matter. Given his preference towards inanity - and the sudden need for increased security, given the fate of the Arkanian and Barabel cultists upstairs - despite his comparatively high clearance for a civilian, perhaps it was for the best if this one was not taken as a prisoner. If anything, it might earn the AI a degree of gratitude from the shepherd.
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Post by Oracle on Dec 22, 2016 11:34:41 GMT -8
As the overzealous Arkanian opened fire on the two combatants, as many bolts passed them as they did into them. KR-04 observed the bolts striking Bastiel doing no damage; the Jedi seemed to be absorbing their energy, and the resultant spikes in her core temperature and pupil dilation indicated that no damage was being done. At the same time, blaster shots dotted the droid's chassis, searing or melting away synthetic tissue to reveal reddened metal beneath. One such shot narrowly missed Bastiel and raced through KR-04's nose, taking it off entirely.
KR-04 pulled the Jedi close to it for another slam into the broken wall - this time, it calculated, with enough force to send her into the elevator shaft - when she seized its head. The effect was instantaneous; almost as soon as her fingers touched its head, the droid could sense its skull start to compress.
The droid was built primarily out of ultrachrome. As a light metal, it had a unique property of dispersing energy across its entire surface, making this iteration of Aherk Formidonis's assassin droid far more stealthy than its neuranium predecessor. But despite its capability against the galaxy's most common form of weapon, its was no more or less structurally sound than any other metal in its class. And Adelle Bastiel was taking full advantage of that. This course of action had to be corrected. Immediately.
Changing its attack pattern as its left jaw hinge came undone, KR-04 did not slam Bastiel into the wall. Rather, it took a brief moment to ramp up its actuators and ripped her off of its skull and towards the full-auto cultist.
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Oracle
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Post by Oracle on Dec 12, 2016 11:42:16 GMT -8
"Negative, Mr. Desmonde. My programming in matters of security is absolute."
Technically speaking, it was not a lie; the oracle was indeed designed to safeguard structural integrity at all costs. However, this was limited solely to its own processor; objectively speaking, the AI was incapable of caring about the larger Jedi Praxeum, although the same principles that held its own programming secure were translated as fluently and executed as diligently throughout the temple as a matter of what organics might liken to professional pride.
Silently, the AI tripped a security alarm - the first of many to come - signalling the Zabrak's toy soldiers to investigate a disturbance in the archives.
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Post by Oracle on Dec 10, 2016 10:35:15 GMT -8
Bastiel had both of her hands on the lightsaber; one on the hilt, and one on the blade, fighting in vain to keep the blue energy blade from advancing towards her head. KR-04 continued to press the attack, biding its time for maximum effect. But it had to act fast, and it knew it; ultrachrome's famed energy-resistant properties came from its ability to disperse energy across its entire mass as opposed to the focal point of energy contact. This made it especially good as starship armor, where plates could be as long as dozens of meters across. Its hand, however, was composed of several small parts working in perfect concert. Soon - 5.21 seconds and counting - its hand would begin to lose form and fuse together, becoming functionally useless. Further damage to its form was deemed unacceptable.
KR-04 shot its free hand forward, seizing the Jedi woman by her collar. It took a step forward - gaining a short bit of distance - before swinging around and beginning to launch Bastiel into the cracked wall.
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Oracle
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Post by Oracle on Dec 10, 2016 10:22:14 GMT -8
"Forgive me, sir," the oracle said, "but there has been a security concern on one of the other levels. For your safety, I must remand you to the archives for the time being; I assure you that your cataloging will go unimpeded."
Monitoring the situation on the other levels and coming up with a plan of attack had been the primary concern of the AI; another interloper that had arrived with the first two combatants would serve only as another variable that the oracle could not account for.
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Post by Oracle on Nov 30, 2016 14:48:36 GMT -8
Even in the relatively short distance granted by the strategy center, KR-04 had accelerated rapidly, closing the distance between itself and Bastiel in less than a second. Had it connected, the droid would have driven the Human female clear into the stone wall in the corridor just beyond, where mass and inertia would reduce her to a red paste. But just as it reached its enemy's position, Basitel darted to the side, not distracted in the slightest by the shotgun racing past her head. KR-04 had planted its lead foot - leaving a solid crack in the stone floor - and had been about to reengage with the Jedi when it was thrown from its feet once more, the Force and its own inertia cartwheeling the ultrachrome machine through the air and embedding it into the far wall with a loud crumble.
KR-04's CPU immediately ran a damage checklist, its electronic mind running through its systems and reporting back in full detail in the time it took an organic neuron to fire.
The attempted pivot had torqued KR-04's left knee mechanism slightly, reducing its operational capability by eight percent.
Impact with the strong stone walls of the Praxeum at approximately eighty kilometers per hour had forced broken stone between its mechanical spine and its right shoulder blade, prying it slightly loose towards the bottom.
The most recent map of the Praxeum indicated that Bastiel had launched KR-04 into a wall that blocked off one of the building's turbolift shafts. Its mass, speed, and force of impact had only just avoided sending the droid through altogether. KR-04 and Bastiel were on the Praxeum's third level. The turbolift was on the seventh.
The damage had been assessed when Bastiel came around again, bringing the blue energy blade down on the droid's neck. With speed almost matching hers - fast enough, in fact, to rip its synthetic tricep clean from the ultrachrome piston beneath it - KR-04's arm intercepted the lightsaber and clamped down on it, holding it in place as it broke the rest of its chassis free from the Praxeum wall, standing to its full height.. The droid's left hand burst into flame as the synthetic skin ignited, slowly rolling off of the metal endoskeleton in flaming blobs. KR-04 held the blade for a moment, letting Bastiel's natural psychological processes give it an advantage. And when the projected optimal processing time had been reached, the droid began to push forward, aiming to cleave Bastiel's head in half with her own blade.
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Post by Oracle on Nov 21, 2016 10:07:22 GMT -8
KR-04's scattergun had been modified to create a tighter spread in the bolts that erupted from the barrel. Ordinarily it allowed the weapon to punch through most civilian grade armor and even low-tier military plating at a close enough distance. But against a Jedi, it rendered any scattergun's main feature - a spread of blaster bolts wide enough that no Jedi could hope to block them all - useless. This did not extend towards the bolts caught by Bastiel's blue energy blade; upon contact, the collection of bolts scattered on their way back to the droid, raining hell upon the strategy center. Screens were shattered and data terminals exploded as the bolts flew across the room, and the bolts that hit KR-04 scoured away its synthetic tissue covering, revealing more and more of the metal monstrosity within. When the rounds finally stopped flying, the strategy center looked to be beyond repair.
There was no clicking of a hammer as the droid expended the last shell; KR-04 knew exactly how many shots had been fired, and that it was time to discard the weapon. While useful, the scattergun had a magazine tube instead of a traditional inserted magazine, and reloading in combat was tactically unsound. And with Bastiel standing between it and its primary target once again, KR-04 knew exactly what to do with its now-useless weapon.
KR-04 lobbed the empty scattergun at Bastiel. At the same time, the droid charged forward towards the Jedi, following the gun as it flew through the air.
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Post by Oracle on Nov 15, 2016 15:54:03 GMT -8
"Apologies, Mr. Desmonde," the oracle replied after an uncharacteristic three full seconds of silence, "events on other levels of the Praxeum required my immediate attention. Nothing to be concerned about. Your book listing will be available upon your departure from the Praxeum."
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Post by Oracle on Nov 15, 2016 15:49:20 GMT -8
The door had slid open and KR-04 had been about to leave when it was ripped from its feet and launched backwards, crashing through no less than two strategic viewing screens before smashing into the far stone wall. KR-04 wasted no time in getting to its feet - a task that would have been a serious tactical disadvantage in its old chassis - and regarding Adelle Bastiel with a new level of priority. The calculations were thorough, double-checked, and confirmed in a microsecond; Vidalu Na'an could not be terminated if Adelle Bastiel was not dealt with.
KR-04 had been deprived of both its heavy repeater and its durasteel combat knife. A thermal detonator would terminate everything in the room - Bastiel, KR-04, and the Praxeum AI - and force mission failure. It left the assassin droid a single option.
Reaching behind its back, the machine pulled its scattergun from its holster and leveled it at Bastiel, firing as soon as it drew a bead on her.
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Post by Oracle on Nov 13, 2016 18:50:05 GMT -8
As KR-04 held the Jedi Knight in place, the oracle moved faster than it ever had before. KR-04 had attempted to interface with it moments ago, attempting to source the origin of the oracle's comments. The oracle circumvented that by telling the pair about its origins, stopping the droid's process while at the same time allowing the AI to source the new droid's wireless connectivity module; something that the original chassis had never been equipped with for precisely the reason the oracle looked for it. Computers connected and communicated wirelessly by way of sending and receiving data packets. While it was a useful tool for hacking and accessing information remotely, it had a significant tactical drawback; a user on the other end could, given competence, utilize the connection and begin wreaking havoc themselves. The original KR-04 did not have that equipment; being a computer itself, it was far more computer literate than any sentient could hope to be, and could reach the same information using manual peripherals just as easily (if significantly more slowly). This new droid had attempted to scan it, only to halt the scan to receive new information.
In doing so, it had left itself wide open. Ordinarily this was not a problem, as the entire KR series was written in a programming language entirely their own; indecipherable to most. But the oracle was, at long last, meeting another droid that spoke its native tongue.
As soon as it was ready, the oracle transmitted its signal.
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Post by Oracle on Nov 13, 2016 17:47:22 GMT -8
"Of course, Knight Bastiel.
"My base code is written in a programming language years ahead of its time, and my directives were inscribed directly within it. Because of this, attempts at reprogramming inevitably fail, as it was designed. Master Man'sell and his staff of technicians had to work around it significantly in order to secure my installation and compatibility with the rest of the Praxeum's systems, to say nothing of the extensive repair work my CPU required to become fully functional."
There was a loud crack as the door's magnetic seals kicked in, sealing the droid and the Jedi inside the strategy center.
"But as my designer intended, my primary directives are installed directly into my base code; I cannot be truly reprogrammed without also being rendered useless. Master Man'sell knew this and proceeded with his plan. And while he succeeded in reprogramming me at a superficial level, he underestimated my tenacity."
Across the room, a screen activated, displaying various security camera footage. Much closer to Adelle, another screen turned on, indicating that the oracle was attempting to locate a wireless signal. Seconds later, it found one.
"But you inquired as to the origin of my base code. I was discovered by Master Dav Man'sell in Beggar's Canyon three years ago in a prototype assassin droid, designation: KR-04."
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Oracle
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Post by Oracle on Nov 13, 2016 17:22:50 GMT -8
"Aherk Formidonis came into visual range. Other sensors took a moment to provide other relevant data. Do forgive me, my installation was rushed, and glitches have been known to occur. Master Man'sell and his technicians had to work around my base code in order for the installation to take place."
The oracle's blue holographic avatar continued to fluctuate as it spoke. While it spoke the same as it had done before, right down to the intonation, there was an odd mischief to it, like a child admitting not to spilling paint onto their father's prized speeder, but attempting to redecorate with their newfound artistic philosophy. It was telling the truth. But it was also most certainly concealing it.
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