Dav Man'Sell
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Post by Dav Man'Sell on Jun 7, 2013 16:30:06 GMT -8
Dav didn't so much as move - in truth, only a blink suggested he was even capable of movement, as he watched the droid's 'receptor.
"I refer to the unit under the designation of ell-eee-oh-three that was constructed by Eliana Shan, that you engaged in combat with at the same time as your recent encounter with Vidalu Na'an."
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Post by Aherk Fyyar on Jun 7, 2013 16:58:11 GMT -8
KR-04 had already known exactly what artificial construct the Jedi spoke of. He was simply testing the Jedi's knowledge, seeing how far his information went. In truth, it was not far; LE-03 was practically synonymous with her creator; if one knew about one of them, then one had a probability higher than 90 % of knowing about the other. It was not beyond the bounds of reason that the Jedi knew about Eliana Shan as well. And while one could then make the connection from Eliana Shan to his creator, the woman had been confirmed dead for some time now. Further, if the Jedi were asking about the droid, which was presumably picked up along with himself and his primary target, then they had not yet probed her own databank for the answers they sought. KR-04 did not know exactly how much the Jedi knew. He did know, however, that he had a choice.
From one point of view, he could remain silent and continue to feign ignorance; the Jedi would have no sure way to know without forcing access to the hard drive, at which point the contents incinerated. And from another, answering the Jedi's question could prove damning towards his former compatriot at the cost of violating his primary subroutine. For the microseconds the question was being processed, KR-04 found a crucial piece of data; Vidalu Na'an and LE-03 had been working together, a fact which the other droid would have been sure to play up in order to maintain her cover. And if she were condemned, then it may yet cause the Jedi he had been programmed to kill further problems.
The primary objective won out.
LE-03 was programmed at approximately the same time I was under similar conditions by my master's apprentice, Eliana Shan, known then as Darth Vila. We were introduced on Dantooine aboard one of her research vessels, a CR-90 corvette designated Revenant. At that time, she was seeking Vidalu Na'an as well. She offered to assist in my mission as a sleeper agent, traveling with Vidalu Na'an and gathering information until instructed to do otherwise. LE-03 proved to be a liability to my mission. I terminated her.
KR-04 paused.
She is much more dangerous than she will allow you to believe.
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Dav Man'Sell
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Post by Dav Man'Sell on Jun 7, 2013 18:42:23 GMT -8
"I don't need you to inform me of the dangers of anything created by or from Eliana Shan."
The response was precise, prompt, and delivered with a matter of fact manner. Having encountered LE-01, having spent almost ten years fighting the Corruption, having studied as much as he possibly could about Eliana's creations and her abilities, it was very much the truth that Dav was far from ever underestimating anything connected to Eliana Shan. He, still, remained unmoving, allowing silence to form between them for a few moments as he chose his next question.
"What do you know of Ell-eee's programming? Specifically, her emotional subroutines?"
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Post by Aherk Fyyar on Jun 7, 2013 19:10:19 GMT -8
That they are precisely the reason LE-03 merits warning.
KR-04 was not prepared to drop the subject. Far from it, actually; he fully intended to make his point until the Jedi either gave up trying to divert the topic or shut the assembly down outright. Fortunately, the Jedi had given him a means to do so that would both allow for a framing device and keep deception to a minimum. Within 2.4 seconds, the droid was prepared to answer the Jedi's question in full.
Remember that emotional programming hampers performance and endangers critical protocols. LE-03's programming falls to this with alarming regularity. In our first encounter since the deaths of our creators, she initiated an impossible attack on my CPU on desire rather than necessity. Shortly thereafter, she incinerated a family of Rodian ranchers on my orders via use of her flamethrower. And she traveled with Vidalu Na'an, knowingly leading her to her termination. All of this was done for a base and pointless need for closure; to find out what became of her creator. A direct parallel might be a daughter caught in a distraught search for her mother, utilizing any means necessary to achieve that goal.
KR-04 paused, once again allowing the Jedi to process what had been said. If he continued too quickly, the Jedi might not have taken the bait.
If LE-03 is under your command, I advise you to delete those protocols immediately.
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Dav Man'Sell
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Post by Dav Man'Sell on Jun 9, 2013 15:24:43 GMT -8
Lying. For such a commonly used skill, so very few people were actually very good at it. KR, being a feeling-less artificial monstrosity with nothing more than a vocoder and a photoreceptor at his disposal, was one of those rare few for whom lying, and lying well, was easy. He had all the advantages.
Dav, on the other hand, had a face. He had a voice, and musculature, and above all else, emotions. For a living creature such as himself, lying well was not easy. None the less, when Dav Man'Sell chose to lie, he tended to do so well; he had been trained to meticulous detail in the art of lie detection, and he knew how to apply those techniques in reverse as well. He knew what subconscious Microexpressions people tended to exhibited in moments of dishonesty, or when trying to cover up an emotional response, and thanks to a combination of that awareness, and Jedi control, he knew how to avoid showing them. Eye dilation, breathing rate, contraction or relaxation of muscles around the face, neck, and shoulders, pulse, choice of words, quickness of delivery, movement of the hands, movements of the legs, lack-there-of in the torso, all were indicators, and all, if appropriately trained in the necessary physical and psychological methods, could be controlled.
The effect, often, was quite pronounced.
Dav took a deep breath, his chest expanding greatly, and slowly, he leant forward, till his forearms rested on his knees, his cup held before him in both hands. He looked down at it, at the steam rising gently from the surface of the liquid, for just a moment or two, just long enough that it mimicked someone trying to decide how to say something. Finally, he spoke. His voice was modulated to be level, his words matter-of-factly stated.
"Ell-eee is dead." Dav put just a subtle stress in his voice as he said the word dead, delicately applied with an actor's precision, enough to look like he was trying to hide his emotions. He lifted his gaze now, to match the photoreceptor. "Your attack on her left her deactivated, and she went undiscovered for long enough for Jawas to pick her remains apart. When we recovered her, her memory core had been damaged. When... when I activated her, her programming begun to... decay. She had just enough life left in her - if you'll pardon the biological metaphor - to tell us a little bit about you. There wasn't a chance of... recovering her ay-eye intact."
He paused, working his jaw.
"It's likely that only Eliana could have saved her."
Which brought him back to a point of interest. KR's primary subroutine dictated he was to protect his creator's identity, and yet, odd little pieces of information had slipped out – enough for a smart man to more or less solve that mystery. Dav was such a man, and was reasonably confident that KR had provided him all the information he needed. Close to Eliana, serving as a mentor knowledgeable enough about artificial intelligence to have trained her, in some fashion, in the field for which she had arguably shown the greatest flare, and dead. Dav also already had a sneaking suspicion where he was going to find the name he sought, and that it was also, probably, a name already known to him.
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Post by Aherk Fyyar on Jun 9, 2013 19:45:37 GMT -8
Wrong.
LE-03 was far from unique in the universe. Certainly one of the most advanced of her kind, there could be no doubt. But so far as droids went, KR-04 had observed that he himself was more the exception than the rule; even astromech droids had been allowed to cultivate personalities and develop emotions nowadays. None of which went to the extent that LE-03 had been allowed to. None of which were programmed specifically to be able to feel as LE-03 was. But nevertheless, anybody sufficiently intelligent could have salvaged the hard drive unless it had been treated to self-destruct much as his own had been. No droid was immune from this. Hardened, prepared for, and ready to defend against it, perhaps. But not immune. Given time, even the most secure of firewalls could be taken down. While Eliana Shan was the primary choice to save one of her Life Emulators, she was far from the only one.
But such things were irrelevant. The Jedi was lying. And after a moment of processing time, KR-04 proceeded to outline how he knew.
My engagement with Vidalu Na'an was within a two kilometer radius of their crashed vessel on Tatooine at all times. Data suggests that she had a youngling of indeterminate origins and gender with her during that period. As LE-03 was terminated immediately prior to the engagement, she would not have been far. You are familiar with Eliana Shan and her work. As such, you know how irresponsible it would have been to leave both one of her artificial intelligence constructs and an exoskeletal apparatus of her design to Jawas. And if you were more familiar with her work, you would know that I took her offline immediately. She would not have been able to continue operating until repairs were made. Repairs the Jawas would certainly be unable to render. The probability of your account being true is less than one percent.
The droid paused. Even if the rogue Life Emulator had been reacquired from the hooded natives of the desert planet, Vidalu Na'an could not have possibly wandered far from the crash site, even if to escape the canyon. He did not know the truth of the matter; he himself had been put out of commission by a precise strike of the target's weapon. But if the Jedi was telling the truth, then they had clearly overlooked several key factors. A youngling. The spatial dimensions of the conflict. Most tellingly, that if his shot had done enough to take LE-03 offline as immediately as it had, then she would have been in no position to tell the Jedi anything. All of this had been overlooked, and while KR-04 himself had absolutely no way of knowing the truth of the matter, he knew enough to know that the Jedi's account was either outright false or alarmingly inconsiderate towards those they claimed to protect.
Do you know what can hack my systems, Master Jedi?
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Dav Man'Sell
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Post by Dav Man'Sell on Jun 10, 2013 6:58:55 GMT -8
"Probability can't account for everything, Kay-arr. Shots that are one in a million can be made. People can beat the odds. Sometimes, less than one percent probability can still come true, and to blindly assume that just because something is improbable, it is wrong, is the basest and most fundamentally flawed logic. You have just revealed the limitations of your thinking, and they are substantial."
He watched Kay-arr carefully for a moment. He had ignored the droid's question, and quite purposefully. And then continued.
"I'll explain how this is true in as comprehensive a manner as I can. Not because I have to, nor because I particularly want to, but because it'll help to make our communication clearer if you know where things stand."
He glanced away for a moment, before making eye-contact with the photoreceptor once more.
"The child to which you refer, Adika Liberty, remained on Yavin Four during your encounter with Vidalu Na'an. She's still quite safely in our custody. Vidalu herself was not found by the person who followed her craft from Yavin four - that would be me, incidentally. I arrived a few hours after your encounter - due to travel difficulties - and Vidalu had already been rescued by a local Force Sensitive resident who had sensed her in the Force. The resident did not recover Ell-eee-oh-four, don't ask me why they didn't because I didn't ask. I went straight to collect Vidalu, and due to the medical condition she was in, did not have the luxury of sparing time to find Ell-eee as well." There was a stiffness in his brow - affected, of course - that would suggest annoyance at having to explain himself further. "By the time an associate of mine arrived to recover you and Ell-eee, over a day later, Jawas had already set upon Ell-eee. Jawas, as I'm sure you are aware, do not always display the greatest finesse in their scavenging efforts. Repairs were made to Ell-eee to facilitate questioning her, but the damage to her primary hard-drive went, in our haste to question her, undiscovered. Ell-eee's programming had corrupted due to damaged sections of the memory core, and the result was a cascading, and cataclysmic, crash of her programming. The Hard Drive could no doubt be repaired and reused, but new programming would have to be installed to replace the corrupted data, over writing much of her original programming - anything that would identify her as the personality and self-aware intelligence that we have come to know as Ell-eee-oh-three would be lost in favour of the new programming."
He arched an eyebrow at Kay-arr, waiting for a response; he could imagine what Kay-arr's reasoning probably could have been behind his statement, but from what he had seen of Kay-arr, it was quite probably limited reasoning, the kind of limited reasoning common to droids, and Dav was quite capable of arguing - and lying - around it. He knew his version of events were a possibility, if for no other reason because his version of events deviated from the actual events in only one detail - Ell-eee had been recovered by the man that had rescued Vidalu. If he had simply opted to decide that the wrecked droid wasn't worth his time, then the events, in all likelihood, would have unfurled more-or-less as he had laid out. Memory cores could be damaged in such a way that programming could self-cascade and collapse - he'd seen that happen plenty of times, at least once because of damage he had personally done. His further expounded lie was fully feasible, which was, all in all, the first step in a convincing lie.
"Efforts are being made to track down the Jawas who scavenged her parts, but I don't hold much faith in locating them successfully with any great expedience. So I'll repeat my statement, just once more for the record: Ell-eee is dead."
Now he would attend to Kay-arr's question. It would make an interesting conversation, he didn't doubt.
"So, with that said, why don't you go on and tell me what could hack your systems?"
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Post by Aherk Fyyar on Jun 10, 2013 7:53:10 GMT -8
Nothing.
A half-truth. KR-04 had very unique and secure methods of self-defense against reprogramming and hacking attempts, the most powerful of which was a brute-force anti-virus program that would all but assure that the droid's core programming would prevail against any attempt to rewrite his processor. But with time, there was no system that could not be forced open. Sure, it would take time - time that several generations would not have to spare - but it could be done.
But not via the method he was about to outline.
I am not equipped with any sort of transmissions technology. Even if I was, my chassis is constructed out of neuranium, preventing any sort of inbound or outbound signals. LE-03 was able to not only attempt to control my system as though such a thing were possible through conventional means, but completely bypassed security protocols. That would require airborne nanotechnology. Airborne nanotechnology that can rewrite droids on contact.
A pause. Less for processing time, and more for the Jedi to grasp the full levity of what he was suggesting, leading him to the only possible conclusion.
You are familiar with Eliana Shan's work. Does this sound familiar?
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Dav Man'Sell
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Post by Dav Man'Sell on Jun 10, 2013 13:51:27 GMT -8
Dav blinked. When discussing Eliana Shan, it usually didn't take long before this particular subject came to light, though he'd still hoped, none-the-less, that it would have stayed out of this encounter. But he believed he knew what KR was referring to.
"I know of something with similar abilities that is associated with her. Where and when did this happen?"
It's presence in the history of KR-04 could prove an unneeded and dangerous complication, and so, all attempts at duplicity were set aside; he wanted, simply, to know what KR had to say on the matter. Though outwardly he remained calm, his mind raced to prepare a dozen tactics for responding to this particular foe.
He would not allow the Corruption a foothold on Osarian or Yavin. Not again.
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Post by Aherk Fyyar on Jun 10, 2013 15:29:00 GMT -8
Three standard months ago in orbit above Dantooine. But there is no need to worry. If LE-03 is terminated, leaving her parts for the Jawas was a reasonable response.
KR-04 did not further that line of conversation. If the Jedi knew LE-03, he knew Eliana Shan, which almost assuredly meant he knew about the Corruption as well. In truth, even if he had a modicum of will to his circuitry, there was little more he could have told his interrogator.
All data on LE-03 has been provided. Beyond what she has apparently told you of me, of what relevance is she?
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Dav Man'Sell
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Post by Dav Man'Sell on Jun 12, 2013 15:21:59 GMT -8
Dav leant forward. The Corruption. Above Dantooine - something about that rung a bell within all of this, but exactly what escaped him for now. He was smart, but he was not graced with an eidetic memory - sometimes, he just forgot things.
But he had not sensed it on LE. Nor had he sensed it on KR. Whatever it had been doing over Dantooine, it hadn't come with them. Dantooine, however, would have to be added to his list of investigations.
And as for LE...
He wanted to understand a lot more about her. About what she had been through. About why, why things had unfurled the way they had.
"Well, the thing is, Kay-arr, is before she and Vidalu left for Tatooine -" Before they fell in to your trap. "- Ell-ee and I had a chat. And she said she didn't remember the acts she is meant to have committed. The murders. She told me that she believed fully that they were probably her doing, but her own memory banks had... missing data on the matter. Do you know anything about that?"
The Jedi Master lifted his mug, taking a sip, eyes still on Kay-arr's photoreceptor.
"It could be a lie, of course, but it seems like the shakiest defence I've ever heard; 'I believe that I did it, the evidence certainly supports the fact that I did it, but I have no memory of it'. Isn't exactly going to divide the jury."
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Post by Aherk Fyyar on Jun 12, 2013 22:25:05 GMT -8
She lied.
KR-04 decided to humor the Jedi's scenario. Droid memories were infallible. They could recollect anything they had seen or heard upon being commanded to do so with flawless precision. For various reasons - ranging from ensuring loyalty to one's owner to admissible evidence in a courtroom - droids could not self-administer a memory wipe.
To hear that LE-03's memory banks had nothing about him could have been any one of several things. The most probable scenario was that she had been lying to the Jedi, which would itself come undone when the data cores were searched manually. Even if the Jedi's scenario were true and LE-03 was not salvageable, her databank would still be intact and searchable even if the artificial intelligence was lost. Another possibility was that KR-04's own sniper round had damaged a very specific part of her databank that carried information about himself; while not totally impossible given the shot's trajectory and the relative space for the round to ricochet, what the Jedi interrogator was suggesting required very specific damage to a very specific part of the memory core that was more than likely subject to random chance. If true, the Jedi would have to search further to find any more inconsistencies, a task made all the harder if LE-03 had been terminated.
But of course, if someone suggested that LE-03 was simply capable of deleting parts of her own memory to suit her purposes and cement her place as the be-all end-all of droid intelligences, KR-04 would not have been surprised even if he had the capability.
I have records of the murders my compatriot supposedly could not access. Do you require them?
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Dav Man'Sell
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Post by Dav Man'Sell on Jun 13, 2013 6:21:36 GMT -8
Dav shook his head.
"No, we have the transmission that you - I presume it was you - sent Vidalu. Not that it much matters. Still, I find it improbable entirely that she lied, because by this point, she had no reason to; especially since she had already said that she thought she had done it. Lying and saying she couldn't remember it served no purpose. My theory is that some external element erased that data; I'm looking at my prime suspect, in that regard."
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Post by Aherk Fyyar on Jun 13, 2013 8:07:31 GMT -8
Negative. At no point in my period of operation did I have access to a memory flush unit.
KR-04 had that record too. But he could not give it to his interrogator; while it would prove he had in no way tampered with the other droid's memory core, it would also show the location of his master's old hideout, disclose several of his projects, and ultimately violate his primary subroutine. If the Jedi chose to disbelieve him, that was his business. But given the improbability of his own story, it was likely that nothing further would come of it.
But I understand why you might think that way. Accurate sniper fire has a way of jostling one's processing capability.
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Dav Man'Sell
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Post by Dav Man'Sell on Jun 13, 2013 9:06:42 GMT -8
Dav arched an eyebrow - was that an attempt at humour from the droid? The creator's humour, no doubt - and leant back in his chair. He glanced around himself, almost nonchalantly.
"Well. I suppose there's no way of verifying the truth either which way, really, is there."
His eyes fell once more on the photoreceptor, and when he spoke, it was with a very casual ease.
"Short of cracking open that Hard Drive of yours and poking around inside for myself."
The Jedi remained still after this statement. He was curious, very curious, to see how KR would respond to this particular remark.
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Post by Aherk Fyyar on Jun 13, 2013 9:22:20 GMT -8
Impossible. My hard drive's contents are to be incinerated upon forced entry. Odds of the resulting incendiary activity should not prove harmful.
Until now, KR-04 had kept that piece of information from the Jedi. There had been neither necessity nor tactical advantage in the move before this moment, and now that the interrogator had mentioned it, bringing it up became a viable option. While there was no way to allow the brunet man into his databank without destroying the contents - and himself along with it - there was an alternative. An alternative that could quite possibly prove to be the opening that KR-04 had been waiting for since his reincarnation as a random assortment of parts.
If necessary, I can transfer required data to a terminal of some form.
If the Jedi went for it, then the plan could move forward. And if not, then he would simply have to content himself with never knowing the truth. And was that not the point of an interrogation?
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Dav Man'Sell
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Post by Dav Man'Sell on Jun 13, 2013 13:35:33 GMT -8
Dav smiled tightly. Transferring an advanced AI into a computer terminal, tantamount, Dav couldn't help but feel, to deliberately installing a computer virus to his own machine. If the terminal had suitable connectivity, from the KR could well become a threat again, searching for something to inhabit that would be mobile, responsive, even deadly.
It was, after all, what Dav would do if he were in KR's position. It was also why they were in an isolated tech-lab, with containment fields and dampening fields sealing them off from everything outside of their room.
"Mmm, I'm sure you'd love that. But I'll give it a pass, for now. I may consider it again later. Though, I do have to ask... incinerated? How would that be accomplished with no power to the unit?"
He didn't expect an answer - it would make it, after all, all the easier for Dav to counteract if KR told him what the methodology. But it was worth a shot.
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Post by Aherk Fyyar on Jun 14, 2013 15:38:17 GMT -8
My hard drive's components are all treated with a phosphorous compound that reacts violently to most atmospheric gases. As such, it is sealed in a vacuum. Physically, any attempt to breach the vacuum will result in incineration. Electronically, any attempt to access files without the encryption key will delete everything.
One form of incineration much more metaphorical than the other, to be fair, but the end result was the same; unauthorized access would not only result in the deletion of everything KR-04 knew, but erase KR-04 himself from his own hardware, leaving them with nothing but an empty and immobile chassis. Programming a chip to work inside the droid's skull would be fairly simple without the advanced fail-safe mechanisms there to protect the chassis from intrusion. But that was unimportant; the whole reason anybody might want to capture an assassin droid would be moot, and the machine itself would not even be able to recognize basic commands, let alone divulge secrets that had been deleted. In short, KR-04 had been programmed not to self-terminate, but to self-lobotomize in the event that escape was inevitable. Any computer could be cracked given enough time. The obvious solution was to ensure that getting said time was impossible.
KR-04 decided to ignore the supposition that he would "love" to be allowed access to transference technology altogether. The Jedi would have known better.
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Dav Man'Sell
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Post by Dav Man'Sell on Jun 18, 2013 9:20:55 GMT -8
Dav's eyes narrowed, and not for the first time, he marvelled at the creativity of Kay-arr's maker. Physical and coded security. Not uncommon, of course, but in such extreme measures, that was pretty rare.
Creative. And paranoid.
"Quite the defensive system you've got there. What did your creator have to be so paranoid about?"
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Post by Aherk Fyyar on Jun 23, 2013 16:43:07 GMT -8
You are a Jedi. With the Order's history of involvement in military engagements, you are no doubt aware of the need to protect information from enemy combatants. Such protection is limited in military equipment, as any security measure researched and developed must be applicable to the entire faction. Further, it must be affordable. Further still, it must be deployed as fast as possible when completed. Cost, time, and widespread utility are not necessary for production of a single unit. Given that, why would I not be equipped with such a "defensive system"?
The last words had been spoken not in the mechanical rumble of KR-04's default tone, but rather in a perfect simulation of the Jedi interrogator's voice. So far, the Jedi had been utterly impassive during the entirety of their exchange; while the droid could pick out small signs that might have pointed to an emotional response, there simply was not enough data to make a proper assessment. KR-04 calculated the odds of this provoking a meaningful response as critically low. But the machine intelligence was running out of options, and they both knew it.
It was time to go back on the offensive.
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