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Post by Emma Van Kanne on Jul 25, 2022 14:16:03 GMT -8
Her suits sensor suite began scanning the broken wreckage of the cargo hold interior for any life forms: organic or mechanical. But nothing showed up save for the holotable in the centre of the space. External scans from the Iron Maiden indicated much of the ships systems were offline. She lowered her right arm and slowly stepped her way through the wreckage as the projection on the table solidified into that of a female human. The distortion was a little jarring, but nothing too unbearable. She came to a stop a couple feet from the table as the woman stated she was a friend based on Emma's armour.
Her gaze rose up and around the space, while the Maiden loaded up exterior scan results. There were no long range transmitters that could be providing this message as a call, and based on the wreckage site, it was unlikely there was someone hiding, or trapped, in a compartment. Facts which concerned Emma for a moment. With a living person ruled out, that meant this was either a really elaborately pre-recorded message, a weird holocron, or an AI. The last one seemed the most likely
A friend? And you recognise my armour? That's a considerably small list of people for me...
The people that had been in charge of the program that "created" her and had funded Wilhelm's research could very well be behind this. But it seemed extremely unlikely that such an elaborate trap would have been set here like this
Do you know Wilhelm?
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Post by LE-01 on Nov 6, 2022 22:25:02 GMT -8
Under normal circumstances, if her appearance was greeted with a complete lack of recognition, she would infer that the viewer was unfamiliar with Shan tech and move forward with the encounter. Given the fact that her visitor was literally wearing Shan tech, this response would be illogical; 01's processors faltered slightly as this came to light. This would be worth a comment later, oh yes, but first.. she had been asked a question.
"Wilhelm?" she repeated, using seeming confusion to cover for the flickers that resulted from the additional processing. She tilted her head slightly, looking up as if trying to remember something.
And in a way, she was, although the process was much more rapid than what was being presented here. Her creator had provided her with a partial records upload when they had synced up again, before the Sith assault had separated them once more. It was a simple matter of checking the most recent files of her creator's escapades.. and there were relatively few matches. Three, in fact: two Wilhelms from Nar Shaddaa, one of whom was now deceased, and one...
"Dr. Wilhelm van Buuren. R-Red Dawn Medical Center, Honoghr." She looked back to face the armoured woman and shook her head, a slight frown upon her features. "I've seen records, b-but I've never m-m-met the man."
There was, of course, the chance that she meant an entirely unrelated Wilhelm. Given the extent of the records her creator had left her, however, and the fact that this woman clearly had some ties, indirect or no, to her.. she considered those chances incredibly low. Speaking of records, though..
"W-W-What is your name?"
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Post by Emma Van Kanne on Nov 7, 2022 17:08:33 GMT -8
Emma had very little actual experience with AI. Most of what she knew of them came from media and a very general knowledge that AI existed. Droids were arguably a form of AI but certainly not in the same way, she suspected, as the holo-projected form in front of her. Thus Emma regarded the image with curiosity and a bit of amazement as she seemed to think for a moment before seeming to read off a bio card about the good Doctor. But the revelation she had only read records, but had never met Wilhelm, was a little bit of a let down. But also a bit concerning. She didn't know much about what Wilhelm had been doing at the RDMC or who all he had worked with.
To that end, it was equally possible this AI's owner was a current colleague of Wilhelm or a member of the organization that had once employed him. Either scenario was extremely coincidental that the ship would cause the current set of events. But as it stood, there was no real reason to exercise too much caution. Any occupants were well deceased and the ships systems were crippled to a point that any trap would be obvious
Emma.... Emma Van Kanne. And you are?
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Post by Esthh Krazhmir on Mar 19, 2023 17:08:13 GMT -8
The matalok settled low in the atmosphere and sent out its coralskippers to sweep the desert. It wasnt quite like one would picture, they were looking for tracks, for obvious movement, and for gravity changes indicating water in a relatively waterless land. They were ordered to focus on bantha herds, the main prey of the beasts they were hunting. Greater krayt dragons. The matalok too used its more sensitive biots looking for signs of the large creatures. The creatures were considered rare, and for such a large predator in such a sparse environment they were low in density, but by no means rare. Rare for individuals on foot or small speeder to encounter such creatures, especially as they had the entire planet to look over, and beings here, weren’t here for the safari, they were here because they either couldn’t leave, or didn’t want to be found. Though Esthh had to admit there were far many other planets that he would rather go to be not found on. An endless wasteland of glass sand and rock. Though it was impressive that life clung stubbornly to existence. Esthh didn’t expect to find what they were looking for on the first day, perhaps not even several, but it would save time in the long run. That was what it was about for this trip, aside from generating some extra credits to smooth things over the the inhabitants of the galaxy. Credits could get his people places where their biots and strength could not or would not.
Esthh sat on the throne chair staring at the blazebug display in front of him as he watched with a second pair of eyes in his mind with the matalok’s senses, but not seeing those either as his eyes seeing something else completely. The stories that he had grown up with at the ends of the arms of a worldship in the high gravity at the highest centrifugal force. His bones and muscles had grown strong, dense, and shaper modifications had made him fast. Demanding task masters in the Praetorite Vong had made his sharp mind sharper, biot implants had made him unparalleled to most of the beings in this galaxy short of Jedi, Sith, or some cyborgs. This was not where his mind drifted though, not what his ears heard, his eyes saw. No. What he heard and saw were the priests… They told him that they were to come to a galaxy of promise, that the gods had given them a new home, and he would be part of the spear tip, not the leading point, but the first real cutting edges to slice deep. The real power and damage creator following the spies. He was a pathfinder, a fortress weakener, commando, elite fleet commander. All that was needed. More than that, he was trained to be a survivor. His mission was in the Unknown Regions, coming down from the galactic north he had gone to the galactic west of the Imperial Remnant, while the main force, including Vector Prime. The mission that he was given, along with a number of Domain Krahzmir, was to slip around through unmapped and unknown areas to the back areas of the so called New Republic and weaken them from there. His parents however, and a number of his trainers, had grown up under Quoreal, and not Shimraa. He had heard whispers that Quoreal had not favored coming to the galaxy due to a Supreme Commander Zho Krazhmir, one of his kin, having encountered a living planet, a very bad omen. Shimraa had staged a coup, and deposed Quoreal, who had instilled a fervent religious zeal that this was in fact a gift from the gods. Anyone who had opposed him had been killed, those that remembered and opposed...kept their mouths shut and pretended to go along. The gods, they said, the gods they repeated, and repeated, and hounded.
The gods. They could be relied on. It was in the Unknown Regions, cut off from the main fleet, unable to be resupplied, and slowly over time they had to replace losses, but they couldn’t. Shapers died in combats, and he ended up with command. The gods had not smiled on them, but he continued anyway, with his mission, with their mission, their ‘holy quest’. So few shapers were left that Esthh had demanded to be grafted with shaping utensils and given access to the qhasas, there were too few to do the work, and everyone was needed. It was there that he had seen the restrictions that had been in place. Things were sterile, inflexible, outdated. Nothing had changed since long long before they had left their home galaxy, full of sterile and shattered worlds. The shapers who were left were concerned about straining the protocols, but when hunger and danger pushed hard enough, they relented when the few priests that they had, priests of the deception sect pointed out that all things were forgiven in victory. Then protocols had been essentially outright abandoned just to keep their ships going after battles. Then the living planet had been encountered again, the evil omen, and Shimraa suppressed the information in brutally. Then after Shimraa was killed, and it was proved that there were no gods to begin with…. Someone had lied. Someone had lied for a long time. Someones had lied for a long time. Ages. Long enough to turn mere stories into a religion, a destructive one made to keep beings in power...those already in power. Their entire people were betrayed...his entire people had been betrayed...HE had been betrayed. Now he was here. His people were here, and they were all but a lost people in this galaxy. Some had gone to Zonoma Sekot, the living planet, the planet of dark omen. Reports of what happened when they got there were that their biots had gone rogue, gone wild, refused the commands of their masters...turned feral. This was unacceptable. Others had tried to integrate, but it had been so long that he wasnt sure of any of his people that he could trust.
He was snapped back to the present as the captain of the matalok got his attention. Esthh’s eyes shifted to the blaze bug display. There was a new color on the map. Yellow with a light yellow trail behind it as the target moved. As he watched another yellow bug glowed to life and moved to position, shifting through the sands. The coralskippers had covered tens of thousands of kilometers, it wasnt like the other planets and prey that they had been searching for. The signatures were easier to distinguish due to the relative lack of life, and the difference in body density compared to the shifting sands.
“Move after it.”
The captain nodded and the ship began to move. The beasts were large, he suspected that they could be as big as anything they had captured thus far, and the fat Hutt wanted two of them. Esthh saw no reason to gather them for their genetics. They had a fearsome reputation, but as far as potential for his people...well size was imposing in its own right. The matalok closed in until Esthh could see the sand rippling in an unnatural fashion many kilometers off. He ordered the matalok closer, right on top of the beast. The matalok reached down and yanked with its dovin basals as others reached for the stars to counter the effort. Sand and beast erupted from the ground floating in the air. Sand was tossed in all directions, creating a massive cloud of dust as a roaring krayt dragon flailed, not understanding what was going on with up now being down, and down being up, and down being down, and up being up. The warriors assigned to the tentacles snapped the capture devices out, looping around the creature, neck, middle and tail, quickly pulling it into physical submission, if not spiritual or energetic submission. Esthh studied the creature as the dovin basals ceased their altering of gravity and the sand returned to the surface from whence it came. Esthh was pleased and ordered the shapers to begin subduing the creature, and to remove the pearls that were supposed to be found in the creatures gullet. The shapers began immediately as the matalok started for the other creature. It would not take long for the fast growing biots to encompass the creature and keep it contained. It would take some hours but there was time. Vacuum hardening creatures quickly expanded on the creature as the shapers put the creature into a sleep before forcing a gnullith down the animals throat. Four hours later the vacuum creature had grown around the entire beast and it had been attached to the ship’s hull. Shapers carefully removed a dragon pearl from the creature the size of a warriors chest before closing the incisions and filling it with a healing fluids.
The same tactic was applied to the next beast. This one was more wormlike in the body, less lizard like. The smaller creature erupted, roaring and spewing acid into the air at its supposed attacker. Esthh did not recognize the beast, it wasnt one that looked like a Greater Krayt like the first one. He wasnt sure what it was, but after it was secured and quick samples were taken the shapers told him that it was at least distantly related to the first specimen, but not likely close enough to interbreed anymore. He ordered samples taken and the pearls to be removed, and the creature dumped back into the sand with tracking beetles burrowed under its skin.
It had been hours and they did not have another contact. He ordered the coralskippers to switch off and turned command over to the second in command, with orders to awake him if any problems were encountered. Esthh headed for his chambers to rest, unconcerned with the abilities of his crew. If they found another beast while he slept he was certain there would take care of anything they would encounter. They were battle hardened, experienced, competent. He owed his life to them and they to him. He drifted off to sleep with that thought, that together they might make their way in this galaxy yet.
When he awoke hours later he was greeted with the news that they had indeed found another greater krayt dragon. Things had gone smoothly and the creature was even now being enveloped for its safe transition through space, with another large pearl removed. Esthh nodded and allowed the warriors to complete their tasks before handing off their duties to the next warriors to come on duty.
A few hours more and the matalok and its coralskippers climbed away from this miserably hot and dry planet. If Esthh could order the matalok to shake the dust off as they left he would have. The matalok climbed until the air got thin, and then left the planet.
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Post by LE-01 on Apr 5, 2023 14:00:51 GMT -8
Emma had very little actual experience with AI. Most of what she knew of them came from media and a very general knowledge that AI existed. Droids were arguably a form of AI but certainly not in the same way, she suspected, as the holo-projected form in front of her. Thus Emma regarded the image with curiosity and a bit of amazement as she seemed to think for a moment before seeming to read off a bio card about the good Doctor. But the revelation she had only read records, but had never met Wilhelm, was a little bit of a let down. But also a bit concerning. She didn't know much about what Wilhelm had been doing at the RDMC or who all he had worked with.
To that end, it was equally possible this AI's owner was a current colleague of Wilhelm or a member of the organization that had once employed him. Either scenario was extremely coincidental that the ship would cause the current set of events. But as it stood, there was no real reason to exercise too much caution. Any occupants were well deceased and the ships systems were crippled to a point that any trap would be obviousEmma.... Emma Van Kanne. And you are? |
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Post by Emma Van Kanne on Apr 6, 2023 6:51:07 GMT -8
LE-01. Her HUD was already processing the name and a marker for the projected image of the female AI. She lifted her gun arm up and put it on full display for LE-01 then, as the AI remarked she was glad not to be greeted by teeth or claws
I suspect this will do a bit more damage than teeth or claws...
She lowered the gun arm then and started to move about the projector pillar, examining it a moment. She wished Wilhelm was here, he'd be able to better make heads or tails of this whole thing. She just found herself rather stumped by most of the components. She stood up and looked at the projection
I guess with introductions out of the way, we can better consider ourselves friends. Where exactly do you exist? like just in this pillar? or in the droid? Cause I know I heard your voice come from it and we traced that signal back here... So how does it all work?
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Post by LE-01 on Aug 27, 2023 16:48:03 GMT -8
LE-01. Her HUD was already processing the name and a marker for the projected image of the female AI. She lifted her gun arm up and put it on full display for LE-01 then, as the AI remarked she was glad not to be greeted by teeth or clawsI suspect this will do a bit more damage than teeth or claws...She lowered the gun arm then and started to move about the projector pillar, examining it a moment. She wished Wilhelm was here, he'd be able to better make heads or tails of this whole thing. She just found herself rather stumped by most of the components. She stood up and looked at the projectionI guess with introductions out of the way, we can better consider ourselves friends. Where exactly do you exist? like just in this pillar? or in the droid? Cause I know I heard your voice come from it and we traced that signal back here... So how does it all work? |
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Post by Emma Van Kanne on Sept 3, 2023 14:38:28 GMT -8
Emma turned her focus toward the corner of the cargo hold that was indicated as LE-01 corrected the location of her storage. It was never going to be easy, but thankfully it also didn't seem like an impossible proposition. She turned her focus back to the projection and gave a thumbs up, trying to reassure LE
So... retrieve the computer core and put it into a similar system to boot you back up. Seems simple enough. Anything else I should be aware of?
With RD back on the ship running overwatch, she trusted him to make any of the necessary preparations on the Maiden to prepare for her return. As for the problems Emma now had to sort through... A few short bursts of the cannon should clear out the more dangerous wreckage and allow her a path back through the ship. In-and-out, a couple minutes at most
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Dragus
The Sith Eternal
In front of the Empire, to all you Vader haters out there. We'll blow your planet up.
Posts: 1,406
Affiliation: Sith Eternal
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Post by Dragus on May 25, 2024 19:53:20 GMT -8
Banks of repulsor engines created a deafening roar as overworked exhaust vents formed a cushion of air between the base of a Freedon-class Star Pyramid descending from orbit and the sand swept dunes, kicking up a large dust swarm that rolled across the desert in all directions, swallowing landmarks and burying anything or anyone caught out in the open. In the eye of that storm, the monstrous Maw hovered over the sea of sand, slowly turning on the horizontal access. Beneath it, a large hydraulic lift lowered from the dark bosom of the warship, touching down on the sands with its cargo. Standing on the reinforced platform was a force of three hundred oddly armoured foot soldiers and four monstrous war mounts with long curling tusks and siege platforms strapped to their backs. These were the Rishilings, devout galandan pilgrims that had been corrupted by the influence of the darkside and physically altered by the mutagenic elixir of the Dark Apothecary. Their very flesh warped, these former pacifists were perverted and transformed into an elite fighting force in service to the Famine Lord. Not a scrap of naked skin was bared to the twin suns in the cloudless sky overhead, as these warriors were layered in shadow silk wrappings and sheathed in scale armour of Sith forged bronze. They carried three meter long spears with serrated leaf blade tips against their shoulders and wore sheathed khopesh swords at their waists. A few had long bows slung over their shoulders with quivers full of venom soaked obsidian arrow heads.
A bleached bantha war horn bellowed from the back of the lead war beast, giving the signal to march. With practiced precision, the soldiers formed three columns, ten warriors wide and ten warrior long. One column marched at the fore of their formation, flanked on either side by two of the massive war behemoths, which themselves were teeming with archers and warrior-engineers manning repeating blaster emplacements positioned strategically around the swaying siege platform. The remaining two siege creatures marched behind the first column, protecting on other flank by the last two columns. Unperturbed by the temporary sand storm churned up by the Maw's arrival, the Rishilings entered the grit thick winds and began their journey across the dunes, marching in the direction of the Sand People Enclave.
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Dragus
The Sith Eternal
In front of the Empire, to all you Vader haters out there. We'll blow your planet up.
Posts: 1,406
Affiliation: Sith Eternal
Traffic Light: Blue
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Post by Dragus on Jul 20, 2024 11:33:23 GMT -8
Bogey spotted. Said a monotone voice belonging to a Sith scout trooper in crimson gammaplast armour, laying prone across the hot sand atop a high rising dune, his helmet range-finder linked to the J-20 electroscope attached to his long blaster. The trooper raised their helmeted head, blinking a few times to clear their eyes, then returned to staring down the scope. What they saw was so unusual that he had to make sure he wasn't suffering from heat stroke. Two hundred meters ahead, a long line of sand was being forced up from beneath the desert surface, as it was being displaced by something massive and subterranean. This was definitely the disturbance that had set off the seismological probes the Maw had planted across the wastes. Confirmed, target is moving towards Mos Eisley. I've clocked its travel speed at nearly fifty knots. Estimated time of arrival if not intercepted, approximately thirty-two minutes. Getting up off his stomach, the Nu-Jake slung his DLT-19x targeting blaster over his shoulder and slid down the back of the sand hill he had been squatting on, joining his partner who was already sitting in the saddle of a 125-Z treadspeeder bike. By the time the crimson clad Sith scout had slipped into the saddle, assuming the twi'lek position behind the operator, his partner was already turning the throttle. The bikes engine snarled, chewing up sand beneath its plasteel tread, and took off across the desert.
In the sky above, a pair of atmospheric assault landers followed the anomaly as it ground relentless towards the Tatooine's largest outpost. Hatches on the top of either brick shaped transport popped open to reveal a Sith heavy weapons trooper, who took hold of the controls of F-Z0 antipersonnel blaster cannons mounted to the roof of either rig. Pulling back the slide, both troopers squeezed the trigger, opening up with their cannons by firing a cascade of hissing red blaster bolts from the muzzle of their mounted weapon systems. Searing hot laser licked the mound of rolling sand, appearing to do no damage whatsoever to whatever was causing the displacement, likely because the anomaly was too far below the surface for the cannons to penetrate. The two troopers gave up after a minute of futile fire, then the AALs veered away as they were recalled somewhere they could be more effective. Replacing them were a pair of LAAT/c transports, each carrying beneath them an RX-200 Falchion-class assault tank. The two tanks were a part of a trove of old Clone Wars era vehicles the forces of Famine had happened upon after excavating an abandoned Acclamator-class assault ship found at the bottom of the ocean floor on extra-galactic Kamino. It was clear upon visual inspection that both armoured vehicles had been given the attention of tinker-rats from Clan Rustrot, as the defensive plating on each had been carbon scored black with licks of alchemical fire, and the hull had been festooned with grizzly trophy racks and spikes plasma welded to its surface. Both repulsor lifts dragged chains from the rear, a hundred meters long, ending in thick quadanium steel hooks that combed the desert sands behind them.
Extending from the top turret of either vehicle were NNJ-40 long range ion cannons, appropriately nicknamed 'Thunderbolts', as the focused beam fired from them when activated appeared similar to a bolt of lightning from a thundercloud. The two LAAT/c deposited the tanks in the path of the encroaching ground disturbance, which maneuvered themselves into firing positions as the two dropships rose back into the sky, streaking back into orbit to pick up their next fare. Bondage clad cultists dropped off either side of their hulls as auto-blasters attached to the top turret began to light up the front of approaching sand line, a warmup for what was to come, as forks of electrical current crackled along the length of the Thunderbolts. Four points of contact lit up either dish, then erupted from the tank turrets in a constant beam of energy that struck the nearing tidal wave of sand dead centre, punching deep into the moving mound. At first it appeared as though the two concentrated ion beams were slowing the anomaly down, but only for the stretch of a few seconds, then the rising sand mogul increased its paced and smashed into the repurposed Falchion tanks position. The heavy repulsor craft were quite literally pushed out of the way before flipping up onto their sides and becoming half submerged in the sand. Several of the cultists caught in the anomalies path were swallowed up by the sands, never to be found again, while the rest hooted and howled after the rolling row of sand as it continued on its way towards Mos Eisely, now free of obstruction.
Wiping sand from her lips, Piper crawled back to her booted feet, her armour-weave greatcoat shaking off grit as she brushed herself off. Her cruel lips curled into a hateful sneer as she plucked the comlink device from her coat pocket and growled into the speaker. "Piper to the Maw. We've failed to stop the anomaly. ETA twenty minutes until it reaches the capital. Eye preserve you." Hanging up, she returned the comlink to her pocket and lifted a surviving cultist off the ground where they were emptying sand out of one of their boots. "Come on." She hissed hatefully, beginning the long march towards Mos Eisley beneath the scorching hot suns in the sky above. "We've got a long walk ahead of us."
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