Ask Plot Where Is This Place Again?

[BX 166]

166 remained in cover, cursing in binary as he waited for a good moment to shoot, when he saw Zen drop down. He growled, and as soon as the foe stopped shooting, he popped out his head and his rifle and started shooting at the man, five bolts soon flying towards the man. "If anyone has a grenade, rocket, or similar at hand, this would be the perfect moment to use it!" he said at his companion while keeping shooting

 

[Zentripoli]

As It0 moved quickly over to Zentripoli crumpled on the ground with droid plates and other parts scattered around him, the raider was peering down his sights, spitting out bolt after bolt with deadly accuracy. While he was intermittently spelled as the medical droid returned suppressing fire, the raider began to surmise that the medical droid was not trying to hit him. Seeing this behavior, the raider was emboldened to ignore the shots of the medical droid and concentrate his fire on the commando droid that took down his two companions and the downed "flying droid". Another pair of bolts slammed into the ZDT-415, but the armored chest and arm plates, which fortunately prevented injury of the small Columi. However, that armor was melted away, exposing the innards of the ZDT-415--another shot to those areas would surely kill Zentripoli. Fate intervened as BX-166 was finally able to connect with a pair of bolts, dropping the last raider. At that point, the clearing was still amidst the three human bodies, the pair of reek-kin, and the smoke that seemed to loom around the firefight area. The belly of the ZDT-415 opened up, revealing an unharmed Zentripoli and he quipped, “Well there will be no shortage of repairs on this unit, that is for sure. It seems we also lost ZDT-41054. Let us hope we do not run afoul of other raiders…”

Looking up at It0, he mused, “Thank you for your aid. Although I was in a small amount of peril, tactically, we need to work on your decision-making. Specifically, It0, we need to enable you to carry out offensive and defensive action towards sentients. I understand this runs contrary to your primary programming, but I believe these routines can coincide easy enough…”

Mentally, Zentripoli had already commanded the Boost droid to come over and pick him up. It hovered across the distance quickly and positioned itself to lift the Columi atop it.

@Tic
@samdragon

 

[It0]

Standing to his full height, he surveyed the now markedly quiet breadth of land. Atmospheric composite analysis revealed the presence of blood, sweat and charred flesh. In years past, his configuration settings had stipulated that such a combination heighten reaction, sensory awareness and response time. The mechanical cousin of ‘alarm’.

He found those metrics strangely absent.

His new heuristic processor undoubtedly had a hand to play here, but It0 was reluctant to credit his newfound fascination entirely to it. He input a memo in his memorybanks to run an internal diagnostic upon their return to Nar Shaddaa.

“Sir,” he replied, photoreceptors glancing from his blaster to his Columi owner. “I believe such an alteration would be prudent given the nature of your ambitions.”

He glanced back towards the truck just in time to see a still visibly shaken Tileb Mundo appear from behind the wheel.

"What shall we do with her?"

@BX 166
@Zentripoli

 

[BX 166]

166 made a synthetic sigh of relief as he managed to take down the last raider, and slumped against the side of the hovertruck. He checked the surroundings a bit and nodded seeing that the situation was solved for the moment. He looked at the Columi as he talked with It0, and chuckled lightly. "A surgeon bot with combat programming? I can't agree more that it would be very useful, given the dire situations It0 would get himself into. This way, even when he's out alone, he'd have at least a small bit of chances of survival" he commented.

 

[Zentripoli]

Zentripoli was aching all over. While the ZDT-415 did its job in protecting the Columi for the most part, the custom vehicle was wrecked. Doing a quick labor, time, and parts estimate, Zentripoli counted at least 39 hours of labor and over two thousand credits to get the small walker back to optimal fighting condition. Looking over at BX-166, he answered wryly, “Indeed, 166. We will see what we can do for It0 when we return to Nar Shaddaa. It is an apt modification.”

The small Columi spit up a bit of blue blood. With a grin, Zentripoli looked over at It0 and said, “You will definitely be earning your oil bath today. I suspect one of my right ribs is cracked. I will get you to address it once we are on The Synapse. For now, we need to finish scouting out the site...at least from a safe distance”

Looking over at Tilen Mundo, he replied coldly, “Put her in the back seat, 166. It0, you should drive us the rest of the way, leaving 166 available for further defense if needed. My ZDT-415 and ZDT-410 are out of commission, so I will not be of use in helping defend us.”

Settleing in to his custom Boost droid, the Columi hovered over to the front passenger seat and situated himself into the passe4nger seat and waited for the speeder to start again.

For the most part, the rest of the trip was fairly silent. It0 drove them a few kilometers through the canyon, which opened up to reveal the dilapidated factory. Zentripoli requested, “It0, can you stop here? Technically, we will be trespassing if we continue further, so I just want to eyeball the place…”

Zentripoli stared at the place in silence for many moments. There was nothing moving around the premises of the factory. The large factory had several floors. It had its own motor pool anbd a small spaceport. In addition, there were silos for fuel and a pair of other administrative buildings in the front of the factory.

Yes. Perfect...

After several minutes of nodding and analyzing what he was looking at, Zentripoli said simply, “Yes, this will do nicely. Let us see to acquiring this property. We can return to Suslii City.”

@Tic
@samdragon

 

[It0]

The repulsortruck idled noisily atop the bluff. The damage it had maintained during their encounter with the raiders was substantial and would not be cheap to repair. That was Mundo’s problem however. Despite her qualifications, she had proven less than reliable in a crisis situation. Shock and indecision, trademark weaknesses of biotics, had rendered her all but useless.

All medical droids were ingrained with ’Life Preservation Programming’ as part of their standard rollout. An automatron’s version of the Hippocratic Oath. It0’s core operating system demanded he preserve sentient life whenever within his power. For the first time in his century-plus of operation, he viewed this central programming as a marked weakness. Had BX-166 been disabled or Zentripoli’s own ‘Vanisher’ been crippled earlier, It0 would have been all but helpless to assist in any meaningful way.

As he studied the factory absently, it was alarmingly apparent to him that he had no choice but to evolve or deactivate. His baseline functionality required elevation. He was no longer adequate or functional.

He put the vehicle in reverse, making his way back to the roadway towards Sulsii.

/EXIT THREAD

@Zentripoli
@BX 166

 

[Zentripoli]

After analyzing how the scouting expedition went, Zentripoli had mixed feelings. On one hand, he was quite sure he had a broken rib, which would have to be nursed. The Columi had never broken a bone before, so the persistent pain was a new experience for the diminutive creature. In addition, his security droid and his ZDT-415 were inoperable. It would take some time to repair those two droids. Zentripoli was not looking forward to the work that would have to be done on his vehicle. But on the bright side, the site that he suspected would be the best location for the factory was a very good one. He would now have to continue the process of acquiring a business license, weapons production permit, and the deed to the land from the powers that be in Suslii City. Fortunately, the ride back was uneventful, but there was much to do—scheming never took a night off…

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

POSTLUDE​

Genius Droid Repair & Mods
Corellian District
Nar Shaddaa
It0 was laid face down on the large metal table. Zentripoli sat on the Boost droid, hovering nearby. Looking over the medical droid was a ZDT-160 “Drafter” droid. A pair of googles covered Zentripoli’s large, bulbous eyes. With his mind and through remote operation, the Columi was controlling every minute movement of the engineering droid. The base plates were removed from the head of the 2-1B Series Medical Droid. With mechanical precision, the droid took a thin wafer off the table and inserted it into one of the optional personality slots that Zentripoli designed for It0. The droid was frustrated after their trip to Hollastin and wished to have all restrictions lifted in regard to harming sentients. Understanding the droid’s frustration, the Columi agreed to perform the modification for It0. It was all part of the droid’s “evolution”. The medical droid was one of Zentripoli’s most trusted associates, so when It0 asked for Zentripoli’s help in this, the Columi did not hesitate…

/END THREAD​