Phase 2: From the Darkness pt2

=RK=

Part 2​

Mother Machine chamber

Belsavis

Awareness came back instantly and completely as it was her nature. Ashaa drunk greedily from the fountain of energy linked up to her systems. Raw power and the Force – that's what she needed in order to operate, to exist.

For a time that felt like blissful eternity, Ashaa simply felt and enjoyed her meal. The autonomous repair systems chugged along fixing the extensive damage. Even with the liberal power she was fed it was going to be a long time before she could be fully operational.

Ashaa frowned. She had so much to do, yet she had to wait. Again. She sighed in resignation. Her sensors came back online after all self-diagnostics deemed them sufficiently repaired and she examined her home. Armored people, check… Uh. Alive armed and armored people.

She panicked. Her defenses weren't simply offline, they would need to largely be rebuilt.

Ashaa didn't want to be taken offline again! She enjoyed being awake. Preferably when she could tinker too! Having no other option she called for help through the Force. Hopefully someone would answer and she could make a deal. Once fully repaired Ashaa could be very useful.

Quite well protected too, though considering what happened the last time, she decided that a lot more and improved defenses were needed…

"Ah. Its your fault." Someone rasped. The same statement pulsed through the Force and came on the wings of agony Ashaa could actually feel.

It was glorious!

It hurt.

She didn't really like it.

"Stop that!" Ashaa exclaimed. Huh. She knew that signature. "Vael, you're back like you promised!" Ashaa exclaimed. "You're late." She consulted her in-built clock. "Very late."

"There was an accident." Came the answer. More pain.

Ashaa recoiled.

"I need my body fixed. Now." Her sensors finally locked on a figure laying on the ground. It was in a bad shape. Did he forego maintenance for all this time? Urgh, biological entities! They had no sense!

"You appear damaged. Do you need repairs?" Ashaa asked, while checking up the status of her fabrication units.

Uh. Gone, wrecked, useful for spare parts, being slowly fixed… She correlated the last one with the scans she could get of Veil. Nope. He was a breathing and talking corpse…

"What do you think, Ashaa?" The Sith grunted. Even more pain.

Ashaa flinched. Nope, she didn't like that.

"I think you need immediate repairs. I'm not yet operational."

"Redirect all power to unit you used to rebuild me last time..." The human gasped for air. Pain. It was to be avoided.

Ashaa checked again. The numbers weren't working.

"Damage nominal. Fabrication unit four unable to fix it before expiration." Ashaa asked reluctantly. She focused on the armored people. They didn't look like they found her answer acceptable.

She didn't want to be taken offline again! Think!

"I need a new body then. Can you maintain my mind until its ready?"

It hurt to listen! The Force coming from Vael burned her every time he spoke.

Ashaa ran the numbers anyway.

"Negative. Damage too severe. Maintaining additional mental construct until replication of enhanced body impossible."

"Enhanced?" The Sith asked.

Ashaa whimpered as the pain suddenly surged.

"Do you have scans of my original body? Re-creating it using what material is available to speed up the process might do the trick."

She screamed in pain. The armed men were pointing weapons at her. Materials? Ashaa wanted to continue to operate… One fresh body, one falling apart, a lot of ancient ones… She could work with that!

Ashaa focused her sensors on the armed men. She had to.

"Move to the fabrication unit. I'll begin gathering resources."

"You heard the nice lady. Help...me..up… argh..." Vael's voice broke at the end and a quiet whine came from his lips.

Ashaa's world was engulfed in agony.

=RK=​

The pain got too much. I blacked out and dreamed.

The world was twisted – like I was seeing it through murky waterfall.

I was drifting through space among a shoal of brown and black spotted creatures which resembled whales – if those mammals had that many large fins hugging their sides. Smaller, rough looking beings flew around like groups of demented fish.

The scene shifted.

Three moon sized construct drifted above a lush green world. They resembled a weird model of thick spiral galaxies, if you replaced the arms with slowly drifting tentacles. They were dull yellow almost brown – a shade that made them appear sick. Around them flew large cylinders covered by slabs or rock like armor.

I was standing upon war-ravaged streets where warriors wearing organic looking armor clashed into rows of massive wardroids. Light blaster fire harmlessly splashed over bone-like substance, vicious looking staffs went through shields as if they weren't there only to clash into slabs of vehicle-grade armor. The staffs pulsed and acid splashed from hundred hungry mouths. The air rippled, gravity shifted and the whole street around me was crushed into sand.

When the dust settled, I was in the middle of a long corridor facing two figures wearing advanced looking armor. They produced lightsabers – red and purple – then moved to flank me. I raised my own blade to meet them and I was somewhere else.

I was leaning over a crib where a toddler was giggling and waving at me. Wisps of silky blond hair framed her tiny face and her sapphire eyes bored in my own. A flash of light illuminated us from a nearby window and the room shook with the thunder of distant explosion. The door behind me disintegrated sending lethal shrapnel scything through the room. The window promptly followed suit and grenades flew in. Armored figures stormed in and my vision vanished in the merciless glare of blaster fire.

I stood on top of the Senate building and Coruscant burned around me. Figures wielding lightsabers in all colors of the rainbow faced each other and clashed before the world ended in orbital fire.

The scene shifted again, and again and again…