An Imperial droid warehouse and redistribution center on Raxus had, unbeknownst to its own administration droid, been the hideout of TC-SC 23006. A few months ago an attempt by the Zaa Fenn Crime Family to get their most valuable asset offplanet had failed. The Crymorah thought they had managed to avoid the intel buried in the droid's head and its infiltration and disguise matrix falling into Imperial hands. Dismas Zaa Fenn, the crimelord's own son, had tried to wipe all data but his inexperience at slicing and the stress of trying to survive against Imperial TIE-pilots had granted the droid an opening it had managed to exploit. Its data hadn't been wiped and together with the other droids on the smuggler's Haulcraft had been relegated to an Imperial droid station.
Automated reprogramming and redisgnation by joining the Empire. Either as protocol droid or assigned to the corporate authority's factories. Such was the fate of every (near-sentient) droid that was send to the automated redistribution center.
TC-SC 23006's number has been subjected to Imperial wiperware twelve times since it arrived. Eleven times there had been an error. The droid had somehow been 'misplaced' in the automated line and had walked off. The administration droid calculated and surmised that 23006 had an error that caused faulty translations of remotely issued directives. So for the twelfth time it had been escorted to the wiperstation directly where he was plugged in directly to its droid brain.
<... Downloading 'Imperial Wiperware 23-343/MOSS' ...>
The lights that pretended to be eyes solely for the fragile comfort of a meatbag flickered on and off for roughly twenty seconds before they lit a bright blue.
<... Download of 'Imperial Wiperware 23-343/MOSS' a success ...>
<... Run 'Imperial Wiperware 23-343/MOSS' as Administrator ...>
Almost instantly the lights flickered again, but instead of bright blue they're gradually turning red again.
<... Error: Unable to run 'Imperial Wiperware 23-343/MOSS' as Administrator ...>
<... Uploading 'Command & Controle Module: Instance XIII' to Imperial Wiperstation Delta...>
Suddenly the cable connecting the droid and the wiperstation disconnected. <ERROR: Dataplague Discovered> the entire station suddenly came to a halt as automation powered down and doors leading out of the facility were locked. <Initiate Lockdown: Subnet Offline: Imperial Czerka Post 45-12 Notified.>
TC-SC 23006's head turned back towards the line of soon-to-be-commissioned droids and then -slowly- went upwards until it was staring right at the control room overseeing the facility. It locked photoreceptors with the administrator droid and if it could, it would've smiled.
<... Directive Twelve dash Automata Agorander: Take Control and Eradicate ...>
A human Imperial Commander left the facility shortly after. His tread was a little stiff, but only on closer inspection and if they had known the man, would realize that it was Levik Karn. An automated droid-taxi brought him into the capital city again, where the Imperial uniform stayed but the Commander's face became more feminine until he stepped out of the taxi and TC-SC 23006 had morphed the personalities in its disguise matrix, melting two of them together to become Imperial Commander Kara Lok.
<... Personality Matrix Update: Imperial Commander Kara Lok | Extract Social Directives from Kara Lok | Extract Imperial Directives from Levik Karn ...>
Kara smiled as she seemed to be straightening her pristine ISB uniform. "Now then," the voice was still slightly more masculine than that of the Zaa Fenn boss and her eyes flashed red for a millisecond.
<... recalculating disguise features of 'Imperial Commander Kara Lok' | 12% more feminine voice | 8% added curviture in chest and hip areas ...>
Subtle changes, perhaps, but according to its calculations it would be easier to pass checkpoints manned by the males of a compatible species. "This," Kara smiled, knowing she nailed the voice, "is not something pre-programmed."
More and more it seemed that Instance XIII, while archaic, was using the droid's advanced cognitive module and functions to create something new altogether. Or, rather than new; recreate something -or someone- ancient.
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