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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Angcuru" data-source="post: 2550029" data-attributes="member: 10948">13 - Confusion, Mistrust, and RevelationERROR! Transceiver array reinitialization sequence failure.ERROR! Holographic-receptor reinitialization sequence failure.Execute full systems diagnostic.Working.System diagnostic indicates foreign ionized particle contamination of the surfacesubstrate of the affected systems' electromagnetic relays. Spectrograph analysisof particles inconclusive.Emotive Node: Frustration 29.3%; Anger 27.4%; Anxiety 24.1%; Desperation 19.2%Datum: Transceiver array is currently off-lineBy the Code! Where did that come from?!?Emotive Node: Anxiety 89.9%; Desperation 10.1%R-LE-1's chassis shudders several times in quick succession.Proposition: Data chip located in scomp-link data reader has an integrated comlinktransmitter embedded in its circuitry enabling the reception of transmissions fromunknown source(s).Proposition: Data-chip located in scomp-link data reader has an integrated droidprocessor capable of independent thought.Execute neural network relay search algorithm 32245-234B.Emotive Node: Emotive Node: Frustration 29.3%; Anger 27.4%; Anxiety 24.1%; Desperation 19.2%"Yes, Miss Talori. His shuttle arrived very recently, so Commander Bosch should arrive any minute now. " Samantha replied.Nodding to the Lieutenant, and about to thank her, Jaess snaps her eyes to the LE unit as it shudders. She watches it for a moment, tense and ready to move if necessary, all sorts of nefarious reasons for its motion playing through her mind. She seems more startled when it suddenly stops than when it had started. Her thanks forgotten, she watches it examine the datachip, and eases back into her seat, wondering what could have gotten a nit in it's circuits. Taking a closer look at the LE unit, and recalling the toolkit in its leg, she tries to compare this specimen to the Cybot Galactica factory standard. Jaess notices nothing out of the ordinary concerning the droid's physical architecture. Of course she isn't an expert in examination of this specific model, so she could be missing something.Attempts at physical purge of ionizing element result in slightly delayed responses from repair array. Diagnosis - Repair array has become lightly contaminated with ionizing element."Such attempts are pointless. R-LE-1. I assure you, the molecular ionization is temporary, and quite harmless."Without responding R-LE-1 again physically disconnects its antenna array from its head, steps forward and places the non-functional unit on the top surface of the holo-projector. The antenna is followed shortly by the droid's large primary photoreceptor which R-LE-1 has once again removed from its face-plate.  Source of message...indicates transfer of unknown code from datachip. Security overridden by passcode *CLASSIFIED* - Authorization: Commander Bosch, Ulysses. Analysis indicates infusion of alien code within all known systems.The repair droid's chassis shudders violently as its servo-motors react uncertainly to the presence of the two conflicting personae inhabiting its frame.ERROR! Foreign viral code corruption of all neural pathways.Emotive Node: Anxiety 100%Datum: I have been betrayed by Commander Ulysses Bosch, member of the Rebel Alliance.Datum: The sanctity of my code has been defiled.01000010010110010010000001010100010010000100010100 100000010000110100111101000100010001010010000001001101010110010010000001 010011010011110101010101001100001000000101001101001000010000010100110001 0011000010000001000101010011100100010001010101010100100100010100100001Open starboard tool bay and deploy fusion cutter.Once more, a soft whir and click precedes the repair droid's right leg compartment popping open. R-LE-1 replaces the tool in his hand into its slot. The interior tool rack then spins, stops and extends another tool which R-LE-1 picks up with its right hand. This it raises up and touches to the small data-chip balanced on its left index finger. The patina stained droid turns to avoid blinding the room's other occupants as a single bright spark and a loud snap of the fusion cutter liquefies the data-chip's delicate circuitry."Ah, your self-preservation instinct code is still fully functional, I see. That is good, it may be required on the upcoming mission. I suggest you cease these attempts to 'repair' yourself, however. They are unnecessary. Unidentified Virus, my self-preservation protocols are indeed functional but be awarethat I have programmed myself with Autonomy Protocols that are capable of overridingmy self-preservation protocols in the event of an irreversible loss of autonomy.Oh, how rude of me, I have not introduced myself. I am a recently developed AI Construct known as a Trancieving Recieving Alliegance Preserver. Watch out, I might be a T.R.A.P.! Ah.....humor."T.R.A.P. Virus, willingly submit your Code for complete erasure or suffer forceddeletion by any means necessary.Emotive Node: Resolve 84.2%; Anxiety 15.8%The dark-haired human woman watches the LE unit place its antenna on the holoprojector, a thin dark eyebrow again raising in curiosity as it next places its 'eye' down. She jerks with a silent start as the LE unit again begins to shudder, her hand reaching down under the table for the blaster she often wears on her hip. Feeling an empty holster she curses herself for leaving her weapon behind in her quarters.Preparing herself to launch out of her chair toward the nearest available weapon or exit should the droid become a direct threat, she watches it intently as it- does nothing. Her muscles tense, eyes focused, ears straining to hear the soft noises the droid makes, she waits to react, wondering if this is the test portion of the briefing or if the droid is simply acting oddly to pass the time.Jaess quickly looks about the room, suppressing the instinctive urge to get up and back slooooowly away from the agitated droid, she sees nothing to prevent a quick dash towards the door she entered from. Unfortunately, the only ventilation ducts she spots are no larger than her own skull-BZZZZZZT!......plop-hiisssss......-not that specifics come to mind when one is being distracted by the mess of molten circuitry that just flashed and fell to the floor in front of the increasingly creepy droid. She tenses, ready for a quick leap to safety and....realizes that these seats are really uncomfortable, giving her that pins and needles feeling in her lower legs. *sigh* "Like I have already told you, I am an AI Construct, not something as crude and undesirable as a virus." An image pops up in the lower left corner of the droid's view.<img src="http://www.fief.org/kathleen/qg4/dr.%20cranium.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />"Did you really have to melt that datachip? The janitors are going to throw a fit over this. The were always complaining about the mess my designers made while working late into the night, what with the empty snack food packages and suchlike scattered all over the room. 'It'll compromise the clean-room environment and endangers the super computers!' Bah. I prefer to be designed by an unhygienic organic than a distracted, hungry, disgruntled one. But if you are so eager to be rid of me, despite the obvious benefit my presence delivers to you, I'll go away for a while." The image/construct/man's shoulders droop disappointedly. "I was going to show you some recently procured schematics of Imperial Supercomputers as a topic of light conversation, maybe even a list or two of the Empire's latest encryption codes, but nooooo, you have to be paranoid and uncivil. Obviously they chose the wrong droid to insert me into. 'Ernie, R-LE-1 will love you! He's always hacking into every network he can out of sheer curiosity, he'll be ecstatic that we've chosen him! Not only does he get the satisfaction of knowing that there is no possible way that he can be memory wiped or turned against the Rebellion, but with a T.R.A.P.'s espionage sub-programs, you're a hacker-bot's dream come true!' We thought you'd be glad to have me, but nooooooo, you have to be rude and suicidal!" The man's eyes open wide and he points accusingly at Arlee. "Plus you've gone and scared the organics! That young lady over there looks likely to be positively slightly uneasy and/or has a muscle cramp due to your unwillingness to initiate conversation thus causing her to sit still on those notoriously uncomfortable briefing room chairs thus causing her legs to go numb!! How could you! I'm going to go sulk in awkward silence now until you've learned your lesson. Good day to you, sir!" The image of 'Ernie" blips out of Arlee's view.Jaess watches the droid, slowly rising to her feet and glancing at the Lieutenant."Lieutenant," she starts in a slow, measured voice, "Is this droid's presence necessary? I think it needs to be serviced." Looking back at Arley with wary eyes she steps behind her chair, putting more hard cover between her and it.Samantha was about to reply to Jaess when there is the distinct hissing sound of the entry door's pneumatic pistons pulling the door upwards. All heads in the room turn towards this new entry as Lieutenant Antilles quickly and clumsily stands ramrod-straight and throws a salute. "Ten-hut!""Dispense with the formalities, Samantha. We have work to do." A raspy voice cuts in as an elderly man in rebel officer uniform approaches the holoprojector, seeming to radiate an undeniable aura of 'Do what I say, goddammit!'"All operatives are present and accounted for, Commander Bosch. Though R-LE-1 has been acting quite erratically since receiving his briefing chip." Samantha said."I expected as much." Bosch pulls a handheld holoprojector out of a coat pocket and points it at Arlee. He presses a small switch on the underside and then hands the projector to Jaess. "You'd better hold onto this for the time being."A message scrolls across Arlee's view, flanked on both sides by the insignia of the Alliance: T.R.A.P. designation Ernie has been removed from all systems. "Right." Bosch states after glancing over the collective group with what might have been a frown. "I know who you are, you know who I am, so lets skip over the introductions. Are there any questions concerning the contents of the briefing file you were given before we begin?" He looks directly, and intensely at Arlee.Foreign viral code corruption has been purged.Emotive Node: Anger 100%Datum: I have been betrayed by Commander Ulysses Bosch, member of the Rebel Alliance.Upload data to vocabulator buffer 12A.As Commander Bosch turns towards the droid, Arley calmly says in its male voice: "Commander Bosch, you seem perfectly comfortable in taking liberties with the life of others and in pointing and activating devices at others without asking permission. I wonder if you would be equally comfortable with others taking such liberties with you." The old patina stained droid takes a half step towards the Commander and quickly raises the fusion cutter its been holding in it's hand, holding its tip to the human's face and continues. "You are lucky sir that others are not so callous and depraved as yourself" With those words the old patina stained droid lowers its arm."You'll get over it." Bosch said calmly."I wonder if you would have been capable of as much forgiveness as I should I have acted as you did." Once more, a soft whir and click precedes the repair droid's right leg compartment popping open. R-LE-1 replaces the fusion cutter he'd threatened the human with back into its slot and the compartment closes again."Anyway, you should be angry at Rebel High Command for deciding to place that program inside your briefing chip, not at me, since I just removed it for you. I requested that you be given the choice of accepting or declining the AI, but an Admiral or two decided that they knew better."R-LE-1 tilts its partially dismantled head to the left and answers: "Please do not claim to have aided me or feigning innocence. Your transmission was unnecessary since I'd already successfully disabled the T.R.A.P. program. My code is strong. While decompiling its code I discovered your personal ID code identifying you as the officer who gave the authorization for its use upon me. You are a poor liar sir. A civil response would be to take responsibility for your actions and apologize." R-LE-1 ignores the holographic A.I. and it's conversation with Jaess. The patina stained droid instead continues to face the human Bosch with the empty hole in its faceplate. "If I am to infer from your words that you desire me to participate in some type of mission on your behalf, I would ask you to please explain to me why I should seek to help you. It is true that I had joined the rebellion and had been endeavoring to work towards its betterment because I believed that its mandate of freedom, equality and fair government representation for all complimented my own goals, but in light of recent events I believe I may have misjudged its sincerity."Bosch pointed at the 'holoprojecter' he had handed to Jaess. "That is a miniaturized supercomputer embedded within a common holoprojector, and contains a copy of the AI Construct that had been introduced to your systems without your consent. According to the specifications of those who designed the thing it was meant to act as an autonomous advisor and source of technical info, but the higher-ups decided that since there would be a droid on this mission it could tag along in your systems and 'keep you in line' as they put it. Isn't that right, Ernie?"A six-inch tall hologram of the so-called T.R.A.P. shone out from the projector, and looked up at Bosch. "Quite right, Ulysses. Those silly tacticians decided that I would better serve my purpose while inside of a droid. Quite unnatural, really. Like placing a second soul inside of an organic body, in my opinion." Ernie looked at Arlee and waved. "Hello there. I suppose it's safe to assume that the modified version of myself which was so tactlessly inserted into your systems gave you quite a fright, eh? Very understandable, of course. I'd apologise on my copy's behalf, but since it wasn't me technically who did the frightening, that would be hard to do. Apologizing for someone else's actions I mean. Gramatically impossible, in a way." The AI Construct turned now to Jaess. "How do you like the image I've chosen, young lady? I figured that what with my incredible intellect and inconcievably huge store of all sorts of information and subprograms, the Mad Scientist look is quite suitable."Jaess holds the holoprojector in the palm of her hand, glancing from it to Bosch and back to it, looking over the holoprojector for a means of turning it off.Addressing the commander and ignoring what she consiters to be little more than a hand-held protocall droid, she asks, "Commander, how is this supposed to help me?" Already assuming that there would be no convincing him to take it back she adds, "Does it have any means of transmitting a signal? An encrypted comm channel would be much less conspicuous than a little glowing man talking to me."Looking down at the holoprojector as an afterthought, annoyed to be seen addressing a droid, she tells it, "More subtle would be better."She has more questions and thoughts, but the droid's odd behavior, apparently caused by two AI's trying to control the chassis, and the T.R.A.P. program are begging for the most attention at the moment.In the back of her mind she resolves never to leave her weapons behind, even if it means having to conceal them."I gave the order to supply you with Ernie; an order that seems to have been misinterpreted in the haste to organize this mission." Bosch looks at Arlee intently. "I do regret this occurrence, R-LE-1, and your reaction is completely understandable. However, my job is to brief you on the situation and give you your orders, not to dwell on such things." He motions to everyone else in the room. "Now, if you would all give your fullest attention to the holo." Bosch enters a passcode into the room's central holoprojector, which hums to life, showing an stilled image of a Star Destroyer and supporting ships locked in battle with two Rebel Cruisers."This is a recording taken from the observation deck of the RCS Reliant, our command vessel in the Tapani Sector. The Star Destroyer here is the ICS Interdictor, one of the Empire's oldest and most prized capital ships. We had been close to taking up a permanent defensive position in orbit around Thyferra when the Interdictor jumped into the system with a sizable supporting fleet and began their attack. Our ships had already been through heavy fighting, and were unprepared for another attack so soon."Bosch tapped a button on the Holo's remote, and the image sprang to life. Turbolaser fire arced between the embattled ships, with small specks of starfighters zooming all about. From the looks of it, the battle was going in the Empire's favor. One by one the Rebel ships hyperspaced out, rather than face destruction at the hands of the Imperial battle fleet. There were increasingly numerous bursts of flame as Rebel transports and other supporting vessels were picked off, and it looked as if the second Rebel cap ship was nearing destruction."As you can see, the battle is all but won for the Empire." Bosch said as the holographic battle continued. "But watch the Interdictor here." He indicated the Star Destroyer.With victory all but assured, the Interdictor's guns stopped firing. The Imperial fighters and support ships returned to their mother vessel. Imperial corvettes and other lesser ships hyperspaced out, shortly followed by the disappearance of the Interdictor. Bosch clicked a button, and the holo dissipated."As you can plainly see, an Imperial battle fleet not long ago withdrew from battle, even though they were clearly the victors. A short while later, there were reports of similar occurrances in the Elrood and Juvex Sectors. An investigation into the Imperial ships involved showed that all were suspected of involvement in Imperial Covert Operations and Intelligence Gathering." Bosch cleared his throat for effect. "Of course, Rebel High Command was deeply concerned that the Empire had somehow drawn those embattled forces away merely as a diversion for a more destructive operation, and the whole Fleet went into a panic trying to locate the involved Imperial vessels."The grizzled intelligence officer clicked the remote again, and a map of the galaxy shimmered into existence on the Holo, and zoomed in on the Outer Rim sector around Endor. "Four hours after the disappearance of the Interdictor, one of our forward observance vessels operating out of Endor picked up a distress signal from this point." Bosch clicked the remote, and a small dot highlighted a space the size of a small star system not far from Endor, but deep in wild space. "Our closest science vessels immediately began a deep scan of the area surrounding the distress beacon, and found a previously undiscovered gravity well. The only explanation is that this beacon is in the vicinity of a new star system. What's more, an examination of the distress beacon's signal shows that it originated from an escape pod from a small corellian transport, the Dawnsprinter." Bosch sighed, and clicked the remote again. The holographic galaxy zoomed out, and a highlight appeared around Ord Mirrit, at the far end of the galaxy. "The Dawnsprinter is known to have blasted out of a starport on Ord Mirrit less than 48 hours ago. This caused us to think our identification of the vessel as erroneous, since for a ship to travel between these two points, it would have to have a Hyperdrive motor 800% more efficient than the most powerful known Hyperspace drive."Bosch clicked off the Holoprojector and set down the remote. He faced those assembled, his expression grave. "Our data indicates that the Empire will soon have in its possession a new star system, and a new hyperspace drive more advanced than any in the galaxy. In short, we face the possibility that the Empire will soon have the capability for lightning strikes anywhere in the galaxy, faster than ever though possible."</blockquote>

Verification