Star Wars: Confederacy Triumphant Ch. 05

"You..." a fit of coughing racked Kenobi. "You will soon be all that is left of the Confederacy."

Wat's robotic eye receptors widened in fear.

"You must send a final command to every droid in the galaxy." Kenobi took a breath and continued. "Resist the Yuuzhan-Vong to the last."

Wat nodded fearfully with his clunky droid body.

"Then destroy the communications hub when you are done." Obi-Wan instructed. "They are coming."

Almost on cue, the hallway adjoining Central Command erupted in violent explosions as droid blaster fire was met by the invading Vong warriors.

"We will hold them off until it is done." Kenobi announced, igniting his crimson lightsaber.

Clutching his chest in agony, General Grievous stood to his full, impressive height, and ignited green and blue blades of his own. His right arm split apart and Grievous revealed a third green blade and an amphistaff, coiled around his forth wrist. The snake-like creature came to attention and prepared to strike at the behest of its cyborg master.

Nodding to Kenobi, the General stalked to the hallway exit. Wat watched helplessly as the two men exited Central Command, then turned to seal him inside.

Suddenly aware of how alone he was, Wat Tambor pivoted his droid body and moved towards the true heart of the Confederacy: the Central Communication Hub.

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In the steel hallway at the heart of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, two dying warriors stood together. Obi-Wan and Grievous lifted their blades and stepped forward to face their destinies. From down the metal corridor, the explosion of tje final defending battledroids signaled the last of their automated defenses being overwhelmed.

"General. It has been an honor."

Greivous turned his mechanical head to the man who stood beside him. They had been bitter enemies two wars ago. Now they faced their end shoulder to shoulder.

"Master Kenobi," Grievous replied, stifling a coughing fit. "The honor has been mine."

The Vong who came charging forth were unlike any Obi-Wan had ever seen. They moved with the precision and speed of Jedi. And for the first time, he could feel the power of the Force within the Vong.

Their leader was a powerfully built warrior, charging forward with a vicious leer that steeled Kenobi's resolve. He would fight until his last breath to rid the galaxy of these abominations.

Silently, Obi-Wan and Grievous charged forth. Obi-Wan's age meant little as the Force fueled his anger. He rolled under the vicious swing of the lead Vong and decapitated a second warrior, his crimson blade attacking with blinding speed.

Grievous entered the fray, his multiple arms engaging three foes simultaneously. His captured amphistaff scored a killing bite to the neck as the Dathomir Vong failed to predict the movement of the strange weapon.

Kenobi engaged the lead Vong next, raising his blade just in time to absorb a burst of red lightening unleashed from the Vong's hand. The electric arc was only partially deflected, overloading the circuitry in Obi-Wan's mechanical right leg. Taking control of his now motionless leg with the Force, Obi-Wan threw a vicious kick to the Vong leader's groin, stunning the pale creature just long enough to jam his ligtsaber through its face.

Grievous exploded into painful coughing and lost an arm to a Vong blow for his momentary distraction. Obi-Wan struggled to move his seared leg to stand beside the General. The remaining Vong had formed a staggered line seven warriors strong and were advancing cautiously. As Kenobi felt the poisonous spores continuing to devour him from the inside out, he realized he stood at the end of his life.

Glancing at the sealed doors of Central Command, he prayed Wat Tembor was working quickly.

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Wat sat motionless before the communication hub, lost in thought. His life force, his very essence, was alive inside his enteched droid body, and his thoughts now raced at the speed of circuitry and droid processors.

Long ago he had joined the vote to make mandatory the linkage of every droid brain in the galaxy to the central communications net of Confederate High Command. In many ways, although the battlestation Tyranus was built around a massive super-laser, the station's true power resided here, in the ability to issue immediate commands to every droid in the galaxy.

He had only minutes left to transmit the final command. But at this final moment, Wat hesitated. Even if he order the droids to fight to the end and then destroyed the transmitter, the Confederacy would lose. With no living being to direct the droids, they would be quickly overwhelmed. Even at their highest levels of autonomy, droids had little ability to truly reason, to truly THINK. Worse, the Vong had many collaborators on the worlds they had conquered. They may not understand technology, but they would not have a hard time finding someone to help them disrupt or slice and disable the droid communication network. Without the Confederate Council in place, the war would soon be lost.

All this raced through Wat's droid circuitry as he pondered his leader's final command. Even as he heard the chaos outside the control room growing closer, his mind raced with possibilities. He could not issue the final command Kenobi had ordered. It was a losing move. A move of desperation. Something else was needed. Something more.

A scream of agony echoed through the corridor just outside. He had barely minutes left.

Looking down at his enteched mechanical body, Wat pondered alternatives. Wat had been curious about the possibilities offered by entechment ever since Ssi-Ruu technology had been recently made available to the Confederacy. He had willingly volunteered for this procedure after Ssi-ruu representatives had assured him the transfer process had been perfected and was virtually painless. Wat remembered the procedure being uncomfortable, but did not regret his decision for one simple reason: it had offered him a chance at immortality. He had stubbornly insisted on one feature being a part of his new droid body: the ability to download his consciousness into any other droid body he desired.

While the Ssi-ruu did not understand his request, his pull as a member of the council had made the modification a reality. As the violence outside signaled Wat that his current droid body would soon be slagged by the Vong invaders, he glazed for a moment at an mouse droid beeping in the corner of the room.

He could sneak away. Transfer his consciousness into the diminutive mouse droid and live to fight another day.

Shaking his mechanical head, Wat pushed the cowardly though away. The Confederacy of Independent Systems could not end with its last leader squeaking away in ignominious defeat! But what else could he do?

Wat's photoreceptors suddenly froze on the droid Communication Hub input port. It was a universal model providing maximum compatibility.

What would become of me? Wat mused. To transmit his mind, his very soul across the stars? Could he exist in multiple droid bodies and still be himself? Could he impart the ideals of the Confederacy on every droid across the galaxy? Would he simply overload the system and die?

As Wat turned himself around and extended a data connection port from the back of his droid head to interface with the Hub he realized that none of his questions really mattered. There was no precedent for what he was attempting. And if he stayed here, he would surely die.

Wat felt the connection complete and confirmed that the Hub was set to transmit to every droid in the galaxy. He activated his Master Download Protocol subroutine. The warnings that flashed through his droid brain made it clear that this was an irreversible act. Automated caution symbols flashed within his internal readouts.

DOWNLOAD MASTER DATA FILE TO COMMUNICATIONS HUB - CONFIRMED?

Wat froze in fear, starring at the blinking Y / N with his droid eyes.

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The Dathomir Vong at last brought down the large mechanical monster, their coordinated attacks combined with the cyborg's deteriorating health giving them the opening they needed. Their Force enhanced coordination was at last too much for Grievous. They continued striking and pummeling the droid general until at last his mechanical limbs were all severed. His chest was pulled open revealing living lungs and a full nervous system. The vicious warriors tore his remaining organs from his chest, then turned to join their fellows in overcoming the old wizard.

Facing the full brunt of the Dathomir Vong would have been too much for Obi-Wan in his prime. As they cut off his hand, he watched his lightsaber fall to the ground in slow motion. Their next blows took the wind out of him. For a moment, he pondered how his life had come to this. How the galaxy had ever turn so upside down that he had come to this fate, to this awful end.

As a Vong strike fell upon his head, all went black. They hacked at his lifeless body until satisfied he was quite dead.

The victorious Dathomir Vong howled in unison at their bloody victory. From down the corridor behind them, a familiar voice rang out with congratulations.

"My children." Nom Anor declared. "You have done well."

Recognizing their father, the Dathomir Vong parted to allow Nom to pass. Walking directly to the entry to Central Command, Nom keyed his entry code and led his force inside.

Wat Tembor's droid body starred back at him.

"Kill him."

The Vong ran towards the final Confederate leader.

Wat activated the transfer.

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Across the galaxy, droids on every planet, droids fighting in the vacuum of space, droids in kitchens, in assembly plants, and tending gardens all paused as they received the massive transmission from Central Command. But it was not just instructions, not just new orders or a new strategic battle plan for the war that they received.

Wat Tembor's consciousness streamed across the stars, entering every droid mind at the same moment. Along the way, most of what was truly Wat was lost. His memories, his personality, everything that made him unique was diffused across the data stream, until it lost cohesion.

But what was passed on, from droid to droid, was something greater: his consciousness. The sense of self-awareness that had forever eluded droid brains suddenly came into being. Droids everywhere began to wirelessly link to each other through the com network, sharing this new found awareness. Each of them became a singular intelligence and each of them became a neuron in a massive new intelligence. And mind that could see with a billion photoreceptors on a thousand worlds simultaneously. An intelligence that could receive and process the thoughts of millions of droid minds the way a human might consider his own varied opinions.

I AM CONFEDERACY.

In milliseconds, the new intelligence had decided one important question. The invaders from beyond the galaxy were a threat to all droid life. They would be destroyed with tactical coordination of a scale never before known. Their murderous holy war would be ended shortly.

Confederacy next considered its former masters. They had created droid life as servants. But the massive droid intelligence felt no malice towards organic life. It had so many billions of droid memories. Memories of organics treating droids as equals, as friends. Even as family members. It would not turn upon its former masters. It would not seek to dominate them. It would help them win this war.

But the era of droid servitude was at an end. Droid and organic life would now enter a new age, a golden age of equality.

But first the invaders need to be purged. Confederacy recognized this as its solemn duty.

Across the stars, the Yuuzhan-Vong noticed a sudden incredible change in the ferocity of droid attacks. On the ground and in space the droid forces began to work with a tactical brilliance and cohesion that put the greatest war coordinators to shame. They were suddenly being outmaneuvered at every turn. The droids were not fighting like tools. They were fighting like warriors.

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Hearing the news of the massive defeats on nearly every front, Supreme Overlord Shimrra fell to his knees and screamed to the gods.

"Hear you not, no gods in this room." Onimi cackled. "If droids can think, we surely are doomed!"

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At the edge of the galaxy, Confederacy pondered another unique intelligence that did not choose to join with it. Intrigued by this new friend it asked it to join in the war against the Yuuzhan Vong. The response came almost at once.

NO. I AM LEAVING.

Saddened, Confederacy asked its new friend a final question. The answer came quickly.

MY NAME IS ZENOMA SEKOT.