'That is a lot of frozen iceballs,' Halsia noted, staring at the orbital projection the probe droid had called up.
'Outer system planetoids are the most abundant objects in hydrostatic equilibrium found in star systems that have undergone standard developmental processes,' Copier responded. The Sith had inflicted the named on the droid, unwilling to refer to him as DCP-R 04. She was fairly certain he found it demeaning, which pleased her. 'Orbital dynamics dictate that the inner system will clear of small bodies with far greater efficiency than more distant orbits, especially in the presence of a gas giant.'
'Enough,' she cut him off. Even in a few short hours with the unit, she learned why probe droids were not normally programmed with vocabulators. They just did not stop talking. She supposed it was a side effect of their programming. When you built something to be fascinated by every new thing it saw and experienced, of course it would want to tell everyone else about it.
Mercifully, Copier obeyed orders and shut up when told. That was doing better than most humans in Halsia's experience. 'How many iceballs are we actually looking at?'
'According to the survey of the Oricon system, there are four thousand, six hundred, and twenty-eight objects in hydrostatic equilibrium located beyond the orbit of Nesperia. The number of smaller objects increases logarithmically, but the surveying operation did not chart objects below fifty kilometers in long-axis diameter. It is possible that the Dread Masters charted the system to a greater degree of resolution during their occupation, but if so those records have not been recovered.' The droid's deadpan summary made his use of technical terminology almost impossibly boring. It occurred to Halsia that she might use him as a sleep aid.
'So there's more than four thousand iceballs they could be hiding out on?' That was a miserable discovery. She'd had no idea the outer system would be so cluttered.
'Technically, yes, only those objects that have attained hydrostatic equilibrium qualify as round and therefore fit the colloquialism 'iceballs.' However, smaller objects are much more numerous. The number of bodies capable of hosting an installation is vast, potentially in the millions.'
Halsia stared at the droid. 'Millions?' she murmured. It was absurd. 'So what you're saying is that we'll never find them just by looking.'
'The probabilities of success in a search mission are very low, yes,' Copier agreed. He did not sound upset about it.
'Glorious.' The Dread Masters had been completely insane, but they'd still been Sith. Being of that persuasion herself, Halsia understood the thought process. The organization of installations would inevitably be a data maze, designed to hide some assets from certain other assets for all kinds of reasons, ranging from double-blind testing practices to pure unadulterated paranoia. There were no doubt some assets kept completely off records, hidden behind a screen of memory-wiped droids and cremated bodies, and the cool isolated reaches of the outer system were exactly where you'd hide them. She was being set up for failure, and it made her seethe.
Regardless of the futility of the task it had been ordered, via proxy, by a Sith Lord. There was no choice to obey. Perhaps it won't matter anyway, she considered, sneering. Those isolated little bolt holes can't possibly be self-sustaining. Eventually they'll reveal themselves by screaming for help. Otherwise they'll just die in the darkness, a nicely self-correcting problem.
To Copier she asked. 'Maiya provided you with a list of targets. Let's start there.'
The probe's projection shifted accordingly, illuminating a series of points in the star system model. There were quite a few. 'The best data sources are transmission access logs recovered from the Dread Fortress. Based on these forty-four locations have been tracked. Unfortunately these targets are largely without any further data beyond locations, as the actual transmissions were erased during the assault on the Fortress.'
'What do we actually have?' Halsia held up a datapad to demand the information.
The resulting table, no doubt compiled by some other droid working data retrieval on the hulk of the fortress, proved of little enlightenment. Someone had pointed a sensor at each location and that was about it. Though hardly a sensors technician, she had some understanding of the results due to experience coordinating Sith assault units. One line in particular jumped out as very odd, it did not match any one of the pre-determined categories. 'Explain the scrambling effect at number twenty-one,' she demanded of the probe.
'There are a number of possibilities…' Copier began, and it was clear he was going to launch into an exhaustive list.
'Stop,' Halsia commanded. 'Speculate and give me your two highest probability choices.' She smirked slightly. It was taking some work, but she was finding ways to manage the droid. That they involved distributing harsh interruptions was slightly irritating, but also deeply satisfying. In time, she resolved, he would learn to anticipate. Or be scrapped.
'Intermittent absorption is the primary result. The most likely causes are either the deployment of large quantities of armor plate, or a telescope,' the floating droid twitched slightly, as if discomforted at this off-the-cuff analysis, but answered.
Armor plate made some sense, though placing such a large series of bunkers so far out was highly irregular. 'Why a telescope?' The Sith demanded. It made no sense to her.
'The low thermal environment and lack of atmosphere provide advantages towards using a small, low-temperature planetoid, and the perspective of the outer system is free of inner system debris, which increases accuracy and-'
'Fine,' Halsia interjected. 'So it's a good place to put a telescope, but why would the Dread Masters bother to build such a thing?'
'Unknown,' Copier replied. At the glare from his master he quickly powered past a brief silence. 'But the Oricon system is well-positioned for an astronomical observatory. It is located near the edge of the galactic disc, beyond almost all settled systems, and is also elevated significantly above the disk, reducing interference from surrounding stars. A facility of this size would potentially have the ability to observe extremely distant, dim objects in the far reaches of the universe.'
To see into the heart of the void. It was obvious. 'Never mind,' Halsia told the droid. 'Of course they had such a thing.' All uncertainty vanished. She was sure it wasn't armor, or anything but a telescope now. 'Tell me, would it be likely for such a facility to have data on other targets within the system?'
'A telescope would doubtless be provided with the best survey data available, likely in multiple storage methods,' Copier hedged.
And as a science facility it ought to be lightly defended, the Sith recognized. Though confident in her power, Halsia had faced the Dread Host in battle. Only a fool would claim they were anything other than formidable. She saw no reason to take unnecessary risks. 'Acceptable,' she told the probe droid. 'Now go through the checklist to get this scrap heap in the air.' Having a droid pilot rather than a living subordinate, even some mewling alien slave, was embarrassing, but at least she wasn't forced to pilot herself. 'I'm going to update our Dread Mistress.'
Copier wisely avoided any comments regarding the nickname.
8 8 8
The voyage to the distant planetoid was boring. This was not a problem. Copier kept busy in the cockpit, tracking their approach to target. The droid ran endless statistical analysis on the existing target data, and spent the rest of its processing resources using the shuttle's sensors to track new frozen rocks floating about in their long, sedate orbits of centuries. He found this work deeply satisfying, secondary only to actually floating across such worlds in person.
With the droid content to float in his tiny space at the front of the vessel, Halsia claimed the rest of the ship. Though the tiny cabin was cramped, the cargo hold was quite spacious, if spare, after having been stripped of all Dread Host gear. It actually made for a sufficiently sized meditation and practice space. She had made a point beforehand of filling the corners with bags of ground volcanic sand. It helped to absorb the lightning in a confined space.
Not that she spent all her time in meditation. There were Sith who were that dedicated, but it seemed to her that if you intended to live that way you might as well be a Jedi. So while she certainly spent time channeling her anger to hurl streams of lightning at the walls and go through lightsaber combat forms, she also lounged back on thick cushions and watched extensive holodramas. She had a weakness for romances smuggled in from the Republic. The Core Worlds were glamorous in a way nothing in the Empire would ever be. Such a pity she'd not been old enough to campaign on Alderaan in the last war.
She also worked on crystal cutting, using cheap volcanic crystals, mostly hauyne and peridot, taken from the flows of Oricon. This required both conventional tools and manipulation through the force. It was a precision skill taking practice and focus. Though she liked to consider herself quite accomplished, in private she admitted her abilities were only modest, and the lightsaber crystals she had made were suitable only for apprentices and young Sith. Her own weapon bore a crystal she'd acquired from a dead Jedi Master on campaign. These practice crystals were not directed towards any so militant purpose, but she'd earned a decent pile of extra credits over the years selling them as jewelry.
With these various distractions is was easy enough to pass the time. That was helpful, for there was a fair amount of time to pass. Though the shuttle's sublight engine was powerful, the distances of the Outer System were vast. Copier relayed the separation between the various frozen planetoids in light-hours, a unit so unimaginably vast that it represented just over one billion klicks.
Their destination was almost six light hours from Oricon, on the other side of the primary star. It took three days to get there. As the distance increased the star behind shrank and dimmed, until it was a pale, wan thing barely brighter than giant stars much further distant. It became difficult to orient towards the inner system with the naked eye.
This led Halsia to a strange discovery. She found that, with a moment's focus, she could use the force to unerringly determine the direction of the primary. Something about the pulsating fusion furnace and its deep gravity well drew her in and brought the system into sharp relief. Though she considered this new skill naught but a trifle, she wondered if it would work when they returned to Oricon and much greater proximity.
Eventually, they approached within a few hours and the Sith joined the probe droid in the cockpit. All was dim and dark, and even at this distance it was impossible to see the planetoid. It would not be visible until they braked on their final approach mere minutes before entering orbit. Copier produced a digital simulation instead.
The planetoid, named OPNO-02322 by the survey team that had discovered her, was a dark, deep red shade. It was rounded and marked by many cuts and scrapes, but had relatively few craters. The surface was mostly rough and pebbly, but in some places extraordinarily smooth.
'A fairly large planetoid,' Copier summarized. 'It's just over one thousand kilometers in diameter. Unusually for an outer system body is has a rather high proportion of rock in its core, and the surface ices are unusually stable, with primarily water ice composition save in the outermost crust. As a result construction is easier and the sublimated volatiles needed to form a transient atmosphere are almost completely absent. It makes sense to place the telescope here than on another, more typical, planetoid.'
These details mattered little to the Sith. She rotated the image with a wave of her hand. 'So the outpost is here, at the center of this large, elevated plateau.' Her eyes narrowed. 'Seems awfully exposed.'
'Locating the telescope at high altitude prevents interference from any dust and other particulates that may be circulating,' Copier answered. 'A telescope facility by its very nature involves a number of large, highly exposed pieces of sensitive equipment, especially on this scale.'
'Sounds expensive.'
'It is.' The droid noted. 'There are a number of rare components that require regular replacement and maintenance needs are constant.'
The image seemed to waver before Halsia's vision. She contemplated her approach to the next step. 'They know we're coming, obviously.' The shuttle was hardly stealthy, and there was nothing in the vastness of this outer void to conceal them regardless. 'But they've said nothing.' She was mildly surprised by the silence. One would imagine any remaining loyalist wouldn't have missed the opportunity for a good denunciation. Perhaps the loss of the masters had been more damaging than she'd thought.
'Transmit a generic demand for surrender in Lord Hargrev's name,' she decided after a moment. There was no reason to use her own name, not yet. Borrowing power from the system's sole remaining authority of any importance at all served better. 'Notify me if they bother to respond.'
'Understood,' Copier quickly transferred the process through the ship's computer. 'How should we make our final approach?'
'That is a question,' Halsia noted, staring at the limited diagram of the potential facility. Information was in short supply. By the time they'd be in position to get a truly good look the defenders would be in a position to fire back. There would be defenses, it went without saying, the Dread Masters had been insane, but they'd still been more or less Sith.
The temptation to go in guns blazing existed. Heavily armored and reasonably well armed, the shuttle was up to making an attack. Despite this, Halsia did not seriously consider it. For one, while Copier was up to flying the ship under ordinary circumstances, she doubted the droid was properly programmed for combat, and her own combat piloting skills were regrettably under developed. For another, she'd rather not damage the facility overmuch, and a simulation of firing laser cannons at a backdrop of methane and nitrogen ice had revealed catastrophic potential.
'We'll make a single close reconnaissance pass upon orbital insertion and then loop around the planet and find a secure place to land nearby,' she decided after a lengthy silence. 'I'll fly the ship for that portion. You'll concentrate on imaging that plateau. I want to find the nearest secure landing point we can.' Anything to minimize the distance traversing this frozen wasteland.
'And if the enemy counterattacks?' the droid's voice might be deadpan, but it seemed he was endowed with a sense of self-preservation after all.
'Then we'll celebrate,' she smiled. If they abandoned fixed defenses she was sure whatever this pitiful observatory could muster in the way of troops would be mere chaff before the shuttle's guns. 'But I doubt they're that stupid, or that motivated,' she noted sourly. It remained unclear if anyone was even alive down on the iceball. 'Now move aside from my seat and start calculating final approach vectors.'
Chapter Notes
Copier is functionally a Probe Droid companion. Probe droids of the same model type are found as NPC enemies on Oricon so it seemed a reasonable choice to go with. By the same token the shuttle she is using represents the imperial shuttle model found in the Dread Fortress courtyard that PCs destroy with grenades. Those were hyperdrive capable in the Oricon plotline, but I've chosen to have the empire not repair that system deliberately (and also because it is presumably the most expense part of the ship).
Information regarding the outer system planetoids assumes Oricon is a fairly typical star system and is intended to be generally scientifically accurate, though much information on such small, distant bodies is poorly known. Regarding distance I've had to make some judgment calls, because it really isn't clear how fast sublight travel speeds allow a ship to go. For storytelling purposes I'm assuming that a ship can get to pretty much any point in the star system in under a week, even if the distance is hundreds of AU.
