The message had changed everything.
Whoever — or whatever — had responded to Kael's encrypted pulse wasn't Republic, wasn't Sith, and certainly wasn't local. The signal came from a derelict listening post orbiting a decaying moon near the Zanbar Drift, a region known only to scavengers and cartels.
But more importantly?
It was still active.
Kael stood in his war chamber, a circular room of polished black stone lit by a glowing holomap suspended from the ceiling. The system highlighted the target: Listening Post Echo-7, last registered under the Old Republic during the Mandalorian Wars.
Long-abandoned.
But someone had reactivated it.
And now it had acknowledged him.
Deployment Orders
Kael turned to his three senior Shadowguard operatives:
Varyn, former gladiator, twin vibroblades and silence for speech.
Tessara, ex-slave, eyes always calculating, blaster pistol and poison knife.
Zulek, defected bounty hunter, heavy armor, unshakable loyalty.
"I want infiltration, not a firefight," Kael said. "You go in, sweep the command deck, and extract the AI core if it's still functioning."
He opened the mission pane.
[Mission Created: Operation Phantom Coil]
Type: Covert Extraction
Objective: Retrieve AI Core from Listening Post Echo-7
Difficulty: Hard
Reward: Unknown
Recommended Force User Support: 1+
Kael selected Tessara as team leader and authorized deployment.
[XP Gained: +250 (Mission Initiation)]
The Mission Begins
The strike shuttle, Revenant, took off under cover of a sandstorm.
Kael watched from the command ridge as it disappeared into the clouds. He said nothing.
This was more than a test of loyalty.
It was a test of reach.
He descended to the crypt chamber again. The armor — the Forgotten Coreplate — remained sealed, but he had forged a neural link with it through the system.
Each day, it responded more.
As if it was waking up.
As if it remembered him.
Inside Echo-7
Tessara's voice came through the encrypted relay three hours later.
"Command, we're in. Place is dead quiet. Power's flickering, but life support is active. Looks like someone turned it on and left."
Kael tapped the holomap, switching to audio-only.
"Any signs of resistance?"
"None yet. But something's… wrong. The walls are warm. Almost alive."
A pause.
"Zulek thinks it's the AI pulsing heat into the corridors. I think he's right."
Kael leaned forward.
"Proceed. Retrieve the core. No salvaging. No wandering."
The feed went dark.
For eleven minutes.
Then it returned — fractured.
Screaming. Static. A single voice, distorted by panic and noise.
"—wasn't dead—the AI's aware—Varyn's gone—there's something moving—"
Then silence.
Complete.
[System Alert: Mission Outcome: Partial Failure]
Zulek: Deceased
Varyn: MIA
Tessara: Alive
Core Status: Extracted
Bonus: Unknown Entity Engaged (???)
XP Gained: +450 (Mission Completion)
New Skill Unlocked: Command Intuition Lv.1 – Slight increase to mission success prediction
Kael stood frozen as the shuttle returned, half its lights damaged, hull scraped by something not mechanical. Tessara stumbled out, helmet cracked, eyes unfocused.
She dropped the AI core at his feet, then collapsed.
"I saw it," she whispered. "It looked like a man… but it wasn't breathing."
Kael stared at the core. It was circular, black, humming softly — not in binary, but in a forgotten tongue.
The language in his vision.
The same one from the vault.
Voices in the Machine
Back in his chamber, Kael connected the AI core to a secondary console.
The screen flickered. Strange characters filled it, then rewrote themselves into Basic.
Then a voice.
"Designation: UNSP_01. You are not a registered user. Authentication bypassed. Error... accepted. New user recognized. Initiating interface."
"Welcome, Heir of the Pattern."
Kael blinked.
"…Pattern?"
"Genetic sequence found within relic vault armor matches pattern-lock Theta. Last known carrier: Arch-Warden Maekis Vel. Title: Keeper of the Ash Algorithm. Rank: First Thought."
"Do you wish to restore ancient archive? Y/N"
Kael didn't hesitate.
Y.
[System Upgrade Detected]
New Subsystem Integrated: Ancient Tech Interface v0.1
Enables study, repair, and reverse-engineering of Forgotten technology.
Unlocks unique "Legacy Construction" options for Kael's kingdom.
Alert: This system exists outside Jedi/Sith paradigms. Its use will attract unknown attention.
Kael stared at the data stream flowing across the screen.
Weapon schematics. War construct blueprints. Philosophies of control. A doctrine built not on balance or chaos — but dominion through understanding.
Not Force vs. Force.
Force + Machine.
His path was no longer about hiding from the Jedi.
It was about outgrowing them.