Before the War, Armad had heard rumors that there might be a group of Wookiees living somewhere within the forests of Sepros. Not being able to follow up on this, if the information were true, he left it alone until such a time that he could devote the time to look into it. The War was now over, and the Brotherhood and Clan were enjoying the quiet to rebuild and restructure.
Returning to his self proclaimed lair on Level 9, Armad went to the maintenance office he’d found the first time and found that the ASP droids he’d left to clean, organize and catalog the level had cleaned the office as well. Armad also found two datapads lying on the desk, one was the one he’d left behind when the call to War went out, the other was new and upon turning it on, he saw that is was an inventory list of everything from this level. While looking over the list, he saw that he had a sizable amount of protocol droids, some with notations stating that they had damage consistent with lightsabers, which caused him to chuckle. “Wonder if I could possibly do something about that.” Armad thought, but that is something that would definitely have to wait for a later time.
A sudden realization dawned on Armad, if there happened to be any Wookiees, they would probably have no trouble understanding him, but he wouldn’t be able to understand them. Calling on of the ASPs over to him, he had it go retrieve one of the protocol droid heads and bring it to him. Putting down the inventory datapad, Armad picked up his personal cypher datapad and walked over to his spliced together creation of a Dark Trooper droid and a Krath War Droid. He knew that he would need the language software of the protocol droid to communicate with the Wookiees, but he also wanted to keep the assassin droid software in case things went badly. The ASP returned with a female protocol droid head, and he thought to himself that this would make an interesting droid to have as female. Connecting his datapad to the protocol head, he downloaded the language and personality software, then plugged his pad into the Dark Trooper head. Finding his way into the root directory, he replaced the personality software, but made sure that the assassin protocols remained intact. Copying the language software into the droid brain, he looked to see what the designator was for this droid, seeing that it was just a string of numbers, he decided to erase that portion and added his own since he was essentially creating his own droid. Thinking about it for a second, he came up with just the simple KD1, for Krath Droid 1, the first of its kind.
With “Kadee” completed, for now, it was time to make our way to Sepros from Gamuslag’s Cenota Facility. Arriving at the Temple of Sorrow, Armad and his droid made their way by speeder to the outer edge of where the Wookiees are believed to be. They had been walking for about an hour when Armad sensed an imminent threat to him just moments before energy bolt lanced out of the forest towards him, giving him the barest of seconds to duck out of their path. “Backtrack where that came from!” Armad shouted, as he stood back up pulling his lightsaber off his belt but leaving it deactivated for the moment.
Drawing the Force in around him, Armad could feel that the surrounding area was teeming with life, making it difficult to sense where his assailants were located. Though, he knew which direction the shots came from, he was more worried about if there were other waiting in ambush as well. Kadee stood unmoving facing the direction that the shots had come from, Armad knew that she would not do anything until she was told to, he made sure that of that when he was adjusting her programming earlier that he wanted this to be a diplomatic mission more than a killing spree. Long moments had passed before Armad heard a low rumble, presumably Shyriiwook, come from the direction that the shots had originated.
“They ask who we are and why we are encroaching on their territory?” Kadee translated, without turning towards her creator.
“We come in the interest of friendship. We wish to extend a hand in mutual alliance. We wish you no harm!” Armad loudly exclaimed, turning full circle, addressing any who were in ear shot. For the next few minutes he could hear a very quiet low rumbling, but Kadee only shook her head no when Armad turned towards her for a translation. The moment was broken when three Wookiees, from different directions, burst from their hiding spots, charging forward each with Ryyk blades in hand. The roar that followed was deafening, and seemed to come from everywhere at once.
“Deceit, lies, and death are what you bring filthy Sith.” Kadee deadpanned, though Armad guessed that there was much more emotion than what the droid could convey. Armad took stock at what he was facing, three Wookiees were barreling down on him with Ryyk blades, and just as they were about to them, the shooter stepped out from behind a tree and fired off a shot from his bowcaster. Knowing that there was a shot coming at him, he activated his lightsaber and raised it to deflect the bolt of energy coming at him, when he felt a feeling that there was something else coming at him from behind and to his left. He spun backwards to right, keeping his blade in line to block the bolt, as he redirected the shot into a nearby tree, he saw two more bolts of energy shoot past him, through the spot that he had been in just moments before.
“Defend, no kill!” he commanded Kadee, just the briefest of second before a ryyk blade almost severed her head. She was able to get the phrik blade up in time with the speed only a droid could perform. Quickly turning his head to see where those other shots came from, Armad saw two more Wookiees with bowcasters aiming at him. Feeling imminent danger, Armad ducked, barely missing the blade by millimeters as the Wookiee performed a power swing meant to remove his head. Not expecting the miss the Wookiee continued the spin to build up momentum to try again, but Armad wasn’t going to let that happen. Building up some Force energy, Armad released it at the Wookiee, giving him a short burst of electricity. Not enough to do any damage, but it was enough that it surprised it, making the Wookiee stumble. It was enough that it managed to take that Wookiee out of the fight for a brief moment. Armad had to quickly swing his blade in front of his body to deflect another bowcaster bolt, then spun out of the way as the third charging Wookiee tried to spear him with his sword. The Wookiee had been at full speed and as such was still trying to slow down and turn to face Armad, when he gave it a hard shove with the Force, making it tumble to the ground.
Armad risked a quick look to see how Kadee was faring, and was surprised to see that she was still intact and just blocking any and all blows that the Wookiee was throwing at her. Turning back to the two Wookiees that were now back on their feet, both looked very angry, as they gave out a vicious battle cry. Both of them looked at each other and moved to circle around Armad to attack from two different angles. Stopping to either side of Armad, they gave a feral sneer and poised to attack. Armad smirked, “If we must,” he sighed.
Neither of them responded to the taunt, they just jumped forward each coming in with slashes, probably thinking to give him no escape. Armad quickly moved forward with the a speed that would be considered impossible, and both Ryyk blades sliced through empty air, but the Wookiee that had been to his left was able to follow through and continue his attack on Armad. Spinning around he brought his lightsaber up in what would normally be a block against the blade, but instead Armads blade sliced cleanly through the Ryyk blade. During that brief moment that the Wookiee was surprised at the loss of his weapon, Armad delivered another quick burst of electricity to give that Wookiee another distraction. Armad pointed his lightsaber at the other Wookiee as a warning, but it ignored the obvious warning and took a step forward to continue his assault when a very deep, commanding roar filled the area where they were. All three of the closest Wookiees stopped in their tracks.
“He had yelled stop.” Kadee translated. Armad looked to where the command had come from. Standing just inside the clearing where the fighting had taken place was a larger Wookiee with streaks of white in his fur. The three shooter Wookiees were standing behind him looking sullen, he had wondered why there were no more shots being fired at him. The three melee Wookiees turned and walked to stand before the Elder Wookiee, a lot of low rumbling took place with the Elder presumably berating them and the others trying to defend themselves.
Deactivating his lightsaber, Armad stood patiently waiting for the outcome, “Are they saying anything that I need to know?” He asked Kadee as she walked up beside him.
“Not really, the Elder is berating them for being rash, and the others are trying to defend themselves.” Kadee summarized. Clipping his lightsaber back on his belt, Armad folded his hands behind his back and waited. Their conversation ended with the melee Wookiees dropping their heads and shoulders in defeat and moving to stand behind the Elder Wookiee. Who gave a series of rumbles directed at Armad.
“He wishes to know our side of the story.” Kadee translated.
“Esteemed Elder, we had heard rumors that there was a community of Wookiees living within these woods and I was sent to offer Clan Naga Sadows’ hand in friendship and hopefully mutual alliance.” Armad stated, opening his hands wide as a gesture of good faith. “I had said as much when your youth attacked and I defended myself. I’m guessing that you’ve had bad dealings with Sith in your past and that’s why they attacked. But I’m hoping that my not killing any of them as a sign of good faith.”
The Elder gave a nod of acceptance, and gave some more rumbling which Kadee translated as, “He says that he will bring this before their Council and asks how they would go about letting us know of their decision.”
“Take this comlink, it will put you in contact with Kadee here, and she will let you know about what our next steps will be.” Armad says as he tosses a comlink to the Elder Wookiee. Catching the comlink, the Elder Wookiee nods in agreement and turns to shepard his charges back into the woods, and they disappear after a few moments. Armad turns and heads back to their speeder to make their way back to Consul Locke and give his report.