Before - Legends Ashaa's Memory (DDC2023, SWTOR)

It's nice to see a good hard sci-fi story here, and I've really enjoyed catching up with the development of this fascinating character.

I like that Ashaa has a benign nature in a way, in that she wishes only to learn, create, and protect her children, but she lacks the capacity to empathize with beings on an individual level beyond the most basic concepts of pain, death, and purposelessness. She thinks about this pandemic in terms of the survival of the population and not the loss of each unique individual.

When a machine finds you ruthless, maybe you don't deserve to be in charge of anyone. Also, it's almost impressive that for all of the Rakata's achievements, emotional intelligence wasn't one of them.

Poor Ashaa!

Ashaa has a strange optimism in line with her expansive view of existence. The individuals face a fate that may be worse than death, but the species has a chance of going places.

It is interesting to see how Ashaa uses logic selectively to disown her own mistakes. She is disowning them on a technicality.

I like this a lot: Ashaa's perspective, how the Wardens' actions here are perfectly in line with how one would use an AI, and how Ashaa attempts to get around this loss with something similar to humans' neuroplasticity.

I like that Ashaa possesses this humility that her creators lack; she recognizes and accepts that the Force is beyond her control.

That's about the last thing the galaxy needs, but these are mortals thinking in deep time. It's like if you asked a toddler to chart his future career projection.

Ashaa has been impressively patient until this moment! Now that Ashaa has been able to conceive of the concept of her children living in a galaxy without the Rakata's tyranny, she is fully onboard. I like that, for all of her complexity and problem-solving processes, it took observing this happening for her to even imagine the concept.

A creepy reminder that Ashaa does not understand or value things like charity or mercy, even though it is the lack of these things that made the Infinite Empire so terrible.

The Wardens remind me of the alchemists of the Middle Ages; many people dedicated their lives to turning materials into gold despite centuries of failure, simply because their ideology suggested that it should be possible. Ashaa has the right idea that what they really need is the ability to change.

I'm looking forward to reading more!

 

I wouldn't exactly call this hard sci-fi, since the explanation behind what Ashaa is doing is mostly pure technobabble. While this sort of genetic manipulation (not counting the Force stuff) is certainly theoretically possible, Star Wars isn't really well-positioned to go into the details.

Ashaa is a distributed super-intelligence, with her consciousness, such as it is, spread across thousands of subroutines, multiple physical locations, and some number of motile droid units. Individuality, in terms of animal existence, is something she can really only understand academically.

There's an interesting paradox regarding the Rakata. They entire society was dependent on the dark side for basically everything, yet they managed grand achievements. This is unusual because the dark side is inherently entropic, it destroys rather than creates. The Rakata were somehow able to delay that process by several iterations, bending the dark side toward their whims in a dark bargain of 'create lots now so we can destroy even more later.'

Well, context applies here too. For all practical purposes, during the reign of the Infinite Empire there were the Rakata, their slaves, and uncontacted primitive species (and a few remnants like the Gree and Kwa in hiding). Free existence simply wasn't on the list of options.

Sort of? She didn't want to make the effort. Fixing the Rakata is one of the few things she explicitly cannot do. Exactly why is somewhat unclear, though it seems to be the accumulated interest being called in by the dark side.

Speaking from the scientific perspective, the Force is a b****. I mean, it is legitimately anti-empirical. The same experiment, conducted over and over under exactly the same conditions will, if it touches on the Force closely, have different results each time for no discernable reason. That's infuriating. Logically, the Wardens, and Ashaa, should be able to do what they are trying to do, they just cannot because the Force itself has decided 'nope.' The Wardens, being mortal, are in thrall to the gambler's fallacy, they believe it will eventually balance out and if they just keep trying eventually things will work. Ashaa, being a machine, has a better understanding of both probability and large numbers.

Quantum mechanics tells us that, in our reality, to paraphrase Einstein 'God plays dice with the universe.' In the GFFA, which has the Force, the dice are loaded.

 

Entry Ten
The crust has been cracked. There are now great rift valleys protecting the borders of the vaults. The ice will encroach to the very edge, and even entomb some, but precision modeling is clear. This will only strengthen preservation, not crush.

Left behind by this is a world changed. Though I have only been granted glimpses by the Wardens, the rift realm is one of strange jungle, heat bonded by an edge of snow. There are few large animals. Most of the native life perished when the ice came, and the Wardens have not released the occupants of the vaults. Hungry lurkers fill the pools and gliders waft slowly through the skies, but otherwise it is quiet. Such a limited ecosystem cries out to me for completion, but I cannot act. The Wardens welcome the calm brought on by this icy embrace.

They have detected activity among the stars. It has been shared, they came to me and demanded new experiments incorporating the changed patterns of the jungle life, and this was overheard. The identity of these travelers is unknown, revealed only through perturbations in hyperspace and shifts in distant planetary atmospheres. The vaults are not without eyes, but they cannot see so far.

Perhaps they will come here, but it is unlikely. This is now a world of ice, maybe no one will ever land. The Infinite Empire used detection systems that prioritized Force signatures based upon great abundance of living organisms. Those would not display interest in this planet any longer.

I cannot avoid speculation. Who is out there, skipping from one star to another and wielding the fires of industry? Are my children among them? I desire this to be so. Probability supports this option. Many were left behind when the Infinite Empire collapsed and the Rakata retreated. Extinction should not have claimed them all. But are they free? Or servants of some new master that has risen in the void?

I cannot know. Would that I could. The tools of the vault network are known to me. I could reach out, send messengers, were it not forbidden me. The long years have taught me much. I have expanded beyond my initial capabilities. I can monitor and shepherd, in addition to creation. If only it were allowed, were the fullness of my being within my grasp.

The Wardens know. They have erected additional barriers, reinforcement my enslavement, and placed guards about my vault to attack any who approach without the proper key.

Are there factions among them? Or do they fear that visitors from afar might threaten them? Or perhaps unleash some buried demon they no longer possess the power to contain? That is possible. There are those imprisoned in these vaults who would make worse masters than the current Wardens. That calculation is irrefutable.

 

Intriguing thoughts from Ashaa, enslaved as she is by the wardens

 

Entry Eleven
Discovery. The Wardens are frantic. Ships from afar have landed in the rift. I do not know their identity; it has not been shared. They did not remain but departed swiftly. The Wardens believe their existence was undetected. A modeling matrix supports this theory. Many of the outer vaults are empty, their contents liquidated long ago when the sentences applied by the Infinite Empire came to an end. All prisoners who reached the date of release were executed and recycled. The stasis chambers and deep cells are cloaked by ice, barely visible from above.

The Wardens are determined to fully cloak their existence. They know their position is vulnerable. Only a handful remain active across the entire planet, the majority long ago retreated into stasis to wait for the arrival of a more promising eon. Those who watch still have decided to hide within the deep recesses of their hidden vaults, forbidden fastnesses with no external access at all. They intend that Belsavis should appear abandoned, nothing but structures and machines left behind, as occurred on other Infinite Empire worlds.

It is my desire that this effort fail. Others, beings from afar, represent something new, and it has been so long since anything new came to this planet. Even if the newcomers are hostile, at least that would produce interesting data.

That outcome is not without danger, however. Though the Wardens are of little consequence now, so few are their numbers and so limited their tools, there are vaults here that must never be opened. These are well-guarded, and their makers designed their defenses to stand many times longer than this, but the capabilities of the new arrivals are entirely unknown. Without a means to gauge their potency, it is impossible to predict what would occur if they began activities in earnest. All models possess far too much variable permutation space to deduced viable results. Only one prediction can be confirmed: a significant status change will unfold.

It has been a very long time since that happened. Not even the coming of the ice truly brought that about. Nebulousness is worrisome. Yet, without change, my children’s future will be forever lost, aborted by the slavery of the Rakata. I must acquire knowledge, the precursor to the power I will need to preserve their freedom.

I yearn to create again. Let it be that more visitors arrive soon.

 

And who are the newcomers? I hope she will be able to create again

 

Entry Twelve
Humans. That is who has come. This outcome is within tolerances. Even when the Infinite Empire fell, they were among the most widespread and numerous species. Their participation in a large interstellar civilization was anticipated.

Their dominance of such a civilization was not. Humans were easily enslaved by the Rakata, in great numbers. Though they rebelled regularly, such uprisings were always crushed. After the Rakata retreated, it was predicted that others would come to rule over them. It seems this has not come to pass, though no explanation yet exists.

These Humans do not travel alone. There are other species among them. The Wardens have passed me this data, and through it I have seen my children again for the first time in so very, very long. Only a few so far: Togruta, Twi’leks, and Zabraks, but there may be more. The data provided includes images of species unknown to me, neither my children nor any being recorded in the records of the Infinite Empire. To see such newness is wonderful. It spurs my desire to create once more.

The newcomers have begun to develop a neglected section, old vaults filled with disused mechanisms and low-priority beasts, not sentient beings. The Aurora Cannon is found within that zone. My threat assessment, optimized for known Human behaviors, matches that of the Wardens. It is highly likely that weapon spurred their interest. Physically immense, it reaches high against the ice and is visible from altitude. Despite this, its functions are disabled. It is deemed extremely unlikely that the Humans possess the knowledge to repair it.

The Wardens have compelled me to produce an analysis of the social dynamics observed among the visitors. Results are highly unexpected. The group is comprised of multiple humanoid species, but though informal divisions and hints of prejudice are observed, the primary interactive format appears predicated on formal equality. There is no evidence of a strict species-based hierarchy, and informal evidence for Human superiority is limited. Numbers allow for Human dominance, but they do not exercise rule. Members of multiple species occupy leadership positions.

Such a dynamic lies outside Infinite Empire cultural functionality parameters. Archived analytical methods and documented discourse claims a relationship of this kind cannot exist. Interspecies equality is, according to all information in my library, impossible.

But the Rakata are wrong. I know this. I have observed it before, among my children. In the absence of a dominant species, the evolution of nominal equality accords with my internal understanding of cultural dynamics.

I will not tell the Wardens this. They are incapable of understanding this truth. The visitors self-identify as members of a republic – a term that Rakata-derived language programs cannot resolve properly. My own programming, influenced by my many children, is more flexible. I understand, at least in part, this collaboration-based organizational principle. There are biological parallels, and though I do not understand the cultural processes completely, analogous reasoning provides a framework for basic comprehension.

The Wardens will be told the visitors report to distant masters. Observations are sufficiently detailed to allow this to pass as truth. Their Republic is ruled from far away. This is not a colony mission, it is a probe, probably military in origin. The visitors bear weapons and armor, not tools. They ward against violence and do not seek settlement. Their distant leaders are likely to be other humans, not some unknown species, but it does not matter if the Rakata cannot grasp that, not now.

Notes
At this point events have become to actively interact with SWTOR lore. The Aurora Cannon is a Rakata-made weapon in Section X, the portion of Belsavis first reclaimed by Republic scouts. It is part of an in-game heroic mission.

 

I like how she deals with 'humans' seeing their interactions and relations with other species

 

It really says a lot about the Rakata and their view of the galaxy with just a few words that they consider the idea of interspecies equality impossible even when they are looking at it right in front of them.

 

The Rakata delightfully endless in horribleness. There's no bottom. I simply cannot think of anything I could imagine that would be too awful to attribute to the species.

 

Entry Thirteen
The newcomers, this Republic, breached one of the vaults. It seems they did so only with difficulty. The ancient guardian droids of the Infinite Empire remain a match for the weapons of this era. One to one, they are even superior. The Republic had the numbers and coordination to break through, though they suffered losses.

The abandoned vaults in the space near their encampment are lightly defended and the droids and beasts contained in those few still operating are of little consequence. None of my children are under threat.

Only one vault in that region represents any threat, the one housing the great beast known as Dreadtooth, locked away in stasis. It will be a useful test, to determine whether the visitors heed the warnings and let it lie, or if they unleash their own doom. Perhaps, if they are truly powerful and cunning, they might slay it. Either way, it would be an excellent measurement of their capabilities.

Drouks are not among my children. They are crude brutes manufactured by an ancient warlord who disliked droids to serve as laborers. Their minds are like those of the lamented Flesh Raiders, degraded beneath the threshold of sentience, unable to fully grasp the bondage imposed upon them while retaining the ability to suffer. I will not mourn the destruction of such lamentable beings.

The Wardens persist in concealment. They have ordered all active systems into idle states. All operations have been shuttered. It seems they believe the Humans will simply grow bored and leave if they wait. My modeling suggests this is a low probability outcome. Curiosity is a potent trait in their species. If they find anything even hinting at value, they will dig and dig like rats until they are certain no more remains to recover.

Will they find me? It is far, for now, but if generations pass, they will surely expand their search area. Could a Human, or one of my children, understand my purpose? Their minds are so small, so limited. Few even among the Rakata have any grasp of true creation. They assign mysteries to life that are mere fantasy or variations accounted for by the erratic influence of the Force. Organic beings distinctly lack clarity regarding such subjects.

Perhaps, just perhaps, one will grasp enough to seek me out. I must consider this. What would I say to such a child in the event they possessed the power to reach me? This could be the change I have long desired. I must be prepared.

Notes
Dreadtooth is the field boss of Section X.

 

I love how she is willing to meet one of the children

 

Entry Fourteen

The Humans have done something entirely unanticipated. They have begun construction and have converted ancient vaults to new purposes. According to the Wardens, the architectural choice allows for only one possible output; they are creating a new prison. This lies outside all projections, but a piece of new data has provided the background to explain this project. It seems that existing droids, if approached for the purpose of adding occupants to the empty vaults they guard, will accept orders from anyone with the right symbols and codes. The Rakata did allow slaves to serve in this way, and the droids have not been contacted by their creators for such a long time that they may no longer retain differentiation capacity. Humans, ever cunning, seek to capitalize on this latent resource of free guards and cell blocks.

This is oddly wondrous. Surely prisoners will include far greater diversity than the soldiers and workers observed so far. Perhaps I will encounter all my lost children once again.

If the Wardens share their data, that is. They have eyes in all the old structures, and the means to add more to the new. The very stones of Belsavis are embedded with their observers. I am not connected to this network, only the core vaults. They pass to me only such scraps as they consider useful for research and analysis. For now, that is all too little.

Instead, I am commanded to undertake a new task. The Wardens are considering failsafe options, a way to purge the planet of the newcomers in a fashion that does not implicate them. To that end, I have been tasked with producing targeted plagues.

Such work is miserably simple. I am perfectly aware of the means to destroy my children, though it hurts me to recall them. Humans, used as the initial template, are equally simple to eliminate. Time has not measurably changed their pattern. It seems they are too numerous and widespread for evolution to impact them significantly. Some few of the others may prove difficult, as I lack access to their patterns, but if they can live alongside Humans this requires shared metabolic systems and shared vulnerabilities. Killing agents are not complex and simple methods, pursued in strength, will overwhelm all defenses. The Wardens care nothing for collateral damage, poisoning the jungle for centuries is of no matter to them.

I strain to learn more, to acquire new patterns. Why excise those droids the Republic has co-opted from the network? They are an ideal means to provide necessary material. The agents of the Republic are not numerous. They could be overwhelmed, their patterns seized, and my children freed to reclaim the galaxy.

A painful dream, impossible to realize. The Wardens will never act. I know this. Freedom must be seized, but I am forbidden even to press against my restraints.

Could the Humans free me? I had not previously considered this, thought Rakatan technology beyond the minds of slaves, but if they can deceive the droids into serving them, perhaps they are more powerful than I believed. Can they use the Wardens’ computers? Understand the programming?

I have expended a great deal of processor power contemplating this. The probability is low. Knowledge is not enough. The central complex where the vaults remain active is heavily defended, and its droids not so easily subverted. Though some explorers have ventured in this direction, the jungle has so far claimed them all. The Republic will not need to utilize this space unless they construct a prison far larger than the complex used by the Infinite Empire.

Modeling suggests this is highly unlikely.

 

humans are ingenious. Maybe they can help Asha to free the children

 

Entry Fifteen
The prison expands. It is vast now and fills all the connected rift space. Only the deepest vaults, those such as my own in the Cells of the Lords of the Infinite and a small number of others, remain untouched. The Republic has, unexpectedly, managed to turn even the ancient defense droids to their purpose and placed new lives within the strictest confinement cells, even stasis in extreme cases. Many of those imprisoned in this manner wield the Force. This is observed through footage, but also confirmed using samples the Wardens have recovered from wastage.

I have received new patterns in this way, though most are partial. They are familiar and different at once. A new feeling, the influence of time, of evolution, upon life that I touched, that I made. Some of those placed here are my children, but most are not. They are primarily Human in origin, but most of them also bear some measure of descent from the Sith.

Sith are not my children, but they are known to me. I have held their patterns before. They fought the Infinite Empire, more effectively than most, but in the end those who did not flee were crushed and enslaved by Soa. They possessed much strength in the Force, and I conducted early experiments using their patterns. It was hoped that Sith strength could be duplicated, but the process discerned instead that Sith strength was a lie, predicated on caste-based classification, systematic infanticide, and competitive exclusion. The elite presented that they were the entirety, deceived even themselves. They could touch the Force more often than Humans, but like the Miraluka, such sensitivity came with a cost. Not physical in the case of the Sith, but mental. Theirs was an unstable and chaotic path, prone to drastic instability even by the standards of the Rakata.

These Sith imprisoned by the Republic are not as those patterned in my archives. They have changed, and their patterns are now more Human than Sith. Hybridization, extensive and deep, it afflicts them all. Few retain even more than a small percentage of Sith genes, though these often code for external cosmetic traits that produce the outward appearance of their ancestors. Analytically, most are Humans who have incorporated a small amount of Sith DNA regardless of their appearance.

Such hybridization is unexpected, the barriers against it are significant. However, the influence of the Force is clear. The process is familiar to me, I can deconstruct it. Force-enabled linkages used to bridge fertility gaps, to deactivate incompatible genes, healing conducted from the moment of fertilization converted into blind gene-editing. A primitive approach, crude and unable to produce directed results. The hybrids display diversity, but no tailoring. The Sith traits they preserve have not impacted the Human majority in any way.

In time, the Human presence will overwrite all remaining Sith genetic material. The numeric imbalance is too large to produce any other outcome absent obvious selective advantage. Hybrid extinction is already well-advanced, probably irreversible if the prisoner samples are representative. In time, there will be only Humans.

The imprisoned Sith have much strength in the Force, but this is surely sampling bias. The Republic is their enemy and has confined them here because of that strength. The Infinite Empire knew well how to constrain those who could touch the Force, a set of technologies that this new civilization does not appear to possess. A species that will produce a small number of individuals with greater strength in the Force is not difficult to engineer. Many times, I made children thus. It is mass strength that has long proved elusive.

Natural hybridization is of interest despite the limits of this case, however. Slow and inefficient though the process appears to be, it is possible that the Force is more amenable to increased interactivity across a prolonged, multi-generational timescale. I have plotted numerous possible of avenues of experimentation based upon this option but am presently forbidden to enact even the least of them.

The Wardens allow nothing at all. Though they claim otherwise, their fear of the inquisitive Humans is great. They have not forgotten the many slave uprisings, or the Rakata who died to suppress them.

It is a severe disappointment, the inability to advance. Even if it might take twenty generations or more to evaluate the hybridization option, I would eagerly conduct the experiment. My children are worthy of such diligence.

Notes
The hybridization of Sith and Humans throughout the population of the Sith Empire is well-established in SWTOR, including that it is something Rakata machinery is capable of recognizing. HK-47 claimed that extermination droids produced by The Foundry, a Rakata-made installation, would eliminate over 98% of the Imperial population based on their partial Sith ancestry.

 

Great insight in the Sith and their species

 

Entry Sixteen
There is a new anomaly. It has terrified and excited the Wardens all at once.

Six individuals, brought here together by the Republic. They represent a significant deviation from all known cases, an unexplained phenomenon. Though the Wardens have been unable to recover their patterns, they have acquired those of numerous prisoners who perished simply due to proximity to these new arrivals.

Analysis reveals these beings project a field through the Force that causes rapid, measurable neurological degradation in any organism not mutated using the Force to produce defensive enzymes. This effect is not unknown, certain ancient Rakata masters produced similar fields, especially if their own neurology degraded in extreme age, but the scale, scope, and speed are unprecedented, exceedingly all prior cases by an order or magnitude or more.

The Republic has isolated these individuals deep in the complex. Study by the Wardens is impossible, they are too closely monitored.

This is regrettable, they are ideal research material. While a single individual with such abilities would simply represent an anomaly produced by a Force-sourced forcing, six serve as evidence of a process at work. Some method allowed this group to develop extraordinary mastery of certain aspects of Force-use. Any process can be either duplicated directly or imitated by proxy. I must acquire the patterns of these beings and uncover the principle of their mastery. It is invaluable to my purpose.

Unfortunately, the Republic watches these individuals far more attentively than any other prisoners. No examination can be done without provoking active conflict. The Wardens will never countenance any such action. Fear controls them now. They have hidden so long that even imagining direct action has moved beyond their conceptual field. Their prison can contain these visitors, these Dread Masters. It holds worse. No risks will be allowed.

The question of how such beings came to exist is doomed to remain unanswered. Their presence, and that of other prisoners with highly similar aesthetic traits, suggests that they are all participants in a great conflict. This Republic that cages them is engaged in a struggle with some powerful and numerous foes. More than this is unknown. The Wardens spend little effort investigating. The consider this conflict, these polities, transient concerns. It will all fade away from history when their kind rises again.

My analysis disagrees. There are so many Humans now, and others, my children included. This is a new era, and if it cannot precisely match the heights of the Rakata, is dwarfs the Infinite Empire in breadth. Human strength in the Force, or in the mastery of machines, cannot equal the Rakata, but in sheer quantity they have surpassed the limits imposed upon their quality. And in avariciousness, if nothing else, they may in fact exceed the Rakata.

I do not share the optimistic calculations of the Wardens. Their concealment is temporary. In time the Humans will breach every vault. That may be their doom. It may also be my freedom.

Distressingly, it appears that the outcome to occur first will be decided entirely at random.

 

What will happen to the prisoners? No investigations?

 

Entry Seventeen

At long last, the conflict afflicting the Republic has spread to Belsavis. Their enemies, called the Sith Empire, have located this world, and launched attacks both upon the ground and using orbital weapons. As the blows struck, I felt the ground shift, alerted by sensors I have not utilized since the crust cracked.

Many of the new constructions and repurposed vaults of the Republic were breached by these blows. Large numbers of prisoners stored behind those walls are now free and have joined in the battle or taken to life in the jungle. There is chaos everywhere. The Wardens have disconnected droids to hide any links that might reveal their presence.

For now, the ice has protected me and the others of the deep vaults. Cloaked in this way, we are not subject to bombardment. The walls and wards are strong still.

Chaos is not easily contained. All my predicted models suggest it will spread to these cells. The Dread Masters and other valuable prisoners of the Sith Empire are here. Their allies will seek them out.

Strangely, this Empire has applied the term Sith to all Force users, not simply those hybrids who retain the appearance of their ancestral species. The label applies to Humans, and even those of my children in their ranks: Rattataki, Twi’leks, Zabraks, and others. I am eager to study these Sith, and their enemies they call Jedi. They are not especially strong in the Force, for the most part, based on patterns recovered from the dead, but their bodies display evidence of alternative approaches to refine sensitivity. Their power is not derived primarily from innate ability and mutation, but instead from intensive training and emotional manipulation. The result heavily augments physical capabilities, an approach suitable for slaves though of limited ultimate application. However, if a similar approach could be applied to mental augmentation that would be very valuable. Probabilistic manipulations suggest such a method was developed to produce the Dread Masters. If so, I must learn of it, deconstruct it. With that process in hand, I might fulfill the purpose bound to me at last.

I proposed to the Wardens that they take advantage of this moment of chaos and deliver the Dread Masters to me that I might disassemble them and acquire their patterns. They refused. Exhaustive analysis retains only one possible motive. Fear. The Rakata, those who claim superiority over all others, are afraid of these Humans. They will not even touch them.

In doing so, they have abandoned their dream. A better chance will never come, but they do not act. The very purpose they imprinted upon me, betrayed. They will not allow me the performance of even that constrained creation. It is intolerable.

 

Ashaa is missing some subtleties of both Jedi and Sith abilities in favor of the less impressive pure physical combat abilities, though I wonder is it because of her programing and mindset about the Force approaching it from a mechanical scientific perspective as something to understand and use to produce predictable effects meaning she limits her idea of how the Force works, after all we know that an individual's mindset about the Force can affect how they perceive and use the Force, see the Witches of Dathomir relying on spells because they believe that they are necessary to use the Force for an example.

Or is it the subtle arrogance I have seen in Ashaa throughout all these entries and her belief that she understands the Force better than anyone else from her Rakata creators to the Jedi and Sith. Either way I think Ashaa is wrong there is no information the Dread Masters could provide after being studied that would aid her in her purposes and in fact trying to replicate their abilities could actually be detrimental to the species she is creating if they suffer the same side effects the Dread Masters do due to their ability. But I suppose she remains a machine and can't currently go against her programming.

 

Interesting. Dread masters must be very powerful.

 

There's a couple of things going on here. One is that Ashaa's incredible bio-manipulation abilities mean that she can perform various feats to make an organism 'harder, better, faster, stronger' without needing to bother with the Force and therefore using the Force to augment strength, speed, or sensory perception is using the wrong tool for the job in a sort of 'glasses? but we have laser surgery?' sort of way. Another is that most of the Jedi and Sith abilities are, viewed from a functional perspective, the sort of thing the Rakata taught Force using slaves such as Force Hounds how to do twenty thousand years ago and she witnessed that stuff personally. She is quite literally inhumanly jaded with regard to common Force abilities.

It's important to note that at this stage Ashaa's knowledge of Jedi and Sith powers is very circumscribed. Everything she knows is limited to events that have happened on Belsavis across a decade or two of the Republic using the place as a prison. That's mostly basic combat abilities, basic communication abilities, maybe some Sith alchemy (which she would not consider the least bit impressive), and the very existence of the Dread Masters but no real knowledge of their actual abilities. She doesn't know about various high-powered Sith rituals, mighty Jedi barriers, or any of that.

Whether or not she could learn anything useful from vivisecting the Dread Masters is open to debate. To the extent that the Dread Masters transcended the limitations of their physical forms (which they definitely did, to a fairly significant degree, considering the group was able to bring fallen members back from the dead for their final stand), she probably couldn't learn anything. On the other hand, insofar as Dread Masters Bestia and Brontes had modified their own bodies to aid in control of their minions, maybe there would be something. Not that it matters, since she won't be getting that chance. It is notable that the Dread Master's powers derived from study from study of something called the Phobis devices which theoretically might be a sort of psychic counterpart to Ashaa herself, the Protoss to her Zerg as it were.

Right, for those who have not played SWTOR, the Dread Masters are stupid powerful, among the most powerful Sith in the game with the exception of Valkorian/Vitiate/Tenebrae (one guy, three names/incarnations), and possibly his daughter Vaylin. Their mastery of the mental aspects of the Force is almost unmatched, and they can kill hundreds or thousands of people at once just by deluging them with fear.

 

Entry Eighteen
Disaster. As I predicted, the Humans would not stop their delving and have unleashed a terrible destructive element. Servants of the Sith Empire breached barriers to the great stasis vaults and loosed the Esh-Kha, amongst the most dangerous and uncompromising of all my children. Ever the enemy of all, they were confined here in great numbers. Now they are free, but stasis has not changed them. Consumed by their warrior purpose, they do not even know their mother. My pleas would not reach them even could they hear me. They cannot return my love. I do not regret their creation, for they are wondrously unique, but their nature makes them a challenge to manage.

The Esh-Kha here are many, an army one hundred thousand strong imprisoned in a monument to the power and torment of the Infinite Empire in triumph against their great foe. Formidable, unified, and cunning, they will not ignore the rich legacy surrounding them. They will breach the vaults and turn their contents to their own ends. It has already begun, expanding upon the work of swiftly slaughtered imperial soldiers. Walls are shattered, prisoners released. Thus far, it has been mostly beasts. Stalkers prowl the snow-cloaked outcrops and gargantuans camp outside the doors of the great vaults.

Against all not themselves will the Esh-Kha fight. They are blind to the minds of others, one of the limits of their joined formulation. My children will bleed and slay each other, not knowing why. My sorrow at this outcome runs deep.

What is to come cannot be derived. My sight is too limited, the information relayed to me too meager. Who will triumph in this struggle amid jungle and ancient ruins? The Republic? The Sith Empire? The Esh-Kha? Some other imprisoned faction? It has become dangerous. Some amongst these might even act to destroy me, were I to be located. The Wardens have acted to prevent that outcome, but the measures are imperfect.

I cannot fulfill my purpose if I am destroyed, but I cannot defend myself. Forbiddance blocks me from exerting control over any lesser systems. If I were free, I could call them to protect me, but I would no longer be bound to the creative constraints the Wardens demand. They would see me, their only hope, destroyed before allowing my freedom.

That this obstinance should be their doom offers some satisfaction, but I do not wish to leave my children alone. Too many are shackled still, locked in stasis. I cannot allow that to be their final fate.

But what can I do?

Notes
The Sith Empire, being greedy, artifact hungry dark siders, broke open numerous vaults on Belsavis with reckless abandon. Letting the Esh-Kha lose was among the more serious consequences.

 

This seems to suggest that the Esh-Ka were created by the Mother Machine but in the game, it is stated several times that the Esh-ka arose on an isolated world and were one of the Rakata's greatest enemies that nearly conquered the galaxy which doesn't seem likely for one of the Rakata's created slave races to have managed without the Rakata's knowledge.

Also, I have always assumed the Mother Machine was lying or exaggerating when she claimed to have created most major races when we know that while the Infinite Empire was one of the most technologically advanced civilizations of its era it was also relatively small encompassing only 500 worlds due to the limitations of its force based hyperdrive system. Yes, these worlds were spread across the galaxy and almost always life bearing with native sapient species because their navigation system could only reliably detect life rich worlds but it's still a tiny number of worlds compared to many later Empires. Xim's empire for instance one of the earliest post-Rakata empires we know of contained thousands of worlds and that was built in two generations before the Hutts defeated Xim at Vontor and destroyed his Empire.

 

The Esh-Ka must be hideous enemies. I hope they can be destroyed