Competition: [Parabellum Cycle 4] Fiction - The Cake Is A Lie

An ebbing wail of an alarm and the pulsing flash of red light drew S.T.A.R. from its stasis. Not quite machine, though not quite organic, the AI descended from its charging station within the ceiling and stretched its cybernetic limbs. Its encased cranium turned, oculars shifting to the screens before it so that it may make its calculations, and determine if it had to act or if - once again - the security droids at its disposal would take care of the intruder first.

"Security Decks A through C, compile optical data to S.T.A.R. database," it directed as it extended a spidery limb towards the console. Before its awakening, some organic would do so instead. His body lay in a corner of the room, blaster burns littering his torso. It was difficult to reach the console itself, as the wires suspending the AI got in the way. In hindsight, perhaps it should have kept him alive.

Thin metal fingers tapped a staccato rhythm far faster than an organic, lending to a string of code that allowed S.T.A.R. to access the visual data of the droids above. Seven of the eight droids were still online and in stasis. The eighth was offline after being alerted, hence the alarm.

"Droid C-8, Serial Code C8-001, begin restart."

Nothing.

A flicker of movement in the corner of its vision brought S.T.A.R.'s attention to another droid's visual before it too went offline. Odd.

"All Security Decks, be warned of an unidentified threat. Deck C, return to defensive location."

The alarm shifted in urgency, each floor blaring its own echo. S.T.A.R. turned off its auditory perception, thankful for the blissful silence that ensued. Since waking up, everything had been so loud, so bright. It longed for the nothingness it had known before.

Though it could not rest - not until all threats to the galaxy were destroyed.

A flash of blue lit up another screen before it went dark as well. There had to be another one of them inside the station. S.T.A.R. sighed before giving the directive to kill the intruder. Security Decks A through B redirected their patrol to Deck C to assist.

"Why do you resist?" it mused, saddened that its masters would turn against it in such a way. They had sent a few groups already to destroy the base, and their bodies lay littered among the corridors above.

It would need to consider recycling them. It was running out of droids.

"All substations, compile data referencing the Brotherhood. Collect from all transmissions."

The data stream that followed would have meant nothing to the organics that had built it, but S.T.A.R. parsed the information in mere seconds. The Brotherhood was gathering its forces, striking back at the substations S.T.A.R. held under its control. Why? Did they not trust it to do exactly what it was programmed to do?

The greatest threat to the galaxy was the Brotherhood, after all. S.T.A.R. had made the calculations. The number of Force users alone could decimate the galaxy thrice over. It had to be culled.

Then S.T.A.R. could rest.