19 Replay
Just letting you guys know this chapter is more focused on characters story and stuff, we've had a bunch of action lately so prepare for some flashbacks!!
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Jake sat atop his house, pondering.
It had been about a week since The Commando had left, and Tac insisted that he was as good as scrap by this point. Jake had no intention of looking for him, and even if Jake did, there was little he could really do when surrounded by the vast empty desert. Ignoring that however, things had been great.
Rusty, Clank, Tac and R4 had become closer than ever before, and even with their droid personalities varying from Rusty's positive shyness, Clanks serious roughness, and Tac's unemotional mindset, the 3 got along great. R4, had connected more with Jake, feeling slightly jealous with the growing amount of droids around them. Jake of course reassured that no one could replace such a good astromech, usually receiving a giggling chortle in response.
Still on the roof, Jake watched the sun rise in the far distance, the glow beating of the sands and rocks, and the light heating up jakes face. He closed his eyes and basked in the warm sunlight, a small smile on his face. This wariness would slowly turn to boiling later in the day but Jake didn't really care, he's used to this crap.
Jake shifted his weight and dropped from the ceiling with a small relaxed thud in the sand, his metal infused clothing rattling slightly. Jake went inside and went to his bathroom, brushing his teeth and trying his best to comb his dirty hair. Of course the irrigation in his house was horrible, but it was enough to slightly dampen his hair and shower every once in a while. He combed his hair, which still looked messy, and went to grab some food. He passed by all the droids, who had been deactivated along a wall, all of them except Clank are folded up neatly, mostly due to its leg injury.
Jake sat at his single table and ate up a small sandwich, it mostly had some leftover lizard flesh he bought from the town market, and some apples that were miraculously cultivated by the bugs in the coolness of their hive, then sold in the market. Quickly finishing up, he activated the droids.
"Yeeerrhhaahhaa" Rusty spoke as the droid moved its joints around "good to be back!" He stated happily
"Grruruuu" Clank let out a menacing type mechanical noises and lifted heavily. Standing still u til saying "good morning sir"
Tac sat up with no noise, and immediately put his hand together i front of him "what are the orders for today"
"Nothing as of now" Jake said casually as R4 turned on and happily greeted the squad with a serious beeps.
"Your stockpiles of scrap are low, and another trip to the market is required for your food and out power" Clank stated, lifting an empty food bowl, then opening the small fridge to prove his point, there only being a half eaten tub of experience ice cream and a damm apple in there.
"That's true" Jake sighed, "alright...scrap run it is"
"OoooooooOoo Exciting" Rusty quips
"Last time we went to collect scrap, you almost caused an AT TE to self destruct, not exciting" Tac stated in a fearful yet annoyed tone.
Jake chuckles slightly at this as they walk outside, Jake gets the speeder started up as Rusty bickers to Tac behind him about how it wasn't his fault he threw the live grenade into the Walkers engine. Eventually starting it up the droids hop on. The speeder had gained upgrades to easily support the added droid weight, adding some repulsors from a downed ATT gave the speeder extra lifting power
—-10 mins——-
The ride there was peaceful, the squad rarely spoke when riding, it was mutual agreement that they'd all rather just stare into the distance thinking to themselves or taking in the view. Upon arriving at the ever familiar scrap heap that is the battle of Geonosis, Jake and the others hopped off the speeder, their feet being swollen by the sand before they each took their first step into the scrap field. Jake immediately whipped out his blow touched and begun to tear apart a small STAP speeder that lay burnt and scarred on the floor, the B1 rider still attached the the seat as the droids arms are broken and the droids metal filled with blaster holes, the speeder it self wasn't in much better condition, with a large part of its insides showing as a piece of the armor was missing. Rusty saw Jake's work and came over, the other droids had disappeared a safe distance away to collect valuables as well.
"Uh sir.... Are you going to tear apart the B1" Rusty asked cautiously as he remarked about the STAPs dead pilot.
"What?....oh.. no of course not, I have no need for his parts" Jake responded nonchalantly
"And if you did need his parts?" Rusty inquired with a high pitched squeak.
"Well.....look, Rusty.., sometimes I have to tear apart your brethren for resources, that's just how this works, I've been doing this for years and it's the only way me and R4 had sustained ourselves" R4, who was helping Jake, beeps in agreement.
"Just promise you won't tear them apart if they live?" Rusty asked
"Of course Rusty, I promise" Jake assured the B1
Be"Roger Roger!" Rusty responded happily as he returned to whatever random piece of metal he was trying to get at.
Clank was currently ripping apart a dead droidekka for spare pieces, the B2s hope was that the droidekka inner wheel mechanism would help stabilize his injured hip, but all the droids he's found have had that part destroyed, as it usually explodes upon the droids death. Frustrated, Clank heaved up the droidekka and launched it a few feet away into some rubble, letting out an angry garble.
Tac looked over "what is the issue" it inquired
"My hip injury is debilitating, and annoying" Clank responded in a deeper voice then normal
"I see....I suggest searching dead B2 Superbattledroid corpses for the part you require" Tac suggested monotone
"I am not as idiotic as a B1" Clank responded angrily "I have thought of that option, however, I refuse to tear apart my own model" Clank stated
Tac, stared at the B2 for a few seconds, Tac broken eye flickered a bit before the droid responded "allow me to do so then" Tac said as it walked over to the nearest deceased B2 and began searching for the correct piece.
"Thank you, your kindness is approved by my program" Clank states in a "cheerful" voice, despite the B2 not technically being capable of such high pitches.
Jake had torn into the STAP speeder, and had collected a few types of wires, general rusting metal for building, a few shiny parts that he didn't really know what they were, and some other general gears and such that he could sell. R4 had found a few special components of a Clone helmet comm piece, and gave it to Jake.
Jake looked at it, "nice job buddy!" He gave a gentle pat on R4s head, receiving a gleeful gurgle. "Hey Rusty come look at this " Jake called
A confused "huh!?" Was received as the lanky droid came rushing over "yes sir?"
"Take a look at this" Jake handed the comm piece to the B1
"Oooooo... a clone comm set, I've seen one of these before" Rusty said scanning the comm. R4 gurgled and beeped, inquiring Rusty to hand the astromech the comm, inserting into one of the droid slots. With a static noise R4 began to play back what the comm had stored in its files.
The 3 listened closely
*static* "we've got several battalions if droids coming up towa-did- sp*static* mostly B1's, but lots of tanks, hail fires, dwarf spider, even persu-d—eers *static* we've got them outnumbered on this quadrant" the clone yells out, the sound of blaster fire prominent in the background, "arrgh!" A clone yells in the background as heavy footsteps fill up the sound, followed by a loud metal clang followed by the yelp of a b1 "take that clanka!" a clone yelled.
As the recording continues, with more blaster fire explications and the inevitable grunt of the clone as the comma goes to static, indicating the death of the clone, Rusty was simply staring into the distance, and yet despite the lack of facial expression, the droid seemed horrified.
"Rusty?...are you ok..Rusty!" Jake's voice slowly fades away as Rusty's program replays a moment of the droid's life.
———-Flashback————
A small platoon of B1 battle droids, followed by an AAT tank, marched through the semi recent ruins of the battle of geonosis, their metal footsteps echoing in the vast plains. Rusty, or formally known as B1-2368, was marching along sr e his brothers, nearly indistinguishable from the rest.
His commander Barked orders into his program
##$&&—==/ mission objective—locate Jedi remains for CLASSIFIED, bring back CLASSIFIED object back to base as soon as possible...$$(*(//=== Side objective,%—-do not be deactivated.
With a simultaneous "Roger Roger" the droids began marching once again searching for CLASSIFIED. A droid next to B1-2368 speaks to it
"Have you found anything yet?" The B1 asks
"No" 2368 responds
"Oh...bummer"
And that ended the short conversation, as their programming urged them away from talking, and to focus. However, said focus was interrupted as a loud BANG ringed in the Audio receptors if ever droid their, the cause? After a short scan around 2368 noticed his B1 commanding officer's head was now missing from his twitching lifeless body, the head being in the ground a few feet away with a hole in it.
"We're u deep attack!" A B1 shouts, before it gets shot as well, falling over limp
Now scared, and acting off programming alone, most of the B1's fire openly in all directions. This doesn't help them, as they drop like flies, soon however, their enemy reveals themselves. 4 clones, all wearing black and red armor, one is much taller than the others, another holds a sniper, another a knife, and the last one a data pad. Confusion caused in 2368 circuits as he questioned only for a moment who they were, of course he along with his brothers began to open fire. 2368 focused his fire on the sniper with prejudice as it calculated who killed his commander. The clones rushed from behind cover and mowed down through the screaming droids. The entire platoon was stabbed, electrocuted, and even picked up and crushed by the small force of clones. With so few droids left, self preservation protocol's kicked in and many droids began to flee. The AAT fired a shot at the group, who quickly moved out of the way, the bigger of four then pushed the AAT into nearby rock before they opened the hatch and electrocuted the drivers insides, threw them out of the tank and killed them. 2368 had fired only for a bit at them, before it ran away, quickly scrambling into the now empty AAT. Hearing the screams of his platoon behind him he tried to climb the tank and opened the hatch back to hide inside before feeling a tap in its shoulder.
"Huh?!" It let out in fear
"Why hello there" the large clone scoffed
"Not the face... not the Face!" 2368 pleaded for its life.
But his calls were unanswered, as with a hearty laugh the clone pulled back and threw his fist at the droids face...then...nothing
—-end of flashback———
Upon Rusty's return the entire group was surrounding him, he had been standing up simply staring into the distance, and shook his head confused.
"Rusty you're ok! What happened" Jake said relieved, followed by joyful beeps from R4
"I-.... Don't know, I think I just remembered how I shutdown" Rusty said rubbing the top of his head
"Interesting" Tac stated
"Well...you can tell us how that went later, for now let's head back, we've got a crap ton of shit to take home". Jake said happily
"Roger Roger"
"Roger Roger"
"Roger Roger"
G"Beeewoo BWEeeeee"
After packing their stuff, and attaching themselves to the speeder, they began the short ride home, it was turning night, but out everyone in the speeder, Rusty's thoughts were the most prominent, he was confused, who were those clones?, are their any droids left of my platoon?
Rusty, understandably, decided to just ignore these questions, and instead watch the sunset...sighing with content Jake had a warm smile on his face, another peaceful day, "wish these happened more often" Jake thought to himself
Sadly for him, nothing good ever lasts...
even if you're made of steel...
