Why do they Sing?
Authors Note:
Hello! Before starting this I would like to clarify that all separatist droids and henceforth this entire story was thought to look like real life. Think of the B2s and B1's from the new mandolorian episode when thinking of Rusty's and Clank. And of course R4 is a normal Astromech which has been described in past chapters. Jake and all other humans are not their animated version and (at least in my mind) look like real people. Of course you can imagine the setting and looks however you want, but just thought I'd let you guys know my view of this story.(I would also like to apologize for my song choice in advance, it was my friend's idea so don't blame me!!)
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Jake awoke in his rusty bed, he stretched his aching limbs as he practically fell out of bed. He hobbled over to a small pile of old cloths, throwing off his ragged pajamas and slapping on his regular scrap infused shirt and shorts, quickly walking out of his room and taking a seat at his single table, and picked up a fruit which layer in the center of said table.
Jake looked over and saw his 3 droids all lined up on the wall under the window, R4 in his normal stance, Rusty folded up his eyes not emitting light, and Clank who was in a seated position with his legs splayed out in front of him. Jake realized how big Clank truly was, even sitting down Clank upper body easily covered over half of the window, which sat a on the wall around jakes chest level, Jake being 5.8 feet tall. The B2s width was also apparent as it's wide shoulders took up much of the entire wall itself.
After analyzing Clank for a while he finished his food and sat their pondering on past events. It's been 2 days sense he asked the 3 droids and Teesh if they wanted to fly with him. However both Rusty and Clank argued that the town was still in disrepair from the imperial attack despite their efforts, Teesh and R4 quickly agreed. Jake reluctantly agreed with their logic and spent the next few days helping out around the town, the major fixes had been accomplished already, holes in buildings, destroyed machinery, and any injuries on the townspeople/droids. However many smaller fixes had yet to be done, and the bugs had little experience in such a matter and had no perspective on human life, so Jake and his gang helped out.
Currently Jake's arms were sore, the amount of stress and effort exerted were the obvious cause. Rusty's temporary deactivation had finally caught up to Jake, but he pushed forwards, he told himself he's been through worse, and simply pushed his problems aside. Suddenly a low hum could be heard from the window, Jake snapped his head towards the noise and witnessed Rusty's arms unfold and the Droid stand up, followed by Rusty's head popping up from his chest, and finally his antenna sliding upwards out of his backpack.
"Greetings sir, how are you doing?" Rusty questioned, his head robotically turning sideways to confirm that the droid was asking a question.
"Yeah yeah....." Jake mumbled tiredly "I'm doing great....." He paused " how bout you?"
Rusty was caught of guard by his question, "uhhhh....all systems optimal" he replied quickly
"No no no" Jake restated chuckling "I mean how do you f e e l" Jake said emphasizing the word.
"Ohh uhhhh.....I am" Rusty's normally sparatic movements ceased as he entered a deep stage of calculation, obviously Rusty hadn't thought of such a question, normally his programming would imply him to give a snarky quote in return, or even just state how his systems were doing again. So without any programming to answer his master's question, Rusty restated what he said before.
"All systems are optimal" Rusty repeated, a confused tone still lingering in every word.
Jake just gave a short laugh with Rusty's response, he didn't know what he expected, but the B1's answer was welcoming nonetheless. Gargling could be heard back from the window, R4s lights turned on, soon after Clanks red dot on his chest lit up. Jake turned yet again to witness the droid activating, Rusty also turned his lanky body over to watch with Jake.
R4 rolled up to Jake and gave a few beeps, Jake began to pat the droid's head.
"Yes yes, good morning R4" Jake lazily spoke
Clank also stomped over as his massive build toward Jake and R4. Surprisingly Rusty was only barely shorter than the B2, but still seemed smaller due to his skinny frame.
"Morning....sir" Clank greeted Jake in a deep monotone voice.
"Morning Clank '' Jake gave a pat on the B2s chest, however, seemingly unfazed by Jake's actions, Clank walked over towards the front door, exited, and stood guard. Jake smiled knowing Clank took his protective duty so seriously. With another stretch Jake lazily stood up, grabbed his back pack from a nearby countertop, and slung it over his shoulder. He met up with Clank outside, as R4 and Rusty followed.
Jake had never taken in all the details Rusty's model had to offer, even when he first reactivated the droid. Jake looked at Rusty as it set up the speeder bike with the others, his lanky build more apparent when next to Clank, his motions mechanical to the point where every move would cause that limb to stop rapidly and shake, rust pouring from the joint that shook, unsurprisingly "Rusty" was extremely rusty. Jake did wonder why Clank wasn't as rusty as the B1, only with minor outer damage, but pushed it aside as he walked over to begin starting up his speeder.
"Alright guys" Jake said as he called the droids to focus on him.
"We're gonna head back to the village, and see if they need some more help, if not then we'll take the LAAT for a cruise" Jake spoke with a slight smirk of confidence.
"Roger Roger" was all an enthusiastic Rusty replied.
This was closely followed by "Roger Roger" from the hefty B2, and then followed by the traditional beeps and boops from R4.
With the droids attached Jake slammed into the pedals and launched towards the town. Within a few minutes the 4 arrived at the town gates, as the droids hopped off Jake surprisingly saw Teesh leaning against one of the pillars of the gate, leaving his droids Jake walked over to Teesh.
"Nice to see you again" Jake exclaimed with a tired smiled
"Good too sssseeee you to" Teesh began to walk towards the droid after responding, Jake followed behind
"Ah!" Rusty exclaimed "Greetings friend!" Rusty walked around the speeder as his lanky form awkwardly stood tall.
"helloo droid" Teesh responded as he pat the B1's shoulder.
R4 gave a few beeps at Teesh, who simply waved in return before rolling off next to Jake. Clank simply ignored the trandoshan.
"Cmon, follow me" Jake motioned the group to follow him as he walked towards the LAAT, still parked in front of the gates.
"Do you guys need any more help?" Jake remarked towards Teesh.
"Ssssssurprisingly the bugssss are doing fine, they've almost fixed everything" Teesh responded, arms crossed.
Jake replied with a nod as more sand was blown out of his hair from a small gust of wind, only to be replaced with more sand as more wind blew against the group. The walk to the ship was quick and silent, with only the creaks and clanks coming from the metallic members of the group as they walked filling the empty atmosphere. Reaching the already opened sliding door of the LAAT the team hopped on one at a time, the ship having no reaction to their weight. Jake gave a thumbs up to the droids who watched him in curiosity as he climbed up the stairs into the Pilot seat.
"Don't worry" Jake told them as he entered the pilot seat "I know what I'm doing!" He yelled as he reached the separate area for the Pilot.
"uhhh, sir? Are you sure about this?" Rusty responded worriedly as his body moved awkwardly to match his words.
Jake stayed silent for a moment.".....Kinda" he responded as he started up the ships engine.
Rusty turned his head to clank and made a slight "no" motion with his head as the starship made more noise, preparing itself for take off.
"Beeooo beep beeeep roooeeepppeep!!" R4 gave off a warning alarm, as he magnetized his treads to the metal floor.
"Hold on?!" Rusty copied what R4 had said.
"To what?!" Clank continued, in a deep yet worried voice.
The LAAT shook as the ship slowly hovered off the ground, Rusty's lanky body gave little stability causing the B1 to go tumbling backwards, Teesh quickly grabbed on to one of the hangers that lined the ships roof, his face being a mixture of "I don't give a shit" and " we're screwed".
Clanks heavy frame kept him from falling immediately, giving him time to copy Teesh and grab one of the hangers atop him. Behind the B2 Rusty could be seen wriggling on the floor as the ship continued to shakily lift off. Rusty's yelps of panic increased as the ship first stopped, before thrusting forwards, finally putting the LAAT in motion.
As Jake stabilized the ship in the air, he called out to the rest of the group "is everybody ok?!"
"Yes," Teesh and Clank said in sync.
"ohhh owwww" Rusty grunted in high pitched defiance, as he slowly sat up holding the back of its thin head.
"Beeep beooooo" R4 beeped in concern at Rusty's state.
"Great we're all ok" Jake spoke with confidence, being completely unaware of the chaos that had just happened minutes ago. Clank just held on and sighed as he watched Rusty on the floor.
Jake flew towards their destination, the droids and Teesh looking outside through the small slits in the doors, the view wasn't pretty as they entered the Geonsonian battlefield, the all too familiar droid and clone bodies lay the floor, Rusty and Clank were most affected by the sight, opting to look away from the view as they stood their in silence.
After a few minutes Jake called from the cockpit "This is your pilot speaking prepare for landing"
"great" Rusty let out with concerned annoyance as the ship practically crashed into the ground with a screech, the ship itself was somehow ok but Rusty, Clank and R4 lay on the floor, while Teesh was able to hang on, he still hit his head on the ships inner walls. Jake stepped down from the cockpit a few seconds later, seeing everybody on the floor.
"Uhhhhh what happned?" He asked confused at everyone state.
"You did" Teesh said, clearly annoyed as he rubbed his head.
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Everyone got out of the LAAT, checking out the area they'd landed in. A large egg shaped transport could be seen fallen over in the distance, its hull had large holes with black outlining, presumably from being shot at, it was obviously no longer operational.
Rusty and Clank stayed quiet as they exited the ship, Teesh didn't really care, like normal, and R4 just stayed by Jake, who was about to give a small speech.
"Alright guys, our destination is that large droid transport. There's probably tons of scrap inside just waiting to be picked apart!!" He spoke enthusiastically
"Why didn't you just fly us over there?" Clank questioned
"Well what's the fun in that?" Jake responded as if it was obvious.
"Now come on!" He waved his hand as he began to walk towards the ship
"Roger Roger '' Rusty spoke as he and R4 followed along, Teesh came soon after and Clank slowly walked near the back of the group. The walk wasn't all that interesting, very few parts were worth being picked up, and other than the occasional mangled droid body Rusty and Clank would pay respects for a brief moment before going back to walking, not much happened.
As they continued walking closer to the transport the wind would throw sand at their bodies, the small clatter of metal could be heard as sand pummeled the droid's frames. The sun beat down as usual on the group as they approached the transport carefully, and to say this thing was massive was an understatement, Jake simply stared in awe as he looked up and saw the transport reach hundreds of feet into the sky, and it was fallen over on its side, meaning it wasn't even standing up at max height. It was large and seemed like it used to stand on the small pillars, the huge ball was seemingly cut in half by some sort of beam, and the part they were next to was only a fraction of the transport's actual size.
"How many droids can fit in this thing" Jake said in sheer wonder, Clank, R4 and Teesh also admired the transport, Rusty responded to Jake's question.
"Close to 66 million" Rusty said casually
"Exa-fucking-cuse me?!" Jake stated in a confused yell at the absurd number, Teesh and R4 seemed just as surprised with a baffled look on their faces, well technically only Teeshs face as R4 beeped several confused words at once.
Clank ignored this conversation and scanned the side of the ship they were on, "I have detected an entrance exactly 128 meters to our right" Clank stated as it began to march in that direction.
"Alright let's go" Jake jogged to get next to the B2 as the others followed suit. Eventually reaching the small hole in the side of the ship, they all looked at it, metal was splayed in all directions and the burnt mark could be seen around the edge of the hole.
"I think it got shot" Rusty said matter a factly
"Oh really?" Clank said slightly irritated at the B1's stupidity.
"Yup!" Rusty innocently responded, only receiving a disappointed groan from the B2.
Jake spoke up "stop the bickering, it's obvious that Clank can't fit in this hole, it's way too small for his chassis. So Rusty and Teesh, you guys stay here and guard with Clank I don't want him to be caught off guard if Stormtroopers happen to show up." Jake motioned towards Rusty and Teesh as he said this, they nodded in return "me and R4 got this" he said as he squeezed himself into the ship, the astromech beeped frightened as it rolled in the ship. With a final wave Jake and R4 were no longer able to be seen from outside.
Jake and R4 walked deeper into the ship, reaching a small, open area which was connected to a long hallway, everything was slanted sideways due to the angle of the fallen ship, but it was still walkable. Jake stared at his surroundings as his feet made the floor creak due to the added weight, the halls were a pale gray, as was the floor, both of which were covered in intense amounts of sand. The walls were lined with small indents and weird metal components, sometimes they would pass by the rusting corpses of B1s who never made it out stuck in those indents, still folded up.
"It's like a giant storage container" Jake whispers to R4, the droid just cooed slightly in response
They reached a large room with control panels, after a quick check they were all broken. Wires hanging from the ceiling, and more droid bodies were splayed across the floor, most of them in pieces. "Good thing we didn't bring Rusty and Clank in here" Jake thought to himself as he stared around. Suddenly the floor where Jake stood with R4 creaked, he stared below him and stared at the seemingly inconspicuous floor.
He then stared at R4, "well it can't be that ba-" he was cut off as the floor beneath him gave away and he and R4 were sent falling several meters.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAADDDD" Jake screamed still finishing his sentence from before.
"WWWWHAHAAAAHHAAAAA" R4 let out a loud cry as the droid went spiraling down to the floor.
A loud thud and another loud clank being emitted as they crashed into the floor, Jake stood up clumsily as he barely kept his body from falling again, he clutched his stomach in pain as he stared at his hand which was now covered in crimson blood, his eyes widened at the sight, he looked away and limped over to help R4 stand up, the droid stabilized itself before looking at the small stain of blood showing threw his shirt. R4 beeped in a quiet worrying way. Jake patted the droids head and spoke with a slight smile.
"I'll be fine" he said before wiping the blood on his hand away on his shirt, both of them looked at the area around them, more wires hanged around them as they look up to see the hole they fell threw still open, they continued to scan their area, seeing less sand on the slope then before and spotting the several dead droid nodes in the small space. The area had the same monotone colors from before except they were covered in rust. Despite the droid bodies everywhere R4 spotted 2 in particular that seemed off, as R4 called Jake over with a few noises and Jake approached it seemed as if the droid were relatively intact compared to the others around them, not only that but they were cinched to a large box that sat rusting in the rooms cornering. Jake just looked at R4 with a look of confusion but before they could move on the droid's eyes lit up immediately, Making Jake take a step back and R4 rolled back, soon after as the droids rose up slowly, their joints creaking in disagreement with their actions. The 2 B1's had their Geonsonian red color scheme, both looked at each other before looking at Jake.
"Welll lo-look what we have here br—brother-brother" one droid spoke in an uncanny glitchy and distorted voice.
"A human?? H-h-how-how interesting" the other droid responded as they both walked towards Jake and R4.
"Um hello, I'm Ja-" before a nervous Jake could introduce himself, the first droid interrupted him.
"We-we don't care-re-re-care about your name-e hu-human" they spoke with the same previous voice but with a hint of anger.
"You know-kn-know what we-e-e-e planned to do if we ev-ever saw a human?" The other droid asked his friend mockingly, Jake listened to their conversation frozen in fear, R4 in the same stance next to him as well.
The droid raised its hand and messed with its voicebox, as if it was clearing its throat, Jake looked on confused until the B1 quickly leaned its face right in front of Jakes and began to...sing?
"Welcome to the underground!" It spoke loudly, before Jake and R4 could express their confusion the other droid continued.
"How w-was the faaallllll?" The other droid walked up behind Jake.
"If you wanna look around..."
"Give us a callllll"
"We don't see humans often.."
We're happy you just dropped in" The second B1 continued
The other droid grabbed Jake's shoulders from behind and continued to sing, as R4 watched helplessly.
"You'll be s-so popular when we rip out your guts and show you who the boss is!!" The B1 sang in an insane tone as it's head spin in a 360 to add to the songs creepy atmosphere
"Hey!, try and watch your manners?" The other droid scolded, still singing
"Shut it clanka, no time for banters!" The crazy B1 responded.
"Sorry my brothers are a bit eccentric.." the supposedly "nice" B1 told Jake
"And you're just lazy and apathetic!!" The crazy droid yelled in response.
"Call me what you want...I got thick skin!" The other droid responded ina joking tone at his pun.
"Another bad joke and I'm finished with him!" The other said annoyed, Jake watched this unfold and was actually kinda bopping to the beat, however R4 was still scared shitless of the 2 crazy droids.
The 2 B1's snapped their heads towards Jake and leaned closer "we are Clanaks!.. the awfullest kind!" the crazy one said
"To mess with us takes a lot of spine" the second droid continued making another pun, despite this, due to their close proximity Jake stumbled back before one of the droids wrapped their hand around his neck and lifted him into the air slightly.
The 2 kept singing in sync
"We"
"Cant"
"Re-"
"Late to your determination!!"
"Be-cause we clankas have our own motivations"
"Hu-mens beeeetrayyeedddd ussss, and left if burnin, one day we'll make our wayyyy back up to the surface....
Through...alll....your travelllssss your sins shall follow...
Your consequences aren't easy to swallow!..
Who's the real monnnsterrrrr!! Now you should know!!
You've cut this story, down to the bone"
The 2 droid approach Jake laughing maniacally, R4 attempts to pulls out the blaster from inside his head, but before a shot is fired one of the B1's grabs it and rip it out of R4 heads, sparks fly as the B1 tosses it to the floor, and resumes singing.
"You're stuck in the underground" one droid sang, Jake looked at it with a face that read, "no shit"
"Thanks to the falllllll" the other B1 continued as they kept circling Jake and R4
The crazy B1 grabbed Jake and pulled him over to it "good luck getting out.." it said evilly
It pushed Jake back into the other droid who proceeded to deliver a right hook directly to Jake's face, causing him to stumble backwards.
"Prepare to braw-" before the droid could finish the line in its threatening tone, Jake pulled out his Trandoshan pistol and rapid fired three bolts into the droid, one of which missed, the once singing droid slumped onto the floor with 2 burning holes in it, deceased. The other droid made a mechanical noise of rage as it walked up to Jake to deliver another punch, surprisingly R4 rolled out of nowhere and knocked the old droid off its feet, as it landed with grunt and kicked up some rust it was silenced by Jakes blaster bolt, which left a single smoking hole in its head.
"Nice song you two" it looked at their dead bodies "sorry bout this" he said somewhat sadly before turning around and walking into a random hallway, R4 following close behind.