章節 35: Not Up to Date
Tarkin sit in a large chair at the bridge of his star destroyer, a relatively new invention that had seen limited use in the Empire. Tarkin had replaced his venator with one, the Destroyer being much larger, this also meant that Tarkin was currently at Scariff, where his new capital ship had been created. Despite the distance, he had made sure to give command of his Venator to Commander Kelp, along side a promotion, Tarkin smirked with slight amusement as he remembered the Clones friends cheering him on as he walked away.
The beeping of an intercom broke his thoughts.
"Sir, we've detected the serial number of the boys LAAT near a garrison around the Mustafar system" It was Kelp, reporting his findings.
"Good...tell the Garrison to engage immediately, and i presume you are already on your there as well?" Tarkin asked, already knowing the answer.
"Of course sir"
"Know that Gideon will be arriving near you soon in his Star Destroyer, the mission will transferred to him"
and audible grunt of annoyance came from the clone before he responded
"yes sir..."
"very good then" Tarkin said ending the conversation, hanging up on Kelp.
Kelp stood in the bridge of his venator with furrowed brows, Flamer standing next to in his armor, and Sandstorm on his other side still wearing his Geonosis armor.
"Why do you still wear that?" Flamer questioned.
"looks cool"
"..."
"What?"
"Shut it, both of you" Kelp snapped, I've had enough of this kid, lets get things ready for Gideons arrival...and....hope that garrison doesn't get murdered"
"They probably will wont they" Sandstorm said with disappointment.
"Yeah....stupid TKs" Flamer scoffed, walking away and turning the corner.
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Jake stared out into space, the stars glowing brightly seemingly surrounding every corner of his vision, Jakes brown dirty hair was ruffled and covered in a thin layer of ash, his cloths, infused with even more metal as per Jakes daily adjustments shined as it reflected the vast space through the window. Jake sat silently in the LAATs cockpit, slowly flying through space, the bugs, despite their oddities helped Jake out tremendously with supplies and info, he and the others had just left the planet and towards Crait, the closest planet in the system. Tac sat in the back cockpit seat, Jake wanted to get better at driving the LAAT, but flying through space doesn't take much skill so he had just been sitting there. Tacs systems gave a light humming noise, his eyes reflected against the glass, his still face always giving off an annoyed stare.
Rusty and Bucket sit together inside the main area of the transport, while Teesh rests on the floor, awake but not doing anything. Clank is standing up, unmoving by the entrance to the stairs that lead to Jake, seemingly the droids security protocols in play, despite their being no threats. The inside of the LAAT remain stale, vaguely similar to the Imperial Venator, which wasn't helping the group forget what had happened. Even with everyone acting ok, Rusty, Bucket and Jake where silently suffering, Rusty and Bucket, where the most independent of the droids, and even with their suboptimal intellect, both had gotten bad memories from the jail cells, the relentless attacks from the Empires clones, the way they treated them both like a way to relive stress got under their skin...or metal i suppose.
Clank and Tac, didn't have such an issue, as for one neither could care that much if they where attacked, but they never where because Clank was to powerful, and Tactical Droids weren't as common as B1s, its reasonable to believe thousands of clones died before even seeing one in person, reducing their hatred. Jake however had easily gotten the worse of it, staring into space all his thoughts could wander on where things from home, his small house, the village, R4, even the Geonsonians, who had helped him throughout his life their. Sure, the planet was...a bit sandy for Jakes taste, but it was an odd sort of beauty, the huge rock formations and giant wreckages struck Jake and even past the Programming of his droids as Beautiful, he missed it. Jake sighed to himself, pushing whatever feeling he had aside and stretching himself in his seat, Tac turning its head at the movement.
"How are you feeling Commander Jake?" Tac questioned.
"Not bad...just a bit tired" Jake replied honestly, something he wanted to do more often.
"Heat has been known to cause discomfort in humans...i will activate the LAATs conditioning systems" Tac replied, typing away at the ships controls in his back seat.
"he..he" Jake chuckled lightly "...Thanks, i appreciate it"
"I am simply doing as my programming states...." Tac paused slightly, staring into nothingness "...Your welcome"
Jake smiled at the monotone words, going back to staring into space.
Rusty and Bucket sat next to each other, their backs leaning against the ships inner walls, their lanky bodies awkwardly bent to be in such a relaxed position. They where speaking to each other, trying to be quiet as they believed Teesh was sleeping, he wasn't, but its the effort that counts.
"What did you think of Mustafar?" Rusty squeaked out.
"What wha-?" Bucket yelped, shooting his head upwards.
"be quiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeet...we don't wanna wake up the trandoshan" Rusty scolded Bucket in a failed attempt to whisper, the B1s high pitched voice making near impossible to do so, Teesh groaning annoyed by their banter.
"Oh yeah...sorry" Bucket let out snapping head to look at Rusty, his red armor dull and covered in soot. "What did you say?"
"What did you think of Mustafar?" Rusty spoke slightly annoyed.
"oh...it was...pretty, i think" Bucket answered, in a decently confused voice.
"Well that's new, i thought all you wanted to do was shoot people" Rusty squeaked with amusement.
"Where gonna shoot people?" Bucket asked excited.
"No you bucket head! Tac informed of the mission via control protocols, we are going to the Crait system to refuel on last time, and then attempt to fly to Naboo"
"oh yeah...Naboo" Bucket said semi depressingly.
"It is in out best interest to attempt to assist Jake, i remember loosing a friend in the Clone wars, B1-2273, I'm guessing he doesn't feel good about R4" Rusty explained, setting a hand on Buckets red shoulder.
"Affirmative, i would never want to make Jake sad, he's very niiice" Bucket responded, dragging the i in Nice a bit to long.
"Roger Roger" Rusty replied, looking away and at Clank.
"What?" Clank asked from the other side of the LAAT, looking down at the B1s.
"Nothing...You sound angry" Rusty said turning his sideways with confusion.
"Are you programmed to be this angry all the time?" Bucket followed.
"yes" was all Clank replied with, receiving a light chuckle from the resting lizard.
"Well your no fun" Rusty responded to Clanks attitude, the B2s not caring in the slightest. Their chatter was interrupted by Jakes light footsteps coming down the stairs, the droids turning to see him.
"Greetings sir" Bucket and Rusty spoke at the same time, both raising their arms to wave, but hitting each other instead with light bang, Rusty staring annoyed at Bucket while the red B1 looked around trying to find who hit him. Jake shaked his head with an amused look.
"Greetings sir" Clank garbled out, walking next to the boy.
"How ya doin Clank?" Jake turned to stare up at the B2, despite Jake growing slightly with his time with the droids, Clank was easily several inches taller.
"Good" was all Clank replied with.
"fair enough" Jake said turning to look at the Teesh on the floor.
"maaaan get your ass off the floor" Jake laughed out grabbing Teeshs arm and yanking him upwards, the lizard adjusting himself to stand at full height.
"yeah yeah" Teesh chuckled in a low voice "what ya want?"
"Its ration time, and for once we don't have to eat those god awful cereal bars, the Mustafarians gave us some homemade food...cant be that bad" Jake spoke aloud while rummaging through several crates looking for the right one, eventually finding the correct one and dragging out of the tiny cargo area. Opening it, both B1s walked over with light steps to see what was going on, Teesh also moving to see what "homemade" food was given. Inside were several disc shaped objects, black in color with some sort of orange spice atop of it.
Shrugging his shoulder Teesh took one and shoved the whole thing into his mouth nonchalantly, after chewing a while with a determined look, Jake watching with anticipation, the lizard perked up and swallowed the food.
"Holy ssssssssssshit this issssssss actually fucking amazing" Teesh spoke, happily taking another one and taking a normal sized bite out of it. pleased, Jake took one and also bit into his, the teens face contorting as the food melted in his mouth, he gave Teesh a happy thumbs up as he sat down on the floor and took a another bite. Feeling somewhat left out Bucket grabbed one, Teesh and Jake pausing their eating to stare with confusion, Rusty also turned to Bucket.
"What are you doing?" Rusty asked.
"Well sometimes Clones would yell, "Eat this!" While shooting at me...so i assumed they must think I'm hungry, and according to the galactic net, if your hungry you should eat fooooood" Bucket explained calmly holding the disc food item.
Rusty, for some reason finding Buckets explanation completely valid, also grabbed one. Bucket stared at the food a bit longer, his determination on trying to find out what to do obvious even without facial expression, and after a few seconds, Bucket slammed the disc into his face, it breaking apart and its gooey insides dripping on to the floor, Rusty, seeing this, took a good look at his own disc, and did the exact same thing.
Both B1s stared at the floor for a second.
"uh...tasty?" Bucket let out confused "I...uh.. don't feel anything"
"Well that's because our Gustatory Sensors are offline" Rusty explained, ignoring his now food covered face.
"Do we even have those?" Bucket asked, Rusty shrugging in response.
"beats me" said in the typical B1 voice.
This whole time Teesh and Jake had to contain their laughter as they watched the scene, Clank had zero reaction, and Tac, who had walked down with noise, had palmed his face with one hand. Jake took another bite and placed his disc down, quickly swallowing the bite, getting up and walking to the B1s.
"Guys you cant eat food..." Jake chuckled slightly, his brown eyes not being able to look at anything but the seemingly innocent droid faces covered in whatever the hell it was they were eating. "Just let me clean you guys off" Jake finished
"and stop wasting the food!" Teesh followed, taking a bite of his third disc. As Jake took the B1s a few steps away and grabbed a cloth to try and clean them, Tac turned to Teesh, who had somehow alreayd eaten the last disc and was grabbing another.
"Eating food at a quick rate may result in digestive interference" Tac cautioned.
Teesh gave a toothy grin "trust me droid....Ill be fine....im built different"
"no...you are built like any other Trandoshan" Tac answered in a stern tone.
Teesh glared at Tac with a semi joking look "Fine....but only cause i want to" Teesh said scooting to lean against a wall, throwing what would've been his fifth disc back into the crate, Clank walking over and shutting said crate, before heaving it up and placing back into the storage.
"Your service is helpful" Tac commended Clank.
"I was built to be helpful"
"You will make a useful pawn"
"Roger Roger, I will be pleased to assist Jake in all ways"
Jake threw away the cloth and looked at the clean faces of Rusty and Bucket, both of which apologized several times after their droid brains finally figured out that metal, cannot in fact eat food. Dismissing their apologies with a chuckle Jakes attention was snapped away as the LAATs systems beeped, it echoing from the cockpit, Tac also moving back to the cockpit once hearing it.
Jake stared at the alert, instantly looking out the window he didn't even need to read the alert. A massive wreckage lay Infront of them, 2 huge Venators, still dawning the red and white republic colors, along side a single Separatist dreadnaught. Albeit the Dreadnaught was in a much worse state, being cut in half and the bridge area being literally on fire still. The Republic ships were still intact, but one being practically untouched other than the engines being completed destroyed.
"This wreckage must have been here for years, Sir, I highly recommend we attempt to scavenge, if we are lucky we may be able to simply skip Crait" Tac explained to Jake, staring at the Wreckage.
"I thought you said you didn't rely on luck?" Jake asked with a joking grin.
"...Your humor has not been comprehended" Tac spoke
Before Jake could respond his disappointed face turned to one of surprise as a bang came from the glass, snapping to see Jake saw the upper body a B1 Battledroid, still clinging onto its blaster. Looking closer, Jake could see more bodies floating around, several Clones, droids, and even some weird looking Zabrack in a robe, holding a piece of metal...weirdo.
Walking back down Jake caught Tac in the last sentence of explaining what they saw to the others, and saying how he had set the ship to hover by one of the ships.
"Wait, how are we gonna get the sssscrap?" Teesh asked.
"Well you and Sir Jake cannot go" Tac responded.
"No shit" Teesh answered, crossing his arms.
"We could send Rusty and Bucket on some rope" Jake gave the idea "as long as we don't let go of them" Jake chuckled nervously.
"Wait wait wait wait" Both Rusty and Bucket repeated, overlaying their words.
"You will be fine" Clank reassured Rusty, robotically patting his shoulder, Rusty letting out a nervous chuckle.
(SpongeBob sign "a few seconds later" appears)
"NIAAAAAAHHH RUSTY HELPP!" Bucket yelled out spinning through space, Clank holding onto both the B1s ropes.
"Its ok Bucket just, ju-just calm down!!?" Rusty yelped, being able to grapple onto the Venators hull, Bucket also being able to crash onto the hull and hold onto it. Jake and Teesh watched in nervousness from the cockpit, they had sealed the cockpit off as the LAAT doors had to be opened, Tac and Clank overseeing the operation.
"mmmmmmhhhhh..." Jake let out a worried hum, staring at the once flailing B1s.
"So this is gonna be all good right, like...last thing we need if for more friends to die" Jake asked, mostly to himself, in increasing panic.
"meh, they'll be fine" Teesh stated, not even looking at the scene outside, picking his teeth, his DC-15 slung over his back.
Jake grunted quietly in annoyance as he kept his gaze on Rusty and Bucket, both droids had pulled out the blowtorches Jake had given them, one of the torches being his own from Geonosis and the other being his spare. Rusty cut out a piece of metal from the ships hull, Bucket looking at Rusty in confusion. Rusty stared at the piece before throwing it behind him, the metal floating away into space.
Before this whole plan, Tac had explained the Venators precious parts from scans he had from the war, in short, the Venators outer hull was extremely heavily armored, therefore Jake hoped to take some and slap as much as he could on his LAAT. Tac also suggested trying to harvest left over ammunition that might be left in the hanger, which was surprisingly intact according to scans. Not to mention Jake could use a better blaster, and as much as the droids loved their E-5s, they weren't the most accurate.
"Bucket, grab this and take it" Rusty spoke loudly, handing Bucket a large piece of metal the B1 was able to yank out. The Job seemed more suited to a droid like Clank, but Jake feared he was to heavy to hold with the rope, and didn't want to risk sending his friend drifting off into space, inevitably dying due to lack of power. Speaking of, Jake had reminded himself to search the Hanger for charger ports, their was only one on the LAAT, and it was getting nerve racking to swap all the droids from the charger, Rusty had even shut down when Teesh accidently lost count, receiving a stern scolding from an anxiety ridden Jake.
Bucket pushed off the Venator, tugging his line, Clank instantly pulling Bucket back into the ship with Tacs help, the B1 clanking to the floor when he entered the ship, thanks to the "False Gravity" feature, which allowed them to walk despite being in space. Bucket dropped the large piece, being about the size of the droids chest.
"uurrrgggg" Bucket let out a frustrated groan as he attempted to life the part, Clank pushing him aside and lifting it with ease, placing it in storage along the other 4 pieces they had gotten.
"Show off" Bucket mumbled to himself, Clank stepping towards him.
"What was that?"
"no-...nothing"
"...mhmm" Clank let out in a degrading tone.
Tac, ignoring the scene flipped on his radio on his arm, lifting it to his voice box .
"Sir, we have collected 5 total pieces of scrap, utilized correctly we can complete the armor complex on this LAAT model you approved" Tac explained.
"Good, *static* get Rusty back in here, and thank you" Jake responded with a sigh of relief, he had been just waiting for something bad to happen.
Rusty strapped the blowtorch to his side, raising his hand to turn on his comms by his head.
"B1 Unit, you are to return, mission completed, i am as impressed as my programming allows" Tac spoke robotically.
"Roger Roger" Rusty tugged on the rope, looking away to stare into the vastness of space, the tiny dots glowing, the B1s systems couldn't process the sheer size of the galaxy as a whole, Rusty shifted uncomfortably. It made the droid feel small, expendable. Rusty let out an annoyed grunt, ignoring his thoughts, and tugged the rope again. To Rustys terror, he followed the rope to see that it had been cut, the loose ends floating in space.
"What The?!" Rusty yelped, scrambling to turn on his comms "TAC! My rope has been severed, H-h-help meee!!" Rusty panicked, clinging onto the Venators side for dear life.
Tac shifted slightly in surprise, "Do not worry..friend we will assist you" Tac switched the channel.
"Sir, Rustys rope has been destroyed, we must pull by the B1 until to enable proper collecti-"
"HES WHAT!!"Jake panicked, swerving the LAAT towards the ship, Clank and Tac stumbling around slightly.
"wait slow down!" Teesh called out, but it was to late, in his panic Jake accidently rammed the side of the crumbling Venator. Outside, Rusty shook as the area shook violently, the B1 whimpered as it called out to the now visible Clank and Tac.
"
"Hey! Over here" Rusty yelled, waving his hand. Beneath the ship rumbled in discomfort, the LAAT hadn't been damaged, just a dent, but the already crippled Venator groaned and creaked. With a high pitched yell, the piece Rusty clung onto shook and fell apart, the ships False Gravity yanking the droid all the way down to the hanger floor.
"NIAAAAAHHHhhhh..." Rusty yelled echoed, followed by Jakes panicked yell.
"RUSTY!"
Clank and Tac watched with minimal fear as the droid fell, Bucket also panicked though.
"Rusty has fallen, we must get him now!" Clank spoke in a loud deep voice.
"Affirmative" tac followed.
"Well what are we DOING!!" Bucket called out, holding both sides of his head. As if on cue, the LAATS doors slammed shut, and the ship began motion, Jake turned the ship, gently lowering the ship into the slightly open hanger doors atop the ship itself. Teeshs slitted eyes scanned the floor, quickly spotting the small figure of Rusty, splayed out onto the floor. Teesh pointed it out to Jake, the boy landing the LAAT nearby, the hull groaning as the ship hit the metallic floor of the Hanger. The LAAT doors opened, and after Jake and Teesh scrambling to put on suit that allowed them to breath, a white and grey suit they had found in the storage, along side clear helmets with a small republic logo on its side. Clank, Tac and Bucket hurried over to Rusty, getting their way before Jake and Teesh, who arrived a few minutes later. Jake kneeled down to the still B1.
"How is he?" Jake asked, his voice laced with worry.
"All systems are operational, other than outer damage, this unit seems to be alright" Tac stated.
"Well why issssssnt it waking up?" Teesh asked, rolling Rusty to his back, the droids chest had a large dent in it, but it was easily fixable, other than that, one of the B1s antenna was broken, which didn't matter because the Separatist signal had long been offline.
"Rustys systems more than likely shut off due to the impact, in an attempt to save power in the occurrence he couldn't awake" Tac spoke, holding out his data pad.
"Well get him up then" Clank spoke loudly. Tac bent down on one knee and connected a wire from the data pad into Rustys head, after a few minutes of casually typing, off set by Jakes panicked sweat, Rusty practically threw himself upwards into sitting position with a frightened yell, smacking Jake with his head, the teen being sent stumbling onto his back.
"Wait Wha- Where am i?! I was falling then-" Rusty cut himself off as he saw Jake on the floor holding his head wincing. "Sir?! are you ok?!" Rusty squeaked.
"Yeah..yeah I'm good" Jake groaned, getting up to his feet along side Tac, Bucket offering Rusty and hand to get up, which the B1 accepted with a polite thank you. Before literally anything else could happen, Clank yelled out in pain as his body pulsed a dark blue. Turning rapidly Jake saw several Clones, along side another blue circle to smash into Clank, causing the B2 to fall over with a low groan. The Clones wore full white armor, and had Republic insignias on their armor, Jake didn't care at the moment and went to raise his blaster, but was hit with a stun bolt, falling to his knees he watched as Rusty fired 2 shots, both missing, before being stunned, falling over with a "Ohhh Noooo...."
Bucket finding a similar fate as he couldnt even fire before being tackled by a Clone.
"HEY!" was all the B1 could let out in disagreement before they stunned him. Tac went down easily as Teesh kicked away and Clone, and backhanded another one, being being shot twice, the lizard hissing with anger as he lazily punched a third clone, with only three more stun bolts being able to topple him over. By sheer rage Jake was able to stay awake long enough on his knees to fire and nail a clone trooper in the shoulder with his blaster, but his view was quickly set to black, with the menacing figure of clone armor being the last he saw.
Jakes body fell limp, the Clones picking up the group.
"Its been a long time since any Separatists came by, they must not know we are here, we must stay on the look out" A Clone spoke loudly to everyone, clearly being the leader with armor covered with black stripes and symbols.
"How's our progress on communications?" the Commander asked a nearby clone as Jake and his friends where dragged towards the holding area deep in the ship.
"Not good sir, they are completely fried, just like they have been for the past 4 years" the Clone responded with a disappointed sigh.
"and any ships fixed up?"
"no sir, just the LAAT gunship the boy came in on, but it must be stolen, the colors are red and black"
"Well, he's got some style for a Separatist, before trying contact the Republic we should interrogate him, see what's going on and why he is here, I've never seen such an odd group of droids, not to mention so little of them" The Commander pondered to himself, the "Sir yes sir" of the other clone being drowned out by his thoughts.
"Well, lets get on with it, lock them in a cell and contact me once they awake"
"of course Commander Mute" a nearby clone spoke, holding a data pad as he walked off.
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