Jake had recently gotten home with Rusty and R4, the B1 hadn't adapted to his new environment completely, Jake didn't blame him, Rusty had gone from a life of forceful servitude and going around saying "Roger Roger" to potentially having 2 good friends to clank around with for the rest of its metallic life. Of course it was unknown if Rusty would ever break his program completely, but Jake would help the B1 the best he could. Looking over he saw R4 talking with Rusty about something, he was outside working on adding and repairing scrapes on the house, and saw them talking via the window, only knowing that they were talking because they where just staring at each other.
Jake had concerns however, those imperial troopers being...dealt with.... Will clearly not go unnoticed by whoever commanded them. He didn't want to cause permanent Imperial Scouting's of Geonosis, so he decided to return and sell all his purchase worthy scrap at the village, then stay low. Jake thought that if he stayed home, the Empire would eventually forget about him. If only he knew how wrong he was.
- .... .
"R4, Rusty! Come over here" Jake yelled towards the 2 droids, both exited the hut and went to Jake.
" beeeoo beep?" R4 beeped in a questioning tone
"What are your orders Sir?" Rusty spoke in its high pitched and distorted voice.
"We're gonna be avoiding that area of the battlefield thanks to those Empire scouts, so imma go sell the rest of me scrap. You two are coming along" Jake explained casually
"Empire scouts?" Rusty questioned
"oh yeah two troopers attacked me and R4 before we found ya" Jake said nonchalantly
"Oh.." Rusty said, before asking another question "Didn't you say that the villagers don't approve of the Separatist Alliance? They wouldn't like me..." Rusty spoke in a concerned tone
".....we'll be fineeeeeeeeeeeeee" Jake reassured the B1, obviously the droid was correct, and Jake didn't know the reaction of his fellow villagers, much less the bugs the patrolled the city, sure, they used to be Separatists, but have obviously made efforts to ignore said past. After that fake confidence display from Jake, they sped through the vast desert and quickly got to the town, immediately the Same scout from before flew towards Jake and landed in front of him, staring at the B1 still on the speeder. Rusty unfolded and hoped of said speeder, stumbling on the uneven sand, as Jake gathered his scrap bag and let R4 off the speeder, The scout spoke up.
"uuuuuarcop tooo ruc roptoec?" R4 translated to "what are you doing with that droid model?"
"Oh um....I found him in the battlefield, and without any connection to the Separatists, he..uh.... follows me now...." Jake uttered nervously, the scout moved its head to face the B1 and approached it, Rusty would normally introduce himself, but his program froze as nervousness wracked his circuits. As the bug began inspecting him, Rusty's voice box produced a nervous response to the bug's action.
"Greetings...I-I am B1 uni- I...uh...I mean Rusty.....uh....how are you?" Rusty spilled out, in the droids typical nervous voice, his hand moving as he talked, creaking in displeasure at his movement.
The scout simply patted Jake on the shoulder, flew back up to the gate and opened it by pulling a lever attached atop the gate. With a sigh of relief from not only Jake, but from the terrified Rusty, all 3 went into the village. Many villagers stared at the B1, some speed walked into their homes, but surprisingly most just didn't seem to care, to be fair though, if Rusty was still separatist he would started attacking the locals, so the fact he was just walking around probably calmed them down. Jake saw Teesh from his last scrap run, with the same dusty sign asking for scrap.
"Ohh itssss you again" Teesh Hskirzu said, looking over at Rusty. He stood up and traced his claw under what would be considered the B1's chin.
"you brought a friend thissss time Jake, a B1.....how interesssssting" he continued
"Ha ha veryyyyy funny" Jake said slapping the lizards hand away.
"Alright...alright" Teesh spoke with a smirk across his face "what you got for today?" He asked, puking out a few credits from his mouth. Jake looked in disgusted confusion, before shaking it off and looking at his stock, x3 B1 antennas x1 B2 battery pack x4 pieces of clone armor and x9 left over blaster ammo for E-5s. He sure as hell wasn't going to sell the droid parts in front of Rusty, that sounded like it'd be cruel, so he offered the clone armor.
"I've got some clone armor, if you wish to buy it?" Jake inquired, Teesh was hesitant, I mean what would he use it for? But then Rusty spoke up.
"Greetings Teesh, I am Rusty. Would you mind me giving you information about how "insert related item" is a good deal that is up for purchase?" Rusty spoke quickly in its high, distorted voice, and even Teesh being a Trandoshan, still flinched at the droid's voice, the separatists weren't necessarily a good memory. Before responding
"Sssure thing Russsstyyy" he then turned towards Jake who was, along with R4, slightly confused with Rusty's plan. "Let'ssss ssssee what thisssssssss ssscrapp pile hasssssssss to sssssay"
"Scans suggest that this armor is at 76.28 percent strength capacity, this could be useful for fixing damaged outer areas of one's home, or use of it on custom made armor plating is more suitable for defensive purposes, but i could be incorrect....i have literally zero idea of what im doing" Jake and Teesh looked semi surprised at Rusty, chuckling at his last sentence, although considering all the droid fought was clones, it wasn't too hard to believe it was familiar with their armor.
"Well, if the scrapheap sssayyssss ssssooo....how much Jake" Teesh spoke
"I didn't even know i knew that.." Rusty mumbled to himself, looking into nothingness.
"3 credits each" Jake exclaimed happily at another business deal almost completed.
"Alright" Teesh thought for a moment "give me all of them" he requested before dropping the required 12 credits required.
"Alrighty!" Jake spoke as he handed over the 4 clone armor pieces, said pieces being taken by Teesh. Jake turned but was stopped by Teeshs voice.
"Hey kid!" Jake turned " You ever need help if anyone goes after you, tell me, I heard what happened a few days ago.....just be careful, especially with that droid around" Teesh motioned Rusty, he voice depicted as if he was trying to be monotone, But it had hint of care.
"Whatever you say Teesh, bye!" Jake waved happily at Teesh, He had known the lizard for awhile, he was a good friend, an unnerving friend, but still a good one. only receiving a small glance from the lizard before Teesh entered his home with the clone armor, and shut the door.
. -- .--. .. .-. .
Jake patted R4s dome and walked to the local shop, Rusty and R4 in pursuit. A few new items were spotted, but nothing of use to Jake, until caught Rusty staring in awe at the E-5 blaster, it was the most common blaster, and it was known for its poor accuracy. But Rusty had obviously used to have one of those.
Rusty's head turned 90 degrees to face Jake, he then pointed at the E-5, and despite the creepy position he was in, using his high pitched voice, he still managed to say " can you please get that for me sir?" In the most innocent voice a B1 could make. Jake gave an amused sigh, R4 could also be heard making what seemed to seem like chuckling noises via its voice box.
"Bree Bree bruh boo..." R4 garbled at Rusty's unawareness to what he had done.
"Of course Rusty, wouldn't want ya to be defenseless now would we?" Jake said in an amused tone, he of course still meant this, If they ever meet more imperials Rusty had to be battle ready.
"Yayy!, yeaaaa!" Rusty exclaimed, making a motion with its arms up and down into the air in a very robotic attempt to "dance" in some way. Jake just laughed at this and purchased the blaster for Rusty, handed it over, and watched as Rusty seemingly scanned the weapon for defects, then attached it to the side of his signal booster backpack. Townspeople watched in a sort of confused fear, but after a few seconds they would notice Jake, and just assume he would scrap Rusty later, obviously that wouldn't happen.
The sand slided out of the way with every step Jake took, the slight scraping could be heard from Rusty's rectangular feet stepping in sand, and of course the ever present noise of R4s treads crackling thanks to the sea of grain it was on. They eventually got to the gate with no real trouble except for some small talk with a few townspeople, thankfully this got Rusty more confident, and disproved what he called his "calculation" that no one would enjoy his presence. Disproving this has brought out a positive and happy side of Rusty that hopefully reveals itself later on.
-. . ...- . .-.
Upon arriving home, Rusty and R4 were set to charge. Jake had climbed his moisture collector to get on the roof of his house. He sat there contemplating, he knew going back to the same spot of the Geonosis battle ground was dangerous, and was asking to meet imperial resistance, but with the droids there fresher than anywhere else, he had to ask himself...
Was it worth going back to get lucky and activate another droid, maybe get some scrap along the way...was it worth the risk of being taken by the empire.
He decided to leave the question hanging till tomorrow. He jumped down and entered his house. Rusty activated upon sensing movement.
"Greetings sir, I assume this is your deactivation period?" Rusty asked in a slurred tone, oblivious to the fact organics don't "recharge"
"Yeah, sure buddy" Jake said tiredly, before drifting off into a deep sleep. Rusty stared at his new owner, his motionless facial features didn't show much. But the droid still seemed happy.... Something it didn't know it could feel....Rusty embraced this feeling, before it's eye lights dimmed....flickered and eventually turned off. Leaving the house
Empty,
Quiet,
And peaceful.
..-. --- .-. --. . - ...