Rusty, Clank and R4 had climbed up the cliff edge where they had calculated where the imperial ship had landed; they stood there behind a small rock observing the shuttle. The 2 large wings, giant side doors, and the ball turrets familiar to the LAAT.
"what is the plan of action Rusty" Clank garbled out in his deeper voice
"All enemy clone units seem to be distracted" Rustys spoke as obvious blaster fire could be heard in the distance.
"Beeep beeooo" R4 beeped sarcastically almost as if to say, "no kidding?"
"We can head behind their ship undetected and flank them from behind, troopers always have a harder time defending 2 fronts" Rusty's plan was as basic as it gets, but that didn't mean it was bad. the 3 agreed upon it and headed behind the LAAT, as the droids had suspected, no enemies were detected in the ship, other then the dead pilot which seemed to have been shot from above. The 3 enter the ship's main area where troopers would stay for transport. Clank walked by a small pile of grappling hooks, presumably they were spares for the clones to use.
"Look at this" Clank raised a hand that had 3 grappling hooks hanging of it
"I have an....idea" Clank spoke confused.
"ooooooo two ideassss!!??" Rusty said happily.
"Well, what is it?" Rusty followed in his normal high pitched tone
"Follow me" Clank said as he handed Rusty and R4 a grappling hook
Meanwhile.....
Jake and Teesh had stayed in a stalemate with the clones, with shots being exchanged frequently, but most hitting the cliff side, or the floor. Several bugs had died at this point, the small hive continued to reinforce and replace them to the best of its ability. Many citizens that had been fighting quickly opted out and hid in their homes upon seeing many a citizen die, hoping the bugs could deal with it, fair on them to be honest.
"How long has it been" Jake spoke between breaths, he hasn't done much running, but the stress was getting to him.
"Don't know, don't careee, jussst killl them" Teesh spoke as he peeked around the house they were behind a blasted 2 clones of the cliff, their bodies falling with a disgusting squish on the ground far beneath them.
As the 2 sat there with weapons ready, they suddenly heard something, or actually they stopped hearing something.....The clones had stopped firing. Teesh and Jake looked at the cliff, seeing that all the clones were looking around confused, neither knew why.
"NIIIAAAAAHHH EEAAAAHRHHNNN" Rusty was seemingly thrown off the cliff, panicking, and with a grapple attached to his back, as Rusty swinged away to the sides Clank jumped off aswell, R4 came down soon after, all three with grappling hooks that were attached to the LAAT.
Clank picked up and threw fleeing and fighting clones alike off the cliff side, blasting a few In range of his wrist blaster while walking sideways on the cliff side. Rusty swinged back and forth, screaming the whole way, knocking clones off by accident in the process. While R4 hid behind Clank and firing with the small blaster that Jake had bought him, that now popped out from his head.
Several clones went running at the sight of a B2, not having fought one in so long they just ran in fear and possible PTSD, some older veterans stayed and fired at the droids with a growing hatred, but any shot towards R4 and Clank either missed due to the odd angle, Or was absorbed without care by Clanks armor.
Rusty couldn't survive being shot at like Clank, but his constant swinging and panicked flailing, combined with his skinny design made him almost impossible to hit. Jake and Teesh watched in humorous confusion as the droids did surprisingly well, Jake quickly snapped out of it and began to open fire again along with Teesh who followed suit. The Bugs remaining who were also confused flew up and charged the remaining clones, picking them up and carrying them to the catacombs within the cliff side. After a few minutes of carnage-inducing blaster fire, clones being picked off by bugs, and Jake along with his droids taking out many a clone trooper the battle was eventually over with only 1 clone remaining, he had climbed back up the cliff side and began to run away.
"Everybody!! Get him!" Jake was of course referring to his 3 droids, problem, by everybody the bugs thought he meant EVERYBODY, So a large swarm of bugs quickly formed and chased after the lone clone, a few seconds later gargled pleas for mercy could be heard, until it was silenced by insectoid yells. Not even a minute later, the swarm returned to the village, with a few bugs carrying the clone's tattered remains into the hive.
After the fight, the bugs carried off dead members of their colony and clone remains alike. Jake and Teesh sat down in front of Teeshs house, soon after Rusty, Clank, and R4 appeared, finally having carefully climbed down the 90 degree cliff. Jake got up and hugged the droids, their cold metal was uncomfortable, but he didn't care right now. Teesh looked up at the 3 with a small smile, his forked tounge flicking out. Jake released the 3 from the hug, of which none of them knew how to react too.
"Alright.....that was intense... but nice job you three!" Jake exclaimed tiredly
"Uhhh...your welcome?" Rusty responded questioningly with a head tilt, an obvious sign of confusion.
Jake stared blankly at him " it means I'm thankful for what you've done" Jake explained with a sigh
"Oh" Clank and Rusty spoke in sync, neither really used to compliments.
"Alright whatever let's just see what we can do to help" concluded as he walked off , the droid not too far behind him.
For the next day or so, the group spread out to rebuild and help around where they could, Rusty helped the bugs collect weapons and armor from the fallen Geonosians and clones sand had quickly coated everything, even in the short time since the fight ended, Clank was working with a few other bugs to inspect the LAAT that was left over from the fight. It was heavily modified from the republic original, with more armor, a gray color scheme, and of course the galactic empire symbol on its wings.
Clank removed the symbols with a mixture the bugs gave him, and was tasked with helping with the transport of the ship down the rough cliff with pullies and brute manpower, or bugpower i suppose, down to the village gates. R4 had been making minor repairs on Items and machinery that had been caught in the crossfire, and Jake worked with Teesh to calm the other villagers down and work with the bugs to create an improvised plan to improve defenses. The new plans weren't good, but it was better then a shitty mud wall.
After a long day of sweat and oil, many structures had been fixed, but obviously not all of them, the LAAT had been hauled down to the village gate. Yet plans for defense were still uncompleted. Rusty , Clank, Jake, Teesh and R4 had met up in the center of the village, along with a Geonosian commander, who wore similar armor to the other bugs, but had a darker tone to his carapace.
"Arch arch yup Tadaa couppp, Joppa youp" the speech from the commander was quickly translated by R4 to "thanks for helping defend us, any ideas on defenses yet?"
Jake looked at R4 hearing the translation before responding " maybe.... But none of what we have is powerful enough to take down imperial ships"
Clank butt into the conversation "I have calculated that using the parts from the left over Imperial LAAT could be of use" he stated in a deep and casual monotone voice.
"uhhh... how would we even get the parts off" questioned Rusty
"Do we have explosives?" Jake asked, receiving a no from the commander.
"Maybe plassssmaaaa cutterssss?" Teesh questioned
"That could work, but it would take awhile, those cutters probably aren't hot enough to melt imperial metal" Jake stated, his concern growing that there was no way to utilize the very obvious answer that was the LAAT.
"Beeeoooo beep bepp youuuui?" R4 beeped, the others looked at R4
"That's... not a bad idea" Rusty said with a head tilt.
"R4 you smartass!!" Jake let out as he rubbed the top of the droid head "we can just use the ship, of course!!"
It was so obvious that the others felt kinda stupid for not realizing this, as R4 rolled off in the direction of where the LAAT currently lay, Jake called his droids and Teesh the walk with R4, the bug commander ignored the group and flew away, picking up some sand with his wingbeat.
They made their way towards the gates, the scout normally perched up top said gate was missing, for reasons all too obvious for Jake and Teesh. The lizard never really cared much for the bugs, but Jake felt he had a small friendship with the scout, even if it was one-sided.
The 5 friends stopped in front of the hulking LAAT, some scratches and and a few dents could be seen, but otherwise it was in a condition considered...."good enough". The imperial logo now removed by Clank signaled that the LAAT was no longer imperial, no matter if it was created by them or not.
"Uhhhh...." Rusty let out concerned " how do we fly this thing?" He let out in a squeaky tone.
Jake thought of the question "Hmmm.....do you guys know how to fly it?" Jake questioned with an eyebrow raised.
"Not me" Rusty answered looking towards Clank and Teesh
" Not me" Clank and Teesh Repeated, followed by a few beeps from R4, presumably saying "Not me"
"Well great" Jake let out frustrated, " we've got this amazing shuttle right inform of us and nobody can fly the stupid thing"
"You could always learn sir" Clank offered
"True....."
Jake knew he could eventually learn to drive the gilded relic that was this starship, but who would collect scrap to sustain his credit income? Who would keep his droids safe while he flew around testing it? Not to mention the only thing he knew to drive was the old Speeder he had back at home, he wasn't even sure what model it was. Almost as if Teesh had heard his thoughts, he spoke
"Well, Jake you can learn how to drive thisss thing" the lizard motioned towards the ship " I'll take care of your Clankersssss for youuu" he spoke sarcastically
Jake gave a happy thanks, but it was cut off by Rusty and Clank.
"Heyyyy!!" Rusty let out, almost as if it was whining
" you cannot say that" Clank let out in the usual menacing tone
"Yeahhh yeahhh, whateverrr" Teesh said shruging them off, "they'll be fine Jake, trussstt meee" Teesh gave a toothed smile, as Rusty could be seen shaking his head "no" at Jake.
"Alright fine" Jake gave in, before turning to his droids. " you 3 behave...you know how the village thinks of your previous faction" Jake said worriedly
"Do not worry sir, what could possibly happen! Right Clank?" Rusty let out enthusiastically, looking at the B2
"Sure..." Clank let out, clearly not giving a fuck about Rusty's enthusiasm.
Rusty's posture sank slightly, he looked over at R4, the Astromech gave a stare back before letting out a series of excited beeps, seemingly agreeing with the B1. Jake laughed at the small act going on information of him, he gave a wave to the 3 droids and Teesh, sand clattered on Jake scrap riddled clothing, and could be faintly heard banging off the 3 droids, metal as he walked away towards the ship, he decided that he would at least look at the controls before heading home and going to bed, Jake didn't understand much of what he looked at, but he would figure it out, he hoped.
on the Speeder ride back home, the sand trail collecting behind, he had some time to think. Not too long ago it was just R4 and him, no zombie droids coming back to life, Jake snorted to himself at his mind statement. He could only hope things would go smoothly from now on, who knows, maybe another droid friend would appear...
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now I thought I should tell you that this story wasn't pre planned, I only have a basic idea of the plot and I'm pulling stuff out of my ass as we go. Hopefully you don't mind. What this does mean is that any comments and suggestions on the story can be taken into account fully, as theirs no plan that your suggestions could mess with. So please tell me things, even if it's a stupid grammar error, or if you want to see a certain droid model appear, I'm honestly up for anything!
Anyways cya Clankers! And I hope you've enjoyed the book so far....