p u n
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The sand blew peacefully through the calm village, the sun was just rising, and the Villagers were just waking up preparing for their day. Geonosian Soliders flew above the village, their wingbeat echoing throughout the small town, insects flew in and out of the holes in the canyon walls, carrying suplies. Townspeople set up there markets, farmers tried there best to irrigate the small amount of crops. you would think food would be scarce, but thankfully the Bugs easily brought back large amounts of dead animals, and could cultivate crops within their cool hives.
Teesh threw his scaly form out of bed, the sheets falling with him. Standing up, he threw the sheets back on the messy bed and slipped on his outfit, consisting of a raggity brown shirt, a leather vest with several blaster marks on it, and some long pants with many pockets for holding tools. walking outside, Teesh contiued to add items to his house, he had seen Jakes house and its "Scrap Armor" as Jake had called, and had decided it was a good idea. welding some clone armor to the side of his house, he saw Rusty, Clank, Tac and Bucket walking through the Village entrance several houses down, Jake wasnt with them, which Teesh found odd, but he dismissed it, and put down his tools to greet the droids.
The droids footsteps screeched aginst the grainy sand, Jake had told them that they had deserved a day off, and that he and R4 would work on the house, and suprisngly R4 agreed happily to his idea. Confused at the concept at a "break" Jake had to spend way to long convincing the 4 to go the village and enjoy themselves. Bucket was new, but unlike Rusty he would happily wave at any village that said hello.
"so uh...what do we do?" Rusty asked, staring at the Village around him
"beats me...we should see if they have an oil bath" Bucket exclaimed exicted
"they dont" Clank retorted, Bucket lowered its shoulders slightly
Tac scanned his surrondings and saw the town shop, were Jake had bought Rustys blaster 2 weeks ago. "i suggest we take a look at the town shop" Tac stated
"good idea" Clank replied
With that Teesh had fianlly arived from his house, waving tiredly.
"hello droidsssssssssss" he hissed
All the droids responded with a unified "greetings" in return.
"i could usssse ssssssssome help with my housssee, want to help big guy?" Teesh patting Clanks shoulder
While Clank wasnt very fond of the lizard as he didnt ever seem to care, he decided he would help anyways. Bucket also volunteered to come along and help. waving there goodbyes that left Rusty and Tac alone. Tac looked at the B1 with its one eye, Rusty staring back.
"shall we go to the store" Tac emitted quickly
Tac only recieved a nod in response as Rusty shakily began to follow Tac to the store. Rusty had of course not forgotten what Tac had done, and even though his programming was yelling for him to just accept it and commence regular operations, the B1 couldnt, and found itself taking what the Tactical droid did personally. Tac, despite his harsher program, felt bad for Rusty, but wasnt able to act on it thanks to programming restrcitons.
arriving at the store, both droids looked around. the Shop had several items, some civilian equipment like poys, pans and tools, the store had knives, blasters, batons, and even some near anciet pieces of technology such a slugthrowers, and even a long knife that was supposdely supposed to be attached to your blaster. Tac turned to Rusty quickly, casuing the B1 to flinch and spoke.
"i would like to apolgize again for my actions, despite what the Separatists designed you for, i have made an error in calculation saying you are expendable"
Rusty stared at Tac, it wasnt the best apology, and it used a bunch of big words Rusty had a hard time processing, but Rustys simple program was happy enough with his response, and as such the droids happy personality was initialized and was put back into action by his programming.
"Thats a relief!.." Rusty exclaimed happily, before walking toward closer towards the shop to scan each piece of equipment. Tac gave a mechcanical sigh of relief and followed the now hyper Battledroid. the duo stared at the large selection at the store, decided on what they wanted to get, if they wanted anything at all.
Not to far away, Bucket and Clank were trying their best to help Teesh with his home. but they werent made for contruction work, so neither had any idea what they were doing.
"Wait jusssssst sssssssssssstay ssssssssssstill" Teesh yelled out ina concerned voice, Clank was wobbling at the top of an old ladder and was holding a large piece of metal that he was supposed to place on the roof. Bucket was under the ladder, holding it so CLank wouldnt fall but the poor B1s arms trembled at the weight.
"Loosing stability at an alarming rate" Clank let in a scared tone.
"Dont worry...ive got you!?" Bucket exclaimed in a confused tone
Thankfully Clank was able to slam the metal part into place, and without the extra weight, he regained his footing., and got off the ladder. Bucket let go and walked around, brushing some sand of his head as the winds gusts blew harder. Clanks upper body turned over the Teesh as the droids eyes gave Teesh a glare, Teesh reeled back a bit not even knwoing a droid could glare.
"heh....ssssssseeee your fine" Teesh shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly, as he nervously looked at the droids.
with a robotic sigh, Clank walked away to lift another piece of scrap and put it up against the wall, Bucket handed Teesh his blowtorch. Teesh gave a toothy grin and began to weld the metal into place.
"how long have you known commander Jake?" Bucket asked Teesh
the question took Teesh back a bit, "why do you care?" the lizard hissed
"just wondering" Bucket said in a sassy tone
"i knew the kid for a while, sense he was a toddler, i was the one who convinced him to go get scrap at your battlefield" Teesh spoke normally, remembering the wholesome smile Jake used to give him when delivering scrap, Teesh smiled at the thought.
"doesnt it seem unethical to send a toddler to go to a warzone" Clank stated angerily
"it would be, but all those years ago the Geonosians were still separatists, so any active droids wouldnt harm us, and the Republic wasnt trying to get back here" Teesh explained carefully, he knew if he worded this wrong, Clank could easily combine his face with the floor.
"of course nowadays the Empire has appeared there, but you guys have handled all threats so far, and i of course pledge to protect the kid"
Hearing this, Clanks programming deemed the reptile worthy of existing, and continued to quietly work on the house.
"so.....why do we follow this jake anyways?" Bucket asked, getting a look from Clank
"what do you mean" Clank retorted
"not only is the organic young, but his physical form is diminished, he seems underfed, and doesnt look fit for combat" Bucket spoke confused
Despite Clanks loyalty, the new B1 had a point, he didnt know what it could mean, but the droid added the action of asking Tac about it later.
"We shall ask Tac about this later, but the boy has spirit" Clank explained.
Hearing Buckets words, Teesh silently thought about it, sure, Jake hadnt ever been the most healthy. matter a fact, the reptile couldnt remember the last time he had seen the boy eat a decent meal. Teesh pushed it aside, deciding that this whole empire thing had stressed the nervous teen and that he would be fine.
Rusty and Tac, using the credits jake gave them, had bought a few items. including a large basket of food, filled with grey apples and meats from large local fauna, and a small comm set for 2. Tac carried the basket and the comms, allowing Rusty to carry the weapons they purchased, being an A280 blaster, for bucket, and a Tusken Sniper Slugthrower. Tac got the slugthrower for himself, as his old blaster pistol was not effective enough for his standerds. walking through the village, back to the entrance were they agreed with Clank and Bucket agreed to meet up, the 2 droids stayed relatively silent, Rusty scanned his surroundings nervously as a few villagers stared at him suspiciously, to be fair he was carry 3 weapons including his E-5 rifle, but thankfully most of the villagers pushed it aside, as they now trusted Jakes droids ever since they helped fend off the Empire.
"What do you think Jake is doing?" Tac questioned
"hell if i know...he said he was going to fix his house" Rusty squeaked out
thinking quietly as their metal footsteps scrapped against the sand.
"well, he could be fixing R4, im sure that old astromech requires repairs" Tac suggested
"Roger Roger" Rusty replied in agreement.
Reaching the village entrance, Rusty and Tac walked slightly outside of the canyon, and took a seat on a large rock, Jakes house could be seen in the far distance as they waited for the other droids to return. staring into the glowing ball of light, the droid took in the bueaty of the landscape, the sun boucning of the their metal, the winds blowing sand with a quiet woosh, the small lizards and geckos that climbed on the rock they sat on. One lizard climbed on Tacs hand, causing the droid to lift his arm up and stare at the lizard, the lizard staring back curiously, as it licked its own eye.
Rusty stared at the lizard as it lay calmly on Tacs hand, the droids, not being technically alive, didnt register in the lizards primitve brain as dangerous. a few minutes later, Tac broken eye sparked, causing the lizard to dart of his hand and scurry away.
"cute" Rusty stated simply, with no response from Tac.
Clank and Bucket arrived soon after, calling the 2 droids on the rock, both of them hopping down. Bucket and Rusty waved goodbye to the bug guard, who did nothing in response, and began to talk with eachother. the 4 droids walked home, enjoying the scenery, and having general small talk.
"how many clones have you killed" Bucket asked Rusty
"beats me, i dont keep count" Rusty returned
"i killed 37.5" Clank answered
"what?.. how do even remember" Rusty asked
"better question is how can you kill .5 of a clone?" Bucket said confused
"the B1 is correct, that is tactically impossible" Tac followed
"im sorry what did you say? i cant detect your vocals over how much i dont care" Clank grumbled in a sort of chuckle
"ha ha very funny" Bucket chirped back sarcastically.
Arriving not long after their squabble, the droids found themselves approaching Jakes house, but, Jake himself wasnt seen, neither was R4, they assumed he was inside, and was resting. Going around to the front door, a quite noise could be heard from the inside, a sort of whimpering, after processing the nosie further, the droids realized it was...crying?..
Entering the small house, the droids found their way to Jakes room, were they saw Jake curled up on the floor sobbing quietly, with R4 next to him, staring the boy as depressed as an astromech could look. Jake slowly turned to the obvious mechanical footsteps of his friends, and got up rubbing his eyes. Not programmed to deal with this, Bucket, Clank and Tac left, deciding to leave the Boy alone. Rusty stayed.
"are...you..okay sir?" the B1 asked queitly.
"yeah" jake said between slight sobs "just...ya know my parents....the usual"
"booooooeeeWwwoo" R4 beeped sadly
"oh" Rusty said aloud, he had noticed the lack of parents, but never put much thought into it.
not knowing what to do, the B1 left, leaving Jake to calm down and have some alone time. as the droid left, Jake clutched onto R4s chassis, closing his eyes as he tried not go cry for the 4th time today...
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