Jake rose from his bed, it had been 3 days since he let his droids go on a trip by themselves to the village, he really enjoyed Tacs choice of weaponry that the droid bought, Bucket had enjoyed his tests with the A280, and Tac was surprisingly a pro with the Tusken Slugthrower. At the moment, Jake was eating some meat that Tac had also bought from the village. There wasn't much left so Jake mentally told himself to get to work on those apples that Tac also brought home. Rusty and Bucket were talking outside about god knows what, R4 was still charging and Clank was watching the sunrise with Tac, Jake clearly being able to hear their argument about what the sun felt like. getting up from his homes rusty seat, Jake quickly fixed his scruffy black hair as best he could before walking outside, his palish white skin deflecting the sun's light slightly, swinging his backpack over his shoulders, he went round to the back of his house to check on his scrap reserves, finding them to be dangerously low, with a sigh, Jake walked back and unplugged R4, causing the droid to activate and beep in annoyance.
"Sorry buddy, we've got to go scrapping, we're almost out" Jake said, patting the droid's head, without a word R4 rolled over to the other droids and gathered them next to the LAAT. Jake packed his wrench, his trusty blowtorch, and handed the new weapons Tac had purchased and the old weapons to his droids.
"uh what's happening?" Rusty squeaked
"scrap run" Clank stated simply
"oh" Rustys voicebox let out. a loud creak interrupted the two as Tac heaved the ships side door open and motioned his hands for everyone to enter, Bucket tripping on the ledge and almost falling.
Jake climbed up the stairs and hopped in the seat, brushing his short hair out of his eyes as he powered up the ship.
"we all good back there!?" Jake yelled out
"Roger Roger" the droids spoke in unison.The ship's frame began to rise off the ground, Jake pulled the joystick and began to fly the ship towards the geonosian battlefield. On the way there, the droid made small talk.
"Do you think we will find any more clones?" Rusty asked to no one in particular
"probably, they have been getting more common" Tac stated
"that's not good" Rusty replied
"I'm sure we will be fine, no clones gonna deactivate this droid" Bucket said point at himself with his three fingered hand.
"and i thought Tac was the cocky one" Clank murmured
"Hey" Tac said slightly offended
"ha....ha.....ha" Clank robotically laughed, his joints creaking as his body shifted. the droids stayed in silence for a decent while longer, before Clank asked a question.
"R4" Clank stated
"breeeoo?" R4 turned his head to face the B2
"Why does Jake feel sympathetic to us?" Clank questioned
"Bree booooooooooooo, beee buu bo bop" R4 explained
"well that makes sense" Rusty stated
"agreed, if he had R4 with him his whole life then logically his brain would prefer droids" Tac Stated
"He does seem to hate clones with a passion though '' Rusty spoke, which was very true, all the droids but Bucket had seen how angry Jake got when fighting Clones, or anyone from the empire, matter a fact. Sure the Empire were enemies of the Bugs but it couldn't've been that simple, the droids stood in thought, except for R4, who muted his voice box, not releasing another beep for the whole trip.
Upon arriving, and parking behind a large rock as to not be spotted easily be passing imperial ships, Jake and the others decided to stick together this time, all six of them heading towards a fallen AT TE in the distance, the sun smashed into the metal and skin of the group, their shadows practically glued to the sands surface as they walked for several minutes. on the way, Jake found a large pile of dead clones, probably ,made by the Republic for space, searching the pile, many of the corpses were either skeletons or dust, Jake cringed as he ripped of some forearm armor, which caused the clones arm to fall off and land on the floor. The droids were also searching the area, but not finding anything still functioning.
"uuuuuuuuuuu Sir!" Rusty called out.
"yeah?" Jake said, turning his head as he stuffed the clone forearm armor into his backpack.
"Look at this blaster I found," Rusty said, presenting an old,- rusty (haha) DC-15 to Jake.
with a sigh Jake took the blaster "remember what i told you, all of these blasters here are broken" Jake said pointing the Republic rifle at some random rock and pulling the trigger, causing nothing to happen. "Why do you think I bought you an E-5 rather than just getting one from here?" Jake explained, throwing the useless blaster over his shoulder.
"oh...yeah," Rusty said, processing Jake's logic.
After around 20 mins, Jake called everyone to show what they got. Combined the group had not found much, just the armor from before Jake got, a few wires, some anonymous pieces of metal, an intact Battledroid head, and a perfectly intact Clone helmet. Those last two were pretty rare, as the desert's harsh nature typically destroyed anything man made if left here long enough. Storing what they had found in his backpack, and 2 bags Clank was carrying they continued to walk towards the AT TE. Jake wanted to go to it because it was still standing, most of the vehicles here were destroyed, obviously, so it peaked his curiosity greatly.
"Sir, i suggest highly against this action" Tac said worried
"why? there isn't anyone there" Jake said, using the binoculars he had bought for Rusty several weeks before but decided to keep them to himself, to look at the walker and yet again confirming they were in the clear.
getting to the Walker the group entered via the platform underneath, which Clank had to yank down, and searched around. it was very clean...too clean, Jake was beginning to wish he had listened to the droid literally made for tactical choices. Hearing an eerie creak come from the top of the walker, all the droids immediately readied their blasters, as R4 scurried to hide behind Jake, who quickly pulled out his Trandoshan pistol and stayed quiet listening. Without warning Clank began to open fire into the opening that they had entered, Jake ran over and saw 2 Imperial Clones dead on the floor.
Jake's eyes widened "OH FU-" He cut himself off "It's a Trap!!??" Jake yelled before hopping down the opening and out the AT TE, where he ran out from under the walker and dove behind some rocks. His droids followed suit, running for cover near Jake, Imperial troopers peaked there head from atop the AT TE.
"There they are!" One yelled. as a barrage of red blaster bolts flew at the droids. Clank took 2 bolts to his back but shrugged them off, getting behind cover with Bucket in tow. Tac got behind the rock With Jake before he could get hit. Rusty ran to another Rock, R4 Infront of him, but a red bolt slammed into the back of his shoulder, causing the skinny droid to flip aggressively forwards and smash into the floor, R4 squealed with worry as Rusty skidded into the sand.
"RUSTY!!" Jake practically screeched in terror as smoke left the hole in the B1s Shoulder, Rusty was motionless on the floor.
Tac began to fire at the Imperials with his Slugthrower, every shot blew up smoke in front of the barrel. Clank and Bucket did the same, with varying success. Jake aimed his Pistol and fired as well, nailing a Clone in the chest after a few shots.
"This is not sustainable," Tac said urgently, as a bolt smashed into the rock they were hiding behind, causing dust to fly over their heads. "they have superior altitude"
Jake panicked as he thought of a way out, he was snapped away from his thoughts as a gust of sand blew by him, and he heard Bucket yell in the distance.
"we need HELP!!!" The B1 yelled, as Clank took more shots to the chest, as he was to big for the rock they were hiding behind. With a surge of unknown confidence, Jake peaked over the rock, seeing that the Clones had stopped firing and were probably reloading, knowing this, Jake yelled out to his droids to run back into the Walker.
"CHARGE!"
As he got up and ran like hell until they reached back under the walker the clone was on. Surprised by the Teens' decision, the clone didn't have time to hit any of the droids as they sped underneath them.
"There under us!" a clone yelled out
"again?! dammit! sneaky bastards" a Human officer grunted annoyed "Are you Clones good for anything?" he said annoyed "Find and kill them! im sure more recruits would love to take your place" he shouted
the Clones around him glared with distaste, but got ready anyways "Sir yes sir" one said with clear displeasure.
Hearing the commotion above, Jake was immediately confused more than anything else, for his entire existence, the Geonosians, and the Local Holonet, had easily and effectively proved that Clones were mindless lab creations, built on some mysterious planet, that would gladly march around killing whoever dared look at them, and even the TK troopers, who Jake knew were Recruits, weren't much better. But he could ponder the morality of it later, right now it didn't matter, they wanted him dead so he was gonna kill the first, for all he knew they could be trying to trick him.
Jake and his droids quickly regained their composure.
Sighing heavily, Jake turned to R4 "get to that corner, stay safe" R4 rolled over to the corner Jake pointed at.
"Sir, my scans detect the enemy is above us" Clank spoke loudly
"Affirmative, they can reach through this ladder" Tac followed, pointing his slugthrower at the hatch. Jake also aimed at it, assuming it was how Clones used to get on the turret that lay atop the vehicle. above him, Jake could hear what he assumed was their commander yelling.
"They're in the walker, get down there!" the Human officer yelled while throwing open the hatch, grabbing the nearest clone and shoving them towards the hatch. As the Clone got prepared to entire the walker, Jake and his droids readied their weapons as they heard shuffling, the the actual entrance wasn't visible from inside unless you stood directly underneath the hatch because a part of the ladder was a tunnel, which no one was doing.
"Faster!" The officer yelled, pushing another clone into the tight space which led to the ladder, causing both clones to trip and fall directly to the bottom of the ladder, landing painfully In Front of Jake and his Droids, Jake instinctually pointed his blaster at the 2 dazed Clones. The Clones looked up to see several droids with blasters pointed, waiting for Jake to order their execution, Jake however, Stared at the clones temporarily, who stared back fearfully, before calling to his droids.
"Follow me" He said before exiting the AT TE
"What of the Clones?" Rusty asked confused
"Leave em...lets run for it" Jake said in a manner that made him confused at his own actions.
Without questioning their leader, the droids ran off the Walker and made a mad dash for the rocks they used as cover before, surprisingly though, they heard no blaster fire. Peeking over a rock, Jake used his Binoculars to see what had happened.
The Clone atop the were helping their 2 fellow troopers back up, and Jake could tell they were talking to each other. Turning to look at the officer, he found said officer staring right back at him as he started to point and shout at the clones.
"Get ready!" Jake yelled, as he and all the droids braced desperately against the rocks.
...
Nothing? Jake slowly peaked over the rock, peering at the clone position. only to be met with the sight of several clones stood up out of cover, unarmed, as well as what he believed were the two clones he spared from before, giving him a thumbs up. He could also see their officer yelling at them, but they just ignored him.
At first Jake came from behind the rock with confusion, before giving a sigh of thankfulness, raised his arm to give a thumbs up back, Jakes droids saw what was happening, and one by one each droid came out and gave the best thumbs up they could they could manage, first Rusty, then Clank, then R4, using his lighter, who was followed by Tac and Bucket. In response all the clones slowly raised their arms as well and gave Jake and the droids a thumbs up.
with a mechanical sigh of relief, Rusty walked over to Jake, holstering his E-5.
"So uh...can we go home now?" The droid said in a tired voice.
with a slight chuckle Jake nodded.
The droids turned and began to walk back to the LAAT as sand blew with a peaceful woosh in the distance. taking a few steps and then stopping, Tac turned around calmy, stared at the clones for a bit, before waving robotically and walking away.
Time skip---T-Minus 30 mins
Jake and his droids had arrived back home, and had gone to do whatever they saw fit. Jake walked around his room in thought of what had just happened, sighing, he quickly changed into his pajamas, and snuggled himself under the worn covers of his bed.....
---------------------------------------Somewhere in Space------------------------------------------------
.-.. --- -.-. .- - .. --- -. / .. -- .--. . .-. .. .- .-.. / ...- . -. .- - --- .-.
A tall menacing figure walked with heavy steps into a large interrogation room, Several TK Troopers followed, Their Imperial Blasters ready as they marched. The doors hissed as they closed behind the squad, in front of them lay several Clones, their armor still carrying the sand of Geonosis they were on a few hours ago. All of them were on their knees, in handcuffs, with their Human officer standing by them with an angered glare.
Stepping forwards, the Officer spoke to the figure.
"Admiral - .- .-. -.- .. -. My entire unit disobeyed direct orders, i believe they should be punished harshly"
Taking in the information calmy, The Admiral took a breath before motioning towards the TK Troopers.
"Kill Them"
The TKs raised their blasters as the clones raised their arms in fear, their pleas were cut short as a rain of blaster fire bombarded onto them, their armor shattering, their blood staining the wall behind them, as the shots echoed throughout the hallways.
Eventually, the shots stopped, and so did the cries of the Clones. The Admiral and the Officer left the room, followed by the TKs.
Later, The clones' helmets, still riddled with blaster holes and blood, could be seen hanging next to the interrogation room.
To serve as a reminder to any Clones that walk by - .... .- - / - .... . -.-- / .- .-. . / -. --- - / ..-. .-. . .