Jake and R4 Had gathered a sizable amount of scrap metal, varying from B1 antennas, burnt tank armor, left over clone armor from a long gone skeleton, and even the crippled B2 from before, after closer inspection from R4, had some wires within it.
Shoving the itmes into his makeshift backpack with little care for its safety, Jake heaved the heavy pack as he stood to his feet. R4 gurgled next to him ,earning a smile. To anyone else the stuff Jake had collected would be useless, or simply garbage. Not to him though, and apparently not the villagers he sold them to either. Buisness with them wasnt the most polite, but hey, they used his "special" scrap from the battlefields for whatever they desired, makeshift plates, forks, clothing, even as repair material, and in return Jake would gain a medicore sum of Credits.
Capatilism
Jake eyed his droid "How much longer R4?" he questioned as another bead of sweat hit the sand beneath him, his eyes wandering lazily across the area in front of him.
"beeeee, beereepppp B0oo" R4 quickly replied and looked Straight ahead, in the distance their speeder could be seen, Jake gave a quick sigh of relief and smiled towards R4. Jakes steps continued on as his mind began the normal thinking process he needed after a scrap run. How to sell it. Sure, the local people in the town he lived by wanted his scrap. For whatever reason the few other scrappers in the town where to scared or to old to travel to the battlefield.
Jake breathed out air alongside a quick chuckle.
Cowards.
Either way, even with his scrap variety, he still needed to be polite, and "Respectful" Which normally wouldnt be a problem if he didnt already know most of the locals didnt like him very much. The odd stare here, weird mixed compliment there, it became obvious over time. But hey, Jake didnt like them either, he only liked their credits.
Arrving to his speeder he shoved R4 into the spot behind hi, tying the motionless droid down before hopping into the drivers seat, intent on enjoying the ride.
It didnt take long for him to speed by home, and quickly skid to a halt outside the town.
Jake walked up to the village entrance, a small gate put together by a combo of mud, rock and scrap "you mind letting me in!? He shouted to the Bug at the top of the gate scouting, the bug gave a quick thumbs up before the gate was slowly raised upwards. He didn't have to walk far to find one of his few friends who had a small sign saying "need scrap" in messy handwriting.
" Hey uh.... I assume you'd like to purchase some scrap?" Jake asked in a posistive tone, motioning towards the sign.
" oh it's you.....yeah yeah ssssure what you got" he spoke, they weren't human but instead were Trandoshan, a reptilian species. Slitted eyes, dagger like teeth, claws and other expected features. Jake had a few Trandoshan customers, and he always made sure be more...polite.
"Well I've got a few things from my last run" Jake exclaimed. "take your pick!" Jake said opening and laying out his haul on the sandy floor, red mist puffing up, he rfelt like an advertisment saying that, but credits were credits, some self degrading was and easy trade.
The Trandoshan looked at the scrap, the slits in his eyes scanning the pile.
"I'll take thossssssse antennassssssss" the lizard responded in its usual slurred accent, for some reason always dragging out the S.
"No problem" Jake looked at the B1 antenna, deciding its price. He didn't normally plan ahead for these things.
"That will be 8 credits for the 2 antennas" Jake told The Trandoshan.
"Cheaper than expected..." the lizard muttered happily, he passed over the credits and picked up the antenna.
"Good doing business with you Jake" the Lizard spoke in a normal tone
"Good doing business with you Teesh" Jake said happily turning away, the two had been friends for...well a long ass time, Jake couldn't remember a time without the lizard, and the fact he had been trying to fix his house for months. Teesh was always wearing a leather coat that used to be yellow, now an ugly grey, and standing several feet above the 5,8 teenager, Jake was happy he was one of the only townspoeple other than the bugs that liked him.
"Well that went well" Jakes voice went to R4 as he turned to look at the droid, who had stayed silent this whole time, Teesh was a regular customer, he had been trying to repair his house for as long as the boy could remember, but never having the right parts to do so.
After eventually selling almost all scrap pieces except for some destroyed bits of an AAT, which Jake decided to simply add to his home later, they walked to the town shop.
It was a decently large area with a cloth roof that was held up by either large sticks or rock pillars, several locals could be seen walking back and forth, gazing at the shop, their hooded forms gushing in the sand filled winds. The store keepers were mostly human, with a few Geonsonian Guards walking around talking with each other, making sure no one stole anything.
Jake had browsed here before, and had saved enough credits to get what he wanted, a weapon, he had been unarmed for most of his life here, and had relied on running and hiding to survive, remebering several encounters with other scrappers before he started going to the battlefield. But he realized that this wouldn't work forever, especially with a bigger threat, the Empire, casually strolling about the galaxy like they owned the place, and decided to see what defensive weapon he could buy. There were several light blaster pistols, as well as some shitty looking staffs, a few batons and E-11 blasters gathered from Imperial troopers who, as the bugs put it, "gave it to them once they died" this was of course translated from their language so Jake assumed it was funnier if he could understand the original joke.
"Soooooo....what should we get R4?" Jake asked
"beoooooooo..." R4 beeped in a slight tone of curiosity as he stared at a baton stick with silver plating near the end.
"a baton sounds nifty" Jake said patting R4s head , the droid quickly scanned and loaded a hologram of the item. Jake knew it was baton of course, but the scan showed it was Republic in design, and had probably been taken from clones long ago, near the start of the war. he was still here for that....he...thinks? memories a bitch.
"That's pretty cool" Jake spoke normally. . .
" WE NEED IT!!" Jake shook R4 as the droid beeped in an excited fit, head spinnign in circles. R4 had definitely gained some of Jake's more excessive attributes, the two where pretty much brothers afterall.
Both went towards the counter and pulled out the 25 credits it cost, it wasn't to expensive, He had originally saved for a blaster pistol, which cost twice as much, so he luckily saved some credits today. The cashier was of course a bug, and after some translation using good ol R4 instead of the public protocal droid that roamed around missing an arm, Jake held the newly purchased Shock baton, or "Shock Stick" as R4s hologram suggested, and began to stuff it into his backpack.
Hqappy with the purcahse and selling run, and it starting to get late, they walked towards the entrance to grab their speeder and go home.
R4s scanners alarmed within in droid brain, its head spinning to look behind itself, noticing 2 people following them, and as the wide dirt path had less and less people on it the further they got from the shop, the 2 strangers got closer. . . and closer.
"Beeee beeee beeeeep" R4 sounded in alarm to Jake, the boy snapped his head over to the droid, taking a moment to register what R4 had said, before turning and spotting the 2 people behind them. Panicked, and never having been robbed in such a public place, Jakes already estatic mind made the wrong choice. His legs dashing into the nearest alleyway, created between the wall of a house and the wall that surronded the town, R4 gave of a screech as he followed Jake in.
At the gates, the droids yells where faint, the bug perched on the tower looked around in confusion, before looking back ahead.
"Sup kid, whatcha got there? '' one man said as he pulled out his blaster, the mans ragged claok sheffling as the pistols barrel found a nice spot pointing at Jakes chest.
"You mean...my uh shock stick?" Jake words laced with confusion, slowly reaching for it.
"No, no....you fucktard" The other one said, unclipping a staff from his back and pointing it towards R4, the act enough to make Jake retreat his hands from grabbing his shcok staff.
"I mean that little pile of credits'' he said, this robber had a cloak aswell, but a darker colored one compared to his robbing buddy. It didnt matter much to Jake, seemed like he was getting robbed afterall.
"how bout we borrow that droid of yours, like, permentally" the blaster guy said threateningly, as he readied his blaster.
The other robber looked deadpan, "really? we are robbing him, you don't just ask for the droid" poking his friend with the back end of his staff.
"oh....my bad"
With a sigh the robber spoke "Just get him.."
As both men approached Jake and R4, they slowed inched backwards, R4 showing off the small taser within him, its presence doing little to stop the robbers.
The robbers stopped. Distant wing beats could be heard getting ever closer, like the air itself was vibrating. The men frantically look around before trying to run out the alleyway to escape, their footsteps flinging sand. But not before the Geonosian scout from the gate landed in front of them, spreading its wings menacingly, stabbing its spearinto the ground, mist puffing into the air before being blown away.
"Ack ropt oocoroup coupt ta?" The bug questioned Jake, R4 quickly translated the message into "are you alright loyal civilian"
"All good here, just a bit shaken" Jake replied, no need for another translation as the bugs easily learned the humans basic language Jake and the other villagers used.
The men glanced at each, the blaster wielding one shrugged and nodded, before charging the bug, the one with a staff tried smacking the bugs head but the Geonsonian simply caught the staff and pushed him temporarily aside. The robber with a blaster fired at the Bug, whose armor deflected the bolt as if it wasn't even there, another shot from the robber flew at the bug who used its wings to jump out of the way, the bolt harmless burning the sandy ground. The bug landed atop the staff robber, his cloak spread like a blanket across the sand. The bug then made a series of gurgling calls, its wings beating rapidly upwards with the robber being held by his feet, both of the flying upwards, the robber thrashing around in a futile attempt to escape.
Seconds later two Geonosians soldiers appeared, wearing heavier armor and weapons than the Scout. The bug holding the staff robber flung the man through the air ignoring his yelps as a solider bug caught him and flew away. The Robber with the blaster aimed his pistol to fire at the soliders, the bug usd its wings to dash in a line forwards, grabbing the mans face with its hand before slamming them against the wall, the bugs hand being doused with crimson blood as the robber went silent, the solider barely recognzing the murder he had caused before throwing the dead corspe to the floor, using its feet to grab and fly off with the once robber, now food source.
"Thanks...Scout.....that was....rude of them" Jake said panting, he simply called him "Scout" as he didn't understand his name.
The bug nodded at the reply as he dusted off R4 and helped Jake up to his feet, the Scout led Jake to his speeder and halted, waving a goodbye.
"Cya later scout, and..uh...nice fighting you did back there" the bug gave no response and flew up and perched on top of the gate, as per usual. As much as Jake had tried to befriend them, they are just workers in a colony, with no real independent thought, with them only slightly enjoying his presence because any conversation was simply work to them, and the more work they did, the more they served the colony. And that was their only wish.
Jake got to his hut with R4 after a more mundane than usual trip back, exhausted from the incident, he wanted to sleep, but it only prooved his point. He needed a weapon.
So he got to testing out his shock stick, swinging it around and trying out tricks and combos onto imaginary enemies, Jake had no experience with weapons, unless a blowtorch counted as one, so he didn't really know what he was doing, arms flailing aimlessly. This easily warranted his accidently electrocution several times during his self training, like a concerning amount, hell even R4 tried to stop him at one point but Jake was stubborn as ever, ignoring his companion and shocking himself in the ass...
by accident of course.