It had been a few days since the attempted robbery, and, as Jake had expected, the robbers had been consumed by the bugs. Not like he cared, anyone who tried to touch a wire on R4s head deserved whatever the bugs gave em.
Due to a sandstorm that had lasted over a 3 day period since the robbery, he had been stuck indoors and unable to do much other than quiz R4 on scrap pieces. It was always good for R4 to know everything, so a quick scan could answer any question. The Astromech always beeping in delight at every correct answer.
Thankfully the storm had now passed, he first talked with the Geonosian scout on top of the gate that saved him from his attackers a few days prior, asking if anything bad had happened to the Village. thankfully the cliff sides protected everybody inside, the cillagers didnt trust him all that much sure, but its not he didnt care about the, they were his neighbors after all. Afterwards Jake had to rush for scrap, as in his days of absence some of said locals would probably want to buy some items from him. He suited up in some armor he made during the storm, being stuck indoors Jake made good use of his time, and made an additional layer to his shorts, connecting some cloth to make long pants, and reinforce all of his clothing with B1 plating. while clone armor much better, it was easily sold to the locals for its durability, B1 armor wasn't known for its....strength, so Jake had a decent amount in reserve, using it for some protection. He kept a mental note to not collect as much of it. Despite the extra armor from his pants, Jake quickly tore it up back into shorts, way to hot to where those types of clothing.
"Alright R4, sandstorms passed, meaning...?" Jake asked the droid in a gleeful tone.
"WAAAIAHAHAAAAAA" R4 screeched as it drove around in circles, bumping into the wall before spinning its head to stare at the boy, clearly excited to finally get out of the house.
"Yup, lets get some of that sweet.....sweet metal" Jake said with a content tone in his voice, chuckling at the ridiculous noise R4 had just made, the droid loved to go scrapping way more than Jake, so he just tried to hype them up with some child-like excitement.
Jake yet again strapped his droid to the back of his speeder, readied the hover sensors and took off, scrap bag ready on his back. During their journey, clouds started to cover the ever burning sun, both R4 and Jake shared a moment of relief, Jake even tried to give R4 a high five, before remembering the droid had no hands....he makes that mistake a bit to much, thankfully R4 doesn't seem to ever care.
Jake skidded his Speeder and parked outside the scrap field, sand gushing as the speeders brakes caused the hover sensors to sputter to a stop, filled with the all familiar droid and clone bodies, along with the ever present AT-TE and the occasional Hail-fire droid. R4 was unstrapped and followed Jake towards the field.
Jake stepped across the carnage he had passed by hundreds of times, even now he wasnt used to it, but at the moment money was the thing in his mind, stopping as he saw something in the distance, he tapped R4s faceplate as the droids treads grinded to a halt.
"You see that over there R4" Jake exclaimed as he pointed in the distance. There stood a large tank, Separatist in design. With peach colored armor peeling away, and a small hill of sand burying part of its front.
"beeeoooooo??" R4 beeped confused.
"It's an AAT, Those tanks weren't even used during the battle of Geonosis..i think... must have been part of another fight that happened here. or something...meeeeaning the parts must be fresher..i guess" Jake explained his droid companion with happy confusion.
R4 calculated Jake's response and spun in a circle to pronounce his joy, they made their way towards the broken down tank, this area was mostly unexplored by the 2, as this time they took a longer route around a small hill to get to the battlefield, deciding that more un clamied stuff should be here and would work perfectly as a return haul after the 3 days of no scrapping. Several more B2 Super Battledroids could be found here, and clones were less in numbers, however droid vehicles were practically non existent other than a few tanks, and there was an abundance of AT-TEs. Jake simply assumed the droids tried to overwhelm republic tanks with infantry, obviously didn't work. Jake gave a look of sorrow towards a dead B1 on the ground, its arms and legs splayed out and several holes in its chest, its head bent in ways Jake assumed it shouldn't be. Whoever destroyed this droid clearly had been affected by the war, and took it out on this poor droid.
"Get some therapy.." Jake muttered to himself, thinking about whoever killed this droid. The clones around had similar injuries, but it was harder to tell, cause ya know, they were all skeletons.
Soon both arrived at the downed AAT, Jake scoped it out. Other than a massive hole that had casually placed itself on the bottom part of the tank where the missile holes are, the tank seemed relatively ok.
"R4" Jake exclaimed.
"Beeep?" The droid garbled while turn to look at Jake.
"Scan this tank for any entry points will ya bud?" Jake asked
"beeeeooo" R4 responded while going towards the other side of the tank, the blue light of his scanner bouncing off the Tanks armor....
"WWWWAAAARRGGHHHHHOOOOOO" R4 came speeding back coming to a skidding stop behind Jake, some sand flying up from R4s treads. R4 looked towards the right side of the tank as 2 imperial troopers, appeared. Their armor a shinign white compared to dull surrondings. Jake froze with fear, his pupils tightening as he took a step back. He knew that the Empire was replacing clones for something called a TK, he couldnt be bothered to learn what it meant but the two troopers in front of him wore that armor.
There were days when he and R4 would watch in horror as video footage of Imperial troopers devastating small towns, executing those who did any misdeed, and either melting or straight up blasting any droid that dared speak near them. Saying Jake was on edge was like saying the Hutts were fat, it was obvious.
"Look at this kid, what's he doing out here?" One trooper questioned the other, his voice geniually confused upon seeing a random teenager.
"I don't know and I don't care, messing with Separatist gear is reason enough to take him in" the other trooper said, his friend turned to look at him, both their expressions hidden behind helmets.
"Just think of the promotion" the same trooper told his pal. The other trooper just shrugging and aiming his blaster up.
"cmon...we- heh..we can talk about this" the boy tried to reason, but the Troopers just scoffed and ignored him, starting to walk forwards, one pulling out a pair of cuffs. Jake stared at the 2 troopers approaching, he didn't have his bug buddies to fly in and save him, and R4 wasn't battle ready in any way. Hell neither was he! Jake thought of his shock stick, sure he wasn't trained properly, but it had to do. The trooper approached holstering their blasters as they prepared to restrain and arrest him. Like a spring Jake over tensed himself and whipped out his shock stick from his bag, flicked it on, quickly ran up, and smacked the ever-loving shit out of one of the troopers, yelling loudly the entire time, causing the troopers helmet to go spinning as he also yelled.
"Whatttttttt thHhHeeeee FFFUufUFUuFFFIUUUCcccckkk" before falling over momentarily, a small puff of sand emerging as the fallen trooper attempted to get his bearings.
The other trooper looked at his fallen friend, took out his E-11 flicking it to stun and fired at Jake, only getting 2 shots in. One missing completely and the other striking Jake's chest, Jake stumbled back but was protected thanks to his armored clothing. The trooper stared for a moment in disbelief as the stun circle bounced off the kids shirt, causing a small poof of sand upon hitting the ground.
"You're f****** kidding me right" the trooper exclaimed annoyed.
The trooper's friend had gotten up holding his head, but had lost his blaster in the sea of sand. Jake ran up to the still armed trooper, the imperial tried to fire another round but Jake grabbed the blaster and pointed it up, the bolt harmlessly flying uppwards as Jake reeled his arm back and shocked him right in the chest, he then snatched the blaster and tossed it behind him. He stared at the 2 troopers who were starting to regret their decision to use stun rather than just killing Jake. Jake had enough of these imperials, he wasn't about to let them take him and R4 to some random outpost, so he decided that his only option was to "shut off" these two troopers...permanently
Jake walked up to the troopers, who now stood armed with only their fists.
"Allow me to speak to you in a language I know you understand" Jake activated his shock stick again and held it to his side.
"Violence!" Jake wore a grin as he took two steps and ducked down beneath the trooper attempt to punch him, rising himself up he knocked one out cold with an electrical smack to the chin, giving a toothy grin. The trooper still standing flinched at his friends fall to the ground with a heart crunching thud, pissed, the other trooper walked up before landing a punch to Jakes stomach then nose, Jake fell over holding his belly and groaning as he stared at the trooper towering above him, the impeirla kicked Jake onto his back as his nose trickled blood onto to the sand.
"BEEEEEEEEEPP BEEEP BEEOOOO" the familiar alarm that was produced by R4 was heard as the droid rammed into the troopers side, with a grunt the trooper stumbled
"Fuck off Droid!" the Trooper cursed, front kicking the droid away, R4 landing on its back with a whirr, this was enough time for Jake to charge upwards and at him before shocking the life out of that trooper, plunging the shock stick into the troopers ribcage.
The troopers limp form smoked black fumes before collasping backwards.
Jake stumbled back before falling to the floor leaning against the tank exhausted, he looked at his shock stick seeing sparks coming from it. R4 rolled up next to him making concerning mechanical noises.
"don't worry" Jake wiped his bleeding nose, breathing heavily "I'm good". Jake slowly stood up, and sat on a nearby rock. He didn't know if the trooper was dead or alive, but after a quick scan from R4 proved they didn't survive. Jake was angry, and they probably deserved it, but he wasn't a sadist, so after resting he spent the next hour and buried both troopers, making a cross by welding two B1 arms together and sticking them in the sand, it was all he had.
Although his body still ached, his mind was clear, so he slowly stood to his feet using R4 as a support, before looking at the AAT again and getting back to his plan. He walked to it, passing by a strange knife on the floor, black and glowing yellow, though he didn't spot it, and turned to R4.
"R4, hand me the blowtorch will ya" Jake asked his droid, gently holding his side.
R4 popped open a compartment and Jake grabbed the blowtorch, he climbed to the top of the tank and was able to quickly able to pop open the hatch, squeezing around the droid driver seat he got to a slight open area within the tank, it was quite small, obviously made to fit the proportions of a B1 not a human. looking around he saw a dead droid commander in a seat, with its head completely gone, he then spotted another droid sitting with its back in the tank walls. Jake saw that it was in practically mint condition, and thinking of profit as any respectable scrapper should, he started to try and drag it out of the tank.
"W-w-what's sssss,,, ha-ha penninggg" a high pitched glitchy voice was emitted as it powered on. The thin face of the B1 peered around the room.
"AAAAAHHHWHATTHEWHATHOWAREYOUEVENALIVERIGHTNOW" Jake screamed in a pure panic, dropping the droid causing to land with a metallic clank, before kicking it in the side of the head.
The droid yelled out clutching its face "NIAHHHHHHHH MY HEAD?!!?!" the droid looked around, panicked for a second longer, then seemingly and instantly calmed down. The droid got up slowly, rubbing its head, and greeted Jake.
"Apologies, I am B1-2368, do you know where I am?" The B1 questioned somewhat casually.
Well, perks of being a droid Jake guessed. You dont have to worry about staying panicked for too long.
"Oh....um, your on Geonosis.....it's been awhile since any droids have been here though". Jake was still in slight shock, he was talking to a relic, he hadn't ever seen a live B1, only dealing with the body parts of all this ones allies for money..... Jake probably wont be mentioning that. the B1's eyes glowed a yellowish tint within the tank's insides. Jake could only imagine what would go through the droid's head as it witnessed the thousands dead comrades outside.
"Affirmative, I do not seem to be gaining commands from separatist channels" the droid said, seemingly to itself before staring to exit the tank. Jake following behind as he pulled him self up, finding the B1 standing by an extremely confused R4 looking acorss the field.
Jakes eyes sunk slighty as he looked towards the B1, it looking around. While it's faceplate stayed motionless, it was clearly mumbling something. The B1 stood up and turned to Jake. With proper light Jake could see the droid fully. Scratches could be seen all over its body, a wire or 2 stuck out from its neck-to-head joint, but other than that, nothing else seemingly wrong. Only the fact that this droids blaster wasnt with it.
"tell me organic, wha-..what happened...?" the droid said in a sad tone, if it could be called that, and tilted its head questioningly.
"Well, the war ended....and you guys lost, now this Empire took the place of those clones, and they are definitely not the nicest" Jake hesitated slightly in saying this, but the B1 asked, his description was lack luster but the boy wasn't some historian, just a kid.
"oh...Well thats not goo-" the droid said, before seemingly interrupting itself.
"my programming is no longer under separatist control, according to protocol ERROR , this droid unit is under your command now sir" the droid spat out quickly in a robotic squeaky voice, before just staring at Jake, saluting.
"Wait a second...im not a commander, or even a Separatist for that matter" Jake raised his arms slowly as R4 let out a slolw gurgle.
"Your commentary is irrelvent sir!" The B1 spoke with the happiest of tones. "Your the closest organic with the capablity of giving me orders"
"I-....why....you know what just....if.. that's the case don't call me sir, the name is Jake and as stated im not some epic commander dude, so think about my orders being less about, kill kill to...uh..fix fix?" Jake exclaimed the words not feeling right in his mouth. He had always felt somewhat bad for all the troopers of the clone wars, and with the chance to save one, Jake wanted to befriend this droid, hoping to free the B1 from its old life of infinite servitude.
"Friends?.....no no, never had one of those" the B1 muttered, Jake not hearing and or ignoring the last part.
"Yup and you should have an actual name, not 237482 or whatever"
"My name is B1-23-" Jake was quick to cut the B1 off.
"No numbers!"
The B1 stood silently.
Jake thought for a moment staring into the droid's lifeless eyes that still seemed to light up with curiosity at the sight of R4, the droid turning to bend down to scan the Astromech. R4 beeping with nervousness, it had never been around a war model either.
"How bout....Rusty?" Jake proclaimed to the B1.
"Whatever you want to call me sir!" Rusty concluded looking over at Jake.
"its Jake...anways, let's head home shall we?" Jake spoke up as he began to walk back, patting R4s head as they both walked past the B1. Rusty looked at them and started to follow.
"Roger Roger sir" Rusty replied in a nervous tone. Battle droids were never known for being friends, or having any, and the idea of being nice to a single unit was unheard of in Separatist ranks, much less actually naming one, they never lasted long enough for that. Rusty felt a sense of happiness, something given by his now somehwhat freed programming, still, the feeling was weak, and the B1 hadn't noticed any change.
Rusty followed Jake, happy to have someone who cared about it. They hopped onto the speeder, as Rusty looked back towards his fallen brothers, The republic was to blame of course, but they were gone, and by using its simple program, the droid connected the dots, and couldn't help but feel something towards this "Empire" Jake had mentioned, something it hadn't felt since the Clone Wars.....
Something that is normally reserved for the likes of Clones
or even Jedi.
Hatred.