a Clank for Help
:)
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Jake and T-83 had both climbed out of the hole that originally caused this whole thing, in Jake's eyes however, it wasn't so bad. Sure his belly was bleeding slightly, he was so sore that he wasn't sure if he had bones, and he and R4 could've died to those crazy B1s. But if they never fell, they wouldn't have saved T-83, and they wouldn't have found the delicious goods that were both in Jake's backpack and stuffed in R4. The 3 continued to walk towards where the exit was, it would take close to an hour according to R4, so Jake tried to figure out how the hell T-83 got down here.
"So.....T-83, how did you even get down here. From what the geonosisns say I don't believe Tactical droids existed during the battle of geonosis'' Jake questioned
T-83 looked at Jake with one functioning eye "Months after this battle, my separatist shuttle was placed in orbit to collect any usable droid material for recycling" Jake just nodded and continued to walk as the droid spoke.
"Once we got attacked by the Republic, which was hoping to cease our operations, me and several other droid troopers entered escape pods. I calculated our chance of survival to be 128 to 1."
Jake joked about the seemingly random number the droid had generated "seems like a low survival rate doesn't it?"
"Compared to being executed by republic clones, which has a chance of sur-" Jake cut the droid off as it continued to rant.
"your survival would be 0 percent, yadayada. So where's the rest of the droids that landed here?" Jake asked even though the answer was obvious, they all died, but he wanted to see if they maybe had a happier fate.
"All other escaping pods were found and destroyed, mine sir used because of the concealment of the transport we are currently inside off" T-83 explained his miraculous survival proudly.
"Anyone ever told you to check your ego?" Jake mused, causing some gargled beeps to emit from R4, probably laughing.
"I do not require an ego check, I am a droid, I am always right" T-83 spoke confidently despite the weird robotic tone the Tactical droid produced.
"Sure you don't," Jake muttered to himself.
After that insight in T-83s lucky survival the 3 kept making their way towards the exit, many stops had to be made to allow R4 to spray bacta on Jake's stomach wound. The bleeding was over thanks to extra cloth T-83 found and then applied to the wound earlier in their walk, but obviously the open cut still hurt a shit ton.
After passing several more gruesome droid bodies, more plane and metallic walls, and so many wires Jake would start to cuss out said wires ever time they annoyed, they eventually saw the light of the barbaric sun not to far ahead, Jake called out to his friends out, but received no reply, Jake immediately ran as fast as he could with his wound to the exit, R4 rolling behind, and T-83 awkwardly running alongside them. Once they reached outside they saw a half depressing scene and a half normal scene.
To their left the body of the powerless Rusty, sitting alongside Clank, who was also offline, but seemed to have a battery. To the right Teesh could be seen sleeping soundly, he was huddled into a tight circle as if he was a wild animal.
"Clank?! Rusty!?" Jake rushed over and knelt down to help the 2, R4 rolled up behind him
"R4, wake up Teesh '' R4 beeped quickly before turning and rolling away, T-83 also appeared behind Jake.
"This B1 unit seems to be out of power sir, however the B2 is still functioning"
Jake sighed in relief, with Clank they could at least carry Rusty to the ship easier. Jake attempted to find a switch to turn Clank on but was stopped by T-83. Without a word the Tactical droid began to pry open Clank's chest, the droid clicked a few buttons and the red dot on Clank's chest lit up, Jake smiled at the sight as he and Clank rose at the same time.
"Good to see you Clank" Jake said happily to the droid
Clank didn't respond but instead reached out his right arm and pulled Jake into a spine breaking hug. It was robotic, and by no means comfortable, but Jack appreciated the care Clank tried to use.
"We thought you shutdown sir" Clank stated melancholy
"Don't worry, I'm still here" Jake said this and heard a few footsteps behind them, he turned to see Teesh with R4 by his side.
"You good Teesh?" Jake asked casually.
"I'm a bit tired" Teesh responded obliviously to his surroundings.
"Hmm right yes, so you decided sleeping was more important then not letting Rusty starve?!" Jake shouted at Teesh, clearly not amused by his excuse of being "tired"
"Ssssorryy, I didn't notice, thought he was sleeping" Teesh responded clearly not being too concerned.
"He is a droid...I don't even think they can sle-" Jake just stopped his incoming rant and took a deep breath.
"Ok, let's head back to the ship, we can charge you 2 up" he motioned to Clank and Rusty "and while we are walking T-83 and R4 will scan for an extra charger that may be laying around"
"Good plan sir" T-83 praised
"Affirmative" Clank replied
"K" Teesh said still stretching from his slumber
Jake gave a heavy sigh as Clank picked up Rusty's body and slung it over his shoulder, after that, the 4 began their walk. The sand was hot in the droids metal, but they didn't feel it, and even if they did they wouldn't care. The sun shined on the group, Jake sweat excessively as he held his wound and limped alongside the others, Teesh basked in the sun as they walked, and the sun bounced off the droid's exterior like it was a deflector shield.
"It seems you have been harmed," Clank observed.
"This is correct" T-83 replied before Jake could "he fell from approximately 27.03 Feet fin to a hole"
"That is not good for well being" Clank calculated and spoke out loud.
"Affirmative" T-83 replied, placing his hand atop one another in front of his chest.
"You survived how?" the Tactical droid continued, asking Clank.
Rusty's body swayed with every step Clank took as he replied "I was buried in the sand, before being discovered by Jake" he answered
"Interesting, I survived by using an escape from an orbiting ship" T-83 explained
"Congratulations" Clank responded, which was followed by silence. Jake and Teesh heard the conversation, but didn't add any input.
"Ahhhh" Jake let out a grunt as he stopped walking and clutched his belly, R4 quickly rolled up and sprayed baca at the wound, lessening the pain for a while longer.
"Beeoeooobooo ooo....." R4 beeped sadly to Jake.
"Of course we're almost out of bacta, how far did I park this fucking ship anyways?!" Jake let out in a frustrated yell. The others continued their walk but stared worried at Jake. Thankfully not soon after his outburst the LAAT could be seen far in the distanceThankfully it was the only ship there, indicating that it hadn't been found by imperial scouts.
"No clones huh? Well we got lucky" Jake said as he continued to pad his limp.
"Clones....right" T-83 spoke monotone, almost sadly. The droid looked around slowly as it began to add up on his motherboard.
"Did the Separatist Alliance lose the war?" T-83 asked no one in particular.
Before could give the same explanation he did to Rusty and Clank, Clank spoke first and surprisingly explained it himself.
"Yes we have, however we serve a greater purpose now. Our freedom has been given to us by our commanding officer Jake. Thankfully he accepted us into his existence and does not seem bothered about it"
Teesh starred in surprise at the normally monotone Clank showing appreciation for Jake, and Jake obviously felt very proud he gained his friends' trust. T-83 stared at Clank for a moment before turning to Jake.
"If you are the commanding officer, I have gained the rank of Second in command. It will be an honor to serve under you sir" T-83 spoke as he gave a slight bow and clasped his hands in front of him together.
Jake let out a small laugh as he held his stomach "you better be as smart as you are confident friend" he spoke still laughing slightly.
"My intellige-" T-83 was cut off my Teesh.
"It wassss rhetorical droid, we know your ssssmmmart, your name ssssstartsss with tactical. Course your gonna be ssssmart" Teesh explained calmly as he shut the droid up, T-83 didn't seem to mind however and responded with a nod
Not too long after the group arrived at their ship it was covered in sand but thankfully had no exterior damage, even better is that the doors of the ship kept out sand from the inside decently well, so the group didn't bother cleaning it. After a small break Jake climbed up the steps and sat in the cockpit, Clank had lauded Rusty down in a seat and strapped him in his seat belt, although the B1 looked uncanny due his limp body hanging from the seat. The 2 droids remained and Teesh had already held onto the handlebars in the ceiling to prepare for what was probably gonna be another rocky flight. After getting into the air and slowly hovering back home nothing intense or interesting happened, just more small talk between the droids and surprisingly Teesh as well. Around halfway during their flight Clanka legs gave out for a quick second and he caught himself from falling.
"Are you good?" Teesh asked, confused.
"Yes, j-ju-ju-just a p-p-power-r proble-e-blemmmmm-mm-mmm...." Clanka's glitchy response was sadly and ironically followed by a huge smash as the B2 collapsed face first I to the floor, motionless. Teesh quickly let go of the handle bar and ran over to see what happened, but he was quickly informed by T-83.
"Clank has lost power..." the droid muttered sadly. "Inform Jake" it asked Teesh.
The Trandoshan nodded and quickly got behind Jake Pilot's seat.
"Heyyy Kidd" he called out.
"Yeah?" Jake semi yelled as the wind in the cockpit made it harder to hear.
"Clank just shutdown, poor guys out of power." Teesh quickly formed Jake before turning back to help T-83 prop the B2 up against the ship's inner walls.
Jake felt a stab of guilt run through him, he had so many opportunities to leave early from that dump. Sure he collected extra resources but he no longer cared, Rusty and Clanked starved to death because he took too long as they loyally waited till their last charge. Jake's face contorted slightly as was overwhelmed by a sense of dread. Rusty and Clank are down, T-83 seems to have power, but R4 was probably next. He quickly looked over his shoulder to see a small portion of R4 from the awkward angle of the cockpit, in response to this info he sped up the starship slightly, hoping to get back to the village before R4 eventually fell over with the rest of his metallic friends.