Tank a Hit
(Firstly, sorry that the last chapter was pretty s h i t, i kind of sped through it and just typed what had to be known, this chapter will definitely be a lot better, Thanks for reading!)
Jake and the others scrambled inside the LAAT, it wasn't working by any means, but it was safer than outside, the Boga had fled the area once they arrived. Rusty huddled by Clank, who stared outside unmoving, Teesh clutched the Repeater rifle he had gotten, while Bucket did the same with his E-5, Tac quickly got up to the pilots seat to try and see what was operational, the planets dusty atmospheres threw dust at. Jakes breathing was hitched, almost seemingly blocked by an invisible force in his throat, His eyes rapidly looked around the sky, locking onto an Imperial shuttle speeding in the distance....towards them.
"Tac! There's something coming!" Rusty yelled out in a panic of mechanical squeaks.
"Affirmative, there seems to be an Imperial Trooper Transport inbound our location" Tac came the down the stairs speaking this, before walking over to a terrified Jake "Sir, I suggest we set an Ambush"
"For once i agree with the Calculator" Teesh spoke out, peaking behind him looking at the boy while covering his face from a gust of wind. Jake stared at him for a moment, before shaking it off.
"Alright..alright" He breathed in closing his eyes, trying to calm his nerves "I've got an idea"
----------------------------------
"Sir, we have spotted the downed LAAT" a TK Pilot spoke aloud, the area inside was filled with several TK Troopers sat down in seats attached to the walls, the grey walls perfectly clean. A TK stood in the middle with a large grey shoulder pad, his face covered with emotionless helmet, he stepped around towards the pilots seat and yelled back.
"Good, lower us down...alright get ready troopers" He said pulling out a DC-15.
"SIR YES SIR!" Echoed inside the ship as the troopers stood up readying their blasters and attaching cables to their waists. Some of the TKs cussed aloud their hatred to the Separatists as the hatch under neath them opened, all of them more than ready to wipe the droids off the face of Utapau, and leave them here to Rust.
Jumping down, the grappling wire zipping in the air, followed by the heavy footsteps of TKs landing on the floor, their blasters raised as the 9 of them walked together, the Commander in the front. With a hand motion the Commander sent 3 TKs into the LAAT, they moved slowly, the silence only interrupted by the crackling of fire on the LAATs engine.
Staring at the downed ship the other 6 TKs stared as they heard loud thumping, followed by 2 blaster shots, their red glow shining the inside of the LAAT for a split second, the form of a Super Battle Droid apparent, as 2 loud clanks were heard, before a TK came flying out of the LAAT landing on the floor yelling in pain as held his shoulder were his arm used to be.
"Blasters Ready!!?" The Commander Yelled in panicked authority, the other troopers shifted nervously as Clank emerged from the Dark LAAT, still holding the bleeding arm of the previous TK. The other 6 TKs, shifted backwards slightly at the sight before opening fire with a consecutive yell, Clank heaving his body out of the way behind the LAATs armor, only being hit twice in the back by their red bolts. The Imperial Squad quickly jogged towards the Ship, still firing useless bolts that slammed into the ships hull, the Commander was the only one who stayed behind, to scared to risk his own, life as he stared unmoving at the now dead, armless TK on the floor. as the other 5 TK troopers neared the LAAT, a high pitched yell came from behind a rock, as Rusty and Bucket poked their upper bodies over it.
"Come and Get Some!" Bucket Yelled firing a spray of blaster bolts.
"Yeah what he said!!" Rusty Followed shortly after.
They only hit 3 of the troopers fatally, and quickly ducked behind cover once the other 3 fired upon them, but before the TKs could go around a snake like roar brought their attention to atop the LAAT where Teesh and Tac stood pointing there blasters, quickly taking down 2 of them with brutal efficiency before retreating when the last one fired. Rusty pounced atop the last TK, and grabbed the back of his helmet, ripping it off, Bucket also ran up and kicked away the TKs blaster.
The Commander didn't even try to fire and took a step back to run but was intercepted by a yelling unarmed Jake who tackled the TK.
"For R4!!" Jake screamed at the top of his lungs in a long yell as he relentlessly sent punch after punch into the TKs helmet, Jakes eyes watered and his mind went hazy, quickly snapping out of it, Jake looked down at the TK. blood leaked from his helmet staining the dusty floor, and Jakes knuckles were bruised. Sighing with a hint of regret, he got up, Jake would've thought more of what he did if it wasn't for the Troop Transport still above them, the Pilot had just noticed the Commotion and had the ships blaster cannon aimed at Jake, Paralyzed with fear, held his hands up in a last form of resistance.
The shot echoed through the area, as Clank quickly shoved Jake out of the way, his back being blasted by the large bolt. Jakes eyes widened as he fell to the floor and witnessed Clank go soaring several meters spinning in the air with smoke emitting from his back before crashing into the LAAT and falling to the floor unmoving.
"CLAAANKKK" Jake screeched, Teeshes eyes widened at the sight before narrowing them and blasting out the turret and dropping his blaster and lunging himself onto the grappling wire animalistically climbing up, screaming could be heard as blood filled the cockpit, with the ship slowly landing a few seconds afterwards, and Teesh walking out with half of the still bloody helmet in his mouth.
Jake ran over to Clank in a panic, Rusty in tow, Tac and Bucket had imprisoned the only remaining trooper, who at this point was an inch away from bawling his eyes out. Teesh rushed over as well, standing by Jake who was on his knees by Clank, the B2 wasn't moving, his red light was still on, but extremely faint. Bucket looked over as Tac walked away to see Clanks status, the B1 let out a high pitched grunt of frustration and delivered a nasty right hook into the TKs forehead, knocking him out, his body thudding on the floor.
Teesh, Tac and Jake heaved Clank over and onto the floor of the downed LAAT, Tac immediately bean to scan him. Jakes eyes watered despite his failed attempts to ignore it, Jakes emotional state was crumbling faster than a battle droid fighting a jedi, and it was evident.
"Is he gonna be ok!?" Rusty squeaked out, looking over at Bucket who had just arrived.
"I...hope so" Bucket responded with a lowered voice, looking down at the B2.
Teeshes slitted eyes look over at Jake, and after shifting uncomfortably he laid his scaly hand on the boys shoulder. "hey....im sure he will be fine kid" Teesh spoke with a hint of uncertainty. Jakes slowly turned to the lizard, not saying a word, his expression telling Teesh all he had to know.
"Clanks systems are still...operational, but" Tac paused slightly, Jake listened closely "The damage to his back hit several critical areas that have inhibited coolant flow through his body"
"and that means what?" Jake asked quietly.
"if not repaired, Clank will overheat if reactivated" Tac stated simply, as if it were obvious.
"Well..that's not good" Rusty said worriedly.
"Cant we fix him?..we have this wreckage to help us" Teesh suggested, kneeling down and running his claw against the burnt inside of Clanks exposed wound.
"Agreed" Tac stated, getting up and looking around the area.
"So what are we looking for?" Rusty asked with a confused head tilt.
"Coolant containers, they should be located near the ships rear" tac ordered, pointing at the ships rear.
"Roger Roger" both Rusty and Bucket said, before walking towards each other and bumping heads with a loud clank, shaking off the hit they both went around back the ship to search for the coolant. Jake would've laughed at the comedic moment, if he wasn't shell shocked staring at Clanks lifeless form, his mind raced with thoughts, the screeches of R4, his parents, the B1 lifting the brother he never knew of, and killing him.
It was to much all at once, and Jake began to sob, louder than he had ever sobbed before, Teesh gave the boy a look of sorrow as Jake clutched Clanks body and cried into it, all Teesh could muster was a few light pats on the back, but they were shoved away by Jake as he pulled the lizard into a hug. Teesh didn't dare move for a few moments but awkwardly moved his arms around the child, Tac came up and began using a welding tool he found in the LAAT compartment, and started to weld parts of Clanks back together, the Tactical Droid stared at the 2 hugging for a moment, clearly thinking, before going back to welding.
-----------------------
It had been several hours, Teesh was on lookout as the 3 droids continued repairs, he was pleasantly surprised to see that the Empire seemingly had no knowledge of there existence. Every once in a while, the Boga from before would pop up say hi from a distance, make wooing and calling out. The sun was starting to set, giving off a warm glow to the surroundings, the droids were doing nicely, having completely fixed the hole in Clanks back, replacing his coolant container by taking apart the LAATs, and even finding a conveniently placed can of black paint, to cover up the wound. Jake had been asleep huddled in the corner, he shifted uncomfortably and his hands trembled, Teesh worried if he was having a nightmare considering what happened, but Tac said that ,by logic, the kid was just cold.
Seemingly awoken by his presence in the small talk, Jake crawled over to check with Clank, who was sat up against the inner wall charging. However, in the most cliche move, Clanks red light flickered and glowed a menacing red, Jakes swollen eyes filled with slight hope as the droid sat up, his motors whirring having to carry the weight of the massive droid.
"Clank!?" Rusty squeaked happily, Causing Teesh and Bucket to turn, with a smile forming on Teeshes toothy mouth.
Glitching noises emitted from the B2 before he spoke "What has happened" he turned to stare at Jake "Greetings"
Jake clung onto the B2s arm "Your ok....i thought i lost you bud"
"Us Supers are hard to destroy sir" Clank said slamming his fist into his chest twice.
"Affirmative" Tac stated, with Clank turning to him and the others.
"Good to see everyone is active and online" Clank said as happy as his low voice could be.
The group stood momentarily relieved that they had brought him back, Teesh broke the silence.
"Its turning night, we should hang out here until morning, then we can use the Imperial ship to get out of this dusty ass planet" Teesh said brushing some dust from his eyes. Jake gave of a genuine laugh, his first one in a while.
"agreed" Jake said with a faint smile "Rusty, mind closing the door for us, Rusty nodded and tried to shut the large door, but couldn't, Clank walked over and closed it with one hand.
Rusty scoffed jokingly "Show Off"
"I know" Clank retorted.
Jake sighed happily at the situation, but they needed to figure out where to go, he didn't know what planets where close to Utapau, but he knew they were far from Geonosis. Maybe he could get back to Naboo...Jake thought to himself of the possibilities, being able to explore the galaxy, of course with caution of the Empire. He held onto R4s eye, and sat down, readying himself to sleep again, and for once.
it might be peaceful.
------------------------------------------------
The V-Wing sped by through the empty space, inside, a bloodied Commando Droid lay still driving the starship with little effort, no words were spoken as the V-Wings roar filled its audio receptors. The Commando had barely escaped from the Empire and was Flying for a while, his ship almost out of fuel. Thankfully, it had found the abandoned remains of several Separatist battle ships, it slowed down the ship and hovered around the wreckage, with floating bodies of dismembered Battledroids present in every direction, The Commando had no reaction, and landed his ship in the back half of a destroyed dreadnaught. hopping out and turning on his magnetized metal feet, the droid walked around for a few mins, collecting whatever fuel was left and pumping it into his V-Wing. The Commando snapped his head towards a noise coming from underneath a large pile of scrap rubble, its was glitchy and and voice behind was deep.
The Commando began to dig into the pile with one hand, the other holding his still bloody sword. it didn't take long for a 4 fingered metal hand to reach out for help, the Commando yanked one the arm, causing the large pile to shift as a MagnaGuard arose from the rubble. It was badly damaged, missing several parts of armor plating, heavy burn marks, and with one eye cracked, although, the MagnaGuard was still plugged into its charging port.
"State your purpose" The Guard stated menacingly.
"I am a commando unit designed for stealth operations against Republic Clones" The Command answered.
"Good, i was leading a large force of droids away from danger, and we encountered the Empire 423 Cycles ago" The Guard stated.
"Unfortunate to have lost so many units" The Commando said looking into space, watching a dead B1 float by.
"Most where B1 Battledroids, Useless" the Guard retorted.
"Agreed"
"I see we share a common Goal Commando"
"Continue"
"The death of the Empire is top priority"
"It is good to find someone with my same thinking"
"You better murder as good as you do survive Commando"
"Roger Roger"