"And we're sure the droid will tell the Ugnaughts what they're supposed to do?" Slicer asked. "'cause he seems just a bit..." Slicer glanced over in the direction of the silver protocol droid.
"Well, I never!" E-3PO said, coming as close to putting his hands on his hips as a droid could. "The Empire is insulting me by making me translate for these vermin," he said, gesturing at the Ugnaughts, "and you dare accuse me of being faulty?" Throwing his metal arms up in the air, he went off in a huff, out of the carbon freezing chamber.
Lurk raised an eyebrow. "Let me shoot him, Prime, please?"
Prime shook his head. "Only if you want to get us all launched out the exhaust ports without our helmets on. Our instructions came from Darth Vader. We need to have this place up and running by the time Skywalker gets here."
The Imperial captain looked up from his datapad. "Having trouble controlling your squad, Commander?" he asked, eying Prime.
"No, sir, no trouble. He's always this way." Prime shot Lurk a look that warned him to keep his mouth shut.
The squad could hear E-3PO exiting out into the hallway, still in a huff, pausing only to insult another metallic voice. Stealth chuckled. "I'm surprised no one's taken him apart yet. I'd have shot him by now."
Slicer cocked his head. "Shot... the droid, or Lurk?"
"The droid, you idiot."
A little black R2 unit rolled past the Ugnaughts and plugged into the computer terminal that controlled the carbon freezing chamber, checking to make sure the systems were working properly. He let out a series of beeps that escaped the understanding of anyone present in the room. The voice of a protocol droid came from the direction that E-3PO had exited, but it didn't sound like the same droid. Prime ruffled his brow and turned around. Lurk was sitting on the ground cleaning out his pistol, half-guarding the door. He looked up when he heard the unfamiliar droids voice.
"Hello?" The droid said, wandering in to the room. "How interesting!"
Lurk carefully set his pistol down and picked up his Deece. The Imperial captain noticed Lurk's movement, then saw the strange droid wandering about. "Who are you?" he demanded, startling the gold droid.
"Oh my!" The droid said, putting his arms into the air.
Lurk hauled himself to his feet, ignoring his protesting knee. He raised his Deece, still unsure what to make of the intruding droid.
The droid was in a panic now, and wouldn't shut up. "I'm terribly sorry, I didn't mean to intrude! No, no, no, please don't get up!"
Lurk had enough.
"NO!" the droid shouted as a blaster bolt from Lurk's Deece hit him in the chest. Droid pieces scattered everywhere.
Prime put his hand to his face. "Lurk!"
Lurk turned to look over at Prime, surprised to be scolded. "What? He wasn't supposed to be in here!"
"He's a droid! If he saw something he wasn't supposed to, we just have the little Ugnaughts wipe his memory, and no one's the wiser! Someone's certainly going to notice when their droid doesn't come back from his walk!"
The squad heard a growl at the door, then silence. They listened for a second, but heard nothing more. "Was that a Wookiee?" Slicer asked.
Prime ignored him. "Lurk just... go pick up the pieces and bring them here. I'll take him down to the junk pile. Maybe no one will notice. And will you please think before you shoot things from now on?"
"Sorry, sir."
"Don't just shoot 'cause something's being annoying." Prime bent down and picked up a silver leg. "And what the heck were you aiming at? I've never seen a droid explode into so many pieces!" He waved the silver leg at Lurk. "Look at this, I don't even know if this is from the same droid!"
Stealth snickered. "You gotta admit, Prime, that was an awesome explosion."
Prime pointed the leg at Stealth. "Don't you start with that."
"Yessir," Stealth answered, saluting, but still grinning.
Lurk finished picking up the protocol droid pieces and handed them to Prime, who just rolled his eyes. "Let's just hope this stupid droid wasn't too important to anyone."