Chopper's Training Programme
An: I do not own Star Wars Rebels.
Summary: Chopper has decided that he didn't like Wedge Antilles's attitude towards AP-5 during the mission where he was compromised. Chopper has thus decided that Wedge needs some training on Droid – Human relations.
C1-10P that was his official designation in the Imperial Army. He was nothing more than another astromech droid. Droids were servants, pieces of metal to be ordered around and subjected to the whim and fancy of their commanders. The fate of droids did not matter to the Empire. Entire series were often decommissioned and sent to the scrap yards where they were either melted down or sold to scavengers. Any droid that disobeyed orders was sent immediately for reprogramming.
Being a droid in the Imperial Army was a very lonely experience. Chopper didn't realise how lonely until Hera saved him. With Hera, he was not another piece of metal, he was Chopper and he was important. He was not left behind or discarded to the side or threatened with reprogramming. Though all his needs weren't always met, like that replacement strut for his leg, he knew he wasn't purposely being cast aside because he was just a droid. Chopper appreciated that they were trying to do their best with the resources that they had at their disposal.
There was one thing that Chopper grew to love the most during his time on the Ghost, freedom of expression. He loved expressing himself and telling his crewmates exactly what he thought of them and some of the plans that they came up with. He preened every time Hera selected one his plans for a mission or listened to his suggestions. It felt great to be valued and even better to know that Hera indeed listened to him and trusted him.
In all of his missions on the Ghost he had never come across another droid as self-aware as him until he met AP-5. AP-5 had successfully broken out of the imperial mould himself. Somehow in his years of service to the Empire he learned to value his worth. He realised that the Empire didn't care about him when they removed him from his initial role as an analyst droid to an inventory droid on a normal freighter. AP-5 knew that the crew was mistreating him and he knew he could be so much more than just an inventory droid. AP-5 was unhappy.
When Chopper came along, he recognised that loneliness in AP-5 and he recognised a fellow droid that didn't deserve to be treated the way he was. Chopper was all too happy to remove the restraining bolt and work with AP-5. He invited him to join the rebellion where AP-5's talents could be fully harnessed. He knew AP-5's personality wasn't as glowing as his own but not all biological lifeforms came with great personalities either. Zeb and Ezra were great examples of that.
During AP-5's time with the rebellion he and Chopper became good friends. On Chopper's most recent mission to get the security access codes for the Imperial factory on Lothal, AP-5 was the first one to notice that something was wrong with him. AP-5 didn't just only notice, he came to the correct conclusion about what was wrong, how it happened and when. He shared his conclusions with their pilot Lieutenant Wedge Antilles who just disregarded it. AP-5 was in charge of the mission and Lieutenant Antilles should not have so easily dismissed AP-5 as being paranoid. The entire rebellion was put at risk because of that dismissal.
The fighter pilots all trusted each other. Wedge needed to trust AP-5. When AP-5 said something was wrong with him, Wedge should have listened. Chopper thought that it was glaringly obvious that he wasn't in control. Surely a simple test would have revealed the truth. No Imperial minion could fake being Chopper. Even though Wedge worked very little with Chopper, he knew that AP-5 and Chopper had completed many missions together and should have deferred to AP-5's expertise. Even Hera trusted AP-5 when she put him in charge of the mission. Chopper believed thatWedge needed to learn to listen and trust droids more and he had a plan to make that happen. Well it was more of a prank but a prank with a lesson.
Chopper studied Wedge's movements closely for two weeks. On Tuesdays and Thursdays he took part in pilot training exercises. On Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sunday's he patrolled the area around the planet and on Saturday he rested. That schedule held once he didn't have a mission. Chopper selected Tuesdays and Thursdays for his lesson. He called it 'Chopper's Lessons on Trusting a Droid'.
Wedge climbed into his fighter and strapped himself in. He put on his helmet and initiated the start-up procedure. A hologram of AP-5 appeared on his console.
"Welcome to Chopper's Lessons on Trusting a Droid," the bland mechanical voice said.
"What?" Wedge said staring at the console. He ignored what the hologram was saying and tried the start-up procedure again. His fighter did not start. All around him his friends were slowly taking off but he was still grounded. He tried to turn on his radio to get in touch with base communications to yell at Chopper for whatever stupid prank he was pulling but that wasn't functioning either. He then decided to try and get out of the cockpit and search for the irritating little droid himself but he couldn't get that open either. He banged on the glass in frustration but there was no one around his fighter. All of the base personnel had mysteriously disappeared.
He glared angrily at the hologram, "Chopper when I get my hands on you, you'll be lucky if you can still function!"
The hologram kept talking and he continued to ignore the hologram. He was trying to remember how to override the controls in his cockpit. The radio crackled to life and Wedge thought he could get help but Chopper's beeps came through the speakers. The stupid droid said he had to listen to the hologram if he wanted to catch up to his training team because at the moment they thought he was sleeping.
Wedge focused on the hologram.
"Good day Lieutenant Achilles, glad you're finally listening. To start your fighter please initiate the start-up sequence on my command, 3," Wedge rolled his eyes, this hologram couldn't be serious. "2," Wedge crossed his hands stubbornly in front of his chest. He was not letting some stupid hologram take advantage of him. "1, start."
Wedge didn't move.
"Lieutenant Achilles you did not engage the start-up sequence," the hologram said.
"I realise that. I am a trained pilot. I don't need some hologram telling me what I already know," Wedge protested. The whole thing was a stupid prank by Chopper.
"Let's start again. 3,2,1, start," the bland robotic voice said again. Wedge didn't move. "I see the simple instruction is still alluding you," the voice said and this time it sounded like AP-5 and not a pre-programmed hologram.
"Listen here AP-5," Wedge started but AP-5 cut him off.
"Your team is waiting for you. Shall I tell them that you are having difficulty starting your fighter?"
"No don't tell them anything," Wedge said. His team didn't need to know that two droids got the better of him.
"From the beginning then, 3,2,1 start."
This time Wedge started the fighter when AP-5 instructed and it came to life. The hologram disappeared and everything returned to normal. The radio came to life with members of his team was debating what was taking him so long. He radioed to them that he finally sorted out the issue and caught up to them quickly. When he returned to base he couldn't find a single sign of either droid. He soon got pulled into a prep meeting for a mission he would be included on the next day. It wasn't until he got into the cockpit on Thursday morning for training and was again greeted with, "Welcome to Chopper's Lessons on Trusting a Droid," did he remember that he was supposed to dismantle two droids.
An: Thank you for reading.