A/N: Greetings fellow reader, if you have read the previous iteration of this story that was called the "Raider and the Alpha," I would suggest that you skim or re-read the first two chapter to understand chapter 3. I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience, but I felt a rewrite was necessary. Feel free to voice your criticism or suggestions in the review section.
Chapter 3
"The Droid"
1410 hours February 17, 2554(Military Calendar)
Unknown planet
Lawrence stared at the corpse he'd found with a profound shock. The armor, the ship, and the writing were nothing like he had ever seen before. This decomposed body was a human being. There was no doubt about it. The question is, how did it get here? That was something that Lawrence wanted to find out.
With his combat knife in hand, he began to remove the panels on the computers that were on the bridge in his quest for answers. He was looking for the memory banks of these computers, but so far the ones he had only found were damaged due to the fire that had raged in the interior of the ship. Lawrence came to the last console in the bridge, he inserted his knife in the panel's crevice and pried it open. "Bingo," Lawrence said out loud to himself as he had found something that remotely resembled a data bank in near perfect condition.
He took his backpack off to retrieve the tablet that he carried with him. Lawrence planned to hook his tablet to the recovered hard drive but soon found it that none of his SATA cables matched the plug for this memory disk. "I'll have to take this back to the Avalanche with me." He concluded.
As he put the memory disk in his backpack, a familiar voice called out from the com channel.
"Lawrence are you out there? Respond." The voice belongs to no other than GySgt. Buck.
"Gunnery Sergeant, where are you, I couldn't find any of you guys out there," Lawrence replied.
"Right now we're on a tree trying to find the rest of the team. But where are you private?" Buck inquired.
"Right now I'm in the remains of a ship of unknown classification. I think I can find out where we are if I keep searching it."
"Well try to find as much as you can. I'll see if we can spot a downed ship from up here." Buck said.
"Well do Gunny." Lawrence finished.
Lawrence walked up to his shotgun that was still on the ground on next to the body. Negligence on his part, but the thrill to solve this mystery overtook him, and he had forgotten about picking up his weapon.
The trooper once armed began to renew his search throughout the ship. Every step he took gave out a chunk sound due to all of the charred debris that was on the ground. He first stumbled upon a room that was just a complete mess. The ceiling had sunk down, and there were various pieces of furniture scattered all over the place. From what he could deduce, this room had to at one time been an infirmary.
He continued his investigation, searching every room even the ones that he had been to when he initially entered. Searching for more pieces of information that could help him. However, his entire search was futile. Everything that he came across was damaged beyond of any use. That was until he stumbled upon a room that was sealed at the end of the corridor. The door was sealed, and since there was no power, the only way to get inside was to force this door open. Lawrence grabbed his knife and pushed it into the doors crevice. He carefully tilted left and right to not bend his knife. After making a clearing big enough to fit his fingers through, he started using his hands to pry it open.
Lawrence made an opening just big enough where he could fit through. He carefully inspected the room he had entered. To his surprise, this room appeared to be in pristine condition despite the fact that an inferno consumed the rest of the vessel. He continued to look until he saw something in the corner of the room. At first, he thought that it was just a box, but the more he looked at it, the more of its details became apparent. This box had two short stubby legs, some buttons, and gauges. The box appeared to have been knocked over since it was laying on its side. Lawrence approached this "box" picking it up and standing it on its two legs. The box was heavier than he had expected. Lawrence knelt down to take a closer inspection on the button panel. Not knowing what to do, he pressed one of the buttons at random. With a stroke of sheer luck, the box began to power up making it evident that this, after all, was not a container, but a droid of some sorts. Lawrence just watched as the droid powered up with some curiosity. After the droid finished powering up, it let out an audible "Gonk."
"Howdy their friend." Lawrence started "Can you understand me?"
"Gonk" was all Lawrence received.
"Ah I see, can you tell me what happened here?"
"Gonk."
"I reckon that must be the only thing you can say," Lawrence said letting his southern accent slip. "Well I must get going, it was nice meeting you Gonk," Lawrence said sarcastically.
Lawrence started to make his way out of the room. Disappointed in the fact that he wasn't able to find anything else besides the memory disk (To which he had no clue that it was a memory disk, to begin with) and the corpse in the bridge. The trooper started to head towards the entrance that he came in from and only to hear another set of steps behind him. He quickly turned around aiming down the sights of his shotgun only to realize that the droid was following him.
"Gonk." Was all the droid had said.
"As much as I would love to have your company, you cannot come with me. Stay here; I'm sure your owner will come for you eventually." Lawrence said.
He began to continue walking only to realize that the droid was still following him. He reached the entrance and was about to make his exit only to stop to confront the droid one more time.
"Listen I already told you once. You cannot come with me ok, just stay here buddy." But the Droid still did not listen and just kept following him
"Alright fine, I guess you can tag along."
Lawrence scanned the surrounding before leaving the crashed ship. He made a mental note to himself to bring the team back here and retrieve. With the company of his new found friend next to him, he set out to find his squad.
[_]
UNSC Avalanche
In atmosphere
"Sir, the Avalanche has entered the atmosphere of the planet." Ensign James said.
"And not a moment too soon, Radar is picking up a new contact in the orbit of the planet," Jeremiah stated.
"Friendly's?" Terris inquired.
"Negative," The A.I said.
"Prepare archer missile pods one through three in case of possible hostile contact." Terris ordered.
Elsewhere…
The young Twi'lek was sitting on a crate next to the Nu-class transport that would take her to her first mission. She imagined what it would be like but tried not to get her hopes up. Besides she was part of the medical corps, the only action she would see was an injured Jedi or Clone, but not in "Backwater" planet as she called it.
"Are you ready?" A female voice called to her. It was Jedi Master Ursula and to her left stood her Padawan Orsan. Ursula was also accompanied by a clone trooper whose name she still did not know.
"Yes, master," The Twi'lek said to the Jedi.
"Well board the ship we don't have time to spare!" The Jedi Master ordered in a harsh tone.
The Twi'lek just nodded at the Jedi master and proceeded to enter the shuttle. She sat in the far end hoping not to interact with the Master. She wasn't very fond of the Jedi Master or her Padawan. In fact, she disliked them both. But there wasn't anything she could.
The ship lifted off from the ground and made its way out of the hangar. Its course set to the Rolion sector.
