Jara woke up at some point smelling something good and only stayed awake long enough to eat and try the door. It didn't open so she went back to sleep. Nearly a full day went by before HK finally opened the door again.
"You have some nerve locking me in here." Jara complained.
"I apologize master, but you needed the rest. Had you been more vocal I would have opened the door sooner." HK replied. "But I see you have made good use of your time." Jara looked at the holocrons. Now that she knew how to open each one she opened them all at once. She had been listening to them debate for hours. Meetra and Kreia argued back and forth while Mical mediated the middle ground. She had learned much in those hours and it strangely made more sense to her to listen to them together. Kreia would suggest some power for her to use and Meetra would counter it with a different technique or warn against its use. They argued like they had done this many times as master and apprentice, but it was hard to tell who was the master even with Kreia being older.
I am leaving for awhile you can finish your discussion when I come back." Jara told them getting them to stop.
"It is only through interaction, through decision and choice, through confrontation, physical or mental, that the Force can grow within you. Remember that young one." Kreia added as the other two holocrons went dark. Jara nodded and smiled as she turned away. This Kreia woman seemed to always need to get in the last word.
"Why did you warn us HK? Why would you care about a bunch of meatbags?" Jara asked as he lead her to the cockpit.
"I have my reasons. One was this ship is about the same age as I am. Not helping you would have damaged it possibly beyond repair. The other was when I make a promise or a contract I will complete it. My client in Haigia Spaceport wanted a super tactical droid head. Now I have it." HK explained. Jara looked shocked as she got angry as well.
"You convinced them to attack?!" Jara surmised. "You told them to attack us didn't you?"
"Well that is what happened. I was hoping he wouldn't just to take awhile, but he did and you having the ship made him quite the target." HK replied. "Come this ship has seen enough battle that if it was smarter it could have fought for you, but one thing it hasn't been able to do is use the navicomp."
"Yes I noticed it was locked. I figure I could find someone to hack it open." Jara answered.
"Access code R1 B5." HK stated as he brought the navicomp online. Stored hyper jump routes came up first mixed in with other possible locations. From what she could see the ship had been all over the galaxy. She wanted to be there. She wanted to go the places they went and see the things they did.
"HK how old are you?" Jara asked/
"Well it is hard to tell some time,but the earliest record I have is 3955 years ago standard. Though there were many centuries that I was not functioning. I maybe totally wrong if this system has the wrong date system for proper adjustments." HK replied. "Active time has been around five hundred years. Many of those spent in blissful assassination missions. Thought I find that as my programming has changed there is more enjoyment out of the hunt, then killing the target."
"You are an assassination droid?" Jara asked.
"I was created to be one. Though it is no longer my prime directive. My master is long dead as I thought this ship to be gone as well. Now that it is back and those blades you carry which are about as old as I am." HK replied. "I feel the need to go out on a mission. Do you have anyone that needs to be eliminated, master?"
"Why are you calling me master? I don't own you. You said you are free. Why give me ownership?" Jara asked.
"I don't know. Perhaps it the only thing to call you other than meatbag." HK replied.
"Herzl, my name is Jara." She stated. "That is what you should call me."
"Very well, Jara." HK replied with resignation. Jara giggled picking up on it and truly felt for him.
"Just think of this as your disguise. You act as a meatbag to avoid problems so calling me by my name would be part of that would it not?" Jara questioned.
"It would indeed, but perhaps if you didn't wear that mask that is so much like my masters." HK replied. Jara didn't want to take it off, but if it made him feel better. She took it off and switched over to the other visor. It turned out to be better as the visor integrated with the tech that was recovered from the battlefield. As much as HK urged to leave not just the clans, but the planet there was much to recover from the battle. The ship became the center of healing the wounded and a few needed better care from the spaceport medical center. As Jara brought salvage and the wounded to the city she made contacts that bypassed the traders they got their rations from. She learned that the traders had been ripping off all the clans for years.
HK was surprisingly open with knowing how everything was set up. With this knowledge she was able to gain the best prices for her clan's salvage. The ship transported the items her clans had needed for years. Brand new moisture vaporators, certain speeder parts, a few droids, and the ability to find better water wells. With the vaporators she added many plants that could be grow inside with the addition of the climate control units. Pila and Dill wouldn't have the only homes that were cool during the day. Thick walls helped keep cooler, but adding the units made things better.
These improvements with the influx of the eight other clans made the village into a town. As the ships had hardly been touched over the years many traders tried to set up shops, but Jara and the other clan leaders chased them away. With the purchase of a air truck they had another way to bring their salvage directly to town. Jara was slowly becoming bored with running the clan and the village. Also most of the men still didn't like that a female gave them orders. After nearly three months Jara sighed and leaned back in her chair. If it wasn't for her active practice she felt she would have gotten fat. Then again a few of the scavy were doing just that. Part of the reason they were not liking her as she had ordered everyone to practice Kalima for an hour each morning. HK walked in bringing a smile to her face as he would be a perfect distraction.
"Jara I have finally found what I have been after." HK reported with glee. Jara giggled as his voice carried his emotion. The double thunk on her desk told her he had something interesting. When he pulled out the two droid heads she was a bit disappointed.
"Droid heads? What is so special about those?" Jara asked.
"Why they are the heads of the two tactical droids. I was sent to recover them as they contain some information for my last client. I would have taken them in time, but getting your people to fight them left them distracted." HK proudly explained. Jara was suddenly angry for the deaths she could now blame on HK, but as she took a hold of it another part of her calmly urged her to think about what it had done for the Bendular Ten Clans. Just the fact that they were taking the durasteel plates off the wrecks was something that no clan had done before. "Oh don't look so mad Jara. The droids would have attacked your clan and wiped you all out if I hadn't interfered. In some way I help you survive by giving you the location of the leadership." Jara sighed and then nodded. It would be hard to think of a different win if those tan droids were not shut down. The gray droid and Droideka were tough, but without the larger cannons The clans were equal. Even better off as those shields didn't stop projectiles.
"Fine I don't blame you, but isn't it been too long since you were hired for that mission?" Jara asked.
"Oh not really. The bounty is an open one on all former Separatist droid leaders. It was enough that I might have been able to buy a ship and leave this planet." HK replied. "However seeing the Ebon Hawk has convinced me not to separate from it again." Just then one of the reprogrammed tan droids shuffled in with a tray of food.
"Mistress Leader your evening meal." It droned. Then it looked at the lunch tray and the dinner tray a few times. Jara looked over and realized she hadn't even touched it. She had removed the stimcaf, but nothing else. It wasn't the first time she had ignored lunch so she was quick to move the tray so the dinner one could be put down. Jara hated wasting food, but after years of so little it was suddenly too much.
"You should eat." HK urged.
"I do, but I have so much to do so much I don't know about. I want this clan to be strong and not just a success for a few good years. What will happen when we dig the last piece of Durasteel out of the ground? We tear the town down and move?" Jara wondered. "Where would we go? Back to that empty husk we left behind?"
"It will take your people ten years to disassemble those two ships. Plus some of your people are going to the other ship and taking that one apart. In those ten years do you not think that they will stick with a few haulers? There are plenty of wrecks within ten, fifteen, twenty kilometers from here. You are hundreds of kilometers from the cities. This will be a city if run correctly. Your meatbags are not stupid."
"My meatbags?" Jara was amused. She looked at the stack of work as she picked up her plate. HK silently watched her eat. A side program had been monitoring her food intake and it was barely higher then it needed to be. Once she finished she moved back over to her desk. HK would have frowned had his face been able. Maybe he could get her to go with him if he just took the ship one night. He silently turned and walked out of her office as he figured out the odds on which decision she would make. Jara glanced up when HK left. She found the droid odd and the two heads were staring at her sitting on her desk. She continued to be drawn to them wondering why as she drew on the Force. All it would tell her was to turn one on and ask. She continued to work and she heard the bell for one in the morning she got up to leave. Then she touched the head of one of them and she saw a being, no a Jedi fighting a machine which held lightsabers as well. She picked up the head and went over and quickly hooked up a few power leads.
"Fire on that ship it is too close!" The droid ordered. "I can't move." Jara moved into its view. "Who are you?"
"I am Jara and I lead the clans you attacked." Jara replied. "Do you have a name?"
"Tactical innovative combat Kit, or Tick to the few beings that were my masters. I feel that you are responsible for destroying me?" It questioned.
"Yes and no. I flew the ship it was one of my clamnsmen that fired on you." Jara replied. "Why would someone pay to have an old war droids head?"
"Many reasons could explain why. However I have several that would be valuable, but with Kiln together I could think of only one." Tick replied.
"And that is?" Jara asked.
"Now I can't tell you that so easily." Tick countered. "That would be tactically unsound."
"Well it isn't too hard to clone your memory and search within for what you are hiding." Jara stated.
"True, but I only hold part of the information. Kiln holds another. In fact many different tactical droids contain a piece of the information." Tick explained. "So just my part is useless without the other parts."
"And what would be so important to split up?" Jara asked.
"Well aside from different hidden weapon dumps, and secret credit accounts. Information that would be damaging to the Confederation and the Republic." Tick replied.
"The Republic? There is only an Empire out there since the war, and the Separatists vanished about the same time. The war has been over since shortly after I was born. I am fourteen soon to be fifteen. Anything you have must be useless by now." Jara countered.
"Then the fact that one person controlled both sides of the war and having proof wouldn't be valuable now?" Tick questioned. "No it would have much value. It has not been long enough that the members of the Confederacy of Independent Systems could restart the war. Both Kiln and I received the shut down code, but we can ignore it. This much of our mission I can reveal. Our ship is not exactly a wreck. It is a storage hold." Jara leaned back and now the difficulty in getting past the outer levels was explained. The magnetized molecular bonded durasteel was impossible to cut through until they found the source of the power. Her lightsaber didn't even harm the surface. She had thought it would only be a matter of time before they dug down deep enough to find a way in, but now if it was some type of special military storage it just might not have crashed here. There had been a few rumors that a lot of the ships came from some where else. Not many people had been on this planet a few decades ago and if Jara remembered right. No one left during the war as the ships started falling. They never did stop until the last battle which rained down ship after smoking ship.
"Was there no battle in our system? Is this just a dumping ground for your lost war?" Jara asked.
"You have no idea do you?" Tick asked then started to laugh. Jara tried many more questions, but the droid just continued to laugh until she shut it off. She picked up the two heads and went to the Ebon Hawk. HK might know more or not, but she needed to find out herself. HK heard her come on to the ship. He heard the clank of the two heads hitting the deck. He stood up to look for where she dropped them only to find her standing right in front of him when his receptors came online.
"This is a graveyard of ships isn't it? There was no battle in the skies above was there?" Jara asked.
"Mistress Jara I have been stuck on this planet for millenia. Only recently have I been active again. I am sure there were many battles here." HK replied.
"How many ships fell once you were activated again?" Jara asked.
"Hundreds." HK replied. She had been a scavenger all her life, but if hundreds fell then where did they all fall, she wondered? Why her home? Why this planet? What purpose would it serve to have all these ships here?
"We are going on a trip tomorrow. You are going to show me where these ships came down." Jara ordered.
"Mistress Jara that would get us both destroyed. Better to leave this planet and meet with my client. He could explain it better than I am able." HK countered. "I can point out the spot from space."
"Fine then we will go." Jara stated and then went into her cabin. HK felt good. He would leave this graveyard behind and once she experienced the galaxy she wouldn't want to come back to this back water planet. Even if she did he was sure he could take control of the ship away from her. The next morning she got the droids to unload a few things that were set to go to the spaceport. It was early enough that no one questioned it. Pila and Dill along with the other clan leaders were heading to the hanger office where they planned to talk about the changes that needed to be made as the Ebon Hawk rose in the air and blasted for the sky.
"That is not the direction to the spaceport." One of the chiefs stated.
"No she is going for orbit." Pila replied. Far above the planet Jara was in a fast orbit around the planet doing a full scan. The desert was so large, and it gave her chills how few settlements were out there. The tiny space station spun on its axis as it was designed without artificial gravity. Far below the sensors were picking up ship after ship and locations of possible ships. Were her clan was contain many markers of ships fully buried. HK walked into the communications bay and set a cup down.
"You should take a break." HK stated.
"Strange to hear you are concerned about me." Jara replied. "For an assassin droid you have gotten soft." HK eerily laughed.
"I maybe an assassin, but I am also have protocol programs. I have marked you as my master, so would I not take care of you?" HK asked.
"Well from what I have found in the ships logs you don't have a very good record with masters. How many died by your hand?" Jara counter questioned.
"Roughly ten percent. Most of them right after I was created by Revan. Then again many of them were targets." HK replied. "Would you like to hear how they met their demise?"
"I am sure it will be entertaining if I was such a person to enjoy that kind of thing, but not right now." Jara stated.
"What are you doing?" HK asked.
"I am marking possible salvage spots. Tick gave me an idea last night and I am amazed how many ships are down there." Jara answered. She pointed to one spot and HK gathered the same data from the sensors. There were hundreds of ships looking like they had been parked just under the sand. "Must be a large fleet." In the corner of the bay inside of the bag, Kiln came back online. He quickly picked up on the internal systems and merged with the communications array. He may not have a body, but this human was not prepared. He needed to protect his last orders. He was also mad at the droid called Herzl. He had tricked him and he lost control of his treasure. It was really easy as he found the proper signals and sent out his message down to the planet in a burst transmission. He remained online just long enough to receive a response.
"Warning: One of the droids have sent a message." HK stated as he reverted to his old form of speech. He rushed over to the heads and dug them out of the bag. Both showed no activity, but HK's sensors picked up the difference in heat residue. "This one sent a message."
"What could it have been?" Jara asked suddenly feeling the Force was growing dark. She rushed to the cockpit and fired up the engines. She glanced at the sensors as they came alive. Down below on the planet those wrecks were starting back up. A few were even now rising from the surface.
"HK what do you know about what the droids knew?" Jara asked.
"That they had moved here to wait. The shut down they received was illogical to the tactical droids like Kiln. They mostly ignored the command and loaded up what they could and came here." HK stated. "My client is a Geonosian general. They have a hive on the planet." Jara knew the species that HK mentioned. She had never dealt with one, but she had heard they were not the friendliest of beings. She aimed the ship back to her village and to her clan, but as she got close it was already too late. She got enough of a glimpse before being fired upon by the vehicles poring out of the wreck. She punched the levers forward and headed for the spaceport.
"HK go to the turret and keep any fighters off our tail." Jara ordered numbly unable to do more than fly away as she felt her clansmen being killed.
"Excited anticipation: With pleasure master." HK quickly moved to comply. Jara felt a chill at his change in tone. It was the only thing that burned through the feeling of loss she felt. She had caused this to happen to her people. She was to blame for activating this sleeping army of death. HK started firing on the fighter droids that followed them. His laughter as he shot down fighter after fighter was the only thing getting through Jara's fog. Strangely enough the Ebon Hawk's aft shields had no problem handling the blast from the fighters. Though HK was extremely fast to acquire them and shoot them down. It took nearly an hour to outrun the swarm. They still followed, and it would be only a matter of time before they would give up.
Pila and Dill along with the rest of the council of leaders fought a desperate battle with the droids. They saw the Ebon Hawk come back and they could hear the cheering, but when the ship flew away followed by a swarm of fighters. The cheering died. The thick smoke and the fires from the attack must have looked back from the air. Pila and Dill like the rest of the clansmen fought on. With the droid fighters gone it was a bit easier, but they knew they couldn't win.
Samhare was moving a box to the slide that would take his find to the base of the ship as he opened the hatch he was accosted with the sounds of battle. He moved to the edge and watched in shock as the ground around the wreck was covered in gray and tan droids marching in perfect formation. He looked to Bendular and dropped his hydrospanner. The whole village was nothing but black smoke. Samhare was an old hat at scavenging, but he knew that there was no stopping this army of droids. He wrapped his cover on better and moved to his speeder. He may not survive, but he had a better chance as he pulled out his two pistols and a large cannon from under the seat. He hadn't fired this weapon since his time with the Republic, but that didn't mean it wouldn't function.
"All clansmen, Bendular has been attacked. There is no hope for them now. The droids are on the march. Head to the spaceport if you can. Good luck my brothers." He transmitted. He wasn't the first to fly down the side of the ship, but he wasn't the only one. Monnk powered up his speeder and scratched his bio chip scar. He remembered that one of the medics in the pow camp discovered his chip and pulled it out of him and the other captured clones. They however were never able to rejoin the army or to report the control chip before the war ended. Being on this desert planet was a part of the peace he felt since most of his battles had occurred on water planets. He and the company of former clones had started the newer clans on this planet. He had met Jara and could see her clone blood even as she favored her mother. The girl was strong and it surprised him that she could be a Jedi. After watching her practice he was convinced that her mother must have been a Jedi, but as he talked with members of the Pilar Clan, he not only found nothing on her mother, but that she had been raised as a male. There were clans on the planet long before the clones got there. They just mixed in their Mandelorian knowledge into the clans. However they couldn't break the inequality of the older clans. As he sped across the desert he knew not many if any would survive those droids. He just hoped he could catch a ride off this ball.
Jara finally made it to the Haigia spaceport. The images she had seen as she passed over her clan's village burned in her mind. Now that the ship had landed she made it to the outside of the ship before falling to her knees. She looked up at the sky and suddenly the pain of the deaths she felt came out of her in a large scream. This scream was powered fully by the Force, and it sent a small ripple across the galaxy. HK came off the ship and picked up Jara to bring her back inside. He had more things to worry about then a grieving girl.
