Sup guys? I have a longer chapter for you today! Things start moving!
Although, I must give props to LR! Her suggestions were actually what I already had planned! Great minds think alike!
(and yes kealeuu, Clancy is an OC, named after one of my physical therapists whose always begging to be in a story of mine)
How do you feel about this chapter/story so far? (its one of my favorites!)
Anywho, I'll just let you read now!
Chapter 5
"Good morning sunshine!"
Clancy's cheerful voice greeted Luke at 0600 the next morning.
"Wha…" He grumbled incoherently, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as his newly found friend handed him a steaming cup of caf.
"Time to get up! We have the maintenance hall to report to! Don't want to keep his Sithiness waiting, do we?" Clancy joked over his own cup as he took a long sip, enjoying the warmth.
"Ugh, don't remind me," Luke grimaced before throwing his Navy regulation covers off and getting to his feet. "Now where's my uniform?"
"Oh, you mean that stuffy thing we had to suffer through all day?" The Imperial waved his hand at the small closet behind him, "Those are only for show, our real getup is much more comfortable! Here." He tossed a grey bundle to his young companion, who, upon unrolling it, found it to be some baggy mechanic's coveralls.
"These are huge! I could fit half a clan of Jawas in there with me!"
Clancy simply shrugged, "Hey, it's not my fault you're so, shall we say, vertically challenged."
"Was that a short joke?!"
"Maybe…"
"…You suck."
Eventually, the duo made their way to the maintenance hall, Luke dragging his feet the entire way.
"Clancy! Good morning!" One of the nearby mechanics greeted, "I see you got our new recruit here without too much hassle. He helping you with the Vman?"
"Vman?" Luke asked, completely bewildered, "Who's he? Another mechanic? Please tell me he works as far as possible from Vader!"
"Uh kid…" The other mechanic covered his mouth with a hand to hide the grin at the newbie's distress, "Vman is Vader."
"WHAT?!"
"Right now probably isn't the best time to mention that I am Vader's personal mechanic…" Clancy cringed, taking Luke by the shoulder and guiding him to the back of the hall. "Don't worry though, working on things typically puts him in a pretty amiable mood."
"I'll believe it when I see it!" Luke rejected, now digging his heels into the permacrete floor as Clancy pushed him along.
"Could one of you quit that racket?! It is seriously annoying!"
"Sorry about that Vman." Clancy addressed a pair of shiny armored boots sticking out from beneath an all too familiar TIE Advanced. "He's new."
Flashes of grey turrets and green laser fire danced across Luke's vision. The Death Star Trench..
He was the last fighter that gave chase before the end…
"What possessed you to bring a skittish new recruit with you?" Vader questioned, now rolling from beneath the star fighter. The bulbous lenses that served as eyes locking onto Luke, who in turn swallowed thickly.
After what seemed like an eternity, the Dark Lord tilted his head to the side thoughtfully.
"What is your name child?"
"…Uh, Annakin Lars sir…"
Did he just say what I think he said?
Dumbfounded, I could only stare blankly at him for several moments before clambering stiffly to my feet. Despite myself, I circled this 'Annakin Lars,' taking in every feature and stance of the young one, who under the circumstances, was starting to tremble. Even without my cape and shoulder armor, he finds me intimidating.
Curse this red tinted vision!
"What color are your eyes?" I inquire, coming to a stop and looking him in the face. Still he avoids meeting my gaze, even if he did I would not be able to decipher what I sought.
"Bl-blue sir." He stutters, unconsciously moving his hand along his short cropped hair, as if he were used to tousling a longer mop of hair.
Not unlike me at that age..
"Your hair?"
At this, a look of confusion briefly crossed his face before replying.
"…Blond sir…"
"Homeworld?" I begin to dig deeper, if his name is anything to go by, he may be of greater importance than he realizes…
"Tatooine."
Of course, I think to myself, to protect him, he'd have been raised on the one planet I would never return to…
Finally, I decided to cut with possibly the most important question…
"Who are your parents?"
Kriff kriff kriff!
Luke's mind was a swirling mass of chaos. What do I say?! My father was an old Jedi friend of yours? I'd be dead for sure then!
"Beru and Owen Lars raised me.. I never knew my father or mother." He blurted before considering what the Dark Lord could unearth with that information.
"Hm…" Vader put a hand to his 'chin' deep in thought. "That is all I need to know for now young… Lars." He turned his attention back to his mechanic, "Clancy get him on the starboard wing panels, they took a lot of carbon scoring from the last battle. Should be easy enough for him to take care of."
"Yes sir!" Clancy cheerily saluted, "C'mon Annakin, let's get you set up."
Working with Clancy wasn't too bad actually, he had lots of tips for removing dents, dings, and carbon scoring that would be useful when he returned to Rogue Squadron.
As long as he didn't think about the thing lurking beneath the ship that is…
"Hey Clancy," Luke looked up from the cracked panel he was replacing, "Is it just me, or does Vader look a little odd?"
A frown creasing his face, the older mechanic glanced beneath the ship at the Dark Lord that was currently wielding a plasma cutter and absorbed in working.
"How do you mean?"
"I dunno… It just seems like something's missing…"
"You mean like some silver shoulder armor, tabard, and cape?"
"So that's what is was!" Realization dawned on Luke's face, "I've only seen him once or twice on the Holonews, much less in real life!"
"Yeah, he typically leaves the armor off for added flexibility and the tabard and cape to keep from snagging on dangerous things or catching on fire…"
"Makes sense."
"Yeah, you should've seen it when a component blew on his ship while he was working on the hyperdrive. Fire was everywhere! And he just stood there! Didn't even flinch!"
"Chuba!" A loud clang and the screech of seizing mechanical parts sounded from below the TIE. A near unintelligible string of Huttese curses made Luke blush.
"You understand what he's saying?" Clancy glanced over to him before hopping down to see what the source of that horrible noise was.
"Yeah, and trust me you do not want to know!"
"Vman?! You okay? You were using some pretty colorful language!"
Curiosity overcoming his initial fear of the mysterious Sith, Luke followed the mechanic to the underbelly of the TIE fighter.
Underneath, they found Vader sprawled limply beneath a nest of sparking wires and shattered ship parts.
"What the heck happened under here?"
"It looks like Angel here took more damage than I thought…" Vader supplied, moving his head slightly, "Some electrical discharge from her hyperdrive fried the circuits in my prosthetics… Clancy, if you would…"
"Sure thing boss," the Imperial looped his arms under Vader's and slowly dragged him out into the open, "Anything else you need me to do?"
"If you could get my right arm back online that would be helpful."
Gently setting Vader down, Clancy knelt down and removed one of the magnetized crushgaunts from his employer's hand.
"Kreth Vman! How long have you had these prosthetics? These are ancient! Annakin, get over here with some of the old tools from the Angel."Turning back to Vader, he examined the massive pistons in his forearms, "Look at the size of these! What do you do with that much power, punch holes through Star Destroyer hulls?!"
Before Vader could reply, Luke came bolting over with an old battered toolbox.
"These the ones?"
"Yup, that's a Clone Wars field kit if I've ever seen one! Man Vader, you sure are vintage! Clone Wars tech a favorite of yours?"
"Just get me functioning again Clancy, we're not here to discuss my personal taste in technology."
Holy Sith! He is mostly machine! Ben and Clancy were right!
Luke couldn't help his reaction to seeing the Dark Lord's ancient prosthetics, the skeletal, droid-like appearance of his limbs frightening him.
Well this is embarrassing…
Frustrated at my inability to move, I slowly instructed this 'Annakin' On how to realign the pistons in my arms, as well as where to add oil, so that the many servo motors in my limbs would move silently again.
Finally, the two mechanics managed to get both of my arms working again, and after several small tests, I joined them in repairing my legs.
Explaination of Vader's initial cuss word: the original word I had was Koochoo, which I learned meant 'idiot' after posting this so I replaced it with Chuba, which means 'Damn' and made more sense in context...
Congratulations, you now know another fictional cuss word.