Life on the Resolute
Droid Research
Commander Tano had given him command access to all screen and helmet vids then added her and General Skywalker's starfighter vids when he hesitantly mentioned Captain Spin's suggestion of adding the vultures. He didn't talk with Captain Rex about being released from duty. Chopper didn't want to ask. He was still too new to Torrent Company and didn't yet know the price for small favors.
Already he owed too much.
Even on board the Resolute, Chopper found a table in the mess back in the corner, protected on two sides by the metal bulkheads and on a third side by a ship's support pillar. He had finished duty and grabbed a tray. Dinner was something acceptable, nutritionally adequate and reasonably tasteless as always, though he didn't pay a lot of attention to it.
He had the data pad and was running through one of the battles at Nexus Ortai with vulture droids versus their own V-19 starfighters. The perspective was different than vids from a helmet and took a moment's getting used to.
Usually, Chopper watched the vids alone, in his bunk or in the mess, so he wouldn't disturb the new guys who shared the barracks and the common room. They thought he was ill-tempered, at best, grunting in answer to most questions he didn't outright ignore, taking odd shifts of duty, arrogant, rarely sleeping in the barracks and often simply staring at the wall, not listening to them. Chopper did nothing to change their minds.
Setting down his fork, Chopper picked up the stylus in his gloved hand, backtracked the vid and made a note. He glanced at the pilot identifier; Skywalker. He should have known with that dizzying spiral, a flat track for an instant between two vultures and then a flip spin to take out both droids while momentum propelled him backwards. Chopper couldn't watch Skywalker's – or any of the pilots' – vids without getting a headache, but he did get a lot of information about the vultures from the Jedi's evasive maneuvers.
Chopper downloaded Spin's vids from Nexus Ortai. He had an odd feeling, wishing that Spin was there to help explain them.
Not being a pilot, he'd been AN duty on the Resolute hangar deck during Nexus Ortai. AN. As Needed. Commander Tano had been there also as they prepared; slightly sulky after General Skywalker ordered her to remain on the Resolute, but still cheerful enough to talk to the pilots, encourage them as they boarded their fighters. "Make sure to come back, Spin" she shouted over the ambient noise of the hangar as the pilot walked by with the men of his squadron. Chopper had seen the small involuntary reaction of surprise then the answering grin he gave her. "Yes sir," he had shouted then waved at the commander.
The commander had gone to the bridge to be with the admiral while Chopper waited for his part in this battle. He was 'as needed' with the rest of the 501st who had neither medic nor pilot training. The best AN duty was to help a living pilot out of damaged but repairable starfighter.
Being in the hangar had been fascinating. The hangar doors had opened to the blackness of space and there'd been a planet simply hanging there like a muja fruit ripe for the picking. Chopper had never seen fruit 'ripe for the picking' but General Skywalker had said it and it seemed an apt image as the big Seppie frigates had hovered threateningly over the blue-green planet.
Then the V-19s scrambled, protecting the vulnerable opening of the Resolute from the vultures and their weapons as they and the other starfighters moved toward the attacking frigates. Spin had been right, the vultures were faster than the Republic fighters, could maneuver sharper, and seemed to outnumber them two or three to one.
"Remember what I told you, Captain Spin," Chopper murmured to himself as Spin – his wings no longer in repair bay – led the ARC-170s into formation from the hangar. "They're droids, they don't work together."
The attack had been mesmerizing to Chopper, seeing battle from an overview, seeing what couldn't be seen in the vids from a single pilot or a single ship. Briefly, he wondered if the commander would ask the Admiral if he could have…. Chopper shook his head, running to assist other men of the 501st as a smoking V19 swept into the hangar, skidded across the decking and slammed sideways into a reinforced bulkhead. Surprisingly, the pilot survived the crash and the medics began their work as the grunts moved the starfighter.
"Class B," yelled out a clone mechanic, telling them where to move the wreckage, even as another V19, this one shooting sparks as it made a slightly more controlled landing, slid across the decking with the unbearably high pitch of metal screeching against metal. Chopper's helmet baffles kicked in and there was no more time to think about droids and pilots' maneuvers.
There hadn't been too many survivors at Nexus Ortai and, after a short while, the troopers in the hangar deck had little to do but mourn the dying and enusre no vultures made it into the hangar. In spite of the lack of returning ships Chopper figured out two things. The vultures needed constant refueling and the Republic forces, for all their loses, seemed to be winning.
Then more CIS ships appeared from hyperspace and every pilot remaining had been called in for an ordered retreat by Admiral Yularen.Chopper was chewing on his lower lip; he'd already drawn blood in his anxiety.
General Skywalker came in last, covering several starfighters that would soon be in the repair deck. But there was no sign of Captain Spin or his squadron.
Chopper had been in the mess after battle clean-up of the hangar, exhausted and filthy with spark burn and grease over his armor, staring into an empty mug. There was emptiness in him from the aftermath of defeat.
Chopper wondered how Captain Spin had died. He was reasonably sure that Spin's squadron would incorporate what he'd gleaned from their vids. Perhaps he'd been wrong; perhaps it had been his tactics that had failed the pilots rather than the vultures' superior capacity...
"Hey!"
Chopper jerked his head up to see a brother-clone; as filthy, sweaty and grease-covered as he was, standing before his table. By his bemused expression he must have tried to get Chopper's notice a few times so Chopper didn't mind - really - getting yelled at.
"You're Chopper of the 501st, aren't you?"
Chopper's eyes narrowed, wondering what this clone wanted, but he gave a terse nod. It wasn't as if everyone didn't know 'Chopper with the scars' or 'Chopper antisocial' or 'Chopper who'd been with the trai'... Chopper cut that thought off and watched the other clone sit at the table and grin widely, holding out his arm to Chopper. He laughed as Chopper merely stared at his outstretched hand and reached to take Chopper's lax hand in a quick grasp and shake. He released Chopper's hand quickly with a wince.
"Must have broke it," he muttered to himself, then turned his attention back to Chopper. "I'm Spanner, one of Spin's squadron."
"You made it back?" Chopper turned his head slightly; partially in confusion and partially to hide the scars. "I didn't see any of you return."
"We couldn't make it back to the Resolute," Spanner shrugged, "so we ended up on the Resiliant. Not all of us, of course." Spanner's face shadowed momentarily then he grinned again. "But more than expected, more than usual."
"Captain Spin?" asked Chopper, "did he make it?"
Again Spanner laughed and Chopper recognized it now as after-battle relief, as the joy of being one of the survivors. "He did. He said he wouldn't dare disobey a direct order from the little commander. They threw him in a bacta tank on the Resiliant but he wanted to make sure you got the message. Your ideas, what you and he planned, they work. We stuck together, had some scary moments I can tell you, being that close, but going in as if we were infantry scouts, keeping track of each other, each of us assigned a quadrant to guard for each other instead of going in like one-on-one ..." Spanner nodded his head as he repeated himself. "It worked. We took out more than twice as many vultures as any other squadron, most of us survived. It worked and Spin wanted you to know it."
"I'm glad," Chopper had replied and he hadn't felt as empty as he had moments before.
He hadn't seen Spin since. With battle loses, Captain Spin's squadron had been reassigned to the Resiliant. There'd been a transmission for Chopper several ship's days later; Spin's helmet and ships' vids, showing their innovations. The helmet and starfighter vids from every one of Captain Spin's squadron; seeing how the innovations had worked. Chopper wished he had something good on his vids to show Spin.
Chopper absently took a drink of caf and flicked to the battle at Teth; to Coric's helmet in the last few moments before General Kenobi and reinforcements had arrived in the courtyard. He noticed Rex slamming his deece into some wreckage so he could load it single-handedly while still firing his other blaster. Chopper made a note of that. There weren't many ambidextrous troopers, but knowing how to drop and load single-handedly could be useful.
Rex walked into the mess, expecting to be the only one there this early, but a lone figure in armor was in the far back corner. Rex got himself some caf and strolled back to what was commonly acknowledged as Chopper's table. He saw Chopper absently start to stand and Rex spoke, motioning with his hand.
"At ease, trooper."
Chopper nodded, settled himself, his eyes not moving from the data pad as he marked something with a stylus then flicked to another vid. Beside him were the cold, congealed remains of last night's dinner and a cup, the inner surface brown stained, half-full of caf.
Rex took a sip of his own caf and watched Chopper for a moment, catching the intensity of his concentration as he watched a vid, flipped it back, watched in slow motion. "Been here long?" Rex asked in a friendly tone.
"Just since dinner." Chopper shook his head as he replied absently and Rex knew Chopper really had no idea how long he'd been there.
"How's it going?"
Chopper shook his head. "Slow, sir." He paused then, unexpectedly, continued. Rex wondered if he continued in some sort of apology for his insubordination at Kamino.
"Most of this is from helmets or ships vids and when we fire, we don't keep looking at what we're firing at. It's always target, fire, check surroundings, next target. For a starfighter it's even worse because the ship itself is moving and there are the extra directions for moving in space like pitch and yawl. We're looking for the next target before we can see we've hit the last one. Most of the time I have to find the trooper next to the shooter and see if I can pull a peripheral from his helmet to confirm damage."
Rex frowned. "Sounds tedious. Why?"
Chopper paused and set the data pad aside for a moment. He took a drink of his caf and frowned at its coldness. "I can't say 'I think'. I have to be able to point and prove that continuity. I have to be able to say, "As you can see here".
Rex nodded. "What have you got?"
Chopper tapped a few keys on the data pad and flipped it to Rex's view. "Here are some battle droids and one or two supers; mostly from Christophsis and Geonosis."
Rex flipped through the vids, seeing how Chopper had marked them. The continuity beautifully followed, from upright droid to blast to destroyed droid. The weaknesses were pointed out, easily evident. He nodded. Chopper had also detailed how some shots were not effective; showing the same droid taking two or three blue blasts before going down.
"What about droideckas or commandos?"
Chopper shook his head. "Even harder. We don't have a lot of vids of those." He absently took another sip of the cold caf. "I told the commander I think the rollies have bad peripheral vision. After looking at some of the vids, I'm sure if it. They seem to have composite sensors, maybe EPRs, instead of the more common optics. This prevents them from getting distracted by visual effects like dust or flares, but it also means the eyes are fixed forward. I don't know how to exploit that. Their blaster arms are relatively fixed. They don't appear to deploy shields until the tripod is set. How to use this information? I don't know yet. Commando droids. I don't have a single vid of one of those." He glanced down at the table. "I think they'll be the hardest to defeat once they're in widespread production."
"Why?"
"They're built along human templates without the relative softness of human flesh. They won't get tired. Their armoring is rumored to be thicker. I've heard rumors about their programming and mimicry." Chopper shrugged his shoulders. "But I can't quantify that without seeing..." he shrugged, "…something."
Rex nodded at Chopper's response, unsure what most impressed him; that Chopper had actually said more than his usual "yes sir" or the perceptiveness of his notes. Rex stood to get more caf and picked up Chopper's cup, returning with fresh caf for both men. They drank, saying nothing as Chopper viewed and occasionally marked the data pad. Other men started inhabiting the mess but no one disturbed the captain and the scarred trooper.
Chopper's chron gave a buzz and flashed with a yellow blinking light; the call of duty. Chopper hissed in dismay as he looked at it, then grabbed his helmet.
"Sit," Rex told him as he motion to the seat, raised his comm link. "Coric, Rex here. Chopper won't be at duty for the next five days. He has a special assignment."
Chopper was quiet for a moment. "Thank you, sir."
Rex shook his head. "Next time, let me know when you need time."
Chopper shook his head slightly then dropped his eyes to the table, chewing the inside of his cheek.
"Why not, trooper?"
"I don't know the price for small favors, sir." Chopper almost whispered. There was something shameful in requesting a favor.
"There is no cost for things like this, Chopper."
"There's always a cost, sir." Chopper's pale scars were dark against the white of his clenched jaw.
Rex leaned back, thinking. "Is that what Slick told you?"
"It's what I learned in Slick's squad, sir." Chopper kept his face down, not looking at his commanding officer.
"What would the cost of this favor be? What would Slick have demanded?" A new wave of anger at Slick washed over Rex.
Again, Chopper shook his head. "I don't know, sir. After the first favor, no one ever asked again, even Gus. Jester never asked."
Sir, sir, sir. Rex noted. Chopper was nervous, unsure. Slick had stolen that virtue from Chopper. The certainty of a trooper was gone. Chopper would think and double-think himself into paralysis; trying to avoid Slick's punishment. A punishment that was no longer valid and had never been right. Rex sighed. "What was the price of the first favor?"
"For me…." Again Chopper whispered, shamed, and Rex realized he didn't have to do this to the trooper.
"Never mind, Chopper. It doesn't matter what Slick demanded of you and the others. Favors are something like gifts in that they're freely given. You can ask for a favor in return, but there's always the chance you'll be refused. It's impolite to ask for too many favors from the same person without offering something in return. That's how it is in the 501st. That's how it is almost everywhere except for highly ritualized societies and Slick's squad."
Chopper nodded slowly, recognizing the anomaly of his experience, but not quite believing things had changed. "In return for the time, sir, what can I offer you as a favor?" He still didn't look up to the captain's face.
"Do a good job, Chopper." Captain Rex said quietly. "Do your best at this and give Commander Tano something to be proud of."
Surprised at that request, Chopper brought his head up and looked at Rex with his mismatched eyes of velvet brown and crystal yellow.
"Of course, sir." Then the corners of Chopper's lips tightened and seemed to turn up in the barest illusion of a smile. "Always, sir. Always my best."
To Rex it sounded like a vow.
Chopper presented his material to the command group on the Resolute, sweating and stuttering through the introduction of the presentation. When he began cataloguing both design and manufacture weaknesses of the various droids he had studied, he voice was firm and concise.
They were impressed as he showed examples on the screen from battles, explaining what he knew and why he knew it was so. He told them what he didn't know and voiced his opinions on what he suspected. He showed them, close-up of droids, how manufacturing had changed from Geonosis to Christophsis, deleting some frailties of earlier droids, opening up new channels of destruction. He asked for more vids; commando droids, droideckas, anything new.
The three section commanders of the other fleet ships had asked perceptive questions and Chopper was ready for those. He had even, nervously, touched on humor by citing that he was looking over General Skywalker's favorite droids – the vultures. Chopper's knees shook until he saw that it was appropriate humor. He saw Commander Tano, smiling. Even Captain Rex looked pleased. General Skywalker had laughed, saying he'd appreciate that. Admiral Yularen had nodded; a thoughtful look on his face and Chopper knew he could request battle vids from the admiral's bridge officers. Then he told them what he knew about vulture tactics, and what he had learned from Captain Spin's vids with the new tactics.
Chopper received a commendation for his work and it became part of his regular duties to go over battle vids, searching for new weakness in the droids and catalog them.
Chopper didn't quite know how he felt about that. It was something good, but he couldn't identify it. He hadn't felt something good in a long time.
As always read and enjoy...
See you next Tuesday.