I do not own Star Wars or any of the characters.
New Droid
Damian stepped around the corner with Ahsoka just as a droid that stood about double his height shot toward him. It had segmented arms that looked like they could collapse, its hands were a pair of prongs with half a protocol droid's hands on the ends, and its face was that of a protocol droid, split across the center, with a line of glowing red lights of varying sizes.
"Damian!" Zeb said. "You made it!"
"What is this thing?" Damian asked.
"It's an Imperial Infiltration unit," Zeb said. "It can disguise itself as a protocol droid."
"I see," Damian said. "Interesting. It could be useful if we reprogram it."
Suddenly, a pair of slots on its forearms opened, a pair of blasters extending from them before it opened fire. Damian extended his lightsaber blade, deflecting the blaster bolts for a moment before Chopper zapped the droid, making it pause, then it continued.
"Okay, enough of this," Damian said, blasting it with his Force Lightning, sending it crashing to the ground, smoking and powered off.
"Why didn't you start with that?" Zeb asked.
"Why'd you bring a droid you randomly found in the desert, which definitely wasn't ours, onto our secret base?" Ahsoka asked.
"Well...it seemed...ya know...harmless," Zeb said.
"AP Five, please tell me this thing didn't transmit our location," Ahsoka said, turning to the inventory droid Chopper had befriended before they found the base.
"Chopper can detect no long-range communications equipment," AP-5 said. "It has not transmitted the location of our base."
"Well that's something," Zeb said. "It must have a ship nearby. What's the bad news?"
"The bad news is that the beeping I hear from inside that droid is probably a bomb," Damian said, kneeling beside it, seeing a blinking countdown on its chest. "Yup. It's a bomb."
"It has likely activated its Imperial Anti-Capture failsafe," AP-5 said. "There's probably a proton warhead inside it too."
"If you're right, then this droid could vaporize the entire base and us along with it," Zeb said.
"Yeah, our options are limited," Cody said.
"The countdown timer has already begun," AP-5 reported.
"How much time have we got left?" Zeb asked.
"Twenty seconds," AP-5 said.
"Any ideas?" Zeb asked, just before Chopper sprayed something onto the countdown circuit, freezing it. "What did he do?"
"He froze the countdown circuit," Damian said. "He basically paused it temporarily. Nice job Chopper."
Chopper beeped proudly.
"That should by us time to move the droid a safe distance from the base," AP-5 said. "This part will require some manual labor. Your specialty I believe."
"Wait," Zeb said. "Fulcrum said if this droid doesn't report back to the Empire, they'll come here looking for it."
"Are you suggesting we let it go back with a memory bank filled with rebel secrets?" AP-5 asked.
"Yes," Damian said, everyone staring at him. "That's exactly what we do."
"Why?" Zeb asked.
Ahsoka's eyes widened as she realized what he had planned and she nodded, grinning. "A proton warhead would erase its memory banks quite efficiently."
"What?" Zeb asked before his eyes also widened. "Oohh. Now there's an idea I can get behind."
"What idea?" AP-5 asked.
"Can you make an adjustment to the countdown?" Zeb asked. "Make it restart the countdown after it links back up to the Imperial Network?"
"Why?" AP-5 asked.
"Because then it'll explode before it can upload its data, and probably take a few more of these droids down with it," Zeb said. "They'll never know which one it was."
"Bingo," Damian said.
Chopper began to beep suddenly, warning that it's still a hostile droid when not powered down.
"Oh, good point Chopper," AP-5 said, plugging into a port on the droid's back so he could make adjustments. "It may try to kill us, so I will switch it back to its deactivated status in which we found it. I will also activate it's return-to-base protocol so it should promptly leave peacefully. Main system restart...now."
He pressed a button and everyone backed away as he dropped the droid on the ground. After a moment, it collapsed its body into a protocol droid, white lights turning on in its eyes. Then, it sat up, looking around for a moment before standing and walking out of the base, everyone following at a distance, careful to stay out of sight. As they left the base, Damian and Ahsoka kept the spiders around them calm so that they wouldn't attack them, the droids, or the Imperial droid's ship as it powered it up. However, as it did, a long-range transmitter extended from the ship and Damian instantly hurled his lightsaber, cutting the transmitter off and stopping it from contacting the Empire. As he caught his lightsaber, the ship's thrusters engaged, and it lifted off the planet, quickly flying away from the base.
"What if..." Ap-5 paused. "I mean, if it goes back, and I didn't properly reprogram it-"
"Look, we may not like each other, but you've always done your job," Zeb said.
"Well, whatever the outcome, you performed admirably, Captain," AP-5 said, saluting him.
"A lot's happened today," Zeb said. "I'm not sure if I can deal with you and me starting to get along on top of everything else."
"Hm, agreed," AP-5 said.
"Come on," Damian said. "Let's go report back to command, and Hera."
"What, uh..." Zeb chuckled nervously. "What are you gonna tell them?"
"The truth," Damian said. "An Imperial Infiltrator landed outside the base, you helped us shut it down, AP Five reprogrammed it to explode when it went home, and now Thrawn has successfully narrowed down the list of possible systems we're hiding in."
"Wait, really?" Zeb asked. "How? If we blow them all up with this-"
"Thrawn's too smart to send out one droid to every system at once," Ahsoka said. "Plus, they don't have that kind of resources. Once that droid explodes, he'll know we're in one of the systems he sent it to."
"Karabast, you're right," Zeb said.
"We'll have to find a new home base," Damian said.
Zeb nodded and they all headed back to the Base's long-range communications array. Damian called Hera and she frowned instantly.
"What happened?" Hera asked knowingly.
"You're going to want to be here in person for this," Damian said. "We'll need you overseeing the fallout."
"Oh God," Hera groaned. "Zeb, what did you do?"
"It wasn't Zeb," Damian said. "Just some horrible luck, and an excellent idea by Thrawn."
Hera sighed. "We're on our way back. We'll be there by morning."
Damian nodded and disconnected. They all went their separate ways, all eventually heading to bed and waking up early so they could be up and about before the Ghost arrived. Damian met them at the landing pad and brought them all to the communications equipment, Damian calling Sato as well.
"Shortly after you all left for training, an Imperial Infiltrator droid landed outside the base," Damian said. We managed to deactivate it and AP Five reprogrammed it so that its failsafe, a proton warhead, would explode when it plugged back into the Imperial Network. Zeb's idea. We sent it back, and to our knowledge, it succeeded, since the Empire's not here yet."
Just then, they got an incoming call, Fulcrum's emblem appearing beside Commander Sato's hologram.
"I can only assume you found and reprogrammed the lost Infiltrator I warned you of," Fulcrum said. "Well, as you no doubt planned, the droid did self-destruct on return to base. I don't know how you pulled it off, but you have my congratulations. Fulcrum out."
The hologram disappeared and everyone turned to him.
"Well, there's confirmation," Hera said. "Sounds like it's been handled."
"No," Ahsoka said. "It's only bought us time. We can safely assume Thrawn only send droids to a handful of systems, probably a dozen at best. Since one of those exploded..."
"He now narrowed down the possible locations of our base from a full galaxy to a dozen systems," Hera breathed.
"This is a serious problem," Sato said. "We will need to begin breaking down Chopper Base. We will need to find a new base."
"Where, though?" Ezra asked. "Wasn't this our only option?"
"Not the only one," Ahsoka said. "Only the first we found that suited our needs. The Wraith will search for another location."
"No," Sato said. "I need the Wraith on standby in the event of the Empire showing up. It will be invaluable in evacuating. We will send scout teams to search for other possibilities."
"Understood," Damian nodded before Sato disconnected.
"If you caught the infiltrator the moment it landed, how did Fulcrum have time to call you and warn you?" Hera asked.
"It took us a little while to notice it, then about twenty minutes to catch it, froze the countdown circuit, and he sent a one-way transmission while we were trying to decide what to do, warning that it was labelled as missing for not checking in, and that if it didn't, the Empire would go to it's last known location," Damian explained. "A.K.A., here."
"So Zeb had the idea to reprogram the countdown parameters and send it home," Kanan said. "Good thinking Zeb."
"Thank you," Zeb said.
"Alright," Hera sighed. "Is there anything else we should know?"
Damian and the other looked around for a moment before all shrugging and shaking their heads.
"Right," Hera sighed. "Alright. Well, I guess you're all dismissed then. I'm sure the order to pack up all non-essentials will go out soon."
They all nodded and scattered. Damian and Ahsoka headed back to their room, only to find Barriss and Riyo waiting.
"Sorry, girls," Damian said. "I'm running on too few hours of sleep today."
"We're not here for that," Barriss said. "At least, not this time."
Damian frowned as the two held their hands out to him and Ahsoka. They both joined them on the bed, taking their friends', and occasional lovers', hands as both glanced at each other, clearly trying to decide how to start.
"What is it?" Damian asked. "Your nervousness is almost suffocating. What's going on?"
"We were wondering..." Riyo trailed off, frowning and glancing at Barriss again. "We were wondering if...you would be willing to consider...well...getting one of us pregnant."
Damian inhaled slowly, eyes widening slowly. He glanced at Ahsoka, who was staring at the bed in silence. "Why?"
"We want to have a child," Barriss said. "But, we both agreed that we want you to be the father. There's no one else whose child we'd want to have."
"What will you do if we refuse?" Ahsoka asked.
They glanced at each other for a moment before Riyo answered. "We haven't decided. Like we said, there's no one else whose child we'd want to have."
Ahsoka nodded, glancing at Damian, who took her hand.
"This is your choice," Damian said.
Ahsoka nodded and again stared at the bed in silence. Finally, she sighed heavily. "We'll think about it. But I promise nothing."
Both nodded and hugged the other two.
"Thank you," Barriss said. "Whatever you decide, thank you for at least considering it. I know how hard a decision this is."
"You're welcome," Ahsoka said. "I'll let you know whatever I decide."
Barriss and Riyo both nodded and hugged the two of them again before leaving the room. Damian sighed, lying down, Ahsoka lying along his side.
"I never thought you'd consider something like this," Damian said.
"They're both important to me, as you know," Ahsoka said. "To both of us. And they both genuinely want you to be the one to get one of them pregnant so they can raise the child together. I just..."
"I know," Damian said. "I feel the same."
Ahsoka sighed. "Hold me."
"Always," Damian smiled, curling around her protectively as he hugged her against him.
They lay there in silence for a few minutes before both drifted off to sleep again, finishing getting the rest the situation with the droid the night before deprived them of.
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