(Hey everyone, I am so sorry to just get back to you with this chapter. Well... considering what's been going on and I've been having trouble writing, and helping others when they needed it with their own stories. But also for the past six months I've been going to the gym, getting my cardio workout, and I look good. And as celebration of the new year, and also hope for a cure to be found, I am posting this new chapter that I was finally able to get done. I hope that this can give those of you scared of the virus or ill with it the strength to fight against it as do the people who will be introduced in this chapter. As the people did in the "Blue Shadow Virus" episode arc, you can't give up on hope.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything of Star Wars and/or Transformers of any continuity. They are the properties of their respective owners.
"Talking"
"{Translated from Cybertronian language}"
"{Translated from Organic language}"
"Communication"
'Thoughts'
Please Read, Review, and Enjoy)
After Kup had introduced the idea of the Dimensional Gate to Palpatine and Yoda, Republic command got report that they lost contact with the medical station orbiting the planet Felucia. Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano were sent to investigate what happened. Concerned for any survivors, Kup had sent Ironhide, Drift, and Hot Rod to go with them, a perfect means to get the younger Autobot back into fighting shape.
The three Autobots boarded the only Autobot ship with a working Hyper drive as they and the three Jedi boarded a Jedi T-6 Shuttle. After the two left the planet's orbit and entered the coordinates into their respective Hyper drives the two ships entered Hyperspace, arriving in Felucia's orbit.
Anakin was the first to speak after they exited Hyperspace, "That's Felucia, dead ahead."
"Never thought we'd come back to this planet…" Ironhide remarked through the comms, remembering how the last time they were on this planet, Strika had sent them running easily.
"But where's the medical station?" Ahsoka asked her master, turning back to her console, "I don't see anything on my scanners."
"Ah… I think you should try looking out the front window." They heard Hot Rod say through the comms, causing them to look and see a sort of small (by Autobot standards) device floating in orbit above the planet.
A series of beeping goes off on Ahsoka's screen as she told them, "Wait, there's something."
The device, now seen with the Separatist symbol, opened up to reveal six Vulture droids waiting inside before clamp arms pulled them out and they activated, turning towards the two ships.
"Vulture droids." Ahsoka growled a bit, seeing the droid Starfighters heading their way.
Both Ironhide and Anakin called out, "Hang on!"
And began to maneuver their ships when the droids began firing on them. However, the droids seem mostly interested in targeting the Jedi shuttle instead, leaving the Autobot ship alone. Slightly insulted, Ironhide began to pilot the ship to go after the vulture droid which were chasing after the Jedi shuttle.
"I guess we know what happened to the medical station." Obi-wan remarked as their ship flew through the droid's fire. Though they could hear Cybertronian shots being fired and one of the vulture droids exploded.
"Skywalker, we're trying to take those droids out, but we don't want to hit you. Get out of the line of fire!" Drift's voice came from the comms.
"I'm working on it!" Anakin shot back as he kept maneuvering out of the way as best he can. Their ship shook as it beeped.
"That's not good!" Obi-wan shouted holding on.
Ahsoka saw what the problem was and warned, "They took out the plasma conduit!"
And without the conduit, their ship won't stay flying for long, falling into the atmosphere of Felucia, the Vulture droids and Autobot ship following them.
"You thinking, what I'm thinking?" Anakin asked his former master, seeing the tall mountain, keeping his ship's controls on it.
Seeing the mountain, Obi-wan answered, putting on an oxygen mask, "Almost certainly not."
"Looks like we're doing this the hard way." Anakin commented putting on oxygen mask, "Starting ejection sequence."
With her oxygen mask on, Ahsoka askes, "How come every time you fly, we crash?
"It's not my fault. It's the ship." Anakin shot back.
Ahsoka grabbed hold of her eject lever, "Ready to eject."
"Wait..." Anakin advised against it, getting closer and closer to the mountain edge until, "Now!"
The three of them pulled their levers and were ejected out of the cockpit of the shuttle. With a material coming out from behind the chairs and formed like a pod around them allowing them to hang in the air for a bit as the surviving vulture droids dove after the shuttle as both it and they crashed into the rocky side of the mountain.
On the Autobot ship, Ironhide kept flying the ship while Hot Rod fired on the droids, making sure to not hit their friends in the shuttle.
"The least they can do is make sure that their un-armed shuttles could have better armor!" Hot Rod shouted as he kept firing. Only for one of the Vulture droids to break off pursuit and attempt to shoot down the Autobot ship.
"One of those droid flyers broke off form the others." Drift reported.
"Where's it headed?" Hot Rod asked, pausing from his firing.
The ship's sensors beeped as Drift saw the outline of the Vulture droid coming in from behind and its weapons are locked on their ship.
"Hot Rod take that bogue out! I'll keep firing on the other droids." Ironhide ordered as he took control over the front guns.
"On it!" Hot Rod said, punching in a command as he pulled the controls and his station's turret on the ship shifted and turned to face the aft of the ship. Once the systems had been connected Hot Rod began firing on the Vulture Droid as it proved to be able to maneuver around the Autobot ship's armaments.
Hot Rod gritted his dentures as he kept firing at the droid. One of the screens zoomed in and revealed that there was a Decepticon insignia with the Separatist's symbol. Revealing that this lone Vulture droid was a Droid-icon.
The Vulture droid-icon kept swerving out of the way and taking brief shots at the ship before it lowered a missile, one with the Decepticon insignia on its shell.
Just as it launched the missile, the Droid-icon was finally shot down. Hot Rod cheered as he thought he got it. Only to see it opening it head and four smaller missiles shot out spinning towards the Autobot ship. Hot Rod tried to fire on them, but they were moving faster, and their size were smaller to properly hit them.
When they were close to the engine, Hot Rod call, "Guys, Brace for impact!"
The missiles hit, causing an alarm to go off while Ironhide's screen shows one of their engines is unresponsive.
"We lost one of the engines!" Ironhide reported.
Drift did what he could to reroute power to keep them airborne as he said, "I'm on it!"
After falling halfway to the ground their engines started up again and they started flying again.
"YES!" Hot Rod shouted, after realizing they weren't dead and he shouted, "Drift, you are awesome!"
"Great work soldier." Ironhide congratulated the white armored swordsbot, before stating, "Now, let's find our friends."
"He always blames the ship." Ahsoka complained in her pod as it blindly bounces heading downwards towards the surface.
After landing on the ground, after bouncing on the endless flora of the planet, the pods opened up, deflating as they did, causing the three jedi to cough as they get out. Anakin asked, "You all right there, Master?"
"I'm fine, Anakin." Obi-wan answered as he got out of the pod. The three of them then began to walk in a direction.
"Where on Felucia do you think we are?" Ahsoka asked, looking around at their surroundings, not recognizing any part of it from when they were last on Felucia.
Obi-wan, walking answered to Torguta Padawan, "I'm not sure."
"Kenobi! Kenobi! Do you read me!? Obi-wan!" Ironhide's voice came from his comms and the bearded Jedi answered, "Yes, Ironhide. I read you."
"Good to hear you're still with us Kenobi." Ironhide said from the comms as he reported, "We took care of two of those droid flyers only for one of them, a Droid-icon, to hit our engines. We're able to get them running again, but we're getting the reading our hyper drive's somewhat damaged."
"Understood, coordinate with us as soon as you get a good assessment of the damage. If it's as bad as you believe, then we're going be waiting for a while." Obi-wan stated ending the conversation.
As they waked the three of them heard growling, from a native creature of the planet.
"I don't like the sound of that." Ahsoka commented, looking around for the source of the noise.
"And I don't like the look of that." Anakin pointed, as the three of them saw three of the 4.2-meter-tall Jungle Rancors lumbering by unaware or ignoring the smaller species' presence.
"We don't want to scare them." Anakin advised, as the three Rancors left, continuing their way.
"We can't just wander around aimlessly. We need a plan." Obi-wan told his compatriots, not at all fazed by the Rancors when they passed despite his initial surprise.
"You always taught me to go on instinct, and my instincts tell me to go that way." Anakin said, pointing in the direction that the Rancors went.
Obi-wan shook his head and said, pointing in the opposite direction, "Well, that doesn't seem right. I think we should go this way."
Anakin mentally sighed and asked, slightly annoyed, "Why do you even ask for my opinion? You never do things my way."
"We crashed the ship your way." Obi-wan joked, as if that counted.
"Very funny. I see your sense of humor survived the landing." Anakin commented, beginning a debate with his master.
"It's about the only thing." Obi-wan subtly jabbed back.
Seeing a smoke trail through the felucian jungle, Ahsoka spoke up, "Uh, if you two are done arguing, I think there's some smoke on the horizon."
She pointed and the two older jedi saw the smoke.
"Which means people, and a way off this planet." She said leading them towards the smoke. Anakin shrugged to his master before calling, "Hot Rod, you read me?"
"Yeah Skyguy, what's up?" Hot Rod asked, from the comms.
"Ahsoka thinks she found a place where people life, meet us there when you get your ship secured and damage assessed." Anakin said as he walked.
Ironhide coughed as he worked on the repairs while Hot Rod spoke in the comms, "Kay Skyguy After we get the full diagnostics on the ship, we'll make our way to you."
"We'll be waiting." Hot Rod heard his respond through the comms, before ending the line.
Hot Rod looked around was amazed by what he saw, "Wow… I wasn't able to make it planet side, but this place looks amazing…"
"Indeed. Many would find it strange that we would marvel at such organic beauty of another world." Drift said taking in the quiet and aesthetic beauty of the Felucian Jungle. At first he too was cautious of organic life, but now being out of the main universe and been to what planets he has, Drift can appreciate the beauty of organic life.
Hot Rod would place his hands together to be like a picture frame and remarked, "Maybe a main road, and race bridges, and it'd be a fun place to race."
"If you two are done sightseeing and road developing, we got a ship to repair!" Ironhide shouted from the Engine, "Thing's not gonna fix itself!"
Hot Rod then groaned, "Fine…"
They heard a growl before the three Autobots turned some sort of organic species about four meters tall, half of Ironhide's height. Hot Rod whistled, "Whoa… never thought I'd see anything that large before."
"Be wary, my friend, those are what the natives of this galaxy call 'Jungle Rancors' a semi-sentient species." Drift cautioned before going to help Ironhide as best as he can.
Hot Rod turned to the older bots, reminding them, "I was born during the last years of the Golden Age, before the rust plague. I never met any organics that are almost our size before."
"You can admire them after we get the ship fixed." Ironhide shot back as he kept working. Hot Rod frowned at this before he went to help his comrades with the ship. While the main steering, fuel line, and navigation are still working they found some of the thruster parts were damaged, needing replacements, and the circuit relays were shot, which also needed replacements or a bypass. Unless they had some compatible parts from somewhere on this planet, then the three of them are going to be stuck on Felucia for some time…
Hot Rod groaned, "Where'll we find parts on a jungle planet like this?"
"I don't know, but we can try that place that Skywalker reported." Drift reminded.
Getting up and cleaning his servos Ironhide muttered, "Better there than on a ship that won't fly."
He then got his tools back onboard and locked the ship up as he went and ordered, "Autobots, Roll Out!"
The three of them transformed and drove off to where the comms of their organic allies were.
After walking for some time, the three Republican officers saw that the source of the smoke was a village of sorts. Ahsoka was the first to speak, "Look. There's a village."
"Maybe they have a ship we can… borrow." Anakin suggested, as they crossed the front path of the village.
As they entered the village's grounds Ahsoka noticed an abundance of flora. She recognized the basic shape from her studies at the temple, but can't remember the specifics, "Hmm, they're growing healing herbs."
"Nysillim, I believe." Obi-wan informed her, as he recounted about what he learned of the herb Nysillim, or Sillim as some beings called them, "One of the most valuable crops in the galaxy."
After entering what appeared to be the center of the village, Ahsoka remarked, "This place looks deserted."
"I don't believe it is." Obi-wan stated before gesturing to the signs, "The crops are ready to be harvested. Tools are lying about."
Confident in what he saw, the older Jedi remarked, "No, something's amiss."
"Well, there's one thing I learned where I grew up." Anakin told those with him as he led them to the largest building in the village, "If you want to know what a farmer's up to, look in their barn."
When he pressed the button for the door to open, the three Jedi saw there was a ship inside it. An SS-54 Assault ship. Obi-wan then pointed out, "This is an odd ship for farmers."
It was obvious that it was not a ship that farmers would use as it had a large thruster engine on both of its wings and a gun turret under the nose of the ship. The Jedi master then suggested, "Perhaps someone's here to pick up the sillim."
Ahsoka then said, allowed, "I still don't get it. Where is everyone?"
"Perhaps we should explore while waiting for our mechanical allies?" Obi-wan suggested as he began to walk in a direction to explore the village.
Ahsoka and her master went to check one of the huts, their lightsabers drawn. The noticed from the size of the table, seats, and the height of the appliances on the wall that the inhabitance of the village are a smaller than human species. As Ahsoka examined an adjoining room, Anakin noticed a trap door that most likely led to a sort of bunker or storage space under the main floor of the house. Quietly approaching it Anakin placed his finger to his lips, causing his padawan to get ready, just in case of an ambush. Using The Force, Anakin opened the door and found three Felucians inside, two adults and one child. The felucians are a small bipedal species with pale sandy yellow skin and small black eyes, with shorter arms and longer legs. These ones appear to be wearing clothes that are intended for manual labor such as farming.
"Mystery solved." Anakin said, seeing the group of Felucian, guessing they were a family.
Gasping, Ahsoka realized, practically sensing their fear, "They're terrified."
"It's okay, we won't hurt you." Ahsoka said, assuring the Felucians.
The sound of a cocking blaster caught the attention of both master and apprentice when a female voice says from behind, steady, "Kindly drop your weapons, Jedi."
Anakin turned and saw four human sized beings approach him and Ahsoka. One female Zabrak, a male Kyuzo, a female Frenk, and a droid as tall as the Kyuzo. Judging by their appearances, they appear to be bounty hunters. The Zabrak in the front pointing her blaster at him was most likely their leader. The Frenk was trained as sniper, and the Kyuzo's hat was well known to be both a defensive weapon as well as offensive.
"Take it easy, Snips." Anakin said, as Ahsoka was about to ignite her lightsaber blade, "We don't want any trouble."
"{You're outmanned, laserblade.}" The Male Kyuzo stated in his language, watching the Jedi thoroughly. The Jedi were able to understand what he said due to them learning other languages.
Anakin looked to the Kyuzo and replied, "It isn't always the numbers."
"Four on one is hardly a fair fight, even for a Jedi." A slim and slender female Frenk stated, keeping her rifle trained on the Padawan.
"Wait a minute! Four on one?" Ahsoka asked, slightly insulted that they didn't count her in the equation before correcting them. "You mean four on two."
"We don't count you, knee-high." The droid stated at the padawan's claim.
"Do you count me?" Obi-wan asked calmly as he entered the hut, igniting his lightsaber. The droid extended a buzzsaw blade at the new Jedi.
Drift, Ironhide, Hot Rod skidded and pointed their weapons at the Bounty hunters through the house's windows as Ironhide asked, "How about us?"
"Stop! Don't harm them!" An elderly voice exclaimed as a Felucian came running into the hut as he spoke to the female Zabrak, "Can't you see these are Jedi? We are saved!"
"Saved?" Ahsoka asked, confused, sharing a glance with Hot Rod.
"Need I remind you, Casiss, you already made a deal with us?" The Zabrak female said to the Felucian, before looking at the giant mechanical beings aiming their blasters at them, "And last I checked, Jedi don't work with giant battle droids."
"We're not droids, we're Autobots." Hot Rod said getting annoyed that his species are being confused with those machines.
The Felucian known as Casiss spoke back to the Zabrak, "But with the Jedi's and these giant droid's help..."
"Excuse me, but help you with what?" Ahsoka asked, confused by what the two of them were talking about.
Casiss lowered Sugi's blaster and answered the padawan's question, "Pirates."
"Pirates? You have to deal with pirates?" Ironhide asked, slightly angry about this.
The Felucian Casiss would turn, surprised by the anger in what appeared to be the giant droid's voice. The bounty hunters, well 2 of them, showed signs of surprise as well. Casiss recomposed himself and said, "I am afraid so…"
The sun had set and every one of the Felucians had come out of hiding when their leader Casiss told them about the Jedi's arrival, as well as assurance that the beings they thought were giant droids were friends. The three Autobot converted into their vehicle modes and had their holo-forms come out for them to enter the house to get the story from the village leader.
Sitting down on the table, Casiss told them how the pirates appeared one day after the last battle between the Republic and Separatists and how they demanded a portion of their Sillim crops, Casiss stated, "Simply stated, if we don't give the pirates a portion of our crop, they will destroy our homes with us in them."
Ironhide, sympathizing with the farmer said, "I see your problem."
"Sillim farming is a meager trade." Casiss admitted, before continuing, "Without our herbs to sell, we will have no money for food, fuel or equipment."
"And yet you can afford to pay mercenaries?" Obi-wan asked, gesturing to Sugi and her group.
Drift felt himself get angry at the mention of the Bounty Hunters and stated, "Indeed. The only driving force for those of this occupation seem to care about is nothing but their rewards…"
"These bounty hunters drive a far more reasonable bargain than the pirates." Casiss assured Obi-wan and the sword wielding Autobot.
"I highly doubt it." Drift said glaring at the bounty hunters before him. They showed their animosity for his words too.
Sugi was getting annoyed by the obvious dislike that the Autobot has for her and her group.
"Why not just fight them yourselves?" Anakin asked, as if that was a simple solution. Hot Rod nodded, "Yeah, should be simple enough if you have the ability."
"Easy for you and those Autobots, perhaps." Casiss pointed out the overall build differences between his people and the other two, "But look at us. We are farmers, not warriors."
"Even with the bounty hunters' help, I had feared the worst. But now, there are ten of you." Casiss said as he looked at the ten warriors.
"What do you want, Jedi?" Sugi asked, thinking they wanted something in return for helping.
"We need a ship. Ours is beyond repair, I'm afraid. The one in the barn, that'll do. And I'm afraid the ship our large metallic friends don't have seats for ourselves. And I'm afraid what will happen if we're where they don't expect us underfoot…" Obi-wan explained as Ironhide stepped with his holo-form's to emphasize on what would happen if they didn't realize their organic friends were there. Causing some of the Felucians to gulp in response.
Sugi gave a laugh before telling Obi-wan, "That's our ride. It doesn't go anywhere without us. And right now, we're busy."
"Busy extorting farmers?" Obi-wan asked, still somewhat suspicious.
"What do you expect form dishonorable bounty hunters?" Drift asked, keeping his suspicion on high with the bounty hunters in the room.
Sugi then shot back, smoothly, "I don't hear either you or your giant droids offering to help."
"Unfortunately, we couldn't help even if we wanted to." Obi-wan explained, resulting in the surprised looks of both the Autobots and the padawan who asked, "What?"
The Jedi master lead his group outside while the Autobots walked with them.
"Master, these farmers are in trouble." Ahsoka told him before asking, "Why can't we help them?"
"She's right! We gotta assist with their pirate problem." Ironhide said turning to face Obi-wan who sighs and said to them, "Believe me, I would like nothing more."
He then pointed out their primary mission for coming to this planet in the first place since they lost the first battle of Felucia, "However, we need to report that the medical station has been destroyed. If we stay too long, the Separatists will show up looking for us here."
"But..." Ahsoka began, trying to talk to the eldest member of the Order amongst them.
"Better they get robbed by pirates than attract the interest of General Grievous and his horde. Or the Decepticon forces." Obi-wan told Ahsoka.
Ironhide huffed at that remark before muttering, "What if they were stealing the lives of these people? Would your conscious allow you to sleep at night?"
Before Obi-wan could answer his friend's question, a voice interrupted.
"Pirates!"
A juvenile Felucian cried out, alerting the attention of everyone, "Pirates, pirates! The pirates are back!"
The three Autobots transferred themselves back into their real bodies as they got their engines and weapons ready. Even as the sounds of swoop-bikes come. The Jedi approached as did Sugi and her Bounty Hunter group. The pirates turned to be Weequays.
Sugi then stepped forward and warned, "That's far enough."
"I speak for the people of this village." Sugi told the Weeguay and demanded, "State your name and business."
"My name is my own business." The Weequay said, before adding, "And my business is taking what's ours."
"There is nothing here that's yours. Unless you're here to buy it." Sugi said, holding her blaster ready.
"Buy it?" A rough voice, asked, before it laughed.
Another Weequay got off the bike and much to the chagrin of the two Jedi, it was Hondo Ohnaka. He then greeted them, a lizard-monkey on his shoulder, "Kenobi! Skywalker! I can't believe you came all this way to see me."
"Hondo." The two Jedi said, remembering the… 'fond times' they had when they met this Weequay pirate captain when the pirates captured Count Dooku.
Sugi glanced back at the humans and asked, "You know each other?"
Hondo let out a little chortle as he approached his 'friends', answered for her "Of course, we do."
Before speaking to the bearded human, "Tell them how far back we go, Kenobi."
"Too far, I'm afraid." Obi-wan answered, the flashes of memory still in his mind. Them catching Dooku, slipping something in their drink during the party, them working with Dooku to escape the pirates and then ending things after Dooku escaped…
Hondo however laughed, commenting, "And here I thought we were friends."
"If you're truly interested in friendship, Hondo, might I suggest you stop threatening these farmers?" Obi-wan suggested, hoping to settle this peacefully.
Hondo gasped in mock indignation, as he asked, "Threatening them?"
"Oh, please tell me you have not been listening to this bounty-hunting scum." Hondo said, waving his arms a bit to emphasis what he thought about Sugi and her group.
"Scum?" Sugi asked, insulted before stating, "We're just here to help them protect what's theirs."
"Scum calling scum, scum… now I've heard everything." Drift comms. His Autobot allies.
"Oh, come, come, my dear." Hondo said, as if it was nothing, before asking, "How much are they paying you?"
He then stopped her from speaking as he told her, "Bu-bu-bub! Does not matter. Whatever it is, I will double it."
Before he added his condition for paying her, "And all you have to do to earn it is, uh, step aside."
Sugi got in Hondo's face and said, in an enunciating tone, jabbing a finger at his chest, "We don't break deals."
Soon all parties of both Bounty Hunters and Pirates raised their weapons for a shoot-out. Even as they heard engines from the distance. Hondo looked at the Jedi and asked, "You have reinforcements, Kenobi? An entire squad of clones."
"Something like that?" Obi-wan stated as three land speeders drove over before they leapt up into the air and surprised the Weequay pirates, as they shifted and formed humanoid bodies as they landed behind them and had weapons trained on them.
"Stop right there, Pirate-creeps!" Hot Rod cried out his exhaust pipes getting ready to shoot, though hoping he doesn't need to.
Drift held his swords down on them as he said, uncharacteristically cold and harsh, to the pirates "Stay down!"
"Steady, everyone." Obi-wan told them, though hearing a growl from his Autobot partner, he added, "Steady, Ironhide."
Ironhide growled at the sight of the pirates but calmed down as he knew how he and his species would look to the Felucians if they started blasting like the droids.
Hondo stared in shock before laughing wholeheartedly, "Can you believe it, men!? Transforming, giant droids, like what those transmissions said there were!"
Looking at the Jedi he said, "You Jedi certainly know how to make things interesting."
He then took on a professional posture and asks, "What is your stake, anyway, Kenobi?"
"All we want is a ride to the nearest Republic outpost." Obi-wan said remaining calm as he told his Weequay pirate acquaintance, "And I'm willing to pay you handsomely for it. Twice what you could make selling this crop."
"Well, um, how do you plan to pay me?" Hondo asked, curiously, before looking up at the autobots, unperturbed by the size of their onboard weapons, "Willing to sell me one of your giant droids? That will certainly do it."
"We're not giant droids! We're Autobots. Automous mechanical lifeforms! NOT DROIDS!" Ironhide snapped glaring at the captain.
Hondo remained stoic, unlike his men or his pet, as he heard emotion in the metallic voice, not like all the droids he heard, and shot at.
"I'm afraid our large and metal friends are not for sale. Otherwise, that would be against the republic's anti-slavery laws." Obi-wan stated to the pirate leader. While the bounty hunters and farmers were surprised by this as the Autobots were appreciative for the Jedi's loyalty. The Jedi master then told Hondo, "However, I am willing to do a funds transfer when we arrive."
"Republic credit?" Hondo asked, feeding his lizard-monkey with treats, beforethe Weequay clicking his tongue in disappointment, dropping the feed, before he stated to the human, "We've been over this before, Kenobi. My associates don't accept that currency."
"I'm offering a deal that benefits us all, Hondo." Obi-wan told the pirate who was still looking at the Autobots as though they were the greatest meal ticket of his life, "Don't let your greed or judgement other life forms whether they are small or made out of metal blind you to that fact."
"You know, I like you, Kenobi, but since you're so insistent in not selling your large metal friends," Hondo told Obi-wan, before stating, in a serious tone, " Then no one leaves this planet until I get my sillim."
"Then I hope you enjoy it here, because you'll be staying a long time, parasite." Sugi hissed, glaring at the pirate leader.
Hondo let the insult not bother him, before commenting to the farmer, "You know, this crop has not been harvested."
He then added, "You better hurry, old man, before things start to die on you."
Hondo gave his threat, however he felt himself picked up from his coat by the Autobot Ironhide who growled, "Don't even, think about carrying through that threat. Prime's Directive or not I will flatten you into paste if you do."
"Ah, but you gotta catch me first, my large, metal friend." Hondo commented, before getting himself out of the grip and landing on his speeder bike, leading his men away.
After realizing that Hondo was involved, Obi-wan and Anakin gathered the Farmers before telling them, deciding to give them waht help they could, before they try to return to report of the destruction of the medical station over Felucia, "When the attack comes, it will come from two fronts. The forest to the south, and the ridge to the north. Whatever you do, you must defend both sides."
"But there are only four of them." A Felucian with goggles said, asking, "How can four bounty hunters defend against so many?"
Embo answered in his native language looking at the Felucian, which conveyed his confidence.
Despite the confidence that Embo displayed, Anakin whispered, "The farmers are right. These bounty hunters don't stand a chance."
"We've been over this, Anakin." Obi-wan reminded his former apprentice.
Ironhide added his own account of whispering, "But Obi… these people won't survive that long if we leave them to them pirates… If we didn't do anything we'd be no better than Decepticons."
Sugi, who noticed their whispering, commented, "You seem to lack confidence in our abilities, young Jedi."
"I'm sure you're good at what you do, but you are in way too deep." Obi-wan said, while not really doubting the skills of bounty hunters, he also know that they haven't seen or fought Hondo and his pirates before like he and Anakin had.
"Said the peacekeeper who fails to keep the peace." Sugi barbed back at the human.
"The rift in the galaxy is not our fault." Obi-wan told her, "If more worlds would stand up for themselves against the Separatists, this war would have been over long ago."
That gave Anakin an idea, "That's it! We'll just train the villagers to defend themselves."
"But we are just simple farmers." The same Felucian protested, before he asked, "Why are we paying bounty hunters to defend us if we are just going to end up doing it ourselves?"
"Hush, Dilanni." Casiss quieted the farmer. The elder seemed to prefer this plan over just doing what the farmers wanted.
Anakin smiled assuring the Felucians in the room, "Trust me. We'll have you ready."
"We'll help anyway we can." Hot Rod also promised. Which earned the nods of his fellow Autobots.
The next morning, everyone was getting ready for the battle to come. At the fields the Felucians began harvesting their fully grown crops with their Crop Harvesters. A few were using their riding animals, native to Felucia, to drag the processed cubes of the Sillim towards the direction of the barn. Watching their progress was the Zabrak bounty hunter and human Jedi master.
"Put it in the barn. Every bushel." Sugi ordered, pointing at the barn, while the Felucians brought all the harvested Sillim out of the way of the battle. Drift was keeping an optic on her, not particularly trusting her or her bounty hunter comrades.
At the village center, Anakin looked at the assembled Felucians with their farm tools in hand looking at the Jedi. Ironhide, having a brief hand in training, was there as an advisory role, while in his holo-form.
Anakin smiled as he ordered, "All right, everyone, form up."
"Uh… Skywalker… I don't they know what that means." Ironhide said seeing the confusion in the Felucians. Even as they were worried about being stepped on by the Autobot.
Sighing, Anakin knew what the Autobot said was true and clarified his words, "Divide into rows of five."
All of the Felucians began murmuring as they tried to do so. Behind the human knight, Embo just shook his head at what he was watching. Delani, didn't make anything better as he complained, "I told you, we are not soldiers."
Then pointed out, "We don't even have weapons."
"May I?" Anakin asked, as the farmer gave him the tool he had.
Anakin accepted and began to work with out, using it like a polearm. Ironhide watched interested by how versatile the Jedi seem to be in their combat.
Once he was done exercising with the farmer's tool he handed it back and remarked, "Yep, these will do."
The jedi master and bounty hunter watched as the felucian farmers packed the processed Sillim After seeing how much of the Sillim was being squeezed into the barn behind the bounty hunter's ship, Obi-wan followed Sugi out, asking, "What happens if you need the barn as a fallback position?"
Sugi seemed to ignore his question as he explained his question, "With all the sillim here, it will be difficult to squeeze the farmers in."
"There's room." Sugi stoically commented. Even as two Felucians carried a cube of the sillim into the barn.
"I worry that you care more for the safety of the sillim than you do for the safety of the villagers." Obi-wan said, raising a brow at the Zabrak's strategy and seemingly callous manner she was doing this.
"You think I'm only worried about my profit." Sugi turned to the Jedi, guessing what he was thinking, asking, "Is that it?
"The thought had crossed my mind." Obi-wan confessed, looking at her.
"Definitely mine…" Drift said under his breath.
"So, in your mind, I'm just like any other pirate." Sugi deduced, she turned to the farmers and pointed where to put their bushel of the sillim in the pile.
Obi-wan looked at the Zabrak female and asked, "Am I wrong?"
Sugi let out a little laugh and answered, "Not entirely, but it is easier to protect the villagers and the sillim if they're both in the same place."
"Then might I suggest..." Obi-wan began only to be cut off by Sugi, "You might suggest anything you like, General Kenobi."
Shen then affirmed her current occupation, "But I know what I'm doing, and I will keep these people safe, my way."
Drift turned and muttered, "Typical Bounty Hunter arrogance…"
Sugi paused and asked, "Is there something you want to say droid?"
Ignoring that barb at him, Drift commented, "No matter the species, I've come to learn that the those of the bounty hunter profession are known for two things."
"And what might those be?" Sugi asked, her tone laced in skepticism.
"1st: Bounty Hunters only care about their payment willing to go to any dishonorable lengths to achieve it. And 2nd: They always have some arrogance that blinds them to the possibility of something being outside of their realm of experience."
Sugi raised a brow at that and asked, "What made you dislike those of my profession so much?"
Drift remained stoic before closing his optics briefly and answered, "My best friend was killed by a bounty hunter back on my home planet."
That left the two organic beings silent in surprise. Obi-wan was quiet because he had no idea that something like that happened to Drift, especially since Drift's emotions were more… controlled than other Autobots. Sugi was surprised to hear that the metallic beings like the Autobots even had bounty hunters where they were from. Having said his peace Drift went to see how other preparations for the attack were taking place.
At the forest to the south, Ahsoka, Hot Rod, Seripas, and some of the farmers were getting traps ready. It was hard work, but they seem to be getting it ready. Ahsoka was teaching some of the farmers how to use slingshots, from what she remembered of Wheelie's own weapon last time the two met.
Seripas activated his saw, sawing a Felucian "mushroom tree" as Hot Rod called them, one of them began cracking causing Seripas to catch it, but it seems it was too heavy for him to do anything else.
"Seripas! It's too heavy!" Ahsoka cried out running to the droid. She then knocked him away as both avoided being crushed by the plant. Hot Rod rushed over telling the felucians, "back up!"
Hot Rod then went over the tree and asked, "You okay Ahsoka?"
"Yeah Hot Rod I'm fine." Ahsoka answered, she then remembered Seripas. When Ahsoka looked at her droid ally, she and Hot Rod heard mechanical whirring and hissing, like he was malfunctioning. The shoulder blades of his body opened up.
Concerned, Ahsoka asked, "Seripas?"
From inside came a very small creature that would be up to Ahsoka's knee. Ahsoka recognized Seripas' species as a Ssori,a diminutive species with two short head tails, bulbous, bug-eyes, and tiny mouths with sharp teeth.
Stammering Seripad looked at the two scared that his secret was out, "Don't look!" The tiny being exclaimed trying to hide himself, "I'm having a suit malfunction."
Seripas worked on a few controls making AIR HISS as he does. As Seripas was working on getting his suit to work, Hot Rod then asked, "Wait… Seripas is an organic in a mechanical suit?"
Seripas was able to get the suit to sit up straight to see the smirking pair at him, not out of pride or to insult him at his secret being exposed, but because he had made a fuss out of getting his suit up.
Seeing the look on Ahsoka's face, it made Seripas sighed in defeat, before he asked, looking very sheepish, "Not very intimidating, am I?"
"You don't have to look tough to be tough." Ahsoka told the very small bounty hunter, remembering how tough Wheelie is in a fight.
Hot Rod smiled kneeling down as he said, "Trust her on that one, compared to my species even the 'humanoid' species of the galaxy are almost knee high."
Seripas took the controls, making his suit stand up before the helm went back into place with the neck connectors unfolding, Seripas looked at the two and said, mechanically, "I thank you both for your help."
He then went back to work. Hot Rod looked at Ahsoka who shrugged back at him for how the tiny being, to the Autobot, ignored Ahsoka's words of wisdom. The three of them went back to their assignments.
Back at the village, Anakin had helped fix the positions of the farmer's stances as he ran them through the drills of how to use their tools as weapons. During the steps, one had went too far with a loose grip casing his polearm to fly forward, Anakin moved out of the way as the tool was caught by Embo. Another however tripped and fell face first to the dirt.
Laughter was heard from the Kyuzo, making both Anakin and Ironhide turn back to look at him.
"{That's pathetic.}" Embo commented seeing how pitiful the farmers are in their training. He tossed the pole-tool back and the Felucian caught it with both arms.
Dilanni, however, groaned, dropping his, "The bounty hunter is right."
"Every minute you waste teaching us to twirl these stupid poles is time you could have spent beating those pirates yourself." Dilaani complained looking at the pair, kicking his 'staff' away.
"And what good would that do you if another band of brigands would inevitably come along?" Everyone turned to see Obi-wan there, as Embo talked with Sugi. Even as the Jedi master said, "Or do you intend to give away part of your crop every harvest season?"
"If you make us do this, there won't be another harvest season! It would have been better if you just sold one of those giant droids of yours to them in the first place." Dilanni shouted, before storming away. Embo shook his head at this while Sugi smirked almost smug like at the farmer's 'outburst' or by how the Jedi's idea to train the farmers was not working out as the Jedi hoped.
Keeping his anger in about that barb about his friends, Anakin turned to the others, "All right, everyone, get back in position. Let's continue."
Ironhide watched Dilanni before deactivating his holo-form and went to speak to the farmer. Obi-wan saw this, and was curious by what his partner was up to. For he was beginning to feel doubt about this working… how the negative feelings from Dilanni seemed to be affecting the others.
"Hey, Dilanni!" Ironhide said walking to the Felucian, "Can we talk?"
"Go away… I'm just a farmer, I wasn't born to be a warrior." Dilanni despaired, "Because of you and the Jedi we're gonna all be killed."
"You don't know that." Ironhide said, looking to Dilanni.
Dilanni would shout, "What would a giant droid from another planet know!? You were made for fighting! That's all-what you Droids know! What they were programmed!"
While Dilanni was showing, Ironhide looked at him, letting his words pass through him. Once Dilanni had that out of his system.
"I wasn't born a fighter. It was something I had to get used to when the war came for my people." Ironhide revealed, stopping Dilanni in his tracks.
Getting up Ironhide looked at the sky, "We had warriors, farmers, medics, and teachers, but a plague came and destroyed what we were trying to aspire to, only… the remains of our once great civilization had become as the plague that ruined us. Rust… And because of that Rust someone who hated the system that was made after the plague ruined us tried to make it so that everyone would be made equal. But when he didn't get what he wanted, he killed one of our leaders and the war began. Many Autobots hard to learn how to fight and become soldiers."
"What about your own soldiers? Why didn't they deal with the war instead?" Dilanni asked.
"Some stayed with the Autobots, but many more chose to fight for the Decepticon Cause." Ironhide revealed to him, making Dilanni stand there mouth gapped open, "The system, in my opinion, and others of the Autobots, wasn't perfect, but it had an order to it. And some bots who were suffering, just wanted either payback or just to be treated equally like they should've been. And because of the eons we spent fighting the war, idk how many of us are left…"
"But that's crazy… if you had just not fought then clearly all of those deaths could have been avoided." Dilanni said, not understanding why they chose to fight, "Weren't you scared?"
"Of course, I was scared many of us were, but as a friend once said: 'Freedom is the right of all sentient being'. And it's better fighting for freedom then living under tyranny." Ironhide said, surprised Dilanni again.
Ironhide went back to help with the training, leaving Dilanni alone with his thoughts, while hidden by both of the Obi-wan had listened, curious by what Ironhide would have done while speaking with Dilanni. But he did not expect this.
Time passed and the rhythmic grunting of the villagers showed how the training had progressed than it did when Dilanni quit. When one went too far with his swipe, Obi-wan gently took the pole-tool out of the Felucian's hand and showed him how it was done. Not to insult but help him.
Up above, on the cliff edge overlooking the village, a Pirate scout, sent by Hondo to keep an eye on the village looked through his electro-binoculars and was seeing everything.
"Well, what have we here?" The pirate asked himself, rhetorically, "Getting ready for a fight, are we?"
He then noticed one of the giant droids, one of the "Autobots" returning, the one with the swords, and spoke the the big one with the red and grey armor. From how the two were keeping quiet as they spoke, the scout believed that it might have been important.
While keeping his eyes on bots, he failed to notice Sugi spotting him, more like the glint from his binoculars and exclaimed, pointing up at him, "There! A scout!"
Everyone who heard turning to look at the direction that she was pointing and saw him. Thinking quickly Hot Rod aimed his exhaust pipes, "I got him!"
"Hot Rod, no!" Ironhide shouted, getting the younger bot's arm away from the pirate's scout, wanting to not break Prime's Directive. This gave the scout time to get up and run for his nearby speeder bike.
"Embo!" Sugi called, gesturing with her hand to go after him.
Running ahead, Embo grunted in his language, "{Got 'im.}"
Forcing his arm away from the older bot, Hot Rod went to help Embo transforming as he drove alongside Embo and exclaimed, "Embo jump on!"
The Kyuzo did just that jumping on and holding on tight as the bot hit the accelerator, arriving much quicker than expected.
The scout dropped his binoculars to get to his bike only a high-pitched warbling was heard and a second later, the bike exploded. Looking back, he saw the red and yellow bot and one of the bounty hunters racing towards him. Hot Rod hit the breaks as the scout turned to see the Kyuzo flying towards him.
The scout fell from the explosion caused by the bounty hunter's bowcaster. Holding his chest abdomen the scout turned to fire his blaster at the Kyuzo bounty hunter, only for the warrior to lower his head and the metal hat he wore seemed to have absorbed the blaster bolts. Worried now, the pirate scout kept firing, even as Embo went to land on his hands and push off high above the Weequay who fired more at him, his hat kept absorbing the bolts of plasma at him.
Hot Rod watched as Embo landed and ran forward his head down for the hat to keep absorbing the blasts. The young Autobot was impressed by how the Kyuzo was able to know how far he was as he grabbed the pirate's blaster arm and kicked him in the gut, resulting in the weequay grunting, then kicking him away by a few meters. The scout grabbed his chest in pain from the kick.
Looking up he saw the bounty hunter tossing his bowcaster away, a challenge for close quarters combat, which the pirate follishly accepted. Just as he ran over to through a punch Embo easily tilted his head to the side and grabbed the weequay's neck, resulting in his enemy gasping while the other hand grabbed the bald head of the pirate scout.
Hot Rod turned as heard the sound of engines and saw Drift driving up with Anakin, Ahsoka, Obi-wan and Sugi. As the four got off the swordsbot, Hot Rod turned to say, "Embo we can interroga-"
Only to be interrupted by a snapping sound and the scout fell, dead. Hot Rod grimaced at this as he was hoping to take the pirate alive.
"Quick work." Anakin said, looking at the corpse of the pirate's scout.
Embo would turn back to look at them as he grunted, "{Easy.}"
"Yes, but when this scout fails to report to Hondo, he'll be coming, soon." Obi-want observed.
Drift and Hot Rod shared a worried look. While Ironhide had stayed behind to make sure there weren't any more with the other Bounty hunters.
At the pirate camp through the jungle. They were waiting for the time of them needing to either get their shipment or kill the farmers. And just as Obi-wan predicted, a pirate went to his captain and whispered, "The scout has not checked in from the village. He's long overdue."
"Well, well, well." Hondo said, remarking by this news.
"So it looks like the Jedi and their large metal friends are getting involved, doesn't it?" Hondo asked, either himself or the members of his crew with him, no one knew, but it didn't seem to matter as he spoke more.
Hondo got up and turned to look behind him, waving them over, "Or, at least we now know we can't take these villagers for granted."
As his crew remained silent, Hondo said to them, "But you know what I always say."
"'Speak softly and drive a big tank'." At that, they saw one of their WLO-5 speeder tank driving up to them
"But what about them transforming droids?" A pirate asked, concerned about their own lives as the rumors was that blaster fire either bounce off or get absorbed in their armor.
"I'm sure we can find a chink in their impressive armor." Hondo stated, climbing up it before sighing, "Shame… there is something truly inspiring about them."
The moment of sadness brief and shrugged, his pet going to his shoulder, "Oh well. Let's go and get what we came for, Eh?!"
Ironhide was a clear distance away from their organic allies and asked, in Cybertronian, "{What's the problem Hot Rod? And why do we need to speak in our native language? In case you forget we have to prepare for the pirates.}"
"{How will we? Fight defensively or just do nothing and used ourselves as shields again?}" Hot Rod asked, arms crossed.
"{Indeed.}" Drift agreed, as he explained their reasoning, "{Unlike the droids we've been fighting since coming here, the pirates are organic beings with lives.}"
Ironhide caught on as to what they were saying and asked, "{What are you two saying?}"
Their silence was the confirmation that he was dreading and asked, "{Are ya both crazy? If we do that we'll be facing court martial AND imprisoned onboard the Ark. We'd be lucky if we're not put in a Stasis-lock for the remainder of our time here.}"
"{I don't like it any more than you do, old man.}" Hot Rod told Ironhide, fists clenched tightly, before saying to the bots, "{But we need to, to help our allies. We need to break Prime's Directives.}"
Drift's face had clear signs of not wanting to, but agreed with his younger friend that it was the only way to keep the Felucians and their allies safe by fighting back.
The Felucian village was quiet, save for the sound people Bounty Hunters, and Felucians partaking in the combat getting into position and the village had a tension in the air, Anakin walked over with Embo as the Jedi Knight reported to his former mentor, "The farmers are in position."
He then corrected himself, "Well, the ones who stuck around, anyway, and the Autobots just got into position after some last-minute strategizing."
Obi-wan brushed his beard, he figured that many of the farmers wouldn't want to get involved with the fighting, before telling his friend, "Very well, Anakin. Turn on the fence."
Anakin used a device to turn on the laser fence which encircled around the Barn where the Sillim was.
At the northern entrance of the village, several Pirates awaited on their speeder bikes. A rumbling approached as everyone saw a hover tank approaching.
Realizing the enemy has come, Sugi called out, "Battle positions, everyone!"
The farmers who remained pulled out their polearms up and in ready to fight, some mounted their animals one of which trumpeted. As it did Embo ran forward as both Jedi ignited their Lightsabers.
The pirates rode down into the valley like landscape one firing into the air to entice fear. Sugi began blasting while Embo ran, predicting how the pirates will through, went and kicked on off the bike as he used the driver as a shield as also to keep the bike steady as he aimed and fire on the pirate's comrades, while being shot at from behind, one actually hitting his bowcaster. The pirates split off hoping to box him in by cutting him off at the pass, but what the pirates of the other group didn't know that the were speeding into a trap, a trap where the Felucian riders would ride their polearms forward and jousted them off their rides.
Embo after seeing the group splitting off tossed the pirate he had in his grasp into the laser gate. Leading them away to deal with them himself.
Just as Obi-wan predicted, several pirates ride through the south entrance where Ahsoka and her group were. She ignited her lightsaber and swung just as the pirates began firing. She deflected their bolts before two of the trees began to fall forward, being pushed by the Crop Harvesters making the pirates crash into them tossing their pilots out.
Seripas turned, hearing another coming on a speeder bike. He tried to fight back but the pirate was able to quickly make work of his "droid-suit". It made the Ssori open the hatch and jump as it was about to explode. Seripas, by the gust of the explosion landed on the pirate that destroyed his suit. Remembering what both the Togura padawan and Autobot told him echoed in his mind and decided to fight with his fists. When the pirate raised his arm up to try and blast the little creature off, Seripas grabbed it and beat it against his head. The Weequay pirate tried to protect his head before he grabbed the small humanoid, who saw the steering controls and pressed the break, causing the speeder bike to stop, lurching forward. The Pirate hit a tree. Seripas hung on to the control as he looked at what he did. Ahsoka and one of the villagers came running over. When he looked up at the two Ahsoka shared a confidently smile with the Felucian next to her.
Back at the village Embo swerved and made the speeder bike in a direction while the pirates followed as he knelt on the seat. He then pushed off and used his combat hat like a discus frisbee and hit both pirates on the other bike. The fell as the hat returned to its owner who caught it, landed without a scratch on him, and straightened in what some would call in a cool manner.
The tank that came with the pirates on their bikes went to the clifftop and fired on the village While at the main cannon's seat, Hondo began laughing as he fired on the village at random locations. One such was where Embo was. The explosion sent Embo flying.
"Embo!" Anakin and Hot Rod called out. The Autobot turned, running away from the village as he began firing at Hondo, hoping to distract the pirate captain.
Embo hit the ground as his hat it the ground too. Hot Rod's distraction allowed Sugi to approach her compatriot and asked, "Embo, can you hear me?"
Embo groaned weakly, proving he was alive and could hear her as he looked at Sugi, who assured him, "You'll be all right. We'll get you inside."
Hondo apparently saw them and adjusted the tank's gun and fired at their location.
"Everyone, fall back to the barn!" Obi-wan ordered as the Felucians rode on their beasts to race to the barn as fast as possible. Sugi picked Embo up and slung his arm over her shoulders and exclaimed, through the cannon fire and the explosions, "That tank is going to tear the villagers apart."
One of the shots caused the felucians and their animals to fall, Anakin used his lightsaber to deflect a blaster bolt away as he checked the downed villager. Hot Rod kept firing at Hondo's tank as he commed, "Ironhide! Get blasting that guy or more lives will be lost!"
"I… I won't! Prime's Directive!" Ironhide shot back through the comm channel as he kept swatting without killing any of the pirates.
"It's either the directives or the lives of everyone here! You choose which you want to save the most!" Hot Rod shot back dodging to the side and kept firing at the tank.
Sugi helped Embo to the barn's door as she said the Felucians, "Get him inside. We'll hold them off as long as we can."
She then pulled out her blaster and went to rejoin the fight.
As he kept shooting from his clifftop, Hondo shouted, "Die, Jedi scum!"
Anakin, with Hot Rod giving him a "push" as well as using The Force, to jump high into the air and land without any damage to himself on the front of the tank. Seeing the Jedi Knight Hondo pulled out an Electrostaff, while changing the controls to make the tank shift to the side abit, knocking Anakin to his knee before the pirate captain engaged the young general in combat. The Plasma blade of the lightsaber met with the electrical end of the staff, stopping the blade in it's tracks each time their weapons met.
Inside the tank was Hondo's lizard monkey, chattering as it played with the controls. Making the main turret turn before firing. Anakin saw this and thrusted his saber aggressively into the tank through the glass trying to either kill or make the pet stop firing before resuming his fight with Hondo.
At her sniping perch, the frenk Rumi fired her rifle hitting the pirate driving the speeder bike towards Ironhide, while the gunner fell and was beaten by the three Felucian farmers.
Ironhide looked back at Rumi nodding his thanks to her, who nodded back. However, it would appear that it was short lived as the cannon fired and Rumi was the target.
Ironhide cried out as he saw Rumi falling dead on her side. Ironhide seemed to have become numb at the life of someone who saved him was lsot even as Sugi cried out, "NO!"
Unaware of another pair of pirates trying to attack her from behind, only to be blocked by Obi-Wan, warning her, "Sugi! Watch your flank!"
Obi-wan then used The Force to grab hold of the bike and sent it against the laser fence electrocuting it and the pirates. However as the two were regaining their senses, Sugi walked forward and gunned them down.
They then heard engines as Hot Rod can driving out weapons popping and unfolding from his alt. mode's body as the onboard weapons began open firing on the pirates, either causing their bikes to explode or hitting their bodies. Either way the only way they'd survive was if he missed.
Drift came driving out as well, crashing or swerving into the hover bikes to make them toss their occupants out. While using his swords to deflect as much of the cannon fire as possible with the swords at his side.
Ironhide came running, gritting his dentures at how his comrades were breaking the rule Prime's orders, as he swatted at the pirates around them, still keeping with Prime's Directive of not harming sentient life-forms from other planets.
With the Lizard-monkey driving, the two had to be careful of where they stepped, even though the pet was trying to help its master win the fight. Seeing an opening Hondo went for the attack, kicking Anakin to the main gun controls and tried to continue the attack only for Anakin's boot to stop him. The Jedi pushed his foot to get the Weequay pirate away, however, it wasn't far for Hondo held the staff up and swung it down at Anakin.
Anakin quickly flipped backwards making Hondo hit the cannon instead, the electricity in the staff making a searing sound as it hit the metal. While Hondo kept Anakin busy the pirate's pet climbed out from inside the tank waiting for a moment to strike before going in for a bite at Anakin's boot covered leg. This made the Human Jedi give a small cry in pain as he wielded his weapon to keep his enemy's staff from touching him. With a push Anakin grunted, "Get off!"
And kicked the lizard-monkey away, Hondo avoided his pet hitting him while going in for a wide side swing. Anakin avoided behind hit by jumping backwards.
"Your situation is hopeless, Skywalker." Hondo told the Jedi, smirking.
Unaware of the Pirate's little annoying friend crawling back to get revenge for being kicked by his master's enemy. Jumping on the humans face. Many Anakin grunt as he tried to get the tiny menace off him.
Sugi and Obi-wan were back to back as they continued their fighting against the pirates. The Jedi Master, however was unaware of the approaching danger, even as Ironhide turned and cried out, "Kenobi!"
Dilanni noticed and threw his pole-tool at the pirate, hitting him in the gun causing both him and his passenger to fall to the ground from their bike. The two were surprised by what happened, while Sugi was now curious by how Dilanni did it when he came an retrieved his tool.
"Welcome back, Dilanni." Obi-wan said, before asking, "Are you all right?"
"Fine." Dilanni said as he went back to help. Ironhide, watched before remembering the deaths of the villagers, and Rum. Roaring, Ironhide converted his hands for his onboard blasters and fired at the Pirates, low power to keep damage to a minimum as he fired back at the Weequay pirates.
A yell was heard as one of the Pirates saw Hondo hanging on for dear life on the cliff edge and cried out, "The Captain!"
"Let's go!" The pirate ordered as he and his surviving crewmates drove off to get to their mothership.
Seeing their enemies racing off on their speeder bikes, Casiss exclaimed, "The day is won!"
To that the villagers began cheering at their victory. Obi-wan however, turned his attention to his Autobot ally, who looked down at the ground, his fists clenched while a dark expression was on his optics. This made the Jedi master concerned. That was before an explosion caught their attention and saw someone dropping down from it. And it wasn't Hondo Ohnaka.
A few minutes earlier
Anakin had forced the lizard monkey off him but the monkey bit into his hand and climbed down in a spiraling motion to Anakin's leg and bit into him, resulting in Anakin to grunt in pain. Anakin grabbed the lizard monkey off his leg and tossed him high into the air, hoping to end the little menace once in for all. Except Hondo went and blocked the attack to protect his pet. Which landed on his helmet like cap and jumped away from the battle.
Hondo kicked Anakin's chest, spinning the staff as he did only for the Jedi to grab the staff both his free hand and his saber holding one. Getting a good grip, Anakin then lowered himself and sweeping Ohnaka's leg. This caused the pirate captain to fall closer to the cliff edge and holding on for dear life, his staff no longer in his hands.
"Help me!" Hondo cried out, seeing the turret turning in Anakin's direction, before pleading, keeping the charade up, extending his arm to the Jedi Knight, "Skywalker, let me call off my men."
As much as Anakin was against it, helping Hondo would end the conflict easier. Deactivating his lightsaber, Anakin went and pulled Hondo up. TO which Hondo gave an appreciative smile, before pushing Anakin in the path of the turret. Just before it fired, Anakin jumped out of the way, using the force to help him land. Ironhide saw a piece of the cliff was opened and open fire on the tank, blasting the forward controls, disabling the tank.
Everyone hurried to Anakin as they looked up to see Hondo standing at the remaining edge of the cliff, looking down at his quarry.
"This effort… is no longer… profitable!" Hondo exclaimed as he approached his spaceship before it flew away from the planet.
The surviving combatants of the battle aseembled to the barn with Embo, his arm in a sling, standing with Ahsoka, Seripas, Anakin, Sugi, Obi-wan and Drift.
Hot Rod wanted to join them, but Ironhide had curtly ordered him to help take the remains of the speeder tank back to their ship and use what parts they can to repair the damage. Drift remembered the dispirited look on Ironhide's face and never seen Ironhide like that before in all that he's known the bot. But it was similar to what he felt when his best friend was killed. The swordsbot was brought out of his train of thought as he heard Casiss speaking to his people, "There are crops to harvest, fields to till, huts to rebuild. Now, let's get to work."
As his people turned to do as their elder says, Casiss turned to the ones who helped save his village and asked, "How can I ever thank you for saving our village?"
"We didn't save your village, Casiss. Your people did." Anakin assured the Felucian village leader, smiling.
Casiss took a moment to contemplate the Jedi's words and told them, "For the first time in my memory, my people don't have to be afraid."
"We will never forget you." Casiss said, bowing in respect to them, leaving the those assembled to return the gesture, especially Drift.
"I seem to find myself light on company." Sugi said looking at the Jedi next to her, before asking, "Still need that ride back to the Republic outpost?"
Obi-wan looked and stated, "If it wouldn't be any inconvenience."
"On the contrary, it would be my pleasure." Sugi assured Obi-wan as she smiled at the Jedi.
While Drift waited for word from Ironhide and Hot Rod who took the tank back when they found most of the parts would be able to help fix their ship, he noticed Sugi approaching as she spoke, "Hey… Sword bot."
"What can I do for you?" Drift asked, his tone not having as much of a bristle as before the battle.
Getting in front of him she said, "You told me before your best friend was killed by a bounty hunter on your planet right? I didn't think your kind had something like that."
"Our form of currency before the war was the very life blood of our people processed and ready for use. So, it, as well as modifications and upgrades, would be perfect forms of currency for bounty hunters such as those." Drift explained to the Zabrak.
Raising a brow she asked, "So… what did your friend do to get a bounty hunter from your planet to kill him?"
"Nothing." Drift said, surprising her.
"Nothing?" Sugi asked raising a brow.
Drift shook his head, "Knucklehead was a loyal soldier through and through, however, because of my actions he was killed by the bounty hunter out of revenge. Because of that, I've learned be cautious of all those who embrace the mercenary life, no matter how they carry themselves or their policies."
Sugi sighs, processing this, as she said, "I know that bounty hunters aren't as uniformly stiff as the Jedi, armies, even you Autobots, but you gotta understand something, Drift. Being a Bounty Hunter is a choice of a career, not something that people would go to as a first option and hope for a success like those from the core worlds think it is. Being a Bounty Hunter is not just about the payment, but also living up to your own principles. Take me for an example, when Hondo tried to buy off my crew and I, I turned him down without a second thought, remember That's because what he tried to do was against what I believe in as, not only a bounty hunter, but as a person."
Drift narrowed his optics in a way, as Sugi stated, "Even if you don't trust the occupation, try not to see us all in the same light, otherwise you're no different from them. Like how everyone here thought you and your friends weren't anything but giant droids. Just think about that."
Sugi began to enter the ship as Drift watched her. Stunned by the wisdom of her words as he muttered, "I wish it is that simple, Sugi. But after what he did to Knucklehead… I can't overcome this feeling in my spark."
Thinking back on the day he found Knucklehead dead, Drift's optics turned red, as he thought of the one who murdered his best friend.
(Who liked how I introduced Hondo in this chapter? As well as his personal views of the Autobots? I bet none of you were expecting it to turn out as it did with the three Autobots breaking Prime's Directive as they did. I don't know if I explained what that is, but it's something that I had put for the Autobots to have should they meet indigiousness lifeforms outside of Cybertron, especially the sentient kind. It'll be explained in greater detail in the next chapter. Tell me what you thought and theorize what might happen in the next chapter.
Find out what will be in store for the three Autobots who broke Prime's Directive in the next chapter of Star Wars: The Transformers.)