"And that's where you lost him?"
On the bridge of the Peak, Director Brand has summoned the S.W.O.R.D. Pilots involved in the recent altercation for their debriefing. She ordered the pilots to recount every detail of their encounter, from the alien ship's capabilities to the pilot's skill.
"Yes Ma'am." Answered the squadron leader, " New Mexico, we lost sight of the target around one of the larger mesas."
The Director was facing out of one of the observation windows, looking down towards the large, blue vision of planet earth, pondering her next course of action. To her left, both Agents Danvers and Drew stood nearby, also listening to the pilots reports.
"And there were no signs of the vessel crashing?" Agent Danvers questioned. "No wreckage of any kind".
"No Captain, it was was as if it just disappeared into the cliff-face."
"So we can't just assume that he didn't survive." Pondered Agent Drew.
Director turned to face the squadron leader, "Captain, you said that the ship was vulnerable to your sidewinder missiles?"
"It seemed that way yes, it's shields had some trouble with them, unlike our energy projectiles."
"Very well, you and your squad are dismissed."
The pilots of Dagger squadron salutes their commander and and left the bridge, leaving the Director and her agents alone to plan their next move.
"You know, if you had let me pursue that ship like I wanted to, it wouldn't have slipped away." The blonde haired agent insisted in a insubordinate tone.
"Can the attitude Danvers." The Director fired back, while giving the agent a cold stare. "You overstepped yourself with the way you handled that interrogation. Thanks to you and that temper of yours, we now have an unregistered extraterrestrial running loose on the planets surface." She redirects her attention back towards the view outside, "And besides, I wanted to give our fresh new fighters a chance to test their capabilities. We still have a long way to go in their development, but overall I'm satisfied with their performance."
"Yeah, why did you lose your composure like that?" The raven haired agent asked. "That's not normally like you."
"What? I thought he was a Skrull." Responded Agent Danvers. "You can't take any chances if they're involved."
"Never met a Skrull that can do what that man could do."
"Clearly you've never met the Super Skrull."
"Agents!" The pair of them look over to see their Commander and the very annoyed look she was expressing. "It may have escaped your notice, but you have a job to do."
The two agents recomposed their stance to stand at attention before Agent Drew asked, "What are our orders Director?"
"Return to Earth in order to pursue and detain the extraterrestrial." The Director barked out. "Assume that he is still alive, he may try to lay low for a while. But even if he has supplies on his ship, he'll run out eventually. At which point he'll likely make his way towards the nearest populated area."
"Which is?"
"Judging by the ships last known sighting ... Vista Verde."
Agent Drew let out a light chuckle, "So we're heading into Hulk territory then. Should we contact Banner and his Smashers?"
"This is entirely S.W.O.R.D.'s jurisdiction." Director Brand responded coldly. "I don't want them or S.H.I.E.L.D sticking their nose in ... dismissed."
In the darkness of the Outbounders cockpit, Marr stirred in his pilots chair. As the Jedi began to slowly regain consciousness and his composure, he straightened himself up and decoupled his safety harness. As he examined his surrounding, he noticed the console was now in a damaged state, broken screens, exposed panels and wiring. Looking out from the window in front of the cockpit, Marr could only make out a solid wall of rock on the other side.
Marr lets out a soft groan, "Well ... that could have turned out better." He placed a hand over his face to support his head, only to notice that his makeshift blindfold had fallen off. Marr began looking around the cockpit for a few moments, but soon realised that there were more import things to worry about. He left the cockpit and made his way towards the turret station. "R5!? Rusty!? Are you alright?"
He opened the hatch and immediately the astromech droid fell out and hit the ground at the Jedi's feet, buzzing and beeping weakly.
"You still functioning, R5?"
The droid responded in its usual confusing manner, confirming that it was ok and would live to ride a bantha through the fields of Coruscant another day.
"Ok, I really need to get you looked at." He leans down and helps his friend back upright. The little droid beeped and whistled in gratitude.
"I'm just glad your ok my friend." Marr gave a reassuring pat on R5s dome. "Well, it looks like we've found ourselves in a tight spot, Rusty."
The droid gave a puzzled beep.
"That gap we flew through was narrow at first but eventually it opened up into a hollowed out cavern inside this mesa." He led the droid towards the exit ramp and descended down as it opened. The cavern they found themselves in was dark, the only light source was the lights in the ship and the nearby gap they flew through. Igniting his lightsaber, Marr raised the orange blade above his head, illuminating his surroundings. The cavern was stretched out far around him, stalagmites and stalactites decorated the area. As he drew his attention back towards his ship in order to estimated the damage, he noticed that the Outbounder was wedged between several of the stalagmites and stalactites, pinning it down. Marr came to the conclusion that the damage could have been a lot worse but it was gonna take some work to get the ship space worthy again. How the escape from this cavern however?
"Well, one problem at a time."
He and Rusty returned to the Outbounder and began rummaging through the ship for supplies; thankfully there were some emergency rations in one of the storage cylinders. The refresher was still working and power was still functioning around the ship. Several functions of the ship required repair, most were non essential, nothing the two of them can't handle on their own ... with the only exception being.
"So the oxy-generation unit is completely dead?" Marr repeated after hearing Rusty diagnosis report, the droid whistles in confirmation leading the Jedi to sigh back in his chair. "So basically even if we get the ship functioning again, we can take off ... but can't breath."
Rusty corrected him with a series of beeps.
"Right, we can breath if we remain within the planets atmosphere, but going off world is out of the question." For the first time in what seemed like an age, Marr let out a deep yawn, only now does he realise how physically exhausted he was feeling. "You know what, Rusty. Let's deal with this tomorrow." The Jedi got to his feet and headed towards the captains quarters. "You go power down for a bit too. I think we've both had a long enough day."
Several miles away in the town of Vista Verde, its inhabitants are going about their daily business. That was until suddenly a S.W.O.R.D. Transport descended onto the town square. Several of the nearby onlookers were curious as to who was onboard, wondering if it was their towns local heroes; The Agents of S.M.A.S.H.
The transport landed and its loading ramp lowered. A number of green jump-suited agents emerged, carrying crates down the ramp. Following right behind them were two more senior agent. Only now, instead of their S.W.O.R.D. uniforms, each were now wearing more coloured attires.
"Have that monitoring equipment set up at these points around the town", Captain Marvel ordered while handing one of the agents a data-pad. "Our target is gonna to find his way here eventually and when he does, we'll be waiting for him."
"Your just itching for a chance to get back at this guy, aren't you?", Spider-woman teased.
"Aren't you?" The Captain responded. "Last I checked, he mopped the floor with you before he flew off."
"I'm more than proficient in Martial Arts, Carol." She fired back. "But when your opponent uses an unfamiliar, alien fighting style, he's bound to get a few lucky shots in."
"Well, now's both our chance for round 2." Captain Marvel joked. "Come on, let's get this up and running."
Marr must have slept of what seemed like days, although that was difficult to tell, giving his current location. Once he powered up R5, the two of them began performing odd jobs around the ship, taking care of several of the repairs needed to be done. The Jedi made sure to ration out his supplies as best he could. Unfortunately there wasn't much, so even with his efforts, his rations would only last him a week; ten days at a stretch. He would have to risk heading out to civilisation soon. Rust questioned this decision.
"These are only emergency rations.", The Jedi explained. "They should only be used if they are our only option and only after we're unable to find any other form of sustenance ... survival 101."
Rusty only responded with a single word ... We?
"Alright ... MY only option." Marr corrected himself. "You certainly are an encouraging conversationalist aren't you?" He made his way towards the cock pit and sat down on his pilots chair. Pondering his current predicament, he noticed the blue head of the protocol droid that helped him escape the dreadnaught, now on the floor beneath him. Picking it up he wiped away some of the dirt from its optical receptors. "So what are your thoughts?" He asked the lifeless object.
From behind him, a large crashing sound echoed throughout the ship. Guessing that Rusty must have gotten himself tangled up again in some loose cables, he made his way back towards the little droids location, only to find him buried under some clutter. From the looks of it, the droid opened up a storage unit and several things spewed out. Most of it was spare parts and equipment, but there was one thing that took Marr by surprise.
"Is that...?"
He hurried over to help out his companion and the pair of them took to examining their new discovery. A bipedal droid, completely intact, now lay before them. Rusty questioned the droids curious frame, it wasn't plated like a usual protocol droid but instead had a lighter, skeletal-like design.
"This is a Jedi training droid, Rusty." Marr answered. "I trained with these at the Jedi Temple, we used them to harness our lightsaber skills." He closely examined the droids golden frame, checking for any serious damage, however he noticed something quite peculiar about this droid. "Interesting, this one seems to be heavily modified. It appears to have holographic technology installed in its frame."
He took a closer look at the droids domed shaped head. It's two optical receptors were lifeless and the Jedi removed a plate covering to examined it's inner workings.
"Looks like it's not just its frame, there's a lot of custom modifications installed too. What's strange though is that it seems to be missing its personality matrix."
The curious astromech seemed a little puzzled.
"It's what responsible for the knowledge base and personality of the droid ... its mind."
R5 let out a series of panicked whistles and beeps.
"Don't worry Rusty, I'm sure you have one too." He reassured the droid while thinking to himself that R5s might be a little damaged. The droid then offered a suggestion to the Jedi. "Nice idea, but without a matrix, it's as good as useless..."
His thoughts trailed off as he was hit with some sudden inspiration. Marr hastily recovered the head of the protocol droid and began examining it closely.
"I wonder?"
He picked up the training droid and dragged it towards the ships workstation. Placing it across its surface, the Jedi and his astromech companion spent the next few hours trying to get the training droid functioning again. However, since Marrs experience in droid repair was limited to a basic understanding, it took a number of attempts to make any progress. Eventually through, Marr was able to remove the personality matrix from the head the protocol droid and carefully install it into the head of the training droid.
"Ok, Rusty." He looks down to his little assistant, "Moment of truth."
He flipped the droids activation switch, but when nothing happened for a few moments, Marr feared his efforts were fruitless. But then suddenly the droid sat up sharply, screaming in a high pitched tone. Freaked out, Rusty zoomed away to hide in the storage unit, while Marr attempted to calm the droid down.
"It's ok, it's OK!" Raising his voice to get the droids attention. "Your safe now!"
The droid eventually calms down and began examining its surroundings, before resting its optics upon Marr.
"Sir! Sir! The ship ... we're under attack, we must warn the others ... Oh no! I've lost my head!"
The Jedi placed his hands across the droid's chassis, "Relax, your fine."
"No sir, we must ... one moment." The droid examined its hands, followed by its arms and legs. "It appears my optical receptors are malfunctioning or this is not my body."
"No, there's no malfunction." He reassured the droid, "I'm afraid your original body was destroyed..."
"Destroyed!! Oh my goodness..."
"But, I was able to reinstall your personality matrix into this training droid." Marr explained. The confused droid took a little time to come to terms with its new frame. With Marrs help, the droid got off from the table and placed its feet on the ground. It's legs shook erratically as it attempted to navigate itself a few feet. Wobbling around as it knocks over several of the surrounding clutter.
"I'm not ... sure ... this floor is ... entirely stable."
"Your old protocol body was much sturdier and rigid." Explained the Jedi, "This one was designed for combat training, so it's much more limber and and agile. It'll take some time, but you'll get the hang of it."
The droid continued to wreak its surroundings, before collapsing over a couple of plasteel cylinders. Marr hurried over and helped the droid back to its feet, one arm draped around Marrs shoulders.
"I'm not sure I'm functioning at full capacity anymore." The droid muttered sadly, "Perhaps it's for the best that you ... deactivate me."
"Why would I do something like that?"
"I am a Protocol Droid." It stated, "My function is to facilitate human and cyborg relations. But my programming isn't fully compatible with this body ... I'm useless now."
Marr looked at the droid, it's blank expression was heartbreaking to see, especially with those words emulating from it. He took pity on what the droid must be going though, seeing that it reminded him of a particular part of his own past that he would rather not revisit and was determined to change its perspective.
"Now, you listen to me." Marrs voice had a comforting and reassuring tone, "I was, where you are now and believe me, it will pass. It is a new beginning for us all and we will face what ever trials that lie ahead together. I'm going to need you as much as you'll need me, so show me what strength you have because I see much already."
The droid was a little taken off guard by these words, but then again what did it expect from a Jedi. Once again it attempts to stand on its own feet again and after a little more wobbling, it managed to straighten up and turned to face the Jedi it now considers its new master.
"Greetings, I am 1K-0N: human, cyborg relations."
"Nice to meet you ... Icon, I am Javif Marr and welcome to the crew of the Outbounder.