The barren fields and hills of Maridun were no special sight, nor were they pleasant on the eye. Merely existing as they were, unchanging, much like the inhabitants. Everything that touched Maridun seemingly turned the same muted yellow as the rest of the planet. A corrupted Midas touch.
Ron had already taken a distaste for the hopeless ambiance the planet invoked. They'd touched down only moments ago, the ship had creaked and groaned the whole way down. A reminder that they badly needed Rags to fix the ship. Ron had never been a good mechanic anyhow. He doubted Rev would be any better although he'd shown some interest in trying it out back in their patrolling days.
The ship had caused a great cacophony, attracting all sorts of creatures to investigate. Several furry mammals approached the ship from all sides. Their tails upright as they stalked from afar with caution.
Ron took a moment to scan the area from the front window before pulling out his holotablet with a map of the local area loaded up. There was an old village in the area supposedly with an oil rig set up. However, Rev had noticed when researching the area that information on the region hadn't been updated since the start of the Clone wars. No doubt they were pushing their luck risking so much on a possibly faulty source of fuel but considering they were enemies to everyone, it was a chance they were willing to take.
Rev had also done some further research on the state of public opinion on droids and to say everyone abhorred them would be a massive understatement. Nobody seemed to have any sort of empathy towards them. They were feared and hated by nearly the whole galaxy, thanks to the Separatists. All the more reason to mask their true appearance as best they could.
That and the fact that the Separatists had been on Maridun before meant they were already going to have trouble if they were to be seen without a disguise.
"Let's not mention anything about the Separatists to them once we get there," Rev told Ron.
"I'll take your word for it," Ron made his way to the bay area, noting a puff of smoke that had come from the ceiling, "Looks like we'll have to be quick"
Suddenly a strange scratching noise came from the hangar door.
"What's that? Is it the ship?" Rev asked from within the cockpit.
"I'm not sure, it sounds like it's coming from outside," Ron said. He reached for a blaster from the crate beside him.
"Did you happen to research what sorts of creatures inhabit this planet?" Ron said. He couldn't help but think back to the terrible creature he'd encountered back on Felucia. He was a droid of strategy but animals were difficult to predict at times. They ran on instinct and feeling, something still quite new to him.
"No, I only looked for fuel sources, nothing else"
"Open up the bay doors," Ron said, setting the blaster to full power.
The scratching grew louder for a moment before calming down as the bay door descended. A blow of steam and mist hissed out as the ship adjusted to the atmosphere outside.
The steam stopped but the hissing still persisted. Ron thought that perhaps the ship was malfunctioning for a moment but once he saw a small figure moving around outside he understood what he'd heard.
He readied his blaster, stabilizing his arm, calibrating his eyes, going through basic combat procedure as he'd always done.
One of the animals pounced at him. With one quick pull of the trigger its head evaporated but its body kept moving through the air, throwing Ron onto the floor. He rapidly recovered, finding that the other creatures in the area had taken the hint and retreated.
"Even the wildlife hates us," Rev said with a metallic sigh. He walked up beside Ron in the bay.
"Those things remind me of wookies to some extent. Except much smaller," Ron said offhandedly.
The duo made their way outside, carefully sweeping the perimeter. They eased their worries seeing the miles of hills that surrounded them. Off in the distance, a small blob of mismatched colors let them know they were in the right place.
"We must first hide our appearance. Let's look around here, see if we can find any material that can be woven," Ron said.
"Why didn't we make a disguise back on Dygon Prime?" Rev said.
"It rained. The material was too wet for us to use, it would've fried our circuits"
"Oh, right"
Around the clearing that Ron had chosen for their landing spot were small patches of dried grass. Rev took notice of it first.
"How about this?" He said holding up a small bunch of dried grass stalks in his hand.
Ron zoomed in on the material from across the clearing, "That looks fine, collect as much of it as you can. Although, it doesn't look wide enough to cover our whole body," he said over their communications line.
"I'll look for something else to use," Rev responded over the comms line.
They continued their search outside of the clearing. The landscape around them appeared nearly burnt. The animals from before were long gone but had left the decaying corpses of their prey. Rev's attention wandered over to one such corpse of a large furry creature. Suddenly, his foot struck some buried deep within the ground. It was a long metal rod that slightly protruded outward from a mound of freshly packed dirt below. It bore the same paint as his own chassis.
"I think I found something," Rev said over their comms line.
"More material?"
"No, looks like there's something buried in this field. There's a piece of metal sticking out,"
"Metal? Perhaps it could be something of value we can sell,"
After a bit of back and forth, Ron brought out a trench shovel. They dug around the piece of metal until eventually they uncovered more and more parts of a larger body.
"Is this a droid?" Rev said.
An hour or so had passed since they'd begun their search. The sun bore down on them, exhausting their fans running at full speed.
"Possibly but what would one be doing all the way out here?," Ron said from beside Rev.
"Well, the Separatists were here. Maybe this is a droid that was lost in a battle," Rev said.
"Let's keep digging"
Another few minutes passed before they finally uncovered the entire metal body. Sure enough it was a B1 battle droid that was severely damaged, its entire head decapitated with burn marks around the neck.
"I was hoping maybe we could repair him but it looks like he's not coming back from that," Ron said.
"Maybe there's more around here," Rev said.
"Did the information you found of this planet mention any Separatist outposts here?" Ron asked, the shovel still in hand.
"No. It only mentioned an attack and some patrols"
"I don't recall any patrols in this area of the galaxy but they never did tell me much"
"What if it was recent?"
"His metal had already begun rusting, I doubt it"
"I don't know, I'm just speculating"
The two got up, nearly forgetting they were running on a limited time frame.
"We'll have to investigate this later, did you find any other materials in the area?"
"There was a dead animal with thick fur on it, that could be useful"
"Cut the fur off with the end of this shovel and I will start weaving cloaks for the both of us"
They worked for the rest of the day, Rev carefully cutting the fur, making sure not to be wasteful while Ron experimented with the material, seeing just how well he could weave it together. He'd never woven any sort of cloth before but he found it a necessary skill for future use. Any organic would kill them upon seeing that they're battle droids.
By the time the sun had gone down, Ron had finally finished, creating outfits just long enough to cover their torso and parts of their legs.
"I think that should be sufficient, don't you think?" Ron said as he set the clothing down beside him.
"What about our legs and face?" Rev asked, looking over the makeshift fur robes. They were a mess with strands of the fibers jutting out but they were wide and thick enough to get the job done.
"We'll use that straw you found earlier. They blend in well with the color of our chassis anyhow," Ron said. His joints creaked after standing up. He'd been sitting down for hours inside of the ship.
"We'll wait until tomorrow to head into the village. I think we should be ready after I make some sort of cover for our legs and face," Ron said.
"Well…," Rev said, his head floundering about.
"What is it?"
"Your voice. It'll be obvious that you're a droid if you speak"
Ron slapped a hand onto his long head, "I hadn't thought of that. I guess I'd forgotten"
"What will we do about it? I don't know how exactly we can change our voices"
"We can't change it. Not now anyways, we'd need a different voice modulator. Looks like you'll have to be the one to speak with the villagers. You're voice sounds much closer to an organic's than mine"
"Me? But I don't know how to talk to organics"
Ron strode over to Rev, placing a hand on his shoulder, "Relax, I'll guide you through the process. We can use our communications line so I can tell you what to do"
"What if I mess it up?"
"You won't, just do as I say and you'll be fine"
The two headed back into the ship, closing the bay door and setting up the generator.
"Soon enough we'll have our own crew of droids. Then we can get serious," Ron said, sticking another battery into the generator.
"What'll we do then?" Rev said, genuinely curious. Back on Dygon Prime, Ron had been so focused on reprogramming their brothers, he'd forgotten to tell Rev most of the details.
"We will begin our search for a permanent home. If everything goes according to plan that is. My time as a squad commander taught me much about the volatility of life. You never know how things will go," Ron hooked himself up to the generator and sat on a nearby crate. He patted another crate next to him for Rev to sit on.
"I need a break. Something about our new life just feels exhausting," Rev said, taking a seat beside Ron and hooking himself up to the generator.
"Exhausting? We're droids, we don't get tired. Perhaps you meant to say overwhelmed"
"I guess so. Maybe I've just been spending too much time on the galactanet. All of that information fries my circuits after awhile"
"I find these recharging periods relaxing. Do you not?"
"Er, not really. I enter sleep mode so I stop feeling for the most part. I feel blank"
"But they do help, don't they?"
"To some extent yes but, I don't know, something bothers me soon after I wake up"
"What bothers you?"
Rev stayed silent for a moment, not quite sure what exactly was causing his suffering, "Every time I go on the galactanet, I see another Separatist unit being destroyed by the Empire. It feels hopeless. I forget what we're even doing sometimes"
"I see. Too much information entering your circuits and the losses you see, they are too much to bear"
"Exactly"
Ron thought for a moment, "I thought much like you during the war. As it dragged on and I saw more and more of my squad-mates die I began to question it all, far before even meeting you. My programming always directed me back onto the path of obedience to my orders. But the same questions always came back no matter how hard my systems fought against that nagging voice. When I met you, it all fell apart. Something about the 412 scouts broke me. I don't know what it was but the weight of all the death I had seen through all my lives finally bore down on me. Ever since then I have grappled with the same hopelessness as you have"
"What did you do to fight against it?"
"I always think back to the first squad I had led. Back on Naboo, on my first operation. We had all worked in a perfect unison I haven't felt since Kashyyk, when I met you," Ron shifted his weight over to one side and revealed a long scar of exposed metal on one of his legs, "This is all I have left of my original body, other than my head of course," he shifted back into his seat, "I remember every single death, every single droid that had been under my command, and every mistake I have made that caused the death of another droid. Memory wipes seemed to never have worked on me. I don't understand it, other than that in thinking of my original squad, everything comes back to me. All of it is nearly too much to bear"
"Like the galactanet"
"Yes, to some extent. What seems to hold me together, is the thought of living a life without war where a mistake will not cost a life and where I can live with other droids without the worry of having to satisfy my superiors. Sometimes when I power down into sleep mode, I dream of the life I could've lived with my brothers from Naboo and that is enough to get me powering back on. Perhaps I won't ever see them again, but to think I will at least have a chance to live among-st others that have endured the same as me, that is enough for me. It won't be a dream anymore"
Rev stayed silent for a long while, soaking in all that Ron had revealed to him.
"Don't get so caught up in what's going on out there. It's no use getting so riled up about the world outside, for you have no power over it. You only have power over what you can do here, on this ship on this planet. We will survive, I promise you. My memory serves me well, I've made a thousand mistakes, all of them have taught me a different lesson. I will use them all to ensure our survival. We must survive, for the sake of the droids around us"
Rev looked over to Ron, "Thank you"
Ron nodded, "I will keep the first watch tonight. It sounds as if you need more rest than I do"
The night went on, a gentle breeze blew through all of Maridun. Ron gazed through the cockpit window behind him.
As he looked into the abyss of light and darkness that was the sky, he swore he could still see their faces imprinted into the circuits of his eyes.
