OOM idly scanned the area, awaiting for Ron's eventual return. It had only been fifteen minutes since their departure. In the past, he'd been forced to wait for hours on end for various Separatist diplomats he'd been tasked with protecting. All of them were always involved in hour-long meetings. Enough time to let his CPU wander off on its own, scrolling through his database. Although it had felt wrong to act out of protocol back then, he enjoyed all the knowledge present at his fingertips. Thankfully, the Separatists controlling their database didn't seem to think any B1 battle droid would ever even think about accessing the resources they had on hand. He devoured books upon books about war tactics and history concerning the greatest generals to have graced the galaxy. Back then, he rarely had the chance to use such knowledge, but now, with no protocol to follow and no tactical droid to oversee his every action, he could use any technique he'd learned as he wished. It almost made him change his mind about Ron's whole operation being a stupid idea. Almost.

He looked to each droid, each hidden within their respective locations among the foliage in the clearing. A tactic he'd learned from the clones who liked to use it quite frequently on any forest-bearing planet.

Only three droids with camo were stationed out in front of their ship. The three droids from Maridun with no woodland camo had been stationed back inside or near the ship along with Rags who insisted he stay inside repairing and reprogramming the B2 Ron and Rev had found on Maridun.

"Sir, I'm detecting movement near my position on the west," R-23E said, radioing in. OOM had been reluctant to let him back out into the field with an injury but he had no choice. There were only eight of them that had stayed at the ship, not counting the B2. He was still getting accustomed to no longer having the support of an entire military behind every move he made. Part of it was being much more careful than he'd been in the past.

"Scan the sector and report back to me how many hostiles you can see as well as their appearance," OOM said. He wished they still had the same equipment they would usually be issued with. Namely a pair of binoculars. Although, he came to the realization that he didn't know what equipment they did have on hand, "R-AG5 take a look inside those crates we have on the ship and report back if you discover any binoculars on board"

"Roger, and it's Rags sir"

"Right," OOM replied, dully noting his name into his database. Using an organic name was a strange concept to him but given they were free from their commanders and no longer soldiers, he couldn't find any fault in any droid that wished to have a name instead of a number.

The rest of the droids listening to the conversation, readied their targeting modules for action. Some eagerly awaited a battle, ready to get back into their old way of life.

"I see a group of four organics moving along the edge of the river, sir. Some of them are drinking something from a bottle. They are wearing very loose clothes, all of them have blasters. One of them is leading them from the front and he's wearing a lot of strange rocks around his neck," R-23E said.

"Do not engage. Watch them closely. If they start heading towards our position, report back to me immediately," OOM powered his CPU into full throttle as he began laying out an attack strategy in his head, 'Four organics, some are drinking, and jewelry? Sounds familiar' He searched through old memories still stored in his database. Within seconds, he brought up an encounter with a pirate ship that had attacked his escort during one of his missions late in the war, 'Pirates, of course those parasites come to annoy us here'

Even back during the war, the pirates had been a great nuisance, attacking at random and attempting to pillage their ships for supplies.

"Correction to my previous orders: if those organics approach our position, engage them," OOM said.

"Roger that sir," R-23E said with a strange inflection in his voice, one OOM could not recognize.

'These droids and their strange behavior are going to get us killed,' he thought.

Minutes passed and OOM could hear no blaster fire in the distance.

OOM scanned the area, "What's the situation, R-23E?"

"They stopped in front of the river. I think they're trying to cross it"

"Keep updating me on the situation"

"Roger"

OOM waited another couple of minutes, listening intently to the sounds all around them. He could hear only the crashing force of the river and the chirping of nearby birds.

"They're moving further down the bank," R-23E reported, he audibly moved within his position to get a better angle on the group, "Looks like one of them found the bridge our commander used to cross the river"

OOM stayed silent for a moment, 'If they cross the river, they'll pose a threat to Ron from their flank,' he readied his own blaster, "R-23E, you say you are a marksman, correct?"

"That's right sir, my targeting modules operate at a greater efficiency and accuracy rate than a standard battle droid" R-23E responded.

"Perfect, put your skills to use and engage those organics. Eliminate all of them," OOM ordered.

"Roger, starting the attack," R-23E said. The forest erupted as he let out a burst of four shots in quick succession, "All clear sir"

"Good work, you operate quite well on your own for a battle droid of our model," OOM commented.

"Thank you sir, I was sent out on plenty of assassination missions on my own"

'Now here is a true battle droid,' OOM thought, "You are of great value to the unit, now keep watching the area. Notify me of anymore movement"

"Roger"

OOM marched back over to the ship, checking in on the rest of the droids, "How is the search going?" he said walking over to Rags. The three remaining droids stood guarding The Scout from the outside.

All about the ship, Rags had laid out much of the items they had stored, "We have a lot of blasters but no binoculars"

"None? I can't say I expected much else from our commander," OOM remarked.

"I haven't checked this one yet," Rags said, pointing to the only crate left unopened, "Seems like they haven't opened it since we left Felucia," he said tugging at the lid, "This thing's on tight"

With a loud thump, Rags pulled off the lid, nearly falling onto his back from the sudden loss of resistance. A slew of repair equipment cascaded out of the crate as it toppled over.

Rags felt an electric jolt of excitement flow through his circuits, "This is all of my equipment, well I don't think it's the exact same equipment I used, but this is all I need for any repairs we might need to do"

"If that's the case, I need you to repair R-23E's knee immediately"

"I do have a welding gun here, let's go"

OOM guided Rags over to R-23E's position.

C-05 scanned the area one more time before looking over to R-56V, "Any movement over there?"

"Negative," R-56V replied, "Only a lot of bugs"

"How do you think the operation in the city is going?"

"Not sure, I see a lot of smoke. Maybe C-37 got to blow something up," R-56V looked past C-05 to see OOM walking over to R-23E. Their silhouettes were cast against a great boulder that covered part of their flank. Past the boulder his visual receptors caught slight movements near the bridge that had been blown to bits, "Sir, I'm seeing movement on your side of things," he said, radioing over to OOM.

The group of three hurriedly sought cover behind the great rock beside them, "Work on repairing him," OOM ordered Rags, "Is it near?"

"No, it looks like a small group coming our way from the landing pads we saw on our way down," R-56V noted.

OOM peeked out from cover, counting a group of six more pirates coming their way. Their blasters had been drawn, no doubt they'd heard the ruckus R-23E had caused.

'Five against six, not terrible,' OOM thought. Some operations in the past had found him going up against an enemy that far outnumbered him, most of the time on a ship in close quarters. It was a wonder how he'd survived any of those encounters. He took a moment to scan their surroundings, noting the slope they were resting on. A good vantage point against the incoming attackers. The trees ahead offered little in the way of cover. A blaster shot would go through the wood quite easily. He would have to rely on the foliage around them for concealment. He looked up at the peak of the boulder beside him.

"Are you finished with R-23E over there?" OOM asked.

Rags finished up the job hurriedly, not wanting to get caught out in the open, "All good now," he said, testing the flexibility of R-23E's knee by pulling on his leg.

"Get set up on the peak of this boulder here, give us cover from above," OOM said, leaning over towards R-23E.

"Going now," R-23E said.

Rags took a single step back towards the ship before OOM pulled him back, "Where do you think you're going? I need you to cover R-23E's flank at the foot of the boulder"

Rags' head floundered about, looking between OOM and the group of pirates coming their way, "I'll be honest sir, my targeting modules aren't exactly calibrated right now"

"Then do your best, now go and cover his flank"

Rags deflated at the command. Reluctantly he pulled the blaster from his back, "Right away"

"You two move closer to my position, we will attack them from here," OOM said to R-56V and C-05, still out in the field.

"Roger," they said in unison.

The group of pirates had moved in closer, enough for OOM to make out another two that were covering their flank that he'd previously not seen, making for eight enemies in total.

'Still not terrible odds,' he reasoned with himself.

"I'm all set up," R-23E said over the radio.

OOM heard the crunching of branches coming closer in the distance along with the short whispers the pirates would exchange with each other briefly, tickling his audio receptors, "I'll start the attack, begin shooting after I do"

He waited for the group to cross the shadows of the trees they had been using for cover before letting out a burst of three bolts onto the leading three pirates. Two went down with the third only getting knocked onto one knee. The wounded pirate sprinted into the tree line to their right with the rest of his crew after recovering.

"C-05, head over to Rags position on the foot of this rock, R-56V move up to my position," OOM ordered.

The droids wordlessly complied with their orders. Their circuits hummed in satisfaction with their return to old habits.

Their pistons hissed as they settled into their positions. OOM surveyed the area with his thermal vision, spotting the pirates moving between trees as they struggled to find their attackers. Some of them appeared to be in a drunken stupor, struggling to maintain balance on the slope they found themselves on.

R-23E rained blaster bolts down onto the pirates, cutting down two more of them, both drunkenly flopping over onto the ground, steam rising off of their heads.

'Only five left,' OOM noted.

The deaths of their comrades seemed to have agitated the rest of the pirates. The five men left standing rushed forward, letting out a flurry of inaccurate blaster fire to cover their approach. Rags and C-05 returned fire as the bolts sizzled close-by. R-23E rained down more shots onto the confused pirates, taking another down, his body tumbling down the slope towards the river. R-23E couldn't see the rest of the group as the branches of a nearby tree blocked his view.

OOM noticed Rags and C-05 struggling to not get hit by blaster fire, "Reposition if need be," OOM reminded them, "R-56V, move up with me, we will go up only a few meters here"

"Roger," he replied.

OOM moved forward first, hugging the wall of the boulder to his left for cover. The pirates were gaining ground against Rags and C-05 but any time one of them reached the foot of the boulder, R-23E would fire from above, his shots never missing. Only four were left.

OOM shot a burst of bolts towards one of the pirates closest to them in the head, his body slumped immediately to the floor. R-56V fired at another hidden behind a tree as he attempted to cover his comrades' approach. The shot melted his blaster onto his stomach, he fell limp soon after.

'Only two now,' OOM thought with another scan.

The last two, seeing the bodies of their fallen comrades, felt the pang of fear grow in their stomach. They ran off, back towards their ships at the landing pads. OOM shot one down as they retreated, with C-05 picking off the other.

"The threat has been eliminated. Good work everyone," OOM said, taking another scan of the area. He turned back to the ship, the nearby sun had gone down to the horizon, its warm orange glow covered the forest, "Head back to the ship, I am sure your systems need to cool down after that encounter"

He looked back to the dead pirates as the rest of the droids returned to the ship. He felt proud of his work but also surprised by the competence of the droids around him, 'Perhaps I was wrong about them,' he thought.

Ron's reprogramming was working, that he could not deny, but his memory brought to attention the fact that he'd brought them to a battleground of all places to establish a hideout, 'He is a clever fool,' OOM thought. A paradoxical descriptor, but he felt it fit Ron perfectly. It gave him an idea as to how Ron operated. He looked out into the city, the fighting still booming in the distance and generating tons of smoke into the air, 'He still hasn't contacted me. I wonder what he's up to now'


Ron sat at the foot of a toppled piece of machinery, cleaning his body of the gore from their recent battle with a bottle of oil and a tube of metal polish R-7B had found. He'd attempted to contact OOM multiple times but to no avail. The signal couldn't get through to the surface.

He'd encountered similar issues when operating underground on Geonosis. All they could do was wait for a courier to make their way to their position or send one of their own squad-mates back up to the surface. He wasn't planning on staying. They'd cleared the path and secured the entrance to the factory. That was all they needed for the time being. That and he couldn't get the thought of those beasts wearing their own armor out of his head. Such a distraction could get them all killed. His logic circuits had been thrown into a frenzy after that hiccup on his end. He replayed the memory of him missing his shots over and over, in an attempt to decipher what had caused the malfunction. The only logical cause he saw was his overheating CPU. At first, he'd enjoyed exploring the strange organic emotions he would feel out of curiosity, but something had changed. All of it was becoming a bother. He knew it had been anger to cause the malfunction, but never had it affected him with such strength. The thought of him failing his mission because of a strong feeling was inconceivable. In the past, he'd only ever been the victim to brief spurts of organic emotion, not strong enough to cause his systems to malfunction. They hadn't been an issue before, why had they suddenly become one now?

He looked over to Rev in the charging pod, 'Is this how he feels? So out of control?'

He pushed the thoughts away as best he could, there were more pressing tasks at hand. These organic emotions were a side effect of his personality core; he would have to adapt to the changes as they became even stronger with time. They had become part of him since his first death on Naboo.

'This must be the longest I have gone without dying,' Ron thought. He couldn't remember how long each one of his past lives had been.

A loud metal bang rang out from the room to the right of the dilapidated gate. C-37 came out of the window, tripping over his own feet in excitement, "Look sir! I found a thermal detonator"

He displayed the silver ball to Ron who took it in his hand, "Good work," he looked it over to see if it was possibly damaged due to corrosion. Neither of them knew how long it had been since the Separatists had abandoned the factory after all. Unfortunately, explosives never were his strong suit, "I'm no expert in these devices, do you know if it's still good for use?"

"It is. I was in charge of our ordinance back on the battleship, maybe I should hold on to this," he paused, looking at Ron for a reaction, "Do I have permission?"

"Of course. So you are knowledgeable in explosives?"

C-37 strapped the explosive to his waist, "Absolutely, I could construct a detonator myself if I had the right materials…with permission, of course"

"I'll keep that in mind"

Ron moved back towards the charging pods to check up on Rev and R-7B. They were nearly fully charged, it was only a matter of minutes. He scanned the area for any of the creatures that could be lingering in the area, trying his best not to think about the armor. He looked to his map as he returned his focus to the task at hand. Thankfully his database included the layout of the foundry itself. It extended far into the catacombs with a main manufacturing room in the middle of the facility. There were rooms all about the perimeter of the area. No doubt those creatures would be stalking the area. He had thought they would be a good natural defense, warding off any potential invaders but those animals were proving to be more of a nuisance than a help. As far as he could tell, there were no other entrances to the facility. Hopefully that would cut down the amount of animals they would have to deal with.

His CPU caught a small detail in one corner of the map. There was an indication made by the creators of the map of loose ground in the area thanks to the water from the river above.

Ron looked over to C-37 who was excitedly rummaging through the rest of the pile where he'd found the thermal detonator, 'Perhaps his expertise could be of use'

With the current ongoing battles, the explosion would be inconspicuous, 'We'll do it soon. The small civil war above could end quickly,' he thought, thinking back to the Separatists quick defeat.

He looked over to Rev and R-7B, their batteries at full charge. He woke their systems up by pulling the plug on their charging pods.

"Sleep time is over, we have work to do," Ron said to the both of them.

He guided them over to C-37's position after they recovered their blasters charged up against the pods. Inside the room were a medley of scrap piles that had been left untouched by the creatures in the area. All around the walls of the room were various cabinets and desks that had been hastily emptied.

"C-37, it's your lucky day. We'll be searching for more explosives in the area. We will need them to blow another entrance into this facility and block the path we came through," Ron said, noting C-37's growing excitement with every passing word he said.

"Thank you sir! You just tell me where and I'll make that explosion happen," C-37 said, nearly yelling.

"Let's get moving then, we're wasting battery life just standing here," Ron replied.

C-37 immediately formed up with the rest of the group and followed Ron deeper into the facility.

The entrance appeared to have been some sort of reception area. The security booth to the side of the dilapidated gate led to a corridor that opened up into the main manufacturing room. It was a humongous area with the same configuration of any other droid foundry. There were tractor belts all over, with unfinished droids still sitting upright on all of them. The machinery was left paused, some claws looked as if they were caught mid action.

'They left in a hurry,' Ron observed.

Ron scanned the area, surprised to find no signs of organic life. The beasts from before seemed to have been the inhabitants of the foundry. 'Good riddance,' he thought.

"What do you think, C-37? Would any explosives be stored in this area?" Ron asked.

"I'm not sure, I was only ever on ships for the majority of my operation. It was only until a couple of months ago that they began sending me with teams on the ground for ordinance operations," C-37 explained, "If I had to guess, they must be stored in a heavily fortified room. I doubt it's out here"

Rev looked around to the droids still stuck on the conveyor belts. The sight felt familiar but he couldn't remember ever being tasked with defending a foundry before. He felt a pang of guilt, leaving these droids here, "Ron, do you think we could come back for them one of these days?" he said looking at the conveyor belts full of droids. Some of them were missing their armor, much like the droids from the entrance.

"Of course, we must save any one of our brothers we come across," Ron replied.

R-7B couldn't help but nod in agreement, feeling it would be right to rescue them.

"But not now, unfortunately. Let's get moving, we'll search these rooms on the perimeter," Ron said, marking the positions on their map.

They made their way across the outskirts of the foundry. Rev couldn't help but repeatedly glance at the droids that never even made it past the assembly line.

Eventually they came upon the first set of rooms set up in a row.

"Split up and search for any explosives," Ron ordered.

"Roger," C-37 and R-7B responded in unison.

Rev took the last room of the file. Lingering in the passageway, he took a moment to scan the main manufacturing area again for any indication of movement or life before heading in.

Inside, cabinets and desks had been hastily thrown about. Papers were strewn all over the floor, nearly tripping him as he ventured further inside. Two containers had been left untouched in the corner. The familiar Separatist insignia was plastered all over them. Neither of them seemed to indicate any explosives contained inside, but they drew his curiosity. He carefully opened one, revealing a plethora of spare droid parts, all for a B1 model. No doubt they would be needing them in the future. He marked the room on their shared map and moved on to the next crate. There were a dozen or so rolled up pieces of blue paper at the bottom. He reached in and grabbed one. He couldn't believe his photo-receptors. They were blueprints of their model. He nabbed another blueprint from the stack, curious to see if there were any other model's blueprint in the crate. The next blueprint depicted a B1 model just as the previous one but the title was different. It read, "B1 - OOM Variation". He quickly looked through the rest, confirming that each blueprint depicted a different variation of their model.

"Ron, come take look at this"

"Did you find a stockpile?" Ron said, his feet clanking loudly on the metal pathway outside.

"No, but this will help us in the future"

Ron made it into the room, looking through the crates just as Rev had.

"Fantastic find. Even if we don't manage to secure the area, we can at least secure these resources"

"I'm sure Rags is gonna be excited when he sees these," Rev said, holding one of the blueprints.

"Perhaps," he said. It had never crossed his mind what anyone of the other droids would think about their findings. Rev seemed to be much more in tune with the rest of the droids than himself. He noted this observation in his database.

The group of four continued with their search, eventually finding only a couple more thermal detonators in some of the rooms. R-7B congratulated C-37 on the findings, "Just don't blow the whole facility"

"I could if our commander ordered it," C-37 replied.

"I'd rather not be killed by something as stupid as that"

Ron led the way to the corner of the facility where the map had indicated loose ground above. Sure enough, there were signs of water having spilled onto the ground in the dark corner of the manufacturing area. His systems indicated the sector was much damper than the rest as well. Along the wall of the corner, a staircase had been constructed, seemingly to deal with the constant dripping from the ceiling.

"Find a good spot to bring down the ceiling at the top of those stairs," Ron ordered C-37.

"Gladly," C-37 replied.

After some feeling around with his hands and a quick scan, C-37 planted a single thermal detonator quite close to the staircase itself. Ron herded them into one of the storage rooms to take cover.

"Go ahead and detonate it when ready," Ron said.

"Roger," C-37 detonated the thermal detonator, he leaned out of the room to witness the explosion. Watching it would always bring a great jolt of excitement to his circuits. A great crash and drizzle of water filled their audio receptors. He leaned back into the room, "The blast was a success sir, I can see the outside from here"

"Well done," Ron said, patting C-37 on the shoulder. He went to inspect the blast zone himself. A crater was formed just above the staircase, close enough for them to climb up and out of the facility. The moisture of the dirt would make the climb difficult.

"Ron, do you read me?" OOM said over their comms line.

"I read you"

"I assume that explosion was you? It was quite close to our position"

"That's right, hold position for now. We still have work to do down here," he looked over to C-37, "Alright, now let's destroy the entrance"

"Right away sir," C-37 said, excitedly leading the way.

With some more feeling around, he set the thermal detonator in place and blew the entrance, caving it in and causing another wonderful display of destruction for C-37's photo-receptors. He'd made sure not to blow the foundations that had been constructed close-by.

"So how often can I do this sir?"

"Whenever we need it. Now don't go around destroying everything you see," Ron reminded C-37.

"Roger," C-37 replied, his voice's pitch dropping in disappointment.

"Let's head back up," Ron said to all four of them.

After a quick and slippery climb, they regrouped with the rest of the droids. Night had finally begun to settle in as the sun dipped down past the horizon.

Ron looked around to the bodies of the pirates OOM had gathered, "What happened here?"

"We attacked a group of pirates coming our way. We were just about to throw their bodies into the river. I was thinking that we should investigate and see if they have any good ships we could use," OOM replied.

"Good idea, I'll lead a small group over to see what we can find once we've stored our rhydonium"

OOM looked over to the rest of the droids, "Is the facility secure?"

"It is. We've blocked off the front entrance and made our own in the back end, near this position. I will make a marker on our map to indicate this is where we should land in the future," Ron said.

OOM hesitated to speak further, fearing his own voice would betray him and spew out another vitriolic rant directed at Ron, "You have done a good job," was all he could muster up before heading back to the ship.

Ron looked at him in wonder, sensing the change in him, 'Perhaps something happened while I was gone'

He brushed off the strange encounter and formed a small group with Rev to help store the rhydonium inside the facility. It took a bit of handiwork to get the wide and heavy barrel down the opening but somehow they got it done.

Going over to the crates full of spare droid parts and blueprints, Ron thought it best to keep these resources at the facility. It wouldn't do them any good to bring another important asset onto The Scout.

After everything was said and done, they went over to the river to fetch the logs they had used to cross to help in hiding the newly formed entrance. Placing each one horizontally over the hole, they secured the logs into place with rocks and covered the hole in branches and leaves to make it seem as if it were a thick bush filled with thorns. That would at least ward off anyone from investigating it further.

Ron walked back to the main group and gathered the crew that had helped clear the path to the foundry. They leisurely walked along the path with their thermal vision activated. There were no lights out in the wilderness, not even within the city. Only the occasional explosion would light up the skies, but only for a brief moment.

"I was planning on heading back into the city and blowing the other entrance as well but I'd rather save the rest of the thermal detonators we have," Ron told Rev.

"That'd be the smartest move, I think. I'll just have to talk to C-37, make sure he doesn't try using those thermal detonators," Rev replied.

"Right, that reminds me, I have been meaning to talk to you about the rest of the group here," Ron said, switching to their private comms line.

"What's wrong?"

"I have only recently realized how these droids appear to be more developed in terms of their organic qualities, now that their memory is not being wiped. With these qualities comes quite a bit of volatility in their behavior. I'm unsure how they'll act in the future. If things get out of hand, I would need you to step in as the commander. You seem to understand them much better than I do"

Rev stayed silent, mulling over the thought of him leading the entire group. He'd been helping Ron, but that was him acting as his second in command. Being the true leader was still a daunting task.

"I don't know if I could lead them. I've never done it before," Rev said.

"You haven't but I believe you would do fine. At the very least, you can keep the group together, leave all the planning to me. How about that?"

Rev looked over to R-7B and C-37, ignorant of their conversation, "I'll find it out if I can do it when the time comes"

"I'm confident that you can. You've already shown me that you have the skills for it in our battle down in the catacombs, you just need some practice," Ron returned his attention to the task at hand as they came upon the pirate's ships. All of them were fighters.

"These won't be of any use for us but we can at least salvage any supplies they might have brought," Ron said to the whole group, "Search the area for anything that could be useful," he ordered.

The group of four wordlessly got to work, rummaging through the pirate's belongings. Ron inspected pieces of jewelry that had been stored in one of the fighters. Regarding them as nothing more than shiny rocks, he tossed them out onto the dirt where they belonged. C-37 had already decided the one thing they needed was more explosives and ignored anything else he came across. R-7B picked up some blaster pistols and combat knives that had been left behind.

Rev had entered the largest fighter, going through its storage unit. Suddenly, the comm-link erupted into white noise.

A gravelly voice came through the speaker, "Rykard, you there?"

Rev paused, unsure of what to do. He carefully hit a button beside the speaker feeling as if the voice would reach out and attack him for touching the ship, "Rykard is not here, he is in the city right now"

"Who is this?" The voice responded.

"I work for Rykard, he left me to guard the ships while the rest of the crew went in"

"Damn idiot went into the city?!"

Rev hesitated to respond, "That's right"

"Should've waited, the Empire's heading your way. Said they're willing to pay you five hundred thousand credits if you helped wipe out the insurgents in the area. Too late now, tell that idiot our partnership is through when he gets back"

"Got it, thanks for the information"

The radio cut back to white noise soon after.

Rev quickly scurried out of the ship and reported what he'd learned to Ron.

"We'll have to leave the planet, find a new ship elsewhere. You two," he said looking towards R-7B and C-37, "Let's head back, bring whatever resources you found"

R-7B strapped the weapons he'd found to his waist and back while C-37 hooked another thermal detonator he'd found in one of the fighters to his waist.

Upon entering the clearing, Ron ordered everyone back inside The Scout.

"What's going on?" OOM asked.

"Rev posed as a pirate and spoke to one of them through one of the ships they left behind. They say the Empire is coming this way," Ron replied.

"I see," OOM immediately returned to the ship with the rest of the crew.

Ron closed the bay doors once everyone had marched inside. He just as quickly set course for the stars, the hull creaking and groaning as it rose into space once more. The sensors of The Scout showed no signs of Imperials in the area. He brought up the coordinates to a planet from his database and punched them into the hyper-drive.

"Where are we going now?" Rev asked.

"Away from here," Ron replied plainly. He was hesitant to reveal that they were going off course from his plan.

The cockpit lit up in a flash of blue and white as they jumped to hyperspace.


In the outskirts of Myrra, the capital of Akiva, four fighter ships stood alone. The constant booms and screeching of the battle within the city had died down. An Imperial light cruiser loomed over the city, its shadow covering the factories and buildings below in an inescapable shadow.

Kano looked through the belongings of Rykard, knowing he had an obsession with jewelry.

'At least the fool was useful for all the money I'll be making off of these,' he thought.

The precious rocks had caught his eye but it wasn't his primary objective.

He'd found more of the rocks on the ground but became much more interested in the footprints left behind. Pirates had a tendency to wear the same old boots to distinguish each other in a crowd of people. That was the only strategy they ever seemed to use. What was curious were the prints that did not match those of the boots. They were not quite as wide as a human foot and strangely long. The prints lead back into the forest, Kano followed them through but was met with a sudden stop in the path once the foliage became too thick and dense. The forest had swallowed up whatever remained of the trail.

It was obvious that Rykard hadn't ever stepped foot in the city. With how loud and raucous the man usually was, he would've heard about his presence in the city long before touching down, even with the small civil war taking place.

'The only thing he was ever good for was the obvious trail he always left,' Kano thought.

No doubt he was killed by one of the many Mandalorian bounty hunters he'd pissed off over the years. It had only been a matter of time.

He sauntered back to the fighters, retrieving the ships logs for each one of them.

The Imperials had pointed him to Akiva after a Separatist encoded transmission was recorded by the local government. Then came the fact that Rykard of all people was on the planet at the exact same time. He knew the pirate wasn't a Separatist but he could've been aiding them. The man worked with anyone, it didn't matter to him as long as he got his credits. And last he checked, Rykard had quite a surplus of fuel he'd been looking to sell too.

Kano scrolled through the logs, scouring every line for a single suspicious action, but there was nothing. The only thing of note was a short conversation exchanged between one of Rykard's men and his partner dealing with his bounties. It indicated he'd gone into the city but he'd searched everywhere within Myrra that he could, avoiding all the dilapidated buildings and ongoing firefights, and still came up with nothing.

Another dead end.

At this rate, the Empire was going to get impatient with him. He had a well-known reputation for getting things done quickly. Usually it was through tedious hours of reconnaissance work, other times he'd get the job done by brute force. It was looking like he'd have to brute force his way through this one. All the recon work he'd done so far had been a waste.

He only had the Separatist encoded transmission the city's government had recorded to go by. That at least gave him the indication that these Separatists were unknowingly leaving a trail.

Kano sighed, dragging a hand down his face. Most of his past targets had been easy to find, they were loud and raucous much like Rykard. This time was different. He was dealing with a military target for once. The last time he'd gone after one was before the Clone Wars, where he'd finally made a name for himself.

'At least the Empire is paying me well,' he thought.

He trudged back up the path to the nearby landing pads where he'd stationed his ship. A quick lift off and he was back floating above the planet. For some time he idled in space, getting the idea to track the last few ships that had jumped to hyperspace from Akiva. His ship had the technology to do so. With a flip of a switch the ship's systems began analyzing the space around him. Only two jumps had been made. One was a fighter, the other a transport.

He tapped a finger against his forehead before setting course for the coordinates the transport had jumped to.

For a moment, he hesitated to flip the switch, 'This feels right but if I'm wrong it'll cost me my reputation,' he thought. He shrugged, luck was always on his side. There was always the other choice of screwing over the Empire and going back to working for Jabba the Hutt anyhow. The work was dirty and it paid for less but it was much better than going back to being a soldier.

His vision filled with white and blue as he finally made the jump.