The morning before the attack, Ron gathered up the droids in the lounge room of the freighter, making sure Lokah had no way of hearing him, "This will be the most dangerous operation we'll be conducting since our fight with the Imperials. Everyone should be operating at peak efficiency. Use any means necessary to get this done without dying. Adapt to changes as they come, do not stay rigid and predictable as you were during the war. I'll be speaking with all of you C-units soon to address your lack of experience in particular. OOM will detail the operation plan to all of you after I've spoken with all C-units. All R-units, start getting accustomed to your new blasters, you are dismissed"
R-7B glanced back at the group before heading down to the cargo bay with the rest of the R-units. Rev closed the door behind him.
Before Ron stood C-05, C-37, C-5B, C-6C, C-8H, and C-J2.
"During Rags and R-U5's studies of our systems, they found that our unit numbers indicate how many times a B1 has died. OOM, for example has never died and so he has kept his OOM designation. The next after OOM units are R-units like myself. Usually, this indicates that a B1 has died at least once. At the bottom of the list are C-units that are designated as such for dying more than five times which means you're hardware is at risk of failing completely with no recovery to save you. To ensure your chances of death are reduced, we have bought a forensics device from our employer, it should be capable of recovering some of your memories from previous deaths. I must warn you, however, this device may corrupt your entire memory unit, effectively killing you. You'll have a choice to have it used on you or not but I suggest that you do. Rags has been training to use the device for the past three hours. He should be proficient enough to not kill any of you," Ron looked over at Rags for confirmation. He gave a salute as a response.
"So we can die from this?" C-8H asked. His recovery from the day before had been accelerated thanks to Rags and R-U5 repairing him manually.
"Yes, there is a small chance"
C-8H leaned against the wall. If he were asked to give up his life for the sake of their objective a year before, he would've gladly followed through, but now things had changed. Images of his squad popped into his train of thought, They had been the only thing he'd ever had in this life. In particular, R-G2 had brought him under his wing and trained him in everything that he'd learned on his own to ensure he wouldn't die so needlessly like everyone else. The rest of his squad, they would give their lives for each other and they had done so in the past, including himself. The thought of never being able to see them again was mortifying. He had freedom now, unlike before. He had a choice to stay alive.
"I don't know if I should," C-8H replied.
"It is your choice. For those who have decided to use the device, report to Rags," Ron watched as C-05 and C-37 marched straight over to him.
"You have to understand, Ron, if I die during this memory recovery, so will C-6C," C-5B explained.
"I completely understand. The same goes for me and Rev. All R-units will undergo the same process after the battle. Will that help you make your decision?"
"Yes, we'll do it," C-5B and C-6C marched over to Rags.
All that was left were C-8H and C-J2, their newest members.
"I know we have not fought alongside one another for very long but I hope you understand that I am doing this because I want you all to survive, unlike the Confederacy," Ron explained.
"Fine, I'll do it. Come on C-8H," C-J2 said tugging at his arm.
"I am curious. Maybe R-G2 said something important to me in the past," C-8H commented.
Ron turned to Rev after the last of the C-units left, "You were right about C-5B and C-6C. I see how they are similar to us"
Rev nodded, "They even gave each other nicknames"
"Really? What else have you learned about them..."
Luckily for the C-units, all of them underwent the memory recovery without much issue. Or at least it seemed that way. An hour afterwards, C-8H was sitting by himself in the storage room, staring at a stack of fallen crates. R-G2 strolled over to him, confused to see his squad mate in such a state, "C-8H? Are you alright?"
He looked up at him slowly, "You've tried to prevent my death many times now. How many attempts have you made in total?"
"Five, what did our new commander do to you?"
"He recovered some of my memories"
R-G2 knelt down beside C-8H.
"I'm not a very effective unit am I?" C-8H said looking away from him.
"You are effective, it's just that the statistical odds have never been in your favor. No matter what I do, put you at the very back of the squad, place you in the middle, at the rear, you always end up being killed. Maybe it's my own ineffectiveness at leading, or like I said, it's just the odds against you"
"Do you think I'm effective in combat?"
"Of course, you hit your targets, you position yourself well, you do everything as efficiently as possible. You learn from my lessons. There is no reason to call yourself ineffective, C-8H. That would be an illogical conclusion. That hit you took must've messed with your logic circuits"
"Maybe it did," C-8H turned back to return to the rest of the team, "I think I'm ready"
"Lets go"
Upon returning to the main group, C-37 came up to R-G2 and let his photo-receptors stare at his face for awhile.
"Is something wrong?" R-G2 asked.
"It is you! Nice to meet you again. I was R-31 at one point," C-37 said.
"It's good to see that you're still alive. It's rare to find other droids made on Geonosis. You must've been created in the same factory as us"
"Maybe, thanks for letting me keep those thermal detonators back then. You don't know how much they helped me," C-37 said before walking back into the crowd of droids handling their new rifles.
R-G2 turned to C-8H, "I think this team will do just fine"
Lokah paced her workshop anxiously. She hadn't told Ron and Rev that if they were to fail and lose those disruptor rifles, her boss would come for her head. If they died, she died with them. She checked her comm-device for what seemed like the hundredth time.
Finally a few minutes later, a crackle of a voice came through, "We've reached the base, the cloaking device worked but it's overheating. We're almost at the landing pads, there's lots of turrets in the area" Rev reported.
"Don't worry about the cloaking, it should be enough to get you down on the ground. Their turrets are disabled from my jammer, ignore them"
"We're landing," Rev turned to Ron who was still studying the layout of the building.
The perimeter of the building where their operation would take place was shaped like a p and wrapped around the left side of the base. There were tight corridors with several rooms on either sides. The rest of the building was a warehouse and a heavily guarded one at that. They would avoid this section of the facility at all costs seeing as their targets were almost always in the offices. It had been restricted to all other members for the greedy claws of the original ten mercenaries that had founded the cartel.
The gray night sky and lightning storms overhead had masked their approach. The exterior of the facility was just as run down and burnt as the rest of the planet. Although, underneath the grimy exterior was a higher grade of durasteel that resisted even missiles. Ron wasn't sure how Rags had discovered this but he trusted his word. All around the headquarters were barbed wire, electric fences and dozens of trandoshan guards on speeder bikes patrolling the facility. The concrete flooring made them easy to spot even with so few lights in the area. There were two landing pads close to one of the rear entrances of the offices.
Ron faced the crew. They had grown in numbers by only four but to him it felt like thousands. A squad leader was in charge of four—maybe even eight droids at most. Seventeen was almost too much of a load to bear for his CPU.
'I am an OOM droid,' He reminded himself, 'This is what I was built for'
They were all facing him, awaiting his instructions. All trust was in his decisions along with the strategies created by OOM and further additions by Rev to allow the most freedom and security in combat for the droids. He was glad to have the both of them standing at his side, none of this would've been possible without their help.
"We'll begin the assault once we spot one of the targets. Everyone stick to your squads and stay on the path as best you can. C-37, I hope you've learned how to use those mines," Ron said pointing at him.
"I have, I promise. It's similar to the ones we had back in the navy," C-37 replied.
"Good, be wary of your surroundings as well. For all of you, everyone should always have a partner at your side, no going solo," Ron's emotionless eyes landed on R-7B to reiterate his point, "And remember, we're not here to eliminate all targets, we're here to eliminate the ten leaders of this organization. Avoid needless confrontation. Most importantly, remember that we are doing this to further our goal of creating a sanctuary for all of our brothers across the galaxy. Now, is everyone ready?"
The crew silently signaled their response. Their clothes had been replaced with thin pieces of flexible gray and black combat armor that managed to clamp around their skeletal forms but still gave them extra room to appear somewhat bulky. It hung around their bodies like stiff robes. They'd been supplied by Lokah rather reluctantly. Their visors and masks were the only parts of their disguises that they still wore.
"Alright. Get in formation in the cargo bay. I'll lead the way. OOM, take care of the ship"
"As always," OOM replied. His small crew was reduced further, leaving him with only a disruptor rifle and B-35 with his newly upgraded wrist blaster.
Ron marched forward, surveying the area multiple times. The sputtering of a nearby speeder bike's engine caught his attention but he disregarded it once he saw the trandoshan pass by without once glancing over their way.
He came upon the rear entrance door and nudged it open. No one was present, ahead the walls were decorated with the hides of all sorts of creatures. Below them the steel floors were cushioned with a thin carpet that was stained with old marks of blood and spilled drinks. There were three ways forward, one hall went to the left and ended abruptly in a small room, most likely a storage area. The right path led to the factory and the way forward extended far into the distance with rooms at either side and enough space to accommodate two people.
Ron detected the first of their targets huddled in the corner of one of the storage rooms in the path ahead. Lokah had been generous enough to give Ron and Rev further details on the floor plan seeing as she had visited them once before. There were a few rooms in particular. One was their armory which was always locked shut and another was their trophy room, where they kept the heads of their victims. Their first target, was in an office adjacent to the armory. Ron made a beeline for it. C-37 was already setting up the first mine at the foot of the stairs.
Ron strode into the room as quietly as he could. The trandoshan still had his back turned to him, he was fully invested in washing one of his blasters and hadn't taken notice of him yet. Ron pulled the butt of the rifle up to his shoulder and fired a single shot. It made a low pitched shriek. The trandoshan whipped around and pulled out his blaster pistol, firing a single bolt onto Ron's shoulder. He disintegrated a moment later, a pile of ash formed where the reptile once stood. Not even his clothes remained. Ron felt a great deal of satisfaction. He'd never held such a powerful weapon in his hands. Not only did it deal much more damage than their E-5s, it was far more accurate as well.
"Are you alright?" Rev asked.
"Yes, my temperatures increased slightly but not by much," he swiped at the burn mark on his shoulder, "I will miss these rifles when we have to part with them," Ron commented after leaving the room with Rev at his side.
"Maybe one day we'll be able to afford all of them," Rev said.
"One day, yes. Now focus," Ron pulled the rifle back up as he heard the pitter-patter of feet on the lush carpet ahead. Another two trandoshans rushed over from the armory ahead, their blaster pistols flung out of their holsters and began raining bolts towards Ron and Rev, both of whom fired a single shrieking bolt at each of the reptiles, disintegrating them in less than a second. Ron's systems had begun to overheat thanks to two shots that had managed to land on his arm and knee. Rev suffered similar injuries on his shoulder and hand.
"Neither of those w-were our targets, but I do detect two of them up ahead in one of the offices," Rev reported, having a hard time controlling his internal fans.
"R-7B, R-23E, take the lead...we've been hit," Ron ordered. He focused half of his CPU on lowering his internal temperatures.
"Right away," R-7B said, taking their position, his rifle prepared for the next enemy.
"I've marked the location of our next two targets on the map," Rev said.
Their group of fifteen extended out into the hallway in a staggered column with C-37 planting enough mines at the rear to blow each section of the office area open to the rain outside. The walls were made of durasteel but it was no match against defending an attack from within.
R-7B rushed forward, straight into the office where two of the mercenaries were busy handling packages of illegal spices for storage. He burst in with R-23E close behind. He eliminated one, his ashes blowing and spreading across the various desks thanks to a nearby fan. The other dove behind a cabinet in the corner. R-23E carefully maneuvered parallel to the cabinet while R-7B moved directly to the target. The trandoshan pushed the cabinet to the ground, letting himself fall along with it while firing off a few shots with his blaster pistol right onto R-7B who was forced back into cover behind a desk. R-23E fired a single bolt onto the reptilian organic once he crashed to the ground. His entire body flashed white before turning to ash.
"Seven to go," R-7B reported.
"Three more are going to be in the meeting room. I doubt they haven't heard us yet," Rev said, "Get ready to use some of the flashbangs"
"Copy," R-23E replied.
In the rear of their formation C-37 spotted movement back at the entrance where they first entered. A gust of wind from outside hit his chassis and lowered his exterior temperatures by a few degrees, "Sir, there's enemies behind us. Some of the mines will go off soon, it's going to attract more of them," He reported.
"We'll have to pick up the pace," Ron said, glancing over to R-7B who'd already broken out into a light jog, "Spread out further, accelerate into a jog, don't move too quick"
They proceeded forward until they were nearly at the bend in the building. The meeting room was to their left and was slightly bigger than the other areas.
As suspected, their next three targets had heard the commotion outside and had taken cover behind a giant holotable in the center.
"Just to let you know, they tried setting off the alarm but it's wired to the grid network for whatever reason and they're cut off right now. It won't set off but once your ship leaves the general area, that place is going to be buzzing with activity," Lokah said over their comm-device.
"Copy that," Rev replied. He returned his attention to the task at hand. R-7B and R-23E were already infiltrating the meeting room. They hadn't been spotted yet thanks to the dim lighting and the ample amount of tables and chairs spread throughout the area. R-23E struck first from behind cover, landing a hit on one of their targets situated on the left of the holotable. He evaporated instantly. The other two trandoshans retreated further into the room. One was shot on his way to a window at the farthest corner. The last remaining target took cover behind one of the many round-tables scattered throughout. R-7B rushed forward with R-23E covering him. The mercenary only had time to look up for a brief moment and watch as the bolt entered his head and evaporated his entire body.
"Five left," R-7B reported.
Outside in the hallway Ron and Rev had begun to take fire from two trandoshans using the bend in the building to their advantage. The entire crew had scurried into the rooms nearest to them. Thankfully, most of the office area was vacant due to the mercenaries using it as their personal getaway.
C-05 fired a bolt down at the end of the hall and managed to hit one of the reptiles as he leaned out of cover. The other seeing his squad mate disappear before his eyes ran off back towards the other end of the offices.
Suddenly one of the mines behind them were set off tearing apart some of the roof at the very end of the hall. C-37 leaned out of the room he was occupying to watch the explosion, "I need to keep one of these mines and replicate it. Those explosions are something a dreadnought would create," He said to R-56V beside him.
"Shouldn't we shoot them before they trigger more of the mines?" R-56V replied.
"Maybe...or maybe we could watch them go off"
R-56V ignored C-37 and returned fire at the trandoshans behind them, his shot grazed one of the reptiles as it whipped back into cover, melting part of its snout.
C-37 silently gave in to R-56V's decision and helped return fire, evaporating one of the advancing trandoshans before he could trigger another mine.
At the front of their formation, the group split in two with one half holding off the enemies advancing at the rear and the other half continuing to push forward.
Their last few targets were attempting to run but found that their key to the exit had become jammed in the lock. R-7B shot one of the mercenaries covering their escape. R-23E killed another. They were both forced to take cover in the rooms beside them as the returning fire intensified.
"R-56V, pick up the pace and return to the ship as we planned," Ron commanded.
"Roger," R-56V said. R-G2 and C-8H gestured to cease fire in order to let C-37 and R-56V pass.
"I've placed enough mines to blow the roof off, I'll be leaving with R-56V," C-37 reported.
"Go ahead," Ron ducked back into hiding as another burst of fire came their way.
"They're not giving us a chance to advance, use those flashbangs, R-7B," Rev commanded.
"Throwing them now," R-7B grabbed one off of his waist, pulled the pin and threw it as he far as he could down the hall in one smooth motion. It bounced off the walls with a series of loud clangs and detonated directly in front of the organics. They pulled back for a brief moment, giving R-23E just enough time to get an angle on their attackers. He fired the rifle at one trandoshan as he leaned back out from cover, turning him into ash. He fired another shot, this time landing on the shoulder of another one of their targets. His form withered away into a fine powder and scattered all over the organics around him. Upon seeing his death, the others retreated further into the building. The only exits they could take now were through the windows on the left side of the office area. The only door that led outside was still locked and was visibly damaged thanks to one of the trandoshans desperate attempt to escape.
R-U5 could feel the breeze of the wind outside begin to circulate, "I think one of them is escaping sir"
Ron gestured for R-7B and R-23E to continue forward, "R-56V, are you at the ship yet?"
"Affirmative, I'm in the cockpit," R-56V replied.
"Turn the cloaking device back on and take to the sky. Eliminate any trandoshans you see running from the building," Ron commanded.
"Roger that," R-56V closed the cargo bay doors and rose into the air. He turned the ship towards the eastern end of the facility and spotted two of their targets making a run for their ships in their personal hangar area. He pressed on the triggers of the wheel and watched as both of the trandoshans were thrown into the air by his blaster fire. Their bodies were ripped apart from the sheer force of the bolts.
C-37 zoomed in on the bodies of the trandoshans, "We've eliminated two of them sir"
"Good work, now get in position," Ron watched as C-5B and C-6C went down the right path of the hallway while R-7B and R-23E went left. He followed close behind C-5B.
On the left, the path ended in an empty kitchen, "All clear on the left side," R-23E said.
"Copy, get up here with us. The rest of you get ready to board the ship," Ron ordered.
C-5B came upon the last room at the very end of the hall, "The last three are holed up in here sir"
"Let's get this done quick," Ron replied.
R-7B pulled ahead of them along with R-23E and set up on either side of the door. They slammed it open using the butt of their rifles and threw a flashbang inside.
The trandoshans were unfazed this time around and returned fire upon seeing R-7B enter. He watched helplessly as three bolts landed on the armor covering his abdomen. Before overheating, he fired a single shot onto the trandoshan at the rear of the office room. He fell onto his back, his rifle slamming onto the ground along with him.
R-23E continued pressing the attack with C-5B and C-6C close behind them. The last two of their targets were forced back into cover as Ron and Rev gave covering fire.
"R-7B is down sir," R-23E reported.
"Get his body, we'll cover you," Ron said from the doorway.
R-23E waited patiently for the trandoshans to peek out from behind the desks they used for cover but neither made a move. He ran over to R-7B's body and pulled another flashbang, throwing it at the back of the room. The trandoshans were forced out of cover and turned into dust by C-5B and C-6C.
"Targets eliminated," C-5B said.
R-23E slung R-7B's body over his shoulders.
"Let's go," Ron waited for all of them to leave the room before continuing to their extraction point.
R-G2's squad was the last to leave the rear of the building. The mines had begun to set off one by one, shaking the entirety of the facility. If the other organics in the area hadn't heard the fighting before they surely did now.
The rest of the droids huddled into the meeting room.
"Blow open the wall," Rev commanded.
C-05 ran up to the rear wall closest to the window and planted a detonator. The rest of the droids took cover behind the various tables in the meeting room. The detonator set off and blew apart the wall and roof, sending chunks of metal flying outwards.
R-56V flew as close to the facility as he could and opened the cargo bay doors.
The droids wordlessly piled in as quickly as they could. A moment later they were already back in the air, heading away from the headquarters.
"Good job everyone. R-7B was our only casualty, he'll be fine after he undergoes the same recovery mode I went through," Ron said addressing the crew in the cargo bay, "This will be the beginning of a new era for us. We will start the search for our final home and the construction of the sanctuary. Everyone get recharged we still have much to do"
C-37 ran up to him with a new blaster rifle in his hands, "Look what I found sir! They had this blaster outside their armory"
Ron took it in his hands. A quick search on the galactanet showed that it was a DC-15 heavy blaster rifle, "Very good work. You can go ahead and recharge first"
C-37 ran over to the generator, giddy with excitement.
"You guys made it look easy," Lokah commented upon confirming the deaths of their targets through the news, "They're saying they think it was a rival gang but debating if it was an Imperial assassination. They know you used those disruptor rifles so they'll most likely blame the Imperials. Either way, you're in the clear, but I recommend staying in the shadows until things die down"
"We'll follow your advice," Rev replied. He watched as C-05 returned the last of the disruptor rifles.
Lokah pulled one from the armory and handed it over to Ron, "You and your crew have impressed me to say the least. It was nice doing business with you," She shook hands with Rev. Suddenly she yanked on his glove, revealing his metal hand underneath, "I figured something was up. So you're droids?"
"Yes, will that be a problem?"
Ron's hands tightened on the disruptor rifle.
"No, not at all," She said with a small laugh, "We're all criminals here, it's normal to see something as odd as a group of droids fighting as mercenaries. But you have to understand, you've learned a lot about us which means we have to keep an eye on you. Few people know about us and we want to keep it that way, got it?"
"Got it, and the same goes for us. We don't want anyone knowing we're droids"
"You're secret's safe with me"
"Now, Ron wants to know if you can refrain from selling some of those disruptor rifles for us. I would say four at least"
"Sure thing, but I'll be expecting you guys to come back. I'll send you the coordinates to my new shop, this time I won't be advertising it on the galactanet, hopefully that'll keep some of the heat of my back"
"Thank you, we'll be leaving now. We'll see you again some day"
"You will, now leave. I have to finish packing up and you're crew is taking up space," Lokah said shooing them away.
Ron sat down beside Rev on a rickety chair they'd found lying around in the factory back on Akiva. He watched as the droids cleaned their weapons, recharged, and intermingled. The C-units that had recovered their memories, began sharing what they'd learned about their previous deaths with the others now that they had time to spare. OOM stood guard near the entrance with B-35, evaluating their performance in taking down the cartel.
Rays of sunlight broke through the hidden entrance of their hideout, revealing roaming particles of dust throughout the entire facility. A warm glow illuminated most of the factory. Some of the droids lingered out on the catwalk connecting all of the storage rooms on the perimeter. Most were back inside their main lounge room.
"How is R-7B?" Ron asked.
"In recovery mode, no major injuries other than a burned circuit that R-U5 fixed up," Rev replied.
"Good. I am glad to have thought of programming a recovery mode. It almost crossed my mind to create it later seeing as we were running out of fuel back on Dygon Prime"
"A lot of time has passed since then. It feels strange to have survived for this long," Rev said looking at the disruptor rifle before him. Rags had attempted to figure out it's design but to no avail. It was still too complex for his CPU. R-U5 didn't make much progress on it either.
"We still have that forensics device, would you like to use it?"
"As long as you use it with me"
"I can agree to that"
They marched towards Rags, distracting him from his studies.
"We're going to start using that forensics device on all R-units. We'd like for you to try it on us first," Rev said.
"All R-units? Even me?" Rags replied.
"Yes, I'll have R-U5 study it for himself so you can use it one each other," Ron glanced over to R-U5 nearby who was looking over the schematics of an OOM B1 droid.
"Alright, I'll get everything hooked up to the generator," Rags replied.
They underwent the process with Rev going first seeing as he was a newer model than Ron.
Rev sat against the wall going through his recovered memories. There wasn't much but enough to teach him a few lessons from old mistakes in combat. Ron was still undergoing the process. Rags suddenly stopped in the midst of it and gestured for Rev to speak with him.
"What is it?" Rev said, anxiously awaiting Rags response.
"There's something strange about Ron's memory unit. It's...different," Rags replied, looking between the schematics of an OOM droid and Ron's memory unit.
"What do you mean?" Rev tapped a metal finger against the table in front of him.
"Well, its the same model, but there's burns all over. I ran tests on his memory when he was injured last time, the results showed no issues"
"So his memory is corrupted?" Rev stepped closer to Ron's unconscious body.
"No, no. If it was corrupted he would have trouble remembering something from even a couple of minutes ago. And these burn marks are from a long time ago," Rags put a hand over his long head.
"That's strange. He has told me about being able to remember memories even from previous deaths"
"That shouldn't be possible, a memory wipe would've overridden them. From what you're telling me, it seems like he can remember everything because it's been burned into his memory, but what would cause the burns?"
"I wouldn't know"
"This doesn't make sense," He shook his head and continued with the operation, "Well, at least that means there's no way for me to damage anything. A lot of his old memories are already present. There's nothing for me to recover"
He unhooked the device from Ron's head and returned to his studies. He was curious to see what exactly had caused such a phenomenon in Ron's memory unit but there would be no answers for him until he became an expert on their inner workings.
Ron powered on as Rev helped him back to his seat. He looked over to Rev, "I can't seem to remember anything else"
Rev explained what Rags had told him.
"Very interesting. Burn marks. That could explain my ability to retain memories from my previous deaths. As to their cause, I know as much as you do. Perhaps one days Rags could replicate these burns in other droids to hold important memories. It would ensure that no organic can tamper with our systems," Ron replied.
"Sounds like a good idea," Rev said, looking over at the rest of the crew by the generator, "So...when will you tell me about all of your past lives?"
Ron stayed silent, "It's too much to share it all right now, but how about we exchange stories? You've recovered some of your own haven't you?"
"I have. It wasn't much. I was created on Geonosis and I fought on the frontlines. There was nothing much else to it other than that I died sometime towards the end of the battle near the Geonoshian headquarters. Then after being rebuilt I was placed at Christophsis. We marched in rows like we did at Geonosis. I was one of the last to leave the area but my ship was shot down as we were retreating. That's all that Rags recovered"
"So you were created on Geonosis? There's only two events I can recall from back then. The first was marching in formation with the rest of the army. The second was when I was stationed underground with the Geonoshians. We were planting mines and tripwires for any clones that ventured inside. We had trouble communicating with our superiors and sent a courier out to deliver a message. I was sent to one of the techno union ships after we were finished planting mines. They assigned me to being a pilot since most of their organic pilots had been killed in the fighting"
"I wonder if we saw each other"
"I doubt it. The battlefield was large. I was underground for the majority of it"
"You were lucky"
"That's the only thing that kept me alive at times"
C-05 interrupted their conversation, "Everyone has recharged and cleaned their weapons"
Ron nodded, "Tell all the R-units to report to Rags and R-U5 to have their memories recovered"
"Understood"
Ron looked back to Rev, staring as best he could into his emotionless eyes, "When we have time I will tell you more"
They ventured back outside into the factory on the walkways, "C-5B was telling me that him and C-6C remember why they'd been sent to Maridun after their memory was restored. They were there to recover and destroy a map created by the Confederacy. It detailed several remote locations for the development of a super weapon. Of course, they never got the chance to create it. If we can find that map, we can use it to explore those locations and see if any of them can be a good spot for our sanctuary"
"There could be remnants of the Confederacy in those areas but if they're considered remote even for the outer rim, it'll be worth it. I assume we'll be returning to Maridun soon?"
"Yes, right after everyone has had their memory restored"
"I'll let OOM know"
Within the next hour, the R-units we're back to their usual selves. Including R-7B, his recovery had been accelerated with the help of Rags.
Rags was disappointed to hear that only one memory was recovered from his memory unit. But that disappointment quickly dissipated once he replayed it. He relived his first time fighting alongside R-4V, his old engineer partner. They'd first met on Geonosis and had fought their way to a capital ship, 'I miss him...maybe we could find him one day, recover his body,' Rags thought. His CPU had already calculated the odds of such a thing happening. It would be a difficult process but still possible considering he knew the location of his death. Although, he'd been mostly torn apart by the clones who'd found him. He made a note to ask Ron to help find his body sometime in the future. After all, it was his mission to save as many of their brothers as he could.
Ron walked into the cockpit of the ship after ensuring everyone had boarded. He calculated a route to Maridun and set course for it. As he reminisced on times past, it dawned on him that they had beaten the odds more than just a few times now. They had taken the fight to the Imperials head on, dissolved a criminal organization, and most importantly, were freed by sheer luck from their Confederate mothership back on Felucia. And his old squad on Naboo had been the catalyst for it all. He relished in the ability to remember most of his past lives freely without the burden that memory wipes had brought to them all.
