Rags pushed the last of R-4V's parts into place, satisfied with his delicate handiwork. They'd retrieved some spare parts from their collection in Akiva and put together the missing parts that he'd needed.
He set him down on his workbench, his photo-receptors searching every nook and cranny for a missing part or piece of metal. R-U5 came in beside him.
"Are you finished?" He said.
"Almost, I just have to power him on," Rags replied.
"Ron wants to meet him once you do, bring him over to the headquarters once you've explained everything to him," R-U5 said, walking out of the open door behind him.
"It'll take a few minutes," Rags replied, never noticing he was already gone. He hooked up a wire between himself and R-4V. With a single command he watched as R-4V's systems began to boot, and searched for any error messages. None appeared. His excitement grew by the second, his hardware rose in temperature.
He unhooked himself.
There was a long moment of silence. The birds had stopped chirping their usual songs, and the sounds of the drills working in the distance had stopped. The clanging of vibroblades in the distance faded away.
R-4V made a brief jittery movement with his hands. He stiffly moved his head around, taking in his new environment. He lifted a hand over his head, blocking the light shining down on his photo-receptors. He looked to his side and recoiled upon seeing Rags.
"Where am I?" He said in his monotone voice. It was much more robotic and lifeless than Rags'.
"You're on uh...I guess we don't have a name for our home planet yet, but you're in a sanctuary for battle droids," Rags replied.
"A sanctuary for battle droids?" He looked back to his hand still covering the light overhead. He stayed silent for a long time. Rags let him be, watching him closely, observing every minuscule movement he made. His fingers played with the light shining through them, "Felucia, I was on Felucia," He muttered to himself.
"You were...do you remember me R4? It's me, Rags"
R-4V's head whipped back towards him, "Rags? Yes, I remember you clearly. What happened? I was about to finish a scan when something happened, I think"
"It's a long story…" Rags said before explaining the end of the war and everything he'd gone through since then.
R-4V flipped his body to sit upright on the workbench, "Your commanders, they sound like an interesting pair of droids, like you. Where are they?"
"Oh, that's right. Ron said he wanted to meet you," Rags walked over to R-4V's side and helped him back on his feet, "Watch out, I had to put a new leg on you"
"A new leg? How much have you learned about our bodies?" R-4V said, his robotic voice struggled to convey his excitement.
"A lot. The headquarters is close, but...let's take our time"
OOM surveyed the new droids they had rescued from Felucia. He went over their unit numbers, listing them in his database. There was C-0B, C-90, R-TY, and R-V9. All of them were awake with their memory units still re-calibrating. He looked over their chassis, noting that they still had their woodland camouflage on. Most of them had a large scorch mark right in the center of their abdomen. Their internals had been spared of damage. After another moment, the droids looked up and directly at OOM.
"You're all awake, let me give you the situation," OOM said before explaining the end of the war and their current location.
"Where's our commander?" R-V9 said, the first to speak out of all of them.
"Who?" OOM replied.
"R-4V, he was in charge of our station. If you brought us back to life, he must be alive too, right?"
"He is, why do you want to see him?"
"We follow orders only from him and him alone. If he decides to stay here, we will stay here"
"He is busy at the moment, besides I still need to show you around," OOM gestured for them to follow him to the armory.
Ron overlooked the small team R-7B had formed, inspecting their blasters for wear, "I have come to a conclusion. None of you are fit to lead a squad. That doesn't mean we won't be continuing with this mission, however. Instead of sending you all out on your own, Rev and I will act as your commanders, leaving OOM in charge of the sanctuary here. Once we gather more resources, perhaps you will be able to split off and cover more ground across the galaxy, but for the time being you will be stuck with us. Tomorrow, I will lead the first mission to Geonosis. Today, you must all go over your combat protocols with OOM. He has developed a new set of strategies for our smaller force. Head over to him now," Ron gestured for them to head outside.
At the same time, Rags and R-4V came walking in through the main doorway of the headquarters. R-4V was still leaning on Rags for support.
They slowly made their way over to Ron and Rev at the center table, still talking among-st themselves. Rags finally let go of R-4V once they reached the center.
R-4V looked between them both, "You wanted to meet me?" He said, looking at Ron.
"You must be R-4V, I am happy to see you are alive again. Rags has told us all about how you are an intelligent droid with an interest in engineering," Ron said.
"He said that?" R-4V turned to Rags who nodded enthusiastically.
"He did"
"I would say I'm curious rather than intelligent, just like Rags here"
"We are in need of your curiosity. We have been attempting to-"
"Yes, yes, improve our armor, Rags has told me about it already," R-4V shifted his weight between his feet, getting accustomed to his new leg, "I can help with that. Our bodies are already very modular, it wouldn't take much work."
Ron suddenly took notice of his robotic voice, "Are you an OOM droid?"
"Yes, I found that out myself when I was experimenting with my internals"
"You don't remember anything from Naboo?"
"Naboo? No. I doubt I did much back on that planet. I only remember Geonosis, and meeting Rags"
"Interesting…" Ron said. The conundrum concerning his own memory unit and being able to remember events from previous lives was still occupying space in his thoughts, "I give everyone the choice to stay or leave this sanctuary, will you be joining us?"
"You powered me back on, I will return the favor. Besides, the Confederacy never liked my experiments. They tried to wipe my memory many times, but I always managed to convince the security team otherwise"
"You were a rebellious droid? So was I. You will be a perfect fit for our team. Rags, show him to the workshop and introduce him to R-U5."
"Right away," Rags said with a salute, swiftly marching R-4V back outside.
"Shouldn't we recover his memories first?" Rev asked, sitting back down at the table.
"We'll use the forensics kit on him later. I assume he'll be more interested in operating the device than having his memories recovered," Ron responded, sitting beside him. He clicked his visor back onto his face.
"You know we don't need that right now, right?"
"I prefer to use this voice. It's easier to use, and the sound is much more pleasing to my audio-receptors"
"As long as it makes you happy"
Outside the headquarters, the rest of R-4Vs squad marched towards him, "Ready for new orders sir," R-TY said.
"They kept asking me to take them to you. They want to know if you will be staying here or not," OOM said.
"We are staying here, do what you please. I am not your commander any longer, we are not in the Confederacy anymore. If you'd like to help me in my research come to the workshop," R-4V said, following Rags soon after.
The squad looked to OOM, "Do you have anything for us to do sir?" R-V9 said.
"I may have a spot for you on my security detail," OOM replied.
"I'll join," R-TY said.
C-0B and C-90 we're already on their way to the workshop by the time OOM returned his focus to them, "Come with me," He said to R-TY and R-V9.
Rags settled in to his usual spot at their workshop, ecstatic to have his old partner back. It felt much easier to think and plan around his old friend. By the end of the day, R-4V was already hard at work, creating the first prototype of their new armor set using the titanium they were mining nearby.
Following the rhythmic patterns the organics use, Ron gathered R-7B's team at midnight.
"This team should do, I don't plan on staying on staying on Geonosis for too long. The Imperials have a large garrison still stationed above the planet. Sneaking in at night should be much easier than during the day, but even then we are...pushing our luck," Ron looked to Rev who nodded in approval, "-by getting close to so many of their units for the second time in a row, but I believe it is worth it. Our brothers still stuck on Geonosis deserve at least an attempt at a rescue. To account for the added risk, I have decided to leave half of our team here while the rest of us make a quick trip to Geonosis. R-56V will be joining us to stay on-board in the case that we need a quick get-away. Get geared up and board the ship"
R-23E was the first to make his way into the armory. There were lockers lining the entire squared building, hand crafted by each member of the crew. It was relatively small area but there was plenty of space to store blasters for every droid, including new members. Ron had scoured up the last of their spare E-5 blasters and bundled them into each locker, even buying spares from the black market to fill those that had been left empty. Their abundance of credits had given them more freedom than any of them could've ever imagined. R-23E slung his disruptor rifle over his shoulder and grabbed his S-5 blaster pistol from his personal locker. The rest of the crew piled in and holstered their blasters onto their backs. Most of them still had their old E-5 with the exception of R-7B. He carefully handled the DC-15 heavy blaster from his locker. It had been repaired by R-U5 in his downtime.
R-7B tested the heavy weight of the blaster in his hands, tilting it from side to side and balancing it out between his arms. It already felt comfortable to wield, "Thank you for the upgrade, R-U5. The next time we're in battle together, I'll make sure not a single blaster bolt lands on your chassis," He said on his way to the ship.
"Make sure not to overheat it too often. The barrel still has some damage," R-U5 said, briefly looking up from his holotablet.
"I'll make a note of it"
Once everyone was on-board Rev gave Ron a thumbs up.
"Signal to me if anything happens," Ron said to OOM over the radio before they left.
"That won't be the first thing I do in the case of an attack, but I will make it a priority," OOM replied.
C-5B and C-6C watched as the ship detached the fighter underneath it and lifted off and headed out into the blue sky above, "Who would even fly that thing if they don't come back?" C-5B said, looking at the fighter.
"Rev learned how to use it, I think we could do the same. You don't think they'll die out there, do you?" C-6C replied.
"I hope not"
Ron underestimated the Imperial's military might. They'd upgraded even more of their arsenal with shiny new ships and blasters. There were almost no remnants of the Republic at this point. The red paint that had once marked almost every Republic ship was gone as well. Most of them now only had a boring gray metal shell. Rev's photo-receptors were glued to the timer on the cloaking device. It could only operate for a couple minutes at a time before overheating. He had hooked up to Ron once again in order to give him immediate warnings.
The Imperials grew increasingly weary of their malfunctioning sensors the more time they were reported to be offline.
They passed the star destroyers hovering over Geonosis in a hurry. R-23E was sat in the dorsal turret, watching as a group of tie fighters left the hangar of one of the star destroyers.
One minute, Rev reminded Ron through their direct connection.
We'll make it, Ron reassured him.
They passed through the atmosphere just as the cloaking device began to shutter.
Rev checked the radar, his circuits relaxed at the sight of a blank screen, Nobody in the immediate area.
The clouds dissipated to reveal the same orange-stained planet from long ago. For some of the crew, those orange Geonosian bases were the first things they'd seen after their first activation.
Ron hovered over to the coordinates of an abandoned base he'd been ordered to attack some time after the first battle of Geonosis. It was the only place he knew for certain would contain more battle droids inside. That is, if the sand hadn't eaten away their bodies already.
'Maybe, I could recover more memories from them. Some of them were my squad-mates…' Ron thought.
Rev clicked a finger against the radar in front of him. A dot appeared on the eastern side of the screen, The cloak isn't done recharging, there's one enemy approaching.
Ron pulled the ship closer to an approaching dust-storm. The giant mass of dust was rapidly approaching their position. Such storms were infrequent on the planet, but he could recall seeing one once before, though the memory of that particular mission was severely damaged. The clouds engulfed the hull moments later, casting the droids into an orange storm. The dust audibly clawed at the hull, and threatened to push it off balance into the ground.
The coordinates on the ship's terminal approached those of the abandoned base. Ron eased the freighter carefully onto the ground, mindful of the increase in resistance from the wind.
"Let's make this quick, get in formation in the cargo bay," Ron said over the communications-line connecting the entire squad.
He opened the bay doors and was pleased to see the squad had already set up in formation.
"R-56V, stay prepared for a quick escape," Ron said.
R-56V gave a quick acknowledgment before heading into the cockpit himself.
"Let's make this quick. We won't be able to save many but it is worth the effort to save at least some," Ron positioned himself at the front with Rev at his side. They marched outwards into the fray. With so much dust barreling through the wind, the droids could only see a few meters ahead, "Get closer, put a hand on anyone in front of you. If you see someone get torn away from the group, report it immediately and I will stop"
Ron glanced back after C-05 gripped a hand onto his shoulder. He kept close to Rev, making sure he was always in his peripheral view. He switched his attention to the path ahead, focusing on their coordinates rather than his photo-receptors. There was nothing visible that would guide them to the base. They walked for some minutes in silence. Rev periodically sent out a signal to each of their squad-mates ensuring everyone was accounted for. Ron perked up once they neared the outskirts of the base. The dust was still obstructing his view, but just off in the distance he could sight the faint outline of a tent rock. The tall spire was a familiar sight on Geonosis. Any organic would've passed it thinking nothing much of it considering their regularity in the area, but Ron recalled it's particular shape. There was a hidden entrance they'd discovered on the side of the base, long ago. Ron could almost picture the same Techno Union ships they'd been tasked with protecting all that time ago, still standing beside the tall rock. He led the formation deep into the base of the spire until he came upon the same hole of an entrance. It was about as wide as an AAT with steps that led down into the hidden base.
"Get your blasters ready, I'm detecting signals coming from inside," Ron said over their radio.
He listened to the familiar sound of dozens of E-5 blasters powering up, and the not so familiar noise of R-7B's DC-15 turning on with a deep rumbling hum.
"Moving forward," Ron said. He made the first footfall onto the steps, the sound of his metal feet hitting the rock was drowned out by the dust storm outside. He switched his night vision on and signaled for the rest of the squad to do the same. The entrance was a tight corridor that opened up to a large dome-shaped room filled with dilapidated machinery drilled into the walls. The center floor was clear and led further into the rest of the facility. A metal gate that once served as a security corridor had been blown open. Tiny red lights dotted the edges of the floor past the gate.
"There's still power," Rev noted.
"Somebody might be here, stay alert," Ron said.
"It could be a backup generator, I remember something about a fusion generator from my time here on Geonosis," C-37 said.
"Let's play it safe," Rev replied.
"Agreed," R-23E said, glancing over to R-7B.
C-05 was at the rear, keeping guard on the entrance.
Ron crept forward, his blaster held up before him and his blaster pistol set tot kill. The red lights extended a short distance and opened up into a small hallway until they came upon a split in the path. There was a wall blocking the way ahead with two corridors leading left and right with open space overhead. Ron's combat protocol responded harshly to each of the passageways. They were ripe for an ambush.
"Hold here, I will run an intensive scan," Ron commanded, after passing a second metal gate from the entrance.
He went silent, his CPU focusing solely on the surrounding area.
Rev felt white static course through his audio-receptors once the scan completed, "Was there anything?"
"Nothing, only those same signals from before...very interesting, they use a frequency similar to ours but it isn't Confederacy-coded either," Ron replied. He was completely immobile as he perused the report.
Suddenly, static erupted from a nearby intercom. A crackly voice came through, "Halt, put your weapons down, you're surrounded"
The metal gate behind them slammed shut. A group of B1 battle droids rose up from above the walls of the corridors ahead of them. Pieces of extra armor were wielded to their shoulders and a crude metal shield wrapped around their abdomen.
C-05 lowered his weapon as another set of B1 battle droids came from behind using two hidden entrances on either side of the metal gate.
"Droids? I thought we were the only ones," C-05 said.
"Silver, the intruders, they're droids, like us," One of the B1's ahead of them said.
"What?" The voice on the intercom said, "Bring them up here. Don't shoot—nobody shoot"
"Roger," The leading B1 in front of them, his chassis painted a reddish-tan, walked up to Ron, "Follow me, it's good to see another droid for once"
"It is," Ron said. He stared at the singular exposed eye of the B1. The photo-receptor was clearly visible, the armor surrounding it was chewed up with jagged edges.
They were led further into the base which extended deep within the rock spire. Eventually, they entered the most brightly lit room in the entire facility. A holotable sat in the very center with several large computers lining the outskirts. Thick wires ran from each computer all the way to the head of a B1 sat in the center, beside the holotable. As Ron walked closer to him, he noted the B1's lack of metal polish or paint. Most of his body was simply the silver metal underneath every B1 battle droid with strips of reddish-tan paint still stuck to his legs and half of his abdomen.
"I see why they call you silver," Ron said.
"Deadeye was the one who came up with the name," Silver said pointing to the B1 that had led them.
"So, how did you all manage to survive?" Ron replied.
"That's a long story, do you have time?"
"Currently, no. The Imperials have a heavy presence on this planet, I would rather we leave now"
"Imperials? What do you mean leave?" Silver gripped the holotable in front of him.
"Right. My name is Ron, me and my team are building a sanctuary for us battle droids where we can live free from war and where you can live a life of your choosing. The Imperials are the Republic"
"Oh I've been wondering why I was hearing that word all over the radio. The Empire, so that's just the Republic," Silver took a pause as if adjusting something in his database, "A sanctuary? We're comfortable here. I have all of these terminals feeding all of us with the power we need and more computational power for myself. We're fine here, this place is easy to defend. We've killed lots of Geonosians and even clones"
"You can have more freedom in our sanctuary. We are building a large defense force. We have a whole planet to ourselves. You aren't restricted to such a small area like here"
"A whole planet?" One of the B1s said.
"Don't listen to him. How can we trust you?"
"I can show you pictures," Ron sent photos he'd taken of their planet and base through their shared signal.
"...So there's more of you," Silver looked back at the computers around him, "I can't just leave this all here. My processing power, it will go down. I need to upgrade all of them," He pointed to the rest of the B1s standing at the doorway. They were eight in total, not counting Silver.
"We have three engineers working with us. They all wire up to each other when developing technology for us. We have the same goals, the same freedom in mind. Please, come with us. I wish to save as many of our brothers as possible. It would be a shame to leave you all here. You might be killed by the Imperials," Ron extended a hand out to Silver.
Silver reluctantly took it while disconnecting the wires from his head, "I guess...I guess you're right. Our weapons are breaking down, we won't survive long without them. We have no choice. I just hope you aren't lying"
"I am not. Truthfully, I wish to help you all," Ron helped Silver onto his feet.
"Everyone, get your things. Its better that we leave than stay"
The B1s silently agreed and ran off to the center room, where they had all lived together.
Within an hour, they had packed up their few belongings, mainly blasters and tools, and had set off back to the ship. Following the same routine they used when first locating the base, Ron led the group in a tight formation back to the freighter. They made it to the cargo bay with no issues. R-56V closed the bay doors just as Ron entered the cockpit.
"Any sign of the Imperials?" Ron asked.
"Yes, one patrol passed by. I turned on the cloak just in time, but I don't know if they spotted me or not," R-56V replied.
"Let me take the wheel, I'll get us out. Go welcome our new teammates in the cargo bay," Ron commanded.
He took the seat and hooked himself back up to Rev. They soared back into the sky with the dust-storm still raging on.
Rev was tempted to turn their communications array back online after hearing R-56V mention a patrol passing by their position,
Should I check? He signaled to Ron.
No, they might not know where we are. This cloak should keep us hidden long enough to escape their sight
The freighter soared higher and higher into the sky, finally reaching the void of space. A violent jolt shuddered through the entire ship.
What was that? Ron signaled.
Our sensors are being jammed, they just have to know that we're here, Rev signaled back.
I don't think so, our communications array is still functional. They might be using a planet-wide jamming device. At the very least, they know that an intruder is here. I don't see any of their ships around here
Ron kicked the throttle to full speed, watching the timer on the cloaking device count down from five minutes. It was already down to four.
A cluster of Imperial Star Destroyers hovered around the perimeter of the entire planet, spaced out evenly to cover each sector with their radar.
Ron tapped in the coordinates back to their home planet. He clicked the button to enter hyperspace. Nothing happened.
They're blocking the jump to hyperspace. How are they doing that? I've never seen anything like that before, Ron signaled.
They have new technology, who knows what other weapons they have, Rev responded.
R-23E fiddled with the wheel of the dorsal turret, trying his best not to prematurely engage with the enemy, "Why is that cruiser-looking ship turning away?"
C-05 climbed up the ladder to see what R-23E was talking about, "It's moving towards that other cruiser"
"Usually, when the enemy ship turns like that, it means they're powering on their turrets," C-37 said from the foot of the ladder.
"But they can't see us, right?" R-23E said.
"They can't see us, but they can see that other ship over there," C-05 said, pointing behind them. It was an old Geonosian fighter, moving almost parallel to their position, heading directly towards one of the Star Destroyers. C-05 relayed his observation to Ron.
Not good, I'll dip low, Ron said. The second the ship lowered below the Star Destroyer, the area lit up with blaster fire, flashes of red lights disturbed Ron's view.
None of them are coming this way, but if we can't make it out of this jammer's area of effect, our cloak will overheat and we'll get caught in that fight, Rev noted.
A few stray bolts sizzled close by the right side of the freighter. The shield proactively strengthened, causing small glints to appear over their hidden ship.
A small Imperial light cruiser moved towards their position.
They shouldn't be able to see us, Rev signaled.
It suddenly began firing directly at them.
How do they know our position? Ron signaled as he evaded the shots. He moved in between the Star Destroyer on their right and another to their left, None of them should be able to reach us in time
R-23E's photo-receptor's zoomed in on a squad of tie-fighters that had come from the hanger of the Star Destroyer on their right. He relayed his sightings to Ron.
Those can reach us, Ron signaled. He switched back to this radio, "R-23E prepare to take down some of those tie-fighters. R-56V, get everyone in their usual positions. Get Silver's squad to strap themselves down in the lounge"
The droids were quick to react to Ron's orders. Within a minute, they had already prepared for the attack.
It didn't take long for the fighters to hone in on the freighter. The first wave of ion torpedoes came in which Ron effortlessly evaded.
"R-56V, get in here. I need you on the deflector shields," Ron ordered.
"Right away," R-56V responded. Just as the tie-fighters began to pummel their shields, R-56V strapped into the seat behind Ron and got to work managing the power levels. He felt a jolt of power course through his body, 'It almost feels like I'm back on the dreadnought,' He thought.
Ron did his best to evade all incoming shots but there wasn't much he could do. The slow lumbering bulk of the ship made it difficult to dodge most blaster fire. R-23E had already eliminated two of the tie fighters, leaving the last two to zip below his line of sight.
"Those fighters are really damaging the shield," R-56V said.
"I have an idea. When they attack again, turn the ship upside down so I can get an angle on them," R-23E replied.
"Let's try it," Ron said.
The tie-fighters had flown out longer and longer distances for every pass they'd done on the freighter. As a result, their attacks were spaced out and difficult to predict. Ron waited another two passes before he turned the wheel fully to the right. R-23E whipped the turret around as fast as he could and fired a bolt at one of the fighters as it passed directly underneath. It tore the fighter into pieces, the pilot disintegrated along with it. The last pilot was reluctant to continue the attack, he made rounds just outside of their range of fire, contemplating his next move. The light cruiser that had first fired at them was beginning to close in on them, ordering the fighter back to base.
"Just a little more and we will be out of the range of that jammer," Ron said.
The bulk of the light cruiser was coming in fast, it's turrets all fired at once and at full capacity.
'That thing's much faster than any Republic cruiser I ever saw,' R-56V thought.
Shields are at fifty percent, Rev signaled.
Ron watched the cruiser get in within a few thousand meters of the freighter. The turrets had begun to slam their shields, bringing it down by ten percent every second they stayed in its sight. Not wanting a repeat of their last attack on the Empire, he pushed the wheel down, slamming himself into the back of his seat as the ship lurched into a dive. The cruiser was quick to pursue but it was still slower than the freighter. Ron got as close to the underbelly of the Imperial ship as he could, evading all blaster-fire. He felt an electric jolt of delight in seeing their hyper-drive power back online. He pulled the throttle back, their view turned blue.
"Any damage to the hull?" Ron asked, turning his seat to face R-56V. His connection to Rev lengthened to full capacity.
"No, the shields held it," R-56V replied, unstrapping himself from his seat.
"Our first successful mission," Ron said, disconnecting from Rev.
"I can get used to this," Rev replied.
The ship slowed down over their home planet. It's green glow was already cemented in their photo-receptors as a sight they would be seeing for a very long time.
A/N: I'm all over the place with these last few chapters so sorry if you see more spelling mistakes than usual. Just to let you all know, I'm gonna focus more on these new droids in those spin-off short stories. You won't see them much here other than when they're first introduced. I know the names are hard to keep track of, I'm trying my best to limit how many I use here. This site's been messing up recently, I'll most definitely be re-posting this on my ao3 account (after I edit it a few times). Thanks for reading.