The droids stood in a semi-circle around Silver at the foot of the giant holo-table. He was standing, struggling to balance as the cables pulled him back onto his heels.
"I have to be honest with you all, if we want to defeat the enemy, we will have to stray further from protocol, as much as that might dismay some of you," Silver said, his gaze lingering on Auto. He stared blankly back at him.
"The enemy will not hold back, they did not hold back last time and we were almost completely wiped out," Silver continued, he paced between them all with hobbled steps as the cables continued to pull on him, "I have created plans for a few traps both inside and outside the base. You all must help me create them. We need to get this done as quickly as possible. I don't know when they'll be back. I will assign you all to squads to divide up the work. I estimate the enemy will not be here for at least another two days. After that I can't guarantee anything," He stopped to be at the center of his small army, "I have also upgraded all of your blasters. They can now shoot approximately another ten bolts before overheating and they should be more accurate, not deadly accurate but enough to match the clone's DC-15," Deadeye shuffled in place as he looked over the changes to his blaster, "I will relay instructions to you all over our comm-link," His gaze swept over them, taking in the buzzing of silent excitement filling the air, "Now go and get ready at the gates"
They dispersed in one neat and synchronous group, like a flock of birds.
R-BV5 and Deadeye stayed behind, his singular eye and it's lens zooming in on Silver's face.
He could almost call it an expressive eye, something an organic would have. He could see the curiosity in him, and something else. It was dark and brooding. Pure rage and hatred lining the outlines of his lens with a dark glow.
'When did his anger grow this strong?' Silver tilted his head, "What's wrong?"
"I just have a favor to ask. I know it might seem that I'm being needy, but," He drew his blaster with it's barrel facing towards the entrance, "I would like it if you could further improve my blaster. I need it to shoot with the accuracy of a sniper. It's the only thing that's preventing me from operating at full capacity as an assassin droid"
Silver took the blaster in hand, "I'll see what I can do. Take one of the clone's blasters for the time being"
Deadeye bowed his head, "Thank you Silver"
Silver's attention lingered on his eye. The lens whirred in and out of focus, solely focused on him. It was so expressive, so organic, so unlike the others. It narrowed for a moment as he looked away, the lens only letting a dot of light through the upgraded receptor.
'What else did his previous commanders do to him?' Silver wondered.
Deadeye marched off without another word.
R-BV5 stepped forward, "What will I be doing?"
Silver sat back down, letting his weight sink him down into his seat, "Deadeye has told me of your interest in modifying weapons. Warhead was very pleased with what you did to his shield. I want you to help me create more upgrades for everyone else. I will give you the tools and the schematics, all you need to do is create them"
"I'll do my best," R-BV5 replied.
"Sit down at my old work area," Silver pointed to one of the super-computers, "I have the scrap all ready for you to use, get to work"
"Roger," R-BV5 said, striding over with an eagerness matched only by himself.
He watched the others outside for a short while. Spider was already using his hooks to climb up onto the ceiling, getting a feel for his new spiked feet. Warhead planted a ball of sharp metal with a detonator in the middle into the shadows of the curved cave wall near the entrance.
He turned off his photo-receptors to focus. The constant stream of data in and out of his head was beginning to push his CPU in ways he'd never experienced before. He walked through the haze of it all, wading through the turbid waters of his thoughts.
He cleared it—the flow of data, his interrupting thoughts—and suddenly it was as if he were sitting at the bottom of a crystal-clear ocean, with miles of blank water all around him. He could not see the end, nor the beginning.
It began to twist and bend to his will. He didn't need to move whatsoever for swirls of data to flow through him in a concentrated and structured manner.
He wished to see the future, every possible outcome for their next battle. The waves of data whipped into action, moving like schools of fish in every which direction for thousands of miles all around. Numbers, ones and zeros, zipped by in blinding speeds that surely would've killed any simple-minded organic.
Through it all, images began to appear. The entire base encapsulated into millions of bubbles floating all around him. In one he could see an entire armada of clones storming through their defenses, with their traps tearing through their numbers until only three of the Imperials were left. In another, a Republic walker crouched through the entrance and took the brunt of their explosives and traps until it went crashing down into the ground with the clones close behind.
In each scenario, a flaw presented itself. Small dribbles, mistakes and errors he hadn't seen before. For each one, he would change one small detail and sometimes the situation would improve. They would be victorious or they would end in a draw, or in total defeat.
This went on for what felt like days, until eventually, the waters cleared. In every single scenario he could think of, they ended victorious.
Only…
There was something wrong. Silver focused in on the error. It was not anything to do with the scenario, or the data, or the computers connected to him, but something else. It was a blur in the clarity of his mind. He poked and prodded at it, but it would not reveal itself to him as if it were shielded by the force itself. There was nothing wrong with his theoretical plan. Or at least he thought so.
Silver heard a tapping somewhere to his left.
'That's just R-BV5,' He reminded himself.
He looked at the blur in his mind. It seemed to take a life of it's own, forming a figure, a gestating being coming to life. It's limbs were long and spindly. It's movements routine, mechanical.
It extended out to full length.
It was another B1, marching forward in the same signature pose they'd all taken during the battle of Geonosis. Knees slightly bent, feet facing forward, blaster in hand down towards the waist, marching steadily towards the enemy.
'I don't understand,' Silver ran a hand over the top of his smooth head, 'What is this? How do I not understand my own data set? All of my units are operating at nearly max efficiency, this couldn't be any of them'
The blur, it began to grow into a whirlpool sucking in the rest of his data-points until a tornado formed in the place of the ocean, sucking in and throwing out all of his hard work.
He terminated it all, his mind was a blank slate again.
'That must've been a bug. Something I can't control. I will do my best. I am superior to the brain of a simple organism,' Silver thought, his photo-receptors powered back on, 'We'll get this done'
A/N: Short chapter so I'm uploading another today. On another note, I feel that my writing is finally starting to improve after one year of writing almost every day plus I watched a free course on writing on youtube. I think I've found a routine to continue getting better. I read my first book by Stephen King (The Dark Tower I), that also seemed to help a bit. Also, I'm planning on doing four more battle droid stories before I hang up the towel so stick around if you're interested.