Phoenix - Ghosts of the Past

IX

2nd, Month Isk, 15 AFGE

Assembling an astromech droid from the parts of construction droids was surprisingly easy. With T7, he was basically intact when I found him among the junk, I only replaced some wires and the energy pack. With this droid though... I had to build it from the ground up, with parts of a construction droid, nevertheless. Still, a droid was a droid, and an astromech was considerably less complex mechanically than a construction bot. Using the limited fabrication facility on the Phoenix, I had created a frame for the new droid. This droid had the usual torso for an astromech – a circular tube, but unlike the usual models, this one had tracks as a means of mobility. On both sides of the torso, there were struts near the bottom connecting to a pair of narrow tracks, a palm's width away from the torso itself and slightly lower. The torso itself was covered by two plates that still bears the original orange and yellow colour of their former self, with the front plate having holes cut out for the various tools the droid would access to. The head of the droid was a flat piece of metal, similar to T7 in design, just even flatter than our quirky droid. Like T7, this droid had a spike for connecting computer systems, an arc torch for repairs and a blaster that could be folded into the head for self-defence. Unlike T7 though, this droid has two cutting beams mounted on the sides on swivels, originally intended by the droid manufacturer for cutting metal, but they would be just as effective at cutting through the plasteel armour the stormtroopers and the army troopers made use of. This droid was named Z2-E3.

We had wiped Z2's original programming from his hard drives, eliminating any possibility of the droid reporting to the manufacturer of the construction bots, while uploading a copy of T7's programming – just the base codes, not the memories. We didn't need yet another quirky little shit like T7 on board, one is enough as it is.

Well... It's the time of truth. With a beep, Z2 powered up. /Hello, I'm Z2-E3, I assume you're my new owner?/ The droid beeped.

'Yes Z2, you'll be working on my ship now.' Emlita said.

'Z2, do a system check, you have quite a different loadout than most astromech droids.' I butted in.

Z2 looked at Emlita instead of following my instructions. Huh, already so loyal to her? Interesting.

'Go on, do it. She's my boss.'

/I'm sorry, I didn't realise./ Z2 said, /Running system checks now... System check complete, all system functional./

'Good. Go on, you'll be serving on the Ashes,' I pointed to the VCX, 'as a navigator and co-pilot. Go get used to the ship.'

With an affirming beep, the droid rolled off. There were still some spare parts lying around, Let's see what I could do...

33rd, Month Isk, 15 AFGE

A month had passed since Z2 was created, and he had been serving faithfully. I had set up receivers around the cave to monitor outgoing signals of every frequencies, and they had not picked anything up at all. Looks like we're in the clear with Z2. The little droid, now sporting a pastel blue and yellow paintjob – the From the Ashes's colours – seems loyal enough to not give us away, I guess he's off the hook, for now. Z2 had been helpful in maintaining the ships, courtesy of his construction droid former self, and an absolute delight to have around the base. The droid was much gentler than T7 ever was, and less prone to grumbling when being told to do stuff. Although, that could come with time. As for us three organics, life in this cave was good, but boring. We spent a lot of time playing chess, trying to pass time.

It was when I was whipping T7's mechanical behinds with holochess that Z2 came barrelling onto the Ashes, bearing a message from an Imperial transmission.

'Captain Horgus, there were a string of bombings in Lothal City, local security forces were unable to apprehend the terrorists. We require reinforcements for the Empire Day parade." This is directed to the Star Destroyer overhead, curious. The Lothal system was quite far away, I doubt this one was the closest imperial forces.' I read from the decrypted message, eyebrows raising, 'Watch for the reply, this should be interesting.' With the Star Destroyer overhead gone, so were close to ten thousand stormtroopers assigned to her. That alone made local insurrection much more feasible. Without the ISD's garrison, I reckon the remaining garrison numbers at around serval thousand, more than the normal amount, but that's expected given we were on the planet of Raxus.

Now we could do something against the imps with a lowered chance of dying.

It didn't take long before the Star Destroyer's holocomm call was intercepted and decrypted. The imperials really should invest in improving their data security, but at the same time, I was an inquisitor, I had the means to find out their encrypting methods. Why they haven't bothered to update their methods once in a while, I have no idea. Their loss. Once again, Z2 came onboard with the decrypted comm channel.

'This is Horgus, why are you asking for the Thunder to reinforce you? The entire seventh fleet is closer to Lothal.' The message played. I agree, this request is most unusual. Of course, this could be because of the usual Imperial command rivalry, but what did I know? I had been out for nine years, everything could change.

'The Seventh fleet was indisposed at the moment until well after the Empire Day and I need reinforcement now.'

'Alright governor, I'll clear it with my superiors, we're not doing anything worthwhile anyway, Horgus out.' The comm call cut off, followed by another to the fleet command. Half a day later, the Thunder left the orbit of Raxus, heading to Lothal. The skies of Raxus were now only populated by the Quasar Fire and the Carracks, and boy was it much easier to deal with. We could probably capture one or two of them Carracks even. Hmmm... I would have to think about that later.

'Alright, then. I guess that the plan was to be carried out?' Emlita asked, leaning on the side of the couch.

'Yes. We'll have to pick a target. I still would prefer not to do it on this planet, though.' I spoke, sliding further into my seat.

'Seconded.' Sinya walked off to the side, activating the holomap. 'What about Mullan? Capital of the Keldrath Sector. It gotta have some important imperial institutions there.'

'Good call, objections? Yes, that includes you two too.' I pointed at the droids. 'You two were also in on this, you'll have to contribute to the planning efforts.'

/Alright, don't you go and start regretting this./ T7 replied.

A few seconds later, seeing that no one had anything more to add, I said told them to pack the necessary supplies for a 'trading trip' to Mullan.

35th, Month Isk, 15 AFGE

'Hey.' Emlita came up to me when I was packing food into the hold.

'What?' I asked, leaning on the bulkhead.

'Are you sure you could... ya know, kill imperials? You had served with them.'

'Did I not kill an inquisitor before?'

'But it was in self-defence. This is different... I just wanted to make sure.'

'Rest assured, those stormtroopers are so brainwashed that they would not recognise their mothers. I will go easy on the imperial troopers though; they really aren't that loyal.'

'Good. We're heading there the day after tomorrow, right?'

'Yes.'

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So... this is here. Right, hope you guys enjoyed it. All thanks to @joymoment for creating the lovely cover.

*Yawn* Right, Imma go sleep now, night.