A silence fell over the transport’s interior. Still covering Nuru, Breaker said, “Check outside.”
Knuckles and Chatterbox leaped over the remains of the ruined droids, taking their rifles with them as they ran down the landing platform. They left Gunn crouched low against the wall in the cabin. She had her hands clamped over her ears as if she were expecting more noise.
Breaker rolled off of Nuru, pushing himself up from the deck. He offered his hand to the boy. Nuru ignored the hand and rose to his feet without help. He said, “Why’d you shove me?”
“I was protecting you,” Breaker said.
Nuru secured his lightsaber to his belt. “I could've handled all the droids.”
“Maybe,” Breaker said, “but I couldn’t take that chance.”
Gunn removed her hands from her ears and stood up. Facing Nuru, she said, “When you told me you were a Jedi, I thought you were joking.”
Nuru shrugged.
“I’m just looking for a way off Kynachi,” Gunn continued. “I didn’t bargain for dealing with a Jedi or getting my ship shot up by droid commandos.” She glanced al Teejay’s head amid the clutter of droid parts scattered on the deck. “Didn’t bargain for losing my navigator, either.”
Nuru said, “Droid commandos?”
“That’s what these things are,” Gunn said, placing a kick at a piece of gunmetal gray scrap.
Footsteps sounded on the landing ramp, and then Knuckles and Chatterbox reentered the cabin. They weren’t alone. They had their arms wrapped around a humanoid male alien, whom they carried between them.
The alien had a long, green-blue face without a nose. At first glance, Nuru thought the alien was a Neimoidian, but quickly realized he was a similar-looking alien, a Duros, who was distinguished by larger eyes and a more prominent brow. The Duros wore a broad-brimmed hat, carried two bolstered blaster pistols, and had his eyes squeezed shut.
Knuckles said, “No other droids outside, but we found this guy lying on the ground.
The Duros lowered his head and said, “Take it easy! I’m blinded.”
Breaker looked to Gunn and said, “Have you ever seen him before?”
“Never,” she said. Lowering her voice, she added, “Judging from those quick-draw holsters he has strapped to his thighs, I’d say he’s some kind of hired gun.”
Knuckles and Chatterbox eased the Duros onto the cabin’s padded bench, then turned to Nuru. Knuckles said, “Chatterbox and I will stand guard outside and watch for more droids.”
Nuru nodded and the two troopers headed for the exit. They grabbed their smelly robes, pulled them over their armor, and stepped out of the transport.
Nuru moved beside Breaker and Gunn, who stood facing the Duros. The Duros tried opening his red eyes, then squeezed them shut again.
Breaker said, “Who are you, and what happened nut there?”
“I’m a bounty hunter,” Cad Bane said. “I stopped at the diner for a meal.” He paused to catch his breath. There was a droid outside ... a waiter.”
“This droid?” Breaker said, picking up Teejays head and holding it in front of the Duros’s face.
Bane opened his eyes slightly and squinted at Teejay’s head. “It’s blurry, but, yeah, I think that him.” He closed his eyes again and shook his head before he continued. “But then four droid commandos came from out of nowhere. I guess they were on patrol. They saw me and … they wanted to arrest me. I couldn’t let them do that. I tried to run away, but they started shooting at me. I ducked behind a table for cover. The waiter, he ran off, and then … one of the commandos lobbed some kind of luma grenade. I didn’t shut my eyes in time. Caught the full flash, but the blast missed me.”
“Teejay wasn’t so lucky,” Gunn said. “You should be able to see again in a few minutes, bounty hunter. Meanwhile, tell us, what brought you to Kynachi?”
“A job,” Bane said flatly.
“You’ll have to do better than that, pal,” Gunn said as she picked up one of the fallen droid commandos blasters and pressed its barrel against the Duros’s forehead. “No one has a job on Kynachi unless they’re doing business with the Trade Federation. For all were know, youre a Neimoidian spy.
Nuru said, “But he’s not a Neimoidian. Hes a Duros.
“Who said that?” Bane said, his eyelids fluttering. “Sounds like a kid.”
“My name is Nuru.”
“Well, you’re right. Nuru. I am indeed a Duros.”
Gunn pressed the blaster harder against the bounty hunter’s forehead and said, “I don’t care if you’re King of the Hutts. I want to know how you got through the Federation blockade. And how come those droids wanted to arrest you.”
Eyes still dosed, Bane sighed. “I'm working for an enemy of the Federation. A very wealthy, powerful client I’d rather not name. My client provided pass codes to get my ship past the blockade, and also schematics for the prison at the KynachTech factory. I was hired to bust somebody out of the prison. I tried to keep a low profile, but the droids … I don’t know. Maybe they didn’t like the way I look.”
Nuru looked at Gunn and said, “The KynachTech factory has a prison?”
“Courtesy of the Trade Federation, or so I’ve heard,” Gunn said, pulling her blaster away from the Duros’s forehead but keeping it aimed at him. “The factory is where they built the frequency jammer, too. The whole place is heavily guarded by battle droids.”
Bane’s eyes opened slightly, and then opened wider as he looked at Breaker. “I couldn’t see you before, but… You’re a Republic trooper!”
Breaker nodded. “That’s right. So are the pair who hauled you in here.”
Returning his gaze to Nuru, Bane said, “Then that means you must be … I'm sorry. I didn’t realize I was talking to a Jedi. You could’ve used a mind trick to make me talk if you’d wanted.”
Nuru shrugged. After Gunn had threatened the Duros with the blaster, he’d talked so readily that Nuru hadn’t even considered trying a mind trick. Nuru said, “Who are you trying to get our of prison?”
“Out of respect to my client,” Bane said, “I’d rather not say. But I assure you, the individual I’d hoped to liberate is no friend to the Federation or the Separatists.” Bane paused, then said, “So, I guess you were hoping to break into the prison, too?”
Confused, Nuru said, “Why would you think that?”
Bane glanced nervously at the blaster in Gunn’s hand, Nuru motioned for Gunn to lower the blaster. She did.
Bane sighed. “Well,” he said, “about an hour ago, I was scoping out the prison, and I saw the droids escorting what appeared to be some new prisoners. Four Republic troopers. They were carrying a body. Looked like a man with silver hair, and he wasn’t wearing white armor. I figured he might be a Jedi.”
Now it was Nuru whose eyes went wide. He was almost afraid to ask, but the words tumbled out of his mouth. “Could you tell if he was still alive?”
Bane shook his head sadly. “Sorry,” he said. “Not from where I was standing.”
Breaker shook his head. “If you only saw four troopers, that means one of them didn’t make it.” He wondered if Sharp had survived.
Nuru looked at Breaker and said, “That may be. But Master Ambase is alive. I’m certain!” He looked back at the Duros. “You said you have schematics for the prison.”
“Yes,” Bane said. “The schematics are on a datatape.”
“You know how to get in?”
“I do,” Bane said. “And I thought I could do it on my own, but after seeing the place, I doubt it.”
Breaker said, “What’s the problem?”
Bane gestured to Gunn and said, “Like the lady said, the prison is guarded by droids. There’s a main entrance and another for deliveries, both protected by energy shields. The delivery entrance has fewer guards, but more than I expected. I need someone who’s already inside to shut down the energy shield for the delivery entrance. I’d hoped to figure out a way to get a prisoner to
shut down the shield, but I’m afraid the place is locked up so tight that there’s no way to contact any prisoners.”
Gunn snorted. “You make shutting down a prison’s energy shield sound like it’s easy. Even if you could contact a prisoner, you’d probably be asking them to go on a suicide mission.”
Bane shrugged and said, “Then I guess this is one job that I’ll just have to walk away from. My ship’s in a docking bay up the street. My client’s pass codes should get me past the blockade again. Plenty of room on my ship. Anyone want to leave with me?”
“Wait!” Nuru said.
His mind raced. He desperately wanted to find his Master, but if the bounty hunter had described the situation accurately, it seemed they had little chance of breaking into the prison and successfully liberating any captives without getting someone hurt or killed. Unable to think of a solution, he lowered his head sadly.
And he found himself looking at the droid parts that remained strewn across the deck.
“Maybe none of us or any prisoners are the solution,” he said. “Maybe what we need is a droid.” He turned to Breaker. “You have a knack for technology.” He gestured to the scrap on the floor. “Think you could assemble a single droid from these parts, and reprogram its brain to follow our orders?”
Breaker looked at the parts. “Shouldn’t be difficult,” he said, “but I’m guessing the brains are slave-circuited. They may not be reprogrammable. However …” He was still holding the head of Gunn’s navigation droid, and he turned it over in his hands. “The Genetech brain could work.” He looked at Gunn. “With your permission, of course.”
“You got it,” Gunn said. Then she looked straight at the navigation droid’s head and said, “Sorry, Teejay, but you knew I was never the sentimental type.”
Breaker said, “I’ll need tools.”
“I’ll get them,” Gunn said. “But let’s get one thing straight. I’m not in this for fun. I expect someone here to help me get off this planet.”
Nuru said, “We’ll do everything we can. I promise.”
As Gunn went to get a tool kit for Breaker, Bane smiled at Nuru and said, “You’re very clever. Using a reprogrammed droid to break into the prison …” He shook his head. “I’m embarrassed that I didn’t think of that idea myself.”
In fact, ever since Bane had received his most recent instructions from Darth Sidious, he had gone to a great deal of trouble - summoning the four commando droids to fake the fight with him at Gunn’s ship, and then pretending that he’d been temporarily blinded by a grenade - so Nuru would come up with that exact idea.
Bane had known it would be a risk to inform Nuru and the others that he was a bounty hunter. However, he also knew that it was easier to deceive someone by telling most of the truth than by telling a total lie.
The new droid was constructed on a workbench that retracted from the cabin wall inside Lalo Gunns transport. Even with Nuru’s assistance, it took Breaker almost two hours to piece together a single droid commando from the gathered parts, and also to modify the inside of the assembly's metal cranium to make room for the Genetech navigation droid’s brain.
When Breaker was finished putting all the pieces together, he made an adjustment to the back of the droid’s head.
The droid’s photoreceptors suddenly glowed white, and a small light on its chest went from black to red. Breaker stepped back from the workbench, turned to Nuru and said, “The Genetech brain’s memory nodule was slightly damaged, but it appears to be compatible with the commando droid’s programming, and it should obey our instructions.”
“Will the droid still answer to the name Teejay?” asked Gunn.
“I don’t know,” Breaker said. But he should operate on his own power.“Let's test him out.”
Just then, Knuckles, Chatterbox, Gunn, and the Duros bounty hunter walked up the landing ramp and entered the cabin. Both troopers were once again disguised in their robes. Nuru looked at them and said, “You saw the prison?”
Knuckles gestured to Bane and said, “It’s just like he described it. The delivery entrance is shielded, but it has fewer guards. We checked out the bounty hunter’s ship, too. It’s in Docking Bay 21, and it’s big enough to carry about twenty people. Is the droid ready?”
“We were just about to find out.” Nuru returned his attention to the droid on the workbench and said, “Teejay? Can you hear me?”
There was a brief silence. The droid remained completely motionless as he spoke through the grilled vocabulator at the base of the head. “You are … talking to me?”
“Yes,” Nuru said. “Your name is Teejay.”
“Is it?” The droid elevated his head, then pushed himself up to a seated position. “I did not know that.”
Gunn said, “He doesn’t even sound like Teejay anymore.”
Nuru had noticed the change, too. Although he had not expected the refurbished droid to sound exactly like the waiter who had greeted him earlier, he was surprised that the droid’s voice was so cold and mechanical, without any trace of emotion.
As the droid shifted his body, both Knuckles and Chatterbox raised their blaster rifles slightly, preparing to fire if necessary. Breaker saw his fellow troopers’ action and said, “Stand down. He won’t harm us.”
Trusting Breaker, Knuckles and Chatterbox lowered their weapons.
“Teejay?” Gunn said. “Do you remember me?”
“Your voice is familiar,” the droid said. He swung his legs off the workbench, placed his metal feet on the deck, and stood up. His head swung back and forth, looking at his arms as he flexed them. “Something is different,” he said. “Was I always this way?”
“You were a navigation droid,” Nuru said. “You’re not anymore. Now, you’re a fighter and a spy.” He picked up a shock-stick that had been carried by one of the four droid commandos. “Do you understand?” He tossed the shock-stick to the droid.
The droid caught the blade weapon with one hand, looked at it, and then gave it a rapid spin with his nimble fingers. Then he released the weapon so that it spun in midair, caught it in his other hand, and swung it in a series of incredibly fast chops. The final chop brought the blade’s energized tip within a millimeter of the deck before it stopped short. The droid cocked his head to the side. “I can fight,” he said. “I can spy.”
Gunn said, “He’s definitely not Teejay anymore.”
Knuckles said, “Then he needs a new name! The way he wields that blade, how about Cleaver?”
“Sounds good to me,” Breaker said.
Gunn said, “You guys arc really into nicknames, aren’t you?”
“All right, then,” Nuru said. “He’s Cleaver.” Facing the droid, he continued, “Cleaver, my name is Nuru. I’m a Jedi.” Nuru signaled the three troopers to stand beside each other. “These soldiers are Knuckles, Chatterbox, and Breaker. You will obey our commands.”
“Yes, Commander Nuru,” the droid said with a polite bow as he held the shock-stick aside. “I will obey.”
Bane gave Gunn the datatape that contained the prison’s schematics. The group, including the newly named droid, reviewed the schematics on three small monitors at the transport’s navigation console. The schematics showed the precise location of the factory level that had been converted into a cellblock for prisoners. Bane proposed a plan, which was as bold as it was devious.
When Bane was done talking, Nuru said, “You don’t think we’ll be able to disable the frequency jammer, too?”
Bane shook his head. “There isn’t time. Our objective is to free the prisoners we’re seeking and leave on my ship.”
Gunn said, “I’m not crazy about leaving my ship behind.”
Bane said, “I don’t know any alternative. The pass codes are only good to get my ship through the blockade.”
The three troopers looked at each other. Knuckles said, “What do you think about the plan, Breaker?”
“It’ll be a walk in the park.”
&nb
sp; Chatterbox nodded in agreement.
“I have a question,” Cleaver said, prompting everyone to look at him. “Am I to remain in prison after you leave?”
“That’s right,” Bane said. “We need you to stay there to reactivate the energy shield after we’re gone, to prevent other droids from following us.”
“I understand,” Cleaver said. There was a clicking sound at the back of his head, then he said, “While I am in the control room, what should I do if I am discovered?
“Lock the door,” Gunn said.
“And hope they dont have blasters,” Bane added.
The droid’s head clicked again, then he looked at Nuru and said, “I understand.”
Nuru tucked his lightsaber up his sleeve. Breaker pulled on his hooded robe while Knuckles and Chatterbox adjusted theirs to conceal their blaster rifles as well as their helmets. Cad Bane pulled on a poncho that hid his bolstered pistols. Lalo Gunn tucked a compact blaster pistol into her right boot. As the group prepared to leave Gunn’s ship, the droid’s neck made another loud clicking noise.
“Just a moment,” Breaker said. “I’d better oil Cleaver’s neck and make sure it’s properly aligned. Give me two minutes. I’ll meet you outside.”
Less than two minutes later. Cleaver’s neck was no longer clicking. Breaker rook a multitool from Gunn’s kit, secured it to his belt, then pulled his hood up over his helmet and led the droid out of the transport to meet the others.
Nuru, Gunn, and Bane had no idea that Breaker, while oiling the droid’s neck, had also let Cleaver in on a secret.
Except for the battle droid sentries that were stationed outside, the KynachTech complex at the southern edge of the spaceport still looked more like a large factory than a prison. Wide sheets of metal were neatly stacked in a yard beside the building, which was topped by high windows and industrial ventilation chimneys, and the complex was bordered by warehouses. The tallest structure was the frequency-jammer tower, which jutted up from the side of the factory and resembled a pair of immense, shiny needles.
Nuru, Lalo Gunn, and Cad Bane led the three baggily disguised troopers past the warehouses near the factory’s delivery entrance. All of them had their hands raised. Cleaver walked behind the group, holding a blaster rifle in one hand and a shock-stick in the other. The refurbished commando droid had the blaster rifle aimed at the troopers’ backs.
Star Wars - The Clone Wars - Secret Missions #1 - Breakout Squad Page 6
