Abandoned Droid Factory

Chapter 2 - A Walk Through the Park.

Loud stomping sounds echoed through the silent, empty canyons as the AT-TE marched. Sand and dust was raised into the abysmal air as the wind threw it around like trash in the wind. Salem navigated carefully, making sure that he didn't set off anything that might attract attention to them. Rios, on the other hand, was watching vigilantly for any sign of hostility. Ben just sat back and watched as time passed by. After an hour of walking across the barren surface of Geonosis, they ended up in front of a huge gate that seemed to have been worn down through the ages.

Rios eyed it carefully. He scanned the entire gate from head to toe, making sure to see if it wasn't trapped or anything. “Seems like a normal gate to me...I'll be right back...” He got out of his seat and made his way to the top hatch. Turning the handle, he opened up the hatch and stuck his head out to get a clearer view of the monstrous doors. He jumped out of the AT-TE and as soon as he did, a mechanical device shot out of the surface of the gates. It scanned Rios and as soon as it did, it asked for identification.

“Commander Rios, CC-1797, and Leader of Delta Squad. Let me in.” Some beeping noises came from the device and then a buzzer noise went off. “Invalid identification. Please show proper identification to enter this facility.” Rios smirked as he went back into the AT-TE. Ben and Salem watched him as he made his way over to the controls to the main gun. Salem got back into the driver's seat and pulled back. As soon as he came to a complete stop, Rios laughed to himself. “I'll show you some proper identification.”

The gun cocked back and a huge blast came shooting out of the barrel. The gate shook a bit and then another shot was fired. The second shot did a little more damage, but one more would be enough. Rios fired one final shot and the gate burst inward, creating a clear pathway to the Droid factory entrance. The AT-TE slowly made its way in and came to a halt as soon as it was a few yards away from the entrance itself. The hatch opened up and Rios came jumping out of the AT-TE with Salem and Ben following suit. As soon as they were out and had made contact with the Geonosian surface, they spread out to carefully investigate the vicinity. Salem went left and Ben went right. All that was left was for Rios to go straight ahead. Three entrances and three Clones. They would have to venture the unknown all by themselves.

“Man up, Delta. It's time to show me that you've got some balls. Check every room in this facility and leave nothing alive. I don't know what we'll find in there, but I bet it won't be easy to kill. See you inside, Delta.”

Rios sighed as he slid along a wall, checking into every little room he could find. It was silent. No one was around, but a faint sound resonated through the empty halls of the production room. “You hear that, Rios? Or was it just me?” Rios looked around before he replied. “Copy that. I heard something coming from the conveyor belts in the main room of this hell hole. I'll check it out.” He quickly but quietly made his way over to the double doors that lead into the room with numerous conveyor belts. He looked through the hole between the doors, checking to make sure that nothing hostile was in there. As soon as he knew the coast was clear, he made his way in and met up in the dead center where Ben and Salem were standing, waiting impatiently for their fearless Commander.

“Took you a while, Rios.”, said Salem jokingly.

Rios looked around. Everything was worn out, torn down, and obsolete. He then turned his attention to his squad and shook his head. “This was a little too easy...Why would the Separatists want to abandon a perfectly good factory? It just doesn't make any sense...”

“Oh! I forgot to mention that I stumbled onto a security room. I looked into some of the files and found a few videos that were caught on the security cameras.” Ben pulled out a hologram projector and a hologram popped up from the small projection device. It was blank but a few seconds later, unidentifiable Droids started to limp across the barren hall. The projection ended and Salem raised his shoulders. “Never seen those models before. Think they're new?” Rios shook his head. “They look like they were the broken, unfit Droids. Built from different parts then their original schematics suggested. There's two main reasons on why this factory was abandoned.” He walked over to one of the machines and slid his hand along the base of the unit. “One, the machines are obviously obsolete if they created such pieces of crap models. Two...The Droids rebelled, so they had to leave in order to save their own skins.”

“Impossible...”, said Salem as he walked over to Rios. “Droids are all controlled by one central control system in any location.” Rios shook his head. “You don't understand. Obsolete machines means obsolete models. They must have somehow mis-built them and now the Droids kind of have a....mind of their own....” A quiet rustling sound came from behind Ben. They all turned to face the pile of old Droid parts. Rios gestured for Ben to approach it and Ben did so with caution. Tension surrounded Ben as he slow closed in on the pile of parts. With a quick, deft sweep of his foot, the parts dispersed and a small animal sat there, looking up at the relieved Ben. As soon as he turned around, he saw three figures arising out of a much larger pile of parts behind Salem and Rios. They watched as Ben pointed and muttered a bunch of jargon to himself. Rios sighed.

“Out with it, Rook! We don't have all day!” Salem turned around and tapped Rios. “RUN!” As Rios turned around, a fairly large arm came crashing down towards him. He jumped back to dodge the attack and started to run while slightly stumbling behind Salem. “What the hell was that thing?!” Salem shrugged as they made turn after turn down what seemed like a never-ending hall. As soon as they reached a dead-end, they turned around to see the mysterious figures still hot on their trail. Rios looked around and saw that a door was to the left of them.

“OVER HERE!”, shouted Rios as he kicked open the door. He gestured for everyone to rush in and slammed the door shut as soon as they were all in. Salem locked the door with a pipe that he found lying on the ground. He wrapped it around the door handle and the door started to rumble as the three figures outside tried to forcefully enter. Rios, Salem, and Ben all took a few steps back. “How old fashioned.” Rios and Ben looked at Salem. Salem took a seat on the ground as he let out a deep sigh of relief. The door stopped making banging noises and everything was at ease. Rios walked over to Salem and then took a seat right next to him. “Any idea on what those things were?”

Salem scratched his chin as he thought to himself. “Judging by the frame of three abominations, their build, and the fact that they didn't shoot at us while chasing us, I'd say that they are the disfigured Droids we saw in the security films.” Rios tried to remember what the figures looked like and snapped his fingers. “Delta to Command. Delta to Command. Can anyone read me? Over.”

“This is Command, Delta. What's your status? Over.” , said a voice over the communicator.

“We have entered the abandoned factory and ran into some Droids that look like they've been built from scratch parts. We've pretty much searched this entire facility and have found nothing on the Separatist Army. We need an evac. ASAP.”

“Copy that. We'll send in a gunship to your location. Send us the coordinates and the ETA of arrival will be ten minutes. Do I make myself clear?”, asked the Commander.

“Understood. We'll meet the evac. squad up on the rooftops within ten minutes. See you back at Command, sir. Delta out.”

Rios sent them the coordinates and looked at Salem and Ben. “Alright, Delta Squad. They're sending a gunship to come pick us up. We need to head to the rooftops within ten minutes. Think we can handle that?” Salem unplugged something from the wall and laughed. “We're one floor under the rooftop.”

Rios sighed as he palmed himself in the face. “When did this happen?” Salem shrugged. “I guess those long, winding hallways were at an incline and it was almost like walking up a flight of spiral stairs. Who knows?”

Rios stood up and opened the door. He looked down the hallway and saw that the three Droids were standing there, waiting for them to come out. He looked across the hallway and noticed another door, but this time, the door wasn't going to be so easy to kick down. As Rios closed the door, he sighed. “Ben. You and I will provide cover fire for Salem as he opens the door across the hallway. Understood?” Ben nodded and so did Salem. “Alright. On the count of three....One.....two....” Rios broke down the door causing the Droids down the end of the hallway to look at them. Ben and Rios started to shoot, while Salem plugged in a cable into the door's control panel. The shots fired were negated when the Droids put up their shields.

“What the hell?! They have Droideka shields?!”, shouted Rios as he threw a grenade at the oncoming enemies. The grenade exploded and the Droids just walked through the smoke of the aftermath unharmed. Salem took notice of what was happening and tossed a grenade into Rios' hand. “What's this?” Salem sighed. “Just throw it!” Rios did as he said and as soon as it exploded, a burst of electrical currents conducted into the ground and the Droids that were standing near it. The shields immediately went down and Ben and Rios fired multiple shots at the Droids. Every shot hit directly at the chest of each Droid. Not a single bullet was misplaced. As soon as they fell, the door opened up and Salem unplugged his device. “Let's move, boys.” They ran up the stairway and the first thing they saw when they were up there was a Republic gunship with two Clones getting ready for evac. They waved their hands as Delta Squad came rushing towards the gunship. They jumped in and the gunship lifted off of the ground as soon as they were secured. Droid after Droid came rushing up the stairs, mobbing the rooftop. Delta Squad sighed in relief as a pilot laughed in the front.

“Let's head home, boys.”