My Droid Skip

[Sannika Brynn]

The Inevitable was a new ship, sterile white in its lining of the hallways. Though, from the outside, it had a little more character, so to speak. The battlecruiser had been constructed in segments under camouflage tents in Heklor's desert region, disguising the project and providing a workplace free of humidity that might affect the installation of electronics and corrode metals. Though, some sand had grafted itself into the hull, naturally.

But Sannika was here, so that was all that was important. She had achieved what she could not in the Republic--becoming a star pilot of an incredible squadron in a war against the evil forces that wished to sweep the entire galaxy. And so, here she was, in front of her fighter in the hangar bay. She was excited to see her first mark painted below the cockpit--a power generator that had brought a factory's entire operations to a stall and brought the Rogues and the Rebel Alliance at large its fame. But she knew it had all just been some good luck.

Sandwich in hand, the tukian twi'lek lifted her small form on top of an empty munitions rack and stared at her spacecraft. That was a wonderful machine.

[member="Skipper"], [member="SilverSlender"]

 

[Skipper]

The red and white R2-series Astromech droid beeped in annoyance. The techs had been working on his circuits for hours, making little upgrades and tweaks here and there. Some of the younger techs were attemping to polish his rough surface, and ultimately failing. The little droid had been working as tech support, uploading and downloading data, fixing what he could, and generally beeping in annoyance at all the new techs who sometimes seemed hopeless.

He still wasn't sure why he was suddenly getting upgrades... He hadn't done anything special... Or anything wrong. So why the sudden interest in an old series droid like him.

What if... Would he be... Maybe they were finally seeing potential in him? Would they be sending him off to be a co-pilot droid? No... The chances of that were one in a hundred. Three hundred if you considered that he was an older series droid. No way.

So he waited impatiently as the techies prepped him for who knows what. Maybe the Rebels were just moving him to another facility. There was a good chance (80%, at that) that he was being moved, so he settled into a grumpy mood as more and more work was done on him.

(Lol, do you want someone to approach Sannika and tell her she was doing good work and would be getting a droid? Or...?)

[member="Sannika Brynn"]

 

[Sannika Brynn]

Word was out that a new installment of R2 units was being prepared for the Alliance. It had been a while since any new equipment had been distributed to most of the personnel, what with them being not necessarily poor, but not exactly wealthy at the same time. Support was rapidly being gained for the faction, but they were still in the toddler stages as far as factions were concerned. But R2 units was big news for the fleet. Sannika had always wanted one, though maybe more for entertainment purposes and not so much as a tool.

"Rogue Three?" a crewman asked from behind, startling the twi'lek pilot. A decent chunk of her sandwich dropped to the hangar floor, and she followed it down to quickly scoop it up before turning to face the crewman. No one saw that.

"Yo! That's me."

"Alright, good." He looked up and down the short girl, probably noting her messy mouth--which she promptly wiped. "There's something you need to see, if you'll just follow me this way."

Uh-oh... Were her simulation scores that abysmal? She was fairly certain that she was getting slightly better by the day. And if that was not the problem, she could put in more real flight hours! Come on, give a girl a chance.

Oh, well. She followed the crewman out of the hangar and to the tech room. Now, why was she needed here, of all places?

[member="Skipper"]

 

[Skipper]

After what seemed like an hour (but was actually 59 minutes according to his internal clock,) the techies finally finished polishing him and put their various tools away, scurrying about to try and clean up. They were probably on a deadline to ship him to a different facility, Skipper decided.

All the techs that were working on him seemed to vanish in a hurry. One of the main guys who was working on him stayed next to him and kept glancing at the door. What was he waiting for? From what Skipper had already figured out, he assumed that the tech was waiting for a transport pilot to come and pick him up. Like a package. Like garbage.

After a few silent minutes of waiting with the tech, two pilot-oriented looking people entered the room. Skipper wondered if he would be getting dropped off somewhere. The female Twi'lek looked about confused as he felt.

------------------------------------------

The main tech sighed and gestured for the crewman to explain as to why the four of them were here. He would explain to the pilot how and when to use the R2 Droid.

[member="Sannika Brynn"]

 

[Sannika Brynn]

"Miss Brynn, meet--uh..." The tech broke off as he tried to identify the astromech's actual designation. "Well, I'm not quite sure what his number is."

The twi'lek waved at the red droid, becoming eagerly suspicious but still not entirely sure what this was about. "We're getting R2 units in now?" She had always wanted to have one around--maybe more so as a toy and less as an 'associate', but it was a strong desire, all the same. Was it really happening? The excitement began to well up inside of her, but Sannika had no confirmation yet.

"Anyway, we call him 'Skipper', I believe. From what I gather, he's kinda picky about that." The tech slapped his hand on top of the robot's dome and moved off to the side of the room. "He'll be assigned to you as part of our new astro droid initiative. We'll be retrofitting your fighter to accommodate a droid passenger in a week or two."

Sannika's eyes widened and her hands shook about, her entire body ecstatically celebratory of this revelation. She was so elated! My own droid?! "For real?!"

[member="Skipper"]

 

[Skipper]

Skipper beeped indignantly at the tech. "My number designation is R-5608!" He said in Binary, but the tech didn't seem to understand or care, and continued to explain the situation to the la-- Miss Brynn.

The red astromech stayed silent when Miss Brynn waved at him, but slowly extended one of his 'arms' and gave a little motion that classified as a wave in response to hers. He turned his focus back to the tech, and waited impatiently for him to explain what in the worlds was going on.

The droid was slightly glad to here that the tech knew his name designation, but immediately returned to a somewhat sour mood when the man slapped him on the dome. The human (?) barely knew him, and was already trying to act like they had been acquaintances. Well, Skipper would have none of it, and waved both of his arms at him and gave off an indignant whine. He stopped then, when the man finally made it clear what would happen to him.

He... Would get to go into space? And stay as a helper to Miss Brynn? Skipper could barely contain himself, and forgave the tech for anything he had done. This was great! This day had gone from grim to invigorating; from the promise of getting moved or demoted to becoming an astro unit for a pilot! Truthfully, he wasn't sure what Miss Brynn did in the terms of piloting and service to the Alliance, but anything would be suitable for him. Probably. But he was too excited to dwell on the fact, and gave a happy little robotic whine, while rolling over to Miss Brynn and reaching out with one of his small little 'hands' to shake with his new master.

 

[Sannika Brynn]

"That's totally snazzy!" Sannika exclaimed, reaching to pat the red R2 unit on the dome in turn. However, she backed her fingers away when the droid reached out with a spindly arm from one of its compartments. It sure seemed friendly, but that came off as a little creepy to her. "How 'bout we fist bump?" she suggested, offering her knuckles instead.

The twi'lek pilot bent her knees slightly--only slightly, as she was, after all, rather short--and got on 'eye level' with the seemingly enthusiastic robot. "I have no idea what all those tinkering noises mean, but I'm hoping you're as excited as me!"

[member="Skipper"]