The Friendly Metal Giant

[WD-334]

For nearly 850 years on the planet of Raxus Prime, there was a droid that lurked through the junkyards. In appearance WD-334 was rather menacing to come across. Moving and existing among rusted droids and ship wreckage. Piles of corroded metal surround the droid, making it's home. It would have called it such, yet did not understand 'home'. Or 'emotions'. Not even it's most common feeling, curiosity, did it know. Only that it had something that made it want to look under metal sheets, in piles, and up to the stars.

It resided in the wreckage of a large ship, one unknown to itself. When night arrived, it ventured out to the top of the wreckage to view the one thing it 'enjoyed'. The stars. Such small lights that fascinated the robot. It longed to see what they really were, what they were made of.

But it's moment was ruined by a something flashing on it's HUD, indicating low battery. It would take a while to search for a new one, and it knew that was safest to do at day. Learnt from personal experience. Despite its seemingly thick armor, large loader arm and two blasters some junk droids saw WD-334 as the perfect part replacement. So it remained where it was, observing the lights in the sky.

 

[Aerin Kath]

Aerin probably passed over the droid then, in its isolation and it's analyzing of it's situation, in his ship The Chickadee

Aerin was searching among the junk of Raxus Prime for something, he didn't know what exactly, but he had gotten this feeling from some scrap from a long, long time ago.
Aerin was in fact looking for [member="WD-334"] but neither of them knew this, the force works in mysterious ways and Aerin helping this droid was the will of the force... or just extremely dumb luck and Aerin just had a craving to get more junk on his ship to make even more speeders and keep up on the repairs for his ship and droids.

Aerin scans the area with a glance as soon as he comes out of his ship's landing ramp with a breathing mask on, he couldn't be too careful with his lung condition (poisonous places on Raxus Prime and all), his Pit droid following him with a repulsor-wagon in tow... and as soon as he steps off the ramp his foot lands in some type of sticky gunk. " and These were my favorite boots too..." really though it didn't change the boots at all, he was just joking to himself to keep the spirit light for his eventual long ride back to a shadow port for the underground or TKO.

 

[WD-334]

[member="Aerin The Lost"]

WD-334 shrank back into the wreckage as someone flew over. A ship, but he had never seen one so close. It somewhat frightened him as it passed and landed close by. Curiosity replaced the 'fear'. It hurried down the wreckage quickly, making the wreckage shake around him. Threatening to fall apart around the droid, but it did not seem to mind. Only focused entirely on the ship that made a landing nearby. It's angled legs sprang at every step, it's blaster arms shaking as the droid bounced across the ground.

However it suddenly stopped at the top of a pile, sliding to a stop and in doing so knocking several pieces of junk down. But it did not seem bothered by that. It's two receptors scanned the landed ship. Watching the two figures that had come out from the ramp. It wasn't sure what to make of them. With a broken vocoder it could not speak or make a sound to alert them to the robot's presence. It crouched slightly on top of the hill.

 

[Aerin Kath]

[member="WD-334"]


Aerin heard some shifting junk and just assumed it was natural for Raxus Prime, honestly he wasn't that perceptive. But Dumpster, his droid, was a bit more paranoid at this time than Aerin was. Dumpster starts to look around more and spots the war droid, he starts to point up at the bigger droid. Aerin looks up with the little droid's pointing. "well it isn't attacking us, so I suppose it's not going to anytime soon, lets just be careful." Aerin starts to gather useful bits from around him that are safe to grab and pile them up in the wagon.

fingers crossed it isn't going to think I'm stealing from it or something...

 

[WD-334]

[member="Aerin The Lost"]

WD-334 watched the pair as the taller one, the human, grab pieces of scrap. The only reason that came to mind, or rather it's computing system, was for repairs. Perhaps for the ship. The war droid zoomed in to see the smaller of the two, a pit droid, pointing up at it. It took a couple steps back, not realising it's size made it very visible. Yet no blasters were fired. They just went on doing what they were doing. So it became curious once more. So curious, it wanted to see what was so important about the scrap they moved.

It looked around, wanting to do more than look. Then spotted a rather sharp-edged wall of metal almost half his length. WD picked it up with it's loader arm and started to walk backwards down the scrap slope, dragging it along behind. Maybe the human would be interested in the piece. It's rusted legs creaked a bit at the joints. And the 'low battery' signal on its HUD became more and more dimmer, as did the rest of it's HUD.

 

[Aerin Kath]

[member="WD-334"]

Aerin looked up at the large droid dragging the wall down the slope, Is it trying to help or is it trying to bring cover with it?
Aerin watched as it was slowing down while it's battery was running out of power. poor thing... maybe once it runs out of power I can check it out... see if I can fix it up... give it some power too...
The smaller droid was surprised to see that Aerin wasn't getting his blaster ready and was almost panicking, that is until he realized that WD was slowing down and it's receptor lights were dimming

once the war droid stopped moving all the way, Aerin approached it cautiously, bringing a charging pack with him in case he couldn't bring the big droid onto the ship. Wow this thing's seen some stuff... one of it's arms is just a coupla blasters, it's legs look like their rusting underneath it, it's vocoder is busted and to top it off it has sinks in it's systems that make it 'leak' power... hmm... Aerin begins to start tinkering with the Droids power source, making sure to fix the power sinks before charging the battery up, he also starts to tinker with the vocoder, sadly he could only bring back functionality of Binary with the parts on hand but it was a start. He'd need to get the droid on his ship to repair it further, but he'd need the droid to walk there on its own power... after much deliberation and thought Aerin turns the old wardroid back on...

"Can you understand me?"

 

[WD-334]

[member="Aerin The Lost"]

Slowly, the droid powered down, slowing to a state of suspension. Standing there, still as death. The metal hanging from it's hand. It did not see the man come closer, nor the tools he brought. Normally, it would have blacked out until one of it's friend came along and powered it back up. For what seemed forever, a jolt was felt through its circuits. A flicker happened in it's HUD. Followed by another, then it came back to life. The droid's receptors tested in zooming, as well as the limbs to see if everything was still attached and working. Something felt different in it. Something in it's programming made it attempt to talk as its receptors settled on the man before it.

Two different beeps came out, the 1's in a light tone and the 0's in a deep tone, though both were rather deep, surprising itself after it finished saying "Hello". It recognised the language as binary, a language some of the other droids used around. The man's voice drew its attention, and it listened. "Can you understand me?" the man asked. The droid's head adjusted on a left tilt as far as it could go, the words syncing with data. Then it formulated a response in binary beeps. "Yes."

The droid once more felt the weight in it's metal hand and lifted the metal up before the man. Then used glances back and forth from the sheet of metal to the wagon.

 

[Aerin Kath]

[member="WD-334"]

"yes." then the glances...

Aerin then looked at the large droid in understanding, " I don't think the metal will fit in the wagon, why don't you bring that with you to my ship...where I'm going to continue to repair you, is that okay?"
Aerin was being really careful with how he moved, he had his hands infront of the droid to show he wasn't holding anything dangerous and he wasn't a threat to it
"I'm just trying to help you out" careful smile on his face and tools back in his jacket.

 

[WD-334]

[member="Aerin The Lost"]

The droid did not startle when the man raised his hands. It just watched them go up. It imitated the action by raising both it's loader arm and blasters up to the sky, at least as high as they could go with one of them holding a large piece of scrap, then back down. The man said something about going to the ship, and the words computed only after it completed its gesture. It's gaze moved to the ship.

Curiosity drove WD-334 to go toward the ship. The word 'repair' was a word it had heard a lot from other droids. Though it's face was blank, if it could have felt emotions, it would have felt appreciated and thankful. Dragging the piece of metal along with it and forgetting about the small droid. It wanted to see the inside. It arrived at the ramp shortly after and peered inside, scanning for anything of interest. It had never seen an inside of a working ship. Not as far as it could remember.

 

[Aerin Kath]

[member="WD-334"]

The Chickadee was a flying garage with how many speeders were in its hold, it also held quite a lot of useful junk and scrap. An unfinished Buzz-droid, several prototypes for some type of pressure cooker, A loader droid arm (that looks as if it would work on WD in place of the blaster arm, though it wouldn't match the other completely and lacks the combat capability) and at the far end of the hold was Aerin's lightsaber droid Taf who was sulking with his back to the loading ramp.
Matey hurried to greet the visitor with a cheerful beep in binary " Hi there, I'm T3-M80, welcome!" Aerin hurried up behind the war-droid and passed him carefully, "Alright there friend, lets get you fixed up, if you'd follow me..." Aerin gestures to an open spot not very far into the garage ship. Dumpster was pointing at the scrap in WD's hands and then at scrap pile near where Aerin had gestured for WD to go.

Aerin's ship may be a garage, but it is neat, even with all the scrap about.

 

[WD-334]

So many droid parts. To many other droids WD had met, this would have seemed like heaven. Or in their minds, a place to feel eternal. WD went up the ramp and continued, almost walking on a droid until it spoke up. WD looked down, casting a shadow down on T3-M80. Somewhat looking like an astromech. "Hello" WD greeted back, then just stood there staring at the utility droid. Before turning it's attention to the man. WD-334 followed the man to the spot and prepared to kneel down on it's barely bendable legs.

Then the pit droid pointed at the scrap in it's hand, then to a pile. WD looked at the scrap, then the pile...then the scrap, then the pile. And stared at the pile. Before tossing it over unceremoniously before sitting itself down. A rusted squeak came from the walker legs, one it completely ignored before finally WD settled down and was ready for repairs.

 

[Aerin Kath]

[member="WD-334"]

Lessee what we have to work with now... rusty walker legs, an extremely beat-up loader arm on one side, tiny blaster arm on the other former war droid core... I think I'm going to have to meditate on this...
Aerin in fact did just that, sitting down in front of and facing the droid in a cross legged manner and focusing on the force that touched all things... his mind went to the droid's AI core looking to upgrade that to start out with, it needed an overhaul if it was going to be able to run at peak efficiency, though Aerin could not directly change the droid's mind, at least yet in his inexperience with the force, he simply suggested an update to the droid's software sent via the force into the AI core itself.

-file.update-20.58.dusf *dusf(droid utility software file)
suggested update for this unit, unknown publisher.
File contains
-new systems management upgrade
-emotional spectrum prototype
-upgraded threat assessment program

accept update Y/N ???
note, updates may take some time and may require system to be restarted

Aerin didn't feel the need just yet to upgrade the droid's body until it either rejected the update or accepted it, just in case the droid went a bit nuts. the process to even create and send the file took hours.
fingers crossed...

 

[WD-334]

[member="Aerin The Lost"]

Something appeared in the code of the droid. It was unsure. The choice of yes or no, it had never had choice. It was designed to follow orders to the letter. That part lingered in it's programming. It did not know choice. Only that it had no master to give orders. The droid's AI stumbled over the question many times, uncountable times. It could give no answer.

Though something inside did react. It saw this as some kind of tampering to the system. It suddenly stood up, turning the blasters down. Trying to fire. Had it realised that the blasters would had not worked in years because energy sources to them were cut, it would have used it's hand. A series of low toned sounds came from the vocoder. An almost lost code came back online. "War Droid 334 is property of the Galactic Empire. Tampering with any property of the Empire is considered a crime. Surrender and lay down on the ground until authority forces arrive" WD said in binary.

The droid stood there, aiming around for a mere five seconds before the coding was overridden due to it's inner malfunction, going back to sitting. Watching the human like a curious bird.

 

[Aerin Kath]

[member="WD-334"]

Aerin just waited, the software still was kicking around in the droid. Aerin was hoping that 334 would get curious enough about the update to actually take the chance. Aerin did not even flinch when the droid started to freak-out at the tampering, he was simply intently meditating on what possibilities the droid could allow itself to. Then Aerin realized something, it hadn't known real choice at all. he was still meditating but he simply shifted slightly acknowledging the Droid's statement.

"You're not property anymore you know" that was all Aerin said and he hoped the droid understood.

 

[WD-334]

Just a quick note, could he keep his attachments? Maybe just a tune up on them, and unrust?

WD-334 only felt confused. It had not been confused, only curious. "Not...property?" In all truth, it had no idea what he meant. It knew what the word property meant, but the strings of code that were part of the Empire of ages ago was dormant. Yet it still held significance. If it had no master, who would order it? If it was not property, who owned it? To it, there was only one answer. The man standing before him. It used it's loader arm to point at itself. "Property?" Then pointed at the man, or rather poked with how close it's hand was.

 

[Aerin Kath]

[member="WD-334"]

(no problem, the arm is just there for the choice of the character or you the writer, the attachments could be transferred and you could get the loader arm with blasters in it with Mechu-deru, but again I'm not fixing you anymore than you want)

Aerin looked up at the confused droid and shook his head slightly, pointing at the droid twice. "you're your own property, I'm just a mechanic, I don't own slaves" Aerin points at the smaller droids calmly. " they call me boss, but they make their own choices" Aerin calmly looks back down and starts to meditate again, closing his eyes. the software still there for the droid with the yes/no prompt still hovering unanswered.

Matey the little utility droid was working on the loader arm silently while this was all happening. Dumpster was hiding in a corridor to the cockpit of the ship occasionally peaking out to make sure his boss was okay. Taf was still sulking, only looking up slightly when Aerin gestures at him.

 

[WD-334]

[member="Aerin The Lost"]

WD-334 watched the man's finger point to the war droid. His own property? That did not feel right. Yet all the other droids around, they had something he did not. They acted...differently. One of them acted the emotion WD believed to be sadness. The pit droid showed fear. WD himself had not realised he felt curiosity, only believed it was in his programming. Was that all a lie? And what was choice to it? It had not heard such a word before.

"Choice? Define." All WD had known was two protocols; war and authority. Curiosity replaced these two, but they remained dormant until it was threatened.

 

[Aerin Kath]

[member="WD-334"]

"selecting one thing or another from two or more things, usually what you want or what makes you curious" Aerin was calm in saying this but his eyes were flitting underneath his eyelids as he was analyzing the code within WD you had hiccuped and made your own code to explore... but why aren't you... ah! there it is, you're glitched in you threat assessment, that's why you have curiosity and why you mistook the update as tampering... yor search and destroy is missing destroy in most places so to speak... (internal dialogue)

 

[WD-334]

@Aerin The Lost

WD-334 processed it in his mind. A choice was a decision. Like in it's old programming, choosing between targets. In this case, it was choosing yes or no. On the subject of choice, it felt there was one thing, one aspiration. It stood up and headed out to see one thing before deciding. Above, the stars. Gazing up at them like they were the most beautiful and mysterious things, even though it did not understand beauty or mystery. It watched them, even as it's systems started to shut down after he decided.

"Yes."

WD-334 had no idea how long the update would take. For now, it was only a span of no memory.

 

[Aerin Kath]

[member="WD-334"]

Aerin waited, but as he waited he was keeping busy, it had been hours since he'd first arrived on Raxus Prime, he felt like he needed to eat and maybe a shower... and change clothes.
He makes some food after he gets out of said shower and into a shirt that says something like "= >s (rights) 4 all" in reddish letters on a white field with a rebellious bird in green on a patch over the left side of his chest. his jacket over the top of that and another pair of less greasy and stained jeans.
when Aerin came out to check on the droid he was full of good food and clean enough for his tastes.