Star Wars The Clone Wars: Cuy'Val Dar#Wattys2016

Four

"That's a useless droid if I ever saw one," commented one of the clones. "I don't think it's gonna do any damage, sir."

Null ignored the man and bent down, still on his guard. "Just because a droid doesn't have a weapon doesn't make it a friendly."

The ARC pulled off the front panel of the droid's chest armor, revealing the half empty chest cavity. No explosives. The trooper was right; the droid was useless. Holstering his weapon, Null straightened up and hauled the droid, half powered down, back onto its feet. He began pulling it back towards the others and he saw all of them shy back a bit. Scared little bunch. They were the ones who said it wasn't lethal anymore. Null dropped the droid to the ground.

"Bogie," he said, careful not to look at either of the two, not knowing which was Bogie, "establish a transmission with the Sergeant and make sure he knows our position. Bookkie, help him. I'm gonna rewire this droid to take us to its base."

"Sir," Specter interrupted, "it's against Republic Code. We have to search the entire area and leave the droid here."

Null set the droid down completely, stood up and looked at Specter directly. "Who is in command of your group right now?"

"You, sir," Specter said, deadpan.

"So who gives the orders around here?"

"You, sir. However, such orders must also fol—"

"I'm giving the orders, soldier, and you will listen to my orders. Republic Code 73-B: Republic soldiers and officers must obey the orders and directives posed to them by any higher military authority."

Specter dipped his head slightly as his tone became a little lower. "Yes, sir."

Kneeling back down, Null proceeded to turn off the droid, which already had very little battery left.

"Trooper, while the others establish contact with your Sergeant, I want you to go help them."

"I can assist you with your—"

Null's voice tone dropped significantly. "I don't need an assistant, go help the others."

"Yes, sir."

////

The clones finished securing a link as Null finished rewiring the droid. He had reconnected the navigation to a reverse run circuit, meaning that as soon as the droid was activated it would literally run it's original course backward, leading them back to its original location. Returning, with an established link, Bogie, Bookkie, and Specter stood aside to allow Null and Sarge to exchange progress reports.

"Any luck finding that base?" Sarge said. There was no projected image, just an audio.

"I have a feeling we're getting close, what about your team?"

"None yet, we've searched all of A3 with no luck, but we're ready to move into B3."

"We're moving out of B4 into A4."

"Any trouble?"

"None," Null said.

"Report back once you've reached the halfway section of A4," Sarge ordered.

"Copy," Null said. He ended the transmission without a word said about the droid or their new plan. He looked over and saw Specter shift, but say nothing.

"Specter, back on the speeder, Bogie, Bookkie, back with me," Null ordered. He could feel a bit of tension from Specter, but acted as though it did not exist.