Chapter 2: Strike a Deal
Jake and R4 had gathered a sizable amount of scrap and other useful items, such as few B1 BattleDroid antennas, a few bits of tank armor, and even the B2 from before had a few extra wires they could use once R4 took a closer look at it. Using his backpack, he carried his metal back to the speeder, it was unbearably hot today, well to be fair it was always hot as shit.
"How much longer R4?" Jake questioned as another bead of sweat hit the sand beneath him.
"beeeee, beereepppp" R4 quickly replied and looked Straight ahead, in the distance their speeder could be seen, Jake gave a quick sigh of relief and smiled towards his bud R4, the droid spun its head and beeped excitedly, Jake laughed at the action. Another speeder bike trip later and they arrived at their shack, but they instead sped by it, to sell this scrap for a small portion of credits, they'd have to try and sell it to some locals at their home village. The people and other alien species there didn't mind buying from Jake, as his lack of self awareness going to the dangerous battlefield for scrap would reward him with parts that couldn't be found anywhere else, they still didn't like him in most other ways though.
Jake walked up to the village entrance, a small gate put together by a combo of mud, rock and scrap "you mind letting me in!? He shouted to the Bug at the top of the gate scouting, the bug gave a quick thumbs up before the gate was slowly raised upwards. He didn't have to walk far to find one of his few friends who had a small sign saying "need scrap" in messy handwriting.
" Hey, I assume you'd like to purchase some scrap?" Jake asked in his normal positive tone
" oh it's you.....yeah yeah ssssure what you got" he spoke, they weren't human but instead were Trandoshan, a reptilian species.
"Well I've got a few things from my last run" Jake exclaimed, ignoring the obvious hatred towards him. " take your pick!" Jake said as he opened and laid out both sacks on the floor, he really felt like an ad saying that.
The Trandoshan looked at the scrap, the slits in his eyes scanning the pile.
" I'll take those antennas" the lizard responded in its usual slurred accent.
"No problem" Jake looked at the B1 antenna, deciding its price. He didn't normally plan ahead for these things. " That will be 8 credits for the 2 antennas" Jake told The Trandoshan.
"Cheaper than expected..." the lizard muttered happily, he passed over the credits and picked up the antenna.
"Good doing business with you Jake" the Lizard spoke in a normal tone
"Good doing business with you Teesh" Jake said happily turning away.
"Well that went well" Jake told R4 as he turned to look at the droid, who had stayed silent this whole time. After eventually selling almost all scrap pieces except for some destroyed bits of an AAT, which Jake decided to simply add to his home later, they walked to the town shop.
It was a decently large area with a cloth roof that was held up by either large sticks or rock pillars, several locals could be seen walking back and forth, gazing at the shop. The store keepers were mostly human, with a few Geonosian Guards walking around talking with each other, making sure no one stole anything. Jake had browsed here before, and had saved enough credits to get what he wanted, a weapon, he had been unarmed for most of his life here, and had relied on running and hiding to survive. But he realized that this wouldn't work forever, especially with the empire casually strolling about like they owned the place, and decided to see what defense weapon he could buy. There were several light blaster pistols, as well as some shitty looking staffs, and a few batons and E-11 blasters gathered from Imperial troopers who, as the bugs put it, "gave it to them once they died" this was of course translated from their language so Jake assumed it was funnier if he could understand the original joke.
"Soooooo....what should we get R4?" Jake asked
"beoooooooo..." R4 beeped in a slight tone of curiosity as he stared at a baton stick with silver plating near the end.
"a baton sounds nifty" Jake said patting R4s head , the droid quickly scanned and loaded a hologram of the item. Jake knew it was baton of course, but the scan showed it was Republic in design, and had probably been taken from clones long ago.
"That's so cool!" Jake exclaimed " we need to get it!" Jake shook R4 as the droid beeped in an excited fit. R4 had definitely gained some of Jake's more excessive attributes.
Both went towards the counter and pulled out the 25 credits it cost, it wasn't to expensive, He had originally saved for a blaster pistol, which costs 2x as much, so he luckily saved some credits today. Jake held the newly purchased Shock baton, or "Shock Stick" as R4s hologram suggested, and began to stuff it into his backpack.
As they walked towards the entrance to grab their speeder and go home, R4 noticed 2 people following them, and as the wide dirt path got less and less people on it, the 2 strangers got closer.
"Beeee beeee beeeeep" R4 sounded it alarm to Jake, Jake snapped his head over to the droid, quickly checking if he was alright before spotting the 2 people behind them. He ran into an alleyway which was created by the wall surrounding the village and some random house, he of course called himself an idiot as the 2 people approached him.
"Sup kid, whatcha got there? '' one man said as he pulled out his blaster.
"You mean...my shock stick?" Jake said with confused fear.
"No, no...." The other one said, unclipping a staff from his back and pointing it towards R4 " I mean that little pile of credits'' he said, Jake quickly noted their appearance, both had robes covered in sand, while one was taller than the other, both were decently skinny, and had mask covering their mouths and noses. They both had brown eyes and didn't seem like anything different from the common civilian, other than being robbers of course.
" how bout we borrow that droid of yours, like, permentally" the blaster guy said threateningly, as he readied his blaster.
As both men approached Jake and R4, a distant wing beat could be heard getting ever closer. The men frantically look around before trying to run out the alleyway to escape. But not before the Geonosian scout from the gate landed in front of them, spreading its wings menacingly.
"Ack ropt oocoroup coupt ta?" The bug questioned Jake, R4 quickly translated the message into "are you alright loyal civilian"
"All good here, just a bit shaken" Jake replied, no need for another translation as the bugs easily learned the humans basic language Jake and the other villagers used.
The men glanced at each other before charging the bug, the one with a staff tried smacking the bugs head but the Geonosian simply caught the staff and pushed him temporarily aside. The robber with a blaster fired at the Bug whose armor simply deflected the bolt as if it wasn't even there, another shot from the robber flew at the bug who used its wings to jump out of the way, landing on the top the staff guy. The bug then made a series of insect-like calls, while he flew upwards with the robber being held by his feet.
Seconds later two Geonosians soldier appeared, different in armor and weaponry then the scout. The scout passed over the staff robber and the soldier carried away the screaming robbers into the distance then disappeared within a hole in the cliff side. The bugs were known to feed their brood with any serious troublemakers, and while robbery was common, you would never find the same people more then once.
"Thanks a lot scout" Jake said panting, he simply called him that as he didn't understand his name.
The bug nodded at the reply as he dusted off R4 and helped Jake up to his feet, the Scout led Jake to his speeder and halted, waving a goodbye.
"Cya later scout, and nice fighting you did back there" the bug gave no response but simply flew up and perched on top of the gate. As much as Jake has tried to befriend them, they are just workers in a colony, with no real independent thought.
Jake got to his hut with R4, he was exhausted from the incident, but all it did was prove his need for a weapon. So he got to testing out his shock stick, accidentally electrocuting himself, once.....or maybe twice.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone