Lots of beeping

[Coren Starchaser]

There was a bit of light coming on. A bit of electronic whirring as an astromech came online. The crate it was in was left open. And the droid was in a low power mode that understood when it saw light, to come online. That was exactly what was happening. R6-C5 was activating and rolled slowly out from the crate. Spinning its domed head, the hangar was empty. That was what happened, members of the Galactic Alliance Merchant Fleet had made a run with some supplies through to the world of Maramere.

Now to find its partner, and get on with their mission. Porter put down the third leg and rolled around the vacant hangar bay. Some crates, most, were actually legal trade to the world of Maramere, but it was the two droids that weren’t quite expected. But really, was it that serious? People going to be looking for an astromech and a BB unit? Porter’s master didn’t think so.

Bumping itself into the other opened crate, Porter gave a loud whistle. In binary it would be a matter of ‘wake up’ but the droid ran itself into the box again, another shrill whistle, and its domed head spinning around.

Work needed to be done.

[member="Chevu Visz"]

 

[Chevu Visz]

​

The door to the crate swung open and a literal ball of excitement peeked out. When Two Bit saw who it was that was bumping his crate, he let out a shrill:

"BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!"

The binary noise that the droid made could have broken the sound barrier. The little BB-8 Unit that belonged to Chevu Visz was so happy to see Coren's droid, Porter, that he almost ran the other astromech over. Sure they had a mission ahead of them, but with Chevu on Sullust and Porter hanging out somewhere in hyperspace, the rotund astromech missed his little buddy dearly. The two didn't get nearly enough time together in Two Bit's opinion. And with Chevu moping around on Sullust after Coren's departure, Two Bit felt that he could use a bit of fun.

He did a little circle around his partner and then a thumbs up with his lighter attachment. Why? Because it was fething cute, that's why.

Two Bit would let Porter take point on this mission. The BB-8 Unit was less experienced than Starchaser's droid in these kinds of operations, but he was learning and his skills were growing in leaps and bounds.

This was going to be a blast!

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Porter rolled and wiggled excitedly. Two Bit made it to the planet! That was good. Porter didn’t want to do the mission without its little sidekick, or hero, or whichever. The droid spun its head around and sent out a quick burst of whistles and raspberries as it spun itself in a circle before heading to one of the doors. The overenergetic co-pilot of Coren Starchaser spun to the door and began accessing the door lock.

Beeping, it was downloading the building’s schematics and looking for the mainframes. It could theoretically pull that from here, but there were a few things it needed to do beyond that firewall. The map was downloading and being transmitted between the two droids with a loud beep-whistle. Then the door opened up and Porter rolled in a circle before entering the door. A left, a right and another computer system

Did Two Bit have the virus? That would be second. The first was to find the manifest and shipping traffic channel!

[member="Chevu Visz"]

 

[Junker Pugn]

[member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="Chevu Visz"]

The Coyohttp://starwarsrp.net/topic/76088-the-coyo-tie-fight’ceptor/ landed roughly on its one leaning wing and a wing stump, scraping jarringly along the hangar floor. The ship had barely stopped rattling before a human leapt out of the Coyo’s second TIE cockpit tearing his flight suit breather from his mouth.

”That’s the last time I’m flying with a Jawa! There’s no escaping it. It smells worse than the Grans’ fermented lichen in there!”

As their astrogator stormed off towards an exit, the little droid hanging from the Jawa pilot’s bandolier reflected on whether to translate these latest complaints into Jawaese for its master. But, like the air traffic controller’s insistence they land their “ugly pile of death wish” in a hangar intended for freight, it was probably not worth repeating.

So far Junker Pugn the Jawa’s first foray away from his home planet was going well, when L3P0 the droid considered all things. He had finally stopped asking if he was there yet. They had not hit any of the freight that was stacked all around their landing pad. Most importantly the Jawa had not tried firing the ship’s weapons at anything here on Maramere, despite the intensity of his bantha leather-scented over-excitement that was probably beginning to permeate the hangar.

L3P0’s strategy now was to wait for Junker Pugn to cool off a bit more before leaving the ship to engage the local population and offer their services. Otherwise the Jawa was far more likely to interfere with the droid’s charitable intentions. L3P0 had already added the finding of a new astrogator or an astromech to its to-do list. He’d simply wait for Junker Pugn to complain about two things as a cue to action. It wouldn’t take very long.

. . . . . . . . . . • •

 

[Chevu Visz]

Two Bit, in fact, did have the virus! And what a virus it was. The program that lived in Two Bit's memory banks would reroute several Stygium-laden freighters to somewhere else so that their cargo could be collected by the Galactic Alliance. The little astromech happily whistled as he rolled along beside Porter who lead him to a central computer. So far, no organics paid much attention to the two unassuming droids. After all, if anyone bothered to listen to snatches of their binary conversation, the subject matter consisted of private jokes interspersed with a more heated discussion about their favorite Limmie teams. Two Bit was all about Team Yag'Dhul, and he was all to glad to inform anyone and everyone in earshot, in great detail, exactly why they'd gotten robbed in the last Galactic Cup.

Find the manifest and shipping traffic channel? Two Bit could do that! He'd been rigged with some cutting edge code-breaking programs thanks to Audrey Starchaser, and with a few confident bleeps, the droid set about plugging into the computer and running his slicing software. In a short time, the astromech would figure out administrative passwords that would allow him a place to install his virus.

Porter would be so impressed!

[member="Junker Pugn"] [member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Moving the ships would be smart. That was what the Alliance needed. They could set up some decent ships that way and make things a bit more interesting for the First Order and the One Sith. Both were very good ideas. The good thing about this mission was it was the Techno Union, Porter knew they used a lot of droids, so two astromechs making their way through the halls? Not a big deal. They were obviously going to work on repairs or navigation systems, or something, for the freighters that were exporting things off the planet.

For Limmie, well, Porter didn’t really have a team. Working with Coren, he was always on some ass end of the galaxy trip or another, but, if he had to side with one team, it would definitely be Team Fondor. Yag’dhul? Ha!

Rolling up to the computer mainframe, Porter looked and gave a trill whistle as Two Bit plugged in. Working to access another terminal, Porter was continuing to download computer data, maps of the facility, as well as flight paths for ships coming and leaving Maramere. Could send that to the Alliance to start tackling transports.

Now… where were the Spiders? freighters? Ah! There. Spinning its domed head and spouting off a beep and raspberry, Porter unplugged from the system, waiting on Two Bit to continue their trek.

[member="Chevu Visz"]
[member="Junker Pugn"]

 

[Junker Pugn]

[member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="Chevu Visz"]

Junker Pugn and patience proved incompatible as the Jawa leapt from his shiphttp://starwarsrp.net/topic/76088-the-coyo-tie-fight’ceptor/ in the middle of his second complaint.

<< Repair. She. Spare parts. Where. >> There was a whole new world out there to explore but all the Jawa wanted to do was mess with his ship. Nonetheless Pugn’s sour blue milk scent of invention was tinged with a verdant curiosity that L3P0 could work with.

<< Walk. Greet. Bargain. >> L3P0 punctuated with a friendly yet pungent confidence. It wasn’t a common scent among Jawas. The smell of leadership. L3P0’s creator had a rare talent for it but favored a more acrid, angry version.

At that moment the lights on a freighter lit up behind a stack of cold crates. << Them! >> chorused L3P0 and Junker Pugn, with a whiff of knowing.

Junker Pugn looked carefully in all directions, particularly up, before scurrying across the hangar floor. But they were indoors. Meteor strikes were highly unlikely here, and otherwise unavoidable. L3P0 knew it would take a long time to get planet Rubac out of the Jawa. They got close to the freighter before L3P0 suddenly fumed the sweet and savoury odour of uncertainty. Junker Pugn stopped. L3P0 observed there was nobody near the freighter, and nobody visible in the cockpit. It did not add up.

They caught the faint musical sound of droids talking in Binary. Such a wonderful and expressive language, full of nuance and practicality. The droids appeared to be talking about some sort of sporting teams. It was not any team L3P0 knew from the time of the Gulag Virus, but that would be oxymoronic. Team Yag’Dhul and Team Fondur, in some sort of Galactic Cup. Well, droids were unlikely to hold the solution to L3P0’s need to do good, but droids had owners. L3P0 felt sure it could fake some knowledge of a galactic sport and gain their trust. Pod-racing perhaps. Or Holochess. It would have to be kept vague. The chatter seemed to be getting louder.

. . . . . . . . . . • •

 

[Chevu Visz]

"BEEP BOOP BEEP BOOP BEEP," said Two Bit confidently as he unplugged from the mainframe. That part of the misson? Dunzo. With a happy little wiggle he, gave his partner confirmation.

​

​

Spinning his body around, Two Bit trailed after Porter as he rolled to...where was it that they were going again? Oh yes, the freighters! As he rolled alongside his partner, the droid swiveled his head left and right, studying his surroundings. So far it didn't seem that the two of them had attracted any unwanted attention, which was good. This mission was not without its risks, and Two Bit would hate to end up in the scrap heap again or worse, lose Chevu forever.

Just the thought of being separated from the Mirialan made him sidle up closer to Porter. You could say that Two Bit had some co-dependency issues.

[member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="Junker Pugn"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Porter was excited. Porter was on a mission and the droid had something to do. The droid had seen what the Techno Union had in its files for ward droids, and those mahfahs scared him. The droid beeped and continued to roll on, despite how much Two Bit was using it as a security blanket. When the droid looked over to its companion, it spun its head in a motion that would be rolling its eyes.

They needed to get to one more terminal, and that would program the flight comptuers of the freighters. Then they had to get on the freighters and get home. It would be quick. Simple. Porter wasn’t concerned as it rolled and whistled at a pink astromech that strolled by. What was the Techno Union doing with a pink Astromech? That was interesting.

It beeped a little and they came to a tee in the road. Porter looked down both corridors.

Odd.

[member="Chevu Visz"]
[member="Junker Pugn"]

 

[Junker Pugn]

[member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="Chevu Visz"]

Then the sound of droid chatter began to fade.

<< Down! Down! >> demanded L3P0. The Jawa unhooked its droid-lightsaber and placed it on the ground. L3P0 sat still, listening to vibrations in the hangar floor in an attempt to track the droids. They seemed to be headed away from the hangar.

L3P0 spun around to face the Jawa with its pommel-face. << Go. Ship. >> It seemed lucky to have such a convenient diversion to keep Junker Pugn amused while L3P0 ran off to liaison with the droids. Negotiations would go much faster without the Jawa’s interference. The Jawa clapped his head with his hand and let out a gleeful giggle as he ran up the freighter's boarding ramp.

L3P0 sped along the floor towards the exit corridor, as fast as its spinning pommel and emitter collar could take it. It felt good to be free, although it never seemed to last very long. Hopefully nobody would mistake this 25 centimeters of racing pipe for some sort of bomb. It had not quite reached the corridor when it came upon a pink astromech. What was the freight yard doing with a pink astromech? That was, however, very timely.

L3P0 let out a proximity beep that stopped the astromech in its tracks. The astromech peeped a questioning whine. What did the little mouse droid want? Mouse droid! L3P0 affected the deep, commanding twangs of a war droid. Astromech, circumstances are dire! There is a ship here, desperately in need of an astromech like you!

The astromech was smitten. It had been a long time since anyone had called upon it for anything as exciting as war service. Everyone seemed to think it belonged in a cruise liner. Yessir, right sir, it responded in a high baud rate tinkle. R2D9 at your service!

L3P0 and the astromech made a bee-line for The Coyo even as odd banging noises emanated from the freighter.

 

[Chevu Visz]

The roly-poly astromech whirred along happily. Two Bit wasn't smooth enough to whistle at the pink astromech, but that was ok. Maybe someday Porter could teach him to be cool.

Porter stopped when the two droids met a fork in the corridor. What was wrong? Why were they stopping? Two Bit gave out a questioning beep, and pulled up a Holomap of the station.

He used his manipulator arm to point at a place on the map. See? The terminal they wanted was right there. Two Bit gave off a whistle and took off down the corridor, running smack into a Trandoshan. The reptilian humanoid spit a string of curses at the little droid and went on his way. Rude!

With a high-pitched exclamation, Two Bit reached the computer terminal they were looking for. His scomp link emerged and plugged itself into the terminal. Flight computers? No problem. He'd be in sliced in there in two shakes of a remote sensor limpet.

[member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="Junker Pugn"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Porter shouldn’t have gotten lost, but the droid was an older model astromech, ceratined and focused around life aboard starships. Navigating the Deep Black Sea was easy, that made sense, even if Coren didn’t always need the droid, the droid went with. Probably that Starchaser enjoyed the company, and the games. Porter was fairly decent at sabacc and better than Coren at Dejarik, though the pilot really didn’t care for the latter as the former was faster and more cutthroat, and immediately gratifying.

The droid spun its domed head to look at its partner and gave a few quick beeps. Right, that way. And now Two Bit was in the lead. Fast little bugger. Right, time to catch up. Pushing its wheels forwards, the droid chased after the other one. Looking at the Trando that went by, Porter raspberried and went on its way.

Arriving as Two Bit was plugging in, Porter jacked into another terminal and started to upload its own virus. One that would begin erasing all signs of the two droids in the system, but would allow the ship they were going to be boarding to welcome the droids as part of the crew. A simple ‘cover your tracks’ type of virus.

[member="Chevu Visz"]
[member="Junker Pugn"]

 

[Junker Pugn]

[member="Chevu Visz"] [member="Coren Starchaser"]

L3P0 and the very pink R2D9 astromech whizzed around corner of the cold crates to behold the Coyo. R2D9 screeched to a halt.

What kind of memory-wiping restraining bolt is that thing, demanded R2D9 in an indignant wheedle.

L3P0 acknowledged the bigger droid with a perfunctory beep-hoot. What indeed? It was the only space ship L3P0 had ever flown in, although maybe it was a tiny bit grotesque.

It is a “fight’ceptor”, noted L3P0, although the description was quite a discordant sound in Binary. Continuing its sotto war droid ruse it proudly announced that the fight’ceptor was a new invention of our great military. One that possessed all the strengths of both its TIE heritages, and none of the weaknesses. L3P0 finished with a trumpeted “tadah”.

That thing is new? R2D9 made a very unconvinced sawing sound.

L3P0 looked up at the starfighter. It couldn’t have been more than 450 years old, really, and spent most of that time in a museum. Somehow it didn’t seem like the right time to point out that it was also unique. But it never had to finish explaining. L3P0 was interrupted by an almighty crash as one of the freighter’s legs retracted independent of the others, leaving the vessel lurched to one side in much the same manner as the Coyo.

• •​

 

[Chevu Visz]

Two Bit sputtered and bleeped as he continued to work. Changing flight paths was boring. He wished that he were on the Rising playing dejarik or in the back socket of Chevu's X-wing or, well, anywhere but here. Exploring! That's what the little astromech wanted to be doing. Exploring the great wide universe!

Everything had changed when Coren left Sullust. Life just wasn't the same without his friend Porter. Sure there were other droids in Galactic Alliance, but none that he'd formed such a tight bond with. Force only knew why Chevu wanted to stay on Sullust when it was obvious she'd rather be with Coren. It didn't take a genius-level BB-8 unit to see that the Mirialan was clearly in love with the pilot. Why were organics so silly?

Oh! That was the last flight! Mission accomplished. Two Bit unplugged from the terminal and spun to face Porter, bleeping out his success. They were going home! Wait, did that mean he was leaving Porter again?

Sad beep.

[member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="Junker Pugn"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Porter wasn’t happy when Coren pulled away from Sullust, so there would be times where the astromech would ensure that the Starchaser needed to go to Sullust, or go where the Jedi were going, so that it may see Two Bit. The droids got along really well, and as far as a droid could have friends, Two Bit was definitely Porter’s best friend. And Porter missed Two Bit. Porter missed life in the Alliance.

Sure, what Coren was doing was unofficially sanctioned by Nemo Ven, but it was still out on the edge, and Coren needed to get the Alliance on board. Why didn’t he bring Chevu? Porter never understood. The noises the pair made? They were louder than Porter and Two Bit when they were sharing war stories!

The droid spun around as it waited for Two Bit to follow, and as they made their way to ‘their’ ship, the larger droid slid in to bump the BB unit lightly.

[member="Chevu Visz"]
[member="Junker Pugn"]

 

[Junker Pugn]

[member="Chevu Visz"] [member="Coren Starchaser"]

L3P0 whooped like an air raid siren! Hear that crashing sound? The situation was clearly even more dire than expected! L3P0 rattled off instructions to R2D9 to get onboard the Coyo and wait for further instructions, signalled the Coyo to descend its astromech pulley, and then whizzed off back to the freighter. Hopefully the pink astromech was convinced, but the protocol droid didn’t have time to sit around and argue. Pity, that would have been more fun than dealing with the Jawa.

Arriving at the freighter, things were bad, but not worst. Flashing, spinning lights on the hull served as hazard warnings but at least there were no sirens. The access ramp was still down. Junker Pugn was near the top of the ramp peering around the side of the freighter at its collapsed landing leg. As L3P0 arrived the Jawa looked up and shrugged innocently. Who else could possibly have caused that? L3P0 blarted angrily in war-droid Binary at Junker Pugn. The Jawa only looked more confused.

If anyone was going to give them the time of day around here they needed to fix the freighter first. << Up-Up. Fix. >> The Jawa picked up L3P0 and slotted it on his bandolier as he headed back inside.

• •​

 

[Chevu Visz]

Two Bit rolled along beside Porter, speeding up and passing him, only to do a circle around him and follow behind again. Chevu wasn't here to tell him to settle down, so that meant he could zoom all over the place. Whee! He would be having the time of his life if his inevitable farewell to Porter wasn't looming over his domed head.

Soon the pair of astromechs made it to "their" freighter, finding the loading ramp down and ready to receive them. A crewmate looked the serial number of the droids and then perused the ship's personal files. Yep, the two droids were part of the crew of Forerunner, alright. Two Bit gave the pilot an ebullient bleep and rolled himself up the ramp.

Hopefully there would be vessels full of Stygium on their way to a world where Coren and Chevu could send folks to pick up the freight, and the mission would be a success. If at first you don't succeed, get a droid. That was one of Two Bit's favorite sayings.

[member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="Junker Pugn"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

The droid was really happy. Porter liked doing thing like this, it wanted to do things like this more. And it got to work with its buddy, Two Bit. Sure, the droid was a soccer ball, but still, it was a good friend. And Porter was only bumping him to see if it would roll off course. And maybe to show affection, in some droid kind of way.

Following the ID check, Porter spun its head and gave an affirmative whistle as it followed Two Bit up the ramp. Their ship, yep. Would take them where they needed to go. The droid was going to find the computer system and do its best to plan out a transmission burst. The Alliance, or at least Coren’s Alliance, would be waiting to receive the two ships. Tweeting happily to itself, the transmission would get fired as soon as the ship had left the system, and entered lightspeed.

From there, it was just time to wait. Making its way to the droid-area, Porter looked around for Two Bit, and ‘busied’ itself on the ship’s navigation system.

Where were you going? No where.

[member="Junker Pugn"]
[member="Chevu Visz"]

 

[Junker Pugn]

[member="Chevu Visz"] [member="Coren Starchaser"]

Junker Pugn weaved through a large cargo of crates that had been stacked in the hold of the lurching freighter. They were headed for the droid pit when L3P0 noticed the remains of a printed manifest hanging from one of the crates.

“Stygiu-.”

That was not good. This freighter was carrying one of the most valuable cargoes in the galaxy. And yet it was not guarded? L3P0 directed the Jawa to look again at the crates. The other crates had newer manifests glued to them describing packets of universal hex bolts. The Stygium label had been exposed when the ship listed and the fake manifest got scraped off. Indeed there may be multiple crates of Stygium on board! It was not possible to tell whether the Stygium was stolen, or if it was a legitimate cargo traveling incognito. With no guards it was likely the latter. But whoever owned it they would likely kill to protect it.

They could fix the freighter’s landing gear and try to complete their mission. But had they already seen too much? There had to be security cameras. They could run for it. Running seemed like a good idea. While L3P0 was deep in thought the Jawa had picked off the remainder of the Stygium label that concerned its droid friend so much. But now L3P0 cried, << Run! >>

The Jawa ran down the ramp and kept running. It quickly found itself close to another freighter with its lights on and guards posted outside. Junker Pugn paused and watched the guards. L3P0 began whistling innocently.

• •​

 

[Chevu Visz]

“Sir, there seems to be a problem with the hyperdrive.”

“Blast it. Not again. This is the second time this month.”

“I know, I know. The thing is a hunk of junk. We might be grounded a few.”

Two Bit listened intently to the crewmates squabble about their malfunctioning freighter, swivelling his head back and forth between the two organics. He should have been concerned about the Forerunner's delay. After all, the virus hadn’t been detected yet, but eventually someone wouldn’t be asleep at the wheel. There was no telling when it would be detected, and when it was, the malware’s origin could be traced to a certain devastatingly cute, little droid. That would be bad.

But the roly-poly astromech couldn’t bring himself to care, because a faulty hyperdrive meant that he got more time to spend with Porter! And that would be good.

Two Bit wondered if Porter would be up for a game of Corellian Spike. He had the cards and dice in his storage compartment and everything!

The BB-8 unit rolled up to Porter and let out a pointed beep, asking in droidspeak if Porter would like to get his bucket kicked.

[member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="Junker Pugn"]