Private One Man's Trash

[R6-X13]

Fresh off the job, Sana found herself in some remote corner of an isolated farm settlement in the forests of Agamar, just barely big enough to warrant a starport (a term too nice for the glorified strip of dirt). A Rodian loan shark had wanted extra muscle to help “remind” the locals it was time to pay up, but the poor farmers and spice junkies hardly needed convincing beyond the sight of the blaster at her hip. The work had not been glamorous, and it certainly hadn’t been lucrative, but it was work, and the merc certainly needed the credits wherever she could get them. Her tastes were too expensive to pass on an easy payday.

Now a few credits richer, she was left to her own devices for the first time since touching down in the boonies, alone on an empty dirt road only occasionally broken up by the odd ranch or store.

Before she could settle on whether to cut her losses and leave this forsaken place or try to find a cantina or something to squeeze some entertainment out of the trip, a sudden shock from behind caught her off guard. A pit droid of all things had crashed into her.

With what was hopefully an apology in binary, it unceremoniously sprinted away toward some sort of scrapyard down the path, ducking into a shop buried in the middle of the mess of metal. Once the initial shock from the impact had passed, though, it was becoming increasingly clear, either through a lack of experience on the droid’s part or her own time as a small fry criminal, it had just stolen her pay.

Sana Kinree

 

[Sana Kinree]

Sana was no stranger to shakedown work. In her past, it was the bread and butter of the criminal gang that she had run with. The main difference now that she was doing it freelance was that she got a lower cut. Not ideal, especially since she was on this backwater planet, but at least it paid enough to get her off this rock.

She was reaching for a smoke when the pit droid bumped into her, resulting in a couple muttered curses as the thing sped off. Sensing that it had stolen her pay, she tucked the smoke away into a pocket in her jacket before sprinting after it, her pistol coming to her hand as she let off a couple warning shots.

"Kriffin'... O'course... Backwater piece of..." She managed between breaths. Whoever owned this thing was going to pay. Of that she was sure.

R6-X13

 

[R6-X13]

Sprinting after the jumpy repair droid, Sana would quickly come to its hiding place, a shoddy prefab with a hand-painted sign proudly displaying “DARVO’S DISCOUNT DROIDS: REfurb and REpair” front and center. Sounds of wheezing laughter and sparks poured through the cracked doorway, as did a cloud of oh-so-familiar smelling smoke. Tobacco, and a hint of oil.

Not that she had time to stop and smell the flowers; she had a little thief to catch. Following it in, she's greeted by an oversized Besalisk in the center of the room, seated and hunched over a pile of mismatched droid parts. One set at least, the entire room was packed with busted metal and wires burying any surface not already covered with tools.

“Woah-ho! Watch where you point that thing, eh?”
Spotting Sana and her freshly fired pistol, the grease-stained alien nonchalantly tosses up his top pair of hands in surrender while the other two continue working. His eyes stick to the merc, though they occasionally drift down to check on his repairs. The diagnostic light of a detached R-unit's head in front of him flickers to life for just a moment as he kept prodding at its circuits. The pit droid, meanwhile, was nowhere in sight, though it could be hiding anywhere in the room amongst the scrap or further in behind the mechanic.

Spoiler: Big Darv

Sana Kinree

 

[Sana Kinree]

Sana struggled to get her breath as she walked into the shop, her gun in her hand as she panted heavily. Pointing it towards the Besalisk, she breathily worked to get her breath out of her strained lungs.

"Pit droid... Need t'see it... NOW."

Her words were punctuated by a small cough, as well as the jabbing of the tip of the blaster pistol in the direction of the man. There was a scowl on her face as she took a small look around, but her gun never wavered from where it pointed.

 

[R6-X13]

“Oh, pit droid? I see.” He rocks his head back and lets out a long, exasperated exhale. “Come out, then.”

At its master’s request, an over-sized optical sensor peeks out from behind the chassis of some sort of stripped agribot in the corner, quizzically cheeping.
“And bring whatever you’re hiding back there with you.” A disappointed chirp this time. “Going to get me killed, these things.”

The little droid sadly saunters out, head hung low as it clutches Sana’s rightfully earned chits in its hands. Whether that was out of remorse for what it had done or being caught was yet to be seen. Nevertheless, it holds its ill-gotten gains out for her.

The Besalisk (the eponymous Darvo, presumably) relaxes just a bit as he lowers one of his hands to take a drag from his cigar. The flashy thug probably wasn’t going to shoot him at this point, or at least she’d get the droid first. Plenty of time to clonk her with a spanner. He could de-escalate things though, maybe even make a sale if he played his cards right. She certainly looked like she had some credits to waste.

“Don’t hurt the merchandise, now. Lower the gun and we can do some business. I’ll even throw in an uh, ‘Apology Special.’”

 

[Sana Kinree]

As the pit droid stepped out from behind the stripped droid, she lowered her gun and approached it, swiping the credit chit from its little hands with a scowl. Tucking them away in her jacket, she turned her attention back to the Besalisk, still holding her blaster. At least it wasn't pointed at him now.

"Oh, a special deal? Quite the racket y'got goin'. First you lure people here with your little buddy then you offer 'em exclusive deals?"

She rolls her eyes, before she looks briefly around the shop. Most of the stuff here didn't look to be in working order, and what was so far didn't interest her. She tilts her head at the Besalisk, letting out a small sigh of annoyance, "Talk, then. Whaddya got?"

 

[R6-X13]

"Racket? You think this was me?" The mechanic's wide lips stretched into a snarl. He may be in some backwater junk heap fixing glorified tractors for a living, but a man has his pride! "No, it was this."

Setting his finer tools down, the Besalisk forcefully slapped the side of the detached R-unit's head. A loud clank! rang out from the conical piece of metal. All at once, the lights lining it blinked back to life; it seems he must've hit a switch.

"Woah, boss! Some sorta bum's holding up the store!" squawked a shrill, feminine voice from the astromech's head, and a utility saw from its body, wildly swinging at the air in front of it. Sana was nowhere near close enough to be at risk, but they made the attempt just the same.

"No, you bucket of bolts!" He slaps the droid's head with the flat of his hand again, drawing a sad whimper from the bot as the weapon retracted. "It's a customer. One your nonsense pissed off enough to rush in here with a blaster!"

"It was funny! And free creds, if ya didn't snitch… Sorry, lady."

Sana Kinree

 

[Sana Kinree]

It could talk? Things just get better and better.

Sana sighed, looking at the detached body flailing its saw in her general direction. She didn't know a lot about droids, but astromechs had enough of a reputation that she knew that this was probably among the more minor hijinks that the unit had gotten up to. She had to admit that she respected the hustle out of the thing, though.

"...Riight." She lets out another annoyed sigh again, gesturing to the Astromech's detached body, "Y'got any recommendations? Most o'yer stuff looks pretty uh..." Sana struggled to come up with a diplomatic way of putting it, then forwent it altogether. The man had eyes. She didn't need to lie to him, "Kriffin' scrappy. Not lookin' to pay that much for any of this."

Now that she thought about it, R6 units didn't typically talk. They were pretty much universally known for their shrill beeps, occasional screams, and sassy whistling noises. This one must've been modified pretty heavily.

R6-X13

 

[R6-X13]

"Scrappy? Say that to my sensor, ya no good-" Another smack to the mouthy droid's head.

"Recommendations, huh? Take it your, eh…"
His eyes drifted down to the woman's six-shooter and her gaudy getup.
"Your line of work doesn't call for farming equipment. S'mostly what I do here, though I work on more interesting models in my spare time. Like this hunk of junk."

The R6 unit chirped proudly, "Boss says I'm special."

"Yeah, yeah. I'll show you my stock."
The Besalisk rocked forward like he was going to get up, then stopped, leaning just over the astromech's body. He held up a hand, signaling the human to wait a moment, while another hand used an oversized finger to scrape ash from his extinguished cigar. After absentmindedly flicking it to the floor, he held the cigar to the droid's casing.

Sana didn't know much about droids, but astromechs didn't usually come with built-in lighters.
This R6 did; an arc welder crudely retrofitted into a gilded one.

"Pay an off-world scrapper to haul in whatever he finds every now and then. All sorts of oddities and antiques from piecing together scrap, you know?"

Now on his feet with a relit cigar clamped between his lips, Darvo cocked his head toward the back door and started walking off.

"Wait! Put my head back on, boss!"

Sana Kinree

 

[Sana Kinree]

This thing could light cigs?

Sana's attention was piqued. Reaching into her jacket, she produces the slightly crumpled cigarette she had planned to smoke before she was rudely interrupted by the pit droid earlier. She holds it out to the astromech's body, curious if it'd light it for her.

"Farmin's not my thing, no. A pit droid could be good, I don't know all that much 'bout flyin' ships or maintaining 'em."

She doubted that Darvo had anything that could actually fight, but she wanted to see the range nonetheless.

R6-X13

 

[R6-X13]

Sana waited for a light, and after a nod from the alien, the droid gave it to her.

"You're a pilot then, huh? An astromech'd do you good. Shame the only one I have's that monster. Some moron got it to behave like a two-chit gangster, treating me like some crime lord and threatening my customers."
He sighed and turned back to the door, "A memory wipe's probably not going to be enough to undo all of that, I need to get eh… intensive to fix it. Enough about that, though. I've got more to show you."

"You don't wanna do that. Think of my charming personality!"
He simply scoffed at that before disappearing into the back, expecting Sana to accompany him. The pit droid from before scurried out to follow from under a workbench, apparently having taken cover during the chaos a moment ago.

"Save me, lady! He's gonna erase me!" The astromech's main body anxiously sways side-to-side as Sana follows the man.

Sana Kinree

 

[Sana Kinree]

Taking a drag from the freshly lit cigarette, Sana considered the droid's plea for a moment. As strange as a gangster droid was, it was kind of cute. And an astromech would be useful. It wasn't any secret that beyond getting from point A to point B, Sana herself wasn't that great of a pilot. She paused as the Besalisk disappeared into the other room to walk over to the droid's single eye, kneeling in front of it.

"I'll consider it. In th' mean time, maybe consider against robbin' me in th' future."

With that, she turned around to follow the alien man into the other room, taking another drag as she entered whatever fresh hell awaited her. Judging by the state of disrepair that the other droids were in, she wasn't expecting much.

R6-X13

 

[R6-X13]

"Let me know if anything catches your eye."

If the junk up front hadn't given it away already, this storeroom made it abundantly clear that the discount droid dealer had something of a hoarding issue. The alien man led Sana into a maze of tightly packed shelves just barely wide enough for him to get through. Each was hastily labeled with model numbers and stuffed with matching parts in various states of disrepair, as well as a few fully assembled droids sat haphazardly in the way. They all seemed to be turned off, though it was hard to tell in the poorly lit room.

He wasn't kidding when he said "antiques;" Nothing here could've been designed in the last century. Other than a few oddities like a B1 battle droid with a B2's oversized arm poorly welded on and a GNK repurposed into a storage bin, nothing really stood out to the merc though. She didn't have much use for specialized industrial equipment, especially outdated pieces of tech like this.

"I've got a bucket of mouse droids somewhere back here… Toss one in, free of charge."

Sana Kinree

 

[Sana Kinree]

As Sana looked around the shop, it was becoming increasingly clear that Darvo wasn't the best at marketing and selling actual products. The dilapidated B1 was by far the most interesting thing he had here, and she wasn't even sure that it worked. Sighing, she absently walked around the shop until she'd taken her fill of scrap. Taking another drag of her cig, she ashes it into the repurposed GNK bin before she speaks up.

"Honestly buddy, y'don't have a lot that I want. How long would it be to get the astromech up and running?"

The free mouse was nice, at least. She could use something to keep her ship squeaky clean while she was out doing odd jobs.

"And is th'pit droid for sale?"

R6-X13

 

[R6-X13]

"Aha!" While Sana took in the sights, the Besalisk had rummaged through a container and triumphantly pulled out a little brick of a droid. He held the MSE out for the woman to see. Nothing wrong with it, as far as she could tell.

"The astromech?" He furrowed his brows. "Re-attaching the head'll be quick. Then a good, thorough memory wipe's going to run an hour, I'll throw that in too. Re-programming though, you're going to have to find a specialist if you want it done right."

Better to not mention how much that would cost her. He was surprised she wanted the thing, but Darvo wasn't going to try to argue her out of wasting her credits. And the pit droid too? Two problem children gone and a tidy little sum, not bad at all.

His sleazy grin returned; the alien may not have been the best salesman but he certainly felt like it.
"It sure is. Whack 'em on the nose and you can carry it out. We can talk prices while I put the R6 back together."

Sana Kinree

 

[Sana Kinree]

Taking the droid, Sana absently rolled the wheels on her palm to make sure they still rolled well. At least her floors would be nice and clean after all this. When Darvo started talking about reprogramming and wiping, she simply shook her head and held up her other hand.

"Wipin' it won't be necessary. Wanna see what all'a that experience'll get me in the long run. Worst comes to worst I can take care'a it myself."

She appraised the man before she looked to the pit droid, tapping it on the face with a couple closed knuckles to let it power down.

"Wanna remind you that you mentioned wantin' to give me a discount for my... Inconvenience. And that I'm bein' awfully generous givin' you the time'a day after yer little fella here tried t'rob me."

Picking up the pit droid, she strutted towards the front of the shop, hands full of the two mechanical menaces.

 

[R6-X13]

"Eh?" She didn't want a free memory wipe tossed in? Maybe the woman didn't want to take advantage of poor Darvo's already very generous offer. Sucker.

"If you're sure. No refunds if it ends up getting you tossed into some prison. Store policy, you know?"

The thieving little droid recoils slightly and lets out a scared chirp as Sana brings her knuckles to its photoreceptor, clacking back into its compressed state from the simple tap.

"Of course, of course! I'd never forget the Apology Special."
With a gesture, Darvo led the woman back to the front of the shop, grabbing a misplaced spanner from a shelf as they walked. No more rooting through trash; the Besalisk had an astromech to piece back together.

Compared to the hoarder den of a storeroom, the man's workshop was downright spacious.

"Welcome back, boss!" Any fear in the droid's voice from before seemed to have already passed. Sucking up, maybe?
"Not anymore, I'm not."

Without another word, he squats down and with a grunt rocks back to the floor behind the R6 unit, poised to start working on it again.
"Huh?"

Sana Kinree

 

[Sana Kinree]

"Y'got a new boss now. Or y'will, here in a few minutes."

Sana responded to the astromech, before turning to face the Besalisk as he worked, "Let's talk price. Astromech's clearly used, so I doubt it'd be full price in the first place. Plus th'discount."

Placing the pit droid down, she gestures to it in its collapsed form, "Pit droid too. Got a number?"

Sana was prepared to drop the pit droid if it was out of her price range, but she hoped that her negotiations would help her get the Besalisk to drop his prices to where she could actually afford them. Having droids to do some of the menial work for her would make things a lot nicer for the merc, though.

R6-X13

 

[R6-X13]

“You? Really?”
The droid tries to rotate their head to look at Sana, though it clicks in place halfway through the motion. Feeling it try to move, Darvo growled and quickly prodded the droid with his cigar.
“I’m not done yet, so keep. Still.”

Very persistent about that discount, huh? Price you pay to keep the blaster away, he supposed. While his two main hands worked, another grabbed a small metallic tin from behind him and clicked it twice before he unscrewed it. An oversized nail scooped out a dollop of black, gummy tar and wedged it behind his lower lip.
He spoke through a mouthful of tobacco, “Yes, yes. Let me think…”

After a bit of hemming and hawing, the Besalisk settled on some numbers for the two after spitting into a scrapped R2 unit’s upturned head. Together, they’d run Sana most of what her last job had paid out, leaving just enough to fuel up and maybe grab some greasy cantina slop on the way out. Not ideal, but still fairly generous considering what all she was getting.

Of course, she could still try to lowball the man…

“Come on, at least double that! I’m vintage. Hurting my pride here, boss. Old boss.”

Sana Kinree

 

[Sana Kinree]

"Yes, me. Y'better get used to it."

Rolling her eyes, Sana worked with Darvo to secure the deal, and while her bank account was much lighter afterwards she could still afford to get off planet. It was a small mercy, but it was one she was happy with.

While she waited for the besalisk to finish his repairs, Sana puffed on a cigarette, relaxing after a long day. She'd much prefer to be getting wasted at a cantina or even in the peace and quiet of her own ship, but at least she was getting something out of staying in a place like this for the time being. Plus it afforded her the occasional look at her new droid's unorthodox specifications, giving her time to think about what she could even use this thing for other than flying her ship for her.

Oh well. She'd figure it out.

By the time the besalisk had finished the repairs, the merc had smoked her way through a couple cheap cigs, and she rose to her full height as she examined the astromech's frame, "Hope your wheels work. I ain't carryin' ya. What's th'designation on this one, Darvo?"

R6-X13