Post by chiron on Nov 18, 2008 22:32:14 GMT -5
The winds swept the sands gently, leaving them in soft ripples. The Dune Sea had earned it's name well, resembling nothing more than an ocean not of water, but of coarse, gritty desert.
Most found it unsuitable, if not downright dangerous, but a few forms of life seemed to have made due rather well, and despite Tatooine's inhospitable attempts to thwart civilization, it had grown regardless. Called home by scores of the downtrodden and low, and called wondrous by the scheming and dark, Tatooine was a refuge and hole in which to hide for countless of the galaxy.
For Sith Droid Officer 07, it was an incredible inconvenience and possible danger. The shifting of the sands made any attempts at topography based on ground-level visual data collection completely useless, and without a pre-existing knowledge of the planet's magnetic orientation and geographical layout in regards to settlements and complexes, the decision of where to move was more guess than anything else.
It had to be done. A droid army would suffer greatly under the elements of so harsh a landscape, and to remain stationary created the very real risk of rapid burial beneath the dune sands. SDO 07 had no clear instructions, nor even it's more customary murky ones, but it knew the army could not remain stationary in the wilds.
So the decision was made, based solely on the faint magnetic readings: the army headed what they believed to be North, deciding on an easily traced direction in case their overseeing Sith officers deigned to return to them.
Had it the capability, SDO 07 would be fuming with rage. It had disobeyed two direct orders on the simple grounds that they contradicted one another, and given neither officer had notable seniority over the other, SDO 07 was bound to obey neither. The stream of insults hurled by both irate officers still confused it, but having long ago realized that such pettiness as infighting and slander would forever be beyond it, it did not dwell on the matter, instead determined to find some sort of refuge against the elements until it could allocate scouting units to locate a settlement. From there, SDO 07 wasn't entirely sure. It had considered simply returning to Sith space, hiring or threatening a transport to take them to what passed for home, but given the displeased attitude it had received, the droid wondered if it would only be returning to such displeasure, only to be discarded somewhere new.
Alternatively, it could wait at a settlement, perhaps have a message sent to Sith command alerting them of it's whereabouts, but this contained similar problems. SDO 07 honestly didn't know what it's prescribed course of action should be, nothing it had been programmed for took this into account. It had been designed to respond to the wishes of battlefield commanders or fleet marshals and to direct ground-based military formations and offensive forces, not mediate political mud-slinging and competition. Scouting, siege, armoured engagements, infantry formations, artillery batteries, flanking, feints, advances, retreats; these were things it could do, and do well! Heck, it could make a passable engineer if the situation called for it, containing a repertoire of blueprints for bridges, landing strips, trench lines, bunkers, minefields, pill boxes, and even tank traps.
Anything but this.
The footfalls of over a thousand battle droids were muffled by the sands, even their precise, parade-ground formations made little noise in the desert. SDO 07 quickly filed this information as useful for scouting actions, as well as dangerous for defensive plans.
Turning it's small head to the sky, SDO 07 scanned for any incoming vessels for the eleventh time that hour. The sky was beautiful, but empty.
Most found it unsuitable, if not downright dangerous, but a few forms of life seemed to have made due rather well, and despite Tatooine's inhospitable attempts to thwart civilization, it had grown regardless. Called home by scores of the downtrodden and low, and called wondrous by the scheming and dark, Tatooine was a refuge and hole in which to hide for countless of the galaxy.
For Sith Droid Officer 07, it was an incredible inconvenience and possible danger. The shifting of the sands made any attempts at topography based on ground-level visual data collection completely useless, and without a pre-existing knowledge of the planet's magnetic orientation and geographical layout in regards to settlements and complexes, the decision of where to move was more guess than anything else.
It had to be done. A droid army would suffer greatly under the elements of so harsh a landscape, and to remain stationary created the very real risk of rapid burial beneath the dune sands. SDO 07 had no clear instructions, nor even it's more customary murky ones, but it knew the army could not remain stationary in the wilds.
So the decision was made, based solely on the faint magnetic readings: the army headed what they believed to be North, deciding on an easily traced direction in case their overseeing Sith officers deigned to return to them.
Had it the capability, SDO 07 would be fuming with rage. It had disobeyed two direct orders on the simple grounds that they contradicted one another, and given neither officer had notable seniority over the other, SDO 07 was bound to obey neither. The stream of insults hurled by both irate officers still confused it, but having long ago realized that such pettiness as infighting and slander would forever be beyond it, it did not dwell on the matter, instead determined to find some sort of refuge against the elements until it could allocate scouting units to locate a settlement. From there, SDO 07 wasn't entirely sure. It had considered simply returning to Sith space, hiring or threatening a transport to take them to what passed for home, but given the displeased attitude it had received, the droid wondered if it would only be returning to such displeasure, only to be discarded somewhere new.
Alternatively, it could wait at a settlement, perhaps have a message sent to Sith command alerting them of it's whereabouts, but this contained similar problems. SDO 07 honestly didn't know what it's prescribed course of action should be, nothing it had been programmed for took this into account. It had been designed to respond to the wishes of battlefield commanders or fleet marshals and to direct ground-based military formations and offensive forces, not mediate political mud-slinging and competition. Scouting, siege, armoured engagements, infantry formations, artillery batteries, flanking, feints, advances, retreats; these were things it could do, and do well! Heck, it could make a passable engineer if the situation called for it, containing a repertoire of blueprints for bridges, landing strips, trench lines, bunkers, minefields, pill boxes, and even tank traps.
Anything but this.
The footfalls of over a thousand battle droids were muffled by the sands, even their precise, parade-ground formations made little noise in the desert. SDO 07 quickly filed this information as useful for scouting actions, as well as dangerous for defensive plans.
Turning it's small head to the sky, SDO 07 scanned for any incoming vessels for the eleventh time that hour. The sky was beautiful, but empty.