Machinery, Meet Sand (For Xaojii)

[Regnier]

Range: 154.6 meters. 154.7 meters. Wind: 1.26KM/H, North by Northwest. Elevation difference: 71.625 meters. Percent of target presented: 80%. Variables entered. Firing.

Tssk

If he'd had eyelids, HK-52 would have blinked. As it was, he simply proceeded to stare incredulously at the Czerka-built rifle he was holding. Granted, he'd purchased it as a throw-away sniper-rifle, and it wasn't of the highest quality, but it was only a day old, and already it didn't work? He pulled the power-pack from the rifle, replaced, it, lined up another shot, re-figured the variables, and tried again.

Tssk

The droid pulled himself from underneath the layer of sand that had covered him since he had set up several hours ago and partially dismantled the rifle. The problem was readily apparent. Mostly anything sensitive on the blaster had been thoroughly coated in sand and partially eroded. He tossed the rifle over the side of the small cliff he was standing over and watched as his quarry, a Czerka officer due for 'replacement' by order of an underling's wealthy father, repaired his speeder, which had been sabotaged by none other than HK himself to present exactly this situation, and sped off with his entourage.

"Statement: I disdain this planet."

The metal-plated hunter turned and silently uncovered his own speeder from its well-conceived hiding place, mounted it, powered it up, and started off. Roughly ten feet later, the power cut out and the bike dropped like a stone into the sand, hurling the assassin droid over the front end. He calmly pulled himself up, walked back to the speeder, and let out an irritated sigh. Several rather important pieces had been torn off the bottom and lay scattered, and totally unusable, for several feet back.

"Revision: I loathe this planet."

HK kicked the pile of metal, pulled his Mandalorian repeater from it, and started off on foot for the nearest settlement. Or the nearest Jawa sandcrawler. Whichever came first.

[Xaojii]

(( Now we get this show on the road?))

Xaojii looked up at the suns. Just turning noon. It had been days since he had anything to drink, but there was plenty of food in the desert and most of it was rather easy to get. All a Tusken had to do was sit out on the dunes, or dig in the sand and fresh food could be found.

The Sand People had known the techniques for living in these unfavorable conditions for millenniums, but The Outlanders seemed to have a much harder time in this desolate arid place. Xaojji had been waiting for around 2 hours now. The most he had caught were a few kreetle. It was enough.

Xaojii had been banished from his tribe several months ago, and since then he had traveled off world, somehow winding up in a ragtag group of Outladers and arriving all the way back where he started. Xaojii somehow got separated from that band of Outlanders and was wandering the desert once again.

Slowly the Tusken shuffled across the dunes, snacking on his new capture. For a while since he got his meal everything was silent and all you could hear was the wind blowing against the sand. Not far off he could hear the unmistakable sound of an Outlander vehicle speeding by, but was interrupted and an ugly sound of twisting metal broke the silence. Xaojii, being a unique specimen of a Sand person was unnaturally inquisitive of Outlanders. He decided to check out the wreckage.

Xaojii sped across the dunes with the speed that only his species had mastered. About two dunes from where he started he came across a downed speeder, and not far from that he spotted through his sandmask a human figure. For a moment he thought it was, then realized it was a droid. Xaojii ran up behind the droid then twisted into the front of it.

[Regnier]

((Heh, kinda got buried for awhile there...damn you, mathematics, damn you!))

Hmm...and here I was half expecting to have been attacked by the locals by now. I would welcome the excitement. This could easily be a very long and unpleasant walk.

HK turned his head slightly, inwardly cringing at the minute grinding of sand in his joints and mechanisms. Some of his sensors were also starting to show signs of extreme wear. He wasn't entirely sure his motion detectors were actually functioning anymore. Of course, it was about the time the assassin started wondering this that a small message appeared on his HUD.

ERROR: Possible damage to motion detection nodes 1 and 2 detected.

He silently cursed his maker for not installing much protection for desert climes, made a note to have some added on, and started a self-diagnostic. He was, however, quite abruptly interrupted before it turned anything much of note up. Suddenly, there was a Tusken standing in front of him, one that he was sure hadn't been standing there before. He stopped and, out of pure reflex, called up his dialectical memory banks, accessed the file on Sand Person, which he still wasn't entirely sure how or why he had, and said something akin to "What in the hell...?" in said dialect. Normally, he used the language of a given race to inform the being in question of its impending demise, but it sometimes happened when he was surprised, as well, because he really wasn't surprised all that often. All the more proof that some of his sensors weren't functioning at peak capacity. Or at all.

First instinct: shoot it and move on. The droid barely even moved, however, as numerous other options played through his head with the speed only a machine can manage. It hadn't shot at him, and it wasn't attacking now, so it obviously wasn't hostile; at least not yet. For now, it was just there, neither friend nor foe, and neither useful nor useless. Yet. Only time would tell what the Tusken's intentions were and if he could be useful or not.

[Xaojii]

Xaojii jumped back for a second. And then looked at the droid carefully, upon closer inspection this was not your average droid, for one Xaojii had never met one that did not communicate through a series of loud beeps and screeches, and the other strange factor was that this specific droid had a gun!

"Hello?"Xaojii said to the automaton."Did you just speak Tusken?!"

A familiar feeling crawled up the Sand persons spine. Things were about to get interesting...

[Regnier]

Well, that hadn't been what he had expected. Not in the slightest. It actually replied to him in a non-hostile manner. His experience with the Sand People so far had led him to believe that they were all exceedingly hostile towards pretty much all other sentient beings not native to the planet. Apparently that information was less than accurate.

"Query: Did I? Yes, I believe I did...and you understood what I said?" Yet again, reality didn't line up with his conclusions. That was twice inside of a few minutes his calculation had been proven false. The sand was doing a little more than just interfering with his sensors.

"Musing: Interesting...I was sure my translations for the Tusken dialect were completely unfounded. The translations are probably completely off, however, as my knowledge of its acquisition is spotty at best. Appar-" HK stopped mid-sentence when something about the Tusken's reply finally hit him. It was becoming increasingly obvious that this was not a normal Tusken. If it even was one at all. "Observation: I am also not entirely sure that you are of the average Tusken variety..."

This was turning out to be a very interesting day indeed.

[Xaojii]

Xaojii heard the machine in clear Tusken once more. Well that was refreshing, it had been nearly a year since he had talked to any Tusken. "Well it is kind of a long story. But you're not very average for an Outlander construct yourself, from what I've seenof other machines." Xaojii stared at the Tusken through is scrap bandage mask. "Get used to it though. I can only speak a little bit of Jawaese and Huttese. Not very much to get around on. What kind of droid are you anyway?" The Tusken Raider asked as he looked over the droid once again.

[Regnier]

HK supposed he shouldn't be surprised. The settlers and hunters on Tatooine had proven either too poor or too stingy to opt for real combat droids. At most, he'd seen a few cheap hover-types used to take all the sport out of hunting. If you can't do it yourself, HK figured, you shouldn't be trying with help. He'd spotted a few protocol droids planetside, but most were ancient piles of broken-down scrap that could barely say a greeting in Basic anymore.

"Statement: Long stories are often best kept in the memory, not on the tongue. That was something my previous master used to say, before he met an untimely end."

If it were physically possible for him to shrug, he probably would have at this point. "Statement: It makes little difference to me what dialect we speak. The way I see it, this is an opportunity to test the extent of my ability to speak Tusken. I find it better to test that on a being that is not hostile, or would become hostile at a mis-translation." Now this was not a situation he would have expected to find himself in. Here he was, sitting in the middle of a vast desert, speaking to a Tusken. He turned his head slightly and scanned the horizon to either side, before glancing quickly behind him. Being overly-cautious had kept him functioning more than once. He turned back to the Sand Person. "Answer: I am an Arakyd Industries Model B3-6 Protocol Droid. Originally, anyways. I have been recently outfitted with several combat modifications by my previous employer and was used as more of a combat droid with protocol abilities."

So it was basically a flat-out lie. So what? Catching a droid partially designed to lie in a well-planned lie was about as easy as catching a sand-crawler with your hands. "Indignative musing: A very crude idea, if you ask me."

"Query: Now, if I might ask, in which direction is the nearest settlement? I no longer trust my own sensors."

[Xaojii]

Xaojii listened intetly and waited for the droid to finish his answer. "You seem to speak Tusken pretty well for it being experimental. Anyway I am quite the oddity I guess, not exactly sure why but I am just not wired the way the others are. I must be the first one of my people to ever have a desire to learn what else is out there and why The Outlanders came here. As for the nearest settlement... Xaojii looked around the dunes for a quick second, then up at the sky and the Twin Suns. "If I think we're in the right place, the nearest Outlander settlement should be about an hour or two that way." He said, and pointed toward the East.

[Regnier]

"Statement: That is true. In all honesty, I am still not entirely sure as to where I came in possession of the ability, and I do not believe there are many non-Tusken that can speak the language. It is most certainly something to ponder." It was odd. HK was actually starting to find himself strangely captivated by this creature before him. Usually the only being he found captivating were beings capable of unleashing mass amounts of death and cruelty. Though, the Tusken didn't seem to be any stranger to combat, so that did lend him some credit. "Observation: Indeed, I have not found many of your kind to be so open towards an outsider, or even one that was not intent on either scrapping or enslaving me."

The assassin turned slightly to follow the direction the Tusken had pointed. "Statement: Only that far? And here I was hoping to spend more time having sand erode my circuitry." He said in a cynical tone. He started East at a walk. "Statement: I suppose I should start that way while I can still walk in a straight line."

((Onward! Let us bring this strange union of sand-crusted machine and sand-crusted humanoid to the public's eye! Then we can really get into trouble))

[Xaojii]

Xaojii watched as the thinking pile of metal plod on through the desert sand, and followed shortly behind. He saw no reason why not to follow it and with it's ability to understand Tusken somehow, it should provide a valuable asset in being able to learn. "You don't mind if I tag along do you? I don't really have anywhere else to go...Maybe we can both help each other perfect our little language anomaly?"
He looked out onto the vast expanse of cream colored dunes, and up towards the bright blue sky. He had a feeling this would be alot more easier relationship than his last one.

((Alright, so where to exactly? We could be heading back the way my Tusken came from, meet up with Cyberguys fringe and go on to his Criminal plot, or we could somehow get involved in PSF and his plot. And even further still we could just go off on our own little tangent and bounty hunt across the universe developing a little team of Tusken and Droid. He seems to have a thing with droids doesn't he?))

[Regnier]

((Droidie fetish! Anyways, I was kinda thinking of Sunfire's thingie at first...if we can get involved and going with that, then I'm leaning a bit thataways.))

"Answer: I find that to be an agreeable proposition. I am currently without employment, and so have little with which to occupy my time, and I am never against learning something new that may aid me in the future." HK replied as he strode along. There was just something about this Tusken, something that told the assassin that things were going to get a little 'exciting'. Exciting often led to shooting. Shooting generally led to killing. Killing led to making HK's day.

"Request: I would, however, ask that you do not stand behind me when we come upon our destination. I cannot imagine its occupants will be too trusting of an approaching member of your species, and I most certainly do not trust most corporation guards and miners not to attempt to shoot through me. Droids are often seen as expendable. It is my opinion that more sentients are idiots than not."

[Xaojii]

"In my experience with Outlanders, they are much more shocked or too busy to shoot or notice me. They're absolutely astonished by the fact that a Tusken would be so bold or stupid to walk through their town without haste." Xaojii barked out in his alien tongue, continuing behind the droid. "But if it makes you feel any better..." He said, as he moved to the side of the robot.

After a brief second, he caught something the droid had said, and did a kind of mental double take. "What kind of roles does your kind have in the Outlander society, and why are they all so different looking? Why are they here? And why are they on other places as well? You'll have to forgive me about all these questions, but you can see what kind of a background I am coming from." He said, a little confused, but taking advantage of the first real opportunity of someone - or something able to answer all the questions he had unwittingly set out to achieve.

[Regnier]

”Concurrence: I have no doubt of that. Most of the more common sentient species in this galaxy are easily confused and do not pay much attention. Many also seem to think anything not part of their daily schedule is someone else’s problem, that someone else should take care of it. I must say, it does make certain things considerably easier.” The rusty-red droid turned his head slightly off to the side as he spoke, as his scanners picked up a somewhat large life-form a few dunes away, accompanied soon by several more. Sure enough, a wraid crested the dune in question a few seconds later, followed by the rest of its pack. He kept a wary eye on the beasts, not trusting his sensors to do it for him. The wraid were far enough off that he doubted they would be bothered by them, but…he was built to be cautious. ”However, I have long since learned that many species, humans especially, can be wildly erratic and unpredictable in some circumstances, and having been blasted before, I have also learned that there is no being too cautious.”

”Answer: The purpose of a droid is, in some way or another, to make the life of a sentient being easier. We are everywhere you will find your ‘Outlanders’ because there are few that have access to droids that are willing to do everything themselves. For instance, a protocol droid, like myself, is designed as a personal servant and a translator, while a combat droid is designed to protect and to kill, and an astromech is designed to help crew ships and make repairs, while a lifter droid is designed for manual labor. There are countless more types of us built for specific needs; in fact, just about any task you can think of in the galaxy, there has been a droid designed to do it.” HK paused. Normally he didn’t speak this much. Then again, normally he didn’t have anyone to speak this much to. It made sense, he suppose; after-all, he was originally designed with the full functionality of a protocol droid. Explaining things and answering questions weren’t what he was designed for, but that functionality was still in there, somewhere. ”As for our appearances…well, part of that is to improve our functionality at the task we were designed for. And astromech, for instance, tends to be much shorter and have bodies capable of housing many tools, while a combat model will typically be optimized for maximum effectiveness in its given arena. The other parts would be marketing and to make humanoids, the largest market, more comfortable in or presence. For instance, a human tends to be much more comfortable interacting with a protocol droid that is also humanoid, and many, or at least those with more money to spend, tend to buy models that are more physically appealing. The more expensive one's furniture appears, the more wealthy one appears in most societies.”

[Xaojii]

Sand whipped across the barren landscape, kicking up dust cyclones which passed by the two, as they walked the sun slowly set and eventually they heard activity in the distance which increased in volume. The strode through the sand and flats a while longer until they crested a dune, below which a tiny settlement nestled itself. It had about 30 houses, with shops and a cantina on both sides of the main street leading up to what was the biggest building in the town. Any sentient creature with a sense of social organization could have told you it was the City Hall, and right behind it was a shuttle port.

Xaojii paused for a moment to look down at the hamlet. It looked just the same as every other Outlander settlement he had been to. This one was larger compared to the first one he had seen, though. He turned to his mechanical friend "So, why do you need to go here? Why did you leave anyway? There are a few things to your kind I just fail to see. If you are going to the Outlander homeworld, I want to come with you." He stared off into the sunset. The one thing I'll probably miss the most. He thought remorsefully, but in his gut he also felt excited there were so many things he had experienced off world before that he was anxious to get back to it all and see it again, hopefully this time it would go by a little slower so he could take it all in a little clearly.

[Regnier]

"Answer: From here, I should be able to rapid transport to the settlement called Mos Gamos. Or at least Mos Espa, and from there to Mos Gamos. I left my personal ship there, you see, and with that, I can leave this planet and it's sand. I was not built for sand." HK replied, a hint of the annoyance he felt due to the various problems that had dotted this latest job creeping in the automaton's synthetic voice as he looked down upon the settlement. It wasn't where he needed to be, but it was a step closer, and once he returned to the Whisper, he could enact plan B on his quarry. It would be messy, but effective. Not that he personally minded messy, but his employer might. Oh well.

HK turned slightly and focused his photoreceptors on the Tusken briefly, before starting down the dune towards the settlement. "Answer: In all honesty, being a fully-autonomous and self-reliant droid can be quite expensive. In order to pay for parts and repairs to remain at peak functionality, I must, at times, take up temporary employment from companies such as the Czerka Corporation, or from the hunter's guild. In order to pay for my refueling and stocking my repair station, as well as basic repairs, I took on the work of a...hunter." It wasn't a complete lie. In fact, he had told more truths than falsities. Being autonomous was expensive, and he did often takes work from corporations. He was also currently hunting something for money, just not what most people hunted. He paused and turned slightly to regard the Tusken again. He wanted to come along? The droid contemplated briefly before answering. On the one hand, HK-52 was an assassination droid that tended to work better alone, and he doubted that he would be able to hide his true functionality for too long if he had someone tagging along. On the other hand, it was difficult to operate solo permanently; he was designed originally to have a master to come back to, not to be forever on his own, and he knew for a fact that Sand People were indeed fierce people. Perhaps some good could come out of it. Perhaps. Besides, the Tusken was quite an intriguing creature. "Statement: I believe you refer to Coruscant, the city-world. As a matter of fact, I will likely be traveling there, or at least to another more lawless city-moon, depending on how much this war going on complicates travel. I suppose I could take a passenger aboard, provided you promise to try not to get either of us into trouble, and to prove useful when the times comes."

[Jenno]

(Can I bring BO-4R into this? I think he wouldn't mind a pal or two in this crazy galaxy. Plus, he's getting tired of cleaning up all the sand...)

[Xaojii]

((Sorry, got buried. Go ahead and drag as many people into this as you want.))

Xaojii, despite anybody could see it, he smiled. He tracked along behind the droid not sure where it would lead him next, but not particularly caring anyway. "I can kill, if that's what you're asking. Was probably one of the better one amongst my entire people. I think I'll need more ammo for my weapon though. I'm not sure if you have any this one takes. The Outlander weapons are different..." He said, thinking about the colored lights that he saw coming from their weapons all his life and the first time he saw them.

[Jenno]

Sand.

Oh, how much sand.

And how messy.

It could not be cleaned. The mess was too messy.

A weary and defeated cleaning droid, B0-4R, wheeled his way through the deep sand, convinced that he had finally become obsolete, and that there was no longer any purpose for him now that he could not fulfill his noble quest to clean up the galaxy.

After running a self-diagnostic, B0-4R came to the conclusion that he would not remain active much longer under the harsh Tatooine conditions. He could turn around and perhaps find repairs, but what was the use? He had nothing to live for.

The Waste Management droid stopped amidst the sand and decided that this would be a good a place as any to die. He made one final sweep of his sensors.

...
......
.........
............
.........
......
...

........................And suddenly, B0-4R spotted something familiar in the distance. The walking mess he had met on Commenor! And beside him... a rusty old droid!

All those sand-encrusted clothings and grimy tools... the rusty and scuffed chasis of the droid. Oh, what a happy day this was for B0-4R.

Excitedly, the little droid buzzed across the sand dunes until he came into contact with his two filthy friends.

[shadow=red,left,300]"Bee-bee!"[/shadow]

[Xaojii]

Xaojii looked down, tracing the all to familiar and haunting mechanical noise to it's source. It was as he remembered; that droid. He stared down at the little wheeled menace in utter disbelief. He had no idea what happened to it, but he assumed the worst of it and his gaffi back at the bar fight. "No way! How the hell did it find me?! I thought it was shot back at the bar!!! This little heap of scrap stole my stick a while back. You can talk to it right? Ask it where it's been and what it did with my stick." He said, overexcited and a little annoyed on how the stout familiar droid managed to roll it's way through all the trouble it might have encountered in the desert.

[Regnier]

"Statement: Ammunition will not be problematic. My ship holds a device which is capable of manufacturing slugs of customizable dimensions from the proper materials. I am also quite capable of adjusting your rifle to perform even better than it was intended to." HK said after glancing the Tusken's rifle over a few times. He personally preferred blasters, but slugthrowers had their advantages. They could also be quite entertaining to injure organics with. They produced much more blood, which was always a bonus.

It was then, as the two neared the settlement, that something unexpected happened. Granted, the unexpected was beginning to become expected for HK on this dust-bowl of a planet, but that was beside the point. The assassin droid slowed and finally stopped as a beeping trash compacter came rolling across the dunes...towards them. He was too confounded to even utter a response to the droid. HK snapped back to reality, stood up straight, and glowered at the droid as his Tusken companion spoke. "Observation: BO Series Waste Transport Droid. Originally designed on Commenor, I believe. Indeed, it is very odd that such a droid should have found its way out here, let alone have sur-"

HK paused. He had dealt with a BO before, and suddenly remembered just how well they did their jobs. He glanced down at his durasteel plated chassis, which was mired by a little rust, several scores from various encounters with hostile entities, and a layer of sand. He glanced back up at the droid and took a single step back, fingering his rifle slightly. "Query: It's going to try and clean me, isn't it?"

He brought his gaze back to the Tusken. "Answer: Yes, yes, as I said, my primary function is that of a protocol droid. Binary is just one of the multitude of languages I have been programmed in. Wait a second." HK turned back to the trash droid to relay the Tusken's questions, though he doubted their would be a very satisfactory answer. "Dreeep: Dwoo wooo reet de bwoop beep deet, boop dwoooo? Deeee beep boo de dreet doop beep dreet dree doo?" (Query: Where have you been since last meeting the Sand Giant, BO Series? And what have you done with the Sand Giant's stick?)

All the while thinking If it touches me, I may have to shoot it. Was it something I did? Some balance in the galaxy I upset that is trying to right itself by giving me such strange luck? How do I find myself in these situations...?