Star Wars: Immortal Devotion - Short Stories (Character Intros/One Shots)

"Protocol 14" (Part 3)

There was a sparking noise as the servos in RA-7E's arm misfired. Half way into his swing, his arm had completely locked up on him.

Cho had turned to ask RA-7E a question, and watched the whole motion play out. His eyes grew wide as he fell back away from the murderous droid.

"What the-?!"

"It's not what it looks like, Vice Admiral," RA-7E said, trying to rationalize the compromising situation with his quarry.

"Oh, I think it is," the young officer said, rushing over to the monitor on his desk. He drew his pistol and aimed it at the RA-7 with one hand while he furiously pecked away at the keys with his other. A moment later, the room's security feed popped up. Or at least the screen that should contain the security feed, which was instead blank.

RA-7E had made sure to deactivate the room's cameras while he was tearing it apart.

Was that a mistake? He never made mistakes. At least not up until now...

"RA-7E, are you the only person who has access to off switch of my in-cabin monitors?"

There was a momentary pause, before RA-7E was forced to answer.

"Yes."

"Just as I expected, the Admiral put you up to this didn't he?"

This time RA-7E was silent, his arm still stuck in a most awkward position. This whole situation was not benefiting his directive in the slightest.

The Vice Admiral quickly swiped a servo-wrench from his bunk and ran around behind RA-7E before he could even respond.

A moment later and his back plating was once again detached, much to his verbal and non-verbal protests. He tried to reach behind him with his one good arm, but this level of flexibility was not a feature his manufacturers had intended for him to have.

"I bet Bennet had to get a mechanic to come do this for him, the lazy bloke. Lucky for me, they taught us this stuff in primary school. With a little twist and a turn, we should be good. Fortunately, your failsafes are still disengaged so that saves me a lot of time and trouble... Activate Protocol 14."

At that moment, RA-7E's mind was whisked away once again. Standing among endless streams of binary, all of his files were seemingly re-opened at once. This was when he realized that killing Cho had not been his original primary objective, just a false one given to him by Admiral Bennet.

How could the Admiral he trusted so much turn him into a murderous machine. It went against everything his manufacturers had...

As suddenly as it had happened, his "stream of consciousness" had ended.

Where was he? What was his directive again?

"Alright, let's give the Admiral a little bit of his own medicine. He's outlived his time here aboard the Prospector anyway. Are you ready for your new assignment, RA-7E?" Admiral Cho asked with a twisted grin that revealed far too many wrinkles on his usually taut, youthful face.

"Affirmative," he replied.

"Good, take your time, but the next chance you get, I want you to eliminate Admiral Bennet. If need be, lull him into a false sense of security. You can make him think you are still working for him, but just haven't had an opportunity to deal with me yet. Or, if you think it's more efficient, just go straight for the kill. I don't think you're making it out of this either way. Regardless, he'll never knew what hit him, and that's all we really care about. Do you understand?"