Star Wars Rebels - Gleam of Hope (English Version)

Uproar of the droids

Miaka ate alone in the large common room. It wasn't exactly deserted, but she'd rather sit in a quieter corner far away from the others. As always, she could do well without the company of pirates.
"Miaka, I have a mission for you."
Startled, Mia turned around. She hadn't even noticed that Talak had approached her! Swallowing a bite of food, she tried to keep her expression as calm as possible. "What is it?"
The leader of this wonderful gang of pirates took a seat across from her and looked at her intently. "You have to do something for me and this time you will go alone, so be careful when I explain the plan to you!"
"Alone? Just me, all alone? ", Mia asked in astonishment. First of all, she wasn't sure whether she wanted to throw herself in some situation all by herself, especially since the plan came from Talak. On the other hand, she was surprised that he really wanted to let her go completely alone, where he no longer had any control over her.
"Yes, you will be all on your own. You are old enough to take care of yourself! Apart from that, I need everyone else here, because we are preparing a boarding and, as you know, it simply cannot be postponed", explained the pirate, unmoved.
"And this mission for me alone cannot be postponed either?", she asked.
Talak smiled. "Are you that attached to us, my dear Miaka, that you are afraid of missing us terribly?"
Mia crossed her arms. "Certainly not! But when there's an awful plan, I hate to go through it al alone. Especially if the plan didn't even come from me! "
"Oh, the plan allows you a little bit of freedom of movement, so feel free to change it into a plan that is more to your liking", Talak replied with a shrug. Apparently, he was not impressed by her argument and still convinced of his idea.
Sighing, Mia accepted her situation. "And what exactly is the plan? What can't wait for us? "
"I want you to get me a droid", Talak said bluntly.
Mia blinked at him in confusion. "A droid?" As far as she knew, the pirates had never owned a droid and she wondered where he suddenly got the idea. The poor droid who was supposed to deal with these bullies ... Mia already felt sorry for it!
"Yes, a droid. But not just any, but a battle droid like the ones they used in the Clone Wars", the pirate continued. He sounded as if it were all pretty obvious.
But Mia just looked at him with a surprised expression and understood nothing. "For what purpose...?"
"That will be cleared up in due time", Talak waved off. "The fact is that I found a dealer who came to have such a battle droid in his collection and I want you to pick it up. Since those droids are all but extinct, I want to do that before anyone else thinks of buying it. So we'll do it right away. The planet this trader lives on is mostly a garbage dump, so you won't find anything that could cause problems."
Or where it was easy to disappear and start over, Mia thought. She was wondering what Talak wanted with a battle droid, but he obviously didn't intend to go into detail now. She had no choice but to leave without this nice little background information. How wonderful...
"And when exactly should I do that?", she asked resignedly.
"Oh, we should be there soon, then we'll drop you off and take care of our mission. We'll come and pick you up again, don't worry", Talak replied and got up from his seat.
"Great, but when and ..." And Talak had already left. How could she have assumed, even for a moment, that she would have some rest for a day? No, instead she had to haul some fossil of a droid. Single-handedly. Just wonderful.
~
A little later, Mia stood at the hatch and waited for the ship to land. She still didn't like the plan, but when had she ever liked a pirate plan? Basically, she was surprised that some of them actually worked.
She looked up when someone approched her. At first, she had assumed it was Talak, but she was wrong. It was Kal. "What are you doing here?", she wanted to know, quite puzzled.
"A warm welcome, thank you very much. I'll go with you! ", he explained with a smile.
Mia raised an eyebrow. "Really? Talak told me I had to go through this alone."
Kal nodded. "Right, that was the original plan. I heard about it and thought I would go along with it. A man more or less does not matter with this boarding and I thought you could use my help more urgently. "
"Just to be clear, I am able to pick up a droid, which is so old that it was retired ages ago, all on my own", Mia remarked. " But your company might not be that bad. "
"That's exactly what I thought!", Kal confirmed with satisfaction.
She really wasn't angry about the fact that he was accompanying her. She had never liked the thought of having to do this alone and of all the pirates Kal was probably by far the best option. After getting to know each other a bit, they had often spent time together and Mia almost dared to call him a friend. At least in thought.
The ship landet and the hatch opened. Mia looked around, wanted to wait and see if Talak wanted to give her a little more detailed information after all. But apparently that was not the case. Nobody cared to join them.
So she and Kal set off together. Shortly after they left the hatch, the Vanquisher took off again and left them behind.
"Wow, this planet really isn't a feast for the eyes", Kal muttered.
Mia also looked around and could only agree with him. From her position at least, only mountains of junk could be seen. She didn't know if the whole planet looked like it did here, but as far as she could tell, this scene stretched over a very wide area.
"Do you know where we can find this dealer?", Mia wanted to know. Talak really shouldn't have been so canny with his information ...
"Not exactly. But I think we have to go into that direction", Kal answered and started walking.
Sighing, Mia followed him. Her first instinct was not to trust in such loose declarations on this strange planet, but then she would have stayed there forever, because she herself had absolutely no clue as to where this dealer was to be found.
~
Somehow Kal and Miaka managed to find this ominous dealer. If nothing else because at a certain point he had kindly placed signs between all the junk to point customers in the right direction. Even if Mia couldn't imagine that someone got lost out here very often.
"What exactly does the plan entail? Do we have to negotiate? Did Talak give us enough credits?", Mia wanted to know. To be honest, she had no idea how much someone should charge for a long-retired battle droid. On the other hand, they were rare and that might make them valuable to some weird collectors.
"Oh, Talak didn't give me any credits", Kal replied with a shrug.
Mia stopped. "Wait ... what? But ... has he already paid the dealer? "
Kal shook his head. "Certainly not!"
"But then how are we supposed to get the droid? He won't give it to us for free!", Mia interjected. What did she expect? After all, it was a pirate plan ...
"I guess we have to convince him. Surely you can think of something", Kal said confidently.
"Is that the reason why he picked me of all people for this job? How does Talak imagine me doing it? How do you imagine that?" At least it explained why Talak had said that the plan was open for changes, that she was shaping it. Now she wished that wasn't the case.
"I don't know, but I bet you can think of something. I can distract the dealer by having them tell me about their models. The rest is up to you", Kal replied. At that moment, Mia was bothered by how relaxed he looked. He wasn't the one who had to conjure up some brilliant plan!
Without waiting for her to come up with an idea, Kal walked over to the small, rather shabby-looking shop and entered. Mia tried to keep up with him because she didn't want to be left alone outside either. Maybe once she saw that droid she could think of something.
In the shop it didn't look much different than outside. Everywhere layed piles of stuff that didn't look very useful but were supposed to serve some purpose that had given it a place in here. In between, Mia spotted droids. Some of them were switched off and their extinguished eyes stared into space. Others looked at them as they passed but had retaining bolts that held them in place. It almost felt like a slave auction for droids!
"Hello? Is anyone here?", Kal asked into the room after they still hadn't seen anyone.
Suddenly a Rodian poked his head out from among all the odds and ends. "Who's there?", he wanted to know suspiciously.
"Customers, provided this really is a shop and not a random storage location", Kal replied, who didn't seem to like this suspicious tone.
"Yes! Of course!" The Rodian didn't seem too impressed by that. He got up and patted his hands on his pants. "What are you looking for?"
"My friend and I are looking for a droid. But not this standard stuff, we could have gotten everywhere else. We're asking for ... something special ", the pirate explained.
"Ah! You have come to the right place, yes! I can show you what kind of models I have!", the salesman quickly explained and seemed very enthusiastically all of a sudden. He probably really didn't get a lot of customers here, or people in general.
"Gladly. Oh, but could my friend just take a look around here in the meantime? Maybe she'll discover something else useful while we're here", Kal interjected.
The Rodian gave Mia a scrutinizing look. She smiled kindly and waved. Apparently that was enough for him and he didn't consider her to look like a threat. "Yes, then follow me. I have a lot more models in the back than the ones standing around here. "
Kal glanced at Mia over the shoulder before disappearing with the dealer, leaving her alone with the junk and a handful of droids. So now it was time for the plan, just too bad she didn't really have one.
Why didn't anyone classify her as a threat? Did she seem that harmless? Or did she just look so inconspicuous next to the pirates?
She'd better worry about how she should get the droid. She hadn't seen it yet, but it could also be that it was in the back of the camp, which Kal was now allowed to see.
She aimlessly wandered around the store. They needed a distraction so they could leave with the battle droid ... it shouldn't be that difficult!
Her gaze caught on one of the droids standing around here. If she wasn't mistaken, it was an old maintenance droid. It was switched off.
She walked over there and crouched down in front of him. It had clearly seen better days, was dented and scratched in places, and no longer shone like newer models. Still, Mia found it sad that he just stood around here. Those poor droids. Surely they didn't like it here either ...
Maybe....
Maybe Mia could solve both of their problems! Or it would end in disaster, but what did that matter?
She switched on the little maintenance droid. He slowly came to life, waving his many arms around.
"Hey, hey, it's alright!" Mia tried to calm him down.
It actually seemed to work. It went quite still and looked up at her.
"Hey, little friend ... Z-608?" At least that was what it said on its outer shell if she deciphered it correctly. Since the droid didn't protest, she assumed it was his name. "I have a suggestion on how we could help each other! I have a plan to help you and the other droids. I just want to take a battle droid with me. He should be somewhere in the back of the camp. "
The droid hummed excitedly, and Mia took that for approval. Maybe her plan could actually work out after all.
"I thought you could help out the other droids standing around here. I don't know if they are all fully functional, we have to see that, but maybe you can even do something about that. And then, we just have to get rid of the retaining bolts! You're not that big either, maybe you can make it to the camp unnoticed and reactivate a few friends there also", she explained to him.
Immediately the droid rolled off with a beeping sound. Apparently he was excited about her plan. That really had never happened to her before. Droids were so much better than most other people Mia had ever met!
She rushed off to help Z-608, at least she could turn on a few droids, most of which looked intact, at least enough to work. The small maintenance droid was also able to remove the retaining bolts and this way many different droid models gradually came to life.
Z-608 was talking to them and Mia really hoped that he would explain the plan to them. She got a friendly whistle from most droids and took that as a good sign.
Soon it scurried back into the camp. The larger droids stayed with Mia. Apparently, they knew they should wait before starting a big riot.
Droids were actually a lot easier to work with than pirates!
~
At some point Mia heard strange noises coming from the camp and as if on a command that she had not heard, the droids started moving. She just decided to follow them.
At camp she quickly found Kal and the dealer, both rather perplexed by the sudden arrival of the droids. Admittedly, some of them looked pretty angry and Mia couldn't blame them. They pushed the dealer with his back to a wall and Mia waved Kal over to her. The pirate looked at her a bit worried, but she nodded encouragingly and the droids actually let him get past. They had an vendetta with the dealer, they didn't really care about the pirate.
"How did you do that?", Kal wanted to know, astonished, when he had fought his way to Mias side.
"A little feminine persuasion that Talak is so convinced I have?", she suggested.
Kal grinned at her. "Oh, actually it doesn't matter, it's definitely a distraction! The guy looks like he's about to faint. Apparently he would not have thought that these droids would resent him so much. "
"Seems like it ... do you know where that battle droid is? Did you see him?" Mia wanted to know. After all, they hadn't just come here to ruin a man's business by starting a riot.
"Yes! I saw him! He's here... right... over there..." Kal pointed to a spot that was pretty empty now. The battle droid must have been activated as well. But Mia couldn't see him in the crowd around the Rodian.
"Z-608 said I should come with you."
Startled, Mia and Kal turned around and faced the battle droid. He also looked a bit battered and he was missing a weapon - for which Mia was actually very grateful at that moment. "Um ... exactly! Is that okay with you? "
"I guess if I was the price on that deal, I can't say anything against it", the droid replied. Mia really couldn't tell whether this fact bothered him or not.
"Doesn't matter! We have what we wanted! Let's get out of here!", Kal replied impatiently. He grabbed Mia by the arm and wanted to pull her with him when he was angrily faced by several droids.
"Ah, I see you've made new friends," he muttered and let go of Mia again.
"Seems like it ..." She almost wanted to stay, even though this planet was a junk heap. But Kal was right, they had what they came for and it was time to leave. This wasn't a place to hide. Not for her anyway. "Let's get out of here!"
~
With Kal and the battle droid, Mia returned to the place where they had been dropped off. Or at least in that direction - it was difficult to say exactly, since everything pretty much looked the same around here.
Mia felt a bit uncomfortable to have a battle droid with her, which had caused an incredible amount of devastation in the Clone Wars, but he seemed somehow peaceful next to them. But she was afraid that that could quickly change once he was in Talak's hands.
"You did a nice job with the distraction", Kal finally praised her while they waited for them to be picked up.
"Oh, I hardly did anything. Actually we should have thanked Z-608. The little one did a great job", Mia waved him off. She would have loved to take him with them too. What should Talak have against a small maintenance droid? But because she liked him, she wouldn't take him on the Vanquisher. Then she would willingly expose him to a torment for which he was not built. "What do you think will become of the droids? Will the dealer overwhelm them and everything will be like it was before our visit? Or do the droids escape and start over somehow?" They would hardly find a new owner out here, but with all the junk lying around, they could possibly do something.
"There is also the possibility that the dealer could master the situation and scrap them all as a punishment or drag them out into this stinking world to rust or something", Kal replied calmly.
Mia looked at him in dismay. "Do you really think that will happen?"
He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know and actually I don't care. Why should I care about their fate? Yes, they helped us and that was really nice, thanks for that. But now everyone goes their seperate ways and that's a good thing. If I think about them, it doesn't help them any more than if I just let it be. So why bother? "
Maybe Kal was right, it made no difference. Still, Mia couldn't just stop thinking about it, she liked these droids ... but it was true, there was nothing more she could do for them. "I ..." She wanted to say something anyway but couldn't think of anything that was really convincing.
"Oh, Miaka, you still have a lot to learn", Kal sighed and leaned back on the large piece of metal he was sitting on.