Unusual Troubles: A Separatist Commander (STBlackST x Star Wars: The Clone Wars)

Chapter 2: The Gonk-Load

"Last one alive, lock the door!!" Richard Mann yells out on the top of his lungs as his droids cheer and charge out of the base like an unorganized mob of runners in a marathon rather than a disciplined unit. The B1-Scouts runs ahead to secure the perimeter, followed by B1-Snipers, BX-Demos, etc. before every single droid in his group has finally left the building.

After running out of the base, with the door closing shut behind them. However all that excitement and momentum they had immediately dispersed when they look over assets.

"Gonk..."

...It's a Gonk Droid that they are supposed to transport for this simulation. A single and slow power droid.

The Gonk droid just gonks idly at their presence before it then starts walking onto the desert of Geonosis. But Richard and his droids just stared at it and walked ahead of them in a very slow manner that even the slow B2-Heavy could jog ahead like it's nothing.

"...I guess that would explain why the exercise took 3 hours to complete..." Richard said to his droids, his eyes never leaving the slow Gonk Droid's walking. His droids share similar agreements.

Needless to say, they're quite unimpressed by what they're presented with. A slow walking Gonk Droid, that even a tortoise from that fairy tale would be able to outrun it!

Okay, not a good comparison considering Gonk droids walk about as fast as a person walking but you get the point.

Then again, Richard should've known this is the kind of training he should expect. After all, Admiral Trench explained it thoroughly to him and the rest of the cadets. He remembers it so well and has a good memory of the lessons taught to him. He remembers Trench's words all too well...

'Your objective is to transport the asset to the designated location here in this map. Take note you will encounter enemy forces in the way, while this is indeed a simulation, you should take this seriously. A true Commander wouldn't be so blah, blah, blah, blah...'

Blah, blah, blah — Wait... what the fu- Oh, right... Richard zoned out in those lectures and missed out so many details regarding the simulations... that's a habit he should work with.

Regardless, the whole premise of this exercise is to transport the asset (the Gonk Droid) to the specified destination while ensuring said asset isn't destroyed by enemy droids during the journey. But even then, the slowness of the droid will be a huge hindrance and he doesn't have the patience to walk to their destination for a couple of hours, especially in a desert planet like Geonosis. After all, this simulation is like a Payload from Team Fortress 2 but slower, and tedious.

The last thing he needs is to make this simulation like TueFort, god he remembers those days playing capture the flag that had matches lasting longer than 12 hours (and that's a true story that the author wishes not to remember, he's still tired from the stalemate).

But that's besides the point: they're training for the inevitable conflict that would happen eventually in years to come (well, in 2 years to be precise). If there's one thing Military-related YouTube Videos taught him is that speed is key, and a slow transportation of a Gonk Droid will be a huge hindrance to their progress.

He needs to find another angle...

Richard looks over the environment around him. He can see there is junk in the area and scrapped components and parts from what used to be part of vehicles or droids. He places a finger and thumb under his chin in thought.

He looks over the Gonk Droid, and can't help but some sense of familiarity with this kind of simulation test. Then the B1-Engineers behind him stand idly and unimpressed by the Gonk Droid's speed.