The Benevolence of the Force by Spiritofthesky4 (WILL RETURN)

Chapter 6: Taberna

The truck bounced on the uneven dirt road, and Obi-Wan grabbed the handle above the door to keep himself from flying out of the seat.

I took the road (more like rocky path) that headed in the direction of the field. Tup poked his head into the front seat.

"Hey, Viria," He began. "Where are we gonna get materials to fix the ship?"

"That's a good point, Tup," Obi-Wan put in. "I, myself, have been wondering as well."

"Home Depot, maybe?" I was silent for a moment, considering. What if they need weird space machine things to get it working? Will they be stranded here? I decided not to share this worrying prospect. "I think we should wait to see what exactly is wrong with the ship first. But yeah, maybe Home Depot."

"What's Home Depot?" Dogma asked.

"A store. That sells, like stuff that you use to fix stuff and build stuff."

He nodded.

I turned the truck right and parked it, hopping out with a little less dignity than I would've liked. Lula followed Tup and Dogma out of the backseat.

The field, covered in snow, glittered in the sunlight. Beside me, Obi-Wan squinted.

"Bright out here," he remarked. I nodded, and we began to make our way to the wreckage of the ship. Lula pounced through the snow in a mad dance to catch the chunks of snow that flew into the air as we walked, and soon the hulking mass at the other end of the field gained clarity.

In the (too bright) light of day, I could see that the ship was significantly more damaged than I thought. The once-pale sides of the LAAT/i gunship had been blackened by smoke and fire and every single turret had sustained some kind of damage ranging from being bent or dented to being broken off completely. The windshield was shattered in totality. What was most worrying, though, was the right wing. Or what was left of it. Warped metal rested in the snow beneath the smashed side of the gunship. Ahsoka sprinted toward it and ducked inside the mangled doorway.

I cringed. That doesn't look good.

"Unfortunate," Anakin noted flippantly. "It may take a tad bit longer than two weeks to repair. Do you have a welding rod? And spare scrap metal?"

"Wait, what? How much longer?" Kix demanded. "We're needed in the war effort, we can't spend forever out here!"

Anakin stared at the semblance of a ship, one hand on his hip. "Maybe... three weeks if we're fast. And have all the materials"

"And if we're not?" Obi-Wan questioned.

"Probably more than a month." Ahsoka popped out of the gunship. "Master, I found 3PO and R2!"

Anakin raced to join her and shouted over his shoulder. "It'll probably go faster once we have my droids back!"

"We– we have a war to fight," Kix said helplessly. "We can't spend a month here."

"Not that it's bad here," Fives interjected, elbowing his brother. "We thank you for your hospitality."

"Of course," I smiled. "Kix, I promise, we'll have you back to the Star Wars galaxy faster than you can say 'may the Force be with you.'"

"Star Wars," Hardcase muttered. " Star Wars. No offense, but that's actually a really dumb name."

I snickered. "Yeah... that's true. But at this point, it's so ingrained in our world's culture that we don't really notice it anymore."

A crash drew our attention. Anakin and Ahsoka seemed to have dropped R2-D2 on top of C-3PO while carrying the droids out of the gunship.

"Some help would be appreciated !" Anakin shouted, glaring at the rest of us. Rex and Kix rushed over. "Hey, not you, Rexy boy," he scolded. "You should be getting groceries! Hardcase, c'mere."