Short Story Collection

Star Wars: The Life of a Battle Droid

I stood beside my fellow battle droids with a blaster in my metal hand. We stood in silence as we waited for the Republic to fall into our trap.

The commander had instructed us to set up an ambush, on Count Dooku's orders, so we had. We now waited behind dusty rocks and up on high ravine ledges for the Jedi and clones to show up.

It was unnaturally quiet. The land was silent, no wind whistled and no animals chattered. No one talked, or dared to even move.

"Sir, the Jedi still haven't arrived," I informed my commander, my voice sounding loud in the quiet land. The commander was the same colouring as all of us. A metallic tan but also had a yellow spot on the top of his head and chest along with yellow strips going down his arms, indicating his rank.

"Keep watching. They'll show up eventually," he ordered, turning to look at me.

"But sir, I think they know of our plan," I worried.

"Keep watching. We still have our orders,"

"Roger roger," I nodded my head and continued to watch for the enemy.

I didn't like it. We had been informed that the Jedi were heading to our position and would arrive soon. That had been over fifteen minutes ago.

My gut was telling me that something was wrong, but I was only programmed to follow orders and that was what I was going to do.

We continued to wait. More time passed and by now everyone was starting to get restless. Even though we were unsure, we still held our position, per our orders.

"The Jedi are behind-" a battle droid suddenly yelled from behind us, breaking the silence, before being cut off in the middle of his sentence. The familiar sound of a lightsaber filled the air.

Everyone turned around to see a female Jedi standing with a blue lightsaber drawn and a dead battle droid dead at her feet. The Jedi was a Twi'lek with light blue skin. She held her single lightsaber with both of her hands above her head in a fighting stance. Her eyes narrowed and her face was filled with determination. She looked rather calm despite the fact that she was standing before an army of armed battle droids.

Behind the female Jedi stood a small army of clone troopers, all with a blaster in their hands. Their familiar white armor glistening in the sun.

"Attack the Jedi!" The commander yelled. Instantly everyone started firing at the Jedi and her clone troopers.

The clones fired back at us without hesitation while the Jedi deflected our shots back into our ranks. Her lightsaber was a blur of blue in her hand, her movements flawless. Blaster fire filled the air as blue and red shots were exchanged between the two sides.

I had been right, something had been wrong. The Jedi had some how known of our ambush and had made a plan to use our own trap against us. It was a very smart and cunning move on their part.

Our force advanced on the enemy, shooting all the while. I fired shot after shot, aiming quickly. I struck down a few clones but one of my shots was deflect back at me by the Jedi and hit the droid to my right. I didn't flinch as he fell to the ground with a scorched mark on his metal chest. The droids on the sides of the ravine rained down, either getting shot off by a clone or the occasional grenade. The Jedi used the Force to pull them off also and sent them falling to their deaths.

Both droids and clones fell to the ground dead from the bombardment of the shots from the opposing side. Clones called out to their fallen comrades and pulled the wounded from the war zone. I watched as the commander fell to the ground too. As I looked around the battlefield, I realized that I was the only one of our group still standing. Not even the droids on the ravine ledge were still functioning.

A shadow covered me despite the clear sky. I looked up slowly, my grasp weakening on my gun.

"Uh-oh," I said slowly, my mechanical voice filled with shock as I watched the Jedi descend upon me.

As the lightsaber plunged into my metal skin, I realized that there was more to this war then just programming and orders, but also instincts and reasoning, both of which I should have followed.