Work Text:
“The next time I’m planning my vacation—it has to be Sullust!”
Your joke got a laugh out of Cal, he doesn’t seem to have a clapback for this one. Through your comlinks, Cere briefed again about the mission: a group of rebel pilots have been stranded there for weeks. She has managed to fish out the confiscated distress signal from the Imperial communications archives. The Empire already established a rig in the planet—similar to what they did to most planets you’ve been to already.
“Any idea what they could be extracting this time?” Cal asked.
“Can’t say for sure. Sullust was a major player in exporting fighter and transport ships, the Empire could be using them to replenish their fleet.”
“Okay, we’ll let you know if we find anything more,”
“You two be careful out there.”
“Always,” you reassured her.
You traversed through the terrain and searched for the Imperial rig. It was a long hike ahead, but it wasn’t easy to miss the gigantic metal towers and heavy-duty equipment plastered on the rock faces. Before getting to the main excavation, there were bases and checkpoints scattered before one could even reach the facility.
With the help of BD-1, he slices the control terminal of the blast doors. You finally managed to quietly infiltrate the first of many bases—in your case, you’ve stepped into a hangar. There were two Stormtroopers standing at the front of the door—but they had their backs turned. Force-pulling each one to yourselves and then piercing your lightsabers through their bodies all in perfect unison, you jumped onto the other unsuspecting troopers.
“Something’s wrong, can you sense it too?” You asked Cal.
“Yeah, we best be prepared for it,”
A sudden buzzing sound made you jump. It was coming from one of the dead Stormtrooper, in his slightly open hand, a comlink was left on. By the time you’ve realized that he’s called reinforcements, they have actually arrived.
More Stormtroopers started flooding through the blast doors—along with two Purge Troopers for good measure.
“Up and above!”
You deflected the blasters of the troopers above you, when they’ve swamped the upper platform, you Force-lifted and hurled some of them off the rails. Cal collected all the enemies around him and lobbed his lightsaber, the weapon sawing down the enemies in a clean, circular sweep. He eventually got too preoccupied with battling the electrohammer Purge Trooper. He didn’t realize that the Purge Trooper has danced into the hallway and practically lured Cal away from you.
Meanwhile, an Imperial security droid has taken advantage on both of your engagements with the other enemies.
Fortunately, BD-1 was able to stop the Imperial security droid from clobbering you on the back of the head, he lightly sprang from his perch on Cal’s back and started short-circuiting the droid. It flailed around at first, clumsily spinning around in the hopes of grappling BD; the Imperial security droid even managed to destroy the blast door terminal in the process—separating you and BD-1 from Cal, who was still engaging the Purge Trooper in the hallway.
“[Y/N]! BD-1!” Cal cried through the sealed blast doors. He had no choice but continue on with the fight.
“NO!” you cried to nothing in particular, but seeing the situation, it’s appropriate that you were referring to both Cal and BD-1.
The Imperial droid finally caught BD-1 before he could actually finish the deed. You turned around after cutting down a Scout Trooper and saw the Imperial droid versus BD-1.
“BD!” you cried.
When you heard BD-1’s metal frame make a crunching noise from the enemy droid’s skinny but powerful grip, you immediately crippled it—severing its legs and then a diagonal cut across its body. It lifelessly fell down to the ground, still having BD-1 in its grip. You knelt down the dead droid and removed its fingers around BD-1.
“BD-1?!”
He gave a weak trill. His lens were cracked, the blue light on his eye was slowly fading, tiny sparks were sputtering out of his circuits and wires—the same wires popped out of the cracks of his legs’ metal plating due to the shattering grip of the security droid. You could only hope that his internal parts weren’t too damaged.
“No… no, no, no…” you gasped erratically.
You gently scooped him up your hands, careful not to let any of his loose parts and limbs fall off. You desperately searched for a workbench. In the spacious hangar, you spotted one across from where you stood. Without a moment’s notice, you sprinted towards it while gently carrying BD.
“Hang on, buddy, I’m going to fix you. I promise!”
“[y/n]? Where are you? Are you all right?” Cal’s voice crackled through your comlink speaker.
You were a stuttering, panicking mess when answering.
“I… I-I’m fine, but BD isn’t. I’m already working on him, I just need spare parts!”
The hangar was all but empty—not counting the bodies of the carnage that ensued minutes ago—until a mechanical beeping made your ears prick up. It was a black astromech droid. You Force-pulled it toward you with great haste, apologizing to it before it could even register what was happening to it. You tore off its metal plating, exposing the wires; digging through its tangled mess of circuits, a few lengths of its wiring seemed to have matched BD-1’s. You carefully tugged it from the roots until you got the full measure of the wires. You gathered whatever you could salvage from the astromech droid and even from the security droid that choked BD-1 to near death.
After collecting what you could from whatever droid on sight—whether working or decommissioned—you put them down on the workbench. There were small but crucial parts left around on the drawers, much to your luck.
“Okay, okay,” you fretted as you tried calming yourself down.
You pulled out your utility belt strewn with tools. This was your first time actually working on BD-1. You’ve seen Cal do it many times over, you only learned from watching afar; fortunately, you’ve had some knowledge in being a mechanic. The soldering iron sparked and sizzled as it welded the wires, carefully weaving the cables that were supposed to go here and there, and for the finishing touch—fitting the new lenses into his sensors. Finally hotwiring him before sealing the metal plating shut, the minute of silence felt like an hour.
Physically, your chest heaved as your heart continue to rise and then sink repeatedly. On the inside, you were fervently praying that the light in his sensors would flicker. It was starting to look bleak, you were losing hope but you were fighting it.
No, you’ll wake! Come on, buddy!
We need you. Cal needs you.
I need you.
So please… wake up, BD-1.
Your knees melt to the ground, your arms doing what little they can to keep you ledged onto the table although your grip was ebbing. Your body limps to the floor, the foot of the workbench supporting your back, a heavy sigh escapes your lungs as you rest the back of your head on the edge of the table.
“I’m sorry,” you sobbed. “I couldn’t do it…”
You hugged your legs to your chest, propped your forehead on your knees, burying your face in shame. The sounds around you were suddenly shut out from your ears. Your hair draped the sides of your face, obscuring you from your surroundings. All you just want to do now is just pass out—a pommel to the head or blacking out from overstressing, either way worked for you.
BD-1 is gone. You failed him. You couldn’t fix him.
“Perhaps I’m not a good mechanic after all,” you miserably groaned to yourself.
Without you knowing, the blue light in BD-1’s lens slowly glowed back to life until it stayed on. He was rebooting: his scanners were still at their optimum performance, the antennas weren’t that damaged, and the internal damage level sank below critical level. BD-1 was getting a feel of his newly-repaired legs. He heard you sobbing at the bottom of the workbench.
He tilts his little head, wondering why you were crying, and he realizes that you attempted to fix him and it worked. He didn’t understand what you were sad about. He excitedly scampered down the table and nudged your legs with his little head. You felt the pressing metal against your calf. Pulling yourself together, you craned your head up and saw BD-1 alive and well.
You blinked a thousand times to prove that it wasn’t just the lights playing tricks. You reached for BD-1, hoping that you will touch the real thing. Your fingers felt his metal plating, the cylinder of his left eye, and his antennas.
“BD-1!!!” you exclaimed, the heaviness in your heart quickly dissolving.
He happily hopped onto your knees, nuzzling you on the head like a puppy and you try your best not to crush him a second time in your hug. Seeing him finally alive, discovering that your attempt worked, just washed away all the hopelessness that overtook you mere minutes ago.
You picked him up and let him perch onto your back.
“Come on, buddy, we have to meet up with Cal. You can rest easy along the way,”
He fondly beeps back and tucked his legs as he grabbed tight onto you. Making your way to the platform where you’ve hurled off Stormtroopers a few feet above the ground, a good Jedi flip and a tight grip afforded you to reach the rail of the platform; taking the direction that leads further into the bowels of the corridors, you relied on the Force in search for Cal. He wasn’t replying back on his comlink. However, you could feel that he was near.
These corridors were a labyrinth. As much as possible, you stalked through the hallways avoiding as much trouble as you can, engaging only when necessary; when you notice that you were about to close in on an intersection, your caution doubled—your hand searched for your hilt hanging on the belt hoop of your pants as you stepped closer while hugging the wall.
When you were about to emerge from the corner, you’ve snapped off your hilt from your belt, your thumb hovered about the switch; you counted to three, took a deep breath and stepped out of hiding behind the wall, instantaneously igniting your saber… at Cal.
Cal appeared before you in the exact same stance as you—with lightsaber at the ready—but when he saw that it was you and BD-1, he immediately switched off his weapon and you did the same.
“BD! Oh thank God, you’re okay,”
BD-1 leapt from your shoulder to Cal’s arms. He cradled the little droid tenderly and examined him; while doing so, his little droid chirped, beeped, and trilled so quickly that Cal couldn’t catch most of what BD was conveying. All he could pick up from what BD told him is that you saved him from an Imperial security droid and salvaged parts to save him. Cal found the changes almost unnoticeable.
“Did she now?”
“I… I did what I could,” you shyly replied.
You feel Cal’s body thump against yours, his arms wrapping the small of your back, and BD-1 doing his best to hug you by nuzzling his head against your cheek while perched onto your shoulder.
“BD said he knew he could always count on you,” Cal whispered in your ear. “The same way I could always count on you.”
Your cheeks flushed and your heart skipped a beat at the same time. BD vouched for Cal’s claim, softly whistling in agreement.
“You’re very welcome, BD-1,” you reached to pat his head.
After the intimate group hug, you nodded at BD-1.
“Let’s find those rebel pilots, bud!”
BD-1 happily obliged, watching his little feet scamper their way through the hallways as he gleefully chirps while leading you and Cal to where the stranded pilots were held captive awaiting for rescue.