Chapter 1
"Darn!"
Rusty yelped, and he dropped the wrench he had been holding curled in his tail as an arc of electricity shot from the damaged starship to it. He looked at the blackened, frizzled fur on the tip of his tail, and licked in in a delicate way.
"Luke?" a human called from within the house behind where Rusty sat.
"Lukey, are you okay?"
"How many times do I have to tell you, my name is RUSTY!" Rusty called back. He knew it was no use, though. Humans couldn't understand his speech. No cat could speak Galactic Basic, which was a pity. It would help a lot. There were not that many humans in this system, because of the Star Warriors. Few brave ones had decided to stay on this small planet, and a few kept cats of their own. The cats, like Rusty, were intelligent, and capable of a lot of things. Rusty had a knack for fixing his owner's broken electronic and technological devices.
Rusty looked back at the heap of metal and shook his head. If only he could tell his owner that it would cost more to fix than to buy a whole new starship.
Oh well, he thought.
Where would we get another one on this tiny planet anyways? A human walked out of a dome-like house and walked up to Rusty. The dusty sand that he kicked up make Rusty wrinkle his nose.
"What happened?" the human asked. Rusty waved his burnt tail at him.
"Oh, let me go get you some water to soak it in, then you can come inside. We can work on that old thing later." Rusty's owner smiled, and walked back into the small home. Rusty looked through the metal fence that surrounded the yard. After a moment's hesitation, he clambered up onto one of the rods that supported it, claws slipping on the metal. He finally pulled himself to the top, and gazed out over the desert. Way off in the distance, a mountain range lurked. But, save for that, all Rusty could see on every side was an endless sea of sand.
"Oh," he sighed. "Will I ever get off this rock? Or at least get to those mountains." Then, he thought of his owner. Rusty couldn't just abandon him when he needed Rusty to fix his ship.
Sighing again, just as the sun touched the horizon, Rusty jumped from his perch, a cool evening breeze ruffling his fur. In that moment, he could feel something, something monumental, and he knew that, for sure, something would happen soon.
******
That night, Rusty had the strangest dreams.
First, he was in a starship... No, he was flying
a starship. The steering mechanism had a flat
part that he could clumsily grasp with his
small thumbs. He looked out of the
cockpit window, and saw that he was in
the middle of a battle. Rusty veered
sideways to avoid laser bullets, and
as he did so, he felt something bump
his flank. He looked back.
There was a strange metal cylindrical object
hanging from a belt around his waist. It had
several buttons on it, and he had no idea what
it was. Right when he was going to check
it out, though, a stray laser hit the ship.
He was falling.... Suddenly, he landed in the
middle of a forest of swaying trees.
Rusty gasped, and looked around, reveling in
the feel of the cool greenish light filtering in
through the leaves. One of his ears twitched.
A rustling sound came from below a tree near
him. Rusty instinctivly lowered his body to
the ground and crept closer. He got into
position silently for a moment, then
pounced....
That was when he woke up, and hit his nose on the side of his metal-framed cat bed.
"Hmmph," he muttered, and rubbed his nose.
"That was the strangest dream I've ever had." But, despite that fact, Rusty couldn't help but wish that the dream had lasted longer.
He went to get a drink from the small cat fountain, then went over to his food dish, where some of the brown pellets he ate were automatically dispensed by a machine. He took a mouthful and chewed thoughtfully. After that, Rusty went and found his owner listening to some news on the telecomputer. He curled up beside him to watch.
******
Some months previously, ThunderClan's cats started to worry. Too many of their cats had been dying, and Bluestar, the Grand Leader, was desperate for an answer from the stars.
"StarClan, where are you?" she whispered.
"What are you worrying about now?" a small, tortoishell cat with beautiful fur asked, padding up beside Bluestar.
"Oh Spottedleaf," she whispered. "StarClan has been so silent, and our Clan needs strong new blood to help it. I fear we may have a lot of trouble coming up soon."
Spottedleaf touched her nose to Bluestar's ear. "As the Clan's Healer Cat, I promise I will do everything I ca--" She broke off and stiffened, eyes glazed with starlight.
"Fire alone is our only hope," she whispered, still fixated on the heavens above.
"What did you say?" Bluestar asked her, not daring to hope for what she thought she had heard.
"StarClan has spoken at last!" Spottedlead's eyes sparkled.
"Fire alone is our only hope."
******
Rusty woke with a start. His human had left the couch a while ago, judging by how cold the seat was. He stretched, yawned, and jumped down. It was dusk once more.
"I almost slept the whole day!" Rusty yelped. He padded out the back door, and a dry wind swept across the sand, rattling the dry brush and rustling Rusty's fur. The sun was sinking, but it was still fairly light out.
Suddenly, he caught a flicker of movement out across the desert. His ears perked up, and he sniffed. But he smelled nothing, and the flash was gone. He sat down and stared at his paws, puzzling over what he had just seen.
"Luke!" a voice called. Rusty jumped up and trotted back into the building.
"Can you go out and get me a new droid tomorrow?" his owner asked. "I'll give you a note to carry, and you can pick one up. One of those old arthromech droids should be good." Rusty was fairly confused. Why would my owner have any need of an astromech droid? But of course, Rusty could say nothing.
He next morning, Rusty leaped lightly from his bed. He had had the weird dream as the previous night, and was still pondering it when his owner walked up to him.
"Morning, Luke!" the human called. Rusty looked unamused at this statement, but didn't bother trying to correct him.
"Ready to run me that errand?" His owner kneeled down, and handed Rusty a small slip of paper. Rusty, upon taking the paper, purred to show he understood.
"Alright, now go!" the human said, and laughed as Rusty padded out of the open door.
It was a very small civilization, and there were few shops and houses for humans. The cats had dominated this star system, and all the people knew it. Most buildings were small, dome-shaped structure with metal frames and clay over that. A few people bustled about but other than that, it was quiet.
Rusty padded into the first shop he saw. It looked promsing, since it had rusted mechanics all out front. He leaped onto a table, but the shop owner wasn't that startled. They had grown accustomed to having cats in their shops.
"What can I do for you, cat?" the man asked. He was flopped in a veru old chair, and was absentmindedly tinkering with scraps of metal. Rusty put down his owner's note, and the man read it.
"Right this was," he said, and led Rusty into a back room. It was filled with old droids of all sorts. They eventually got over to a corner, where a small astromech droid sat. It took a while for the fairly short man to scramble over everything.
"How's this, an old R2 unit?" he asked, and Rusty purred his response. A button was pushed, and the droid flickered to life, and beeped loudly at Rusty. Rusty, who was very interested, sniffed the hard metal robot, and they both looked like they were getting to know each other.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a bright gold droid that had the form of a cat popped up, sending the R2 droid falling over and Rusty up a stack of boxes, hissing.
"I must say I was getting very worried, stuck under there," the cat droid said in a tinny voice in Galactic Basic. "Many thanks for activating me."
The shop owner looked at the gold droid, and said "No problem.... What is your number?"
"I am C3-PO, a human-cat-droid translator. I am fluent in over 6 million languages."
Rusty had heard enough. He jumped down from his perch, and walked over to the droid. "Does this mean you can speak to my owner and translate for me?"
C3-PO gave a stiff nod, then saw the tipped over R2, and rushed, sort of, over to it.
"R2-D2, is that you?" he cried. The R2 beeped in response, and was pushed back up by the shop owner.
"It is you!" C3-PO said, and turned to Rusty. "We worked together for such a long time, but somehow ended up here. This is R-D2."
"Pleased to make your aquaintence," Rusty grinned.
"What is this, a family get together?" the shopkeeper said. "Do you want them or not?"
"Tell him I'll purchase both of you," Rusty whispered to C3-PO, and he relayed on the message. Somehow, they all managed to get back to the front hall, and Rusty gave the man some credits from a small pouch that he had been carrying. Then the threesome set off back to Rusty's house.
******
Rusty meowed loudly when he walked through the door, and his owner came hurrying over.
"Ah, you got my droid," he said. "But who is this other one?"
"Tell him that I bought you so that you could translate what I was saying, and that you are a translator droid," Rusty whispered out of the corner of his mouth to C3-PO.
"Your cat here wants me to tell you..." C3-PO went on to finish the statement, and the human laughed.
"I suppose that would make things easier," he grinned. "Alright Luke, can you go out and work on the starship, I need at least some form off transport to get to a starport for supplies tomorrow. You seem nearly finished."
Rusty nodded, and beckoned the droid duo out the back door to the yard where the simple starship lay.
"I'm nearly done fixing this old ship here," he said. "It's our only form of transport, and it needs a lot of work, but if I do some simple things, it will at least make it to Mos Eisley." Rusty suddenly looked fairly sad. "Heh, I remember when I used to race Smudge in this... Shooting at desert lizards and trying to see who had the most hits. Good times..." His eyes clouded over. The ship had one very crude laser gun that Rusty had fashioned himself from a discarded blaster.
After a few hours or so of tweaking, it was starting to get dark again. Rusty could almost see the twin moons rising over the horizon.
"Let's call it a night, guys," Rusty murmured, yawning to the two robots. He padded back into the house, and they followed. Eventually everyone was situated, and one by one, they fell asleep.
******
Rusty slowly awakened the next morning, a bit before dawn, and went over to the droids after getting a drink. He powered them up, and said good morning.
"So nice to see you again," said C3-PO. R2 just beeped, but C3-PO claimed her had said good morning as well.
Rusty began trying to clean the two up, starting with the little blue-and-white astromech. Just as he wiped the last bit of grime out from between a few panels, he accidentally hit a button. Immediatly, a small, blueish hologram popped up, of a small, multicolored female cat.
"Help me Whitestorm," her small voice said. "Now fire alone is our only hope."
Rusty was intruged. He got closer and started at the hologrm as it replayed like a broken record.
"Who's that?" he eventually mananged to softly ask C3-PO.
"I have no idea," said the droid back to him. "I've never seen her before." Rusty still stared.
"And who is this Whitestorm?"
C3-PO looked at R2. "Well..." he began. "He fought in the Clan Wars, and he used to own us..."
Rusty jumped in. "You were in the Clan Wars?" he yelped.
"Well yes, but it was mostly just noisy running about..." But Rusty wasn't listening. His mind had taken flight far over the battlefields of the long war. It had ended with BloodClan seizing everything, and the old Republic had lost.
"Anyways, R2, will you replay the whole message for Rusty?" C3-PO asked. R2 just beeped that he couldn't in response.
"I'm sorry, but it seems he cannot reply you the whole message," C3-PO said.
"What?" Rusty asked, downfallen. Suddenly a call came from within a room, and Rusty had to go to it.
C3-PO banged on the top of R2's dome with his tail.
"You just better think about replaying him the whole message," he said to R2. "He is very kind."
R2 just beeped and rolled off.
******
In a little bit, Rusty walked back through the doorway, satisfied that the starship would run, but wanting to try it out before his owner used it. Suddenly he stopped, dropped the supplies he was holding. C3-PO was in the corner, looking as guilty as a metal droid could.
"I tried to stop him, but kh no, he wouldn't listen to ME," C3-PO said.
R2 was gone.
******
In a flash, Rusty had taken C3-PO to the starship, and powered it up. He had C3-PO then leave a quick message for his owner about testing the starship. Rusty didn't want to admit to losing a new droid only right after he had bought it.
Once the starship shuddered off the ground, they were off. Rusty used some scanner goggles to check the terrain, but there was no sign of the little droid. He steered the ship with a small joystick in his tail, and they swooped over some rocky areas.
Soon, they reached a small rocky ravine. Rusty jumped out, and looked in the sand. C3-PO slowly shuffled out too.
"Look... Tread marks!" Rusty said. "They must be R2's!"
All of a sudden, a barking, grating noise was heard. Rusty remembered seeing a flash of a red bushy tail, then all went dark.
