Jot the Jawa
Read “Stories from the sand” by Griffin McIlroy - this occurs straight after….
The stormtroopers had approached his boss in the sand crawler looking for some droids and asking about recent transactions. Then the shooting began. Jot quick as a flash went into his hiding place in the crawler. The sounds and smells of those brief moments of slaughter left him stunned for some time and he stayed there not daring to move. A while after the stormtroopers left he heard a landspeeder pull up and humans talking. Then smelled burning.
He heard the landspeeder return more voices then just silence.
When he eventually came out the scene he was confronted with chilled him to the bone. A still smouldering pyre….blast points on the now disabled sand crawler. There was nobody left. Just him. Taking all of this in he returned to his hideaway in the crawler and pondered what to do next. He turned on storytellers projector and viewed some more memories to distract him.
Seeing the coast was clear he went on a recce to see what could be salvaged. A lot had been destroyed but there was still some inventory left ….mostly junked now after the massacre. Inside the main hold he found a few droid chassis had been butchered for their memory cores but were otherwise functional. Then it struck him. The holoprojector he had found, Storyteller. He could place it in a droid chassis just like he’d removed from the bounty hunters droid. This task in hand he forgot his grief and fear and looked at his options. A gonk droid…too big too slow. The red R5 unit, the one that had fried its circuits at the farmers place…a good astromech to be sure but it was a bit done. Then he saw the ancient dusty remains of the old T3 tucked behind one of the crates. The stormtroopers hadn’t found it. He remembered when they’d found it tho. It was a droid from way back in the days of the old republic the older jawas had said. A good one. But they’d started to scrap it. It had a flat circular turret head with a large photoreceptor at the front with two smaller lenses to the left of this. The head was mounted to a boxy body that had two forward facing legs and rear mounted roller connectors. The foot rollers had been removed but despite it being battered and rusty it still had structural integrity. Pulling a battery from a nearby junk pile he eventually managed to insert it. The droid powered up. With no memory or motivator it sat inert. The moment of truth. He carefully took his precious storyteller holoprojector and placed it inside the droids interior. To be safe he put a restraining bolt on the chassis and grabbed some foot rollers from an otherwise destroyed astromech fitting them to the stumps. Next he added some lubricant to the moving parts and gear. The moment of truth. Using the restraining bolt control he for better or worse….initiated…..beeepss….slight electric smell of burning but….the T3 slowly swivelled its head, raised a small antenna, blinked its front photoreceptor and “looked” at him. Startled, Jot scurried behind a crate.
He cautiously approached towards the T3 droid. Its turret-like head slowly tracked him as he moved towards it. It let out a curious beep and rolled forward it’s newly fitted rollers squeaking. Jot let out a triumphant “UTINI!”.
When he eventually came out the scene he was confronted with chilled him to the bone. A still smouldering pyre….blast points on the now disabled sand crawler. There was nobody left. Just him. Taking all of this in he returned to his hideaway in the crawler and pondered what to do next. He turned on storytellers projector and viewed some more memories to distract him.
Seeing the coast was clear he went on a recce to see what could be salvaged. A lot had been destroyed but there was still some inventory left ….mostly junked now after the massacre. Inside the main hold he found a few droid chassis had been butchered for their memory cores but were otherwise functional. Then it struck him. The holoprojector he had found, Storyteller. He could place it in a droid chassis just like he’d removed from the bounty hunters droid. This task in hand he forgot his grief and fear and looked at his options. A gonk droid…too big too slow. The red R5 unit, the one that had fried its circuits at the farmers place…a good astromech to be sure but it was a bit done. Then he saw the ancient dusty remains of the old T3 tucked behind one of the crates. The stormtroopers hadn’t found it. He remembered when they’d found it tho. It was a droid from way back in the days of the old republic the older jawas had said. A good one. But they’d started to scrap it. It had a flat circular turret head with a large photoreceptor at the front with two smaller lenses to the left of this. The head was mounted to a boxy body that had two forward facing legs and rear mounted roller connectors. The foot rollers had been removed but despite it being battered and rusty it still had structural integrity. Pulling a battery from a nearby junk pile he eventually managed to insert it. The droid powered up. With no memory or motivator it sat inert. The moment of truth. He carefully took his precious storyteller holoprojector and placed it inside the droids interior. To be safe he put a restraining bolt on the chassis and grabbed some foot rollers from an otherwise destroyed astromech fitting them to the stumps. Next he added some lubricant to the moving parts and gear. The moment of truth. Using the restraining bolt control he for better or worse….initiated…..beeepss….slight electric smell of burning but….the T3 slowly swivelled its head, raised a small antenna, blinked its front photoreceptor and “looked” at him. Startled, Jot scurried behind a crate.
He cautiously approached towards the T3 droid. Its turret-like head slowly tracked him as he moved towards it. It let out a curious beep and rolled forward it’s newly fitted rollers squeaking. Jot let out a triumphant “UTINI!”.
