//------------------------------// // Chapter 11: Dragon Slayers // Story: Logic and Friendship. Roger! Roger! // by Anaylze //------------------------------// TA-175 rode an AAT escorted by 4 Stap Speeders and squads of Battle Droids through the forest. A Probe Droid had sighted the Dragon creature in the nearby area, before it was destroyed by the creature. Groups of Droids were closing in on the area to eliminate it, it would be a hinderance to them no longer.   The convoy had tracked the massive footprints left in the ground by the creature to a large cave opening.   TA-175 raised his hand to signal the troops to stop moving. He knew it would be unwise to enter the creatures' lair, it would have an advantage of cover. He needed to draw it out.  "B1-654, B1-655, investigate the cave"  "Us?" They asked nervously  "Correct. There aren't any other of you here."  "R-Roger Roger!" They said in a notable scared voice.  The 2 Droids walked into the dark cave…  Inside the cave was damp and dark. Of course, that didn't bother the 2 Droids. As they entered the cave further, they began to notice the abundance of jewels and gold coins on the floor.  "What do you think there's all this for?" One asked, his voice echoing.  "Shh! Do you want to get eaten!?" Whispered the other  "Who would eat a droid? We're Metal! Most creatures like to eat other creatures!" The 1st replied, walking forwards confidently. "I bet this thing isn't even all that bi-" the droid suddenly bumped into a large, warm, scaly mass. There was a large grumble and 2 large, glowing, orange eyes opened.  "Why did you come here to my lair" The Dragon said growling.  In a scared shaky version of their already high-pitched voices, the droid simply replied  "Um… hi… sir… I'll just be going now"  The Dragon stood up  "GET OUT!"   The Droids ran out of the cave yelling  "WAAAAAAHHH!"  And shooting randomly into the air as they ran.  A huge wave of fire shot out of the cave as they exited and a large, red dragon stepped out.   "Open fire." TA-175 ordered.  All the Droids and tanks opened fire on the dragon, whose scales simply laughed off the blaster fire.  TA-175 fired his AATs main cannon at it and hit it in the face.  The Dragon stumbled backwards, and stood up to its full height, and began stomping towards his tank, crushing several Droids under its feet as it did so.    "Recalculating…" TA-175 said as he lowered into the tank and closed the hatch.  The Dragon breathed a huge wave of fire on the tank, charring it a blackened color, and the tank dropped to the ground.  "Sir! Power converters have overheated!" Shouted the pilot droid driving the tank.   "Convert power to weapons. Fire armor piercing shells at the creature!"  "Roger, Roger!"  There was a loud boom as the tank's missile tubes launched their armor piercing shells, which embedded themselves in the Dragon's legs before exploding, causing it to collapse on its now mutilated legs.  The Dragon roared in agony and tried to hold itself up with its from arms.   "YOU SHALL PAY!" The Dragon growled, and shot fire out in a wave, melting many nearby Droids and charring the tank further, causing the surface of its armor to heat up so much it began to glow a faint orange.  TA-175 took his chance. When the dragon breathed fire at the AAT, he fired the main cannon directly into the mouth of the Dragon, and nearly blew apart its head from the inside. The Dragon moaned and collapsed to the ground once more. Closing its eyes and letting out a final breath of smoke from its nostrils, before the great beast was still.   One of the nearby B1s walked up to it and prodded it with his Blaster, and the giant remained still as a statue. It was dead.   TA-175 held out his pad and a hologram of Kraken appeared.  "The threat has been eliminated sir. Acceptable losses."  "Excellent. If any others appear in the area eliminate them as well."  "Yes sir."  TA-175 would've very much liked to have brought the dead Dragon back to the base for examination and dissection, however the beast was just too big. It was a shame but moving the giant corpse would've been more work than it was worth.  Twilight, Spike, OOM-340 and his guards sat at the dining room table finishing dinner. Or at least Twilight and Spike did. OOM-340 thought about what he could do to make himself less suspicious. He decided he'd be a bit more helpful.  "Can we help you with anything? To show that… we're thankful for you housing us…"  "Sure! You can take these bowls over to the sink and start cleaning them."  OOM-340 really wanted to complain. He grumbled internally.  "Thanks!" He said, in as real of a happy voice as he could attempt to fake.  It was going to be a long night.  After hours of scrubbing dishes, drying them, and putting them away, and cleaning up other things, OOM-340 was finally finished with cleaning up dinner. Except now it was 10:38 PM. He should be commanding his subordinates, not doing dishes! What was he a servant Droid? No, but he needed to keep up his act of being a "good friend" and acting non-suspicious.   "I really appreciate you helping to clean up dinner, I was able to organize a lot of my books in a better way!" Twilight said, yawning and walking upstairs, being followed by Spike a moment later.  OOM-340 sighed in relief. He was finally finished with his task and did something else. His guards were busy too but got done sooner than he did. They were given easier jobs like dusting and such.  He was about to go upstairs and join his guards who were already shut down, when his radio buzzed in with the familiar sound of Probe chatter.  In the chaos of maintaining his act, he'd forgotten that their recharge kits had lost their battery.  "Hello? Yes, this is Unit OOM-340 reporting" he whispered  "Yes, we need more recharge kits, you can drop them off at the same spot as last time."  He walked outside to the Probe Droid who was waiting at the front door of the castle. The droid handed him 3 recharging kits, as it had last time, before suddenly reaching it with one of its claws and handing OOM-340 a Holo pad.   "What am I supposed to do with this?"  The Probe chittered in its language, telling him it was unsure.   OOM-340 lugged the 3 new charging kits upstairs as quietly as possible.  He really wished he could go back to the ship. Or to something that was at least exciting, like a good battle. Not like Jedi battles, something small and enjoyable like pirates. That was exciting!  OOM-340 plugged his comrades into their new charger kits, shoving the old ones under the guest bed, before plugging himself in and shutting down for the night again, the nice void of rest known as deactivation.   All would normally be quiet and dark in the castle, but that was not the case. In the bedroom that held Twilight and Spike in their beds, there was a quiet late-night conversation and letter writing.  Twilight had just finished having Spike write the meeting acceptance letter.  "Ready to send it?" Spike asked, putting a red seal with a golden stamp.  "Yep!"  Twilight walked over to go climb in bed, but Spike stopped her.  "Twilight, there's… there's something I need to tell you."  "What is it Spike?"  "Remember earlier when I asked if you needed help with dinner?"  "Yes Spike, what about it?"  "When I got back up the library, the Rogers wouldn't let me!"  "What do you mean they wouldn't let you back in the library?" Twilight asked  "The Yellow Roger's two friends blocked me from entering, saying "I wasn't authorized" he said, mimicking the Droids voices.  "The weirdest part was he was talking to himself."  "How is that weirder than them blocking you? Lots of ponies talk to themselves."  "No, he wasn't just talking to himself like some ponies do, he was having a conversation, but I could only hear his side! Like he paused as if waiting for a response and everything! And when I got his attention, he acted all hurried and quickly wrapped it up!"   "I think you're just overthinking this. Maybe he just wanted a little private time?"  "No Twilight, I know they're up to something, you have to believe me!"  Twilight sighed. She Didn't want to believe they were up to something, but he did have a point, that was very unusual. He wasn't just being xenophobic, he met lots of different creatures and became friends with them, like Thorax the Changeling who changed his entire race for the better.  "Of course, I believe you Spike, you've helped save us and Equestria many times!" She spoke. "We can talk about it with Princess Celestia and Luna tomorrow, they should know what to do." With that, Twilight climbed into bed and settled down for the night.