Star Wars 1
(POV: Clockwork Knight Yarrow)
I emerged in hard vacuum, staring out at countless stars. Rotating my sensor turret quickly revealed that I was in the gravitational influence of a sizable terrestrial planet with three moons, albeit one without much surface water. I could just about make out signs of orbital traffic, which at least indicated that
some people lived here. Hmmm... Angular magnitude growth of the planet in my view indicates that I'm approaching at a distressingly fast velocity. I really need a way to control my descent.
So, I reconfigured my self-repair system to enclose my main chassis in a pod made out of regular nanotube steel. Said pod featured six thrust control nodes allowing for full six-axis control, and with the addition of some sensor pods and an auxiliary cognitive driver I had a much better idea where I was going. So, I settled in for a nice sedate cruise towards the planet at around ten kilometers per second, with a nice fifty-gee deceleration burn just as I was approaching the atmosphere. I also adjusted my descent profile so that I'd touch down just a few kilometers outside of one of the larger settlements I'd spotted.
Apparently no-one noticed or cared about my descent, and I touched down unmolested. I quickly deconjured my descent pod, and that done I started walking towards where I remembered the city was. Sure enough, I quickly found myself entering a populated area that seemed to be a residential district, countless small dwellings stacked on top of each other in massive rows. I noticed some people of varying species milling about, but as I approached they largely scattered and tried desperately to ignore my presence. That was fair I suppose, I
was a rather intimidating figure.
I figured I'd rather not scare anyone any more than absolutely necessary, so I briefly fired up Words of Truth, said "So, I'm Clockwork Knight Yarrow, and I have no idea where I am. If anyone wants to come talk to me eventually about that, it would be greatly appreciated. In the meantime, I'm just going to be waiting out here." and simply stood to attention.
Sure enough, eventually I was cautiously approached by one of the local children. They looked human, generally speaking, with straight blonde hair and an inquisitive expression. After a few moments spent in silence, I remarked "I know you're nervous about talking to me, but I can't very well answer any questions that I haven't been asked."
The child said "Just trying to figure out who made you, and how you're put together. I've seen quite a few Droids, but never one like you."
I hummed a bit, before answering "I was actually made by the Titan of Steel, a being who took it upon themselves to rescue their entire planet from the brutal oppression of the Daemons and their Grand Dragon creations. That said, you wouldn't have heard about any of them; I'm almost certainly not in my home universe, given the dimensional crash I was caught in."
Looking up at me, the kid asked "You must have gone on all sorts of adventures, haven't you? I've never gotten the chance, Watto wouldn't allow it despite being a kinder master than before."
Immediately, I asked "Wait, master!? You're a slave? You mean that barbaric practice is extant here!?"
Sadly, the child simply nodded, before saying "Yes. These are the slave quarters of Mos Espa. Everyone here is a slave, and we can't run away or the implanted bombs will go off."
I was horrified, and immediately stood up as I told the child "I'm getting that bomb out of you, along with every last slave on this planet. All I need is a safe location to construct an operating room, then I can do the rest." The plan was already coalescing in my mind. I'd need to reconfigure into a pseudodungeon to get enough hospital space and teleporters to treat everyone. Once I had that up and running, mass-producing more Clockworks to bring down this entire planet's slaving institutions would be trivial. From there I could easily expand to house a shipyard and a research facility, and get started on purging the galaxy of slaving scum once and for all.
Back in physical reality, the boy hesitated for a moment, before he said "Follow me, my mom might know a place." and started walking off towards one of the residences. I followed.
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(POV: Third Person near Shmi Skywalker)
When Shmi saw the massive heavily-armed Droid entering her home following Anakin, she had something of a panic attack. After all, that was a hulking humanoid war machine entering her home. This panic attack was slightly eased when said Droid gently closed the door and said "Ma'am. I am Clockwork Knight Yarrow. I'm here to remove the explosive devices implanted in you, your son, and eventually every slave on this planet. Do you have anywhere I can place a secret entrance to an underground operating room? I will require no additional tools or materials. Just tell me where I can work."
Immediately, Shmi was incredulous, asking "Wait, what do you mean that you won't require any additional materials? Are you planning to just magically convert whatever rock and stone you encounter into medical supplies?" there was optimism, and then there was
madness.
Shmi most emphatically was
not expecting Yarrow to answer "Not exactly, but you aren't far off." before proving her point by materializing a flawless glass jug full of precious life-giving water from nothing whatsoever. Having gently set down the jug of water on an unoccupied piece of floor, Yarrow noted "I can remove matter as easily as I can create it, so as long as I have a place to work I can trivially make a quite large facility to start getting those bombs out of your people. Where would be a good place to put a concealed entrance?"
Thinking for a moment, Shmi answered "The back room. Follow me." Soon, she had arrived over a specific section of floor and said "Here. This corner will work, as long as the entrance is straight down. The tenement was built into a hillside, so there isn't a dwelling below us here, despite the fact that we live on the second level."
Yarrow replied with "Understood. Please be aware that I am about to drastically reconfigure my chassis, and that this process may be visually disturbing."
With that, Yarrow's limbs and head started to melt away, leaving only the torso lump full of systems as it descended into the floor. After a moment, Shmi looked down the shaft, seeing what looked like a simple square pit lined with metal, seeming a lot deeper than she expected. Shortly afterwards, she saw a lift platform rapidly ascending and ducked out of the way. A mere moment later, the platform was seamlessly flush with the floor of Shmi's home, offering no sign at all that anything was out of the ordinary. Seeing all this, Shmi couldn't help but say "Anakin, your new friend works fast."
Almost as lost as his mother, Anakin replied with a simple, silent nod.
After most of an hour, a holographic projector activated showing a simplistic representation of a three-eyed face. This was an immediate prelude to Yarrow stating "I've reconfigured into a facility, and now I have a suitable operating room to locate and remove your detonators. Stand on the pad, and I'll bring you down. Please be aware that this is a teleportation system, rather than a lift."
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(POV: Yarrow, Pseudodungeon)
It took a few minutes to convince the two people I met to actually trust the teleportation pad I installed. However, once that was done I immediately directed the two to the operating room, where I had a medical scanner set up along with a mechanical surgeon and some other relevant equipment.
Either way, as the mother and son were looking around, I noted "So, first I need to give you a disclaimer. I don't know enough about your biochemistry to safely render you unconscious during the procedure, and I'm not willing to make stupid assumptions that risk your lives. That said, I will be able to suppress the pain signals that you would otherwise experience, and I will take every possible measure to avoid infection. If you think you might need to be strapped in place, please tell me so that I can arrange the restraints prior to the operation and avoid accidentally hurting you any more than absolutely necessary."
The woman thought for a moment, before saying "I could probably stay still, but it would probably be best for you to restrain me anyway. I don't know if I might move involuntarily. The same goes for Anakin."
I made my visual representation nod, before I noted "Understood. One of you onto the scanner table. I need to know where your bombs are before I can safely remove them."
Before the woman could stop him, the boy (apparently named Anakin) jumped up onto the scanner, and when I told him "Please lie down so I can get a better quality scan." he obediently did so.
Thus I fired up the scanner, rapidly locating a foreign object about one centimeter long implanted in Anakin's right armpit. It wasn't quite touching his lung, but it
was uncomfortably close to the vital organ in question. As soon as I found it, I informed my patient "I have located the bomb in your ribcage immediately adjacent to your armpit. Please remove your shirt before I strap you down. While I could trivially provide a replacement garment, I would prefer to avoid unnecessarily damaging your possessions."
A few moments later Anakin's shirt was removed, I had him immobilized, a Holy-powered pain suppression effect was active, and I had just disinfected Anakin's skin in preparation for the initial incision. Carefully, I made a single small cut, then inserted a small gripping appendage to pull the bomb out. Seconds later the explosive device was in the disposal bin, and I activated the regeneration mode on the general purpose spell matrix I'd built into the operating theater. Anakin's wound closed up, and I cheerfully informed him "Good news, you're no longer at risk of sudden explosive death. You're a free sapient, and as soon as I've finished overthrowing the planetary government it will even be official."
As I talked, I quickly cleaned off the operating table, a process which included the total destruction of the few drops of Anakin's blood that had been spilled.
Another few moments later, Anakin's mother was on the operating table, and the scanner quickly found the bomb... in her neck, between the airway and esophagus. Why would someone even put it there!? Yes it's harder to remove safely, but by the same token getting it in there
had to have been a pain. As such, I informed the woman "Your bomb is at an inconvenient location in your neck. To remove it I will need to insert manipulator appendages into your esophagus through your mouth. Please hold as still as you possibly can, as the immobilization I can provide will be limited."
After that warning, the operation went about as smoothly as it could possibly have been hoped, given the circumstances. I had the bomb out of Anakin's mother in less than a minute, and as soon as the operation was complete I noted "The operation was successful at removing the explosive device. You might suffer some mild discomfort while swallowing during the next few days, as your system isn't fully acclimatized to Mana-enhanced healing yet, so there is unfortunately a small patch of scar tissue in your esophagus."
Nodding in acknowledgement, the woman noted "Thank you sincerely, Yarrow. I know there isn't much, but is there anything at all we can provide to pay you back?"
Without hesitating at all, I answered "A list of the biggest slavers on the planet, along with a basic rundown of what factions are supporting slavery both here and in the wider galaxy. I need accurate information to get rid of the slavers before they wise up to my activities and start using the bombs in other slaves as a hostage situation."
She took a deep breath, and began speaking "Well, the biggest group supporting slavery is the Hutts..." she continued on giving me as much knowledge of the situation as she had for the next hour. Meanwhile Anakin occasionally chimed in, and I was carefully noting down every single thing they said.
Thus, on a backwater planet in a largely irrelevant part of the galaxy, a Clockwork decided that the continued existence of the Hutts as a galactic power bloc was intolerable...
