Virgil squeezed his lips together tightly to stop from giggling. He'd learnt this trick from one of his friends back home. 'How to wake someone up in the most annoying way possible'. Worked every time.

Virgil crept along the corridor to the storage room Roman was holed up in. He stopped and listened to check that the Resistance fighter wasn't already awake.

Nothing. Perfect.

Virgil stood up straight and gripped the pots in his hands tighter.

"Hey, wake up!" He yelled, banging the pots together over his head. "Hey, hey, hey! Wake up, Princey!" The din was terrific. No way could anyone sleep through this.

He danced about in a circle, cackling and bashing the pots together. There was a groan from inside the wall and the door slid open, revealing a very annoyed Roman. He glared at Virgil and crossed his arms, unimpressed. He continued to glare at Virgil until the engineer stopped banging the pots together, giggling weakly.

"God, you're just like Remus." He said, rolling his eyes. Virgil blinked, a surprised smile on his face.

"Ya know Remus?" He asked. "How is he? I haven't seen him since he joined the temple."

Roman hesitated. "He's dead." He said shortly. Virgil's smile fell.

"Oh." Virgil hadn't expected this amount of grief for a person he hadn't seen since he was a child. "Oh, I'm sorry."

"It's fine." Roman said. "Thanks." He sighed and brushed a hand through his hair. "Look, um, I'll grab my jacket and we can see what we can find on this planet now, yeah?"

Virgil nodded, trying to take a deep breath. "Hey, um, can I ask a question?" He asked as Roman ducked back into the storage room.

"I guess."

"How, um, how did..." Virgil took a breath. "How did he die?"

Roman stilled. He swallowed and pulled his jacket on. "The Empire killed him." He said simply, not looking at Virgil. "And he was like my brother so... so I couldn't let them get away with it."

Virgil nodded once. "So that's why ya joined the Resistance?" Roman nodded. "I think he'd be proud of ya." He said. "He always insisted we play fighters, he always wanted to be Luke Skywalker."

Roman laughed silently. "Of course he did." He said.

Virgil nodded his head down the corridor. "Come on." He said, patting the doorframe. "We'd better go see what this planet has to offer."

"So is the thing with the pots going to be a normal thing?" Roman asked, jogging to try fall into step with Virgil. Virgil shrugged.

"Depends on when ya wake up."

"Okay, checkin' for vitias..." Virgil said, swiping a hologram into the air.

"Sorry, vitias?" Roman checked.

"Thins'that we can use." Virgil explained. "Food, water, fuel, metal, anythin' really. Aha!" The hologram beeped. "Okay, let's see what we got."

"Don't you think it's awfully quiet?" Roman asked. "I mean, we're in the middle of what's essentially a field. Surely there should be someone somewhere, right?" No reply. "Virgil?"

"Hm? What?" Virgil looked around from checking the hologram. "What, sorry? Wasn't listenin'."

Roman shook his head. "No, it's fine. What've you got?"

"Well," Virgil pushed the hologram over to Roman, "dunno if ya can read that but basically, there ain't much water or food but there's good metal strewn about here. S'pose it's a junk planet, there ain't no signs of life."

Roman swiped at something on the hologram. "I wouldn't be so sure of that, Virge." He said. When Virgil looked at him quizzically, Roman pushed the hologram his way. "Look." He pointed at the map.

"No signs of organic life," Roman said, "but if you open it up to all types of life, look at what it brings up."

"Shit." Virgil breathed. "That's a lot of droids." He'd gone pale.

"But that shouldn't be a problem, right?" Roman asked. "Droids are... well, they're nice, aren't they?"

"Usually, yeah." Roman blinked.

"What do you mean usually?" He asked. Virgil glanced up at him and minimised the hologram.

"Princey," he said, "if there are no signs of organic life on this planet but there are loads of droids-" Roman's eyes widened in horror.

"Then where did the creators of the droids go?"

We interrupt your scheduled programming with killer droids. Simply just killer droids. Happy motherfucking Halloween :)
Bye,
Blaize