The overcast skies of Tadath foreshadowed the inevitable rain to come. It was on this day that a revival happened. How spectacular was it? How excited did the press get? It was not spectacular and the press did not even hear a word of it. This was the revival of the Vast Empire Army's research and development department. Most of the army did not even know that one had ever existed. Most just assumed that the equipment they were using was strictly produced by external private companies in it to make credits.

“Sir, you wanted to see me?”

“Yes, please have a seat.”

“Is this something...” He was sharply cut off before he could finish.

“No, nothing bad. I am here to offer you a job. A position that brings some freedoms to you and any others that may end up involved. I am offering you the job of making this, the VEA, more potent.”

“Sir?”

“Platoon Sergeant, I am offering you the position of Commander of Development. A simple yes or no will suffice.”

“Uh, what—what does that entail, exactly?”

“If you don't want it; there are others that we have in mind.”

“No sir, that's not what I was getting at. I just was curious...”

Again, he was silenced. This time with a raised hand. A simple gesture with an outward facing palm that signals for one to stop.

“A yes or no. No more, no less.”

Silence prevailed the room for a number of seconds before an answer emerged.

“Yes.”

“Excellent. Now you need to get a team together. Here is the location of your new base of operations.”

“Sir, hasn't this building been condemned or something?”

“No Commander, it has merely not be in use for a number of years. In fact, that building never looked any different, at least not on the outside.”

The title of commander rang in the sergeant's head for a number of seconds. It kept his mind occupied and drowned out the response that his superior had given him.

* * * Several Months Later * * *

“Alright guys, here goes test one of the multi-ordinance launcher prototype.”

“Uh, Sam wouldn't it be better to have a droid fire it?”

“Oh come now Ae, what could possibly go wrong?”

“What could go wrong?! Sam you have seen what can go wrong with non-prototyped systems,” Ron retorted with Aeos staring at Sam with a face of you're-an-idiot written all over it.

“Alright alright, we'll let the droid fire it. Party poopers,” Sam said before summoning the droid.

Sam begrudgingly handed the weapon over to the banged up 3PX droid, “When ever you are ready buddy.”

“Thank you sir, I will do my best.”

Sam shrugged off the remark with a wave of his hand.

This was the first device the team had designed and built a prototype of. What could go wrong? Everything could go wrong. The information the team has is strictly the assumption that they put the device together correctly and that the simulations run by the computer were accurate.

“Sam behind the barricade, please,” Aeos pandered.

When all were safely behind cover Aeos gave the signal to the 3PX droid to fire a round.

“On my mark,” Aeos's voice rang out over the loudspeaker, “Three, two, one, fire!”

Nothing happened. It was silent save the few birds in the distance and the gentle breeze rustling the leaves of a nearby tree.

“Try it again.”

“Yes ma'am”

The droid pulled the trigger again. A simple click resounded from the trigger mechanism. The droid tried again without instruction. And again and again, click click click click click.

“See? Nothing happened. I would have been fine,” Sam said heading out from cover and toward the 3PX droid.

“Sam, maybe you should wait...” Ron started but cutting himself short realizing that Sam was already out of audible range.

“Don't worry about it there buddy. It isn't your fault,” Sam said comforting the droid as if it were a being with true feelings. He was always one for treating technology as other people.

“Here you are sir and thank you for your concern,” the droid replied.

As Sam walked back with the droid to his left and prototype in hand Aeos's voice rang out over the loudspeaker again, “Sam, put the safety on that thing before you get it back here. Oh and take the clip out as well!”

The duo stopped and Sam took action. He flipped the safety on and began to fight with the drum clip. The stubborn piece of machinery would not budge. As he became more frustrated, he became more forceful with the device.

“C'mon! Blast it!”

He jerked at the drum clip another time, but on this attempt he had also squeezed the trigger. No clicks this time, just the loud bang of three rounds firing out. The rounds struck the 3PX droid square in the chest.

Sam froze solid in his position and slowly turned a nervous eye towards his companion. What he saw were three rounds blinking on the droid's chest. Time delay blast rounds used to cause precise explosive damage to vehicles.

“Ah crap,” Sam said before bolting  away from his beat up companion.

“Sam! What the hell are you doing?”

“Just wait, you'll see,” he thought to himself, “I can't believe they didn't hear those shots go off.”

Moments later the rounds detonated. The directed charges performed beautifully. The first blew the droid's right arm clean off with little to no debris. The second was knocked off by the blast of the first due to proximity. It spun around and detonated just past the left side of the droid's head causing the thing to topple over. The third held fast to its position and detonated. Hitting the droid's internal power cell. The sudden discharge from the cell blew off the lower half of the droid's body.

Sam shook his head as he set up. The ringing in his ears drowned out all other sounds, but he could see Ron rushing out toward his position.

Ron ran past the now destroyed droid to Sam. “Are you alright Sam?”

Sam knew that Ron was talking, but could not hear and he stared blankly back.

“Sam? You doing okay?” Ron asked wiggling his hand in front of Sam's face.

Sam batted away Ron's hand and stood up. He took a second to gather his balance before saying anything.

“Well, I figured out the problem! Safety was installed backwards! On is off and off is on,” Sam yelled in hopes to hear himself speak, “So let Tanus know!”