Tin Man

**"Tin Man"** is a short story set in the Galaxy’s Edge universe. Written by Jason Anspach and Nick Cole, it was released as Audible-exclusive audiobook on January 28, 2020 and published by **Podium Audio**.

## Publisher's Summary

In the wilds of a jungle planet, the Legion fights in brutal combat as Republic marines fly their SLICS from one tragedy to the next.

H292, a repurposed warbot, shows the heart of a hero as he wades into the battle not to destroy - but to save.

## Synopsis

**Day One**

Years after the end of the Savage Wars, the Battle of the Aachon Valley took place in the highlands on Psydon, home of the dog-like Doro. Spurred by a rebel demagogue condemning the Galactic Republic, a planet-wide rebellion erupts.

Commanded by General Marr, the Third Legion Expeditionary Force has been sent to quell the revolt, but quickly find themselves in over their heads.

Republic Marine Captain Reese is a medical SLIC pilot stationed at Firebase Mojo. He returns to the base after an operation that left his ship, the Angel 26, damaged and his co-pilot Doger dead. After landing the SLIC in a repair hangar, he attempts to clean the gore left by his deceased friend in the cockpit, but is denied by a maintenance chief. Resigned, Reese leaves for his prefab where he drinks Faldaran scotch, as he and Doger did in the past.

**Day Two**

Captain Reese is briefed by his CO who tells him that earlier in the morning three scouts went down while attempting to find a way to the Doro artillery. A Pathfinder has been sent ahead to secure an LZ where the Angel 26 will land just long enough for the wounded to be loaded. Grabbing his helmet, Reese walks to the SLICs out on the flight line.

On the landing pad Reese meets Sergeant MacWray, the SLIC gunner, who regretfully informs him that they have been assigned a new co-pilot – a heavy infantry specialty HK Model 58 war bot. The seven-foot-tall bot introduces himself as H292, but Reese ignores this, climbs into the cockpit, and tells “tin man” to do the same. After MacWray is aboard, H292 asks to fly the Angel 26, but Reese denies him and they depart, following a course west towards the LZ.

Drawing nearer, Reese switches over to the Pathfinder comm channel and informs Legion Sergeant Creeper that they are inbound. Creeper tells him that his legionnaires are hunkered down in the jungle surrounding the LZ and to expect a firefight as soon as they land.

MacWray provides covering fire with an N-50 heavy blaster as they approach, while H292 drops the landing gears and Reese lowers the SLIC into the shallow river. Carrying their wounded on stretchers, the first group of legionnaires leave the jungle just as blaster fire erupts from pursuing Doro soldiers. Artillery begins to rain down and Creeper shouts over the comm that the last group is coming out now, and the legionnaires move to the ship while firing at the jungle they just left. Reese sees Sergeant Creeper take blaster fire, knocking him down into the thick mud. A nearby legionnaire races back towards the Legion Sergeant where he attempts to carry the man, but struggles to move quickly. The artillery and blaster fire increase, and MacWray tells Reese that they need to leave or they’ll die. Reluctantly, he agrees and is about to lift the Angel 26 up when H292 suddenly leaves the cockpit. Engaging the closing Doro with his wrist blaster, H292 reaches the struggling legionnaire who then passes Creeper to the bot, and the trio return to the ship. With everyone onboard, Reese quickly guides the SLIC away.

Racing south, a legionnaire aboard named Ringo is in cardiac arrest and losing blood. Reese calls ahead to Firebase Mojo and asks for a trauma team to be on standby, adding that “tin man” saved some lives. H292 asks why the Captain refers to him as such, and Reese hesitantly tells him that it’s a reference to an old song. Discussing H292’s earlier actions, he remarks that “tin man” didn’t save the legionnaires because he wanted to, but because he was programmed to. H292 disagrees, saying that he knew the Doro likely had anti-armor weapons but still chose to rescue the two legionnaires, despite his self-preservation subroutines. Reese ignores the bot for the rest of the flight and listens to ancient American music.

**Day Three**

The Angel 26 makes a run to Hilltop Defiance at twilight, which has just been retaken by surviving legionnaires after enemy forces overran the camp earlier in the day. When Reese arrives to collect the wounded another attack ensues, and he makes it out just in time with MacWray firing at the Doro until they are out of fighting range. Halfway back to Firebase Mojo, General Umstead orders them to turn around and pull the remaining legionnaires, but Reese defies him, knowing that his wounded will die if he complies.

When the Twelfth Marines and Angel 26 arrive at Hilltop Defiance for the final evac run of the night, the Doro have again infiltrated the base. Captain Reese lowers onto the landing pad where a group of legionnaires awaiting rescue climb aboard until MacWray tells Reese that they’re maxed out on space. Just as the captain begins to signal their departure, H292 leaves the cockpit, saying that three more legionnaires will fit if he does so. Protesting, Reese asks the war bot over the comm why he’s doing this, to which H292 replies that the lives of the men are more important than his own runtime. Reese leaves, but tells H292 to stay alive until morning.

**Day Four**

Only two hundred and forty-three legionnaires are left at Hilltop Defiance, and most of them are separated into small groups. First Sergeant Jacs “Top Cat” takes charge of H292 and leads him to a makeshift aid station. After H292 asks what he can do to assist, Jacs explains that they were likely encircled by the Doro and he has ordered the remaining legionnaires to defend in place. The war bot says that he will do his best to reconnect the isolated troops, recover the wounded, and secure the outer defenses, then leaves the bunker.

On the battlefield, H292 first encounters a Doro sapper team, kills the attackers in a firefight, then finds a wounded legionnaire who he carries back to friendly lines. Afterwards, the war bot eliminates several Doro teams probing the defenses of Hilltop Defiance, allowing twenty members of Delta Company Third Platoon to safely retreat. Next, he finds a group of legionnaires defending a blaster emplacement at a critical point in the Legion defenses. The Doro attempt to attack en masse, and there is fighting for the next hour until the legion blaster melts. Covering the nine remaining legionnaires, H292 single-handedly neutralizes over one hundred and fifty enemy combatants, and all nine men make it to safety.

The war bot continues to fight alongside the legionnaires throughout the night while also dragging wounded out from direct fire and contributing to the defense perimeters. H292 encounters several other legionnaires, two of which, Sergeant Yu and Corporal Wash, die in his arms, and another, Sergeant Murch, who sacrifices himself to destroy an ad hoc torture camp.

Captain Reese arrives at dawn to take H292 and other wounded legionnaires off the hill, and in the days that follow, stories of the war bot spread across Firebase Mojo. Because of the actions of H292, only eighty-eight men of the original two hundred and forty-three died that night.

**Years Later**

Legion General Umstead, commander at the Battle of Psydon, is at the Republic Navy Ordnance and Stores supply facility on Bantaar Reef, where retired war bots are stored on racks. At the insistence of the Battle of the Aachon Valley survivors, General Umstead is there to award H292 with the Legion’s highest honor – The Order of the Centurion. The racks shutter along until H292 comes into view and steps off the lift. The general tells him that by order of the House of Reason and the Legion, he is awarded the highest honor they can bestow, then drapes the medal around the war bot’s neck assembly. The general tells H292 that it is a Legion tradition to offer any living recipient of the award with one request, which they will attempt to fulfill to the best of their ability, and asks him if he has such a request. The bot says that he spends his days thinking about the eighty-men he could not save, and would like to forget them. Umstead says that they can wipe his memory and, if H292 agrees, will repurpose him as a servitor and protector bot to watch over the daughter of an important man named Maydoon. H292 asks if the eighty-eight dead legionnaires could be marked on him somehow, even if he will never know why, and General Umstead tells the war bot his new identifier – KRS-88.