Barrel is a former therapy droid to rebel ace veteran Leena after she lost both her legs during the battle of Endor. She converted him to an astromech mechanic when she was able to fly again, and they pilot together in their V-Wing star fighter the Banshee.
This is a short-story based on the veents of BR-3L's and Leena Ahido's last combat mission in the space above restored Iridonia:
The blinding green laser blast tore a hole through the upper left wing of the Banshee , a thick stream of smoke and radiator fluid pouring out of the the ageing V-Wing starfighter back towards the approaching TIEs. The orange flames charred the wing, stripping the green paint of the hull and began to lick the edge of the cockpit. The squeaking astromech emptied his fire extinguisher into the scorched wing, suffocating the flames and smoke before they could do any further damage.
"Thanks Barrel, hold her together for me." Leena yelled over the comm. Barrel responded with a rapid string of energetic beeps, twisting his head between the gap in the deflector panels to spy the pair of TIEs swinging ominously in the distance . A steady stream of laser fire was following the fighter, every other shot slamming into the field of reddish asteroids, splattering debris across the shaking fighter. Leena weaved the fragile ship between the larger rocks barreling towards her, her right hand fighting the stick as the ship began to lurch.
"Somethings wrong Barrel." The Zabrack warned, eyes darting between the unresponsive diagnostics displays. "Its not coming up, but I can feel it."
She eased the throttle on her left, resting her hand on her twitching prosthetic leg. Barrel scanned the ship with every sensor he had, funneling data into the overclocked processors hidden in his wheel, only to find a mystery power shortage leading to the stabilizers. The hole in the wing was obvious, but nowhere near the powerline, what was he missing? His head swiveled around to inspect the ship manually, glimpsing the approaching imperial fighters gaining on the slowing ship. They fired another burst, a lucky shot shattering an oncoming asteroid into a wall of stones that peppered and cracked the cockpit glass.
"This is Endor all over again..." The pilot muttered under her breath, the memories of exploding X-wings fogging her vision, her grip shaking on the controls. Barrel turned back towards his master, and chirped a slow and familiar string of droid speak. Leena nodded, breathed deeply like she'd done a hundred times before, honing her focus to doge the non-stop laser blasts, but that's when he saw it. A fingers length of shrapnel biting into the hull and into a pair of power cables causing a short on the left of the cockpit. He beeped triumphantly, and Leena peeked left, spying the tear through the orange visor in her pressure suit faceplate.
Barrel tucked his domed head into the modified socket off the ships interior and with the tip of an actuator popped open a circuit panel. Amongst the womp rats nest of wires, a stabilizer relay had blown and fused from the short. Barrel gave a warning string of beeps, unable to see Leenas thumbs up in the cockpit, before tearing out the broken relay, as well as a mix of seemingly random components. The lights on the ship cut out, the displays going dark, but the engines still burned. A few moment later, Barrel held a new stitched together relay balanced in his tools arms, and soldered it back into place, along with what spare components. The cockpit lights flickered back on, and the ship steadied, just as the TIEs slipped into their ideal range.
"And they still call you just a therapy droid, good job Barrel, now lets deal with them!" Leena yelled, the calmness returning to her voice.
Leena slammed the throttle down, as Barrel scanned the field, and the fighter soared around a pockmarked asteroid up ahead. The TIEs dropped behind, losing sight of the V-wing over the lip of the asteroid, still firing wildly into the rough red stone. The rear TIE's sensors glitched randomly, as Barrel had hoped they would, as the Banshee rocketed out of a slim tunnel from opposite side, emerging directly behind the pair of fighters, and unloaded a precision laser blast into the rear TIE. The red blast shredded its right solar panel, spinning it and it forward into its wingman's craft, both smashing and detonating into the asteroids surface. The Banshee flew through the explosion, Leena crying out and Barrel revving his wheel in victory.
"Mission complete, heading back to base. Nice work Barrel, what would I do without you?"