000: Just for Giggles

“Yeah, it’ll take at least a few weeks to get compatible materials for this thing. If only someone had told you we should just follow orders and watch them. Oh that's right! I did tell you.”
“Watching is boring. Anyway, you should see the other guy, if they haven’t buried him yet.”
“I’d be impressed, if he weren’t still alive.” Lily loved the look of rage on Ryu’s face.
“What?”
“He was released from the hospital earlier today. Congratulations, good work! You accomplished nothing and may have screwed us in the process. If we actually get orders to take him out, he’s going to be on guard now. I’m embarrassed for you; some elite soldier, that was the sloppiest assassination I’ve seen. I’ve requisitioned the materials for you prosthetics and sent for a mechanic to fit you with temporary durasteel models. Now excuse me while I go try to actually make something of the mess you put us in.” Lily was just rubbing it in now, she knew it, it was worth it.

It was known by now that Lily was working for the Republic, so it wouldn’t be suspicious if she showed up to investigate the incident. At least she hoped it wouldn’t, but she had to talk to people that already knew a bit about her gifts. At least Roxil seemed oblivious, either that or he just didn’t care. For the second time she found herself at the door of the ARC barracks, the clone on duty raised an eyebrow at her. I know the Bonkers Brothers are wild, but she called himOrd’ika, exactly what have they been up to? She smiled at him.
“I’ve got a date with a couple of ARCs, mind letting me in?”
“You’ve been cleared already, head on up.” A couple? More than one of them? So they really do share everything, that’s disturbing. He watched her suspiciously when she walked by.
“Knock knock bonkers boys!” She said in a sing-song voice. “I’ve got a couple questions for the cat!” The door was opened by a particularly unhappy looking clone.
“You do like to live dangerously don’t you?” His face erupted into a charming smile but his voice was full of ice. “There’s no cat here, see for yourself.” He opened the next door to reveal an empty room. It was the only room with a closed door other than the Nulls’, and the only room with only one bed. Inside she saw no armor, no bodysuits, nothing but a worn leather bag on the floor by the bed.
“I’m here on official GAR business, investigating the altercation in Retail Zone 2b. I’m just going to take a quick look around. I’m sure you’ll let me know when the freak is available…who are you? You’re supposed to be Mer’ika, right?” She grinned at the slightest twitch in his eyebrow but the smile didn’t fade.
“Sure thing,” Mongrel shabuir, how can she tell? My Mereel is perfect….
“Almost perfect, so who? Far as I can tell, you don’t exist. Where is Mereel anyway? He’s logged, ‘freshers? Mind if I look?”
“What, you’re some kind of pervert?”
“Just a second please,” She pulled out her hololink and started playing security footage. Just who the shab is this woman? The display showed Mereel helping Roxil stand in the center of the room, the Lunar waved his hand and they both stepped forward… and vanished. “Well isn’t that spiffy? Where’d they go?”
“Don’t know, didn’t ask.”
“Bullshit. You bonkers boys ask everything.”
“You saw what he did in the retail zone, we aren’t dumb. We know when to stop asking questions.” As long as his essence holds the den you won’t find them. “Osik,”
“Yeah, I heard, what den? Listen, you can talk to me or wait until Palps sends a real spook. Option A or option B?”

“Jat’ika?” It still hurt to talk, of course, it had only been an hour. When he woke he had some strange tube in his throat that made the pain worse, it also made it more difficult to speak than the wounds on their own. He tried to pull it out but Jatne wouldn’t let him.
“Don’t touch it or I’ll stab you again myself.”
“You can’t.”
“Do you want the good news, the bad news, or more bad news?” Mereel asked from somewhere else in the room, Roxil tried to turn but it was too painful.
“I think I’ll take the good news about now.”
“They’re letting us take you back to the barracks. It took some work convincing them,"
"Well in the end Jaing and I did the convincing with a few discrete changes in their system."
"Right, well the bad news however, you can’t be stitched so if you keep refusing cauterization you’ll be on bed rest until you’ve healed. More bad news, I ran a chemical analysis on that stuff you’ve been using. Roxil, that’s a dangerous drug, ori’burk’yc. We’ve hidden it, we’ll give you enough to taper off but you will stop using it.”
“Nu draar, Mer’ika! You’d steal from me?”
“To help you? We weren’t raised to be squeamish about theft, and this is for your own good. You’re going to run out eventually and the withdrawal will likely be terrible, in fact it very well could kill you.”
“It’s only dangerous for mortals. I’ve been using it for over four hundred years, Mer’ika, and I’m still fine.”
“Four hundred years?” It had taken time, but Jatne was no longer stunned by Roxil’s age. “Withdrawal symptoms for long-term use is far worse with most drugs, I don’t see why this one would be any different. That’s just another reason to get you clean sooner than later. You want to argue with me? Go ahead, I’m plenty prepared to show you how atin’la ARCs can be. See, Ro’ika, you’re ori’buyce, kih’kovid; all helmet no head. We know how to deal with that.”
“Kih’kovid?" He responded indignantly. "That isn’t very nice, I have dozens of heads, just one at a time.”
“Right … di’kutla cat. At the rate you’re already healing, if you behave yourself and rest, I’ll have Prud’ika bring you a bit. You’ll get sixty milligrams no more than twice a day, tayli’bac? ”
“How much is that?” Roxil had never measured, he used the Celestial Cocaine in whatever dose he wanted as often as he wanted.
“A lot less than you’re used to. If I had to estimate, you were probably dosing at one hundred fifty.”
“Per day?”
“Per use. You had to have been using more than a gram a day. We’ll be stepping you down to fifty milligrams by the end of the week, thirty by the next, and no more than ten after that until it’s gone. It worked with the trooper addicted to stims, got him clean before the kaminiise caught on.”
“I do not agree to this.”
“I don’t care. Hate me if you want, but we’re getting you clean.” Mereel and Jatne couldn’t help but notice the change in Roxil’s expression. He had clearly been very mad, but he suddenly seemed far more relaxed.
“Alright vode,”
“You have more, don’t you?” Jatne was clever, but he was still hoping for Roxil to say they had taken it all. He promised never to lie to them, so no answer was the same as admitting he was right.
“I’m just going to open my den, spend a week recovering in just one day.” He forced himself slowly out of the bed. "I’m going to fly back to the barracks, I’m in pain and want to get out of this shape for just a bit. I’ll meet you there, lek?” He didn’t wait for an answer, he didn’t even give them a chance by using the door; he just opened the window and jumped out. He stayed in free fall for several seconds until the pressure of wind on his injured chest was too much, then he shifted into a massive bird.

He was glad to be back in the Elsewhere Den, his force users were still there training. Two more were willing to take some of his essence, the first had mastered the Armor Forming Technique. When he was done with them he went straight to the temple room and went to sleep. He slept continuously for the next eight days. When he woke he left the den immediately, taking three of his apprentices with him. Nickall had learned three Lunar charms already, Eri’anya and Alys had only just unlocked their essence but he had news for the Nulls and wanted to celebrate. All seven of them were in the barracks for once when he came out.
“Vode! I need my Celestial Cocaine!”
“That’s the first thing you say?” Mereel still produced a tiny flimsiplast bag for him.
“I’m getting married!” He pulled his three force-users closer to him and smiled. Alys held out her hand for him to sprinkle the powder on before inhaling it. “That’s all?”
“I told you sixty milligrams. No more than twice a day. Now, what’s this about getting married? Isn’t that the first thing you should have said?”
“Can’t I have a little more? We are celebrating after all…” His pouting face was good, but the ARCs were immune.
“Sure, you can have another sixty.” Mereel said with a smirk.
“Thank you, ner vod! I knew you didn’t really hate me.”
“We told you, sixty twice a day.” Jatne tossed Roxil a second bag. “That makes two.”
“Why are you so mean to me?”

“What is all this about?” Kaytee stop a trooper to ask as he run by.
“Some captain called in a GAR medevac. Some kind of aliens fighting in the nearest retail sector. Lot of damage, none of it collateral somehow. You didn’t see? One of them was glowing, so bright I thought the whole sector was on fire.”
“No, we were assisting with the cross-training of troopers to fill broken commando squads. You said one of the aliens was glowing?” Like the Orotsuro? No, they are not so bright.
“Yeah, some big furry thing, bigger than a Wookie. Had these silver marks all over, CSF says they lit up when he started fighting. Then it looked like a giant green fire, I could see it from here.”
“Silver marks?” Like that man? “Who was the other alien?”
“Not an alien,” That rude woman was back. Kaytee turned to see her and was shocked. The woman was missing one arm entirely, the other looked like it could fall off any time. Her legs were not in any better state. Kaytee had not even known they were not flesh. The skin around the limbs was bruised and bleeding and one of her eyes was completely black. “Anyone know a good mechanic?”
Kaytee spoke to many CSF officers and civilians to learn what happened. She wanted to report to the Jedi masters as soon as possible. If two people could cause so much destruction they needed to find the furry creature. Palpatine would surely deal with Ryu, she seem to be his lapdog, but someone needed to destroy the other. Kaytee volunteer to find it herself, she was a good and strong soldier. The Jedi even permitted her use of Knights to assist. She did not need them, but it would be rude to reject them.
The CSF officers show her holographic images from the fight. The creature had the same tattoos as the strange man, they even have other similar feature. Maybe they knew each other. It would not hurt to ask, but where would he be? The best place to start was the Nulls, he was staying with them so they might know. She was told the Nulls were not here either. They should not be too hard to find, they were noticeable even among clones.
“Well, they said if he was going to die he would have done it already. They still can’t get him stitched though and he won’t let them cauterize.” She heard the one called N-6 say. Why were they in a hospital? Clones were not treated here, perhaps their Sergeant was injured? She heard they were very close with the man that trained them.
“So what are they going to do?” That was N-11, she did not approach them yet. The two she already met were there and she did not want to speak to them if she did not need to.
“You mean what are we going to do. Apparently he’s become our responsibility, he doesn’t have any family to look after him. The droid said the only option is to make sure he stays in bed until he’s healed naturally.” It seemed N-2 and N-7 would not be leaving soon, when she stepped out they both gave her a bad look.
“We are looking for the man that stay with you in barracks.” She looked into room where one of them pointed. “We need to speak with him.”
“Good luck with that.” He seem to be sleeping, his entire torso and neck were covered in blood-soaked bandages, his face was badly bruised.
“Could it be,” She did not think it was possible from what she hear of the creature, but she had to ask. “Could the furred creature that fought Ryu be this man?”
“Ryu? Wait you know who he fought against? Who? Where is she?” The one called N-10, or Jaing, got really mad. “Tell me!”
“That is not why we are here. We are the one with questions. If you do not know the answers we will wake him ourself.”
“You will not. Do you see how badly hurt he is? They only just got him to sleep, he needs rest.”
“A few questions will not kill him.”
“He was stabbed seventeen times in the chest and twice in the throat. You will let him rest. If it’s that important we’ll let Zey know when he’s awake.”
“We guess that will have to be good enough.” She sighed. “Please do not delay.”

Retail Zone 2b was a mess. CSF was already on site setting up cordons and herding civilians, but the sense of panic was palpable. The level of destruction was quite honestly impressive for a fight between two people. Roxil really must have done a number on whoever took that shot at him. One thing was for certain, Jatne had no intention of being the one to clean up this mess for him. He overdid it, which was unsurprising, but there would be consequences. He expected to find the would-be-assassin in pieces, that wasn’t the case at all.
“Roxil!” Jatne ran to his friend’s side. Roxil was on the ground, still clutching a sparking and clicking mechanical arm. He was bruised and bloody pretty much everywhere he had skin with jagged stab wounds covering his ribs and throat. He was unconscious, but remarkably still alive. The Lunar struggled to breathe, he barely opened his eyes when Jatne approached him. A medic bent several single-use sharps of blood loss control agent against his skin before opting to inject directly into one of the many gaping wounds.
“Sorry, Jat’ika, she got away.” Roxil coughed and blood coated his lips.
“You had a commlink right? You got a picture, voice capture, anything to help us identify what kind of person managed this?” Jaing was in work mode, all he needed was a little information and he could mine any data no matter where it was stored.
“No,” He coughed again and cringed. “But I saw her, and she’ll definitely think I’m dead.”
“And what, you’re going to after her again? Look what she did to you! Dini’la! Nu draar!”
“I can’t be killed, Jat’ika,” Roxil struggled to sit upright and eventually gave up, he had shifted back to his human shape, but it didn’t free up enough essence to heal himself. When Jatne’s brothers arrived, they were just as shocked as he had been. He told them about Roxil taking on a Core ship alone, about all the gunships he had destroyed, he sounded like he couldn’t be defeated.
None of them planned to leave his side. Roxil wasn’t a clone, so he would probably receive good care, but they had trust issues. He was loaded onto a stretcher and brought to the medevac speeder.
“Clones, you’re not authorized to accompany the patient. You should return to GAR-”
“I’m authorizing it. You want to argue with my Deece?” Ordo was imposing when he was in a good mood, he was also very protective. Jatne knew Ordo didn’t care for Roxil as much as he did, but Ordo did care for his brothers.
“Sedatives aren’t working!” A medic shouted. “Out of the way, clones!” Ordo grudgingly stepped aside, but he positioned himself in the hatch so his brothers could enter. It was a tight fight, they had to remove some armor plates and press against the wall to give the medics room to work. “What is this guy’s skin made of, durasteel? I can’t stitch him.”
“Patient bleeding has been stemmed. Bandages will suffice until we get to a powerful med droid.” The doctor stood well to the side clutching his arm, a dark bruise was forming from Roxil’s valiant but failed attempt to brush the doctors off him; he still had that much strength so badly injured. He kept claiming he was fine, that he wasn’t going to die, but he had lost a lot of blood. He was still trying to keep them off him, insisting he could get up and go back to barracks on his own. Jatne wasn’t going to let that happen.
“I told you already, di’kut, I will never forgive you if you get yourself killed. That includes bleeding out because you thought you’d just go ahead and walk home after getting stabbed in the shabla neck.” He gave Roxil the look, the one ARCs were so good at, when he tried to protest. Jatne didn’t care if he said he wasn’t going to die, in this condition he was going to get help whether he liked it or not. “Now, there’s someone running around out there that did this. How are we going to stop her?”
“You’re not,” He still hadn’t gotten the idea that sitting up wasn’t an option. “She did this to me, I’m not letting you fight her.”
“Well it’s a good thing we don’t take orders from di’kute then. You can help us or not, but there were plenty of witnesses for your fight. I’m sure someone can identify who we’re looking for.”

“Don’t get up di’kut! Wait for the medic.” Prudii shouted.
“No, I’m fine.”
“Yeah, really? You’re okay?” A'den's sarcasm wasn't appreciated.
“Yeah… ” Roxil groaned and cringed when he sat up, blood spilled from the gaping hole in his chest. “Fine,”
“Uhh, you do know you have a hole in your chest… a big one… ‘cause you just got shot, seriously do not get up. How are you even alive?” Jaing attempted to force him back down but it was no use.
“I’m an incredibly stubborn person.” He admittedly didn’t feel fine. He hadn’t experienced more than a mild bruise in the last five hundred years. As it turned out, bullet wounds were more than a little painful. Tears streamed down Roxil’s face when he stood clutching his chest and doing his best to ignore the pool of blood soaking into the carpet. “Also, this really hurts. How do you humans deal with pain like this?”
“Well, if one of us had taken that shot we wouldn’t, because we’d be dead. The fact that you’re not… kandosii’la.”
“Something like that would never kill me,” But if I hadn’t heard that shot… “Excuse me,” He pushed Jaing out of his way and jumped from the window, impacting the ground sent another wave of pain through his chest but he pushed through it. He caught the scent of someone who had recently fired a projectile weapon, that’s all he needed. He had Furious Hound Pursuit, he could catch her. He was sure it was a woman, and she had a distinctive scent that he couldn’t identify.
Roxil took off running and silver light finally started shining from the hole in his chest as the wound began to close. I don’t know who you are, but you’ve really upset the wrong god. That was both vile and cowardly, traits of garbage; more refuse to be disposed of. He transitioned into his War Form without losing pace and released Furious Hound Pursuit, he was already outpacing his target. She looked honestly shocked when he caught up, spinning on his heel when he was in front of her.
His War Form towered over the black and red haired woman at more than twice her height. His tattoos were glowing brightly, so bright they could probably be seen for miles. He had spent a lot of essence in the last several minutes, in Creation that wouldn’t be a problem, but here there wasn’t enough essence to absorb it from the environment. He could only regenerate slowly through rest. No matter, he could defeat a mortal even without it.
“I hate to be a bother, but you’ve offended me, I’d very much like for you to die now.”
“Scary,” She didn’t look scared, why didn’t she look scared? “Any analysis?”
“What?”
“No choice then, from the start. He’s too fast, I won’t be able to fight him long enough right now, what’s our power at?”
“Whatever power you have, isn’t enough, mortal.” It seemed like she was ignoring him, but there was no one else here for her to be talking to.
“Good.” She responded, Roxil tilted his head, she wasn’t making any sense. “Run programs Overdrive and TANK.” The woman’s skin and clothing broke into shreds on her arms and legs revealing shifting metal plates where she should have had flesh. The plates rearranged and the moment they stopped moving she lunged left drawing a weapon from her belt. She fired three times unable to hit him for the moment at least, she was right, he was too fast.
“I have friends that swear by Verpine weaponry. They tell me often and emphatically however that they do not bounce.” He sidestepped a close-range attack and grabbed the muzzle of the weapon using what essence he could afford to increase his strength. The barrel was crushed in his grip. “I guess they don’t bend either.” The weapon was discarded without delay, instead she drove a knee hard between his thighs and a fist into his gut with more than should have been possible. Roxil’s attacks were repeatedly blocked by metal limbs, they were taking damage, but not enough it seemed. He needed to go strictly for body shots, but her reflexes were faster than any mortal he’d encountered. She kept up with his speed with apparent ease blocking everything he threw at her. “This is fun and all,” He narrowly dodged a punch to his jaw. “But it’s time you gave up and died, human!” He caught one of her arms in his powerful jaws, before he could use the opening to attack there was a powerful pain in his ribs. She managed to penetrate his skin with a simple knife, or not so simple, it sparked releasing waves of electricity into his body.
“Don’t call me that. I’m not a human, I’m the damn TANK.” She twisted the knife before pulling it out and jumping back. Roxil clutched his side and activated his essence, silver light flowed out from his body once again closing the wound. “And you’re too predictable.”
“You’re an interesting human,” He got a snarl in response to using that word again. He would have grown his armor at this point,
but he didn't have the essence to spare. He'd made a mistake, once he had her scent he could've hunted her any time. He should have waited to regenerate more but that could take a week here and he was impatient and angry. “If you’d really like me to fight you seriously,” He cocked his head and put on his friendliest smile. “Shall I show you relentless fury?” He changed instantly, his eyes narrowed, and his words turned to growls. His movements became erratic, faster and with more strength behind them. The worst part was the laugh, when he finally struck skin with his claws he licked the blood away and laughed. It was an inhuman sound that sent shivers down her spine; it wasn’t a laugh of enjoyment or anything she would expect but an animal noise of implacable madness.

Lily was amazed she hadn’t been discovered yet. She had been on top of the barracks for nearly two hours. She couldn’t hear Roxil and the clones from here, but she could catch enough of their thoughts to make it work. Palpatine really wasn’t going to be happy about this. Whatever this guy thought he was, he was definitely a threat to the Republic. Lily was happy to have wound up in a different universe, however that happened. She poured everything she had into escaping the Empire and she wasn’t about to end up living in another one. Palpatine swore to uphold freedom for the people of the Republic and she wanted to support that. If it meant being an assassin just a little longer she was fine with that.
It was her partner she wanted to be rid of. Sure, Palpatine needed all the help he could get, but this person was insufferable. Lily wasn’t accustomed to working with others, but this woman took it to a different level entirely. She was rude and obnoxious, and Lily got the idea she did it on purpose.
“All the pawns are back on the map?” Ryu was on an opposite roof with a masterpiece of a sniper rifle. “You sure I can’t just shoot ‘em now and be done with it? It’d be real easy?” There was a loud bang. “Oops, finger slipped. Time to go.”
“Tell me you didn’t-”
“Shoot the freak center chest?” She was packing up her gear when the emergency sirens started. Clones were rushing out of the barracks with weapons raised. “He deserved it, right? Hurting the Republic and all that bull, I don’t really care. Stick around if you want, but I’m out of here.”
“Medic!” Someone shouted from a window. “We’ve got wounded! Single projectile, chest wound! Medic!”
“Way to go, sounds like you didn’t even kill him.”
“Impossible!” She sounded pissed, Lily had no words for how happy that made her. “This rifle is even better than mine, and I know I hit!” She practically growled. “I saw him drop, I saw the blood!”
“Might want to focus, you got guards on your six.” Lily loaded simmunition in her rifle, it wouldn’t kill anyone, but it would hurt enough to stop them. Two shots and two clones dropped. “I got you this time, next time you’re on your own.” She dropped off the roof after another patrol passed. Ryu could find her own way out, Lily didn’t make this mess and she wasn’t going to get caught up in it. At least if Ryu did hit, the freak was going to die. Lily had seen the damage Verpine rifles could do, a medic would never get there in time to save him from a chest wound. Their orders weren’t to kill him, but Ryu could answer for that, and the problem would still be solved.

“Absolutely no discipline,” Jatne said more to himself than anyone else. Several Padawans failed to show up for their studies. It didn’t inspire confidence in the command structure when they could hardly maintain control of their own people.
“The war is barely started, you don’t think the young ones are turning tail already, do you ner vod?” Jaing asked. Clones were meant to be taught that Jedi were omnipotent leaders, most of the clones were, not the Nulls.
“There’s been some discontent,” Jatne had been listening. “The few that didn’t blindly accept their new army. Though I did think the ones that would bail would have done it already.” Most of the Jedi that had left were knights, men and women that had dedicated their lives to a Jedi Order that turned an eye in the name of expedience to take on an army of slaves. Now they had to watch nameless men die on irrelevant battlefields or mourn brothers they had never been too far from to reach out and touch. The war was only two weeks in, but they were already starting to see it and they had already lost faith.
The temple and GAR facilities were in disarray. It was distasteful; a few clones go missing and it’s for the greater good, a few Padawans go missing and all of logistics comes to a grinding halt. To make matters worse, Jatne was short a brother. Mereel had never been able to sit still, and he had always been able to make trouble for Kal’buir to clean up as easily as he could sneeze. Still, Mereel had never been missing. He would have told Kal and his brothers if he was being deployed, even under orders not to. Desertion wasn’t even a possibility, he never would have left his brothers in the war.
It had been six days, Jatne had set aside all his own projects to step into his brother’s place. For six days he had done his best to set aside all his worries and continue like it was business-as-usual. It didn’t worry him less that Roxil had also been gone for six days, and that the missing Padawans had now been absent for six days. That was far too much coincidence, it had to be related.
“Vode!” So maybe Mereel wasn’t missing. “Ori’haat ni nu dar! Ni draar ru shekemir kaysh meh ni ru kar’taylir ni cuyir ru gaanaylir par resol ray’turse. Ni ceta, ori’haat, vode.” No one at the compound took much interest, though no one would have been so fluent in Mando’a. Even if they had been trained by Jango himself, the Alphas really only had a cursory knowledge of the language.
“Resol ray’turse? Nayc, gar ru dar shi resol tuurse. Gar aalar jahaala, ner vod?”
“Jahaala luubid. Tuurse? Nu ret’yc, time flies, ner vod, but you couldn’t have had that much fun without me.”
“I really think we ought to take Mer’ika to the medcenter.”
“J’ika, vod, I was not secluded with those jetiise all that time to have my own vode look at me like I’ve gone dini’la, yeah? Listen, I’m sure Roxil has some answers, but he may have started a bit of trouble for us. I told him to head straight to the barracks and wait for me.”
“What does Roxil have to do with this?”
“Well, you can ask him, or if you want to have a real bad time you can try and ask…" He paused, noting the ARCs watching them. "Kaysh ad’eta jetiise kaysh ru hiibir teh Ke’gyce.”
“Sirbur tug’yc?”

This guy does not look like a security expert, but then Kaytee does not look like a plant. She wonder why he seem to investigate so many Jedi. Surely they are not a risk? Some one must think so, he has been talking to Jedi all day. She watched him all morning as he speak quietly to many of the Padawan but eventually he left with a few of them following. She took some pictures before he went, she want to search her sibling memories for anything like those tattoos. They must mean something, if not that man was crazy to have so many.
“You seem to be taking a real interest in that freak,” A woman called Ryu said. Kaytee did not like her, she was rude and felt unnatural.
“Do you not have something important to do?”
“Nope, I was supposed to be tailing one of the ARCs, but he vanished. I can’t do anything until he shows up again.”
“Clones do not possess the ability to disappear. Perhaps you should try harder.”
“This one does. I am an excellent tracker, a real professional, I do not lose people. So what is the story, I hear Palps doesn’t trust that guy, something about spending too much time with the Nulls. They seem like more fun than the regular meat cans to me.”
“Do not call them that. They are not cans of meat, they are men and they are good soldiers.”
“Huh, I guess you’re boring as well. I think I’m going to see if anything needs bombing, shooting, disintegrating, or dismembering. I never did like being bored for long, have fun being a wet blanket or whatever it is you do.”
Kaytee was glad the woman left, Kaytee really did not like her. She also did not like Palpatine and she was employed directly by him. It was not wrong that she was interested in the man with silver tattoos. Tiore was a cultural historian, but he could not tell her anything about that man or his marks. He could not even tell her what species he was. He look human, all but the eyes, ears, and tail. He also look nothing like a soldier. She saw him several times, but never fully clothed and never not smiling. She knew the eyes of a soldier, she had been one for over nine hundred years, he did not have those eyes.

The woman checked her telemetry again, just to be sure everything was working. Distance readings on the scope were accurate, weather and wind details were on point, everything was great. A high-tech neural implant with a fully functioning illegal AI unit made the checks too quick and easy, she was so bored. Being a soldier was hours and hours of boredom, followed by brief flares of action, then more boredom. So she was separated from the Alphas on some nonsensical world caught between low and high tech where people with crazy mental powers were the norm, but at least she found a job. Watch the ARCs, he said, something wasn’t right he said. Easier to talk about than doing it, they all looked the same. 4RT-3MIS was keeping track of minute differences she didn’t care to notice, but it was still a hell of a task.
[ALERT: INCONSISTENCY DETECTED IN ARC UNIT N-6. UNIT N-6 DOES NOT POSSESS ANY DURASTEEL PROSTHETIC LIMBS. I AM DETECTING A DURASTEEL REPLACEMENT FOR THE LEFT ARM OF THE UNIT CURRENTLY MARKED AS N-6. CURRENT N-6 UNIT ALSO DISPLAYS GRAYING HAIR, AND FINE LINES AROUND EYES AND MOUTH NOT PREVIOUSLY NOTED.]
“That’s a pretty big inconsistency,” Corsenna said out-loud, she never did talking to the AI through her interface. “Think we can get a tag on him?”
[UNIT IS CURRENTLY UNARMORED. REDUCE WEAPON STRENGTH BY 76%, AIM APPROXIMATELY 3 CENTIMETERS BELOW LEFT SHOULDER. TRACKING DEVICE PREPARED, EXTRACT AND REPLACE AMMUNITION.]

“What was that … Kom’rk?” Roxil felt somehow disloyal using the incorrect name, but the Nulls said he had to. He knew he was speaking to Jatne, he smelled different, he moved different, he spoke different, he even looked older.
“Bug I think? I hate being unarmored.”
“I know you do. I can’t imagine walking around with nothing but human skin.” Roxil had, as usual, refused to wear a shirt. Several clones and civilian workers stopped to stare at him. His gloriously fluffy tail was swishing behind him and his silver tattoos were glistening in the morning light across all his visible skin. Jatne laughed at him, he always seemed to think Roxil was joking.
“So I’m supposed to meet General Zey regarding new deployment orders. I hope it’s a comm friendly location.”
“You’ll have time to see your brother off won’t you?”
“Yes I’ll see my brothers, Roxil.”
“Jate,” Good, he really was glad. It wouldn’t be right if they made one of them ship off without having time to say goodbye to his brothers.
“Tell me something, you’re supposed to be over five hundred years old and can’t read, but you were fluent in our language immediately?” Roxil pointed to what looked like a stone implanted in the skin on the inside of his right arm. He actually had several different ones in various places, the Nulls had noticed them but had never asked.
“Turns out this thing I found is called the Gemstone of Spoken Language, these are artifacts attuned to places of power in Creation. I find it comforting that these still work here, the abilities they grant are extraordinary. This one allows me to fluently speak any language I hear.”
“So it’s completely normal for them to be in your body?”
”No, that’s a very Lunar thing. It’s not even common with Lunars because it can only be done with Moonsilver, and they usually only pump you full of Moonsilver once.” Of course he had received protective tattoos twice in his life, but he didn’t need to say that. There was no reason for anyone here to know he once expelled his tattoos for nearly fifty years just to see what would happen. His mentor had thrown a fit when he showed up them. He hadn’t realized how bad of idea it had been until he had to get the tattoos a second time. It was painful process and this time Tawasu made him a full moon caste and that meant getting his entire body tattooed in a single night. That meant waking up her friend Maaki, Maaki was supposed to be asleep for another hundred years. Now the only to Lunar contacts Roxil had, who were both remnants of the First Age, knew he had done something incredibly stupid and was suffering the consequences. “The point is you need to have them already when you get your tattoos. For most Lunars that means within a few days of when you Exalt.”
General Zey wanted Kom’rk on the outer rim by the end of the week. That seemed like short notice but he knew that Kom’rk would have found it surprisingly long, Jatne sure seemed to.
“Do you have any questions, N-6?”
“No, Sir.” Jatne touched two fingers to his forehead in an almost-salute in the way most clones did with non-clone officers. Zey didn’t seem like one that got distracted easily but Roxil was doing a good job of it. The Jedi kept looking over until he couldn’t resist asking any longer.
“N-6, is this the specialist Kal asked to be placed in the barracks? Tell me all about yourself.”
“My name is Woneyi Roxil, mister-Jetii-commander-something-or-other, go ahead and call me Roxil. I just tagged along with my friend, Kom’rk, so I could ask for permission to wander the compound this evening. Kal said I was supposed to stay inside the barracks. Unfortunately, that sounds really boring and I don’t want to do it. So, it’d be really great if you just went right ahead and said yes.” Roxil didn’t sounds threatening, but he was smiling like a feral beast, it was unnerving, and for a fraction of a second it seemed as if his tattoos glowed faintly; Zey seemed genuinely stunned. His mouth hung open for a moment, then his lips moved as though he intended to say something, but he stayed silent a few seconds longer.
“Yes, I don’t see why that would be a problem. You’re free to do as you please. Kal said you’re a security specialist, I suppose you’d be wanting to do that at some point anyway.”
“Great, that’s all I needed. Thank you so much and try not to work too hard, it'll make you old.” Roxil got up and keyed the button on the door to leave. Zey was still staring at him in a defocused way that made Jatne uncomfortable.
“Sorry, Sir, he promised he wasn’t going to be a pest.” Jatne turned to leave without waiting to be dismissed, Zey would get used to it. He caught up to Roxil in the hall. “What was that?”
“He tried to use some kind of mind influence on me, I felt it but I’m completely immune to that so it didn’t work, of course. Anyway, since I guess that’s ok here I went right ahead and used mind influence back on him and it worked splendidly. You know, being a Lunar-god is great.”
“You used… wait, you’re immune to mind influence?”
“There are two kinds of shaping effects in Creation; well actually there a whole lot because of natural… Never mind. There are two kinds of shaping effects, physical shaping and mental shaping. My Moonsilver tattoos, which still hurt, protect me from all unnatural shaping perfectly, all the time. That means pretty much everything but my own Lunar shapeshifting abilities. And yes I used mind influence on him. I don’t know if you noticed, but I’m real pretty, I mean I am really pretty. That helps out a lot with some of the charms I’ve learned over the years. Luna seems to like me, and she seems to like I that want to enjoy life, and she has taught me the means of having an easier time doing so. Luna’s gifts are bountiful and meaningful, if you follow the rules, and preform your duties. I disobeyed the rules once and now many of my War Form traits present in my human true form, that isn’t meant to happen. That was a mistake and I made amends; but the consequences are permanent. It was a very simple rule to follow that was extremely difficult to break, but I had to know.” Roxil stopped and ginned. “I guess there’s a saying about how curiosity killed the cat. Anyway enough about that, I need you to explain to me how showers work.”
Jatne stopped for a moment and stood completely motionless in the courtyard. Then he started laughing. He bent over and covered his mouth, but he couldn’t stop. When he finally straightened up again he had tears streaming down his face. It was good to see him laugh, but Roxil’s ears flattened anyway, he didn’t like it when it was at his expense.
“You’ve been here nearly two weeks, and you don’t know how to use a shower?”
“I don’t see where you light the fire, and I’m told the water comes from on top of you? Is that like a waterfall? I lived in the far east, near the border, we were awful close to the wood elemental pole. We didn’t really have any waterfalls.”
“Do you have any idea how often you say things that make absolutely no sense? I’ll show you how to get the shower running when we’re back at barracks but after that you’re on your own.”
“Great! And don’t you worry at all Jat’ika, I’ll behave myself this evening, I promise! I’m just going to have a nice little stroll and maybe make some new friends.
“Roxil, there is no point at which I’m not worried you’re going to do something inappropriate.”
"It'll be fine, Jat'ika. You don't need to worry about leaving me all on my own on a strange planet with unfamiliar customs and thousands of new species I haven't ... acquainted myself with. What's the worst that could happen, it's not as though I could really get into that much trouble, can I?"

There was a bit of commotion when an unusual woman showed up at the barracks asking for Ordo. Several clones she assumed were ARCs stepped out into the hall to see what was going on. Nope, not her. I can already tell she’s going to be trouble.
“Don’t be rude, Ord’ika!” She yelled into the building, mimicking the name his brothers used in their minds.  That got him moving, apparently that wasn’t a name that strangers were allowed to use. “Hey friend,” Lily mustered her sweetest smile when he came down the stairs. “Sweetheart, I was really hoping you’d give me another shot at talking with your daddy.” All his brothers were listening, she could tell. Feirfek, she’s pretty. Wouldn’t stop me from breaking her neck if she crossed me. He looked directly at her as though he meant for her to hear that, he probably did.
“I’m sorry, ma’am, Sergeant Skirata isn’t available right now. Try again during daytime hours.
“You sure you don’t want to hear all about the educational positions I’ve gotten in since I’ve been here?” She straightened her tunic, fastened just low enough to show cleavage. I know better than to fall for that trick. It was worth a try. She could tell he had a feeling she was talking about something different though. There were five ARCs and a very tall man with a fluffy tail and furry pointed ears. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, so she could see that his face, chest, neck, and arms were all covered with metallic silver tattoos. “So how’d you like to talk to someone that’s been hanging out in Palpatine’s office?” She asked as soon as the door was closed. It was well after midnight, they were all obviously exhausted, but that woke them up.
Lily studied everything that was different about each of them, trying to learn their names and anything she could about them through whatever thoughts she could hear. The only person of real use was the tattooed man; Roxil, apparently. Ordo must have told his brothers about her, they were very good at guarding their thoughts. Roxil on the other hand was an endless supply of completely unguarded information. He looked at the Nulls like a predator and it disturbed her. She realized too late that she must have been staring. She came up with the easiest cover for her interest in him.
“I have mention the elephant in the room. One of these things is not like the others…”
“Who?” Roxil asked as if he only now became aware of them. “Me?” He seemed genuinely surprised to be noticed. “Split essence, right. Why does no one ever tell me these are bad ideas when I have them?”
“Ner vod, we just let you do your thing. We can’t make sense of what you’re doing most of the time anyway.” That was Prudii, Lily thought. “This guy is aliit, nothing else is important.”
“Apparently I’m veteran mando’ad, I just didn’t know it yet. I know what my priorities are, and where my loyalty belongs. I live accordingly and without variation.” Nothing can stop a divine force from shaping the world, not one like me. Scold me, deny me, tell me what you want and damn me forever, but I will shape the world as I see it; just watch. That guy legitimately worried Lily, but he obviously believed what he was thinking absolutely. That worried her even more. She really wanted to keep an eye on this bunch.

Jatne did his best to ignore the ARC that approached Kaytee.
“Sorry, should have warned you they’d be here. It isn’t his fault he’s got such a short temper, they made them that way. It’s most of the reason they went back to basics with our genome. They tampered too much and got more than they could handle. Still, their as likely to be a liability as an asset so watch yourself around them.
“Yeah, they made us this way and tried to kill us for it.” Mereel muttered.
“I’d have killed more of them if Kal’buir allowed it.”
“You never did tell us about that, Jaing said you shot Orun Wa?”
“The day Kal’buir met us. Ordo stole his blaster and tossed it to me, I had a cleaner angle, I took it. Hit him square in the chest. I can’t tell you how satisfying it was to watch him gasp for those last few seconds before he died.”
“Wish I could have been there. Well, I guess technically I was. Tell me you didn't get Ko Sai, too?” He wasn't asking because he cared about her, they had plans for her.
"Of course not. For a while at least, she was more useful alive." Jatne smiled, recalling another satisfying moment in his artificially short life. He stripped off his armor plates and body suit before going directly to the ‘freshers first. He’d properly clean them after a shower. The temperature conditioning in the gear needed some work, the sweat irritated him. When he came out Mereel was cleaning his armor and Roxil had snacks waiting.
“We’ll be on work soon so buir wants us to take a run of the city.” Mereel explained that Roxil had taken the liberty of scouting a few places he thought they might want to visit. Jatne wasn’t entirely sure if that was good or not but he’d go along with it for now. Kal had given them all credits to spend, they typically procured work funds from Republic accounts but they otherwise had none to spend for themselves.
Roxil actually had some pretty good ideas. The first stop they made was a little tapcaf near the lower levels. They made delightful sticky bread that reminded Jatne of the first time they had Uj cake. He smiled to himself, but it seemed to remind Mereel of something completely different, he was pretty sure he had a good idea what.
“How did I die?” He asked openly. “Kal’buir said I was reconditioned, but I didn’t kill Orun Wa in this history, and all of you are alive.”
“I don’t know how you remember training, but we mostly took care of ourselves. We were never hurt so badly that Kal’buir couldn’t put us together again, at least not with his friend Mij.”
“Right,”
“Until we were. A floor went out under you in a killing house, broke your spine. We had no choice we had to call medevac. They just had to put you in a bacta for a week at most, it wasn’t that bad. We thought they were just putting you under so you wouldn’t panic in the tank and pull the breather off… but they weren’t. Seven years. After seven years they never updated our files, we were marked for termination. We didn’t have proper tallies yet and we didn’t even get a chance to take the ID patch from your fatigues, they just took you away and incinerated the body. You know they completely erased your file from the database after that? Even Jaing couldn’t find a trace when they were done. Like you never existed.”
“But I did, I had a name and I had our culture. Kal’buir saved my soul before I died, a lot of our boys don’t get that much.” Roxil broke up the conversation and ushered them on to the next place he wanted to show them. It was a candy store. They spent a lot of credits here. They had a whole assortment of candied nuts and dried fruits. They bought several kilos total between a large variety but Roxil had no doubt it wouldn’t last long. They would share it with their brothers and all the clones were always hungry, they also had a perpetual sweet tooth.
“Your turn,” Mereel said once they were outside. “You didn’t tell us how you lost your arm.” Jatne sighed. “Don’t tell me you just wanted an upgrade?”
“I got dumb.” It was the truth . “Forgot the shablarule. Not all soldiers are men, and not all soldiers wear uniforms. It was after Geonosis, and I knew better. I saw the boots by the door but no targets in armor. I turned my back on a crying woman and the hut’uun pulled a lightsaber from her jacket. You and Jaing saved me. I didn’t recover well, I punished myself the whole time. I couldn’t stop imaging how disappointed Kal’buir must have been with me.”
“You weren’t dead, di’kut.” Mereel stopped Jatne with a hand on his shoulder. “That’s what really would have mattered. We only would have cared that you were still alive.” Jatne suddenly felt selfish for continuing to berate himself to a brother that had already lost him once.
“Yeah, that’s exactly what you said there too.” The last stop Roxil wanted to make was a shady looking cantina just inside the lower levels. It was poorly lit which was actually reassuring, perhaps it would stop people from staring as much. Clones weren’t a common sight on Coruscant. Any that were here that weren’t iced were restricted to GAR facilities. Both Nulls were wearing their armor but they’d had their helmets clipped to the back of their belts. Jatne was wearing Prudii’s armor. The problem with being dead was that he couldn’t be identified in public.
“I found this delightful ale here, the wine is all garbage. Let me order a few drinks, go ahead and find a seat.” We didn’t have anywhere else to be until curfew in six hours. There was no harm in staying for a while to see what mischief Roxil must have been planning with the grin on his face. He returned to the table with three decanters of ale in one hand and three glasses in the other. When he set them down he apologized saying they weren’t allowed to get more until they finished this lot. How much did he expect them to drink? Neither of them had even tasted alcohol before.

“Don’t tell me they’re actually going to be staying in barracks,” One of the commandos whispered to another, but Kaytee could still hear.
“Not ours, don’t worry. The bonkers squad got stuck in with the other ARCs.”
“Bonkers squad?” Kaytee ask. She mean to leave after bringing supplies for the commandos on base but now she was curious.
“Sorry ma’am, that was not appropriate.”
“We are not an officer, you may talk as you wish with us near. Who are you talking about?” Her next stop was Alpha barracks, she need to know what to expect.
“The Nulls, the first ARCs. They don’t play by all the rules even by ARC standard.” They told story about Kamino when they would see Nulls stealing equipment and shooting uncomfortable close to Kaminoan technicians. They could be seen fast-roping in the cavernous vat rooms and hacking systems. They sound undisciplined, not like good soldier at all. She listen for a while but she had work to do. She went back to her speeder and brought it to the last barracks, the one the used by Alpha ARCs.
“Need a hand ma’am?” A Clone she did not recognize came in through gate. Synthetic skin was half peeled off his left arm. He was bigger than the others but only by a little. With him was a non-clone, a very tall man with strange silver tattoos on all his body she could see, they were clearly magic. Another clone the same size as the one with the durasteel arm came in shortly after. “All this going inside, miss?” He took a large box of medical supplies. This man was very polite and smile sweetly. She like him.
“Yes, thank you…?”
“Jatne. This is Mereel, and this very eccentric man-like creature is Roxil.”
“Jatne and Mereel?” All the clones identified themselves with numbers. She did not know they had names, it made her feel rude for not ask them. Jatne put the box in Mereel’s hands and took another. “We thought you used numbers?”
“Right, can’t have the public thinking we’re people. Then they might feel the need to ask the awkward questions like why don’t we have rights? What happens when we’re injured too badly to ship off to next battle-” Roxil put a hand on his shoulder.
“Udesii, vod’ika. Ni kar’taylir gar kadala. Ni kar’taylir gar kaden.” The man with tail spoke softly, Kaytee had to strain to hear but did not understand.
“Ne’johaa! Ni kar’taylir meg banare! Ni kar’taylir vaii ibic slanare. Ni r’haa’taylir, draar tug’yc.” He looked back to Kaytee. “You want me to be a good little droid? Fine, call me N-2 if you feel better. Osik’la hut’uun, ori’aruetyc. You can think I’m a droid, but I know. We are men, not products to be discarded when we choose not to be echoes. We have brothers, and yes, we have names. They weren’t given to us by our creators but by ourselves because we deserve to be men.”
“Udesii, ner’vod.” Mereel tried. He was mad too, but ARCs were watching now. Open dissent had consequences he didn’t want to see his brother suffer a second time.
“N-2, not ARC, not Alpha?” She remembered. “The Nulls? You are very different then. Not kind at all. We simply did not know and you are so rude to us?”

“Whoa, we’re going really high up!”
“Yes, that is how space travel works. I explained all this to you when we left Coruscant.” Jatne sighed.
“Oh yeah. I fell asleep.”
“Roxil, you’re a moron. A real di’kutla moron.”
“Are you sure, about what you said earlier, Jat’ika? I think we may have to hide him from the Alphas.”
“The ARCs?” Roxil asked. “Kal said I disturb him so I can’t stay at the apartment. He made General Zey let me live in the barracks.”
“I’m sure he did.” Jatne replied. “I’m sure he had a good laugh about it too. Well hiding him won’t be an option then, but I am sure. How ‘bout it, Roxil, want a few brothers?” He was sincere. He didn’t mean it as fellow warriors, he wanted Roxil to be part of the family; a proper member of clan Skirata. Roxil nearly cried.
“Great, so I’ve got the ori’vod that should be my own age and isn’t, and now the orishy’a’vod a couple centuries older than even our buir. Bet you anything the Kaminiise never predicted any of this.”
“Yeah but the Kaminiise also didn’t predict that I’d shoot Orun Wa so I don’t put much faith in them.”
“You did?” Jaing was genuinely surprised.
“You can ask about that later J’ika. I have a more important question. Can you really go to space without a ladder?”
“Excuse me? A ladder? With rungs? That you climb on?”
“Obviously. What other kind of ladder is there? On the full moon a ladder appears somewhere in Creation. If you’re strong enough you can climb it to the silver chair, Luna’s throne. The moon.”
“I say again, excuse me?”
“This is incredible.” Roxil’s face was nearly touching the viewscreen. Jaing used his stolen fighter to escort the troopers across the city. Once the gunships were recovered the called Vigilant back, the captain sounded embarrassed. Jaing had more ‘sightseeing’ or as he preferred to call it ‘spying with prejudice’ to do, but he was going to bring his brother back to Coruscant personally first. He was only half aware of the conversation happening behind him as he stared at the stars. Jaing and Jatne both laughed shortly before Roxil started drifting off the floor.
“Have fun, ori’vod, I’m putting the gravity back on before we punch into hyperspace.”

Flying over Galactic City was even more amazing than the streaking stars in hyperspace. Jaing had called ahead an hour ago to warn GAR HQ that they'd be in a CIS vessel so they wouldn't be shot down. He pinged HQ when they got close anyway.
"You're clear to land N-10. We're sending some techs to collect the vessel, leave it on pad 3 before hitting barracks."
"No can do, Control. Just dropping off assets before heading back to the rim. Tell you what though, I'll try real hard not to blow it up before I get back."

Jatne didn’t like this at all, but it was still their best option. They needed reliable intel in order to move their men to the ships. He would sent up a remote for an aerial view but if any Seps were watching the area it would be too obvious, procurement still hadn’t provided remotes with non-metallic casings.
“Remember, Jat’ika, you’ll only have an hour before you need to refresh if we aren’t out by then.”
“Right, I got it.” He really didn’t like this at all. Roxil took the compact knife his friend offered and pricked his finger before handing the knife back with a drop of blood on the end. Roxil had initially suggested pushing one of his shapes on a trooper, he wanted Jatne’s expertise on the ground. After explaining communicating as a creature that didn’t possess the ability to speak, Jatne realized it sounded a lot like using a subvocal commlink. None of the troopers used those and it had taken quite a bit of practice even for the Nulls. It had to be him. He took the blade and cringed. “Here goes nothing,”
“Just relax, Jat’ika. It’s really quite exhilarating to feel your shape changing.”
“Right,” He placed the tip of the blade with the drop of blood against his tongue, trying hard not to think about it.
“Oh, and there’s no way to change back until time runs out.”
“You osik’la-” It was too late to argue now. Jatne knew he wasn’t going to like it even before he felt his body shrinking and stretching, but that was over inside a second. He felt so small and fragile, he was. The bird shape Roxil selected for him was only about nine inches tall. Jatne hopped around a few times, trying to familiarize himself with the small legs. Next he stretched his arms, now wings, out to his sides.
“You have to flap, Jat’ika.” Roxil mimicked the motion with his arms, and looked ridiculous doing it. “Just flap, it’s easy.” Of course the cat chuckled when Jatne stopped short trying to insult him, distracted by the chirping sound he made instead. He chirped a few more times before flapping his wings experimentally, surprised at how easily they lifted him into the air. “Yes, I know I’m a Shabuir, I see you’re having no trouble communicating. Now, I examined the area earlier and didn’t see any predators you should have to worry about. Get in the air and use those adorable little chirps to let me know what I should relay to the team.”
Copaani mirshmure’cye, vod? He chirped again, hoping it translated, before taking off. The minutes were ticking away and he didn’t want to be in the air when they ran out.
“Ganar nuhur, Jat’ika” Roxil grinned when Jatne dipped suddenly, instinctively trying to make a rude gesture at him with a finger forgetting for a moment that he didn’t have fingers. He was committed against admitting it, but this really was incredible. He had always enjoyed being in the pilot’s seat of a fighter, but this was entirely different. He could feel the pressure of the wind running through his feathers as a soared higher. He had enough practice to pilot most vessels without much conscious thought as though it were an extension of his body, but this was his body. His wings responded to his thoughts instantly, dipping and diving, weaving between the branches of trees. That was enough practice, he rose above the treetops… and he saw something troubling. A rogue class starfighter was heading directly toward his comrades’ position. He chirped frantically, Roxil was in his war form to enhance his senses so he should be able to hear.
Panic struck when the fighter fired, but the small missile streaked beyond the clones and obliterated a discretely parked airspeeder. The vessel landed, cannon still smoking faintly from the heat. As Jatne drifted back down he saw Roxil wave to him with a wide grin.
“Udesii, burc’ya.” He said, brushing his hair away from his shoulder for Jatne to land on. He gestured with a hand toward where the fighter landed and a very familiar face stepped into the opening.
“New pet?” Jaing asked as he approached.
“For the next thirty-two minutes.”
“Well I was,” He glanced toward the troopers. “Sight-seeing in the sector when I intercepted a priority message from Vigilant about Separatist activity. Lousy di’kute turned tail and ran off without you. They should have stuck around for what must have been one hell of a light show. I saw the wreckage; my brother wasn’t in there was he?” Jaing’s face took on a serious expression, worried didn’t cover what he must have been feeling. He seemed more questioning when Roxil looked toward the little blue bird perched on his shoulder.
“I’m sure he’ll give you a big hug in about thirty-one minutes.”
“SitRep? Where’s he off to that you’re counting minutes?”
“Nowhere. He’s such a cute little vod right now, isn’t he?” Roxil gently lifted bird and offered it to Jaing. The ARC didn’t move, and didn’t respond. He just looked blankly at the creature in his hand and back at Roxil.

Roxil let himself sink into a sack, he had no idea what was in it, but it was soft enough to be comfortable. He retrieved some of the powder from his pouch on a fingertip and inhaled it through his nose. The effect was immediate, a surge of energy and calm all at once, and a brilliant display of colors from now visible essence. The essence was duller than he liked, there wasn’t enough of it available, he was honestly surprised to see any at all other than his own. His attention was pulled into sharp focus, a vibrant purple caught his eye. He had seen violent tinged essence before, only in those preparing to betray another. He shook Jatne’s shoulder gently.
“Jat’ika, there’s a big problem.”
“I already gave it back, cat. It’s not my fault if you lost it.”
“No, Jat’ika, I think we’re in danger.” That seemed to bring the ARC out of his slumber, he still didn’t look impressed.
“We’re in the middle of a war, Roxil. We’re always in danger.”
“Please wake the troopers, I really think we should leave.”
“Why would you leave?” The child, Talan, suddenly appeared behind them. “Mama said we’ll all be safe is she can keep you here.”
“Jat’ika, I think we really have to go now.” He waited for the nod of agreement before starting to wake the remaining troopers. Josrea sprinted across the room to stop him.
“What are you doing? They need rest!”
“You needed us to stay, why?” Roxil asked plainly.
“It’s safe.” He could see it was a lie, her essence turned darker.
“You were going to betray us to the Seps.”
“No! I-” Darker still, another lie. Roxil pushed her aside without consideration.
“The lives of these men are our responsibility and we will not risk them on the word of aruetiise.” Roxil had only known the Nulls for a short time but he had thrown his lot in with them completely. He understood them, their unwavering devotion, their courage, their resourcefulness. He also felt protective, they were frighteningly intelligent, but also naïve. They were exactly the type of people of people that he dedicated himself to, damaged beyond repair but more capable of love and respect than many other mortals. As for the rest of the clones, they had value, they had already proven their worth, and yet they were treated as expendable.
Once upon a time Roxil might have argued against his divinity, but fifty years in the Wyld after expelling his tattoos warped his mind. The changes were so subtle at first that he wouldn’t have recognized them if he tried. By the time he made his way to his old mentor to fix his caste once again the differences had grown far more profound, but he had become accustomed to them. Now, he fully believed he was a god, he fully believed he was a good god. He would protect all worthy humans with every last drop of his blood if need be. Some however, were trash to be disposed of. It was Roxil’s responsibility to cleanse the filth wherever he went. He understood now why he had been brought to this universe, it was so full of ordure. He belonged here and he would not be denied. He looked the woman in the eyes, every trace of his usual smile erased. “Ma’am, if even just one of these men are harmed before we leave this city you will die. It will not be quick, it will not be painless. It will lull your breath, how cruel I can be; but I will show no pity when you weep and scream. Do you understand?”
She gulped and nodded, not finding the words to acknowledge him. Jatne simply stared; he had yet to see Roxil threaten anyone. He had a habit of being overly friendly with his allies, and he simply killed his enemies without remorse. “Jat’ika,” He said, smiling once again without even a tinge of the darkness he had shown moments ago. “I’ve had an idea! Come, I’d like to speak with you privately.”

All they had to do now was get back to the Larty gunships, no big deal, right? “Roxil, you’re just dumb enough to try another flight. Our intel is too old to do us much good. Could you get in the air and-”
“I can’t, I’m sorry Jat’ika.”
“All the stunts you pulled and now you can’t?”
“I’m too low on essence. If I burn the last of it on another shift it will kill me. I’m sorry Jat’ika, if I had known they would hit us this hard I would have conserved. I used too much early to take out the fighters, and a lot more breaking into the core ship. You must know I can’t pull armored plates off warships unassisted.”
“Back to square one. Shiny boys, how’re your supplies looking?”
“No stims, two rations between us. Two thermal dets, but no rounds have been fired. We still have five reserve power cells, sir.”
“Jatne?” It was the woman from before, he only hoped her son was still in the temporary shelter. “We have food and water inside. Talan knows the tunnels better than any adults. I always tell him not to go down there but he never listens. Sit down and eat, maybe he can draw you a map. It won’t be a masterpiece, but it might get you to your ships.”
“You heard her boys, get inside and tuck in! Fill your boots.” They all gave him the same confused look. “It means go eat, boys. And take a rest, you’ve been on your feet too long. One-hour watches, we move in six.” He turned back to the woman. “You are the most beautiful human in the galaxy right now. I don’t think I ever got your name.”
“It’s Josrea.”
“Thank you, Josrea.”
“How do you do it? How do you push yourselves so hard for so long without proper food and sleep?”
“We’re bred to be the best ma’am. We have our limits like any man, we just know how to push them.” He took first watch, hunched in one of the shop windows while his men ate and rested below. One of the civilians brought him a plate of dehydrated meats and crackers and a bottle of water he accepted happily. His hour seemed to drag on for eternity, he couldn’t let himself dose but the stims had worn off long ago and he was dead on his feet. When a trooper finally came to relieve him he hardly had the energy to make it back down the stairs, but the snacks helped. He tossed Roxil his little pouch before settling into a corner and closing his eyes. “Five hours, Roxil, don’t overdo it.” He mumbled before drifting off. He was only vaguely aware of someone spreading a blanket over him. In a few hours he needed to be up and ready to move but for now he could afford to let his guard down just a little.

Lily sat at the desk making no attempts to hide either her boredom or her contempt. A damn secretary, with all the skills she had to offer they were only willing to give her a position as the Chancellor’s personal desk-jockey. The light flashed and she entered his office oozing dissatisfaction.
“I have a meeting, I’d like you to prepare some caf.” I’m sure Zey just wants to give me useless advice again. He doesn’t see the bigger picture, the master plan. Don’t worry Jedi I know exactly what I’m doing.
“Of course, right away.” I’m a mind-reading, telekinetic, assassin and you’re wasting me making the coffee. I hate you. She did the job grudgingly. It was only too late she realized she had stashed every weapon but a small knife when the rift grabbed her. She couldn’t hunt bounties with just a knife and moderate telekinetics. She needed to collect a proper paycheck for the first time in her life. Was this really how normal people lived day-to-day? She found herself pitying them. She hated being a tool of the government, but at least she got to have some fun.
It was time for a new plan. She could turn this around. She preformed her duties without complaint for the remainder of the day. Afterward she made the long walk to the cantina at the edge of the lower levels, the Kragget. If luck was on her side, she would see a familiar face. Of course, she had never been that lucky. With a sad sigh she slumped down on the ferrocrete pathway outside. She saw a whole group of clones walk by, could she just walk up and ask them? Ordo called the man Sarge, there was a chance they’d at least know the name.
“Hey!” she called. “You know Kal Skirata?”
“The scary guy that trained Commandos?”
“Scary? The guy is ancient but I guess…”
“Never met him, saw a lot of him back on Kamino but he didn’t have anything to do with Troopers.”
“So there’s no chance you’d be able to help me find him?”
“Did you try Arca barracks at the GAR compound? I hear he likes to visit his squads.”
“What do you need Skirata for?” The voice behind her was obviously one of the clones, but his accent was more like Ordo’s than the Troopers she was talking to. She turned to look at him, he had a softer face than the other clones, more relaxed but a little sad.
“Personal business, as in none of yours.”
“And here I thought I was a charmer. Next you’ll be saying usen’ye I don’t want you help finding Skirata, stunningly-handsome nice man!”
“…What?”
“My brothers and I are on our way to meet him. But he always said he’d be proud to see us bring a nice girl home.”
“Oh I can be real nice,” Her attitude changed instantly. “I’m Lily and I’m the nicest girl you’ll meet today.”
“Right. That really doesn't make me feel better.”

Roxil had already given the Separatists directions to the building, they didn’t need him to get there. He put his visor back on and dove into an alley out of sight shapeshifting into a bird without breaking his run. The clones could see his friendly icon rising into the air.
“Ro’ika, what are you up to you?” Jatne likely hoped he had taken his war form. Roxil couldn’t talk in animal shapes, he tested the subvocal comms anyway because he didn’t have that technology at home. There was no success, he only conveyed squawks and caws. Fortunately, core ships weren’t designed to be this far down in the atmosphere. They likely only brought it down to avoid detection from other spacefaring vessels. Once he was able to cling to the outside of the hull he abandoned the bird form for his much stronger humanoid cat-beast.
“Worst case scenario, the have the same intel as us and blow the building with cannons. Best case scenario, they’re working under the same restrictions as us. There’s too much risk of rallying Ambrians to the Republic by recklessly firing cannon into their cities. In either scenario I can inside the ship.” It took some work, but he put every last bit of essence he could spare into his strength to pull away the massive fueling hatch; only enough was saved to keep him living and provide an extra boost if he needed it inside. Jatne didn’t know what happened if Roxil ever ran out of essence. “Jat’ika, point me to something important to break.”
“Ro’ika, stop! That ship will be crawling with an army of droids!” Roxil wasn’t listening.
“Tell me where to go or I’ll find it myself, Jat’ika.” He could hear the sigh, Jatne didn’t have a lot of choice.
“Wait one,” He might not have been familiar with this particular ship’s layout. “Take a left. Go forward eight meters and take the turbolift up three levels." Roxil ran through the hallway barreling straight through a line of battle droids. He punched, kicked, and ripped his way through them without slowing down. He followed the directions quicker than Jatne could give them, ignoring the klaxon no doubt bringing more droids out of standby mode. He fought off dozens of droids before Jatne brought him to a stop. “I assume you don’t have any ordinance on you.” Roxil looked around and pried the blaster rifle from the twisted wreckage of a battle droid.
“Rifle?” Jatne sighed again.
“Alright, that ship is going to come down hard so you’ll need to get out quick. You should be at a blast door leading right to the reactor core. Just keep pumping in rounds until the casing starts to crack then run like haran. I’m in their system, I should be able to seal the bulkheads behind you to contain the explosion.” There would still be a lot of collateral damage. Even if the majority of the blast stayed within the ship the shockwaves would be immense and anything in the crash zone would be completely destroyed. “Do not let anyone see you come out of that ship!” If the Republic wasn’t seen as having any involvement in the crash, it would actually work to their benefit.  A core ship was overkill for the thirty under-equipped Republic soldiers. Roxil held down the trigger until the first sign of damage.
He started running, completely unaware of the distance he covered until he came back to the turbolift. The stress of standing still in the middle of giant ticking bomb was incredible.
“Warning, reactor breach imminent. Warning, reactor breach imminent. All personnel evacuate immediately. Warning, reactor breach imminent.” The droids voice continued over the loudspeaker. Roxil could hear the explosion as he leapt back out the fueling hatch already in the process of shifting. No one would recognize him as a Stryx. He waited until the last moment to shift back into human form before touching the ground. He flipped in the air with impressive and unnesseccary flourish landing only inches from where his allies now stood outside watching the Sep ship lose air. He was expecting praise and applause, he was not expecting Jatne to smack him in the face.
“Never do that again you miserable di’kut! That was a dangerous and stupid idea! You could have been killed, Roxil! Do you understand that? One mistake and you’d be dead! How could you be so reckless? K'oyacyi, remember? Stay alive. We may not get on perfectly but for better or worse we let you in the family, if you get yourself killed for some stupid stunt of unnecessary heroics I will never forgive you. Do you understand me, Roxil?"” Roxil felt deflated and thoroughly defeated. He thought he understood what the Nulls called dynamic risk assessment, their fancy way of saying winging it. His friend continued berating him for several minutes until he seemed suitably chastised. His ears flattened against his head and his tail slumped straight down to the ground.

Thanks to Roxil, Jatne knew at least that they had enough room to move out of the basement. Getting the explosives set was no problem, detonating them was another matter entirely.  They couldn’t used timed or proximity devices in this environment. They needed visual confirmation of targets. The whole fight started because not everyone on the planet wanted to be in the Republic. If the Republic response blew up too many citizens or half the city, the results wouldn’t be good.
Jatne had now been laid up in a maintenance shaft of a warehouse for over twenty-four hours. Vigilant should have been back in system hours ago but without comms he couldn’t get a SitRep. They couldn’t let this go on much longer. He had one ration cube remaining and only one stim dose. The trap was set, Seps only had fifty troops on the ground, they could do this. He peeled his body suit away at the inner elbow and pulled the cap off the stim sharp with his teeth never taking his other hand off his blaster.
“Oya, boys. Let’s make their eyes water.” He blinked once activating a mole in the Ambria network shutting down their commlink satellites. His HUD identified a friendly figure stepping out into the open. The trooper did an excellent job and looking surprised before bolting when Seps spotted him. Fortunately, the hostile gave chase, they weren’t dealing with simple predictable droids for once. “Osik, bring your friends you di’kutla Shabuir.” He whispered even with his soundproofed helmet back in place. Only seconds later another dozen men entered the street. He waited until the last one was in position and pressed the detonator on his gauntlet. The trooper did a beautiful job modifying the thermal dets. The blast focused entirely into the street causing almost no damage to the buildings, the same could not be said for the Seps still in range. The remainders turned back only to be mowed down by three troopers that had been lurking and hidden.
“Beta team, you’re a go.” He watched two other troopers fast rope down now at the backs of the Separatist troops cutting down what was left. With a few blinks he pulled Roxil’s PoV into focus. He wasn’t wearing his visor now, but had a small camera planted just above his ear in his hair. He was posing as a civilian in his female shape.
“Sir! You there!” She shouted frantically at the second Sep location. “The Republic clones, they have my son! Please, please help me!”
“You know where they are miss?” One of the men asked.
“Nice tail, that’s weird…” He barely heard another one mutter. Jatne tapped another command on his gauntlet.
“Welcome mat primed and ready for guests.” He said.
“Alright, I’ll check it out. The rest of you hang back.” One of them said. “No good, we need all of them or it’s a waste.” It would be a waste indeed. Jatne gave his most prized ordinance for the biggest trap, a custom implosion device. The civilians were kind enough to point out a building slated to be demolished. They wouldn’t have to worry about that for long; the implosion grenades burned hot enough, big enough, to eliminate every molecule at the epicenter. Omega had been granted use of the same devices to eliminate a clone-killing microvirus a few months after Geonosis. They were extremely effective.
“No, you don’t understand! There’s dozens of them! Please, you could get them all! They’re hungry, tired, and wounded! We’ve been denying them aid, please save my son!”
“Hungry, tired, and wounded? We might not get this shot again guys. All-out offensive?”
“That was a risk, too obvious. I can’t believe it worked, Roxil.” He increased the magnification on his HUD even knowing he couldn’t see them from here. “Oh shab.” Roxil overplayed his hand. They didn’t know the Seps had sent a core ship, not with so few Republic forces to take on, they knew now.

“Of course we want to help,” It took Kaytee much time to explain herself to the Jedi Masters, but they knew she was honest. She felt good telling them about the rift that brought her here. Now she had an opportunity to help people in need. She pity General Zey, he was under much stress the pressure come from many places. His troops died in large numbers every day, the chancellor did not listen to military advice. Many tell Zey what he should do, but he can only really pass the recommendation and hope for the best.
There was much work Kaytee could do here. They did not have enough medical facility for an army of three million, so she heal many. She also help to train infantry troops to fill gap in special forces. They even request she act as counselor sometimes. They send her to Arca barracks, the place she first arrived. Several men were discharged from medical care though they were not full recover. These were the very few survivor of bombs placed by terrorist. They were called Separatists, Seps, when they do not attack from distance they send droid like cowards.
Kieran was not strong healer, but he could do the job so she let him take control. Most of the men would be fine without her, one lost a leg in the explosion. She went to him and placed hands on his thigh. The others gather around to watch, they had not seen someone like her before.
“This will take time,” She warn closing her eyes. She did not open them for many hours. She could hear troops coming and going, some stopping to look often. They did not realize how much time it would take. It was a full day before she open eyes again, she feel exhausted, but the man’s leg was regenerated. It would not be possible for Kieran to do this for every wounded man, but all of Kaytee agreed to do it when she could.
These men have no choice but to fight, and to follow orders. They did not volunteer for war, or to be hurt badly, but they fight bravely anyway. She admire them greatly. The soldier were not the problem in this war, it was the generals. These people called Jedi did not seem like they had prepare for an army. They did not know how to command.
Kaytee did not even realize she fell asleep but woke on a bed, though it was not a comfortable one. She was still in barracks, one of the clones sat asleep in a chair nearby. He woke up and she sat upright.
“You are a lot lighter than you look,” That sounded like compliment, she think at least. “I wanted to thank you. They say it could be a week before I get a prosthetic, a week that my brothers fight without me.”
“Your brothers?” She did not understand, they were clones not family. However it make sense if they have no one else. It would be too painful to feel alone with the life they had to live. He point out three other clones eating outside room.
“They are not my original pod, but we will learn to work together.”
“Your pod?” There were many things she did not understand about these soldier. He try to explain about being born in vats, about being trained together. He tell her his original brothers all died in their first battle. They were only ten years old, she could not even remember when her body was ten years old. Even if Kataleina, her oldest sibling, was not sealed behind magic barrier in her mind that was over nine hundred years ago. She understand humans well enough to know they could live for a century, but these men would be lucky to make it to forty. If they did not die in the war she worry about what would happen when they get too old or injured. Her choice was clear, she had to help make the war end.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Kal Skirata.” I know I said I wanted all my boys to do normal things like dating, but this girl looks like trouble.
“You don’t exactly look like a nice guy yourself.”
“Partaylir jetiise ne’susulur-”
“Yeah, what do you make of it?”
“An opportunity.” I can already think of dozens of uses for her. Ordo cursed to himself, controlling his words was one thing but controlling his thoughts might prove to be impossible.
“Opportunities and threats, son. So…”
“Lily. And I’m just going to start by saying I’m done being used. I’m just looking for work so I can feed myself. I’m a free woman for the first time in my life and I intend to keep it that way.”
“She’s a clone, buir. Not Kamino, and I’m pretty sure she probably isn’t a Spaarti either. One of the vode has had an eye on Arkanian Micro as well, I think we would have noticed if one of them has been working under the ban.  If she’s to be believed anyway, there’s someone else out there.” I hope it’s Ko Sai. I’ve thought of so many painful ways to greet her.
“Never heard of a Ko Sai.” She loved the look of shock when she responded to things that hadn’t been said. Even people accustomed to working with her got it from time to time. “Look, the big guy here says bounty hunting is legal here, if the pay is any good I want in."
“Sure, I’ll see what I can dig up.” Favors always have a price kid. I’d like to get mine before you go after the wrong head and get snapped in half.
“I’m tougher than I look. Tell me the cost and I’ll tell you if we have a deal.”

She did her best to convey boredom and annoyance, it wasn’t hard. Skirata introduced her as his son’s acquaintance, close enough to true that the Jedi wouldn’t sense deception. They were looking for a mole or something in the Republic and Skirata needed her to tell him if there was any information or concerns Zey was holding back. The man was an open book, she didn’t need to hear his thoughts to know he was being honest. Skirata never actually mentioned the mole during the meeting. In fact they actually seemed to talk about very little. It was a political game she didn’t understand and had no interest in. From the sounds of it he was getting permission to pull troops off the field for a covert assignment. That sounded like a lot more fun than whatever was going on now.
When they left Skirata kept to his word and pointed her toward less shady bounty postings before parting ways. She sat outside feigning the lost little girl until he was well out of sight, then she returned to Zey’s office.  This was probably an awful idea, but it was the most profitable plan she had at the moment. His door was still open so she went right in.
“I’m looking for work.” She said. “I’m real good at intel and you seem like a guy in need of someone like that.”

Roxil didn’t care for being a housepet when he could be a much bigger, more powerful cat. Still, it allowed him to move mostly unnoticed. He still avoided Separatist patrols anyway, paranoid that they might take notice of him, he didn’t want to lead them to the clones. Comms were also being jammed making it dangerous to walk straight into the bolt hole of highly capable soldiers on full alert. He had volunteered for Jatne’s brother, Kom’rk, to find out the hard way if a round from a Verpine cranked to full power could penetrate his unaugmented armored skin; it could. Jatne always carried Verps. The clones and civilians stared at him as though he was some kind of oddity until he shifted back to his human shape, they still stared at him as an oddity.
“Did anyone here order a bird’s eye scan of the area as well as detailed information on enemy numbers and location?” He removed the datachip from his visor and handed it to Jatne.
“I’ll never say a bad word about you again you ori’mesh’la di’kut.”
“Breaking promises in the same breath you make them?”
“Where are you pants?”
“I didn’t forget to put them on! I forgot to take them off,” When Jatne slipped the datachip into his pad Roxil immediately began pointing out all the movement he could identify. It would seem the Seps hadn’t been able to track where clones bolted in the confusion. That was probably a job meant for their gunships.
“Ori’Kandosii, Roxil! This is good!” The compliment made Roxil grin widely. He hadn’t worked with others in a very long time, when he did they were more focused on his shortcomings than what he had to offer the team. He pulled the drawstring on his little pouch but Jatne snatched it away.
“Nu draar! We aren’t done yet, friend. My boys need you clear headed.”
“But Jat’ika I haven’t slept in months! And I’m so hungry! I just need a little boost of energy.”
“You slept on the larty twelve hours ago and you appear to have fresh meat stuck in your teeth.” Jatne resisted the urge to laugh when Roxil summoned his claws to pick the remains of whatever he had eaten out of his mouth.
“That wasn’t for food though,” He sat down to sulk, a clear indication that regardless of what other purpose he had hunted for, he had in fact eaten his prey. “Shabuir. Ori’Shabuir. Ni or’parguur gar.” He didn’t mean it, and he would probably beg Jatne to forgive him later. Even Roxil’s unnaturally high spirits took a dive occasionally. He hadn’t fed his addiction in quite some time and they were all under a lot of stress. “After we blow those chakaare to haran then.” He wasn’t kidding, he went back upstairs briefly. When he came back he was carrying a large munitions crate from the larty. “I made a stop before regrouping. Cleaned out whatever I could find. It was not easy getting it back here when I had to sacrifice strength for stealth.” He had surprised Jatne yet again.
“Wayii! When we get home I’ll have Kal’buir set you up with as much tihaar or ne’tra gal as you can drink!” They had enough ordinance to level a skyscraper now. Jatne’s snipers got their remotes in the air throwing video feed icons onto everyone’s HUD. With a clear view of their surroundings and the extra supplies things were looking much brighter. Roxil began stuffing explosives into Jatne’s empty pack.
“What did you call it, a welcome mat? Think someone can walk me through arming these if I slip out? I’m thinking it’s time for a trap, one that goes boom.”

Jatne was not pleased. He ran through the list of ideal battle conditions in his head confident that he possessed none of them. The Separatist fighters had been removed by Roxil early on but now they were split up and cut off from each other. He only had five troops at his disposal and they hadn’t been able to retrieve their armored plates before going to ground. His troops only had their standard issue DC 15 sidearms, command chose to have them leave their rifles behind, they weren’t supposed to be fighting here. They got to cover, but the local building plans hadn’t been updated, they had no rear exit.
The troops presented him with what equipment they did have; their blasters, five total spare power cells, and five compact thermal dets. He opened his pack and added a field medic’s kit, three thermal dets, three EMPs, a Verpine shatter gun, Verpine Sniper Rifle, DC 17 blaster rifle with attachments, data slicing kit, three remote cameras and a DC 17 sidearm to the cache.
“You aren’t a trooper, are you sir?” Only ARCs carried DC 17 sidearms, even the Commandos equipped with DC 17 multipurpose rifles had mark 15 blaster pistols. That was the least surprising part of his kit, not even ARCs carried Verpine weaponry and his slicing tools were not standard issue either.
“Too right, lucky us.”
“But your tally, sir… It scans CC-0202-” The trooper went silent when Jatne smirked with a finger to his lips.
“Now is not the time for questions. CC-02 certainly didn’t ask any, not when one of the crazies asked for his armor.” The troopers instantly looked wary. A lot of rumors went around Tipoca city about the Null ARCs but very few troopers had ever seen one of them up close. When the Nulls were spotted it was usually while taking pot shots at Kaminoan techs, stealing equipment, and hacking every terminal they could access for some dubious reason. The Kaminoans called them deviant and they seemed eager to prove them right.
“We’ll complain later, right now we’re just happy to have a deluxe model on hand, sir.”
“Save your happy thoughts until after I come up with some shabla brilliant plan to get us out alive.” Jatne leaned back against the wall rubbing his temples. They were holed up in the basement of retail store featuring some of the least practical undergarments he had ever seen. A group of a dozen civilians, mostly woman and children, huddled in the far corner. “Alright I spotted an access hatch to environmental control on the roof. If they at least followed regulations there’ll be a crawlspace big enough for a person. Who’s the best sniper?”
“That’d be me, sir.” One of the clones said. Jatne handed him his sniper rifle.
“Break my Verp and I’ll break you. They do not bounce. These are extremely pricey and my paychecks have been a little light for the past forever. Take a remote up to the roof and see if you can sneak it out.” He handed the DC 17 to another trooper. “It’ll take some getting used to, optics and trigger are more sensitive than the fifteen but you’ll be able to lay down sniper support and anti-armor if you need to. I want you on the roof as well but you’re on your own finding a second vantage point. If you do, get us a second angle on the remotes. I’ll need to rig proximity dets for the thermals-“
“I’ve got demo training, sir.” A third trooper interrupted. Jatne handed all the grenades over happily.
“I’ll take the shatter gun and-“ He was suddenly distracted by a small fluffy creature he hadn't expected to see. No one in their right mind would let a Salky run loose during a battle, they were far too expensive. It took Jatne less then a second to realize the small creature had an optic visor that would cover only one eye on a human, attached to it's head by flexicord. It also carried in it's mouth a small leather pouch that Roxil always steadfastly refused to be parted with for any reason.

Human? Yes, they were human. Kaytee had not met many humans, but she had never seen any that were identical until now. A dozen indistinguishable men pointed guns at her when she appeared in the building after the flash of light.
“Whoa there, guess we should have put up a no trespassing sign.”
“Did not seem necessary, what di’kut would walk right into Arca barracks?”
“This one. What are you doing here?”
“We do not know,” Kaytee responded. “We are Kaytee, and we would appear to be lost."
“Yeah I bet. Sev, raise the Security droid will you?” One of the man grabbed a helmet and poked around the inside. Then they waited silently without lowering their weapons.
“I’ll take it from here,” Another man just like the others, but armored, said from the door.
“Very good, sir.” Then he looked back to the one he called Sev and muttered as quietly as he could. “I said a shabla droid, not one of the bonkers brothers.” The newcomer grabbed Kaytee by the arm and pulled her out of the building. He did not say a word until the were outside. This place was unlike anything Kaytee had ever seen.
“You are lucky we were watching for unusual people showing up and I was already around. I do not know who you are, and I do not particularly care. Just do not cause any trouble and you are free to go.” He met brown, red, and orange haired woman waiting impatiently outside. Kaytee did not know what else to do so she followed at a distance for a while. They only walked a short time before coming to parked vehicle. “You following us for a reason?” He asked as he mounted the speeder bike.
“We do not know where to go.”
“Sounds like a real problem,” He pulled the woman up behind him and took off leaving Kaytee alone.
“Sorry, Ordo is not very sociable.” A long-haired blonde man with a thin beard said. “Are you lost?”
“We are,” He gestured for her to follow him. He went back the way she followed the armored man from and passed the barracks. He went on talking for a while though Kaytee was distracted, everyone seemed to be looking at her. He said something about getting permission to put her up in the temple for a while. Good, she was used to living in a temple. A more familiar environment would be comforting.  He brought her to an office where a large man with long greying hair sat talking with a man that had the same face as the others. He looked up and greeted them with an exasperated expression.
The blond man explained the situation briefly, and not entirely accurately. The older man sat in silence for a long time occasionally closing his eyes.
“Yes, I sense it.” He said at least. “Very curious. Put her with the Masters. If she causes any trouble they will be able to handle it. If you do not mind,” He said looking at her now. “I would like to ask you some questions when I have more time.” She agreed and was once again led away.

I hate this place already. Lily was finally free. She had gotten away from the Imperial army when that damn purple light snapped her up again. At first, she was sure she was back in America; the unreasonably tall buildings creating enormous artificial canyons, the whirring and high-pitched whines of hovercraft, and the endless stream of brightly flashing neon signs were so familiar. No, she had never seen creatures like this in America. There were plenty of humans, but so many of the beings looked alien. There were vibrantly colored humanoids with short tentacles on their heads, things with pale skin and large bug eyes, ever a creature a few meters tall with a thick coat of fur. She saw a couple with scales and a few that might have been amphibians. That all didn’t bother her; it was the clones. Hundreds of them seemed to mill around everywhere. They looked more lost and confused then she did somehow. I thought six of us was bad, I never imagined there could be so many. Fifty would have been too many, hell even a dozen would, but she was sure there must have been four or five hundred of them here. Maybe more.

They were obviously soldiers, the red fatigues gave it away but even meandering through the streets they had that ramrod posture. A group walked by and one of them smiled uncomfortably at her, she waved casually and he seemed briefly surprised, pausing a moment before catching back up with the group. He looked almost bashful, and she hated herself for being caught off guard by that.
She saw one that was different, a just slightly taller, and a little bulkier; almost unnoticeable if you didn’t grow up with people that all looked the same. He was also wearing impressive white armor with a red pauldron and a heavy leather belt spat.  Two rather strange looking pistols hung from his belt as well.
“Clone,” She tapped him on the shoulder. She didn’t like using the word, she knew she hated it, but without his unit ID she didn’t know what else to call him.
“Yes, eccentrically colored mongrel?” He raised an eyebrow at her brown hair with red and orange streaks. Buir really hates it when I let them hear me call them mongrels. Osik, I really need to work on that.
“Fair, I had that coming. How are there so many of you? I’ve never heard of a company that could get more than ten viable clones from host material.”
“I’ve never heard of a company with so few. I thought they all produced bulk, millions.”
“Millions? Not hundreds… millions? And no ones put a stop to it? Why? How? Judging by the gear, your unit type is military? What, no one bats an eye at millions of people bred to fight? The benefits better be damn good.”
“What benefits? We aren’t even citizens. Roof over our heads and food on our plates, those are the benefits. And the food is questionable. You said ‘Lillian units’ what does that mean?”
“The six units cloned from the original material, we’re called Lillian.”
“All of you?”
“Don’t you have a name? Doesn’t much matter which one is which as long as we get the jobs done, right?”
“Ordo, my name is Ordo but Sarge gave it to me. Before that I was just ARC N-11."
"That's a weird name. Hey so, obviously I'm not from around here. Got no home, got no food, I need work. Not sure what people like me do around here but I was a headhunter at home. Not the recruiting kind either," Maybe I shouldn't have said that. "It was all legal of course, on my end. Wake up, kill whoever I'm ordered to, sleep, wake up and repeat. Right?"
"Sounds like bounty hunting. I'm on my way to meet someone that probably knows a few jobs." I don't like the idea of bring a stranger to buir, but she could be useful.
"Gee thanks." She smiled as if she hadn't heard his mental comment. "I'll be out of your hair in no time."