Bala Hunter

Star_Wars_Legends_banner_logo.png LIEUTENANT
""Once a ship encounters a storm, its sailors will either stay at the oars or abandon the ship from sudden danger. Which sailor would you be willing to be?""

- -Lieutenant Hunter (CWA)

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FAVORITE QUOTES



"We sleep soundly in our beds at night because rough men stand to do violence on our behalf."



THE BEGINNING
A baby girl was tucked tightly inside a metal crate with a blanket wrapped around her small body. The metal crate stood at the entrance of a small allyway that stood as a space between two buildings on the planet Concord. People  of different species walked past, ignoring the small body and metal crate. The baby cried-not because of her feeling of lonelieness, but because she knew she was alone. Abandoned.

A man and woman walked down the street in patted armour, holding T-shaped visored helmets by thier sides. They both walked with a long stride and straight backs. "So, where do you think we should build the house?" The man asked the woman. "Some where in the woods," she replied. "Some where near a-" She stopped arubtly, standing still, looking as if she heard some thing. "What is it?" He asked, soon hearing the same thing: the sound of a baby's cries.

"Where's it coming from?" The woman asked. The man looked looked around, trying to look for the source. He started to walk pass the street through bodies of people toward an allyway. The woman followed him. They both got passed all the people and found themselves looking at a human baby girl tucked into a blanket inside a metal crate. It cried loudly as the wind rushed through her black hair and waved her tears across her face.

The woman rushed down to pick up the baby girl, setting her helmet aside first. She shushed the baby and rocked it back and forth in her arms. The baby stopped crying immediately and stared into the woman's face with deep, blue eyes. The woman smiled. "You know what I talked about the day we decided to move here."

"I know." He replied in a low voice. He looked at the baby then back at the busy streets. He looked back again, both of them standing there and looking at the baby girl they had found, just by the sound of her cries of helplessnes.

CORUSCANT

20 YEARS LATER

22 BBY

The night on Coruscant strugled to envelop the entire planet into darkness as billions of lights shined through out the cities. Millions of various specied pedestrians walked while the lights casted thier shadows on the metal walkways. Car speeders flew past one another, thousands of feet above the air. The night was filled with noise. Bala Hunter could never imagine such sights while surrounded by lakes and forests on her home world planet of Concord.

She sat in a chair inside one of the towering buildings, gazing through a large window surveying the streets and small buildings. She was dressed in Mandalorian padded armor that was colored black and red, the black swallowing most of the armor plates and then the red lining the edges of her body and helmet, which she had resting on her legs. The room she was in was carpeted dark blue and had its wall painted white. Certain acheivements and paintings lined the walls. She sat patiently in front of a wooded desk, black hair tied tightly behind her head.

A man in his late forty's sat behind the wooded desk, pouring over paragraph after paragraph. A medium grey colored mustace hovered over his lip  and had  cropped hair right above his ear. He wore a white uniform with a few insignias and decorations. After Bala counted the fiffteenth minute had passed, the old man looked up from the holo screen and said, "I apologize, Mrs. Hunter. Messages are sent to me every kriffing day, all the time."

"You're fine, sir."

"Anyway, I have seen your personal and health information. Your health and intelligence meets standards. I have also read your file on the Republic military  boot camp that was stationed on Concord. You graduated third in your class. According to protocol, all of this information is required, therefore you are  cleared to be assigned to a battalion. Your designated battalion is the 257th and you will be put into Titan Company."

"Thank you, sir," Bala replied. She smiled politely and rose out of her chair and shook hands with him. Before leaving the room, she asked, "When will I meet the officers, sir?" "Sixteen'o hunred tommorow. Here are the shuttle hangar." Bala nodded and walked out of the room. She strode down to her land speeder and climbed into it and drove off into the night of Coruscant.

THE ASSAULT ON GAFTIKAR
TWO WEEKS AFTER MEETING THE BATTALION'S OFFICERS

ABOARD THE CRUISER THE WARREN

BRIEFING ROOM.

The cruiser was traveling through hyperspace while the clones in the 257th all stood in the ship's briefing room. The lamps' lights dimmed a little but was good enough for them to see. The metal flooring stretched twenty feet long and ten feet wide, which limited the spacing for the crowding troopers.

The walls were lined with hundreds of buttons and other devices. A shuttle door stood at the front of the room with a round holoprojector positioned five feet away from the door. In the room stood hundreds of  talking,white armored men. As they all talked they refused to sit on the benches because of its comfort. Bala couldn't blame them-standing was far more comfortable then sitting with others with not even knee space and nothing to support your back.

She stood alone in the back of the room, full dressed in her Mandalorian armor. Bala had her arms crossed as she observed the clones. She picked up thier accent imediately and was able to identify them just by thier voices,although knowing each of  thier names was a far more different story.

All of them had different personalties and apects. One was more quiet and dark while the other was more cheerful and energetic. Then the nicknames-not just a regular name. "Potshot". "Yammer". "Ringo". She was even more baffled when one of them just gave her thier designated identification number.

Sad, she thought once more. They are given the names that droids are to be given, and yet they live and breathe the same way I do.

All of a sudden, they blaster doors hissed open and the room went arupbtly went silent. Bala watched as all of the clones immediately faced the holoprojector, motionless with thier hands by thier sides. "At ease," a clone's voice said. All the troopers released the tension and lowered themselves onto the benches. Bala then saw three armored clones standing at the front of the holoprojector. She named all three of them quickly: Amadeus, Devis, and Iron.

Amadeus had the basic GAR clone issued cropped hair. Devis had the same but had a small, growing beard on his chin. Iron simply had a brown, shaven head. Bala managed to even see each of ther own personality during her meeting with them on Coruscant. Devis chose to be a little social but quiet. He sat straighter when they all had gone some where to eat. When ever she looked at him when they weren't talking it looked as if he was contemplating the past. His eyes would drift from place to place and would focus on some thing when ever he needed to.

Amadeus had a cold, gleam of discipline in his eyes. But like Devis, he was quiet but sociable. Bala was gladdnend by the way he wanted to know her name and where she had come from, showing his interests in who was going to be working for his battalion. Iron had been the  joker that day, drinking the wine and throwing a few jokes during thier meal. But now here he stood, hands behind his back and eyes staring beyond straight.

"As you all know," Am began as holo display appeared above the holoprojector, "we are heading toward the planet Gaftikar. This planet is forested and we will encounter high hostile resistance the moment our LAATs are in atmosphere. The outpost we will be deploying near has four connected walls with turrents at the top of each side. They  have one entrance which at its north face. Two halves of the battalion will be either dropping from above to inside the outpost or assaulting the nort face of it. The battalion's airborne platoons will drop out of gunships while air support will direct fire from the turrents and other anti-air craft. Lieutenant Devis will be leading the airborne platoons and Lieutenant Iron and I will be leading the assualt on the north face. Understood?"

"SIR, YES SIR!" The battalion roared. "You have eight hours to prepare for deployment. Dismissed!"

   

THE FIREFIGHT
EIGHT HOURS AFTER BREIFING

GUNSHIP  13-09-47

ABOVE THE PLANET GAFTIKAR

The inside of the gunship was swallowed up into a darkness that Bala wasn't quite familiar with yet. Her eyes struggled to adjust to it as the LAAT made its way through space. Tiny rays of light managed to get through and the gunship shuddered. But nothing was heard. The vaccum of space prevented not a word to be heard once outside the cockpit of a fighter.

After a few minutes of deathly silence Bala could hear the roaring of the LAAT's engine's hum. The compartment hatches slid opened and revealed a vast veiw of lush forests and a gray horizon. She observed the landspace until a sudden discharge of cannon fire deafened the air. An explos

THE SIEGE
Time,location,and name were unknown to Bala as her mind gradually regained consiousness.The information returned to her once she could hear the continous blaster fire and shouts of clones as the battle raged on around her.She opened her eyes and discovered that she was sitting upright against a tree,surrounded by other troopers without thier helmets.She looked for her helmet and found it laying beside her with her two twin pistols.A trooper jogged over to her with a back pack that had the Republic emblem stitched to it. You alright,miss?  He asked.

Im good.

Any pain,drowsiness,dizziness,or fast heart beat?

Negative.

Good.Get yourself to the front line.

Roger,  she said as she slipped her helmet back on.

She grabbed her twin pistols and ran toward the others.Somehow, the troopers managed to dig a waist deep trench that stretched about twenty yards apart.They  crouched and fired thier weapons as the droids continued to march forward,only stopping when hit.She slid down inside the trench and fired her twin pistols.Clones shouted commands and cried out in pain and anger.Thier words echoed in Bala's mind like a song.They remained there to haunt her forever.

Right flank,right flank!

Grenade!

Ugh!

Cit,Hex,Tucker, round to the left and fire on the droids' flank.Nike,Jet,Ward, take the right and flank them from there.MOVE!

Yes,sir.

Cover fire!

AGGGH!

Incoming!

Bala looked and saw a missle fly from the droids' army and implode to her left. A fiery explosion  lit up and a cloud of smoke bellowed from a crater. GET DOWN!  Bala and a few others dropped down to the ground as several more explosions boomed.She looked up and noticed that the clouds started to darken. Nice.Rain comes in to dirty the place up a bit more,eh? She grumbled silently to herself.An explosion went off above them right at the edge of the trench and showered them with dirt.A white body went flying into a tree and hit it with a sickening ''WHACK! ''The body slid down and slumped over against the tree,deathly still.

The mortar rounds soon stopped as rain started to pour down. It patted thier armour and dotted thier visors with little droplets of water.They all got up and continued to fire thier weapons. Out of the corner of her eyes,she saw blaster bolts lash out at the droid's left and right flanks.Thy dropped in heaps and tried to find the source.Two chunks stopped marching to turn and face the clones who hid in the shadows of the trees. CHARGE!

Every clone rose out of the trench and shouted a large battle cry that started small and carried out to every soul like a wildfire. Bala's blood boiled as adrenaline pumped into her body fiercely.Rain hammered the ground like thier feet and lightning streaked out of the sky and clapped the air with a BOOM. Droids marched backwards as ground began to be lost.Bala and the clones rampaged them all. Mud turned up as thier heels dug into the ground.Blue oil was washed onto thier white armour as they  destroyed every inch of metal that stood in thier path.Bala unshealthed her viroblade out of her gauntlet and shoved it up the nearest droid. Wires stuck out of the droid's body and it's oil poured out onto the ground. She pushed it down and continued to charge with the others, twin pistols firing until an entire clip had been emptied.

Soon, the last wave to defend the droid army was elminated once they all made it to the wall. 'Get the cables set. Let's burn  it to the ground once we get inside!'

AYE!'   Everyone replied.

Bala rummaged through her pockets for the cable line until she felt the familar feeling of it.She grabbed it,attached it to one of her pistols, shot it to the top of the wall, then straightenend it once it was attached to the top.She jumped and planted her feet onto the wall and began to walk across it. Lightning was soon thier only source of light as the aftornoon was replaced by night. She struggled to not panic to the new feeling of walking sideways  instead of upright. A bright, loud scar of lightning ran across the night sky and had cast shadows upon the wall as they all continued to walk. Bala managed to make out the edge of the wall and planted a foot firmly onto it. She quickly detached the cable line and crouched to one knee to scan what laid below her.

To her relief, lights had been set up inside the base. A  wide two story building laid in the center with  droids and tanks scattered all around. Three  dropships laid on top of a huge landing platform with little command posts around it. A tower laid to the top right corner and  gazed upon what was ever below it.She looked straight under her and saw thousands of droids,spider droids,and tanks standing motionless staring at the wall in front of them. She smiled deviously.'' They think we're gonna come in guns blazing. We will, but it going to be on top of thier tin heads. Bala turned around to the others and made the okay'' signal with her hand, making a little O-shape with her fingers. They nodded and climbed back up.

Devis came up last once everyone else had made it up. You alright,sir? That fall you took was a bit nasty.     'I'm good,corporal,thanks. Alright listen up,   he said in a whisper,   On my mark, engage on them from above and then descend down from the the front,right, and left. Then scatter around and secure the rest of the base and RV to the front of it. Clear?"'

Clear,"  they replied. '' Sergeant Stalks, take your team to the left. Sergeant Morik, take your team to the right. Everyone else is with me.Move out."

In minutes, three large squads were positioned along the top of the wall, standing silently above the small droid army like a predator ready to strike. Devis made a slight movement with his hand and the two squads on the left and right rained blaster bolts onto the droids. Bala and the others did the same in the front.Bodies flew backwards to the ground as  everyone started to  make thier descend. Secure the base!

Bala followed eleven others toward the landing platform. They raced to it with thier rifles and blasters covering each other's sides. Targets coming through a dropship,''  one of the troopers said. Try to find a turrent or some heavy artillery.  Bala scanned the area and saw something that caught her eye. Got a tank,'  she annoucment. 'Nice,Hunter. You and Dink  get it and give em the shabla vegenance from our vode.''

Copy that,  Bala replied.''

A clone -Dink- followed  her toward the tank. They got to it's top and raised the hatch as blaster fire started going off like fireworks all the around the base. Bala dropped inside and took a seat at the controls. A wide array of controls and a few computers surrounded them. Uhhhhh..... Okay, I got the cannon thats mounted above,  Dink said. 'You sure?'''

'Yeah,back on Kamino they  had  practice ones similar to this. I managed to remember a few things.'

Ah,then that means I have the lower cannon and main controls.Lets do this.

Bala looked at all the symbols and controlls carfully and began pressing buttons. After a few seconds of getting used to things and the building pressure, she started to move the tank toward the dropships where she could see the others behind crates firing at the on coming droids.Dink fired the cannon,making the tank shudder and makig Bala's ears ring a little with pain.She fired the turrents below and soon the droids were turned into bits of wires and metal.One of the troopers gave her a thumbs up,signaling the landing platform was secured.She then started to move the tank toward thier RV point.

After a few minutes, they reached the front end of the base where they met the rest of the platoon. Bala and Dink climbed out and stood around. Okay, did we save any of the those charges?

Affirmative.

Two troopers  came up and slung  thier book bags off thier shoulders, showings tons of explosives. Good, lets get these set up.

Bala and the others grabbed a handful of charges and went to go place them around the base. After a good five minutes, each bag was left empty. Alright, get some rest. while we wait on those gunships.

Bala almost collapsed to the words ''rest. ''The results of running and seeing intense violence broke her  muscles and mind to thier core. She couldn't take it another minute or hour of it. She knew the moment she thought about working as a mercenary was that she was going to expierience the cold,hard effects of war. Even if she knew it, no matter how hard you train, it will never prepare you for the raw intensity of being in combat.The only way you can adapt to it was to be in it.

She sat there resting, doing her best to keep her eye lids from falling.The rain was the only thing that kept her awake. After a few more minutes of waiting, the sound of the end of an LAAT sounded from some where in the sky. They then began landing and opening thier hatches.Not a yell of joy nor a chant rose up from anyone. They were tired and depressed from what they had seen and done.Bala sat at the end of the gunship and closed her eyes as the hatches slid back closed and the gunship lifted.Ever since she left the cruiser, she a last felt safe. She fell asleep as a roar sounded from far below from the base. It's fired bellowed and smoke came out into the night sky to darken it more.It was then relinquished to a bonfire of rubble and ash.

THE BATTLE OF RAXXU
One week,five days, and nine hours after the assault on Gaftikar. Cruise.The Warren. Over the planet Raxxu

Bala stood in her full Mandolorian gear with her helmet rested at her side while in an LAAT compaartment. She stood there with a group of clones as they all waited for the gunship pilot to take them down to the surface of there next planet on thier shedule of deployments: Raxxu. A droid factory was said to be in construction. Since the first had been destroyed over nin months ago, they were forced to find another planet. Raxxu was one of those planets that were isolated from the other star systems, making it perfect for a huge building project to take place.

Once spies had gathered the information, they immidiately contacted  Reoublic military officals. They then called every cruiser in the galaxy to see if there were any near cruisers that were close to Raxxu. They traced The Warren 's coordinates and saw that it was only a jump away from the planet.

The assualt was simple: platoons were going to be scattered while a large one would make a frontal assault on the factory with several EOD experts with them. AT-ATs would be sent with each platoon. Bala knew the firefights would be twice as worst then Gaftikar. Having a factory would be big security with even more coming out each minute to replace the fallen.

Hey, Hunter,  one of the troopers said behind her. She turned and saw a clone with a streak of red hair going verticaly up and down the top of his head. Some scars streaked around his face. Yes?

  'Your accent sounds familiar. Are you from Mandolore?'

Yes and no. My parents were.

Ah,   he said nodding his head. 'Most of our trainers were Mandolorian. I was just curious. Name's Cot, by the way.'    Bala nodded. How'd you get those scars?

'Oh, helmet got torn off while going up in the air after getting hit by a grenade. Got a bit scratched up.'

'Gunship pilots, your clear for take off. Get to your ships,'  annouced the admiral.

Bala and the others slid thier helmets on and grabbed the handle bars. A clone pilot came running up and climbing into the gunship's pilot seat. The hatches closed  as the LAAT slowly made it's way of the hangar. Streams of light filtered through the compartment as they  made thier decent down to the surface. Bala peered through the hatches and saw an endless landscape of sand. Gusts of it blew lightly across the ground. Stang,  a clone murmured.  This place is just like Geonosis.

Those tin heads like to be built where it's hot, eh?  

Probably so their  di'kut generals could lay back and get themselves tans.

Everyone chuckled. After about fifteen minutes of flying in the heat, Bala soon saw hordes of droids marching. Patches of them laid everywhere. Machines with long legs and eight reddish eyes  and a long,thin  cylider shaped object was stuck out from his head walked with the others. Tanks hovered around as they patroled with squads of droids.

'Alright, lads. Get ready for landing,' '' said the pilot. ''

Who's ready to knock these clankers to the ground and barry them in the sand? asked a clone in a enthusiastic tone.

AYE!

'And see how they like it when they get shot to the ground and fall in thier own blood with thier comrades doing the same!'   He spout with venom etched in his  voice.

AYE! '' They yelled louder. Bala could have sworn she heard the same from the other gunships.''

'Then get boots strapped onto your feet and your buckets on your heads! Get your guns locked and loaded with ammo! Embrace the warrior spirit and let it out like a roar!'

AYE!!! '' Everyone bellowed. Cockiness,confidence, and the need to kill left an emenessent glow off of every soul in the LAAT. It was as if someone let off a match and threw it in a forest that was covered in gasoline. The fire had risen quickly off the ground and had then rose to the top of the trees, making sparks and smoke drift off into the sky.''

Hey, take this,''  a clone beside her told her. She soon realized it was Cot. He handed her a DC-15 blaster. '' It's going to be more effective then those twin pistols.

  Thanks,  she told him as she took the blaster. He nodded and turned to work in his on weapon. A red light suddenly beamed inside the gunship. Without a word, everyone took up positons on the left and right. Bala stood  on the left looking forward with her DC-15 aiming striaght ahead. The light changed green and hatches slid opened. An AT-AT landed in front of them and two other gunships landed with other troops getting out. Bala could see some rockets form out from the earth. Gusts of wind made the air around them hazy. The intense heat made Bala hot inside her patted armour. Everyone circled the area and secured every inch of where they landed. Clear!  Someone said as the gunships went off toward the cruiser. Bala looked and saw that a battalion of tanks and droids were marching toward them from a hundred yards away. A challenge had been sent silently from the clones and the droids, demanding which side is the best. The optimistic words that were preached from the gunship yelled once more  inside her head, making her believe who would win the challenge and stand in glory over the defeated opponet.'''

VOICES IN THE SAND
Everyone surged forward toward  at the left and right of the AT-AT. The droids had begun to set up positons hundreds of yards away with tanks hovering closer. Within seconds, blasterfire erupted into the air between either side. Grenades were thrown with each side's heavy artillery booming. Bodies made of white armour and metal went down in heaps. Showers of the sand washed down everyone like a river of water. Cries of pain, shouts of rage, and orders being barked echoed and were carried off into the wind and were kept as memoirs in the  humid,unmerciful desert.

Bala ran and fired her weapons as she made her way to a group of clones that were crouched by a small mountain of rock. Look  out! '' Bala lowered her head as a tank had fired it's cannon toward them, making Bala's ears ring and having another wash of dirst and sand cover her armour. She raised her head back up and continued to fire her weapon. The AT-AT fired it's cannon, deafening the air and making a droid  tank explode, it's debris littering around whats left of itself. ADVANCE! '' One of the trooper's beside her yelled. Bala got and went off in a sprint with the others, covering thier unprotected flanks.

COVER FIRE!

'PUSH TOWARD THE TANK! MOVE IT!'

WATCH OUT!

It was like walking into a furious,windy storm without  decent clothing; having to dodge blaster bolts at every turn and stumbling after every explosion going off near them. Once Bala heard the click of the end of a round of ammo, she rushed her arms to her holsters and fired her twin pistols. Her mind was set to any thing that was in front of her, firing at it every chance she had. GAAH!'  A clone yelled in pain beside her. Without a thought, she turned and threw the body over her shoulder and fired her pistol. Bala's spine shivered as she fel a little river of blood trickle down inside her armour. The weight of the man crushed her shoulder and had pushed her muscles to the limit. They finaly reached the destroyed tank and crouched there for a breather. Bala laid the clone against the tank and pulled the helmet off. Her heart leaped to her throat as she saw the familair red, slid back mohawk- it was Cot.

His chest plate had two holes drilled in with smoke waifting from underneath. His mouth was flooded with blood as he struggled to breath. His eyes fluttered open and closed. It was a grusume and painful sight for her to look at, but she forced herself to focus and reach down for the vial of bacta she borrowed from a medic. Cot stretched his arm out to to prevent her from getting it. Dont.....Waste....  He managed to sputter out.  Im..G-going to....die..anyway.

His eyes slid closed, and Bala knew they would remain like that forever.

Everything slowed around her. His words had crept into her ears  and made thier way toward her brain, crawling inside it and infecting her mind like a paracite. The horrific image of him dieing flew up to her eyes and glued itself like a picture inside her head. Bala saw countless men die in battle, but to watch one slowly do it in front of her was like watching someone being eaten raw by an animal; it was bloody, horrible, and unbearible to watch. One of the prices of where you work, she thought miserably, is death.

She grabbed a clip ammo and loaded it into her DC-15. She aimed and started to fire at the droids once more. A cry for vegenance wailed inside her head. She pushed it aside and continued on. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw one of the clone's beside her get behind cover of the tank and had a hand pressed to the side of his helmet. Shab,  he cursed under his breath. ''Listen up, the cruiser just reported of a growing sandstorm heading our way. Get your visors and thermals ready for a ride.''

Copy that. he turned and started to fire his rifle again.

The battled raged on with blaster bolts streaked toward either side, making the the opponets at a standstil between thier victory.

THE SANDSTORM
SEVEN HOURS LATER AFTER LANDING ON RAXXU

84 MILIES SOUTH EAST OF DROID FACTORY

Bala crouched behind the remains of an LAAT while firing her DC-15 blaster.

Ever since their AT-AT had been destroyed, they have been calling for  support from the cruiser. Five gunships had been spared and went down to thier location. Only two survived after dropping reinforcments and  one AT-AT. They then got behind the destroyed LAATs and continued fighting with the droid army from there.

The sandstorm that had been reported from the cruiser had taken longer to build then anticiapated, thankfuly. Bala didn't care though. All she wanted was for the leading assault platoon to finish thier job so they could all get  off the hellish plantet. Her body and mind couldn't take it any more; trauma began to creep into the corners of her brain. Death. Destruction. And continous abuse of her body being exposed to so much combat was breaking her to pieces. Horrible flashbacks would enter and leave her mind.

She  struggled to pull herslef together and focus on what was happening around her. Blaster fire punched the edges of the debris she was behind and made her lower her  head. Troopers held thier ground around themselves and tried to push the droid army back. The droids' tanks sat there on the ground with fires engulfed inside them. The others held thier positions  while firing thier cannons at the crashed gunships and AT-AT. The droids were covered head to tie with sand like the clones and marched forward while firing red blaster bolts.

Bala was firing her blaster when she saw something behind the droids. At first she just thought it just her vision until she realized it was a wall of sand, whilring around like a hurricane. SANDSTORM!  She cried out. Troopers with her acknowledged by falling back to the where the wounded were kept. INCOMING!   A firey explosion  dropped onto the center and made white armoured bodies go airborne and making others get thrown like rag dolls.

Bala looked back toward the droid army and saw the a fourth of it were hidden by the sandstorm as it continued to take up ground. Troopers around her tapped in commands on the device that was placed on to thier wrists. Bala did so herself and the natural color of the desert was replaced by red and blue colored objects.   Watch for freindly fire and  be carful to not get  ripped away by the wind,  '' one of the clones said. The sandsotrm advance ever so closer and the Bala and the clones were soon engulfed in the winds of sand.''



The sand patted thier armour like rain and made little tick noises around them. It was blown toawrd thier visors and would've made seeing impossible  if they didn't have the thermal technology that they all eqiupt themselves with before being deployed down to the surface.

The blaster fire had stopped arubtly once everyone was inside the sandstorm. After everyone walked a few feet into it, Bala could make out little blue and green dots and stood up right. Contact! She alerted everyone.She fired at the  figures which fell instantly. Just as fast as they went down, blaster fire was lashed out from the clone's side and made blueish glows inside the cloud of sand.

Watch your left!" ''

Ummf!

Hugburn!

'Put your back into it! Make those arutise retreat!'

The sound of metal being hit could be heard as the clones continued to push. Bala fired her blaster continously at every object that didn't cast a red glow on her thermal. In minutes, she and rest of the clones coud see that the droids were turning around. 'THIER PULLING BACK! PUSH HARDER, MEN!'  A clone yelled. A war cry was heard and soon carried out up and down the ranks of troopers as they began to charge the droids. Bala and the others jogged and soon broke out into a run. The AT-AT's cannon rang throughout the area and deafened thier ears. Little blue and green dots went up into the air.

The wind threatned to knock them down as  they went deeper and deeper into the storm. The blue and green highlights thats howed the droids could be barely seen on thier thermals. Right when Bala thought they won, hands were thrown out from below the ground in front of her. She blinked and a sharp pain hit her stomach and made the air go right out of her, making her fall onto her back. She only had a few seconds to react as a humanoid figure jumped onto her with what looked to be a curved blade. The being thrust it's dagger down to her neck until she caught it's wrist. Her arm trembled as she struggled not to let the tip reach her head. She could hear cries of surpirse and pain around her as more and more beings began to ambush them.

What the- WAAAGH!

What are those things?

ALL UNITS, FALL BACK NOW!

'Get Hex to the AT-AT. Move!'

AAAAAGH!

Bala tried to make out the alien's facial features as they struggled in a battle between strength. She squinted and saw wraps of cloth interwined all over. Two tusks hung from the edges of it's mouth. What the shab is this thing?'  she thought. At that moment, she didn't care, becuase a rage had been  revealed by the shadows and was making her temper rise. These things were the reason why she couldn't go back to the cruiser. These things were going to be the cause of death of her and her comrades.This thing, was going to wish it never even looked at her.

Her face  was built up to a snarl as she brought her legs up to her chest and pushed them outward toward the alien. It was caught aback and went sailing a foot backwards. Bala got up and ran toward the being. Her temper was so high that she couldn't even remember that she had twin pisols on her hips. All see wanted was for the being to feel the pain it caused her and the troops.

She grabbed at it's collar and brought a fist to it's face. She could hear the crack of teeth as her fist connected to it's jaw. She punched more,and harder,and harder, until she could feel her hand ache. The alien's  head  rolled  back in a daze. She  unshealthed her viroblade from her guantlet and drove it up into it's gut. A horrible, high screeched scream escaped the alien's mouth and made her ears hurt. She didn't even flinch as she continued to drive the video blade deeper and deeper. She wanted it to know how it feels to slowly die as a knife had been worked it's way inside. The alien tried a swing  at her but she caught it's arm and drove it backward, hearing the crack of bones as it's arm was dislocated. It screeched louder in pain. Bala looked up and saw it's comrades making it's way toward her. She grabbed her twin pistols and fired them at the aliens. They dropped and went dealthly still.

She turned back to the alien  that she still had the collar. She could feel it's blood as it's oozed it's way onto her hand. She stabed it again with her viroblade and stared straight into it's face. It stared back, and  thats when Bala saw it's eyes for the first time.

They were purple.

It's purple colored eyes look terrified. Bala could even read it's thoughts just by looking at them: I'm going to die and the last thing I'll see is death's face.

As her temper slowly began to go down, she brought the viroblade out of it's gut and punched it's temple. It's head went back and it's purple eyes rolled to the back of it's head.

She shealthed her viroblade back into her gauntlet and stood up.A thought suddenly occured in her mind: ''I could bring this piece of banthaturd to the cruiser and find out what it's species is. ''She considered it and slunged the alien onto her shoulder.The sandstorm had been reduced to just  a huge wind of sand blowling to the south. She then soon realized she was by herself. She didn't hear the clanking of marching metal and couldn't see any red figures on her thermal. She then turned to her left and went   forward, having the image of the alien's eyes come back to her. Bala didn't feel a hint of sympathy inside her, and if there was, she chose not to feel it. If there was a feeling inside er about her previous actions, it would be regret and pride.

She made herself highly dicsplined so that such actions of vegenance wouldn't  happen. It would turn her into a slaughterer, always wanting to kill her enemy without mercy. It would be  just the opposite of what a soldier or honorable warrior  truly is; only killing to protect what he or she stands for. She only felt pride because she managed to survive one of the bloodiest scenarios of hand to hand combat.

She continued to march through the sandstorm untill she heard an engine running. At first she couldn't identify it, then she realized it was an LAAT.

Her heart leaped with joy as she ran through the ripping winds of sand. ''Rest. Protection.'' Those were the only things she could think about as the  engine of the gunship continued to roar. After five minutes running, she finaly stepped onto ground  without any wind or sand up to her visor. A  mile away, she saw a group of LAATs and AT-ATs in a cirlce. White figures stepped off and on from them. She sighed in relief and started to run toward them. Her feet slammed the ground in beats in rythem like a song. She suddenly didn't feel the heat of the desert,nor the exhaustion of battle, or weight of the alien on her shoulder. Not the grief,hate,anger or guilt that had welled up inside her. Instead of running toward the cluster of troopers she saw the little farm house she  grew up on  Concord. She  saw the little pond that rested beside it and the trees that loomed over her. Instead of the sun being out it was raining. Instead of finsihing up a firefight she got finished with playing outside and was ready to go back inside the warm, comfortable home. Home.

The flash back of her early childhood dissipeared and she was back on the humid, dangerous desert of Raxxu. She stopped once she reached a gunship's opened compartment. She stepped inside and dropped the corpse off her back, not caring if the others arund her saw.   Stang, ''  one of the clones murmured as the LAAT lifted.   '' Is that?....

She nodded in reply and said, ''The piece of bantha turd tried to slit my throat. I stabbed him and thought we could find out what species he is.'  'She said it so casualy  that she surprised herself of the tone.   Well, that explains the art work, '''  said the trooper as he gestured toward her. She looked down and saw a blanket of sand covering her with green, blue, and red liquid. Scorch marks went up and down the sides of the armor that covered her from the waist to chest.    Hm... Decorative. ''  Everyone chuckled as the gunship soared through the sky and up to the cruiser, creating little jet lines. '''

Bala looked down toward the surface, remembering every detail and storing it for memory. The piece added with the voices of the dead and living.

A NEW BEGINNING
ONE YEAR LATER AFTER THE BATTLE OF GEONOSIS

PLANET COROKE

Bala stood over the broken bodeis of dismantled droids as she and the rest of Titan Company checked the previous firefight that took place inside the Republic base. Pillars stood tall to hold the rest of the wall and the holes that were left by the skirmish made an opening for the oncoming rain and thunder. Sleek, clean metal showed thier reflections. Lights helped them see as they continued to scower the base. She missed her old red and black Mandolorian armour. It was a like a seocnd skin to her representing  all the battles she  had to fight with troopers. The yellow and  white clone lieutenant armour was  just clothes that were required to wear.

She wanted to  have it red and black but she decided against it since Titan Company's legion color was yellow like some of the other clone battalions. A yellow line started  above her chest and went down to her waist. Another went short from the top of her shoulder and down to the top of her biceps. Multiple others crisscrossed her helmet. Her T-shaped visor cruved a little bit up. A big piece of metal and white skirt was attached to her armour that showed her  measurement in rank of  the GAR.

Lieutenant Hunter,   said one of the troopers behind her. She turned around and saw a clone with his helmet by his side. A tattoo in the design of a computer code chip crisscrossed the side of his face. He stood up straighter once turned she turned to look at him. 'Ma'am,  Commander Amadeus requests your presence at the command center immediately.'''

What for, sergeant?

'General Zey  of the Special Operations Brigade wants to transfer you, the commander, Lieutenant Iron, and Lieutenant Devis to become   commandos.   ' She paused, letting the big change of career sink in. I'll be there in five minutes.

The clone sergeant nodded, turned on his heels, and walked away. Bala walked down the hall way and made her way to the command center, wondering how the big change will effect her. Basic GAR clones were rarely transfered to special forces and we're only done so to replace  former desceased  special operations troopers.

After five minutes, she finaly reached the set of doors that led to the command center. She took her helmet off, rested  it beside her, and waited as the computer began checking for confirmed matched eye scans. It glowed green and the doors slid opened. She walked in where she found Iron,Devis, and Am surrounding a hologram of a man with  old facial features. His  mouth was   centered inside a large beard and braids came off of his head. Lines  deepening his eyes showed expierience and old age. A  small, cylider shaped object dangled from his belt.  A Lightsaber.

  General Zey,   Bala greeted sternly as she saluted. He nodded.  Hello, lieutenant.  She walked in and sttod with Iron and Devis. Sir, how will my battalion be lead I or my officers aren't there? Am asked.  Thier will be replacemnts,  Zey said, waving his hand dismissively. You,Iron, Bala, and Devis are one of the few groups of GAR troopers that I have been impressed by.

Am must have made a face at those words - Bala did too-  becuase Zey rushed to fix his mistake. '' What I mean is that  we are losing  Republic Commando squads across the galaxy. Multiple KIAs and  MIA's  being repoted left and right. Our new batch of RCs isn't even close to the orginal number we had before.''

''Sir, we are supposed to have more basic GAR troopers then  special forces. What do you mean there isn't as many as there were orginaly?''

''Difficulty with  the cloning process and growth acceleration. Thats all your allowed to know.''

A heavy silence filled the room. Finaly, Am siged and said,  Where would you like us to be picked up?

''We'll send a shuttle down to the base. It's ETA should be about two days and six hours. Go ahead and annouce your  transfermation to your battalion and new ranks.''

Yes sir.

General Arligan Zey out.

TWO DAYS AND FOUR HOURS LATER.

PLANET COROKE

TALON CLAW BASE

BARRACKS Bala finished zipping up the last of her belongings as she packed for the trip for Kamino. She shouldered her bookbag and looked in the mirror. She saw a woman in white and yellow armour, with raven black hair and sky blue eyes. Lines and scars crossed her face. She looked at it for a second, then took he rother bag of belongs and went out of the barracks and toward the  base's landing pad. She thought about all the men she fought with and saw die. She thought about the countless lives of men that saved her life. She couldn't bring herself to talk about them. The only way she could remember them was by storing them in her mind for memory. She never had trouble forgetting.

The bay doors that lead to the landing pad slid opening and she saw largem square shaped piece of concreate that strectched up a little from the ground and  was just as wide as long. Clones in armour stood in rows in an at-ease position. When she stepped from the bay doors they snapped to attention, backs straight and talls as  the trees in the forests of Kashyyk.

She turned to them and ordered, At ease.

They returned thier hands back to ther backs. One of the troopers in the front row siad, Sir, before the shuttle arrives, we wish you, Devis, Am, and Iron to do the Vode An with us one last time.

Bala struggled to keep her voice steady as emotion nearly drowned her. ''Alright. Let's do it.''

The Vode An chant was rarely known or shared among the GAR. It was a chant made my the Mandolorian warriors. The Manolorians,women and men alike, would link arms together with the person to he or she's right and slam thier fits on the person's chest on their left, leaving thier feet marching and slamming the ground  in a perfect rythem. Bala linked an arm with one of the clone's in the third row while Am,Devis, and Iron did the same with threee others. One, two, three, go!  Some on counted off. Everyone the began chanting the lyrics of  the Vode An, slamming thier fists and marching in une like war drums. Bala now knew that the men she would remmeber from Titan Company would be the ones behind her, in front of her,beside her, and the ones that still  laid motionless in thier clones armour, awaiting the day they would be picked up and taken to the infirmary. Bala felt as if they were also some where in the rows of troopers, slamming thier fists and marching with thier fellow brothers as ghosts.

Kote!

                      Kandosii sa kar'ta, Vode an

                     Corscanta ad'en mhi,Vode an

           Bal kote,darasuum kote

Jorso'ran kano a tome

                Sa kry'am nau tracyn kad, Vode an

Kandosii sa kar'ta,Vode an

     ' Coruscanta a'den mhi,Vode an

Bal....

       Motir ca'tra nau tracinya

           Gratt'ua cuun hett su  dralshy'a

           Aruetyc talyc runi'la trattok'o

           Sa Kyram nau tracyn kad,Vode an!

                

              



<p style="text-align:center;">                                                    Glory!

<p style="text-align:center;">                                                    Indomitable heart, brothers all.

<p style="text-align:center;">                                                          We,the wrath of Coroscant,brothers all.

<p style="text-align:center;">And glory,internal glory,

<p style="text-align:center;">We shall  bear its weight together.

<p style="text-align:center;">Forged like the saber in the fires of death,brothers all.

<p style="text-align:center;">One indomitable heart,brothers all.

<p style="text-align:center;">We,the wrath of Coroscant,brothers all.

<p style="text-align:center;">And...

<p style="text-align:center;">Those who stand before us light the sky in flame.

<p style="text-align:center;">Our vegenance burns brighter still.

<p style="text-align:center;">Every last traitorous soul shall kneel.

<p style="text-align:center;">Those who stand before light the sky in flame.

<p style="text-align:center;">                                   Our vegenance burns brighter still.

<p style="text-align:center;">                                    Every last traitorus soul shall fall.

<p style="text-align:center;">                                           Forged like the saber of death,brothers all!

TRAINING- ARRIVAL
FIVE DAYS  LATER

Bala stepped out of the landing platform.Before her laid the pad of  Tipoca City. LIghts twinkled and rain slammmed down on the ground continously.Thunder striked on the wather and boomed around  her.She walked down and the others trailed behind her wwith thier helmets at thier sides.Three Kamioans  and a man in   gold Mandolorian armour stood waiting.

The man looked about to be in his fortys.He had no hair and had bags under his eyes.His cold,piercing blue eyes looked tired.Bala,Am,Devis,and Iron stopped in front of the four of them with Am in front and the others lined behind him. Welcome, said one of the Kamioans. 'I am chief scientist Ko Sai.This is scientists  Ori'al and Teron.And this is Sergeant Kal Skirata.He will be training you for the next five months.'

Bala stood at attention with her helmet at ther side like every one else, but she could feel the Mandolorian sergeant staring at her.He has good reason to,Bala thought.After all, you dont see a woman in clone armour every day.

Am nodded.     I am Commander Amadeus.This is Lieutenants Devis,Iron,and Bala.General Zey had ordered us to be transfered to the Special Operations Brigade as commandos.   ''We are aware,' replied Ko Sai  matter of factly. Come.We will show you to your barracks.

The Kamioan turned around and began walking toward the doors.All four of them followed.Sergeant Skirata stood for a second,still looking at Bala intently with a face made of stone.He then turned around with his helmet at his side and began walking with the Kamioans.One of the Cuv'yall Dar, Devis murmered. Yeah, said Iron. Fett himself chose them all to train  special forces.

'Rumor has it that Sergeant Skirata adopted the nulls.'

As Devis and Iron discussed,Bala looked around at all the bacta.There  were infant sized children to grown men in glass tubes filled with bacta.She looked below and saw clones running around on a course.Sad.These men  were made soldiers the moment they were born.



They continued walking around the commando facility.They soon reached the end of the tour and Sergeant Skirata walked them over to thier barracks.As they did,he began to talk to them about all the training they were going to recieve-covert,assassination,recon,etc.- things that people like Am would except battalions like Titan company to rely on during certain deployments.

  ''I must say, you four aren't the first to be transfered, but you are the first to have a female in your group.

Indeed we are,sir, Am replied.Bala, because you all will be training with a new batch, they're going to be eyeing you alot.They give you problems, let me know.Understood?''  Kal said to her with concern etched in his voice, sounding so much like a father.

But he isn't, any more at least.Poor man, I bet he was a father but Fett made him abandon his family.

'Yes,sir,'Bala replied.

Kal nodded and walked away, singing softly what sounded like Mandolorian  chant. Alright, lets make some friends with our vode, Am said.'Lets try out the mess hall first.'

They walked together in silence in clone issued off duty dress uniform toward the mess for lunch.They walked through the doors and saw rows of tables with countless clones sitting at them.A few heads popped up to see who it was coming through the door and the rest kept eating.They walked over to the counter where a human male was serving what looked to be meat poured over with gravy.His face was marked with age.His blue eyes were lowered and looked tired.His pale,dry skin had lines of wrinkes.He wore a blue suit and had two gloves on both hands.

All four of them stood in front of the counter with thier trays lowered.The old man scooped out meat and plopped it on to thier trays.Once Bala was served, she went over to an abandoned table- that way some one would most likely sit with her then sitting with her squad.She layed her tray on the table,sat, and  surveyed the mess hall for the faces of her own squad.Like her, they were all also sitting by them selves at a table.As she ate, she recalled the previous deployments she had went on with Titan Company as a regular lieutenant.It didn't matter when or where she was at, she always had flash backs of things that is to be forgotten and not remembered.

It's never like those memories where they make you want to laugh.These memories only left her filled with sorrow and anger.She would have to fight back tears when the  memory of seeing one of her fellow troopers die right in front of her.Then she would have to fight back yells of rage from remmembering the anger and hatred she felt when ever she saw the enemy, or when she made a tactical error and got countless men killed for her actions.

All the memories were cleared when a clone slid in to sit in front of Bala.She looked up in awareness of his presence.His hair was cropped, Fett style, and had side burns sliding down of the sides of his cheeks. Hi there, he greeted her, I'm Ge'tal.I couldn't help but notice that your  a bit.....Different.'

Red, Bala thought.She chuckled. Yeah,I'm different, Ge'tal.I'm Bala.I got transfered from the GAR with my boss and my fellow officers.   Some thing tells me you weren't born in a glass tube and kept a secret because of your gender,'' Ge'tal said smartly. I started out as a mercenary, she admitted,'then I got close to my vode and deicded to join into thier ranks.'''

He studied her for a moment.He nodded and they both continued eating.After finishing her meal, she got up  and thanked Ge'tal for the talk.Bala dumped her tray and waited outside the mess for Am,Iron,and Devis.A minute or so pass and the rest met each other at the exit. So? She asked.How did it go?

Made friends with Norax squad, Devis said.Thier nice lads.

''I made friends with a few men, not an entire squad,though, Iron said. ''Good,' Am said,nodding his head.  Let's get settled in the barracks for the night.''

TRAINING-DAY 1 OF 150
Bala was awoken by the sound of explosions.

Her eyes snapped wide open.She scrammbled out of the bunk bed along with every one else.This wasn't actions based on thier surroundings-this was instict.It was once  unrecognize by thier minds untill their muscles and brain expierienced it so much that they grew  use to it.And they say this is a new batch of clones.That says alot.

Bala got into her commando gear.The kataran armour was heavy on her body.The clone trooper armour that she wore was already heavy enough.Her muscles screamed as she ran for the training room with every one else.The explosions continued on,and continued t make her ears ring with pain.Once they arrived, the explosions stopped immediately.

ATTENTION! A clone called off.SERGEANT SKIRATA ON DECK.''

With difficulty,she managed to control her breathing and snapped to attention.Skirata walked towards them in his gold Mandolorian armour with his helmet at his side.At ease, he ordered tiredly.Everone's shoulder relaxed.Listen up.We got new guests,as you may all already know.And they aren't any ordinary guests.Four officers out of the GAR have been transfered  to the Special Operations Brigade and are to be trained with you all.One of the four officers is a woman.How the shab she got in, I don't know.But she will be treated like as one your own vode.She didn't spend one fourth of her childhood in a tube, but she is brave enough to join into the GAR's ranks.If one of you decide to play as the chak'are and  be sexist, then you can count on me that your shab'ese isn't going to be safe.Do I make myself clear?

SIR,YES SIR, every one replied. Bala was touched by the effort Skirata was doing for them,esspecially her, to fit in with the new training commandos.She only hopes that she too can get along with these men.

* * *

GET DOWN! A clone yelled. An explosion slapped the dirt filled ground with fire.Bala and everyone else dropped for cover.It had been going on like this  for the last hour.Bala's muscles ached and screamed for a break.She ignored the throbbing pain of a cramp she had gotten during the simulated training exercise.UP! One of the training sergeants yelled.Everyone crawled back up and began jogging on the dirt road again.

Bala was impressed at how the Kaminoans managed to build the technology that created the land scape.Some how, they made it where a collisium sized room could switch to a different land scape.This one pictured a desert.What made the training even more realistic was that they managed to set the temperature with the correct terrain.Bala continued to jog in the heavy set rig of kataran armour.It weighed down on her shoulders and made breathing difficult when doing some thing physical.If these men can do it, so can I,she thought bitterly.'GET DOWN!' Once again, an explosion hit the ground.Bala dropped down with her helmet in the sandy earth.AGGGGH! A clone yelled.

Everyone's attention was focused on the yell of pain, for they all knew, one of thier brothers was hit.

A clone,Bala didn't know who, laid sprawled on the ground.He laid thier motionless as a pool of blood collected on the sand.A flash back entered Bala mind as she remembered the day a Titan Company trooper,Kote, had been laying right beside her in his own pool of blood, dead after an impact from an explosion.

Stop it.That was the past.Focus on the present to keep  yourself sane and those around you  farther from harm's way,she told herself.The land scape shuddered and the room was replaced  by it.A clone went up to him to check his pulse.He lowered his and muttered, Dead.Cor'ik, you will be remembered.  Everyone lowered thier heads in a moment of silence.Two droids held a strectcher as they walked over to the dead cadet.They picked him up,still in his kataran rig, and was set onto the strecher.They walked away and the training simulation continued on, as if nothing happened.

Everyone knew this was going to test thier mental state.When a comrade dies, theres nothing you can do, other then call in evac to pick the body up or simply carry the corpse.During a fire fight, you could be where you can't go out and drag the body away.You try and be heroic, you end up endangering the rest of your platoon or squad.The only thing you can do is move on.That's the harsh reality when being a soldier- the heroics civilians see in holo vids are rarely attempted and are usually failed.

The training instructors had switched the land scape to a dirt road but instead of sand and a blazing sun there was only nightfal,lush forests, and rain pounding on to the ground.It was a sign of sympathy,for they knew tears would be disguised of the tiny droplets of water that patted thier commando armour. As they continued on jogging through the wet,dark night, Bala silently prayed.

Nu kra'dyc,shi taab  escla'jalla. Not gone,merely marching away.

TRAINING-DAY 98 OF 150
Am,Bala,Devis, and Iron stood there patiently in commando armour inside the elevator with their DC-17 blasters  lowered.They were being set to train in a simulated field where it is set up to look as if they are being deployed right into a fire fight.This would be thier first try to show the training intructors that they were ready to work as a team in the field.Bala only hoped that she herself wont slow her team down,otherwise her squad will be looked as weak and ineffective.'Ready,guys?' Am asked.

Yes,sir.  

Thier mission was  simple:capture the enemy's flag.Thier only problem was that they had to get past the droids.After that, the next squad would come in and do the test themselves.The doors to the elevator finaly slid opened and before them revelaed the Kamionoan simulated battle field.To the left and right,droids were placed high above.Small walls layed around the area,randomly.Yards away laid thier goal: the enemy's flag.



The four of them sprinted off toward cover.The droids immidiately began shooting and nearly hitting accurately.Out of Bala's peripheral vision,she could see Devis and Iron covering her right and left,which meant Am was shooting at the droids positioned high above.Bala aimed up at the droids and shot her DC-17.

They crouched behind the wall and tried to get a good view of thier surroundings.Alright, charging isn't going to work since there isn't enough coverage,Devis said. Bala shot off a few rounds at the droids and took a look in her direction.There weren't many droids and she could see a few walls to serev as coverage, bu it would be too far from thier objective.She surveyed a bit more untill some thing caught her attention.Six droid turrents were set up right below the flag and were,some how, unattended.If we could some how use those to our advantage....

I got some thing,  Bala reported,'Look below where the flag is.There are six turrents and none of them are manned,nor do they look like they can operate by themselves.If we could go around to a side of the field, we couldmake our way toward them.Once there, two of us could cover the two others while they go for the flag.'''

While Devis and Iron stood firing thier blasters, Am tried progressing the information in his mind.Bala shot off a few rounds at the droids and Am said, We dont have any other choices.We'll run for the left wall and continue on toward the objective.Devis and I will get two of the turrents and cover you and Iron as you make your way toward the flag.Clear?

Copy, Devis replied.

Ready when you are, Iron said. Bala nodded.

Hunter,take point.We'll move on your call.

Aye,

Bala turned around in crouched position to face the left wall.She took two deep breaths and held up her hand.She counted down from three with her fingers.Three...Two...One.She signaled them all to move out.They all ran toward the wall.Bala fired her weapon to her right as she covered Am and the others behind her.

As soon as got up and and was firing to her right,she could see the very thing that put a flaw into her plan.A post had been build and streched up to about twenty feet from the ground.Inside,a gun emplacement manned by a droid was standing,getting ready to rain chorus from down below.Bala's heart sank with doubt and saddness.If this was real, I would be leading my team right to thier deaths.

She shook the thought off.No time for self-pity.Get your head back into the real word.Use your failures as your reminder not your distraction.

SPREAD OUT! She ordered.Everyone skattered and fell into cover behind some walls that were near the wall.The gun emplacment that was up in the post was now firing blaster bolts and raining chaos on to all of them.Droids were now beginning to surround them and they all struggled to to keep them off but managed to keep them back.She fired a few rounds at the post and looked around her.A dozen rows of walls laid in front of the cylider shaped building that contained the flag.A few meters away from it laid the turrents.Perfect, she thought.

Guys,listen.I want all of you to run for cover right in front of the flag.I'll distract the gun emplacment while all of you make your way across.

Firefek,thats a stupid idea- Devis began.

No,Am said  solidly.'She's taking point.I'll trust her with this one'''

Bala nodded.Go on my mark.Three....Two....One....MARK!

All three jumped up and rushed across the field with blsater bolts kicking at thier feet.Bala rose and fired at the gun emplacement spontaneously untill she ran out of a full clip of ammo.By this point,The droid at the post was now focusd on her position,making it think there was an entire group over there.

She looked and saw that Devis and Iron had succesfully gotten ahold of two fo the turrrents while Am made his way up the steps to the flag.She knew she had to make  her way across in order for the training intrusctors to say that the mission was a complete succes done correctly.If she stayed her with her shebs alone they would all be accused of leaving a man behind.

She crouched with one leg up in sprint position,ready to dash for cover.Adrenaline poured through her veins.Three...

Every scenario that could possibly happen came through her mind: getting hit by a blaster bolt and making the test failed.

Two.

A random grenade coming out of no where hits her,injures her badly,and gets shipped out of Kamino and out of the entire GAR.

One.

The test is stopped by one of the drill instructors and they come out to say to that they left a man behind.

After the final scenario, she jumps up and dashes toward Iron and Devis.

Blaster fire nearly hits her accurately.Instead of seeing the simulation room,she sees trees uprooted and fires on the forest floor.She sees bodies in white clone armour and blood almost every where.She smells the heavy scent of some thing being burnt. She hears men barking orders and cries of pain.She sees men every where with weapons and shooting at some thing hidden in the forest in front of them.This isn't a simulation,she thought.This is a flash back showing a fire fight I had been in before I was transfered here.

She shakes the memory off and slides in front of a wall.Pain washes over her arm and she realizes hat she was hit in the shoulder by a blaster bolt.She ignores the acheing of pain and looks for her squad.Devis and Iron are still at the two turrents and Am is pinned down by droids.Run.A voice inside her mind spoke.It wasn't hers; it was the voice of training:the drill instructor that told what her body needed to do.And it has kept her alive.

Run toward the flag but stay behind cover.Cover Am as makes his way toward the enemy's flag.

She stayed crouched and had her DC-17 raised.She ran toward Am in crouched position and had her sights trained on the doids that were keeping him from reaching the squad's goal.She fired and managed to get their attention.Am took the oppurtunity and raced for the flag.Bala crouched behind a wall again and fired at the droids.Out of her peripheral vision,she saw Am grab the flag.Every droid stopped dead and they all stood there like stones,motionless.

They did it.They proved not only to thier training insructors that they were fit enough to be Republic Commandos,but also proved to each other they could trust one another in the field.

TRAINING-DAY 150 OF 150
GRADUATION OF THE CADETS

Today was the day.

Today would be the day that she proved to herself that she could do any thing.

Today was the day she would set off with her fellow comrades on a new journey that will take them far across the galaxy.

Today would be the last time she would do a PT run in the wet, dark world of Kamino.

Today was the day  she wouldn't be stepping into a replica of the Republic Commando kataran armour.

Today was the day she would step into real armour.

Today would be  the very last time she would ever wear cadet fatigues.

Today was graduation.

Coming soon



MISSION:FERRIKA. CRUISER DAUNTLESS. 423rd REGIMENT.
FIVE DAYS AFTER GRADUATION CEROMONY

Bala stood right behind the ramp that led down to the hangar from inside the Republic drop ship shuttle.Troopers in in white armour stood at attention in two collums in front of the ship.In the middle stood the cruiser's admiral,Admiral Dreks.His hair was night ball and was shaven right above his ear.He stood with his hands folded behind his back and his jaw and eyes set straight ahead.His blue eyes looked so sharp they almost looked like ice.

She stood in her white commando armour with her helmet at her side.Her black hair was tied up in a tight bun which was tied very closely to the back of her head.Am,Devis,and Iron stood behind her and had thier helmets by thier sides as well.Bala walked down the ramp first and was followed by the rest of her squad.They all stoped in front of the admiral,stood at attention,and saluted.Admiral Dreks nodded and saluted back.

Welcome aboard the Dauntless,commados, the admiral said sternly,his voice having a faint drawl in it.

Hello sir, greeted Am.This is my squad.I'm Seregant Am.This is Devis,Iron,and Bala.

He nodded.We will be making our arrival to the planet Ferrika in about two days.I suggest you four starts settling into your assigned barracks.

We'll do so,sir,Am replied.

They walked away and made thier way toward the barracks.Once there,they all unpacked in silence and went to sleep.

TWO  DAYS LATER

Bala stood in her armour with her helmet at her side.Devis and Iron stood between her in the same pose.They were waiting for Am and the Admiral,who were discussing landing points with the gunship pilots.The three stood in silence.Months of hard self discipline made them cold as stone.But it wasn't cold enough to beat thier comradeship.

While they stood there,other  clones busied themselves on the bridge in thier gray working uniforms.Bala always admired the bride of any cruiser she aboard on.It's windows showed a perfect view of the endless void of space,showing starts twinkling in the darkness.Behind it,clones would operate the controls.Then a mini-shaped bride would cross the from one head of the bride and to the other end where they were at.Below it,clones would be working at computers that controled all the parts of the cruiser.

After a few minutes of standing,Am and the admiral walked through the sliding doors.All three of them snaped to attention with thier backs straightend and thier eyes looking dead ahead.'At ease,' Am ordered. We will now discuss the plan with you all.

He pressed a few button to the holoprojector they stood behind and a  hologram suddenly popped up.In the hologram,there was a base with no walls but thousands of legions of droids.A few companies were patroling and the others were scattered around the place.The base looked to have three stories and two other buildings laid behind it to it's left and right.Bala's heart sunk once she saw a familiar shape on top of the two buildings:anit-air cannons.A flash of anger immediately entered her mind and dissipated just as quickly.

The planet's natives have been trading their oil with the Federation before the war even started,but they don't participate much in it.As you can see,dropping  right in front of the base wont be possible because of their turrents,there for we will have to land  out of thier firing range which intel estimates is about one hundred twenty miles away.You and the battalion will land that far north from the base.

Two arrows popped up showing them and the 423rd Regiment.The green showed them and the white showed the others.You will land with the 423rd Regiment,Am continued.But you will travel to the base on your own.Your job is to get to the west side of the base and enter silently,so before you board an LAAT, make sure you put silencers in your packs.You will then enter the buildings with the turrents.Ignore the main base structure.Once inside them,you will all place detonators along it's roof top and pull out when you are finished.Air support will then come in to destroy the base and come in for exfil.Understood?

Yes, sir, they replied.Good.You all have approximately seven hours to prepare before you are deployed to the planet's surface.Dismissed!

All three of them stomped thier feet and rotated on thier heels to the right and marched toward the set of doors.Once they left they exited the bride completely,they allet go of the the tension in thier backs.They walked in silence and toward the cargo hold.Bala went over the plan in her head and prayed that no one in her squad will be leaving the planet in a body bag.

SEVEN HOURS LATER

Chagres?

Check.

Silencer rounds?

Check.

Extra ammo clips?

Check.

Health supplies?

Check.

Good.Ghosts are ready to roll.

They all finished up cheking thier ordance inside the LAAT's compartment.A few of of the 423rd Battalion's troopers were inside the the squad.They kept thier distance from the commandos since all they had ever known about the commandos since Kamino was that they were the outisders who did the outside jobs.Although Bala wasn't gentically engineered like the clone commandos,she was still looked at as one of them.

Bala stood in her Republic Commando armour with her helmet at her side.Here black hair was tied tightly behind her head.She was tired.For the past seven hours she had done nothing but pack the suplies they would all need when they were safely down to the surface of the planet.Thankfully,five months of training taught her how to mentally shut the exhaustion out and push harder.It wasn't some thing she has particulary mastered yet,but it has managed to put her where she is today.

She stood there pondering her thoughts when sudenly the Admiral's voice boomed inside the hangar.Gunship pilots,make your way down to the planet's surface.Good luck,troops.

The LAAT's hatches slid closed on either side.Bala slid her helmet onto her head.On Kamino,the replica of the Republic Commando armour didn't have all the systems that they used when on te field.When they were all showed and taught how to work it,she was amazed at how how many systems fucntioned inside the armour.The helmet itself had a seal to it and the armour was built to endure any terrain.The basic GAR armour is made the same way as well,but the Republic Commando armour can actually do operations in space because the armour is pressurized.What Bala was must impressed about was the HUD icons.One would show her health and then her squad's health.Another would show a scanner that would show where life forms may be at.What she most enjoyed was the armour's communications systems.You can block out from the conversation around you and talk privately to your squad with out a soul hearing you.

After a few minutes of flying in space,light began to stream through the gunship's hatches.Bala peered through the cracks and could see dense forest of tangled limbs and leaves.''Looks like we got a great source of cover,Devis said. Yeah,a good thing to,''Am said.They flew for about six more minutes when a red light beamed inside the compartment.The gunship pilot annouced,Approaching drop zone.Get ready,lads.

The others around them began grabbing thier rifles and DC-15's up above them and shouldering thier pakcs up other thier backs.The sound of the LAAT's engines roaring began to slow as they slowly began to land.Good luck down there, the pilot said.You to,ner vod.Replied Iron.The inide of the gunship suddenly turned green and it's hatches slid opened.

Everyone leaped out and circled around the LAAT.Numerous others began to land and troopers came out from their compartments.Soon,gunships were scattered all around the field.Area secured, a trooper called.All the thoughts Bala had been ondering when she was in the LAAT had dissipated the moment they had landed.Her mind was now  wired and set onto training and instincts.This didn't come out of no where;this happened because she had done it numerous times.

'Ghosts,lets move,Am said.Our ETA to the west side of the base is estimated to be about several hours and thirty minutes.During that amount of time,we'll be counting on the 423rd to stall the Separtist forces.Let's get  moving so that thier fight will be short as ours.'

They supplied them selves with a few extra ammo and soon dissapeared into the thick jungle as shadows.

SPARKS
114 MILES SOUTH WEST OF DROID BASE.

ETA: 6:34:18 They continued to tread on through the thick jungles of Ferrika.Bala's armour was covered in scratches from twigs and thorns.Splotches of mud dotted her armour.Rained poured down and slapped the ground.Lightning streaked the sky and boomed from far away.Rain was some thing Bala used to cherish before she transfered  to the Special Operations Brigade.The basic GAR trooper armour didn't have the cooling systems that the Republic Commando's were equipt with.In the GAR,they would be easy targets to heat exhaustion because of the armour plates and suit  underneath.The Republic Commandos could just switch on the cooling device and look fresh after doing a mile run in the desert.But the wieght of the armour was another story.

They continued to walk through the jungle in silence and scanned the area for any movement.Bala had her DC-17 raised and trained onto the right of the squad's flank.A rustle of leaves and the sounds of twigs snapping suddenly filled in the air.Am held up a fist signaling the squad to a hault.Check the thermals,just to make sure it's only an animal, Am ordered.Bala tapped in commands and her thermal heat signature device replaced the woods.Off in the distance a few yards away, a large,red figure layed crouched and had it's back hunched over and turned away from them.False alarm,sir.We're clear to move out.

Copy.Lets double time it Ghosts, Am said.

They then began jogging at a steady but non slow pace toward the west side of the base.Soon,the minutes turned into hours and the timer on Bala's HUD read 4:53:47  'Sir,we have been jogging for two hours now.I suggest we check our position to make sure we are heading in the right direction,   Iron said.Am slowly came to a stop and held up a fist to bring the squad to a halt.Checking location, Am told them.

As they waited,they took up positions in the area and created a large circle,with Bala watching the back.She had her DC-17 raised and scanned what laid in front of her.The rain continued to pour down but the clouds suggested it was going to stop in a matter of minutes.Okay,we are now sixty four miles west of the droid base.Intel said thier patrols are set up from it's inside to fifty five miles.Keep your eyes peeled for contacts.Hunter, cover our six.

Yes sir,

Lets move,Ghosts Squad.



Bala was now beginning to grow tired.

She might have done countles push ups,sit ups,and mile runs back at the commando training facility,but the wieght of the armour was always a two hundred-pound-sack of metal put on to her body.She can manage for a while untill it became a challenge just from collapseing onto the ground.Instead of doing so,she would just tell herself to suck it up and keep moving.

Bala watched the squad's rear as they silently began to move in closer to the base.The sound of metal marching suddenly filled the air and everyone immediately came to a halt and got  on to the ground.Looks like we are now fifty five miles away from the base.Lets do our best to keep quiet.Everyone,slowly crouch.

Bala got back up with her knees bent and her back hunched over.She had her DC-17 raised and trained ahead of her.No one bothered to watch the squad's rear,for only thier footsteps would be the only thing they could see.On her HUD,she could see the timer ticking down with every passing  second.It read 4:02:37.Bala could only imagine what the fire fight is like at the front.She could smell the stench of death and destruction,the sounds of blaster fire and the yells of pain of the wounded.She can see the waves of droids,marching continously and firing straight at her.Stop it,she told herself.The battalion will be able to  deal with thier job.Do your part and focus on your task.

Shab, Am suddenly said over the com. Halt.

Everyone stopped and Bala could see why.Ahead of them,yards away, were countless waves of battalions of battle droids standing. It strayeched far and wide from the left and right.Behind them,Bala can barely make out the twinkling lights of the base.Theres no way we can get passed by that forced.They must have decided to double security once the battalion attacked, Devis said.

We aren't hopless yet, Am told them. We can use guerillia warfare tactics and evade them all.

Only one small flaw with that, Bala said. Our silenscer rounds are only made for living beings,and they are most likely going to be inside the base.If we use live rounds that will attract more attention.

It's our only chance of making it to the base,though, Iron said.

Am  heaved sigh audibly.'Alright,we'll do this.Spread out in even space horizontally.We will throw our grenades at the same time.Then,run back into cover and fire at them from there.That way sending help will take too long. Understood?'

Yes sir.

A moment of silence passed then Am said,If it doesn't work, at least we made it this far together.

No one replied to that.They all got up and walked in crouch.After seeing she was a yard away from Iron, she stopped and got a grenade ready.Ready,ner vod? She asked. Are you?

I don't know.

Iron laughed silently under his breath.They all waited for Am to tell them to throw.After a few minutes, he said,Throw grenades on my mark.Three,two,one,MARK!

They all threw thier grenades and the fires of chaos erupted inside the forest.

SHADOWS IN THE FOREST
FIFTY FIVE MILES WEST OF DROID BASE.

ETA: 3:56:49

After throwing the grenade in her hand,Bala immediately turned and ran.A deafening roar sounded behind her and made her ear ring.Pieces of wood were thrown at her with sparks clinging to them.A huge,thick tree fell and landed right beside Bala,making the ground shake.She stumbled and dug her feet into the dirt and ran as fast as she could with her heart beating out of her chest.A  piece of wood hit her in the back and made her tumble to the ground.Her back  screamed in pain and began to ache.Her ears were still rinigng as the woods behind her continued to blaze with fire.

Bala's vison suddenly turned hazy and she  was forced to crawl.Her mind and body was in panic mode; a condition in the mind of a soilder that should never be there during times in combat.



She shook it off and got back up.The ringing in her ears gradually stopped as she looked what was left behind her.A fire had risen to the stop of the trees.Sparks covered the ground and floated to te sky above as smoke started to blanket the woods like a fog.Bala scanned the area for her squad mates and saw that they were all behind cover just seven yards away from her.She jogged over to them and ignored the acheing pain in her back.Iron waved a hand as he beckoned her to come over.Am laid in a crouched position with his hand laid on the side of his helmet.Devis was beside him,also in crouch position with his DC-17 raised as he scanned the forest.You alright? Iron asked. Affirmative, she replied.

Am took his hand off his helmet and rose from the ground. Just got word from Commander Desmer at the front.According to his reconnicance teams,the enemy is falling back to thier base and regrouping with more heavy artillery to push the battalion back.They estimated it will be an hour until they arrive to the base.

Devis got back up and said,'That means it's time to move.We still have a long ways to go from here and to the droid base.' Am sighed.Theres no doubt  that the bonfire that we just created is going to attract attention.The only way to bypass extra security is if we mangage to evade them all,which in this case is going to be difficult.We'll have to go around but it will take us a bit farther from the base.It's our only option.

Bala only nodded.Let's move,ghosts, Am said as he then began to jog.Devis folled behind him along with Bala and Iron.

Bala ran with them and looked at the timer on her HUD display.It read 3:51:24.Still got time.

They all jogged toward the droid base and went around the blazing fires.They couldn't see the sky because of the drifting smoke, but the rain had stopped.The smell of burning wood and wet earth filled the air.Ahead of them,Bala could see the winkling of lights from the base.After running for ten minutes,Bala started to hear blaster fire and explosions off in the distance.And then the boom of cannon fire.Bala nearly jumped right out of her skin after hearing the sound.She aruptebly stopped and the image of the gunship being engulfed by fire inside itself appeared in her mind.Bodies littered the ground and a gunship went down in the disatnce.Her mind was dazed.Hunter....Hunter?.....Hunter!  The image dissapeared and Iron stood in front of her.'You okay? You stopped and I almost ran into you.'

'Yeah....Yeah, I'm fine. Just....Just had to catch my breath.'

Alright.Let's move,ner vod.

They started jogging again and continued to do so for the remainder of the time.Blaster fire,explosions,and cannon fire boomed in the distance.Bala's mind had no thoughs,nor sent signals to her body.She was a droid made of flesh.No thoughts,no emotions,and no feeling.Just a body made of metal that had gears and a data chip for a brain.

After jogging for twenty minutes,the sound of metal marching was then being heard not far from them.Hold.Set a perimeter, Am ordered.Bala jogged over and crouched behind a bush.Devis went in front of her to her right and got on to his stomach in front of two boulders.Iron went in front of her to her left and crouched behind a tree. 'Looks like a patrol.Don't engage and just let them pass.  The humming of tanks and the sound of metal maching could be heard from all around the forest.Bala had her DC-17 raised and trained onto the patrol.Her index finger hovered over the trigger as she made an effort not to fire a shot.Even with five months of special forces training,it never got rid of the basic infantry soldier inside her.

Bala counted ten droids and two tanks  as they made thier way toward the other end of the forest.A few minutes passed and the sounds of metal marching started to fade away.Clear, Am called.Lets move.

Bala got back up and then began to run with Iron and Devis at her left and right.Bala looked up at her timer on her HUD display.It read.3:18:32.Just a little while longer.....

Like shadows they all ran toward the droid base inside the thick,dense woods of Ferrika.

INFILTRATION
ONE MILE WEST OF DROID BASE.

ETA: 0:6:47

Come on,''  Am coughed. " ''We're almost there.Keep moving,squad."

Bala ran behind Am with Devis and Iron trailing behind her.After encountering four patrols-two of whom they didn't engage-, they were covered in dirt and scorch marks.They ended up being in a fire fight for thirty minutes and another for two hours.A fire had sparked up and almost engulfed them all,leaving them gasping for air as they continued to run toward the droid base.

Bala was now on the brink of collapsing.The positive voice that told her to keep pushing inside her mind was now silent.Her lungs were burning from breathing in smoke and her legs screamed in agony.Her back still ached from the previous fall she had taken.After a few minutes of running in pain,the twinkling lights suddenly  came into view and could be seen much closer.An imense wave of relief and exhaustion washed over Bala as she fell to her knees with her elbows bent on the ground,breathing heavily.She took off her helmet and popped the seal to it and threw it across from her.She  gasped for air and coughed,ignoring the fact that the security would hear her.

Devis and Iron jogged over to her with Am staring at her with his T-shaped visor. You're not looking good,ner vod, ''  Devis said.  I'm sorry.I just....Got to the point where I couldn't run any more.''

Am nodded. I would stop here for a breather if Commander Densen and the rest of the battalion weren't having to fend off the droids and thier reinforcements.   Bala got back up with her breathing back to normal.Slightly embarassed,she grabbed her helmet and slipped it back on.With her DC-17 raised,she said, '' Ready when you are,sir.

Alright.Stay low and close behind me.

They all crouched and trailed behind Am.The sun hung high in the sky with only dots of clouds.It's light made the water shine on the grass and leaves.Am raised a fist and held a hand to his right,signaling for Iron to come up to his right flank.Iron went over and had his DC-17 trained ahead of them.Going to make a quick call th the commander to tell him we have arrived.

They all sat there for a minute in silence untill Am told them, 'Alright, the battalion is going to fall back deeper into the woods and  hold them off until we can get rid of these turrents. Bala,you and Devis will take out the turrent ahead of us. Iron and I will head around to the other. Once we have the charges set, rondevu here.

Copy,   they all replied.

Am and Iron got up and and started to make thier way around the.Bala and Devis got behind two trees that were ten feet away from each other.They then crouched down and began to move slowly toward the building.After a few minutes of walking,Bala began to make out   a figure beyond the trees. 'Got visual on a target,' she annouced. 'Make sure it's living so that we wont have to use live rounds,  Devis warned. No kidding, she replied silently.

Bala stopped to activate her thermal heating device.The natural colors of the forest were then replaced by blue and red high lights.To her relief, a big red dot with legs stood there with a data pad,typing away.  We're good.Putting in silencer rounds.  She quickly deactiviated the thermal and scanned her belt for the pack she needed that held the new batch of ammo.In seconds,she was reloading a new clip of rounds.

Moving up.

Copy.

Bala looked past the tree and trained her DC-17 on to the being.She sighted up,reconignized the small incline of the head,and fired.A small dart silently whizzed at the speed of light at the target.Not a speck of blood could be seen as the man fell to his knees with his planted into the ground ground.Suddenly, figures popped out and ran toward the corpse.Just as quick, several little darts were fired and had hit accurately before Bala could say any thing on the comm. Tangos down.Lets hurry and move those bodies out from the open,'  said Devis.

Bala sprinted quietly toward the bodies and moved them to a secluded area in the forest.In minutes, they were both standing to the left and right to the entrance of the building.Twilight began to dissipate as night started to darken the planet. Bala scanned the door.Metal...No windows...Not even a knob.....Stang,theres a an ID checker right beside the door and those corpses are laying some where in the woods.

Shab,the kirffing thing is sealed.We'll have to go loud,   Bala said irratebly.

Affirmative,   he replied in the same tone,   I'll cover,you get a charge set.

Bala slung her pack off her shoulder with Devis scanning the land behind them.She found a charge, pciked her pack up and placed it back on her back, and then started to plant it.With a few typing of numbers and then a timer set to ten seconds,she and Devis race walked behind cover.Soon, a loud boom that was muffled by the clatter of metal could be heard all around the base.

Bala and Devis raced up to the building with guns blazing as cries of surprise could be heard.Smoke blanketed the inside and started to escape.Without a word,Bala and Devis sprinted up the stairs with Devis taking lead.They were then up on top of the roof.The turrent layed mounted with a console right next to it.All of a sudden, a deafening boom rang into thier ears and made the metal roof and ground below them shake.Her ears rung as she tried to search for the source.To her horror,she realized that the turrent had fired.

She looked up instinctively and saw a gunship decsending down from the air to the  surface.A fire had engulfed the inside of it's compartment and started to crawl under it.It then exploded and  it's debris  littered the sky.

Bala's mind went blank as she played the horrific moments over in her mind.Men's lives were lost because she and her squad were too late to do thier part of the job.

She snapped out of her daze as Devis tapped her roughly on the shoulder.He pointed at the turrent and made an exploding gesture with his hands.Bala nodded in acknowledgement and slung her pack off and began rummageing in it for the charges.As she started to plant them,her hearing gradually started to go back to normal.Out of her peripheral vision,she saw droids coming up to the building toward them. 'Devis,get the rest planted.I'll hold off the droids.'

' Roger.'

With the silencer rounds replaced by live rounds, she fired down at the droids that started to swarm the building.She ducked as a blaster bolt whizzed just inches from her head.She crouched behind a crate and fired the rest of her clip. Almost done,  Devis told her. She reloaded another clip and fired a few shots down at them.Out of the corner of her aye she could see a few going behind the building's corners and to it's entrance.She grabbed a grenade,primed it,and threw it over.She bolted out from behind the crate as an explosion boomed behind her.She quickly descended down the steps and fired at the droids that began to pour in.The smoke left from the previous break in clouded her vision.Blaster bolts fired off toward her as she made an effort to dodge them all. Hurry the shabla up,Devis!   She snapped as she fired half a clip of rounds at the intruding droids.  Just....About.....There!  He exclaimed. Stay on the roof!  Bala told him as she started to prime a grenade.She threw it and sprinted up the stairs. An exploding boom sounded below them as they jumped off the roof.

' Sergeant Am,Iron, we have the charges set.We are two minutes away from the RV point.Where are you?'

Static cackled in reply for a few moments. 'We are making our way out of the building with droids trailing  after us.Go ahead and blow the turrent and call in for extraction.'

 But,-  Devis started to say. Do it! Thats an order.Sergeant Am out.'

Devis cursed a string of Mandalorian cuss words as the comm from Iron and Am's helmets filled in with static. 'Get ready to blow it,  Devis muttered.

Bala only nodded and started to tapp away commands as they started to jog down to a halt.Bala looked back as a firey explosion boomed out  into  the night sky.A fire blazed  brightly as a cloud of smoke rose with sparks floating up in the air.A second explosion boomed and made the ground shake as the other building reduced down to nothing but a pile of rubble and debris.

In a matter of minutes, the forms of gunships could be seen and heard as they made thier way down from the cruiser.Bala looked back and saw blaster bolts lashed back and forth deep in the woods.   Let's move,   Bala told  him.

OPERATION SAVE AND DESTROY: PLANET FERRIKA.
REPUBLIC COMMANDOS:

RC-59762  SERGEANT AMADEUS

RC- 38410  CORPORAL DEVIS

RC- 29665  CORPORAL IRON

RC- 77128   CORPORAL BALA

FILE  CLASSIFIED TO REPUBLIC SPECIAL OPERATIONS PERSONEL ONLY

Bala didn't know what she was doing.

When you train and fight with the people around you, you grow a sense of comradehsip, and that becomes an unbrokeable bond of brotherhood. In battalions, one trooper dies and is instantly replaced. In special forces teams your team member dies and is also replaced, but  to the others it never truly fits the gap. To them, thier brother is still missing.

Scenarios of watcing Iron and Am die ran visibly through her head. ''No, replacmements are never going to happen. Thier going to live bec​ause  Devis and I are going to go and get them out of there. No fail.'' Layers of doubt began to creep in. She pushed it away and focused.

Night had settled onto the planet and obscured thier vision. They continued to run and watch out for crevices and roots here and there. Bala looked for the markers on the map on her HUD display. She saw her's and Devis'  moving along. She searched  and searched untill she saw  Am and Iron's markers. She counted four clicks in front of them and saw they were running north. Got them,   she annouced. 'Four clicks ahead and thier continueing to run north. I'll try and get a singal on thier comms. You go ahead and call in a gunship.'''

'Aye. And Bala,'

Yeah?

'I've done a similar rescue mission  like this before. It didn't go well. So dont have your hopes up. Keep them tight and keep thinking straight.'

She nodded and began tapping commands on her wrists while keeeping an eye on the map. The great thing about the systems in their kataran armour was the ability to multitask. They were running, tracking, and calling in support at the same time.

She tried getting a signal once, twice, three times, and still static was all she had. Theres got to be a way... She looked up at the map at Am and Iron's markers and saw they had turned a left. At first she thought it was just a way to lose the droids on thier tails untill a thought occured in her mind: they could have called in thier own support.

Right when Bala was about to tell him her theory he slammed a nearby fist angrily and swicthed back to thier own comm channel.   '''They said theres a storm bruing in the atmosphere and had already damaged one of the gunships while getting the battalion up to the cruiser. Thier not risking a shabla thing for us.'''

So we're on our own,  she said miserably.

Gets worse,  he said quietly. Bala new without seeing his face that he had it  built it up into a snarl. 'An armada of Separtist ships is said to be heading in thier direction. Thier thinking of even leaving us here for  good.'''

They had stopped running and faced each other. Then what do we do?

''Do what our training demands us to do,  he said simply. '''Survive.

                                                                                        * * *    

The map on Bala's HUD showed Iron and Am's markers stopping and slowly head east from where they had turned. Bala and Devis' were then only a click a way. The blaster fire got louder and louder with each step. While she ran with her DC-17 raised, she went through the procedures  that she was instructed to do in a situation like this.'' Get down... Look.... Destroy and rescue. '' She repeated the words and went over how she did it. She didn't dare think of what would happen if thier operation failed. Procedures end from there, she thought.

After six more minutes of more running and dodging bumps,rocks,roots, and logs, Bala and Devis could see the blaster fire more clearly then before. Bushes concealed thier veiw and and made the blaster bolts look like lights  flashing back and fourth. They got down into a crouch and went inside the bushes, snapping twigs and rusling the leaves inside. They barely  stuck thier helmets out as they peered through the bushes. A huge clearing was centered around the forests. Tall grass made up for the trees and stood up to the top of thier legs. An army of droids marched through the grass toward  two fallen trees and rocks to the left. The  droids that were in the middle part of the ranks were blown to  scraps as grenades were shot over from the rocks, making the night light up with fires. The dirt was poured down on the droids as they continued to march and fire thier weapons.

Bala looked to the left and looked for any plants that could serve them as cover. The lines of bushes continued untill only three or four trees were left. She went through every tactic that could help through her mind and then began going through her own tactics. Her brain ran like a machine as it analyzed every single one. All of them proved suicidal and to end up in a fail.

Devis suddenly piped up. I got it! Remember that assault on Gaftikar?   Bala turned to him and nodded. Sergeant Ox  told four troopers to head around to the left and right to make those droids retreat, right? The army then became to occupied of getting rid of them  that they were having trouble even paying attention to us.

Divide and conquer...... Wait, do we have those grenade launcher attachments?

'Check your pack.'

Bala got hers off and looked through it. Ammo clips, a few grenades,MREs, and health suppies hid the grenade launcher attachment. She rummaged through with dread pouring over her untill she saw the familar curve of the attachment in the dark. Got it, she annouced. Same.

'Want to give the sergeant a show?  Bala asked.

Yeah. Give those clankers a trip to the sky,  he replied deviously.'''

They quickly attached the grenade launcher to thier DC-17s, put thier packs on, and ran behind them. They ran a few feet and got thier  weapons ready. Without a word, they fired the grenades off into the night sky. An explosion boomed and coughed smoke, sparks, and bits of metal up in the air. They  fired five more and multiple explosions occured and only stopped once they realized they had created a fire. The blaster fire had stopped momentarily and blaster bolts started to cut through the bushes toward them. 'RUN!  Devis screamed.

They dashed away trying to get as far as way as possible. Panic rose once again into Bala. She couldn't turn and fire a shots to get rid of the problem. Shab, she couldn't even turn. No support. No reinfocements. The thought of no help coming was already bad enough. Being caught in a helpless situation with none of those things was worse. It spelled out everything: no return, and no more living.

All they had was thier supplies..... And thierselves.

Right when she was thinking it was the end, static popped into her comm. Her eyes bounced around her HUD display, trying to look for the communication icon. It was coming from  Am. They finaly switched back to the squad's channel. The static was then replaced by Am's voice. ''Devis? ''Bala? Have you two gone shabla insane!? You di'kuts are commiting a kriffing suicide! Get your shebs out of there ASAP!'

 No, thier not commiting suicide,   a clone's voice suddenly said. They just opened up an oppurtunity.'

More blaster fire lashed out, causing the blaster bolts stopping behind them. With shaky breaths, Bala turned around. Silence. The clone's voice spoke again. 'This is ARC Lieutenant Vax with a platoon of the 423rd  Regiment. Hide-and-seek is over, commandos.'''

''How?-'  Devis began to ask.  I'll explain later,   said Vax sharply.  RIght now,  get to our position.''

An awkward silence followed untill Am cleared his throat. 'Yes sir,   he replied.

Devis and Bala jogged out to the clearing. Clones with green paterns ecthed on to thier armour walked around the perimeter. The ARC lieutenant stood with his arms folded tight across his chest. His skirt was draped down to his legs  and was colored green. Thick, green lines stretched from his shoulder plate down to his and then down to his feet on either side, with another going down the upper part of the chest pate and down to his waist. His helmet was no differrent from the cones other then thier visors and filters looked larger.

Sir,  I thought the cruiser had taken all of the regiment and then wasn't able to send support down. How are you here?  Am asked. '''

''The number of our wounded and casualties were high, so some of us had to volunteer to wait for them to drop them off to the cruiser and come back down. Right when they got finished, they detected that storm. After a few minutes they told us about you guys and your situation, so we took  speeders. Thats when we saw your little firework show.

Yeah, Hunter got cold and wanted to make a fire,'' Devis said smugly. Bala punched his arm looked back at the ARC. ''Did they lose contact with us and you? We only heard about the storm.

You mught have gone off of thier range of contact. That's all I can assume.

They stood there in silence for a minute, then Vax uncrossed his arms and said. '' I'll get the troops to start making camp. You all should get some rest.''  He turned and walked away. Am took his helmet off and looked at the three.

Good job, ghosts.

OPERATION GROUND BREAKER- PLANET ALATAM. REPUBLIC DROPSHIP DAWN TREADER
REPUBLIC COMMANO SQUADS:

GHOSTS SQUADRON

NEXU SQUAD

COMMANDOS:

GHOSTS- RC- 59762 SERGEANT AMADEUS

RC- 38410   CORPORAL DEVIS

RC- 29665   CORPORAL IRON

RC- 77128   CORPORAL BALA

NEXU SQUAD- RC- 62394  S. SERGEANT  BONES

RC- 99910  L. CORPORAL  ELI

RC- 78143  CORPORAL JECK

RC- 42669  CORPORAL OTMAN

MISSION: TO AQUIRE SEPARTIST DATA, KIDDNAP GENERAL HORVIT JETEK, AND DESTROY OUTPOST.

CLASSIFICATION:  REPUBLIC SPECIAL OPERATIONS PERSONEL ONLY



The Republic attack shuttle traveled through hyperspace as it made its way toward the planet Alatam, an ice terrain world that lays in the far reaches of the galaxy. Republic intel gathered information on a Separtisit outpost that was stationed there that contained  the Confedarcy's secrets. It's classified information led to the possibility of  scientific work being done at the  outpost. They then traced coordinates from Alatam and to three Republic planets that were two jumps away.

They decided on bringing in clone battlaions in until they realized the nearest were occupied and the others stretched too far out in the galaxy, which brough them to an agreement on bringing special forces in. Two Republic Commando squads were chosen to do a difficult task that required stealth,saboatage, and assasination.

One of the squads was Ghost Squadron.

ONE DAY, FIVE HOURS, AND FORTY NINE MINUTES AWAY FROM THE PLANET ALATAM

REPUBLIC ATTACK SHUTTLE  DAWN TREADER

Bala sat in the back of the attack shuttle in her fatigues while staring at her communication device. She had been waiting for a reply from her family for the past ten minutes while sitting in one of the chairs that led to the shuttle's doors. Her squad and the other squad, Nexu Squad, were eating in the cockpit.

She had typed in ''Hey, I'm on a deployment. How are things at home? ''It was the least she could say to reassure them that she was okay. She just wanted to at least talk with her family.With the war, the visions of seeing her home being burnt down to ashes by the Seppartist would flash into her mind if she thought about leaving. A voice in the back of her head would say, ''NO. You joined to protect the civilians of the Republic. Concord is neutral, but they wouldn't have chosen to let a droid army come in and invade.''

Back on Concord, she took avantadge of the amount of time she spent with her faimly. Now, she couldn't even see them because her communication  options were low. As she continued to stare at the device, she felt as she had written what she had typed in a diary and was waiting for a response from an endless space of white, blank paper.

She sighed and turned it off. It will have to wait, she thought.  They'll reply some day.

She got up from the seat and walked towards the cockpit of the shuttle. It's doors opened and she heard a roaring of laughter. All the clones were sitting around in chairs and sharing jokes with bowls in thier laps. ''Ah, good. The closer, the better the mission will go.''

The  hissing of the door being slid opned made them all stop arubtly and turned in her direction. She glanced at all thier faces as the awkward silence continue to grow. She cleared her throat and said, Just got finished with trying to contact my family on Concord.

Got anything this time? Asked Am as she sat down.

No. The range keeps on being too long.

''Sorry to hear that. Want some ale?''

Sure.  He passed her the bottle and she got herself a glass and poured some of  it into the cup. She was grateful her squad understood what she was going through, even when thier only family was the people that were cloned forom the same genetic material they were. It touched her how they didn't even cast  jealus and resentful  looks at her when she talked about her family.

''So, Hunter. We never got to hear much out of you,'' said Staff Sergeant Bones, the clone with white colored hair that cropped up to the top of his ears. What's your story?

She shrugged. ''Got hired as a mercenary. Reckon I could work better when I'm in the ranks.''

Any 'private lessons'? Smirked Jeck, the clone with a red sheet of hair on his head and a small beard of the same color that was right below his mouth.

I thought clone troopers were men who fought in combat and didn't read the  celebrity articles in the holomagazines.

Eli does that, said Otman as he drank his ale, the clone with the sideburns that ran across the edges of his cheeks and the cropped hiarcut like Bones.

Hey, least I don't flirt with the posters of those Twi'lek women you always put up,  Eli shot back, the clone with shaved head. They all chuckled. Am, Bala, Devis, and Iron simply watched as they tried to see how the squad worked out. So far, they were all glad to see they all got along just fine.

It better be that way when thier all operating in the field when they need each other the most.

* * *

26 HOURS LATER

ABOVE THE PLANET ALATAM

Bala stood in her full commando armour with her helmet by her side. Everyone crowded around in a cirlce near the back of the shuttle.

Let's go over the mission one more time, Bones suggested. Have it stitched to your brains permantely.

Aye.

Bones then began to go over the procedures to make sure everyone had every inch of detail in thier mind. First, Iron  and Eli, a.k.a delta team, would be dropped off  twenty miles away from the outpost near a frozen lake. Then  Bala, Devis, Jeck, and Bones, a.k.a bravo,  would be  dropped three miles north from the outpost with Iron and Eli south of it. Am and Otman, a.k.a alpha,  would be dropped a mile east of the outpost. All drop offs would be down high in the planet's atmosphere.

Bravo would head around the outpost's outer and inner perimeter to take out security. Alpha would go in silently to kiddnap the general and take whatever data they can get thier hands on. After thier target and data has been taken into custody, alpha and bravo would head south east to  a clearing where the drop shuttle will be up above waiting for extraction. Delta will head head in with diver gear under the frozen lake. There, they will go directly under the   out post  and place explosives. Then they will swim back and make thier way toward the shuttle.

So, who's ready to reduce tin heads to pieces of metal  and kidnapp a di'kut? Asked Devis.

''Everyone better be. Otherwise they have no business here,''  answered Jeck coldly.

Affirmative,  agreed Am.

Bala remained silent, deep in thought. She was going over the plans of the operation and what she needs to do in certain scenarios. It was like going over a set of products mentaly on a grocery list. As she thought about it more, an image of her running in the woods arubtly flashed before her eyes. Flash back, she thought alarmingly.

It disippeared and the inside of the shuttle could be seen once again. ''Kriffing trauma. My own brain could be my  shabla fault  of the fail of this mission, ''she thought miserably. Ever since their last operation on Ferrika, flash backs had been entering, leaving, and then re-entering in her mind. Bala knew without  a doubt she had a case of a mental enemy all soldiers hated and fought against: traumatic stress.

The horrific events that are seen in combat will scar a warrior for life. It's glued  into thier brains the moment they see it. A soldier can surpass it  with the powerful mental strength. They would have to tackle it head on and fight it like a wrestling match. Some times, the trauma came out on top as the victor.

It would first creep to edges of a warrior's mind, then slowly crawl and infect it with images of thier expierience in combat. Thoughts and flash backs will all come together and make the soldier mentaly disabled. They are then taken away from thier comrades and sent back home to thier families. If she told her squad, they would send her back to a medical station or Coroscant where a physcologist would be waiting to ask an infinite number of questions. That and a well patted room.

She would love to see her family again, but the voice in the back of her head told her to stay and protect them. That was every soldier's mission: to protect thier loved ones and the very thing they stood for. Coming back disabled would be saying they failed trying to complete thier task.

And a commando always stays to finish their job.



PHASE ONE- DEPLOYMENT
They all stood in front of the shuttle's doors as the pilot went toward the landing zone. Instead of walking out, they were flying down.

 Alright commandos, delta's LZ is right below,  annouced the pilot as the door slowly opened. 'You have one minute to jump.'  The pink sky revealed itself to them once the shuttle's doors were compeltely ajar.

Good luck out there, ner vod,  Bala told Iron.

You too,   he rpelied.

Eli, make sure that outpost sinks to the very bottom of the lake,  Bones said. Yes sir,'    he said as if he was grinning    ''Jump in three...Two....One... NOW!'

Iron and Eli leaped out of the shuttle in a blink of the eye and disippeared into the clouds. The shuttle's doors lifted up and closed, leaving the remainnig six commandos. So, what kind of data do you think we're going to get?  said Otman after a long two minute silence. 'I'm hoping it's just the usual: plans for secret contruction project. Any thing worse will keep me awake in the barracks,'  said Jeck.

They stood there in silence for the next ten minutes. To kill time, Bala looked for any thing hay wire or misplaced inside her helmet. Once she saw every thing was where it needed to be, she looked at the face of it. A white face in the shape of a skull stared back at her. It's face was colored white with the rest of the helmet painted night black. Her armour stayed the same way, with white streaks going down her body, arms, and legs. The rest of her squad's was the same, except instead of the skull helmet their helmets had three white scars going down  the side of thier visors. Nexu squad stood out in white with red slanted horizontaly across thier armour.

After checking her helmet systems, she went to checking her DC-17's ammo clip, making sure it was filled with silencer rounds. Then checking if she had every thing in her pack. After a good twenty minutes, the pilot broke the sielnce inside the drop shuttle. 'Bravo's LZ is below. You have one minute to jump.'

Have fun down there,  Otman told Jeck as they did a little fist bump from up and down. 'Yeah, tell the general I said that I can't wait to meet him.'''

Vode An, right sir?  Bala said to Am.''

'Vode An. Good luck down there. Let those sab'uire know what we think of thier security.'

I'll personaly send a complaint letter to thier supervisor,  chidded Devis.''

Bones, Bala, Jeck, and Devis got side by side at the edge of the shuttle's door. Alatam's atmosphere rushed in and welcomed them with a cold,chilling air.  In three.....Two.....One...NOW!  With a quick deep breath, Bala jumped and plumeted head first down into the clouds. Everything rushed up against her visor as she continued to  decsend farther and farther. Even with her armour lcoked and pressurized, she could hear the air whooshing in her ears.

You good, vode?   asked Bones. Yes sir.    They all replied.

Puffs of white clouds flew up to her visor, making her HUD the only thing to look at as she soared down to the surface. Down. Down. Down they went. Finaly, Bala could see the planet's icy landscape and small forests. A series of gusts of wind flew aross it. The ground laid packed with snow and  it's trees could be seen bigger  and bigger as all four of them continued to decsend.

'Bones to delta, prepare to pull parachutes.'  Once Bala saw that she and her team mates were  fifty feet above the ground, she tapped in a command on her wrist. In moments the sound of  a sheet and strings being untangled and pushed upward into the air  whisted above the sound of the  icy, screeching wind.

Bala felt a jerk  as the parachute opened from her pack. 'Securing LZ,'  Jeck said once he and Devis had thier feet planted ont the ground. Bala detached her parachute and scuried to her left to clear her side of the area. She brought out her DC-17 and scanned what laid in front of her. 'Clear,' she announced. Clear,  the rest soon said. Bala lowered her weapon and looked around herself. They stood in a clearing surrounded by  trees that towered hight above. '''

Bury the parachutes and start looking for the outpost, ordered Bones. Bala jogged to her detached parachute and, dug her hands into the snow, and shoved it on top of the parachute. Bala's  mind remained thoughtless as she trugded on into the woods. It was now working and grinding like a machine, working of of instincts and expierience.

She had her eye on her HUD scanner as she walked into the woods. Three little green dots indicating Devis and Bones slowly moved along to her left and right. At the same time, she trained her DC-17 up, down, left and right. She repeated the process after every three feet. The  trees loomed over her. The area laid silent, making the sound of crushed snow seem to echo through out the forest.

Soon, she stepped out of the woods and overlooked a vast plain that strecthed for miles. Forest is secure, she said over the comm. Ahead of her, she made out lights and a wall. Nearly topping the wall stood a circulair building that layed inside the outpost. A scence suddenly flashed before her eyes as she saw herself climbing the wall of the base on Gaftikar. Snap out of it, she ordered herself. Clones have seen worse stang then you.

I have visual on the outpost, reported Devis. The scence disappeared and she was back on Alatam, over looking the speckless landscape that laid covered in snow. She turned to her left toward her team and saw that they all stood in a circle. She walked over to them as Bones said, ''It's going to take some time to walk, esspecially when we'd be heading in naked going directly north. We'll stay here and camp and go out at nightfal. Devis, get a signal out to alpha and let thm know we're set. Bala, Jeck, find an animal to shoot down. I'll get a fire set up. Move out.''

A band of trained killers parted away, getting ready to operate silently around an outpost that contains secrets that lay beyond thier imagination.

PHASE TWO- NIGHT FALL
9 HOURS AFTER DEPLOYMENT

Bala sat on a tree's thick limb while overlooking the bright, shiny outpost. Night had settled in and consumed her into it's darkness. Now that she was more elevated, she had a better look inside the outpost. The walls created a large, rectangular figure. Small two story buildings crowded around like a neighborhood on two sides of a road. Toward the far end, a towering building mounted six stories nearly topped the walls. It's width was long enough to make room with more space with the walls sliding to the left and right at the top of it's rectangular shape.

Bala only threw a quick glance whille she surveyed from the tall tree. What she was looking for were actual people- targets to identify and pick out  once she roped down inside.

But there were none.

She waited for beings to walk out buildings for the last ten minutes but only stared down at the twinking lights. After the fiffteenth minute passed, she sighed and spoke into the team's comm channel. ''Bala here. No visuals on targets and making more and more friends with wild life while up in this tree.'' For a few moments, no one replied. Then Bone's voice broke the silence. ''Ten-four. Going to have to say good bye to your little buddies in a few minutes. Alpha has reached the outpost's power source. Get ready to break some necks.''

''Roger. Bala out.''

Finaly, she thought. Bala had to wai in cover plenty of times before, but all resulted in her being bored and edgy. It was the fact that she was sitting there and looking at the enemy and not doing any thing that awoke the inner soldier. Her discipline was the only thing that kept the operation-and herslef- going.

After a good three mintues, the lights inside the outpost arubtly turned off, having the it's and the night's darkness engluf them. Bala turned her helmet's settings to a green lighting. Hunter moving in green, she said over the comm. Same, they said one at a time. Bala turned herself the other way on the limb with the cable line attached to it. She quicklybrought her legs up to where she stood and jumped downwards to the top of the wall. The air rushed past her and went away once she landed her rear on the top of the wall. She then detached the cable and brought her DC-17 out.

She attached the cable agin and hooked it under her. She turned aroundand pushed herself off. She dropped down then landed firmly on to her feet, thw world around her colored in a glowing green. She pulled the cable off th e wall and left it sitting on the ground. She looed aroud herself. She was in a small, narrow ally behind one of the buildings. A door stood locked in front of her with voices calling out in confusion. With her weapon ready, she went over to the door, raised her foot, and kicked it out of it's hinges. With a clang of metal it crashed to the ground. Bala rushed inside to elminate the targets.

Once inside, she saw rows of counters and stools that had series of  glass and scientific intstruments with various liquids inside. Computers were set up to the far side of the room where stairs led up to the second floor. Men and women in white lab coats screamed in terror once she had entered. With out hesitation she rose her DC-17 and fired silencrer rounds into all of them. Blood soaked thier coats as they all dropped onto the floor.

It was a horible sight, but Bala made herself go on. Killing droids was nothing, bu killing actual beings was way worse;  instead of wires and blue oil coming out, there was red blood and guts. A flash back suddenly entered  Bala's mind at the thought. She saw herself punching and stabbing the alien that attcked her on Raxxu during the sandstorm. She shook herself out of it and continued securing the rest of the building.

She walked over the corpses and went up the stairs. She stopped midway once she noticed some thing.

It was silent.

No whimpers, no cries or screams of terror.

It was so silent that she only heard the settling of the building and her breathing. Be ready for any thing, she reminded herself. She slowly continued creeping up the stairs with her weapon trained on to her left where the floor came up. Once she was up onto the second floor, she saw that it was set up just like the floor below. Only that....

There was blood all over the counters.

Men and women laid motionless on the ground like the ones she had killed on below. Weapons were laid beside them. Bala was about to step into the room  until she saw little mines had been set up on the floor.

''Booby trapped. Shab, all the scientists had commited suicide. But.... Why?''

Thats all she wondered as she stood staring at the gruesome sight. The reason for the suicide laid beyond her comprehension. Bala opened up the channel on her comlink and spoke, ''Hunter to bravo. I have clreard the first floor of a building but the scientists in the second floor have all commited suicide.''

Devis replied first. ''Same here. Yours booby trapped too?''

Affirmative.

''Stang... Theres no way they knew that we were here.''

If they did, theres no telling how high thier security measures would be, Jeck said.

As she continued to find logic for the situation, some thing in the back of her mind hit her like a blow: right after Am and Otman had destroyed thier power station, a light had streamed out of the windows on the second floor. She never paid attention to it while breaking into the room.

Wait, Bala said over the comms after beating herself up for the careless mistake. Did any of you see lights on on the second floor before you broke into the houses?

Negative.

No.

No.

They were on as I was climbing off the wall. They must have sent a signal to all the others alarming every one. With Am and Otman infiltrating the target's compound, the general and his officers would be too busy to let every one know about our presence.'

With this, the comm went silent as every one considered it. ''But the general wouldn't have told them to... Oh shab.''

Thier all willing to die to protect the secret from us, finished Jeck.

That makes the operation a whole lot more interesting, Bones said.

Bala only hoped it wouldn't get any more interesting then it was.

* * *

PHASE THREE- EARTH QUAKE
RC- 42669 CORPORAL OTMAN

Otman and Am rushed into the room with the lights attatched to thier helmets- they decided alpha team needed it more then they all did- as they started searching for the general they were all sent to capture. That and the outpost's secrets.

Otman waved his weapon to the left and right, searching for some thing to shoot, but found nothing but computers and screens. He looked down in search of traps and found nothing but metal flooring. 'Clear,' he called out. Right when he was about to tell Am that they might have went down in a fire escape or an evacuation route planned and built, he heard a muffled scream coming from a closet to the left side of the room.

Ah, their they are,  Am said. There wasn't any reason to stay silent- the technology that was installed into thier armour allowed them to speak privately to each other with out the outside world knowing what they were talking about. I'll take left.  With out another word, they both got on either side of the two wooded closet doors and prepared to fire. The people inside started sreaming and pushing the closet doors out, but Am and Otman silenced them by firing thier rounds into the closet. Shards of wood flew up to thier visors. The room then went deathly quiet. Blood oozed out onto Otman's boots.

'Let's move. Stack on the door.'

Otman didn't know what to feel about his actions. He just shot a bunch of scientist that were convicted guilty by the goverment he worked for because they were suspected of working for the Separtisit.

''They could have simply been working with the Trade Federation. Firefek, there weren't  even any droids! We could be infiltrating and murdering innocent civllians. ''He shook away the thought and focused on his task. As a clone commando, he was engineered to think no such thoughts and to only focus on suriving, finishing the mission, and protecting the Republic and his brothers.

But none of those things tempered with the fact that he had a personality that wasn't based on his genes but himself.

They repeated the same procedures they did back in the previous room- stack, cover, kick door, throw grenade, blind targets, and shoot any one thats presumed as the enemy. Otman and Am swept the room with glances of a blinding light with thier DC-17s  raised and ready to shoot on sight.

Otman took in every thing he looked at: rugged floor. Refrigerator. Couches. Table. Counter top and sink. Cabinets. Crumbs of food left behind.

Lounge.

Two men stood at the end of the room with pistols held thier hands. They squinted from the blinding light as thier hands trembled with fear. They wore white lab coats like the others that were scattering and running for cover in panic. Am and Otman to them all out immeditaely without effort and continued on in search for thier primary target.

Otman was a few feet away from the next door when he heard a sob and cough from his right. He turned and saw a woman that looked like she was about in her teens. Smooth, blonde hair tumbled down from her head and came down to her neck. Her face was longe and slender and had blue eyes that squinted from the light. Blood continued to escape out of her lab coat.

Go ahead and leave her,  said Am carelessly. She'll be drained of blood the moment we are finished clearing the next room.  Otman nodded, resentment building up inside him. He found himself glued to the floor, staring at the girl who continued to cought up blood and gasp for breath in sobs. ''Move on. She's working for the people who killed millions of your vode. They too deserve the same payment of fate, said a voice in his mind.

Another said that it wrong to let such a young girl die in pain. But he knew, in his  heart, that the first voice would be the one to be ordered to listen to. After seeing her eyes begin to flutter and turn glassy, he turned his head and got on the side of the door, prepared to peer at death in the flesh once again.

* * *

Alright, this is it,' ''  said Am. 'Intel says that our objectives are inside. Stay frosty, corporal.'

Aye, aye.

They had gone through all five floors, clearing and securing every inch of it. Thousands of data chips were downloaded to thier HUDs. Now, they had to get the total package.

Otman readied his grenade without thought and waited for Am to get finished with putting the charge on the sealed blast door. While Am prepared the explosives, Otman reassured himself that he was trained to be ready for any thing, therefore this should be an easy task. But visons of him and Am getting killed flashed inside his mind one by one. You can do this Otman just kriffing focus!

Charge is set, Am annouced. Get ready.

He and Am backed away from the door a coulple of feet. Otman primed the grenade once he counted three. In a flash of sparks, the metal door was thrown into the room from the explosion. The clang of metal made a racket through out the outpost. In seconds, the flash grenade had been thrown inside with Otman quickly going back to cover behind the wall. The sound of it detonating that resembled a whoosh of air made him immediately go back into the room.

He took in every detail at once: steel flooring. Computers. Holoprojector. Lab tables. Fluids and pills. Desks. Holo screens and.....

Bacta tanks.

They stood in rows and went to the back of the room. The blue liquid's particles floated up to the top of the tank. With all his will power he focused away from the bacta tank and directed his attention toward what was around him. He swept the room with glances with his weapon. He and Am slowly crept up the end of the room. Otman glanced down on his HUD display for the sonar. Two green dots showed him and Am. A red one was sentered between them up ahead. 'Hold. Target up ahead. He's in the middle.'

He could hear Am getting ready to argue, but instead he clamped his mouth shut. 'I see him. Set weapon to stun.'

Otman quickly turned the switch on his DC-17 and moved toward the red dot. He's up here behind that desk,  Am said.

Copy.

With Otman on the left, they boh slowly crept through the rows of back tanks. Otman had to rely more on his sensors then his own eyes. The glow from the tanks colored his commando armour a light blue. He swept his weapon across every corner. After passing the fifth row of bacta tanks, he and Am finaly stepped out into the back of the room, where  desks were lined up against the wall where smaller walls seperated them. Otman looked under a desk in front of them and could see two feet quivering like leaves. Target twelve-'o- clock, he annouced. Moving in.

Roger.

Otman slowly crept up to the desk- DC-17 raised and and set onto stun. When he was a foot away, the sound of weapon discharging filled the silence from the room. The foot slumped over side ways. Blast it! He cursed. He dashed to the back of the desk where he found an elderly man motionless on the floor, his eyes glassy and staring straight ahead. A pool of blood collected underneath his white head. What's wrong? Am asked as he ran up to him. ''Firefek! This isn't the general!'' Otman exploded in range. He had enough; he had gone from the first floor of the building to the next looking for the man he was sent for, killing thousands of civilians that are most likely innocent, and here he was now, luming over one of the hundreds of scientists that he killed. Only this time, it wasn't done by his hand.

We need- Am started when he was interrupted from sudden blaster fire from the other side of the room.

Otman and Am sprinted and dove any source of  cover. Otman's mind began shutting down. No, no, no. This wasn't supposed to happen. The person behind the desk was supposed to engage or surrender. Not kill himself. This wasn't part of training. They never taught us what to do in this scenario. Do we try to engage the target? Surrender? Contact support?

No, a firm voice spoke in his mind. ''Adapt to situations. That's what your training instructors told you to do.''

Can you see the tango?  Otman called out. ''

'Negative! I'll provide over fire wile you take a peek.'

'Okay. On one...Two...Three!'

Am jumped out from behind cover and emptied his clip of ammo, his shields shimmering as a few blaster bolts hit his armour. Otman dahsed out to the other side and looked to his right. Every thing slowed and came into focus: a table turned over side ways. A blaster turrent resting behind it. Two firm hands resting on the handle bars of the turrent/

Every thing went back to normal speed and Otman found himself behind a bacta tank. 'Target is behind a table,  he said. 'He might be the general.'

'I'm not taking any chances. Try and and just disable the turrnet and we can move in to take him into custody.'

Otman nodded, turned, and stared to fire at the turrnet. Blaster fire had hit the metal wall as Otman quickly got behind cover again. Suddenly, the blaster fire stopped from the turrent. 'Hit! I'm moving! ''' They both got onto either side of the up turned desk and ran up to it, weapons raised.  Covering six, Am said.''

Otman, heart pounding and nerves on high elert, peeked behind the desk with his blaster in front. In an instant, a blur of force knocked him down, the force leaving a wash of pain rising in stomach. He screamed in pain as the attacker jumped on him.

He could hear Am but his voice was muffled; his mind was in panic as it worked a hundred miles per hour. He looked into the attacker's face and saw....

A teenager.

A male in his teens stood luming over him. His face was decorated with numerous scars. His hair laid in a blond mess of curls. His arms made Otman look like a child- he had him pinnend. The boy's face was in a concentrated glare, his sharp brown eyes never leaving his visor, as if he could actually see him through the helmet. Otman only had a second to look at his face before he jumped again from sudden blaster fire.

'Otman! Get up!' '' Am had attempted to stun the attacker, but failed due to the boy's-impossibly- fast reflexes. Otman shaked off the panic from 'the attack and got up, seeing Am fighting the boy'. They were locked in a brutal fight; they threw blows at each other. The boy only had burises on his face. Bruises from a commando's kataran armour. Impossible, Otman thought in disbelief as he started for his DC-17.''

He grabbed it, trained his sights on the boy, and fired without thought. The boy yelped in pain and started to slacken. Am took the oppurtunity and flew two striking blows to the face and stomach. The attacker coughed up blood and fell to the floor, left with an implant of a nasty bruise. His eyes fluttered and rolled back inside his head.

'Shab.... That boy was able to knock down a clone commando. How the firefek is that ''possible? Even in our armour he was able to injur us,  ''' muttered Otman.

'Agreed. We need to find the general ''now. ''He might have more guards like him. Is he dead or unconcious?'

Otman knelt down to feel for a pulse. He looked up and skook his head. Am was about to say some thing when static interrupted into thier comms. 'Alpha, this is Bones. All the buildings and the outpost's perimeter are secured and we're making our way to the evac point. What's taking so long?'

 Am said,  'We got  one EKIA but the rest we aren't even ture if thier guilty. We're looking for the target at the moment. When do we need to bail before delta sets the charges?'

'You got three hours. Bones out.'  The comms went silent. Otman began to set a timer to three hours on his HUD.

Timer set?

Yes, sir.

'Let's move. I'll take point.'

Otman walked on behind Am as they continued scouring the room for the general. The blue glow from the bacta tanks continued to illuminate the dark room. He turned around from time to time to scan what laid behind them with his  DC-17. Nothing.

After five minutes of circling the room, Otman said, The general must have escaped. Theres not alot of hiding places in this room.

Yeah, that doctor and that guard were left to protect him, but the doctor panicked and commited suicide.'' You think he could have gotten into the vents?  Otman asked.

Negative, the duct work would be too narrow for an old man like him. If he escaped down stairs we would have heard him. Plus, he would have to stand on one of the bacta tanks to get there. See? Am stopped and pointed to the cieling. Otman saw what he meant: Three to five vents layed screwed to the cieling above the tanks.

'Ah, good eye sergeant.'

They continued searching around the room. Otman looked around for excellent hiding places- closets, and storage rooms. Nothing appeared on thier sensors. Every time he looked in a spot it layed empty and clueless. They were soon toward the left of the room. Am and Otman then heard a small, beeping noice coming from a corner. There's still nothing on the scanners, Otman said.

''It's one of the controls. I'll go check it out,'' Am said as he went over to the source with Otman left standing guard. Otman scanned everything with his eyes- the computers, desks, walls, holo screens, lab tables, and....

Wait a minute, Otman thought. Some thing caught his eye; some thing round and black that stood almost hidden behind a bacta tank. Just when he was about to let him know that he was going to check some thing, Am came running over breathless. The g-general, he stammered, he's locked himself inside one of the bacta tanks.

They both ran toward the sealed bacta tank. they dodged the others and came upon a black metal ball that was so slick that thier reflections stared back at them. 'We have got to get him out of there,'  Otman said.

He'll be disorientned the moment he's taken out of there. He will eventually regain consciousness but not with out proper medical equiptment. The Kaminoans had us put on to life support so that our body's organs will still be able to function while our brains  won't be able to process. Check my pack to see if I have what we need in there.

Am turned around and Otman began to open the pack. He rummaged through thier supplies and looked with his hands flying on and off every thing he touched. Shab, no there isn't. I'm not sure if I have it.

Otman closed the pack up and turned around while Am began to look in his pack. 'Yes, you got  an oxygen supporter mask. Quick, get a stretcher. I'll get the controls.'' Am stumbled away as Omtan  rushed to one of the medical treatment closets. He opened the closet door, found a stretcher on a shelf, grabbed it, and hurried back to the bacta tank. '''

Am spoke to him over the comm, 'We're going to break him out- the room for patients after leaving bacta tank treatment is locked and can only be opened using a code and isn't located on any of the maps. Once the seal is opened, shoot the glass and get ready to catch him.'

Roger.

Slowly, the seal that protected the bacta tank opened up like a cocoon. It slid down to the bottom of the tank whih held the general inside, his old facial features and red hair confirming his identity. Otman shot the tank, breaking the glass and allow the blue liquid to trail onto the floor. Otman punched it and in an instant the entire glass frame broke and and dhattered onto the floor, leaving the bacta flooding the room. Just in time, General Horvit collapsed on top of Otman. Otman snatched the mask off, placed Horvit on the stretcher, and attatched the brething mask on instead. Right when Otman was going to tell am he had the general, static opened up on thier channel. Bravo to alpha,  a voice said; it was Bala. Blaster fire could be heard in the back ground.'''

Separtisit dropships are on the ground-we are taking heavy fire. Get the data and the general and get out of there NOW. We can't wait much longer so get your shebs off that outpost and on the ground ASAP!

We have the general, bravo. Be there in in two hours.

'We don't have a shabla two hours!  Bala yelled back while an explosion boomed in the back ground.

Firefek! They got tanks, get down!  The comms went silent with static again. '''

'We have got to move,' Am said.

PHASE FOUR- EXFIL
RC-77128 CORPORAL BALA

RUN!

The night had been lighted with glowing red and blue streaks. The air was deafenend by the firing of the droid tanks. Fires were lit inside the forest as the droid army continued to pursue the four commandos.

Bala and the others ran at a dead sprint from the droids, the snow crunching under thier feet in the dark. 'Hacker, we need evac now! Get the shabla drop ship down here! The droids are chasing us with tanks! ' Bones screamed into the comm.

'Firefek, sergeant I told you already- the Separtists fighters will be able to come up and bomb the ship if I try to land. You're going to have to wait for extraction.'

Blaster bolts flew past them and hit the wood of the trees. Bala turned and emptied a clip of ammo. Six bolts hit her armour and made it shimmer. She watched her shields drop by the numbers. 'Stang! My shields are at ten percent. Cover fire!' She turned back and ran as one of them-Devis- turned around and fired at the on coming droids. One of the tanks' cannons went off and rang through out the woods. The projectile streaked through the air and exploded twenty feet from in front of them, making sparks fly and the trees groan.

Bala was mad. First, she killed scientists and then discovered the others that commited suicides. Then finished her part of the job and was making her way to the evac point when Am and Otman said thy were still searching for the general. And now here she was- running with her team away from a droid battalion. She had had enough; too many complications and new problems. It made her want to just yell in frustration.

Take a knee,''  ordered Bones once the blaster fire ceased. Everyone stopped and kneeled.  '''Set up combat positions. Jeck, start getting a grenage attatchment out. Devis, get a signal patched to Hacker and send him our coordinates. Bala, take up watch and alert for any clankers.'

Copy.

Bala trudged away through the dark. After walking ten yards she stopped and situated herself by crouching behind a tree. She enhanced her HUD system to make it increase her visual to four miles. 'Hacker, this is Devis. I'm sending you coordinates to our location. Try and find a way you can land quietly.'

'I'll do what I can, bravo. Hacker out.'

Delta, this is Bones. Set the charges now. We're running out of time and darkness. Tell alpha to get out of the out post with or with out the general.

'Roger, bravo. Delta out.'

Silence settled over the woods for several minutes until the sound of marching and the crunching of snow could be heard. Soon, Bala could see figures marching through the limbs and tangled bushes. 'Visual on incoming hostiles. Three hundred meters and closing,'  she announced.

'Copy, Hunter. Jeck, you got the grenade attatchment ready?'

Yes sir.

Hide your selves and engage on my mark. '' Bala lowered the lighting from her helmet to pitch black, then becoming one with the night in its darkness. ''

A platoon of droids and a tank marched through the crowded forest. Thier metal marching was made up for the heavy crunch of snow. Bala took a deap breath, calmed herself, and focused. Soon, they were only three feet from where she was crouched. 'Now!' Snapped Bones. In a flurry of movement and blaster bolts the droid army stood helpless from the invisible force.

Jeck fired off grenades into the platoon. They detonated in a furious cloud of flame and sparks and consumed the droids. The tank's hull laid opened, revealing wires and dismantled droids inside. Blue blaster bolts whistled through the cold wind and massacred the droids. And thats what I think of those shab'uire, joked Jeck.

'This is Hacker to bravo. The droid fighters are en route back to thier ship. Theres a small clearing one click north via your postition. You have five minutes to get there.'

'Aye, pilot we're on our way. Bones out.'

They only ran eighteen feet when the sound of metal and crunched snow sounded through out the area. 'Shab, those droids are onto us again. Keep moving and stick to cover to cover.'

Soon, blaster bolts and the sound of the tanks' cannons could be heard once again. Bala turned and fired back at the droid army and continue running with the others. A projectile from a tank exploded nine feet away from them to thier left. A large, thick tree groaned and its  roots snapped. 'Move! That tree us going to fall!' '' Bala yelled. As she said this, visions of her, Jeck,  Devis, and Bones being crushed under the tree ran visibly through her mind. She shook it away and tried to focus. ''

The tree groaned louder as if to let the planet know that he was going to fall. Hacker, we are almost to the ship. Keep it there we're almost to the evac point! Jeck ordered.

Double time it, bravo!  Bones screamed over the blaster fire''. Bala could now see the drop ship clearly from behind the less denser  wall of twigs and roots. S''he pushed herself to go faster. Out of the corner of her eye,  she saw Jeck getting ready to throw a grenade. She stopped a fired at the droids as he threw over. An explosion threw scraps of metal into the snow. The large tree continued to fall with every step the commandos took.

The earth rumbled as the huge tree groaned with one final breath and went crashing down. They were then ten feet away from the drop ship. Bala's heart beat quickened as she saw the ship's hatch open and heard the tree's limbs and roots snaped. Then she didn't hear the blaster fire, nor the crunching of the snow beneath her feet. She felt herself suddenly being shoved forward and felt the shaking of the earth. She heard the deafening wave of noise of the enormous tree faliing, then she heard ringing.

Bala was stunned as she struggled to bring her mind back to reality. Voices were muffled as she tried to get up. A big, firm hand shook her out of her daze. She immediately got up and turned. The tree only laid inches from where she once stood. Under it layed....

Bones, she thought longingly.

Bones screamed in pain as his hegs laid under the tree that had fallen. Devis  emptied his clip of ammo as Bala and Jeck rushed to pull Bones out. Leave....Go...Now!'  Bones gasped.

Shab no. Your not staying here, sergeant, Jeck said.

With effort, Bala and Jeck managed to pull Bones out. They pulled him by the arms as Devis covered them. They rushed up the ramp and was soon back in the air.

* * *

Bala and Devis stood guarding Am and Otman as they carried General  Horvit up the ramp to the shuttle. They climbed up the ramp and into the shuttle's bay where Jeck, Eli, and Iron were waiting. Firefek... Thats him? Asked Iron in disbelief. Am nodded.

'Better be. That shab'uire is going to pay up his worth.'

SECRETS
15 HOURS AFTER OPERATION GROUND BREAKER.

Nexu Squad and Ghost Squardron crowded around the holoprojector. The drop ship  was traveling through hyperspace as they traveled to the Jedi Cruiser  Endurance  to bring the general and captured data. All of them stood in a wide circle except Bones who laid in the infirmary under treatment by the medical droid. Am's hemlet had a cord attacthed to it and the holoprojector to display the downloaded data from the outpost. Alright, this is once of the pieces of data I got from the sixth floor,'  Am explained.

Bala's mind laid else where as the holorojector tried to download the data from the helmet. A clone who she barely knew had sacrified himself- half his body-    so that she wasn't crashed under the weight of the falling tree. It was one of the many things she envyed but hated abiut clones. She was grateful of them for saving her life but hated it when they had to give up thier own life. To her, it displayed cowardice; not having the guts to step up and do it for the clones, who rarely had anyone who stood up for them.

''I should have been the one behind Bones. Stang, he wasn't even taking point- I was! Because I was going faster then the others to get  away from underneath the tree, like I didn't give a bantha's back side about them. Firefek, my parents would be ashamed. I let everyone down because of my lack of srtability against combat. Well, that will change.''

Bala stopped pitying herself once the holo display containing the data showed up over the holoprojector. A list of numbers and names  hovered above it. They read:

EXPERIMENT 10: SUBJECTS

SUBJECT 6-3-9-1 JINOPI.
 * GENDER- MALE


 * AGE-13


 * RACE-HUMAN


 * LABELED-DEFECTIVE

SUBJECT 2-7-8-9 DERET
 * GENDER-MALE
 * AGE- 19
 * RACE- TRANDOSHAN
 * LABELED- EFECTIVE

SUBJECT 5-0-0-5 TRIS
 * GENDER- FEMALE
 * AGE-14
 * RACE- HUMAN
 * LABELED- EFECTIVE

SUBJECT 4-9-6-2   ZINOF
 * GENDER- MALE
 * AGE-17
 * RACE-HUMAN
 * LABELED- EFECTIVE

The names and numbers went on and on and ended with a summary:

EXPERIMENTATION RESULTS ARE HALFED UP INTO NEGATIVE AND POSITIVE RESULTS. EFFECTIVE LABELED SUBJECTS WILL BE TRANSFERED TO THE PLANET GORZANA FOR TRAINING PRIOR TO GENERAL HORVIT AND THE CONFEDARCY OF INDEPENDENT SYSTEMS' DEMANDS. DEFECTIVE LABELED SUBJECTS WILL BE TERIMINATED IMMEDIATELY.

Holy shab,'  Bala said out loud in disbelief after reading it.

Does it say what the experiments were for?'  Eli asked.

'Should be. I'll  look over the data. All of you, get some rest. Give me about two hours and I should be able to find our primary data,' Am said.

No one argued; today had been longed and thier eye lids were beginning to be too much to bear. Thier muscles were sore and thier minds were in need of powering down. But Bala doubted all of thier brains would be running on high after reading the jaw dropping news.

LATER

Everyone-including the pilot and Bones- crowded around the holoprojector once again. Am looked tired and weary. Bala couldn't blame him; he and been looking over paragraph after paragraph of data that is holding the Seperatist's most kept  secrets. Am began in a loud, stern tone:

The data you looked over two hours ago was one of the the list of information about thier expieriments which involved teenagers being abducted  for an under going project to create ulimtate soldiers for the droid army. The outpost we assualted was where they dropped all the abducted kids off to run off series of tests to measure how well their bodies can take in the drugs they pour into them. The drugs increase thier mentality, bone structure, nervous system, and every thing else that operates inside thier body. That's basically all they did to them, only that if one of the kids started to get disabled from the medicine or wasn't functioning right they just...t'erminated ''them. The ones that weren't were sent off to Gorzana for basic training, which only lasts for five to six weeks.'

Was thier any listing of any encounter they had?' Iron asked.

Based on what Otman and I downloaded, no. Just lists of subjects, medicines, and holovids showing them being injected with drugs.

The general though- is there any thing about him? Bones asked. He sat in a wheel chair with both legs bundled up into casts. Bala looked away to contain the wave of guilt that started to crash agasint her.

'The guy tried testing thier mentality by yelling into tthe teenagers'  faces  during the injection process. It shows stories and results about that and then there were a few that showed orders being sent around the outpost.'

Wait. Was thier anything concerning with procedures for intruders or natural disasters?  Bala asked.'''

Yeah. I was hoping none of you would ask that particular question. Am sighed.

There were procedures listed for natural disasters, but the ones for intruders were basic: hide, evacuation routes, etc. Nothing was put down about having to commit suicide. That was stored in the list of orders which was placed in the most recently issued, meaning the general was demanding them to kill themselves in order to save the data.

These shabla secrets are going to be big. Once intel gets thier hands on this, they'll be knocking on the barrack doors within one day,  murmered Otman. '''

Horvit is going to be the main prize. I was planning on interrogating him but then I decided to discuss it with you guys. Am said.

'Firefek, I don't care if this kriffing wheel chair makes me look weak, I'm going to scare the stang out of that sab'uire,' boasted Bones. Everyone chuckled.

Count me in as well,  said Hacker, who had been standing in silence with his arms crossed the entire time. '''

That settles it. Let's meet our guest.

REVELATION
GENERAL HORVIT JETECK

''What the?... ''Were the only words to describe how Horvit felt when he woke up.

He could remember vivid memories of being cold, wet, and breathing hard while gazing up into Alatam's sky. The cold hair nipped at his bare skin and he could- barely- smell bacta. He was so disoriented from spending the last twelve hours in a stasis inside a bacta tank that he never realized that he was being carried  by two of his captors, which had to be the most logical explanation since no where inside the out post were there any rooms with hospital beds and windows that showed hyperspace travel.

A sudden realization hit him and opened a wound inside his heart.

''Syn... No, no,no you can't be dead. Stang, why out of all my protectors did you have to die? All those drugs they put into you and the training I tuaght you in pirvate were to make you the perfect soldier and drill instructor. Since you were born that's what I wanted my only son to be: a soldier. I never dreamt of you being formed like that, though. I should of known- I even ordered you to kriffing leave with the subjects when my captors came. You stayed, and I knew, deep down inside, that you were going to stay to defend the data- the Separtist's monster that reshaped you. Firefek, this is all my fault.''

He brought his hand up and ran it down his face, trying to get his bearings and not break down crying; it was ingrained in him not to do such things.

At least the subjects will be on Gorzana, he thought. ''The last experimentation had about thirty of them. Only five were weak and killed. Good, cause who ever captured me and killed my son is going to pay. Syn would do the same if it was tme. Stang, he died already for some science project that he didn't even want to be a part of. Wait, who are these people anyway? The project was too secretive... Oh wait... That white armour... Blue faces... ''

His memory slowly began to creep out little by little until every detail was then memorized and into place.

''Commandos! I should have known- bounty hunters would be too busy with other better and easier tasks. The only good this will do is my knowing that one of thier planets will be invaded and have a Separtisit base stationend there.... But it was so, not kirffing worth this. ''

He was so deep in his train of thoughts that he was nearly startled when he heard the sound of a sealed door being slid opened. A woman with  black Mandolorian armour and black markings came into the room. Her black T-shaped visor looked into his face. ''Pffff, like thats going to help them get some info out of me. But wait, why would Republic Commandos have a woman?... Oh, right- mercenaries.''

You know your not going to get any thing out of me,  Horvit said in a matter-of-fact tone while having his hands clasped together on his stomach. ''

Oh, I know,  the mercenary said.''

I'm just going to beat the living shab out of you until you break like eggs. She slid her helmet off and held it by her side. The woman's night black hair was tied tightly behind her head. Her blue eyes stared straight into his with fierness. Her white skin was marked by a few scars on her  cheeks and on her chin. 'So you come in to interrogate me right after I'm out of a bacta tank. You really think I know every thing you want?' She crossed her arms.

'Look, Horvit, Im not here to play the stupid di'kut game- I'm here to talk. Where will the subjects go after thier training?'

''That's it? ''He thought in awe. ''They must have gotten enough of information to know about the experiments. Well, even if they have most of the data, I wont give them a kriffing thing. ''

'No where,  he replied simply.

The mercenary looked at him hard with her eye bows knitted together. I know your son wouldn't die for some thing so pathetic and useless.

Horvit bolted straight up and asked, How did you know?

The woman fought off the smile creeping up on her face. 'My friends captured holo footage of him before he died. He looked just like you.''

Horvit sighed. ''They know every thing. Even if I don't tell them, they'll still figure it all eventually. Stang, Horvit, look what you have done. Your wife is long gone, and now your only family is done for because of your kriffing actions. Now all that's left for you is  to go where ever this Mandolorian takes you.''

Horvit said no more and lied back done. The mercenary stood there for a little bit, then finaly went back inside. General Horvit lied there on the hostpital bed, withering away inside his thoughts.

OPERATION GROUND BREAKER-FILE 2
COMMANDO SQUADS:

OMEGA SQUAD

GHOSTS SQUADRON

NEXU SQUAD

REPUBLIC COMMANDOS:

GHOSTS- RC- 59762 SERGEANT AMADEUS

RC-38410 CORPORAL DEVIS

RC-29665 CORPORAL IRON

RC-77128 CORPORAL BALA

OMEGA SQUAD- RC 1309 SERGEANT NINER

RC-1136 DARMAN

RC-8015 FI

RC- 3222 ATIN

NEXU SQUAD- RC 62394 S. SERGEANT BONES

RC- 99910 L. CORPORAL ELI

RC- 78143 CORPORAL JECK

RC-42669 CORPORAL OTMAN

MISSION: TO DESTROY SEPARTIST CRUISERS STATIONED AROUND THE PLANET GORZANA AND CONFISTICATE SEPRATIST KNOWN DATA CONCERNING THE SECRET PROJECT TO CREATE ULTIMATE WEAPONS FOR THE DROID ARMY.

CLASSIFICATION: REPUBLIC SPEICAL OPERATIONS PERSONEL ONLY.

BLOCKADE RUNNER SAVIOR

SEVEN DAYS AFTER OPERATION GROUND BREAKER

72 HOURS AWAY FROM  GORZANA

While everyone  else talked and ate  in the mess hall, Bala sat in one of the barrack rooms in her fatigues, staring once again at her contacting device, her last message still left with no reply. They'll reply one day, she told herself. ''You have your job, they have thiers. ''

Bala got up and exited the barrakcs and walked down to the mess hall. She walked down the hallway and entered the mess where she saw rows of tables with benches and everyone at one table, laughing and eating as Bones arm restled Am. He looked almost silly in his wheel chair. Bala let herself center on that thought to keep the tide of guilt from coming in again.

She looked over at the Omega Squad men- Niner, Darman, Atin, and Fi. All of them had the basic clone cropped hair, only that she could place thier names individualy by just seeing thier expressions: Niner, laughing and shouting, still had that lock in his jaw and discipline in his eyes. Fi, cackling like a mad man and cracking jokes, had that friendly look in his eyes and freedom. Darman, smiling and laughing, had a more laid back look on his face. Atin, smiling and having his arms crossed.... Well, Bala didn't need any more to see it all- the scars, the crossed arms, and anger in his eyes wasn't easy to miss.

After looking at them all curiously, Bones finaly slammed Am's arm hard on the table. The crowd roared in laughter and applaused. Bala walked and got  herself a tray of food. When she went to sit,  Devis looked over at her and beckoned with his hand. Hey, Hunter, come join us.  She nodded and came to sit at the table-more at the edge then any thing else.

Hey, Bala- Niner started to say.

Sir!  Bala immediately brought her hands by her sides, sat straighter and looked ahead. Everyone laughed loud. Knowing what she did, Bala felt her cheeks flush as she brought her hands back to her sides.

'No need to feel embarased, Bala. Just call me Niner or sarge.'

Bala nodded and started eating. Hey, this girl hasn't told us a thing, said Fi.

'Yeah. You a Mando girl?' '' Asked Darman. '''

Bala looked and smiled. Affirmative, shab'uire ner vod.

They all laughed with Darman grinning.

Concord, by the way, she added.

You train with Sergeant Skirata? Niner asked curiously.

'Yes. We all did, in fact. Except for the Nexu guys.'

Omega went silent and looked at one another with a smile. Atin looked at her and said, We'll tell you later.

Of course, us boys are left out of the circle, Eli muttered.

Sorry- us Skirata trained guys are too good for the other batches,''  Fi grinned. Everyone laughed.''

The hours went by-filled with boasting,stories, and luaghter. Bala felt as if she was back in her home at the dinner table, surrounded by her parents and family members. It was some thing she missed and longed for for the last year. Death, destruction-those needed to be wiped out. She would rather see it herself then keep imaging it, picturing it inside one by one was just as bad as watching it all unfold again.

It all came to an halt when the pilot announced, 'Attention, commandos, sixty five hour warning. Rest, sleep, plan, or what ever. Pilot U'Clid out.'

Im going to hit the showers, said Darman.

Me too,  said Fi.

I never realized clones were that close to each other, Bala said with a wide grin. Everyone chuckled.

Alright, probably get nine hours of sleep and start setting up plans afterward,  said Niner. Every one went off to the barracks, sleeping soundly.

PLAN

Once the Savior leaves hyperspace and arrives in front of the cruises, two gunships will disembark  to assualt. Omega and Nexu will infiltrate inside the main target cruiser, take out hostiles, split up with one heading up to the bridge-alpha- and the other-bravo- heading to the oil and weaponry room, with Ghosts quadron doing the same procedures. Once they have the data, the gunships will get up to the bridge and wait for the teams there as they unseal the windows to dock with the LAATs. If either squads are unable to make it up to the bridge, then they would just et up charges and then head back down to the hangar.

GUNSHIP COMPARTMENT.

FIVE MINUTES TO SEPARTIST CRUISER

All of Ghosts Squadron stood around together inside the LAAT in total darkness the  as the gunship   flew through space.

'We ready, vode?' Am asked.

Yes sir,  they all replied. '''

Bala spent the next five minutes completely zoned out of reality and inside her thoughts. The minutes drained away and the pilot annouced, Cruiser inbound. Prepare for landing.

As the gunship slowly hovered into the hangar, everyone stood on either side inside the compartment. Switching to squad channels, Am announced. One by one every one did the same. The purring of the LAAT's engines gradually ceased. The hatches hissed open and all four commandos leaped out and circled its perimeter.

Ghosts are down,'  reported Am.

'Copy that, sergeant. Nexu and Omega will be down in a few minutes. Proceed with operation.'

The gunship's engines started and it lifted slowly lifted and up and made its way out of the hangar, leaving the commandos alone deep inside enemy territory.

After scanning the hangar, the commandos formed up and made thier way out of it. They stood  on either side of one of the blast doors where a console controlled it. In silence, they all got into positions: Iron preparing to open the blast doors, Rainer readying an electricifying grenade, and Am and Bala watching their backs.

Bala calmed her breathing and steadied herslef, for through out the trip dozens of visions flashed before her eyes and continued now. She forced them out to concentrate, her mucles and nerves on high alert. 'Alright, blast doors opening in three,two, one!' In an instant, Bala heard the blast doors' opening with a hiss, an object bouncing and rolling on to the door, the sound of an electric shock, heavy boots walking onto steal flooring and a blaster discharging.

Go,go,go!

'Room clear, room clear,' Devis said. Bala and Am turned around and entered the room where consoles and little lighting was inside. They all walked over to a a smaller sized door and stood on it side by side. Bala and Iron stood in front with Am and Devis watching thier backs.

'Ghosts, this is Bones,' spoke Bones over the channel, Be careful at this next room-it's one of the communication centers that relays messages up to the bridge. I advise you to quickly take all targets  out as quickly as possible. Once you clear the room, head up to the elevator and take a left down to the hallway. There you will find the oil and weapons finery. Bones out.'''

You heard him-quickly as possible,  Am told them. '''

Droid popper ready, Bala assured Devis. He nodded and began to type commands on the console. Bala's breathing turned shallow and negative thoughts entered and echoed through out her mind. Her senses helped her stay in reality. Devis backed away from the console and aimed is DC-17 at the door. Door opening in three, two, one!

Suddenly, the door swooshed open in a hiss and a circle of computers and speakers laid in front of them. Eight droids stood around the room. Bala forced herself into mucle memory and threw the grendae into the center of the circle of computers. In a blink of an eye she got back behind the wall as she heard the sound of the grenade elecrticfying its victems.

Go,go,go!  Bala told Devis. Devis rushed in with out hesitation along with Bala coming up to his left. Droids layed motionless near the computers and four of them had thier weapons ready and aimed at them at the back of the room. Bala aimed at thier heads and pulled the trigger. Her and Devis' DC-17s shot out blaster bolts, all hiting each of the four. After seeing the last fall they both swung thier weapons to the left and right.

Room clear,'  Bala shouted as they all sprinted toward the elevator at the back of the room.

* * *

Explosives good? Am asked. He stood covering them as they finished up setting the charges inside.

Affirmative, ready to move, Bala said.

Ghosts to teams, we are making our way to the bridge.

Roger Ghosts,  Niner acknowledged them over the  channel. Blaster fire could be heard over his voice.

Grenade!  Darman yelled. An explosion crackled a little into the comms.'''

'Destroyers eleven o' clock!' Atin warned them.

'Thier security manged to  send an emergency call up to the bridge. We can't get our data.'

Forget the shabla data, Omega, Bones snapped.

Charges are set, Eli told them.

'Good, now get the firefek out of there. Plan B is now in effect for you guys. Just get your  shebs down to the hangar, meet up with bravo, and the LAAT will RV with you there for exfil.

Aye,aye,'  Fi said.

Bala,Devis,Am, and Iron ran through out the cruiser, having Bones guide them up.

'Okay, just round to the left and keep running in that direction-the bridge's doors will be there,' Bones told them. The firefight from the other cruiser continued to boom insde the channel. They managed to communicate with each other over the noise. As they ran, Bala saw a red dot glow on her sensors on her HUD display. Stang, she thought. ''Not now. ''

Hold up. I got a target reading on my sensors, Bala told them.

Me too, said Am.

"Looks like it's coming up from the hallway on the right  up ahead," Iron said.

"Could be just one of the matinance droids," Devis said.

"I'm not taking chances. Hunter, check it out. We'll wait for you at the bridge's doors."

"Yes sir."

Bala grounded to a halt, turned, and walked down the hallway with her DC-17 raised. She followed the red marker and looked to her left and right constantly. She then suddenly realized the droid-or what ever it was- was hiding inside the vents.

"Sir, our target is inside the duct work."

"Hm... It's probably just a misplaced comm that got into the vents under us. Leave it and come over to the bridge."

Bala turned and jogged back to her squad. As she jogged, a sudden force knocked the breath out of her, doubled her over, and shut a spear of pain up and down her back. She let out a shirll of pain over the channel.

"What the-Hunter!"

"Blast it! I'm going down there!"

"Negative! We got fighters tracking the gunships. Get the data and bail, Ghosts!"

"I don't give a bantha's back side."

Her mind sank into an ocean of panic and drowsiness. A single spark of the will to live fired up inside and she brought hersel up and turned around to see her attacker. A figured lumed over her covered head to toe in black clothing, his dark brown eyes being the only thing Bala could see. They narrowed down on her and burned with hatred. "Get out of here, vode!" She yelled. She swung at the attacker and hit him hard in the jaw''. "I'l make it to the bridge just get the shabla data."''

She stomped the attacker hard in the ribs. All of a sudden, another attacker swung  out of the vent and kicked her hard in the head, causing an explosion of pain bang through out her head. Stars danced in her vision. She dropped onto her knees and brought herself back up on her elbows. She tried to punch and knee the other attacker but was too slow; he cuaght her arm and threw her against the wall. She yelled in pain and terror. With her last effort, she dodged a punch and kicked hard at his gutt. The other attacker had no time to react and  was thrown a few inches away. Bala was about to make her way over to him when an elecrtic shock ran through  her body. A cold energy stung at her nerves and body and made her mind drown in unconsiousness. She dropped to her knees, every part of her withering in pain. Her mind stung and the others' voices were carried off by a ringing in her ears. With the last spark of resistance being put out, she fell on to her stomach and was enveloped into darkness.

NIGHTMARES
Bala came out and in from conciousness. Her mind was too clouded to comprehend where she was. All she could make out were boots and different faces looking into hers. Flashes of the past and vivid dreams ran across her eyes. A dark, searing pain ran a course through her body, constantly aching when ever she was coming back to conciousness.

Her brain's gears finaly started to turn as she started to realize that, when she opened her eyes, that she was hanging by an interrogation stand with her arms formed upwards. She looked down and saw she was in her commando under suit with the Republic military symbol printed over her chest. A sudden, jearing pain seized her body and the back of her head. Her head had an continous, dull ache. Nervous system must have finaly started working, she thought. Her body was constricted by an incomprehendable pain. She gritted her teeth and realeased two tears-they rolled down her cheek and splattered on to the metal flooring.

"Funny,"  a  man's voice said, "you commandos boast about saying your all imune to pain and yet I see one of you crying from a few punches, although I did hear a 'crack in that hollow head of yours when I kicked it with my boot."

Bala looked up and saw a lone figure standing in the shadows with his arms crossed. His voice sounded rough, muffled and foreign. "Who are you?" She asked. The man chuckled as she started to step out of the shadows. "Why is it everyone who asks that  expects an answer?" The man stod in the light where Bala saw his face: a large man with a hood covering up his chin and up to the point of his nose. The top part of his was crisscrossed with small scars. His body was covered head to foot in black clothing. His blue eyes were so light they almost looked grey and was hardened like stone. They narrowed up at her. "The most your ever going to know about me is that I'm the one who is going to be getting the answers from you until your more worthless then bantha dung."

"Why interrogate me?" Bala asked in genuine curiosity. "You already know who I work for-knowing who I was working with will be a waste of your time."

"Yes, but you as a commando you  know what the coordinates are for many routes that lead to Republic planets," he replied. Bala stopped herslef short when she started to open her mouth to speak. ''Nice trick. Not going to get me yet,  you thug. ''

"My brothers,sisters and I want those coordinates more then we want to live. You may think just because you trainied with and like Republic Commandos that you are unbreakable, but with our toys we will just prove you wrong and make that information fall out of your mouth like water on rocks. And while we try to get those coordinates," he grabbed her chin and made Bala have all of her attention directly on him, "you will learn that our interrogations will be worse then death."

Bala spat into his face. He face tightened to the feeling of sudden liquid. He let go of her chin and wiped his face with his hand. He smiled, shook his head and suddenly drove his fist hard into Bala's gut. The air escaped out of her and she hunched herself over. "Interrogation will start later on. Until then, you get to make yourself comfortable in your new home," the man said as he walked towards the door.

Bala spat blood onto the floor and looked around. Controls and computers lined the room. A spark of memory flared up into her mind and Bala realized that her attackers could have gotten to her squad mates. ''Stang, they could be dead. I hope none of those shab'uires got to them. ''With nothing to do, Bala pondered her thoughts, wondering if the innterogation process wikk actually kill her. It would be escape, she started to think. ''No, it would be being captured. Millions of my vode were captured by death and remain unrescued. I have only witnessed them being taken.''

* * *

Bala had dozed off when the door hissed open with more dark clothed people coming in. They eyed her with menace and like a predator gazes at helpless prey-she could feel the hatred raddiating off thier bodies. "So,"  one of them said. "Ready to start spilling out some secrets?"

"I'm ready to see the looks of y'alls faces when you finaly realize that us commandos will only feel more alive the more you try to break and kill us."

The interrogation stand suddenly electrified her, making  small blue streaks of harmful lightning attack her nerves. She grunted in pain and gritted her teet. After five, full seconds it stopped. "What are the coordinates of one of the  Republic planets?"

"I left the data at your mother's house after she kicked your kriffing sheb'ese out," Bala said with a smirk. Another round of electrifying stung at her.

"What are the coordinates?"

"In your osik."

She continued to get electrified, and the questions stopped as smoke pertruded out of Bala's under suit. The man working at the controls huffed impatiently as he stomped over to her. He pulled down his mask, revealing a hard, concentrated face that was lined with a few scars and scabs. He stared straight into her eyes. His glowed with revolsion and intense hatred as he  yelled into her face, "Give us the kriffing data, you  pathetic peice of bantha turd! I will kick and whip you until you are long dead gone if wont give us those coordinates." To prove his point,  he took an orange glowing electric whip from his belt. He lashed it across Bala's face. She cried out in pain as the entire right side of her head  was electricuted. Bala was too weak to speak and the interrogator formed a fist and drove  it up her gut. Bala glared  down at him. "Not a good idea," she growled. She craned her head back and shot it forward at the interrogator's own head and heard a hard ''thump. ''The interrogator's eyes rolled back and he fell onto the floor. A blast of pain washed over Bala's  temple and made her vision darken.

The other interrogators rushed toward the man to assist him. "Is he alive?" Said some one as one of them began checking on his pulse. "He's unconsious, the interrogator replied. Half of them stared at her with a mix of awe and resentment. Bala pushed the pain to the far reaches of her mind and said, "I can do worse, and my vode will come and do more then blow holes in your empty heads." 

"Keep dreaming," one of them replied. "You'll get to do plenty of that soon." The interrogation stand electricfied. Bala yelped in pain as she was electricuted for two full minutes. She felt her heart beat slow and her mind go underwater. Her vision turned dizzy and clouded as the interrogators started to exit the room, planning more and more ways to break the Republic Commando  that layed in thier complete control.

THE NEXT DAY.

Bala had waken up and slept for hours, not knowing if it was day or night. Her thoughts were her only source of self entertainment-that and staring at the door and the steel floor. After waking up, she thought about the previous interrogation, how they would keep asking the same question, electricfy her, and then stand staring at the controls for two minutes. ''Wait. Did my heartbeat quicken? ''She wondered. She closed her eyes and forced her mind into her memory. She saw the interrogaters  standing at the controls and felt being electricuted. She searched her feelings. ''Yes, I did. Then they stood for two minutes and that's when that shab'uire  whipped my cheek. Hm.... They must be able to monitor my emotions during the interrogation process. Maybe if I lie about my emotions they will think I'm beginning to break apart. No, they'll just execute me. If I keep this up now they will do the same, though. Ugh, I can't get out of this one. When the time comes when I know that I won't have much time left to live I'll give them the coordinates for a random, neutral planet I was once stationed on back when i was a lieutenant. ''

An hour or so passed and the door slid opened. One interrogator stepped in. Bala saw that he was the one that she first met. "What do you want?" She asked. The man crossed his arms. "After nine days, my brothers and sisters waited for news about Alatam. You and I both know what I'm talking about."

"No, I don't," Bala lied. The man glared at her. "We have holovids captured by CIS forces showing commandos being chased on that planet." He grabbed a small holoprojector from his belt and turned it on. It showed Bala in her full commando armour with her skull helmet, running and firing her DC-17 behind her. "My comrades and I fully remember seeing your weak body being kriffing dragged around the place. Getting you out of that thing took us three hours."

He stepped closer over to her. "One of your fellow commandos killed one of our brothers and captured our leader. That's why I have come here." He suddenly punched her hard in the ribs. Bala grunted in pain and felt blood in her mouth. She spat it out at the man's boots. "I came here to tell you our story," the interrogator said. Bala glared at him. "You want me to feel sorry for you? What happened to only knowing that you were going to be the di'kut trying to break me?"

"So that the Republic will know that we did not want this, and that we only work for the Separtists because we have no where else to go. Well, one of you will die knowing, anyway."

"No need to get into that little sad story," Bala told him. "I already saw the data and the expieriements."

"Good. I was worried I would spend the next ten minutes doing nothing but some thing stupid." He grabbed an injector from one of his pockets and walked over to her. "Sweet dreams," he told her as he injected a liquid into her neck. Bala watched him as he walked out of the room. Minutes later, she saw nothing else.

SHADOWS
Bala saw herself on at a holoprojector with Am, Iron, and Devis with her. They all stood in thier commando armour with thier helmets at thier sides. ''Is this a dream? ''Thought Bala in wonder. ''If it is it's pretty kriffing real. Firefek, I can even feel the feeling of my commando armour on my body. Wait, that interrogaotr with that injector.... I've heard rumors that the Republic prisoner base  using those on high Separtist officals-they used  them to easily get the information out of thier prisoners. Well, I have to say-these guys were clever with this one;but I won't give them shab, not a drip when they point a blaster at the back of my head.''

"Hunter!" Am yelled. Bala jumped and saw that her squad was looking at her with irritation on thier faces. "Sorry sir," Bala said. "I got lost in thought."

"Well, we can't afford day dreams at this time. Anyway, we're dead in space if none of us knows any coordinates to the nearby Republic outpost. Bala, you got any?"

Figures, she thought. ''Trying to use my own squad against me. Watch this, you load of di'kuts. ''

Bala grinned and told them, "Up your shebs, you osik sucker." They all stared at her in awe. And if this is a dream, she suddenly thought, ''then I can do any thing I want. ''Bala closed her eyes and ran from the holoprojector. When she opened her eyes and she was back dangling on the interrogation stand. Three of the interrogators glared at her with thier arms crossed. "What's the matter?" Bala asked. "Not happy that I'm not playing your game?" The interrogation stand electrified her, this time Bala estimated five minutes. She breathed heavily as smoke escaped from her undersuit. One of interrogators unshealthed another orange glowing whip and walked around the interrogation stand. ''Shab it. Endure, Hunter. Endure. ''Bala closed her eyes and locked her jaw and waited for the lashes to begin. Bala heard the crack of the whip and a hot, stinging scratch was felt from the small of her back to the end of her spine. Bala cried out in pain. One of the interrogators in front of her said, "Because you are not willing to give us information, you will  slowly die by our torureing method unless you decide to give it up and finaly tell us-then you will escape misery."

''I would never escape misery if I did that; I would be haunted for betraying what I stood for forever. ''

"The pain," Bala said as she grunted from another slash, "is...worth-agh!.....the pain is worth it."

"Very well-have a good time whipping, brother," one of them said as they walked to the door.

"My pleasure." Bala didn't know how long the interrogator whipped her back, for when she thought about it she didn't have the strength to think; every muscle  her body ached. Her back stung with a firey pain. Her head throbbed as if she was hit hard in the head with the but of a blaster. The pain sooned over whelmed her and forced her back into unconsiousnes.

* * *

When she woke-as she though she did-Bala found yet more darkness, but she could hear yelling and screaming.

"YOU PIECE OF BANTHA DUNG! ARE YOU THAT WEAK?!"

"WE TOLD YOU TO KEEP THE SHABLA SACK ON YOUR KRIFFING HEAD, YOU DI'KUT!"

"HEY, ARE YOU SERIOUSLY TREMBELING IN THOSE LITTLE GIRL CLONE BOOTS, HUNTER?!"

''Uh, oh. ''Bala thought miserably. ''Sack Night. ''

She remembered that night on Kamino during her training-her batch's training instructors had put sacks over the cadets' heads and ordered them to be silent for the ten minute duration in which each training instructor would go up to cadet and roar into thier ears. Bala still had nightmares about it. There was only one thing that was different about this dream....

She felt a fiery hot, stingy sensation under her feet.

The feeling soon ignited and the nerves on her feet turned ice cold- unable to comprehend the enormous amount of heat that they triggered falce information back to her mind. Only the pain was some thing they weren't wrong about. It was too intense for Bala and she screamed in agony. The training instructors did nothing more but roar louder into her ears.

"WHAT THE FIREFEK WAS THAT, HUNTER?!"

"ARE YOU SCARED OF US?! COMMANDOS HAVE NO FEAR AND ARE NEVER BROKEN, GIRL! IF YOU'RE SCARED OF OLD MEN YELLING INTO YOUR PATHETIC LITTLE EARS, THEN YOU HAVE NO SHABLA BUSINESS IN TIPOCA CITY!"

Blaster fire suddenly could be heard from Bala's left. The training instructors continued thier barrage on her.

A blaster bolt seared into her skin and reached her bones. Bala yelled in pain and shock and didn't even flinch.

A thought occured inside her mind. Will I die under the pressure of my superiors or will I die fighting back?

I'll die by following my orders, for my disloyalty and obedience will never fall.

''But you follow honor, Hunter. Where the shab is the honor in staying in your shell and let your vode die?''

''The honor is dieing with them, side-by-side. ''

''No-the honor is saving them and giving up your own life. ''

Bala made up her mind. She grabbed the sack and threwit off her head. The second she did, she found herself back in the interrogation room. She sighed and looked around and discovered she was alone and all the effects in the dream were but in her head. Like they said, she thought. ''Thier purpose for me now is to break me. ''

ONE WEEK LATER.

Bala hung from the interrogation stand in pure misery and pain: her right eye was swollen black. Her left cheek had a scar that reached from the end of it and on the side of her nose. Her cheeks were swolen and her black hair was still hung in a bun, only strands of it touching her neck. Her under suit was scratched from whippings and underneath laid only but skin and bones;they had starved her and ever since she had been captured she was only fed one fourth of a loaf of bread from one  of the sympathized interrogators. Bala never saw him ever since.

Inside her veins were varieties of chemical fluids that were injected by her interrogators. Every time she tried to sleep she only saw her fears-her comrades snd family dieing, Sack Night, and having to be forced to kill those that she holds close to her heart. Bala had estimated from her drugged brain that she has had only a total of eighy nine hours of sleep ever since  she was captured.

''Doesn't matter;I've had less hours of sleep. ''

After waking up from a-half- nap, the door hissed open and  three of the interrogators came walking in. Behind them trailed a Trandoshan that wore the thier clothing, only that he didn't have the hood pulled over shin and mouth. His scales were colored red and black-his eyes being the same colors. The lizard was so tall that when he stepped down to meet Bala he only had to raise his eyes to look into hers. "What is it?" Bala asked sleepily. The Trandoshan snarled, opening his mouth, barring his white fangs and slithering his tounge. "Your fight," he said in a cold, reptillian voice. "Your fight to show how much you wish to keep living. Beat me in hand-to-hand combat and you keep living. If I win-well, doesn't matter because you'll be dead with your empty skull cracked."

Bala didn't argue-she was weak and she knew they would do some thing so unfair to her one day. She narrowed her eyes and nodded. One of the interrogators released the chains, relieving the stress in her muscles. She dropped down onto the steel flooring and rose to her feet, every inch her body protesting in pain. Bala raised her fist and growled, "I'll go down fighting for my life, you'll go down trying to beat a weaken girl." The Trandoshan grinned. "Depends on the point of  view of the one who lives."

The Trandoshan striked fast and quick, and ended up punching Bala hard in the ribs. She flew an inch and dropped in a heap. She came back onto her feet and charged the lizard. The Trandoshan was cuaght off guard, backing away a foot and then stumbeling. Bala took the adantage and brought her foot up and lash out into the lizard's stomach. The Trandoshan snarled in anger as he got up on his elbows. He stomped over to her, grabbed her by the neck, and threw her at the wall. Bala sailed and smashed into the wall, hearing a crack and feeling an exploding wash of pain in her head and back. She grunted in pain and struggled to get up. The Trandoshan walked over to her and brought his fist down to her jaw. Bala cried out as she felt her jaw dislocate. The lizard brought his foot up and smashed onto Bala's stomach. Bala howled in pain. Stars danced across her eyes and her vison darkened. Bala knew her life was over once the Trandoshan brought a knife out of his pocket. She tried to summon any source of strenghth and found none. No hope. No resistance. No will. Only acceptance.

"Time to die," the Trandoshan growled.

As he started to walk over, Bala could hear wepaons discharging and cries of shock. All three interrogators rushed out the door with blasters in thier hands. The Trandoshan was focused on Bala. She could see the kill needing of an animal in  his hard, red eyes. Bala's mind then swam and she didn't have the strenghth to comprehend nor hear. She only saw it.

The lizard's mouth had opened, and then all of a sudden a blue blaster bolt whizzed out of the door and went straight through his head, green blood and brain spewing out the other side of his head. Four bodies of black and white armour came rushing through, DC-17 weapons in hand. Bala's head swam and her vision  grew dizzy and blacker. The last thing she remembered seeing were black boots walking over to her that had white stripes.

AWAKENING
JEDI CRUISER ENDURANCE

41rst ELITE CORPS AND UNITED ARMED FORCES LEGION.

THREE HOURS LATER AFTER RESCUE MISSION

Nexu Squad, Ghosts Squadron, and Omega Squad walked off the ramp of the Savior, with Devis having his right arm in his sling. General Etain Tur-Mukan, General Vasco, Commander Gett and a mixture of the 41rst Elite Corps and United Armed Forces legion stood soulder to shoulder on either side of the ramp with thier hands folded behind thier backs. Commander Gett and General Vasco stood side by side behind General Etain in their clone armour and thier helmets rested by thier sides. With Etain stood Sergeant Skirata in his civilian clothes.

The three commando squads walked off the ramp with Bala inside thier tight knit group. She laid on her back with her breathing mask attached to her mouth. She was laid down with her undersuit still on. The twelve commandos-all in thier commando armour, except Bones who walked with crutches and in fatigues-stopped to meet the four that waited for them. Once they did, all of them except Devis, Iron, and Am popped the seals off thier helmets and held them by thier sides.

"Hello, Kal'buir," said Niner smiling.

"Hello, son," he said, ''smiling back. All of Omega stood to hug the sergeant and greet Etain. Ghosts Squadron stood and watched, never leaving thier fallen comrade's side.''

Eventually after meeting Nexu, Skirata looked over thier shoulders and yelled, "Hey, your my boys, too! Come over here." They all popped the seals off thier helmets and walked over to them, revealing weary and tired faces. Once Skirata saw Bala, his face hardened and lines of worry dotted his forhead. He sighed and said, "Shab. I'm sorry about Hunter. How is she?"

"The medical droid said she has two broken ribs, a part of her stomach that is bruised, a few fractured bones, and as you can see a bruised eye. Theres also multiple fluids in her blood system," said Am tiredly.

"How long will it take to heal?" Asked Etain. "The medical droid said that at least one rotation inside a bacta tank will start to extract all the chemicals. As for the others, it will take more time to patch up," said Devis. "How long was she interrogated?"

Iron sighed. "Three rotations. She had been captured during our operation on the Separtisit cruiser and transfered down to Gorzana. As you can see, after we found her, Devis got shot in the arm. We wouldn't have made it out if Omega hadn't brought the shab'la big guns on those guys."

Fi grinned. "We always like to save our vode's sbeb'ese with a little show." They all chuckled.

"We will be making our way to the medical station," said Devis. Skirata nodded in understanding.

"Vode..." Bala suddenly muttered. Devis, Am, and Iron immediately rushed down toward her stretcher. She barely opened her good eye. "What... What happened?"

Am shooshed her. "Rest, ner'vod;you need it."

"Sergeant... Devis.... Iron... Thank the universe, you're not dead...." Bala's eye rolled back into her head and she was asleep again as all of Ghosts made thier way to the medical station.

* * *

Bala woke up to a blinding light and to the familar faces of her squad mates. An acheing pain came back pounding her body and head. Once her good eye adjusted, she saw Am and Iron on her left and Devis on her right, his arm rested in a sling. "Devis... Your arm."

Devis rolled his eyes. "Firefek, Hunter don't worry about me-you look like osik, no joke."

"You alright?" Am asked. "I'll be fine," she replied grunting. "Where are we?"

"The Endurance. 41rst Elite Corps and United Armed Forces. Kal'buir is here as well," said Iron. Bala closed her eye and sighed happily. "It'd be nice to see our training instructor again..."

She suddenly thought of some thing. "Hey, what are they going to do about you guys while I'm sitting on my lazy shebs?"

"Most likely go back to Coroscant for a quick transfer- I dont't know, General Etain said she'll see if she san pursuade commad to let us stay and work with the two battalions," Am said.

"Aye. Am I going to be in a bacta tank?"

"Affirmative," said Devis. "About a week."

"Alright, we're going to go and let you rest. We'll be back later on," Am said.

Bala forced her arm to go to her temple as she saluted them all. They saluted her back and walked out of the room.

THE NEXT DAY.

Bala was lost in thought when her squad walked back into the room. "Good news," Iron told her. "General Etain managed to get command to let us stay on the cruiser while you're getting patched up."

"I'm glad to hear that," said Bala with a smile. "When will y'all get deployed?"

"They're going to be having us on Teth in about three days," Am said. "Some Separtist activity there the Republic doesn't want so thier sending us down to drive them off the planet."

"Me and Am thought you and Devis would appreciate this," Iron said stepping to the head of her bead. He handed her head phones. and a Republic Comando issued transmitter. "These will be able to pick up our comm channel while we're on the ground. I wasn't able to find any thing in our junk box that could actually show the cam feed off our HUDs, though, so you're stuck with these for now."

"Nice, Iron. Will we be able to communicate?" Asked Devis.

"Negative," Iron said with a slight frown and shug, "you can only listen."

"And I thought eavesdropping on people's comms was what the ARCs did," Bala said. They all chuckled. They talked for a little bit until a voice boomed through out the cruiser. "All troops are to report to the briefing room at once for the upcoming assault on Teth."

Am sighed with exasperation. "Great-another hour of looking at shabla holo displays. See you around, Devis and Hunter."

"See 'ya,sir." Bala replied. Devis and Bala talked for a while and eventually Devis left to go to his room.

LOST BROTHERS-THE ASSAULT OF TETH
ONE HOUR LATER AFTER ARRIVING TO TETH

GUNSHIP 50091-73846

COMPARTMENT

Bala listened anxiously as Iron,Am,and Omega were in thier gunship's compartment. Her brain was itching from the need to get into her commando armour and get into one of the LAATs-firefek, she never wanted something so ''badly. ''But instead, she laid there in bed with her transmitter and head set, so weak that she got head aches when ever she had a sudden thought.

She listened intently as Iron and Am,Vasco,Omega, and Etain all talked.

"So Titan Company was boarded here? Do you know of thier whereabouts,ma'am?" Asked Am.

The Jedi paused. She sighed as if she remembered some thing depressing.

"I'm sorry,sergant,but Titan Company had been disbanded after the Second Battle of Geonosis-my battalion was there before I was  put as thier general. They and Titan Company were tasked with taking out a marching battalion of droids and Geonosians that were heading toward the main strike force. Intel had been hardly gathered about the enemy's force,and when they landed they discovered the Separtisit had a new weapon-super tank I believe they called it-had been there. The platoons' gunships barely had enough to land and reinforce troops before the tanks blew them to ashes. The attack lasted for so long the main strike force was already leaving the planet. The two battalions managed to hold thier position long enough for an evacuation force to arrive. That's when the casualty numbers came rushing in-only a count of twenty men from Titan Company survived the skirmish. I'm sorry, sergeant."

Bala knew that they all-including herself-weren't expecting Titan Company to be active because of the absence of the files they have detailing thier latest deployments. Still, all those men were thier brothers-the brothers they both commanded and served with for so long. Like all troopers they were loyal and selfless, and those kind of men are never forgotten.

Silence had settled over the compartment.

"So, Sergeant Amadeus," Vasco spoke. "I read your file on Operation Ground Breaker. Congrats on your findings."

"Thank you, sir."

"How's Staff Sergeant Bones holding up?" Vasco Asked.

"He's in a bacta tank right now and the bones in his legs are gradually mending one-by-one."

"What of Corporal Hunter?"

"She's being treated in the medical bay over at the cruiser. She'll on the field working in a matter of days."

"Ah." A voice was muffled in the back ground. "Copy, pilot," General Etain said. Popping was suddenly heard over th comms and Bala slowly identified it as Separtisit artillery fire. "Stang," cursed Vasco. "I thought our intelligence officers said that thier anti-air weapons would be out of range of our first wave's landing zone."

"Must have been a misplacement in thier work. Pilot, how far is it to the LZ?" Etain asked. A mummbled response came and Bala thought the Jedi General sighed in relief. "Alright, time to move, General," Etain said. "Ready to roll, Omega?"

"Always," Darman replied. "Good luck, Ghosts." "You too, ma'am."

The sound of the LAAT's engines roaring was heard through Bala's headset. The artillery fire grew louder and louder and she continued to hear Am and Iron speak. A muffled voice was heard from the pilot in the back ground. "Negative, we have to land at the-"

An ear splitting BOOM  roared into Bala's headset. Screams coming from all three of them and the sound of metal crashing echoed ino her ears. Her own ears rang and she ripped the head set off her head and covered her ears with her hands. Her jaw was dropping in shock and she saw herself back on Ferrika, watching the gunship falling out of the sky while on the roof top of the building, watching in horror as a huge ball of flame descended down to the surface.

''No,no,no,no,no. Not my brothers, not my brothers. This isn't happening-it can't be happening.''

The ringing died down  and Bala found herself back in the hospital bed. She then slowly picked up the transmitter and slipped the headset back on. Static was cackling and popping in the speaker but Bala could barely make out Iron and Am's voice.

"AGGGH!" Iron cried. "Hold on, ner vod," Am told him.

"I can't....."

"Yes you can! Don't go out on me!"

"My legs.... I can't... Feel... Any thing...."

"You'll be okay, Iron. Just hold on."

"The blood.... I can't breathe..."

"ARRRRRRGH!" Am yelled in struggle. The static grew larger.

"You WILL live, brother. Hold on."

"No," Iron swallowed and coughed.

"It was an....honor, sir...."

"Don't you dare die on me! Not now! Iron?.....IRON!.... Oh, shab. Osik.Osik.Osik. This can't be kriffing happening to me..." Blaster fire was suddenly heard in the back ground. Static took over and blocked out the comm channel.

Bala stared at the wall in horror. The words echoed and banged through out her skull. The sorrow and loss in the words traveled in her mind and went to her heart, where it striked in a blow of force and made her fall into a pit of despair. The words SIGNAL LOST appeared on the transmitter.

It took over and flashes of memories spent  with her two comrades flew past her eyes: The graduation. The deployments. Ferrika. Tipoca City. The test spent in the battle room. Times in barracks.

It was too much-Bala buried her head into her hands and cried, the tears cascading like waterfalls. The tears were spent and she slowly enveloped herself into sleep.

* * *

One of the medical droids had entered the room and told her that she would be placed into a bacta tank shortly. While she waited, she stared at the transmitter, remembering what she heard and pondered her thoughts in which she tried to picture it all.

The door hissed open and a woman in  yellow Jedi robes walked in. She looked small, almost like a child, with her thin body and slender arms. Her face was white with two small scars dotted here-and-there. Her hair was the color of wheat and it tumbeled behind her head to the end of her neck. Her green eyes were filled with sympathy as she looked at Bala.

She didn't expect that-all the Jedi Generals she saw were more strict had that supiority on thier faces and in thier body language and speech.

"Corporal Bala," the Jedi General greeted with a bow of her head, "how are you?"

"I'm fine, ma'am," she replied. "My name is General Etain Tur-Mukan. I command the 41rst Elite Corps."

"Was the assualt sucessful?" Bala asked. The general frowned as if she remembered some thing, but it was quickly replaced with a small smile.

"Yes, the Separtisit were driven off the planet."

"General, you can stop trying to keep me comforted like a child. I heard my brothers-they were dieing. What happened to my vode?"

The general sighed, looked down at her boots, then back at her. "The bodies of the pilot and Corporal Iron were found at the crash site. Both were examined and confirmed dead. However, Sergeant Amadeus is presuemed MIA- there are no traces of him other then a few foot prints.

Bala nodded gravely. "What is to happen to me and Devis?"

"I'm not sure," the general said sadly. A heavy silence fell over them. Eventually the general turned to leave and Bala was alone again. She stared at the transmitter. To me, you are not missing,Am, she thought. You are simply lost.

FOUR DAYS AFTER THE ASSUALT OF TETH

JEDI CRUSIER ENDURANCE 

MEDICAL STATION

Bala opened her good eye, then half opened the other, half dazed and half awake. The faint aroma of bacta wafted in the air. A medical droid loomed over her with his robotic hands resting at her side. "How do you feel?" It asked.

"Fine, doctor," she replied sleepily. "You will rest for the rest of the rotation. You will be put back into stasis in a bacta tank at o' eight-hundred hours afterward."

"Alright."

The medial droid left her side and left the  room, leaving Bala back in silence. She sighed and stared up into the ceiling, the words of her fallen comrades continung to echo in her mind. She closed her eyes and pictured them on Teth: A gunship buring in a grass less plain. The sun burning with relentless heat. A clone in a pilot suit hunched over in his seat mostionless. Then Am and Iron together in thier black and white commado armour. Both screaming in agony,anger and pain.

Her vison wavered, unable to see what Iron would have looked like but could see his chest plate being splatered with blood from under his helmet, and then Amadeus tugging Iron from under his arms away from the gunship. The words weren't mistaken, for they spoke them clearly the way she had heard them. The body of Iron went still of all a sudden, and Am dropped him and rushed down. Bala couldn't take it anymore-it was too much.

She opened her eyes. Instead of her vision she saw the metal ceiling once again. She felt a single tear roll down her cheek. She wiped it away and turned on her side, facing the wall.

Some one knocked on the door. Bala dried her eyes with her hands and said, "Come in." Darman, Niner, Fi, and Atin all walked into the room with thier solid black commando armour on. "Hello, ner vod," Fi said with a small smile, "holding up?" "Yeah, I'll be fine," she replied. She noticed some thing in Niner's hand. "What do you have, sarge?"

The four of them looked at each other and nodded. Niner walked to her side and said, "After losing contact with Ghosts, a search party had been dispatched during the assault. We tracked down the gunship and found the pilot and Iron's body. After telling command we couldn't find any sign of Amadeus, they told us to keep the area secured so an investigation would be underway after the assault was completed. Whle there, we all decided to bring Iron's tags back."

He held out his hand and showed her a metal necklace with two metal tags with ingravings on them. It read  RC-29665 CORPORAL IRON. Bala  gasped when she saw another necklace reading RC-59762 SERGEANT AMADEUS.

Iron's tags had dried blood statined on them, with Am's only splotches of them. "We found Am's three clicks away from the crash site. Iron's was on top of his chest plate."

Bala's eyes started to water. "Am can't have gone AWOL.... He would never."

Niner placed his gauntlet hand on her back. "I'm truely sorry, Hunter-we all are. If we could, we would be doing a searching misson on our own." He removed his hand and placed the tags in front of Bala. The room went silent. Bala cleared her throat and looked up at them. "Has Devis seen these?" She asked. "Yes," Niner said, "he saw them a few hours before you were taken out of the bacta tank." She nodded.

"We best start heading out," Atin said, genuine sympathy in his eyes when he looked at Bala, "they said the  shuttle's ETA would be at 12:00 hours; it is now 12:50 hours." Niner looked at him and nodded in acknowledgement. "See you on the other side, ner'vod," Fi said with a sad smile. Balla smiled back at him. "You too, brother." The door hissed up and all of Omega squad walked ou of the room, leaving Bala in silence.

She stared back at the medal tags,the cruel irony punching at her heart, for all she had left of her brothers were metal necklaces that had thier names ingraved into them, being swallowed up into a sea of grey metal. "Nu kra'dyc, shi'taab escla'jalla," she whispered. Not gone, merely marching away

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NEW START
THREE WEEKS LATER

JEDI CRUISER ENDURANCE

UNITED ARMED FORCES LEGION

Bala and Devis walked around the cruiser in thier issued fatigues. It had been two days after Bala had witnessed Iron's cremation ceremony. She and Devis stood alone in silence as they watched Iron's corpse get torn away flesh by flesh from the fire. Once his body had reduced to nothing but ash, they gathered it all up and stored it into a jar, where they put it and the metal tags in the storage crate.

The next day, General Vasco and offered them a place in his legion. Devis and Bala agreed and were asked to a meeting at General Vasco's quaters tommrow.

Tommorow was today.

Devis and Bala walked in silence until Devis spoke. "What do you think the legion might be like?"

"I don't know-but I heard rumors that they had recruited  volunteered civilians."

"Hmph. Could be true."

They arrived to the General's door. Devis rapped his knuckes and he and Bala waited patiently. "Come in," Vasco said. The door hised open and they both walked in where they were meeted by the general and eight others. The eight others stood with thier hands folded behind thier backs at the sides of Vasco, who stood standing behind his desk and two chairs. Bala and Devis immediately straightened their backs and did a crisp,sharp salute. Vasco saluted back and said, "At ease."

They folded thier hands behind thier backs. "Take a seat." Bala and Devis situated themselves in front of the general's desk. "I would like to introduce you to my officers and platoon leaders," he gestured toward the full-custom-armoured clones, "Staff Sergeants Cold and HawkMajorDerek, Commander Sentinel, Captian Turbo, Second Lieutenant Slammer,  Sergeant Luke Docker, and Second Lieutenant Echo."

"Hello, sirs," Bala greeted. They nodded at her.

"Now, down to business. Because of you and Devis' experience in the field, I will be placing you at the high enlistment ranks. Since your files state that your MOS is covert operations, assasination, reconnasince infiltration, and sabotageing, you will obvisouly be placed in our special operations group, which is in our navy. Hunter, Devis, your ranks are petty officer second class. Your CEO is Commander Sentinel. You report to me first, him second, and other officers last. Understood?"

"Yes sir," they replied in unison.

(The gear that the eight officers and platoon leaders wore)

LATER

BARRACKS

"The last of Ghost Squadron, huh," began Cold, "Hawk and I were former RC's. Both of our squads got KIA during the First Battle of Geonosis. We managed to file a transfer over to here."

Everyone-being Devis, Bala,Hawk, Cold, Derek, Sentinel,Turbo, and Luke-in the barracks wore thier issued fatigues. Cold and Luke sat on one of the benches. Sentinel, Derek, and Turbo stood with thier arms crossed. Luke sat with Devis on another bench and Bala stood against one of the bunck beds.

"Yeah," Hawk said, "We all got our stories."

"Vasco had shown us the OP y'all had caused a fuss about," said Turbo. "I don't know if Devis told you, but the second file of Operation Ground Breaker had live footage showing your rescue-it took us too many kriffing hours trying to get through clearence." "But it was worth it," said Luke with a smile, "You forget,sir, that I was the one who had to do all the computer work."

"Yeah, and we were the ones who had to watch," Sentinel said. They all chuckled. "So what have your deployments been like?" Devis asked.

"Before we were stationed here, we had to maintain security over a rebellious village on Raxxu for a long time," Derek explained. "Raxxu?" Bala piped up at the name. They looked at her. "Yeah. What about it?" Cold asked. Bala looked at Devis who nodded. Bala walked over to thier squad's supllies crate, opened the lid, and rummaged through it for what she was looking for. After a solid two minutes, Bala pulled out the cloth the attacker had worn during her confrontation on Raxxu inside the sand storm.

Flashes of the alien's terrified eyes and echoes of its screams ran inside her mind. She shoved it away. She brought out the knife she took from it and showed it to everyone. The cloth now had almost more dust then sand on it. Dust blanketed the cruel shaped knife. "During my mercenary work, I had a little fight with one of the habitants of the planet. The little shab'uire attacked me during a sand storm while the clones in the platoon I was working with were forced to fall back."

"You still have your mercenary gear?" Asked Hawk in curiosity. "Shab yes-I wore the thing for months." Bala began putting a part of the squad's legacy back into the crate.

BATTLE OF SARISH
ONE WEEK AFTER RECOVERY

JEDI CRUISER ENDURANCE

HYPERSPACE

UNITED ARMED FORCES LEGION

It had been  a rotation after Bala had stopped her reguar sheduled bacta tank  healing process. She could now see perfectly out of both of her eyes and didn't feel the ache inside her stomach,head,or ribs. There was only one thing that still hurt, the one thing that could never be cured-the memory of the echoes of her dieing comrades.

It was a battle some days, trying to control her own emotions. The engagments would die down, and then fire back up when a spark of her memory stroke her heart.

Four days after the disapearance of Am, a search mission was approved by the the office of Republic Special Operations community. Devis and Bala read the search party's files in anticipation after every twenty four hours passed.

For the past couple of days, the cruiser had been traveling in hyperspace toward the planet Sarish where Separtisit forces had invaded and siezed control over the government and people. The legion was being sent down with other battalions to retake it in a series of campaigns. Three  cruisers traveled in hyperspace toward the planet, the blockade being in their way.

Bala stood in her new naval petty officer combat uniform with Devis wearing the same. Parts of it were painted dark blue-even parts of her helmet were painted that way with her visor being painted light blue.

She was amazed at the legion's custom armored gear. The legion's marines wore the desert ARF gear, the legion's air force gear was colored red, and



then thier naval men dressed in blue. It was all just..... ''Random. ''

Then half of the legion weren't even clones-it was a variety of species. There were zabrak, humans, clones, twi'leks, and so on all in clone trooper armour.

It bothered Bala, for it made them look as if  they stole the gear from her fallen brothers. As if they killed them...

She shook the thought away and looked around the briefing room she was in, where a holoprojector stood in front of rows of benchs. Most of the troopers sat on them where some stood and talked. The legion's officers-being Turbo, Sentinel, and Derek- stood in parade rest in thier full branch gear in front of the  holoprojector.

Bala sat in the back corner of the room in the dark, leaning against the wall. Devis was sitting with Cold at one of the booths where they bothed talked.

After a good five minutes in her own bubble of silence, one of the doors of the breifing room hissed opened. Vasco walked out, accompanied by Slammer.

"ATTENTION!" Hawk barked. All conversations stopped, every foot stomped in unison and every back was straightenend. "At ease," the general ordered. Everyone's backs looseend and they all sat down. "Petty officer Hunter," Vasco called out, "will you please join us? Standing in the dark is for dim witted recruits."

"Yes sir." She replied. Bala walked to the back benches and sat with one of the marines. "As you all know," Vasco began, "We are enroute to the planet Sarish where will be first engaged by its blockade. Our air force and the other cruisers' space fighters will all be locked in space combat so our air support will be limited on this deployment."

"Mixtures of platoons from our battalions will be landing near one of the Separtisit bases. We will first capture this outpost and use it as our staging base throughout the campaigns. We will then start liberating villages,cities,etc. Then we will move on to other of our enemys' outposts and camps."

"Now, we will be dropping down onto the surface at night, so grab any gear that will help you see. After all platoons are down, all battalions will make frontal assaults from the north, east, and west. Reinforcements will touch down after we beseige the base. Understood?"

"SIR, YES SIR!"

"Good. You all have nine hours to pack up and shuffle out. Dismiss!"

FIRE IN THE NIGHT-DAY 1 OF SARISH CAMPAIGN
NINE HOURS, TEN MINUTES AFTER BREIFING



GUNSHIP COMPARTMENT

OVER THE PLANET SARISH

Bala stood with her seven man squad inside the gunship. Thier names were Ryle, Miller, Anchor, Atton, Coros, Darkbolt, and Devis. All of them were clones. When she was assigned to them, they never expected to see what she actually looked like. But they devoted their loyalty to her.

The gunship still stood still inside the hangar with its pilot checking the controls. Devis stood with Bala as they talked.

"You think they'll be.... Good?" Bala asked. Devis shrugged. "Their training is what they have, and that training is designed to make them to be the best of the best, so yes, they should be."

She nodded and sighed. "That was stupid of me... We both knew they would be fine the moment we saw them all."



"Hey, its fine-I know what you're going through;I've been through it a thousand times over, but you have to get your mind to now."

Bala lowered her head. "Thank you, ner'vod." "No problem," he replied with a small smile. The gunship suddenly lifted, and the hatches slid closed. They all slid thier helmets on. "We ready to roll, squad?" Bala asked. "Yes petty officer," They all replied.

Silence was all they heard as darkness had slipped through inside the compartment. Flashes of light from the space battle outside flashed inside and provided little light. Soon, small streaks of light filtered through the hatches. The silence was replaced by the whistle of the wind rushing past the gunships' wings.

The hatches opened and revealed a blanket of endless darkness that stretched wide. The lights attatched to the gunship provided a path for it to fly. The clones looked below at the surface. "Alright, tap me if you need any thing-I'll be monitor the comms," Bala told them. "Copy, m'am," Miller said.

Bala typed in the commands into her wrist and started to hear popping hissing of static. "Squadron 8004," Major Derek's voice said, "do you copy?" My squad number, Bala thought. "Squadron 8004 read you loud and clear, sir."

"You're ETA to the surface is ten minutes. You will be assaulting from the west side of the base. Squadrons 6132 and 5999 will be with you down there."

"Solid copy, sir." Bala replied. Derek contiued to send out other orders to other squads. Bala turned off the comm after listening for five minutes and switched back to her squad's comm channel. "Listen up, ETA down in the storm in five minutes. Get everything prepped and loaded."

"Yes, sir."

Bala switched back to the comms. She heard blaster fire in the back ground. "Three hundred meters to the target building!" Cold  yelled. "Working our way to it, Major.!" "Roger, squadron 7340." Bala read her chrono-two minutes left. The sound of blaster fire and explosions was heard from outside the compartment. Flashes of blue and red could be seen lighted from below.

"LZ right below,troopers," the pilot announced. Bala switched the comm channels. "We ready, vode?" All of them except Devis looked at her funny. "Pardon, petty officer?" Asked Darkbolt. "Means 'brothers' in Mado'a," Devis told them. "Ah," Anchor said. Bala felt the LAAT lowering. The flashes from the firefights became more visible. Bala quickly switched comm channels. "Squadron 8004 is down on the ground!" She announced.

The gunship was lowered and Bala could make out the figures of the troopers and droids. The night had shrounded the battleground with a dark cloak  with fog settling on the scarred earth. White lights flew high in the sky, gunship engines roaring in the darkness. Groups of troopers sprinted toward the buildings that were constructed into the droid base. Red and blue streaks lighted the night. Bala could make out figures standing and firing at the droids that stood in front of a wall. "Squad, switch to legion channel," Bala ordered.

Bala heard a pop of static as the gunship landed firmly on the ground. She heard thousands of voices yelling all at once.

"Moving!"

"Aaaaagh!"

"Get down!"

"Cover fire!"

"Squadron 5999 moving in to assist."

"Knocker! Get up!"

Bala drowned out the voices, jumped off the gunship and sprinted off into the fire of the night with her squad. "GO GO GO GO!" she screamed. The fog embraced them into the unknown darkness. She fired her rifle toward the army of droids. "Take a knee three meters up here!" She ordered when she thought she saw a chunk of debris ahead of them. It was mounted into the ground and poked out of from under. Blaster bolts whipped up at the dirt and splattered on their boots. Explosions from grenades made white lights rain on the ground in sparks.

She continued to fire her rifle-her brain slowly starting to zone out from combat. "Watch your left!" Anchor warned. "AGH!" Miller yelled in pain. "Cover fire!" Ryle told them as they all circled around Miller who was sprawled on the ground. Bala, Devis, Atton, Coros,and Darkbolt fired at the the droids while Ryle slugged Miller onto his shoulder. "Move,move,move!" In the dark of the night they all covered Ryle until they reached the chunk of debris.

Bala and the others breathed heavily as they sat against the cold, sharred metal. She got over to Miller and looked over his armor: a hole was drilled into his shoulder where smoke came wafting out. "Shoulder wound-you'll live." She told him, resting a hand on his good shoudler. "This is Major Derek warning all squadrons: I'm sending a mortar team to the front so be advised and get your heads down."

"Firing!"

Bala looked and saw a dozen shiny objects fly in the air. They decsended down on the droids and exploded in a shower of shrapnel, wires, and sparks. The night was lit and was deafened with a roaring '''BOOM'! ''

Her ears rung with pain a little as she continued to fire her rifle toward the droid army where a small fire had collected inside the ranks. She got back down behind cover as blaster bolts whizzed past her head. "Get down!" Devis yelled. Everyone got back behing cover as a missle impacted on the metal surface.

"We've got to move," Bala said. "Squadrons 6132 and 5999 do you copy?"

"Copy," came both replies. "This is Petty Officer Hunter of squadron 8004. Rally on my position-I'm sending you the coordinates. Rally here and we will all provide supressive fire on the droids' right flank."

"Roger, petty officer."

A shower of dirt poured on to all of them as another explosion was set off near them. Bala grabbed a grenade and threw it over and got back to fire her rifle. "Ma'am, the bacta is starting to wear off the pain in Mililer's shoulder," Ryle said, "all he needs is a pistol."

"Agreed," Bala said as she got back down into cover. She grabbed her's from her holster and tossed it to Miller. "You going to be okay, ner'vod?" She asked. He nodded. "Squadron 8004, we are nearing on your position."

"10-4. Providing cover fire," Bala replied. She threw another grenade and fired back at the droids with the others doing the same. As they fired back, millions of voices continued to yell into the comm channel.

"This is squadron 2578 to all surrounding squads: our TL is down and there are only three of us left, repeat three. Requesting support to make it back to main strike force position for recovery. Our coordinates are 0-0-3-6-9."

"This is squad 1177, we are nearest to you 2578. We are-AGGGGH!"

"Sergeant!"

"Check him, Jackson!"

"Blast it! Major Derek, this is Corporal Jackson, Sergeant Blaze is KIA."

"Ugh, copy, corporal."

The voices went on with cries of pain and orders being carried out. Bala heard them all as she focused on her task. A volley of blaster bolts was shot at her and she ducked quickly back behind cover. She looked behind herself and saw a group of men sprinted toward her and her squad. "Their almost here troopers, keep covering their heads!" She told them. "Yes, sir!"After putting another live round into her rifle, she stood back up and continued to fire at the droids.

"Petty officer, we're closing on your positon."

"Roger."

A grenade had gone off and forced all of them to go back behind the debris, showering particles of dirt over them all. Once she did, she looked and saw both squads coming toward her-all wearing the marines' desert ARF armour. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a projectile being shot from her right and toward the squad of marines. No, is all she could think.

The projectile exploded on impact four feet away from the marines. In a flash of light, all eight of them were brought off thier feet and into the air. It exploded in a roar and confusion. Voices of pain were screaming inside the comms. The bodies of the marines were sprawled out in different places. The other squad of marines raced toward Bala's position.

She acted immediately. "Squadron 8004 to all squads: squadron 5999 is down, I repeat they all are down. I want all available support on these coordinates ASAP- 8-7-3-4."

"Osik!" Cursed one of the marines, "all that time wasted on those blasted droids. Let's move and get our brothers back up, petty officer."

"Aye."

Bala and the others sprinted toward the fallen marines. She slugged one of them onto her back as the blazing of the fire and blaster fire continued to rage the night. The fog obscured thier vison and blanketed the fallen marines. Darkbolt, Anchor, and the other marines all helped Bala carry the fallen as the others stood solidly to cover them. Bala dashed back from cover to open space trying to get all the marines off the ground.

Finaly, all of the ones that were hit we're sitting against the debris. Bala and Devis fired at the droids as the corps man checked the wounded marines. To her relief, Bala started to see that the droids were starting to fall back to the base. "This is General Vasco to all squadrons: charge on those kriffing droids!"

"YES,SIR!" Said thousands of replies.

Bala watched as dozens of naval men and marines ripped apart the rest of the droid army. She lowered back down behind cover and looked at the fallen marines.

Two of them had thier eyes closed and mouths dripping with blood. The other six looked daze. She looked at the corps man and said, "They going to be alright?" He nodded. Bala rose back up and walked over with the others to the besieged base as the fog lifted off the battlefield.

BREAK AT DAWN-DAY 5 OF SARISH CAMPAIGN
MARINE/NAVALCOMPANY 9 AND THRASHER COMPANY

UAF LEGION AND  75th BATTALION

3 HOURS AWAY FROM SEPARTIST STRONGHOLD



The morning was fresh when the sun had risen above the taken base on Sarish. Wildlife buzzed and basked in the sunlight. The plants welcomed the new warmth and comfort by raising their petals. Planet structres and mountains stayed high above them.

Two companies from two battalions marched through the forested planet. Little flower pods were crushed under their boots. Blue plants in the form of ovals were knocked over and uprooted from the walking AT-ATs.

The two companies were marching toward a Separtist stronghold that contained a village with civilians inside. They were to take it over and transfer the villiagers to fire base-which was the taken base-for recovery.

A mix of naval and marine clones trugded through the dawn alongside troopers with grey and red markings on thier armour. Thier commanding officer was Captian Leo while the marine and naval company was led by Major Derek and Commander Sentinel.

A naval ground spotter unit and marine recon unit were scouting ahead in the mountains as the rest of the troopers marched with three AT-AT walkers.

Bala was alongside her squad in coversation inside thier own private squadron comm channel.

"Alright, Atton," Bala said, "you'll be control fireman with the mortar team. Okay?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Darkbolt, you'll be corps man and Devis will handle the rotary cannon."

"Solid copy."

"How's the shoulder holding up, Miller?" Anchor asked.

"I'll live," he replied coldly.

Bala knew what was wrong: it was the constant treatment of making-sure-you-were-the-one-alright routine was just a way of saying, hey, you're weak so we have to check on you every  five minutes just to let you know you're still our brother.

To others it expressed sympathy, but inside it was a sign of weakness-nobody wanted to be brought down by that.

"Petty officer," Ryle said, "since the question was never brought up, how did you get into the GAR?"

The question sparked up memories, but Bala controlled the tide from coming in.

"I was a mercenary when I was put into the 257th Battalion. I kept the job for about two months before deciding to take the roll as trooper."

He nodded. "I heard rumors," Darkbolt said, "that you guys were from Ghost Squadron. Is that right, ma'am?"

She hesitated-not from memories but from the system of which cetain things could be said aloud.

She couldn't help it though. "That's classified," she muttered and turned her head back to in front of her.

A few minutes later, a link was opened from a distant comm channel. "Going to be away from channel for a mintue," she told them. She opened the comm channel and said, "This is Petty Officer Hunter speeking."

"Hunter," Derek's voice said, "You are needed at the front;all squadron leaders need to be briefed on the assault."

"Yes sir." She closed the link and opened her squads channel again. "Briefing." They nodded in acknowledgement, not needing to hear more as she closed the link once more.

She shoved her way between the marines and other naval units to get to the officers. She figured they ordered  the troops to set up camp for a little bit since a few were setting crates on the grounds laying tarps. She finaly came to Major Derek, Commander Sentinel, Sergeant Hawk, a red colored ARC trooper and others from different squadrons.

She saluted them all and they saluted back. She removed her helmet like everyone else-except the ARC and Sentinel-and said, "What's the plan?"

Derek was about to speak when the ARC cut him off short. "Corporal?" He said in bewilderment. He removed his helmet and revealed a clone with short cropped hair and the words "only the best can fix the worse" tattooed on the side of his head. Bala reconignized him immediately. "Vax?"

Bala had remembered the green ARC lieutenant that had lead a company of clones to save her and her squad during the rescue operation on Ferrika. They had all befriended each other but were seperated when the Ghosts were forced to head to Alatam.

"Well, look's like you transfered as well," he started, "where's the rest of your squad?"

It hurt-as it always did-to answer such a question, but as always she swallowed the grief and answered, "Devis and I were in a medical bay when Iron and Amadeus got killed in a gunship crash." She almost spit ''killed. ''The thought of it replaced the thought of missing over the days. She allowed it only to keep her sanity- not give up on the hope that he could be found.

"Oh," he faltered. He stared at his red striped boots. "I'm sorry."

An awkard silence crept up until Hawk said, "Well, since we've all seen it is indeed a small galaxy, may we continue?"

"Yes," Derek said. He pulled out a holo device and placed it on the ground in front of them all. A holo display showing an elevation map appeared in front of them. "Thankfuly, the stone village is not on a mountain but is surrounded by them, according to our intel from our reconnasince teams. The droids are set up from the inside to eleven clicks north.  Because of thier distance and thier numbers, we will be able to place our mortar teams on the ground."

"My plan: all suprresive fire will be done from our AT-ATs and rotary cannon gunners while our mortar teams destroy most of thier infantry and vehicles. We will continue with this barrage until we reach the walls of the village. Staff Sergeants Cold's and Shade's teams are to set up sniping positions along the mountains' sides. They will take out the artillery gunners that are placed on top of the wall. With this, we will be able to lead a forward assault right up to the entrance."

"After we have captured Separtisit leaders and sympathizers, three gunships will be spared from fire base to carry all civilians. Our mission after we take the village is to be able to make sure they are all safely on those LAATs. Any questions?"

"Has recon been able to gather any intelligence on hostile activity inside the village?" One of the squadron leaders asked. "None that they have reported," answered Sentinel. "All they can see  is different rotations in shifts when droids patrol the streets."

"Right now we will get some R&R and refeul our walkers," Derek said. "You all are dismissed. Be ready to move by ten o' hundred hours."

As Bala walked away with her helmet at her side, she saw Vax jog over her to her out of the corner of her eye. "So what's your role now?"

"Petty officer," she replied as the walked together. "TL of squadron 8004."

"Ah. What of Devis?" "He is second command of it."

He nodded. "Why'd you transfer?" She asked. "A few months after y'all left Ferrika, I was promoted to ARC captian and was sent orders to be transfered over to the 75th battalion."

Bala knew at the top of her head that wasn't true-troopers of any rank were only transfer to command larger groups if they were the rank captian.

"Captian, you and I both know that isn't true."

He stopped short and started beyond his boots. He closed his eyes and sighed. "My team was captured by pirates during a firefight. They were all killed-I managed to steal a ship and break loose."

Hurt and loss was detected in his voice, and Bala knew she had hit a very sore part in the man's heart. In her own disgust, the only words she could find to say was, "I'm sorry for your loss. I have to get to my squadron now."

She left the ARC standing there and slid her helmet back on. She walked away with her hands formed into fists.

* * *

3 HOURS LATER

The naval troopers,marines, and clones of the 75th battalion stood waiting with the three AT-AT walkers for orders as the motar teams were setting up at the front. They all stood in a large clearing surrounded by a ring of thick bushes and tree lines.

Bala knew Atton would be up there-hoping he himself would have the guts to direct a group of men into battle. Herself and others only hoped he would be able to lead them the best and most effective way possible.

Bala stood with her helmet resting at her side and rifle strapped to her back with her squad.

"We ready to move?" Bala asked inside thier squad's comm channel.

"Yes, ma'am," Coros replied. She looked at Devis who was sitting and checking the systems in his rotary cannon. She walked over to him. "Working well?" She asked. "Yeah," he replied. He smiled. "Couldn't read the words in the manual very well because of all the red colored stains."

Bala laughed a little at the cruel joke. She then remembered a joke from when her,Devis, Am, and Iron all spoke together. "Just make sure you play the roll of cannon fodder pretty well." He laughed.

Bala walked off and looked up, noticing that the clouds had gathered and darkenend the sky a grey color. She looked around and saw all the Company 9 troopers mixing up and talking with the other battalion. She looked nothwards and saw the droids armies standing and waiting.

She looked beyond them and saw the towering walls of the village and the surrounding mountains. She closed her eyes and felt the cold hair rush at her tightly put up hair. An image flashed before her eyes and saw herself gazing at the wall of the base on Gaftikar during her mercenary days. The lightning clapping the sky and casting everyone's shadows on the wall. The droplets of water dotting thier visor and patting thier armor. The darkness enveloping themselves and the storm into the night.

She opened her eyes and the flash back disappeared and she saw the village's walls again.

Bala heard the tiny beeping on her comlink signaling that a comm channel was trying to link to her. She opened the comm channel and heard Sentinel said, "Lets move out! Mortar and support up at the front, let's move!"

She slid her helmet back on, grabbed her rifle and marched with the others.

The AT-ATs' gears slowly started to turn and shift. The mortar teams carried thier pirmary weapons and had the mortar devices strapped to thier backs. The support teams carried thier rotary cannons. The AT-ATs destroyed the jumbled mess of plants while the squadrons rushed through with thier squad leaders leading.

"Double time, troopers!" Vax yelled. Hundreds of voices spoke over the comms.

"Moving!"

"Contacs comming up two meeters at 2:00."

"Holy shab-deployment tanks!"

"Engaging!"



Blaster fire erupted into the air. Blue and red flashes tore at the  high, green grass. Smoke began to blanket the sky above them. Droids that were torn to scrap metal were instantly replaced by fresh new ones that dropped out of tank like vehicles. They marched toward the clones as they fired thier weapons.

Bala and her squad sprinted off into a haze of blaster fire. Bala's mind worked quickly. "Take a knee,take a knee-STS form,move it!" She ordered.

They all kneeled and fired at the droids while other squadrons did the same.

"Mortar team delta/bravo, this is cold steel, over?"

"Roger, cold steel."

"Target grid alpha six. HE rounds. Three hundred meeters. Target hostile mounts. Fire for effect."

"All AT-AT gunners and  provide supressive fire on sector L-520. Rotary gunners have cover fire on grid Kilo 7."

Out of Bala's peripherial, she saw a hail of circular objects flew high in the air. ''Alright, Atton. Make those chakares burn, ''she thought as she continued to fire in kneel position. The discharging of the AT-ATs' cannons deafened the air and made scraps of metal scatter once the cannon's round impacted the earth.

The HE rounds plummeted to the ground and exploded in a collection of shrapnel. Dirt. Sparks. And chopped grass. Parts of droids flew in all directions. A fire raged across their ranks. Bala could smell the smoke through her filtered helmet.

"Cold steel, confirmed hit, over?"

"10-4, delta/bravo. Fire six rounds."

"Roger, Cold steel. Firing."

Volleys of blaster bolts flashed across each side. Bala,Miller,Anchor, Ryle, and Coros kneeled shoulder to shoulder in the tall grass and fired thier weapons. "Moving up," she told to them.

Bala quickly brought her knee up and sprinted forward. Every thing went in a flash of movement. At first she saw the vehicles and the droids being ripped into scraps and wires and the vehicles replacing the destroyed ones. A flash of light lifted Bala off her feet and made her ears ring. Dirt showered her armor. She landed hard on her back with a hard thud. Her ears rung with pain and her mind swam in a daze. She looked straight into the sky, thoughtless and unmotionless. A blue striped helmet loomed over her.

She felt nothing as she was dragged from some one in the grass. Smoke burned her lungs, preventing her from breathing properly.She saw blue armored bodies dragging her body through the tall gass. To her left she looked at the blue armored body struggeling to pull her into shelter. A red blaster bolt cut through the grass and smashed into the blue striped helmet. The head snapped to the size and collapsed. She tried to say words but couldn't hear herself speak as more blue armored bodeis rushed toward the fallen one. More dirt flew every where. Her visison darkenend and she couldn't breathe at all. This is it, she managed to think. ''I'm dead. I'm sorry, Mom and Dad; I'm not coming home.''

More helmets loomed over herself and saw her own helmet being ripped off and thrown. Bala felt her heart hammer her chest. Her hears continued to ring with enornmous pain. This is it, she thought. She closed her eyes.

She had enough of seeing death. Now, she waited for it to consume herself. ''I'm ready. My brothers went throught it bravely. It's my turn now.''

Suddenly, the ringing stopped. Pain was no longer felt in her ears but in her ribs and spine. Light was seen through her eye lids. She could hear voices. Her lungs still burned but she could breathe. She opened her eyes and gasped. Through her rapid blinks she saw three troopers surrounding crowding around. Black T-visors stared at her. Bala coughed blood and tried to breathe. "She breathed in too much smoke," one of them said, "Some one get me a kriffing oxygen mask ASAP!"

"Hang in there, Petty Officer."

A shower of dirt poured all over them, causing heat to wash over all of thier armor. Her face felt hot and burt. She screamed in pain as she felt an imense ache in her stomach and back. "DOUBLE TIME!" One of them roared. Bala felt some thing rise in her throat. She turned to the side and vomited into the ground. She leaned back, gritting her teeth in agony. One of the troopers fumbeled with an oxygen mask and pressed it into her face.

Bala breathed in fresh air. She gasped and continued to do rapid blinks. "Hunter, can you hear me?" She managed to look at the trooper she coughed a little more blood and nodded in acknowledgement. Tears started to obscure her vison. One of the clones pressed a hand to the side of his helmet. He said, "The last of the deployment tanks are down. We're moving up. Major has ordered all wounded to be back here." He walked away from the small crowd.

Bala finaly managed to find her voice. "Who-who was... shot?" Both of the clones tilted their  helmets to the ground. "It was Ryle, Ma'am," one of them said. "One of the squadrons from Thrasher assisted us while we pulled you out of that hell hole. We had to leave him there..." He trailed off. He started to continue, but Bala coughed and said, "That will be all. Get back... ugh, to the front..." "With all due respect, you are in no condition to be giving orders." The trooper looked up to the other beside him. "I'll look after her, Anchor. Go." Anchor got up and jogged away. Bala coughed, feeling pain around her stomach and back. Inside though, she felt emptiness and... Self  reppulsion.

She made a vow to never let another clone die for her, no matter what happened. Thousands of them die every day for a democracy of a people that rarely even know of the war. It made Bala sick and she thought about it ever since...

''Alatam.... Coroke.''

She closed her and eyes and leaned her neck back to where her head faced the darkenned sky. She saw herself running through a forested area covered and iced with snow. She stared directly at a Reublic class shuttle. Blaster fire rang through out the area. Red bolts flashed and ran past her. Her Republic Commando gear crunched the snow beneath her feet. She felt a hard shove from behind her and she found herself on her stomach on the ground. Her mind instantly was put into a daze. A black and white armored body grabbed her and raised her t her feet. She looked behind her and saw an armored body laying on the ground being crushed from a fallen tree.

The vision shifted and she saw herself surrounded by foot deep water, white armored bodies floating at the surface. Trees rose from the bottom of the pond and loomed over them all. Blaster bolts splashed at the water and washed over Bala and the ones she stood shoulder to shoulder with as droids started to march toward them. She fired her rifle at them, every inch of her body exhausted. All of a sudden, a flash of movement, a red beam of light raced toward her. A white blur flashed before her eyes and landed in the water, motionless.

She opened her eyes and gasped. She wheezed and coughed. Pain ached through out her stomach. The clone in front of her brought out a vial filled with a blue colored liquid. " Here's some bacta." The clone said. He bruoght the vial up to Bala's neck and injected it into her neck. A strong pinch was felt below her chin. Suddenly every thing darkenend and soon a black space was all she saw through her vision.

BLOOD ON THE  STREETS-DAY 6 OF SARISH CAMPAIGN
HIGH NARLS CITY VILLAGE

FORWARD OPERATING OUTPOST FIRE ALPHA 3

MEDICAL TENT

Voices awoke Bala as she gradualy regained concisousness. Lights filtered through her eye lids. She pryed them open and was blinded by a shining light. She squinted and rubbed her eyes with her hand. Her eyes adapted to the new light and she looked around herself. She looked to her left and saw a clone resting with his eyes closen in the bed. She looked down and saw the brown earth the other beds were resting on. She then saw the leathery texture of a huge tarp serving as a enoromous tent.'' Stang. Shabla medical tent, of course, ''she thought bitterly.

A clone in red ARC armor walked over to her. "About kriffing time," he said with his helmet at his side, "Took you a day to wake up, Petty Officer."

"Vax..." She murmured tiredly. "Why are you here?"

"Cause I was one of the ones who had to pull your shebs through that mess."

"Ah...how's my squad?"

"Thier with one of the recon units on a patrol around the village. Speeking of which," he started to grab some thing but hesitated. "Can grab and hold things?" He asked. Bala looked at him with exasperation written on her face. "Yes." He handed her a data pad with an article typed on it. Lance ' 'Corporal Arran "Starglide" is to report at Outpost Fire Alpha 3 for tranfer to Squadron 8004 due to casulty Seaman Ryle. ''"You've got be kidding me," she said. "They couldn't have found a transfer that quick." "You'd be surprised," Vax muttered. '''A beeping sound came from Vax's wrist. He brought it up to mis mouth and said, "Yes?" "Captian Leo and Major Derek wants all officers at the command tent," a clone's voice said. "On my way," Vax replied.

He nodded at her and walked away, leaving Bala alone to think about the new trooper in her squadron. The wieght of the death of Ryle crushed her again. She pictured him dragging her through the tall grass, his head snapping to the side and his entire body go limp. She opened her eyes again and looked back up at the light that filtered through the tarp. ''A lfie for a life. Clones do it for each other and the A Republic every day, only that its a life for lives. This is exactly what you resolved let happen again. It was going to be your life, not theirs. You're going to have to face your squad-get it over with. ''She pushed herself upwards and felt and immediate wash of pain along her stomach and back. She gritted her teeth and layed herself back down. ''The momment you can get your carcass out of bed. ''She closed her eyes once more and rested.

5 HOURS LATER

1800 HOURS

UAF NAVAL AND MARINE HEADQUARTER TENTS

Bala stood alone in her white ceromonial fatigues. Clones stalked around the circle of tents while she stared at the ground in thought. In front was her squadron's tent. She could hear a muffled conversation through the tarp. She felt warm, since she had bandages around the perimeter of the central of her stomach. But she sweated because of she was nervous.

''What will I say? ''She wondered. She sighed,lifted the tent's flaps, and entered. A table was positioned in the center of the tent with chairs surrounding it. Coros, Miller, Anchor, Atton, Darkbolt, and Devis sitting at each in their fatigues. The conversation arupbtly stopped and all eyes were laid upon her. "Petty Officer," Miller greeted and stood up. The rest did the same and saluted. Inside Bala felt a wave of relief wash over her. She saluted them back and said, "At ease." They all sat back down, leaving her a chair at the front of the table. "Have y'all met the new member yet?" She asked once she got to her seat. "No, Ma'am," Anchor replied. "But he is going to be here in about five minutes."

"Alright."

She sat and pulled herself up to the table. An awkward silence fell over them. "Which branch did he come from?" Bala asked, finaly finding a conversational topic. "He came from the one of the marine platoons up in the high mountians near Fire Base." She frowned. From what she had heard, most expierenced troopers went to the marines and were transfered only if....

''Firefek, the poor lad's squad must've been killed. ''

Bala looked up as some one lifted the flap of the tent. A clone in the yellow marine officer gear went through with a young man with blonde cropped hair. The clone had a small scar right next to his nose and had the basic clone haircut. The man wore the marine ceromoial fatigues and had a thin,

white face. His eyes were a sharp brown. He stood still and stared at the other end of the tent. They all rose out of thier seats and stood straight at attention. "Lieutenant Slammer, sir." Bala said.

"Hello, Petty Officer. At ease." They all sat back down. The man still stood motionless. "This is Lance Corporal Arran Starglide," Slammer explained, "his squad was killed after an ambush near Fire Base." Knew it, Bala thought. "Thank you,sir, for bringing our new member here,"  said Devis. "No problem." Slammer looked at Arran, who still stood motionless and staring at the end of the tent. "Semper Fi, brother. See you on the other side." Arran pivoted to his right to wear he faced him. He saluted and said, "Semper Fi." Slammer did the same and walked out of the tent.

''Discplined. That's great but all of them possess it, and I surely don't need a heartless robot. ''

Arran released the tension in his shoulders and turned to face them. "I apologize for the incorrect uniform-they never gave me the correct fatigues after receiving my transfer orders." "Aw, don't worry about that shab. Just as long as you're here, ner vod, we don't care," Devis said. Bala made a small,small smile. ''Thanks, Devis. ''

Darkbolt got up to get another chair and said, "Here, take a seat." He dragged it over next to is own seat. "Thank you." He sat himself down and looked Bala. She analyzed him with her eyes. ''Obviously human, so there's one topic. Stang, he looks like he's only fiffteen. Go back to that later and introduce him to everyone.''

"Hello, Arran. Welcome to the Naval Squadron 8004," she started off with a casual tone. "Im Petty Officer Hunter and to my left is Petty Ofiicer Devis, Seamen Anchor, Atton, Darkbolt, Miller, and Coros." "Hello," he greeted. "Hey," Coros said, "What's does 'Semper Fi' mean?" "Means 'always loyal and always faithful', Coros."

"So Arran," Atton said, "where'd, you come from?" "I was from Derlona," Arran explained, "the UAF was stationed there because of a Separtist attack on my hometown. They started to recruit civvies and I ended up enlisting a year ago."

"How old are you?" Bala suddenly asked. "Sixteen, sir. I know, I'm too young, but I had nothing on that rock-no family, no home, not even friends. I'd probably be dead by starvation now if the General wasn't that generous."

Bala nodded and settled back into her chair. A beeping came from her holo messager. She grabbed it from  he belt and held it out in front of her. General Vasco appeared in uniform. "Hello,sir," she said. "Evening, Hunter. You and Devis are needed at the commad tent." "On our way,General." She turned the holo display off and nodded at the others. "Be in your tents in two hours." "Yes, Ma'am."

Devis followed Bala out of the tent. Troopers from Thrasher and the marine/naval company were all talking and mixing up. After walking for a good five minutes, Devis said, "You think he'll be able to handle this?"

"Who?"

"Arran."

"What do you mean?"

"The kid has experienced a civilian attack during his teen years as only a civvie. He saw men,women,and children all get injured and die. What do you think he is going to see here?"

She stopped in her tracks. "You're right. Shab, I never thought about that."

Devis stopped ahead of her and turned to face her. "Again, you think he'll be able to handle this?"

She shook her head. "It's too late now. We'll have to comfort  him to the best we can if he starts to act up." Devis nodded and they continued to walk.

"How were they after I was hit?" Bala asked.

"Obviously they took it hard. Miller and Darkbolt retrieved the body and buried it a mile from the outpost."

Bala went silent. They finaly arrived to the entrance of the command tent. She lifted the flap of the tent and entered where she met the general, Major Derek, Captian Leo, Vax, Sentinel, Hawk, and other squadron leaders all packed together. They both stood at attention. "At ease," Vasco said.

Bala slackened her back. "I believe that's everyone," Leo said. "Yes."

"Listen up,"  Vasco announced. "Buckets off." All the clones who did have thier helmets on removed them. "As most of you know, there's been disturbances in the lower streets of the city. We've already had to execute two terrorists today and it's not getting us any closer to the innocent civvies. Because of this, I'm having to put up patrols 24/7 untill all of them are safe at Fire Base. Shifts will occur every six hours and there will be three squadrons for each patrol."

"I want all officers to alert platoons and hand out these schedule sheets." Vasco pulled out a hanful of papers and handed it to the officers. "All squadron leaders you will also be taking these. Squadrons 8004, 7395, and 1112 will be taking the next shift. Understood?"

"Yes, sir!" They all said. Bala took the shedule sheet from Vasco and headed out of the tent with Devis. "Looks like I missed more than I thought. Got any scoop on the terrorists?" Bala asked.

"Not much. All I know is that the terrorist group is called The Firebirds. Just a bunch of juveniles, ages range from twelve to seventeen. The youngest reported to be killed during an ambush was ten."

"How many attacks have there been since we drove the droids out?"

"About five."

"Executions?"

"Eight so far. Most being Separtist sympathizers resisting arrest."

ONE HOUR LATER

HIGH NARLS CITY VILLAGE

BRAVO SECTOR

The night was starting to settle over the city. The boots of Squadron 8004 raked at the grass beneath them. The stone houses loomed over them. Blaster bolts scorched the walls of some of the houses. Boxes and garbage lined the streets. Not a soul without a weapon walked in the city.

Bala lead the way as the rest of the squad trailed behind her in single file along a narrow road.

"Can't stand doing patrols," Anchor complained. "These civvies already have weapons, therefore they are protected, hence there's no reason for us to be here."

"Want to get a hole in your head while sleeping?" Devis asked.

"No, Petty Officer."

"Then shabla lock it up and keep marching."

"Where are they anyway?" Atton asked.

"They've seen what we have done to thier neighbors," Arran said, "they have every reason to be cautious of us as we are of them."

Bala listenend to the conversation in silence. She didn't tell them to be quiet because she knew good and well that they needed to talk. ''Still. They need to be focused. ''

They rounded a corner and saw a family of three walking: a man and women that appeared to be in their early forty's and a boy  that stood up to their waist. "Civilians eleven'o clock," Bala said. " They don't look suspicous. Guard the street while I check thier ID." "Aye."

The formation faltered as Bala walked toward the family with her rifle. She strapped it to her back, slid her helmet off and held it by her side. The family froze in terror like prey meeting its predator. The woman held the child close to her while the man walked slowly toward her. He held a straight face but his eyes looked at everything but Bala. ''Firefek, we must of scared the shab out of these people. ''

"There-there- some thing you need, Trooper?" He asked in a nervous voice. "I'm Petty Officer Hunter of the Republic's UAF. I only need a valid ID from all of your family and my squad and I will continue our patrol." The man nodded and lead her to his family. The man and woman brought out both ID cards and handed them over. She brought out her holo scanner where a blue light shone ove both of the cards. She gave the holocards back and said, "I just need to scan your son's face and I'll be done." "Why our son?" The woman asked in a trembled tone.

"Ma'am, with all due respect, there have been multiple reports of children whose ages range from twelve to seventeen that have been attacking and killing our patrols. I have been given orders to scan children's faces to make sure   they are not aquainted with these juveniles. If it is confirmed that he isn't, we will not bother your family no more, however otherwise, he will be taken into custody and questioned." The man and woman looked at each other in question. The man looked at Bala and nodded in compliance.

Bala bent down to wear she was at eye level with the boy. He looked at her in both admiration and nervousness. "Hello, Adik'a," Bala said to him. "What does that mean?" He asked looking innocent. "Means 'little one' in Mandalorian. Now, I want-" "But I'm not litte!" The boy cried in defiance.

"Hmph. Fine, what's your name?" The kid started to say but faltered and stared at the ground. Oh, shab no, Bala thought. "He is Ge'hal," the man answered quickly. Bala nodded, got her scanner out ad scanned the boys face. Once the blue light finished she got back up and asked, "When are you scheduled for departure to Fire Base?"

"Tommorow," the man answered solidly. "If your son prooves to be in leauge with these juveniles," Bala told him, "I'm afraid he will be having to stay here while you and your wife head on to one of the gunships. Now, thank you for your time." She got up and left to join her squad.

She unshouldered her rifle and slid her helmet back on. She found the rest of the squad lining shoulder to shoulder across the road. "And then..." She started to hear over the comm. "Civvies are clear," she interrupted, "Get back in column formaton." "Yes, Ma'am," Miller replied.

"How did they check out?" Devis asked. Bala sighed. "The couple looked fine. But the boy...I don't know, he was either wanting to play stubborn or he was purposely not wanting to state his name. Stand by while I send the intel to the general on my HUD." "Copy." As Bala started to download the data into her helmet, she felt like she back in her Republic Commanado gear, in a bubble of self privacy. After a few minutes of silence, Coros said, "Suspicous activity on our six." "What is it?" Devis asked. "Fast footsteps and shadows." "Atton, Arran, and Coros  check it out. Rest have the area secured," Bala ordered.

Without a word every one got into positions. "I got foot prints," Arran announced. "How big?" Miller asked. "Uh, hard to tell. It's fresh but the ground wasn't great for an imprint. I'd say at least  eight inches."

"Aye."

"There's  nothing here," Atton said. "Same," Said Darkbolt. Bala looked ahead of the road they were traveling on. It swerved to the left and then to the right where it went even narrower. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a few eyes peek through the windows. "We're not alone," she said. "Civvies are peaking through the windows." Suddenly the discharging of a blaster filled the air. "Gah!" Anchor yelled. "Thier ambushing us!"

Bala quickly turned herself around and went in a dead sprint. Darkbolt, Miller, and Devis follwed her. "Where are you?!" Devis yelled over the blaster fire. "Allyway on the left side!" Atton replied.

"Get down!" Coros screamed. A boom filtered through the comms and shook the ground.

"Anchor!" Arran screamed. Bala's heart beat quickened as she slowly started to panic. Part of her squad was being ambushed under heavy fire and herself and the others couldn't find them. A blaster bolt whizzed out from an allyway on thier left. They all ran up to the wall and stood there. "We're hugging at the wall near your position," she told them. "On my mark," Bala told  Darkbolt, Devis, and Miller. "Mark!" Bala dashed out of cover and fired her rifle while the three of them rounded the cover toward the others. She managed to get a quick glance of the situation: Coros sat behind a crate with Anchor hunched over behind a stone wall. Arran was kneeling behind crates and firing his own rifle.

Bala then found herself on the other side of the entrance of allyway. "I count seven tangos," Devis said. "Hunter, are you alerting the other squadrons?" "Trying!" She told him. Bala frantically searched for the comm channels. She found the legion one and switched to it. "Meday, meday! This is Squadron 8004. We have been ambushed by a group of hostiles in bravo sector! Requesting immediate assistance from all surrounding squadrons."

"This is Squadron 1112," Hawk's voice said, "what's your location, Hunter?" "Ally-" she was cut off short from another explosion. She gasped and looked from around the corner. Dust blanketed the entire allyway and stone from the houses started to tumble. People from the damaged house collapsed out of the door and ran screaming in terror and confusion. "Firefek," Hawk cursed. "I'll trace your coordinates on my HUD. RV in five minutes. Hawk out."

Bala quickly switched back channels. "AAAAAAAAAAGGGGH!" She heard Coros scream in pain. "Fall back!" She barked. "Protect the civvies if they leave the houses! Covering!" Bala stood at the entrance and emtpied the entire clip in her rifle. Atton slugged Coros on to his shoudler while Devis covered his back and the others sprinted out of the allyway. Devis soon trailed after them. "Where's help?" He asked tiredly. "Hawk is coming with the rest of his squadron. Thier ETA is in four minutes," she told him while reloading more ammo into her rilfe. "Get Coros and Anchor into shelter and treat them there. Everyone  else get behind cover. I need two of y'all to make sure no of the civvies get out of their homes," she ordered.

The night soon started to get darker as the it settled deeper into the night. Bala got behind a crate and prepared herself. Suddenly two figures stumbeled out of the allyway. "Stun them!" She barked. Devis fired two,blue halos at the two figures. They fell instantly. More barrel roled out and fired live rounds at them. Bala ducked down and got back and fired her rifle. Please don't let these be kids, she thought wearly. A beeping sound came over one of the comm channels. ''Hawk. ''"I want heavy fire on those tangos!" She ordered as she quickly switched channels. "Hunter, we have snipers that have confirmed visual on the firefight. Their having to use heat signatures and can't tell which from which. Order your squad to get their heads down." "10-4," Bala replied. "Hawk out."

She then switched channels. "Squad, get your heads down behind cover. ''NOW." ''She ordered in an emphathized tone. "Yes, sir." Bala did the same and waited. All of sudden, blue flashes of light flew through the dark on to the attackers. Cries of pain and surprise echoed in the night. She looked from beyond the rest of her squad and suddenly saw a head peep through one of the doors of the houses. "Civvie out! Get her back inside!" She yelled. One of them saw the civilian and turned around, still in cover. The head vanished inside and the door slammed closed. Suddenly the village went dead silent. She switched comm channels. "Clear to move?" She asked. "Affirmative," Hawk replied, "we're on your six."

"Roger. Getting squad to change channels now," Bala told him. She switched over and said, "Switched to legion channel." This is annoying, she thought, ''can't stand switching channel-to-channel. ''New voices spoke over the channel. "Better be thanking Cold and Shade for that, Hawk told her. "Yeah," she replied. She stood up and looked at the horde of bodies. "Osik," she said aloud, "I'm not going to be sleeping tonight if I see kids' faces."  "Same," Arran murmured.

A pool of blood was collecting on the side of street and started to filter through a gutter. . Bodes were clothed in black and wore strange helmets with different markings. Suddenly she saw movement. "Stung targets are waking up," she announced. Out of her peripheral vision she saw boots to her left and right. She turned off her comm to where she could be heard through her filterd helmet. A helmet lifted itself up. "Stand down," she barked, "take off your helmet." The attacker weakly-and slowly-pulled itself up and slid their helmet off. A shabby mess of red hair tumbled out. A hard, scarred face revealed itself. The boy narrowed his eyes up at her in silent defiance. "How old are you?" Hawk asked beside her. "Younger then your droid-loving mother," the boy scoffed. Hawk kneeled down and took off his desert cammo helmet. He glared at him with acid in his eyes. "Us clones don't have mothers, you little di'kut. Now answer the shabla question before I decide you're not too young to be executed," he snarled. The boy lifted his chin up, still in defiance. "Fine. The hardway it is," Hawk said immpatiently. He grabbed the boy's shoulder, forced him up and shoved him forward and lead him away from the scene.

Bala turned the comm back on. "I'm not going to have a fun time with this little chakare," Hawk muttered. "Just think," one of the marines said, "one day you'll get to train cadets back on Kamino."

"Hmph."

Bala looked at the other body. It twitch and went still. "Other target isn't waking up. Get a stretcher out," she ordered. "How is Anchor and Coros?"

"Three of us we're hit, Ma'am," Darkbolt replied, "Arran was hit in the leg with a minor injury. Coros was near one of the grenades that had gone off and is slowly recovering. Anchor, though... He was hit next to the heart and is being healed with a bacta patch. He-"

"Just do whatever to get him up and healthy," she cut him off. "Understood, Petty Officer."

She walked over to one of the marines that were kneeling next to the bodies. She strapped her rifle to her back and kneeled down beside him. "How old is he?" She asked, looking at the boy's face. "This one's thirteen. The others are around eighteen and nineteen," he replied. "I'm Corporal Gian, by the way," he told her. "Petty Officer Hunter," she said.

She got up and walked away. She removed her helmet and held it by her side. Some night, she thought. She stopped, brought her wrist up and tapped in the number of her squad's comm channel. "Yes?" Darkbolt's voice said. "Get Coros and Anchor onto a stretcher. We need to be getting out of here to change shifts."

"Yes, Ma'am."

Devis walked over to her with his helmet at his side and having his DC-15 hanging beside him. "What's Anchor's condition?" He asked.

"He's critically injured with a chest wound," she replied tiredly. He sighed. "Let's hope he'll make it through the night."

The marine squadron came over to them. "Command is waiting for us to head out and change shifts," Gian told her.

"Our medics are getting our wounded on stretchers," she said. "You all go ahead and get out of here, we won't be far behind." Gian nodded and beckoned the others to move. Bala watched as the marine squadron walked away into the distance. She then looked and saw Miller and Darkbolt come walking out of one of the houses with Coros on a padded stretcher. Arran and Atton came trailing behind with Anchor. Devis slid his helmet back on and walked over to them with his other hand resting under the barrel of his DC-15. Bala did the same and unshouldered her rifle with the slung dangling loose.

The familar static popped into her ear after putting her helmet back on. "How's your leg holding up, Arran?" Bala asked. "I'll be fine, Ma'am," he asked in an exhausted tone.

"This better have been worth it," Atton muttered. "I hate having to use civilian streets as battlefields."

"Same," Agreed Miller. They all walked back toward the camp as the night settled into its darkest hour.

RAGE OVER THE MOUNTAINS-DAY 11 OF SARISH CAMPAIGN
1rst  UAF MARINE RECON PLATOON

ARF TROOPER 4582 LANCE CORPORAL RIPPER

SNOWY HIGHLANDS OF SARISH

The clouds prevented the sun's rays to reach the surface at the arctic part of Sarish. The mountains reached high into the atmostphere and was pelted by snow. The snow continued to fall while the UAF's First Marine Reconnaissance Squadron unloaded supplies off of the gunships.

"Hurry up!" Staff Sergeant Shade barked. "Company Nine and Thrasher need intel on these mountains."

"Yes,sir," Lance Corporal Ripper replied. Firefek, I hate snow, he thought as he struggled to lift one of the crates while two layers of cloth strained his muscles beneath his armor plates. One of his team members, Trinto, helped him with the heavy crate. They carried it over to the group of clones who were taking the supplies out and creating their operating camp.

Ripper figured Trinto heard him breathing hard when he said, "Old joints bringin' ya' down, Brother?" It was a joke, he knew, based on his five years of service in the Republic's Advanced Recon Force, or "ARF". Even before the war, he remembered training the young cadets that were heading into the GAR. "Just shut up and put the kriffing crate down," Ripper told him. They took one more step, bent down and dropped the crate on the ground. He looked up into the sky. Llittle white flakes dotted his visor. "It's never gonna clear up, Ripper." Trinto said.

"I know," he replied, "But I'd rather wear our marine gear  then wear this humid, blasted stang."

"Yeah," Trinto replied. Ripper looked back at the crate. "Let's get this unloaded," he said. Ripper started to slide the lid off when Staff Sergeant Cold's voice said, "Alpha team, come to the gunships with Bravo."

"On our way," Ripper replied. Trinto and Ripper left the crate and strode over to the three LAATs with  the rest of the team coming up behind. The staff sergeant stood waiting inside one of the compartments. He beckoned them inside side and they all piled in: Ripper, Trinto, Teck, Shade, and Kad, all clambering inside with Bravo: Cold, Keyes, Shock, Zapper, and Vincent. "Alright, we're all here," Cold said.

"We have sent drones out seven clicks norh, west, and east," Cold began. "To the west there is a valley that seems to go on well over two miles and leads to two rivers. To the north the hills start to form and lead us up mountains. Then the east is walled by hight elevated mountain tops."

"It's the valley then," Shade said, "it's the best route to take for the companies."

"Yes," Cold replied, "but some of the drone feed has picked up lifeforms and some traces of droids along the valley. So first we need to investigate for any hostile activity. My team will head along the ridges while Bravo takes a gunship to the mountains in the north. Delta and Echo will stay here to make the camp."

"Solid copy,"  Teck said.

Alpha Team walked out of the compartment toward the other gunship. They all climbed in, looked up into the weapons holder, and started to take their weapons out. As he started to check the systems in his secondary sniper rifle, Ripper recalled that night in which he and his team were tasked with taking  out a group of attackers that had ambushed a patrol. He remembered seeing the small bodies go limp as blaster bolts went through their heads. Stop it, he thought. ''It was either them or your brothers. ''

Onced he finished checking the underside of his sniper rile, he strapped it to his back and held his rifle. "Let's hope this won't be like the last recon invesigation we did," Shade muttered.

"Ha, I remember," Trinto laughed, "we went up into that cave on Rendar IV and got carried away by those huge bugs."

The LAAT's engines started at a low hum and was  gradually built into a roar. The snow flew sideways from the air wash as the gunship lifted off the ground. It went higher until the teams making the camp below looked smaller. The compartment doors slid opened and the LAAT jutted itself forward. "Ya'll alright back there?" The pilot asked from the pilot seat. "We're fine!" Teck answered for everyone.

"I got the drone feed on the mountains posted on my HUD," Shade told them. "I'll let you know on any scoop I get."

"Aye," Kad replied.

Ripper looked at all of his team. Teck and Shade were former infantry marines until Major Derek formed the recon force. Trinto was transfered to the marines from the navy. Ripper himself was former a clone DI for the ARF. After a few years he had orders to go to the UAF as part of its new recon division. All of them were veterans, except Kad.

Kad was quiet and hardly ever spoke. When he took his helmet off the words Sa kryam trau sym kad, Vode an was revealed and tattooed on the side of his head. In Basic it translated, "Forged like the sabers of death, Brothers all." Besides that and the few things about himself, he never said alot. After a few months Ripper tried looking up his service records in the data bases. He ended up finding it guarded by the board of the Republic Special Operations community. After encrypting through it all he found training records stating "unfortunate accidents." He later found a file with articles explaining the many deaths of his Republic Commando training batch. That's when he stumbled over his medical records which stated stated "post traumatic brain disorder" and "speech disability" when in reality it was traumatic disorder.

Kad had failed his RC training and was forced to go into the ARF. He was then transfered over to the UAF.

Ripper had showed it to everyone except Kad. They then knew the drill: no sweet talk or sympathized looks, just act normal. It saved the drama and let everyone resume normal activites. Besides, Kad hardly spoke but he talked when he needed to.

"Five mikes to LZ," the pilot announced.

"Roger."

"No activity so far," Shade told them, "but there's signs of wildlife stalking around. Hopfully this stupid blasted drone will actually take the hints and try to find them."

"This stang is making me hot," Teck compained. "Hotter then the bantha hides on Tatooine."

"Same," Ripper said.

The wind continue to shriek against the gunship's wings. Little white flakes filtered through the gaps in the compartment's doors as the minutes were drawn by. The LAAT engine's roaring started to die down. "Lowering down to landing zone," the pilot told them. "Have fun, marines."

The gunship's engine was soon made into a dull hum once it landed firmly on the ground. The wind whistled above it. "HUD feed turned off," Shade said. "We're on our own now, Alpha."

The hatches hissed open. "Hoo rah!" They all barked as they jumped out of the gunship. Ripper raised his rifle and walked around the perimeter of the gunship's landing area. The LAAT's engine soon started roar again above the winds. The gunship came back to life and lifted itself off the snowy ground. It then flew away off into the skies.

"Area clear," Trinto called. Ripper lowered his rifle back down and looked up. A hool caved up to a mountain that prevented anythting that was beyond itself to be seen. The team was surrounded by forest trees that were being topped with icy pelts of snow. "It's going to take us around three days to get this landspape checked out," Shade said, "so lets look for a cave first before we start our mission."

"Staff, I already see a big opening at the mountain's front from here," Kad said. Shade looked to where Kad had seen it.

"Aye, I see it. Let's move, Alpha."

* * *

FOUR HOURS LATER

8 CLICKS AWAY FROM OPERATION CAMP

1 CLICK AWAY FROM CAVE

The snow had picked up while the   marine reconnaissince team trudged through the packed layers of snow. At this point, Ripper regreted every statement he said about the uncomfortable settings to the UAF marine's arctic gear. The cold had started to seep through the armor plates and had reached his undersuit, soaking it with cold water. He could feel almost all of the hair on his body prick up and his nerves sting. But the cloth underneath still kept him at settling body temperature.

But his warmth was now beginning to be the least of his worries.

The snowy weather had turned into a windy storm, making the white flakes go side ways and hit the ground faster in heaps. Ripper could now barely see his team in front of him. Shade must've been dealing with the same problem when he said, "Stang! I should've known this krffing storm would have made not see a blasted thing! Kad, we're heading back to the cave. Send the coordinates to our HUDs."

"Yes, sir."

"Ripper, you're taking point."

"Aye, Staff."

Ripper turned around and resumed trudging through the mounds of ice and sleet. The snow was beggining to become larger and made thud noises onto his armor. It soon started to enter the gaps in his armor plating. He grimaced as some of the sleet started to soak is undersuit. After I get off this planet, I better be getting a kriffing promotion and raise, Ripper thought. ''Firefek, you idiot, you don't get paid. Your payment is another day alive in the barracks. ''He tore away from his thoughts and focused on ignoring the searing cold that was tearing its way through his undersuit.

Suddenly some thing caught his eye on his HUD. Ripper instantly transfered his eyes to his map sonar that beeped-alerting him there was some thing breathing and alive near him and his team. He held up a formed fist. "Hold," he said, "I've got a reading."

"10-4, I see it too,"  Shade said. "Everyon-"

He started to bark an order when a suddenly tremor was felt underneath their boots. The ground shook and threatened to throw them off their feet. Then, through the dense storm of hail, a huge dark figure imerged from under the earth tweny feet away from them. It stood up on its hind legs and lobbed forward to them in an awkward stance. "Look's humanoid," Ripper told them. "S-T-S double time," Shade barked. "Have your rifles ready."

Ripper raised his rifle and had it trained on the dark figure while everyone else jogged to where they were shouldered on Ripper's left and right. The figure now staggered but started to walk normally. All of a sudden it started to go into a sprint. Ripper then got a better look at the creature. It's mouth was wide with long fangs protruded from its upper and lower jaws. White fur covered all of its body. Its long arms were raised. Its large hands were lined with claws. It roared and continued to charge.

"Hostile-fire!" Shade barked. The others obeyed and fired their rifles. The blaster bolts whizzed through the storm and impacted the creature. It did nothing and it continued to charge. None of them had time to react once the creature reached them. "Get 'em!" Trinto yelled. Ripper stood in shock as Trinto, Shade, and Teck all tackled the creature. Ripper shook himself out of his daze, raised his rifle and fired.

It roared in fury, raised itself and flung all of three men away. The creature lunged at Ripper. Bones cracked and Ripper cried in pain. The creature then went for his arm and stabbed his fangs into his biceps. The pain overwhelmed him and his vision turned red and his ears rung. His nerves went numb as the creature threw him five feet away. Ripper heard sickening ''crack. ''He suddenly couldn't feel his neck and his head went limp. He then felt nothing from the back of his neck and down his spine. His heart stopped...... He couldn't breathe..... He felt nothing.

He was dead.

* * *

The four clones  surrounded the limp body in the cave where they had to live. Their faces were stone hard as they mourned silenty over the loss of their teamate. Kad had his helmet by his side as he prayed, "Nu kradyk  shi tabb escla' jalla." ''Not gone;merely marching away. ''

GUNSHIP CIRCLE

FIRE BASE

BATTLE OF UMBARA
REPUBLIC CRUISER THE GLADIATOR

SEVENTEEN HOURS AWAY FROM THE PLANET UMBARA

HYPERSPACE FIVE MONTHS AFTER SARISH

Bala sat alone in the barracks at the side of her bed in her officer cabin. After three campaigns she had been promoted to lieutenant. She had lost Miller and Darkbolt in a firefight and the squad had broken up with Arran, Atton, and Coros being transfered to the marines. Devis had been transfered over as a staff sergeant. Bala was now alone as second commd of the legion's navy branch.

She had been staring at her data pad for hours now. The article was an obituary stating the deaths of her partents.

Her parents were bounty hunters, and for her entire life she would either not see her parents for two rotations or see them for that long. The most she saw of them was when she had to train with her father for mercenary work. The last was her graduation from boot camp.

She read the article again: ''Mister and Misses Hunter were both killed by the world-wide sickness all Concordans have been suffering from. Their only daughter, Lieutenant Bala Hunter of the Grand Army of the Republic, is said to be killed in action. The Hunter family recieves all of our condolences.''

I'm dead to the rest of my surviving family, Bala thought for the hundreth time. She knew the board of special operations would do any thing possible to keep her a secret from the civilian world. But to tell everyone that she was killed....

There was a knock at the blast shield door. She cleared her throat, looked at the door and said, "Come in,"

The door hissed open and Devis appeared in the door way in marine fatigues. His eyes were set in a cold stare. "The briefing is about to start."

Bala nodded, keeping her compsure. "I'll be there in a minute," she said as the turned back to her data pad. "Hunter, you've been holed your room ever since Coros gave you that data pad. What's wrong?"

Bala got up and handed him the data pad. He looked over it and sighed deeply. He looked up. Bala knew he wasn't supposed console her and make her feel better. "I'm sorry for your lost," he said carfully. "I'll wait with the others at the briefing room." He walked out of the room with the door sliding closed behind him. Bala got dressed into her naval fatigues and walked out of her cabin and down the hallway to the briefing room. She blast doors hissed open and she walked through. The legion sat on the benches in their fatigues.

All of her platoon in the naval section stood up at attention. Bala did a pivot to the left and saluted them all. "At ease!" She barked. They all seated themselves back on the benches. Bala walked over to the line of officers that had lined themselves side by side General Vasco. She stood solidly with her hands folded by her back.