"Issue the orders Sir, and I will storm Hell."

-Major General Anthony Wayne

Prologue
Lawquane's Farmstead
Saleucami, 21 BBY
0244

Cut Lawquane pulled with his all his might, to no avail. His hands had been awkwardly stun cuffed to the durasteel sink pipe and he was sitting uncomfortably on the floor of the kitchen. His whole body ached, his head pounded, but his thoughts were clear, he had to save his family. Not fifteen minutes ago they had all been sound asleep. The attack had happened so fast. Shaeeah's scream from the children's room woke Suu and himself. He had jumped out of bed in the pitch dark, only to be met with the butt of a rifle slamming into his nose, smashing it instantly. As he keeled over, Cut heard Suu scream only for it to be cut short as her lithe body hit floor with a small thump. A second blow from the rifle butt drove itself into his stomach and he fell to his hands and knees, he searched frantically for a weapon of some sort but couldn't find a thing without light. This time his attacker landed a crushing kick to Cut's side, the armored boot knocked the air out of him and he was rolled over from the force of the blow. He felt a gloved hand grab his collar and Cut realized he was being pulled out of the bedroom. It sounded like the same was happening to Suu. Seeing his chance, Cut sent some quick punches up at his foe, but his aim was off due to the disorientation and pain from the man's initial strikes. The man simply shrugged off Cut's fists. When they got the top of the stairs, Cut was hoisted up and tossed down. Halfway through the tumble, Cut's head struck the wall and he blacked out. Shortly afterwards, he regained his consciousness and found himself in his current predicament. Suddenly, the lights switched back on.

"Hello, CT-7331."

A grey-armored figure strode through the threshold of the kitchen and approached him. Cut recognized the voice, his own voice. It was a clone who had attacked him! It must have a whole team if they had gotten himself, Suu, and kids simultaneously.

"Too formal, Cut? Or would you prefer Mr. Lawquane? I am saddened to say that I can no longer call you brother, a byproduct of your... desertion. Well, that's what the Intelligence report labeled it. I, however, think betrayal is a better fitting term. Yes, betrayal, laced with cowardice of course. Oh, and just as side note, 'Lawquane?' Based on your service record I would never have thought that you would be one to take your wife's surname."

"I... We were just numbers. Listen, where is my-"

"On the contrary, it says here that your unit served with distinction, all of you, at least until your incident here on Saleucami."

"Don't you dare talk about them you... hit man!" The loss of his squadmates still had a bit of a hold over Cut. He wondered how the Republic had located him. Cut was sure that Rex would never have given him up.

"Says the traitor, says the man who ran from the sole purpose he was bred for; war! We're clones Cut, you and me, my team, your old squad. We were made to serve the Galactic Republic, to follow orders. None us would exist if it wasn't for the Republic!"

"It was hardly an existence! And we were fighting for what, exactly? Did we ever really know? We died in droves, all in the name of orders. Where the hell is my family?"

The grey-armored clone pulled up a chair and removed his helmet as he reclined back.

"Orders are orders, Cut. It's not our place to question them. How did you become so lost trooper?"

"I'm not answering another damn thing unless you tell-"

"They're outside with the rest of my team, Cut."

"If you hurt them so help-"

"You are hardly in a position to make threats. Remember that." The clone flicked the safety off of his rifle and pulled the charging handle. "You don't need to worry about them, they are safe."

"You want me to just take your word for it, you slime? I don't think I trust you."

"I assure you that they will be not be harmed, my superiors had no interest in your wife and children, and I unlike you, know how to obey orders."

Cut Lawquane took a long look into the man's face, his own face. Like Cut, the man had no noticeable scars. His hair had been buzzed; it was the eyes that were the most prominent difference between the two near identical faces. The man's eyes were cold, dark, and unsettling; Cut knew that if this man was ordered to do it, he would kill him, Suu, and the children, without moment's worth of hesitation. Yet, he could also tell from his eyes that while this man was dangerous, he was no liar.

"I hope you're right, for your sake. You asked me how I got lost. Well here's my answer; I didn't get lost. I opened my eyes! You're the lost one, you, your team! You're all blind! That flaming gunship hurtling towards the ground, watching it split open as it impacted. The pilots were crushed in half a second and my squad got thrown around inside a durasteel coffin traveling at break-neck speed, literally. Wanna know what the order was? Wanna know why we were out there? 'Intimidate large bantha herd impeding airfield construction.' I shit you not; we got shot down by Seps while on our way to scare off some fucking banthas. When I came to almost everyone was dead; crushed, mangled, limbs severed, blood all over. You couldn't make out the markings on my armor for all the blood." Radios were fried, HUDs shorted out from the shock of the impact, and I had no idea where the hell my rifle had gotten to. I had been pinned to the wall of the troop bay by a shard of the blast door. Some of my buddies that made it pulled me out. I think there were about four or five of us total. We were gathering up what little gear we had left. And then they came for us. Supers started blasting away; we only had a few weapons, and one by one, we started to fall. Eventually, it was only me. I had no ammo left, so I ran. Faster than I had ever run before."

"I can understand you running, your entire unit was KIA and you had no ammunition, staying there would have only resulted in you suffering the same fate."

"You understand... but?"

"You never reported back to your commanding officer. You would have come across radios sooner or later. What I do or don't understand is irrelevant, my team was sent here to your farm to determine what thoughts were going through your brain that convinced you to go AWOL. Care to enlighten me?"

"I don't why I'm bothering to tell you this, why should I?"

"Truthfully, I'm interested, more importantly, to keep your wife and children's throats intact."

"You're a monster!"

"Apologies, Cut, but I have my orders. If you do not cooperate they won't live to see the sunrise."

"Just who the hell are you taking these damned orders from anyway, huh? No Jedi would use thugs like you!"

"Thugs? You amuse me, Cut. Who we are is unimportant, as is to whom we report, though I can guarantee that we are professionals, just as you once were. Now please, continue. You were informing me of the line of thought that led to you betraying your own flesh and blood."

"I betrayed no one! But it doesn't look like I have much of a choice, now does it?"

"No, you have no choice in this matter whatsoever, and call it what you like CT-7331, it was a betrayal."

"I had been running for a few hours and then came same across this ditch. I threw myself in, I was so tired. I figured that I had put enough distance between myself and the battle. I woke up the next morning, and just sat there, thinking. Dunno why, but after eleven years of training and fighting... I guess I just wanted it all to stop. So I just sat, deep in thought. Eleven years old, but already almost a quarter of my life was over, done. I thought about watching my squad slaughtered one by one, and all the brothers I'd lost before then. I knew that if I stayed in the Army, sooner or later some blaster shot, or arty shell would do me in, and that would be that. CT-7331, KIA, report filed. No one would remember me, just another dead number. I gave up eleven years of my already halved life for the Republic, and that was enough. Suu found me a little while later, it was like meeting an angel, been in love with her and the kids ever since. Best choice I ever made."

"Hmm, that's fascinating. You know, Cut, you remind me of a clone I once met. He too was not fond of Army life."

Cut knew who he was referring to. Rex had told him about Slick, but if this grey-armored clone found out that Rex hadn't reported him, Rex could be court-martialed.

"What was his name?"

"You mean you don't know? I would have thought that Captain Rex would have mentioned it during his recuperation at this farmstead."

"Who's Captain Rex?"

"We know you two met, Cut. There's no denying it."

"I'm telling you, I don't know a Captain Rex!"

"Saleucami Command transferred the holo-messages Captain Rex made to General Kenobi while staying on this farmstead. I could play them for you, if you like. The point is we know he was here."

Cut could see that there was no fooling this man as he began to reach for his holo-projector. "All right! He was here."

"Thank you. So I assume that Captain Rex informed you of Sergeant Slick, he was a traitor, like yourself, though he was also a Confederate spy."

"Don't you compare me to that filth! I didn't betray anyone, damn it! I didn't pass intel to Seppies, didn't set clankers on my own platoon, and I don't hate the Jedi either!"

"Article 85, trooper."

"Don't give me that shit! Why can't you just leave us in peace? We're not a threat to the Republic! It's not like you need me, some farmer, the Kaminoans make fresh batches of us all the time!"

"I have my orders. If you will excuse me for a moment, I have an incoming transmission, marked urgent." The clone stood and put his helmet back on. Cut almost thought he felt the kitchen get a bit warmer now that the man's eyes were behind his visor.

"Oh go ahead, it's not like I'm going anywhere." Cut tugged at the sink pipe, it wouldn't give. His attacker walked out of the kitchen and shut the door.

The text of the encrypted transmission appeared in the corner of the man's HUD.

Excellent work as usual, Sergeant.
Objectives Revised: Eliminate everyone on site.
Then, torch the target building and proceed to exfil as planned.

The Sergeant's heart skipped a beat. He had done some terrible things in his time, but he had never killed a child.

He really hated his job, not as much as he hated himself though. The Sergeant opened up a comm channel with his second-in-command.

"Baker, SitRep?"

"Baker here, we're all good Sergeant, 8-Ball's on over watch, and Jaig said his combat knife was thirsty, so he took care of the family, over."

The man's blood froze. "He did what?"

"Took care of the family, didn't you get the revised orders, Sergeant?"

The Sergeant felt physically sick at the news. Just like that, his team had killed a mother and two kids, like it was nothing. Why did the orders have to change, those three didn't have to die.

"Sergeant, are you receiving me?"

Three more innocents' deaths were now on his team's hands. They were not the first, and they would not be the last. "I read you, carry on Baker."

"WILCO, out."

The team had eliminated its targets, all except for one. And so with a heavy heart the Sergeant trudged back into kitchen.

Cut raised his head to look up at him. "So, what happens now?"

The man raised his rifle.

"Hey, brother wait! You don't need to do this; you shouldn't have to do this! You know this is wrong, please! Please, stop."

The man sighted his target.

"Fine, follow your orders then! Kill your own brother! Just please don't hurt Suu. Don't hurt Shaeeah, or Jek. They've been through a lot." A lone tear ran down Cut's face.

"Do... Do you think I could say goodbye to them... tell them I love them?"

The Sergeant could barely bring himself to answer. "No, they're... They're gone... Cut..."

Cut's body went rigid. "No! What're you-"

The Sergeant gently squeezed the trigger and whispered, "I'm sorry... brother."

Reviews are always appreciated. I'd like to have a few before I update, so I'll know if anyone even like this.

Thanks,

PSYOP