"- and we advise citizens to stay inside their homes as much as possible, the Governor has explained that these measurements remain advised until the criminals have been captured. And now the local news…"As soon as the holo-news anchorwoman was about to switch back to the local news a young woman turned off the holo-news feed. "Criminals don't usually leave craters." The woman though shaking her head at the news report.
A few nights ago she had heard noise outside in the forest, noise she had identified as a crashing vessel. The next day she had decided to find the crash-site, but that was all she found. Hardly any debris and no survivors or bodies, finding nothing –which the woman noted as suspicious- she had no choice but to go home again.
Now she was staring out of the transparasteel window. The woman's dark green eyes locked on the city for a moment, Leyarsa was only a few minutes away on a speeder and it was in that city where she and her father had docked their ship. She sighed, brushing her short black hair out of her face "Great timing to go on a 'delivery', dad" she thought, wondering who would be out there right now. She knew someone had to have walked away from that crash, so someone was out there at the moment. For a moment she wondered if the separatists would make a move on some of the more republic oriented people of the city, but she doubted they would be subtle about it if they did.
She didn't care much about the war, as pilots –or more precise smugglers- she would always be able to find work, whether it was for the republic or for the separatists, but the separatists had made themselves quite unpopular on her home-world. Ever since they had replaced the Governor with one of their own, taxes had increased and security had been tightened, something the people here didn't appreciate.
It was only a few days later when she heard noise coming from the old shed. She glanced outside, it was already dark and a quick glance at the chronometer told her that most people would be asleep at this time. The dark could work in her advantage. She grabbed her night vision visor, wrapped her belt around her waits and went outside. It was easy for her to stay out of sight of whoever was hiding in the shed, she knew exactly what the windows did and didn't cover.
"Why am I even doing this?" she though as she stood beside the door, feeling the old wood through the back of her shirt. She should have taken her jacket, that would at least protect her against light blaster fire, but now was too late to go back to get it. "Okay, now or never" she took a deep, steadying breath, checked the energy level of her blaster and looked inside. But before she could even blink, she found herself staring down the barrel of a bulky riffle. She looked past the weapon, to the user and was surprised to see a face-covering helmet. Behind the guard she saw two other armored people, all of them had their armor painted differently. The one keeping her under shot had a green streak across his helmet and more green over the rest of his armor and she spotted red and orange on the other two.
"What are you doing here?" the one in green demanded. She swallowed, it wasn't smart to talk back to the person with a gun, but it really was her answer "I should be the one asking that, this is our property." she answered, hoping they would take her reply as an answer instead of back talk. She noticed two others looking at each other.
"Alright" said the person in orange accented armor, he sounded suspicious. "Our brother got hurt and so we looked for a place to lay low". He explained, talking as if he was wondering how much she could make out of every word. She looked past the green soldier in front of her to the other two, wondering which one of his 'brothers' had been hurt. The one in red armor turned to the one in orange and for a moment it looked like they were having an argument, but the woman couldn't hear anything. As she looked past the two arguing men she saw another armored shape lying on the floor, that must have been the hurt brother.
"What happened to him" the woman asked, making the arguing soldiers look at her.
"That's the problem, we don't know, he just suddenly collapsed." the one in green said hesitantly, this stranger might be able to save their brother, or she could sell them out.
"When did you notice?"
"A few hours ago, when we were about to leave the forest." The one in orange armor said.
"Then he's probably been bitten by a ginr" she concluded "Nasty little creatures. Small, fast and poisonous, but people get bitten by them often so the antidote is easy to get by." She said, waiting for a reaction. The one in green lowered his weapon a little, no longer pointing the rifle at the woman's face and the other two turned to face each other again. While the strangers argued the woman had the chance to think more about the soldiers in her shed. She had noticed immediately that they were carrying multiple weapons and she also spotted some thermal-detonators and other grenades, they looked like they could do a lot of damage. On further inspection they were all dressed in the same armor –except for the colors- and it resembled that of the republic soldier quite a lot. "Are you republic soldiers?" she asked, not liking the silence only she seemed to hear. This sudden question brought all eyes back on her.
"What if we are?" the one in orange asked, the tone of his voice telling the woman that he was glaring at her. But the sudden hostility in the soldier's voice did confirm her thoughts, they did work for the republic.
"I could help you." She said slowly, hoping she wasn't making a very bad decision. "Most people here don't like the separatists, they've been making themselves not really popular here." She added, knowing they would want an explanation about why she would help them.
"And what are you asking in return?" the third soldier –the one in red armor- asked, his voice was a lot rougher than those of this brothers. "That I get out of this alive, that my house is still standing by the time it's over and some financial compensation." The woman said. "If you agree on that I'll go get the antidote for your brother." She added, hoping they would stop giving her the idea they were going to shoot her.
The soldiers looked at each other, this time the one in green as well and after a moment the one in orange –who appeared to be the leader- nodded. "We can't guaranty any of that, but we'll try." He said, his voice somewhat less strained than before. The woman turned around to get the antidote. "Wait!" she heard one of them call, making her turn around "I'm coming along, I'm not taking any chances" the on in orange said, his riffle still in hand.
"How long ago do you think he has been bitten?" the woman asked trying to start a conversation. "Could be three days, why?" the soldier answered and she could hear a hint of urgency in his voice. "Then you won't be able to move any time soon, it takes a few days to recover from that." The other sighed and looked up again "Why are you helping us?" he asked, help from strangers was as alien to him as a human female was, or civvies for that matter. She turned around to face him, trying to get anything out his body language. He stood straight, like she had always thought soldiers did, but he sounded tired. "Do I have much of a choice, would you just let me go? And besides we don't like the separatists here." she said turning around and continued on their way back to the house. "So who are you?" she asked trying to change the subject. "We're delta squad, ma'am" "You're Clones?" she asked, not sure how to react. Everyone knew the republic had an army of clones, but no one really knew what they were like, they were all hidden behind their armor.
"Yes." The clone answered, wondering what would come next. To him the woman was as strange as he was to her.
"Do you guys have names?" she asked, surprising the commando somewhat, most people treated him and his brothers like droids. "Yes…" he replied hesitantly, nicknames were something they had always kept to themselves, something they had hidden from the judging eyes of the Kaminii. "So what's your name?" she asked trying to get him to talk. "I'm Boss" he finally said. "I'm Talisha" the woman said opening the door to the house. "This way" she said guiding Boss through the house.
A few minutes later they were back in the shed. Boss gave the antidote to the soldier in red and he injected his brother with it.
"Thank you." Boss said, sounding much more sincere than tense now. Talisha nodded in reply, keeping her eyes on the commandoes around her. Boss took his helmed off and as if it had been an order, the other two followed Boss' lead. Even though she did know they were clones she hadn't expected them all to look this alike –even though it did make sense-.
"So why did she help us?" the one in red asked, snapping the woman out of her thoughts. He still seemed suspicious of Talisha. The dark haired woman looked at him and wondered if the fact that Boss –whom she had decided was the leader of the squad- had decided she was worth trusting for now hadn't been enough for the red clad soldier. Shoving the thought aside Talisha spoke "We just don't like the Separatists much." The clone in red grunted in return, making Talisha wonder if her answer had been good enough for him.
Boss sighed, shooting his brother a short look before turning his attention back to the dark haired woman. "Talisha, this is Sev." he said, pointing at the commando in the red accented armor. "That's Fixer." Boss continued, pointing at the one in green "And that's Scorch." He finished, indicating their brother on the floor. "Boys, this is Talisha." Fixer simply nodded at her and Sev grunted, but said nothing else.
"So…" Talisha asked, looking at three almost identical faces. "What are you gonna do now? Your brother will need a few days to recover." She added, hoping that would explain her curiosity.
"Find a place to lay low?" Sev suggested, keeping his eyes on the holo-chart he had been examining.
"You know we don't have time for that" Fixer shot back, unlike his brother he did look up from the data pad he was studying.
"Udesii, vode" Boss snapped at the two. "Fixer's right, the sooner we got our job done the better." He continued, his voice a little calmer. They knew that each day they gave the enemy to find them was dangerous to them. "But we can't drag Scorch around, so for his sake we need somewhere to lay low." He knew both his brothers were right and it were decisions like this Boss always dreaded.
"Uh … you can stay here if you like." Talisha suggested, having noticed the dilemma the commandoes were facing.
"I don't think you'll like what we are going to do here, ma'am." Fixer said straight to the point, but Talisha thought she also heard sincerity in his voice.
"Like what?"
"Like assassination, kidnapping, blowing things up and general fighting." Sev shot at her, smirking. "Well that's not that different from what I do for a living." Talisha thought. She knew she couldn't tell them what she and her father usually did, but earing a favor from the republic might help her one day. Talisha debated with herself, she didn't mind the commandos staying, but at the same time she couldn't jeopardize her own safety or her dad's. "I guess you really enjoy your job." she shot back at Sev, brushing her hair out of her face and the look on the soldiers face told her he had gotten her joke.
"Well, if you're still offering." Boss said, a little suspicious about the fact that a civvie would help them and he thought the timing was a little too convenient as well, but she did offer them a solution and they needed that at the moment.
"You'd like to stay, right?" Talisha said, knowing that there was no going back now "Then let's get back inside, it's not like the Separatists are gonna visit and ask how I've been doing lately." she said leading the commandos back to the house.