Author's Note: I decided to go ahead and write Ahsoka, Rex, and Fives' backstory for my Bird Squadron story. I also decided to try something different for this one- writing in the first person. I'm a little rough, and may have to iron out a few details here, but I think you'll enjoy it. As usual any thoughts or suggestions or constructive criticisms are welcome and appreciated. And yes, aside from the main three, all characters in this chapter, and probably the whole story for that matter, are OC. And so without further osik, here's Star Wars TCW: Memories…
Aboard the Bird's Nest
Just after splitting up with the rest of the rogue group of Clones known as "Bird Squad"
Entry in the personal journal of CT-7567, AKA "Captain Rex"
I was on Onderon when it happened. The Order came in. We had never expected to hear many of the contingency orders, perhaps one or two, but never this one. As I hoisted my blaster and relayed the order to my men, I thought back to our history on this planet. I remembered coming here with Generals Skywalker and Kenobi, and Commander Tano. I remembered how we had found the rebels- untrained and inexperienced, but determined to succeed. I remembered how we had patiently taught them how to fight in a coherent unit, to fight like clones, like Jedi. I remembered their leaders, Lux Bonteri, and Saw and Steela Gerrera. How master Tano had clearly been attracted to young Senator Bonteri, but never showed it. I thought about how we had just left them, trained them and left, leaving only little Ahsoka to help them. I frowned as I remembered how she told us about the end of the rebellion- in triumph, but at a cost. I thought of the tears in her eyes as she told of Steela's death, tears of sadness, not pain, despite that nasty blaster burn.
Thinking about Onderon nearly brought me to a halt then and there, but it didn't get past the flash training, not quite. After all, according to the Order, these Jedi had gone dark, a threat to the Republic.
The thought of a Jedi going dark brought the image of General Pong Krell to mind. But then I remembered what had happened on Umbarra. I remembered ALL of it- how Krell had thrown men into foolish battles to be used as nothing more than cannon fodder- and had even gotten men- my men- killed. But that had ended when a few Clones dared to disobey orders- to ignore their flash training. Krell had turned out to be a Dark Jedi, but that didn't matter- technically he was a General and we were obligated to follow his orders- just as we were obligated to follow Order 66.
I looked to Fives, and I could tell he was thinking of the same thing I was, despite his helmet. After all, he was a regular Clone before he had become an ARC- one who wasn't programmed with the Orders, but was expected to follow an order of his Clone Commander, in this case me and Commander Olex.
I looked also to Olex, the new Commander sent from Coruscant the week before, and could tell there was no question in his mind about following orders- after all, all of the new Spaarti's seemed to be programmed to blindly obey orders without question, and they were ruthlessly good at it.
"Rex," said a familiar voice over a private channel in my helmet- the display indicated it was Sixes, another one of the vets, one of the few living survivors of Geonosis, older even than me.
"What six?" I replied.
"Why are we doing this?"
"Orders," I replied, weary of Olex listening in. Our channel was an older 501st encoded signal, one left over from the Phase 1 days, which Olex theoretically couldn't hear, but we couldn't be too careful. At the slightest hint of questioning orders, our previous Commander, Sylar, also a Spaarti, had summarily executed old Sly, resulting in his dismissal by Commander Tano, who had mourned the loss of the wizened old war dog. Olex, we had heard, had been raised in the same batch as Sylar, was practically his direct twin, closer even than Sixes and I; so there was no doubt what his reaction would be to our thoughts.
"But the Order- the Jedi betraying the Republic? That can't be true!"
"Six is right," Fives chimed in. And Fives would know more than anybody in the 501st, except for me of course. His life had been a hard one- losing his squad one by one through the war until he was the only one of the outpost rookies left. He had grown close to the Jedi, and to me as his C.O. He had been one of the few to defy Krell, and I could tell he was an inch from defying this order. "You know Tano better than anyone- and we all know that she loves the Republic, and is completely loyal to it."
"Stow the chatter you two," I said suddenly as we halted. As we spoke, we had moved into position overlooking Commander Tano, who was sitting on the ground in meditation.
Six and Five were right- I knew that the Order couldn't be right. Still, I very nearly pulled the trigger at Commander Olex's order. But in the instant before we were to fire, Ahsoka's eyes shot open, a look of terror and shock written upon her face. At first, I believed it was because she had felt us coming, and had been horrified at our betrayal, but then she spoke, and said words I would never forget.
"Master, no! How could you!" and with that she fell over into a slump, falling behind the large rock she had been levitating. A hailstorm barrage of blaster fire opened up on her previous position, raising a cloud of dust. I was horrified to find that even I had pulled the trigger, and threw my blaster to the ground in revulsion! I turned to see that Sixes had not fired at all, but Fives had, like me, done so by instinct. I watched in further horror as Commander Olex raised his blaster at Sixes and fired, killing the man who had been one of my closest friends.
"Stop this!" I finally shouted at the top of my lungs on the battalion common frequency as I saw him turn to another who hadn't fired. This one was a green recruit, fresh out of the cylinder, and probably had just misfired or something. "We've just killed our own Commander- why should we kill each other too?"
"They disobeyed orders!" Olex replied angrily. "We were charged with executing the traitors, and that's what we've done! And this Clone failed to fire his weapon just as much as CT-86666 did!"
"With respect sir, the blaster misfired, the power pack was not in properly," the Clone spoke up, defending himself.
"Incompetence! That gets almost as many killed as traitors do! I won't have men like that in my company!" With that, the Commander killed again. It was all too much for me.
"No more!" I yelled, turning my blaster on the Commander, cutting him down before he could do any more damage. There was a moment of silence, then all hell broke loose as Clone turned on Clone, brother on brother, some at me, some in defense of me. I fell as a bolt hit me in the shoulder, and, just before I blacked out from the pain, I saw Fives and another Torrent Company soldier standing over me, defending me from oncoming fire. The last thing I saw before I blacked out from the pain was a familiar flash of green deflecting a bolt directed at Fives' head.
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When I came to, I felt the familiar vibrations of a starship in travel beneath me, and welcomed them. At first I thought that we were finally on our way back to Coruscant, to celebrate the end of the war, but then I remembered. It came back to me in a flood as I winced at the pain in my shoulder. I saw and felt a bacta pack on it, clearly needing refreshing, and removed it. The wound was nearly healed, and would leave yet another scar for my collection.
"Good morning sir," came the familiar voice of Fives. He was standing in the hatch of the compartment, the top half of his armor gone and a bandage around his waist.
"What happened?" I asked. "I must've been delusional- I thought I saw Commander Tano's lightsabres before I blacked out. Are we on our way to a court martial?"
"Worse- we're fugitives, Fives replied with a slight grin. "And you're not delusional- Master Tano survived."
"How?" I asked, bolting upright and immediately regretting it as a wave of nausea hit me like a ten ton snub fighter.
"That big old rock that fell in front of her actually saved her- turns out it was pure beskar'gam, a piece of ore left behind as a tribute to some ancient Mandalorian overlord or some osik like that. Our barrage barely put a dent in it. Tano says it was the Will of the Force that she just happened to be lifting it when the Order came in, but I call it luck plain and simple. Whatever it was, it saved her, and she saved us, though we both came out with a few new scars."
"What about that other fellow, the one that was next to you…Revs, wasn't it?"
"He didn't make it," Fives replied sadly.
"Did anyone else…"
"No." There was an awkward silence, then Rex broke it.
"Where are we anyway?"
"We're on the Twilight. Commander Tano's flying, and we still have no idea where we're going."
"Well let's go find out!"
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