Okay, well, I don't make a habit of doing an author note at the start of something like this, but I decided to do it in this instance, because one, this is like my first time actually uploading something, and two, I had some help. I also wanted to take this opportunity to say that the first chapter will be a bit shorter than the others due to time constraints with other things in life and it'll also have less of a focus, it's just trying to introduce characters and how they got there. I hope you enjoy this random story!
On some unknown planet in the outer rim, a strange signal had been picked up by the Republic and they sent the Requiem, a Venator-class star destroyer to investigate. The clones stationed on this ship were known to be part of the 71st Recon, and were tasked with investigating the signal and bringing back anything that could help them discover what it was.
The commander of the Requiem, a clone commander who went by Ferro let a small team of clones onto the surface. The planet was strange, almost no signs of life and more like a barren wasteland, yet it was still home to this strange signal. Ferro signalled for the clones to stop, looking around for a few moments with his DC-15A blaster rifle, kneeling down after a while.
"The signal is coming from that building up ahead... Goga, you'll come with me to check out the inside. Rush, I want you to take the rest of the squad and set up defences at the entrance of the building in case we have any visitors." Ferro spoke, making sure everyone heard as the squad gave their understanding of the orders in unison.
A few minutes later, Ferro and Goga would be searching the destroyed building, the lights on their helmets lighting up the rubble inside of the building, Goga slightly ahead with his DC-15S blaster at hand. "Commander, this building is pretty old. I don't know how it's still standing." Goga spoke out, known for his interest in history, and one of the reasons Ferro had grown to appreciate the unique side of his squad.
"Any idea on how old Goga?" Ferro continued scouting the building, checking corners to cover Goga's own checking, the signal was somewhere in this building, but they couldn't pinpoint it.
"Sorry commander, I've got no idea from just looking at the rubble." Goga eventually came to a stop as the two clones came to an end of a hallway, the two of them scanning the area to try and find somewhere else to go. "Commander, it seems we've hit the end of the building. There's no stairs going down."
Ferro sighed for a moment and nodded his head. "Is there anything that could have been the cause of the signal?" Ferro waited for a few moments, and when he didn't get an answer, he turned around to notice Goga looking closely at a wall. " Goga?"
Goga was stirred from a trance he was in, looking at his commander as he used his hand to brush dust from the wall. "Commander, I think we've found something pretty important." As Goga spoke, a loud sound could be heard, sounding much like a loud thump, followed by the sounds of heavy stone sliding.
Goga and Ferro fell silent for a few moments as the wall that Goga had been inspecting had begun to slide open, revealing that it was in fact a door, the two clones quickly raising their blasters and aiming at the door, preparing for a fight of some kind.
The clones waited for the supposed door to stop moving, before quickly moving in, scanning the new room that had opened up, soon realising that they'd just gone from a hallway, into some kind of chamber.
Ferro scanned this chamber he stood in carefully, noticing that it was practically empty save for a few strange machines in the middle. He raised his rifle and looked around at the walls, noticing that some of them had some kind of faded symbol on them.
"Any idea what we're looking at here Goga?" Ferro spoke out as he kept scanning the room, turning his attention to the floor to look for traps of any kind.
"Some kind of armoury would be my guess Commander. Those crates look to be pretty special if they're locked in here."
Ferro walked towards one of the walls and inspected the symbol closer, turning around after a few moments to see Goga crouched by the crates and investigating them. "Any idea what they are?"
Goga was quiet for a few moments, shaking his head as he found a control console to begin using, quickly booting it up and a blow glow shining onto Goga's helmet. "Wow. The place still has power."
Ferro decided to leave Goga to it, checking the rest of the chamber, circling the middle of it and noticing there was three crates in the middle, and soon he walk over to Goga, watching the doorway they'd come through now. "Any news?"
Goga looked at his commander slowly, if he hadn't been wearing his helmet, his Commander would have seen the clearly concerned face he had. "Only one of them are a storage crate. The other two..." Goga was quiet for a few moments before turning back to the screen and back to Ferro. "Are stasis pods commander."
A few hours later and the clones had returned to their ship, taking it upon themselves to load those pods onto the Requiem. Ferro was sat in the hanger, staring at the pods that had been hooked up to a makeshift power supply station. "We're going to need to contact one of the generals."
Ferro continued staring at the pods, Goga stood next to them, checking his datapad to make sure everything was running fine." The pods are stable, I managed to copy the information from the console and can monitor them."
Goga had been the one to convince Ferro to take the pods on board, mostly because they'd been asked to retrieve whatever was making that strange signal. He had told a small lie in saying that he was sure they weren't dangerous, but he didn't want to risk these pods falling into enemy hands.
Ferro groaned a bit and stood up from the crate he was sat on. "I'm going to report to the admiral and set a course back to the Jedi temple, and inform the Jedi of what we've found."
Goga remained in the hanger, not wanting to move the pods any-more than needed, choosing the keep them here, despite the dangers of doing so. Goga had walked off to talk to one of the pilots, failing to notice his datapad had lit up with an alert.
After a few moments, the small number of clones in the hanger had stopped talking, all of them hearing a hissing sound. "What is that... Coolant?" one of the pilots said, the others muttering in agreement.
The clones soon falling silent as their gazes turned to the pods that most had avoided going near, noticing that one of them had starting to hiss and something that looked like steam seemed to be escaping from it. Goga quickly running over and picking up his datapad he'd left on a crate, two clone troopers quickly running to point their rifles at the pod in case whatever was going on was bad.
As Goga looked over the datapad, the lid of the pod began to slide down. The two armed troopers, keeping their rifles trained on the pod as it revealed what was inside. Goga looking into the pod. "Someone get the medical droid..."
Within a few minutes, the medical droid had been called and arrived at the scene. "One of the pods opened, I wasn't expecting it, otherwise I'd have kept you nearby."
The medical droid looked into the pod. "Twi'lek female. Body seems to be suffering from extended stasis. Please help bring the patient to the medical bay." the droid began to walk off, Goga sighing a bit as he nodded his head.
Goga took a few moments to look into the pod again, taking note of the Twi'lek, before getting two of the clones to move her to the medical bay. "Maybe when she wakes up she can give us the code to that locked crate..."
After a few minutes, the Twi'lek was laid down in the medical bay. The Medical droid looking at her. "The lekku seem to be in good condition, however, one has slight scarring resembling a blade. Condition seems to be stable, patient was put into stasis and recently taken out." the droid looked at one of the clones that had carried the Twi'lek in. "She will wake up within a few hours, I will report to the hanger to watch the other pod closely."
The two clones shrugged and stood to guard the bay with the new addition to it.
A few hours later and the two clones had settled into casual conversation with each other, soon cut off as they heard a groan followed by movement, both of them turning to look at the blue skinned Twi'lek female who'd raised one of her arms to rest on her head. "Ugh... Such a headache..."
The clones looked at each other and called for the Commander as the Twi'lek eventually began to open her eyes and looked at the clones as she blinked a few times. "Wha...Why am I seeing double of some random guy dressed in white.."
"Please remain on the bed for now. Our commander will be along shortly." One of the clones spoke out, just causing the Twi'lek to groan again.
"Oh great.. A military ship." would be all she muttered.
A few minutes later, Ferro walked into the medical bay. "I wish I'd been told you'd been taken out of the pod." He'd speak out, looking at the Twi'lek with her clothing being a body suit that was combo'd with a brown 'bomber' jacket, a belt and a black pair of combat boots. One of the stand out features that Ferro noticed was the symbol on the sleeve of the jacket, much like the faded images he'd seen in the chamber
"I take it you're the commander?" the Twi'lek spoke out, having moved to sit up now, groaning again.
"I am. Commander Ferro of the 71st recon legion, part of the grand army of the republic."
The mention of the republic seemed to catch the Twi'leks attention. " Good to know the republic is still around then... Well Commander Ferro, I'm Lorla Phin. I don't have a fancy title."
"Well, Lorla Phin, can you explain to me why you were in a stasis pod?"
"Uhh, long story short? Some big bad Sith lord came to planet... wiped it out. We were put into the pod so that some jedi could come retrieve us before he did that. A few details missing, but that's basically it." Lorla waited a few moments. "Wait. Where's the other person? Other pod?"
"Currently in the hanger. Still in stasis. What did you mean by 'good to know the republic is still around?'"
"We'll just say that the Sith had us on the back foot." Lorla sighed a bit. "Are the jedi still around, or rather, is the council still a thing."
"The council is still a thing... The Jedi act as out generals in the war." Ferro had done some research on the symbol he saw earlier, finding a match for it as the old republic. "You wanting to help out?" He asked as more of a joke than anything, but he was curious.
"Oh sure, as long as the sleeping beauty wakes up for it as well."
"The sleeping beauty?"
"The other pod."
"Oh. I see."
Lorla and Ferro started to talking about various things. Eventually Lorla gaining enough of her bearings to stand up and the two of them head to the hanger. Ferro could be called crazy for being so 'trusting' of a random Twi'let who just came out of a stasis pod, seeming as if they just came from another time, but something in his head told him that this was the best choice of action.
Ferro watched as the Twi'lek walked over to the second pod, watching it closely. Ferro wondered just what could be in that pod, or rather, who. The Twi'lek seemed against giving him any information other than referring to the pod as the sleeping beauty.
Sometime later, Lorla had settled into life on the Requiem, even if she'd only been around a few days, she quickly got used to the fact that these soldiers around here were all clones, even if for some reason they seemed against taking off their helmets in her presence. Ferro and Goga being the only two to do it, but even then, they seemed uncomfortable.
Lorla sat down with Ferro in the cafeteria, the trays of 'goop' as she called it in front of them. "So Ferro. Why does everyone on this ship seem against removing their helmets?" Lorla asked, her fork twirling between her fingers.
Ferro, having removed his helmet to eat and showing the twin stripe hairstyle he sported in remembrance of those lost to the war. "Many of them feel uncomfortable doing so since we lost our general. We've been without one for a few months now."
"What about you?"
"I may not be completely comfortable doing it, but I don't feel it's fair as a guest to just have faceless soldiers around all the time. Now, in response, could you tell me about your friend in the pod?"
"I'm sure they'd rather tell you about themselves."
"I'm never going to get an answer out of you." Ferro chuckled a bit.
The two heard the door open, and both turned to see a new face standing there, Lorla smiling a bit as the woman stood there in a set of maroon coloured robes, a blind fold over her eyes a smile on her own lips. " Commander, I heard that you've been asking after me."
Ferro looked at the woman in those robes and that blindfold, quickly noticing the lightsaber attached to her robes. "You're a Jedi?"
The blindfolded woman continued to smile, the light shining on her pale skin and black hair as she sat down. "I'm not sure if I'm still a Jedi, since I've been in stasis for so many years, but yes, I was a Jedi. I've been watching you through the force Commander, I may have been in stasis, but I've been watching you these past few days... I'd like to meet with your council of this time."
Almost a week passed by the time the Requiem arrived, and allowed Ferro to escort the two newcomers to the Jedi council chamber, the two having made themselves quite useful on the ship, the Jedi having helped around the ship more than needed. Ferro had always respected a Jedi who treated his men with respect, but seeing one help them with tasks on the ship was something new to him. The trio stopped in front of the council chambers. "The council are inside. Good luck." Ferro saluted the two women and walked away.
"He's nice enough huh.." Lorla chuckled a bit and just walked into the chambers, leaving the Miraluka jedi to follow behind her.
The two being greeted by the Jedi council turning to look at them, the Miraluka smiling as she moved past Lorla to stand in the middle of the chamber. "Greetings masters, forgive me for intruding with my companion, she has a habit of barging in." She waited for a few moments after a small bow before standing upright again. "I know this is strange, but I am a jedi from the time of the Mandalorian wars. My name is Somek, and I was a weapon master." She'd take her lightsaber and hold it out, using a double-bladed lightsaber, two more sabers floating up beside it, one a standard lightsaber and the other a shoto saber.. "I use each of these and I specialised in Soresu and Ataru forms."
Bad place to end, I know, but I wanted to be able to move on from introducing the characters, and letting people know their brief styles etcetera. I know Rush didn't get much time, nor did other clones, but the next chapter will focus more on the others. This chapter was mainly to allow me to introduce Lorla, Somek and Ferro. I know it's been hard to follow so far and if you read the whole of it, thank you. The next chapter will start the development of friendships of the various characters and bring in characters we all know and love such as Rex, Cody, Obi-wan etc.
This is going to be the only chapter where I write a big A/N at the end as well. I just wanted to say thank you and that I will be putting more focus onto keeping it consistent and easier to follow in following chapters. A preview of the next chapter is there will be a battle at some point. Let me know what you think.