Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Star Wars universe, other than books and games I purchased, Star Wars legal rights are owned by LucasArts and George Lucas.

Mutiny: Chapter 1

Arrival

A giant sphere floated through the endless star field, the faint gleam of the systems sun glowed in the distance like dim candle. The dark void brightened by stars and planets. As the silvery moon glided across the eastern side of the pale azure planet, covering the red and creamy white cloud fields, the peaceful star field was disrupted by two large capital ships, and a cruiser appearing from hyperspace. Space folded as the ships appeared in an eruption that rippled the vacuum, though the sound escaped no farther than the hull of the ships. Following the larger naval units smaller support ships, fighter crafts, and a small sized frigate appeared in the shadow of the moon.

From the view port about the fighter frigate, Black Heart, a pale blue Twi'lek watched the planet, Allou, come closer. She admired the red clouds, and the surface shrouded by the azure mist mix gently above spots in the gas seas, birthing a light purple breeze of methane and oxygen. She was adorned in tight leather covering her body sparsely; she adjusted her blaster in her belt and retreated from the window. This mercenary was Ameryia Secura, cousin of Aayla Secura, but was no Jedi. She was here only for the money the Republic offered for her services, although not a lot she felt a slight, though withering, attachment to the Republic.

"Ameryia, the fleet is sending us down to the surface, the 1st admiral is on the holo-com. I swear we aren't making enough to risk our neck," Ameryia turned to see her young 17 standard year old teammate, Ke. He grinned walking up to her. If she learned one thing in her 22 standard years of life was that humans, especially boys, were odd creatures.

"The sum is decent and more than we usually get for minor disputes, we will just make due. I will talk to the admiral, you get Tulla to prepare to land," her voice gave a hint of distain, but she straightened up and walked away toward the hologram room, behind her Ke receded off to the bridge.

"That admiral, that Bothan is really full of it, I hate talking to that nerfherder," she sneered as the door to the hologram room slide open. Before her was a projection of 1st Admiral Juuro Tui'kira, from the flagship, the Silver Needle.

"Yes sir?" she said masking the venom in her tone as best she could. The war brought her pay but she felt the Republic was falling to shambles and to a point maybe it wasn't worth protecting for the merger sum.

"We are hoping to end this was soon and this will be a critical battle, you are to land along with 1,000 clones to reinforce the troops of Jedi Masters Euryia, and Toue, and we are sending you down with Toue's Padawan Jedi Durma. You are to meet on the Blue Fury, to be dispatched," the Bothan talked with obvious authority, and in unwavering speech. Ameryia felt his head was a tad too swollen though.

"Anything else, sir?"

"Yes, I have a message for you to send to the surface. Dooku has been killed, only Grievous maintains control of the droid forces. Once he is killed this war should end. We will be scanning the surrounding area for his presence. It is possible he has fled to Allou. While we scan the planet you are to help eliminate the CIS. This victory will bring us one step closer to ending this strife," Ameryia nodded, this news was conflicting as ending this would free her from her contract with the Republic, but this war was currently her only source of income, however little it was all they had.

The Twi'lek left the room slightly agitated, every time she saw the admiral she never left happy. The door to the bridge burst open as she came though the threshold. Ke and Tulla, the rouge Kaminoan, both turned as she walked up to the controls to stand by the slender female Kaminoan. Tulla lifted a thin arm in an inquiring way. She realized the Kaminoan must have sensed her distain

"Nothing just bring us near the Blue Fury, Ke and me will be boarding with them once we approach. It seems Dooku is dead, looks like we are approaching endgame. This war may be providing us with pay, but these military folk are driving me insane. But for now we are going to have to work with these obnoxious high rank officers. It is a bit of respite going down to the surface with Jedi, rather than these nerfherders," she answered the unspoken question of Tulla, as she took the control panel to the right.

"You know, I don't see why you seem to get along with Jedi. Most troops on the surface are clones so conflict won't be an issue," Ke said from his seat in the corner where he has checking the weapons stock.

The Black Heart approached the Crimson Blitz capital ship in whose wake flew the small battleship, the Blue Fury. From the small dock in the hull of the Black Heart a tiny shuttle spewed into space and flew up toward the Blue Fury. As the small shuttle docked the giant capital ship above eclipsed the light from the distant sun and the passing moon. The shuttle entered the light of the ships hanger and set down in the crowded room near a couple of V-wings. A gust of chilled air flowed into the shuttle as the ramp came down, causing the two mercenaries to shudder slightly. Descending the ramp Ameryia looked upon the shining durasteel hanger. Clones scurried around working on the fighters and passing in and out, all in an aparent hurry. The two walked through the hanger weaving between the fighter crafts toward the pale white door leading to the interior. Clones didn't seem natural to Ameryia, she felt strange among the legions of identical beings, built to be the perfect fighting unit. Although Tulla insisted that her people did not create a fault, the clones took orders, were fearless, and could adapt in battle, yet they were no different then droids in this sense. However, despite her slight disturbance to the identical units, she had come to respect them. Clones were deadly in battle to be sure.

She placed high value on experience and learning on the field, and she had grown attached to the regiment she fought with so long, but the way they started never boded well with her. She'd heard that clones that were not up to muster would be eliminated, although Tulla was evasive on that topic. It wasn't much different then reality really, the unworthy die in the business she toiled in, in the end the galaxy weeded out the week in the art of war. Ke seemed totally without opinion on the subject, he never divulged to her any reaction to the use of clones, the war, or for almost anything for that matter. She liked the clone's unwavering loyalty and precision in battle. Too much loyalty was never good however, it turns beings blind to reason. Perhaps this was their fault, it had been the undoing of many in history.

Lost in thought she only noticed they had journeyed to assembly room when Ke prodded her. Suddenly the world came back into focus as she gazed at 2,304 perfectly in line, fully armored clones, from a small balcony. Ke gazed at them, his expression remained unchanged, but Ameryia noticed his hands fidgeted a bit with the railing, nerves? It was odd to the Twi'lek the young human had not been nervous before, he wielded a blaster like a seasoned professional. Then she remembered that this was his first battle leading his own platoon, 576 fresh new troops were assigned to him from Kamino, the brand new battalion was replacing the losses from the past couple months of fighting. All 2,304 troops were under Ameryia's command, previously with Ke as a company leader with 144 men. But he moved up in rank and now as a major was to lead a larger portion of troops in Ameryia's regiment. Regiments were typically lead by a Jedi, companies and battalions by high rank clones, but in their case it was different, being a military expert and with decent control of the Force, Ameryia was dubbed worthy of commander.

"Don't worry too much, clones are easier to tame then normal beings. Those may be newer but they adapt fast," she said.

"Ma'am! General Secura, we have all troops ready, and landing shuttles on standby," said a clone Commander, adorned in blue trimmed armor, he saluted and stood by the entrance to the balcony.

"Commander Bru, have the troops get ready to depart to the surface. I will join you in the shuttle, Thunder X-55, in 30 standard minutes, have the planetary data available in the shuttle," Ameryia replied to the commander, CC-1394, Bru being his nickname.

She watched as the clone marched down a flight of stairs and began directing the troopers. The lines of men began to file away toward the hanger, like ants returning to a hill. Ke stared at then like a hawk would mark its prey. Ameryia turned from the formation lines snaking out of the assembly hall.

"Ke go down with the troops and have then spread evenly into 30 shuttles, and then get aboard the Nightingale. Launch the ships in order of docking; leaving 10 shuttles behind then take off on the Nightingale, I'll bring the second wave down. Meet with Jedi General Euryia and get the troops settled n the camp collect the status or the battle and the rest of the data, I will go over planet files on my way down. We will meet together for war planning at the planets dusk, as directed by Euryia," she said as Ke made his way down the staircase.

Ameryia walked back down the hall toward the cabins. She stopped at a door halfway down the long little adorned hall. Her rich blue hand knocked the cream white door thrice, before it slid open. The port revealed a short, rustic bronze snake like alien. She was dressed in a light green cloth, with openings for her six legs and four arms, each a scaly auburn. A vaguely triangular head was pointed toward Ameryia, who looked back at the swirling cloudy black sphere in the center of the head. Liquid seemed to swish around in the back dome.

"Ameryia, good to see you. What purpose had brought you here?" The alien said through the three holes on each side of her head, each expanding and shrinking to produce the static voice of the Allouni. The planets native flipped its long spring like ears to show curiosity.

"I want you to come with me to the surface Iieaea (I-A-A), your expertise would be useful," Ameryia said as the Allouni's ears spun in circles.

"Sure I will be ready and in the transport in about ten standard minutes. You know even with 12 years away from Allou I still don't get standard time," she chirped disappearing into her cabin.

Ameryia looked at the files once she was aboard the Thunder X-55. The first hologram showed the calendar of the planet, it was twelve una or seconds in a minute, or yinia (ee-knee-A). 73 yinia was in a jaussed (jaw-sid), sort of an hour; a day was 67 standard hours, 88 days in a week, two and a half weeks in a month and 3 months to a year. The math was just too confusing for Ameryia, so she decided not to try to understand it. As far as she cared the local date was Kinh-Unos-Dinus-45-201, month-day name-year name-day of week-day of year. Considering this she could not possibly understand how the Allouni could memorize the calendar.

The terrain was mostly methane and oxygen gas plains, nitrogen and methane gas seas, nitrogen frozen ocean, methane and carbon ice fields, salt flats, canyons, and foothills. The majority of flora was bacteria and moss lush, fungus and shrubs on the gas plains and the occasional larger plant. There was a fern forest by the northern and southern salt flats. All in all it wasn't much to work with, they would be fighting in an open kill zone.

Through the small window on the shuttle Ameryia could see the planet of deep blues, reds, greens, and purples. She focused on the yellow plains where they would be landing and most likely fighting, the tan dirt was barely visible in the thin sheet of methane. Up north by a landmass called The Bridge the misty gas turned a pale crimson, and deep reds in the canyons. It was an impressive sight, but with no clear signs of cover the mist won't be the only red staining the dirt.

"Iieaea, historically there have been few conflicts in and around the Allou system, however if you know anything about the warfare locally… Since it seems it's a giant open kill zone. How did your people make use of the area?" She asked still gazing at the planet.

"Well usually battles would stay close to the gas seas, foothills, and canyons. Vehicles can easily dive into the cover of the methane. Canyons are also fairly easily defended since there is cover of gases. I think since we are a serpentine race we could slide under the methane and oxygen sheets. I'd say you'd best crawl on the ground or stick near it. I think the bridge is the best place to ambush enemies as they will be surrounded by gaseous seas," The Allouni replied.

The fact that the surface was virtually flat in most areas it was worse then the desert dunes, and snow mounds on other open worlds. She figured they would just have to deal with it, after all the druids couldn't exactly hind themselves either. She tore her eyes from the view port and sat on the chrome bench next to commander Bru.

The rest of the journey passed in silence, with Ameryia flipping through the holograms and files, Bru sat like a statue the whole time. Iieaea spend the time cleaning her scales. It didn't take to long until they dropped into the methane and oxygen rich atmosphere. Descending below the red, white, and purple clouds they tunneled through the gas, they slowed as they came toward the blue methane blanket and dirt below. The shuttle touched the ground just far away from the encampment so it appeared a small dot. The rest of the shuttles landed amongst the group Ke brought earlier. The shuttles opened their hatches and from each two land transports rolled onto the gas plains.

Inside the transport the occupants sat on rows of benches as they passes across the vast landscape. Being accustomed to the rugged and turbulent terrain of previous planets the smooth ride seemed almost foreign to Ameryia. But she dwindled down the time by watching the landscape as it rolled by. It didn't take to long until they came to the Republic camp.

Ameryia stepped into the dirt surprised at how soft it was. It cushioned her feet and a small pillow if dust rose with each step. In some places the ground was so gas drenched her feet sank a little into the smooth terrain. She walked up to two tall humans, she noticed a younger girl behind the older, obviously the padawan. All wearing Jedi robes, the older two nodded at her and removed their hoods. Ameryia stopped facing them with Bru and Iieaea coming to stand behind her like an imperial guard.

"Good, you are here. The battle of Coruscant is won, we suffered many casualties but it was a major victory. But more pressing matters first. I feel it is our best bet to make our way to the Bridge and ambush the CIS at dawn; dusk is in a few standard hours. The nights, in this area and by the Bridge, are rather short. We must plan fast meet me in the officer tent once the sun falls half way below the horizon." The female Jedi said, Toue had red hair like tomato juice. Her eyes were dark brown and she gave the feel of a caring peace-loving women. She grinned walking off toward a group of clones from the 133rd legion she commanded. The younger followed her.

The other Jedi, Euryia, gestured for Ameryia to follow him as he walked into the area Ameryia's regiment was setting up a camp. They had been reassigned to the 133rd legion recently and this was the first time they would see action together. The male human had short blonde hair and blue eyes. His skin was soft and despite the fact he was 25 he could pass off as sixteen or eighteen.

"Hey!" came Ke's voice from over by a couple clones. Commander Bru went over to help some clones pitch their tent. Ke jogged over to Euryia, Ameryia, and Iieaea.

"Well make yourself comfortable, I'll see you later then," Iieaea stated as she left the group.

"So, Ameryia I hear your Aayla's cousin, and you have some force prowess. What was your past like?" Euryia started. Ke's eyes widened somewhat as he looked at Ameryia.

"I don't talk to much about anything before I started in the killing business. I have only talked to Aayla a couple times. My early life isn't so pleasant but it isn't much different then most Twi'lek girls," Ameryia said evasively, but Euryia got the idea. Ameryia knew Ke probably just was surprised she didn't shoot anything this time. Ameryia hated her life as a slave, and to escape that life she killed, deceived, tortured, and hijacked a fighter.

She pulled her leather shirt down covering a little bit more of her torso and sat on a crate conversing casually with Ke and the Jedi. Ameryia leaned back against another crate, and ran her finger along the barrel of her blaster. She wasn't too sure about the two Jedi yet, but Euryia seemed amiable enough at least for now, but to win her genuine trust he'd better prove himself under fire.

End chapter 1

Yes, it is sort of pathetic, and I didn't write a very long chapter but I'll get to 25,000 to a maximum of 45,000 words in the end.