Kamino
25 BBY
"How is he?" Kelborn asked, trying to conceal the concern in his voice.
"There are significant burns on his face, and even with bacta, I am afraid that there will be scarring," Nala Se reported regretfully, frowning.
Kelborn supressed a groan and looked at the boy lying prone on the medical bed. Cadet 1158 had been attempting to plant a breaching charge as part of the commando cadets training. However, the lesson had gone awry and Five-Eight had been caught in the blast. Now, there he was in the infirmary, placed in a medically induced coma as the Kaminoan medics worked on him. Mij Gilamar had insisted that he worked on Five-Eight, convinced that the Kaminiise would try to murder to boy as he lay on the operating table. Kelborn had staunchly refused, not wanting that shabuir anywhere near his cadet or the infirmary. Knowing Gilamar, he'd probably threaten the medics, preventing them from getting any work done, while simultaneously stealing everything not bolted down, Kelborn thought with disdain.
At that moment, a yellow-eyed Kaminoan male walked into-the med bay. He paused, upon seeing Kelborn standing in the room, then relaxed as recognition set in. Kelborn understood, Doctor Ulirii No was weary around Mandalorians, and with good reason.
Ulirii No had a nick in his headcrest where Null-10, Jaing, had shot him. The shot had meant to fly over his head as No was sitting, but when he had stood up, the bolt took a sliver of skin with it. Had the Kaminoan stood up a second earlier, he would have been killed. Not that Skirata had cared, he hadn't given a damn. It did not matter to him that the being who had been hurt was not Orun Wa or Ko Sai, just that he was a Kaminoan, so he automatically had it coming.
"Sergeant Kelborn, Nala Se." Ulirii No nodded at them in greeting "How is our patient?"
Nala Se filled Ulirii No in on the extent of Five-Eight's injuries. The doctor tutted regretfully and hovered over the boy, peering closely at him with his wide, yellow eyes. After a moment, he frowned and shook his head.
"A terrible shame. I have told Ko Sai that we need to enforce stricter safety measures during training," He shot a frustrated look at Kelborn "What use is an army if half of them are maimed or crippled before deployment? And that's not even going into those poor youths that have died during the course of their training! What is it they call that dreadful place? The killing house? It is senseless! A disgrace!"
Kelborn stood there in awkward silence. He was right, it was senseless, it was a disgrace. He hated that he could not do anything about it. This was Jango and Ko Sai's show, and he doubted he could say anything to convince either of them to change the training program. Then there was the sergeants who took training too far, Vau, Reau and Priest chiefly among them. They wanted to weed out the weak, they did that by pitting the clones against each other. Most of the time, they died, but there were some so grievously injured that even if they survived, they'd never really recover.
Kelborn tore his gaze away from Ulirii No in shame. He turned to look at Five-Eight's prone form instead, and then swept his gaze over the other injured clone troopers in the med ward. More victims of a brutal training regime that probably did more harm than good. Even those that had not been physically injured in the course of training still suffered mentally and emotionally. Only the other day he had seen such effects. One of Wad'e Tay'haai's squads had gone into the killing house, only one member came out alive. The boy had been shell-shocked by what had happened in there, struck completely silent and seemingly unaware of his surroundings.
Kelborn punched his armoured leg in frustration. Had he known that Fett would allow this kind of training to take place, he wouldn't have taken the job, money be damned.
Nala Se peered at Kelborn closely, sensing his turmoil even without being able to see his face "Perhaps we should allow the medics to take care of Five-Eight. We can do no more for him now, and remaining here will serve no purpose."
Kelborn nodded, he wished to leave immediately, suddenly the room seemed small and oppressing. He quickly strode out of the room, Nala Se following closely behind him as Ulirii No remained behind to tend to Five-Eight.
Kelborn and Nala Se walked in silence, Kelborn not wishing to talk and Nala Se not knowing what to say to appease him.
The two turned a corner and were horrified by what they saw. Lying on the floor was a dead Kaminoan, his large blue eyes frozen open, stuck in an expression of fear. The Kaminoan had clearly been savaged by something, for the body was covered in large, bloody claw and bite marks. The arms bore the brunt of the wounds, as if the Kaminoan had tried-and failed-to defend himself. There was a large pool of blood surrounding his body, and it stood in shocking contrast to the sterile white floor.
They heard a growl and only then noticed that there was something beside the body. Digging into the body's side was an animal. It had six legs, leathery, wrinkled skin, a long, whip-like tail and a mouth full of razor sharp teeth. As of that moment, its maw was covered in blood and froth.
Kelborn knew exactly what the beast was, what it was called and who it belonged to. Lord Mirdalan, the pet strill of Sergeant Walon Vau. Unlike Skirata, Kelborn had a measure of respect for Vau. At least he treated his cadets like soldiers and not like children. Even so, Kelborn found many of Vau's training practices to be far too brutal. Making his cadets battle one another was one thing, Kelborn had no problem with sparring, but Vau would make them brutalise each other. And for those that didn't want to fight their brothers, they would have to fight Vau instead, and Vau fought with a heavy, viciously sharp beskad. And while Kelborn had no love for Ordo, even he found Vau setting Mird on him unprovoked to be cruel and unnecessary.
Kelborn stepped forward, unafraid and stared the strill down. It narrowed its eyes and bared it's fearsome teeth, a growl rising up in its throat.
"Sergeant! What-?" Nala Se began, only to trail off as Kelborn raised a hand to shush her.
The strill growled at Kelborn, blood and spittle dripping from its fanged maw, but Kelborn did not back down. Instead, he let out a shout of his own and kicked Lord Mirdalan solidly in the ribs. The beast let out a yelp of pain and skittered backwards, away from the corpse of the Kaminoan. It growled again, although this time it was weaker, pained.
"You caught me in a bad mood, you little shabuir," Kelborn hissed at the strill, before lunging forward again. He delivered a second kick to its ribs, harder than the first time. Lord Mirdalan let out a sharp cry, before turning tail and fleeing, whimpering in pain as it did so.
Kelborn sighed, before turning to the corpse on the ground. Kneeling down, he bent closer to examine it, taking his helmet off to do so.
"Oh my goodness!" Nala Se breathed, her hands pressed to her mouth, her wide silver eyes open in shock and horror.
"Did you know this man?" Kelborn asked, closing the dead Kaminoan's eyes, the large blue irises unseeing.
"His name is…was, Fi Nurto. He was a worker, he performed manual labour." Nala Se hesitated, before adding "He did not deserve this." There was a touch of anger in her voice, faint, almost unnoticeable.
Kelborn exhaled and closed his eyes "No, no he did not. I am sorry."
"I have seen that beast before, it is the companion of one of the instructors! A sergeant Walon Vau, the dreadfully violent man," Nala Se said, seemingly unable to tear her gaze away from Nurto's body.
Kelborn stood up "Yes, he is and yes, that monster is his pet. But that is something I hope to correct, very soon." At that, he put on his helmet and strode quickly, purposefully down the corridor, heading towards Vau's quarters.
"Vau! Get out here! Now!" Kelborn roared, pounding one fist on the door to the sergeant's quarters, the other fist clenched firmly and held behind his back.
There was a momentary pause, before the door opened and there stood a man clad head-to-toe in black beskar'gam. In his hands he held a coil of bandages, at his waist was a beskad, a Mandalorian blade. Kelborn was forced to take a step back, the room smelled awful. There was the sharp scent of strill, only stronger, likely due to Lord Mirdalan spending so much time there, combined with a lack of sufficient ventilation. That, and the salty smell of sweat and unwashed skin, only adding to Kelborn's theory that Vau really never took off his armour.
"What do you want, Kelborn? I'm busy," Vau said, brusquely, apparently not bothered by the stench.
Kelborn looked past Vau and into his room. On his bed he could see Lord Mirdalan, resting there and whimpering. Vau had wound bandages around his ribs, where Kelborn had struck him. Vau saw that Kelborn was looking at the strill and glanced back at the injured beast, before turning back to face Kelborn again.
"I'll kill Skirata when I get my hands on him. He did this because I set Mird on Ordo, I'm sure of it." Vau's hands clenched on the bandages he was holding "Make it quick, Kelborn."
"I'm here because we need to talk about your little pet," Kelborn said icily.
Vau suddenly seemed more alert and his body stiffened "What about Mird?" He asked, his voice low and dangerous.
"You need to keep it on a much shorter leash, Vau. Or else next time I might not let it off with a few cracked ribs."
Vau bristled "You did this to Mird?"
Kelborn crossed his arms "I see a savage animal having mauled a man to death, I tend to try to put it down."
He was playing a dangerous game, he knew. Skirata might not be willing to kill him for breaking Ordo's arm, but Vau had much less restraint than he did. Kelborn fully believed that Vau might kill him for hurting Mird. Glancing back into the room, he saw that Vau's beskad was easily within his reach, leaning against the wall near the door. If Vau wanted to, he could easily grab it and slit Kelborn's throat before he could react.
"What are you talking about?" Vau asked, and while Kelborn could not be sure, he was sure that Vau was eyeing his blade.
"Your pet killed one of the Kaminoan workers. Why, Vau? He was just a worker, not one of the scientists. What, did he look at you funny?" Kelborn asked, anger creeping into his voice.
Vau shrugged "Bad timing."
Kelborn blinked in surprise "What?"
Vau shot a glance back at Mird "I let him out to hunt, he gets restless otherwise. It's not like he killed a cadet, it was just a lowly Kaminii," Vau said simply.
"And that justifies that vermin killing an innocent being?!" Kelborn snapped, his hands clenched tightly.
"Why do you care, Kelborn? I doubt the Kaminiise will. Besides he was just one of the worker-caste. There's a million more like him, he's easily enough replaced."
Kelborn's blood boiled at Vau's callousness "His caste makes no difference! I care because, as I said, an innocent being died because your pet is a vicious little monster! Empathy might be a foreign concept to you, Vau, but some of us find the idea of people being mauled to death for no other reason than poor timing to be abhorrent!"
"Weakness, you mean? Softness?" Vau asked with derision.
"Compassion is not weakness, Vau. I don't know what happened to you to make you think otherwise, but you're wrong. If we abandon our ability to feel for others, we become no better than the Death Watch."
"You're comparing me to the Death Watch now?" Vau asked, a very slight note of incredulity to his voice.
"You let your pet loose, it killed a man and you don't care." Kelborn pointed out "Right now, you don't seem too different from them. Killing for killings sake, no rhyme or reason to it."
Vau crossed his arms "If you're trying to rattle me, you're out of luck. You might be used to getting under Skirata's skin, but you'll find that mine is much thicker."
Kelborn exhaled "So, I take it that you're going to keep letting that animal loose in the city?"
Vau shrugged "Perhaps. I wouldn't want Mird to get restless. And if he happens to kill any more lowly Kaminiise, well…I doubt anyone but you will care."
From under his helmet, Kelborn glared at Vau "Jaster would be disgusted with you. It was Mandalorians like you that he fought against. That we fought against. Psychotic thugs who thought they could get away with killing whenever they wanted to."
Vau did not move at all, and when he spoke, his tone was calm "I think we're done here, Kelborn."
And at that, he closed the door in Kelborn's face. He stood there for a minute, his hands clenched tightly into fists, his face pulled down in a deep scowl. After a moment, he turned and stormed off.
Arutiise: Non-Mandalorian, can also mean traitor.
Kandosii: Awesome, can also mean ruthless.
Shabuir: Extreme insult
Kaminiise: Kaminoans