"Hey Stubble, you okay?" The second Clone Trooper sat down next to the other. Neither soldier was in their armour, they were both in their 'casuals' which was code for a bodysuit you can wear outside armour.
"Yeah, I'm fine, just fine." The recently named Stubble lied, rubbing his eyes. The clone hadn't gotten much sleep, the memories of dying and screaming clones put off many. Omega surprised Stubble though, Stubble had expected a normal clone who was reminiscent of Kit, not pure evil, but sure of themselves, to the point of arrogance, but Omega? He was… different. Stubble had left his bunk and gone to the hangar just so he could be alone to cry, but he didn't foresee the obvious fact that there'd be others there. Stubble had originally thought that the three ARCs, 13, Blitz and Fordo were just mindless centurions, obeying any command that Omega gave them, but they offered Stubble a drink, a hug, and a new name. Most importantly however, the gave him a good night sleep.
"New jedi huh, you excited?" The other clone, Thrall, asked. Thrall was a friendly trooper, he may have painted his armour like Jango Fett, but it was simply honouring the hero.
"Thrall, what happens if we're forced between our Jedi and our brothers?" Stubble looked straight into Thrall's eyes.
"Well, I, I guess we gotta choose who matters more to us, the Jedi, or our brothers. What brought this on?" Thrall asked, genuine concern in his voice
"Nothing I guess, just, curious." The two stood up.
"Come on, don't want to be late for the jedi's 'coronation'." Thrall joked.
"Right, one question, where's the Armoury?" Stubble could feel his cheeks go red.
"Come on Stubble." Thrall laughed, patting his brother on the back.
"Hey! Omega!" The Clone Trooper identified as Bron was known for being excitable, easily excitable.
"Yes Bron?" FU-64, also known by his name Omega, asked the clone. Omega was walking through the main hangar. The two jedi assigned to the 501st had gone to Muunilust on other ships, and would be turning up in a private shuttle before meeting the 501st.
"Well, you see, I was just wondering, how are we greeting the Jedi? Are we gonna have a line with all the clones holding their guns above the Jedi's heads when they walk through, or are we gonna have-"
"Bron." Omega grabbed Bron's shoulders as Sarge snickered in the background. "Relax, it'll be easy, I'll greet them, you guys just wait in the background until I give you the signal, then you all introduce yourselves, and we're all friends." Sarge laughed harder at that. 140, who was sitting on a pile of crates slapped Sarge on the shoulder.
"Real helpful Sarge." 140 spat, to this Sarge just growled.
"Oi! You two, stop fighting. Also Sarge, watch the language, I don't care if most people don't understand Shyriiwook , if the Jedi catches you swearing…"
Sarge growled back in response.
"No, I don't care if you use Thykarann or Xacsik, Xaczik, that's how you pronounce it, Xaczik. Anyway, no swearing in any languages." Sarge, despite being fully armoured, as normal for Sarge, was obviously distraught.
"Sucker." 140 whispered to Sarge through their helmet's comms. Sarge simply threw a hand back, knocking over both 140 and the crates, Omega quickly made a mental note to make sure he could hear everything everyone wearing helmets say.
"My crates!" One of the support crew fell to the ground, on both his knees, and would have most likely started crying.
"Sarge, 140. You're cleaning that stuff up." Omega called out.
"Damnit." Sarge laughed sadistically at 140, ignoring their own role in cleaning up.
Two Clones walked out of a nearby LAAT, the two had more personalised paintjobs, different from the 501st blue that Omega had insisted on. The first, nicknamed Blitz, had painted the majority of the armour a sand like colour, painting a Krybes above in the middle of his pecs, a Mandalorian Iron heart above his own heart. Blitz had painted the legs and hands purple, along with the bottom of his helmet.
"Ah Blitz, Thirteen!" Omega shouted. The second clone had painted his armour with the rest of the Legion kept in mind, his helmet was mostly painted green with blue surrounding his visor, along with the fin on the top of his helmet, only the sides of which were yellow. With yellow stripes on his arms, above the 501st blue, which covered everything below his helmet, except for the stripes, his legs and the stomach. His knees still kept the 501st blue, while the rest of the legs were following the same yellow as the 7th legion's commanders did. His stomach however was painted in green. The two did have similarities such as their blue lined kama, or their green pauldrons that hid the Iron Heart painted on their armour.
"Hey boss." Thirteen sighed,
"We've scoped out Harnaidan, the capital city of Muunilust, here's the patrols we think would be best.." Blitz threw a Datacron at Omega who caught the square object.
"I'll look at these later, in the meantime, where is everyone?" Omega asked, putting the Datacron onto his belt.
"Skitz is already on the Gunship to Muunilust. His squad is working on finding out about those Droid sightings, if anyone asks, just routine patrols in the middle of nowhere." Blitz said, the two ARC troopers walking towards Omega and co.
"Buster and Chortles are on Skitz duty." Bron laughed.
"Don't forget poor Gaggy." Bonfire, one of the older Flame Troopers, laughed.
"Don't remind me about Gags." Thirteen muttered, feeling both bad for Gags and happy it wasn't him, before the realisation sunk that something worse was in store for him.
"Shotglass and his boys are on their way." Qrow said. Qrow was one of a few members in the 501st Legion allowed to painted his colour red compared to the normal Blue that Omega and seconds had decided. Sarge and Qrow were among the few allowed to have the Red paint, Killshot and Ure's squads were both allowed the Red paint, while all the troopers from Geonosis all had the Mandalorian Iron Heart painted over their heart.
"All of Twilight Company is supposed to attend this, are you sure Soundwave will have time to get down here with his men?" Phoenix, a skilled pilot, spoke up.
"Quick question," J spoke up. "it just Red marked who are meeting the Generals, or is it just specific Squads or…"
"J, it's mostly Red marked squads," Red marked squads were the few elites chosen to have red paint marked on their armour, this was usually because Omega had seen each member in action, or seen their report, and had seen fit to make a squadron out of elite troopers.. "but that doesn't mean I haven't asked some of the other squads to attend." Omega pat J on the head.
"Omega." The soldier in question raised his Wrist's comm to his head.
"Yes Soundwave?"
"Need men here, sending all leftover troops to jedi arrival." Soundwave always sounded Robotic, almost like a droid, the very foe that the Clones were made to destroy.
"Forget it Soundwave. It might be better if your man just stay there with you."
"As you command, Commander." Soundwave's deep and mechanical voice had a tendency to scare off most troopers, but not Omega, Omega actually liked Soundwave's voice.
"Alright men, I want this place to look respectable for when the jedi gets here." Omega announced, everyone already knew it, but it was good to remind people, keep it fresh in people's mind.
"Here, respectable?"
"Shut up Thirteen."
"As you command, Commander." Soundwave finished talking through his helmet's comms, a unique feature that only Soundwave had so far, although he was quickly making modifications for many other clones, including Omega and Killshot.
"Well?" Killshot was not a patient man, and he wasn't always polite.
"Modification coming soon, you first, whole team second." Soundwave was messing about with Killshot's helmet, it didn't look safe, but it wouldn't hurt Soundwave, and Soundwave was to careful to break Killshot's helmet. "Omega trusts us, do not fail him." Soundwave was blunt and harsh, but everything he said was true, Killshot was being trusted immensely, Omega didn't just give anyone the right to paint red on their armour. Killshot snickered at the thought of what would happen when it was revealed what Omega was doing.
"Do you think Omega's right to be worried about these new jedi?" Killshot wasn't good at most small talk, he was trained to kill, he was a fighter, not a lover.
"The council cannot be trusted." Soundwave merely replied.
"I still can't believe they would be so willing to let the Kaminoans kill Omega." The Kaminaons and the Jedi council had talked, and the Kaminoans wanted Omega's head. Omega was FU-64, Failed unit sixty-four, of course for the Kaminoans they couldn't stand the idea of a Failed Unit being in charge of any clones, and since Jango wasn't able to stop the Kaminoans… It was lucky that Chankar Kim had stepped in.
"There will be Jedi we can trust," The female Pantoran, Chankar Kim immediately fell into Killshot's head again, "but remain vigilant."
"I understand." Killshot said, raising an arm as one of Soundwave's little runs ran past, carrying something for Soundwave.
"Here you are Soundwave." The small Clone should have been too young to be with Soundwave and the rest of the 501st, Killshot immediately wondered why the young child was there, the child was far from alone, there was another child tinkering in the back, obviously trying to emulate Soundwave's actions, while an Ashari Panther and a Shriek-hawk was also messing about in Soundwave's lab.
"Good job Rumble." Soundwave said, ruffling the small Clone's hair, the clone in question then rna off to talk to his brother, the two together making a large noise just talking. Seeing Killshot's raised eyebrow, Soundwave explained.
"Rumble and Frenzy are the top Cadets, as a reward they were sent here, to learn, Omega assigned them to me." Killshot thought back to his days back on Kamino, he had been exactly what the Kaminoans had wanted, ruthless, cunning, a good leader, but Killshot wasn't exactly happy with how the training sessions were being run, so because Killshot stood up to the Kaminoans he was thrown away from having a chance at a good rank, and thrown to the bottom of the chain, but then Omega had seen Killshot's strength and then…
"And the animals?" Killshot looked to the two beasts playing with each other.
"Rescued at Geonosis, experimentation to make them sentient." Soundwave didn't look up from Killshot's helmet.
"Did it work?" The two beasts stopped playing with each other and began eyeing the two younger clones.
"Yes." The two beasts suddenly swopped and jumped at the clones, who laughed when they all fell to the ground. It was enough to put a smile on Killshot's face.
"You aren't worried about them getting hurt are you?" Killshot asked Soundwave. Soundwave suddenly stopped tinkering with Killshot's helmet, and looked straight at the clone.
"Of course I am."
"You aren't jealous are you Admiral?" Chankar Kim was on a power chair, hovering along one of the Venator's Pearly white halls, along with a small Clone escort. Dredge and Nihilist were part of the Red Marked, Nihilist had all but forgottenthat he was supposed ot have blue on his armour, he only had a few bits of blue blobs on his armour, mostly above scars and scratches on his armour, Dredge was similar to Nihilist in that regard, only having a bit more Blue on his own armour.
"Really Moon?" Nihilist wasn't known for extensive conversations, he wasn't even known to speak up unless specifically asked to, but even he drew the line at asking a wounded warrior if they were alright with someone replacing them.
"It'll be fine Moon." Chankar Kim attempted to assure her clones, looking back at them with a smale on her face, if CT-1955-18 almost believed her, almost. At the battle of Geonosis Chankar Kim had led the 501st team, led by Omega down into Geonosis caves, something about stopping Geonosis Cloning. Apparently Kim and Omega had run into some of Chankar Kim's old friends, the 'friends' had apparently joined the Separatists, almost lethally wounding Chankar Kim, and escaping.
"I just thought you know, you were the Jedi General of the entirety of the 501st Legion, but now some other Jedi are taking over, I just thought you'd be kind of angry that you the Council had decided you should be an Admiral, I mean they sounded like they were just going to pawn you off to another Legion when you healed, I-" Dredge, the fourth and final member of Chankar Kim's escort suddenly grabbed Moon by his shoulders and began shaking him.
"Dig up, DI'kut." Moon managed to get out of Dredge's grasp.
"Alright, alright, geeze, I just ask a few harmless questions, and I-" Moon began.
"Moon," Chankar Kim looked back to Moon, "shut up." If there was one super power CT-1955-18 wished he had, it was the ability to see Moon's face underneath the nearly unpainted helmet.
The group of five continued walking, until they came to a turbolift, entering they waited until they appeared at the Bridge.
"Admiral," CT-1955-18 saw something was wrong with Chankar Kim, and she wasn't trying to hide it this time, "are you okay?"
"I, just don't feel well, a bad feeling in my stomach." Chankar Kim explained, "I just have a bad feeling about the new Jedi." The Clones on the rest of the ship may not have been able to hear her, minus Soundwave and a communications officer on the bridge who simply ignored the conversation and knew better than to listen to a Jedi's conversation respectively, but they felt the same as their Jedi General turned Admiral. Some tried to stay optimistic, but they all knew something was coming, something bad.