Death In Clone Armor
By: Nicholas Parnello
PROLOGUE As the gunship descended upon the hell torn planet of Geonosis. I looked down in shock; for all those years I had spent in simulators and training programs on Kamino never truly prepared me for the reality of war it never prepared me to deal with what I was about to face.
Chapter 1: The Horrors of War
This was it my first real battle. I can t wait. Those where some of the thoughts going through my head upon landing on Geonosis. But all my excitement and enthusiasm where quickly and violently extinguish.
(I checked my blaster; working. Armor; sealed. Comm; working.)
The blast doors open to the gunship. I stepped out and was immediately struck with a spray of red liquid. It clung to my armor like a minock on an exposed circuit, I wanted to figure out what it was but a blaster shot to my left forearm jolted me back to reality. I dropped into a kneeling crouch and examined the wound; I felt no pain and that meant it hadn t gotten through my armor. A quick check tells me that s the case. I then raise my blaster and scan the outlaying rocks for signs of the enemy, but all I see are my fellow clones, some dead, some still fighting. I lower my blaster and I see that strange red liquid on my armor, then I realize that it was blood. I look up and I see the mangled body of one of my fellow clones. (Or what s left of him) It appears one of my he took a rocket straight to his chest, his legs where all that where left of him and his blood was splattered across the Geonosian landscape like an artist s paintbrush on a clean canvas. I hear a yell off to my right and I look to see a clone yelling for me to move my ass. I run toward him and I reach him just when his head gets blown off by a blaster shot. Blood splatters across my visor, my fight or flight instinct kicks in and I decided to fight, I turn and see the rusty grey image of a battle droid marching toward me with its blaster raised. I quickly raise my blaster and I shoot the damn droid in the head. As its smoldering remains collapsed to the ground I turned and started making my way through the rocks and caves that covered Geonosis.
Medic we need a med His plea for help was cut short by an explosion. I turn the corner of a large out cropping of rocks to the sight of a group of clones fighting a losing battle against a small contingency of droids and geonoshins. I rush over to the other clones. One of them turns and sees me running toward them he turns back to his squad and tells them to provide cover fire for me. As I duck behind a small boulder blaster fire burns the air where I had been standing moments ago, I wait till the blaster fire stops and then I make a run for the group of clones. I reach them just when one of the troopers takes a shot right to his left eye. There is a hollow clank as the blaster bolt ricochets inside his helmet, when it finally dissipated his head swung forward and he collapsed in a dead heap with blood seeping from the point where the shot entered his head. Another clone replaced him. I see a crashed gunship with one wing impaled into the ground and its other wing was twisted and distorted to the point that if it wasn t connected to the rest of the ship you wouldn t be able to identify it. As I look closer I see the glowing blue lights of the ships side mounted energy lasers firing controls, I turn to the group s leader, a clone who seemed to have taken a blaster shot to his side and shoulder, and I yell over the sound of the blaster fire. I realize he can t hear me so I crouch down and crawl over to him so that I don t make myself a target for the droids. I reach him in about ten seconds and I sit down next to him. He looks at me and I point at the gunships laser cannon and he understands what I was saying, he moves his arms in rapid motions telling the other troopers to fire at the droids with all they have until I reach the cannon. He gives me a countdown of when to go; 3 2 1 he forms a fist and I take off running I run across the gravel as if it where air, my only thought was to get to that cannon. I reach it and I grasp the edge of its twisted cage and pivot inward to see that the cannon WAS indeed still operational! I hear a crackle over my comlink; Trooper we need that cannon we can t hold them much longer! I proceeded to climb into the controls of the cannon. I looked down at the cannons controls and I begin to maneuver the weapons targeting reticule at the group of droids firing on the clones. I pull the firing yoke and the cannon releases its deadly energy right into the droids position. As the energy from the cannon ripped the droids into pieces I look down to see the other clones making their way towards me. When they finally reached me I had already depleted the cannons energy. I released the firing yoke and climbed out of the cannons cockpit, I looked over to see the other troopers waving for me to follow them, and I step out of the cockpit and start walking towards them. When I reach them I couldn t help but look back, was that a person standing in the shadows of the crashed gunship? No I m just seeing things I tell myself .One of the other clones sees me looking back and asks me What are you looking at? I turn to him and say Nothing just thought I saw No it was nothing.
Chapter 2: Nightfall
We walked for around 4-5 minutes. We were making our way over a mound of rocks, but when I came around the corner I found myself face to face with a battle droid. I attempted to raise my blaster, but the droid was faster, I see a flash of light, I feel warm, I grabbed my stomach and I look down to see my armored hands covered in blood. I try to breath, it hurt. My vision was blurring, I fell to my knees. Everything seemed to be going in slow motion. I lift my head to see the other troopers blasting the droid that shot me. It got harder to breath, I raise one of my blood soaked gauntlets up to my face and I pull my helmet off, I thought to myself if I m going to die I want to at least feel the warmth of a sun and the wind on my face , I get my helmet off but I feel no warmth. I smile, I realize it was night. I take a shallow breath, and then I black out.
Chapter 3: Like a dream
I'm falling, falling through the blackness of space. I hit something, I open my eyes, and I was sprawled out on the cold duresteal of one of the republics battle cruisers. I raise my head and I see the shadows of figures standing in front of me. I hear the sound of blasters powering up and armor clanking together. I realize I was surrounded. I see a blaster on the ground within reach, I act purely on instinct. I grab the blaster and I spin around expecting to see the face of a battle droid staring at me but what I see sends a jolt of confusion and fear through me. It wasn t a droid standing behind that blaster, the thing holding the blaster was a clone! I looked into his T-shaped visor; I see his finger tighten around the blasters trigger. He pulls the trigger. My head slams into the deck. My eyes begin to lose focus, I looked around the hanger trying to find a way away from the trooper, but across the hanger floor I see something, something that made me cringe. I see that same figure from the crashed gunship looking straight at me, it moved forward, and I woke up.
***
CIS chief science officer Barren Hund, for biological weapon 1287G-7624B codenamed: Gamma virus.
Barren woke up to the sounds of hazard alarms going off. He jolted out of his bunk, and pulled on his science robe and headed for the door of his chamber, he pressed the open switch on the door. It opened to a group of battle droids marching down the hallway with containment gear being dragged behind them. He looked to the other end of the hallway to see his fellow scientist and friend Nib-Oren, a Twi lek male looking out of his door. Barren walked over to Nib who was attempting to find a clean robe You know what s going on Nib? Nib responds with a dull grunt showing that he had just woken up I don t know, none of the security personnel are telling me anything and those stupid droids are of no use. Barren walked over to the access port at the side of Nib s room. Let me check the security reports. Nib made a short grunt and waved him on. Barren gets the terminal running and activates the counsel s internal speakers and activates the security report. WARNING ALL PERSONNEL ARE TO GET TO THE CONTAMINATION ROOMS IMMEDIATELY. Barren looked at Nib who had just found a clean robe. We better get going Nib grabbed his blaster pistol and looks at Barren who was looking at him with a look of concern. What? Barren just because I grab my blaster doesn t mean I m going to need it. Now let s get going. Barren and Nib-Oren were discussing what might have tripped the hazard alarm when a security guard runs up to them with two super-battle droids behind him. You guys need to follow me right now! Barren looks at the two droids and looks back at the guard and says Do we have a choice? the guard replies with an irritated No you don t! We have to go NOW there going to completely lock down this area in 3 minutes. Nib says in a concerned voice The only thing that could cause the base to go into complete lockdown would be the Gamma virus. Nib let s go! Barren said grabbing his arm. The guard looked at his data-pad and said Follow me!
***
I was floating, my eyes felt heavy, I couldn t move. I realized I was in a bacta tank; its cold embrace was familiar to me seeing as how I was injured several times during live fire training. I manage to raise my head and look out of the tanks cylinder. The ships medical bay was a mess. I notice that one of the ships medical staff was trying to get my attention, I looked at him and he held up a data-pad and pressed it against the cylinders surface. As my eyes focused on its screen I read do you feel any pain? I look back to the medics face and I make an attempt to shake my head. The medic pulls the data-pad away from the tank to type up another question. When he pressed the pad back up to the tank I couldn t help but notice that he was a combat medic. My attention goes back to the data-pad, you took a shoot in the stomach at point blank. We don t know the full extent of the damage but we fear there may be some damage to your spine. Can you move your head back and forth for me? I make an attempt to move my head again and I feel a sudden jolt off pain go through my spine, which meant that my spine wasn t damaged by the blaster shot. I make another attempt to move my head and this time I fight back the pain. The medic held the data-pad back up to me with the words okay, you can stop; you ll be fine you just need some rest . I begin to move my head again but this time the pain is overwhelming and I blackout again.
Barren reaches the door a second before Nib. As he entered the codes to the security room he could hear the security guard and his droids walking up behind him. The door opened and they rushed in. After they were inside the door engaged its containment protocols and sealed shut.
Barren turned around to see four of the stations security chiefs standing around a security council. One of them turned around and motions for him and Nib to come over to him. When Barren and Nib reached the guard he moved over to the side so that they could see what they were all looking at, the screen in which they were watching showed the entire base and what its inhabitants where doing. Barren turned to Nib and he knew what he was about to say.
I wake up on a bunk in the cruisers crew quarters. My head was throbbing. As I stood up I felt a sharp pain in my back, although not as intense as in the bacta tank. I walked over to the nearest locker and got my armor, the ships staff did a good job of cleaning it up but there was still large clumps of dust in the helmets breathe filter. I put on my armor and attempted to clean the stuff out of my helmet. After around eight minutes of trying to clean my helmet I gave up and decided to walk around for a little bit.
As I walked through the ships corridors I get a sense of being alone, the only other things inhabiting the corridors where mouse droids and even an R2 unit here and there. I see another clone hastily walking towards me, I stop him and ask hey where is everyone? he slows down to a fast walk to say everyone s ether in the command center or the hanger. The trooper then continued walking by me to do whatever it was he was doing. I choose to go down to the command center to see when I was going back down to the planet s surface.
Nib looked at him and said how did it get out? Barren was already at the monitor when Nib asked the question. One of the guards came over to him and asked what are you doing? Barren responded with a quick grunt of I need to see the security monitor for the test labs. the guard moved over to Barrens left and pressed in a series of numbers and brought up the monitor for the Gamma virus test room. The room in which the test subjects where held in was a circular room with a central pit in which you needed to use a turbo lift to access and the only way to activate the entrance lift was from the labs observation deck, which was located directly above the pit.
As the monitors screen came into focus Barren saw something that he would never truly understand; the test subjects which where medically declared dead two days ago where walking around the room. Barren saw one of them trying to crawl out of the pit by grabbing the leg of a table; they were running at the walls of the room using there lifeless body s as battering rams. Barren realized that they were trying to get out of the room. He turned his head and saw that Nib had moved to his side and was staring at the screen in amazement. Barren turned back to the screen just in time to see one of the things breaking through the room s door and run into the hallway. Barren switched to the hallways security camera it was moving at a quick walk and it looked like it was sniffing the air. Now that barren could actually see the man in better light he realized that he didn t quiet look like a man at least not anymore; His eyes where bloodshot, and his nose was partially scratched off, his lower jaw was dislocated, and his left leg appeared to have been snapped in half and his skin was decomposed to the point that it was sliding off the bones. It started slamming himself against the door to the crew quarters. The door was not built like the security doors Barren was currently behind and he could tell it was going to give soon, the only question was, what would happen after it did. Barren didn t have to wait long to find out. When the door gave the thing went running in, there was a man in a bio-hazard suit with two battle droids standing beside him, the man turned to see what was going on when the thing slammed its dead corpse onto him the man tried pushing the thing off but it had managed to pin him down. Barren wanted to look away but he couldn t. The thing bit the man s arm and tore a fist size chunk of mussel off and started devouring it like some starved beast, the thing then continued to rip through the man s bio-suit and tear his stomach in half. It shoved its head into the man s innards and started eating him alive from the inside out. The man was screaming up until the thing that was attacking him bit into his neck and severed his jugular. The droids where standing over the thing as it was eating there former master not sure about what to do, one of the droids decided the thing that was one of its former leaders was a threat. It raised its blaster and fired and the man s corpse but the blaster shoot went right through the creature and appeared to have only pissed it off, the thing flew at the droid holding the man s leg in its hand using it like a club to beat the droids head in. then another of the things came into the room and joined the other in eating its meal. Barren turned the screen off and turned to the other men in the room and yelled What the hell was that!? The security guards looked at him and one of them said we were hoping you and your friend could tell us.
Chapter 4: Decontamination
Barren looked at the guards and said in shock Why would I know what those things are!? the guards looked nervously at one another and then the same guard said A few hours ago your tests subjects started twitching. We didn t think much of it until they started to move around and that s when we activated the lockdown . Barren turned to Nib who was fiddling around with his head tendrils, which he only did when he was nervous. The same guard was about to say something else when there was a loud bang on the door. Barren jumped back in surprise and he saw all the guards raise their blasters to the door. The banging was insistent and it went on for what felt like minutes until one of the guards had the sense of mind to look at the security screen to see what was outside of the door. When he brought up the screen Barren saw it was another scientist whose name he didn t remember. He was holding his side and had a panicked look on his face. Barren looked at the guards and said we have to let him in the guard captain shook his head and walked over to the doors controls and stood in front of them. Barren looked at Nib and then back at the guard captain then he said we can t just leave him out there! the captain shook his head again He might be infected and I m not risking the lives of everyone in this room just for him. said the guard with a tone that left no room for argument...