Author's notes:
Chapter 2 is out. It focuses on the rescue of Bravo Squad, followed by them having a party at the Kragget and getting into trouble. Meanwhile, a character from Desertion has a briefing with the Chancellor and Kofer, leading to the revelation of a plot against the Naboo government.
Star Wars is owned by Lucasfilm, I only own the laptop this was written on
This Fanfic is influenced by the Republic Commando Series by Karen Traviss.


"Kriffing zero-g training. I hate this osik. I'm a
Commando, not Major Tom."

- RC-1626, 25BBY


Slick walked back into the cockpit where he sat in the pilot's seat. He flicked a few buttons that caused the door to seal shut behind him. Satisfied that he wasn't going to get sucked out into the space. He pressed the big red button next to him.

Kofer was launched out into the darkness of space, with only a rope to secure her to the ship. Using the prototype spacesuit's jetpack, she carefully launched her way towards the Javert. She could see the T-visor of the Commandos inside staring back at her, glowing a luminous blue in the blacked out wreckage. She landed against the side of the station, removing a circular device and placing it on the hull.

"You boys might wanna wear your helmets and seal your suits," she warned as she pushed herself away from the hull back towards the TIV. Slick was looking at her through the viewport, nodding his helmeted head, as he was impressed by her abilities. It was as though the Force was with her. As he turned back to fly the ship, his radar started whining, declaring that they were approaching an asteroid field.

Kofer was about to hit the detonator for the circular device to start cutting its way through the hull when a piece of space rock hit her palm. The five of them watched in horror as she unfurled her palm to reveal the shattered detonator. Fortuantely, the suit didn't get punctured, so she guessed R&D did keep their word. Unfortuantely, Bravo Squad thought they were doomed, with For shutting his eyes sadly until an explosion rocked the station. Some tiny little rocks rushed threw the fuselage, bouncing off their armor but depressurizing the station.

"Fierfek! What was that?" Falco demanded as the wreckage rocked as though it was possessed. Nuts threw himself back to the terminal, reading the damage report.

"Sarge, we've suffered a collision since we are in the middle of an asteroid belt. Slick shoulda told us we were headed towards one one."

"It's not my fault!" Slick howled as he realigned the TIV with the station.

"It hit the shabla oxygen tank directly beneath of us. We're already depressurized and lost all the air. So we've only got five minutes of air in our reserve tanks left," he paused, biting his lower lip. "I'm sorry, Sarge. We aren't gonna make it."

The comm suddenly fell silent like a graveyard. Even Kofer, who managed to reattach herself to the hull, felt suddenly depressed. Suddenly, the rest of Bravo started to yelp over the comm. She could clearly hear Cryer and For yelling that they were going to die while the other two were trying to maintain order. She started to close her eyes, trying to manipulate their minds in order to calm the squad down when she noticed the hole in the side of the wreckage. It was just big enough for a human infant to fit through. Thinking quickly, she managed to calm up with a plan.

"For, there's a hole right below you. Can you see it? The structure should be now much weaker."

There was silence on the comm as the Commando slowly made his way downwards. He spotted the hole and started to fix it when he realized Kofer's plan. He pulled out his grenade launcher attachment and started to fix it to his DC-17 when he felt someone ram against him and snatch it out of his hands.

"Cryer, what the kriff are you doing?! Give it back to me! It's our only ticket out of here."

"What do you mean? The explosion can kill us, along with Kofer and possibly send debris through the TIV's viewport and through Slick's head. That means that we'll have six dead bodies on our hands."

"Thanks, guys. I didn't know you ever cared about me…" they heard Slick jab quietly through the comm.

"Better to die attempting to escape than for all of us to burn up in the atmosphere," For muttered as he raised his fist and punched Cryer in the face. The impact sent him tumbling backwards into Falco and Nuts, who grabbed hold of Cryer's arms. He started to thrash around as For finally fixed the attachment and fired a shot straight at the area surrounding the hole.

The detonation caused the starboard side of the station to detonate. Miraculously, no one was hurt as the blast was contained by something. A beep went through Nuts' helmet, and he gave a shriek that they only had two minutes of air in their tanks left. Pulling themselves out of the opening, they met Kofer, who gave them all a thumbs-up before she ordered them to grip each other's hands tightly, forming a chain with Nuts at the end. She pressed a button on her belt, causing the line to start retracting itself into the TIV's bay.

The Commandos started to cheer, even though they left half of their gear back inside the station as it started to plummet towards the planet. Nuts looked at it in awe, noticing that it slowly started to melt in the atmosphere, for lack of a better word. He heaved a sigh of relief when he heard Slick bellow a warning before flinging the TIV into a barrel roll. The force of the roll was so strong that it caused Nuts to lose his grip and send him flying into outer space. The others yelled in horror as the slicer started to frantically shake his limbs, noticing that he had run out of oxygen.

Knowing that he had maybe a minute before he blacked out, Nuts started to make his peace with the world. He dreamt of an afterlife filled with warra nuts and plenty of nerfs to make steaks from when he felt someone tugging him. He closed his eyes and breathed calmly, thinking that he was already dying. Nuts started to black out just as he felt himself slam into a floor, followed by a door closing and a hissing noise. Someone ripped off his helmet, allowing some light to shine into his face before he heard his own voice yell out his name as he felt himself start to walk towards it.

"Nuts!"


"Nuts! Wake Up! This isn't a game, shabuir! I said wake up!" Falco ordered the Commando loudly as he slapped his face in a desperately.

The Ranger was already in hyperspace back towards Coruscant. Before they jumped, Kofer had called ahead and told Arca Barracks to prepare a surgical team in case they needed to treat Nuts for asphyxiation. Right now, the rest of Bravo crouched around their unconscious brother, restless to get him up.

Kofer, on the other hand, stood in the corner taking the spacesuit off her as though it was burning. She had used the Force in front of them to pull Nuts into the Ranger, even though the Chancellor had given her a direct order that she could not use it in front of any Clone, whether Trooper or Commando. She was praying that Palpatine would not find out and execute the Squad as well as Slick. Wiping the sweat off her head, she turned back and clambered in the space suit towards the Squad.

"Vod. Listen. If you don't wake up, I'm gonna eat all your kriffing Nuts," For snapped at Nuts before Cryer remembered something he had seen Vau do. With a sense of determination, he removed his canteen and dumped its content onto Nuts' head. The slicer did not react until a few moments later, when he waved his hands in front of his face and spoke.

"No… not now. Five more minutes, please," he mumbled incoherently as he turned over in his unconscious state and curled into a ball, with his hands under his head. For, Cryer, Falco, and Kofer stared at him before looking at each other before bursting out into laughter. It was always good to laugh about something even in the darkest of times. Wiping a tear out of her eye, Kofer walked towards the cockpit of the TIV to join Slick while the rest of Bravo lingered around in the crew compartment. She heard Cryer yell that he had an idea as she heard a cap being removed from its marker.

Kofer sat in the cockpit seat next to Slick, who remained silent as he stared ahead in an obvious attempt to not make any conversation. She sensed a sense of suspicion radiating off of him. Kofer suddenly remembered how tired she was, and that it was about forty hours since she got any sleep. Closing her eyes, she heard Falco whispering angrily to For and Cryer, who were trying to stifle their giggles.

"So… you're a Force user, huh?"

She opened her eyes and saw Slick looking right at her, his black T-visor unmoving. Kofer felt the hair on the back of her neck stand as she pondered how to respond to his awkward question. Finally, she relented and decided to reveal the truth.

"Yes. Look, you can ostracize me all you want, but it was either I keep it a secret or I let Nuts di…"

"Listen, Kofer. I don't care whether you're a kriffin' Twi'lek or a lightsaber jockey. I'm not gonna cut off all ties with you; only lowlifes do that," he scratched his fingers against his helmeted nose. "Remember what I told you on Geonosis, Colonel? You're one of the vode. You're family now. And we don't leave family behind. 'Sides, I already figured it out after you threw 1992 at the wall, the di'kut."

She paused before asking, "You think Bravo knows the truth?"

"Too be honest, I think they either do know it, or they don't give two osiks. The only thing they gave a damn about at that moment was whether or not Nuts was gonna turn into a kriffin' block of ice in space," Slick paused before reaching into his belt and throwing a candy bar at her. "Here's a bar. Thanks for bailing me out earlier. Your secret's safe with me."

Kofer looked down at the candy bar, which was wrapped in an orange material. She knew what one of these things meant to the pilot. "Thanks, Slick."

"You're welcome, Colonel. By the way, do you have a way of pulling that wreck out from the planet's surface? If I were doing spook osik, no offense, by the way, I'd install a backup program for every bit of information that makes contact with the terminals." Slick suggested while he set the Ranger to autopilot.

She thought about it for a moment. The Javert was one of nine new outposts set up across the galaxy, so it should have a server somewhere on it. The only problem was that the planet, Dani, leaked poison gas, so she had to send a droid to recover it. She started to hear a ruckus come from the crew bay and decided to investigate it.

"Yeah, I got a contact in RepIntel. Maybe he can pull something off," she remarked as she stood up and started to walk back towards the cargo when she stopped. "You ought to be a spook, Slick. You're better at that than being a pilot."

"Meh, I rather be the delivery man," Slick grinned at her before kicking his feet up on the console and leaning back to sleep. She noticed that his presence was now much more calmer, like he got something off his chest. She let out a grin as she started to walk back towards the crew compartment. She joined Falco in slapping her palm against her forehead, only in her case she was trying not to laugh out loud at the stupidest sight she'd ever seen. For and Cryer were rolling on the floor laughing at Nuts' face, on which a handlebar moustache and a pair of goggles were drawn.

Clones were weird, but at least they made life more interesting.


2 months after the Javert incident
The Kragget

The rest of the Clones were busy talking with one another, but Nuts was too busy to care as he wolfed down the roba steak in front of him. He flashed a thumbs-up at the passing Twi'lek waitress, who smiled back at him. The Kragget was stuffed to the brim with both CSF and Clones, seeing as Skirata had both organized shore leave for them as well as finding an unofficial hangout spot for the CSF.

It was about two months since that failed operation on the Javert. So far as the squad knew, Kofer had organized a few teams of droids to go down and pick through the debris. It seemed that moments after they launched, the rest of the station turned itself towards the planet to crash there. It didn't take a genius to realize that they were dumping the evidence, but the crash didn't have the impact they expected.

Crash-site Dani was a crater in the middle of the toxic wasteland of a planet. The crewmembers' bodies had been burnt up on entry into the atmosphere, making it impossible for anyone to identify them. Nuts felt sad for them and their families. Even from his limited perspective on life, he knew how important family meant. He kept having dreams of a Republic official having to go to their houses in the dead of the night to inform them of their parent's, spouse's, child's death. But not getting a body for the funeral? That was a killer.

Of course, RepIntel would find a way to cover it up. They would probably say they died defending the Republic, all that usual osik that'll give the families some relief. Nuts sipped on his caf as he looked around the room. He noticed a few Weequays, bounty hunters, probably, lingering at the table next to theirs while pounding on the backs of one of their buddies. He obviously had too much to drink, his speech slurring and as loud as a larty. Nuts turned back and ignored him, more interested in his brother's bragging to Tango Squad.

"… Then, there was only one way to save him. So I launched an ascension cable to him, and funnily enough, it hit him in the gett'se! He was literally dragged back to the Ranger by his 'precious goods'!" Cryer whooped as the rest of the table, save for Falco, who was playing with his food, broke out in laughter. The sight of an unconscious Nuts being dragged back to a TIV was funny enough, even though Bravo knew he was lying. As the laughter died down, Cryer grabbed his brother by his shoulder and stood up. He lifted his glass of tihaar into the air and bellowed, "To Nuts, may your nuts be forever protected! And your handlebar be forever long! Oya!"

"Oya!" the rest of the table echoed, gulping down their drinks and smashing the glasses back into the table. The drink burnt his throat, causing Nuts to cough as For giggled in his seat. Nuts had a passionate hatred for tihaar, even though it was practically Mandalorian custom to drink it. His hatred could be traced back to Kamino, when Falco had 'accidentally' passed him a cup of the thing after his 24 hour PT session and pretended that it was water. In his state of exhaustion, he didn't bother to look in it and gulped it down in one shot. It was so spicy that Nuts had to go and see Gilamar over his throat.

One of the other Commandos at the table spoke up. "I shouldn't say this so loudly, but why's it always you guys being sent on black-bag ops? Tango Squad's only been sent on one, and that was the transfer of a bunch of prisoners," Sixer whined while his squad sergeant, Pulp, took the bottle of tihaar to pour himself another shot.

"Probably 'cause you guys are osik at everything," For flatly stated with a serious look on his face before bursting out into laughter. Falco grabbed him and started to drag him out of the booth towards the toilet. The squad had already memorized his actions and knew that he was flat-out drunk, probably about to puke. While they stood up to leave the table, For collapsed to the ground, where a pool of drool started to form almost immediately. Falco rolled his eyes at the sight. It was clearly going to be a long day.

"Oi! Clone! Get that abomination of the floor! It's killin' the mood!" That gravelly voice was clear over the other loud voices in the restaurant. Every conversation died down, the CSF cops becoming noticeably becoming more wary of the swing of atmosphere. One of the Weequay's was pointing his long, grey finger at Falco. Tango and Bravo stared back in response, frozen like a nerf in the headlights. It was always rude and insulting to get called a Clone, as though they were some kind of animal.

Pulp, the sergeant of Tango, stood up and walked over to the Weequay's table. He was a lot more bulky than the average Commando. Pulp worked out in the gym as much as he could, often being referred to as the Gym Freak of Arca Barracks. He raised his arms in an attempt at peace as he loomed over the twelve Weequays. "Listen, buddy. I'm in a good mood, so let's keep calm, eh? Whaddaya say I buy you another round of drinks to make up for my vod's mistakes, eh?"

The rest of the restaurant murmured in agreement, as it was the way one made peace with another table if things got bad. Pulp turned to look for the waitress, only to hit the ground as a bottle narrowly missed his head and smashed into the ceiling where it shattered to pieces.

"Why don't you go stick that idea where the sun don't shine, abomination? You're bred to obey a Republic citizen. Guess what? I am a citizen. And keep your mando nonsense to yourself, you brainless lab product," the Weequay slurred as he and his gang stood up. At least they were an honorable bunch, for Weequays, not drawing their blasters on any of the Clones. The tension started to get worse as Pulp pulled himself off the floor silently, with Sixer gulping in horror at the look on his Sergeant's face. There was a reason why he was called Pulp, and it was because he had a temper and smashed everyone's face when it came to CQC. Naturally, he would always stop whenever Skirata yelled 'check', but the contractor wasn't here.

The Weequay and Pulp had a staring match, their eyes locked in each other as the rest of the restaurant silently watched on. Nuts noticed from the little movement that a few CSF officers removing their hold-out blasters from their holsters and placing them on their laps. Both parties did not react until the Weequay spat on Pulp's boots and started to walk out of the Kragget. Pulp finally lost his cool as he grabbed the alien and slammed him into the table. The others Weequays started to swarm him as the Commando grabbed a bottle and smashed it into the flailing Weequay's skull.

"Falco and the rest of Tango looked at each other, nodding their heads before clambering over to help Pulp. Cryer and Nuts, on other hand, remained at the table. The former was busy pouring more of the tihaar into his glass.

"Should we help them?" Nuts loudly asked over the scuffle.

"… Nahhhhh. Look. CSF's already intervening," Cryer pointed out the five cops entering the fray.


Chancellor's office

Kofer sat with her fingers interlocked while she looked up at the ceiling. She was waiting for the other RepIntel officer to shift his shebs and come down quickly. Palpatine could sense she was getting more and more agitated by the second. He sighed as he looked at the chrono, which indicated the officer was already late by ten – no, eleven – minutes. Despite the fact that this officer was already one of his Hands, Palpatine noted that he should have a chat with him later.

"Sorry I'm late," Staffen said as he burst into the room, dumping the files stuffed with flimsi notes onto the table. "Traffic was horrible. A lot of speeder lanes got shut down, again. It's a nightmare out there, sir."

"Apology accepted, Lieutenant. Anything you want to report on the Javert?"

"Yes, sir," Staffen proceeded to hand out two of the three briefing files to Kofer and the Chancellor. The file was at least four centimeters thick, with a "top-secret" label marking on its cover. Kofer sighed as she flipped through it, thinking that it was going to take the bureaucratic Staffen ages to get through this material. The Lieutenant cracked his knuckles before licking his finger and flipping the file open, causing Kofer to open her mouth in disgust. She and Staffen shared a rivalry for approval of the Chancellor, and she privately wondered what he saw in him.

"Okay. My droids managed to search through the wreckage of the crash site on Dani and they found the black box. Luckily, the two Clones, CT-2100 and CT-9183, didn't completely thrash the system. The transmission was successively saved, but half the data was lost in the crash. The code breakers managed to decipher the data, and it has something to do with a terror cell targeting the Morr family, of Naboo."

The mention of her old family's name was like a stab through Kofer's heart. Her hands started to tremble as Palpatine turned to look towards her. Sweat was dripping off her face and tears started to fill her eyes as she started to remember her past. Her eyes turned to stare back at the Chancllor's. The Morr family was one of the richest on Naboo. Her mother, Kali Morr's, business was primarily agricultural, with occasional funding towards building speeders. She knew that her father, Rog Morr, played in an integral part in Naboo politics, being one of the Queen's advisors.

Staffen, on the other hand, took no notice of Kofer's pale face and continued his briefing. "The Morr family's got some big event coming up, apparently. Something to do with their younger daughter getting married." Another stab to the heart. "The background of this terror group's mission is to disrupt it, and kill Rog Morr, the head of the family. He's an advisor to the queen."

"As for other… interesting points on the Morrs, their elder daughter disappeared off the grid, but her friends have told my contact on Naboo that they sent letters to her current address. Her family is still trying to thaw the ice between them, as they apparently gave her away to the Jedi Council. She left the Order, by the way. Other records indicate that she owned a pet Bantha and her family still keeps a picture of her as a toddler in their living room." A shot to her head. Her family had actually kept a picture of her.

He handed out a sheet of flimsi to each of them, having to toss Kofer's copy at her, as she didn't respond. "Surprisingly, the records don't have her name. All I have's an artist's impression of what she might look like now. I gotta say, she looks very familiar. I can't place the face… but I've definitely seen her be…"

Staffen trailed off as the realization dawned on him. A simple "oh" left his mouth as he looked up at Kofer, who was busy trying to wipe her tears. She was trying to stifle her sniffles in an attempt to not look weak in front of Staffen. The Lieutenant looked away awkwardly at the Chancellor, who had his fingers interlocked in front of his eyes. "Would you like me to continue, sir?"

"Not now, Lieutenant. Schedule another appointment with my office. You may take your leave now," he whispered quietly as Staffen stood up, saluted, and walked out of the office. The only two people who remained were Kofer and Palpatine. The two sat in silence before the Chancellor stood up and looked out the window at Galactic City. The lanes were bustling with speeders, who zipped back and forth, not a care in the world.

"I should handle it, sir."

The Chancellor turned to look back at the Colonel. She now sat up in her seat, the file draped on the table next to her. She appeared to be more confident than ever. Kofer privately knew of her younger sister's wedding, after she opened her mail a few days ago. It had been a wedding invitation, and she was getting married to another big-shot on Naboo at the family villa.

"The assassination of Rog Morr will lead to the queen losing her biggest advisor, along with this Separatist funded cell gaining the upper hand. She could be overthrown, and who knows who will take her place? We could possibly lose a vital ally in the Republic. We have to stop this plan, sir." Kofer bluntly stated before Palpatine could respond.

Palpatine raised his eyebrow at her as he sensed her anger in the Force. He crossed his arms and nodded his head. "Fine, take whatever resources you need. Remember, we can't ri…" He didn't manage to finish his sentence because her datapad buzzed. Kofer took it out and stared at it. Sighing, it was her contact from CSF reporting some bad news. She stated that she had some business to take care of before she left the room, her bad mood clearly showing as she stomped out of it. When the doors closed, the Chancellor allowed himself to smile into the darkness while he sat back down into his chair.

Everything in his plan was going accordingly, now it was up to Kofer to settle the rest.


Author's notes:
Chapter 2 is ended. Thanks for reading.
I personally liked writing about Kofer's backstory, seeing as she's my favorite character to write about, besides Nuts, of course.
Also, I decided to make the Project into it's own series, seeing as how when I was writing it, I started to like the characters. It's sort of a Detective story, focusing on a Detective's view of the story as he investigates it. It will have a sort of noir feel to the story.