Su'cuy, faithful readers! Hope you are enjoying the book so far! I hope you all enjoy reading this chapter, and I really hope some (if not all) review!

For those of you who want to know, Ade Verda means "Children Warriors" in Mando'a. How does Adriaan, a non-Mando Jedi, know how to speak this language? I promise that later in the story it is explained. For now, you will just have to hang in suspense.



Chapter 3

"Break camp! All troopers in formation! Ade Verda Brigade, prepare for departure! Shadow Squad, report at encampment control center."

Kan woke up to the bustle of encampment activity as the clones efficiently packed up and made ready for departure. His Master's voice was clearly heard above the turmoil, seemingly rapping out orders without even drawing breath. As Kan slid off his sleep mat and began to dress into his simple Jedi tunic, the flap of his tent opened and Jordin's cheerful, pixie-like face peeked in.

"Kan! Oh…sorry, I didn't know you were still in your undertunic," her face reddened in a rare display of embarrassment, and she didn't come in until Kan was fully dressed and had strapped his utility belt on. "Kan!" she shouted again. "I declare, you are the laziest Jedi Padawan ever Apprenticed. Our Master woke up at the crack of dawn this morning and so did I and so did all the clones. Kan have you ever seen clones sleep I haven't I wonder if they sleep with all twenty pieces of their armor on do you think that would be uncomfortable I think it would…oh yes well anyway we're departing today but I don't know where we're going because Ember and our Master haven't decided yet and we are all going on the Republic's Hope even the elite squad so we are traveling together isn't that grand? Since I was the first one up I tried to have a conversation with Adriaan but she's proven to be very untalkative and she interrupted an outrageously hilarious story I was orating to tell me to wake everyone else up. Though I found her attitude to be most uncivil, I was nonetheless compelled to obey so I first woke up Kay Lee her hair was really messy I advised her to comb her hair when she goes to bed because it was really tangled. She only laughed and walked off with her hair still unbrushed and then I woke up Klamin and I told him he needed to brush his teeth. I only said that because he's a boy and boys never brush their teeth and I was sure he wasn't going to do it unless someone reminded him and have you brushed your teeth this morning, Kan? I suppose not. Your breath smells like the back end of a bantha carcass, by the way. Then I woke up Andora but it turned out she was already awake and waking up other people and I told her to wake up the Wicked Club and she didn't look very happy about that but anyway then I went and woke up…"

Knowing that Jordin could waste an entire morning giving him an extremely ornate description on something as trivial as brushing her teeth, Kan interrupted her as politely as he could. "Um, Jordin, could you just skip everyone else and get to the part when you tell me what Adriaan wants me to do?"

"Oh dear…waking up Marya was so very funny, too." Jordin pouted for a few minutes, then said brightly. "Everyone is at a conference around the encampment control center and Adriaan suggested that all of us attend because it would be interesting and I'm sure you will find it interesting but I am certain that I will not find it interesting so I am not going –––"

"Conference?" Kan stood up and threw on his boots. "Jordin, quickly; when did the conference start?"

"Oh, half an hour ago," Jordin said cheerfully. "Adriaan said it would be an hour long and I know how impatient you are so I thought I'd let you sleep in and miss half of it…"

Kan didn't stand around to hear any more. He was already ten steps out the door. "Later, Jordin! I've got a meeting to catch!"

He made his way through the disassembling camp, weaving in and out among the clone troopers as they packed up the prefabricated shelters and strapped on whatever additional items they had to carry ––– blaster rifles, pistols, vibroknives, comlinks, signal flares, jetpacks, armor paint, datafiles, combat manuals, protein cubes, medpacks, and medals Adriaan had given them for exceptional bravery in combat.

A year ago, Kan hadn't thought much of the clones; they had given him the impression that they were just walking piles of flesh with the same dull, boring personality. Now he saw there was a lot more to them than what he had first suspected.

Adriaan had definitely shaped her soldiers up. They seemed to be more alert, more agile, and more independent than the others. They even had differing preferences. For example, the clone Commander of Starlight Company, Ember, liked his hair cut a certain way. He was moderately aggressive in his decisions in combat, was gruff in personality, and valued loyalty and efficiency above all else.

The clone nicknamed Wolf seemed to like Adriaan especially. He rarely smiled, but that was normal among the clones, but when he did, it was always when Adriaan was around. He favored using two blaster pistols, like the Clone Captain of the 501st legion ––– at least, that was what Adriaan and the clones said. Kan certainly didn't know anything about the Captain of the 501st, and he couldn't care less. Let them have their fake heroes; no clone would ever be a person for Kan to look up to.

Rez ––– whom Adriaan addressed as CT-1374 when angry at him ––– was more sentimental than the other clones. And he was bold; so bold, in fact, that the Wicked Club considered him to be "wicked" He was also extremely self-sufficient and independent, and didn't always follow orders. He did things his own way. He even grew his hair long, against military regulations. Kan wondered why Adriaan didn't discourage his rebelliousness; she only said, "That's just part of who he is, Kan. I cannot change him any better than I can make your arms evolve into wings."

However, she did tell Rez to alert her in the event that he was altering a crucial battle strategy.

"Commander Enik, sir!" a young clone that looked to be about fifteen or sixteen years old hastily dropped the helmet he was polishing and saluted smartly as Kan approached.

"Hey, um…" Kan squinted at the identification number on the clone's suit. "7575 Vanguard…Lieutenant Storm?"

"Sergeant Storm, known as CT-3105, is at the conference, sir!" the clone said. "I'm Cor."

"Oh," Kan said. "Hi."

"Hi."

There was an awkward moment of silence.

"Orders, sir?" Cor asked finally.

"N-n-n…no," Kan stammered.

"Inspection, sir?"

"No, I…" Kan fumbled for something to say. "Nice armor."

"Thank you, sir."

Kan floundered for a bit, then extended his hand. "I'm Commander Enik, Apprentice to General ell Talaan, Jedi Knight of the Galactic Republic –––"

"I know, sir," Cor said, his eyebrows raised quizzically. "I see you every day."

"Yes, well, hi," Kan said, moving backward. "I mean, goodbye, Onor!"

"Onor is at the conference, too!" Cor called back. "I'm CT-7575 ––– Cor!"

Kan picked up the pace, ignoring the heat that flared up to his face. He always felt so awkward speaking to a clone face-to-face, and for a good reason, too. The troopers had all been cloned from a single host…

And that host had been Jango Fett, the bounty hunter that had killed Kan's first Master.

To look every single day at the face of the person that had coldly murdered a man that had been a father to you is not an easy thing to do. Yet Kan had to deal with it; Kan had to fight alongside men that shared the same hardened face of the evil mercenary.

Of course, it wasn't the clones' fault. They had made no choice in this; they had not decided to become soldiers that lived only to die. They didn't get to choose what they looked like.

Kan had to admit that encouraging diversity among the clones had its advantages. For one, it made clones easier to identify…for everyone excluding Kan, that is. Adriaan hadn't been the only one who'd gotten the idea; Kan had heard reports of a clone called Alpha-17 designated to train the troops developing on Kamino how to think beyond the manual. Now, more and more clones were getting real names, cutting their hair in unique ways, and developing characteristics that set them apart from the others. Kan had once even seen a blue-eyed, white-haired clone. And he doubted the white hair came from being old. Few clones lived beyond a few months on the hard frontier. Shadow Squad was the only Platoon Kan knew of that hadn't taken any casualties…and they were always at the front line with Adriaan.

But personally, Kan felt that it really didn't matter, for no matter what, a clone was always going to share the same face as his brothers, no matter how many scars he accumulated through his experiences. Even if a clone dyed his hair red and got a mohawk and had his name tattooed on his cheek or above his eyebrow, he would always have the same face.

Jango Fett's face.

"…Last he was spotted was in the Hypori system, but that was approximately six months ago. He could be anywhere," his Master was saying. Kan knew it was her, even though he couldn't see her amidst the crowd of white troopers. He elbowed his way through until he caught sight of her familiar, black-clothed form. Today, she was also wearing a grayish-white chestplate. Clone armor, Kan realized with disgust. His Master was getting a little bit obsessive.

"Sir, according to recent clone intelligence reports –––" Ember said, punching a button at the control center. A holofile of a ship came up. "––– This is the identity of his ship."

"A Belbullab-22 starfighter; very classy," Adriaan noted.

"Those are manufactured by Feethan Ottraw Scalable Assemblies; the same Techno Union design firm that developed the Mankvim-814," Klamin said.

"Charming," Adriaan said. "The sleekness of the craft and the aggressiveness of the design fits Grievous' vanity well."

"Ma'am, Grievous will be easy to identify if he's traveling in this craft; the Belbullab-22 is a very rare design," Wolf pointed out.

"I've heard about what happened at Hypori. It's Separatist territory," Kay Lee spoke up. "After the Battle of Naboo, which caused the Republic to pass laws that hindered mass droid production, the Trade Federation secretly started a foundry on Hypori, an uninhabited planet close to Geonosis. Jedi Master Daakman Barrek discovered the facility, however, and the Republic sent a Jedi/clone taskforce to help him destroy the factory. Unfortunately, many of the reinforcements never made it alive to the surface –––– and to make things worse, the new CIS General, Grievous, led the Separatist attack. He killed nearly all the Jedi sent to Hypori. We haven't launched a second attack on the planet yet."

"Hmm." Adriaan scratched her chin. "So he was last spotted in Separatist territory…a planet near Geonosis." She turned to one of the clones standing near her. "Wolf, bring up a chart that maps out everything from Rishi to Melida Daan."

"But, sir, most of that region is Wild Space…"

"Yeah, I know. That region also maps out Separatist territories close to Hypori."

Wolf pressed a button, and a holofile of different planets came up. "See, General, the only CIS outposts in this region are Hypori and Geonosis. The rest are just minor charted settlements and neutral worlds such as Ryloth and Roon…"

"Those are the places Grievous might be hiding," Adriaan said. She grabbed a laserpointer and circled the area where the planet Ryloth lay. "We can almost immediately eliminate Ryloth because it's part of a major trade route ––– the Corellian Run. Furthermore, it is heavily populated, so I doubt that someone as recognizable as Grievous would hide there. As for Roon –––"

She pressed a button, zooming in on the planet. "It's nearly inaccessible. It lies just beyond the Cloak of the Sith nebulosity."

"Maybe Grievous is hiding there," Kan suggested, pushing his way to the front.

But Adriaan shook her head. "No. Nebula are even more dangerous to fly in than asteroid fields, and the Cloak of the Sith is probably the most perilous Nebula out there. Grievous is a Separatist; in other words, he's a coward. He's not going to fly into a nebula, I can tell you that."

"But, Adriaan, aren't you assuming too much by eliminating Roon as a possible hiding place?" Kay Lee asked. "You've never even met Grievous."

"Maybe I have, maybe I haven't," Adriaan said, shrugging. "Trust me, Grievous isn't going anywhere near that nebula."

"If you say so." By the look on Kay Lee's face, Kan could tell that she still had her doubts.

If Adriaan noticed this, she obviously didn't care, for she turned back to the map. "However, these unnamed settlements in Wild Space could be something worth checking into."

"Ma'am, there are hundreds of partially colonized worlds in Wild Space," A clone that Kan believed was called Nano said. "Only a handful have been charted. He could be absolutely anywhere…"

"Then let's start with some of the larger worlds with atmospheres capable of sustaining life," Adriaan said, jabbing her pointer at a small group of objects that orbited around the Hypori system. "How about Asteroid XO251B?"

"Fine with me," Klamin said.

"I'm in, but I still think this is a stupid idea," Kay Lee said.

"You may not be wrong," Adriaan said easily. "All right, Ember, get the troops aboard the Fortitude and prepare the fleet to make the hyperspace jump to Wild Space."