Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I do not own Star Wars or anything associated with it. I do not own the Galactic Republic, the Seperatists, the Jedi, and so on. All I own are the characters of Special Tactics Squad 1-17, General Monka Monka of the Seperatists, Master Bel Rof, and Padawan Askara Jento. And if any of you want to use them, ask me first.

Author's Note: Special Tactics Squad 1-17 consists of Chief (CT-1543), Thirteen (CT-1313), Whacker (CT-5505), Sabre (CT-6674), Falcon (CT-6675), Hunter (CT-4509), Pillar (CT-2552), and Cryo (CT-0104) and, unofficially, Askara Jento. Sergeant Kal Skirata was the primary training sergeant for STS/1-17.

Special Tactics Squad 1-17

"Is There A Plan B?"

Seperatist Base,

Formulca, Tarsis System

They back away from the cliff edge, and scouted around for some cover. Finding some in an abandoned cave a couple of kilometers away from the cliff. Whatever local creature had lived in her was long since gone; Askara had to use her lightsaber to cut away the heavy growth from the entrance, and then widen that entrace. It would have been obvious to even a droid that someone had taken up residence, but then Askara demonstrated her growing awareness of special operations: she carefully cut up more branches and vines, then used the Force to bring them over to the entrance.

"Good idea, Commander," Chief said, nodding in approval. "You learn fast."

"I have to," she replied quietly. "My master's dead, and I'm not about to get any of you killed. Learn or die." Tactfully, none of the squad said anything about how that was standard for clone training.

"Bel'buir was a rare man," Thirteen said, just as quietly. Then he pulled out one of his pistols and proceeded to clear the cave, with help from Pillar. Then Pillar came out and motioned the others to come in. Askara made sure she was the last one in, so she could use the Force to arrange the vines, branches, and other assorted vegetation over the cave entrance in as natural a way as possible. Once that was done, she turned around to find that all but one of squad - Sabre - had removed their helmets. At her look, Chief thought she was curious about Sabre and said, "It's to monitor for Republic comms."

"I wish I could help out with that," Askara said, a little sad.

"Don't worry about it, ma'am," Falcon told her, smiling. "You're our 'wets-radar;' monitoring comms is the least we can do."

"I know you're just trying to cheer me up," she said, smiling at him gratefully. "But I can't help feeling a little useless."

"Can't really understand that, ma'am," Pillar put in. "You got us going after the crash, you helped out with the ambush on the tinnies, and you found that shelter we were in last night. How is that useless?"

"I can't sense droids," she replied, "and I'm not much good at long-range."

"Here," Thirteen said, holding out his DC-17m. "I only use the sniper and grenade attachments, in addition to the normal blaster setting. Sorry you can't practice with it; we only have a limited number of power packs."

The young padawan carefully took the weapon and examined it. "Then I guess I'll have to get it right the first time," she said.

A few hours later, Askara was working on breaking down, cleaning and rebuilding the DC-17m, with Thirteen showing her how. Pillar and Whacker were sitting near the cave's entrance, buy'cese on, monitoring the outside. Chief, Cryo, Sabre, Falcon, and Hunter were resting in some fashion: either sleeping, 'kicking back,' or just doing something they found relaxing. The Jedi-in-training found that she had a knack for the kit, which surprised her considering how most Jedi felt about blaster weapons. Thirteen was also teaching her Mando'a, the language of the Mandalorians that had trained a large number of the clones. But it wasn't just the language he was teaching her; it was the culture itself, and what it meant to be Mando.

Hunter, who had been running a test his helmet's electronics, looked over at the two. "Let me know if I'm out of line, Commander," he said, "but you seem unusually interested in Mandalorians. And it's got to be for some reason more than that we're your squad and it's how we were raised."

"Well, you're right, Hunter," she replied, looking up from the blaster rifle to meet his eyes. "Like you, I never had a choice about what I was to be; my path was chosen for me. Unlike you, though, I never had anyone who looked after me - until Master Bel Rof took me as his padawan." She smiled sadly. "He gave me my first look at the universe beyond the Temple."

"So he was like Sergeant Kal?"

"Not . . . exactly," she told him. "From what I've learned about him from you guys, I think your sergeant and my master would've gotten along pretty well; Master Rof had a very low tolerance for the politicking that is now typical of the Jedi and especially the Council. He didn't like Masters Kenobi or Windu very much."

"Neither did Sergeant Kal," Thirteen spoke up.

"Master Rof always spoke highly of Mandalorians," Askara said. "He always felt ashamed at the way the Jedi treated them, both those in the past and those today."

"He always told us that the Mandalorians could teach the Jedi a lot about pragmatism and common sense - if the jetii would come down from their high and self-righteous perches," Falcon put in.

"'The Jedi of today are too concerned with doing the light thing rather than the right thing'," she said, making certain to let the clones know she was quoting. Thirteen chuckled, drawing everyone's attention to him.

"It's true," he said, "which is also what makes it amusing."

"I don't think anyone's heard you laugh before, ner vod," Chief said, his eyes still closed.

"To get back to your question, Hunter," Askara said, "I'm ashamed of being a jetii. Not just because of how the Order's changed over the past few decades and centuries, but also because of how they're treating clones like you. Ever since the jetii learned about the clone army, only a ori small amount questioned the 'sudden' appearance of what is now called the Grand Army of the Republic. Everyone else, including the 'vaunted' Obi-Wan Kenobi and the 'wise' Master Yoda, simply accepted it. Not one of them knows you as individuals, as men. Some of padawans I know think of you as 'wet droids,' that since you were made for figthing and warfare you don't know that there's a whole universe being denied you."

"That's typical of mongrels, though," Hunter said. "They like to ignore things that may make their view of the universe uncomfortable."

"I'm a mongrel," she said, but every all eight troopers shook their heads.

"You may not be a clone," Chief said, opening his eyes and looking at the young padawan, "but you're our vod'ika."

"And if Order Sixty-Six were ever given?" she asked softly. "I studied the contigency orders on the trip to the Tarsis System. Would you follow that order if it was given."

"Were we to be around a Jedi if that order was ever given, then yes," Cryo said, putting a little emphasis on 'Jedi.'

Askara had fallen asleep an hour before - after a strong 'suggestion' from Chief. She kept the DC-17m near her; a fact which set all of the clones at ease.

"Certainly a strange Jedi," Falcon noted.

"What's normal for a Jedi?" Sabre retorted.

"What's normal, period?" Cryo put in.

"Should we be worried about the commander?" Hunter mused.

"What do you mean?" Falcon asked.

"Well, she really seems to be diving in to the Mandalorian thing," he said.

"That isn't a problem, though."

"I don't think I've heard of a Force-using Mandalorian."

"They wouldn't put a notice on the Holonet if they were, di'kut," Falcon said. "Sergeant Kal always said that when you became Mando, you started over. If the commander wants to be Mando, why should we stop her?"

"She's worried about Order Sixty-Six," Cryo reminded them. "But I don't think her interest in Mandalorian has anything to do with that. It seems to me that she just wants something to belong to."

"But she's part of the Jedi Order," Sabre said.

"Part of it," Cryo said, "but she doesn't belong to it. She did say that Bel'buir was the only one who was close to her. And he died. We've known other Jedi. Most of them are like Kenobi; is it any wonder she doesn't want to stay with that?"

"And she's only a kid," Falcon added. "Think about that, too."

It was the middle of Formulca's night when STS 1-17 made it back to the cliff overlooking the Seperatist base. They were there for one last recon before making any definitive plans for infiltrating the base. Unfortunately for them, the Seperatists had made some changes.

"Osik," Chief said, examining the increased defenses through the macros built into his helmet.

"Armored Assault Tanks," Pillar said neutrally. "SBDs, spider droids . . . . and I think there's a Hellfire droid near the command bunker, too."

"That's not good," Askara deadpanned.

"Do I ever get to tell the punchline?" Falcon quipped.

"If you don't have to be told it, sure," the commander replied. "There's some more wets, too. A couple of them are unusually disciplined."

"Force thing?" Whacker asked.

"Force thing," she confirmed.

"I just have one question, then," Falcon said.

"What's that?"

"Is there a Plan B?"

Author's Note: And that's the end of this update. So sorry for the long delay; I meant to have it up about three days ago, but until yesterday my flash drive was missing and I hadn't any back-ups made at the time. That situation has, thankfully, been corrected. Once again, I'm sorry y'all had to wait so long for this update.