Maybe I should have taken Koon up on his offer… Bliss was thinking as she tapped her foot, walking back and forth in the room where she was waiting for something to beep on her computer. Beep, whirl, even spark, something! Something to keep her from dying of boredom.

The last time something exciting happened was when the electricity went out and Bliss and Fives spent the whole time telling creepy ghost stories, scaring Echo and Cutup half to death. The Sarge was less than impressed with their stories.

When Bliss heard a beep from her console, she jumped almost a meter in the air before scrambling to the console and hitting the screen with almost her entire palm, stoked to finally be able to do something, even if it was open the comm channel for the deck officer's report.

"This is the deck officer checking in. Nothing to report… as usual." Bliss removed her hand from the console and groaned, slamming her forehead against the metal and immediately regretting it. The echo of her skull hitting durasteel ricocheted through the whole outpost. No one asked if she was okay though. Sounds like that coming from her upper level were always normal.

The obnoxious music from the scanners below was another thing to echo through the whole building and Bliss was beginning to tire of it. But from below, Hevy and Cutup seemed to be enjoying themselves in a stupid arm wrestle match.

"You're listening to the Grand Army of the Republic broadcast. The voice of the Outer Rim. This next one goes out to the mud jumpers of the 224th. Keep your heads down and your seals tight, boys."

The doors swished open and Bliss looked down, seeing Echo standing there with a datapad… Reading the Regulation Manual… Again.

The sound of effort and grunts of matches between strengths was heard and Bliss turned her head just in time to see Hevy slam Cutup's hand against the console. He jumped up and shouted in triumph, a stupid, power hungry look on his face.

He thinks he hot bantha poodoo because he can win an arm wrestling match… Bliss thought to herself.

"Who's next? Fives?" Hevy said, looking over to where Fives was sitting. He avoided eye contact, by rolling his.

"Uh, shouldn't you be watching your scope, Hevy?" Echo said.

"Yeah!" Hevy said with mock enthusiasm. "Let's take a look!" He activated his scope view screen and it seemed as if nothing showed up with his retort of, "Oh, what do you know? All clear! Just like the last hundred times I looked at it."

Bliss snorted and went back to her console, scanning the facility for breaches in the pipes or faulty wiring or anything to get her out of this stupid chair and check the base to repair something.

Bliss was in charge of maintenance of the facility and if anything were to be out of place, she would be dispatched with a tool kit and she would fix it. The last few weeks have been painfully quiet and it was starting to drive her to the brink of insanity.

"Personally, I like that it's so quiet out here. I can catch up on the Reg manual," Echo said, tapping his datapad to emphasize his point.

"Of course you do," Bliss whispered from her post.

"Echo, what's wrong with you?" Hevy snapped. "We should be out on the frontlines, blastin' droids!"

"Ah, leave him alone. They kept him in his growth chart too long." Cutup remarked. Bliss snickered in response and ended up standing from her post and sliding down the staircase railing to be next to her brothers.

"Echo's right, guys! C'mon, we haven't been here that long. And it's just our starting step; soon we'll be with the big boys!" Bliss cracked her knuckles and grinned as Hevy slammed his fist into her shoulder plate. "Ow!"

"You may not realize this yet, Fives. But you picked the most boring outpost in the entire outer rim."

"And one of the most important!"

Bliss froze at the entrance of their superior and stood at attention, straightening her back.

"Attention! Sargent on deck!" Everyone followed suit, standing at attention.

"At ease," He said to them all. "Even though you're all new here, I shouldn't have to remind you that this quadrant is key to the outer rim. If the droids can get passed this station, they can surprise attack the facilities where we were born, on our homeworld of Kamino!" Bliss fidgeted in a little way that no one really noticed except for those closest to her.

"There's some officers on the way. So I want everything squared away for inspection," Sarge looked at Bliss directly. "The pipes in the barracks have been leaking coolant and the temperature down there is 5 degrees below Celsius." Bliss grinned and reached for her patching tool kit before bolting to the air ducts to start welding the leaks.

When she slid her way into the vents, the cold air hit her like a smack to the face. Bliss put down her visors and began to use a blow torch to make the leak in the pipe slightly bigger and put a metal plate over the leak, welding it in place. After the plate was placed in, she picked up her soldering iron and a wire, attached with a temperature gage to monitor the temperature of the contents within the pipeline.

Bliss replaced the grate back on the air duct and began to walk back up, before she felt the entire station shake. Falling onto her butt, Bliss gulped and quickly stood up, grabbing at the wall before the station shook yet again. Bolting up the ramps toward the main control deck, she found that it was just another meteor shower.

"CT-327, report in," There was only static on the end of Sarge's comlink. "Sentry, do you copy?" Just static.

"Probably interference from the meteors?"

"I don't see him down there, Sarge." Fives stated, scanning his scope for a sign of the deck officer.

"You two, go find him." He told Droidbait and Charger who went down to the front doors. As soon as they got there, the doors slid open to reveal droids.

"DROIDS!" Droidbait shouted. As soon as they were spotted by the droids, they were shot dead.

Sarge quickly put on his helmet and grabbed his rifle, running down to blast at the intruders. He hid behind the walls for cover as the remaining five in the station stood there in fear.

"Sound the alarm!" Sarge shouted to Bliss who tried to turn on the distress call.

"I can't! They disabled the beacon!" Bliss shouted.

"Get a message out to the fleet! We have to warn—" The Sargent was shot in the leg by a blue laser bolt, knocking him to the ground. Before he could stand back up, the droids kicked his gun away, stood on his chest and fired at his head.

"Sarge!" Bliss shouted, but was dragged away by Fives and Hevy. Cutup slammed the doors shut and ripped the wires out of the panel wall, jamming the doors closed.

"That should slow those buckets down!"

Bliss slid across the ground on her knee plates and towards a ventilation shaft, tearing the grate from the walls. "Guys, this way! Hurry!" Reaching for her helmet, she slid it into place and pushed her brothers into the shaft to get them out of harm's way, except for Echo who wanted to stay behind and protect the base.

"No! We can—" He was cut off by the droids cutting their way through the door.

"There's too many, forget about it!" Bliss said as she ducked down and crawled into the ventilation ducts. Echo came in behind her and one by one, they climbed down the ducts and towards the outside vent shaft. Hevy used his foot to bust the grate off and jumped from the vent, everyone following behind. Hevy led the party with Fives behind, then Bliss, then Echo, then Cutup.

"What do we do without the Sarge?" Fives asked Hevy, hoping he'd have an answer.

"The Reg manual says that—" There was a rumbling sound underneath the ground and they all froze in fear.

"What is that?" Bliss said out loud, biting her lip in anxiousness.

"It doesn't sound like droids…" Cutup said, worried for his life.

"Don't forget about those giant eels," Hevy jabbed Fives in the chestplate who scoffed in turn.

"I've never seen one—"

Fives silenced after they all heard a bloodcurdling scream from the back. They turned around and saw Cutup in the mouth talons of a huge slithering beast with glowing red eyes.

"CUTUP!" Hevy screamed, firing his blaster at the creature who made way with Cutup, down a tunnel. He was a goner…

"What the hell was that?!" Hevy screamed at Echo, knowing he would have an answer.

"Th-That was an eel. And that's why we're given the regulation not to go outside." Echo responded. Bliss frowned and looked into the hole, hearing the horrid screams from inside made her dizzy.

"Poor Cutup…" Bliss said to no one in particular. Just speaking to herself.

The group continued their walk down the path where they were unsure it led to until they heard a humming above their heads. "It's Commander Cody!" Fives shouted, pointing at the sky.

"The inspection team… They'll help us, right?" Bliss said, grabbing hold of Echo's arm out of fear.

"There are no guarantees, Bliss."

So now they were just sitting there trying to not alert those blasted eels or draw droids to their positions.

"Try and contact them! Use your comlink," Bliss said, pointing to Echo's wrist where he began to fiddle to find a station that wasn't main static. It was a long shot but it was worth a try. Ultimately though, he had no luck.

"No use. Their comms are on a different scramble system."

"But we have to warn them! They're walking into a trap!"

"I'll signal them; with this flare." Hevy declared, unloading his charge cartridge and loading in a droid attack flare. "Three," He signaled for them to all get down, which they did. "Two… One…" Hevy fired into the sky and almost 10 seconds after, there was a blaster war on the deck.

Bliss began to panic when she heard shouts and suddenly, there was a huge explosion from the platform. "MOVE!"

They all jumped in a different direction to avoid being crushed by the debris of the inspection team's ship. Everyone seemed relatively okay, except for Bliss. A giant hunk of durasteel fell on top of her, trapping her within. And it was smoldering hot to the touch, making it so she couldn't move it alone.

"Help! Someone help me!" Bliss screamed out of fear.

There was silence outside of the trap she found herself in and she began to kick the durasteel with her feet and knees to try and get it to move.

"Bliss? Bliss! Is that you?!" Someone shouted. Bliss growled with anger.

"No! It's a freaking astromech!" She said with a heavy amount of sarcasm before fidgeting angrily. "Get this stupid thing off me! Now!"

"Okay, just hang on!" One of them shouted. Very slowly, the durasteel was moved and she crawled out of the wreckage, throwing off her helmet and wiping her forehead as sweat dripped down her temple.

"Thank you," Bliss breathed a sigh of relief and stood up, wiping her hands on her armor plates before jumping in fear at the large screech heard in front of them. The same giant eel emerged from a tunnel in the ground and began snapping at them. With the shot of a perfected sniper, Commander Cody's partner shot the eel directly in the eye. It flopped down, completely still.

Bliss cautiously stepped towards them all.

"Nice shot," Fives muttered.

"The name's Rex," He removed his helmet to show shaved blond stubble on the top of his head. He put his hand on the eye that leaked blue blood and stood up. "But you'll call me captain, or sir."

"Sir, yes sir!" All of the troopers shouted, standing at attention instantly.

"I'm Commander Cody, your new boss." He removed his helmet and Bliss spotted a scar next to his eye that went down to his cheek.

"My designation is trooper 27-5555, sir!" Fives said, sounding very much like a soldier if anyone ever believed.

"We call him Fives, sir. I'm Hevy, this is Echo, and Bliss." Hevy named his companions one by one and the other two troopers stared Bliss down.

"Ah, the first sister to be made… In a batch of shinies, no less." Commander Cody remarked, making Bliss a little confused and uncomfortable.

"Shinies, sir?" Echo asked as Captain Rex approached him.

"That's right, your armor: it's shiny and new," Rex slapped his hand against Echo's chest, leaving a handprint of blue blood on it, giving the fresh armor a bit of character.

Commander Cody looked around at the motley looking crew and frowned. "Where's your Sargent?"

Bliss flinched before answering, "Dead, sir. We're all that's left."

"Sir," Hevy began as Captain Rex walked in the other direction. "Me and my batches are trained and ready. We'll take back our base—shiny, or not!"

"There's hope for you yet, rookie…" That statement sent a rush of giddy happiness through Bliss as she realized that she was about to be used what she was trained for. Combat!


AUTHOR'S NOTE

Words do not express how sorry I am for the delay. There is no excuse for the neglect upon this story, I'm afraid… Believe me, having this story and writing it is a complete joy but with everything happening in my personal life, it's been hard to write at all. For those who follow me, you'll notice I've found inspiration in a fluffy Harry Potter Fanfic that I started a few nights ago and have been updating non-stop. I hope to finish the next chapter for this by the end of the week. If not, I promise I will not leave it to fester like I have in the past!

Thank you all so much for being patient with me! I love you!