~Tales of Kamino chapter 10~
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Double update this time, don't forget to read Ch. 9 first if you haven't :)
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They shuffled into the projection room, barefoot and rubbing arms across their eyes. All of them deeply confused and profoundly curious. It had happened before, these sudden, unplanned mid-night beckonings. Usually a play of mischief by Baro labeled training, though they imagined it was more often than not the result of boredom on his part as the drills were generally obtuse and ridiculously impassible. They murmured among themselves, preparing for whatever might come, fingers rifling hair uncertainly, shifting gazes and feet, half-awake chuckles.
But it was Zan who entered first, and stepped to the console without a word with Baro looking just as surprise-woken in his wake. They were in an equal state of undress, though Zan's sleep clothes appeared as untouched by a bed as Baro's looked rumpled by it. And only Baro carried his usual scabbard. Zan was without and that alone was enough to draw them to silence.
They became unsure in a different manner then. Before activating the holos Zan paused, his, gaze passing over them and it was a strange look he gave them. Foreign. Uncertainty. As unlike him as the silence from his fellow trainer. But there was some shared thought between them. A strange knowledge that lent them a foreboding look and feel.
There was a finality to their eyes that their batch couldn't quite fathom. Or maybe they could, and just didn't want to.
The projector hummed and the walls lit with the input, the images and sounds seeping from the unit and filling the room. The floor bloomed moss and ferns and tatters of leaf litter. Large trees spread out around and above them, thick and twined and the canopy patched sunlight through the grey-green gauze of their leaves. The sound of scurrying creatures and wind and water took up breaths and the musty floral scents met their noses.
It was a familiar projection. They had been here before. Seen it, felt it, adapted. They had survival camped and environment trained here several times. Tasting and scenting the wind, ears to the water and leaves. They knew the habits of the beasts that took up calls from the shadows and roots, the names of the fronds that snapped at their feet and how to use the syrupy liquid that fell lightly from the trees as poultice and brew for illness.
They wondered at the purpose of it all now, half-woken and barefoot and without rations or gear.
Was it a test? They looked to their trainers, but for a long time they revealed nothing and didn't speak.
At last Zan's eyes fell to them from the branches above and a small smile found his lips. He passed a hand out over the forest they stood in.
"This is where I grew up."
They blinked at that, looked around with a new wonder. Zan's home. The link of its ancestry to him changed it all somehow. They had always wondered secretly, the kind of world so remarkable a person, to their eyes, had come from. It had seemed a majestic place before, but now there was a far more sacred notion to it. A magic to the wind and moss. They burned it into their memories in a different manner than before. Noticed. Not for survival, but familiarity. Re-learned the song of the water and color of the sky. Re-saw the ferns and small pools and the roots of trees so large they were earthen arches tall enough to walk through.
"Yep." Baro pointed to a large tree to their left. "His mom gave birth just under that beauty of a tree right there. If you look you can still see the leaves the little pirate tyke learned to potty i-ow!"
Zan tapped another string of code into the projector as Baro rubbed his shoulder and the room changed once more.
The trees drew farther apart and a clearing formed around them. A river shimmered passage across it and it was saddled by a rustic bridge that led a footpath from the village that rimmed them and disappeared into the forest at their backs. Tucked among the enormous roots of the trees were many small lit homes, and there were more in the branches above. A larger building, an inn of sorts framed by a waterwheel set in motion by the stream was visible to the far left.
Zan gestured at it. "That's where I was born and raised, to be more accurate. And this, " he passed a hand over the village "is Tiruhdall. I want you all to memorize it. To...remember it." He lapsed into silence and they did as he asked.
They would have done so even if he hadn't. Their eyes danced along every stone to the footpath, found every window and door and they saw and smelled and listened. Imagined what it would have been like to grow themselves there, in that spot of meadow patched by trees and looped with leaf-clung cottages. They turned to him when they had completed this task.
"It's your home now, too."
His and Baro's eyes were on them, watching as they shifted in surprise. "We're going to give you a code. No matter where you are. No matter why, or when or how this ends. No matter who you fight for...When you're ready to come home -remember the code, and that you have one."
...
Four months later they all stood together again, one hundred and three men on the landing platform, armored and returning the light of the sun soaking in the sea as their trainers paced between them.
Something had happened that night. The night they had been given a tangible home that breathed and smelled green and was warm and skies and alive and lovely, a home that was as far opposite of hallways and labs and alloyed chambers could be. Something had taken place that very night, and whether Zan had been aware of it or merely sensed the aftermath, there had been whispers of various truths and exaggeration since. Rumors and ideas and stories that tried to put to words the moments and actions that had been the match-breath to kindling of a war.
Two men fighting in the rain. That's how it had begun. The storm lashing the water and a single lightsaber hissing back blasterfire. Heated pursuit, uncovered secrets. Staggering, dangerous secrets, an army to match theirs.
Fett had been a traitor.
And then there had been Jedi in the halls and large cruisers in the sky, and the first batch of their brothers to complete their training had put rifles to their shoulders and boots to the vast grated ramps and they had gone. Regular brothers, commandos and ARCs alike- everyone of the first round of decanting.
And many had not returned.
Four months between them, and it was the brief line of grace that let them realize their mortality without feeling it themselves yet. That bated breath which offered the comfort of brothers they had grown and trained with still alive and breathing and shifting beside them, yet also confirmed that it was an expiring gift. They experience death through those who returned and spoke of it and shrugged it off while trying to keep it from their eyes.
Everything changed.
Those who returned without brothers were reassigned and passed into ranks with strangers who no longer felt so strange when compared to the absence of former comrades. Fett's ARCs who had considered themselves above and apart from most for so long took to teaching what had made them so exclusive, not just by order but also their own desire. Many previous rivalries among batches and trainers alike were disbanded or forgotten or at least lessened. Even many of those who had openly disliked Zan and ignored Baro completely for ten years and had shared a few words or thoughts, now seemed to desire the offer of them. Or perhaps they needed them themselves, and to see a batch complete once more.
They graduated with the ghosts of their forerunners and now stood discussing their departure from the only life they had ever known in a manner far more flippant than the men who raised them may have liked, but they knew no other way in which to do so. Zan and Baro had nothing they could offer beyond what they had already given and sacrificed on Kamino, and they were all eager to return that priceless favor in the only way they really could.
The reality was, that where they went now was as out of their hands as their births had been, and that was likely how it would remain and end. But it was what they had been created for, and they couldn't find much fault with a system that, while constricting, had also provided both the gift of their lives and time with those men in the first place.
It had been met with much teasing and amusement that Trust, Hatch and Surge and Ravi had not only been stationed on Coruscant, but also together.
"They knew they needed at least four of you to get anything done, " Nix joked and a few brothers behind him chuckled. They all stood in relative clusters of their assignments and he and those who laughed had been tallied to the 212th. Something worthy of a good deal of pride, though it was truly luck of the draw.
Ravi rolled his eyes. "They put us there because we can actually interact with civvies without thoroughly embarassing ourselves. They don't want everyone thinking we're complete bricks."
"Yeah, with your charm we won't have to worry about them getting the impression that we're dull," Rush gave an exaggerated pat to Ravi's shoulder. "...just complete and utter di'kuts." Ravi countered by sticking a tongue out and Rush laughed, the sound seeping from a helmet that was a stark contrast to everyone else's.
In the months after the start of the war, Alpha had initiated an advanced command training program that Rush had taken part of. Even though they had trained with Fett's ARCS intermittently over the years, they had never before done so with their armor and Rush had received his own set and wore it now with a mixture of pride and defeat. A brother apart in appearance as well as body and mind.
His seizures prevented him from being cleared to ship out with his brothers. It had aways been something that trailed his wake and he had spent the greater part of his years doing anything and everything to dismiss and overcome it. But, in the end there was nothing to prevent it. No way to not be himself.
As he joked and walked among them he secretly tallied their battalions, recorded their voices and faces.
It was strange to look around and know that this was the last time they'd stand this many strong and present. It was a bittersweet feeling. They had finally reached the day they had dreamed of since they'd learned of their purpose, back when they were small and wide-eyed new cadets. They were Troopers now, and their mission was finally being realized and it was a proud, overwhelming feeling tangled with the unknown and a deep unanticipated sense of loss.
They hadn't expected it-missing the normalcy of drills and mess and rack chatter in these halls, sterile and white and humming over the howling sea. In spite of being here, the endgame, having reached this point. They had looked to this moment their whole lives and now that it was here they found themselves missing what they'd leave behind. Not just Zan and Baro, who were as truly brothers as Rush and eachother were. But the place, and to a small extent, even their creators.
Many of them found themselves grasping for something, anything to cling to to bypass that feeling. Some found solace in the ideal of the Republic and the Jedi they'd serve. Some imagined returning to Kamino to train cadets of their own at some point, many planned reuniting with brothers between commands.
They all dreamed of the village they had been told was home, some day distant.
They considered the purpose of their standing there, then, milling about without instruction further than "just wait". They humored the thought that their trainers had one last surprise planned that would seal the end of all the borrowed and magical time properly before they all headed off.
The rain began to fall, a soft mist of it that wrapped them and the sun, muting color and sound and they fell to silence. Watching. Waiting.
And they weren't let down.
One last magic trick.
A small craft dipped into view from the thick clouds above, and when it landed they hadn't known what to think at first. A Jedi? A message from the fleet?
But it had been her.
They didn't have mothers. There had been no lullabies or scolding or fretting or spoiling dedicated so completely and absolutely by a woman on any of their behalves as they had witnessed in flashes and holovids.
Though sometimes they had pretended. And Zan and Baro had been first fathers and then brothers to them all in a manner as close to that as possible.
And they did have stories. Stories of one that they had pretended and grown to imagine was theirs. Over the years shreds of a voice to put to the term, and a face through pictures and holorecordings and eavesdropping on calls.
And it was her, standing there when the door of the ship opened. Long grey dress and green eyes and black hair catching the drizzle and wind.
For a moment everyone just stood where they were, frozen in their greeting except for their eyes, wild over eachother. Nothing was said and no one moved. Until-
"Mom!" Baro's voice was as startling as a sudden crack of thunder, and just as effective in setting them to motion. They snapped from their daze and scrambled to form a line of some semblance. Coming to attention and then faltering. Unsure. Zan chuckled at their predicament and motioned for them to stand at ease, and to remove their helmets. Baro had encompassed the lone woman in an exuberant hug and she too laughed. It rang out as Baro's call had, as engaging and clear and she released Baro to clasp Zan just as tightly when he stepped up to her.
They embraced for a long time and all of them could see her lips from where they stood, moving in whispers to his ears but the wind took her words before they reached them. They guessed it was something humorously chiding by Zan's and Baro's expressions.
Finally she released Zan and gave the two men before her both a playful cuff then crossed her arms.
"Your father runs off for a few weeks and brings me back one," she gave Baro a meaningful look before slipping bright eyes over them all for a second time. "You're gone for ten years and give me a hundred."
"And three. With any luck it won't be linear. The inn's not that big."
She shook her head with a grin that snagged Zan's.
When she stepped close they had all straightened subconciously. Not knowing how, or even why, but wanting to impress her in some way. Feeling self concious in a way they never had before.
When she stopped and reached up to put a hand to the cheek of the first man in line he fumbled, almost dropping his helmet in his distress. He flinched at his own display of clumsiness, caught and corrected himself. When he recovered he looked down at her embarassed, but she had smiled. Gave him a pat to the chest and a quick hug. Then demanded he tell her his name and that he call her 'mom' in a manner as indisputable as they imagined a true mother would. He was smiling when she moved on to the man beside him and repeated the greeting.
She did so with all of them. A hand to their face and a smile and a hug, asking their names as the wind tossed her hair and rain patterned their armor.
They were so distracted with her eyes and hands on them they didn't notice the other woman until she was directly across from them and Baro called out her name.
"Tula? Little Tula?"
He gave her a hug which she returned a bit more sedately although her eyes flashed merry. "You were nine! " He cried in dismay, pulling back and staring at her incredulously. He was still a study in shock when Zan shoved him away and pulled her into his arms.
"Who's that? " Ravi asked, turning to Hatch. The other trooper was blinking. He put a hand to his chin thoughtfully, squinting to see her better through the rain as Nix and Rush and many brothers beside them were.
"Tula. Zan's little sister. But she looks way different from the picture he showed us back then."
"Well, she was ten years younger then, " Nix mused, eyes dancing between her and Zan's mother.
"She's...really grown up." Rush thought aloud and those around him agreed with silent nods and wide eyes. There was amazement in his statement and their observation, in spite of its obviousness. Of course they knew people aged. They did at twice the rate themselves. But that was taken for granted from years of witnessing it so commonly amongst themselves. In their brothers it was expected, shockingly quick though it felt normal to them. They had seen the whole process from beginning until this point.
Zan and Baro had remained relatively the same, as had Zan's, their now, mother. But this was someone who had made a complete transformation without being seen. They tried to reconcile the images of the child they had seen then and the woman who stood across from them now.
"Did Zan's father have..?" Surge tilted his head in question, not as amazed by her age as he had no comparison, but struck curious by her appearance.
"Oh, you three never saw those holos of him. Yep. Same ears." Hatch verified. "Cute, right?" He gave Trust a nudge and got a smack to the side of the head.
Rush could feel the shifting of his brothers beside him in eagerness. Perhaps hoping she'd step closer so they could get a better look or the chance to greet her. But she didn't step up to them as Zan's mother did. Didn't touch or address them and stood watching them all curiously. But after a time she gave them a small, shy smile from behind hair blown over her face by the wind.
And she had sat with them quietly but companionably when they ate their last meal together that evening. She and their mother had been the cause of much disbelief and ruckus and hilarity of expressions from other batches as they ate. It was another moment in time, their last one together, simple yet surreal, and they all logged it to memory.
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They clasped arms and shared grins and eyes with the men who had given them a second chance, a second life, and a home- improbable feats for their kind. Those who had been parents and siblings and teachers and friends. They embraced the two women who were soft and warm arms and smiles, tangible manifestations of more such impossible things. All four of them the stuff of stories and holovids, yet somehow theirs.
At last they turned to Rush. The look on his face was both encouraging and heartbreak.
A trooper stood at the base of the ramp of the cruiser, performing roll call. He'd seen their reaction to their numbers and was growing agitated at their delay. They appeared to be the last and he looked ready to yell at them, although he drew pause when he caught sight of the women. He straightened and blinked at them for a moment as though he couldn't decide if they were real or not, before casting a final glance in their direction, then returning to checking tallies on the holopad in his hands. He gave them the signal for five, eyes still averted.
Rush laughed and donned his helmet as they did theirs in fellowship.
"Get on, then." He tilted his helmet at the lone trooper across the hangar. "Go give that guy a hard time. Looks like he's never heard a joke in his life."
"Doesn't look like he even knows what a joke is," Ravi snorted. He turned to give Rush a last smack to the chestplate. "You'll be so bored without us. No one to prank or fight over bunk space with."
"And you'll have no ideas. Don't worry about me too much about the bunks. Mom's ship can't possibly have enough berths for all of us without doubling up. I may end up sharing space with someone much cuter than you guys and I certainly don't mind."
Surge coughed abruptly while Hatch chuckled and Trust twitched with the beginnings of a reprimand but Ravi had already pulled Rush into a head lock.
"You little..."
"Kidding! Just kidding!" Rush surrendered with a laugh. But it faded and Ravi let him go. When he spoke again it was with a sad smile they couldn't see but heard over their comms. "Take care, you di'kuts."
...
The loader was looking past them as they stepped up, visor on those they had walked away from. He looked like he wanted to ask something but then thought better of it, shaking his head. He settled on merely giving them a nod and clipped the 'pad to his belt, gesturing for them to head up the ramp as he led the way. "I've got your barracks and rack assignments. For the ride and planetside. Follow me. " He gave a nod to the droid in the bay as they stepped aboard. "All set. We're the last."
They followed the trooper through the hangar and down hallways that weren't too disimilar to those they had grown up with, though the color scheme was more favored of grey than the eerie white they had grown accustomed to and the ship hummed from fuel and sky rather than the touch of the sea.
Their division of the barracks was a bay of six, and they claimed four of the empty racks. One was taken and the lingering of the clone at the doorway told them he was the occupant. He hovered at a polite distance, as though unsure whether he should leave them all to settle in with privacy or climb into his own bunk. They gathered he was likely exhausted, probably having begun his shift and the task of herding clones to their spaces long hours ago and was keen on getting some sleep before lunch.
"You with us? " Hatch asked amicably. He moved aside from unpacking and gestured for the other clone to pass.
He have a nod of thanks, took a seat on his bunk and began removing his armor. "I'm your temporary squad lead until they assign you a sergeant."
"Oops." Ravi paused his own unpacking to look over at him sheepishly. Judging by the man's demeanor, Ravi expected a rebuke for their blatant disregard of a punctual departure not long in the coming.
The trooper glanced at him for a moment, expressionless and examining him closely. But then he simply snorted and returned to unfastening his shin guards.
Hatch laughed and extended and arm.
"Hatch."
The clone paused what he was doing and blinked at it for a second before leaning forward and taking it with a small smile.
"Lex."
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Haha, Lex has no idea what he's in for. :)
And that's the end of this arc. I hope you guys liked it. The next will focus on Rex and Cody and Thorn and Fox. I'm not sure when the next update will be, there might be another lag like this one because I'm still trying to get kindy lessons in order.
But, if you're following The Other Side (such spoilers I've given in this chapter for that ;) ) and TOC they should hopefully be updated soon.