The Clone woke up hungry. For three days, he'd had nothing to eat. Neither had any of his brothers. For two weeks now, they'd been wandering the tunnels beneath the surface of Aakaria, looking for a way out. Their radios worked, but the Jedi Master commanding them had forbid them to use the radio.

And so they went on through the dark, their rations dwindling to almost nothing, and then disappearing entirely. It was only the steady flow of rain above that caused stone "bowls" of water to form near the cave walls, providing enough to keep the clones moving. This had been meant to be a short mission. The clones had been told to pack light on the rations and heavy on the artillery. So far, they'd used their weapons only a few times, and each time had regretted it as the world came crashing, quite literally, down around them as a result.

Jedi Master Glyr Rtj-lyr drove the clones on as if they had somewhere to go, like they knew where they were going. While he had initially sent clones to scout ahead, he now did this himself. He evidently blamed the scouts for finding dead ends and disturbing Mityars, the large, aggressive arachnids who had dug these tunnels.

Down one tunnel and up another, sometimes finding out that they were going in circles, the clone troopers loyally followed their General's lead. There weren't all that many of them left now. After all their losses in battling droids on the surface and Mityars below, their numbers had dwindled down to less than twenty, including the Jedi.

The clone Captain was still alive, as was the scout, who had lately picked up the name 'Pariah'. He had originally referred to himself as being one, and the rest of the clones were quick to pick up on the monicker. It was fitting, as the Jedi had inexplicably picked him out as the vent for all frustrations. If something went wrong, surely Pariah must have something to do with it, the lazy, lying, incompetent loser. Name calling seemed to have become Rtj-lyr's favorite pastime. When he wasn't leading the clones in circles, he was berating them for various crimes of inadequacy.

This one was too slow, that one didn't properly care for his weapon, the other couldn't hit the broadside of a Mityar... and so on. Jac had managed to escape the majority of these scathing reviews, by simply being the least interesting clone of the lot. He actively avoided standing out in any way. If a clone was notably good at something, he would be picked out of the lineup to do something which might or might not be related to the thing he was good at. When he inevitably failed in the eyes of the Jedi, he became an object of scorn. If a clone did a less than exceptional job on something, he was picked out as a troublemaker. Pariah's only crime was being a rookie, this was his first time out in the field.

"Time to continue our mad dash to nowhere," Pariah grumbled to Jac.

Jac was the only clone he could speak to these days. The rest avoided him, simply because the Jedi didn't like him. Being associated with someone Rtj-lyr didn't like was something akin to suicide. Jac was already tainted by proximity, so talking to Pariah couldn't hurt him at this point.

"We're not going nowhere," The Clone corrected him "we're following General Rtj-lyr,"

"Yeah, and he's leading us nowhere. Fast," Pariah pointed out bleakly.

"Now what kind of attitude is that for a trooper to have?," Jac asked, getting to his feet and offering his disconsolate comrade a hand "come on, get up and do your job,"

"Job. Ha. That's a laugh," Pariah moaned, accepting the hand even as he did so "I don't think I've got one. What does it matter if one clone more or less wanders through these tunnels?,"

"You're just not a team player," Jac said sarcastically.

"Cut the chatter boys," The Captain said, striding toward them "and fall in, we're movin' out,"

"Yes sir,"

The daily slog through the tunnels had yielded no better results than previous days. Rtj-lyr had driven the clones into exhaustion, then pushed them still further, and, at some time of his own choosing, finally deigned to stop.

They were low on water, so three clones were sent out with canteens to search for some. Pariah and Jac were among them, to no one's surprise. The Captain went also, perhaps to prove that he would not ask his men to do something he was unwilling to do himself.

"We'll split up. Each man take some canteens," The Captain said, further saying that they would meet back here at a stated time. If any of them had found water, they would let the others know.

Jac and Pariah weren't exactly thrilled by the idea of splitting up. Too much could happen. Specifically, they could run into trouble and, were they alone at the time, all blame would fall on them if anything was lost or damaged, or if said trouble found its way to the camp. But they were too tired to argue, and it was against their training anyhow.

Later, Jac and Pariah returned at the appointed time, but there was no sign of the Captain.

"Did you find anything?," Pariah asked hopefully.

"No. I think we're in too deep. I haven't seen moss on the walls for hours," Jac replied "I don't think there's water this far down,"

"We shouldn't be going deeper," Pariah worried "we're supposed to be finding a way out,"

"These tunnels were made by Mityars. There's no telling how their minds work. Maybe the way out goes down deep first. You know how these tunnels wind about,"

"I know it," Pariah spat irritably "and I also know we're dying down here,"

"Don't you think that's just a slight exaggeration?. We're not finished,"

"Not yet, anyway," Pariah sulked.

"Where's the Captain?," Jac asked, changing the subject "he should have been back by now,"

"Hopefully having better luck than us," Pariah muttered.

Jac didn't respond to this. Instead, he sat down on a boulder to wait. Pariah reluctantly took a seat also. They could not return without the Captain. In fact, now they thought about it, did they dare return without water?. Rtj-lyr had already threatened to kill the both of them for lesser infractions.

Jac briefly entertained the idea of continuing the search for water. But leaving the area would be disobeying the Captain. There wasn't a good alternative, so Jac chose to simply follow his orders and hope for the best. He stated his intentions when Pariah brought the subject up some minutes later.

"Are you sure we should wait?. He's been gone a long time. Maybe he's not coming back at all,"

"You want to be the one to tell the General?," Jac asked pointedly.

That shut Pariah up but good.

The waiting continued.

At last, just when the two clones were beginning to reconsider their decision to wait, the Captain returned. It seemed he had found water. Much relieved, Jac and Pariah followed him through a maze of tunnels to the source of water to fill the canteens they were carrying.

Jac noted with mild surprise that the tunnel wasn't far from where they'd started the search for water. The Captain explained that he'd gone up and down several tunnels, determined to keep looking until he was successful. Jac found nothing to argue with. Rtj-lyr was moderately annoyed by how long it had taken them to get back, but at least he wasn't furious. He let them go unscathed, save for a few biting remarks about their relative reliability.

The clones could live with that. In almost no time at all, they were curled up on the ground amidst their identical brothers, knowing that it wouldn't be long before they had to get up and begin the whole thing over again. They knew also that they wouldn't be able to keep it up much longer. The Jedi might be able to go on almost indefinitely, courtesy of the Force, but the clones could not.

In the morning, before the others were up, the Captain made the following appeal to Rtj-lyr:

"We're only clones, Sir. The men need more rest than this. If we keep going at this rate, we'll be dead by the end of the week,"

Rtj-lyr's response was direct, his tone laced with disgust:

"What does it matter to me where you die?. You can die here for all I care. Stay here, if you think it will help, but don't come crawling to me later on,"

The Captain, given the option of staying here and dying or following the Jedi in more pointless circles, chose the latter. At least that way he could pretend he was still doing something useful. He could at least pretend they had a chance to survive.

Near the middle of their daily march, they passed through the large cave where they had been trapped the first day. Not a one of them commented on it, though all cast thoughtful glances at the blocked entrance. The droids they had battled there were almost definitely gone. All they had to do was figure out how to unblock the entrance. There wasn't one among them who didn't consider in his mind where explosives would need to be placed to make the opening a reality once more.

But they all remembered what had happened to the last clone to suggest such a thing. That clone... was no longer among their number. And so they went on, following the Jedi without slowing down or looking back. Just keep marching. That's all they could do. Keep marching.

Rtj-lyr either didn't recognize the cave, or was pretending he didn't. He started down yet another tunnel, one which the clones knew well by now. They'd been down it two or three times already. There were several forks farther on, but all led to the same place: nowhere.

The Captain, who was taking up the rear, hesitated near the entrance of the tunnel. Briefly, he looked back towards the cave. The temptation to go back was almost too much. But only death lay in that direction, if they didn't have the approval of the Jedi. They would be traitors, clones who turned on their master. It didn't matter why they did it. At the end of the day, they were still just clones.

Nothing more, nothing less.

He was broken from his reverie by the sound of digging, coming from outside. For a moment, he held perfectly still. He had to be sure. There it was again. Yes, someone was digging their way in.

"General!. Someone is opening the cave!," The Captain shouted, a cry which was echoed in the form of an excited question by all of the other troopers "we have a way out!,"