"Bliss, how did you ever pass the climbing section of training?"
"Fives, how did you pass the 'shut the hell up' section of training?"
"That's not a section,"
"It will be in about three seconds when I kick you off this Cliffside!"
Just like siblings to bicker when there was a bigger task at hand. The Troopers had to reach the platform again to get inside the base, but to do that, they needed to scale the face of the cliff. Bliss was in between Fives and Hevy during the climb and, as always, she took her time climbing. Nothing more embarrassing than being put out because you slipped your foot on the wrong rocky edge.
But, clearly Fives was fed up with how long she was taking and was convinced she had no clue how to climb.
"Would you both quiet down?" Captain Rex snapped at them. Bliss shut her mouth immediately and they finally reached the topside of the cliff.
Bliss stumbled a bit before righting herself and standing at attention in front of Rex as he spoke.
"Look sharp, rookies," He demanded. "As long as those tweezers command this post, our home planet of Kamino is at risk." With those 'encouraging' words, he handed Echo a blaster rifle.
Echo looked at the rifle, back at Rex, and then at the rifle again. "But, there's so many of them…"
"Doesn't matter, kid. We have to retake this base. So we will retake this base." Bliss reached behind her for her own rifle and smiled under her helmet as they all prepared their weapons for combat.
"How do you propose we get through those blast doors, Rex, ol' boy?" Commander Cody mocked, waiting for an answer.
"I have a few ideas…" He dragged out, specifically not telling the others of his ideas. For what? Tension, of course!
When they finally reached the platform, Captain Rex picked up a droid corpse along the way and dragged it to the front for preparation.
"Oh, I get it… He's gonna pretend to be a droid…" Bliss muttered and Commander Cody put his left hand to his visor, as if he was rubbing the bridge of his nose in frustration. The girl just kind of shrugged and hid against the wall of the facility with the rest of the troopers, except for Rex who was waltzing right up to the cam-scanner.
His walk was disoriented, off balance, stiff; just like a droid's would be in a clone's armor. Bliss watched him carefully.
"Unit 2-6, is that you?"
"Roger, Roger," Bliss put her hand over the filter on her mouth to try and hide her snicker.
"You sound strange. Is something wrong with your vocabulator?" The droid from behind the door said into the receiver.
Rex put his hand to his throat, as if to fix the fabled vocabulator that the droid spoke of. In a more refined, deep tone, he said those words again.
"Take off your helmet. Let me see your faceplate." The droid demanded. Once again, Rex responded in the dead language and got down below the blindside of the camera and held up the dismembered head of the droid in the camera's view.
There was a loud swish and the door was then opened. Rex stood right at attention and removed his twin pistols from their holsters, putting them at eye level with the bronze clankers.
"Clones!" The droids shouted. As to mock them, Rex spoke again.
"Roger. Roger." It was vein-chilling, in a way. He said it so slowly, so dead, that it gave Bliss shivers. The droid fell over, a smoking whole in its head. It made Bliss well up with a sick satisfaction to see a dead droid, and not just a disabled one.
Raising her blaster rifle, she opened fire alongside her brothers and the three droids standing guard, fell destroyed in an instant.
"Right, let's move!" Rex demanded as they quickly ran to the primary control module.
Even though he had no right to ask, Echo still felt the need to. "Permission to take point, sir?"
"I'm always first, kid." Rex said, clearly smirking under the helmet he wore. Bliss snorted and danced around her brother who was a little overly confused.
These aren't like the captains they had on Kamino. And that's probably the reason Bliss was so happy. It was time for a change, a dent in the lifestyle. A serious attitude makeover. She was getting too high and mighty. Bliss would never admit it, but she needed a serious attitude adjustment. And this was the perfect opportunity.
"So this is it. We're going in, lasers blazin'!" She was too hyped up to be destroying hardware.
Reaching the primary control module, Bliss kneeled down behind Rex and Cody and lifted the rifle to her shoulder blade and continuously pulled the trigger, shooting anything she could that wasn't in white and blue or white and yellow.
With a sick snap like sound against armor, Fives groaned and reached for his shoulder, putting his hand over the smoking burnt dent in his armor.
"Fives!" Hevy said in fear and reached for him.
"He's okay! Focus on the battle!" Cody said, wisdom and experience leaking from every syllable.
Deep inside, Bliss' pure motherly instinct was trying to kick in. She was afraid that she would abandon her rifle all together and tend to the every need of her brother's injury, but that was not the case any longer. She had to let go of her short sided selflessness, as General Shaak Ti told her to.
With Rex pulling off one of the droid's heads that pulled a sword on him, Bliss was busy plowing over a clanker behind the control panel, firing several times into its head, neck, and torso. Not a single blast was missed or wasted.
Echo and Fives cornered the same droid and opened fire. It fell to the ground and Echo looked at Fives with a happy expression, or lack of one, and said like a child, "I got one!"
"Sorry, Echo. I junked that one." Fives said, walking away with a grin on his face under the helmet.
"Like hell you did." Echo snapped, something quite out of character for him.
With a droid laying disabled on the ground, Hevy thought this was the perfect time for puns.
"Not so tough now, are ya, Sparky?" He remarked t the sparks flying every which way from the droid's empty husk.
Cody stepped up to the console and began barking orders almost immediately.
"Get to the window. It looks like we have more visitors,"
"What kind of visitors?" Bliss questioned while Cody gave her a deadpanned look. She bit her lip. "More droids. Got it."
They all ran to the windows and Bliss took off her helmet, wiping her forehead with the palm of her hand to remove the sweat and get her bangs away from her eyes.
Echo pulled his helmet back on and lowered his visor, zooming into the space above.
"It looks like a Separatist Fleet!" He said, clearly stunned at how many ships there were.
"That's why they commandeered the outpost!" Cody stated. "They're planning a full scale invasion!"
"We have to warn command." Rex told them all. Bliss looked down at her rifle and then jumped slightly as something inside triggered.
"Captain, what are we supposed to do in the meantime? Surely we can't hold off an entire fleet…" Her nervousness was beginning to show, but as a soldier, she needs to remember that fear has no place on the battlefield.
Rex looked at Bliss and then at Echo. "Get to the console and signal a code red."
Echo didn't respond. He leaped towards the console and began to mess with the controls before shouting in frustration and held up two separate wires that were now hotwired together.
"Those clankers sabotaged our transmitter and hardwired the all-clear signal!" He stated. "It'll take some time to repair-"
"We don't have time!" Rex snapped.
It seemed that Bliss was the only one still looking out the window and therefore, the only one taking notice to the giant ship that dislodged from the star cruiser and was descending rapidly toward the base platform. "Uh, guys?" They finally looked up and noticed the ship.
Fives was nervous. Hevy could hear his armor plates rattling against his pistols which he still held onto.
"Well buddy, you always said you wanted to be on the front lines!" Hevy mocked. Fives scowled and looked in any direction besides his.
The ship landed on the platform rough enough to make the base shake and soon enough, an entire platoon of droids left the docking ramp of the ship, standing parade style in front of the doors to the outpost.
"We can't protect this outpost long against that army of clankers." Cody said, sounding mildly defeated as he spoke.
"Then we'll destroy the outpost instead!" All of them looked towards Rex like he was absolutely insane. Echo tore his gaze away from the console.
"But sir, our mission is to defend this outpost—at all costs!"
"We have to warn the Republic about the invasion," Rex turned and looked down towards the army. "They'll take notice when the all-clear signal stops."
Bliss put her helmet on her hip and looked at Rex and the rest of her brothers. Be this a brilliant plan, this also seemed extremely risky and dangerous.
"That's right… When they stop receiving our beacon, they'll get the message something's wrong!" Fives determined.
"We'll need every thermal detonator in the inventory!" Rex demanded.
Bliss stepped up. "It'll take a little more than a few detonators, captain. Our inventory isn't prepared for something like that."
"What about the TB?" Echo said. They all looked down. "This moon freezes for over half a year. We use liquid tibanna as fuel to heat the base!"
"Liquid Tibanna: Highly explosive." Cody determined. Hevy's fingers were practically itching at the chance to build a high-class bomb.
"Good. Bring the tanks in, and prime the detonators." Fives and Echo ran to collect the detonators while Hevy and Bliss tracked down the tanks of TB. As Bliss was carrying one, her shaky hands nearly dropped the tank but she righted herself just in time before it could hit the floor.
"I almost killed us all, did you see that?" Bliss said to Hevy who rolled his eyes in frustration at her immaturity. "What? If you can't joke about your own death, what can you joke about?"
"How about someone else's?" Fives suggested as he began setting up the detonators.
"Nah, that's too morbid. If you joke about someone else dying, they'll think you're homicidal. But if ya joke about your own death, then they think you're the comic relief."
"Who's 'they'?" Hevy said, hoisting a tank over his shoulder. Bliss grinned.
"Now that's a good question, brother." Was all she said and set up her final tank. Fives and Hevy exchanged a look of confusion and decided to let it go.
"Everyone, gather 'round," Rex demanded as they walked down towards the entrance. "All right, listen up! There's only one target of interest in this sector: Kamino. It's the closest thing we clones have to a home. Today, we fight for more than the Republic. Today, we fight for all our brothers back home. Understood?"
"Sir, yes sir!" The shinies in question responded with obedience and reached for their helmets sitting on the table. Bliss looked down at her helmet and then at Rex who was already placing his helmet on and running with the others. Bliss stopped wasting time and put her own helmet on, running to catch up as they headed for the armory.
The doors opened and Hevy was already heading for his sub-machine gun.
"I think we can even the odds a bit, commander. Especially since they don't know we're here," He lifted the gun into his hands and stated, "This one's mine."
"A big gun doesn't make a big man." Commander Cody stated as Bliss came in behind them and reached for a DC-15A rifle, one specifically marked with a blue stripe. It was her modified rifle and something she was extremely proud of.
Cody picked up the same but the non-modified selection. Fives settled on his hand pistol blasters, something he was more accustomed to.
Heading for the entrance, they could hear the droids marching on the other side. "Reinforcements reporting. Open up." The droid spoke.
Hevy opened the door and smirked. "Didn't say please…"
And with that, he opened fire on the droids, mowing them down with his sub-machine gun. Fives, Cody, And Bliss joined him, firing at the droids quickly. But no matter the blasts, they were outnumbered. Fives got a running head start and threw a detonator at the droids, setting the platform on fire with the large explosion.
"We could use a Jedi about now!" Cody determined.
"Wait, I got something!" Bliss shouted, unloading her normal cartridge and replacing it with a magazine with a blue stripe. "Ready? Get back!" She shouted as she kneeled down and fired. A billow of steam left her gun and there was a blue crackle in the sky, almost like lightning. The light made everyone look away and Bliss grinned under her helmet as she saw the droids were frozen like stone in place. Cody slammed his hand down on the controls and the doors slammed shut.
"What the hell was that?" Cody said, staring at Bliss.
The woman in response was beaming. "A little liquid coolant and proper chemicals can go a long way, sir. But that won't hold them for long." Bliss stated.
With agreement, they fell back behind the entrance lines as an explosion went off outside, causing the doors to come free. Fives stood in the middle of the hall, using his blaster pistols to his advantage.
"Fall back to the OP center!" Fives demanded, running up the stairs. Bliss was hot on his heels and ran in the direction of the bomb where she nearly tripped over Rex's legs, heading for the same grate they escaped from earlier.
"The handset isn't linked up with the detonator!" Rex said with frustration. "Hevy!"
"Yes sir?" The trooper said, running up to him.
"This detonator isn't working," He handed him the handset.
"I'll take care of it. It'll be fixed in no time, you guys get out of here!"
"Just make it fast, those droids are getting close." Rex said, following the others towards the pipelines.
Bliss was about to jump into the pipes when she realized that she was going to leave her brother behind. When everyone climbed inside, Bliss ran towards Hevy and stood on her knee next to him.
"Is it fixed?"
Hevy stayed silent as he was testing the detonator but the red light still shined on the panel. "It isn't working…"
"What are we gonna do?"
"We? Nothing! You need to get out, now!" Hevy snapped.
"No!" Bliss whisper shouted. "I'm not leaving you!"
Hevy grabbed her by the shoulder. "Bliss, your life is worth more than mine! If they lose another brother, it's okay. We can't lose our only sister."
Bliss was crying under her helmet, but she wouldn't ever say it out loud. Without even thinking, Bliss jumped forward and wrapped her arms around Hevy's neck, sniffling.
"I love you, Hevy… please don't die." Was all she said as she ran towards the grate and crawled through the pipelines, hoping he was going to follow… But to no avail. She heard him put the grate back over the vent duct and her heart dropped into her stomach.
As she began crawling faster, she heard gun fire coming from behind her. Forgetting about the drop from before, she ended up tumbling down head first and groaning in pain from a hit to the head. Bliss was waiting for the gunfire to flare up once again but it suddenly just stopped, and all there was, was silence.
Bliss was moving slowly, as her vision began to spin a little, trying to reach the end of the pipe in time before-
"Oh God!" She shouted as a huge explosion shook the entire pipe and fire began to pour into the line, making her crawl even faster to freedom. When she reached the end, she fell out of the pipe and onto the ground, whimpering like an injured animal.
"Bliss!" She looked up to see her brothers surrounding her. "Are you alright?"
Removing her helmet, Bliss' hand went to her head and she felt the sore spot just above where her tattoo started. "I can honestly say that I've been better, sir."
Rex laughed at her sarcasm and lifted her up so she wasn't laying down flat and looked at the spot on her head. For the moment, it was just white and red but soon, it would spread into a blue and purple bruise, no doubt.
"Get ready, boys. We're getting off this crater." The ships landed and Rex slowly helped Bliss to her feet and slung her arm around his shoulders, helping her limp towards the ship that opened up.
Bliss was looked over by a medic and they decided that she was okay. Looking down at her gloved hands, she began to shake and had to hold back tears. She may be a soldier, and a clone… But she was more emotional and attached than all of the others.
"Half of our squad… Our brothers… they all died…" She whimpered softly to herself. If anyone heard her, they ignored the words.
The fly up to the cruiser was very short and before she knew it, Bliss was being escorted to the medical bay. Fives and Echo weren't to follow her, which made her nervous. She didn't go many places without the presence of her brothers. But now that she gave it thought, she was surrounded by her brothers, right here… which attracted a lot of attention.
Almost every clone stopped what they were doing to stare at her. Bliss just waved awkwardly at them while they all waved back. The ones out of their helmets were smiling at her. It made her feel very welcome among her many brothers.
When she reached the medical bay, two troopers were sitting on medical beds in their body stockings with their armor at the foot of their beds.
The medical droid told Bliss to disrobe, which she did emotionless. Being nude in front of others was not something that she had problems with. She stood in her jumpsuit and the medical droid slipped the suit down her shoulder to check the damage of the blast. There were a few scrapes and burns on her neck and back, which were quickly treated with bacta rub. A salve was put on her skull and bandages were placed over her burns and cuts. When everything was all done, she sat in her bodysuit, looking down at her feet.
Losing so many brothers in such a short time was really weighing on her… What was she going to do without Hevy's constant presence looming over her shoulder, ready to jab her in the side just to rile her up? Or Droidbait's horrid jokes and how he believed he was so funny… Or Cutup's smart remarks and amazing kind and forgiving nature? She didn't know how her life was going to pan out from here.
Bliss' thoughts were cut short when in walked two men. She could tell from the way that they were dressed and how they presented themselves that they were Jedi. Jedi Generals.
"CT-8993, Bliss, is it?" The Jedi with the sandy blond hair spoke. Bliss stood up immediately and saluted them.
"Sir, yes sir." She spoke with obedience, but not the grunt that usually follows.
"At ease, trooper. You've been through a lot today." The one with dark brown hair instructed her. Bliss frowned at this but listened, sitting back down on the medical bed.
"I understand that you are to be assigned to a specific Jedi. To be with the 501st, correct?"
"Yes, sir. Anakin Skywalker, I believe. Is he on this cruiser?" Bliss questioned. The one with brown hair smirked at her.
"You're lookin' at him." A deep blush went across her cheeks as she realized that this was the Jedi she would be taking orders from for the rest of her life. This Jedi would be in charge of her… Pretty much everything.
"I've heard of your heroics on the outpost. I would be happy to serve with you on the front lines any day." Anakin Skywalker told her. Bliss couldn't help but blush even harder at his words. This was the highest praise she had ever received from a Jedi, except for General Ti.
"I am Obi-Wan Kenobi. This won't be the last you see of me, I assure you. Anakin and I still do many assignments together. I am still technically his superior." The other Jedi stated. Bliss bowed her head in respect to the other Jedi.
"And in a few hours, I want you to meet my Padawan, Ahsoka Tano. She's been excited to meet you since she heard you would be assigned to me." Anakin told Bliss who nodded in response.
"Thank you, Generals. I appreciate this more than you probably know."
The Jedi bowed to Bliss who stood up once again and saluted them. The Jedi exited the room and Bliss was left to finally let everything sink in… She wasn't an engineer on an outpost any longer… Bliss was a soldier. She would see things both amazing, and terrifying… She would risk her life for the Republic. For her brothers. Her family.
"This is where I belong…" And here, she will stay.