"Focus. You must clear your mind. Don't dwell on your thoughts. Breathe." Oppo Rancisis slithers around as Sniper tries to life a rock without touching it. "You need to just relax." He insists. Sniper takes a deep centering breath and his tension finally lowers. "Now. Lift the rock." The rock starts shaking and bouncing, but then it starts steadily rising. "Well done Sniper. Now, bring it towards yourself." Sniper concentrates on moving the rock towards himself and it smacks right into his face.
"Ow!" He exclaims as it hits him, and he loses all of his focus.
"You're still focused on speeding through this. You must slow yourself in order to succeed. Come. Let us meditate." Rancisis replies. Sniper sighs and prepares himself for meditation. Ash gets up and leaves them. He heads towards Commander Tano and General Skywalker to have a chat. Sniper starts meditation and his mind begins to swirl.
He's back in 'The Game'. A place he had been many, many, times before. Every time ends with Rex dying. This time he looks for the sniper. He isn't there yet. The battle goes on the same way every time. They're pinned down, that means it's time. The sniper should be there. Sure enough, there the sniper is. Sniper shoots him down. Rex is safe. Or so he thought. There's another sniper up there that he had missed. It fires and before Sniper knows what happened, Rex is dead.
The infiltration team stays dead quiet, sitting in the corner of a Separatist transport hangar bay. They had boarded a few hours ago and not a single droid had noticed. Yoda sits in front of all the clones in a meditating stance. Jesse crawls up to him.
"Sir-Master Yoda we're arriving at Umbara." He reports.
"An ally we have." Yoda replies.
"On board this ship?" Jesse asks with confusion.
"Find them we should." Yoda suggests.
"That would risk us getting spotted Master. We're not exactly invisible and this place is crawling with droids!" Jesse reminds.
"Assume finding means with your eyes hmm?" Yoda asks.
"Well yeah-" Jesse starts but Yoda cuts him off.
"With the force, find them we will."
"Are you sure that they're even here?" Jesse asks.
"Trust in the force, you should." Yoda replies. They sit there for a few minutes, then five clone troopers with blue and black armor enter the hangar bay through a ventilation shaft. Three of them have different armor. It's like theirs, but it's as if they're outfitted for women. The other two have normal armor. They rush over to the clones and kneel down next to Yoda.
"VF-6, reporting for duty. You called us Master Yoda?" The lead one reports. They're wearing the strange armor and they sound like a woman.
"What is 'VF-6'?" Jesse asks.
"Volunteer Force-Six. We're part of an elite experimental program. We're all civilians of the Republic that volunteered to join the war." The lead one explains.
"Completed your mission have you?" Yoda asks.
"Yes Master. We were actually on our way out when you called us." The lead one replies.
"Then help us you can? Hmm?"Yoda suggests.
"We're always looking for some extra experience." They answer.
"Good." Yoda says. "Names have you?"
"I'm Captain Chambers and this is my squad: Tech Expert and Sniper S.M. Explosives Specialist Timmerman. Support and Stealth Specialist Renee and Medical and Recon Specialist Ben." Chambers replies.
"Explain our mission, Jesse will." Yoda says and Jesse begins briefing the Volunteer Force-Six about their upcoming mission.
It was an odd sight to see. The five had taken off their helmets and they all looked different. The strange armor was women's armor to fight their build, just like Mandalorians. It was all just so different from what the clones were used to. Their armor is completely black with two blue lines that start at their feet and go all the up to the top of their helmets. Seeing different faces inside clone armor was a startling sight to see. They were also caring different guns, the same guns Commando Clones use.
Captain Chambers had what appeared to be long blonde hair tied in a bun on the back of her head. She looked as though she was stronger than the rest of her team, physically and mentally. Her face seemed determined and gave an authoritative look. S.M. had short curly black hair and she was darker than the rest of them. Her eyes were covered by some strange goggles and her gun had a high-tech scope attached to it along with a longer barrel. Timmerman was a buff guy. You could tell by his face and neck. He was not one to be reckoned with. Yet, he seemed to have a certain caring in his eyes. His reddish blonde hair was mess from his helmet, and he had a bag on his back, presumably full of explosives. Ben was thinner than Timmerman, but strong none the less. There was slight fear behind his straight face. He, unlike Timmerman, had nice light brown hair and had a medical emblem on each of his shoulder plates. Renee also had brown hair, but hers was long and dark. Most of it was tucked into her armor but the rest was straight with a few tangles. She was thinner than the rest but still seemed like she was strong. You could tell that she was scared and that she cared for the rest of the team greatly.
"We'll be dividing into four groups with Yoda leading Torrent to the center while the other three distract the droids by targeting key points in the research station. With Giga squadron down four men, I recommend you five join them. They're targeting the power generator. Fives can explain the rest." Jesse explains then points over at Fives. The five nod and crawl over to Fives.
"You're in charge of the assault on the power generator?" Chambers checks and Fives nods. " We're with you, please brief us."
"Of course." Fives hastily replies. Dumbstruck by the non-clone troopers. "We'll be pushing through the southern hall by force. Expect heavy resistance. "The clankers will think the power generator is the main target while the other two squads will make themselves known to be distractions. When we get to the generator, we blow it up."
"I like the sound of that!" Timmerman cheers. "How do you want us to blow it up. I have around 14 000 nano bombs in my bag. Along with my heavy blaster and a bunch of thermal detonators."
"However, you want to do it. Go for it. You probably have much more experience with exploding things, and I think you'll have way more fun." Fives replies. Timmerman is practically bursting with excitement, he has to bite his lip to keep it all in.
"Fives, the ship is entering the atmosphere. It's go time." Scout says from his seat. He's watching a monitor that they had tapped into during their first hour on board.
"Here we go..." Fives replies. Ben nervously looks over at Chambers.
"I've got a bad feeling about this."
Trick's condition had only gotten worse, so Charger decided to stay with his batch mate. They'd been best friends since they could interact. All three of their other batch mates had died on their first mission. All 25 batches from their division had been killed off with the exception of a few other clones. Giga squadron held most of them, leaving just two others: Shark and Target.
"The others are away on a mission now." He says to the unconscious Trick. "Off with Master Yoda to destroy a Separatist research station and stop an evil scheme." He sighs then sits down on a chair quietly for a moment, not really knowing what else to say.
"Charger." Trick murmurs. Charger jumps to his feet and to Trick's side.
"Trick, I'm here brother." He replies.
"Where am I?" Trick asks.
"You're safe on Kamino." Charger replies.
Trick sits up. He notices a lot of medical equipment surrounding him and a lot of medication strapped to his arm. "Am I going to be okay?" He asks.
"Yeah, hopefully. There's only a few things left wrong with you now." Charger replies.
"Like what?" Trick asks.
"Well, your respiratory system has been compromised. You're going to need a few operations for that to be fixed and fit for duty. I'd assume you've noticed the medication in your arm. That stuff is trying to repair the burn form the explosion and the vacuum of space. If it doesn't work, they're going to have to amputate your arm." Charger explains.
"Will I still be fit for duty?" Trick asks quickly. "Charger, you have to tell me, will I still be able to fight alongside Giga?"
"Yeah. They've begun preparing a robotic arm just in case the medication doesn't work." Charger replies.
"Come on then. Let's go see how the doctors are doing." Trick offers and stands up. Charger shrugs then nods and follows Trick down the hall. He has no idea if Trick actually plans to see the doctor, he only hopes that Trick isn't planning something stupid.
The ship lands at the research station and the team sneaks through the halls. They split up and Fives leads his new squad towards the power generator.
"Scout, Ace, run ahead and make sure we aren't running into any traps. Fire, Echo, on me. VF-6 cover our back." Fives orders quickly and efficiently.
The alarms go off which means the other two squads have engaged the droids.
"Prepare for attack!" Fives warns.
Scout and Ace run ahead and round a bend. Blaster shots start hitting the walls as droids open fire on them, they duck behind cover. Fives and the rest of the team round the bend after them and open fire.
"VF-6, attack strategy 4!" Chambers orders. She jumps ahead with Ben and Renee right behind her. S.M stays behind with the others and Timmerman blows off a part of the wall and uses it as portable cover. He picks it up and starts running towards Chambers, Ben and Renee. The three are shooting down droids while constantly moving to stay one step ahead of the droids. He places down the wall then tosses a bunch of nano droids over at the droids.
"S.M.! Get the nano bombs to move onto the droids! I got them pretty close!" Timmerman calls back to her. S.M. nods and controls the nano bombs to move onto the droids.
"Detonate!" She calls out to him. Timmerman nods and blows up the droids.
"Push forward!" Fives orders. "Ace, Scout, cover S.M. Fire, lay down cover fire while the rest of VF-6 pushes through!" The troops obey and Timmerman eventually places the wall back down as cover. Everyone ducks behind it. "The junction is just up there! If we can get to it, we can set up permanent cover by sealing that door!"
"I recommend letting myself, Ben and Renee push forward first so that you guys can secure the area in the next hall!" Chambers suggests to Fives.
"Do it." Fives replies. "Give us a shout when you want us to begin our push."
"Yes sir." Chambers says. "Ben, Renee, let's go!" The two nod and follow her out of cover then dive for the droids. They open fire and keep rolling around, successfully distracting the droids. "NOW!" Chambers calls out to the others. Timmerman picks the wall back up then they start to enter the next hall. The power goes out and the doors start to shut. They start diving into the next hall, but Scout, Ben and Chambers don't make it. All the others can do is listen as they hear two lightsabers activate and a few blasters shots for a moment then one pair of feet running away.
Everyone pulls out their visors and attaches them to their helmets. It's pitch black. No one says anything. They all knew one person had escaped, no one knew which one though.
"We've got to keep moving." Fives regretfully says.
"Why's the power out? This wasn't part of the plan." Echo asks.
"Neither was an evil lightsaber wielder, but here we are." Timmerman replies with a slight croak in his voice. He can't bare the thought that Ben or the Captain or both had just died.
"First time losing a squad mate?" Fives asks.
"We-we've always been together. We've never lost anyone. Not one clone trooper. Not one VF trooper." Timmerman replies.
"You will get used to it. We all do. It sucks and I'm sure that I sound horrible right now, but it's the truth, you just have to move past it." Fives assures him.
"That's because you're programmed that way! We're actual humans. Real ones, with real emotions." S.M. blurts out in anger. The clones stop and turn to face her. Each of them with disbelief and hurt under their helmets. Timmerman nods and stands with S.M.
"She didn't mean that." Renee insists.
"Giga Squadron, with me. VF-6, go away. We don't need or want you." Fives replies and starts walking down the hall. The other clones follow him while S.M. and Timmerman sit with their heads down, leaning against a wall. Renee stands between the two groups, running back and forth, not knowing what to do.
"Guys wait!" Renee calls out but the clones keep going. They turn down a new hall and out of sight. "The two of you are just straight up horrible! How could you be like this? The Captain never would've stood for this and if she were here right now, she'd shoot the both of you in the foot! I'm going to go help them, you guys can just sit there and mope, or you can come and apologize." The two just look at her, then look back down at the ground.
"Fine." Renee sighs angrily then runs after Giga Squadron, trying to catch up.
Scout runs from Ventress. She had force thrown Ben and Chambers into the wall all the way down the hall and now they're fighting off a ton of droids. Ventress picks him up and turns him to face her using the force. He begins choking and she throws his helmet off. He gasps for air as his throat encloses on itself. She points her blade towards him, and he grips tightly to his blaster as she starts forcing him towards her blade. He flies towards her and he fires. The bolt hits her arm and she staggers back and releases Scout. Before he starts gasping for air, he stuns Ventress with his gun. He catches his breath then stands up and cuffs Ventress and takes her lightsabers.
"That's what you get for being reckless." Scout warns her limp body. He picks her up and throws her over his shoulder, then starts walking towards Ben and Chambers. They finish off the last few droids then turn their attention to Scout.
"Did you just?" Ben asks and Scout nods. "With just your?" Scout nods again. "Wow! That's absolutely insane!"
"This means the three of us have a new mission." Chambers starts. "Get Ventress to Coruscant for the senate to deal with. Having her could be the key to victory in this war."
"You will be doing none of that. You will surrender." A robotic voice says from behind them. They turn around to face 30 commando droids with their weapons drawn and pointed at them. The three drop their weapons and Scout drops Ventress. A few droids stay with her while the rest cuff and escort the three troopers to a cell. They take all of their gear, including their helmets, but not their armor.
When they get there, the droids throw Ben and Scout into the cell and keep Chambers with them. "We will deal with the girl first." A droid says and the droids take Chambers away, leaving Ben and Scout alone in their cells.
"This isn't going well." Scout chuckles weakly.
"We never should have come here. VF-6 wasn't ready for this kind of mission. We should've known from the start this was a bad idea." Ben sighs.
"What do you mean?" Scout asks.
"This is only our fourth mission, the first three were all just stealth missions." Ben explains.
"But what about battle strategy four? You guys did that flawlessly. You were an unstoppable force." Scout insists.
"We've done A LOT of training, but we're always together. With all of us separated, we're useless." Ben states.
"Listen, you're going to be fine and they're going to be fine. They're with Giga, and you guys will adapt." Scout assures.
"You don't know them. Renee might be fine, but S.M. and Timmerman have never lost anybody close to them, and they think we're dead." Ben reminds.
"You just need to have hope." Scout explains. The two stand quietly against the walls, waiting for Chambers to come back. Eventually she does. There are scorch marks all over her armor. It's barely visible on the black paint, but it's clearly there on the blue. Her hair is down and a mess with some singed pieces on the ends and she's limping petty badly.
"Clone, come with me." The droid orders. Scout reluctantly follows the droid into a room where Ventress is waiting. She immediately forces him into restraint. They hold him standing with his legs together, but his arms outstretched.
"You're one of the clones from Rishi." Ventress states, facing him with a glare.
"Yeah, I know. I stole your lightsabers." Scout reminds and chuckles weakly.
"You stole the most important thing to me!" She hisses and puts a lightsaber to his throat, she pushes it in with small amounts of force.
"Well, you killed a lot of my brothers that day. 51 to be exact." Scout replies.
"Where were the three squads going and why are they attacking this base?!" Ventress almost screams at him.
"This station is just the first on our list. That's all I'm telling you." Scout insists.
"Tell me everything!" Ventress demands.
"No. Because as long as I hold information, you won't kill me." Scout replies.
"I could kill your friends instead of you." Ventress reminds him.
"You won't because if you do, I will never tell you. If they die because of this information, then I'm forced to never tell." Scout replies surely.
"You took my most important belongings. Now, I'm taking yours. Ventress says and two large metal blocks emerge. One from the ceiling and the other from the floor. They begin closing towards his right fore arm. His dominant are, the one he shoots with. Scout closes his eyes as the blocks near his arm. He feels them touch him, then he screams in pain.
Renee finally catches up to the clones. "I'm so sorry about them!" She says.
"Don't be, it's not your fault that we're just clones." Ace replies.
"They're wrong, you're wrong. Clones are just as human as any other human. You guys are just as human as everyone else. Equally important. The only difference is you all have the same face." Renee fights to prove the clones are equals. Eventually Fives allows her to stay. "Thank you." She says.
"Don't be like the others." Fives warns.
"I won't be. They stepped out of line. I can't believe they said that." Renee insists. "So, what's the new plan?"
"With our much smaller numbers, we're going to need to be far more careful." Fives starts. Ace walks up to him.
"Sir, we're getting a transmission from Jesse." Ace says as he places the projector on the floor, and it projects a hologram of Jesse.
"Fives! Thank the force you're okay! The other two squadrons are dead, it's just us. They're aware that we're here. Yoda has been keeping us alive but those banshees are brutal weapons. We've learned that the original banshee actually died on Umbara defending Clone Troopers." Jesse reveals.
"Screecher is alive." Scout mutters to Fire and Ace.
"They were able to revive it using electrical currents charged by the force. It has to be under constant supervision and requires to be in an electrical chamber at all times. When they cloned it, the clones didn't work very well as individuals. Somehow, the original has connected all of their minds and turned it all into a hive mind. We need to stop this and the hive mind really helps our situation because, if you kill the queen..." Jesse says, expecting an answer.
"You kill the hive!" Fives cheers.
"Exactly! Uh, what happened to the rest of your squad?" Jesse asks.
"We got separated from Scout, Ben and Chambers, then they were attacked by a lightsaber wielder. Then, we got separated for S.M. and Timmerman." Fives answers.
"I want to tell you to go find them, but I need you to join us. We're going to need everybody to push through." Jesse explains.
"Yes sir. On our way now." Fives replies and Jesse cuts out. "Can you send an encrypted message to your squad Renee? We can't let them die."
"Yes sir." Renee replies and gets to work.
Sniper and Ash walk through the Jedi Temple, not talking about anything in particular. They're just messing around and having a good time.
"I'm telling you, fire is a far better weapon than a sniper." Ash insists. Sniper staggers backwards and puts his hand on Ash's shoulder.
"Ash?" He says, Sniper is looking around the temple, as if he were lost. "Where am I?"
"You're in the temple. We were just talking together." Ash answers.
"No! There's a hall and dead troopers. The lights are out, why can I see?" Sniper asks again. "Wait, there's clones over there. Hey! Wait!" The clones stop and run towards him. "Don't you see them Ash? They're right there."
"Sniper, there's no one here. This is some sort of force trick, maybe connecting you to somewhere, or someone." Ash suggests.
"I'm going to see how strong the connection is." Sniper tells him. "It's Fire, Ace, Fives, Echo and some clone with really strange armor."
"Sniper?" Ace asks.
"Can you hear that?" Sniper asks Ash.
"No, I can't." He replies.
"Hear what?" Ace asks.
"It's complicated, but I'm talking to you through the force. I was just talking to Ash. He can't hear or see you guys." Sniper explains.
"They brought Screecher back to life. Now he controls a hive mind of clone Screechers. Maybe you can help us? Can you move?" Ace asks and Sniper takes a step forward.
"Ash, make sure I don't run into anything." Sniper tells him.
"Right, come on then!' Fives cheers and the squad starts running.
Ben and Chambers burst through the door and into the room where Scout is laying on the ground. They quickly shoot down the droids inside then rush to Scout. His right forearm is completely flat. Ben examines the injury. All the bones in his forearm have been decimated, turned to dust. His skin has been flattened and pressed into his now flat armor.
"He's in an insane amount of pain, his forearm needs to be amputated quickly or will die of pain. We can't move him because then the bone dust in his arms will move and he'll be in even more pain." Ben explains. "We need bandages and a way to cut off his forearm."
"Maybe I can help you with that. A voice says as Ventress walks through the door.
"Ventress! Hands up!" Chambers orders. Ventress is limping and holding her side. She has cuts all over her body and she's breathing heavily. "What happened to you?"
"Those banshees turned on me. I hadn't seen them before and went to go inspect them. The second they saw me, they attacked. I need to get out of here, but I'm weak and can't do it by myself. Here, take some bandages and one of my lightsabers. One swift cut will hurt less." Ventress explains. Ben takes the items and he activates the lightsaber. He lines it up and strikes Scout's forearm, cutting it clean off. The heat of the lightsaber quickly drys a wall of blood to stop the bleeding for a short period of time. Ben then proceeds to bandage up the wound. Once he's got Scout all patched up, he picks him and puts him over his shoulder.
"Alright, let's get out of here." He says. Chambers leads them out the door, with Ventress taking up the rear and Ben in the middle.
"I hate to interrupt, but where are your commando droids?" Chambers asks after walking down a few empty halls.
"They've all been decimated by the banshees. As far as I know, we're all that's left in the entire station." Ventress replies.
"Great." Ben says sarcastically.
"Reeeeeeeeeee!" A banshee screeches from down the hall. Giga and Torrent had reunited a few minutes ago.
"Here they come!" Jesse shouts. Ten banshees enter sight and the clones open fire. Most of the banshees swiftly dodge the blasts. Two get knocked down, but the others advance quickly and attack the clones. Yoda slices through one of them, more banshees enter the hall. One banshee picks up Fire and pins him against a wall. He stops it's jaws from cutting into him by pushing them back with his hands. He punches it in the eyes and kicks it away from him, he falls to the floor and picks up his Z-6 again and blasts the banshee into oblivion. "New plan!" Jesse calls out as he dives away from another banshee. "Get out of here!"
"Wise that is!" Yoda agrees as he cuts into three banshees in one go. They start falling back but the banshees surround them. Hundreds of tiny specks fly through the air and attach themselves to the banshees. Fives sees Timmerman and S.M. in the hallway.
"Get down!" Timmerman shouts. The clones duck to the ground as all of the banshees blow up. "Nano bombs." He explains. "We're sorry Giga squadron. While it's no excuse, we were upset. Neither of us actually meant it."
"Mean what?" Jesse asks.
"Don't worry about it." Fives replies. "We accept your apology."
"Alright, new plan. We need to get out of this station. The droids were attacked to. The Separatists will abandon this project thanks to this failure. We will return to the Republic with all of the information on the cloning project. Let's go." Jesse orders.
Trick wakes up in his medical bed. There's no longer medicine in his arms and he still has both of his arms. After his walk around the station, his operation to correct his problems started.
"The operation was a huge success. You're completely free to go with no restrictions!" A medical droid tells him.
"Where's Charger?" He asks.
"Clone Trooper Charger has received a transmission. He will be back momentarily." The droid replies.
"I'm going for another walk." Trick announces.
"You cannot." The droid stops him.
"What do you mean?" Trick asks.
"I have received direct orders for you to stay here." The droid replies.
"Why?" Trick asks, worriedly.
"You are sick in a way I do not understand. It is part of your biological make up. You are, malfunctioning." The droid explains.
"Malfunctioning? How?" Trick asks, even more scared.
"I do not know, but it could lead to death, and we are not sure if it is contagious or not. Doctor Nala Se will take care of you." The droid explains. "Goodbye." The droid starts to leave.
"Wait! No!" Trick calls out but the door shuts and locks him in.
Chambers, Ben and Ventress exit the station. When they get outside, Ventress holds up the others with the force. "You're lucky that I'm feeling kind because you helped me. Have a nice day." Ventress says and walks into a ship, then let's go of the troopers. She flies away while Scout starts to wake up.
"What the? Where am I? WHERE THE HELL IS MY ARM" Scout panics.
"Relax. We're outside of the base, we're going home. We had to amputate your forearm because Ventress flattened it with metal blocks." Ben replies. "We can get you a cybernetic arm when we get to Kamino." Just then, the rest of the survivors emerge from the station. The VF-6 run to each other and go into a big group hug. Ace rushes to Scouts side to help him up to get to the transport.
"Need a hand?" He asks and burst into laughter.
"You're absolutely hilarious." Scout sighs and grins a little bit.
"Let's get out of here." Ace replies and pulls Scout out. "It's time to go home."
