Twitch walked beside Kat, the latter wearing a belly top, pair of pants, and boots, all the same tan-brown shade. Claws prowled behind them.
"I can't believe this is happening. And I've known for days!" Kat groaned.
"Hey, I couldn't believe my first transfer, either, and it was to the 659th. Trust me, things'll smooth out after about a week." Twitch grinned.
"Yeah, yeah, you're just glad I won't be shoving you out of bed any time soon." The transferred teenager ribbed her sister.
"A definite up-side to all this." The girls roughhoused as they walked, trying to get the upper hand with minimal movement.
At the exit to the Military District, they said their goodbyes and parted ways.
Klairen Ghynna intercepted her third-in-command quickly, telling her some surprising news.
"Chancellor Mothma has requested your presence." The Twi'lek said. Twitch's jaw clenched at the title 'chancellor', but loosened quickly after that, as she remembered that being a chancellor didn't necessarily make people evil.
"Yes, ma'am. At what time?"
"Right away. Do you need a ride?" That sounded just about too familiar.
"No, ma'am. I can use my wingsuit to get there." The Jedi nodded and went on her way, while the lieutenant walked quickly to her quarters to grab her cloak.
What's the new chancellor want? Tail asked.
No idea, but I'm curious. Hopefully she doesn't want me to visit a medical center, the teenager grimaced, putting on her garment before starting to head for the roof of a communications tower.
Kat was amused by the gawking that most troops indulged in as she walked through the Mess Hall with Claws, nearly laughing as she noticed some of the clones blanching. Her favored smirk was present, often worn more than any other expression at any time.
The teenager sat down at an empty table, rubbing her pet's head with one hand and eating with the other. She didn't mind the wayward glances or the raised eyebrows, nor when troopers hunched together to start murmuring, eyes flicking towards her.
The commando finished and left for the gym, drawing eyes there as much as she had been as she ate. Claws went to sleep in a corner as her friend attacked a punching bag, flipping and spinning as though it was a real fight, yet confining her movements to a five-foot radius.
Twitch landed in front of the Senate Building, wishing she could pull her hood up to hide her face. It was a comforting act, to be hidden from a world that was still visible to her.
The lieutenant shook off her discomfort and walked past the doors, beelining for a small map that had the layout of the building on it. Her eyes wandered over the Aurebesh writing, eventually finding the chancellor's office.
She went to the turbolift and rose to the second highest floor, stepping into a well-furnished, beautiful hallway with paintings hanging and varying plants hugging close to the walls in their pots. Twitch stopped in front of the guards who stood before a pair of large double doors that were made of polished wood. It looked like mahogany.
The guards removed her belt, then loudly announced, after asking her name, that Lieutenant Twitch had arrived.
"Send her in," a woman's strong voice called. The young soldier walked through the door that the left guard opened, coming face to face with a woman who seemed to have a couple inches on her, had red hair, and wore beautiful, creamy tan-white robes and a gold pendant. Blue eyes observed the new arrival.
Twitch saluted and stood at attention, but relaxed into parade rest after a gentle smile and wave of the Chancellor's delicate hand.
"First Lieutenant Twitch, reporting as ordered, Supreme Chancellor." The teenager stated, nearly smiling as she remembered how Rex was the one she'd learned the clipped tone of a soldier from.
"Lieutenant, I understand you've had some excitement recently?" Mon Mothma certainly didn't waste time with frivolous pleasantries.
"Yes, ma'am." Out of habit, Twitch's eyes unfocused and stared past the older female.
"And Officer Robert Monday assaulted you?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"I will be blunt. You have operated in the military for two years, and the three years before that, you were still involved in the war. That is an awful lot of service for someone so young. So, I am relieving you of your current duties." Twitch's eyes involuntarily narrowed into a scowl and her hands grasped each other behind her back.
"All due respect, ma'am, if I am expelled from the GAR, I won't just stop being everything that I am. I don't know any life besides a soldier's."
"I know. But I never said I was removing you from the army, just your current post. Ko Sai and the other Kaminoans couldn't contain all the clones of Lantana Fett they had accidentally made. Like you, Kat, and Spitfire, several escaped, all at varying ages. I want you to track them down and find out who they are, what they can do, and try to recruit them." That surprised the soldier.
"You want me to drag other children, some possibly younger than I am, into a war, ma'am?"
"I want you to make an elite squad of people who have experience that most others don't. Their enlistment will be completely voluntary. At the least, we'll know where they all are, what names they go by, and their allegiances. Lastly, I want you to be the captain of this squad."
"Chancellor, many of them may not want to be found or tracked. If they're rogue, they likely want to stay off the charts."
"Something we both know is a luxury no one is allowed. Lieutenant, do I have to make this an order?"
"No, ma'am. I'll find them. How many escaped Kamino?"
Kat hadn't had quarters to herself for a long time, but she was glad to have them. A fresher was attached to the room, a single bunk was pressed into a corner, and an equipment locker waited to hold whatever she didn't need on hand.
Claws seemed happy enough with the small room, curiously sniffing everything she came in contact with. The nexu went to investigate the refresher while Kat unpacked, putting her clothes on the top shelf of her locker and tucking her duffel bag at the foot of her bed.
"Felucia, huh? What do you think is so important on the Plant Ball?" The teenager called after Claws, who was looking the shower over curiously.
The nexu growled, flicking her tail dismissively. A clear, 'I don't care' sign.
"Yeah, okay. As long as we aren't doing something boring."
Twitch hid the credit chip Chancellor Mothma had given her in a hidden compartment on her left gauntlet. She then climbed the nearest building that she could before taking off and gliding back toward the Military District.
Vod, I've got some bad news, she sighed.
What happened? He could sense her irritation.
The chancellor is sending me to track down other clones of Lantana. I'm leaving as soon as possible.
Why does she want you to do this? The scout growled, crossing his arms.
Primarily so she knows who's who and where they all are, what they can do, but she also wants me to recruit as many as I can to form an elite squad.
She actually wants to bring more kids into the war? He demanded.
I asked that, too. She didn't really give me an answer as to why, just dodged the question by saying it was completely a voluntary enlistment system. I'm going to hack her databanks and see what exactly she plans on doing.
That's my little criminal, slice into the Supreme Chancellor's files, Tail rolled his eyes.
Hey, I really don't trust anyone who's a chancellor anymore. Besides, these girls are deserters, like I was. We both know how deserters are looked at.
You don't think this is a blood hunt, Tail frowned.
Could be. And I'd like to know if it is. Those clones are exceptions to the regular deserter ethics. Their positions were unique. It was either Kamino and death or desertion.
Just don't get caught, the medic was starting to understand the female deserters.
Twitch landed a short while later inside the Military District, going directly to Zeta Squad's quarters. She grabbed her duffel bag, stuffed any clothes she had into it after roughly folding them, and made sure her belt was secure.
She grabbed her electrostaff, then left to find the rest of her squad to say goodbye and tell them what was happening.
R2-K5 was a lively, green-paneled astromech with a mainly white outer body. He beeped in greeting as Twitch entered the Lambda-class shuttle Chancellor Mothma had given her.
"Artoo Kay-Five is a bit of a mouthful. Mind if I call you Kayfe?" The lieutenant asked as she walked toward the cockpit, followed by the astromech, who beeped and trilled in agreement. Suddenly, the teenager was glad R2-D2 had spent so much time around the troops of the 501st, else she wouldn't have any idea what her new companion was saying.
"Great. Well, the chancellor said that the only two girls they know the general locations of are somewhere on Mandalore, so that's where we're starting." Kayfe rocked back and forth on his treads before beeping excitedly and heading for a socket to set their course.
After they took off, quickly leaving Twitch and Tail's telepathic range, and after an hour into the flight, Twitch got desperately bored, having double checked all the systems present. She busied herself looking for trackers or listening devices, finding none.
That gave her absolutely nothing to do besides sleep, eat, or practice. The teenager chose the latter and spun, jabbed, and swung her electrostaff. Kayfe watched from a safe distance, studying Twitch's movements.
Kat and Claws, on entering a larty bound for Felucia's surface, found that a number of undead had been terrorizing the planet. That was a good enough reason as any for them to go down.
When they landed, pale humanoids of varying species attacked. They had white, bloodless skin, decaying flesh, and were missing parts of their bodies, sometimes displaying bones. Torn clothing adorned their forms.
Claws leaped on an Ithorian, biting its head clean off, spitting it out, and going after a pair of humans. Kat activated her gauntlets and jumped at a Twi'lek with ice-pale, blue skin, cutting his forearm off, dodging a swing, and shredding his chest before removing his head. Other troops shot their opponents.
Twitch and Kayfe had been on Mandalore for a full day with no success, going from city to city, searching for and investigating human teenagers with golden eyes. Their first score was Enceri, which was actually near a sort of refuge for clone deserters known as Kyrimorut, also the home of the Skirata Clan.
Kyrimorut was a large farm, spanning out for acres with crops of all kinds and displaying pens of many animals, nerfs among them. Twitch noticed multiple workers, many clones, as they walked toward a large building that was likely where everyone slept and ate.
A man with a bald head and a friendly smile intercepted them.
"Welcome. My name is Munin Skirata." He said in Mando'a.
"Mine is Twitch," the teenager responded in kind.
"You have a bit of an accent. I take it Mando'a isn't your first language?" Munin asked, switching to Basic.
"No, it isn't. I apologize for intruding on your territory, but I'm looking for some girls, probably around my age. Golden eyes, black hair. I heard they might be here?" Skirata crossed his arms with a contemplative look, eyes squinting.
"Why are you looking for them?"
"So they are here? You've probably noticed some similarities between me and them. Golden eyes aren't so common, after all. I just want to talk to them." Kayfe beeped indignantly, asking about a chance to recharge. "Soon, buddy." Rubbing the astromech's domed top.
"Alright, follow me. The kids are in the barn, tending to one of our strills that was injured." Twitch followed Munin, who walked with a brisk pace. "You seem to understand Mando speech patterns. You 'apologized for intruding on my terrain'. Not standard wording." He commented.
"I'm still learning," the lieutenant admitted.
"Learning or not, you're doing quite well. Self-taught?"
"Yes." The soldier was surprised to see how many deserters there were. It must have been hard for them to all get here. She knew some clones probably died finding their way to the farm, either caught and executed or killed through other means.
A massive barn towered over the three as they approached it, and the doors were twenty feet wide and tall. Inside, two girls were kneeling over a furless, six-legged animal, bandaging gashes on it and cleaning away blood.
One looked up and nudged the other, who saw Twitch and gasped happily. The older seemed about thirteen, the younger roughly ten.
"You got away from Kamino, too, right?" The thirteen-year-old asked.
"Yes. My name's Twitch."
Cheshire, the younger of the two, was aptly named, being small and feline in her movements, yet quite able to disappear without a whisper of sound, topping Twitch's ability to do so easily.
Songbird was nicknamed by some clone deserters who heard the girl indulging in her love of music by singing.
As it turned out, Songbird had escaped from Kamino when she was eleven, and by chance found and brought along Cheshire. The two girls were inseparable ever since, despite the younger's pacifistic, quiet nature and the older's much bolder, joking attitude.
Munin, once seeing that Twitch wasn't a threat to his adopted daughters, left them alone in the barn to talk.
"So, you're saying you joined the GAR?" Songbird asked.
"Nearly three years ago, give or take a month. Also, I've met two other clones of Lantana Fett; Spitfire, and Kat."
"Really? What are they like?" Cheshire's wide eyes appeared foreign to Twitch, despite matching her own. They were innocent and curious, seeming to never have seen the horrors of war.
"Well, Kat is…Kat. She's got a pet nexu, a very enthusiastic personality, and has a defiant streak to her. She'll take on a pack of werewolves all alone, unarmed and naked if she feels like it. Crazier than I am. Spitfire was twelve, competitive and feisty. Impatient, and we were always squabbling over training and who had more experience and the like."
"Wait, why're you referring to her in the past-tense?" Songbird looked up from the skrill she had been working on earlier, bacta smearing her fingertips.
"Because she died about a year ago, during a campaign on Vhalan. A rollie snuck up on us, and we didn't see it in time." Twitch's voice became somewhat hoarser. Cheshire looked sad, but not surprised. Songbird pursed her lips.
"Sorry to hear that. So, ah, how goes the Beast War?"
"The Beast Zone is slowly growing, but we've done a lot of research on monsters. We know most of their weaknesses, attacks, stuff like that. Also, that's sort of why I came. A small number of female clones escaped Kamino, like us. Chancellor Mothma sent me to find you and pass on a request. She wants me to find as many of us as possible and give you the option to join the GAR as members of an elite squad. You can refuse if you want to stay here. It's completely your choice."
A.N. ~ I'll try to have more of Kat next chapter. I'm breaking my habit of centering nearly solely on Twitch, so please be patient.