To start Disney owns the property of the Starwars. Save for the ocs all material comes from them. This is an AU events post Endor will not line up with cannon or legends and are my version of it. Also the idea of clones being reengineered to counter accelerated aging is apart of the fic and not cannon. The Special ops groups in this story are based on ones in cannon or legends but altered slightly with name changes enjoy.Chapter 1
They promised to fix and even reverse the accelerated aging process. They promised to give his life purpose and structure. Cody had accepted he didn't think about what they represented and he didn't think about what they were doing. The Galactic empire was the legitimate government regime, he was born and bred to be a soldier, surely it shouldn't be considered a crime to do what one's natural instincts demand.
Yet the cuffs around his hands and the rebel alliance guards stationed outside his cell armed with A280 rifles begged to differ. The battle of Endor had ended in the greatest military defeat of his career. But it wasn't his fault the whole bloody thing was kriffed at the strategic and tactical level. Rebels were good at hit and run tactics, the plan to simply sit on a moon and place their top officials in the same area was exactly the type of thing the rebels wanted. But it was designed to be a trap, it was a stupid trap. Cody had spent four years recruiting and training a legion of jumptroopers, of quality soldiers forcing. The process required him to do his own recruiting from civilian populists of imperial worlds. Find men the empire hadn't ruined with its doctrines. It was hard work, but he'd done the impossible. They were good men because they were his. All to be thrown away in the dumbest plan in galactic history, now most of them were dead men.
So now he sat in his cell leaning his back against the cold hard wall with a stern miserable look painted across his face awaiting his sentence. He knew how revolutions worked, either life imprisonment or death no way would they spare a man who killed so many of their brethren. After all when he received an order he followed it to the letter.
He perked up slightly as he heard footsteps coming down the hallway. His head angled left in the direction of the footsteps. His unamused eyes then followed a man in clone armor with blue markings painted across, he saw a pair of jaig eyes on the helmet. The man was unmistakable and in different circumstances Cody would've been happy to see the man.
"Rex," He said, "I see the alliance had a similar deal as the empire."
"I joined before they figured out how to stop the accelerated age, and then slow the aging process in clones all together," Rex replied bluntly but honestly, "Infact, I met the man who busted into kamino to steal the lab notes."
"You say that as if I didn't fight for the empire because I believed in it," Cody hissed ashe folded his arms.
"You mean to tell me, you believed in tyranny and genocide," Rex said raising his voice in disapointment and anger, "That's not the ideal we fought for in the clone wars."
"The clone wars were an utter waste Rex. It would've never happened in the first place had the Republic been strong enough to keep the Galaxy stable," Cody said nearly shouting back as well, "Sure the Emperor was bad, but he would have died, I fought to keep the Galaxy in one piece not to revert to some broken corrupt system."
"You fought for a lie and you know it," Rex said pointing his finger, "I don't know when you figured it out, but you're a smart man you knew the very corruption still existed in the form of the Moff. Accept this time backed up by storm troopers, ones you had a hand in training."
"What'd you want Rex," Cody said quieter this time. The words tasted so bitter in his mouth he felt as if he'd thrown them up, "Come to see me before the execution, that it."
"No," Rex said, raising his helmet from his head. He needed to look Cody in the eye with out a helmet in between them. Cody was still his brother. Rex never abandoned a brother even if they had abandoned him,"I've come because I want to recruit you. I want you to change sides, and help bury the empire once and for all. End the violence in the galaxy."
"That's real rich Rex, I'm not gonna trade sides because mine's losing, I'm not some kind of mercenary. Besides, what's the point of my existence if there's no wars to fight."
"I miss it when I was the stubborn bastard you were the pragmatist," Rex sighed and nodded his head. This was not the man he'd remembered at all, "Look if you switch sides, you'll be pardoned. Then you can do whatever you want. Go join some mandalorian warband for all I care. But if you don't I can vouch for you but it doesn't look good, a mass grave was recently uncovered in Jabiim. POWs eye witnesses say your boys were involved."
"We were only following orders Rex, damn it you know that, tell them to execute me I was the bloody commander."
"It won't help," Rex said, "But if you switch sides, even those that remain of your legion who don't will be spared. They can pin it as you were just as much a victim as those in the grave, purely slaves to the system."
Cody nodded now he understood. He remembered when he recruited his men specifically one man who was still alive. It was on Corelia he'd set up a recruitment office outside. It was a rainy day and there was a line. He wanted to test their will so he let them stand there in the cold as they got soaked by the rain. He made out one boy he was young with green eyes that had a spec of innocence about him. His clothes were basically rags compared to the rich boys standing in line. Cody approached him and asked if the boy was cold. He replied, "No, just not warm." His level headedness and ability to make light out of a bleak moment was why he was chosen. He made a good soldier. He'd been attached to the 212th Cody's absolute best. All he really wanted was to get off of Corelia and do something interesting. Probably didn't imagine being executed at a firing range.
"Fine, I'll do it." Cody replied once again the words were bitter as medicine, "But I want my men to have the option to simply retire, and return to a civilian life."
"I'll have that arranged," Rex replied then nodded to the guards to open the doors, "And it's good to see you remember what really matters."
Crix Madine was once an imperial commando now he was leader of Alliance special forces otherwise known as Specforce. He stood with his hand under his beard as he stared at the star chart contemplating the next move. The battle of Endor while an overwhelming victory was far from the end of the entire war. Command had expressed the desire to take and secure the mid rim even before the battle. Intel had stated the news had traveled and numerous worlds within the mid rim were now under martial law.
Madine recognized the importance of securing the mid rim; it had resources,industry, population and the political allies that would be necessary to make the rebels into the legitimate galactic government. However taking the mid rim would be ambitious and difficult albeit necessary. The outer rim admittedly, was not nearly void of imperial presences the mid rim had thick concentrations spread throughout.
He stopped his thoughts as he heard footsteps. And turned around to see former republic commando Boss enter the room, "Sir I was told you wish to see me."
"Yes, have you heard the news of commands intentions?" He asked before saying his strategy outright.
"Something about a mid rim offensive." Boss said and admittedly hadn't heard mouch more about it then that, "After all I heard Akbar is taking his fleet to secure Muunlist, and Calrissian is going to raise an army on Bespin."
"Have you heard the official intel report in regards to the amount of damage the empire sustained?" Crix continued and watched as the commando shrugged implying he hadn't, "They'll recover within a year assuming they manage to build some kind of political unity."
"A year," Boss said, finding that odd, "Seems a bit fast."
"They have the industrial production centers of the galaxy, and the resources to fuel them. Unless of course we're able to expand quite significantly within a year."
"Hmm," Boss sighed as he thought, "In my experience when someone tries to end a war quickly just the opposite happens. That said most of the generals in the alliance aren't experienced in conflicts of conquest, there's no way we'll pull it off."
"You're absolutely correct there's no way we can pull it if we fight using purely conventional methods, or rather if we switch entirely to conventional methods." Crix said then forming a bright smile, "You and I aren't conventional fighters are we." And really the rebellion shined best on the unconventional front. Not using their greatest ability seemed just as ludicrous as not learning the necessary ability of conventional fighting.
"No," Boss replied bluntly, "Do you want to wage an unconventional conquest of the mid rim."
"We don't have the time to manually overthrow every regime in the mid rim, but if we target the worlds in which the imperial presence isn't as large we can do it effectively and quickly. Then adding those forces to our conventional forces could give us what we need to take the break imperial control in the mid rim."
Boss nodded as he angled his head towards the star map. "Have you run this by high com yet, or is this an off the record kind of operation."
"High com's concerned with reorganizing the whole military for the conventional war. They're forming system armies and what not. They don't need the tangent of approving a small operation to overthrow the military junta on Naboo," He said with a grin. They'd done this before and gotten away with it easily.
"Why Naboo? I've seen the intel reports, yes the occupation force is small but its well trained and well armed."
"Yes, but the population resents it, and its location would make it easier to run further operations from. Naboo has also in the past been politically valuable to the old republic, High risk but higher reward."
Boss nodded in agreement. In all honesty he wasn't exactly fond of Naboo, he regarded it as a world that was constantly out of tune with the wider galaxy. But perhaps imperial control had brought them intune, "We're going to need to assemble a team, one that's audacious ,intelligent, and aggressive."
Crix nodded and then brought up his datapad to pull up the various groups that formed the alliance specforce. "You want audacious go with Rex and a few army pathfinders, intelligence I've heard we just recruited former Commander Cody, and aggressive Raider group six has that written all over get two assault operatives from them."
"Cody," Said Boss, "He's certainly intelligent but can he be trusted, after all he served twenty years in the empire. I'm not saying people don't change, but on an op like this we need to be sure."
Crix nodded understanding Boss's concern, "I was once an imperial commando, the rebel alliance gave me a chance and now look where I am. This is Cody's shot, we'll know if he can be trusted depending on how this operation goes."
"You say that as if you're coming a long," Boss said with his arms folded. Crix had gone operations in the past. While Boss respected and even liked how he did that, yet the undeniable fact was he was a senior commander exposing himself to death on a regular basis, "It' gonna be quite dangerous."
"I sat out during Endor, I found it undesirable to allow others to do the bleeding. Guess you could say I'm rather fond of danger."
"And that's why we get along so well."