CHAPTER One
Separatist Droid facility.
Unnamed Factory Planet.
Outer Rim.
Four months after The First Battle of Geonosis
"Trooper, Sitrep now!" The Commander accessed the audio channel directly in his HUD.
"Two females crossing the Atrium, east to west, one injured sir. No droids. No Grievous. No Jedi."
"Copy that. Await further orders."
"Yes, fekking, sir" muttered the Clone from his vantage point, after having muted his side of the channel.
Hate these...recce's…..much prefer converting tinnies to shrapnel.
He watched the females.
Sounds of explosions, muted through his HUD sensors indicated several skirmishes with his brothers on the outskirts of the complex; he flicked his eyes just to check - safe distance. He couldn't intervene - orders. He flicked back to the two women pushing on, to see the older one slump to the floor. His bucket couldn't pick up the sound, too far away but the younger one, grabbed an arm and knelt beside her elder, holding close.
Lying prone on his vantage point, he watched the drama unfolding below him.
Hurry up! I can't help you yet.
For some reason, he willed them on, seeing them engaged in an urgent, emotional conversation; he knew the kind, he had seen brothers have them, in their dying moments. The older one retrieved something from her pocket, and pushed it in the younger ones hand. He studied their features, they were related, he could see their familial features. His HUD interrupted his thoughts with readouts from his brothers nearby, priming his blaster again - he was ready.
His eyes went back to the women, seeing the older one's hand, drop to the floor; it had been touching the younger ones face. His HUD readout showed no life signs for her.
"Trooper, sitrep" the clone commanders request came on his HUD, interrupting his observations again.
"Older female down. Repeat older female down, no life signs. Sir…...She transferred something to the younger one."
"Copy that. Move down to extract and retrieve the item, collateral damage approved." Ordered his superior.
"Sir?"
"You heard me, these are Seppies."
"Yes, Sir." He muted his audio again. "Fek, collateral damage!" The trooper swore to himself.
"Trooper? Keep your channel open at all times."
"Sir, Yes sir."
"It's Coric, isn't it? I don't care what they do in the 501st but no heroics here and stick to the plan."
"Sir, Yes sir."
He scrabbled down to the atrium to complete the extraction; He knew his orders, inside out and good soldiers always follow orders.
.
Neryssa heard her mother's rattling breaths and felt her gripping her shoulder to try keep up; she stopped and pulled them both into a doorway. Her mother wasn't old; she shouldn't be struggling. She turned towards her and saw the patch of bright red blooming over her mother's pale blue blouse; it spread out from the fingers that she had pressed to her side, saying it was stitch.
"Aw, Fek!"
"Don't swear, Neryssa." the admonishment was whispered, as Neryssa helped her to the floor, trying to keep her quiet; her grunts of pain would soon disclose their location. They needed the time to get clear, to get to their ship; Neryssa didn't know where they were going yet, but anywhere away from here, anywhere with a fully equipped med bay would help. Neryssa pulled the blouse away, to see the wound, applied anti coagulant and a Bacta bandage, from her bag. She pressed her Mother's hand hard against it but there was nothing more she could do now, not until they reached a medbay and she could see the full extent of the damage.
"Keep it pressed tight." She advised, her Mother nodded, as they started off again.
That monstrosity Grievous was after them; he was furious at her Mother's betrayal, but then distracted by the arrival of the Jedi he left to hunt them. He was obsessed by them, by killing them and increasing his collection of lightsabers, which he flaunted, evidence of the numbers he had disposed of; the distraction had given them the chance to escape, although they were now tracked by his droids.
Despite her injury, she still tried to talk but she was rambling not making sense. She felt her Mother's grip on her shoulder tighten so much, it hurt.
"He said he would come." Her Mother mumbled.
"Shhh, save your strength."
"We need to find somewhere to hide, I know he'll come, he said so."
Neryssa turned to face her mother. "Mum, not now. We need to get to our ship."
In spite of her pain her Mother rallied; sounds of blaster fire and explosions reached them from across the Atrium, but they pushed on. She felt the grip lessen on her shoulder and the hand slid down, her Mother slumped on the floor in a heap. There was another hiss of pain, and the red blossom had spread to cover nearly the whole of the front of her blouse. She was also leaving a trail.
"Please, Mum." she implored, grabbing her arm again but she couldn't move her alone and so, she knelt next to her, holding her.
"He said he was coming….your Father…. to fetch us." Neryssa wasn't listening; he'd never bothered with them before, so why now.
"I loved him you know. He was the only one I ever considered having a child with." Neryssa attention re-focused on the battle outside; the smell of burnt plastoid, so cloying it lodged in the back of her throat, causing her to gag, she forced it back down. She'd smelt worse. Her Mother grabbed her hand now and squeezed tight; they had both heard the boot-like thuds and mechanised voices in the distance, she retrieved her blaster from the back of her belt, where she had tucked it, after Kail had given it her, just before Grievous killed him, she couldn't think of that now.
"Leave me." Her Mother was struggling more now. "Here." She fumbled in her jacket and retrieved the data crystal she had been uploading when they were discovered making their escape. "This is all the Intel on all droid research facilities…..run by the CIS. See it gets to the Jedi," she took a short gasp of air. "Billions of lives depend on it."
Her breath was shallow now, short, shallow breaths but she managed to cup her daughters face with her bloody hand.
"Ryssa," Her mother hadnt called her that since she was small. "I always loved you, I never said it enough, you were the best thing that ever happened to me."
"Mum? Mum?" The hand slid and her mother's pale blue eyes stared, unfocused, over her shoulder. Neryssa gently held her mother's hand, it was still warm; she knew, without even checking, that she was gone, only minutes earlier she had been alive, in control, and running with her. "Mum, don't…."
Oblivious to the sound of pounding boots and the things, that wore them, to the strong hands that were pulling her back; once she realised what they were trying to do, she resisted, twisted, squirmed and finally faced those things that had dragged her from her Mother, the only constant in her life. Pointing the blaster, she moved it between the faceless individuals.
"Restrain her and bring her with us. Make sure she doesn't do anything stupid."
She fired and clipped the one who spoke, the one with the orange coloured armour plates on its shoulder; it didn't even slow it down.
"Trooper, take that fekking blaster off her before, she manages to actually cause some damage." It ordered, "and bring her with us."
"Yes, sir." Retorted the one holding her and prised the blaster from her hand, finger by finger, as one of the others held her arms back.
It grabbed her arm and pulled; she resisted. "It's futile to resist." It advised her, then losing patience, attempted to hoist her over its shoulder, for the quickest. It didn't have time to argue and struggled to pick her up; not the weight that was nothing, it was the kicking and screaming that it struggled with but eventually she was over its shoulder and it headed to the gunship.
.
Neryssa kicked, pulled and struggled but it still didn't let go; it flipped her easily over its shoulder and carried her, its hold vicelike around her. Keeping up with its comrades, they exited the facility. Neryssa was still screaming for her Mother, until it walked up the ramp and entered the gunship, as it entered she managed to get her hand under one of the armour plates, and scraped and pulled.
If I could get to the workings. Stang! it's soft inside.
She scratched harder, digging in with her nails and it caused the droid to momentarily flinch, she felt a wetness on her hand and looked at it, smelled it.
Red Blood? Stang!
She gave up struggling as numbness spread over her; she was dropped to the floor, all sounds muffled.
They asked her questions, she couldn't answer.
She could see but didn't understand where she was.
All she felt was a all encompassing emptiness, losing her mother left an aching void.
She was put in a small room with a ray shield but she didn't care.
.
"General."
The Clone trooper stood to attention as the Jedi, came into the brig.
"At ease." He said casually, the trooper relaxed, slightly.
The Jedi dressed in traditional robes but with the concession of some upper body armour, was humanoid, slight and average height. His hair a sandy colour and cut short, his beard had hints of ginger in it; as with all Jedi, his grey eyes looked to belong to a much older being. He looked at the young woman lying on the bench, his right hand stroking his beard, then he nodded at the trooper and the ray shield came down.
"Have you eaten?"
She lifted her head and frowned at him, as if he spoke a foreign language and didn't answer, dropping her head back down.
The Jedi turned to the Clone trooper.
"No, she hasn't... or drank, sir." He replied, anticipating the Jedi's question.
"Get me some food and water."
The trooper hesitated, as the Jedi commented "I don't sense any danger from her, I'll be ok."
The trooper nodded and headed out.
The Jedi observed her for a few minutes; he could feel the overwhelming grief that was taking over her every thought. It was familiar to him, that feeling; some said Jedi didn't feel, that they had no emotions but they did, it was just the way they reacted to them, it was the nature of that reaction that could lead to the Dark Side. The Jedi himself had nearly succumbed to that some years ago and now he was ever vigilant against it.
Attachment was his personal inner struggle.
"Let me help." He offered.
She raised her eyes to him and he could see the pain and disbelief in them; he didn't need the force for that.
"I can help….let me." He reassured her; he needed her functioning. He needed the intel.
"Please…" her voice stuttered.
She didn't know what he did or said, she couldn't remember the words but it was there in her mind. She felt it, the grief, for a moment it overpowered her, the loss and then there was something else, she felt another's grief at the loss of a dear friend and mentor years ago, that grief had never left him and something else he had lost. Something intangible; he withdrew that, it was not for her. But now her mind, it told her she needed to acknowledge the grief, to let it go and to move on.
His thoughts were her thoughts, her thoughts were his; they merged and then…..peace, serenity and no pain.
When he left the brig, they didn't put the ray shield back up and the guard brought her some food and water.
"Here." That mechanised voice, it held out some food to her and Neryssa looked closely at its head, her grief put aside. Her scientific curiosity aroused.
It's large, there must be a huge amount processing power inside that. The Republic droids are larger altogether than the CIS ones. It obviously projects a humanised voice. It's mansize too. But the blood and soft feeling inside the plastoid casing.
Cyborg?
Stang!
"Remove your helmet." She demanded.
It understood as its head tilted and an awful realisation hit her, the term 'wet droids' that Grievous had used disparagingly to describe the Republic forces.
"Take your helmet off…...please!" She made her voice calmer, lower.
It put the tray down and moved one hand to just underneath the helmet; she waited, watched, what if she was wrong.
Shhuttt!
The seal on the helmet popped and he removed it, she looked, felt her knees go to jelly and dropped back onto the chair.
A human male, stared back at her; short black hair, clean shaven, a couple of small scars, strong eyebrows, strong nose, strong mouth, a strong face. Some would say handsome, yes, definitely handsome. She heard a small cough.
"You're not a droid?" She asked, stupidly.
"Of course, I'm not a fekking droid." He snorted, "If you pardon my Basic."
'I was expecting droids." She explained, "Droids are all I have seen for the past few years and your armour, you're all the same. Grievous, He called you wet droids."
We are nearly the same, me and my brothers.
"I'm sorry." She paused her voice was low, "I was rude."
"Hurrrumph!" The trooper shrugged. "No harm done." It itched where she had scratched him and that was going to take some explaining to his brothers, when he hit the 'fresher.
He put her meal down on the table, "When you're finished I'll take you to a cabin you can use. To shower and" he paused not being familiar with females, he was not sure if there was anything else she would need to do, " get a change of clothes."
"Thankyou." She spoke quietly. "You're very kind." She was suddenly ravenous and made up for her abstinence earlier, by eating "like a trooper" he had said to some of his fellow clones later. They were interested, absorbing any information about the civilians that they were protecting and this one was the first one that some of them had seen up close, especially a female that wasn't a Jedi, even if she was a Seppie.
The trooper 'Cee. Tee. Eight. Three. Oh. Three', as he had called himself, when she asked his name, showed her to a cabin and brought her some clothes to change into, some kind of matching top and trousers, which she had to turn up. The undergarments were, the opposite, a little snug. She took the luxury of a water shower and went to put her ripped and blood stained clothes into the recycler, when she remembered she had to look for something important, to give to the Jedi.
The data crystal.
She found it!
Wrapped around it was her mother's solid gold chain, an Irmenu design; it was heavy but she had always worn it, every day without fail. Neryssa put it on now, one of her last links to her mother.
Now she had to find the Jedi who spoke to her earlier; it was the last thing her Mother had asked her to do.
"Get it to the right people. The jedi."
She could hear her now, as if she were standing right next to her; she went in search of the Jedi, surely he would be the right people to give the data crystal to.
Wandering along the corridors of this huge Star destroyer, she felt lost, something was missing. She should be more upset but she couldn't be. Focusing on the corridors, she realised each one looked exactly the same but there should be some way to know where you were going. She saw a number of troopers but they all seemed to be in a rush and ignored her, the One With Colour stopped her, she knew now he wasn't a droid, but didn't know what the colour meant.
"Ma'am, can I help you?"
"Er.. yes the Jedi with the beard. I need to see him."
Thinking that the trooper hadn't heard her, he didn't reply, she started to repeat herself.
He interrupted her, "Yes, Ma'am, if you follow me, General Kenobi is in the ready room, waiting for you."
Following the Clone into the room, he removed his helmet on entering and stood to attention. "Sir. The Asset."
She should have been upset being called The Asset, but she didn't have the strength.
"Thank you, Cody."
The Jedi, General Kenobi, was standing with several troopers in armour and other men in a grey naval uniforms, the blue glow from a holotable, reflected in their faces.
Holding her closed hand out towards him, she said "I think that you need this." her voice was calm and steady; she opened her fist and he covered it with both of his, they were strong and felt cool to the touch. Kenobi never took his eyes off hers, she wanted to look away but couldn't. He held her hand for what felt like an eternity and she could feel a blush flooding her face. He then took the proffered data crystal from her and held it.
"Thank you, my dear, thank you, very much, I know how much this has cost you."
After he had said those words, she looked around the room, really looked, at the men in uniform and realised they were all the same, exactly the same. She looked at all of them, again and again but could see no differences, except the occasional hair cut. It was the same face, on all of them, apart from the scars. They all had scars but different scars.
The Jedi seeing her confusion on looking around at all the men, explained to her.
"My dear, all these men are clones; they make up the majority of the newly formed Grand Army of the Republic. You've missed quite a bit, haven't you."
.
The small craft landed on the outskirts of the facility and a man dressed in matte black on black Mandalorian armour, disembarked from it, turning to say something to someone inside the craft, before finally jumping to the ground; he scanned the surrounding area then moved on towards the facility, which had sporadic fires, in all its buildings, all burning out of control now.
Other than the armour, there was nothing to identify him, as he did not remove his helmet. Stopping periodically to scan with his scope and adjust his backpack, he checked on and retrieved something from each fallen Clone, his head making infinitesible movements over each one, indicating signs of speech, he made his way methodically across the facility, searching each of the buildings.
The living quarters were empty save for a male Pantoran, who had died from several blaster shots; droid ones by the look of it. He closed the corpses' eyes and again seemed to mumble a few words, a litany, just as he had over the dead Clones. The young Pantoran had very similar armour to his but of a less expensive variety; it made no difference to him, if he was Mandalorian he deserved the same treatment, as any other brother. He removed a part of his armour. It would be used to find his clan and let them know he had died, how and where.
The Man in Black continued his search and coming to the Atrium he stopped; walking slowly up to a female figure he scanned it. On looking at the results his chin dropped to his chest and remained there for several minutes. Finally he went over to the body, checked it and removed an object from it; just a comlink, he had seemed to think there would be more. He straightened her out and gently closed her eyes. He scanned for life signs in the buildings again but found none on the whole facility; after adjusting the visor on his helmet, he slapped his thigh and shouted. If there had been any Mandalorians around they would have understood the words; seconds later a six legged golden furred animal, with a jaw large enough to take a muscular bicep in it, appeared and bounded up to the man. It slobbered over his feet and after some more words, it bounded off again, returning several minutes later, empty jawed. The man shook his head and scanned the buildings again; his efforts were fruitless.
He carried the female body, with a gentleness that belied his looks, into the living quarters with the Pantoran; with both bodies there, he set the building on fire with strategically placed detonators. Standing for a few minutes, with his head bowed, to ensure the building continued to burn well, he then moved off to his craft. He called out again and scanned the area once more with his scope but didn't find whatever he was looking for. The golden furred animal returned empty handed and the man stood and appeared to look around the facility; after a pause to check one more time, both headed up the ramp into his craft and left the planet.