Hi everyone, more Zillo beast.

Enjoy.

Sued

CHAPTER Twenty Eight

Capturing the Zillo beast

A'den was fascinated by the large beast which, according to the dugs, should be extinct; part of him was appalled by the fact that the dugs wanted to just kill it. The irony hit him that Windu wanted to protect the Beast but would readily send hundreds of his brothers to their deaths in this fight and would continue to do so, while they were trying to capture it.

All this just confirmed Kal's feelings about the Jetii, and his own.

He watched the attempts by the Dugs to kill the beast with the fuel and then the change of heart and the need to sedate and capture the beast. The tanks manned by his brothers, of course, firing stun beams, concentrating them together to attempt to make it more effective.

And still his brothers lives were forfeit in this attempt.

The beast was finally sedated, and transferred to the Resolute, using the impressive logistical abilities of the GAR and the team work of the clones; imprisoned and under guard, it was being transported back to Coruscant at the request of the Chancellor. If Admiral Wuluf Yularen was not happy with the thought of a 97 meter, semi-sentient monster on board, currently sedated; he had not let his feelings be known.

There were very few that agreed with this course of action and most opined that the outer rim would have been a better option, where it could be released; Windu was especially vociferous on the subject but Chancellor Palpatine had been insistent.

.

Some of the troopers had been to have a look at it, close up, but Hardcase didn't really care about the beast, so long as he didn't have to guard it; it was kriffing big and he thought it would be mad. He would, if someone had done all that to him; woken him up like that and then attacked and finally sedated him. He thought it knew exactly what was happening to it; he had looked into its eyes, when he was in one of the tanks and that had been close enough.

It was currently unconscious in the hangar, under guard but he didn't want to think about it any longer. He was going back to Corrie and L'leth. He had missed her and dreamed of her most nights, her skin, her lekku, how she made him feel, in a good way.

When Hardcase finally got to hit the showers, he had already decided he was going to punch that Fekking shower button twice and he didn't care if he was put on report or not. He had had enough of the makeshift showers the Dugs had provided. You either got sand or more sand and if it got stuck in some parts of your bodysuit, it was more than uncomfortable, it was downright kriffing dangerous; they didn't seem to understand the concept of water or sonic showers. He was going to put in request for another body suit, so that here was no evidence of Malastare left on him. Now, he just wanted to get all the sand and the smell of Malastare off him before he went to see L'leth and he was determined to see her, even if he had to sneak out out of the barracks yet again.

Kriff any punishment!

He picked up his fresher kit and headed for the showers, with a purpose in his stride, hoping that they were totally empty; he had deliberately waited until the post battle rush had subsided but no such luck and there was somebody already in there. Against his better judgement, he found himself standing next to the only brother in there. He was surprised there weren't more in but that meant he could take his time. He had not actually realised it was the Null until he was standing naked next to him and in the process of relieving himself. He wasn't normally squeamish but that sand got everywhere and it was just so good not to have to worry if it got into your kute. That was Fekking painful.

"Hardcase."

"Sir."

"We're in the kriffing freshers, Hardcase, its A'den."

"A'den, sir."

"No sir needed."

"If you say so ….A'den."

Hardcase grinned and surreptitiously observed his neighbours build again; he was bigger than your average trooper, even men like Hardcase who was used to lugging the heavy guns about, plus the additional weight training he did to make sure he could handle the Z-6 with ease. Hardcase always thought his own upper body strength was on the high side for a clone.

"Eyes front!" Came the order, in that gravelly voice that he was getting used to.

"Sorry." He murmured, there was never normally anything new to see on troopers apart from new scars or ink. But the Null had scars, a lot of scars, some of them really, really old, like 'occurred in childhood old' but no ink, not that he could see.

"Just….impressive musculature."

A'den sniggered.

"Not bad yourself but I normally only let the Missus, eye me up like that." The null said to the wall. "Does she need to be jealous?"

"Sir, no sir." He had never even thought of anything like that, he definitely liked women. "I have a girlfriend myself. " He blurted out, not knowing why he had admitted to that; he had only met this brother a matter of days ago and not all brothers had the same mindset. He could see that with the Null and he had some funny phrases, when he was talking.

"Good for you lad, I hope you look after her well." He added as they entered the showers together and he started to lather up.

Hardcase continued to give him side long glances, observing that everywhere was just slightly bigger and Hardcase had felt the full power of that when they were sparring.

The Null answered his unspoken questions.

"We were the prototypes. The Kaminisii tweaked our DNA a tad too much, so we came out of the Vats built larger and more individualistic than you later versions."

He eyed up Hardcase now and his tattoos, "But I can see that you're catching up Ner Vod, and you know some Mando. I'm impressed." He slapped him on the back and Hardcase stepped forward involuntarily. "If you ever need any help, with anything, just let me or one of my brothers know."

"Thanks." Muttered Hardcase.

"I mean it, and your girlfriend."

Hardcase nodded, not really knowing what help he could possibly need, after all, he had all his brothers around him and Rex, just like a big family.

And L'leth.

"Let's have some double shower time." A'den grinned, and pushed Hardcase's shower button again then his own. "I think we deserve it."

Hardcase sniggered, "I ain't gonna complain."

They stood in silence, letting the hot water remove every last trace of Malastare.

They continued, drying themselves off, the ARC humming to himself, thinking what Ryssa was doing at this moment, 'looking after herself' he hoped. He missed her, in more ways than one and hurriedly pulled his regulation shorts on.

Hardcase was thinking about L'leth; he had been able to see her the night before they left and he was happy to be going back so soon.

"So what's your girls name then?" A'den had definitely taken a shine to Hardcase; he asked this question as he was pulling on his fatigues, thinking that he must com Ryssa soon to let her know he was on his way back and thinking of her.

"It's L'leth."

"Beautiful name."

They continued to dress.

"What's she like?"

"She has the most beautiful turquoise skin and she's tiny."

"It doesn't matter what height you are, when you're doing the horizontal tango." The Null commented. Hardcase sniggered, he had never heard that phrase before and decided he must remember it.

"So…..What's your girl's name, s.. A'den?"

"Neryssa, but she hates that and prefers Ryssa. She's small with long blonde hair and she makes me feel….." he paused "like I'm the only man in the galaxy."

"Yeah, know what you mean."

"Among other things." A'den nudged his shoulder and winked at him.

Hardcase grinned until he realised the name the null had said.

Fek! I'd been trying to…..

He kept his face blank.

"Does she work at the Treatment Room?" He asked tentatively, as he pulled his fatigues on.

"That's her." A'den ran his hand through his hair. It needed a trim. "Have you had some treatment there?"

"A little." He saw A'den smile.

"That's where we met"

"I heard."

A'den cocked an eyebrow; not sure of he liked the idea that he was the subject of trooper gossip.

"From Kix."

He nodded, the other Medic, he did know how they gossiped; he liked to kept up to date with everything himself. Although he wasn't sure how he felt when he and Ryssa were the subject of that gossip.

"She also helped me get a present for L'leth; L'leth loved it."

The Null smiled and slapped the trooper around the shoulders.

"Don't know about you but I could eat a Ronto slapped between two loaves of bread; let's head for the mess."

Hardcase snorted his agreement.

Then, thought A'den, as they headed down the corridor, he needed to have words with Coric.

.

The mess hall was full and Hardcase could see his squad already seated; he and A'den collected their food and edged onto the table, as his brothers shuffled up to make room for them.

"Oya, Ner Vode." A'den greeted his fellow clones. He was in an amenable mood, as he had a plate of what looked and smelled like tasty food and a mug of ubiquitous GAR Caf. It made a change to the GAR ration bars he had on most of his solitary missions. This working and sitting with troopers was a novelty for him; they had never done this on Kamino, they were kept totally separate. The only ones they ever went near were the Alpha planks; they had never even mingled with the RC 's even though Kal had at least one hundred of them to train. None of the Nulls had ever worked out how he had managed to do that.

A'den had revised his thoughts on some of the regular troopers, especially these from the 501st; 'meat can' was a phrase he would never use dismissively again. He knew why Kal wanted to do, what he wanted to, for all clones. He would not begrudge that to any one of these men; they were just as individualistic as he and his brothers in their own ways.

"Captain Rex around?" He asked, he would need to take his leave from his technically superior officer, before he returned to ARCA barracks, as a matter of courtesy.

"He's tied up with reports." Replied the one called Jesse, Lieutenant, remembered A'den and with the Republic roundel tattooed on his face. That must have taken some guts to have done.

"I'll catch him later." Then he tucked in.

By the time they had reached the Caf he was being quizzed on why he and his brothers had had separate training on Kamino with whom.

"The only time we ever saw you was when you doing something to annoy the Kaminoans." Commented Jesse "but we just thought you were…." He never finished that thought.

"Defective?"

Jesse blushed it wasn't something that the regular troopers discussed too often.

"It was tried, but they failed. They didn't try again."

Something always happened to 'defective' clones and had known a few but the Null seemed amenable to discussing it, almost revelling in it. He wasn't sure at all about him and took a long drink of his Caf.

"There was that time" Coric joined the conversation, "when some brothers scaled the supports and swung around taking pot shots at the technicians."

"That was us." Confirmed A'den, "We we're trying to see how close we could shoot without actually hitting any of them." He sniggered at the memory, "Mer'ika won nearly all the time."

The men around the table laughed.

"My squad were doing some flash training" continued Coric "and it made our day seeing the Kaminisii running around, like scared Nuna, not knowing what to do."

A'den tipped up his mug to drain the last of the Caf. He actually liked Coric.

"Well lads, it's been good to meet you all but I have my own reports to write, so, be seeing you." With that he left the table and headed for his quarters.

.

Sitting in the temporary shared squad room, he tried to get hold of Ryssa again but her Com was still off; they would be at Coruscant in a couple of hours and he needed to see her, to make sure she was well, among other things. He closed his eyes, let out a long breath and recalled their past times together.

The door to the squad room shucked open

His eyes opened immediately and he looked up, as luck would have it Coric entered, for whom that was debatable, he thought.

"Just the man I want to see." He said with a smile on his face.

"Hil, can you give us a moment."

Hil had followed Coric in and raised an eyebrow at the request; Coric nodded and Hil made himself scarce.

Coric headed towards his bunk to put his datapad away, as A'den watched Hil exit the room.

"I want to know about you and Ryssa."

A'den wasn't messing about.

"What do you mean?"

"When you went to D.T.'s."

Coric swallowed. He remembered that night; the night he did not take his chance. He couldn't.

"Yeah?"

"What happened?"

"Did you ask Ryssa?"

"Of course.

"What did she say?"

"I'm asking you."

Coric finally opened his locker and put his datapad away.

"Don't you trust her."

"Yes but I want to hear your side."

Wanted to see your face when you say it.

"Nothing happened."

"Did you want something to happen?"

A'den stood up and moved towards him.

Coric squared up to the null.

Yes Fek it. I wanted her.

"Nothing happened; someone had spiked her drink. She didn't really know who she was with."

"You?"

"No." Coric could see the slight change in the Null showing he was on edge when he heard that.

"But you know who did?"

"Yes. He's been dealt with."

Coric rearranged his locker, not looking at the null.

"What did...you want?" He asked again.

Coric slammed the locker door and spun around.

"What do you want me say? Yes, I wanted her; I've wanted her since before you two even met."

There was no humour in the Nulls smile now.

"She's mine." He ground out.

"She…..belongs to no one. She's free, unlike us Ner Vod."

"I don't give Bantha Osik for the Republic and if they think they own us; they don't own me. She's mine."

"You sure?"

Coric looked him square, in the eye.

"I saw the bruises. It was no fall."

"Did she she say it was?"

"Yeah, but I know the bruise from a fist."

A'den took a deep breath.

"We've sorted that."

"Yeah?"

Both men stood staring each other out neither giving way.

"She's having my baby." Declared A'den, as a fait accompli.

"What the Fek! She never said anything."

"Yeah. Why should she, Ner Vod."

A'den advanced on him backing him up against the wall; Coric closed his eyes; if what the Null had said was true.

"I wanted you to know Ner Vod. I like you. You're a good brother. And I understand you, a woman like Ryssa would get you thinking, about after the war. Wanting what every other man wants. Get yourself a good woman, Coric, But Ryssa's mine, always will be."

"Yeah."

I made a vow and I'll honour it.

"Glad we had this talk, Ner Vod. Gal'gala."

"Cuy ogir'olar."

A'den shrugged, and left with his kit bag, slung over his shoulder.

They were finally entering Coruscant airspace and numerous troopers were running around getting ready to discharge their captive. They were currently awaiting special equipment. He had left a message for Ryssa, her Com was still switched off; she was probably busy. So he slung his kit bag over his shoulder and headed to find Captain Rex. He was a good reader of men, and expected Rex would doing his reports.

And there he was in what passed as his office.

"Captain?"

"Come in Sergeant." Rex rose from his seat, A'den noticed he looked tired, most of the troopers did but it looked like they would be getting a little respite over the next few days.

"I'm leaving now sir; it's been an honour fighting with you and your company. They're some of the best troopers I've ever seen."

"I'm not going to disagree, Sergeant."

"I hope we meet again sometime, Captain." The salute was Kamino perfect

"Likewise Sergeant."

#####

Gal'gala – let me buy you a drink.

Cuy ogir'olar - It's neither here nor there.