Thank you for the wonderful reviews. You are all such amazing, supportive people. I don't deserve you :')
On the side, my test results came back. I'm negative. So all's good for now. One less problem to worry about.
Rising tensions (Clone Force 99 pt2)
It's not easy working with a team of people who have different priorities
The second the Bad Batch walked out of the meeting room, a sea of intense stares greeted them. All from clones who gathered around to hear the argument.
Ignoring them, Hunter and the rest of the squad made their way to their ship. They needed to unload more belongings if they were to call this base 'home' for the next couple of days.
After they finished unpacking into their designated barracks, they sat down inside and talked. Crosshair, surprisingly, initiated the conversation.
"So. What are your thoughts on these regs?"
"What are my thoughts on them?" Hunter repeated. He thought for a few seconds. "They're tired, they've been stuck here with no progress whatsoever for I dunno how long."
"Well, maybe they'll start making progress if they start pushing their generals for more information," Crosshair suggested.
"Um, I think you might be unaware of some aspects of their history," Tech slowly brought up.
"The only part of their history I care about, is their experience in fishy operations, like this one."
None of the batch disagreed with Crosshair, who kept talking to them. "I refuse to believe that they weren't as skeptical as we were when they first read the overview. I mean, the lack of decent details on that thing is kriffing sketchy."
"Swear," Wrecker warned.
"Shut up, we're not playing that game anymore."
"But we are. Remember? You lost last time and this is your demand for a rematch."
"Whatever." Crosshair took his attention off Wrecker and curtly turned to Hunter. "So, Sarge. Why did we come to a lost cause?"
Hunter leaned against the wall of their barracks building. He remained quiet for a moment, then spoke. "Maybe, because I'd like to see what's inside that datachip the Separatists are housing."
The batch was shocked. None of them expected their leader to say something so borderline treasonous.
"Or maybe it's something else." Hunter shrugged. "Anyways, it doesn't matter. We're here. And we're gonna do our jobs. One way or the other."
~ O O O ~
Word of the first meeting argument spread across base during the night. And needless to say, the clones didn't take it too well.
The next morning, Sinker caught sight of the squad while taking a break with some of his comrades. He didn't miss the chance to confront them.
"Hey. Do you always question your superiors like that?"
The batch stopped in their tracks. They turned to Sinker and his company.
"Gee, I dunno. Does it look like we do?" Hunter retorted.
"Yes," Dogma dryly replied.
He had pulled another all-nighter, rummaging through the Trandoshan's belongings and is barely awake right now. But he wasn't about to miss squaring up to the clones who disrespected his leaders.
"Well, we have our reasons," Hunter defended. "Just like you have yours for always accepting and backing up your generals."
"Well, excuse us for defending the Jedi who constantly goes out of his way to keep us alive," Boost said sarcastically.
"Ditto on that." Vito crossed his arms.
"But you guys have to admit, it's not unreasonable for us to question them." Tech stepped towards the clones. "Think about it. They're the ones who make all the Council meetings and they're the ones who relay information from those meetings to the rest of you. Now, we're not trying to point fingers here but there is a possibility they aren't telling you everything."
The clones did listen to Tech, but remained unconvinced. Kal answered first.
"Look, the generals are trying to make best out of an unfair situation. Cut them some slack, will ya? They don't have any reason to hide anything from us."
"Yeah? How do you know?" Wrecker challenged.
"Well for one, we've known them since the start of the war. And you've only known them for…" Kal checked the time and performed some quick mental calculations. "...19 and a half hours. Do the math yourself, big guy."
As soon Wrecker began attempting the calculations, Hunter told him to stop. "More exposure to your leaders doesn't mean they're trustworthy. It just means that they more influence you."
"So what are you saying? That we're blindly loyal to them?" Dogma questioned.
"No." Crosshair said coldly. "More like stupidly loyal."
"You wanna say that to my face?" A sharp voice joined the fight.
The clones turned their heads to see Compass walking towards them, looking visibly triggered. Nobody can say that kinda stuff to Dogma (who's been a victim of blind loyalty before) while he's around!
"You, sniper." Compass curled his finger at Crosshair. "You wanna try saying that again?"
Crosshair scoffed. "Big talk for a reg."
"'Reg?' You should've stopped at 'stupidly loyal.'" Compass began cracking his knuckles. "Now, I've been stuck here for a week and a half, with nothing to do, and nowhere to go. And I think I just found my cure to boredom."
Crosshair handed his rifle to Wrecker. "Hold my rifle."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Kal came between the two and pushed Compass away. "How 'bout we keep things on the verbal level?"
"I actually agree with that," Hunter said as he pulled Crosshair back.
"Oh, so now you agree with something!" Compass shouted above Kal's shoulder.
Kal urged Compass to leave before turning around to face Hunter. The leader of the batch was starting to look fatigued with this fight.
"Look, we're just here to find the datachip, same as the rest of you!" Hunter insisted.
"We know that," Kal spoke as civilly as he possibly could. "But there are other factors at play here that we don't fully understand. So we need to be careful, if we don't wanna get on the Republic's bad side."
"But if you fail this mission, you WILL get on the Republic's bad side!" Hunter reasoned.
The clones were quiet.
Hunter looked at them. "So what'll it be? Either you start demanding for more information and get on their bad side, or fail to retrieve the datachip and get on their bad side. If I were you, I'd go with the first option."
"If we go with the first option," Boost began, "we risk getting the generals and all of us, labelled as traitors to the Republic."
Crosshair huffed in satisfaction. "See? What'd I tell you? Stupidly loyal."
Everyone continued to quarrel.
~ O O O ~
Inside another building, Steele and Wolffe were evaluating their known information with Comet and Egad. Now that the Bad Batch were here, they don't need to bother with organizing and sending out teams to hunt down potential leads.
Dogma was supposed to be in this meeting, but when Comet saw the result of him pulling last night's all-nighter…he made him skip out to rest.
"The Separatists obtained the information somewhere in this system before escaping to and disappearing in our location," Steele pointed at a holomap.
Egad nodded. "That's what the overview implies. And our deceased Trandoshan prisoner pretty much confirms they're on this planet."
"Or that at least their underlings are," Wolffe corrected. He looked at the map. "Hmm. The distance from their escape point to here isn't far. Looks like whatever craft they're flying in isn't built for long-distance hyperspace travel."
"But they're Separatists," Comet said.
"They're rogue Separatists." Wolffe emphasized on the word 'rogue'. "Thankfully, the higher-ups didn't leave that detail out. So we can assume they're not buddy-buddy with Count Dooku anymore."
Comet is starting to understand more on the nature of these thieves. "Ah, that explains why they're so good at hiding. They don't have the power to withstand a large-scale attack from the Republic."
"Or from Count Dooku," Egad pointed out. "Like Commander Wolffe said, they're rogues. So I'd think they're on the run from him as well."
Steele agreed. "But because they're carrying Republic info, the Republic wants us to reach them first, before Dooku does."
Taking out a datapad, Steele summarized their findings thus far. "Alright, we're doing pretty ok. Call in the generals soon, we'll update them on this." He smiled a bit. "Looks like having Clone Force 99 here is making a difference after all."
Comet and Egad were tentative in agreeing with Steele. Egad grumbled, "Still can't believe they accused you all of being dishonest."
Steele didn't need to hear this again. "It's just the way they are. As long as they don't jeopardize anything, let's try and be friendly, alright?"
Neither Comet nor Egad said anything. So Wolffe attempted to reason with them.
"Look, they aren't wrong in suspecting that something's being concealed. But they are wrong to accuse the generals. If anyone, it's the top layer of the Senate that's hiding something from us. But it's not our job to look into it."
~ O O O ~
Outside, the quarrel between the two battalions and the commandos didn't stop. At this point, Dogma's drowsiness had disappeared entirely. Replaced by irritation.
"This datachip contains very sensitive Republic information!" He stressed.
"So why isn't the Republic pulling out all the stops to get it back?" Hunter demanded.
"He just said it's sensitive!" Sinker smacked his palm with the edge of his hand. "Does the word 'sensitive' mean something else in your dictionary?"
Tech responded to Sinker before any of his more hot-headed squadmates could. "If it's so sensitive, I doubt the Separatists would leave behind any obvious trails."
"Which is why it's so hard looking for them!" Dogma shouted, his eyes tearing up due to lack of sleep.
"How did you find your Trandoshan prisoner then?" Tech asked curiously.
"We got lucky and stumbled upon him at his one-man camp," Dogma answered with a bit more patience this time.
Tech could see that Dogma was more willing to cooperate with him than the others. So he began to pelt him questions, one after the other. Interrogation-style.
"He had no communication with the rest of his group?"
"Nope."
"Not a single commlink, transceiver, or holopad?"
"Just a smashed commlink, nothing else."
"How'd you know he was in league with the thieves then?"
"Fought back, tried to escape and resisted arrest, refused to answer clearly when we asked him anything about the Separatists or the datachip. And, he committed suicide to avoid interrogation."
"I see." Tech paused, thinking Dogma's answers over carefully. "And you haven't found a single useful clue on him?"
"No. He doesn't carry anything digital other than miscellaneous stuff."
"Nothing digital? Why's that?"
"Well because all digital items are…"
Suddenly, Dogma's blood-shot eyes widened with realization. He sped out of the area and towards the building that held the Trandoshan's belongings. Kal and Sinker dashed after him, eager to know what he's up to.
Tech turned to the rest of the batch. A smug look on his face. "See? A little patience and politeness goes a long way."
~ O O O ~
Dogma barged into the evidence building. He took out the crates that held the Trandoshan's belongings and evenly dumped them onto several tables. Sinker and Kal appeared behind him.
"What'd you discover?" Sinker asked as Dogma rummaged through the items.
"The Trandoshan didn't carry anything digital because those devices are easily traceable!" Dogma explained as he cleared another table. "So anything important he'd be carrying would be on something disposable, like paper, flimsi, or…or…"
"...a durasheet?" Sinker suggested.
"Yeah! Help me look!"
Sinker and Kal immediately took over one of the other tables, and started getting their hands messy. Dogma told them to keep their eyes peeled for anything small or blended in well with the other items.
After five frantic minutes of sweeping over items, Dogma found a tiny folded sheet amongst the mess. It was a severely faded crinkled durasheet. And on it were a scribble of characters that mildly resembled coordinates.
"Get me a datapad!" Dogma screeched.
"Here, take mine." Kal handed over his own datapad.
Dogma immediately took it and typed madly away on it. His fingers trembled as he rushed to copy down the coordinates on the durasheet before it completely faded.
"Got it! Thank you!"
Dogma ran out of the building and towards the meeting room where his commanders should be. He had to tell them about this.
~ O O O ~
In the meeting room, the clones were joined by Plo and Aliyah. They were amidst presenting the discoveries they had just made.
"These thieves may have severed their ties with the CIS, but they're far from neutral. Best way to describe it, they're a new enemy, trying to fight the Republic their own way," Steele finished explaining to the Jedi.
"I see." Plo stroked his chin. "They're doing a good job so far, if I dare say. I can't say I've seen the Chancellor show any signs of distress, until recently."
"We also know that they're definitely on this planet." Wolffe pulled up a map of the system they were currently in. "If not, then they're on the next three closest ones. They can't escape far, not with their current transport."
"The lack of quality equipment on the Trandoshan's proof of that," Egad further supported.
"Did you find anything else on the Trandoshan?" Plo asked.
"Yes," Comet quickly answered. "I found out earlier this morning that he's been keeping tabs on us. He's got info on our location, our numbers, and our supplies. But I'm not sure if he's relayed any of that to his allies."
"Because of the smashed commlink?"
"Precisely."
Aliyah nodded slowly, taking in everything that's just been poured on her. "This is good stuff so far. Well done, everyone."
The clones felt a light sense of content. Ever since they started this questionable mission they've felt nothing but frustration. So any commendation for their work is welcome.
Though, Steele only felt partial to that. What mattered to him was that his general's finally feeling something other than disappointment. They've had too many dead ends with this mission, they seriously needed a turnaround.
"All we need now, is a location," Steele concluded.
As if the universe had timed everything perfectly, Dogma in barged through the door. "Commanders! Oh, generals, good morning."
Everyone looked at him curiously, waiting for him to say what he came here to say. Dogma cleared his throat before speaking again.
"I think I got a location."
~ O O O ~
Right after Dogma presented the coordinates he found, Steele and Wolffe got to work on researching the area. It didn't take long, and once they finished, they called in their special reinforcements.
The Bad Batch gathered around the table. They were being briefed on their first assignment of this job.
"The coordinates Dogma got points to this old mountain resort. It got shut down since the war affected this world's tourism," Steele explained to the squad.
They listened respectfully.
Wolffe zoomed the map out so it could display the resort's location in respect to their base's location. "Your job is to get there, find anything that could be related to the datachip, and get out."
"Simple enough," Hunter said. "What do you want us to do if we're met with hostiles?"
"If they're Separatists, subdue them. If they're enemy combatants, take them out," Wolffe answered.
"Can I blow them up?" Wrecker asked.
Both Wolffe and Steele gave him an 'are you kidding me' look. But before either of them could respond to Wrecker, Hunter did.
"Sorry, Wrecker, not this time. We can't risk accidentally destroying the datachip or info related to it."
Wrecker's aura of disappointment filled the room. Crosshair looked at Hunter. "We're still gonna do things our way, are we, Sarge?"
"I dunno, are we, commanders?" Hunter addressed Wolffe and Steele.
Steele rested his hands on the table and took a deep breath. "Just don't royally screw this up."
"We won't fail," Hunter assured. "If that's what you're worried about."
No, what we're worried about is you guys going over the top. Steele internally said.
Next time on The Clone's Hero, the Bad Batch are sent out on their first assignment for this mission. Everyone could only pray that things go uneventful…
Review responses~
KarajeJinsta: Thank you. *Gives you a virtual hug back. And no, I don't have the virus. My test came back negative the day after I posted the previous chapter. I'm overjoyed to see you again, you've been waiting so patiently. Thank you so much. :)
Akira-Hayama: Yeah, I agree. Fanfiction's been acting weird for me lately too. Sometimes I don't receive emails for new favourites or follows, sometimes I receive 2 emails for 1 review. They need to fix their system. And this arc takes place before those events you mentioned. It'll be more obvious where in the timeline this fits by the end of this arc. I somewhat agree with you, Steele's likely the more inexperienced one in this matter, but due to Aliyah (and all the Jedi's upbringing) I'd say she's no better. For now, they honour their values and their responsibilities. :)
RyanSquad: Well, yeah, because I do. If I don't have something in plan, I don't have an endgame in mind. I need to have a clear goal to write towards otherwise writer's block will strike quick and fast. :)
Starpottergeek: Haha. I hope you can wait patiently then. XD
lionkingfactsguy3: Thank you for coming back. I'm glad to see you're still here. And it's nice to write about Clone Force 99, they have a lot of room for me to play around in (because of how late and brief they were introduced). Thank you for your faith in my test being negative, it really turned out to be negative! As for these dramas I'm stuck in, I'm slowly working up the strength to handle them. :)
Lau-SR: You are an amazing human being. Thank you for your support. And thank you for finding my story and loving it enough to leave this response. It always means so much to me whenever I gain a new reader. I hope you'll continue to stick around (even if some later hiatuses may be longer than the last one) :)
CuriousKatt: Thank you for being my dedicated reader! Honestly, I wasn't expecting too much from my first chapter of this arc. So hearing from all these responses and you is overwhelming. Thank you, thank you, thank you. It truly sucks when someone you trust betrays you, but that's just how life is sometimes. Thank you for your get-well wishes. :)
MisterStarWarsFans: I'm glad you're here too! My tests came back negative so no need to worry about that anymore. I'm happy you're liking this arc so far and will keep reading it to the end. :)
Liam: I'm not an inspiration, please don't follow my footsteps and keep working when things get too stressful for you. I've been trying to break that habit long ago, but it's hard. Remember, some things, you can grit your teeth through. And others, you need to rest before attempting to try. As for me, I should've took it easy when I was at my lowest moment. I'm glad you caught on the new change of atmosphere. You're right, I'm setting the serious tone right from the get-go. :)
Guest: Wow, an entire day reading it? I'm so flattered. Here's an update for you! :)
Radicalewe3: I'm so happy you're still reading. And I can't believe you check every week just to see if I updated sooner (awwww). You don't need to do that now, I'm back and I'm updating every 4 days again like I used to. That is until I finish this arc. But that's a problem for another time. :)
A/N. I seriously teared up from the responses I received last chapter. After everything I went through during my hiatus, it's such a breath of fresh air to hear from you all again. Writing truly is my escape right now. I hope you'll continue to stay with me and this story as it unfolds.
See you all next time! :)
- MiraLake