Chapter 10: Fen Kar'fon (CT-0099 "Buzz")

Kamino

The four ARC troopers rushed from the landing pad, towards the pilot training structure. The comms were abuzz with chatter about droids. Kev, the Jedi they were supposed to save, sounded like he was in trouble.

"Here," Fen said, handing Scorch an ion grenade.

"Where did you get those, sir?!" Scorch gasped, taking it. "I thought the Republic ran out!"

"I found them under the seat," Fen grunted. It was the truth. He found a box of ion grenades under his jumpseat seat—exactly where a Spynet director said they would be.

"Marvellous!" Isaac yelled enthusiastically.

The light drizzle continued pattering on their armour as they reached the structure. Dawn aimed his heavy repeater at the door cautiously, taking a step forwards.

"We're climbing," Fen ordered, pulling out his electromagnetic handgrips. Turning one on, it stuck to the outside of the structure with a dramatic thud.

"All right sir, we're climbing," Dawn grunted gruffly. "Buzz, I think it would be quieter to—"

"—No time!" Fen yelled in an almost Bothan snarl. Shtak. I am Buzz. I am a Clone. He exaggerated his Clone accent. "Come on!"

With metallic suction noises and soft thuds, the four ARC troopers made their ascent with magnetic boots and electromagnetic handgrips. With a push of a button, the magnet in Fen's left hand would turn off, then he'd lift his hand higher, turn it back on. Repeating the procedure with his left, he climbed higher and higher.

"One thing I really miss," Scorch whispered into the comm. "The rain."

"Yeah," Dawn agreed.

Fen did not miss the rain. In truth, he had only spent three weeks on Kamino in his entire life. His ARC trooper body was shipped to Thoran where his consciousness was transferred into it by the Spynet. Three weeks before the war broke out, Fen Kar'fon arrived on Kamino for the first time, and stabbed the real Buzz—the human that these three Clones had grown up with, unceremoniously tossed him into the ocean, and assumed his identity.

Groaning as he reached the top of the structure, Fen took a deep breath and moved his arm to wipe the sweat from his forehead. Damn these human bodies… And damn! I'm wearing a kriffing helmet! He banged his gauntlet on the roof in frustration, struggling to ignore the sweat.

"Buzz, is everything all right?" Isaac whispered.

"Yeah," Buzz sighed. "Come on, see that hole over there?"

Cautiously moving across the slippery wet roof, the ARC troopers arrived at a hole that had been cut in the roof. A repelling rope was still tied to an antenna, descending into the room.

Their objective, Kev Rel'skar, a kriffing Spacer Bothan, was bound in front of two holopresences. A T-1 tactical droid was speaking to the Jedi.

All right, now to save that Askar Jedi and eliminate these droids before the Jedi walk into an ambush.

Fen walked to one corner of the square-shaped hole, then gestured for each of his team to take a corner. He pulled out his ion grenade. "All right, three, two, one—HOLD!" he yelled in alarm.

A few of the BX commando droids looked up, one aimed its blaster in his direction.

This, however, was not why Fen stopped their attack. At that moment, a Twi'lek child, no, a Togruta, leapt quietly into the room, landing so softly Fen could not hear it with his human ears. She ran quietly across the bright white floor, brandishing a green lightsaber. Somehow, the two droids in the room did not notice her. She stood right behind the T-series and swung her lightsaber into it like it was the simplest thing in the universe.

"SHAB! FRIENDLIES!" Dawn yelled.

"Contact!" Scorch yelled as blasterfire flew up at the ceiling.

Down below, an argument erupted between the Jedi holopresences and the Togruta intermixed between the sound of blasterfire and lightsabers slicing.

"Ahsoka!" Obi-Wan yelled.

"Yes Master?" Ahsoka tried to ask as a question, but it came out as an exhausted grunt.

Fen peered down below. She had locked her green saber with a droid's electric polearm.

"Ahsoka!" Anakin's voice came through her comm. "Keep them off Kev! We will be there in a sec!"

The BX droids stopped shooting up at the ARC troopers on the roof, now focusing entirely on the Togruta.

Kev yelped in terror as a droid Ahsoka cut in half fell on him.

Ahsoka gasped in pain as one of the four BX droids attacking her evaded her defences, lunging forwards in a jab. The electric polearm touched her elbow, zapping it.

Dozens more BX droids suddenly emerged from other rooms, rushing in on the Jedi.

All right, that's the trap!

"BLAST!" Ahsoka screamed, continuing to block the lunges from the four attacking her.

The BX droids were now in a crowd around the four duelling Ahsoka and the bound Bothan on the floor. The seven Clone children stepped back further away from the fight, being largely ignored.

"All right," Fen ordered. "Toss 'em!" This'll be fun to watch.

"But sir! Friendlies are down there. Our directives say—"

"—These are ion grenades," Fen grunted, throwing his down into the crowd. "It'll hurt, but they'll live."

With a shrug, Scorch dropped his as well.

A few of the BX droids looked up and raised their blasters. Not a single one got a shot off.

Less than a second later, a ball of blue electric arcs erupted in the centre of the droid crowd, followed by another. The sparks arced from droid to droid, and into the Jedi.

Fen smirked under his helmet as Ahsoka and Kev screamed in pain. The Togruta dropped her lightsaber as it shorted out, falling to the ground in a sparking mess. She collapsed to her knees gasping. The Bothan was altogether louder, yelping in pain and terror as he writhed on the floor, fur smoking.

This was more fun than Fen had in years. He would have never wasted two years studying chemistry if he knew the Spynet would pay him to save Padawans by electrocuting them.

The not-Clone cackled madly as he descended into the room, blasting the droids writhing on the floor. His team followed without a word, blasting the helpless commando droids with ruthless efficiency.

"BLAST THEM BEFORE THEY REBOOT!" Fen ordered more seriously, beginning to get worried as some of the droids started standing.

Dawn and Scorch focused on the opposite side of the room, gunning down the droids as they stood.

When all of the droids stopped stirring and their lights had blinked out, just to be certain, Fen walked around the room shooting everyone where it laid. The room was now thick with the smoke of blasterfire. Even through his helmet filter, the smell was overwhelming. He walked through the smoke from droid to droid, blasting. Blasting to make sure every single one was dead.

o.o.o.o.o

"You fried our Padawans," Anakin said, unable to hide the edge of anger in his voice.

"With all due respect sir," Fen said sternly, "we used non-lethal weapons. I took a calculated risk. There is no way those kids could have held off that many commando droids."

In the background, through the smoke, Ahsoka and Kev were being hauled out on stretchers by Kaminoans. Two Jedi Masters and two Jedi Knights had confronted the ARC troopers.

"Ahsoka should have never been there in the first place," Plo-Koon muttered to Anakin.

"I don't want to argue," Jazal huffed. "I am… I am going to check on my Padawan." She took a step away from the group and followed the Kaminoans.

"I'll come!" Anakin echoed, running after her.

Plo-Koon and Obi-Wan stared at the helmeted ARC troopers.

"I suppose this is what we get for bringing the Alpha ARC troopers out of stasis," Obi-Wan sighed.

Fen cringed under his helmet. Shtak. Now one of my idiots is going to blab.

"Indeed," Plo-Koon agreed. "This is our fault—"

"—We're not Alpha ARC troopers, sir," Scorch said indignantly.

"You're not?" Obi-Wan asked incredulously.

"No sir," Scorch answered professionally. "Just regular ARC troopers. Just doing our duty."

"Interesting," Plo-Koon said, stroking his respirator as if it were a chin.

If the Jedi get us scanned by the Kaminoans—tested—I'll be discovered! This is bad. This is bad. This is so bad! What do I—

"—Sir!" a Clone voice yelled urgently from Obi-Wan's comm. "It's the prisoner, he says he is ready to talk."

"Very well, we are on our way," Obi-Wan replied into his comm, then muttered curtly to the ARC troopers "As you were."

Fen fought the urge to sigh in relief.