Gripping a large grey datapad in her right hand while sitting at a desk in her underground ferrocrete laboratory on Coruscant, Dr. Sionver Boll drafted up a report in aurebesh to the Supreme Chancellor's office.

For two long standard years, she had endeavored to clone the Zillo Beast. Unfortunately, the experiments had ended in failure. The Zillo Beast's body itself was in a massive stasis chamber inside a secure structure. Dr. Boll scratched her red-crested head above her left eye as she re-read the message. She thought back to how surprised she was after receiving Chancellor Palpatine's instruction to clone the creature. The lanky Bivall scientist's specialty, after all, had been developing weapons like the electro-proton bomb.

From her point of view, giving the Zillo Beast project to the Kaminoans would have been a more logical decision. Unfortunately, the work had fallen on her to complete. Appeals to the Chancellor's office to work with the Kaminoans had also been denied.

Dr. Boll had initially been provided with her own separate research laboratory with many assistants and droids; however, over time and limited progress, the lab and several assistants vanished. She was moved into an underground laboratory near the Republic Center for Military Operations. While she still had multiple droids, only one of her assistants was left, Senca, who was rarely around due to other work.

She wasn't sure why anyone would believe that making her situation more difficult would cause the task at hand to suddenly succeed. The research's only advancement was towards the initial intention of capturing the Zillo Beast; to recreate the light and near-invincible scales to reinforce clone armor.

She looked up from her datapad at the sole prototype. Seventy-six previous attempts had been made; however, the one before her was the only success. The prototype wasn't flawless either. Except for the helmet, the armor's pieces hadn't separated. All the segments were connected by a flexible layer of cells, similar to what was under the Zillo Beast scales. There was also a glitch in the communications system, causing signals to randomly cut out.

She breathed in deeply then keyed the option to send. Hopefully, this limited accomplishment would please the Chancellor. She then began working on another report, this one for Jedi Master Mace Windu. His compassion for the creature had led him to request updates on any progress. She still wondered, had the last of the Zillo Beast's species died in vain?


Torch, Hutch, Tag, and Etch entered the mess hall and began looking through charcoal black self-opening cabinets for food, finally settling for some ration bars. It had been a while since they last ate. Inevitably Torch and Etch began quarreling over who had destroyed more droids in the past standard month as they chomped down on their meals. It was a typical competition the two had.

Hutch looks over and sees Senca, who gives him a quick smile after glancing up from her datapad. He remembered the first time they met. The intense look of guilt on her face for whatever she was thinking was in stark contrast to how she behaved now that they had worked together a few times. It struck him that she could trace her family line back over twenty-seven thousand years, whereas he was just a clone.

The last time they had worked with her, she was accompanied by a commander and two Lieutenants. In a recent briefing, he'd learned that they had been ambushed. Hutch tapped on Tag's shoulder, and they both strolled over.

"Lt. Commander, are these seats taken?" Tag walks up to the opposite side of the table where Senca is seated.

"All yours." Senca motions with her hand for Tag and Hutch to take a seat. Aside from them, the room is vacant.

Hutch takes off his bucket as he sits down, displaying his clean-shaven head and triangular facial tattoos. "What are you doing out near Foerost?"

"Aside from testing out a pre-production version of KSE's V-wing, I was supposed to continue the assessment of this armor. After the training we did a while back, instead of a standard officer's uniform, they decided I needed some real protection for our upcoming mission. I had the option of armor with or without a built-in deflector shield. Obviously, I chose the type with a deflector shield."

"It doesn't look like any version I have seen before," remarks Tag as he too takes off his helmet and sits down.

"It is based on the specialized armor deep-space infiltration, and high orbital precision teams use. Statements from survivors of several decimated squads cited limitations of their armor's design. The engineers made numerous changes to combine qualities from each of the armor variants."

"We noticed the backpack you have on isn't standard either. What did you do to it?"

Senca swings her backpack onto the table to point at the changes. "I took the liberty of upgrading the thrusters and added a miniaturized jet pack for better maneuvering in space. True, there is not as much capacity in it as one of your usual backpacks, but for what I need it for, it works."

She then rises up and clips the backpack on. "Do you want to see one of the new options I included in the backpack for the upcoming mission?"

Tag gives Senca a sly look, "Do Seps use tinnies? Of course!"

Senca puts her helmet back on, then nonchalantly states, "Now you see me." She presses a button on her wrist, then vanishes from sight. "And now I can strike the enemy without being detected."

"A cloaking device! Is that an option for us as well?" Tag asks.

Senca laughs as she decloaks. "Do not worry, your new equipment for the upcoming mission will have one."

Senca then takes her helmet off and points to different areas on the left side. "Based on a request from Commander Dodonna, we have also been working on a new communications module that will enable better coordination between troopers on the ground and our assault ships to provide more effective orbital bombardment capabilities. Right now, the module is only in my helmet as it…" Senca trails off for a moment. "It is still in the research phase."

The module had only been installed in her helmet a few days ago. It could access all systems via a backdoor on the ship's KDY had built as it was currently designed. Until they had time to restrict what the module could and could not access, it was tech they were not going to share.


The Fencer exits out of hyperspace just above Coruscant. Via the internal comm in her helmet, Senca contacts her family's head of security. "Toren, are you ready to pick me up?"

"I am still on my way. Due to traffic, it is going to take a lot of time today to get to orbit." Just then, Senca's comm shows someone else is trying to speak with her.

"Hold on, please, Toren. I am getting a message from my brother." Senca switches to a different encrypted frequency to hear what Cass has to say.

"Senca, you are going to be late if you do not get back to the arena for your upcoming match. We have already rescheduled it, so it is the last of the day, but you need to get here now."

"Okay, I will see what I can do to get there faster." Senca then disconnects from her brother and switches back to Toren.

"Cass was just telling me to hurry up."

"I am afraid there is nothing more I can do."

"I might have an alternative plan to you meeting me in orbit. I will let you know about it shortly," Senca says before disconnecting. She turns back to the clones. "Well, Stalwart squad, we have arrived at my departure point, and I need to get going. I'll see you tomorrow."

Senca gets up and starts walking out of the mess hall, giving Tag a light smack in the arm as she passes by him before heading towards the bridge of the Fencer.

"Don't forget to order us some Deeces with the clip on the right!" Hutch shouts after her.

Senca stops and glances back. "I will see what strings I can pull."

Hutch punches Tag in the shoulder. "See, I told you she wasn't that bad."

Tag simply gazed up at the ceiling. He was really tired of everyone hitting him.