Hi there! I'm Brenn. This is my first ever fanfiction so please don't expect a masterpiece. I'd really appreciate feedback though, if you could drop a comment on mistakes I make and how I can improve on them, I'd really appreciate it.

So, this story is about the clone troopers of the Republic. It'll focus mainly on troopers we see in the TCW show and the 2008 movie but there will be a few chapters that aren't visible on screen. A lot of chapters will be actual scenes we saw in the movie and show but from different points of view, so see if you can spot where in the scene the character is! I mostly aimed to flesh out the backstories of some of the clones that only get a split second of screen time, or were unidentified, but I have a few ideas on some chapters with mainstream characters too. But, enough of that. On with the story!

Chapter 1

Teth, 22BBY

Hetch stood looking out of the viewport of the gunship, watching the landscape of Teth speed by. He had a knot in his stomach that was getting tighter every passing second. He knew it was because of nerves, and this alone made it worse.

A crackle of electric static buzzed over the comm feed in Hetch's helmet. It stopped as suddenly as it had started so he didn't manage to see who it was from. His eyes drifted over to the Togruta standing a few feet away. Why there was a youngling onboard, Hetch had no idea but he wasn't one to question officers. Denal had said she'd arrived on Christophsis as a messenger and wound up becoming General Skywalker's padawan. She'd then apparently gone on to assist the General in destroying the seppie's shield generator, effectively saving the Republic forces on the planet. Arriving on Christophsis as part of a relief force after the battle was over, Hetch had no way of knowing whether Denal was telling the truth, so he just took his word for it.

He breathed out a quiet sigh. Battles never made him nervous, but today was an exception. He just had a… feeling, that something was going to go wrong on this mission. Hetch was jostled from his thoughts as the gunship jolted violently.

Almost losing his footing, he reached for the safety handle above his head. The pilot, some newbie flight officer Hetch hadn't bothered to get to know, called back from the cockpit.

"Sir! We're taking heavy fire!"

The General's response was quick,

"Close the blast shields Lieutenant, get us under those guns!"

"Yes sir!"

The armored plating between the view panels of the gunship's doors slid shut, plunging the crew compartment into semi-darkness.

"Here we go…" Came a mutter from the youngling. Hetch briefly wondered if she was nervous, and he supposed she must be. This battle was going to be hard, everyone knew it, but they'd faced worse. Most of the clones had been joking before boarding the gunships, saying the last one to the top would have to be on droid maintenance duty. Only Hetch had been apprehensive.

The red interior lights of the gunship blinked on, alerting the troops to stand by to disembark. At that exact moment, that blasted burst of electronic interference occurred again. This time, it was long enough for Hetch to see who it was.

"Ridge," He barked, tapping his bucket, "your comms got static."

"Got it," Came the reply. The static ceased.

"Red light, stand by." The voice of Captain Rex floated through Hetch's helmet, semi-calming him. He liked Rex, a good guy to have in a fight and a drinking contest.

Hetch shoulder his rifle, the sight seamlessly integrated into his helmet's HUD. This rifle had been his almost throughout his entire life. He'd actually come into possession of it a lot earlier than he should have. As a 4th year cadet on Kamino, he'd been wondering through the armory after hours with Charger and Ringo. The three young clones had spotted an open weapon's locker, no doubt accidentally left unsecured by 99 or another maintenance worker, and inside had been several DC-15's. Charger and Ringo were content to ignore the blasters but Hetch was in awe. Up until that point, they'd never used real blasters and the weapons before him seemed almost magical. He'd taken a, stolen, vibroblade and made a small scratch along the barrel. The following year, as the clones began live fire target practice, Hetch always sought out that scratched barrel. He'd even swapped his ceremonial blaster for it when he'd graduated.

"Welcome to paradise, Rockjumpers!"

Hetch was again jumped out of his thoughts as the voice of the gunship's co-pilot, who Hetch did know, filtered into his ears. He felt the gunship leveling out and slowing and grit his teeth.

As the ship landed and settled, the interior light blazed green.

"Green light!" Rex called out to the soldiers inside.

The doors of gunship the slid apart and Hetch's ears were immediately assaulted by the sound of an immense explosion very nearby. So loud, it caused the dampeners of his helmet to momentarily kick in.

"Go, go, go!" Rex practically screamed, sprinting from the transport. Hetch was out the gunship right behind him. As his feet hit the dirt, he looked up to see the objective. He gulped. The monastery was even higher up than he had expected. Perched atop a mountain, surrounded by a drop on all visible sides was what was essentially a fortress. The mountain looked to be about half a klick in height!

Hetch chanced a glance over his shoulder as he made his way up the short incline towards a covered section below the mountain. He saw what looked to be the cause of the initial explosion when they'd landed. One of the gunships had been completely destroyed, most likely exploding the moment it had touched down. Hetch felt a pang in his gut for 20 or so brothers who never made it out the ship.

"Follow me!" General Skywalker's voice came from up ahead. Following the sound of his superior's voice, Hetch charged onwards, doing his best to run in an unpredictable pattern. Shots were raining down from above like a hurricane of red but miraculously, all of the troopers made it to the General's position, with the exception of the unlucky squad inside of the currently smoking gunship wreck.

Taking cover in a small, sheltered section at the foot of the mountain, Hetch watched the two walkers, both crewed by clones he got along with very well, lumbering up towards them. Their mass driver cannons doing their best to return fire up to the monastery despite the sharp angle. Hetch silently wished them luck with hitting anything.

As if on cue, a droid smashed into the ground a short distance in front of them, startling the sheltering group. The droid muttered some garbled nonsense and tried to rise before a piece of falling debris struck it directly on the head and it moved no more.

Baffled by the previous event, Hetch looked over at the two Jedi a little further along the line of huddled soldiers.

"So, this is where the fun begins," The youngling quipped. Hetch almost cried out in alarm. How could she think any of this was fun?! They were about to embark in a near half kilometer long climb and she thought it was going to be fun?

He exchanged with the trooper next to him who had also heard what the young Jedi had said. The other clone said nothing but slowly shook his head. Hetch didn't need to see his face to know the soldier was in an equal state of disbelief.

"Ascension cables!" Rex ordered. In unison, the clones pulled away from the rocky outcrop and aimed their rifles skyward. Hetch thumbed a button just to the side of the rilfe's trigger guard and felt the recoil of the cable firing upwards. The tip of the strong metal rope embedded itself about 60 meters up the mountain. Pressing the button again, Hetch gripped his rifle tightly as he felt his feet leave the ground, the rifle's cable mechanism reeling itself in. He came to a stop about 10 meters above the base of the mountain, his feet planted firmly against the vertical rock.

Looking over to his right, Hetch watched the two AT-TE's start to crawl their way up the mountain as well. He hoped both walkers would make it to the top unscathed. He began the long climb, occasionally firing his blaster. He was too far away to fire effectively at anything and suppressive fire didn't work nearly as well on droids as it did on organics, but it was comforting all the same.

Something swung across his vision. Whipping his vison to the right, he saw that blasted youngling swinging from a vine towards one of the walkers. Landing on the upper cabin, she held herself there, gaining her bearings it seemed. Hetch saw the main gunner pivot in his seat in alarm. When this was over, he was going to have a word with Rex about having a reckless Jedi in the 501st.

He reached the anchor point of the cable. Hetch pushed a button on the opposite side of the blaster to the previous one and the cable firing mechanism fired a second time. Reeling up the original cable, Hetch packed it into the compartment under his rifle and continued the climb, following the newly fired cable.

He'd gotten no more than 10 steps when he heard two loud booms in quick succession. Turning, he saw the 2nd of the two walkers peeling backwards from the cliff, its cockpit blasted away and smoking. Hetch watched in horror as the doomed vehicle plunged out of sight and could nothing to mute the deep crunch that followed.

Just then, the crop of rock that Hetch had just placed his foot on crumbled away. Panicking, he dropped his gaze and struggled to settle himself. At that exact moment, a cry came from up ahead.

"Stand clear! Incoming!"

Hetch snapped his head upwards just in time to see the massive form of a spider droid hurtling towards him. The immense mass of the droid causing it to accelerate almost to the speed of a blaster bolt. Hetch had no time to dodge it.

The droid smashed into him, shattering his armor, crushing the bones in his chest, and pitching him from the cliff. Torn from the grip of his weapon, Hetch fell without a sound.

He was dead before he hit the ground.

…

Thank you for reading!

Any and all feedback/criticism is greatly appreciated!