"Alright, Echo, I want to run another scan."

"Kix, that's the seventh scan you've taken since I've returned from ArmyMed. There's nothing more to find. Fives needs help training the shinies, and I'm wearing a hole in my shebs lying on this scanner." The ARC groused. "Can't you just… run a scan of your own head for comparison or something?"

Kix cast Echo a considering look and then exchanged a look with Sly and Iron. The chief medic from the Wolfpack had stayed on with Kix and Echo to assist with their investigation and until they reached Anaxes, they would still have a few more days together as a team.

"Actually, that's not a bad idea," Kix agreed.

"It isn't?" Echo blinked in surprise.

"Oh, I know you're just trying to get out of here, but you're correct in presuming we've hit a wall with our research. We're also running out of time before we get tied up with the engagement at Anaxes. Go. I'll comm if I need you."

Echo quickly shot out the door, likely worried the medic might change his mind and think of another scan to run.

"So, who's going in?" Iron asked, pointing into the large full full-body scanner in the diagnostic area of the medbay.

Kix shrugged. "I might as well do it." He hopped up onto the thin, movable bunk of the scanner.

Sly studied the scanner with a scowl. "This machine can't do the same level of scan we did back at ArmyMed. We had access to specialized equipment there."

"It's all we have. We'll have to make it work," Kix said with the confidence of a medic who was used to improvising in the field.

Sly's gaze took on a faraway look. "Unless…"

"Unless what?" Kix demanded, immediately sitting up and nearly whacking his head on the top of the scanner.

Iron put a hand on his forehead and pushed him back down. "Kark Kix, you nearly took your head off!"

"I'm not used to being on this side of the thing," Kix shoved his hand away.

Sly ignored both of them, focused on hooking his datapad into the scanner and typing furiously away to make modifications.

Kix shimmied down so he could look at Sly. "What are you doing? I'd like to know if you are tampering with this thing since I'm the one in it."

"I have all of Echo's scans on my datapad. When we used high-res ion conductance microscopy at ArmyMed, we discovered an anomaly. Now, we're trying to figure if this was unique to Echo, a result of his injuries, or something he was exposed to in the labs. Agreed?"

Kix nodded, carefully not to hit his head on the scanner.

"So, if I hook my datapad up to the scanner, it could target the same area of your temporal lobe where we discovered the abnormality in Echo. It would give the device the specificity it needs to produce a more accurate scan."

"What we need," Iron said, shaking his head, "is a Level 5 scan. They don't give us that kind of equipment on-board ships."

"We were never allowed to do Level 5s at ArmyMed either," Sly said, talking as he continued to type on his datapad. "The machines are easily capable of doing them. The restrictions never made much sense to me. We could have given the troopers better care for head injuries." He held up an image on his datapad and pointed. "This is the second scan we did on Echo at ArmyMed. I used an override so we could get a deeper level of scan on him. It wasn't a true Level 5, but it was close enough. I can do the same sort of workaround solution here. It would give us the same depth of reading by targeting one specific region." He highlighted and enlarged the temporal lobe of Echo's scan, showing the areas of concern.

Iron gave Sly a long considering look. "That would work. That's very good, actually." He gave Sly a brotherly slap on the back. "Vod'ika, are you sure you don't want to be part of the 'Pack?"

"Fark, will you stop trying to recruit him to the 104th?" Kix griped, shimmying himself back into the scanner. His voice was slightly muffled from being in the scanner. "It's hard enough to get good medics as it is."

Sly tried to keep the stupid shebs eating grin off his face, but he wasn't sure if he succeeded. He focused intently on his task as the words 'a good medic' played over in his head. as he worked. He nodded after a moment. All of this came as second nature to him.

"You're smiling," Kix murmured from within the scanner, "I can see it from here."

Sly 'hmmmped' under his breath, not denying it, his hands still flying over the screen as he continued to work on the modifications. All of this came as second nature to him and he was happiest when faced with a challenging problem to solve. "I like it here. This is a lot better than being at ArmyMed. I didn't really have brothers over there."

Iron looked horrified. "I don't have to hug you, do I?"

Sly snorted with amusement again. His expression sobered and he focused intently back on his datapad. "Ok, we're ready. The scan will take a minute. Just hold still, Kix. The lights and noise will be more intense than a regular scan."

"Alright," Kix confirmed from within the scanner, "when you're ready."

Sly started the scan and Iron leaned over his shoulder to watch the results come in.

"Hmph," the Wolfpack medic made a noise low and deep in his throat as the results came in.

"What? What do you see?" Kix asked from within the scanner.

"We're going to see a bunch of blurry images if you don't hold still," Iron grumbled. "Come on, Kix, we went to get this done sometime before our forces land on Anaxes. Talking counts as moving."

"Alright, alright," Kix huffed out.

"You're still talking! I swear, Kix, I'm going to sedate you!"

"It's my medbay!" Kix argued back.

Sly put up a placating hand. "It's alright. I think I have tge results we need…. OK, now that's odd."

"What's odd?" Kix asked worriedly from inside the scanner. "That's my brain. I don't want to hear 'odd.'" Kix started to shimmy out from the scanner.

"No, stay there, Kix," Sly put up a hand, forestalling his movements. "I thought we might find something. But, there's nothing there. Your brain scan is completely normal."

"Oh," Kix sounded both oddly relieved and strangely disappointed. "So, we have no leads, then, about what is the Kazzies might have been trying to do in that lab? That lab wasn't a cloning lab like the others."

"Wait, there's something I haven't tried yet," Sly started typing furiously on his pad. "Kix, forgive me, we're going to have to recalibrate this whole machine after I do this but it'll be worth it…. I hope. Just… don't move. This scan is going to take longer." He handed the 'pad to Iron. "Hold that. I need to make a manual adjustment."

"What are you doing?" Iron asked.

"Something that is definitely against regs," Sly muttered, flipping opening his belt pouch and pulling out a compact hydrospanner. He pried open a service hatch on the side of the scanner and started re-wiring circuits. "Just a few more minutes, Kix. Things are going to get even louder in there. Oh, and close your eyes. We should have given you protective goggles. Just don't open your eyes and don't move."

"You're either a genius or a total di'kut," Iron said, shaking his head as wires sparked in Sly's hands.

"Hey, you both told me I'm a good medic. Let's just go with that, okay?" Sly said, his voice slightly muffled as he slid under his back to access another hatch underneath the machine.

Iron peered down at him. "Have you done this before?"

"I may have a habit of taking medical equipment apart when I get bored," Sly admitted, his voice even more muffled as he slid deeper under the belly of the large scanner, "and, ArmyMed was quite possibly the most boring posting in the galaxy. Well, until Fives and Echo showed up." He crawled back out the other side, a gob of grease smeared across his face like war paint. "Okay, that should do it… I think… start the scan again."

"This better work," Iron said, activating the scanner, "I don't want to be explaining to Wolffe and Captain Rex why they're down a CMO."

The machine started up again, sounding normal at first as the scan ran back and forth time and again from chest to skull on Kix's body.

Sly wiped a hand across his face, only succeeding in smearing the gob of grease completely across his nose and cheeks. He glanced down at it and quickly tugged an alcohol wipe from a medpack on his belt, cleaning his hands and face. He crossed over to stand next to Iron and watch the results come in. "The second series of scans is where it should get interesting." He crouched down slightly to glance at Kix. The medic had his eyes closed and was keeping still for this scan. Sly straightened back up, looking over Iron's shoulder at the datapad.

The noise level increased noticeably as the machine cycled through the scan.

"We should have given Kix some hearing protection. The noise level in there just hit 112 decibels," Iron said, raising his voice to be heard above the noise.

"He may have a headache when he gets out there," Sly said loudly. "Oh- wow. Look at that!" He pointed excitedly on the datapad. "That's not supposed to be there."

Iron zoomed in on the datapad, chewing on his cheek thoughtfully. "Whatever that is, it is made out of biological material. Are you sure it's not just naturally occurring? Something that we all have from Prime?"

"You mean like Jango had a tumor and the cloners just cloned that, too? I find that highly unlikely. If we know anything about the Kaminoans, it's that they're perfectionists to an extreme. The only Jango traits they left in were the ones they wanted to leave in; the sort that made us more desirable as soldiers. Magnify it even more," Sly said.

Iron handed the datapad over to him. " It's your pad. You do all this zooming. How did you know this isn't a desirable trait?"

"How could a tumor be desirable?" Sly muttered, only half-paying attention to the conversation as he focused on zooming even more. "I need to enhance the resolution."

"What if it's not a tumor?" Kix called out from within the medscanner.

"Gah! Stop talking!," Iron called into the scanner. He leaned into Sly, "he's right, though. What if it isn't a tumor?"

"What else could it be? Look at these scans? I mean the resolution is still shit, but it looks like a tumor."

"Yes, but what if it is meant to look like a tumor, but it is something else?" Iron challenged.

"What else could it be?" Sly shook his head in exasperation, frustrated with both the conversation and trying to push the datapad past its limits to further enhance the scan. "I can't make this image any cleaner."

"Take it out," Kix called from within the scanner.

"What?!" Sly and Iron said at once.

"Take out my tumor, or whatever this is," Kix called out.

"We're not going to get anything more out of this thing. I'm shutting it down before Kix goes blind and deaf in there," Sly said.

Iron nodded. "Let's get him out."

Sly deactivated the scan and Iron accessed the controls on the side to slide Kix out of the scanner. The noise levels dropped immediately. Kix pushed out a long sigh of relief, rubbing at his head and squinting. He slid off the bunk and stood.

"Are you sorry you volunteered?" Iron asked wryly.

"Not if it finds us what we're looking for," Kix said, shaking his head. "Show me the scans." He held out his hand for the datapad.

"They're not great," Sly warned, "but we did find something."

Kix studied the images thoughtfully. "It does correlate with what we saw with Echo, although his body did seem to react differently to this tumor." He tapped his skull. "Take mine out. We need more data on what this thing is."

"Absolutely not," Iron said, shaking his head, "too risky. It's right in the control center of your brain. Number one rule for medics is do no harm. You're talking brain surgery, Kix."

"I thought the number one rule was don't get killed," Kix commented wryly.

"I thought it was don't fek up," Sly added in.

Iron waved a hand in frustration. "No. We're not doing it."

Kix pointed to the image. "Any decent medbay droid could easily complete the procedure. It's not that deep in there. I'd be recovered in half a day. Well before we deploy to Anaxes. It would get us the data we need."

"You're exposing yourself to unnecessary risk," Iron shook his head.

"What if we run more scans and see if this same tumor exists in you and me, Iron? I would at least give us more data to go upon. Two clones have the same anomaly is a coincidence, but if all clones have it then it is definitely there by design," Sly countered.

"Alright, sound thinking," Iron agreed, "get in there."

"I… should operate the machine," Sly hedged.

"Kix and I are more than capable. You set it up for us so nicely. We'll even give you the benefit of earplugs and goggles."

"Lucky," Kix muttered.

"Yes, well, if you'd had all that then you couldn't have added in all of your commentaries then, could you?" Iron said with a sideways glance at Kix.

"I was helping," countered Kix.

"Yes, well, helpfully get the shinie into the scanner," Iron said.

"How do I go from being a good medic to a shinie?" Sly grumbled, he clambered up onto the scanner bunk. "Don't forget my earplugs and goggles."

"How about warm caf and a honey stick, while we're at it?" Iron muttered.

Kix shook his head and fished through the medbay drawers behind him until he located the requested items. He handed them to Sly.

"Starting the scan," Iron said.

# # #

Echo stood at the entryway of the Resolute's shooting range and studied the scene in front of him. Fives had recruited experienced troopers and marksmen to help him with the shinies. They were 50 stations on the range and Fives had experienced troopers at every station. The shinies were rotating through station after station, taking shots, and getting shooting pointers from all 50 of their elder clones.

And, it was working.

More or less.

Some of the shinies actually seemed to be getting it.

Fives had described shinies who could not hit a mark on their first day of training. As Echo watched the shinies take their shots under the guidance of senior troopers like Jesse, Denal, Hardcase, Tup, Coric, Rex, Appo, and a number of others, he could see some of the shinies were getting close to the mark. Other shinies still seemed to be struggling to pick up this basic clone skill and were not making progress.

Fives, standing at the front of the room, supervising all of it, waved him over. Echo stood next to him, arms crossed over his chest, studying the shinies very carefully as they took their shots. They were silent for several minutes while Echo took it all in.

"So, what do you think?" Fives said, finally breaking the silence.

"It's still strange to me these troopers were not given practical training before they were sent out when that was such an integral part of our training," Echo began.

"I thought the same," Fives admitted, "but then I realized I need to stop looking at them through the lens of comparing them to us."

"Wait, are you saying they're not our brothers?" Echo looked at him sharply. He'd never heard the phrase 'us' versus 'them' when referring to clones.

"No," Fives corrected, "what I'm saying is we can't judge them based on our training. We were trained using one method. We have to accept they were trained using another method and compensate for it accordingly."

"Their training method is shit," Echo snorted softly.

"Yes, that has been well-established," Fives agreed, "but Jesse and I are still tasked with getting them in shape. We can't turn them into us, but we can give them a better chance of surviving on the battlefield."

Echo considered Fives' words. "That's a good strategy, actually." He studied the troopers some more as they went through the firing range. "It does seem to be working… on some of them, at least."

"Yes, I have noticed some of them are picking it up a lot faster than others. I don't know if some are suited better for tasks other than the front lines maybe?"

"Are you saying they shipped us a whole bunch of maintenance clones?"

Fives pushed out a long breath. "Our upbringing allows us to do a wide variety of tasks and do them all very well. These clones don't seem to have that same ability. But, then again they're all just over a year old."

"Are they going to fight in the upcoming engagement at Anaxes?" Echo asked, trying to imagine these troopers defending themselves against anything more challenging than a B-1.

"That's up to the command team. But, they're part of the 501st so I would assume they're going out on the front lines with the rest of us."

Echo continued to study them. "I can see this training technique is yielding some results. Some of them are hitting targets now. You've done well."

"We both know there's more to getting through a battle than knowing which end of the blaster is up," Fives said, "but we're doing everything we can to get them ready."

Intrigued by the training, Echo melded in with the senior troopers and took turns moving from station to station providing advice and guidance to the new batch of troopers. It wasn't like training other shinies who'd been sent their way over the course of the war. Most new troopers out of Kamino were stiff, by-the-books, and almost robotic. It always took some time to warm up to the 501st way of doing things. But, these troopers took that "robotic" feel to a whole new level.

Rex waved him over. "Echo, take over for me. I have to go to a meeting." He commed Echo privately. "Good luck. These new boys are a little rough around the edges."

"A little, Captain?" Echo laughed.

"Yes, well that's easier than saying they sent us a bunch of half-formed 'tubies in place of proper shinies."

Echo laughed again, delighted at Rex's candor. Since their return from Darkknell, Rex had been a lot more open with sharing his opinions and emotions with the small group of brothers that made up the original Torrent squadron. They were all closer than ever now.

Rex signaled to Appo and they headed out together, heads bowed in conversation. Fives moved in to take over Appo's spot. He quickly rearranged some of the troopers so he could be next to Echo. The two worked side-by-side, both focused intently on the task of trying to make soldiers out of the Spaartis.

"Alright, water break. Take five," Fives called out. He turned to Echo. "So, what do you think now after working with some of them?"

Echo shook his head. "The quality is just all over the place. Some are definitely picking it up and others can't seem to get it no matter how many times you show them. For example, take this trooper," he pointed to a shinie standing nearby taking small sips from his canteen, "he can hit a target."

"That's Feeeeeek," Fives said proudly. "I worked with him a few times myself. I'm thinking of making him a squad leader. He has potential." He signaled to the new trooper who replaced his canteen on his belt and came over, saluting to the two ARC troopers. "Sir?"

"Feeeeeek, this is ARC trooper Echo. I was just telling him how well you were doing with training."

Feeeeeek cocked his head to the side as if trying to process the conversation and formulate a reply. "Eh…. yes. The training is… helpful."

Fives slapped a hand on Feeeeek's shoulder bell companionably. The trooper visibly startled and almost dropped his canteen. "Now, we just need to slap a paint on that shiny white armor of yours and then you'll look of us, eh?"

Feeeeeek stared at Fives with wide eyes. "Is... that an order, sir?"

"No, Feeeeeek, it's a tradition," he pointed to the blue on his armor and then turned to Echo's armor and scowled. "Echo, when are you going to finish painting your Phase II?"

"I've been stuck in the medbay with Kix. And," Echo glanced to where Rex had departed with Appo, "it wouldn't be complete without…"

"Ah…" Fives nodded knowingly, understanding Echo wanted Rex's handprint on his armor again, "we'll get that done before we deploy on Anaxes." He turned his attention back to Feeeeeek, who was watching them both carefully. "And, then we'll get you your first stripes."

Feeeeeek shook his head. "Regulation armor is white. No stripes." He slid his helmet back on and went to rejoin his fellow troopers.

Fives' visibly deflated, his shoulders sinking down. "Just when I think I'm making headway with these troopers. I don't know, Echo, there's just something about them."

"So, what do we do?" Echo asked, gazing with Fives at the thousand shinies standing queued in orderly lines at the training stations, waiting to resume. None were chatting back and forth to fill the time or joking around.

"Look at them," Fives pointed, "in one sense, they're the perfect soldiers. All they want is to follow orders. But, in other ways, they're a disaster. They can't deviate from the template they were given. I'm not sure they'll be able to adapt fast enough when battle conditions change. Regardless of whether they are ready, they will have to deploy with the rest of us in four days."

# # #

"Our objective is here," Admiral Yularen said, as the briefing began, "the Anaxes shipyards. Admiral Trench seized this facility three weeks ago. We are going to take it back." His strong voice left no room for doubt before he swept the room with his gaze. "I don't need to tell you what is at stake here. If we lose Anaxes, we lose the war." He paused to let his words sink in.

Rex had read all of the information multiple times and had memorized the pre-briefing reports word-for-word. The lives of his men depended upon his knowledge and understanding of the material being flawless. His gaze swept around the room at Appo, Skywalker, and Ahsoka.

Appo's gaze was intense as he regarded Yularen. Rex had to admit that Appo was a good fit for running things from the bridge alongside Yularen. He wasn't a "lead from the front" type of clone, which was likely why he struggled when suddenly thrust into Rex's role, but now that they were working together, he seemed to have found his footing. There was new confidence to him now and he and Rex had made their peace. If Appo was willing to leave him alone to lead the troops on the ground and provided him the support he needed from the ship, they could actually make a good team.

Skywalker was listening, more or less, but his mind seemed elsewhere. Rex knew his General very well now and he could always tell when he was troubled. And, generally, when he was troubled, it concerned the senator.

Ahsoka, for her part, was centered, at peace, and focused on the briefing, although she did cast a few concerned glances at her Master. Between Rex and Ahsoka, they could likely draw him out and find out what was bothering him. Oddly enough, Rex realized he likely had more of a chance of getting Anakin to talk than anyone else. Somewhere along the way, his General had grown to deeply trust him. Not just on strategic matters, but with every other aspect of his life, as well. Rex wasn't sure how he ended up in such a role, but if the General wasn't completely focused, it affected the entire 501st. So, if Rex needed to keep the General on track by being a good listening ear, then he would be there for him.

# # #

A/N: Generation Tech posted a video last week talking about episode 3 of the Bad Batch and the transition from clone troopers to conscripted stormtroopers. He talked about the quality of the Kaminoan clones and compared them to other types of clones such as the flash-cloning technology produced by Cartao-based Spaarti-Creations company. He described these as "produced ready-made units in less than a year." He went on to describe the drawbacks of this technology such as inferior quality, mental instability and overall being "much dumber." Some of those affected by "clone madness" were even known to attack their own.

In Legends, Spaarti clones are notable in that they do not have a shortened life span, indicating the process is different on many levels from the one used by the Kaminoans. Palpatine created a secret "backup" clone army numbering in the billions. This army was deployed with practically no training and performed poorly compared to the better trained Kaminoan clones. They are first mentioned in the Republic Commando books by Karyn Traviss where Spaarti clones start appearing in their ranks after Order 66. One of the Spaarti clones, Rede, eventually is able to muster up some skills while working alongside the commandos, while the rest get themselves killed very quickly. The "cannon fodder" mentality of the Spaartis fits in with early depictions of stormtroopers in the movies, (poor shots with little strategic sense.)

# # #