In this story I believe that there is generic diversity among the clones, so eye color isn't just lighting. They do have various colors.
AND HEAD'S UP I START A NEW JOB ON WEDNESDAY AND THIS WEEK'S BEEN CRAZY, SO SORRY ABOUT THE SHORTER CHAPTER! (There's 4 bonus questions to appease y'all ;p)
-Coruscant, GAR Base-
Kai groaned as the sounds of her alarm coaxed her brain into alertness. She dragged her hand over her blanket, and to the side table, and tapped the screen twice, silencing it. She then sat up and stretched her arms in front of her, a groan fighting its way clear of her sleep addled throat.
She sat up straight, and took a deep breath before opening her eyes, to her new surroundings. She stood and wandered into the bathroom and washed her face with cold water, before drying it off and taking a brush to her honey colored locks. After that was done, she stretched one more time, twisting once both way to crack her spine, and walked back into her room, going to the closet where she had managed to unpack into before she went to bed.
It was a training day, so when she peeled off the clothes she had fallen asleep in, she opted for a loose pair of black shorts and a grey tank top, sliding on some simple civilian shoes to top off the outfit. She grabbed a sweater as she walked to her desk to grab her comm unit, and her knife, and she slipped both in the pocket as she opened the door.
Zipping up the jacket, she was immediately greeted by a large variation of troopers headed about their day, many in plain white armor, but many bearing the colors and symbols of their squadrons.
She heard some of them talking about the mess and how the grub was most likely going to be the same as yesterday's, and she nodded happily to herself. So that's where the food was. She was glad she didn't have to ask directions, when she could just follow everyone to the source.
As she assumed, many troopers stopped to wave hello to her, or simply to stare in surprise and she was sure to greet them all with a smile in return. Finally she made it to the mess hall, and she walked down the line to where a trooper was getting his food, not noticing the many pairs of eyes as she surveyed the room. She picked up a bowl, and nearly chuckled when the clone behind the divide almost dropped his ladel upon noticing her.
"Hello. I'll just have whatever you're serving, please." She requested, and he nodded with a start before shaking his head with a small smile.
"Of course. I'm sorry." He said, apologizing and she waved her hand as the food was deposited in her bowl. It was warm, and to her that was the most important thing right now. She also reached for a spoon and a mug of warm caf and nodded her head in farewell.
"Don't apologize. Thank you for this." With that, she walked over to an unoccupied table, and devoured the morning's breakfast. It seemed to be some sort of dumplings with meat, and it was gone much faster than she'd wanted, as well as her caf. When she checked her chrono, she stood quickly, once again ignoring the gaze of most of the mess hall as she did so. She had managed to remember how to get here from her room, so she knew she'd be fine to get to the training hall, but she was going to have to hurry. It wouldn't look good for her to be late on her first day.
She entered what she hoped was the correct gym, and it was nothing short of enormous, which was no surprise, as it had to outfit segments of an entire army. She quickly learned through listening that this was one of the many gyms scattered across the base, and she shook her head a little in disbelief at she took in the sheer scope of the job she had undertaken. She swallowed with nervousness as she hoped she hadn't bitten off more than she could chew.
She scanned the crowd of soldiers, all with the same face, but varying hairstyles until she found it. A blonde head with shaved hair, standing in front of a larger group of clones. That was the man she was looking for.
She walked over, and Rex turned as her movement caught his eye. He was wearing fatigue bottoms that were grey and fairly fitted along with a black tank top that exposed his tanned arms, an outfit almost identical to hers, she thought with amusement.
She gave him a nod. "Captain." She said respectfully and he nodded his head in return, with a smile.
"Ah, Kai." He replied. "I hope you slept well last night." His amber eyes searched hers, and she nodded gratefully.
"I did. And now I believe I'm up at this far too early hour to help with training? How can I do that?" She asked, and he chuckled, along with the clones that were in her hearing, and he nodded.
"We were going to run them through a series of hand to hand combat sets. Does that sound ok to you?" He asked, and she nodded, while walking over to a small weight machine to the side of the mats. She unzipped her jacket, and threw it on the bench, and walked over, rotating her wrists and stretching her arms. "Sounds wonderful, captain."
He seemed to nod in satisfaction and glanced away, his lips pressed together, in what she assumed was thought. He then turned and barked off commands to his men, and they snapped out their evesdropping and split into pairs, the company completely filling the mat. Several of them were obviously very close to their brothers, as jabs and bets were placed between them. They stretched, and bounced on their toes, and seemed excited for the exercise.
Kai leaned over to Rex, when she reached his side. "You mind if I observe for a little bit? I want to see what I'm working with." When Rex nodded his approval, she waited until he gave the command to start with a a specific set, and then she walked around the mats, her gaze landing on different pairs.
She saw a clone with an intricately shaved head fighting with another clone who had the republic cog on his, and they sparred with relative ease. She worried her lip as she watched them, deep in thought. The one with the hairstyle was very quick with his arms, and often caught the other unaware, whereas his opponent seemed to favor kicks. He seemed fine with his right leg, with the proper angle and power, but his left lacked the proper speed to do any real damage, and she was afraid that he would end up unbalanced. That would require correction later, and she made a mental note.
She moved onto other similar sets, where one clone would be weaker on one side than the other, or be missing the speed in order to properly execute the move.
She remembered hours and hours of training similar moves under Ozan's critical eye, repeating them over and over until he was satisfied. More often than not, she lost count of how many times a move had to be repeated until she got the nod. He seemed absolutely determined to sear her fighting knowledge into muscle memory.
She came to pair that was extremely well matched and she folded her arms to watch them. They had identical hairstyles, yet one had a goatee, and the number 5 oddly enough, tattoeed into his forehead. The other clone had the typical regulation haircut and no visible tattoos. They seemed very close, and the match was even as far as she could see. They fought with equal power and speed, yet the only thing she could see to critique is that they seemed to be sparring for fun, not for training purposes. Their hits didn't have any true force behind it, and they were smiling and comfortable.
Rex called for a stop and turned to her. "Any thoughts?" he asked, and she nodded with a small smile before turning her gaze to the company.
"Yes, actually I do have some things I noticed." She walked over to the first set. "Names please?" She asked, and the one with the cog on his head gave her a large smile.
"Jesse ma'am, and this is Kix, one of our medics." Kix smiled at her, and she noticed that his eyes were a deeper brown than his fellow soldiers.
She stood in front of them, and nodded. "Would you please run through that set again?" She asked, and Kix nodded before turning to Jesse.
They began and as they fought Kai turned back to face the clones that had gathered.
"They have excellent form, especially Kix, when it comes to his arms. He's quick and I saw him catch Jesse unwaware multiple times." She knew by the smirks and chuckles that there were many inside jokes in this group. She shook her head and moved on. She waited until Jesse began kicking to point the next point out.
"Next. Jesse has exceptional power with his right leg, but lacks in in his left." Once she was sure that the squad saw what she talked about, she asked Kix to move with a hand placed on his shoulder and slid into his place.
She moved in front of Jesse and motioned for him to begin again and when he came at her with his left leg, she caught it, and shifted her weight so that she could hold it in front of her.
Several of the clones laughed, including Jesse, for which she was glad. She didn't want him embarrassed or upset by her correction, but she knew something you needed to see something from a different perspective to correct it.
"Alright. This here." As she grasped his ankle, she shook it the tiniest bit. "He hasn't changed his balance by much," a nod from his confirmed this, and so she took the chance to grasp his ankle, and then gave a simple push. He fell the ground with a groan and stared up at her. She smiled and extended her hand which he gratefully accepted.
She continued through the rest of the pairs, correcting an over eager swing here, and a short follow through there, until she came to the very last pair, who she found out were named Fives and Echo. Fives looked over at her with a smile, and Echo gave her a respectful nod.
She sat down on a set of crates holding training equipment and leaned on her arms. "They fought very well, I have to admit. It was actually very hard to find something to correct." Fives cast an excited look in Echo's direction and she lifted a finger to stop him.
"But," She emphasized, "the problem with these two is that they fought like it was a game."
Echo's face fell, and Fives raised an eyebrow, to which she shrugged. She saw Rex looking at her with a peculiar look on his face, almost like he couldn't decide whether to be impressed or offended.
She got up and faced the company, firm on her feet, and her arms crossed in front of her. "Now, I'm not sure how you all get corrected on fighting, or how you like to learn, so I'm just going to remind you this in the way I know how. As you all know, I am a bounty hunger, and I have been since I was 9. I was raised by a man named Ozan, who taught me that every time you train, and every time you spar, you act like it's the real thing. We would fight with blunted weapons, and with our blasters on stun, and believe me when I say this. A blunted knife hurts almost as bad as a normal one, if not worse, because instead of a clean cut, it leaves a bruise."
She took a deep breath, and looked them all in the eye, one at a time.
"I don't know much about you, and you don't know much about me, but I know you feel part of a family. You see the rest of your company as your brothers. But if you truly care about them, you have to train hard and you have to train real." She shrugged again.
"I'm not sure how else to say it. Does that make sense? I want you to train like you mean it. Don't just spar and be comfortable where you are. Now, do you guys have any questions?" She asked, and one trooper raised his hand. If Kai remembered correctly, his name was Coric and he was one of the other medics for the company.
She nodded her head to let him talk, and he shifted on his feet. "Usually bounty hunters train us when we're cadets, so why are you coming in now? I don't mean any disrespect, but I just wonder why." His amber eyes stared at her with honestly and she could see there was truly no disrespect in his question.
She waved her hand in response and took out her ponytail and ran her hands through her hair, working on fixing it. "What the Jedi told me was that they needed someone for different jobs that isn't inherently connected to the GAR. I can sometimes get into places you can't, and despite how much the Jedi may know about the criminal underground, they don't know everything.." She shrugged. "So here I am."
Coric seemed to accept what she said, and she turned her gaze to the rest of them. Rex seemed content to let them take a short break, as many of them caught their breath. He walked over to another captain or commander most likely, based on the casual air of the conversation and she turned her attention back to the crowd.
"Why did you become a bounty hunter?" Jesse asked, and she ignored the lance of pain that ran though her chest, but she forced herself to hide it and smiled instead.
"It's just kind of where life took me. It was the best option I had at the time." She said and another hand came up, to which she pointed at.
"How many bounties have you taken?" A trooper asked, and he had two stripes shaved into his head. She laughed and shook her head.
"Sorry trooper. A hunter never tells." When the laughter that erupted faded, and the trooper was able to look at her again, she chuckled as well. "Maybe I'll tell you some of the stories, maybe I won't." She then winked at him and held in a smile at the small blush that covered his face. She then became somewhat serious. "To be honest, I'm actually not sure because I've been doing so long. That's the other thing."
They seemed satisfied with her answers, and the rest of the company seemed to reign in the their laughter and they were able to focus on training again.
The rest of the day passed that way, with training, and her learning equiptment and even extra training forms that she had never seen. She quickly learned that their template had been Mandalorian and because of that, they knew almost the entire language and had the perks of Mandalorian training. She was able to practice all the different styles, and was able to learn from many different platoons, something she considered to be an amazing privilege. One didn't learn from Mandalorians every day.
The day ended when she somehow was sitting at a table full of the 501st. She wasn't quite sure they were that much different than those cadets they said they used to be, based on what she saw.
She saw wide amber eyes, and large smiles, as she did her best to answer each and every one of them. They asked her what planets she'd been to, what foods she'd eaten, what weapons she'd used. She in turn asked them what it was like to be a soldier and had many different versions. All in all, when she walked into her room that night and crawled into bed, she felt like she was at least not alone anymore in the base. She had friends in the 501st and she was oddly happy to know that.
As she rolled over onto her side, she closed her eyes and sighed deeply. She had no idea what else the Jedi expected of her, but that would have to wait until tomorrow. Right now she was exhausted.
QUESTION TIME!
1. How do they deal/react to pain?
If it's really serious, Kai's pretty quiet. But however, if it's minor, she can complain a lot more. She's generally grumpy if the pain is lasting for a long time. And Ozan is really quiet. He never really shares the fact he's in pain anyway, so it works well for him.
2. Would they rather have a picnic in the woods, or a picnic on the beach?
Kai loves both. She's used to the forest and trees but the beach is new, and she loves the waves. Ozan loves the ocean more though. It's a quiet and peaceful place, and he could sit in the sand and stare at the waves for hours.
3. What do they do to relax?
Kai loves to listen to music and draw or clean. Or she'll go on a walk and watch the city. She loves people watching, something that's a product of her work. People are just so interesting. Ozan as previously stated, likes to draw. He finds it relaxing. That and polishing and cleaning his weapons and ship.
4. What is something that never fails to make them excited?
Kai loves food and very small animals. She loves both of them very much, so if she knows they are somewhere she's going to be, she gets very excited! Ozan never thought he'd be excited by much, but he actually gets very excited for other planets that have authentic Zeltron food.
