Don't ask her how it happened because she doesn't know. Just made like this, the supervisors at Kamino said it was a glitch in the system that made her the way she is. Clone Trooper 19580, more commonly known as Dagger, is a female clone. She doesn't understand it any more than anyone else, but the superiors made sure that no one outside of them knew. Clones were expensive so they weren't just going to get rid of her. They just taught her to always hide that she was a female, unsure how the other clones would react. Kaminoans were not ones to blindly trust the actions of others, even if the others were their own creations.
She never takes off her helmet, the one with a voice box in the mouth piece to change her voice to be like the others. She goes through training, all the while kept separate from her brothers, only allowed minimal interactions with them. The time that would have otherwise been spent socializing was used to give her more training.
On assignment day she is shipped out to the 501st, she hears that they are on a joint tour with 212th Attack Battalion. They had two jedi assigned to the regiment now. Luckily for her she is the only one to be assigned to the unit at this time so she gets to introduce herself to Jedi masters Obiwan and Anakin as well as Captain Rex and Commander Cody all by herself. Yay.
Rex read her transfer sheet and asked, "you have a nickname yet shiny?"
"Dagger sir," the clone responded.
He nodded, "very well, Commander Cody will show you to the barracks and then the mess hall. You are dismissed."
Then Master Obi-wan broke his silence, "Just a moment Captain, with your permission, may I have a word with Dagger alone?"
Confused but never one to argue with a Jedi, the Captain nodded, "we will wait down the hall."
The jedi walked back into their meditation room, it was obvious to Dagger that she was to follow, so that is what she did. Her palms were sweaty, why would the Jedi want to talk to her alone? There was surely nothing she could have done wrong already.
When the door was firmly closed, Obi-wan turned to Dagger, "take off your helmet."
"Respectfully sir, I would rather not. It's the same face you see everywhere else," Dagger said.
With a gentle smile he shook his head, "we both know that isn't true."
"Are you going to kick me out?" Dagger asked.
"Not unless you do something wrong. However I think it would be best if your brothers knew about your situation instead of hiding it from them," Obi-wan said.
"Are you going to force me to tell them?" she asked.
Obi-wan sighed, "no, we would not take that choice from you. However, it would be better if it came from you instead of something bad happening and them finding out that way. Just something to consider."
"They wouldn't accept me. How could they? My brothers are better off thinking I am one of them."
The jedi exchanged a look, both knowing that there was no getting to the clone now. Clones never 100% trusted jedi, it was just a thing. It was especially apparent when dealing with a new clone to the unit. Obi-wan nodded, "very well. If you ever need anything that you don't think your brothers can help with just know we are here. We like to be able to help with our units."
"Thank you, sir," Dagger said.
"You are dismissed."
Dagger walked out of the room and silently met with the captain and commander down the hall. They were midconverstation when she arrived, after they finished the thought they led her to the barracks to drop off her bag of items. She was too busy looking around to pay much attention to the small conversation that the captain and commander were having. She had never been on a Star ship this big before, it was amazing, and now it was home. Dagger just hoped that she could stay.
Out of the corner of his eye Rex surveyed the trooper internally laughing, shinnies and their armor. They never wanted to take it off at first. His newest trooper had already decorated his. A vertical blue stripe over the left eye and a horizontal black stripe at the left of his chest with a thin blue underline. At least he got the color right. Rex left him with the Commander and headed to the mess hall himself.
After he put her stuff on the empty top bunk near the middle of the room Cody led the newest trooper to the mess hall. They walked in silence, which was relieving to Dagger and slightly disconcerting to Cody. Shinnies usually never shut up, but this one was being weird. Maybe it was because he came without any of his friends from Kamino. Dagger followed him into the mess hall and sat with the rest of the 501st not going to the lunch line to get any food.
She didn't know anyone so she just stood awkwardly behind Rex for a moment before asking "sir? Is it ok if I sit here?"
"Sure," he said, barely turning around.
With a silent sigh of relief she sat and just stared down at the table trying her best to not call attention to herself. Rex looked over at the trooper skeptically, "you not going to eat Blade?"
"It's Dagger sir, and no I ate before I arrived," she lied.
"Sorry Dagger, I'll get it right next time," the Captain said, he hated getting troopers' names wrong.
"It's alright sir, really," she cursed herself slowly, you don't just correct your captain you just let him call you whatever he wants. Don't be a smart ass Dagger.
Two other troopers sat down at the table, one next to Dagger and one across from him. The one across the table had a hand print of his helmet, "what's with the helmet kid? It's dinner time."
"I don't like to take it off," she replied.
The one next to her piped up, "why? You got a nasty scar under there? Bad tattoo? Rash that never went away?"
"Echo," came Rex's stern voice, "leave him alone."
"Oh come on Cap'n' I'm just curious," he whined, "you got a name yet shinnie?"
"Dagger," was her only response.
"Oooo edgy, that's neat. Oh! Is this your dagger Dagger?" He asked, taking her dagger out of its sheath on her thigh.
"Hey!" She exclaimed snatching it back. She leveled it at him, "this is mine. Don't take it."
He held up his hands in surrender and she put it away, "ok fine, don't touch your stuff got it. Be careful Fives this one is possessive."
The clone across the table, Fives, rolled his eyes, "sorry kid you are just going to have to get used to Echo, he gets into everyone's stuff, he doesn't mean any harm."
She nodded and put her knife away.
Fives leaned over the table munching on an apple, "so is that why you don't take off the helmet?"
Dagger tilted her head in confusion, So Fives further explained, "afraid someone is going to steal it?"
"Oh," she responded, "I mean not really, but sure."
"What does that mean," Echo asked.
"None of your business," she cut back.
Before any of them could continue the conversation. The Captain stood, signaling to the others that dinner was over and it was time to go. Dagger followed closely behind Rex, mostly because she didn't yet know the lay out of the ship and needed help finding the way back to the barracks, but also because she didn't want to be questioned anymore by Echo and Fives. Rex glanced over his shoulder when he felt the presence of someone following rather close behind him, closer than most others did.
He smiled in amusement when he saw it was the new recruit, they were generally rather clingy. However none of them had ever been clingy to him before, they usually stuck to the side of one of the other brothers.
"You know you don't have to walk behind me Dagger," he said.
The Captain heard him increase his stride to match Rex's and walk next to him. As he came up from behind Rex noticed their height difference, Dagger was a few inches shorter than him, even with his helmet on.
Normally he wouldn't notice if it was anyone else, but with the clone they were all the same size everyone exactly the same except for maybe hair color but the same height, it was just a bit odd that Dagger was shorter.
Rex shrugged his shoulders and the thought passed. Dagger was probably just younger than him anyway, maybe he passed training quicker and was able to come out into the field sooner. They all grew so fast that he'd be the same size in no time, not that it mattered anyway. As long as the gear fit and he could do his part height didn't matter. Nothing really mattered as long as he did his job to protect his brothers and accomplished the mission.
They made it back to the barrack wing of the ship and they all filtered into their rooms, groups of ten to twenty in each. Dagger looked around for the room number that she had put her stuff in earlier. She found it and followed the line of troopers who were filing into the room.
The captain and commander both walked into the room before her. She wondered why, most officers had their own rooms and didn't have to sleep with the rest of them. Sounded nice, to be able to get away and have some privacy, but she guessed there must not be any of those rooms on the Resolute.
Everyone congregated into what seemed like their friend groups and were just casually talking. She made a b-line to her bed and climbed up to sit, she had a great view of the room being up so high and being along the wall.
She ruffled through her bag, putting her belongings away in the small drawers that were attached to the side of the bunks. The bottom four were for the lower bunk and the top four were for her things. She took out her neatly folded clothes and put them away. She did so slowly, trying to make the time until lights out go faster, if she was occupied then no one would come talk to her.
At least that was the idea, then a head popped up in front of her as she was still leaded over the side of her bed. She paused just looking at him. He looked up at her expectantly, it was the clone from earlier.
"What do you want, thief," she said trying to be playful with her words.
He looked taken aback, her words obviously coming across as accusatory and not fun. He regained his composure and said, "I was just coming to say hello, you didn't have to come at me like that. It was just a joke, Dagger."
She looked down, pulling her arms in, not responding.
He pushed her drawers closed and started climbing up the furniture like a monkey. She just looked at him confused about what he was doing. Before she knew it he was perched on the railing of her bed, "mind scooting over?"
She nodded and did, in fact scoot over. He hopped onto the bed and sat next to her, "So how did you get your nickname so fast?"
Dagger let out a small sigh, great now she was trapped in a conversation, "I really like the knives they let us use in training. I would always play with the daggers in training when we had free time. It stuck."
"Oh that's pretty cool, I bet when we have our leave on planets we can find some cool ones for you to buy, just save your stipend for it. The nice ones get expensive. I know we don't have a lot of room for a collection, but you can always get a few things in without getting in trouble as long as they aren't war trophies. Any questions you have about the ship or what we do here as a unit?"
She shook her head no.
"Really nothing at all," he asked, "have you seen the whole ship yet?"
Another shake of her head. He perked up, "oh! I can take you on a tour of the ship! Captain! Can I take Dagger on a tour of the ship?"
"No." came the definitive response from the captain who was sitting on the edge of the lower bunk across from where they were.
Echo frowned, "Awwwww, Captain, why not?"
"First of all because I'm your Captain and you don't question what I say. And second because it is lights out in three minutes and I don't need you going around and waking up the Jedi with your racket in the middle of the night," Rex said calmly.
Echo frowned, "can I take him tomorrow?"
Rex laughed softly, "yes you can, just don't get the kid in trouble on his second day."
"I would never," Echo scoffed dramatically, "honestly captain it's like you don't know me at all.
"Lights out!" called Commander Cody from the doorway, flicking off the lights and heading to his bunk which was right under Daggers, "Echo I know you like making friends but you have to sleep in your own bunk."
Echo muttered out his reply, but did in fact climb down from her bunk and walked down a few bunks to his own. The room only lit with the small emergency lights that lined the floor.
Once he was gone Dagger let out the breath that she didn't know she was holding and relaxed a bit. She would have to get used to being around people in such close proximity. During training she had always been separated more than this, they all were. Its just how training went and the nature of being in the Clone Army was that everyone was really close.
She laid face down with her helmet still on. Dagger didn't go to sleep for a long time that night there was too much on her mind. All she wanted was to be able to stay to be given a chance, so she had to protect her secret with everything she had.
~~If you have the time please comment and let me know how you feel about the story. I have prewritten a lot of it and will be updating regularly. I hope you enjoyed meeting Dagger. I promise it gets better as the story goes along~~