Lucas is now out of the shower and drying himself off before wrapping the towel around his waist and leaving the bathroom into his bedroom where he looks at himself in the mirror. Scars are littered across his body mostly from the torture resistance training but also from the Mandalorian mercenary instructors and his own mistakes.
Taking his eyes off the mirror the 18 year old looks around the room and for the first time noticing another door in his room leaving him feeling like an idiot for never noticing it despite using the room for over two years. Walking across the room Lucas activates the sliding door and entering the next room, he finds some sort of lounge like area.
He moves over to the sofa and sits down closing his eyes as he thoughts continue from when he was in the shower, reflecting on his time on Kamino since arriving. Lucas often found himself feeling weird amongst the clones as he stood out like a sore thumb, he was different to the clones and not everyone was happy that an outsider was part of their army. So instead keeps mostly to himself and the only time he ever really interacted with anyone is around Havoc, Colt and Blitz which he often hangs out with at the firing range and the cantina. He gets on fairly well with Rex and Cody but hasn't really interacted with any of the other ARCs or clone officers apart from when he is at the firing range where he exchanges the occasional greetings with them but otherwise has no interaction with them.
Like all the clones Lucas himself had also been given a designation number but he refused to go by the designation as he felt he should be using the name he had when he first arrived on Kamino. His designation number is NC-ARC-01 which stands for non clone Advanced Recon Commando 01, 01 being his number.
Last night Lucas had been informed that today he will finally be receiving his Advanced Recon Commando armour which had to obviously be made specifically for him due him not being a clone, his shorter height and wider body frame.
Lucas stands up and goes back to his bedroom removing his towel and putting on his clothes. He hangs the towel back up in the bathroom to dry before leaving his room and making his way down the corridors towards the firing range. Entering the room Lucas spots Blitz and makes his way over to him and greeting the ARC trooper with a smile and now standing beside him as the pair watch clones practicing at the firing range. Blitz looks at Lucas beside him as Colt and Havoc enter the room and join the pair.
"Hello Lucas. Congratulations by the way." Colt said as he crossed his arms.
Lucas looks at him confused, "what for?"
Havoc looks shocked as he bursts out, "you don't know?!"
Lucas looks at the pair before looking beside him at Blitz who had his arms behind his back in usual military fashion. Lucas looks back at Havoc dead in the eyes, "obviously not."
Colt interjects before Havoc can continue, "you're being promoted to the rank of ARC Sargeant. Congratulations." Lucas' eyes widened in surprise before darting around the room and then looking momentarily at the floor. He looks back at Havoc and Colt with a small smile and nods his head.
The group is interrupted by a Kaminoan who approached them and requested them to follow her to the armour production line where they'll finally get to see their gear. As the group followed the Kaminoan they made small talk.
Entering the room after the Kaminoan the group make their way to an armoury and get to see their armour. Lucas likes the look of the armour and he believes the trio with him do too.
The Kaminoan stands near the equipment and gestures to it with one hand, "this is your armour an experimental variant of the armour given to your brethren. Only available to ARC troopers, the greatest soldiers the clone army has to offer. You will notice the additional armour plating protecting virtual parts of the body in grey for additional protection needed to complete your assignments."
The Kaminoan then lifts a double sided pauldron, "the pauldrons offer greater protection and show your elite status among your brethren." She places the pauldrons back down and lifts up a kama, "this is known as a kama made from a protective but flexible material and is worn from the belt. They offer greater protection to legs and groin, shielding the wearer from low flying shrapnel, debris kicked up in the chaos of battle and the down draft from the rockets of a jetpack."
She places the kama down and shows them a built-in load-bearing harness, "this will allow you to carry more equipment into battle." She then shows them a survival pack, "a survival pack for dangerous environments. This can be replaced with a jetpack for when needed."
She finally shows them their armour which has already been prepared with the equipment she explained to them a few minutes ago. "Three armour sport yellow markings to show your rank as ARC Commanders. NC-ARC-01, your armour is red and tinged with green, the latter to show your rank as ARC Sargeant." She explained before gesturing to them, "try them on."
Lucas puts on his armour and looks it over, liking the design and feel of the armour although heavier than the standard armour, Lucas saw it as a necessary compromise for greater protection.
Not long after they had all gotten equipped with their new gear an alarm echoes throughout the facility. Lucas immediately recognises it as the time they finally get to leave Kamino but now they would no longer be in the simulations and thrust into reality.
"NC-ARC-01," she called out, getting Lucas' attention. "You are needed. Gather your weapons from the armoury and group up with the Torrent company at the hanger." Lucas immediately leaves them and sprints to the armoury choosing the two DC-17 Hand Blasters and holstering before grabbing the DC-15A Blaster Carbine, holding the pistol grip as he stores ammunition, grenades and everything else he feels he'll need.
Lucas dashes out the armoury and sprints across Tipoca City to the hanger where Lucas jumps into an low altitude assault transport more commonly known as LAAT or simply gunship. The gunship is full of clones in freshly made bright white armour.
The LAAT lifts off the ground as Lucas watches the rain from the open side door, this being the first time he's been outside the facility since arriving on Kamino. The gunship flys through the storm into the hanger of an Acclamator class assault ship where as soon as the gunships lands Lucas jumps out and makes his way across the hanger to the walkway but doesn't leave as they'll be jumping back in when they arrive at the battle.
Geonosis turned out to be a bloodbath for both the clones and the Jedi, clones were dropping as they were shot or blown up by a droid or Geonosian.
Lucas is assigned to assist a team of clones on a raid against one of the droid factories. Lucas can still remember the screams around him and the blood splattered across his armour as they made their way through the factory. They were assigned to destroy the factory and make their way back to a forward command post where they would meet up with Commander Ponds.
The attack on the factory was a success as they managed to destroy the facility, however Lucas was one of the few who had survived the attack and managed to successfully escape the factory before it went up in flames.
Lucas led the last of the surviving clones to Commander Ponds who immediately sent Lucas to the frontlines to fight alongside Captain Rex whilst the rest were assigned to protect the forward command center.
The elite soldier alongside his fellow ARC trooper Captain Rex and the Torrent company successfully pushed back the droid offensive with great strategic air strikes and bombardments from the heavy cannons.
When they finally won the battle the land was littered with droids and clone bodies wherever you looked. The battle took a costly toll on the army losing hundreds in their first battle but they took confidence from their victory against the Separatists. It had been later discovered that almost all of the clone commandos sent to Geonosis had been eliminated, some having not even made it onto the planet's surface. The Jedi had suffered less casualties than the clones but their death count was still over 200 Jedi.
After the battle the military goes back to Kamino for a few days before they are all assigned to Jedi Generals and the war begins.
Captain Cody hadn't taken part in the first battle of Geonosis but shortly after the battle he is promoted to clone Marshal Commander after the recommendation from Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi.