Author's Notes
Hey, me again. Another chapter of this, only took me a week to write. To anybody who's read any of my other stories I hope you enjoy the longer chapters in this one, I'm going to try to keep that consistent for this story. As for notes I don't think there's anything to really be confused about for this chapter but that could be because I wrote it.
I'm going to keep the dream flash backs for a few chapters. I wanted to show part of how the MC first adapted to the Star Wars Galaxy while not spending a bunch of chapters on the MC being a force wielding baby, cause that's rather boring in my opinion. So instead DREAM FLASH BACKS, they'll show important and relevant moments of the MC and his past while not taking too much time away from the actual story, the actual story being the plan to stop the Rise of the Empire. The one in this chapter was more difficult than the last because I didn't wanna drag it on too long but I still wanted it to work properly, so I hope you guys liked it.
I also hope you guys like how I wrote the action scenes. They will probably be written a bit differently when going up against more major characters if you're looking for a higher stakes battle.
Also AZ getting interrupted constantly wasn't initially planned, but since it's a common thing even in Clone Wars I might keep it as a sort of running gag [Mostly cause I'm not good at writing conversations between characters (I'm not an introvert, you're an introvert)].
That's all for now. As usual I don't own Star Wars.
Feedback is always welcome.
Please enjoy.
Chapter 2
Corunscant. My 'home' world. Not my real homeworld, just the one I was born on in this galaxy. Born to a set of parents that hated me. Not that I could blame them, after all, the moment I found out this was the Star Wars Galaxy was also the first time I had ever cried as a child, the days before I hadn't let out a peep which my 'parents' found rather creepy. That was also the same day we all found out about my force sensitivity, hard not to notice considering how much damage I did to my nursery room in my panicked state.
"Jon, I don't know how much longer I can do this," Kira, my 'mother', said to Jon, my 'father'. I could sense how distraught Kira was, it sent ripples throughout the force, something I had been able to sense quite early on.
"I know, just a little longer until the Jedi show up and he'll be gone," Jon comforted. It wasn't hard to catch the resentful glance he sent my way, when they had decided to have a child I'm sure they expected a normal one, and they got me.
They definitely hated me, lucky for them I'd be gone soon if the presence I'm sensing at the door means anything. Although that very presence was sending very different feelings through me.
The presence knocked on the steel sliding door of our apartment, and my parents quieted down. Kira went to open the door and Jon moved over to where I was laying and picked me up, with great hesitation. The door opened with a hiss.
"Oh! Master Jedi!" Kira greeted, relief lining her voice. Jon quickly moved over to the door as well. "You're here for our son, yes?"
He raised an eyebrow at her eagerness, not that I could see it, Jon was holding me in a way that made it impossible for me to see the Jedi, but I could sense the equivalent of it through the force, it's also how I sensed his confirming nod.
The Jedi didn't get a chance to speak, before Jon handed me over to the Jedi - so fast the master of the Force probably would have dropped me had he been a normal person - and promptly closed the door with me and the Jedi now outside. It was almost funny.
A singular thought was all that occupied my mind in that moment. I was doomed. I was fated to become a Jedi and die at war, or during Order 66, cause how could I stop a man the whole Jedi Order couldn't stop?
My mind was raging with feelings of dread, panic, fear, and my infant body only knew one way of expressing it, so I cried, a deafening wail as a few loose objects in the surroundings shook.
"Calm yourself young one," a calm but firm voice spoke to me, one that made me look towards the Jedi for the first time.
My crying halted almost instantly, I recognized this man, I recognized his voice. The Jedi Master let out a soft laugh at the look on my face, one that probably looked funny coming from an infant, before looking back to the door with a sigh.
"And I didn't even get your name…"
Qui-Gon Jin.
I shook my head to ward off stray thoughts, ever since I got here the familiar presence of a Jedi in the city had been causing my mind to wander. I sighed and brought my focus back to my current task, I'd need to focus if I didn't want to get caught.
Before now I had been working as a mercenary of sorts and many jobs required the ability to blend in with a crowd. The biggest part is identifying the crowd you're trying to infiltrate and going from there.
The easiest types of crowds to blend in with are the ones in places like Coruscant where the crowds are large and varied. Kamino was significantly more difficult.
As I walked through the hallways of Tipoca there were many things I had to consciously adjust to blend in, I had to keep my posture straight with my blaster level but not aiming at anyone, walk slowly but with purpose, keep my head up looking forward, look like I was meant to be here.
The most difficult thing to adjust was my force presence. With a Jedi Master, Shaak Ti I reminded myself, in Tipoca I had to be careful to keep my force presence at the level of a normal clone, any fluctuations could catch her attention and my mission becomes that much more difficult.
But despite all of this I made it to my destination incident free. I didn't enter the Embryo Room though, there was too much risk of being noticed, so I did the next best thing: I waited near the pathway leading to the room.
The only way to get to the Embryo Room was to first pass through a classroom filled with young clones that was also constantly monitored by two Kaminoans and multiple droids, passing through this room was also how Fives got, or will get, caught. So if I wait just outside that class I can keep an eye on anyone going in or out of the Embryo Room.
Of course a clone trooper standing around doing nothing would also draw attention, so I busied myself "searching" the nearby rooms. Every clone in this city is looking for a certain renegade clone so most wouldn't give me a second glance.
I walked into the first room, it looked like a standard room for patients, a medical bed in the center with medicine and medical tools being found on surfaces. I slowly and absentmindedly looked around, keeping my senses focused on the entrance to the Embryo Room.
It wasn't until I had started searching the third room that I sensed someone approaching it.
Carefully looking outside the room I was searching, I quickly spotted my target, or rather targets. In the small crowd strolling through Tipoca was one helmetless clone with a tattoo on his right temple and a medical patch on the same side of his head, and one AZ-series surgical assistant droid. Fives and AZI-3.
I watched as they began to enter the Embryo room, with some anticipation, just a little bit longer and I'd be able to get the droid and get out of here.
It wasn't long after Fives and AZ entered, when a Kaminoan woman, Nala Se if my memory is correct, walked into the room as well, followed by Master Shaak Ti a few minutes later with an entourage of three clones.
I could only wait for now, my anticipation building with each passing second. I wish I could just go straight in there and take the droid and get off this damned planet. But alas I couldn't, if I did it would mess up the rest of my plans.
While I waited I pulled out a communication device and turned it onto a secure channel, time to make a call.
When the group returned Fives was asleep on a stretcher, they must be taking him to the shuttle now. Before they started heading to the ship hanger they seemed to be discussing something for a moment before they split off, Shaak Ti, Nala Se, and two of the three clones went with Fives, while the last went in the opposite direction with AZ. I quickly contacted my ship.
"Ardy, keep the ship's scanners on the air. There should be a shuttle leaving soon, I want to know the moment it leaves."
After receiving a few responding beeps I was off following AZ and the clone down the hall. I kept my distance but made sure to keep them in my sight the whole time, using the helmet I was wearing to mask where I was looking so no one got suspicious.
From what I remembered of the layout of Tipoca they were taking AZ to one of the droid maintenance points in the city, probably to wipe his memory-banks, something I can't let happen. Hopefully the shuttle with Fives would be gone by then.
I ran the numbers in my head, at the current pace we'd reach the maintenance point in a matter of minutes. I didn't know how fast Fives' group was going so I'd have to hope they'll make it to the hangar first or I'll have to delay the clone escorting AZ.
…And from the droid maintenance point just ahead I'll have to delay the clone. I sighed once again and hurried my pace to catch up with the clone trooper.
"Wait up!" I shouted after him. He and AZ turned to face me, a silent question floating through the force from the trooper, I put my acting skills to use, "New orders from the commander, you're needed in central command, I can take the droid from here."
He looked at me for a moment, "What's wrong with your voice trooper," he asked suspiciously.
"I injured my throat in a training accident, you know how it is."
"Yeah…" he trailed off. He wasn't convinced at all, good thing I didn't need him to be convinced, I only needed to buy time. "Why didn't the commander just contact me with coms?"
"There seems to be some technical difficulties, it's why you're being called, sir."
AZ looked at us both in confusion. I wonder if reading the room is in his programming, he's being silent for now though.
"What's your clone trooper designation?"
"Ct-8765, sir," obviously fake but he didn't seem to know that, the question was more to apply pressure than to get an honest response, something he kept doing.
"What does your squad call you?"
"Compass, sir."
"And why is that?"
"Because I always seem to get lost."
"An ironic name huh? Why would the commander send someone who always gets lost to escort a droid?"
"I'm not sure, sir."
"Take off your helmet, trooper."
"I respectfully decline, sir."
He locked eyes, or rather visors, with me, I met his look without flinching. This guy has good instincts, he's making this difficult.
I noticed him bringing his right arm up to speak into the comms and grabbed his arm with my left, halting its ascent. The tension was at its climax and for a tense moment nothing happened.
Beep beep.
The trooper glanced at my blinking comm device, and I let out a sigh of relief. Perfect timing.
Before anyone one could react I tightened my grip on the clone troopers arm, and pulled. He stumbled forward, armored feet banging against the metal floor as he regained balance.
The world blurred as I spun around with the pull, and faster than most could keep track of I slammed my elbow into the back of the clone's helmet.
He fell forward, head slamming against the wall, and he was out.
I brought my hand up to the bottom of my helmet and took it off revealing my non-clone features to Tipoca. No use wearing it anymore, plus it's stuffy as hell.
Now that Shaak Ti and Fives are in hyperspace Kamino can't contact them, which means I can throw stealth to the wind and get out of here.
Ignoring the crowd of Kaminoans and droids, I looked back to AZ who appeared to be checking his, now unconscious, escort.
"AZI-3 right?" I questioned. He looked at me and blinked, a momentary flicker of his lit up eyes, "I'm here to get you off of Kamino."
"Off Kamino?! But that's against protocol, as-"
He didn't get a chance to finish before I grabbed his mechanical arm and started dragging him along to the nearest exit I could remember, quite quickly I might add.
"Your buddy Fives is in trouble and I need your help to help him," I explained as we moved, counting the doors to our destination in my head.
"Five-s?" He asked, separating 's' from Fives "Why is he-"
Once again AZ was interrupted when a stun blast narrowly missed us.
I kept my eyes forward, three clones, standard rifles, armor styling typical of the Kamino guards. Looks like they acted fast.
The force whispered a warning, I quickly planted my feet on AZ and used a force enhanced leap to send us both out of the way of the next stun blast. As I flew to the side I adjusted my body, landing on the wall feet first. I shot a stun blast of my own blaster and pushed off the wall to avoid another shot from the clones.
My shot flew true and one of the clones dropped to the ground with a thump, the other two momentarily looked back to their fallen comrade, and quickly looked back to me, but not quick enough.
Not missing the opportunity made by the distraction I quickly shot into motion, leaping forward. I threw my blaster at the one furthest from me, buying me time before he could take another shot.
The other hardly got time to bring his blaster level to aim when I pushed the barrel down sending a stun shot to the floor. I quickly maneuvered, overpowering the trooper, pulling his arm back and aiming the blaster over his shoulder and at his still recovering comrade, his finger still stuck in the trigger guard in a position that has to be painful. I shot my opponent's blaster, the stun blast ringing in the air, and the other clone fell, unconscious.
The remaining clone trooper dropped to his knees with a kick to the back of his legs, as I wrenched his blaster from his hands and used it to knock him out as well.
I let out a quick huff of breath. All in a day's work, but there was no time to rest, we had to keep moving before more showed up.
I grabbed AZ and began to move again, faster than before. We weren't far now, three more doors, turn left, down the hall, turn right into the fifth room, another storage closet, with a hatch just like the one I entered Tipoca City with.
The force flowed through the air, the hatch opened with a protesting creak from the metal, and I jumped through dragging AZ in tow. Now in free fall I shouted to AZ over the rushing wind.
"You have some survival modes right?"
"Yes," he started, "I am equipped with several sur-"
"Then now would be a good time to use one," I interrupted him once again. It was beginning to become a theme with this droid.
AZ obliged and transformed, handles coming out of the supply box on his torso and moving his body into a face down position. A speeder mode, 'cause a surgical droid needs one of those.
"Droids," I muttered exasperatedly.
"A thank you would be appreciated."
"Thanks, AZ."
If he responded I didn't hear it, I had one more thing to do.
I reached to my hip for my communication device, and turned back to the secure channel I used earlier.
"Is it time?" A voice said from the other end.
"It's time." I couldn't keep the smirk off my face. The problem with hiring bounty hunters to train clones is that they're bounty hunters, they'll do anything for the right price, "blow the charges."
The sound of explosives blowing up Tipoca's communications network was the last thing I heard from the city as I set off towards my ship, objective complete.