Author's note:

Before you read this chapter, I'd like to say a few things.

First of all, I'd like to apologize to anyone that's been waiting for an update on Slaughterhouse III: Doomsday. I've had a lot of writer's block on that story, and I really don't like how it's playing out right now. So, it's going to be on hiatus for a while.

Second, this chapter was delayed quite a bit because my raw file in Microsoft Word got corrupted, and I lost the entirety of this chapter; over 8,000 words. I rewrote it as best I could, but I had to cut some things, and I also rewrote some scenes I felt were iffy in the original edit. Again, apologies for the delay.

Third, I will be responding to a few questions that I've been asked about this story. Those will be at the end of the chapter. If your question didn't get answered, I apologize. Without further ado, enjoy!

Chapter 4: Mission Thirteen: Alzoc III

"Falcon, you look stupid."

"Zip it, Smokey."

For clones, snow missions like the one Inferno Company was currently on were easy stealth missions. Not only do droids (more specifically, their hydraulics) not hold up well in the sub-zero temperatures, but for most clones, their snow uniforms were perfectly camouflaged. Most clones, anyway.

"You know, Falcon, some of us purposely gave up our unique armor designs in order to blend in more," Rhino said. "Of all clones here, you should have been the first."

"Not like there's any trees here." Quint glanced over his shoulder at the scout. "There's no reason for you to be wearing jungle camo on a snowtrooper uniform."

"Hey, I like it! It's part of who I am! Besides," The scout pointed over his shoulder at the commando behind him. "He's not even in cold weather gear, and it's black! Get on his ass and off of mine!"

"Part of the stealth technology in my armor," Noctus spoke up, "is thermal regulation. In order to mask my thermal signature, my suit has a heating and cooling system that keeps the inside of the suit at a constant temperature while changing the thermal radiation to match that of the ambient environment."

"Can we stop talking about all this technical bullshit?" Speedy asked. "It's hurting my brain."

"They let you talk about speeder bikes when we were on Bothawui," Jiana pointed out, her voice slightly muffled behind the thick parka she wore. "As long as they're happy, I don't care what they talk about."

"You know General," Trigger began, "I like how you treat us like actual humans and not like we're these mindless organic robots. It's a good change of pace."

"You served under Master Ki-Adi-Mundi, right?" the Zeltron Jedi asked. "I thought he was reasonably fair with his clones."

"With the exception of Generals Kenobi and Skywalker, and Commander- former Commander Tano," Quint piped in, "all three of whom I have worked with, most Jedi seem to treat their clones like they're droids."

"There was also General Krell on Umbara," Patches said. "But he ended up working for the Separatists, so he doesn't really count."

"He was a jerk even back when I was in basic training," Uliia said. She sneezed and wrapped her hood tighter around her lekku. "Couldn't they have sent us somewhere warm? These are really sensitive."

"Command sent us here for a reason, Commander." Patches, at the lead, held up a hand to halt the rest of the company, kneeling down. "And I think I just found it."

Ahead of the clone, something big was moving, shuffling through the blizzard. A quick once-over told Patches that the creature was maybe a little over two meters tall, and even through the whipping snow the clone could see two red eyes scanning the horizon.

"Two eyes," Falcon muttered. "Not one of the Talz. Maybe this is one of those beasts that's been terrorizing them."

With a gasp, Jiana stood and stepped forward towards the creature, smiling.

"General! Get back!" Rhino said, just loud enough for the Jedi to hear him. But it was too late.

The beast's glowing red eyes locked onto Jiana. It roared and charged at her, arms raised. Speedy, Falcon, Rhino, and Trigger instantly raised their blasters as it barreled down on Jiana.

"No! Don't shoot!" she yelled, holding a hand back as if to tell them to stand down. The beast grew closer and closer, until-

It picked up Jiana and embraced her, spinning her around as she laughed. "Master, it's so good to see you again!"

"Master!"

"Master?"

Uliia and the clones had slightly different reactions to the enormous creature, which they could now see was covered in shaggy white fur. It set her down, growling and baring sharp teeth in a wide smile. It was at this point that the clones noticed the positively massive lightsaber hanging from a bandolier wrapped around its chest.

"It's a Jedi?!" Patches exclaimed. "What even is it?"

"Oh, pardon me." Jiana turned to the clones, gesturing to the Jedi behind her. "Inferno Company, this is Jedi Master Grazhok. He was my Master when I was a Padawan."

Falcon squinted his eyes at the furred Jedi. "He… is he an albino Wookiee?"

"Oho! Not many people recognize my species, due to my unusual appearance."

"Well, I did serve on Kashyyyk for a while a few months ago."

"Hold on a minute Falcon," Speedy said, "You actually understand this thing- Jedi?"

"What part of 'I served on Kashyyyk' did you not understand? The 41st works with indigenous populations; that means we have to learn their native languages."

"Master Grazhok, it's good to see you again!" Uliia briefly pulled her hood down to show her face to the Wookiee before bundling up again. The furred Jedi roared in delight, embracing her in a bone-crushing hug.

"Uliia, look at you!" he growled once he set the Twi'lek back down, "You've grown so tall since I last saw you!"

"It was four years ago, Master."

"Do you think you can hold my lightsaber yet, little one?" he joked. Seeing her confident expression, his face fell serious and he unhooked his lightsaber, holding it out to her.

Seeing it close up, the clones were able to truly grasp just how enormous the Wookiee's lightsaber was. The hilt was made of Brylark wood and was almost a meter long. Uliia grabbed it in both hands and lifted, grunting under the sheer weight of the device, but managed to lift it into a battle stance.

"Now try to turn it on."

The Padawan flicked the switch on the lightsaber and the blade burst forth, over two meters long. It jerked violently in her hand and she yelped, dropping it as it switched itself off. Her cheeks flushed as the Wookiee laughed, her eyes narrowing when she noticed her own Master chuckling behind the enormous Jedi.

"The kickback is quite strong indeed, Uliia! One day you'll master it!"

"Alright, it's great that this happy little reunion is going on in this blizzard," Noctus grumbled, "but can we get on with the mission?"

"A little impatient," the Wookiee Jedi growled to Jiana.

"He's a bit rough, but when push comes to shove, he loves this team more than he admits," she said with a grin.

"General, what are our orders?"

"Glad you asked, Patches." She held up a small hologram, displaying a massive shaggy beast with two curled horns sprouting from above its ears. "The Talz sent a plea for aid to the Senate when a recent scientific survey team landed here a few days ago. They reported these creatures attacking and eating their torsk herds. The scientific survey observed one of these beasts and confirmed it was a wampa, a large carnivorous creature from the sixth moon of the Hoth system. They are not native to here, and it is currently unknown how they got to Alzoc III."

"How many have they reported?" Rhino asked.

"The scientific team couldn't give an exact estimate, but they observed a pack of nearly two hundred camped a few dozen kilometers from the main Talz village."

The clones were silent, the bitter wind howling around them. "I'm sorry, General, I must not have heard you right," Speedy said, smacking the side of his helmet. "Did you say two hundred wampas?"

"Unfortunately, you were not mistaken. Chancellor Palpatine suspects this may be a Separatist plot to wipe out the natives in order to gain access to the vast mineral reserves on this planet."

"Sounds like something they'd do," Quint said. "It's insane enough to be them."

"The Talz have been scouting around and have located the wampa camp. Their leader wishes to speak with us before we begin the extermination."

Inferno Company (plus one albino Wookiee) stepped through the village gate, hundreds of eyes watching them. A few of the Talz stiffened upon seeing Grazhok's white fur, but relaxed upon seeing the lightsaber hanging over his back. One Talz wearing some sort of crown greeted them from a raised platform, standing before a throne.

"Falcon, the droid."

The clone nodded to Jiana and reached into his survival pack. He pulled out a small spherical droid that hovered in the air between the Talz chief and Jiana. As the chief began to speak, the droid automatically translated his words into Galactic Basic.

"I thank you for coming to our humble home. We have been under a constant threat by these strange creatures for nearly two moon cycles."

"Chief Sha-Korvook, we are honored to have been contacted by you," Jiana said as she bowed. "The Republic is aware of your species' desire to be isolated from the rest of the galaxy and honors your decision. But we will always help a people in need, no matter where they are. It is my duty as a Jedi, and my soldiers' duty as servants of the Republic."

"Servants?" Trigger muttered to Patches.

"Just go with it."

"Several of my scouts have recently returned from their mission. The monsters are approximately one day from here in the direction of the sunrise. We shall be praying for your safe return."

Jiana bowed once again and turned to the village entrance. "Come on. Wampas hunt at night, and by the time we get to the camp it'll be close to midnight."

"We can use my ship to get there faster."

"Master Grazhok," Uliia said, "I'm not sure we can all fit in a starfighter."

The Wookiee smiled. "Who said anything about a starfighter?"

The open top speeder skated across the snowdrifts, wind whipping through the cabin and through the gaps in the clones' armor. Even the Wookiee, fur clad as he was, shivered slightly in the blistering wind. The only one seemingly unaffected was Noctus, currently pissed off at the two bodies pressing against him.

"General, Commander, I fail to see how leaning on me makes you any warmer."

"The radiator on your survival pack is blowing hot air over us…" Jiana moaned, pulling her cloak tighter around her. Uliia did the same.

"So warm…"

"It's dangerous. I won't be able to react quick enough in an emergency. And if you dressed like normal Jedi instead of what you normally wear, you'd be warmer."

On the bench across from them, Speedy and Trigger glared at the commando. "Fuckin' prick," the scout muttered. "Complaining about two gorgeous women draping themselves all over him."

"Lucky bastard," Trigger agreed. "And then telling them to dress more modestly. Come on, it's the only upside to these assignments."

"Knock it off, you two." Rhino's hands came down on the clones' helmets, knocking them together. "Especially about the Commander. You know what her childhood was like. Besides, the ride's over."

The wind slowly eased off as the speeder decelerated, eventually settling down beside a tall snowdrift. Falcon crawled to the top, peering over the top with his electrobinoculars. "I see a bunch of them near that hill… there's a cave behind them that they're gathered around."

Trigger crawled up next to him. "Can't I just take them all out with a pulse disruptor?" he asked as Falcon handed him the binocs. "It'd be quick."

"It also violates several Republic laws on animal cruelty," Jiana interrupted. "I believe Master Grazhok has a better plan. Falcon, translate for the rest of the clones."

"We need as many clones as we can spare to stay back here and pick them off from a distance," the Wookiee began as he pulled up a holomap. "Specifically, I recommend Falcon, Noctus, and Rhino, using his rifle. Trigger can stay behind to provide suppressive fire if the wampas try to charge the position. Once the outside is clear, the rest of us will go into the cave to take out the rest of them."

The clones moved into position, the three snipers trained their rifles downwind while Trigger staked down a turret for his chaingun and the infiltration team equipped their infrared scanners. With a nod from Jiana, Falcon hovered his reticle over a wampa's chest and, closing one eye, squeezed the trigger.

At the first volley from the sharpshooters, the wampas panicked. Downrange, dozens of the furred beasts scrambled for places to hide. Some of them dove into the maw of the cave, but a few ventured out into the snowy plains in curiosity. The second and third bursts gave similar results, but on the fourth one Rhino merely grazed one of the larger wampas. Its head snapped to the snowbank, eyes dilating upon seeing Falcon's green armor contrasting the snow. With a roar, it charged, garnering the attention of the wampas near it. They quickly joined in, the snowdrifts suddenly filled with snarling, bloodthirsty beasts barreling down on the clones and Jedi.

"Heads up!" Trigger called, flicking the safety on his cannon and letting out a burst of blaster bolts that cut through the wampa charge, downing several of the enormous monsters. Patches and Speedy crawled up next to the snipers, providing more covering fire for the slower-firing clones while Noctus detached the extended barrel and scope from his blaster, rolling down to kneel beside Trigger as the heavy gunner reloaded his cannon. One wampa managed to make it through the field of blaster bolts, only to be violently stopped by a blast from Quint's shotgun, the paratrooper flicking out his bayonet to ram into another wampa's belly.

Ducking below a wildly swiping paw and unloading a dozen rounds into the offending wampa, Noctus almost stopped to watch Grazhok in awe, the white-furred warrior grappling a wampa with his bare hands before unclipping his lightsaber and swinging the hilt like a club, the beast collapsing like a broken puppet. Its blue blade leapt forth, humming through the air as it cut through another wampa, the snow beneath its owner stained dark red. He snarled as he threw a Force-assisted punch to the throat of yet another wampa, beating through their ranks with sheer strength and brute force.

Seemingly the opposite of her master, Jiana swirled through a group of wampas, movements fluid and light, as if it were a dance. Though the knee-deep snow slowed her movements, she was still agile enough that none of the wampas could even approach her. She swept between them, lightsaber flicking out just enough to slit their throats or pierce their chests. It was so clean, so effortless… compared to the clumsiness of the wampas, her movements were hypnotizing, drawing from her natural elegance and finely mixed with traditional Zeltron dance to form an almost impenetrable wall of plasma between her and the wampas.

They fight so differently, Noctus thought as he rolled under a wampa's tackle, vibrogauntlet slicing clean down its body. General Grazhok wears his opponents down with heavy offense, while General Razhuli forces her opponents to wear themselves out trying to break her defenses. Wonder what her Padawan's strategy is-

Said Padawan hadn't even pulled out her sabers; Uliia stood frozen, blood splashed across her body from the wampa Noctus had just gutted. Her eyes were distant, a slight tremor on her lip, breaths coming shallow and rapid.

"Commander! What are you doing?" Noctus yelled, firing a burst over Patches' shoulder. "Snap out of it!"

Jiana paused for a brief moment upon hearing the commando's call, glancing over her shoulder as she slammed her blade through one final wampa. Her eyes widened as she saw the horrified expression on her Padawan's face. "Oh, no… lay her down! Keep her safe while she rides it out!"

As the last few wampas still outside of the cave struggled against the clones, Noctus holstered his blaster and grabbed Uliia's arm, but the teen didn't move, her body frozen with a terror Noctus knew wasn't related to the wampas currently trying to maul their squad. Her hand seized his wrist, and even through his armor he could feel her fingers lock tight around his arm, knuckles beginning to turn white as she unconsciously squeezed down.

"Noctus!" Speedy yelled, bringing his blaster around. "Drop, now!"

The commando abruptly wrapped his arms behind Uliia's back and head and swept his right leg sideways, knocking her feet from beneath her and rolling on top of her as a wampa slammed its thick claws down into his survival pack, sparks showering down onto the duo as Speedy and Trigger unloaded dozens of blaster bolts into the furred beast. It gave one final roar, then collapsed on top of Noctus, who quickly propped one arm below him to prevent Uliia from being crushed. As Rhino and Falcon dragged the dead beast off of the duo, Jiana rushed to her Padawan's side, the Twi'lek instinctively latching her arms around her master and burying her face in her lap.

"General, is the Commander alright?" Patches asked, already slinging his medical pack to the snow beside them. "Should I give her a tranq?"

"Yes, please do." The older Jedi sighed as she stroked her shivering Padawan's head, squeezing her hand as Patches stuck the tranq into Uliia's neck, eliciting a small yelp from her. "I never should have brought her on one of these missions, how could I be so stupid?" she muttered, frustration etched across her face.

"Is she going to be alright?" Smokey asked, kneeling down. "What even happened to her?"

"She'll be fine, Smokey, just give her a few minutes to calm down," Jiana sighed. "She has severe panic attacks at the sight of blood. She had… a very traumatic childhood."

"She's been with us for three months, and we've never seen her like this," Falcon murmured to Speedy. "We should have seen her like this at least twice," he joked, earning a snicker from the BARC trooper. Rhino swung his elbows backwards, catching the two in the throat, and scowled beneath his helmet.

"That was a terrible joke, Falcon," he berated, "and I never want to hear anything like it again. I will not hesitate to have you transferred back to the 41st, where you can go and sit in a mud hole all day."

"That's not even biologically correct," Noctus said as he inspected his damaged survival pack. "I spent almost five months on Ryloth, and-"

"Noctus," Trigger groaned, "please don't finish that sentence."

It was several minutes before Uliia had recovered enough to sit up on her own, frozen tears staining her blank expression as she pulled her knees to her chest. "Alright men," Jiana said from beside her Padawan, "I'm staying behind with Uliia. You all go with Master Grazhok into the cave to take care of the rest of the wampas."

"No," Uliia said in a soft voice, "you need to go with them. They'll need two Jedi with them. I'll stay by myself."

"I can't go," Noctus grunted, holding up his damaged survival pack. "This won't last long in a fight, and without it I have no power for my helmet, my suit heater, or backup power cells for my blaster. I'll stay behind with the Commander." Jiana looked to Uliia for approval, and the Padawan gave a small nod, gaze unbroken from the snow before her.

"We won't be long. Stay safe." With those words, Jiana, Grazhok, and the rest of Inferno Company set off for the cave, eventually disappearing into the white as the wind picked up. Noctus spent a few minutes making adjustments to his pack with a small tool kit, and eventually groaned and retrieved a roll of tape from a pocket on the side, slapping a few strips over the gashes and locking the pack into place on his back. He tapped a few buttons on his forearm and sighed quietly as the thermal regulator began filling his armor with warm air. He glanced over his shoulder at Uliia, watching as the Twi'lek shivered and tucked her frozen lekku deeper into her hood. Rolling his eyes and grumbling to himself, he walked over and sat down beside her, making sure the radiator on his survival pack was pointing at her. She leaned against him, taking in the warm air that flowed through her parka and warmed her frozen core. A few minutes of silence passed, broken only by the howling of the wind, before Noctus spoke up.

"So, you mind telling me what the hell happened back there?"

"I knew that was coming…"

"You freeze up in the middle of a fight against bloodthirsty monsters, cry like a baby for ten minutes-"

"Shut up! If you knew the things I've been through-"

"Well, I don't! Please, enlighten me!"

Uliia sighed, pulling her hood further over her face and resting her forehead on Noctus' armored shoulder. "I don't know, Noctus, I just don't want to. It scares me…"

Noctus tilted his head enough to see her out of the corner of his visor. "All of us have painful memories. Rhino can't deal with Octoparra droids because of Christophsis. Speedy hates staying still because his squad was ambushed and massacred during a lunch break. You were nearly killed on Patches' first mission ever, and now he always triple checks us before and after every assignment. You know how annoying that is."

"And what about you?" Uliia asked, glancing up at the commando. "Are you scared of anything?"

Noctus said nothing for a few minutes. "Ryloth," he finally said. "I can't even look at a map of that damn planet without remembering the horrors I saw during my missions there. Even looking at Twi'leks makes me uncomfortable. I can only see their faces waiting in terror for the next bombing raid to finally put them out of their misery."

"What about me?" Uliia shifted slightly to get a better look at the clone, trying to gauge his expression beneath the helmet. "Are you uncomfortable around me?"

"I have… mixed feelings about you." Seeing her indignant glare, he continued. "You remind me of Ryloth, and all the suffering its people have endured. You remind me of that orphaned girl cradling her mother's dismembered body after a bombing raid. You remind me of how helpless the Twi'leks were."

"I am not helpless!" Uliia yelled, straightening up.

"How many times have I saved your life in the three months we've been together?" Uliia closed her mouth, avoiding Noctus' piercing eyes. "This is our thirteenth mission, and I've saved you on nine of them. You're a damn Jedi, for crying out loud! It's not supposed to be my job as a clone to protect you, but I do it anyway!"

This time, it was Uliia's turn to stay quiet for a while, dipping her head in a mixture of shame and embarrassment. "Why are you so devoted to me? Why do you insist on never leaving my side?" Noctus glanced away from her, drawing suspicion. "Noctus, what's going on?"

"I'm not supposed to tell you."

Uliia glared at his attempt to deflect her query. "As Commander, I order you to tell me."

"I only take orders from Generals."

"You don't even listen to Master when she orders you around!" Uliia responded. "You just go off and do whatever you want, as long as it gets the job done!"

"Technically still obeying her orders, if not to the letter."

Uliia groaned. This damn clone… She pouted, leaning back against his radiator. "…If you answer me, I'll tell you why I panicked during the fight." Silence. "You asked me earlier, and I tried to ignore it."

"Fine." Noctus shifted a bit so he could look at Uliia. "Before our first assignment on Tatooine, the General gave me a very specific order. She knew about my trauma from Ryloth, and your trauma from your past, and knew we probably wouldn't get along."

"And we didn't, at first," Uliia chuckled. "You kept calling me 'little girl' and I would argue with you for hours…"

"Yes, General Razhuli figured you would be like that. She told me that she was concerned that you wouldn't be able to handle the stresses of these kinds of difficult missions, and she wanted someone who had experiences with similar sufferings to help you mature and be a friend. She ordered me to keep you safe when she can't."

"…So, you're only my friend because you were ordered to?" Noctus could see the hurt begin to swell in her voice, and he quickly tried to rectify the situation.

"Only at the beginning! I voiced my objections to the General! I told her it would be a bad idea, and now here we are!"

"Oh, what, you didn't want to be my friend, but you went along with it because you were just following orders?" Uliia's voice rose louder as she turned to fully face the clone, scowling. "And now you're stuck in a one-sided friendship that only I want? That only I care about?"

"You don't know the whole story-"

"I know what I need to know!" she yelled. "I know that I'm the only one in this whole squadron who actually cares about you! I'm the only one who stands up for you when you piss off the other clones! I'm the only one who's actually tried to be nice to you, and for what? So you can ignore everything and choose to hate everyone? So you can pretend to tolerate me while you betray my trust and spy on me for my own Master?"

"So I can learn that I don't need orders to be your friend!" Noctus tore off his helmet, scarred face twisted in frustration. "The General gave me those orders months ago, and it was supposed to be for only one time! I've been doing this of my own accord since Tatooine!"

Noctus' commlink blared up. "Noctus, we need you down here now!" Jiana's voice crackled. "We found a Separatist outpost deep in the cave and we're pinned down by droidekas! I need you to come give us cover fire while we regroup!"

"Be there in a minute, General." The commando slipped his helmet back on and stood up, glancing back at Uliia. "You want in on this?"

She stared up at the clone, still scowling, then sighed, a small chuckle escaping her lips. "As long as you promise to take the shot to the chest this time," she said as she rose, the duo running towards the cave entrance.

"That was on you," Noctus responded as he halted at the maw of the darkness, flicking on his helmet light before cautiously raising his blaster and slipping through a side tunnel. "Clone armor can take a shot or two, and mine is a bit tougher. You're lucky the shot missed your heart."

"At least it was nothing permanent," she said, reaching down to her lightsabers as the sounds of blaster fire gradually rose in volume, echoing through the caves. "Aside from the scar, of course."

The tunnel slowly widened, and Noctus dropped to a knee, motioning for Uliia to do the same. The tunnel they had taken led them to the top of the chamber where Inferno Company was trapped, nearly ten meters below the two. Fifteen droidekas were clustered around several stalagmites, firing at the clones scattered behind them. Further down the cave, Noctus could see boxes of supplies and weapons, with several battle droids standing alert.

"I'll take the droidekas," Noctus said, slipping an ion pulse grenade into his hand. "You sneak around back and wipe out the guards by that station. Once I get finished, we'll come back you up."

Without even waiting for a response, Noctus tossed his grenade and dropped into the chasm, sliding down the wall and ducking behind a stalagmite. Glancing over his shoulder, he spotted two green flashes of light swirling through the cavern as Uliia sliced through the droids at the supply lines.

"Noctus, where you been?" Rhino called from further up the line, ducking a stray blast. "You missed all the fun!"

"I don't know, Rhino, this seems pretty fun to me." The commando raised his blaster and took aim at a droideka, unleashing a hail of blaster bolts. The droid's shield held up, but slowly began to overheat, a few bolts finding their way inside the deflector and punching holes through the droid within. The remaining droidekas turned their attention to Noctus, shredding the stalagmite he was crouched behind.

With the droids distracted, the remainder of the squad sprung from their hiding places, the Jedi lifting the droidekas into the air and slamming them back down to collapse their shields, and the clones grinding the defenseless droids to scrap metal with a hail of blaster bolts. Grazhok heard a yell and looked to the back of the cave, only for Uliia to come bowling into him, wincing as she rolled onto her back.

"Watch out for those grappler droids!" she called as a team of the menacing brutes stomped their way towards the clones. Rhino leaned back to dodge a swipe from a mechanical claw and fired a shot point-blank into the droid's chest. A smirk spread beneath his helmet as it slumped to the ground, then was wiped off by a punch to the chest, sending the ARC trooper sprawling with a grating crunch.

"Patches, tend to the Major!" Speedy yelled, leveling a field of cover fire as the medic darted to the fallen clone. While Patches pried Rhino's chestplate off, Trigger and Quint charged the grapplers with their guns blazing, slowly cutting through their ranks. Jiana's green blade flashed through the darkness, spiraling rapidly across the cavern as its wielder swirled through the droids, sparks showering her as she sliced the final droid across the torso, the only sounds still echoing through the cavern being the hum of her lightsaber and the crackling of shorting electronics.

Back on the Vorpent

"Alright, Commander," Patches said, setting his scanner on a table next to the exam table. "You have minor bruises and scrapes, but otherwise you're completely fine."

"I don't get it," Rhino groaned, bandages wrapped all across his chest. "The one wearing the least armor out of all of us is the only one who's uninjured. I call cheating."

"What are you talking about?" Speedy asked as the medical droid stitched up a gash on his leg. "The General doesn't have any either."

"Yeah, but at least she's got some cushioning on her ribs."

Jiana, ice pack on her ankle, raised an eyebrow from across the room. "That's one way to look at them. However, though my species is known for its promiscuity doesn't mean I appreciate those types of comments. I am, first and foremost, a Jedi Knight-"

"Which means you're not supposed to have those urges, right?" Falcon rolled his eyes. "Clones aren't supposed to have those feelings either, but they still got brothels for us at the bars."

Jiana stood up, stretching. "Uliia, you're soaked in blood. How about you go shower before the guys go? I'll catch up in a moment."

"Alright." Her eyes felt heavy, exhaustion beginning to overcome her as she stumbled through the hallways to the squad's shared room, discarding her blood-stained clothing and grabbing a towel as she walked into the showers, stifling a yawn. Making her way to one of the many showerheads along the wall, she turned the heat all the way up, a sigh escaping her mouth as the water began to cut through the dried blood staining her blue skin.

"Evening, Commander."

Uliia shrieked, covering herself as best she could as she whirled around. On the wall opposite her, Noctus stood under his own stream of ice-cold water, facing the wall. "What the kunta are you doing in here?"

"Showering." The Twi'lek scowled at his noncommittal answer, but slowly turned back to her own shower.

"Just don't look over here, alright?"

"Not like there's anything to see…" the clone murmured. Uliia whirled around, about to give the commando a piece of her mind, but froze as she took a closer look at the clone's back. Of all the clones, Noctus was the most infuriatingly uptight one. He was always in his armor, even while he slept (usually with his blaster in hand), and Uliia preferred not to look at the clones when they weren't in their armor anyway. But, with one room for a ten-person squad, it was unavoidable. Besides, any scars they had were often the subject of many stories told, and a surprising number of the clones had scars on their chests from getting shot or sliced by grappler droids or whatever. They were proud of them, as they saw scars as a symbol of strength and triumph. Over time, Uliia had become accustomed to their often-exaggerated tales of glory, and had even come to appreciate them, as well as the symbolic meaning scars held for the clones. That being said…

"So many scars…" she whispered. Noctus froze as Uliia's fingers traced a long one down his spine. "Where was this one from?"

"Grievous, a couple weeks ago," he answered stiffly. Though he pretended to deny it, Noctus cared very much for Inferno Company and, as a byproduct of his trauma from Ryloth, he held a certain soft spot for his Twi'lek commander, helping her in whatever way he could while still pretending not to care. As another souvenir from Ryloth, he was always jumpy without his armor on. The two emotions fought one another in his mind, whether to push her away or let her do whatever she was doing. He elected for the latter.

"What about this one by your neck?" Uliia asked, standing on her toes. "It looks like a burn."

"That one was from a mission on Malastare. The droids used a local creature that secreted a powerful acid as guards around their base. I neglected to account for the fact that while droids can't smell, those creatures could. Very, very precisely."

"And that one on your face?" Uliia stood directly in front of him now, brown eyes locked onto the jagged, pitted slash across his face. Noctus subtly took a step back before responding.

"That was Saleucami, the first time I encountered Grievous. It's why I had my helmet coated in beskar." Uliia's eyes lit up.

"Is beskar better than phrik? I was debating which metal to use in my lightsabers, since they're guard shotos and they lay parallel to my arms, the handles are made to be lightsaber-resistant to give better defense in duels, and I had to go with phrik because there wasn't any beskar I could find, and phrik is good in its own way, but the problem is it tends to get hot after a few hits from a lightsaber and it's difficult to duel for long times because it'll burn my arms; but how does beskar work? It doesn't heat up from a lightsaber blade, I know that, but is it any more durable or-" She clapped a hand over her mouth, turning red. "Sorry… I'm super interested in lightsaber design, and I tend to go off like that…"

"I can see that," Noctus said, eyebrow raised. There was silence between the two, and Noctus' stomach began to drop as Uliia's eyes widened and her blush spread. Oh, come on, you're just noticing how close you are now?

"You two seem to be getting along quite well," Jiana said from behind them, stifling a laugh. Uliia yelped and fell back, and Noctus fixed his unwavering gaze on the older Jedi, ignoring her blatant lack of modesty.

"I take it one of the others said something dumb?"

"You don't know the half of it, Noctus," she grumbled, throwing a nasty look at the empty room outside the showers. "I swear, those three…"

"Speedy, Trigger, and Falcon?" the clone guessed. "Each of us clones have our own minds, and they got the dumbest ones. They made everything about our bodies identical, but the mind just can't be replicated, I guess."

"Everything, huh…" Jiana's eyes drifted downwards for a moment, then back up to Noctus' deadpan face. "I don't know, you all look different to me. Especially you."

"Those are scars. That doesn't mean we all didn't look the same back on Kamino."

"Perhaps…" Jiana walked to Uliia, who was crouching on the floor, blushed red face buried in her hands. "Come on, I'll help you scrub the blood off."

Uliia nodded, walking with her Master to her showerhead, not daring to make eye contact with Noctus. There was silence for a few more minutes as the two Jedi washed themselves, then Noctus spoke up.

"Zygerria?"

Uliia glanced at him in confusion, then blushed as she realized he was squinting at the brand on her backside. "Hey, quit looking!"

"You got in my personal space and asked me about a bunch of my scars." Noctus crossed his arms, glaring at her. "Seems unfair to me."

"Um, Noctus," Jiana interrupted, "that's a sensitive topic for her, you should-"

"No, he's right." She turned to look at Uliia, who sighed. "Besides, it's like the guys always say: scars are a symbol of triumph over something meant to break you down. They show that you're stronger that whatever tried to defeat you."

Jiana smiled warmly at her Padawan as she took a slow, deep breath before speaking. "On Zygerria, the slavers would brand children to mark us as property. The location varied based on what we were being trained to do as a slave. For example, my sister was branded on the stomach, to show that she was to be a cook for her owner. A Togruta boy there was branded on the chest, to show that he was meant for manual labor. But being marked… where I was," she said, wincing, "meant I was supposed to be a-a personal attendant. I would have to do anything my owner demanded: serve drinks, clean up the house, or…" She shuddered. "But Master Grazhok and Master Razhuli saved me from there, and it's all behind me now. I'll never have to go back there, and I'll never be a slave to anyone ever again."

Noctus was silent for a minute. His eyes never left Uliia's, and though his face remained impassive, she could see his eyes soften up. "Well, I would say that makes you one of us. Good story. Better than any of Trigger's, anyway."

Uliia smiled softly, then her face fell. "I guess I never ended up telling you why I freaked out earlier, did I-" The sound of clone chatter cut her off as the remainder of the team entered the barracks just meters away, shedding their armor at their bunks as they readied to shower for the night. Jiana caught Noctus' eye, tilting her head to the side with a raised eyebrow as she slowly raised her hand to cover her chest. The commando sighed, nodding as he wrapped a towel around his waist and stepped out into the barracks.

"Noctus, you been hogging all the hot water again?" Trigger joked. "I know how steamy you like your showers to be."

"I prefer them ice cold, thank you."

"He was joking Noctus, jeez." Quint shook his head with a smirk, rolling his eyes. "You gotta work on that, man." The paratrooper moved to go past Noctus into the showers, but the commando didn't budge. "Hey, what gives?"

"Come on, Noctus, we know we told you to learn how to make jokes, but this isn't funny," Speedy said. "Let us in. We're exhausted."

Noctus shook his head slowly. "The Commander and the General are in there right now. You'll get your chance once they're finished."

"Oh come on you prude," Falcon grumbled. "There's nothing we haven't seen before in there. We know what a woman looks like."

"If we're talking about the Commander, there's nothing to see anyway," Patches joked, to a chorus of snickers from the other clones. In the showers behind them, Jiana clapped a hand to her Padawan's mouth to stifle the string of curses she sensed were about to be unleashed.

"Ignore them, they're trying to rile you up on purpose. Let's just finish up and get dried off."

After several minutes of the clones arguing, the two Jedi finally emerged from the showers, wrapped in fresh robes. "Thank you for that, Noctus," Jiana said as she settled down on her bed, the clones giving Noctus dirty looks as the door to the showers closed behind them. "Normally this wouldn't be an issue since we let you guys shower first, but…"

"Eh, it's fine. None of them care enough anyway." He was interrupted by laughter and loud chatter from within the shower. "See?"

"So, Master," Uliia said looking down from her top bunk, "Did we receive any new assignments while we were out?"

"No, I don't believe we did," the Zeltron Jedi said as she glanced at her communicator. "Apart from the Vorpent being due back at Coruscant for maintenance and a resupply, we're free."

"It's been so long since we've had a decent break from all these missions," Uliia sighed as she flopped back, letting her lekku dangle over the side of the bunk. "What do we want to do?"

Post-author's note:

Alright, I have a few questions to answer here. If any of you reading this have any others, please let me know.

Q: What type of lightsaber combat do Jiana and Uliia use?

A: I'll go ahead and include Master Grazhok in here as well, because I like him.

Let's start with the Wookiee: Grazhok mainly utilizes Form VII: Juyo. This is a type of lightsaber combat focused almost entirely on offense and power, using raw physical strength and heavy, repeated attacks to rapidly wear down your opponent. As a Wookiee, he is a natural at this, using a combination of physical attacks such as punches and using his lightsaber hilt as a club, and fast, powerful swings from his lightsaber.

As Grazhok's Padawan, Jiana quickly learned that she couldn't directly block an attack from her Master. Thus, she uses a combination of both Form II: Makashi and Form V: Shien. Using the fluid motions and principles of the dueling-centered Form II and the defense-oriented parries of Form V, she redirects attacks away from her instead of catching and stopping an oncoming lightsaber. Combined with traditional dances from her home world of Zeltros, she uses her speed and agility to keep her as close to her opponent as possible while also staying far out of reach of their weapon.

Uliia, being a dual-wielder, uses the Jar'Kai form of lightsaber combat, personalized slightly to accommodate for her lack of physical strength and her use of guard shotos over regular blades. She usually fights with rapid swings with the blades extended out to give her a long reach for attacking, and with precise blocks with the blades running down past her elbows for defense. Fighting with her dual guard shotos is very difficult, so she's a bit clumsy sometimes.

Q: When does this take place in the Clone Wars?

A: Inferno Company was founded in late 20 BBY; as of the mission on Alzoc III you just read about, it is the beginning of 19 BBY, several days before the end of the Clone Wars.

Q: Are we ever going to learn about what happened to Noctus on Ryloth?

Q2: How will Order 66 affect Inferno Company?

Q3: Will the clones betray Jiana and Uliia?

A: I'm going to answer all three of these questions together, as they are all related. Without giving too much away, Noctus has mentioned Ryloth a few times, and it can be inferred that he had a horrifying experience there. We're still two or three chapters out, but I will say that the story will end where Noctus' nightmares began: Ryloth. As for Order 66, we saw in Season 7 of The Clone Wars that Order 66 could not be denied by the clones, no matter how much they cared for their Jedi Generals.

On that note, see you in the next chapter!