Names were important to the clones. At their creation they would be assigned a number that coincided with the others in their batch. Each batch tended to be around a hundred clones that was broken down into squads of five. The clones referred to this smaller group as their batch, even though technically it would be the hundred or so clones they shared a barracks with. The earlier squad tended to be clones that had maybe been from the same batch but had originally been assigned different squads.
When Skirata had told him to get a name before he joined up with Aliit, he'd been worried. 99 had been easy to name, seeing as those were his numbers. The other clones he had met with names had picked something meaningful or had been named by their brothers. Thankfully he had a brother like 99 who had secretly spent a lot of time trying to come up with a name for him.
"It means helpful," 99 shrugged, fumbling with his hands as he sat on the edge of his bunk. "You help me a lot, even when you shouldn't."
"I like it," he'd nodded, liking it better than calling himself 2224. "It'll remind me of my purpose."
"You're more than the mission, though. Remember that too," 99's eyes were huge and he couldn't help himself from moving forward and pulling the handicapped boy into a hug.
Standing before Aliit squad the next day, already in his training armor as the other four lazed about their bench in the barracks they'd been assigned too, he wasn't so sure this was a good idea after all. Why couldn't he just been assigned to the nulls and not have to pretend that he understood what it meant to be a good brother to these complete strangers. They all shared the same face, but beyond that he didn't feel anything towards them. He was so used to 99, the similarities there but not being identical. Even the nulls had looked different in their own way. These boys all looked the same.
One boy, the one covered in the most armor stood looking him over as the others paused in what they were doing. He was pretty sure one of them was carving something into their helmet. He ignored it for meeting the challenging stare of the boy standing before him. He cocked an eyebrow, looking expectant, "So, you're the newbie they've assigned us."
"I was informed to report to Aliit squad this morning for training," he ran a critical eye over the four boys. "Which begins in five minutes."
"What are they going to do, not let us train?" another laughed, pulling on a boot.
"They can't afford to not let us train," another scoffed, leaning against one of the lockers. "We are the best they have."
He resisted rolling his eyes at them, keeping his face blank, "That remains to be seen."
"This one is feisty," the last boy was also sitting on the bench, but was wiping a rag over his gun. "He might last longer than the others."
"You aren't the first newbie we've been assigned," the boy standing before him sniffed disdainfully. "Probably won't be the last."
"Like I said before, that remains to be seen. I'll be down in the training center, waiting," he did a smart turn on his hell, all military precision and marched off.
"They gave us one with a stick up his ass," one of them muttered.
"That's new," another one answered and he swept out the door.
Aliit was an hour late to their training, by which point he had already started. He'd run these missions solo plenty of times and a few with the nulls to learn to work with others. He found training to be kinda meditative for him, allowed him to slip into a Zen like state. He needed it after meeting Aliit. If Skirata was testing him again, then he wasn't going to have an easy time passing.
He didn't realize the boys were there till he'd finished the run, killing the last droid with a swift thrust under its chin with his vibroblade. Clapping filled the air as the droid fell to the ground with a thunk and he whirled to face them, blaster up. The other boys were finally in their armor, helmets resting on a bench behind them. The leader laughed, crossing his arms, "Jumpy thing, aren't ya?"
"Always prepared," he slowly lowered his blaster, watching the others warily. His helmet was off to the side with his chest plate, a tactic Skirata had loved to use on them to remind them to guard their more fragile regions.
"Never saw anyone train like that except the nulls," another spoke up, looking impressed.
"What they do seems to work for them. Figured I'd try it myself," he shrugged, remembering that he was suppose to be a normal trooper now.
"So why did they send you to Aliit. You aren't like the others. They all came from batches that got broken up because they weren't working well together. We see them all the time in the mess with their new squads. Never seen you in the mess," the leader took a step forward, only a little menacingly.
"Got a different training program than them, I guess," he took a step forward, wondering what sort of power game they were playing. He could take them all easily, but that wasn't the point.
"Name?" the leader rolled his eyes.
"CC-2224," he answered automatically and cursed in his head.
"Early batcher," one of the other boys spoke up. "Probably only one left from his whole batch."
"There's one other," he snapped, glaring at the boy, knowing 99 was over in another area of the training room, fixing up some droids from earlier.
"So what, they trying to make you work with us boys? Last squad they did that too ended up in the medward for a month," another snarled.
"He didn't remember what it meant to be part of a squad," he remembered that boy, had watched the training session where he had turned on his new squad.
"You didn't answer my question, though," the leader cut in, pointing to each boy in turn. "I'm Alpha. Paranoid over there is Wolffe, gossip one is Fox and our ever-silent scout is Appo. Name?"
"Cody," the name sounded unfamiliar on his tongue, even though he had said it to himself in the mirror for an hour this morning.
"Well, Co-dy," Alpha drew out his name mockingly. "How about we do this next run together, once old 99 there cleans this mess up. See if you can keep up with us."
"Don't know why they keep him around," the one named Fox looked past him, eyes obviously finding 99. "He's not like us."
"No, he's not," he snapped, turning so he could catch 99 out of the corner of his eye. The other boy was starting to pull the droids off the training mat, "What's wrong with that?"
"He's a defect, could mess up all of us," Wolffe snarled. "His kind should be terminated."
His blaster came up before he could think, aimed right between Wolffe's eyes, "Wanna try saying that again, boy."
"Easy now," Alpha stepped back, eyes darting between the two boys. "We were just making fun."
"Making fun, huh? Because he looks different? Acts different? Cuz he's not learning to fight like us?" his eyes never left Wolffe's and he was happy to see fear there now.
"Everyone says it," Appo took a step towards him and froze when his cold gaze snapped to the other boy. "We just repeat what the cloners tell us."
"Clones like 99 aren't any different than us," he hissed at them. "You wanna be a good clone? Go right ahead listening to the cloners. You wanna be a good brother? Start defending 99 and others like him. Don't tear them down, help them be our brothers."
"Why do you care?" Wolffe snapped right back.
"Because we're batch brothers," he threw his blaster at Wolffe, catching the boy by surprise before turning and cross to 99, grabbing the other arm of the droid he was dragging and helping him drag it off. 99 gave him a grateful look and he just nodded back. They turned back to the training mat to find the other boys waiting, grabbing droids as well. Alpha stopped before them, looking a little sheepish.
"We don't like newbies much, never understood what it meant to be brothers," Alpha shrugged. "That's why we were hard on you. Most of them get pushed from squad to squad, so they tend to sacrifice our lives more in the sims."
"I plan on getting everyone out," he lifted his chin, meeting Alpha's eyes. "Even di'kuts like you."
Alpha smiled and held out his arm, "You may just work out."
He grasped Alpha's arm, letting some of his tension go, "It remains to be seen."