Chapter 4

No Snow Days

"Orto Plutonia... I remember that place, Rex. Those people there, they are a lot more civilized than they look, aren't they? Heh... I hope to see them again in the Galaxy somewhere. That peace treaty will help them."

-Anakin Skywalker to CC-7567, Captain Rex.

After loads of speeches and formations, Commander Jax dismissed his troopers. He walked over to the mess hall, where most of the clones were going towards. He hadn't eaten in a while, so he was glad to be walking there.

When he walked in, he got his lunch and sat down at one of the tables. Camo, Eco, Chipper, Dakx, Dawnbreaker, Grasshopper, and a few other clones sat next to Jax shortly afterwards.

"Umm, sir. Are you feeling alright?" Eco asked straight to the Commander.

Jax stayed silent for a few seconds, then finally said "It's nothing, Eco. I am just wondering what the General is going to decide. She said we are either staying here or going on another mission and leave Dunkel and his men doing the work."

Camo handed Jax something, "Try these, they usually help ease the situation." Jax stared at it, then he took it from him and ate it. Camo was right, it did help.

Grasshopper turned to Camo and asked, "What is that stuff anyways? It looks funny."

"Don't worry about what it is, just know it helps," Camo quickly responded.

After glaring at Jax for a while, Dakx finally asked, "Did you guys know it is being considered for Dunkel to make his own Corps? He'd be promoted to a Marshal Commander if that happens... Dunkel said if it was true, he wanted it to be the Slaughter Corps or something similar. Put Reaper Squadron and other deadly clones under it to cause bloodshed everywhere." Chipper nearly choked on the food he was swallowing after he heard the news. "But of course it is just rumors! I don't think we should worry about it."

Dawnbreaker thought about stepping in and saying something about how much chaos could happen in that Corps, but he remained silent.

A clone by the name of Sergeant Magnet slid in closer to the conversation. He had green stripes coming from his arm to the end of his hand, and another one on the lip of his helmet. "Personally, that seems like it could end up leading to a lot of chaos," Magnet said, stealing the words right from Dawnbreaker's head.

A late clone came to their table. He was known by the name Green Wizard, some of them just call him Wizard, however. He seems to always be late to the table. "Sorry I'm late, sirs," he said, mostly naturally. Most of them were still stuck in the conversation about Slaughter Corps, however. and mostly didn't notice.

"I'm sure it will be fine. Dunkel can be cruel and a maniac sometimes, but he gets the job done, from orders or his own way," Jax reassured to all of the clones talking about Slaughter Corps.

"Aye, I'm with Jax on this," Captain Camo added. Under his breathe, he chuckled, "Maniac... ha, needs a better word."

Suddenly, Jax got a call over his comlink. He answered it. It was from his Jedi General, Allia.

"Jax, meet me in the Commanding Bay. If Captain Camo can, take him, too. Can't wait to see you there!" Allia strongly commanded, up until the last part of his order. Jax nodded towards Camo and they left the other clones at the table to finish eating.

When the two of them arrived at the Command Bay, they saw Allia looking out a balcony. "She must have finished her decision, Camo. Get ready for it," Jax whispered to Camo. "Got it, boss. Setting alarm to whenever she mentions it." The two of them walked out on to the balcony with Allia. She looked at Jax and noted Camo next to him.

"Jax, I have made the decision on what we will do with the regiment," Allia stated, "We can not stay here."

"What? General, they'd need our help!" Camo blurted. To himself, Camo muttered, "Because we're so awesome."

"I'm with Camo on this, gener-" Jax was interrupted when Allia put a finger over his lips, since he was carrying his helmet at the time. "I talked about it with Commander Dunkel for a while. He said they were going to get plenty of reinforcements later and they'll do fine without us. We have things to do, Commander. I have also talked to General Skywalker about Captain Gamma and his undersized platoon. He said they will go with us and gave Gamma the orders to come with us," Allia at last finished, "Hey, at least your 501st buddies will be with us!"

"..Alright sir. I'll inform the regiment. Where will we be going next, sir?" Jax questioned.

She looked at Jax and smiled, "We're going to Orto Plutonia, Commander. We need to find some data that crashed around there somewhere. My brother will be coming with us, as well. Two birds with one stone since my homeworld orbits it! It's really snowy and cold there, so make sure to get your clones into the Snowtrooper armor before they head out. Don't want them freezing on us!"

Jax nodded. She looked so happy to finally be able to go there. She smiled very widely at Camo and him when she spoke of it. Never seen her this happy before, and she has been happy a lot so many times.

He pulled out his comlink and spoke into it, "Regiment, this is Commander Jax. You and the 501st platoon are heading to Orto Plutonia first thing in the morning tomorrow. Get ready to get on LAATs and get your snowtrooper armor ready. It won't be pleasing if you forget it."

Camo looked at Jax, and they both made their way to the exit of the Command Bay, leaving Allia to look out at the sunset in between two larger buildings.

Multiple LAATs have began to land on Orto Plutonia. When the blast doors opened, General Allia was the first one to jump out. Instead of her normal attire, Allia wore a scarf and an over sized fur coat. When the clones walked up, they all looked identical except for the 41st having green markings and 501st had blue markings on their snow trooper gear. The exceptions were that Jax had a green cape with a white Republic symbol on it and both Captain Camo and Gamma had two capes that were very thin, both representing their legion's colors.

"It looks like a blizzard is happening, General. We need to move quickly," Jax informed to Allia. She nodded in agreement and the clones began walking behind Allia, Jax, Camo, and Gamma.

Camo looked behind him and identified some clones in the crowd. "Dawnbreaker, Grasshopper, Eco, and Chipper. You're all ARFs, go scout ahead for anything unusual. Then report back here," he then ordered them. The ARFs ran in front of the group to go scout ahead. Both Dawnbreaker and Chipper now had a kama on them.

"So, Commander. How's the weather?" Allia joked.

"Well, I thought it would of been a beautiful day for a beach party. It looks like I was wrong," Jax joked back at her. The two of them laughed at each others jokes and continued moving forward. After awhile, they stopped joking and became serious for the time being.

In the 501st platoon, two clones walked by each other. The names of them were Weaver and Clip.

If Weaver were to be in his usual armor, he'd be in a pilot uniform, with his helmet being completely blue and having 3 stripes down and around his armor. Weaver was the pilot of the 501st LAAT. As much as he objected to leaving the safety of the cockpit, Captain Gamma had him come with them.

Clip's normal armor would have had a blue triangle where his right eye would be on his helmet. He'd have a blue X on his chest armor along with completely blue shoulder pads. He carried around a Z-6 Rotary Cannon with him at almost all times.

"So Weaver, why do you even fly if you are scared of heights?" Clip questioned him.

Weaver looked at Clip and replied, "I just like to do it. Besides, I am overcoming that fear." The two of them nodded and continued walking down the snowy path.

Allia got slightly ahead of the clones. It was hard with all of the extra clothing she was wearing. "Why am I wearing so much clothes anyways? It's not THAT cold out. But then again, it wasn't hot enough to wear little to nothing like some people do. Better safe than be sorry!" she thought to herself. She continued going ahead of the pack, feeling free of all of her duties as a jedi.

Up ahead, the ARF troopers kept running ahead. Suddenly, they something shine far beyond them. "I'll report this to the Commander, I suggest we keep moving to see what that is," Eco suggested. He turned on his commlink and spoke to Commander Jax. "Sir, this is Sergeant Eco. We think we found something in the distance. All we know is that it is shiny. Could be a fire or metal. We're going to check it out."

Jax acknowledged Eco's call, "Alright. We're sending in a LAAT with speeders for you guys to meet us there. We're going to make our way there with LAAT."

"Alright sir, Eco out!" Eco replied. He then turned off his comlink and caught up with his temporary squad mates.

Jax turned to General Allia, "Sir. They found something and I'm sending them BARC speeders to get there the same time as us. I requested the LAATs to pick us up and get us there faster. Here's the coordinates."

Allia thought of all of that information for a second, then she nodded at Jax. "Everyone, stop walking! Gunships are coming to pick us up."

Sighs of relief came from a few clones, and some of them got in a circle for a conversation. Others began doing everyday clone things in the middle of no where, like cleaning their guns or reloading their guns. After waiting for 15 minutes, multiple gunships fly above the clones and land. Another one flies by them towards the direction the ARF troopers went.

The clones have boarded the LAATs that were ordered to pick them up earlier. They were all flying together.

Suddenly, a Jedi star fighter burst out of the clouds, forming up quickly with the gunships. Allia peeked outside the window to see her brother in the cockpit, whose teeth sparkled when he observed her.

At last they have arrived at the rendezvous point. Allia jolted out of before anyone could even think about their current surroundings. She was caught in her older brothers arms and received a rub on the head.

"Hey, Allia! How's life with these clones?" Dylan joked.

Allia giggled at the joke, "Why, just marvelous! Meet their Commander, Jax and all of his troopers." She pointed at Jax as he started to make his way over to the two of them.

"You know this man, General? It seems like you do," Jax played. Allia's smile was overjoyed being with her brother. It seemed like they got along perfectly when they were younger.

Interrupting the conversation, Camo rushed up to Jax, "Sir! We found the missing supplies and data. We are ready to depart as soon as we get it all on board."

"Good Captain," Jax payed attention to Dylan again, "So, why have you come here? This is an open and shut case."

"I just wanted to see my sister. It has been quite a long time since I've seen her. Plus, I was a bit late to arrive it seems," Dylan explained.

Suddenly, two figures began walking towards the group.

They walked side by side, and wore dark clothing. Suddenly, they jerked out lightsabers, one a single bladed, the other a double bladed, and they charged at them.

"Sith! Get those packages moving faster!" Jax ordered to his clones. They began carrying the supplies faster as the Sith drew nearer. "Generals! They are too close, we need to fight them! I'll give you cover fire!" Jax shot first at Zankokuna, who reflected it back at another clone with ease.

One of the 501st clones, who was named Dagger, grabbed a steel pipe laying around on the ship at threw it at Blazde. "DAGGER, NO!" Captain Gamma ordered. But it was too late. Blazde sliced the steel pipe into many pieces, then force pulled Dagger to him and stabbed in straight in the middle, and left him to fall down into the snow, where he was gradually covered with it.

Captain Gamma and some of his troopers began to fire, covering the men bring the supplies aboard the LAAT. Captain Camo copied Gamma and had some clones do the exact same thing as they did. Captain Gamma noted Weaver going into the cockpit of the LAAT and stayed hidden there.

Blazde and Allia got into a duel, as well as Dylan and Zankokuna. Both of them had duel lightsabers. Allia's lightsabers were green, Dylan's were blue. Jax pulled out his vibroblade and went to aid Allia in fighting Blazde, noting that she has a tougher opponent then Dylan.

Blazde showed no sign of stopping against the Commander and Jedi Knight. He knocked Allia away and pinned Jax down. As soon as he was about to finish him off, Allia leaped to her feat and blocked Blazde's attack at Jax. Jax took that has a chance to turn the tide of their duel, and he did an upper-cut on Blazde and slammed him on top of Zankokuna.

"Sirs, all of the supplies are on board, let's get out of here!" Gamma shouted. The swordsmen ran back, but Zankokuna began force pulling Jax towards them.

"Generals!" Jax cried. Dylan and Allia turned around to see Zankokuna was bringing Jax towards his death, purposely going as slow as possible to bring Jax to him.

"Commander!" Dylan and Allia shrieked at the same time. Before Allia could do anything, Dylan rushed up and knocks Zankokuna back over and grabbed Jax over his shoulder. Jax aided him by firing at the Sith who continued to pursue them.

The only clones who remained off of the LAAT were Camo and Eco. Eco fired at the Sith, but his plan backfired as one of his one shots returned and hit him back in the shoulder. Dropping his gun, he took covered behind some snow. Captain Camo continued to fire, successfully shooting Zankokuna's robotic legs off. He grabbed Eco and grappled on to the closet LAAT that took off, and pulls both of them aboard.

Blazde started at Zankokuna, whose struggling to put his legs back on. "Failed," Blazde stared at Zankokuna, with his one eye giving him a death stare.

"I'm sorry, master... Those Jedi, we didn't expect there two be two of them..." He ached. Blazde walked back to their ship that has landed, with Zankokuna slowly following him, stepping on clones heads as they departed.