Chapter 13

An Old Friend

"So, you have finally met our long-lost old General, Jax? Wish I saw him, General Allia is great to have around and all, but you can't help but be nostalgic, do you know what I mean, sir?"

-ARF-6481 Sergeant Eco to ARC-0853 Regimental Commander Jax.

Meanwhile, Camo and Green Wizard looked around the crash. Then finally, they found a body. Camo walked up to the body and examined it. "He's still breathing... make sure he gets up," Camo ordered Green Wizard. He forgot what his name was, so tried avoiding saying his name. Green Wizard stood guard as Camo spoke. Camo walked off to look for more survivors, then he heard a shot go off.

Jax's head darted up and he heard a shot go off. He held on to the holopad and ran out of the ship with Kyr'Vhetine. They finally arrived at the scene and saw what have remained of Green Wizard. He has been shot by a man with what seemed to be mandalorian armor lying on the ground with one arm raised, holding the murder weapon. His arm went down as he stood up. At the time, he was wearing white armor, painted with blue on his chest going down his neck. His shoulder pads and boots were blue as well. His armor's leggings and arms where a darker white, looking more like a grey. However, all of that was hard to tell due to dirt, grass stains, and mud on his armor. His helmet was off and showed his hair was brown and swooshed up towards his face. His eyes shared his hair's color. The man's face looked very familiar to Jax.

The man sat up straight, then slowly got up. The clones held up their weapons, already loaded and pointed at him. The man looked out, noting his now broken ship and that he was surrounded. He put his hands up and behind his head.

"...You wouldn't happen to own this, would you?" Jax was hesitant to ask. This couldn't be him, it couldn't.

"Sorry about what happened. First reflex is if you see someone next to you while you are sleeping you shoot first," the man said, then he examined the holopad, "Yeah this is mine. What about it?"

Jax just stared at him for a second, then finally spoke, "Veloce?"

The man picked his gun up and aimed at Jax's head, "No one calls me that. Ever. Only few, and I don't remember-" The clones got closer to the man.

"It's me, Jax."

That caught the man off guard. He lowered his weapon, "Jax? The Jax ranked Commander in the 41st Elite Corps?"

Jax only nodded.

"...It's been a long time, old friend," the man went on, "However, I am no longer called Veloce... unless I say so. Now I am called Riflesso."

"So this is what you've doen with your life? Become a bounty hunter?"

"What would you do?" Riflesso grinned.

"Touche, Veloce. Touche," Jax patted Riflesso on the shoulder. As did Riflesso back at Jax, "It's good to see you again... General."

Camo walked up into the conversation, "It's been a while since we've seen you. As you have probably noticed our armor has changed since that time."

"Ah Camo, it's good to see you too. Now, if you guys excuse me," Riflesso accidentally hands Camo his holopad, "I really would need to either get my ship running again or find a new one."

Camo, being one to sneak into other peoples' business, reads the latest journal entry Riflesso has written in his holopad, skipping some bits over before stopping at one part,

These ships from that slimy hutt really want me dead. I have been flying around for a long time now and firing at their ships. I currently have it being auto piloted to fly away so I can write this in case I don't survive. I am worried about Luna, last I heard from her is that Rungi, the only mercenary we have hired to join us, is trying to kill her. I am not doubting her abilities to defend herself, in fact I think she might be able to kill him, but there is always the chance. I rather not loose Luna, not yet. She is a kind and powerful ally to have... she is also just so, lovely, in many ways. Hold on, need to stop writing for a second... The hutt ships have found me... Ah cr-

"Camo, I'd like that back, please," Riflesso was back in front of Camo. Camo was startled from this sudden approached, and slightly moved backwards. He handed Riflesso back his journal and walked beside Jax.

"He's changed," Camo whispered. Jax nodded slightly in response.

Riflesso walked towards his ship and looked around for salvageable in the ruins of his ship. "Looks like I need a new ship," Riflesso muttered to himself. He grabbed a backpack and began to grab other things. Spare parts, weapons, pieces of armor... and what looked like a metal staff. Now that Jax thought about it, that must of been Riflesso's lightsaber. He was an exiled Jedi after all, he might of gotten a new lightsaber in the time he was exiled.

Gamma then approached Jax and Camo, "Sirs, with all do respect, he just killed one of our men. And for all we know he has done a lot more against the Republic. He is on the wanted list after all for the Republic. I believe my troops and I think we should take him in."

Jax observed as Lycan, Clip, Weaver, and the rest of the 501st troops walked up behind Gamma. Jax's troopers began to rally behind Jax and Camo. Jax's men knew Riflesso, or as they would call him, Veloce. He was a good man, and believed the reason he was exiled in the first place was unfair. Gamma and his men didn't see what happened, but they did. It almost seemed like they were gonna start a riot.

"Everyone, listen up!" Jax shouted. Everyone fell silent and stood at attention towards Jax. He has the authority. Now what would he do with it? Do what is patriotic to the Republic, or do what he thinks would be best?

Jax stood there, silent for at least a full minute. No one asked why, they just listened to orders and respected Jax.

At last, Jax spoke, "We'll let him go, we have no real proof he did any crimes to the Republic and he was exiled for an invalid reason. Now, let the man fix his ship, or get a new one, and be on his way."

Everyone fell silent. No one knew what to say. They just stood there. Then finally, Gamma broke the silence, "Whatever you say, sir..." The clones broke up from each side and went back into guarding the perimeter and awaited further orders.

Jax decided to go help Riflesso with what he was doing, and walked over to him. When suddenly, his hologram started alerting that he had an incoming message. Jax pulled it out and answered the call.

"This is Jax, who's this?"

"Jax, it's Captain Ivan. The CIS are almost kicked off of Felucia, as reported by Aayla Secura. Also, the Chancellor has requested I tell you and the rest of your troops to get back to your LAATs, he needs to take you guys somewhere else."

"Alright Captain, thanks for letting me know. We'll be back soon. Are the LAATs waiting for us there?"

"Affirmative, come back as soon as you can."

"Jax out."

Jax ended the call, and put his hologram away. He then looked up at Riflesso, who was still going through his ship.

"Riflesso, we need to go. Would you need any assistance?" Jax asked him. If he says no, for all Jax know this could be the last time he sees Riflesso.

"No, I'm fine, thanks. If I can't find a ship to get off, I'll get assistance from a 'friend' of mine," Riflesso explained. Jax nodded. He had no idea who Veloce was talking about, but he respected him denying his help.

"Alright everyone," Jax started ordering, "we're moving out. Let's move."

The clones picked up their things and followed Jax as ordered. "About time we're getting off this planet," Dakx muttered. All of the clones began the long journey back to Fell Outpost.

Meanwhile in space, Zerd and Luna were only flying in Coruscant's atmosphere. They had no other jobs for the time being and there was no reason to return back to their base. Then, as if it came as a cure for the boredom, Artoo rolled into the room, and made some beeping noises.

"A message for me? Well... alright," Luna responded to the astromech. She followed the droid and it showed a message from Riflesso. "So, how was your vacation?" Luna joked.

"Oh ha ha," Riflesso replied, "The hutts shot my ship down and I've crash landed on Felucia. I can't repair it, mind if you come and pick me up?"

"Luckily for you, we have nothing to do. And especially lucky that you were accepted into Zerd's crew. If you weren't, well you'd be dead meat, as he is flying the ship right now," Luna smiled at the hologram of Riflesso.

"Yeah, and good thing a clone patrol didn't know that," Riflesso grinned back, "I was easily let off the hook since I used to be the Commander of the patrol's general."

"Well, we don't need the whole story yet, I'll have Zerd turn this ship around," Luna spoke. Artoo turned off the message and rolled away. Luna walked back to Zerd.

"Turn this ship to Felucia, we need to do a pick up," Luna ordered.

"And who made you the boss?" Zerd joked, then he flew the ship away from Coruscant and they entered hyperspace.

Back on Felucia, the clones were nearly at Fell Outpost. They could see it in front of them. Then came laser fire and a scream from an acklay. Jax spun around and saw the corpse of an acklay behind them. "Man, for a huge creature they sure are silent," Camo noticed.

Then from some small plants there was rustling. The clones began aiming at the bush. "Hold on, if none of us shot the acklay, I think it should be obvious what this will be," Jax ordered. The clones stopped aiming at the small plants and watched.

Then, at once, there was four glowing commando masks in the bushes. Then there was four commandos, the source of the glow and the shots.

"Ah, Commander Jax sir. We were just heading back to base and thought we'd give you a gift," said who seemed to be the leader of the commando squad.

"Ah, Shadow. Just who I was expecting. You got my orders then?" Jax questioned.

"Aye, sir. They were loud and clear," Shadow replied. Behind him, two commandos were having a minor argument.

"I'm telling you guys, if that was a droid platoon instead of a clone platoon, that would of been a bad move. We couldn't even see who the acklay was following," one of the commandos said.

"Sometimes we need to take risks, Karr. It didn't look like the acklay liked us when it saw us as well," another commando, who was nicknamed Sunshine, pointed out.

"Ladies, ladies, quiet down. Your escort has arrived," Maverick joked. When he said escort, the commandos knew he was talking about the clones who were staring at them right now. That shut the two of them up.

"Alright, now that you four are here, let's get back to Fell Outpost," Jax ordered. No one needed that order, however. The outpost was right in front of them. Weaver spotted the LAATs and started muttering to himself in excitement, but no one could tell what he was saying.

"Al'verde! Alor'ads! Aka is parjir!" Kyr'Vhetine spoke in mando'a. There, in front of the outpost, awaited multiple LAATs, which now had enough space to land right there. The clones they left at Fell Outpost were waiting for them to come get in the LAATs, and so was Ivan, Rekketh, and some other 327th clones, who weren't in the LAATs.

"Commander, it was good working with you," Ivan complimented, "I hope to see you in another battle. For now, my men and I need to stay, keep the outpost in tact, and await for the rest of the 327th."

"Thank you Captain, good luck in your mission," Jax replied. He joined the other clones in the LAAT, with Camo behind him. The commandos who followed them went to a separate LAAT from the rest of the clones. The LAATs then shut the blast doors and took off, leaving Captain Ivan, Sergeant Rekketh, and the other 327th back at Fell Outpost.

"I doubt we'd be seeing them again," Camo commented. Jax nodded. It was hard to believe enough that they had to go to Felucia in the first place because of all of the troops already at Fell Outpost.

Then, Jax's hologram had an incoming message once again. This time it was from two people of great importance, Chancellor Palpatine and a Jedi Knight they called Anakin Skywalker. Jax answered the hologram and awaited for the Chancellor or Skywalker, to speak.

"Greetings Commander," Skywalker started, "It has come to my attention that Captain Gamma's platoon has spent some good quality time with you."

"That's one way to put it, sir," Jax replied.

"It has also come to our attention you are in need of more troops, Jax. You have taken heavy losses from Sith attacks and the recent invasion on Coruscant," Palpatine added, "Which is why I will be presenting your regiment, Survival Regiment, additions troops from Kamino," the Chancellor paused for a second, "and, Skywalker and I have agreed, since they have been with you for such a long time, to transfer Captain Gamma's platoon to Survival Regiment. We already talked to Gamma earlier about it on the hologram. Here are your next orders, Commander. Report to Kamino, pick up your new men, get Captain Gamma's men's armor repainted, and wait further orders."

"Yes sir, Jax out," Jax saluted to the Chancellor before logging off. Then suddenly, Jax noticed something. "Wait, where is General Allia and Eco?" Jax asked the nearest clone to him.

"Don't worry sir, they are fine. Captain Spine got them into another LAAT, along with General Allia's brother. You can see them on Kamino," the clone responded.

"Thank you, Sergeant."

The LAATs flew away from Felucia, to not be seen again by the Survival Regiment. Not for a long time, anyways.