Chapter 14

Home, Wet Home

"And what does it matter if they are all clones? Even with them growing at twice the speed of a normal human male, they are all still individuals. The Kaminonians are even working on some kind of experiment to help stop accelerated growth when they hit the age they are needed at. I need to thank Ko Sai for that later... Anyways master, they are not like droids! We need to treat them all with the proper respect needed!"

-Allia Kain to Jedi General John Vermetter over hologram.

In space, dozens, nearly a hundred LAATs were flying towards one location. In these LAATs, there were only 41st. A few were painted in blue, however they were to be soon splashed in green colors. This was Survival Regiment, and as the Republic has found out from their missions on Felucia, Orto Plutonia, Coruscant, and even more showed that they deserved to be in the 41st Elite.

As of right now, they were headed to their homeworld. The place they grew up on and trained on for war. This planet was Kamino, and it has been a long time since they have seen it. And now they are at last going to see it again.

Jax's hologram received a call while they entered Kamino's atmosphere. It was from Dylan, Allia's brother. "Jax, I need to head out. My master has requested me somewhere with him. May we meet again, and keep Allia safe, will you?"

"Don't need to tell me that twice, sir. May we meet again," Jax replied. He would always keep his word when it comes to protecting someone, this was most certainly not an exception. Dylan's Jedi starfighter flew away from the LAATs, leaving them alone.

The LAATs drew closer and closer to one of the planet's cities, Tipoca City. It was were they were all grown up and trained to be soldiers, and it was their home. Now they at last are going back home.

Kamino was storming that day. Not like it wasn't any other day. It was raining hard, almost like a rain of arrows. They were used to it. They lived through 10 years of it. They didn't enjoy it, but it was

The pilot of the LAAT, Weaver, had his voice echo in the LAAT. "We'll going to be landing in Tipoca City any second now. Brace yourselves."

The LAATs all landed on a landing platform in the city for the LAATs. Most of them remembered it very well, it was the landing platform where they took off to head to the first real battle they went to, Geonosis. The doors to the LAATs opened up, and the clones dropped out of the LAATs. Jax, being one of the first clones to get out of the LAAT, met up with Allia.

There were puddles everywhere from the ran. With every step came a splash from the impact on the water.

"General, sir. Are you alright?" Jax asked her with full concern.

Allia looked at Jax's helmet, and she smiled. "I'm alright Jax, thanks for wondering."

Jax held in his sigh of relief. Camo and some other clones joined the two of them.

"So, what's up here? I heard we are suppose to be getting some shinies in our regiment, sirs," Camo reminded the two of them.

"That is correct. We should head there now, get to see them and know them. Always a good thing to do, aye?" Jax replied. Allia nodded in agreement only.

The trio began to walk towards a bridge when Spine stopped them. "Sirs, what are our orders?"

Camo could of sworn he heard Jax sigh and mutter something under his breath, but he could of been mistaken. Jax then gave Spine his orders, "Get the 41st troops rested. We'll be busy. Make sure none of them trail off and follow us."

Spine saluted and jogged away from them. "...Man, that guy is annoying, he always pops up at the wrong time," Jax muttered to himself. Camo now knew for a fact Jax was muttering and sighing earlier, but decided not to bring it up.

Meanwhile, Gamma was taking his platoon into one of the buildings of Tipoca City. "Alright guys, all we need to do is quickly paint our armor in green and we will be fine. Let's move!" Gamma gave orders. They weren't 501st anymore. It was time to join the 41st. They took a lot of casualties for them to somehow make it this far, but it was worth it to live another day. Gamma still wondered and was confused on how come they had to be switched from the 501st to the 41st. Was it because they were with them all the time? Was it because the Chancellor felt like it? Or was it really because of the need for more troops in Survival Regiment? He doesn't know, nor does he think we will know anytime soon.

Lycan spotted a Jedi among all of the clones now painting their armor in new colors. "Shaak Ti, ma'am," Lycan saluted to her, and received a nod of approval from her. "I was told by one of my buddies in this platoon, who is also an ARC trooper, that since we are moving into the 41st Elite, we won't be ARC troopers anymore. Is this true?"

Shaak Ti looked at him, she almost seemed puzzled, however all of that thought was shot back into the dark when these words were spoken, "The theory that the 41st Elite not having ARC troopers in it is not true at all, Lycan. The 41st Elite does have ARC troopers in it. Commander Jax's regiment is a fine example of that."

Lycan started to remember seeing some 41st troopers with pauldrons and kamas, but only being Lieutenants or Sergeants. Perhaps he should of remembered that. "Thank you, General. Good to know I'll stay doing what I love doing," he thanked and saluted. Shaak Ti began to walk towards a door to the hallway, and walked out. Lycan only stared for a while, then he started to paint his armor in green so he could clean his DC-15x afterwards.

Weaver just finished painting his helmet. It was easy to accomplish since his whole helmet was covered in blue. He looked over at his friend, Clip. He was already finished with his whole armor set, and already put it on. He was just checking on his weapons now. Weaver looked back at what he was doing and continued painting. Weaver felt safer being with the 41st then being with the 501st, seeing how there were a lot more troopers around. At the same time he was nervous, as they'd probably get in bad situations.

Clip felt like he didn't want to go with the 41st. He enjoyed being in the 501st, and had good times there. However, orders were orders.

Some of the 41st troopers decided to tour Tipoca City after not being there for so long. Dakx and Dawnbreaker walked down a hallway with windows to see all of the clones that looked like kids, then slowly they saw clones who looked like adults.

"It's been a long time since I've seen this place... never thought I'd make it back to be honest," Dakx told Dawnbreaker. He didn't expect a response however, Dawnbreaker only spoke when he had to to a higher rank. Dakx sighed. Dakx noticed that Spine stopped to watch some of the clones on computers. Spine always seemed to be doing something, in most of the clone's eyes. Sometimes he was forgotten due to those things, but he always finds a way back in their sights and memories.

Sharp had also walked by, he was listening to Kyr'Vhetine talk in mando'a while they were walking down the hall. He walked to join them, leaving Dawnbreaker.

Jax, Camo, and Allia arrived inside of Tipoca City, where they were told to go to. There, another Jedi walked up and greeted them.

"Commander, Captain," the Jedi bowed at Jax and Camo. She then turned to Allia, "Allia, welcome. All of you. I am Shaak Ti, Master of the Jedi Order. Please, follow me," Shaak Ti gestured towards a hallway. They all followed Shaak Ti down the hallway. The whole hallway was white, with a thick black line on the floor and on one half of the doors. Shaak Ti began to walk to one of the doors near the end of the hallway. The door slid opened by itself and the four of them walked out on to the balcony, into a grey room that had to be at least one mile long and half a mile wide. Or at least it seemed. Down bellow, there was at least one battalion of clones marching. It had been a long time since Jax had seen so many shinies at one time. Jax put his hands down on the balcony side and observed the clones marched. They were all already colored in green.

"Who is the highest rank of all of them?" Jax asked Shaak Ti. He still observed the clones.

"That one, over there," Shaak Ti pointed to one of the clones, "That is Battalion Commander Dogmeat. I am sure he will be a great addition to your regiment, Commander."

"There's so many... Now we finally won't be one battalion down," Camo chimed in.

Shaak Ti continued, "There is also another worth mentioning, Commander, a private by the name of Lyon. He has done excellent on the training, almost as good as Dogmeat."

"Well, why is he still a Private?" Jax thought out loud.

Shaak Ti heard him and gave him an answer, "He requested he didn't lead any troops. So we granted his wish."

"I see, thank you, General."

"Shaak Ti would be fine," she added.

Jax only just realized how quiet Allia was being. She continued looking down at the marching clones, and seemed as if she was deep in thought. He was about to ask why, then Shaak Ti interrupted.

"Regimental Commander, the Kamonians are holding an experiment, an injection for clones to have a longer lifespan. In case the war lasted longer than we thought, they are trying to make the injection so clones could have their lifespan to start going like a normal human's, or at least slow it down. Would you like to contribute to this experiment?"

Jax thought about the offer for a moment. It was really tempting for him. He finally gave an answer, "I'll do it,"

"I volunteer to join in as well," Camo added.

Shaak Ti nodded in approval. "Excellent, I am sure it is safe, they have already done it to other clones, like Marshal Commander Dunkel for instance, I am sure you have met him."

"Yeah we might of seen him recently," Camo told her before Jax could get anything out.

They all walked back into the hallway, and walked down in the opposite direction they came.

The cold air was nothing compared to the blizzard fighting at them now on Rhen Var. They began to walk over a metal surface. This metal surface was a bridge that was built over a canyon. It was the only way to get across the canyon that was within walking distance. Down bellow they couldn't even sense how deep down the canyon went, but neither of them were concerned about that.

Blazde led Zankokuna across the bridge. Blazde wore a black robe that covered his body, and his hood was still red. Zankokuna didn't wear a robe. His armor was heating him to the point where he wasn't heating up. His mechanical wings weren't open either so they wouldn't freeze as easily, and rested on Zankokuna's back.

Zankokuna stared at Blazde's double bladed lightsaber. It was made of cortosis, he knew that. But Blazde had also used electrum to make his lightsaber look far more unique. Now that he thought about it, Blazde's lightsaber had many unique features and improvements to make the lightsaber the best he had ever seen. Zankokuna pulled out his own lightsaber and observed it. He grunted. His lightsaber was normal like any other Sith's lightsaber. Or at least that is what he thought.

Suddenly, Zankokuna felt a dark presence go stronger. He glanced up and saw his master staring at him. Zanokuna noted he had stopped completely in his tracks.

Zankokuna felt a force choke something. He prepared to resist, but then suddenly stopped Blazde and stared up in the sky. Zankokuna followed his eyes and saw what Blazde was looking at. A YT-1300 light freighter was flying towards the planet in their direction.

Jax walked out of the inside of Tipoca City and went into the landing area. His regiment was already awaiting for him in their specific LAATs.

"That injection felt weird..." Camo was feeling his arm that was injected. "But at least I got a shiny new rank... for some odd reason. Well, Battalion Commander hood, here I come!"

"We can probably get used to it Camo," Jax agreed with Camo on how it felt weird. Suddenly, they were stopped by someone.

"Are you ARC-0853, sir?" A clone was standing in front of them.

"I am. You can also call me Jax. What's your name?"

"Dogmeat, sir, all of the clones are ready in the LAATs to take off. We just wait for you two to get aboard," Dogmeat told them.

"Alright, thanks Captain," Jax slightly tipped his helmet at Dogmeat. Then they followed him into a LAAT.