Author's Note: Read the first chapter. Hope you guys like reading this style of writing and please review.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Title: Stories
Chapter: 3
Story: Nothing but a smile
Smiley started out as a just another clone trooper in the 212th Attack Battalion. Nothing really happen during his stint in the battalion, but he had shown some potential in destroying all infantry based droids very quickly and in urban and jungle missions, he did it without being seen. Because of this, he was usually given infiltration missions.
As his skills grew, he was recommended to be trained as a sniper and was actually trained by one of Null ARCs who called himself Jaing. Aside from Jaing, Smiley had received a few tips about infiltration from another Null ARC, Prudii. So unlike Lieutenant Book who wanted to meet one of them so badly, he was very lucky to meet two of them.
However, when he heard about the formation of the pathfinder regiment, he quickly dropped out of the training programme and volunteered to become a pathfinder. Smiley's reason to become a pathfinder was because he wanted to see more action since a sniper was considered as a support unit instead of fighting first hand on the battlefield.
After joining the regiment, it became obvious that he actually enjoyed shooting down droids as much as possible. There were even reports from his own squad of hearing him laughing away while mowing down droids. How he got his name was quite obvious. Every time his company got a mission, he was always smiling in excitement and after each mission, he was still smiling, but it was more of a smile of accomplishment. His former team-mates from 212th also remember him behaving this way.
Apparently before he joined the pathfinder regiment, he had a smiley face on a yellow circle both on the front and back of his helmet. Since all pathfinders were given green-coloured armour, he summarised that yellow and green don't go along together and opted to shave his hair into two circles and a curve line. Every time anybody saw the top of his head, they either laugh it off or got irritated by it.
Conqueror was just like any other Venator-class Star Destroyers. What made the ship stand out were the two red circles and a long red curve on its hull. The circles and the curve were actually the repaired area from the damages received during all the battles the ship took part. However, from where the spots were placed, it really looked like a smiley face on the hull of the ship.
The maintenance crew were supposed repaint the spots, but under a lot of argument with a particular clone trooper, they finally paint the areas red. If anyone was looking out from any other ship, they could see two large circular spots and one curving line that made the smiling face.
Thus, the ship had a few nicknames of its own. The most popular ones were The Smiling Conqueror and The Happy Ship. Even the commander of the ship didn't bother to dispute about the nicknames and didn't care about the clone trooper who argued with the maintenance crew. His reasoning was that the smiley face could actually boost morale of the crew of the ship and in the matter of fact, it did.
Even though the ship was treated as a joke sometimes and considered by many as overkill in boosting morale, it was undeniable that the ship was commanded by one of the experienced commanders and housed the famous pathfinder regiment.
"So that is how it happened, huh?" asked Even. "And don't you think what you are doing is a bit too much, Smiley?"
"I was actually reluctant to force the maintenance crew, but look at how it turns out. If you could bring something positive, isn't it worth the trouble? Isn't it worth going to jail or court-martialed for it?"
Even pondered at the question and nodded. "But making your hair like that, isn't it too much?"
Smiley just smiled at him without answering.
It was then Zapper, wearing his civilian fatigues came in, took his tray of food and sat down beside them.
"Any more you want to know, Even?" asked O'Seven.
"When I talked to the members of 99th Attack Regiment, they seemed to be afraid of Captain Cross. I asked them about it, but they refused to talk about him. Do any you guys know about this Captain Cross?"
"I heard a story about him, but I'm not sure it is true," said Lieutenant Book.
"I'm all ears."