Qiilura

The group stood in the clearing waiting; Birhan, Yahira and a few more of the younger ones were all looking skyward. Maze flipped down his view finder to scan the sky.

"They're coming." Tur-Mukan confirmed.

Jedi senses.

Then they heard them! The sky was overcast with low cloud, they weren't visible. But that sound, it was one you could not miss.

This was their first weapons drop by Procurement Division. Maze had been concerned with the amount of high tech weapons they were being given. Prior to their training these people were subsistence farmers, some even only having dirt closets as refreshers, not even plumbed in freshers and no sonics.

It was a whole different galaxy out here.

The noise of the LAAT/c 's grew louder.

These were a stubborn people but some of the volunteers were too old and infirm to be trained and yet they still volunteered to do their part; there was now a number of safe houses where food, side arms and ammunition could be found, should the need arise.

The LAAT/c s finally appeared through the clouds with huge containers hanging underneath; hovering, they dropped their loads the last few feet on the ground, the lone pilots saluting Maze before they rose into the clouds. He paid them the same compliment. It was a thankless and dangerous task.

Once the final drop was completed, and the perimeter checked again, Maze ordered the containers opened; he had the manifest and hoped Procurement hadn't karked up. So far in the war they hadn't been the most reliable. He walked around ticking off the contents.

"All there Maze?"

His left hand had automatically reached for his blaster as he turned. Tur-Mukan had crept up on him again, with his helmet malfunctioning, it was dangerous. He must ask her not to do that. He'd already mentioned it to Zey.

"Yes Ma'am. And don't do that."

"What?" She seemed a little perturbed at his request.

"The 360 degree vision in my HUD isn't working, so don't creep up on me. I don't want to blast you. Sometimes it's there, sometimes not and there aren't the facilities here to repair it."

So much for the upgrade.

She nodded, "Sorry Maze. So what do we have?"

"High tech heavy weaponry, RPS-6 Rocket Launcher, Z-6 and PLX-1 Portable Missile Launcher. Not really useful for guerilla tactics but the Garrison once set up, will be able to use them."

"Anything else?"

"A few DC15s and rifle blasters, droid poppers and E Webs. They're dropping TD's tomorrow, and in some other locations; Birhan and his committee have organised that. Oh and some rations."

The Jedi let out a whistle. "That's a lot. What are TD's?"

"Thermal Detonators and I agree ma'am. It is a lot."

"I have never seen Birhan and Yahira so happy." Tur-Mukan said, as she looked at the locals swarming the containers.

Maze looked in the same direction at the qiilurans, with their heads in the containers.

"All we need to do now is ensure they're split evenly and some safely stored in the weapon caches we've identified."

.

Mission HQ

Jedi General Zey, Commander Tur-Mukan, Birhan and Yahira and various Qiiluran Resistance committee members huddled around a small fire. Despite the temperate weather it could still get cold at night.

Maze watched all of them closely.

Zey led and the locals accepted it for the moment; Maze still didn't trust them despite their vetting procedure which was basic at best.

"I'm with Birhan's group." Zey indicated a point on the tiny holo projection displayed, into the middle of them. "The Commander's group is checking the safe houses and you're with Yahira's group up in the hills."

"Yes, sir." Maze memorised everything.

"We set off at dawn. Everyone understand what's required?"

There were nods from the locals all around. Maze studied each one again.

.

"Call me Suki." The human female known as Yahira said, as they made their way up the hills; they had been going for four hours already, steadily climbing. She was one of the locals that was showing promise. A tall strong female, with bright red hair and so far she had kept up with him on this march, if you could call it that. He was barely breathing hard but some of them were struggling with the hill. She didn't seem to, and she knew the terrain.

"Yes, ma'am."

Suki laughed at his reply. He didn't think it was funny, he was doing just as his training dictated.

"Can I call you Maze, the Jedi do, or is it just a Jedi Clone thing?"

"Maze is my name."

"So, Maze it is." She smiled at him.

He frowned back under his helmet.

They continued upwards for a few more hundred metres, not a steep slope but he was surprised they had to wait for some of the others to catch up. He had thought the farmers were a hardy lot; it's not like they had to carry the equipment most of the heavy stuff came with repulsor lifts. He stood with his hands on his hips.

"It's a hard life here. Not always enough food, and the hard work makes you old before your time." Suki answered for him.

He nodded. He had had the best nutritional food and medical treatment since he was born and it showed.

"Do you ever take the armour off?" The question caught him off guard for a moment. He recovered his composure.

"Rarely, at the moment."

"Yeah, Kriffing Gdans. More people die from their bacteria than old age." Her eyes defocused for a moment as if she was remembering something. "We need to hunt a Merlie, to replenish our shit or find where they've been grazing. This is good place for them." She turned to Maze. "Their smell keeps the Gdans away, that's why we have the Merlies in out houses."

He nodded, Birhan had said as much. The houses stank; nothing like pristine Kamino.

"There's a good spot to make camp up ahead. A Merlie grazing area and there's water, fresh, clean water."

"Okay, we'll take a look."

The rest finally caught up and they resumed the climb.

.

Yahira was right, a good place to camp; clean water, shelter and camouflage. They guided the containers into a group, pulled the camouflage webbing over and put a guard on them but he didn't expect any attacks.

The locals set up camp automatically starting a fire and spreading the Merlie excrement around, to keep the Gdans away. They all had their sleeping packs which they spread out. A couple set off to hunt for more piles to replenish their supplies.

Maze didn't sleep well, although the Gdans didn't attack him, he could hear them all night and rose several times to check the guard, taking a turn himself.

Soon the light from the sun was trying to break through, Maze removed his helmet and sniffed at himself, he stunk, there was no other way to describe it. His body glove stunk and he stunk. He was surprised no one had commented when they were down wind of him. He had done his best in the villages, using the local water supply but they had been away for three days now. As a soldier you needed to keep clean or else all manner of nasty things could happen to your body health wise. He had to sleep in his body glove and armour because he didn't want to get bitten by the Gdan, not trusting the use of the Merlie excrement to repel them.

He checked his pouch, he still had plenty of Bacta. He looked at the lake again. It looked ideal and it was early, not yet dawn. The water was fresh, fed by a small waterfall in the northern corner and bacteria free, as far as it could be for Qiilura, although he'd had enough inoculations that he'd probably kill anything in there anyway.

He stripped off, leaving his armour stacked and peeled off his body glove. He was regretting not putting in a spare set in. Stepping into the water, he pulled his body glove with him, giving them a good rinse. It was cold but nothing like the seas on Kamino. Two minutes in those seas, with no body glove or armour and you would be dead. This lake was comfortable compared to that. He got out to lay his blacks out to dry, it would refresh them for a short time, then he returned to the water, scrubbing at his skin as he walked in deeper until he could no longer reach the bottom. Although this was necessary, it felt like a luxury.

He swam around, wondering if there were any fish in it. His HUD had not identified any animal life. It felt good to get several days sweat and grime off his skin. He swam further into the centre, then dived downwards, keeping his eyes open to see what was there. There were a few tiny silver fishes, small enough to swallow if he opened his mouth; he headed towards the disturbance caused by the waterfall. Swimming under it, he felt the pressure push him down, until he reached the other side, and swam upward to surface.

His head broke the surface, and cold air reached his skin; he turned to find a large cavern on the other side of the waterfall. He hadn't been trained in Arts, just warfare but the ceiling was beautiful, the small amount of light was shining on what appeared to be some kind of gemstones, interspersed between what he understood to be stalactites, dropping elegantly down from the ceiling.

He looked all around then dove back into the water, striking out for several minutes towards the shore, his inbuilt direction finder prompting him, plus the water was becoming lighter with the dawn, so that he no longer stared into a black hole when he looked down. He counted until he reached four minutes, not his longest under water; he tilted his head cupping his hands to stroke through the water with the greatest traction and broke the surface again, bursting upwards into the sunshine before sinking back down and treading water.

"Thought I was going to have to dive down and look for you." The voice of Yahira— Suki— broke the calm of the dawn. "That was an impressive time under the surface."

"Four minutes ten seconds exactly."

He turned to see her treading water, yards from him. Her hair scraped back from her face and the colour of dried blood. She appeared to be naked, so was he, now he was in a quandary. It wasn't a problem with his brothers but he knew that within various human societies there were different taboos regarding nakedness, especially with regard to the opposite sex. Tur-Mukan had blushed when she came up on him relieving himself in the undergrowth.

He had no information regarding any such taboos on Qiilura.

"I see you had the same idea as me, a refreshing swim, to get the stench away. I didn't like to say anything but you were a little ripe. I wondered if it was the black suit you insist on wearing."

"Body glove. It's an integral part of the armour."

"Oh." She matched him treading water. "I was like the others until I went to work at Ankkit's villa and he insisted we either had a sonic or water shower before we started as he couldn't stand the smell of us. I got used to it."

Taboo or not he needed to get out of the lake. He dove into the water and swam towards the shore until his feet touched bottom, then he pushed through the water finally emerging near to where his armour was.

Suki continued treading water and watched appreciatively, as droplets of water ran down the sculpted muscles of the young soldier who rose from the water; his body was truly built for war and other activities she could think of. She followed him out, and saw his eyes flick towards her and linger, as she left the water; she knew men liked the look of her but he gave no reaction that she could see. Probably the temperature of the water. They both dried themselves off. Despite his build, he looked so young and now was not the time to get involved.

Suki watched fascinated whilst he dry shaved with a blade, drawing it carefully up his jawline. "Kriff!" She cursed herself for having scruples; Yelena would have been climbing him by now.

.

Maze could smell the roasted root vegetable they used instead of caf, as they walked back to camp; neither had said a word, yet he felt something had happened or should have happened.

"Hey Captain Handsome!"

"That's not my name, Ma'am."

"No but it fits."

She turned away laughing.

Another hour and they were at the caves that had been identified for the weapons cache and had been filled. Maze surveyed the area; it was a good place to hide the heavy weapons and a few beings could stay well hidden for a while around here. Good vantage points to view any attacks.

"Hey Captain Handsome."

Maze ground his teeth, since the lake that was all she called him and the others just sniggered, when he argued with her and she just smiled.

"So what do clones do in their downtime?" Suki asked.

"Train, ma'am." He replied, still surveying the area.

"That sounds boring. Nothing else?"

"We train because we have to be in peak condition all the the time, ready to go at a moments notice."

"Nothing else. You can't train all the time?"

"I read."

"Ooh. Anything interesting. With pictures?"

"Regulations don't have pictures, although some manuals do."

"Oh. I thought it was for recreation." There was disappointment in her voice.

Maze knew what she meant and he knew some brothers had those illicit pictures, Ne'tra had but this was a mission.

"Ma'am, we are on a mission and this does not help."

She smiled and moved closer. "Could you remove your helmet it's very distracting."

He paused, but it was malfunctioning and it was a relief to remove it at times, he pulled it off.

Suki moved quickly, grabbing his shoulders and smashing her lips to his. He'd never been attacked in that way before but he still reacted and the next moment they were both on the floor with her underneath him.

"Ow!" She said, "That's a first."

"What was that?" Maze glared at her.

"A kiss?"

He rolled his eyes, in exasperation, before pushing himself away from her and rose, offering a hand, which she took.

"Sorry about that. I thought if you knew how interested I was." She explained.

"Interested?" Maze was a little confused.

"Interested in you, in sex."

The credit chip dropped with a great big clunk.

Di'kut!

"We don't have time for this, ma'am. We're on a mission."

"And you're all about the mission." Suki replied somewhat dejectedly.

"Of course Ma'am." He couldn't afford to be distracted. Fett warned them about this.

"So it's not the Jedi?"

"Jedi ma'am?" Sometimes he couldn't follow her train of thought.

"Are you with the Jedi? The female one always looks at you as if ….." Suki tailed off seeng the horrified expression on the clones face.

"No ma'am, certainly not. Our relationship is purely professional."

As professional as it could be. He thought.

Suki looked at him, her head tilted on one side, finally she said. "We didn't really know what to expect when the clones first came here." She sat down on a small grassy mound, looking at the earth. "The separatists said you were wet droids. The only droids we had seen were those the neimoidian had." She rang her hands. "Then we caught glimpses of the others that came here before you, with the other Jedi and we knew you were like us. The way the other Jedi looked at them, interacted with them. We, me and my friend, Yelena thought they were together."

"We work very closely with the Jedi and have to trust each other, implicitly."

She nodded.

"Shall we move on?" He held out his hand, she took it rising.

"If you say so Captain Handsome." She sniggered, as she jogged in front of him.

.

The group stood in a line facing him.

"So apart from the blasters and slugthrower what other weapons do you have experience of?" Maze had to ask the question, he didn't expect a huge list.

"Blades and vibroblade." A voice popped up.

Maze stood, carefully throwing up and catching a thermal detonator in his right hand. Behind him were another pile of locked thermal detonators, grenades and launchers.

"Anything else anyone?"

The group looked at each other, "Barq fork." A voice piped up from the back.

"Something a little more high tech."

"A Barq fork took out Baguly okay a few years back. Pinned him to a barn wall, it did."

"He deserved it." Someone else piped up; then they had an animated discussion on the pros and cons of what he did. Maze wasn't interested.

"Quiet." Shouted Maze, he lobbed the thermal detonator at the man who had started the conversation. "Thermal detonator." He announced.

The man looked in horror, caught it and lobbed it away just as fast as if it was burning his hands.

"It's not armed." Maze added quietly. "These are dummies." He had removed the detonite. "You're going to practise throwing them. Right. Two teams."

They looked at each other.

"Every second person step forward." They finally sorted themselves out into two groups and stood waiting. "Now you learn how to throw them." He lobbed the dead thermals at them. "Show me how you throw to each other and catch them!"

"Ooh are we playing ball?" Yelena Ras giggled.

"Just do it."

They threw and caught easily. He moved them further apart. They continued moving further and further apart and surprised him by throwing and catching accurately.

"We used to play this as younglings. Everyone did." Explained Yelena. "We just called it 'Ball'."

Maze nodded, not understanding the concept of play, it wasn't something they did on Kamino. It was all training.

"Let's try getting them in a specific area."

He strode out into the clearing, and with some old barn paint someone had supplied he painted circles in the grass. Differing sizes, differing spaces apart.

"Now run, throwing your TD's in the circles."

He watched, they had the accuracy on the ground.

"Okay. Good. But you've got to be able to throw from all positions, including prone and through enclosed spaces. Ready?"

He smiled at the groans he recieved.

.

Maze watched closely as the final group worked the E Web. Suki and Yelena picked it up immediately, was able to control it and hit the targets, demolishing the small copse in seconds. Some picked up the instructions for the high tech weapons easily, others were in awe of them; Birhan was good at the demolitions, as were a lot of them. But they all had this burning desire not to be under the neimoidians control any more and would work hard to ensure that didn't happen again.

Birhan, Suki and Yelena Ras were among their best volunteers; Suki was on her way to becoming a brilliant Sniper. Yelena was exceptionally good with the heavy gun; being the local blacksmith was a help, she had biceps he'd be proud of. Maze was proud of them in his way and they had developed a good working relationship even if Suki and Yelena insisted on calling him Captain Handsome. They were worse than eight year old cadets, although he did occasionally see them give him odd looks after he had explained to them how he had been brought up, that as cadets they had never played 'Ball' unless it was with Thermal Detonators.

.

After several months of hard slog, it was a motley crew that marched up to the front of the Lik Ankkit's villa. Zey, Tur-Mukan and Maze let the Qiilurans have the honour of blowing in the door and being the first to enter; the Qiilurans were ecstatic and cheered when the last few militia were rounded up and taken prisoner.

The three of them walked around the villa, checking rooms and ignoring the expensive trappings the neimoidian had left behind, although some items had obviously been looted, that didn't worry them, none had any use for them.

Zey stood in the large hall, hands on hips. Maze had begun to appreciate his General and begrudgingly his Padawan, they worked well together and Zey had a pragmatic outlook on the war.

"A job well done Padawan and Captain. I'll let the Jedi Council know and they can arrange for the Garrison to be set up."

"Do we know who it will be sir?"

"Commander Levet and the 35th Infantry, I'm told. I don't know about any Jedi."

"Yes sir. The figures sir." He handed Zey the datapad.

"Thank you Captain. And Thank you for all your help, we wouldn't have been able to do it without you, especially some of the locals they seemed to accept you rather than us. How's the helmet?"

"Still spotty sir." Maze answered feeling a little warm under it.

"Hmm. Need to get procurement on that, perhaps General Jusik can help. I'll contact him after speaking to the Council."

Maze stood at the rear, whilst the holographic image of the Jedi Council came into view. It was the first time Maze had been to one of these meetings.

There are a lot of empty seats.

"Arligan, good to see you old friend."

"Mace."

"We are a little thin on the ground today and General Camas is unable to be with us. He's meeting with Isard."

Maze swore that Zey relaxed a little at that.

"At ease Captain." General Windu addressed him. He stood at parade rest immediately. "Thank you for your hard work on this it is appreciated. Now Arligan, when you return to Coruscant you'll be taking over the whole of Special Operations Brigade, as Camas will have other duties."

Maze stood listening as they discussed the organisation; he thought that this had been sorted out before they even left for Qiilura but apparently there had to be agreement between the Jedi Council, GAR High Command, Palpatine and someone new called Armand Isard, Director of the Senate Bureau of Intelligence and the Director of Republic Intelligence, and that agreement had only just been reached.

That's a whole lot of Intelligence. A lot of power. Thought Maze, making a note to check on him.

And there was still that pile of rubble the Commandos left when they'd destroyed the separatist lab. It was Maze's job to get it cleared to make room to install the Republic Garrison. Until then the only thing he would really like was a real shower, sonic or otherwise and this was the place to get one according to Suki. He went in search of a working 'fresher water or sonic, he didn't care which.