Epilogue

I woke up.

I was lying in the infirmary back on Coruscant. I was covered in bandages from head to toe, and my entire body was screaming in pain. Then, the bacta kicked in. I looked around. There was my team, all lying in beds and in similar condition to what I was in. Except, they were all awake, and talking. Zan looked over at me.

"You're awake! How do you feel?"

"Amazing. Wonderful. Superb. You?"

He laughed. "The same. Helm told me to notify him when you were awake...HELM!"

The door opened. Our Delta Leader, Helm, strode into the room in his formal uniform. After seeing him in armor for 3 years it was slightly weird, but I held my tongue. He looked at me and smiled.

"Trooper 88, the next time you want to blow up a building, I want you OUT of it first, understood?"

Now it was my turn to laugh. "Yes sir, understood. How'd the battle go?"

"Well, you Scouts did a fine job of messing things up for the CIS, but I'm surprised you managed to make it out of there alive after your position was compromised, so I'm a little curious to hear YOUR story first."

"I don't know much about that either, sir. I ordered my Scouts to evacuate before I blew the building sky high."

Manny chimed in. "I can fill you both in. After we dropped out of the building, Alex and I were ambushed by SBDs. We fought as hard as we could, but if Matt and Rex hadn't dropped in when they did, we probably wouldn't be here. With some quick thinking, Alex managed to get all us of back behind Republic lines."

"Well, almost all of us," interrupted Alex.

"C'mon Alex, there was nothing you could've done. Matt made his own choice."

Wait a minute. His own choice? I did a quick head count. There were five Scouts in the room. Matt was missing. Again.

"Where's Matt?"

Alex hung his head. I knew then. He didn't make it. Rex put his arm around Alex's shoulder and continued the story.

"Matt volunteered to hold off the CIS forces while we escaped. Alex tried to force him to come with us, but he said we wouldn't make it."

We were all quiet for a moment, then I broke the silence.

"So what about the rest of the battle? Did General Mundi win?"

Helm answered. "The General's dead, son."

"WHAT? How? He's a Jedi Master! Certainly no Confederate droid could've killed him!"

"They didn't. The Galactic Marines did."

"WHAT?"

"According to Emperor Palpatine, the Jedi turned traitors and so he executed Order 66."

Order 66. The "Kill the Jedi" order. None of us ever thought we were going to use that. I started to get a little frustrated and I felt bogged down with questions bouncing around in my head. My voice started to raise and I spewed out a few of those questions at lightning speed to no one in particular. I just needed answers.

"Why would the Jedi turn traitor? They wanted nothing more than to protect the Republic. Wait- EMPEROR Palpatine?"

"Whoa, whoa, 88. Slow down. Yes, Palpatine took the liberty of declaring a 'Galactic Empire' with himself as the Emperor."

"Well then, he must've seen the Jedi as a threat and ordered them killed for no good reason!"

"DELTA EIGHTY-EIGHT, THAT'S ENOUGH! EMPEROR PALPATINE IS STILL YOUR COMMANDER IN CHIEF!"

Oops. I had struck a chord with Helm. I tried to calm down and lower my voice.

"Apologies, Sir. I just always saw the Jedi as our comrades."

"Understood, just keep in mind who you are talking about from now on."

There were still a couple more questions that needed to be answered.

"Sir, were ALL the Jedi killed?"

"It doesn't look like it. According to some rumors from various legions, some escaped the order when they saw other Jedi being killed, and other legions didn't have a body to verify the kill. The most interesting rumor comes from the 501st, however. Apparently, they were led into the Jedi Temple by none other than General Skywalker under the name of 'Darth Vader.' Now a tall man in a black suit, who also refers to himself as 'Darth Vader,' leads the 501st, who now call themselves 'Vader's Fist.'"

Skywalker... I always looked up to him as the greatest Jedi General. And now he was a traitor to the "traitorous" Jedi. So much for heroes.

"So what happens to us, now, Advisor?" asked Alex.

"Now, you will be known as Imperial Stormtroopers. You will receive standard Imperial Scout Trooper armor soon, then I will continue to be the Leader for The Empire's Team Delta. Ryan, as a reward for your success, I'm giving you full control of Delta's Imperial Scout Squadron."

That took me by surprise.

"I'm honored, sir, but isn't that Zan's job?"

Zan answered for Helm. "I'm actually taking the open Lead position of our swordplay division. I figured Rex could use some help in his field." Rex punched Zan in the arm and they both laughed. I chuckled, too.

"But what will become of the Scout leads? With you retiring and Matt...well...missing, there are two open spots."

"Well," said Helm, "since Trooper 707 Michael led the Delta infantry force on the Battle of Mygeeto, and Alex brilliantly and bravely led your Scouts away from the ambush at the factory, I figured they should take the open leadership positions."

I wasn't arguing. Michael was a good sniper. I noticed this when I fought at his side at Geonosis. And he knew how to lead and train, and of course I couldn't deny Alex's skill with a sniper rifle. The fit seemed perfect. Rex already had the top leader position in our swordplay division and Manny and I discussed him going into the engineering corps after the Clone Wars were over months ago. If we ever made it out alive, that is. Well, we were out. And we were alive. So, of course Manny would be working in the engineering corps, leaving Alex as the only Scout available for the position. Which worked out perfectly. Out of all the Scouts who I had fought with at Mygeeto, he was my number one choice for a leader.

"Get better, Deltas," said Helm as he turned around, "Troopers like you don't come to our ranks every day. We need you."

And with that, began our adventure into the new Galactic Empire. An adventure that began with two of us in hospital bunks and 3 of us wrapped in bandages practically from head to toe. I had a bad feeling about this, but being together with all my Deltas, I knew we could make it through together.

So here we go.

HOO-AH! 88 out.