A/N: Most of the speech is a lot like the one in Red Tails, which was an amazing movie. I adapted it a bit for my own purposes. Star Wars belongs to George Lucas.

Wow, it has been awhile. I'm very very sorry about the wait. I was banned from FanFiction by my parents because I wasn't paying enough attention to school.

Grace, Tana, Kaitlyn, Z, and Ryan are all my own characters whom I am free to abuse.

I loved my R2. R2-3G had sent a signal to all the droids to shut down, and I had ordered all the Marines to gather in the hangar. Most of them had been in my battalion, and I had been the somewhat unwilling recipient of many hugs. There had also been many questions about my new armor, and many questions about where we were.

Now they all stood in the hangar, anxiously looking around. I took off my helmet, and yelled, "Attention!"

They all whipped around, and saluted, and I smiled, standing in front of them, "Most of you know me by two names: First Sergeant Kaitlyn Winter, Marine Corps, or call sign Sergeant Hailstorm. Here, however, it's Commander Winter."

I took a deep breath, and continued, "This is not our war, nor our government. It's not our mothers and fathers we fight for, nor our children we protect. However, it is an Empire, built on the backs of slaves, deception, and darkness, that we must bring down."

I had their full attention, and I could've heard a pin drop, so I slightly lowerd my voice, and growled, "So we will fight. We will fight for the same things our fathers and mother fought for, before us, in the Civil War, and the American Revolution. We will fight for freedom, for peace, for justice, for equality, and for democracy."

"We will fight alongside our brothers, and we will not let them down. We will teach this galaxy, and our enemies, that when they see us Marines coming, Lord Almighty help them."

I smiled, "Those of you in my battalion, you know the drill. Pilots! To the last plane! To the last chopper!"

The pilots all cheered, "We fight!"

"Armored Calvary! To the last tank! To the last Humvee!"

"We fight!"

"To the last infantry! To the last airman!"

"We fight!"

I narrowed my eyes, and stepped forwards, raising my fist, "To the last Marine! To the last bullet!"

"We fight!" The air was charged with electricity.

I yelled back, "We fight!"

The Marines all punched the air. "We fight!"

I stepped forwards, and yelled again, "Here, we will count our victories in the brothers, and sisters, we bring home. In the number of those we free from tyranny. In the lives we rebuild. In the tyrants we bring down. Most of all, we count our victory in the future we give to the children of this galaxy. Remember for what you fight."

I nodded, and turned to step away, "Dismissed. Girls, I need to talk to you."

The dozen or so female Marines gathered around me. I spoke quietly, "First of all, this army is made of clones. Genetically perfect. They are also drop dead handsome. Perfect muscles, washboard abs. Great sense of humor, most of them. I don't know how long we'll be here, but above all, no getting pregnant. Are we clear?"

They all nodded sheepishly, and I chuckled, "I've been here for about nine months, along with Grace, a friend of mine. We both have a boyfriend. To be clear, Fives and Kix are off-limits, and so are Rex and Cody, even if they don't know it." I smiled, remembering the two Jedi Padawans that got starry-eyed around the two troopers.

"Secondly, don't shorten their names. All they have is the armor on their backs, and their nickname. Shortening it is considered an insult."

"Thirdly, They are all really awkward around women, so if they say something and it hurts your feelings, tell them. They most likely didn't mean to do it."

I smiled, at them, "Good to see Marines again. Now go on, walk around. I have gunships coming to pick us all up, and take us to the Resolute."

One stayed, and tackled me in a hug, "Katie! It's great to see you again!"

It was Mackenzie, who had known me even longer than Grace. She was a field medic, and was quite happy to talk people's ears off, but when she was quiet, nothing could get her talking. She was small too, a couple inches shorter than me, with long brown curly hair and tanned skin. Her eyes were a bright green, too.

I returned the hug, "Good to see you too, Mackenzie."

She rolled her eyes, "Come on, you know me better than that. Just 'Z'.

I punched her in the arm, "Alrighty then, Z."

"So you have a boyfriend. Describe him."

I smiled. Typical Z. "Black curly hair, tanned skin, funny. He's an ARC."

She frowned, "ARC?"

"Like a SEAL."

"Of course. You said clones. Do they all have the same personality? Are some the 'strong and silent type'?"

"Mm-Hmm. The quietest clone I know would probably be Echo, and he's also an ARC."

Z grinned, "I can trust you to introduce me, right?"

"Sure, sure. But they can be totally different, all of them. Cody acts like he has a stick up his rear, Rex acts tough as nails, but he has a really soft side when it comes to Ashoka. Hardcase is hyperactive, and Jesse jokes around while still coming off as serious. Fives is funny, but he gets moody, and quiet sometimes. Waxer is pretty sweet, while Boil is reserved, and speaks bluntly."

Z raised an eyebrow, and I smiled. A distinct rumbling filled the hanger, and all the marines turned to watch the gunships land. I walked over to meet them, jerking my head for Z to follow. She trotted up behind me, and I happily greeted the men.

"General Skywalker. General Kenobi."

Z chuckled, "This is different. In our world all the generals are old and a bit overweight."

I snorted at Anakin's scowl, and continued, "Captain Rex. Commander Cody. Fives. Echo."

I bent down, and greeted the last member of the group, "Hey Tana."

She hugged me, and replied, "Hey, Kait'buir. F'buir was really worried about you. So was I. I could feel your anger and relief and a bunch of emotions from the Resolute."

I frowned slightly, "Kait'buir? F'buir?"

She nodded sheepishly, "Yea. You guys are like my mom and dad. And F'buir said it was okay. Is it?"

I nodded, "Sure. It just startled me, that's all."

Tana giggled, "That's what he said, too."

Z watched, amused. Echo noticed her, and asked quietly, "Who's this?"

I stood, and picked up Tana, "This is Mackenzie. She's a Marine, like me. Just a short Marine."

She frowned at me, and punched me on the shoulder, then yelped, "Ow! Dammit Katie! Not fair!" As I rolled my eyes, she nodded at the group, "Anyways, y'all can call me Z. I've known Katie here longer than even Grace and Lindsey." She turned to me, and murmured, "Kaitlyn, please don't overreact to what I'm about to tell you."

I frowned, confused.

She took a deep breath, and continued, watching me fearfully, "Ryan's here."

Kensi POV

Night was falling, fast. My burns already felt a lot better, but Bly had reasoned that it would be better to get some sleep before we started out.

I watched the commander out of the corner of my eye. He was poking at the fire, keeping it flickering and dancing. I was lying on a moss-covered log with a convenient depression in the middle.

I didn't really know what to think yet. Some people said Deeks and me had 'a thing'. I didn't know. He was my partner, and after Jack, I was afraid of anything committed or…Well, I just didn't know. And then there's Bly. I'd already noticed he was protective around me, and I'd seen the glimmering affection in his deep amber eyes. I had to admit, he was growing on me.

His deep baritone startled me out of my thoughts, "Kensi? Get some sleep. I'm going to put out the fire."

I closed my eyes giving into the relative peace of sleep.

Of course, I awoke that morning to some little teddy bear poking me in the stomach. I sat up, and saw another poking Bly's still form. He was snoring loudly, and I snorted, before looking around to see another of the fluffy little aliens looking at me.

It said something, but I couldn't understand.

Next thing we knew, we were being taken captive by four-foot high teddy bears.

I really hope Deeks doesn't find out about this.

A/N: Again, I'm very sorry. Oh, and if it seems like one of my characters is becoming a Mary-Sue, please tell me. And for those of you that don't know, Ryan is Kaitlyn's ex. This story goes a lot into Kaitlyn's past, and digs up old skeletons.