Alright, I know you must hate me for not posting, but I've had lots of stuff in school. Anyway, this is a clone's POV. I really want to explain some backstory in this one, and develop character, so buckle in for a long chappie!
Clone Captain CT-2104 walked down the jungle path with his fellow troopers. The steamy air was condensing on his Phase II armor, decorated with amber pigments. This would have meant that the condensing drops of liquid would have clouded his visor, if he were wearing Phase I armor. Aside from primitive cooling systems, Phase I armor had absolutely no advantages on the battle field. They were heavy, clunky, poorly camouflaged, and they weren't even blaster resistant. Not in the least.
Through the efforts of the Kaminoans, spearheaded by Halle Burtoni, the troopers had been furnished with new armor, Phase II. In addition to a better HUD, more flexibility, and a sweet climate control, the thing actually functioned as armor. Direct shots aside, the armor could take shots from any angle less than 60 degrees, and leave the trooper unharmed.
Unfortunately, the droids rarely came at you from less than 60 degrees, and not even the strongest normal armor could hold up to the firepower of a B-2 Super battle droid.
So, even with the advances, he saw his brothers die.
Two had been lost during the raid on the outpost, shot right in the head by the same sniper. A well-aimed throw brought a thermal detonator into the droid's vantage point, and served to eliminate it, but the men were dead.
He had noticed the effect that it had had on the Jedi.
After Geonosis, he had been assigned to the command of Jedi Master B'dard Tone. The Coway had survived the slaughter in the arena, and had lead 2104 and his brothers into battle with righteous fury. The droids before them had been leveled, but the Seperatists had escaped, and the war had begun.
Master Tone had accepted his command and position as General of the Grand Army of the Republic with much enthusiasm. As much as he denied it, Tone was lusting revenge for the Jedi who lay dead in the arena.
And lusting was not an overstatement.
On one occasion, 2104 had walked past Tone's quarters and heard him whispering fervently to himself: "There is no fatigue, only the Force. There is no pain, only the Force. There is no death, only the Force," over and over. It gave the impression that Tone was losing his sanity.
Tone's Padawan at the time was Zephata'ru'tor, a young Duinuogwuin, or Star Dragon. The youngling had a mysterious air that came with all of his kind, and he often served as an anchor for Tone, when the Coway started to become a bit too passionate. The two were very close, and 2104 had served with them in countless battles, sometimes in accompaniment of other Jedi who would become great heroes, like Fisto, Kcaj, and the legendary Mace Windu. Five months after meeting the two, Tone, and consequently 2104 were deployed on Nadiem with Luminara Unduli, Barriss Offee, and Commander Gree. His own Commander, CC-3366, had lead the evacuation of the citizens. As they were ushering the natives to shelter, 2104 noticed a starfighter across the valley. He had not seen any droid fighters like that before, and reported this to Master Tone. 2104's description had lead Tone to deduce that Grievous was the owner, and thus he must be leading the Seperatist Forces.
While the main battle and Offee's trick had taken the Holo-News Headlines, what came after the battle was a real story. It just wasn't published by the Republic. Grievous had attempted to flee. Tone and Zephata'ru'tor had immediately departed to catch him, while he, CC-3366 and Luminara had stayed to help with the clean-up. Minutes later, Unduli had frozen, a look of pain on her face, and then leapt for a speeder bike. Having received no orders not to, 2104 had followed on his own. He caught up soon, and the two saw Grievous' starfighter lift into the air and disappear.
When they reached Master Tone, nothing could have prepared them for what they saw.
Master Tone was kneeling in the center of the clearing, his back to the two approaching beings, blood oozing from the stump that used to be his right arm. He was sitting a puddle of the stuff. Undili had fairly leapt off the still moving bike and run to his side. When she reached him, she did something the clone thought was impossible for a Jedi.
Unduli had looked into the Coway's lap, then into his face. Then, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, and wept.
She didn't cry.
She wept with an opening wail that would cause even the rocks to weep in time.
2104 had charged off his own bike to Tone's other side, medical-pack ready, but he had been stopped in his tracks by the wail of the Jedi.
He ran no longer, he walked slowly to his general's side. And he gasped at what he saw.
The entire left side of the Coway's face was….indescribable with one word.
The flesh was burned, more blister than tissue. His hair was black and curled, still sizzling. Tone's eye, was almost non-existent.
Grievous' abilities, he realized, were not exaggerated.
Unduli still wept, and tears were streaming from Tone's good eye. At first, he was repulsed. Were these two Jedi so vain that any wounds of this kind merited tears?
Shaking his head a bit, 2104 had opened the medical-pack and removed a booster of bacta, when he noticed something.
Where was Zephata'ru'tor?
He looked at Tone. Surely, he would know.
"General, where is Zephata'ru'tor?"
Tone did not answer. His good eye had simply drifted down to his lap.
2104 followed his gaze.
On the ground next to the Coway's knees, was the Master's own lightsaber, one side soaked in the pooling blood. In the Coway's hand, was another lightsaber.
Zephata'ru'tor's lightsaber.
Only then did 2104 notice the fine rain of ash floating down on them.
He had wept with the both of them.
The weeks that followed brought 2104, Unduli, and Tone to a medical frigate. The medical droid had reported that Tone was in perfect health, the blood could be easily be replaced via-transfusion, and the arm and face supplemented with prosthetics.
Tone, had seemed unresponsive until after the surgery. With a new set of digits, and a metallic visage, Tone had walked out of bed, but that was all that he did. The fire had gone out. Unduli and Offee had stayed for as long as possible, and Offee had implemented her healing arts on Tone many times, but nothing seemed to help. He just staggered around his room, eating occasionally, not talking, not watching holovision, nothing.
Eventually, the two Jedi were called away to new fronts, but 2104 and 3366 had stayed.
The pattern continued for another week.
Bored of watching his general wander like a zombie, 2104 had turned on the holovision just in time to catch the late news. It was all grim, with the republic beaten back on all fronts. Loss on Jabiim, disaster on Malastare, catastrophe on Dantooine. It was all bad. Then the news-caster had returned.
"Earlier today," the Twilek said, "the Senate received this message from the Seperatist Supreme Commander, General Grievous."
For the first time since Nadiem, 2104 saw the light rekindle in Tone's eyes.
The hologram on the news had changed, and now, the two were staring into the face-plate of General Grievous.
"Today,' he rasped, "marks the turning point in the war. Today, the Republic will realize that all resistance is futile. You are doomed!" Grievous had paused here to cough and hack. Out of the corner of his eye, 2104 saw Tone, tensing up, rage bubbling inside of him. "And to demonstrate the point, I bring a...messenger. I'm sure you Jedi filth remember Kenaan Frey?"
Grievous reached off-view and had dragged in a half-dead looking Acronan, holding him by the head with one hand. Tone hissed from behind 2104, but he didn't turn to look. He was transfixed on the figures before him.
"Poor Master Frey was leading a strike team to offer aid on Christophsis, but our Admiral called him to my attention." Grievous had caressed the Jedi's head almost gently. "And now, he shall witness the cost of HEROISM!"
On the word 'heroism,' a lightsaber had ignited, and beheaded the Acronan with one stroke.
The body fell to the floor with a thud, audible even on the hologram.
Grievous glared at 2104 out of the hologram, as if he could see the clone. "Surrender now and you shall be spared. But please don't." He reached down to the corpse, still holding the Jedi's head in one hand, and liberated the lightsaber from the belt. He turned it from side to side, as if admiring the lustrous materials. "I still have a collection to complete. Ah-ha-ha, AAH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HAAA! "
The hologram dissolved, leaving the echoes of deranged laughter echoing in the room.
2104 turned off the projector before some politician could come on and use the event as ammunition for a campaign. He turned, and was shocked to see Tone's paper-hospital-shirt on the floor, and the Coway pulling on his pants.
"General, what are you doing?"
Tone had smiled darkly at 2104. "I'm ready to check out. And unless you have developed an affinity for hospital food, I sense you have no reason to stay."
And Master Tone was back on the front lines before the week was over.
One the eve of the second year of the war, Tone had been summoned by the Jedi Council back to the Galactic Capital. He was obliged to answer, and he brought 2104 along for company. He Left them on the landing platform; none but the Jedi were allowed inside the Temple.
When he returned, he had a youngling in tow. 2104 had inquired, and Tone had introduced him to Codi Ty, his new Padawan. Ty's eyes were dark, not at all like most Padawans. Most younglings were happy, and optimistic, uncorrupted by the world, but this one was very different. Ty had barely looked up as he passed the clone, and just walked into the shuttle. In transit to assist their troops back on Iktochi, 2104 had introduced himself to the youngling. He had always heard of 'the cold shoulder,' but this had to be the sub-arctic shoulder. He had retreated back into the cockpit, and asked Master Tone what he knew of the youngling.
"The Council was very vague," he replied. "They said that his master was killed in battle, and if I wanted to know more, I would have to ask him."
Sometime later, when they had been in transit to yet another battlefront, their ship was attacked by a Seperatist cruiser, and they were boarded.
The droids had made short work of the vanguard, so Tone left 2104 and Ty in charge of the bridge, and charged off with 3366 to assist in the repulsing effort.
Five minutes later, the bridge was swarmed by commando droids. There had to be at least twenty. Most of the clones were dead before they could draw their weapons. Ty had leapt into action, and had decapitated three with one strike. As he moved on to dispatch more, 2104 had popped off the droids, one shot for each. Right in the head. Half of the droids were down after what seemed to be a few seconds. He turned, and saw a Ty impale a droid, and kick it off his blade. What Ty didn't see, was that a one-armed Commando droid was about to shoot him in the back of the head.
On instinct, 2104 lined up the shot and squeezed the trigger, despite the proximity, or lack thereof, between his target, and his friend. The droid was actually decapitated by the shot.
Ty whirled, looked at the dead droid, then back at 2104. His eyes flashed, and 2104 readied himself for a lecture, but lecture was not the goal. In what must have been a Force dash, Ty covered the distance that separated them in half-a-second, leapt, threw one leg over 2104's shoulder, spun, bringing his blade high over, and brought it down with a low hum. There was a sound of hot plasma splitting metal, metal chunks dropping, and a soft thump of bare feet hitting the floor. 2104 had turned to see the two halves of a Commando droid strewn on the floor behind him, vibro-blade still in its hand.
The two had hit off from there, "bonded by trauma," Ty always joked. And Ty was the one who had given him a name…
Bastion.
Which brought him back from his trip down memory-lane. He was marching behind Ty with his clone brothers, with Tano bringing up the rear. Because all clones were raised in the presence of people who looked exactly the same, they had learned to pick p on the most subtle of body language. Things like lingering glances, raising your hands, leaning forward, all were signs of emotion: love, placation, and intent respectively. He was picking up on several emotions right now.
Ty was glancing over his shoulder almost periodically. His brows were beetled, and his mouth in a tight line: anger. The recipient of these glares was the other Togruta at the end of the formation. She had a her brows raised in the middle, lowered on the outside, her jaw set, and her lips also drawn: confusion.
At least that was what normal face readers would say.
As a clone, 2104 could pick up on the emotions behind the face. Tano was feeling strong love for Ty, but did not want to show it. No surprises there.
The big surprise was that Ty was reciprocating. Real anger betrayed itself by a person maintain eye-contact when it occurred. Suppressed love was shown by refusing to make eye-contact. While Ty had all the traits of anger else-where, his eyes would break contact as soon as it occurred. So he was in love with Tano, but was actively refusing to show it.
With all these emotions flying around, it made 2104 glad that emotions were not really a clone's specialty.
The thought was pushed to the front of his mind because the base camp was within view, and remembering the rocky relationship between a particular Padawan and his master, coupled with the emotions that had been set in motion during the raid, their return was going to be very interesting.
A fine mist descended on the troop as they entered the camp through one of the raised over the moat, lowered section in the wall areas. Masters Tone and Skywalker were waiting.
Ty was across first, but he said nothing verbally to either Jedi. He backed up against the rampart of mud and crossed his arms, not making eye-contact with anyone. To 2104, he fairly screamed: "I want to go to my tent, be away from you, and escape from Tano!"
The clones followed, and 2104 noticed most of them seemed fairly amused. They were probably picking up on the mood as well.
Tano was over last, still refusing to make eye-contact with Ty, and walking straight up to her master with the "protect me" look going on. Skywalker though, did not pick up the signals.
"So, how'd it go?" Skywalker inquired.
2104 knew that neither Tano nor Ty would want to answer, so he answered instead. "We were successful Generals. We have neutralized the outpost, with two casualties."
Tone extended an arm and placed it on his shoulder. "Well done Bastion. Thank you."
At this utterance, all clone eyes, and a few others, turned to look at Ty. A remark like this would usually get a furious response, but Ty said nothing. He just made certain that he had no eye-contact with anyone.
Ever body-language-clueless, the master Tone took the silence as a sign of submission from Ty. He beamed, and dismissed the troops with a nod. Then he turned and went to the hologram table. Skywalker and Tano moved off, but where was unclear. Skywalker was probably sensing the uneasiness of his Padawan, and was just moving her away. He could see strong paternal body-language from Skywalker. Ty had already disappeared.
2104 went to the practice area, and met up with 1119, 3366, 7567, and 0000/1010.
"What do you think?" 1119 asked.
"About the Jedi or the battle?"
"Both."
2104 removed his helmet with a sigh. "Well, with all I've seen, we'll be lucky if we survive."
LOL, almost no story development, all character :P Anyhoo, too rambly? Not enough action? Review and let me know!
BTW, in any narration I write fronm the clone's POV, they refer to themselves as numbers. The numbers listed here:
CT-2104: Captain Bastion of the 957th Nebula Corps. He's going to be a biggee. He's Codi's right-hand-clone in battle.
CC-3366: Commander Pulsar of the 957th Nebula Corps. Supporting character and close friend of B'dard Tone.
CC-1119: Commander Appo of the 501st Legion. Will eventually lead the raid on the Jedi Temple with Lord Vader, but for now is just a particularly morbid clone. Anakin tends to favor him more than Rex as the Clone Wars draw on.
CT-7567: Captain Rex of the 501st Legion. No-nonsense second-in-command. Ahsoka has grown on him and their many forays in the war has earned her his respect.
CT-0000/1010: Sergeant Fox. He's quiet, but prefers to let his chain-gun do the talking for him. He aspires to be just like Appo.