"Before the Republic, there was the Infinite Empire ruled by the Rakata. With an insatiable lust for power, this slaver empire expanded outward, looking for more and more species to subjugate over. It is unknown when the Rakata found the Human species, however believing them to be primitive, inferior and inept at anything but simple vocal language they took them back to their Empire as slaves. Unfortunately for the Rakata, they underestimated the intelligence of this new species." - Excerpt from Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn's Holocron, Jedi Archives
Location: Far Outer Rim, Planet Earth, ISA-East Coast Underground Complex North America (ECUCNA), Connecting Tunnel, 41 days since Battle of Geonosis, Earth year 2035
Tens and his brothers along with Delta Squad had just gotten into another armored vehicle and were heading back to ISA command. Trevor had asked Tens what he and his brothers were eating and Tens had offered him some. Needless to say, Trevor was not a fan of standard issue Republic dry rations.
"Hay, Julia, Aaron. You guys should try this, it's uh really good, a lot better than what they give us," Trevor offered while holding out two pieces of a ration cube. He'd already tried it and decided it was horrible, but keeping a straight face, he hoped to prank his unsuspecting squad mates. Meanwhile the clones were scoffing down their cubes like an ordinary meal; how they managed this Trevor could only guess.
"If you don't mind Sergeant," Julia said smiling, "I'll pass." She'd been eying the piece of white ration cube suspiciously and noticed how Trevor had spit his piece out discreetly. Smiling in understanding, Trevor offered the other piece to Aaron.
"Sure, Sarge, I'll try it. Tastes good, right?"
"Sure thing, I might even ask Tens for another."
After grabbing the white cube, Aaron happily ate the whole thing. His dismayed expression and quick grab for his canteen while coughing set everyone into laughter, including Tens and his brothers who'd been watching the prank.
"So, do you guys eat this all the time, or do they just hold out on the good tasting stuff until after a battle? Because that was the blandest tasting piece of crap I've ever had the misfortune of coming across," Trevor stated chuckling a little. Aaron was still finishing off his canteen.
"What! You mean there is such a thing as taste? I... I had no idea," exclaimed Riot looking up from his second half-eaten cube. Tens lightly elbowed him in the side before answering.
"No, unfortunately this stuff is all we get. There is a bit of flavor from the mess hall meals on our Star Destroyers, but unless your lucky and stumble across civvie food, you're stuck with it."
"Remind me to treat you all to a real meal while your here. Granted it's still army food, but it tastes a lot better than that stuff."
"I'll hold you to that Sergeant," Tens replied. Trevor chuckled a little and leaned back against the truck. He grabbed his own food and started to eat. The rest of his squad had already been eating. Everything was working out, which was good. He was starting to really like the clones; it would have been a shame if he had killed them earlier.
A few more minutes passed by in silence before suddenly being broke, "Do you have a home to fight for?" Julia asked. She hoped she wasn't being to forward. Though she already knew what the response would be.
"Yes, the cloning facilities where we're created and the planet they are on would be the closest place we clones have to a home," Tens replied cautiously. He wasn't about to name the place, there was nothing wrong with being overly cautious.
"So, when your brothers die in battle are they remembered by the cloners on this world?" Julia continued. She was curious to know how the clones felt about being used for war.
"No. They're remembered by their fellow brothers," defended Tens, he didn't like where her questions were going.
"But what happens when they die? Who remembers them then?"
"They're remembered by... There are records that will show..." Tens felt like he was backed into a corner. Unfortunately for Julia her next question would be too much for Tens.
"But if you're all given numbers, then won't the numbers just be recorded? Not your names or what you did?"
"They... we... we're made to die Julia!" Tens finally snapped while pointing to himself, "That's our purpose, not to be remembered. We serve the Republic and we die for the Republic and that… that's all. We have no choice in the matter," Tens was almost yelling. He hated talking about this. All he had was his brothers; the thought of losing them all for no reason with no one to remember them didn't sit well.
If their attention hadn't been so riveted to Tens at that moment, someone might have noticed how, during the height of his anger, one of Tens un-eaten ration cube's levitated momentarily before falling back to the ground. Well, actually someone did notice, but Right'eye, wide-eyed and stunned by the possible implications of what he just saw, decided it was a conversation best left for another time.
"Enough!" Trevor ordered, "Julia, we'll talk about this later. I'm sorry Tens you had to answer that. It won't happen again."
"It's okay," with that lie Tens placed his helmet back on and calmed himself down.
The last six minutes of the ride went smoothly. The others started chatting again. Right'eye kept giving him an assessing look that made Tens feel uncomfortable. It wasn't his fault that he got so riled up over that conversation. Tens also tried pushing Julia's questions out of his mind but to no avail. What would happen to them all? Would they be forgotten, just flesh droids in another war? He'd always had doubts about his existence and these questions didn't help.
Finally, after calming down completely, Tens decided to satisfy himself with reviewing their supplies on his HUD. They had a week's supply of ration cubes and water bulbs. But, with the arrival of the Republic and the possibility of an alliance with Earth, food wasn't an issue. The main issue and priority was defending the planet from a possible droid invasion from the Providence-class Battle Cruiser that was almost here. Upwards of 200,000 droids could be deployed from that type of Battle Cruiser, not to mention the hundreds of vulture and tri-fighters that would be dispatched.
While all of their weapons were confiscated by the ISA, their ammo hadn't been, so Tens had brought it along with them. All the extra power magazines which had been in the Cruiser with their other supplies now rested along-side the clones. Four small crates carried around 150 magazines for their four DC-15S Carbines and another 50 magazines for their one DC-15A Rifle. Both Tens and Right'eye carried DC-17 pistols for which they had brought extra power cells as well. The ISA had also confiscated their one box of droid poppers and two boxes of flash bangs. Tens really didn't like the flash bangs as they tended to leave both sides momentarily blinded. The droid poppers though would be invaluable if a battle occurred.
Tens also made an identification list of the different CIS droids and fighters coupled with each droids weak spots. He included all the Republic ship identifications as well, that way when the battle occurred, the US pilots wouldn't try to shoot down allied ships. He would have Right'eye figure out a way to transfer the data to the ISA and US military for use against the Separatists.
Finally the truck came to a stop. They'd arrived back. However, as soon as they got out of the truck, another armor-clad Marine sprinted towards them. Pulling out a hasty salute for Sgt. Trevor the Marine momentarily caught his breath.
"You're all to report to the command room at once, the Separatist ship has almost arrived. It should be in orbit in about 15 minutes."
"That's fast...er than it should have been. They must really want your ship! Let's go," Trevor replied briskly. They'd only been gone for 45 minutes. This meant the ship had doubled if not tripled its speed.
After grabbing their supplies, they all followed the Marine at a run back to the command room.
Location: Far Outer Rim, the Resolute & Negotiator near the planet Earth, 41 days since Battle of Geonosis, Earth year 2035
"Gentlemen, the Separatist Cruiser is 15 minutes from reaching Earth," Admiral Yularen stated to Anakin and a Holo-graphic Obi-wan, "We will be there in 25 standard minutes to assist. Captain Rex, are our troops ready for deployment?"
"Yes, Admiral. Thirty-five of our larty's are ready, the men are just waiting for the all clear, sir. We also have eight Tanks and four walkers ready to deploy too."
"The same goes for us Rex, Cody has our men ready," Obi-wan added from the Negotiator, "Anakin will lead our V-19 squadrons against the Separatist air forces while we deploy our larty's to wherever the droid army is deployed. The Negotiator and Resolute will then attack the Battle Cruiser. Remember that if it has entered the atmosphere above a city, we have to let it escape. The last thing we want is to destroy an entire city by downing a ship on it. Our meeting with their President should help us decide how much assistance they need. Both this United States and United Nations seem to have considerable military forces so they may stand a chance. Luckily, the Providence-Class Battle Cruiser is really not meant for invading a planet singlehandedly. With us at their heels they will try to find the ship quickly before making their retreat."
"If that's the case then they probably won't commit their entire army to an invasion. Which helps us and those on the ground," added Anakin.
"General, do you think the seppies know where the ship is?" asked Cody next to Obi-wan.
"I don't think they do, Cody," replied Obi-wan, "We jammed their communications and sensor arrays before they were in range of Earth to scan for the ship. Right'eye assured us that all the Consular Cruiser's power systems are down except for their Comm computer for communications with us. Those channels are encrypted so the Separatists should not be able to trace them. Also remember that this planet is full of human cities, the electrical interference alone would make it hard if not impossible for the Separatist to find the ship."
Just then, the Resolute's Comm Officer, Dace appeared beside Rex at attention.
"Sir's, the President would like to start the meeting now. Everyone has arrived on their side that needed to be there," Dace reported, saluting the Admiral.
"Thank you, Dace. Please tell them we are ready as well."
"Very well, Admiral. Oh, um sir, I checked with Comm Officer Runt on the Negotiator, it appears the emergency beacon on the Consular Cruiser is still activated, sir."
"What!" Anakin, Obi-wan and Admiral Yularen all exclaimed at once.
"Dace, why didn't you report this earlier! The Separatist can trace that!" Anakin chided.
Dace looked rather defeated, before continuing, "Well, sir, I was kind of busy with the communications set up with Earth, and you also wanted me and Runt to re-establish contact with High Command, sir. I really only just noticed it. Sometimes in large planetary systems, old distress beacons can reverberate back through the system and cause static. That's why I confirmed what I was seeing with Runt, sir, before reporting it. I am sorry, sir, that I did not bring this up earlier."
"Very well, Dace. We will talk about this later," Anakin replied before turning back to the Holo-projection.
Everyone was quiet for a few moments before Obi-wan spoke up, "Well, I guess that means the Separatist do know where the ship is after all. We should probably get on with this meeting, we must warn their President. Hopefully they have the ship located away from one of their major cities."
"Actually, sir, the Consular Cruiser's Comm readings are originating from one of their larger cities, sir."
"Oh... great!" sighed Obi-wan, "Thank you Dace, please let them know that we are ready for that meeting. Actually Dace, if you can, find a way to warn Tens about the distress beacon. I would prefer to have him take care of it."
"Yes, sir!" Dace replied as he hurried off to his station.
"Who in their right mind would move an unknown spaceship into a military base in a major city? I can't believe they were that dumb," stated Anakin.
"Anakin, be mindful of what you are saying. This has never happened to these people before. And remember before you chide them on their placement of military complexes, GAR High Command is located in Galactic City."
"Yeah, but that's different, we have the means to defend ourselves from a space invasion," Anakin stated matter-of-factly while shrugging. As much as he hated to admit it, his old master was correct.
"Yes and these people have never needed to do that before; perhaps the placement of this complex makes sense for a ground based war society."
"Very well Obi-wan, but I still think it was a foolish idea."
"It very well may have been, only time will tell. What I am more worried about is how this system, with billions of humans, has managed to stay undetected by the Republic until now. It just doesn't make any sense."
"I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one who thinks that. It does seem highly unlikely. Perhaps the Jedi Council would be able to shed some light on the matter?" Anakin suggested.
"I've already tried that, we aren't in range of the Holo-net."
"General's, if you don't mind me saying so, this whole mission has been odd," Captain Rex interrupted, "Why would Command send us all the way out here after a lone Consular Cruiser with no one of importance onboard? Especially when we'd spent a full week planning to lead a major offensive on Christophsis? The rest of the 501st and 212th fleets are already heading there, they're just waiting on us! I... I don't know. I'm glad that these lost brothers are still alive to be rescued and that we found this new planet. But it just seems odd to me, sir." He looked to Cody in the Holo-projection, hoping his brother would back him up.
Cody nodded his head to Rex, "I agree with Rex, something doesn't seem to add up. And I really can't believe that we're out of range of the Holo-net; I didn't think that was possible. I've thought all this over for a while but I just can't place what's wrong, sir's."
"Well, I guess that makes five of us. Let's see what this President has to say and we'll go from there. If they could offer a history of their planet, it might go a long way to helping solve these mysteries..." replied Obi-wan, before Dace interrupted him.
"Sir's, I am patching through their command room's feed now. There you are. Remember they only see us in 2D."
"Thank you Dace, ah, there they are," replied the Admiral.
#
On the Negotiator, Commander Cody stepped away from Obi-wan and the Holo-projector as the President and other officials took form on it.
He walked over to his Comm officer's station, "Runt, how is it that we can see them in 3D but they can't see us in 3D?" he asked, confused about how this was even possible.
Runt looked up slowly from his work station, before replying, "Well sir, they don't have a Holo-projector in their command center. So with the help of Right'eye we were able to take the live feed from several of their command room cameras and feed it into the Consular Cruisers Holo-projector computer. So, sir, what you're seeing now is several different camera feed angles from their command center being formed into a rough three-dimensional image for our Holo-projector by our onboard computer. The same computer takes our Holo-feed and creates a two-dimensional image for them to view on a large screen. Is that all you wanted to know, sir?"
"Uhh, yes Runt, I believe I follow you. Admirable job as always... You, er, your squad would be very proud of you," Cody said softly while patting the officer on the shoulder, with that rare bit of praise Cody walked back over to his General and stood at attention. Runt, after briefly looking down in remembrance, turned back to his work.
"Ah, Cody glad you could join us," Obi-wan stated, "Madame President let me introduce you to Commander Cody, leader of the 212th Attack Battalion of the Grand Army of the Republic."
Location: Far Outer Rim, CIS Providence-class Battle Cruiser approaching Earth, 41 days since Battle of Geonosis, Earth year 2035
"Well, sir, we haven't been able to contact fleet command and our sensors are still being jammed by the Republic," reported the B1 Commander Droid nervously. It's Admiral didn't like to hear bad news, normally.
"What about the Consular Cruiser? Were you able to isolate its location on the planet?"
"Yes, sir, thanks to their emergency beacon we were able to locate it. It's near a large city on one of the planets continents."
"Very good Commander. We will focus our attack there, by the time the Republic catches up we will be in Hyperspace with the Senate Representatives," stated the Trade Federation Admiral smiling, "Start assembling the C-9979's so we can deploy our ground forces. I think, Commander that 100,000 B1's, a few thousand of our B2's, and a hundred or so of our Droideka's should work splendidly. Couple that with a few dozen of our AAT's, our tri-fighters and vultures and any local resistance shall be dealt with easily."
"Very well, sir. What about the civilian populations?"
"They are of no importance; kill them if they get in your way. Just do this quickly before the Republic arrives!"
"Roger, Roger!"
Turning from the Admiral, the B1 Commander Droid walked across the Providence-class Cruiser's Bridge to the Turbo-lifts.
Walking out into the ships lower hanger deck the Droid Commander gave his orders, "New orders from the Admiral boys, start assembling the transports and have them loaded by the time of our arrival. Power up the Vultures and Tri-fighters, he wants a full escort for the transports. Move it!"
A lot of 'Roger, Roger's' echoed across the hanger as the droids quickly began to assemble the massive transports.
Location: Far Outer Rim, Planet Earth, ISA-ECUCNA Main Command Center, 41 days since Battle of Geonosis, Earth year 2035
When they entered the command center, things started happening really fast. Tens transferred his battle strategies over to Right'eye's HUD so he could figure out how to transfer it to the ISA Techies. He did this while they were all brought into a large room.
Across from the platform they stood on was a large screen with images and data streaming constantly. Tens recognized one of the images as a map of the planet with a lot of red and blue moving dots on it. Scattered below them and all across the room were work stations manned by ISA and UN officers. Everyone was moving about, shouting orders, and running across the room to file papers or grab data pads.
In the middle of the room was a large circular table, which faced the screen. At it sat dozens of officials and military leaders including the President, Vice President, UN Chairman and the UN General Tens had seen earlier. It looked like they were going to start the meeting with the Admiral and Generals.
The clones followed Delta down the stairs to the main level. There, Tens and his vode immediately noticed their confiscated weapons on a table against the left wall.
"Not yet. After this meeting you'll get them back, don't worry," Trevor assured the clones who looked longingly at their weapons. Tens had his brother's place their ammo crates there.
"We better, I can only be without a deece for so long," Riot lamented while turning from the table to follow the others.
"Which deece are you talking about ner vode?" Jumps chimed in while hitting Riot playfully on the pauldron.
Riot turned to retaliate when Tens interceded, "Knock it off you two, we're representing the GAR here so act like it. You two can hug and kiss later, but not right now!"
"Sorry, sir. And I didn't know you were that kind of brother, sir."
"Fierfek, Riot! and stop calling me sir; I'm not a higher rank than you... yet. But if I do get promoted, you better hope you're not assigned to my squad," Tens stated coldly. He felt bad for getting so angry at Riot, but he was still irritated from the earlier conversation on the transport.
With that half-hearted warning Tens took off his helmet, turned and walked over to where Delta and Right'eye stood; near the President. Right'eye had just finished transferring Tens data list to an ISA technician's data pad.
"Ah, Mr. Chairman, these are the Republic clone troopers I was telling you about. This is, uh, well why don't I let you guys introduce yourselves. This is UN Chairman Adrian Hüber, he is also the Chancellor of Germany, another country in our world," Lisa stated warmly.
To the clones she was dressed beautifully, her straight black hair and green eyes contrasted fittingly with the nice dress suit she wore. Tens suspected she really wanted to make a good first impression to the Generals. The Chairman, however, wore a black dress suit. He was young and had well-combed brown hair and a rough beard which, even to the clones, looked uncomfortable. For a leader of a planet under siege he practically beamed with excitement in contrast to Lisa's calm cool and collected demeanor.
"Thank you Madame President. Mr. Chairman, I am clone trooper Tens at your service," Tens stated at parade rest. Then pointing to his brothers he continued, "These are my brothers, Right'eye, Jumps and Riot."
"It is a pleasure to meet you all in person. My, my, you do look almost exactly like the...," before he could finish Lisa nudged him slightly and nodded her head, "Ah, yes, right, well then, Lisa already informed me of how you were first found. On behalf of our world I am sorry for your treatment; I assure you we meant no harm. We are very keen to meet with your Generals. Is it true that they are Jedi?" The Chairman was indeed exited to meet the clones, and it was obvious he wanted to make a good first impression too.
"Yes, sir. They are Jedi." Tens noticed that the Chairman had an accent of some sort; it was the first major difference in language he'd seen so far on the planet.
"Well, this will be interesting! Madame President, who are the escorts for Tens and his brothers?" asked the Chairman curiously while looking to the un-helmeted Marines standing close to the clones.
"That is the remainder of Delta Squad, Chairman, you know of course about what happened in Tibet earlier this month. I'll let them introduce themselves," Lisa stated quietly.
"Mr. Chairman, it is an honor to meet you, sir. I am Sgt. Trevor Kelly of Delta Squad. This is Lance Corporal Connor Black, this is Private Aaron Meyer and this is Private Julia Rush First Class."
For the first time the Chairman actually looked solemn before moving closer to the Marines, "I am sorry, Sergeant for what occurred in Tibet, it was a tragic incident. Your men were some of the best. I'm also sorry to hear about the failure of unit C-42. It was your report that put a stop to that program you know. Who knows how many more incidents like that could have occurred had we not stopped it? Anyways, I just wanted to thank you for your part in all of this. We will talk later about new recruits for your squad."
Tens tilted his head slightly while listening to this discussion. He doubted few others outside a meter could hear what was being said. Looking at Trevor, he noticed how the Marine's jaw and fists clenched when the Chairman mentioned unit C-42. Trevor only did that when he was angry, as Tens had found out earlier on the ship. Unit C-42? Huh, I guess that's another question to ask him on my ever-growing list of questions for Trevor, he thought.
Turning from the Marines the Chairman walked over to talk with other UN officials. The President was about to speak again when an aide rushed forward.
"Mrs. President, we have your national address ready, the press conference will start at 3:10 in the Press room. Here is a copy. Also, we just received word that the meeting is going to start."
"Thank you. This will be an interesting address to the nation," the President mused holding the paper while turning back to the clones, "Their going to think I've gone insane. I guess I should be used to that by now. Anyways, Tens, I would like to talk with you in private after this meeting."
"Very well, Ma'am. I look forward to..." Tens never got to finish as his Holo-pad communicator beeped. Taking it out of a side pocket in his armor, he held it out. A Holographic clone officer appeared on it, Tens recognized the clone's surroundings as the bridge of the Resolute.
"This is Comm Officer Dace of the Resolute, is this clone trooper 20-1010?"
"Yes, sir. This is Tens. What do you need, sir?" He was surprised they had risked communicating like this. The Separatist might be able to trace it. Holo-pads aren't as secure as a ship to ship transmission. Tens barely noticed how Lisa and pretty much everyone else at the table was mesmerized by the 3D Holographic image.
"I'm afraid I have some bad news trooper. Your Consular Cruiser's emergency signal is still activated; we are still receiving it, which means the CIS Cruiser knows exactly where you are. I would advise you to turn it off and prepare for a full Separatist invasion."
"Understood, sir. Thanks for the warning, we will prepare," Tens heart sank as Dace's image flickered out. Everyone who heard the conversation was quiet including the clones and Delta. Right'eye looked crestfallen; he just realized what he'd forgotten to do back at the ship.
Osik! Why can't anything be simple? What in the universe was Right'eye thinking, not turning off the emergency beacon. He needs to fix this now! Tens thought.
"Right'eye, get your shebs back to the ship and turn that signal off! Riot, you're going with him and make sure you grab your blasters before you go. Jii shaadlar!" Tens ordered. He wasn't happy at all. The Separatist knew exactly where they were now and that changed everything.
Right'eye just nodded his head and immediately left with Riot at a run. Trevor ordered Connor and Julia to follow them. Then Tens turned to the President.
"Where are we? Are we away from your cities? Because now that the Separatist know exactly where the ship is located, they won't bother going anywhere else on the planet."
Lisa looked shocked or at least surprised; the worst case scenario had just become a reality. She shook her head slightly, "I'm afraid we are located under the US capital, Washington D.C."
"What! Why would you have... wait, never mind," Tens tried to remain calm, getting angry wouldn't help the situation, "You need to evacuate the city right now. The Separatist don't care who they kill, civilians or soldiers, to get what they want. They will destroy this city if it stands in their way. Do you have the man power to do this?"
Coming to her senses again Lisa nodded her head, "Yes Tens we do. Thank you for your concern, but we did think ahead for this scenario. Your ship is a few miles south at Quantico which leaves the city less of a target. I am issuing a mandatory evacuation of Washington. And Mr. Chairman, it looks like this meeting will have to be a quick one, if we are to get you to safety."
If Tens thought command was busy before, he was wrong, after that statement it became a non-stop shouting match as officers scrambled to get the evacuation orders through.
Tens and Jumps went to stand behind Trevor as Lisa and the Chairman sat back down at the table. Just then someone shouted, "Where live and transmitting!"
Suddenly the familiar faces of Generals Kenobi and Skywalker along with that of Admiral Yularen and Captain Rex appeared on the screen.
"Greetings, I am General Obi-wan Kenobi of the Galactic Republic. Over here is General Anakin Skywalker and this is Admiral Yularen. I am pleased to meet you Madame President and Mr. Chairman though I wish it were under better circumstances. We have much to discuss."
#
Right'eye ran as fast as he could to the transport, he had his DC-15S Carbine and had just holstered his DC-17 after checking its charge. The others were right behind him.
"Driver, get us to Quantico GARD as fast as possible! Move it!" Connor yelled following Right'eye into the back of the transport truck. The driver hopped in to the vehicle and immediately sped off down the tunnel system.
"I'm such a di'kut. I let everyone down, again! I knew I forgot something, Fierfek piece of kriffin osik!" Right'eye said slamming his fist into the trucks bed. He was really just ranting to himself but Julia, Connor, and Riot could all clearly hear him.
"Udesii ner vod! It isn't your fault. If anything it's all of ours for not noticing it," Riot assured him as he received an angry glare from his brother, "Besides, it doesn't matter now; we'll have to fight no matter what. And if there's one thing we clones are good at, it fighting. So don't worry."
"Sure, you know as well as I that I was left in charge of the ship and its functions. Tens gave me that responsibility, and I let him down."
"Please ner vod, don't blame yourself. Uhh, if anything, blame me, everyone else does. Accidents happen, just think what might have happened had I not accidentally found the Hyperdrive controls when we were being attacked? We might have all been dead," Riot hoped this would work.
Right'eye stayed silent for a while, thinking it all over while tracing one of his green paint stripes on his left gauntlet. After tracing the stripe for the twelfth time he finally responded, "I... I guess your right. It doesn't really matter now anyways. But I still need to turn that signal off, maybe that might confuse them... And we don't all blame you, you di'kut."
Riot smiled a little, "Yeah, right! Besides, I was thinking that we might still be able to stop the seppies from getting here. What if we flew the ship somewhere else, say maybe even into space? Surely they would follow?" Riot felt rather proud of his idea even if it meant he might have to go with the ship and away from his brothers.
"That actually might work! Will see, good idea Riot." He was still angry at himself but he couldn't stay angry at his brother. Besides, Riot had actually come up with a good idea.
"Yeah, hopefully it will," Riot stated, however he was just satisfied his brother was in a better mood.
The rest of the trip to the GARD went a lot faster thanks to their driver. Right'eye decided he actually felt safer in a Larty under fire than he did in the back of this speeding vehicle. Every once in a while the sound of screeching brakes and horns could be heard as other drivers heeded the faster truck.
During this time, Right'eye's thoughts wandered to his brother by choice and what he'd seen him do earlier. There was no way he could have imagined it. And ration cubes don't just randomly decide to float in the air. Was it possible? Right'eye could swear that he'd never seen Tens do anything like that before, but thinking hard about it, he realized that strange things had occurred around his brother before. A handful of times on Geonosis, and a few times in live-fire training back on Kamino.
Right'eye trusted Tens unconditionally. So the fact that he hadn't mentioned anything about this to him meant Tens probably didn't know himself.
That could be dangerous. What if the Jedi found out? What would they do? I can't let them know, I have to protect him, somehow I must. If the Kaminoans find out he'll be sent back for re-conditioning or worse, experiments. Nope, I won't let that happen. I'm sorry Tens for letting you down this time, but I won't let you down about this. I promise you.
With those last thoughts, Right'eye and the rest arrived at the lifts to the above ground hanger at Quantico.
###
A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter! The longest so far at over 5,500 words. I had to update my other story 'Who Am I?' last week, so sorry I am late in updating this past weekend. By the way, if you like this story, please check out 'Who Am I?' It is after all a side story to this one. List of Mando'a Terms used in this chapter are below...
Hay, I've updated my profile! It's a lot better, really. Don't believe me then check it out. Now it gives you a bit more info about me, my current and future stories and more Mando'a...
Finally, if you haven't noticed Tens and co are getting closer to an upcoming battle. Because of this the chapter POV's will change multiple times, there may also be some time differences between when the different POV's take place, but they should be only slight. Anyways, I hope you don't mind. As always please review and look for mistakes, suggestions or ideas are welcomed. And as always, I don't own star wars...as cool as that would be...I still don't... : (
Mando'a Words used- In case you didn't know.
vod(e) - Brother(s)
ner vod(e) - my brother(s)
Jii shaadlar - Means either Move now! or Now Move! Either way works.
Udesii ner vod! - Calm down my brother!
di'kut - Idiot
Osik - umm, it means dung. Yeah I'm going with that.
Fierfek - Hutt word for poison or poisoness
Kriff/Kriffing - derogatory term in Basic that's synonymous with Frick/Fricking here on Earth and whatever that's synonymous with here.