"I need more caf," Iron said, rubbing his tired eyes. The sensation of grit beneath his eyelids was unbearable. The hours—or had it been days?—were blurring together.

Kix activated his scanner, scanning Iron like a piece of malfunctioning machinery. "Elevated heart rate. Ocular twitching. You're cut off."

Ignoring Kix, Iron reached for the nearest caf cup and drained the dregs. He winced. "Ugh, maybe you're right. No more caf for me." He tossed the empty cup into a flash bin.

Kix secured his scanner back to his belt. "Any progress?"

"Endless circles," Iron sighed. "Thousands of medics in our ranks, and yet we never found these chips while treating our brothers. Why?"

Sly and Echo, who had been huddled around a medbay terminal, gestured them over. "We've unearthed some interesting information," Sly announced.

Fives walked in from a different section of the lab, holding a petri dish with a biochip. "Sorry, I got sidetracked studying the chip we pulled from Kix's head."

"My brain is a fascinating place," Kix conceded, tugging the dish away from him and setting it down on a lab bench.

Fives rolled his eyes. "Rex is right. We need to put the chip back in your head."

"Not a chance," Kix unwrapped a rations bar and handed off pieces to Fives and Iron. He turned his attention to the research team of Sly and Echo, "what did you find?"

Echo calmly took the lead. "The first mention of these bio-chips is in a comm call between Chief Medical Scientist Nala Se and an unidentified Republic contact. This call predates the Battle of Geonosis by ten years."

Iron, still munching, pointed at the screen. "So why do the Null ARCs not have them? There's a red flag next to their names."

Sly took over. "It's more nuanced than that. The point of Republic contact changed over the years. Initially, the chips weren't even named. They were part of 'new product specifications.'"

Fives' snorted. "Typical. Treating us like a bunch of specs again." He stroked his goatee. "So, they changed the specs."

Echo's tone remained even. "It appears that way. A note assures the new Republic contact that these 'inhibitor chips' will work as promised."

Fives' voice rose. "Work as promised? What are they promising? What do these chips do?"

Kix put a restraining hand on Fives' arm, as if to calm him with just his medic's touch before he became too worked up. He turned to Sly and Echo. "Fives has a point. What behavior are they inhibiting?"

Echo shook his head. "It doesn't say, unfortunately. They are referred to as 'inhibitor' chips time and again. They are tested and they go through a few different iterations. The client expresses his pleasure the chips are in place and praises the Kaminoans for a job well done."

"But, why are we inhibited?" Fives demanded again, starting to get emotional about the subject.

Sly shrugged. "I don't know. What's odd is this information wasn't particularly well-guarded. Any Republic official could access it."

"But, we didn't know as medics," Kix pointed out.

"That would be in character for the Kaminoans," Iron mused. He looked thoughtful for a long moment. "We're soldiers. We've been trained to take down any enemy. I don't remember much of our training telling us not to do things."

"Except disobey orders," Sly commented with an offhand shrug, noticing the others were eating. He rooted around in his belt pouch for a ration bar.

The others stared at him, but he was oblivious as he searched for something to eat.

"But, we always obey orders… " Kix's voice trailed off even as he said the words.

Fives stared at him as they both mulled over the implication of what he'd just said. "Do we though? On the surface level, yes. We're the perfect soldiers doing exactly what we were designed to do. Go where we are told and do what we are told. But, we do all have a degree of autonomy."

Kix looked at Sly and Iron. "As medics, we outrank everyone, even command clones," Kix said. He thought of the times he'd overruled the Captain because Rex was injured and needed rest.

"Echo and I have gone around the system many times to get things done," Fives said proudly, puffing out his chest a bit. Echo looked away, as if not willing to fess up to some of their more nefarious deeds.

"It was the only way I could get things done at ArmyMed," Sly admitted. "I didn't pull the medic card very often, but I was always going around the system. There were just too many rules there."

"And, that's why we like you," Fives said with a fond grin.

Kix ignored their bonding moment and kept on point with the conversation. "But, you're not the only ones. The Captain and Commander Cody broke so many rules and regulations to rescue our vode they almost court-martialed both of them."

"We all did," Fives asserted. "We agreed to be part of the mission knowing the consequences. But, that's what distinguishes us from a droid army. We can process information and freely make decisions. I've argued with the Captain on more than one occasion when I think he's wrong. He overrules me sometimes, but I still have a say. We don't follow orders blindly."

Iron folded his arms across his chest. "If we were created in such a way that allows some degree of autonomy- Fives is right- why would we need something implanted in us that inhibits us?"

Kix paced the room as he worked through possibilities. "A behavioral control chip would stop a behavior that is undesirable…. or create a new behavior that is more desirable."

Echo spoke up after remaining silent for the conversation. "And, just why would you want to suddenly start or stop a behavior in millions of clones who have already received ten years of intensive training?"

Fives stared off in the distance, his gaze unfocused. "We need to figure out what these things do."

"And, just how do we do that?" Echo challenged.

Fives' gaze sharpened and he looked at his brother. "We trigger them."

# # #