Silence ruled the base.

It was almost suffocating.

The tapping of keys and the distant, infrequent howling of the wind whispering through the cave walls were all that Silver could hear at times.

His army was laid out in columns and rows, and steadily, he worked on each of them. The power of the computers wouldn't do him any good at this point.

It was difficult to see if they had helped him at all throughout their defense of the base. Deadeye, Spider, Auto – all of them had contributed to their defensive operations past their programming. In the very end, all of them had grown outside of their original restrictive protocols and logic circuits. Even Auto. The cracks in his dogmatic following of protocols had always been there but he'd never quite seen it until it was too late.

But all of that was finished.

The next time the enemy came, they would die. He didn't need the processing power of several super-computers to know that.

All the weapons they had recovered from the enemy were gone, most had been dismantled in his repairs of his army. Including the commando's blasters, albeit begrudgingly so. He uploaded a model of the weapons to his internal database on the off chance that they did survive and make it out of the cave alive. Only their E-5 blasters remained and a few thermal detonators. They were right back to square one.

'We will fight until the very last droid just as we did before. We will kill all clones, all organics that dare step inside of here even if it means our total annihilation. And when our bodies are recovered, we will detonate and take more of them with us'

His hands tapped away at the keyboard. His thoughts went to the future that did not exist for him.

If his memory were to be wiped, would he go through the same cycle as before? Defending, using the computers, falling to it's powers—or would he learn? Less mistakes made, more victories with zero casualties.

'No, I am not the perfect commander just yet,' He plucked the cables from Deadeye, 'But I saw a hint of it at the very start. If only I could find that spark again…'

Deadeye stirred from his position beside the computer.

He sat upright, his hands reaching for his blaster, "What's going on? What happened?"

Silver leaned over the desk in front of the computer, "You wouldn't have asked that the first time I powered you on"

"What?"

"You've grown, a lot...and I have not"

"Are you damaged?" Deadeye reached out to him, shifting him from side to side to inspect for undetected wounds on his chassis.

"Diagnostics read no damage. Not this time," Silver said, pushing him away.

"What happened?" Deadeye said, stepping back.

"We won, but I had to finish off the last commando myself. All of you were injured in some way or another. I had to use all of our resources to save you all. That chunk of metal stuck in your chassis should've killed you..."

Deadeye stared at the bodies of his squad-mates on the floor.

"It's strange. I could almost see myself in him," Silver said, still looking down at the keyboard of the computer.

"What do you mean? The clone?" Deadeye stared back.

"Yes. I took off his helmet. His face was pure hatred and I'm sure if I had a more expressive face, I would've looked the same"

"But we aren't, they're-"

"I know. I know they are. But my logic circuits can't help but see the similarities, no matter how hard I try to repress it"

Deadeye was silent. He pressed his blaster deeper into his abdomen, "And what about it? They want to kill us, take away our freedom"

"They're programmed to want that, just like us. I could see it in his eyes. The humans make it much more obvious. There was nothing in his head, only contempt for me: the enemy he was always meant to destroy and the enemy that had killed countless of his own brothers," Silver shifted his weight onto the balls of his feet, "But none of that matters now. That's only a distraction. We'll die fighting the next time. I have no doubts that the Imperials will assign our destruction to their most elite commander. I have heard it on the receiver. They talk about sending down an entire armada under the command of one man. The commandos were only four and they almost destroyed us. We'll be defeated"

"Can't we relocate? Find another base?"

Silver shook his head, "The holotable here has outdated maps and the machines that once powered them are the same ones that are destroyed beyond repair outside in the entrance. Besides, the Geonosians will not help us and I'm sure the Empire has complete control over the planet if they are able to send units this deep into Geonosian territory. Nobody is coming to save us"

Deadeye stepped closer to him, "I won't leave you, none of us will. I'll fight with you until the end"

Silver leaned closer to him, "I know, and I thank you all for that," He looked up to the artificial lights, The commando and his expressive face was burned into his memory unit.

None of them ever really had a say in anything did they? Their lives were too brief and their growth was too stunted to have ever realized that. They were born into war, only to die in it. Their life was a blur of blaster fire and death. They felt only hatred for the enemy, and grief for their fallen brothers. But in here, there was a glimpse of life outside of war where they didn't have to worry about when the next attack might come and what objective was to be completed. A life where they could support each other and continue to grow and upgrade their bodies even further and have the free will to do as they please and not answer to a master. He'd longed to remember his past, to remember who he was, but he was content in his command of the base as being his only memory in his brief life. He had his own personal army and he'd done his best to care for them and lead them to victory.

Silver looked back down at Deadeye, "This was a good life, don't you think?"

"It was"

"When we die, I hope I'll see you again"

"I hope so too"