She nearly got stepped on when Jango Fett wound his way through the upper sections of the observation decks. She had three of her guys lying with her, sniper rifles trained at the parade ground she'd reserved.

"What the hell are you doing?" he asked.

She didn't even spare him a glance. "Playing chess."

"They're beyond that game, Ad'ra."

"Stick around," she invited him. She barely stirred as she brought her 'pad up and tapped in a series of numbers. Sent him a transponder code. "I have audio on all of them," she murmured.

"So do I, Mand'Alor!" the eager beaver beside his left foot chirped.

She didn't see Fett share it with the other training sergeants beside him.

Wouldn't have objected anyway.

"Commence," a young voice called authoritatively.

There was a wait. A movement called. He leaned over, watching the melee below.

Without warning yellow smoke erupted from the deck. Wafted over a good third of her game board. Pink smoke started out slower, a fizzle rather than billows of it.

"Mark that, Bee," she murmured.

"Yes, ma'am, Adenn," the response came back immediately.

"Your turn, Ghen," she prompted.

"Yes, ma'am," a slightly panicked voice replied. "Um… um…"

"What's the problem?" she asked.

"I can't see my guys," he told her. "I do not have direct line of sight on the target."

"Solve the problem, Ghen," she called. "What do you do? You remember who's where and what they have. Give the order."

"My orders, though… you said… I can't see!"

"What happens in the field if you no longer have visual on a possibly mobile target?"

Fett heard the relief in the boy's voice.

"Call in air support, or send up a drone."

"Your show, Ghen," she encouraged.

"I'd send up a drone, ma'am. If, depending on the op, the out is supposed to be quiet in, quiet out, I'm sending up a drone. If I have some lateral movement I'll bring in a gunship, but they're big and noisy and tend to get noticed."

"I knew I liked you," she told him. Gave him a code to control a drone.

Fett watched it rise from another balcony farther away. Heard a new voice give a sit rep on the battling clones. Somebody was down. He didn't know her guys well enough to know who. Didn't really give a damn.

A move was made. Another. A third.

Good moves, too.

"Which one is that?" he asked Ad'ra.

"One. He's smart."

"He is. He's going to be good at this."

Ad'ra swallowed. "I have three who should be given commissions. They'd be better serving as officers than as Rangers."

"Who?"

"ASRCs-1001, -1011, and -1101."

The clone beside her cocked his head and slowly turned toward her.

Fett had to chuckle at the kid's expression. Wondered if he was one of the ones listed—and thought she was crazy—or if he hadn't been listed and thought he should be included.

"Take it," she ordered quietly in his ear.

He didn't see where the shot came from. Just saw the drone explode.

"Expensive waste for a game," a new voice noted.

The hair on the back of her neck stood up.

She ignored him. Hoped like hell she could act normal. Hoped her guys made it apparent the results would be worth the cost.

There was a hasty adjustment and a rapid-fire order got another drone in the air.

"Yes," she replied to a request to clarify. It exploded, too.

"I hope he takes those out of your paycheck."

"You spent the night chugging thou-credit champagne with me in this same spot. And today you're worried about a dimer droid?"

Fett looked over at Vau. The black-armored man shrugged.

"It was free."

One made a couple of adjustments. Gave a new order. Glanced up and around.

"What's he looking for?"

"Us, probably," the clone at his feet said to Fett.

"Will we give you away?" H.G.'s voice came over the comm.

Knowing he was there steadied her.

It was one of the youths who answered. "Nah. There's usually people watching us."

Ad'ra laughed. Cleared her throat. "Sarge…" she prompted.

"Oh!" The clone jumped to his feet. Held his weapon diagonally. "No, Sergeant. Your presence should not be-"

He got stunned. Just slumped down over his brethren.

"Ma'am, we are taking fire," the calm voice beside her called.

"I'm aware. Hold your position." She thought about her next move. "Ver, see if you can take out whoever that is."

"On it, Marshal."

"Pax, you got line of sight on the Red King?"

"Affirmative."

"Take it when you're ready."

"How is that fair?" Fett wanted to know. He was rooting for the Reds this round.

"Just play the damned game," she whispered.

One watched his artillery go down. Turned around. Sighted up with just a scope-op tool. Broke formation. Ducked down behind the now-slumped over clone and picked up his rifle. Sighted up and fired. Tracked something else.

"Impressive," Vau had to admit.

"He is. 100% Jango," she claimed.

She tapped out another message. Watched as an as-yet unutilized trooper turned around. Drew a sidearm from somewhere. Iced the kid next to him, then the one fighting him, then the next in line.

He was tackled to the ground.

"What was that, ma'am?" a frustrated voice called over the comms.

"Looks like you're both working with either faulty or obsolete intel, Ruro."

"Seriously?"

"Fix it."

He considered calling in more air support. Instead he pulled a sideways move.

Recalled all of his remaining pawns. Hunkered down underneath the cover of the quickly-dissipating yellow smoke.

Fett heard a howl of pain. Another thump.

"Sit rep," he heard requested.

"Command, the field in untenable. Request permission to break with original template in order to isolate and detain the mark."

"Negative, ASRC-1089. Maintain situational immunity."

"Request command to relay request to next chain in command."

"Hold one." Ad'ra waited. Looked over. Listened to the chatter and response. The order to hold his position and maintain concealment. "Request denied. Hold true."

"Respectfully, position is in danger of being overrun. Will be unable to complete mission in very short amount of time due to large volume of incoming fire and resultant casualties."

"Aww," H.G. murmured in her ear. "Give the little bugger a chance…"

She made a sound of disgust.

Watched Ruro low-crawl around his guys.

Wondered what the hell they were doing without helmets on.

Fett's low chuckle made her happy they'd stumbled on them.

"Somebody take out Ruro," she commanded. "Rogue Ranger."

"Execute Order 4-7. ASRC-1089."

The ripple went out. He took a stinger to the leg, she heard a yelp of pain. Another one.

She was distracted and didn't see what made H.G. call out Oya!

Three guys had circled around, avoiding attention. Took out One, his queen, and both his bishops in quick succession. Circled around and landed solid shots up toward where two separate groups of Ranger Cadets had taken position. Unloaded.

"Shab," she hissed.

"Not the result you hoped for, ma'am?" the cut-up beside Fett asked.

"I was just thinking that if too many of them get taken out we're going to be hauling a lot of dead weight back to the barracks."

"Situation neutralized," Ruro's voice called.

"Not if you're still alive to tell about it," she told him.

"Seriously?" he asked. Huffed out a breath.

"What'll he do?"

"I don't know," she told her superior officer. "ENDEX!"

Groups of boys stood up and cheered, their rifles held over their heads.

"Why do they do that?" Vau asked in irritation.

"Wookies do it, sir. We're wookies-in-training this week. Except we're not actually supposed to rip off arms."

"I appreciate your restraint," Fett told him.

"Yes, sir, Mand'Alor, sir."

"It was a pleasure to have you with us today, sir," the other still-conscious one agreed. "I'd salute, sir, but we were told not to give away officers in the field if hostiles are possibly present."

"I appreciate that as well," Fett agreed.

He nodded at Ad'ra.

"Get this AO cleaned up and get in my office," he ordered.

"Yes, sir. Right away."

Vau chuckled again as he stepped over the prone body.

"Cute, but it's training time that could be better utilized in sim-ops or-"

"That's a downtime activity," H.G. interrupted.

He frowned. "She's got them running ops instead of individual aptitude enhancement?"

"She does." He staved off Vau's obvious objection. "Do you not frequently remand yours to barracks, make them stand extra guard shifts, and-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," he objected.

"Wait. Wait until you see this," Jango said.

He slid behind his desk, gestured the other two men to their comforts, and removed his helmet. He was waiting when Ad'ra rapped sharply less than five minutes later.

"After-action report, Marshal," he requested. "In detail."

Her listing included every move, using their assigned numbers instead of nicknames, including the ordnance utilized and location of casualties incurred. Approximate time-elapsed and TOD. She didn't look at the chrono or log once. When she finished she stood at Parade Rest waiting for his judgement.

"How do you feel?"

"It didn't hurt when you tripped on me, Mand'Alor," she assured him.

"About the exercise, Ad'ra," he laughed.

She nearly cracked a grin. "We've had some more successful. I applauded some of the outside-the-box thinking."

"Are all of your cadets accounted for?"

"No, Mand'Alor. I have one ASSRC Cadet, ASRC-1089, missing in action. A detail will be tasked to recover the rogue ranger and-"

"Just don't let it go on so long he misses dinner," Fett told her. "Gil is on my ass again."

"Of course."

He jerked his chin, dismissing her.

H.G. held out his arm for her to bust elbow plates against.

"Thanks for the space," she told him.

"I'm glad I got to see it. The smoke? Genius."

"Hopefully Rav agrees."

"What happened with the pink?"

"Trust me when I say I'm going to track down the manufacturer and find out. I don't want my guys out there with faulty cannisters."

Fett approved.

"She's formidable. Does anyone know she's like twelve years old?"

"She's sixteen," Vau argued.

Fett's brows lifted. "She is, indeed, sixteen. And you're meeting her for secret rendezvous on balconies under the stars?"

"Meh." He waved it away. "I legit just about ran all over her. Like we did today."

"She's always liked it up there," H.G. noted.

Vau nodded. "We ever call an Order 47 on her that's where I'm headed."

"You'd never get there," Fett warned. "We ever call oh-cuir-e'tad on her and I'm hiding under my bunk."

"She wouldn't pop us. She thinks we're taking over the world together."

Fett held up his gloved fingers. "I'm about this close."

Both of the men with him thought he was joking.

He wasn't.

.o0o.

"Did they just shout For the Republic?"

"Rah, rah," Fett muttered.

"Why would he teach them that?"

"He wants them to believe in a cause, Ad'ra. To know that if they die, when they're facing death, they're giving their all for a cause that's bigger than them, for something noble and worthwhile."

"Please tell me you don't believe that osik."

He turned, gave her an exasperated look.

"I believe I'm being paid to turn out the most loyal & deadly troops this galaxy has ever seen." The man in battered grey with blue blazes snorted at his own propaganda. "It's his morale booster. You steal or smuggle candy in for them and then take away comfort items. Vau beats the hell out of his until they're basically animals-"

"Sev is not savage," she objected quickly. "He's a prime operative and shoots better than Vau or me. If he doesn't want him I'll take him."

"I wasn't going to have him reconditioned, Ad'ra. I don't have a problem with the kid going a little rough around the edges, a little droid sometimes. I don't much give a damn how you all get your jobs done so long as they get done. Skirata included."

"He's a drunk and he should walk the plank."

"He tells me the same thing about you. You're actually two sides of the same coin. Except you don't muddle sentimentality into getting the actual job done and that's what he's giving them to fight for."

She lifted a brow.

He wondered when she'd grown up on him.

Gorgeous. She was gorgeous.

He didn't think it was just the similarities to Liam that he saw in her that made him think so. Her face would have been pleasing to anyone, probably any race. She made one hell of a partner now and he knew she would until one of them died. Her grip was sure and strong and he trusted her.

Hoped like hell he didn't have to answer to Liam Rottske in Manda for the things he had her doing.

"What motivation do you use for the ARCs?"

"The threat of my boot up their shebs. And the simple satisfaction of a job well done."

"Exactly," she agreed.

He smirked. She thought she was so tough.

She'd read bedtime stories to her lads when they were small and let them branch out as they found specific interests. She'd lost two now. Had two more than the olan the roster required left.

Didn't intend to lose anymore and frequently screamed it at them when she wasn't satisfied with their results.

"How long did it take you to run them through the drills so you're at the top of all the leader boards?"

She smiled at him. It was predatory.

"We do good work."

"You do." A thought occurred to him and he caught her chin so he could read the expression in her eyes while he asked, "I want to know… was it true skill or some splicing?"

"One or the other, sometimes both," she told him proudly.

"Do you understand how utterly pissed off everyone else is going to be when those numbers go up?"

"I do." She actually rubbed her hands together in anticipation. "I so absolutely do."

"I love you."

She rocked over into him. "I know it. I have it on good authority that I'm affable, delightful and cuter than a Twilek."

He narrowed his eyes. "Who's telling you you're cuter than a Twilek?"

"Sgt. Vau did. Ages ago. He said it's a good thing he's not my father—that he wouldn't be very good at it. The cuteness factor plays in sometimes."

That was something he was going to put away to think about later. Although the full explanation was a bit more reassuring than Vau waving away his objections to the time they spent together.

"Is he really old enough to be my father? I thought my father was thirty when I was born."

"Your father was thirty-three when you were born. You were his anniversary baby. They'd been married a year when you entered the world."

"My mother was very young."

"Warrior castes do things differently. But, yes, she was. I wouldn't want a daughter of mine marrying so young."

"Did you hate her, too?"

"I do. With every cell of my body, I do."

"She never reached out? Never sought to get word to you that my father hadn't returned? That neither of us ever returned?"

"I'd have told you," he promised.

"Why?"

"Because you deserve to know. This appointment was your father's inheritance, but this contract? He chose it freely and you should have had the same choice. If she'd gone so far as to seek you out I'd have given you the option to go home to her."

She rolled her eyes.

Just like that she was a child again and he wanted to smack that particular habit right out of her head. It was obnoxious and he found reason again to be grateful he'd never had to beat the deplorable habit out of Boba.

"I actually wondered why she never looked for confirmation that we were both dead and I wasn't orphaned and marooned somewhere. But thanks, I'll pass on the offer of the one-way-trip to hell."

He chuckled. "You used to like going home."

"I used to like going to see you and Jaster and getting treats and the singing in the Oyu'baat." She paused. "I remember the hearth. I guess it was our house? The big fireplace—a whole beast could roast in it—and it had a tall hearth made of round bricks like a half-moon made of many smaller suns."

She watched him nod at her reminiscence.

"It was the house Liam bought her. Technically it's your house, when you're ready for it."

She wrinkled her nose.

"It was the only thing I liked. I'll build my own someday. I don't need or want her or anything she touched."

"Ad'ra…"

She pulled her hand away. "She hated me, Jango. I know she did. She hated me, she hated him, she hated you. I remember. I remember that much… the way she stared at all of us. The glares she gave him when he addressed her. He brought her gifts. Remember? And she'd jerk away from him every time he touched her."

"There was a lot going on there, Ad'ra. Things you can't possibly understand."

"I understand that my father's hands were deadly—and loving. Gentle. Even when he dealt death. He had beautiful hands, do you not remember? And they never shook, never faltered. Even Boba loved his hands. Remember? When he was so tiny, sometimes it was only Da who could get him calmed down. If my father was rough with her it was because she made him be so, she must have! She must have been so hateful for him to lose his temper with her! I know our ways are different than other cultures, but she could have had more children if she was angry that he claimed me for adenn. He could have afforded many children and wouldn't have hesitated to support hers, even if they weren't his."

"I agree."

She frowned at him, let out a huffing breath.

She couldn't know how she wounded him, the scabs she tore off.

He listened, though. Who else did she have to remember her father with?

"Your father was my best friend from the time we first laid eyes on each other, Ad'ra. I loved him."

"Tal vod," she whispered.

"In a way. Sometimes more than that."

"He felt the same way about you," she told him, guilelessly as a child. "You were always his first comm after we completed a mission. Pinging you to see where you were and if you had need of him."

"The fact that he was more loyal to me than to her weighed on their relationship, Ad'ra. And the fact that she wasn't a fifteen-year-old bride blooming with love when he claimed her as wife played a big role in it, too."

"She wasn't mandokarla."

"You can say that again," Fett snorted, replaced his helm and indicated she should as well. He gestured her into the larger staff room.

Sometimes it was necessary for all of them to gather at once.

He'd begun with one hundred cuy'val dar. There'd been some losses among their number as well. She planned to thin their ranks a bit when the time came and she was given leave.

Fett didn't sit and so neither did she. Instead she left her buy'ce on, stood just behind his elbow, and watched the faces that stared up at him.

Some didn't want to be there. Hell, none of them really wanted to be at a meeting that involved all of them. It was never interesting, never good for morale.

Fett hit a button on his gauntlet. The screen that held their unit and specialty ratings flashed up. Some listings were given by company. Some by individual clone designations. The one that mattered—the one of top rankings—that one was dominated by 4th Vu'traat.

"I expect there's a reason that a sixteen-year-old girl has managed to outperform every single unit here," he opened the floor.

There was some muttering. The aruettii didn't have the luxury of hiding their reactions behind a bucket's t-strip.

Walon Vau didn't waste time. He immediately uploaded the individual numbers onto his 'pad. Started comparing line items. Held up his hand in objection to interrupt Isabet Reau's pithy monologue.

"She's altered the board," he said simply.

Gained his feet. Pointed.

"If these numbers are true, and these, the percentages don't work out. There's a discrepancy here. Here. Here. And here."

Fett nodded sharply. "Dalphina deserve their shot at the leaderboard."

"They do. As do Domino, Abesh, Pleiades, Hodasal, Gaht, and Orion. This is osik. Look…"

He tapped. Highlighted. Offered the datapad to Fett.

"I believe that even by your tallies she outscored you, Walon."

"Her unit outperformed Dalphina. In assimilated rankings. Just as they did the ARCs. In a true and equal contest-"

"She'll tell you that our units won't be performing the same tasks."

"There's no fekking way her lead sniper outshot mine and both of you know it."

"Oddly, we were just discussing that," Ad'ra said softly.

"I'm speaking to your master, cub," Vau snarled at her. "Hold your tongue."

Fett glanced slightly over his shoulder, blinked to realign his 360-degree panorama so that one of the layers moved and enlarged. Wisdom told him keeping Ad'ra in his periphery after she'd been insulted by her sometime-hero was the move of a man soon to be down an employee. He didn't want her to slot Walon Vau.

"These numbers will be reevaluated in one week," he charged his cadre force. "Make them look better."

Walon Vau stood there, staring at Ad'ra, as Fett stalked off.

She didn't move a muscle. Stared into the blankness of his helmet through her own. Ignored the streaming data. The patched-in video feeds from her guys. The information he'd shared, marked and corrected.

"Did you alter the leader board?"

"My vode…"

He reached out to jerk her up by the shoulders.

"Do you not realize what you've done?" he snarled. "Now not only do you have a giant fekking target on your back, you've marked your lads, too. Do you think half of these men would hesitate to take out your sniveling brats? And that solo act you're so proud of them for mastering? They need to sleep with their eyes open, each and every one of them. You've written their death sentence."

"Don't threaten me. Or mine."

"Not me, cyar'ika," he snarled. Whipped her around so that he stood behind her, directing her gaze at the near-empty facility. "I can beat you on my own. Without hacking the system to modify the top numbers. Them? Thiete' and Naroshe and Davin? They'll push you overboard and watch you tread water until you can't anymore. Then they'll throw you a line. Over and over and over again. Purposefully throw it short every time."

"Credible deniability," she murmured. Nodded.

"I can't believe Fett let you pull this stunt, let you claim victory over his ARCs."

"He's not worried about what they look like on paper," she told him.

"Why?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. Ask him."

"I will." He released her. Started to stride away in frustration. "Tion'ad hukaat'kama?"

"Sergeant Vau?"

The voice that hailed him was the child's again.

He turned. Removed his helmet. His face was grave, his lips tight in their aggravation.

"It was advice. Not a threat," he told her.

"Please?"

"Do you just like to incite the rabble?" he asked her.

"We earned it. We're outperforming each and every one of your companies at the same stage. We're just younger. Not less."

He considered it.

"Prove it to me."

She nodded. "I will."

"Unaltered numbers."

"I only altered the leaderboard. And it was a challenge to my vode."

"Ad'ra." His voice was anguished when he stepped toward her. She removed her own helmet. "They are not your vode. They aren't. Truly they aren't. And it is unseemly for you to continue to consider them thusly. You're setting yourself up for a broken heart."

"It broke when Olan died. I haven't managed to find all the pieces yet. Get them reordered. I'm not who I was before."

"I asked you once if you were friends." When she began to nod he kept going, not letting her interrupt him. "Were you more than that?"

"He was like my own self just outside my body. It would not hurt this much to lose even Boba or Jango. He was my partner. We knew what the other was thinking and could make jokes together even without meeting the other's eyes. He knew when I was low and just his presence could make me whole again. Tal vod and veman vutyc ver'alor. I'll never be the same for having loved him. It's like part of my heart died, a physical pain like he was ripped out of my soul. Even now."

He reached for her. Drew her head to his shoulder.

"Ad'ra."

"I'm not going to cry again." Her voice was muffled against his plates. "I'm not weak."

"I know it."

He glanced up as Jaig approached him.

"What did you say to her?" the other man barked.

"Nothing. We're mourning," he told him.

Ad'ra glanced up at him. Reached for Jaig's hand as she straightened.

"You should be smiling, Ad'ra Adenn," the man said. "You've issued a challenge none will forget."

"Vau said I have cause to fear for my men. That there will be those who sanction unauthorized force to be used against them."

"That may be. We'll keep our eyes open for it."

He looked up at the black-armored man. Vau gave a curt nod.

"I didn't change the numbers. We just altered the leaderboard. It was a joke and I thought Jango would fix it before the meeting. I never expected him to let it stand. It was more a-" she made a rude gesture, "-to Maze."

Both men had to chuckle.

"Are you afraid of anything other than that ARCie?"

She ran her tongue over her teeth. Considered. "Maybe just one or two other things. At least I know I can count on the ARCs to have my back. Skirata's NULLs are a nightmare."

"I heard you were turning one of them up sweet," Jaig told her with lifted brows.

Vau stiffened. "You're leading on a Null? I told you-"

"No. Prudii is just a pal. Not even a real friend. We have an amicable truce."

"Ori'beskariyc."

"He doesn't mean that as a complement," the other man noted drily.

She narrowed her eyes. "I gathered."

"Who do you mourn?" Jaig asked, running his hand over her elbow.

"Olan."

He winced. Looked up at Vau.

"ASRC-0100."

Jaig shook his head. "Ad'ika. Sometimes people just die."

"I know. I'm well-versed in the eventuality."

Her comm pinged.

"I have to go…"

"Be careful," Vau ordered. "Think. From now on kriffing think. Use the muscle between your ears instead of heeding your over-pridefulness."

She just pulled her helmet into place, sealing it as she went, and went about her business.

"Why does that one clone plague her?" Jaig asked.

"I have a feeling they were a bit more than friends. Just guessing, but either a love-bond or a weighty crush. Although she says not. Claims he was tal vod."

"Blood brothers."

He nodded.

"Those are thin shoulders to carry the weight of the world."

"She'll have backup aplenty when she calls for it," Vau countered. Glanced around the room. "If she can manage to resist the urge to alienate the entirety of the cuy'val dar and not end up under some Kaminoan's test-slide."

"Her eyes go so dark. I don't remember her father's being that way."

"Did you ever meet her mother?"

Jaig shook his head vaguely. "If I did I don't recall, so she must not have been Liam Rottske's yet."

"You just never know what mischief she's going to stir up next."

"It's the hours of enforced nothingness. When Fett has her out there, set up for a take, she has nothing to do but wait and she fills those hours thinking."

"She should learn to download a holo'book to her HUD."

"She rarely wears it on ops."

"The kriff?"

Jaig shrugged. "She swears she'd trip when she's got it on except she already knows every step of the compound inside and out in the dark and barefoot."

Vau shook his head. "I heard her say something like that once. I thought she'd outgrow it."

"Something of a joke, a Mandalorian Adenn with no love of the tech in her bucket."

"I'm rioting, I assure you," came the droll reply.

"What will you do? About this?" Jaig gestured to the glowing leaderboard.

"Kick her fekking shebs."

The older man slapped his shoulder pauldron. Laughed.

"Or die trying?"

"I'm actually going to try to keep anyone from dying from this last little stunt."

"Thought occurred," Jaig admitted. Glanced over at the other board.

"Whoever is second to ASRC-1101? She needs to assign him to watching that lad's backside."

"A meritous suggestion."

.o0o.

"Get up! Now! Keshush!"

A hundred and two slightly undersized warriors slung their sleep-quilts off and flung themselves into defensive positions instead of attention.

Walon Vau leaned against the open bulkhead. Clapped slowly. Sardonically.

"Where is your priestess of misery and malcontent?" he asked, shifting upright.

He glanced around. Nice perimeter. Defensible.

"Why are you sleeping three-high in your racks?" he asked.

"State your business, Sergeant. Respectfully, Sergeant."

"Where's ASRC-1101?"

No answer.

"One!" he roared. "Which one of you answers to One!?"

"We're nameless men, Sergeant. We answer to our CO, our training marshal, and our Mand'Alor."

"And there's foul afoot. I've a man missing and I can raise neither your Adenn nor Mand'Alor. Is your number all accounted for?"

That made them hesitate. He saw a few telling glances as boys did a headcount.

"Um, Sarge? We are missing a few of our soletyc."

"Is One among them?"

"Ye-yes, Sergeant."

He nodded. Went to his own private line. Issued a few orders. Pulled his data'pad out.

"Which one of you is Cin? I need to patch into Fett's gauntlet pad. He tracks the Adenn. Can you locate him? Locate her? Is it possible to see if another has also pulled her codex from his tracer?"

The young man rushed forward. Popped his elbow against the wall.

"No offense, Sergeant, but mine is probably better."

He agreed. Leaned over the armored form.

"Fallon and Lathlo. Will they round out the number of missing verde?"

He nodded, big brown eyes wide with what was unmistakably fear.

"And Omega, Sergeant Vau."

He hissed.

"Check!" he shouted as the door opened again.

Fifteen beskared cadets from Dalphina joined their numbers.

"Anyone who comes through that door—with the exception of myself, the Adenn, and Fett himself—they go down. Do you understand me?"

"Comms?"

"Still okay. Kill video feed."

"We're particular about what we sent out on the vid, Sergeant," replied the young man whose quick fingers worked to splice into the information he wanted.

"Of course you are."

"It goes back to when we got ill. There's always things we'd rather not let anyone else in on, of course, but we began constantly self-monitoring and choosing what represents us then."

"Sergeant Vau?" A hand extended. "I don't know that we ever thanked you properly that day. For backing up our marshal, you understand?"

He clasped the extended wrist. "It was our pleasure, Mando. Now prove yourself worthy."

He nodded. "Roger that, Sergeant. WILCO."

The lad strode around. Jerked his head at a few of his brethren.

"Kill the hallways for me for ten, Cinny," he called out.

"WILCO." Vau watched them stack the door. "Go. Now."

Silent bodies slipped out into the blackened hallway.

He wondered where the hell they were going to secret themselves in the sterile, open space. Considered the panel that Cin had popped loose to reveal a workstation hidden in the bowels of their room's circuitry.

"You lads are terrifying."

"We're a law unto ourselves. Rarely will our mission template comply with the Senate's mandates for fair and lawful warfare. We do what none of those gentlemen and ladies want to admit needs done. And we'll win the war by staying hidden. This is good practice."

"Scans completed, Sergeant Vau," Boss called over their private link. "No environmental threat."

"Sergeant?" Walon returned his attention to Cin, who shook his head. "She's with him. See? In the office, Sarge."

He patched in the video feed to Fett's private workspace.

"There's surveillance even there?" Vau was shocked Fett would allow it.

"I don't need the security cameras," Cin told him. "It's the view from her buy'ce. She must have it off."

"You can't manipulate the angle, can you? I want to see who else is-"

"Oh. I can tell you that. Hold one."

He switched something. Opened a new view, leaving the one of Fett and Ad'ra's side. Left open the 3d holochart of locator beacons. Brought up Ad'ra's 360° view.

"Is this how you win ops?"

"Sometimes."

"What will you do when there's no access to the tech of your intended victim?"

Cin's fingers were busy. Bodies and nothingness. Bodies and nothingness.

"I assume, Sergeant, that if this kind of specialization isn't required that they'll send in one of the bangers or meat-heads. We consider ourselves shaped charges. You wouldn't use thermo dets to crack the armory and you need more bang than strip-tape-charges to bust a deck. The right tool for the job. Always. It's Sergeant Priest. I don't recognize the men with him."

Vau did. He clapped the shoulder and took off at a jog. Commed for some backup of his own as he ran. Hoped Jaig or H.G. was up to get the message. Wondered whose side Thiete' would come down on. Commed Skirata and Skip as an afterthought.

"Boss. Have the hacker send me Maze's company and get the Nulls on stand-by."

"We can be right behind you, Sergeant," the Delta squad sergeant offered.

"You have your orders."

"Right away, Sergeant."

Vau's heartbeat raced and he tried to match his footsteps to it. Pounded down and around. Cursed the complexity of the structure. Up here, down here. He vaulted over a railing rather than take the steps. Opted to slide down a fire escape ladder rather than utilize the lift or waste time in the hallways. Pelted hell-for-nothing across the tarmac before gaining the command structure.

He was relieved when Skip Smar K'cen joined him from another direction. Jaig was busting through a set of double doors up ahead. He nodded his gratitude.

"What gives, Walon?" he panted.

Skirata was on the lift when it opened, his boys in full battle gear behind him.

"Either a mutiny or a lynching," he told the men. "Gunner and Flag have Fett and Ad'ra blocked in. Dred's with them, but I don't have ears in there. I can't tell you which way he'll come down."

"Who are we lynching?"

"Not us. Them. There's an entire hallway of commandos lining the corridor."

"Fek."

"I couldn't have said it better."

"How did you get involved?"

"RC-1207 failed his psych eval. Ad'ra tried to annex him."

"Which one of them does he belong to?" Skip asked.

"Me," Vau told them. "I respectfully declined to have him reassigned. Or reconditioned. He's exactly the right type of psycho to win wars."

"Chip off the old block, eh?" Skirata huffed. His gait kept him from keeping up with the other men and his troopers stayed with him, their footsteps eerily ominous in the matched paces.

"Hold," Vau called. Raised his fist. Spoke into his comm.

He glanced around him before breaching the bulkhead around them.

Pulled his custom Flash 4s and lifted them to shoulder height.

"I'd rather do this without bloodshed."

"Understood."

H.G.'s shuffling bearing came to them. He huffed and ran bent-over.

"Picked a nice night for an uprising, Walon," he complained.

"Gunner and Flag are in Fett's office. Something's off."

"Yeah. This whole fekking assignment," the hand-to-hand guy complained.

"They have what looks like an entire company of lads in there, blocking them in."

"So much for filing complaints with admin in a civilized manner," H.G. joked. He unslung his rifle. "Stun?"

"Let me EMP 'em," Prudii suggested.

"You'll kill our lights and comms, too."

"And theirs."

"Wait one," Vau suggested. He buzzed his own command squad. Had a message relayed.

'Stand down. ENDEX.'

Lights flashed yellow on every single comm'link in the training barracks. Some of the clones looked at each other in confusion.

"Check!" H.G. roared as he breached the bulkhead doors. His rifle was up on his shoulder, targets sighted up and Vau beside him with his beloved heavy sidearms. Maze took the other side at the same time. "CHECK! CHECK! CHECK!"

Armored commandos and the ones in officer-trimmed white ARC plates poured through, putting their brethren down on their knees roughly and demanding weapons be dropped in their slings, hands laced on their heads.

In Fett's office the two men opposite his desk heard the commotion, the command, and snarled.

"Get on your knees!" Ad'ra demanded, snatching her own weapon in the moment's confusion. Dred Priest already had the one nearest him in a headlock and now popped his seal.

Flag had no chance of obeying Ad'ra's command with the other man's grip. His spine was bent backwards to the breaking point.

Vau slid in just behind Maze.

"Restrain them," Fett ordered, rising.

"Where's my sniper, Fett?" Vau demanded.

"I haven't done any relocations of any assets. I told you Ad'ra was amenable to annexing him. You said-"

"So where's she hiding him?"

Ad'ra's glance was questioning.

"I want my man back, adenn or not."

"I don't have him."

"What about your missing men?"

"I'm not missing any men," she objected.

Fett nodded at her as she jerked Gunner's head back.

"Where is he?" she asked him. If anyone knew where a sniper might be detained it was the pulse projectile rangemaster.

The man spat up at her. It would have impressed her under other circumstances. As it was, getting hit in the face with spittle after having her Mand'alor threatened? Didn't put her in the mood to express appreciation at either the feat itself or the balls it took to take that particular course of action in his current circumstance.

"I find you guilty of treason," she told the goor'verd. "How do you answer charges of sedition, here, with these men to witness your pleas?"

"I do not recognize your sovereignty. No true Mand'alor would sell out our people. And you are no adenn. None answer your call."

"I did not even have to call for my marev to close on you," she promised.

She glanced up at Fett, who nodded.

In that instant her beskad was in her hand, then it opened the man's throat. Her beautifully painted plates were splattered, as was the desk, the go'naasir's vile partner, and the men who stood beside her.

She glared up at Dred.

"I doubted that you stood with us."

"I am a Mandalorian. Until one more worthy makes himself known I follow this one."

His head rocked toward Fett.

"You came with them."

"I did. And if I needed numbers you'd find my men, as well as my companions and cohorts in the numbers outside."

"Prove it," she sneered.

Vau watched as she offered the beskad. Priest jerked off his helmet. Instead of taking the machete he grabbed her hand, fisted his around so that his fingers laced with hers.

Drew it in a controlled motion under his own chin, opening a line that welled with droplets of blood.

"I will not forget that in this moment you questioned my loyalty, and your doubt will be your downfall someday," the other man promised.

He kept her hand under his on the hilt. Moved it to open the throat of the man kneeling at his feet.

"Disperse them," Fett ordered Maze.

"Right away, Mand'Alor."

"Wait!" he called. He rose. Circled the draining bodies in his office floor to stand in the doorway. "KESUSH!"

The men in the hallway snapped to attention. All of them.

"Ad'ra."

At his call she stepped out to join him.

"Bow," he demanded.

She bent her knee and he laid his hand to the back of her neck. Shifted all that hair that she'd loosened as they discussed business great and small. Made a short chopping motion.

"Rise. Faithful servant."

She did so, glancing behind her.

Blood dripped from her hand, from the blade she'd offered in both palms. It marked her footsteps, smudged the place where she'd genuflected to accept his accolades or censure.

It was Walon Vau's voice who called the obeisance:
"Cetar."
[Kneel]

Damned if it didn't feel good to make the troops of your enemies genuflect to you.

Fett nodded once. "As you were. Alpha-01, offer Abesh Company an escort to their barracks and place a guardship over their quarters. No one in, no one out. Don't bother with stun settings."

"At once, Mand'Alor."

"Jango," she whispered on an internal. "They simply marched here under orders of their alorir."

"I am aware."

"I'm still missing a body," Vau reminded them. "And Ad'ra's missing four."

"What!?" her head whipped around.

"One, Lathlo, Fallon, and Omega."

She didn't bother any niceties of removing the blood splatter from her face or form. Instead she turned, pelting away from them, her voice already calling to her vode.

"I have three squads and the other three from Delta in there with them," he told her, moving to follow. Fett's hesitation put him a step or two behind them.

"I'll have someone's head if they're harmed," he promised. "This was not on my order, Ad'ika."

She glanced back at him. "If I doubted for a moment I'd have lain you low already," she told the man.

It impressed the hell out of Fett. His chuckle was incongruous.

"Tome, Vode!" she called into the link she opened to the entirety of her Ranger company. "Ko'lar! 1001, 1101, 1110, 1007, I'm with you. Find your way to my aran."

"RC-1207, too," Walon told her. "Recall him, too, with immunity. Use the immunity code. I don't know where he is or if he's scared and hiding or if someone got to him."

"I'll enact vengence on any who has," she promised.

"Why are they after yours, too?" Jaig asked.

"Because, if you discount NULLs and ARCs, those lads of hers are the best on the boards. And Sev is the highest scoring marksman in the GAR."

"This is your game that started this," Skip told Ad'ra. "You stirred this."

Dred shook his head. "Those two have been biding their time for a chance since they got here. She didn't win any friends fucking our leaderboard, but it wasn't just her. She's not got a slice of the talent the commandos do. That little show yesterday has very little to do with this other than opportunity."

"Thank you," Ad'ra murmured. Unexpected ally there. She wondered what it would cost her. "I do appreciate that."

"I'm not in your employ for you to approve or disapprove," the man corrected. "Outside of this particular osik'la ge'kaan I'm no more likely to bow to your or your boss than anyone else. But I'll be damned if I'll be summonsed and then positioned like a pawn, only to be questioned by a ga'verd with a wet blade and fear the only thing keeping her hand steady."

"It is not fear that steadies my hand," she shot back.

"Gev!" Fett ordered. "Give it a rest. Priest, Skip, on me. Skirata, see what your NULLs can dig up. I want those troopers found and I want them returned alive. Vau, Jaig, H.G., Ad'ra's orders. Good luck and keep me informed."

He didn't wait for the acquiesce noises to be made, peeling off to man the battle command station on the tower.

He'd have access to the bigger boards there.

He was tired of this osik'la, too.

'Really, Lee?' he thought. 'This should be you here tonight. You could have talked sense into her. Or beat it into her. I'm guilty there, I suppose. I left her to raise herself when I should have adopted her as mine and raised her with Boba.'

"Mand'Alor, sir?"

"I'm receiving," he replied, stopping suddenly.

"Sir, is it really safe to come out, or is it a trap? I'm asking you, sir. And I have your son here, so it would serve you to answer me truly. Is it safe to send my vode out there?"

"Patch me through to your HUD."

He received the code. Cursed fluently under his breath.

Pulled up the tally tracking program and made a sound of disgust. Nothing showed in his quarters. What the fek?

"Ad'ra. One of yours is in my quarters, watching Boba. He wants to know if it's safe to send out his vode."

"Negative, Mand'Alor," she responded. "I have no indicators in that sector."

"I know what I've just seen."

"I suggest it is a probe or droid feed," she argued.

"Do you have eyes on them?"

"I do not."

"Fek."

"Find them, Cin," she demanded. She sent out the transponder code.

"What is that?" Walon asked as rhythmic static filled his buy'ce at her incessant tapping.

"Dadita?" Jaig asked, turning on her. "Are you teaching your lads the ancient aenigma?"

"Do you have a better suggestion?"

"Yes. That's a secret codex. It shouldn't be disseminated to just anyone-"

"Then don't teach anyone else," she shot back.

"I don't know what you're talking about," H.G. complained. He met Vau's confused frown as well.

"I can't tell you. Jaig's prissy about it apparently."

"It's a sacred thing, Ad'ra."

"So are my boys. And I wanted a way to warn them off, to get information to them, if the GAR decided they weren't worth their weight in gold."

"I'm receiving, ma'am," Cin told her.

"Thank the gods," she whispered.

They listened, all of them in the large room, and waited. It became deathly silent. Even the breaths the clones took synced up. Ad'ra matched hers to theirs. Looked into the eyes of the next ranking man in her company.

"Nodded. Go." She commed Fett. "I've got them. They're not in your rooms. They have eyes on Boba because they keep eyes on me and thought you and I could take three hundred but wanted to make sure nobody circled through to our suites. He was scared, Jango. He's never heard the immunity contingency code and suspected it wasn't what it seemed."

"You've taught them to fear their very shadows."

"I'll apologize to them when my company is intact at the end of this conflict."

"No apologies necessary, ma'am," Roger told her. He patted her elbow as he moved to the other side of the room. Another set of men joined him as the NULLs came crashing in, too.

The ceiling swung down and a body dropped into their hands.

"Careful with him. Not sure what the aiwha's gave him. He's still out."

"Son of a bitch!"

"Sev, honey? Sev, it's Sergeant Ad'ra. I need you to wake up."

"Get me Gilamar," Vau ordered.

Delta Squad circled 'round, too.

"How the hell did you guys know something was wrong?" Prudii wanted to know, reaching for Ad'ra's elbow and clapping it lightly in a show of reassurance.

"What order requisition demands five snipers—four of us commed individually? We weren't scheduled to be together but we're working on..." He paused. The way his eyes flicked from face to face wasn't distinguishable in his helm. "Something. But we were, and it raised our hackles. But our comms were fekked, too, and there's only like two guys here who could do that..."

His partner piped up. "I tried to check with Cin to see if he'd gotten anything interesting and he didn't have any new op orders. Told me to do what I was told."

"I didn't know," the genius hacker said sorrowfully.

"We get that now," his friend told him apologetically.

One just rolled his eyes. "It was bas for us to all be ordered to the same general location-all four or us-separate op orders for just us and then the one other guy who can shoot straighter than me in the whole fekking army. It just didn't sit right, you know, ma'am?" One asked her.

Omega nodded. "Plus when we sought confirmation you didn't respond."

"I was a little task-saturated, Om."

"Be that as it may, we decided better safe than sorry. This guy proves that."

Sev curled up, rolled to his side and groaned.

"How 'bout an ice pack and a sip of water?" Jaig suggested.

Roger moved smartly to comply.

"We accidentally had to drop him," Lathlo told them. "He's probably feeling that. Don't know what they had him smoking, but it was thick and it smelled foul even in the cans. Our filters didn't register the exact composition. I just split my air with him. That's all I could think to do."

"Thank you," Boss told the younger clone, reaching out.

"He didn't even tell us he'd been called out," Fixer complained.

"Secret missions are like that," Vau agreed. "We'll enact some new safeguards."

"Why did they want him?" Fallon asked. "Really because we're better? Is that really it?"

"I am afraid so," Ad'ra said. "Fett left the leaderboard the way we built it and it apparently pissed some folks off."

"Then they should work harder. Not take out good operatives."

"Noted."

Om snorted. "Work as hard as you like. We're a tough show to beat."

The remaining members of Delta just looked at him. There must have been some silent communique between the Alpha Null batch because as one the six of them turned and just left without another word.

Vau snickered. "We're going to teach you to form up in squads and pairs. Somebody knows what you're doing at all times. Even if you're just using the 'freshers. They can report how many squares of flimsi it takes to get your shebs clean. You understand me?"

He pulled Ad'ra's head back by the hair. "Do you understand me?"

"I hear you," she grunted.

"Why is your fekking hair down again?"

"Because I thought we were done for the night. You're lucky I still had plates on."

He shook his head.

Fett came in with Boba on his shoulder. The Rangers surrounded the sleeping half-sized child. They adored him. He could thank Ad'ra for that.

"Still sleeping, ga'vod? Good little vod'ika. Good soldier that, sleep when you can and don't get 'plussed 'bout nothing."

Fett waved them away. Laid his child on the lower bunk at the left side of the barracks.

"Do you want to explain to me this particular reconfiguration?" he asked, gesturing behind him. His glance took in the recessed work station and swinging ceiling panel.

"No, sir. Not really, sir."

Dozens of helmeted heads shook.

"Get it fixed before anyone else sees it."

"We like them three-high, sir. Do we really have to nix that?"

He looked at the neat frames built for their footlockers all along one end. The defensible barricade he'd had to come through at the doorway. They'd created something of an armory on the payt wall near the 'freshers. A bastion within the bastion.

"Fine. Submit a request for approval."

"Roger that. Wilco, sir."

"Immediately, sir," Om agreed.

"Not too detailed," Ad'ra hissed at him. He nodded curtly.

"I am so exhausted. I'm going to bed. Good luck with the lad. I'm glad he was in good hands."

"I'll be off, too."

"Boba could stay here with us the night, Mand'Alor," Bopp suggested. "We'd watch him and get him back your way in the morning."

Fett considered it. "I think he'd probably do better waking in the same place he went to sleep. Some other time. Perhaps when his beskar'gam comes in."

That made them nod their agreement. They loved detailing armor.

Dinlii little things.

"Ad'ra."

"Yes, Mand'Alor."

"Targets I mark and those targets alone."

She regarded him carefully.

"For the continuation of the mission, targets I mark and targets I mark only."

"I understand, sir. Yes, sir."

He wasn't cuffing her hands forever. Just giving her a deadline. She could live with that.

So long as no one threatened her boys, she could live with that.