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Clone Trooper Barracks, Coruscant
Rex was sitting on his bunk looking at an old picture of Fives and Echo. He stares at it for a while before he mutters "Fives, Echo, and before that, Hevy. There's so many troopers gone." Suddenly the door opens and Jesse walks in. He sees Rex on his bunk and walks up to him "Hey brother, I've got some good news. General Skywalker is back and the 501st has been given two days leave before we are shipping out to the front again." Rex got up and was about to leave the barracks before Jesse continued "General Skywalker wants us to report to him. He wants to know what we found. He ordered us to come to his private quarters ASAP." Rex sighed, he cared about his General and he hated to lie to him but for the sake of his brothers, he must. He started to walk towards the Resolute with Jesse in tow.
General Skywalker's Private Chambers, Resolute
Rex and Jesse arrived in front of General Skywalker's chambers and Jesse knocked on the door. It beeped and the door opened. General Skywalker was sitting on his bunk when the two clones walked in. They saluted and Rex said, "You wished to see us General?" Skywalker nodded and said "Yes, I wanted to know what you found out. Was there anything to this investigation of yours?" Rex steeled himself before he let out a sigh "No sir, It was all a moot point. I apologize for wasting time with this endeavor and for accusing the Chancellor for having a role in this. I guess it was hard to understand that a close brother could just snap like that."
Skywalker's eyes softened before he put on a small smile "Apology accepted, Fives death was hard for all of us. Jesse, could you give us a minute? I need to speak to Rex alone." Jesse gave a nod and left. Rex looked at Anakin and asked, "Is everything alright Sir?" Anakin just chuckled and said "Everything is fine Rex, just wanted to let you know the 501st has two days' leave. Padme was on Scipio and the invasion rattled her. I need to spend some time with her." Rex smiled at one of his oldest friends "Of course Sir, give the senator my best." Anakin smiled before he clapped Rex on his back "I always do." With that last thought, they left Anakin's chambers and went their separate ways.
The Triumphant
Jedi Master Plo-Koon was standing on the bridge alone, he was lost in thought. Suddenly the doors opened and Clone Commander Wolffe walked in "You wanted to see me, Sir?" Plo looked at the clone and said "Yes, please shut the door. First and foremost I want to dispense with formalities for this conversation. I want you to speak freely without worrying about judgment or consequences." Wolffe nodded and relaxed. Plo continued "Do you remember the incident surrounding Clone Trooper Tup and Arc Trooper Fives?" Wolffe nodded and said "Yeah, I remember that. The gossip surrounding that was both troopers snapping. Tup killed General Tiplar and Fives tried to assassinate the Chancellor. Guess they were defective and no one saw it until it was too late."
Plo sat there and listened before he said "What if I were to tell you there is much more to that story than anyone was led to believe?" Wolffe just looked confused "What do you mean? That is what happened isn't it?" Plo sighed and tried to think of the best way to phrase this "Yes and no. The official report is that a parasite native to Ringo Vinda infected Clone Trooper Tup and that caused the decay of his inhibitor chip. If you recall the Kaminoan chief medical scientist, Nala Se, claimed these inhibitor chips were implanted into the clones to make you more docile. According to Chancellor Palpatine that virus caused a decay in Tup's inhibitor chip and that caused him to snap and kill General Tiplar. The same thing supposedly happened with Fives. He removed his chip and without it, he supposedly went mad and tried to kill the Chancellor after claiming he had been part of a conspiracy. That is the story we know so far but there are several strange coincidences. First, no other 501st member was infected with that parasite. Half of the Legion was stationed planet side and only one member got infected. The odds on that are astronomical. Secondly, Arc Trooper Fives went mad and tried to kill the Chancellor after he was locked in a room with him and no one else was in the room. He even dismissed his guards which he never does. Third, the Chancellor was adamant about having his doctors personally examine the bodies of the two clones. The Jedi Council wanted to see what they could find with the force but the Chancellor refused outright; Almost like he was afraid of what we might find."
Wolffe stopped Plo-Koon and said, "Sir, where are you going with this?" Plo then continued his tale "Captain Rex and Lieutenant Jesse were unsatisfied with this investigation so they decided to do one of their own. Captain Rex removed his inhibitor chip and had Jesse look over him for two weeks. Rex didn't go mad or act in any way out of character. This made no sense, so Lieutenant Jesse did the same and when he recovered they scanned the chip intently. They found a large number of contingency orders held in a mechanical chip, that mechanical chip was embedded in the organic tissue of the inhibitor chip. One order stuck out. It was Order 66." Wolffe was confused and asked, "What is Order 66?"
Plo fixed him with a serious expression and said "Order 66 states that In the event of The Jedi acting against the interests of the Republic, and after receiving specific orders verified as coming directly from the Supreme Commander (Chancellor), The GAR will remove them by lethal force, and command of the GAR will revert to the Supreme Commander (Chancellor) until a new command structure is established. In essence, if the Chancellor gives the order for any reason the Jedi get no trial, no explanation. The Clone Troopers would be ordered to execute us on the spot." Wolffe was dumbfounded, this couldn't be true. This had to be some mistake. Plo looked at him like he knew what he was thinking "This is no mistake we have confirmed it. I wish it was a mistake. It is clear a member of the Sith found a way to wipe out the Jedi in one fell swoop. It is clear the Chancellor is heavily involved. If this is allowed to come to pass the Jedi would be wiped out and the Republic would be ripped apart from the inside out."
Wolffe froze, he looked at the Jedi Master and said "Say that again. Exactly what you just said." Plo repeated his sentence with a look of confusion on his face and Wolffe paled. Suddenly he ran to the Holo-computer and started typing away furiously. Plo asked him "What are you doing?" Wolffe continued searching through files while he briefed his General "Those are the exact words used by Pong Krell during the fight for Umbara. After it was revealed he was a traitor and the 501st captured him, he said those exact words. He said he was soon to be an agent of Dooku. That must be the Sith that had a hand in these inhibitor chips. He wants to destroy the Jedi and the Republic." He pulled up Captain Rex's report and they both understood the gravity of the situation.
Wolffe looked at Plo and said "I'm heading to the medical bay and removing my chip immediately. What do I tell the medical droid to look for?" Plo said, "Tell the droid to perform a Phase 5 Atomic level brain scan and remove any tissue foreign to the body." Wolffe nodded and as he walked out he turned to his friend and said "You need to inform the rest of the Jedi as soon as possible and Sir?" Plo looked at Wolffe and asked "Yes, Wolffe" Wolffe smiled under his helmet and said "Thank you for everything Sir, you treated us clones like people, you care about us and you have never treated us like numbers. For that, I am eternally grateful. I will stand by you no matter what Sir." With that final word, he turned around and made haste towards the medical bay. Plo-Koon was happy knowing he had a true friendship with the clone. He then turned to the Holo-computer and made a secure call to the Jedi Temple. This was going to be a long Council meeting.
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