Mandalore Air Space

Vau had come up with the ship and now A'den was ready to go. He'd done his part to spread the virus and with the final checks done, fake transponder working, he lifted off.

His Com blinked—Kal'buir. His hand automatically went to answer it, then he paused and pulled back. The call ended. He would call him later, when he was further out. Ny had obviously broken the news to him. A'den hoped it had not caused another problem between them, Buir had only just got over her name being on that Jedi list.

A'den leaned back into his seat, he was getting used to the idea of her being around and liked the effect she was having on his Father. Sometimes, despite all their problems and all his worries, his father looked twenty years younger when Ny was around him, fussing, because she did fuss around him. It was what A'den and all his brothers wanted for him. A'den especially liked the look his father got when she called him 'shorty'. She spoilt him and when Kal'buir thought no one was looking, his eyes followed her around the room.

Although it hurt him to disobey, this was something he had to do. He could no longer sit by and do nothing; he would never forgive himself. It had become imperative after Jaing had found those images on the Holonet. One you could ignore but yesterday he had found more, Ryloth, and always with the Imperial they identified as Vice Admiral Rampart. He changed his transponder settings again, noting the latest equipment that Vau had in his craft, then programmed the Nav Com and the craft jumped to hyperspace. Mandalore was under the Empire but the Air Traffic Control was still manned by Mando's and they weren't going to try and keep anyone in, not who wanted to leave. He left Mandalore Air Space as a freighter leased to Mandal Motors and was in hyperspace before or if they realised he wasn't who he said he was.

"Buir would understand. Ordo doesn't yet." He leant back, hoping to get a little sleep before he landed. He had a list of contacts, who had previously shown they could reach where even the Nulls couldn't, especially when they had been in Republic armour. He hoped it was the same with the Empire.

.

He dropped out of hyperspace just before Ord Mantell. It was ridiculously easy to get past their Air Traffic Control and find a hanger to land in. Vau had given him the coordinates of one where they would keep their mouths shut for a price.

He jammed his bucket on and headed out of his ship, setting the anti intruder lock. It was Ord Mantell after all. He scanned the hanger, it wasn't busy, only one other ship in there being checked over by one of those annoying Pit Droids. He threw a credit chip to the owner. The sullastan caught it with ease.

"Any dents— you pay." He pointed at them, holding his finger there, aggressively, for a few more seconds than normally necessary. It's face jowls flapped in indignation, before he walked away.

It had been a while. He had not been here since the beginning on the war and he first met Ny. At least Buir was with her now; his Father was more angry with the Jetii, after they had used her. He had used her and felt bad about that, except what had happened after, with Kal'buir. The night before he left he had disturbed the two of them in the Karayai; they pulled apart like they both going up in flames, like teenagers caught doing something they shouldn't. He pretended not to notice, not sure how Ny would feel about being caught like that, so he just pretended to be reading his datapad, as he walked in. He didn't think they believed him.

He reached the Cantina. There were no Imperials around, in fact he hadn't seen any on his deliberately meandering walk through the city and the city had not changed much since he was last here.

He stopped and turned at the top of the steps; it looked like any other cantina in this area. Seedy. He had never been into this one and headed down the steps into the dim light. Nearly empty, just a couple of customers, a Weequay and an Ithorian who wore a translating vocorder to speak. He wandered over to the bar, a Pantoran man stood there, wiping a greasy glass with and equally greasy looking cloth.

"Ale, bottle, unopened." He didn't have to drink it, if he didn't want to and he really didn't trust the cleanliness of the glasses. The man placed his bottle directly in front of him silently.

"Hey Mando!"

Fifteen seconds. Not bad.

He turned slowly towards the owner of the distinctive voice, a Trandoshan. Shorter than normal, female and yellow. What passed for a smile fell from her face.

"Nah. You're not the one. Different colour armour." The voice was raspy, the result of too many death sticks and rough Corellian whiskey decided A'den.

"I need some info." He didn't have time to mess about.

"Well, you've come to the right place, if you've got the right kind of credits."

"What kind would that be?"

"The only kind. High value. Untraceable.

He jangled the credit chips in his pouch; they matched her description exactly. Her eyes went to the pouch.

"What are you after?"

"Not here."

"They better be very high value." She gestured towards a door with her claw. He scanned the room again and kept his HUD on 360 degrees, as he followed her into the room at the rear. Nobody made a move to follow them.

She sat on a soft settee, behind a table, facing him. "It's secure here."

"Don't be offended if I don't take your word for it." He scanned the room. She shrugged, as a few seconds later, he found she had been truthful.

"Told you so. Doesn't always pay to advertise." She looked at him head cocked on one side.

"You're not one of those Mando's that don't show their face are you?"

"Which ones are those?" He was intrigued, this was new. Kal'buir had never mentioned that. You normally didn't take your helmet off, but it wasn't totally forbidden.

"Children of the Watch."

"I'm nonsectarian." He responded, he had never heard of them but the Watch part could mean affiliates to Death Watch. He'd have to discuss that with Kal and Walon.

"Hee, hee." A throaty chuckle came out of her mouth, "Helmet off then."

A'den paused. All she would see was a clone, recognising him as one, only if she had seen one of his brothers before

"Fairs fair. Like to see who I'm dealing with."

A'den released his bucket and pulled it off; the smell hit him. He managed to keep a blank face as he clipped his bucket to his belt.

She looked at him, head cocking from side to side.

"Nice to meet you 'handsome'." She bared her teeth, he thought it was still a smile. "So what do you want?" Her slanted pupil eyes reminded him of the Marits on Gaftikar.

"Information on a person." He pulled up the latest holo of Ryssa. "Need to know if you have any info on her."

"Don't normally deal with Imperials." She peered at the picture, reading the information below.

"She'll be wanting to get out, and I know you do extractions." He turned his head to the large closed door at the side of the room. He still had sharp hearing even without his bucket and he had heard a scuffle.

If she had eyebrows one would have raised. "My vault, a few rats get in there. I have to clear them out occasionally." She licked her lips.

He didn't want to think how she did that but he couldn't judge.

"So why do you want her?" She continued.

His face remained a blank slate.

"Personal?" she pushed.

"Revenge?" she pushed further.

He huffed.

"Personal then. I had you pegged the same as your brother, playing the field."

He tensed, his blaster went to his holster. She had seen clones before.

She picked up on his response and rose, moving quickly next to him, faster than had expected she could, a claw traced along his jaw line. "You don't play the field because of that?" She nodded to the holo. "That pretty boy brother of yours was not so uptight. He appreciated my ….. special talents."

A'den shook his head. Mereel.

"So you're Ordo?"

A'den huffed again.

"No?"

She studied him.

"A'den? Ah yes. I kept tabs on some of the more colourful Mandos, Jango's little clique. The ones who 'disappeared' and that included Skirata."

"Cid. Pleased to meet you." She held out a set of claws; A'den was polite, he shook carefully. His other hand on his blaster.

"So now we're properly introduced, help yourself." She jabbed at a snack bowl on the table with a claw, spearing some of the contents and offered the bowl to him.

After Gaftikar, he never asked exactly where any food came from but shook his head anyway, just in case. He never liked the taste of rats.

"Kal and me go way back. The little shabuir." She continued, "Then he disappeared but the rumours didn't. And Vau." Her lip curled, sneering even more at his name, "No wonder you didn't like the Children of the Watch jibe."

She poured a shot and offered it to him. He shook his head again.

"But Wad'e, Wad'e Tay'haai, now he knew how to treat a lady."

She continued to stare at him.

"So. How's Pretty boy, Mereel, then?"

"I'm not here to talk about my vod."

"Shame, would've been good to do some catching up."

She was at his back again, leaning over his shoulder, "So, you still not interested?" He felt her breath on his cheek. "Relieve the boredom? Scratch the itch? I can do all those for you."

"No!" It came out harsher than he intended, even as he felt the tiny horns on her neck, dig gently into his shoulder. It was not unpleasant.

"Hm. Let's get to business then. This Imperial. The one that's personal." She emphasised personal as she leaned back in her seat looking at him then diverted her attention to her datapad, "How personal? Not revenge, she hasn't got a hit out on her." She put the pad down and one claw up to her chin, looking at him. "Oh yes. I forgot, it's that kind of personal, isn't it." She chuckled at the thought. "Let's see the colour of your money."

He pulled out a credit chip and placed it in front of her.

"I ain't got no change."

"Don't want any. I want the info' and I want it to come direct to me." It was worth it to get her back. The amount that was pouring into The Bank of Skirata was obscene; they would replace that in half a day's interest, even less.

CID studied him for several long seconds. "It's a deal. Any info I get on her comes direct to you."

He nodded. "Anything." He clarified.

"The offer still stands, Handsome. I've got an itch to scratch."

"No thanks. No offence."

CID shrugged, "None taken. Not a risk taker then?"

He pulled his buy'ce back on and sealed it.

"Remember me to Mereel. Tell him I hope the scratches healed well." A'den stopped for a split second before he walked on; he remembered a time when they had all been in the gym. They had never found out who caused the scratches on his brothers back; he had just smiled when they asked. Sometimes he just didn't understand his brother.

.

CID checked her security cams and waited until he was well clear of her Cantina and pressed the button under her desk. The door to her vault opened and the three rogue clones poured out.

"Who made the noise? He caught it. No never mind. You lot get all that?"

She sighed as they all tried to speak at once.

"So, Dark and Broody. What do you think?"

"He's a clone. A Null. A prototype."

"Look. I know he's one of Skirata's lot. I dealt with some of them during the war. Is he Imperial?"

"Tech, Echo?" Hunter deferred to them.

"Nothing I've seen indicates they are. In fact they are all still on the wanted lists together with us, some other Commandos and a few Alpha ARC's plus a handful of the Mandalorian training Sergeants."

"Thanks Goggles. Useful info' at last."

"The Imp he's looking for, he says it's personal." She pulled up the holofeed.

Echo replied, "Her name's Ryssa Baey, a Doctor."

"Yeah, yeah. I can see that."

"She was in the GAR and she's his wife."

"Ah." The credit chip dropped.

"He's offering a lot of credits, for a clone, for info on her." Hunter commented.

Tech pushed forward, elbowing in front of Echo, who glared at him, "Rumour was that Skirata and Vau ran an operation against some Jabiimi terrorists on Coruscant in the middle of the War. Skirata pocketed their funds, well, the credits were never found and it wasn't legitimately sanctioned by SOB and the Nulls, even though they are psychologically unbalanced…."

"Who isn't." Muttered Echo.

Tech glared back at him, "The Nulls are genius at slicing and other cyber sports, so would probably have access to a large amount of credits by various means. They're dangerous."

"That's Dr Baey." Omega commented, pointing, through a mouthful of Mantel mix; she and Wrecker had just returned from getting yet more Mantell mix.

"Hey, I liked her. What's she done?" Wrecker added, "What did I miss?"

"Not a lot muscles. Did you put that on your tab?" she gestured to the mantel mix he was holding.

He shrugged. Hunter sighed.

"Baey's an Imperial now. I saw her on Raxus with her droid. Where they were interrogating Singh." Echo confessed, his voice low and gruff. "I stunned her."

"You only stunned her?" Hunter couldn't believe his ears, he thought Echo was the steady one.

"Yeah. She was in the way and I owed her."

CID rolled her eyes, laser brains.

"And Ryloth." Echo added. "Saw her droid, it's a weird, protective one-off model. So she had to be there."

"Now we're getting somewhere. Anything else I should know?"

.

Ny sat with Kal, on one of the large settees that graced the Karayai, he wasn't panicking quite yet, A'den could take care of himself but he wasn't happy. "You knew what he was going to do, didn't you?"

She nodded, pushing her hand in his, both were calloused, hers through hard work, his through hard fighting. He still squeezed it back, so he wasn't really angry with her. He'd had his argument with Walon and got it out of his system. They were gradually reaching some kind of understanding, which if she was honest had taken her by surprise and she wasn't sure if she was really ready but he was pulling her in. "I didn't know when, just that he needed someone to talk to, someone who wouldn't try to dissuade him from doing this."

"Like me, and Ordo."

"Just like you and Ordo." She squeezed his hand again. "You, because you would try and stop him, so he wouldn't get hurt and Ordo because he would try and stop him, so you wouldn't get hurt. And both of you because you don't want to lose any more of these boys. With Niner and Darman still out there and Sev."

She had only just learned about Sev, abandoned on Kashyyk and his squad still in the 501st. Besany had explained it all to her. She struggled to keep track of them all. Next she would need to get up to speed with Rav's lot who she brought in. Ruu was spending a lot of time over there and she wasn't sure if Kal knew about that.

She felt the strong grip of Skirata as he squeezed back in reply.

"You understand us better than we do ourselves."

Ny ignored him, she understood them because she was invested in this family now.

"He was always going to go look for her, it was just a matter of when."

"How do you know my boys better than me?"

"I don't. I just see them from a different point of view."

"You're a good woman Ny Vollen."

"So you keep telling me."

"What do you think of the Jedi?"

"You mean what do I think you will do with the Jed?"

Kal smiled slowly, "You do know me well."

Ny shrugged.

"I have something for you." he continued, "It's not fancy…"

"We're not fancy people."

"Why do you make things so easy." Or not in this case as he felt tongue tied now.

"Practice."

She gave him that look that made him feel like a teenager again and his hand wrapped around the small box in his pocket. He had had it specially made, the sizing was a guess. It was a barrel shape the jeweller in Keldabe said, and he had three diamonds set down into it. It was expensive but not ostentatious. He didn't think Ny did ostentatious. At least he hoped she didn't. Now he was panicking like a school boy at his first dance, if he had gone to one.

What if she doesn't like it?

His Com pinged.

"A'den, finally."

He pushed the box back down in his pocket, as A'dens face came up blue and flickering in the holo.

"Ad'ika. Are you okay? You had us worried. Where are you?"

"Ord Mantell."

"You alright?"

"Fine but I've not got anything new. Just finishing talking to Cid. She sends her regards."

"Yeah. How is she? Grumpy as ever?"

"Yeah."

"Grumpy is good for her." Kal tapped a few digits out on his pad, "I'm sending you some more coordinates. Tell Maz I sent you."

"Buir?" this was a new one.

"She might be able to help."

"Vor'e."

"She's odd but she likes Wookies, so she can't be all bad. K'oyacyi!."

"K'oyacyi, Buir."

A'den reset the Nav Com with the new coordinates. He had heard Kal talk about Maz from his early days but he had never been to Takodana.

.

Project War Mantle, Daro

Ryssa was half way through a medical for one of the newbies, as Gregor insisted on calling them; it was odd doing the examinations as the baselines for all of them were different and there were variances but not much; not like the clones you knew pretty much what you were getting with a clone. The Empire dictated the small parameters within which the new Recruits had to fit.

Then the siren went off. She had never heard this one before. The newbie she was examining shot upright ready to move. She put a hand on her shoulder holding her back and looked at EmDee.

"What's happening?

"Lockdown."

EmDee attempted to access the security logs.

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The scratches on Mereel's back comment was inspired by this work. 'Speculations' by TheLightIsMine on FanFiction.