It had been several days since Barriss and Sev had been rescued from Kyshyyyk, in that time, she had learnt that the four clones in her company were unlike any she had ever met before. Whether this was due to the inhibitor chips being removed or not was up for debate, but she personally didn't doubt the role they potentially played.
On her first day aboard the Silver Lining, she had witnessed Hound tinkering away at old training droid parts. Despite having no previous experience of advanced engineering, he had managed to bring several of the droids back online, though their wiring seemed a little off. A personality matrix is what gives a droid their soul, for lack of a better word. The subject has sparked debate across the galaxy for decades, even centuries, luckily, no droid has ever possessed a true artificial intelligence to weigh in its own opinions. With all that said, Hound's droids seemed to possess a personality matrix bordering on self loathing.
Then there was Dogma. Sweet, innocent, kind Dogma. She had heard about him through word around the temple, how Pong Krell led the 212th and the 501st against each other, how Dogma was the one to put the monster down. She even remembered glancing over the case file with her master shortly after the battle, it was hard to imagine that while she was fighting in the skies above, there were atrocities being commuted in the surface from within. Barriss had already engaged in many conversations with the absent minded clone, mostly they consisted of him over thinking one thing or another, but she liked to listen, it gave her some peace of mind that there were people as bright eyed as him in the galaxy.
She had only gotten to know Sev for little more than a day, but she knew he was hurting for his brothers. She had always heard of the unspoken feud between commandos and standard clones, "Regs" they were called, but despite that, Sev seemed to be getting along very well with his new family. She assumed that taking part in their mostly harmless shenanigans and bickering served as a welcome distraction from his own thoughts.
Then there was Slick, she had known him very well for many months. But there was something different about him, the Slick who rescued her on Kyshyyyk was someone very different from the an who became her only comfort in life while imprisoned. He was kind, he was protective, if she was being honest, he was sometimes a little bit immature around the others. What she noticed most of all was that he was living, he was finding ways to enjoy life with his brothers instead of worrying every waking moment. Of course, he still cared about keeping them safe, but these clones really respected the word brother. Brothers fight, they argue, they play. That's what these clones did every day on this ship, and they were learning to be human.
That realisation was further reinforced today when Barriss Offee stepped into the reletively small sparring arena to see all four clones battling one another with foam tipped staffs while piggybacking on Hound's droids. "I don't believe it…" She quietly whispered to herself in sheer shock.
Sev swung his staff in a mighty effort, nearly knocking Slick off of his droid, but he brought up his staff just in time to block the attack, still stumbling back as he tried to maintain his balance. "Woah hahaha!" The Sergeant all but screamed in excitement. He then looked to the young former Jedi. "Barriss! We're playing a little game of Pushover, you want in?"
"Pushover?" She asked rhetorically.
Slick just shrugged his shoulders before chuckling. "Yeah it's exactly what it sounds like."
She let out a genuine smile as she shook her head. "No, I'm fine Slick."
He tried his best not to look too disappointed, but he kept his composure. "Alright. Let's take a break, guys!" Slick then shouted to his brothers before dismounting the droid and heading over to his old prison buddy.
Barriss studied Slick's armour, admiring the new detailing on his arms, chest and helmet. "You've been painting." She commented, referring to the ice blue stripes up his arms, the same colour occupying his chest piece and the blue stripe going up his phase one helmet either side of the visor.
Slick showed off his new colour scheme. "You like it? I've split us up into teams for our training games. Me and Dogma on Blue Team, Hound and Sev on Red Team."
Barriss then took notice of Dogma's armour, it looked remarkably similar to the design she saw in his case file, she figured that he was having a momentary gain in his memory. Hound's armour had been completely repainted from grey to bright red, keeping the red teeth marked cloth over his ARF helmet to match. Sev's armour didn't change at all, his dark blood red armour paint had automatically put him into the Red Team with Hound. She then looked back to Slick and pushed on the subject. "That shade of blue… That's the same as-"
"I know. That's why I did it." Slick quickly answered, not giving her a chance to finish. They both knew it was the sake shade of blue as the Duros Jedi's skin from the Temple, Slick found a way to honour him despite never knowing him.
As both former inmates discussed the armour neither one of them noticed Hound and Dogma continuing to spar, nor did they notice Slick's droid begin to fall towards them in the first place. Yet, upon an unusual instinct to him, Slick jumped out of the way and took Barriss with him before they could both be crushed. "You alright?" He asked the young Jedi, seemingly unphased by what just happened, the other three clones just stopped and stated in silence, ready for some sort of repercussion.
"I- Yeah. Yes, I'm fine… Slick, how did you know that was going to happen?" Barriss asked, genuinely concerned.
Slick then looked back at the fallen droid, staring at it for more than a moment as if trying to process something. "I… I didn't. I didn't even realise I did anything until just now- Guys! You need to watch what you're doing!" He shouted as he rubbed his head.
Barriss extended her arm and reached out through the force to use her ability to heal his headaches, but something felt... Off. "Slick, did you actually ever get your chip removed?"
He continued to rub his head. "I thought I did, but… I try to remember Rogato and there's just… nothing. I thought the kaminoans took it out of me, but…"
Barriss then grabbed him by his arm. "We need to see Faun Shae."
The good doctor tinkered away in the medical lab of the Silver Lining, examining a copy of the Jango Fett genotype when his door opened to reveal the pair of ex convicts. He bowed his head. "Master Jedi, Sergeant. How may I assist you?"
Slick began to rub his head again, this time, not out of pain, but of discomfort. "Doctor Shae… This is gonna sound stupid, but… I'm having trouble remembering my inhibitor chip being removed. Is there any way that's just a side effect?"
Torma was always easier to read, according to Faun, but he clearly shared the look of discomfort as he closed his eyes, took a deep breath and exhaled. "I want you both to see something."
"I have a bad feeling about this." Slick whispered to Barriss, only for her to say nothing in response. He knew she wasn't ignoring him, he could see that she wanted answers.
Faun Shae then brought up a hologram, emerging from a device linked to a nearby test tube. "After we escaped Rogato, you requested that I remove your chip. Me and AZ were happy to oblige, however when we examined your brain, we noticed something strange. Your inhibitor chip was much smaller than that of Dogma or the others… and it was getting smaller."
The doctor then brought up a close up image of cells, from what either of them could understand from it. "These cells… they operate much like white blood cells fighting off an infection, dissolving the inhibitor chip. But they're unlike any white blood cell I've ever seen." He explained.
Barriss stood in shock. "I don't believe it… they're midichlorians…"
Slick started to look uncomfortable. "Is it some sort of illness?" He asked as he began to fidget in place.
Barriss extended her arm once more and used her powers of healing to reduce Slick's anxieties. "No, Slick. Midichlorians are what give a Jedi their power. They connect all living things in existence, even cloned beings, they're the living extension of the force itself… and it appears that you have a lot of them."
The former Sergeant sat down on the medical bed, overwhelmed. "I- I don't understand what that means. I have these force things inside of me?"
The young Jedi sat beside him and looked him in the eyes. "It means that I now know why you didn't kill me. Your body has been slowly destroying your chip this entire time, probably as early as your creation. I like to think that's one of the reasons you were able to do what you did, you had the freedom to choose to do so." She gave him a small smile.
"Does… that mean that I could use the force?" He asked with a childlike sense of curiosity.
She thought on it for a brief moment. "I think-" She was cut off by the ship suddenly and violently shaking.
Everything in the lab began to gently float above where they had previously been stationary. Vials of blood clinked against each other, straps from the medical bed rose like tentacles of some aquatic creature, sharp scalpels dangerously drifted across the room. The vibrant hum of the ship was all too familiar to Faun Shae. "We are caught in a tractor beam." He explained calmly before turning to his droid. "AZ. Head to the control room and increase inertia dampener by fifty percent. Divert power from non critical systems to compensate."
"Of course, doctor." The little droid chirped as it flew to perform its task.
As the gravity increased mere moments later, Sev came rushing into the medical bay. "We've got a problem!"
Barriss and Slick rose to their feet, readying a blaster each. "Is it the empire?"
"Worse. Trandoshans."
A gigantic, towering bipedal creature covered in scales and advanced armour took up the entire screen from Sev's holo projector. "These lizards aren't your typical trandoshan pirates. They're a group of mercenaries so brutal that they were exiled from their home planet, led by a nasty piece of work called Callidus."
Hound quickly readied his scatter blaster and aimed it at the boarding door, taking point and kneeling ahead of everyone else. "Great school lesson, son. Now how do we beat 'em?"
Sev crouched down and used Hound's shoulder to steady his commando blaster, removing the sniping attachment and stowing it away in his combat pack. "Gotta aim for the shoulders, elbows, knees, anything that their armour doesn't cover."
Slick and Barriss stood behind cover at either side of the hallway, each carrying a DC-15 pistol. "Their ship. Did you get a chance to see how big it is? We might have a better idea of how many we're up against." Slick asked the commando.
"It's bigger than ours and has us in a tractor beam! That should give you a rough idea!" He quickly retorted with a tone that resembled sass.
"Focus!" Barriss hissed. "If I can knock one down with a strong enough push, that should stagger them. Providing they're as big as they look, they'll only be able to enter single file."
"They're coming through!" AZ alerted the four soldiers.
"Damn it…" Slick grumbled before opening his comm. "Faun! Tell me you have something."
"I am a biologist, not a physicist, nor an engineer. I don't believe that I am capable of counteracting the effects of the tractor beam to this extent." The Kaminoan said with an unprecedented stress in his voice.
The youngest of the clones began to reach forward to the control panel. "I could-"
Faun quickly but gently grabbed him by his wrist. "No! No… thankyou, Dogma. As much as I distaste the idea of putting you in harms way, you are needed more to guard the door to the bridge. I trust you to do that." He turned his head towards the broken man like an eel swimming around a corner and smiled.
As Barriss had planned, the first Trandoshan smashed through the doors, sending them flying past in a mess of cluttering metal. In the brief moment the mighty creature took to analyse his surroundings, the soldiers just as quickly fired at the weak spots in his armour, giving Barriss the momentum she needed to force push him onto his back, knocking a second brute back slightly. With the downed colossus now hampering their progress, the lizards started to take cover, firing their blasters from behind their fallen comrade.
"They're using him as a shield!" Barriss shouted in shock and disgust, taking cover and returning fire with her pistol.
"What kind of weapons are they using?" Slick shouted back, trying his best to study the enemy firearms.
"Doesn't look like Trandoshan tech!" Sev added.
"Hate to be that guy, but who cares?! They're weapons that fire at you until you're dead!" Hound all but screamed at his friends as he finally fell back and took cover behind the numerous pillars.
A sudden stream of fire slithered down the corridor, forcing the squad to shield themselves from the burning heat. Through the fire and the flames strode in a massive hulking trandoshan, decorated in armour that resembled a collection of different pieces from different worlds, a phase one clone chest plate across his abdomen, the shoulder piece of a super battle droid on his right, a mandalorian lower chest plate wrapped around his boulder left shoulder, along with a silver back wookie fur cape draped down his back, this Trandoshan was literally walking trophy.
In the time it had taken for the flames to settle, the group emerged to face their new foe, only to find multiple shield barricades set up between them and their attackers. The large trandoshan lifted a primitive axe over his shoulder before speaking. "I am Callidus! Leader of the banished Trandoshan clans. We need not be enemies, deserters. This ship is a relic of the clone war, you are clearly hiding from the Empire… You need not hide any longer. Join my clan, pledge your ship, your weapons, your armour and your loyalty to me… and you shall have a place to call home."
Slick was the one to speak for the while group. For weeks, he had been searching for a home for him and his brothers, but not like this. "We were slaves to the Republic once! We won't become anyone's property ever again!"
Callidus grumbled and hissed, his tongue rapidly flying between his sharpened teeth. "Killing you would be such a waste. I could use the talents and knowledge of former Republic soldiers… and former Jedi. Yesss, I know who you are, Barriss Offee. I watched the trial of Ashoka Tano. The Jedi cast you aside, I can give you a new family." He said with a sinister grin as he held out his hand.
Barriss scrunched her nose and gritted her teeth at the thought of joining a band of pirates, she may not be a Jedi anymore, but she still believed in the light. She slowly stepped out into the hallway and raised her hands, carefully stepping towards Callidus.
"Yessss. Come with me, child. There is much we can gain from one another." The hulking lizard hissed.
When the young fugitive was just a few feet away, she planted her left leg firmly in front while using her right leg to spread her weight as she sent a mighty push of the force towards the Banished assailants, sending Callidus and his boarding party back through the hatch. Barriss saw the look of rage and betrayal on the trandoshan's face for a brief second before using her blaster to shoot the access panel, causing the door to shut.
Hound shrugged his shoulders. "Well, now what?"
"I did it!" Could be heard across the Silver Linings speaker system, the voice belonged to a clone, yet by process of elimination, they had all guessed it was Dogma. Suddenly, the ship jolted once more, causing everybody to fall onto the floor, but the aggressive buzzing of the ship told everyone they were on the move.
Slick chuckled in disbelief. "Faun! You did it! You disabled the tractor beam!"
"That… was not me. It appears that our inertial dampeners have been redirected, extending their capabilities to outside the ship, short-circuiting their tractor beam… Dogma, did you do this?"
"Y-yeah. I- I don't know how I knew how to do that…" He mumbled as he spoke.
As the Silver Lining escaped from Calidus' banished pirate ship, the inertial dampaner backfire caused a chain reaction, causing the ship to shut down all systems in an electro-magnetic pulse. No one could tell if the crew would survive, if the life support shut down with the other systems, but they all elected to focus their attention elsewhere as those pirates would not give them the same courtesy.
No one really spoke much in the mess hall, other than to praise Dogma for his ingenuity. Barriss looked over at Slick and saw him just staring into nothingness.
"Slick? What's wrong?" She asked as she sat down next to him.
The Sergeant merely played with his food with his fork. "We were unorganised. Unprepared for when they boarded. Kid, we're not a unit, not a squad, no longer an army. If we want to survive this Empire, we'll need to put the idea of finding a home on hold. Until we can be one hundred percent sure we'll be safe, we must remain soldiers."
Barriss gave him a look of grave concern. "I thought our goal was to find a home. Continuing to train will only destroy the idea of a peaceful life."
Slick immediately stood up and slammed his hands on the table. "This isn't living!" He shouted, drawing the attention of the others before storming off.
Sev made his way to the young Jedi. "What was that about?"
Barriss took in a deep breathe, followed by a slow exhale. "He's losing faith."
Slick sat on the floor of the observation deck, looking out into the autumn nebula of Balmorra Run. Smugglers used this empty area of space to avoid authorities, it seemed like a good place to hide out for now, so long as they made sure to avoid the Neebray Mantas. Distracting himself from his anxieties about found a home, Slick looked out into the nebula and wondered what had happened to the planet Balmorra, the planet this system was named after.
From his basic studies on galactic history on kamino, the planet was the biggest producer of cortosis ore in the galaxy over three hundred years ago, then the planet just vanished. It wasn't destroyed, it wasn't attacked or invaded, it just… wasn't there anymore. A common theory is that a powerful gravitational shift from a nearby star had catapulted the planet out of its system and into deep space. Slick never liked that answer, Balmorra was too important for the Republics growth, for it to disappear accidentally just didn't seem plausible. For an object the size of a planet to go off course that quickly with no one noticing, it was impossible. Besides, how do you lose an entire planet?
"Slick?"
His train of thought was broken. He looked up to see Dogma standing over him. "Not now, Dogma. I'm trying to think."
Dogma looked blankly at his brother and decided to ignore his request and talk anyway. "Yes, um. Well, there's a call for you. Its from Rex, he says he needs our help."
"Ryloth?" Slick then asked, clearly uneasy about the situation.
"Yes. The Bad Batch informed me that Captain Howser and some of his men refused to follow orders and were arrested. This could mean that the inhibitor chips might be starting to falter in more clones." Rex clarified over the holo projector.
Hound began to prime his blaster. "If the Empire has our brothers, its up to us to save 'em."
Slick sighed. The last thing he wanted for him or his brothers was to be dragged into another fight, but this fight would be to save more of their family. "How many?"
"Can't say for certain. Hunter told me that he saw roughly half a dozen clones along with Howser arrested." Rex elaborated, he looked tired. His usually clean shaven face was now covered in stubble, he had bags under his eyes, whatever he and Wollfe were doing was certainly running him down.
"Why us?" Sev then asked, curious as to why the Bad Batch hadn't returned.
Rex has a shamed look upon his face. "I have no one else to turn to…" He admitted. "I can't do this alone. I need a squad if we're going to pull this off. Meet me outside the city at these coordinates. Wollfe still isn't one hundred percent so you've just got me."
Barriss remained out of view, she knew how close Ahsoka was with her soldiers, she talked about Rex specifically on more than one occasion. She found it suspicious that he survived, or the fact that he was 501st, the ones who led the assault on the temple. She had heard from Faun Shae the story of Fives, the ARC trooper who had originally discovered the inhibitor chips, how he was unfortunately terminated. He was from the 501st, so she assumed it was possible that he told his captain before his death. Still, she had to wonder.
She then looked over to Slick. She knew this plan would only work if everyone was on board, Sev, Hound and Dogma were all willing to give it their all to save their brothers, she knew Slick would too, but the question was if he was willing to put himself and his brothers in harms way again.
"We'll do it." He said flatly. Howser and his men deserve a home as much as they do.
The Conviction, Wild Space...
"Captain Nova. To what do I owe the pleasure?"
Admiral Rampart asked over the holo channel, his tone of voice only slightly irritated.
Nova saluted. "Sir, firstly I would like to congratulate you on your promotion."
"But that's not the reason you called, is it?" The irritated tone in his voice becoming more apparent as he narrowly read a data pad, making it obvious that the captain was never going to be his priority.
"N- No, sir… I am informed that Admiral Tarkin has entrusted you to oversee the enrolment of Imperial military enlistees. I would like to request a squad under my command."
"What happened to the TK troopers I assigned to the Fifteenth Brother?" Rampart asked as he finally gave Nova a brief moment of eye contact.
"Killed. By the Jedi fugitive, Barriss Offee. I am now tasked with hunting her down and require the men to do it."
Rampart stroked his chin. "I have no interest in sending my enlistees on a mission doomed for failure. That's right, word gets around the imperial channels pretty quickly when you're a man in my position. It is unfortunate to hear that you have been banished from Imperial space. With that said… human enlistees from all corners of the galaxy could only help my agenda should you succeed. Should you fail, deniability will ensure that I've lost nothing. What I can offer are non military combatants, much like Mr Addle in your employ. Rako Hardeen and Fon Ordera are currently serving life sentences in Coruscant's maximum security facility, but I can call in a favour and have them assigned to you. He Emperor is considering executing dangerous individuals, however, if they are of use to you on your mission, then so be it. If they die, then the galaxy will be a safer place regardless."
Nova was disappointed. He had hoped for soldiers, not mercenaries, men who followed protocol. He had heard of Hardeen before, the bounty hunter hired by the Jedi to assassinate General Kenobi in an elaborate mission to foil a kidnap attempt on Sheev Palpatine, back before he became Emperor of the galaxy. However, he hadn't heard much about Fon Ordera, only that the name Ordera was Mandalorian. Perhaps he would show some sense of honour on the battlefield.
"Thankyou, Sir." Nova almost grumbled.
"My pleasure, Captain. Just remember that when the time comes, I shall call in a favour, and expect you to answer. Rampart out."