Infiltrated - Part 1
"So this is where you work…" Zaiya assessed as she looked around the rather stark facility. "Rather cushy, isn't it? Anyone might think you plan to retire." Jango scoffed as he walked beside her, he was in his armour again, headed to his session of the morning. As the Nightsister had discovered, Jango did more than just supply his DNA, he also assisted in training regimes for the most promising clones. The ARC program was essenty run by him, though there were a few 'Alpha' rank clones that were specifically designed to be tougher, some of them had field experience, sent out on covert training ops that were strictly confidential. Though Jango was informative, being family had its perks, so it seemed.
"Maybe I do," the Mandalorian chuckled, walking beside her with a distinctive swagger. "They pay me enough for it."
"Do you think you'll retire…?"
"Me? Nah, too much fight in me. Besides, I have my boy to train, I can't slack off with him looking up to me," there was a slight flash of a grin and Zaiya was reminded that for a bounty hunter, he had amazing dental hygiene, his teeth were as white as the walls.
"Oh you are such a sweetheart, aren't you?" she chided with a smirk, "big bad Mandalorian with a cute little baby, hm?"
"Pfft, you should know as well as I do, a Mandalorian is most dangerous when they have something to protect," he waved a finger at her and she waved it off with a scoff. Though, she couldn't deny it. He was right of course. Her mind drifted back to the last few weeks on Dathomir.
"Perhaps we are the same…" she replied with a smirk, Jango nudged her arm.
"What did I tell you adi'ka? You're one of us."
"Treshan's been saying it for years," she replied with a shrug, though she noticed he rolled his eyes. She stifled a laugh. The two continued down the hall, there was a training drill hall ahead, though there was one of the Kaminoans in the hall ahead of them. Zaiya got a sinking feeling, ever since she'd arrived, they had been so picky and keeping an eye on her constantly. Her first day 'working' and they were already interrupting.
"Miss Siren, we have an assignment for you," the Kaminoan female nodded to her, Zaiya eyed her suspiciously.
"And it's not assisting my companion," she replied, it was not a question.
"No, we feel that you would be better suited to other tasks." Zaiya eyed the pale, long necked alien, her head swaying back and forth slightly, she had a feeling she knew what the task might be, she hoped she was wrong.
"And what might that be?" the zabrak asked in a clipped tone.
"You are being assigned to the cadets. In learning centre 4."
"Cadets."
"Yes."
"In the learning centre."
"I believe I was quite clear-"
"Those are children, she's not a babysitter," Jango snapped, backing her up.
"I want you to take a good long look at me, kaminii, and tell me, do I look like I am the type of being that would be good to teach children?" Zaiya gestured to herself. The large dark eyes of the Kaminoan stared back at her, unblinking. It was eerie. The Nightsister stood, her ash white hair in her usual braids, wearing a black high neck, long sleeve fitted under shirt and leggings. Black gloves and boots with a hooded scarlet tunic, sleeveless and loose, split down the sides and belted at the waist. Clothes to move in, sturdy boots to withstand running and jumping, and though she was not permitted to carry her mila hanska, she was clearly ready to fight.
"You need not teach them, the programs are already set for that," the Kaminoan replied, in that same unnerving peaceful tone, "you only have to supervise."
"Superv- that is babysitting and you know it, you don't want me to teach these soldiers how to fight? Why? Worried I will out-shine your programs?" Zaiya pointed a gloved finger in the direction of the female, watching her with her good eye carefully.
"Someone of your nature-"
"What nature is that?" Zaiya snapped. The Kaminoan stared again, her tiny mouth didn't give the answer Zaiya could feel lingering in the air.
"Human women are widely known to be more beneficial in a caregiving role-"
"Oh there it is…!" the Nightsister spat, her voice raised.
"That's ridiculous, I suggested to the Prime Minister that Siren join me in this endeavour to improve the rate of training, you said yourself that there are a million more clones being created and I cannot train all of the new ARC troopers," Jango interrupted.
"I also have a newsflash for you, I'm not human," she added, and pointed to the markings on her pale grey face. "I'm Zabraki, mor'orn. If you'd spoken with Nala Se you'd have known that." The Kaminoan blinked, the most sense of distress Zaiya had seen on one of these creatures. "I will be following my counterpart, and I shall be training warriors," she had to restrain a snarl. Jango smirked with amusement.
"Come on, let me show you how I make these womp rats run," the Mandalorian chuckled, the two walked past the Kaminoan, their heads high and little regard for her. Zaiya hadn't realised that for such an advanced race of cloners, they had such archaic beliefs. Though she couldn't even be sure if it were a test to see whether she could be pushed around or not. Nala Se knew better, so she could only anticipate it was the Prime Minister himself. Petty squabbling, but she would have to watch her back if she were to stay relatively under the radar, she didn't want to have any further scrutiny that might jeopardise the real reason she was here.
The training room was shaped like a wedge, extending out from the centre of one of the huge circular pod-like buildings, Jango walked in first and Zaiya a step behind. She gazed over the group of troopers, these were not the troopers she had met before, they seemed… a little bigger. They were the same height as all the others and Jango, but there was something about him that just seemed different. One in particular drew her eye immediately. His helmet was off and he was scanning the troopers before him.
"Siren, this is one of the Alpha batch, his designation is A-17, he's a captain of the ARC battalion." Jango gestured and the clone turned his head to look at her.
"Alpha, huh? They the super soldiers you talked about then?" she queried, tilting her head slightly. The one designated A-17 looked her up and down, his eyes narrowed, then he looked at Jango.
"What's she doing here?" he asked bluntly.
"This is Siren, she is an associate of mine, here to assist in aspects of training," Jango explained. A-17 made a face, his lip curled and he looked back at her.
"She doesn't look like much."
"She can hear you," Zaiya glared at him. He was rude, for a clone. Perhaps he wasn't as altered as the others, he was closer to Jango than any of the other's she'd met. "You have a name?" she asked, folding her arms.
"Just the designation."
"Just Alpha, then?"
"Call me whatever you want, I don't care," he replied with a flat look.
"Very well, so show me your usual routines and I will see what I can fit in," Zaiya nodded, gesturing to the men running drills in the training course. Fett had explained briefly, about the training programs, obstacle courses, simulation drills and various other tasks. She was sure she could handle them, though, from the looks she occasionally got from Alpha and some of the other clones as she stayed mostly silent for the duration of the session, she was absorbing the information for now, soon she would be able to implement her own tactics. She had some ideas for the mental fortitude at the very least, and while they were proficient with blasters, she supposed knife skills would also be beneficial, especially for elite troopers, they had to know how to fight if disarmed. They could fight already of course, but a few different techniques couldn't hurt.
"Are they up to your high standards?" Fett jested, smirking at her.
"Hmm… well…" she waved her hand in a 'so-so' gesture, but the little half smile she wore had him chuckling.
"What were you thinking?" he asked, far less gruff than when he spoke to others, though perhaps she was just imagining it.
"I have a few ideas, nothing revolutionary, but I am sure that I can show them something new," she replied, jutting her chin up slightly. "Knife skills, maybe some mental fortitude… you know." She gave him a look and Jango nodded, he knew they were keeping her skills with the Force a secret, but it didn't mean she could protect their minds against someone else using it. Jango certainly approved, and had mentioned an interest in it, himself.
"So she will be training us?" Zaiya looked over, Captain Alpha had a scowl on his face and arms folded, she was sure she heard the platoid of his armour creaking as he flexed. Her hands dropped to her hips as she faced him.
"Yes." she tilted her head and looked up at him with a raised brow, "have you a problem with that, ARC Trooper Alpha-17?" she asked, she didn't shy away from him or look away, she held his glower with an even gaze. Alpha looked to Fett.
"Oh, so she's Mandalorian." He seemed to know the answer before Jango answered.
"Half, by blood, but not raised as one." Jango explained after getting a nod from Zaiya as permission to say so.
"Then a bounty hunter."
"No." She supposed that was true, it had been a long time since she had worked with them.
"An ex-soldier."
"No, she's a Nightsister." There was a pause.
"A Nightsister. Good, the men need to brush up on knife drills taught by a bog witch." Alpha retorted, though
"Fen-witch, actually." Zaiya responded with an amused quirk of her lips.
"What's the difference?" Alpha frowned, turning to look at her, his eyes so dark they were almost black.
"Fens are less acidic, better nutrients in the soil and more water." Alpha blinked, but his expression didn't change. Zaiya glanced to Fett. "I like this one," she chuckled. Her blue eye glittered with mirth as she faced the gruff clone once more. "If I can train a rancor… I can train you." There was another short pause.
"You trained a rancor?"
"A few," she nodded, "The ones we didn't use for mounts were food."
"Oh yeah?"
"Certainly," The Nightsister grinned, flashing her fanged teeth at him. He only stared at her, and she was liking him more by the minute. "Do you think you can listen to a Nightsister?"
"We'll see," Alpha replied.
They set about running drills, different from the first, this one was an obstacle course, testing the agility of the men. One thing she noticed was that most of the drills were set for one skill, either agility, accuracy regarding shots, or endurance. The look on her face must have been telltale because Jango nudged her, and raised his brows asking what she was thinking without words.
"I was thinking about task switching," she murmured, watching the men run the agility course below.
"What? You wanted to train the ARC's with me…?" Jango frowned and Zaiya let out a soft laugh, shaking her head to clarify.
"No, no, what I mean is, the drills are centralised on one task, if we incorporate task switching tactics, then the men will be more effective in battle, combining individual tasks and making them put everything together…" she could see him frowning and decided to explain further. "The human brain gets very good once doing the same thing over and over, but if one has to switch tasks quickly, there is a sort of buffer, wherein it takes time to change momentum, that means that they are less effective in what they do." He nodded in understanding so she continued, "if we design a course that has multiple different tasks, that also can be set at random so it's not the same each time, it will push the mental capacity higher and then in battle they will be able to think faster and have a better chance of survival." Jango frowned again.
"How do you know all this?" he asked with a small scoff.
"I was recently in a place where knowledge was a very valuable commodity and I had time on my hands… holo journals and research studies were plenty and I didn't have much to do for long periods of time," she said vaguely. Most of these little bits she'd learned while on Zygerria, anything D'Sarr studied, she learned by being beside him and on guard, some topics were more interesting than others, and while he mostly used these things to impress others at parties, she was finding far more practical uses for what she had learned.
"Well now…" Jango folded his arms, "Aren't you a walking encyclopaedia…" he scoffed and looked at her with a side-eye expression. "Not a bad idea though, anything in mind specifically?"
"If we could run situations similar to ones we've faced… maybe even working up to different environments if possible, cold or heat… can we get sand in there?" Now she was just pushing the possibilities and she knew it, the Mandalorian beside her laughed, shaking his head.
"The Kaminoans allowing dirt into the facility? Not on your life… and I doubt they would let us take these boys anywhere, not when they have to be secret." He leaned on the railing that looked down onto the training grounds.
"No… we'll have to find something… these boys have to be the best, right?" she looked at him with a raised brow and he nodded. "They want to be the best, don't they?" she bit her lower lip in thought, the unsettling feeling taking her over, she didn't want to force things on them if they had no option to say no. Watching the one called Alpha, he seemed very capable, he was a natural leader and while he griped and grumbled at his brothers, he was watchful, careful. He cared for them, as much as he didn't show it, but it made sense to her. Showing affection could easily be seen as a weakness. He seemed to take on that way of thinking. He also seemed bored. Perhaps he wanted a challenge. After a short while of observing, the Captain in question looked up. His brow furrowed and he glared at her, but she just smiled and waved back at him. It seemed to have the desired effect and he rolled his eyes and returned his attention to the men and the task at hand.
"Better watch that one," Jango muttered with a mildly amused smirk.
"Oh yeah?" Zaiya retorted as the buzzer sounded and they took the platform down, "is he dangerous?"
"Not more than I am-"
"Oh so he's a teddy bear."
"I swear- Osik… I will shoot you in the face!" he snapped and jabbed at her with his finger, Zaiya hid her laughter behind her hand. The Mandalorian scoffed at her and gestured, "come on, di'kut let's finish up," he shook his head but she caught the glimpse of a smirk before he headed back to deal with the men.
Notes:
Hello my friends, I do hope you are having a wonderful Monday, I appreciate you all for coming to read my fic, and wow, next week is the one year anniversary! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?! I CAN'T! So next week I will be posting TWO chapters, one proper and a oneshot - this will be posted separately, not in this main fic but I will let you know when it's up. It will be a Zaiya and Maul oneshot and... yes, it's gonna be SPICE so be warned. As always, I love your feedback, comments and it brings me joy when I get a new notification. Please keep them coming, I am just thrilled! Next week as I said two chapters - This is the plan but I may also have court next week so I WILL DO MY BEST! - and hopefully you guys will like it, clone shenanigans ahoy!
