++Log number: 1++
Date: 998.M41

Location: Naboo
Segmentum: Unknown

Alright, I don't know how to write these things so bear with me because I've decided to start this only now after the literal shitstorm I've gone through.

I'm writing this from my data slate inside a hospital in the capital city of planet Naboo as you already know from the description of this log. How I got here is kinda hard to explain so I'll start with the basics then work up from there.

My name is Sebastian Krask. I'm a corporal in the third battalion of the 455th Battonian infantry regiment. I've served for three years in the guard if anyone need to know. Most of the time we were putting down small rebel groups that sprouted on our hive world but we first saw serious action against the greenskins when they decided to invade one of the neighbouring feudal worlds. I'm not going to get into details because they're pretty grizzly but we won in the end.

That's enough of my past, now onto how I ended up in a hospital on a planet that doesn't know what the Imperium or the God Emperor is.

About three or four months ago... I know what you're thinking! 'three or four? Don't you know how to track your time?' I didn't keep count. I know I'm not the brightest, the sargeant made it clear many times before. Anyway, back then our regiment got requisitioned by the Mechanicus to offer protection while they dug out some ancient ruins of some xenos underground facility on an agri world from the closest star system of our home.

For the most part we didn't do much. Mostly stand guard and watch the cog boys and their menials work, mostly... when the scrap heads pushed their equipment to the breaking point they always ordered us to assist their menials in digging with frakking pickaxes while the techpriests repaired their equipment which would've worked fine if they didn't push it.

Off topic but I hate that about them. Have the knowledge to build and maintain all technologies in the Imperium but don't have the patience to wait for your drills to cool off?

Whatever, the only good thing in my eyes was the food. Getting stationed on an agri world had its perks. The food was supplied from the local farms. That meant we didn't eat our standard rations and instead had fresh produce straight from the farms.

Hmm, I think I should start explaining how I got here now.

It started when we found the control center of the installation. Up until then we found nothing but corridors and empty adjacent rooms that we transformed into storage, barracks and whatever else the Mechanicus needed. This control center if it even was that was completely different and gargantuan in size. If the average room was something like a 3x3 this one was on a different scale and clearly xenos made.

The first part the room were consoles and power conduits with plenty other smaller machinery that I didn't know what were. I'm affraid to say but curiosity got the better of me and I tapped some random buttons on some of the consoles but thankfully nothing happened. There wasn't any power, yet...

The other part was some sort of horizontal shaft that ended in an archway. If I didn't know better it looked like some sort of portal... Which it was

After we secured the room and gave the all clear the techpriests got to work and I and the rest of my squad thankfully finished our shift and made ourselves scarce. I left, had some chow and went straight to sleep.

And then the shit kicked in

I don't know how long I slept but I got awoken by a loud alarm and the power coming online. We didn't have any alarms set up. Worse off a xenos voice rang out with the alarm announcing something none of us understood. Me, my squad and some other guardsmen who were relaxing got off our asses, got in gear and tried to contact the commander only to realize the vox was getting jammed.

I didn't know what to do, the sarge didn't know either and while we waited wondering what was going on two panels in the walls opened up and out came them. Some sort of machines, built quite bulky but time definitely wasn't nice to them. What stood out on them were their heads, elongated kinda like a cone with optics on their sides. They didn't have hands... well they did but they didn't end in palms, instead they ended with power swords.

They didn't register us at first, took them a few seconds before they locked up on us and their shoulders opened revealing some sort of plasma rifles. We fired first and thankfully our lasguns were able to pierce their chassis and kill them. Too bad we lost one guy when he took a plasma round to the chest.

I took a closer look at one of the abominable inteligences and at closer look they were in worse shape than the instalation itself. Rust coated their bodies and on some spots they were missing pieces that we clearly didn't hit.

While we did all that the rest of the dig was going through the same thing as we started hearing sounds of battle and explosions from deeper in the facility.

The mechanicus really went and kicked the grox didn't they...

Thankfully a little ray of hope hit us that we could stop this. The vox came to life and the leading magos of this operation managed to get a message out calling for assistance in the control center.

We voted on what we should do. A few of us opted to head for the exit and take their chances while my squad and another went to assist the mechanicus in trying to stop the power and shut off the machines. The walk from our makeshift barracks to the newly discovered control center when we discovered it earlier was some 20 minutes. Now it turned into a true slog that put into perspective that we were the lucky ones in this whole thing.

Most other guardsmen and menials that got caught in the open didn't last long and besides the machines that popped out of the walls there were now emplaced turrets on the walls that gave us even more trouble.

We lost Hector and Demeter on the way. It was only me, sargeant Seth, Arseen and Lydia in our squad, the others also lost some guys that I didn't personally know.

When we got to the entrance to the command station we found the commissar, slumped against the wall with his guts spilled on the floor. Around him were a bunch of machines in various stages of dismemberment. He must've put up one hell of a last stand.

Inside, the battle still raged with the Imperial forces pinned down at the far edge towards the archway. The floor was covered in corpses of various forces, from guardsmen, menials to a few techpriests and all of the skitarii bodyguards that accompanied the Magos.

Speaking of him, he was still alive returning fire alongside the rest of the survivors. Interestingly enough the machines didn't bother to push them even as they had the clear advantage. Instead, they seemed more content in keeping them in place while they operated the machinery which was now online and coursing with power.

Seeing the oportunity we moved in, taking the abominable inteligence by surprise and effectively encircling them. When the survivors saw us join the fray they launched a counterattack of their own.

We dealt with the machines but they managed to accomplish something. They booted up the sequence to power up the archway which the Magos said was a sort of portal and no doubt were calling for reinforcements. He ordered us to defend him with our lives while he tried to shut down the power to the facility.

We took whatever cover we could which wasn't much considering there weren't any fortification built and soon enough the rest of the machines started showing up. Despite looking like something that would crawl out of the scrap heaps of Battona there robots were quite sturdy, requiring around 8 to 10 las bolts to put down. Thankfully they didn't have much self preservation but that didn't stop them to relentlessly assault us.

While fighting I saw lydia drop like a sack of veggies when she took two shots of plasma to the face. I don't know what happened to the sarge but I kept my ass close to Arseen covering each others backs while holding the line.

The situation was bad while the machines came from only one entrance but it got worse. They were smart enough to use one of our industrial drills to carve out another hole onto our flank, essentially doing the same thing we did to them earlier.

After we got pinned down shit finally hit the fan in the form of a large explosion coming from the location of the Magos. I don't remember much after that, it all seemed a blur but I know that explosion destabilized the portal just as it was powering up.

All I know is that I was dragging Arseen into cover after he was hit in the leg while returning fire onto the advancing machines followed by an another explosion close to me then blank. I woke up shortly after in a grassfield in the middle of nowhere alongside most of the control room and everyone in it

It was night and I couldn't see very well and worse off pain flared in my right side. Turns out I had a metal chunk sticking out of my side. Regardless of it I carried on, stumbling my way searching for any survivors and killing whatever machine that managed to survive.

The only one still alive was Arseen but he wasn't in a good spot when I found him. He was pinned under a machine wrestling with it in order to not get stabbed by its sword hand. I went to work immediately, putting several las bolts into the machines head.

It went down immediately and I stumble rushed to my friend. He was in a worse shape than I was. His legs were gone, now bloody stumps while his face looked like he took the biggest beating of his life. I went to work immediately taking my personal medkit and tying the best I could his legs with tourniquets. It wasn't going to save him but it would buy him some time.

When I finished tying up his legs I heard a faint noise in the distance. I told Arseen to stay quiet and listen, something which was quite difficult with how much pain he was in. The distant noise turned out to be the sounds of engines. The engines of two shuttles that flew over us.

We made ourselves as small as we could and played dead while the ships shun their searchlights over the wreckage. From my position I saw them land on opposite sides and watched as a dozen white armoured troopers exited and formed a perimeter around us. They looked humanoid wielding short and long barreled rifles of unknown design.

I kept my lasgun close and ready but by then it was hard to stay awake. The bleeding was getting worse and soon after I blanked out again. The last thing I know was Arseen trying to get my attention.

When I woke up I was in a hospital bed with two unknowns in the room with me. The first was one of the white armoured soldiers only this one wasn't wearing his helmet. He was human, with tan skin, brown eyes and black hair fashioned in a military buzz cut.

The other was a machine... Yeah I freaked out.

When that happened the human immediately intervened assuring me that the 'droid' was not a threat, that it was a medical 'droid' and not a battle 'droid'. He did order the machine to leave which it did, much to my relief.

We didn't speak much, mostly him introducing himself and explaining that they picked up an energy reading outside the capital city and found us. He also told me that I was the only survivor, Arseen died on the way here from blood loss.

What a waste... All of them, good people died because the Mechanicus couldn't take it slow and safe...

I asked the commander, Foma he calls himself, on what planet and segmentum we are. Weirdly enough he didn't know what a segmentum is but did say we were on Naboo in the Mid Rim. He went on to ask me how i'm feeling and I obviously said that I feel pretty shit.

This log may not indicate it but having a chunk of metal sticking in your side isn't a nice experience, thank the Golden Throne they pulled it out. I asked him for some privacy to clear my thoughts and rest a little which he complied stating that he had work to do himself and would return in the morning. He probably went to oversee the cleanup, catalogue the dead and send a report to his superiors about the incident.

And that brings us to the present. On a planet I don't know anything about and saved from death by people consorting with abominable inteligence. If I were to do what the Imperium expects of me I'd be gunned down in an instant. Thankfully these people don't know anything about us so that gives me time to think. If I can learn more about them then I could find a way to contact the Imperium... I know its wishful thinking as I'm nothing more than a guardsman but I'll take anything to escape.

I just have to wait until morning when the commander returns.

++Log number: 2++
Date: 1 days after the incident

Location: Naboo
Segmentum: The Mid Rim

It's been one day and the things I've learned are more than I can bear...

When Foma returned in the morning he brought that 'droid' with him. The damn machine wanted to run some scans over my wound to see if there was any sings of infection and to apply a new coat of medical gel they call bacta.

I really didn't want thing near me but I finally relented when the commander reassured me once again that the droid was not a threat and that I was in no danger.

Honestly I was surprised with the bacta. When the machine applied it over the wound it felt like a warm soothing feeling over the affected area. I expected more stinging and discomfort but the gel was a nice surprise.

When the droid finished his business was sent away and then the interogation began. At least that's what I called it, the guy only asked me what happened to just pop out of nowhere in the middle of the grassfields outside the capital.

I told him the story that I wrote in my previous log and he seemed pleased and a little disturbed at the way the mechanicus conducted itself. After I was done with explaining he went on and told me the tally of the dead. 47 dead and thats only the number which got brought through.

Speaking of the dead, the commander demanded that I explain what the hell was wrong with the techpriest bodies that ended up here. He wasn't happy with the explanation of the mechanicus and their world views.

Funny how most people view those scrap heads in the same light.

Off the record, if it wasn't for their knowledge about mankinds machinery and science I believe the mechanicus would be branded heretics by the ecclesiarchy for their worship of the machine.

Anyway, we talked about the dead, I agreed to help identify those that died so that they wouldn't be buried nameless. Quite nice of them to give them a proper burial.

If it was the Imperium they'd be thrown on a pile and burned to ashes... I've seen it before.

After that the hard questions rolled in. He asked why our nation affiliated with such a 'barbaric' organisation that was the mechanicus.

I didn't answer. I don't know where I am but by the Golden Throne I won't betray he who sits upon it.

Foma wasn't very happy but decided to take the diplomatic approach. He assured me that his galactic republic was not an enemy and that they had more than enough problems to deal with.

That got my attention. They are at war, I don't know how I should call it a civil war or not. The commander called it the 'clone war' and apparently he's a clone part of a clone army. Now, who they fight against is even more bizarre. They are at war with a group of star systems that declared independence and built a droid army to fight the Republic.

A clone army fighting a machine army... hard to wrap my head around this. One thing I'm certain is that the Ecclesiarchy would be frothing at the concept of clones. Personally I don't really care about it. I know there was a food guild down on the lower levels of our hive city that operated an illegal vat grown facility to breed rats for meat but I don't know if its the same.

The guys with the droid army though... They are playing with fire. If the legends surrounding the men of iron are true machines should not exist at all and building an entire army of them is begging to be exterminated.

Curious about this Republic of his I asked him about it and oh boy did I get more confused that enlightened. It's a governmental body that supposedly spans most of the known galaxy and is inhabited by almost all species in the galaxy... You read that right, "Species" as in xenos...

The size of it confused me though. Its impossible for the Republic to be of such size when the Imperium is the one that truly encompasses the galaxy with over a million worlds.

Seeing an opportunity I asked him to see a image of the galaxy. The clone agreed and gave me a data slate of his own with the image of the galaxy. It made no sense... None of star systems made sense... And its not my fault here. I may have grown up mostly alone in the lower levels of the hive but I learned all that I needed and even more in the guard. I know where Holy Terra is, I know where Cadia is, I know where Macragge is, I know where THE DAMNED EYE OF TERROR IS! AND NONE OF THEM ARE ON THIS MAP!

I'm truly lost... lost in a different world where humans coexist with xenos and wage war where the armies are bred in laboratories or built in manufactorums...

++Log number: 3++
Date: 7 days after the incident 998.M41

Location: Kamino
Segmentum: Frak if I know

It's been 7 days since I got teleported in this new world... Good news is I'm all healed up now. That bacta gel is something alright. On another note while I was still recovering on Naboo their former queen visited me. It was a political visit, Padme Amidala is her name and she's also acting as their representative to the Republic's senate.

We didn't speak much, mostly her expressing condolences for my loss and reassuring me that Naboo and the Republic had nothing to do with it. She seemed nice.

Once I got on my feet I talked to commander Foma and told him that I want to help fight the droids...

I've went and done it... I'm a frakking traitor, offering to fight in the name of xenos... The only way I can reason my decision is that I hate the machines more than the xenos.

The clone commander that I would have to be evaluated first. I already have the body of a soldier, but he said I'd have to be tested to discern if I'd be capable against the droids.

And so they put me on a ship and sent me to Kamino where I'm writing this.

Off topic these people don't have navigators and don't even use warp drives. They use something called the Hyperdrive that has nothing to do with the warp and basically propels their ships at such speeds that they phase into another plane of existance but are still tangible enough that if they plot the wrong course they would slam at light speed into the nearest star or planet.

Honestly it sounds safer than the warp and to my shame at first I thought we were jumping into the warp without shutting off the windows...

Another thing they don't have are astropaths. Their communication arrays are so advanced they could send a vox message from Naboo all the way to the other side of the galaxy if enough transmitters are built. Could you imagine the Imperium with such technology?

Anyway, back on topic.

Kamino is... Its a water world, or ocean world.

Whatever

Honestly I never thought I'd see so much water in one place, let alone a whole planet.

Its population, the Kaminoans are a xenos race... Yea I know. They are the primary suppliers of the Republic's army. On this planet every single clone is born and trained and is the reason why they shipped me here. There's no better place other than the frontline to test me to see if I can hold my own against the droids.

I managed to convince them to let me keep my kit and lasgun, the lasgun mostly because I could charge them just about anywhere.

Off topic again but when they went over our gear the thing they were most impressed about were the power pack to the lasguns. Not the lasguns, not the 2 plasma rifles that made it through. No, it was the power packs simply because they had these 'solar-heat panels' installed in them that would draw energy from light and heat on top of the charging port. I don't know what that means but they complemented our way of lessening the logistics aspects of the guard.

On the other hand the lasguns they said they are standard tech even if a little outdated and they were not impressed with the plasma rifles at all. Said the cooling system is too weak to power output ratio. They're correct, plasma rifles are notorious for exploding in your face when overheating.

Right now I'm waiting in the supply room to be given green light to enter the training arena. I agreed to use one of their blasters outfitted with non-lethal rounds in order to not damage the facility and I switched to a clone helmet, its only logical. Internal comms and inbuilt rebreather to help in hostile enviorments. My old helmet didn't offer anything in comparison.

Anyway I'm gonna finish now, I'm about to go earn my keep.

The room is clean and sterile. The walls, almost a complete white unmarked by any form of individuality, no symbols, no insignia to denote an allegiance. The weapon and armor racks lining each side of the walls in perfect symmetry.

If there's a word to describe the supply room its tidy.

I stand on the elevator at the edge, waiting to be brought into the training arena. I inspect my equipment for the second time already. I am ready.

By the Throne it feels good to be back in my gear.

I then look to the two new items in my hands.

The first is the blaster rifle which I'll be using for this test. Its a DC-15a carbine blaster rifle with non lethal power pack. Its a pretty interesting weapon I must say. A plasma based weapon using a different kind of gas called tibana. From the little test fire I've done with it at the shooting range its comparable to the lasgun in terms of damage but it has more penetrating power but is plagued by the velocity of their bolts like any plasma rifle. With my lasgun its point and shoot, with this blaster I have to lead my shots.

Oh and the biggest positive is that it doesn't overheat like our plasma rifles. I still prefer the lasgun.

The second item if the clone helmet. Full face protection with inbuilt comms and rebreather is something any guardsman would kill for. They call it the 'phase 2' clone helmet and is part of the armor set of the same name that went into service not long before. Looking at my flak armor I grimaced. Emperor knows when this pattern was designed.

I donned my helmet and stood ready for action. I do believe I looked very awkward like that. My green flak armour with white helmet that screamed 'shoot me!'

Shortly after some green lights activated on the elevator floor and I started to ascend into the training arena.

The room was spacious with plenty of cover. It was clearly designed with the intent of training whole squads of clones but oh well. Looking on the far site I saw the observation post. There were several people inside, one of which was a Kaminoan xeno. The others were clone officers that were going to watch my performance.

"Bring it on..." I mutter as I run into cover behind a metal barricade

Some lights on the other side of the room started flaring and my opponents entered the arena. The clone commander called them B1 battle droids, the standard battle droid which made the bulk of the separatist army. They were nothing alike the machines that I fought back home, with tall thin bodies and elongated snout like faces.

There were five of them but they had backup. One of the towers in the back opened up and a blaster turret appeared.

I fired first, taking advantage of the distance and velocity of the blasters and gunned down the closest droid.

The other droids and the turret returned fire forcing me back in cover. That turret is gonna be a problem.

I move to the edge of my cover and take a peek. The droids slowly were making their way towards me. They didn't seem to be in any hurry, simply walking and firing their blasters at my location.

Either they're dumb or were reprogrammed like this for training I think to myself. I see a small window and make a break for it to the next set of cover. I pull out a electroshock detonator, another nifty toy from this world and chuck it over the cover.

I hear the pulse followed by a metal body hit the floor.

two down, three and a turret to go.

I blind fire my blaster over the cover then I make another break for it. I didn't really get lucky as when I exited cover I came face to face with a droid. Regardless I used my momentum and shoulder slammed the machine and kept going. I took cover behind another wall and turned back to finish the droid only to see that it got killed by the turret while it was firing towards me.

Thats three... The last two are actually showing intelligence.

They were staying in the back defending the turret tower and if I wanted to deal with the turret I had to get close as my blaster wasn't going to do anything from this distance.

Even if I knew this was not real combat I send a prayer to the Emperor and dash from cover firing as I went. Thankfully these droids were lousy shots and I manage to dodge and weave my way to their position, taking another emp grenade and chucking it into one droid while I tackled the other to the ground. I quickly drew my bayonet and jammed it as hard as I could into the machine's chest. It died instantly.

I immediately got up and made a run to the base of the tower, leaving my bayonet behind.

I made it. I took out my last emp grenade and threw it up top finally silencing that damned turret.

All in all, it took less than ten minutes the whole thing and things could've gone smoother but the end justifies the means right?

Looking up at the observation post I saw the officers talk among themselves before leaving. The lights on the elevator flickered to life again pointing me to return to the supply room.

I grabbed my bayonet on the way to the elevator and descended back down.

I stand at attention and wait for my evaluators to arrive which didn't take long. Two of them, officers both belonging to different units from the markings on their armor. The first one had blue markings while the other had orange. Their armor were showing as much individuality as their faces, even if they had the same features.

The blue marked clone's face, a little wrinkled than the other kept his blonde dyed hair very short while the other clone kept it natural in a standard military cut.

I saluted when we came face to face and they responded in kind.

"I must say you've put quite a show out there. I certainly wasn't expecting that mister." the clone with the blue markings began

"Krask, sir, Sebastian Krask." I reply

"Good to meet you Krask, I'm captain Rex and this is commander Cody."

"What's the verdict sir?"

"You've proven yourself more than we expected. A regular clone trooper wouldn't be able to pull off what you did. Tell me trooper, how long have you served in the military?" Cody asked

"Three years sir."

The clones exchanged a look

"You look pretty young to have served that long." Rex replied crossing his arms "Tell me, how old are you?"

"I'm eighteen sir."

The clones were shocked "Eighteen?! That means you joined when you were fifteen! And what about your parents? Did they let you join just like that?" Rex asked with a very concerned look

"I don't have parents. I never knew my father and my mother was a hive ganger and died when I was like eight. I grew up alone."

"By the stars... It must've been hell for you."

"I survived, that's all that matters."

They looked like they wanted to continue asking questions but thankfully they restrained themselves

"Back to our topic, your evaluation has been approved and I want to give you an offer." Captain Rex began. "The way you conducted yourself and improvised on the go I want to offer you the choice to join the 501st. I believe you'd fit right in with our tactics."

"It would be an honour to join you captain, even if I don't know anything about your unit."

"Don't worry, you can always learn and besides, I have a feeling you will like general Skywalker."

"I look forward to it."