"The Republic, an organization which has withstood a millennium, stands amid the largest war in a millennia" A man in the dark blue uniform of the Republic navy turned to face a group of four armored individuals. The slow steps of the man echoed throughout the roomy office. This was Fleet Admiral Raden, The man responsible for the Republic's Naval war effort, and opposite to him were the clone commandos of Epsilon squad. These clones, specially commissioned for the Grand Army of the Republic's Special Operations Brigade, had been recalled from Felucia to the heart of the Republic on the Admiral's orders. The abandoning of a sabotage mission critical to the effort of the campaign on the fungal planet had highlighted the importance of the task they were soon to receive.

With a notable clack, the Admiral's steps ceased and his gaze had become fixed on the commandos in front of him. "The Separatists' high council has been a thorn in our side this whole damn war. Many have been captured only to escape one way or another" The man stated with a notable twitch of the brow. "That ends now. Republic Intelligence has dug up the itinerary of San Hill, it looks like the council is meeting in person for an annual summit." The reaction of the 4 individuals differed from a studious gaze to one of mild surprise, one could not help but glance at his brothers to examine their reactions. "The council is meeting onboard a battlesphere in orbit over Ord Radama and you, Epsilon squad, will eliminate them."

This time, The first Individual could not stay quiet. While Assassination missions were not uncommon in their line of work, the circumstances of the mission itself presented a one-way trip at best. "Ord Radama is deep in Separatist space, it's not lightly defended either, with respect Admiral, that's not a target we can get to with an NU class."

The admiral turned his gaze to the commando. The man's chest plate was mostly white with deep gray accents shaped like scratch marks. His leg plates and codpiece were a dark gray save for the white Aurebesh numbers spelling out his serial numbers. His helmet bore the outlined shape of a small carnivore from which the commando got his name. This was Badger, the squad lead of Epsilon, who had always been a careful planner and well-observant. Raden understood his concerns and to an extent agreed with them. Unfortunately, the discoveries of the enigmatic agents of the RI had proven too juicy of a target to pass up.

"We considered that Sergeant Nine-Eight, rest assured you will be accommodated for this. We have no intention of simply sacrificing you" The commando did appear appeased, "And how exactly will that be sir?" A good leader, and his caution was obvious. The clone had no intention of sacrificing his brothers or himself for a fool-hearty cause. An admirable but tiring effort for the fleet admiral

The admiral massaged his brow, "You will be afforded a modified IPV-2C class stealth corvette." This time the third commando spoke up. "Modified? What kind of modifications could you need on that ship?" This commando wore white armor with red blotches on his shoulder pads, thigh plates, and portions of his chest and abdomen sections with a medical symbol over his left pectoral and a red ring on the left side of his helmet. This was Stitch, the squad's local medical expert and alien languages expert. "The corvette has additional storage for an astromech and living space for your Republic Intelligence coordinator alongside cryo stasis ports, and an upgraded communications array."

"Great, spooks." The comment did not go without a silencing glare for 98. Coming from the second commando, Warlock. He wore armor adorned in white and gray armor similar to a battalion with which he had much respect. The armor also had several red stripes in certain areas of the armor making for an appearance of an outline. The explosives expert was known for his sarcasm though his comment wasn't entirely unwarranted.

The admiral sighed, The reaction from the commando was to be expected but tiring. The RI had a reputation of an extreme cutthroat culture which led to extreme distrust with the forces of the Grand Army. The admiral would never admit it, but the same feelings did not escape him nonetheless his hands were tied with the inclusion of the so-called spooks. "Your coordinator will be your point of contact with Coruscant and act in joint command with 98.

The commandos nodded, obviously the four soldiers' concerns had not been addressed. "Any last questions gentlemen?" The admiral's hopes for a sudden end to this rapidly tiring meeting were dashed by the red-decorated commando. "Cryo freezing is extremely risky. Nevermind the risk of death, the risks of temporary loss of motor functions aren't exactly good news for a mission such as this."

The admiral's response was quick, the reasoning was simple and left little room for argument. "Due to recent incursions from other commando units, the CIS has significantly ramped up the usage of bio scanners. The astromech on board will care for you and pilot the vessel while you are recovering from any cryo sickness." The Admiral checked the clock on his holo table, deciding he wanted this meeting to end sooner rather than later he ended any hopes of questions. "Your ship is held at drydock Forn. A LAAT is set to ferry you there."

The commandos snapped a quick salute before exiting the room. The silence was only broken by the fourth commando. His armor was a mix of lime green, red, gray, and white. His torso contained the first three colors down to his arm plates and up to his helmet which was adorned with a red print of a Reek, which earned him his name, with macrobinos attached to the helmet itself. His lower torso and upper thighs were pure white with his calf and boot plates carrying the same color scheme as his upper torso.

"There's no way we're traveling with a spook!" Reek, the fourth commando, moved ahead to block the path of his brothers. "They will leave us to die at a moment's notice!" Badge knew this would be an issue. While the agents of the RI had been responsible for many great victories there were many rumors which traveled through the secure comms channels of the Special Operations Brigade. Reek had been unfortunate enough to listen in on ramblings of clones whose mission was solely to kill other clones from one of Skirata's brood. Unfortunately for Badger, It was his job to get Reek in line. "What choice do we have in the matter? We've got a job to do, worry about the issue when we get there."

Reek retorted just as quickly "Come on Badger, You can't seriously tell me you trust a spook enough to bunk with them." Badger hummed with some apprehension and looked towards the other two commandos from his squad. "If you're so worried about it then take shifts, There are four of us after all." The Reek joined Badger's stare towards the other two commandos. "Well, Stitch? Warlock? Last one to the dock gets first shift?" The gray commando, Warlock, Chuckled. "Sure, meet you there."

With that Reek took off towards the Headquarters rail station much to the confusion of the red commando. "He's aware the Admiral prepared a LAAT for us right?"

"He'll figure it out while he's on watch" stated Warlock with a chuckle.

With that, the three remaining Commandos turned away from their overly excited comrade to board the aforementioned drop ship. With a nod to the ship's crew chief, the LAAT rose into the air with a low hum before accelerating northwards through the highly coveted military traffic lanes of the Coruscant skies. There wasn't much more talk between the brothers, leading to a silent ride to the drydocks.

—-

Elsewhere on the ecumenopolis, a man in crimson robes was sneering at a report that had been pulled from the office of the Republic's navy. This man was Chancellor Palpatine, leader of the Galactic Republic. Normally a ruler of a nation at war would rejoice at the chance to cut the head off the nation he was at war with. However, this man seemed less excited and more offended by the audacity of his subordinates.

This war had been a maze of words and actions to start and an even greater one to run. The unending medaling of politicians attempting a premature resolution, Jedi and their annoyingly effective antics, and the surprising effectiveness of both sides' intelligence agencies had made his intent of running the war to its absolute destructive peak the greatest of tight ropes to cross.

With the wave of his hand, the shades of his office lowered and the guards exited, sealing the door behind them. With the rise of a hood and the press of a button on his holo-projector Palpatine was gone, and in his place was Darth Sidious. It did not take long for the holoprojector to return the picture of a being, someone not quite human.

"I require your abilities, Captain "

—-

The military drydocks on Coruscant were no longer the hastily made shambles they had been during the beginning of the war. Gone were the clear indicators of the former civilian stations and in their place was the hardened durasteel equipment needed for the day-to-day use of military vessels. The bays ranged in size from bays large enough to fit a couple of Carrack class light cruisers to the massive bays meant to hold the infamous Venator class star destroyers. The Clone commandos had been assigned to a much smaller vessel which had been placed in the open hangar of a docked Venator.

Epsilon squad had reunited with Reek receiving the unwelcoming sight of his three brothers waiting for him, likely for some time. The lime commando had been brooding since and was the quietest of the bunch on their walk through the star destroyer. The conversations had long strayed away from the topic of the mission and moved towards various long-standing debates that had existed since Geonosis and would likely exist for the foreseeable future. The star destroyer itself was empty, her crew was on shore leave while the ship received maintenance and her repair teams had likely gone home for the day. Of course, the squad's enjoyment could only last so long as the doors to the main hangar bay opened to reveal a very annoyed-looking brunette.

"Two hours behind schedule and this is the best Raden can afford me?" Her native Coruscanti accent cut as sharp as the glare she cast on the commandos, who, were they any average judicial soldier, would have wilted under her anger.

"Well?"

Warlock took the bait "Well?"

Judging by her face Badger could tell this wasn't the right answer. "What could have been so important you felt you could arrive two hours behind schedule?" It was Reek's turn to poke the Agent, "Ehhh. A race?" Badger cringed, O and two.

The look on the agent's face turned from annoyance to fury. Sensing a disaster in the making, Badger attempted a smoothover. "A Standard drill, We.. usually race to test routes for their effectiveness in the event of the worst-case scenario." Stitch was glad he wore his helmet, the look on his face likely would have given away any chance the agent believed his brother.

"Really? Alternative routes?" O and three? Warlock wasn't yet convinced. "Yeah, you never know what could happen. Do you know the quickest route to exfil the Chancellor to a warship off-world?" He didn't and he hoped she didn't either. By the look on her face she either didn't know or didn't care. Either way, his bluff paid off he supposed, one and two.

The agent sighed "Agent Drogen, Melina Drogen. I will be your commander for this mission. Do try to forgo your alternative routes while on duty."

"Names Badger, that's Stitch, Warlock, and Reek." Once again Agent Drogen looked unimpressed. "I know who you are, your files were afforded to me Sergeant Nine-eight. Have your men move the last of the supplies aboard the Corsair." With that, she turned towards the Stealth ship that landed behind her.

Badger looked towards his brothers. "Well you heard her I suppose." His squad immediately moved to work though Reek felt one last comment was necessary to his explosives-loving brother. "You're getting second watch."

—-

Within the hour the Corsair had been loaded and the ship had achieved orbit over the ecumenopolis. With the last of the home fleet behind them, The ship moved into Hyperspace destined for their first exit point in empty space near Taris. Their assigned astromech, R7-D5 had been quick to feed the coordinates to the navicomputer. The little droid seemed decently friendly though the beeps and boops sometimes sounded more silly than mission-oriented, A Great addition to the squad.

With a bump the faster-than-light travel ended and the blue swirling tunnel was replaced by the emptiness of space. "Alight Commandos We'll be doing our last prep before initiating the cloaking drive." Drogen had been quick to spoil any hopes of relaxation the commandos may have thought they could have. They had found her to be quite obsessed with just about every bell and whistle aboard the vessel. If Reek didn't know any better he would think the ship was her home.

Nevertheless, the commandos found no good reason to upset the agent and simply went to work. The obvious was more checking boxes than actual maintenance as the drydock crews had done quite well with the little ship. "Weren't we two hours behind?" The lime commando had long since forgotten his disappointment at earning first watch and had turned to engage in conversation with Badger. "Your point? Better the ship shows up cloaked rather than not when we exit hyperspace. These ships are experimental. Who knows what kind of problems this tech could have."

The more headstrong of the two was ready to continue conversing however something in the corner of his eye made him pause. "..Sir, weren't we supposed to be running radio silent?" A stupid question earned him only an annoyed look. However, the look turned to be much more nervous with the point of Reek's finger. Badger rushed to deactivate the unit. "Well, that could have ended poorly."

As if on queue the ship's intercom sounded and their day got much worse. "CIS Ships! Three frigates and one destroyer!" Just as suddenly the ship lurched and the engines roared to life. "To the bridge!"

On said bridge Agent Drogen was not having a good day. What started as an exciting career opportunity had become a disorganized mess and now an absolute catastrophe. She swung the controls to avoid a salvo of turbo lasers from the forward frigate which was quickly bearing down on the small ship. "How the hell did they find us? You Corporal twenty! Get back there and have everyone strap down!" The medic moved towards the door only for Reek and Badger to rush through with the sounds of Warlock not far behind them. "Or they can come to me! Get seated!". The ship again swerved as a concussion missile slid by the hull passing the viewport and briefly attempting a turn before exploding due to target failure.

"How did they find us? We aren't even in Separatist space yet!" Whether Drogen heard the question or not she didn't answer as she was likely more focused on the deadly munitions exploding around them. "R7, what's the charge on the hyperdrive?" The droid gave a quick squeal followed by several beeps. Not as long as it could be, way longer than she wanted. After all, it would only take one good hit to seriously damage the fragile ship. "You know I figured we'd be getting shot at AFTER we took out the council not before!" This time Melina responded to the wisecrack from the wolf-decorated commando "If you don't have any useful information to present then shut up and let me fly!" Not a second passed before Stitch spoke up "Missile lock, four pursuing!"

The pilot roared in frustration before jerking the controls to the side. "Countermeasures you fool!" Not a second later the ship threw off a large clouding of gas ion charged gas, the crew could only count the seconds as the missiles closed in. Just as the missiles were prepared to disable themselves, abrupt correction thrusters spun them 90 degrees allowing them to clear the smoke before recorrecting much to the anger of the Corsair's crew.

"Bullshit!" Stitch shouted, "They're still closing! Gotta be running manual". For the first time Melina allowed her fear to present itself in her voice, "R7 we need to jump!" The droid's beeping did not sound promising. "The absolute second it's ready, I don't care where we end up!" The missiles suddenly split in two revealing secondary thrusters and accelerating. "Brace brace!" The rocking explosions never came, Instead all four missiles rocked past the Corsair before exploding in a massive cloud of Ion gas. Before any of the crew could shout in warning R7 followed its orders and the familiar blue tunnel formed launching the ship directly through the gas.

Immediately warnings blared through the cockpit and auto damage suppressants fired off rapidly. "The hyperdrive's melting down! I can't save it!" The warnings were only getting louder and the shaking was only more violent. The console to the left of Badger burst causing a flurry of sparks across the cockpit. "Shut down all power to the hyperdrive and buckle up!" The clone to her right looked at her in shock. "That'll fling us across whatever system we end up in at fractions of the speed of light!"

"Would you rather we break apart in hyperspace!?"

For once even Warlock had no remarks to give. Stitch followed as ordered diverting all power away from the hyperdrive, immediately the wiring from behind them became a begging groan and before long ceased. However, as expected the end of their worries had not arrived as hyperspace collapsed around them they found themselves shooting through real space at speeds beyond what their ship should move.

"Hit the thrusters!"

With a loud heavy hum, the rear thrusters slammed to full power causing the ship to rock as it rapidly de-accelerated. The shaking continued for another short minute before the ship finally achieved desirable speeds. Drogen let out a breath of air she didn't know she had. The crew of six sat silently, absorbing the last few minutes they had just suffered through. Of course, even this peace could not last as Melina jumped up.

"The hyperdrive! Get back there!" Badger and Stitch needed no further requests as the two commandos rushed to the rear of the ship. Warlock immediately got to work on the blown console to see how salvageable it may be while Reek ran ship diagnostics. "How the hell did they find us? We jumped to empty space!"

Reek chimed in with his assumption."The comms station was transmitting before the fleet arrived, maybe they noticed a lone comms signal and moved to take it out?" Warlock froze at the comment. "I shut off the comms station after we left Coruscant." Not a second after he finished his statement he drew his DC-17m and raised it towards the RI agent and droid who both jumped back in surprise. Drogen had become ever so slightly used to the wisecracking nature of the Wolf-emblazoned commando, however none of that was present. Only the cold stare of his visor and the threatening sight down the barrel of his rifle.

Reek stared with a moment of shock before moving away from his console and joining his brother in their stare-down. "I know full well none of my brothers would attempt to kill us all. So fess up and maybe I won't have to fill you with plasma!" Melina could only stare in shock while the astromech beside her filled the room with desperate beeps a whistles. Her shock was however broken when the door to the crew quarters opened revealing the sight of a now very surprised Badger. "What the hell are you doing?"

Reek wasted not a second to explain the brewing situation to his squad lead who silently absorbed the information being presented. At the end of the short explanation, Badger raised his finger to his comms panel. "Stitch, get me a pair of cuffs and a restraining bolt." A quick affirmative sounded from the other side and Badger turned to look at the presumed guilty pair. "If they're right, you're dead. Who was running diagnostics?" Reek sounded off in affirmation. "Finish them" stated the squad leader not sparing to even look away from the agent.

The silence was deafening. Not a single word had been spoken for more than five minutes save for the quick statement of arrival from Stitch which resulted in the cuffing of Melina and the restraining of R7. At least the commando's rifles were no longer aimed in her direction. Many thoughts raced through her mind. How had their comms been activated, who activated them, and how did the CIS zero in on their signal that quickly? Too many thoughts, too much stress. Even she was starting to sweat with fear. Finally, the chime of completion from Reek's console sounded. The Commando read over all statements of irregularities before passing the datapad to Badger who then also read it over.

"The hyperdrive is toast, the navicomputer is fried beyond repair, and the long-range comms relay is damaged." Badger continued to read through the list. "Debugging of long-range comms software in progress?" Reek looked up "Yeah, something had been uploaded into the comms array."

"Shit."

"Uncuff her." Warlock did as ordered and soon the agent was rubbing her wrists in shock. "Listen here. From now on, my orders run this boat. Whether you like it or not." Melina could only silently nod to the commando, after all, they were four and she was unarmed. "Reek run diagnostics on the droid. I want everything." The lime commando did not hesitate to drag the droid over to a console, much to its disapproval. Once plugged in a similar uncomfortable silence filled the ship, seconds turned into minutes and silence turned to a ding as the droid's diagnostics were complete.

"Nothing out of the ordinary sir." Once again the ship was silent, but rather than animosity, confusion filled the air. "If not the droid and not the agent. Then who?" Stitch spoke up "What about before we took off?" The realization that they could have been sabotaged by a CIS collaborator was as obvious as it was shocking. It was well known that Coruscant had been home to many CIS collaborators, many of whom had caused problems in the Galactic capital before. Unfortunately, Stitch's guess was not an unlikely conclusion.

—-

A million miles away, the Chancellor finished a very exciting holo call. With a single action, his mission to eradicate the Jedi had once again been secured. Sure the cost had been a valuable squad of clone commandos, however, the four clones could be replaced, his cover as Chancellor could not. Of course, Admiral Raden and the various RI agents who had dared to dig too deep into his war still needed to be punished and punishment would come.

—-

Several hours had passed and the situation had not improved. Despite the frantic efforts to repair the battered ship, the sinking feeling in Drogen's gut had not eased and only seemed to get deeper. Not to mention the acute realization that not only did her soldiers not even trust her anymore but they had declared themselves above her. She had truly lost control of the situation and could see no way to regain control for the foreseeable future.

She was fully aware their ship was essentially dead in the water. While the sublight thrusters worked perfectly fine and they could communicate with anything in their general radius, they could not move to hyperspace, communicate beyond their local area of space and their navigation computer was beyond salvaging which rendered the crew lost within a massive area of space. The last couple of hours had been tough, the obvious answer to their conundrum had been in their minds for some time, only now was Badger willing to state the uncomfortable truth.

"Cryostasis."

"What?" Stitch was quick to speak up. "I know what you're thinking sir, but cryo freezing ourselves is just far too risky right now!"

"And what else do you suggest? There's little chance that the Republic will find us in a respectable amount of time. If we are found we will have run out of food, water, oxygen, or any of it. Our best option is to deploy a beacon, go to cryo stasis, power down everything, and leave R7 to wake us at his discretion."

"What else can we do? Even if we knew where we were we won't reach anything for a very long time. What's the point of staying awake and slowly dying out?" Unfortunately for Stitch, his opinion was the outlier. "Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you." Badger only nodded before turning to the rest of the crew. "Prep for cryo. R7 deploy a beacon, you know what comes next." The droid beeped sadly and watched as the troopers headed to the cryo bays. "You coming Agent Drogen? Or are you going to wait for R7 to switch off the lights?" Melina was slightly surprised by the commandos' offer. She assumed they would abandon her to die in this soon-to-be frozen tube. Instead, the clones were welcoming her into the one chance of salvation they had. Hesitantly she followed them into the cryo chambers and waited for the freeze to come.

In the corner of the room, R7 watched as the five members of the Corsair's crew froze themselves, waiting for salvation which for all they knew, would never come. The beacon had already been lit and the final burst of the thrusters had been fired. All that was left was to shut down the majority of power, enter power-saving mode, and hope for the best. The short vessel felt abnormally long to the little droid as the lights shut down around him. The existential dread reached its peak for him as it reached the charging station. The droid connected to the station and then wrote a line of code to be awakened by the sensors. Finally, as the last light on the ship went out R7-D5 beeped one last time.

"01110101 01101110 01110100 01101001 01101100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110011 01110101 01101110 00100000 01110011 01101000 01101001 01101110 01100101 01110011 00100000 01100001 01100111 01100001 01101001 01101110"