Clone Wars: Underground - Chapter 4

  

“He’s gone.” Jace said. Jace was always the first one up in the mornings. Their quarters, or “the barracks”, consisted of a set of patient recovery rooms with a missing wall. They had set it up to resemble the type of barracks they were used to. Brix rolled over to face Jace. 

“What?” He asked sleepily. He could hear Burnout still snoring. Both Tiptoe and Fives sat up and came over.

“Maaka is gone.” Jace repeated.

“Maybe he went out for a morning jog.” Tiptoe suggested, but there was little belief in his tone. Fives shook his head. He knew, they all knew. 

“We’ll give him until evening to return.” Fives said.

“Then what?”

“Then nothing. We’ll know he’s not coming back. That’s all.” Fives replied.

“Do you think he’ll sell us out?” Brix asked.

“Sell who out?” Burnout asked groggily joining the conversation.

“No, I think he just wanted to go.” Tiptoe answered. “He never felt right here.”

“Yeah, we gotta work on morale.” Fives agreed.

“You’d be the CO, ya know.” Burnout blurted. It was something that had crossed Fives’s mind, but they weren’t in the army now. He had no rank anymore, none of them did. 

“Get up. We’ve got the tell the others about Maaka.”

 

It was a grim breakfast. They told Ellia, Brenni, and Kisha. Fives looked around at the lot of them. Sure, they had lost Maaka, but it was his own choice. They couldn’t mope about for him. He stood up.

“Listen up, we can’t make anyone else’s choice for them. What Maaka did may feel like desertion, but we’re not in the army anymore. We all have something better now. We have the ability to choose! You can lead your own life now.” Everyone’s attention was on the former ARC trooper. 

“What do you mean?” Burnout asked.

“We have to decide what we’re going to do with the second chance we’ve been given. Maaka made his choice, but I have another idea.” Fives took a deep breath. He had been mulling the choices in his head for days. “I say we help all of our brothers we can. The ones who’ve been discharged. The ones who feel trapped by their orders. The ones imprisoned for not blindly following orders. You don’t have to, but that’s what I’m going to do.”

“What if they rat us out?” Jace challenged.

“It’s a risk we’ll have to take.”

“Oh, this is gonna be fun.” Burnout’s excited grin reminded Fives once again of a friend he’d lost. Hardcase. The name drifted across his mind. He hardened his jaw and looked each trooper in the eye, conviction stared back at him. 

“We’ve all lost brothers. Let’s save some of them.” He finished.

“No one who has a chip is going to want it removed.” Ellia countered.

“Elli.” It was Tiptoe. “When the order was issued, I felt something dark deep inside of me. I knew it was wrong. I didn’t want to kill Jedi. I didn’t want to storm the temple. Those thoughts were my own, but they were over-ridden by orders and an obsessive need to follow those orders.”

“The order was like fulfilling the true nature of our creation, we all craved it. Every part of our being wanted to carry out the order, to please our master. Except the icky feeling that I just couldn’t swallow that something about it was grossly wrong. The order was so strong that there was no rational place for that feeling of doubt, and we followed those orders.” Brix admitted.

“I killed a padawan.” Tip confessed suddenly. There were tears in his eyes. “A part of me was begging for the young Jedi to slice me in half.”  

“We take their chips out, they can still go back if they choose. No one else would know, but at least they’ll have a choice.” Jace said with disgust in his tone.

There was something else Fives wanted to know. He had been too afraid to ask before, but he couldn’t hold back anymore. He knew Burnout, Brix, Tiptoe, and Jace were from the 501^st. When he spoke, it was a dark whisper.

“Who led you into the temple?”

The four troopers looked uneasily to one another. It was an easy answer, something they all knew, but no one wanted to say. They hadn’t talked about it. They didn’t want to and no one wanted to say it out loud. Fives frowned and waited. Seconds passed and no one spoke. Kisha dropped her spoon onto her plate. Brenni could feel the air between them all, like a cold, wet blanket. No one dared speak as Fives’s question hung in the air.

It was Burnout who finally spoke. Two words. “The General.” 

Air caught in Fives’s lungs. He had steeled himself to hear that his Captain had turned on their general, executed him the way Tup had done General Tiplar. He wasn’t prepared for this kind of answer. How? How could it have been the General?

Jace must have noticed his confusion and read his mind. “We don’t know. We didn’t even question it until Elli took those things out of our heads.”

“Is it possible the General had a chip in his head?” Tiptoe asked futility. They all knew the answer. He wasn’t a clone. He was, or had been, a Jedi.

“He turned dark.” Brix said at last, finally willing to admit what no one else would. Fives remembered General Krell on Umbara.

“No! Not General Skywalker. He couldn’t.” Fives protested out of sheer disbelief. 

“We were there!” Brix replied angrily. He wasn’t sure if he was angry at Fives or just angry. He wouldn’t have believed it either. That didn’t change the facts. 

Brenni wanted to say something to calm everyone down. She didn’t know what to say. General Skywalker had been the man trying to help Fives when he was shot. They must have been close. 

Fives stormed off. Brenni followed him while Ellia and Kisha stayed with the others. Tension and sadness filled the room. Ellia wanted to leave as well. She wanted to retreat to the safety of her office where she didn’t have to deal with other’s problems. She looked at the solemn men before her. Something held her back. As much as she wanted to run and hide, she didn’t want to leave any of them alone.   

“I’ll take the dishes.” Kisha said promptly. She stood and gathered up the dishes and disappeared into the make-shift kitchen. Ellia imagined Kisha felt the same way, wanting to escape the realization that a Jedi had led the attack on the temple. A Jedi had turned on his own and used the programmed clones to do his bidding.

A Jedi. The clones didn’t have a choice in their actions, but a Jedi did. Ellia looked at the troopers. One or two picked at their breakfast. Mostly they stared at their plates. Her eyes felt hot and wet. These were men, they had fought so hard to be individuals and, in the end, even that had been taken away. A wall inside broke and she couldn’t see them as just clones any longer. She made a commitment to them then.

“I’ll do it.” She said in a low voice. “I’ll remove every chip I find. Everyone deserves the right to their own mind.”

“It’ll be dangerous.” Brix said.

“I’ll do it too. I’m in.” Brenni returned with Fives. “If we’re gonna be outlaws, lets be kriffin’ outlaws.” 

“Whoa! Mom!” Kisha called from the kitchen. Brenni wasn’t given to cursing, but if they were going to throw out the rules, then today was the day for a few choice words. “This is gonna be fun!”

“Not you, Kish.” Brenni protested.

“I can shoot, I can pilot.” Kisha retorted. “You can’t refuse me.”

“We’ll keep her safe.” Tiptoe put in. 

“We’re not a squad, but we still need a leader.” Jace pinned Fives with a stare. “I call the ARC trooper.” Fives shook his head, but Burnout stood before he could protest.

“Yeah, he’s the creative one. Reminds me of the-” Burnout paused, correcting his statement. “Reminds me of the general we used to have.”

Fives looked at each trooper in turn. 

“All in favor.” Jace stood. One by one the other troopers in the room stood as well. 

“It’s settled then.” Brenni stated. “We’ll follow your lead, Fives.” Kisha and Ellia nodded.

 

“Where do we start?” Kisha was on her feet and excited. She had the look of someone who’d been cooped up for days and was finally being let loose. 

“Well, we can’t march into the barracks.” Tiptoe commented.

“79’s” Brix put in, twirling a vibro-knife he’d found a few floors up.  They had all done recon on the area surrounding the hidden headquarters. 

“Sounds prime.” Kisha smirked.

“Not you.” Brenni said.

“Why not?” Kisha glared defiantly. Her youthful brash attitude surfacing. Brenni knew that look. Most children developed defiant attitudes during their teens, but Kisha had been that way since she’d found her as a stowaway on her ship years ago. Kisha had a strong will that was constantly giving Brenni headaches. 

“It’s a bar. You’re fourteen.” Brenni, tone was firm. 

“It’s my speeder. You gonna take something else?” Kisha retorted. She knew Brenni’s speeder was older and far slower. Kish’s friends had helped work on hers, it was fast enough for the young rush-chasers she hung out with. Ellia had never bought a speeder herself. She took cabs or public transportation.

“Kish. You are to remain in the speeder.” Fives’s order was commanding. At least he hoped it came across that way. Kish didn’t argue. She just nodded. “How are your piloting skills?”

“I can pilot a speeder.” She said with a grin.

“Good, we’ll count on you to be ready.”

 

Maaka walked alone. Again. He looked up to see the new Imperial banners displayed on nearly every surface possible, the cold black and white cog reflecting the glows of whatever neon light was nearby. Although the same colors, it was the inverse of the symbol for the Republic. How fitting. The exact opposite of what we were bred to fight for. He pulled his coat closer. It still felt strange not having a captian or company. He had lived the last few months of his life that way. Isolated. Deemed too unstable to return to the battlefield. He was a clone soldier who couldn’t fulfill his purpose. 

The main Imperial Medical District loomed ahead. Maaka pulled the data chip from his pocket. He’d downloaded everything from the doctor’s computer onto it. He turned it over examining it for a moment as if it might hold the answers he was looking for. There were none of course. Nothing to tell him why his brothers had all died. Why could he picture them sometimes and not others? No cure for the disease called life. He couldn’t escape it. His face turned dark and he clenched the chip. 

Maaka took a deep breath to steady the storm inside him mind. There was something wrong with him, but he didn’t know what. With new determination he made for the entrance of the medical facility.

The air was much warmer inside and lit with a bright yellow glow as if the entire ceiling were constructed of lights. It made him squint having come in from the darkness of night. He walked up to the receptionist. He couldn’t help but notice that most everyone in the lobby was human. 

“This is for the head geneticist.” he said gruffly. The woman at the desk looked surprised. Most people who had seen a clone before did. They all thought clones lived in their armor around the chrono and carried a permanently stiff gait. Maaka slid the chip to her and left quickly before she could speak. 

There, he’d done it. He couldn’t turn the other clones in merely for being alive. They had no say in it. No clone had a say in anything that happened to them. He could, however, make that female doctor face up to her actions. He remembered her now. She’d been the one watching him in that room on Kamino. She watched as they did whatever it was that took his memories away. He hurried away from the center and down into the darker streets below, anger seething under his stony expression.

 

“No, actually genetics was very difficult for me. After failing my first exam I almost dropped out. I thought I just couldn’t do it. My father encouraged me to try again. I locked myself in my room and I just studied.”

Ellia sat with Tiptoe, Brix, and Fives at 79’s bar. It had taken a cut in funding when the Republic was replaced by the Empire. The drinks weren’t as good as Fives remembered. Or maybe he was just remembering the brothers he’d shared them with. He resisted the urge to rub his right temple where Kisha had applied some of her concealer over his tattoo. Her skin tone was pinker than his, but it did a fair job of hiding his main distinguishing mark.

“How’d it go?” Tiptoe asked.

“I aced the test. I was elated. I knew that if I was serious enough, I could do something I thought was impossible.” Her eyes fell to the table. “From that time forward, my life was genetics. I never went back to my social life, I traded everything for grades and honors, but I succeeded.”

“Was it worth it?”

“Well, here we are.” She shrugged. 

Tiptoe watched her awkward smile. It was no wonder Ellia always kept everyone at arm’s length. She didn’t see him or the other clones just as test subjects as he had thought. She just didn’t know how to let people get close. 

“I know!” Ellia desperately shifted gears. “Let’s get out on the dance floor. I can at least step to the beat.” Tiptoe glanced behind him. Brenni, Jace, and Burnout were there with different partners. Maybe they’d found some potential candidates. He stood with Brix.

“Boss.” Brix eyed Fives who sat firmly on his seat. 

“Naw, you guys go.” He gave the dance floor a wary glance.

“Ohhh, looks like that’s out of your comfort zone.” Brix teased, mocking the words he’d said to Ellia.

“I remember that line.” Ellia smirked. “What comes next? Oh right! That means you really should try it.”

“She’s got ya there, boss.” Tiptoe stated. Fives looked from Brix to Tiptoe imploringly but found no help.

Ellia took Fives’s hand and pulled him grudgingly to his feet. In previous years, he would have been first to the dance floor, if Jesse or Kix didn’t beat him to it. Now, he felt older, more settled. How could he be a leader and do things like this? He tried to imagine Captain Rex dancing. A smile crossed his lips at the thought. Ellia laughed. 

“See, it’s not so bad.” 

His smiled turned to a smirk and they began mingling with the others on the floor. 

Ellia found her way to Tiptoe. His posture strict, but Ellia knew how gentle he was. 

“Hey. You free?”

“Ma’am.”

“Ellia, please.”

“Elli.” Tiptoe smiled shyly. Ellia had hoped for that smile. It was slow, sweet, and completely unique to Tiptoe.

“May I ask how you got your name?” Ellia had been curious about his name since she first read his report. He chuckled.

“I uh, used to do extra combat training after hours. I didn’t want to wake anyone in the barracks, so I’d tiptoe back to my bunk. I guess I always thought no one would notice, but my squad mates began calling me Tiptoe and I guess it just stuck.”

He watched Ellia’s expression. There was a hint of a smile on her lips. 

Jace moved over to the both of them.

“Ma’am. It seems Brenni is winning.” Jace pointed. Jace could see competition in anything. Brenni was being escorted from the floor by a trooper. They sat down together at the bar. 

“I’ve been slacking, I guess. We better keep an eye on them.”

“I will. In the meantime, I was talking to a trooper sitting alone at the table on the far side of the floor. He’s the one with a shaved head. Name’s Ty. I think you should talk to him.” Tip gestured.

“Okay.” Ellia spotted the man and danced her way across the floor with two drinks. 

“Mind if I sit?” She asked holding a drink out to him.

“Go ‘head.” The man before her had bloodshot eyes and looked like he hadn’t slept in days. She toned the act down from cheerful to subdued. 

“Thanks.” She said calmly. “It’s my first time here.”

“It’s not that great.” His voice was shaky. 

“Nerves?” Ellia asked.

“What?”

“You don’t seem well. I’m a doctor.”

“Nothing you can fix.”

“Wanna tell me about it?”

 

Brenni smiled sweetly at the trooper who ordered her a drink.

“Thank you.” 

“Not a problem, miss. Name’s Chase.”

“Brenni. How have things been since the change?” Brenni thought something broad would be the best way to start.

“Oh, not too much has changed. I work for the guard.” He waited for a reply as if that meant something. 

“The guard. Is it different than the other units?”

“Well, yeah. We have privileges. We still get free drinks and top of the line barracks and medical.”

“What about the others?” 

“I hear they’re being phased out. I think-” He paused, considering his next words. “I think it’s a way of helping them decide to retire.” 

Or in other words, taking away all their military benefits in hopes that they’ll just leave.Brenni frowned. 

“So there are troopers here who don’t get free drinks?” Brenni asked.

“Oh, yeah. I guess there are. Medical and rations too. But that’s not my problem.”

Brenni stood. “Well, thanks for the drink.” She said, waving the glass.

“Wait. Where you going?”

“To find someone who needs a drink.” She retorted, turning her back on him.

Chase’s face contorted into a scowl, then suddenly he was on his feet at attention. Brenni turned to see what had caused such a reaction. Behind her three troopers in full gear were striding purposefully into the bar. 

“Commander Fox.” Chase saluted. Heads turned and conversations stopped. Across the room Ellia’s heart pounded. Fox was the last person she wanted to see. She glanced around to get a lock on each of her companions. Brix and Jace were already shuffling out the door. Fives was settling into a guard position in front of her. Tiptoe was edging up behind Brenni. He reached for her hand. In one fluid motion he put an arm around her and spun her towards the door. 

Chase glanced over his commander’s shoulder at Brenni causing Fox to turn. 

“Stop.”

Brenni stopped and turned. Fox approached but his gaze was redirected across the floor. 

Sweat beaded on Fives’s forehead and he swiped at it with his sleeve. Horrified, he looked at the pinkish streaks on his cuff. The makeup was smeared. 

Fox detailed the trooper at the tables and ran a scan on his HUD. It was him, the renegade trooper he’d shot. He sprang forward.

“Run!” Fives shouted.  

Tiptoe grabbed Brenni and they ran for the door, Brenni calling Kisha for a ride. 

Fives and Ellia were completely cut off from the main entrance. Fives flicked his comm on.

“Well meet you out back.” He stated and grabbed Ellia’s arm.

“Come with us!” Ellia turned to Ty. Her eyes pleading, she took his hand and the three of them made for the exit. 

Out front the others were already in the speeder. Two of Fox’s men were on their tail. Kisha hurried them into to speeder before peeling out and around. 

Inside, Fox chased the three running for the back room. The trio were just exiting the back when he aimed and stunned the first trooper, then the second knocked the woman aside and went down with the second stun round. In three bounds Fox had seized the third member of the group. He took a quick look at Fives who’s identifying tattoo was now clearly visible. Fox jerked the struggling woman around and Ellia could see his shock despite the helmet he wore.

Fox looked down at Ellia. He removed his helmet. She could see pain and frustration on his features.

            “Doctor.” His voice was quiet. “I have excluded you in my reports so far, but you are putting your life in danger. I have enough experience to know that I will regret my actions, but I cannot go against orders.” His voice was strained as if he was fighting against his own words.

            “Fox.” Ellia realized he was trying to warn her. Maybe he wasn’t so cold and heartless as he’d seemed. She wanted to tell him to resist, to come away with her. She could remove his chip and-. She shook her head. There was just no way. He was the leader of the Imperial Guard. “Thank you.” She said instead.

            “I don’t want to hurt you, but you know what will happen.”

            “I won’t turn my back on them. They’re my family now, and they’re your brothers. I will keep them safe.”

            Fox felt disgusted. Here was this civvie standing up for his own brothers while he hunted them down. He knew his cause was greater. No one was above the law. He was preventing anarchy. It would make it easier if this woman and all of his fellow clones followed orders the way he did. Then he wouldn’t feel so conflicted. He nodded and replaced his helmet.