Clone Wars: Underground - Chapter 9
Ellia looked around her apartment. It was still new to her, but there was no one to invite over. Brenni, her closest friend, had blasted out of Coruscant a few days ago. Kisha was with her, and her new friends too. She doubted any of them would be able to get anywhere near Coruscant without being arrested. Ellia’s own family was on Chandrila. Under current working circumstances she wasn’t allowed to leave Coruscant, so there’d be no visiting them. Even Ardie, her personal research and medical droid, had been taken from her office. She knew Brenni and the others had planned on rescuing her from Tarkin and then fleeing. They would have picked Ardie up first. Ellia really was alone now. She should have been ecstatic. She had always wanted to be left alone to do her work, but she just felt empty. She reached for the tally that hung on a chain around her neck. It belonged to Tiptoe, a clone that had been killed during her interrogation. Maybe it was better that she was alone. She needed time to heal. She could still send them a message and explain her decision. Fives was pretty angry that she wouldn’t get on the Ladalum with them. He had every right to be, after risking their lives to rescue her.
Brenni, Kisha, and the clones sat around the table in the Ladalum’s common area.
A small blue projection of Ellia stood on the comm projector’s display platform. “I’m sorry I wasn’t able to explain. The Imperials have my research now. I must make sure it is not put to use by the new Empire. I want to set things right. Ardie is capable of subatomic scans and can remove inhibitor chips. Put him to good use and please take care of him. I miss you all.”
The image blipped out. The scowl Fives had at the beginning of the message softened a little.
“She’s totally sad.” Kisha commented. Brenni knew it too. Ellia’s voice was monotone. She kept looking down, something she did when trying to hold back her feelings. Brenni should have made her get on the ship, despite losing the research. After a minute, everyone shuffled off to different parts of the ship.
The hyperspace jump would only be another day. Kisha’s music thumped through the cargo bay of the Ladalum, vibrating through the crates resting on the corrugated metal surface.
“These juiced up power converts are what do it.” The girl explained to Burnout. Both were on their backs underneath Kisha’s speeder.
“Geez, thought the military were the only ones with this grade.” Burnout whistled.
“My friend, Jaiya, got them for me. She’s a wizard with speed. I installed them though.” Her smile was full of pride. “I won the Triple RIP with it.”
“Races?”
“Underground circuits. Well, not the big times, just amateur contestants only.
When I get older, I’m goin’ big time.”
“’spose I mount a couple rotating minis on the hood?”
“Weapons aren’t allowed in races.” Kisha responded immediately.
Burnout raised an eyebrow. Kisha took the hint.
“Yeah, probably not gonna be racing for a while anyway.”
“Even better, you’re our getaway pilot now.” Burnout could make a criminal act sound like a compliment somehow.
“Burnout!” The sharp voice caused the supine clone trooper to jerk and smack his head on the undercarriage of the speeder.
“Ouch! Kriff, Sarge.” They both slid from under the speeder to meet Fives.
“Don’t be giving our rookie here any dangerous ideas.”
Kisha rolled her eyes at him and Fives smirked. “Yet.” He amended. Satisfied, Kisha nodded and excitedly re-started the tour of her most precious possession for the approval of their leader.
Ty sat at the Ladalum’s computer terminal. He had the last transmissions from the 332nd provided by Jace. Jace was member of the 501st along with Burnout, Brix, and Fives. Their commanding officer, Captain Rex, had been leading the 332nd division of the 501stwhen the ship crashed. Ty noticed how eager the others were to find out what happened to their legion, but in particular they were anxious to find out about their captain. Ty had been the communications expert from his own company. Still, it wasn’t easy. He decoded the encryption and the transmission readout scrolled on screen. The destroyer was pulled from hyperspace by a malfunction with the hyperdrive, but there were no coordinates given. He found the audio and tried amplifying the background noise. He could hear troopers issuing orders in the background.
“Pursue target one. Hangar bay!”
“-caught in the moon’s gravity.”
Ty paused and replayed it. Moon? The ship wasn’t left adrift. It didn’t break apart in space. It either landed or broke up in the atmosphere of a moon. But where? Ty pulled up a map of the hyperlanes and the route the 332nd took to get to Mandalore. He drummed his fingers on the console. There were several systems they could have passed by. If they were wrenched put of hyperspace, they could have slipped into systems parsecs on either side of their route. He looked at all the information Jace gave him. Reports of the landing on Mandalore, the capture of Maul, the departure. Everything was listed in chronological order with timestamps on each record. Time stamps. Ty had an idea. He quickly scanned though the time reports. It had taken exactly three days, seven hours, and forty-seven seconds from the time they entered hyperspace to when they re-emerged at Mandalore. Although they hadn’t come from Coruscant directly, the ship was running at peak proficiency and Ty could use the time and distance data to calculate where they were when they broke out of hyperspace. He just needed to know how long they were travelling after they left Mandalore. He scanned the report and found it. The ship was in hyperspace for one standard day, nine hours, and three seconds before the malfunction yanked them into real space. Using the times and the trajectory of the space lanes from Mandalore to Coruscant, he calculated roughly where the ship would have come out. He mentally crossed his fingers as he brought up the star charts for the area, hoping there would be a system nearby.
The charts showed two possible systems. Both had several planets and moons, but at least it was a start! Ty jumped from his chair. He almost went straight to Brenni with the information. She was the person he confided in most. She had been the first civvie to be his friend. Ty smiled to himself and went to find Fives instead.
“So I’m on the landing team?” Kisha asked. “Do I get a blaster?”
“No. And No.” Brenni replied instantly. Kisha rolled her eyes.
Fives watched the teenager stomp off to her cabin. “Brenni, I think Kisha should have a little more responsibility. She’s old enough.” He said after Kisha was out of earshot.
Brenni sighed. A parent might feel offended by someone telling them how to raise their young ones, but Brenni had no illusions about her position, and she needed all the help she could get. “She’s reckless. I can’t put her in danger.”
“You also can’t keep her from it forever. Better to teach her some control than tempt her to go behind your back.”
Brenni raised an eyebrow. “And you know all this how?”
“Let’s just say that she kind of reminds me of myself.” He didn’t explain further, but Brenni didn’t need him to.
“I just. I don’t know what I’m doing.” Brenni started. “I hadn’t planned on being a parent, not after the breakup I had with my own parents. I’m actually not that much older than her. We should be more like sisters, but I know she needs authority in her life, not just a friend.”
Fives wasn’t sure where to start. Authority figure wasn’t the first thing that came to mind when he thought of himself. Brenni’s strengths were her compassion and responsibility, but she could be scary when her ship was in disarray. Kisha definitely needed an outlet for her energy, something clones knew all too well about.
“Do you trust me enough to let her follow my lead?”
“What?” Brenni was taken off guard by the random request.
“I just thought she might listen to me, but she won’t if I just tell her to sit in her room all the time. You have to let her take some risks.”
Brenni took a deep breath then nodded. Since meeting the stowaway, Kisha had become as much her family as anyone related by blood. Despite their constant headbutting, Brenni’s heart constricted at the thought of anything happening to her.
“Okay. I’ll give it a try.”
“So, wanna tell me about your family?” Fives asked casually. Brenni slugged him in the shoulder and stalked away towards the bridge. Fives shrugged. He still didn’t have the tact his superiors had. He was, like many clones, curious about families. He had his brothers and the honor of serving in the Grand Republic Army, but that can’t be all they were meant for. He headed to his bunk.
Everyone had their original armor, something that had been brought by Ellia to their hideout. The only one who need new plastoid was Fives. He had not been wearing it when he died, and no one knew what happened to it. Brenni easily scrounged up another set as she did deliveries for the military all of the time. It was a little different, the helmet had an original commando design, but the rest of the suit was just like his old set. Fives repainted his helmet with the Rishi worm in memory of his fellow Dominos, Cutup and Droidbait. He also did his best to repaint the Z-6 rotary canon on the left shoulder to remember Hevy. When he finished, He considered adding another symbol of a lost brother. He took a deep breath and let it out in a heavy sigh. Then, picking up the blue paint, he added a small handprint to the other shoulder piece and a single teardrop below it. It hurt, but he wasn’t going to forget. He would carry his brothers with him for as long as he lived.
Ty punched in the coordinates and gave the okay. Brenni shifted the hyperdrive and the ship jumped in the direction of the systems Ty thought could be crash sites of the rest of the 501st.
“How are you, Ty?” Brenni asked as the blue tunnel of hyperspace filled the cockpit. She made it a point to keep up with him since he joined their crew back at the 79’s club.
“I’m better now. We clones were made to withstand traumatic experiences.”
“Yeah, but it’s still a lot to take on.”
“I know. I didn’t kill my jedi, but I remember wanting to. I saw her killed and I was satisfied that the order was completed. It gave me nightmares worse than the ones I had before. After learning about the chips, well, it’s a small
comfort to know that I wasn’t completely out of my mind.”
“Yeah. We’ve got our work cut out for us, don’t we?”
“I want to do it. Us clones don’t have many rights, but we should at least have the right to our own minds.”
“I’m glad you’re here.”
“Well, it’s an easy decision for someone like me who was engineered with a kill switch in his brain. But you, you’ve got no stake in this. You’re free to do whatever you want.”
“Believe me, this means more to me than my life back on Alderaan.”
“Family there?”
“My parents. We didn’t get along.”
Ty looked at his feet for a moment. “If I could hope for anything other than justice for clones that is, it would be to have a family.”
Brenni smiled. “We are a family.”
“Oh yeah. Well, someday I want to have a family, you know, with kids.”
“Ohhhh.” Brenni’s smile widened. “You’re a great guy, I have no doubt you’ll find someone.”
Ty blushed. “R-right.”
“We better get to the briefing.” Brenni interjected before the moment got awkward. They joined the rest of the crew in the common area.
Everyone sat on the lounge seating or on crates all facing their commanding officer. Fives stood on the other side of the table.
“We have a total of four possible sites where wreckage has been found. We’ll be dividing into two squads for investigation. Squad Alpha will consist of myself, Ty, and Brix. We will exit first and secure the landing site. Squad Beta will be led by Jace and consist of Burnout and Kisha. Beta squad will follow and help with the investigation. any findings are to be reported to me immediately.”
Everyone listened intently. Fives was finished. He blinked a few times. He wasn’t sure what to say next.
“Uh, That’s it. Uh, dismissed.”
Burnout laughed. Kisha joined him. Fives set his jaw firm, but he just couldn’t get mad. They were all there helping him. His brothers, his new family, they were helping him find the 332nd. He cracked a sideways smile as everyone began to shuffle off to other parts of the ship.
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