Alternate Start (ARCHIVE)

Chapter Eighteen: Kamino

The ship was bustling with activity. Everyone was trying to make final preparations for the assault on Kamino.

Kaar stood with his arms behind his back, looking out the transparisteel of the bridge, with Satahl standing dutifully at his side. Admiral Tedam stood above them, her head held up high and spare ammunition on her belt for the pistol on her thigh. Her lig swords were sheathed at her waist. Her mumuu mask, painted with black streaks, was framed by her brown hair.

"General Sunna! One minute until we drop out of hyperspace!" Tedam announced, resting a hand on the railing. Kaar looked back, slipping his mumuu mask onto his face. "Well, then I suppose we should be ready to give those seppies a 201st welcome."

"Vode An..." Sparkler mumbled.
"Vode An." Kaar agreed softly.

As they dropped out of hyperspace, Kaar, Satahl, and Sparkler turned to leave the bridge and go to the hangar. Tedam grinned, "Sunna, mind if I join the fun? I'm just itching for a fight."

"Did you comm Admiral Yularen?"
"Yes of course. He said that if I believed I could be of more use on the field then I should go on the field." She grinned.

Kaar nods, tossing Tedam a hairtie. "Meet us in the hangar then Admiral. May the gods smile upon us." She nodded back. "May the gods smile upon us."

—
-
—

Lasmoso fired off her pistol at the droids, glancing back at Fives, Hevy, and Echo, "Don't just stand there! Get them inside!" They nodded, escorting the cadets and 99 into the barracks. Lasmoso followed them, drawing one of her lig swords and stabbing it into the controls. She took a breath, brushing a stray hair from her face. "Is everyone okay?"

"Yes admiral, everyone seems alright." Echo hummed, and Lasmoso turned to face 99, "Is there an armory around here? I have slugs, but not enough. I can always use my lig swords but I'd prefer that be a worst case scenario."

99 nodded, "Yeah, there's an armory. It's close to here— it's got droid poppers, and blasters too." Lasmoso gained a grin, "Perfect. Fives, got a rousing speech for us?"

Fives thought for a moment, stroking his goatee until an idea came to him. He nodded, stepping forward, "Alright cadets, 99, Admiral, this is what we trained for. It's in our blood. Our DNA. We can stop these clankers and save our brothers. This is what we were born to do."

"Nicely done Fives. Now, here's the plan."

—
-
—

"If it isn't the hairless harpy."

Kaar smirked, and Sparkler ran to go assist Colt as Ventress turned her attention to him. She glanced at Grievous, "You, leave this Jedi to me."

The Jedi could've sworn he saw a twinge of apologetic sympathy in Grievous' eyes as he stalked off to kill more clones. Satahl stepped forward, holding her lightsaber at the ready, "You won't be getting to the genetic blueprint, you smug—"
"Padawan!" Kaar gave Satahl a look before she could get the curse word out, and it died in her throat as she focused back on Ventress.

Colt stared at Kaar, who nodded his head in acknowledgement, "Good to see we got here in time commander. Sparkler, get him to safety, we'll handle the witch."

"Yes sir!"

—
-
—

"99 don't!" Hevy shouted, as the older clone started to hurry off and try to get more droid poppers. "This is what I was made to do Hevy!"

"I'll try and cover you 99!" Admiral Tedam shouted, firing another slug at the battledroid. She took a few more shots before her pistol made a sound you never wanted to hear in a firefight like this.

It had jammed.

"Kriff— 99! Get down!" Hevy shouted.

He wasn't quick enough. 99 took two blaster bolts to the back and still tried to drag himself to the armory before he just couldn't move anymore. Admiral Tedam charged out of cover, wrecking droids with her lig swords and injuring herself in the process so that Fives and Hevy could pull 99 to safety.

Everything died down.

Admiral Tedam's chest heaved as the last droid in the barracks was turned into a twisted hunk of smoking metal. She huffed, sheathing her swords and turning around. "Is... Is everyone alright?"

The synth cloth of her uniform was melted into her skin where she'd taken blaster bolts to protect 99. Her eyes rolled back as she passed out, a couple of cadets rushing to her aid, while the rest of the clones in the room focused on 99.

Hevy sat his older brother up, furrowing his eyebrows. "99? 99, are you still with us?" The older clone opened his eyes slowly and gave a satisfied smile, "Is it over? Hevy did we— did we win?"

"Yeah. Yeah Ori'vod, we did. We won." Tears started to streak down Hevy's face. He had held dying brothers before, but never one who had been so important to him. 99 had stopped him from deserting, had allowed him to meet General Sunna, Commander Cahlay, Tup, Dogma, all of them. He never owed a brother more than he owed 99.

"Thank you... Hevy. For letting me do...my duty..." 99's eyes slowly closed, and Hevy shook his head, "Hey— Hey no wait, you can't die here 99. There's brothers you haven't met yet. 99? 99?!"

"Hevy... He's gone brother." Echo said softly, placing a hand on Hevy's shoulder. Hevy squeezed his eyes shut tightly, clenching his fist, "He really was the best soldier of us all..." He choked out.

"Yeah. He was."

•—END OF CHAPTER—•