Alternate Start (ARCHIVE)

Chapter Forty Eight: Intrigue

Staying grouped up in a chaotic warzone was hard.

Noticing that someone was gone when you were too focused on living was too.

So when Hardcase realized that Jesse wasn't with the group, his heart sank like a sack of bricks. He never turned on his comm faster in his life.

"Jesse?! Jesse do you read?!"

Nothing.

"Jesse, this is Hardcase, answer me!"

"Osik— Hardcase, where's Ladybird?"

He froze, whipping his head around to look. He, Tup, and Dogma ushered the younger soldiers behind them in a tight formation where every flank was covered.

Tup leaned into his comm. "Ladybird. Ladybird do you read me?"

Nothing.

"Ladybird?"

Shit. Shit he should've been paying more attention. He had lost two men at once, damnit all. It was his fault, he should have—

"Agh— Fuck. Sir, I alm'st go' jumped. 'M not f-feelin' great......."

All three ARCs breathed a sigh of relief.

"Alright, stay hidden trooper. We'll come to you."

They honed in on Ladybird's transmitter signal. The group shuffled carefully towards her, until they finally reached her. Ladybird was laying prone in the dirt. There was a bleeding jab mark where it appeared she had been injected with something.

Dogma crouched next to her, hoisting her up into a carry over his shoulders. "Hey, you're gonna be fine trooper."

She mumbled something almost incoherent. Something about "They got Jesse", but being entirely unclear on who "They" was, or if she meant that Jesse was dead. Surely they had gotten to her just in time if that was the case. The ARCs had no idea what unforcely concoction of drugs had been injected into Ladybird, but whatever it was it was taking a toll on her. She was completely out in a matter of minutes.

Guilttrip had been crying in panic by the time they reached the rendezvous. He was adamant that Dogma was carrying a corpse until he felt her heartbeat for himself.

Now the terrified young medic was holding Ladybird's hand and meditating, trying to purge the toxins from her system. But it would be hours before Ladybird finally woke up. The ARCs reported what had transpired to the Generals, who all looked deadly serious now.

Kix had looked about ready to keel over when Hardcase told him that Jesse was gone. He quickly found his arms full of crying vod asking for vengeance on whoever decided to take Jesse's life.

Later they found out that General Sunna had also been unable to feel Ladybird. He had been half convinced that Dogma had brought back the first corpse until he saw her breathe.

The medics couldn't even tell what horrid concoction was in Ladybird's bloodstream, but they could tell it was a high dose, with some kind of Force suppressant in it. She was lucky to have even been able to touch her comm link, much less talk into it. It was sheer luck that she hadn't been killed, or worse, left behind.

"This is so fucked up."

Hardcase looked over at Theya, who was treating his blaster wound.

"What is?"

"That you guys are just continuing on after one of your men just vanished, and the other got drugged! Don't you think it's just a little suspicious that Ladybird, our only survivor of one of these incidents, is drugged to all hell? To the point that Guilttrip and General Sunna thought she was dead?"

He had to admit, she made a good point. It was pretty suspicious. He rubbed his chin and glanced at Guilttrip and Ladybird. "That is odd..."

—
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"Kummar I'm sorry for contacting you so out of the blue." Kaar apologized as he looked at the cloaked hologram.

Kummar nodded. Something about him looked different. That wasn't important right now, this was important.

"We believe that droids have started to recognize decorated troopers and separate them from the group. There's never a body, and we have only one survivor. Her system is flooded with an unforcely concoction of drugs that made me believe her to be dead until I saw her breathe for myself. Would you know anything at all about that?"

Kummar actually seemed surprised, shocked even. "No, but I can investigate for you. Who was the most recent victim?" His voice sounded different, but it could just be attributed to a voice changer he couple have used the past few times.

"Jesse from the 501st, his designation is CT-5597."

"Alright. I'll look into it. There are battledroids coming, I have to go."

"May the gods be with you Kummar."

"May the gods be with you Sunna."

His hologram vanished. And Kaar was left with only more questions and no answers. Kummar was supposedly very high in the ranks, yet he had no idea that this was occurring. It just didn't make sense, unless it wasn't even the Separatists doing it in the first place. But what would someone else get out of killing highly skilled clones?

He sank down to the floor, removing his mask and rubbing his eyes. This was going so wrong. He'd been trained to endure but they were coming up on the end of the war. How was he supposed to fix this?

Kaar silently acknowledged Droidbait as he came and sat down next to him. They held hands in the quiet. Droidbait himself looked kind of lost, mumbling softly to him, "Ladybird's awake. She doesn't remember anything past Jesse screaming."

"Damnit." Kaar hissed, "Kummar didn't know either. We're flying blind here, and I don't like it."

"My vode are vanishing Kaar. I don't like it either."

Droidbait sighed.

"But there's nothing we can do."

•—END OF CHAPTER—•