Ambassador

Chapter 1: Arrival

The shuttle lurched between the atmosphere and the cold emptiness of the edge of deep space as it sank down through the storm into a dark wall of flashing blindness that swallowed Kamino. Alanja gripped the seat belt as her insides crammed upwards in her throat. The craft skipped over the turbulence and dropped straight down into the churning maelstrom. Around her, faceless men in their white armor howled with glee at the wild ride.

As she squeezed her eyes closed, her long, brown hair curtained forward over her alabaster face as she was slammed back into her seat by a hard bank of the shuttle. A cry whined out of her glossy lips. Over her, she was sure the cloned troopers' howls of laughter must have been for more than the excitement of their rough descent towards Tipoca City. When the Imperial Venator-Class Star Destroyer that had been her home these last few weeks blipped out of hyperspace and the gray-blue ball of Kamino could be seen with her own eyes, Alanja had been beside herself to be on dry land again.

Her head banged into her headrest. She let out another mousy grunt. She could barely believe she had let her brother talk her into this. Alanja was not made to travel so far into the abyss. Her late husband had been an officer in the Grand Army of the Republic, but Alanja had seen no part of the war. Now she was at the edge of the unknown, sinking into the watery grave she and her brother, Rov, were about to make for the treacherous, cloned army of the old order.

Up and down, the turbulence rocked the shuttle, jarring her clenched teeth as if the planet itself was trying to stop them from their mission. Lightning flashed, momentarily blinding her, making the white armor of the clone troopers riding down with her glow in her vision like scowling spectres. She grabbed for her brother Rov's hand and squeezed her eyes closed, only to receive a laugh. "You're strapped in, Alanja. Relax." Rov stood proudly beside the clone troopers, his starched imperial uniform perfect and his short brown hair combed back without even a single hair out of place.

Alanja gasped as the shuttle lurched again. "Easy for you to say. This is all you do."Over them, a half dozen cloned troopers held onto loops just like Rov, barely moving as the ship was tossed through the storm. She was sure they were all laughing at her behind those terrifying white-helmed frowns, just like Rov.

Thunder clapped as lightning struck outside the shuttle as it clunked down onto the landing pad. She watched the flickering of more lightning while the ramp lowered. One of the troopers seemed to look down at her, the tilt of his head clearly hiding his amusement. She wondered if they were chattering about her on their comms by the way a couple of the others gave a slight shake of their heads.

When she couldn't get the seat buckles loose, Rov bent over, flipped them open, and shook his head too at how helpless she was. Though Rov did not like clones, he was a soldier like them. But it had never sunk home until now just how different he was from them. They were terrifying. All the same voice. All the same face. It was unnatural. Rov had never scared her, but seeing the clones made her realize just how powerful he was as a commander. They obeyed his orders as if they were machines made of flesh.

Rov smiled at her, the corner of the right side of his mouth almost a smirk as he gently helped her to her feet. "Come on, sister. We shouldn't keep Admiral Tarkin waiting."

Alanja looked down the ramp at the pouring rain and dark horizon as the shiny, white clone troopers marched onto the platform and made a wall on either side of the walkway to form an honor guard for Vice Admiral Rov Rampart and the newly appointed Ambassador to Kamino, Alanja Rampart. The wind and rain pelted the clones, but the troopers stood as rigid as statues with black blasters across their chests.

The wind shifted the rain, blowing it into the shuttle, smattering Alanja's slippers with water. "There's no dryer path we could have landed on?" she complained, looking down at her flowing, white gown.