The Unchronicled Adventures of Ahsoka Tano, Book Eight

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Observations On Kamino/ Saw's Intrigue

CAPTAIN GREGOR

CC-5576-39, also known as Captain Gregor, stood on the smooth, circular platform thousands of feet above the roaring oceans of Kamino. The rain was pouring down on him, but he hardly felt it.

Like all of the Rebel Troopers, this planet was like his homeworld. There was a sense of familiarity to the shiny white halls of the cloning facilities here in Tipoca City, and even though there were no railings on the platforms outside, he was so at home with them that he could walk their edges without falling.

His comlink suddenly beeped. Focusing the ocular apparatus in his customized helmet, he checked to see who it was. He smiled slightly. Over the past few months, he had come to know that code well.

"This is Captain Gregor," he said, turning it on.

There was a crackle of static on the other end before the caller spoke. "Gregor, this is General Skywalker. What's the status with the cloning project?"

"It's doing better than it was the last time you called, General," he answered. Although he could do with a little more action in his unchanging lifestyle here on Kamino, he quite liked his job, which was personally supervising project CT-Army2. Also known as the reconstruction of the entire Clone Army.

The Galactic Army of the Republic had once consisted of approximately thirteen million Clone Troopers. But, with the war, it had declined to four million, an inferior sum to that of the Storm Troopers ranks, which now consisted of clones created from other templates, Humans and near-Humans.

So, Generals Skywalker, Tano and Bonteri, along with Senator Amidala and Captain Rex, had devised a plan to at least double the size of the Rebel Army and to set in new and more effective training. His involvement in all this was to make sure that the Kaminoans didn't try similar tricks to last time and hide a virus or a tracking beacon in the clones' inhibitor chips.

"Like what?" General Skywalker prompted, pulling him from his thoughts.

"Well, sir, the Kaminoans figured out a way to speed up the growth acceleration even further, and then slow it down to the old Clone Trooper speed when they've reached adulthood." But the small smile he was wearing as a result of being able to share the good news faded quickly. "But it's still a relatively new technique. It's not stable enough to use on adult clones to slow growth to Human standard, and it probably never will be."

"So that means...

"Yeah. I'm sorry, sir, but I don't think you'll be able to keep Rex and Cody out of retirement more than another fifteen years."

"Okay, Gregor," the General replied, but he could hear the sadness in his voice. It hadn't been unusual for a Jedi General to form a sort of kinship with their Troopers back during the Clone Wars. "Thanks. Skywalker out."

The transmission ended, Gregor walked back inside. He had to get back to his job watching Rebel Trooper embryos grow.

SAW GERRERA

Saw got up, as always, at the crack of dawn. The sun had risen, freeing the people of Onderon from the nightly lockdown. He went out onto the balcony in the common room, rotating his neck to get any last kinks out of his spine. He was rewarded with four or five sharp cracks.

Onderon's fight against the Empire was getting interesting now. According to Lux, he had the majority of the Clone Army, freed from Imperial control, indirectly under his control, along with a few other Jedi he was in contact with. Although Lux had asked him to keep quiet about all this, but he was aloud to think about it.

"Hey," he heard a voice say. It was Janira. "Up before the birds again, huh? How many hours of sleep did you get last night, anyways?"

"I'm not tired," he said, leaning up against the railing. "How can I be, when a whole new path to victory has suddenly opened up to me?"

"Saw, don't talk like that," she scolded him gently. "We may have strength in numbers now, but we still don't have all the odds in our favor. I doubt we ever will."

"I know. But since when have the odds ever bothered me?" He tried shooting her one of his reckless smiles, but the attempt failed spectacularly.

"Shut up, all right?" She put a hand on his cheek, looking him straight in the eyes. Hers were a lovely blue-grey, a little like Lux's. She was some sort of beautiful, with her ivory skin, tall body and long brown hair.

The two of them had a complicated relationship. Sometimes it felt like love, other times it felt like they were merely very close friends. He had known her since they were kids, and they had both felt like they were supposed to be more for each other than friends, but it never worked out that way.

She kissed him lightly on the lips, then walked back to the door. "You have to remember to stay who you are now: the commander that everyone here looks up to and would die for if he asked them to. Who you were in the past doesn't matter anymore. It's who you're going to be in the future that counts."

And then Janira left, shutting the door behind her. He sighed. Life was so complicated here. A desperate fight against the Empire, a love story with an unclear ending, a Jedi Knight hiding within his own ranks, and now this army...

And a Togruta woman that Lux had refused to identify. Saw smiled. This was intriguing. Just who was she? An associate and ally of Lux's, obviously, but who?

He already had a couple of ideas...

*Captain Gregor is on Kamino to make sure that nothing happens to the new army his Jedi Generals plan to create. But many things can go wrong when the Empire is constantly watching for glitches in their system that might indicate Rebel activity... And how do Saw and Janira really feel about each other? Are they true, or is there something else to their attachment to one another? You'll find out in the next thrilling chapter of The Unchronicled Adventures Of Ahsoka Tano!

Hello all! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter... As I've told people, even though I'm sad that Cody apparently isn't in the trailer for SWR season 2, Gregor IS and I can use this. That's how I've always worked: I write like a maniac, then I format what I have so that it makes sense with canon material. And besides, I had been planning to use a Trooper we all know, but I didn't have anyone settled for the role before today.

So yes, consider yourselves fortunate. You now know a little bit about how I like to write my chapters...

Have an old enemy you thought died on Mustafar come back to haunt you and may the Force be with you,

Sharron