Cin Vhetin - Restart - A Bad Batch Fanfiction

- III -

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Kandosii! [Kan-DOH-see]:

Mando'a

'Nice one! Wicked! Well done!'

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Onboard the 'Starhooper'.
Hyperspace.

"PHEW."

First hit on the target.

"PHEW."

Second hit.

"PHEW."

Third - again, directly in the bull's eye.

"Applause for the great Cassi, wooooh!" The little girl began to jump around. She caught herself quickly and suddenly came to hold as if she was embarrassed of herself acting up.
She tucked on her tunic and tried to suppress her happiness.

Yet she was proud that she hit the target perfectly without having to aim. She didn't even use the Force.

It got boring though.

Cassiopeia sighed and took of her safety glasses.

"You're getting better!" said Neri and clapped politely. "What do you say in your language in situations like this?"

Neri was a fourteen-year-old padawan with long blonde hair. He wore a white long coat with a red tunic and was four heads bigger than Cassiopeia.

He was a student of Altis' Jedi Order and his home was also onboard the Starhooper.

Cassiopeia's and Neri's age difference was  eleven years, but that didn't hinder their friendship to blossom.
Mentally they were almost on the same level, but sometimes Cassiopeia had trouble to keep up with him.
She had a very spiky skill set, but she'd never admit that to anyone.

She was a genius in repairing machines and shooting, which was good enough for her.

"Kandosii!" answered Cassiopeia her friends question in Mando'a. The girl was proud that he was interested in the strange language her mother was teaching her.

"Kaaahndoosiiii" tried Neri, but to Cassiopeia he failed miserably. She hid her laughter behind her left hand and forgo a correction of his pronunciation.

"However, I think this" Neri pointed at the target Cassiopeia had hung on the wall. "This doesn't challenge you at all."

Cassiopeia rolled her eyes at him and ran her left hand trough her thick, grey curls.

The boy was hopeless in trying to blast away anything, even though Cassiopeia tried everything to teach him.
Neri preferred his own training lightsaber. He had been so proud to have forged it a few months ago and he's using it daily.

Cassiopeia knew that lightsaber training wasn't easy for him as well.
She desperately wanted to try it too, but her mother wouldn't allow it.

And it didn't look like she would get her own soon...

The crew of the Starhooper had accepted her strange way of growing up and worked on not viewing her as a misfit. Cassiopeia was aware of their curious looks whenever they thought she wouldn't notice them.

They all knew that they would have to worry about the aging progress sometime.
Especially Cassiopeia and her mother Eveline.

Cassiopeia knew she was something different, that she was not like her peers and the other Jedi on the ship.

This knowledge planted the wish to know her father in Cassiopeia's heart. She only knew that he was a kaminoan clone trooper like her uncle Rex.

Often she had wanted to ask her mother about him, but the sadness that surrounded her mother was very visible to Cassiopeia and she didn't want to see her mother in pain.
She sensed it was caused by the absence of her father so she refrained from digging further.

The only thing she relied on where the spare calls with Captain Rex.

He always had the best shooting tricks for her to witness.

"You're right, but there's no other opportunity to train here." The girl sighed and looked around the room.

The training room was small and improvised. The targets were self made and nothing like the ones in real training camps and military schools. But to the Starhooper crew it was totally fine.

Not many, basically just the non-Force users, learned how to use blasters, guns and bows. Self-defense mattered most in unsure times such as these.

"Rumors are that we'll land soon" Neri  murmured. A smirked crept on the girls face. "That means-"

"Excursion at your own risk" finished the blonde.

"And that means that I'll get the chance to find an energy cell for my droid!" Cassiopeia danced a bit, she was waving her hands in the air and wiggled her body.

She then put the glasses in a nearby  locker and left the room, Neri's presence totally forgotten.

"Sure thing, Cassi, I'll clean up your mess!" Neri shook his head smiling and thinking of his small friend. Her head was always in the clouds, just somewhere different.
These were times he noticed how young she actually was.

Cassiopeia crossed her mother in front of their room. She was standing in front of a panorama window and was talking to someone via Commlink.

The visuals of Hyperspace were always fascinating to Cassiopeia. The different shades of blue merged continually together, sometimes forming familiar pictures, sometimes a real mess.
She could stare at it for hours without boredom.

"Eveline, I don't know more."
A sigh was heard and Eveline sat herself on a small wooden bench in front of the window. "I just know that Kal Skirata searches for a solution. They have the support of Nala Se."

Cassiopeia took a few steps forward, quietly, so her mother wouldn't hear her.

"Stay safe out there. I've heard the Empire, especially Roly Melusar, have Djinn Altis on their list..."

Roly Melusar was the new commander of the Imperial Special Unit, a diversion of the 501st legion. He hated Jedi with all of his heart, so he was leading his own Jedi purge passionately.

"Promise, Rex."

The infinite blue of the Hyperspace vanished and the darkness of space welcomed them.

The Starhooper had taken course to the Bright Jewel System, which was located in the Mid Rim.

Their designation was the terrestrial planet Ord Mantell and Cassiopeia could she the mountains of the surface from the distance. It had an Imperial base, but it couldn't take control over all the smugglers, bounty hunters and other shady characters.

The influence of the Black Sun crime syndicate was still very strong, so the Empire had no chance of getting the upper hand.

From a distance Ord Mantell looked peacefully and calm, but the closer you got, the more spoiled and dangerous it became.

Destruction. Poverty. Fear.

A wave a sadness wrapped around Eveline and Cassiopeia decided to interfere.

"Su cuy'gar, uncle Rex!" greeted the small girl the man who's holo picture was floating above the small commlink in Eveline's hands.

Cassiopeia jumped on the bench and waved at the holo.

"Su cuy'gar, Cass'ika. I hope you're not causing too much trouble."

Rex winked at Cassiopeia and Eveline chuckled.

"If you only knew, Rex! Sometimes I get the impression, she's just like your rogue brothers..."