The Bad Batch: Silent as a Mouse

Prologue

Kamino. A beautiful planet in the outer rim. For people who liked rain, at least. It rained almost every day of the year and it was rare that it wasn't thundering outside. But, for all it's thundering storms, there was the calm city of Tipoca. It was the main city and was the starting place for the cloning of one Mandalorian, Jango Fett.

The Kaminoans, the sentient species of the planet, were approached by a jedi, Sifo Dyas, in regards to a clone army. They had many scientists who were willing to give their time and knowledge to such a project including the chief scientist, Nala Se. When Jango was hired, he only requested an unaltered clone to raise himself as payment. They gladly granted that request and began their cloning process.

During that time, Nala Se had an idea to make a clone with pure Jango Fett genetics to use in case the DNA were to ever run low as well as clones with enhanced capabilities. And thus, Project: Omega and Clone Force 99 were created. Omega, a female clone, was created without enhanced aging and was trained in medicine to be an assistant to the chief scientist. Clone Force 99 was comprised of four clones, each with their own enhancements as well as three times aging to get them out on the battlefield faster. And while Nala Se was happy with what she had managed to accomplish, she wanted to go beyond that. She wanted one more enhanced clone.

So, one year after her enhanced brothers, CT-9916 was born. Nala Se had started with a batch of twelve clones but one by one, they died ranging from before they came out of the tube to problems handling the enhancements. Finally, she came to CT-9916 and decided which enhancements she wanted to add.

CT-9916 was created with night vision as well as a hyper sense of hearing. The combination of the two enhancements would prove beneficial to the army, should she be placed in a different squad than Clone Force 99 and she would receive stealth training to hone her craft.

Today as Nala Se was headed back to her lab after watching over the training simulations of fourth year cadets to choose which squads would be graduating, she ran into the Prime Minister of the planet, Lama Su.

"Nala Se, I was just coming to ask you a few questions." He said, his voice rasping a bit more as his tone got lower. The chief scientist figured this to be about CT-9916.

"Yes, Prime Minister?"

"How is the experiment going?" They started to walk side by side towards her lab.

"She is showing great promise." she answered, her eyes downcast to the datapad that had CT-9916's file pulled up. She had been reviewing it to see if there was anymore that needed to be done before she declared the clone ready to begin training in the art of stealth.

"And you are sure that she can't handle more of the enhancements?" Lama Su asked. He had been hesitant to the project due to the success that was the four enhanced clones. If they were so successful, why waste more money to try and replicate it in a singular clone that might not be successful? He was excited to hear she was able to have two enhancements, however.

"If I do, it will run the risk of her having the same fate as the others." Nala Se had explained this all to the Prime Minister before but he continued to ask as if that would somehow give CT-9916 the ability to have another enhancement. "I would like to ask something of you, Prime Minister."

"Proceed."

"I would like permission to put CT-9916 in individual training. She could be trained better and faster on her own. In doing so, it would prevent emotional attachments to other clones prior to being placed into a clone legion." As she made her request, Nala Se schooled her expression into one that showed no emotion though she hoped for the go ahead.

"I will allow you to train her. If she can keep up with the others, she will be a valuable asset." Lama Su agreed.

"Thank you, Prime Minister." Nala Se said, bowing her head in respect.