The Kenobi Saga Book Two: The Dark Times

Chapter 7

Lore-Val had been wearing her armor for almost two weeks. She'd sparred with Solitaire and Bo-Katan, trying to see what changes would make her besbe (kit) fit her fighting style better. So far she had added a sheath to each of her leg braces, giving her two more knives, but she still didn't have a good place for her blaster's extra charge packs.

Today she was trying a clip system, her charge packs and detonators being stuck on her holsters. Solitaire was watching her work her way through a simulation and could see the clips were not working well. One of her charges had fallen off in the first thirty seconds of the sim.

He watched her finish the fight, losing a detonator in an attempt to pull off a charge pack. She didn't notice the loss and was "blown up" with a shockwave strong enough to leave her stunned on the ground. Solitaire stopped the simulation with a sigh, before he went to go help her.

Lore-Val had gotten her breath back and sat up. She took off her helmet and tossed it aside, a curse leaving her lips.

"Clips didn't work," Solitaire said dryly, coming to kneel at her side. He checked her head where it had smacked against the ground but didn't feel a bump. "How are your ribs?"

"Hurt," she answered.

He smirked at the admission. He had told her to wait another day or two for her ribs to heal up from her last simulation but she thought she knew better, now here she was on the floor.

"You could try a backpack," Solitaire offered, going to get her helmet.

"I don't want to take it off every time I need something."

Solitaire paused, looking at Lore-Val's helmet. The empty T visor stared back at him. Lore-Val had pulled herself to her feet and snatched the helmet from him as she walked by.

"Kriff it," she muttered, "I'm going to bed."

He frowned as she walked away. The wheels in his head turned as he thought of other options.

. . .

"We're idiots," Solitaire announced, dropping to sit beside Lore-Val at the breakfast table.

"Probably," she agreed, taking a spoonful of palm fruit yogurt.

Solitaire dropped his utility belt into her lap. "Try this. If you like it we can get you your own."

Lore-Val started looking through the pockets of the belt. She found charge packs, thermal detonators, smoke bombs, droid poppers, even bacta. Solitaire reached over and showed her how the pockets slid off the belt and could be rearranged. There were different pieces that could be added on, some troopers had their blaster holsters on their belts, others had sheathes for vibroblades.

Solitaire's belt was too big for the nearly sixteen year old, even when it was cinched as small as it could go. She tossed it over her head, wearing it across her chest like a bandolier. This time she made it through the sim without "dying" and in record time.

"Decision made then," Solitaire said with a smile when she finished, "We're getting you a belt vod'ika (little sister). One of the good ones, none of the leather nonsense Bo-Katan tried pawning off on you before."

. . .

Many clones had died during the siege of Mandalore. The Mandalorians were not sentimental people, but they were practical. The armor of those men along with many others had been stored away for future use.

Lore-Val and Solitaire walked into the armory as though it were a tomb, their footsteps echoing in the large space.

"Can I say something you're going to think is completely crazy?" Lore-Val asked quietly as they came upon crates marked ARMOR.

"I don't think saying no would stop you."

"It would not," she agreed, looking over the crates, "I've been thinking, and statistically there has to be other clones who didn't get the order or whose chips just didn't work, right?"

Solitaire winced inwardly, pulling down a crate marked CLONE. He'd thought about it before and yes, it was fairly likely, but there wasn't much he could do about it. "It's possible. But it's best not to think about it."

"We should be helping them," she said, taking the top off the crate and beginning to look through it.

"Lore-Val," he sighed, looking down at her, "We can't possibly go sorting through every clone to find the few who aren't going to try and kill us."

She closed the crate after only finding boots. "Obviously we would have to be more organized than that."

"Come on," he lifted the crate back up and replaced it on the shelf. "Let's put ridiculousness aside and find this thing."

"They're your brothers," she reminded him. She pulled down another crate and let it hit the floor with a loud thud and stared at him with eyes that burned with anger.

Solitaire rubbed the back of his neck, and looked down at his feet, "I know Lore. But you are my priority. Brothers I don't know do not come at the expense of your safety."

"What if there's brothers we do know. What if it's Cody and Boil stuck on Coruscant with no way out? Or Jesse sitting in a cell waiting to be decommissioned?"

"Lore-Val," he gripped her shoulders, "listen to me, there's nothing we can do. Let it-"

"There's nothing we can do now. When I'm trained-"

"We can talk about it when you're trained," he conceded, letting go of her. "Until then, drop it or you will feel like crap."

She glared at him, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Come on," he said, opening the crate and beginning to dig through it, "Let's find this so we can get out of here. It's kriffing creepy."

"Fine. But only because it's kriffing creepy."

They went through two more crates before finding utility belts. They managed to find one that was almost small enough to fit at her hips. Then they went through the crate a second time, taking different sized pockets, sheaths and holsters.

When they were satisfied with their haul they cleaned up and went back up to the palace's living spaces. Climbing the stairs to the bank of elevators felt almost like leaving a cave. The lower you were in the building the older it was, the storage levels were basically ancient.

Lore-Val began stringing pockets onto her new belt as they rode up. When they stepped off the lift she clipped the belt around her waist and strode down the hall to her left.

"Where do you think you're going?" Solitaire called after her.

"Training room."

He rolled his eyes and followed behind her.

She heard his footsteps and smiled. "Glad you could join me."

He let out a huff, "Watching you get wasted by droids? How could I miss it?"

She jammed an elbow into his side, "You're very funny. Just one round to try this out."