Star Wars The Clone Wars: Cuy'Val Dar#Wattys2016

Nineteen

Coruscant, after the confrontation with Bacsa

After rounding the corner, out of sight of the Jedi and her pet clones, Bacsa limped off into an alleyway where he had hidden his speeder.

"Ch'acace'hn Tocu'ren'mur," he hissed and swung onto the speeder, careful of his injured leg. Pulling in the clutch, he flipped the engine switch and kicked the bike into low gear, rising off the ground a couple of inches before hauling it around by the handlebars. Bacsa then sped out of the alleyway and pulled the bike vertical, swinging into the traffic rushing overhead. He growled under his breath in annoyance at not having found his target. He knew the man had been there. Sira had told him the clone would be there.

She's never given me faulty info before, he thought but knew that her history alone wasn't going to give her credit. She was a bounty hunter like him and everyone knew that there is only so far you can trust a bounty hunter. He pushed the engine a little faster as he entered lighter traffic, passing a couple of people.

He must have hidden, or slipped away, Bacsa continued. He knew that he had lost the trail of the man for now, though. Sira had been captured, so there was no way she could spy for him any longer. Plus, he had not gotten the chance to place a tracker on any other being other than the medic.

Bacsa frowned. Unfortunate that he tried to tick me off. Otherwise, I could have tracked the others with him...Pity.

He hated it when the people he needed tried to tick him off. They always seemed to end up dead that way. It didn't matter, though; he would find another way.

Bacsa jerked his speeder into a slower lane, dropping his speed some to think. He would have to find SC-02 quickly before he ended up too entangled in the war. He would have to get the ARC alone, as well. Obviously, it was going to be, not impossible, but much more difficult to successfully win a fight against 02 while his brothers were around. The question still remained, though. Where was 02?

Galen...

The word simply forced its way to the front of Bacsa's mind without warning. Sira had mentioned it once or twice.

Galen...Ky? Kill? Kyle. Galen Kyle.

The man had been Sira's Separatist partner in crime. Bacsa remembered her mentioning that he had once known the squadron of clones 02 now associated with. Perhaps Kyle would know there to find them, and, granting 02 was still following them around, it was possible finding the squadron would mean finding 02. Bacsa's blue lips twisted into a small grin. Of course, Kyle would be on his way to prison right now, probably with Sira. Bacsa's grin slowly widened. It had been a long time since he had broken a man out of prison.

////

Null's Ship, 0900 hours

Null sat in the pilot's seat with both legs on the console and his arms crossed. The white liens os hyperspace filled the viewport, but the ARC wasn't watching them. Rather, his eyes were turned downwards to the floor as he lost himself in thought. He couldn't seem to drag his mind away from the subject of Haley's death and now he contemplated how he might have prevented it with deep intensity. Of course, there was nothing to be done now, but that didn't stop the ARC from dwelling on the subject.

I should have turned myself in. Had I gone with Bacsa, Haley never would have had to step forward and confront the hunter.

The frown that had settled on his lips hours ago deepened slightly as his gaze on the floor seemed to darken.

Sarge should've never held me back.

Null's mind quickly remembered the Sergeant plainly telling him not to go up, there, even when the medics life had been in danger.

He forced me to stay back. If he had let me go, Haley would still be alive.

An expression of resent and now dark anger crossed the ARC's face as he remembered Sarge's tight grip on his arm, holding him where he stood as Bacsa had snapped the medic's neck.

This is his fault.

Before Null could think further, though, the hyperspace computer beeped, notifying him that he was approaching Ktiln space and should pull out of hyperspace. Null didn't move for a moment, glaring at the ground, then he sat forward quickly swinging his legs back down onto the ground and grasping the hyperdrive lever, slowly easing the ship back into real space. However, the Null's dark expression didn't fade as the Republic Cruise Vengeance came into view. Instead, he narrowed his eyes some but flew his ship towards the cruiser. On approach, he tapped the comm.

"Cruiser Vengeance, this is Null, requesting landing," he said, not bother to keep the anger out of his tone. There was a pause, then a slightly frightened sounding control officer replied.

"Request granted, uh, docking bay 117 is open and awaiting you."

Null jabbed the comm button to turn it off and directed his ship towards the docking back. After he landed, he was going to have a word with the Sergeant.

Null landed without any trouble and left his ship to the flight crew for refueling and maintenance. As he walked towards the hangar door, however, an officer, obviously from the bridge, ran over to him with a datapad in hand and his officer's cap in the other.

"ARC trooper Null!" he called. Null kept walking.

"Null!"

The ARC paused for just a second and let the man catch up before he continued his path to the door.

The officer ran beside him, glancing down at the datapad as he spoke.

"Null, your name is no longer marked for military personnel," he started, out of breath, "you cannot simply walk aboard. You need to get a civilian pass to be aboard a military craft."

Null suddenly stopped and drew his blaster pistol, grabbing the officer's collar and shoving the blaster up under the man's chin. He leaned in until his face was inches away from the officer's.

"You see this blaster?" he asked, his voice strangely calm. "It is my pass to be aboard this ship. I don't care what your kriffing di'kut files say about me. I'm a soldier and I will go and do what I please aboard this ship, as a soldier. Now get out of my way before I shoot your kriffing di'kutla shebs off."

He gave the man a dark look, releasing him and holstering his blaster. Null knew he had made his point to the man, and after being released, the officer nodded quickly, hurrying out of the hangar without another word. Null noticed a couple of the crew watching him with wide eyes stares or looks of shock and he ignored them, walking out of the hangar and heading for the barracks.

After a few minutes, Null had reached the barracks and stalked into the room, headed for an empty bunk. There he threw down his helmet and blaster. He kicked off his boots, then began removing his armor, leaving only his bodysuit when he was finished. There was no one else in the barracks excepting a few sleeping troopers, and Null probably should have been quieter, but he didn't care right now. He slipped on his fatigues last and then shoved his helmet under the bed, picking his blaster back up just as he heard the door swish open softly. He glanced sideways at the entrance to see who it was and saw it was the Sergeant. The man had a data file in his hand and was walking quickly over to his bunk like he was in a hurry. Null tossed down his blaster again and stiffly walked over to where the Sergeant was. With his jaw set and his eyes narrowed, Null stood silently behind Sarge for a moment, watching as the man pulled a duffel bag from underneath his bed and shoved what looked like a datafile into it, not seeming to have noticed Null yet. After Sarge had stood up, and kicked the bag back under the bed, Null stepped forward to the side and the Sergeant turned, looking surprised but at first pleased to see the ARC. Just as the Sergeant began to speak Null cocked back his right arm and without a word of warning punched him in the jaw.