I am clone

Chapter 17

Reborn

The shroud of darkness was anything but relaxing, while his body healed his mind was defenseless against the past, memories of his squad long gone now, along with the years of warfare and the stress that it has had on Arch's body. On Kamino the soldiers were trained since birth, thrown into hundreds of simulations and they survived every scenario, the clones were led to believe that they were prepared for the fight, but when Arch and his first team first stepped on the harsh desert sand of Geonosis they quickly were shown true war, they were not prepared for the screams, nor for the fires and blood. The men never complained as they marched through relentless sand storms,in the distance hundreds of lights danced on horizon, they never stopped when a man or two dropped dead, overworked and killed by exhaustion. Since that fateful day on Geonosis the fighting only worsened, the clones were only stressed more, and shore leave became less and less common. The drinking was the only thing stopping full blown insanity, the constant fighting was the only defense against reality. But as the curtain of darkness faded away and Arch returned to the present his body ached, his head pounded, he looked around and saw a bland white tarp surrounding him, he was alone.

 He struggled to get up when the white tarp parted and a clone walked in. The clone wore no armour, just a medical personal garb. 

The clone spoke to him in a kind voice "Thought you were dead, nice to see you awake for once" 

Hundreds of questions came to Arch's mind but he asked only what was important "What is my status?" 

The medic responded "Not great but better, mind you, you did get hit by a sniper, you should be combat ready in about two days" 

Arch continued to answer the question that flooded his mind "Where is my gear, and which unit am I in?"

The medic answered his inquiries without hesitation "your armour was damaged beyond repair and also very outdated, we scrapped most of it but kept your weapons and the light saber we found on you. I'll be honest the general was quite interested in where you found it, you will receive the new phase II armour when you're dismissed. Speaking of the general you have been assigned to her personal unit. She will likely want to talk to you soon, i'll go and let her know you're up."

 Arch quickly thought of something important "Wait, brother...do you happen to know what happened to the remains of the 452nd?"

 The medic stopped and thought for a moment "Yeah, that's right I did hear about them, they were ordered back to kamino as a security detail until they were reinforced, but then the CIS attacked kamino. Last I heard we suffered very heavy losses but were able to protect the Fett gene, I'm afraid I don't know exact numbers, it was about a month ago and we were en route to come take Felucia while their forces were occupied there." 

Arch thought back to the earlier days of his isolation on Felucia when the skies were filled with CIS ships, that was the fleet that would attack Kamino, everything pieced together. The medic began to leave "I'll have the general come see you soon, I'd suggest getting some more rest. 

It wasn't long when a Twi'lek entered the tarp, the Twi'lek was a blue female, upon further inspection two light sabers on her belt identified her as a Jedi general, the one they called Aayla Secura. The Jedi sat beside Arch's medical bed and spoke to him quietly "Good to finally meet in person trooper, your success shows your strength and cunning" 

Arch cut to the chase, tired of sitting around staring at the ground "Just following orders ma'am, what are my new orders" 

The general was silent for a moment, her eyes closed. Arch could feel something in his mind and eased himself, allowing the general to read his thoughts. The general spoke to him again "You are not as well as you pretend to be, the forests have taken a piece of you. You are strong willed to have continued under your circumstances, tell me about your landing" 

Annoyed at the delay, Arch briefly explained the bloody landing, the vicious combat, and the losses they suffered. Then he explained where he found the light saber. "The saber was inside a heavily damaged shuttle cratered deep in a thick forest. The ship appeared to be ancient and the saber was one of the few items inside, the rest were alien to me so I were left behind" 

The general asked "what color is the saber's blade" Arch thought for a moment "It is a vibrant red, general, why?" 

The general looked surprised for a moment "You found a sith saber, an interesting find indeed" 

The general got up to leave but Arch was determined "General, my orders? I'm fit to fight ma'am and I owe you all for getting me back to 100%" 

The general stopped "I hate to send you out, you've seen a year of these forests alone, that's enough to throw even the strongest into insanity" 

"And yet here I am general, I'm as good now as any trooper you have, you'll need every trooper you can get" 

The general sighed "You're aren't wrong trooper, get to the armory and grab your armour and weapons, you can keep the saber for now perhaps it will help you on your way. Once you're geared up, get to the command LAAT, if you're going to fight for us, you'll fight by my side."

The general exited the tent towards the barracks, with the general gone Arch quickly pulled out his IV and jumped up, he jogged out of the tent. A nearby sign pointed to his destination and he ran forward, time was short and the war wouldn't wait.