Nomad: Ocean of Sand

Chapter 1: Starry Day

It had been a week since the Victory-class Star Destroyer, Calamity, had launched from Kamino, where most of the clones aboard had just graduated. They were en route to the plant of Jotar, a barren desert planet on the Outer Rim that had recently declared itself an enemy of the Republic. While the War Council was not worried about such a nothing planet in the middle of nowhere, the 182nd Clone Battalion "Nomad" had been deployed to scout the planet. They needed to know for sure that Jotar was no threat. A full company of a hundred clones was aboard along with the crew.

Clone Trooper Corporal number 2252 or, as everyone else called him, Moon had been mostly bed ridden since the Calamity had entered Hyperspace seven days ago. It was like this for the clone every time he traveled across the galaxy. Something about Hyperspace travel just threw his organs into turmoil. Before they left Kamino he was given pills to help with the trip, but had ended up using them all in the first two days. Now Moon was restricted to groaning in his bed and occasionally puking his guts out into his rooms trash bin. The only time he stopped groaning was when somebody would knock at his door. The horrible sound of fists banging on metal echoed through his ears eternally. Bang. Bang. Bang. In rapid succession. No, wait. Moon lifted his head from his pillow and looked to the metal door of his room. The banging had stopped momentarily only to resume again in the same pattern. He wasn't going crazy, somebody was knocking his door. Moon let out a sigh of relief as he kicked his sheets off of him, leaving his almost naked body open to the stale air, only wearing a pair of boxer briefs to cover his privates. Rather slowly, he stood up from his bed and shuffled over to his door, one hand across his stomach as if to hold his guts in place. He tapped the door controls adjacent the door and it slid up into the ceiling. Standing in the hallway, looking down on the slouched over Moon, was the Senior Clone Trooper 2253, Ram. Who was decked out in his armor, the blue stripes down his chest, arms, and legs standing in contrast to the base white. His ARF helmet was under his arm, it too having a blue stripe down the center and extra cheek armor.

As one would expect of clones, the two of them were exact replicas. The only thing differentiating them was that Ram had a clean shaven head, a small soul patch on his chin, and a long scar that stretched from his left temple to the right side base of his neck. Meanwhile, Moon had the standard military haircut and his face was clean and perfect. "Still got any guts inside of ya?" Ram questioned with a chuckle and deep gravelly voice. He gave Moon a light shove on the shoulder that nearly toppled the sick clone over, only managing to save himself by grabbing onto the side of the open door.

"Please tell me you're here to kill me or tell me we arrived at Jotar..." Moon wheezed through heavy breathing, barely able to finish his sentence or stay upright for that matter. He was stumbling in place as he tried to balance himself, attempting to use the wall as a crutch. His legs felt like they were on fire trying to support him. This seven day trip was probably the worst on yet as the poor Corporal leaned his shoulder against the metal wall. The wall was cold against his bare skin and was somewhat of a soothing feeling.

"Aw nuts!" Ram exclaimed in disgust, waving his hand in front of of his face. "Ya got a real case of Bantha breath. Ought ta make you a bioweapon." He gagged through the statement, taking a step back from Moon. His eyes began to water up while he waved his hand more vigorously. "Anyways, two hours till the bird drops outa Hyper."

Moon let out a long groan as he pushed himself away from the cool wall. "Good... Good..." He coughed as he managed to stand upright on his own in the doorway. "Is the Sergeant gathering us for briefing?"

"Sergeant wants us on the bridge in one hour for brief and then to head down to the hangar so the LAATs can deploy us the moment we drop from Hyper."

"Roger that." Moon stepped away from the door and reached for the the door controls. "Get Dome and Doubles ready. I'll meet you on the bridge." His final words were a bit jumbled as he could feel something rise in his throat, choking him up. Moon tapped the controls and the door slammed down from the ceiling. Ram gave a quick salute to the closed door and turned to walk down the hallway. He wasn't even two steps away from the door before he heard the sounds of violent vomiting from behind the door. "Don't die in there!"

On the Bridge of the Calamity, twelve clones were gathered around the Holographic table in the center. They all held their helmets under their arms and stood straight, at attention, revealing their shared face and distinguishing scars, haircuts, and tattoos. Except for Moon who was suffering through a coughing fit. He had managed to get his armor on and get to the bridge without out too much trouble, but now it was all going to hell. He had interrupted the briefing with his coughing and now all the clones and crew present on the bridge were staring at him. "Sorry-" He was barely able to get out before his coughs cut him off. His coughing suddenly turned to gagging and he quickly set down his red helmet on the Holo-table, distorting the image it was projecting. Moon picked up a half full trash bin that was by the table and put his head into it. A torrent of half digested nutrient paste exploded from his mouth and started to fill the bin. Once the flow stopped, he pulled his face away and spat the trace amounts of vomit that were still in his mouth into the bin.

"How can he eat so little and still up chuck so much?" Moon heard the squad's RTO, Clone Trooper Lance Corporal 2261 Spades, whisper to the medic, Clone Trooper Corporal 2260 Match.

"I have no idea." Match whispered back to Spades.

For whispering, the two of them were talking quite loudly for all to hear. "Are you done?" Their squad leader, Clone Trooper Sergeant 2250 Acklay, questioned Moon with a tone of tired disappointment. The whole squad had been together for roughly a year now since the Clone Wars had begun and were more then used to this situation. Moon set down the bin that made sloshing sound before picking his helmet up from the table, fixing the distorted image, and nodded. "Right, as I was saying," Acklay started to talk again. His voice was surprisingly high pitched compared to the rest of them and was very different from what anybody would expect. Acklay was an unusually large clone, standing a good five inches above the rest and had tribal tattoos that covered his face, neck, shoulder, and arms with extreme detail. "Myself, Match, Spades, and Red Team will be dropped of by Wampa 1 at LZ Regular." Aklay explained as he pointed to marked points on the map the Holo-table was projecting. To go along with his pointing, the hologram played a small animation of a LAAT flying down to LZ Regular. "Meanwhile, Blue Team will be accompanied by an ARC Trooper and taken down to LZ Casual by Wampa 2." Acklay motioned to Moon and his team and pointed to the ARC Trooper that stood silent at the other end of the table. Once more the table projected another LAAT landing at LZ Casual. The LZs were a good three or so miles away from each other and while Moon's team was landing in an oasis, Acklay and the rest were landing in the open desert among sand dunes. "From there we move on foot and regroup at RP Lucky to begin our mission properly. Enemy combatants are expected to be at most four hundred strong with outdated weapons and gear. However, since Jator's declaration of war, they might be receiving weapons and possibly even droids from the Separatists. So, keep your wits about you. Now, grab what you need from the armory and get to your assigned LAATs in the hangar. I want to get this over with fast and clean." Aklay paused and took a breath, turning off the Holo-table and lifting his helmet up. He placed it over his head and gave it a soft shake to secure it. "Good hunting." The helmet's speakers distorted his voice slightly, computerizing it. In response the clones, except for the ARC Trooper, let out a loud and unified "RAH!" With the only weak link being the sickly Corporal Moon who only managed to get out a strange guttural sound.