Star Wars - Clone Wars Story Part 3: Dark Days Indeed by Jetsunstrider < Submission

Keywords males 42892, females 24718, story 13779, humans 4109, war 1824, star wars 1468, clones 630, clone wars 21

Chapter 1: Negotiations Gone Wrong

   “Hey, how’s the communications going?” I walked up to Quicksilver, who was hunched over a Umbrian control console. Kicks and Lightweight are watching over our hostage, Sevens is outside keeping and eye out, and Cassandra is doing… whatever Jedi do in situations like this.
   “Well, without a active translator… this is gonna take a while.” Quicksilver sat up.
   “Goddamn… well, not like were going anywhere.” I laughed, looking down at my still damaged robotic arm. “Ugh… I wish I could get this damn thing fixed…” I mumbled.
   “I would help ya… but I got my hands full.” Quicksilver chuckled and went back to the console. I rolled my eyes and walked over to Kicks and Lightweight.
   “Got anything outta him yet” I asked Kicks… but I already figured what the answer was gonna be.
   “Nah, this guy is denser than a brick wall…” Kicks grumbled.
   “I said it already and I’ll say it again… no matter what I do, I’ll just be thrown into your cells regardless.” The Umbarian hissed.I was about to say something, but Sevens came storming into the base.
   “Guys… I got some fancy news…” Sevens huffed between breaths. We all joined around him, except Quicksilver who is determined to get the comms up and running. Before Sevens could explain, a squad of Umbrains came walking, we all reached for our weapons, but the lead Umbrian held up his hand.
   “There is no need for that, we are simply here to… negotiate. We are aware that you our holding one of our most valuable scientists.” He explained in a smooth, calm voice.
   “Oh really? And what could you offer us?” I crossed my arms as best I could.
   “Well, we are aware that the Commando Droids destroyed you're encampment… as much as I’m glad for that, we really need our man back. If you agree to return him safely, we will allow you to call for a evac… but only to leave this place!” The Umbrian offered.
   “You're the boss, what do you think?” I turned to Cassandra. She rubbed her chin… unsure if we can trust these guys.
  “Listen, it’s quite a fair trade you see… we would of just stormed in here guns blazing, but we are offering you a peaceful ending.” The Umbrian assured us.
   “He has a fair point, general.” I admitted.
   “Alright, alright… Kicks, bring the hos-” Cassandra was about to go through with it, until we heard the concoals powering up behind us.
   “I… I got it! I actually got it!” Quicksilver shouted. “I hacked into their system… now if I can just get the right frequency I can end a distress call to the Republic!” He added, clearly excited.
   “Quicksilver… don’t you see what's going on?” Cassandra sighed. Quicksilver already had the distress call out by the time he looked up and noticed what was going on.
   “Oh… crap…” He mumbled. The Umbrian negotiator clearly looked frustrated. Before he could even express it, we heard the sounds of hyperdrive warping over the planet. I rushed outside and looked up with my micro binoculars. The same curisur that brought us here must not of ventured off to far, because they are already back. Within minutes, our negotiations turned into a stand up as everyone inside already had weapons drawn.
   Soon enough, gunships made out way to our location and more Troopers flooded the Encampment. The rest of the day was spent blowing up the facility we were deployed to take out in the first place, and ensuring the Umbrians not so peaceful return to the Republic… I think it’s not gonna last however. Regardless, the survivors loaded up on the last Gunslip and we set off the planet once more… I just hope never to return to this place again.

Chapter 2: Rex’s Warning

   As soon as we got back on the cruiser, I went to get my robotic arm repaired. After almost a whole day with no function, I almost miss it. Ya know, I never knew Clones were even approved for cybernetics. I figured if one of us get gravely wounded like myself, they’d just replace us… but I guess my years of experience saved me from that fate. I only know of one other Clone to ever get cybernetics, and that would be Commander Wolf after he lost one of his eyes god knows how long ago.
   As I entered the quarters on the cruiser, I heard a ringing on my com link… odd, who would be trying to call me all the way out here? Regardless, I lit the receiver and held up the link to my face.
   “Jax? Is that you? Jax, you there?” I heard Rex on the other side… how the hell is he connecting me all the way out in space?
   “Rex? What’s going on?” I replied in a shocked tone.
   “Listen… I have to talk to you… when you get a chance, come down to 79’s on Coruscant… I got plenty of time before my next deployment, just tell em when you're ready.” Rex explained.
   “Rex… what the hell is going on, and how are you reaching me all the way out here? I’m still on the cruiser leaving Umbara…” I sat down on one of the beds.
   “Don’t worry about that… just hurry, and don’t tell anyone else! This is bigger than the both of us combined…” Suddenly, Rex ended the transmission. I was left with a mix of emotions… confusion, anxiety, maybe even a bit of agner… what’s so important that Rex needs to tell me?

   A couple days later, and I finally got some time to myself. Wearing my off duty uniform, I landed myself on Coruscant… then I remembered what Rex said when I was leaving Umbara. Thank god I kept my commlink on me at all times. I took it out and tried contacting Rex.
   “Rex, you there? It’s Jax…” I whispered into the comlink.
   “Yeah, I’m here… you ready to talk?” Rex replied shortly after.
   “Sure, I’ll grab a cab and make my way down”
   “Alright, I’m already close by.” Rex explained before ending the transmission. I walked up next to the edge of the walkway and waved down a cab.
   “Hey buddy, where to?” The driver looked back at me after I climbed into the back seat.
   “Take me down to 79’s.” I replied.
   “Huh… the clone bar, eh? Could of figured that’s where you were heading by you're uniform there.” The driver cluckled.
   “Yeah, I’m meeting a friend.” I explained.
   “Fair enough, let’s get on with it.” The driver shrugged. The cab pulled out into the skyway, the buildings and other cars zipping past like blurry specks of colour and light.
   After we reached 79’s, I paid my driver what little credits I had and walked inside. This is my first time stepping into this place, to be honest. Of course, I heard about it a million times from other Troopers, but I really had no reason to come here until now. Off duty officers, engineers, pilots, and everyone in between were chatting, arm wrestling, drinking, you name it. There are also some non-clone citizens hanging around, but ninety percent of the people here were clones. I dodged and weaved my way past tables and people until I heard a whisper coming from the back corner of the bar.
   “Hey, Jax, back here!” I turned around and saw Rex in his full combat gear standing next to a table, with Kix sitting beside him… no, not “Kicks” from my squad... Kixs fought with Rex at Umbria, as my squad got shot down. Funny how they are both Medics though. Anyway, I walked up to them and sat down beside Kix, and Rex did the same.
   “So, what’s the big deal? Why'd you call me all the way down here?” I asked.
   “Listen… something’s up with Fives… he said something about a plot against the Jedi.” Rex explained.
   “What do you mean by that!?” I snapped.
   “Just, listen, okay?” Kix reassured me.
   “Look, as you were deployed on Umbara, myself, Skywalker, and the rest of the 501st were at Ringo Vinda… but something happened…” Rex started to explain.
   “Yeah, didn't Tup get infected by a virus and murder one of the Generals…?” I gave Red a confused look… of course I heard about the battle of Ringo Vinda… pretty nasty stuff.
   “Yeah, that’s what the rest of the Republic belive… but it’s more than that, according to Fives.” Rex reached under the table and pulled out a data pad. “Fives sent me this info before requesting that myself and Skywalk talk to him. Taking the data pad, I raised an eyebrow. The Data explained Five’s investigation… complete with the comparison between Five’s and Tup’s chip tumors.
   “This… tumor…. Caused Tup to kill Tiplar?” I started to feel my hands shake… I dropped the Data Pad.
   “Yeah… Fives believes it’s part of a bigger plot to make us turn against the Jedi, and Tup’s chip activated early.” Rex explained. I had no idea how to respond… knowing this, thing is inside my head.
   “We know it’s a lot to take in…” Kixs admitted.
   “Listen, I’m about to deploy with Skywalker to meet with Fives. I already told Commander Wolf about this, and I wanted to warn you, too. Just… watch over yourself, eh? And tell no one of this!” Rex explained.
   “Yeah… okay… sure…” Was all I could say after reading the Data Pad. rex nodded and started to get up, along with Kix.
   “I’ll leave you be.” Kix whispered. I nodded and waved him off…. The two Troopers left the bar, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

Chapter 3: Nightmare on Rishi

   It’s been about a month since me and Rex last talked… and yet I still can’t get his warning out of my head… the Chips… the Tumor… the Jedi… everything just swirling in my head. I got a bad feeling about this….
   But I still can’t let this get in the way of my duty. This time around, my squad is being deployed down to Rishi… we rebuilt the outpost on the moon and we just received an SoS call… I remember back in the day with the first Battle of Kimindo… scary shit, how we might have another situation like that.
   This time around, the squad is smaller than normal. Just myself, Cassandra, Kicks, and Quicksilver are being deployed on this one, since the Outpost is so small. I’m happy they allowed Cassandra to come with us, I always feel safer with a Jedi on board. But before I could get to the hanger bay to take off in the gunslip, I got a holo message. I took out the projector from my belt and held it up.
   “Jax… it’s Rex again… listen… you gotta be careful out there. I know you're probably being deployed by now… but just… Fives… his message… I don’t know what to make of it… all I know is I got a bad feeling about everything.” The message started to repeat as I stared blankly at Rex’s message. Gee, that does not make me feel any better. I was shocked back into reality as I heard footsteps coming down the hallway… I quickly turned the projector off and clipped it back on my belt.
   “Everything alright, Captain?” Cassandra turned the corner and crossed her arms at me.
   “Yeah, just double checking all my equipment.” I lied… I could tell the General knew I was lying, but she did not press on.
   “Alright, fair enough, but come on, you're about to miss deployment.” Cassandra sighed. I took a deep breath and followed her to the gunship. As soon as we were all on board, we took off and approached the moon.
   As soon as we broke atmosphere, the gunship started to make contact with the outpost… we couldn't quite make it out from inside the ship, but it almost sounded like someone was shouting inside the base.
   “Everything okay, polit?” Cassandra asked.
   “I don’t know… it sounds like they are struggling, I can’t hear the transmission with all the noise.” The Polit responded. Before Cassandra could ask anything else, we heard the wisseling of a rocket coming towards us…
   “What the!? That looks like one of ours!” The Co-Pilot started to panic.
   “Brace for impact!!!!!!!” The lead pilot shouted. A split second later, we took the hit, straight to the left wing. We struggled to maintain balance, and even Kicks fell over.
   “I’m trying to keep her steady!!!” The Co-Pilot grunted though grinding teeth as the main Polit was addressing the damage.
   “Did they shoot us down!?” Kicks shouted, standing back up. We were on crash course for the Outpost’s landing pad.
   “I have a feeling it’s much worse than that…” Cassandra whispered, closing her eyes… then we hit the pad.

   I don’t know what’s with me and getting launched outta ships in crash landings, but when I opened my eyes I was upside down against a wall… thankfully, not gravely injured. I managed to stand back up… my Z9 cannon was nowhere to be seen, but thankfully my hand blasters remained at my side… I was also missing a helmet. Regardless, I started waddling through the wreckage… looking for any signs of hostiles or my squad. What I did find was the Gunship itself, on one side, missing a wing. I walked over and cheeked inside… I did not see any bodies inside the ship itself, but I did find Cassandra's Lightsaber pinned between a rock and the ship’s door. I moved the rock and picked the lightsaber, cheeking it over. I’m no Jedi, and I certainly don't understand how these things work… but if I find her, she’s probably gonna want this back. As I was checking it for any clear damage, I mustof found the activation for it as a light blue blade extended from the top… I damn near almost dropped it. Quickly, I turned it off… I know not to mess with technology I don’t understand… I’ll stick to my blasters, thanks.
   Regardless, I clipped the handle to my belt and went back to my search. I turned around the Gunship cockpit and heard coughing, and the pilot was stuck in his seat. He appeared to not be gravely wounded, but was unable to get out. It took a couple minutes, but I managed to safely get him out and help him to his feet.
   “I’m surprised you survived that…” I admitted.
   “That makes two of us… did you find anyone else?” The Polit replied.
   “No, not yet.” I sighed. The Polit swore under his breath and picked up a DC-15 that was laying at his feet.
   “Well, we should keep looking then.” He said, I nodded my agrement. We cheek the rest of the wreckage, and walked into Kicks who was also wondering, he was limping too…
   “Just a small sprain… but come on, I think I heard shouting towards the end of the pad!” Kicks grunted, and we followed him towards the area. As we suspected, we saw Quicksilver fighting off a Commando Droid. I ran at the droid and shoulder charged him off my brother, and straight off the edge.
   “Huh… thanks Captain.” Quicksilver huffed as I helped him up.. His armor was badly damaged, and he had a gash down his right cheek. “I see most of us survived… thank god…” He added, dusting himself off.
   “We still haven’t found the General.” Kicks commented.
   “Well, we cheeked the crash site and I only found her lightsaber, so maybe she’s inside already.”
   “Yeah, maybe she had to escape the fire or something.” The Polit offered. We gathered what equipment we could find and made our way to the door. We tried opening it, but it was sealed tight. I ended up banging on the door.
   “Hay, open up!!” I shouted. We heard footsteps, and I had a hand on one of my blasters… but the door hissed open to have a Trooper standing there.
   “Perfect timing, you make it just in time for the interrogation!” The Trooper greated us. We all looked shocked.
   “Interrogation? Of who???” Quicksilver jumped in front of me.
   “Of the Jedi, of course. Order 66 requires the capture and interrogation of Jedi to uncover the location of other Jedi.” The Trooper explained. My eyes widened… Order 66? I remember that name from the info Rex shared with me. But… is this like what happened to Tup? I decided to play along.
   “Right, sorry, how could we forget. Please, er.,.. Lead the way.” I pushed past Quicksilver.
   “Of course, that explosion must of shocked you all. Right this way.” The Trooper let us in and we started following him.
   “What are we doing!? This guy is a traitor!” Quicksilver whispered at me.
   “Listen, we need more info on what’s going on here… just play along.” I whispered back. With that, the Trooper lead us to another room where Cassandra was cuffed and sitting on the floor… she was bleeding from her nose, and has many smaller cuts on her face. There were also at least three Commando Droids around the room, with a handful of other Troopers.
   “I gotta bad feeling about this…” Quicksilver muttered. Seeing all these Commando Droids hanging around makes we wanna take out Cassandra's lightsaber… but I’ll end up doing more hard than good. Meanwhile… the Trooper that let us in went off about how the Jedi apparently betrayed the Republic…? Wow… I’m lost here. Among all the confusion… I saw the trooper going for his hand blaster.
   “Well, if you're gonna stay quiet… then I guess we’ll have no further use for you're corpse…” The Trooper drew his weapon and aimed it at Cassandra's head. Without thinking, I ran up and grabbed the trooper by the wrist, who ended up looking me straight in the eye… but I guess he misjudged my death glare.
   “What do you think you're doing?” I spat though grinding teeth… the Commando Droid stared right at em as the other Troops, including my own squad, tensed up.
   “Oh, I see… does the Captain wanna do the honors?” The Trooper smiled and loosened his grip on the Blaster, letting me take it. Before anyone else could even move… I got a transmission on my holo projector again. Slowly, I moved my hand down to get it… holding up for everyone to see, I hit the activator. The image of a creepy looking dude hiding under a dark cloak and hood appeared.
   “Execute Order… 66.” The mystery man’s voice echoed throughout the entire room on all the other Troopers comm links. I looked around to see everyone’s faces change… also, I noticed the Commando Droids shut down for some reason. Everyone started raising their weapons… except Quicksilver.
   “Good soldiers follow orders…”
   “Good soldiers follow orders…”
   “Good soldiers follow orders…”
   “Good soldiers follow orders…”
   The chanting… the echoing… the rush of pain that hit my head like an earthquake. Then it hit me… the chips… the tumors… they were meant to control us… force us to comply with this order… I felt my hands turn into fists, I dropped the blaster and destroyed the holo projector in my metal hand… the chip was trying to force me to comply with the horrible order… but my mind refused to give in… after what seemed like forever… I finally broke.

Chapter 4

   Remember when I said I was gonna do more harm than good? Well, the last thing I remembered was Cassandra and Quicksilver hitting the deck as I went lose with rage. Sure I did not use the Lightsaber, but anyone who even took a step towards the General with a weapon drawn got shot…my body was still rejecting the maluatcption of the Bip Chip… as all the other Clones started to turn on Cassandra, I was the one who protected her… soon, the other traitorous Clones fleat the outpost, scattering. Leaving me alone, surrounded by the bodies of those who used to be my brothers, now my enemies. I turned around and cut Cassandra lose, giveing her Lightsaber back… then Quicksilver stood up.
   “What the hell was that!?” Quicksilver shouted.
   “It’s the chip… it’s still in my head… but my body refuses to give in…” I mumbled though breaths… still holding my blasters.
   “This is… why didn't the Republic see this coming… The Jedi should of arrested the Counselor as soon as the conspiracy started.” Cassandra swore out loud. I still felt the rush of blood though my body… I don’t know how long I’ll be able to reject the control chip…. Then something dawned on me.
   “How, how did you not go crazy?” I asked Quicksilver. He chuckled, removing his helmet, revealing a scar on the top of his head.
   “I removed my control chip as soon as Fives warned me about it…” Quiksilver explained.
   “He told you?” I gasped.
   “He told a lot of us, actually, even Kicks and Lightweight.” Quicksilver explained. Then I remembered… did I slaughter Kicks in all that?
   “Good god… maybe warn us the next time you go crazy…” Kicks also stood up, his armor covered in blood. I breathed a sigh of relief. Lightweight was not deployed with us… I hope he’s safe wherever he is.
   “What… what about me?” I mumbled, still feeling a massive headache.
   “Don’t worry, I can perform the procedure necessary to remove the chip… but we should find the outpost’s medical station as soon as possible, before you brake for real.
   “I’ll keep an eye on the entrance, make sure no one tries coming back for us.” Cassandra was about to run off, but she did not need to.
   “I don’t think we’ll have to worry about that for now…” Kicks pointed outside. We all rushed to the window and saw a transport flying off the moon.
   “They must of been hiding that… still, we need to get you to the medical station before they come back with backup.” Quicksilver reminded us. I nodded and the group went down to the medical station.

   By the time I opened my eyes again, everyone else was out cold… by that I mean sleeping, of course. The main in my head was gone, and when I felt the top of my head, there was a bald spot and a scar… I guess it worked. I stood, up and lost my balance, knocking over a set of beakers that shattered on the ground. Quicksilver jumped in his set.
   “AGH! What the!?” He looked around, until he saw me. “Well, look whos up.” He added. Kicks and Cassandra woke up next.
   “Well, looks like it worked.” Kicks commented.
   “Good, I'd hate to lose the one Captian that did not try to shoot at me.” Cassandra sighed.
   “It’s nice not feeling like you're body is splitting itself in two… but we still have to worry about where to go from here.” I admitted.
   “Yes… I still feel a great disturbance in the force… that I fear the worst is yet to come.” Cassandra started off out the window.
   “Well, we need to find a place to hunker down at, somewhere the other Clones won't find us.” I started pacing around, picking up and putting my Helmet back on.
   “Where do we go? We have no ship… no way of this rock, and limited food and water rations.” Kicks explained…. Then I got an idea.
   “Wait… Order 66 calls for the genocide of all Jedi, right? Well, when I went berserk, they had to flee, right? So they know that Cassandra is still alive, so at some point they’ll have to come back, right? Why not we make this place seem like it’s still functional, and when they come back, we ambush them, steal their ship, and get outta the system.” I offered.
   “That could take weeks, maybe even mouths…” Quicksilver countered.
   “It’s the best chance we got, really.” Cassandra admitted.
   “Better get started then.” Kicked nodded, and we got to work.

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Star Wars - Clone Wars Story Part 3: Dark Days Indeed

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