Star Wars - Clone Wars Story Part 4: Life of Exile by Jetsunstrider < Submission

Keywords human 108863, males 43395, females 24932, story 14037, war 1841, star wars 1484, clone 1170, clone wars 21

Chapter 1: Escape Plan

   By the time we got everything perfect and inspection worthy, a week already passed. We have enough rations to last us awhile, but I’m still worried about the future. Myself, Kicks, and Quicksilver may be immune to Order 66 now that our chips are out, but there are still thousands… millions of other clones who turned on the Jedi and now serve whatever Sith Lord activated it in the first place. We have no idea how big of a hunting party they will send, and even with Cassandra here, this outpost is really not the most defendable. Low integrity means it relays on a simple shielding system for meteor showers. Not to mention highly explosive fuel used to heat the base can easily be targeted by shooting the rear wall.
   “Let’s just hope they expect us to be with them…” Kicks muttered.
   “As long as Cassandra hides, we can stall whatever hunting party shows up long enough for a couple of us to hijack their ship.” Quicksilver explained. That plan seemed solid enough, for whenever it happened.
   “Some of us should go outside to scavenge for supplies left over from when we crashed here.” Cassandra walked into the room.
   “As long as it’s not you, because if you go out their, you could be detected by incoming ships.” I countered, the general crossed her arms. “I’ll go, if I see any ships inbound I’ll contact you guys.” I was already at the door before anyone could stop me.
   After about an hour of looking around, I found my Z9 Cannon I lost in the crash, as well as an extra supply of rations and ammo, even some thermal detonators.
   “This should help us last a while…” I walked in, dropping everything I found on a table.
   “Jesus, that’s a nice haul…” Quicksilver admitted.
   “Okay, fine… it’s a good thing you went out there…” Cassandra grumbled and crossed her arms. I rolled my eyes and walked over to our storage room to sort out everything I got.

   It only took another week for any signs of a hunting party, as in the middle of the night, we were awoken by the sounds of a small frigate entering the moon’s atmosphere.
   “Huh, looks like a Pelta Class is landing about halfway between us and the other side of the moon.” Quicksilver explained, looking through his macrobinoculars.
   “That will get us of this rock, for sure.” Kicks smiled.
   “But we still gotta see what’s going on… Kicks, you and Quicksilver stall the search party, me and Cassandra will scout he ship.” I ordered, holstering my DC-17s, and also taking a DC-15 standard rifle, as the Z9 would be too clunky to carry on a scouting mission. Cassandra grabbed her lightsaber and we went out the back of the base, heading up a small rocky cliff where we could have the high ground over the ship’s DZ.
   As we approached the ship, we could already see bad news… a group of Clone Commandos, wearing the armor of the Empire, were scanning around their landing zone. I flipped down my Microbinolicoulers to get a closer look.
   “Those guys are gonna be a pain in the ass..” I whispered.
   “Of course the Empire would send Commands to shut down the Jedi…” Cassandra swore quietly. As I watched the Commandos, I caught wind of their conversation.
   “All clear, commander.” One of them grunted.
   “Good… let’s get this over with. Intel says three defective clones and their Jedi are hiding out in the old outpost here. Simple breach and Clear tactics should be able to get rid of them quick.” The Commander of the group replied. “Stinger, Jackal, stay here and guard the ship. The rest of you, you're with me.” He added, as four other Commandos followed the Commander to the Outpost.
   “Ugh… we always get the crappy jobs.” One of the guards sighed, kicking some rocks.
   “Gotta be ready for anything, eh?” The other replied in a more cheery voice.
   “We gotta warn the others…” I hurried to get my comlink out. “Quicksilver, Kicks, you got four Commandos heading your way… don't bother trying to trick them, they know where not with them!” I whispered quickly.
   “Crap… good thing you left the Z9 here, at least… thanks for the heads up, don't forget to clear that ship for us!” Kicks replied and hung up.
   “Well, only two of them… how you wanna play this?” I asked the General.
   “We gotta play this quick, so the others are not alerted… we both come in from two angles, on my single, we take them by surprise.” Cassandra explained, I nodded and got my DC-15 ready.

Chapter 2: Up and Away

   I got around the rear of the ship, as Cassandra was ready to jump on it from above. We waited until one of them walked back outside, and she played the single… AKA, she jumped. I charged the one Commando and knocked him to the ground, as the General landed on top of the ship, ran inside, and got the other.
   Still on the ground, the Commando was quick to recover, kicking me in the face, leaving a ringing sound inside my helmet. Pushing me over to the side, the Commando sat up and started widely throwing punches. After taking many swings to the chest, I found an opening and grabbed the Commando’s fist, pushing my legs up and gave him a double kick to the lower gut, followed by ripping his helmet off and smashing him square in the nose as hard as I could, sending him flying back. I stood up and drew one of my Hand Blasters, pooping him twice in the chest. I ran inside the ship and saw that Cassandera had everything cleaned up and ready to go.
   “Alright, now we just gott-” Before I could finish that, we heard an explosion from the Outpost. Grabbing my DC-15 off the ground, both myself and the General ran back. What we saw, was two destroyed Commandos sitting in a small dent in the ground, and the other two lying lifeless on the floor inside.
   “The hell was that!?” Cassandra shouted.
   “Relax, we're fine…” Kicks walked out, holding a thermal detonator in his hand. “Okay fine, Quicksliver took a shot to the shoulder, but he’s gonna be fine.” he added, and Quicksilver walked outside, with a blaster mark on the left shoulder of his armor. He was also carrying my Z9.
   “Yeah, nothing we couldn't handle.” Quicksilver chuckled, handing me the cannon back. I gave him the DC-15 and swung the Cannon over my shoulder.
   “Well, we cleared out the ship and we are ready to take off. Grab whatever equipment you can and let’s get outta here!” I shouted. The four of us ran inside, grabbing all the boxes we could and ran back to the ship. After that was all settled, we strapped in and prepared for take off, Cassandra flying.
   “Everything ready?” She asked, powering the ship up.
   “Quicksilver made it so the Empire can’t track us… also, were lucky this ain’t a medical frigate. We got two turbo cannons on the sides, as well as four on the front, and even a top mounted torpedo launcher.” I explained.
   “Jesus… they really tricked this out, eh?” Cassandra admitted.
   “Yeah, Quicksilver is manning the side mounted Turbo Lasers as Kicks is handling the terpodeos. I’m gonna be your co-oplit controlling the forward cannons.” I sat down, powering up the rest of the ship’s systems.
   “Gee, ain't I lucky.” Cassandra rolled her eyes. “Anyway… where are we going? Does this thing have hyperdrive?” She added.
   “Yeah, we got that… I just don’t know where to go…” I looked confused.
   “Well, as soon as we are up their, just take us anywhere but here… maybe in the outer rim… away from all the action.” Cassandra rubbed her chin as we took off. As soon as we were in the air, I plugged in some random location and flipped the switch…
   “Where we going, anyway?” Kicks asked from inside the ship.
   “Wherever the future takes us, brother…” I replied.

Chapter 3: New World

   “Alright, we are approaching the location…” I was getting myself ready for whatever we would find on the other side… anywhere to get away from the Empire. As we left Hyperspace, my eyes adjusted to a large red and gray planet.
   “I don’t like the looks of that…” Quicksilver walked into the cockpit behind me.
   “Scans show no sign of volcanic activity… breathable atmosphere… I have no idea what would be causing the colour change we are seeing.” Kicks reported.
   “Only one way to find out…” Cassandra muttered as she took us into the planet. As we broke atmosphere, we could see a huge red ocean dotted with gray islands topped with trees and other plant life. We flew over the islands until we found the main chunk of land, a huge continent leading out as far as we could see.
   “No toxic substances of any kind showing up… we just need a place to land.” Kicks reminded us. Then we saw it, the flat top of a large hill, overlooking a canyon of some kind. Cassandra brought down the ship and shut off the engine.
   “Alright, no telling what’s hostile out here, weapons at the ready and keep your guard up.” Cassandra ordered. We all nodded and got out equipment, Quicksilver carrying the backpack full of food and water, and Kicks with the ammo. Meanwhile, I heaved my Z9 on my back and drew my DC-17s. Cassandra kept her lightsaber in hand as the side door to our frigate hissed open. We were hit by a blinding yellow sun, and fire like plants and trees.
   “Well, this is fancy…” Kicks walked off the cargo ramp first, his feet crunching down on the red grass and grey soil. The rest of us followed… there was also the soft scent of some kinda fruit in the air.
   “So signs of life… yet…” I scanned the direct aera of our DZ.
   “I sense something… or someone is out here… stay sharp.” Cassandra lead the way as we started moving out. We made sure not to get to far, so we did not get lost.
   We walked a couple miles out from our landing zone… we did not find much in the way of big hostile wildlife, but we did run into a tree infested with leech like parasites that drained power out of our armor and weapon systems. Kicks preformed a little on field examination and discovered that it did not even have any organs… final theory was it lived off thermal energy. Besides some other passive wildlife, we did not find much… until I stepped on something squishy.
   “Ugh… what the hell was that?” I grumbled, lifting my food. Looks like I stepped on some kinda fruit… wiping my boot on a bush, I looked to the tree witch it must've fallen off. Bright orange fruit hung off some low branches, I grabbed one and handed it to Kicks, who performed some tests.
   “Large water count… everything is edible minus the leaves of course.” Kicks reported. I shrugged and took off my hemelt, taking a big bite in the side. As soon as I bit into it, water sprayed everywhere. It also tasted surprisingly sweet.
   “Damn, that ain’t half bad…” I admitted. Everyone grabbed one off the tree and gave it a try as well.
   “It’s been forever since I had something this good” Cassandra commended. After our snak, we went back to our ship. But as we approached, we saw a couple people digging around out ship, as well as the cargo bay door was open. Out of habit, a took out one of my hand blasters and set to to stun.
   “Hey, step away from the ship!” I approached the ship with caution, Kicks and Quicksilver behind me, weapons at the ready.
   “Agh crap… more clones!” One of them, a dark yellow skinned Twi'lek male said though grinding teeth.
   “They must be more death squads!” A lighter, female voice bellowed from within.
   “Listen, despite what you may have heard, we are not with the empire!” I explained, standing my ground.
   “We just stole that ship to escape the Rishi system!” Kicks added.
   “How can we trust you!?” The Twi'lek scowled, pulling out a energy blade of some kind… I lowered my weapon, unimpressed. I sighed, placing a hand on the visor of my helmet.
   “Screw that! I’m not risking it!” The female ran out of our ship, but this time was human… before she got far, Cassandra jumped from the trees and landed in front of the human female, lightsaber handle in hand.
   “You were saying?” She smiled, activating her blade. The Twi'lek seemed to be convinced, sheathing his weapon. Myself and the others holstered their weapons. Cassandra also relaxed, but the unnamed human still looked a little… uneasy. After a few minutes of introduction and storytelling, we learned that the Twi’lek’s name is Ratchet, as the human’s is Rosetta. Apparently, they are a part of a hidden camp that also fled after the Jedi Purge started, and have been hiding out here for the past months.
   “Our camp consists of people from all over the galaxy… Alderaanian Twi’lek, Mandalorian, Mon Calamari, even Neimoidian, fleeing from the great onslaught you're people caused.” Ratchet explained over a campfire.
   “Wait… Neimoidian?” I was a little taken back by the fact even those Federation slimeballs had to flee.
   “Yes, after the New Empire was formed, a lot of the Neimoidian traders and sales people were kinda forgotten about… hell, a lot of them were even killed.” Rosetta replied. “After the first band of survivors set up a camp, we started accepting survivors from far and wide… thankfully not Clone deathsquads have found us yet… we use low end tech around here, less likely to be detected.” She added.
   “Well, me and my squad were trapped on Rishi moon when it all went down… my troops removed their biochips in order to stay loyal to the Jedi.” Cassandra explained.
   “Biochips? Never heard anything about that…” Ratchet rubbed his chin.
   “Yeah, the chips were implanted early in the Clone’s development cycle and was designed to make us follow all the orders… including Order 66.” Kicked replied.
   “Damn… that’s rough…” Ratchet admitted. I sighed… knowing that most of my brothers were forced into doing such… horrific deeds.
   “Well, you're here now… we could take you down to our camp… we could use a orgioned group of people who know how to operate weapons… I mean sure, he have ex-bounty hunters and security guards, but nothing on your level! And with a Jedi joining us, things could really start looking up, knowing at least some survived!” Rosetta lit up.
   “I guess we have nothing better to do…” I shrugged. The others nodded their agreement. With that settled, we all grabbed what gear we could carry and followed the duo down to their camp.

Chapter 4: New Life

   As we walked along the camp, the people we passed stopped to watch us… they have all right to be suspicious. Some looked worried, others, angry… but most saw that we had Cassandra with us and figured me might be good after all. But as we reached what seemed to be the center, all I could make out was someone standing in a dark brown robe, looking over a selection of the same fruit the squad found when we landed.
   “Who’s the dude in the robe?” I asked.
   “Oh, she’s another Jedi, she and her right hand man, a Human Republic Officer, crashed here a while ago… they started the Camp.” Rosetta explained. The Jedi must of sensed our presence, as the figure turned towards us and I saw a red eyed bright green skinned elder Twi’lek women staring us down… but Cassandra's eyes winded.
   “Oh my god… no, it can’t be…!” Cassandra was shocked, as she started sprinting at the other Jedi.
   “Cassandra! Oh my, you did survive!” The Twi’lek lowered her hood and greated Cassandra with a hug. After that was over, Myself and the squad kinda waited in silence.
   “You… know this Jedi?” Kicks broke the silence.
   “Know her? Jezz, she was my Master so many years ago. Er… this Iris. Master, meet my squad.” Cassandra explained. Iris crossed her arms and looked us over… and I gotta say, for a old Twi’lek women, she looked more then capable than cutting us down if she guessed we were affected by the Bio Chips.
   “I see you're squad has not succumbed to the Empire, my old Padawan.” Iris let off a smile… and matched with her deep red eyes, you'd figure it would look devilish.
   “Yes, they removed their Control Chips before they were turned.” Cassandra reassured her Master.
   “Nice to see some of you survived.” I commented, a little uneasy.
   “Yes… but so many were lost…” Iris seemed to get lost in thought. I could only begin to theorize the body count.
   “Well, we see you got a nice camp settled here. With any luck, this world is not even known by the empire.” Quicksilver broke the awkwardness.
   “Don’t jinx it, eh?” I shoved him with my elbow lightly.
   “Well, nice to know we are all friends here. But we still haven’t shown you the armory.” Racket barged in.
  “Alright, fair enough. We’ll catch up later then, Master.” Cassandra gave Iris a nod before we went back to following our tour guides. When they showed us their armory, it looked like a recycling bin… so many different weapons from all over the universe. A gruff looking green skinned Rodian, covered head to toe is metalworking gear, was polishing off a modified DC-15A Rifle as he gave us a look.
   “Huh… never thought I'd see a friendly clone again.” He scowled. I crossed my arms, not impressed.
   “Let me guess, you got that rifle as a trophy, eh?” I rolled my eyes.
   “Oh, you're smart… that’s right, went off on my own hunting party. Bagged and Tagged dozens of you're little Hunting Parties… huh, pathetic they were.” The Rodian stood up, swinging his rifle over his shoulder. Behind him, I could see a collection of battered and destroyed Clone Helmets.
   “I bet you're real proud of yourself, too… eh? I bet a killer like you get along oh so well with the locals… or are you just stuck in this mud pit of a corner.” I took a sept in, causing the Rodian to stumble a bit.
   “Brave talk coming from the galaxy's most hated species…” The Rodian retailated, ready to fight. I had a hand on my DC-17 holster, but before the Rodian could do anything, Ratchet got in between us.
   “Alright, alright, that’s enough… goddamnit Burisur, just because the other Clones were Hunting parties, don’t mean they all are.” Ratchet did not sound overly impressed with either of us, to be honest.
   “You got nerve, Clone… watch you're back.” Bruisur grumbled and went back to his work. I relaxed, letting my blaster slide back into the holster.
   “He seems… pleasant…” Quicksilver coughed.
   “Yeah well, he’s just gonna have to get over it. Listen, the living quarters are on the other side of the camp, c’ome.” Rachel sighed and let us along again. When we arrived, the rest of other inhabitants of the camp were maintaining and adjusting the living area.
   “Don’t worry about the space, we are always expanding this aera to make sure we have enough room for newcomers. We just finished a new room for you guys. It has more than enough beds, all separated into sub rooms, and all the essentials.” Rosetta explained as we walked in. I felt like I was being offered a cheap hotel, but Rosetta was right… everything we could ever need.
   “When you're settled, come by the command tent, Iris is gonna want to talk to you all.” Racket added before he and Rosetta left the room. The squad shared a nod as we started unpacking and organizing our equipment, getting ready for our new life… on a random rock in the middle of nowhere.

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Star Wars - Clone Wars Story Part 4: Life of Exile

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