Fallout

A Clone Wars Story

2007 short story by James Brodovsky

The hot and dry Geonosian air rustled through Zero’s hair. He gazed over the arid landscape wondering how the pilot could possibly differentiate desert sand from hazy sky. He replaced his helmet. I can’t stand this dry heat, he thought, remembering his days back on Kamino. He turned and faced his squad mates - Six, Ghost, Klank, and Boom - in the central portion of the gunship. He brushed by and ascended the short set of steps up to the cockpit.

“How far out are we?” he asked the pilot.

“Two minutes, sir. I suggest you get prepared to depart,” the pilot reported back.

The ship continued forward and came down in the middle of the Geonosian arena, the Separatists glorified version of hell. Zero looked up at the departing pilot. He would never see him again.

Dantooine flashed before his eyes, along with blaster bolts and the flare of exploding mortars. A friend of his, SO-2238, lead his squad in a charge on the Separatist base, only to be melted in the flame of an exploding mortar.

Now he was on the bridge of his command ship, Rebel Yell, after liberating it from the Kuat shipyards. Chaotic status reports and requests for order wafted through Zero’s ears going completely unnoticed as he stood watching as Republic ships close in on the Hydra and Commander Martile. The Republic ships pummeled through the Hydra’s shields, followed by its engines, only to be consumed by Martile’s last effort of defiance, the detonation of the Hydra’s main energy reactor.

Mustafar.

Kavak lying on his desk, bleeding but just refusing to die.

“Because the Chancellor, and soon to be Emperor, is a Sith!”

Zero woke with a start. He sat up in bed, and looked around. A cold shudder ran up his spine with the remembrance of bitter memories. His eyes drifted to the gleaming white helmet next to the dress tunic sitting together in a meager attempt at a shrine. Zero heaved a sigh of despair. It had been two years since their mission on Mustafar, two years since Order 66 was issued and two years since the once glorious Republic became an the Empire. Two years Zero had been on the run.

His eyes gazed down to the chrono display beside his bed, 02:37 it read, two hours before he should be on the bridge. Zero shrugged off the sheets and got out of bed knowing sleep would not return, having experienced this dream before. He freshened up and stood next to a mirror straightening his Vice Admiral’s insignia.

I preferred it when I was just a field officer and not stuck on a ship all the time Zero thought. I guess that’s the irony of being a Special Operative in the Republic Navy. Well, formerly of the Republic Navy.

He exited his quarters and entered a turbo lift and pressed the button for the mess hall.

No, better just go straight to the bridge. I can never eat this early.

He cancelled his mess hall request and hit the button for the bridge. The doors slid open in front of him and disclosed the bridge of his Victory class Star Destroyer.

“Admiral on the bridge!” one of the crewmen shouted. Everyone snapped to attention.

“At ease,” Zero relieved them. Yet another thing I can’t stand about this admiralty. He walked over to the command terminal in the center of the bridge and sat down. “Tree, anything to report?” he asked his second in command.

“Yes sir,” replied Tree, a large and abnormally burly clone. “A transmission from Captain 5644.”

“What did Ghost have to say?”

“Let me bring up the transmission and I’ll show you.” Tree turned to the console in front of him searched the communications logs and found the transmission. “User: HT-8276, access code: GF3926. Validate.”

“Validating,” the console replied. “Access granted. Replaying message.”

Boom and Ghost appeared as holographic images above the console. The projection stabilized and began playing.

“Good morning sir! Boom, Valdar and I have successfully disrupted production of the Kuat shipyards sir. Requesting extraction, our location is being sent along with this message and Tree has already gotten the ship underway. I have some more news to inform you of when you arrive. Sensitive details that I’d rather not say unless we’re talking in person.”

The holoprojector shut off as the transmission ended. Zero looked to Tree.

“How long until we arrive?”

“Three hours, sir. We’ll be dropping into the outer regions of the Kuat system.”

“Did Ghost say anything about what he had to tell me?”

“Only that it would be the best paying contract since we left the Republic sir.”

Zero stood waiting in the hanger control room, gazing impatiently into the empty hanger bay. Ghost, Boom, and Valdar’s combat transport sailed through the open bay doors and landed in the middle of the bay. They exited it and pointed out minor carbon scoring along the hull to the repair crew as they made their way to the exit of the hanger. Valdar took the turbolift to his quarters and Ghost and Boom headed up the stairs to the control room. The door from the stairwell opened besides Zero, and he turned to face Ghost and Boom, still garbed in their combat armor. Ghost undid his helmet clasp and removed his helmet, and saluted.

“I thought you would at least allow us to get out of armor, sir.”

“Stow the formalities,” Zero cut him off. “I owe you my life five times over, you don’t need to be saluting me. And you,” Zero faced Boom. Words failed to come to him.

“It’s good to see you too, sir,” Boom replied.

“You too Boom,” Zero said laughing as he gathered the two of them in to a heart felt embrace. “You have so news for me?” he asked Ghost as he released them.

“Yes sir. While we were scouting on the surface of Kuat we happened to stop by the bounty office, merely out of professional curiosity. Apparently this Rebellion that we’ve been hearing about over the last year has actually manifested into something. They have posted several incognito Rebel officers in the under-worldly spaceport offices. One chose to come up to me and offered me this: he wants us to raid an Imperial science facility on Wayland, and procure technology for a fast-recharge turbolazer. I told the man he was crazy to think that a simple mercenary squad could pull off a feat like that. He backed off, but something in his demeanor told me he knew that we were more then just a simple mercenary trio,” Ghost said, gesturing around.

“That could become an issue,” Zero replied, worried. “I don’t want bounty offices, or other bounty hunters or mercenaries, and especially the Empire to know what we have going on, it would blow our cover.”

“I agree sir, but the figure this man was offering…”

“You won’t believe this, sir,” Boom said barely keeping his giddiness in check.

“What are they offing?” Zero asked.

“Two million credits.”

“Two million!” cried Zero, exasperated. “You’re right, I don’t believe it. Where would the Rebellion get such money? I know some Senators are sympathetic to their cause but not even combined would they offer that much money. Bail Organa himself would have had to had emptied his own pockets for them to have obtained that much money.”

“Whatever the source, Zero, the man assured me that he had the money,” Ghost replied. “I told him I might be interested, but I would have to talk it over with my partner and a few friends. He suggested that I meet him again in a week in a nearby system. That gives us a little under three days to cover a day and a half’s journey. If you’re interested I can give the coordinates to Tree.”

“No I think we should decide as a group, let Tree and Mouth know there will be a Senior Officers’ meeting in a half hour.”

The rain pelted Zero’s faceplate. Lighting sliced through the stormy Kaminoan atmosphere, and thunder boomed it’s dutiful reply. Smoke rose from several buildings and the troopers in Zero’s unit gazed in deep sorrow as they saw their home burn before their eyes. Zero and his two platoons hadn’t heard about the Kaminoan Rebellion and Clone Insurrection until it was too late to do anything more then mount a rescue operation due to the secrecy with which the Kaminoan politicians had planned the uprising.

Zero now was helping the survivors of the failed uprising escape the planet. He had grouped together a few other A.W.O.L. officers and hurried to the planet. The Imperials had dealt swift wrath to Kamino; the 501^st had descended on the planet and captured a majority of the facilities in Tipoca City. Beleaguered troops came stumbling up the causeway to the landing pad. The two rescue platoons helped them into waiting transports as they gazed for the last time at their home. Another platoon came rushing towards the causeway, blaster bolts trailing behind them.

“Turrets!” shouted Zero to the clones operating the laser turrets around the pad. “Covering fire! Squads One and Two with me.” Zero charged down the causeway followed by the squads. The blaster bolts had dwindled off as less of the fleeing troops came through. One trooper who had a blaster burn lancing across his breastplate grabbed Zero’s shoulder.

“Sir,” he said. “There’s another squad of pilots trapped in there. We couldn’t get them out, sir.”

“Who is the wing leader?”

“HT-8276, goes by the call sign Tree.”

“We’ll get them out of there, trooper, head up to the transports. They’ll get you out of here safely.”

“Thank you, sir.”

The clone limped off. Zero turned to the squads, “Wedge formation. Mouth lead squad Two. I’ll take point on squad One. We’ve got some pilots to rescue.”

“To summarize,” Ghost addressed the officers in the conference room. “A Rebellion officer has offered us a contract to steal information from a Imperial science facility, undoubtedly heavily guarded. A kind of operation we haven’t attempted since pre-Empire days.

“Resources required for this type of operation would include: infiltration or deployment transportation, two, possibly three SO covert infiltration squads, along with extraction transportation.”

“That runs the risk of exposing ourselves as more then the common bounty hunter,” Mouth offered.

“It most likely will,” Boom added.

“I agree,” Valdar said. “But considering that the Rebel came up to us directly and posed this offer suggests that there is someone out there that knows who we are.”

Zero’s expression grew more concerned, “What are you suggesting Valdar?”

“Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, an acquaintance of mine, is somewhat in touch with the Rebellion.”

“Does he know about us?”

“Yes,” the clones in the room shot him looks of decaying trust. “He can be trusted,” Valdar defended himself. “When the Emperor issued Order 66, the survivors banded together to figure out what to do and who was still alive. We established who went where and who was hiding with whom. I had to inform both Master Yoda and Master Kenobi of you. I apologize, but they would have been worried and concerned other wise.”

The clones eyed him suspiciously. They weren’t sure what to make of this sudden revelation. If word were out about their doings and whereabouts, the Empire would be quickly coming to enact swift justice.

“This complicates matters,” Ghost muttered.

“With that information added, I’ll take a vote,” Zero said. “All in favor of ignoring the Rebellion…” No one spoke up. “It settled then. Ghost contact the officer and get a rendezvous location, preferably a discrete, out of the way place.”

“Is this transmission clean?” Ghost asked.

“Yes, I am alone, and…” replied the holographic Rebel officer.

“And what?”

“Nothing, just a slight equipment bug, my anti-listening software is somewhat over-sensitive. I’m detecting no listeners. Let us get down to business shall we?”

“Yes. My associates and I have discussed this offer of yours are interested in partaking, where do you suggest we meet to discus the terms in person?”

“Do you know the planet of Caamas?”

“It’s near Alderaan, correct?”

“Yes. I will meet you at these coordinates in the Caamas System in two days, transmitting now.”

“Data received,” Ghost said after the coordinates arrived. “In two days then?”

“In two days.”

Two days later Rebel Yell exited hyperspace 100 million kilometers outside the Caamas system.

“Sir,” Tree addressed Zero. “We have exited hyperspace. Ghost and Boom have the rendezvous shuttle prepared to disembark.”

“Good,” Zero replied. “I want you to maintain an open comm. channel with the shuttle along with a data transfer link. Have its coordinates tracked from here as well through a fly-patch, Engineer Numbers knows what to do.”

“Sir, why a fly-patch set up? Do you suspect a trap?”

“My head tells me no, but my gut tells me that it can’t hurt to be safe. Numbers should be up here soon.” Zero turned to gaze out the main view port. “I just can’t shake this feeling of uneasiness.”

The doors from the turbolift hall hissed open.

“Lieutenant RY-8547 requesting permission to enter the bridge, sir.” Number said.

“Granted, you can use the system control terminal over there. I’ll rout you some of the communications controls as well.” Tree said. “Sir,” He said to Zero. “Should I alert the shuttle bay that you are ready to disembark?”

“Yes do that. The bridge is yours Tree.”

After a short microjump in-system, the shuttle carrying Ghost, Boom, and Zero had arrived at the rendezvous coordinates. They were alone in the void, left to gaze at the planet of Caamas revolving slowly around its star.

A proximity alarm sounded, “Looks like our friend decided to show up,” Boom said.

A sleek transport roughly 400 meters long exited hyperspace before them. The smooth Calmarian freighter looked like one of the water-planets giant whales. Heavily modified with two Imperial Tri-Flux engines, three missile ports, and four hidden laser turrets made the ship intensely lethal but none less beautiful.

“We’re being hailed, sir,” Boom informed them.

“Put it through,” Zero said.

“I see you’ve gotten yourself another ship, Ghost. I told you that other one wasn’t top notch.”

“If you would please leave my crewman’s taste in vehicles be, we would like to begin talking business,” Zero informed the Rebel.

“You must be Vice Admiral SO-5700; Zero correct?”

“Correct, you may call me Admiral, or sir.”

“Well then, Admiral, if you would care to come aboard my ship, we’ll talk this matter out face to face.”

After the three clones had exited the docking umbilical connecting their two ships, the Rebel greeted them, “Welcome to the Vengeance,” he said. “My name is Commander Ryath Wynn, Rebellion Special Forces.” The interior of the Rebel’s ship was just as beautiful as the outside, from an engineer’s perspective. There was not a diode, switch or button out of place or without purpose. Ryath brought them to the central hold and sat them around a circular table. “Ghost, Boom, I’m glad you brought Zero here to see me; the Rebellion desperately needs help. We have recently learned that the Empire has developed and new power buffer for turbolasers that allows them to fire twice as fast before overheating. We need that technology to continue our fight against their tyranny, but we are too few and too unskilled to attempt this ourselves. We will offer you two million credits and all the necessary intelligence you need.”

“That is a pretty good offer,” Zero replied. “We will accept you offer, but other things concern me. Primarily, how do you know so much about us?”

“As you should, considering the ship you command. How did you manage to steal it from the shipyards?”

“A tale for another time.”

“Yes of course. You might have guessed that we heard of you from Obi-Wan Kenobi and Valdar Tyre, but we found you a different way. I was a new Ensign aboard the Fearless, and had seen just under a year's worth of action when Order 66 was issued.” The clones were suddenly attentive; the Fearless was commanded by Admiral Jonathon Onasi, one of the few non-clone Republic soldiers and was know for being one of the key pilots who helped quell the invasion of Naboo by the Trade Federation and was revered throughout the Republic Navy, despite his age.

“Yes, I served under Onasi, and after the Empire heard of his dissent against Order 66 and his subsequent murder, I defected to the Rebellion. I had heard of other such officers that were attacked due to their condemnation of Order 66, primarily Admiral Travis Martile, and Commodore SO-5700, the only known commander that defected, that is a clone.”

“It pains me that I am that only statistic."

The group paused and contemplated their fallen heroes. An alarm from the cockpit broke the reflective silence, followed shortly by a chirp from Zero’s comm.

Zero picked it up, “5700.”

“Sir,” Tree’s voice came through. “An Imperial Star Destroyer has just entered the system, we have remained undetected by entering an asteroid belt of the system’s gas giant, but we will be unable to come pick you up.”

Ryath joined them from the cockpit, “And if you attempt a microjump it might give away both of our positions.”

“I thought you said our transmission wasn’t bugged,” Ghost shouted at Ryath.

“The Imperials have some of the best technicians in the galaxy; what I thought was the equipment malfunctioning must have been them tapping in on our little chat.”

They moved to the cockpit where the sleek menacing dagger of an Imperial Star Destroyer loomed into view of the freighter. Ryath sat down in the pilot’s chair. A warning flashed on his display.

“They’re beginning to scan! Shut off the comm.!” Ryath shouted.

“What? Why?!” Zero replied.

“Just shut it off! We’ll be detected!”

Zero abruptly severed his comm.’s connection.

“I’m going to have to jettison your shuttle, you won’t make it back to your ship.”

Ryath pushed a few buttons and the umbilical detached with a fhwump! that resounded throughout the ship.

“I apologize for this.”

“It’s alright. Its necessary,” Zero said realizing what he was doing. Ryath armed a torpedo and shot it at the unmanned shuttle and finished what remained with a quick burst from his lasers.

“I’m going to make a short microjump.”

“But won’t we be detected?” Boom asked, shocked.

“Yes”

The Vengeance quickly entered and exited hyperspace even closer to the Star Destroyer. The Star Destroyer promptly hailed them.

“Unidentified freighter, this is Star Destroyer Black Dawn, you seem to be off course.”

Ryath flicked the controls opening the channel from the Star Destroyer as well as some controls Zero was certain didn’t involve communications.

“Black Dawn this is freighter Fortune,” he said in a voice that made him sound younger. “We’re not lost, we’re just prepping to switch our hyperspace routes.”

“What route leads through the Camaas system?”

“It’s this route my father thinks gets us to Ord Mantel faster.”

“That’s because it does!” he said in an older voice while covering his mouth, creating the illusion that he was talking from a distance to the listener. “It took three hours off a run from Bespin once.”

“Pay no mind to him, we’ll be out of your way shortly.” With that he severed the communication and activated the hyperdrive.

“That’s some talent you’ve got,” Ghost said admiringly.

“Your crew will meet us at Yavin,” Ryath said to Zero.

“How do you know?”

“I used that chat with the Imperial ship to mask a transmission to your ship. I gave them a brief synopsis of the situation and coordinates for a rendezvous.”

“Clever, where did you come up with that?” Boom asked.

“Your Admiral here invented that trick.”

"Well, for the most part," Zero said modestly. "I tell you some other time, I like the false transponder touch, that couldn't have been cheap."

Zero and Ghost sat together in Zero’s temporary quarters in the Massassi Temple on Yavin 4. Ryath had invited them down to the base to rest and gather intelligence and supplies for their mission to the Imperial science facility on Wayland, a relatively quite, out of the way planet. The perfect place to hide a secret think tank. The humid air of the planet-moon had both of the clones forgo the formal deck uniform, into the more comfortable combat jumpsuit they wore underneath their armor. Zero had his back turned to Ghost and was gazing out the window into the foggy jungle.

“They have a respectable operation here,” Ghost offered, running a hand through his damp hair. “They mean business.”

“Aye,” Zero replied and continued his examination of the jungle.

“They still could use all the help they can get.”

“Yes, they certainly could.”

“It wouldn’t be a waste of our resources if…”

Zero cut him off, “I understand what you’re saying, ni vod,” he paused. “I’m just not sure. What if these people betray us? Val nu’aliit, ni nu lise ruusaanyc val. They are not family, I cannot trust them.”

“I have faith they won’t betray us.”

“Then where was your faith on the Vengeance? Your glare at Ryath when you saw the Star Destroyer could have killed him.”

“He’s made of stronger stuff then the average person.”

“And most average people I know would take us for granted and leave us high and dry.”

“They aren’t corrupt like others. They’re doing this to end tyranny.”

“And we were fighting to preserve the Republic and look how it’s faring!”

They looked at each other in silence while they each brooded over the truth in the others statements, neither wanting to relinquish ground gained in the argument. Ghost broke the tender silence first.

“We were all force-fed Order 66. ‘The loyalty of the Jedi is becoming questionable.’ and from our point of view it was. They were second guessing the Chancellor and circumventing his orders, destabilizing the Republic.”

“Yes but we didn’t know Palpatine was a Sith.”

“No one did, he was influencing us all until Kavak told us the truth.”

“That still doesn’t make up for our brothers lives we took.”

“We may have destroyed their bodies, but we freed their minds from Palpatine’s rule. If we join this Rebellion we can kill Palpatine and free the mind of the whole galaxy!”

“You may be right,” Zero’s comm. chirped. “5700,” he responded.

“Sir, your equipment has been loaded onto the transports and they are fueled and prepped for launch,” the flight operator said through the comm. “We’re ready whenever you are.”

“We’ll be leaving in twenty minutes,” Zero replied, severing the connection. He turned to Ghost; “We’ll talk of this later. Right now get the rest of the team ready and meet me in the hanger.”

“Good hunting sirs!” The control room said as the transports containing the clones left the Rebel’s hanger.

“Thank you control, we’ll be back in three days,” Zero replied.

The three assault transports lifted out of the Massassi temple that served as the Rebel’s main hanger and out into the atmosphere of the jungle moon. They orbited the moon once while programming in launch and exit vectors for hyperspace. Zero delegated that job to Boom. He turned to a porthole that faced planet side. He gazed down on the dense and lush forests of the moon and wondered why he cared so much for a group of militant political activists.

I don’t owe them anything, why should I care about their fate?

Because they saved your life.

How could they have possible have saved my life?

Word was out about the Rebel Yell how long do you think it would have taken before the Empire found out and came down on us?

Not long at all.

That’s right. If they hadn’t brought us here we would be dead soon. They fed us and sheltered us; you owe them at least for that.

I could have gotten that from any hotel, what makes them so special?

They didn’t ask for anything in return, like family.

They are not family! My family is the soldiers that fight with me and the ones blinded by Palpatine’s influence!

How do you propose to remove that influence? All by yourself with one Star Destroyer full of troops? The Empire has hundreds of those! The Rebellion has more troops then us, but not enough ships to get them where they need to go! We need the Rebels and they need us!

Zero turned away from the porthole as they accelerated into hyperspace.

Exiting hyperspace into enemy territory undetected was a skill that took Zero’s team years to master, and one he applied whenever an operation called for it. Not making assumptions was also something it took the clones time to master. Zero had assumed that the think tank on Wayland would be guarded by at least one Star Destroyer, probably two, because no amount of secrecy could protect you from someone landing with a ship full of commandos on your roof, so the transports came prepared. Ten proton torpedoes were loaded into each, and the lasers had been heavily enhanced. Zero didn’t want to be caught with his guard down incase they were detected.

When the three transports exited in perfect unison on the night side of the planet directly opposite the think tank, they started bouncing scans across the planet and of near by satellites, they discovered all their preemptive measures were for nothing. The clones were about the show the Empire why no amount of secrecy would protect them from a transport full of commandos landing on their roof.

The transports exited the clouds and quickly made for the canopy of the loose woodland that surrounded the base. There they skimmed the tops of the trees and made their way closer to the base, under its radar. A gap in the trees appeared close to the base and the transports touched down. When the commando’s neared the base, the reason for the lack of defenses was apparent: the base was being decommissioned. Several cargo haulers were on the landing pad with equipment being loaded into them. Ghost spotted an entrance around the side of the pad.

“Everyone stay inside the trees and make your way to that door,” Zero ordered. “This place looks like it will be pretty empty but be on guard nonetheless.”

The clones slid quietly between the trees, hardly a twig left out of place when they left. They approached the door when the pad was free of hostiles. It was unlocked.

Curious, Zero noted.

The clones proceeded into the hallway and fanned out. The searched the interior for most of an hour and remained undetected. Mouth and Ghost managed to hack into an information terminal in the base. There they discovered that the main part of the base was below ground an a single turbo lift was the only way down and was most likely being used by the operators of the cargo haulers.

“The turbo lift is right through those doors,” Mouth told Zero pointing across the hall. “Though that would be the most conspicuous route and we’d be detected.”

“We can take them!” Boom said enthusiastically, leaning forward from a rusty grate covering a ventilation shaft. “I’ve got enough grenades,” the cover started to creak as he leaned back. “To supply an entire,” His back touched the grate and it gave way dumping Boom into the airshaft.

“Well, they certainly won’t expect us to come down like that,” Mouth said.

The clones had landed rather ungraciously on the bottom of the ventilation shaft. Zero had the floor plan of the installation cross-sectioned with the ventilation ducts displayed inside his helmet. The main shaft that they were in fortunately ran all the way to the main computer hub. The clones proceeded down the shaft.

As they were traversing the shaft they passed over a grate, below which sat two engineers packaging equipment for the cargo haulers.

“Where is it that we’re being sent out to?” A short lanky and pale man, he looked as though he hadn’t seen sunlight for a long while.

“Dracodamoran,” the other engineer replied.

Zero motioned for his squad and to halt and be quite. He then flicked a button on his comm. to record the conversation.

“I’ve never heard of the place. Is it an Outer Rim world?”

“No, even worse. It’s in the Unknown Regions. Apparently the entire planetary system is full of phenomena that bend and practically defy physics!”

“Well at least there will be something entertaining, but why did the Emperor uproot this entire operation just so we could observe bizarre phenomena?”

“I’ve heard that he want us to gather inspiration from them to create new weapons, but I’ve also heard that most of the staff is being reassigned to the Undying TIE Project.”

“The Undying TIE? That’s just a myth!”

“That’s what I thought until I saw the Spaarti cylinders.”

“So what? Spaarti cylinders! The Empire has been cloning for years!”

“And in one of the cylinders was a growing clone. The display on the front said that this clone was a three month old Talic Kelvar!”

The clones glanced quizzical looks at each other. Talic Kelvar was an ace TIE Fighter pilot accredited for over five hundred kills in the last two years. Why would the Empire bother setting up a cloning facility for just one ace pilot? Unless they had figured out a way to rapidly grow clones? Maybe that’s what these Spaarti cylinders were for. The technicians had gotten up and began to move their packaged instruments towards the turbolift. Zero waited until the technicians were out of earshot and eyesight, and then kicked the grate down. Zero motioned the commandos downward into the room. The Force was with them that day; the central computer was in the room just across the hall.

“38, you and Ghost patch into the computer and find the information relevant to the turbo laser technology,” Zero ordered. “And if you find anything about that Undying TIE project download it as well.”

“Admiral 5700 we can’t thank you enough for this information,” the holographic image of Mon Mothma, one of leaders of the Rebellion, said. The commandos had successfully retrieved the data and extracted their teams. Zero was now transmitting the data via the Holo-Net. “We owe you our eternal gratitude.”

“While I do appreciate your thanks,” Zero replied to the hologram. “An open comm. and the money owed will suffice.”

“Of course, you will always have a friend with us.”

“Mon Mothma, I’m now transmitting some additional data we found. It is called the Undying TIE project. From what we’ve gathered, the Empire seems to be cloning one of its ace pilots. “

“Well we seem to owe you our thanks, two-fold,” her face stiffened somewhat. “What do we owe you for this additional data.”

“Nothing, think of it as a offer of good faith, though if you ever decided to do something about it, I’d like to be on the team.”

Mon Mothma’s eyes drifted down to were a display would be showing her the information on her side.

“My stars!” She looked up somewhat flustered. “I do appreciate the data but the Rebellion doesn’t have the resources to mount an operation to the Unknown Regions.”

“Yet,” Zero replied.

“Yet,” Mon Mothma conceded. “Again I give my utmost thanks, other matters now call me. Goodbye.”

“Re’turcye mhi,” Zero said and severed the connection.

Zero returned to the central hold of his transport and to the company of all the clones. The ships had docked to allow the clones to relax collectively.

“So are they going to do something about the Undying TIE project?” Boom asked.

“No,” Zero replied.

“What!” Valdar objected. “With these clones the Empire could have entire fleets manned by ace pilots. It could kill the Rebellion before it gets started!”

“I know, but they, nor we, have the means to undertake that sort of operation.”

“Well someone’s got to do something,” Valdar replied, getting up to one on the docking ports.

“Valdar what are you doing?” Ghost asked.

“If the Rebellion won’t do something, I will. I can take one of these and get to the planet. We already have the coordinates.”

“How will you get supplies?” Mouth inquired.

“All Jedi are resourceful, but I happened to teach survival training at the Academy for several years.”

“Gar troch kotep. You are certainly brave,” Boom replied.

Zero turned to face Valdar.

“Elek gar kotep. Yes, you are brave. It has been an honor to serve with you and I look forward to seeing you again. You a worthy of being called Mando,” Zero said and then embraced him.

“Oya Mando!” the clones cried.

Zero pointed to one of the hatches, “Take that one it has the most fuel. Twitch, Lefty, grab some extra ration packs and equipment and stow them in that transport,” he turned to Valdar, “Re’turcye mhi ner aliit. Goodbye my friend.”

“Goodbye my friend,” Valdar replied and turned into the transport.

The other clones went back to their transports with the clones from Valdar’s transport staying in the hold. Ghost reported that Valdar’s transport had detached and was powering its hyperspace generator. Zero rotated his transport to face Valdar’s as it accelerated into the depths of hyperspace.

“May we meet again.”