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Kamino


Tarrian Skywalker

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The multicoloured light reflected off the bright grey metallic tiles, throwing up a bright array upon the carbon stained scarlet armour of the former senator Zinthos. Her brown hair reflected the red hue and turned it to a ruddy amethyst. The grey skinned absorbed the colour as well, turning her languid skin to a healthy hue. Her eyes were no longer their common hue but burned within from a crimson light. An evil hue, pure and loathsome, that carried with it the galaxies' sorrow. The hate of rebellion and strife, the venom of oppression and slavery, the sorrow of death, and the hope of new life carried within her eyes. A being spawned of the clash between Empire and Alliance. A semblance of the failures of Galactic Unity.

 

Her voice was not her own, it flowed from her mouth in an ancient language, long extinct from the galaxy, the speech of the old Dominion. When the Galaxy was young, when Humanity had not yet crawled from their holes, when the Killiks had not yet developed a sentience. It was the tongue of the Ancients. The Celestials. From the time long forgotten before the writing of the scriptures, when the Titans of Old clashed in the skys, filling the void with luminescence, their swords reflecting the light of the first stars.

 

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Pretender to the Galactic Throne

Leader of the Rebel Alliance

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  • 2 weeks later...

A smile passes sardonically across the man’s features at the girl’s words. Naivety came in many forms, including feigned wisdom, and even in the words of ancient languages, long passed out of memory, and buried with the bones and carrion of the Infinite Empire. She thought of ancient Chaos, Khorne, Slaanesh, or even Nurgle, who had imparted knowledge upon the ancient Sith Orders, but long ago, their power had gone out of the universe. The only thing that remained was the shattered worlds, and their language. The man walked slowly forward, listening as he heard her comlink buzz. He answered in kind, to humour her.

 

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"All worlds begin in darkness. In darkness, all worlds shall end."

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  • 2 weeks later...

Raven nodded her crimson eyes catching the reflection of the falling rain that soaked the platform and soaked her blackened armour, which was covered by a purple cloak. It was a dreary day in kamino, but that was every day here. Which explained the high incident of teen aged suicide within the population.

 

Her voice was still not her own, and carried a back undertone, "then accompaniment to Mon Calimari. Where we are to meet the supreme commander...."

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Pretender to the Galactic Throne

Leader of the Rebel Alliance

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The man’s face shows no expression at the mention of the Supreme Commander of the Galactic Alliance, but inside his mind is set further to ease. With a solemn nod of his head, the man motions the Senator towards his own ship, a simple, armoured shuttlecraft, decked in polished black. With a small nod, the man spoke

 

“Then I will follow your lead, my lady.”

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"All worlds begin in darkness. In darkness, all worlds shall end."

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  • 11 months later...

Ruby hated rain.

 

As she stepped down off of the boarding ramp and into the rain drenching the landing pad, she wondered for what seemed like the millionth time why it had never occured to the Kaminoans to cover the landing pads.

 

Pulling the hood of her jacket up, Ruby turned to face Sapph and Em as they disembarked the ship. "I'm gonna go get that vocoder and a couple other things off of the Onslaught. You guys take care of the gems and we'll meet up back here in a bit? I wanna pick up a few things for this job." Emerald and Sapphire nodded, and the three women went their separate ways.

 

Ruby grimaced as the rain dripped down off the edge of her hood and into her face. Maybe it was the fact that the only precipitation she'd ever seen before she was an adult was snow, but she absolutely, positively hated rain. She hurried inside, shaking the water off of her jacket and hurrying down the hallway toward the Onslaught's berth as she mentally catalogued everything she needed to grab from her ship.

 

As she reached the doors that led to where she had last left her freighter, Ruby gazed out the window and sighed mournfully. Steeling herself against the rain again, she ran from the safety of the building out to her ship, pressing her hand against the access pad and forcing herself not to blink the water from her eyes as the interface scanned her eye. With a quick series of beeps, the boarding ramp dropped down, and she ran inside the ship, safely out of the rain.

 

Ruby sighed in relief as she found the vocoder in one of her many toolboxes and tucked it securely into one of the pockets of her backpack. She moved swiftly through the ship, stopping to pull open drawers and open cabinets, gradually filling the backpack. Satisfied that she had everything she needed, she rearmed the Onslaught's security system and headed off to the weapons depot before she met back up with the other Blood Gems.

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After watching Ruby vanish into the torrential downpour, her otherworldly cerulean skin melting into the mist, Emerald meandered back up the boarding ramp and turned the corner to where she knew Sapphire was checking on a temperamental power coupling. The exotically beautiful redhead was covered in grease and gouges after only five minutes of post-flight work. However, none of the Blood Gems had wanted to attempt taking off again without all systems immaculate. Anything jury-rigged would doubtlessly be noticed by the Gambit’s garage crews, and the Chiss noblewoman that Ruby would be playing would not suffer her character to be inconvenienced by any such imperfections. So, Ruby was going to restock weapons and supplies; Sapphire was to perfect the working order of the ship, as well as prepare her forged documents of employment; and Emerald was to acquire everything else they needed to maintain their disguises, namely, fake identichips, attire, and for Sapphire, the crew uniform of the Gambit. The excursion would also give Emerald the opportunity to replenish some of her Mistryl implements, hidden weapons, body armor, and the like, that she had gone without on their trip to Hapes.  

 

A loud curse from her counterpart planted an unsympathetic grin firmly on Emerald’s face. “You okay there, sunshine?” she baited. Dodging to avoid the hydrospanner tossed expertly in her direction, she darted back around the corner. Peeking out at Sapphire, she offered an exaggerated two-fingered salute. “See ya ‘round, partner,” she drawled. “I’m going to look for a cantina and see if I can track down our floating hotel.”  

 

Without waiting to her the retort that was sure to be coming, something along the lines of, “how-dare-you-go-to-the-cantinas-right-now-you-kriffing-nerf-herder”, no doubt, she agilely crept back down the ramp, a smaller duffel filled with Rainbow Gems slung over her shoulder. Stepping out into the rain, she began a brisk jog toward the doorway, but quickly abandoned it after four steps in the open air found her drenched regardless. Hiking up the collar of the classically nondescript smugglers’s button-up that she had donned, along with tight-fitting pants sporting a false Corellian bloodstripe, she grumbled under her breath until she reached the door some seventy-five meters away.  

 

The cantina, which was much more compact than it might have been on any spaceport world, was easy to find: it was the noisiest, most populated place in the entire spaceport. However, Kamino being a relatively backwater planet, had only recently sprouted its only tiny little cantina in response to the increased traffic, mostly smugglers, pirates, lowlifes, and the like, so it wasn’t nearly as easy to get lost in the crowd. She’d have to be exceptionally vigilant, or it would be all too likely that asking the wrong questions would get her a tail that she’d have to brush off later. Stepping into the haze of deathstick smoke, Emerald rested her hand cavalierly on the butt of her blaster, letting her hips tell a bawdy story for anyone that might notice her as she sauntered in. Wandering up to the bar, she nodded cooly at the bartender and quietly ordered an Arkanian Ba’ktu, a fruity drink known to be favored by cheap dancers and lightweight drunks. Normally, she wouldn’t have touched the thing with a ten-meter pole, but she was in a bit of a hurry, and it was better to seem easily influenced when information was the thing required.  

 

It didn’t take long. An obviously tipsy spacer, Kuati from the looks of his dark hair and highbrow air, sidled up to her. “Hey baby, are you as sweet as that drink is supposed to be?”  

 

She smiled coyly, shrugging a single shoulder and meeting his gaze from under her lashes. For extra effect, she twirled a segment of blonde hair shamelessly around her index finger. “For the right price,” she giggled, the high-pitched, girlish voice a stark contrast to her usual smooth alto. “You can start by getting me another.”  

 

The man waved at the bartender, and Emerald leaned in toward him conspiratorially. “Actually, you might be able to help me,” she whispered. “I was supposed to meet someone here, a big-shot, loaded-rich type. He was going to take that new luxury ship, the Shadow’s .... Whatever to their next destination, but I lost part of his message, and nobody will tell me where it went.” She added a bit of pout as her voice dropped off, hoping to look as pathetic as possible. He took the bait without question. “Oh, that thing? It went on to Coruscant sometime last week. I’d be happy to take you,” he said, standing and towering over her, his chin mere centimeters away from the top of her head, “if you know what I mean.”  

 

The coy smile never faltered. “I’ll bet nothing would make you happier.” She stood as well, her full height at five-foot-four barely coming to his shoulder, and in a barely noticeable flicker of movement, she flexed her wrist. The tiny soporific dart shot out from its launcher and caught him mid-thigh, and soundlessly, he collapsed onto the bar. The bartender, several patrons down, shot her a suspicious look. “Oh, he’s fine,” she called hastily, waving a hand playfully in front of her face. “Just had a little more than he can handle, I’m afraid.”  

 

Patting her erstwhile loverboy on the head patronizingly, she fingered his pockets, seizing the paltry collection of credits from his pocket, and left his limp form slumped against the counter, slipping back out the door into the rain.  

 

Coruscant. That was one of the better tidings she’d received in recent history. Millions of citizens, coming and going at all hours, every variety of culture you could possibly ask for. There would be no doubts about their cover story coming from Coruscant.  

 

It took her a scant half-hour to obtain the rest of the needed supplies. A Verpine slicer of longtime acquaintance, Urquet, saw to it that their documents were adequately forged. Ruby would be appearing under the pseudonym “Tru’sella’nuruodo,” in full awareness that the ruling families of the Chiss generally received precedent anywhere they set their feet, especially the famous Nuruodo family. Emerald’s card identified her as “Jenna Farlander”, a Tatooine native, and Sapphire’s identichip read “Livea Jurgan,” hailing from the Bastion system, a hard-blooded Imperial if there ever was one.  

 

One more stop, several more gems in payment, and she acquired the required uniforms for Sapphire, a new set of lightweight body armor for herself that, the salesman promised, would turn an ordinary blaster on its highest setting without any difficulty whatsoever, a brilliant green evening dress, several thermal detonators, and a whole new stock of soporific and poisoned darts, not to mention miniature concussion rockets, for her wrist launcher.  

 

Grinning wider than an Ithorian’s two mouths end-to-end, she returned to the Glory, taking a roundabout way that was sure to lose any pursuit that she might have picked up in her curious wanderings. Ascending the ramp into the main hold, she tossed her bags of purchases onto the center table.  

 

“You guys are not gonna believe what they charge for drinks around here. Unbelievable. And they don’t even have Kashyyykian rum.”

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After grumbling audibly as Emerald headed out into the city, Sapphire turned her full attention back onto the ship. The power coupling she had been working on had caused several red lights on her board, and she was determined to get it back in working order. At first she had thought it had just been loose, but when she examined it, it turned out that the connector end had completely reversed polarity. With a muttered curse, she pulled out the offending coupling and headed to the cargo area. Grabbing a replacement and jettisoning the broken one out of the garbage chute, she headed back and replaced the coupling.

 

Once everything was closed up, she spent a few extra minutes getting the ship into perfect condition. She didn't plan on letting anyone board the Glory, but it never hurt to be safe. Luckily, all three of the Blood Gems had a taste for luxury already, so it was pretty much just sweeping evidence of their main activities under the rug. She also got out several colorful Chiss family hangings and hung them in the main hold. Again, she hoped they wouldn't be needed to corrobate their disguises, but it had happened once in the past, and Sapphire was not one to repeat a mistake.

 

Ruby came in just as she hung the last one and grimaced with distaste. "I know," Sapphire said, "but you remember as well as I do what happened on Almas." She wiped her hands on a rag. "Right, I'm going to get cleaned up and take care of my documentation."

 

She hopped into the 'fresher for a quick sanisteam to get the grime and grease from the ship off her. Once she was clean, she returned to the main hold with her datapad. Her qualifications were genuine, but it would take a little fiddling to get her employment history and background checks to not raise any white flags. Of course, for an expert like Sapphire, it was no problem. In fact, she enjoyed it. Soon enough, she had everything in order, leaving only blanks that she could fill in with whatever new identity Emerald was procuring.

 

As if her thoughts had summoned the woman, Emerald strode in just then and dumped her bags on the table.

 

"It's gotta be the rain," Sapphire replied dryly to Emerald's quip about prices. "They know it drives people so crazy they'll pay anything for an escape." She rose and rummaged through the bags until she pulled out their new identicards. "Livea Jurgan?" Sapphire raised her eyebrows. "Well, I suppose it'll do."

 

She set about entering Livea's information into her credentials. "So?" she asked expectantly, not looking up from her work.

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Blood Gem Pirate

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Muttering in discontent, Ruby sat down and set to work replacing the vocoder on their protocol droid, doing her best to studiously ignore all of the Chiss trappings now scattered about the cabin. She was deeply absorbed in soldering the vocoder connections on the droid when Emerald finally came strolling back onto the ship and dropped her new ident docs down in front of her.

 

She glanced down, lip curling slightly as she read over them. "Nuruodo," she said in disgust, spitting the word out as if it were poison in her mouth. "Can't be helped, I suppose, famous family and all. And I guess it'll be fun to put a smear on that family name." Jaw muscles working furiously, she leaned back over her soldering. "Sorry. The docs look good. Flawless, even. I just... Eh, forget it." Propping the protocol droid up to a sitting position, she reached over and slapped the power switch on it's neck. Its eyes flickered a few times before coming on fully, its head tracking to look at Ruby as it spoke in its prissy vocoded voice. "Greetings. I am T-4LK, Human-cyborg rela-"

 

"Override code Besh, Grek, Peth, Esk, Resh, Senth. Activate ambassador convention." The ambassador convention was something that Sapphire had programmed into the protocol droid a long time ago, and it had come in handy countless times since. T-4LK's head returned to a neutral position, its eyes staring straight ahead as Ruby continued to speak. "Current mark, Tru’sella’nuruodo, delegate, priority one. Secondary mark, Jenna Farlander, body guard." When T-4 spoke again, its voice had deepened, the prissy quality gone and replaced by a soothing quasi-baritone. "Protocol engaged. Directive?"

 

"Deactivate." T-4's eyes obediently went out, and Ruby set to cleaning up her tools. "Task one done. I'll be in the cargo bay if you need me. I need to get these weapons caches ready." Picking up her equipment bag, Ruby left Emerald and Sapphire to continue on their conversation and headed toward the cargo bay, where the several crates of weapons she'd ordered had been delivered. Rubbing her hands together gleefully, she began browsing through the crate labels, looking for one in particular. Having found it, she slid the top off and started pulling things out of it.

 

Things, in this case, were several different kinds of quick burn, (relatively) low impact explosive- enough to say, blow a lock on a door, leave a smoke screen, or, with enough of it, knock down a wall without causing structural damage on a cruise liner. The most notable, and the one that was most exciting to Ruby, came as a roll of something resembling tape- thin, small enough to fit in her pocket, and enough on a single roll to knock down aforementioned wall. Sighing happily, Ruby moved on to the other crates, most of which contained small weaponry that she planned on building into her weapon caches.

 

There might've been a rocket launcher in one of them. Ruby thought it was always a good idea to have a rocket launcher handy.

 

With all of her components set out in front of her, Ruby began to pack the caches. Snub pistol, vibroshiv, roll of explosive, and two soporific darts, all packed into a small non-descript vacuum-sealed plasteel box not much bigger than her fist. Not much firepower, but if things went according to plan they hopefully wouldn't even need to use them. And they also wouldn't come up on scans thanks to the box lining that Ruby had paid extra for- she'd been dubious when the merchant had tried to push them off on her at first, but after seeing first hand that it actually worked with her own scanner she had him add it onto the entire lot of boxes.

 

Task number two accomplished, Ruby moved onto number three- the task she wasn't particularly looking forward to and had purposely been postponing, though there was no escape from it now. Sighing heavily, she stood and moved over to one of the storage closests built into the wall on the side of the cargo bay. She palmed the door open, flipping through the garments inside until she found the one she was looking for. A frown creasing her face, she set the traditional Chiss diplomatic robes up on a mannequin and set to work figuring out just how many weapons she could carry underneath it.

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“So,” Emerald sighed, plopping down onto one of the crash couches and crossing her legs, “I ran into an old buddy, Overconfident Male, who was kind enough to inform me that the Shadow’s Gambit is headed for orbit around Coruscant. I mean, it makes sense, but I’m just a little frustrated at the side trip all the way out here for things we could have just as easily gotten planetside once we get there.”

 

The lithe blonde narrowed her eyes in thought. Something didn’t feel right about this. But why? They were armed to the teeth, insignificant in number, easily overlooked by any and all authorities. There was virtually nothing to lose in the process of getting on board the ship. But then, what were they trying to gain? Money? The Gallinore Rainbow Gems sitting en masse in the ship’s smuggling compartments and the credits they had just heisted from Thaldin’s Bank were plenty to go off of, for now. Infamy? No, the Blood Gems benefited from a certain amount of anonymity. They were unknown, so no one had the opportunity to recognize their style of crime. They frequently appeared in disguise as they were uninterested in the major crime cartels such as Black Sun or the Hutts. Though, she thought with a wry grin, if they ever became well known enough to garner attention, either syndicate would most likely court their services.

 

No, this trip was about protection. Maintaining anonymity. Thus the infiltration, the falsified identichips, the subterfuge. Plain and simple, Emerald simply didn’t want her own name used. It was well enough that Sapphire and Ruby had chosen code names. Her name was her own, and was well-known enough among Hapan royalty that, should anyone come looking for her, it could prove detrimental to her safety to be identified. If her contact was correct--and she had no way of verifying his information--the Sith were the mastermind behind this big and boisterous new diversion. It would behoove them to have contacts among the darksiders, Lords who could use their services at will but would feel no need to be tied to them indefinitely. In essence, so that the Sith would be their proverbial “big brother”, the one you can call to beat up the littler guy intimidating you, but who doesn’t want to be seen with you in public.

 

If the Sith weren’t on board the ship after all, well then Sapphire’s employee access to the computer systems of the ship would give her a back door into the sabacc randomizer. Honestly, they couldn’t lose. Allies or credits, they stood to gain something from this little jaunt into Core space.

 

She turned her viridian gaze onto her curvaceous counterpart. “I think we’re over-prepared in terms of weaponry. Ruby’s got enough for a small armada in there. We don’t want to threaten anyone needlessly,” she said quietly. "This cover story won't hold up to much scrutiny, and I really would like to avoid drawing attention to ourselves. Ruby and I should be standard patrons, nothing more. Do you agree?"

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Sapphire thought for a moment. "You're right. This isn't going to be like our normal work where we can make a noisy getaway. Our best shot is if people actually believe we are who we say we are. I can fit in my role with only a little effort, but I'm more worried about you two. Especially Ruby. It wouldn't do to have her lose her temper and something explode. Not with Sith on board."

 

She paused and bit her lip. "Em, what exactly are we hoping to gain on this trip?" She had thought of several benefits, but it wasn't like they were currently desperate for credits. "You've got that look in your eye that makes me think you have some other goal on this trip besides credits. And frankly, I wonder if this isn't a bit of a risk. If there are really Sith onboard, they will read our true intentions and personas in an instant. They will know we're not who we say we are, and who's to know how they will respond?"

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Blood Gem Pirate

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Emerald exhaled slowly. Sapphire was exceptionally perceptive, and she should have known that the question was coming. Nonetheless, she gave the answer with a minute degree of hesitation. "Well, actually, I'm sort of counting on the fact that they will respond," she offered sheepishly. Then, regaining her confidence as she again went through her justifications in her head, she leaned forward earnestly.

 

"Look, Sapph. There's only three of us. I'd lay pretty good odds that we make difficult marks. We could just be a couple of pretty faces, you and I, and Ruby can pull off staunch Chiss when she needs to. The point is, the only people who could find us when we want to stay hidden are the Sith and the Jedi. I'd also be willing to bet that there's not a Jedi in the galaxy who would approve of what we do." She leaned back in her seat again with a cocky swagger. "I figure it's better to go to them than to be hunted, ya know?"

 

Which was more or less the full story. She shared Sapphire's apprehension about Ruby's volatile nature, however, and hoped that the Chiss woman would indeed be able to lay aside her explosive tendencies in order to lie low and let the Sith find them out. Though one major problem still remained; Emerald had no idea what she would do or say if and when she DID come face to face with a Sith Lord.

 

There must have been Corellian blood in her family at some point, the blonde thought with amusement, because she was feeling pretty confident in her ability to improvise.

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"You're worried." Sapphire was astonished. "About the Jedi? Or CoreSec? Do you think we're becoming high enough in the public eye to warrant their attention?"

 

Sapphire wasn't so sure. They had been operating successfully under the radar for some time, making sure to spread out their marks so that no one would see a pattern to them. Sure, some of their targets had been high profile, but those were the ones they undertook from either the inside or in disguise. A very determined tracker with government funding from the GA might be able to link their jobs together, but given the government's hands-off policy, Sapphire wasn't sure that would ever happen. Even CoreSec lacked jurisdiction outside the galactic center.

 

"You want the Sith to, what, protect us? Em, they are Sith. They are known for betrayal and backstabbing." She considered the gorgeous blonde for a moment. "If they discover us, they'll either kill us or force us to work for them. And frankly, I'm not sure which one is worse." She didn't want to get into a situation where they didn't have the freedom to do what they want and choose their own hits. One of the reasons she had turned to piracy was for the freedom from rules and restrictions that so permeated her homeworld.

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Blood Gem Pirate

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A flash of frustration clouded Emerald's vision momentarily, and she regarded her fellow pirate with a calculating stare. The concerns Sapphire raised, valid though they may be, weren't very far-sighted. No, Emerald mused, Sapphire didn't have the same vision for the future that she herself was consumed with.

 

"I hope you're not calling me a coward," she said coolly. "I've had too many close calls lately, and almost all on your say-so. Going back to the Motherland was just about the last straw for me. But no, our glorious mastermind has nothing to fear." She scoffed. The sudden hostility she felt was almost frightening in its intensity, and she buried it quickly. This was Sapphire she was talking to, her oldest friend.

 

With a heavy sigh, she began again. "Honestly, I am worried. CoreSec doesn't need much encouragement to hunt down pirates these days, and with the conspicuous targets we've been hitting, I'm a little concerned that my name is actually floating around in the aftermath. If we want to keep it up, we'll need allies against the Jedi, and especially against CoreSec."

 

She cocked her head to one side. "As for backstabbing and betrayal, we've had a corner on the market on that in our day. I think we both know how to see THAT coming. Sapph, that's the one thing I am certainly not worried about."

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When Emerald's temper flared, Sapphire knew she had hit close to the mark. The red-head almost rose to the bait. In a minute, this would turn into a full-fledged argument.

 

But then Emerald sighed. As she spoke, Sapphire realized how much this must have been eating at her. "You're right," she replied. "This is a turning point for the Blood Gems. And if you think that this is really best, that we go to the Sith for allies, then I know you've thought it all through." She stood and placed a hand on Emerald's shoulder. "I trust you."

 

She squeezed her closest friend's shoulder affectionately. "You better go break the news to Ruby that she can't take her whole arsenal, 'Jenna'. I'll point us Coreward and get that new transponder installed."

 

She headed up to the cockpit. The Kaminoan traffic control was easy to navigate, and soon enough the ship was in orbit. Once there, Sapphire took the time to make sure the new transponder code was up and running. It dubbed the ship the Csilla's Pride. It sounded pompous and arrogant, but then, Sapphire supposed that was the point. Turning to the navicomputer, she punched in the coordinates 0-0-0 and hit the lever, sending them into hyperspace toward the galactic core.

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Blood Gem Pirate

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  • 7 years later...

An old model imperial probe droid appeared on the edges of the old Kamino system. Long abandoned after the complete destruction of the floating cities at the hands of the New Republic, the system was still mostly empty, the orbital platforms deteriorating in decaying orbits, shedding their metal shards in brilliant showers of light. But the surface of the storm world was silent, and no eyes looked up to the heavens to see the spectacular lightshow.  But to the Sith empire, and the mechanical eyes of the probe droid, Kamino had lain fallow for far too long. 

 

Star Wars Imperial Probe Droid (2nd Edition) 1/6 Scale Figure

 

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Ca'Aran

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  • 5 weeks later...

“You see we start small scale.” 

 

Delta ran his fingers over the expansive flimsiplast blueprints and attached datasheets. Glancing only for a moment back to the Military Architect team before looking back to the mound of blue and white flimsi. 

 

“I need about fifty thousand clone tanks with an additional hundred in a private quarter. Fast growth only. No need to waste the time when we are in a bloody war eh?” 

 

The Architects exchanged a quizzical look before solemnly nodding. For while there had been losses in this war, there had been very few large scale losses, not to the scale the Captain was suggesting at least. 

 

“May I suggest a test facility first Captain?” Said the youngest and the prettiest of the engineers who had not yet recovered her colour from seeing what an astronomically high cost such a program would require.

 

“You see we have the derelict Tector-class Star Destroyer Indefatigable which is sitting disused.” She seemed to be making it up as she went to Delta but the nodding heads of the Architects and Engineers convinced him otherwise. “It only needs its fuel rods replaced…” She continued, tucking a stray blonde hair behind her ear. “Then since most of its decking has already been stripped we can replace the majority of it with a honeycomb cloning array.” She placed a new and slightly less bulky stack of blue and white flimsy onto the tabletop. “The refitting can take a few weeks but then we don’t have to prefabricate a whole new vessel, since Tectors already have their hangers sealed off. It should survive the storms of Kamino just fine especially with an engine refit.” 

 

Delta did not even need to look at her designs and simply nodded towards the pretty face. 

 

“Let it be so Lieutenant Halifax. I will meet you on surface in three weeks.” 

 

______________________________

 

It only took the magnificent Kuat Drive Yards two weeks to fully refit the Indefatigable, but it took another three weeks of finding and sourcing to establish one hundred quick cloning arrays from the archives held on Onderon, and an additional Week to source enough ocean blue paint to cover the aging Tector class star destroyer. 

 

But in only double the required time that Delta had given them the Army Corps of Engineers and Architects had positioned the Star Destroyer at right above sea level of the water world. The first bays were filled with embryonic fluid, and the staffing of medical and security personnel were placed. When the ship was fully operational, Delta began with a few test clones of some very special individuals. 

 

Mobile Cloning Station Indefatigable 

Class: Tector-class Star Destroyer

Length: 1,600 Meters

Crew: 3,000 support Personnel, 1,000 security personnel

Armament: 12 heavy turbolaser arrays, 30 anti starfighter cannons

Cloning Capacity: 100 initial, 2,000 planned. 

 

 

 

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Ca'Aran

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  • 1 year later...

“Wake up dad.” Soft hands pushed against his shoulders in an effort to quickly wake him from dreamless sleep. But it felt so nice to be asleep, to not have to care about anything, to just relax. The hands shook him again, this time with a bit more urgency. “Someone’s knocking on the door.”

 

And yes he could hear the metallix rap of knuckle on bulkhead door. It was faint and muffled but it was certainly there. Persistent and getting much louder. 

 

“Wake up or….” ‘

 

Ca’Aran sighed, knowing what was next. 

 

The cup of water he kept by his nightstand was dashed most messily onto his face and he sat up laughing as Æthe dashed away out of range of any retort. 

 

He quickly pulled on his red jumpsuit and spared a glance for the wall mounted chronometer. Zero three hundred hours. What a bizarre time to get woken up by command. He pressed the door switch and the sliding door retracted revealing commander Tarsus, in his stunning crimson uniform and gunbelt. But from the slump of his shoulder and from the look of his face, there was likely something very wrong. Ca’Aran gestured him inside and to the table that had already been laid with breakfast and cafe by one of the kids. It was the instant stuff they used for week long training scenarios, but they had all been woken up early, and such a thing was expected. 

 

“Are the kids awake?” 

 

Ca’Aran looked sideways at the older man as they sat down at the large table. 

 

“Most definitely, your knocking could have woken the whole destroyer, and they are most certainly listening at the door. But they are soldiers and if you have bad news to tell then by all means say it. They can take a little shock.” 

 

Commander Tarsus frowned at the answer but after taking a long drag from one of the steaming cups of caf he looked straight at Ca’Aran with a look that carried a horror that could only have been described as indescribable. At the same time his right hand went to his belt. 

 

“The Empire has fallen. All special projects are being liquidated.”

 

It had been nearly two years since they had all arrived on Kamino, and whatever past they had come from was darker than black. Memories that could not come when called for, and from his soldier’s mind, it was likely trauma related. All of the kids couldn’t remember a thing either. But what he did know was how to operate as a commando, and train the kids how to do the same. It had been his only mission for as long as he could remember. And as the commander pushed the blaster pistol’s barrel up from beneath the table to get a clear shot, Ca’Aran’s training reacted. 

 

His cup of piping hot caf splashed into the commander's open eyes, and a solid kick against the table sent the older man flying to the floor, the blaster pistol discharging a single bolt that grazed the side of Ca’Aran’s face. Leaving a bubble of burned skin and tissue that traced from his chin to the corner of his left eye. He did not even feel it as he sprang after the downed Sith officer, ramming one of the table knives up to his hilts in his eyesocket. He held the body down until the shakes had stopped then he grabbed the blaster pistol from where it had fallen.

 

It was time to evacuate.

 

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Ca'Aran

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  • 1 month later...

“Fix bayonets little ones.” 

 

Ca’Aran’s voice was soft in his ears as he heard the distinctive double click of bayonets being fitted to blaster rifles behind him, then the whispering whirr of the cadets switching the vibro bayonets followed. He pushed himself forwards and looked around the corner of the bulkhead and into the expansive aft hangerbay. Where three Lambda class shuttles sat on their landing skids, being lazily refueled by hanger staff. His eyes flicked across the black armoured troops that stood between the shuttles and the bulkhead door.

 

Easy prey. 

 

He brought the blaster rifle up and popped a round into one of the dangling fuel lines, causing a gout of flame to reach up to the ceiling of the hangar and nearly deafen the flight crew that were idly chatting. It was shock and awe in its purest form. And the resulting bayonet charge finished off any resistance, the majority preferring to drop their weapon belts and run to the edges of the hanger instead of offering any kind of unified front. 

 

It took less than a minute from charge until the shuttle took off into the storm covered sky. 

 

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Ca'Aran

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