(KAMINO - EARLY 'JANUARY' OF 19 BBY - LATE MORNING)
A long time ago, on a planet far, far away...
Like, seventy thousand light years away from the Galactic Core... talking about just outside the boundaries of the galaxy here, people...
A freakishly tall, some would say elegant sentient species of isolationists were practically forgotten by the universe until a Jedi Master named Obi-Wan Kenobi noticed an error in the Jedi Archives when investigating an assassination attempt on Senator Padme Amidala. He ended up rediscovering the elusive aquatic, extragalactic planet of Kamino inhabited by its equally shifty species with hermit-like tendencies: the Kaminoans.
With long necks that made easy maneuverability only the stuff of dreams, oblong heads dotted with two almond-shaped black eyes with white pupils that were the stuff of nightmares, and slender bodies with equally stick-like limbs that made them pretty frail, really their only virtue was that because of their frame structure, all members of that race possessed such a graceful, gliding walk that it would make any person of high society incredibly jealous.
'What about their personalities?' You may ask, 'Couldn't that make up for any physical limitations?'
Hate to break it to ya, but I don't think a race of people so fondly called 'aiwha-bait' by their little scientific achievements have very many positive qualities to their personality, if any at all. And there's not really any other opinions out there, because the only time these antisocial technicians 'branched out' was when a person (preferably a rich one) learned of their special sciencey skills (cloning anything and everything) and exchanged a butt-load of creds for either a simple creation of a security/work force, or in other cases (which Obi-Wan discovered) whole kriffing armies that are genetically modified specifically for warfare.
The Clone Troopers that fought for the Galactic Republic during the Great War against the Confederacy of Independent Systems were considered by the Kaminoans as their finest army ever created. but that didn't mean they were allowed to eat a five-course meal with the Prime Minister, or be provided with proper clothing, or even given something so simple as a name. No, clone troopers were thought of as nothing more than Kaminoan property, and were treated as such. They dined in the mess hall with a tray filled with food designed to be more nutritional than tasty, their bodies were adorned with either training armor or a simple, itchy red tunic/pants combo with chunky grey boots, and they were only given a number upon coming out of the cloning tanks. And if that wasn't conforming enough, their very genetic structure was modified so that they couldn't try to stand up for themselves even if they wanted to - they were blindly obedient, save only for a few who were either killed or succeeded in deserting.
There were rumors that the Kaminoans experimented on specific creations, except it was not of the 'changing-their-diet-and-seeing-how-it-affected-their-overall-well-being' variety. They labeled it 'Endurance Training' but in reality, it was a torture session with various instruments, concoctions and mental affliction that they justified by saying it was preparing the troopers for such a time that they are captured by enemy forces, so they wouldn't give up any information on the Republics weaknesses.
But after the Republic got involved when the Clone Wars broke out, going so far as to send Jedi Masters to oversee the production and training of these clone troopers as the dark shadow of war spread across the galaxy, the Kaminoans found themselves having to adapt to the entire Republic looking over their shoulders, any secrets that they had just thrust out into the open whether they liked it or not, losing much of the control over most things, most frustratingly of all: THEIR CLONING PROPERTY.
Except it had taken centuries for the Kaminoans to achieve such a knack for being this secretive, so while yes, they were rediscovered and yes, the Republic got involved in their work, that didn't mean all their secrets were immediately revealed.
They were just too good at what they did.
Right under the Republics nose, in a private and underwater cloning facility that was never even put on a holo-map to ensure its existence would remain a secret until the end of time, Chief Medical Scientist Nala Se stood behind a thick pane of one way blaster-proof transparisteel that gave her a perfect view into the procedure room, awaiting the report from the brain scan AZI-345211896246498721347 was performing on the specimen that would hopefully tell her that she was ready for the Citadel Challenge - something the doctor had spent the last four years preparing for. It would be her greatest achievement - a clone agent that was even better than ARC's, or CC's, or any force in special operations because SAC-1 had the capability to have all those abilities.
It took several years of intense research and there were lots and lots of waste to dispose of when experiment after experiment failed, but if this scan was favorable then it would all be worth it. With the extensive training coupled with the protocol biochip, SAC-1 would be an unstoppable secret weapon and, unlike those disobedient and trigger/explosive-happy fools who call themselves 'The Bad Batch', able to deal with her targets swiftly and with minimal damage, which would mean minimal costs and, most important of all, she would be completely compliant to the higher powers.
After an excruciating twenty minutes, the door that interlocked the rooms whooshed opened and the medical droid hovered into the room, having finished its scan.
She was completely emotionless on the outside, but on the inside Nala Se's heart was thrumming painfully in her chest. "Well?"
"The Level Five Atomic Brain Scan results indicate that there are no irregularities after the memory alteration procedure or any harm to her behavioral modification biochip, and coupled with the extensive Anti-Trauma De-Programming, SAC-1's mental state is 93.28% sound."
"What is preventing the last 6.72%?"
"SAC-1, despite frequent visits to the isolation tanks and extensive reconditioning, still has a tendency for bouts of anger. They have decreased significantly as she has reached the mental and emotional maturity of twenty years, but there is still a chance those flare ups could manifest, and it could happen at the most inopportune times."
Nala Se turned her thoughtful gaze back to the sedated female trooper peacefully laying on the observation table, the life support computer giving a rhythmic beep to show that her vitals were 100% stable... unlike her mental state, unfortunately.
SAC-1 was the first and only experiment in her batch to successfully handle all the preparations for war, the first batch not even making it past infancy, the next not able to handle the acute cognitive training, becoming unhinged as soon as pressure was added and rendered absolutely useless, the second to last unable to withstand the intense strength training regime because of the same issue, and the last bunch could handle it all, but once the endurance tests began, they did a complete 180 and became unstable.
It was because of this that Nala Se decided to go ahead with the Citadel Challenge - she had no more time or patience left to go through another four years of this. Compared to all of her predecessors, SAC-1 was in perfect health. 93.28% - she liked those odds.
"Bring her out of the induced coma and help her prepare for her transference to Tipoca City." Nala Se instructed in that calm, emotionless tone before turning from the viewport and intending to contact the Prime Minister, who was anxiously waiting by for the news.
The droid's tone was unsure, "What about her explosive tendencies? Will that not cause problems on the battlefield?"
Her dull, impassive eyes were still intimidating as they seemed to see right through the droid, "What is important is that she is completely obedient when given orders, not questioning them in a slightest, and has achieved a level of skill that has passed all other soldiers created. And if she does develop a rebellious attitude, the inhibitor chip will step in and quell those traits." Finished wasting time, she went to step into her office, not noticing the little blonde girl huddled behind a crate who let out a breath of relief when the mistress's door shut behind the long-neck, and she stepped out into the open.
"Omega!" AZI exclaimed loudly, making the girl furiously shush him, looking fearfully at the door and expecting her guardian to walk out and scold her. After ten seconds of nothing happening, the tension left Omega's tiny frame.
"Omega," AZI said a lower, more chiding tone, "You do know that the entire point of the memory alteration procedure was to effectively erase you from SAC-1's memory so your existence will be kept a secret and you will be safe from the Separatists - you should not be here, where she could see you."
Omega's face became so depressingly crestfallen, and sighed mournfully, "I know that I just... wanted to see Blades one last time before she left, and I was all alone down here again." Her right hand, which had been held behind her back during this exchange, revealed itself to be clutching to a little Loth-wolf stuffie, "And to give this to you, so you could sneak it into her supplies without Nala Se knowing."
The droid gasped in fright, "All of SAC-1's inefficacious playthings were to be discarded as soon as she reached the stage of development that allowed her to start vigorously training!"
Omega became sheepish, "I know, but she is a lot like Wrecker and gets a lot of comfort from this little guy." She thrust it into his hands, "Just hide it in one of your internal compartments and slip it into one of the crates or something."
AZI fumbled with the piece of contraband, "T-This goes completely against my programming!"
"Please, AZI?" Omega pleaded, "It will help her feel more at ease when she's out there, slicing through big bad droids with her sword!" She enhanced the meaning of her statement with a slicing gesture of her own hand, then egged the droid on, "Come on - don't you want her to succeed?" Her lip trembled as painful memories resurfaced, "Remember what happened to all those other girls? Do you want that to happen to Blades?"
"Who?"
Omega rolled her eyes, "SAC-1?"
The droid perked up, "Oh, of course I want her to succeed! She is an exceptional clone experiment, highly intelligent and physically substantial - the possibilities for SAC-1 are limitless!"
Omega grinned, knowing she had succeeded in manipulating the flighty droid, and pushed it towards him. "Then put the toy in her things."
AZI's eyes scanned the piece of stitched together fabric filled with stuffing, "This 'toy' will help SAC-1 reach her full potential?" He asked curiously.
"Yes."
"And if SAC-1 reaches her full potential, then Mistress Nala Se will be content, and not have this exceptional specimen terminated?"
"Exactly."
AZI thrust the stuffie above his head, as if he was holding a precious treasure, "Then I find putting this piece of contraband into SAC-1's supplies to be an exceptional quest!"
Omega giggled, then turned somber as she focused on the transperisteel that would allow her to see the only living friend she'd had down here for the last four years who, after the procedure was complete, would now not even remember her. Her feet dragged to the barrier, and she put a hand to it as she beheld the sleeping form of SAC-1 - or Blades, as she had fondly dubbed her at such a young age for the weapon she was most adept with.
A single tear rolled down her cheek.
The young girl's only comfort was that Blades was going to be joining the squad of defective clones she had watched grow up from a distance by secretly reading through Nala Se's reports on them, and was confident they were going to take good care of her.
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(FOUR DAYS LATER)
"Any idea why they called this meeting, Hunter?" Wrecker asked as the Bad Batch walked through the painfully bright white halls of Tipoca City to the Prime Minister's chamber, each wearing a puzzled looks on his face as to why they had been summoned, but at the same time tense, alert and ready to defend themselves in this reg-infested territory if the need arose.
"Did you start another fight again?" Hunter asked, knowing that on their last mission, which required them to interact with regs on a Jedi Cruiser, they had let Wrecker to go grab a snack in the mess hall by himself.
"No I behaved," Wrecker insisted, then muttered to himself regretfully, "Even though that guy deserved it."
Hunter looked upon the smart one in the squad. "Tech, any ideas?"
"Well, seeing as Wrecker did not start a fight, I cannot fathom why the Prime Minister would want to see us - we have a 100% success rate on our missions and keep to ourselves."
They arrived not long after, unprovoked thank the force, though Wrecker had other sentiments.
Hunter's hand purposely hovered over the control panel. "Last chance to let me know if anything happened on our last mission, Wreck." Hunter liked a heads up so he could come up with a good defense beforehand.
"I told ya I didn't start a fight!" Wrecker insisted.
Hunter sighed, hating having to do anything even remotely related to these damned long-necks, let alone having a conversation with the head honcho of the aiwha-bate club.
Pressing the access button, the soldiers squared their soldiers and marched in, saluting to Prime Minister Lama Su more out of routine than respect, who was elegantly perched in his floating chair.
"You wanted to see us, Prime Minister?" Hunter greeted.
"Yes."
Hunter had to suppress a groan of annoyance at that low, sloooooooow voice, but remained impassive.
Lama Su folded his hands. "I have decided that there should be some changes made to the squad."
Shook to the core, they all - even Hunter - looked at each other in surprise and confusion. Changes could mean being separated, and they were all they had.
Swallowing a lump in his throat, stoic Hunter managed to repeat Tech's words calmly. "Changes? But we have a 100% success rate."
"Yes, and we have been working with a clone that could be a valuable asset to your squad."
While it was a relief that they weren't going to be separated, it only a small one because this change was actually way, WAY worse.
"We don't work with regs." Crosshair remarked in that crude voice of his.
Hunter cleared his throat to put all the attention back on him, hoping the Prime Minister wouldn't reprimand his brothers stellar people skills. "What Crosshair means is that we get the job done with just the four of us, so why do we need another squad member?"
Lama Su slowly rose from his chair. "Follow me to the training facility." He ordered, and Bad Batch went without much of a choice.
Lama Su led them to the observation deck in the training hall, where Doctor Nala Se and two other Kaminoans were already standing by the computers that controlled the environment below.
"Is SAC-1 ready?" Lama Su asked the Chief Medical Scientist.
"SAC-1 is awaiting my signal." She said, then the Kaminoan to the left of them pressed a button on the computer.
A trap door in the middle of the training facility opened and up came the trooper on the rising platform. He was dressed in plain white armor with standard ammunition pouches, a training DC-17 hand blaster on the belt, a JT-12 jetpack, a scabbard, a training DC-17m ICWS in his hands, a vibroblade sheath on his left gauntlet. He definitely looked skilled, and eager as he bounced from foot to foot, anxiously waiting to ace the test.
"Special Agent Clone-1 was bred with desirable mutations." Nala Se explained as the helmeted warrior directed his gaze up to Nala Se, awaiting the signal that his trial had started.
"What sort of mutations?" Tech asked curiously, and the rest of the group listened intently, for it wasn't everyday a clone came along that was different like them.
"Enhanced senses, eyesight, strength, and intelligence."
Openly gaping Hunter, Tech, Wrecker, and Crosshair were absolutely floored that someone else possessed their special abilities, and all of them combined!
"It took several years to create and stabilize the genetic code," Nala Se continued, "But we have finally produced a sound clone with all of these capabilities. These combined enhancements will make the trooper a formidable soldier." Nala Se nodded at a Kaminoan at the computer and gestured with her hand. "You are here to observe the troopers Citadel Challenge."
Various floating droids and towers scattered around the arena appeared with guns ready and the trooper snapped to attention. He gracefully dodged several blasts then hid behind a block, readying his sniper rifle.
He whipped around and shot at the gun on the first tower with his rifle, hitting it dead on then hid behind the block again.
He repeated that action with another tower and succeeded, dealt with a floater droid that came around the block by discarding the rifle, taking his vibroblade and rushing the machine.
That surprised the Bad Batch because regs usually picked off droids from a distance or tried to dodge all the fire, climb the hill to retrieve the pole that disabled everything, and declared themselves victorious by boring antics.
The way he effortlessly dodged several blasts made it seem as if he knew what direction they were going to come from BEFORE the blast.
He dove under the droid and jabbed his blade into its back. Then he jumped out of the way as the last tower blasted at him.
Without his sniper rifle he launched the blade in the air and whipping out his hand blaster he shot at the blade for extra force, embedding it into the towers gun and putting it out of commission.
That last move caught Crosshair's attention, and he wasn't the only one. Several clones passing by different windows let out exclamations of awe and pressed themselves against the glass, observing the odd crazy clone doing odd crazy things.
Seven floating droids remained and of course the cannons on the hills cliffside, so the trooper activated the jetpack to accelerate his jump at just enough speed to avoid blasts and landed on the back of one of the droids, making it panic and spin around erratically while still shooting rounds, some hitting three other droids and making them short circuit. The trooper then wrapped his arms around the droid he was on and kriffing crushed it, discarding it as if it was a light scarp pile and pulled out the showstopping weapon - his vibrosword from its scabbard.
Intrigued, Tech adjusted his specs to make sure he was seeing this right. "That's the same vibrosword the Separatist Commando Droids use." He pointed out, raising his eyebrows as the trooper began not deflecting per se, but absorbing shots from the droids and cliff with the sword, which attracted more clones' attention.
"Is he a Jedi?" Wrecker asked incredulously.
"That's impossible, Wrecker." Crosshair said in a 'Duh' tone, making Wrecker pout, feeling stupid.
"SAC-1 enhanced senses are more in depth and allow the trooper to feel when and where the blaster will fire, much like a Jedi."
Wrecker laughed and punched his Sergeant's shoulder. "Even you can't do that, Sarge!" He teased, making Hunter roll his eyes.
The trooper rushed one droid while absorbing the blasts, ducking under the gun and with an unforgiving arc of the deadly metal the droid was slashed in half. Tucking and rolling to another the gun was slashed off then power kicked it into another droid before it registered he was there and an explosion when they both collided with a tower caused vibrations felt from up here.
Absorbing the shots of the last droid with one hand he snapped out his hand blaster and ended the battle on the ground with one shot.
From there, the rest was child's play. Scaling up the side of one of the towers that didn't appear to have any foot holds, blaster fire from the cliffside hot at his heels, he next crouched behind the railing and sniped off the laser cannons dotting the hill, never missing one despite having to dodge dozens of blasts, able to take out a few in one go, then clicked an attachment onto his rifle and shot a cable that attached on one end to the side of the tower and the other end to the wall behind the pole, and much to amazement of all the adrenaline junkies overlooking the performance, watched him shrug off the dead weight of his blasters and jet pack-
Which could have easily transported him to the pole across the arena but apparently this guy had a flare for the dramatics, which made the Bad Batch smirk as that was exactly their type of thing
-and he effortlessly balance himself and softly padded across the thin line to the pole, the hard ground at least forty or fifty feet below him. When he reached the end of the line above the pole, he jumped off, did a flip and caught the end of the pole when he was suspended upside down, then elegantly landed in a crouch, two seconds later shooting up to his feet and thrusting the pole up in victory.
The clones around the arena threw their hands up and roared cheers for the trooper, and the Bad Batch - even Crosshair - couldn't help but be impressed by the actions of the trooper. He definitely wasn't a reg.
The soldier, once he was done relishing the feeling of his success, touched the side of his helmet, awaiting communication as to what to do next.
Nala Su pressed the communication button on her data pad. "Come on up." She said, and the trooper nodded and wandered through the door that appeared behind him.
"He's a good fighter, I'll give him that." Hunter conceded, looking at his squad to see what they're opinions were.
Wrecker got all excited. "I like him! He gets our style!"
Tech stroked his chin. "I agree with Wrecker. SAC-1's capabilities are definitely different from regular clones, and he seems to understand our way of handling missions."
Crosshair took the toothpick out of his mouth. "At least he isn't a boring, predictable reg." He commented, which was about as much praise the trooper was going to get from him.
"This simulation showed only a small fraction of SAC-1's abilities." Nala Se said. "In a real battle is where she will show her true skills."
Clone Force 99 snapped to the clone engineer, looking at her like she had grown three heads. "SHE?!" They said simultaneously, then SAC-1 suddenly appeared behind them, making them flinch.
"Take off your helmet, Agent." Lama Su instructed.
SAC-1 nodded and obeyed, and Clone Force 99 sucked in a sharp breath as underneath that helmet wasn't the same face that one billion other clones had. Underneath that helmet was a young woman with unblemished fair skin, jet black hair that was just past her shoulders, and wide silver eyes with a curious twinkle.
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