Friends now Enemies

By: Toby Pak

(Warning: violence, blood, near death and weapons)

CT-5632 ‘Hemlock’ kicks a pebble near his boot. It rolls down an edge and off a cliff. “Quiet, fool. We’re trying not to be spotted by the Seppies here.” Says Commander ‘CC-3518’ Invictor. “Do you really think those clankers’ sensors can detect a pebble?” says CT-3327 “Dask”. “Nah, they’re built-in quantity not in quality. The Seppies’s main firepower rely on mass swarming instead of strategic hits.” says CT-2895 ‘Circuits’.

The 428th Battalion follows Jedi Master Karia Voss and Jedi Knight Rivera Tao through the thick muddy jungles of Gargon. The 428th Battalion wore the traditional white clone armour that all clone troopers wear, with their own cyan markings. They sometimes wore brown cloaks to cover their white armour in missions on missions that require stealth, an inspiration from the Hawkbat Battalion. The troopers also armed themselves with knives, some of them choosing the longer machetes.

The heavy gunners in the unit, CT-3348 ‘Havok’, CT-4327 ‘Gleeb’ and CT-5284 ‘Ravage’ carried Z-6 Rotary Cannons, and a bandolier of thermal detonators strapped across their chest plate. CT-7385 ‘Sledge’ and CT-9237 ‘Compound’ carried medical supplies for the 428th Battalion, such as Bacta grenades and bandages.

They also had Clone Commando, CC-3518 ‘Invictor’, on their team. Invictor was the only clone who didn’t wear the 428th Battalion’s cyan colourings on his armour, instead opting to keep the markings of his old Commando squad. Gold stripes ran down his grey commando armour with a modified visor that made it red. Scars and dents were scattered across his armour from past missions. He was reassigned to the cyan-marked troopers after his previous squad perished on a mission due to false intel from a communications officer who was a spy. Invictor would often give out some strategies and tactics that he used with his old team and would train the 428th Battalion to be the best troopers they could be.

The 428th Battalion didn’t exactly like their Jedi commanders but were kept together due to their efficiency in completing operations with regularly low to no casualties. Their target is a Separatist Outpost which was using the local village as an area to store their weapons and enslaving the native species, called the Ho mans. The Ho mans wore thick jackets and were only armed with makeshift shovels and spears. As the 428th Battalion neared the village, they saw that the Separatists had barricaded the village with tall walls. B1 battle droids operating machine gun turrets could be seen all over them, with several patrols of droids walking across the wall, too. CT-3752 ‘Crisp’ and CT-8972 ‘Axel’ threw several ‘droid poppers’, aka Electro-Magnetic Pulse (EMP) grenades,

short-circuiting the droids’ systems. CT-5784 ‘Wrathor’ and CT-2149 ‘Wren’ fired their ascension cables in order to scale the wall.

As the rest of the clones climbed up their cables, Circuits and Yaz cleared the wall, blasting the droids that walked nearby. CT-0423. ‘Ridley’ and CT-7819 ‘Devil’ scaled up the wall, but Devil’s rifle clanked on the wall, alerting droid snipers to their presence. Blaster fire from the battle droids hailed the battalion’s position. Despite Dask’s orders to take cover, Gleeb and Compound got up and started blasting the droids. The droids’ numbers were quickly beginning to fall.

Servo-Motors and steel plating went everywhere as droids exploded into tiny bits with each shot that hit them. Gleeb hit the floor, shot in the head by a sniper, several of his grenades hitting the wall and falling to the ground below. Compound was riddled with laser bolts, filling his chest plate with holes. “Blast...” Says Dask. Devil slides towards

Gleeb’s corpse, grabbing his rotary cannon and shooting at some explosive shells on the floor, detonating them and taking out some of the artillery cannons placed within the area.

Unfortunately for the clones, the explosion had also heavily damaged the wall’s support beams, causing it to start collapsing. “How the hell are we getting out of this one!?” says Ridley. “We jump,” Circuit yells over the booms from the detonated shells. The clones yelled as they started plummeting towards the ground, hitting the metal floor with a loud thud. Their armour had absorbed most of the fall, leaving the rest of the battalion with minor injuries. “Is everyone alright?” asks Sledge. “Other than jumping off a giant wall and almost breaking half of my bones? Yeah, I’m fine. I’ve had worse,” says Devil. They looked up to see Karia and Rivera fighting against B2 ‘Super Battle Droids’, far deadlier than their ‘B1’ predecessors.

The clones could see that despite the training that the Jedi have, they were having difficulty dealing with the mass amount of Battle Droids. Invictor grabbed one of Gleeb’s thermal detonators and yelled “Fire in the hole!” after throwing it. The grenade soared through the air, flying between the Jedi’s lightsabers and smacking on the B2’s optics, causing it to start spinning in a circle, shooting some of its own droid brethren. Karia stomped towards Invictor. She was quick to yell “What were you thinking?! You could’ve killed us!” “With all due respect, General, he saved you and the kid from those clankers,” replied Dask.

“What about us, huh? Sending us into battle and not caring about our lives? We’re all just cannon fodder to you, aren’t we? We’re not your friends or comrades. You never saved us even when we called for your backup! Remember the battle of Baiwan? You left

us out there for dead! We lost Null, Lugnut and Khrone who held the line for you bastards...” Invictor replied coldly. He turned away and began gathering his gear.

The 428th Battalion kept on marching towards the outpost, Invictor felt that something was wrong. “Look out!” He yells as he tackles Karia to the floor. An arrow flew past where Karia’s head was, stabbing into the ground. A sort of green taint covered the arrow tip. Wrathor went up for a closer look. “Poison-tipped arrows,” he hissed, “slimy little buggers” as another barely missed Wren’s neck. “Heavies, lay down covering fire! Be sure to keep your weapons on stun!” orders Dask. Havok and Ravage whipped around, blasting the trees with their miniguns. Several arrows hit Havok and Ravage, only to either strike their heavy armour-plating or to break on impact. Unfortunately, Ridley wasn’t so lucky, getting hit in the neck and hit the floor, his blood spraying everywhere. One of the stun-rings hit a Ho Man’s mind-controlling device, causing him to fall from the trees and hit the ground. The male Ho Man started convulsing in front of the 428th Battalion, before lying still, foaming at the mouth.

Sledge ran over to Ridley’s body. Bits of wood and metal covered it, blood leaking out the wound. Sledge put his hand over Ridley’s neck. “He’s gone…” he reports to his commanding officer. Dask cursed, kicking a tree in frustration. “See what I told you!?” shouted Invictor at the Jedi, “You just send us in and we get executed! You don’t care about us because there are millions more, isn’t that right!? This is why Commandos only get orders from Republic Officers and not Jedi…” Invictor turned away from the Jedi once more, looking at his fallen brother.

Wrathor walked up to Invictor, “Sir, there’s a transmission for you. It’s from the Chancellor.” The commando turned to the trooper with surprise. “Is that so?”, he said, “Let me see it.” Wrathor handed a holo-communicator to Invictor. A hooded figure appeared on it. “Commander Invictor…”, said the figure, “The time has finally come… Execute Order 66.”, the figure would vanish as the message ended. They both stood there, knowing exactly what they had to do. Wrathor quietly relayed the message to his brothers. Invictor whispered to himself, “It will be done, My Lord…”

At that very moment, the two Jedi could feel all the other Jedi across the galaxy dying. The clones readied their weapons and set them back to ‘kill’, and aimed at the Jedi. “Fire at will!”, ordered Invictor. The whole 428th Battalion began firing at their former Jedi Generals. Karia was quick to react, striking the ground with the force. Hemlock and Havok were sent barrelling into a tree, knocking out Hemlock and dazing Havok.

When Hemlock woke up, he was confused. His head was spinning, and his helmet got dented from the crash. He saw Karia and Rivera fighting against his brothers. He watched Rivera’s lightsaber slice through Crisp’s and Circuits’ necks. Their disembodied heads fell to the ground, their beheaded bodies falling like ragdolls. There was no blood, the lightsaber’s heat having cauterized their headless necks. Rivera turned and tried to stab Havok, but the clone was quicker, punching her in the face, forcing her to drop her lightsaber. Rivera lifted Havok with the force, throwing him into Dask. She tried to run away but was intercepted by Devil, who came out from behind a tree and blasted her.

“No!” screams Karia. She force pulled Devil towards her and stabbed him in the chest. Ravage and Sledge tried to shoot Karia down, but she blocked both laser bolts in one clean stroke of her sabre. The bolts bounced off her blade, both piercing the clones’ armour. Ravage was only slightly wounded, but Sledge fell to the ground, his organs melting from the blue plasma that pierced them.

Hemlock was shocked at what he’d just witnessed. He walked over to his brothers “Brothers! What are we doing! We were made to serve with the Jedi, not to murder then in cold blood when some politician says so!” Says Hemlock. Dask stares at Hemlock “You heard the Chancellor. The Jedi committed mutiny against the Republic! We had specific orders to execute any of them on sight!” he yells. “This is wrong!”, Hemlock continues, “This was not what we were made for! They were our friends! Listen to me. We’ve known each other for a long time. If we don’t get this right, we will be the ones committing treason, not them!” Hemlock replies.

Invictor stares at Hemlock for a moment. “You’ve disappointed me, Hemlock. I thought we were on the same side…”He said. The Commando aims at the trooper and says “Lieutenant Hemlock, you’re in violation of Order 66. I accuse you of treason against the Grand Army of the Republic. You will be demoted from your rank of Lieutenant, and subjected to execution along with the traitor Karia Voss!” Hemlock stepped back, clearly terrified of what his brothers were doing. “Invictor, listen to yourself! This isn’t you! I agree, the Jedi weren’t the best when it came to helping us, but they were our Generals! Our brothers and sisters-in-arms. You don’t have to do this!”

As Dask, Invictor and Havok aimed their guns at the ‘traitor’, Hemlock kicks Dask’s rifle out of his hands, and barrel rolls out the way of Havok’s barrage. “Listen, I don’t want to do this,” says Hemlock. “Don’t worry, we want to hurt you. Let us show you how we deal with traitors.” Havok says. Hemlock sprints into the jungle, Dask, Invictor, Devil, Ravage and Havok hot after his heels. As the clones run into the jungle, Hemlock was gone.

With hand gestures, Invictor tells Havok and Devil to take the right side and tells Dask and Axel to follow him. Hemlock sits in the tree he was in, watching Havok walk past him. He tried to keep as still as possible but accidentally snaps a branch under his weight. The branch drops from the tree, hitting Havok’s helmet. Havok looks up, staring into Hemlock’s eyes. “Oh blast,” Hemlock says. Havok lights up the treetops with his gatling cannon, causing Hemlock to fall and drawing the rest of the 428th Battalion’s attention.

As Hemlock lays on the ground with a headache, he had an idea, remembering that Havok had given him his detonator before the mission. Dask and Havok pointed their guns at him. “Any last words, traitor?” asks Dask. “Yea, have a blast.” mocks Hemlock. Before the two clones could fire their weapons, Hemlock kicks Havok backwards. Dask opens fire, but barely misses Hemlock’s shoulder plate. A black scar formed on Hemlock’s shoulder, smoke steaming off from the heat of the laser bolt. Hemlock quickly pulls out the detonator and clicks it.

As Havok gets up, he hears beeping. Realizing that they were coming from his grenades, he runs to Dask screaming for help. Dask quickly aims and shoots Havok in the knee, dropping him. “But-” “The mission must be completed at any cost.” Says Dask, running away from him. Havok stares at Dask, who was running away. “Go to hell you nerf herde-”. Boom. Havok explodes into a rain of blood. The trees around him turned red with his blood and guts. Hemlock stands up, knowing that Dask and Devil ran in the direction where the Jedi was.

“Not so fast.” Invictor holds his rifle to Hemlock’s head. “You’re not safe anymore, brother. Not after betraying the Grand Army of the Republic.” ”Wait,” says Hemlock. “You don’t want to do this.” Invictor scoffs. “And why don’t I? Give me one valid reason why I shouldn’t burn your brains out?” Hemlock thinks for a moment. He then replies, “We were brothers! We’ve been fighting together since the battle of Kamino! Remember your old team! They wouldn’t want this! They wouldn’t want any of this!” Invictor laughs. “My old team? They were a bunch of fools! That’s why they died in the first place! We knew the intel was wrong but they insisted on going in anyway! I didn’t make that mistake, and I intend not to make it ever… All you’ve said is how we shouldn’t do this. How we shouldn’t kill the traitors that send us to our deaths. Why, Hemlock, WHY!?”

Just as Invictor finishes, a furious Axel stands there, covered in Havoc’s blood. Axel started blasting at Hemlock, missing completely. Invictor jumps away from Axel’s barrage. “Damn it you fool watch your hit zone!” He yells. Hemlock starts sneaking away, but Invictor’s back is turned to him, and he doesn’t notice Hemlock’s departure. Wrathor

and Wren however, noticed that Hemlock was missing and followed the footprints made by him in the snow.

Dask, Devil and Ravage walked around in the snow, following Karia’s footprints. “Free drinks to whoever kills the Jedi!” Ravage jokes. “Shut up,” says Dask. “We have work to do.” As they continued walking forwards, they saw something poking out of the snow. “I’ll go check it out,” says Devil. He walks towards the black object and yanks it out of the ground. “This is... This is Axel’s rifle…” says Devil. “Look, there’s the heat shield he added on his rifle.” “Son of a Sarlacc…” Ravage says, staring at Axel’s rifle. They heard grunting noises ahead. The team of 3 moved ahead to see Axel in a fight against Karia. Axel was fighting Karia with his combat knife, using quick movements to confuse Karia. Axel’s beskar gauntlets gave him an advantage in this fight, as beskar was made by Mandalorians to block lightsabers, which Axel got from a Mandalorian tyrant on one of the 428th’s missions. Karia’s robes had multiple cuts in them from Axel’s knife.

Karia kept blocking. She was surprised at the hand to hand combat skills Axel possessed. Her hits were all blocked by the beskar gauntlets, and Axel’s knife was getting dangerously close to her throat. Devil raises his blaster, the battery cell charging up. “Woah Woah Woah,” Dask says. “I wanna see how this is is going to go.” Axel manages to get a swipe in that sliced across Karia’s face, leaving a deep scar across her face, blood dripping down her face and leaking into her cloak. She was tiring out, but so was Axel. Both were skilled at hand-to-hand combat, no one made much progress on the live murder that 3 men were about to witness. Karia’s loss of stamina and fatigue quickly got to her, making her once elegant strikes lazier, sloppy. Axel took notice of this, stabbing her in the leg and arm.

Karia collapses onto the floor. Red spots were on multiple areas of her cloak. It was the blood from Axel’s cuts seeping into it. As Axel charged, Karia saw the 3 clones in the woods watching them fight. She knew who they were. They were once her men, comrades. As Axel goes in for the killing blow, Karia grabs him with the Force and throws him at the clones.

“Is that who I think it is?” Ravage wonders. Dask and Devil look up to see Axel hurling towards them. “Move!” Ravage yells. He was flying so fast Ravage, Dask and Devil didn’t even have enough time to move before Axel’s body smashed into them, sending the clones slamming into the floor violently. Devil gets up and puts a hand on Axel’s neck. “We lost another one,” he says. Ravage starts swearing aggressively at Karia. “Come at me you son of a saarlac! You’ve been screwing us this entire flarking time, Karia Voss!” He picks up Axel’s dagger which was laying on the floor. “I have a knife, and I’ll put it through your flarking teeth!” Ravage looks at the knife, before pulling out his machete

that was in a sheath attached to the armour plating of his right calf. Ravage had modified the 428th Battalion’s melee weapons, so they could throw their melee weapons and call them back with the other modifications on their wrist armour from Axel.

Ravage throws his blades at Karia, before pulling out some knuckle dusters and jumping at her. Wrathor and Wren have been tracking Hemlock for the past half an hour but still couldn’t find him. “He’s one agile bugger,” Wren says. “Split up,” Wrathor says. “We’ll cover more ground.” As the 2 hunters split up, Hemlock looked at them from above in the trees. His blaster rifle was attached to his belt. He decided to go for Wrathor first. Grabbing some pebbles he collected earlier, he threw them at Wrathor like grenades, only, they were non-explosive. The rocks flew at him, bouncing off his armour harmlessly but confusing him. Wrathor twists his head to look at where the rocks were coming from, but Hemlock slips around the tree and hides behind the trunk. Sliding down the tree, Hemlock sneaks up on Wrathor but ends up breaking his cover after stepping on a branch. Wrathor whips around, staring at Hemlock.

Hemlock just chuckles awkwardly. “I’ve got you now, you traitorous scum!” Wrathor says. He rips his blaster around, but Hemlock was already close enough to clock Wrathor in the face. He dropkicks Wrathor to the ground, the blaster dropping onto the floor. Both clones charged at each other, yelling.

As Ravage duked it out with Karia, Dask and Devil started taking aim at the Jedi Master. Dask had grabbed Ravage’s rotary cannon and turned it into a makeshift sentry gun. The weapons of their fallen brothers were turned into janky legs to stabilize the heavy piece of weaponry. “The hell you guys trying to do?-” says a voice. They turned around to see

Invictor walking up behind them. “Those makeshift legs won’t stand a flarking cycle before collapsing.” Grabbing out some spare parts and a blowtorch, he makes the legs more stable and uses the blowtorch so the legs wouldn’t snap as easy. Ravage was still fighting Karia, and it looks like he was winning. Ravage was stronger than Karia, using his dual blades to block the plasma blades, then striking Karia with either the small cuts from his sharp sticks or blunt force damage with his knuckle dusters. As the Jedi Master steps back, Ravage scans her with his helmet and says “You’re tiring out and 3 of your ribs are fractured. I’ll gladly accept your terms of surrender.” Karia gets up, spitting out some blood. “Over my dead body,” she says as her lightsaber ignites for what could be the last time. “Your request is granted.” Ravage says mockingly. Karia gets a good hit on Ravage before he could finish, cutting into his helmet and scorching his shoulder pad. Ravage stumbles backwards, smoke trailing off the helmet from the heat of the plasma blade. His eye was now visible to the Jedi, staring at her with hatred.

With some assistance from Invictor, Dask and Devil had turned Ravage’s minigun into a massive chaingun. Dask checks the box of ammunition they used. “Fully loaded, Commander,” he tells Invictor. “Perfect,” Invictor replies. “Ravage, move out the flarking way or you’re going down with the Jedi scum.”. “Fine.” Ravage says after a while. Ravage barrel rolls out the way, Karia’s lightsaber swiping over where his neck was. As Karia steps back, thinking that Ravage was going for her again, she hears something charging up in the woods next to her. She would have missed the clones hiding there if it wasn’t for Invictor’s black armoured boot sticking out under some branches. Drawing into the Force, Karia yanks Invictor out from his spot. Invictor starts spray firing at the Jedi Master with his blaster, missing horribly in the process. “Shoot her! Shoot her!” Invictor yells at Dask and Devil. The chaingun flared to life, plasma bolts spewing out the heavy piece of weaponry. Karia decides to abandon the attack on Invictor, throwing him out the way and deflecting the bolts with her blade.

Invictor felt an invisible hand grab his torso and toss him like a ragdoll. He felt his body soaring through the air uncontrollably, before feeling the tree branches smashing into his armour before something hard hit the back of his head. Then everything went black.

Hemlock and Wrathor were duking it out like wrestlers. Both fighters’ helmets were on the floor, the protective headgear being knocked off from each other’s punches. Hemlock manages to get Wrathor in a chokehold, but Wrathor manages to kick Hemlock’s ankle, causing him to stumble backwards and drops Wrathor. Hemlock grabs his helmet, throwing it hard at Wrathor’s head. The blow knocked Wrathor out unconscious, as he falls to the floor. Hemlock puts his helmet back on, before grabbing his blaster on the floor“My apologies, old friend,” he says, shooting Wrathor twice in the head.

Wren hears the shots fired from Wrathor’s position. He quickly turns on his comms on his helmet “Wrathor, this is Wren, do you copy! Wrathor!” Nothing but static came through the comms. “Karabast, Hemlock must have gotten him” he mutters to himself. “Why yes, yes I did.” a voice behind him says. Wren whips his head around to see Hemlock there, rifle aimed at him. “Drop the blaster,” he tells Wren. Wren decides to not listen, and whips his blaster up at Hemlock, only to be shot in the stomach. As Wren collapses to the floor, Hemlock puts away his rifle and runs to Wren’s dying body. He slowly slides off Wren’s helmet, before taking off his own helmet. Both troopers looked at each other. “This feels familiar, doesn’t it,” Wren says between coughs. “Yea, remember Level 1313? Skate shot you by accident cause he thought you were a pirate.” Hemlock says, reminiscing about memories during the earlier years of the Clone Wars. “Yea, I decked him in the face as I was falling. Compound had to hold me with clamps to stop me from falling off the bed on the way back to base!” Wren and Hemlock smiled.

“I’ll see you on the other side,” Wren says with a smile on his face, before his eyes started to close, his pulse getting weaker and weaker. “Wren, stay with me Wren! Wren!” Hemlock shouts. “After all these missions and nightmares, the war’s finally over. I’m free.” Wren says happily, going limp in Hemlock’s arms. “Wren, No, Wren, cmon Wren. Don’t go, stay with me, stay with me. Wren. Don’t go. No, oh no...” Streaks of tears started flowing down Hemlock’s face. This hit Hemlock hard. Wren was one of his oldest friends in not just the 428th Battalion, but for the entirety of the war. Wren had been with Hemlock ever since he joined the clone unit, teaching the rookie common tactics the 428th used and almost dying multiple times to save Hemlock.

In frustration, Hemlock angrily grabs Wren’s helmet and throws it into the woods. But as he was putting on his helmet, Hemlock hears someone in pain near him. He whips his neck around so fast it put the droid ship the “Malevolence”’s Class 2 hyperdrive engine to shame. At first, he thought he was just hearing things, as he saw nothing in the distance, But his HUD says otherwise. The radar showing up on his HUD says that something, no, someone was heading in his direction. He looks again, this time more closely, and sees someone in white moving around the trees. Dask had heard the commotion nearby and had left Invictor, Ravage and Devil to investigate the noise. Hemlock knew he wouldn’t be able to whip his blaster around without getting Dask’s attention, so he carefully drops his hand to his machete that was holstered on his calf. Hemlock also remembered that before he bolted into the forest, Dask was with Invictor, Ravage and Devil. If he was nearby, that means the others were in the vicinity too. If a single shot was fired, the other clones would be drawn to this area as well and he’d be outgunned. In a sleek, quick movement, Hemlock threw his machete. The blade arced gracefully through the air, only stopping as the blade connects to the side of Dask’s helmet. The sharp metal penetrated through the plastoid plating, puncturing the softer flesh and killing Dask on impact. His limp corpse goes sideways, hitting the floor with a thump. Hemlock jogs towards Dask’s body, yanking out the machete that was wedged in his skull, giving his fallen comrade a salute before leaving the area.

Invictor was getting annoyed. He was hoping that the Jedi scum would have gotten tired enough for at least a single plasma bolt to get through her defences, but Karia was using the Force to assist her with deflecting the blue bolts of plasma. “Devil, call Starscream! Tell him to bombardment on the Jedi scum. Ravage, get your rear end over here and help me reload the damn gun before she gets close enough!” barks the commando. As Ravage pulled out the box of ammunition, he throws it at Karia, catching her off guard and hitting her in the leg, sending her backwards. At that moment, the recognizable hum of an engine enters the ears of everyone in this area. Devil looks up to see a Republic Gunship coming down from the sky, weapons blazing at Karia. The front laser cannons spewed out heavy bolts of green plasma, dirt kicking up from the ground from the

powerful blasts. Once close enough, the gunship fired its belts of rockets at the Jedi. Several missiles detonated near Karia, sending her into the air and landing near Invictor. Invictor pulls out his blaster. “Any last words Jedi scum?” He asks. She says nothing. “Well I’m going to kill you anyway, so goodbye.” Karia closes her eyes, as the plasma bolts obliterated her head, killing her. “This is gonna make a great souvenir,” Ravage says, taking Karia’s lightsaber and putting it in his bag.

As Hemlock emerges from the forest, he sees a Republic gunship soaring into the air. The beams of sunlight shine on the gunship, reflecting something red at Hemlock. It was Invictor staring down straight at him, but not shooting at him. Hemlock supposed that somewhere in that black suit, the Invictor he knew years ago was still there, trapped inside that shell. As the gunship flies out of the atmosphere of Gargon, Hemlock turns around and walks back to the forest. Gathering the corpses of all his fallen brothers, he buries their bodies in the soft soil. Branches were wedged into the ground, a helmet placed on each branch to show whose corpse was whose. Taking off his helmet and resting it against his backpack, he gave them one final salute. Tears began streaming down Hemlock’s face again. The war had ended, but at what cost? He’d lost most of his comrades. Those still alive hate him. He’d figure that out later. But now he has to go figure out a plan. Putting his helmet and backpack back on, he started walking towards a city marked on his map.

Decades later, a gunship landed on a snowy Gargon. But this wasn’t the standard gunship the Republic used. By now, the Grand Army of the Republic was gone, turned by Emperor Palpatine into the first Galactic Empire. Most of the clone troopers the Republic used to use were replaced by human recruits, who swore their loyalty to the Empire. Multiple snowtroopers piled out of the troop transport, followed by 2 men clad in the new Imperial armour with very familiar-looking cyan markings and a person in a suit of clone commando armour.

These 3 weren’t any men. After so many years, Ravage, Invictor and Devil had returned to Gargon. As Invictor walked into the woods, his boot hit something hard. He looks down and sees something of the past. Because this wasn’t some random rock. It was a helmet of a clone. Invictor dusts off the snow to see this helmet had cyan markings, like Ravage and Devil. This helmet didn’t belong to some random clone. This was a helmet belonging to the former 428th Battalion trooper, Sledge. “Commander, you should and see this.” Ravage says. Invictor heard it, and the fact Ravage wasn’t joking meant it wasn’t good news. Still holding Sledge’s helmet, he walks over to where Ravage and Devil were. What he saw shocked him.

It was an entire graveyard, cyan marked helmets everywhere. Memories swarmed his mind. The sight of the helmets of the men he served for so many years overwhelmed him. It was the same feeling he had when his old team of commandos were killed. Ravage walks into the area, putting the helmets back on the wooden pikes. With the snow fallen off the plastoid headgear, it was clearer whose helmets these belonged to. Many old names of the 428th Battalion came to mind. Wren. Skate. Dask. Wrathor. Axel. Compound. So many brothers-in-arms have perished to the battle droids in the war. He looks up, thinking about some of the missions they went to.

From a safe distance away, a figure hides behind a mountain. Hemlock sits on some rocks. He had stripped off most of his armour plating, choosing to store them away somewhere. Where once were plastoid plates, what replaced them were more civilian clothes, sporting a leather jacket and some long pants. With some binoculars in his hands, he watches the men look at the graveyard for several minutes. It took him a moment to realize that those were his old brothers from the 428th Battalion, he took more caution in hiding his location. He could recognize all of them, even from this far away. Despite being in new armour, their markings gave away who they were. He watched his old comrades collect the helmets, before walking back into the shuttle. As the shuttle left the planet, Hemlock wondered when could he see his brothers again, not as enemies, but as friends. And with that, he climbs down the mountain, returning to the city he had taken refuge in after the war.