Sharpshooter - Only The Strongest Will Survive

Into The Dark is an original story that I came up with and is currently ongoing

its a some dystopian stuff that I abandoned lol

just met north star in undertale yellow and BRO HES MY FAVOURITE CHARACTER ALREADY THIS GUY IS GOATED THE WILD EAST IS SO FUN

You're free to have whatever views you want regarding ships and fictional characters, but can you at least tag your anti-noelle posts as "#anti-noelle"? or "noelle hate" or whatever?

People who are following the Noelle Holiday and Suselle tags are doing so because they like Suselle and Noelle? So these posts are kind of the last thing we want to see on these tags?

Despite my profile pic I'm not here to debate why Suselle and Noelle. I respect your opinion because debating trivial things like "ships" or "if you should hate a fictional character or not," is dumb.

Discourse is dumb. You can hate Noelle as much as you want, but can please at least tag your posts correctly, so people who don't want to see these posts can filter them out?

oh ok sorry i didnt know those tags existed thanks for the telling me :)

Our Own Choices

Chapter 1

When I first opened my eyes, everyone around me looked the same. We were all clones of Jango Fett. But for some reason, everyone avoided me. I didn't know why until I looked into the mirror for the first time.

I never looked like the others. I was a girl. The rest were all guys. I always ate alone in the cafeteria, and sometimes I talked to this clone called 99, who was defective, just like me. 

I've seen these clones who don't look like the others before, but I never really got the chance to talk to them, I was mostly put with the regular clones. 

The regs said that I was a mistake, that I shouldn't have been created, but I didn't really care much. I was gonna be a soldier and serve the Republic, just like them, right?

A few days ago, I saw 99 on cleaning duty, so I went to help him out a bit.

"Y'know what they do to defective clones like us?" 99 asked. I shook my head, I probably didn't wanna know the answer either way.

"They make us do jobs like this, transporting weapons and stuff, cleaning up after the others."

"Mhm. And soon enough they're gonna make me do that as well, aren't they?" I asked. 

"Yep."

I could understand why, though. I was also physically weaker than the other clones, which would be a disadvantage on the battlefield. 

If the Kaminoans were gonna make me do that kind of shit for the rest of my life, I was gonna have to make my own path.

Jango and Boba Fett were living on Kamino, and I knew for a fact they had a ship. So when a Jedi ship landed on Kamino, I snuck onto Jango's ship and hid there. Wasn't really hard, cause no one seemed to care about (biologically) 14 year-old me anyways.

Soon enough, the ship took off and we landed on Geonosis after a totally calm ride through an asteroid field.

I mostly stayed in the ship during that time, not wanting to get noticed. It was only when the blaster fire died down that I ran to a hangar, stole a random ship and flew off to a place in the outer rim, where hopefully no one could find me.

I mainly survived on cantina leftovers, and found a knife on the floor which I always kept with me in case I needed to defend myself.

That definitely came in handy when the Separatists took over the planet where I was. I hid in the alleys when battle droids patrolled the streets, and whenever they came into my territory, let's just say they didn't come back out.

I remembered when the clones came to clear this planet of the Separatists, I remembered the blaster fire, and I was covering my ears hiding in an alley, curled up into a ball when battle droids came in.

Instinctively, I reached for my knife and sliced the head off of one battle droid, and the others pointed their blasters at me, about to fire.

I managed to stab another in the head before one of them shot me in the shoulder. It felt like that area where I got shot was being burned, and I winced, holding my shoulder and backing up against a wall, the battle droids still pointing their blasters at me.

Suddenly, the battle droids were shot from behind, and I saw a clone in white and blue armour standing there, pistols raised.

"You alright kid?" he asked.

I nodded, still holding my shoulder. 

The clone examined me for a moment. I could feel my heart pounding in my head.

Please don't recognize me as a clone, please don't recognize me as a clone-

"Are you a clone?"

Ah shit.

There was something different about this clone though. I felt like I could trust him, I didn't think he would turn me in to the Kaminoans.

I nodded silently.

"You're a...female clone?" he asked.

I nodded again.

"Cmon. We should get you patched up. That wound on your shoulder looks nasty."

The clone held out his hand, and I hesitantly took it, following him to a republic ship.

"Now just stay here, the medic will come in a while, I'll come back in a while."

I watched as the clone ran off to the battlefield, rubbing my shoulder.

When the medic came, I asked him,"Who's that clone in the white and blue armour?"

"That's Captain Rex," the medic said as he bandaged up my shoulder. "He's a good soldier. Why'd he bring you here?" 

"Just lucky, I guess," I replied.

The medic chuckled a bit under his helmet. "Name's Kix, what's yours?"

My voice was quiet. "I...don't have one. Back on Kamino, I was just assigned a number."

"You're a clone?" Kix asked.

"Mhm, female clone, I was never meant to exist but, here I am. And I swear if you bring me back to Kamino I'm gonna make sure you're gonna have an injury that you can't fix." I said, motioning to the knife on my belt.

Kix laughed. "I won't turn you in, we're not snitches."

"Good for you."

A few hours later, Rex and the others returned. The other clones all gave me this "who tf is this dude" look, and Rex motioned for me to follow him, which I did. He led me to a room and sat me down on a bed, and took off his helmet.

"How're you feeling kid?" he asked.

I just nodded as a response.

"Clones your age should be on Kamino, not out here."

"Don't bring me back, I don't wanna be on cleaning duty for the rest of my life," I said quietly.

"Why would they make you do that? You're a clone, just like all of us are. We were bred to be soldiers."

"I'm physically weaker than the others, you could say I'm a defective clone." 

"That doesn't make you any less valuable than us." Rex put a hand on my good shoulder.

I shrugged my shoulders. "The Kaminoans gave me basic military training but not much else, I'm quite alright with a knife but I don't mind using a sniper either."

"I could train you myself..."

I immediately jumped up from the bed. "HELL YEA LES GOOOOOO"

"But it's not gonna be easy, and you can't just back out halfway through."

I sat back down on the bed, nodding.

Rex smiled. "Do you have a name?"

I shook my head. "I was only assigned a number on Kamino."

"Well, there was this jedi general who was really good at her melee skills, used swords and everything when she was transported to another realm and found her way back here. Her name's Aris, leader of the 504th Legion and general Skywalker's sister. So let's just call you Aris for now, how does that sound?"

"That sounds like a cool name," I replied, nodding.

"Okay then, Aris. Welcome to the Grand Army of The Republic."

Sharpshooter - Only the Strongest will Survive

Chapter 9

Word count: 1.9k

Warnings: Child death, violence, blood, weapons

The storm rages on for a while. I don't keep track of time as I stay curled up in a pathetic little ball in the corner of the cave with my supplies. Thunder crashes outside, leaving a ringing sound in my ears. Rainwater sprays in ever so often, helping me wash off the blood in my hair.

The girl. The hairpin.

I almost gag at the memory of her body, blood spurting out of her carotid artery and into my face. The metallic taste of the liquid in my mouth as I continued to pierce her already lifeless body.

Her family will burn because of me.

The toddler she killed. He could barely walk. Of course he couldn't survive. Better to get killed by her than die of thirst or starvation.

I don't use the rainwater to wash the hairpin. It could corrode the metal and dull it.

Stupid antique hairpins.

I hear the crunching of gravel from outside the cave, slow and inconsistent. I uncurl from the ball and ready the hairpin. Heading to the mouth of the cave, being careful not to slip out, I look down, seeing the silhouette of a tall boy climbing up the base of the mountain, clutching his leg like he's wounded. There's a knife in his hand. It's not Mayday's knife.

If he sees me he's going to try and kill me.

My body tenses up as my hand around the hairpin tightens. A lump rises in my throat, restricting my breath, my throat tightening.

Steeling myself for another kill, I hide just behind the entrance to the cave, waiting for the stranger to enter, my head spinning as I ready myself to kill another person if necessary.

No. It is necessary. They'll do whatever they must to survive. No alliances.

As the figure approaches the mouth of the cave, I tackle it to the ground, kicking it in between the legs. I hear a pained scream and I shut it up by stabbing it in the neck, the blood spilling out as its body goes limp.

I know it's not Mayday. He'd put up more of a fight.

I wipe the blood on my hands on the boy's face. His eyes are still open, the fear in his eyes visible, his mouth open with a silent scream. Dragging the boy by the legs, my muscles straining, I push him out of the cave to roll down the mountain.

He would have killed me had I not killed him first.

I wipe the sweat off my forehead, staining my face with crimson liquid. The clap of thunder that follows the "thump" of the body hitting the ground leaves a ringing sound in my ears.

I can feel my heartbeat in my throat, my eyes darting around, ears perked up in case of the faintest sound of footsteps. The sound of mines going off continues. Every "boom" reminds me of the girl that blew up right next to me. The intestines spilling out of her severed torso, her limbs blown clean off their joints...it sends shivers through my body, a sickening feeling rising up in my gut.

The hairpin, still clutched tightly in my hand, feels like lead. I've taken two lives with this, which leads to around ten more lost. I slump against the wall of the cave as water from the storm sprays inside.

I can't sleep. Someone could kill me.

Taking a small drink from the water packet next to my rations and sniper, I hear the crunch of footsteps on gravel. Hurriedly picking myself up from the cave floor, my cybernetic eye whirls around in its socket whilst my real one darts around frantically. My breathing quickens, my legs ready to carry me while I stab my hairpin into the attacker.

The sound of footsteps gets louder and louder.

Where is it? WHERE IS I T?!

I look out the mouth of the cave, searching for the source of the sound. My cybernetic eye doesn't display any heat signatures nearby. But how could this be? I swear I heard something. It was so L O U D.

It could be above me. Maybe taking shelter. Now's the time to strike, but the storm...I can't make a move now. I'll find the person later.

The sound doesn't stop. It's too loud. It sounds like it's right next to me.

What if it is?

It isn't. If my cybernetic eye can't find anything, then there's no one there.

What if there is?

Shut up!

Time crawls by slowly. The storm stops after what seems like an eternity, but the sound of footsteps doesn't. Climbing out of the cave, I scan the area for any heat signatures. Nothing shows up, no matter where I look.

Then the sound suddenly stops. Are they dead? Resting?

My hand trembles, a tingling feeling in my legs as my breathing starts to get erratic again. I dart back into the cave, hairpin clutched tightly in my hand.

The sound of footsteps comes back.

"Shut up!" I scream as I clutch my head, grabbing fistfuls of my short hair in hopes that it'll stop the sounds.

I curl up against the wall of the cave, the gravel on the floor digging into the fabric of my pants, my grip loosening around the hairpin. It drops to the floor with a soft "thud".

My eyelids start to droop, my head falling against my knees. Then the sound of footsteps fades in again, causing my head to jolt right back up. Then it fades back out, as if taunting me.

Shut up, or I'll kill you.

I toss and turn on the gravel floor, my hands covering my ears, fading in and out of sleep.

I can't sleep. Someone could catch me off-guard and kill me.

Yet, despite my protests, I eventually find myself passed out on the rough floor of the cave.

When I wake up, my hand immediately darts out to find the hairpin, grabbing fistfuls of gravel, searching frantically for the cool metal that somewhat reassures me. When my hand closes around the golden hairpin, the tension in my shoulders melts away and I find myself clutching the hairpin to my chest like it's my lifeline.

It's strangely silent. The sound of footsteps is gone. Maybe they took the chance to run away.

But they could still be there. Waiting for the perfect time to strike. Or worse. They could be dead. That means there's more out there.

It's dark outside. It always is. But when I look out this time, the night is clear and blinking lights illuminate the night sky. The sky isn't black, it's navy, peppered with little white dots. There's a patch that's particularly bright, clusters of stars forming big bright clumps in the sky. 

Then my eyes catch a glimpse of green. Floating through the sky like very big, long snakes. They cast the slightest green glow on the ground, showing the silhouettes of dismembered bodies strewn over the floor, my cybernetic eye zooming in to one with the legs severed from the torso, intestines spilling out of the body, the lights casting a sickly green glow on it, outlining every ridge of the exposed tissue, glossy from rainwater. I feel the vomit rise up in my throat at the sight, slapping the side of my head to get the eye back to its original state. 

I can't vomit. I can't waste water. Or food. Who knows how long I'll have to survive off of my limited supplies. 

I couldn't look at the face. I know I'll only see fear in its eyes, frozen in time. Like the girl who I killed. Heh. I say it so casually now.

The sound of gravel shifting breaks the peaceful silence. When I peek my head to look outside, I see the silhouette of a body sliding down the slope of the base of the mountain. I freeze. Every muscle in my body tenses up. My hand tightens around the hairpin in my hand. I can almost feel the scars on my face hurting at the sight.

It's the animal that attacked me when I went out of the shield. Its blood spills down the slope of the mountain. 

That could've been me. If the animal was somewhere above the cave...

My legs tense, ready to run should the monster wake up. Its body is lifeless, but I don't want another cybernetic eye. My breath stills. Everything's silent. Too silent. Someone must've injured or killed the animal. And they must be good with a knife. 

I head back inside my cave to take the sniper. I try to lift it so that it won't make a sound on the gravel, but my heavy footsteps do that anyways. 

My cybernetic eye scans up the mountain. The starlight makes it a little easier to see. My shoulders strain as I hug the sniper close, it seems to be the easiest way to carry it. Before I can see any heat signatures, I hear muttered curses and coughs. Gravel slides down the slope as I follow the sound to an area with a few rocks clustered together. Dark blood spills down the slope, coating the gravel. Holding my sniper up by the front like an axe, I turn the corner only to find a teenage boy, around my age, lying on his back, blood spilling out of a slash wound in his chest, his hand clutched tightly around a bloodstained knife. 

My first instincts are to save him. To press my hands on the wound to stop the bleeding. But my first instincts could get me killed. He won't make it anyways. There's no medical attention for these kinds of injuries. Besides, from past experiences, everyone wants to kill me.

The boy's eyes widen. As a silent threat or plead for mercy, I don't know. But I see the subtle shift in his legs, the way his hand clenches around the knife, and I swing the sniper, the rear end crashing into his face, sending blood splattering into mine.

I don't care. I keep swinging the sniper into his face, again and again, until his hand goes limp around the knife. I then flip him over onto his back, before swinging the sniper at the back of his head. 

Blood pools around my boots. I press two fingers to the side of his neck, and I'm very relieved to feel no pulse. I leave his body there, before carefully making my way back down the slope. Everything's silent again, besides the occasional sound of a mine going off a distance away.

He wouldn't have made it. I was giving him mercy.

But my intention wasn't to give him mercy. I was just scared. You can never be too careful. Everyone wants to kill you. Even stupid injured teenage boys who just killed an animal.

Thankfully, the animal's body is still in its original position, lifeless right outside my cave. Just for good measure, I push my hairpin into its neck, not daring to watch as blood spurts out and flows down the mountain.

I head back into my cave, throwing my sniper down to the ground, its rear grip stained with blood. An enemy's blood. I close my eyes for a moment, hoping to find some peace, but all I see is the slash wounds across the boy's chest and the blood caked on his face.

I look out at the stars illuminating the navy blue sky, the green lights that exposed the bodies of the dead. It's beautiful. But it's a constant reminder that people are dying out here. People are getting killed. 

And whose fault is that?

The Mars Council's. It's not mine. It's not mine. IT'S NOT MINE.

I had no choice. Everyone here wants to kill me. 

Under different circumstances, the stars, the lights...they would bring me comfort. But not now. Here...in Control...there is no peace. There is no comfort.

Posting Schedule ig

ill start posting fanfics and short stories like once a week so yay :D

every sunday, 18 00 SGT

Our Own Choices

Chapter 11

General Skywalker comes in to check on us. I don't say anything to Echo, because I know that anything that will come out will be a pile of emotional shit. And I don't wanna do that in front of General Skywalker, Tech, or even Rex. Too embarrassing. Besides, Echo probably won't give a shit.

I can still hear some blaster fire from outside. "Situations almost under control out there," General Skywalker says. "How's it going in here?"

"I'm still trying to decrypt Echo's cerebral interface," Tech reports. "Until I do, we cannot disconnect him from this computer system."

"How's he doing, Rex?" General Skywalker's tone softens. Rex stands up. "He's too weak to walk. Very disoriented. Doesn't even remember how he got here. He remembers being at the Citadel, but that's about it."

Who wouldn't remember that?

"Any word on the extraction squad?"

"We called it in, but no word back," Rex replies.

A droid comes flying into the room, and I assume it's thrown by Wrecker. "Well, that's no surprise." Maybe General Skywalker's referring to the extraction squad and the droid that just crashed in here. "We knew when we got into this we'd be on our own."

Hunter, Wrecker and Crosshair back into the room, closing the doors. "It's gonna get more difficult to get outta here," Hunter says, loud enough so that all of us can hear it. "There are several squads of droids closing in." I hear Hunter and Crosshair sealing the door.

Shit.

"Enemy approaching. Droids. Lots of em," Crosshair says.

"How long can you hold them off?" General Skywalker asks.

"How long do you need?" Hunter replies.

"Tech, how much longer?" 

"Not yet. I need more time."

I can feel the atmosphere get more tense. 

Everything's gonna be okay. Everything's gonna be okay.

Yea right it is.

Shut the kriff/fuck up.

No you.

I look at Hunter and Crosshair, who are sealing another pair of blast doors. I look over at Tech, who's pressing a few buttons before saying, "I've got it. We can unplug him now." And then he takes off his helmet, showing his receding hairline.

Echo turns around, and Rex and I start unplugging him, ripping off a wire from one side of his neck, and then the other. Echo clutches onto the control panel, I can tell it hurts a lot.

Sorry.

And then Rex rips out the last cable from his head, and Echo falls to the ground, groaning slightly. "Rex?"

"What is it?" Rex looks concerned. Echo coughs a bit, before smiling slightly. "I got a big headache."

"Better to feel something than nothing, old buddy," Rex says, smiling.

"At least your sense of humor's still intact. Now what our fucking plan on getting outta here?" I ask.

Echo coughs slightly. "There's an exhaust vent that leads to the cooling systems right there," he says, pointing upwards at a circular vent on the ceiling.

"They've breached the front door," Hunter reports. "It won't be long before they're through the second."

I look up at the exhaust vent. How the kriff are we supposed to get up there? 

Echo uses his cybernetic arm and plugs it into the control panel, turning some stuff. "That should get it open."

I look up. The exhaust vent opens, revealing an upwards tunnel that's glowing blue.

"Great. Now how do we get up there?" Crosshair asks. Bro literally spoke my mind. 

"I can help with that," Wrecker replies, and I see him grabbing a slightly confused Hunter and throwing him up the vent.

"WRECKER WHAT R U DOING-" 

I hold back a laugh as Hunter shouts, "A heads-up would've been nice!"

One by one, Wrecker throws each of us up the vent, and after he throws Tech up, it's my turn. 

"Just don't grab me by the ass," I warn him, for obvious reasons. 

So he grabs me by the sides and throws me up, and I grab the side of the vent, climbing up behind Tech. Rex follows behind me. Fives and Echo usually do that, but I guess since Echo's not really functioning right now and Fives is DEAD COS FUCKING FOX KILLED HIM-

Rex just likes to make sure I don't fall to my death. I'm really tempted to kick him. 

We climb up to reach the cooling systems and Crosshair helps me up. I hear an explosion down below and assume that's Wrecker's work.

We walk through the cooling vents and Rex and I help Echo walk. Echo says that he can find us a safe way outta here. My fingers are slightly cold, because it's a cooling system, obviously. My gloves don't help much, considering they leave my fingers exposed. It's a design choice. It looks cool.

"Well, there is a way," Echo says, and he's referring to how we're gonna escape this place. "But you're not gonna like it."

We walk through the cooling systems for a while, General Skywalker and Echo leading the way, until we reach a door that opens up to the above of a large metal pipe connecting to another of those floating city buildings. It's windy as we step out. I don't particularly like heights either. Echo was right. I don't like this at all.

"I don't know about this," Rex says as he looks out. 

"I'm telling you, there's a landing pad on that other building," Echo says, pointing to the building across the pipe.

"So you think there's a ship there we can steal?" Hunter steps out as well.

"Well, I hope there's a ship we can steal," Echo replies.

R u serious right now bro

"Let's hope this trip isn't for nothing," Hunter says as General Skywalker, Echo and Rex start walking across the pipe.

If it is, I'm definitely hacking your Call of Duty account and using up all your COD points.

I follow behind Rex, and Hunter and the batch are behind me.

"Oh boy, I can't even look," I hear Wrecker say from the back.

"Then don't," I reply from the front. 

"Just keep walking, Tech," Wrecker says.

"That's fine, but if you fall don't take me with you."

"Uh oh, I looked," Wrecker sounds scared. "I think I'm gonna be sick."

"If you vomit don't vomit on Tech," I tell him.

"Hang on Wrecker, we're almost there," Hunter tries to calm down a currently very freaked out  Wrecker.

I hear that familiar sound of droids coming from the front, and draw my knife and pistol, trying to keep my balance on the pipe. To be honest, drawing my weapons makes it easier.

"Turn around! Go back!" General Skywalker shouts from the front, and I see him igniting his lightsaber. When we turn around, we see some more droids coming from the back.

Shit. We're either fucked or very fucked.

I hear General Skywalker deflecting a blast bolt at a droid and Tech shoots another, I throw one of my knives at one of the droids' heads, and the droid falls from the pipe. 

I never liked that knife anyway.

I see Crosshair falling from the pipe and Wrecker, despite his intense af fear of heights, literally jumps down and catches Crosshair, hanging by the legs from a support just below the pipe.

Stupid ass. Bro could've died.

"Anyone got a brilliant idea?" General Skywalker shouts.

"I do have a brilliant idea," Tech responds.

"I'm hanging here!" Wrecker shouts from below.

"When the locals attacked us, I recorded the creature's distress call," Tech says, tapping a few buttons on his datapad.

"He records everything. It's a hobby," Hunter says, as I shoot a few more of the droids, not wanting to use my knives because those things are expensive.

"Which allows us to call those flying creatures to us," Tech continues, and presses a button which produces a really high-pitched screeching noise, and we cover our ears to try and block out the sound.

"Ow! Enough with the sound!" Wrecker shouts, and he and Crosshair shoot from below. Crosshair's literally hanging from Wrecker, and he literally puts all his trust into Wrecker not to let him fall while he shoots the droids.

Really wish I had friends like that. Oh wait, I did. Yea, that was Fives. And Echo. But I was closer to Fives. 

"There is our ride out of here!" Tech says, pointing at some shadows in the clouds which I could only assume to be the flying creatures that he called, and we all look up at them as they fly up and past us.

"Now how do we get on them?" General Skywalker asks, and I shoot another droid.

We jump you fucking dumbass.

"How else? We jump," Tech replies as the flying creatures fly below us, and General Skywalker jumps and lands on one of them.

You can do this. 

I can hear my heart pounding in my chest, and I see Hunter looking at me expectantly, and because I have to impress the batch, I use what little strength is left in my legs and jump off, trying not to close my eyes.

I land on one of them, on its back. I'm breathing heavily. That choking feeling when I'm in a life-threatening situation starts surfacing, and I'm trying to calm down, gulping down dust-filled air like I'm resurfacing from a deep dive.

And now I'm starting to get angry. Getting scared like this makes me feel weak in front of the others. I don't like it. I hate this. 

Suddenly, a blaster bolt whizzes past my head, and I look back seeing a bunch of droids shooting at us. 

Gotta steer this thing. But I don't know how. My legs grip the flying creature tighter, because I have no interest in dying today.

I turn back and aim with my pistol, lining the back sight up with the front sight and aiming slightly below the droid's head, and I shoot. It hits the droid in the head and I shoot at the others.

We fly sideways, and I was just aiming at another droid when I feel a sharp pain shoot through my right hand. It slams against a rock, hard, and my pistol flies out of my hand, and my hand doesn't feel so good. I grit my teeth as I'm almost thrown off the flying creature, and I'm hanging on for dear life on the creature's tail with my left hand. 

I can barely move my right hand, it hurts so much. But with one last clench of my fist, which sends jolts of pain shooting down my arm, I shoot my grappling hook at the back of the creature, pulling myself up as I retract my grappling hook.

"Hey ad'ika! How you holding up?" I hear Echo shout from the flying creature next to me.

 I take a few moments to regain my sense of surroundings and find out that we outmaneuvered all the droids. 

Should I shout back? That could come off as cringe to the batch. 

I nod at him as we land back in the Poletec village. Before the flying creature lands, I jump off and land on my feet, dusting myself off, at least hoping to look slightly cool to the batch. My injured hand throbs as I land, but I try to act as if it doesn't hurt at all.

The Poletec leader comes up to us and starts shouting shit at us.

"Their leader is impressed that we tamed the Keeradaks," Tech translates. "But he wants to know why we returned here."

"Tell him we had no choice. Tell him...that we wore out our welcome in Purkoll," General Skywalker tells Tech, who translates and speaks back to the Poletec leader in that weird ass language again.

I nudge Crosshair in the side. "Keep reminding Tech about how goofy he sounds rn." Crosshair nods back, and I think he has the biggest smirk ever under that helmet.

Suddenly, blaster fire rains down from above, and I draw my other pistol with my good hand, General Skywalker ignites his lightsaber. The flying creatures take flight and fly away, and Crosshair shoots at the incoming droids, hitting one and sending it spiraling to the ground, leaving behind a trail of smoke. I manage to hit one as well with my pistol, and as the droids fly away, I keep my pistol in my hand, my other arm hanging by my side as I try not to move it.

"Not good," General Skywalker says. "If I know Tambor, he'll come after us. Us and the Poletecs, with everything he's got."

The Poletec leader starts talking shit to us again.

"What's he saying, Tech?" General Skywalker asks.

"He says that we have broken our word. We have brought the war to his village."

"You're right," Rex speaks up, stepping forward and taking off his helmet. "Tell him he's right, Tech. Tell him we didn't plan to drag his people into war. But look what the Separatists did to one of our people." He points at Echo, and all the Poletecs look at him, all gasping, looking slightly horrified.

"They took away his freedom, his humanity. They tried to turn him into a machine. The Techno Union claim they're neutral, but they have chosen sides. Now your people have to choose."

"Couldn't have said it better, Rex," General Skywalker says.

That was a good speech, Da-Rex.

Crosshair scoffs. "Let's hope it works. Because I see forces coming. More than we can handle alone."

Our Own Choices

Chapter 14

Typing: "I shouldn't have called Rex "father" in Mando'a. That just made the goodbye a lot harder."

I'm currently trying to take a shit in the toilet, and it's been half an hour since I went in because I'm typing out how I just joined the batch on my datapad. I hear Wrecker literally banging on the toilet door.

"HEY, HOW MUCH LONGER YOU GONNA BE IN THERE FOR!?"

I roll my eyes and groan. 

"ALMOST DONE!" I shout back. We usually take a shit in the urinals, and then put it in a bag and then just throw it out when we arrive on a planet or something. I remember toothpick boi literally left his shit in there once, and when I went in I had to pressurize my helmet to make sure that I don't pass out. 

I returned the favor by sabotaging his shower water. Totally did not burn half of his hair off for a while.

Then Crosshair goes to hog the toilet for like an hour when he knows I seriously need to take a piss. And then I push him off a cliff on one of our missions. And then he shoots me in the shoulder "accidentally" on another missions.

Hunter literally has to step in and make sure that we don't kill each other. 

Still, he started it. Not me.

We've returned to Kamino once since Echo and I joined the batch. The regs definitely hate us for some reason. I wasn't that hated in the 501st, but the moment I joined the batch, a lot of the other regs started to dislike me. Probably jealous.

At least Kix and Jesse don't mind me. 

We had a cafeteria fight that one time we returned to Kamino, and I didn't really wanna beat up the regs, so it wasn't until one of them interrupted my knife spinning that I decided to throw a tray at him.

As I finish bagging up my shit and walk out of the toilet, Wrecker literally runs in, I'm guessing he really needed to take a piss, and I toss the bag into the trash chute.

"I assume that you have constipation, from the extended period of time that you take to...do your business," Tech says, pressing some buttons on his datapad as we fly through hyperspace.

Wrecker comes out from the toilet. "Oh man, it really stinks in there," he says. 

"Surprised?" Crosshair asks, and I glance at him for a moment, knowing that he probably has a smirk on his face.

"We're arriving up on Kaller," Tech reports.

I look out of the window as we land on the snowy planet in a small clearing, big enough for the Marauder to land in. Jedi Padawan Caleb Dume told us that he'd meet us here. 

We put on our helmets and walk out of the ship, and expected, we see Caleb in front of us, who shows us to an area which overlooks the battlefield where General Depa Bilaba and other clones are fighting against some tanks and B1 battle droids.

"Looks easy enough," I cross my arms as I look down. 

"We're right behind you kid," Hunter says as Caleb slides down the hill to join up with his Master and the other regs.

"Wrecker, rockslide, Crosshair, up top," Hunter says. Crosshair nods and heads to a position where he can snipe some clankers.

"If you shoot me this time, I swear I'm gonna mess with your sniper," I warn him before heading over to the others.

Wrecker pushes a big rock down the hill in the general direction of the battle droids, and we follow it, running down the hill behind it as it crushes a bunch of battle droids. 

"Make a hole!" Wrecker shouts and we get to work. I manage to steal a few of Tech's kills, slicing off a clanker's head before he can activate the stun grenade on its back.

"That was unnecessary!" Tech shouts as I throw a knife at a droid's head, and stab another one that just came up behind me.

I see some droids getting shot down from above, and I can safely assume that's Crosshair. One shot whizzes past my shoulder, and I take that as a warning not to mess with his sniper.

"Crosshair, let's get these tanks moving," I hear Hunter say over the comms.

"Sir, yes, sir," Crosshair replies, shooting some stuff that links the tanks together, and Wrecker pushes the tanks over the edge while I take out the remaining clankers.

Tech manages to explode the last 4 battle droids with a grenade and I stay out of the way, because I don't make the same mistake twice.

When all the clankers are dead, we walk out of the smoke, Hunter and I sheathing our knives. Hunter takes off his helmet, Crosshair slides down the hill and joins us, and Wrecker rips off the head of that last remaining droid that he slung over his back.

We walk over to the other regs and the kid, and General Bilaba, I'm walking behind with Wrecker and Crosshair.

"If you're done hiding down there I suggest you launch a counterattack," Hunter says. "Another droid battalion's approaching."

Well, where's our "thank you" at?

"The General is the one who gives the orders around here," the reg who I assume is the captain says. 

I cross my arms.

"He's right, Captain. This is our chance. Launch the counterattack," General Bilaba says.

"Yes, General," the reg captain replies. "All right men lets go!"

General Bilaba, Caleb and the reg captain walk up to us, and the rest of the batch, besides Tech, take off their helmets. Probably for Tech to hide his receding hairline.

"There you are, little Jedi," Wrecker says, looking down at Caleb. "You missed all the fun."

"Watching your team in action was the fun," Caleb replies.

As it should be.

"Care to introduce your new friends, Caleb?" General Bilaba asks.

"Yes Master. This is Wrecker, Hunter, Echo,"

Echo salutes.

"Tech,"

Tech's looking down at his datapad and gives a small wave.

"Crosshair,"

Toothpick boi takes out the toothpick from his mouth and gives a downwards nod of respect.

"And Aris."

I give him that signature move of mine with my helmet still on.

(That's not Aris that's Tech who steals her signature move in season 2 episode 4)

"While I'm not sure "fun" is the sentiment I would express, I agree with my Padawan," General Bilaba says. "Your exploits were quite impressive."

"Exploits?" Wrecker can be really dumb sometimes.

"Don't overthink it, Wrecker," Crosshair and I say at the same time, and he glares at me before walking to another position, probably to get me out of his sight.

"Now, would one of you please explain where my actual reinforcements are?" General Bilaba asks.

"Rerouted to the capital," Hunter replies. "We're all you're getting."

"Ha! We're all you need," Wrecker says confidently.

"Actually, if my intel is correct, the general will not need any of us," Tech speaks up. "The Clone War may soon be over."

"Better tell that to the clankers headed our way," the reg captain says.

"I am referring to the encrypted comm chatter," Tech looks down at his datapad. "Clone intelligence is reporting Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi has found and found and engaged General Grievous and Utapau."

Engaged as in which type of engaged?

"If he captures or kills Grievous, the Separatist command structure will collapse," Echo says, and because I'm getting slightly bored, I walk away to join Crosshair.

I see Hunter and the others heading off, so Crosshair and I run and join them, with Caleb following.

Mid-run, we notice that Caleb's lagging behind, and when we look back, we see the regs firing blaster shots at General Bilaba.

I hear "execute order 66" through my comms, but I don't know what it means, and I don't think the batch know either.

We see General Bilaba get shot down, and I am more confused than the time Tech forced me to memorize hand signals.

Caleb's running away from the regs, and the batch and I run up to him.

"Stay away from me!" he shouts, before running off into the forest, lightsaber ignited.

"Kid, wait!" Hunter shouts in a futile attempt to stop him.

"What-what just happened?" Echo asks.

"The comm channel is repeating only one directive," Tech says. "Execute Order 66."

"Yeah, I heard that too," Wrecker says. "What's Order 66?"

"I am not certain," Tech sighs.

"Echo, Tech, talk to the reg captain. Find out what you can. Crosshair, Aris, we'll track down the kid and make sure nothing happens to him. Wrecker, stall anyone who tries to follow us," Hunter says, and Echo and Tech run off to talk to the captain. Hunter, Crosshair and I run into the forest, sliding down a few slopes and running past some trees. I split off slightly from Crosshair and Hunter, but keeping them in my line of sight, looking for Caleb.

I see some snow falling down to the ground not too far away, and Hunter and Crosshair seem to notice that as well.

Crosshair runs up a rock to get the high ground and Hunter signals for us to stop. "He's close."

Crosshair scans up the trees for the kid and I do the same, hoping to find Caleb before him. 

"There," Crosshair says, and I look in the direction that he's looking in. I see Caleb up in the trees, and I mutter, "Great." under my helmet.

That's what you get for trying to compete with a dude that has optifine zoom irl.

"Come on down, kid," Hunter says. "We're here to help."

And then Crosshair adjusts the scope on his rifle and shoots at Caleb, who deflects it with his lightsaber. 

"Liar!" he shouts, before jumping into the air and out of our sight.

"What are you doing?!" Hunter asks, probably half-shocked. Crosshair jumps down from the rock and lands next to me.

"Following orders."

"We don't even know what the order is. Stand down until we know what's going on," Hunter says, shoving Crosshair by the chest slightly.

Flashback

Fives appears on the holotransmission in front of me. 

"Hey ad'ika," he says. "I'm on Kamino right now, and we're tryna take out Tup's inhibitor chip. There's something seriously wrong with him. He shot General Tiplar and keeps saying "Good soldiers follow orders", I'll be back in a few days to do a Battle Royale duo in COD with you, alright?"

I nod.

"Cya Fives. Don't do anything too stupid or I'll hack your account and spend all your COD credits."

"Don't worry ad'ika. When have I ever done anything stupid?"

The holotransmission ends.

Tup's not behaving normally. So there's a possibility that they'll terminate him. Troopers don't usually say...

Flashback ends.

"Good soldiers follow orders."

My breath hitches, and my eyes widen under my helmet.

Crosshair runs off to join Hunter, and I follow behind.

Good soldiers follow orders...the inhibitor chip...

"Hunter, you've got regs inbound," Wrecker says through the comms as Crosshair and I scan the area for Caleb as we run.

"We have a situation," Tech's voice comes in. 

"Tell me something I don't know, Tech."

"It appears the regs have been ordered to execute the Jedi."

"What? Which Jedi?"

"All of them. They're saying the Jedi have committed treason."

"That would explain things," Crosshair says.

Mhm. The clones wouldn't usually turn on the Jedi so easily, but because of their inhibitor chip, they have no choice. It forces them to follow orders. 

"Good soldiers follow orders."

Crosshair's chip is working.

We have to take it out. Just like how Fives did. 

"It doesn't begin to explain things," Hunter replies.

"I suggest you get back here," Tech says.

"Can't. Haven't found the kid yet."

Crosshair, still scanning the area, holds up his rifle and shoots a branch which Caleb's standing on, and Caleb falls to the ground along with the branch.

He ignites his lightsaber and runs at us, Crosshair shooting at him and Caleb deflecting the blaster shots. I take out my pistol and start shooting at him as well, because if I wanna get Crosshair's inhibitor chip out, I'll have to earn his trust. I'm not trying to hit Caleb though, I'm just shooting in his general direction.

"Crosshair, Aris, stand down!" Hunter orders as Caleb jumps from one rock to another, and Crosshair takes out his pistol and shoots at him. Caleb slashes at Crosshair's rifle and it's damaged. 

Then he kicks Crosshair who goes rolling backwards into a tree, and is knocked out, and then I'm still firing in Caleb's general direction, and he slashes at my arm with his lightsaber and kicks me into a tree as well.

Before I pass out, all I can feel is the burn of the slash wound in my arm. 

A few moments later, I open my eyes and see Crosshair standing up, rubbing his head. I stand up as well, grabbing my pistol with my good arm, and we run to a cliff where Hunter's looking across to the other side.

"Where's the Jedi?" Crosshair asks.

"I stunned him when he jumped. He didn't make it," Hunter replies. 

Crosshair and I look down the cliff where Caleb supposedly fell, and I turn on my heat visor looking for the body.

There's nothing there, so I can safely assume the inhibitor chip doesn't affect Hunter.

As the regs arrive, Crosshair and I walk away, and I try to ignore the burning feeling in my arm.

We head back to the others and we board the Marauder, I sit in the seat next to Crosshair and plan out my next few moves. I'm receiving a bit of a weird look from Hunter as he occasionally glances at me and Crosshair.

The chip could affect any one of us. It may not be just Crosshair. Just keep on acting until you get the chance to take his inhibitor chip out. Maybe when he's sleeping, just stun him and drag him to the medbay.

Wait...if every clone is following order 66, then...

Rex. Rex could also be a victim of the chip. 

Don't think about that.

Don't think about that.

Just focus on your mission now.

happy bad batch eve

Sharpshooter

Chapter 1

Warnings: None (for now)

My grandparents say that I was born in an unfortunate time. They always tell me about the old world, where we were allowed to go outside and breathe cool, fresh air, without the inconvenience of having to wear a cooling suit just to prevent ourselves from roasting in the heat. I don't believe them. For me, these are all just stories. Stories of a world long gone. 

"8 billion people used to live on Earth, you believe that?" my grandparents always ask, laughing slightly as if they don't believe it themselves. I definitely don't believe that. There's only 700 million people left on this doomed planet.

Some of my friends-wait, I only have one, tells me about how the richer people get transported to Mars while us poorer, starving ones, stay on Earth and wait for our chance to die.

Usually, when my grandparents launch into a full-on rant about the world before, I roll my eyes and slip on sunglasses just to hide the fact that I'll be sleeping for the next hour or so. These stories are meaningless to me. There's no point in clinging on to the past, when I have a family to take care of.

We used to live in Singapore. Sea levels were rising so much that the few transports that remained on Earth brought us to the interior regions of North America, at least the ones that haven't gone underwater yet. That's where I met my good friend, and eventually, scavenging partner, Mayday. He's about a head taller than me, and I'm already considered tall for a girl my age. He's got short black hair. Just like mine. And just like the other 300 million or so kids. Mayday told me that his parents named him that because they're trying to call out to the authorities for help, to bring them to Mars. It hasn't worked for the past 13 years of his life, and I don't think it'll work anytime soon.

Me and Mayday's families are quite close as well. We usually share whatever little food Mayday and I scavenged that day with each other, to ensure that we don't starve to death. 

On one of our scavenging trips, I find a knife and a blaster pistol. The knife's a bit blunt, but it's sharp enough to stab through dead fish or whatever I find in the ruins of the houses that are flooded to my waist. 

Everyone knows the stories of what happens to houses that get flooded. They get abandoned, and whatever wildlife that has managed to adapt to the temperatures tears them up, sometimes leaving nothing behind. 

After spending about a few months in North America, even with the cooling suits on, the air temperature has become too high. Mayday and I can only spend an hour, maximum, outside scavenging before we start to get burns and it gets hard to breathe.

The air conditioning in the "houses" that the authorities give us barely works. I can't even call those things that we live in houses. They're more of a group of tents sewed together and protected by a ray shield, which is the reason why we call the place we live in the Dome. It provides air conditioning, at least, for a few hours a day. The rest of the time, we rely on that limited cooling cream that Mayday and I scavenge to prevent ourselves from roasting to death.

We've been living like this for a few months now. None of us are getting used to it. We have one small screen in the only small area where tents aren't clumped together to watch the news. Usually, the one that stands in front of the small screen shouts the news out to everyone else crowding around.

Today, I squeeze my way through the crowd, it's easy because of my small size, and I make my way towards the screen, getting a good view. There, I see face of the man that always appears on the news when something important is going on, but I never remember his name because I have more important things to focus on.

The image of a globe projects onto the screen, and the man on the television turns the hologram of the globe until it shows a brown landmass.

"Antarctica," the man says. "We will be moving all inhabitants on Earth here. The temperatures here are lower than the ones around the world, so..."

I slip away from the screen and back into the crowd. I hear the people near the screen shouting what the man on the screen just said, and people are muttering excitedly, some cheering. I hate it when this happens. So much noise. I run away, pushing past people, back to my house where I tell them the news.

"The authorities say they're moving us to Antarctica," I say the moment I run into the tent, my breathing slightly heavy from the running. Mayday's in the tent as well, rubbing the ankle that he sprained on yesterday's scavenging trip. My family and Mayday all look up at me, before my family starts to cheer and Mayday remains silent.

I sit down next to him. "How's your ankle?"

"Could be better," he replies, and I definitely know something's wrong. He'd usually crack a joke or something.

"Nervous about going to Antarctica?"

Mayday nods, and I pat him on the shoulder. "That means new territory to scavenge stuff, which means there's definitely some fresh loot there."

Mayday looks up at me. "Antarctica's a barren desert. There's nothing there to scavenge."

"We'll find something," I try to sound confident, but after the stories I've heard of Antarctica, there's only a sliver of hope that Mayday and I could scavenge anything there. Antarctica's also full of wild animals. The ones that managed to get to Antarctica, at least. They're the real danger out there.

The next few days, transports descend from the sky and bring people to Antarctica in a matter of minutes. I'm guessing the transports are from Mars. The advanced technology there lets them travel fast. Really fast.

My family and Mayday's board the last transports after packing everything up. There's not much to pack, besides some of the old ration bars I found a few days ago and those gummies that hydrate us. Authorities give us about three of those per person every month, so we have to ration them. Can't forget about the cooling cream either.

When we enter the transport, we're greeted with a blast of cold air. Is this what Antarctica feels like? I'm shivering slightly from the cold, and it looks like everyone else is too. We're not used to this kind of temperature.

It's really cramped in here. I count about a hundred families with us. I hear murmurings going on in the crowd, and I'm pushed right next to Mayday.

We stand there in awkward silence, and I start sweating, somehow. It's not because of the temperature. Large crowds just make me nervous, and Mayday knows that. He puts a hand on my shoulder reassuringly, and I give him a small nod.

Thankfully, we aren't in the transport for long. In a matter of minutes, the doors open and everyone rushes out. My family and Mayday's are the last to walk out, with a lot of hesitation. 

The air is fresh. Cooling. Devoid of that burning smell of the ground. I scan the surroundings, and so does Mayday. Rugged terrain, with gorges that go so deep that if anyone fell in from above they would definitely die. The sky is navy blue. Clear. Cloudless. Not like the smoke-filled skies of North America.

We stand on a platform that descends into a deep gorge, where I see buildings. Not tents clustered together, actual buildings. They're inside a ray shield, just like the Dome, and I can only guess that it's not to protect us from the heat, but from the wildlife.

After we enter through a hole in the ray shield, it closes up behind us and we are, once again, in a crowd of people. There's a big screen, which everyone is looking at, and it's projecting the image of another man, who's dressed in what my grandparents would call a suit, even though I could not possibly imagine why someone would want to wear such a suffocating piece of clothing.

"You are safe here now, in Antarctica," the man says, and I start hearing people talking again. The man waits until everyone is silent before continuing. "No one goes in or out of the ray shield unless given specific permission to do so."

Mayday and I glance at each other with a knowing look.

"Enjoy your stay here, and good luck."

Good luck? What does he mean by good luck? 

As the crowd disperses and authorities lead others to their respective buildings, I turn to Mayday, and he turns to me.

"I've got a bad feeling about this."