Luna never realized how much she missed a bed. Weeks of laying in trenches in rain and shadow gave her little reason to sleep. But now, in a nice, warm bed, she could finally catch up. Surprisingly, things had quieted down. The Umbarans haven’t counter attacked like they usually did.

Many of the rookies felt nervous, like they were expecting something big to jump out of the ground and eat them. Luna laughed at the thought. She had been the same way during her first few weeks in action. They’ll learn eventually.

The veteran members of the 501st took the opportunity to rest. But their rest would not last.

The base’s PA system rang out and the base alarm roared. Luna shot up and grabbed her helmet. This is why she was glad she stayed in her armor. She readied her blaster and ran out of the room to join the rest of her company.

Troopers scrambled around in their barracks, grabbing their armor, weapons, and ammunition. Most of them were fast asleep in their bunks, all of them were caught off guard by the alarm. They ran through the halls to the outside airstrip, taking cover behind sandbags and in trenches.

Razorwolf growled as he dove into a trench and aimed at the surrounding flora. “Can’t we get a chance to sleep?!” He called out. There was no reply. The clones sat in their trenches and waited.

…
…

Nothing. Not even a stray bolt or a sniper glint. It was quiet. Was it a stealth attack? Was the enemy scouting them out?

Luna scanned the vines with her macros, but she could not see anything. No Umbarans, no animals. Nothing. What was going on?

“Captain Luna!” The alicorn turned to see Dogma running up to her. He stopped and saluted her, lowering her arm once she gave one back.

“What’s going on, Dogma?”

“General Krell is running surprise drills to see how well the men respond.” Dogma explained. Luna glared.

“Is that so?” She turned to Knave, who was sitting nearby. “Order the men to stand down, get them back to bed.” Her Second-In-Command nodded and activated his commlink. Luna then turned to Gallus, who was just as annoyed as she was.

“Make sure the men get rest, shift change every three hours. The well rested ones get first duty.” Gallus nodded. She stood up and marched toward the massive tower at the center of the base.

Luna could feel the Jedi’s eyes on her as she approached, and the feeling lasted as she rode the elevator to the top.

Troopers steered clear as the captain marched through the base. They could see the glare under her helmet and knew that it was going to be ugly. Kix had to side step into a wall to avoid the oncoming storm.

Luna burst into the Command Room, gaining the attention of every trooper on duty. All eyes fell on her, except for the ones that mattered. Krell just stared out the window, standing perfectly still with his lower arms behind his back. He didn’t twitch as Luna marched up and removed her helmet.

“General Krell!” The Jedi turned to face her with a neutral expression. His upper arms are crossed.

“Is there a problem, Captain?”

“You’re damn right there is!” The clones recoiled at Luna’s anger. They may have hated General Krell, but none of them were willing to raise their voice at him. Regulations drilled into their heads made sure they wouldn’t dream of it.

“What was the meaning of that drill?”

“The drills are to ensure the men are prepared. This was sloppy. In the time it took to get your company into position, the Umbarans could have pushed into the base and slaughtered you in your barracks.” Krell explained it in the same tone as explaining it to a youngling.

“General, the men are tired. This is the first time they’ve had a chance to get proper sleep since the start of this invasion.” She took a deep breath and calmed down. “General, we’re not droids. We have needs that are hardly being met. Men are starving, exhausted, and irritated. They need time to-”

“Captain, there is no time. Every minute we waste eating or sleeping is another casualty being sustained by the other battalions. I understand the men have needs, but they need the resolve to carry on and win this battle. This airbase is too vital to leave to chance.”

He paused to lean toward Luna. “I think you’d be more intent on holding this base. You lost many men trying to take it, after all.” The alicorn glared. Troopers noticed how cold it suddenly got in the room. Luna said nothing as she turned on her hooves and marched out of the room. She felt eyes on her as the doors closed behind her.

Razorwolf threw his helmet on the ground in frustration. Knave and Gallus watched the helmet roll up to the wall and stop. The clone sat down on his bunk, slamming a fist on his pillow. Warran entered the room just in time to catch Razorwolf’s violent acts.

“You know, that pillow did nothing to you.”

If this were any other day, Razorwolf would have laughed and offered Warran a drink. But now, he just wanted to destroy another pillow.

The clone sergeant watched the hot headed clone go after another target, then turned to Knave and Gallus.

“Krell wants everyone to ‘clean up the base,’ as he put it.”

The two officers rolled their eyes. “Right, no rest for the weary troopers.”

“I’m starting to think the General doesn’t like us.” Gallus added as much snark as he could muster. Razorwolf ripped apart another pillow. More specifically, Zombie’s pillow. The sniper watched as the most comfortable thing on this base was destroyed. He blinked once, then got up and grabbed a pillow from an empty bunk.

Other clones in the barrack hid their pillows away, leaving Razorwolf with nothing to destroy in his anger. It took him a few moments to inhale and sit down on his bunk. Knave walked over and sat down next to him.

“Finally got it out of your system?”

Razorwolf glared. “Not. Even. Close.”

Knave sighed and stood up. “Well cool it fast, we don’t have time to lash out.”

“Put me on a combat patrol and I’ll let my rage out on better targets.”

Knave laughed. “Next time, buddy.”

Other troopers took out their pillows and tried to get back to any resemblance of sleep. It was a small peace, and it was not going to last.

Steele was about to explode. Clean up duty. Clean up duty! What was there to clean up?! His platoon had been roped into taking the captured Umbaran supplies and stacking them up in a storage hanger. Why?

There were well over one hundred platoons in this battalion. Why was his unit selected out of all of them?! His back was on the verge of snapping with how heavy these crates were. What was in them?

A trooper to his right buckled under the weight of his crate, dropping the heavy object onto the ground. The crate popped open and several missiles rolled out and bounced off the floor. Everything halted. Steele stared at the missiles, then at the trooper, and back to the missiles. Well, that answered his question.

The rest of the day had gone on as normal. Normal as any base occupation could be. Prisoners were placed in cells and interrogated. All systems were checked and locked down to prevent sabotage. Weapons were locked away in vaults. Troopers were either on patrol or still stacking crates of supplies.

Luna lifted a heavy crate with her magic and lowered it gently onto the ever growing pile. She heard about the contents of these crates and did her best not to stumble.

“Captain Luna.” The alicorn almost threw the crate in fright as her commlink bleeped to life. She growled and placed the crate on the ground, gently.

“What is it, Rex?”

“Orders from the General, we move out in twelve hours.”

Luna should be surprised that they were moving so soon, but nothing was surprising about Krell anymore.

“Where to?”

“We’re moving to the Capital.”

Oh yes, because that worked so well last time they tried. Luna wasn’t a fool. She knew it was a suicide mission. Hell, she was sure the others knew it too. Most of them just didn’t want to admit it.

Suicide missions seem to be a specialty for the 501st, even under General Skywalker. But at least General Skywalker led from the front and did everything in his power to get his men out of harm’s way. Krell only cared about victory and was more than willing to kill as many clones as possible to achieve it.

She could hear the battle going on above the base. The Republic’s Fleet was taking on the Umbaran Defense Group, which has been reinforced with droid warships. If it was going their way, they would just bombard the Capital until it was a crater. But it wasn’t, so now the troopers had to slog it out in the jungle once more.

--

Luna could not believe the General’s strategy. Full frontal assault! Is that the only tactic he knows?! A B1 battle droid had better tactical sense. Luna knew, just as every clone knew, that those missiles would wipe them out in a single barrage.

They needed a better plan, and the alicorn knew just who to see. She marched into the hanger, where Rex was talking to Fives, Jesse, and some other men from Torrent Company. From the sound of the men, they were about as thrilled about the plan as she was.

“Great, another suicide mission.” Jesse droned as he continued his work on an Umbaran fighter. “The Capital is too well armed.”

“Why does it seem like he has it out for clones?” Tup asked.

“I think you’re all over reacting!” Dogma snapped. “Obviously, General Krell knows what he is doing. Do you really think he doesn’t care if he loses men.”

“I’m not saying that, but I think that his desire for victory has blinded him to the fact that there are lives on at stake.” Jesse said, slamming a hand on the console. “I’ve never seen a general with these kinds of casualties.”

“He’s outta control!” Fives said, turning to face the men. “He is not acting like the other Jedi. He has no respect for us!”

“Listen, I don’t agree with him either but… I don’t have a better plan.”

“Which is why we’re going to come up with one, Rex.” Luna said as she marched up. She turned to Fives. “Were you able to get it done, Fives?”

The ARC nodded, much to Rex’s confusion. Luna smiled and explained. “I asked Fives to look into the Umbaran hardware, see if he could find anything to exploit it. A little idea General Skywalker used often.”

Rex looked at Luna in surprise, then Fives, who nodded. “I was able to get their access codes and cracked the security on their hardware.” He scoffed. “A protocol droid is harder to crack.”

Luna beamed. “I knew it would be easy for an ARC Trooper.”

“So now, we can get in with their ships where our ships can’t.”

“Including a certain supply ship giving us trouble. We destroy that ship, we cut off supplies to the Capital.” Luna finished, giving Captain Rex hope of a less bloody victory.

“Great, I’ll inform General Krell and see what he says.” All clones exchanged a look. Luna sighed.

“Just don’t be disappointed Rex when he says no.”

“If he says-”

“No, I mean when, Rex.” The clone captain frowned, then turned on his heels and marched out of the hanger. Luna and the others watched him leave before she turned back to the ARC Trooper.

“Make sure the other fighters are ready. I want one wing of men ready to learn in two hours.”

Tup looked at the captain in shock. “You want us to learn how to fly starfighters in only a couple of hours?!”

Luna looked at the rookie and grinned. “Tup, if Hardcase can fly it. You’re bound to be an ace in a day.”

“Is that what you call flying? Looked more like he was avoiding the ground.” The troopers laughed. Something they haven’t done together in weeks.

Luna knew it was going to happen. Krell ordered the attack to go ahead as planned. There was to be no deviation from it. But she wasn’t deterred. She decided to take a page out of General Skywalker’s book and go ahead with the idea and just accept the consequences after the mission was successful.

She got Fives, Jesse, and Hardcase working on it. They had managed to convince everyone in the hanger to keep quiet about the training and deny the General any information. The bond the 501st shared with each other was something Luna would always be proud of. They were loyal to each other above all else. Brothers.

--

The training went well at first. Until Hardcase got into the cockpit. Then the hanger exploded, and Krell was aware of their plan. She was going to kill him when this was over with.

“I swear, Hardcase is Razorwolf’s clone rather than Jango’s.” She muttered to herself. It was going to be hard for Fives and his wingmen to steal the fighters when Krell had ordered them locked down. Good thing they had a beautiful captain to make it easier for them.

She made sure no one was around when the three took off in their fighters. She watched with pride as her brothers took to the sky on a mission to destroy an enemy supply ship.

Troopers suddenly went into a frenzy. Enough of them were out and about to see the fighters take off and none of them were aware of the plan. She had to suppress a giggle. Her trickster side was enjoying this far more than it should.

“What did you do?” Luna whipped around to see Gallus and Knave looking at her with bored expressions. She never could get anything under their noses.

“I didn’t do anything, I just made sure the mission I approved was to go ahead.”

“What mission?” Luna smiled cheekily.

“Exactly.”

Knave just shook his head with a grin. “You’re impossible.”

It wasn’t long before they returned Luna had joined Rex and Tup in greeting the men as they touched down.

“They did it!” Tup said excitedly.

“I never had doubt.” Luna said with pride. She held a calm outward appearance, but she was screaming with joy on the inside. If this was how General Skywalker felt after his plans succeeded, then she was more than willing to do more in the future.

But that joy quickly faded when she realized something. Only two ships came back. One piloted by Fives and the other by Jesse.

“Where’s Hardcase?” Tup asked. Fives and Jesse removed their helmets.

“He didn’t make it.” Fives said mournfully.

“We couldn’t have done it without him.” Jesse added. The five troopers held a moment of silence for their fallen brother. Luna gulped as she realized that it happened again. She gambled and lost a brother in the process. First Circuit, now Hardcase.

How many more were going to die because of her orders?

Their moment of silence ended when a squad of troopers marched up to them, armed. They were led by Commander Appo.

“General Krell would like to see them in the tower.” This was it. Time to face the music.

-

The atmosphere of dread was strong in the tower’s command room. Krell held his back to the clones as they exited the elevator. All of them stood at attention as Rex cleared his throat.

“You wanted to see them, General?”

There was a moment’s pause. “Indeed.” The air grew cold. This was the most silent Krell has ever been. “It seems they have accomplished a very brave act, unfortunately, they have also committed a serious crime by directly disobeying my order.”

The General turned to face them, his arms crossed to match his scowl. Luna took a brave step forward.

“Sir, the order to attack the supply vessel was mine.” Krell glared at her. “I organized it and selected them to do it because of their skill. The blame falls to me as their commanding officer.”

Fives stepped forward. “General, sir. Captain Luna is attempting to take the blame for actions that were clearly mine.”

“Fives!” Luna snapped.

The ARC ignored her and continued. “I request that her admission be denied and blame be placed directly on me.”

Just as Luna thought Krell’s glare couldn’t get colder, she was proven wrong.

“Oh, do you?” She felt the air become colder still. She swore she could see her breath. “You willfully counterman my direct order, and now you have the audacity to request who should take the blame for your insurrection!” Krell’s massive finger slammed into Fives’ chest twice before the Jedi backed away.

“Let me be clear about the punishment for the treason committed by ARC 5555 and CT 5597!”

He closed in on Luna. She stood tall against the much taller Jedi General. “They will be court-martialed. They will be found guilty, and they will be executed!”

“Not when I give my report in their defense!” Luna snapped, surprising everyone in the room. There was silence as the Jedi and alicorn stared each other down.

“I’m afraid not, PL 025.” Luna blinked and glared. What was Krell up to?

“With your confession of guilt, you are to be placed under arrest as a co-conspirator in the insurrection of ARC 5555 and CT 5597. You will suffer the same punishment as these men, and will not be able to defend them.”

Not a word was said. No one moved. Luna’s glare did not falter. Her mind ran with an image of her driving a knife through his head. Then a blaster ripping his chest open. The images appeared in rapid succession, followed by the images of carnage. Carnage created by Krell. Her men dying in gruesome ways, men being ripped to shreds by the native life forms. Her men being vaporized by enemy weaponry. Troopers suffering malnutrition and exhaustion because of Krell.

Luna finally snapped. With a roar, she charged at the General. She got in one good punch before an entire squad of clones jumped from behind and dragged her away. Krell quickly recovered and simply watched as the roaring alicorn was dragged away, along with her conspirators.

“I’ll kill you, Krell! I swear, you will pay for their lives! Their blood is one your hands!”

Rex could only watch in shock as the events took place. He was silent as Luna, Fives, and Jesse were dragged away by their brothers.

Krell stood tall and faced the shocked captain. “Have her company confined to barracks under armed guard. I want their files ready for investigation in one hour.”

Luna’s cries of rage could be heard as the doors closed and the elevator went down to the detention block.

--

Luna struggled against the men that held her down. She was going to kill him. He was going to pay! She was going to make him suffer as they all had suffered! Justice was going to be served.

It took a stun round to finally calm her down, at least long enough for her to be thrown into a cell. Fives and Jesse were placed on either side of her, looking at her in concern and fear. Some Umbaran prisoners eyed them with curious gazes. They were surprised to find clones being thrown with them. But the novelty quickly died and their interest went away.

The effects of the stun blaster did not last long, but Luna had no more strength. She felt broken, and she did not have the willpower to piece herself back together. All she wanted to do now was sleep, and sleep was what she got.

Author's Note

Wow... I... didn't expect it to go this way, and I wrote this chapter.

Just... wow.