[Republic Commando] - 03(138)

It didn’t have a head, but the rest of it was a humanoid skeleton.

“Fierfek…”

“Sev?”

“It’s okay, Scorch.” But they could all detect that his pulse rate had shot up, because armor always had a sneaky little system for monitoring life signs. “Looks like the speeder buses run really late here, judging by how long this guy’s been waiting…”

Scorch swam across to him, rocks and big bangs forgotten for the moment.

“What is it?” Jusik asked. “I can’t see.”

Scorch adjusted the unfamiliar helmet cam controls that linked his POV to the comm system. “See it?”

“Ah.” Jusik sighed. “Any sign of what killed him Scorch?”

“Let’s ask Sev. He’s a dead-body-ologist.”

Sev, feeling embarrassed by his reaction, examined the bones. The left arm came off in his hand. “Yep, he’s dead all right.”

Scorch sucked his teeth noisily. It was extra-amplified in the scuba trooper helmets. “Sure you don’t want a second opinion, Doc?”

“Nah, I’m prepared to go out on a limb.” Sev dipped down and retrieved the arm from the weed around it. He followed the length of orange fibercord to its origin, which turned out to be a nonslipping Keldabe anchoring bend tied on a mooring ring of some kind. “But I can tell you who made sure he didn’t float, more or less. Can you see this, sir?”

“It’s a knot,” Jusik said.

“A special one. Mandalorian. Used only by Mandos and folks trained by Mandos.”

Sev’s first thought was the Twi’lek pilot, Leb, saying that he’d told some Mandalorians about his delivery route. There was a connection here, and it would have been a lot easier to make it if Jusik hadn’t scrubbed the pilot’s memory a little too soon for Sev’s liking.

“Retrieve the arm,” Jusik said. “We can at least try to ID the owner. Get what penetrating scans you can of the rock face and we’ll examine it later.”

Sev and Scorch looked back at the cliff face in silence. From here, the volume of rock brought down was apparent, and it was more than two or even five men could shift in the hope of finding anything behind it.

If Ko Sai had built a hidden research lab back there, and she’d been home when the explosion happened, then she wasn’t going anywhere, ever. If someone else had found her before they trashed the facility-like the mystery Mando’ade-they probably hadn’t offered to relocate her to a nice unit in the Keldabe business park.

It wouldn’t be good news for Palpatine. But then Sev wasn’t the one who had to break the news to him.





Chapter 14


Let me see … by your logic, it’s acceptable to use these clones and spend their lives, because they were only created for war, and wouldn ‘t have existed otherwise. The problem I have with that. Lieutenant, is that they do exist, so they know how sweet life is-even from their limited experience-and therefore their lives are worth as much to them as ours are to us. So I ‘m sure you won’t object to accompanying the men on the next ground assault-and I mean on the ground. Will you?

-Captain Gilad Pellaeon, commanding officer of Leveler, discussing clone troopers with a junior lieutenant



Republic assault ship Leveler, Outer Rim, 480 days after Geonosis

Darman was used to going where he pleased on board a ship, so the med droid’s attempt to stop him from entering the medbay came as a surprise.

“Unauthorized personnel,” it said. “You’re an infection risk.”

“I want to see my brother,” Darman said. “RC-eight-oh-one-five, Fi. Head injury.”

The droid docked one of its probes into the console at the nursing station, checking the central database. “Admission record shows he’s still in bacta and hasn’t regained consciousness yet. Bay Eight.”

“I know he isn’t going to be sitting up in bed and wisecracking, but I want to see him. And if he’s in a tank, how can I infect him?”

“It’s not him I’m concerned for,” the droid said. “It’s the other casualties.”

“Okay.” Darman took his own probe out of his belt and docked it in the console. “Priority override five-five-alpha.” The droid stood back to let him pass. “And I promise I won’t go near any other patient, okay?”

Special forces weren’t supposed to use the override access command except in emergencies, but this counted as one in Darman’s eyes. There was no point being special forces personnel if you had to fill out forms asking permission to visit the refreshers. He went in search of Bay 8, past what were now packed wards. He paused to stare for a moment, surprised by the numbers.