[Republic Commando] - 03(3)

Sergeant Kal said we’d been robbed.

Fierfek, I hope Etain can’t feel me getting angry.

“I wish I could sit there and just relax like you, Dar,” Atin said. “How’d you get to be so calm? You didn’t learn it from Kal, that’s for sure.”

There’s just Sergeant Kal and Etain and my brothers. Oh, and Jusik. General Jusik is one of us. Nobody else really cares.

“I’ve got a clean conscience,” Darman said. It had come as a surprise to him after years of cloistered training on Kamino to discover that many cultures in the galaxy regarded him as a killer, something immoral. “Either that, or I’m too tired to worry.”

Now he was going to Gaftikar to do some more killing. The Alpha ARCs might have been sent in to train the local rebels, but Omega were being inserted to topple a government. It wasn’t the first, and it probably wouldn’t be the last.

“Heads up, people, here we go.” Niner activated the receiver. The blue holoimage leapt from the projector and burly, bearded Jedi General Arligan Zey, Director of Special Forces, was suddenly sitting in the compartment with them.

“Good afternoon, Omega,” he said. It was the middle of the night as far as they were concerned. “I’ve got a little good news for you.”

Fi was back on the secure helmet comlink now. Darman’s red HUD audio icon indicated that only he could hear him. “Which means the rest of it is bad.”

“That’s good, sir,” said Niner, deadpan. “Have we located ARC Alpha-Thirty?”

Zey seemed to ignore the question. “Null Sergeant A’den’s sent secure drop zone coordinates, and you’re clear to go in.”

Fi’s comlink popped in Darman’s ear again. “Here comes the but.”

“But,” Zey went on, “ARC Trooper Alpha-Thirty now has to be treated as MIA. He hasn’t reported in for two months, and that isn’t unusual, but the local resistance told Sergeant A’den that they lost contact about the same time.”

A’den was one of Skirata’s Null ARCs. He’d been sent in a few standard days ago to assess the situation, and if he couldn’t find the missing ARC trooper, then the man was definitely lost, as in dead lost. Darman wondered what could possibly have happened to an ARC. They weren’t exactly easy kills. The Nulls treated their Alpha brothers as knuckle-draggers, but they were pure Jango Fett, genetically unaltered except for their rapid aging, and they’d been trained by him personally: hard, resourceful, dangerous men. Still, even the best could have bad luck. It meant that training and motivating the Gaftikari resistance was down to A’den now.

Darman hoped it didn’t end up being his job. All he could think about was how long he’d be stuck there and when he might see Etain again. Smuggled letters and comlink signals weren’t enough.

So what can they do to us? So what if anyone finds out?

Darman didn’t really know how hard the Grand Army or the Jedi Council could make life for him or Etain. There was always the chance that he’d never see her again. He wasn’t sure he could handle that. He knew she was his only taste of a real life.

“So are we starting over, General?” Niner asked.

Zey’s desk wasn’t visible in the holoimage but he was sitting down, and he glanced over his shoulder as if someone had come into the room. “Not entirely. The rebel militias are competent, but they still need some help in destabilizing the Gaftikari government. And they need equipment like the Deeces we’re dropping.” Zey paused. “Not full spec, of course.”

“I see we trust them implicitly, sir …”

“We’ve had one or two aid operations backfire, Sergeant, I admit that. No point overarming them so they can turn around and use the kit on us. This does the job.”

“Any general intel update on Gaftikar?”

“No. Sorry. You’ll have to fill in the gaps yourself.”

“Numbers?”

“A’den says around a hundred thousand trained rebel troops.”

Darman blinked to activate his HUD database and checked the estimated population of Gaftikar. Haifa billion: capital city Eyat, population five hundred thousand. He was used to odds like that now.

“Well, at least Alpha-Thirty was busy while he was there, sir,” said Niner.

“The rebels are very good at cascading training. Train ten-they train ten each-and so on.”

“Given our limited numbers, sir, have you ever thought about deploying the whole GAR that way? The war would be over a lot faster.”

“It’s a strategy, I know…” Zey always had that note in his voice lately that made him sound ashamed and embarrassed. Nobody had to ask if this was how he wanted to play things. It was another objective from the Chancellor on the list of take-this-planet-and-don’t-give-me-excuses orders. “But all you need to do is remove the leadership of the Eyat administration, and the rest follows. So you prepare the battleground for the infantry. Enable the rebels.”