Chapter 126 (Patreon)

Chapter 126:

Karla:

Karla had learned many many things ever since she got her powers with Mr. Care Bear.

Miss Taylor felt sad sometimes, thinking that Karla had grown up too fast.

Karla didn’t really know what she meant. This was… well… normal. What else would she be doing? Sitting in the temple all day?

But, anyway, getting back on point, she’d learned a lot over the last couple of years. Both in the Force, about herself, and her power, Mr. Care Bear.

Miss Vicky always giggled when she heard the name. She giggled even more when Miss Taylor was around to hear it too.

For instance, she’d learned that with her ability to shut down all emotion completely, she became extremely adept at utilizing the Force to mask her presence. All but going invisible, even to non Force sensitives who weren’t staring directly at her. 

They simply… wouldn’t notice. A living being rarely had no emotion. Not even primal survival instinct.

But her?

Oh yes. She could eliminate it all. Even that primal, fundamental need to live.

It was dangerous. She’d learned that too. It almost dipped her mind into a fugue, a machine running on the memory of fumes. She had to push herself, remind herself to continue her task through the sludge of apathy and total numbness. 

Sometimes she had to remind herself to breathe even. 

When she turned her emotions on again, it was always scary, so scary she wanted to shut it off as well, but Miss Taylor and Master Halis, her mind healer, always said it was important that she feel it, that she let herself process it.

So she did. Even through the hyperventilation, and the vomiting.

She didn’t vomit much anymore. But it was close. 

So Force users didn’t sense her, and non force users, well, a subtle suggestion to look to their left instead of their right, or a trick to tell them the red they were seeing at the corner of their eyes was just a Clone veteran, or a droid with a light on its head, or just a passing neon sign, and they didn’t bother to look twice.

She practiced, and she practiced often. It was her one talent her one skill that she could do better than anyone else. 

It didn’t take her long to extend her skills beyond herself. Iskt, Noble team. 

Miss Hebert even asked her to show her how to do it herself.

That day Karla had been very happy, and very proud indeed. 

Granted, her Master couldn’t really do it well… the insects. Even if her Master shielded her own presence, Karla and others could still feel her in every stray fly and bug when she was even remotely near them.

But Miss Taylor had pushed her to keep getting better, helped her keep finding ways to maximize the use of her talent. 

Master Obi-Wan had been brought in to help her practice Makashi and Soresu. Because ‘With your skills, isolating a single target is where you’ll be strongest, and surviving being surrounded, if it ever comes to that, has to be your priority.’

She was told to always try to fool Master Anakin’s senses. Because ‘He’s becoming the best in that regard, outside of me with my bugs which you can’t fool. If you can get past his awareness in the Force, you’ll basically be able to get past anyone but bullshit tiers like Yoda or Windu’

And Miss Vicky… well…

Miss Vicky is the one who encouraged her to do what she was doing right now.

Long trips in hyperspace were always stressful. At least, she’d discovered that when she had the mind and power to look.

Even if the ship was large, even if everyone had their own space, it was still multiple people ‘trapped’ inside of what was, for all intents and purposes four walls and hundreds of others with no way to escape, or even the luxury of looking out a window.

It got to them. Even the clones. Especially with the battles, the stress of wars and everything else.

And sometimes they needed something. A little nudge. A little bit of help that sometimes, they weren’t even aware of the fact that they needed it.

So that’s what she did.

As invisible as she could safely make herself, she wandered the ship, seeking out the people that might need a bit of help.

It was small things of course. No. She couldn’t fix the damaged tank with the engineers. But maybe he turned around and that cup of Caf he’d forgotten about was still warm, rather than cold sludge.

Maybe the quartermaster, who was always so tired, so overworked, would forget to set the computer to run an ammo registry, and when he remembered he would rush to go start up the process, only to see it had already started a few minutes ago, taking just that little bit of stress off his shoulders.

Maybe the private, the shiny, who’d seen his podmate die in the last engagement wanted a place to be alone but didn’t want to ask and… well, when he was off duty, he never noticed the little red guide that pointed him to the loft, where he could sit and mourn in peace for a little while.

It helped them. And it made her feel good to help them too.

Miss Vicky always stressed that she should do this, ‘Only when you feel up to it’ to take care of herself first, because even she could get burnt out’

She sensed with her power that there were many feelings there, almost too many for even her to discern. A tangled knot of pride, love, happiness, sadness, dread and concern. 

There was history there, something she wasn’t privy to.

Her power told about emotions, not the history behind them. Miss Taylor told her that it was good to always remember that. It would keep her from falling into a ‘Thinker trap’ of ‘Forgetting to think with your own head’

She never asked Miss Vicky about it. What she was feeling. She understood now that some things people wanted to keep to themselves. Some things were just too painful. 

As she wandered quietly through the halls of the ship she got an aggregate ‘feel’ for the Clones around her

There was pride in this legion. Miss Vicky’s 707th. Pride that tinged with just the faintest bit of arrogance.

She could sense it clearly. For in their minds, How could they not be proud? They were the personal Legion to ‘The Invincible Jedi’. They saw the highest fighting, went into the thickest of battlefields; the most hopeless situations and always pulled off the impossible. 

It wasn’t the first time she sensed such, morale was usually high with Miss Vicky’s legion, and with Master Anakin’s too. Even on the few occasions they lost or had to retreat- the 707th was simply determined. ‘Don’t let the General down.’ she’d heard them thinking more than once. 

Grievous was the thing they hated. The Monster they’d yet to defeat.

They were sure they would defeat him.

Because after all, how could it be any other way?

Miss Taylor always told her to check, and to tell her what she found, good or bad. But to not tell Vicky.

The emotion there had been concern, fear that Vicky would feel too much pressure, that she’d feel the weight of so much expectation.

As she said, she’d learned a lot these last few years.

Sometimes it was almost too much to keep track of. What people felt, why they felt these things, how they might change or react, what their feelings might make them do- be it the right thing, or wrong thing. 

In those moments, when she almost felt overwhelmed by it all, she could feel the nudging reassurance of Mr. Care Bear at the back of her thoughts. He liked learning all of this, cataloguing all of it. It was his purpose, after all. He was made to understand all these complexities.

But then, he’d pull back on his power, shutting her off from it, not completely. Just enough to ease the pressure. Just enough so that she could get her own head on straight, as Miss Vicky would say.

A fire-hose, shutting off to a trickle.

She was grateful for that.

Then, a few days later, it’d open up again.

And she’d be back.

As she reached the deck that housed the training areas, she felt herself smile just a bit, sensing Noble team and Iskt just down the hall. 

She walked forward, cloaking herself in the veiling hand of the Force plucking at the strings of their minds so they wouldn’t even notice the door opening.

It wasn’t easy, Noble had been training for a long time now to resist Force based manipulation, Wolfe’s influence- the deadly encounter with Sora Bulq had left its mark on him, even all these years ago.

He was determined to be ready to fight Force users. 

Miss Taylor had agreed.

And so they trained.

They were getting good. Subconscious defenses becoming more and more robust.

It kept her on her toes, that was certain. If she hadn’t helped or witnessed the progression of their mental shields, she probably would have tripped at least one of them.

Iskt was an entirely different issue altogether.

Lucky for her, they were all distracted, focused on their training. 

She slipped into her Crechemate’s mind like a sliver thin dagger, in and out, just long enough to mask the noise as the door whooshed open and whooshed closed, stepping inside in time to see Noble closing in around Iskt.

The training area was set up as the ‘mountain’ terrain, various randomized cubes that made up the floor hovering at different elevations. Sort of like several perfectly squared stalagmites, rising up from the floor, providing high ground, cover and obstacles.

Each of Noble’s rifles were different. The common blaster, of course, but also their slug throwers, shock dischargers even plasma.

The plasma in particular was dangerous, but it wouldn’t be training if it was only for one side.

And it seems like they’d gotten the better of Iskt at least once, her crechemate was sporting a nasty burn on his shoulder, which- to anyone else probably would have been a fatal shot. 

They moved like a well coordinated machine, no wasted shots, layering in the damage to constantly keep iskt resetting his resistance type, all the while Wolfe and Guelzo swooped in with Jetpacks to engage at close range, keep Iskt from easily closing the gaps.

But he was stubborn, and already at a point that normal humans couldn’t quite match his sheer brute strength, let alone the Force fueling him even further.

His lightsaber crashed into Guelzo’s training blade hard enough to rock the Squad leader back, Jetpack engines howling as Guelzo tried to regain control, Iskt’s other hand lashing out to catch Wolfe before heaving him across the room towards Weber, hiding in the high cat walks with his sniper.

Wolffe smashed into the underside of the catwalks, rattling them hard enough that Webber lost his footing, giving Iskt the opening he needed to rush towards Cid, who blasted him point blank with a bark from his shotgun, the kinetic rounds didn’t penetrate, but they did stagger him through just sheer force as it caught him full in the chest.

The momentary stumble was all Guelzo needed to swoop back in, grabbing Cid by the vambrace before hauling him out of arms reach with a howl of screaming jet engines, throwing him up into a higher platform. 

“You’re relying way too much on your durability, little General.” Guelzo called, hovering in mid air. 

“A dodge would have let you grab me.” Cid continued, reloading the shotgun and cocking it. “Just because you can take the hit, doesn’t mean you should.”

Iskt frowned, but it was his thinking frown, not his angry frown. He started to nod, then paused, turning his head and staring straight at her. “Karla.”

She startled, her stealth slipping, and Asimov, not two feet to her left jumped in his armor with a startled jerk, cursing loudly. “How’d you know?” She asked.

Iskt raised up his fingers, tapping at his nose. 

“You can mask your emotions, you can hide in the Force. But-” He smirked. “I realized you can’t hide your scent.”

She frowned, eyes narrowing in challenge.

They’d just have to see about that wouldn’t they!

“Lil commander.” Guelzo nodded. 

“Hi guys.” She smiled, waving at the collective Noble.

“You enjoy taking years off my life?” Asimov grumbled.

She smirked at him. “Just a bit-”

She could feel his deadpan glare. “Sir permission to shoot the cheeky twilek?” 

“If he’s the one that has to explain to mom, I say let him have this one.” Weber called from the catwalk above.”

She snickered, and the snickers turned to full on guffaws as she heard Weber yelp as something stung him in the back of the neck and a fly landed right dead center of Asimov’s visor.

“Sorry Miss Taylor.” Weber mumbled somewhere up above. 

Strangely the words gave Karla a sense of… what did Miss Vicky call it? Deja vu?

“Alright-” Guelzo tapped some keys on his wristpad, the training room beginning to return to its base configuration of a flat, blank, square room. “-trainings done. ETA to arrive at the Yavin system is 26 hours. I want everyone rested, their gear checked and ready to drop with the General on her word. You all know the drill.”

Noble team nodded. “Yes sir-” came the loose chorus. 

Weber descended from the high catwalks with a burst from his jump pack. Reaching to pat her on the head as was his way.

As they eached passed by, she could feel their subdued joy at just… just having seen her.

That was enough to make them happy, even Wolfe, quiet and ‘distant’ Wolfe.

It was such a small thing. Like the rest of her ‘little deeds’ today.

But it made her happy too.

As Noble began to march out, Iskt marched up beside her. “Join me for a bout?” He asked, holding up his lightsaber in his clawed hand.

She nodded, smiling at her older crechemate. “Of course!”

—

Taylor

Sitting in our on-ship quarters, I felt a poke at my side.

I turned to Vicky.  “Hmmm?” I asked.

There was a strange look on her face, an almost, confused half smile there.

“You’re smiling.” She noted. “Something up?”

I shook my head. “No…” Then I shrugged. “Just… I think we did good- ya know?”

She didn’t, she was very confused, if the hiked up eyebrow was anything to go by.

But she shrugged, turning back towards her holo-series. “If you’re happy sweetie, I’m happy…” 

I turned back towards my digital Entomology encyclopedia covering the Yavin 4 insect life.

Hmmm… 

Hmmm…

Oh.

Now that one had some potential.

Vicky poked me in the ribs, a bit harder this time. 

When I looked this time, she was staring at me with a flat deadpan look. “Okay, that smile I know! Tay, whatever you’re thinking. No.”

My mouth fell open. “Vicky!”

“No.”

(X)(X)(X)

Ok- so, I'm not stuck at home anymore, got my car back today at 4pm but I'd already gotten through most of this and decided 'eh, why not, lets finish'This chapter was mostly unplanned, I did want to take a bit to expand on Karla's power and skillset a bit since it is a bit more nuanced than Iskt's straight up 'I'm a tank' but it kinda took on a bit of a life of its own.Now, Next chapter though, Next chapter the team arrives on Yavin. And things will not be so... domestic. You might even say they'll escalate :p

This isn't gonna be a MAJOR setpiece battle like Geonosis was, but it will definitely be a brawl We have Grievous, Komari, the fallen Jedi, and the last few Death Watch and hundreds of thousands of droids on one side.

Taylor, Vicky, Obi-Wan, Anakin, their kids, Noble team, Vicky's personal guard and the three legions on the other

And smack dab in the middle is Maul, Savage and the few remaining Dathomiri

All on a planet that's got some Dark Side hot-spots and some pretty vicious flora and fauna.

So I have all the ingredients to make the kind of fights that I like to make :D

So yeah, next chapter will probably be a bit longer, and might take a bit longer than normal.

I'm HOPING to wrap up Yavin in 2 chapters, cause in my experience Fights or battles that last longer than 3-4 chapters tend to overstay their welcome and Yavin is supposed to be a lightning fast raid on both sides.

So 2 chapters I think should be good for what this fight is and what its meant to do.

See ya'll when it drops :)