#Force-Sensitive Clone Troopers (Star Wars)

[phantasm-echo]

POV: you wake up in the middle of your own autopsy with force powers then immediately get brainwashed into falling to the dark side

I was reminded of the fact that I haven’t drawn inquisitor!fives’ autopsy scars in way too long so here I am, delivering a few too many Fives 💀

Anyway I know I don’t post much about the AU on here so props to anyone who knows what’s going on here even slightly, I’ve decided to nerf siren!echo (who WAS part of this AU yes I know quite random) but since him being turned into a siren kinda limits what I can do with him story wise he is now an AU of the AU.

That means the name I came up with for the au (dead mean walking/swimming or dmw(s) as I’ve been tagging it) is kinda irrelevant. I’ll just call this the inquisitor fives AU but if you have any AU name suggestions feel free to drop them.

Here are some of the major factors of the AU:

It gets worse before it gets better

(WARNING: there are quite a few heavy topics covered in the AU such as torture, dehumanisation and su*cidal thoughts, so pls read at your own discretion)

- fives wakes up in the middle of his own autopsy with force sensitivity, then gets brainwashed into falling to the Dark Side by Palpatine. As an Inquisitor, he does not remember anything about his life because those memories were blocked by Palpatine.

- Palpatine discovers that Fives is essentially immortal, and any injuries inflicted on him will heal no matter how bad.

- when echo gets rescued from skako minor, he is recalled to Kamino for experimentation, first of all so they can figure out what the Techno Union did to him, second of all to see how he survived his injuries. Nala se, who knows that fives came back to life, theorises that since he and echo were tube twins they share the “immortality”. He is kept on Kamino for VERY extensive experimentation where terrible things happen to him (cough vivisection cough lobotomy) and so never joins Clone Force 99 even if he did work with them on Anaxes.

- Fives in this time is sent out on many missions by Palpatine that involve him unaliving many people, and after the rise of the Empire he hunts a few Jedi.

- Fox, who throughout the war had experienced many blackout missions where he woke up afterwards covered in blood, is the last living Coruscant Guard commander. (Thorn dies, stone vanishes one day, Thire mistakes Vader for a Jedi and pays the price) Despite the best efforts of his son secretary Dogma (no way!?) Fox has very little will to live, is extremely depressed and borderline suicidal, he would like nothing more than to bite the dust, but still feels he has a duty to the very few remaining corries and so tries to keep it together (he is failing)

- one day Palpatine decides he doesn’t need Fox to do his bidding anymore since he has much better assets at his disposal (Fives), and decides it would be ironic to sic his pet clone inquisitor onto Fox. Fives still doesn’t remember anything, and only knows that Fox is responsible for the main scars on his body and believes fox is the reason he doesn’t remember most of his life, and so sets out to kill fox. They battle it out (ref to that one animation wip I posted) and fives is on the verge of killing fox (who didn’t really try to fight that much, like I said he would very much like to die and dying at the hand of the vod he “killed” seems fitting to him) when he gets a sudden vision of echo.

- all fives knows is echo is extremely important to him and must be rescued and that snaps him out of palpatine’s control. He knows he probably can’t rescue echo alone, and since fox has already been betrayed by the empire he decides “fuck it” and basically kidnaps fox and they run. They make a deal, that once echo has been found, Fives will put Fox out of his misery (fox feels that fives should be the only person to kill him, and only goes along with the plan because he refuses to let anyone else kill him)

- fox and fives proceed to go on an intergalactic road trip to “rescue echo” even though neither of them know how to do that. They become closer friends throughout, and fives slowly regains bits and pieces of the Before

- meanwhile during the destruction of Kamino, the bad batch stumble on echo and rescue him and he stays with them for a little bit before leaving with Rex

- meanwhile Dogma helps the rest of the remaining Corries desert, kills too many storm troopers, and tries to go after his buir fox and the bastard inquisitor who kidnapped him

This is the main stuff you need to know for the AU haha so if you’ve got new name suggestions I’m all ears ty!!

[amandamadeathing]

I can't find the original image to reboot and credit, but here you go.

TECH: When I analyzed Omega's DNA, I noticed an anomaly in her blood. Upon further research, she has a high volume of midichlorians."

WRECKER: What does that mean?

TECH: There was a correlation between a "high M-Count" and a Jedi's abilities using the Force.

OMEGA: Does this mean I'm a Jedi?!

TECH: Possibly. You would need extra training by a Jedi to use those skills.

ECHO: I've never noticed she has Force skills.

TECH: I thought her ability to connect with animals was an obvious manifestation of such abilities.

HUNTER: I am sensitive to vibrations. Do I have the Force?

TECH: It seems of the Kaminoans' experimental Clones, only Omega was specifically given a high M-count, which probably explains why she is so valuable to Nala Se and the Empire.

ECHO: Now we know what we're up against. Thankfully, we don't need to collaborate with any suspicious women to get this information. We must find a more secure location to hide. I will contact Rex immediately.

[adhd-coyote]

General Kenobi was antsy. It was hard to see, but vode were excellent at observing and translating body language. Something was making the General nervous.

Should Cody ask? The General wouldn’t keep something from them, right? He seemed to care for the clones, at least from what Cody had observed.

Cody would ask. It should be fine.

“General Kenobi, sir?”

The General startled—just barely—and looked his way. “Yes, Commander?”

“Are you…” Cody searched for the right word, “…alright? You seem… anxious.”

“Oh.” There was that smile, the small one General Kenobi used when he was trying to be reassuring. “I’m alright. I just…” His smile dropped, and his gaze turned distant. “I have a bad feeling.”

-

“I have a bad feeling.”

Cody looked to his left, where Fox always stood. Fox, who had a furrowed brow, a small frown, and a distant look in his eyes.

Cody tilted his head. “What kind of bad feeling?”

Fox’s frown deepened, before he sighed and shook his head. “I dunno. Just… bad.” He looked to Cody, relaxing ever so slightly when their eyes met. “Be careful during today’s exercise, yeah?”

“‘Course, Fox’ika,” Cody smiled and pressed their shoulders together. “I’m always careful.”

Careful didn’t account for a malfunctioning speeder bike. Cody was lucky the crash hadn’t taken his eye out, but he’d be laid up in medbay for a few days and have a wicked new scar.

They all started paying more attention to Fox’s bad feelings after that.

[marmota-b]

Glitch IS meant to be Force sensitive, here's why

Clone Trooper Glitch Who Is Definitely Force Sensitive.

As far as I can tell, everyone has fallen in love with that idea and everyone is now saying "Glitch is Force sensitive and you can't convince me otherwise."

Listen, what if I can actually convince you he is, with literary analysis?

I don't think I've ever seen this particular angle discussed (not that I have looked too hard, but no one ever brings it up when talking about Glitch). Everyone just loves the idea that he's Force sensitive because it's a lovely / exciting idea. And, okay, it's never stated outright in the source material, so there's some room for doubt. (And it was obviously intentionally left open-ended.)

BUT

I think the subtext, for those who know what it is, is so thick it might as well be an open admission of authorial intent. You see, Glitch's comic, Defenders of the Lost Temple, is drawing heavily on the Knights of the Old Republic comics in its lore. The Gauntlet they're sent to recover comes from that series. The moon where it resides is named after one of the characters from the series and likely is the moon he moved to at the end of his arc, and there's a statue of him there. There are all these deliberate, easily proven links to the series.

And there's also the less direct but still present parallel of questioning whether Jedi should be fighting in a war at all - Knights of the Old Republic (comics) takes place at the beginning of the Mandalorian Wars when some Jedi went to fight and others argued that wasn't their place, and some people get caught in the conflict without ever wanting to. That's a more dubious connection, and may not have been deliberate, but...

That is - the writer knew what he was doing here, in relation to previously published material.

The main protagonist of that series is Zayne Carrick.

Zayne is a sort of off-beat Jedi (well, almost-Jedi). He is just about Force sensitive enough to be admitted to the Jedi Order. He has "a special relationship with the Force." His special relationship with the Force mainly manifests in him being very clumsy and having the worst sort of luck. No one really thinks he'll make it as a Jedi. His own fellow padawan friends don't think he'll make it as a Jedi. But he's so good and caring and trying. And in the long run, he learns to work with his bad luck, and it turns out it's not so much a bad luck as the Force working... as a sort of swing, around him, with a balance of good and bad events. Things rarely work out as expected, but he learns to expect the unexpected. And once he does, and learns to ride the waves instead of trying to swim against the current, it actually works mainly in the heroes' favour.

Does that remind you of anyone?

Yep.

I'm pretty sure Glitch is a deliberate callback to Zayne Carrick and his special relationship with the Force.

I don't know if he started out that way from the start, or if the idea of "what if a clone was Force sensitive" came first and this theme just slotted into place later (honestly, the latter is probably likelier). But it's undeniably there; with all the other references to KOTOR, it's unlikely the author would have missed the main protagonist's character arc re: Force sensitivity.

Glitch has a special relationship with the Force exactly like Zayne's. He just has, unlike Zayne, also the bad luck of never having been tested for Force sensitivity. (This is all EU/Legends. Don't expect New Canon to stick to any of the above.)

[hahaha1d0that]

Guys…there’s still one major cameo from the Bad Batch season 3 trailer that has still yet to make an appearance…

The title for 3x09 is “The Harbinger,” the definition being “a person or thing that shows that something is going to happen soon, especially something bad.”

Ventress found Omega with no trouble (most likely with the Force, but still) and warned the batch that they needed to leave Pabu because they weren’t safe there.

This is obviously foreshadowing that someone is going to attempt to bring Omega back to Hemlock as an M-count target.

If there’s one bounty hunter in the whole galaxy audacious enough to attempt this job (and be successful) it’s Cad Bane.

It wouldn’t be the first time he stole force sensitive children for Palpatine…

It wouldn’t even the first time he would be kidnapping Omega either…

Force sensitive children seem to be his specialty. I’d bet on him being the one.

If you have your doubts about how dangerous he is, remember that he was the one that broke Ziro the Hutt out of prison, held the Galactic Senate and Anakin Skywalker hostage, broke into the Jedi Temple on Coruscant to steal a Holocron, held Ahsoka hostage and manipulated Anakin into opening and giving him the Holocron to save her life, kidnapped force sensitive children for Palpatine’s evil experiments and brought them to Mustafar, fought Obiwan Kenobi with Quinlan Vos’ lightsaber, and orchestrated a prison break and escaped through the morgue.

Cad Bane does not fuck around people!! He is dangerous, he’s experienced, and the groundwork has been laid. Be scared!

[corrie-guard-things]

Corrie Week Prompt 6 - Force-Sensitive Clone

Word Count :

2938

Summary :

When something goes wrong on Coruscant, Thire discovers something about himself that he could never have imagined.

He has to make a leap of faith, and learn how to trust someone other than his siblings in the guard.

It is hard. But with Fox's support, he can do it.

Note :

I am NEVER writing Yoda again. Stupid backwards speech is hell.

Anyway, when I read the prompt i knew i had to make Yoda adopt Thire! I love the idea of the old frog showing up with a grown clone and being like "my Padawan this is. Have him, none of you can."

And I love writing the trust between guards, they all love each other so much.

@corrieweek

[sadiecoocoo]

All you people saying there’s never been a force sensitive clone clearly never watched the Lego stuff and saw Jek-14 🙄

[mwolf0epsilon]

Mission: Acquire Massiff Pup

Jesse, staring at the address that Rex provided for them (given to him by Fox): I am starting to have doubts about this place's legitimacy... Fives, watching the floors go by as they descend further and further into the depths of Coruscant: What gave it away? Our descent into literal urban hell, or the fact the captain had to sign several legally binding documents to keep this all hush hush? Jesse: Urgh, never mind. Our stop is coming up anyway. Jesse & Fives, hesitate in the lift when it stops at perhaps the most dubious of the Coruscanti under-levels: Fives, glancing around nervously before motioning for Jesse to hurry up behind him as he begins to follow the instructions he has scrolled on a grease stained piece of flimsy: It's not like we're doing anything super illegal. Just uh, getting a massiff pup from a cage left for us at some really shady alley. Jesse: Yeah... Yeah we're uh, we're just following orders. Yeah. For uh, very legitimate and beneficial medical reasons. Yep. Fives, starting to feel antsy because he's sensing all eyes on them: It's not like uh, the Marshal Commander of the Guard would put us in harm's way right? Jesse: Nah, man's a stiff. He uh, he doesn't break the regs... Ah... Fives, seeing the alleyway they have to go into: Almost there! I think I see the cage too. Jesse, squinting into the dark: ... I see two cages. Fives: Maybe someone else also needs a massiff pup. Doesn't matter! Lets grab one and leave! Jesse, moves to the closest cage which is housing what appears to be green massiff pup with piercing red eyes: Package secured. Let's get out of here! Fives, practically running: Roger that! This place is karking creepy! Jesse & Fives, making their way back into the lift completely unaware of the fact they just took a dangerous wild animal with them instead of a harmless massiff pup:

[enigmatist17]

Part 1 and Part 2 of my Fox not killing Fives and instead killing Palps <3

-----------------

Fives' breathing as he slept was all that could be heard in what used to be Palpatine's office.

Good, that's exactly what he needed to be doing.

He's asleep against General Skywalker, head in his lap while his legs are draped across Kix, who was currently sorting through some paperwork while contacting every medic he can reach. Cody and Rex had left some time ago to clear out the natborn Guard officers with most of Fox's men, with the promise they would all return to have their chips removed. The medic, once he had been alerted with the rest of the 501st as to what transpired, had become Fives' guard dog while their senior officers were gone, scaring away anyone with his glare save for a frighteningly few specific people. The Corries working in other parts of the Chancellor's former office have been spared his grumpiness, although Fox suspects it's because of the caf he's been bribed with, along with the pity he's kept to himself.

The city moved, unaware that the Sith is dead.

Fox looked down at the weapon in his hand again, and ignites the blade. The red is gone, instead, it has changed into a light blue, reminding him of the kind Senator Chuchi, and he smiles for a moment. She was always checking in on the Guard, bringing them little pastries and caf that his men often tried to keep as long as possible, and one time stole him away to her embassy.

He remembers sitting among the trees that shimmered like glass, and loses himself in the memory before there's a cough behind him, and his mask slams back up, blade vanishing with a click. Skywalker is looking at him with an expression of genuine shock, and he can see Thorn and the others stiffen from where they were all around the room.

Kriff.

"Fox? What were you thinking of just now?" He doesn't sound angry, but Fox had heard a lot of the Jetti were very kind. "I wasn't prying, but I saw some sort of tree?"

"It was nothing, sir." Fox winces at the slight pitch in his voice, but does his best to get the general to focus on himself. "Won't happen again."

"Well, it's not your fault you don't know how to shield your thoughts...I didn't know you had the Force."

Oh no

"He what?" Kix has abandoned his work, and Fox hates the way he can feel the medic just staring. "I've not seen reports of a Corrie with it."

"There are others?" Someone asks from behind Fox, and the man isn't sure if he's supposed to react or not, so he remains passive.

"Of course, did you not know this?" The medic is now wriggling his way free, and Fives stirs for a moment before settling.

"We don't know a lot of things." Fox squared his shoulders, and shifts to put himself between his men and the medic. Kix doesn't have to curse out loud, just circling Fox a few times before glaring at the spot where Palpatine's corpse had been hours ago.

"I can't wait to tell Master Plo, he's going to be excited." Anakin has gotten the message no one speaks aloud and snaps his fingers. "Kix?"

"Yes sir?"

"Could you come and be Fives' pillow? I'd like to take a walk with Fox." The Jetti hums, and with a slight grumble Kix moves to do as such, Anakin pressing his fingers against Fives' forehead for a moment. "This will keep him asleep for a little bit longer." The medic nodded, and both he and Anakin miss the look Fox shared with his fellow brothers before dutifully following the Jetti out of the room and down the hallway. He despised being up on this level, but he and his men had full control of the building from Palpatine's office, and once everything was done, they'd burn it down for him.

Fox wishes he could see it happen.

"You can light the fuse if you'd like." Fox blinks, and sees that Anakin is grinning.

"Sir?" He wouldn't be able to, right? He's a liability and is grateful they're going to do this somewhere out of sight. Anakin jerks to a stop, and Fox nearly runs into him as the Jetti whirls around to properly face him.

"I am not walking with you to kill you." The Jetti sounds upset, which is just more confusing.

"I'm a liability, with no training in regards to the Force," Fox looks at the lightsaber in his hand, and holds it out. "I'm not afraid to die.

Sad? Yes.

Afraid? No.

The explosion of Huttese from the Jetti Knight is...impressive, but lost on the Guard commander, and he watches Anakin begin to pace back and forth.

I will not kill my men, they're all mine, ours, they are OURS.

Fox drops the lightsaber as the raw emotions seem to just come from nowhere, and he reaches out for the feeling.

He wants to be loved, to be cared for, to be happy like all their other brothers.

He's clinging to Anakin's robes when he comes back to himself, throat dry and head aching as the rage seems to have died down.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to push that on you." The Jetti looks worried, and Fox has to struggle to calm his racing heart. "You're not dying, I just wanted to see how strong your connection was to the Force."

Fox just jerks his head in a weak attempt at a nod, and realizes it's almost morning now. He can hear the Jetti rambling on about training and Kamino, but he's not registering the words as he stares out at Coruscant in a daze.

He wants to see Chuchi's trees and share them with all of his brothers.

Anakin catches the commander when he drops like a stone, knowing that dipping into the Force with enough power to probably reach the Jedi Temple was exhausting to someone who didn't know how to reign their minds in.

"Kix? Could you send some of Commander Fox's men to my location? He's really heavy."

"Right away sir."

The Jedi sighs, and wonders how he was so blind to everything, while in the same breath, stealing himself for what was coming next.

The Council was going to lose its mind.

[reneeofthestars]

REMEMBER THE FALLEN

Summary:

After a harrowing battle, Captain Mark and the other clone leaders of Chimera Company celebrate and mourn their fallen brothers.

Originally written for the unpublished fanzine, We Were Here - @cloneoczine celebrating Clone Trooper OCs

Word Count: 4,229

Mark stood on the landing platform for several minutes after the Jedi speeder disappeared into the distant Coruscanti traffic.

The airspace around the clone trooper barracks was quiet. With civilian traffic restricted and the next closest clone regiment a good distance away, the noise and light pollution was severely diluted, leaving Mark feeling strangely isolated.

His arms hung heavy at his sides, as they’d been when Commander Tiatkin had hugged him tightly. He hadn’t embraced her back; not because he didn’t want to, but because he couldn’t find the energy to raise his arms. It felt nice, though.

The Jedi had cried. Two years ago, Mark would have been appalled at the very idea of the all-powerful Jedi showing such emotion. But he understood now that Jedi were only mortal, and General Teyla Marin and Commander Gida Tiatkin were held very dearly by the clones of Chimera Company. It meant more to Mark than he could say that the two women had spent the entire day in the barracks, mourning with the troopers.

Their last battle had devolved into a nightmare.

Mark felt no ill-will towards the Jedi; they had done everything they could to counter the Separatist army, but Chimera Company had been outnumbered and outmaneuvered. The mission had been straightforward: Chimera Company was sent to wipe out a Separatist outpost on the jungle world of Akiva, and bring the planet under Republic protection.

He passed a hand over his face, scratching at his beard. The intel had been wrong. So very, very wrong.

They’d gone in prepared to assault a base. What they found instead was a battle droid factory, deep in the catacombs beneath the planet’s surface, churning out droid after droid after droid. It wasn’t the first time their intel had been bad, but never this bad.

The entirety of Tazer Squad sacrificed themselves to sabotage the factory. Though Mark hadn’t been able to get confirmation, and wanted to believe that they’d survived, the fact remained that he had last seen them swarmed by droids, falling beneath skeletons of steel. And somehow… he just knew they were gone.

General Marin said it was his Force-sensitivity. She’d carefully broached the subject a few months ago, and she and Commander Tiatkin had been… not necessarily training him, but teaching him about this bizarre connection he had. He hadn’t believed them at first; only Jedi could use the Force. But once he stopped resisting the idea, and opened himself to the possibility…

While he was still uneasy about the whole thing, Mark was learning that he could use the Force. He felt the ebb and flow of energy when the Jedi meditated with him, and could move small objects across the table. It came through most clearly during combat, when he wasn’t trying to use it at all. He noticed it first in the uncanny accuracy of his shooting, then in his reaction time. And it finally explained the connection he felt with the other clones, on a level he couldn’t describe. He could sense their feelings, could tell when they were lying, could know their intentions. Mark had always known those things, but now he understood why.

And it was that why that forced him to face that every member of Tazer Squad was dead. He just knew.

He said their names out loud. The dark night of Coruscant might not care, but he did.

“Boots. Amari. Hatchet. Garrett. Lorn. Mouse. Targon. Mechi. Shave. Nath.”

Tazer Squad weren’t the only deaths.

General Marin called for the evacuation, but Separatist ships had lurked unseen in the shadow of nearby world Malrev IV and delayed the assistance of the Zenith of the Republic, leaving Chimera Company stranded planet-side with droids pouring from the catacombs, surrounding the Republic forces in a valley.

“Mixer. Shorty. Gangle. Anchor. Ralphie. Buzz. Kory. Sunspot.”

The droids kept coming. Brothers fell around him. Explosions rocked the world.

“Avery. Karn. Arial. Carbine. Brink. Gale. Twister.”

It was only thanks to a Republic-aligned local militia that Chimera Company wasn’t completely wiped out. Ground forces came in from behind the droids and cut a path for Mark and the others to escape through, and provided cover while they fought to get to an elevation that the transport ships could access. Meanwhile, the militia sent their limited fighters and gunships to aid the Zenith in keeping the Separatist ships at bay.

“Hazel. Mac. Croaker. Cred. Vent. Hinter. Gossip.”

Nearly everyone was injured. Blaster burns, broken bones, cuts, concussions, contusions. Mark himself suffered a blaster bolt to his chest, reaggravating an old wound. Commander Tiatkin got caught at the edge of an explosion and had been flung across the valley, landing unconscious. General Marin collapsed from exhaustion as soon as the Zenith jumped to hyperspace.

A week later, most of the clones had recovered, though a handful remained in critical care. Marin and Taitkin arrived at the barracks as soon as they were released from the Jedi Temple’s med center. And together, they all mourned. And laughed, which Mark hadn’t been expecting. But the Jedi had begun reminiscing about those who had been lost, and before long there was laughter and smiles. Sorrow still tinged it all, but it was easier to bear.

Mark drew a deep breath, trying to center himself. To feel himself here and now, boots on the landing pad, rooted to the world, to the galaxy. Constant and present like the cities of Kamino, stalwart and unyielding to the tempests around it. That had been an argument between General Marin and Mark, in the beginning of his not-training. She had described her mediations as floating in a void, tethers to all other beings keeping her in place. But Mark didn’t feel that. He couldn’t let himself feel weightless, drifting; he needed to be grounded, sure of himself before he reached out to others.

It was several minutes before Mark finally made his way back indoors. He lost track of how many times he clasped a trooper’s shoulder or hand, how many more he nodded to.

By the time he got to the officer’s quarters, he wanted nothing more than to collapse onto his bunk. But as the door slid open, he realized that wasn’t going to be the case.

The four lieutenants of Chimera Company were gathered in the center of the room, having hauled over chairs around a supply crate; a jug full of liquid sat on the crate, surrounded by five cups. Mark made his way to the empty chair, shucking his armor as he went. He let the purple-painted armor clatter to the ground, for once not caring about packing it away properly.

He accepted a cup proffered by Bookie before collapsing into the chair. “Hal, how’s your leg?”

Hal – fresh out of the med bay– grunted and extended his right leg gingerly out in front of him. “Stiff, but the bone’s mended. I can walk on it.” He waved a hand. “And Cleese’s got his hearing back.”

“What?” Cleese asked loudly, the scar across the bridge of his nose crinkling as he failed to keep from smirking.

Tech rolled his eyes and shoved Cleese’s shoulder. “What about you, Captain?”

“Stings a bit,” Mark admitted, a hand going absently to his chest, “but that’s the last time you’ll hear me say it.” The faintly caustic smell emanating from the purple liquid in his cup signified Christophsis tals – potent, crystal-cured alcohol. There had been toasts and honorifics all day, but one more could do no harm. He raised his glass. “To those who rest, and those who live. Vode An – brothers all.”

“Brothers all,” the other for echoed. They drank deeply; Mark’s eyes watered.

After a while of listening to the shuffle of footsteps out in the hall and the hum of power through the barracks, Bookie leaned forward, a loc of purple-dyed hair falling into his apprehensive eyes. “Captain? When are we due back to the front?”

Mark drained his cup and refilled it, keeping his eyes fixed on the sloshing liquid. His tongue tingled from it, but it would be another cup or two before he really started to feel its effects. It had been a while since he’d been properly drunk.

“Mark?”

“The Republic wants us mission-ready in two days.”

Cleese uttered a low curse, but Tech talked over him. “And the Jedi?”

“Marin said the Jedi Council agreed to not assign anything for seven days. She’s going to push for longer, but I think that’s all we’re going to get.”

A muscle jumped in Hal’s neck, right under the black ink of the Republic tattoo there. “A week is fine. Any longer, we’d all go stir-crazy. Don’t know about the rest of you, but I need action – I can’t just hang out at Seventy-Nine’s indefinitely.”

“How –” Bookie faltered, then pressed on. “How long did it take you to move on before? With… with your original company?”

Hal turned a baleful look on him. “It’s not a matter of ‘moving on’. It’s about not being stuck.” He drummed his fingers on the crate. “I was in the med bay for a week after the attack. Shattered my collar bone and a few ribs. It was all volunteer medics – no clones – and they wouldn’t tell me anything. That should’ve been my first clue something was wrong. They dunked me in some bacta, then kept me cooped up til I thought I was gonna short-circuit. By the time they let me out, I was ready to kill something.”

He paused, his focus drifting. “Went to join up with the boys – but found out I was reassigned cuz everyone else was dead. I was on the field the next day. It helped, being able to focus on the missions. But if I’d just… if I’d waited just a moment during the attack, I might’ve been able to grab a few others.”

Cleese frowned. “What d’you mean?”

“The clankers hit our outpost with an orbital bombardment. I only survived because I was able to make it to a reinforced bunker. There were three clones right behind me when we started running. But when I reached the bunker and turned around to pull them in, they were two dozen feet behind me. And a blast came down right on top of them. I couldn’t have outrun them that quick; maybe they got tripped up by something. But if I’d slowed up, realized I got ahead of them – ” he broke off and glowered at his cup.

The guilt rolled off Hal in waves. It was a pain shared by all the clones of Chimera Company; they were all survivors from other companies and squads that no longer existed.

“This is a day for remembering our brothers.” Mark raised his glass. “To Zeta Company.”

Hal’s harsh expression faltered and he ducked his head to hide his tears as the others repeated the salute.

Bookie spoke up; Mark felt his embarrassment at having prodded Hal. “We were fractured at Ryloth. We weren’t expecting the Separatist interest in the planet, and they hit us with more forces than we ever expected. It was a slaughter. Two of our squads survived the initial battle, and we hid in the canyons while we waited for reinforcements. But the droids chased us down.” Bookie averted his gaze, unable to make eye contact. “I was able to duck down quick enough after taking potshots – I dodged the bolts that came my way. But most of the others couldn’t. Only six of us walked away. They reassigned us to another force on Ryloth three days later. I think I would have liked to have some more time to process everything; I feel like I had to move on too fast.” He took a swig of the tal. “The Fifty-Eighth Battalion.”

They toasted; Mark took a smaller sip, a pleasantly warm buzz already at the edges of this consciousness. He had wondered when they’d have this conversation. Chimera Company had been formed almost two and a half years ago, and though they had all strengthened their bonds over that time, they’d never discussed where they’d come from, what they had experienced. Mark knew the stories of the rest of the company, but he’d hadn’t pressed the lieutenants; the weight of living while those under your command had died was a harder burden to bear.

After a stretch of silence, Tech turned his head away. “We didn’t even fall to the Separatists.” The bitterness in his voice made Mark’s gut twist. “There was a distress beacon out in the middle of nowhere. The General and the Captain argued about it, but the Jedi finally ordered the ship to go and offer assistance.”

“And there was nothing there?” Hal asked.

“Oh, there was. A civilian cruise ship, dead in the void. We boarded to search for survivors. Once we were all split up, the pirates made their move. They’d been lying in wait onboard, and picked us off as we went through the halls, and their ships dropped out of hyperspace and took out our capital ship.”

“How’d you get out?” Bookie asked, refilling Tech’s cup.

“A small group of us were in the lower levels of the ship. I could tell when they were nearby – I think I could hear them, or whatever – so we were able to sneak around them, for the most part. We managed to steal one of their smaller ships and get away. No one else survived.” He tapped his cup thoughtfully. “I was reassigned the next day, after we were debriefed. Didn’t really have time to process what happened. I just tried to fit in with the new group.”

“To the Two-Oh-Third,” Mark intoned.

After they drank, they looked to Cleese. 

He scowled. “What?”

“What about you?”

Cleese’s lip curled. “I don’t wanna talk about it.”

Mark set his cup down. “You’ll need to eventually,” he murmured softly.

Cleese’s head snapped toward him. “Why’s that?”

“Because you’ve been carrying around the weight of it since you lost your company. I don’t think you’ve ever let yourself mourn.”

“There’s always more brothers to mourn,” Cleese snarled. “More dead, every day – it’s a miracle that Chimera Company hasn’t suffered major losses like this before. There’s always dead brothers that need remembering, but there’s no time for it – we have to keep moving, we have to keep marching on, to win this war, so they didn’t die for nothing.”

For a moment, the only sound was the hum of the barracks’ generators. “I read the official report,” Mark said carefully. “That Haval Company responded to a distress call at Garentti’s Keep and gave the civilians enough time to evacuate the city and escape into hyperspace. You saved over two thousand people.”

“And I lost one-hundred thirty-seven men!” Cleese launched himself onto his feet, hands clenched at his sides. “One-hundred thirty-seven brothers who were depending on me to get them out alive. And they died. I only focused on the tanks and ships attacking from the north, I didn’t think to look out for anything else. A whole squad of commando droids crawled out from the cliffs to the south. Only reason I lived was ‘cause I felt one of the karking things sneak up behind me. They took us out from behind, and the clankers overran us.”

“You had no way of knowing. You did what you could with what you had.”

“And what about you, Mark?” Cleese was suddenly in Mark’s face. Anger radiated from him, washing over Mark in such a tangible way that he almost toppled off his seat. “Have you talked about losing the Eighty-Second? Only twelve of you survived, right? You lost an entire battalion. You gonna act like you’ve gotten over that? That you’re gonna get over this?”

He may have said more, but a high-pitched ringing in Mark’s ear drowned him out. Mark’s blood boiled and heart hammered, aching beneath the blaster burn scar. Brothers could fight, could say things and apologize later. A captain couldn’t.

Mark ground his teeth together as he slowly stood. Cleese filled his vision, shaking and blinking hard. Mark hadn’t gone over managing his emotions with the Jedi yet. Marin said it was because he already had control over it, that she wasn’t worried he would act out of anger. He wasn’t about to start now.

“Of course I never got over it.” Mark kept his voice low and even. “I did what I could, and it wasn’t enough. After that slaughter on Eadu’s moon, I blamed General Thalen, I blamed the Separatists, I blamed myself – I even blamed the ones who died. But the end result was the same. The men under my command were dead, and I wasn’t able to help them. It was out of my control. That doesn’t make the pain go away. Or the guilt. But when I was given command of Chimera Company, I had to pull myself out of my own misery, because others were depending on me.”

He paused and drew a shaky breath. The others were silent, waiting. Drawing on the Force, he grounded himself. And as he did, he felt his connection to them like a heartstring. He softened his voice.

“And this? No, I’m not going to move on very quickly. It’s easier, sure, because more of us survived, and I know that we’ll remain together. But what eases more of the pain for me is this.” He gestured to the assembled lieutenants. “Being together. Remembering together. The twelve of us from the Eighty-Second, we got four days. And all were hazy to me but the last one. Because the night before reassignment, we all met up in the mess and talked about the ones we’d lost. Just like we did today. For me, it doesn’t matter how many days it’s been – or how many years. The pain is still there. But it’s easier to bear when I’m with others who understand it.”

Cleese’s anger had melted into sorrow, and he didn’t say anything; he just sank back to his seat, head in his hands. Mark clapped a hand onto his shoulder, and raised his cup. “To Havel Company. And to the Eighty-Second.”

“I’m sorry, Mark,” Cleese murmured after he drained his glass.

Mark sat down heavily beside him. “There’s nothing to be sorry for.”

The other man smiled ruefully at the rapidly-emptying pitcher. “As far as gatherings go, I much prefer happier ones. One of the Haval Company squads learned from some local children about birthdays. The kids didn’t like that none of us clones exactly have a ‘birth-day’. So they decided that all clones were born on that day, and somehow convinced their parents to throw the entire Company a birthday party.” Though it was undercut by a dry sob, Cleese laughed. “I’ve never had such sweet desserts, before or since. That cake was way too rich, and we ate way too much of it.”

“Oh, cake will get you in trouble!” Bookie jumped in, his eyes suddenly bright. “Charger almost got married because of cake once.”

“Married? But we’re not allowed to marry until retirement.” Tech cocked his head to the side, frowning. “Unless that’s changed?”

“It’s still the same. It was an accident. We were on a backwater world where Basic wasn’t well-spoken. One of the locals offered him a cake – in a real meaningful way – but Charger just thought he was being friendly. The translator saw what was going on and managed to set it straight.”

Tech shook his head with a smile. “The long-necks really should have taught us to speak more than just Basic. I think I’d like to understand Huttese – it seems useful.”

“You had any communication mix-ups?” Cleese asked. Mark was relieved to see he’d relaxed.

“All the time. The boys always had trouble in the Outer-Rim markets.” Seeming to jump from one memory to another, he went on. “I was just thinking of the time a shiny – he didn’t live long enough to get a name…” Tech faltered, then gave a weak smile. “This shiny started trash-talking me to my face. Since I’ve always been pretty regulation, he thought I was a shiny from another unit. Didn’t realize I was the squad leader.”

Mark laughed. “What did he say?”

“He was complaining about the drills I was running them through. Thought I was treating them like cadets. He didn’t expect me to be going through the paces with them.”

“Shinies always have such big heads in the beginning.” Hal settled back, throwing an arm over the back of his chair. “Sometimes those heads never deflate. I had a kid in Zeta Co that crashed everything he ever piloted. Fighters, AT-RTs, speeders – if it had a control yoke, he’d end up walking away from a flaming heap of debris with a smile on his face. We called him Crash after the second time.”

After another drink, Cleese turned his watery gaze toward Mark. “I’d asked you when we first met, Mark, but I don’t think you ever actually answered me. The strike team you led on Brentaal Four. Did you really use a B-One’s faceplate to tunnel under a Separatist compound?”

He hadn’t thought of that mission in ages. “We didn’t just use a droid’s faceplate. But some of our tools had to be left behind when we had a complication with landing, so it was the next best thing available.”

“And that worked?” Bookie said incredulously.

“Droids never considered that we’d try to dig our way through. Besides, they were preoccupied with a diversionary force in orbit. If I hadn’t been so concerned about rules at the time, I would’ve let the men keep it as a trophy. It was probably the most useful thing the droid had ever done.”

Cleese slapped his leg as he laughed, tal sloshing out of his cup as he did. “Ah, damn.” He reached for a rag on a trunk behind him, still focused on the dripping liquid. The rag was about a foot away, but before Mark could get up to grab it for him – it moved.

Mark froze, watching as the rag twitched, then slid right into Cleese’s fumbling hand.

He stared at the other man, but Cleese didn’t seem to notice; he was focused on mopping up the mess, saying that at least he hadn’t hit the pitcher.

The Force. Cleese had just used the Force. Mark knew it. But how?

“You okay, Mark?” Bookie asked. Bookie, who had been able to dodge blaster bolts, moving just before they could hit him. Mark slowly looked around the circle.

Hal, who had found himself moving with unprecedented speed. Tech, who had sensed when pirates were nearby. And Cleese, who had sensed danger behind him, who had just moved a rag without touching it.

But then other instances started coming to the forefront of his memory: a clone who always caught whatever was thrown at him, even when he wasn’t looking; a squad jumping much further than they should have been able to over a crevasse; a clone that every animal seemed to become docile around; and every time someone had muttered that they had a bad feeling just before something went wrong.

They piled up, instance after instance of clones in Chimera Company that were just a bit faster or stronger, a bit more agile or focused, a bit luckier or more aware, a bit more –

Seas. They’re all Force-sensitive.

“Mark?” Bookie repeated, concern creasing his brow. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” Mark croaked, blinking rapidly. His heart thudded in his chest, his mind racing. “Yeah, I just – It’s been a day.” He stood, the alcohol rushing to his head and making him teeter for a moment. No, it wasn’t just the tal; it was the adrenaline that suddenly coursed through his veins, the energy that came with suddenly knowing something vital and not knowing what to do with it. “I think I’m gonna turn in for the night.”

The others made to rise, but Mark waved them down. “Don’t let me interrupt this. Stay up as long as you need. And remember – this doesn’t have to be limited to today. We can mourn and remember as long as we need.”

The others called out their good nights as he gathered his armor and made his way to the far end of the officers’ quarters. A door led to his private bunk, and when it slid shut behind him he stood there, arms shaking as he put his armor away.  

Force-sensitive. Was that how they’d all survived? The remnants of companies and battalions that made up Chimera Company, had they all lived because of the Force? Because they subconsciously tapped into an energy that they didn’t know about, and enhanced their skills, like he had?

Did it matter?

Before General Marin had started teaching him about the Force, Mark would have said no, it didn’t matter; the troopers had their abilities and advantages, and it didn’t matter where they came from.

But a company of trained, Force-sensitive clones? They would be a force to be reckoned with.

But would the Jedi see it that way? Would the Republic?

Mark sat on the edge of his bunk, elbows on his knees as he stared at his armor. He’d need to talk to Marin about it. He trusted her. Hopefully, she’d have an idea of how to proceed.

[phantasm-echo]

HAPPY STAR WARS DAY EVERYONE!!! For this special occasion (and the release of tales of the empire) I’m bringing back inquisitor fives hehehehe

[magnetarbeam]

I'm too tired to really be capable of coherence, but my ideas about the TCW-based fighter pilot drama fic - I've called it Jedi Ace so far - aren't very coherent yet anyway, so I feel like I can infodump about that.

This is meant to be about a whole squadron of pilots, which is twelve, but I want the most focus of those to be on Ahsoka and the troopers Kickback and Swoop, the only survivors of her fuckup at Ryloth. I've seen one or two fics that have her apologize to them after it, and I think in all of them they forgave her for it for reasons that revolve around that she was a kid forced into a command position with no choice and no training. Here, I want to acknowledge, in some capacity of substance, that there was more to it than that.

Yeah, it was Ahsoka not knowing what she was doing, but it was also her not thinking things out because her outstanding (for her age) skills at stuff like lightsaber combat had gone to her head and she assumed she'd be able to do this too.

(For what it's worth, I wouldn't be too surprised to learn that Filoni thought she would have been able to take out a Lucrehulk with just the lasers on her Delta-7B, but in this case that ignorance is actually useful.)

And of course, Ahsoka also constantly feels the need to prove to her Master that she's good enough for him, so he doesn't decide to give her back after all, which she failed to do here.

The first thing I really need to do here is come up with actual characters for Kickback and Swoop, but I have a hard time imagining them both forgiving her instantly in this. Part of it depends on how much time actually passed between the two assaults on the blockade forces over Ryloth. If it was, like, a couple days, there could be time for some emotional processing.

(My Legends-supremacist attitudes are gonna bleed through a bit here because I'm using the books' description of Ryloth, and also completely rewriting the second assault to neutralize the bullshit about Ahsoka having come up witn the Marg Sabl, which itself is discussed in a completely fucking different context in the books.)

In any event, I want them to have forgiven her enough to fly with her again by the turn of the second year of the war. The setup for how she finds out about their Force-sensitivity is a battle I'm not gonna go into full detail about, but I'm using a generous dose of Canon-Typical Inaccurate Astrophysics by having it take place in the Roche system (I have no idea what side, if, any, the Verpines actually took in that war, but I like it as setup here, so I'm not gonna change it unless I specifically find out that they weren't loyal) when fleet elements working with the 501st and 327th are reprovisioning after retreating from Felucia for the fuckteenth time. For this battle, Kickback has to be transferred out of Ahsoka's squadron (which at that point is her Delta-7B and eleven of the weird clone spinoff models of the Z-95) and put in charge of twenty-three shinies in BTL-B Y-Wings. For tactical reasons, the fighters are limited to communications of a sufficiently low power to only reach the distances of a single squadron's formation.

Here, I've chosen to reference one of the few bits of IRL naval history I actually know, which is the Battle of Midway, and how (at least the way it was told to me) it was basically just dumb luck that the one guy's bomber squadron showed up to the Japanese fleet at exactly the same time that all the Zeros were going after the other guy's bomber squadron.

This time, however, the "dumb luck" of their two squadrons coordinating their attack perfectly, without comms, makes Ahsoka suspicious because she knows just as well as any other Jedi what that can be a sign of. After she investigates, she finds that Kickback and Swoop are both not only Force-sensitive, but have already formed a bond through which they're unconsciously coordinating in combat.

A few months later, the first operational squadron of the new Eta-2 Actis interceptors are delivered to the Resolute. These are not only faster than the preceding Delta-series interceptors, but they're also intended for mass production and use by clones and regular natborn pilots in addition to Jedi, who can strip out a bunch of sensor and targeting systems and cut mass to make them even faster, and they have to rely on the Force to make up for the ship's own capabilities that were stripped out. Ahsoka is inspired by this, and the sensitivity of two of her pilots, to conceive an idea that she presents to Anakin and Yularen: A full squadron of the new interceptors, all stripped down to Jedi specs, and flown by Ahsoka herself and eleven clones with the necessary ability and training to coordinate in combat through the Force.

Yularen and Anakin have their doubts about whether it'll work, especially since finding that many clone troopers with Force ability, let alone training them, is going to take weeks. (If I was not constrained by the timescale of the entire war, it would be a lot longer.)

Nevertheless, Anakin agrees to put the word out among the other battalions(/legions/what-the-fuck-ever) asking for more troopers that are suspected or confirmed as Force-sensitive, and in the meantime Ahsoka works on more training for Kickback and Swoop as the start of the idea.

That's about my attention span for now.

[adhd-coyote]

Please tell me something about Fallen Fox? 👀

Hehehe I loooove this one, I need to start working on it again!!

Fox hasn't slept in days. Thire is in medbay, has been for almost a week now, after a riot went south and someone slipped a shiv through one of the cracks in his armor. And with Thorn- …It's just been Fox and Stone holding everything together. Fox is exhausted. He's in pain. His blood feels like magma in his veins and it hurts. Something is clawing at the inside of his chest, desperate to tear its way out of his ribcage and burst free. There's ice cold slime dripping from the Chancellor's laughter and the Red Guard's bristling thorn bush of a presence feels like it's cutting into Fox's very mind. He wants it to stop. He wants it to stop. He needs it to stop. Make it stop make it stop make it stopstopstopstopstop- The Red Guard is thrown across the room by an invisible force. They hit the wall with a loud crack. And they fall to the floor, unmoving. Fox is still half curled-up, half-kneeling on the floor. He doesn't know what's going on. He wanted it to stop. It stopped. He made it stop? The clawing in his chest feels… satisfied. His boiling blood seems to have calmed. The Red Guard isn't hurting him anymore. The Chancellor is laughing. Footsteps. Familiar. Getting closer. The Chancellor is getting closer. Fox needs to move. He can't move. He needs to flee. He is frozen. He needs to go. He's going to pass out. The footsteps stop right next to him. Fox tries and fails to push himself up. Something invisible does it for him. He is kneeling, now. At the Chancellor's feet, as always. "Well." The Chancellor's crooning voice drips down Fox's spine like slick, icy slime. He can't help but shiver. "This is certainly interesting."

Force Sensitive Fox!!! And, as you've probably guessed from the title, not just Force Sensitive, but he's Fallen as well. Problem is, he never even realized he was Force Sensitive, much less that he's Fallen. What triggered the Fall, you may ask? Well, Coruscant is hell. Fox is constantly on the verge of Force Exhaustion without even realizing it. And then Thorn is sent off to Scipio and doesn't come back, and suddenly there's a gaping hole in Fox's soul that refills itself with ice and magma.

The above snippet takes place a few after that, when Fox is so tired and desperate he stops subconsciously suppressing his connection to the Force for a split second. The Chancellor is delighted to discover he has a Force Sensitive pawn with an inhibitor chip planted in his brain.

I am very fond of this one, but I had to put it down to work on SithyWan week and haven't picked it back up since. Hoping I can do some more work on it soon, though!

[aus-nobody-asked-for]

Star Wars Clones but instead of Boba Fett they used genetic materials of random Jedi. Since force sensitivity is at least a bit more likely if the "parents" are force sensitive, at a quarter half of the clones can use their force.

But all of them are in-between light and dark side when Obi-Wan finds them on Kamino.

And since they're a lot stronger than Sidious ever dared hoping for, he decided that he can take more risks to overtake the Galaxy even faster.

[lupines-slash-recs]

I was wondering if you had any recommendations for Star Wars fanfics that have clones with force sensitivity (especially if it’s Fives)?

Unfortunately, my first answer was no but this was such an intriguing ask I thought I'd have a quick poke around.

I found safe from the world (though the world will try) by kbirb (it also has podfic!) which features a force sensitive Hevy not Fives but it is a fix-it for the rest of Domino squad (which I loved because those shinies hurt my heart).

As a bonus and more to your ask, the fic sported this tag: Force-Sensitive Clone Troopers (Star Wars) which could help you on your way.

[arcsimper5]

During an intense firefight

Anakin: *drops his lightsaber*

Fives: *stops firing, eyes it intensely*

Rex: Fives, no.

Fives: ...

Fives: *picks up the lightsaber and ignites it*

Fives: FIVES YES

Anakin: Obi-Wan is literally going to kill me...

Fives: *running through droids, swinging the saber while screaming*

Fives: I’M A KRIFFING JEDI!

Echo: *shaking his head* Your blasters are set to stun, right?

Rex: Don’t tempt me...