#ct jacek

Focus, CT-3703. Your name isn’t important. Sergeant Jacek had mentioned the ARCs were probably in the company barracks. What were their names again? Echo was one, and the other was…a number?

It was definitely a number, but CT-3703 couldn’t remember it. It probably didn’t matter anyway. He’d find the barracks and ask where to find the ARCs, and they could all get moving with their training.

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“Well, well…we got ourselves a shiny! A bomb squad shiny! C’mon in and have a seat.” A clone with a stripe of blue tattooed on his face jumped down from one of the bunks and threw his arm around CT-3703’s shoulder and guided him to an empty bunk. The tattooed clone pushed CT-3703 into the bunk and sat down across from him.

“Welcome, brother. What’s your name?”

“CT-3703.”

“That’s your number. No name? Well, we’ll find you one soon enough. Name’s Hardcase. What brings you to the barracks, don’t you have training now?”

The barrage of questions seemed to momentarily throw off the young clone. “Hardcase, right. Training…we need the ARCs for a training mission. I was told they would be here in the barracks.”

“Well, we’re always happy to help shinies. That’s part of our job. Which ARCs were you looking for, exactly?”

Another clone had popped up from the bunk to the right. CT-3703 stared at the clone who had just spoken. He had a Republic cog tattooed on his head.

“It didn’t hurt as much as you’d think.” He rubbed a hand over the tattoo. “At least, I don’t think it hurt that much. Had a lot to drink that night.”

Hardcase laughed. “Jesse, you cried like a baby. A drunk baby. Thank the force you changed your mind about getting that cog tattooed on your –”

Jesse cut off the rest of his words with a swift punch to the clone’s stomach.

“Enough. Back to the shiny. So, who were you looking for again?”

“One is called Echo and the other is a number.”

“A number, huh?” Jesse exchanged a look with Hardcase.

“Hey, vod…trooper Threes…he’s the best. Got a minute?” Jesse laughed and called out to one of his brothers on the other side of the room.

“Sure thing, Jesse. I always have time to talk.”

“You know an ARC trooper with a number for a name?”

The clone called Threes casually walked over to the group. “An ARC with a number for a name? Uh…of course! You’re looking for…Fives. Do you know him?” He grinned and directed his question to CT-3703.

“No, I don’t really know anyone outside of my squad.”

“A brand new shiny! Well, tell you what, I’ll help you find him.”

CT-3703 muttered an appreciative thanks, and left the room with Threes. As the door closed behind them, he heard Hardcase yell, “See ya later, Threes!” as he and Jesse broke into uncontrollable laughter.

“They seem like they’re having a good time.”

Threes laughed in return, “We make due in Torrent Company.”

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They had wandered around base for the better part of an hour when the clone stopped suddenly.

“Echo! Just the ARC we’re looking for. Vod, maybe you can help us.” He smiled at his brother and pointed to CT-3703.

“This shiny is looking for you and Fives for a training mission.”

“Fives?” Echo looked perplexed.

“Fives.”

“Fives…” Echo repeated.

“Yes, Fives.”

CT-3703 looked at the slightly confused clone. No wonder they call him Echo.

“Maybe you should go talk to Rex?”

Rex…the name sounded vaguely familiar to CT-3703.

“Of course! Shiny, we’ll go talk to Captain Rex and ask him where to find Fives.”

Captain Rex. Yes, he had heard of the famous Captain Rex. General Skywalker’s top commander. Surely, he would be able to help find the ARC faster than Threes, who seemed to get sidetracked by the smallest thing.

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The trio made their way to the command center. Another hour gone by, and CT-3703 was getting nervous, although Threes seemed to be in a good mood. Echo kept looking from Threes to CT-3703, shaking his head. It looked like he was slightly annoyed, perhaps even disappointed. Damned if CT-3703 could figure out why.

“There he is shiny. The blonde one, that’s Captain Rex.”

CT-3703 looked at the clone Fives was pointing to. He was blonde alright…very unusual for a clone. The captain turned to look at CT-3703 as he approached, puzzled by the presence of the young clone in the command center.

“Captain Rex, sir. Do you know where I can find…”

An alert from CT-3703’s comm panel interrupted him. They all stared at the shiny’s blinking arm panel.

“You should probably answer that, vod’ika,” Threes said somberly.

CT-3703 hit a button to accept the transmission, and Sergeant Jacek’s voice boomed.

“IT’S BEEN THREE HOURS! THREE! THE ENTIRE AFTERNOON GONE! WHERE ARE THOSE ARCS? DID YOU DECIDE TO TAKE A TOUR OF THE BASE? MAKE SOME NEW FRIENDS? YOU’RE WASTING DAYLIGHT TROOPER! WE HAD A SCHEDULE AND THAT’S ALL BEEN BLOW TO KRIFFING HELLS NOW!”

“I found one, sergeant...”

“WELL THEN GET MOVING! YOU HAVE TWO MINUTES TO GET THOSE ARCS HERE BEFORE I SHIP YOUR SORRY ASS BACK TO KAMINO!”

The transmission cut off sharply as Captain Rex looked at Fives and Echo.  “I don’t know what games you’re playing, and I don’t care. Fix this. Now.”

Fives sighed in disappointment. “Alright shiny, let’s move. Fun’s over.”

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They arrived with 15 seconds to spare, and Sergeant Jacek was still ranting.

“It was an easy task. Get the ARCs, bring them back here. Not spend three hours socializing and wandering around the base. Why in hells were you in the command center? You know I just got a comm from Captain Rex about you? What were you even thinking, going into that commander center without prior authorization?!”

CT-3703 was crushed. This was it. He hadn’t even been out of Kamino for an entire week, and he was going back. If he couldn’t even do this simple job, he had no chance as an ordinance specialist. All he could do now was silently stand attention, and wait for the worst.

“ARC troopers Fives and Echo. What do you have to say for yourselves?”

“Honestly, Jacek. This was all Fives. He had your shiny running around looking for him.”

ARC trooper Fives?! CT-3703 hung his head in disgust. He was a complete fool. He looked over at Fives, really looked at him. The clone had a “5” tattooed on the side of his head…it was so obvious. How had he missed that?

“Kriffing Threes…” He thought absently mind, and accidentally said aloud.

“What did you say, trooper?”

“Nothing, sergeant.” The consistent embarrassment and disgrace was showing through as a red flush on his face.

“Nothing, huh? Well get your ass in gear. We have a training mission to run.”

The clone didn’t need to be told twice.

Jacek stared at the shiny as he took off at a smart pace, not quite a run, to gather his gear. CT-3703 was a top-rated clone, perfect for ordinance. He had gotten the run-around by the ARCs today, which was unfortunate. The shiny’s pride and ego took a hit, but hopefully things would get straightened out during the training mission between all of them.

Jacek turned to the ARC troopers who had also watched the shiny depart. “You guys really need to quit your shit with the shinies. Most of them are dealing with enough trying to adjust to life outside Kamino. They don’t need you messing with them.”

Fives gripped the sergeant by his shoulder pad. “Jacek, we went through it when we were shinies. All of us. It’s a right of passage. The guys and I…we were just having some fun.”

“Just don’t mess with him during training, or you just might find a thermal detonator being thrown your way.”

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They had finally returned after a successful training mission. Echo and Fives hadn’t bothered CT-3703 at all the entire mission, and they never spoke up when other shinies asked what happened to delay their mission. He was thankful for that, but still wasn’t quite looking forward to heading back to base, and kept thinking of how stupid he must have looked to the older clones. A real regular dumb shiny.

He groaned as he headed through the door and heard someone yell, “Has anyone seen Threes?”

“No, I haven’t seen him yet. Ask Echo.”

Kriffing hells. He had escaped it for a few days, at least. He spotted Echo, who he could see was pointing in his direction. Great, just great. Here we go.

From behind him, two hands slapped down hard on his shoulders and spun him around “Threes! My brother, we’ve missed you.” It was Hardcase. CT-3703 threw a punch that the tattooed clone blocked.

He could see Jesse laughing close by. “Now that is proper Mando greeting, Threes.”

“Stop saying that! I know there’s no one named Threes here. Ha ha. Joke’s on me, right?” CT-3703 was agitated.

Hardcase rolled his eyes and looked at Fives, who had just entered the room. “Help me out here, vod.”

Fives waved in acknowledgement and spoke up, “Listen, we did feel kind of bad after you got chewed out by Jacek…”

“I didn’t!”

“Shut it, Jesse! Anyway, we realized it was probably not the best timing for all that, and Jacek can be an ass some times. We’re brothers, and if you’re hurt, we’re hurt.”

CT-3703 closed his eyes and exhaled deeply, trying to release the anger he was feeling. That was probably the best apology he was going to hear, so he might as well accept it.

“We also decided that the best way to make things up to you would be to give you a name.”

Well, that was an abrupt about face. A name?

“Well,” Hardcase interjected, “we can’t keep calling you by your number, that’s not how we do things here. And we definitely won’t be able to call you ‘shiny’ forever. Plus, Fives has used his other name now more times than I can count, and the novelty is wearing off…what you thought you were the first shiny we did that to? No, I’d say a good half of the company has met old Threes when they first arrived.”

Jesse used CT-3703’s shoulder as an arm rest, and leaned into him. “You were our last Threes shiny, and it’s only fitting that we call you Threes, shiny. Just think of the trouble we can cause now. Half the company jokingly calls Fives Threes, and you’re Threes. No one will know who we’re talking about. What do you say, vod’ika? Is that acceptable?”