2 Chapter 2
Disclaimer: The only thing I own is the oc. Animes, video games, movies and books referenced in this fic are owned by their respective creators and companies.
AN: This is an alternative Universe. For Star Wars it is a mix of Disney Cannon and Legends Cannon. There will be things that may have been sped up, slowed down, removed completely in the timeline. I'll try to keep it as close as I can. Expect time skips.
"Speech"
'Thoughts/letters/emails'
Chapter 2
William was currently in a bacta tank both hating and loving the stuff. It relieved the pain and healed him but it also healed him quickly which meant getting his ass kicked all over again. It had been 6 months since he woke up in the body of a defective clone in the Star Wars Universe. He had gone through many things in his short second life. First he found he somehow reincarnated into a fictional Universe. Then he found out he's a hybrid clone of Jango Fett and Fuckin Darth Maul! He had realized that the night he had finished his exam with the scientist Ko Sai. She had thought he was knocked out but he had heard her dictate her notes so he had learned that after the Battle of Naboo, the Chancellor aka The Evil bastard behind the scenes had sent Maul's legs over to be used to find out if a force sensitive clone could be made. If he is any indication, then the answer is, not yet. He is the only survivor of the experimental batch. He doesn't know if they are still continuing the experiments or not. He had been poked and prodded for the better part of the week before he was told that he would be joining the other cadets in training. He joined the rest of the cadet squad in classes but his physical conditioning was more stringent.
He had been glad he roomed with 99 because his older brother was the kindest and most helpful guy around. He would put bacta patches on his sore muscles and once he joined Walon Vau's squad for conditioning he would either be covered in bacta patches or he would be hauled to a bacta tank. He knew he was half Zabrak and had higher pain resistance but it seemed like the Mandalorian instructor had decided to make his squad the toughest around. This was achieved by lots of life and death situations, full contact sparring, and ridiculously difficult endurance challenges. That was just for the regular squad, William's training menu was dialed up to 11.
He had already suffered broken bones, lacerations, concussions, and ruptured organs from his oh so gentle instructor, Walon Vau. He had learned many things. First, he was being trained with second generation clones and he was 4. He learned that he was also a victim of the accelerated aging that all clones went through. It just made no sense why the cloners would do that. 99 being the extreme. He was technically 4 years old but his body was that of a 40 year old.
William thought it was quite cruel on the Kaminoans part but there was not much that could be done. You would think they would accelerate aging to the physical peak of the clones then to stop or slow down the process so the troopers could be in their physical peak for longer but nope. They planned to have an army of 40 year olds. It made no sense.
He had been subjected to flash learning along with the rest of the clones. It was a fascinating process. It was basically a machine that dumped knowledge into your brain directly but the down side was there was no muscle memory or that the memories seemed shallow. The closest Earth equivalent would be to have someone watch step by step guides on YouTube until the information was memorized. He had the information in his head but no practical knowledge.
Fortunately or unfortunately for him, he was being trained along with Null class and Alpha class troopers. He didn't really remember everything about the Clones Wars but living it first hand filled in a lot of holes in his knowledge. Null class was basically one of the first batches if not the first batch of clones. They had physical enhancements like everyone else but unlike the regular troopers they were more aggressive and individualistic. They were also not as loyal as the Kaminoans would have liked.
They were great for special forces or small group operations but they weren't blind followers and from what he had observed they only respected the Mandalorians. William couldn't deny that the Kaminoans only saw them as property and treated them as objects while the instructors saw them as sentient beings. The Kaminoans were basically emotionless space nazis. With their eugenics prowess and their penchant to experiment with living sentient beings.
In the shows and movies it's kind of glossed over since they are family shows but in reality the clones were slave child soldiers. The oldest troopers would be about 10-12 years old before the Galactic war kicked off. They didn't receive pay, vacation or have any type of infrastructure for wounded or retirement. Then again the accelerated aging makes him suspect that they planned it as a way to gain repeat business.
William felt that he would be released soon so he would go about his new routine, he would shower, get dressed, get a meal then go back to his bay and either chat with 99 or research stuff on his datapad. He was glad to discover that the datapads were connected to the Holonet. It was just galactic internet but Holonet sounded better. He had been studying a few things in his free time. He had started to go through classes for engineering, which included both combat applications and computer engineering. He knew that all the clones were monitored so he had to find ways to make it seem like he was just curious about a wide range of things to throw them all off the scent.
He had started doing this 2 months prior when he had laid down the foundation of a plan. He didn't want to fight in the Clone Wars but he really didn't have a choice, yet. He had decided that he would bide his time and go along with the training but he would escape the first chance he got. This plan was thought up after the kaminoans had tried to put an inhibitor chip in him. He had gone crazy for a while. They eventually took it out and it was decided that it wouldn't be an option for him due to his physiology. Turns out being part Zabrak was not as shitty as it had been at first.
Unfortunately that also meant he was sturdier and more resilient than even the Null class which were the bonafide badasses of the clone army. They were basically enhanced Jango Fetts. They also didn't like him much because they were somewhat jealous that their father figure Kal would make a point to check up on him regularly.
His plan basically boiled down to him deserting the army, running away and hiding and researching ways to either increase the odds of his survival or allow him more time to research ways of getting home. The first step was getting an education. He would try to be more than adequate in engineering, combat, physics and metaphysics, and lastly piloting. He knew he would need to be a jack of all trades to be able to survive long enough to find a way home. The first step was to learn how to code, hack and create his own droid and tools.
His first goal was to create an AI. He wasn't going for Jarvis or Skynet but more along the lines of specialized AI made just for hacking. It was slow going but he had about a decade to figure it out. He also had to think of ways to make money so he could establish a new identity, and get resources.
William was very glad for his photographic memory, he had been able to remember some places in the games and youtube clips he would be able to commandeer to get rare and invaluable resources. He was currently studying engineering to build himself a new datapad with the scraps he would be able to obtain with 99s help. He would build his datapad and supe it up so that he would be able to start coding the AI to help with hacking.
---
It had been two years since he had woken up in Kamino. He had just had his birthday, his body was 6 years old but his looks were that of a 13 or 14 year old. Mentally he was 30 years old. It was confusing even to him so he decided to just go off of his physical appearance. Having a mature mind but having a body going through puberty played merry hell on his psyche. He was even more aggressive and moody than his clone brothers. The Kaminoans and Mandalorians just figured it was from his Zabrak side. He had graduated from the physical training and hand to hand combat lessons of Walon Vau and had been transferred to Kal Skirata's Null squad for further combat training and Mij Gilamar for medical training. He was constantly either training or studying. The little free time he had was used for his secret endeavours. He had finally gotten certification as an engineer and computer slicer. It caused him some unwanted attention from the Kaminoans and Mandalorians but he had been able to play it off as just curiosity and had moved on to looking into biology and medicine.
William had garnered a reputation as someone who was always taken in by bouts of curiosity. He had chosen a Mandalorian name but he had paid a heavy price. He had chosen Kratos Vau. He had picked Kratos as a nod to his home of Earth and the God of strength. Sure it was also because it had been one of his favorite games back in the day and it sounded Mandalorian. He chose the surname of Vau because it was the surname of the biggest asshole instructor who it seemed like to take the sick pleasure of beating his ass into a puddle of tears, blood, snot and sweat. He did it mostly because he knew it would piss him off. He was right, he had been forced to undergo one on one fights with Walon for a month straight. He had almost died 5 times during that month but the miracle that is bacta saved his life and made him good as new within days until he was back into the bacta tank. His smartass clone brothers had even put his name plate on the tank since he was in it so much.
The instructors thought it was hilarious and would often piss Walon off just to see what smart ass thing William would say to make the beatings worse for himself. He didn't spend the previous 18 months just getting his ass kicked; he had also accomplished 3 of his goals. He had finally built his very own datapad. 99 had been confused by his little brother's behavior. He had watched him put it together and then watched him break into a maniacal cackle afterwards. His little brother was confusing but he didn't love him any less for it.
William or Kratos as he was called by his brothers in Special Forces, was extremely happy because his new datapad was more powerful and advanced than the standard datapads and it had also integrated his completed code. He had been successful in creating an AI. It couldn't compare to the likes of Cortana or Jarvis but it would certainly give them a run for their money in one aspect, Hacking. He had created it specifically to hack anything and everything. It had learned from all the hacker forums in the holonet and used the gathered information to compile all that knowledge and methodology to distill it into completely new and efficient ways to do its purpose.
William had been able to use his AI named Hydra, to hack into the Hutt Cartels, and the Black Sun criminal organizations through a common denominator, Ziro the Hutt. It turned out that Ziro was playing both sides in some deals. He hacked all of his devices until he was able to hack into Ziros private diary which coincidentally enough the moron used to document all of the Hutt Council's dirty deeds and included some of their shared bank accounts. William was ecstatic. He had Hydra create numerous bank accounts under many false identities he had created for himself. He then had the money siphoned from the accounts and bounced around the galaxy until it became untraceable. He then deposited the money into a newly made Prospecting company account by the name of Titan Prospecting based out of Bespin. He had obtained 20 million credits from the Hutts; he then did the same to the Black Sun crime syndicate.
After stealing the credits from both major crime syndicates, he moved on to steal from the major players of the Galactic Civil War. He decided he wouldn't get involved in the war if he could help it but he would certainly profit from the corruption of the galactic senators. He had researched the senators from the wealthier industrial worlds and had siphoned off all of their hidden funds. After a year of secretly robbing the galaxy blind he had a total personal wealth of over 100 million credits. He decided to use that money to have a ship built just for him. A ship He fell in love with when he played The Force Unleashed. He contacted the same company that had built Darth Maul's stealth ship. He found the information by meticulously hacking every major ship building company and going through their customer records. He finally found Republic Sienar Systems which had an order for a ship for a client by the name of Plagueis.
That was a name he was familiar with, it was the name of Palpatine's Sith master. He contacted the head of the company and had spun a story of how he had been recommended by a mutual acquaintance by the name of Plagueis. He gave Raith Sienar a list of how he wanted the ship outfitted and requested mock ups of the design to be sent to him so he may have final say on the designs. Once he was able to convince the man to agree to design and build the ship he had deposited an initial payment of 20 million credits. He also had Hydra infect his companies systems with a worm that would wipe all information from their systems once the ship was built and he took ownership of it. It would cost him a total of 55 million credits and would take 9 years to obtain the rare materials and build it. It would work out perfectly for him since that was the time he was planning to fake his death.
He then decided to hack the Kaminoans to see what other horrible stuff they were creating and maybe profit from them. What he found could definitely have the cloners tried for war crimes but he doubted it would, since they would be supplying an army to the galactic government.
---
William had been in the Star Wars universe for six years and the longer he stayed on Kamino the more he missed home. Physically he looked to be like an 18 or 19 year old but mentally he was about 36. His body had finally left his gangly and awkward adolescent phase and he looked every bit the dangerous soldier he was becoming. He stood at 6'0" 175 lbs of very lean muscle. He was built like a gymnast. He had been rotated to many different squads and instructors in the last four years. He had gotten certifications as an engineer, medic, pilot, armorer and mechanic. He was still getting his ass kicked by Walon but it was no longer massacres but closer fights. He had taken it as a personal victory when he had broken Walon's hand. He had broken it when he headbutted Walon's fist which had knocked him out but he still considered it a win. It of course led to more fights with Walon and his brothers but he was used to the treatment at this point. He was still hauled off by the Kaminoan Scientists regularly to have samples taken and all sorts of exams but from what he had heard only 4 clones had survived the experiments.
He knew the four would go on to be the "Bad Batch" later known as Clone Force 99. He had also helped 99 anyway he could. He had studied Mandalorian culture and in his down time would write stories he would read to the cadets. He knew he was just helping the cloners by reinforcing the brainwashing of the cadets but he would tell them stories from Earth that he would revise to make more sense in his new universe.
He would tell them stories mostly at the mess hall after dinner and at first the troopers would laugh and degrade his stories but as time went on they too would quiet down after dinner and would listen along with the young cadets. Kal and the other instructors would often force him to tell his stories to the squad because the stories would spark conversation and they would find lessons that reinforced Mandalorian values.
He had even told them about the Battle of Thermopylae and the 300 Spartans. He had of course taken artistic license and made it seem like the lame shepherd was a hero. This had caused more of the clones to give 99 respect he deserved. 99 had also become the storyteller for the cadets. William had written all of his stories and gave them to 99 to inspire the boys.
---
It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows for William or his brothers, he along with Null and Alpha class were put through the ringer in their training none more so than William himself. He would still fight Walon in no holds barred hand to hand battles regularly. Each defeat bringing him closer to victory. Walon would still beat his ass into the mud but he had noticed that the battles were becoming closer and closer.
Rav Bralor taught him how to stay in fighting shape with her many exercise regimes. It was grueling training that incorporated weight training, cardio and some type of space yoga to keep him flexible. His unique body responded to her training extremely well especially if it was done everyday, which he had no choice but to do daily.
Walon had shifted most of the focus from hand to hand combat and more into counter insurgency tactics and specialized training in case he was captured. He called it S.E.R.E. training, which meant Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape. It consisted of many weeks in battle sneaking past patrols, escaping ambushes, and fighting using guerrilla tactics behind enemy lines. All of this was done on little to no sleep, food or water. Eventually the troopers would be caught and would be put through torture and were taught how to survive the horrible and creative ways to torture someone. That part of the training was twofold, it was meant to toughen up trooper mentally and also taught them the art of torture and intererigation as both the recepient and as the interigator. Needless to say he had it the worst. His fellow troopers no longer envied William because none of them wanted Walon's extra attention on them.
Vhonte Tervho taught hunting, tracking and blaster pistol training. She was one of if not the most adept at blaster pistols out of all the instructors. She was very ver good. She was extremely accurate and fast. Many of the troopers, especially those designated for leadership roles were allowed to mainly focus on the blaster training. William was of course not allowed to do so he had to be proficient in all she taught until he could move on. She would have the troopers track cloned predatory beasts from all across the galaxy. One such training mission had actually almost cost William his eye.
--- Flashback---
William was in the battle space simulator and was tasked to track, hunt and kill the pack of Nexu that had been released in the area. William read info on the datapad, It turns out he was familiar with them. It was actually the feline creature in The Attack of the Clones movie. It was the feline creature in the Geonosis coliseum. In the movies it was smaller than the two other creatures trying to eat Padme, Anakin and Obi Wan.
Reality unfortunately is very different, it was small compared to those giant beasts but in reality it was the size of a bull. It was a weird mix of tiger and lizard. It had numerous razor sharp fangs and four eyes, long claws, sharp quills as a mane and forked whip-like tail. He was able to determine there were three in the forest he was currently tracking through. Due to his extensive training he was able to figure out it was 2 smaller males and a large female alpha.
After silently stalking his prey he found the first of the three climbing a tree. If he had been given a blaster rifle which would have been his normal weapon in battle it would have been an easy task. He had not been allowed his weapon, he had been given a vibro knife and a blaster pistol. Sure the knife was the size of a Ka-bar knife from earth but it wasn't very helpful and his blaster wasn't going to do much damage to the heavily muscled creatures.
William had decided to cut branches and used them to fashion spears and then found a nice area where he would be able to draw the feline-like creature. He had found a small cave and prepared himself. He considered himself lucky that Vhonte allowed him to keep his armor; she had taken his helmet because if that were to be used it would be dishonorable.
He saw the creature attempting to catch a bird in a tree it was silently climbing closer to its prey. William lined up the shot and squeezed the trigger. The blast hit the cat on the left side of its face. It had unfortunately heard the blast and had moved it faced fast enough to avoid a kill shot but it had suffered the loss of an eye. The enraged creature saw William running away from him and gave chase as it ran; it almost missed the pitfall that William had hastily constructed. But one of its paws fell and was pierced by one of the sharpened spears. This caused it to stumble. William did not hesitate and fired upon the rolling mass of claws and fangs. When the animal stopped rolling it was breathing its last breath. Willam unloaded a few more times in its open mouth to make sure it died.
William quickly set up some more traps around the carcass, covered his armor in mud and climbed a rock with a good vantage point and allowed a 360 degree view. He hid and waited. He knew the other Nexu would either hear their packmates roar or smell its blood. He didn't wait long until the other male came to investigate. It sniffed around for a bit and then started to eat its packmate. As it tore chunks of flesh off of the carcass it eventually tripped a trap. It was caught in a snare of razor wire. It roared in pain and while it was busy trying to desperately take the snare off William lined up a shot.
The creature never saw it coming. It took blaster bolts in the throat. Its shock at the sudden pain allowed William more time to unload some more bolts into its face. It finally dropped after a long struggle. William was getting ready for the Alpha but was surprised when his leg was almost impaled by some sharp claws. The alpha had snuck up behind William and jumped up to the rock formation. Its feet started to slide down the escarpment which made its strike miss William.
William rolled from his belly unto his back and unloaded in the muzzle of the beast. The beast was hurt but not dead. Its powerful hind legs found purchase and it was able to jump up on the rock with william. It snarled and snapped at william. When William jumped out of its way the beast took a swipe at him. William fired his blaster and did a diving roll to avoid its huge claws. William rolled under its swipe and he pulled out his vibro knife with his left hand.
The battle was not looking too good for William, he kept shooting, dodging and ducking swipes and tail whips. He was eventually cornered on to the edge of the little plateau he had set up on. He dodged another swipe but was unable to avoid the tail whip to the shoulder. His blaster was dropped over the edge. The beast was bleeding and enraged and it saw that it had cornered William and slowly stalked towards him. William knew that he had very little chance to come out of it alive. He switched his vibro blade to his dominant hand and readied himself for his last stand. He dodged a swipe and gave the beast a swipe of his own. He was able to cut the beast's fore paw. The beast had had enough and charged William. William had realized he wasnt going to survive but he would be damned if he would go out like a punk. He was furious, he saw red and as the creature lunged at him he charged the beast vibro blade in hand. The beast caught him and took both him and it over the edge.
The next thing he knew he woke up in a bacta tank. William was surprised and grateful to actually wake up. He thought he had died. After he was released he was told that he had stabbed the beast through the throat and into its spine. He of course had broken many bones and ruptured organs from both the fall and the weight of the animal falling on him. He was able to be saved since the instructors, scientists and troopers had been observing his hunt through cloaked camera droids.
---Flashback End---
He had earned a lot of respect that day, he was allowed to gain the sigil of the Nexu per Mandalorian custom. He had also been allowed to eat the Nexu meat. It tasted like crap but after nothing but nutrition goop it was heavenly. He had gained a new scar going from his scalp down the left side of his face. Fortunately the Kaminoans had been able to salvage his eye.
His training after that would consist of small group tactics and counter insurgency with Kall and the Null class. Jango had also taught him strategy and leadership along with a lot of nifty fighting tactics. Jango was a sneaky bastard and it was easy to see why he was one of the best commanders during the Mandalorian Civil War not to mention a great bounty hunter and merc.
William had some down time and was able to correspond with Sienar in regards to his ship. He had Customized the ship that would have been the Rogue Shadow in the future to his specific tastes. It was now more symmetrical, had a class 0.5 hyperdrive with a spare to boot. He had a training area, a galley, a small medical bay with a single person bacta tank, a small fresher and the four power cores one of which powered the hyperdrive and engines, one that powered the rest of the systems, one that powered the stealth system and lastly one that powered the weapons and shields.
He had to sacrifice a lot of space for that but he was ok with that because he wasnt on having anyone else live with him on the ship. He had one sleeping quarter and had set it up so it could be piloted by one person. He also had them add three stations were r series droids could connect. He had decided to have the droids be in charge of his weapons and would allow a droid to pilot his ship if need be. All of this of course added costs but with all his personal wealth that Hydra had continued to accrue it was made possible. By the time his ship would be complete he would have it stocked with enough provisions and ammo to be able to survive on the run for at least a year.
William just had to bide his time. He continued to study physics and sciences to be able to either find earth or explore the galaxy long enough to find a safe haven away from the stupid war.
