3 Chapter 3

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.

"Speech"

Thoughts/letters/emails

Mando language

Buir = Father/dad

Adiik = child/kid

Shebs = butt/backside/ass

Oya = let's hunt/Stay alive

Chapter 3

Eight years… it had been 8 years since he awoke in that tank. He was now a full fledged Clone Commando. He was Clone Commando designation XC-0187, Kratos Vau. The previous two years had flown in a flash. He had continued his training with the Mandalorian instructors. He had become one of the most effective commandos in the whole of the army. He along with the Null class and the Alpha class of troopers were looked at as supreme badasses by his clone brothers. The Bad Batch had been created and he along with 99 and Kal Skirata had taken them under their wings. His appearance in this universe seemed to have fast forwarded the timeline and their creation. They were still the unruly bunch but few could say that their training had yielded subpar results. They were a bunch of oddballs but they were a bunch of badass oddballs.

The previous year had been the turning point for William. He had finally beat Walon in a fight. To say the old man was pissed would be an understatement but he had also noticed under all the bluster the man was proud. He was also the top of Vhonte's class when it came to hunting, tracking and pistols. He was followed closely by one of the Bad Batch named Hunter, but he was still a kid compared to him. Kal was happy his boys were of good Mandalorian stock and would be proud to claim them as his clan. When the offer was made William had declined and simply stated that he would eventually start his own clan. Kal respected that.

William had also spent most of the previous year with the Corellian instructors. They were the ones who specialized as flight instructors and he had taken to flying like a fish to water. Not many knew that William in his previous life had wanted to be a pilot, like his dad. Unfortunately his health problems had disqualified him from such but it had always been his secret dream. In this new life he had not only become a pilot but a spaceship pilot which was way cooler than a normal pilot on earth.

William was shaken out of his reminiscing by a hard punch to the shoulder. He looked to find the soon to be dead man but saw it was only Walon.

"We just received word that your orders are gonna come in soon. Are you sitting here shaking in your boots thinking about it?"

William scoffed, "Buir, you sure are asking for a beating, aren't you?"

"Ha! You sure talk big now that you are grown dont ya, adiik? You only won our bouts because I let you win." Walon replied.

"Sure old man, we'll go with that. I'm not scared, just confused. I know that our way is the way of the warrior so if we should fall in battle it would be a good death but it still saddens me a bit knowing that not all of my brothers will come back from this."

"That's natural kid, but we are Mando'ade. This is the way… our way. Not all of your brothers will come back and that is what happens in war but just rely on your training and it will see you through. We follow the way of the Mandalore. We, like all Mandalorians before us, live our lives to the fullest because we know better than most that tomorrow is never promised." Kal Skirata had answered. He had come up behind the two warriors followed by some of his fellow instructors and Null squad.

"Watch each other's backs and fight hard. Do not bring dishonor to us, we didn't waste our time training you boys for nothing." Rav Bralor commented. She had been one of the toughest instructors in the group. She was also the momma bear and absolutely hated the Kaminoans. 

They all parted ways after that, William went to his squad bay and finalized his supplies. He had everything gathered and put it away in his assault pack. As he finished he received a ping on his armor's interface. He had customized his armor to add a datapad onto his gauntlet. His orders had come in. He figured they would leave for Geonosis soon. He had seen Obi Wan touring the facility so he figured that it was finally time for canon to start. 99 came into the squad bay.

"Brother, I'm glad to have had the chance to see you before I ship off. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the support you have given me throughout these years. I left you something on your bed. Open it after I leave. You may not be a good trooper but you are a great man. I leave you with an important mission, brother, continue to be a great man and tell the stories to the cadets, our little brothers need to have at least a small sliver of a childhood and affection." William walked over to the old clone and put his hands on his shoulders then gave him a hug,

99 had unshed tears in his eyes, he may never admit it out loud but he had always felt the shame of not being the same as his brothers but that had all changed when he met that little white haired boy. Through the years that little boy had grown and always included him in things, it may have been minor things but he felt gratification knowing he would help his brother in battle even if it was in small things. His little brother had even changed the way his other brothers saw him. 

He was sad and proud to see his brothers go off to war but as his little brother had said, "We all have roles to play and yours 99, is one of the most overlooked but also the most important of all. Your role is to make us feel like this place is a home."

99 and William ended the hug. William donned his Commando helmet. He prepared himself for the giant clusterfuck that the Jedi were about to throw them into.

---

William had been picked to lead a company of Commandos during the operation. He was not happy about it at all. He along with the other Commanders knew that the terrain and from what he could tell, the strategy that had been given by their High General Yoda was basically throwing lives away. He was pretty pissed about it and so were the Null Squad. As the leadership had been summoned to finalize battle plans in the conference room they were met with Yoda who had started to give his strategy. As William listened to the little green alien state his strategy he couldn't help but scoff. 

His fellow Null squad leader grabbed his shoulder as a way to shut him up. William rolled his eyes under his helmet but decided to shut up. He knew that as soon as they landed the dumbass Jedi were gonna get a lot of themselves and his brothers killed. He had agonized over his choice for months.

He knew that if he interfered in the battle he would be able to save many. The downside would be that it would shine a huge spotlight on him and that is definitely something he could not allow. He didn't want the Kaminoans to haul his ass back to be poked and prodded some more. He didn't want the Jedi to poke their sanctimonious noses in his business and he sure as hell didn't need Ole vagina neck himself to start keeping an eye on him. The less he was involved with Palpatine the better off he would be. 

He bit his tongue and listened to the rest of the briefing. They had just arrived outside of Geonosis orbit and already a space battle was taking place. He was getting his last minute equipment and radio checks completed. He decided that he would just try to keep his company alive. Finished with his checks he organized his men.

"Alright settle down, we all know what the objective is and we know what we are supposed to do but it bears repeating. We are gonna go save the Jedi and some VIP's. You all received the info on High Value Targets. I will say this, if we have an opportunity then capture or kill them. They are High Value for a reason, so watch your asses. 

That being said, I personally found this strategy to be lacking but I'm not the boss I'm just a grunt like the rest of you. I am sending all of you a packet of info that I'm requiring you to read in the next 15 minutes. It will give you ideas on what type of battlefield we're about to step on. Little to no cover, and fighting superior numbers. 

I'm not gonna lie to you, we are about to step into the meat grinder. I know you are all thinking that we are commandos and that we aren't meant for this type of battlefield. Well tough! We may not have the same experience as the Regs in open battlefield tactics but we are the elite. We can infiltrate worlds and bring them down in a matter of days. This is it boys, the trial by fire. We gonna let the Regs think we're a bunch of morons that can't handle themselves or are we gonna do what we do best? We are gonna adapt, shoot and communicate. We are gonna put boot to shebs and get the job done. OYA!"

William had decided to get his troopers fired up and gave them something to do so they wouldn't be nervous. He was unusually calm and also excited for his first actual battle. He was not nervous or scared but more excited like he was ready to kick some ass. He had to hand it to the Kaminoans, they did a great job of brainwashing them into killers. He had his sergeants prepare their platoons.

---

William and his men had just landed on what he would equate to Omaha Beach back home. The droid army was pounding them with artillery fire; he and his men had been forced to advance into the oncoming waves of droids and droid tanks. He would later analyze the battle and would find his state of mind was disturbing. He was calm and collected but also quite excited. It was a strange dichotomy of being able to calmly make decisions and also a strong battle lust. He and most of his company had been pinned down by the line of droids. The rest of the battle was a sort of blur between pushing forward only to be pinned down again then pushing forward. He had finally had enough and ordered any close air ships that were severely damaged to crash into the enemy lines. He had of course asked the pilots to bail out beforehand. 

Soon dropships were raining down on the front lines of the droid waves and taking out large swaths of enemies. He would then push forward with his men and have them use the wreckages of the dropships as cover, slowly pushing the droids back until the battle was finally finished. All in all he and his men had fought tooth and nail for hours. The battle was considered a victory but it was a pyrrhic victory at best. William knew that the planet couldn't be held and in the future would be lost to the Separatists. 

The aftermath was a blow to the gut for William and many of the Special Forces. They had fought in a manner that they had been trained to avoid due to their specialized roles. Many commanders felt that the battle could have been planned and executed better if the Jedi had not taken command of the army. It made no sense as to why an order of monks who had not fought in an actual war in over a thousand years thought they knew more about warfare than the men literally born and trained for that specific purpose. He had to give it to Palpitine; he had suckered the Jedi to take the blame for the losses in the most seamless of ways possible. 

William and his men had been relieved from their posts and he ordered his men to help gather the bodies of their brethren. He had the men stripped of any possible sensitive items like intel and ammo then had them all gathered and he personally made sure that each fallen trooper had his weapon and lit the huge funeral pyres. When he and his men had finished with the impromptu funeral service he was asked to report to the command tent. Null squad had been present when he had been ordered to report. They knew William was quite outspoken and quickly followed in his wake  to try and stop him from doing something foolish.

After a long and silent walk and dropship ride, William found himself in the command center in front of Mace motherfuckin Windu himself. As much as he wanted to fanboy, his anger and frustration overrode it. 

"Trooper, do you know why you have been summoned before us?" Windu asked.

William's plan had been to lay low and then disappear into the sunset but staring at a stoned faced Mace Windu, curious Kenobi, and a silent yet calm Yoda. His temper got the best of him.

"No sir, I do not, I was just told to report here." William replied. His back ramrod straight and head held high.

"Why did you decide to order your men to gather the dead and burn the bodies? You were not ordered to do so." Mace replied with narrowed eyes.

William did not like the tone he had been addressed with. "I decided to order my men to gather the dead and burn the bodies to give my troopers a proper send off. Is there a problem with that sir?

Mace didn't seem to like the tone he had been given and his brows seemed to furrow. "You were not given any such order so why did you take it upon yourself to do so?"

William bit his tongue when he sensed the commanders in the tent tense. He had to control himself to not jump off the handle. "I decided to do so because I had not been given any orders that stated I couldn't."

At that moment Commander Cody decided to reprimand him, "Trooper you are addressing the general watch your tone!"

William had met the famous Commander Cody and had not been impressed by the man. He walked around like he had a starship up his ass and apparently liked to kiss Jedi ass. William turned his head to Cody and scoffed as his last bit of self control broke.

"I see no General here, I saw a monk who instead of coming up with a plan decided that throwing lives away for nothing was acceptable. We all know that we are soldiers in this army and that we may die on the battlefield but…" William was cut off as Commander Cody lost his temper.

"XC-0187 you will show the General due respect! You are treading dangerously close to court martial and imprisonment!"

William just laughed, "Court martial for what? Giving my dead troopers a funeral? For pointing out that the man in charge threw our lives away needlessly due to lack of tactics? For pointing out that he and his order are monks dedicated to peace and had not trained in warfare in almost a thousand years? If they had asked any of the commanders for suggestions the loss of life could have been reduced and none can argue that. Just because they don't consider us human doesn't mean that our lives are worth any less than theirs."

At that point William felt a calming feeling take him over. It was relaxing and soothing but it felt hollow. He realized that one of the Jedi had used one of their powers on him. That of course allowed two troopers to apprehend him. He didn't put up a fight and let them disarm him and apprehend him. 

He saw members of the Null squad tense further but he gave them a small shake of his head. He knew he fucked up but he wouldnt fuck up the timeline anymore through his actions. 

"Much anger sense in you, I do?" spoke the little green gremlin. 

William scoffed, "I wonder would tipped you off? You must be the observant one in the order huh?"

Yoda shook his head and portrayed the visage of a disappointed grandparent. "Release him, You will. Wrong he is not, many mistakes we made. He has broken no rules and gave his soldiers a final goodbye he has. Return to your men, you will; gather dead troopers and provide funural rites we shall. Too much this battle has cost, learn from this we will." 

William was then let go and was escorted out. He was mentally berating himself as to why he lost his temper. It was very strange. He decided to ponder that later he needed to make some more preparations for his exit from the war.

---

Mace Windu and the other Jedi left the HQ and walked towards dropships. "Master Yoda, why did you release him?" Mace asked.

Yoda held onto his stick and sighed, "Wrong the trooper was not. Lost many lives we did. Peacekeepers we tell others we are. Seem to have forgotten that soldiers we are not hmm. Cause more problems we would if court martial trooper had been. Many questions about this army there is. More lost we would have if we pushed. Senate blame the Jedi will, disunity it would cause. Meditate on this we all should."

Mace had grown used to his authority as master of the order and did not like it when his authority was questioned but after thinking about it he realized that he had also overreacted which would have caused dissension in the ranks which at the start of a war would have been disastrous for the republic. 

"Obi wan go and check on your padawan we know you must be worried for him. We will meet back in the temple to prepare the funeral for our lost Jedi." Mace ordered.

"Yes Master Windu, I will go see how Anakin is holding up.  May the force be with you, masters."

"And may the force be with you, master Kenobi." Windu replied.

---

To say that William had received notoriety would be an understatement. The clone army was like any large organization so the trooper gossip network knew what had happened before he had made it halfway to his men. The commandos would give him understanding nods. The regular troopers including the commanders shook their heads in disgust. Once he had returned to his men and set about his duties he was told that his new orders had come in. He and the Null squad had said their goodbyes and he received the orders. It seemed he had pissed off command because he and two platoons of his men had been assigned with helping the regulars with clean up operations. 

It meant that Geonosis would be his home for an indeterminate length of time. They had to go and secure all the droid factories and hunt down any stragglers from either the droid armies or the Seperatist command. Soon after he received a notification on his private datapad that the ship he had ordered had been delayed due to scarcity of some materials. The war was already affecting supply chains in the galaxy and every megacorp was buying up materials for the impending war. He had been notified that his ship which was due to be finished within the year had now been delayed and would not be completed for at least 18 months.

William kicked his cot across his private room and then replied that it was fine and to be notified as soon as it was possible. He let out a tired sigh and proceeded to clean up his room. He had to get some rest because the next few months would be a pain in the ass.

---

It had been 4 months since he had been given his orders he had decided to have his two platoons break into teams of 4 and take out multiple objectives in their battle area at the same time. This made it so that they would have a better chance of survival and better chances of completing their missions. His plan had been very successful and some of the other special forces commandos had taken to his methods. The regulars not so much. For the most part the Jedi left him and his men alone and would just give him objectives he would complete. The regulars were unfortunate that they would be micro managed by the inexperienced jedi which in turn created a lot of casualties and failed missions.

William had decided to peel off from his men and told his second in command to take charge of the mission while he investigated some weird readings he had found in his scanner. His men did not find it odd that their commander would go off on his own because he would more often than not be more effective on his own. William had lied to his men, he had just recently remembered that in the Clone Wars cartoon there had been a second battle of Geonosis which had pretty much kicked the Grand Army off planet and they had restarted the droid foundries they were assigned to guard. He knew a battle was to come and that they would be very much outnumbered and outgunned so he decided to do something about it. He had snuck over to as many of the droid foundries as he could and used Hydra to hack into the droid programming programs and had Hydra implant a virus into their core programming that he could trigger to take command of all the droids. It wouldn't be possible to take control of all the droids permanently but it would give him a good 5 minutes to come up with plans. That of course was his last option, he had also had his men discreetly plant thermo detonators sound the power cores of all the foundries and armories to at least slow down the Seperatist long enough for the Army to either come up with viable strategies or more than likely buy time for them to retreat.

He had been sabotaging the enemy assets for another month before things changed drastically for him.

---

In a dark room halfway across the galaxy a tall and regal man stood before a holo projector. He was dressed in fine robes denoting he was from the very top of the upper class. He was the nominal head of the Seperatist movement, Count Dooku of Serenno. To the public he was the man who had decided to secede from the corrupt republic and was now the leading figure in what most considered a Galactic Civil War. To some who knew him before the events of Geonosis, he was a master Jedi known for his mastery of form two of lightsaber combat, Makashi.

Very few knew that the man was also known by another name, Darth Tyranus. No matter the role he played, he was a man with power, money, and ruthless intelligence. He bowed to only one man and that man was going to contact him soon with his new marching orders. Count Dooku did not wait long. The holo projector activated and showed the cowled figure of his master Darth Sidious.

"Greetings my master, I will start my report. Poggle the Lesser and his troops have been biding their time deep under the surface of Geonosis. The Banking Clans have continued to fund the Techno Unions other droid foundries and shipbuilding stations. The Techno Union is continuing to buy as much raw materials as can be found to continue to build up the army and have also started to improve programming on the command droids. Cartao was lost to the republic. Whorm Loathsom has just sent word that he has conquered Christophis but that a transmission was able to get off world before he took control. The republic will surely be on their way soon." Dooku stated.

A cruel smile could be seen on the only visible part of the face of the Sith Lord Sidious. "Good, you have done well, Lord Tyranus. I have something else I need from you, I want you to send General Grievous to Geonosis discreetly. There is someone on Geonosis I would like to be collected and sent to Wayland. He is most amusing, he will be perfect for my next project." 

"It shall be done, master. Who is the target?" asked Dooku. 

"It is Experimental Clone 0187. He is one of the Special forces commanders. His information will be sent to your datapad. Make sure Grievous knows he is to be brought in alive! He doesnt have to be whole… just alive." Sidious then let out a cackle before his image disappeared.

Dooku let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. The way the dark side had almost physically coalesced when his master showed joy in imagining the cruelties he would inflict upon his next victim was always terrifying

"I truly pity you trooper, because now you have caught his attention..