2 The Newbie

19 years ago

Republic Outpost, the planet Christophsis

"Alright, everyone out! Move!"

At the command of the ground officer, the squad of Republic clone troopers piled out of the LAAT/I gunship and onto the surface of the planet Christophsis. The outpost was bristling with activity as both clones and flight crew members alike rushed around doing their assigned duties. Once all the clones had exited the gunship, they turned to face the two commanders greeting them: one with orange marking and a visor shading his face plate, the other with grey markings, an officer's shoulder padding, and a combat skirt. The orange one was first to speak up.

"Greetings new recruits! My name is Cody, Commander of the 212th Battalion, this here is Commander Wollfe," he said gesturing to the grey officer, "We are both glad of your arrival, those clankers have been giving us a hard time recently and we need help now more than ever. Now for your assignments. You will be divided between either Wolffe or myself. We will see to what assignment you get here. Now we are picking who we get, so line up!"

A few minutes later, all the troopers had been divided and were led to their respective barracks to be evaluated individually by their Commander. Cody was almost finished his evaluations when he came across a trooper that he had not given a second thought to until now. This trooper was slightly shorter than the rest, and looked considerably younger, about the equivalent of a 19 year old, under the helmet. Naturally, Cody's curiosity got the better of him.

"Trooper, what are you called?"

"CT-1776, sir."

"You have a nickname yet?"

"Unfortunately, no, sir."

Now it was time to address the bantha in the room for Cody: "You do seem to notice that you look a lot younger than the others here, right?"

The recruit cracked a grin: "Yeah that was a bit of a mess-up when I was created. I don't age as fast as the other clones. It must have not been too much of a problem, otherwise the Kaminoans would not have let me be deployed."

'Fair enough', thought Cody, 'but he also has a younger stature that's too good for a simple front-line soldier.'

"Well," said Cody after a few seconds of thought, "if Kamino decided your stature was not a problem, then I say we put it to some good use. Meet me at the Command Room at 0800 hours tomorrow morning to get your…special assignment."

Although he did not show it, CT-1776 began to get excited. 'A special assignment, and on my first day too,' he thought to himself, but only gave "Yes sir!" as the response to Cody.

…

"Squad 99?", asked the recruit.

After reporting to Command the next morning, CT-1776 took part in a discussion among Cody and Wolffe as well as the clone commander known as Gree and two of the Jedi generals on the station: Plo Koon and Obi-Wan Kenobi. The recruit did notice a third, green-skinned Jedi, but she did not speak much and have to leave early to attend to something.

During the meeting, Cody had pointed out the benefits of 1776's younger stature and that it could be best used in a special ops team. Master Koon suggested that he be assigned to his command alongside Wolffe's commando team, but the consensus was eventually made to assign him to Clone Squad 99, aka the Bad Batch.

"Don't let their name fool you. They're one of the best squads we have." Cody reassured, "They call themselves the Bad Batch because they have…desirable genetic differences. Like you."

CT-1776's tone became suspiciously calm: "So you are just putting me with the other outcasts. Is that it?"

Now it was Kenobi's turn to speak up: "He didn't mean it like that. We only think that you, since you are (and I mean this with all due respect) different from the others, would work best with a team with similar differences."

"We do not see you as an outcast either," Plo Koon added, "We see you as an equal and merely want to have you at your highest potential, as we do all clones. This assignment seems to do just that."

The recruit's mood seemed to soften: "Well, alright. I still think that this is a slap in the face, but if this is the best way I can serve the Republic, then so be it."

Gree smirked, "Quite the patriot I see."

"Aren't we all, sir?"

"Heh, guess we are."

"It's settled then," interceded Cody, "I'll call the Bad Batch and have them come down here to meet you. Until then, feel free to train however you can with the others. Dismissed."

"Yes sir," said the recruit, and he turned to leave, but Obi-Wan stopped him before he could go.

"Oh, and one more thing," he said. The recruit turned to face him.

"Good luck…Patriot."

The young clone could barely contain his excitement. 'Patriot, my new name! And not a bad one either,' he thought to himself, but all he could reply back to the Jedi was, "Thank you, General." Before leaving the room.

…

"Look alive, Patriot! They're here!"

Patriot was startled from his concentration by Gree. He had waited for nearly two days for the Bad Batch to arrive and had been training in both firearms and hand-to-hand combat, the latter of which he was working on against a training droid when Gree came to give him the news of Squad 99's arrival.

"Well, you ready to meet your new team?" Gree asked.

"Ready as I'll ever be, I guess." Patriot was relieved that he did not have to wait any longer, but he was still nervous about meeting them as he was not sure how they would respond to him. Pushing back his anxiety, he eagerly followed Gree to the hangar.

Soon the two made it into the hangar where the Bad Batch was waiting. They were pretty easy to spot too, as they wore darker colored armor with red markings that really made them stand out from the rest. On top of that, one of them was easily a foot and a half taller than everyone else. Strangely enough, the closer Patriot and Gree got to them, the more excited and nervous Patriot became. Gree, on the other hand, showed none of these emotions and calmly approached the clone Patriot assumed was the leader.

"Welcome to Christophsis, boys! I assume the last mission went well?"

The Bad Batch leader's voice was gruff and stern, "As well as it can get, I suppose. So, who is this new recruit we were told about?"

Patriot took the opportunity to step forward and introduce himself, "I am. CT-1776 reporting. You can call me Patriot."

"Humph. You sure you want this guy on the team, Hunter?" asked the tall, skinny member of the group after looking Patriot over, "He almost looks like a kid, he's shorter than us, and on top of that, he's a shiny."

The clone next to him, this one wearing a custom helmet with large goggles instead of the standard visor, spoke up: "On the contrary, he's only slightly shorter, which is not as big of a deal as you are making it out to be, Crosshair. Also, his stature and youth may have some advantages as they make him faster, more agile, and with a marginally better stamina. Plus, he could probably fit into spaces we cannot. I say we give him a chance."

"I agree with Tech, "said the leader, Hunter, "I'll give him a chance to prove himself on this team, but not in that basic armor. We gotta change that a bit, but I am sure he will do fine. We'll take it from here, Gree."

Gree nodded to Hunter, wished Patriot good luck, and then left the hangar. Meanwhile, Patriot got properly introduced to the team: the leader, Hunter, the tall one, Crosshair, goggle helmet aka. Tech, and the huge burly one was called Wrecker.

"Now that we're all properly introduced," declared Hunter, "Let's change up that armor of yours." A short while later, Patriot emerged from the armory wearing white armor but with red marking like the rest of the team. He also wore a pauldron similar to an ARC Trooper's, a tactical backpack, and a set of polarized macrobinoculars installed into the helmet. Finally, he was given an experimental automatic blaster rifle, similar to the standard-issue DC-15 rifle, but with a more box-like, rectangular barrel.

"Now that's more like it!" shouted Wrecker, impressed with the new look.

"Agreed." said Hunter.

"Thanks." Said Patriot, especially proud of his new armor, "So, what's the next mission, cause I'm getting antsy."

Hunter grinned: "You're in luck, kid. We just got called for a mission while you were getting your upgrade. We leave for Geonosis immediately." Then, extending his hand to Patriot, who promptly shook it, said, "Welcome to the Bad Batch, Patriot."