Saga Lacking Heavy Weaponry (clone vignette)

Title: Lacking Heavy Weaponry

Author: Kudzu

Timeframe: Clone Wars, Year Two-Three

Characters: OCs

Genre: Angst/Philosophy

Summary: A snapshot of the lives of four noncombatant clones from Kamino, doing their duties for the Grand Army of the Republic in their own way.

Disclaimer: Unofficial, Star Wars in general is property of Lucasfilm, etc etc.

Epigraph: "Let us train our minds to desire what the situation demands" - Seneca



How can I be a clone trooper when my job is not to destroy my enemy, but to bandage my brothers, keeping their legs elevated while more of them rush by with guns blazing? Why do they receive the glory while I perform tracheotomies and loot my brothers' corpses for intact limbs and organs, unblemished skin for grafting and fresh blood for transfusions? Why are they the proud infantrymen of the Republic, while I am just a medic, a Human droid?

CT-55/M2 wrestled with these questions every day, every hour, every minute of his life. He was no soldier, as much as he desired to have been one and not a battlefield surgeon. Not a medic. He wanted to not just heal, but kill, as he had been originally created to do.

Where is my Deece rifle? he asked himself sometimes. Where are my reverse-polarity grenades?

Where is my glory?

Sometimes he thought that some cruel god must be hiding them from him, and sometimes he thought that he'd spend the rest of his life searching for what he was robbed of by fate.

The Kaminoans had constantly reminded him that he was lucky to have been kept alive. The others in his batch had frequently gone on to greatness, serving at Muunilist and Hypori. He hadn't. From his earliest exercises, he'd never been the marksmen that his brothers had been. He hadn't run as hard or swam as fast.

He just hadn't been strong enough. But instead of culling him with a lethal injection as they had done with so many other sub-par trainees, the Kaminoans had given him a medical kit and some stimpacks, and they had entrusted him with the duty of saving those wounded in live-fire training from the jaws of death and helping them recover back to their full health.

By some accursed twist of fate, M2 had actually been good at the damn job. And so the Kaminoans made him a medic.

They told them that he was fortunate to have not been disposed of. They said that he was lucky. But sometimes, despite knowing what good things his service as a medic did for the Republic and for his brothers, Emtoo wished that they'd just killed him instead so that he'd never have to suffer the ignobility of standing by while the other troopers marched into the thick of battle.

He would never paint a kill mark on the side of his gunship. He'd never feel the grim, fierce satisfaction of seeing droid parts scatter in his rifle's sights. He'd never be awarded the Chancellor's Service Medal after some daring commando raid into an enemy battleship core.

He knew blood and gore and injury and death. But they were not of his enemies. They were of his brothers.

Emtoo understood that it was a selfish desire of his, to wish that he'd died instead of being shipped out to serve as some lowly field medic for his injured and dying duplicates. He'd saved the lives of many clone troopers - more glory for them to grab in a life not cut so short, thanks to him; more units surviving as assets to the Republic's militant defense.

In a way, it was honorable in itself. He was saving lives. He was helping his brothers and he was helping the Republic.

He still wished that he could be out there, shooting and destroying and killing - but if he was, who else would be back here, in his place, patching up the wounded and stacking up the dead? A droid - one of the cylindrical FX-6 medical robots that were standard-issue among gunship crews? He didn't trust them. Droids had their precision, but they couldn't ever replace organic sentients. If he was the one in pain, bleeding profusely from a shrapnel wound in the gut or missing an arm and both legs from a l

 

You guys are putting out some absolutely fantastic clone wars literature. Kudzu, this was another awesome viggie. If you ever wrote a clone wars novel (or have you?), I'd definitely read it front to back. Good job as always!

Edit: Excellent title, btw.

 

I can't really describe how good this is. I think you've probably hit on one of the most original angles possible to portray the clones from, and you pulled it off exquisitely, these two segments in particular:

Once again, excellent.

Vor'e, ner vod.

 

Kudzu, your a clone fanatic.


But a damn good one.


Wonderful Viggie, I love the men in white.

 

This is a close second to "What is Real" for me, Kudzu. As your writing partner, I have to admit I feel kinda bad I didn't think of something like this first, heh.

But ladies and gents, stuff like this is why I write with Kudzu. He could kick my ass any day of the week but still puts up with my procrastination. Good writer and a patient dude.

 

Wow, thanks guys

Fixed an issue with some clone trooper rank confusion. Yes, I invented the Senior Clone Marshal Commander rank (what a mouthful!) because c'mon, considering how big the Grand Army must really be, and considering how pacifistic a lot of the Jedi Masters seem to be, they'd need higher-up clones and other officers (Baraka from TCD, Grunger, Tarkin, etc.) to lead some of the sector armies. So there are only a few of them - literally, just a few - but Van has the distinguishment of being one of them.

 

Why do they receive the glory while I perform tracheotomies and loot my brothers? corpses for intact limbs and organs, unblemished skin for grafting and fresh blood for transfusions?

Ohhhh, that line had me hooked!

I noticed that the four mini stories seem to progress from "I hate my life" to "I accept my life" to "I'm proud of my life." Whether or not that was intentional, it made the ending line even stronger. Another amazing vig, Kudzu!

 

Kandosii, ner vod!

I gotta second Mig on that... it's very close second to "What is Real", if not even on the same step...

The idea is great, and all chars seem very real, and I really guess that we have such clones in the GAR.

Only one thing: Commander Van is a 1st gen Commander. Since he hadn't joined Alpha's sessons, he should still have a "CT-##/##-####" desig...

and btw, you should've named him "Thrawn" or so, lol... at least "Threnn" sounds quite similar to "Thrawn"

again, awesome job, Kudzu...

Keep up the amazing work, burc'ya

 

Great stuff, Kudzu. Kandosii.

 

That's a confirmed typo on Bly and in Deviss's case, he was promoted two-thirds of the way through the war. Not sure about A'den.

Hehe, have you been reading my Fanfiction Database page?

Again, thanks guys - glad you all liked.

 

I especially liked the tactician one.

 

Nope...

Wanna give me a link to it?

 

This was simply amazing! Bravo! You really know how to get inside the mind of the troopers, a hard feat!

 

Linkie

 

Sweet... Vor'e, ner vod.

I have such profiles for my Havoc Squad and Shadow Taung as well, but not for each character I write... maybe the idea isn't so bad, if you want to use chars in more than one fic.

I really like Faäs and Bendak... can't wait them to have their own fics

Commander Threnns backstory is nice as well *g* - even tho, as you already mentioned, the rank "Senior Marshal CLone Commander" doesn't exist...

 

This was excellent. You portrayed their thoughts so well. Bravo!

 

Thanks again, everybody. A note that I rewrote the ending a li'l bit and yes! I did shorten the title!