Chapter 10
Gavin opened his eyes. He felt really odd for some reason. Memory returned and he sat up and looked around. He was in what appeared to be a treatment room in some type of medical facility.
Looking down at himself he saw the dark skin and lighter build he had expected to see. He looked around and spotted a mirror on the wall, so he walked over and took a long look.
He was decent looking, he eventually decided, with white hair and red eyes. Small fangs protruded from the corners of his upper lip. He unexpectedly found himself missing the tusks he had finally gotten used to.
He was wearing a standard skin suit over a solidly built body. It was nothing compared to what he had recently sported but he felt confident in his strength.
The door opened and he turned to face Kitten as she entered.
"Good morning." She smiled, "Are you feeling okay?"
"Yes, I feel perfectly fine, although I expect it will take a bit to get used to the changes again."
"Your brother and Kazumi are down the hall, as well as the remainder of the crew. Once you feel up to it we can head down to the mess and get something to eat."
His stomach rumbled, food was an excellent idea.
He looked around and realized his personal items had been deposited in the room. When he saw his armor piled in the corner he cursed.
"Damn it! I have to reforge it again!"
Kitten giggled, he could tell she was relieved he was up and around.
"We do have an armorer here you know." She told him.
"I would love to talk to him or her." He said, "At least about borrowing the forge for a while."
"That's something we have to discuss. The set up here is a tad convoluted."
"What do you mean?" He asked as she led him out into the hall.
They headed side by side down the hall as she continued.
"We are a mandalorian house, in actuality but at order of the mandalore we pose as a mercenary group called the Legion."
"Why the subterfuge? Not that there wasn't already enough reason before the bastard empire glassed our home planet." He shared with some heat.
"Bo felt.."
"Bo? Bo Katan is mandalore? How did that happen? Last I knew she was with death watch and opposing
her sister, who was the rightful ruler."
"I don't have the full story, as you know I am not from around here. The legion armorer knows all about it though."
"What's their story? How do we rate an armorer?"
"The same as ours, sort of. The clan chief and armorer of the local mandalorian clan volunteered to be cloned so that we had her services here."
"So she died?"
"No, she is one of two instances I am aware of where someone was cloned while alive. The other acts as a sort of lead trainer and tactical expert for us."
"Another mandalorian I take it?"
"Of course."
"Meeting other mandalorians will be nice. Maybe they will know the fate of my old clan. Well, parent clan anyway. Tinker and I split off from the clan before our father died."
They reached one of the ships messes and strolled inside. They quickly chose their items off the menu and then Kitten led them to a table where a couple like themselves sat with a twi'lek and two huge men.
The eldrie looked up and shot him a somehow familiar grin.
"Greetings Vod. It is nice to know I am still the handsome brother."
"I see your change hasn't improved your eyesight Vod."
"I'm sure Kazumi here agrees with me." Tinker grinned.
"Hello Kazumi, you are looking well." Gavin greeted her.
"It's a bit to get used to but not as bad as last time I woke up in a new body." She said.
"First time for us." One of the big men said, "Not sure I want to go through it again."
"Me either." agreed the other.
"I think we can all agree that it certainly beats the alternative." The twi'lek commented.
"I will second that." Kitten chimed in.
"Did you realize yet that we have to resize our armor again?" Gavin asked Tinker, who just groaned.
"And we don't have all that extra muscle for hammer swinging." Tinker groused.
"You will find your new body is plenty strong." Miley volunteered as she arrived at the table carrying her own tray of food.
"I trust everyone is doing alright? No issues?"
"So far, so good." Gavin piped up, "I will have to find the gym later and try and get synched with this new body."
"What do you mean?" Asked one of the clones.
"Your body is now changed so the moves you used to perform will feel different, not as comfortable, plus size and strength affect alot of body movement."
"I hadn't considered that," pondered the man, "What do you recommend?"
"When I was changed before I started working on my katas, once again making them second nature."
"That seems a good suggestion, between that and some good old fashioned PT we should be in top shape in no time." the other clone said cheerfully.
"We won't be deploying for a few weeks anyway fellas. After the mess we just went through command wants us to step back a bit and reassess ourselves."
"Plus the baby is due any day." Terla laughed.
All the legionnaires chuckled as the new folks looked on in confusion. Miley finally took pity on them.
"Our commander, Sparrow, and his wife Siscasse, or just Casse, are expecting their first child, which will be the first eldrie born in thousands of years."
"That's amazing news." Kazumi said happily.
"Thank you. We are pretty happy about it." They turned and there was another eldrie pair, although one of them looked to be carrying two or three more in her stomach.
"My goodness Ma'am! Sit down before you tip over!" Tinker stood and offered her his seat.
The male with her gave a fond smile as she took advantage of the offer.
"She can't wait until it's over." He said.
"No, I can't. Your little beast keeps beating on my internal organs and my bladder is the size of a rhodian grape!"
"We were just following the doctors orders," The man said, inclining his head towards Miley, "and doing some walking around when we saw you new folks and wanted to stop by and welcome you to Nathea and to the Legion Home."
The newly bodied looked a bit confused but then Kitten giggled a little. "You men will appreciate this. We are located on a former CIS command ship."
Both men chuckled. "Most friendly one I've been on." Gavin tossed in.
"We better get back to our walk before Junior decides to come right here." Casse said. "My name is Siscasse or Casse, as you heard, and welcome to the legion."
"And I'm Sparrow and I welcome you as well. We will sit down once you have settled into your new selves a bit and figure out where we go from here."
They agreed that sounded good and traded hugs and handshakes around before the pair wandered off across the ship.
Now that it had been pointed out Gavin could see the architecture of the ship. He hadn't noticed before because this ship had obviously been altered in it's lifetime.
Thinking of the ship made him realize that he and his brother might still have some valuable information floating around regarding some of the CIS and individual seperatist military bases and caches the two had scouted during the war.
Realizing most of that data would have been on his father's shuttle and that any chance of recovering it was gone he cursed softly.
Both Tinker and Kitten caught it and asked him what was wrong. When he shared the thought Kitten looked regretful but Tinker just shrugged. "I always kept our navigation way points backed up in my armor in case we needed to grab another ride. You know that. I have every stash recorded on that."
"We might need to check it out and get some updates on some of those locations. If things went as badly as it appears some of the caches might have
gone undiscovered."
"At the least we could use a new ship." Tinker responded sadly. Their father's shuttle was really nothing special in the greater scheme of things but it had been their home since leaving Kamino.
"Yes." Gavin responded.
"We may be able to do something for you along those lines." Kitten quietly told them. "I'm sure that people with your talents will be highly recruited by both the Legion and the mandalorian clan, although to be honest most of the time it's more like one large group."
"Now that the three of you are up and around what would you like to do first?" Kitten continued.
Gavin and Tinker exchanged a quick look. "We need to tend to our armor first."
"Very well, we can collect it and then go see Akira about getting it altered." Kitten calmly replied.
As they headed towards the armory after collecting up the men's equipment Kitten brought up a possible sticking point.
"Have you given any thought to how you wish to proceed?" She asked.
"What do you mean?" Gavin asked her.
"You can choose whether to join the legion or the mando's or, I suppose neither group and go your own way."
"Really?" Gavin responded, a touch of sarcasm in his tone. "No one will expect us to repay the massive debt we must have run up with all the medical aid alone, not to mention 3 clone bodies and the transfers themselves."
Kitten stopped dead in the passageway and turned to face him, with some heat in her voice she explained.
"Since we broke out of that lab and began this whole journey we have asked not one person for a single thing they did not freely volunteer. Even each and every clone and automaton that is created here is offered their free choice as soon as they are educated enough to make it."
"Do not judge us based on previous groups you have worked with Gavin. You will find we are quite different."
Properly chastised Gavin nodded his head, indicating he had heard her message. As she turned and continued down the passageway he caught the smug look on his brothers face.
"I see we will have to do some sparring later." He growled as Tinker passed him.
His brother just grinned and continued on his way.
Gavin instantly felt more comfortable as they entered the armory. The familiar sights and smells bringing back happy memories. He thought back to times with his buir and his vod as they pounded and shaped metal, forming the armor that was so central to their faith.
Kitten led them straight to the central forge where there was a woman wearing mandalorian armor working on a chest plate. He saw the high quality of the work and was suitably impressed. He took a moment to examine some finished work she had set aside.
He quickly realized it wasn't a standard mandalorian set. The design was more modern, a bit more sleek. The helmet was significantly different, lacking the traditional T shaped visor and having a distinct set of defined eye holes instead. He noted the various built in systems and his fingers itched to pick it up and examine it.
He saw his brother was already deep in conversation with another eldrie, this one a male, as they stood over an interesting looking back piece. He was a bit confused as to the design because it was too thick for a standard plate but too thin to contain a jet pack. His surprise grew when the stranger pushed something and wings popped out of it.