=== Clone Commando (CC-2856) ===
The interior of the Star Destroyer thrummed with a constant vibration as it tore through hyperspace, the sound settling into something that most of the men and women aboard had already begun to tune out, though for CC-2856 it was just another reminder of how many times he had done this, how many insertions had begun exactly like this, with the same hum, the same tension in the air, the same false sense of anticipation that always came before the reality of what waited on the other side.
He stood near the rear of the compartment, helmet clipped to his side, his hollowed eyes drifting over the squad that now filled the benches before him, and as he watched them talk, laugh, and jostle each other in barely contained excitement, something in his expression hardened further.
They were young. Too young.
Not in years, necessarily, but in experience, in the brutal truth of what war actually was beyond the holos and the speeches and the polished armor handed to them before deployment. Their armor still looked new, unscarred, unmarked by the things that would inevitably carve themselves into it, and into them, and as they loaded into the troop transport, securing weapons and checking gear with more enthusiasm than discipline, their voices overlapped in a constant stream of chatter that filled the compartment.
Kade was the loudest of them, already recounting some imagined version of what their first real engagement would look like, his hands moving as he spoke, as though he could already see himself in the middle of it, cutting down enemies with ease. Vira sat across from him, rolling her eyes at his exaggerations even as she smiled, her own rifle resting comfortably across her lap, while Dalen leaned back beside her, offering occasional comments that only seemed to fuel the conversation further.
Near the ramp, Juno and Harrex checked their gear with a bit more focus, though even they could not fully hide the edge of anticipation that ran through the entire group.
They had named CC-2856 the Reaper, spoken with admiration, almost reverence, as though it were something to aspire to, something that made him larger than life in their eyes. When they looked at him, they saw a veteran, a survivor, someone who had stood in the fire of war and walked away from it, and they thought that made him something to admire.
They did not see what it had taken, or what it had left behind.
Reaper watched them for a long moment, saying nothing, his gaze moving from one to the next as their voices filled the space, and though he could hear every word, none of it felt real to him, not anymore, not after everything he had seen over the past years of war. What they spoke of was not war, not truly, but a version of it that existed only in stories told by those who had never stood in the mud with blaster fire cutting the air apart around them.
"Reaper."
The name pulled his attention back.
Vira leaned forward slightly, her expression curious now rather than amused as she looked at him.
"You think we'll be on the front lines?" she asked. "Maybe even Mandalore itself?"
For a moment, he just looked at her, then at the others.
They had quieted slightly, not entirely, but enough that they were listening now, their attention shifting toward him.
He let out a heavy sigh.
"I hope not," he said.
Confusion flickered across Vira's face, and Kade frowned slightly, the easy confidence that had defined his tone moments ago faltering just a bit.
"What?" Kade asked. "Why wouldn't you want—"
"Because then you might live," Reaper cut in.
"Look," he said, pushing himself off the wall as he stepped forward just enough to make sure they were all listening, his gaze moving between them slowly. "War isn't what you think it is."
He gestured vaguely toward them, toward their armor, their weapons, the barely contained anticipation that still lingered beneath the surface.
"You see the holos," he went on. "You see the soldiers coming back, getting medals, getting their names called out like they did something worth celebrating."
His jaw tightened slightly.
"They don't show you what it looks like in the trenches," he continued, his voice lowering just enough to draw them in. "They don't show you what it's like when you're standing next to someone one second, talking like this, and the next…" He paused briefly. "The next you're covered in what's left of them, and you don't even remember when it happened."
No one spoke. Even Kade had gone still now.
"You think this is glory," Reaper said, his gaze hardening as he looked at them. "You think you're going to charge in, kill the enemy, and come out the other side as heroes."
He shook his head slowly.
"You're fools."
"That thing they're calling an Emperor now," he went on, the bitterness in his voice surfacing just enough to be felt, "he's filled your heads with stories. With valor. With purpose." His lip curled slightly. "None of that survives first contact."
He took another step forward, closing the distance just enough to make sure they couldn't look away.
"You ever seen a Mandalorian up close?" he asked. "Not on a screen. Not in a briefing. I mean really seen one, in the middle of a fight?"
No one answered.
"You haven't," he said, answering for them. "And you haven't seen what happens when they're led by an Astartes."
That name alone carried weight.
"They don't move like people," he continued, his voice quieter now. "They walk through fire like it's nothing. Their armor doesn't break. Their weapons don't miss. And when they get close enough to see you…"
He stopped there for a moment, his gaze drifting slightly, as though seeing something else entirely.
"You feel it," he said finally. "You feel it before they even touch you. That moment where you realize…" His voice tightened just slightly. "You were dead the second they stepped into that trench."
The silence in the compartment was deafening now.
"You don't think about tactics then," he added. "You don't think about the mission. You don't think about the Empire." His eyes flicked back to them. "You think about how fast you can die."
The speakers crackled to life.
"Attention all personnel," a voice announced over the internal comms of the star destroyer. "We will be exiting hyperspace momentarily. All units prepare for deployment."
A brief pause.
"Primary objective: surface insertion on Mandalore."
The tension shattered as the squad erupted into cheers, the earlier excitement flooding back in full force as though nothing had been said. Kade let out a whoop, slapping Dalen on the shoulder, while Vira shook her head with a grin that carried more adrenaline than doubt, and even Juno and Harrex seemed pulled into it, the energy of the moment overwhelming whatever hesitation had been there before.
Reaper watched them for a second longer.
Then he turned away.
He moved to one of the side benches and sat down heavily, resting his forearms on his knees as he stared at the deck plating beneath his boots, the noise of their excitement washing over him without meaning.
"Fools," he muttered under his breath.
They didn't hear him. Or if they did, they didn't care.
They were already talking again, already building themselves up, already imagining the battle to come as something they would conquer, something they would survive, something that would make them into something greater.
The transition out of hyperspace shook the entire Star Destroyer violently as reality snapped back into place around it, the hum of the engines shifting as inertial dampeners fought to compensate.
CC-2856 felt the jolt travel through the deck and into his bones as he brought his helmet up, locking it into place with a sharp hiss.
He had lived too long, seen too much. Mandalore drew closer with every passing second, and there was a part of him that already understood how this would end.
He rose to his feet anyway.
"Move!" he barked, his voice cutting through the compartment as he turned toward the squad. "Get to the drop ships, now!"
They obeyed.
The bay doors ahead groaned open, revealing the vast expanse beyond as rows of troop transports detached in rapid succession, engines flaring to life as they were launched into the void.
A harsh, wailing alarm drowned out everything else as red warning lights flooded the hangar, and beyond the open bay, the first flashes of incoming fire lit the darkness as Mandalore answered their arrival with overwhelming force.
The sky erupted into motion, dozens of Star Destroyers spilling into orbit only to be met immediately by a storm of defensive fire rising from the surface below, streaks of energy tearing upward in relentless waves as hundreds of thousands of ships flooded the space between, clashing in a chaotic storm of metal and fire.
Reaper shoved the squad forward into the transport, following them in as the hatch sealed behind them before the craft lurched violently as it was launched from the hangar into open space. The interior lighting dimmed to a harsh red, casting long shadows across the compartment as the ship accelerated, the distant flashes of battle visible through the narrow viewport as they angled toward the planet below.
Reaper turned his head slightly, his gaze moving across the squad as he saw it in their posture, in the way their movements had slowed, in the way their breathing had changed. The excitement was gone now, burned away in an instant by the sheer scale of what they had just witnessed, and in its place was something far more honest.
Fear.
The ship began to shake as it hit the upper atmosphere, the hull groaning under the stress as streaks of fire tore past the viewport, and then the first impacts came.
The entire craft lurched, throwing several of them against their restraints as the pilot fought to maintain control, alarms blaring as systems strained under the barrage.
Reaper braced himself, one hand gripping the overhead support as the shaking intensified, his body moving with the motion of the ship rather than against it as they punched through the atmosphere and into the storm below.
The transport slammed into the ground with enough force to jolt every bone in his body, the side door blowing open almost immediately as the pilot shouted something incoherent over the comms, and without hesitation, Reaper moved.
He hit the ground running, and the world outside was chaos.
Blaster fire streaked through the air in every direction, the crack of bolter rounds tearing through the battlefield with explosive force as the barren, jagged landscape of Mandalore stretched out before them, already littered with the wreckage of downed ships and the bodies of those who had not made it out alive.
Reaper dove for cover behind a fractured slab of stone, his rifle already up as he began returning fire, the disciplined rhythm of his shots cutting through the noise as the rest of the squad poured out behind him.
They barely had time to react.
Harrex stepped off the ramp, shouting as he did, then… he ceased to exist.
A bolter round struck his chest and detonated instantly, the explosion tearing him apart in a violent spray of gore that splattered across those nearest to him, the force of it sending several of them stumbling as what remained of him hit the ground in pieces.
The battlefield surged forward without pause as the squad scattered, scrambling for whatever cover they could find as fire rained down around them, and then the transport behind them erupted in a deafening explosion, the force of it throwing them all forward as the shockwave rolled across the ground.
Reaper hit the ground hard, the breath driven from his lungs as he rolled with the impact, his training taking over before his mind could catch up, and as he forced himself back up, he saw them.
Or what was left of them.
Vira stumbled to her feet nearby, her hands shaking as she wiped at the lenses of her helmet, her breathing ragged and uneven as she turned and saw Juno and Dalen where they had fallen. One lay twisted and broken from the blast, unmoving, while the other had been thrown onto a jagged outcrop, the rock driven clean through his torso as he hung there, still alive for a few terrible seconds as a strangled scream tore from him before his body finally went limp.
She froze, and Reaper knew what was happening immediately.
The hesitation.
The shock.
The exact moment she stopped being a soldier and became just another person caught in something far too big for her to understand.
Reaper slammed into her, driving her down into the dirt as a line of fire tore through the space where her head had been a fraction of a second before.
"Get down!" he roared, his voice raw as he rolled over her and began firing, his shots forcing back the incoming fire just enough to give them a chance.
She was shaking.
He could feel it through the contact, her entire body trembling as she looked around, really looked for the first time, and saw the battlefield for what it was, the wounded screaming, the dying reaching for help that would never come, the ground itself soaked in blood and ash.
This was what he had tried to tell them.
This was what they had not understood.
He struck her across the side of the helmet, hard enough to snap her focus back.
"Pick up your weapon!" he shouted. "Or you're dead!"
Her hands moved, clumsy at first, then more controlled as she grabbed her rifle and brought it up, firing blindly at first before correcting, her training fighting its way back through the panic.
For a moment, it looked like she might hold.
Then she saw Kade.
He was standing in the open, his rifle hanging loosely at his side, his body locked in place as he stared at the carnage around him, completely frozen.
"Kade!" she screamed. "Move!"
Before she knew it, his body simply separated, cut cleanly in half at the waist as though it had never been whole to begin with, the upper half collapsing to the ground a heartbeat after the lower.
Vira's scream turned into something else entirely as she looked up, seeing the monster.
A massive black and white Astartes moved through the battlefield like a force of nature, his massive form clad in blackened armor as he carved a path through the advancing troops, the Darksaber in his grasp cutting through armor and flesh with effortless precision.
His storm shield intercepted incoming fire without slowing his advance as he stepped over the dead and dying alike, his red optics burning through the chaos as they locked onto the two figures still standing.
On them.
Vira's mind broke.
She opened fire, her rifle bucking wildly in her hands as she poured everything she had toward him, Reaper doing the same beside her, though he knew even as he fired that it would not be enough.
A speeder roared into view from the Astartes flank, its pilot screaming as it accelerated toward the Black Templar in a desperate attempt to break his advance.
The Astartes turned.
With a single, brutal motion, he drove his shield into it.
The impact was catastrophic.
The speeder crumpled like paper, its forward section collapsing inward as it was deflected off course, the wreckage tumbling across the ground in a violent cascade of fire and twisted metal.
That was the moment Reaper needed.
He grabbed Vira by the arm and hauled her to her feet, his grip unyielding as he dragged her back from the edge of collapse.
"Run!" he shouted, his voice cutting through everything else. "Now!"
They ran.
CC-2856 did not look back at first, because he did not need to, the sound alone was enough, the thunder of bolter fire, the screams cut short mid-breath, the heavy, unstoppable cadence of something far larger than any man crashing through the lines behind them like a force of nature given form. The Astartes was not simply pursuing them, he was carving a path through everything that stood in his way, and the battlefield itself seemed to buckle beneath that advance as men and women died in droves just to slow him for fractions of a second.
An explosion tore through the ground to their right without warning.
Reaper barely registered the flash before the shockwave caught him, lifting him from his feet and hurling him forward into the dirt, his helmet slamming hard enough to fracture his vision into static for a brief, disorienting moment as the world dissolved into ringing silence and blurred motion.
He did not know how long he was down, whether it was seconds or hours, because when awareness returned, it did so in fragments, sound bleeding back into existence in a warped, distant way as though he were hearing it through water, the roar of battle muted.
Something was screaming.
It took him a moment to realize it was close.
He forced himself onto his hands, every movement heavy and sluggish, his limbs responding a fraction too late as he pushed himself upright, the battlefield spinning around him as he turned toward the sound.
Vira lay a short distance away, twisted on the ground, her body wracked with violent, uncontrollable movement as she screamed, the sound raw and broken, tearing from her throat. Reaper's chest tightened. He stumbled toward her, his boots dragging for a step before catching, his balance returning just enough to close the distance, and when he reached her… he saw her leg was gone.
Simply… gone, taken by the blast. The wound was ragged and catastrophic as blood poured out in a steady, unstoppable flow that soaked into the dirt beneath her.
He dropped beside her, hands already moving, reaching for what little equipment he still had, trying to stem the bleeding, trying to do something, anything, even as a part of him already understood that she wasn't going to make it.
"I… I want to go home…"
The words came between gasps, broken and uneven, her voice trembling as her hands clawed weakly at his armor, her grip lacking the strength to hold as her body began to fail her. "I want to go home… I want to go home…"
Reaper said nothing.
There was nothing to say.
He kept working anyway, his hands moving even as they were already too late.
They always said it. No matter where they came from, no matter what they believed.
"I want to go home…"
Her voice grew weaker.
The words trailing off as her grip loosened, her head tilting slightly as the tension left her body in a slow, final release.
Then she was still.
Reaper remained where he was for a moment longer, his hands slick with her blood.
He reached down, pulled her rifle from where it had fallen, and rose unsteadily to his feet, his body still not entirely his own as he turned.
A shadow fell over him like a weight, cutting him off from the light as something vast stepped into his space, something that did not belong among men.
Reaper looked up, and the Black Templar stood over him.
The black armor was scarred now, marked by the battle, yet none of it had slowed him. The Darksaber hung at his side, its dark blade humming faintly.
For a brief moment, neither of them moved.
Then the Astartes spoke.
"Die well," he said. "It is the only thing left for you now. Meet it on your feet, as a warrior should."
Reaper did not hesitate as he raised the rifle, and began to fire.
The Darksaber drove forward in a single motion, the dark blade punching through armor and flesh as though neither existed, burying itself deep into Reaper's chest.
Then suddenly, Sebastian ripped the blade free, allowing Reaper's body to collapse.
He hit the ground hard, the world already fading as whatever remained of him slipped away into the noise and fire of the battlefield, just another life claimed by a war that would not remember his name.
The Black Templar did not linger.
He turned from the fallen without a second glance, his focus already shifting to the next enemy that dared stand before him as he stepped forward once more into the storm.
Bolter fire roared to life again, the thunder of it echoing across the battlefield as he advanced, his voice rising now.
"For the Emperor," he intoned, the words almost reverent, even as his blade cut men down without mercy. "Let none stand before His will!"
===
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