Conflict of Interest

Walking through this hellhole was the worst part of the war. Even if it meant that it was almost over. With every step there is a chance you could set off some overgrown mushroom with acid spores or get a flesh eating disease. Then at night, when we stop to camp, the shrieking nocturnal predators keep us all awake. The only thing that kept us sane was our squad-mates anchoring us in reality. We all had an I.D. symbol and number that we hated. Mine was Theta 186, but I go by crusher, you know like can crusher, crushing the tinnies. My best buddy in the squad was Cycler, short for recycler, because he has a rapid-fire chain gun that turns droids into scrap metal, but his I.D. was Delta 296. We always tried to stick together because we trusted each other.

There was a jedi with us today. Her name is Aayla Secura. She is a fierce warrior, her twin blades are like blue and green flashes when she is in battle. All I wanted to know was why the emperor wanted them all dead. I have been dreading the day when that silent but ominous nod came, that sign of betrayal, when we had to execute Aayla. The jedi are always dedicated to keeping losses to a minimum and helping the wounded during battle. They are never neglectful or ruthless(except when fighting the droids). Yet, nevertheless, we had to kill them. It’s been weighing on my mind ever since I was first told I had to do it someday.

"You ever wonder why the Emperor says that the jedi are traitors but there isn’t any evidence?" I asked Cycler as we were doing follow-up duty.

"Never really given much thought to it. I just follow orders," he replied.

"I have been thinking about it a lot and you never hear of jedi doing anything wrong. They’ve always got your back, and your front, in battles. I just… I just don’t think I can kill them. Especially Aayla."

"What, you crushing on her Crusher?" He jibed as he slapped my shoulder and guffawed.

"No.. It just feels wrong, it’s like me having to shoot you just because I was ordered to," I explained.

"I think we should just—"

"Squad halt!" Ordered the commander. "We aren’t getting a reply from the forward outpost."

That wasn’t a good thing. We never lose contact with an outpost. I could see the smoke rising into the air up ahead, flowing like a vertical river. "I’ll check it out sir," I offered, curious.

"Take Cycler and Rex with you Crusher. I need you guys alive," said the commander.

"I’ll go with too, just in case," stated Aayla, determined.

We started off through the thick fungi plants, weapons ready, being careful not to touch any of them. We got to a clearing a little ways ahead and saw the outpost. It was a disaster. The front wall was completely demolished, like a nuclear wrecking ball smashed into it. There were dead clones laying everywhere, blaster burn holes through their armor. There were no droids though... strange.

Then, out of nowhere there was a distant thunk sound.

"Take cover!" I yelled.

We all ran and dove for cover as the shell exploded right in the middle of where we were. Aayla force-leaped towards where the sound came from and you could hear her lightsabers cutting through the droids metal. A swarm of super battle droids and assault droids came rushing out of the forest to the left of the base.

"Open fire!" yelled Cycler.

I started shooting at about head height of the droids and aimed for the assault droids first because they have rocket launchers. Now that I counted there were about 100 droids.

Aayla leapt into the middle of the battle, advancing towards the droids and deflecting their fire. She was deflecting over half of the fire that was coming towards us before. We kept firing, Cycler with his chain-gun and me with a standard issue DC-15A blaster rifle. We had dwindled down their numbers to about 50 by the time Aayla got to them and finished them off.

"You know," said Cycler, "I think you were right about it being wrong to kill them. She just jumped in front of 100 droids all firing on us and saved us. If they kept firing, our cover would have gotten breached and we would be dead right now."

He stood up. You never stand up unless you know that the battle is over. He wasn’t one of the lucky ones who stood up and it turned out that the battle was over. No. Just as he stood up a sniper bullet went right through is head. He fell motionless on the ground. I was paralyzed with shock. I didn’t know what to do. The commander and the rest of the clones came through the fungi and it distracted me from my loss.

"We tried to get to you but I guess we were too late," apologized the commander. "We should keep moving though."

He didn’t even seem to notice that Cycler was dead. As Aayla turned to keep moving, he nodded to all of us, the thing I had been dreading since day 1. They all gathered behind her and stopped and pointed their weapons on her.

"What are you doing?" inquired Aayla.

"Sorry, but we have to follow orders."

They were about to fire but I was the quickest one, I brought my rifle up and shot them all in the head. They dropped like rocks.

"What was all that?" Aayla asked.

"The emperor ordered us to kill you, but I thought it was wrong," I explained. "Come on, lets go get a ship and get out of here and go into hiding."