Chapter Text
Execute Order 66
Three words. That’s all it took, and Echo fell back into his own consciousness and was replaced with CT-1409. He paused in his running, skidding in the snow, turning his eyes on the Jedi Padawan running away from his squad, back towards its master. CT-1409 was quiet, not lifting his blaster up yet, taking in his surroundings, looking over his own squad. CT-9901 was his squad leader, he would be the one to tell them how they would take out the padawan. Except…
CT-9901 didn’t give the order. He gave the order to find the padawan when the kid took off for the forest, to get away from them all. He gave the order to CT-9902 to distract the regs until they figured out what was happening and for CT-9903 to figure out what was going on over the comm system. He then turned to him and gave him the order to help CT-9902. He took CT-9904 and ran after the padawan.
Interesting.
They were acting differently than what was expected of them. Then again, commando clones were just as independent as ARCs, even if ARCs were more unpredictable. CT-1409 turned to follow his squad leader’s orders… for now . He needed to deduce if the others were traitors or not. Maybe they just wanted to take on the padawan by themselves, to take the glory away from the others. Hmmm. Unlikely. CT-9902 would want to go for the padawan if that were the case. CT-1409 was quiet as he directed the others away from the forest as he was ordered. He didn’t help his squadmate when two troopers pushed past the bulkier clone and headed into the forest.
“ Hunter! Apparently the regs are shooting down all the jedi. The jedi have been labeled as traitors, being accused of treason.”
“What?”
“I’m not sure, but it’s happening everywhere.”
CT-1409 was silent as he listened to CT-9903 give the intel to CT-9901. There was similar confusion coming from CT-9902 and silence from CT-9904. How curious. So they didn’t know about the order? No… that wasn’t it…. CT-1409 dug deep into his intel, tilting his head silently.
Ah. They knew what it was now. They just refused to comply.
Order 66: In the event of Jedi officers acting against the interests of the Republic, and after receiving specific orders verified as coming directly from the Supreme Commander (Chancellor), GAR commanders will remove those officers by lethal force, including clone troopers who refuse to comply, and command of the GAR will revert to the Supreme Commander (Chancellor) until a new command structure is established.
So they were traitors. How… unfortunate .
CT-1409 turned his head back to the forest, watching as Crosshair and Hunter came out of the forest, two troopers trailing behind them. He glanced over his shoulder to watch Wrecker and Tech come up behind him, curious and worried. He hummed softly. If he was going to play this right and take down these traitors, then he needed to play his part. His part as Echo .
“The kid,” he asked softly, playing the part of a concerned teammate.
Hunter shook his head slightly and Crosshair shifted a bit, his helmet tilting as if studying him. Was he aware of the order and of their squad’s treason as well? Strange. Judging by their reactions…. Ah. The kid was alive then, but Hunter told the other troopers the kid was dead. So they were aware. Good. Even more evidence to pile against them. CT-1409 made a note of it as they headed back to their ship.
He’d need to double check with Crosshair; however, it was possible that CT-9904 was just being quiet and was doing the same thing he was.
CT-1409 was silent as they walked back to the ship, listening to the others bicker quietly. Tech went on to try and explain to the others that the war was considered to be over besides some straggler droids and a few insurrectionists. He was smart. It would be a shame to lose such a talented mind. Wrecker complained about not being able to blow up more droids. If CT-1409 remembered correctly, he was closer to the two of them than he was with Crosshair and Hunter. He needed to stick to that script.
Arriving on Kamino was… comforting. The other troopers were all acting according to code, following the orders they were given. The place was on lock down as well, Tech had thought it was a drill. Oh, he had no idea how wrong he was. Hunter was shocked when they discovered that the Coruscant Guard was present as well. Crosshair had yet to react. CT-1409 hummed beneath his helmet softly, moving to stand by the sniper, gently knocking their wrists together.
Crosshair gently knocked back, tilting his head lightly in acknowledgement. CT-1409 nodded back slightly. Ah. So, he wasn’t as alone as he thought. Good. This he could manage. He was a strategist after all. He was built for this. Everything for the Empire .