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Fordo was in the nursery.
He could see the Caretakers buzzing around him and the other clones babies. The tubies, the newly made clones, making sure they were fed and changed.
What was going on?
Fordo tried to ask from one of the Caretakers close by what was happening. But for some reason he could not utter a word out. As Fordo tried to look around, to get up, the only thing he managed was to flail his own hands in the air, not able to get up, feeling like a turtle stuck on its back.
Fordo soon realising the reason why. Fordo, was still a baby.
Was this a dream? A memory maybe? Something from the past?
Something was pumped suddenly, then a baby crying. And then, a true memory of what happened next. The familiar lullaby being sung by one of the Caretakers. Something having soothed Fordo as well, put him to sleep.
Before Fordo could think more of it, almost feeling the dreamworld take over, something changed. The scenery around him becoming, something else.
As Fordo, was suddenly outside. That of a lush forest. And he was hanging upside down from a… tree? So not a baby anymore?
“Fordo! What happened.”
His batch mates asked him while they were running towards Fordo.
“I guess… I fell?”
Fordo suddenly remembered trying to prove something to the others. Something rather stupid too. As Fordo being the runt of the litter and being the smallest of his team, and so being often thought he could not handle the same things the other boys could.
Alas Fordo, always proving them wrong. Well, most times.
“You really got high didn’t ya bro.” Decks chuckled.
“That was my point.” Fordo told Decks, sounding rather annoyed of needing to state the obvious.
“So you need help then?” Bulls asked, seeing as Fordo was stuck in his current position, hanging upside down and all.
Fordo was silent for a spell, thinking about his, predicament. But despite having fallen after making it to the top, Fordo had proven he could do it. That he could matter of factly climb the tallest of trees.
“Yeah. I do.”
The others climbed the distance helping Fordo off the branch. The rest of his team mates clapping him on the back for a job well done.
“Thanks!”
And so, before Fordo could say more, he felt things shift around him once again.
Definitely, not any kind of dreams these were, rather something odd going on.
*
“Harder! Faster!”
The drill Sergeant was shouting out his orders to the cadets in training. Those ones soon to be graduating and headed out there, into the field, into the war as soldiers.
“If he’s gonna say that one more time…” Bulls had had it too, officially, the cadet gritting the words through his teeth as the team was running like crazy people, amok in a very tough simulation.
But Fordo kept on pushing. Not just for himself but the rest of his team. Wanting to be the top one of their class. His team among there too if Fordo had a say in it. Well, unless Bulls kept on chewing his mouth like he did right now, then not all of them.
“Stow it Bulls!” Decks had had it with the exercises too, but mostly of Bulls’ constant whining. “If you would put as much effort to the training as you do to complaining, you would be in the top five with the rest of us.”
Fordo already way ahead, running towards the simulated fire, the clankers rolling their way as he did.
“Come on you lot! We have simulated clankers to kill!”
Fordo glanced back, seeing his comrades struggling with keeping up with Fordo. And it was then when he felt it. The sting in his cuirass.
“Kriffing HellSpells!”
One slip of his concentration while looking out of his teammates, and Fordo, was falling face first onto the ground.
*
“Pirates! Waddaya mean pirates?”
Fordo was on the horn, talking to his men having reached the base they had just found only to be surprised it was being occupied by space pirates.
“Yeah, well, they are here and claiming this is their’s now. So what do we do Cap’n?”
Fordo was quiet for a spell, not really sure what to do as there were just him and his team against, well, pirates. And those kind usually travelled in packs.
But as it was, Fordo and his team had orders to annex the abandoned Seppie base, so pirates or not, they had a job to do, a mission to complete.
“How many?”
“Oh… about twenty of them that I can see here at the moment. But there might be more. And they are already getting rather drunk and their pretty loud too.”
Fordo could hear the loud chatting, chanting but also the clanking of bottles. So loud was an understatement. The pirates could wake the dead with the noise they were making.
“Well, then, guess we just have to wait and see if they pass out, won’t we?”
It was a poor decision, true. To simply wait. But short from giving up on the op or then calling for reinforcements, it was still their best bet.The waiting.
“Yeah, judging from the speed they are pouring down those liquids, it wont be long.”
And so, they waited, having retreated back to their ship. And they waited and waited.
Only it was several days as it turned out, that the pirates drank and laughed and fought each other until they were all partied out that the team could actually get in and take over. Making sure the pirates were incapacitated and tied up!
“Worst. Mission. Ever.” Notes complained not that the others objected of his assessment.
“Well, as far as scum and villainy goes, these pirates were the more subdued ones for sure.”
*
Fordo blinked as he opened his eyes. He was lying flat on his back staring at several pairs of eyes staring right back at him.
“Welcome back Cap’n!”
“What, happened?”
“Well, you got shot and then we hauled you in here. We thought you were a goner for a moment there for sure. You really worried us, Sir.”
Fordo realising then it really was his life having passed before his eyes.
“It’s gonna take more than an errant blaster shot to kill me.” Fordo assured his team, forcing a smile, but yeah, it had been bad, Fordo knew that now too.
Fordo was already patched up and lying on the cot on the back of their ship. Flying back to home base. The mission, having been a success, thankfully despite the slight SNAFU of Fordo almost, well dying?!