Chapter 277 - Slaves Of The Republic (1/2)

In a room at the headquarters of the Clone Army on Coruscant, an important meeting was happening. What was being discussed in this meeting was at the same time huge, and secretive.

Clones from the Coruscant Guard, the 501st Legion, the 212th Legion, the 187th Attack Legion, the 91st Reconnaissance Corps, the 327th Star Corps, the 84th Legion, and their respective Jedi generals were all there.

Currently, General Kenobi was explaining their plan to attack Fondor. Of course, they wouldn't use that many legions to attack just one planet, but using the excuse that they needed to discuss their strategies for a number of systems, a large group of over ninety clones had been put together.

On the surface, they were all there because of the meeting, however, the truth was that they were all there so Dageer could look at the faces of his brothers, and discover which one of them was a spy.

He and Hell Squad were standing against a wall, overseeing the meeting. With their status as a special unit, and considering how their missions were mostly top-secret, they rarely said anything on this kind of meetings.

So, now Dageer was scrutinizing the faces of his brothers, watching their reactions. Most of the clones in the room had access to the information which led to some of the most humiliating and painful defeats the Republic had. And it was Dageer's job to discover who amongst them was a traitor.

He knew almost every single clone in the room. He had trained with them, fought by their side, and faced death with them. They had been to countless battles together, and he knew them as well as he knew any clone. They were all brothers. But no matter how hard he wanted to believe otherwise, one of them was a spy.

He couldn't describe how painful it was, and he still hoped to prove the Jedis wrong. He hoped that there were no spies, and that the Republic only lost because they fought poorly. But, as the meeting went on, he caught sign of one clone in particular.

Under his helmet, his expression grew serious, and he couldn't help but clench his fists. Taking deep breaths, he concentrated on that brother of his, and his suspicions grew stronger.

As soon as the meeting ended, and they were dismissed, Dageer left the room, followed by Hell Squad. He found a quiet spot, from where he could keep an eye on the communications center, and waited. Hell Squad, behind him, was confused, but they knew when Dageer was angry, and they didn't want to provoke him, so they said nothing.

----------------------------

Inside the communications room, a clone typed a series of codes as fast as he could without alarming the other troopers. He had to get this intel to the Separatist quickly, otherwise they would suffer a major defeat.

Ever since that day, he had realized that the Republic was corrupted, and didn't care about it's own army. To the powerful people who spent their days safely on the Senate, clones were no more than numbers.

But he endured it. For weeks and months, he endured it. He saw even more of his brothers die, lost in foreign planets, and saw their names be erased, substituted by numbers that the clones had long left behind.

He understood that they meant nothing, and that they were just tools, but still, he fought. He fought, and he fought again, and he fought again, and again, and again. He was hurt, he almost died several times, but that didn't bother him. He had been created and trained for that. He could withstand the pain. He could withstand being disposable.

What he couldn't withstand was watch his brothers die to protect a man who, on that very same day, had pushed two clones to their certain deaths.

And so, one day, he decided it was enough. The Republic didn't deserve to win this war. They were corrupt bastards that would never give the clones the freedom that they had been promised. For him, the way the Republic treated the clones was no different than slavery.