【ｍｉｓｓ ｔｈｅ ｍａｒｋ】| Crosshair x OC (BOOK 1 of the CHANGING WAVES series)

50 | Sil's Plan

EDIT: Changed Dr. Trentex's name to Dr. Pro'oz. For reasons. :)

22 BBY, Month 9

Rylann

Rylann had never been happier that Anakin had Padme wrapped around his finger. Though, it could very well be the other way around. After further study at the resources Padme had given her, she found out that there had been no further study regarding the aging process of clones, outside of a scholar by the name of Dr. Pro'oz who lived on Hoth of all places. Most of his articles and discoveries had been redacted to Rylann's dismay. Unfortunately, those documents were in the restricted section of the Archives of Universal History in the city center of Coruscant, near the Senate Hall. Fortunately, Padme agreed to give Rylann her access key.

So there Rylann was, standing before the tall, golden building shaped like a pyramid made of gold, about to smuggle herself into the restricted section. Taking a deep breath, Rylann mustered up all the courage within her and walked confidently into the building. It was nearing dusk and the amount of people in the building were dwindling due to the late hour. That meant less witnesses and less people to deal with.

Surprisingly, she was able to get past security pretty easily, but it wasn't until she reached the entrance of the restricted section that she had any trouble. There was a lady at the desk in front of it, clicking away at a keyboard.

"Hello, how may I help you?" she asked, pushing her pair of glasses further up her nose.

"Oh, I'm just looking around," Rylann forced out, biting her gum. She was really bad at lying.

"If you need something from the restricted section, I can put in a request, though depending on the Archival Council and your credentials, it may or may not be denied."

"How convenient," Rylann muttered, forcing herself not to roll her eyes. This was going to call for desperate measures. This wasn't going to work. "You will let me into the restricted section," she said, waving her hand in front of the woman's eyes.

The woman raised a brow. "Excuse me?"

I have to believe it, she thought, pursing her lips. "You will let me into the restricted section."

The woman blinked. "I will let you into the restricted section."

Rylann let out a sigh of relief as the woman stood up, a cord of keys dangling on her arm. Though she felt a bit guilty for forcing someone to do something against her will. After today, she'd never do it again.

The lady let her in, sitting back down at the desk, continuing her work as if nothing happened. Letting out a shaky breath, Rylann made her way through the shelves in the dark room, dust floating about her. No one had been here in a while it seemed.

Looking down at her wristcomm for the details of the articles, she managed her way through the maze of books, files, and such until she reached the section titled, "Cloning." There were cloning styles from different planets and eras, though the one on Kamino was rather small even if the whole GAR was alive to study. But Rylann knew how close-lipped the Kaminoans were about their skills and practices.

She flipped through the shelf, picking up the datapad titled "Dr. Pro'oz's Studies on the Lifespan of the Clones of Jango Fett (Kaminoan Style Cloning)." She used her wristwatch to connect to the tablet, downloading the information. According to Padme, the security on this said datapad was not very secure, therefore, Rylann could use a basic firewall protection and a certain code to prevent people from knowing she accessed it. It was a local network that the datapad was connected to or something. Rylann was not good at technology so a lot of it was jargon to her.

There were more words than pictures or graphs in Dr. Pro'oz's file, so Rylann averted her eyes, not even watching the process. She absent-mindedly glanced across the shelves of the Kamino files only to find two words stand out like a blazing sun in the night sky. "Project Conduit."

Her heart hitched in her chest. She had to at least see what it was. She picked up the dusty datapad, turning it over in her hands. She clicked it on, but it required a passcode. She didn't think the other datapad had a passcode. She tried plugging her device into the datapad but only errors came up.

Maybe Padme knew someone who could crack it. And noting how dusty it was, no one was looking for the datapad. She bit her lip. She could borrow it. That was what a library was for, right?

Rylann shoved the datapad into the folds of her jedi robes, replacing the Dr. Pro'oz file back into its place. She'd have Padme crack it and then bring it right back. Simple.

But something deep down was telling her that there was nothing simple about Project Conduit. The Kaminoans were hiding something and as the padawan assigned to the clones on Kamino, she felt it was her duty to do something about it.

【 ⌖ 】

The wind tousled Crosshair's shaggy bangs in front of his face, his legs dangling from the open-hatch of the fly shuttle. He looked across Coruscant's darkened sky, the glow of the lights below never letting the city fully slumber.

Crosshair looked over at his brothers in the shuttle, noting they were coping with their nerves. Tech's fingers were shaking as he polished nonexistent grime off of his helmet. The deep, slow breathing from Hunter as he sharpened his vibroblades. And Wrecker was silent.

Cross was shocked that they even allowed Wrecker back on the field. All his sandy curls were buzzed off, revealing vast scarring on his forehead and skull. His eye was no longer brown, instead a white. The doctors said that he couldn't see from it anymore, but Wrecker had yet to say anything about the incident. It was almost as if he didn't want to remember. Or he couldn't. Crosshair preferred that he didn't remember. Remembering hard things turned his own heart to stone so he pleaded with the Maker that Wrecker wouldn't succumb to a similar fate.

"Almost there," Sil said, her helmet under her arm. She shoved it on her head, the painted wings on the sides of the helm glistening in the moonlight. "Do I need to go over anything again?"

"Go in and blow it all up!" Wrecker said, grinning as he pounded his fist into her hand.

"It's not that simple," Tech muttered, placing his own helmet on. "We have to first find out who the dealer is dealing to."

"Someone who wants that many explosives has a plan in mind," Hunter muttered, sheathing his blades. "And if they aren't on our side, we hunt them down."

"You'll hunt them down," Crosshair said, fighting a smirk. "Because you're Hunter."

Hunter scrunched his nose, readjusting his headband. "What's gotten you in such a gleeful mood?"

"He's gonna see Lanny soon," Wrecker said, a giggle rumbling in his chest.

Crosshair blushed, turning to look out the open hatch again. He couldn't find a reason to deny it. Wrecker was right. And Crosshair seemed to be okay with that.