Star Wars: Total Galactic Eclipse

Act I; Part VI: Defense of the Clones

Viper returns to the body and takes off the helmet. It looks like a Clone but...

"Viper! That Clone can't be aged past 25. If they have clones of Jango Fett in their early twenties, it means..." Rhetta interrupts Bradley, "It means they used their stolen cloning tech to make more. With the older clones getting the clock turned back in the middle of peace time, their second prime would have been wasted. But if they had the chance to raise the next generation, it would give them a reason to stay in the fight... a good purpose to live for. I bet you these new Clones age at normal speed, like the Kaleesh."

The Colonel adds, "Yes, and good thinking in the cell back there, Viper. I sent your allies down to rescue you, but it looks like you'll be okay. Try and investigate that console again." Viper returns to the console room to find Nym by himself. He surrenders immediately. Viper asks, "Where are all the younger clones? Why have I only seen a couple of them?" Nym explains, "The young Clone Troopers were sent with the Republic Frigate to reinforce Forcekiller Base in preparation for the move. The older ones stayed here at home."

Viper asks, "Why's this place so important?" Nym says, "To Big Boss, it's a quiet place to defend things that are tactically insignificant, but highly sentimental to the cause. It was the ideal place for Traytorus and Ultima Sigma to come work on their project in secret. I helped them."

"Why?"

"Because they asked. Don't look at me like that. My work is very important and I need practice. But the work they've had me do was mostly with force machines, and that's more Master Rael's area of expertise."

Viper finally asks, "What Veractyl said about me and Traytorus... is it true?" Nym nods; with a hint of pride he says, "Yes. I helped create you. I improved both of you using what I learned from the Necrotic Palace, and I isolated the Boss' genes from those of Escher. The name Morkad comes from a world Darth Necros slaughtered, Morkadia. I heard it was terrifying what he did there."

The Colonel says, "Viper, I think we have a traitor on this mission. First Veractyl knew you'd be coming, then then the other strike team found hot intel on one of the computers, stolen from the New Republic, and now there's this business with your code name. Now, I'll admit that Viper always made sense..."

Sinjir adds, "That's true. There were a lot of ex-Imperial agents and officers in the formative years of the Republic and its intelligence program. Big Boss went rogue before my time, but I can't tell you how many stories I heard as an Imperial Loyalty Officer about Agent Viper." Bradley says, "Exactly. That was a coincidence we knew about and accepted. But Morkad isn't a name any Imperial or Republic Officer would have known, unless they worked for Big Boss."

Rhetta mentions, "I never heard it either; the Boss knew how I felt about using Darth Necros' work to advance our cause." Bradley concurs, "You mentioned when you first joined that you didn't have any idea what was in the vault." Velus says, "In any case, the files we managed to acquire from the First Order reference Morkadia and a number of other worlds Darth Necros visited. They may include some helpful information."

Bradley concludes, "If you find anything, tag all relevant persons in the comms. I'm disabling the party line system for security."

Viper hears someone coming and gets behind cover. He holds his dart gun up and sees three people enter. One is a Twi'lek Jedi, another is a Human soldier, and the third is a Mandalorian. Viper realizes they must be the other team. 

"Team Besh? I'm Morkad Viper."

The Mandalorian says, "Eh, what the? I thought you were supposed to be captured?"

"I escaped."

"You expect us to believe you broke out in all of ten minutes?"

The Jedi says, "I don't sense any deception."