The Paradox of Moatia Rhaden

Season One Episode Ten

Moatia sat on a counter in the shipmaster's office, swinging her legs and looking around the room with a look of disgust. The shipmaster's office matched everything else the separatists had: it was gray and dull. Moatia wished they had brought some of the spray cans that the clones had laying around the Paradox. The Separatists could use some color.

To be honest, she really didn't know what she was doing here on this mission. She couldn't hack anything and she didn't think she could place bombs. Knot had discarded his helmet on the counter next to her and she held it at arm's length, wondering if she could see through the visor. She didn't really know why Knot was in here either. It sounded to her like he was an expert in explosives and demolitions. She noticed Knot's helmet had a lot of dents in it and the back looked faintly scorched. He certainly had a passion for blowing things up. Moatia had heard rumors that Knot had permanently damaged his left eye with a small explosion.

"Hey, Commander?" Knot asked from where he was digging in a bucket. "Could you go dig through that cabinet and see if there's anything useful?"

"Whatever mess you make, you gotta clean," Curse grunted. He had the thin rods Zap had had earlier and was digging through the shipmaster's tech.

"Will do," Moatia hopped off the counter.
The documents there were almost as boring as all the different mission reports Master Lowh had made Moatia read aboard the Paradox.

"Auuuggh," Moatia groaned, throwing back her head.    

"Did you find anything?" Knot asked.

"No," Moatia sighed, "This cabinet is just so boring. It's his daily log or something. He described his lunch with 500 words."

"Well, at least it's not this cabinet," Knot grimaced. "This guy clearly doesn't know what a datapad is." Knot held up giant binders full of flimsi. 

A large 'thump' sound came from outside, along with something that sounded suspiciously like muffled blaster fire. There was a short yell and a repetitive 'thud' that could've been footsteps. Then the silence returned.

"What was that?" Moatia looked around.

"No clue," Curse was now fully submerged in his work, and unaware of everything else.

Moatia went over to the door. She pulled her lightsaber off her belt, and slid open the door. She stuck her head out the door and looked in both directions.

Both Cinnamon and Lyss were gone. They weren't there. She couldn't see anyone anywhere, no clones and no droids.

Moatia frowned. They were supposed to be right here, as lookouts. She stepped out of the room and looked around some more. All she could see was gray. No black and white clone armor anywhere.

The moon of Kooriva came out from behind a cloud and faintly illuminated the shipyard, not that there was much to look at anyway.

Confused, Moatia stepped back into the room.

"What was it, Commander?" Knot asked, still pulling out binders full of flimsi.

"There's no one there!" Moatia cried, grabbing onto the ends of both of her large braids and yanking.

"What do you mean?" Curse asked, turning away from his work. He leaned back on the counter.

"There's... there's nothing out there!" Moatia waved her hands around, "They aren't there!"

"That's... not right," Knot picked up his helmet and put it on.

"Knot you stay here and continue sorting. Commander, you go and look for those slackers," Curse ordered, turning back to his work. Moatia really had no idea what he was doing, but she knew it was important.