🐺 ~PROJECT SAC-1~ ⚔️

Chapter 4 - Some First Lessons ☕✈️📝

Averting her gaze shamefully, SAC-1 tucked a piece of loose hair behind her ear. "I've... I've never seen dry land before." She weakly laughed.

She missed the flash of softness but did here his 'hmph.' So in her mind, he was thoroughly annoyed with her and it was going to take double the effort to earn his trust and respect.

The other members of the squad appeared next to him.

"Why'd you pick Dantooine, Tech?" Wrecker complained as they traipsed off the ramp. "It's so BORING here!"

"We needed a remote place to test our new cannon." Tech reminded him, not looking up from his datapad. "There are plenty of rock formations to use as targets out here."

Unsatisfied, snarling Wrecker kicked at the dirt. "Couldn't we use actual droids for targets?"

Tech adjusted his goggles so Wrecker would be sure to see his irritation. "Taking a new ship into battle without being familiar with the systems would not have been wise."

"We'll only be here a day, maybe two, Wrecker." Hunter assured him in that comforting, older brother tone to break up the tension.

"Promise?" Wrecker pouted.

"I promise you'll be knocking clanker heads before you know it."

SAC-1 couldn't help but ask, "'Clanker?'"

"Droids." Tech clarified.

"Oh."

"Can we eat now? I'm starvin'!" Wrecker begged.

"The Kaminoans provided us with different varieties of ration boxes." Tech informed them.

"Ration boxes? Those have the tasty bars!" Wrecker exclaimed. "Man, I'm lovin' this special treatment!"

"Why are we getting special treatment?" Crosshair voiced him and his more sensible brothers' thoughts, crossing his arms.

To the surprise of everyone, SAC-1 chuckled at their apparent cluelessness. "You're joking, right?" They looked at her expectantly, so she pointed to herself. "It's because of me!"

She disclosed this as of it was the most obvious thing in the universe.

It wasn't.

"What does you being with us have to do with it?" Crosshair questioned with a mistrustful squint.

"Isn't it obvious?"

She was met with blank expressions.

Nope.

Clearing her throat, she made a steeple with her hands and calmly explained in simple terms... Well, simple to HER anyways. "Alright, it takes 2,075 credits to make one clone commando with enhancements, not counting armor and gear. There were fifty-nine failed experiments before me - that's already 122,425 credits down the drain. Then because of my enhancements, I required special training, which adds thousands upon thousands of more credits on top of that, and then if you factor in the cost of time, food, medical treatment -"

"What's your point?" Crosshair hissed, rubbing his temples at the migraine starting to form.

Great, now there's chance these Tech-Talks could happen more frequently with TWO OF THEM. Was his bitter realization.

Letting out a sharp breath of annoyance that flared her nostrils, SAC-1 tried simplifying her explanation even more than it already was in her eyes. "If you created a costly super soldier, wouldn't you want to make sure that your investment had everything needed to succeed such as sufficient nutrition, a good, safe place for proper rest and superior trainers to complete their training?"