🐺 ~PROJECT SAC-1~ ⚔️

Chapter 4 - Some First Lessons ☕✈️📝

Getting through to her now, apparently, SAC-1 lips pressed together in a grim line, and she had decency enough to look embarrassed for her impropriety.

But for extra measure, Tech made sure to conclude with this straight fact. "If you cannot take constructive criticism well, you will never learn how to use your capabilities to the full extent possible, which is undoubtedly expected of you as it is with the rest of your team of enhanced clones."

Nala Se's words echoed in her mind, cold and unforgiving:

If you are returned to Kamino, we will be forced to rethink your usefulness to the army.

SAC-1's shoulders slumped in defeat. "I'm sorry."

Astutely looking to see if she was sincere... Tech was relieved to see she was. NOW since real progress could be made, AND his chances of returning back to camp in a body bag had greatly decreased.

Tapping her gloved thumbs against the steering, SAC-1 humbly continued, "I know that I have a lot to learn, and I should appreciate your willingness to even teach me, and take your orders with grace, like a good soldier." With frightened eyes, SAC-1 briefly glanced back at him. "I AM a good soldier, Tech." She said in a tone that mimicked someone pleading for mercy, which confused him.

His eyebrows snapped together. "Of course you are - you were obviously designed to be an exceptional soldier." He had expected nothing less from the very beginning, she just needed some exceptional guidance and a vast deal of patience.

"Yes, but -" She jerked her head to clear it of the dark thoughts starting to cloud her mind, "Never mind."

More curious than ever, Tech adjusted his specs. "Experimental Unit: Clone Force 99 is known to be the squadron that doesn't follow orders, so you are already fitting in quite well, Agent."

She still grimaced at this perceived slight on her behavior.

But actually, he was driving the point home with stating yet another fact. "But oftentimes, directions from a mentor are necessary if you want to properly comprehend a new skill. If you wish to learn how to efficiently fly the ship through an aerial combat zone, you will need to follow my instructions and hear out my personal collection of offbeat tricks and stunts that have come in handy, or otherwise we will all be put in unnecessary danger at such a time you may need to take the pilot role on a mission - do you understand this now?"

First lesson grasped - SAC-1 FINALLY spared a glance at the sensor, saw an upcoming short rock appear on the screen. "Sir, yes sir." She said automatically, and managed to avoid it this time without giving Tech whiplash.

To which gave a small, proud smile. "Nicely done."

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(TWO HOURS LATER)

SAC-1 managed to land their ship back at the base without hitting anyone or anything thanks to the sensor array - that nifty little feature turned out to be pretty useful!

When they disembarked the Marauder, Tech's brothers scurried away from their campfire with varying levels of worry written all over their faces, having witnessed the new girls erratic flying before the ship was cut out of sight by the hills.

"You okay, Tech?" Hunter asked rather openly, bruising SAC-1's feelings because she was right there.

But Tech brushed his concern aside, "'Agent' is a quick study and has shown promise, and with another lesson I would trust her to fly us past the protective atmosphere at least."

SAC-1 smiled widely and proudly but Hunter was a tad unnerved at this suggestion.

"Don't worry." Tech reassured him, pulling out his datapad to fiddle with. "She knows how a starship works, but had a problem with grasping the concept of patience, taking instruction, and multitasking. We reached an understanding, I found a way to effectively communicate my knowledge to her, and while she still has a tendency to unnecessarily jerk the ship, her flying has greatly improved."

After a quick one-sided staring contest since Tech's attention was glued to his datapad as per usual, Hunter's mistrustful eyes swept over to her instead as he stepped back towards the campfire, "If you say so."

But it was Tech's turn to become uncomfortable once again with her flying when he turned and just happened to finally notice all the fresh scratches and dents on the bottom of their brand-spankin'-new ride.

"MY SHIP!" He cried out, dramatically falling to his knees and lamenting at the ugly cosmetic damage with equally ugly sobs.

"You're in for it now." Hunter murmured in warning to the now sweating Clone Agent.

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Towards the evening, Wrecker's boredom was cured when an incoming communication sounded from the cockpit when they were all well on their way to dreamland.

Everyone gathering in the cockpit, when Hunter answered SAC-1 was met a Clone Commander on the holoprojector.

"Commander Cody!" Wrecker happily greeted as he casually leaned against the back of Tech's captain's chair, making it creak under the pressure of his weight.

Hunter was seated in the copilot's chair with Crosshair behind it, so SAC-1 was forced to stand in the middle of the group and be conspicuous.

... But in truth, she was a little bit nervous to meet other regular clones due to what happened on Kamino, and wanted to postpone any unpleasantries.

Failing to conceal herself in plain sight despite making herself as small as possible, Cody furrowed his eyebrows in confusion when he beheld the strange woman. "Who's she?" He wondered.

Hunter internally sighed. "She's a... new recruit." He stated simply, which did nothing to appease Cody's curiosity.

Tech divulged more information even though he was still not speaking to her for the trauma she put his baby through. "SAC-1 is a new type of clone that the Kaminoans bred from a different genetic template than standard clones."

"She's a clone?" Cody asked incredulously.

"Yes, but she was created with enhanced senses, eyesight, strength and intelligence - all of our abilities combined."

This news visibly shook Cody to the core, and he furrowed his eyebrows at her. "What does SAC stand for? I've never heard that designation before."

Stepping forward now and clasped her sweaty hands behind her back. "It stands for Special Agent Clone, sir. I'm not a regular clone trooper - I'm designed to go on any type of mission the regular troopers can't handle, hence the reason I'm with Clone Force 99."

Nodding slowly, Cody's brain seemed to short circuit, then before he could say anything more about her, Wrecker interjected. "Speaking of that - got another suicide mission for us, sir?"

Cody couldn't help but chuckle at his eagerness. "You're going to love this one - there's whispers of a Separatist plot to kidnap the Chancellor, so we need your help to infiltrate a Separatist base to recover a hologram that will tell us who's the mastermind of the plot."

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- Ella ✌🏻