All That We Are: A Star Wars Story

8

"Like your human clone friends did to the rest of your kind?"

Nasia's pressed her lips together in an overly exaggerated frown. "I'm gonna pretend that was one of your jokes." She grinned. "But yeah, sorta. When I was a youngling and a droid was sent to do my laundry at the temple, it set my clothes on fire. Never. Again."

Rosha remained silent as she started putting some of the droid pieces together.

"You don't care. Never mind." Nasia mumbled. "I just came here to let you know that I'm heading out to the base because you're the only one here. Where is everyone else, anyway?"

"Classes or work. Why the hell would you want to go back?"

"You haven't heard that it's haunted?" Nasia smirked. "I wanna go check it out. You wanna set your droid fingers aside and come with?"

"Absolutely not." Rosha snapped then waved her away. "Have fun ghost hunting."

As one of her everyday outfits, Nasia wore a casual gray, sleeveless shirt with gloves that reached her biceps and exposed her shoulders along with a simple tattoo. Her navy cargo pants left just enough space between her ankles and boots to where she was satisfied with the amount of skin showing on her body. Almost on a daily, she wore a brown sleeveless coat that ran down the length of her body as well as Biwu's golden-trimmed headdress around her shoulders. The final touch was a circular blue pendant, laying on her chest, peeking out from underneath the maroon cloth. It wasn't the best outfit to go out for a night in the city, but it was perfect for hiking, she thought. She never thought she would rely on hand-me-downs and thrifting as everything used to be supplied to her but she found that shopping for something other than military-approved clothing was more pleasurable.

She drove one of the land speeders that was left at the house to the outside of the city, just past the lake. Without a ship, the trip to the mountains took a few standard hours- as did the walk up the rough terrain. Luckily, she could follow trails for the most part, but as she neared closer and closer to the former-Republic base, she veered off the path. The journey was beautiful, especially as most of what she saw was untouched by man. All kinds of nature thrived and Nasia found herself wanting to stop for the various flora that veiled the ground. She thought she deserved it: The walk alone, the freedom to do whatever she pleased, but her trip was never supposed to be leisurely.

Nasia had to find out how certain rumors came to be: Rumors that the ghosts of the 271st Battalion were running rampant. Though, ghosts weren't real. Even Force ghosts had been a popular topic of discussion in her Initiate classes, but she had never seen one for herself. If it was that hard for a Jedi to become a Force ghost, how could the clones become one? The other word on the street was that the escaped Jedi of Alderaan had been hiding out at the base. Unless there was a survivor other than her, it was nothing but a lie.

Her life hadn't been terribly hard until the Empire's troops occupied the planet. No one was actively looking for her before, nor did the majority of the people on Alderaan care. The government didn't make an effort to publicize her face, but now, it was all over the holonews. The Empire controlled all of that now while the Alderaanian government did its best to push back. She could have snuck aboard a transport ship to take her far away months ago, but Senator Organa urged her that she was safe. She could have gone back to the ruins of the Jedi Temple to try and scout out another Force-user with the same idea. Maybe, she could even find her old friend still hiding in the vents, something she did regularly.

Her intrusive thoughts were unavoidable at this point. Nasia let out an irritated breath through her nose and whispered to herself. "Embar..." It felt like it had been years since she last spoke to her best friend during the war. Their last mission together ended with a victory, only for Nasia and her battalion to be pulled to the other side of the galaxy by the raging battles. The women didn't take each other's goodbyes seriously- It was inevitable that they would see each other again, but it wasn't their reality. There was never a sincere goodbye between the two, they didn't think they would need one.