PROLOGUE

I'd sat in the dark most of my life. Granted, it wasn't much of a life. I was technically only six standard years old, but I was physically and mentally fifteen. The few times I was allowed to see the light were when the Kaminoans gave me food or something to drink. I shouldn't actually say Kaminoans, either, it was just one of them. Her name was Yala Qu, and she was the closest thing to a mother that I had. Wasn't much of one, though, all she ever did was feed and water me, like I was some stray animal.

I didn't have much to entertain me, either. Every so often I would close my eyes and concentrate. My internal vision, or so I called it, allowed me to see and hear different parts of the facility. It was how I knew that my creators were called Kaminoans, actually, and how I found out what I was. I was a defective clone, like and unlike a hundred other so-called 'bad-batchers'. I was like them because I was defective, I was unlike them because of the nature of my defects. Sad thing was, I had no idea what my defects were. Unlike most of the other bad-batchers, I had no physical defects, I looked just like all the other fifteen year old clones of Jango Fett. I had no mental defects, if anything, I was a little smarter than a lot of the other clones from my batch. Whatever my defects were, nobody ever talked about them.

As a matter of fact, nobody ever really talked about me. Only a couple other clones in my batch even knew I existed, and they thought I had been tossed in the trash pile like a few of the other defective bad-batchers. Every now and then, Yala Qu would talk with some of the other Kaminoans, but they would never mention what was wrong with me, only that it was a mistake keeping me alive and that terminating me would be a mercy that I didn't deserve. I don't know why I didn't deserve it, exactly, only that they thought of me as less than nothing and that it would be a waste of their time to kill me outright.

Good thing I didn't like any of them, except for Yala Qu. At least she fed me.

I should have been listening in on them more often, because then I would have known that they were actually going to terminate me. I was sitting in the dark, like usual, when Yala Qu and another Kaminoan, Sere Za, opened the door to my private closet and told me to step out. I was surprised, it was the first time they'd ever told me to do that. Actually, it was the first time I'd ever 'met' Sere Za. He'd never showed up to feed me before. They told me to step out of my closet and then they led me through the facility. I passed dozens of other clones, all surprised to see me. I guess they'd never seen a clone with shaggy hair and the beginnings of beard stubble on his face before. I'm a little certain the reason I had beard stubble was because I never left my closet.

The Kaminoans led me into a room on the opposite side of the facility. A pretty big stretch for legs that had only ever wandered a six foot by seven foot closet before. Yala Qu ordered me to lay down on an examination bed and then she lowered a device to my face. Sere Za stood at a control panel and tapped a few buttons. The device by my face began to glow, and then I felt an intense heat. It was unbearably painful, to the point where I started reaching for the device to pull it away. Yala Qu made sure I never reached it, however, as she grabbed my hands and whispered, "Don't fight it, sixty-six, it'll be over soon."

I reached out with my mind almost on accident. Yala Qu was thrown across the room, directly at Sere Za. I pulled the device from my face and stood up, looking out at the damage I'd caused. Yala Qu and Sere Za were both against the wall, bloody and dead. I reacted the only way I knew how, which is odd considering I'd never done this in my short life, I ran. I picked the empty corridors, which were somehow very easy to find, and ended up on a landing pad on the south side of the city. Rain pelted my face for the first time, which was a refreshing feeling, despite the pain from whatever that device was that burned me.

A ship was sitting on the landing pad, devoid of any visible signs of life. It was the first time I'd seen one up close, every other time having been my internal vision. I walked up the ramp and into the cargo bay. I ran my hand along the containers, knowing their contents without even opening them. It was almost like I could feel what was inside them.

I stopped at one of the transparisteel windows and saw my reflection for the first time. A burn scar ran from my right eye to the right corner of my mouth. I touched the scar and instantly recoiled in pain. That thing had sure done a number on me.

I heard the door to the landing pad open, then voices. Similar voices. A voice I'd have if I lived long enough. A half dozen clone troopers, whose armor had blue markings on top of the usual white, walked out of the rain and into the ship. I ducked out of sight as they walked past me.

"Appo, get the ship ready. General Skywalker will want to leave as soon as he's done speaking with Minister Lama Su."

"Yes sir, Captain."

I didn't know who any of them were, although the name General Skywalker sounded familiar. A few minutes later, I heard the door to the landing pad open again, and this time, I felt something. I felt a presence coming toward the ship, and a tall one at that. The man who walked onto the ship had to be over six feet tall, and was completely different than the clones or I. His hair fell close to his shoulders, and he wore a tunic dominated in color by black and dark brown, and had a scar across his right eye. I'd never met this man before, I'm certain I'd never heard of this man before, but I knew this man was General Skywalker, and whatever defect I had, so did he.