Of all the Naval Academies, none are as prestigious as this one. My first orders were to report to the medical bay.

"Why am I doing this again?" I asked the medical officer. I was feeling some fear at this moment. He held an especially threatening vibro-needle in one hand and a hypo-spray injector in the other.

"We need a bone marrow sample for your records." he answered in monotone, applying the spray to my hip. With the medical visor over his eyes, I knew he was one of those types.

Implantee.

Cyborg.

Half driod-brain.

It was all the same thing. This guy was a hyperdrive away from a working frigate, in other words. I felt a little pressure as the vibro-needle punched through my hip-bone like a lightsaber through sand-people.

"Why the hell do you need a marrow sample for my records?" I couldn't help but ask as he withdrew the needle.

"For cloning of course, you have been selected as a genetic base for a new line of shocktroopers." The machine man continued to speak in monotone. Like he hadn't just dropped the antimatter into a gas giant.

I slapped the needle out of his hand and watched it shatter on the durasteel floor. "The hell I am."

The cyborg didn't even bother to reply. Pressing a button on his visor he spoke, "code four in examination room six."

Fuck! Code four is a call for riot troopers!

"I'm not allowed to refuse cloning, am I?" I asked, resigned.

The droid-man gave a shake of his head.

After the riot troopers/orderlies stopped beating me with stun-rods and had me restrained on the examination table, the cyborg got his sample.

-000-

"Attention!" All the cadets straightened their backs and stood with their arms at their sides. I was the only one in line with a black eye and bleeding lip. A bad thing for the first day of training. Anything to single you out from the others is a bad thing. "For a hundred and ten centuries, this has been the premier and most respected institution of learning in the galaxy."

The captain walked up and down the line of ensigns-cadets, until he came to stand in front of me. He looked at my uniform, before screaming in my face. "Why the kriffing hell are you wearing bars on your rank plack, Ensign?"

I wanted to punch the Captain in his face. But this Captain was almost a foot taller than me and had a good hundred lbs of muscle to boot. "I was a platoon commander in the Shocktrooper Corps before reassignment here, Sir!"

The Captain scowled. After ripping the rank plack off my uniform, he threw it over his shoulder where it clattered loudly onto the permacrete. "Not anymore, Ensign!" He shouted again. I resisted the urge to wipe the spit off my face.

"Yes Sir!" Was all I could say. The Captain, Garren Brock, continued down the line.

"All of you may think you are special. You may think your social status will get you and easy ride. I see that some of you have a blue stripe on your uniform, marking you as the family member of a Moff." He looked at the 'pretty people' grouped together at the end of the formation. "Well I have news for you!"

The Captain stopped in front of the blue striped group. "There is only one color in my academy!" He was in one cadet's face, shouting, "There is only grey! There is light grey, and there is dark grey!"

The Captain ripped the cadet's shirt off his torso, waded it into a ball, threw it on the floor, and spat on it. "There is no kriffing blue on my uniforms!"

I may actually like this guy...

-000-

2nd day

The barracks are unisex. They have been for the last 9,000 years according to my new datapad. My bunk-mate went by her surname, Daala.

Pretty girl. Naive as fuck though.

"What do you think the flash-trainings going to be like?" She asked out of the blue, in her posh, core world, accent. I'd actually had it before, for jedi instruction. Not that I could tell her that.

"Possible side effects include nausea, headache, disassociation, and, slight risk of permanent coma." I read out from the datapad.

"Wish me luck," she said on her way out the door.

"Good luck!" Hope she gets the coma so I don't have to listen to anymore of her chatter.

Daala come before Pyk. They were running us through the flash-learning machines, one at a time, in alphabetical order. They called me on the com when it was my turn. I entered the med-bay and waited in line behind Kheller. All line officers are recipients of extensive flash-training in a large variety of subjects. From hand to hand combat, to emergency hypermatter-reactor repair. Officers of the line must be knowledgeable on every facet of Imperial command..

When my turn came, I was led into a large circular room. An inclined chair sat in the middle of the room, with a large terminal on the far side of the room. As I was strapped to the chair, I prepared myself for what I knew was going to happen. I heard some commotion outside the doors before the machine's electromagnetic field made contact with my neurons.

I was an ancient Human, fighting the Taung for control of Coruscant. Wielding my spear and shield, I became an expert in hit and run tactics, forcing the Taung off-world.

I was a slave on ancient Varl. As a lowly mechanic, I pioneered the first modern shield emitters.

I was a fighter-pilot during the Great Hyperspace War. I learned the meaning of space superiority.

I was an Admiral of the Separatists. My army was endless. I learned to make use of soulless soldiers.

I became someone else, again and again I lived through lives that were not my own, Learning protocol, codes, traditions, medicine, and history. Countless lives flew through my brain.

"Did you think you could hide forever?" The words rang in my ears as a figure before me came into focus.

I would recognize someone from my crèche anywhere. "Antinnis?" I gasped. My heart thudded in my chest.

"Lord Inquisitor Tremayne to you, Lu."

And then came the lightning.