Disclaimer: Star Wars: The Clone Wars is owned by Disney (Lucasfilm). I'm just playing around with it.

For so many years, I've kept these original characters (that you'll see in this story) bottled up inside me.

They've been through so many changes and development that the ones in this story, don't look anything like how they were initially characterized.

But finally, after so long, I've decided to finalize these OCs of mine.

And their story which takes place in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars universe.

The release of season 7 really encouraged me to come forward and share this story.

*Updated notes: For all current readers, please let me know what update schedule you guys like the best:

Once a week; Twice a week; Once every two-weeks; Other (literally any other update schedule, just not daily XD)

Leave your answer in the reviews or just pm me!

Also, constructive criticism and feedback are ALWAYS welcome! I make an effort to listen to your opinions and reply to your reviews.

This story is very dear to me. So I want to make it better for you, readers. If you're not comfortable leaving constructive criticism in reviews, then just pm me!

- MiraLake :)

CT-3484 (Intro pt1)

Good things will always come, no matter how brutal the current situation is.

"CT-3484, what are you doing!? Get back on the frontlines!" Krell ordered.

"Sir, yes, sir!"

Steele rushed out from behind the wrecked tank and moved forward with great caution. Shots were being fired back and forth between his troops and the enemy troops.

If he was running at full speed, he would surely be shot.

The rest of Steele's men followed behind as soon as they saw him go into battle again. The droids were obviously outnumbering them.

It was truly an unfair battle.

The troopers behind Steele threw droid-poppers left and right to cover him as he shot the endless parade of yellow clankers in the front, clearing a path for everyone.

"The main control room is just up ahead! We get there, we plant the bomb in, we escape, we go home! It's not impossible!" Steele encouraged his men.

Their goal was to take down this Separatist droid-repair factory, but it was taking longer than expected.

The Separatists were more prepared than they were and when they found out that Krell was the Jedi in charge of this mission, they probably pre-toasted to their victory.

Steele saw that he had finally opened up a window of opportunity and ran forward, shooting every single droid that he anticipates was about to shoot at him.

Months of serving under the ruthless General Krell's command had let him develop a sixth sense for detecting which droids are the most threatening ones in an instant.

Seeing that their commander is successfully making a path for them, the troopers began fighting back harder than before.

Cannons and blasters were being fired everywhere, destroying what's left of this repair-factory.

From his point of view, Krell saw that the battle was not progressing fast enough. He calls his clone commander again.

"CT-3484! Do I need to tell you everything? Charge forward and give those last remaining droids all you clones got!" Krell shouted through the comm.

From his position down on the battlefield, Steele answered in between firing blaster shots and dodging falling debris.

"We are giving them all we got, general! This is our maximum! We are almost inside the control room!"

"You are not!" Krell bellowed. "What is so hard about obeying orders, CT-3484? Or have you gone defective and I have to take you into maintenance?"

"General, I—ugh!"

A giant blast and explosion caused Steele to be knocked off his feet, along with the rest of his men. Most of the ceiling crumbled and began falling down towards them.

Steele quickly rolled out of the way.

"Brace yourselves!" He commanded.

Krell shielded his eyes from the sudden explosion. After the dust settled, he attempted to contact his clone commander again.

"Commander? Commander?!"

Steele reluctantly refused to answer his general's call and turned off his comm. Right now, his priority is keeping himself alive.

The metals and rocks stopped falling and the dust slowly faded away. Steele checked his radar on his right wrist to see if the signals of his remaining troopers are still active.

And they are. Everyone was still fine.

Looking up, Steele and his men saw a giant tank with a single droid controlling it in front of them. It was the last obstacle between them and the control room. Good. A tank is easy to take on in such a small space.

They all stay low to the ground, using the fallen debris as coverage to prevent the remaining droids and the tank from spotting them.

The droids walked amongst the rubble, scanning for any surviving clones. But they weren't very good at doing that.

Steele and all of the clones of Krell's legion were very experienced in situations like this.

"Do you see any clones?" One droid asked his comrade.

"No. I don't think they survived," his comrade answered.

"Well, keep looking. These clones can be pretty sneaky. You never know."

"Roger, roger."

Situations where it looked like the droids always had the upper hand were pretty normal for them. Because it was either they succeed in the mission and go home to an angry general or they die.

And none of them wants to die.

Eventually, Steele reached the front of the tank, carefully hiding behind a large piece of rubble. Another trooper, Egad, crawled next to him. The reliable Egad was the bomb-specialist.

He gestured to his backpack and made an OK sign with his fingers, telling Steele that he still has the bomb and is prepared to make a run for the control room to implement it anytime from now.

Steele examined his surroundings. He looked at the tank, the control room in front of them, his men behind them, and back to Egad again.

"What do you have in mind, commander?" Egad asked in a low voice.

"Alright, listen. I'm going to take over this tank, it's only one droid in command of it, so I'll be ok. When I do that, I'll turn on the droids here and you run as fast as you can to the control room and plant the bomb. Then exit through the escape route."

"But sir, you'll be spotted if you try to take over the tank. And what about the others that are still out there?" Egad nodded towards the fallen debris where more of his clone brothers are hiding from the droids. "We're not just going to leave them."

"You're right. But you're just going to have to trust me," Steele smirked.

Egad nodded obediently, turning towards the direction of the control room, preparing to run whenever Steele initiates the plan.

Turning off the safety on his blaster, Steele stood up from his hiding place confidently and turned around.

"Look! A clone!" He shouted.

That alerted the droids in front of him. They all looked around frantically.

"A clone?!"

"Where?!"

Steele answered with a shot from his blaster, knocking down one of the droids and causing a huge chain reaction to happen.

Almost immediately, the clones hidden among the rubble emerged and began taking down the droids with ease thanks to Steele's quick action that distracted those droids from noticing them.

As soon as that happened, Steele ran towards the back of the tank. The droid controlling the tank caught of him a little too late.

"Hey! Get back here!" The droid cried as he tried to blast Steele.

But Steele had a head start and successfully climbed up the tank, taking out the droid with one blow to the head with his blaster.

Egad was running at top speed towards the control room, shooting down the few droids that were standing in his way.

He reached his destination and quickly removed his backpack, taking out the bomb and putting it in the support pillar.

Outside, Steele took over the tank and swivelled it around. The clones were successfully taking down the droids in front of them, but all of the noise caused more droids to appear from other areas of the factory.

"Oh shoot! Take cover!" The clones ducked down as the newly appeared droids began shooting at them.

"Take out your grappling cords! And be prepared to aim for what's left of the ceiling!" Steele commanded.

The clone troopers did as commanded and Steele aimed towards the newly appeared droids, preparing for the blast.

"Men! Swing towards me!"

BOOM!

Steele pushed the ignite button and the blast immediately took away the entire squad of droids. Right before that happened, the clones shot their cords up towards whatever's left of the ceiling above them and swung towards their commander in the tank.

All of them landed safe and sound.

Steele continued to fire blast after blast, taking out significant amounts of droids that were coming from the remaining still-intact rooms of the factory.

He commanded his men to run into the control room and join Egad through the escape tunnel.

"Commander! Are you coming?" One of the troopers, Compass asked.

Steele waved his hand for them to keep running. "I'll catch up!"

Compass nodded and continued to run towards the control room. Inside, Egad sighed in relief to see his brothers alive and well.

He pressed the button on the bomb that so it will detonate when he pushes the remote.

Krell was growing impatient with the lack of updates from the clones. He hasn't even heard back since Steele cut him suddenly several minutes ago.

"CT-3484, come in! I repeat, come in!"

Steele blasts the last few droids he sees before jumping down from the tank and running towards the control room.

"CT-3484!" Krell howled.

"General! We're in the control room! Egad's planted the bomb, the whole place should be coming down any second!"

"About time it did!" Krell shouted so loud that Steele felt like his right ear might go deaf. "When we're back on the fleet, I hope you'll have good explanations, commander."

Egad stood at the edge of the escape tunnel, jumping anxiously as he waited for his commander to show up. Steele appeared from the smoke and dust seconds later.

"Commander!" Egad cried ecstatically.

"Let's go, let's go!"

"Yes, sir!"

Steele and Egad run through the escape tunnel that leads out the outside of the factory. Halfway through the tunnel, Egad presses the detonate remote button.

The entire factory blows up behind them in a glorious manner. That's it.

Mission accomplished.

Onboard the fleet back to Kamino.

A few clones waited outside the briefing room on board the fleet. They either stood or sat silently, but all of them were fidgeting uncomfortably with every bang they heard from inside the room.

Krell violently threw Steele around with the Force. Every single piece of furniture in this room was knocked over and some parts of the wall were even dented.

"Is this what it takes to make you obey my orders?!" Krell shouted.

"I'm sorry, sir..." Steele croaked as he painfully got to his feet. He was sure a few of his ribs were broken by now.

Without warning, Krell threw Steele around some more. The Besalisk Jedi's eyes flash as he thrust his arm back and forth over and over and over again...

Outside, the waiting clones grew more and more anxious. Compass stood up, not being able to take this waiting anymore. Egad grabbed him by the arm before he could knock on the door.

"Don't do anything hasty."

Compass forced his arm out of Egad's grip. "The commander did nothing wrong, we finished the mission. I get that the general is always this harsh, but I'm fed up with the way he treats us, clones! Especially the commander!"

The door flew open and Steele was sent flying out, nearly knocking over two clones standing right in front of the door. Everyone helped him back to his feet.

"Commander!"

"Are you alright?"

Krell walked out of the room and marched up to the clones who were helping Steele stay on his feet.

Compass glared at the tyrant Jedi general before him. He stood in front of Krell, crossing his arms and refusing to let him get to Steele.

Following Compass's example, Egad and the other clones all shot death glares at their general. Their grip on Steele tightened as Krell looked at them in amusement.

Pushing them away with the Force, Krell grabs Steele singlehandedly by his neck.

"Listen, CT-3484. I'll give you this. I'm actually kind of relieved that you all managed to successfully bomb the droid factory. Surprised even. But that doesn't erase the fact that you lot still have a lot to improve on. My tactics are harsh, and you may even say reckless. But they have made a huge impact on you, clones."

Krell lets go of Steele who falls to the floor with a thud. The General lands in one more hit which made his goggles crack and his vision got blurry.

Steele lost his sight due to an intense eye injury near the beginning of the war. Since then, he relied on specially-designed vision goggles to help him see the world around him.

But with one swift punch from the General, the clone commander's vision went completely dark. Despite that, Steele slowly gets back to his feet manages a weak salute.

Though harsh, Krell knows when to stop the violence. He nods at Steele's obedient behaviour and walks away.

The clones all rush up to their commander once again, letting him lean against them. Steele clicks the power button but the goggle refused to function. He sighed and took out his white cane.

Step by step, Steele limps down the hall towards the medical room. Compass followed behind, he still couldn't let go of his anger towards the general for his cruel treatment.

"It's not right that you get the heat for every tiny mistake in the general's eyes," Compass said out loud.

Steele groans from the pain in his left ribcage. "I don't need to hear this again, Compass. The general is the general, and good soldiers obey orders."

"At the cost of our lives?" Compass asked incredulously. "I'm sorry but, what about that makes us 'good soldiers?' At this point, we're equivalent to droids!"

They reached the medical rooms where Steele was taken into the care of a medic-bot on duty. The bot carefully tends to Steele's wounds while the rest of the clones scattered about and left the room, knowing that their commander is going to be ok.

The bot also fixes Steele's goggles since it's a medical-based technology, designed to improve his impaired vision. Steele laid down on the bed, feeling relief.

"How bad was the general this time, sir?" The bot asked.

"He was holding back this time," Steele sighed as he felt cool soft bandages wrap around his chest and abdomen. "My men just won't understand. No matter how long this goes on for, they just won't accept it. But it's either this or we all die on the battlefield."

"Your men are good men, that's why they won't accept this type of treatment from your general," the bot explained. "They care for you too much."

"Good soldiers follow orders," Steele insisted.

"'Good soldiers follow orders.' Aw, give me a break!" Compass threw his arms over his head. "Is he trying to get himself beaten to death by Krell?"

"If you've been waiting this long to finally say this, then you haven't been a very dutiful subordinate," Egad remarked.

"Oh, haha," Compass laughed sarcastically. "I've noticed! I've been seeing this since day one of being assigned to the 304th legion! And I've been tolerating this every single day! But do you know what scares me the most, Egad? Do you know?"

Egad shook his head plainly as they entered the armoury of the fleet. Compass clears his throat for further emphasis on what he's about to say.

"What scares me most, is that the commander actually thinks he deserves all that crap! Constantly telling us that 'we don't understand,' or that 'the general knows what he's doing'—"

"The commander isn't stupid!" Egad pushed Compass hard. He stumbles a few feet back. "The commander would rather take beatings and insults from General Krell than be killed by a bunch of clankers!"

Compass took a few seconds to recompose himself and then sighed. "Have you seen the other legions? The Jedi there are much fairer than ours. I heard that Rex of the 501st said that he'd die for General Skywalker! Face it, Egad! We drew the short straw at the start of this war. Our legion has more casualties than anybody else's and to this day, I'm still wondering how I lasted so long here!"

Egad turned around to leave the armoury. But stopped before he could walk out the door. Compass waited for the silence to pass. Then Egad started speaking.

"I wonder about that too," he admitted. "How I lasted so long after being thrust again and again into the front lines of battle. We lost so many good soldiers."

Behind him, Compass nodded in agreement. He seemed to be relieved to hear that Egad shares some of his thoughts about their tyrant general.

"But look at us now," Egad added, placing an arm on Compass's shoulder. "We're by far, the toughest, most experienced, and tolerant soldiers in the clone army!"

"No," Compass removed Egad's hand from his shoulder before taking his forearm in a vice grip. "In the whole galaxy."

Egad returns the vice grip to symbolize their unbreakable bond. The fleet made its way to Kamino at light speed.

Kamino headquarters.

After boarding off the fleet and filling out the status reports to the Kaminoan prime minister, Lama Su, Steele made his way to the training facilities. Before leaving, he barely caught the words being spat by his general to Lama Su behind him.

"I'm telling you that there's something wrong with him! I demand another operation be done to improve his sight—"

Steele turned the corner, shaking his head free of any ringing from his ears. But it was difficult with all this noise around him.

He was grateful that the medic-bot was able to fix his goggles on the fleet, the last thing he wanted was to walk around tapping the ground with his cane around here.

This was Kamino after all. His and his brothers' home. Created, raised, and trained here for one sole purpose. To fight a war he barely understood.

But it didn't matter too much to him, it's a great honour to fight in such a large scale war. Especially with Jedi as their leaders.

Yes, as brutal as Krell may be, Steele still has respect for his combat skills. The General almost never fights on the front lines with them, but whenever the enemy troops were about to break through to the back, that's when he jumps into battle.

Seeing how fast and easily Krell is able to slice through the waves of droids makes Steele forget about all the harsh treatments.

But that immediately resumes as soon as the battle's over.

Pain rips through Steele's chest again and he catches himself by grabbing onto the walking-aid bar along the pristine white walls. A few clones looked at him struggling to get back on his feet. He could hear them all whispering.

"That's Krell's commander."

"What happened this time?"

"They just took down the last droid repair factory."

"They did? That's great."

"Yeah, but I'm guessing something didn't go well with the general."

"I heard about this General Krell. Is he that harsh?"

"Yeah."

"What kind of Jedi treats his clones like garbage? Aren't they supposed to care about all living beings?"

Steele had enough of the pity he's feeling from all the watching clones. Forcing himself to walk straight, Steele sucked in the pain and marched down the hall to the training room where the Jedi in charge, Shaak Ti was.

"Commander. Welcome back," Shaak Ti greeted.

"How're the cadets coming along?" Steele limped over to the front of the room to see the training down below.

"You're injured," Shaak Ti noticed.

"I've already been patched up, so there's nothing else we can do but to wait and let these wounds heal by themselves. I ask again, general, how're the cadets coming along?"

Shaak Ti gestures below them. "We hired new bounty hunters when you were still away. They are stricter and harder on the cadets, but they are also fair. No more picking favourites, if they see someone weak, they'll work him harder."

"Good to know," Steele examined the cadets practicing their marksmanship on several moving targets below.

The two new bounty hunters watched closely over their form and technique, giving critiques and demonstrations whenever the cadets did something wrong.

"I almost forgot to mention," Shaak Ti suddenly remembered. "The temple is sending in another Jedi here, her name is Aliyah Korentayer, and she'll be helping me with overseeing the clones' training for the time being."

"Why?"

"She just got appointed as a Jedi Knight so she now has the status of general. But she felt that she is a bit young and wants to learn more about you, clones, before being assigned to a division," Shaak Ti explained.

"How young?" Steele asked curiously.

"A child on the verge of becoming an adult."

Steele whistled. "Why are you Jedi sending out children into the battlefield?"

"We aren't," Shaak Ti corrected. "It's the Republic that commands us to fight. And that means sending any qualified Jedi of our order to lead clone divisions."

"Still..." Steele whispered. "They have a whole life ahead of them. Unlike us. Unlike me."

The doors to the training room behind them opened and in walked the recently appointed young Jedi Knight Shaak Ti was talking about.

Had Shaak Ti not told him earlier, Steele would never guess that the Jedi Knight was only a teenager.

The person who walked in appeared as a young woman wearing the traditional brown Jedi cloak, which was only a few shades darker than her short dark-blonde hair tied in a half ponytail.

In fact, the only thing that seemed to make her look like a child is her round face, framed by loose pieces of her hair that fell out of the ponytail.

Her round face and her big smile.

"Aliyah Korentayer," the Jedi Knight introduced herself. "It is an honour to work with you, Master."

Shaak Ti smiled, "I'm glad to hear that. I hope you will find this experience to be fruitful."

Steele looked back and forth between the two Jedi and then looked back down at the cadets. One of them failed to shoot the moving simulated droid again, stirring up the anger of one of the bounty hunter instructors. He snatched the blaster away from the cadet.

"Aliyah, this is Commander Steele, he regularly helps out with struggling cadets and offers advice on their training," Shaak Ti added. "He is under General Krell's legion, the 304th."

Steele looked at Aliyah, nodding in acknowledgment. "Good meeting you, sir."

"Good meeting you, too, commander." Aliyah returned the nod with the same childish smile.

"Generals, if you don't mind, I should head down and help out the cadets before an argument starts up."

"Go ahead," Shaak Ti gave permission for him to leave.

With that, Steele turned around and walked through the door. He headed down the hall towards the lift. His rib cage throbbing with every step he takes. His head throbbing even more.

He couldn't stop thinking about that childish smile from the new Jedi knight—Aliyah—General Korentayer. He feels a bit sad.

Sad that he knew that smile is going to cease to exist one day. It's inevitable.

Because this is a war.

Next time on The Clone's Hero, Steele and his men failed to finish a mission and are forced to retreat, facing an outraged General Krell. But this time, they have the support of another person...

Thanks for reading,

MiraLake