revivalproject | Fall In, Troops!

Entry tags:

Fall In, Troops!

WHO: Omega and open~
WHERE: Outside of the library
WHAT: Patrolling like a good soldier!
WHEN: Nnnow?
WARNINGS: N/A

"All right squad, let's go over our mission again."

The young clone squats before several mothkittens, the latter in various states of attentiveness. One's sprawled out on its back, watching Omega as she gestures, another sits watching her hand the way a cat would a laser pointer, and the last two are a pile gnawing on each other, paused for the moment as they watch her anew while still holding onto an ear or a tail in their mouths. Up in a tree behind them is a larger mothcat, appearing content enough to lounge as she watches the children at play.

"We'll be patrolling the southern perimeter of the city square," Omega details, using the twig she has in hand to start tracing a rough map in the dirt. "Launch and I will take point, then Trapper and Tumble, and Dart, you're our rear guard. We'll start out facing the lakeside and keep to this side of the road. -yes, that's it right there, Dart. Can I have my stick back?"

She sighs as the little mothcat tugs at the twig she holds, grinning as she shakes her head and tugs it back a little before letting the winged furball roll about with it. Turning her attention to the one she's called Launch, she holds her arms out to catch the mothkitten as he predictably leaps up. "Okay, I think we're all set. Trapper, Tumble, Dart, let's go." Nodding to herself, Omega stands, letting Launch hop back out of her arms before she turns towards the tree and salutes the larger mothcat.

"We'll be back soon, Tony. Sure you won't come with us today?" She'll take that yawn as a no. "All right then. We'll see you later," she giggles, turning to head along. Naturally the mothkittens are quick to drift off in different ways than she'd outlined, but she doesn't seem to mind terribly as she sticks to her 'patrol' assignment.

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Not sure what Omega meant to do with his hand, Tony offered it out flat, then turned the palm up to show her the repulsor and how he had been controlling his flight. "This is all science, sweetheart," he reported with pride, before his encouragement had mixed in the impression that Tony would be doing any magic himself. "What do you think I've been doing when you're not around to keep me busy? It was either this, or you'd be taking me on walks every three minutes, too."

The girl snorted, as though it wasn't obvious that this feat was scientific and not magic! "I've never seen such boosters used for armor mobility. These remind me of A-Zee's, but more compact," she said as she traced a finger around the repulsor and glanced down at his feet.

"It's amazing," she continued, smiling up at him.

"It is incredibly cool, please, don't hold back, I won't tell Echo how lame you think his armour is," Tony encouraged, prideful lift of his chin betrayed by his wry smile. "Who's Ayzee, and when are we scheduling their upgrades?" That wasn't an offer that he was too worried about following through on, fairly certain he would have noticed someone else flying around here without magic.

"It's a lot brighter than my brothers' armor. Shiny too." Omega laughed. "But I guess I can't be surprised. You like attention."

She started back towards the tree the other Tony lounged in. Seemed like a good time to return the kids, sleepy as they were. Already they were dozing in her bag. "He's a medical droid I knew back on Kamino," she explained, smiling fondly. "I'd help with maintenance checks for him."

There was very little Tony could do to defend against this very casual accusation, leaving him frozen where he stood with his hand still up in some shock at her youthful wisdom, then forced to jog after Omega for a few steps to catch up when he came up with the airtight, "Everyone likes attention."

Kamino remained something of a mystery to Tony despite prodding both Omega and Echo when he could, so he considered Omega's fondness closely, still trying to shape it. "You really kept that place running all by yourself," he said. "No wonder they wanted you back so bad."

It was an observation! Omega glanced back at him when she realized Tony had lagged behind, brow arching in faint amusement at his...defense?

She stepped over to Tony the mothcat's tree perch, carefully unloading the children one by one in the shade at its base. "I'm not really sure what they want. Or if they even have any say in things anymore," she said quietly, her smile fading. "Ever since the Empire took control, things were a lot different. They don't seem interested in more of the Kaminoans' clone army."

Omega's tone took Tony by surprise, making him unsure that he actually understood her. It made sense that she wouldn't want less of the clones in the universe, but surely she had personal experience enough to not want more of them, either. Whatever else the Empire might have done, that one sounded like a good call. "Should there be more?" he wondered. She was the one with the personal experience. Tony had just made clones, hoping they'd never actually have to be used.

"There's still so many developing. I don't know what will happen to them. I don't think production's stopped yet, but I don't know how the Empire will affect everything." Omega looks over at Tony.

"I know we're not supposed to exist, but...we do. But we're all people. I don't have anything against the other soldiers. They can't help but follow orders because of the chips the Kaminoans implanted."

"What do you mean, 'developing'--They're alive, they're just...?" Tony had to ask, and was left flapping his free hand with no real idea of how to finish that question. Most of what Omega seemed to do was care for the other clones, she hadn't mentioned much of a life outside of that. "They don't have to be soldiers," was the best way he could interpret what Omega was trying to say. Echo didn't seem incapable of living his own life while he still had the chip.

Omega brought her hands up, shaping a small space between them. "Embryos. They're all in separate containments, attached to a ring, and there's multiple rings set up like a tower. There's a whole room full of them."

It was hard to describe even when she'd spent a good amount of time there, given she was the chief geneticist's assistant.

"No, they don't have to. But...I don't know if they have a choice. As soon as they're old enough they get sent into flash-training. Becoming a soldier is what they know they're supposed to be." Her brow furrowed. "...we met a friend of my brothers though. A deserter. He has a family. We helped them get off the world they were on because the Empire was starting to become a presence there, and I don't know what they would've done if they found out about him."

Standing in the embryo room would probably make some adjustments to Tony's perspective, too, so his dubious frown didn't last long and he looked away purposefully, focusing on the mothcat considering them from the tree and giving a luxurious stretch. He didn't feel quite so conflicted about arguing that they could have been given a choice instead of the training, and luckily Omega already seemed to be part way there, letting Tony's gaze drift back to her as she considered the alternative, and the mothcat came slinking down the tree toward the kittens.

"You didn't become a soldier," he added. That was at least two. That was a pretty significant margin of error.

"I wasn't supposed to be one." Omega wasn't really sure why she was made, really, but she'd never given it much thought. The why's weren't nearly as important as the who's, and once she'd 'met' the clones who were to become Clone Force 99, she'd been determined to find them again, even if perhaps her kinship to them had been one-sided. But they'd been the first clones she'd shared the labspace with, even if they weren't aware of it.

"Everyone else is. It's what they were made for. The Kaminoans consider the clones their property. The Empire is making use of a resource until they don't need it anymore." And then whatever happens...she wasn't sure. But it was clear if you weren't for the Empire, you were considered against it, and that was a dangerous place to be.

Tony was fairly certain Omega wasn't anywhere near what she was supposed to be at this point, so he cocked his head, eyes narrowed, not really accepting that as an argument. "I wasn't supposed to be a superhero," he retorted, bracing his helmet in both hands in front of him. Arguably, he wasn't a very good one, that much had been made very clear to him, but he had still forced his way into the role, and only split his time doing what he was supposed to. Surely, clones could be terrible superheroes, too, if they really wanted to.

That was, admittedly, a little more difficult for a group of people who were recognized as 'property', and Tony pursed his lips, shifting to hug his helmet with an apologetic furrow of his brow. Mostly because he pressed again, more softly this time, "Should there be more?" It was sounding like Omega didn't think they would have a good life either way.

Her brothers weren't supposed to end up being surrogate fathers either, but perhaps it helped that Omega fancied herself as a new recruit and eager to learn whatever they could teach her. But now they were soldiers without an army, still working out the ways of the galaxy. What was supposed to be and what was just didn't seem to matter too much these days.

"...no," Omega replied, and at least she sounded firm in that.

This turned out not to be such a reassuring answer as Tony had expected, though he was more sure that he did understand what Omega was saying when it seemed as though they agreed on this point. He offered a small smile, then combed her hair back gently to assure her, "That doesn't mean there never will be. More of them will get out, they'll have families of their own." With a sniff and a raise of his chin, he declared, "You're not that special," then shot her a sidelong look with a wry grin.

She wasn't so sure she believed that, but she could hope that maybe there'd be a better life for some of them. Despite the armor, Omega went in for a hug around his torso. She let go to look up at him with a wrinkle of her nose.

"I didn't want to be special. I just didn't want to be alone anymore."

Tony had to let his helmet drop to his side to wrap a solid arm around Omega's shoulders, then cradle her head carefully, not sure how much of this hug was sought for comfort after that bleak exchange. He was in no rush to let her go, though, even as she wrinkled her nose at him, making him breath a laugh in return and ruffle her hair again.

"Sounds to me like you're on a roll. What's the next plan?" he encouraged, looking very much like he believed she would figure out a way to manage that one, too.

For comfort, for thanks. Omega was reluctant to pull away, even as she tried to keep a straight face when he ruffled her hair.

"Well..." She tilted her head, affecting a thoughtful pose. "I wanted to check on our rock friend, if he was still around. But first, maybe something to eat? Your talking about food earlier made me hungry."

The reminder of the rock creature made Tony blink and glance around the square, like he could have sworn he had just seen it, and couldn't figure out how something so big and destructive was so good at slipping into hiding. They definitely should have been keeping better tabs on it. But he nodded, agreeing that Omega should probably be fed, adding, "But we're not asking Billy. And these don't look ripe yet," gesturing toward the mothcat fussily cleaning her kittens' sleeping faces.

He offered a hand to lead them away then, toward the diner and more promising nourishment, chattering as ever as they went, "You know, I really thought you'd have much loftier plans, I was getting ready to bury bodies, take over the world, convince Echo to smile, that kind of thing. You have to start thinking bigger. A feast, at the minimum, we can start there..."

"Okay, no magical meals," she agreed, giggling a little as she glanced over at the mothcat pile.

"...I want to help the Agrii get their home back," Omega said. "They asked for help, after all. And everyone should have a place they can belong. ...but I think they need to learn to trust us more, so we can trust them too."

There was another insight that Tony hadn't expected to come out of Omega. If they were to believe the Agrii's claim on their face, that they did ask for help and weren't so aware of any outside influences, then it should have followed that they did trust their He Rows. They clearly didn't. How Omega had come to that conclusion was intriguing. "What makes you think they don't trust us?" he asked. "And--okay, so if that's true, what's the next step?"

The girl gave their hands a bit of a swing as she held onto his, looking down thoughtfully as she continued to walk along with him.

"There's not enough communication," she said after a moment. "I know they're scared to come here if the storms will harm them, so the distance doesn't make it easy, but they usually only talk just to give us information or do something special for us.

"We really don't know a whole lot about them, but they seem to know about us. The things they gave us... they weren't random. It doesn't seem fair that they know things about us without really getting to know us. Maybe they don't know how to get to know other people, after living by themselves for so long. So...maybe we should teach them? Try doing something for them and see how they respond?"

They were already doing something for the Agrii, Tony thought, under profound duress. Maybe not effectively, but it wasn't Tony's choice to live on this abandoned planet, so he frowned, looking skeptical. Winning over someone who wanted to do harm, even just to buy some time, though, wasn't an unfamiliar program. There must have been a way to extrapolate that to their alien kidnappers. "Make a show of loyalty?" he proposed as he pushed the door to the diner open for Omega. "Like a statue...or a church...," seemed like the scale they had to work on to get the attention of the people who lived in the sky.

"Not exactly," Omega said as she stepped inside. "Like...well, what would you do if you wanted to make friends with someone?"

She looked back at Tony as she posed this inquiry. Friend-making wasn't something she had really put much thought into. Thinking of those she'd met here, it seemed to happen on its own, but the advantage was that they were there to personally interact with.

Friends did just seem to happen here, and Tony didn't even have a credit card on him. He scratched at his beard thoughtfully, trying to reconcile the usual sequence of events with how difficult it was to talk to the Agrii; "Usually it would be a nice dinner, somewhere expensive, then a private concert, maybe a museum tour if that seemed to be their thing..." It seemed fairly unlikely that, even if the contact was easy, Tony could be showing the Agrii new experiences on their own planet while he was the bug in the code. "Flowers, definitely, if I don't know much about them yet. Everyone likes flowers." Except Cayde, but Tony was pretty sure that was a very rare exception.

Fall In, Troops!

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