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Shortly post-Order 66, the galaxy is a very dark place (Tai and Sage self-inserts in Star Wars: Rise of the Empire Era)
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"That's an option," Diǎnrán conceded, "or I could leave Commander Dune with you and he can escort you there while I go to inform the good doctor about the developments?"

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They tilt their head in something like a nod, "If you'd rather that, I wouldn't say no to a guide." They step back towards the hangar, motioning towards it, "This way, then." 

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Giving a cursory node to his Jedi, Dune motioned down the corridor.

"After you, General."

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Returning Dune's nod, Diǎnrán turned back to return to the med bay.

Once there she opened the door to find Dr. Natasi checking a datapad of some kind.

"Complications, doctor?" She asked, her voice trembling slightly as her heart skipped a beat.

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"Hardly, Master Jedi. Merely checking the readouts. All seems to be proceeding as I expected - your Padawan should be healed enough to remove from the bacta in roughly seven hours." 

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She felt some of the tension drain, suddenly feeling her knees weaken Diǎnrán slumped onto a free cot.

"Ah, good," she croaked, before clearing her throat to continue, "your expected guests are here, doctor. There are some....unexpected developments regarding the clone chips Dune and I brought to your attention before. We have reason to believe they may be more than simple aggression chips, but I'll let Knight Sage explain when they return--ah, that reminds me, the clones are Senth squad, a batch of Republic Commandos attached to Knight Sage, they're stable for now so do let your staff know there's nothing to be alarmed about."

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She nods. Most of her staff is asleep at the moment - it's the middle of the night cycle - but she does send off a message to the fellows in the comms tower. They can pass the memo on from there.

"It will be a pleasure to have more information to work with," she adds once she's done that. 

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"Hmm, I wouldn't call it a pleasure, exactly," she cautioned.

"It's--" she closes her eyes briefly, focusing on that distant presence, "it's a lot."

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"Perhaps the contents will not be pleasing, exactly," she acknowledges, "But I'm always pleased to know more rather than less, regardless of any nightmares that might result." 

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Acknowledging her point, Diǎnrán walked over to the table Dune was using as a chair to make use of the maintenance kit he left behind.

Busying herself in disassembling and cleaning her lightsabers, her trance was broken when she heard the door slide open with a pneumatic hiss.

Turning, she nodded a greeting.

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Sage nods back as they come through the door, trailing their Padawan and Dune. They lift the datapad in offering as they reach the table, "As I said, only part-way unencrypted. But it's better than nothing, and Hack can get back to work on it once they arrive." They boot up the pad, tap out the password, and then hand it over as the list of orders comes on the screen.

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"Master Senetti," Natasi greets, coming over to take a look as well. 

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"Dr. Finos," they greet in return, "Thank you for taking us in." 

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Diǎnrán reached over to her pack, once the standard white now ashen and charred in places, and withdrew a datapad.

"This is what we have on the chips. It isn't much -- mostly our observations on it -- but it might help," she unlocked it and handed it to Dr. Natasi before continuing, "we weren't able to get a hold of the chips unfortunately, they seemed to be almost....organic, so they degraded quickly when exposed to the elements and my battalion didn't have the equipment necessary to hold one in stasis."

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"Yeah," Dune continued, "I saw one during Geonosis, poor trooper had his head cracked open like an egg, there was a fleshy lump on his skull, like a tumour I guess, but too uniformly flat and it had a red pulsating centre."

He shuddered, adding, "the thing upped and rotted away in front of me; couldn't sleep for a week after that, kept wondering if I had one in me too."

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"Force," Sage mutters, looking at the data over her shoulder. 

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Natasi hums, "I expect the speed of decomposition is purposeful. The quicker they destroy themselves, the less time a hypothetical surgeon would have to get one into stasis. The Kaminoans are very proprietary about their methods." 

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"They chipped you?" Jorel asks, incensed, from over by the bacta tank. "Like-" he pauses.

"...Like slaves." 

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"Worse," Sage murmurs, "Most slave implants only kill those who have them. These chips..." they look down at the datapad with the orders on it. 

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"They're basically turning them into droids," Diǎnrán took over, peering at the screen from her other shoulder, "those Orders of theirs are so specific and so antithetical to normal morality the chips would have to be able to override their minds and force them into carrying some of them out."

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"Exactly."

"It explains the... state, the regulars we came across were in. Their emotional profiles... weren't. They seemed to feel nothing." It was incredibly unnerving, and had left Sage unusually distracted for much of their escape from Coruscant. "The order responsible for..." They take a slow breath, continuing to set aside their emotional reactions for later, "This, must be one of the ones Hack has yet to decrypt," they continue after a moment. 

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"I'd like to examine you," Natasi tells Dune, and then to Sage, "Your squad as well, Master Senetti, to see if there are any anomalies like those noted in this datapad. I'd also like to get a look at one of the clones who are affected, but of course that will have to wait until I can get my hands on one," she muses. 

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"Understood, doctor," Dune agreed readily, "I dunno if the chips they put in us RCs were earlier, faulty models or we just got lucky, but I'd rather get it out of me all the same."

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"Well, in the meantime while we wait for Dr. Natasi to examine the Commandos for the the rest of the Orders to be decrypted," Diǎnrán said, "Doctor, I was wondering if this station had any long-range communication capabilities and if I could possibly make a holocall with it?"

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"Certainly," she agrees, "Though, depending on who you intend to call, you may wish to use a more secure frequency than ours." 

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