The Man of Many Names

To start with Dagran's life of the Nighthawks is to pick both the softest and the hardest of them all. Not many know who he really is, or who he was, though Dag is certainly the most normal of them all. But he certainly wasn't successful. He hadn't always been a medical technician. Dagran had tried it all, from demolitions to computer tech. He'd failed, earning him the umpteenth nickname of Useless - the one that had stuck. 8606's first nickname had been Loner and his brothers had never been the closest of batches. Dag was more of a lone wolf than most, preferring to actively avoid the others and do his work on his own. A few of his batch tried, but when 8606 politely declined any assistance, Growl, the dominant one, shoved him and snarled in the other boy's face. They were to be given real assignments soon and if Loner didn't shape up soon, he'd be the odd one out. 

"Maybe he should be NoName," one of the younger ones laughed. "No, he should be Monkey. I mean, he looks like one." The laughter grew as one tugged on his hair that had escaped from his ponytail again. Others suggested names, some of them turning vulgar, though Growl quickly shoved the others off before too many shot home. 8606 knew he wasn't normal, however. He swore he didn't care how much the others disliked him; it only caused him to pull further inside himself. He hid how abnormal he was, though he couldn't do anything about his eyes or the hair that, no matter how often it'd be cut, it regrew within a few days. Eventually he stopped trying and kept it as neat as he could. Maybe he should have just been glad they didn't terminate him for that. He should have been content, despite the ribbing.

The last normal day was just after a morning mess. Loner and his batch were almost eight years. The hall seemed unnaturally bright, but he only shook his head, trying to avoid his eyes watering. The last thing he needed was yet another nickname. The mess hall was enormous, stark white and polished. The murmur was quiet for the dozens of boys sitting at the tables, but the few droids to keep peace were quick to act. No one wanted one of them single him out and be humiliated. It was almost as bad as the whispered 'reconditioning', or so the boys said. Loner had looked it up once, but hadn't found anything, so he didn't think his brothers knew anything, really.

He walked into the mess hall, as per usual, found the corner where he usually sat relatively empty. He was just glad his brothers didn't play practical jokes on him like they did on some of the others. He usually got into the mess early, however, and they knew better than to toy with his homework datapads. Sitting down after he'd gotten his food, Loner fairly inhaled it to have more time for his homework. He did so much extra work he knew all the theory behind every job out there. Loner had high hopes he'd be able to fit in and his squad would settle down once they had jobs to do. Homework and theory only occupied the boys so long, even as disciplined as the Kaminoans were. Several brothers came in together, talking excitedly about the assignments they were likely to get. Most said they would be leaders, or the tech-savvy wiz. The smart jobs. The other half wanted demolitions because it was fun. Loner didn't have much hope on leadership qualities. No amount of theory could make a leader, but he didn't want to be a leader. A nice, quiet job would make him the happiest. 86 straightened when the tall Kaminoan came in. It was that time again. The time their guardians assessed them and pulled the better ones out for real assignments and training. Loner had been passed over several times, though it wasn't really a problem. He wasn't the only one that was older than the rest.

Numbers were called and Loner was surprised when his was called. Maybe his theory had finally gotten through. He stood and followed his brothers who'd also been called into the other room, where they were separated into their squads. Karo, a young, surprisingly intelligent young man, was to be his squad's leader, along with Factor, Joat and Hero. Factor was clearly their technician, his mathematics came so easily to the boy, though Joat was a close second. Factor usually had his hair shorn off, to avoid having to deal with it, and though was built just like the rest of them, had a tendency to list sideways when he was lost in thought - which was often. Hero was one of the normal ones who liked demolitions, but he liked building armory and blasters, convinced there wasn't a weapon out there he couldn't put together in less than 10 seconds. Hero was steady, cool under pressure and nearly impossible to shove over. Joat was just like his name, a jack of all trades. He could build as well as their trainer, outsmarted (and outsassed) the mathematician and was responsible for some of the training upgrades, Joat was one of the top markman, able to pinpoint a killshot in less than five seconds. His goal, of course, was to beat the record from several years ago: Blackfire. Though Joat was an excellent pilot, too many trainers had nearly had heart attacks from his wildfire methods of dodging that he was rarely put into the cockpit anymore.

Loner gave a mild nod to the others, then Karo immediately pulled them aside for their first study. The next few days of real training were more gruilling than he'd ever been in. Forced to work with the other four, Loner tried to avoid getting himself into scrapes that the other had to haul him out of, but it started happening with more and more frequency. He was a decent shot realtime, but even Karo outstripped him in kill count. His squad were disgusted, but at least he knew how to pull others out of fire, if only to take said fire instead. Eventually, however, Loner got his act in gear and learned to dodge, if nothing else because Joat started catcalling as a reminder to move.

Eventually, they graduated, with little thanks to Loner, who had gotten dubbed Droidbait after the unfortunate incident where he'd managed to at least lead the training droids in the wrong direction before becoming pinned by the reign of fire. At least he'd survived, this time. He was hardly a loner any longer with a squad around him. Bait had begun learning everything he could about medicines and shots, enabling him to not only survive longer, but keep his teammates alive. Karo sighed, but knew having a medic was better than what Bait had been. It was relatively unusual, but certainly had its uses.

Their first mission had been Geonosis. That burning pit full of real blood and death. Bait hadn't been able to do as much as he'd have thought, but at least none of the Leonis squad, as they called themselves, had gotten killed and had to be immediately replaced. Maybe they had a shot at this, after all.

Several years later, Leonis Squad was still together through some miracle, though Factor swore it was due to Karo's leadership. Joat would simply roll his eyes at the almost stupid loyalty, but blandly agreed. They'd been through the fire together and couldn't simply abandon one another over slights from personality quirks. They couldn't all be machines focused on duty. They were too human for that, even if a clone would never admit it. Their next mission was the forests of Endor's moon. Factor, as usual, worked with Hero to make sure all their equipment was loaded on the dropship and Karo went over the plans nearby, speaking out loud in case the others had any input. Joat occasionally offered a wise crack that Karo ignored and Factor glared at his brother with a long-suffering sigh before returning to his job. Bait simply continued to restock the meds and stims he carried, hoping they'd not need some of the things he'd packed, but he tended to overpack. At least his supplies weren't too bulky and no one complained about too much meds.

Bait had been alive nearly 15 years by now, though he'd begun pulling away several years ago, returning to his 'loner' instincts, passively watching the others as if there was something wrong, though when asked, he couldn't have formulated any sort of answer that made any sense. The quiet beneath the canopy on Endor calmed him and he felt more at home than he'd ever been. His 'sight-seeing' made the others groan, but nothing truly bad came from it, beyond Bait's preoccupation, though during their duties, of course, he paid strict attention to the others. Karo retrieved the information they'd come for and the squad was packing up when Joat disappeared.

They thought nothing of it at first. Karo brushed it off as something the man was wont to do at times and knew Joat would return soon, probably with some sort of native animal in a bag they could eat. It grew dark and still no Joat. Bait volunteered to move off to search for him and was rebuffed for his lack of survival skills, though he pointed out he knew Joat better than the other three. After over twenty-four hours and still no sign of their erstwhile brother, Karo nodded for Bait to head off and the other three hunkered down in their little camp.

Bait found Joat wandering the forest, confused, though he snapped back to himself quickly upon sighting his brother. Joat only irritably responded that he'd been hunting and lost track of time and refused to answer anything further. Karo reluctantly gave the order to finish packing and head back to Kamino for their report. There was nothing else to be done. Joat remained more distant and quieter than usual on the journey home, but eventually returned to his normal smartass self as they got some time off after the successful mission.

It was a while until their next mission, though Leonis squad wasn't idle. Bait continued to research any and all medications and maladies in preparation for, well, just about anything he could think of. Hero and Karo trained with Joat, though the man began to be more and more aggressive during training and had to be pulled on occasion for over-aggressiveness. Every so often, Bait would feel pressure, almost claustrophobic and would go into the training room on his own to calm himself down with forced activity. The open space of the large training room usually helped, though it began to happen with more frequency. Joat and Bait fought more often, Bait doing his best to force himself calm, keeping the emotions at a remove, while Joat would usually go for his fists, wearing his heart on a sleeve. Training as a squad, however, the others quickly began noticing Joat was quite a big stronger than he had been, a change that couldn't be explained away by weight lifting. Joat was suddenly pulled from the squad by the Kaminoans and disappeared. He wasn't replaced, however. For several long, tense weeks, Joat was unavailable, before he finally returned. Unnaturally quiet, the man's usual snark was absent and after a few idle questions went unanswered, Leonis as a whole realized what had happened. Joat had been reconditioned. Somehow, Bait knew the Kaminoans hadn't found the problem, but Joat was different. Darker, somehow, as if whatever he'd gone through...had actually made him worse. Karo, Factor and Hero were just glad Joat was back, moving on as if nothing was amiss, but Bait could just tell something was wrong.

Bait didn't have much time to speculate or discover what had happened, however, as Leonis' next mission cropped up. It was simple as some went, but would take them to the further reaches of the galaxy, close to the Outer Rim. Rumors of several illegal weapon sites had filtered through the Republic's spy network and Leonis, Zero and Alcar Squads were being sent in to deal with the problem, if there was one.

Their landing zone was behind several large boulders, enabling the dropship to remain hidden. Alcar Squad immediately began setting up camp while most of Leonis went hunting. Bait pulled out his kit, but moved off to gather a few native plants to supplement his stash. Pulling from the native environment always bolstered the stims from any problems they ran across and he wanted to be prepared. The scent of the light brush, recently-turned earth, a fresh breeze filtering through the trees. Bait's muscles relaxed as he hunted, almost absently, listening to the distant voices of his campmates. He had no intention of getting to know the other two squads, though Hero and the others seemed perfectly fine with it. Bait looked up, through the trees at an odd sound and frowned. He was much further away than he thought he'd been, but could still hear the murmur of voices just fine, could still pick out Joat's occasional sarcastic comment as he seemed to be returning to his normal self. Bait shook his head and continued gathering carefully, but a sound in the opposite direction made his head snap back up. He had no more time to react before something large, furry and very angry exploded out of the rocks at him, knocking the man over. Bait inhaled sharply as pain spiked through his body, his vision blurred as claws dug deep into his skin, raking furrows across his stomach. He rolled, desperately trying to get the wolf-like creature off before he bled out, but his voice didn't seem to work enough to scream. Bait collapsed as his body felt stretched, glancing down at his blood-covered hands as the creature circled him, probably aiming for the kill. His vision swam and he swayed as his eyes suddenly spiked into crystal clear vision painfully. The man weakly closed his eyes and blacked out as the sense of pain faded into an odd stretching.