Igni Irae
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Expand on the Republican Guard. Sub Mezha's buddy.
Image Credit: Here.
Role: Republican Guard partisan, second in command of Viper Company and friend of Mezha Krazhmir. Point of view character for the rebels. Aside from this, Synthia provides cultural insight into Tephrike and a new perspective on the Guard.
Permission: Can use Firemane stuff because I own the company.
Links: Dominion of Light, Disciples of the Vader, Into Darkness, After Darkness, Red Coral City, Tephrike, Firemane, Nexus City, Battlemaster Mahtara, Fortress Solidarity, Force-Dead.
PHYSICAL INFORMATION
Age: Eight to ten years old. But she resembles a woman in her thirties due to advanced aging.
Force Sensitivity: Force Dead
Species: Cloned Twi'lek.
Appearance: In a word: battlehardened. Synthia is a green Twi'lek female who looks older than her years, which is partly due to bad cloning, and is scarred by combat. She is a practical woman and not particular fussy about fancy clothes; she wears what is useful and protective. Indeed, she is extremely disdainful of the way Twi'leks are stereotyped as dressing like ladies of the night. She has the physique of a warrior and is strongly-built, enabling her to use heavy weapons with little issue. Her body is marked by many battle scars. She lost her right eye to an explosion at the Battle of Grimwater Swamp, one of the bloodiest battles fought on Tephrike. It has been replaced by an ocular implant. There is still some scarring around the eye socket. As a sign of her reclamation of her individuality, she has some tattoos, such as Twi'lek tribal markings on her face. Synthia tends to wear some form of armour or fatigues and is always armed. She usually carries a concealed vibro-shiv in addition to a sidearm.
SOCIAL INFORMATION
Name: Synthia Vao. Born Synthia Soldier. She chose Vao as her surname after defecting from the Dominion.
Loyalties: Tephrike, Republican Guard, Popular Front, Mezha Krazhmir, Viper Company.
Wealth: Low. Synthia is not wealthy at all. The Guard does its best to pay its soldiers, but an insurgency is not rich. So she often has to supplement her income with loot.
Notable Possessions:
- Villip, with optional Oggzill attachment.
- Cloak of Nuun. Synthia owns the original version, which grants camouflage.
- Storm Commando Armour.
- Tsaisi
- Bolter & Cylix Bolt Pistol.
- Dog tags of dead comrades from her time as a Dominion soldier.
- Copy of 'No Chains, No Masters', the manifesto of the Communards, and the 'Green Book', a training and induction manual issued by the Republican Guard to new recruits.
- Force Imbued Blade. Used to belong to Jedi General Akosa. Synthia took it from her corpse after fragging the Jedi for getting her friends killed.
Personality: Synthia is passionate, determined and dedicated. She was born without a mother or a father, for she was a clone grown in a Dominion laboratory. Like the Galactic Republic and the Jedi Order of yore, the Dominion of Light uses a clone army. These clone troopers are slave-soldiers who are born and raised to fight for the Jedi theocracy. Thus Synthia was drilled and indoctrinated from birth, for the Dominion sought to mould its people from cradle to grave. She was one of the clone troopers who were thrown into the meat-grinder again and again. After all, if she died, she could always be replaced. As she is fond of saying, "A Jedi's life is sacrifice - of others." However, the Twi'lek rebelled against her conditioning and broke free. Now she is a member of the Republican Guard, a revolutionary movement that seeks to overthrow the Force theocracies.
Her experiences under the Dominion's yoke have shaped her. The war is a brutal one and the Republican Guard is not a squeaky clean rebellion that balks at getting its hands dirty. They are insurgents who have spent most of the war on the back foot. As a result, Synthia sees the conflict as a war to the knife and is quite radical in her methods. She is a good comrade to her brothers and sisters in arms and has empathy for victims, but is ruthless against her enemies.
As is typical for Dominion clones, Synthia was born sterile because the Jedi state sought to exert total control over its citizens' lives. There was no need for her to have a family or give birth to children if she could simply be cloned, thereby allowing the miracle of life to occur in a medically sanctioned way. She is married and has tried to have children, but has been unable to conceive. This has pushed her to undergo medical procedures to try and regain her fertility. She has recently adopted a war orphan.
She is big on justice and determined in her pursuit of it. Having been raised as a slave, she is determined never to bow to anyone or let her enemies know peace. As a result, she devotes a lot of time to work, training and improvement. Her time in the underground has made her a capable survivalist. She has a strong hatred for Jedi, Sith and those who willingly serve them. Her determination for the cause can be showcased by the fact that she voluntarily underwent a dangerous medical procedure to turn herself Force Dead. The Shapers informed her that the process could be fatal, but she was determined to gain an edge against the Force-users and ensure they could mentally manipulate her. Fortunately for her, the operation was a success.
As is the law for Dominion citizens, Synthia grew up without a family name. Instead she had an occupational surname and was called Synthia Soldier. Following her defection to the rebels, she chose 'Vao' as her surname to affirm her agency and identity as a free person. According to the records, it was the name of an ancient Twi'lek freedom fighter, so it seemed appropriate to her.
Synthia has been involved in efforts to try and sway Dominion clones to the revolution. She has achieved some success in this area, but is frustrated and indeed contemptuous of those who refuse to, as she sees it, break their shackles. The fact that she has often had to fight her 'siblings' has left her with mental scars. Nonetheless, it is her belief that the rebels should not lose sight of the fact that they are fighting for the liberation of all Tephriki.
This also makes her suspicious of what she identifies as appeasement. To her, there can be no compromise with the enemies of freedom. For the same reason, she has a low opinion of Tephriki groups that try to stay out of the war. In her view, such a middle of the road approach is tantamount to enabling the tyrants to subjugate the people. She is strongly opposed to discrimination based on gender, class or species. She hates humanocentrism with a burning passion.
Synthia is particularly passionate about the exploitation many of her fellow Twi'leks face, particularly in Vaderite territory, where they are enslaved and considered lesser beings. She is active in neighbourhood committees and groups that seek to aid her people and educate them. Moreover, she has been actively involved in several operations to free Twi'lek from servitude. Her fervour can override her judgement sometimes.
She is not a rebel without a cause who will go out of her way to offend the powers that be just because, but if she has to choose between superior orders and what she considers to be right, she will pick the latter and deal with the consequences. Compared to her friend Mezha, Synthia is more idealistic. She was more eager to embrace an alliance of convenience with Firemane than Mezha, but this was out of pragmatism since she really wants to see the Dominion go down.
Thus her distrust of their Force-users took a backseat to what she recognised as an opportunity to strike against her enemy and make her home safer. Her Yuuzhan Vong companion grew up in the militarised environment of the revolutionary underground and thus does not share the Twi'lek's radical anarchist beliefs. Between the two of them, Synthia is more of a thinker while Mezha is more the practical technician. Nonetheless, both are very passionate about the cause. The Twi'lek partisan is very committed to the fight, combat-hardened and values freedom highly. While the Guard is led by a military junta, it is a rather broad tent with varying ideologies. Synthia belongs to a faction whose members call themselves the Communards. In terms of ideology they have libertarian, anarchist and syndicalist beliefs. Thus they are more democratic than the mainstream of the Republican Guard, with a strong emphasis on decentralisation, direct democracy and workers' rights.
However, the Communards also surpass the mainstream in terms of ruthlessness in one area: They believe that Force-users should be executed or subjected to the 'cure', in other words turned Force-Dead. For the good of the community, those with the taint must be healed or excised. Their chief ideologue is a Gungan called Tardle Narukan. He is an intellectual in the Guard who has composed a guiding philosophy. She is an enthusiastic subscriber to it, and even quotes it.
Synthia views big government as the agent of coercion and is very strongly opposed to it. Instead she believes in solidarity, direct democracy and workers' self-management. She despises institutionalised forms of privilege and Force-user supremacy. To her, the Force is a form of unearned power that allows those who possess it to trample on the rights of others. It also drives people to evil. Thus it is a plague that must be cured.
She regards both the Jedi and the Sith as oppressive forces. Likewise, she cannot abide slavers or other exploitative individuals who trample on the rights of others. Synthia believes that citizens have a right to bear arms, provided they possess the maturity to use them responsibly. She sees this as an important prerequisite to protect oneself against oppressive rulers. She is opposed to capitalism, but also rejects the idea of a command economy. From her perspective, both lead to all power being concentrated in the hands of a small, exploitative elite. Instead she supports the means of production being owned collectively by the producers themselves. In this view, collective, joint ownership is key. Rather than a centralised state, Tephrike should be a democratic confederation.
While syndicalist economics are quite popular among many members of the Republican Guard, the political beliefs of the Communards are more controversial. Synthia's decision to join the Guard may seem strange, but she argues that a united front is needed to tear down the edifices of oppression. She admits that it has its flaws, but to her it is the only progressive force on the planet that can stand up to the enemies of liberty.
"When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. We are the people, and we have nothing to lose except our chains. When the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called 'the Light's Stick'. Or 'the Master Race's', for that matter.
Tardle says it right. 'I hate the Dominion because it is the negation of liberty and because sentience is for me unthinkable without liberty. I am not a Dominionist because the Dominion inevitably leads to the concentration of power in the hands of the state, whereas I want to tear it down. It is oppression incarnate. I hate Sithism because it turns men into beasts and anyone born a 'lesser being' is denied even the right to consider themselves a person.
I want to see society and collective or social property organised from below upwards, by way of free association, not from above downwards, by means of any kind of authority whatsoever.' Let the means of production no longer be in the hands of cultists, bureaucrats or businessmen, but of the toilers. I want people to have the right to live and associate freely, their lives freed from the prisons of Jedi and Sith.
They call us rebel scum. I say we embrace the moniker with pride. To revolt is a natural tendency of life. Even a worm turns against the foot that crushes it. In general, the vitality and relative dignity of an animal can measured by the intensity of its instinct to revolt. This applies even more so for sentient beings.
What mandate does someone have to rule over others just because he was born with the power to move things with his mind and read someone's thoughts? What did he do to earn it? Does he have some special insight we lesser beings cannot understand? No. No one has a right to call themselves a luminous being and us crude matter. No one has the right to be the slave-driver of the masses.
I would condemn revolutionary violence if I thought a non-violent way existed. But there is none as long as clones are grown as slaves in the vats of the Dominion and aliens are worked to death in Sith slave camps. What are we rebelling for? Choice, freedom, dignity. The right to be sentient beings, not drones grown in a laboratory, filled with propaganda and sent out to toil and die for our masters. We can bow before the aristocracy that would have us believe our lives count for nothing because we were born without the Force. Or we can make a stand. Down with the Jedi, down with the Sith. They are two sides of the same coin. They enslave us, they drug us, they send us out to die en masse.
As long as one remains, we shall be drones, not sentient beings. The Dominion tells us dictatorship is necessary to save us from the Darkness and that only their luminous beings can guide us. The Sith claim dictatorship is the natural order because the strong must do what they will and the weak suffer what they most. They fear nothing more than free people standing up and proving that the vaunted necessity of tyranny is nothing but a massive fraud that has led to slavery on both sides. What they call the Force is a taint. A sickness of the mind and soul. And when a patient is sick, you excise the sickness from them. You don't ask a patient for permission to cure them, you do it. A revolution is coming. We shall break our chains. We shall break the Masters."
COMBAT INFORMATION
Weapon of Choice: Synthia is trained in the use of most melee and ranged weapons. She often uses a grenade launcher, a CSPL-12 or a Bolter. She tends to carry an Amphistaff for melee combat or use it to sneak up on and ambush an enemy she is fighting. Also good with rifle, pistol, blade and explosives.
Combat Function: Synthia is a highly skilled soldier with many years of experience. She is trained in standard infantry operations, commado operations and small unit leadership. In battle she is a ferocius fighter. She is a skilled heavy weapons operator. This makes her a good complement to Mezha, who is a very capable sharpshooter.
The Twi'lek rebel is quite versatile, being able to use most weapons and armour and drive a variety of vehicles or serve as a gunner. However, she lacks any experience in starship piloting and has indeed never ventured into space. The idea unnerves her quite a bit. She is a good second in command to Mezha, but can also lead small elite strike teams on her own to neutralise specific objectives. But she is a tactical, not a strategic leader. She is experienced in irregular warfare and terrorist actions.
Synthia is extremely devoted to her cause and willing to die for it. However, she knows when to retreat or reevaluate a situation. Being Force-Dead she is immune to direct applications of the Force, similar to the Yuuzhan Vong who bestowed these abilities upon her. It also means that she cannot be sensed in the Force or mentally manipulated through it. By the same token, she cannot be aided by beneficial Force techniques such as Battle Meditation.
Strengths:
- Like all members of Viper Company, Synthia is Force Dead. Thus she is completely void in the Force, cannot be sensed through it and possesses an immunity to direct applications of it comparable to that of Yuuzhan Vong and their biots.
- Synthia is well suited for small unit leadership and engagements. She is brave, resourceful and inspires those under her command with a fearless example. While zealous, the Twi'lek is no death charging fool. She knows that sometimes it is better to retreat and reevaluate a situation that throw your life and that of your comrades away out of pride and stubbornness.
- Crack soldier. She trains frequently, is strong and resilient. Long years as a partisan have given her a high pain tolerance. She is skilled in the use of most ranged and melee weapons, favouring a grenade launcher and other weapons that make an impact. She is a capable gunslinger.
- Like most Twi’leks, her lekku are delicate organs, susceptible to damage and sensitive enough that being forcefully grabbed can incapacitate her. Furthermore damage to them can cause permanent psychological trauma as well as physical.
- She is good at leading small teams of regular soldiers or partisans, but is a tactical, not a strategic leader. While suited for small unit leadership, she lacks the ability or experience to command large forces.
- Synthia is Force Dead and thus completely void within the Force. While a great benefit, it does have the normal associated downfalls in that she cannot be aided by the Force either. Additionally she is not immune to Force Lightning or its variations, and can be indirectly affected by the Force.
Synthia is a hard woman shaped by a horrible conflict on a war-torn planet where the Dark Age never truly ended. In one way or another, virtually every world in the Galaxy was affected when the terrorist Zero released the Gulag Virus on Csilla. The plague spread like wild fire, bringing galactic civilisation to its knees. The so called Golden Age came to an end. Governments crumbled, galactic trade collapsed and trillions of beings perished. Historians would call it the Four Hundred Year Darkness. Tephrike suffered greatly during this period. However, the light never returned to this benighted planet.
Isolated from the rest of the Galaxy, the planet regressed. Though rich in raw materiels such as precious ores and alloys, the planet had been dependent on trade to sustain itself. Now there was no one who could buy their ores and sell them food. Countless died due to starvation, ecological disasters, riots and civil war. Tephrike's fragile democracy collapsed as the federal government proved unable to resolve the crisis. Its party system was fractured along lines of class and species. The Jedi of Tephrike were forced into a protective role. Believing themselves to be the last Jedi in the Galaxy, they held their Order responsible for the Long Night, as they had been unable to prevent the release of the Gulag Virus.
Finally, the Jedi staged a coup to topple the governments after its troops gunned down peaceful protesters. It was supposed to be a provisional emergency dictatorship that would restore order and then step down to enable a transition to democracy. However, over time it evolved into a totalitarian theocracy. Corrupted by their power and scarred by the horrors of never-ending bloodshed, the Jedi became the very thing they were sworn to destroy, while remaining adamant in their belief that they served the Light. They called their new state the Dominion of Light, a nation where every citizen would be controlled from cradle to grave. Every citizen would have a role and stay in it for life.
Two factions rose to oppose them. The Disciples of Vader venerated as the long-dead Dark Lord as a God and preached a gospel of human supremacism, Dark Side worship and enslavement of all non-humans, drawing support from fallen Jedi and humanocentric portions of society. The other group was the Republican Guard, a secularist faction run by a military junta that idolised the Old Republic and opposed the Force theocracies, believing that the Force itself was a disease that led those sensitive to it to evil. It received the backing of aquatic alien communities and of Yuuzhan Vong, who were targeted for extermination by the Vaderites and the Dominion.
While the Guard pursued a campaign of liberation, its methods were often brutal. Being far weaker than the Dominion, it utilised asymmetrical warfare. Its all-out irregular warfare campaign was characterised by a heavy dose of terror. It took every opportunity to target Dominion forces in the proximity of civilians, thereby provoking the Dominion to retaliate against the civilian population when the partisans vanished into the wilderness. It also used improvised explosive devices to kill supposed Dominion or Sith sympathisers, instigated riots and conducted bombings. The Dominion remained the dominant power, but could not bring peace. All the while, Tephrike bled.
To give themselves a loyal force of soldiers to fight their wars, the Dominion created a clone army. In the early days this was supposed to be a temporary measure, but it soon became a permanent fixture. After all, precedent had been established by the example of the Old Jedi Order during the Clone Wars. Cloning would allow them to grow obedient citizens in a medically sanctioned way, as intercourse produced lust and thus led to the dark side. In addition, the Dominion also began to clone its most accomplished researchers, technicians, soldiers and Jedi, as their skills needed to be preserved.
Regardless of their donor, the clones were indoctrinated to be obedient to the Dominion. It was their family, the sole bastion of Light and order in a galaxy that had fallen into darkness. Of course, the Jedi overlords discovered the same thing cloners have discovered throughout the ages: organics are unpredictable. Synthia was one of the clones who rebelled.
When she was born she was given the surname Soldier, for the Dominion assigned its citizens occupational surnames based on the profession it had chosen for them. To make sure she had the skills and opinions the Dominion needed her to have, she was given flash conditioning during her growth. When she was 'born', she had the size of an adult, but no life experiences to draw upon.
The Dominion spent more time and effort on its elite commandos and other specialists, but she was one of those mass produced clone troopers who were supposed to fight on the front lines. The technology used for them was quite primitive. As a result, a number of clones suffered from health issues. One of her early friends did not make it out of basic training. Synthia was told that her sibling had become one with the Force.
Obedience was drilled into her skull. When she was caught fooling around with a clone from a different line she was reprimanded, for lust was a path to the dark side. There was only the darkest abyss and the shining light. One could either be good or evil, light or dark. The Jedi were the Force's chosen emissaries, for they alone could hear and interpret its will. However, a severe crisis resulted in her being rushed through basic and sent to the frontlines with only the most basic training.
The Netherworld Event left virtually no planet untouched. In the blink of an eye, trillions of beings vanished across the Galaxy. With so many high-ranking officials, including the Grandmaster, gone, the Dominion was thrown into disarray. Synthia was participating in a live fire exercise in the wilderness when suddenly several of her superiors and comrades disappeared before her eyes.
She and her remaining comrades did not know what to make of this. Fearful and superstitious, they believed it was a machination of Dark Side demons. In a way they were right, just not in the way they thought, for Akala was no Sith, just a mad goddess throwing a temper tantrum. Synthia organised a search party to try and find the missing soldiers, but they came up with nothing.
After sending a messenger to a nearby settlement, they learned that the disappearances were not an isolated incident. People had vanished across the Dominion. Riots had broken out. Some zealots, believing the end of days was at hand, instigated purges. Others welcomed the rapture, proclaiming that the Light was rewarding with followers by allowing them to achieve oneness with the Force. The troopers were pushed into a law and order role, trying to keep the peace in a world that had gone tupsy-turvy. However, they were soon dispatched to the front lines.
The rapture had been a blow to the Guard, but it recovered faster than its rivals. It helped that it did not have Force-Users in its ranks. Republican Guard partisans rose up in revolt. Dominion soldiers and officials were murdered, government buildings set aflame and population centres shelled. Synthia was thrown into her first fight. Casualties were high, as she and her comrades had received minimal training and many senior leaders had been raptured. Fierce house-to-house fighting and combat in the jungle ensued. She was terrified during her first fight, but pulled through.
The Twi'lek soldier had to learn on the job. She grew close to a fellow clone called Aayla Soldier. Both had the same template and helped keep each other sane during these dark days. Aayla once saved Synthia's life during a battle and they worked together to take down a Republican Guard sniper. When a number of Dominion clone troopers mutinied and turned their guns on their allies, the pair and their remaining comrades had to fight their way out. She was confused and shaken by the betrayal. The Republican Guard poured in soldiers, as its partisans were joined by regular soldiers. Where they went, Jedi and their followers were slaughtered.
At risk of being cut off and encircled, Dominion troops had to execute a breakthrough. Delays and the refusal of high command to countenance it meant that by the time it was carried out, many soldiers had died and they had to leave most of their heavy equipment behind. For a while, Synthia and her comrades were cut off from the rest of the force and had to make their way through the wilderness, hounded by rebel partisans.
In the middle of the fighting with the Guard, Synthia and her unit received word that they were needed elsewhere. The Vaderites, ostensibly now under the leadership of a faction of 'Light Sith', had entered the war and launched an all-out invasion of the Dominion. The Vaderites were obviously also weakened by the fact that the Force had been thrown out of balance, but they were not the ones fighting a two-front war. The Dominion high command refused to yield territory, issuing the infamous 'not a step back order'. The Army of Light should not only hold the line, but drive out the Sith.
Synthia and her comrades arrived just in time to participate in the Battle of Grimwater Swamp. To illustrate the nature of this engagement, at one point certain Dominion generals seriously considered dropping a tactical nuclear missile on the enemy. When later asked what the battle was like, Synthia simply called it hell. Amidst the massive downpour, the ground turned to mud and swamps so the wounded drowned and the dead were buried and uncovered by bombardments. The vermin gnawed on the flesh of the dead and dying alike. Soldiers were ripped apart by land mines and artillery. With both Sith and Jedi weakened by whatever was causing the Force to respond in strange and unpredictable ways to their commands, the bulk of the fighting was done by 'mundane' soldiers on both sides.
The Vaderites tied captured Dominion soldiers and alien civilians to posts in the path of the attackers, so that when Synthia and her fellow clone troopers got close the bombs strapped to them went off. It made the Sith happy to see the prisoners turn to red mist, or to force the attackers to do it for them. This was against the teachings of their new leader, but the Vaderite commander was a traditionalist and far away from headquarters. Again and again, the Dominion troops were thrown against the Vaderites. Periods of intense, bloody combat were followed by weeks in the trenches and the mud. Both sides made ample use of chemical weapons.
It left Synthia severely traumatised. When some Dominion soldiers tried to retreat during a fight, they were mowed down by machine gun fire from Inquisition 'blocking squads'. To cope with the horror going on all around her, Synthia shut down. There was only survival. She and Aayla helped keep each other sane during these bloody weeks. During lulls in fighting they went out to forage for supplies, sometimes stealing from Vaderite soldiers who had the same idea.
During one such excursion, they succeeded in ambushing a group of Vaderite stormtroopers. Angered by the atrocities that had taken place, Synthia and her comrades took no prisoners. When they searched the dead for rations, water and ammution, they came across a map. It showed some of the Vaderite positions. The local commander who was in charge of their battalion recognised its significance. Realising that throwing numbers at the enemy would not break the stalemate, he devised a plan based on which small units of infantry would slip through enemy lines after being covered by a brief hurricane bombardment. Their goal was an enemy command post.
Synthia and her friends participated in this assault. Immediately after a brief but intense bombardment that targeted the Vaderites' rear areas, they advanced. They were able to sneak through the enemy lines amidst the confusion. Fierce fighting ensued in the trenches as the clone troopers advanced by fire and manoeuvre. They fought with rifles, pistols, hand grenades, bayonets, knives and improvised flamethrowers.
When ammunition became scarce she bashed enemy soldiers with the butt of her rifle or stabbed them with the bayonet. The clone troopers were able to turn some some of the enemy's heavy guns on the Vaderites and storm the command post. Synthia and Aayla found themselves engaging a Sith Knight. The Sith unleashed a mental barrage on them, filling them with dread and making them experience the agony of aliens who had been crucified on the way to the base. Synthia described the experience as pure anguish, but feeling the Sith's utter contempt for her species also triggered an intense rage.
A burning fury that would not allow her to go down on her knees. Coming to the aid of her friend, she managed to ignite the Sith with an improvised flamer. Howling in pain, the Vaderite turned his power on her, smiting her with lightning. Some of it backfired on him. Her friend Aayla shot him with a pistol. Synthia beat him until he stopped moving. Amped up by fury and adrenaline the Dominion troopers spared none of the Sith.
The command post fell into their hands and they used the guns to hit Vaderite forces. However, reinforcements were slow to arrive. The long bombardments had devastated the ground badly and the swampy terrain made it difficult to bring up large forces. Moreover, dissonances in command did not help. Jedi Akosa, the new Jedi General, took offence at the clones showing independence instead of following her strategic genius and cashiered their commander, who was already in trouble for having broken off a suicidal frontal assault. Soon the Vaderites were able to regroup and launch a counterattack. The clone troopers defended themselves fiercely, but had to fall back. Synthia found herself in command of her squad after her Sergeant was shot. She managed to pull off a fighting retreat through the swampy land.
The Vaderite counterattack eventually tired itself out after making limited gains. General Akosa now ordered a full-scale assault on the enemy. Some officers protested against the order. Even a few Jedi voiced misgivings about it, seeing it as folly. However, they were shut down. Later Synthia would describe the strategy as 'a gargantuan effort to march forward very slowly and get mowed down so that Akosa can get a Council seat'. In her words, the clone troopers were nexu led by donkeys. The charge was a bloodbath.
Neither the Vaderites nor the Dominion were concerned about casualties. Instead they threw unit after unit into the meat grinder. Entire units were, in her words, swallowed, chewed and spat out. The muddy, blood-soaked and swampy battlefield became a charnel house. Sithspawn war beasts clashed with primitive war engines. Synthia was injured in an artillery bombardment. She lost an eye to shrapnel and almost drowned. Thankfully, she was pulled out of the swamp. In the end, the battle had achieved nothing except gaining the Dominion a few miles of worthless ground.
Synthia's company had been decimated in the fight. Most of the clones she had grown up with lay dead in unmarked mass graves, if they were lucky enough to receive a rudimentary burial in the first place. Synthia recovered in a field hospital. There she was surrounded by the misery of the wounded. She eventually received a crude mechanical prothesis to replace her lost eye. During her recuperation she was haunted by the battle. Again and again she was dragged back to the hellish battlefield.
Aayla visited her during her recovery. From her Synthia learned that the fight was continuing. However, the Dominion's strategy had changed. Under the leadership of Battlemaster Mahtara, the Army of Light had implemented a scorched earth strategy. Now the Dominion was taking advantage of its larger territory and greater reserves of manpower and materiel. Everything that could be of use to the enemy was to be destroyed if territory could not be held.
Of course, common soldiers only had limited insight into what high command was planning. After Grimwater Swamp, Synthia just saw callous Jedi who did not care about those they labelled as 'crude matter'. While still in recovery, she was conscripted to fight again. She was assigned to a mixed clone company that had been formed from the remnants of her old unit, other clone units and had some Padawans attached to it. Many of these Jedi were still Initiates who had been rushed into action. Synthia felt protective of them and formed bonds with the soldiers, trying to do her best to help them cope. She was also reunited with Aayla.
The soldiers were deployed to Fortress Purity, a crucial citadel on the way to Nexus City. The Republican Guard had tried to fool the Dominion into thinking that it intended to strike elsewhere, even going so far as to arrange for a faux battle plan to fall into enemy hands. The deception operation would have succeeded, were it not for the efforts of a young comms operator and code breaker called Mara Technician.
And so when the Guard attacked Purity, they were confronted by a large army led by General Kennobi. Nonetheless, the battle was a bloody one. The rebels knew that they had to win here or their offensive would fail. They harassed Dominion troops with nightly assaults. Their combat engineers dug tunnels beneath the Dominion lines to carry out surprise attacks. However, they also appealed to the Dominion clone troopers and militia via loudspeakers, urging them to defect and break their shackles. Synthia tried to look out for her fellow soldiers. Their survival was her priority now.
Unfortunately for her, General Akosa was still in charge of the brigade she belonged to. After one bloody assault after the other, Synthia and her comrades were ordered to charge out into the open. Realising the folly of this, Synthia called her comrades together and decided to improvise. Instead of attacking the enemy head-on, they used one of the tunnels to outflank them. When they got close, the Dominion soldiers sung a Republican Guard song. The Padawans who were with the group had been instructed to tear off their robes, apply camouflage paint and hold rifles instead of the Jedi's traditional swords.
It was very dark and the battle was chaotic, so it allowed them to fool the enemy into thinking they were on their side. This allowed Synthia and her comrades to fall upon the partisans, lobbing in hand grenades. The moment the shooting started, Synthia threw herself forward to shield a young Padawan and pull him into cover. Luckily for her, her armour largely absorbed the slug rounds. The battle was quick, but fierce. Synthia was wounded in the shoulder with a vibroblade but managed to kill a Yuuzhan Vong officer. Her quick thinking helped her allies take an enemy redoubt, as the Republican Guard found itself attacked on two sides.
However, General Akosa thought this had been a cowardly act and demoted Synthia for not obeying her 'Force-guided' orders, replacing her with a soldier who would obey her commands. Akosa declared she would lead the charge herself, daring anyone to desert or deviate from her battle plan. Synthia was put at the front of the charge. The Twi'lek soldier survived the fight. However, her comrades were butchered. Aayla was killed by a land mine. Synthia tried to save her friend, but it was too late. Her sibling died while Synthia defended her. The Padawans perished as well. Seeing her friends being killed, the Twi'lek clone snapped.
Seeing General Akosa exhort the soldiers to fight for the glory of the Dominion, she fragged her. The Jedi was strong in the Force, but this did not make her omniscient. So she did not see the hand grenade coming until it was too late. Then Synthia riddled her with slugs from her assault rifle. The Togruta Jedi struck back with the Force, but the renegade clone trooper kept firing, until her enemy stopped moving. She had broken free - and committed treason. She soon came under fire. Fortunately for her Synthia, her actions had not gone unnoticed by partisans. Two attackers were quickly cut down by a cloaked Vong sharpshooter. The rebel pulled her down into cover. Later Synthia learned that her name was Mezha Krazhmir. Thus the renegade clone trooper joined the rebellion. It was not a decision made lightly. It would pit her against her former comrades, even her siblings. But she believes she had no choice. The only alternative was to be a slave of the Dominion or the Vaderites.
There was little time for introductions or even for proper vetting. Mezha and her unit were locked in intense combat. Synthia brought Akosa's sword as proof of her sincerity. She provided them with what intelligence she could. The rebels had sustained heavy casualties and running low on supplies. Bunglers like Akosa had cost the Dominion, but it had more bodies to throw around. And it was getting reinforcements. Akosa's death was probably a net gain.
The Republican Guard fought fanatically. So did Synthia, even as she hated turning on her former comrades. When Jedi illusionists unleashed a powerful mental attack, she forced herself to work through the agony and hold her ground. Again and again the rebels tried to seize the fortress. They came quite close. Brutal fighting ensued when Synthia and her new comrades tried to push through a tunnel their engineers had dug. Explosives caused part of it to cave in.
But the Dominion was too well-entrenched, and finally their counter-assault broke the Guard's line when they managed to bring up tanks. Mezha was wounded in an artillery strike. Synthia returned the favour by dragging her from the battlefield. Her new comrade survived, but lost a foot. Vong Shapers gave her a replacement The Guard had come close to storming Purity, but the battle was a defeat. She was paired with a minder called Krovic, a fellow soldier who could report on her to make sure she was not a planted agent. Over time the two would become a couple.
The Republican Guard troops fell back to Salona. There their general decided they must hold out in order to buy time for allied forces to retreat. To divert enemy attention, the Guard used deception to fool its enemies into thinking that their force was a lot larger than it actually was. Synthia was engaged in fierce house-to-house fighting. For several weeks the partisans she was with held out in a fortified apartment building. She and a largely recovered Mezha surrounded the building with layers of barbed wire and mine fields, and set up machine gun posts in every available window facing the square.
Synthia discovered that an anti-tank rifle she had mounted on the roof was particularly effective at ambushing unsuspecting Dominion tanks; once the tanks had approached to within range of the building, their thin turret-roof armor became exposed to anti-tank from above, and they were unable to elevate their weapons enough to retaliate. Synthia took care of armour, Mezha sniped, while their comrades used machine guns. Supplies were brought in via the trench or boats crossing the river, defying enemy bombardment. Nonetheless, food and water were in short supply. Lacking beds, the rebels tried to sleep on insulation wool torn off pipies, but were subjected to enemy fire every night to try to break their resistance.
The Dominion troops attacked the building several times a day. Each time the partisans laid down a withering barrage from the basement, windows and roof. Part of the building was wrecked when a group of Jedi combined their telekinetic powers to cause part of the roof to cave in. Synthia survived, but her spotter was not so lucky. Using Cloaks of Nuun, the partisans flanked the Jedi and ambushed them. When the enemy ring tightened around the ruins, Mezha made the judgement call to pull out. The partisans slipped out during the night, along with the civilians who had hidden in the basement. Synthia formally joined Viper Company, Mezha's unit. The diversion had served its purpose, now the Republican Guard had to escape the cauldron. They had to leave most of their heavy gear behind. The rebels vanished into the wilderness. Eventually they managed to link up with the rest of the rebel forces. Synthia's cybernetic eye was badly damaged during the fighting. Krovic, who had medical training, helped patch her up.
For good or ill, Synthia's fate was now tied to that of the partisans. She mourned her dead comrades. Indeed, Mezha found her when her grief caused her to suffer a breakdown. The Yuuzhan Vong was a hard woman who had suffered at the hands of the Dominion's servitors, but tried to help her through her grief. Synthia rediscovered a sense of camaraderie among the rebels. She helped Mezha when the latter launched a rescue mission to free rebels who had been captured during the retreat. She faced disciplinary action for this unauthorised mission and was separated from her new friend for a while.
Synthia's background was investigated by the Guard's security service. For a while, Synthia was away from the frontlines. She was thoroughly questioned about her time with the Dominion and her knowledge of it. There was obviously only so much a common soldier could provide. However, she was useful in other ways. The agitation department of the Popular Front, the Guard's political wing decided to use her for propaganda. Synthia was interviewed about her experiences as a servitor of the Jedi and participated in propaganda broadcasts urging Dominion clones to break their chains and defect.
It was also supposed to help boost the morale of the rebels. Their defeat had been a grave blow to them, so Synthia was supposed to help remind them of what they were fighting for. To this end she visited a number of communities in the liberated zones. During this time the Twi'lek was exposed to the philosophy of the Communards, an anarchist faction that was part of the Popular Front. Though united in their hatred of the Force theocracies and their desire to build a secular, egalitarian nation of the common people, the Guard was not free of factionalism. It had experienced its share of schisms and factional struggles undermined cohesion. However, Synthia embraced the Communards' philosophy. Their belief in freedom and self-determination struck a chord with her, unlike the more authoritarian elements of the movemet.
However, the rebellion was not without its dark side. Force-Sensitives, including children, were rounded up to be isolated and reeducated. After all she had seen, Synthia had come to regard as a type of disease. Thus she agreed with these measures, but believed they did not go far enough. For the good of the community and their own, she reasoned, Force-Sensitives had to be cured. She herself underwent a risky medical procedure to become Force Dead. Having been unable to win the war conventionally, the Republican Guard returned to fighting an asymmetrical campaign.
Synthia participated in several raids and terrorist attacks on Dominion and Vaderite targets, working closely with Mezha. The two became friends. Their missions included blowing up factories and Force enclaves, assassinating or abducting Jedi or Sith, targeting infrastructure well as planting improvised explosive devices on roads and as killing supposed collaborators. 'Collaborator' was obviously broadly defined. Captured Jedi or Sith were often subjected to the embrace of pain or hung from trees. It was a brutal, dirty war. Synthia still dreamed of and hoped for a better world without war.
Things took a profound turn when Tephrike's long period of isolation came to an end with the arrival of Firemane. At first the off-worlders negotiated with the Dominion, but then declared war after their delegation was attacked by extremists. Mezha, Synthia and the Vipers helped Laira Darkhold and her mixed group of Resistance and Firemane pilots escape a Dominion ambush. This led to both sides entering an alliance of convenience. Synthia swallowed her distrust of Force-users. For now the enemy of her enemy was her friend.
Once again, the Republican Guard assaulted Purity. This time they were backed by Firemane air power and soldiers. But the battle was still very bloody, despite the off-worlders' advanced technology. The Dominion used a weather control machine to negate Firemane's air power and deployed Force-users in large numbers. Linking up with Freya Solveig and her squad, the Vipers fought their way through the trenches and the tunnels of the base. She was forced to slay one of her clone siblings while protecting Mezha, who had been injured while fighting a member of the elite Jedi Vanguard.
Close to the end of the battle, General Kennobi ordered a brigade of Younglings to conduct a suicidal death charge to buy time for a retreat. The child soldiers were slaughtered. Enraged, Synthia took out her anger on the Dominion personnel that was still alive when the rebels stormed the base. Unfortunately, Kennobi had committed suicide by the time they caught up with him. The Guard raised its banners, claiming Purity for itself. This was a great victory for the rebels, but the struggle is far from over. Now Synthia is determined to see it through.
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