Awakening to Light

[Corporal Light]

Two hours later

The only thing that stopped Corporal Light from letting the blood seeping from his wounds, his oil-like darkness enveloping his insides, from consuming him outright was the small, grey speck on the horizon mirage.

He had been limping towards that grey speck for what felt like hours, concentrating only on it. He stayed silent throughout his journey save for the clacking of his armored boots and the occasional whine of pain he emitted when his wounds proved too much even for him to take. The gashes, small, stained red underneath the gauze of his bandages, throbbed and ached and painted the front of his armor in a dirty crimson. With the unholy combination of dark red and bleached white, his visage proved striking to any who could have seen him: a soldier, caked in blood, stumbling through an unfamiliar land, with only what laid in front of him ahead of him.

He limped and limped, his limps mechanical, like his knees had turned into gears, and even his occasional groans morphed into something oddly robotic. No human could keep going for two minutes, much less two hours, with the way his wounds impeded him so. The way they ground him down with mortar and pestle, chunking him until nothing of his body could be chunked any more. Yet, despite the wear and tear of his armor and the charred flesh underneath it, Corporal Light saw nothing but that small, grey speck on that horizon mirage. As long as he could see it, he would not stop, no matter how much his dark wounds wanted him to.

Still, the speck did not draw closer. He couldn’t help but wonder if the grey object off in the distance was a figment of his imagination or not. It would have been easy to explain it away as a mere fantasy, a hallucination of the mind. But he witnessed the pure beauty of the glowing rainbow orb, the Omnillium. If something like that could exist, than that grey object so far away would draw closer with time.

Time. Perhaps it had something to do with time. Time didn’t seem to matter in the desert of whiteness. Why would it? There was nothing save for that grey dot, no night or day. Or did night and day exist, but in another form? Perhaps had been lucky and had awakened during the day. Maybe the night was like the White Angel’s realm: pitch black, all-consuming, suffocating. The thought made him tremble.

Then he remembered what the White Angel had said: anything he desired could be his. As long as he had Omnillium in his possession, the darkness posed no threat to him. It made him smile and sigh in relief.

Even despite his newfound goal of investigating the speck on the horizon, he couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to the Galactic Republic, the ray of light shining in the darkness of space and warfare. If he had arrived in this place, whatever and wherever it was, surely other clones, other jedi, had done the same. If so, where were the signs of their arrival?  He had found nothing but a fountain and his own cot, with everything else being sheer whiteness. He did not know. Perhaps the grey speck held the answer.

Time seemed to move by the longer he stayed contained within his own thoughts, as by the time he had finished contemplating, the speck had grown larger and formed an object of its own. It formed a massive, magnificent archway composed of solid, pristine steel. A massive oval of purple and black swirled and rotated underneath the arch, with a large black dot in the middle where the stripes of colors seemed to inevitably descend into. He couldn’t but stare in confusion. Not even the most advanced hologram in the galaxy could construct something so fantastical.

What truly caught his attention, however, were the two pairs of white-claden, armored soldiers standing on both sides of the massive arch. He couldn’t help but draw comparisons between their armor and his own. Indeed, when he got a good look at them, they looked like special forces utilizing the new armor that had only been rumored about back on the ship, the ‘Acklay.’ The blasters they carried even looked like more advanced versions of his own DC-15s that he carried on his utility belt alongside his medical kit.

The twin guards turned to look at them, their helmets giving off intimidating glares at Light’s gaping awe. Despite what Light assumed must have been disapproval, they did not commit to further action. At least, not until Light stumbled towards them to get a closer look at them. He noticed them tense up and flinch. He assumed the blood threw them off, but given his state, it wasn’t like he could hurt them even if he wanted to.

Light stopped in front of the left-side trooper and stared at them. The two of them committed to a small staring contest that ended with Light not-so-subtly eying the fellow trooper up and down. He couldn’t really help it. Seeing the rumored Phase 2 armor with his own eyes, plus all the new equipment, was an opportunity he could not resist. He wondered what it must have felt like to wear the suit. It definitely looked much more comfortable than his tin can of a suit.

As he glanced back up at the fellow soldier’s helmet, he noticed just how rock-solid still they were. Without the previous cock of the head from when he approached them, he’d have no way of knowing they weren’t just expertly-crafted statues. He chanced to speak.

“Are you…” Corporal Light said, almost lifting his hand up to confirm that the trooper in front of him was real, “a clone?”

“... No.” The trooper in front of him said, her cadence distinctly feminine in sound.

He stared in confusion. “What is that armor you are wearing?”

They shrugged. “Standard issue Empire Division armor.”

“Standard issue?” He said, his eyes widening in amazement.

“Yep.”

“... when were you born?”

The feminine-sounding trooper jolted, stunned.

“What?”

“When were you born?” Light asked.

“I… I don’t know.” The trooper tensed up, very clearly stepping away from the medical soldier.

Light frowned a bit, taking a step back after seeing the trooper do the same. “What?”

“Are you a Prime?” The feminine-sounding trooper asked.

“I…” Light said, glancing around, “I… I don't know.”

“Hmm.”

“What’s in there?”

The medic pointed towards the purple swirls underneath the archway.

“The home of the Empire: Coruscant.”

“Coruscant?!” Light said, snapping his head back to look at the trooper, “the Coruscant? The heartland of the Galactic Republic?!”

“Er, yes.”

“That’s terrific! That’s fantastic!” The Corporal couldn’t help but smile with abject glee and even laugh in triumph.

“Heh, yeah.”

“Send my regards to your superior! Tell them you should be promoted for your fine work!”

Light looked back towards the right-side soldier, whom had been watching their conversation with varying degrees of interest. He pointed at the both of them.

“Both of you! Feel proud! You are the guardians of the gates of Coruscant! For carrying this duty, you should both be rewarded! Send my regards to your superiors!”

Before either soldier could comprehend what this bloodied, battered clone trooper was talking about, the clone had already charged into the purple swirls, ready to see the glorious planet of Coruscant through his own measly clone eyes.