The Fan Fiction Archive updates with three new stories this week. In the first story, "Matched Wits" by Nom Inal, after the rise of the Empire, a clone trooper participates in an event that helps shape a promising commander.

Matched Wits by Nom Inal

Excerpt

The starry expanse of the Mid-Rim territories stretched out before the Imperial Interdictor Tenacious like a mural of tiny lights. Far from any system, the ship floated silently as just one more element in the vastness known as "Empty Space." Given that the amount of emptiness within the known galaxy exceeded the volume of inhabited areas by a factor of at least a thousand, there were limitless places a ship could become stranded and never found again.

This thought didn't disturb Stormtrooper NX-743, though. As a soldier in the service of the Empire, he felt confident in the abilities of his shipmates to keep the Tenacious running smoothly. More importantly, anxiety was not possible for the man who had once been CT (Clone Trooper) 34/219 of the Grand Army of the Republic. Like the rest of his clone brethren, he had been born without unnecessary functions, such as fear, doubt and independence.

Now known simply as Sergeant Nix, his assignments had seen less and less combat in the six years since the conclusion of the Clone Wars and the rise of the Empire; so much, in fact, that his assignment during the last five standard months had been aboard this picket ship, guarding her bridge crew and unusual commander. Another soldier might have balked at being given such a green assignment after years of battle experience. Read more here.

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