Chapter 19: A Top Secret MissionNotes:(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter TextThorn let out a jaw-cracking yawn before swallowing down another cup of caf. His third of the morning. Dice put a hard cap at five every five hours for all commanders. Thorn wasn't even on hour three at this point. He didn't know if he could last the rest of the morning with just two more cups.
Dice was busy at the moment trying to drug Fox into his mandatory two-hour rest period though…
Maybe if Thorn chugged the next cup quickly, he'd be able to slip in an extra one. What a shame the energy drinks Fox consumed gave him heart palpitations and anxiety. He could use the extra energy.
Ever since Fox's assignment as the Representative for the Clones, Thorn had shifted to become the unofficial Marshall Commander of the Corries. On paper, that was still Fox's job. But there were only so many hours in a day and eventually, Fox had to sleep. And eat. And shower. That last one they were willing to let go for longer than they probably should. But they did make sure to hose him off before Chuchi came over so there was that.
Maybe if Fox had only been a representative and the Marshall Commander, he could have handled the workload. But he wasn't just a representative. Palpatine had set about to make his life as difficult as possible and had assigned him to seventy-five percent of all committees, sub-committees, and working groups the Senate had to offer. At this point, Thorn was pretty sure Fox ran more of the government than Palpatine did. They were still trying to figure out how powerful of a role he played in shaping the government. Bureaucracy sucked ass and Thorn was so happy that all he had to do was keep the Corries running smoothly.
That wasn't an easy feat. They lacked resources, staff, and whoever previously ran the Coruscant police force was a fucking idiot who had never used a spreadsheet in their lives (Seriously, the spreadsheets from before the Corrie arrival made Cody cry once. Ponds was never allowed to look at them in case he had a panic attack). But despite all of these setbacks, Thorn was able to make it work. He had a good group of men who respected him. Thire and Stone backed up his decisions and Fox trusted him enough not to micromanage, only asking for occasional reports on certain topics.
Again, running the Corries and helping Fox run the government would be difficult but doable if those were the only two things they were doing. But they weren't. Because Cody, Wolffe, and Fox had decided it was time to run a secret investigation on the Senate. Specifically Palpatine. Thorn wasn't going to say that such an investigation was unnecessary. It was. The blackout missions worried him and Palpatine seemed to making bolder and bolder grabs for power which, if left unchecked, could spell disaster for the galaxy. But man was there a lot of work to be done. Couple that with the whole Robin Fiasco they had just dealt with and that meant Thorn was getting next to no sleep. And Dice would not let up on his 'five cups of caf for every five hours' limit he had set.
"If you pass out from exhaustion, you pass out. I'm not signing off on you idiots destroying your bodies and minds for more work," Dice had growled at him after Thorn (politely) suggested they could raise the limit to seven for every three hours.
Medics were scarier than Palpatine ever could be so he didn't argue.
Instead, he took a deep breath, regrouped, and made a very long list of everything he had to get done in a day to support Fox's political efforts, Fox's treason efforts, Corrie peacekeeping efforts, Corrie crime reduction efforts, and the vode 'Stop Palpatine from being a Palpadick' efforts. One way he supported the last one was by reviewing all upcoming missions to look for red flags.
After what happened with Ahsoka's mission, Cody decided they couldn't be blindsided like that again. Everyone had been thrown off-kilter when Palpatine demanded she run off to some backwater planet out of the blue by herself. He insisted the mission was a top priority, but then insisted everything else happening that day was also a top priority when the generals and admirals tried to suggest other options. He tightened the timeline, demanding they get it done now which stopped everyone from having the time to sit down and argue out a solution. They had been too startled to do anything more than react. The generals and admirals had been too blindsided to see it as a red flag or to put their foot down and refuse. They didn't have time to send out any other troopers to help. Palpatine refused to let Ahsoka wait for even an hour so that another Jedi could be there to help out. They needed to make sure something like that didn't happen again.
The one good thing about bureaucracy was that there was always a trail. Nothing happened in this galaxy without at least ten people signing off on it. And getting those signatures took time. Especially when Palpatine was directly involved. While they still didn't have proof that he was the one who hired Bane beyond circumstantial evidence and a gut feeling, they did know that missions didn't just randomly appear out of thin air. Military campaigns took time to plan. Resources had to be allocated. Men had to be assigned. Discussions with who was available had to be done. At some point, someone had to have had a conversation with Palpatine or someone else about the mission with Ahsoka. They needed to catch those conversations before mission debriefs so they were better prepared the next time something came up.
They had had some success in the past. There had been a weird one involving Monnk and General Fisto on some water planet that seemed kind of out of the way for a large-scale military campaign. Nothing on paper was out of place but something didn't sit right with Thorn. A quick, coded message to Monnk gave them enough time for him to convince General Fisto to send in a small reconnaissance squad and request General Mundi meet up with them as soon as he was finished with his campaign instead of heading straight back to Coruscant.
Good thing too because the intel was off. It wasn't a small, largely unguarded droid factory they were supposed to take down. Ventress was there. Doing some sort of 'inspection' that, for some reason, needed a whole-ass army of extra clankers patrolling the waters and skies. Had Fisto and Monnk not known, they would have been ambushed. The mission could have ended in disaster. Instead, Mundi was able to distract the droids in space while Fisto fought Ventress in the water and Monnk blew up the droid base. The mission had been a success. Palpatine congratulated them on it. There was a tightness in his smile when he did so.
Why the fuck would the man be so upset that they succeeded in their mission?
This was yet a second time that Palpatine had seemed upset about success on a mission. The first being General Secura and Bly's success in getting Jonda to join. How very strange and suspicious.
That was why Thorn spent most of his morning reading through reports using Fox's ID to access the documents. The information was technically available to Fox, but not to the rest of them. Their security clearance wasn't high enough. If anyone found out what Thorn was doing, he'd have a one-way ticket back to Kamino for a lovely spot of decommissioning.
Of course, the sheer amount of messages being sent through the GAR every minute would be impossible to sort through even if Thorn wasn't running the Coruscant GAR while also helping Fox run the government. Which is why he had the more technologically literate troopers come up with some sort of code to automate the process. He had tried to keep up with their explanations of how exactly it worked; he did want to make sure they didn't miss anything after all. But he wasn't super technologically literate. So, after about fifteen minutes of sitting through the explanation slide show, he let the mumbo-jumbo of the slicers wash over his head. It was a nice break. He imagined himself sitting on a beach and drinking a Tequila Sunrise. He trusted his men enough to know they wouldn't let anything slip by.
The slicers had explained their rankings and priorities, with anything coming from natborns like Yularen and Ackbar as the lowest priority that could be ignored. After using their weird code magic (which was just about as unexplainable as the Force, in Thorn's opinion) to look at corruption, past missions, associates, and other variables, they determined people like Rampart were mid-tier.
Rampart wasn't a high-ranking natborn yet so most of the communications to and from him had an actual admiral or general attached. But, there had been reports that he was getting buddy-buddy with some of the less savory natborns and Palpatine had been showing an interest in him and some of his ideas. Ideas that seemed less like he wanted the Republic to be a free and safe space for all citizens and more like a fascist dictatorship that monitored citizens' every movement. It was worrying and they'd keep an eye on him for now. If he was promoted to admiral he'd be bumped up a tier on the watch list.
The one that they had to watch for and always take seriously, however, was Tarkin. The more they looked into Tarkin's rise, the fishier it became. He jumped rank so often and so quickly that even Yularen had a hard time saying nice things about the guy. He still wore the mask of professionalism well. The most anyone had ever gotten out of the man on the topic of Tarkin was a stiff 'He is a man who knows what he wants'. Translation: He's a dick. I don't like him. And I want to punch his stupid little face. (Or something like that).
Tarkin seemed to be one of Palpatine's favored officers. He was receiving missions that were above his experience level, seemed to have a direct line of communication with the chancellor, and attended several private meetings that were black boxes of information. Rex was right. Something was off about Tarkin. Which is why he was one they constantly monitored.
Beyond Thorn's beginning shift check-ins, both Thire and Stone were alerted of any communications between Palpatine and Tarkin. Just in case something came up in the middle of the night that needed immediate attention. They had special chimes to indicate Tarkin had either received a message from Palpatine or sent a message to him. And they monitored his other communications with the other mid-tiered and higher officers. The message was deemed especially high-risk if a low-tiered, trusted natborn officer, like Yularen, wasn't included in the conversation.
So far, their chimes had not yielded fruit.
Perhaps Rex's suspicion of the man had been misplaced. Yeah, Tarkin was a dick. But dicks weren't necessarily traitorous monsters who were actively trying to kill the vode . And Palpatine may be the biggest dick of them all, but that didn't mean that he was collecting other dicks like a… like a…
It was too early in the morning for Thorn to come up with a good metaphor. Besides, he needed to quit thinking about dicks and start on his work.
They had broken Robin out of prison early this morning and shipped him out with some smugglers Wolffe knew. It all happened so fast. Thorn still wasn't sure what had happened beyond the fact that the kid had killed Bane and attacked Crescent while on a blackout mission. In front of Quinlan Vos no less. As if they needed more reasons for that man to poke his nose in everything. They were all still reeling from the incident. Fox was desperately trying to figure out how much Palpatine knew and go from there. Crescent was in the med bay recovering, Thire and Stone were trying to figure out how Vos was going to react to the situation, and everyone in the base was walking on eggshells, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Thorn was Fox's right-hand man. He needed to do his best to support him. And that meant scanning over the messages so that Fox would have one less thing to worry about.
He finished looking through the last of them. Nothing in particular stuck out. Enough low-tiered threats were CC'd and the timelines weren't accelerated so the upcoming missions all seemed above-board. Thankful not to have to worry about potential traps, he set the datapad down and got to work.
He only made it a few minutes before the datapad chimed. Thorn froze. That chime was the chime.
He swallowed and picked it back up.
The message came directly from Palpatine to Tarkin with Rampart CC'd. It didn't look suspicious on the surface. But Thorn was a master at reading between the lines. And with only those three on the message, who it was about, and the fact that it was going down in less than an hour, he knew something was up.
"Oh no," he gasped, scrambling up out of his chair and sprinting to Fox's office.
He burst through the door just as Dice and Vos managed to pin down Fox so they could put him to sleep.
"Sir, you need to get to the hangar and meet Captain Rex now," he said, practically shouting in his panic.
Dice, thankfully, let Fox go without jabbing a needle into his neck that would knock him out for the next few hours.
"Um, why?" Vos asked.
"Mission just came in and he needs his equipment and a debrief," Thorn replied, hoping Fox would understand what he meant.
"Shit." Fox scrambled to grab the other unregulated datapad and something from his drawer before shoving Thorn out of the way to run to try and make it to the shipyard.
"What was that about?" Vos asked.
"Sorry, sir. With everything that's been going on, I think Fox forgot about the mission," he lied. He made sure his shields were up to keep Vos from reading his mind. He was still unclear just how much a Jedi could glean from an unshielded mind, and he wasn't going to take that risk.
Vos' eyes narrowed. For a moment, Thorn could swear he was trying to break the shields and see what was going on. The pressure in his head was… familiar. Where had he felt that kind of pressure before?
It was dark.
It was cold.
There was someone in a robe.
The voice was familiar.
Where had he heard that voice before?
The pressure vanished and Thorn stumbled to the side.
Dice caught him. "Come on, sit down. All you commanders are working yourselves into an early grave. No need for that."
"I got work to do," Thorn said. He felt like he had just run a marathon. His lungs burned and his head ached.
"Work that can wait for two minutes while you rest. You told the Commander about the mission. You can take a short break," Dice said, finally managing to shove Thorn in the chair.
It did feel better to sit down. He no longer felt like he was going to collapse, at the very least.
Vos put a gloved hand on his shoulder. The unexpected touch caused Thorn to jump.
"Hey," Vos said, his voice soft and gentle. "I know what happened to Robin is hurting all of you. If you ever need anything, I'm here for you guys. You know that, right? I'm here to help?"
Thorn looked up at him. He could see the pleading look in Vos's eyes; could practically hear him screaming ' Tell me what's going on. Please. I can help. I want to help.'
He did want to tell him. He liked Vos and trusted him. The more they investigated and worked on the Palpatine problem, the more he felt like they were in over their head. They were lucky Robin had snapped out of it and Wolffe was quickly able to find someone to smuggle him off the planet. But what about next time? What else could Palpatine have them do? Who else could they hurt?
You couldn't fight a blackout mission. It took over your mind; your body. What if next time Palpatine had Thorn shooting Fox, tired of him changing the opinions of the Senate? What if something worse happened?
"Yeah, sorry. It's been… It's hard when you lose a brother," Thorn finally said.
He couldn't tell Vos anything. Not yet. Fox, Cody, and Wolffe were still gathering evidence. If he moved too early, that could ruin everything. No matter how scared or frustrated he was, he had to be patient.
"Even one that shot at Stone and attacked Crescent. Fox… he's… he's taking it harder than we are. He feels responsible. For all of us. Thinks that no one but him is allowed to die."
That last part was not a lie. Fox seemed to be under the impression that he could save everyone if he just had enough information. That wasn't how the world worked, sadly. Sometimes, there was nothing they could do. Bad things happened. The situation demanded they had to be reactive instead of proactive.
"I know," Vos said. "Robin seemed like he was a good trooper. But sometimes things happen. We'll be better prepared next time, okay?"
Thorn nodded. They would not be better prepared. The Corries had been going on missions since the start of the war and they never figured out how Palpatine could get control like that. And since they couldn't figure out the control, they couldn't figure out how to fight it.
Vos gave his shoulder one last squeeze. "I got work to do. You stay here and try not to stress too much. Dice, when Fox gets back, let me know if you need my help drugging him, okay?"
"Sir," Dice said with a sharp nod.
Thorn watched him go. " He's going to follow Fox ," he tapped out in dadita.
" Are you going to stop him?"
Should he? Or should he let him go?
"No. I don't think I can."
He also hoped that Vos would see what was going on. He would catch Tarkin sending Rex on a dangerous, sudden mission. Then, he and Fox could work together instead of separately. They could get more information. They could figure out what Palpatine was up to. They could maybe even end the war.
Perhaps it was stupid to hope for that, but Thorn couldn't help it. He was tired, frustrated, and scared. How many more troopers would they have to lose before they finally managed to stop Palpatine?
He supposed only time would tell.
*****
Rex couldn't help the twisting nerves in his gut. Skywalker and Yularen had gone off to debrief with some of the other generals and admirals. This left Rex in charge of getting the men off the ship and organized for the time being. But that wasn't why he was nervous. He could do this sort of thing in his sleep, no matter how unruly Fives and Hardcase were being at the moment.
No, the reason he was anxious was because of Ahsoka. He simultaneously hoped that she would be here to greet him, but also not. They hadn't spoken since their last argument over the chatlogs. Maybe she had calmed down since then. Or maybe the anger had festered until she was even angrier, and therefore more likely to lash out. The last thing any of them needed was an argument in front of the brothers.
Most of them knew that Rex had kept Jesse's injuries from her. Most of them knew she hadn't reacted well. And all of them had opinions on the matter. Some agreed, saying that she was already stressed enough. She didn't need to know about something she could do nothing about. Others disagreed, saying as his friend and commanding officer, she had every right to know how he was doing. Others were more on the fence.
Rex just wanted this whole mess to be over and done with. He was tired of listening to the arguments and debates; hearing what troopers thought of his handling of the situation. And he was tired of not speaking to Ahsoka.
He had left her so quickly on Coruscant, unable to stay for more than a day or two before they were shipped back out to the front lines. He felt like he didn't have enough time to process everything that had happened. He should have been over the assassination attempt. It had been a month. She was fine. He had seen her kick Gree's ass during the fight club. She looked so much better the last time they spoke. He should be over it.
He wasn't.
He still had nightmares about her dying in his arms. Bleeding out and blaming him for not protecting her. He still woke up sweating, sometimes screaming as visions of Bane killing everyone he loved faded in his mind.
The worst nightmares were not when Ahsoka was bleeding out in his arms, though, but when it was Hevy blaming him for not saving everyone.
He didn't dream about Hevy often. There were far too many brothers he knew that had died horrible deaths; including those that he knew for much longer than Hevy. But whenever he did dream about him, it was always the worst. Maybe because all of that potential was snuffed out in an instant due to his stupid plan to blow up the base. Maybe if he had found another way, Hevy would still be alive and Echo and Fives would have another brother.
In the end, the guilt ate at him; gnawed at his soul until there was nothing left. That was why he was so desperate to talk to Ahsoka. It was his selfish nature that wanted things to go back to normal as soon as possible. Only, he knew that would never happen. There was no way things could go back to the way they were. Too much had changed. Still, he wanted it.
He needed to talk to her one-on-one, explain his position, and apologize for keeping things from her under the misguided belief that it was better for all of them. The only problem? They didn't have long to stay on Coruscant. Just a few hours to refuel and resupply. Not only that, Cody had messaged him earlier saying that he had to meet up with Fox for some reason, even going so far as to pull rank and order him to. That made Rex nervous. Cody didn't tend to pull rank around him. The only thing he could think of was that it had something to do with Bane. He didn't know a lot of the details, but apparently, Coruscant Guard had detained him late last night. Then a trooper shot him about an hour later. Then said trooper broke out of custody, attacked Commander Stone, and was shot by the Guards earlier this morning. He didn't know what Cody was hoping Rex would get out of the conversation with Fox. But, if it was serious enough for him to pull rank and sensitive enough to not want the conversation recorded by the GAR network, then Rex needed to do it. Even if it meant leaving the conversation with Ahsoka until after they had left.
He couldn't help but look around for Ahsoka, trying to see her montrals peaking out from the rows of white and blue that filled the hangar.
"If you want to go see Ahsoka, we have it handled here," Appo said.
"No, I should help with the offloading and reloading of equipment. We can't afford to waste any time," Rex replied.
"One guy is not going to make the difference between making it on time and being late," Appo said. "Besides, don't you have to meet up with Commander Wolffe and Commander Fox?"
Rex pursed his lips and nodded.
"Go. I can handle you being missing for an hour or so. Besides, it'll be better for all of us if you and Ahsoka are on speaking terms before we ship back out to our next assignment.
"Thank you," Rex said.
He went to leave when he heard a voice call out, "CT-7567, I've been looking for you."
Ice ran down his spine the second his number and not his name was called. Not good. Not good. Not good.
Ever since the name bill had passed, it was rare for them to get called by their numbers. Even the natborns that saw them as flesh droids had started using the names. Why wouldn't they? It was easier to remember a name than a string of numbers. But the combination of his number and a voice he recognized made him anxious.
Turning, he felt his heart stop in his chest as Tarkin, along with one of his underlings, a young upstart named Rampart that no one liked, marched towards him. Tarkin looked displeased as always. Rampart was smiling at him, but there was something off about it. It was almost patronizing in a way. A soft smile that said 'I am better than you. I know more than you. And I am going to make you remember it'.
"Sir," he said, snapping into a salute along with the other troopers who were standing nearby. He could feel Appo's worried eyes on the side of his face.
"Come with me. We have things we need to discuss," Tarkin said, strutting past Rex like an overly-proud peacock.
Oh, what he wouldn't give to knock Tarkin down a few pegs. Many natborn officers felt as though the vode weren't sentient creatures, but Tarkin was on a whole other level. Not only did he not view them as human or even sentient, but he also seemed to be under the impression that the troopers weren't that impressive. It didn't matter how many amazing feats they pulled off, how many successful missions they did, or how creative they were, it was never enough. Tarkin was never impressed and looked down his nose at the troopers as if they were bugs crawling on his shoe. He made no effort to hide the fact that he thought an army of natborns would be just as effective and they should decommission the clones.
The fact that Tarkin wanted to speak to Rex of all people, alone, when they were in the middle of a fast turnaround, made his stomach churn.
Something is wrong. Something is wrong. Something is wrong. Repeated in his mind. His hand twitched, wanting to comm Cody for support, for information, so that if he disappeared someone would know who to look at. His heart raced in his chest and his entire body felt tingly as the fight or flight instincts started to take over. He was a trained clone trooper, through and through, and managed to keep himself appearing outwardly calm.
The issue was that Tarkin hadn't done anything yet to indicate he was up to something. Yes, he called Rex by his number. But that wasn't suspicious. That was a dick move. One that wasn't out of the norm for Tarkin's character.
He wanted to talk to Rex while they were in the middle of resupplying. Again, kind of a dick move, but they weren't on Coruscant for very long and he could have important information about their upcoming mission. Skywalker and Yularen were in another meeting. Ahsoka wasn't here. So, based on the chain of command, Rex would be next in line.
Besides, Tarkin was just with Rampart so at least Rex wasn't getting court-martialed. He'd have brought some Corries if that was the case. What would Rex even get court-martialed for? He was a model soldier.
Well, except for the time he got black-out drunk while on duty after Ahsoka was shot, drunk texted his commanding officer, and then forced one of his lieutenants to take over while he slept off the alcohol. Yeah, that could be worth a reprimand or two. However, that sort of incident seemed far below Tarkin's station and not worth a personal visit. Rampart would probably love to be reprimanding him, but Tarkin? Nah. He had better things to do. He'd delegate.
They had to be pulling him aside for something big. Something to do with a mission. That was the most logical explanation. Only, Rex could not fight off the feeling that something was wrong. Rampart and Tarkin were up to something. He couldn't figure out what, though.
"Sir, General Skywalker and Admiral Yularen aren't here," Rex finally ventured to say, hoping he might get more information.
Perhaps an explanation that they were on a tight schedule and didn't have time to wait for Skywalker and Yularen to get back, but were entrusting Rex with the information instead to keep the 501st's next deployment running smoothly.
Tarkin's eyes narrowed ever-so-slightly with the displeasure of hearing Rex speak without being spoken to first. "I am well aware, Captain. They aren't meant to be here." Did you really think I was so stupid as to not know where Skywalker and Yularen are?
Rex swallowed thickly and nodded. Something was scratching the back of his brain. An idea. A thought.
It was only after they stepped into a small meeting room and shut the door that Rex realized what it was.
They're isolating me. He thought. They're isolating me just like they isolated Ahsoka.
There was no other commanding officer with him. Tarkin had pulled him away from the rest of the troops so that they wouldn't be overheard. Hell, even the meeting room was out of the way in a quieter part of the hangar with less foot traffic. They were going out of their way to cut off any support, even just emotional support, Rex might have.
Rex had just walked himself into a trap or was just about to. Tarkin was a spider and Rex was a fly about to get caught up in his web.
The meeting room had no windows. No one could see inside. And the rooms themselves were pretty well insulated so there would be no sounds heard either, especially over the noise from the hangar. There were cameras, though. One on each corner.
Cameras could be manipulated. Cameras could be malfunctioning. Cameras could be down for scheduled maintenance. Cameras did not mean safety. Quite the opposite, in Rex's experience. They were a way to monitor. To ensure compliance. To look for cracks and weaknesses and then snuff them out.
The only thing that kept Rex somewhat calm was the fact that if Tarkin wanted to kill him, he likely wouldn't be doing it here. First of all: it'd be pretty hard to drag Rex's body out to a place it could be properly disposed of. Second of all: again, delegation. Tarkin would not kill Rex with his own hand. He'd send someone else to do it.
Though… Rampart was in the room with them. Then again, he didn't seem like the sort that would get his hands dirty.
Rex's fingers twitched once more. The comm was right there on his wrist. He could activate it and let Cody overhear everything. Or Jesse. Or Fives. Or hell even Skywalker if he wanted.
Rampart was staring at him. Watching him with that placid, neutral expression on his face. But he was staring. Studying. When Rex's fingers twitched, his head tilted and his eyes narrowed ever so slightly.
He couldn't activate the comm without him knowing.
Okay. Okay. Don't panic. He didn't know what Tarkin was up to just yet. He'd sit through the meeting and then comm Cody immediately afterward.
Actually, scratch that, the comms were being monitored constantly. Tarkin had gone out of his way to isolate Rex. They'd be watching him. Making sure he remained isolated.
Maybe he could meet up with Thorn or another brother stationed planetside. Dex was always accommodating to them in the past. He could write down what happened on a piece of paper and slip it to them.
Yeah. Good plan. He could do this. There was no need to panic yet. He was a clone trooper. One of the best. He could figure out a way to tell the others that Tarkin was up to something.
"My investigation into the leak has yielded fruit, captain," Tarkin said, sitting at the table.
Rampart came to stand behind him, eyes never leaving Rex. Rex did not sit. He hadn't been permitted to yet.
"Sir?" he said, glad he had put on his bucket to give him some sort of shield from Tarkin. If only so that he didn't have to hide his expressions.
Tarkin set a datapad down on the table and slid it towards him. "The leak is a Jedi."
Rex swallowed but otherwise made no outward expression of surprise. A Jedi was the one who ordered Ahsoka's death?
No, that couldn't be. There were bad Jedi out there, he knew that. But it also didn't make sense. Why would they, of all people, want Ahsoka dead? Unless they didn't like how her series represented them. The Council had seemed so supportive, though. Many of the troopers reported their own generals watching and enjoying it.
Was it Krell?
Cody did seem very uneasy about the man and he made Rex's skin crawl too. He had done something a while back. Something that made Cody overly cautious. Once more, his fingers twitched to activate his comm and call his brother.
"Anything to say, captain?" Tarkin asked.
What the fuck did he want him to say? "It's… It's surprising, sir. Why would a Jedi want Commander Tano dead?"
Please, say something. Give me something that shows this isn't a setup.
"We don't have solid proof yet. Which is why I'm assigning you and a small strike team to go to the coordinates on that datapad and gather more information. Once you've gathered the appropriate information, you may return so we can present the evidence to the Jedi Council and deal with this matter properly. Before anyone else gets hurt."
This was weird. Weird and vague. If Tarkin had evidence of a Jedi leaking information to the Separatists and hiring assassins to kill Padawans, why wouldn't he just go straight to the council with this information? He obviously had enough to know it was a Jedi. So why wait? Why keep it a secret?
Yes, he may not have a ton of evidence or strong evidence, but the Jedi would take this seriously and—
Hang on!
"Who is the potential leak, sir?"
"That is on a need-to-know basis. And right now, you don't need to know," Tarkin said stiffly. Irritated by Rex's perfectly reasonable question.
Wait. What? Rex wasn't even allowed to know who they were investigating?
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
"I… how am I supposed to know if I've gotten useful information if I don't know who or what I'm looking for?" he snapped back before he could stop himself.
Once more, Tarkin's eyes narrowed slightly to show his displeasure. "I was under the impression that you clones were good at completing your missions. Are you telling me now that you aren't as advertised? Perhaps we need a refund from the Kaminoans."
Rex didn't know how to respond to that. He was good at completing missions. His track record showed that he could complete missions with near-impossible odds. But this mission was missing so many pieces. Usually, on intel-gathering missions, they had a known target: a droid factory, a person to tail, a location to scout. He supposed, glancing down at the datapad, that they did have coordinates to a planet.
But planets were large.
Planets had vegetation and cities that could make tracking harder.
How was he supposed to gather evidence if he didn't even know who he was gathering evidence against?
"I can complete the mission, sir. What information are you hoping to get?" Rex said through gritted teeth.
Tarkin let out an exasperated sigh. "Captain, I don't know how to explain this in terms that you'll understand. This mission is highly classified and very top secret. I cannot risk telling you anything more than what I've already told you."
'Explain this in terms you'll understand.' He wasn't an idiot. None of the troopers were (though with Hardcase that was debatable. And Fives sometimes). He understood that top secret missions and intel-gathering missions were sometimes black boxes of information where everyone only had a small piece to ensure the total picture did not end up in the wrong hands. But again, he didn't know what he was looking for! Was he supposed to go to the planet and tail the Jedi until they met up with Dooku? Was there a base he was supposed to download intel from? Was he supposed to meet up with an informant and bring a datastick back? Was he simply supposed to confirm the Jedi was there? What if there were multiple Jedi? How would he know he had the right one?
"Sir—"
"Captain, you have fifteen minutes to assemble the men listed for the mission and leave on the craft provided to you." Tarkin cut him off. "You do care about catching the person who tried to kill the padawan, don't you?"
Okay, one: what a fucking asshole move for him to pull. Of course, he cared about catching the person who wanted Ahsoka dead. Two: Tarkin didn't even use a fucking gender! Was he looking for a he? She? They? And three: Fifteen minutes? He only had fifteen minutes before he was supposed to leave?
Something was wrong. Wrong like it was wrong when Ahsoka was sent down to that planet alone. It had all the same hallmarks: a compressed time scale, a sense of urgency (inflated or real remained to be seen), a lack of support, and a lack of intel.
This is the trap. Rex realized, his body going numb from shock. They don't have information on a Jedi traitor. I don't even think there is a Jedi traitor. They're trying to kill me. Or frame me. Or separate me from Skywalker and Ahsoka for another reason. Something. They're doing something and they need me gone.
He looked down at the list of troopers, his body on autopilot. Fifteen minutes wasn't enough time to meet up with anyone. He didn't… he didn't have time to come up with a plan. He didn't have time to discuss this with people he trusted. He only had time to react.
And looking down at the list, his suspicions were confirmed. First off, Tarkin didn't list their names. Only their numbers. Second of all, the team assigned to this highly important, top-secret reconnaissance mission was not suited to the task.
ARC-5555, CT-1409, CT-5385, CT-4109, CT-6116, and CT-5596.
Fives
Echo
Tup
Hardcase
Kix
Jesse
Echo and Fives were about the only two that made sense. As ARC troopers, they were trained for this sort of high-stakes reconnaissance and could pull off a mission like this. They had a series of successful missions under their belts and were smart, creative, and capable troopers. The rest of the team, though? Yeah, no. It was so random it almost looked like Tarkin had pulled numbers out of a hat.
Tup was a good trooper, but he didn't have the specialized training needed for this sort of mission. And, while he was no longer shiny, he was still pretty new to the war. He had yet to prove that he could handle the more complex and riskier missions ARC troopers undertook. His skills were too generalized at this point. He wasn't the worst member of the team, but given that they were going on a 'stealth mission' against a 'Jedi', he was not trained enough to do this.
Hardcase, on the other hand, was so mismatched for this mission, that right there was a major red flag. He didn't think Hardcase had the ability to do a slow mission like this. And he certainly didn't have the training. He was heavy-handed, loud, and liked big guns more than sneaking around. Hardcase, on a top-secret stealth mission, was likely to get them all killed simply because he was bored. On accident, of course. But the man could not sit still to save his life and could not be quiet either. Maybe Tarkin didn't know that, but there were other troopers, specially trained scouts and ARCs, in the 501st that would have been better suited.
But, while Hardcase and Tup were red flags, it was the last two that really proved to Rex that this was all a trap.
Kix was certainly capable in combat. They all were. But he was also a medic. Medics were in short supply. The amount of training they had to go through, and the amount of knowledge they had to possess, made them very unique and very rare amongst the vode. Which was why they didn't get assigned to random reconnaissance missions, even high-profile ones. They, for the most part, stayed with the bulk of the battalion and focused on the main campaigns. That was why ARCs and scouts had first aid training that was more in-depth than your run-of-the-mill trooper. They were expected to know how to patch themselves up long enough to get back to the battalion, and therefore, back to the medic. And if they couldn't? Well, tough luck. Enjoy dying on a backwater planet alone.
Medics did not go on small-scale reconnaissance missions. Medics did not tag along with a small strike force unless something else was going on. If they were going to retrieve a general, an admiral, or a senator that had been captured by the Separatists? Then sure. Bring Kix along so he could keep the high-ranking officer alive. But for a simple mission to gather intel? No way. There was no way Tarkin would willingly let the 501st be down a medic. If it were any other admiral assigning the men, then Rex would assume it was a mistake. Or them trying to be nice and give them some medical support. But this was Tarkin. He didn't care if any clone lived or died so long as he got what he wanted. And, even if he did have a sudden change of heart, sending a medic on a mission like this was against GAR regulations. Kix should not be there.
But it was the final trooper that solidified everything.
Jesse was a good trooper. Unlike Hardcase and Tup, he did have some of the special training necessary to pull off a mission like this. He had talked about becoming an ARC a few times. He was a good soldier. He had done scouting missions before. There was just one problem: Jesse wasn't cleared to do any missions for the next three days. And this wasn't the medics being overly cautious. The man still hadn't regained full use of his left arm or hearing in his left ear. If he stood for more than five minutes, he collapsed. He was not battle-ready. His file even said so. It had been signed off by Yularen and Skywalker. The only reason he wasn't stuck on Coruscant now was because the medics were pretty sure he'd be fully recovered by the time they made it to their next deployment. The fact that Tarkin had put together this team and included a trooper who couldn't even hold a blaster spoke volumes to Rex.
He didn't care about the 'Jedi'. He cared about the team. He was setting them up for something. But what? Rex didn't know. And, the longer he sat here, the more his mind buzzed with the possibilities.
"You have fifteen minutes to gather your men and leave for the mission. Fourteen now, I suppose. Your ship has already been provided for you. You can find it in Bay 4," Tarkin said.
Rex needed to get in contact with Cody or Fox. He needed them to know. He needed them to tell him what to do. He might be getting sent to his death. He needed to figure out a way to stop that for the rest of his men. They didn't deserve that. They deserved to die in an actual battle like their brothers before them. Not due to some cowardly trap Tarkin set to get them out of the way.
"Sir, CT-5597 can't go on the mission," he said carefully. Jesse's number tasted like ash in his mouth.
"Why not?" Tarkin said, equally as carefully. So, he hadn't read Jesse's file before assigning him. Otherwise, he could make up some excuse that he would be healed by the time they reached the planet or something.
"He hasn't been cleared by medical. He can't hold a blaster or walk for more than five minutes, sir. We can't take him on such a high-stakes mission. Especially one against a Jedi. He can't even fly a ship right now. He'd be a liability."
Tarkin's mouth pressed into a thin line. Rex could see the cogs turning in his head as he absorbed the information. Possibly warring with two arguments: Insist and look suspicious or acquiesce and let one of your targets live a little longer.
"Very well," Tarkin said, sitting back.
Rampart made a noise to argue. Tarkin waved a dismissive hand at him. At least Rex wasn't the only one getting treated like trash.
Rex breathed a sigh of relief. That was one man he didn't have to worry about. Now, he needed to come up with a coded message that Cody could understand.
"You understand you are not to discuss this mission with anyone outside this room?"
"Yes, sir," Rex said. Yeah, no. He was going to discuss it.
"Hand me your comm and your datapad," Tarkin said.
Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.
"Sir?"
"Captain, I reiterate, this is a top-secret mission. We cannot risk any information getting out. You'll have to remove the communication devices from your men as well. We've provided comms aboard the ship."
Rex hesitated. He could feel Tarkin's eyes watching every movement, clocking every hesitation, looking for evidence of disobedience.
He unclipped the comm from his vambrace and slid it to Tarkin, along with his datapad and a few other communications devices. Never before had he felt so isolated; help so far away.
"I believe that's all of them, sir. I'll go round up the troops now."
"Thirteen minutes, captain," Tarkin simply replied.
Rex nodded, saluted, spun on his heels, and left the room.
His heart pounded and his head felt like it was stuffed with cotton. He needed to contact someone.
No, he needed to keep the others safe.
Yeah, that was a better plan.
He could find one of the men on the list, debrief them, and then have them relay the information to Fox when the coast was clear. Rex could go on this mission alone. He had a feeling that once the ship left the hangar, there would be no survival. He refused to let any of his men die like that. Besides, this worked out better. If Fives and the others were hidden on Coruscant, they could figure out why they, specifically, had been picked for this mission. It still seemed random. At least, to Rex's eyes. But Tarkin had picked them specifically. So specifically he hadn't even bothered to look at their profiles to make sure they were cleared by medical. There was a reason they were being sent away. But why? What did they all have in common?
Rex would go on the mission. He'd probably die. But the others would be safe. And they could expose Tarkin. It was a win-win. Besides, if he tried grabbing a datapad from Appo or someone else to contact Cody, it'd be clocked in an instant. They were watching him. Ensuring his compliance. He could just feel it. If he was gathering his troopers, however, then he was simply a soldier following orders.
He spotted Fives messing around with Dogma and Denal.
He steeled himself for the conversation he was about to have. Fives would be hard to convince to stay behind, but he didn't have time to find anyone else. The clock was ticking. He could hear the seconds counting down in his head.
"With me, now," he growled, grabbing Fives' arm and dragging him away from the other troopers.
"Ow, captain. What'd I do? I was just taking a break. We're ahead of schedule anyways," Fives said.
He practically threw Fives into a supply closet. There weren't many places in the hangar that were blind spots for cameras and recording equipment, but there were a few.
"Woah, okay. What's going on? Seriously?" Fives asked.
"I need you to grab Echo, Kix, Tup, and Hardcase. Ditch your armor. Swap it with some shinies or put on your bridge greys. I don't care. Just get rid of it and then make your way to Dex's."
"Woah, slow down. What—"
"Once there, you need to get in contact with Fox, Cody, and Wolffe. Don't use your comms. They've been compromised."
"Captain—"
"You're going to go AWOL and lie low on Coruscant—"
"Rex, stop!" Fives said.
Rex stopped talking, realizing that he was out of breath and maybe a hair's breadth away from full-on panicking.
Fives took a deep breath and pinched his brow. "Why do we need to go AWOL? What happened? Appo said you were pulled aside by Tarkin and now you shove me into a closet and start panicking? What's going on?"
12 minutes.
Rex steadied himself. "I think Tarkin is trying to kill us. Or frame us for something. He's trying to get us out of the way, though. That much is clear. We have a mission. A top-secret stealth reconnaissance mission. We're leaving in twelve minutes."
"Twelve minutes?" Fives sucked in a breath. "That's fast. How do you know this is a setup?"
"Who would be dumb enough to put Hardcase on a top-secret stealth reconnaissance mission?"
"Oh, yeah. Good point."
"Besides, there are other things that aren't adding up. He claims a Jedi is the one who hired Bane to kill Ashoka. But I don't have a name, a species, or even a gender. I also don't have any idea what we're supposed to be gathering. Not only that but Jesse and Kix are supposed to be coming too."
"Jesse? He can't even walk in a straight line!"
"Exactly. He also took my comms and I don't think Yularen or Skywalker know about this. He's isolating us."
Fives pinched his brow. "So, Tarkin is setting us up for something. Maybe death. Maybe a frame job. Maybe just to get us out of the way so he can do something else. Why us, though? Why are we so important?"
11 minutes.
"I don't know. And I don't care. All I know is that you cannot be on this mission with me. Grab the others. Go AWOL. Let me deal with this alone. They'll presume KIA once everything goes down for you and the others. That should give you more freedom."
"What? Rex, no! I'm not doing that!" Fives cried.
"Keep your voice down!" Rex hissed. "And yes, you are. That's an order."
"Fuck you. I'm not leaving you to die on your own so I can hide on Coruscant like a coward!"
"It's not being a coward, Fives! He took my comms. I have no way to contact Cody or anyone and we only have ten minutes before we have to leave. That's not enough time to get Yularen or call for an investigation. This was all planned. We have to be reactive now. Evasive maneuvers."
"So, you're just going to roll over and accept this? You're going to do exactly as you're ordered?" Fives spat back.
"I don't have much choice. Someone has to be on that ship. Tarkin is going out of his way to make sure I have no other option. If that ship does not leave when it's supposed to, do you think he's just going to let us go? Do you think he's going to let us run around Coruscant without being watched? He will hunt us down. But if you and the others appeared to have died with me, then you can investigate what exactly he wants to happen and stop it."
10 minutes.
"No, Rex. I can't just let you go to your death like this. There has to be another way!"
"There is no other way. Hurry up. Get Echo and the others. Lay low. Get in contact with Fox. He can help you out."
"No. No. You are not marching to your death like this. We don't even know what you're walking into!"
"Which is precisely why you need to go." God, he wished he had pulled Kix or someone else aside instead. Arguing with Fives could be like arguing with a brick wall.
"I'm not going."
"That's an order, trooper."
"I don't give a damn about your orders! Not when they'll get you killed!"
Fives' last declaration made Rex's arguments die in his mouth with how vehemently he spoke.
9 minutes.
Fives ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "Look, Rex, we don't get a lot of choice in our lives. Not who we serve with. Not the battalions we're in. Not even our specialties. But there is one thing we do have a choice in, whether or not to leave a brother behind. I refuse to leave you behind. I refuse to leave you for dead while you're still breathing. I refuse to sit here, safe on Coruscant while you're going on a suicide mission. We need you, Rex. You're our captain. Our leader. Ahsoka needs you. Skywalker needs you. Commander Cody needs you. You're not going to sacrifice yourself for us. Order me around all you like, but I am getting on that ship and I am going with you."
Rex opened and closed his mouth several times before the words finally came to him. "I don't know if we can survive this. I'm trying to find a way out, but there's nothing. I don't have enough time to plan. You'll have to leave your comms to so there's no way for us to get in contact with anyone. I don't even know what we're reacting to."
"Which is why we need to come with you. All of us together? We can prep. We can strategize. We can hook up a bootleg datapad and contact the Commander that way. You alone, though? You're smart. But you're not that smart."
"Watch it," Rex said, eyes narrowing.
8 minutes.
Fives chuckled. "I know you're trying to protect us, but we're brothers. We're a team. We don't leave each other to die and we watch each other's backs. Let me watch yours. We can figure out a way to get out of this."
"The ship will likely be monitored. We won't be able to converse freely."
"Not with our words. But come on, Captain, we all know the code." Fives grinned and showed off some colorful sign language they had come up with on Kamino. It was a mix of GAR standard issue field signals and their own finger positions. It was unlike any other language in the galaxy and the only people who could speak it were troopers.
He had been meaning to teach it to Ashoka, but given that ninety percent of the language was curse words and insults, he had held back.
7 minutes.
Rex sighed. "Alright. Alright. Go, gather up the others. But if anyone wants to skip this mission, you let them. Got it?"
Fives gave him a mocking salute. "Trust me. No one will want to skip this mission. We're here for you. We're not going to let what happened to Ahsoka happen to you either, got it?"
"Thank you," Rex said. And he meant it. Now that he knew someone was watching his back, he felt more in control of the situation. Or, at least, more hopeful that they could come up with a way to survive.
"Don't mention it." Fives slipped out from the supply closet, leaving Rex to his thoughts.
His stomach twisted uncomfortably. He should get to the ship. Start inspecting it now so they could hit the ground running when the rest came.
He stepped out of the closet and made his way to Bay 4.
6 minutes.
It was an Omicron-class attack shuttle. Weird choice for a stealth mission. Weirder still were the Corries that were milling about.
No, not milling.
Working on the ship.
Why were they prepping the ship? Shouldn't that be someone else's job? And the way they were moving, it was almost like they were in a trance.
"Trooper, status update," Rex said to one of the red-painted soldiers nearest to him.
"Minor repairs, captain. Nothing to worry about. We'll have it ready to go in time for your mission."
"Do you know where we're headed?" Rex asked, trying to see if they were a part of the 'top secret' mission or if they were in the dark.
"No, sir. Top secret. I'm not allowed to know. I'm just making repairs." Something was off about the way he was speaking. Stilted. Almost as if these words weren't his own. Like he was speaking on a delay with someone else feeding the words to him.
5 minutes.
"Where are the rest of the men, sir?" The trooper asked. "You have strict orders to leave at precisely 0900 hours."
Maybe it was a good thing Fives was so stubborn. He almost felt like the Corries were planted here to make sure he and the rest of them got on the ship. But that didn't make any sense. Why would Commander Fox volunteer troopers to fix their ship? Shouldn't these guys be patrolling or something? Unless they were here without Commander Fox knowing. He was missing something.
"They'll be here," Rex said. "We had to remove one trooper. Jesse, due to medical reasons."
4 minutes.
"Jesse? What's his designation, sir," the trooper asked.
Yes, something definitely was up with this man. He couldn't think of a single instance where a trooper would ask for a number in place of a name. And if he had their personnel files to ensure the proper troopers were here, it would have listed Jesse's name too.
"CT-5597," Rex growled. "I cleared it with Tarkin beforehand."
3 minutes.
"Good, sir. Your other troopers need to be here, though. Those were their orders. And good soldiers follow orders."
The phrase sent shivers down his spine.
"Sir," someone said.
He turned to see Fives, Echo, Tup, Hardcase, and Kix all lined up. All there of their own free will. All ready to die with him if they couldn't figure out how to out-smart Tarkin. He could tell based on the grim lines of their faces and the nods they sent him.
2 minutes.
"Men," Rex said, acknowledging them. He turned back to the Corrie. "Is the ship all ready to go?"
"Yes, sir." The Corrie snapped into a salute. "I'll take the comms and datapads from you. You can get them back when you return."
"Thank you," Rex said.
The Corrie went around to each of them to gather up their communications devices.
1 minute.
Rex decided to test something. "What's your name, trooper?" he asked.
"CT-8105," the trooper responded.
This got all of them to do a double-take. The trooper's armor was painted, with some sort of geometric swirl design on the helmet and breastplate. While there was no hard and fast rule as to when a trooper got their name or painted their armor, the name almost always came first. And, judging by the faded paint, the armor had been painted a while ago. To not have a name, yet have worn and painted armor was unheard of. Something was definitely up with this trooper.
"Thank you. I'll contact you when we've completed the mission," Rex said, careful not to make a big deal over the trooper's number. Yet something else he'd have to look into if he survived. He stepped aboard the ship with his little crew. "Ready?"
"Of course," Fives responded.
They started the ship and took off. Rex settled down in the chair, mind working over the problem. He would come up with a solution. He had to.
0 minutes.
*****
Fox was pretty sure he had broken every single traffic law that had ever been and would ever be (along with more than a few laws of physics) as he raced through the streets on a speeder bike that he was pretty sure was evidence in a chop shop ring they were trying to bust.
Oh well, it was Fox's property now.
Left.
Right.
Dip down.
Go the wrong way down a one-way street.
Pull back up.
Side-swipe the garbage truck.
Swerve around Palpatine's stupid propaganda billboards.
Resist the urge to return to the propaganda billboards and blast them out of the sky.
Left.
Right.
Left again.
The wind whipped through his hair and stung his eyes since he forgot to put on his bucket in his mad dash to get to Rex before he was shipped out.
"Come on. Come on. Come on," he said, gritting his teeth and urging the bike to go faster.
In the back of his head, he wondered why no police droids had bothered to pull him over yet. They'd have to look into that. This sort of thing should not be this easy to get away with.
He made it to the shipyard in record time, jumping off the bike and letting it crash into a wall.
He made no move to observe the damage, ignoring the shouts of shocked troopers as he sprinted to where the 501st had pulled in.
"Where's Captain Rex, I need to speak to him," he shouted over the activity of the troopers hurrying to resupply for their next campaign.
"Sir," a trooper said, coming up to him. "He was pulled away by Tarkin a few minutes ago."
"Where'd he go after that?" Fox demanded. He didn't have time to beat around the bush. He had to get the datapad to Rex now. And if for some reason he couldn't get the datapad on him, then the tracker necklace would be just as good.
"I think I saw him head to Bay 4. Fives was gathering up Echo, Tup, Hardcase, and Kix and headed that way as well. There's a bunch of Corries there and—Okay! Hope that was helpful!" The trooper called as Fox took off towards Bay 4.
He wove his way through the throngs of white plastoid. Occasionally jumping over boxes and ignoring shouts of protests left in his wake. The Corrie thing bothered him. He hadn't assigned anyone to Bay 4 today. Or any day. All his men that were assigned for the first shift had been accounted for. Which meant that troopers that weren't supposed to be working, were working.
Not good. Not good. Not good.
He shoved his way through the masses. The datapad and tracker necklace bounced against his leg. He may not be able to stop Rex from leaving, but he could at least give him the tools to contact Cody or be found.
Faster.
Faster.
Faster.
He pushed himself, legs pumping. Lungs burning. Heart pounding. Then, he was at Bay 4, skidding to a stop. Sure enough, five of his men were there. Standing like droids without orders.
More importantly, there was no ship.
"No, no, no, no!" Fox said. Overhead, an omicron-class attack shuttle took off with a roar into the sky. Fuck!
He needed to know what was going on. He turned to one of the troopers. "Poe, status report. Who was on that shuttle?" he commanded.
Poe didn't respond. Just stood there, swaying slightly. Dammit! A blackout mission. They didn't respond to their names on blackout missions.
CT-8105, report. Was Captain Rex on that shuttle?" he asked again.
Poe turned to him, slowly. "I'm sorry, sir." Stilted. These words weren't his own. "I can't say. It's a top-secret mission."
Fox cursed again and kicked a spanner across the room. Blackout missions meant that Palpatine was definitely behind this. It also meant that he wanted something done to that ship that the troopers wouldn't do willingly.
Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.
Alright. He could handle this. He needed to get in contact with Cody and Wolffe. He needed to let them know about Rex's mission. Maybe put a slicer on Tarkin to get the information faster because Wolffe's network wasn't fast enough and –
"Fox?" A small voice asked from behind.
He turned to see Ahsoka standing there, looking lost and confused.
"What's going on?" she asked. "You feel… bad." She shuddered at the last word. As if he was feeling more than just bad but couldn't put it into words.
Fox ran a hand through his hair and put his shields back up. "Sorry, Ahsoka. I've been a little stressed lately."
She nodded and looked towards the Corries, still standing there motionless. "Is everything okay with them?"
Fox's eyes flicked up to the cameras in the wall. His show would be getting Palpatine's attention any second now. He had to be careful. He had to move fast. "We've all been a little out of it since Robin—"
He choked on his words, thankfully not acting. Even though Robin had successfully gotten off planet (or was about to) with the smugglers Wolffe had found, it still hurt that Fox couldn't protect him enough to keep him on Coruscant. It hurt that he had to live out the rest of his life away from his brothers, alone, constantly on the run. That was no life for a soldier. He couldn't imagine not being surrounded by his brothers, the only people in the galaxy that he could possibly relate to. And Robin especially worried him. He had always been nervous and high-strung. How would he react to the situation he was in? Would he be able to adapt?
He almost didn't go along with it, having a panic attack when he was told he needed to shoot at Stone. They almost had to call in someone else to play him (thank the ka'ra they were clones). Robin had managed to pull it together, but just barely. And it killed him to be separated from his brothers. His last words to Fox were asking if Crescent was okay.
"Oh. Right. I'm sorry about that," Ahsoka said. "Is Rex here? I was told he was over here."
Fox pointedly did not react with the panic he felt. "He has another mission, kid. I'm sure he'll meet up with you and the rest of the men when he's done with it."
"Another mission. But… he just got back. We didn't have a chance to talk." She looked at the empty bay.
Fox put a hand on her shoulder and pulled her away from the lifeless men. Thire had told him that Vos had been able to sense when Robin was under Palpatine's control. Or, rather, he assumed the kid was dead because he didn't sense anything from him. He didn't want Ahsoka to have to deal with that.
"You can talk to him when he gets back." He felt like he was lying.
Maybe he was. Rex was off planet now on a secret mission from Tarkin and Palpatine with no way to securely talk to Cody, Wolffe, or Fox. He wasn't sure why Palpatine needed him gone so badly, but he was doing whatever it took to get him out of the way. Perhaps he was gearing up for another hit on Ahsoka. Last time she had survived because of Rex and Kix. Echo and Fives had tracked down Bane. That didn't explain Tup or Hardcase, though. But maybe Palpatine just needed to fill out the roster. They were also some of the closest troopers to Ahsoka. Maybe he wanted to make sure that none of her closest friends were around her.
"Fox," Vos' voice caused him to stop.
He turned to see the Jedi standing there, also looking as if he had sprinted to the hangar.
"Sir, what are you doing here?" Fox asked.
"Needed to pick up some intel for a case I'm working," Vos said, shrugging. "You dropped this."
He held out the tracker necklace. His hands were bare.
He could see an object's past when he touched things with his bare hands. Fox didn't know how much or what sort of things he could see. But the fact that he could see them, and the look on his face, meant he got something from the necklace.
Fox took it from him and tucked it into his pocket. "Thank you, sir."
Trust him or don't trust him. That was the question.
The Jedi answered to the Senate. The Senate was run by Palpatine. Palpatine could control the Corries; could make them kill if he wanted to. There were cameras everywhere. Could he trust Vos to go against Palpatine's orders? Could he trust Vos to be discrete and not get caught by the cameras? Could he trust that Palpatine wouldn't turn Fox into a mindless zombie that killed the man? Could he trust that Palpatine would move slowly enough for Fox to react?
Yes, to trust or not to trust. Even if he could trust one of the variables, he wasn't certain about the others.
"Come on, let's see if we can find Jesse," Fox said, directing Ahsoka away from the Jedi and back into the throngs of troopers.
He saw, out of the corner of his eye, that the Corries had all started to move in unison. Following him. Following Ahsoka. Maybe now that the mission was done, they were headed back to the last location they were conscious. Or maybe Palpatine was acting, giving them new orders.
Fox kept an arm around Ahsoka's shoulders and his eyes forward so as not to look directly at the Corries or acknowledge their presence. Pretend they weren't there. Pretend they weren't on a mission. Those were the rules.
Palpatine wouldn't have them open fire on Ahsoka surrounded by the 501st and other battalions, would he? That would be suicide.
Unless…
They were surrounded by troopers, a mass of white on all sides. It struck him just how hard it would be to fight them all if they decided to attack at once.
He glanced up at the cameras once more. Palpatine could control the Corries. He wasn't sure how, but he could control them. It wasn't unreasonable, therefore, to assume he could control the rest of the troopers.
Was every man in this room, save for Ahsoka and Vos, able to be turned into mindless killing machines with the push of a button?
That trooper over there, not a Corrie but he seemed to be standing oddly still. Was he under Palpatine's control right now? And a pair of grey-colored troopers that belonged to Wolffe's battalion seemed to be following them now as well. Or were they just headed the same way?
Fox trusted his brothers with his life. Except, now he wasn't so sure if he should.
"Fox?" Ahsoka asked, looking up at him. "Is everything okay?"
Should he be bringing her to Jesse? Should he be bringing her to a place where she might be surrounded by enemies? Was it a good idea to put two of his men as her security detail when, at any moment, they might lose themselves?
Just how much power did Palpatine have over the army? And what would happen if he decided to yield it?
"Sorry, sorry." He pinched his brow. "I haven't been sleeping well. I'm fine."
"Okay," Ahsoka said. She didn't sound convinced. "I can find Jesse on my own if you want to head back to the base and get some sleep."
Fear struck him like lightning. Leaving her here, alone, felt like he was setting her up for death.
"Fox," Vos' hand (gloved this time) gently grabbed his forearm.
Fox turned to face the man.
"She's right. You need sleep. I'll take her to Jesse," he said, smiling at him.
He still hesitated. White. Everywhere was white. They were surrounded. Palpatine could turn them all in an instant.
It was said that one Jedi was worth a thousand soldiers. Which meant that two Jedi were worth two thousand soldiers. Surely he could trust Vos to keep Ahsoka safe. He could take on the Corries if they decided to attack. More importantly, he couldn't voice his concerns here while the cameras were watching and the listening devices were recording.
"Right. You're right." He nodded. "I'll head back. I'll see you around, kid," he said.
Ahsoka waved to him, still seeming uncomfortable.
He was heading back to the base, but he wasn't going to sleep.
He needed to call Cody. They needed to figure out what the hell was happening with Rex. And they needed to start making moves.
Palpatine was making moves and had been since the start of the war. They needed to stop reacting. They needed to know what he was up to. They needed to make sure the clone army couldn't be used to hurt people unwillingly.
He was not going to let Palpatine win anymore.
*****
"Plan." Echo tapped out in dadita.
"Unclear. Don't know what trap is." Rex tapped back.
"Drop into battle unannounced." Tup tapped. "Friendly fire. Blasted before fully out of hyperspace."
That was a possibility. The coordinates were to a planet, but they did not indicate as to what was going on around it. If Tarkin wanted them dead, sending an unregistered ship to a space battle was a good way to get them killed. A clean way too. They would be marked as droids and no one would ever come to collect the bodies.
"Do we know who the Jedi is?" Hardcased asked, surprisingly calm given that normally a space this small would have him bouncing off the walls in a matter of seconds.
"Unclear," Rex said. He had given them all the information Tarkin had given him, which was nothing.
"Planet is out in wild space," Echo said. "Neutral. It's run by whatever gangster has the most money at the moment. Right now that looks like Black Sun."
"Better than Hutts, or worse?" Tup asked.
"Depends on who you ask," Fives answered.
Echo turned to Rex. "We're going in pretty blind, Captain. Any ideas on how to gather more intel?"
They had scrubbed the ship for bugs as soon as they took off and found three listening devices and two cameras hidden in the vents. There were likely more.
"We'll drop out of hyperspace early," Rex said. "Slow to a crawl and scan for chatter over the Comms, GAR, and neverde. See if we can figure out what's going on planetside."
"Dropping out will make us more of a target to pirates," Echo said.
"Think you can't take on a few pirates?" Fives teased. "Come on, Echo. They're pirates!"
"Commander Cody said Ohnaka's given the 212th a lot of trouble, though."
Fives snorted. "That's cause Ohnaka wants to fuck his general."
"Fives!" Rex scolded.
"What? It's true! Watching those two interact—" He shuddered. "It's like watching someone flirt with my dad."
"How would you know what that feels like? You don't have a dad," Hardcase asked.
"I imagine it feels like how it feels to watch Ohnaka flirt with Kenobi." Fives crossed his arms and glared at his brother.
"Regardless," Rex said, bringing them back to the topic at hand. "I still think it's a good idea for us to drop out early and hang around in dead space for a bit to do a scan."
"Yes, sir," Fives grumbled.
Their teasing and jokes weren't them forgetting the seriousness of the mission. It was tactical. If they seemed like they were suspicious on the video feed, then they wouldn't be monitored as closely. Joking, fucking around, and teasing each other, was a way to distract so that their codes would be overlooked.
Kix came out from the cramped living quarters. "Good news, everyone! This ship is equipped with a very robust med kit."
"How's that good news?" Hardcase asked.
"Because all of you are behind on shots and physicals."
Everyone groaned. Except for Rex. He did his groaning on the inside, like any good leader would.
"Don't groan at me! If you lot wouldn't avoid the med bay so much, it wouldn't be so bad!"
"Do we have to do this now?" Tup asked.
"We're in hyperspace for the next sixteen hours. What else are you going to do?" Kix asked.
"I don't know. Prepare for the mission?" Tup said.
Kix grabbed him by the ear and dragged him out of the chair. "You can prepare for the mission after I cleared you. Don't think I don't know about that rock that fell on you! Head trauma is no laughing matter."
"I was wearing my bucket!"
"Which is why you still have a head in the first place."
Tup's sputtering and protests would have been funny if it weren't for the somber mood that permeated the ship. They all knew the chances of making it out of this mission were slim to none. What was worse was the fact that they all knew there was no mission to begin with. It didn't matter if they made it to the planet or not, something was going to happen. There was no Jedi to tail or intel to gather. The only thing Rex could hope for is that by slowing to a crawl, they could figure out some way to contact Cody.
The ship lurched violently, throwing Kix and Tup to the floor as Rex crashed into a chair.
"What's going on?" he demanded.
"We've been thrown out of hyperspace!" Echo cried, struggling to regain control of the ship. "The controls! It's like they're stuck."
"Echo, get us out of here! We're going to crash into that moon," Fives shouted.
"I'm trying. Nothing's responding to me!"
All the lights in the ship were blinking rapidly, signaling the various systems that were down.
"Life systems are shutting down," Hardcase called.
Rex snarled and picked Tup up by the scruff of his neck and shoved him into the seat, strapping him down just as the ship lurched once more. He and Kix collided together and smashed into the ceiling.
"We're losing altitude. We've gotten caught in the moon's gravitational pull. I can't escape it!" Echo cried.
"Fives, fix something," Hardcase shouted.
"I'm trying. Nothing's working. Didn't the Corries patch this piece of shit up before we left?"
Somehow, Rex managed to grab ahold of Kix and shoved him into another chair. Kix strapped himself in.
"Captain, get strapped in. We're going to crash," he shouted.
"We've lost all thrust and power," Echo said as the lights went dark. "Shields are down!"
Tup reached up and grabbed Rex's foot to keep him from bouncing around the ship. It only marginally worked as Rex still hit the side Tup was on, cracking a few ribs in the process, no doubt.
"Brace for impact!" Echo shouted.
They hit the surface of the moon with such force that Rex's leg was wrenched from Tup's grasp.
His only thought as he flew towards the front of the ship and through the windshield was, thank the Force I put my bucket on.
Then there was pain.
Then there was nothing.
*****
CommanderCody to Ahsoka:
CommanderCody: Don't worry, kid. We'll find them. I promise.
CommanderCody: At least promise me you've been eating and sleeping.
CommanderCody: And leaving your room.
CommanderCody: You know Rex will kill me when he gets back and he finds out you haven't been practicing your hand to hand.
CommanderCody: Vod'ika, please, answer me. I know you're worried. I'm worried too. I just want to know if you're alright.
CommanderCody: You know Rex and the others love you too much to die. They're probably fighting like hell to get back to you.
CommanderCody: You're not the only one who's worried about them, ad'ika. I won't rest until they're back home. Okay?
CommanderCody: If you ever need to talk, I'm here.
*****
CommanderCody to Jesse:
CommanderCody: You're keeping an eye on Ahsoka, right?
Jesse: Doing my best. Yeah.
CommanderCody: She's eating and everything?
Jesse: Barely, but I do make sure she gets a little something every day. It's hard, though, commander. And I don't think Skywalker is making it any better.
CommanderCody: I know. I think we got a lead on a planet in the outer rim. I'm sending a scouting party there tomorrow.
Jesse: How many more of these search parties are you allowed to use?
CommanderCody: Officially? None. But Obi-Wan wants them found just as much as we do.
Jesse: Unbelievable. We give our lives for them and they won't even send a search party for us?
CommanderCody: I know, vod. Take care of yourself and Ahsoka. I'll let you know if anything changes.
Jesse: That goes for you too, sir.
*****
Ahsoka: Hey, Rex, you said you're always here for me. Right?
Ahsoka: Just a message away?
Ahsoka: You can message back. I'm sorry for getting mad at you over Jesse.
Ahsoka: And over Wolffe.
Ahsoka: I'm sorry.
Ahsoka: You're okay, right?
Ahsoka: I feel like if you weren't, I'd feel it in the Force.
Ahsoka: So you got to be okay.
Ahsoka: Cause the Force would tell me if you weren't.
Ahsoka: Except you're not messaging me back.
Ahsoka: Which I totally get because I was mean to you the last time we talked.
Ahsoka: You're not messaging Cody either.
Ahsoka: Or Jesse
Ahsoka: Or Wolffe
Ahsoka: If you're not going to message me, can you at least message one of them?
Ahsoka: Or you can let Fives, Echo, Hardcase, Tup, and Kix message one of us.
Ahsoka: The Force would tell me if you were gone.
Ahsoka: But it's not telling me anything right now.
Ahsoka: I'm sorry.
Ahsoka: Ori'vod?
Notes:Alrighty friends. That's the end of the story. Thank you so much for this journey. I'm so happy everyone loved it. I'm absolutely not planning on adding to this. Thank you and goodnight!
I couldn't find Hardcase's number anywhere so I made one up. Also, AnotherInternetUser is super busy this week so no drawn chatlogs.