"General Kenobi, here." I handed his lightsaber up to him, a slow grin spreading across his features. "Thanks, Cody." I, too, smiled beneath my helmet. "No problem, Sir." His feathered creature launched itself onto the wall, then began a slow climb. My wrist comlink beeped and I switched it on hurriedly, there were far more things to do then talk with another commander.
But it was not my flagship as I had expected, it was the Supreme Chancellor. "Sir?" The link crackled a moment before he spoke. "Commander Cody . . ." He drifted off for a moment. "Yes, sir?" He lifted his head and for a split second I thought I saw a flicker in his eyes of something, out of place, but something I couldn't recognize. " . . .Execute order sixty-six." I sucked in a sharp breath, for never in all my serving time, now five years, had I been asked to use this particular code.
It was the code to exterminate the Jedi. I managed to stammer out a brief "Yes, Sir." and quickly cut the line. I looked up to see Obi-Wan's creature still loping up the craggy wall. I remembered him from Kamino, when he had asked to meet a clone and I had been picked. He had seemed to genuinely like me, and both his way of sitting and talking had put me at ease then. We became very fast friends. I had fought beside him on Geonosis, and together we had seen many of my troops die, and his comfort had helped me after the battle was over. I had been the clone who had found a name, a friend, something that rarely happened.
My heart had a slight ache to it now, and sickness washed over me. He was my friend, he trusted me, and I, him. But now the orders of another came between us, and I must carry out my duty. I turned to another trooper and gathered my strength, my lips opened and I inhaled raggedly before saying that dreadful word. "Fire." The bolts peppered the wall and one large blast knocked both General Kenobi and his mount to the water below. I was grateful for one thing only in that moment, that I wore a helmet so that my men would not see the look of pain across my face, nor the tears that spilled over my eyes and trailed down my cheeks.
I had lost much more then a General . . . I had lost my only friend.