22 BBY

The long, white corridor stretched out in both directions making Obi-Wan feel exposed. If his bounty hunter friend were nearby, it wouldn't do to be caught out in the open. His guide had been summoned away, leaving him to observe the hordes of new clones. It was all quite mystifying, but Obi-Wan had no inkling of what it meant.

Before he could think on it further, a noise at the end of the corridor alerted him. A clone that looked about 18 years old had dropped an armful of blaster rifles while a group of his peers laughed. Obi-Wan suspected the accident hadn't been so accidental.

The others wandered off, still laughing as the lone boy began to clean up the mess. Obi-Wan recognized this was a good opportunity to see what was really going on here. He picked up one of the guns that had slid down the hallway and took it back to the clone.

"I fail to grasp the humor," he said.

The clone looked at him in surprise, as if just realizing he wasn't alone. "Don't mind them, they're just jealous," he said, taking the rifle from Obi-Wan.

"What's your name?"

"CC-2224, Sir."

"That seems... cumbersome."

The clone was unperturbed. "We're all numbers. It's how they tell us apart."

"What exactly are your comrades jealous of?"

The clone seemed about to answer and then thought better of it. "I shouldn't brag."

"It is bragging if it's the truth?"

"So I've been told. But if you must know, they're moving me to officers' training ahead of my unit. I guess I just did better on all the tests."

"And they resent you for it?"

"I couldn't say, but... I don't eve know who you are."

"Obi-Wan Kenobi. I'm here inspecting the troops for the Jedi Council." Lying to get information had always been one of Obi-Wan's strong points.

"I hope this doesn't make it into your report."

"I assure you it won't, CC-2224... You really need to come up with a nickname."

"I'll work on it, Sir."

~oOo~

A few months later, Obi-Wan found himself with a team of clones under his authority. His first reaction was that this was a terrible idea, but he went along with it because it was the Council's decision. It was the first time since the war began that Anakin was off on his own mission, having taken to his new leadership role the same way he took to flying or impertinent wit. Though, Obi-Wan was partially to blame for the latter.

As he approached the personnel carrier, he got a familiar sense, a presence he had felt before. His clone captain came forward to meet him, and Obi-Wan realized the source of the feeling.

"Have you come up with a name yet?" he asked before the clone could say anything.

"Sir?" CC-2224 replied.

"You didn't forget, did you?"

There was a brief pause followed by the faintest of laughs. "I have no excuse, Sir. I'll get right on it."

Obi-Wan smiled. Maybe this arrangement wouldn't be so bad.

~oOo~

The constant barrage of enemy fire over the ridge kept everyone from sleeping. Stress was high. Obi-Wan had tried everything he could think of to keep the men calm, but they were starting to lose hope. Their numbers had dwindled over the course of the battle which had raged for days now. What began as a routine check on a Republic system had turned into a bloodbath. The Separatists had gotten a foothold in a remote area of the planet and begun producing more droids. Obi-Wan had called for backup, but it would be a while before any reinforcements would reach them.

They were on their own.

From the only good vantage point behind the line, the commander—he had been promoted—watched the enemy closely. Since they began working together, Obi-Wan had been searching for a good name to call the man, but nothing seemed to fit.

"We're not gonna last much longer like this, Sir," CC-2224 said as he scanned their opposition.

"I'm open to any suggestions," Obi-Wan replied.

The clone shook his head. "I don't think you'd like it."

"When has that ever stopped you?"

"We don't stand a chance of beating them head on. There are too many."

"Agreed."

"What we need to do is destroy that factory so they can't keep making more."

Obi-Wan looked out at the towering structure in the distance. With all the droids between here and there, it would be nearly impossible.

"We're gonna have to get creative," CC-2224 said. "We should send the men out by twos and threes to get control of those tanks." He pointed toward them. "Then we can turn their own weapons against them."

"That does sound a bit crazy," Obi-Wan conceded.

"That's why you and me should go first."

"We might get killed."

CC-2224 didn't even pause. "We stay here we definitely get killed."

"Just checking. Do we still have any EMP grenades?"

"A few. We don't want to hit the tanks with them, though."

"But if we need to take out any droids, we can do it quietly." Obi-Wan liked doing things the quiet way.

"I'll tell the men the plan."

"You might want to have a few of them engage the droids as a distraction while the rest of us sneak in."

"Good idea, Sir."

CC-2224 headed back toward the rest of the unit to give the order. Obi-Wan preferred letting him do that part, and he was rather good at it. The plan was definitely crazy, but no worse than every plan Anakin had ever come up with. Perhaps Obi-Wan was used to crazy.

The commander returned having switched out his rifle for the grenades. He still wore a backup pistol, as most clones did, just in case.

"You sure you want to do this, General?" he asked. "I can go alone."

"If you haven't already noticed, sneaking around is one skill I have mastered."

The commander nodded and they headed off around the right flank of the droid army. They kept to the trees and bushes, careful not to make any noise. They had ten minutes to hijack a tank before the next pair of soldiers started their attempt. If it went badly, the others could try to escape. Not that it would do much good.

There were too many droids surrounding the nearest AAT to go in quietly. Obi-Wan and CC-2224 hid behind a few trees, waiting for the cluster to break up, but they stuck close together and showed no signs of moving on.

"We're running out of time," Obi-Wan said.

"Does that Force thing work on droids?" the commander asked.

Obi-Wan cringed at his word choice. "Yes, why?"

"If you can pull them away from the tank, I can hit them with one of the grenades. Take 'em all out at once."

"Commander, remind me to let you plan these missions in the future."

It was impossible to tell behind that helmet, but Obi-Wan got the feeling his second in command did a lot of smirking.

Focusing on the group of droids, Obi-Wan waited until the commander was ready with the grenade. Then he pulled them all toward each other and their hiding place, immobilizing their trigger fingers and vocal emitters. The challenge was keeping all of those parts still and quiet long enough for CC-2224 to hit them with the EMP.

Once the tank was unguarded, they just had to get inside. Obi-Wan was about to move when the commander grabbed his arm, holding him back.

"The others are gonna need your help with the droids. I got this, General."

Obi-Wan watched as the clone crept out of the trees toward the AAT, staying in it's blind spots. There could be as many as four droids inside, but Obi-Wan was sure the commander would handle it like he did every other challenge that presented itself.

With the rest of the EMPs by his side, Obi-Wan helped the other troops take out groups of droids and infiltrate the AATs. When they had taken over more than half of the enemy tanks, CC-2224 gave the order to fire on the factory.

As soon as the shooting started, Obi-Wan came out of the cover of the trees and started cutting down as many droids as he could. Though he was exhausted from using the Force so much, he felt a strange sort of energy from it. Perhaps it was the optimism the commander inspired with his ingenious plan.

The battle came to an end as the sun was rising. The factory smoldered as black smoke rose into the sky. The enemy droids and tanks were all destroyed. But there were heavy losses on the Republic side. Once the droids saw that their tanks were being used against them, they fired on the other AATs. Many clones had died, and more were injured. Obi-Wan and CC-2224 spent most of the morning accounting for all their men and seeing to the wounded.

When the work was finally done, and they made camp to wait for their reinforcements to retrieve them, Obi-Wan found his commander resting on the side of a damaged tank. He hadn't stopped moving since last night, and Obi-Wan could see the weariness mixed with sadness and satisfaction in his eyes.

"Would you like to know your name?" Obi-Wan asked as he sat down beside the clone.

The commander looked at him in sleepy surprise. "Only if it isn't something embarrassing."

Obi-Wan chuckled. "I don't think so."

"Hurry before I pass out."

"Cody."

The commander frowned thoughtfully. "What's it mean?"

"It's the name of a mythical figure on my home planet. He was renowned for his clever strategies and... creative solutions to problems."

The clone—Cody—smiled faintly. "Guess I should be honored then."

"You earned it."

"Thank you, Sir."

~oOo~

It was only the first ship Obi-Wan had lost. Well, the first attack cruiser anyway. Some of the crew had escaped when he gave the order to get to the escape pods, but there couldn't have been time for everyone. Apparently satisfied with his work, General Grievous had let the Republic ship crash to the uninhabited planet below.

The bridge was in shambles, but Obi-Wan couldn't see the extent of the damage because he was pinned under one of the control panels. What he could see wasn't good. Dead clones who hadn't managed to escape lay everywhere. For a moment, Obi-Wan was certain he was the only one who survived the crash. Until he heard a groan from the other side of the bridge.

"Who's that?" he called out, wincing in pain as the panel dug into his chest.

"General?" the dazed voice replied.

"Cody?"

"You can tell?"

"You have a distinctive voice."

It was a joke, but Cody didn't laugh. He sounded anxious, and the fact that he was still far away told Obi-Wan he was trapped too.

"Where are you?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Not sure. The ceiling collapsed on me, well, almost."

"Almost?"

"There's still a bit of it hanging over my head."

Obi-Wan tried to see what Cody was talking about, but there was too much debris in the way. "Can you get out from under it?"

"If I move, it's gonna fall."

"Not good... All right, we'll just have to wait for the rest of the crew to find us."

Cody hesitated. "I don't think I have that long."

Obi-Wan's stomach did an acrobatic maneuver. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I can't exactly feel my legs, but there's a lot of blood coming from somewhere. The shrapnel is probably keeping me from bleeding out. What about you?"

Under other circumstances, Obi-Wan might have found Cody's casual attitude funny. "I don't think anything's broken. Something is keeping me from moving this panel, though."

Cody grunted. "Forgetting your superpowers again?"

He knew how much Obi-Wan hated that term. "No. It's going to take me a while to figure out which piece of debris to move first. If I push them all at once, I might hit you or make this whole place collapse."

"If you can't make it—"

"You're not going to die."

"That's my job, isn't it?"

There was something strangely like fear in Cody's voice. With his life slowly bleeding out of him and the threat of being crushed any second, Obi-Wan could understand the feeling. He also knew it was not productive.

"Cody, I need you to do something."

"As long as it doesn't require moving," Cody quipped. Good, his sense of humor was back.

"The opposite," Obi-Wan said. "Close your eyes."

"Why?"

"Just trust me."

"All right, but that won't make the roof cave in any slower."

Obi-Wan fought an exasperated sigh. "Regulate your breathing."

"Trying."

"No, there is no try."

"Why are you always saying that?" Cody grumbled in frustration.

"Because if you don't believe it's possible, it won't be." They didn't have time for this discussion.

"Fine. What is the point of this exercise?"

"That's exactly the word for it. I'm attempting to teach you meditation."

"This isn't really a good time for Jedi lessons, not that it isn't fascinating." Cody's voice dripped with sarcasm.

"I can't focus while you're so anxious. Close your eyes and breathe slowly." Cody's silence seemed like a good sign. "Now clear your mind. Don't think about what you're afraid of. Think of something quiet. Your goal is serenity."

"This will help you get out?"

"Yes."

That seemed to satisfy Cody, and Obi-Wan began to feel his fear subside. Either he had resigned himself to a deadly fate or he trusted Obi-Wan to get them out of this. Whatever the case, he picked up on the meditation techniques much quicker than Obi-Wan had expected. But then, Cody always had been more mentally disciplined than most people.

Obi-Wan set to work, focusing on the pieces of the bridge that held him captive. Though he couldn't see everything, he was able to sense which parts were connected to each other. It did take a long time, longer than he liked. There were moments when he thought he might have lost Cody, but he listened for that steady breathing and knew he still had time.

It may have been hours later when Obi-Wan could finally slid out from under the panel and gingerly get to his feet, stretching his sore muscles. His first instinct was to rush over to Cody and help him, but if he moved too quickly, he might cause more harm than good. He carefully made his way across the bridge, taking in the extent of the damage, seeing more bodies of his crew and, not for the first time, wondering if this war was worth the cost.

He finally found Cody at the opposite end, pinned by a section of the ceiling, with another part coming down over his face so close that it was cutting into the skin around his left eye. The twisted metal was torn from the ceiling and hanging by a centimeter. A few minutes longer, and the tear would probably have gone all the way, dropping the sharp edge right into Cody's head.

Cody's eyes were still closed. He was better at meditation than Anakin had ever been.

Obi-Wan grasped the metal sheet in both hands and pulled it up and away from Cody. Once it was out of the way, he could see what he had to deal with. Another piece of the ceiling had fallen across his stomach, and the jagged edge was cutting into his side in the gap in his armor. There was a lot of blood on the floor under him.

Obi-Wan took out his lightsaber, which finally broke Cody's concentration.

"What are you doing?" Cody asked nervously.

"I'm going to cut most of it away," Obi-Wan replied, activating the blade. "But the part that's stuck in you should stay there until we can get you medical attention."

"You think the infirmary is still intact?"

"Probably not." Obi-Wan started cutting. "We'll check to be sure once we're out."

"How long was that?"

"Was what?"

"You know, you getting over here."

Obi-Wan didn't know. He had been so focused on not letting the bridge completely crumble on top of them that time had little meaning. "A while," he finally said.

Most of the metal was gone now, and Obi-Wan put his lightsaber away. He doubted if Cody could walk on his own after losing that much blood, so he reached to help him up.

"We're heading out what used to be the front window," Obi-Wan said. "Once I have you safely away, I'll look for medical supplies."

"And survivors," Cody added weakly. "I'm not the only soldier on this boat who matters."

He was right of course. Cody always took care of his men.

It took a while to climb out of the wreckage. A few times they almost got buried again, but they finally stepped onto solid ground. They had landed in a lightly forested area, so Obi-Wan helped Cody away from the ship and toward the trees. They had to sidestep bits of the ship that had scattered across the ground. Once he thought they were far enough, Obi-Wan left Cody resting against the wide trunk of an unfamiliar tree. He checked to see that Cody had his gun, just in case there were any hostiles or wild animals. Then he turned back to the ship.

The aches in his body were starting to deepen as Obi-Wan searched for a safe way back inside what was left of the ship. He avoided the bridge. No one was alive there anymore. It was difficult to navigate the twisted and collapsed corridors. Several times, Obi-Wan had to double back and find another way. He was finally in the heart of the ship when he heard footsteps coming. He put his hand on his lightsaber, but forgot about that when a few clones came around the corner.

"You're alive, Sir," one of them said in surprise. "We thought the bridge was destroyed."

"Mostly," Obi-Wan replied. "Have you found any other survivors?"

"Not yet."

"Keep looking. Is the infirmary intact?" They had been coming from that direction if Obi-Wan remembered correctly.

"Part of it. Are you injured, Sir?"

"Not me. Commander Cody. I got him out of the ship, but he's in bad shape. You three find any survivors you can and bring them to the northwest end of the ship. I'll get all the medical supplies I can and meet you back there."

"Yes, Sir," they all said in unison.

Obi-Wan would never get used to that.

He reached the infirmary without incident and found that the clone was right. The far half of the area had collapsed on itself in the crash. That wasn't a problem. Obi-Wan was still able to find a few crates of bandages and bacta and other supplies. Carrying them back out of the ship was the difficult part.

When he finally reached Cody again, the commander didn't look good. He was pale and breathing shallowly. But Obi-Wan noted an absence of fear or anxiety in Cody's mind. Either he was really taking to the meditation or he was starting to lose consciousness.

"Cody?" Obi-Wan needed him alert for this.

"Thought you said to quiet my mind or something," Cody muttered.

"That was then. Can you tell me what you feel?"

"Not much." Cody opened his eyes. "It hurt when we were moving, but now it doesn't."

"That's probably not a good thing."

"Did you find anyone else?" Always concerned with anyone but himself.

"A few," Obi-Wan said. "I sent them to search for more survivors."

Taking stock of Cody's injuries, Obi-Wan thought the most important thing was the hole in his side, but he wasn't sure how best to treat it. There was a reason he had almost been a farmer instead of a healer.

"Give me that," Cody said, pointing to one of the smaller containers Obi-Wan had brought from the infirmary.

"What are you going to do with it?" Obi-Wan asked, handing over the box.

"I need you to take off this armor." Cody pulled out some antiseptic solution. "Then we'll take care of the foreign object."

In this instance, Obi-Wan decided it was best to listen to Cody. The commander had done this a few times with his own men. Once the breastplate was removed, Obi-Wan could see the size of the wound and where all the blood was coming from.

"You're gonna have to pull it out quickly but carefully," Cody said.

"How many times have you done this," Obi-Wan asked conversationally as he searched for a good grip on the piece of metal.

"Too many."

"Ready?"

Cody nodded sharply.

Obi-Wan pulled the shard out, and even though he could see the pain in Cody's eyes, the commander kept in control and poured some of the solution on the wound. He gestured toward the bandages, and Obi-Wan quickly unrolled one and started wrapping it around Cody's lower torso. The bacta in the material would begin the healing process much faster than the body could do on it's own. Cody would be just fine.

Obi-Wan started to turn his attention to the cuts around Cody's eye, but the commander waved him off. "You should check on the others, General."

"Who exactly gives the orders around here?"

"You told me to, remember?"

Obi-Wan couldn't really argue. Cody knew what he was doing. The blood had already stopped coming from the cuts anyway. They would leave a scar but nothing worse.

After making sure Cody had some water and rations nearby, Obi-Wan left him to see to the other clones who had gathered under the trees.

"Is this everyone?" he asked the clone he had spoken to in the ship earlier.

"All we could find, Sir," he replied. "Not many survived."

There were seven clones in the clearing aside from Cody. "Not many" was an understatement.

"Did you see if the hangar was destroyed?" Obi-Wan asked, thinking they needed a way off this planet soon.

"Most of the ships were damaged, but we might be able to make one fly, if that's what you're thinking."

"It is. Make sure everyone's injuries are seen to and that there's food and water for everyone. Then send a few men over to the hangar. I'll see about finding us a ship."

As Obi-Wan walked away from his troops, he thought he might be getting the hang of this command. He decided he would do whatever Cody would have done and everything should turn out all right.

Thanks for reading. Any constructive criticism, suggestions for improvement, or reactions are most welcome. I will be working on outlining the story in the next couple of weeks and then doing the majority of the writing during Camp NaNoWriMo in April. This is my first series Star Wars story, so any sort of comments would be a big help.