His eyes watered as the concussive energy frim the blast overwhelmed his helmet's systems, causing his HUD to flash brightly before it reset. Captain Rex dropped to one knee behind a barrier while looking around to reorient himself. He shot a look over to his medic, Kix, who was systematically checking the wounded soldier from the most recent turned to look over to he next felled wall to Fives.
"Where's the Commander?" he asked, yelling over his helmet's external speaker while reloading his DC-17 pistols with new charge packs.
Fives popped up quickly shouldering his DC-15 Rifle and put several bolts down range, felling three B1 battledroids, before dropping back into cover. "She's on the right side, Captain, about twenty meters up from our line."
Switching the internal comms, Rex hurtled over the barrier to move closer to his Commander, who always seemed to move further and further from their line with each wave of droids. "Fierfek" he muttered. "Why can't she stay with the men?" he asked Fives over their internal comms.
Rex dodged incoming blaster fire from Separatist battledroids as he returned accurate and heavy fire from his pistols. Thanks to the natural bottleneck of the valley they were in, his company of Clone Troopers could keep the droids far enough away from their line for him to move up to the out cropping of rocks where his Commander now stood.
Jedi padawan Ahsoka Tano was the commander of the 501st Legion of the Grand Army of the Republic. In the matter of a year, she had gone from a youthful, wild youngling being assigned to Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker as his padawan learner, to a mature young woman tasked with leading men into combat. Having just dispatched a contingent of droids attempting to flank over the rocky outcropping on which she now stood, she paused to rest before moving to rejoin the line.
Ahsoka watched as Rex moved to her position under the covering fire of his men. She smiled as he slowed down once he reached to safety of the rocks and jogged over to her.
"Commander, you really should stay closer to the men. Especially with this many tinnies." Rex breathed out, winded from his dash to cover.
"I know, Rexie" She said, grinning. "But its just no fun when its this easy." She motioned to the walls of the deep valley they were in.
"Besides" she added, "Master Kenobi will be here anytime now with reinforcements to finish off the rest of the tinnies. The town is fine."
Looking at the small town of Kamal, it was easy to place as a natural stronghold. It sat nestled in a deep valley with only one entrance large enough for significant numbers of attackers. It was here that Torrent Company now lay, entrenched in the 30 meter wide space between the walls of the valley, stopping the seperatists from moving in and capturing the leaders of the local resistance. Dantooine had become a heavily contested planet due to its lack of government and high quantities of resources.
"Commander, please come rejoin the men on the line. General Skywalker would kill me if something happened to you" Rex said, beckoning her to follow him. Captain Rex had served with Ahsoka almost the entire war. He knew she could take care of herself, but it was still his job to protect her. Plus, he thought, she's my friend.
"Alright, Rex" Ahsoka conceded, igniting her lightsaber. "Let's get back to the boys." And with that, she gave one of her suspicious smiles and took off towards Torrent Company with Rex right behind her.
Diving into a shallow trench behind Ahsoka, Rex joined Coric and Jesse. Placing fire down with his pistols into the front rank of a new wave of droids marching towards Kamal, he heard Jesse from his left.
"Sir, this wave is thinned out. They must be running out of tinnies to throw at us."
"It's about Shabla time." Muttered Coric, on one knee as tossed aside a now empty power cell from his DC-15. "Fekkin running out of ammo."
Ahsoka ran over crouched as Jesse tossed Coric a power cell. "Let's finish strong then." She said, joining her captain an his men.
Rex was put three bolts into a super battle droid, while Jesse and Coric began shooting the B1s left standing in the front rank. Rex reached into his belt and pulled out a droid popper when one of his men nearby took a round to chest an fell over, inaudible over the blaster fire. Rex raised one pistol to shoot the offending droid, and then hurled the droid popper into front rank of B1s. The device went off, sending an explosive Electromagnetic pulse through the surrounding droids, causing them to fall limp to the ground.
Rex dropped down to check his power cells when he noticed Kix peeling the chest piece off another injured soldier. Fierfek he thought. That's twelve already. Then he started firing again.
Ahsoka saw the trooper go down. She didn't know who he was, but it was still personal. It always was. She knew Rex took it extremely hard when one of his brothers was killed. Vode he called them. Brothers. Her thoughts were interrupted by one of her men.
"Commander Tano, Captain Rex, sir! General Kenobi has made contact. He's asking for a landing site." The trooper stood there, one hand to the side of his helmet, datapad in the other.
Captain Rex immediately pulled a small cylindrical grenade from his belt and handed it to the trooper. "Take this, Hale, tell General Kenobi the LZ will be marked by smoke. Ask him for confirmation of color and location."
"Yes , Sir!" Hale said, and looked over to Ahsoka for confirmation. She gave a nod and he turned around to set up the landing site for the LAAT/I's.
Ahsoka turned to Rex and gave him a relived look. "Thanks Rex, I didn't even think about an LZ." She admitted. "I'm glad I have you." And she smiled.
As Republic fighters swooped in and began strafing the remaining droids, Rex allowed himself to relax and think about what Ahsoka had just said to him. I'm glad I have you.
The Resolute was the 501st's base of operations for the war. General Obi-Wan Kenobi and his 212th Attack Battalion shared the cruiser as well. Captain Rex had his own room in the wing of the massive ship that housed the 501st. it was here that he often found himself busy doing maintenance of his weapons and armor, or simply pondering his life and the war in which he and his brothers were fighting.
He also found himself thinking of her. The only female who ever captured his attention. She was always there when he needed someone. both, on and off the battlefield. He knew he shouldn't be thinking about her and he tried not to. "She's a Jedi" he'd tell himself, "And my commander. It's unprofessional to think like that." Usually his logic would take over and that would be it. But this time he kept hearing her say it over again. I'm glad I have you. And that smile she gave him. How he loved I when the young Togruta smiled.
"I shouldn't be thinking about this." He said to him self. Rex grabbed his helmet and clipped it to his belt. "some chow ought to do it" and exited his room.
Kix was seated with Coric, Jesse, Hale and Hardcase when Captain Rex entered the mess hall. He always enjoyed eating with his Captain. Especially after a battle where he'd had to see so many of brothers die. The medic had gone through eighteen hypodermic syringes of antibiotics, twenty-four hypos of pain killer, all eight of his bacta sprays, and a dozen sterile dressings. Kix's aid bag was practically empty and he felt the same the way.
Talking with his Vode after a battle was as good of therapy as the clones would get, so they relished it. Kix and his brothers gathered in the chow hall following each engagement to eat and joke around in the way that only soldiers can. Captain Rex always sat with them to get some good laughs in and talk to the men.
"Good to see you out of your room, sir." Hardcase said teasingly, moving his tray over a bit to fit Rex's.
"Eh, somebody's got to keep an eye on you boys." Rex joked, shouldering Hardcase over a bit more. "How's the shoulder, Coric?" he asked as he began chowing down on the day's protein.
"Oh, you know me, Sir. I'll be fine, so long as Jayna doesn't kill me for getting shot. Again." Coric added.
Jayna was one of the many women that had found love in the men of Torrent Company. Being part of the 501st had afforded them the luxury of garrisoning on Coruscant between operations. Over the past year, the men had developed personal lives outside the GAR, which usually amounted to a girlfriend or two for some of the men.
"Yeah, after Rhen-Var Iris was most unhappy to find that blaster burn on my hip" Kix added, laughing as he recalled the memory of its discovery.
"Good to know that my highly trained soldiers can survive a battle against the seperatists just to be killed by angry women" Rex, said sarcastically, wiping his mouth with a napkin. "At least Hale has the sense to stay away from them"
"Not for long, Cap'n." Hale said grinning "I've got me a date when we get back, courtesy of Jayna." Hale downed the rest of his drink and looked at Rex for a response.
"D'ikut." Rex sighed jokingly. He looked across the chow hall to the entrance. Ahsoka was standing in the doorway looking around. When she spotted him she lit up and pointed to an empty table and then got in line for chow.
"I'm going to go eat with the Commander." Rex said, standing up and grabbing his tray. "I'll see you men at formation in the morning" and turned away.
"Good luck, Romeo" Jesse said softly, only loud enough for the guys to hear, and saw their grinning faces.
"What was that Ner Vod?" Rex asked, spinning around suddenly looking at the whole table. After a few seconds of staring each man down, he turned to leave, knowing all was right, again.
Rex had just resumed eating at his new table when Ahsoka set her tray down and joined him. Even in the aftermath of battle and a year of hard fighting, she sill looked youthful and beautiful. Stop it! He thought to himself.
"How are the men?" she asked before digging in to the display of food before her.
"They're all good, Commander. And yes, Coric is alright. Just a little burn to his shoulder. Kix took care of him." Rex finished and took another bite food.
Ahsoka smiled and looked down for a second. "Good. What about you, Rex? How are you doing?" she was sincere.
"I'm find Commander, just a shame to lose good men. It always is" Rex replied, pausing a second before adding the last part.
They ate in silence for a couple minutes, every once in awhile locking eyes for a second before both looking away, blushing. Finally, Ahsoka spoke.
"Rex, call me Ahsoka. When its just the two of us, there's no point in calling me Commander. We're friends, right?"
"Rex smiled. "Right" he said , pausing a moment before adding, "Ahsoka."
"You know, we're headed to Coruscant." She said after another few seconds had passed. "You and men should get a week pass to recover before we head out again." Ahsoka watched Rex for a reaction to the news. There was none.
"That's good to hear, Comm- Ahsoka." He corrected "I'll be sure to let the boys know." Rex was done eating now. He wanted to stay just to be next to her, but he knew that it was unbecoming of a Captain to fall in love with his CO. So, he had to cut his losses and leave. For now, at least.
"I'm going to go back to my room and clean my gear, Comm- Ahsoka." There it was again he thought. Fierfek, it just feels good to say her name. Rex hurried away trying to appear normal.
Ahsoka watched as her Captain walked away. He was good at shielding her from his mind, but every once in awhile she could pick up on his emotions. Yes she thought. He is my Captain.
A/N:
So this is the first chapter in my first story. Let me know how it is. The characters might seem slightly out of character when hey aren't in battle, but this is my take on how they would be outside what we might see on the show. So there is romance, brotherly fights, alcohol, and a lot stupid jokes, just like any soldier would experience, fictional or not. I'm open to criticism, so Review or PM me. I plan to update fairly often since I have a lot of time on my hands.