"Of course it had to kriffing snow," Cannon grumbled, and Kane shot him a look that said Not in front of the commanding officers. Cannon dutifully ignored him, and went right back to complaining. "The weather report in the mission briefing didn't say anything about snow. I hate snow."
"Aw, come on, Cannon," Axel jumped into the conversation. "This isn't so bad. We could be on Hoth." Kane looked like he wanted to let out a large sigh at the teasing notes in their captain's voice, but he didn't, because professionalism.
"Please don't even mention Hoth." And Cannon looked actually pained at the notion of being on the ice planet as his mild shivering increased.
It had started snowing about an hour prior as they were walking through a forest to rendezvous with the other two teams their squadron had split into for a successful mission on one of the mid-rim planets. It took them by surprise, because as much as Cannon's complaints were annoying, he did have a point: the mission briefing had said nothing about snow. Of course, that meant that they didn't have any snow gear. Sure, the bodysuits they wore under their armour provided some insulation, but not nearly as much as snow gear would have, and the Kaminoans taught them that they should never be caught without the proper gear in the snow, because that could prove deadly, especially on the harsher planets like Hoth.
Flint himself had never actually seen snow before. The need for more troopers and his rushed training meant that he hadn't had the hands-on snow planet training the rest of his older brothers had gotten. Honestly he thought to himself this isn't as bad as the Kaminoans made it seem. The snow here was soft and fluffy, not the pelting ice his training had warned him of, and the ground wasn't slippery in the slightest, especially on the main paths they were walking. He also wasn't experiencing the biting chill of strong winds, because there weren't any to speak of.
"What do you think, Flint?" Flint was startled out of his thoughts and looked up to see his three brothers looking at him expectantly.
"What do I think of what?" Flint asked, and immediately regretted it. His brothers laughed, and it was friendly laughter, but he endured enough teasing as it was thank you very much.
Axel sighed and repeated the question. "Cannon was wondering what you thought about the snow. He hates it, I don't mind, and we finally got Kane to admit he actually has opinions, for once, so he doesn't like it."
"We're split and we need a tiebreaker," Cannon interrupted, getting impatient with the captain. "So, what do you think about the snow."
"I like it," Flint said, and Cannon looked mildly offended. "It's nice, and kinda warm." This time Cannon looked as if Flint had personally insulted him.
"Have you lost your mind?" Cannon nearly shouted. "Snow is not warm! It's cold and terrible."
Axel shot a pointed look at Cannon and said "I told you were overreacting to this. Not everyone thinks snow is the worst thing to ever happen."
"Then everyone is wrong," Cannon whined, and continued to mutter under his breath about how he was serving with a bunch of crazies as he trudged ahead of the rest of his teammates.
They kept walking like that for some distance more, Kane on Flint's right side and Axel on his left, before Kane spoke up.
"What exactly did you mean when you said the snow was warm?" The group's sniper sounded more than a little confused, and although Axel was staring at their surroundings on the lookout for danger, Flint could tell he was listening intently. Flint paused for a moment to gather his thoughts so he wouldn't sound like a complete idiot, and then tried his best to explain.
"Well, in the training classes on Kamino, they always said snow could kill you because it's cold and harsh and they said it hurts, but this isn't anything like that. This snow is soft, and it feels like... Well, I'm not entirely sure, but something nice." He held up one of his hands to catch the falling flakes, and they melted as soon as they hit his palm. Flint was so enamoured by the white specks that he missed the look that Axel and Kane shared over his head.
"Are you saying," Axel said, "that you've never seen snow before?"
Flint looked surprised as he considered the question. When he spoke it was slow and sounded like he was just stumbling upon something he should have realized some time ago. "Yeah," he said. "Yeah, I guess I am."
Cannon, who had been maintaining a steady distance in front of them, stopped and whirled around with a loud "What?!" The statement could have sounded dangerous under different circumstances, but the tone of his voice made it clear that Cannon had a manic grin on his face that offset the low rumble of his words. Although, some of his brothers may argue that when that particular expression showed up on Cannon's face it actually tended to make things more dangerous for any people involved.
"Well, yeah," Flint said, "They needed more troops on the field, so I kind of... Skipped that part of training?" Kane look appalled—an expression that frequented his face—at the notion of troopers with incomplete training. In contrast, Cannon's grin got impossibly wider.
"There's hope for you yet, kid," he says, and moves to lean his arm on Flint's shoulder. Flint shakes him off as Cannon continues. "You've never seen real snow. So, I'll talk to the general, convince her to make our next mission somewhere with actual snowstorms, and you can join the ranks of the sane people like Kane and me."
Axel shook his head, and Flint could tell he was hiding a smile under his helmet. "Alright troopers," he said, "let's keep moving. We've got to get to the rendezvous before sundown."
Cannon straightens up and responds with an over-the-top "SIR, YES SIR!" and an exaggerated salute, and Flint swears he actually hears Kane let out a small sigh (which Kane denies later, but it happened, okay?). They start making their way further down the forest path they'd been following, and make it to the rendezvous to find Binder having a fit because the general seems to attract trouble and got herself hurt again, although no one from that team actually has anything worse than a few scrapes and bruises after slipping on some ice and straight into a group of battle droids.
Cannon stays true to his words, and over dinner 'respectfully requests' that their next mission be on an ice planet. Craft, who hates snow even more than Cannon, nearly flays the latter alive for the suggestion. The general just laughs and says I'll talk to the council and see what I can do with a knowing smirk that means she will be doing No Such Thing. Flint thinks he wouldn't mind so much even if their next mission was on Hoth, because he reasons that it's gotta be better than sweating your ass off on some of the desert planets they're been to.
Flint has a dream that night, different from the usual nightmares, where he's living another life. He's not in the army and he's living in a small village town, and he can see through the window that it's snowing heavily outside. It provides a nice contrast for the warmth inside the house, soft yellow light spilling out the window. Flint wakes up the next morning with an overwhelming sense of contentment and love, although he can't for the life of him remember what he dreamed.