The conference room of the outpost tower's seventh floor was dusty and monochrome, just like every other aspect of Florrum. Today marked the completion of a full week since the disaster on the southern cliffs. It was high time to report in to the Jedi Council – especially considering that Ahsoka believed the testimonies from her two allies could satisfy the mission objective. Cody had nearly forgotten about Liiqua and Majum by now, caught between all the duties of a General and then some. He'd been appearing less and less often inside the tower for the past few days. More commonly, he was accompanied by Ahsoka while they and the other clones maintained patrol between the perimeter camps. It just wasn't feasible to operate in the field without the foresight of a Jedi, even with the additional camp to the west. And while the remaining troops were either running supplies or yet hospitalized from the incident before, the outpost was practically empty as a result. It would be bad news if the enemy made it up to the tower for a real assault. Even so, with the troops spread so thin already, there wasn't much else to be done.
Anakin glanced about the room nervously while Ahsoka brushed away at the front of his robes. No one here looked "formal," by any stretch of the imagination, but it was hard for those more well-acquainted with the Council to resist the urge to clean themselves up at least a little bit. Cody was just trying to stay awake until the scheduled time of the meeting. Liiqua was immune to the air of formality, as ever, and Majum didn't even bother putting forth the effort to stand, tattered as he was already.
"It'll be fine," Ahsoka comforted her jittery Master. "They won't make any decisions about rank unless Master Obi-Wan is with them. We're gonna be back on Coruscant in no time."
"That's what I'm afraid of," Anakin mumbled in return. The blotchy pattern of partially healed burns and cuts over her arms took his mind off his impending judgement. "Don't you have a cloak or something? You still look pretty beat up."
"Oh– Uh– I think I… It's… Probably somewhere back at the capital," she confessed. Anakin sighed.
"I'm gonna go look for mine." He jogged to the door, grateful to come across a task that could keep him in motion. "But don't make this a habit, okay? I can't loan out cloaks to you and Obi-Wan all the time."
Cody peeked at the chronometer on the wall to gauge whether or not he'd be late to the start. Five minutes 'till transmission. A possible impromptu escape tactic. He thought to ask Anakin to hurry back on his way out, but somehow, Cody failed to muster the energy needed to care.
"Where is the other Jedi?" asked Liiqua, impatient. "After this meeting, I wish to return to my city. I will not wait here to repeat myself later."
"He's sedated," Cody said flatly, before Ahsoka could chime in. He shuffled bonelessly in his chair until he faced the Director sitting upright. "He's not joining us. The door's been code-locked, vents are welded on, and I've got a droid checking the room ten times a day." Satisfied with his report, he shriveled back into his chair. Ahsoka looked concerned. "Wish I could get my hands on one'a those… Force collars. Whatever they are."
"That's a torture device, Commander," Ahsoka informed him gently.
"…Oh. Guess we'll be banking on those drugs to keep 'im outta this meeting, then."
Sparing a second to read over his scrambled coherency in the Force, Ahsoka volunteered to address Liiqua's interests, instead. "Just– don't worry, Director Liiqua. We'll make sure you can leave by the end of today."
An uncomfortable silence drifted into the space. It extended the time in which it took for Anakin to return, but he did so on schedule, and spent the remaining minute before the call hurriedly draping and folding his cloak over his Padawan. Liiqua judged his skills inadequate, and the two argued together while they both tried to dress Ahsoka in such a way that she wasn't so suspiciously drowning in the long, oversized fabric. Cody put an end to their squabble by announcing the beginning of the call. Anakin swirled around just in time to witness Cody as he pressed the button and activated the transceiver integrated into the table. The blue light flooded forth. Everyone watched with anticipation, and in a moment's delay, five members of the Council came into view.
"Relieved we are, to hear from you at last," greeted Yoda's raspy voice where he sat upon his small, round chair. "Most troubling, your report was, Commander Cody."
Anakin appreciated the fact that none of them could pick up on his overflowing anxiety.
"Everything is under control, sir," Cody responded at once.
Saesee studied the area, dissatisfied. "Where is Master Kenobi?" he interrogated coarsely.
"General Kenobi is on medical leave, General Tiin." A cryptic exchange of eyes swept through the Council then, culminating in a well-shrouded examination of Anakin's holographic form. The Force might as well have been an accessory for them, given the surgical intensity of their combined gaze. Anakin wrung his fingers behind his back.
"Questions, we have, for Master Kenobi alone," Yoda contemplated, "But proceed nonetheless, we must."
"You mentioned in your report that you've withdrawn from your positions around the tower and the capital," followed Mace.
"Yes, sir," Cody affirmed, "The perimeter has since then been reinforced with a second patrol from the 501st. I'm keeping an eye out there with Commander Tano. As for our position at the capital, Commander Tano returned with the intel, as ordered." He next turned to face their guests. "This is the head of Vinnesta's public affairs and investigations department." Liiqua kept her arms folded tight and did not lengthen her introduction. "This is another informant Commander Tano met inside the city," Cody continued, "Who goes by the name of Majum."
"Ah. A double agent, I see," remarked Ki-Adi with a smile. Recognizing his name in conversation, Majum tilted his head in Liiqua's direction. It had been some time since she'd stopped complaining about her service as a translator. When she finished muttering quietly to him in Huttese, he ran a meditative finger over the horns along his jaw.
"He ah, he prefers to speak in Huttese," Cody supplied. "I hope that's not going to be a problem."
The door to the conference room hissed open. From the Council's perspective, the five holograms on call looked back in simultaneity at what appeared to be nothing. But while they soon depicted a variety of unsettling expressions, the Council was mostly unfazed when Obi-Wan stepped into the transceiver's image. He wore the new robes brought in from the northern camp by Cody. These robes, along with the lightsaber hanging secure on his belt, were last seen inside a code-protected drawer. And though the recent wear to his armor was unable to be fully buffed clean, it was worthwhile to note that it no longer bore bloodstains. The chestplate was conspicuously absent from the set – a cause for suspicion, no doubt, but Obi-Wan reasoned it would be easier to fabricate a story around that, provided it became necessary, than it would to explain the blatant hole adorning the armor otherwise.
"Pardon my delay," he apologized, coming to a stop between Anakin and Cody. "Please, continue."
"Enjoying your medical leave, I see you are, Master Kenobi." Yoda grinned his way. He understood the situation instantly, but still took pleasure in prodding his great grand-Padawan every now and again.
Obi-Wan did not stutter in the slightest. "It was quite refreshing. I daresay I might miss being coddled so." The Force inside the conference room was ripe with untapped hostility. Ahsoka hummed with apprehension, Cody writhed in incredulity, and Anakin coiled between four different emotions at least. Liiqua seemed to be modestly entertained by it all, though it was difficult to sift her less volatile feelings away from the thundering noise of everyone else. Majum was patently indifferent. A veteran's disregard, Obi-Wan extracted briefly.
"Now that we are assembled as expected, shall we move on?" suggested Ki-Adi, placidly. "I, for one, would like to listen to our new allies."
Shielded by the religious presence of the Council sitting circular in hologram, the meeting progressed without debate. Majum spoke exhaustively. With unprecedented vitality, he illustrated the history of his people, thereby explaining their violence toward the Jedi. The Kajain'sa'Nikto's very culture as a people was imbued with unfortunate servitude to the Hutts. Majum's clan had long accepted this tradition, until the day came when they rebelled for their freedom. The Hutts reveled in their power even so, organizing slaughter upon public slaughter, driving their former slaves to a nomadic and surreptitious lifestyle. Those who returned in secret to beg for forgiveness were killed in a multitude of unique ways, rumor of which always percolated with uncanny swiftness. Anyone found to be holding unauthorized dealings with the Nikto were quickly erased, and conditions for the Nikto clans yet loyal became increasingly more severe. Once the Hutts had deprived Majum's clan to the point of complete isolation, they were finally granted their wish – in the form of a permanent exile on Florrum. There were few Nikto left by then who still believed in the value of freedom. Cursed to wander an infertile dust trap, many came to dream of their lives in the past: steady, supplied, and viewed as something close to normal people. It thus came as little surprise when nearly everyone agreed to the ultimatum delivered by the Hutts on the exile's first anniversary. For reasons undisclosed, the Hutt Clan had taken interest in acquiring large amounts of territory on Florrum. Knowing the Jedi were sure to interfere, the Hutts offered Majum's clan forgiveness in exchange for their service in clearing away the Jedi presence by any means necessary. The deal was contentious, but years of brutality made monsters of friends, and the opposition was decisively quashed in a bloody and tragic dispute. Majum was among the first to lead his people to their so-called freedom. He urged them to resist the Hutts' temptation, and now he held arms against them.
There was little that Liiqua could add. The atmosphere was denser without the accented husk of Majum's voice, a sacred brand of quietude moving into its place and allotting a moment of thought for the novel perspective. It was Mace who shattered the fragile peace.
"…Well," he began slowly, "It looks like we're gonna have to talk to the Hutts."
"I'm not so sure that's the best course of action," argued Obi-Wan in turn. He currently sat at the table across from Majum, filling his place on the Council in every way except physically.
"The Hutt Clan cannot be reasoned with," supported Eeth in tempered outrage. "We must speak instead with the leader of these Nikto."
Anakin took a rigid step forward. "Well I agree with Master Windu. The Hutts have gone too far this time, and somebody needs to put them in their place."
Obi-Wan leveled his apprentice's indignation with a delicate raise of his hand. "I won't disagree with that, but we must consider the amount of leverage we have on either side. Accusing the Hutts without tangible evidence will inevitably worsen our relations. And once they learn that we know of their hand in this, they may decide to accelerate their efforts."
"Accelerate?" questioned Saesee. "If the Hutt Clan is aware that we know of these atrocities, it would be in their interest to leave Florrum alone."
"The Hutt Clan doesn't let things go so easily," said Mace.
Eeth proposed his stance once again. "They will deny their involvement even when slime covers the planet. We can settle this by negotiating with the people they are using as tools. If we persuade the Nikto, the Hutts will be unable to collect whatever it is that they want from Florrum."
"We can help them establish a home and cultivate food!" Ahsoka spoke up, inspired. "If they become self-sufficient, they'd be a symbol of hope for the other clans that are still enslaved!" Anakin felt that her idea of slavery was simplistic, but he couldn't fault her for wanting to help a group who suffered for so long to gain freedom. …Forty of which he had killed. Kriff.
"That would be the best outcome," Obi-Wan encouraged her affectionately.
"Very well," decided Yoda from the side. His word was always final. "Negotiate with these Nikto, Master Kenobi will. Misguided, they are." He turned his attention to address Obi-Wan alone. "Bring them to the light, you must."
The Council acquiesced. Obi-Wan blinked in misunderstanding for half a second, momentarily incapable of fathoming the prospect of being assigned a continuation of this ungodly mission. He didn't haul himself up seven floors of emergency elevator shafts to be told that he wouldn't be going home. He didn't trick the medical droid into opening the locked drawer with his stuff in order to swallow the second half of the desert. He didn't– …No. Such thoughts were unbecoming of a Jedi. Experiencing the Sand Wraiths' ferocity firsthand made Obi-Wan the best candidate for all subsequent tasks on Florrum. He was also customarily assigned missions centered around high-risk negotiations. Adding to that, he was conveniently in position already. There was, most depressingly, not a single good reason for Obi-Wan to let the mission go. He accepted his fate with a nod. "Understood, Master Yoda."
"Speak with us again at another time, you should. Finished discussing matters outside of this mission, we have not." The appending sentiment, "Alone," needed not be said.
"Yes, Master." A thought occurred to him then. "Ah– Before you go, I would like to request transfer of the troops here to Coruscant. They've had something of a rough time since we landed initially. We're in need of reinforcements anyway, so the ships carrying new troops in can just as easily take the current ones back. And I don't expect I'll be needing to belabor Anakin or Ahsoka any longer, so I suggest they be reassigned elsewhere."
A lightning bolt of injustice burst in through the Force. "What?!" Anakin and Ahsoka both exclaimed in unison. Cody had thus far kept himself from exploding as such, but he certainly wasn't very far from the brink.
Several members of the Council brightened at their excessive reactions. Others regarded them as childish. Yoda was wise enough to appreciate both. He snickered in response. "Their opinions, you have, Master Kenobi. But what of your obedient Commander, hmmm?"
Cody startled from his mood. He floundered then, not entirely sure how he could give his opinion honestly right now without a great deal of words that had no place among the Jedi Council. "Um, you're, asking my opinion, sir?" Yoda brimmed with anticipation. "Right… Then." Don't back down, soldier. "Uh, well to be short, I'm not gonna be off this rock until I'm either dead or flying back with General Kenobi. I can guarantee you that every clone in the 212th would agree. We can't leave here in good conscience, sir."
Yoda trained his gaze back onto Obi-Wan then. "A good Commander he is, you must agree."
"An even better General, if we're asking opinions now." Obi-Wan shrugged as though it was the most obvious fact in the galaxy. "But I suppose that the matter's been settled. I will respect everyone's decisions to stay, ill-advised as they are, and I'll have a report from the leader of the Sand Wraiths by the end of this week."
End Notes
Congratulations; you have reached mission completion. If you would be so kind, please let me know if you think this ending was awkward. There has been a small collection of dissent regarding the "loose ends" some readers felt were important to take care of, and I'd like to know if I ought to write a continuation of this story in response. Otherwise, the next thing I write will be a different mission. Not that I have a definitive start date for any of this, but I do have an amount of preliminary writing for either a sequel or other ideas. My schedule is not permissive these days, so I'd prefer to establish a priority sequence for what gets written when I next have some slot of time I can afford to procrastinate with.