Alright y'all back to end off the week with another chapter and officially begin our Ryloth Arc. This one is going to be an interesting one and will play at the hearts of all our characters involved so be ready!
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN STAR WARS!
Cresh rode ontop of an ATTE alongside Karr, Haru, Tracyn and Sif while the others marched alongside the convoy in a split formation. They were currently enroute to a nearby village. They had come to the planet of Ryloth to liberate the native Twi'leks from the Sepearatist.
The 222nd was part of the second wave, consisting of them, the 212th, 501st and 91st. He had leaders that each of them had been trained by one of his fellow arcs; Alpha-17.
Seventeen was stern and by the book for certain but he had his moments here and there. Cresh was certain these troopers would live up to his brother's aspirations.
The first wave of troops sent had been heavily overwhelmed and essentially annihilated. Ground forces locked in trench warfare were withered down and picked off. The space fleet was reduced to naught but astro rubble. Many good men lost their lives that day.
Now they came to avenge their fallen comrades. To finish the mission and liberate the people of Ryloth.
He looked at his brothers marching. They had a short trek left towards the twi'lek village. It wouldn't be too much longer.
He saw Garm leading the others at the forefront of the formation. He was walking alongside Talon, who happened to be complaining about all the walking.
"Aweeee come onnnnnn! Why do they get to ride on the ATTE, and we don't?! I say we do a redraw! Sif obviously cheated. There's no way he was able to get the one short straw out of all of us." Talon protested as he hefted his z6 onto his shoulders.
Like the others, he too had added more personal touches to his armor. Besides the jaiig eyes, he had added three slash marks to the front of his helmet, matching the ones he had on his own face.
His armor color pattern was unique with black forearms and lower legs. Around his wrist and lower calf were two scarlet rings which went around them.
His right shoulder had a rather detailed shriek hawk sigil painted onto it, whilst the left was completely colored in scarlet. His chest was colored completely black, with the two scarlet rings going around it as well.
Garm, who had been shaking his head at brother's complaining,gave him a light THWACK on head in response to his annoying banter.
"Oh hush! It was your idea, remember? Don't go complaining cuz ya lost at your own game." he retorted.
Cresh shook his head. They still had their comms on so the entire company could hear them..the general included.
Sif currently sat near the gunner seat of the vehicle , close to them. Save for the scarlet trimmed kama and pauldron he has added to his armor, the only other addition was the visor attached to the front of his helmet. On the sides he had two sets of five tick marks etched into the helmet. On his right breastplate he had yet another set of tick marks. From what Garm had told him, each tick represented a brother lost from their previous company, It was Sif's way of never forgetting those lost.
Speaking of Sif..he was teasing Talon from his perch, with rather obscure gestures. Talon was fuming, speaking all types of obscenities into the comm. Tired of it, Cresh decided to interject.
He turned his comm into the channel, and coughed. The cough served to let them know they could hear them.
"Oh fragg.." he muttered.
Talon started to shake his head as he walked.
"Every..one?" he asked in disbelief.
"Yes." Cresh responded.
"Even..the general..?" Talon asked, now on the verge of dying from embarrassment.
"Quite certainly Talon. Haru and I would love to play this..stick game you came up with..Sounds fun." Said Siysa,adding a small giggle to the end of her comment.
Talon ended up cutting his comms, not wanting to be further embarrassed by the sounds of everyone else laughing at him. Cresh simply shook his head.
"Di'kut.." he thought to himself,facepalming.
After they all finished laughing among each other, the remainder of their pilgrimage to the village was silent.
It wasn't long until they reached the first Twi'lek settlement. In order not to give the wrong impression and startle the Twi'leks too much they would send a small envoy squad to make contact. The squad would consist of himself, Siysa, Haru and Cliffjumper and Springer.
First contact was key, so they would have to make sure they were on their best behavior to make sure things went as smoothly as possible.
He expected to see at least a few people when they entered the settlement, but no one was out to greet them. They were met with barred windows and blockaded doors. He knew they were being watched.
The twi'leks were all in their homes, staring at them from behind closed doors.
"Heh, warm reception." joked Springer
"Ditto on that ner vod." added Cliffjumper
"HALT!" Boomed a voice.
The small party stopped, scanning the area. Soon enough a small band of Twi'lek rebels emerged from the alleys and surrounded them.
The rebels were armed with Republic weaponry, and some of them even wore clone armor. His brother's armor.
From the designs and color patterns, he recognized the armor as that belonging to that of the men under the late Commander Keeli. The circle of rebels surrounding them opened up, allowing what Cresh believed to be their leader in.
The head Twi'lek stepped forward slowly strutting towards them. Cresh noticed the armor he wore would be one typically seen on a high ranked clone. It bore much damage and many scuffs.
The same could be said of the others. Almost as if they took it off..Dead clones!
Cresh tightened the grip on his rifle. He didn't like this at all.
The lead Twi'ek stepped forward, stopping a few feet in front of Siysa. Cresh peeped a lightsaber on his waist.
Before anyone could say something, Cliffjumper spoke first.
"Nice gear you and your boys rocking." He pointed out, voice laced with animosity.
The leader smirked, nodding his head as he looked over the armor.
"Ah yess..Much thanks to you Republic soldiers." he responded.
Cliffjumper bucked forward, moving to fire his rifle.
"Why you litt-" He was stopped by the intervention of Cresh, who was holding an arm out shaking his head.
This was what the Twi'lek wanted. He was trying to provoke them.
It was Siysa that spoke next.
"I understand that there are no rights to the spoils of war but I would ask that you at least give the fallen proper burial if you are going to take from them." She spoke sternly.
The rebel leader stepped up to her, hand on his stolen lightsaber. He was several meters taller than her, essentially towering over the small jedi yet she still stood her ground.
"And what if I tell you no? Eh, master jedi?" He retorted.
Siysa smiled in his face. She was completely unfazed by the threat.
"Nothing at all Mr.." She trailed.
"Eldrad Char" He responded, adding a faux bow as further insult to injury.
"Well getting straight to the business. We are here to protect your village from any seperatist attack as well as give any necessary aid that your villagers may need. Now if you would tell-" her sentence was interrupted by Eldrad's laughter.
"HA! Help?! As if we would want that from you all. Me and my people are perfectly fine without you. You and your soldiers provide us with everything you need after your battles. Your dead provide us with much material. We can protect ourselves without. Now go off and die with your little clones. I'll be sure to pick you and your little padawan's bodies clean~" Eldrad responded, while doing a shoo motion in front of her face.
It was actually Haru who reacted first this time, balling up his fist, face scrunched into a visage of anger.
"You can't talk to my master like that you..you DI'KUT! How dare you I shoul-'' His rageful rant was abated when his master placed her hand on his shoulder gently, looking down at him.
"No Haru. Anger is not the way. Control your anger young one." She finished with a warm smile.
Cresh could practically feel the warmth radiating off her body. She then faced Eldrad once more.
"I thank you for your input and will be reporting this to Republic command. With that..me and my troops will be taking our leave. May the force be with you." With that said, she abouted face and began to walk away.
The others began to follow behind her but Cresh lingered a few moments longer, staring down Eldrad. The twi'lek stared back, a cocky smirk on his.
"Go on now little clone. Run back to your master little pet...or is it the pet is angry and wants to attack huh?" Said Eldrad as he tapped on Cresh's chest plate mockingly.
This got a few laughs out of the twi'leks that were around them. Cresh, however, did not budge and stood his ground.
"Commander Cresh?" said Sisya from a distance behind him.
He knew what that meant. She was waiting for him to come. She didn't want any confrontations either.
"Aye coming Al'verde..just getting a good look at him." Cresh said, turning his back to the twi'lek rebel leader and walking to join the rest of his force.
As he walked, heard Eldrad's trailing voice.
"Oh and if you want to find the bodies of your fallen allies check a few clicks out rest. Maybe you'll be able to bury..what's left of them! They sure made good feed for our mounts when we let them loose! Hahaha!" He cackled.
Cresh just shook his head as he finally caught up with the others. He walked beside Sisya.
"I don't like em. Besides the grave robbing, positive they got something else going on." He said.
Siysa simply nodded in response.
"I understand your concerns Cresh but there is nothing else for us to do. Not without being seen as the aggressors. We shall leave them to their own devices. For now let us focus on recovering the remains of our fallen forces, yes?" She responded.
He was certain that like him, she was fuming on the inside. There was no way she took all that without feeling something stir inside her..but regardless it wasn't his palace to school or question her on her emotions.
It went against the "Jedi" way. He just agreed with her and continued their short trek back.
It wasn't long till they were back with the main force.
Siysa and the other's had gone to report back on their encounter and relay it all to the Republic command on the planet as well as form a small party to head to the location given to them. Cresh had noticed the little squirt rush off somewhere when they made it back.
Seeing as Siysa was busy at the moment, he decided to pay him a visit himself. He found Haru a short distance away, force pushing small pebbles along the ground.
"Mind if I join ya, Haru" Cresh asked, as he walked up.
The young padawan nodded, pointing to a small pile of rocks beside him. Cresh nodded, walking up to the boy's side.
He removed his helmet, putting it on a small rock beside them. He then picked up a handful of rocks and began to skip them across the ground.
"Bold statement ya made there earlier, adi'ka." He said.
Haru nodded, launching more pebbles with his force powers.
"Yea but I was wrong to make that statement and let what he said rile me up. But the things he said to master and what he said about those that died I-" Cresh stopped him there, placing a hand on his head and ruffling his hair.
"Made a perfectly understandable response especially for someone at your age. I may not know much about you Jetti and your way but I do know that you padawan are prone to make mistakes. However your master is there to reign you in. Sisya did just that. Don't hold it against yourself. You did good enough by not striking him then and there, It was an infuriating moment to say the least." Said the Arc trooper.
Haru looked up at him, craning his head to the side. Cresh could see the vulnerability in the boy's eyes. He just smiled at him.
"I'm positive Siysa knew your heart was in the right place and I appreciate the concern. I for sure appreciate the anger you felt at what he said about my fallen brothers as well." He continued.
Cresh ruffled Haru's hair a little more, causing the small nagai boy to try to escape his grasp. He laughed at the boy's futile attempts to get away before finally letting him free.
"You just let your Master and Ori'vod handle it from here. Don't let that little shabiir get ya down. Ok vod?" Cresh stated..
Haru smiled widely at Cresh's comment and nodded. He then..hugged the Arc, burying his face in his stomach.
Cresh just patted him on the head gently.
"Now..something else I was wondering was this..Who taught you how to say di'kut..I don't remember teaching that to you." He asked ,looking down at him, raising a brow.
"Oh Talon did!" said Haru happily, unaware of what he had just done.
"Oh..did he now..Do me a favor..go fetch him and tell him that Commander Cresh wants to have a little...chat with him." said Cresh.
Haru nodded, and ran off to find the poor trooper. Talon didn't even know what was coming to him.
Mando'a Terms:
Di'kut- Idiot
Adi'ka-Kid, lad, boy
Shabiir- Screw Up
Ori'vod-Big brother
Well that's that! What you guys think? I decided to put my own twist on the Twi'lek rebels by making a more radical faction. Also thought it would be interesting to have them looting dead Republic soldiers since many times bodies were simply left behind. So why not give them some use;) Especially Keeli and the boys. Let me know ya'll thoughts and be ready for next week chapter. We're starting off with a loud boom!