Chapter 1: Shinies and Strategies.

Rex stood in the landing bay of the Resolute, his arms held stiffly at his sides, a pace behind his general, Anakin Skywalker.

Normally the general would have made a comment to Rex, something about the men seeming tense, and Rex would have responded that it was probably on account of Anakin's "intimidating jedi presence." But today they were all professional. Today he and the 501st were going to greet their new brothers.

Rex cast his gaze around the gathered soldiers, standing at perfect attention behind them. He felt a sudden pang of sadness at the gaps in their ranks. No use dwelling on your fallen comrades Rex, you can't do anything to change their fate.

But it hurt, it hurt so much, to lose everyone, to lose your brothers. Rex pushed his feelings aside. Now is not the time, you have your job to focus on! But he couldn't help notice the absence of his brothers amongst the troopers in line. Echo, Hevy, Hardcase… He smiled sadly. Well at least I still have Fives and Cody.

"Rex, is everything alright?"

Rex's mind came back to the present with a quick jolt. General Skywalker was looking at him, concern showing in his face.

"I'm fine sir, just thinking."

The general's face didn't change. He didn't believe Rex, and they both knew it, but he let it go. After all, what could he do?

Rex's thoughts were interrupted again by the familiar droning buzz of a republic gunship's engines. He looked up, just as the gunship came in to land, touching down expertly. The mechanized doors slid open with a woosh! And a group of shinies stepped out, followed by an official.

I swear, these shinies get smaller every time…

The group walked forward and then stood at attention before their new general and captain.

Skywalker nodded to Rex, "this is your area of expertise Capitian, I'll leave it to you." Then he stepped out of Rex's view.

Rex surveyed the new recruits, noticing that the squad was made up of only four troopers instead of the usual five. Huh, did one of them die already? Or maybe there was just a mix-up.

He pointed to the first trooper in line, with the Initials CO on his helmet and chest-plate. He appeared to be the leader. "Trooper, what's your name and number?"

The trooper in question, snapped off a salute, and said. "CT 2020 sir... My name is Laco."

You need to loosen up kid… He smiled. Reminds me of when I was a shiny.

He looked at the next trooper in line, who quickly took off his helmet, revealing a grinning, childish expression, and a long scar on the top of his head. "I'm 2005 sir! My name is Skipper, and I just want to say that I'm really excited to be here! I've wanted to be part of the 501'st my entire life!"

The trooper next to Skipper elbowed him sharply, taking off his helmet. "Ah, shut up Skipper!"

He addressed Rex. "Sorry sir, Skipper can be a handful." He saluted respectfully. "I'm CT 2008, but everyone calls me Sniper."

Rex nodded, tucking the names away in his mind for later use. He gestured to the last trooper, who took off his helmet, exposing hair very much like Rex's own, and a tattoo around his eye. The same mark was repeated on his chest-plate. "What's your name and number?"

The shiny saluted, then proceeded to move his arms in a series of complicated gestures. Then he glanced over at Sniper, who stepped forward quickly to explain.

"This is CT 1010 sir...His name is Binary. He doesn't like to talk."

Rex shook his head, confused. "Do you mean can't talk?"

The trooper glanced sideways to Binary, then back to Rex. "Er, no sir. I mean he just doesn't really talk."

Rex smiled slightly. Not the weirdest trooper I've had to put up with…

"Alright shinies, at ease!"

The troopers all relaxed into parade rest, and Rex walked in front of them, changing into his "professional mode," and listing the rules of the 501st. Namely the importance of following orders, and watching each other's backs. Then he stepped back, and let General Skywalker have his say.

"I look forward to working with you troopers, but for now, I'll have Jesse show you to your barracks, then you can meet the rest of the men." Skywalker said.

Jesse rushed forward, snapping a salute to General Skywalker and Rex. Then he addressed the shinies.

"This way, If you'll follow me…"

Jesse led the new troops out of the landing bay, and Rex turned around to face the assembled men. "Dismissed," he said. The troopers saluted, then went off in different directions, to grab a bite to eat in the mess, or to go back to whatever duties they had.

General Skywalker headed towards a lift, and Rex hurried to catch up with him.

They fell into step, entering the lift together. They stood in companionable silence, before stepping off when they reached the command center. They found it already occupied by Ahsoka, and a glowing, blue hologram of General Kenobi, with Commander Cody by his side.

"Master! There you are!" Ahsoka cried, rushing towards them. "What took you so long?"

Anakin gave her the look that Rex interpreted to be his, "when you're a jedi master, you can be late too," look.

The hologram of Kenobi flickered as he spoke, an amused smile on his face.

"If you two are quite finished, might we go over the battle plans?"

Anakin nodded and stepped forward, activating the holographic map of the sepratist forces.

"No need to lecture master, Rex and I had to greet our new troops."

General Kenobi looked up in surprise. "That was today?"

Anakin rolled his eyes. "Yes Master, that was today, that's why we were late."

Ahsoka glanced between her Master, and her Grand-Master. "Um, Skyguy?"

Anakin looked down at her. "What is it Snips?"

She gave him a look, before continuing. "Maybe we should actually focus on the plans, and not bicker back and forth like two puppies fighting over a chew toy?"

Her analogy made Kenobi crack a smile.

"Yes Anakin, stop bickering."

Anakin shifted his glare from his old Master, to his Padawan. Rex knew that if left alone, this would drag on for some time, so he stepped in.

"Generals, if you don't mind." He gestured to the floating map. "But we're going to be heading into a war zone blind if we don't plan this out, and we don't have all day."

Kenobi looked at him, surprised. "Oh yes, quite right Rex." He turned to Cody, who was gazing down at the holo map intently. "Any suggestions Cody?"

Cody looked up, then he traced his finger through the glowing blue lines that made up the map. "I think we should focus our main attack here," he said, pointing to a ridge overlooking a sepratist droid facility. "The sep forces are surrounding their droid factory, and they'd be suspicious if we attacked from anywhere else." Rex nodded, seeing what Cody was saying. "We could position men here, and here," Cody continued, pointing to two spots on either side of the ridge. "We would have them advance, while the men stationed at the ridge give cover fire." He then pointed to a small ravine, which wound its way around the droid facility. "We could then send a squad of men this way, to come behind the factory and blow it up." He looked up at the Generals. "Anyone disagree?"

Kenobi ran a hand over his beard. "Isn't it a little risky to send men through a ravine past enemy lines? The chances of them being discovered…"

Rex spoke up. "We were thinking to send General Skywalker with them, as he seems to specialize with these types of things… Hope you don't mind sir."

This was addressed to Anakin, who grinned. "I don't mind at all, Rex." Then he turned to Kenobi. "See master? I SPECIALIZE in these kinds of situations."

Kenobi rolled his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Really not the time Anakin…"

Ahsoka broke in, interrupting Anakin before he could start arguing again, and addressed Rex.

"Wouldn't it be suspicious if the droids saw the 501st and the 212th fighting, but one of the generals wasn't there? I mean, you're honestly pretty hard to miss Master." Her last comment was directed to Anakin, who nodded. "No offense taken Padawan, so what do you suggest?"

Ahsoka frowned, furrowing her brows in concentration as she looked down at the map.

"I could go Master, I know I could do it, and it wouldn't look suspicious if I was gone. No one really pays attention to a Padawan, they would be too focused on stopping the two jedi."

Kenobi was nodding. "It's a good plan Anakin, I think we should do it."

Anakin sighed. "You know how I feel about you going into danger." Ahsoka started to protest, but Anakin held up a hand. "I'm not finished." He rubbed his chin, and looked Ahsoka in the eyes. "I'm trusting you to do this Ahsoka, don't let us down."

Ahsoka's face broke into a grin. "I won't let you down Master, I promise!"

Anakin turned back to Kenobi. "Now that we're finished Master, shall we head to the rondevu point?"

Kenobi nodded. "Yes," he looked at Ahsoka, then at Anakin. "Make sure you're not late."

Then he ended the comm, and he and Cody vanished.

Anakin snorted. "Typical Master Kenobi, he always has to have the last word." He turned to Rex. "Prepare the men Captain, we're going to battle."

XXX

After Jesse had shown them their barracks, the man had rushed off, clearly with something on his mind. Not knowing what else to do, the shinies entered their new quarters, and laid out their belongings. Skipper was the first to speak.

"What do we do now?"

They were all seated on their bunks, (the room was full of them, but only two were occupied,) and all looked slightly uncomfortable.

Laco was the one to answer, no surprise there, he always took charge when no one else knew what to do.

"We explore, get to know our new comrades."

With nothing better to do, the group followed their leader out into the halls, they passed several clones, heading in the opposite direction, and nodded politely.

Skipper smiled at everyone they passed, grinning and waving, and Sniper elbowed him several times in the ribs, telling him to, "be quiet or everyone will think you're a loony." Laco then rolled his eyes, replying that Skipper, "was a loony."

They ended up in the mess, which was, as usual, filled with clones. They headed towards the food line, grabbed their lunch, and took a seat at a semi-occupied table. They sat at the edge, not sure what to do or say.

To their surprise, a couple of clones came over and sat down next to them, offering friendly smiles.

"Hey, you must be the new shinies," one of them said. He had a black goatee, and a tattoo of the number five on his head, he pointed to the clone next to him, a man with a teardrop tattoo under his eye, and hair pulled into a topknot.

"This is Tup, and I'm Fives."

The other clone, Tup, smiled and waved a hand in greeting. Once again, Laco took charge, introducing the group.

"I'm Laco, this here is Sniper, Skipper, and Binary."

The group all offered hello's, except for Binary, who gave a salute.

"Just got here?" Fives asked. Sniper nodded. "Yeah, just a few minutes ago actually."

Fives grinned. "You picked quite a time to arrive!" Sniper furrowed his brows, and Binary made a questioning hand signal. "What do you mean?" Sniper asked. Fives was more than happy to give them the details.

"We're headed into a war zone, we could be leaving any minute now, Rex and the general just have to finish speaking with General Kenobi."

Right on que, the doors to the mess slid open, revealing Rex deep in conversation with a teenage Togruta girl.

"That's him now,'' Fives said." Then called out over the noise. "Hey Rex! Ahsoka! Come and join us!"

Rex looked over at Fives, then he grabbed two trays and headed over.

Fives turned to Skipper. "Scoot over please." Skipper did so, and Rex set his and Ahsoka's trays down next to Fives and Tup.

"Fives," Rex said, "just the man I was looking for, I wanted to ask you something about the mission coming up." He seemed to notice the new additions to the group, and paused.

Skipper gave a small wave, but the rest of the shinies were too tense to do more than stare. Their superior officer was sitting at the same table as them.

Rex laughed, seeing their expressions.

"I don't bite kid."

Fives chuckled, and shoved Rex lightly. "Except for when he does!" Rex glared in mock outrage. "Fives! How dare you say such a thing, I could have you court-martialed."

Five's grin widened. "Oh dear, what shall I do?"

He laughed again, seeing the looks of shock on the shinie's faces at seeing someone poking fun at a higher ranking officer.

Rex shook his head, his tone becoming serious. "I need you to gather together a group of troopers for a special mission."

Fives looked up, "what kind of mission Captain?"

Rex smiled. "A stealth mission. I want you and Ahsoka to go, and I want you to take any men you think could get the job done. You'll need to sneak around a sep base, hack into its systems and plant a bomb."

At the word, "hack." Binary looked up. He signed something quickly to Sniper.

Rex turned. "What was that kid?"

Sniper blushed. "Binary was just saying that he could do it, he can hack into anything. He's really good with computers."

Fives looked up in surprise. "Is he now? Well that's going to be useful in the future… Quite possibly the near future."

Rex nodded. "You ever been to battle, kid?" Binary shook his head. "Well you're about to, you all are." He paused and looked at Binary. "How good are you with computers?"

Binary met his gaze. "Good."

Sniper looked at Binary and held up one finger.

Rex nodded, "Well I want to see how good, I'd rather my men get into that Seppie base without getting noticed, and if you're as good as you say, then you might be the way that happens."

Fives looked shocked. "Um, sir? Sending a shiny on a special mission their first time on the field? I'm not sure that's a good idea…" Rex turned his gaze to Fives. "If you remember your first time fighting the Seps Fives, you'll remember the importance of learning quickly."

He pushed his tray away, still full of food, and stood up. "I want to see what he can do."

Binary stood up too.

"Now sir?" He asked. Rex nodded. Sniper grinned and held up two fingers.

"No point in wasting time, we don't have enough as it is."

He walked out of the room, and after a brief hesitation, Binary followed him. Not wanting to miss out, the rest of Outlier Squad followed, tailed by Fives, Tup and a curious Ahsoka.

Rex was standing outside the doors, facing a data console. He turned to Binary, who was standing nearby, and biting his lip nervously.

Rex swept his hand, inviting Binary to come over to the console.

"Okay, I want you to hack into Five's private holo journal." Fives let out a noise of protest, and Rex grinned. "Just kidding, hack into the ship's emergency comm systems. I want you to send a message to Commander Cody."

Binary blinked a couple of times, then stepped forward. He took a deep breath, then sank into what looked like a trance, his fingers flew across the console, pressing buttons and flitting through the ship's records and data. After about thirty seconds, the ship was darkened, and a red light flashed on. An automated voice came over the speakers. "Emergency protocols initiated." A few more taps, and a hologram of Cody flared to life, he looked very confused.

"Rex, what's going on? Your ship is on emergency lockdown, but that doesn't make sense, you're traveling in hyperspace! What happened?"

Rex smiled at Cody, "Sorry Commander, just testing something, no need to worry." He deactivated the holo. He was just turning to Binary, when another holo flared into existence, this time of General Skywalker. "Rex…" General Skywalker said, looking at him suspiciously. "What just happened?"

Rex saluted him. "Sorry general, I was just testing something that I thought we might need for the mission." General Skywalker looked, (if possible,) even more confused.

"How does the emergency system turning on in any way relate to the mission?"

Rex grabbed Binary's arm, dragging him into the holo's range. "I just found our way of getting the group of clones safely into the Separitist factory. General, this is one of the new shinies, he turned on the emergency systems on my order, I was asking him to give a demonstration of what he could do." General Skywalker still looked puzzled. "Which is?"

"Hack into systems General, he's apparently very good with computers."

The General nodded. "Okay, carry on Rex." The comm beeped, and General Sjywalker disappeared. Rex turned to Binary, who looked a little terrified.

"Good job kid." Rex said, "you've just got yourself a mission."