When Riyo is told that she is to receive an official escort after the attacks she's been in, she knows now is not the time to put up a fight. Other senators might be offended by such– whether because they claimed to be able to defend themselves or not want to be near the clone troopers– but Riyo fell into neither category.

"That's fine!" She says with a smile, doing her best not to cringe at Alida's fierce glare. There's no chance of her crossing her loyal security aide when she has Riyo's best interests at heart… and especially not after the Zillo Beast incident.

Fo– Commander Fox had put his life at risk because of her. She owed it to him to listen to their instructions.

She sits quietly and memorizes everything Alida says. She doesn't protest.

Fox is only told at the final minute. It's rare for him to get involved in the somewhat regular escorts of lower level politicians, especially since more have been requested in the last few weeks. Normally, it would pass on to one of their high ranking sergeants, but seeing as Thorn had been slated to lead this escort, Fox found himself roped into taking over.

Then again, it was fairly easy considering Thorn gave him puppy dog eyes from his seat on a medbay cot.

"It's a senator," Thire implores. "We can't just pass this off to anyone. And it's not off-planet: it'll only be a few hours."

"Fine," Fox sighs. It's part of the job, and he can be back to supervise his regular shift by its start in the evening.

It should be fine.

The others assigned to the escort swear that Senator Chuchi and Commander Fox forgot to breathe for the first thirty seconds in the hovercar. Senator Chuchi freezes like a lothcat caught in a spotlight once she slid into her seat and saw Fox seated across from her.

Thire later swears that he heard a choked moan filter through Fox's comm.

"Commander Fox!" Thire had to admit, once the Senator recovered from her shock, it's as if she wasn't even fazed. "What a surprise to see you. According to my security officer, Commander Thorn was leading my escort."

His vod nodded stiffly. Maybe Fox had been replaced by a Seppie bot under all that armor. "He was supposed to, ma'am, but he's in the medbay for the next 12 hours after a training mishap. Rancor squad and I will be escorting you into ici'Pantora today."

"You have my complete confidence, Commander."

Thire did his best to clamp down on his snickering, he really did. Still, he swore he could see Fox's eyes glint dangerously at him in warning through the black visor of his helmet, so Thire beat a hasty retreat with his sniper team.

Hopefully Fox would survive the trip there. It wouldn't do for him to survive all their day-to-day stress only to be taken out by a heart attack at the sight of his secret love.

The ride is silent. Riyo focuses on the verbal battle she is about to undergo.

When the vehicle stops, Fox gets out before Riyo. He offers his hand to help her down, and she hesitates a millisecond before taking it.

He swears he can feel the warmth of her hand through his glove.

The meeting is boring. It is normal. Boring is good, but Fox is not one of the best for nothing. He doesn't let anything distract him from his duty.

So after it ends and they're returning to the speeder,

when he hears the high pitched whine of a blaster shot

and the shattering of glass

he doesn't hesitate before lunging at Riyo and pulling her to the ground.

And then everything went to hell.