Death's Choice
By Ammie Hawk
Disclaimer: I own nothing…
AN: Okay, so this chapter was a pain, because it wasn't in the original plan at all. Anyway, on with the show.
Chapter 10: Mutiny
Rex nearly growled as he kept pace behind Kote. It had been several hours since they had discovered Harry was missing and they were no closer to finding him now than they had been then, and dawn was fast approaching. Alpha had informed them early on in the search that he was not with Prime. And the last sweep, a group of cadets they had woken up early and sent inside the vents disguised as advanced training, was due to report in at any moment.
Speak of the devil, Kote's comm chimed with an incoming message. The trooper on the other end reported that the search had turned up nothing.
"Kote," the blond finally gave in and voiced his frustrations.
"I know," he practically snarled. "Give me a minute."
He began fiddling with his comm. A moment later, apparently satisfied, he brought it back to his face.
"I need all troops to gather in Hanger Bay 5," he barked, his tone proving why he was in the command class. "And bring the trainers."
"Kote," the other shook his head, "what are we going to do?"
"What we have to," the brunet replied firmly.
"What if we're too late?"
"We're not," he shook his head.
"You can't know that," Rex snapped.
"Rex," the brunet turned and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, but his eyes blazed with an inner fire, "we will find Harry. I can't explain it, but I know he's not dead. If the long necks have him, they haven't decommissioned him yet. And I will tear this place apart if I have to, to make sure that doesn't happen. Now are you with me?"
"You know I am, Kote," the blond sighed heavily.
"Good," he nodded sharply. "Let's go see if we can get the others to support our cause."
With a single nod of acknowledgement, they fell into step once more. They made their way to the hanger, and were relieved to see that their fellow troopers had followed the rather unorthodox order. They proceeded to the front of the room, where they were met by Alpha-17 and Kal Skirata, as well as several other alphas, CCs, and trainers.
Alpha stepped forward and let his sharp gaze travel over both of them.
"Not gonna do anything stupid are you, Kote?" he asked with a raised brow.
"Possibly," he conceded, but the set of his shoulders showed he wasn't going to back down.
"Well, at least make it interesting," Alpha smirked. "I'd hate to have to actually follow Prime's orders and lock you up."
The other brunet gave a sharp nod and stepped forward to address the troops. Rex automatically settled in at attention, a pace back on his right. Alpha took up the same position on his left, only his arms were crossed firmly over his chest.
"Troops," he began, only to pause as soon as the word left his mouth. He pulled off his helmet and held it against his hip. "Brothers. As you are all aware from the course of events of the past several hours, my son is missing. Many of you know him, and have even grown close to him in the past few months, which I know is the reason you agreed to follow my orders to search the city.
"However, our search has come up empty. He was not found in the parts of the city we have access to. And we received confirmation that he is not with Prime. That leaves one place here left to search."
He paused as a wave of nervous energy passed through the assembled crowd. He knew what he was about to propose could turn every last one of his brothers against him, well except Rex, but that was a given. And for Harry, he at least had to try. Though, to convince the others he would have to try something else.
He took a deep breath and glanced over at Rex, who gave him an encouraging nod.
"What I am about to propose is dangerous," he continued. "If we fail, it could mean death for many of us, reconditioning for the rest. With that in mind, I will not order any of you to join me. This is personal for me, and for Rex, which we have been told is unbecoming of a soldier. However, it will not change what we will do.
"The Kaminoans have always treated us as less than human, as products. And that's all we will ever be to them. They created us so they feel they have the right to control us, even destroy us if we don't meet their expectations. But we know better. We may hide it from them, but we know who we are. We are brothers, all of us, and we look out for each other.
"Harry, however, was not created by them. He does not belong to them. He is our son," he motioned to incorporate the blond, "your nephew. And I will get him back, no matter what.
"Now, I am not ordering you to join me, but I am asking you to, as my brothers. Not for me, or Rex, or even Harry himself, but for yourselves. We have lived in fear of the long necks for too long. Today, I say they took it too far. We need to take control away from them, take control of our own lives, our own future."
"Hold up, Kote," Wolffe stepped forward before anyone else could say anything. "Let me get this straight, you want us, all of us," he waved at the assembled troops, "to stage a coup against the long necks, just to get your son back?"
"Yes… no… I don't know," he raked his hand through his hair.
"You are proposing mutiny, and you don't know?" Fox challenged, as murmurs started sweeping through the crowd.
"Enough!" Kote snapped. "No one, for once, is forcing any of you to do anything. Rex and I will do this with or without your help. It will be more difficult without you, but we will do what we must. But I will say this: Family is more than blood. We are brothers, all of us, and not just because we share the same blood, but because we share everything; the same training, the same meals, the same hopes, and especially the same fears. Harry shares those too, and that makes him one of us. He is family. And if we can't fight to protect our family, what the hell are we fighting for?"
There was silence for almost a full minute. The nervousness was still present, but it was slowly shifting toward anticipation.
"I'm with you, Kote," Kix finally broke the silence as he glanced at those nearest to him. "As are the rest of Gamma Squad."
"Psh," Wolffe snorted. "Can't let Rex's boys show us up. Echo Squad is with you too."
And just like that it was like the dam had broken and every one of the troopers were agreeing to help. After several moments of complete chaos, where everyone was trying to talk over one another, Kote held up his hand and silence descended once more.
"Alright," he began once all attention was back on him, "here's the plan…"
888888
Kote sat quietly on one of the beds in the recently liberated med bay, waiting rather impatiently for one of the medics. The left side of his face was throbbing dully, he could hardly see out of the eye due to the blood, where one of the long neck scientists had managed to get a lucky hit with something heavy that had shattered his helmet and sliced into his face. Though, even with the injuries, which none seemed to be fatal at this point, things seemed to be going rather well.
They had taken control of communications first. Wolffe and Fox had lead a team that included their best slicers, and made sure no messages got in or out that they didn't know about or authorized. After that, Bly and Gree had gathered a team to secure the hanger and keep the cadets safe and contained. Ponds and Alpha had taken another team after the main leadership, while Kote and Rex and another team, mostly comprised of medics, had gone to secure the med bays and science labs.
He was brought back to the present as someone grabbed his chin and began poking at his face.
"Ow," he said through gritted teeth. Why did medics always have to make things worse before even trying to fix things?
"Hold still," Kix scoffed. "And don't be such a tubie, Kote. How'd you get this anyway?"
"Long neck got the jump on me," he hissed as the medic began spraying antiseptic on the wound. "Any reports yet?"
"I'm gonna have to stitch this," the other shook his head. "And how the fuck should I know. You and Rex are the ones who planned this mutiny, which makes you in charge. Any and all reports should be going to you."
Almost as if on cue, the comm unit on his belt began to go off. He unclipped it and brought it to his face as Kix moved to gather a few things across the room.
"Status report?" he asked by way of greeting.
Since they now controlled the communications, he hadn't bothered to check to see how was actually calling. Any news at this point was better than what he had five minutes ago. And he could really use some good news right now, especially since the initial attack on the labs had turned up nothing on his son, like he had hoped.
~I was going to ask you that, 2224,~ snapped the voice over the comm.
"Prime," like every time prior, he straightened automatically at the tone of his progenitor.
His mind whirled. Why was Prime calling him now? Had he somehow found out about the insurrection he had started? It was probably all Alpha's doing, the bastard. Either him or Trainer Skirata.
~Dad!~ the voice he'd been longing to hear for the past day sounded over the comm. ~Dad, dad, guess what? I got to go into space!~
"Harry!" he couldn't help the relief that flooded through him.
His relief quickly morphed into a hiss of pain as the sadistic medic chose that moment to spray something else on his wound.
"Hold still, soldier," Kix commanded, grabbing his chin once more and tilting his head as he prepared to use the needle and surgical thread he held in his other hand. "We're glad you're okay, Harry," he directed to the still raised comm device, "but right now I need to patch up your dad."
~Is he gonna be okay, Kix?~
"He'll live," the medic huffed as he began expertly and efficiently began suturing the side of Kote's face. "But right now, he really needs to talk to your grandpa, so we need to let them do that."
~But I want to talk to Daddy,~ Harry protested.
"Harry, no," his dad gave an exasperated sigh as Kix tied off the last stitch and began cleaning off the excess blood from his face and out of his eye. "If you wanted to talk to Rex, you should have stayed here instead of running off with Boba and Prime. Now, I need to speak to Prime."
He really didn't, but it seemed a fitting punishment at the moment, especially since he didn't know where Rex was at this point in time. Though the blond would probably finish the job and kill him if he ever found out he was withholding communication with their son.
~But I didn't sneak off,~ the boy huffed petulantly.
"Is that so?" he countered.
He couldn't wait to hear what wild story he came up with this time.
~I was kidnapped,~ Harry chirped, almost sounding proud of that fact.
"What?!" his voice nearly drowned out the two distinct groans that sounded over the comm.
Before he could get a further explanation from either his son or Prime, two soldiers, Sinker and Boost if he was remembering correctly, stumbled into the med bay, the former being supported by the latter. They had been picked for Wolffe and Fox's team to secure communications.
"Sir!" Boost grunted slightly as he shifted the other. "They're targeting the communication tower!"
"Fuck!" Kote cursed as he noticed his comm had disconnected. "Where are Wolffe and Fox?"
"Still there, sir," the other continued. "They ordered me to bring Sinker down here. He got hit pretty bad. But they're requesting backup, sir. They need reinforcements if we hope to keep control of communications."
"Right," he nodded decisively.
His gaze flicked over to the medic, silently seeking permission to be released. He was still good to fight, and he couldn't leave the others in trouble. Kix gave a longsuffering sigh as he moved to attend his newest patient.
"You hurt, soldier?" he asked Boost.
"No, sir," the other straightened to attention, as if the simple action would prove his honesty.
"Fine. Take that idiot," he waved to include Kote, "and get out of my med bay. Though, Kote," his eyes narrowed dangerously, "any more injuries, or I find out you're keeping any symptoms from me, you'll be confined to this med bay for a week, and I'll send Wolff and Jesse to go retrieve Harry."
The CC gave a quick, two fingered salute before beating a hasty retreat, not letting the stubborn medic change his mind. Once the two of them were clear of the med bay, Kote pulled out his comm and began fiddling with it. It took a few moments, but he finally figured out that while long range communication had been take out, which would explain why he had been cut off from Harry and Prime, short range was still possible. That was a relief because it meant they could still coordinate and he could actually comm in the reinforcements instead of having to hunt them down on foot.
"Sir?" Boost asked hesitantly after he had placed the call.
"You know you don't have to call me sir," he shook his head. "We're just brothers here, there are no ranks."
"With all due respect, sir," the other shot him an unimpressed look, "you called this op, which makes you in charge and currently the highest ranking officer here. On that note, sir, was the medic telling the truth? Is your son not even here?"
"No, he's not," Kote heaved a heavy sigh, he hadn't wanted to face the fact that all of this had been for naught. "I—I'm sorry."
"What are you apologizing for?" a dark brow quirked in question.
"I," he took a deep breath, "I led everyone into this for no reason."
"I'm gonna stop you there, sir," Boost shook his head. "Your reasons for this… rebellion may have been your son, but that's not why we followed you. Your son may be a good kid, and we're willing to count him as one of us, but most of us have never met him. I haven't. But you were right, if we can't fight for our family, what are we fighting for? The long necks have been systematically killing us off for too long, and a lot of us were just waiting for a call to arms. You gave us that, sir. Your reasons may have been your son, but it wasn't wrong. We all joined this fight willingly, and we will see it through. Now, let's go protect our brothers, and our home."
Kote could do nothing but nod in response. That was at least one worry off his chest. But he couldn't dwell on that right now. The battle wasn't over yet and he couldn't let himself get distracted any further. Boost was right, they all had their reasons, and while his may have changed with finding out Harry was safe, it didn't make any of this wrong, and they still had something to fight for, and something to protect.
Ammie: So there it is, the Clone mutiny. As stated earlier, this chapter was not in the original plan, but the stubborn clones coughKotecough decided it was needed. Anyway, on that note, and having just gone through a rewatch of The Bad Batch, I was wondering on the state of Omega and Clone Force 99. I have no real opinions on them one way or the other, but let me know if ya'll would like to see them added in. And please let me know what you think.