It took nearly two days, but now Dagger was walking off the transport ship onto a brand new planet. They had been brought to the GAR housing building, which was right next to headquarters. The skyscraper was big enough to hold half of the clone army in it at once.
Checking in was an absolute nightmare. General Skywalker and Commander Ashoka were nowhere to be found. There were two workers at the front desk and a few hundred soldiers waiting in the lobby waiting for their serial number to be called. Rex was standing dutifully next to the desk. Shuffling his men into a line to be ready as soon as the receptionist was ready.
Dagger didn't understand why they couldn't just give them a block of floors and then get the rosters reported down later. Apparently every clone had to be assigned a barracks room and they were required to stay in that room.
There were only one or two other units in the building, none of whom Dagger knew. So most of the space was open for residence. She had been lucky enough to grab one of the few chairs in the lobby and was sitting with her bag of belongings under her feet.
She leaned back and closed her eyes. They were checking everyone in by numbers and since she was the youngest she had the highest number. It was too loud to sleep, and she was worried someone would try to draw on her helmet if she did end up dozing off. So she just sat in silence, Echo and Fives had already been assigned rooms and had left with the promise to come and find her later.
Hours, and she really means hours later, her name was finally called. Rex looked like he was one push away from pulling his incredibly short hair out. She gave him a small nod as she gave her ID card to the receptionist who scanned it and gave the card access to a specific room.
"You will be staying on floor 240 in room 24015, your card will open the door as well as allow you access to the building. There is no building curfew, but if your commanding officers assign one they will have access to the log to see when you enter and leave the building. There are dining halls every 60 floors and gyms every 40 floors. Do you have any questions?"
Dagger shook her head, taking her card back she chouldered her pack and looked to her Captain. He nodded and told her to wait by the elevator, he would help her find her room as soon as he got checked in himself.
Soon enough they were in the elevator listening to the quiet radio music that played in it. Out of the corner of her eye she saw him glancing at her every few floors. She looked back at him and he kept studying her. It was making her nervous.
"Did I do something wrong sir?" she asked.
"How did you get assigned an officer's room?" he responded bluntly.
"I what!?" she exclaimed, she had no idea that she was assigned an officer's room.
"Floors above 220 are for officers, single room quarters. I'm just wondering why you were assigned to one," he said.
Dagger was practically vibrating, "am I going to get in trouble? I'm not an officer. Why did I get put in one of those rooms?"
"Hey relax Dagger, you aren't going to get in trouble. Sometimes they just make mistakes. You're in the room right next to me, so if anyone gives you trouble, just come to me and I'll sort them out."
She let out a sigh, "ok."
Then she had a thought, "hey Captain? If officers are supposed to have their own rooms, why do you sleep in the barracks with everyone else on the Resolute?"
He looked at her again, "I don't like being different from the unit. I may be your captain, but that doesn't make me better than anyone of you. I don't think I deserve any special treatment that you and the rest of Torrent don't get."
"But Captain you are special. You are the best one in the 501st, thats why you are the captain," she wasn't quite understanding his logic.
He smiled and leaned in a little closer, "I also don't like sleeping alone, just a little too quiet for my taste."
She nodded and soon enough the elevator stopped and they exited into the hallway turning right towards their rooms. Just as Rex had said, their rooms were right next to each other. Dagger nodded her thanks to the captain and tapped her ID card to the reader and the door slid open.
As she stepped inside the lights turned on automatically. She was shocked by the room, it was plain in terms of decoration, but it was incredibly clean. One bed, a nightstand with a lamp, and a desk. She ignored all of that going straight to the large window along the back wall. She could see for miles and miles along the clouds skyscrapers popping up sporadically.
It was almost night time and the sunset painted the clouds in brilliant oranges. She sat and watched the beautiful sight for a long time. Dagger didn't realize just how beautiful Coruscant was.
Soon enough the brilliant reds and oranges faded into deep violets and blues. A familiar darkness spotted with stars. She closed the curtains and turned to look at the rest of the room.
Dagger gasped when she realized that she had her own bathroom. She could shower whenever she wanted without having to worry about others finding her.
Putting all of her belongings away in the drawers she decided to use the tablet to look up her credits. Clone pay was minimal, even less than minimum wage in the core worlds, but since they never had to pay for anything themselves they were able to save it all for when they ended up in the core worlds.
She remembered her first day with the 501st when Echo said he would take her to go buy a nice dagger. She wondered if he still would. Just as she was about to comm Echo there was a message on her tablet.
Captain Rex ordered a meeting in 20 minutes in the training room on floor 50. He needed to brief everyone on procedures planetside and what they were and were not allowed to do.
Dagger checked to see that her helmet was secure and headed out the door. She was waiting for the elevator when she was startled by a hand on her shoulder. Turning quickly, her hand flew to the hilt of her dagger, she saw that it was in fact her captain.
He chuckled, "I sent out that message 30 seconds ago. You sure do like to be punctual don't you."
She let out a nervous laugh in response, "Well I didn't know if you were already there."
"Rushing out to come spend time with me then?"
Dagger's face heated up at the comment and she stuttered trying to respond, "wait. No, not like t- that sir. I didn't, I mean I wouldn't. N-no."
He smirked and leaned in, "hey, I'm just messing with you."
She took a deep breath and looked away for a second, letting out another laugh she rubbed the back of her neck, "yeah, I knew that."
The doors finally opened and they stepped into the elevator. As it started to descend he asked her a question, "so what do you think about curfew?"
"What do you mean sir?"
"I mean do you think that the 501st can stay out of trouble without a curfew?"
"Of course, everyone in the 501st is respectful. They won't get into trouble," she responded honestly.
He chuckled, "I like your optimism. I trust you all in battle, but with our track record there is no way we are getting off this planet without at least one of us getting in trouble."
The elevator stopped at floor 80 and they were greeted with many familiar faces.
"Hey! Look Fives I found Dagger!" Echo said cheerfully, "And Captain, how are you doing?"
"Doing alright Echo," Rex responded.
"Hey guys, I was wondering where you ended up. You got sent out long before I did," Dagger said.
"Yup, floor 80, dorm 3. Where did they put you?"
"Floor 240," she said shyly, she didn't want to brag that she was in a room all by herself.
Echo let out a whoop, "damn you got lucky punk. Those high rooms must have a great view, and you get some privacy for once. You better remember us little guys on the low floors."
She scoffed and rolled her eyes, "shut up Echo, we both know putting me up there was just an accident. I could never forget my brothers, you sure wouldn't let me if I tried."
"Damn right I won't let you forget. You're my best friend," Echo said, slapping a hand across her back.
"Hey!" Fives protested.
Echo looped his arm around Fives' neck, "you too Vod."
Dagger laughed, looking back at Rex to see if he thought it was funny too. He had a slight grin upon his lips and it made her smile just a little bit more. They arrived at the training room and splintered off into groups.
Echo, Fives, and Dagger made their way to the side of the room where there was workout equipment set up. Dagger sat on the incline bench and the other two draped themselves across the bordering equipment. Joking and laughing about everything that had happened. Dagger found herself laughing more freely than she usually did. Something about this place made her more relaxed and more willing to be herself.
"I mean honestly, with your track record, how did you not set yourself on fire when you found all that fuel," Fives jabbed at Echo.
He put his hand to his chest in mock offense, "I will have you know that I have a great track record. I have only been on fire twice."
"Twice? That is double the amount of times I have been on fire Echo," Dagger laughed.
"Keep hanging out with him and that won't be the case for long," Fives said.
Echo went to protest when they all heard Captain Rex call everyone to fall into formation. The little group scrambled to get up and rushed over to the center of the room to find their spots within the ranks of their brothers.
As usual Rex stood in front of them all and waited for the accountability to be reported. When informed that everyone was present he started his briefing.
"Alright everyone, I'm sure you are all ready for dinner so I'll make this short. Most of you have been on R and R before, some of you have not. I don't know exactly how long we are going to be here, but it will probably be a few weeks while they fix the Resolute. If you go out, please take at least one brother with you. There will be no curfew."
There were a few hushed cheers at that, the Captain smiled and then continued, "Yes, you can thank Dagger for that, he convinced me that you all could be trusted. As always, do not add or subtract from the population and stay out of trouble when you can. We will be having training from 0900 to 1400 daily, other than that you can do whatever you want to. You are dismissed."
As soon as he dismissed them it was as if a herd of Loth Cats had been released. Everyone scattered and started cheering. Dagger just stood still for a moment watching the chaos take place around her.
She turned when she felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Fives. He beckoned her to come with them as he held Echo back by the shirt collar. They were going to the dining hall and wanted her to come with them.
Dagger let herself be pulled along, slowing down when they neared the door to look back. Rex still stood where he was, watching everyone leave. His head turned to her as she looked at him. She gave him a wave and he nodded back.
Then she was pulled out of the door. The dining hall in the GAR barracks was almost identical to the one on the Resolute. The food looked a lot more colorful than the rations that they got on the ship. There were more fruits, meat, and oh! Was that dessert? There was so much of it. She went through the line with her friends filling up her plate with so much food.
She even sat with them for a few minutes before taking her food back to her room. In the elevator she could smell the food and it made her stomach growl. She almost ran from the elevator to her room. When she got inside she took her helmet off and practically inhaled her food. This was the best dinner she had ever had. When she was done she commed Echo and Fives to tell them that she was going to go to bed early. They understood and agreed to get together tomorrow to go out.
~B~
Dagger did lay down, but didn't plan to stay asleep for long. There were seven gyms in the entire building. She would be able to find at least one that was empty to train in at night. Five hours of training a day wouldn't be enough for her to keep improving. Not the way she wanted at least.
After a quick nap she checked her crono, it was almost midnight. She got dressed to workout. After putting on her helmet she slipped out her door walking quietly down the hall. She hopped Rex was sound asleep and her footsteps wouldn't wake him.
Dagger hesitated when she reached the elevators, she peered down the hall and saw a stairwell. She decided to climb the steps to the top gym on floor 280. Sure she could go to the gym that was on her floor but she didn't want to risk Rex walking by and seeing her in there. She wanted to be able to practice without her helmet.
Her feet pounded up the stairs, might as well make a workout of it. Forty flights of stairs ended up being a lot more than she had thought that they were. By the time she reached 280 she was panting.
After entering the gym and seeing that it was in fact clear of anyone else she took off her helmet and took a deep breath. She set her helmet on a counter on top of the towel she had brought.
She started stretching before going to the weight rack. Picking up the dumbells she started going through reps of exercises.
Over the past few weeks she had seen a lot of improvement in her muscle structure. She figured that if she could build up more muscle mass she wouldn't look as out of place even with her short height.
Everyone was different in that category. Everyone was well muscled but some to more of an extreme than others. Echo had more lean arms while Rex seemed to have some of the biggest arm muscles in the unit. He certainly didn't take it easy on gym days. If Dagger were to bet, she would say that the rest of him would probably match in muscle tone.
Shaking her head she chided herself, she really shouldn't be thinking about how much muscle her Captain had. It was none of her business.
She just focused on what she was doing and tried to think of things other than Rex's arms. Inevitably her mind just brought her back to him helping her on that first mission on the ship carrier. He had let her hold on to his arm when she couldn't reach the arm holds to avoid falling over again.
She placed the weights back on the rack and worked on some body weight exercises. With her feet tucked under a rack she did situps until her back ached from hitting the mat so many times. Then she did pull ups until her arms trembled. Lowering herself back to the ground she grabbed her towel, throwing it over her shoulder.
For the first time in a long time she actually looked at her reflection in the mirrored wall of the gym. She usually had very little time to shower aboard the Resolute, much less have time to look in the mirror. She let out a sigh, she really hated her face. All she wanted was to look the same as all of her brothers. She was different in an army of people who all looked the same.
As she felt herself wishing for the impossible she made a funny face at her reflection. Feeling her spirits start to lift she pretended to be Hardcase. He always made muscles at himself in the mirror. She flexed and posed for a minute laughing at herself in the process.
On her way out the door she draped her towel over her head and grabbed her helmet deciding it wasn't worth the effort to put it back on and have to clean it later. She got in the elevator to go back down to her floor.
Dagger nodded her head to the music and patiently waited for the elevator to take her down. She was tired and ready for a shower. As soon as she got into her room she locked the door and started taking off her workout clothes. Standard issue shorts and the tan tee. Dumping them in a pile in the corner she grabbed her shower towel and headed into the shower.
She was pleasantly surprised when the water warmed up so quickly. Scrubbing the sweat and grime out of her hair and off of her body with haste, she was able to enjoy the warm water for a few minutes until she finally got out.
After drying off Dagger put on her sleep clothes and reached for her helmet. Then she realized she didn't need to wear it tonight. For the first time in a long time she laid her head down on her pillow and she could actually feel the pillow case. With a smile she snuggled under the covers and rubbed her cheek into the pillow.
~B~
Tada! I can't wait for you all to read this story arc, there is a lot that happens while the 501st is on Coruscant. Any guesses?