After looking around in the camp, a lot of questions and the answers Waxer gave willingly later, Anakin was brought to his tent. He had one for himself.
"Take time for a rest. A searching mission can be exhausting. Especially in such an environment," Waxer recommended. Anakin only nodded, already feeling a little tired. Therefore, the young Jedi said goodbye and entered his tent.
It was nothing special, there was just his backpack and a sleeping bag.
Nevertheless, he made himself comfortable at the sleeping bag and got his datapad to read more about Selvaris.
With time, the excitement faded away, and he could concentrate on the reading.
Anakin found the planet fascinating. There was so much flora, fauna, and water.
"Commander?" someone asked outside the tent. Anakin looked up from the datapad. "Yes?" he answered while he went to the entrance of the tent and opened it. Outside was a clone, the symbol on his shoulder showed that he was a medic.
The medic saluted. "I came looking for you. We haven't seen you for a while," the clone answered. Anakin realized that it was dark outside. "Oh, I just was reading without noticing how much time went by," the young Jedi said sheepishly. The clone smiled a bit. "As long as nothing happened," he said, and then added, "Did you already eat?"
Anakin shook his head. "Then I would recommend doing so," the medic said, and indicated the young Jedi to follow him.
Together the two get some ration bars and since Anakin always ate with the clones, the medic took him along to his friends. Cody was also with them, eating his ration.
The Commander looked up. "So Kit has found you, al'verd'ika," Cody greeted. "Yes, sorry. I didn't realize that it got late," Anakin answered as he sat down.
"There isn't anything to apologize for. We didn't say we would meet before dark. As long as you come, when we have a meeting, there won't be any problems," the Commander said, waving Anakin's apology off.
"He means, as long as you don't forget to eat," The medic, Kit, interjected, while sitting next to Anakin.
"Yes, that too," Cody affirmed.
They ate in silence. Everyone else already ate and most were about to go to sleep.
"Why are you called Kit?" Anakin asked the medic after finishing his ration bar.
"Well that's…" Kit stammered, getting slightly red.
"That is a funny story," Cody said, smiling.
"Commander, don't," Kit pleaded.
"Come on, Kit. Let the kid have a story, and it's not that the story is embarrassing for you. It rather is a story you should be proud of, you saved a life," another clone trooper said.
"Fine, but the Commander should tell the story. He gave me the name at least," Kit gave in.
Cody nodded. "Then listen, kid," he began the story,
"Kit and his batch were on their first training mission on a foreign planet. I was with them as a trainer. It was about a year before the war started. The planet was like Selvaris. Except that the jungle wasn't as thick as here and the trees weren't so big. But the climate was similar and there were also wild and dangerous animals.
It came out that one of the scouts got cocky and wanted to scout the 'enemy's line' by himself. He didn't get far before he was attacked by a rancor. He was badly wounded and just survived crawling under a big log, too big for the rancor to move. Then he commed us.
I was the first, who arrived, getting him out and trying to stop the bleeding. He was about to pass out. I called for a medkit and suddenly our medic stood next to me saying 'I'm here.' I know I was irritated, looked at him and asked 'Are you a medkit, trooper?'. He got bright red and stammered that he wasn't but the medic and that there weren't any medkits to be found. He was the only one left who had a chance saving the scout without any resources. Well, it wasn't that he hadn't any. He took off his breastplate, where we could see that he hid some bacta-patches, stim-shots, an irrigation bulb to clean wounds and a field cauterizer. Without hesitation, he began his work and ignored the glazes everyone was giving him for having medical equipment hidden in his armor. He saved the trooper's life.
After getting back to the camp, I took him aside and asked why there weren't any medical supplies. He said he didn't know. He saw them getting packed in the ship, but as we arrived, there weren't any. Then I asked him why he had medical equipment hidden in his armor. At that he answered, 'Sir, you said once to be prepared for everything. So I prepared myself for an emergency without medical supplies. Since then, I always have some with me, even on Kamino. I don't know why there aren't any medical supplies or where they are. My preparation has nothing to do with it.' He stood in front of me with determination written in his face and I must say, I believed him.
'Alright, Kit. I believe you. You saved a life. Good job,' I said to him and left him, before he could react to his new name. I remember his face pretty well. Shocked and disbelieving. It was hilarious.
Back on Kamino, I learned that the Kaminoans had unpacked the supplies to test how we react to that and how we adapted. And especially Kit did pretty well. With his little supplies and knowledge, everyone came back unscathed."
It was silent for some time, until Anakin exclaimed, "Wizard. You're so cool, Kit." Bringing the red color back to Kit's face. The other clones laughed at it.
"Alright everyone. It is time to get some rest and let the watchmen have a quiet watch," Cody interfered. The clones complied silently, but did as ordered.
"Good night everyone," Anakin said, waving and went to his own tent. He made himself ready for bed, falling fast asleep as soon as he laid down.
Despite the exhausting day, Anakin woke up nearly as early as ever, some time before sunrise. About half an hour before sunrise. Normally, he woke up one to two hours before sunrise. He learned that on Tatooine, and it continued on Coruscant without needing to adjust. It seems, even on Selvaris, his inner clock knew when the sun rose. He didn't know why. Probably something with the force. Everything that was strange had something to do with the force, it seemed.
He still was tired, but no matter how tired he was, he got up because he knew he couldn't fall asleep anymore.
He changed into his robes and the armor and left his tent.
Beside the watchmen, who had changed since the beginning of the night, nobody was up. So he greeted them and since he hadn't anything to do, he began to train his katas. He knew he should probably meditate, but he was sure that it wouldn't work, so why should he try it? It wasn't like he could train it. Since he learned the basics, he had little to no improvement with meditation, therefore he trained his katas.
With the first sunbeams the first troopers awakened, and it didn't take long until everyone was awake, working or eating breakfast. Anakin already ate his with the rising of the sun.
After everybody was ready, Cody began the briefing.
He split them up in groups to spread the search. They were split into six teams.
In Anakin's team were Boil, Waxer, Kit, Trapper, Cody and two troopers Anakin didn't know, but they introduced themselves as Wooley and Crys. They would go to the most dangerous area of the jungle.
Wooley and Trapper would scout the way ahead. Cody would lead the little group and Boil, Waxer, Kit, and Crys would be around Anakin, while Anakin was using the Force to check the surroundings.
The first days of their search were uneventful but exhausting for Anakin. The little Jedi wanted to be useful and took his job, to have an eye on their surroundings with the force, very seriously.
"Al'verd'ika," Kit said while one of their rests and handed Anakin a water bottle. "You should drink more," the medic added.
"Oh, yes. Thank you," Anakin said, taking the water bottle. He drank slowly with little sips but not much before handing the bottle back.
"When I say, you should drink more, I mean more and not just a little," Kit said, pushing the bottle back.
"But I am not thirsty," Anakin said.
"How comes that you are not thirsty, al'verd'ika?" Waxer asked. "It is hot, and I am sweating the whole time. You have to be thirsty," he added.
"No, not really and despite," Anakin answered, but didn't finish his sentence and took the bottle and drank some more water.
The clones changed irritated glances, wondering how somebody couldn't be thirsty while wandering through a hot jungle. But they didn't ask anymore.
It was about a week, when they set up their camp and Anakin sat down, groaning, "Here isn't a separatist's base. Here is nothing of any enemy."
Cody sat next to him, took off his helmet and looked sympathetic at him. "Our problem is that we don't know where exactly it is. We only know that there is a base on this planet. Nothing more," he said.
"But we can't search a whole planet by foot. That will take ages. Why can't we take a vehicle?" he asked.
"Because none of our vehicles can drive through this jungle. But now we have to make a call and update the General," Cody answered and stood up, getting a handheld holoprojector. Shortly after, a hologram of a clone appeared. The clone saluted.
"Where is the General, Trooper?" Cody inquired.
"He is in a bacta tank. The medics said that they couldn't delay it further to ensure complete healing," the trooper reported. "We must report to General Windu directly," he added.
"Alright, connect us," Cody ordered. The clone trooper saluted, then his hologram disappeared and a hologram of Mace Windu appeared.
Commander Cody saluted and Anakin bowed to the Master.
"I will get directly to the point," Master Windu greeted. "After several accurate scans, we could narrow down where the separatist's base is," He began.
A map appeared at the holoprojector.
"Commander, your squad is the nearest and will scout this area and find the base. The problem is, that our communication will be cut off. The jungle there is thicker and blocks all signals. We will send a backup to the last point we get a signal from you, but in there you will be alone," Master Windu explained.
"Wait," Anakin said, after he examined the map, "This area is huge. We will take years to search it all."
"No, you won't. If you have to search it all, you will search around a month, but we hope you find it earlier. And even if you need a month, this base is critical for the war. You have to find and destroy it," Master Windu answered.
"Destroy it. How shall eight people destroy a whole base? If it is so important, it will have high defenses. Can't we wait for more troopers?" Anakin asked, thinking their task would be impossible.
"You can't wait. Every day, every hour we let pass without searching can have a fatal ending for the Republic. You have to find and destroy this base as fast as possible," Master Windu answered seriously.
"But…" Anakin began, but Master Windu interrupted him, "I will hear nothing more, Padawan Skywalker. May I remind you that you wanted to go on this mission? You have to get used to similar conditions. But if you think you can't do it, then stay there and wait for the backup. But everyone else will search for the base, understood?"
Anakin nodded and tried to hide his boiling anger.
"So, what is your decision, Padawan?" Windu asked.
"I will go with the others," Anakin growled.
Master Windu seemed clearly unhappy at Anakin's growling. "Mind your tone," he said.
Anakin gritted his teeth but kept silent, only bowing. Then he left and entered his tent.