AuthorNotes: Clone Commander Fox spends some time reflecting on recent events, but does not forget his place.
Clone Commander Fox exhaled loudly as he plopped down into his office chair. The last few days had been an absolute kriffing mess, and as usual, Fox had been left to pick up the pieces.
Gingerly taking off his helmet and placing it neatly on the corner of his desk, Fox began to slide his datapad towards him to continue signing off the paperwork that made up his life since he was assigned to the Coruscant Guard.
Something made him pause, however, and he felt his hand simply stop moving suddenly, fingers becoming limp on top of the datapad. As if his body had a will of its own and just didn't want to endure the stress and abuse and pain any longer.
Fox exhaled aloud before pushing the datapad away, dimly aware of the clattering sound it made as it felt to the floor.
He glanced at the only other object currently inhabiting his desk at the moment; his helmet.
Reaching forward with two hands, he lifted his pride-and-joy in front of him and stared intently at the T-visor that allowed Fox to block himself off from the politicians and act as a mask for his suffering.
The man that stared back at him was not what he had expected. Short, messy black hair with hints of grey that stood up in several areas, thin lines of stress etched into a pale forehead and cheekbones, bloodshot dark brown eyes that were nearly black and held no light in them.
(Trips to the caf machine and sleeping at his desk for a couple hours when he was able to have become routine for Fox.)
Yes; the man that started back up at Fox was definitely not what he had expected. It was certainly a far cry from the flurry of emotions that he was feeling right now. But then again, what had he been expecting himself to look like after everything that had happened? What exactly should he have been feeling?
And then with startling clarity, he recognized it as boiling rage and heat cut through the dense fog.
Clone Commander Fox was furious. Not only had they been hunting down the wrong person, it had turned out that it was a Jedi who had committed the acts of terror against the Jedi Temple and his men, as well as several civilians that had gotten caught in the crossfire. They had just been going after the wrong one.
Fox still couldn't help but think that things would have gone much more smoothly if Commander Tano had turned herself in at the first available chance instead of running like she did. Running from the authorities and multiple counts of resisting arrest as well as potential murder of clones and civilians really only made you look more guilty.
Looking back at the camera feeds and other gathered evidence, because Tarkin had somehow overlooked all evidence except for the cell camera feed that had had its speakers tampered with, he had realized that it was not her who had cut down her men and murdered Letta Turmond, but someone else.
Apparently the true mastermind behind all of this was a fallen Jedi by the name of Barriss Offee. He recalled occasionally seeing her around Tano when their respective battalions were on leave on Coruscant. She was usually pretty quiet and reserved, and isolated herself for the duration of the 41st's leave time. Hadn't ever spoken to her personally though, because unlike Tano, she hadn't been a troublemaker that would get herself arrested along with several (usually heavily drunk) members of the 501st.
Ultimately, in the end that wouldn't matter.
Tano's master, General Skywalker, had managed to track Offee down and return to Tano's trial with damning evidence at the last minute to save his padawan. Apparently Ventress was hiding out on Coruscant and Offee had stolen her lightsabers.
She gave some big speech after General Skywalker had brought her to the trial, parts of which he internally agreed with.
The clone rumor-mill was renowned through-out the GAR, and the Coruscant Guard was no different. It just often included the dirty laundry and corruption of senators, GAR officers, and other politicians. It was amazing what Fox would overhear when they thought he wasn't listening or simply just didn't notice him.
So some parts definitely didn't surprise him, but other parts were borderline treasonous, although ultimately it didn't really matter because she committed treason beforehand by blowing a bunch of Jedi up, along with the whole slicing and dicing of his men and the framing of Commander Tano.
How Offee wasn't facing a firing squad for her crimes was beyond Fox, but apparently the Jedi Council convinced the GAR and Senate to let her serve a life sentence instead based on their 'determination' that she wasn't in the right mind when she had committed very severe criminal acts. They had wanted to try and return her to 'peace and balance with the Force', whatever that was supposed to mean.
If it were up to Fox, they'd have one less inmate in the prison system right now. Sadly, it wasn't up to him and mistake after mistake continued to be made as the Republic waded further into the war with no end in sight.
(And who suffered for those mistakes? Those failings? Fox and his brothers did, of course.)
Instead the decision was made by celibate monks that had a code that prevented them from doing what was necessary on the battlefield to achieve victory and a bunch of money-hungry politicians that had probably never used or seen a blaster before.
If you were to ask him (no one asked Fox for his opinion outside of brothers and maybe Senators Amidala or Chuchi, of course), the Jedi were too compassionate to do what needed to be done, while the ruthless politicians that kept the Republic war machine churning didn't hold enough compassion to do what needed to be done.
And Fox knew he couldn't do a single damn thing to change the system or attempt to improve things; make it better to save his brothers from pointless deaths. To do his duty and protect the Republic.
Of course, no one asked him what he thought about what was going on. Questioning orders meant questioning the system that clones fought for, and that meant being called defective and a one-way trip to Kamino.
Fox knew he and every other clone fighting out there right now were ultimately expendable. Barely sentient flesh-droids. Their sole purpose in existence was to fight and die for the Republic after all, wasn't it? Wasn't it?
What was the point of it all?
Fox convinced himself every day while filling out casualty reports that his brothers deaths had meant the Republic was safe for another day; that they meant the Republic was one day closer to the end of the war.
But was it really?
When he saw his men, his brothers, lying there on the cold durasteel floors of the detention center, and a Jedi at the hand of their deaths, he truly didn't know what to think anymore.
The clones had been ingrained on Kamino during their training that the Jedi were essentially their God, second to their unshakable loyalty to the Republic itself, and that they were infallible.
While Fox had never personally had a Jedi General, being in charge of a planet's security led to him seeing many things over his short life.
Crime, corruption, death, and his aim were four things Fox knew would always be constant within Coruscant's vast levels.
Another was that the Jedi weren't quite so untouchable as he once thought; they were capable of making mistakes and being pulled down into the darkness.
What he had witnessed was undeniable proof of that fact. Two more Jedi had lost their way through the war, and the Republic no longer shines as brightly as it used to.
But Fox is a soldier, not a man. He is CC-1010, Commander of the Coruscant Guard.
CC-1010 is loyal to the Republic and follows orders without question nor hesitation.
CC-1010 will not question or pursue matters that are above him.
CC-1010 will maintain law and order in the heart of the Republic.
CC-1010 will fight and lay down his life in service to the Republic.
CC-1010 is a soldier, not a man. He does not question his place or dispute his orders.
CC-1010 is a clone trooper of the Grand Army of the Republic and he will know his place.
Author Notes: If you feel depressed now then I know I wrote this story correctly.
I wanted to write some dark-and-gloomy about Fox and so here it is.
Anyway, as always, feel free to let me know what you thought about this work. Cheers.