"Rex. . To. Kill. Me"
Those were the words out Leia's mouth. Not whether or not Din and Paz were okay. Not if there was any more danger that could possibly happen. Only the sheer important fact that Rex was going to inflict filicide. Leia's tone was that matter of fact, seeing the impending doom about to happen. The kind one knows is coming, it is inescapable and once should simply accept that.
"Ya sound so sure of that, Aruetii." Paz huffed, stomping his feet experimentally.
"She's a pessimist, vod." Din commented, still half laying in the dirt.
"No no you don't understand. Rex is going to kill me!" Leia gestured wildly. Arms outgrown to encompass the sheer size of the disaster. "It's not pessimistic if it's true!"
Din tilted his head to the right. In his own way looking at her and questioning Leia's sanity the only way he knew how.
Silently.
"It's a ship." Paz commented gruffly, right hand adjusting the gauntlet on his left. "Aren't you like the best mechanic in the sector?"
"The outer rim. I'm the best mechanic on the outer rim." Leia huffed, body sagging in resignation. "But even I can't fix this." She gestured at the debris field that lay along the eve of the canyon wall.
Din gestured his hands, telling her she was an di'kut.
"Oh shut up, Djarin." The sole female huffed back, hands searching her pockets for a comm unit. "It's not like your buir isn't gonna kill you two either."
"Ja'ar told us to take an easy bounty." Paz tapped the back of his fist to Din's pauldron. "Get up."
"That still doesn't solve your problem." Leia huffed, coughing at the dust that rolled upwards as she sat in the sandy dirt.
The planet the three found themselves on was a small forgotten dustball with little to no influence of any kind that wasn't smuggler, hunter, or sentient beings trying to stay off the radar. There was only a single imperial garrison, one too small to do anything about the influx of criminals.
"Come on then. We can still do our job." Paz nudged his boot into Din's side, as he headed in the direction of the last town.
"How?!" Leia called after the two. "I think I saw half an engine four clicks to the south. You can't even get your bounty to the right people!"
"There's still local jobs to be done and we might be able to get a new ship. Coming Aruetii?"
*|~ Alorir'ika~|*
Cody liked his job dammit.
It was nice and quiet, slow in a way that he really never experienced. He didn't have to coordinate thousands of troop movements and fleet movements and make sure that the fleet general was taking care of himself. He didn't have to deal with out of control generals on the front lines and their troops. He didn't have to barter and trade troops with Coursant's homeguards. Fighting with brothers over who got what company and leave and equipment requests.
Cody didn't have to do any of those things. And he liked that.
He liked his routines and being able to start the day at 0300 with the weekly inspection and then the morning drills. Then a few hours managing the paperwork and the requisition forms and supplies. A break for lunch and another walk through to make sure that nothing had happened, checking on the troops again, before heading back to the desk to finish more paperwork. And finally shut down and leave at 2500 for the night.
Anyone else would have been bored out of their mind, aching to go do a patrol or be stationed somewhere else. Somewhere with action and firefights and adventure.
Cody did not mind.
Not after Umbara.
There were a lot of things Cody didn't mind doing now. Things he told himself to be happy in as he focused on his mundane drag.
Where once the Clones had numbered in the billions as they were the only ones in the GAR, now it was hard to find even one or two. Clones that survived and served during those last few hours of the Republic were shuttled off, picked over in favor of natborn troops. Men with less capable training and experience; who ended up being used as cannon fodder. Cody couldn't bear to watch as he lost more and more brothers as the years had gone by.
So when the Supreme Commander had sent Cody and a few dozen loyal troops to an old abandoned outpost, the former Marshal Commander went. It was everything that Cody needed and craved (needed to be away the same way someone needed to breathe) in those days. It was as far from a hot zone as he could get without deserting his post.
But today would not be another boring day.
If anything, it was to be a catalyst to Cody's life. A revolution of his ideals, converging and forming and shifting until finally there was nothing more but a complete and total transformation by the end.
*|~ Alorir'ika~|*
As Cody walked through the bullpen in the front of the building right after the midday meal, he was subject to a pair of men haul a small tiny teenager through the front door. Something about her made the clone pause.
There was nothing about her that Cody knew he had seen before. She wasn't one of the locals, nor had she been to the Garrison before. But something made him stop and observe the skinny thing.
She was fighting like a wet nexu kit, snarling pointedly as she attempted to yank herself backwards through the doors. Brown hair lay in an utter disarray, caked in mud and other foul things. Her clothes weren't in much better condition.
"Get your karking gaans off me!" She screeched, eyes wild and defiant. "Brokar gar shebse akay haili cetaure!"
Cody paused in the shadowed entrance of the inner hallway and thought about turning around and keep going.
Maybe his office would be a strategically sound spot until this whole thing was over? Then again, Cody eyed the skinny womp-rat dripping in the middle of his lobby, it would be the first place the men would look for him.
Before Cody could even make his choice, one of his officers caught sight of him. "Sir!"
Oh the former Marshall wished that second-lieutenant Barses wasn't quite so good at her job. Normally, he quite enjoyed the Second-Lieutenant and her ability to catch even the slightest change and minute details, but not today. Cody did not want to have to deal with that spiny wrestling nexu in his bullpen at all cost. If it had been anyone else, Cody knew he could have slipped away, but contrary to popular belief, Barses was not the one incharge of the day-to-day going-ons in the bullpen, Cody just didn't care enough to enforce every little rule around the garrison.
"What do you have, 2Lt?" He asked, skirting the still happening snarling match in the middle of the floor.
"Just the usual for the most part, until we found this one" Barses nodded her chin at the fiasco. She looked down at the data pad in her hand. "The report included unsanctioned prevalence and usage of military grade jetpacks, six cases of property damage, two cases being the cause and in the middle of vehicular collisions, four cases of unlawful trespassing, one case of underage drinking and possible illegal smoking, being of underage unsaid commercial property where she was seen actively consuming said illegal drinks."
In the background the tiny girl managed to slip an arm free, wedged her knee upwards until she was capable of kicking the troop that had let go of her in the sternum and flung herself backwards, flipping the one still holding onto her.
Barses grabbed an input terminal and dryly added as she typed. "And finally two cases of assault on Imperial military personnel. "What should we do with her, Commander?"
Sometimes Cody really wished that things would just stay quiet. He liked the quiet After. Today was definitely one of those days. The commander looked at Barses (oh how she reminded him of one of his brothers with being able to handle 90 things simultaneously. The woman was long overdue for a promotion, but oh how he dreaded to lose her skills in the eventual transfer.) and tried to block the noise of several men trying to wrangle cuffs on the prickly little nexu.
Except….
Cody happened to glance up just at the moment when the skinny little thing managed to flip herself between two men, dodged a third, slipped a wrist free of a fourth in a twirly spin-flip that would have for sure dislocated at the very least a shoulder and threw an excellent (if he had to judge) uppercut to a fifth.
The whole time, in the back of his mind, Cody recognized that she had perfect footwork and form. The kind that was highly specialized with the ARC troopers and their training.
Oh, Kriffin' hell if the Shebse who raised her wasn't hot on her tail.
"Put her in a cell and let her cool her heels for the night." Cody fought the impulse to rub that knot of tension that used to form when he had to deal with his karking nerd of a brother and his out of control everything.
"Hopefully a guardian will be around to pick her up and deal with her then, 2LT."
"Yessir." Barses drolly told him, tapping away. "Will that be all sir, or is there anything else?"
Cody eyed the small meek looking woman, knowing that underneath the layers of prim and proper imperial training, he was being severally sassed.
"Yes that will-" Cody happened to glance up at the girl just as she was yanked through the hallway. "Get her a change of clothes as well, Barses. I'm not sure if we have anything her size but try to aim for close to it."
"Right away sir." Barses continued to tap, fielding the endless calls and messages and other logistical duties effortlessly in a way that Cody knew he would have nightmares about if she wasn't around to handle them.
Translations
Aruetii: outsider
Gaans; hands
Brokar; to beat
Gar; your
Shebse: asses
Akay; until
Haili cetaure; you enjoy it
Aka; I'll beat you until you enjoy it