Year five passed uneventfully for Aliit squad, other than gaining a few more inches and the training ramping up. They grew closer as a squad, even though Cody still tended to function as an outsider. They found that it worked for them, though, once they were moved into a new barracks with even more squads present. They all knew that everyone wouldn't get alone and used Cody's stealth skills and Appo's scouting talents. None of the other squads were ever able to pull any pranks on Aliit squad and soon left them alone. Aliit squad, however, did not leave everyone else alone.
"We are the top dogs here," Wolffe pointed out over breakfast early into their sixth year. A few tables over, one of the younger cadets was gesturing wildly while explaining his green hair.
"Doesn't mean you have to resort to childish pranks," Cody focused on his food, face as blank as ever. Although Alpha was the official leader of their squad, more often than not they turned to Cody for guidance.
"Oh come on, we needed to throw the scientists off our trail. Reverting to rookie pranks was a good strategy," Fox glared at Cody, but there was no real heat behind it.
"Green hair though?" Cody glanced at Alpha, lips twitching slightly.
"None of us have green on our stuff," Alpha shrugged, looking proud of himself. They had been encouraged at the beginning of year six to start developing a squad identity as well as a personal identity. Seeing as all of them were being fast tracked to leadership roles, having markings or a color to mark themselves with was allowed. Out of all of them, only Cody was sticking with the yellow-orange of their training gear. Appo was really into blue right now, although the colors often changed, Alpha was using a dusty orange, Fox used red and Wolffe had a nice steel grey.
"If you get caught again, I won't bail you out," Cody shrugged before going back to his food.
"That's the fun-loving Codster that we all know," Wolffe chuckled, nudging Appo with his elbow. "One of these days he'll join the prank war."
"I think you should be glad he hasn't," Appo gestured at his brother with his spoon. "No one would be safe."
"He wouldn't prank us," Fox laughed then glanced at Cody. "Would you?"
Cody just shrugged, but there was an evil gleam in his eyes that did not sit well with the other four. He sat up instead, pushing his tray away, "They're grouping our training with a few other squads now."
"Why would they want to do that?" Alpha frowned, pushing the last of his food around.
Cody pulled out his data reader, handing it over for the others to see their new schedule, "We aren't the only squads they're fast tracking. Better use of resources if they have all of us in one space. We aren't the only ones this is happening to. They're starting to build up towards the battalions right now. Might as well get all the officers working together."
"Anyone fun?" Wolffe glanced over the screen.
"No, all the other squads are from other barracks, "Fox tapped the screen. "Looks like we're moving again too."
"Last time," Cody nodded. "This one is the last stop before graduation."
"Splitting us up, too," Appo frowned. "Alpha and Wolffe to Commander's training, Fox and me to lower officers and Cody to Captain's? That's bullshit."
"You said they were looking at you to lead all of us," Alpha crossed his arms. "You were the best candidate."
"No one has been picked yet. Plus, this obviously is payback for the incident in the labs last week," Cody smirked. "I go for the bigger fishes, like to make a bigger splash. Its all part of the plan, no worries."
"This plan of yours for galaxy domination is really starting to worry me, brother," Fox shook his head. "You might actually pull it off."
"You actually doubted me, Fox? I'm hurt," Cody held a hand to his heart before looking serious. "Now, this is a good time to make connections. The more brothers who think like us the better when we hit planetside in a few years."
"Same goes for you, Mr. Anti-social," Alpha gave him a playful shove before grabbing his tray and standing. "Lets go make friends!"
Aliit Squad
"When I said make friends, I meant nicely," Alpha handed an ice pack to Wolffe while Cody pressed a bacta pad to Fox's knuckles.
"We were nice," Wolffe gave a little smile. "Not my fault first day in they had us do hand-to-hand with guys outside our squads."
"Thire got in a few hits, too," Fox shrugged. "Tomorrow we're gonna compare notes on pranking. He had a few suggestions for the delivery of our next one."
"So they made friends," Cody shook his head. "If we ever get into a real battle, I fear for our enemies."
"I saw Appo talking to someone, too, so all of us were successful in our squad missions today but Cody," Fox shot a victorious smirk at his brother.
"Jesse wanted some tips on improving his aim. Seems his squad is of the same mind as us. Jesse and Thire are in the same batch," Appo nodded. "One of his brother's is in scout training, another is just a trooper and there was one more in officer training."
"So Appo is being social," Alpha broke the silence after Appo's statement. "There's always time for firsts, I guess. I mean, Cody didn't make any enemies, so we're sitting pretty well by our standards."
"Actually," Cody started but the door to the barracks slid open and five other clones walked in. The one in the front looked livid, face slightly red and all of his focus on Cody. The other four trailed along behind, one in particular looking rather annoyed. Another waved at them and Appo waved back. Wolffe nudged Fox and the two of them smirked at the annoyed looking one.
Alpha turned to Cody, raising an eyebrow, "What did you do?"
"I tried to make friends, like you said we should do," Cody shrugged. "Didn't end well."
"Whatever he did, we apologize for," Fox stood up, holding the bacta patch to his knuckles.
The first guy stopped a few feet short of them, crossing his arms, "I don't care about that asshole, it's the jerks that beat up my brothers that I have a beef with right now."
"We told you already, they didn't do it on purpose," annoyed guy sighed as he stepped up to stand next to the angry one. The guy who had waved stood a little behind them as the other two moved to sit on a bench across from Aliit's space.
"As you can see, they got banged up as well," the friendly one pointed out with a smirk.
"Yeah, Thire even gave me a black eye," Wolffe stood, pulling the eye pack off his eye to show off the growing shiner.
"You do know that the medical officers could take care of those," annoyed raised an eyebrow at them.
"Guys, the ever friendly guy is Thire and I'm going to assume the one who was nice to Appo is Jesse," Fox gestured to the clones in turn.
"Mr. Bossy is Rex, our squad leader," Jesse spoke up. "Those two losers over there are Stak and Sinker. Your turn."
"I'm Appo; black eye is Wolffe; bruised knuckles is Fox; over protective is our fearless leader, Alpha; and the guy Rex seems to hate is Cody," Appo gestured to Aliit squad in turn. "We make up the ever lovely Aliit squad."
"We're Blue Squad," Thire nodded to them. "Not sure what your brother did to Rex, but whatever it was pissed him off. Ignore him, it's probably nothing. Looks like we're barrack buddies."
"Hey, no getting friendly with the enemy here," Rex snapped at his squad, pointing a finger at Cody. "He's an asshole."
"I did apologize," Cody shrugged at Alpha, who was not looking amused at all, unlike the other seven.
"You're suppose to be the responsible one here," Alpha sighed, shaking his head.
Cody cocked his head to the side, "No, I'm the one with the galaxy domination plan. Responsible is not a part of that."
"No, that's not how this works," Alpha turned to face Cody. "You agreed that galaxy domination comes after we end this war, not before. You shook on it and everything."
"But galaxy domination is so much easier," Cody flopped back down on their bench. "I don't have to factor in social behaviors and sentient emotions into it."
"Just because you somehow missed the part of training that covers normal etiquette does not mean you get to just skip over running this army," Fox threw the bacta patch at Cody. "Now apologize to the very nice brother here so we can socialize with the others not been called traitor every time we cross his path."
"But I already did," Cody huffed. "Even ask Skirata. He was there!"
"Skirata laughed his ass off and wasn't even helpful," Rex snarled, looking even tenser. "Your brother's got a screw loose up in his head and not in a good way."
"Watch it, di'kut, or your face will meet my fist," Alpha snapped, stepping forward threateningly.
"Whoa, cool it guys!" Jesse moved between the two, holding up his hands. "Rex has some issues with his brain to mouth filter. Also, he has anger issues. As in he gets angry instead of every other emotion he should be feeling. We're working on it, but progress is slow. It helps that we're using real explosives now. I'm sure he meant what he said in a good way?"
"Right, like when Wolffe calls Fox a shabuir after he royally messes up in sims. He's just over worried about Fox and doesn't want him to fail," Appo nodded, stepping forward as well.
"No, I want him to fail," Rex glared at Cody, who stood and cracked his knuckles menacingly.
"You are making my brothers angry," Cody said softly, eyes never leaving Rex. "I don't like it when they're angry. Things tend to catch on fire or find their way into trash compactors, if you catch my drift."
"Perfectly, asshole," Rex growled before turning on his heel before stalking over to his part of the barracks. Jesse shrugged at Appo sadly and followed after.
"Well, nice meeting you guys," Thire looked a little uncomfortable. "We still on for putting dye in C blocks shampoo tomorrow?"
"You know it," Wolffe smiled a little too happily. "We'll work on Cody, as long as you take care of your guy. No promises if he's rude to one of ours again."
"No hard feelings," Thire nodded, glancing at Cody. "Never seen him this angry before. Get the deets and tell me tomorrow."
"Sure thing," Fox raised a thumb up as Thire walked away before all four rounded on Cody.
"What did you do?" Alpha snapped.
"I called Rex a spineless worm after I kicked his ass in hand-to-hand today," Cody shrugged. "I also may had called him pathetic when I scored better in the range. I was being nice about it though. I promised I'd go easy tomorrow and that's when he completely lost it."
"Cody, calling people names is not being nice," Fox sighed. "We've been over this."
"After supper, we are going to Blue Squad and saying exactly what I tell you to," Alpha moved towards his locker. "We don't need those guys starting a war with us because of this."
"How is it that out of all of us, Cody causes the most trouble on the first day?" Wolffe followed Alpha, the other two following along. They all completely missed Cody glancing at Rex and Rex giving a thumbs up back, looking particularly victorious. They're poor brothers wouldn't know what to do tomorrow when they woke up with all of their clothes missing tomorrow. Honestly, how could Cody not be friends with the guy who almost bested him in hand-to-hand? It wasn't his fault that it was really easy to persuade his brothers that he had made an enemy the first day. Oh well, they're loss. Or curse.