May the Fourth be with you!
A shout out to all FanFiction writers out there. No offence to Captain Rex and Obi Wan Kenobi fans.
ARCA Barracks
470 days ABG
Advisors Room
Maze stood hands on hips watching the FUBAR Delta we're making on Mygeeto.
"How long have they been unavailable now."
Advisor one, checked the chrono on his terminal.
"Sixty minutes now."
They have what they went for, what are they bloody playing at?
"The bombardment?"
"Not yet."
"Galactic Marines?"
"Straining at the bit, sir."
Maze's mouth twitched, Advisor Three had a way with words.
"Get Bacara on the line."
"Sir?"
"Bacara!"
"Yes sir."
A few seconds later, he was patched in, then cut off immediately.
"Again." He said.
He was patched in again.
"Commander Bacara?"
"Who the fuck is this?"
"Captain Maze, SOB."
"Well?"
"We have assets on the ground. Repeat assets on the ground."
"Well, they better get the Kriff off because bombardment starts in five."
The holo image wobbled, went fuzzy, they were losing the connection. Maze glared at Advisor Three who made some adjustments. It became clearer and stabilised.
"Any chance…."
"You know fucking better than to ask. Four minutes thirty."
"Yes sir." He cut the link, and paced up and down.
"Sitrep on Delta!"
"Still unavailable— No. Wait. I have RC-1140 on now."
"1140 Sitrep." Maze interrupted.
"Completing retrieval now sir."
There was something about his voice.
"You're cutting it fine. Problem?"
"Just the snow and ice, sir. The usual."
Definitely something happened but they're coming out now.
"Acknowledge. Report in when retrieval complete."
"Yes sir."
"Bombardment commenced, sir." Advisor Four reported.
Come on, come on.
"Exfil complete. Repeat, Delta exfil complete. We're on our way home. Delta out."
"Copy that. RC 1262."
"Advisor Two, Sitrep on Omega?"
"On Republic fleet auxiliary Core Conveyor, en route for Mirial, 2nd Airborne (212th Battalion). Omega squad prepping for drop on Gaftikar, sir."
"N12 already planet side, in contact. Still no contact from A-30, sir."
Maze paced.
What the hell are you doing Sull?
"That's all, sir."
There was nothing more he could do here, and the General wasn't around. Maze completed his report on his datapad and sent it to the General. Now he needed to get out of here.
He commed Essie to say he would be on his way but late.
She didn't reply.
.
Essie's Apartment
Essie stretched out on the sofa, one of Sol's pastries on a plate on the side table and a rather large glass of fizzy wine of indeterminate quality in her hand; Sol insisted on taking Del for the night, saying she looked tired and needed some personal time, Maze time, whichever, and as much as she loved her son, it was good to have some time to recharge her batteries and do what she wanted, when she wanted. It was busy at the library, with the Chancellor's exhibits and the influx of new students. She had hoped Maze was free but he hadn't called by 18:00, so he was tied up and she couldn't contact him. Something about security, he said, so she would definitely be relaxing.
She slapped on a meilooran extract face pack, opened her datapad on her reading programme and scrolled down. An updated chapter dropped in earlier, a long chapter by the number of words in the message but it would give her face pack time to work. She adjusted the cushions, settled down and opened up the message. She skimmed the preview, backtracked a few chapters to catch up, then immersed herself in the story again. It all came back, the last one was a cliff hanger—the lovers hiding out in a cave overnight and it was cold, freezing. There was no tent and only one sleeping bag.
Essie read quickly, smiling to herself; it took her away from the cares of the current war. She had stumbled upon this site when she was pregnant and couldn't train, as much as she liked; it helped, whisking her away from her worries.
This story looked at people that both fascinated and scared her —the Jedi. But it had pulled her in.
She took a bite out of the pastry and followed it with a slug of the wine, reading all the time.
"Stang! This authors good — so descriptive, totally immersive." She said aloud, she could almost feel the 'ice cold water dripping down the walls of the cave and the roof elongating the stalactites molecule by molecule.' She read on.
The door opened and she dropped her pastry.
"Damn!" She'd just got to a good bit. She wasn't expecting anyone and Sol would have commed her if there was a problem with Del.
"Maze!"
She adjusted her top, it had ridden up as she lay and was now covered in crumbs.
"What the bloody hell is that on your face?" his voice was modulated, he still had his helmet on.
He pulled it off; he didn't normally do public displays of affection in her corridor, and leaned down to place a peck on her cheek, but stopping to stare at the gunk on her face. She ducked.
"The General gave me the night off but then there was a problem."
"Meiluran face mask."
His eyebrow quirked upwards, as he decided not to comment.
"Jan's offline. Your neighbour let me up."
JAN1T0r had been offline for a few days, something to do with the new Security Laws passed by the Senate. Previously Maze automatically entered her space after being passed by Jan, his details given by Essie; but before that he had always waited to be invited in. He placed his helmet on the small table near the door, next to her bags on the floor and coats on hooks.
"I wasn't expecting you. You hungry?"
"I commed you to say I'd be late." he couldn't take his eyes off the bright pink goo on her face.
"Sorry I had it on mute."
He considered that, as he walked further in and removed his pauldron and Kama, then the rest of his armour, leaving it in a neat pile in the corner. It always felt wrong to wear it inside in her home. He paused, for a second, wondering when he started thinking that way.
"I haven't disturbed Del, have I?"
"No he's with Sol and Nat. Being spoiled—again." She handed him a plate piled with the pastries. "You can take some for your General and Jab but I didn't think he liked these. No red fruit in them— savoury. I'll pack them up. Sol's left me plenty. I think, she thinks I'm starving."
He snorted at the thought; he'd seen how much she ate, although he had to admit it was all good food, no Osik in there.
"Jab'll eat what he's given." Maze muttered.
She finally wiped her face with a cloth and he pulled her to him, they were inside now, he claimed her lips and she responded, still smelling of meiluran fruit, then he pulled away, dropping his forehead to hers. They had all night, no need to rush. But they still hadn't done a quickie in an alley yet. One day he would hold her to that.
"Glad you removed that…stuff from your face."
She grinned, "I saw you looking."
"What's this?" He picked up the glass of the pink fizzy liquid and sniffed. "Ah." Some fizzy chemical concoction with alcohol, artificial sweeteners and colours. Apart from the occasional glass of gin, which she enjoyed, he had not seen her drink anything else other than caf.
"A gift from a grateful new student." She explained. "Caf?"
"Yes please."
He watched her, as she walked to the kitchen, a slight sway of hips as she walked. Ne'tra had been right, this feeling was as good as it gets, as good as a fight. No wonder Fett never elaborated on it; it could be distracting. He spoke of it as something that needed to be worked through to maintain efficiency; that didn't help him or any other clone who found themselves in a relationship.
'In a relationship'. He never thought he would say those words about himself.
He slumped onto the sofa and absentmindedly picked up her datapad, it was on her reading programme, he wondered what she was studying this time. Her research process fascinated him, there appeared to be no logic to it but she saw links in tiny slivers of text which took her down a totally different avenue, leading to unexpected conclusions.
He read a few lines, one eyebrows raised; this wasn't research. It was fiction, he hoped. He read further. His other eyebrow joined the first. It was a little racy, he read a few more sentences, no almost pornographic. Belay that—it was descriptively pornographic. He clicked back to the beginning, it had an explicit warning, she had deliberately chosen to read this. He felt a slight heat to his cheeks. It shouldn't make any difference but he had never thought that she would read or watch anything like this, even though they did most of it themselves.
"What'ya looking at?" She asked, sounding like Nat, sometimes she used some of his verbal mannerisms, as she handed him his caf, sliding down the back of the sofa to sit next to him.
"Whatever you're reading."
"No! Give it back." She demanded, knowing immediately what he was looking at, she had left it switched on when he came in. A flush rose up her neck. She lunged forward but he was quicker and had a longer reach. He pulled it out of her way, his arm above his head, the datapad in his hand.
"I had no idea General Kenobi was that flexible, and Commander Cody— he's not blind. He would read the couple's body language and deduce what they were up to."
He had read it.
Maze tried to find out who the author was but it was a user name, which implied they were Kenobi's greatest fan. Jedi fans? He continued to hold it out of her reach.
"Who thought that he would be in love with one of the New Mandalorians, a pacifist. Jedi are supposed to have no attachments." He said, although he knew that wasn't working out so well in some cases. "So tell me what exactly is this?"
Essie stood back, her face flushed; she had been caught out. When Maze asked her what she did when she wasn't training, researching, or looking after Del, she said she read fiction. She didn't elaborate on what type of fiction.
He read a few more paragraphs, as he waited for a reply.
"In a cave? Really?" His eyebrows raised again.
He scrolled down further, trying not to smile.
"Only one sleeping bag, they managed to lose the other?" His voice incredulous. He read further. "Tsk!Tsk!" He shook his head.
"And he uses the force. I don't think the Jedi Council would approve. Inappropriate use of the Force."
He smiled as he read further.
"That's tame compared to some." She offered.
"Really? You still haven't told me what exactly it is?"
"It's a fan site where people put their own stories. They won't get into trouble will they?"
"Fans of the Jedi. I've heard of those."
Some kind of cult.
"And clone troopers." Essie added.
His head shot up.
"Fans. Of clones."
He ignored the fact she was now sitting astride him. Looking over her shoulder, he held the datapad where she couldn't reach it and took a bite of his pastry, as he scrolled down the search page, on the fiction site.
"We have our own fans?" He muttered.
"It would appear so." She said nonchalantly, pretending she hadn't read through some of the stories looking for his name. He wasn't there.
Maze entered the story list and scrolled through the entries but couldn't find anything relating to SOB.
"So is this their job, the authors?"
"No. They do it for free, for fun."
"I can think of better things to do. Do you read it for fun?"
"Obviously." She was feeling a little interrogated.
"Look." She leant nearer to him and touched another icon, the datapad between them now. "The 501st has quite a following, especially Captain Rex. I think it's the blonde hair."
The next screen was filled with image after image of clones, marching, fighting, resting after a battle, and there was Captain Rex, helmet tucked under his arm, in all his blonde glory walking next to General Skywalker and the General's Togrutan padawan beside him. He watched her face, as she looked at Captain Rex, a twinge of jealousy curled in his stomach, despite where she sat.
"It's dyed."
"What? His hair?"
"Yes."
"No…I don't believe it."
"We've all got black hair."
"What about Gree?"
Damn! She remembered Gree's red hair.
"Jealous?" She smiled.
"So how did they get these?" He ignored her question.
"Probably from HNN broadcasts, especially after 79's opened." she looked at the images, distracted by Captain Rex's hair again.
This wasn't HNN footage, or official GAR footage; it was hand held, professional and there were no other icons. He looked closely, the number of views was enormous. She pressed another icon; he frowned, he wanted to find out who took the footage. It actually presented an image of the clones as men, men who fought, were injured and died. A true picture.
He was surprised this was let out in the public domain; some people did not want the clones to be seen as sentient, it was too close to home. He returned to the other site, magnifying the 501st images and finding the ID print copyright. It would show him who had taken the footage—Cori Lok. He was going to check up on her.
"And you can even buy tops with some of the images on." Essie interrupted his thoughts and went to another site
"Who wants to walk around with one of those on?"
"Quite a few people by the looks of it."
"People buy them?"
"Yep."
He shook his head in disbelief, he could not understand some mongrels.
"Are you one of those?"
"I'm a fan of you." She smiled.
A thought crossed his mind.
"Did you write any of this?"
"What? Me? No!"
"I saw this one," he read out the title slowly, "My Boyfriend's A Clone."
"Hey give it here." She leaned against him again.
This time he got a face full of breast and the appropriate message went to his groin.
"Are you sure?" He pulled away and continued to hold it out of her reach, eventually climbing over the back of the sofa and backing away from her. "You still haven't told me."
She jumped up to reach it, and missed.
"Did you write 'My Boyfriend's A Clone.'?"
"No!" She jumped again.
"Need to practice your box jumps." He backed further away towards the bedroom.
"You're …."
"What? What am I?" He backed away further, grinning.
"Infuriating!" She finished as they reached the bed and Maze flopped backwards on it pulling her with him. He dropped the datapad on the floor. Essie checked it quickly, as he started to pull the last pieces of his armour off.
She pulled at his body suit; it always sounded as if it was ripping as she pulled it apart ready to pull down.
"Perhaps I should write one. One where I explain, exactly how to remove a clone's armour, piece by piece. And how to undo a body suit."
"Don't do that, ever. It's dangerous." His eyes blazed.
She leant back, she couldn't understand the look on his face. But she sensed something from him and it wasn't good.
"I would never do that. I would never do anything to put you in danger."
Maze pulled her down to him, the expression on his face deadly serious and holding her tight. "It wouldn't put me in danger, but it may put you in danger and all your family. Promise me you won't ever do it."
He looked so serious.
"I promise." She whispered, her mouth next to his ear. He was still holding her tight. She sucked at his ear lobe, he pulled away, she kissed along his jaw, his bristles tickling.
"So Del's at Sol and Nat's all night?" He asked.
"All night."
"And your shoulder's fully recovered?" He pulled her top up and over. It landed somewhere in the bedroom.
"Huh—huh."
His hands were undoing her bra, it ended up somewhere near her top. He brushed his thumbs across her nipples, as she watched him. She'd fallen for him, hook, line and sinker, as they used to say, on old fishing worlds.
She shuffled down pulling at his lower body suit and underwear. She threw them behind her. He smiled as she sat on him, hands on her hips.
"What now?" He asked.
"That's up to you, you're reading the book."
She could feel him getting aroused underneath her; she pressed down to feel more. She always wanted more of him but there was this niggling thought that there was going to be a limit on how much he could give. She would take whatever he felt able to.
He pulled her down to him by the neck, kissing her hard, his tongue forcing hers around her mouth, she lifted her hips, he lined himself up and thrust up. They gasped at the suddenness of it. She felt his hands on her backside, as she rose back up giving herself time to adjust, before rolling her hips. Their eyes locked as they moved together.
His hands moved in tandem with her, one on her breasts the other, where they joined. Her hands roamed his chest as she braced herself chasing the pleasure that was relentlessly building up even in this short time. She forced her eyes open, he was still watching her. His hands steadied her now, her movements erratic until she finally cried out, pushing down, as the pleasure washed over her.
She was lying on him, when he whispered, "My turn." He twisted them over, grabbing her by the wrists to push her arms above her head, and pushed in again. She automatically brought her legs up, bracing against his thrusts; his eyes locked with hers until the last few seconds, when he groaned into her neck, before kissing her hard and desparately.
.
"You should see some of the sites that are supposedly championing clone rights." Essie said as she lay in his arms, their sweat drying, scrolling down the datapad page.
"That's never going to happen."
"That's depressing Maze, if even you don't think it will ever happen. What if we…I wanted more."
"I'd find a way. But that's not going to happen for every clone, not without a fight."
"I was just going to show you this." she said quietly, opening up a site, and showing him some messages.
"Looks like a bloody match making service." he muttered.
"Oops sorry. Old one." she opened another. "I was going to join this one, to help."
"One not enough?" He said remembering the old site; it came out harsher than he meant.
"Maze?"
"I'm sorry." he checked through the site, "It's not a good idea. Not at the moment with all the new security measures Palpatine's implementing."
"Yes. It's getting intense on that front. Many people aren't happy about it, feeling it intrudes on their private life."
"Only if they've got something to hide."
"Hmm."
"You don't agree with it?" he asked.
"It's just….. a lot has happened in a short time and it's all backed by the Senate, which is…."
"The democratic process."
"Yes, but we know how Palps manipulated himself into power and…"
"You think he's doing it again?"
"Yes. But for the best reasons…..probably."
"I agree." Maze had decided, he didn't like Palpatine, the man, but he was the duly elected Chancellor; Maze respected the democratic process and would abide by it.
He pulled Essie closer, sometimes he only wanted to live in the moment.
.
Mereel checked over the recordings; Maze hadn't been to the apartment until last night. He had almost come to the conclusion that there was nothing between them. Then he saw last night's recording.
"Fekking hell!"
And there was a lot of Fekking.
He watched them on the sofa, then they went to the bedroom. Mereel shook his head, Maze was letting her do all the work, not that he had anything against that particular position.
He watched the couple, it was intimate, passionate, not something he associated with Maze and they knew each other well because they talked, talked a lot, about politics?
"Takes all sorts." He muttered. "They'd better watch what they're saying." It wasn't treasonous yet…..but it could easily be manipulated.
Then it went quiet, as they looked at a datapad. He pressed fast forward, Devro went to the fresher. Maze got up and waited for her, just outside the fresher.
"Ready for action again, ner vod?"
Maze was surprisingly strong, agile and inventive; Ms Devro was muscular in a way he hadn't expected and she obviously trusted Maze, he wasn't being held in a stranglehold, and was barely even pressing her up against the wall, his upper body strength was tremendous. Mereel could see when they finished, they both leant against the wall for support.
Mereel breathed out.
Mereel was no stranger to the holo porn genre but this was more, much more, more intimate. They cared for each other, even he could see that.
Then Ms Devro said something and pointed to the window; Mereel watched as Maze stalked over straight to the main nano camera. It had always been a bit of a punt that it would be found, and the others now. Ms Devro had suddenly gone shy and pulled a wrap on, as Maze's thumb and forefinger filled the screen, then his voice.
"If this goes anywhere, I will find you. There will be nowhere in the galaxy where you will be safe and I will kill you, very painfully, very slowly."
The screen went black.
.
"Ordo. My days off grid. I have something. Where are you?"
His brother's clipped tone replied, "Bes'ika's. Is this urgent?"
That explained the delay in picking up the com.
"Yes."
There was a pause.
"Okay. Come over."
Mereel waited ten minutes; he had decided it wouldn't look good if he got there in thirty seconds but waited patiently at the door, perhaps they thought they would have longer.
"We've ordered," Agent Wennen said, as he walked in. She looked her normal immaculate self whilst Ordo looked a little —flushed. Maybe she just had that effect on him. Mereel smiled.
"Thank you. I never say no to food."
"You never say 'no', Mer'ika." Ordo replied.
Agent Wennen's eyes flicked between the two clones seeing some kind of brotherly banter there.
Mereel started the playback, after giving his rationale for taking it. No one said a word, there was a short cough from Ordo at one point but they were all civilised about it.
"So this Devro, is she a threat?" He asked.
"She's in love with him." Replied Agent Wennen. "No correction. They're in love."
The brothers both turned to look at her, inviting an explanation.
"It's obvious." She shrugged.
.
A/N.
Cori Lok – is Aggy72's OC in a brilliant fic on AO3. "Stories". It follows Captain Rex and the 501st. Unfortunately FFN won't let me upload a link.