Dabbing some water out of his hair Lip walked out of the shower, happy to finally be clean and naked, so different from the sweat, blood and usual encumbrance of his armour.
Outside he found the other three busy doing maintenance to their gear, all shooting him a quick nod before returning to the work. Lip smiled. Wrench and Cutter wore the classic look of clone soldiers, brown hair cut short, brown eyes, sharp features and clean shaves. Lip would have looked just like them if he hadn't let his hair grow a little and dye it purple. Of course, he still had the same face, but all of them were unique in one way or another, Wrench had that miniscule scar over his eyebrow, Cutter had a chipped tooth...
There were also the easier ways to tell them apart, the way Wrench always leant back a little whatever he did...and how Cutter slouched, as if halfway into a combat stance. Still, it was nice to stand out a little, to be an individual, even if it was just an illusion.
Of course Fourth had no problem with that. First of all he was bald, the many scars criss-crossing his head apparently enough to stop any further growth of it since Lip had never seen him shave it. His skin was patchy at best, pale burn marks spread across his head, as if he had caught a flurry of blaster shots with it. It wasn't unusual for clone troopers to sport scars of course...but Fourth had somehow managed to gather enough for a platoon. The only thing still showing that he was a clone was the features that hadn't been ruined by scars and burns...and the usual brown eyes.
Eyes glaring at him. Uh oh... "Report."
Keeping the towel around his neck Lip widened his stance and put his hands behind his back. It felt silly doing it in the nude...but Fourth had never much cared about his comfort. "Not much to tell really sir, that twi'lek went to talk to Ned, who by the way-"
"I said report, not gossip." Fourth growled, scowling at him.
"Erm, right..." Lip mentally slapped himself, such stuff was for Cutter, not Mr tough. "Well as I said Ned is going through the mission with Boc Fac. I guided the padawan a little further but she was too tired to continue, asked me about our names though."
Fourth squinted at him, muscles tensing under the tight red uniform he wore. Aw, not again!
Wrench acted quicker though. "Lazy ass jedi, a small combat drop and they're exhausted? What's up with that?"
"You're not that quick on your feet after that either." Cutter muttered, his hands busy rubbing down a now clean suit of armour. The thing was chipped and scorched at places, as well as the shoulders plates being painted in an all too familiar shade of green. "And it's a reasonable question."
At least that seemed to soothe Fourth down a little, though he was still scowling at Lip. Wrench snorted: "Sure it is, if one cares, jedis don't, not really." He made a great show out of slamming a clip into his DC-17, eyeing the mechanism with a scowl. "Besides, jedi means trouble."
Fourth grunted in agreement even as Lip took the opportunity to move to his locker and retrieve an uniform, his movement mechanical as he pulled it on. He shot the barrack a sad look. It really was depressing, twenty beds stretched out before them in two rows with a small path between them...but there were only four inhabitants left, making for an eerie atmosphere at times. He missed the others...
"Have you checked the mission brief yet sarge?" He finally asked, unable to conceal his curiosity. Not that he wanted to show it too much...he moved for his now washed armour, giving his purple shoulder plates a a playful punch. "Oh geez...there's sludge in the crevices between the plates and undersuit! What the hell Cutter!?"
"Hey, you asked me to wash it, not clean it, it's your own armour you know." The man muttered in reply, smiling ever so slightly as he put his now pristine armour aside and moved for his gun, the thing still covered in enough sludge to make the armoury master get a stroke.
Fourth grunted as he checked his own armour with small efficient moves, as always making sure the strap around that droid-head he carried around was secured against the left shoulder plate. "I skimmed over the briefing, haven't had time to read through it properly though." The sergeant grimaced into the air, hands tightening around the strap until the leather creaked.
"And?" Lip prodded, testing his luck.
For a moment it seemed as if Fourth wouldn't answer, or hit Lip...then he simply shrugged. "Standard jedi bull." He rolled his eyes, something he seldom did. "Capture mission." He grunted, pulling the leather a little tauter than necessary. "Fate of the galaxy, horrible odds...standard idiocy."
Wrench groaned. "Capture? Anyone worthy of capture is in the doid bases, and we can't get in there." He shook his head. "Why don't they just bring in a fleet and bomb the crap out of the pinpointed base? Why capture of all things?"
"Like they would bring a fleet here." Fourth growled, bitter as ever. "And jedi don't do killing." He snorted.
"That's what they say." Wrench muttered while tossing himself backwards, gently landing on his bed with his hands behind his head. "It doesn't seem to work that often though, shame that Anakin kid isn't here, I hear he's a little more logical about things. Well...for a jedi."
"Hey ease up, they haven't done anything to earn our hostility yet." Lip tried, a little annoyed with how things were going. "You guys are too worried."
"Yet being the operative word." Wrench replied, grimacing at the roof.
Satisfied with his armour Fourth put it aside and went to check his sidearm, the DC-15 pistol had taken quite a kick from a droid commando and would probably have to be exchanged. None in Panther squad really wanted to exchange their weapons though, since all the replacement guns for them had been owned by a dead commando...it was like grave robbing. Fourth carefully pushed a broken piece at the back of it back into place and retrieved a small blowtorch to put it back into place. "You have long term memory loss Lip, we don't expect you to understand."
Lip bit his lip, forcing himself not to say anything he'd regret. It was true after all, he didn't even remember his old pod, they had died and he had lost all memory of them...it dishonoured him. Yet he was comfortable with it, seeing how bitter his squad mates were he couldn't help but wonder if losing his memory of his old brothers might have been for the best. Still, it created a distance between him and the others. "They won't get us killed guys, jedi care about all life, you know that."
Wrench shook his head, he was still looking at the roof however. "Wow you're naïve. The jedi cares for all life, unless another life is more important, such as that of a jedi or friend...or if sacrificing a life will go for some greater purpose. Sacrifice for something greater is noble you understand..." He grimaced. "...and also easy if your sacrificing expendables like us."
"I thought we were willing to die for the republic here?" Lip raised an eyebrow and pulled out some sort of weed that had hid itself under his breastplate, he dropped it into a trash can. "Or should I report us as faulty?" That got a chuckle out of all but Fourth.
Fourth glared at him, making him swallow. "A sacrifice for the republic is a great thing, a sacrifice for some jedi nonsense is a useless death, and guess what these jedi will do? I bet we'll fail even...useless monks."
Sighing Lip let it go, knowing he couldn't win the argument. "Who are we supposed to capture anyway?"
Fourth shrugged. "Some sith...count something...who cares? It's not that we'll get close."
"Hey! I can slice through their security consoles!" Lip grinned. "If you guys can keep the droids away I can get us in, or are you saying we're not competent enough to infiltrate a little droid base now all of a sudden?"
Wrench chuckled. "Easy now, we're not worried about getting in, we're worried about getting out. Heck, you've ever tried bringing a captive out of a hostile base?"
"Erm...no." Lip admitted, grimacing as something green and sticky dribbled over his hand. It even stung a little...oh great another of those leeches! Pulling it off he threw it too into the trash can and grimacing. "Blasted...anyone got some bacta for a small infection?" He nodded to Wrench as the man tossed him a small pack of bacta.
"How do we even capture a sith?" Cutter muttered, one eyed close as he checked the sniper attachment to his rifle.
Fourth chuckled, an angry growl of a sound. "Bet the jedi will say that they'll handle that..."
