"Osik" Va kicked a rock across the clearing. After it had collided with a tree trunk, making a sound whack, he turned around to the clones.
"Looks like those brainless bastard imps are smarter than we thought."
He growled.
"Our friend here just informed me that the entire haven is under lock down. Nothing goes in, nothing goes out."
Brook furrowed his brow, wracked his brain. Had his brothers told him something about this?
Flash training offered nothing else but a direct attack.
The protocol in his head told him to get to the nearest squad of brothers and head straight for the ship, no matter what stood in the way.
Brook may not have learned much, but he ha learned that most strategies tat he had been thought were downright suicide. The strength of the new clones lay in numbers, not in tactics.
Now Brook wanted, needed to prove everyone and himself that he was no longer a slave to these doctrines.
They had't, but Brook's throat was dry. He wanted, needed to add something to the situation. Was not useless.
"How long would it take for the lock down to end?" He asked, feeling proud for a moment to have worded his question this way, at least until all people in the clearing turned around and gaped at him, including the Wookie.
"By the shiniest Verpine in my collection." Vau quaffed. Was that a useful question out off the Spaarti's mouth?"
Brook ground his teeth together, just as he had the feeling that the old Sarge had started to like him.
Just than Boss slapped him on the shoulder.
"One option." He said "but the lock down would continue for far longer than we could hide."
"Plus," Vau added,"our friend here told me that the imperial army is getting ready to comb through the village, one house by one. We need to get off."
Brook could almost her the eyebrows rising.
""Don't you mean get out?" Sev growled.
"No." Vau said. I meant get off, as in get off this planet."
Brook felt his heart plummet. this was far too much like the flash training than he would have liked. His stomach flipped, his mouth dry.
Scorch jabbed him in the side. "Settle down Brook."
Somehow Brook felt a bit better. "Yes." He answered. "But this is a bit too much like the flash training they hammered into our heads."
Scorch nodded, bumped his shoulder into Brook's, "Don't worry ner' vod. We are there."
And Brook's heart warmed.
Vau, oblivious to the moment, ushered them into the elevator.
This time Brook was even more nervous than on their way down. He than matched Sev's speed, only that the older clone seemed to calm the closer they came the fight.
"How do you do that?" Brook growled under his breath, careful to keep his com switched off. He really did not want to hear the answer, especially not from the taciturn sniper from delta squad.
Vau had put himself at the second point of the squad, allowed Boss to lead the way. .
Scorch brought up the rear, once again the team made sure that Sev and Brook, the unknown links, were under squad protection.
Scorch locked on a one line to Brook only.
"What's up Brook?" He asked, as if nothing was going on.
"You weren't that nervy on our way down."
A shadow was passing them by, the squad ducked into a hollow between the huts. If the Wookie saw them, he gave no sign of it.
Brook started biting o his lower lip again. It stung, but he continued anyway, Brook felt like it help him focus. He took a deep breath, knowing that Scorch would hear him and know the sound to be the younger clone trying to disperse the nervousness he felt.
"How do they keep t seeing us? These calls are too close for my liking." Brook Growled, unconsciously adapting Sev's speech pattern.
Scorch chuckled."Well, most of these guys aren't too fond of the IAR, so I would guess anyone sneaking around during lock down is on their good side. Besides, the situation means that very, very few people will be around anyway."
Brook nodded. It made sense, the streets had been nearly deserted when they first arrived, seemed like a dead town to Brook, but before he could voice his thoughts, Scorch continued, this time an unusual tone of seriousness sneaking into his tone.
"Besides that, what else bothers you Brook?"
Had he had the possibility, Brock would have stopped in his tracks. Here, the sense of the team continued to pull him forward. He still took some time to answer, observing Sev's smooth movements at the same time.
"I am jealous." He finally conceded, not wanting to say it out loud, didn't even want to think it.
"Sev has been through so much, has been away from you for so long and still he slides back in. None of anything keeps him from appearing is very best." Brook nodded towards Sev.
"Look at him, even now he is actually getting calmer. These guys have been after him, and he is in their territory and he is calming down!"
He never would have admitted it, but Brook huffed at the end of his sentence.
For a moment there was silence, then Scorch chuckled, snorted in sudden humor. "EH, shut it shiny. He is a veteran, who has seen too much at best and an utter psychopath at worst. He is the way he is, because fighting is the only constant he knows."
This answer stunned Brook in o silence. In the end Scorch jabbed Brook in the back.
"What? Yes I know, I hang around too much with Fixer, but that is only until Skirata allows us to to take explosives to the lake."
Brook shuddered. "The day Skirata allows you that is the day I move out." He promised, earning only another guffaw from his pyromaniac brother.
"Sure thing Brook, either that or you'll join us."
"Never." Brook promised lightly, very glad that Scorch lightened up the mood. He had needed the sidetracking and he knew that Scorch had known that.
There was more to his brothers than meet the eye.
Finally, the track through the shadows of the rookie settlement became a bit lighter on the heart for Brook. He still flinched, was still too tense, felt that his stiff movement made more noise than necessary, made him stand out from his brothers, but he felt as f it was less than before.
And finally, finally, just as Brook felt his hands starting t sweat again, Vau waved them into a nook between two buildings.
"Alright you shinies." He growled as they squeezed in, cauldrons rapping against each other.
"The port is only a few streets across, and owe few people a lot of favors for a riot at the other side of the port. So don't you dare to waste this chance."
Vau didn't need to yell. When he spoke silently and swiftly it was enough to make Brook shiver, biting his lip wit slight nausea. You knew you couldn't afford to screw up with Vau breathing down your neck.
You didn't want to screw up with Skirata, you didn't want to disappoint him, but with Vau you knew that you plain could not fail, because there would be hell to pay.
Somehow Brook understood Delta's feeling for their old Sargent. He had put them through hell, but Brook felt as if he could only squeeze the slightest amount of respect out of the men, he would be ready to take on the entire damn galaxy.
"So, Vau continued." There are few guards around here now, but that will change rather quickly. The outer perimeter is clear. "
Scorch reported, recalling some mini-drones, a bold move, but the y needed the info.
"I couldn't see enough to observe the routs they are taking, but there s at least two dozen guard marching around there."
Sev chuckled, Brook swallowed heavily.
"Might be that have taken out a few more than necessary to make them nervous." He smiled. "At last I will get to shoot with a goo deece again."
"Better yet," Fixer replied with a big grin coloring his voice.
"We have a nice, shiny verpine for you here."
The sniper snatched the weapon from Fixer as soon as his brother lifted it off his back. Sev, in his dirty, scorched and broken armor cradling the sleek weapon should have been wrong, somehow unnerving, but somehow it seemed right to Brook.
Vau had scratched a few lines into the dirt of the street.
"So, here's our ship. Getting to that is not too difficult, plenty of old buildings we can use as cover."
Boss tilted his head a bit to the side, a sure sign he was deep n thought.
"But if we take ff, these turrets there will give us problems." He objected.
"That's what you and Fixer will do." Vau nodded towards the commando.
Sev shifted his weight, going down on one knee for more stability.
"Plus, their ships will cause us some difficulties." He said calmly, giving Brook just one glimmer at who he could be.
Vau nodded. "That would be you and Scorch doing that. Take of will be the most difficult part, we will need one tam to to take out those turrets, and one to incapacitate the ships on ground. After that we will just have to trust my flying."
Those, Brook thought, were not good odds.
"So, what will I do?"
He asked, already resigning to be deemed baggage. This was way above his level, he knew that, but it still rankled. He wanted to do something!
"What do you think you will do?" Vau snapped. " Help me cover our asses while we make a straight line for our ship of course!"
A.N.:
*Bangs head against desk*
I love my college, I really do, but sometimes I wish I had a bit more time for the other fun things in life.
*Sigh* So, ahuge thanks to cozzizzie and BlueCat12345 for their feedback, without you guys this chapter would have taken a LOT LONGER!
So, wish me luck please. This thing will get finished, it is only a matter of time. (Shamelessly fishing for reviews, these nice little comments make me write faster!)