Court-Martial

Resolution

Ahsoka confronted Captain Rex as he came out of Master Skywalker's office. "I'd like access to the vids," she said as they walked down the corridor that echoed with emptiness.

Rex frowned. "They really aren't suitable…"

"You're the one who assigned me this and I will see it through." She stood as tall as she could which was barely chest-high to the captain.

He sighed. "Which one do you want to see?"

"Medical, an overall view of when Chopper was wounded after Excarga. He says Sergeant Slick saw him and spoke to him in the medical unit and that appears to have been their first interaction." She paused in mid-stride. "Slick called Chopper 'Three'. It wasn't because it was his designation and it wasn't because he held the position of Three. Gus was sergeant's second but he usually occupied the Three slot when the squad went into battle."

Rex winced. In some ways medical vids were worse than battlefield vids. Battlefield vids were fast, fleeting images that went to another scene almost before your brain had interpreted what you just saw. In medical, the view was static, a globe lens that had the entire room in view, watching men crying out in pain, watching blood flow, watching men die. Krell had been General at Excarga and his basic plans usually centered around a straight-in attack with no diversions, relying on sheer force to overrun the droids. Rex didn't think Excarga would be any different.

"I'm not giving you the option to refuse, Captain Rex." Her voice was firm but he still hesitated.

"Is it worse than Teth?" She put her hand lightly on his arm as she whispered that, as if to share the burden of losing his troopers.

In some ways it was, but Rex bowed to the inevitable. "Full access, commander. To everything. I'll set it up and you should have complete access before lunch.

"Thank you, Captain Rex."

Ahsoka took one of the empty barracks. After Teth but before the small band of survivors had returned to Christophsis, the troopers of the 212th had, under their new commander, gone through and cleaned out the barracks. It had been a caring gesture on Commander Cody's part but Ahsoka knew there were memories and ghosts anyway.

She keyed in her access code and Captain Rex stood there in holographic form, his helmet tucked under his arm. His form stood there as if didn't know what to say then he turned slightly and took a breath. "All the vids, commander." His form fizzed out and there was the menu. Ahsoka had been worried she wouldn't understand the military notations but Captain Rex had tagged them with planetary names and dates.

Ahsoka keyed in Excarga, glancing through the battle statistics. There were light to medium losses of the 821st, headed by General Krell on the planetary surface while her master's fleet had destroyed the droids before they could engage hyperspace out of the system. She looked over the troopers names, the remembered that Chopper hadn't taken a name until he'd come to Christophsis. She found and keyed in CT-9523.

She watched.

It was harder than going to battle had been. In battle there was action and reaction and at the end you could tell yourself you had done your best.

In a vid, you saw the carnage of good men and wholesale destruction with no chance to act or react, no chance to save this man though you know you could have or to call retreat when it became inevitable that you'd be overrun.

This was a victory? This was light to medium losses?

Ahsoka shook her head as she watched the vids of Chopper's helmet. He was fast, she saw that. He'd target a droid and even as his blaster fired he'd been looking for another target. He didn't have far to look, there were battledroids everywhere. His rough voice was constant.

"Twelve, keep track, don't let them flank. Haz, pull him out, got you covered. Sarge, confirm re-enforcements. Kyp, move your shebs." When his words became mostly hissed cusses, she turned off the volume, letting his words track on the bottom of the screen. There was no emotion in those words and that was easier.

The strike that took him out was so sudden that Ahsoka gasped and jerked in protective reaction. He must have heard some noise because he had glanced up to see a LAAT. He had glanced at another trooper and the words on the tracking were garbled as though his speaker was broken. "… ordered withdr…. what…"

From one side of his view came a ball of fire and shrapnel, silver and shiny, metal and glass. The helmet couldn't translate what must have been a scream of pain. The view on the helmet was suddenly shifted, there were the legs and feet of troopers and, further away, the metal claw-feet of droids. Ahsoka's chin quivered as she noted Chopper's arm moving, sliding the deece on the ground in order to fire at the droids. Suddenly there was a shift and only the white of another trooper's armor as Chopper was thrown over someone's shoulders and carried away.

Ahsoka watched further on Chopper's vid, the white of some trooper's backplate becoming the inside of a transport LAAT. Chopper was unconscious by now but his helmet continued recording. They took his helmet and Ahsoka switched to the vid feed from the medical unit which Captain Rex has marked for her.

Trooper medics and medical droids worked the unit quickly and Chopper was shunted into a surgery. When he came out, he seemed unconscious, the white scars almost invisible against his pale face, but his hand was above his bloody chest, touching tentatively as if to reassure himself he still existed. There was drying blood all over his chest, the front piece of his armor had been shredded by the shrapnel and further cut open in surgery.

"Clean him up," shouted one of the medics gesturing to Chopper even as he began tending another man bleeding high up on his chest and shoulder. A trooper moved toward Chopper and pushed the surgery platform towards the edge of the room where a technician was doing something with large plasteel tanks very similar to a bacta tank. The trooper piled Chopper's armor – what hadn't been left on his body or tossed aside – on the grav lift at his shoulder. The blaster was among those belongings.

Chopper opened his eyes.

Ahsoka could see the moment he realized he was getting a stasis tank. His face, his entire body stiffened. He reached up to his armor, his fingers feeling for then grasping the blaster. His other arm reached protectively over his chest and he sat up.

"No." His voice was weak but backed up by the blaster pointing at the technician. "I am not going to Kamino."

The technician stilled and suddenly the attention of the entire medical unit was focused on Chopper. He grimaced and ducked his head but the blaster never wavered as Chopper put his feet over the edge of the lift and stood as though ready to walk out of the unit.

One of the medics came near and tried to reason with him. Stasis tank. No further damage. Kamino Medical. Chopper shook his head at these. There were tears running down his face. "Don't you understand?" he yelled. "A quarter of my brain was left on Geonosis. They'll recondition me for sure."

It was as Chopper had described. A hard-faced captain came into the medical unit, listened to Chopper for a moment then consulted one of the trooper medics. He promised Chopper would receive a bacta tank. That had seemed to take the strength from Chopper. His scarred face had gone slack and he had wavered as though he was going to pass out. He hadn't though, simply turned around, his arm clutched around his bloody chest, the blaster limply held in his other hand, and laid on the stained surface of the grav lift. He said something – his lips moving slightly – and it took Ahsoka several tries to read those words because there was no sound to them.

"Thank you, sir."

Chopper seemed asleep now, his expression calmly peaceful. Another clone came up to Chopper, his back to the vid. Whatever he said seemed to have no effect on Chopper; but Chopper was already white with blood loss, pale with pain, his eyes closed… what further reaction would indicate anything?

The trooper sergeant turned, his fingers rubbing the rim of his helmet and he had a smile on his face. Anyone might think he was pleased at another trooper's survival. Ahsoka saw words on his lips…

Ahsoka played the vid again and again as she watched Sergeant Slick's mouth, her own lips mimicking his silently….

Rex found the commander in the mess, bleary-eyed with lack of sleep and her face resting on her bent knees.

"Commander," he greeted her and felt a twinge of guilt that he'd let her see the vids. She looked so pensively sad.

"I need your help, Rex,"

Rex raised an eyebrow at the familiarity but she didn't seem to notice.

"He says something and I don't know what. It looks like he's saying in or win or sin or kin or…."

"Ehn," stated Rex, giving a more sibilant, breathy tone to the word. "It's Mando'a. Three. That fits, doesn't it?"

"And the next word?" She looked up at him hopefully. "something like lair, their, ear, fear."

"Cuir. Four." Rex shook his head. "Three four? Now I'm confused."

"Ehn cuir. Three four." Ahsoka frowned. "Three four?"

"Or three fourths or thirty four," added Rex. "Mando'a is a flexible, contextual language."

Three fourths. Three quarters. Three fourths a trooper. Three quarter man.

Sudden understanding washed over her. Slick had heard Chopper's argument. He'd probably been just out of vid sight – they hadn't brought in any more troopers with a wounded man waving his blaster around.

"I'm not confused, Rex. Not anymore." She looked up at Rex with tears in her eyes. "That sergeant was not just a traitor, he was cruel."

"Will you explain, commander?"

Ahsoka nodded. "Every time Slick called Chopper 'Three', he was insulting Chopper's designation and telling him he was the weak man in the squad. But there's more."

"I'm listening, Commander Tano."

Ahsoka took a moment to compose her thoughts and the order of how things had happened. "After Geonosis, Chopper was wounded badly enough to be sent to Kamino. That's the scar on his head and face. Later he was wounded at Excarga and when they finished surgery, they put him in line for stasis. Chopper didn't want to go to Kamino and says it's because they'll see the head wound and recondition him." She turned her trusting face up toward his. "Rex, what does it mean to recondition?"

Rex frowned, two deep lines appearing between his eyebrows. "It's like flash drill, psychological training to sharpen our attention and form our mental characteristics towards a given template which accounts for our maturity despite the fact that we're ten years old. It provides mental stability in conditions of war."

"Ten?" Her face was shocked and Rex shrugged and nodded.

"Accelerated physical growth requires accelerated mental growth."

Slowly she nodded with a frown. "Anyway, Chopper was allowed to stay on the ship, getting a bacta tank instead of going to Kamino Medical. Slick had heard the … disagreement. Slick called him three because Chopper had a head wound; he believes he lost about a quarter of his brain matter. Slick was reminding him that he was three quarters of a trooper; fit only for menial labor, a burden to his brothers."

"What's this?" asked Chopper staring at the white of his armor. His heart sank.

"You're to appear before the Board of Inquiry in full armor," replied Wooley, Commander Cody's new second, with a flash of pity in his eyes.

Chopper nodded with a frown. There was a bitter metallic taste in his mouth. It was over. He'd been court martialed. He'd be publically stripped of whatever rank and honors he had earned; though Slick had taken care of almost all of that. He'd probably be sent back to Kamino as defective for reconditioning.

He'd had hopes when the little padawan had come to him, listening to his life's story that no one else knew. That had been nice, thinking someone cared. Her listening was something to take with him to Kamino, a good memory, though he wouldn't retain it if they reconditioned him.

She'd remember. So would the sergeant. Chopper realized it was sufficient.

He shrugged as he prepared, showering, shaving without looking into the mirror too much. It was simply a reality of life – of a clone's life. For a moment he stared at his scars as though they were new, surprising him.

He had escaped reconditioning twice. Obviously it was his destiny. He was done fighting it. They hadn't returned his blaster or his vibroknife with his armor and some tiny portion of self-preservation was glad of that. He carefully folded the towels and set them on his bunk, his original bunk. The remainder of his gear he packed up in proper order.

Wooley and a trooper he didn't know, one of the 501st, escorted him before the board. Chopper came to a pause and saluted the Board of Inquiry then stood at attention, helmet under his arm. It wasn't a military board and he could probably request one, but what did it matter? Chopper avoided looking at the little padawan seated to one side of the panel and not only to hide his scars. It was going to be hard enough without glancing at her face and seeing her compassion.

He was pretty sure it was compassion and not pity.

Sergeant Coric was next to her, looking down as he sorted some flimsis and a vid key on the table in front of him. Evidence, Chopper supposed, though of what he didn't know. They hadn't really asked him about the droid fingers too much and he'd already confessed to those.

Chopper took a deep breath. He'd been in battle before, he'd been scared and confused, but he'd never been a coward. He would listen to his sentence without flinching. He'd say "Yes sir" firmly, as he gave them a sharp salute, then turned to whichever trooper would take him to a cell to await deportation back to Kamino. They'd take his helmet at that time so he'd have to swallow his emotions until he was alone. That wouldn't be hard. He'd been doing that ever since Slick had confronted him in the medical unit after Excarga.

K'atini.

Odd, how he could hear Slick's voice laughing in his mind as he waited to be before the Board.

Three-quarter trooper.

It only made sense though, the nightmares kept the sergeant at bay during the night.

Ehn cuir.

Prince Bail Organa knocked his knuckles against the table firmly, collecting everyone's attention and Chopper heard the noise of armor as each trooper came to attention. He did so as well, standing proudly straight. Maybe he hadn't been a good trooper, but he had tried. He'd done the best he could under the circumstances.

"CT-9523, we are here to determine whether you are guilty of collecting forbidden articles from the field of battle and, after discussion, the board has found you guilty with extenuating circumstances. Punishment remanded will revert to your commanding officer after re-assignment."

It wasn't what he had expected and his "Yes, sir," was more questioning than firm. Chopper was confused. Re-assignment to a new command wouldn't have needed his presence in front of a Board of Inquiry, never mind in uniform. His breath caught in his throat. Re-assignment meant he wouldn't be going to Kamino. He wouldn't be reconditioned!

General Kenobi, as ranking Jedi, cleared his throat and looked down at some pages. "In going over your records we have discovered other events and discrepancies and, as a result we have decided to recommend the following corrections and additions to your record." Kenobi's voice was mild and Chopper steeled himself. He wasn't being reconditioned; he could face whatever punishment they'd mete out. Already he felt lighter, freer than he'd felt in a long time.

"For obtaining a Separatist artifact," Kenobi looked at Chopper and actually gave him a small upturned smile. "That is to say, one TX-series technical droid head with intelligence intact, leading directly to the discovery of a spy in our midst. Board recommends commendation."

Chopper blushed as he remembered he'd only grabbed it for the necklace.

"All demerits listed by one CS-21-8644 are revoked under extenuating circumstances, also unanimous." Captain Rex wasn't pleased, Chopper could tell that from his voice and the stern cast to his face, but since the Board had to be unanimous, he'd chosen these things as well as the Jedi or Prince Organa. "Retroactively," Captain Rex continued, "we have recommended removal of all demerits from the remainder of the squad as well. We find it difficult to believe a traitor would give an honest evaluation." He glanced quickly toward Prince Organa who looked around the room.

"Unless there are any objections or further information for this board to consider?" He raised his hand again to knock on the table.

"I have something to say," Chopper stepped forward. "I didn't obtain the TX head for information." He licked his lips, his mouth suddenly dry. "I wanted," his voice faded. The panel waited but Chopper had lost his words.

General Kenobi nodded as if he understood Chopper's dilemma. Perhaps he did, perhaps he was reading Chopper's mind. "The reason you acquired the intelligence is irrelevant to the board, CT-9523." General Kenobi's voice was as kind as it had been when he'd interviewed Chopper originally. "The end result is our concern in this case."

"Further collection of forbidden articles from the battlefield will carry a heavy penalty, trooper." Commander Cody spoke up. "But discipline will be up to your new captain."

Chopper frowned and stepped back into his place with a nod. "Understood, Commander."

"Anything further?" Prince Organa looked around. "No? This Board of Inquiry is now closed." He rapped his knuckles against the table once again.

Now allowed active duty, Chopper slipped on his helmet then gave the Board members a sharp salute. He turned sharply, catching sight of the commander-padawan.

Chopper paused then slowed and turned toward the Jedi padawan, staring at her through his visor. She stood and he straightened as tightly as he could. It was an honor to serve, to serve with her, to serve with his brothers, to serve the Republic.

He had no idea where he'd be going or what company they would send him to. This might be his only chance. He snapped to attention and saluted her.

"Thank you, Commander Tano."

Here ends the Court-Martial arc. Next is entering the 501st.

Read and enjoy...

I head off for northern Europe in a week!