Life on the Resolute

Practice

The entire company was in one of the hangar decks of the Resolute, the flyers pushed back to the bulkhead; some of the recently arrived 212th and General Kenobi were there observing the practice of Torrent Company and their Jedi along with the troopers who'd already fallen. The 501st had been drilling for several hours now and only about a dozen troopers remained.

Even General Skywalker, sweaty and blowing hard, had walked off the deck with a wide, pleased grin to stand with General Kenobi when the trooper count went below twenty. With him gone the remaining troopers shifted into a single off-set column with Commander Tano as lead; smoothly without even an order from the captain, as though they'd already practiced it a thousand times.

It was their first time practicing like this and Chopper knew they were doing well.

Captain Rex was behind and to one side of the commander, firing the training blasters at the target wall. Chopper, three men behind him on the commander's left side, was also aiming for the moving balls of light. Light balls flashed out of the wall panels, one almost touching Chopper's helmet. Some of the flashes were intercepted by her light saber; but fewer and fewer as time went on. Chopper could see the sweat rolling off her, the sheen of it on her skin, and wondered how she could keep hold of her saber in her slick palm.

Hidden by his helmet, sweat rolled down his face, stinging into his eyes, but he couldn't lose concentration to shake the sweat from his eyes. Chopper noticed more and more of the left handed lights getting through her guard.

"Captain, Two's weak on left. Shift right?" Chopper called through the helmet's channels.

The order came through on the captain's channel. "All troops, shift right; behind Two's strong side."

"Osik," came a trooper's exasperated cry as he dropped to the floor. Chopper spun, grabbed one arm to drag him off the marked field. Coric came from the other side, grabbed Hardcase's other arm and pulled as well. At this point there was no telling if he'd dropped because he'd been hit or because of exhaustion. Then Chopper and Coric were back in the training square, closing the gap left by Hardcase's absence. They heard Jesse's muttered expletive as he, too, dropped. It couldn't go one for much longer.

By now only the commander, the captain, Coric and Chopper remained in the mock battle. Chopper ached in every muscle of his body, sweat wicking through his soaked bodysuit to drip through crevices of his armor and puddle on the floor. He wasn't the only one; the deck was slippery with sweat.

Suddenly a Force push came from the direction of the wall, like a windstorm. The commander, not wearing boots with gripping soles, slipped on the wet deck, was picked up and knocked into the captain who grabbed her with one arm as he kept firing with his other. She twisted in his arm, reflecting light balls with her saber, her momentum pushing Rex until he was no longer facing the target. A light flash struck him in the back and the captain dropped his arms.

The Force push, whirled then slammed Coric into Chopper who grabbed him across the shoulders with one arm and started to push him upright. As Coric struggled, he was struck by a light flash and went limp, still against Chopper's side.

It was a push rather than simply being immobilized and Chopper took advantage of this and kept firing at the wall. The wave pushed him around, twisting him and, cussing in hissed bursts of air, he stopped firing as the surface in front of him was the ceiling. His back was to the wall now, an open target except for Coric's shielding body, and his feet slowly rolled toward the ceiling. He pulled his legs in as tightly as possible both to present a smaller target and to, hopefully, use the momentum to twist back into position. Chopper switched his HUD to rear view. Swinging his arm back, he continued to fire but could see he wasn't getting a good target.

"Anyone alive, spot me." He growled, knowing he wasn't the last. He could hear the hum of the commander's light saber.

"Higher, Chopper and more to the center." It was the commander's voice on captain's open channel but the instruction of 'more to the center' made very little sense to him upside down and backwards.

"Chopper, may I guide." The commander's voice was soft on the channel, like when she had asked him to work the vids, like it was a favor. He was silent for a moment, but only a moment. They were trying to replicate battle conditions and in battle conditions he would do whatever necessary.

"Yes sir." Chopper relaxed his arm and felt her straighten it, pull it and him a little further around.

"Now," came her voice over his helmet and he pulled the trigger, pulled it again and again as he felt her re-centering it.

"Oops. Sorry Chopper, I've been hit by a light ball." She was silent then, but Chopper kept on firing where he had felt her center him. Then his HUD flashed his death, blinding him for an instant and de-activating his training blaster. He went limp as General Kenobi slowly released the Force push, gently lowering the four to the floor.

Chopper groaned as he laid flat out; a sound that reverberated through his helmet as the Captain and Coric did the same. The commander groaned as well, a lighter sound almost like a bell, her voice echoing through the captain's open channels just a moment after theirs.

Jester was there, slipping off Chopper's helmet and handing him a bulb of electrolytes and a bottle of warm water. Chopper bit off the tip of the bulb and sucked down the overly sweet liquid. With help from Jester and some rookie, he sat up and put the bottle to his lips. His chest heaved with the exertion of the past several hours, the adrenaline long gone.

"That was … impressive." General Kenobi's voice to General Skywalker was audible as they moved back to sit on some crates and Chopper knew he'd meant them – meant the entire 501st to hear those words of admiration. "I might try training that way with my men. Really Anakin, how did you think of this?"

Swiftly, the training floor was being converted back into the hangar deck, the flyers in the proper places. Yularen always checked and never forgot to thank them for putting things back in their proper order. They weren't willing to find out what the stern admiral would do if they forgot.

Commander Cody, in his duty greys, was standing over the captain and Commander Tano with a delighted grin on his face. Tano was sitting cross-legged next to and facing Rex who was reclined on his elbows on the deck; both of them blowing out air and breathing hard as Commander Cody spoke with them. Tano wiped her forehead with her arm and put the bottle to her mouth, gulping down the water.

Jester stood, picking up the training blaster and pulled at Chopper's arm. "Come on. Hot shower before you stiffen up." Chopper's knees were wobbly like rotted fruit and he slung an arm around Jester's shoulders. He'd been glad to see Jester when the Resolute had returned to Christophsis after Nexus Ortai. Captain Rex had called him aside.

"Anytime you need to visit Jester, Chopper, you can go. We're berthed side by side; same mess, same gym."

"Thank you sir," Chopper had been surprised the captain would take the time to let him know but perhaps the captain didn't want to be blindsided again. "It won't be often, though." Chopper had blinked at the captain's bemused expression and decided to explain. "I know he's doing good under Commander Cody, sir. He's fitting in well with his new squad. He doesn't need me messing things up for him."

Captain Rex's face had gone thoughtful then and he nodded. "Two of you from Slick's squad together," he murmured, "yes, I can see how that might look; especially to the 212th." He looked into Chopper's eyes of brown and yellow-green and Chopper dropped his gaze. Captain Rex spoke again. "You know that's why we separated the squad; to give you each of you another chance without being under the shadow of what Slick did."

Chopper nodded, still keeping his eyes down, inspecting the captain's helmet in his arms. "Yes sir." Chopper did know it and he was glad for the others. They'd do well under sergeants that weren't Slick. Him? He didn't know why he was still in armor instead of reconditioned and second man to 99 polishing the training floors; polishing the jar the Kaminoans would keep his brain in.

"The droid report, Chopper…"

And Chopper had dragged his attention back to Captain Rex.

"… that was good work."

Chopper had stared at the captain as he strode off. Good work. Chopper ran those words over in his mind. "The droid report, Chopper, that was good work." The words resounded in his head and he stood a little straighter. There had been no nightmares since then.

"To the showers," he said bitterly to Jester. There'd be other troopers there. They'd see his scars in the shower room. He started moving toward the entry way.

Commander Tano stood and held down her hand for the captain. Rex smiled, reached up and stood. He swayed a little before catching his center of balance. Chopper knew he had a refresher attached to his office and envied him the private shower.

"I think that was the hardest training exercise I've ever done. We are not doing this again tomorrow." Rex grinned and took a swig from the bottle of water then poured the remainder over his upturned face and rubbed it into his short-cropped hair. "We'll loan out the hangar to the 212th." There was some good-natured laughter from the 501st, faux moans and laughter from the men of the 212th.

"You did good, Rex," laughed the commander at the captain's side as she gave him a soft punch in the shoulder bell. She turned to Chopper as he and Jester started to pass them. Chopper turned his scars away from her.

"And you, Chopper," she stepped forward and held her fist for a heartbeat's pause. Chopper's hard face dipped for only an instant; there was a readiness in him, a stealing of his determination. She smiled and punched him in the shoulder as well. So softly he barely felt her knuckles touch his armor, so quickly his tired body didn't have time to jerk away.

"You did great." She knew it wasn't permission to touch him, merely acquiesce for her approval today. But it was better than him jerking away from her hand and Chopper was glad he hadn't had the energy to flinch.

As Chopper, aided by Jester, the pair of them followed by the rookie, made his way down the long corridor toward the showers he wondered what that feeling was in him; that warmth engendered by his commanding officers. He barely heard the other men congratulating him, barely felt their brotherly touches of friendship on his arms.

"And you, Chopper," it reverberated through his head, "you did great."

Chopper knew there'd be no nightmares tonight.

Ok, a chapter just a few days early; consider it a pressie because there will be another chapter on Tuesday. Yes, these are 're-runs' from the first time 'Scars' was posted but there is some additional material.

As always; read and enjoy and review.