A/N - SAR = Search & Rescue

Epilogue VI

212th on Utapau

Even Jedi felt a thousand-meter drop into water.

The surface of the water slammed into him and Obi-wan was dazed by the impact for a moment. But surely he'd felt dazed before hitting the thankfully-deep pool of turquoise mineral water. Surely it hadn't been just the concussion from some errant explosion that had come too close to him.

He pulled out the breather from its pocket and slipped it between his lips as he tried to get his bearings. Something hurt and Kenobi wondered if he'd been injured in the fall.

Unsurprisingly, up was the only useful information as well as his only real option.

As he swam towards a area of the wall that looked climbable, he frowned around his breather. The explosion had come from behind him, from Cody's position. It had the distinctive reverbration of a Republic artillery gun.

Had Cody fired on him?

That couldn't be right. It was probably a misfire and Cody was reprimanding some eager, new trooper straight out of Kamino even as he sent out search and rescue.

Really, I'm becoming almost as reckless as Anakin, Kenobi thought, Cody will be reprimanding me. The thought made him smile.

Obi-wan shook his head, sending droplets spattering in every direction, as he made the wall. Its climbability was almost an illusion, it was smooth and slick with the mineral deposits from millenea of water evaporation. Obi-wan reached higher, using the Force to find finger grips in the small, ribbon-like ripples and gentle hollows of the wall.

A yellow-trimmed gauntled hand grabbed him by the wrist, helping haul him up.

"Thank you, Sar..." he began but was immediate arrested by the emotional demeanor of the man - serious and betrayed. Something terrible between the time he'd encouraged a lizard to climb a near-perpenticular wall and now. Perhaps that explained his dazed feeling. Kenobi was about to ask when another clone, behind the first, spoke.

"Peeper's coming," he silently shifted against the wall, hiding, his blaster in his hands and at the ready.

"Down, sir," said the clone on the other end of his wrist as he quickly pulled Obi-wan over the embankment and behind some rocks.

"But aren't...?" Obi-wan frowned, once again confused; the external factors and the internal cues from the Force weren't... right. Possibly he had a concussion from hitting the water at such speed.

Still, he was pretty sure 'peepers' were Republic SAR equipment and, most likely, sent by Cody to rescue him. A noise, a small call of help, would bring it where it would do a quick assessment of the ease of retrieving him coorelated with his health and how quickly his rescuers would need to move to retrieve a living being rather than a corpse.

He took a breathe to ask what was going on.

"Quiet." The voice was a hissed whisper in his ear.

For all the activity in the Force, both it and his instincts told Obi-wan to follow this order.

As they waited, still and quiet, Kenobi sent out a tendril of curiosity. Beyond the small circle of him and the two troopers, there seemed to be a maelstrom of activity. Pain and death... almost as though an entire company had died at his feet... but closer and more intense. There was the crushing darkness of betrayal in the troopers.

Kenobi recognized Boil standing by the wall, blaster at the ready and Sergeant Jester trying to fit both himself and his general into a hole too small for either. Good men, both of them and Kenobi wondered why they seemed so... different. He relaxed slightly. He could trust these men like he trusted Anakin or Cody.

It was long after the fluttering sound of the the peeper had quieted that Boil moved. "It's gone."

"I thought it had gone a long time ago," muttered Sargeant Jester as he rolled back and let Obi-wan out of the small indentation in the stone, "and you had just fallen asleep."

Boil didn't answer, simply offered his hand to pull Jester up from the stone, ignoring Kenobi. It was the sargeant who offered the same service to Kenobi. As Kenobi stood, stretching his back and shoulders, stiff from the landing and stiffer from having a trooper trying to shove him closer and tighter into the small hollow, Sargeant Jester turned to him in a rare mood of deadly seriousness.

"Order 66 came down," he explained, then grimaced as he realized the explanation meant nothing to the man who'd been his general. "Order 66," Jester quoted, knowing the orders by more than memorizeation, "In the event of Jedi officers acting against the interests of the Republic, and after receiving specific orders verified as coming directly from the Supreme Commander, GAR commanders will remove those officers by lethal force, and command of the GAR will revert to the Supreme Commander until a new command structure is established."

"This must be some mistake, some trick," murmured Kenobi, his brows drawing down and his expressive face troubled. He was still in silent thought. "Surely Cody will realize it's mistake," began Obi-wan but Boil shook his head.

"This order," began Jester, "is not something that Cody or any other other trooper in the GAR will allow an explanation for."

"It's not a mistake," said Boil, shaking his head, "not an order of that magnitude. All Jedi officers," he reiterated.

Jester was still, a frown on his expressive face then he nodded. "Boil's right. This was planned. A long time ago. This order seems so close to me that I know it's been in my mind a long time."

Obi-wan observed them closely for a moment. Yesterday he'd been the general and field commander of all troopers in this section; now it appeared he had only two men who were helping him because of some unknown, human reason.

"What do you suggest?" he asked, his fingers curling in his soggy beard, absently squeezing out water and trying to fluff it into respectibility.

Boil turned his back, striding several paces to watch for any more peepers, looking out over the water.

Sargeant Jester shrugged. "Get out. Get off Utapau. Don't use your GAR starfighter, it's probably beacon-tagged. Don't let any trooper see you." He paused, his lips curling inward as he thought. "I wouldn't go anywhere near Coruscant. Not with Order 66. Not with the Chancellor there - he's the only person who could have initiated the order." Then he looked into Obi-wan's eyes. "But if you believe it was a mistake, I don't see how you can go anywhere else to rectify it."

Obi-wan knew then that this was all the help they were giving him. He nodded to himself; his life and the truth were sufficient.

Obi-wan turned away from the direction the two troopers were taking the turned back. "Why?"

Jester removed his helmet as he turned toward the Jedi who used to be his general and gave him a pained smile. " A better question might be 'how'?" He shrugged. "I have a son I will never see." Then he shrugged again, unable to explain, as his smile turned into a grimace and tears burned his eyes even as he pulled his helmet back on.

Boil's helmet was also in his hand, his face carved in the same icy emotion as it had been since Umbara, his eyes darkly bleak, simply observed Obi-wan Kenobi. Then he silently turned, slipping on his own helmet as he walked with Sargeant Jester.

Boil paused, he turned for an instant to Kenobi. "You're not a traitor, sir. I know the difference between you and Krell."

As always, read and enjoy and review.

Next week (probably..), it's once again back to the Jedi Temple and Coric.