Location: Unknown Planet, far Outer-Rim, 40 days after Battle of Geonosis
In a forest clearing outside an unknown city, the clones landed.
"Okay Tens, where's my ten credits?" asked Right'eye as he stood up from the pilot's chair.
"Umm, what credits? I don't recall owing you anything ner vod," said Tens smiling, dodging his head from his brothers annoyed stare.
"Oh no… you said, 'I'll bet you ten Dactaries you can't land us in that forest clearing,' and I accepted. I landed us perfectly, dead center, so where are my credits?" pestered Right'eye as he followed Tens and the others into the ships main cabin, near the soon to be lowered boarding ramp.
"Okay, fine, they're right here," said Tens holding two credit chips just out of Right'eye's reach. He had actually found 200 republic credit chips in the main cabins storage compartment after a few minutes aboard, but all Right'eye had to know was he had ten credits. Brushing past the two, Riot and Jumps grabbed their gear, preparing to go outside.
After giving the two shinies an annoyed look, Tens and his brother began looking over their own gear and checking the charge on their blasters. Finally Tens conceded, "I'll give them to you once we are outside, I want to see just how good of a job you actually did."
"Ok, but you know damn well I did a good job," he replied. They all placed their helmets on each, with a click and hiss as each helmet sealed to their bodysuits. Switching on their HUD's and comm channels and nodding to each other, they proceeded down the ramp.
As they neared the bottom of the ramp, Right'eye, seeing his opportunity, grabbed for the credits. Tens, still wanting to give him a hard time, threw the chips farther away into some brush.
"Great, thanks you di'kut," Right'eye chided as he ran after them.
"Wait, stop!" Tens yelled into his Comm, something inside him was yelling to him that Right'eye was in danger. The warning came too late though. All around them, seemingly out of the grass and trees, appeared at least a hundred soldiers with their weapons pointed right at them. They were all wearing black armor and black shiny helmets with blindingly bright lights attached. Aircraft with spotlights then too, appeared from seemingly nowhere above the trees.
A short yell captured Tens attention from the others as he watched Right'eye fall to the ground in front of them, subdued by at least six soldiers.
"Freeze, drop your weapons and put your arms up high, your completely surrounded," yelled one of the soldiers.
Tens had no choice; he wanted to fight, to free his brother, but they were completely outnumbered 25 to 1. He'd been outnumbered more than that by droids but droids are dumb, these are soldiers, well-trained soldiers by the looks of it.
Tens signaled to Jumps and Riot to lay down their arms and do as instructed. The two shinies obeyed, lowering their blaster riffle's and raising their arms above their heads. The soldiers wasted no time in detaining them. They proceeded to cover their helmets with bags and cuff their hands behind their backs.
Unbeknownst to the clones, they got loaded into one of the aircraft and flown to a secure military base 25 miles away.
Partially aware of the constant hum of the transport they were on Tens thought, 'I let this happen. I let my brothers down, especially Right'eye. It was just a joke. Why weren't we, no, why wasn't I more vigilant. I was leading them.
What ever happens to us is on me, it's my fault, I let this happen. I solely take the blame for any harm that occurs to my men, my brothers. I just hope we can explain who we are to these people. At least they're that, people, or they look like people. Oddly, they speak basic too. That should help, I hope.'
With those last thoughts, Tens slowly drifted out of consciousness, barely being aware of the soft hiss of gas being administered through his helmet.
Location: Hyperspace, far Outer-Rim, heading to uncharted space, 40 days after Battle of Geonosis
Commander Cody didn't like the current situation. He thought it was highly unusual of command to call them out of Hyperspace to an uncharted backwater outer-rim star system. And the fact that they were to aid in the 501st's quest to find a missing consular cruiser, seemed highly unnecessary, overkill to be precise.
He looked back to General at the briefing table; Kenobi was into one of his hour-long rants, about how critical the Negotiator and 212th was in the upcoming mission. After rendezvous with the Resolute outside the uncharted star system, both ships would enter and search the system for the surviving crew. If any CIS forces were found, they would be neutralized immediately.
Cody didn't doubt that they would find the Sepp's in the system, it was obvious they were looking for diplomatic hostages, why else would they chase a ship this far out? But would they find the missing crew? He wasn't sure.
One thing Cody was looking forward to on this upcoming mission was seeing Captain Rex again. He liked the captain a lot, he even considered him a friend, though he didn't always agree with how the captain went about missions. He guessed that was partly Skywalker's fault. He was a bad influence to be around when it came to joint missions between the 212th and 501st.
Just then General Kenobi's voice interrupted his thoughts…
"Commander,"
"Uhh, Yes Sir?" Cody asked, unsure if he should be agreeing with the General on something.
"Please prepare the men for our arrival in the system. We will be arriving within a few minutes of the Resolute and I want the ship in full alert if we encounter CIS resistance," Kenobi ordered, then added, "And Cody… this is only a side mission, once this is over, were back on our original path."
'Ahh, an order. If there's one thing I can follow'…thought Cody.
"Yes sir, we will be ready for anything when we arrive in system," he said, at attention. Then turning, he left the room for the bridge.
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A/N: Well it seems that Tens got everyone into a bit of a situation. Will Right'eye forgive him for his carelessness, can he forgive himself? Also a hint of how things are going on the Negotiator. As always, please review. I do not own star wars, only my OC's. (Updated 8-6-13)