Fifteen
"OK, listen up. We have three days before the new unit gets here from Coruscant. That means we have three days to clear up the mess the Sep's started and the Talz finished."
Rex was tired and his arm was nagging where it had been injured.
Kix had spoken to him about getting the wound looked at, but knew full well that his Captain would oversee the mission first before venturing into the med bay.
He had more than enough brothers to patch together before sending them off to the Resolute and eventually back to Coruscant.
"Hardcase, Jesse, Coric and Nax, you're with me. Suit up, we'll head out in a Larty in ten. We'll need nine body bags." They had in fact lost eleven men, but two would be impossible to retrieve, falling into a ravine too deep to even contemplate entering.
Body bags.
The words caught in his throat.
Even as an experienced Captain, he still couldn't, wouldn't ever get used to death of a brother. In this case the senseless death of eleven of his men. It was a mistake by the Pantorans, one that the clones would have to live with.
He shook his head, 'expendable, yeah, that's how they see us,' the thought made his stomach churn.
Once in the Larty they headed out to where the ambush had taken place. The area was already disappearing under a blanket of snow, making the recon difficult. The twisted metal frames of the bikes admixed with the twisted frozen bodies of his men.
"Work in pairs, keep the comms open at all times. I want us back on the bird in one hour. After that, my shebs will be beginning to freeze and I'll be in need of a hot cup of shig. Got it?" He had sensed the mood of his team over the course of this mission. They were feeling the cold, and together with the loss of the men, morale had plummeted to an all time low.
"Yes Sir."
Hardcase headed off with Jesse, Coric and Nax were dropped off together leaving the Captain to oversee the third landing site alone. He trudged over to the body and scanned the soldier's breast plate for identification.
Rudder.
He sighed, blowing air into his helmet. Looking around he caught site of the other men, pulling, lifting and placing the dead into the large shrouds. Refocusing, he leaned down and attempted to pull the soldier free of the frozen mass that entrapped him. Rex quickly realised that he would not be able to move this man on his own.
"Ah Cap, we have visitors," Jesse mentioned down the comm tentatively.
Rex looked up and saw what had caught his brothers attention. Two Talz had appeared on their large mounts. Apparently out to perform the same morbid duty, collecting their dead.
"Copy that Jesse."
One raced up to where Rex was standing and swerved only in time to miss him as he stood his ground above his frozen brother. The enormous white alien dismounted the Narglatch and walked with ease in the deep powder towards Rex and the crumpled mess he was trying in vain to clear.
They stood and stared at one another, Rex dwarfed by the enormous white warrior.
"Captain, you need a hand over there?" Coric sounded worried as he watched the two in white face off in the distance.
"No Sergeant, continue on with your orders," the Captains reply was level and controlled.
Rex looked to his left at the man lying under the snow and slowly turned to move towards him.
That's when he saw the white beast move first. Rex immediately reached for his twin blasters but was surprised to see the Talz bend in front of him and lift part of a Narglatch up. Rex hadn't even noticed the enormous animal that had blended in with the snow, holding both the speeder and the soldier trapped beneath it. He strained under its dead weight, clearly the animal too heavy to move alone. Rex moved in slowly, grabbing another part of the frozen mass, and together they managed to move it enough for Rex to quickly drag the soldier under it free, before the Talz dropped the dead cat back down on the snow. Rex nodded his thanks and moved his brother over to the waiting body bag.
The Talz stood watching him as Rex spoke in a low voice, zipping the bag up over the soldiers face.
Rex let out another sigh, shrugging his arm he moved his hand over the sore area that was still biting.
'I must get Kix to look at this,' he thought to himself.
"Captain, this storm is getting heavier, if we don't extract now we'll be caught out here." Coric was right.
The snow storm had increased in its intensity meaning that the Laat/i would need to collect them now if it had any chance to return to base. The Talz warrior stood and watched, looking at the same menacing clouds rolling towards them. He intonated to a crevice in a rock face, where a small opening could be clearly seen.
"Let the Larty know I intend to head into an ice cave located near my position. Come and get me as soon as the storm abates."
"Sir! We can come and get you now!" Coric sounded panicked, screaming down the comm.
"Coric, you have your orders; the pilot won't have time in this weather to make three stops. I have the comm on and enough ration cubes to get me through the next few ho - " They all stood silent as his comm went dead, his voice replaced by static interference. The storm had cut off all communications. He was out in the worst of it, alone.
The Larty picked up Hardcase and Jesse first, swooping around to collect Coric and Nax when it had just enough time to beat the impending snow storm that, unbeknownst to them, would engulf the planet's surface for the next eighteen hours.
Coric ripped his helmet off and threw it hard onto the floor of the aircraft. "FFFEEEKKK!" he screamed out, long and loud. The others looked down at their feet, knowing their Captain had just saved their lives, yet again.
###
Rex inspected the cave. Although they would not be able to stand, it was certainly big enough to house the giant Talz and himself.
He watched as the alien sat himself down, Rex lifted his helmet off and saw the white warrior look at him. He then pulled out a small lithium torch from his belt, turning it on and checking the charge. It was going to get real dark, real quick. Rex tried the comm one more time. The lines of communication were dead, and the best he could do now was sit out the storm, with his new friend.
He opened up a ration bar taken form his utility belt and offered a cube to his companion.
The Talz studied the cube, sniffing it before placing it in his proboscis. He turned his head, quickly expelling the foreign substance and making a series of high pitched clicks that Rex took to mean expletives.
"Yeah, I think they're pretty awful too," he said as he placed a portion into his mouth, chewing on the colourless, flavourless food, he knew would take the edge off for the time being. His mind briefly wandering to the young Representative.
He smiled to himself and pulled out the little image from the inside of his gauntlet. Still chewing, he sat looking at the picture of the two of them.
The Talz made another clicking sound, motioning towards the flimsi in his hand. Rex turned the image towards the alien.
He nodded, clicking low and placed an enormous paw over his chest.
"Yeah, you got that right bud," Rex said, lifting his left gauntlet over his chest as well.
Rex shuddered as the cold was setting in, especially without his helmet being on, but thought better of replacing the familiar bucket in front of the Talz, more as a sign of respect than anything else. Outside the wind was howling, making the little cave reverberate with the noise. Rex checked the wrist comm one more time. Still unable to raise anyone, he settled back as comfortably as he could against the icy wall and closed his eyes. He was dry and relatively safe. He thought of her, and fell into a relaxed sleep.
Rex awoke sometime later.
He opened his eyes and, not moving, looked around at his surroundings.
He had been moved during the course of his sleep and was surprised to find himself ensconced in the Talz's white fur. He was warm, very warm and comfortable.
Outside the light from the morning sun was illuminating the tiny cave, the interior awash in a radiant blue.
He had heard from Kenobi that the Talz were in fact, a kind and gentle race. This proved the point as the creature had prevented certain hypothermia and possible death.
He looked at his chrono – it was oh eight hundred hours.
Fek!
He looked up into the four eyes of the Talz and smiled, nodding his head when the familiar beep of the wrist comm broke the silence.
Rex was never so happy to hear the sound, smiling broadly as he lifted his wrist to his mouth.
"Captain, this is Glid Station, do you copy? Over."
"Glid this is Rex. Nice of you boys to remember me."
"We've had a base of fretting five oh first all night Sir."
"And here I was thinking you didn't care."
"We've got your location Captain, are you ready for immediate evac?"
"That's an affirmative Glid. Rex out."
He motioned towards the Talz that he was getting ready to leave the cave. Stretching past the creature to collect his helmet, and placing it under his arm as he ventured out into the clear blue sky, he squinted against the brilliance of the light reflecting off the snow surface.
Rex closed his eyes at the glare and took in a deep breath.
The Talz followed him out. Both happy at being able to stand upright. Rex turned to the alien and extended his hand. The Larty engine could be heard in the distance and they would be collecting him, along with Rudder at any moment.
The Talz looked at the extended limb curiously. He suddenly moved forward taking Rex by surprise and clutched his enormous arms around him. Rex laughed and patted his furry friend on the back.
Then something extraordinary happened.
The Talz pulled out what he took to be a Narglatch claw from his waist pouch and handed it to Rex.
Rex looked at the alien, who nodded again, gesturing for him to take the small gift. He then grabbed Rex by the left glove and tapped at the area where he kept the image. Making another series of high pitched clicks and whistles, Rex knew that the gift was meant for her.
That being done, the Talz moved slowly through the snow towards a herd of warriors heading in their direction.
He too, was wanted.
Someone too, was waiting for him.
Rex stood alone and looked at the sharp claw in his hand. He was stunned to see the perfect engraving that the warrior had carved into it. It was beautiful, and Rex was moved at the first thing anyone had ever given him.
Snow from the hovering Larty was whipping around him as he placed the precious gift under his long kama and looked over at the soldiers coming out to greet him. They pulled Rudder into the air ship and headed back to base.
"You 'right Sir?" Kix asked as he swayed with the overhead hand supports.
Rex nodded. "Did we get all the men?"
"Yes Sir, all bar the two who went into the ravine."
Rex thought for a moment then added.
"When you have a minute Kix, I'll get you to take a look at this arm."
"Right you are Sir."
They stood in silence for the remainder of the trip back to Glid.
One happy to have his commanding officer back unhurt, the other happy to be heading home.
###
Rex had finished his report on the mission to Orto Plutonia followed by a small mission on board the Resolute back to the outer rim sector to extract an ARC and a civilian finishing up on some data recon.
"Welcome back Echo," Rex extended his hand as the ARC walked towards him on the Hanger Deck.
"Thank you Sir. May I introduce Civilian Freya Trask. Coruscant data analyst."
"Ma'am, a pleasure to have you on board."
She smiled somewhat awkwardly and was guided to her quarters, past the small crowd of blue and white awaiting their ARC and friends company.
The civilian woman was nothing special to look at.
Medium height, brown hair, with tiny flecks scattered across her nose and cheeks. She wore heavy black rimmed glasses. One thing Rex, along with most of the ship had noticed however, was her ample bosom.
Echo and Freya had done a miraculous job taking apart an entire Separatist disk, and collating all the data ready to report back to High Command on Coruscant.
They had been deployed to a safe house on the outer rim world of Concord Dawn for the past seven weeks.
An eternity during a war.
Echo seemed relaxed, not his usual intense self and Rex wondered if the young woman had something to do with his new demeanor. He was welcomed back from the old squad of 501st brothers, who couldn't help but mock the young woman they saw him arrive on board with.
"Here's a jug, sorry Echo, a mug of caf." Jesse kept a straight face the entire time as he placed the hot drink in front of the ARC.
"I believe you managed to get more than a tit bit of information from the disk Echo?" Coric spoke as he looked down at his plate of rations, moving the fork up to his mouth.
"Lucky the disk wasn't booby trapped," Hardcase couldn't help himself.
With that, the table broke out into a fit of laughter. Coric lost his food, it falling out of his mouth back onto the plate in front of him.
"You think I don't know what you're talking about? Well, I could have you all on report for those comments," Echo standing, boomed across the table at them.
"Is there a problem here?" Rex had come over to the raucous table and stopped proceedings mid track.
They all looked at Echo.
"None Sir," he said looking squarely at the three men sitting in front of him. "Just heading back to my bunk to turn in."
Echo left the Mess, all three men and the Captain silent.
"Lay off you three," Rex warned them in a low, threatening voice. They got the hint and continued with their meal.
Rex heard another burst of laughter as he left the Mess, and couldn't help but chuckle to himself.
###
"Rex, wait up!" It was Cody.
"Commander, nice to see you on board."
"Hear you nearly froze your shebs off in a cave?"
"Yeah," Rex laughed, "I made a new best friend though."
"What! Better than me? Cody slapped his back as they turned the corner and headed towards the med bay together.
"Fekking Pantorans, I'm not sure who is worse these days. The Sep's or the kriffing allies who shebs we are trying to save."
Cody knew that Rex had lost more men on this mission.
"You're angry ner vod, and injured I see. Why don't you hit the Bacta?"
"We'll be dirt side in the morning. I need to check on my men. Besides," he said with a wink, "I intend on getting a full medical from a little Oriian nurse I know in the Senatorial building."
"You dirty devil," Cody laughed.
"Well the Kaminoans should have modeled us on someone other than Fett!" Rex slapped the Commander on the back.
"Just be careful my friend. I don't think I could handle two of you, if you get my drift?" Cody laughed, the irony not lost on him, before he swerved down the corridor to the right.
Rex smiled and stopped just out of Cody's sight.
"Fek!" he whispered to himself.
###