Seventy Six

"Come on Kix," he implored, "I need you on board vode. We can get a bucket full of credits for this one."

"I'm not sure I can do it Jess," he said, shaking his head. This was the sort of thing Jesse would wring Hardcase in on. Kix stopped and he thought for a second, "ok, let's go over the plan again." A huge smile ran across his friends face and Kix immediately knew he had done the right thing.

Even if he wasn't sure exactly how this was going to work.

"Trust me Didge ok? Just look, I don't know, like a shinie. That shouldn't be too hard, and play along. But you know what to do right?" He slapped the new recruit on the shoulder and continued towards the rec room.

"Let me get this straight. You are going to bet against me reassembling my deece faster than this Chopper guy?"

"Yep, but Kix here, is going to bet for you. Which means we will win more credits from the other suckers." He stopped and turned to the two walking just behind him. "Look, just put that baby back together like you did on Kamino and you'll cream him. Chopper is good, but you're better. Relax, here shrug your shoulders a bit, you look tense, that's it."

Kix just looked at the young recruit and winked.

They swung into the rec room.

They were all there as if on cue.

Jesse moved forward while Kix and Didge sat at a table in the middle and began talking quietly amongst themselves.

"Hey Chop, good to see you vode."

"Jess, you slimy bishwag! Heard you guys were back."

"Bishwag? You're showing your age Chopper."

They clasped hands and smiled at one another. "Yep, Torrents back in one piece. You boys in tangerine need to remember your place and step aside."

"It's gamboge brother, and we kinda like being at the top of the scrap heap."

"Yeah, you're right," Jesse slapped his back, "no one can reassemble a deece faster than you, hey Chop?"

The scarred clone just grunted as he went to sit down.

Jesse waited, and then glared at Kix. It was now his turn to play the role they had practiced.

"I would debate that Jess," his voice cracking nervously. "Didge here is faster than any brother I've ever seen, no disrespect Chopper."

"That's nerf osik Kix and you know it! He's not good enough to take on the fastest in the 212th, ain't that right Chop?"

Chopper nodded and high fived his blue counterpart.

Jesse turned his back on his unit brother and continued to talk with Chopper when Kix stood and threw down his gauntlet, "you're on Jess. I bet that Didge can disassemble and reassemble a DC-17 faster than Chopper."

"You're gonna lose, you know that don't you? He's just a shinie for feks sake! Straight from Kamino. Come on, just ignore them Chopper."

"No," he replied with a glint in his eye, "let's take him on."

Didge swallowed hard, the scarred clone was intimidating.

"10 credits," Kix said loud enough for all to hear, bile rising in his throat.

"50, and you're on."

Men from all over the rec room began scattering for spare credits, placing their bets with Jesse.

It was all going to plan.

Chopper and Didge sat down at a table and Boil looked over both weapons, making sure no one had an unfair advantage.

Kix felt sick. He had never bet on anything before, especially with such high stakes.

He had never played his fellow brothers before.

Unlike CT-5597.

To Jesse, this was another elaborate game. He was in his element, taking bets and talking at a rapid fire rate. If this went the way he anticipated, Torrent would be the beneficiary of just on 80 credits, with everyone betting on the seasoned, scarred trooper.

"OK, you both ready? On my mark," Boil stated; he was in for 2 credits, which meant 4 drinks down at the Bunker later that afternoon.

"Mark."

It was no contest.

Before Chopper even had his weapon fully apart, Didge's magical fingers were already putting his rifle back together.

Snap, click, shlunk, chunk.

Done.

He placed his weapon down and put his hands high in the air.

The room fell silent.

"Well I'll be," Jesse said slowly, "congratulations Kix, " he said turning to the medic,"you've just cleaned up the entire squad."

Kix was nervous, every trooper in the room had bet against Didge and were now glaring at him as he scooped the winnings into his helmet.

Didge looked over at Jesse and nodded; Chopper finally put two and two together.

"This was a set up!"

He cried foul.

Boil looked over at Kix, "I'd expect it from him," intonating to Jesse, "but not you!"

Kix felt as though he had let everyone down.

It was on.

Chairs were hurled and punches thrown. Blue streaked with red and new armour dented.

"You know red and tangerine clash ner vod," Jesse said as he slammed Chopper hard against the wall and threw a right to his nose.

"It's gamboge you piece of osik and you'll be black and blue when I finish with you!"

"We like to call it cerulean brother," he grunted out as Chopper grabbed him in a head lock.

"Stop it," Kix was yelling, "stop it n - " before he was grabbed mid thorax and pushed hard onto the floor. Boil sat astride him and systematically began thumping him, "you rotten shabuir! We should have know better than to trust you lot." Didge automatically moved forward and grabbed the man on top of the unit medic, and threw him hard across the room.

"Thanks Didge," Kix said before the young recruit was blindsided by an engineer wearing green.

"Just watch his hands," Kix yelled.

The commotion had alerted more from Torrent. Whisk wove his way through the throng in time to see his vat brother being pummeled by the meanest looking clone he had ever seen.

"GET OFF HIM," he screamed he clasped the armour at the soldiers neck and yanked him hard to the left, freeing the sniper.

"What the fek are you doing?" he yelled at Didge who was wiping the blood from his mouth, angry and itching to get back into the fight.

While standing in true bewilderment, the young medic was pushed backwards by the seasoned 212th scout and Boil then hit him with a succession of punches to the jaw.

Jesse was being danced around the room, still in Chopper's head lock, attempting to dodge wild swings from various angry brothers.

"COME ON," he yelled, "you lot fight like a pack of Twi'leks at a panty sale. Argh! Fek, I'm sorry alright?"

Didge ran before going airborne, "hey, get off him you nerf heading piece of -"

"ENOUGH!"

They all heard their voice, but they had tasted blood, and the Jango that flowed through them wouldn't be silenced.

No one took any notice as Commanders Wolffe and Cody stood in the doorway. "Give them another couple of minutes," Wolffe said with a smile.

"If I did, someone will be killed."

The commanders had been recalled to Ground Zero before reassignment. Something big was going down to have all units stationed at the barracks, the extra men, and mix of colours causing more logistical problems than initially anticipated. And with their Captain on Scillal, Appo was having a tough time keeping some 501st in line.

Commander Cody moved forward, men parting as they recognised their immediate superior.

"I SAID ENOUGH!"

The room stopped still.

He scanned the assortment of troopers and their collective appearance.

Jesse had blood streaming from his nose and Kix had a deep gash above his eye. Chopper and Boil had bruised eye sockets and swollen mouths. Didge swayed, his knuckles cut and contused. Whisk, still in shock on the floor, held his jaw and attempted to stand. His legs gave out from under him and he decided to remain seated, straightening his back at an an attempt of attention.

No one noticed the engineer in green unconscious under a table.

"What is the nine Corellian Hells is going on here?"

Jesse quickly rolled his eyes at Kix.

It was what Cody always said, and for once, just once, he wished he could come up with something original.

Cody caught sight of it.

"You have a problem Jesse?"

"No Sir, none Sir," he snapped up rigid.

"I didn't think so," he said, his voice low and menacing. Wolffe turned away and raised a hand up to his mouth to hide the mirth written all across it.

"Clean yourselves up and be outside my office in 20 minutes."

The group broke up, Chopper pushing past Jesse hard with his shoulder as he left the room. Together, Didge and Boil helped Whisk to his feet.

"Hey Kix," another medic came rushing in, "they've just brought the Cap back, he's in the Infirmary with a light sabre burn. He's just about to head into surgery. He's asking for you."

Kix looked at Jess and they both forgot their collective aliments and ran full pelt to the med bay.

And their captain.

They heard him before they saw him, yelling at a tinnie about his gear being taken away, his tone and colourful language more familiar on the battlefield.

"You better go in first," Jess said as he reached for some wadding to begin packing his nose.

Kix stepped into the cubicle.

"About fekking time you turned up! What in the," he noticed the gash and blood down the front of his armour, "on second thoughts, I don't want to know. Kix, come here," the medic moved forward and slowly lifted the sheet covering the captains injury. He winced when he saw the torn flesh and the melted plastoid.

"Sir, what hap -" he began to say when Rex cut him short.

"Kix, listen up. I need you to collect my helmet, gauntlets and pistols before they are recalibrated. Do-you-understand? Give them to Finn to lock away ok."

"Of course Rex, but - " he looked towards his leg.

"Not now Kix?" He flopped back down on the pillow. The morpha was wearing off and the pain was beginning to bite once more, beads of sweat forming on his forehead.

"Just promise me you'll get my helmet and give it to Finn, now ok?"

Kix knew what his captain wasn't saying.

If you were injured on a mission, your helmet would be sent down to ordinance for the tech heads to download stored data before it was wiped and reset. The captain obviously didn't want anyone to see what his bucket would have recorded.

"Sir, yes Sir. Do you want me to notify Representative Gem?"

"No," he said flatly. "I'll be out in the morning. I'll speak to her then. My bucket Kix," he said through gritted teeth.

"Yes sir, I'll do it now."

"Thanks, thanks," he mumbled as he breathed through another burning surge of pain.

.