"The Rimma Trade Route," Yularen began, signaling to Rex to flip on the holochart, "is one of the most important trade routes in the galaxy." He pointed one hand into the chart. "Starting here in the Abregado-Rae in the Core Worlds and continuing to the Kathol sector in the far reaches of the Outer Rim Territories."

He handed the datapad over to Rex who reviewed the information on it quickly. His eyes widened briefly at the contents before he cleared his throat and at a nod from Yularen, took over, reading the 'pad. It was a subtle thing, putting Rex back in charge of a briefing. But, it sent a message of Rex's position of power and influence within the 501st once again. He could just as easily have asked Appo to do it, but he didn't. Rex didn't begin to understand the working of the Admiral's mind, but he did seem to have a liking for Rex and he'd always treated the clones fairly. It was more than he could say for many other natborns he'd met in his short lifetime.

Rex ensured his posture was perfect as he crisply delivered the information. He was not going to mess this up. "Traveling the full length of the Rimma Route normally takes six weeks with a Class 2 hyperdrive." He paused for effect. "We will be doing it two."

Skywalker, always fascinated with ships, leaned in with interest. "Two weeks? How is that possible?"

Rex hit a button on the datapad and the entire top of the table lit up with a schematic of a new hyperdrive design. He couldn't resist the slight smile tugging at the corner of his lips as he looked over at his General. He knew Skywalker would love this part of it. "Our ships are getting an upgrade, sir."

Skywalker stood up and stared with unabashed fascination at the schematic, reaching a hand out as if he could actually touch the new engines. He flipped the schematic at different angles, expanding the diagram to get a closer look at certain sections as if he were already tinkering with certain sections of them.

"Oh, now you've done it," General Kenobi muttered.

Rex handed the pad back over to the Admiral. He raised his voice slightly, as he always did when he needed to get the attention of the Jedi. "Thank you, Captain. As soon as our full crews are on board, we are headed to the Kuat Drive Yards. It will take at least a week to overhaul the four flagships, although we have asked for the process to be expedited as much as possible. The lighter cruisers will then be updated and follow us out to the Rim. These engine upgrades will cut our travel time to the Rimma Route in half. We will use this time during the overhaul to get our forces battle-ready."

He paused, allowing time for questions.

"Four ships, Admiral, which-" Cody began.

As if summoned by the line of questioning, the conference door opened. All eyes snapped over to the entrance. Ponds entered first. Cody's eyes widened with surprise. He was immediately followed by Jedi General Mace Windu. All the clones seated immediately snapped to attention.

"At ease, gentleman, apologies for being late." He grabbed two chairs from the side of the room, pressing them into a space that did not really exist between Cody and Rex, forcing them to quickly adjust their chairs to accommodate.

What a fekker power move.

He immediately sat down and Ponds slid down into the chair next to him avoiding making eye contact with either Rex or Cody.

Yeah, if my General routinely pulled stunts like that, I'd be embarrassed, too.

Rex then realized his General pulled a bunch of over-the-top shab all the time and he'd gotten used to it as Skywalker just being Skywalker. But, he never did it in such a way that he had to pull a power move over clones under his command.

Gah. What a shab'buir.

"Commander, Captain," Windu greeted, his voice polite and professional.

"General," Rex and Cody said in tandem.

Rex used it as a quick opportunity to glance over at Cody and see how he was reacting to Windu's choice of seating. Cody gave him an impassive look before pulling out his datapad. He started a quick sketch of the new engine design, using it as an opportunity to completely avoid looking at Windu. Cody was an excellent artist, although he rarely chose to share his art with anyone. He could keep himself busy for the rest of the meeting with his notes on the updated engines.

Fine.

The last thing any of them needed was another confrontation with Windu. The mission came first.

"Commander Wolffe determined that while three forces would be adequate to pull this off," Yularen said, "four would give us a tactical advantage. General Windu graciously stepped forward. The 91st will be an essential part of this engagement for as long as it takes."

Rex glanced over at Wolffe. Thanks for the heads up.

Wolffe somehow managed to look completely stoic and slightly amused at the same time. His lips quirked up in the faintest ghost of a smile. He was enjoying having pulled one over on Rex. Again.

"Captain, take us through a tactical summary of what we can expect on the Rimma Route."

Rex directed his attention back toward Yularen. As a Captain, he was by no means the most senior officer there. Matter of fact, with so many commanders present, he was one of the most junior officers. Ko and Nash were not even present. Rex wasn't sorry about the absence of Nash. He didn't trust himself not to pound Ponds' second into the deck as payback for what he'd done to Cody. He was fond of Ko, though. He'd fought by his side many times and he was a fine trooper. But, it was all senior command staff in the meeting. And, Yularen was making it clear that Rex was still considered as such, despite the presence of Appo.

Rex wasn't sure why Yularen was choosing him again over Appo, but he resisted the temptation of looking over at the 501st Commander. They all had their buckets off and it was exceedingly difficult to hide subtle facial cues from another clone. Whatever Appo was thinking of him right now, it probably wasn't: "Go Rex!"

Rex went through the planets systematically, from Abregado to Yag'Dul, covering the more notable planets and their military importance. All clones were flash trained with detailed knowledge of the known galaxies. Rex had taken an interest in the topic early on and spent some of his precious free time as a cadet learning more. Maybe it was his innate desire to explore the galaxy beyond the confines of Kamino. But, he'd always been fascinated by the number of planets out there and how different some of them were from one another. He was so excited by the prospect he might get to see some of these planets one day, it was all he could do to quiet his mind enough to sleep at night.

This knowledge came in handy now as he was able to go through the planets on their upcoming route with barely a glance at his datapad. He noticed both Kenobi and Windu raise up an eyebrow and Skywalker and Ahsoka both gave him that smirk that they did when they were particularly pleased with him. He had to admit he was enjoying himself. He tried to keep it brief, since there were a lot of planets to cover, although he could go into detail on any of them if pressed to do so.

Some of the planets were important for their mineral resources and others were important trading centers. Most were either now aligned with the Separatists or showing signs of doing so due to concerns about the "moral decay of the Republic." According to the initial mission briefing, they had orders directly from the Chancellor to get these planets "back in line."

The wording was disturbing. Rex offered no opinion, of course, on their orders and just repeated them verbatim, but he saw Kenobi wince as he read the mandate from Palpatine.

Normally, such things were handled by Jedi negotiators and it was not a military exercise. But, their top Jedi negotiator had been locked up for the past two months when many of these planets had "fallen."

(Again, not Rex's choice of wording. Shouldn't these planets have the right to choose?)

These thoughts had troubled him as he'd read through the pre-meeting briefing materials provided by the Admiral, and it still bothered him now.

Rex had memorized all of the information he'd reviewed with Appo, and there had been a great deal of it. Admiral Yularen was always thorough in his pre-mission briefs.

It was convenient that every clone in their fleet had the flash training needed for an invasion to the Outer Rim. It was as if someone had known years ago this invasion would be necessary. It could be regarded as nothing else. Or, a siege. Yes, this could better be regarded as a siege of the Outer Rim to take back an essential trading route for the Republic. There was a bit of wording in there that made it sound as if this was being done to "preserve the Republic." But, it was forcing planets to change their mind after they'd already made their choice.

Rex was a soldier. He knew about fighting, and politics had not been covered in his flash training beyond the basics of galactic history. But, shouldn't planets have the right to choose for themselves in a Republic?

"Are there any questions?" Yularen asked.

He wanted to ask the question.

Oh, fek. He wanted to ask.

But, he didn't.

The meeting ended. He gathered up his datapad, tactfully stepped around General Windu, and filed out of the room as the good soldier he'd been raised to be.

# # #

Revision History: 2/20/20: I added in the bit at the end where Rex questions whether a Republic has the right to force a member planet to stay. Toward the end of the Clone Wars, the Republic invaded many planets, forcing them to stay in the Republic when they wished to leave. One of these planets was Umbara.

Revised again on 4/29/22 to add a little more tension between Rex/Cody/Windu. Whether this tension is real or imagined, (Rex is not always a reliable narrator), Windu does seem to be testing Rex and Cody more than he does the other command clones.

An interesting side note- this story got "stuck" on Chapter 44- the Outer Rim sieges for five years. I returned to work full-time after writing this chapter. While I had every intention of continuing to write "in my free time," there was no free time between parenting, working and still being heavily involved in my Star Wars costuming club. I would sit down to write and the words would not come. This story probably never would have gotten off of the ground again if not for the urging and a number of brainstorming sessions with Adam/N7Huntsman. He is a reader who loves this story and wanted it to be finished. If you enjoy this story, kudos to Adam for not giving up on me and my ability to finish Rex's journey.