Rex leapt back to avoid a speeding R2 unit loading supplies on the lift.
"Hey!" he barked as the droid nearly ran over his foot with a cart so precariously overloaded it was in danger of toppling.
The droid bleeped something at him in response. Rex wasn't fluid in binary but knew he'd been flipped off. Again.
"Say it again and I'll rip out your motivator."
But, the droid was already out of reach, bleeping at him from the lift. He flattened himself up against the wall to avoid being run over again by another supply cart speeding by. With the ship being restocked for their departure to the Rim, the place was lousy with droids everywhere. In order to get to training in a timely manner in the morning, he'd resorted to crawling through one of the access tubes.
He glanced at the panel for the lift. Krek. All the lifts were tied up and he was in no mood to crawl through an access tube. He punched a fist against the control, putting in his request for the lift to stop, and decided to use the time to catch up on comm calls.
"Trapper. Impressive. You picked up in about half a second."
"Yeah, well, there's a lot going on. You have news about Cody?"
"Nothing more than what you've probably already heard."
"I've heard it's bad. I didn't see it happen, but the boys who did said he was chest shot by Ko. Is that true?"
Rex sighed wearily. Trapper was one of Cody's best friends and deserved the truth. "Yes."
"Fek me. Why would he do such a thing?"
"We don't know. We're trying to figure it out." The lines around Trapper's face were tight and drawn. "I imagine news about the shooting is spreading like wildfire through the ranks."
"Yeah, that's about right."
"I have a mission for you."
"A mission. Now?"
"It has to do with Cody."
"Right, of course. What do you need?"
"Keep the rumors down. We don't know what happened and we don't need everyone speculating. Minimize the chatter. Best reply we can give is Ko's blaster misfired. It's a training accident. Too many troopers saw him shoot him to deny that part of him, but we need to change the narrative. For now, at least. It was a very unfortunate accident."
"Unfortunate that he jammed his blaster in Cody's gut and fired it?" Trapper's voice was dark and bitter.
"Yeah, I know, it's a lot to swallow, but we need to keep a lid on this thing, Trap. You know that's what Cody would've wanted."
Trapper sighed. "Yeah, of course. You're right."
"Also, just keep the troopers too busy to gossip. I know Appo was trying to take order down there, but I'm not sure the 212th boys are going to listen to him."
Trapper barked out a laugh, answering that question. "Right. We're already on it, you know." Trapper changed his POV to show Waxer and Boil barking at groups of 212th troopers. "Right now, we have the boys doing strength-training and weapons handling. We may have them to do some droid kicking later, you know, in honor of Cody."
"Yeah, he'd love that- come back and all of you will be kicking the heads off droids."
Trapper huffed out a small laugh. "He would, wouldn't he, though? We'll make it happen. The three of us- me, Wax and Boil- we'll keep Airborne running until Cody is back on his feet."
Rex dipped his chin slightly. A nod of approval and cut the comm. He liked Trapper's confidence that Cody would be back.
That wound had looked awful.
Clones were designed to be tough, though, and Cody was the toughest out of all of them.
He poked his head out from his where he'd taken refuge from the droids barreling through the corridors. His lift pinged, but he ignored it for the moment, and jammed the button to let it pass and summon another. He had another call to make. The 104th commander also picked up immediately.
"Wolffe, what was Ko's mental state after you and the Pack pulled him off Cody?"
"Dazed," Wolffe responded in his gravelly baritone, "seemed unaware of what he'd done. We got him out of there very quickly. He didn't put up a fight at all."
"I still don't get it. There must be something else."
"His eyes were off."
"Alright, that's something, at least. Off- how?" Rex demanded, seizing on any clue to explain why a clone could suddenly alter behavior.
"Of course, I don't know Ko, like I know Cody, but I've worked with him a few times. When I looked at his eyes, it was like it was him, and not him, at the same time. Approach him with caution. We don't know what we are dealing with here."
"Understood, Rex out." Gah. What could make a clone act like themselves but not themselves at the same time?
The doors to the lift opened, but it was completely filled with droids and cargo. A second lift immediately arrived with the same result. He hit the button with more force than necessary to send it on its way again. Resigning himself it would still be a way before he would make his way down to the lower levels, he commed the one trooper he could always count on to get things down.
# #
"And, you see, Sly, that is when me and Echo knew we had to fight out way out there. There's a time for running and there's a time for fighting-"
Sly interrupted Fives' storytelling. "Wait. I thought you and Echo come up with elaborate plans so you don't have to fight your way out. Hacking and covert ops and all that."
Fives and Sly were carrying crates with Kix and new Phase II Echo's armor to the microlab. Harley, the quartermaster, had already departed back to the ship to continue preparations for their imminent departure to the Outer Rim.
Fives laughed. Deep belly laughter. "You'd think- what with all the training we'd undergone- but much of what we do still comes down to hiding in a ditch someplace."
"No, seriously? There's no more to being an ARC trooper than rolling around in ditches?"
Fives snorted again with laughter. "Well, we do sneak around a lot and blow things up. Maybe we can drag you along for some of it-" The ARC stopped suddenly, mid-step at an incoming comm call from Rex. "I have to get this..." He slipped his bucket on.
Sly waited patiently, watching Fives' slight head movements while he finished his comm call.
Fives' tilted his head and looked at him. "Well, brother, you said you wanted to see some action."
"Of course I want to see action," he said with far more bluster than he was actually feeling. "What was that call about?"
"The Captain has a little mission for us."
"Define 'little mission.'"
"We are going back to ArmyMed."
"What? No. That's a terrible idea. If I get caught, I'll be-"
"This isn't about you. If we get caught, we'll all be sent to Kamino. But, we're not getting caught. Get us back in there undetected. Understood?"
Sly's gut clenched in a way it hadn't since he was at Kamino and asked to be assigned to Coruscant. For all his confidence, he wasn't sure he was as brave as Fives. But, he swallowed hard and muttered: "Understood. I'll find a way."
Fives nodded and they headed into the small medbay with their crates. "We have a mission. Suit up. Let's go. Orders from the Captain."
Kix looked up from the scanner, his voice betraying his annoyance at being interrupted. "I'm in the middle of something here. Whatever it was that was in Echo's head might be very significant. Can it wait?"
Fives shook his head. "Commander Cody has been shot. The official story is it was a training accident." The ARC let his words hang in the air. Kix stared at Fives in shocked silence, and then immediately grabbed his new kit out of Fives' arms. He shucked his old plates and bodysuit, stripping down and putting on the new one. Fives helped him, talking him through the unfamiliar attachments in gruff no-nonsense tones.
"What happened?" Kix demanded.
"All I know is that it was no accident," Fives said grimly. "But, none of that matters now. Our mission is to get Cody back up to his ship the moment he is out of surgery. Someone wants him dead and it's not safe for him down here on Corrie."
"If someone shot him up there on the cruiser, doesn't it mean it's not safe for him up there either?"
All three of the older clones gave him a blank look.
"He's better off up on a shipful of clones than down on Coruscant," Fives said firmly. "Besides, orders are orders. He gets out of surgery and we get him back up to the ship."
Fully kitted up, Kix reached out and downloaded his data off of the med scanner, and deleted his work off of the device. He shut down the device, grabbed the blood samples, and quickly tucked them into his medical pack. "I doubt we'll be coming back here."
"Good call," Fives said. He glanced over at Echo, fully suited now in his new Phase II armor except for his helmet., which Sly was holding in his hands and admiring. "Looking good, ARC trooper."
"It's missing a handprint from Captain Rex," Echo said, as he adjusted and tightened up his plates, "but I'm ready to move out." He gave Kix a hard look, daring him to declare him unfit for duty.
Kix sighed. "Fine. It looks like we have a mission."
Echo grinned.
Fives grabbed the helmet from Sly and tossed it to Echo, who caught it neatly. "Let's move out to troopers. Shinie, you're in front with me."
Oh, fekkin hells, thought Sly.
"I'm not a shinie," he objected and then winced as his voice cracked.
His gut was clenched so hard he could barely breathe. But, it was too late to back out. He'd asked for a chance. And, here it was. A mission. He was ideally suited for it and wearing the kit of the most elite legion in the GAR. He might get sent to Kamino for this, or may not live through the day. But, it also might turn out to be the best day of his short life. He'd take that risk. He raised up his chin a little bit higher, straightened out his shoulders and walked next to Fives. And, as his confidence returned, so did the ideas. "I know how to get us in. But, we'll have to work together. I'll explain on the way."
# # #
Cody was sure someone was sitting on his chest. Why couldn't he get a proper breath in? His entire mid cavity burned with an inner fire.
"Ko!"
Cody bolted upright and then immediately regretted it. Multiple hands pushed him back down and he gasped against the fresh burst of pain in his chest. He gasped desperately for air that would not come. A breather was strapped to his face and he struggled against this additional insult.
"Commander, you need to leave it on until your respiration steadies."
Cody blinked hard, trying to focus on the speaker. He was surrounded by medics, but he couldn't focus on anything. The pain in his chest was too intense.
Ko.
"Don't try to speak, Commander."
He'd said that out loud?
Ko had shot him.
His mind swirled, replaying the moment again and again.
"Deep steady breaths, Commander."
He could breathe better if it didn't have this damn thing on his face.
"50 cc of Benzacardardageniene. Run a fluid line. If he doesn't want the breather, get it off of him."
The offending breather was lifted from his face, and he was better able to see the faces surrounding him. Coric. Iron, the medic from the Wolfpack, and Keen and Cavil from the 212th. No. Wait. As he stared at the 212th medics, he realized something wasn't right. That wasn't Keen and Cavil. Both of them were gone. They were lost in the Battle at Darkknell in the dungeons. He was filled with an aching sadness. These were the junior medics. He couldn't remember their names. Why couldn't he remember their names? He knew the names of every trooper in the 212th. What was wrong with him?
The hypo which came at his neck was just a flash of silver and then his veins filled with a warm slow sense of sluggishness.
He was sad and sleepy and warm all at the same time. Now, he was hot. Too hot. Why did his veins feel like they were on fire?
Barriss…
Barriss would know what to do...
Barriss...
His eyes slid shut and he knew no more.
# # #
Rex's boots echoed against the corridor of the detention as he headed for Ko's cell. He had no idea what he was going to say to the trooper who shot Cody. He needed answers. But, it would be difficult to speak to his fellow Captain and maintain his composure. How could Ko have broken a bond so sacred?
I'm just going to have to handle this Skywalker-style and jump into it.
He took a deep breath and rounded the corner to the cell where Ko was supposed to be detained.
There were no guards. And, no Ko.
He immediately summoned the nearest duty officer on the detention level, Omak, for a report.
"Commander Appo ordered the prisoner transferred down to the RMB."
Rex nodded to the trooper, not trusting himself to speak. His vision was flashing red. He needed to have words with his new commander.
# # #
Coric glanced up from where he was taking readings on the Commander. "He's stable. For now."
Iron didn't respond. He had the slightly distracted look a clone did when he was deep in a comm call. He gave the barest of nods and then turned to the others. "New plan. We're doing things our way."
"What exactly does that mean?" asked Digger, staring down Iron. The ship shook slightly as the landing gear engaged.
"We are taking the Commander to surgery ourselves, and immediately returning him back to The Vigilance."
There was no time for follow-up questions. The doors of the LAAT slid open and they were surrounded by medtech personnel.
"Welcome to ArmyMed," droned a C3 unit, "please drop off your cargo and clear the platform."
"We'll take it from here," muttered a bored-looking Medtech reaching for the hover stretcher.
"Sign this datapad to complete the transfer," said a second tech. "Looks like you have one unit for transfer-"
Iron swept the clone out of the way, none too gently, and headed for the entrance with Cody, pushing the hover stretcher very quickly. The other three trained combat medics followed his lead, running after him.
"Surgery level," Iron ordered, once they were in the lift, the doors closing just in time to avoid the medtech.
Coric took advantage of the moment of downtime in the lift to open up a private comm channel to Rex.
Rex answered immediately, and from the slight background hum, Coric could discern he was also in a lift. "Iron's gone a bit rogue down here at ArnyMed. Said he had Orders to personally get him to the surgery and expedite him back to his ship.
Rex was silent a moment, in the way he always did when he was pulling together complex battle strategies. Coric could tell this was news to Rex, but he was not going to contradict an order which came down from another Commander. "I agree with that plan. Stay with him. Keep him safe."
"This is highly unusual, Rex," Coric said. Troopers were normally dropped off for treatment and returned when they were healed or didn't return at all. There was no middle option. "What is it you're not telling me?"
There was it again. That pause. Coric knew Rex trusted him in a way above other troopers. If not for his duties as a medic, he likely would have been promoted past sergeant a long time ago. But, he was also too busy saving lives. Jesse had been promoted while Coric had remained a sergeant.
"Cody... is not safe on Coruscant. I'll send reinforcements. Comm me regularly. I want to be kept updated on his condition."
The lift doors opened, demanding Coric's full attention. "Understood, Coric out."
They pushed the hover stretcher out into the corridor, walking rapidly, aware the techs would have recovered by now, and called security.
"Do you have any idea where we are going?" Coric demanded, walking in the front next to Iron. They stood out in their armor, all other clones working there were dressed in medic blues.
"This place is huge," chimed in Glitch over their private channel, pushing the medstretcher from the back. "Hey, I think I just saw a Gamoreean-"
"We're trying to blend in,di'kut." Iron hissed. "Stop gawking and act like you belong here."
"Clearly we don't," Coric said, he cast a worried glance down at Cody. "we need to get him into a surgery suite. We need someone who knows there way around this place-"
An unfamiliar trooper with a single stripe of 501st blue appeared at his elbow, startling him. "Heard you might need some assistance troopers." He gave a Cody look. "Oooooof, that's a mess." He stepped ahead of them. "Follow me."
"Who the fek is he?" Iron grumbled.
Fives and Echo appeared on either side of Iron and Coric, flanking them in. "A friend. Trust him. Knows some medic shit, too. Let's move."
Coric released a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. Rex's promised reinforcements had arrived.
# # #