"Padawan Nightshade, how nice to see you." The Jedi master greeted, whilst Lama Su simply eyed Gundark squad and shuffled past.
"As it is you Master." Nightshade replied courteously.
"How come you are on Kamino?"
"The transport I was on got shot down, and my Master was medevac'ed shortly after. I was helping these clones with their objective." She explained formally.
The atmosphere had Gundark squad stand impossibly straighter.
"Do you know if she is ok?" Shaak Ti asked.
Zoe's feet shuffled nervously. "I haven't heard anything."
The elder Jedi lays a reassuring hand on her shoulder, and guides her over to a communications terminal, where she keys in the code for the Jedi Temple.
Gundark squad watch as they make contact with one of the civilian communications operators, who routes their call on-towards the medical wing.
Riptide and his brothers slink into the background of the room as the call is taken.
"Master Phoebe Artemis is still currently unconscious, however is expected to make a full recovery. The clone medical corps explained that it's likely she only survived due to the frontline care she received, that first bacta patch kept her going." The healer explained, reading from a datapad.
Zoe stood shocked, although a lot of tension left her and she sagged in relief at hearing the news. She looked over at Gundark appreciatively.
"Are these the clones who found you?" Shaak asked.
"Yes master."
"The Three-Seventy-Fourth ma'am." Sparky replied crisply.
The togruta nodded, consulting her datapad. "It appears that Padawan Nightshade here and her master are without a legion, as is the three-seventy-fourth." She said, a soft smile growing as she tapped a few.
"It also appears that the legion suffered some of the heaviest casualties of the battle, there is currently no command staff at all." She revealed forlornly.
Spooky nodded, remembering the explosion that destroyed the captain's gunship.
"However, this works well, retraining will give time for Master Artemis to heal before the legion is shipped out." Nightshade nodded along to Ti's wisdom.
The elder Jedi looked over the clones, before she locked her vision onto Riptide, and taking a step towards him. "CT Twenty Four Twenty Six, yes?"
"Yes ma'am." He saluted.
"Congratulations on your promotion to captain."
Elf choked on his spit and hunched over, as Riptide tried to fumble out an answer. "I, uh -Thank you ma'am?"
"It is of no worry, you clearly are already familiar with Padawan nightshade here, and I can sense that you will do a fine job." She encouraged.
He didn't really know how to feel about the whole Sense thing, but he didn't question it.
"You are to report to Alpha-17 and Captain Fordo for your training at twenty one hundred hours." She informed him.
Despite all having their helmets on, all present knew that all colour had drained from their new CO's face.
"Been nice knowing you brother." Anvil said, elbowing him.
Newly promoted, one of the few perks was that he got to customise his armour to a higher degree. Surprisingly, there were no regs specifically outlining what commanding officers were to wear.
Well, there had been, but apparently there had been a brief campaign by the Jedi to allow some personalisation among the troopers, much to the kaminoan's dismay.
As a result, there were now a shedload of CC's inside the senior armoury, picking and choosing their armour.
A few looked up as he the door opened for him, and he checked his datapad to make sure he was in the right spot.
"You a CC?" One of them shouted over, his helmet discarded on a crate.
"Uh, no, CT. Newly promoted." He replied, which got a few newer looks.
The one who shouted nodded in understanding, before waving him over. He quickly made his way over. "I'm Bly." He held out his forearm in greeting, to which he quickly reciprocated.
"Riptide." He provided back.
"Riptide, eh? How'd that come around."
"Nearly drowned during aquatics training." He explained in a deadpan.
"Ha, classic. Just don't tell Monnk otherwise he'll never leave you alone about teaching you properly." He mocked. "Anyways, this is Rex, he's another CT, and Cody, though he's a CC with the rest of us."
He greeted the other two, noting Rex's blond hair but not saying anything. He looked over their shoulder into the large crate of different spec'd armour, reaching down for an ARC trooper helmet.
He quickly grabbed a rangefinder attachment and slotted it on, before slipping the helmet on. It sat much nicer than the normal helmet.
"Looking good brother, try this on for size." Another one shouted, throwing an ARC chest plate over to him.
He slotted it on, and decided it was a good look. Peering over, it appears that Bly had dug out a set of Kamas, and was holding one out to Rex. The blonde clone put it on, and decided he liked it, hopping between feet to try and get a feel for any extra weight.
He tried handing note to Cody, who appeared to be adamant in his refusal. Batting the offered Kama away from him, as he settled for a sunvisor and a shoulder antenna, before pulling out a datapad and tapping away.
Riptide went over, taking the offering from Rex and affixing it to his armour. He grabbed the extra pistol holsters that Rex had plundered too.
"Hey, catch!" He and Rex turned to see Bly throwing over a set of pauldrons. He and Rex both set about setting them up, adding the plates into the neck support. Both opted for the one shoulder covering, more so for Riptide as he had the shoulder antenna to watch for.
As they worked, a small orange glow caught his sight, and he brushed one of the large containers aside, to find a lone vibroknife and holster. He grabbed it, and affixed it the strap of his pauldron.
"You found a vibroknife?" Bly asked, amazed.
"Yeah it was on the floor." Riptide said, as the handle of the knife came to rest over his breastplate.
"Lucky bastard." Bly muttered, "Cody's the only other to have one, and he spear tackled Wolffe for it." As he jabbed a thumb over to another clone, who was rubbing his back still, he guessed from the tackle.
"Know how to use it?" Cody asked.
"Not a clue." Riptide responded honestly. "I'm to report to Alpha-17 and Fordo tonight, so I'm guessing I'll learn there.
One of commanders hissed in an imagined pain. "That's gonna be tough."
"So everyone keeps telling me." He lamented. Much to their collective amusement.
He checked his datapad, and his list of things to do. "Anyways, I have to run. Can I grab your comm codes?"
"We'll add you to the Commanders group." Bly reassured.
"Commanders?"
"Well, it's called Commanders plus Rex, but I guess it will be Commanders plus Rex plus Riptide now." Bly thought aloud.
"Really rolls off the tongue." He jeered back, as he made his way out, rolling his shoulders to adjust his new gear.
He brought up his data pad to look over the two files he had up on screen. They were both detailing his two new Jedi commanding officers. Thankfully, someone at the GAR had the foresight to release some elements of the personnel files from the Jedi temple, to assist troopers in getting familiar with their new assigned Jedi.
Both, it seemed, hailed from the same planet, Olympia, based along the Perlimian Trade Route, in the Thamium sector. Unfortunately, he hadn't had the foresight to download the file for Olympia, so he would have to ask the commander, he reasoned.
Whilst he was travelling the halls, passing some of the cadets, his datapad pinged with another reg update.
Legions to be allowed to claim a colour, rather than colour being reserved to denote ranking officers.The small notification gave him a brief summary. He would probably have to give it a more in depth read at some point. His pistols rested in the twin holsters as he walked, and he turned back to enter into his barracks.
The second the door opened, Anvil wolf whistled at him.
He closed his datapad and stowed it, he probably wasn't going to be able to work while he was in here.
"Looking good Captain!"
At the mention of his rank, many of the other clones snapped to attention.
"At ease." He called, projecting his voice. He reached up to remove his helmet. "Sparky, what's up with the new Regs?"
"The ones for legion colours?" He asked back from behind his datapad.
"Yeah."
"Looks like they're wanting to keep them legion specific, 501st has already claimed blue, at the insistence of General Skywalker.
"I'll discuss with the generals our colour later. If I don't, remind me. By the way, you're my second in command." He replied offhandedly, sending up the paperwork from his datapad.
"It's 2048 by the way captain." Spooky said, sitting next to a passed out Elf.
"Oh Kriff." He dropped his datapad on his bunk and darted out the room, donning his helmet
The typical rain of Kamino had crept back in, and the low lighting of the hangar certainly completed the chilling ambience as Riptide approached Fordo and Alpha 17.
"So, new to command then eh?"
"Yessir." He replied.
"Leave that shit at the door. Your file said you did good on tactics whilst you were still a shiny, so we decided no work needed there." Fordo began.
"But, you're a captain now. You need to be the best at what you do, so the others look up at you." Alpha finished.
Riptide nodded.
"Where'd you get the knife?" Fordo asked.
"Armoury."
Fordo nodded, the red markings on his helmet locked onto him, before he drew his own knife.
Dropping into a rudimentary ready position, Riptide drew his own.
"Holding it the wrong way." Alpha 17 interjected. Riptide stopped to reassess, and Fordo lunged.
To the two's pleasant surprise, Riptide was quick to kick back from Fordo's lunge. And caught his wrist.
Decidedly off balance, Riptide went backwards, down to the floor, maintaining his hold on Fordo, as he brought his feet up to launch Fordo onwards over him.
The clattering of plastoid on the metal hangar flooring told him he had been successful, and he scrambled up back to his own feet.
Fordo got up onto his own, cracking his neck. He would've bet a handful or credits that the ARC was grinning.
Riptide took the moment to invert the grip on his knife, to where Alpha 17 gave a near imperceptible nod.
This time, Fordo gave no quarter, as Riptide swung. Instantly, he was caught in an arm lock, and had his elbow bashed, forcing him to rotate in towards the senior ARC.
A high knee caught the mouthpiece of his helmet, ejecting it vertically from his head. Fordo then spun, blade extended, landing a cut over his face, starting at the ridge of his nose and going sideways to under his left eye. The red slit quickly began to bleed as both stepped away from each other.
Riptide ran a hand over the cut, the hand of his black body glove came back slick with blood. He couldn't give up now, not so soon.
He run again, and feigned a low stab to the abdomen. Fordo moved to defend but was unready for Riptide to suddenly twist, and the ARC trooper received a quick elbow to the side of his helmet.
The hard blow to his head sent him reeling, and Riptide was quick to spear him to the floor, and then held the ARC at knifepoint.
"Well fought." Alpha 17 congratulated. "A good draw."
Riptide looked back confused at the referee, before looking back down at Fordo, who had his own vibroknife resting between the gap of his groin and thigh armour plates.
Nodding, he stood, offering Fordo a hand up, which he took.
"Not too shabby a cut." He said, admiring his own handiwork, whilst Perseus applied a thin bacta patch over it.
"How humble of you." He rebuked.
"Now, as much as I'd like to beat and haze you into being a good captain, I'm aware you also have a legion to administer to, so have fun with that." Alpha 17 bade, as he left the hangar with the other trainer.
Riptide carried his helmet with him, the bacta patch made it awkward to wear. He fixed it to his belt and got the datapad back, wondering where in Kamino he would be able to find a quiet room to catch up to speed on everything.
Walking through the busy halls, he passed the overflowing medbays, as medics worked frantically to save injured brothers. Bacta tanks filled another large chamber, the high corridors giving a perfect vantage point.
As he passed into the next area, he was met by a serene quiet. Stepping out onto a balcony, he looked out over the incubation towers, where thousands of 'unborn' clones were being produced. The chamber was silent, and he moved to sit on one of the benches.
"I nearly didn't recognise you with the new armour."
He jumped, having completely missed the one other person on the balcony.
"Commander." He greeted formally. "I was just looking for somewhere quiet to catch up on the legion. I can go if you want."
"No, stay. It's fine. This room is," She paused. "Something else."
Shrugging, he sat down besides her, keying through various different aspects of the legion. Their current schedule would have them leave for Coruscant tomorrow aboard an acclamator that was bound for Coruscant, where they would then be off rotation whilst they waited for more clones to replenish their ranks.
When they were ready to go, they would then be assigned a new class of ships, the Venator Class Star Destroyer. Hopefully by then, their general would be fully recovered and they would then be shipped out to the front.
As he went through the equipment requisition list, it was mainly standard supplies that they were listed for. There wasn't particularly much point in trying to justify specialist equipment when they didn't even have a mission yet.
A new element that he would have to balance, would be their pilots. He hoped that they would be assigned an admiral to the fleet to coordinate that aspect, it wasn't an area he was particularly keen on learning.
"This room, it's so vibrant." He looked over at the whispering padawan. She was sat cross legged, and had her eyes closed.
"Uh, sir?" He questioned.
She suddenly open her eyes, startled.
"Did I say that out loud?" She asked, cringing.
"You said the room was vibrant, sir. Frankly I'd have to disagree." He replied, looking out over the sterile white room.
She laughed silently. "Vibrant in the force."
"The force?" He questioned.
"Do they not teach you that?" She asked back.
"We were told the force were the magical powers the Jedi had." He replied, citing the times he sat in front of the computers as a cadet.
"That's so," she pulled a face. "Wrong."
"I mean that's how you do the magic hand thing right?" He put the datapad down and turned to face her.
"The magic hand thing." She deadpanned back to him.
"Yeah." He replied, "Like this." He plucked the vibroknife out of the sheath attached to his pauldron and tossed it over the side of the balcony.
On reflex, she lunged over and caught it with the force, slowly floating it back into his awaiting hand.
"See? Magic hand thing." He proclaimed, triumphant.
She shook her head in exasperation, burying her face in her hands.