Dear Reader, Thanks to my reviewers! It's nice to see such thoughtful comments! This is just a short chapter to go into the weekend. I have a serious rewrite to do of the upcoming section, so I plan to relax and edit over the weekend. I also wanted to point out that this story takes place fairly early in the war, and the characters views will change as time goes by. I still see Rex as this eager, brash captain who moved up the ranks very fast and has . . . well, maybe something of a big head (but a big heart to go along with it). He isn't the wizened senior captain of Umbara yet, so please keep that in mind! Also, FYI and if anyone cares, I used to work for a F-16 Squadron, and my pilots (all of them) are based off real people I knew - so I hope they seem realistic. Peace and I hope you enjoy! CS

Chapter 33 Mistaken Identity

"They were our own blokes. We'd come that close to killing them. If Sergeant McDaniel hadn't seen their reflection in that mirror, we'd have killed our own blokes."

Ken Clarke, Memoir of Operation Market Garden

Rex had been right about the ship being almost empty.

The entire complement of droids had been sent out to fight an unexpectedly obstinate enemy, leaving only a dozen Copians to both man the bridge and defend against the unlikely attempt to take the ship from within.

But unlikely was what Rex did best. He'd learned from the master, after all. Well, maybe he hadn't learned how to be unpredictable from Skywalker; but the Jedi general had certainly played a key role in helping him perfect the technique. Rex had found that he had only to sit back and observe to gain invaluable knowledge on how to confound the enemy – while confounding his own chain-of-command only slightly less so.

Were lives not at stake, Rex would have relished the opportunity to test his wits and skill against any other tactical mind. But there had been few tests since Kamino – or more accurately, since ARC training. Every encounter since then had been a true life-and-death situation, and Rex took every mission seriously – even the ones he didn't like, such as the reconnaissance on Pylotta or the occasional diplomatic escort duty.

Rex preferred to be in the thick of things; and fortunately, he had a general who usually—though not always—accommodated him.

General Skywalker would be very pleased with him now, were he here to see the ease with which Rex, Tip and Bounce had passed through the underbelly of the enemy ship, coming up just outside the bridge, and dispatching a crew that had been taken completely by surprise.

The Copians out of the way, Tip and Bounce immediately sat down at the controls and began making preparations for lift-off. Both men, as pilots, had extensive training in the layout and operation of dozens of enemy ship classes. The Perfidio on which they now found themselves was identical to the training bridges on which they had spent so many hours being drilled and tested on every toggle, every screen, every button, every lever until their eyes had glazed over and their dreams had turned to nightmares in which every image was the interior of an enemy ship . . .

Tip, as previously instructed, set about jamming communications, and Bounce had them airborne before Rex had even raised the gangway.

Rex did not know the two pilots as well as he knew Three Point or Zinger, but seeing them in action now—steady, professional, utterly focused—he was impressed, although he knew he should have expected as much from any soldier of Cody's. The Commander was even more demanding of his troops than Rex, but in a very different way. Cody took pride in his men's actions; but unlike Rex, not as a reflection of himself or his leadership. He was proud of them for their own accomplishments, their own drive and conviction, their parts in the victories of the whole. He wanted his troops to be the best, not for his own sake; but because the best won wars. And if they happened to shine a bit of honor and glory in his direction, then he would not deny the stoking of his pride.

Rex, whose acquaintance with the two had formed only the filmy opinions that Bounce was a jokester and Tip a bit of an egomaniac, was seeing for the first time and without the Cody filter, just how capable these two men truly were.

Perhaps a bit too capable.

"Captain, I suggest that we put down at a safe distance and let you off," Bounce announced matter-of-factly, as if this recommendation was just another item on a pre-orbital checklist.

Rex was surprised at the idea, but he replied with equal nonchalance. "That's not the plan. Head straight for that ship."

"Sir, I know it's not the plan, but they need you down there," Bounce persisted. "Tip and I can handle the mission from here. We know how to rig this crate so she'll blow sky-high. But the 501st can't afford to lose you, and I think the situation on the ground needs you more than we do. With both Sixer and Jesse down, they need an officer."

"They've got Zinger—"

"Zinger's a pilot, like us," Tip interrupted. "He can fly circles around anyone, but he's not a ground-pounder, Captain. He's not infantry."

"They can handle it," Rex pushed back. "It's more important that we stop any reinforcements from getting here. And if we're successful, they'll only have to hold off the enemy a little while longer."

"Captain, we both must protest—"

"Listen, we've got a big enough job on our hands without you two thinking you can debate me about this," Rex stated, the authority coming through in his voice. "There is no debate. We're committed to doing this, so let's make sure we do it right." A pause. "Besides, I don't plan on this being a one-way trip."

Now, both pilots turned to regard him curiously for a moment.

"Sir?"

"This bucket has escape pods, right? Well, I don't plan to be on board when she takes out that Dreadnaught," came the reply, spoken with a sinister smile.

Now, Bounce and Tip both nodded appreciatively.

"I like the sound of that," Tip said.

"But it's not going to be easy," Rex warned. "They're going to wonder why there are no communications coming from the ship. They'll probably send out a tractor beam and hold us at a distance until they can figure out if the ship is safe."

"Do you have a plan to get around all that, Captain?" Bounce asked.

"I have an idea, but I've only ever known a Jedi to pull it off," Rex replied.

"General Skywalker?"

Rex nodded.

"This oughta be good," Tip remarked.

"If we're able to approach at the right angle, they won't be able to pull us in using just one tractor beam," Rex explained. "They'll have to switch from one to another as they maneuver us towards one of the hangars. There's a window when the two tractor beams cross and they cancel each other out, but there's usually only a split-second. But if we time it right, we'll be able to break free and we'll be close enough to do a burn and get her into the hangar, or at least close enough to the hull to do some serious damage. We'll have to get our asses out of there at the last second."

"And if they hold us at bay and do a scan? If they discover us?"

Rex was curt. "Then I hope we'll be remembered well." He put a hand on Tip's shoulder. "Go below and start rigging the drives for detonation." Then to Bounce, "Start pulling telemetry. Once we're past the atmosphere and have a visual, we're going to have to eyeball it the whole way. We don't want to send out any squawks that might draw their attention."

"Yes, Captain. Where are you going?"

"To make sure we have a way out of here."

Hardcase had moved back from covering his captain's infiltration of the ship and was now hunkering down behind the remains of what had once surely been a very grand stone fountain. He watched as the Perfidio lifted off and sailed away over the trees to the north.

"Good luck, Captain," he said under his breath.

Twenty meters away to his left, he caught sight as Au-Ogusta broke from his hiding place and made the short dash to join him. "The brothers are here!" he announced.

"Great! Now, we can start tearing these clankers apart," he said, sneaking off a burst over the top of the fountain wall. "Just keep them on this side! We don't want to get caught in circular fire!"

Ogusta was about to go pass the word along when a strange sound met his ears and he stopped in his tracks.

"What is that? Are more ships coming?"

Hardcase strained to hear over the sound of blaster fire.

And then he, too, could make out the droning of repulsor-lift engines, the hallmark of the workhorse. If he could have gone to the Rathana Heavy Engineering shipyards then and there, he would have found whoever was responsible for the creation of such a tell-tale voice and kissed their feet.

For he knew the sound of deliverance, the sound of a gunship, and he felt now as if victory had never been far away.

A moment later, a squadron of the ungainly things came rumbling into view overhead.

"Fek and all," Hardcase grinned. "Maybe there is a god."

Jammed communications meant even the ship's intercom system was disrupted.

And Bounce didn't have time to both unscramble the signal and pilot the ship.

So, he chose the old-fashioned way.

"Captain Rex!" he shouted at the top of his lungs. "We've got a problem!"

Rex had already been on his way back from checking out the escape pods, but when he heard Bounce calling out to him, he quickened his pace.

"What is it?" he asked, entering the bridge.

"Check out the short-range scanner," Bounce replied curtly. "We have incoming."

Rex leaned over the scanner, chose one of the approaching dashes, and stretched it. Data populated in the identification square. "Those are gunships!"

"Looks like help's arrived," Bounce said. "And we're cooked."

"Damn it all! Have they seen us?"

"You know they have, Captain," Bounce replied.

Rex worked furiously to unscramble the communications signal. "What frequency were our comms last operating on? They changed it before Pylotta."

Bounce searched his memory. "One-two-seven . . . point seven? One-two-eight? Captain, I don't remember. And chances are they've changed it again since then."

"Where is Moog when we need him?" Rex grimaced.

"They're firing! Two air-to-air missiles!"

"Evasive maneuvers! Try to get us on the ground!" Rex ordered as he continued with the communications.

Bounce veered right, heading out over the sand and increasing speed; but the Perfidio was sluggish. "Tip must already be rerouting the power. We're not going to get any speed here, Captain."

"Go belly-up," Rex ordered.

"Sir?"

"Go belly-up!" he repeated. "It's like a—a universal sign of surrender!"

But it was already too late. The two missiles hit their target, one in the very same engine foil through which Rex and his team had entered; the other just above the scanner array dome on the top of the vessel.

The ship lurched to the side.

"Our boys are good shots," Bounce said with a sort of gallows humor. "We're going down, Captain. And I don't think I can pull off a cleaner landing than Three Point."

"So, it's a good thing we're not coming in as hot?" Rex replied in kind, ribbing the pilot in an attempt to hide his own fear that they might not be as lucky with this crash as the one that brought them to Bertegad in the first place. "I can't fekking believe this."

Bounce raised an askance eyebrow at the captain's use of foul language. It was well known that Rex rarely used colorful language – at least, not in front of his troops.

"We survive all this, just to be shot down by our own forces," the captain grumbled. "Just try and get us down before they hit us again—"

Even as he spoke, another blast rocked the ship.

"I hope Tip is holding onto something down there," Bounce remarked. "You might want to strap in, too, Captain."

Rex did as he suggested, muttering to himself the whole time. "My entire military career is going to be a collection of the crashes I've survived."

"Better than the one you don't survive," came the rejoinder. "I'll try to make sure this isn't it."

Rex glanced sideways at him with a droll expression. "It damned well better not be."

A line of gunships touched down on the far side of the wood behind where Hardcase and the others were holding their ground; and a moment later, Hardcase heard a familiar voice at his side.

"Looks like we got here just in time."

Hardcase looked over to see his commanding general, and the way Skywalker's gaze went out confidently over the battlefield brought a tacit veil of relief down over the anxieties and apprehensions of the past hour.

"Good to see you, General. I was starting to wonder if you'd ever show up," Hardcase quipped.

Anakin smiled a sneer. "You know better than that, Hardcase. I wouldn't miss a second."

"How did you find us? Did Commander Cody get through to you?"

"He did," came the reply. "He's around here somewhere. We already picked him up. Where's Rex?"

"He—" Hardcase ducked as a near-miss blasted away another portion of the fountain wall. "He took a couple men and they took the enemy ship to try and stop reinforcements from coming—"

Anakin felt his stomach twist into knots. "When?"

"They left just a couple minutes ago."

"What were they flying?" The general's manner was curt and tinged with dread.

"A Perfidio—"

"Master . . . "

Hardcase recognized this voice, as well. He had not realized Commander Tano was behind him.

General Skywalker wasted no time. "Ahsoka, stay here with Hardcase and wait for Obiwan to get in place. I'm going to find that ship—"

"Master, wait!" Ahsoka protested. "You are needed here! I'll take one of the gunships and go find Rex!"

Anakin hesitated a moment, but he really could not argue with her. It was true that his presence would be of more use on the battlefield than off searching for his captain. And besides . . . Rex was tenacious. Anakin could even envision him surviving the crash just for the bragging rights he would earn.

"Go on," he gave his permission. "Be careful."