There was something nostalgic about the rumble of a LAAT/i's engine as they made their way into orbit and down to Kamino's surface. Kriari had done it hundreds of times before, but she couldn't help but think about how long it had been since she had last taken part in a planetary assault. Not that they were the ones attacking Kamino, but the sentiment was the same. The one thing Kriari was truly grateful for was the fact that Kamino was the complete opposite of Geonosis, and as such, there were a lot fewer chances that she would have a PTSD-induced panic attack.
On the other hand, however, Kriari was terrified of the Ocean.
Yes, she had been taught to swim, but Kamino's ocean was an entirely different beast. She was not afraid of the creatures lurking beneath the surface, or the seemingly unending depths, no.
She was afraid of drowning.
The concept of death did not scare her nearly as much as it should, but drowning… well, that was different. Finding your body weighed down by the mass of water while your lungs burn with the lack of oxygen; taking a desperate inhale when you can't cope with the burning anymore only to choke again and again on the water and desperately fight the suffocation as her body convulsed was what scared her.
Dehydration? Sure. Getting violently mauled by a beast? Not ideal, but she would take it. Enduring the weight of hundreds of thousands of tonnes of water crushing her organs while choking the oxygen out of her lungs while still conscious? No, thank you.
It seemed too close to what falling to the Dark Side had felt like, and she had hated every second of it.
The blast doors opened once they made it into the atmosphere and revealed the raging storm surrounding Tipoca City. She held on to the handlebars hanging from the ceiling and clenched her jaw as the Kaminoan hangars drew closer.
"Not fond of swimming?" Asked Price when he saw Kriari's expression change.
"I grew up on a desert planet, Captain" she explained, "I love water, just not when there's more of it than there are grains of sand in the Dune Sea…"
Kriari decided then she didn't owe Price an explanation, so instead of continuing the conversation, she approached the cockpit to direct the pilot onto a secondary platform. Of course, the Captain noticed, but when he tried to follow her and maybe press her for more information, he found his path blocked by the visor of a clone helmet.
"There will be enough time for that once we go back to looking for your ghost," said Art's muffled voice through the helmet's voice modulator, "and right now, Captain, is not that time."
"I didn't have to come along for this, but I did anyway, the least I could get is answers. I barely know anything about this girl, and you are expecting me to take her word as gospel even though the only extraordinary thing I've seen from her are the horns on her head" demanded Price frustratedly, "I am responsible for my task force's lives, I should at least know who I'm risking our lives for."
Art took one look at Price and then turned towards Soap.
"Is knowing that she saved Soap because she could, not enough? Is knowing that she keeps helping your search when she doesn't have to not enough?" asked Art archly "You can sit this one out if you wish to, no one asked you to stick around for this. But it's not her you would be doing this for. This is my, home planet, our home planet. I'm here for my brothers, Kriari is here for my brothers, we are not here for the Republic. We are here because there are millions of clone lives in there that are in danger and their lives are equally if not more worth saving than any other nat born under the republic. Not because they will be soldiers in the war effort, but because no one cares about their lives or their rights as human beings other than us. So sit this one out if you wish, but do not expect any more cooperation from me if you do."
Soap had, up until that point, not understood why his Captain was so weary of Kriari when she, Farah, and he had enough in common to be related, but it was then that everything clicked. Price had always had the higher ground when it came to Farah. Be it weaponry, intel, resources, or contacts, Price had always been one step ahead, and deep down, he knew that if Farah ever betrayed him, he would be able to take her out without much trouble.
But not Kriari. Kriari had a relationship with the clones under her command that was exactly as tight-knit if not more so than the one taskforce 141 shared. She had the clones, she had the resources, she had the knowledge and the influence, and she had contacts that allowed her to work outside the system with ease.
Price was outclassed. If not in experience, then knowledge, and resources. Soap realized then how potentially dangerous Kriari was. He had been regarding her as some sort of moody teen with a bit too much influence, but he had also never seen her in action. He had let his guard down, and suddenly he was very aware of the fact that he was headed into a battlefield on an unknown planet with someone who was supposed to have Gandalf-level tricks up her sleeve.
Kriari returned from the cockpit with Rex behind her, they were both carrying equipment with them. They both handed Soap and Pricearmguards and a chest plate each as well as comm devices and extra ammo.
"The armor won't completely stop a blast, but it will reduce the internal damage as it goes through," explained Kriari as she helped Soap fit the armor over his gear, "Aquadroids go down faster if you hit the eye in the center, the yellow tinnies go down easy but in big numbers they have very high chances of turning you into a human siff."
Rex nodded along beside her as he helped Price with his gear.
"If you get separated from any of us, there is an ID code set into the third button of your comms. If those malfunction tell the clones that capture you to contact Cody, Wolffe, or me. Do not resist, or they will shoot you down immediately."
As they finished their preparations, the aircraft landed on the designated platform with a soft thud. The blast doors opened out into the icy Kaminoan storm. The wind and rain hit them full force in the face, and the deafening roar of the ocean made hearing difficult. But Price and Soap didn't need to hear to be able to see the tension leaving Kriari's shoulders, or the deep inhale that every clone took in before putting their helmets on.
No one said the words, but they were all too clear for anyone paying attention:
Here we go again.