Boss finally woke up to his 0900 hours alarm, throwing it across the room as he fell out of bed. His stomach gave weary groan having once again missed breakfast. After nearly falling back asleep, Boss essentially forced himself to get dressed and dragged himself to Sev's living quarters. "Sev-" Boss quickly cleared his throat to get rid of his croaky morning voice "Sev, time for GRA training. They'll be arriving in less than an hour, let's go." He ordered, hoping Sev didn't notice his sleep deprived state.

As the two commandos made their way to the Hanger, Sev looked at his leader with concern. "...Rough night Boss?"

Well that didn't last long. "I had to stay up late to catch up on all my final paperwork before we leave." Boss explained, no longer making an effort to hide his insomnia-fuelled irritation. "Then I gotten woken up an hour later thanks to you lot, and an hour after that someone called me like 5 times."

"Who was it?"

"No clue, I couldn't find the kriffing Holo-Pad. I was searching through those stupid inner-right pockets for ages. In the end, I just tried sleeping through it…didn't work."

Sev looked at Boss with confusion "Don't you keep it in the backpack's inner-left pocket?"

Boss stopped in his tracks. …Oh, for fierfeks sake! He screamed internally before moving on and ignoring the question. "And a few hours after that, I was woken up again. It was this horrible screeching scraping noise followed by someone yelling. You must have heard it as well Sev.

"Not really Boss. Slept like a dead youngling as always." Sev calmly stated.

Boss cringed at his colourful expression.


The two entered Hanger B ready to welcome the GRA dropship. As they were stood still waiting, Boss couldn't help but hear Sev murmur under his breath "Last day on the Prosecutor and I waste it teaching the bugs how to kill us better."

Boss gave an exasperated sigh; it seems he would have to explain the concept of the GRA again. "Sev for the last time, the Geonosian Rebel Alliance are our vital allies against the Separatist Confederacy. They are all respected, brave and trusted heroes and we're lucky to have them as our closest friends."

Sev dismissed the leader, having heard this speech many times before. "Well, you know that Geonosian saying Boss. Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer."

"That's not a saying…wait is it?" Boss searched for the expression in his drowsy mind before quickly dismissing the thought. "Oh-Seven, you have been warned before. You are entitled to your opinions but you're still a soldier of the Galactic Republic. The Geonosian Rebel Alliance are not our enemies.

"But sir-"

"Look, I'm not saying you have to like them. But just for today… be professional." Boss asked, desperately trying to compromise.

"I'll see what I can do. But I still think the GRA are a bunch of untrustworthy fierfeks." Boss gave Sev a warning look. "In my… professional opinion?" He added.

"Well, it's a start." Boss grumbled to himself just as the GRA dropship arrived in the Hanger.

When Sev saw the Geonosian design, he had to restrain his own battle instincts to attack the ship. The sharpshooter had read up on his 'allies' and knew exactly who he was expecting. The 1st CXO platoon. The very best that the Geonosian Rebel Alliance has to offer. 6 elite special force squads with stupid names like Twin Reeds and Horned Viper and The Eye of…some crap he couldn't remember and didn't care about.

They had killed more Separatists, had more experience in battle, and more powerful weaponry. Their armour was even stronger than the clone commandos! Every battle report Sev read contained endless commendations about their vast bravery, or their gallant heroism, or how incredibly trustworthy they were. Sev decided that he would make his own assessment.


The ship doors opened and out stomped a heavily armoured, tall and incredibly muscular Geonosian elite carrying a thick drinks keg on his shoulders. The large hulking warrior stepped slowly and heavily towards the commandos, towering over them before putting down the keg with an audible SLAM! He then turned his back towards them to politely ask, "Where do you want this ma'am?"

To the pair's surprise, a familiar voice in the ship cried back "Just outside my room please. Go through the bottom exit on the left and it's the first door you see. Thanks, Sen'luh." The gargantuan soldier happily complied with the petite Toydarian's orders.

Tabura flew out of the rebel ship and gave her friends a big smile. "Hey guys! What's up, you look surprised to see me!"

Boss gave a confused look back. "You're back a lot sooner than usual. Don't you normally return after lunch?"

The merchant gave a nervous laugh. "Yeah, I… kinda got into a spot of trouble in town. It was my fault really; I should have been more careful. But the brave heroes from GRA flew to the rescue and even offered me a lift back which was very kind of them. They really are the best!"

The reunion was interrupted by the screeching sound of metal being painfully dragged against the hanger floor. The commandos stared in horror as they saw who was struggling to carry the smaller barrel filled with liquid. Tabura gritted her teeth in frustration.

"Dy'hag, I told you not to carry this by yourself! For the last time, get Vesso or Midec to help you!"

"It's no problem, Mrs Tabura, I'm strong enough to carry it!" responded the scrawny teen scraping the bottom of the barrel.

The real soldiers couldn't believe their bad luck. The last time the young rebel was onboard, he nearly blew up the ship with his incompetency.

"I can't believe he's actually a soldier now." Tabura cursed under her breath.

"To be fair you did encourage him." Boss recalled. "I told you not to sell him that rotary blaster cannon."

"He kept pestering me for a weapon, so I sold him one that was twice his body weight!" She argued back in her defence. "I thought he would try to use it once, get bored and give up. Not sign up for the flipping rebel army, what moron let him in anyway!?" The commandos were silently amused by their supplier's rare public display of frustration which she noticed.

Tabura quickly composed herself and turned towards Sev to change the subject. "…So Sev, ready to help train our trusty brave GRA heroes?" She asked giving the commando a grin.

Sev gave the Toydarian a scowl as he answered. "Not one word of that is true."

"You're not here to train them?"

Sev's scowl softened a bit. "… okay that part is true. But they're not brave, they're not heroes and I certainly don't trust them."

Tabura put on a kindly smile before once again hopelessly trying to change Sev's opinions toward the GRA. "I'm sure if you got to know them, you'd have a lot in common. Come on Sev, you don't trust anyone who isn't a clone."

"That's not true." Sev said with a scoff. "You're not a clone and I tru-" Tabura gave him a firm look of scepticism. "…Bad example." She gave a nod in acceptance as he continued. "But there's only one reason I'm here: I wouldn't leave Boss alone with a single one of them and today we're expecting twenty-four of the two-faced fierfeks!"

"Uh… about that." Tabura hovered out the way to reveal a grand total of 4 GRA members standing at attention.


Author notes:

As always: critiques , queries and theories are more then welcome! Funny how this chapter starts with sleep deprivation and I'm uploading this at midnight. They say 'write what you know' and unfortunately, bad sleep schedules are something I know a lot about.

The GRA are my own OC's but they'll be getting a proper introduction in the next chapter. For now all you need to know is the names Sen'luh, Midec, Dy'hag and Vesso. Bonus points if you can figure out the origins of their names along with the 6 squad's names.

If you want to read exactly how Dy'hag nearly blew up the Prosecutor, check out 'Children of War' but it is not required to read since it's probably the fic I reference the least.