Chapter Text
Even with Cody and Rex’s best intentions (and truly, a commander and a captain running through the halls at full speed must’ve been a puzzling sight), they only made it to the landing platform after the troopers had already disembarked, the final line of white armor settling at attention. Cody and Rex looked at each other. Without further information, they couldn’t bring attention to the situation.
They must’ve been quiet too long as the troopers shifted uneasily. Cody straightened and launched into some welcoming speech that he’d definitely memorized before they’d even left Kamino, while Rex studied their surroundings. None of the troopers looked out of place. The ship seemed quiet. Everything seemed exactly as it should be, though kark all if Rex had any idea what normalcy was supposed to look like after Umbara.
Not thinking about it.
Rex sank into his own speech without thinking about it, not thinking about how many times he’d had to do this over the course of the war.
Not thinking about it.
All in all, it was a mind-numbing time, waiting for the formalities tied with welcoming the troopers to be over. But finally, all of them were dispatched to their various new sergeants and the two officers broke off to enter the transport.
“What are we even looking for?” Cody mused, looking at the near spotless transport. “We’re only guessing at what 99 was even referring to.”
“Yeah, but a trooper transport doesn’t have much to it and the troopers aren’t on it long enough to make a mess. Anything out of place will stand out.” Rex frowned at the bunk room, seeing nothing except for a couple random socks and a lost pauldron, and began opening the doors to the closets. At the second one, he paused and called out, “Got something!”
Cody joined him and they both peered into the closet, which really was big enough to be a storage room. Several containers were oddly angled, as if they’d been pushed aside. The commander wrinkled his nose. “Something doesn’t smell right.”
“I noticed it when I opened the door.” Rex moved further into the room, Cody right behind him, and they both saw the puddle of vomit at the same time. Rex grimaced. Even after many nights out and morning regrets with his brothers, he’d never gotten used to the sight or smell. “Gross.”
“And out of place.” Cody bent down to pick up the previously unseen helmet. “So is this. No vode should have been in here during such a short transit.”
“99 said that they needed medical help, whoever they are.”
“And if this is their helmet, then they are wandering around helmetless, which should make them stick out. But all the vode in the crowd were fully armored.” Cody shook his head. “We’re missing something.”
“Well, as far as I can tell, there’s nothing else to be found in here. Let’s check the rest of the transport.”
***
Their search wasn’t successful, but when they entered the base again, they found one of the shinies waiting for them, helmet off and clearly nervous. Neither officer felt particularly up to solving first day shiny problems, but neither of them would ever turn away a brother, even if it was just to ask where the nearest fresher was cause they hadn’t paid attention during the tour.
“Captain, Commander, sirs, I-uh, do you have a minute?” The shiny, indistinctive except for an Aurebesh P tattooed on his cheek, had a trail of sweat running down his temple, but to his credit he stood at perfect attention.
That wasn’t generally the opening to a question about where the fresher was. Cody and Rex exchanged a quick glance. Maybe it was a complaint about the sergeant? Some of them were fairly new and unsure, but that was a bold move for a shiny. “At ease. What is it, trooper?” Cody took the lead in asking, to Rex’s relief.
The trooper shifted, glancing around them with a troubled expression. “I-I’m not really sure how to say this, sir. But it isn’t right and something wasn’t right about him and I think it goes against all rules but he’s a brother-”
“Calm down, kid. Run it from the top.” Ever the big brother, Cody’s patience knew no bounds. Rex remembered it from his cadet days. Even back then, it was the same. To be fair, the mumblings had caught Rex’s interest too.
The trooper took a deep breath. “It was when we were disembarking, sir. When we were marching off the transport, I saw a brother that was marching just off of the rest of us and he didn’t have a helmet. He seemed to be swaying a little bit and he stumbled once. I’m not sure anyone else really paid him much mind, but it wasn’t right. I only saw part of his face but he looked very pale and a lot like the cadets who just got their first shots. When we got into formation-” The trooper looked around again and lowered his voice a little. “He left . He slipped away from the group and seemed like he was leaving the base. I couldn’t see him beyond that but he definitely didn’t come back. I-maybe I should’ve raised an alarm but he just didn’t seem right and it felt wrong to do it in front of everyone.”
Both Cody and Rex were on full alert now, looking at each other. That was the missing piece. There was a brother who evidently seemed sick or not right in some way who was now somewhere either on base or in the wilds of Ryloth. He was also helmetless, which fit with the helmet that they’d discovered in the transport.
Glad that they’d stopped to talk to the trooper and feeling bad at their initial reluctance, Rex rested a firm hand on his shoulder. “We’ll look after it, trooper. You did a good thing by telling us. Good work.”
The trooper’s stance straightened and his eyes brightened at the praise. “Thank you, sir.” He looked conflicted for a moment. “Should I keep it to myself, sirs? Only, I worried about a bad rumor starting about a brother deserting. If he was sick, maybe he didn’t mean to?”
Rex and Cody glanced at each other. The shiny was insightful. “Keep it to yourself for now, kid. You’re right; we don’t want to cause a stir until there’s more facts.” Cody rested a hand on the trooper’s other shoulder. “What’s your name, shiny?”
The trooper flushed a little. “I, uh, I haven’t figured one out yet, sir. All of my batch have; I just haven’t found something right.”
“Sometimes it takes a little time. Nothing to be ashamed of. You did good work, trooper. Now go get settled in and find the mess hall.” Cody stepped back, expression a little soft for his usual sternness. The trooper nodded eagerly and snapped a salute to both Rex and Cody.
“Sir, yes, sir. Thank you, sirs.” The trooper ran off, leaving Rex and Cody alone.
“So what now?” Rex turned to Cody, gesturing around them with a shrug. “We don’t even know where to look.”
“We go to the security center and pull up the cameras. They’ll have the landing platform on film.”
“Good idea. We’ll be able to see if he left the base or not.” They walked next to each other in silence before Rex continued, frown on his face, “I don’t like anything about this. Why did 99 send us a trooper and why the secrecy? If he needs medical care, Kamino is the best option for it.”
“He must not want the longnecks knowing about it. Maybe it was a brother set to be decommed.” Cody scowled at the thought, punching in the key to the security room. The room was almost completely empty, with only a few clones manning it and they were able to get to a private console with relative ease.
“Our brothers are decommed all the time. For 99 to risk communication and to say both top priority and top secret? It’s gotta be something more. And why send him to us?” Rex paused in punching in the keycode for the console, frowning. “I wonder…”
“Yes?” Cody tilted his head to look at Rex, eyebrow raised. “You have an idea?”
“...nah. Can’t be. Let’s get this footage.” Rex ignored Cody’s raised eyebrow pointedly. It was no use expressing mere fantasy.
***
The first thing to actually go in Dogma’s favor was the river he quite literally stumbled across. Ryloth was generally a dry planet, but for any life to be sustained it had to have some source of water and luckily he had found one of them. It was a relief to drink something for the first time since…he didn’t even know how long, laying on his stomach and sipping water from his cupped hands. He then splashed water all over his face and his neck, body heated from both Ryloth’s harsh sun and from whatever that hypospray had done to his body.
Even though his mind felt fuzzy, like it was clogged with loth cat fur, he tried to formulate a plan, any plan, to survive. Though, he wondered if it was even worth trying. His body wasn’t right. He felt as hot as the sun yet had shivers running down his back, his lungs hurt with every breath that he took, his vision kept going in and out of focus, and he still had the galaxy’s worst headache, like a pack of bantha had perched on his brain. He was pretty sure he was dying, so what did it matter if he tried to stay alive?
But Dogma didn’t want to give in so easily. He was a clone. They didn’t go down without a fight.
He’d just left a base. His brothers were back there. Every piece of him longed to go back, to turn himself over to the mercy of whoever was in charge. Maybe he would get lucky and they wouldn’t know who he was?
Dogma snorted despite himself. Even if they didn’t know yet, they soon would. And even if the clones were benevolent, the Jedi certainly wouldn’t be. Except maybe General Koon or General Fisto, both having spoken at his trial on his behalf - at least he thought so; the trial had passed in a blur - but he couldn’t imagine either Commander Wolffe or Commander Monnk being pleased. He’d seen Wolffe once. That had been a terrifying moment. And whatever if whoever was at the base had a Jedi like Krell?
Dogma shuddered.
So the base wasn’t an option. Surely there had to be a Twi’Lek town nearby, but he couldn’t stay there. He had no credits, nothing to barter with. The Twi’Leks also could turn him over to the Republic once they saw he was a clone.
Think, Dogma, think.
First priority was shelter. Second priority was food. He shifted and grimaced as the plastoid armor scraped at his back. He should probably look at getting another set of clothes. As much as armor tied him to being a clone, he couldn’t afford that connection. Besides, it wasn’t his armor.
He wondered what had happened to his armor and then decided that he’d rather not know.
Clothes required credits though, so Dogma reluctantly put that on the list of lower priorities. Next, he would need to look at getting a medic of some sort, if he really wanted to. His stomach churned with indecision, or perhaps it was just the nausea.
Regardless, he needed to get moving.
Slowly, painfully, he dragged himself to his feet, swaying as he tried to find his balance. He frowned in concentration as he took in the area around him. It was flat and bare, as far as the eye could see, except for a cliff face in the distance. Dogma gave himself a mental shake and perked up. Cliffs in Ryloth often meant caves. He could find shelter there.
With gritted teeth, he started walking slowly towards the distant cliff wall. He could make it. He just needed to put one foot in front of the other.
He could make it.
***
“There.” Rex pointed towards the edge of the camera. The angle showed the door of the transport with decent clarity and towards the end of the troopers’ march out, the two clones could just see a figure break off from the group and stumble out of the camera shot. “Right there. We only just missed him.”
Cody frowned, rewinding the tape again. They couldn’t see the trooper’s face well, but he was looking around, tilting his head side to side even though it was angled down. He was wary of something. “Where did he go? And why?”
“If 99 sent him for help, why did the trooper leave the base? If he’d kept his helmet on, he could’ve blended in.” Rex rewound the tape again. “Look at this. Watch his posture, the way he moves.”
“The hand on the belt, the march. Something’s clearly wrong with him, but I’m not sure this is a shiny.”
“Exactly. He managed to hide on a troop transport and slip away from the group. The way he’s holding himself…I don’t think he’s a shiny at all. Look at this.” Rex rewound the tape to a certain point, where a shiny’s belt came loose and fell to the ground, clearly not buckled correctly. Most of the other troopers jumped and most appeared to be teasing him as he quickly put his uniform to rights on the ramp. But the odd trooper reacted differently. “Look at his hand go to his belt, where his holster would be. The others just jumped. He reacted like a soldier would. He went for a gun that wasn’t there.”
“He’s been in combat before.” Cody sat back. “Who the hell is this kid?”
“Do we have another angle on these cameras? They might tell us where he’s going.”
Cody hummed in agreement and the keys clicked as he searched through the available feeds. “Here’s one. You’ll probably only see him for a moment though. Give me the time stamp.”
“15:34.”
Another few clicks of the keys and a video feed popped up. They watched as the trooper passed by the outer wall, on his way towards the wilderness of Ryloth.
“What are you doing?” Cody breathed, frowning as he watched the clone stumble determinedly away from the base.
“Wait.” Rex sprung out of his chair, face suddenly as pale as his golden brown skin would allow. “Rewind. Now.”
Confused, Cody hit another few keys and the video replayed.
“Stop, right there.” Cody hit pause and Rex pointed at the trooper, whose face was tilted towards the camera. “Can you zoom in there?”
“Sure.” Cody brought the clone’s face into close focus as much as he could and heard Rex’s sharp intake of breath. “Rex, what is it?”
Rex’s finger brushed against the screen, where a blurry but very distinctive tattoo marred the skin of the trooper’s forehead. “Dogma. It’s Dogma.”