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This, Anakin reflected, was not what he’d meant when he’d complained to Obi-Wan about not being able to give Ahsoka the sort of Padawan experiences any Temple-grown Initiate might have expected before they’d all been dragged out to war.
Although he and Obi-Wan had spent more than their fair share of time in tricky situations during his own apprenticeship, so maybe crash landing on the uninhabited ice moon of the planet they were escorting supplies to was par for the course. Given that Obi-Wan was also here, Anakin was more than happy to blame the entire situation on his master’s terrible luck. Nothing ever went right when Obi-Wan was on a mission, in his experience.
At least Rex and Ahsoka seemed to be faring all right, though they had paused in their inventorying of supplies to watch where Cody was very determinedly trying to convince Obi-Wan to take his scarf, or his jacket, or his sweater, or his hat to protect himself from the cold. Anakin couldn’t blame him; just looking at Obi-Wan with his minimal layers and red face was enough to make him huddle further into his own coat, but Obi-Wan, being a stubborn idiot and far too generous to boot, was insisting he couldn’t possibly take Cody’s things, and besides, he had the Force for that. Anakin had the Force, but he’d still bundled up for the cold, and he’d made Ahsoka do the same before they’d headed out for what was supposed to be a routine, uneventful patrol.
“You’re not even wearing a robe,” Cody said, and by the tone of his voice he was clearly praying to the Force for patience.
“Yes, well, that’s hardly my fault,” Obi-Wan said, waving a hand in Anakin’s direction. “If someone hadn’t crashed the ship, I wouldn’t have needed a robe at all.”
Anakin rolled his eyes in exasperation, then resolutely turned to help Rex and Ahsoka where they were ostensibly hauling supplies out of the ruined ship. “All right, Captain?” he asked, clapping Rex on the shoulder as he moved aside to make room.
Rex grinned, apparently still in good enough spirits despite the crash. “We’ve got enough supplies to last us a few days, General, though I doubt it’ll take that long for a rescue,” he said, gesturing to the crates they’d managed to salvage. “Starting to think Jesse’s got a point with that superstition of his,” he added.
“Oh?” Anakin asked, and on his other side Ahsoka snorted, unimpressed.
“He says we have to stop saying the l-word out loud, because every time we do something goes wrong,” she explained.
Still lost, Anakin looked to Rex.
Leave, he mouthed, and Anakin couldn’t help but grin.
“Well,” he said, “to be fair, I don’t think we’ve had a single uneventful l-” he cut himself off at Rex and Ahsoka’s twin glares, trying not to laugh as he continued, “uneventful l-word since the war began.”
“I blame Jedi luck, sir,” Rex told him.
“I think they prefer the will of the Force, vod,” Cody said, coming up behind them, flicking the collar of his jacket up to compensate for his lost scarf. “Still no communications?”
“Not in the supplies,” Rex answered, and when Cody turned to Anakin he shook his head.
“Don’t think there’s enough left of the communications array to rig anything together,” he said.
Cody shook his head once, casting his gaze over the supply crates. “Of all the days to not be wearing my armor.”
Obi-Wan laughed behind the scarf he’d wrapped around most of his face. “I don’t think even your excess of antennae would be enough to get a signal out, Commander,” he said.
The corner of Cody’s mouth quirked up in a faint smile. “Guess I’ll have to fill out some more requisitions when we get back.”
Obi-Wan hummed his agreement, his eyes bright over the scarf, and turned to Anakin. “How did you manage to crash us so badly, Anakin?”
Anakin sighed. “I’d like to see you fly us through a freak snowstorm... tornado... thing without taking a few hits,” he said, and he regretted his word choice the second he saw both of Obi-Wan’s eyebrows go up as he considered the wrecked remains of what had once been a ship, pointed.
“I think I’d call that more than just a few hits, Anakin,” Obi-Wan said. “And I seem to recall several warnings about the weather on this moon,” he added, “which is why we decided to bring a seasoned pilot along in the first place.”
Anakin had to bite his tongue to keep from snapping back. Obi-Wan was teasing, he didn’t mean anything by it; he only had to reach out into the Force to feel his fond exasperation and genuine lack of concern, but it was difficult, not getting defensive. They’d all come out of the crash in good humor, and Anakin didn’t want to be the one to make tensions rise with his temper.
“Why is the weather here so weird?” Ahsoka asked, drawing Obi-Wan’s vaguely scrutinizing gaze away from Anakin. She was a blessing, truly, and Anakin didn’t know what he’d done to deserve her.
Obi-Wan allowed the distraction. “Well,” he began, and Anakin met Cody’s amused gaze as they both recognized him gearing up for a lecture, “there are a few naturally-occurring phenomena that might result in a snow vortex, but as I understand it, no one has been able to explain the frequency of events on this moon.”
“So it’s a mystery,” Ahsoka concluded flatly, crossing her arms as the wind picked up again.
“So it would seem,” Obi-Wan replied, his brow furrowed as he stared off into the distance. “Anakin,” he started, but the wind was already whipping the falling snow into another vortex around them.
“We need to find shelter!” Rex said, raising his voice to be heard against the sudden howling.
“Agreed, Captain,” Obi-Wan said, already stepping out of the huddle they’d formed next to the wreck.
Rex already had his binocs out, scanning the landscape. Anakin nodded at Cody and then nudged Ahsoka to start securing their supplies, handing a crate off to each of them before picking another one up himself.
“There!” Rex called, pointing off into the distance. “Looks like there’s some sort of structure that way,” he said, handing Obi-Wan the binocs.
“Likely an ice cave,” Obi-Wan confirmed after a moment. “It should provide at least some cover.” He turned back to the rest of them. “Supplies secured?”
“Yes, sir,” Cody said, resettling the crate he was carrying on his shoulder.
“Good,” Obi-Wan said, igniting his lightsaber. Its blue glow was obscured by the sheer amount of snow that had kicked up already. “Follow me.”
Ice cave was an understatement. The structure, once they entered it, sloped down into an open area big enough it could have been a landing pad for cross-galactic cargo freighters. The entire thing was made of ice, translucent crystals glittering in the light of their sabers as they ignited them, a mesmerizing array of green and blue.
Rex helped him unpack the supply crates while the others secured the perimeter. It was quiet inside the cave, even the howl of the gusting wind outside muffled to the point of being background noise, and Anakin tried to occupy himself with finagling together some sort of solution for the missing parts of their space heater.
“Any of these work?” Rex asked him, gesturing to where he’d laid out the spare parts they’d picked up from the crash site. Anakin leaned over to look.
“Something better,” he muttered as he considered each piece. “Last time I had to huddle with Obi-Wan for warmth he kept stealing the covers. I’m the one who’s from a desert planet.”
Rex laughed quietly. “Cody’s not much better,” he said. “Hates the cold. I’m pretty sure he hoards blankets in his bunk on the Negotiator.”
Anakin smiled, picturing Cody in full kit buried underneath a pile of blankets. “He’s got the right idea,” he said. “Space is cold, and those bunks make the ice in here look appealing. Got it!” he added, reaching over Rex to snap up the pieces he needed. They sat in silence together as he worked, Rex picking up another piece of wired metal and fiddling with the connections.
“If you do get the heater fixed up,” he started, and Anakin grunted around the precision light he was holding between his teeth in offense. “Sorry, sir: when you get the heater fixed up, do you think it’s a good idea to use it in here?”
Anakin looked up at him, brows raised in question.
“This whole cave is made of ice, sir,” Rex told him.
Anakin hummed in consideration, pulling the light out of his mouth and leaning back in to get a better look at his wiring. “Hey, Obi-Wan!” he called, and his voice echoed through the cave.
There was no response.
Rex was on his feet in an instant, blaster drawn. Anakin waited a beat longer before setting his work down and following.
“Obi-Wan?” he called again, and again his voice echoed. “Ahsoka? Cody?”
Rex cursed under his breath. “Couldn’t have one nice easy mission,” he said. Anakin nudged him with his elbow.
“I mean, I already crashed the ship,” he reminded him, and Rex rolled his eyes.
“That’s nothing new, sir” he said, turning to survey the room. Anakin looked around the other half of the circle. He couldn’t find a single place where someone might have been able to disappear, much less three someones, and two Jedi and a highly competent Marshall Commander at that.
“Where are you,” he murmured, closing his eyes as he reached out in the Force.
It was a maelstrom, loud and swirling chaos like the snowstorm outside, but when he tugged on his bonds with Ahsoka and Obi-Wan, there was nothing. The bonds were still there, connected, but he didn’t have a sense of either of them on the other side, like they were on opposite ends of the galaxy from him. Still alive, though, from what little he could feel, and unharmed.
“Anything?” Rex asked from behind him.
Anakin shook his head. “They’re not in danger,” he allowed. “But I can’t really tell anything past that.”
“The Force is not a tracking beacon?” Rex asked wryly, falling into step next to Anakin as they moved towards the edges of the room.
“Something like that,” he said, reaching out to the wall to see if he could feel a hidden door. “Huh. Feel this,” he told Rex, pulling his hand back.
Rex peeled off a glove and placed his hand flat against the wall. “Huh,” he echoed. “It’s... warm.”
“It’s ice,” Anakin said, but he wasn’t disagreeing. “I don’t think I like this.”
Rex snorted, pulling his glove back on as they resumed their patrol. “At least you didn’t say you’ve got a bad feeling.”
Anakin smirked, trailing his hand along the wall as he looked for any sign of how the others had disappeared. “Another one of Jesse’s superstitions?”
“Not a superstition if things break bad every time you say it,” Rex said.
“I wouldn’t say it if things weren’t about to break bad,” Anakin replied, and he grinned, unrepentant, at Rex’s exasperated sigh.
“Don’t think it says good things about the state of our lives if losing a High General and his Marshall Commander and our Commander on a weird moon doesn’t even rate a bad feeling,” he mused. Anakin opened his mouth to voice his agreement and tripped before he could speak.
“General!”
“What the…” He looked back to find what, exactly, he’d stumbled on, but there was nothing on the ground. Brow furrowed, he swept out a leg to make sure, and his foot caught on the invisible object again.
He exchanged a look with Rex, who sighed again and readjusted his grip on his pistol. “Let me guess,” he said, resigned. “Weird Force stuff.”
Anakin nudged the object once more, with purpose this time, reaching out in the Force to get a feel for its shape, and they both watched as the wall in front of them dissolved into nothing, revealing the dark tunnel behind it.
“Definitely weird Force stuff,” Anakin said, hefting his lightsaber so they could see into the passageway.
“I hate it when you prove Jesse right, sir,” Rex told him, but when Anakin stepped down into the darkness he followed all the same.
“All clear over here, Commander!”
“Nothing to report on my end either, Commander,” Cody replied, and when Ahsoka grinned at him he grinned back, pleased.
She looked back to the center of the cave, where Rex and Anakin seemed to have things under control. “Should we go pull Master Obi-Wan out of whatever trouble he found?”
Cody groaned. “Don’t even joke about that,” he said, but he turned towards the sector Obi-Wan had been tasked with scouting regardless. Ahsoka snickered as she followed him.
“All right, Rex?” he called as they crossed, his voice echoing around the big open space, and Rex absentmindedly signalled an affirmative from where he was busy trying to unpack supplies around his General. “Great,” Cody muttered, satisfied that at least those two would be out of trouble for now. “Sure you don’t want to stay here with them?” he asked Ahsoka.
“And unpack supplies?” she asked, scrunching her nose in distaste. The look on her face reminded him so strongly of Rex as a cadet that he had to bite his lip to keep from laughing at her.
“Fair enough,” Cody shrugged. “We’ll leave Rex to do the grunt work, no problem.”
“I don’t see you volunteering to help,” Ahsoka said.
“There have to be some benefits to being Marshall Commander,” Cody told her, and she laughed.
“You mean besides all the datawork.”
“What do you know about data work,” Cody said, and while it was mostly a joke, he did have genuine criticisms of the 501st, who were notorious for their improperly-documented shenanigans.
“I know Rex always complains when you do it while we’re supposed to be on- y’know,” Ahsoka said. Cody turned to look at her, bemused. Leave, she mouthed.
He shook his head, hiding his smile. “Aren’t you Jedi supposed to be immune to superstitions?” he asked, but he didn’t hear her response, too busy realizing that his General had, somehow, against all odds, disappeared.
“Commander. You seeing what I’m seeing?” he said, unholstering his blaster and sweeping the room in front of them. Behind him, Ahsoka ignited one of her sabers.
“I’m not seeing Master Obi-Wan, if that’s what you mean,” she said, her voice just a shade too flat to be cavalier.
Cody exhaled once, sharply, and moved closer to the wall.
“Wait!” Ahsoka said, stepping up next to him. “What if whatever ate him eats us too?”
“At least we’d know where he ended up,” Cody muttered, but he moved back to let Ahsoka, with her Force sense and glowing saber, take the lead, staying just far enough behind that he could grab her and run if anything did try and eat them. He followed her, taking care to step in exactly the places she stepped and keeping an eye on the floor beneath them while she ran her free hand along the wall. They moved slowly and silently until Ahsoka came to an abrupt stop.
“Commander?” he checked, but Ahsoka shook her head thoughtfully, stepping back to retrace her steps.
“This part isn’t ice,” she said. Cody leaned back to take the section of wall in, but he couldn’t see any difference. “It’s not cold like the rest of it,” Ahsoka explained.
“I’ll take your word for it,” Cody said, not about to sacrifice the warmth of his gloves to confirm.
“Are you sure?” Ahsoka asked sweetly, turning her most innocent look on him. “Master Obi-Wan always says it’s best to confirm our observations with independent review.”
“If General Kenobi wanted us to be scientific about his rescues, he should have tagged along with us instead of getting lost in the first place,” Cody replied, but Ahsoka’s wide-eyed look was potent. Maybe it was a good thing the 212th didn’t have a Padawan Commander of their own. He sighed and shook his head, unstrapping his glove with his teeth. “I want it on record that I’m doing this under duress,” he told her. “There’s nothing independent about this review.”
Ahsoka nodded seriously. “Of course,” she said, stepping aside so he could sweep his hand along the boundary. The temperature difference was immediately noticeable, so much so that he stepped closer to the warm side without even thinking about it.
Well. At least now they knew where General Kenobi had ended up. Nothing like a good mystery to make his General disappear into thin air.
The tips of Cody’s fingers caught on a rough patch in the wall that was made of not-ice. He frowned, following the textured trail by feel as it climbed higher up, more and more pronounced until he couldn’t reach any further.
Next to him, Ahsoka had moved around to look at the wall from an angle. “Yeah, I see it,” she confirmed, tilting her head to look at the trail.
“Boost up?” he asked, and Ahsoka gave him a considering look.
“I do like to feel tall,” she agreed, and he crouched down to let her climb up onto his shoulders, making sure she was settled and steady before straightening back up, grunting with the effort.
“Whoa,” Ahsoka muttered, and then before he could check in she continued, “Oh, whoa, that’s weird….”
“Careful…,” Cody warned, but it was too late.
The wall had already disappeared.
The passageway looked much scarier than it actually was.
The light of Ahsoka’s saber made the ominous darkness dissipate easily, and when she reached out in the Force, she felt nothing but her own curiosity, Cody’s wariness, the muffled presences of Anakin and Rex behind them, and, perhaps most importantly, Master Obi-Wan’s gentle warmth getting closer.
“I think we found Master Obi-Wan,” she said, turning back around to look at Cody. Behind him, out of the immediate range of the light cast by her saber, she could barely make out the wall, translucent from this side, and behind it the distant, blurred shapes of Anakin and Rex in the main structure.
“Of course we did,” Cody replied, rolling his eyes. “Find the weirdest place on whatever planet you’re on, and you’ll find the General there getting into trouble.”
“And talking his way out of it,” Ahsoka reminded him, moving further down the passageway. Master Obi-Wan was so good at that; it was one of the important life skills Ahsoka was looking forward to learning from him, if she ever got the chance to spend enough time with her grandmaster for lessons.
“Usually he’s only ever in trouble because he started talking in the first place,” Cody grumbled next to her, and Ahsoka giggled.
“Do you think Anakin learned that from him?” she asked.
Cody grinned at her. “I think that problem goes all the way to the top of your lineage,” he said. “Not like Dooku ever seems to shut up.”
Ahsoka almost didn’t even have to fake the way she gagged at the reminder that Dooku was in her lineage. “Ew, why’d you have to say that?” she said. “Rex is right, you’re mean.”
“Now, I wouldn’t go that far…,” Obi-Wan’s voice cut in.
“Master Obi-Wan!” Ahsoka called, deactivating her saber and clipping it onto her belt. “We found you!”
“You certainly did,” Obi-Wan said, “although I’m not sure when I was ever lost.”
“Maybe next time you find a secret passageway you give the rest of us a heads up before going in and playing explorer?” Cody suggested. “General.”
Obi-Wan smiled at him. “Well, Commander,” he said, “if you insist.”
“What is this place?” Ahsoka asked, looking around the room. If the room above had looked like a hangar, this looked like the courtyard of an enormous compound. There were supply crates stacked against the walls, broken up only by the doorways that led, presumably, further into the structure. The floor space was occupied by wheeled display boards and what seemed to be work consoles arranged along the sides, leaving the middle free for movement.
“It seems to have been a military base at some point,” Obi-Wan said, gesturing to one of the consoles. Carved into the surface was a collection of circles arranged in such a way that it was obvious they represented a planetary system of some sort. The circles themselves were grouped together, some of them connected by straight solid lines, others with looping dashed paths, with notes in a shorthand that looked vaguely familiar.
“These look like strategy maps,” Ahsoka said, tracing one of the lines between two bodies, the slightly jagged edges of the carving rough on her fingertips.
Cody made a dubious sound. “Not any strategy map I’ve ever used.”
“No,” Obi-Wan agreed. “Our maps—and strategies—are much different. But before the war, most of the Order’s familiarity with military strategy on this scale came from the Jedi-Sith war. Those were probably the maps you studied as an Initiate, Ahsoka.”
Ahsoka nodded, considering. “So… these maps must be pretty old, huh?”
“Indeed. They might even be from the war itself,” Obi-Wan said, “though I say that with only minimal evidence, so I might be entirely wrong. I’m certainly not a historian, nor a scholar, but given that entrance to this room seems to require use of the Force, I’d wager this base was used by Force-sensitives to hide themselves from an equally Force-sensitive enemy.”
If that was true, then they had stumbled onto an incredibly well-preserved archaeological site without even trying. Not bad, considering how every other part of this war seemed to be going.
“Wait,” Ahsoka said. “I didn’t use the Force to get in here.”
“Didn’t you?” Obi-Wan asked, curious, and Ahsoka thought about it, but she couldn’t tell.
“I don’t know…,” she said sheepishly. “Cody found the entrance.”
“Didn’t open until you tried it,” Cody pointed out, and she made a face to distract from the fondness they were both radiating.
Though…
“Master Obi-Wan, can you feel Anakin?” she asked.
“Perfectly clearly,” Obi-Wan said. “Why?”
“When we were up there,” Ahsoka said slowly, “I could barely feel your presence in the Force. It was… muffled.”
“Oh dear,” Obi-Wan said. “Well, I’m sure Anakin and Rex are doing fine.”
The look on Cody’s face conveyed exactly what he thought of that. Ahsoka couldn’t help but agree.
“So the Force shielding only works one way, I guess,” Ahsoka said. “That could be useful against the Sith.”
“Yes,” Obi-Wan said, and his voice sounded odd. Ahsoka look up to find him watching her thoughtfully. “You know, there are protocols for when Jedi find interesting things like this in the field-”
“Yes!” Ahsoka exclaimed before he could finish. Obi-Wan raised an eyebrow, but he was amused, and she was too excited now to be embarrassed. “I’ve always wanted to do field research!” she said.
“Oh?” Obi-Wan asked. “I was sure you’d taken after Anakin in that regard. He hated doing research.”
“Well, yeah,” Ahsoka said, waving a hand dismissively. “Book research is boring. Who wants to sort through a million documents to write a report about something that happened a thousand years ago? Field research is so much more fun.”
Obi-Wan’s face was doing that thing it did whenever Anakin accused him of laughing at him. “I assure you, Padawan, field research is not necessarily a guarantee of excitement,” he said.
“Really? You guys disappeared down here to do research, and it’s not even gonna be exciting?” Anakin’s disappointment was audible, but all Ahsoka felt down their bond was relief and fond exasperation.
“Anakin! Good of you to finally join us,” Obi-Wan said.
“I could feel you corrupting my padawan,” Anakin told him. Behind him, Rex coughed out a muffled laugh.
“From what we’ve found in our research, I was under the impression you couldn’t feel much of anything in the main hangar,” Obi-Wan replied.
Anakin shot him a dubious look. “And that didn’t make you think you should maybe tell us where you were?”
Ahsoka met Rex’s amused gaze as he sneaked past them to join her and Cody. “All right, littl’un?” he asked, nodding at Cody where he’d moved on to look at the other boards.
Ahsoka considered him, then Anakin and Obi-Wan, who were still busy sniping at each other in the doorway. Decision made, she led him over to the other side of the room. “Not bad,” she said. “Your datapad has a holocam in it, right?”
Rex hesitated. “Yes?”
“Cool! Master Obi-Wan thinks this is a military base from the Old Republic,” she told him, and she could see the interest in Rex’s eyes as he reconsidered the room and all of its contents. “Wanna do some research?”
“Do you even have to ask,” Rex said, reaching into his jacket, and Ahsoka beamed at him, pulling up her own comm to record.
Research, Rex decided, was a hell of a lot of work when it was done properly. Still, he could see why people devoted their entire lives to it, because he was having fun even while taking meticulous notes on each object, recording its placement and orientation and all of his observations along with the images he took.
General Kenobi had joined them once he’d realized Rex and Ahsoka had started the work without him, adding whatever context he could and guiding them to record this or that angle or asking them what they thought of whatever object they’d stumbled across. It had turned into both a lecture and a hands-on workshop, and Rex might have marveled at Ahsoka’s clear interest in the research, so far removed from her lack of enthusiasm for most of her other coursework, if he wasn’t so engrossed in it himself.
“This is incredibly thorough work, Captain,” Kenobi complimented, flipping through Rex’s notes on the datapad while they made their way back into the hangar for a break. Rex could feel the flush working its way across his face as he continued, “I daresay Madame Nu and her army of researchers will be clamoring to recruit you once they receive your report.”
“If I ever get sick of General Skywalker I guess I’ll know who to call,” Rex replied, shooting Ahsoka a look that dared her to comment. She mimed sealing her lips shut, but Rex could tell she was laughing at him. Well. At least Cody had decided to scout the surface with Anakin and wasn’t here to witness his embarrassment.
“If you haven’t already I fear it might be too late for you,” Obi-Wan said fondly. “But I’ll be sure to put in a good word if you change your mind.”
There was a burst of cool air as Cody and Anakin came back into the hangar.
“Perfect timing!” his General called. “The weather’s calmed down, but the whole landscape up there is completely different.”
“Can’t even pick out the crash site,” Cody agreed, knocking his shoulder against Rex’s as he stood next to him. “But we did get a comm. Apparently Boil sent a secondary scouting ship when he couldn’t reach us.”
“212th boys get that lonely without their General?” Rex asked innocently. Cody’s glare was cutting, and not entirely directed at him.
“Preliminary measures,” he said, dry. “And everyone knows the 501st are a disaster waiting to happen.”
Rex considered being offended, but Cody wasn’t wrong. Besides, Anakin and Ahsoka’s twin scoffs were offense enough, and someone had to be the adult.
“Regardless,” Obi-Wan cut in, “we should probably head to the surface so the retrieval team knows where to land. Especially if those snowstorms are another safety precaution.”
Rex blinked. “You think they changed the weather patterns on an entire moon just to hide their base?” he asked.
“All things are possible, with the Force,” Obi-Wan said serenely, and Rex couldn’t help his disgusted groan, leaving all three Jedi to go help Cody with the supplies.
“Had enough of them?” Cody asked him, amused.
“Don’t know how you deal with him all the time,” Rex shot back, sealing the supply crate and lifting it.
“Yours aren’t much better, vod,” Cody assured, and the look he sent him over his own crate was commiserating.
Rex startled as Ahsoka darted between them to pick up the final crate. “I’ll take the last one. Let’s go!”
The surface they stepped out onto was unrecognizable. What few features Rex had been able to take in when they’d landed were gone, the hills and valleys of snow rearranged into an entirely new landscape. Little wonder no one had ever found the base before them.
“Hang on,” Anakin said thoughtfully as they made their way to a flat area big enough for the ship to land, snow crunching under their boots. “If Obi-Wan said the weather on this moon is weird because of the Force, that means I didn’t crash the ship; the Force crashed the ship.”
There was a beat of silence as they all absorbed his words.
“I will leave you here, Anakin, and no one would object,” Obi-Wan warned.
“But am I wrong though?”
“Yes!” Ahsoka said, “you are!”
“Rex? You know I’m right, right?” Anakin implored.
Rex considered him for a moment. “Seems to me like you Jedi are always saying the Force flows through you,” he said. “By that logic, I’d say every time you crashed a ship it was the Force.”
“Now, Captain-”
“I knew you’d have my back-”
“That’s not how the Force works!”
Rex shrugged against the barrage, then turned to Cody.
“Don’t look at me,” Cody said, all of his attention focused on flagging down the ship. “I’m just a soldier.”
Fortunately, the landing of the ship kicked up enough snow to halt anyone from reacting to that. By the time everything had settled enough for them to board, only Rex was still at Cody’s side.
“That usually work?” he asked under his breath.
Cody smirked. “Like a charm.”
“Huh,” Rex said, considering it as he followed Cody into the ship.
“Everything loaded? No one left behind?” the pilot in 212th gold—Knightley, Rex thought—asked, and upon Cody’s confirmation, he sealed the door. “Lifting off in 3… 2…”
Rex sat back in his seat, closing his eyes as Cody strapped into the seat next to him. They’d left atmosphere before Cody nudged his leg with his knee. Rex opened his eyes to look at him, but Cody was still leaned back in his own seat, head tilted up, eyes shut.
“Make sure your General does the datawork for this one,” he said, and Rex snorted in amusement. Instead of responding out loud, he reached out and tapped Cody’s shoulder three times: Affirmative. After all, it was the least he could do for crashing the ship in the first place. Not that it had been an altogether unpleasant experience, but Rex was looking forward to witnessing his General learn about consequences.
And if went poorly, well. He had the Archives to fall back on now, apparently.