Chapter Text
The fog was dense that morning. Birds shrieked and gulls cawed as the swamplands woke up with the yellow sun. The golden hour peaked as many began their day to day lives. For most, the day was unlikely to contain excitement. That was not the case for the two scouts stationed high in the bayou trees. They watched on as three LAAT-i's broke into the atmosphere, veering off to find a landing space. Vague annoyance crossed one troopers face as he raised his comm.
"Hey Handstand, did you see those transports as well?"
"From my location?" Handstand replied with a dry laugh. "Yeah. Guess we should've expected the quiet to stop."
A moment of silence lapsed over the comm before it was quietly broken.
"Stubble, you know what this means, right?"
Stubble tilted his head to the side in thought before letting out a hiss.
"Ah kriff," He swore, "Daal'Buir's going to be pissed."
Basecamp was located deeper into one of the forests, nestled within branches and scaling into the trees. Earlier, before the scouts had left, the camp seemed to breathe with an air of patience. It was almost like it wanted to steel their collective nerves before all holy haran broke loose. Handstand was sure of that now. Jumping from tree to tree, the climbing spurs on his glove caught the bark with each leap. Stubble wasn't far behind, the vertical lines of tiber paint on his armor breaking up his form in the hanging moss. The two had been trekking back for the better part of the golden hour, fog dispersing as false-logs started to break the surface beneath them. Prime hunting hours, both thought as they came across their first squad of the day. They were patrolling on a slow moving raft. Three of the eight vod present aboard had fishing lines cast out into the water. Handstand gesture to Stubble to join them, before leaping towards to raft with a shout.
"Easy, vod. What's got you in such a hurry?" The vod in front asked, catching Handstand as he jumped towards him.
"Spotted something that'll be sure to piss Daal'Buir off." Handstand replied hastily before giving a quick salute and starting off again as they passed a fallen tree.
"What's he mean by that, vod'ika?"
"We aren't alone planet side anymore." Stubble replied while climbing down a length of hanging moss, jumping aboard the raft. "Can I use baby brother privileges for a moment to get us to base?"
"Absolutely not, you menace. Steal your own boat." One of the fishing vod replied as he pulled in a catch. The fish snapped at him with pinchers before being tossed in a bucket painted like a buy'ce. Probably a prank, or a cadets art project, Stubble hummed as he resigned himself to jumping off onto the fallen tree Handstand had used.
Base wasn't too far off, the raft landing jutting out into the water a welcoming site as they landed on it. The trip to the command tent was a simple one. Vode greeted the two along the way, few officers following the two towards the tent. The commander was sitting outside, cup of caf in hand, watching the sun climb. Turning his head to see with his good eye, he sighed into the cup. He turned fully towards the rapidly approaching group of ade, frowning. The two at the front were scouts that had left not even four hours ago- whatever news they had had to be big. Setting down his cup, the commander stood to greet them.
"Boys, you're back early. What happened?" He asked, gesturing for them to follow.
"Well, sir, something popped up-" Handstand started, pushing the tarp entryway aside. "Where's Daal'Buir?"
"Marv took some of the boys out for some training, so whatever you have, tell me."
"Alright, sir. We aren't alone planet side anymore. About one hour ago, standard, three LAAT-i's broke atmo at the perimeter border, travelling south by southeast from what we saw."
"Towards target A..." The commander hummed, scrubbing a hand down his face as he pulled out his comm, dialing in a code with vigor.
"Daal' Marv here." The comm responded, the troops in the room standing straighter on instinct at the voice.
"Cyar'ika, its Titan. We have a situation at base."
"What do you mean we aren't alone?! They haven't noticed us being here for months, or that there's factory for that matter! Why suddenly care about this shithole? It's not like they increased production or anything." An angry voice rang out across the command platform. Groups of troopers gathered at the edges to listen in. The owner of the voice, a short Ourobortan with green and cyan skin and sharp red markings, stormed out of the tent, followed shortly after by her commander. "Either somebody's a snitch, or some vagabond told a republic official about the factory without noticing us. And I severely doubt that its that second option."
"I know. So, what are your orders? Pack and push, or sit and wait?" Titan responded, keeping a level voice. "It's up to you, Marv. The ade and I are just following you, so whatever you want."
Daal' Marv, Jedi Shadow General of the 409th, pulled at her lip around her tusks. She sighed, and turned towards the amassing group of troopers. Fixing the brown cloth she wore on her head and drumming her fingers on the blast shield she wore before addressing her boys.
"Pack up camp boys. Lets find out who crashed the hunt. Leave no trace, leave no remains. I will see you to the stars." She announced loudly. "Sskahauk Machk-Grrss!"
"Ssrm'e Ko Sgeen!" Was shouted in response by all the Vode present. It brought a larger smile to her face. 'Cycle Continue, Life Carry On' had been the battalion motto since their first battle together. To hear ourobortanii culture so proudly proclaimed by those who weren't strictly ourobortan made her heart soar. Nearly the whole battalion was fluent in her native tongue, which made communication with the nat-born officers the Marv had placed easier. Titan grumbled something before turning to her.
"Target A is currently being held by Bars and Honor, correct?" He asked, almost rhetorically.
"They are. Should have about half of the reverb division with them."
"Good, so I have a right to be worried."
"They won't get hurt, you know that."
"I'm not worried about the twins and company getting hurt, I'm worried about them engaging in a hunt with our guests. We don't need the GAR breathing down our necks."
"True. We'll go meet up with them first. Breakdown is always faster than build-up."
Two cadets sat atop a cypress tree, overlooking the droid factory they had been watching for months. Save for the occasional set of B1 droids, nothing much came in or out of the factory. It held a bare bones skeleton crew, and some security, but nothing that a few troopers couldn't manage. So far, it gave them a backdoor into most, if not all of the separatist manufacturing. A few more months of good slicing would have yielded a majority of information that they didn't have yet on the droid army and their creators, but alas. Somebody had come to crash the party. The LAAT-i's landed about one and a half kilometers from the outer perimeter of the factor. Pretty bold, if you asked one of the troopers who were watching. Whoever was in charge had guts, to station troops this close in unfamiliar territory. Even their own basecamp was stationed multiple kilometers away.
Bars couldn't fault them, though, whoever they were. The GAR didn't know of their occupation on the planet, so of course they had to fly in blind. Master Marv's only task was gather what intel she could, but she was absolutely going going to take her sweet time. This would through a wrench into the plans, only adding to the time they would take to gather said information. Bars sighed indignantly, slumping against the trunk. More time meant more time floating in hyperspace surrounded by brothers. They weren't the worst, but he rather enjoyed solitude.
"You're 6 and a half, you don't enjoy solitude, you enjoy not being pulled into family drama." His twin blurted, launching a hair band at his head. Honor was halfway through braiding xer hair when xey caught the tail end of Bars musings. Damn their force bond. Being force sensitive was hell when it came to dealing with xer, xey could always breach his shields, much to his dismay. Taking the hairband off the tree branch it landed on, Bars threw it into the bayou below. Honor gawked at him.
"Mir'osik." Xey grumbled, taking another band off xer wrist. He smirked at the insult. So he was petty, shoot him. His comm blinked at him sharply, drawing his attention.
"Bars here."
"Hello, command'ike. Did you see anything recently?" Commander Titan's voice filtered to the comm. Honor dropped down next to him, listening in.
"Three LAAT-i class ships touched down nearby, if thats what you're asking about. Let me guess, you'll be here shortly?"
"Yes. Run so recon, will you?"
"Yes Sir."
"Thank you. Remember, no contact, just watch."
"Yes Sir." Bars begrudgingly agreed, scowling. "Commander Buir the fun killer strikes again."
"Commander Buir the fun killer does indeed strike. Lets gather the reverb and start the hunt."
Ahsoka had been on this swamp cover rock for all of three hours and she was already over it. It was humid, muddy, and there were bugs everywhere. And not the kind she could eat, either. Skyguy was talking strategy with Rex and Echo. The rest of the men were setting up camp, and preparing for the first wave of assault. Reports and intel gathered about this planet all stated that the factory was nearly inoperative, but that was extremely like to change after the last few campaigns. The numbers of droid she and Skyguy had been taking down personally had started hitting the triple digits. The number of victories held steady, but it was getting more difficult to get those victories. She walked around the small area that had been set aside for sparring, looking out into the bayou. Birds warbled and cried. Something buzzed in the trees. Over all, things around here seemed pretty quiet. She smiled, turning around to go join her master and the captain when she felt the force nudge her. She looked over her shoulder, eyes darting around, everything going silent. She saw nothing but she felt something watching her. It was unsettling. She needed to read up on what predators inhabited the water. She walked away, world silent behind her.
Rex completed his rounds with the general, tomorrows strategies planned and men settling in. The mudball that this campaign was on wasn't the worse, but it wasn't the best either. Bugs were everywhere, Skywalker having already lamented about their inedibility. That most likely meant Ahsoka would complain as well, having picked up the habit to eat random insects from her impulsive master. Speaking of Ahsoka, she was walking over, looking fine, but a little jumpy. Rex raised a brow to her as she passed Fives and Echo with barely a hello.
"You alright there Commander?" Rex asked evenly as Ahsoka pursed her lips.
"I'm fine Rexster. Would you happen to know if there are any big predators on this planet?"
"Maybe, I'm not entirely sure though. Why do you ask?"
"A feeling..." Ahsoka replied, pointedly looking at the water nearby. "A bad feeling. About this."
"Kid why would you say those specific words out loud?" Rex asked with a sigh.
"Because. It's no big deal! Really! You're just being superstitious." She gave his shoulder a light punch.
"Alright. Fine. But when this mission inevitably goes to osik, I'm going to tell you I told you so." Rex replied, with a straight face.
Ahsoka rolled her eyes, casting a look out again to the trees. She could have sworn she saw something jump between the trees at a distance, but she couldn't make out any figures. It was probably just a bird anyways. She saw a couple of convorees earlier, it was probably just them jumping around in the swamp. Rex followed her gaze, but ultimately shook his head with a murmur of 'force osik.'
Out in the trees, The twins of the 409th sat perched near convorees, snickering as one of the reverb rookies jumped from branch to branch to escape one convor that seem particularly interested in his helmet. A few vode had sat down at the base of the trees, nestled in the twisted roots, hidden further by the moss. Others with perched at random intervals, some ballsy with their proximity, the rest rather weary. The tiber paint covering their kits in staggered lines and chevrons did a great deal with breaking up their forms and hiding them. The gray accents didn't hurt either. They sat there for hours, communicating strictly over bucket internal comms. Six hours and 4680 bottles of tihaar on the wall later, the rest of the battalion joined them, making themselves however scare as was needed. They essentially had the other battalion surrounded. Daal' Marv had scurried to the twins position once she arrived, Titan staying amongst the trees root. She smiled and signed a 'intelligence gathering debrief, confirm' towards the twins. Honor gave the affirmative, tugging of xer bucket, handing off to the master. Marv mouthed 'thank you' before removing her headgear and placing the bucket over her newly freed axolta. The comm sputtered for a second as she connected to the filled and secure chatroom of the 409th.
"-and if you keep singing it, Smarts, I'll knock your karkin' teeth out!-"
"-Language-"
"-Sorry, your fucking teeth out, you absolute piece of-"
"-Vode, vode, you're both equally annoying-"
"-4608 bottles of tihaar on the wall-"
"-But anyways, conventional gender is an absolute myth built by societies such as Coruscanta-"
"-I SWEAR to the Ka'ra, I'm not making this up-"
"-Alright. This other battalion is insane. Karkers are just tossing eachother-"
"-Language-"
"-Language-"
"-Apologies, these Shitheads are just tossing eachother out into the water-"
Daal' Marv smiled, shaking her head and chuckling at the chaotic cohesion of the comm conversations. The ongoing joke of 'language' had been nonstop ever since Titan attempted to correct some of the pilots on their use of language only to get the responses of even worse curses. It made her laugh, seeing as Titan knew and used many more curses that the boys ever did. Speaking of her Commander, he was watching her intently. She signaled that she was ready to titan, who promptly muted all but himself.
"Alright, Cycle akaata, info dump on our guests. Colors, cues, disposition, magic shit, and the like. One at a time, please. For my sanity."
The channel was unmuted, chaos descending for a second before stopping.
"Smarts, here to report. Color's blue, so that narrows it down to a few battalions, including but not limited to the 501st, 747th, 32nd, and us."
"Very good. Any reoccurring patterns?"
"No sir, but I've seen some ARC Kamas, and what I believe to be Jaig eyes."
"So that takes out the 32nd. Anybody see anything that would denote them to being hostile?"
"Banter here sir, I was here when they landed. Their pilots have some guts to have landed in a swamp without even checking the landing first, so they may be reckless."
"Understandable in conclusion. Anything else?"
"Temper here, also here when they landed. I'm closer to them at the moment than you all, save for who looks to be Copy, Pipline, Greenhorn, Killjoy, and Data."
"Can they confirm?"
"Oya!"
"Oya!"
"Oya!"
"Oya!"
"Oya!"
"They seem to be careless enough to be reckless. They're tossing each other into the water without checking for any significant thought. Well, maybe not, I think there's a medic playing lifeguard. Still, not enough caution for me, too much trust in some poor Jedi- Er, no offense to Daal'Buir and the twins."
"They'll get over it. Threes, you like infiltration to the point where you're already in their camp probably. Anything you want to add to the conversation?"
"They ain't checkin' their ships. So I second the reckless and careless theory. There's a jetii walkin' 'round, dark robes n all. And a togruta, but she's too tiny to be anything other than a ad. Probably a jet'ika."
"Thank you Threes. Mojo, are you close enough to get any readings on them?"
"Nope, sorry Ti'Buir. Have to get closer, and I can't hunt like Threes. Wait until nightfall. Less patrol means less likely to get caught."
"Right. Two hours until sundown. Hold tight, ready to dive."
"OYA! "
Anakin was tinkering with a mouse droid when Ahsoka stalked into their shared tent, drenched in swamp water, and caked in mud and pondscum. He quirked a brow at her as she flicked some mud off her arm and onto the floor. She sighed as she resigned herself to drying off before scrapping it off.
"What happened to you?" He asked with a smirk as Ahsoka groan, shedding her gloves.
"Rex threw me into the swamp." She responded in annoyance. "Didn't get him back. But I did get Hevy. And almost Jesse, before Kix intervened. Something about him still having a blaster shot injury? Either way, he wasn't enthusiastic about bacteria laden water."
"That seems just about."
Ahsoka hmpfed, digging around in her pack for a towel or two. After nearly ripping apart her pack, she found what she was looking for, drying off as quickly as she could. She couldn't help but grumble about GAR water rationing initiatives back aboard the Resolute, earn a snicker from Anakin as she stuck her tongue out at him. The sun slid below the horizon. The sunset was nice, reflecting off the water. Little glowing bugs hummed around the campsite softly, some of the men gathering to watch them. As it got dark, the trees rustled more, but the sounds of life from outside quieted down. Just birds roosting for the night, Ahsoka thought with a sigh. Settling on her cot, she sighed and tried to sleep. Anakin eventually put the droid parts away, settling down for some sleep himself. With the lantern turned off, it was almost peaceful, save for the fact that they were in a now active warzone, and that the creeping bad feeling Ahsoka had hadn't gone away. Over the course of the next couple hours the force kept nudging her awake and pushing her to go outside. At one point it even felt like somebody was brushing against her shields, but that was stupid. As far as she knew, they were the only people around for kilometers. And none of the Clones were force sensitive. Atleast, she was sure that none of them were force sensitive. She sighed, getting up and walking out of the tent to go and spend the current watch with whichever poor shiny got stuck on duty.
She had just started her first rounds when she'd spotted a shiny pacing nervously around the sparring area. They were fidgety, looking back and forth from the shore, to the water and trees, then camp. They repeated the process a few more times until she got close. It was uncanny how quickly they still when she got near, freezing as they looked at the water. She quirked a brow and frowned.
"Evening, trooper." She greeted them as she got closer. They didn't jump like the shinies normally did when caught past curfew. Well, Ahsoka thought, thats odd.
"Sir." They responded quiet and even, like they were supposed to be here. Or maybe they were just resorting to tactics that worked on Kamino. It was more likely be the latter.
"What are you doing out here...?" She waited for a name.
"No particular reason, sir." Ah, so it was going to be like that. Alright, she could work with that.
"Curfew was a few hours ago, trooper. You should be asleep."
No response.
"Go back to bed tropper. Big day tomorrow, your first battle and all."
"Sorry sir, but I can't sleep."
"Well then. What's your name, trooper?"
"I don't have one that you can use yet, sir."
"Well I'm sure you'll find one soon."
No response. Again. Usually even the most stoic of shinies would talk more than this. Now that she thought about it, his infliction with his last statement was strange. And he felt, off. She knew her men, even the shinies, a little. Why didn't she know this one?
"How long have you been here?"
"Here, sir?"
"How long have you been in the 501st?"
"In the 501st? Oh, recently, sir. Very recently." He responded, as if contemplating.
She sat in silence, prodding at his shields lightly. She was shocked to find ones that resembled durasteel, if not beskar. He turned away slightly, before pointedly tracking something in the water.
"Sir, I think it's best if we back away from the shore." The trooper said with conviction, an edge of concern in his voice as he turned his head to track multiple things in the water. Ahsoka looked at him in confusion before looking back at the objects in the water. In the wash of light from a nearby spotlight, it appeared he was just getting spooked by logs.
"Why? I don't think a couple of logs are that big a threat, trooper." She asked pointedly. He didn't respond before turning abruptly and tackling her to the ground. She yelped as they hit the ground. At that moment, one of the logs jumped from the water and snapped a set of fangs at the air where she and the trooper were standing. Alright, maybe I should be scared of the logs.
The log-thing landed on the shore with a dull thud before lifting itself and lunging towards them with pinchers the size of her torso. The other log-beasts started shambling onto the shore. Five in total. Just great. The trooper was already up, pulling her to her feet as her turned and started sprinting back.
"Kriff kriff Kriffkriffkriff-" The trooper swore under his breath, stopping at the nearest LAAT-i and climbing it with easy. Ahsoka followed, wondering out loud how the kriff he did that with that much ease. He stood up on top of the transport, turning to face the log-things, knife produced out of nowhere in hand. Ripping off his helmet and tossing it, he tossed it at the head of one before letting out a guttural hissing-growling-shrieking-howl. She'd never heard a human mouth produce something like that. It was impressive.
What was more impressive was that there were dozens of replies of nearly the same hiss-growl-shriek-howl.
"Ssk-etk ghetth maash keest'et!" The trooper called off the the side. She hadn't heard that language before either, who is this guy?!
The sound of dual lightsabers igniting caught her off guard as flashed of orange and amber dashed in front of her and the LAAT-i, the head of the beast severing from the body in simple quick motions before the flashes were drawn back to the LAAT-i of to the side. Two more clones stood on top of it, standing next to two teens that were holding dual bladed sabers each, orange and amber respectively.
"We can see that we have a huge Karking-"
"-language-"
"Sorry, a Huge Gods Damned problem." One of the two teens said before jumping off the LAAT-i and dashing at another beast, the second one following shortly after. The two clones shouted something before joining in the fray. The camp was waking up with startles as the sounds of blasters join the cacophony of chaos. More mystery clones appeared out of nowhere to aide in the fight. Several more log-things had crawled ashore to partake in the frenzy. Ahsoka stood frozen, before turning to the mystery clone from before.
"Who are you?!"
"Sorry, Sir," He apologised sheepishly as he pulled out a pistol. "Im Lt. Chapter of the 409th Special ops battalion. Cycle battalion, if you will."
"The who?"