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Rinn was freezing. Even inside the base the 501st had commandeered, it was as cold as the temple freezers Ahsoka used to sneak into at midnight to eat the Nabooian ice-cream hidden there. She wandered around the Rinn base in her thickest jacket, knitted Bantha-wool hat covering her Montrals and gloved hands tucked firmly under her armpits, muttering at her master (or under her breath when he’d disappeared with Plo) about how she missed her well-heated room on the Resolute. She hated missions on cold planets. Anakin, meanwhile, had an irritating love for them.
They had been in the city of Rinn to help protect the fuel cells that were running low. Half had been wiped out by a Separatist contingency on the other side of the valley and the other half were used up, unable to be refuelled because of a Separatist blockade keeping any support crew from making their way down to the surface, or any Rinn locals from getting off the planet to refuel the cells themselves.
It had all been going well - the Wolfpack of the 104th had been sent down to deal with the refuelling, whilst the 501st had handled the Separatist blockade - until it hadn’t . The 501st had completed their objective well enough, thanks to some choice decisions from Tano and her Master, but the Wolfpack faced more difficulties planetside than expected.
The Separatist contingency had been much bigger than intel suggested and Ahsoka, along with her Master and a good chunk of the 501st, had been sent down to lend a helping hand while the rest jumped back to Coruscant. And though they did help, Anakin’s backwards tactics and Tano’s somewhat reckless follow-through had resulted in their two shuttles (their only way off this hypothermia-inducing, nose-freezing icebox of a planet) being sunk in a quick-ice pit a few miles north of the base.
It was safe to say that when Obi-Wan had been commed by a rather sheepish looking Ahsoka and Anakin, Plo standing a few feet behind them radiating veiled amusement but also muted disappointment, he had not been pleased.
It would be at least six hours before the 212th could reach them and pull them out, and it would be at least two hours before the fuel cells were refuelled enough to finally kick the heating up to a level that wouldn’t freeze Ahsoka’s toes off.
The Rinn locals had been kind and gracious enough. They had passed around blankets and food and thanked the 501st and Plo Koon’s Wolfpack for their assistance. Plo and Anakin had been drawn off by some of the high-ranking politicians in the area with the promise of Mulled Wine, and so Ahsoka was left to her own devices.
For a while, she meditated, and then played a game of … with a group of children gathered in the conference area that had been rendered useless now there was nothing else to do but wait. But she was running out of things
She made it to the large hangar at the edge of the base, leading out onto a runway sat at the edge of the valley. Most of the clones were gathered in this hangar, resting or just hanging out. Of course, Rex was doing neither. Instead, he was frowning at a datapad, Wolffe by his side, while Sinker, Boost, Comet, Fives, Echo and Hardcase lounged on a set of crates next to them, arguing about something or other.
Ahsoka made her way over to them immediately, a smirk on her face. Of course Rex would find some way to do work in what should be downtime.
“Thought you’d be playing Sabacc with the rest of them, Wolffe,” Ahsoka teased as she got close enough to the group of troopers. The Commander turned his head, helmet shielding his expression, but body language signalling that he was not perturbed by her jibe.
“Not as fun when there aren’t pints of spotchka on the line.” The commander shrugged and Rex, noticing he’d lost the attention of the only other trooper he could rope into analysing battle data with him, sighed and locked his datapad.
“We tried to convince them, sir,” Sinker spoke up from Ahsoka’s left, “but you know these two.”
Ahsoka scoffed. The difference between Wolffe and Rex and the rest of the troopers in the group was stark. Though they all valued their work and were committed to their jobs, Rex and Wolffe always seemed to be the last to switch off. Hazard of their rank, perhaps, but Ahsoka knew there was nothing else for them to do now but wait for Cody and the 212th to come rescue them from their self-induced boredom.
“Well, your Generals are off drinking mulled wine with the locals.” Ahsoka raised a hand and rested it on Rex’s pauldron, shooting him a warm smile. “I think you can stop running through the stats now, Captain.”
Rex smiled down at her and though he didn’t verbally agree with her sentiments, Ahsoka felt his shoulders drop and noticed his body detense, the telltale sign that the CC was switching off work mode.
“Alright, sir.” He went to tuck the datapad beneath his armpit, but Ahsoka was faster, grabbing it from his grasp and holding it above her head.
“ This can wait till later.”
Rex rolled his eyes as the Wolfpack and the small collection of the 501st cheered around them and Ahsoka set the datapad aside on the crates, hopping up between Fives and Echo. She tucked her knees to her chest and hugged them tight, a blisteringly cold breeze moving through the hangar.
“Of all the planets to get yourselves stuck on, you had to pick this ice box,” Fives grunted, nudging Boost and closing his arms around his chest.
“Of all the planets to sink your transports on, you mean,” Boost retorted.
“That wouldn't have happened if you lot had done your job right.”
“We wouldn’t be here had your intel not been phoney-”
“Boys,” Rex warned, at the exact moment Wolffe growled, “Enough.”
Ahsoka grinned, narrowing her eyes at the hangar they were currently holed up in. Boredom was setting in. She didn’t need to use the force to sense it in the air. Leave over a hundred clone troopers to their own devices in a derelict hangar with nothing to fight, fix or drink and they’ll soon get restless.
Most had taken to napping. Some were doing routine weapons checks. Others were playing travel sabacc with rocks or scrap metal as credits. But all were bored.
And so was Ahsoka.
Rex must’ve sensed it, because after her wandering gaze fell back on the group she had wormed her way into, he grinned her way.
“Not a fan of mulled wine?”
Ahsoka pouted.
“Can’t drink it. Master Jedi stuff.”
“Bantha shit,” Fives chuckled, shaking his head. “The Generals just want it all for themselves.”
He was half-heartedly chastised by the Wolfpack, who would defend their General to death, but the 501st boys chuckled with him, knowing Fives well enough to know he didn’t mean any malice by it whatsoever.
“Well screw 'em,” Ahsoka stood, but she too wore a playful smirk. She scanned the hangar once more and finally spied something interesting. Her eyes lit up, and when she turned back to Rex, he had his usual half-worried, half-amused reaction to the look that was in her eyes.
“I’ve just found something even more fun to do.”
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Rex asked, crossing his arms over his chest. He’d returned his cold-modified helmet to his head, as had the other boys, and Ahsoka tried not to be envious of how warm their breather hoods looked.
“When have I ever had a bad idea?” Ahsoka grinned up at him from his left, watching as Echo, Fives and Hardcase pushed their toboggan to the edge of the valley and Comet, Sinker and Boost pushed their own. They had been aesthetically modified in the hangar, a half-hour long job given the Wolfpack’s insistence in painting their more complicated wolf moniker on their own toboggan, but that only gave Five the opportunity to add some more fun embellishments to the 501st’s toboggan anyhow.
They had taken double the time tinkering with the old transports, more troopers from both the 501st and the 104th gathering around their respective toboggans to assist in building the perfect vehicle for their respective battalion. It became a competition - Fives and Hardcase trash talking the Wolfpack as Boost and Sinker sent insults the 501st’s way. Rex and Wolffe had given up on trying to uphold a sense of decorum and had loosened up into teasing one another playfully too, attention fully diverted from the recent mission and devoted to the newfound brotherly competition.
No one was bored and no one even noticed when the heating finally kicked in at the base, not even Ahsoka, all too excited to get the toboggans out into the snow.
“Chickening out, Rex?” Wolffe teased from the other side of Ahsoka, tightening the straps on his gloves. Rex scoffed, removing the upswept pauldron from his armour and tossing it back into the hangar.
“Meet you at the bottom, Wolffe.” Rex strode over to the 501st toboggan and Ahsoka smirked, dashing after him. She could hear Wolffe’s chuckle, carried through the wind, as he joined his pack.
It had been determined that the first teams to race would be Wolffe, Comet, Boost and Sinker versus Ahsoka, Rex, Fives, Echo and Hardcase. Ahsoka squeezed herself into the front of the toboggan, legs curled up into its domed front. Rex tucked himself behind her followed by Hardcase, then Echo, then Fives stood at the back ready to push them off. It was a tighter squeeze than the Wolfpack in their own toboggan, but Ahsoka would be damned if she weren’t taking part in this, especially given it was her idea. Besides, Fives had assured them that the extra weight would be to their advantage and had repeatedly boasted he was stronger than Comet, the trooper taking the rear of the Wolfpack toboggan.
Jesse had been designated as the race starter and he made his way between the two toboggans. The grey- and blue-armoured troopers gathered behind the two toboggans cheered enthusiastically, some just shouting for the fun of it, others howling encouragement specifically toward their battalion's teams.
With the warmth of the troopers cheering, and the excited adrenaline in her heart caused by looking down the somewhat-worryingly steep hill before her, Ahsoka no longer felt so cold.
“Ready, sir?” Rex’s cheerful voice interrupted her thoughts and Ahsoka grinned.
“Ready, Captain.”
Rex nodded at Jesse, who nodded back, then glanced at the Wolfpack, waiting for the nod of their commander.
“Try not to take too long, boys,” Hardcase jeered from the 501st toboggan. “We don’t want to be waiting too long.”
The Wolfpack were worryingly silent and Ahsoka narrowed her eyes at their Commander, who seemed to have his helmet turned in her direction despite the nod of his head meant for Jesse.
“Alright, troopers!” Jesse shouted, silencing the cheers of the audience behind. “On my count… three… two… one…”
Jesse raised his blaster to the air and fired into the air and the two toboggans jolted into action. The 501st had a better start, Comet seemingly taking longer to hop back into the toboggan, and Ahsoka’s confidence swelled. Fives and Echo let out a raucous cheer as they began racing down the valley.
The speed at which the toboggan carved its way through the snow was blinding. Ahsoka, perhaps naively, hadn’t considered wearing goggles and was now thoroughly regretting it, the ice-cold air bringing tears to her eyes and forcing her to close them. She told herself on the next run she would find some welding goggles in the hangar so she could actually see the run.
Still, the feel of it was more than enough. The adrenaline was coursing through her and she resisted the urge to raise her hands in the air like she was on a rollercoaster ride, knowing it would screw with their dynamics. But judging from the cheering from her teammates, and her inability to hear the Wolfpack alongside them, she determined that the 501st were ahead. Until…
“What the hell?!” Fives was first to shout, his words muffled by the wind that carried them back up the valley. Echo joined his shouts next, then Hardcase, and even Rex shouted out a jeer of anger. Ahsoka peeled open her eyes and turned her head to the left, blinking back the tears that fogged her vision.
Finally, she saw what the clones behind her were shouting at. The Wolfpack were alongside them now, pulling ahead with every second, and it wasn’t difficult to see why. Fixed to the back of the Wolfpack’s toboggan were two jetpacks, switched on and blazing as they sped down the valley.
“That’s not fair!” Echo shouted over the wind, and Ahsoka could tell that the Wolfpack were shouting back at them but what exactly they were saying, she couldn’t determine, words lost to the speed at which they gained the advantage.
“Cheats!” Rex shouted from behind her, and Ahsoka frowned. There was still a good way before the decided finishline of two pine trees at the bottom of the valley, but the 501st needed a miracle to make it work.
Or, Ahsoka though, the Force.
Ahsoka grinned, closing her eyes and centring herself in the battle meditation tactics Anakin had drilled into her. It worked, and she felt the flow of the Force around her. She grinned as she felt the power eb and flow, and carefully unfolded her legs from the front of the toboggan. She stood, slowly but surely, ignoring the shouts of protest from her troopers behind her and the grasping hand of Rex on her belt, trying to tug her down or at least stop her from falling.
But there was no chance of her falling.
“Hold on tight, boys!” Ahsoka called over the wind, and pushed the Force through her, launching herself into the air. She flipped carefully over the boys, feeling herself move in slow motion as the troopers stared up at her in awe. Ahsoka grinned down at them, enjoying the mischief brewing in her chest.
She felt her feet land on the snow behind the toboggan and the second she did, she pushed the Force outward, focusing on Five’s white and blue plastoid backplate. The 501st’s toboggan moved immediately, the power of the Force compelling it forward at a speed that was almost double that of the Wolfpack’s jetpack-assisted vehicle. There was just enough time and space for the 501st to catch up with the Wolfpack and perhaps overtake them, and Ahsoka held her breath as the boys raced toward the finish line.
Two troopers stood at the other end of the course, one with a flag made of spray-painted blue cloth, the other with one painted grey, and Ahsoka felt the whole audience back up at the top of the valley suck in a gasp of anticipation.
The seconds felt like minutes, hours, and the two toboggans turned into small dots in Ahsoka’s vision, leaving a trail of white snow behind them. They inched closer and closer to the finish, slowly, slowly…
The blue flag was raised and Ahsoka let out a whooping yell of celebration, drowned out by the symphony of cheers from the 501st troopers at the top of the valley. Both speeding toboggans struggled to stop, but they did eventually, kicking up waves of snow as they twisted on their sides. Both teams of troopers shouted obscenities at one another, but eventually hugged and laughed, all overwhelmed with the adrenaline of the race to hold too much of a grudge.
They all trudged their way up the hill together, Ahsoka slowing her pace enough to fall into step with the boys.
“You’re a cheat.” She shoved Wolffe on the shoulder and, though she knew the effort she’d put behind the push wouldn’t have moved him one bit, he dramatically stumbled at her touch.
“So are you.” He pushed her back but had removed his helmet and a grin was crawling over his face.
The two teams engaged in playful banter, mainly about the race and then about something else when they had argued themselves in circles about the fairness of the toboggan modifications and Force usage. It was only when they finally reached the top of the valley, bemused as to the other troopers silence, that they finally shut up.
Stood at the top of the valley, arms crossed over their coat-covered chests, were the two Generals of the battalions involved. Ahsoka couldn’t read either of their expressions. She could hardly ever read Plo’s, his mask hindering any clues she could infer from his eyes and mouth, and Anakin had a snood-like scarf brought up over his mouth, his piercing blue eyes narrowed in a way that suggested disappointment but also glinted with Anakin’s playful mischievous side.
“Sir.” All eight of the troopers alongside Ahsoka stood tall and saluted their generals, smiles hardening into tight lines.
“At ease, boys,” Anakin raised a hand to them and then lifted his other to pull down his scarf. It was when Ahsoka saw the smile tugging at the corners of his lips that she knew they weren’t in trouble.
“Having fun, Snips?”
Ahsoka shrugged. “We had to do something to pass the time.”
“I think that race was a little unfair, wouldn’t you say, Skywalker?” Plo turned his head toward Anakin.
“I’d say so, Master Plo,” Anakin said. “Though had it not been for the jetpacks, I’m sure my Padawan wouldn’t have had to resort to such extreme measures.”
The two teams relaxed, shoulders dropping, and the audience of troopers behind Plo and Anakin also eased up from their militaristic stances.
“Well, how about this. We take away the jet packs-”
Plo was interrupted by a series of groans from the Wolfpack, silenced with the raise of their General’s hand.
“ And,” Plo continued, “each team gets one Jedi giving them a push at the start of the race.”
The audience erupted into cheers and Ahsoka laughed, turning to Rex with a triumphant grin. He shook his head and rolled his eyes, but was grinning too.
“Master Skywalker,” Plo turned back to the 501st General who had his signature smirk fixed to his face. “Shall we?”
He gestured to the two toboggans, sat waiting for their next go down the valley. Anakin clapped his gloved hands together excitedly, rubbing them together.
“Boys.” He glanced at Rex who grinned at his general. He stood up straight, as he had when he had first saw the leader of the 501st, but his smile had not dissipated. Instead, it was wider, even when he raised his own gloved hand to his forehead in salute.
“Sir.”
Fives, Hardcase and Echo were close to follow, saluting their general and shouting their response. Plo’s boys did the same, until both teams dashed back to their toboggans.
“Snips, think you can handle the start?” Anakin called over his shoulder. Ahsoka’s hand was already on her saber as she made her way between the two toboggans.
“I think I got it-”
“I think otherwise, young one.” The booming voice that could be heard, even over the excited chatter of a hundred men, had everyone freeze in their tracks - even Plo Koon. The audience parted as the steady, beating footsteps of a marching battalion crunched in the snow.
Emerging from the path created in the crowd, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Cody by his side.
“Obi-Wan,” Anakin stood straight, a sheepish grin on his face as he scratched the back of his head with a mittened hand. “We were just-”
“I know what you were doing, my former Padawan,” Obi-Wan grinned at the young man and Skywalker relaxed, noticing the playful glint in his former Master’s eyes.
“Cody,” Obi-Wan called, “Waxer, Boil and Crys.”
As the clones’ names were called, they emerged from the centre of the 212th, pulling an orange and white painted toboggan behind them. Ahsoka laughed joyously as the 501st and the Wolfpack cheered at the newfound competition. Plo chuckled, slapping Obi-Wan on the shoulder as he passed, Cody, Waxer, Boil and Crys clambering into their toboggan and readying themselves for the race.
Ahsoka turned back to Rex and the 501st, and Rex flashed her a smirk before fixing on his helmet. Though Ahsoka really did hate the cold, she was starting to enjoy the snow. She ignited her lightsaber, its blade illuminating the white ground in a vibrant azure, and readied herself for the countdown.
“Let’s show them what we can do, boys.”