Chapter Text
“Alright, you miscreants, I drew the short straw to come and get you so you better not waste any of my time. Load up!” Commander Davijaan called over their comms. “And General, sir, if some weird Force shit happens while en route to the Navigator, I’m holding you personally responsible.”
General Kenobi brushed some of the dust off his robes, though it was a futile task, and laughed up at Davijaan, glaring down at them through the cockpit of the dropship. “My dear Oddball, I had no idea you thought so highly of me.”
“Seriously, General. Anything weird happens, and you’re going to buy my drinks at 79’s for a night,” Davijaan said.
Kenobi merely winked and saluted cheekily.
Cody rolled his eyes at them both, safe behind the mask of his bucket, though he was sure that Davijaan could tell anyway. They were both idiots. He had men to load up into the dropship so they could finally get off the karking planet rather than deal with their snarking and banter. He wasn’t sure how it was possible for a planet’s terrain to simultaneously be so wet and so dusty. There was dust everywhere—places he knew would be karking difficult to get out.
And of course, his general had lost his lightsaber again.
Kriffing idiot.
Heaving a sigh that he was sure General Kenobi could hear, Cody stalked off to go look for the weapon that his general couldn’t seem to hold onto. He didn’t have to go far, at least. Somehow, the lightsaber always ended up within a twenty-foot radius of Cody, apparently due to the fact that “it likes you, Commander.” Cody scooped up the lightsaber and clipped it to his belt with practiced ease.
He'd wait to give it back to General Kenobi until they reached the Negotiator. Sometimes being petty was the only bit of joy that he could squeeze out of the war. And watching General Kenobi fret when he realized he’d lost his lightsaber and potentially left it down on the planet was always amusing.
“Load up!” Cody shouted to the remainder of Ghost Company that hadn’t already been taken back to the Venator. There was just over a full squad left planet-side, so it would be a bit of a tight squeeze on the dropship. It was a smaller one, the kind that Davijaan preferred to pilot, and typically only held a full squad—ten men total. At least they wouldn’t have to worry about anyone trying to sit on another’s lap—there was enough room to stand or squish together. Regardless of what Longshot and Wooley claimed, neither one of them was strong enough to keep the other in place in case of a crash.
Cody glared at General Kenobi until he conceded defeat and strapped into one of the chairs. Trapper sat directly next to the General while Waxer and Boil took the seats on the other side of him. Ever since the Second Battle of Geonosis, they’d all made sure that the General was as well protected as possible, especially Waxer and Boil as they’d been the ones to find and rescue him from the downed lartie. Trapper still struggled with flying in gunships and always took the seat next to the general—it comforted them both, Cody knew. The rest of the men piled in and claimed seats or braced against the wall like Cody was doing. Wooley attempted to sit on Longshot’s lap for exactly one second until Brix, Field CMO of the 212th, snapped his fingers at the pair of them. Wooley visibly drooped and Cody couldn’t help but roll his eyes at his ARC’s ridiculousness. Those two were trouble.
“Everyone on board and accounted for?” Davijaan asked through their bucket comms.
Cody did a brief head count and then called his confirmation. Seconds later, the gunship took off, smooth and perfectly controlled as always. With the last of the cleanup on planet finished hours before and the rest of the 212th already on board the Negotiator, Cody was eagerly looking forward to relaxing and getting the grime and dirt from the campaign out of his armor and skin.
“Do you think we’re going to be allowed back on Coruscant for leave soon?” Trapper asked.
General Kenobi ran a hand through his hair and grimaced at the knots and dirt. “I do hope so, but I have no way of knowing at this point. I’ll have a better idea after I report to the Council, but one can only hope we’ll get some time off soon.”
“Corin promised to take us to his favorite street vendor,” Wooley piped up, motioning to his batchmate Cyan. Cody knew that Corin was one of their batchmates assigned to the Coruscant Guard—he knew a little bit about the vod from Wooley’s stories and Cody winced. He was going to have to pull in a few favors from Fox to get his ARC out of the drunk tank next time they were on Coruscant.
General Kenobi glanced at Cody and smirked tiredly. “You will have to tell me what vendor he takes you to. I’m afraid it’s been far too long since I’ve had the opportunity to see who is selling food and trinkets in the upper levels.”
“Corin said it was in Coco Town, I think,” Wooley offered. “Maybe you might know the people there?”
“I do know of a diner owner and I am more familiar with that area, yes. Should you avoid getting arrested by your batchmate this time, I’ll gladly show you the place. Dex is an old friend of mine and he’s got some of the best food I’ve ever had in my entire life.”
“Deal,” Wooley agreed quickly. Cody stifled a snicker. Not a single vod in the 212th Attack Battalion—or in the 3rd Systems Army for that matter—would willingly turn down time spent with General Kenobi, especially not with the promise of good food. And if it meant that Wooley wouldn’t be getting into trouble the next time they were on Coruscant, Cody would gladly support him.
General Kenobi tensed. It was the only warning they had.
Something powerful hit the side of their dropship, knocking them off course.
“SHIT!” Davijaan shouted. “BRACE YOURSELVES!”
Someone crashed into Cody’s side, nearly knocking him off his feet. There was a single moment where something else supported him before all hell broke loose. The gunship tumbled through space and it was worse than any of the gravity-force trainings Cody had done when he was a cadet. It felt as though his body was turning inside out, contorting on itself viciously with every jolt.
There was a scream, maybe. Or maybe that was the sound of physics being ripped apart.
And then everything went dark and Cody knew no more.
Gentle, strong hands gripped Cody’s shoulders, bracing his neck as a couple of others carefully turned him onto his back. Pain, fierce and intense, tore through him. Something in his shoulder was on fire, stabbing into tendons and muscle with every slight shift of the hands on his shoulders.
“Shit,” someone cursed. It was the voice of a cadet.
Cody blearily blinked his eyes open, trying to push past the pain, and immediately wished he hadn’t. The bright light of a yellow sun seemed to burn his retinas. He slammed his eyes closed again and wished that whatever had dropped hi
“Fuck,” he groaned, then froze. His voice sounded wrong—weird in his own ears.
“He’s awake!” another cadet called. “Brix!”
“I’m right here, di’kut. I can see he’s awake.” The dry tone matched, but the voice was wrong. Cody had expected a deep, rough voice when Brix spoke, not a cadet barely out of his fifth cycle.
Braving the bright sun again, Cody squinted and tried to get a better look at Brix.
“Hold still, sir,” a cadet’s voice said. “Brix thinks you broke your collar bone.”
“Why—” Cody’s throat felt like he’d gargled sand and then drank a whole liter of lava from Lola Sayu. “Cad—” he tried again.
“Fucking weird Force shit. I swear, when I find General Kenobi, I’m going to happily dangle him over the edge of Kamino and wait until he looks like a drowned womprat before I send him in front of the entire Senate Rotunda buck naked.”
Cody closed his eyes and wished that desperately that he could go back in time and prevent whatever had happened now from ever happening again. “Da-jaan,” he croaked.
“Yeah, it’s me. Don’t push yourself too much, you karking di’kut,” Davijaan growled. “We got caught up in some kind of weird Force magic that tossed my gunship around like physics don’t exist. I karking crashed her. Unconscious from whatever the fuck shrunk us all down so we’re cadets.”
Well, it was at least a sitrep, Cody thought a bit dryly. He now knew what injured him and why it seemed like he was surrounded by cadets when there shouldn’t be any cadets on any planet besides Kamino. While not ideal, it was manageable until the Jedi could find a fix.
The Jedi.
General Kenobi.
“Gen-ral?” he groaned, needing to know where his general was.
“Missing,” Brix said, and Cody could read the worry in his voice as easy as breathing.