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Cody is a good soldier. He has been from the moment he was decanted, high praise labelled over his successful genetic template. 92% fidelity to the template, just different enough to highlight all of the best changes made to the Prime, and his difficulties.
Cody is a good soldier. He has been since training, that started when he was under two standard, flash training and sims and trainers. He took to it like he was made for it, because he was.
Cody is a good soldier. He has been since he was deployed, not on Geonosis, but as part of the next wave of battle. So many are already dead, clone, Jedi, and the Mandalorian trainers he remembers, as they were packing up to go, hated how many clones were going down, but percentage wise, more Jedi were falling. He was made for this, and so he’s going to fight.
Cody is a good soldier. He has been since he was assigned to work with Obi-Wan Kenobi, the youngest Jedi on the council, recently ascended to refill the ranks. Obi-Wan is a good Jedi, powerful, skilled, and compassionate. Cody is honored to have worked with him, to be his friend.
(Obi-Wan was, a good Jedi.)
Cody is a good soldier. He has been for three long years of war. Hundreds of thousands of clones die, just as they were meant to. They fought alongside the Jedi, who died in higher percentages than the clones did. They were a small number to begin with, only 10,000 knights and masters to their name.
Cody is a good soldier. When Obi-Wan killed Grievous after losing his weapon, he handed back the saber, because it was the Jedi’s life. Sometimes Obi-Wan would drop things, robes, his saber- and he always says to Cody thank you for keeping it, for being a good man. For having his back. The war was almost won, and Obi-Wan is in position to finish things.
(was.)
Cody is a good soldier. When the Order is issued it clicks into place and he does not question it. Good soldiers follow orders.
“Fire!”
Obi-Wan’s attached to a massive creature that cries out in fear as it falls off the mountain. He disappears into the gorge, and the creature he’s riding on bounces, and then is still.
Cody is a good soldier, and he didn’t need to look further than that. Obi-Wan Kenobi is a member of the Jedi Council, if the Jedi are traitors he’s highly culpable. If the Jedi are traitors, letting him win the war would solidify their aim of taking things over.
(was.)
Without him, Cody needs to win the war. They push on as planned, readjusting for the lack of a Jedi leading the effort. It’s easy, because he is a good soldier, and he was made for this, and the droids fall to pieces.
Cody is a good soldier. He doesn’t want to celebrate until it’s firmly finished. There had been a lot to do, a lot that needed to be taken care of. The Jedi are traitors, they’d been running a lot of things, and the Republic Navy has to swoop in and take over all of it. There’s a mess left in the wake of the betrayal, thousands of generals all with plans unfinished, padawans who need to be tracked down and taken care of.
Cody is a good soldier. He checks on his men. Captain Rex isn’t his anymore, he was transferred to the 501stwhen General Skywalker became a General. They’d still worked together more often than not. Rex is a good soldier too, one of the best. One of the few survivors from Geonosis at this point, tough as anything, and deeply kind. He is more than a good soldier, too, he’s a good man, and Cody is honored to have him by his side.
(was.)
Cody is a good soldier. When the report comes in that the 332nd had gone dark shortly after the Order, vanishing entirely, never reporting back in… he allows himself a moment to mourn. Rex and Jesse’s absences are notable in his life, more so every day.
Cody is a good soldier. When he doesn’t get clearance to go find the wreckage of the 332nd to check for survivors, he privately holds his beliefs to his chest. The Empire’s got a lot of work to do in how it’s structured, given that they’re taking over for the Jedi traitors. There’s a lot to do. A lot that Cody’s sent to do. They’re trying to hold onto the peace that he spent three years fighting for. That those hundreds of thousands of clones died for. That all of the Jedi were sacrificed for.
Cody is a good soldier. When the 501st starts to experience breakdowns he supports the ones he can. Some are unbothered, they were right to do what they did. Others seem haunted. Their eyes gloss over when they look at children in the streets of parades.
Cody is a good soldier. He issues various new blaster safety regulations. He reports numbers of losses in the night.
Cody is a good soldier. He doesn’t press the ones who stammer out information about the children in their cribs. He’s a soldier, a commander. He leads battles, not empires. The Jedi were traitors, they attempted to seize power for themselves, the Empire needed them to go because they were a threat to the peace that thousands of clones and all of the Jedi died for.
Cody is a good soldier. He doesn’t let a little doubt ruin a clone’s future, after all. They weren’t designed to be mindless droids; they’re supposed to think for themselves. They were made to be men. And as men, they can make their own choices and live with the consequences. He swallows his dislike of how commanders under him are being split up, under the guise of becoming trainers. Gregor, one of his favorites and most loyal captains, gives him a look of confusion when Gregor’s selected for this process. Gregor’s many things, but a teacher isn’t really one of them.
Cody is a good soldier. He keeps his disdain about his new general flippantly referring to him as CC-2224, accidentally misstating his designation as RC or CT, to himself.
Cody is a good soldier. Under any circumstances, any pressure. He finds his purpose in it. He’s doing what he was made for, protecting the Republic, now the Empire. If others leave, that’s on them. He’ll honor what so many of his men have died for.
They’re not the enemy.
Cody is a good soldier. He’s been deployed on a separatist world. He chose Crosshair, the only member of his squad who stayed as well, to come with him.
Crosshair is also a good soldier. He takes different views on some matters, the Jedi, the deserters, but Cody can understand it. Crosshair is the only one of his men who didn’t desert, there’s likely a little undercurrent of personal bitterness of being the one left behind. Clone Force 99 are known for their unconventional tactics and beliefs, and Crosshair is no exception.
(was.)
Cody is a good soldier. He was trained to win using a lot of different methods. There are plenty of ways to win a battle without ever lifting a blaster. He’s here to maintain the peace.
But people are running from him.
Cody is a good soldier. He’s here to bring order.
But he seems to only be getting people killed.
Cody is a good soldier. There can be a peaceful transition of power, he’s sure of it. The governor wants what’s best for her people. So does Cody.
But the problem is…
Execute her.
Cody is a good soldier. He knows she’s surrendered. He may not know about the politics of it, but he knows this. You do not kill an enemy combatant in cold blood. You negotiate their imprisonment, sure, but they surrendered. Killing them after that is only going to damage any likelihood of future cooperation, and that’s going to be important for a long term relationship with this world.
Cody is a good soldier, and that’s why he won’t-
Her body falls.
Crosshair kills her with the same efficacy he’d killed the assassin droids. He doesn’t even flinch.
They get the order to string her body up in the streets. To display for the world what surrender gets you.
Cody is a good soldier. He was made that way. He’s a good soldier, not just because he follows orders, that’d make him a droid, but because he can think for himself, take into consideration the facts and come up with his own mind of things.
Her last, defiant words, to his own pleas for her peaceful surrender.
Peace wasn’t an option.
Cody is a good soldier. He fought for the Republic alongside the Jedi. All of that’s gone. Some of it at his own hands. He’s a good soldier because he can make his own decisions, his own choices, and live with them too.
Cody’s a good soldier. He’ll point this fact out to Crosshair, give him one last chance.
Cody is a good soldier.
Was. A good soldier. Was, a good man.
Wasn’t the enemy, but now he is. And there’s only one path left for him, and it’s not anything he’d ever thought he’d do- because in a real way it’s spitting on the graves of every man who died for him, on the death of Obi-Wan Kenobi who’d called Cody by his name and deferred to his judgement and had actually pushed for peace, unlike the Chancellor, who turned down the Separatist’s peace treaty. He wants to honor it, their sacrifices, but when he thinks of Obi-Wan's silent fall, he now pictures the Governor's body, strung up in the streets, eyes empty, defeated. Everything he's ever done has culminated in that woman, and there's no one left to go to about it. Because they killed them.
Cody is not a good soldier. Because he’s not a soldier.
He abandons his post.
And leaves.