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Hurry up and wait was the unofficial motto of the GAR, and it was certainly something every man on Colopa was mumbling under their breath today. Twenty hours after staging, the 501st was still collectively waiting for the 104th to get their kovide teh val shebse up in orbit and actually land on the stupid jungle planet. Bets were being placed on what was taking them so long; Echo had put his credits—well, the clone version of credits, which were just chocolate-covered warra nuts from the commissary—on someone forgetting to refuel the tanks before leaving Coruscant.
"Alright, vod'ika, instead of posting on your foot—no, you'll still bring it up, just listen—instead of posting on your foot and then sitting down, make the same movement but spring your leg back and sit at the same time. So pull him forward—further, further, there you go, get him off balance—now post and spring your leg back, sit under, and take him right over you."
Echo braced himself as Commander Tano dutifully followed Captain Rex's instructions, flipping him flat onto the mat—the mat in this case being a pile of fan-like branches harvested off the surrounding treeline, as they hadn't brought any proper sparring mats to the temporary base—with a hard thwack! She perched on his chest and beamed at the captain while Echo struggled to breathe. She probably weighed less than a cadet did; the commander barely came up to his chest and looked like a strong breeze would blow her over, but as Echo could attest to, she was all dense muscle.
"You alright, vod?" Captain Rex asked, dropping to a crouch and grinning.
It had been the Captain's idea to snag Echo as Commander Tano's partner for Echani practice so that he could coach her in the martial art step-by-step; he now understood the sympathetic look Jesse had thrown at him after Rex told him to come with him, and he was trying very hard to not think disrespectful thoughts about either the captain or the little commander. He would have preferred to call it after the fifteenth time hitting the ground. This last throw made twenty one dives. "Never better, Captain," Echo managed to wheeze.
"Good man." Rex turned his eyes back to Commander Tano. "So that one's called shebe'an irtaab roll. What does that mean?"
She thought for a moment while still perched on Echo's chest. "Something leg roll?"
"Sitting leg roll. Shebe'an is sitting." Rex hoisted her off Echo so he could take a full breath. "Do you remember what -ing is in Mando'a?"
"Uh, -an?"
" 'Lek, you take off the -r then tack on a beten and -an." Rex patted her fondly on the back and hauled Echo up next. "Good work, Private. You alright? That was a rough one."
"I'm fine, Sir," Echo said bravely.
"Think fast!" Commander Tano called as she tossed a blue electrolyte drink to Echo. He didn't, and it smacked him in the face. "Sorry!" the Togruta said with a wince. "I thought you were ready."
"It's fine, Commander," Echo said, rubbing his forehead with a wince.
"So if shebe'an is sitting, that means… sheber is to sit, right?" Commander Tano suddenly snickered. "Heh. Sheb. Butt as a verb."
Rex joined her in laughter. "I had a feeling you'd figure that one out quickly."
Commander Tano got a thoughtful look on her face. "And if shebs is butt, and I assume it refers to both cheeks… why isn't it shebse?"
Rex paused while untwisting the cap off his own drink. "Good question. No idea. By all accounts it should be."
"Maybe since multiple butts would be shebse too, 'lek?" Commander Tano tossed her drink to the side of the mat and grinned at Echo. "Ready to go again, Private?" she asked, bouncing on her heels excitedly.
Echo gave her a wan smile. "Yes, Sir," he said with as much enthusiasm as he could muster.
She watched the air around his head for a few seconds, then frowned. "Rex…" She turned to the Captain. "He's done."
"I'm fine, Commander!" Echo immediately protested, sudden anxiety making his whole body tense up at the unhappy look on her face. The last thing he wanted was for her to feel as though he couldn't soldier through a simple training exercise. "I've been tossed to the mat thousands of times. This is nothing." His ribs wanted to argue. He sternly told them to shut up.
Commander Tano crossed her arms and arched up one of her white brow lines—Echo wondered if that body language was natural to her browless species, or if it was something she'd picked up from growing up around Humans—and let out a deep sigh. "Echo, do you know what my primary responsibilities as a Jedi Commander are?" she asked.
Echo snapped to attention, clicking his heels together. "Sir, yes Sir," he said. "A Commander leads a regiment of four battalions of four companies each, taking orders directly from their Jedi General—in our case, Anakin Skywalker. You serve as both a frontline officer and an advisor on tactical and strategic matters. You also oversee logistics and supply lines, ensuring that our regiment can hold the territory we take or have the ability to wage an offensive push. In addition to that, you act as a filter between us and the General by delivering important information about troop status, enemy locations and potential dangers to the mission to be analyzed and processed while hearing troop complaints and—"
Commander Tano held up a hand to stop him and smiled wide enough for her fangs to poke out from under her top lip. "I meant overall, Private. What are my three primary responsibilities?"
Echo felt his cheeks go hot. "Protect the lives of civilians, the welfare of the Republic, and the lives of your soldiers. In that order, Sir."
"There are no civilians here, and there's nothing more I can do for the Republic until the 104th drops out of atmo. That leaves my soldiers. If I accidentally injure you because you didn't speak up and tell me when you'd had enough, that might be an injury that gets you killed on the battlefield. Do you really want your death to be on my hands just because you were being stubborn?"
Echo blinked a few times, shocked, then shook his head. "Sir, no Sir!"
"Then go take a break. I'll throw Rex around for a few minutes." She patted him on the shoulder and made a ready stance at the captain. "Tion'gar tsikala par ni… par ni…" She paused and thought for a few moments. "Par ni ven'nari cu'shebs'broka'an, ori'vod?"
Echo almost sprained a muscle trying to translate it: you ready for me will be ass beating, big brother?
Rex choked. "What?"
Commander Tano's grin faltered. "That wasn't right, was it?"
"Littl'un, that verb tense isn't even used in Mando'a outside of ancient literature. Keep it simple."
She scowled. "Fine, then how should I say it?"
"Copaani mirshmure'cya." Rex brought his hands up and nodded at her to do the same. "I know you know copaanir."
"Want, but it's got a subject so you drop the -r." Commander Tano ducked under Rex's wide swing. "And mirshmure'cya is a brain kiss, or what you call a headbutt if you're feeling cheeky."
Rex laughed and caught her punch. With one hand on her wrist he yanked her forward, ducked and spun under her arm, and flipped her onto her rump. He knelt behind her and put her in a gentle headlock. "So put it together."
"Want a headbutt?" she wheezed.
"Yes—" Rex was cut off by the commander's rear lek bonking his nose. His grip loosened, and she rose up onto one knee and flipped him over her shoulder in a perfect ceta'an jabat'lamirud throw.
"Gar ru'johaa'i elek," Commander Tano sang teasingly, her arm wrapped around his neck. Rex tapped her elbow and she released him with a laugh.
"You're a menace, vod'ika." Rex allowed her to pull him to his feet, then pulled her into an affectionate hug.
Commander Tano's commlink flashed white on her wrist and the sonic boom of Republic ships entering the atmosphere split the sky above them. "Back to camp!" Commander Tano barked, summoning her lightsaber and cuirass from where they lay off to the side, her demeanor instantly shifting into that of the determined leader that Echo recognized from the battlefield.
Echo followed the two officers at a jog, trying not to wince at the way his ribs throbbed.
"Hold still."
"I am holding still."
"Hold more still, di'kut." Echo carefully maneuvered Fives' shoulder back into alignment and snapped it back into its socket with a quick jerk of his hands.
Fives let out a grunt and rubbed it, wincing. "Thanks, vod'ika."
Echo rolled his eyes. "I was decanted before you."
"By forty-one seconds. Shut up." Fives gently touched their foreheads together anyway "Glad to see you made it. Got worried when you got pinned down by those destroyers."
"Good thing I was there to save your shebse from being vaporized," Jesse drawled from the cot beside them. Kix had wrapped his head up in a thick layer of white gauze to protect the burn on the back of his bald dome. Echo wondered if he could even grow his hair out if he wanted to now. "It was my grenade that took out all three of them, so you're welcome."
"I'm forever in your debt," Echo deadpanned.
"Can't believe the battle's over already." Fives yawned and settled back on the cot, his painkiller evidently kicking in judging by the way his eyelids drooped.
Echo was surprised as well. It had taken less than twenty-four hours to resecure Colopa's walled capital city. With the royal family in Republic custody and their former Prime Minister taking over the administration, it was the shortest siege so far in Echo's admittedly short military career. He patted Fives on the top of his head. "I'll be back later. I'm supposed to be loading ordinance so we can get off this mudball, not doing Kix's job."
"Kix is currently applying synthskin to burned Ithorian children that were injured in an air strike, but I'll make sure he knows your feelings were hurt because he didn't fix your dislocated shoulder first," Jesse said sardonically, throwing a glare at the two Dominoes.
"Ke'shab, chakaar." Fives waved him off with a tired laugh.
Echo left the medical tent and skirted the edge of the camp, hoping that Sergeant Denal wasn't anywhere nearby to see him late for his duties, but was distracted by an excited roar that came from dozens of troopers. A few meters away from the mess tent, there was a massive ring of troopers in both 501st blue and 104th gray cheering raucously. Echo heard the familiar crack of a back hitting a stack of palm fronds and wondered who was getting pinned now. He pushed his way to the front of the ring and gasped at what he saw.
Commander Tano lay sideways on the ground, pinned with her head between Commander Wolffe from the 104th's knees in a chokehold, vainly trying to unclamp them with both hands. After a few seconds of struggling, she tapped Wolffe on the knee. He let her go with a victorious cackle. "One-one, Commander," he said smarmily, yanking the slight girl to her feet. "Next pin wins."
"Yeah," Commander Tano gasped, rubbing her neck with a wince.
Echo frowned. Was she injured or just sore? And was everyone around them ignorant to the fact that harming a Jedi, even during a spar, was prohibited by regulations and could be considered an act of treason? "General Skywalker won't be pleased to see hands being laid on her like this," Echo said darkly to the shiny on his right.
"She's tougher than she looks." General Skywalker smirked at him from his left and patted him on the shoulder.
"As you say, Sir," Echo said faintly, feeling his cheeks go puce. He hadn't even seen the general, but if he said Commander Tano could handle it, then he would just have to trust him.
In the center of the sparring ring, the two commanders briefly touched foreheads before dropping back into ready stances.
"Get his ass, Snips!" General Skywalker hollered through cupped hands.
Wolffe sent a scowl in General Skywalker's direction, dipped down, and swept at her legs. She flipped over it and popped up behind him. Her leg came up in a high spin kick that caught his brother on the chin; he fell backward, caught himself, and pushed up from the ground in one fluid movement.
"Come and get me, Af'ika," Commander Tano cooed at Wolffe; Echo choked down a laugh.
Wolffe's eyes narrowed to slits; he lunged, only for Commander Tano to post her leg and spring it back, sit under, and toss him over her head in a perfect shebe'an irtaab roll, just like they'd practiced. He landed with an undignified noise and she quickly locked her elbow around his neck.
"Tap," she ordered with a sweet smile. Wolffe struggled for a few more seconds to get out of her sinewy grip, turning redder by the moment, but tapped reluctantly. She let him go with a cackle and jumped to her feet, fists thrust victoriously in the air.
Echo whooped along with the rest of the 501st, feeling his chest swell with pride. She'd learned that move by practicing with him. Even if Captain Rex had been the one to walk her through it, he'd still helped.
His ribs suddenly didn't hurt all that badly.
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