Chapter Text
Commander Cody stood alone in Docking Bay G-262, and he was petrified with anxiety.
He was currently holding the unofficial record of Losing Your General. And none of it had been his fault.
First, just after completing his training on Kamino, he had been assigned to Master Vitan; but before he and his (then) company could even be shipped off to their new general, the Jedi had got himself killed by some Seps. Cody had then been sent to Master Windu's troops as a sort of „trainee commander“, to get some real battle experience, and indeed he'd fought his first battle there and even had his first injury, though minor.
But CC-series senior command clones like Cody were by necessity rather few, compared with the regular ones; it took longer to train them and they had some individual genetic fiddling done to them; thus they were a lot more expensive. Therefore the Kaminoans had considered it a waste to give him a lesser post. And General Windu's senior command posts were all filled, at that time. So off Cody was again, assigned to a newly minted general, a Jedi Knight Teri.
He and his new troops had almost reached Coruscant when the death message came through. The blue hologram of the Kaminoan official, Mia Toa, had looked at him reproachfully, shaking her head. „My, my, CC-2224,“ she had said, „You do go through your generals rather quickly, do you not? If you keep this up, soon there will be no Jedi left.“ Cody had stood at attention, shocked to the core, practically shaking in his boots. Surely she cannot blame me? She does blame me!!! It did not even occur to him to protest. The only thing hammering through his head was, please not reconditioning, please not reconditioning...
„I've no idea what to do with you,“ Madam Toa had said dryly. „Let the Jedi Council decide. No doubt they'll inform you. And us. Good luck, CC-2224.“
And so Cody was waiting for his new general, worried that, with his record, he would lose a third one without ever setting eyes on him; worried that, like the Kaminoans, the Jedi would also find him defective somehow and not even bother to send anyone.
Just... Just let me at least see this new Jedi. Let me get him safe onboard the cruiser, with the boys, and I swear, I'll do everything by the book. I swear. He didn't even know whom he should be praying to. Was the „Force“ that Jedi Windu had sometimes mentioned some kind of deity?
He paced for a few minutes, then leaned against the wall under an awning. The armor made sitting on hard surfaces somewhat uncomfortable, so he avoided that. Lying down, on the other hand, wasn't so bad, especially with the kit serving as a head rest. Above, constant traffic sped by in the whine and buzz of sublight engines, but the landing platform itself was, for the moment, quiet and almost deserted, only a cleaning droid was puttering about by the loading racks. A gust of wind was churning up small clouds of dust.
Cody was getting impatient. Nervous, bored, hungry and impatient. He checked his comm to see whether it was still in working order. It was. Why then was there still no message from the Temple? Either give me a general or just tell me to march off back to Kamino. Just stop this endless waiting. It's lunchtime and I want my grub. Idly, he scratched some games of noughts and crosses in the dust. Noughts seemed to be always losing.
His boys in the cruiser up in the orbit were probably having their lunch now. The cruiser itself was dubbed the Negotiator and was brand new and shiny like most of his boys, like almost anything in the GAR. It was ready to take off as soon as the new general was on board, and take the shiny new clones (okay, some not so shiny and not so new, a few who had been on Geonosis even) to their first posting. Their first real posting in this war. Most of them had their armours still undented, their newly painted markings still fresh and unchipped. Orange-yellow for the newly formed elite Attack Battalion, the 212th; Cody was thinking of possibly adopting the colour for his whole new corps. Or what would be his new corps. At present the Attack Battalion was the only unit that was kind-of sort-of approaching a reasonable battle strength, the rest was a patchwork of divisions; several specialized units were still no further than in the planning stage. But new batches of clones were churned out of Kamino facility at regular intervals, and gradually the corps would reach its full complement and fighting power. The 7th Sky Corps.
Sky Corps indeed, Cody snorted. Whoever came up with these names? He hoped it was not named after that crazy Jedi boy from the battle on Geonosis, Skyflyer or whatshisname... Ah, yes, walker. Skywalker. The one that, they said, had first started the farce that had been the „rescue mission“. Some rescue, indeed. Cody had not participated there, but he had heard a thing or two about how the glorious, lightsaber-wielding Jedi had, wide-eyed and unaware, walked into a droid trap and got killed by the hundreds. Battle-naive and untrained, the lot of them. Didn’t have the least idea of proper tactics or battle planning. And then, what do you know, the di’kuts would be placed at the head of perfectly good clone troops. Shabla Jedi. And Skywalker the worst of them.
Thanks to an ARC brother named Kee, a veteran of Geonosis, any cadet on Kamino now knew the antics of the Jedi on Geonosis. Kee had scripted a strategy holo-game of sorts, based on the events, and copies of it had spread like wildfire first through all commissioned troops and from there also through cadet barracks and training facilities. In the game, „Jumper“ – who was said to be Skywalker – was one of the strongest pieces but one of the most difficult to keep alive.
Cody shook his head bitterly, wondering if it would be just his luck to be saddled with the Great Jumping Skywalker himself.
He hoped not.
On the other hand, with Cody's luck, Skywalker would get himself blown out of the sky before he even reached the docking bay.
He certainly hoped not. The Kaminoans would never, ever, let him get away with getting the Jedi poster boy killed. Even if Cody had absolutely nothing to do with that. He had just experienced exactly how much that counted with the Kaminoans.
He tried to remember the names and faces of some of the Jedi Masters that had been mentioned in their training. If he had a choice, whom would he pick? What were they like in life, as persons? Would they view clones as expendable cannon fodder? Or would they be open to tactical suggestions from some of the more experienced clone officers? His brief stint with Windu's troops had not given him much experience to draw from, except perhaps that the Jedi were somewhat standoffish.
Hey, perhaps he'd get a female Jedi? There were some who looked passably pretty, he knew. Would be nice to have someone pleasant to look at. Would be a shame to get a pretty female Jedi killed. He didn’t think he had personally met more than three or four females in his whole life. Yes, a female would be exciting.
On the other hand, with his luck, it would more likely be a Dug or Gamorrean. Perhaps better so.
Cody’s stomach grumbled. He thought with some envy on his boys up on the Negotiator. Lunchtime. Standard clone grub, most probably, but still, it filled – and if you were lucky, it was warm, or at least lukewarm. Now where the fierfek was that stupid General? Eating, probably. Some fancy Alderaanian nipdibbles. Keeping his (or her – please please, let it be her) perfectly good Commander here baking in the sun, hungry. Didn't promise much for their future relationship, did it.
As if in response to his thought, a gunship departed from one of the busy skylanes and arched down towards the landing platform. Cody got to his feet slowly, dusted his armour and picked up his bucket. Okay, here goes nothing. If the ship doesn't blow up on landing... By the book, Cody, by the book.
The figure who emerged was a human male (I just knew it. Oh well... At least not a Gamorrean). „Hello, soldier. You must be waiting for me.“
Cody saluted smartly. „Yes, sir!“
„Well, then. Hop on, and we'll be on our way. I am Obi-Wan Kenobi,“ he continued as their gunship lifted away smoothly.
So, that was to be his Jedi. Kenobi. And the ship hadn't blown up yet. So far, so good.
Cody had recognised him, of course. The face was plastered all over the holonews. Close up, Cody could also see that Kee had done a pretty good job on the figure of „Master“ in his hologame – there was a definite visual similarity. Youngish – not that Cody was very good at estimating human age – anyway, he seemed a lot younger than most of the training sergeants on Kamino. A neat beard and shoulder-length blond hair and the ubiquitous brown billowing cloak that in Cody's opinion was as ridiculous as it was risky. And, naturally, a shiny little lightsaber that was dangling on his belt.
By the book, Cody. „Sir! Clone Marshal Commander CC-2224, reporting for duty, sir.“
„Pleased to meet you,“ Kenobi said, „though I’d rather call you by your name.“
„Sir?“
„I was given to understand that you also have names, CC-224…“
„2224,“ Cody automatically corrected.
„See. Think of me as numerically challenged. I’d like to call you by your name, if you’ll allow me, Commander.“
„Er. Sir.“ Cody hesitated. By the book did not include names. Names were not official. On Kamino, names were for friends, and not so many cadets had named themselves on Kamino back when he was growing. In the army, brothers did call each other by names, rather than numbers, but that was because they were all brothers in arms. No Kaminoan official had ever called him by name; no non-Kaminoan official had ever called him anything at all, and in Jedi Windu's troops they were mostly „soldier“ or „commander“. No official documentation anywhere contained any mention of a clone trooper commander „Cody“.
On the other hand, was there actually any regulation against letting a general use your name? As long as you didn’t fail to answer?
Oh well. So much for „by the book“. „Cody, sir,“ he said after some hesitation. „My name is Cody.“
„Cody, then.“ And Kenobi flashed him another of his brilliant, white-toothed smiles. A dangerous smile, in its charm. A „got what I wanted“ smile. Cody felt for the first time that, with this Jedi, he might now and then find himself in uncharted territory.