Chapter Text
Commander Iron fought the urge to sigh as he entered the hanger. Watching his men in a flurry of light green run around the hangar preparing for the New General’s arrival.
After a failed campaign on Hypori where his Jedi General had lost his life. Along with half of his very good men, Iron was displeased and skeptical of Jedi help. He and his men had gone a plenty of rotations without a Jedi General, and in his opinion they’ve been doing just fine. If a Jedi Master got himself killed in minutes against Grievous, what is to say a new Jedi Knight can do any better for them? Iron doesn’t necessarily understand much of the Jedi, but all he’s gotten from his former Jedi is that they work themselves to death until they’re vulnerable, don’t emotionally regulate, and have odd traditions. Last General had their head medic in a constant frenzy, poor Rocker had to keep sedatives on hand to knock out the general when needed. The last Jetti was a liability and Iron doesn’t need another one.
He stifles his sigh and approaches his Captain, already waiting with a long line of his brothers. Observing how some of them are nervous, others excited, some still stoic. By most he feels the apprehension in the artificial air. He’s spent lots of his life watching his brothers in their armor, he knows how they’re feeling even when they’re wearing their buckets. He knows by this point plenty of them have developed lots of different opinions of the Jedi, some bad, some good, some neutral. He only hopes this Jetti proves him wrong in his skepticism. He wants his men to be hopeful.
Iron watches the Jedi shuttle come into view, its haul approaching the hanger. He can’t help but shudder, this is going to be very good or very bad for his men.
“Think this one will have a double bladed saber?” Iron already knows exactly who’s asking the question.
“Shut it Captain.” He can hear Captain Falcon chuckle under his breath at how uptight the he’s being.
“Lighten up Commander, I got a good feeling about this one.” His Captain surely was the optimist of their dynamic.
“Quiet up or I’m sending you with Nylox and Lucan on our next mission and then you’ll have some real fun.” The tone of his threat gets the Captain to shut up, putting those two in the same squad during a mission is genuinely asking for several unwanted bombs to go off. Literally. They almost detonated a gunship during a clean up assignment.
Everyone in the hangar stiffens as the ship lands and the landing ramp extends. Command hadn’t given much of a description or details of their new General, just that he was of a humanoid species and his name was Áillon Hassi, which took the commander hours to successfully pronounce after lots of practice.
His men snap at attention once they hear boots coming down the ramp, Iron stares as he watches a tan human looking man no older than 20 walks down the ramp. He’s taken aback by how young the man is, sure he was only 12 but he was just a clone.
His robes are interesting, the Jedi tan tunic is lighter than usual. What truly interests the commander is how blue he is though. The Jedi has tattoos on his face, two light blue dots sitting above his lip and a line of blue separating the middle of his lip, three differently sized rectangles above his right eyebrow, and two symbols he doesn’t quite understand on both of his cheeks. Iron assumes it’s cultural. His hair is blonde and wavy but light blue stripes are on his bangs. His eyes match that same shade. It’s very evident what color his culture idolizes.
“Woah he’s tall.” Iron wants to admonish Falcon for talking again but the Captain is right. The New general is taller than the clones by a significant amount.
The Commander taps the Captain when they catch sight of the Admiral, motioning they join him in greeting the general. They approach the man, and all Iron can notice as first is how nervous the blonde looks.
“General Hassi. It is a pleasure to welcome you aboard the Ranger and to the 424th legion. I have much to attend to but I welcome you to your new ship, your clone commander and captain will answer any questions you have.” The admiral greets the general first in a respectful tone, but Iron can hear the haste and it frustrates him how quick the admiral is to dump the Jedi onto him and Falcon. Yet before he can say anything the Admiral is gone and he’s left with his new blue giant Jetti.
“General Hassi. Pleasure to meet you Sir. I’m CC-3027 and this is my Captain CT-3107, we welcome you aboard the Ranger sir.” Iron talks in strict professionalism and at attention but through a glance through his visor he can tell the general is displeased.
“At ease.” Both him and Falcon relax, Falcon removing his bucket before Iron can stop him “These.. formalities are unnecessary. It’s nice to meet you two. What are your names?” Iron watches him try to find the right words, he cannot tell anymore if it’s discomfort or nerves making his new General this way.
“CC-“
“No commander. Your names.” This in turn makes him the uncomfortable one, names were something the long necks punished you for, and although they were more free under their last general, they hadn’t invested in actually asking them things like these.
“I’m Captain Falcon Sir. This is Commander Iron.” So help him if Iron could slap his Vod’ika right now he would. He already knows there’s a bantha-shit eating grin under that helmet.
He watches the General do that weird Jedi thing where they close their eyes and act like they’re feeling something. If they actually do feel something or not, it is not up to him to determine but it makes him nervous. He hopes the General cannot sense his anger and caution.
Instead the blue-eyed man smiles, “Nice to meet you Captain Falcon and Commander Irer- EyeR- I mean Ireye- Ire?” In all his days of life, did he ever imagine a Jedi would fumble in pronouncing a name, and boy does it only agitate the Commander more. He steps on Falcon's boot when he hears the man laugh.
Iron can clearly hear the Jetti’s thick accent and heavy voice, which gives just a bit of the Commanders forgiveness but not all of it.
“Ire works Sir.” He provides a simpler to pronounce option, he gives it in pity. The General grew up on Coruscant, where everyone speaks Basic, he should be able to pronounce simple vowels commonly used in Basic-
“Ire. I am so sorry Commander. I have trouble pronouncing some things in Basic. I didn’t grow up speaking the language and it took the temple several years to teach me because my home language is difficult to translate. I usually have time to practice difficult words but as you see I didn’t have any this time. I promise to fix my pronunciation in no time.” Oh. A pit settles in Irons’s stomach as he realizes he judged too quickly. Now refusing to look at the general’s blue eyes. The man seems kind, but kind doesn’t win a war or protect his men.
“It’s alright General, I’m only a clone.” He responds like that on instinct. Because what does forgiveness mean to a man who’s going to die any day now because that’s what he was created to do?
“No Commander, you and your men are more than that. I can feel each and every one of you in the force, and you all glow differently.” His icy blue eyes look bright, and part of it crushes the Commander. Out of all of his conflicted feelings, having a New Jedi, losing the last one, and this war starting to get worse. What happens to bother the Commander the most is that, this boy who is barely a man is going to lose that light in this war. How many of his brothers will die under this man’s command before he dies too?
A smile settles on the General's face but Iron can only help but become stiff and more uncomfortable.
“Would you like to meet the men Sir?” This time the Commander lets his brother lead, the General has thrown him for his credits. Iron can do a lot. He leads, he can create battle tactics under severe time pressure, he can aim at a target in less than a second, carry an injured man on his back while shooting clankers, but the Kaminoans did not train him for this.
One thing Iron can appreciate about his Captain is that he knows how to make troopers relax, and soon enough the General has finished his scheme of somehow meeting as much of the legion as physically possible and Falcon has made it happen. They were all tired, and Falcon needed to supervise some other assignments onboard the Venator. So it was now Iron’s time to take the General to his quarters.
The Jetti frankly freaks him out. He stares, a lot. He never knew blue eyes could be so creepy. He walked side by side with his new superior, keeping a gap between the two.
“I can tell you don’t trust me.” That takes Iron aback, he’s been nothing but professional this whole time.
“Sir. We’re trained and bred to follow orders and obey our superiors-“
“That isn’t what I asked.” That shuts up Iron faster than anything can. He follows protocol and rules, and works with what he can. The last thing he’s looking for is to offend his Jedi General and earn a decommission.
“Sir I..” Iron doesn’t know what to say, but what confuses him more is the amused eyebrow raise the General gives him.
“If we’re going to work together Commander. You need to understand something from me.” Iron straightens, preparing for a speech.
“I respect you.” Iron stops in his tracks, taking his bucket off immediately to check his vision or hearing isn’t fooling him. “You have more experience than me and I am looking to learn from you. I want us to be a team if you’ll allow it. I sense your apprehension in the force, and it’s fair to be careful and protective of your men. You’re fair for that, and I hope to earn your trust one day.” General Hassi gives him that warm smile again and it just leaves Iron in shock. It takes several moments to gather himself. Slowly figuring out his words.
“Sir. Permission to speak freely?”
“Yes.” A spew of confusion and mixed feelings buzz in Iron’s mind. Is this really a Jedi? If so, maybe this won’t be so bad after all.
“It’s not my trust you need to earn. It’s that of my men. I need to trust you’d protect them with your honor before I trust you. It’s no hard feelings sir, but a clone commander has two jobs: defend the republic and defend his men.” He watches the young man nearly jump for joy at his response. Clearly believing he found a breakthrough with the apprehensive Commander.
“I won’t let you down, Ire.” The Jetti promised as they reached his new quarters. Iron puts his light green bucket back on.
“No. Don’t let them down.” He responds, turning and walking back to his quarters. In two rotations they’re reaching another system for a planetary invasion. It’ll be the 424th first mission with their new General.
He finds his Captain at his door, “Let’s see how well Hassi holds his promises.”