Chapter Text
CHAPTER 1:
The mission had started well enough.
Rex looked at Cody. He was bent over the maps, as though staring at them hard enough might somehow change their current predicament.
The first few days had been conclusive, and their success had given them that false sense of definitive victory. They had secured their position quickly, pushing the Separatist army back with ease.
Too easily, now that he thought about it… which had brought them to their current situation.
The first Separatist positions had fallen quickly. A corridor had been opened, casualties had remained low, and for a few hours everything had suggested the operation would be over in a day.
It had now been four days that the 501st and the 212th had been facing the same defensive line.
The line held.
So did they.
But no one was advancing.
And no one was retreating.
They weren't losing, but they weren't winning either… they were containing the enemy, but the enemy was containing them just as effectively.
And the days kept passing. The men were sleeping less, and guard rotations were becoming harder.
Ammunition had to be rationed.
The wounded were piling up.
The same positions were being bombarded.
The same attempts were being repeated, for minimal results.
They were getting bogged down, and Cody was becoming irritable…
Their respective Jedi were assigned to another position and were waiting for their own objectives to be secured before they could advance any farther. Taking this point was critical to the army's advance…
He sighed. They had launched so many reconnaissance missions that the maps had become almost useless. They knew every corner of the territory.
The south was too heavily fortified to send units in without putting their own lines at risk.
And the east was definitely a trap he was tempted to throw himself into, if only to have the feeling that he was doing something.
They had tried by air, but that too had been a complete failure. Enemy turrets covered the city. They were manned by an army of droids that, unlike his men, had no need for rest or motivation.
“They're no longer trying to push us back,” Cody commented, pulling him from his thoughts.
“No,” he admitted bitterly.
“They want us to stay here,” he continued.
“Objective achieved…”
There was a moment of silence between them. Cody gave the map one last look before gathering all the data into a single file. Rex frowned.
“They're sending us reinforcements,” his friend continued, understanding his silent question. “Knowing her, those are the first details she'll ask for. No point wasting time…”
“Who?” he asked.
“Prime.”
The name vaguely echoed in his mind. He knew General Prime.
Who didn't?
At least by name. They had crossed paths before, but their only interactions had amounted to a cordial greeting. He sometimes heard about her at GAR headquarters. The clones seemed to hold her in high regard.
“You've never worked with her before, have you?” Cody asked.
“Not yet,” Rex admitted.
“She does good work,” the Commander concluded before getting to his feet, Datapad and helmet tucked under his arm.
__________________________________________________________
His first impression proved mixed.
Alep Prime was dirty…
Covered in dust, grime, grease and blood. Her heavy field boots and tactical trousers were stained with mud and some substance he didn't even want to try identifying. He stood there for a moment as she climbed down from the LAAT. Behind her came a teenager who seemed to have grown too quickly.
A Padawan… Wonderful.
The closer she came, the clearer her face became.
She had the look of someone who never got enough sleep. Heavy dark circles surrounded her green, bloodshot eyes, confirming his first assumption.
The Jedi's hair had been pulled into a high ponytail, probably in a hurry. It had an awful texture… He remembered it being white, or perhaps he'd imagined it that way, because at that moment he could see anything but white, more of a yellowish tinge…
The woman might have been beautiful if she didn't look like a wreck.
His gaze shifted to the Padawan, who was more presentable and stood straight. His uniform, though dusty, was immaculate. It took Rex a moment to place the boy's origins: a Zabrak.
He had the athletic build of someone who maintained his body every day. Rex noticed the intricate tattoos that covered his blue skin. They circled his face and framed his deep yellow eyes.
Quite a pair, this Jedi and Padawan…
“Cody!” she smiled as she reached them, the scar marking her lip distorted its line.
“Alep,” he replied, taking the hand she offered before pulling her into a brief embrace, then turning to the teenager. “Ha’Pra, good to see you both. This is Captain Rex.”
He straightened and saluted.
“General.”
“Captain,” she replied in the same tone, already taking the Datapad Cody was handing her. “What frequency are you on?”
“54.2.63,” he answered.
She gave him a thumbs-up before switching the frequency on her Comlink. She turned it on and listened to the communications for a moment, focused. Then she returned her attention to the data Cody had just given her, the communication channel still open.
Rex frowned.
“How long have you been stalled? No one thought it important to let me know before pulling me out of my little paradise.”
“Four days.”
She remained silent, going through the data on the Datapad, the channel still open.
“Okay, nothing is completely locked down yet, then, but we shouldn't let this drag on any longer,” she announced. “Cody, have Sector 3 fall back. There's no point forcing it.”
Cody nodded and immediately turned away to relay the order. Alep went through the different sector positions before looking up at him.
“Situation report?”
“Two companies from the 501st, three from the 212th. One hundred and thirty-five men available. Seventeen confirmed casualties, six evacuated. Main line stable for four hours. Two attempts from the north, one from the south. Three armored units active, one immobilized,” Rex reported methodically.
“The immobilized one?”
She raised an eyebrow, a small smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.
“Mine.”
“Type?”
“Proximity.”
“All right.”
A silence settled while she showed something on the Datapad to her Padawan. The young man nodded before pointing something else out to her.
“No,” she sighed, gently pushing him back with one hand against his blue face, making him grimace.
She closed the Datapad and turned her attention back to Rex. She gestured for him to lead the way.
“After you, Captain. I'd like to take a look at the terrain maps.”
He nodded and started moving, Alep letting him walk ahead. He still wasn't quite sure what to make of her. She didn't look lost, which was something.
They walked in silence to the command center, the men they passed saluting them.
They reached the cave that served as their command center. The cavern was wide, with a high ceiling from which cables hung everywhere.
In one corner, the holographic table was covered with Datapads of every kind. A blaster had been abandoned on a supply crate, a heavy weapon on an ammunition crate…
Clones moved everywhere. Some were sitting on the floor, while others were telling filthy jokes farther away. The stale smell of gunpowder and sweat filled the place.
“Feels like home,” the General commented as she headed for the holotable.
She methodically cleared the table, placing the Datapads on a crate beside it before activating the display.
The terrain map appeared. Cody and he had spent hours staring at it as though a miracle solution might suddenly appear. A flash of irritation returned. They had turned the problem over in every direction they could, searching for an opening that might not even exist.
He removed his helmet and tucked it under his arm.
“Well… nice to meet you, Captain,” she drawled, a smile in her eyes as she moved around the table. She opened one map after another: terrain data, enemy positions, aerial navigation routes…
Rex frowned, perplexed. He wasn't sure whether to take the remark as a joke or a simple statement of fact. He chose not to answer and watched her a little more closely.
She hadn't asked a single concrete question about their operations yet.
Alep, however, seemed to know exactly what to look for. Her fingers moved through the different layers of the holomap with the quiet confidence of someone who knew her subject well.
“All right. Now tell me. What have you tried so far?”
Finally… He looked at her, then at the table where all the information they had gathered so far was spread out before her, then back at the Jedi.
She had leaned against the table, her back to the data, waiting for his answer.
“Don't you want to wait for Commander Cody?” he asked in return.
“depends,” she smiled. “Is Cody in a position to be more useful than you?”
The question caught him off guard. He wasn't offended, but he found it strangely direct.
He glanced toward the cave entrance. Cody was no longer in sight since she'd sent him to relay her order to Sector 3.
He straightened.
No. Cody and he had been working together since the beginning of the operation. Whatever one knew, the other knew too.
“No,” he finally answered.
“Good. Have you tried going through the north?” she asked, turning back to the table.
“Twice, General.”
“And the south?”
“Same result.”
She nodded without taking her eyes off the holomap.
“All right.”
Then she fell silent again.
The silence dragged on. Rex caught himself shifting his weight several times, uncomfortable, while Alep continued scrolling through the maps. He looked around, irritated.
The Padawan was moving among the clones, probably accustomed to his Master's silence. He had struck up a conversation with one of them, but Rex couldn't hear anything from where he stood.
And the silence continued.
He heard laughter in their direction.
“Captain.”
“Yes, General?”
“Unclench your jaw.”
She still had her back to him, but he could see a small smile tugging at one cheek.
“How many men do you have available?” she asked more seriously.
“One hundred and thirty-five, General.”
“How many can be committed without weakening your current line?”
“About sixty.”
“All right,” she concluded more softly. “The margin for error is smaller than expected, then…”
She wasn't really trying to find out how many men were available, he realized. She wanted to know what she could afford to risk.
Or at least, he hoped so…
They had lost enough brothers over the last few days.
“You've tried over the top, the flanks,” she recited. “The underground?”
There was a silence.
“The underground?” he repeated.
“Yes.”
“Under their defenses?”
“That's generally where the ground is, Captain…”
A new map flashed onto the holomap before he could give her a less polite answer.
“Ah, there you are, beautiful…” Alep murmured. “Tell me everything, sweetheart…”
He recognized the underground network around the perimeter. He moved closer, curious.
He knew this map, but Cody and he had dismissed it almost immediately.
The tunnels were too numerous, too complex and too costly to exploit.
He turned toward Alep.
Her eyes were shining, and a broad smile now stretched across her face.
“Do you want to blow up the enemy defensive lines, or the situation?”
Something in her eyes and in the way she asked the question made him shiver almost imperceptibly. Whatever answer he gave, he was certain he wouldn't like the solution…
“I don't like that look,” Cody said, appearing at the cave entrance. “Sector 3 has fallen back. They're on their way here.”
She nodded toward her Comlink, which was still crackling on the frequency in the background.
“Obviously,” the clone smiled as he reached them.
He exchanged a look with Rex.
So he wasn't the only one wary of that look…
The information did not reassure him.
Cody knew Alep very well, apparently. Well enough that their use of the familiar form didn't feel forced. Rex knew from Skywalker that the 212th worked with her regularly. Apparently, his concern wasn't entirely unfounded.
“You don't communicate enough,” she muttered, giving Cody a pointed look. “It's not like I don't say it every time…”
“Everyone can't function the way you do,” he replied, as if out of habit. “Now tell me what brilliant idea you came up with to get that look.”
“What look?”
“The one that usually involves a few explosive charges and total chaos.”
Alep looked at Cody for a moment. There really was still that unsettling glint in her eyes.
Rex waited.
He genuinely had no idea what to think at this point. The Jedi's smile had widened, as though she couldn't quite suppress it.
“You know me so poorly…” she snickered. Then, with perfectly feigned innocence: “But, just out of curiosity… how many charges do you have left?”
Rex closed his eyes.
He had to be cursed. Clearly, the Force—or whatever was up there—was not with him…
“Depends…” Cody replied.
“So, a lot. Noted. Thanks, Commander.”
Rex had a feeling he was going to hate that tone. Not because it was condescending, but because he very clearly felt as though he were being manipulated. A little…
But explosions and harebrained plans? He knew those. Kriff, he worked with Skywalker. It was his everyday life.
He could feel the headache coming, but the adrenaline was coming too.
This was a situation he knew.
The Jedi had just called her Padawan over and was showing him, as well as Cody, the various data on the holomap.
“What do you see here?”
“Knowing you, I should probably look at the tunnels…”
The boy's voice was calm, tired, but controlled.
“Why?”
“It's the one with the fewest annotations. Cody and the Captain certainly studied it, but given their situation, they decided it was too costly an option in terms of resources,” he continued in a very academic tone.
“That's a fact,” Rex cut in, a little too sharply.
“Yes, that's a fact,” the Padawan said with a smile, looking at him without being fazed.
“So?” Alep prompted him.
“So that's where you want to operate. There's no access to the underground network from the Separatist lines.” He pointed toward the besieged city. “But not from our side either…”
Rex stiffened.
There was an entrance.
He exchanged a look with Cody.
“There is an entrance,” he finally said, pointing to a spot on the map. “But it's extremely narrow. It's one to two klicks of crawling on your stomach… assuming there's enough room to cover the entire distance.”
Alep enlarged the point he had indicated.
There was a small crack in the rock opening into a tiny tunnel. The tunnel, however, opened directly onto a larger artery of the network, wider, broader, easier to maneuver through. And, above all, strategically perfect. Directly beneath the city occupied by the enemy.
Well… not directly.
They would have to navigate the labyrinthine maze first, but with enough time and good mapping, it wasn't impossible…
He stopped his train of thought and looked up at Alep.
She was watching him patiently.
And with every passing second, her smile grew wider.
Oh no…
“No,” he said flatly before he could stop himself.
“I haven't even suggested anything yet, Captain.”
He closed his eyes.
So much insolence and sarcasm.
But if she gave the order, there was nothing he could do about it.
“I can see where this is going.”
“You don't even want to listen first?”
“I have a pretty good idea… Tunnels, explosives, explosions… We've already thought about it, but the opening is too narrow. If a man can fit through it, it'll be without his armor or equipment. Certainly not with explosive charges, not to mention there's no exit on the other side.”
He stopped for a moment, grimacing.
He knew this was no way to speak to a superior officer. He glanced at Cody. The Commander was rubbing a hand over his face, wearing an expression of resignation.
“No one said anything about coming out the other side. Your problem is that you see everything horizontally. We have an opening through the underground. Why waste it?”
“Because it's not reasonable,” he argued. “We can't commit many men in there!”
“I don't need more than ten, actually. Ha’Pra and I would be enough, very clearly. The ten are just to speed up placing the charges,” she said with a shrug.
“No,” he repeated, looking her straight in the eyes. “There is no way I'm sending a General in there alone with a child.”
“Rex…” Cody warned softly.
“Yes, Rex,” she repeated mockingly, deliberately stressing his name. “You seem to think my rank prevents me from having any room to maneuver, and I assure you Ha’Pra is probably more experienced than many of your men. And don't take that as an insult. He's my Padawan. If he weren't capable of doing this, I wouldn't suggest it. I know his limits and mine. Yours, on the other hand, interest me a little more.”
There was another silence, which she allowed to linger. He could read nothing in her eyes now except extreme exhaustion. The communication channel was still crackling in the background.
“Sector 6, this is General Prime. Do not engage. Remain under observation,” she communicated.
“Copy! Stand by!”
“Captain,” she resumed.
“General.”
“I know the value of your men, believe me… But can you afford to let this situation become a true containment situation? Because believe me, you won't be done seeing me if it does, and unfortunately I might give you considerably less choice. We're still at the point where something can actually tip the balance, and I'd rather, for everyone's sake, that it tips in our favor. And if we can cause a little damage along the way, all the better,” she added with a smile.
She gave him time to think, but never stopped watching him.
He knew very well that she was right…
He didn't like the idea, but he liked letting his men exhaust themselves against a line they couldn't break through even less. And she was right about one thing: they were beginning to run out of time.
“Under conditions, then,” he finally said.
“He's taken the bait…” Cody sighed to himself, resigned.
“Deal.” Alep held out her hand.
He shook it, already regretting it.
__________________________________________________
Rex wriggled through the passage as best he could. He had had to leave his armor at the entrance, and even stripped of his equipment, the tunnel remained ridiculously narrow.
He knew it was a bad idea. He'd said so.
So why was he now lying flat on his stomach in that same cramped tunnel, following the Padawan, who, on the other hand, moved through it without difficulty?
He swore as he pulled himself forward with the strength of his arms. There was very clearly no turning back.
He thought about the handshake.
He'd been played like a rookie.
Oh, Alep had agreed to almost all his conditions, but she seemed to have calculated those ones already…
He glanced back over his arm.
His eyes landed on the Jedi's radiant face.
“So delighted to have you with us, Captain Rex,” she taunted him with a wink. “Now, if you could look ahead instead of blinding me with your lamp, you'd be a sweetheart.”
“I hate you…” he grumbled, turning back around.
“That'll pass too,” she laughed.
He could hear the groans of the five other clones behind them.
Never again…
This was torture.
He didn't even want to start imagining the return trip.
He thought of Cody, who had wisely stayed behind. Who had let him get himself dragged into this while bargaining with Alep.
Lesson learned…
They crawled like that for what felt like an eternity. Every second was too long. At times, the rocky passage narrowed even further, and every meter became a fear of getting stuck. Every movement drew from reserves that were already badly depleted…
He occasionally turned to keep an eye on his brothers and noticed that Alep did the same. He caught her using the Force a few times to gently free one or two of them when they got stuck.
She moved in silence. Thinner than them, she nevertheless struggled just as much at times. Rex caught her grimacing several times when the rock tightened around them, but she never lost that grin of a kid having far too much fun.
“Artery in sight!” the Padawan announced from ahead. “Give me a moment to secure the anchors to the wall!”
Before Rex's eyes, the boy slipped out of the passage. His boots soon found purchase against the rock, using every uneven surface until he steadied himself in the void of the artery. A bright orange light blinded Rex, accompanied by the unmistakable sound of a lightsaber being activated.
Rex was beginning to understand the Jedi's confidence in her Padawan. He was either extraordinarily competent or completely reckless… But Skywalker had taught him that one wasn't incompatible with the other…
“Ha’Pra, I hope you're not doing what I think you're doing…” Alep warned behind him.
“Mm-hmm!” the teenager replied, as though his mouth were full.
“I'm going to kill that kid, if he doesn't kill himself first…” the Jedi sighed behind him.
The boots disappeared from their field of vision and the Padawan's face appeared at their level. Rex closed his eyes at the same time he heard a second sigh behind him.
Ha’Pra was biting the hilt of his double-bladed lightsaber, using it as a lamp.
“Wait until I get out of here,” the young woman warned.
__________________________________________________
Rex finally reached the ground. From the passage, it was a three-hundred-meter rappel down.
He swept his flashlight around and observed the cavern they were in.
It was enormous, supported by multiple natural columns.
Ha’Pra helped the others descend beside him. One foot against the wall, the other firmly planted on the ground, he looked as though he knew exactly what he was doing.
Rex watched him for a moment, trying to guess his age. He couldn't have been more than seventeen. He was tall, almost as tall as the clones, taller than General Prime…
He wore two sleeveless Jedi tunics layered over one another. The cut revealed surprisingly developed musculature for his age. Rex quickly understood that it wasn't for aesthetics.
The kid was physically powerful.
But then again, he could say the same about the Jedi, who climbed down the wall bare-handed without the slightest difficulty while one of her men used the rope.
It was subtler, but he could see the muscles shifting in much the same way depending on the grip she found. She would sometimes stop beside the descending soldier, caught up in a conversation that seemed to belong only to the two of them.
She jumped the last few meters and landed beside him, set down the bag containing the charges, and rolled her wrists slightly.
He looked at the rope.
Then at her.
Then back at the rope.
Jedi…
He turned away, rolling his eyes. These people really were built differently.
“Oookay, kids! Take a moment to catch your breath once you're all down. We move out in five minutes!”
Rex turned slightly. If the wall was here, then the tunnel they were looking for couldn't be far away.
He pulled out his holomap.
The city was so close… It was almost laughable. While they had been wearing themselves out on the surface pushing back a line, down here they could simply pass underneath it.
He stiffened.
Four days lost, four days losing men over a line they had never needed to breach.
“Captain,” Alep called as she came up beside him.
“Yes, General?”
“Unclench your jaw.”
He looked at her, lowering his head slightly to meet her gaze. She wasn't smiling. She patted him on the back.
The sensation surprised him.
Without his armor, the heat of her hand radiated almost instantly. He had noticed it earlier when they'd shaken hands, but had blamed it on the stuffy air in their HQ.
He frowned and studied her face.
Did she have a fever?
“You did what you could with the most reasonable solutions available to you. You made no mistake,” she told him, looking at the holomap in his hands. “Now, if you don't mind, it's time to go blow up a city.”
___________________________________________________________
Rex took a deep breath of the outside air.
Damn these tunnels, damn this mission, damn the cave, damn the explosives!
The passage had been just as painful on the way back as on the way in. He chose very firmly not to think about it and instead counted the soldiers emerging from that cursed crack.
The five clones came out, followed by Alep, looking contrite.
“Ha’Pra…” she snapped over the comm.
“I took a different route,” the boy's voice crackled through the Comlink.
“I noticed, yes…”
“I forgot.”
“I noticed, yes.”
There was a silence, then Ha’Pra continued, with an insolence that struck him as almost supernatural:
“I took a different route.”
“Little shit…” she sighed, cutting the comm.
She turned to Rex.
“Captain, come get a little higher with me.”
He led her in silence to the observation point.
From there, they had a panoramic view of the line they had been unable to breach for four days, the besieged city, and the Separatist army.
And directly beneath them were four tons of explosives, all meticulously secured to every column of the cavern directly below.
Rex remained silent.
Four tons.
He looked at the enemy line.
Then at the detonator Alep held out to him.
“Cheers, Captain.”
He gave a small smile and pressed the button.
Nothing.
Rex waited.
One second.
Two.
He began to wonder whether the charges had worked when the ground vibrated beneath his boots.
At first it was barely perceptible.
A second later, the enemy line sank a few centimeters.
Then several meters.
Rex straightened abruptly.
The first section of the fortifications disappeared with a deep rumble. The buildings behind the line seemed to lean toward one another before the ground gave way beneath their weight.
“Oh…”
The rest followed.
The earth opened in a succession of collapses, the Separatist defenses toppling into the underground network they had ignored until now.
The turrets disappeared first, dragged down with their platforms.
Then came the walls, the vehicles, the nearest buildings.
Everything seemed to sink rather than collapse.
The city was going down.
Slowly at first, almost silently.
Then faster and faster.
A continuous rumble rose from the valley.
A column of dust rose, gradually obscuring the streets as entire sections of ground gave way in turn.
The defensive lines they had faced for four days were disintegrating before their eyes, swallowed by the network they had discovered only a few hours earlier.
Rex remained motionless.
He watched the city disappear.
Then he looked at the detonator still in his hand.
Four days.
Four days of bombardment.
Four days of reconnaissance.
Four days spent searching for a way through that line.
In the end, they hadn't needed to breach it.
They had simply made it disappear.
Beside him, Alep watched the spectacle with quiet satisfaction.
“That should open up a few possibilities for them.”
Rex slowly turned his head toward her.
He hesitated.
“How long had you been planning that?”
She shrugged.
“Since I saw the maps.”
He looked at the city, which was still collapsing.
________________________________________________________
He watched Alep and Ha’Pra board the LAAT. There was no grand goodbye.
“My own lines are waiting for me!” she simply called before disappearing into the craft.
Cody was beside him. There was a moment of silence, then:
“She smelled, didn't she?”
“That's your imagination, Cody… What are her usual assignments?”
“Containment.”
“Why?”
“She hits hard, but most of all, she hits for a long time…”
“Hmm…”
Silence.
“No. She smelled. You're right.”