Chapter Text
There was only one thought in the mind of Commander Cody, Marshall Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, as the modified Omicron-class attack shuttle docked with its usual flair in the hangar on board The Negotiator.
Why did this have to be the best option?
They were a full rotation later than he’d hoped for, though the small starfighter magnetised to the clamp on the underside of their ship indicated yet another mission success. Not that any of that would matter.
This was a bad idea. This was a very bad idea. Why was this the best idea that anyone had? And why, why, did Commander Cody have to be the one in charge of brokering it?
Cody tried to hitch a smile onto his face as the ramp lowered, but any attempt at a smile dropped to be replaced by the growing sense of dread reaching new lows in his stomach as the four of them emerged.
Every single one of them was covered in muck.
Nope. Surely there must be another option.
Why was there not another option?
The four members of Clone Force Ninety-Nine reached the bottom of their shuttle and removed their helmets, and Cody felt that pit in his stomach reach rock bottom somewhere in his pelvis. It was clear that with the exception of Tech, they had all at least seen the inside of a sonic, not that this did anything for the smell of… swamp… that still clung to their armour. Tech still had dirt around his eyes where the gap in his helmet for his goggles left exposed skin. Hunter looked tired, not even bothering to smile, fine lines around his eyes and at the bridge of his nose indicating a tension that probably denoted a headache. Cody had either forgotten just how vicious Crosshair’s signature scowl could be or else Crosshair was at an entirely new level of grumpy. Only Wrecker seemed to be anywhere close to his best form, his hair clean and tidy in the regulation style of clones, and Cody knew well enough that when Wrecker was the least objectionable member of the squad, Clone Force Ninety-Nine was not going to make friends with the brass easily.
Which, unfortunately, was exactly what Cody needed them to do.
“You’re late,” Cody said by way of greeting, matching their complete lack of warmth with his own.
Crosshair huffed. “You can blame them.”
Oh good. Crosshair was in a bad mood.
“We were tasked with retrieving an experimental prototype,” Tech said shortly. “We have retrieved it. Things might have gone slightly more to plan if we had appropriated our resources better, as I suggested.” His eyes narrowed dangerously to flick between Hunter and Crosshair.
Even better. Tech was also in a bad mood. An insufferable, know-it-all-and-yet-nobody-listened mood which meant that he was probably going to be matching his brothers’ energy with a litany of ‘I told you so’s. Which sounded like it was well underway.
Hunter pinched the bridge of his nose. “Stow it, Tech.”
“You only have yourself to blame for the onset of your migraine. I did warn you that ion cannons, modified, experimental, or otherwise, would exacerbate your senses-”
“And you’re making the migraine worse, so stow it, Tech.”
Oh perfect. Hunter had a migraine.
“I’m sure I’ll read all about it in your report,” Cody said, only a hint of sarcasm as he glanced at Hunter. “In the meantime, you need to come with me. You’re late for a mission briefing.”
“Already?” Wrecker asked, falling into step behind Cody as he led the way down the corridor. “We just got here.”
“If you wish for Crosshair’s mood to improve, I would suggest leaving him here to catch up on sleep while we attend the briefing-”
“I was in that karking tree for four rotations!”
“Of a moon with a shorter rotation cycle than galactic standard, so as I mentioned, it was probably closer to two and a half-”
“With no sleep!”
“A predicament that you volunteered for,” Tech finished shortly. “And I’m sure you dozed, and given that you slept the entire flight back, I fail to see why you are still being quite so insufferable.”
“Six hours is not the same as four-”
“-Two and a half-”
“-rotations-”
“Enough!”
Stars help him, Cody would quite happily send them to the brig if they were not literally his only option. The pit in his stomach that had reached rock bottom started digging.
“You are soldiers!” Cody hissed as he wheeled around to face them. “You represent the Grand Army of the Republic, so, deviant or defective as you call yourselves, try and have some discipline!”
Cody rarely needed to read anyone the riot act. Respected enough in the GAR for his rank and with a reputation that preceded him, he almost never needed to lose his temper. He had worked with General Kenobi long enough to know how to conjure discipline with nothing more than a tone slightly firmer than usual, and had worked in tandem with General Skywalker to judge when to bother and when to let it go. Such outbursts were reserved only for the most unruly shinies who had not encountered his reputation, and were usually met by the shinies standing bolt-upright and, in at least one occasion, a loss of bladder control.
However, these were no ordinary shinies. The self-christened Bad Batch did manage to shut up, but mostly looked surprised rather than appropriately chagrined with a small dose of the fear of whatever deity they’d decided to stay on the right side of. Cody felt himself deflating slightly at the lack of his own surprise at their reaction as Hunter simply favoured Cody with an incredulous smile.
“‘Discipline’?” Hunter echoed, as though the word was normally entirely foreign to a group of shiny commandos when talking to one of the most senior ranking officers in the GAR. Though, then again, perhaps part of that was on Cody for expecting such a thing.
Cody shot him a look that he hoped communicated how serious he was being. “Yes, Sergeant. Get your men in line. And… and… really?” He couldn’t quite stop himself as he looked them all over pointedly. “You couldn’t have bothered to clean your armour at any point on your six-hour flight?”
He saw the four of them exchanging a look as he turned around, but tried not to care too much as footsteps resumed behind him.
“Not arguing with you that they were out of line, but – late? Discipline? Clean armour?” Hunter dared to put a hand on Cody’s arm to stop him. “What’s this about, Cody? What’s going on?”
Cody sighed as he let himself be stopped. “Your next mission involves working with a Jedi,” he said. “And he’s one of the most by-the-book Generals in the GAR. He’s not going to react well to you being… well…”
“…us?” Wrecker supplied.
Cody favoured him with a rue smile and a slight nod. “So, at the very least… just try to… at least pretend… to be professional…”
He turned around and began leading the way again.
“Sir, yes, sir,” Crosshair muttered sarcastically as the footsteps behind him continued. Cody pretended not to hear.
Cody led them through the bustling hallways as the silence behind him grew tenser and tenser. The elite squad that it was Cody’s curse to bring into this mission finally seemed to understand that, on this rare occasion, their first impressions, tainted as they would be by tardiness and swamp muck, did in fact matter. Cody finally stopped at a door and keyed in a code, taking a deep breath before he pressed the button to open the door.
The command centre housed a central console that would project a hologram amongst other things. The back wall was lined with wall-mounted screens and panels that would make the most ardent slicer salivate, if the most ardent slicer Cody had ever known wasn’t directly behind him and thoroughly un-prone to salivation. General Kenobi stood at the central console, looking over a map projected between him and the only other occupant of the room, a Besalisk with a deep voice and two lightsabres clipped to his belt. Cody led the four commandos into the command centre, letting the door shut with a hiss that felt like a prison cell as he attempted to school his face into the expression of a plain ration bar.
“General Krell, allow me to introduce you to Clone Force Ninety-Nine. Hunter, Wrecker, Tech, Crosshair, this is General Pong Krell.”
His forewarning of what to expect had done enough good that the four of them stood to attention as Krell surveyed them. Cody exercised all his wisdom of battle and war command to bravely stand to the side of the room and attempt to blend in with the grey wall.
“We were expecting you yesterday, Sergeant,” Krell said. He came to stand close enough to Hunter that Hunter had to look up to meet his eyes.
“Yes sir,” Hunter said, his voice mercifully neutral. “Our extraction from our previous mission took longer than anticipated.”
This might have appeased Krell if Crosshair’s expression hadn’t twisted slightly into an unimpressed look.
“Indeed?” Krell’s eyes swept over to land on Crosshair. “And whose fault would that be?”
Krell took a step to the side to stand in front of Crosshair as his eyes swept over the other commandos still standing to attention. Cody could only thank the Force that none of the others were stupid enough to open their smart mouths. Nobody needed Tech’s superior arrogance at this juncture, or worse, Crosshair.
“I thought this was a briefing on an upcoming mission?” Hunter let his eyes follow Krell. “Not a debrief on our previous one.”
“Before I brief you, I need to know whether you’re the right people for this mission,” Krell said coolly. “This needs precision. Discipline. The mission will only work if we follow the plan exactly. From what I hear… these are not things your squad excels at.”
Cody internally cursed himself as his mouth opened of its own volition.
“They’re the right team, sir,” he said. “Considering your plan, there isn’t a squad in the GAR better suited.”
Krell looked over at Cody. As long as nobody from Clone Force Ninety-Nine opened their mouth until Krell finished explaining the mission, Cody had nothing to fear. Krell was not about to draw his lightsabre on Hunter and the others in the briefing room. Cody reminded himself of this fact as Krell’s eyes bore into him before sweeping back over to meet Hunter’s. Hunter cocked his head slightly at the Besalisk.
“A standard week ago, an intelligence operative went missing,” Krell turned away from the clones and swept back to the central console. “Officer Bragg. She was deep undercover when we lost contact with her. We received word four rotations ago that she had been captured, and is currently imprisoned by Separatist forces in a compound on Obar Major.”
At this, Krell loaded up a map of a star system, centring in on a planet that was highlighted in red. Tech tilted his head as he broke ranks and stepped forward, squinting at the map.
“Obar Major? I was not even aware that there was a planet there.”
“Neither were we,” General Kenobi spoke up for the first time since the briefing started. “Let alone that the Separatists had a base there. However, the source of this intelligence is undeniable.”
“And extremely classified,” Krell continued. “As the Separatists have their spies and agents, so too do we. The source of this data on Officer Bragg’s whereabouts is one such double agent. They have been invaluable in securing many victories for us, and the intelligence that they have passed on to us has formed the foundation of many of our current and future strategies across many fronts. Protecting the source of that intelligence is of paramount importance, because if the Separatists discover the source…”
“Our strategy across the entire war falls apart and we end up back at square one,” Cody finished.
Wrecker tilted his head. “Ok, so we need to recover this Bragg without revealing the source of our intel?”
General Kenobi exhaled. “It is slightly more than that,” he said. “The prison on Obar Major’s existence is so clandestine that only a handful of people within the Separatist forces know about it.”
“…So any hint that we know about it will tip off the Seppies that there’s a leak,” Hunter finished.
“Precisely,” Kenobi smiled. “We need to recover Officer Bragg without letting on that we were ever even on the planet.”
“We need to make it look like she escaped on her own, I presume?” Tech said.
Cody couldn’t help but begrudgingly admire how Tech could get to the meat of the problem in no time at all. Cody nodded at him.
“So it’s a stealth mission?” Hunter asked, an eyebrow raising. But it was Crosshair who spelled out the ultimate reason why Cody had called in Clone Force Ninety-Nine.
“With no extraction?”
It took all of Cody’s professional discipline not to wince as he nodded at the four commandos.
“Given the nature of the planet’s secrecy, we have limited intelligence on the planet’s surface,” General Kenobi said. “You will, I’m afraid, be going in blind.”
Hunter gave them a self-assured smirk. “That won’t be a problem.”
Kenobi spared Hunter’s cocky grin a wry smile of his own. “Yes, Commander Cody did assure me of this when he briefed us on your full abilities. However, what your enhanced senses may find more of a challenge is that we similarly do not have any information at all on the prison’s defences. Given the potential danger you may face, and his position as Officer Bragg’s superior, which gives him familiarity with the intelligence she has, General Krell will accompany you. However, a bigger group may end up getting compromised, so we are faced with a trade-off between keeping the group as small as possible while also ensuring you have enough support to pull this off. As such, it will just be the five of you.”
“That’s all we need!” Wrecker grinned. Crosshair shot him a withering look.
“We will do an orbital jump to the planet’s surface,” Krell said. “To get much closer in a shuttle would risk compromising our presence. From there, we will find the prison, ascertain its defences, find Officer Bragg, steal a transport and escape using it.”
“It is also worth noting that after we have recovered her, the Separatists will know that we know about this prison,” General Kenobi explained, “as we are giving the impression that she has escaped and immediately reported back to us. Therefore, any data you can recover from the base, be it about the prison or anything else on this planet, would be extremely valuable to have after her escape, as use of that data will no longer compromise our source.”
“And who is this source who told us about the planet?” Crosshair’s eyes narrowed at Krell.
Really, Cody should have been impressed it took Crosshair as long as it did to bring that up.
“That is none of your concern, CT-Nine-Nine-Zero-Four,” Krell drew himself up to his full height. “Neither is the intelligence that Officer Bragg has for me.”
Cody closed his eyes in the only motion he could give that betrayed his internal wince as the four commandos immediately looked straight at Krell. Cody could see the slightest flash of warning in Crosshair’s eyes as they narrowed to meet the yellow of the Besalisk’s.
“Oh, isn’t it?”
And just like that, Clone Force Ninety-Nine closed ranks.
“You want us to risk our lives, but you won’t let us ask what for?” Hunter’s tone also had a hint of a warning.
“That is most unusual,” Tech joined in. “To expect us to simply ‘not ask questions’-”
“I expect you to understand your place in the chain of command,” Krell rounded on Tech, causing Wrecker to draw himself up to his full height and position himself over Tech’s shoulder. “And if Clone Commander Twenty-Two Twenty-Four is to be believed, you were engineered for intelligence, which means that you at least should understand the meaning of the words ‘classified’ and ‘compartmentalisation’.” Krell’s eyes swept back to Crosshair. “Perhaps you can explain them to the rest of your squad.”
Tech tilted his head slightly, his eyes narrowing behind his goggles. He looked to open his mouth, but a warning glance from Hunter stopped him as Krell stepped back towards the hologram and faced them all.
“Officer Bragg’s mission is a need-to-know operation,” Krell said. “At this juncture, you have no need to know. All you need to do is get her intelligence out. Therefore, I expect you to exercise the discipline of soldiers and follow your orders. We move out at twenty-one-hundred.”
The four of them exchanged a barely perceptible glance before, in a moment of disciplined synchronisation that Cody had never seen or even believed possible from them, they snapped to attention once again with a salute, faces stony and displeasure in their eyes as they echoed Crosshair’s earlier remark to Cody.
“Sir, yes, sir.”
Krell surveyed them all with a strange look in his eye as they held their salute, but all of them kept their eyes up at the middle distance, not acknowledging him. A single eyebrow raised on Krell’s face as Cody watched the standoff unfold.
Krell finally folded. “Dismissed.”
As one, their salutes dropped and the four of them filed out of the room, but Cody felt his back straighten as Krell’s eyes swept over to him, instinctively pulling his body to attention.
“They do not seem to be comfortable with the chain of command,” Krell observed, a sneer creeping into his voice.
Well, that was one way to put it. “No, sir.”
Krell looked back to the door that Clone Force Ninety-Nine had just marched out of with the most military discipline Cody had ever seen from them. The silence stretched. Cody could practically see Krell’s doubts spelled out across his face. He didn’t dare look at General Kenobi, terrified that he might see Krell’s doubts reflected there – or worse, Cody’s own.
Cody broke first. “They will get the job done, sir.”
Krell glowered at the door a beat longer before letting out a soft ‘hmph’. He looked back at Kenobi.
“General Kenobi,” he offered a nod as a farewell and followed Clone Force Ninety-Nine out of the door.
As the door hissed shut behind him, the tension broke as Cody was at last alone with his commanding officer, his part in this mission, for better or for worse, complete. It would seem that he was not alone in his relief, the only other occupant breathing out a sigh as he angled his gaze to Cody.
“…Well,” General Kenobi said, his eyes dancing with a humour that barely covered the incredulous anxiety beneath. “This should be interesting.”
Cody finally approached the console, giving the map a once-over before shutting it off and turning to look at the door. He felt General Kenobi come up beside him, felt him lean back against the console in the most relaxed posture Cody had seen him adopt since the briefing began, arms folded in front of him.
“How will they get on together, do you think?” Kenobi asked, light tone belying the anxiety they both felt.
Cody felt that pit in his stomach that had found rock bottom and started to dig find new lows with a drill. He could not deny that Clone Force Ninety-Nine was the best group for the job. He could not deny that they would need a Jedi with them to succeed. He could not deny that Krell needed to go on this mission to recover the intel. He could not deny that the group could not be any bigger than the five of them. And he could not deny that of all the assets within the GAR, General Pong Krell and Clone Force Ninety-Nine were the least compatible forces to work together. Whether a success or a failure, Cody knew that this was going to be… spectacular.
“I’m trying very hard not to think about it, sir.”