Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Tenacity hadn’t formed his own opinion about Alpha-17 yet.

He knew what his ba’vodu’e said about the Alpha class troopers. Ba’vodu Thorn talked about Alpha-54 like he was someone he still respected, mentioning that the Alpha-class trooper often still stayed in contact with him. Ba’vodu Hound said that his often sent him pictures of his massiff that was stationed on Kamino, referring to the Alpha class trooper as Ro’buir multiple times. 

And his buir shared some information about the alpha class trooper that was incharge of his entire upbringing until Priest began pulling him for his own morbid entertainment. Alpha-17 took shit from no one, not from another vod, not from the jetii and sure as hell not from the other trainers or Kaminisii, and Tenacity had gotten that vibe from him when the Alpha appeared in the hangar and greeted them.

Horus sighed a goodbye and a goodluck from the cockpit to him before he left.

Judging by the way that the other ARC candidates were staring at him, Tenacity thought he would need it.

‘Stay impassive’ Buir’s voice reminded him as Alpha-17 led them through the stark, sterile white walls of Kamino towards Beta Dome 2, where their barracks, freshers and training modules would be completed. ‘ An ARC is only readable when he wants to be. I’ve given you an upper hand those di’kutla candidates won’t have, you’re already stronger, but you’ll be better as long as you play to be.’

Fox had come down from the Senate mid shift to see him off, grabbing him by the nape of his neck and pulling him into a mirshmure’cya, holding their helmets together for longer than appropriate for a simple display of affection until Thorn broke them apart. Tenacity almost refused to let him go as he stepped back. It was so hard to leave his buir, to leave his brothers knowing he was going to be on Kamino for six months and he’d be unable to help them.

Fox had whispered a “K’oyacyi ad’ika” that sounded so wrenched that Tenacity almost turned around and got off the laati altogether. Forget ARC training, he couldn’t leave his buir. Knowing that buir wanted this for him though, kept him on the laati as the blast doors of the gunship closed and separated him from his aliit. 

He stewed in silence for the whole flight back to Kamino.

Horus tried to start a few conversations here and there to take his mind off it, but Tenacity was too tense to keep it up. After snapping at the pilot for the third time, they fell back into silence as they travelled. It meant that Tenacity had more time to spend in his head, scrolling through the datapad that Dogma had given him, sliced for long range communication while he was on Kamino.

It meant that he was in silence until he’d gotten out of the gunship and stepped onto the landing pad on Kamino and he wanted to turn back around, his back exposed and his flank left wide open. 

Sithspit what he would’ve given to have some backup. At least the Kaminoan Guard and the Coruscant Guard still kept in contact, and he still had some friends on Kamino that he could find, even if ARC training was meant to stretch them thin and give them little to no time to do anything but pass out in their bunks every night for a 0400 start the very next morning. 

So he didn’t have an opinion about Alpha-17. 

Not yet anyway. 

He’d seen what buir said about Alpha, about the fact that he took no shit, that he was a vod that wanted what was best for the troopers he’d trained, but Tenacity had yet to see the man that supposedly raised his buir into the Commander that he’d become. 

*

Alpha-17 did not have high expectations after skimming through the new set of dossiers he received on his datapad. They were for six new candidates meant for this cycle’s ARC training. Havoc and Hammer had reviewed them before forwarding them to his inbox with their own comments and insights.

A particular file did pique his curiosity, despite everything. One of the candidates, a trooper designated ‘6533’, was from the Coruscant Guard. 

It was a surprise. The last trooper Fox had sent for ARC training was almost a year and a half ago, close to the start of the war. ARC trooper 8849 had graduated with flying colours and returned back to Triple Zero, and Alpha hadn’t heard a word from him once he’d gone back. All of Fox’s candidates had been the same, high scoring troopers who had been respectful, some with a slight chip on their shoulders, all of them comm-silent once they had returned to their posting. 

Alpha supposed that he’d hear if they turned up dead-

A claxon from the hangar bay told him that the trainees were arriving from their respective deployments, some scattered further about the galaxy than others. Alpha looked up from his datapad screen to where they were filing from their respective gunships. The nose art and the paint gave away the battalions.

One from the 104th, two from the 212th who were marked as twins, a lieutenant from the 501st that had a glowing recommendation from Rex, one of Bacara’s marines, and the candidate in red who stood at the doors of his gunship signing to the pilot in the cockpit that was one of Fox’s.

The red paint was striking, a shade more vibrant than Rancor battalion and Hammer’s armour, though Alpha distinctly remembered Fox never liked the colour red and wondered how his oldest felt about his entire battalion being associated with it. Fox’s candidate didn’t move to join the others, instead he stood apart from them, lifting his helmet off of his head.

Alpha didn’t know what to think of him. 

The trooper, 6533, had two rows of teeth tattooed on either cheek, twelve in total on his face. His hair was slicked back with some kind of product, though a loose curl had already escaped at his forehead and more were threatening to escape the ends. He clipped his buy’ce to his belt, just as the rest of the other candidates noticed him, their faces turning sour when they noticed his paint.

6533 didn’t seem bothered; rather he looked as though he was challenging them, puffing his chest and raising his chin. 

He has every bit of Fox in him, Alpha thought to himself, same kind of sabacc face too.

Alpha stepped out to greet them, causing all the chatter between the candidates to die down, and their attention turned to him rather than to 6533.

“Welcome to ARC training.” He said with a sweeping glance over all of them. “Don’t let your heads get too big for your buckets and maybe you’ll survive this.” 

501st’s lieutenant crossed his arms over his chest while the two from the 212th nodded along. The trooper from the 104th just cocked his head to one side while Bacara’s marine gave a sharp nod and straightened his back. Fox’s candidate just stared blankly at him until Alpha nodded.

Now that that was done, Alpha turned on his heel and started walking away, with the sound of only one set of footsteps trailing after him on the durasteel floor of the hangar. A brief glance over his shoulder confirmed that Fox’s candidate was already following him, the other troopers still staring at each other and Alpha's back in confusion.

“Well?” Alpha barked. “Get moving!” 

The others started after him.

Alpha’s gaze lingered on Fox’s candidate for longer than he would’ve liked, the young trooper’s expression was blank and betrayed none of his thoughts. 

Well trained already, he thought. Fox must have already prepared him to some extent for the next three months, given the way he was holding himself together and keeping his expression and emotions unreadable. That being said-

Everything about the candidate and the way they stood screamed Fox.

6533 stared back at him and there was the slightest twitch of his lips.

Alpha looked away, before he started to lead them back to Beta dome 2 where the bunk room would become their home for the next six months. The chatter between candidates started back up again, bordering on cruel as he heard some of them commenting on Fox’s candidate. Alpha knew that there was tension between the Guard and their status as military police and the rest of the GAR, but the whispers were just on the wrong side of vile. 

If he could hear them, then Fox’s candidate could hear them too, yet, Alpha looked at 6533-

It didn’t seem to bother him, so he kept his eyes focused on the hallway in front of him and kept walking.

-

Kamino was just like how Tenacity remembered. Its cold and sterile white walls were often rarely tread after curfew, and when it was busy during active hours, not many troopers stopped to chat with one another. Tenacity kept in pace with Alpha-17, walking with his hands clasped by his back, at the front of a group of troopers as the alpha-class trooper led them towards the dome that would be his home for the next six months.

He could already hear the whispers starting up, specifically from the troopers from the 104th and the 501st. They bounced off of him just like the words from the Senators and civilians did. It was easier to treat their chaaj’vode like outsiders when they behaved exactly like some of the nat-borns that hated them to begin with. 

His buir always told him it wasn’t worth the paperwork to fight, that the only thing worth doing was making sure their vode made it out of the altercation. That he could handle organizing the payback and that whichever nat-born had decided to make their shift hell would pay for it, in Fox’s own way. 

Tenacity could do that here. He could stomach the insults if it meant playing the game that Fox had instructed him to. 

‘ Be better than them.’ He could hear Fox telling him. 

The only one who wasn’t actually staring daggers into his back was the marine, one of Marshal Commander Bacara’s Novas. Tenacity caught his gaze for a second longer than safe, tilting his head to the side when the marine didn’t look away.

“Cipher, Sergeant Major in the Nova Corps. ” The marine introduced himself when he caught Tenacity looking at him. 

“Thirty-three. Lieutenant in the Coruscant Guard.” Tenacity greeted with a light nod of his head, holding his hand out for Cipher to take. 

They gripped each other's forearms for a few seconds, before Cipher broke out into a smile. 

“Little gods I thought I’d be the only one here who was actually friendly.” Cipher said with a sigh of relief. As Tenacity took him in, he noted that Cipher’s eyes looked almost a brownish-slate, incredibly light for a vode. Cipher had a tattoo that cut through his eye, in a fractured style similar to the yirt tattoo Dogma had on his face. 

“The others seem nice enough.” Tenacity pursed his lips as he side-eyed the lieutenant from the 501st. “Some of them anyway.” 

He’d clocked Lieutenant Jesse as soon as he recognized the cog tattoo on the trooper’s head, a striking and incredibly identifying feature. It took them months to get Dogma to open up about how he’d stumbled upon the 501st in 79’s drinking to the supposed death of a vod’kyramud . How Lieutenant Jesse had been the one to make the initial toast, accompanied by an angry ARC trooper Fives and the rest of Torrent who made it off Umbara, heartbroken and battleshaken. It took them a few months longer to convince Dogma that none of them viewed the title of vod’kyramud in the same way the vode on the front did.

Cipher kind of reminded him of his vod’ika, a more confident, battle-scarred version of his vod’ika anyway. 

The ARC training barracks were clean, plain, and most annoyingly, were designed with bunks of two in mind. Tenacity immediately made his way towards the bunk that was closest to the door as Alpha stepped to the side and allowed them to file through. Cipher followed behind him.

“You have an hour to settle and prepare, then I will be back to collect you for your first exercise.” Alpha instructed as the others made their way to their bunks. Alpha waited and stared at them for a brief moment, as though he was waiting to say something else, before he turned on his heel and exited the barracks entirely, leaving the six of them to the quiet of the room.

“Do you want top or bottom?” Cipher asked, breaking the silence that settled over them. 

“Bottom, if you don’t mind?” Tenacity waited to see if Cipher would protest.

Putting himself on the bottom bunk meant it would be easier to react if anyone tried something with him in the middle of the night cycle. It also gave him the added comfort of being able to watch the door and prop himself up against the wall.

“Perfect, my captain never let me have the top bunk.” Cipher shot Tenacity a grin and hauled himself up into the top bunk. 

Being treated like a vod from a non-Guard was almost refreshing.

Tenacity knew that the Marines were cut off from most of the rest of the vode, with only Priority alerts circumventing the constant comm blackout that they were experiencing. 

In a way they were just like the Guard, alone in their part of the galaxy.

He followed Cipher just within the peripheral of his view as the other trooper settled into the top bunk, swinging his legs over the edge of it happily and wondered just how the Marines were keeping it together. 

[...]

EXCERPT  -

CORUSCANT GUARD REGULATION MANUAL

VOLUME TWO: 

2.3: INTER-BATTALION COMMUNICATION - BEHAVIOURAL REGULATIONS

15 ZEL 20BBY

ACCESS LOCATION - KAMINO

<.. Page 3… >

Rule 33: Don’t be the one who throws the first punch.

33a:  Do be the one who ends it. - CT-2123

*This document remains an unofficial Coruscant Guard document developed for the safety of all clone troopers present on Triple Zero under the jurisdiction of the Coruscant Guard. Troopers within the Coruscant Guard are beholden to the rules and advice documented within this Regulation Manual and are expected to follow them in accordance to the expressed expectations from your commanders.

Please report to Quartermaster Grid should you have any questions or concerns.

For clarifications of meaning for each rule, please submit a ticket to #support-tickets-regulations per your internal HUD. 

— CT-6123 

[...]

“Thirty-three. Lieutenant. Coruscant Guard.” Fox’s candidate introduced himself when Alpha prompted him.

He was curiously slicing his way through the GAR’s database to find his file while maintaining eye-contact with the lieutenant. The file he pulled up was interesting to say the least. Originally deployed to the 104th battalion after Abregado had wiped out the entirety of their forces, Thirty-Three had been under Wolffe’s command when a bomb disarmament had gone wrong. He and two others were shipped out to Triple Zero after they reached a stable stage of recovery, an order signed off by both Wolffe and his jetii general.

“Corrie doesn’t even have a name, more droid than vode that one.” Alpha heard 501st’s lieutenant scoff.

Why Fox’s candidate didn’t want to disclose his name to Alpha wasn’t a major concern, nor was it his business. It was his job to teach them and hope they managed to soak it all up by the time they deployed back to their respective postings. He wasn’t to field issues between battalions, those were his batch’s jobs when those troopers returned to their respective commanders. 

Still the kid reminded Alpha of Fox when the latter was still a cadet. 

Fox was the oldest of his batch and certainly acted like it whenever anyone; Kaminisii, trainers or other vode tried to take a potshot at their batch. Perfect scores in every module, gave no reason for anyone to question his ability or his batchers abilities, and he had a fire in his belly that burned so hot that not many cadets bothered to challenge him for anything. 

Alpha’s pride had burned fiercely because of Fox, but it was that brightly burning pride that drew Priest’s attention from his own cadets towards Alpha’s.

He hadn’t noticed at first. 

The breaking curfew, the injuries, little by little Fox began to withdraw and Alpha had, admittedly for a good while, chalked it down to growing pains as the kid hit his sixth cycle. It wasn’t until Rex came to him asking him to help that he realized what was going on.

By then it was too late. Alpha couldn’t interfere and Fox didn’t seem to have an ounce of fear in him, standing tall even when Priest burned with hatred for him, fully intent on breaking Alpha’s oldest ad.

Terrifyingly, Thirty-three had that same fierceness and fire in his belly. It was in the sureness in his steps, the strength within the width of his shoulders. Whoever this kid was, Fox had prepared him well. Alpha felt as though he was faced with another Fox from all those years ago, as Thirty-three was the only trooper that fell into an easy stance with his hands clasped behind his back.

Alpha allowed himself to have a moment of contemplation while the cadets began their first simulation of the day. A simple squad mission just for Alpha to personally seek out their strengths and weaknesses. Already he noticed that Thirty-three moved similarly to Fox when he first completed the same simulations before the war, while Bacara’s marine fell into step beside him in their armour.

The red and white really does match Nova’s shade of purple. Alpha thought distantly as he watched the marine, Cipher, throw his blaster over to Thirty-three when they reached the data terminal they were meant to extract information from. Further up on the training sim, Lieutenant Jesse and the twins from the two-twelve were acting as their front line. The trooper from the 104th was crouched next to them, a datapad balanced on his knee.

It was enough to make him wonder about his own kids completing the sim on their first day at ARC training. The batch of them regularly stayed in contact with him, but interactions generally ramped up if Alpha had one of theirs on Kamino for ARC training. Kote had already contacted him about the twins, while Rex had promised Jesse was more level headed than Fives and Echo had been. Alpha had appreciated the forewarning, and had promised Rex the next time that he saw the blond tubie they would mourn Echo together. 

He saw Bly more often than not, when the 327th detoured past Kamino for resupply.

Ponds marched on but still lived close to Alpha’s heart and Alpha heard more about the jetii than about his own ad from Wolffe when he commed. 

He knew the war was hard on all of them, but he had given them what they needed to survive. 

If comm silence was what Fox needed to survive, then Fox needed to survive. 

It didn’t matter if the last comm he ever had from Fox was almost two years old at that rate. Or that Vio still heard from the oldest of his batch who was also stationed on Coruscant; a blonde that continuously skirted and got away with his non-compliance to hair regulations because Vio stepped in. If Alpha remembered correctly he ended up a Regimental Commander under Fox. 

He opened up the comms app on his tablet, knowing that there would be interest in this cycle’s class when the rest of his batchers heard that Fox sent another candidate.

A-17 | Alpha: <[@A-77 | Fordo] [@A-54 | Vio] [@A-11 | Ro] you should come watch Fox’s candidate>

A-17 | Alpha: <It’s like looking in a kriffing mirror.>

A-54 | Vio: <[@A-17 | Alpha] Thorn did mention they sent someone... on my way>

A-77 | Fordo: <[@A-17 | Alpha] B2 sim dome?>

A-17 | Alpha: <[@A-77 | Fordo] lek.>  

Fox’s command staff passed ARC training with flying colours, even the scrappy lieutenant that had to complete his command modules on Coruscant because of their early deployment to Geonosis. The first ARC that Fox sent was a fireball of a spirit who had barrelled through each test that Alpha put him through with a determined crease in his brow. Something must have been sticking since leaving Kamino if the performance of his latest candidate was anything to go by.

Cipher plugged into the terminal.

Alpha thumbed at the difficulty slider on his pad, never having claimed to have a reputation of going easy on the cadets, and triggered another influx of droids being deployed into the simulation. 

“Three minutes.” 

Alpha heard Cipher call out to thirty three as a set of B2s advanced towards them, just out of sight from the other four candidates behind some of the barriers that Alpha controlled with his pad. 

“You’re fine.” Thirty-three reassured him before he set down one of the blasters, popped out from behind cover to take out one of the B2’s with two shots, before he vaulted over the barrier and pulled a knife for his sheath. Thirty-three moved up to the B2, jammed his knife into the droid’s joints and removed the arms, before he ripped the back panel on the droid’s head open and pulled the memory chip from the processing unit. 

Like he’d done it before.

Alpha had his criticisms, but Thirty-three seemed to take those criticisms with a smile on his face, visible under the visor of the training helmets. It was a different from the unusual reaction troopers gave him, usually cocky and too sure of themselves, responding with anger, pride or disappointment at being reamed out. Thirty-three just smiled and nodded, before taking the correction in stride and threw himself back into the simulation. 

It was so much like how Fox used to behave as a cadet when Alpha corrected him that Alpha couldn’t stop finding similarities when he looked.

Shouting down in the training sim had him lifting his head from the comm, and the blinking cursor of the conversation he was having with his batch, just in time for him to see the trooper from the 104th shoved Thirty-three with both palms to his chest, their formation broken. 

“You screwed it up!” The trooper from the 104th yelled. “You were supposed to be keeping cover!” 

The trooper moved to shove him again, but this time Thirty-three seemed prepared, and barely moved an inch, planting his feet standing his ground. 

Spine of beskar that one, Alpha thought as he drew himself out of the faint slouch he was in. Thirty-three didn’t push back or raise his hand to the other candidate. He just clasped his hands firmly behind his back and stared at him. One of the twins from the two-twelve grabbed the trooper from behind and hauled him backwards.

Thirty-three sported an unimpressed expression with an eyebrow so high it looked like it would’ve crawled into the trooper’s hairline. Alpha had seen that look before. Most troopers would’ve said something by now, or even take a swing now that the 104ths candidate was restrained, but he just stood and stared-

And stared.

And stared until the trooper from the 14th made a noise of disgust and turned away. 

Nova’s marine reached out for Thirty-three and placed a hand on his shoulder, mouthing something that Alpha couldn’t quite lip read.

That kind of discipline wasn’t uncommon, but it certainly wasn’t present in troopers who were sent out to become ARCs. No, the troopers that came out to ARC training always acted like they had something to prove or something to live up to. Even when Fox’s first candidate had a temper that flared when someone else blamed them.

No, Alpha hummed to himself. That was the kind of discipline common staff carried. The kind that meant that you were allowed to talk to natborns. The kind that allowed vod to be underestimated. The kind of discipline that was drilled into a vod whether they liked it or not.

Things were clearly changing on Coruscant, and Thirty-three had some kind of training that left him capable of pretending that absolutely nothing was bothering him.

Chapter Text

22 BBY

Fox felt a prickle of warning at the nape of his neck and it was all he had before he was being gripped by the curls at the top of his skull. Whoever it was had a bruising grip on him, almost pulling his hair from his scalp as they hauled him backwards. 

He let out a cry of pain, reaching back with his hands and latching onto a forearm just to try and alleviate the tension on his scalp. They dragged him back for a few steps before dropping him to the floor, leaving him to clutch his head.

The sound of heavy boots made the colour drain from Fox’s face. He knew who those boots belonged to, as the figure rounded his frame on the floor and his eyes swept up red armour to see Dred Priest smiling down on him. Unlike one of the Ka’ra who Fox would’ve worshipped if given the chance, however, Fox only felt dread at his presence. 

Heh, Dred. He wondered what was wrong with him that he found that hilarious.

“You’re slacking,Ten-Ten.” He taunted. “Can’t be giving the longnecks a reason to get rid of you, can you?” 

He kicked himself for not being more aware of his surroundings.

Priest loved to sneak up on him, monitoring him throughout the day just so he could either get a shot at Rex, who Fox made sure to always have a buddy with now that Priest was getting bolder, or to make Fox miserable. 

He’d been trying for years, for the most part succeeding, not that Fox would ever let Priest have that satisfaction, but he had to play it safe until the jetiise came for them. Otherwise, it would be too late and Priest would maybe get a hold of Rex when Fox couldn’t stop it.

“Don’t think they’d try at this point.” He retorted before he could stop himself, climbing to his feet. He was getting a little too big for Priest to throw him around like a cadet anymore, even if tugging on his hair while distracted was a surefire way to get him down.

He watched as Priest’s face shifted from surprise to anger and then certainly to rage as he stepped forward. 

The irony of it all was that when Fox stood to his full height, he was certain he could see the top of Priest’s head.

Fox braced, fully expecting a punch from the trainer in front of him-

“You waste of air meat-droid, I should-” 

“Is there a problem here?” A gruff voice cut like a knife, silencing Priest and also bringing colour back to Fox’s complexion as he could finally breathe. .

And Fox breathed a sigh of relief as he realized Alpha-17 was behind him. He watched Priest’s face shift, back into an expression that read more like ‘gruff annoyance’ than the bitter rage that had faced Fox just a moment ago.

“Not at all.” 

“Fox.” Alpha-17’s tone bore no room for argument. “Go back to your vode.” 

Fox nodded, taking two steps back until he was past Alpha-17’s frame, not wanting to turn his back on Priest until he was certain there was someone between him and the trainer, before he retreated back to where the rest of his batch were sitting together. He listened, but could barely hear whatever it was that Alpha-17 started saying to Priest as he retreated.

21 BBY

“So how are you coping?” Thorn asked as he stepped into Fox’s office, his helmet clipped to his belt and his hair currently clipped out of the way with what Fox was pretty sure was a child’s hair clip that was sold at the convenience mart that sometimes catered to clones. As Thorn tilted his head to the side, the light in Fox’s office caught on the clip and highlighted the mushroom shape of it and the red glossy finish of the clips.

“I’m fine.” Fox waved Thorn off, dragging his gaze away from Thorn’s blonde and red dyed hair to look down at his datapad screen. He was still working on the same form that he’d opened twenty minutes ago. Maybe, maybe I’m not alright. Fox thought briefly, rereading the last line of the page again. But I’m not going to admit that outloud. 

“Dogma and Flock said you were holed up in here.” The door slid shut behind Thorn as he made his way over to Fox’s desk. Reaching out to lower Fox’s datapad, Thorn locked eyes with him. 

“I keep expecting to see him behind me.” Fox whispered as if it would make him real. Ever since adopting his kids, he was never far from them, always having them one comm call away, right next to him sometimes in Tenacity’s case as his eldest shadowed him. 

He wasn’t coping well, and he knew it wasn’t fair to either Dogma or Flock but-

Dogma, as he moved up in ranks was branching out and carving his own path, finding an interest in the rapid response work Dusk Regiment so frequently were deployed for. Flock was getting more and more engrossed in spec-ops training and was flitting between regiments to learn as much as he possibly could.

Tenacity was the one he kept close to him, selfishly so.

“He’s your kid Fox. Apparently it’s normal to want to keep them with you.” Thorn pulled the datapad away. “Psyche mentioned nat-borns keep theirs around until they’re about eighteen standard, some culture of nat-borns even keep their ade at home until they’re saying the riduurok and that’s when they ‘leave the nest’.” Thorn punctuated his words with air quotations. 

“Could you imagine being under Venti or Vio’s thumb until we swore the riduurok with someone?” Thorn asked. He dropped himself into the chair opposite Fox’s desk and lifted his legs up, dropping his boots onto the edge of the desk with a ‘thunk’, causing Fox’s stylus holder to rattle. 

Fox blanched, not wanting to think about how he and his batch would probably end up killing each other first instead of finding someone to share the rest of their lives with. Then he shoved Thorn’s boots off his desk with a grimace at the dirt that was now on his desk. 

“You had patrol.” He grumbled. “Get your disgusting boots off my desk.” 

“What, you don’t want to bask in level 3500 grime? It’s the good stuff too,” He lifted his leg back up to wave the bottom of his foot at Fox. “Ran right behind the food district and stepped in something that had gone mouldy and was growing ‘shrooms. Parjai fell into a dumpster that had some kind of ‘ pest’ deterrent. It started eating away at the paint.” 

“Ugh.” Fox felt his shoulders go past his ears in disgust. He had his fair share of dumpster diving shenanigans when he was out in the field, but dumpster diving in the food district was the worst. Natborns who would go out of their way to deliberate soil perfectly good food thrown out with spoiled food, drenching them with water to make them soggy or inedible just so both troopers and members of the lower levels couldn’t eat what shouldn’t go to waste.

Falling into said dumpsters with ruined food was worse. The smell of rot and mould stuck to plastoid armour and followed them around for days, stinking up not only the barracks but the corridors of the senate building as well.

“I’m glad you don’t do senate duty. Tell Parjai to ditch the armour, we’ll scrap it into equipment and use one of the spares.”

“Already done. Grid took him down to get fitted for a new set.” 

“Good ole Grid.” Fox sighed, leaning back in his own chair. He really should get back to work, there was still a lot to be done, even if Tenacity wasn’t shadowing him anymore. 

“I’m starting to think your kids cope with stress a lot better than you do, vod.” Thorn said as he reached out and plucked Fox’s datapad from his hands, distracting him yet again. Thorn held the datapad out of reach. “When have you spent time with them since Tens left, without work involved?” 

“I try.” Fox hissed through his teeth as he lunged over the desk for his datapad. “But I have a job to do.” 

“Fox I would never imply that you would ever favourite one of your kids more than the other but don’t you think Dogma and Flock deserve more of your attention while he’s gone?” Thorn said bluntly, crossing his arms over his chest.

Fox froze.

In all that had happened since Tenacity leaving for ARC training, he had admittedly been withdrawing from everyone, younger ade included. The reason for it had been obvious once Fox examined his own behaviour, but he didn’t want to acknowledge it.

He couldn’t speak the words and bring them to life. He couldn’t wish that upon any of the vode he hated and was angry with, let alone Tenacity.  

“It’s not that I don’t love them.” He shook his head as if that would get rid of the thoughts that were eager to cause him distress. “Ka’ra knows I love them but I worry. He is still on Kamino. I can’t-” 

There was a moment of silence where it seemed to dawn on Thorn what he was referencing. For all that the Kaminoans had done to make them into perfect soldiers, trauma was trauma. 

“You’re talking about Priest.” 

Just the thought of him made Fox’s palms clammy beneath his glove. His head throbbed at the thought and he instinctively wanted to lock himself in the smallest possible cabinet despite the fact that he probably wouldn't have fit with his armour. Fox put the datapad down, unsure that he could keep holding on to it with the way his hands felt weak, like the strength had completely drained out of him.

He slumped back down into his chair with his head in his hands.

“Shit vod.” There was a squeak as Thorn got back out of his chair and made his way around to Fox’s side of the desk, before he knelt down in front of Fox and pulled his hands away from his face. “Have you talked to anyone about this?” 

“And let them see how weak I am?” The protest alone was weak to Fox’s ears.

Thorn scoffed.

“Do you think Bacara, Neyo, Faie and Doom are weak?” He jabbed, grabbing Fox’s face and forcing their eyes to meet. “Do you think any of the other vode who survived his battle circles and made it out of Kamino are weak?” 

No . 

Of course he didn’t . Bacara was one of the strongest vode he knew. Neyo and Faie right behind them in their ferocity and anger. Their hatred for Priest had turned them into some of the GAR’s best. Fox looked up to them, just like he admired his own ade for making the best of the osik hand they’d been given.

“You’re one of our best too.” Thorn huffed. “All that chest candy and you can’t even see that you deserve it.” 

Oh. He was talking out loud again. Fox sighed.

It felt like he was doing a lot of sighing lately. 

“It’s just… Venti didn’t do much with Priest, I think he knew, by the tail end of it.” Fox shrugged, sounding far more defeated than Thorn would’ve liked. “And maybe that’s why the circles stopped, maybe why Priest stopped sniffing around us, but Tenacity doesn’t have that.”

Thorn’s smile was sad.

“But he has you, and you’re not Venti. You’re Fox. That’s all he’ll ever need.” 

-

“What do you think of him?” Alpha-17 asked when he heard soft footfalls behind him. 

He hadn’t expected anyone to come into the observation deck with him but he heard footsteps coming closer. Vio’s blonde hair appeared in his peripheral vision, slicked back out of his face. The blonde alpha-class trooper lingered by the window, looking over the obstacle course and the ongoing sim, down at the ARCs-in-training.

“I think he reminds me of your ad .” Vio answered, tapping on the module to take control of one of the camera drones, directing it closer to the ARC-trainee in question. Thirty-three was pulling Cipher, Bacara’s marine, up and over one of the ledges in the obstacle course. “Kind of acts like mine too, sometimes, I can see it when he rocks back and forth on his feet.” 

Alpha-17 hummed, glancing back at the datapad in his hands, cursor blinking at him where it stopped mid sentence. He was typing up an initial report to send to the corresponding battalions about each recruit. 

A buzzer sounded as the lieutenant from the 501st, Jesse , had crossed the marker to start his third lap of the obstacle course. 

Via punched his knuckle into the button that triggered the next set of changing obstacles.

Right behind him were Fox’s candidate and the Marine.

Alpha-17 didn’t miss the two troopers gravitating to each other. While Jesse and Polar, the vod from the 104th, decided to work alone, the other four had paired up. The twins from the 212th were helping each other across the course, working in tandem to make it over the obstacles. 

Thirty-three and Cipher were right behind Jesse, moving quickly and efficiently in dismantling the battle droids deployed and traversing the urban landscape that the course was meant to simulate.

“You’ve put that one in his element.” Vio commented, fingers turning the zoom dial even further. “Coruscant Guard got extra urban warfare modules when we knew we were sending them there.” 

“He wasn’t trained for it.” Alpha corrected. He glanced over at Vio, who was still following Thirty-three with the camera drone. “He was sent to Wolffe. Some kind of accident sent him to Coruscant instead of decom.” 

Most of the details of the report had been sealed by Wolffe’s general, a jetii on the council. Not even Alpha’s clearance could get him into that file without a little slicing and when he’d tried one of Wolffe’s slicers was the one to tell him to stop poking around. 

But Vio was right, the trooper was suited for urban warfare. He seemed to have an uncanny knowledge of just how much to tuck his knees in when he rolled, the right angle to push off the wall to climb the gap between two growing towers as the obstacle course changed. He was used to the changing heights and landscape that was decidedly squared and blocky.

And Cipher was following his lead, picking up those details just as fast.

“Does Thorn still keep in touch with you?” Alpha asked.

Vio didn’t seem to react to the abrupt change in the subject, nor did he comment on it. Instead he hummed, swapping the camera to watch the twins from the 212th.

Ten seconds passed.

Thirty.

Forty-five. 

He was starting to regret asking. 

“Sometimes he’ll message.” Vio finally answered. “To tell me he’s still alive, if anything cool happened. Nothing that’d class as a security breach.” 

Alpha pursed his lips. 

If this was about anything else, he would argue that Vio had always had a better relationship with his batch of command-class troopers than Alpha did with his own. That still didn’t mean he didn’t care about Fox.

“Fox doesn’t.” Alpha admitted. “Kote, Rex and Wolffe comm regularly. Bly tries when Star Corps’ comms aren’t dark, but I don’t think I’ve gotten a comm from Fox in over a year.” 

Two expressions crossed over Vio’s features.

His jaw bulged where he clenched and ground his teeth together, then he exhaled, nostrils flaring, before he turned to look at Alpha.

“I don’t think you want me to reassure you. Because I’m going to tell you that he changed and you didn’t notice.” 

Alpha couldn’t help the defensive snarl that curled his lips.

“No, don't you start with me,” A hand jabbed him in the chest. Vio stepped up to him. Alpha wanted to fight back—to defend—but stopped himself. “We all knew Priest was picking on the kids, making them do horrible osik to each other, and we waved it off with excuses that it would make them stronger, but Fox got the brunt of it… doesn’t matter that you figured it out in the end.” 

“He was stronger because of it.” 

“But you let it happen , Venti, and I don’t tell you how to raise your batch just like you didn’t tell me how to raise mine, but they were mine and I did my best to make sure Bacara and Neyo had support after .” 

And Alpha knew Vio wasn’t saying it to hurt him. It was the hard and honest truth, which was what he wanted, which was the only reason he let Vio talk to him like that in the first place. It was true. He’d noticed Fox pulling away more and more, chalked it down to growing pains, adolescence even. It wasn’t until he’d notice Priest hanging around his eldest ad that he realized what was going on and felt like he should’ve been kicking himself because of it. 

“Fox hid it too.” He said finally. “But he knows, he had to have known that I put a stop to it right before Geonosis.” 

Fox wasn’t stupid. 

He was the smartest of his six mir’sheb’se that drove him up and down the wall for the almost ten years that he’d taken up their training. He had to have known.

“You know what I think?” 

“What?” 

“I think you’re scared of messaging him.” Vio flattened his palm against Alpha’s chest to keep him from jerking forward. “I think that you think that if you message him, he’ll tell you to kark off, or worse, he’ll treat you like every other trainer or commanding officer that he had and you’ll realize that he might not trust you.”

“Shut up,” He spat halfheartedly, “Get out of my head.”  

“Sometimes I think I screwed them up too.” Vio’s other hand came to rest on the nape of his neck and squeezed. “I think, maybe I was too soft on them, didn’t harden them up for the osik they have to face. I can see when Colt mourns the ade that don’t make it.. Don’t even get me started on Blight and Davijaan.” 

“But Bacara and Neyo.” 

“They had each other, even with Priest around, they had each other.” Vio squeezed harder, Alpha met his eyes and almost recoiled from the look they held. “Like we have each other, and how Fox has the guard.”

Vio could always see the worst in their lot, their worst flaws and the issues that stemmed from their very-not-healthy upbringing. Similar to the blinding way a plasma charge detonated, Vio’s gaze was just as hard to meet. 

“And that’s the thing isn’t it.” Vio whispered. “Fox has them and he doesn’t need you anymore. The least you can do is make sure one of his own gets back to him.” 

Alpha huffed, averting his gaze from Vio.

The other alpha-class trooper chuckled, a rumble deep in his chest as he knocked his forehead against Alpha’s. 

The buzzer for the final lap caused them to pull apart and turn their attention back to the ARCs-in-training in the course below them, where Cipher had pulled out ahead of Jesse, and Thirty-three only a few steps behind the 501st lieutenant as the three of them made a mad dash around their final lap for the obstacle course.

-

Tenacity considered himself a personable vod. 

There was definitely a lot of vode within the Guard who approached him as a confidant. He supposed it was a mixture of needing to speak to someone ranked high enough to do something, but not immediately hopping up the chain of command towards the commanders. He was friendly with his vode. Guardsmen, especially shinies, could always use a friend.

Which was why he found himself a little lost at the idea that a frontliner, especially one that was as accomplished as a Marine, wanted to be so goddamn friendly with him.

He figured that Cipher’s happy-go-lucky attitude and eagerness to work together at a friendly face was just a one off. One day with the other vode and he’d probably start spouting the same nonsense they did but-

Tenacity was kind of glad to be proven wrong.

Cipher helped him on the obstacle course today.

His hand slipped, he thought he’d lose the second place standing he’d been keeping so tightly gripped when he hit the ground, but strong fingers had curled around his wrist, catching him before he could fall.

“Come on tat.” Cipher smiled. “Can’t fall behind can we?” 

Tat. 

Cipher, someone who didn’t carry the burden of red paint or held the burden of their haunted posting in the heart of the Republic, called him the Marines equivalent of 'vod', and by the way he’d decidedly not allowed Tenacity to fall behind during the course showed that he meant it. They’d returned to their bunks after mid-meal with a barked instruction from Alpha-17 to wind down with some stretches and then they were allowed an hour of free time before the next training module. 

Cipher was already quiet in the bunk above him. Tenacity didn’t know if he’d taken a nap and drifted off instantly, or if he was quiet because he was glued to a datapad, but he didn’t want to ask, or bother the comfortable silence that had settled around their bunk, drowning out the white noise and extra chatter coming from the other four troopers in the bunk room with him. 

He liked Cipher.

Here was a vod in the absolute thick of it, on the front lines with comms blackouts on the daily and he still looked at Tenacity like he was a vod worth knowing… like he was a brother worth protecting. Tenacity would defend the Republic with his life, albeit a little reluctantly and with bitter resentment that his vode got the short end of the stick on Coruscant, but he would do his duty. 

Just like Fox did his duty despite the fact his chaaj’vode were horrible to him for doing what he was created for.

Despite the fact Dogma’s vode were cruel and punished him for being taken advantage of.

And Cipher was there looking past his duty and making Tenacity feel seen, on Kamino of all places where their individuality was snuffed out if it grew out of the mould they were shoved into.

It was a lot.

Emotional stuff that Tenacity did not want to deal with while he was not with his kih’vode and buir. 

“Thirty-three?” Cipher’s head popped over the edge of the bunk, curls hanging over his forehead as the trooper peered curiously at him. “Did you want to do something for our break?” 

Tenacity raised an eyebrow. 

Alpha-17 hadn’t necessarily ordered them to be confined into their bunk room either. 

Loophole acquired.

“Anything in particular that you had in mind?” Tenacity asked, sitting up in his bunk as Cipher all but flipped himself out of his bunk, landing with a thud, before he climbed into Tenacity’s bunk next to him. The dark haired trooper leaned in close.

“My captain said he has a batcher that works with the Kamino Guard.” Cipher whispered as he pulled Tenacity in close. “Said he would have something for me if I went looking for him.”

Commander Snake will help, if anything goes wrong. Fox told him before he left. 

Learning that the Kamino Guard often kept in contact with the Guard’s slicers on Coruscant was a coincidental and comforting tidbit to know, but he wasn’t expecting them to keep in contact with other battalions. 

Tenacity glanced briefly over at the rest of the ARCs-in-training to see if they were listening, before prying for further information.

“What’s his name?” He asked, before considering that most of Kamino was monitored by cameras. “Where do we meet him?” 

“Lieutenant Cotton.” Cipher smiled. “He said that the cameras leading to dome Cresh are usually spliced.” 

“We can go. I’ll cover your back.” 

The grin on Cipher’s face was blinding. 

So goddamn blinding.

Tenacity nodded as the marine climbed out of the bunk, standing up and nonchalantly stretching to slide his datapad off the top bunk. 

“Come on.” He said, with his face split in half by his smile.

Tenacity scrambled out of his bunk to follow him.

They made it out of the bunk room without any of the other ARCs-in-training stopping or questioning them. Whether or not the other four troopers would follow them was to be seen. As they walked through the white corridor, Tenacity couldn’t help but look around. There were troopers walking past them, in plain white cadet armour and training helmets, heading towards the dome with their trainers. 

No one stopped them.

All the security in the galaxy and secrecy surrounding Kamino to prevent the closest thing the vode had to a home and no one questioned him and Cipher walking through the halls in their mismatched paint, datapad in hand. Cipher had a map pulled up on his datapad, marked with a path towards the supposed ‘meeting point’ corridor on the way to Dome Cresh.

They passed another set of cadets, looking like they were about eight-standard. 

“Sith-hells, they’re tiny aren’t they?” Cipher commented as they walked past. 

Tenacity could see the tops of their heads.

The tops of their heads. They came up to his waist and he overheard one of them excitedly mentioning that they were starting blaster modules. 

“I shouldn’t be bothered by it.” Tenacity muttered, turning his head while walking to follow the squad of cadets until they disappeared around the turn in the corridor. “But were we that small when we started our blaster modules?” 

“You’re an ori'tat, aren’t you?” Cipher looked up from his datapad and peered at him curiously.

“What?” He blinked in surprise. “Why would you say that?” 

“Your tone of voice when you said that” Cipher pointed over his shoulder to where the cadets had disappeared with his thumb. “All worried and concerned. Only ori’tate have that tone of voice, I would know, I’m the youngest in my batch.” 

“Do you have any other secrets I should know about before I follow you into a suspiciously empty corner of Kamino. Force abilities? Mind reading?” Tenacity wondered outloud, his tone light and playful as he ribbed Cipher.

The marine snorted and shook his head before pushing his curls behind his ear. 

“Nope, plain ol’vod, just a little observant that’s all.” 

With that they turned the corner of the corridor into the connector to Dome Cresh. There was a painted large ‘Cresh’ on the wall, followed by smaller aurebesh letters spelling out ‘intelligence wing’ beneath it. Tenacity raised an eyebrow at it.

They really shouldn’t be venturing so far into Kamino, let alone Kamino’s intelligence division, but when he looked over to Cipher, the marine had a determine dlook on his face and his grip had tightened around his datapad. 

“Keep a lookout for a minute will you?” 

Cipher made his way over to the bio-pad beside the door, poking around at the keys for a few moments before he slid his own datapad into place on the lock and started to jab at the different buttons on the lock. Tenacity turned his head to look up the corridor to the intersection they turned at, seeing one trooper walk by without a second glance towards them 

“You sure you know what you’re doing?” Tenacity asked over his shoulder.

Cipher must have nodded. Tenacity didn’t hear a response from the other trooper, but then there was the sound of a sharp hiss, before the door to the ‘intelligence wing’ slid open, revealing a dimmer corridor. At the very end, he could see another room, this one with the door open, and inside he saw troopers in grey bustling about.

“Well, guess we should go down there.” Cipher murmured, pulling his datapad from the lock and looking towards the room at the end.

“We should.” Tenacity agreed.

“Kind of regretting poking around into what my captain told me.” Cipher added, taking a small step past the doorway.

“Where’s the fun in that?” Tenacity followed him in and then took two steps past him, turning around to smirk at the marine. “Come on, I bet I can find the lieutenant before you can.” 

“You don’t even know what he looks like?” Cipher sputtered but he followed Tenacity. 

Tenacity quickened his pace so that he was one step ahead of Cipher, walking backwards to face the trooper as bobbed his head. In a playful tone, he answered.

“Yeah, but I can be observant too, I’ll just look for the one you’re most happy to see.” 

“Mir’sheb.” Cipher retorted, before the both of them took off down the hallway towards the room, eager to find Lieutenant Cotton and kill the rest of the hour they had before their next module started.

Chapter Text

Benduday - 14th Helona 21BBY

Coruscant Guard Headquarters.

4 months ago.

“Marshal Commander Fox!” Bly greeted with a smile on his face, strolling into Fox’s office as though he belonged there while Fox had sensitive information open right in front of him, turning him into a security risk. His little brother didn’t care though, because Bly continued to look at him expectantly while the door slid closed behind him, yellow tickets on his face glaringly bright.

Fox didn’t know why his brother seemed to think that announcing his rank to the world like it was some kind of badge of honour was a good idea, especially when they shared the same rank, but he wasn’t about to question Bly’s life choices… especially when he wore that garish shade of yellow ink on his face. 

Admittedly, Fox had his own gaudy and extravagant tastes, that much was punctuated with the need for gold jewellery being kept consistent throughout his piercings, occasionally littered with red stones as gifts from Roan. It was certain in the fact that he’d gotten the same clan tattoos as someone he’d only spent time with for two months, let alone had a committed relationship with—if his fling could’ve even been called that—but really… that shade?

He pretended like he couldn’t see the ticket tattoos.

“You get told to knock for a reason, Bly.” Fox grumbled but placed his datapad screen down on his desk, locking it with a firm press to the button on the side. He folded his hands together and rested his chin against his knuckles. “I know for a fact Three-Nine would’ve told you to knock because he tells me that he tells you to knock.” 

“Because you bite my head off if I don’t knock” His younger brother held his hands up in the universal sign of ‘ I’m-not-here-to-start-shit ’. “Just wanted to let you know that we’re meeting up at 79’s tonight-” 

“Don’t start with that Bly,” Fox groaned, already sensing where the conversation was heading. “You know I have work to do-” 

“And I knew you were going to say that,” His vod’ika countered easily. “but I think you need to spend less time inside these four damn walls and come have fun with us instead for one night.” 

Do you know how much work I have to do to keep this planet running? He thought hard at Bly’s direction, hoping that it would penetrate through Bly’s thick skull. 

It was always the same excuse with them. It was always take a break, or spend less time outside the office, or have fun, as if Fox didn’t know how to have fun. Ask any of his boys how many prank wars he’d survived through within the Guard barracks and they’d show you fun . 

“And how else do you think my work will get done?” He asked, raising his eyebrow. The datapad in front of him had a forty-seven page long document that he needed to review in preparation to the security changes that were being proposed by the Coruscant Security Force, including additional duties that the Guard would have to carry out in their place. Of which were being reviewed tomorrow.

Tomorrow morning and he’d have to be up by 0500 hours to keep to schedule with the rest of his duties. 

He didn’t have time to go out for drinks.

He had to be able to spout that sith-damned contract off the top of his head perfectly. 

I don’t barge onto his venator and tell him to take a kriffing break. Fox thought while narrowing his eyes to squint at his brother. Why the kriff do they think they can do it to me?

“I also knew you were going to say that. I think I could help. Just listen to some of my suggestions-”

“Yes?” 

A knock on Fox’s office door interrupted whatever it was that Bly was about to say. Fox shot his younger brother a pointed look, before pressing the button underneath his desk rigged to allow the door to slide open.

Tenacity stepped inside, mouth open and ready to speak until he spotted Bly standing in front of Fox’s desk. His mouth snapped shut, his spine straightened and he saluted the 327th’s commander with perfect form.

“Marshal Commander Fox, you wanted to see me?” 

Fox chuckled and stood from his desk.

“Tenacity, come in, have you met Marshal Commander Bly?” 

“Yes, sir, we keep meeting-” 

Bly didn’t spare a glance for Tenacity. 

“As I was saying, Fox, I really think you should just come out tomorrow night.” 

“Bly?” 

Fox watched as Bly turned his head back to look at him, the expression on his face hopeful.

“Yeah?” 

 It broke Fox’s heart to think about the fact that he hadn’t spent any proper time with his batch in the last fourteen months, but he didn’t have a choice. The Guard were his responsibility now—as long as Coruscant ran smoothly—and he would take any consequence of his actions, short of death. 

“Close the door on your way out.” 

“Have I done something wrong, sir?” Tenacity’s question dragged Fox’s attention away from the faded image of the back of Bly’s head that lingered even though the door had closed. It was always Rex or Kote who tried to get him to come out, stubborn and rarely would take no for an answer. They would ply him with Wolffe, who promised it would be just like old times and maybe with a little less biting.

“On the contrary,” Fox finally reassured him. “I called you here because our odds are pretty bleak. Your reputation precedes you, Tenacity.” 

“Sir?” The kid stiffened. Fox knew why. 

He hadn’t called him by his full name in months . 

“What have I been hearing from Grid that they’re putting bids on your shifts?” 

“Sir?” Tenacity’s voice pitched in concern.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’ve read the reports from the other CO’s. You’re young and smart.” Fox picked up his datapad to scroll to the most recent report from Kranak that sung Tenacity’s praises. The young trooper was already well on his way to completing the lieutenant’s exams. “Don’t get me started on how well you handled that crowd when it turned into a riot downtown until Thorn’s turtles got there. I know Kranak and Brimstone have both tried to poach you for their squads.” 

“They just want me to do all the interacting with natborns-” He grumbled. 

Was the kid pouting? Fox blinked in disbelief, taking in the kid’s face and the jut of his bottom lip. He was, holy kriff he was. 

“Now why are you upset?” 

“I’m not.” 

“It’s alright if you want to fight. Ka’ra knows you’ve got more energy for it than we do,” Fox chuckled as he stepped around his desk towards him, thinking about the way the rest of the command class looked when they met up for their bi-weekly meetings in conference room Dorn. “Though we used to be just like that, too eager to throw ourselves into battle, dreaming about the day we’d fight for glory, dying like martyrs.” 

“We were made to fight!” He protested.

“Dying is easy Tens,” Fox came to a stop next to him. “Living is harder.” 

“Why are you telling me this?” 

“I”m being honest, we’re working with less men than I was promised at the start of the war.” Fox reached out to clap a hand onto his shoulder. “Relations with civilians are at an all time low due to the increased funding being diverted to the war effort and to Kamino for more troops.”

Fox looked at the young trooper in front of him. His namesake aside, he didn’t think there was someone better to bring into the fold of current issues surrounding their presence on Coruscant. The command staff undoubtedly needed help, their training hadn’t prepared them for this.

“I called you here because I trust you and I need someone I trust to do the things I can’t. Blend into the background, make waves while the eyes are on me.” 

“Sir-” 

Fox braced for a ‘no’, fully expecting to be turned down.

It was a monumental load of responsibility that needed to be taken onto his shoulders, Fox would’ve entrusted it to one of the other command-class, except they were inundated with their own duties, their own men under their command. Thirty-six of them and . Tenacity gazed at him like he saw something that Fox couldn’t. 

“What can I do to help?” Tenacity asked, straightening his back.

When Fox met his eyes they were blazing with determination. He gestured for the younger trooper to step around his desk towards the map he had splayed out. 

“Take a look with fresh eyes, kid, and tell me what you see.” 

-

Zhellday 13th Welona 21 BBY

Kamino - Central Intelligence Division

Tenacity made sure to keep close to Cipher as they stepped through the doorway to the Kamino Guard Intelligence division. Most of the troopers barely spared them a second glance as they walked through, but a few raised their eyes over screens to eye them as they pottered past. While they watched, they didn’t seem to find fault with their presence there, they didn’t say a word, so Tenacity didn’t say anything and neither did his new friend.

Cipher seemed to scan the face of every vod in search of the lieutenant he was after. Each one he found wasn’t the right trooper he found yet he didn’t seem the slightest bit discouraged as they made their way through the workspace.

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Tenacity asked as he set a timer on his kom’rk , just so they wouldn’t be late back to the barracks. He didn’t want to risk any kind of backlash from Apha-17 that would make his buir or the rest of the Guard look bad, or any kind of punishment that would jeapordize his position in ARC training. 

“We’ll be fine. It’s not like the lieutenant would let us get in trouble with Alpha-17.” Cipher nudged him briefly, before turning his attention back to the vode around them. 

“The lieutenant, who are you boys after?” 

A vod wearing gray and white armour, darker than the shade of paint used for the Wolf-pack, blocked their path, a datapad in one hand. The pauldron on his shoulder caught Tenacity off guard. He didn’t realize the Kamino Guard had ARC troopers too, since most of the ARC troopers on Kamino often belonged to Rancor battalion. Tenacity filed that away for a later date.

The vod had their helmet clipped to their belt, revealing dark hair and a wicked scar twisting over their temple into their hairline, there were diamond-patterned scales tattooed on his neck and jaw. Tenacity didn’t know how they’d manage to get away with tattooing on Kamino . 

“Lieutenant Cotton, sir.” Cipher said with a brief and respectful nod to the vod that stopped them. “My captain is one of his batchers. Asked me to rendezvous with him while I’m here on Kamino.” 

The vod hummed, nodding briefly before he glanced down at his datapad. 

“Lieutenant Cotton should be in Room Cresh, they’ve just finished their rounds I believe.” He lifted his head from the screen. “I can escort you to them if you would like.” 

Cipher beamed.

“Yes!” 

“Please,” Tenacity added, because Fox didn’t raise him to not have manners, though he didn’t blame Cipher. The sergeant major looked pretty excited to be able to rendezvous with the lieutenant.

“Yes, please.”  Tenacity watched as Cipher repeated his thanks, his smile growing impossibly wider as he faced the vod in grey.

The vod in front of them snorted.

“You’ve only just started ARC training then.” He commented, turning on his heel to start walking, not waiting for Tenacity or Cipher to catch up to them. 

“How do you know?” Tenacity peered at the back of his head, intrigued.

“You sound too happy for someone who’s gone through three months of hell with the Alpha-class.” 

Cipher sputtered.

Tenacity just laughed.

“Pretty sure one my vod in the Guard would like you.” He said with his own grin, thinking of Cadaver and the medic’s deadpan attitude. “Reminds me of something he’d say-” 

It was almost like Tenacity could see the raised eyebrow from the other trooper as he glanced over his shoulder at the two of them. A questioning tilt of his head. 

Whatever question the vod had though, it never came as he continued to lead them through corridors, deeper into Dome Cresh and further away from the Beta dome barracks. Tenacity glanced down at the timer on his comm. They still had forty minutes of their hour-long break before they were expected to continue on with their training.

“You know why your captain told you to go looking for your lieutenant?” Tenacity asked curiously.

“Captain Hornet… doesn't get to talk to his batchers much.” The Marine shifted his weight on his feet as they stopped at a door, waiting for the vod in front of them to input his clearance code. “None of us really do. Being here’s the most amount of time I’ve not been in a comms blackout in eight months so I have… I have messages. Datastick of messages to send from everyone. It’s… a delayed delivery service but Marshal Commander Bacara tries to send at least one of us to ARC training every cycle.” 

Tenacity blinked at the information.

He had an inkling that the Marines were isolated, much like the Coruscant Guard was, it was just for completely different reasons. Reasons that the rest of the G.A.R found acceptable compared to an assignment on Triple Zero. He just hadn’t realized how much of that isolation was being worked around.

“Commander Thorn is Marshal Commander Bacara’s batcher, right?” Cipher asked when he didn’t say anything. 

“Him and CMA Blight, yeah.” He nodded. 

“They speak to you in Trainer Davin’s dialect? Or have they assimilated.” 

He thought about the question for a moment. Commander Thorn’s grasp of Mando’a was pretty good, he ran most of the classes for the vode just off of Kamino when he had the time, collecting shinies left, right and centre

“Commander Thorn’s assimilated, I think, sometimes he says stuff that doesn’t sound like Commander Stone. They bicker a lot. CMA Blight uses both I think.” He thought about how Blight interacted with the command class versus the rest of them. “Definitely more with the command-class.” 

“Makes sense, makes sense.” Cipher nodded as though he’d just been given all the answers to the galaxy. “If you want, I can teach you.” 

Tenacity blinked.

His brow furrowed.

“You sure?” 

“Of course.” 

 They were brought to something similar to one of the rec-rooms within the Guard Headquarters, but multi=levelled. The ground level was a sitting area with benches, just beyond it was a clearly designated office space followed by a large table which was clearly meant for meals. No kitchenette, Tenacity noticed, but it did look like some of the specialist stream barracks from back before he was deployed. Tenacity glanced around, spotting vode scattered around the room equally engrossed in their datapads, earbuds and comm units in their ears. A relaxed but productive environment as not one of them glanced up from their work to look at them. 

There was a mezzanine above their heads, before leading to a second floor that was likely either an observation room or barracks. Either way it was pretty decent digs for life on Kamino. They had a skylight too, Tenacity noticed as lightning cracked across the sky and flashed above them

“Wish I went into communications.” Cipher muttered from next to him. “‘Stead I had to be all up myself and push for a specialist stream.” 

Tenacity snorted. 

“You and me both vod, some of my vode up in admin get to lock themselves in their offices for hours. No civs, no shitty temps, access to the caf machine.” 

“Let’s see if you boys still feel that way once A-Seventeen has put you through the paces.” The vod that brought them there murmured, almost ominous with his tone. It vaguely reminded Tenacity of when ba’vodu Thorn would wiggle his fingers ominously at his buir before backing out of his office, leaving Fox to sigh, fond but exasperated. . 

Tenacity and Cipher shared a glance.

Before they could ask what that meant, the other vod went quiet. 

“You’re Hornet’s sergeant major?” Lieutenant Cotton asked from the mezzanine above their heads, causing both Tenacity and Cipher to startle and look up. The vod that was with them chuckled, before giving a two fingered salute and left the room that they were in. 

“That’s me, Cipher, reporting for duty.” Cipher fell into a neat salute, smiling up at the Lieutenant.

Lieutenant Cotton’s eyes crinkled at the corners, before his gaze slipped from Cipher and landed onto Tenacity. If he was surprised at his presence, he certainly didn’t show it, but he straightened his back and began walking down the adjoining stairs to the mezzanine. 

As he made his way down the steps, Tenacity took in his appearance. 

He was a stocky vod, reminding Tenacity of the way ba’vodu Thorn carried himself and his frame. He definitely looked like he could haul vode and haul ass if he needed to. He had short cropped hair, short enough where the curls had been laid flat and his eyes were green. There were diamond shaped markings across his temples and disappearing into his hairlines, almost in a scale like pattern.

“Didn’t realize you’d be bringing a friend, tat’ka.” Lieutenant Cotton spoke.

He kind of reminded Fox of Sergeant Hound, in a way, he didn’t sound apprehensive or abrasive by any means. He almost sounded… friendly. Even the words that should’ve sounded like a chastise were almost just a friendly comment.

“I wasn’t aware I couldn’t bring one, sir.” Cipher tacked on the honorific right at the end, sentence just shy of coming off rude.

There was a split second of silence as the lieutenant gazed at both of them, before he cracked into a smile. 

“Ahh I’m just messing with you.” He waved a hand. “It’s not every day your tat sends a priority comm saying his ad is going to ARC training.” 

“Sir?” 

“Hornet is my batcher, oldest of our batch. Haven’t seen him in…” He hummed and gestured a so-so movement with a hand. “Close to a year and a half now.”

Before Tenacity could process that information, the name of Cipher’s captain, the relationship, or why that would’ve been important to the situation at hand, the Lieutenant began to ramble, words going at a million lightyears an hour as he launched into why Hornet requested that Cipher come to see him. 

“Oh kriff.” Cipher whispered, as though something had dawned on him and he’d only just realized it. “They’re exactly alike.” 

Lieutenant Cotton bared his teeth. 

“Exactly, welcome to your home away from home, ad!” Cotton threw his hands up in a welcoming gesture.

Tenacity was ashamed to say he didn’t record the eep that escaped Cipher before the attention was turned to him. 

“You.” He gave Tenacity a once over. “Guard colours. Haven’t seen one of you in a while either.” 

“Well, we try to keep vode on their toes.” Tenacity shot back instinctively.

Lieutenant Cotton paused.

Then hummed.

“We can train those bad habits out of you kih’tat. No issues.”

“Using a different dialect is not a bad habit.” Tenacity groaned. “You sound like Blight. He’s been trying to get Commander Thorn to use tat more often.” 

“Good tat, that Blight, was one of the best in the command class medic stream.” 

“Do you just know everyone, sir?” Cipher asked curiously, stepping closer to the lieutenant. 

Lieutenant Cotton smiled. 

Tenacity didn’t know why but the more he smiled the more menacing he seemed to be. 

“I know enough Ciph’ika.” He said with almost an ominous tone. “Now come, come, I have some things to give you. Instructions.” 

And they were both waved closer. 

Cipher tilted his head to the side like a confused massif.

“What I have are these.” The lieutenant said, presenting them with a handful of datasticks. He turned to Cipher. “Partially, the grey ones are are responses for the many messages you carried from your tat’e in Nova. However the red ones-” 

Which numbered about a third of the datasticks that the lieutenant was shoving into their hands. 

“Is intel needing to be circulated within the G.A.R. The blue ones-” Which numbered closer to half of the datasticks. “Is information for our contacts outside the G.A.R.”  

“What the kriff.” 

“We have intelligence officers across the Mid and Outer Rims.” The lieutenant explained. “Their information is fed back to us, we filter and compile this information before providing it to the necessary vode involved. Your intelligence division are frequent fliers.” 

Something dawned on Tenacity.

“The twins.” He breathed.

“Hmm, some of our best. They were a transfer from Commander Snake’s first squad,” Cotton looked a little smug. “Out to Coruscant following news that General Kenobi’s source to find us was an information broker named Dexter Jettster.” 

“The basilisk who runs the diner?” He yelped. “I’ve been eating information food?” 

Cipher snorted next to him, while Lieutenant Cotton beamed with glee.

“I’ve never heard of a natborn so capable, yet the twins never fail. What I want is for you to deliver these data sticks to the twins when you return to Coruscant. They’ll get the data to Jettster. Jettster gets it to our vode in the Mid Rim. The ERVIN continues to assist vode around the galaxy where the natborns in charge may falter.”

"ERVIN?" The sergeant next to him curiously prodded. 

"The Extended Republic Vode Information Network." 

Tenacity nodded, impressed with the efficiency. He wondered if his buir knew about this system, pondering the possibility before figuring that Fox had probably just set the whole thing up to begin with. His buir was efficient like that. 

He would’ve had a year and a half to set up whatever system this was.

Tenacity had questions.

Lieutenant Cotton seemed to be alright with answering questions.

“So how often do you do this?” Cipher asked curiously.

“Pretty often, pilots are usually the one who transport the datasticks, but sometimes there’s tat’e we can’t get to. Like you Novas behind blockades. So we comm our batchers, we collect our intel. We wait until something like your situation comes up - as long as it’s not time sensitive.” 

“Horus runs for you as well.” He realized. “He used to make runs to Rishi and Outer Rim planets almost weekly.” 

The lieutenant laughed. 

“Horus, Davijaan, Maze-” Cotton listed. “Fordo on a good day. The twins. Commander Doom's ARCs. Couple of ARCs deployed in the 327th, a few of Rancor’s pilots, and many others. ERVIN has our thumbs in a lot of pies.” 

Tenacity felt his eyes bug at the name of few of the Alpha-class, at the implication of the sheer size of the network.

“Wait, so if you have all these connections then how-” 

Lieutenant Cotton’s comm trilled and he held up a hand, interrupting Cipher’s excited question as he turned his head to answer the comm. Tenacity hadn’t noticed it, but he had an earbud in his right side, the side not facing them, he must have had it the whole time. 

“Krait? What’s wrong?” 

Tenacity couldn’t help but pry as the lieutenant began to speak in rapid Mando’a, some words slipping by Tenacity’s grasp while he caught strays. 

“Gar morut’yc tatka, udesii. Sur'eyi Boa? Can you do that for me?” His tone softened as he turned his body away from them as well. “Who was it? Priest?” He hissed.

Cotton’s shoulder’s stiffened as he let out a string of curses. 

“Fine. I’ll send Mock-Up. No I can’t- I have tat’e here. Yes- Yes it’s Hornet’s batcher. No I will not get him involved. Do not listen to Boa , kaysh mirsh solus. No. He’s not alone. He made a bur’cya . ”  

All they could hear was the one-sided conversation, but it was clear to Tenacity that something happened. Tenacity had seen that look before and heard that tone of voice, usually when something went wrong.

“You boys go back to your barracks.” Lieutenant Cotton said firmly, fingers tapping rapidly at his comm. “I’m sure your break is almost up, Alpha won’t be happy if he catches you slacking.” 

“But sir-” Cipher tried to interrupt.

“I gave you a task, trooper, I expect you to complete that. I’ll let you know when you can come find me again.” 

“But you don’t have our comms.” 

Tenacity reached out for Cipher’s arm, pulling him by the rerebrace.

“Come on, we have to go.” 

“I’ll be in contact.” The lieutenant reassured and ushered them back out of the office and the way they came. “You boys know your way back from here?” 

“Yeah.” Tenacity nodded, already sorting the datasticks into the pouches on his utility belt while handing some of them off to Cipher. “We’ll talk to you soon lieutenant.”

As soon as the doors to the rec-room closed, Cipher turned to him.

“What do you think happened?” 

He already had an assessing look on his face, like he was trying to pick up clues.

“I don’t know,” Tenacity muttered, but he could guess. Priest's name being hissed like a curse was enough of a warning. There were a few reasons why something could ever go wrong on Kamino, usually it meant something was wrong with a vod, since Kaminoans prided themselves on being oh-so-perfect. “But we need to get back to the barracks or Alpha-17 is going to kick our shebse into the next cycle.”