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They took off without major incident, which was already a huge accomplishment in Fives’ mind. It wasn’t an easy flight, to be sure, but no one had crashed yet, so that had to count for something. And, compared to Hardcase’s earlier flight (wherein he crashed into several of the Republic's supplies, and destroyed part of the base), they were practically masters of flight in the unfamiliar Umbaran starships.
The Umabaran starfighters themselves were odd, with no true cockpit to speak of, instead utilizing only a command chair surrounded by an energy shield. The chair itself was ray shielded. The ship was controlled through a holographic interface that would surround the pilot's hands and the pilot would use hand gestures to control the ship.
“These things are trickier than I imagined,” Jesse’s voice crackled through their coms as they steadily climbed in altitude, making their way away from the airbase. “I hope this is a good idea!”
“Well, it’s better than Krell’s plan,” Fives sniped back.
“You know, I’m only doing this because I don’t like him,” Jesse admitted wryly.
“That’s reason enough.”
“I’m just doing it for fun!” Hardcase added with a maniacal laugh.
After that, the three clones continued their assent in silence, breaking through the cloud cover – to reveal a full-blown space battle.
“Woah.”
“Try to fly steady,” Fives advised with a confidence he certainly didn’t feel. “We’re going in.”
With that, the three clones flew through the space battle, forming up behind other Umbaran starfighters and maneuvering to get close to the supply ship. It wasn’t an easy task, but they had been bred and trained for war – an unfamiliar ship wouldn’t stop them from causing mayhem and madness.
Especially not if it would save the lives of their vod’e.
“I’m really not liking this,” Hardcase whined.
“Easy Hardcase,” Fives cautioned. “Don’t get an itchy trigger finger.”
No sooner than Fives had spoken, several Umbarans flanked them – only to drop off as the clones held steady.
“Looks like they think we’re Umbaran,” Fives breathed in relief. “There’s the supply ship!”
“Let’s do this!”
“Follow me!”
In the best formation they could manage, Fives, Hardcase, and Jesse flew into the interior of the ship. It was more difficult to navigate the narrow quarters, but Fives had a plan in mind.
And it involved more than just blasting the B1 Battle Droids ambling uselessly around the hangar.
“Reactor core locked,” Hardcase confirmed.
“Prepare missiles,” Fives ordered as he armed his own missiles.
“Fire missiles!”
The three fired in unison, and Fives held his breath. This had to work – General Skywalker had said that it had worked, when he was just an adiik. If it didn’t work, if they failed…
Vod’e were never that lucky.
Ray shields sprung up, blocking the missiles with ease.
“Hit the deck!”
The three turned and fired on the approaching droids as Fives scrambled for a new plan – and came up empty.
“This may have been a bad idea after all,” the ARC Trooper admitted.
“Our shields are sure taking a beating!”
“We can’t turn back now!”
Fives ran through plan after plan in his mind, searching desperately for a plan – any plan – that would get them out of this karking mess. Rex would know what to do – he always knew what to do. But Fives – Fives had nothing.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hardcase leap from his commandeered fighter just as his voice crackled out over the com.
“Cover me,” Hardcase shouted wildly.
“Hardcase! Get back in your ship!”
But the karking di’kut had a jaro and he was going to get himself kriffing killed.
“Trust me,” Hardcase urged his vod’e. “I’ve got a plan.”
As Hardcase turned his missile pod, a sinking feeling settled in Fives’ gut. He couldn’t – it was his fault – if Hardcase didn’t get back in his fighter – why wouldn’t he just listen – no one ever listened to Fives when it mattered…
“This is for the 501st,” Hardcase promised. “Don’t wait for me.”
“Hardcase!” Fives was screaming, his voice raw. “NO!”
“You’ve disobeyed enough orders today, sir,” Hardcase replied gently. “Follow this one, for me. Get out of here.”
A moment of silence on the coms, broken only by ongoing blaster fire and the shouts of the B1 Battle Droids, and then –
“If I know Hardcase, we’d better leave,” Jesse interjected.
Fives forced himself not to look back as they sped away, blinking back tears he couldn’t afford to let fall. Behind them, Hardcase used one of the wing-mounted missile pods on the ship to trigger a massive explosion in the reactor core.
In the moments before the explosion, his voice echoed through the coms one last time.
“Live to fight another day, boys. Live to fight another day.”
~~~
It was weeks before Ahsoka gathered the courage to ask her vod’e what fate had befallen Hardcase on Umbara.
She’d noticed right away, of course, that he wasn’t among her vod’e. His teasing and joking were hard to miss, as was his normally brash and loud demeanour.
In the beginning, she had hoped that he was merely injured, but as hours had turned into days, it had quickly become clear that Hardcase was no longer among the vod’e. He had been lost, and no one seemed to want to speak of it.
So, it had taken weeks for Ahsoka to work of the courage to ask her vod’e what had happened to their tough and loyal brother on Umbara.
She had asked Rex, first, but the Captain had merely smiled sadly, and shook his head.
“Fives and Jesse were with him at the end,” Rex had explained gently. “They may not be ready, yet, to tell that story. But it’s a story that is theirs to tell.”
Ahsoka had nodded and curled closer to the blonde clone, offering what comfort she could.
Her vod’e were hurting – some, more than others. From what she understood, Rex had borne the brunt of Krell’s abuse when he could, to protect his vod’e. It hadn’t been long since his own collapse, and he was still doing his best to be all things for all of his vod’e, despite his own lingering exhaustion and trauma.
A few rotations later, she worked up the courage to ask Fives and Jesse, finding them alone, but for Tup’s constant presence at Fives’ side, long after the others had hit their bunks, quietly drinking caf in the mess.
It would be difficult to say which of the two looked more haggard.
Ahsoka, of course, knew the gist of what had occurred on Umbara – that Krell had sentenced them both to death for disobeying his orders, only for them to survive when their vod’e and cyarese couldn’t stomach the thought of shooting their comrades in cold blood and without reason. Tup, in particular, was still pretty shaken up about it, though Ahsoka hadn’t failed to notice how close Kix kept Jesse, when he could.
“Su cuy’gar, vod’ika,” Jesse greeted tiredly, barely looking up from his caf as the Togrutan Padawan approached.
“Hello Jesse,” Ahsoka responded in kind. “Fives, Tup.”
Fives grunted something in response that approximated a polite greeting, Ahsoka supposed, while Tup didn’t stir from where he was evidently asleep against Fives’ side, head tucked neatly into the crook of the ARC Trooper’s neck.
“Do you – do you mind if I join you?” Ahsoka asked awkwardly, gesturing to the empty bench next to Jesse.
“You know you don’t have to ask,” Fives replied softly, his features gentling as he regarded their jetii vod’ika.
“I – well, this time, I think that I should,” Ahsoka explained haltingly. “I wanted to ask – Rex said that it should be you, and Jesse – about Hardcase.”
“Oh.”
Ahsoka waited nervously as the two clones mulled over her explanation in silence, fighting the urge to fidget as the two traded meaningful glances, silently communicating through expression and experience alone.
Finally, Jesse sighed.
“We’ll need more caf for this conversation,” Jesse grumbled as he stood up.
He left without another word, leaving Fives to gesture tiredly towards the empty bench.
“You’d better sit down,” Fives said. “This isn’t an easy story, or a short one.”
Fives’ movements jostled Tup enough to wake the younger clone, who blinked blearily as he fought his way to full consciousness. He groaned softly, nuzzling into Fives’ neck more fully, and the ARC Trooper chuckled, gently scratching at Tup’s scalp.
“Good morning, Tup’ika,” Fives crooned softly.
“’S not morning,” Tup grumbled back, causing Ahsoka to giggle.
At the sound, Tup pulled away from Fives, blinking sleepily at Ahsoka from across the table as he slowly returned to full awareness.
“Commander – ah, Ahsoka,” Tup scrambled, turning red as he realized that he was all but sitting on Fives’ lap in the presence of a Jedi – and his commanding officer.
“At ease, Tup,” Ahsoka giggled. “I’m here as a friend… burc’ya, right?”
Fives nodded encouragingly as Jesse returned, balancing four cups of caf precariously in his hands.
“Your mando’a is getting better,” Jesse observed lightly as he dolled out the caf before returning to his own seat, dropping heavily onto the durasteel bench.
“I have good teachers,” Ahsoka replied lightly, staring into her own cup.
She was… unsure of how to proceed. She had told Fives and Jesse why she was here, and they had indicated that they were open to a discussion, but… How did one ask how another’s brother had died? Especially under such circumstances?
It was Jesse who finally broke the silence.
“I’m assuming you’ve read the official After-Action Report, so you know that we commandeered starfighters in an attempt to destroy the droid supply ship ourselves instead of going along with Krell's plan, which was almost guaranteed to get most – if not all – of us killed,” Jesse explained.
Ahsoka merely nodded.
“Once we got the hang of flying the karking things, we flew through the ongoing space battle and maneuvered our way to the supply ship,” Jesse explained. “It was going surprisingly well, all things considered…”
“Until we were discovered,” Fives cut in drily, his gaze on his caf. “When we flew into the interior of the ship to blow it from the inside, we were – predictably – spotted. One of the B1’s must have sounded the alarm, because they raised the ray shields around the reactor core.”
“Hardcase got out of his starfighter to blow up the ship himself,” Jesse interjected.
“I told him to get back inside his ship, but he wouldn’t listen,” Fives continued bitterly. “Said it was the only way.”
“After that, I – I convinced Fives to let Hardcase finish the mission,” the sadness was palpable in Jesse’s voice now. “Then, Hardcase used one of the wing-mounted missile pods on the ship to trigger a massive explosion, sacrificing his life to destroy the supply ship.”
The four sat in silence as Fives and Jesse finished their story, all lost in their own thoughts and memories.
“He died doing what he loved,” Jesse spoke softly, his voice rough. “Disobeying orders and creating big explosions.”
Ahsoka looked up sharply as Jesse spoke, watching the myriad of emotions sparking across his face. He was sad, and angry… but also fond.
Nostalgic.
“He died because of my jare’or plan,” Fives contradicted bitterly.
“Fives -” Tup tried, but the ARC Trooper merely cut him off with an aggressive shake of his head.
“No, it’s the truth, Tup’ika,” Fives snarled. “I’m the one that came up with the plan – I’m the one who suggested blowing up the droid supply ship from the inside.”
“We both thought it was a good plan,” Jesse pointed out, interrupting Fives’ rant. “Went along with it for our own reasons, sure. But only because we thought it would work.”
“If Hardcase had just said, I would have done it,” Fives seemed to deflate as he spoke. “It should have been me.”
“He wouldn’t have wanted that,” Ahsoka interjected at last, her voice firm yet gentle. “Hardcase chose to sacrifice himself destroy the droid supply ship for you – for all of his vod’e – because he cared deeply for each and everyone one of you.”
Tears finally bubbled over and out as Fives glared firmly at his caf, his shoulders shaking as silent sobs wracked his body. Tup finally clambered bodily onto the ARC Trooper, dragging his hands away from the now empty cup to wrap around Tup as he engulfed him in a full-body hug.
“Ahsoka is right Fives,” Tup spoke softly. “Hardcase knew the risks – and he went anyways. He always did love a good fight, and he never hesitated to embrace the danger of our missions. He would have been happy, I think, to die an honourable death on the field of battle.”
“It’s the best we clones can ask for.”
Ahsoka’s heart hurt then – not for Hardcase – but for his vod’e, still living, who thought that the best they could hope for in life was an honourable death.
They deserved so much more.
“Come on,” Ahsoka stood, gathering their empty cups of caf carefully. “Let’s hit the bunks.”
Jesse stood and stretched, his face carefully neutral as Tup clambered off of Fives and helped his cyare do the same.
“You’ll come to the barracks?” Fives asked softly, his question clearly directed at Ahsoka. The Togruta smiled softly.
“Of course,” Ahsoka replied without hesitation. “You know I’d sleep there all the time if I could get away with it.”
Fives smiled and nodded, bracketed on either side by his vod and his cyare.
~~~
Later, Ahsoka found herself drifting on the cusp of sleep, tucked gently against Jesse’s side as he snored softly. They’d pulled the mattresses off Fives and Jesse’s bunks, lumping blankets and pillows from all four of their own bunks onto their makeshift nest, if only so they didn’t have to be separated. On her other side, Fives and Tup were wrapped around one another, Fives’ back pressed against her own.
The sound of the barracks doors sliding open drew Ahsoka’s attention, but she relaxed when she saw it was only Kix – likely returning from his shift in the med bay. Coric had slipped out sometime earlier to relieve him with a soft smile at their cuddle pile, along with a rueful shake of his head.
Kix approached on silent feet, his buy’ce tucked under one arm.
“Is everything okay?” Kix asked softly.
Ahsoka nodded, not trusting herself to speak without waking her vod’e.
“Jate,” Kix murmured. “Go to sleep, vod’ika – I have the watch.”
As Kix settled himself on Tup’s bunk – ostensibly the only nearby bed that still had a mattress – Ahsoka finally let her mind quiet and her eyes drift shut.
She would make sure that Kix slept tomorrow, but for now…
She slept in the safety of her vod’e’s arms, thankful for what little comfort she could offer them in a galaxy at war.