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Chapter Four: The Fleet

Kaar yawned, curling up tighter underneath the heated blanket he had taken from his quarters in the temple. The general had no intentions of moving, though he knew that he should. He hadn't legitimately lazed in quite a while, and his body positively ached from the spar with Commander Sparkler yesterday. Even in his four months at the temple he hadn't lazed, he had been far too wound up.

His mind drifted to his fellow Paladins. His body hadn't ached with spar inflicted bruises like this since his last spar with Gin. He smiled a little at the thought of the rambunctious Kel Dor and her wife, a fellow Paladin. A Kaminoan named Ha Kes. They made quite the couple.

Last Kaar had heard, the pair were working to rid the Outer Rim of slavery. The disaster trio — Made up of Asher Kaminoa, Kilvo Chessa, and Kylyk Tiindura — had been seeking out force sensitives who had been orphaned by the Empire.

His prior good mood was suddenly sullied as he thought about Nylyn. The last thing the Zygerrian would've seen was him missing the ledge and plummeting towards the gas clouds below the floating city. Kaar let out a deep sigh, steeling himself as he sat up. If anything, he had to do this for them. For his fellow Paladins. For his Master.

He started to rattle off a remembrance song his master had taught him. Each color coded temple had one. He'd modified it like his crechémates, each had made their own form of it in their native language. He made himself look as put together as he could, pulling on his thermal cloak and making a cup of caf.

He trudged up to the bridge.

"General on deck!"

He looked around at the troopers who stood at attention, waving a hand. "At ease men." He made his way to stand with Sparkler at the viewport, the swirling blue of hyperspace calmed the Kaleesh greatly. "You alright sir? You look a little upset."

Kaar sighed, sipping his caf. "I suppose. Just a little homesick, Commander. Nothing to worry about." "Homesick?"

He tipped up his mask, prosthetic eye still just a little too sharp. "I just miss some friends." He shook his head, pulling a soft grin onto his face, "I don't think I said it yesterday Commander, but it's an honor to be working with you." His expression was warm, hooking two fingers on one of his tusks.

"Dropping out of hyperspace in one minute General!"

"Thank you trooper!" He offered a similar smile to the deck officer who had informed him, and the deck officer looked rather pleased at being thanked. Sparkler looked pleasantly surprised, "That's new." "What is?"

Sparkler shrugs, "Never heard a superior thank one of us before." The clone could've sworn he saw a flash of something in the general's eye when he spoke of their prior treatment. Kaar crossed his arms, "Well expect to hear it from me. You boys work hard from what I've heard." He sipped his hot cup of caf, which kind of sucked. Turns out military grade instant is worse than regular instant, who knew?

"Of course we do sir, it's our duty." There was an unmistakeable twitch in the general's fingers, and Kaar simply hummed a little. The sway in his tail, though covered by his thick thermal cloak, had visibly harshened from the prior slow, smooth sway. Hyperspace vanished, replaced by the Open Circle fleet. Somewhere in his mind he heard echoes of Ha Kes telling him how a Jedi ought to act. "Not everyone can be a model Jedi like you Ha Kes." He mumbled, finishing his caf and turning to go put the cup back in his room. "Comm me if anything happens."

A few minutes later, on his way back to the bridge, he got a comm. "Sal."
"General, the Resolute is hailing us."
"Ah, I'll be up there in a moment then trooper. Tell Commander Sparkler to get the conversation going."
"Yessir."

He had kind of been joking, but he walked onto the bridge to find Sparkler talking with Captain Rex of all people. Kaar offered a small grin, "Thank you for keeping the line open Commander."

"Sorry sir, General Skywalker is a little preoccupied at the moment."

"Ah." He knew what that meant. "Amidala?"
"Yes General Sal. May I ask, how did you know that?"
"Oh come now Rex, they're about as secretive as a toddler hiding behind a lamp."

Kaar flicked an ear and grinned as Rex tried desperately not to laugh. Anakin stepped into frame, "Thank you for keeping the comm line open Rex." "Ah, Skywalker. How nice of you to join us."

Anakin's hair was still in that intermediate phase between mullet and the absolutely wretched padawan cut. Kaar was ever so grateful he never had to go through that. He turned his attention back as he was hailed again. General Kenobi's hologram appeared next to Anakin's.

"My aren't we popular today." Kaar chuckled. Obi-wan nodded, "Yes you are. We needed your input on something." "And that would be?"

"General Kenobi is sending us a holomap sir."
"Put it up then."

The holomap showed the current projected movements of the droid army, and Anakin cleared his throat, "Master Kenobi had the idea of routing them away from this system and towards," he pointed at a smaller system, bringing up a map of it, "this system instead. It only has one habitable planet—" "Kalee." Kaar cut him off.

"You want. To drive the Separatists. To Kalee." He had a slight glint of rage in his eyes. "You are aware that my people aren't as developed as the Republic, correct? We would have to send ground troops to protect them. They may be vicious warriors, but they would be destroyed!"

Obi-wan held up a hand. "Paladin Sal, I am fully aware that you don't want to see your people subjugated again, but it's the only plan we have. It wouldn't be right now, routing them will take a couple of months."

Kaar took a deep breath, then let out a heavy sigh. "Fine. But I'll be taking the 201st down to defend them. I won't let my people fight alone." Obi-wan smiled a little, nodding. "I would expect nothing less. They may even join the Republic." "If we're lucky."

The meeting ended shortly after once the plan was agreed to. Kaar turned to face Sparkler.

"Ready to bust some clankers Commander?"
"Always have been sir."

•—END OF CHAPTER—•