When the Cavalry Comes.

XV

Cavalry was shaking. Her forearms rested on her knees as she trembled. A presence settled down near her, putting a hand on her shoulder and tracing small circles.

"It's gonna be alright. The captain mist have a plan." Neon said softly. "He wouldn't have asked us to do this otherwise." Cavalry sighed.

"I know. It's just... Krell wants them dead. For aiding the republic." She said slowly, the words feeling foreign and strange in her mouth. Neon sighed, going quiet for a few seconds in a way that told her he was silently talking to somebody else.

"I'm fine, I promise." She grumbled, leaning into her big brother's side.

"You're shaking." A second voice said. Kix. Cav grabbed her blaster and stood, leaning on the set of crutches at her side for support.

"We need to get in formation." She said instead of answering them. They were lined up in front of the wall. The prisoners were marched out, Dogma in the front and the Captain in the back. Dogma stared down at the two prisoners.

"Will the prisoners request to be blindfolded?" He asked, sneering at them. The pair stayed quiet. "I'll take that as a no."

"I hope you can live with yourself, Dogma." Fives spat, curling his lip at his brother. Dogma's own mouth twisted.

"Ready weapons." He called, and rifles were all brought up to attention. With the blaster in her hands Cav forced herself to relax, becoming rock steady.

"Never thought we'd go out this way." Jesse muttered. Fives gritted his teeth.

"5, 4, 3, 2, -"

"Wait!" Fives shouted, cutting off Dogma's countdown. "This is wrong. We all know it." Fives's skin was pale in the harsh floodlight.

"The general is making a mistake, and he needs to be called on it. No clone should have to go out this way. We are loyal soldiers. We follow orders, but we are not a bunch of unthinking droid!" He yelled. "We are men. Men who should be able to tell the difference from right and wrong. To make the right decisions, especially when our orders. are. wrong." He gritted his teeth and stared at the black silhouettes of his brothers and sister.

"Fire." Dogma spat out.

Cav made a split second decision, twitching her wrist off to the left as she pulled the trigger. There were two yelps from the prisoners as they instinctively ducked.

Behind her helmet, Cavalry's lips quirked up in a smile. That was the Captain's plan then.

Every shot had missed. Dogma stared at them, open mouthed.

"Drop your blasters." Kix hissed over the internal comms. As one, the entire squad dropped the blasters on the ground.

"They're doing the right thing, Dogma." Captain Rex said gently, putting a hand on his shoulder. Dogma brushed his hand off.

"We... we have to go through with it. We have our orders!" He yelled, looking wildly between the Captain and the firing squad.

"Heh, good luck finding anyone to do it." He gave a humorless laugh. "Because if this is how heroes are treated, then every man in this battalion will suffer the same fate. Take off their binders." He barked, and Neon rushed to take the cuffs off.

Captain Rex's wristcomm beeped. The general's voice crackled over the speakers, signaling him to the command center. Minutes later, her helmet speakers crackled.

"Torrent Company, you are to eliminate with a organized group of insurgents that have terrorized our boarders. Be warned, they have already attacked General Kenobi's Ghost Company and are believed to have their weapons or armor." A brother's voice crackled over their internal comms. Sargent Appo, Cavalry guessed. The firing squad retrieved their blasters and regrouped with their company to set out into the forrest.

Cav sighed and slung her blaster across her back, watching the others go. She sharpened her knives and swapped charged blaster packs out for old ones, leaving the fresh ones on her brother's bunks. Whiteout was left behind too, still considered as Walking Wounded because of his arm.

He was also drifting around, without the others there. They didn't talk much, but Cav eventually sidled up to him. He was sitting at a desk in the comms tower, working a peg board while he monitored the comms.

A distant explosion went off. They both looked out of the windows to watch the flashes of blue light flicker throughout the forrest.

"Wonder how they're doing?" White murmured, breaking the silence between them.

"It's Torrent. I'm sure they'll be fine." She said, turning back to the comm terminals. "Hey, looks like the jamming is faltering." She fidgeted with the dial, not really knowing how to clear the signal.

"Here. Like this." White put his flesh hand over hers and helped her clear the fuzzy signal a bit.

"This is Koal to Waxer, we've made contact with the insurgents impersonating Torrent. Beginning flanking maneuver." A brother's voice crackled through. There were more garbled words, then the signal was lost.

"...Isn't Waxer the Lieutenant in charge of Ghost Company?" Whiteout asked after a second. Cavalry's mouth hung open.

"We need to get out of here." She hissed, grabbing her crutches and dragging White by his good arm.

"What? Why?" He asked as she shut the elevator doors.

Cav lowered her voice. "Ghost Company was the one that was supposedly attacked. That was their comms we overheard."

White's eyes widened. "But they think that Torrent was attacked. They've been pitted against each other."

Cav's jaw tightened. "And they won't be shooting to injure. We've been betrayed."

Whiteout hissed a breath. "And those orders came from Krell." He muttered. "What can we do? We're not cleared for active duty."

Cavary thought for a second. "Do you know how to work the terminals?" She asked. Whiteout frowned.

"Some of them, yeah." He shrugged awkwardly.

"Could you put the base on lockdown?" She asked. Whiteout hesitated. "I... yeah. But wouldn't that leave the captain stuck outside the base as well?"

"It would... but remember the keys given to the higher ups? The umbaran card things?" She asked.

"They work as door overrides. If I can set it so only the captain and Fives can open them then-"

"It'll at least slow Krell down." The lift reached the bottom and the door opened right as Krell walked in and they walked out. Cav's heart jumped to her throat as they saluted the traitor briefly. Thankfully, he didn't seem to hear them.

Cav noticed distantly that the blasterfire in the forrest had stopped. She smiled. The Captain was on to it.

"That son of a hutt is going down." She grumbled.

"That's offensive to the hutts." Whiteout admonished her as they made their way to a main terminal system. "Let's hope this works."