The Varactyl Squadron Commander (A Star Wars: The Clone Wars Fan-Fiction)

Chapter Ten

After getting the Commander and the other wounded safely onto one of the gunships, Tyson and the other squad-members went back to help the other clones in case they needed any assistance with the large trandoshian pinata on the seventh floor. They knew there'd be other gunships coming to help evacuate the soldiers from the planet, so they didn't think twice when their commander's ship lifted off and began its journey back to Kamino.

Molindi leaned back against the wall of the gunship, making sure to stay out of the medics' way while they tended to the more severely injured. She and her boys were lucky for only getting a few scratches here and there. Only one of the injured clones out of three was on her gunship, but he wasn't looking too good. From all the blood, it appeared that a One-eye got to him and did some pretty decent damage to the poor guy.

To start off, he was missing his entire left arm from the shoulder-down, barely even leaving a stump behind. A river of red was pouring onto the floor of the ship and if she looked hard enough, she could see a little speck of white that was his collar bone protruding from the blood. His neck was littered in bleeding slits that thankfully hadn't punctured all the way through his throat, so he could still breathe. They'd taken his chest-plate off, revealing an enormous fleshy hole where the cyclops must've tried to rip his heart out.

"Commander, if you're able, we could use some assistance." One of the medics requested. As if by miracle, the tattered clone was unconscious, so she didn't need to hold him down or anything. But they were having trouble maintaining the blood-loss. Without a hesitating moment, she nodded and quickly made her way across the gunship to the medic's side. "Just hold this against his shoulder." She took the gauze from the clone and quickly did as she was instructed.

"What's his name?" Molindi asked them. She wasn't sure if they actually knew, but it didn't hurt to ask.

"I think I heard one of the troopers mention a 'Tank' when we picked him up." The medic informed her while he and the one other medical assistant on the ship starting patching up the hole in the guy's chest and the clawed marks on his neck. "I'm not sure if that's his name or not, but that's about as much as I know of the soldier besides his medical condition."

"I know this is a stupid question, but what condition would you say he's in right now?" The woman asked. 

"Critical, not exactly fatal but working its way there if he loses much more blood." It didn't take her long to realize what she had to do. One glance down at the gauze in her hand, already completely soaked through with blood, and she opened her mouth to speak.

"I can patch this up, just give me the supplies." 

* * * * * * * * * *

Fifteen minutes from Kamino and the tattered clone was stable. Missing an arm and would be covered in scars, but stable. The remaining area of his shoulder was stitched up and wrapped, thanks to Molindi, and his neck and chest were mended and bandaged. Once they arrive at the planet, he'd be sent straight to a bacta tank to speed up the healing process. The commander didn't know exactly what the Kaminoans did with clones like him, maybe they'd give him a robo-arm and send him back to the front lines. All she knew was that he'd live, and that's all that mattered.

The two medics, who's names were Gene and Fiber, were kind and polite. They didn't ask why she was a woman and didn't mind when she asked them about their lives. If anything, they were kind of surprised when she wanted to know more about their training and learning the ways of a medic, maybe even a little excited. Not many people cared much about clones and didn't bother asking personal questions about them.

So for the last ten minutes of the ride, Commander Rino listened intently as Fiber and Gene listed off the number of years they'd been medics, how many planets they'd been to, the worst injuries they'd seen on the job. This was a common thing she liked to do, get to know the guys on her missions, learn their names and the little things that made them different from other soldiers. So she could remember them. 

"We will be landing on Kamino in exactly three minutes." 

"Have we really been talking this entire time?" Gene questioned with a small bashful smile as he rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. Fiber was in the same state and Molindi chuckled in amusement. "Sorry about that, Commander. We didn't mean to bore you or anything like that." She just shook her head.

"It wasn't a bore at all, Gene. I like getting to know all the troops. Your company is a blessing in my book. Both of you." The medics blinked, looked at each other, then looked back at Molindi in disbelief. "Honestly. Do you really think I'd be a commander right now if I wasn't committed to you guys?"

The gunship jolted and the doors slid open, revealing the watery planet of Kamino and the cloning facilities that inhabited it. Gene and Fiber got to their feet before extending their hands to the blonde woman before them. "Thank you, Commander. It was an honor to meet you in person." She gave both of their hands a firm shake. 

"Molindi. My name's Molindi." She told them. "And I'm just warning you, since we're friends now, that if I ever get busted up like Tank, I'm personally asking for you two to patch me up." The two clones couldn't help but grin at the sound of that.

"Can we have your word on that?" Fiber questioned with a slight smirk. She nodded and the medics said their good-byes, then took Tank from the gunship towards the hospital facilities. The commander thanked the pilot for the ride from Abbakinto then jumped out of the ship and started walking towards the resting quarters where her room was. 

A stab wound on her shoulder like this wasn't too serious, especially since everything had been patched and wrapped up by Risk back at the lab. All she needed was painkillers, and she had a big enough stash of those back home with JC that she didn't need to bother the doctors at the hospital for it. 

The walk back to her quarters was interesting enough. All the soldiers she walked past would ask her if she was alright, due to the blood stains on her armor, and recommend that she needed to go to the medics for help. But she was patient and told them that she was fine and that the medics had already looked at her, thanked them for their concern, then proceeded on her way. 

When she finally got home, she yanked off her armor, tossed it onto her bed, said a quick hello to JC and sprinted to the cabinet in her bathroom for her pills. Downing two of them and sticking her head under the sink for a drink, Molindi wiped the excess water from her lips and turned around to see JC standing in the doorway, metal arms folded.

"Soooo, how was-s-s your first mission with your new squad?" The droid asked in an excited voice. 

"It was alright, and I'm fine, thanks for asking." Molindi replied. She walked past JC back into her room and knelt down in front of her dresser. 

"Come on, I need details. Names. Per-er-ersonalities." JC stuttered involuntarily. Molindi dug a new black undershirt out of the lowest drawer and removed her old one, which would be thrown away due to the enormous bloody hole in the shoulder. She sighed and slowly pulled the new article of clothing on, making very little progress because of her injury. Molindi just prayed the painkillers would kick in soon enough.

"They're all great guys." She told her droid. "Breaks, Risk, Tyson, and Axel. They're all good guys." JC was silent for a second, which only happened when she was thinking deeply or contemplating saying something. It was never a good sign, to be honest.

"But they'll n-never be Bren."

Molindi finished putting her shirt on and pretended like JC bringing up a special member from her last squad didn't hurt.

"No, they won't."