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

Chapter Fifteen

The gunship doors slid open, and six individuals stepped out: a Commander, a General, and four other soldiers in white armor. Molindi tried not to hold her breath, but it was almost impossible to breathe when her men saluted the new arrivals and her instincts forced her arm to do the same. 

JC nearly destroyed Molindi's ear-drums when the woman gave the droid the two-minute version of what was happening up in her personal quarters. Though, realistically speaking, it wasn't even the two-minute version, it was only a few random words she'd spouted out when frantically putting on her pieces of armor: Commander, Rex, see me, hangar, and right now. JC pieced it together and got enough of a picture to realize what was about to happen, unfortunately for Molindi's ears.

Now, as the five soldiers and the Jedi Master approached her and her squadron, she realized that she was internally screaming just as loud and frantic as JC had been.

"Commander Rino," General Skywalker greeted with one of his famous, perfect smiles. "It's an honor to finally have the opportunity to meet you in person." He was even more good-looking than the holograms she'd seen, with his luscious locks and stunning blue eyes. "This is my second in command, Commander Rex of the 501st. And his troopers." She blinked a few times, immediately erased the dumbfounded expression from her face, and nodded her head.

"The pleasure's mine, General Skywalker."

She'd never been so thankful in her life to have a helmet, despite the scorched hole made by blaster-fire on her cheek. After the words left her mouth, a strange expression appeared on the handsome man's face and he exchanged glances with the clone to his right, who, based on the blue marks that covered his armor, could've only been Commander Rex.

At first, confusion and sudden self-conscious were the two only things registering in her mind at the moment. Why was he looking at her weird? What was wrong? Did she have something on her helmet, besides the scorch mark? Did she have toilet paper stuck to her shoe or something else vile she might've picked up on one of her previous missions without knowing? Did she smell bad? No, that couldn't be it, she showered as soon as she got back from capturing Unim. 

"Is something wrong?" She asked, her words filled with genuine concern, but for some reason her question only seemed to puzzle him even more. Then everything began to make sense. "Oohhh, I'm sorry, General, I should've introduced myself properly."

She put her hands on her helmet and removed it from her head.

**********

Commander Rino, a dainty-looking trooper with a voice too high and figure too curvy, slid his slightly damaged helmet off his head to reveal the face beneath. Rex expected to see a man under the armor, maybe a disfigured trooper who'd beaten the odds when it came to training. Like 99, only this one managed to make a name for himself on the front lines. But that wasn't even close to what actually was hidden under the helmet.

Commander Rino wasn't a 'he' at all. As far from a 'he' as you could possibly get. Rex, General Skywalker, and the rest of his men were starting to realize that as they took in Rino's full lips, big blue eyes, little button nose, and the braid of blonde hair that fell down her left shoulder. Though a blister covered her face where the mark on her helmet had been, she was something of pure beauty, straight out of a holo-movie. With her headgear resting on her hip beneath her left arm, she saluted the men with her right.

"Commander Molindi Rino, at your service."

Rex was in shock. Pure, absolute, unadulterated shock.

A woman? In the army? When the hell did that happen? Who the hell let it happen? Why hadn't he known about this earlier? You'd think it would've been a popular topic to talk about if a woman was accepted into the Republic's clone army, noting the word 'clone'. Why would she be here when he and his brothers were sacrificing themselves for people like her already?

"Uh..." Obviously just as surprised as the rest of his soldiers, who were most-likely gawking behind the safety of their helmets, General Skywalker rubbed the back of his neck- he always did that when he was unsure of what to say- and then extended it to her. "My apologies, Commander. You just...weren't quite what I was expecting." She took his hand and gave it a firm shake.

"It's alright, General. I get that a lot." The woman assured him. She gestured to her men, who removed their headgear as well to reveal their own faces. This reveal wasn't quite as dramatic, considering they were all clones and no one had assumed otherwise. "These are my guys: Breaks, our weapon specialist, " She began to introduce each one down the line. "Risk, our explosives expert, Tyson, who specializes in battlefield aid, and Axel. He's our 'go-to' when it comes to strategics."

"Good to meet you, men." General Skywalker said, and the four nodded in acknowledgment. The General gestured to his own troopers, and each one took off their own headgear as well. "This is Rocket, Champ, Dodo, Slides, and I've already introduced Rex here." He patted the 501st commander on the shoulder as he removed his helmet last, showing his brown slightly awestruck eyes and thin layer of blond fuzz where his hair had been closely shaved.

The woman sent him a friendly smile and he felt his chest tighten.

"We look forward to working with you all." Commander Rino stated, "That is, assuming we're working together. I highly doubt you suggested our presence here for kicks, if you don't mind me saying."

"As much as we'd all like a long break, no, that's not the reason we're here." General Skywalker confirmed her suspicions. "We've got a mission coming up that we're going to need your squad's help with. It's not your typical battlefield-type dilemma, so you're all going to have to step out of your comfort zones."

"What kind of mission are we talking about exactly, sir?" Commander Rino asked. It felt as if every new arrival was hanging on each word she said, like dogs looking at a bone. The Varactyl squadron members noticed their absolute awe of the woman and Breaks, Tyson, and Risk all did their best to hide their amused expressions. Not Axel, though. There was no amusement in the sight of his brothers from another squad completely disregard the fact that they were sending goo-goo eyes straight at a superior authority figure. It made him sick to his stomach to witness.

General Skywalker smirked one of his famous smirks and Molindi did her best to hide the fangirl blush working its way up her neck to her cheeks. 

"The 'undercover' kind."