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

Chapter Seventeen

The elevator ride back to the barracks was spent in silence, with no clone having the heart to say anything and Molindi struggling to find some sort of assurance to help her guys. It wasn't their fault; it couldn't have been. They'd received their orders and fulfilled them like any good soldier would've done. It wasn't on them that the plans for the One-Eyes got away, it was whoever had given them the orders in the first place. The timing just wasn't right, but there was nothing they could do about it now.

"So if we don't get those plans..." Tyson's voice sliced through the layer of quiet like a hot knife through butter. "Those droids are going to be mass-produced, just as much as a regular clanker." He didn't sound guilty, or like any of this was their fault. He just sounded somewhat resigned to this information, like it was already set in stone regardless of their actions.

"It wasn't on us, guys." Molindi addressed them all as a a whole. "We got our orders and did exactly what was asked of us at the time. I told you everything I knew about the situation; there was nothing about Unim's assistant in the report I was given. So don't feel bad about any of this, because it was out of our hands. Understood?" Of course, she was being a total hypocrite. She knew there was nothing they could've done, but the fact that they could've done something about if they'd been told about the situation earlier was still a weight on her shoulders she didn't like.

"The Commander's right."

At first, Molindi thought it was Breaks who was talking, since he, Tyson, and Risk had been the friendliest to her and seemed to always be in her corner, but a glance to her left gave her quite a shock. It was Axel who was on her side, backing her up with certainty in his eye and a confidence she'd never seen in him before.

"There was nothing we could've done. What we need to stay focused on is the mission ahead of us, not the one behind us which, despite what we learned today, was still a success. We still caught Unim. That's what our superiors wanted and that's what they got. There's no sense in acting like we screwed up when the only people at fault here are the ones who gave Commander Rino the report so late in the first place. And who knows, maybe they didn't learn about Unim's assistant 'til recently after he was captured."

"That would explain why they didn't want us to blow the place up." Risk added. "It probably said somewhere in the data he was storing that he had an assistant and that they were on their way to the Separatist gathering to showcase the information."

"See? No one would've known about any of that if we hadn't captured the laboratory and brought Unim into custody. We did a great job, now we're just cleaning up the mess after the party." Axel finished. By then, the doors had slid open to reveal the trooper's barracks and everyone was feeling slightly better about the whole ordeal. "We'll see you in the hangar, Commander." He turned to say to her as the other three men stepped out of the elevator, then did something she'd never seen him do before- He smiled. It was a small smile, hardly a lift of his lips, but it was there. There was no mistaking it.

"See you there." She replied, though her voice sounded a little suspicious and uncertain. "And well done with the mission on Abbakinto, all of you." Molindi added and nodded to her men, before pressing the button on the elevator's control panel that would take her to her own floor. The doors slid shut, and the small room was silent once more.

**********

"What was that?" Breaks was the first to speak up once their commander had left. Axel looked at him from his seat at his bed and raised an eyebrow, unsure of what his brother meant. Breaks folded his arms and leaned his shoulder against his bunk across the room. "Ever since we met the commander, you've been as distant from her as possible-"

"No, I haven't." Axel denied with a roll of his eyes and propped his feet up on his mattress. "I've just been trying to treat her like any other commanding officer. She deserves that kind of respect." Breaks scoffed, obviously unconvinced by his statement. "What? You don't think she deserves the respect of her men?"

"I wouldn't call the way you've been treating her lately respectful."

"Alright, knock it off, you two." Risk interfered from his own bed next to Axel. The man was laying down, his head on his pillow and his hands resting on his stomach with his eyes shut. "That last briefing was rough on all of us and it was big of Axel to help the commander ease our nerves on our way here. He was being nice, that's all. No need to turn this into something that its not."

"Still, it wouldn't hurt if Axel here was a bit nicer to her in general, not just when he feels like its necessary." The bald man of the group glared at the clone his anger was towards, then sat down on his own bed before reaching under his mattress to grab a blanket.

"Whatever you say." Axel muttered under his breath, then laid back and closed his eyes before Breaks could send a snarky reply in his direction. Axel didn't care what Breaks thought, or what anyone else thought for that matter. Odds are they were all going to end up dead and Axel would be moved to a different squadron in a matter of days. It wasn't going to take long now as he drifted off to sleep for a light nap before their armor would arrive.

**********

They all waited for the elevator doors to close behind Commander Rino and her squad before completely losing their minds.

"Commander Rino is a woman? Why haven't we heard of this before?"

"Did you know about this?"

"No! You honestly think I would've stayed quiet about her if I knew?"

"Alright, alright, cut the chatter." Rex shut up his four over-excited soldiers with a single sentence, even though he himself was freaking out on the inside as well. "Commander Rino's gender changes nothing. You are to treat her with the same respect as any other commanding officer and if I hear that any of you have not done so, I'll personally see to it that you lose what makes you different from women in the first place, understand?" It was an intimidating message, but it had the effect he wanted and his men immediately replied with a 'sir, yes sir'.

"That was..." General Skywalker ran a hand through his hair and let out a puff of air from his lips. "Unexpected. Who'd have thought that we'd end up with the only woman in the entire Republic army teaming up with us on this mission?"

"Honestly, sir, I'm just as shocked as you are." And a little mortified, to say the least. She was a stunning woman, not only with her looks but with the reputation she had under her belt. He'd originally been impressed by the individual just because of the record Rino held, but now he was completely shocked by just how extraordinary this woman was. He felt like a shiny again when comparing himself to her, and a feeling in his gut rattled around inside himself that he just couldn't shake. He could hardly keep himself together in her presence. 

How the hell was he going to handle being her husband for this entire mission?