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

Chapter Twenty

"Alright, everyone, here's the plan," General Skywalker began once the ship was on coarse for their destination and everyone was located in the passenger bay. The group was gathered in a large circle around the room, with all eyes on the General and the two commanders at his sides. "Although we're going to be sticking together for the most part of this mission, if Commanders Rex and Rino are required to split up for any sort of reason, Rex's men are required to stay with him at all times. The same goes for Rino's men: you are required to stay by her side, no matter what the situation is. The Twarans are said to have at least four body-guards for each member of their court, adding additional protection for spouses and children when the need arises."

"Not that she needs us protecting her..." Tyson muttered under his breath with a small, sort of proud smile, leading Breaks to ask a question he'd been wondering about since they began the voyage to the Seppie gathering.

"Will the Commanders be armed for this, General?" Anakin shook his head, causing Molindi to bite her lip with uncertainty. She didn't like not having a weapon with her, not having that sort of insurance to tell her that if things went South, she'd be able to defend herself with her firearms. It wasn't that she didn't trust her men to protect her if she needed it, she just wasn't used to the lack of weight in her holster. Or the lack of her holster in general. Throughout her time with her last squad, she always felt like the protector of the group, the mama bird taking care of the men she'd been given to lead. This was the first mission where she was forced to give up that responsibility and trust that her troops could handle the situation of the crap hit the fan.

Rex was having a hard time dealing with the lack of protection as well. Not only had his armor been taken away from him, making him feel practically naked in this new monkey-suit he'd been instructed to wear, his pistols had been left behind on Kamino for safe keeping. Meaning the only things he had to keep him safe during this ordeal were his men and his own bare hands. It was an odd feeling when he was so used to relying on his own weapons during battles.

"Rex and Rino will be weaponless during our time on Twar. The noble families frown upon using any sort of blaster weapons, so they leave the guns to their guards and rely heavily on their own... 'special' abilities to protect themselves if need be."

"He means dark m-magic." JC piped up, turning all eyes over to her as she stood on the opposite side of Molindi. Though she was still screaming on the inside from excitement of going on her first mission with her master and her new squad, the droid handled herself calmly and knew that now was a time to be serious. Celebrating and freaking out could be done later. "If things g-go sideways, the Twarans aren't going to use the usual artillery you're used to fighting against. They're infamous for their gifts, each w-witch specializing in their own sort of offense ranging from control of fire to the ability to control minds, though the latter is extremely rare. I'd recommend using defense as much as you can if you end up facing off against a T-Twaran witch."

"Great, dark magic." One of Rex's guys groaned sarcastically. "And I was all excited that we'd be fighting tinnies on this trip."

"Do the witches have any weaknesses?" Axel asked. "Anything we can exploit for our advantage if we go toe-to-toe?" Molindi had to hold back a small smirk from her lips. She respected Rex and his men, there was no doubting that. But it made her happy to see her own guys asking the intelligent questions, while Rex's guys complained about the battles they may or may not end up facing. Pride slowly grew inside of her and Axel snuck a friendly, supportive wink in her direction when no one was looking. As if he'd read her mind and knew exactly what she was thinking.

"Yes, actually," General Skywalker spoke up again. "there is one thing that'll really help you gain the upper hand if you're facing the enemy. If you shoot, aim for the center of their forehead."

"Will that kill them, sir?" Risk piped up. 

"No, it won't," Anakin answered honestly. "But it'll slow them down. The force of the blow will usually knock them out for a minute or two, giving you enough time to get the hell out of there before they do some serious damage to you. Hopefully things will go smoothly and it won't come to that. But if it does, shoot and run. That's your best bet when it comes to survival." Molindi didn't like the sound of that.

Not one bit.

**********

There was still a few hours left til the group would enter Twar's sandy, windy atmosphere, leaving the clones to chat among themselves in the passenger bay while the Commanders, JC, and General Skywalker hung out in the bridge. The fact that JC was there made Molindi feel so much more comfortable in the presence of these two men. Not that she felt threatened or like she couldn't trust them, it was just nice to have a familiar face with her when the task ahead seemed so perilous.

"So Axel b-beat you at ping-pong?" JC started up a conversation with Molindi after a few minutes of quiet between the three humans and the droid. "I'm surprised, you must've g-gotten rusty." The woman, who was reading some information from the ship's computer, laughed, a sound which stirred the attention of the General and other commander, and turned to face her droid with a smile on her face.

"He didn't beat me, I let him win." She folded her arms over her chest with a smirk. "The only reason he got that last point was because I got distracted. I could've won if I tried hard enough." JC moved her head in a circular motion, acting as if she were rolling her eyes, since her robotic ones wouldn't allow that kind of movement.

"Sure, you d-did." JC replied.

"You play games with your soldiers?" General Skywalker turned around in his chair to look away from the pilot controls and face Commander Rino. He wasn't judging her or anything, he simply thought it was nice that she was taking the time to get to know her men. Plus, it was a start to a conversation he could join in on.

"I used to, with my old squadron." She told him. He could sense the pain in her heart when she mentioned her soldiers she'd lost beforehand; he didn't need to rely on the Force very hard for her heartache to be felt, though she tried to mask her sorrow with a smile. "I just recently taught Axel how to play ping-pong and, I hate to admit it, but he's pretty good."

"Isn't ping-pong an extremely old game?" Rex decided to join in. "Ancient?" Molindi nodded and couldn't help but be a little excited to finally start having a real conversation with her hero. Anakin could feel her heartbeat quicken at the sound of Rex's voice and he had to bite his bottom lip to keep from smiling like an idiot. This was good. In the General's book, this development was very, very good.