It happened so fast.
One minute they were all laughing and discussing the artificial environment of Coruscant, the next the ship was shuddering and the pilot was yelling to brace themselves for impact.
Then, nothing.
Ever so slowly the light started to squeeze its way in between her eyes. That feeling of light headedness mixed with sheer panic was beginning to build inside her as consciousness nipped at her body. She was numb, no pain.
"Am I dead? Father!"
Skylar fought hard to open her eyes.They obliged, and the whole world in all its messiness came rushing up to greet her.
.
"What are we doing here again, captain?" Hardcase could barely keep still long enough to spill the words out. He was unsettled after their last mission and needed desperately to get some more action in - especially as those tinnies had taken a pot shot at the Captain.
And for what?
Grievous had got away and General Kenobi was furious. Poor Commander Cody, he was taking the full brunt of his general's anger unlike the boys in blue. They were given a few days off dirt side while Captain Rex took a dip in bacta to settle the nerve damage from the shot that almost cost him his life.
"Easy Hardcase, we have been through this a hundred times before,"
Kix chimed in sensing the captain's growing frustration with the jittery trooper.
"The roots from these plants will help Dr. Uthan with her research into some vaccine Palps has her working on." Kix looked around and took in the small moon's surroundings. It was pleasant enough, warm, moist with dense vegetation; subtropical, he decided. The plant they were looking for had been reported only on a few planets in this system. This was their second drop and so far, they had had little success in locating anything like it.
"I know," Hardcase was on it again, "but we are soldiers, not kriffing botanists!"
That earned him a flick across the back of his head from Jesse.
"Aw, come on," he scowled. "I swear if anyone does that again -"
"Then just shut your trap and get the hint," Jesse added.
Captain Rex sighed and smiled to himself.
He wasn't too fussed about the cushy job they had managed to land, even if it was looking for an ochre coloured flower the size of a credit in what seemed like a jungle. He was happy to have some time to think about what had happened on Suleucami after meeting Cut Lawquane. For some reason the chance encounter had made the captain think about after the war.
'It couldn't last forever, could it?'
Then the burning question; what would he do?
He didn't know anything else other than being a captain in the Grand Army of the Republic. He quickly shook his head and re focussed on the mission at hand. Needing to quell the bickering that was becoming a little too loud for comfort he simply stopped moving forward. Kix and Jesse recognised the unspoken order, but Hardcase was still rambling on when he in inadvertently bumped into the back of Jesse who stumbled into Kix.
It was a domino effect, and the captain ended it there.
"Listen up. The sooner we locate this plant the sooner we can re-join the general and the commander. We appear to be in a reasonable area. I want us all to break up and move out half a klick. Jesse east, Kix west and Hardcase south."
