Cuyanir (A Rexsoka SWTCW Fanfic)

26

Rex sighed. Of course, the less dignified job of being the second in command is that you acted like a glorified errand boy as he ran messages to and from the general. Or, that's at least what Krell made him do. He gritted his teeth as he approached the general.

"Sir, transmission from Obi-Wan Kenobi." He said, thankful his neutral tone didn't sound too forced.

"I'll take it in the tower." Krell waved one of his massive hands dismissively. Rex followed him up to the tower, which had become the command center of sorts. "Where is he." Krell growled. The strange blocky holotable shifted, revealing an image of Kenobi in the particles.  

"Congratulations on your capture of the Umbaran airbase, General. It is refreshing to have good news." Kenobi said, his voice strangely altered from the hologram. 

"There will be time for celebration when we've taken the capital." Krell admonished, a slight growl. 

"Yes, well, I'm afraid that's going to be more difficult than anticipated. Their attacks have increased, and we are being forced to retreat from our positions due to their long range missiles." Kenobi's cuby form scowled.  

"I was hoping we cut off their arms shipments and supplies when we took this airbase." Krell furrowed his own brow. Rex's temper flared briefly. Whaddaya mean, when we took this base. You did nothing! He forced his anger down before Krell noticed. Jedi were freaky like that, no offence to his Cyare. 

"It seems that their receiving new arms shipments from a supply ship orbiting-" The transmission flickered and general Kenobi's form was fuzzy for a few seconds. 

"General Kenobi?" Rex asked. Krell glared at him.

"Having... difficulty... transmit... jamming us...." Finally, the image stabilized. 

"Can't we just destroy the supply ship?" Rex asked. Krell shot him an out right growl and he backed down. Kenobi seemed to notice his plight and stepped in. 

"Our fleet is outnumbered, and the extra ships we were promised have not arrived." Kenobi gritted his teeth.

"We'll have to the the capitol regardless of the missiles." Krell sneered. "My battalion will meet you at the rendezvous coordinates."

"We cannot expect-" His feed cut out. 

"I'm trying to get him back." One of the troopers hurriedly scrambled, trying to reestablish the connection.

"Don't bother, the enemy is jamming our transmissions." Krell growled. Rex frowned at the ground for a second, then shook his head and followed the general. They walked through the base, Krell barking orders left and right. Finally, He turned to Rex.

"Have the battalion ready to move out in twelve standard hours." Krell said, sounding almost bored again. "We're advancing on the capital."

"Sir," Rex said tentatively, "should I try to get a message out to general Kenobi?" Krell rounded on him, a dim fury in his eyes. They looked too yellow to be normal, but maybe that brilliant gold color was natural for bezilisks? "Shouldn't we... coordinate our attack, especially in light of the recent threat?" He tried desperately to sound reasonable. 

"General Kenobi has his hands full, same as us. We need to throw everything we have at them, now!" He growled. 

"We'd be marching into a blast zone sir." Rex snapped, his tone rising as his lips curled into a snarl. Krell turned and raised one of his massive hands as if he was going to slap Rex, and the captain flinched. A barrage of distant explosions saved him from the general's wrath.

"Blasted insurgents." Krell growled, dropping his hand. "I realize you don't agree with my strategies, Captain, but you are smart enough and loyal enough to obey my orders, or so the Kaminoans told me. So. Prep. Those. Troops." He growled, getting so close to Rex's face that spittle hit his cheeks. 

"Yes, sir." Rex said, lowering his head with an effort. Good soldiers follow orders.

Rex walked carefully to the hangar where Fives and Hardcase and Jesse were working on the Umbaran hardware. 

"Those missiles have a hundred megaton yield. We won't even make it to the delta." Fives pointed out incredulously. 

"I've tried to reason with him, but he won't have it." Rex sighed. This was going even worse that he thought it would. 

"Great another suicide mission." Jesse rolled his eyes from where he was working on decrypting the hardware. The capital is too well armed." He sighed.

"Why does it seem he has it out for us clones." Tup's mouth twisted. Dogma sneered at all of them. 

"You're all overreacting. Krell obviously knows what he's doing. Do you really think he doesn't care if he loses men?" Dogma glared at each of them in turn. 

"Yeah, that's exactly what I think." Fives called, sliding under the fighter. Jesse rolled his eyes at his brother. 

"No, but I think his thirst for victory has blinded him to the fact that there are lives at stake." Jesse mused. "I've... never seen another Jedi general with these kinds of casualties."

"He's out of control. He's not acting like other jedi." Fives threw his hands in the air. "He has no respect whatsoever for us."

"Listen, I don't like him either, but I don't have a better plan right now." Rex cut in tiredly, resisting the urge to dig at his eyes. 

"Well, what about using these starfighters to destroy the supply ship." Hardcase suggested. 

"We do have their codes and tech..." Jesse put in. 

"Aaaaannnnnnd, there's your better plan Ori'vod." Fives clapped Rex on the shoulder. "We take out the supply ship, we cut off arms to the capital." Fives grinned. 

"You cracked it?" Rex said, his eyes widening. Fives grinned and put a hand on Jesse's shoulder. 

"Yeah, we did." 

Rex considered this. If it did mean that they had a shot at taking out the supply ship... They could sneak in undetected and blow it up from the inside. He nodded slowly and grinned at Fives. 

"That's so crazy... it might just work." He said, giving credit where credit was due. Fives gave him a grin that Rex had learned to fear and respect... the grin he used when he knew he had just set up a massive prank to be pulled. Rex spun on his heel. Now to convince the general that it would work too. Easier said than done.