Somewhere Out There

Part 1

It happened fast. Too fast. At one moment they were still on their way to the battlefield and then within a second, they swooped down on the ground. They hadn't been shot down by the enemy, the battle plane simply had a hole in the tank, which led to an explosion.

When they crashed into the ground, it rattled and clanked, followed by the screams of the soldiers. Cody opened his eyes first and noticed that the ship was lying sideways. He tried to get up, but something heavy rested on his chest- or rather someone, who groaned in pain. "Waxer," Cody said, "Can you stand up?" "Sure, Commander," the clone answered, "Just give me a second." Then he sighed once again and pulled himself up. Cody, still lying there, felt something dripping into his face: Blood. A large cut was visible on Waxer's chest plate and from there a trickle ran down the clone's body. Cody quickly got up. "Waxer, you okay?" "Yeah, 'm fine", his brother said, even though Cody could see the pain in his eyes.

The Commander looked around them. All of the clones were laying on the metallic ground and they were moaning, cursing and holding their heads. "Brothers, is anyone injured?" Cody asked, and his eyes, which were filled with worry, remained on those, who were no longer moving. "Trixster's dead," declared Wooley, and from another side of the spaceship another clone said, "Winx and Trapper, too."

Cody sighed and looked up, where the destroyed door of the spaceship was. Because of the inclination of the ship, they would have to jump to get to it. "Men, this is our exit." Cody pointed at the door and the first two clones started climbing up. The others lined up behind him. "Are we going to leave the dead behind?", Boil asked waving at the three lifeless bodies. "No. First we have to get out here and then we'll take care of them", Cody explained and Boil nodded.
One by one all thirty clones went outside. "Commander, what about the General?", Waxer asked, who was still on his side when all of the other clones had already left the ship. Cody spun around. "Wait, wasn't he among the others?" "No," Waxer replied and it felt like Cody was hit in the face with a fist. How could he not have noticed that? "Waxer, come. He's got be here somewhere."

The ship wasn't big. To be precise it only consisted of the soldiers' quarters and a separate storage area. The storage room was a mess. There were no lights, the shelves had fallen down and the crates for supply were sort of laying around. Under a pile of crates, Cody noticed a hand. "The general," he exclaimed, and ran to the pile to clear away the crates. Waxer did the same, and together they uncovered the body buried beneath them. "General Kenobi," Cody said as he saw the Jedi's face. A cut crossed his forehead and he was unconscious, but his chest rose and fell. He was alive. "General," Cody shook the wounded man gently, "General, I need you to wake up." Luckily, he did. His otherwise bright eyes were dull, but he was awake. At least for now.
"C-cody, what happened?" the Jedi stuttered. "We crashed. Are you injured, General?" "No." The Jedi lifted himself up, but as soon as he put his weight on his left leg, he moaned. Cody quickly put his arm around his General's waist, so that he wouldn't collapse. "Thanks," Kenobi replied, and with a mild smile he added, "Now let's get out of here."

The crash landing must have been a blessing in disguise. The incident was not a pleasant one, and the fact that their crash site was further north than the battlefield led to temperatures they were not equipped to withstand. But at least they found a cave, which gave them protection from the cold weather, even though when they arrived, all of them were already soaked because of the rain.

A few of the clones returned to the ship shortly afterwards to fetch blankets and food and to bury the dead. Besides Trixster, Trapper and Winx, the two pilots had also died, the rest of the clones were unharmed except for minimal injuries. The Jedi, however, was badly injured. He was sitting on a rock right next to Cody. For once he tried to stand up, but as soon as he put weight on his leg, a pain ran through his bones. "You should get you checked by Helix", the Commander said. "No, I'm fine", Obi-Wan answered, "Besides, Helix has enough work to do with the others." But-", Cody wanted to say but was immediately interrupted by the Jedi. "Anakin is surely already searching for us. His troops will find us soon and then I'll go to the medical bay." Cody wanted to contradict because he saw the pain in the Jedi's blue eyes and how much his General tried to hide it, but he also knew that he wouldn't be able to persuade him. So the Commander simply said: "I hope you're right, General."

He was wrong. Even when the last rays of sunlight left the sky and the only light was the campfire in the middle of the men, there was no sign of help. The soldiers had made themselves comfortable, had taken off their armor and put blankets over themselves instead.

"Isn't it beautiful?" Boil said next to Cody, pointing to the sky. "There are so many stars and galaxies out there. Sometimes I wonder if there's a place where even we, clones, would be free." "Pah" Waxer replied, patting his brother on the shoulder. "These are just your daydreams again." "And what if they aren't?" replied Boil, slightly disappointed and Waxer sighed. "Then that would be very nice. Really. But there's definitely no such place like this." "How do you know?" Boil crossed his arms and turned his gaze to Waxer. "'Cause we'd know about this place." "You know what? I'll ask the General," Boil explained, stood up and ran to the General, who was still sitting on the same rocks a bit away from the vode. Cody turned to Waxer, whose face shimmered reddish in the glow of the flames. "I think it would be better if you didn't object-" Waxer interrupted him, "It's dullness what Boil's talking about. There'll never be a world where we're allowed to live like normal people." "Still, don't take this hope away from him," Cody replied, and then the two of them remained silent until Boil came back. "And what did you find out?" Waxer asked, but Boil only turned to Cody. "Commander, I don't think the General is well. He asserts that he is, but he really doesn't look good." Cody sighed. "I'll check on him."