Chapter Text
This is Book 2. Link to Book 1 Here
Only four more clicks, Salera told herself as she leaned over to squeeze her throbbing, tired thighs. The black garbed Jedi was exhausted. She and Captain Gregor had already been walking for nearly an hour and now four clicks still remained between them and their current destination. The two of them had been dropped down onto the planet from a gunship and they now had to reach their destination by foot. It was too risky for their ships to come any closer. They could not risk the chance of someone noticing the Republic’s presence on the planet. Simply put: they weren’t supposed to be there. She and the commando captain were to infiltrate the rocky fortress that pierced the sky up ahead and open the door from the inside. Once that was done, Commander Cody and the rest of the team could walk on in, unimpeded and with hopefully, no casualties. It was a standard mission for the partners, who had become an impeccable team. This was her sixth deployment with the 212th, since she had been stripped of her title and her team, Clone Force 99. And this was the third time that she and Gregor had done a similar mission. It was too easy for them at this point. Salera credited much of their success to the soldier, not her. Since spending time with him out in the field, she had come to realize that she had never seen a more skilled trooper than the orange and white clad commando. There was no one she felt safer beside. In her mind, she honestly believed the man could take on an army of a hundred by himself.
Salera looked up at the black sky as they continued walking toward the fortress. “They could have just turned off the ship’s lights and dropped us off much closer,” she complained to Gregor. It was quiet out in the rocky landscape, there was no one out here.
“It’s safer this way. Plus, we get to spend even more time together,” he laughed softly as he said the words, causing her to smile.
I can always count on him to be cheerful, no matter the situation. “Yeah, because we don’t spend nearly every second together already,” she responded.
“Hence, why it was sarcasm,” he said, rather flatly.
Salera rolled her eyes but then grinned uncontrollably. The ridiculously handsome clone had become her closest friend and they lived for each others’ humor and company. It only made sense. They were a two-man team, spending sometimes four or five entire rotations together without ever seeing another person. Plus, Captain Gregor was already the best friend of the man she loved. Wolffe, she thought, her heart swelling. Between deployments, they had made their relationship work. Somehow she and the commander had been able to find each other through the chaos of war despite them both being soldiers. They had spent glorious days and nights together. She smiled as she recalled their many intimate moments together. That man is so amazing. Her love for him had only grown stronger. Not long ago she had had to make a choice between him and Echo, at that time she wasn’t sure if she had chosen correctly, but now she knew. Commander Wolffe was her person and she could tell that she meant everything to him. Of course, she still cared immensely for Echo. Sadly, she had only seen him once since her departure from Clone Force 99. He had informed her that because they no longer had a Jedi on the team that they had been instructed to operate out of Kamino instead of Republic cruisers or other bases. In the end, Wolffe’s meddling with her career had turned out to not be so bad.
The reality was that she loved working with Gregor. The captain was the complete opposite of Wolffe. He was always smiling, he loved to laugh, and he was extremely kind hearted. It also helped that because he and Wolffe were so close, Wolffe was able to control his jealousy when it came to the commando. Initially, Salera had been worried that because of comments she had made in the past about how wonderfully attractive Gregor was, that Wolffe would constantly harass her about their missions together. It seemed Wolffe knew his friend well. From what she could tell, apart from being friends, Gregor had no interest in her, and she was thankful for it. To her delight, he was always platonic and had never once made anything awkward. In fact, the only bad part of the whole new gig was the stupid costume she had to wear. She reached down and felt her mask that hung on her belt. Despite Cody’s order, there was no way she was going to put it on out here simply walking with Gregor. Right before the infiltration, she would slip the horrid thing on.
Suddenly, to her relief, Gregor signalled for her to stop. “Five minute water break,” he said, emotionless.
Although he was usually a very animated person, when it came to a mission she had noticed very early on that he changed into someone else. It was another thing she liked about him. He was able to adapt to the situation. Unlike Wolffe, who just always seemed to be in soldier mode every second of his day, Gregor could flip his soldier switch on and off. To Salera, it was refreshing.
The Jedi watched as he walked over toward her and pulled off his helmet. It was extremely late and only some light escaped the moon, as it was cloudy, causing his face to be only barely visible to her. Salera studied her friend’s serious face in the moonlight. Although he was the clone of the man she had given her heart to, she didn’t think they looked alike in any way whatsoever. Never once did she look at him and see Wolffe. He was Gregor.
“You know, you could have stopped when we were actually near some boulders to rest on. They were literally everywhere except right here,” she complained.
“The ground will work,” he said, again he was serious. Not wanting to waste any of the few precious moments he actually allowed her to rest, she took his advice and plopped onto the ground. Once she got comfortable, she watched as he followed her example and sat to rest his legs.
He is acting very serious. “Everything ok, Captain?” she asked him.
He looked up from his wrist clock to meet her gaze, then said, “Yes, but we need to make the time we were instructed to make. I don’t think they do these mission calculations with slow Jedi feet in mind.” The clone finally cracked and smiled at her, his perfect teeth reflecting in the moonlight.
Salera reached over beside her, found a rock and launched it hard at him before he could figure out what she was doing. He tried to dodge but the rock hit him right in his chestplate. His mouth hung open in shock. “If you scratched up my armor, I’ll guarantee you find a hole in your suit next time you put it on,” he playfully threatened her.
“Please do it. I hate this thing. But next time you speak, don’t be a jerk,” she said sternly but he would know that she was only joking with him.
“I honestly have no idea how Wolffe puts up with you. That man takes nothing from nobody and somehow he ends up with you, one of the rudest people I have ever met,” he joked as he shook his head in disapproval.
They sat resting for a few minutes. Then to her dismay, he slapped his thighs and said, “Alright, Gonk. Charging time is over, let’s move out.” Gonk was his pet name for her. He had told her he called her that because she was always complaining about needing to take a break to ‘recharge’. She loved it. After he spoke, she watched him immediately stand on his feet and he gestured for her to do the same. He really is worried about the time, we only just sat down. The Jedi knew better than to argue with him after all he was the captain. She didn’t know what she was but she knew she definitely wasn’t the captain so she did as he told her.
Gregor started to lead the way again. Up ahead, they could see lights from the large structure they referred to as the “fortress”. They were on Calipt, a full-blown Separatist planet. The planet was responsible for fabricating a very unique engine piece that went into most of the small Separatist ships, including the Vulture droids. If they could get rid of the factory as well as some key engineers, they could nearly paralyze the small ship supply for their adversaries. From what Salera and Gregor had seen from their walk, the planet was just…rocks. There was nothing green or living around. My guess is that the planet was never inhabited due to the inability to grow food for a population. Salera figured that it was most likely that the Separatists built the factories and then brought along the workforce, of course mostly droids, with them.
Salera noticed she had fallen behind more than she normally allowed herself to and she quickly picked up her step to catch back up to the commando. Gregor was her rock when she was deployed. He was her connection to Wolffe. Although she figured Wolffe had also told Commander Cody about their relationship, Gregor was the only one she could really open up to about her love life. Although only slightly, Gregor also knew Salera before she was part of the 212th, which meant he knew her before she had become a killer. He was her witness and somehow it helped her to cope with the things she had done. Just as she had originally feared, she was not sent to Commander Cody for scientific research. As soon as she had arrived, she had been paired up with Captain Gregor and sent off on jobs solely to make life easier for Cody and his men. She hated herself but if she quit the army she would lose Wolffe.
Jogging, she made her way nearly to Gregor, trying to keep only ten or fifteen feet between them. Her eyes examined him in front of her, the already big clone looked massive in his commando armor with its large shoulder pauldrons and oversized helmet. Salera's heart warmed when she neared him. The captain was like the big brother she never had and when he was near, she felt safe, which was silly, because she was the Jedi.