Chapter Text
Indra was there, staring at the comm in absolute silence. Everyone else stilled around him, even the men that despised him. The order was confusing. Not in the words. It was clear what the order was. But in the principle. It didn't make sense. Indra was a Captain, an engineer at that. He was vital, hard to replace. Having been forced into a combat role, Indra had managed, while not great, to keep the battalion running. Onyx helped, but he was also stretched thin due to inaccurate estimates, intel, and equipment. Onyx was doing his best to gather the information the Admiral refused to share, maintain the inventory, and also creating plans that the Admiral would eventually veto.
"Did you hear me, Captain?" asked the Admiral. Onyx was standing stock still over the Admiral's shoulder, concerning Indra. Onyx was rarely perfectly still, and he had never looked like a statue. His finger was twitching, and Indra was focusing on that when the Admiral interrupted.
"Yes, sir," said Indra.
"Then repeat it back to me, so I know you understand completely," said the Admiral.
Indra replied, "I will remain here while the rest of the battalion retreats and hold the ground until we have been reinforced, sir."
"Very good," said the Admiral, and the feed cut out. Indra sighed and waved his hand for everyone else to keep moving.
Tinker came up to him and Indra knew this was going to be an argument. "Tinker, I know what you're going to say, and the answer is no."
"I am not leaving you here, Indra," said Tinker, "And the Admiral can send me back to Kamino for all I care."
"Tinker," Indra said, "Follow orders, I can run and hide long enough for reinforcements to come."
"Not if you starve to death, ori'vod," Bucket said, looking up at him. His unpainted armor was hardly noticeable to an outside observer, but Indra knew what it meant. Bucket hadn't been here long, and with the Admiral's leadership, he probably wouldn't be either. Indra's core group had adopted him into their ranks, doing their best to keep the kid alive. It was working so far. But that didn't mean he would worry… until he started to march on. He could watch over the kid from the afterlife he supposed, and he would make sure to greet him so he wouldn't be scared when he too marched on.
Indra glanced around at the gathered men, even those who hated him, like Ink, were watching him with concern. It was against their nature to leave a brother behind. Indra would be facing thousands of droids, limited food supplies, almost no medical supplies, and the elements all while he was already injured. It wasn't done. Leaving a brother behind… it wasn't done.
"All of you, you have your orders. I will remain here," said Indra. "You will return to the ship. I will see you when you return."
"Sir, as much as we disagree-" Ink started, and Tinker snorted. "We don't leave a brother behind. It's lunacy. You won't make it against thousands of droids. And I love disobeying orders, so…"
"Ink," Indra started, but he stopped talking when the comm went off again. Everyone fell silent, looking at the comm with bated breath. Indra answered, and Nye's voice came over the line.
"Indra, we have a problem," said Nye.
"What kind of problem?"
"The Admiral's dead. And it gets worse."
Indra froze. He opened his mouth several times before he was finally able to say. "What happened?"
Nye paused, and Indra almost asked him again. "He went down to the planet and was shot by a droid, Captain." Indra furrowed his brow. They hadn't seen anyone, and the Admiral never entered an active battlefield. He saw it as beneath him, and while Indra knew in theory, the Admirals of the Grand Army of Republic only worked in space battles, there was something in the Admiral's tone that made Indra believe he thought he was better than even those.
Indra nodded, going along with it for now. "I'll come up and talk more about this. Is Commander Onyx around? He should know what's going on."
Nye shook his head. "He's in the medbay with a concussion, sir." Now, Indra knew that was a lie. Onyx hadn't been injured in the past week, let alone had a concussion. He scanned Nye's face for a moment, but the hologram made it hard to discern exactly what Nye was trying to tell him.
"Yes, of course, my apologies for forgetting, trooper," said Indra.
"See you soon, Captain." The call ended, and everyone stayed still. The wind rustled the trees overhead and the creaking swing of a child's former playset heightened Indra's anxiety, feeling like an ominous warning. He stepped onto the gunship and the rest of the men followed. The ride back to the cruiser was silent. The only noise was the ship's engine as it tried to break atmosphere just enough to reach the cruiser's orbit. The men were silent and afraid. The Admiral was dead, and Onyx was otherwise incapacitated. All this happened in the thirty minutes between the Admiral's call and Nye's call. As they were landing, Ink spoke up.
"What do you think happened?"
Indra shook his head. "I don't know. But whatever it is, we'll handle it in the best way we know how. Together. And hopefully that will be enough to save our skins." Everyone was silent as they continued their flight. Indra chewed on his bottom lip nervously, wondering what could have gone so wrong that Nye was not able to discuss it over the comm call. And what had happened to Onyx. How had the Admiral died.
Five minutes later, the gunships had landed. He left the men to unload the ship, leaving Tinker in charge of it. He walked quickly, but not running, so he didn't cause a panic. The men were already visibly on edge, and Indra did not want to make it worse until he knew what was going on. Then he could panic… Possibly. If Onyx was incapacitated, then Indra was in charge, which meant he couldn't panic. Even though he was panicking. Able was with him. He probably should have stayed back with Tinker, but Indra wasn't going to tell him to for two reasons: One, his brother, his batchmate, who was never worried, just commed saying something was wrong and hesitated to say what it was over the comms and then straight up lied; two, honestly, Indra needed the support right now.
The walk from the hangar bay to the command center had never felt longer. The lifts seemed to take twice as long to reach them and to get to the floor they need. The hallways stretched into an endless gray labyrinth. Their steps echoed off the Doonium walls, creating an eerie effect that they would never escape these halls.
Indra let out a relieved sigh as he entered the Command Center and saw Nye, one of two he was trying to send to ARC training (Able being the other), waiting for him anxiously. "Indra!" he called, and he ran towards them. He pulled Indra into a tight hug, and Indra wrapped his arms securely around Nye. Despite being two inches shorter than Nye, Nye managed to bury his face in Indra's neck, letting out several gasps. Indra ran a hand soothingly through his hair, and Able hovered over their shoulders, chewing on bottom lip nervously. He twitched his hands, as if he ached to pull Nye into a hug himself. Indra held him tighter for a moment longer before gently disengaging.
"Nye, what's going?"
"The admiral's dead."
"I know. You told me."
"Onyx killed him." Indra froze, mouth falling open. His brain short circuited. Onyx… They had joked about it. They had talked about what would happen. They had thought about it. The admiral was a piece of work, an asshole, a bastard. He was incompetent and overconfident. But neither of them had seriously planned his death. The gain from it did not outweigh the punishment.
Treason.
The entire battalion would decommissioned. Indra could possibly spin it, so that the men would only be reconditioned, but is that fate much better? Most clones would prefer decommissioning to reconditioning. At least, they knew what happened when they were decommissioned. Death. You die. And then your body is used for spare parts. Nothing to it. Reconditioning was something different, something far more insidious. A clone reconditioned was a dead man walking, a droid, lifeless. His body lived, but his soul was killed.
Nye continued on after a moment, shaking. "He ordered you to stay and Onyx was shaking. He looked like he was in physical pain. The admiral hung up and Onyx just shot him. And then he started to attack all of us… and I tried to subdue him, but he almost broke my arm escaping… and… and finally Bucket was able to stun him. He's in the medbay, but he's under heavy sedation, because he kept escaping the restraints and attacking people. And all we could get out of him was good soldiers follow orders."
"Good soldiers follow orders?" Able asked, and Indra shrugged just as confused.
"Alright, alright. Nye, I know you're scared, but we need to calm down. We need to figure out our next plan of action. I'm going to try to call Rex. See if he can get us a secure line and listen to what I have to say. Maybe he can help," Indra said. Nye and Able nodded. "Go help Tinker. The four of us can reconvene in an hour to figure out our next move after contacting Rex." The three of them split up. Able supported Nye as they walked towards the hangar bay.
Indra had a short walk over to the communication deck. This walk felt too short. Indra hadn't talked to Rex in two years now. Indra wasn't sure he would answer if he called. He wasn't sure what Rex would do. He sounded confident for Nye's sake, but Indra's own confidence in Rex's willingness to help was rather low. This wasn't a slight issue. This wasn't a small thing. A transfer, sure, Rex would do that. But helping Onyx get away with murder?
Indra stared at the long distance comm unit, trying desperately to figure out a way to explain this… Would Rex believe him about the abuse, the neglect, the comm blackouts, the lack of intel, the sabotage? Or would he find Indra as defective as the Kaminoans did? Indra took a deep breath. He needed to make this call now. Otherwise, he never would. He typed in Rex's comm code, having it memorized by heart even now, even after the two year no contact. Indra's heart ached.
Ring. Ring. Ring.
Indra prayed that Rex would pick.
Ring. Ring. Ring.
Indra could not handle this on his own. He needed Rex. He needed Onyx. Anyone.
Ring. Ring. Ring.
"Rex, please," Indra begged quietly under his breath.
Ring. Ring. Ri-
"Hello, this is Captain Rex speaking-"
"Rex, it's Ind-"
"I am currently unavailable. Please leave your message after the beep." Indra's heart dropped to the soles of his feet. Beep.
"Rex…" he said, but there was no way he could leave this in a message. Not if they wanted to get away with it. Not if they didn't want to die… or have their souls stripped from their bodies. "I-" He swallowed. "We have a mission. Just in case it goes badly-" Tears welled up in his eyes, and he choked back a sob. "- I wanted to say goodbye."