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Hello again. I yet live. I could give a million reasons for why this took me so long to write, and some of them would even be true. However, I wont give you any of them, as it makes me feel silly.
Have some Action as a reward for your patience.
Violence against animals, Anakin being slightly self destructive,
Anakin scowled down at the new third IV needle in his arm; his right, thankfully. Having more than two IV bags draining in the same arm was unpleasant at the best of times.
Kix, eyes politely directed at the 'pad in front of him, sat in the chair next to him, radiating the kind of watchfulness medics often did with those they deemed to be 'difficult' patients.
Rex and Jesse stood at rest behind him against the wall, speaking quietly.
Neither Kix nor Rex had left since before the new IV needle had been jabbed into Anakin's arm. Hovering.
Sure he'd fainted earlier because apparently even his current excessive meal plan wasn't enough for whatever his body was doing, and he'd scared the latest squad of Vod'e, but the new IV was doing its job, his nutrient intake had been adjusted yet again, and he was fine now. Crisis averted. They could go back to whatever it was they were supposed to be doing.
Unfortunately, it wasn't either of their days off so Anakin couldn't even kick them out of the room under the pretense of them needing to relax, and do something not work related.
Jesse grumbled moodily. "Don't laugh at me. My men are getting restless, and the only reason it hasn't gotten to you before now is because its only been nine days."
Oh. Well, this will solve that problem, then. If Jesse accepts, anyway.
Anakin twisted in his seat, noting absently the stiffness in his sides he'd definitely need to stretch out later. "I have a project they can do, if you want to give them something productive to burn their energy."
Both men turned to him, surprised. He smiled mischievously in hopes it would hide the way his pulse sped up in anticipation. At worst, they would simply turn him down.
"What do you know about the Army of Light?"
Kix looked up, datapad lowering to his lap. Jesse and Rex exchange a look, before focussing entirely on Anakin.
Thus, on the third day after Anakin had bonded with the Command Staff, the scouts of Torrent were sentenced to prowl the lower levels of the Jedi Temple in search of the long lost armory of the Army of Light that may or may not have been dismantled along with the forces it had served.
If Jesse's grumbling as he marched out of Anakin's room was anything to go by, he was both displeased to be assigned a task while on leave and glad he had something to occupy his scouts with.
The elevator slowed to a grinding halt.
Jesse and the two best shots of his men, Heatattack and Flint, readied their blasters as the three vod'e crammed behind them did a quick equipment check of their own.
A beat, then the door dinged cheerfully, and opened as smoothly as it had closed so many floors above them, mist pouring in.
A green dot blinked in the lower left corner of Jesse's HUD three times before blipping out.
Hmm. The General'd had them prepare for the worst case scenario for this conditions of this floor. Seemed the air was more than breathable.
As the door opened completely, he could see why.
Plants, everywhere. Knee high at a minimum, and taller near the edges of the halls, with thick leafy vines curtaining the walls. A thick layer of fog swirled just below the tops of the shorter plants, and obscured everything further than twenty feet. Insects chirped and buzzed out of sight. Soft blue lights filtered through seemingly random sections of the fog and vines.
Low visibility, near limitless ambush possibilities, and far too many tripping hazards.
Horrible trade off for breathable air, really.
Heatattack swore softly, and Flint grumbled his agreement.
They were right. This was going to be a nightmare.
Thankfully, the General had directed then to a lesser used elevator, so Jesse had no problem commandeering it until further notice.
"Spine, jam the door open," he ordered.
From his corner, Spine acknowledged the order, "Sir."
The door had been open long enough for something to jump out at them. As that has not happened... Jesse signaled to advance. The silent comms buzzed quietly in the all to natural night-quiet of the long abandoned floor.
Jesse's first step out of the elevator sent his boot directly into something that squished and squelched with moisture.
Great. Fantastic. So much for not needing to scrub his shell again so soon after that muddy cesspool they'd just come from. There was only supposed to be dust.
At least it doesn't feel like decaying animals, he soothed himself, moving forward. Just very wet, ankle deep moss.
Heatattack and Flint followed after him closely. Licken and Skippy stepped out after them. Pausing to give Spine time to jam the door, Jesse clicked his back teeth together to flick through the infra red, low light vision, and standard setting on his HUD.
Visibility low. The high humidity was definitely an issue. Hopefully, and oh did Jesse hate thinking that word, anything moving would disturb the fog enough to be noticeable.
Metal shrieked as Spine wedged a vibro knife into the gap between the elevator doors and the floor's doors. The hair on the back of Jesse's neck stood on end, alarms blaring.
"Heads up!" He barked, snatching a flash bang from his utility belt. Can't use a shrapnel grenade in enclosed spaces like this without at least knowing the dimensions of the place, and a droid popper would just fry their own gear without the benefit of zapping their opponents. Their HUDs would protect them from the effects of a flash bang, though.
Other organic targets? Not so much.
Yanking out the pin with the edge of his cuisse, Jesse tossed the flash bang underhanded at the mist moving the most, straight ahead. It arched neatly through the air, then disappeared in the swirling mist.
A beat, then the the fog flashed, Jesse's HUD filtering the burst of light to bearable levels, bucket speakers crackling with a muffled bang.
In the next instant, a wall of fog crashed into the ceiling and rushed straight for Jesse and his men.
Ah. Probably should have seen that coming.
The fog washed over them, an almost physical force, before blasting past in one heart pounding eternity.
Once his visor cleared, Jesse immediately dropped his eyes to the ground.
"This wasn't part of the brief!" Skippy yelped, blaster powering up.
Rats. A literal carpet of them, more than ankle deep, all dark fur and flashing teeth.
"Shut up and shoot!" Licken spat, nailing a rodent that had taken a daring leap for his leg.
Swearing, Jesse yanked another grenade off his belt, this one a shrapnel spitter. If he throws it far enough they should be able to avoid injury, while also taking out a chunk of the little pests. He barked out orders, yanking out the pin with his cuisse again. "Defend yourselves!" He flung the grenade down the hall, and started shooting even before his off hand returned to the muzzle of his blaster.
Jesse ground his teeth as his vod'e sprayed the mob of rats with blaster bolts even as the fog rolled back in to hide them from sight.
The first few hours of the scouts' first attempt at scouting the lower levels of the temple did not go well. The levels of near panic and manic glee Anakin got from the bonds he'd been carefully monitoring both for his own wellbeing, but also Rex's and Kix's, had been...concerning.
When they had calmed down, and the danger passed, Anakin commed Jesse to check on them. Jesse grumbled something about ambushes and rodents, before speaking up. Apparently they'd been ambushed be local rodents, but they've figured out a method of operation to eliminate the threat.
If Jesse intended to send Anakin a very strong impression of blaster-burned pests left in their wake or not, Anakin didn't know, but he kept it to himself.
No need to scare off the man in the Staff who'd made and kept his position solely based on knowing when to run. Anakin would like a chance for them to get to know him as a person, before giving them reason to high tail it.
Besides. The rats were hardly Anakin's concern. The rodents didn't respond to his long distance mind tricks, pressed through his bonds with the scouts, so the only option left was lethal action. Admittedly, he had no practice with mind tricks, but all this power should have some uses, right? In any case, such things were often the price of progress.
If the scouts became even more efficient in their handling of the rats after Anakin's comm, it was probably not because Jaded, who had been assisting Anakin in wrangling on his newest squad, stole his comm mid report to tell Jesse in no uncertain terms exactly what he would do to them if they got themselves bitten by vermin. If it was, well, that was between the scouts and Jaded.
The scouts chose violence. Anakin could respect it.
Meanwhile, Anakin and whichever squad he was forming bonds with in that shift, spent most of his time researching, compiled all of the information they could find on the Army of Light and the Jedi Temple itself in hopes of discovering even a hint of what might be waiting for them down there.
So far, all they had managed to confirm was the existence of the armor the Army of Light used. It was heavily implied to be made by the Army for the Army, in their very own Armor and Weapon factory, located in the lower levels somewhere. As Anakin had already known.
Thankfully, '57, the shiny Anakin had been calling DC Shiny while they raced through the catacombs, had managed to find a passage in a daily log of a Jedi long dead, that hinted at the Factory being twenty-four floors away from floor 536.
Unfortunately, floor numbers change every time a new one is added, so this fact was slightly less helpful than anticipated. It took several shifts to finally dig up the numbers to calculate what that particular floor's current number might be from the construction archives. Burning through a thousand years of building documents, notes and permits was no small task, but if their calculations were correct, then the referenced floor is now called floor 824. The diary said the Armory was twenty-four floors away, so the Armory is either on floor 801, or 848, as the single sentence '57 found didn't specify with direction the Armory was, only the number of floors.
If nothing else, they had a place to start, which is more than they had a day and a half ago. Two floors was infinitely better than over a thousand. The fifty floors it might be on if their math was wrong was significantly better than over a thousand too.
When not in Anakin's room, completing the To Do lists or aiding the scouts in their Quest, the men accepted tours of the lived in portions of the Jedi Temple, curtesy of various Temple Bound Padawans and older Initiates. The younger Initiates helped too, but Anakin's understanding lead him to believe they were more like...assistants, than true tour guides.
The tours were very popular with all involved.
Which—would the other battalions appreciate the tours as well? At the very least, Anakin could name a few troopers from the 212th, and a number of the Guard who would appreciate a tour. Fox would have a serious scheduling nightmare to make that happen for his men, but they would probably love the tours all the more for it.
Besides, someone needs to appreciate the Archives. Its not like the public takes advantage of the free, public knowledge hub.
Anakin added a note to maybe talk to Obi-Wan and Fox about the idea to his personal short term To Do list while he still remembered. While he was at it, he sends a text comm to Aayla, suggesting she make similar arrangements for her men when she came to Coruscant for leave again.
The men like it, the Initiates and Padawans like it, and it ensures the two groups are introduced to each other. After all, the Initiates have a chance of being picked as Padawans eventually. Best to get them as acclimatized to the Vod'e as possible, even if the Masters wouldn't see this as a step for the continued well being of the children in their care.
Of course some younglings, such as Ahsoka, were using this opportunity to terrorize the men. By all reports, they loved it. One vod, one of Denal's favorites if memory served, asked shyly if they would be getting a commander soon.
Anakin didn't know how to explain he wasn't planning on staying in the Order past the end of the war. Certainly not long enough to train a Padawan to Knighthood the way the child would require. The way they would deserve.
He didn't know how to explain his choices anymore than he ever had.
So he just smiled crookedly, like he had a secret, and changed the subject to something safer.
