🖤 "The Shiny" gets his name! 🖤
Alpha-17 isn't quite done with the bold shiny who showed up at 79's GAR Goth Night wearing brand-spanking-new white armor, and neither is @eobe! Her art of CT-9075, now known as ███████*, is one of the funniest things ever!
Part One
If you would rather read it on AO3 <- here's the link!
*What? Did you think we were just going to GIVE you the name? Oh, no. You're going to have to read the story. (It's not in the tags either. Alpha-17 is way ahead of you.)
"The Shiny" Part Two
“CT-9075, report to Commander Fox’s office.”
Five sets of identical brown eyes landed on a sixth set that had frozen in place.
“What did you do?” one of them asked playfully.
“Nothing,” 9075 replied confusedly. “I guess I have an assignment.”
“You’ll have to borrow some armor,” another said with a grimace.
“Let’s GO, 9075!”
“Kark, kark, kark,” 9075 muttered. “See you, fellas!”
He tore down the corridor toward the command center, stopping just short of Commander Fox’s office to catch his breath before hitting the button to announce himself. The door swung open to reveal Fox’s office chair turned away from the door, its occupant busy—presumably on a datapad judging by the blue light visible on a couple of nearby surfaces. He crossed the threshold and stood at attention as he waited for his turn with the commander’s time.
“You know we age twice as fast as nat-borns. You do know that, right?”
9075 kept his nose in the air and his posture stiff. “Yes, sir!”
“So every minute you keep your superiors waiting is like taking two minutes from their lives. Isn’t that right?”
“Yes, sir,” 9075 said with conviction. “Apologies, sir. There were circumstances.”
The chair spun around, and 9075 was shocked to see that it wasn’t his new commander speaking to him. It was Alpha-17, who seemed just as surprised at the sight in front of him. “What the kriff do you mean by coming in here slow as a damn Hutt and OUT OF YOUR ARMOR?!”
9075 swallowed and opened his mouth to speak, but Alpha-17 beat him to it.
“Parade. Speak freely, and make it quick.”
9075 relaxed slightly into parade rest, not realizing how tightly he had tensed up until he forced his muscles to do something different. “I’m sorry, sir. My armor’s curing, and in my haste to get here, I didn’t have time to acquire another set. Sir.”
Alpha-17 stood, and his voice lost some of its irritation. “Paint day, is it? Making your armor part of the Guard?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Right.” Alpha-17 slowly circled the new trooper like a predator. “That’s important. Making connections with your fellow troopers. Your brothers in arms.”
It wasn’t a question, but something in the older man’s tone suggested 9075 should respond as if it were. “I believe it is, sir.”
Alpha-17 plucked a holoframe from Fox’s desk and spoke low. “It is. The men you train with and fight beside are your family. I’ve fought beside countless men in this war. Trained a lot of them. Some of the men I’m proudest to have trained were at 79’s last night. I don’t get to see them very often, so last night I gathered them together for a holo.” He leaned in closely to the shiny’s ear from behind. “Care to guess who I’m referring to?”
9075 swallowed hard, recalling with a sudden chill how the commando behind him had looked straight at him after taking that holo. “The commanders, sir?”
“The commanders. Six men as hard to keep in one place as a litter of freshly weaned massiff pups. Between Fox not wanting to be there and Mayday chasing a beskar skirt half the night, I was convinced I wouldn’t be able to herd them all in for a group shot. But then, it happened, and I got the perfect shot. Except, it wasn’t perfect, was it, 9075? There was someone else in my perfect shot. Someone who wasn’t supposed to be there.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Someone who didn’t earn it.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Someone who had the stones to not only holobomb the shot by looking right at my datapad but also silently brag about it by holding his fingers up in a victory sign!”
“Yes, sir.”
Alpha-17 held up the holo to 9075’s face, and there he was, peeking out from behind Commander Cody’s shoulder with two fingers in the air as casually as if it were a daily occurrence.
“What. Were. You. Thinking?”
“Do I still have permission to speak freely, sir?”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t set out to be in that holo, sir. I just happened to be sitting there when it happened.” He stared at the holo in front of him and sighed. “I guess I was a little starstruck when I saw all the commanders standing together like that. And when I noticed there was a holo being taken, I didn’t want to ruin it by being a dull nobody in the background.” He shrugged. “The victory sign was me trying to fit into it.”
Alpha-17 set the frame back on Fox’s desk and crossed his arms. “And why were you spying on the other patrons in the bar?”
The young man’s eyes widened slightly. His “stealth reports” weren’t as stealthy as he had hoped.
“I had never been to a ‘goth night’ before. I’d never visited a bar or been around civilians either. I wanted to take notes, sir.”
Alpha-17 had, of course, read the kid’s file. It wasn’t hard to find, as he was the only new trooper who had left the barracks that night. He knew that tenacity and observational skills were a large part of why 9075 had been assigned to the Guard, and it gave him an idea of what to do with the eager shiny in front of him.
“Since you’re so fond of seeing the way things work, you’ll be observing Guard headquarters for the next week as you take over sanitation detail for the cleaning droids. The barracks, the mess, the kennels, the latrines, all of it. If there’s a microbe anywhere it’s not supposed to be, I expect you to kill it.”
The “yes, sir” this time was slightly deflated.
“Dismissed.”
CT-9075 turned for the door, but Alpha-17 suddenly had a belated thought. He had taken dozens of holos at 79’s the previous night and didn’t know who some of the people were, particularly the civilians. But this shiny trooper did.
“Before you start,” he said quickly, making 9075’s turn for the door a 360-degree spin, “I want a copy of all the notes you took last night sent to this station. I want to see if your skills are as good as your file suggests, Holobomb.”
There was no smile on the older man’s face or any indication that he was giving him a compliment, but hearing the great Alpha-17 use the word “good” to describe his skills gave 9075 a sudden boost of confidence. But that boost turned into a hyperfuel-powered surge when he realized what else had been said.
“Sir? Did you just give me my—”
“Do you not know what ‘dismissed’ means, trooper?”
“I do, sir! Thank you, sir.”
He waited until he heard the door slide shut behind him before letting loose what was likely the biggest smile of his life.
He called me Holobomb. I have a name. Alpha-kriffing-17 himself gave me a name! I’m Holobomb!
He all but skipped down the corridor as the possibilities swirled in his head.
I should paint a holo puck on my armor with a hologram of a bomb coming out of it. Or maybe fingers making a victory sign! I wonder what the others will call me…Bomber? Holo? HB?
It was almost enough to make him forget he was on sanitation duty. Almost. Three days into scrubbing latrines, scraping things off the mess hall floor, and having hounds get overly friendly with his leg, and Holobomb started to wonder if maybe he shouldn’t have made the choice to be included in the commander holo at 79’s for GAR Goth Night after all. But those thoughts were fleeting. He was glad he chose to flash a victory sign that night. To him, it was a victory. He knew this week would pass and fade in his mind, but the memory of Alpha-17 giving him his name and having the first holo ever taken of him be in the same shot as six of the GAR’s best would stay with him forever.
I keep forgetting to tag the taglings! GGN @foxwithadarkside @lonewolflupe @wings-and-beskargam @fiveminutetrash @crosshairs-dumb-pimp-gf @feral-ferrule @ladylucksrogue @nika6q @skellymom @vimse @gargothnightzine @sunshinesdaydream @noblelightfighter @returnofthepineapple @freesia-writes @covert1ntrovert @vikushat @nocturius8015ficore @mamuzzy @risavulpes @niobiumao3 @sazzujazzu @blackseafoam @thora-sniper @gars-weaponeer @leenathegreengirl @vodika-vibes @headphones-ct-09978 @thecoffeelorian @bad4amficideas
Divider by @sinisterexaggerator!