During leave on Courescant, Clone Captain Blueberry is called to aid Commander’s Fox and Thorn in a daring rescue mission to save those too injured to be effective for the Grand Army of the Republic and euthanized. Their goal is to give them a new chance in recovery.
Blue stared at his feet awkwardly. He rarely felt this nervous but other Commanding officers brought that out of him, He nervously glanced from his feet to his side. Thorn is sprawled over his chair looking bored and staring off into space, he quickly looks back to his feet feeling very small next to the commander. " So-" Blue jumped to his feet at the sudden noise and backed away quickly, Thorn stares at him with wide eyes. Blue flushes, " Sorry... I wasn't expecting you to say anything..." Thorn chuckles and straightens out, " I'm sorry I scared you." " You didn't scare me, I was surprised." " Oh I'm sure." " I'm glad because that's what happened." Blue sits back down, slightly less nervous. " As I was saying before, Do you know why you're here?" " No. Honestly I was told Fox wanted to see me and that usually translates to 'you did something wrong' which to be fair, while on patrol I did break formation to help a nice lady with her groceries." " You're not in trouble, just don't mention that to him." Blue gets a confused look on his face, " Then why am I here?" Thorn lowers his voice and leans down to be closer, " We need you to do the guard a favor." Blue stares at Thorn for a moment then scoots away mind racing, What favor? There are a LOT of favors for me to do. I can cook is it that? I didn't bring any food to cook Them! Do I have time to go get some- Fox stepped out of his office and waved them in. Blue nervously stepped inside, Thorn close behind. Fox sat down at his desk and motioned to the chairs infront of him, Blue hopped up into one of them, sinking into the too plush beaten down seat. " Thank you for coming Blueberry." " Thank you for having me." He wiggles forward, fighting the chair. He glances to Thorn who was casually leaning back, crossing his legs. He awkwardly tried to mimic him without sinking further into the quicksand chair. " So you're probably wondering why you're here." Fox says, staring into him. Blue nervously laughs, feeling like he's being interogated again, " Y-yes sir, what's this-" " I've always thought that your battalion was useless." Blue deflates and sinks into the chair, " Oh." " And you aren't exactly what I'd call commanding officer material by any span of the mind." Blue sinks even further into the chair, wishing to shrink into nothing and never be seen again. " Fox." Thorn says bluntly. " Sorry. I need to ask something from you blueberry." Blue raises a brow, still sulking in the puffy chair. " Depends on the favor after calling me and my men useless." " I need you to take one of our guards." Blue sits up suddenly and intently, " Who is it?", He liked helping guards. " You don't have to-" " Fox. Who is it?" Fox sighs and starts pacing, blue stands and offers his arm out to stop him, " We can take them it doesn't matter-" " No one can find out about this, The chancellor has ordered that defective clones from the guard are to be... well." Fox suddenly looks much older, like he was on his last legs, Blue knows the look well. " They're to be euthanized." Fox spits out angrily. " Like I said we'll take them no questions asked." " Will your general though-" " I can handle the fallout if she doesn't agree, and the only reason she wouldn't is because I didn't properly get the paperwork done." Fox gains a look of relief that changes into concern again, " We'll help you smuggle Him out of the hospital." Blue nods slowly, " What happened to him? Why are we getting him..." " There was an accident during a patrol in the lower levels. A forklift fell from one of the upper levels... Both arms were severed, we lost a few good men." Blue feels sick, he wouldn't know what to do if he got his limbs torn off. He shakes his head out and rubs his eyes, feeling himself tear up at the idea of what fox lost. " I'm sorry fox... do you need a hug?" " ...." " W-was that weird? Did I say something weird-" " A hug would be nice." He says softly. Blue pauses not expecting that response but goes for the hug, standing higher on his toes and plopping his head on Foxes shoulder. " I know how it is Fox." Blue says softly. " Just promise he'll be safe." " I Promise he'll be fine." Fox squeezes him tighter, Blue struggles to not to squeak from the sudden pressure. Blue feels his feet leave the ground as fox stands straight, Thorn chuckles from his position in his chair. " Don't crush him Fox." Fox pulls away quickly, dropping blueberry to the floor. Blue stumbles back then promptly falls over, Fox coughs into his arm awkwardly, blushing slightly. Blueberry sits up from the floor rubbing the back of his head. " Ow..." " I'm sorry, that wasn't proffessional." " We're Brothers fox, and I've been thrown further than that," He springs up to his feet and rubs his hands together excitedly, " Let's focus on breaking your guy out." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Blue was sulking outside the Hospitals back door, crossing his legs as he awkwardly sat on the speeder. Fox and Thorn had been in there for an hour getting their brother and he was getting anxious, not to mention the calls from Recovery one with messages of ' If you're not here in fifteen minutes I'm feeding you to paulo' ' Did you fall down the sink at 79's?' and his personal favorite from Paulo ' Thahali says Rex kidnapped you back to the 501st, please don't go with them I'll miss you.' He did message them back but kept it vauge ' I'm bringing a surprise' He set down his communicator and glanced around the alley, It was covered in filth that he could smell everything in it. He closed his eyes and took a gentle breath in, Rotten fruit, putrid meat, death, rot, Fox and Thorn's boots. He coughed at the last one and rubbed his nose, trying to get rid of it. Clone stench always got to him, it reminded him of too many failed rescue missions. He glances back to the door, no one coming out, he slips off the speeder and closes his eyes again. Focusing on His brothers scents he shut his eyes again. The trail starts here then they stand by the door, then they go inside, there's other brothers and civies in there, two twi'lek, three torgruta, five clones. They go up a flight of stairs... He lost their scent after that, nose twitching in disappointment. As much as he hated using his extra sense, he couldn't help but use it. He was surprised he didn't end up with a name like dog or hound. A smashing sound breaks him from his dazed thoughts, he spun towards the source, spotting Thorn and fox with a third brother paired with a fourth, both wrapped in a blanket. He tilted his head. " I thought there was only one." " We couldn't leave him. General Fisto caught us and had us take him as well." Blue nods, already hearing the lecture from Thahali. He helped them get on the speeder, carefully strapping the drowsy recovering brothers in. Thorn took the drivers seat, Blue hopped into the shotgun seat only to have Fox lift him up and set him in the back. " Hey..." " You're fine in the back. Lets go." Thorn laughs and pulls out of the alley, merging into the flow of traffic, heading towards the recovery ship. Fox was shaking in his seat, looking from side to side. " Fox are you okay-" Blue sets his hand on his shoulder. " We're in so much trouble, Palpatine's going to kill us, we're all going to die." Fox started to hyperventalate. Thorn pats his back, soothing him from his position, " He'll never know fox. We'll be fine and Hodge will be safe." Blue zones them out and perks up, finally getting a name for one of the newbies, he peeks under the blankets and finds a brother with no arms and another with no legs. The armless one was sprawled out as much as he could, shaking slightly but still asleep, Tattoos of circut boards cover his shaved head, paired with scruffy brown stubble. He was a bit smaller than most Clones but he was still large enough not to be considered a mini clone such as himself, Hodge started snoring softly, still asleep. Blue carefully covers him up again, turning towards the other one. He's met with a mop of curly black hair and a massive scar on his face, with a healthy dosage of drool coming from his mouth. The brother is missing his legs from the knees down, fresh scars and teeth marks scour his flesh on his neck where an obvious bitemark lays. He was definately above average, or would be with his legs still attatched but he still had stature. Thorn pulls over into another alley and turns the engine off. " what are we doing here?" " We're going to recovery on foot." Blue nods and helps unload his brothers into a hovering bin, Fox guides them through the back alleys to recovery zero where Thahali stands, tapping her foot. Thorn curses under his breath and fox freezes. Blueberry walks around them and perkily walks to Thahali. " Hello T-" " Cargo hold. Now." Her eyes are narrowed into slits; she looks at the other clones, " Hello Fox, Thorn, Just bring them into the medical bay, Whiskers can help you there." The two commanders pull them into the ship, Blueberry attempts to slink away after them. Unfortunately he's grabbed by the force and floats after Thahali into the Cargo hold. She sets him down in one of the open crates and leans on it, glaring down at her captain. " Do you want to explain to me what happened." " Well Fox said I needed to go to his office and it turns out the chancellor has ordered instant termination of non functional clones and I thought that was what we were supposed to do-" She holds up her hand in a 'stop' motion, he looks down and away. " I don't care about that. Why didn't you tell me?" He rubs the back of his neck, not sure what to say. He didn't really think about that part, He had wanted to go and get the target as fast as he could, he was on a search and rescue mission again and managed to succeed this time around. " Well?" " I... I didn't think to." He says, scratching at his neck now. " You didn't think to." She hisses. He winces, starting to get more nervous, You failed. you failed her. She's going to send you back to reprograming. " N-no?" She puts her forehead down onto the edge of the crate, " Do you have any idea on how worried I was?! what if they caught you?! they'll put you back in that Pen!" He shrinks back a bit, " Hindsight is 20-20..." She grabs him and pulls him into a tight hug, he winces and stiffens. " Just... don't do that again. We're partners." She starts to cry, " I don't know what I would do if you were sent to prison or to Reprogramming or anything." He relaxes slightly and nuzzles into her neck, hugging back quietly. They stay like that for a moment before she pulls away, wiping her eyes. " Let's go meet our shinies." He nods and gives a little laugh, " Master Fisto sends his encouragement." " Then we know they'll be good with us."