DC-26 [2020-03-23 04:58:07 +0000 UTC]

I promise to catch up on No Regrets soon.  #goals  
In the meantime, I think you might dig this story:
Casualties (Part 1)Somewhere in the Outer Rim, 20-something days ABG (After the Battle of Geonosis)The battle was over, and it was back to the relative normality of life at base. Padawan Commander Aarde Konshi stepped out of the LAAT/i dropship as it touched down on the hangar floor, automatically moving away from the clone troopers of Endex Company as they disembarked behind her.She'd just fought a battle with them, beside them, but that didn't mean she trusted them. Their sameness unnerved her - and their deadliness.Aarde didn't like to admit it, even to herself - but she was afraid to look inside their minds. Afraid of what she might find there. She'd seen inside a murderer's mind once - before the war started, when she was on Coruscant with her Master - and it had left her feeling sick and shaken to the core.I couldn't survive a war with these men, knowing they're like that.So I don't ask questions.Aarde was good at not asking questions. Since the war had started, her first instinct when in doubt about a situation was to cut and run, her next to defend. Her Master always sighed and told her to have patience, to be a little more brave. She'd snap back that she was brave. . . from a certain point of view. . . and many beings would have been much weaker during the course of the war so far.The action today had been a small skirmish compared to the battles she'd been in since the war started, only a few weeks ago though it felt much longer. She'd gone through the fray with a detached efficiency - retreating into her own world, the immediate circle of droid upon droid that needed to be felled before it felled her. Coming out occasionally to direct troops, protecting the nearby troopers if she needed to. The defensive abilities of Form III, her preferred style of lightsaber combat, came in handy then. Twice she'd gone out to a vantage point away from the battle, leaving the clones to do the fighting while she commed them enemy positions and numbers.The clone officers were unfailingly polite and obedient, but she still somehow felt that she couldn't trust them.Right now, the troopers were forming up and moing off in neat squads - there had been few wounded that day - and Aarde kept on a straight path across the hangar towards the corridors that led to her Master's office for debriefing. She pulled down the hood of her thick robe and shook the rain out of her untidy dark hair.Report to the General, then a good meal and a shower, and then sleep - at the moment there was nothing that sounded better. Aarde yawned.She walked past a group of clones unloading new ordnance from a supply ship. Small sounds fell on the edge of her hearing as she left them behind - a beep. . . beep. . . beep, beep, beep-beep-beep-beep-"Commander, look out! Get down!"Everything happened so fast after that. There were sudden panicked shouts, and something hard rammed into Aarde's back. She woke up from her haze as the armored trooper shoved her, immediately panicking, desperately reaching into his mind, trying to make out his intentions. She felt none of the malice she expected, only a raw fear. And then she was flying forwards, the trooper on top of her, unable to think or even scream as the world erupted behind them.Sound ripped into her, screaming into nothingness, and time passed indeterminately.Eventually she came around and realized that someone was pulling her up, tugging at her shoulder. Aarde gasped, her eyes shut tight, and lifted her head from where it had been buried in her arms, choking on something gritty and metallic. She dragged herself up. When she opened her eyes there was dust everywhere, mixing with the rain that came down through the -The hangar didn't have a roof anymore. Where the wall in front of her had been, there was a gap showing the night sky outside, surrounded by crumbling remnants of duracrete slab. A uniformed clone was shaking her shoulder, his mouth moving. Aarde looked at him and realized she couldn't hear a thing.Something warm and wet ran down her neck and she reached up to touch it. Blood was running from her ears. Suddenly the pain hit her and she sat down hard on a nearby chunk of duracrete.The pain, intense and anguished, wasn't just hers - she could feel it from all over now that her guard was down. She looked around and saw more clones moving through the rubble. Everything was fire and smoke and gritty rain, shattered white plastoid and crumpled bodies. It was worse than any battlefield she'd seen - an unreal concentration of injury. The gunship that had put her down earlier was lying on its side, blast doors shredded. The supply ship she'd passed by was in pieces she could have picked up in one hand.The clone grabbed her shoulder again, and this time she managed to understand him, reading his lips although she still couldn't hear a thing. Ma'am. Commander, are you all right? "I'm fine," she said without hearing herself, and got up. Her head was heavy and pounded thickly. "What happened?"He stepped back and checked a handheld datapad. . . .looks like an accident, sourcing from the ordnance that was being offloaded. . . chain reaction, brought down almost the entire hangar block . . . still counting casualties.You're very lucky to be alive, ma'am."It's the Force," Aarde said automatically. Suddenly everything had gone to pieces, including her - she was shaking now, on the verge of tears. "How did this happen?" she said. "This is supposed to be a secure hangar. Things don't just explode."Looks like it originated inside the hangar . . . no enemy activity reported nearby . . . Are you sure you're okay, Commander?He waited for her response. Aarde blinked and nodded, and he seemed satisfied, clipping the datapad to his belt and heading off to help with the wounded.Aarde's head felt very strange now - heavy and spinning, it buzzed like static on a comlink, although she still couldn't make out what sounds were going on around her. She rolled her neck, decided that didn't help any, and looked around. The situation seemed to be under control, so her first thought was to go tell her Master what had happened. It didn't occur to her that he'd probably already been alerted.Aarde set off through the debris, thinking for a moment that she was going to black out on the way. But although she was disoriented,nothing had hit her, during the explosion or its aftermath. She wondered vaguely why as she walked.The hallway outside her Master's office was remarkably clean and quiet - at least, Aarde found it so after the recent chaos. She stood nervously between dusty crates and pallets left from their recent move into the base, arms wrapped around herself, waiting for him to let her in. Minutes slid away. She closed her eyes, trying to calm down.The Force is with all things. . .When she opened her eyes again, the door was sliding open. Aarde stepped inside, slightly more composed. The aging Togruta Jedi Master Denarra Kio - her General, her Master - was sitting at his desk, arms folded, looking concerned.Aarde wondered if he'd felt that awful gash in the Force, all the pain she'd sensed. He didn't say anything, just got up and went to meet her, glancing her up and down, then put his hands on either side of her head and closed his eyes. Aarde felt the numb shock fading out and - when he stepped back and spoke to her - she could hear again. Her head still felt funny, though."You all right?""Yes, thank you, Master." "The base is on red alert over the explosions." Master Kio sat down on the edge of his desk and Aarde flopped into the seat he kept by the office door. "Commander Nek assured me that the situation is under control. They've sent in the bomb disposal squad, medics, the full kit. What happened to you, Padawan?""I was there when it blew. I'm okay," she said, although she wasn't, not really. "One of the officers told me it wasn't an enemy attack. Apparently the explosives that were being transported were triggered somehow. . . or rigged, I'm not very good at lip reading."Master Kio frowned, glancing down at a datapad on the desk. "All enemy activity has been on the other side of the planet - so if the intelligence is correct, this is most likely a fluke. Chance electromagnetic waves or sparks from the equipment, or jarring that affected already faulty circuitry. . . but we still can't rule out the possibility of sabotage.""This is a minor base. Why would the Separatists go to the trouble of planting a bomb here - and just for one hangar?" Aarde frowned."Agents of Dooku will go to great lengths to foment chaos and disorder, Padawan." Kio shook his head. "It isn't unlikely, and an investigation is definitely in order."She nodded, her Master's calmness helping her refocus. She was thinking of the clones, though - that pain - still counting casualties.I never really trusted them, did I? she thought. All those faces, all the same. Unnerving. Bred to kill, unnatural, and part of me thought they were like a bomb, waiting to go off on the user.And now the bomb had gone off - with a horrible irony."Permission to go to the medical bay and see what I can do to help the wounded, Master," she said, making up her mind. He nodded after an awkward pause."Compassion is a virtue that is only too easy to lose in wartime. It's good that you are holding onto yours, Padawan." He rose. "Go, see what you can do. I'll have to go down and see the scene for myself now. May the Force be with you.""Force be with you, too, Master." She rose, bowed, and followed him outside. Then they parted ways.Aarde walked into the medical bay, ignored the droids at the entrance, and made her way to the nearest clone officer who didn't seem to be occupied with triage. There was a lot going on - the 122nd Battalion had only moved into the base a few planetary rotations ago, and wasn't as prepared as it should have been for the number of wounded there now was.The clone told her as much, rather abruptly. Aarde said that she was going to stay and help. He didn't seem to pleased, turning to check something on a comp interface without replying."Fine," he said at last, as she stood there, arms crossed, staring at his back. "Jedi know what they're doing. Usually."Aarde glanced out over the nearest wards, her heart sinking as she saw how crowded they were. There had been close to two hundred troopers of Endex and Dask companies in the hangars earlier, and here she estimated around a hundred in various states of injury. She couldn't help but wonder how many had died.She opened her mind to the clones' emotions - then immediately winced and grabbed her head as the feelings surged around her and it started to hurt again. Without thinking the Padawan sent out a message that they would be all right now - the battle was over, the enemy routed and nowhere near - nothing was going to blow up - they were safe.On reflection, she realized that she didn't know how far that was true - but she was sure now that she'd defend them if need be, from whatever came near that bay.The mood calmed as she stood there, and Aarde could make out different presences in the tapestry of the Force. Surprisingly different, given the clones' exterior sameness, and opposite to what she'd grown to expect, innocent - almost like children.Aarde was learning how to be ashamed of herself quite rapidly. When the medic grumbled at her to go and get disinfected before going near the wounded, she did so without a word, then came back and took the supplies he handed to her. If an errand runner was what they needed here, she'd be glad to fill in.An hour might have passed - Aarde didn't bother to check the time - anyhow, she ended up walking by the rows of bacta tanks, and seeing the mangled casualties inside made her feel guiltier than ever.I'm a Jedi, she thought. I should have been more aware of my surroundings, sensed the explosion about to happen - I could have held it back with the Force, protected them. And instead I would have died, if it hadn't been for that trooper.She realized that she hadn't even remembered him until now. But the memories were coming back - the faint warning beeping that she'd barely registered, and then a shout and a shove that had sent her into an unworthy panic - and saved her life.Something played on the edge of the Padawan's mind as she walked in the blue glow - a presence she'd sensed before. For a moment she tried to figure it out - then the sharp recollection of that moment of panic hit her, and she knew it was him.Closing her eyes and stretching out one hand, Aarde moved through the bacta tanks until her palm came to rest on one's curved transparisteel surface. She opened her eyes, looked up, and winced.There's hardly any of him left, she thought miserably. How can he still be alive?Glancing down at the bacta tank readout and reassuring herself that he was alive didn't help much. His number was CT-3414; his nickname was Haze, and he'd just lost his left hand and both legs to a combination of shrapnel and extensive burn damage. Amputated above the knee - Aarde told herself that was one thing she didn't need to imagine happening. He was still in unstable condition due to blood loss and shock. Well, that's just great.She closed her eyes again, reached out in the Force and started talking to him.Haze? It's me.Do you remember? I was the Commander who never spoke to you, never bothered to learn who you were, as if you weren't a sentient being. It wasn't right of me.I just wanted to say. . . thank you. You're going to be all right now, I promise.I'm sorry. I feel like it's my fault, all of this. I'm so sorry. . .

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DC-26 [2019-05-24 19:32:11 +0000 UTC]

HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

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Deltaturtle [2019-03-06 20:14:39 +0000 UTC]

Heyyy just wanted to leave this song here :3
youtu.be/04jQKYbjt24

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Deltaturtle [2018-12-01 16:19:40 +0000 UTC]

Hey Dar, help me number an ARC?

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