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Cody stands on the high platform, overlooking all the evacuees.
For all that they often take on missions together, the 501st and 212th rarely have leave during the same period. It just figures that at the one point they did, disaster would strike.
“How does something like this even happen?” Rex says, a touch of disbelief in his tone. “Coruscant has been standing for thousands of years. And now the whole planet is just, what, totaled? What is the Senate supposed to do now?”
“I don’t know what the next step will be,” Cody says grimly. “This whole situation is a total – “
Voices rise from the crowd, cutting off his train of thought. Cody blinks, exchanging a wary look with Rex before he turns towards the commotion.
It’s a twi’lek woman, clutching at a bleeding wound on her arm as she stumbles through the crowd.
Cody moves instinctively, already wading through the masses to try and direct her to a medic when her words actually register, and he falters.
“What ship did they come in on?” She’s saying, fresh tears falling down her face. “Did anyone see? He was hurt! He needed a medic, but he — he made me go ahead, and I can’t find him! Please, has anyone seen what ship the troopers were on?”
There were dozens of battalions on the surface, and Cody couldn’t possibly figure out which trooper she was talking about without further information, but it seemed like the crowd didn’t need anything more.
These are Coruscant’s people, the millions that dwell under the surface of the city-planet that never sleeps, and there’s only one set of troopers that they would bother with.
A murmur spreads through the crowd, growing louder and louder as it echoes against the walls of the ship;
“Has anyone seen the Guard?”
Cody freezes, and something in his chest goes cold. Next to him, Rex bites back a wounded noise, as they all come to the same conclusion at once.
“Please! Has anyone seen the Coruscant Guard?”
…
“This fucking sucks,” Shrike says, voice echoing against concrete walls.
“Get out if you don’t like it,” Ike shoots back, unreasonably offended.
“It does suck, Ike,” Fox feels the need to defend, because no one likes being in the sewers, no matter how defensible of a position it is.
“Then go outside and get a building dropped on your head for all I care!” Ike cries out, throwing his hands up in exasperation. “A once-in-a-lifetime devastation-class earthquake destroys the fucking planet and you’re complaining about my lack of accommodations?! Excuse me for not knowing that I would have to fit the entire fucking battalion in my living room!”
“Please tell me that your squad has not actually been living in the sewers,” Nightingale says defeatedly, the CMO already having to be propped up on Thire’s shoulder just to keep moving after this disaster of a day. “The risk of infection alone is enough to give me an aneurysm.”
Ike is silent for a long moment, and then coughs.
“Ike!”
“What, it’s worked out so far, hasn’t it?” he says defensively, and Fox has to pinch the bridge of his nose to ward off the coming headache.
“At least the Chancellor is dead,” Hound chimes in, perfectly cheerful, and Fox’s headache magnifies.
“We don’t know that for sure,” Fox forces himself to say. Plausible deniability is his greatest ally.
“He was right in the epicenter of the earthquake, and none of the Red Guards made it out either,” Thorn points out, and he at least has the courtesy to look a bit sheepish about it.
“Until I see a body, I’m not confirming anything,” Fox denies.
This is, of course, out of no great love for the Chancellor – the man had been a parasite on the Republic, and that was Fox’s most generous possible description – but when your boss gets a roof collapsed on top of him and falls into the void, your best defense is probably to say ‘well, no one can say for sure’.
“Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy,” Weeper murmurs, and when Fox shoots him a mean look he snickers and hides behind Stone, who rolls his eyes at his batchmate’s antics.
“Let’s not get off-topic here. Are we just gonna have to live in the sewers forever now?” Shrike demands, crossing his arms over his chest.
They’re still sloshing through sewer water, mutated rats and other small creatures also seeking shelter scurrying around them. Behind the small cluster of Commanders, the rest of the Guard is following along – all here, and all safe, even if some of them are forced to lean on their comrades for strength, or even be carried if their injuries were severe enough. Even the massif’s were roused from the barracks in time, and frankly, it’s nothing short of a miracle.
“If you don’t like my sewer, you can go fu–”
“Enough!” Fox says sharply, cutting Ike off before this whole thing can escalate any further. “No, we won’t be trapped in the sewer forever. The surface will likely be inhospitable for a time, but the GAR will send down clean up crews and search & rescue squads. They don’t have any information on what happened to the Chancellor, after all. They’ll be back, if only for that.”
Unlike the rest of the troops, the Guard hadn’t been evacuated. It was their standard procedure – the Guard were made for Coruscant, and they would die on it too.
Fox finds that he doesn’t truly mind it. Not that he’s looking for death, but… The Guard has a limited number of ships available to them. Between their battalion of about six-hundred men, they could make it work.
But there are billions of sentient lives on Coruscant. Normal people, civilians, just trying to live their lives with dignity. So they had given up their ships, packed as many refugees on-board as they could, and sent them away from the disaster zone.
“What do you wanna bet that they haven’t even noticed we’re missing?” Shrike says sardonically, sloshing through the muck with a foul expression on his face.
Fox shakes his head, sighing, and next to him, Silver lets out a tiny laugh.
“Have some faith, vod,” Silver says quietly, a faint smile on his face. Fox has Silver’s arm slung over his shoulders, supporting him through the tunnels. Silver looks cheery enough, despite the injuries he sustained while helping civilian evacuations. “People notice more than you think.”
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Shrike scoffs, and strides forward to slug Ike on the shoulder. “Now, if you hurry up and show me a dry spot, I might just reconsider my position on sewers.”
Ike brightens immediately. “Absolutely!”
Fox feels his lips twitch into a smile as he watches his troopers horse around.
Despite everything, they’re all still here. That’s enough.