The Wolf Pack

Chapter 43

Kriari had been in a few spacecraft battles, she'd had her fair share of rough landings too. But she had never experienced fire as heavy as she was then. The geonosian population had been expecting them, and they had been more than ready for their arrival. Gunships were dropping like flies around them. Both pilots and gunners had their hands full avoiding enemy fire and maneuvering in flak that heavy. Kriari could feel the clones' unease around her and was beginning to feel it herself as the gunship shook violently every few seconds.

She wanted to lend the pilot her strength, enhance his senses with the Force, but she realized just how arrogant that was of her the second the thought crossed her mind. These men had trained their entire lives to be the best of the best, no help from the Force would change their odds, she would have to trust them to do what they did best.

Kriari put her mask on and the earpiece on, she could barely hear a thing with the noise of engines, explosions and falling debris. Geonosis was giving them a fight, a pretty hard one, and they would have to use not only their strength but their minds to get through this one with as little losses as possible.

But with how many gunships were falling and had fallen since takeoff, Kriari doubted many would survive this one.

She barely heard as Cody was given the command to put down the tanks, and somewhere not so deep within her soul, Kriari was glad to get out of the flying tin can. She thought one last prayer to the Force, hoped for her friends' survival and grabbed her lightsaber before positioning herself first before the blast doors. It was a habit she had developed during the war: once the doors opened, she would serve as a shield for the troopers and prevent any early losses.

Outside, they were met only by enemy fire and dirt. All around them was a cacophony of blaster fire, explosions and yelling. Clones had a habit of encouraging themselves and those around them by helling nasty things about the enemy. On a good day it could even be funny, that day it seemed like a last resort not to lose all hope. Geonosis had been more than ready.

Kriari stayed by Cody's side as she had been instructed, protecting him from stray blasts and watching him organize their troops within seconds. He established a square, a more defensible position surrounded by the few tanks they could put on the ground and started directing teams to different positions.

"Commander, where do you want me?" Asked Kriari once Cody had finished giving orders.

She had been waiting patiently but was now getting antsy, clones were dying all around her and she was in the relative safety of the square. She felt as if she was being coddled.

"You are staying in the square and guarding the injured as well as our ammo." He answered dismissively.

"But I'm supposed to shadow you,and have your back, I could surely be of more use-"

"You have your orders, Commander." he interrupted.

"But Cod-"

"Listen, Kid, I like you, I really do, and I think you are very capable, but I will not be risking my strongest fighter in the line of fire when I have a medical triage in danger of being overrun," he sighed as he realized he had lost his temper. "I'm not underestimating you, Kid. I know what you are capable of -I've seen the footage-, I just need you to guard the wounded or we will all die on this dry rock for nothing."

Kriari's mind clicked. She was being a spoiled child. She was a soldier here, just as any clone around her, she had no right to question Cody's orders and here he was explaining himself anyway. She had been unknowingly using her privilege against him. She felt sick to her stomach.

She turned her lightsaber off and handed it to Cody before holding out her hand for his DC. The Commander looked stunned for a second, but understood the intention and handed Kriari the blaster. She saluted him and ran off to the medical triage before starting to organize the place she would be defending.

Around Cody, everything seemed to go silent, muted. Jedi were not supposed to be this loyal, this humble. It felt wrong to be handed the weapon of someone he had always been told was superior. Kriari had saluted him and ran off with his blaster in hand, like any other trooper. She was apologizing, she was showing him just how much she respected him. She was telling him "we are all equals here".

His hand tightened around the gray cylinder, he would guard it with his life. The gesture had given him more courage and confidence than anything could have. Kriari trusted him and his judgment, under his guidance, she would be anything he needed, that day she would be a trooper.

As he turned to give out more orders, Cody thanked the universe he had been assigned to Kenobi and Foreas. He would return their faith and loyalty tenfold not because it was his duty, but because they had earned it. If a Jedi apprentice could be humble enough to recognize when she had been entitled without needing to be told and adjusted her behavior accordingly; if a Jedi Master trusted him -a clone- enough to teach his Padawan, then Cody would make sure he was worthy of it.

Kriari didn't see the gunship go down, but he felt her master's fear and pain as it happened. She had to make a conscious effort not to be distracted by him. She had a job to do, she didn't have the benefit of running off to save him, she had given up that right when she gave Cody her lightsaber.

She continued to move the wounded to the triage, continued to help the medics treat their brothers, continued to shoot any geonosian craft or soldier that got too close. Her physical training gave her the strength to carry full grown men, hold them down as a medic re-set their bones or do something that was extremely painful to the patient.

Kriari had been into battle plenty of times, but never had she seen as much carnage as within the perimeter of the medical triage. Medics were built differently, she realized. The mental fortitude required to have to inflict pain in order to heal, to have someone die in your arms and move to the next patient. She admired them all, and she hoped that one day she could be as strong as they were.

In the meantime, she would have to focus on the task at hand, and try not to think about her lost master somewhere beyond her reach and help. She would have to trust Cody to handle the situation without them and win. She would have to leave her pride aside and do her job, there were troopers who depended on it.