Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“We’ve lost contact with recon team two,” the mission coordinator back on the Resolute reported.

Rex felt his mind pause, and his body go still, as if a very large threat had just appeared on the horizon. Fives and Echo were leading that team, and while both could be unconventional, neither was the type to disregard communication protocol. If they’d dropped out of contact, something was wrong. Something more than being too deep in the caves they were scouting.

“Acknowledged, Resolute. We’re just wrapping up here, I’ll take a team and see if I can't find them,” Rex replied, then turned toward the generals, who had been listening to the exchange.

“Looks like those caves weren’t as harmless as they looked,” he reported grimly.

“I agree,” Kenobi said thoughtfully. “Something is wrong here.” He turned to Skywalker. “I think we should help the captain find his wayward ARCs.”

“Absolutely. It was getting boring here anyway,” Skywalker agreed readily.

Rex nodded in acknowledgment of the general’s words. The Jedi would make this a lot easier; he mentally downgraded his search party from twenty men to just eight.

“Jesse, Kix, Hardcase. You’re with us,” he called out, the men in question appearing promptly. “We’ll rendezvous with Recon Team One on the way, and then proceed to the last point of contact.”

“Yes, sir.” They saluted and began collecting their gear.

General Kenobi addressed Cody. “You’re in charge, Commander. When the technicians have finished their checks, proceed back to the ship and wait for us there.”

“Yes, general.” Cody nodded. “Enjoy your spelunking. Try not to aggravate any cave-dwelling megafauna while you're down there.”

“Oh, you know me,” Obi-wan laughed. “I’m always up for making new friends.”

Cody did not heave a sigh, proving to Rex that he had the self restraint of a Jedi master.

“Yes, sir,” Cody answered with a perfectly neutral face. “That’s the problem, sir.” Or maybe not. When had they gotten to the point they could sass their generals?

It was somewhere around Geonosis, Rex decided. The second time. Between Rex getting thrown off walls by the force, and Cody having to pull his general out of increasingly elaborate ways to die, a lot of the legend had deflated, leaving the Jedi much more approachable.

The generals led the way to the gunship, which was already warmed up and waiting. They wasted no time in boarding, and soon, the roar of the engines was kicking up a cloud of dust from the makeshift landing zone, and they were on their way.

Rex was currently shoving all of his emotions into a box, compartmentalizing the way that all troopers who’d made it off of Kamino had learned to do. Something must have bled through, though, because his posture was stiff and forbidding. Jesse knocked their shoulders together, offering silent support. Rex gave him the barest of nods in acknowledgment, and braced himself for a long flight.

The recon teams had been deployed fairly far afield; the GAR brass had wanted to make extra sure the planetoid was uninhabited when they established their listening post. (Never mind asking why they had sent two of their highest profile battalions to do the job if it were so important that it remain secret.) So it was a long, tense ride to the first meet up point. Once they had picked up Team One, a squad of scouts from the 212^th, Rex gave them the rundown.

“One hour ago, we lost contact with Team Two. 501^st scout team Tango, led by ARC troopers Echo and Fives, disappeared here, about two hundred meters into the cave system.” Rex used his holoprojector to display the map that Team Two had compiled before disappearing.

“The mission is to go in, neutralize whatever threat they encountered, and hopefully, rescue Team Two.” Skywalker stepped forward, taking the lead. “Orbital scans didn’t detect any seismic disturbances, so don’t expect anything as simple as a cave in. Assume hostiles.”

The men indicated their understanding with curt ‘yes sirs,’ but didn’t speculate or chatter. They’d all picked up on Rex’s mood.

Finally, an hour and a half after team two went dark, the gunship touched down at the entrance to the caves. Rex was the first on the ground after the Jedi, and even that only because he’d have needed a jet pack to beat them to it. They took point, and Rex shadowed Skywalker, the rest of the men fanning out behind him.

“Helmet lights,” Rex ordered softly as they entered the cave. It might give away their position, but the Jedi needed to see too.

One by one, thin beams of light lanced through the darkness, illuminating the cave walls, revealing them to be a strange reflective black, shot through randomly with some rusty orange ore. A moment later, everything took on an eerie blue hue as the generals ignited their lightsabers and held them aloft.

“This way.” Skywalker beckoned them forward, and they began their descent.

This cave system was treacherous, hence warranting a pair of ARC troopers leading the mission with their specialized terrain training. The black mineral was slick and brittle, and formed edges that cut like a knife, as Anakin discovered to his dismay when a jagged point caught his sleeve, ripping his robes and nicking his arm.

“Ouch! The rock bit me,” he complained.

“It’s obsidian, Anakin. Volcanic glass. Of course it can be sharp,” Obi-wan replied.

Without a word, Kix moved forward to clean and dress the cut. Skywalker allowed the treatments with a roll of his eyes, but he knew better than to try and dissuade the medic.

They moved on.

The air got worse the deeper they went, growing stale and still. Rex thought he could detect the scent of rot, even through his helmet. The smell grew stronger as they neared their destination, until there was no mistaking the smell of decay and old bones.

It wasn’t long before they discovered the source. The passage they were in opened up into a large chamber that was absolutely littered with bones. It looked like a rancor’s den, except that the skeletons were too intact. They also, without exception, looked to be the remains of sentient beings.

A flash of white plastoid caught Rex’s eye, and his heart dropped.

“Over here,” he called out in a rough voice. He picked his way through the bones to find the bodies of two troopers. When he got close enough, his helmet’s sensors were able to pick up the embedded ID tags in the dead men’s armor and tell him who he was looking at.

Not that he needed that; their armor was painted, and their faces were unmarred.

“It’s Sortie and Pom,” Kix reported, already running a scanner over the bodies. It paid to be thorough, of course, but if Rex had to hazard a guess, he suspected their throats being torn out might have had something to do with their deaths.

“What kind of animal did that?” Jesse asked, scanning the room apprehensively, his rifle held at the ready.

“Something humanoid,” Kix answered, studying the scanner.

“Like, Trandoshan humanoid?” Hardcase asked queasily.

Kix shook his head. “Like Human or near,” he corrected, voice stony.

“Near-human?” Hardcase exclaimed. “What kind of near-human could do that? I couldn’t get that much of a brother’s throat between my teeth if I tried!”

“Focus!” Rex snapped. The generals didn’t need to hear about what kinds of things Hardcase was trying to put in his mouth. “Where are their buckets?”

“Over here,” one of Cody’s scouts announced, shining his light on not just Pom and Sortie’s missing helmets, but a third as well. The Rishi eel was impossible to mistake.

“Fives…” Rex breathed.

While the vode had been conversing, the Jedi had been slowly moving through the room, investigating. Kenobi had a holocamera out and was recording images of some of the bodies, as well as what appeared to be hieroglyphs carved into the walls. Something had changed though, because both Jedi tensed, and that drew Rex’s attention immediately. He had both pistols drawn and leveled almost as quickly as the Jedi brought their blades to a battle ready stance.

And a good thing too. No sooner had his DCs been drawn, than a gaunt, pale creature dropped from the shadows above, right toward Kix.

Rex shot twice, the impact of the bolts throwing the monster back, away from Kix. Kix scrambled away, putting more distance between himself and the thing. A wise decision, considering it was still moving very fast for something that had just soaked up two rounds of plasma. It was moving fast in general. Like, Jedi fast. A couple of other troopers managed to get some shots off in the seconds after it landed, but it dodged them.

“Check your fire!” Rex roared as the Jedi leapt across the room to engage the monster directly. He kept a bead on it as Skywalker and Kenobi darted around it, firing off shots when he had a clear line of sight, which wasn’t often. He was largely forced to watch as the thing danced between the blades of two Jedi, hardly taking any hits.

What blows it did take didn’t seem to trouble it greatly. Rex observed carefully. It seemed to have some sort of healing ability; a long burn Skywalker had managed to score on its ribs had already faded to nearly nothing. His suspicions were confirmed when, after Obi-wan sliced its arm off with a skillful twist of his saber, it picked its arm back up, dashed away, and placed the arm back over the stump. Rex and his men opened fire when it disengaged from the Jedi, but it kept moving so fast that it could barely be seen, let alone hit. Then, after a short time playing defense, it let go of its arm, and it stayed in place. Several men swore in alarm as it flexed its claws with a sharp grin. When it was satisfied with the mobility of its arm, it launched itself at the nearest trooper, which happened to be Rex.

Rex backpedaled steadily, firing all the while, but it wasn’t slowing. It crouched and leapt, its claws outstretched and fanged maw wide. Rex brought his arms up and tucked his chin, preparing to defend himself, however futile a proposition that might be.

Then, without warning, it stopped dead in mid air, a look of almost comical surprise on its face. Behind it, general Skywalker stood firm, his hand outstretched. With a casual flick of his wrist, he pulled it back toward his waiting blade. Still hanging in the grip of the force, it was powerless to stop him as he neatly beheaded it, and then flicked his saber downward to stab the fallen body through the heart.

There was silence for a moment, everyone breathing heavily and watching the monster’s corpse.

“Are you sure that was enough to kill it?” Kenobi asked at last.

“Should be,” Skywalker shrugged. “Head and heart. At least, that’s what I think it said.” He gestured to a section of hieroglyphs on the wall.

Obi-wan stared at him in astonishment. “You can read Ur J’dai?” he blurted out.

“Some,” Anakin said defensively. “Not as well as you, I'm sure, but I paid attention in class.”

“Well, Anakin, your devotion to your lessons just saved us all.” Obi-wan clapped him on the back. Anakin smiled brightly.

Kix approached the body with his medical scanner in order to double check. Even as he declared it dead, it began to rapidly decompose, crumbling down to a grey, ashy substance before their very eyes.

“What in the stars!” he exclaimed, drawing his pistol in surprise. He (and the rest of the troopers, for that matter) kept his weapon pointed at the remains until the process had completely finished.

They were thoroughly spooked, but they still had missing men to find. Though Rex had to admit, things weren’t looking good.

“Come on. There are five brothers who might still be alive. Let’s find them.” Please, Force, let his ARCs all of his men still be alive.

The troopers burst into a flurry of activity as they snapped out of their shock, getting ready to delve further into the caves. Rex turned back to address the Jedi.

“Should we expect more of those things?” he asked.

“I don’t think so. The force feels much clearer now,” Kenobi replied, stroking his beard.

“There’s still something that feels… off. But nothing with ill intent,” Skywalker added.

“Good. One was enough,” Rex said, holstering his DCs.

Before they pressed on, Rex picked up Fives’ helmet and clipped it to his belt, hoping against hope he’d find its owner still alive.

They gathered at the mouth of the tunnel that would lead them deeper in, and general Skywalker took the lead once more as they got moving.

The tunnel they were travelling now wasn’t long— not ten minutes later they could see a faint glow around the bend, like somebody’s bucket light was still on. As they drew closer, the noises started filtering in; deeply disturbing noises that did nothing to inspire hope as to the fate of his men. Grunts and growls, the occasional whimper, underscored by wet sucking sounds. Rex’s mind flashed back to Sortie and Pom— throats laid open, but bodies otherwise unmarred.

“Are you sure there was only one of those things?” Rex asked General Kenobi in a low voice.

“Yes,” the Jedi replied, though his expression was uncertain. “Or... well, whatever we’re about to find, it means us no harm.”

“Lets hope it still feels that way once it’s met us,” Rex quipped, resting his hand on his pistol.

The closer they came, the louder the noises got, not just from proximity, but because the voices were growing more agitated. The growls became snarls, and the sounds of drinking changed to the snap of teeth and the tearing of flesh.

Finally, they rounded the corner, and Rex’s heart stopped.

“Ka’ra…” somebody whispered in horror. Rex thought it might have been himself.

They’d found the missing men. Stripped down to their blacks and imprisoned in a primitive barred cell, two lay unmoving, and a third watched with wide eyed, unblinking horror as Echo and Fives tried to rip out each other’s throats with their teeth.

Rex felt sick; what had happened to the twins? What could possibly have reduced his ARCs to this?

“Weapons to stun,” Kenobi ordered sharply. “Bring them down before they kill each other!”

The general’s voice snapped them out of the awful spell the scene before them had cast, and Rex wasted no more time in firing through the bars. It took more stun rounds than it should have, but with eight men firing, the twins were soon slumped and unmoving, one half on top of the other.

Skywalker then used his lightsaber to cut through a wide swathe of the bars in two quick slices, allowing the metal to clatter to the floor with a series of jarring clangs, the noise too loud in the tense atmosphere.

Kix was the first through, already triaging the occupants of the cell. He confirmed the two at the back were already dead, then moved on to the Dominoes, leaving Rex to comfort the traumatised shiny— Tup, he thought the kid’s name was. He took his helmet off and knelt in front of him, then gently pulled Tup’s hands down from where they’d been pressed against his mouth in horror.

“Hey, soldier. Look at me.”

Slowly, the shiny’s eyes refocused, seeing Rex instead of what was behind him.

“What happened here?” Rex asked.

“It—” Tup’s voice cracked, and he had to swallow before he could continue. “It tried to change us… to be like it.”