#caregiver!tups

[littlespacereader]

It’s my One Year Anniversary on Tumblr!

Thank you everyone for your love and support through this first year! Your love of my fics or my random post mean the world to me!!

My regression and everything about this side of my life is hidden by everyone I know. So to have this community to rant to, to write fics for or to just be silly with, it means everything to me! Thank you for being so welcoming and so kind to me!🥹💞

In honor of this anniversary I decided to write a fic based on whatever I’m obsessed with at the moment. And what’s been my hyper fixation show at the moment is Star Wars the Clone Wars! So please enjoy this fic with Captain Rex and the 501st plus a Jedi Little Reader and their antics of trying to stay up late! Enjoy!!!

Dad Says We Can Stay Up Late!💤🌙

Caregivers: Rex, Kix, Echo, & Tups with a Fem Jedi Little!Reader and Fives, Hardcase, Jesse and Dogman Little Siblings (SFW!)

Tags- Pillow fights, arguing (mild), snacks, sippy cups, bottles, pacifiers, tickling, stuffies, game of tag, snuggles and cuddling, group sleepover

The mission was over and the 501st plus General Y/N were on their way back to Kamino. It was a great victory over the separatists. Another win for the squad. So that mean a victory party!

But the problem? It was probably going to be past most of their bedtimes.

The clones of the Republic are no strangers to regression. Clones don’t get a childhood, they’re just trained to fight. So it’s no wonder some seek out regression and some seek to be caring figures to those little ones.

The 501st has their fair share of the mix. Captain Rex, of course, is the group’s main Caregiver. Both in and out of all of their regression, Rex is always seen as a father figure to all of them. But when they regress, he takes the role very seriously.

Then you have Kix the medic and clone trooper Tups as the second and third Caregivers to the 501st. Finally the last Caregiver is Echo whose quiet and gentle touch gives him the nickname mom of the group.

So four Caregivers of the 501st…but who are the Littles then?

The Caregivers have their hands full with the 501st Littles. Fives is the most energetic Little of the bunch, then there’s Hardcase who’s not far behind Fives chaotic energy. They’re the big kids of the group.

Then there’s Dogman and Jesse, who have a slightly younger mindset but not too far behind their brothers. They’re more kids rather than big kids.

Then there’s the 501st Jedi general Y/N. Ripped away from her family at a young age, Y/N hasn’t really known what it’s like to have a normal childhood or a family. But she would find that with the clone squadron.

She joined them in their routine of coming back to Kamino and regressing. Only thing is…she’s the youngest of the bunch with a little kid headspace.

No one minded though, infact the clones loved having a smaller Little one to take care of! The Littles loved their little sister and the Caregivers loved having someone so young to take care of.

So that’s how the 501st has their own Little Family. But what was this about a victory party?

Oh yes! Rex had promised that if they won this particular battle they would be rewarded with a victory party. The problem? It’s already late and their bedtimes are coming up fast.

“We can’t have a victory party,” Hardcase whined, “We’ll only have an hour to celebrate before we have to go to bed.” He crossed his arms, clearly starting to regress on the ship back.

He wasn’t the only one. Most of the Littles were almost if not regressed already. Happy to be able to do so after the mission.

“Yeah you’re right Hardcase, you make a good point there.” Rex smiles, “Then I guess everyone will be staying up past their bedtime tonight.”

That got every Little on the ship excited. Immediately all their heads lifted up to look at Rex.

“Really?? We can stay up late and do whatever we want?!” Jesse asked, clearly super excited.

“He said you can stay up late, not that you can do whatever you want Jesse.” Kix corrected, smiling all the same as he shook his head.

“We can watch holograms all night!” Y/N smile, clearly as excited as everyone else.

“It’s going to be the coolest party ever!! We’re never going to sleep tonight!” Fives yelled.

“Yeah!!”

“Yeah never sleeping!”

“Staying up forever!”

The rest of the way back to Kamino, the Little gathered and talked about all the things they planned on doing the whole night.

Meanwhile the Caregivers talked as well. “Rex, are you sure this is a good idea?” Echo asked with a glance towards the group of excited Littles.

“Of course it is Echo. No harm in this at all.”

“Do you seriously think that they’re going to stay up all night?” Tups asks.

Kix laughs, “Are you kidding? We just came back from a long mission and now we’re going to have a party? They’ll be lucky if they stay up before their bedtime.”

~~~

The moment the ship lands, the Littles are practically bouncing off the walls with excitement. “Endless night!!” Fives says, being the first to run off the ship.

“Endless night!!” Hardcase yells after him.

The rest of the squad follows behind. Y/N holding Kix’s hand as they walk through the hallways of Kamino. It was obvious the youngest was going to be the first to fall asleep.

“Sweetheart, you don’t have to stay up with the boys. If you feel tired you can get one of us and we’ll take you to bed.” Kix tried to say but Y/N shook her head.

“Don’t wanna miss anything.” She whined.

“I know baby, I know. I’m just saying if you start to feel tired and if you want to go to sleep, you can always find me and I’ll take you somewhere a bit more quiet.” Kix explained.

Y/N nodded and tried to hold back a yawn. “Kay Kits.” She said, leaning close against his arm.

Kix knew like the rest of the Caregivers that Y/N always tried to keep up with her older Little siblings. But late hours and Y/N didn’t mix together. He knew she would be the first to sleep.

The rest? Wouldn’t be far behind.

~~~

Fives turns around and looks to the group of Caregivers and Littles who are ‘too slow’. His eyes quickly landed upon me.

“Come on slow pokes! We can’t waste any time!” Fives walks over to me and picks me up, giving me a piggy back ride as he runs down the hallway. I giggle the whole way as the Caregivers watch and smile.

Fives carries me into the 501st barracks where the rest of the Littles are running about. Jesse smiled seeing us enter, “Great you’re finally here Y/N. Grab all the pillows and blankets and put them by the holoscreen.”

I nod my head running around to all the beds, grabbing the blankets, pillows and everyone’s stuffies. We did this often, making one big bed infront of the hologram so we could all cuddle to sleep together. I took all our belongings to the center of the room, and started creating one big bed full of cushions, pillows and blankets for all of us.

I hold my loth cat stuffie close as I watch the rest of the Littles of the 501st running around. A yawn escaped me as the weight of the day starts to weight me down. But I couldn’t fall asleep yet! Stay up forever!! But…I could start to see it was going to be a difficult task.

The Caregivers finally enter the barracks and watch the chaos unfolding. Fives and Jesse are wrestling around, Dogman and Hardcase are getting everyone’s cup and sippy cups.

But the Caregivers noticed something, everyone was walking around in their dirty and worn armor from the mission. They all needed to be changed into their pjs. But that was going to be their first and one of their biggest challenges of the night.

There was an unspoken game the Caregiver and the Littles of the 501st played after every mission. The Littles, who outnumbered the Caregivers 5 to 4, would try to outrun their Caregivers and see who would be the last Little to be caught and change into their pjs from their armor.

Fives was the resigning winner from their last mission. But today could be a new winner.

“Fives! Jesse!” I call over, pointing to the group of Caregivers strategizing. All at once the Littles realized what was about to happen.

“Ready for our next mission?” Rex smirked to the other three Caregivers. Echo sighed while Kix and Tups chuckled.

“I’ve got Jesse,” Kix called.

“I’ve got Dogman,” Tup called next.

Rex and Echo looked to each other, silently agreeing on who they were going after.

Fives, Jesse, Hardcase, Dogman and I joined each other and stared back at the Caregivers.

There was a standoff between us. Neither of the two groups moved. The Caregivers smiled back at Littles with a mischievous smile.

The silent standoff was broken with a simple cry, “RUNNN!!!!” from Fives.

Suddenly all hell broke loose in the 501st barracks as the Littles took off while the Caregivers chase them down.

I ran as fast as I could, ducking under beds and weaving in and out of the bunks. I ducked under one of the bunks to hide. I popped my head out to see if anyone had been caught yet.

Dogman was wrapped in Tup’s warm arms, giggling as the Caregiver tickled his sides. So there’s one down.

Jesse ran around the beds but his foot caught the corner of one, causing him to fall. Immediately he starts to cry, holding his ‘injured’ leg.

Kix, who was chasing him to begin with, ran over to his aid, bringing the Little close to check his leg. “Hurts!” He cried.

“Doesn’t look like anything major. Just a little bruise.” Kix said after looking over his leg. With a little kiss to it, Kix declared it all better.

Jesse lifted his arms up and Kix right away picked him up, “It’s okay Jesse, I’ve got you. You’re okay sweet one.” He says softly, as Jesse hide his face against his neck.

Because Kix is a medic it meant he was extra gentle and comforting whenever one of us got hurt or injured. Sometimes an injury or cut that’s normally not that big of a deal to us out of our regression, is a big deal when we’re regressed. Kix knew and always made sure we got extra love and comfort for it.

That’s Jesse and Dogman out of the game. That left Fives, Hardcase and myself.

I saw Echo, he was trying to wrangle Fives….but where is Rex?

Suddenly my ankle is grabbed and I get pulled out from under the bed. “Thought you could hide from me you little tooka.” Rex smiled, tickling me on the ground. I kicked and squirmed, laughing to the point of not being able to breathe.

He picks me up off the floor and into his arms. I giggle as he bounced me. “How’d you find me?”

“Your friend here was sticking out just a bit.” He gestured to my loth cat stuffie. In reality he watched as I hid under the bed, but he wasn’t going to ruin the fun.

“Come on, let’s get you changed into something more comfy.” Rex said as he started to walk towards my bunk to change me.

“Wait! Wanna see who last to get picked.” I explain.

Rex smirks, “Alright, alright, let’s see.”

At the moment all that was left was Echo, trying to wrangle Fives and Hardcase all by himself. Fives and Hardcase started working together, staying parallel to Echo. They would be on one side of the bed while Echo would be on the other.

“You can’t catch us!” Hardcase teased as they ran around the bed three, no four times in a row.

Finally Echo had enough and decided to put his arc trooper training to some good use. He grabbed a hold off the side of the bed and swung over in one fast movement.

The moment caught Fives and Hardcase off guard and soon Echo had a hand on both their shoulders, stopping them from running off. “Alright, enough is enough. Let’s get you both changed.” Echo sighed in relief.

“Wait! Who did you touch first?” Fives quickly asked.

“Yeah who?” Hardcase added.

“I think it was a tie boys.”

“A tie?!” The two littles looked at each other.

“Yeah. I grabbed you both at once. Guess you both win.” Echo shrugged.

There was a moment of internal debate before the two accepted their shared win.

“Yeah!! We won!!” Hardcase smiled.

“We’re the fastest!!” Fives added.

Rex walked towards my bunk with me in his arms. “See? Leave it to Echo to get both of them at once.” He chuckled.

“Yeah,” I say following it with a yawn.

As Rex walks over to my bunk to grab my pajamas, I can’t help ur rest my head against him, closing my eyes and wrapping my arms around his neck.

I hear him chuckle, “Someone’s tired after the mission.”

He places me on the bed and starts helping me changes from my usual Jedi robes to some softer more comfortable pajamas. “You did a good job today.”

“I did?”

“Yeah you did.” Rex smiles, “I was very proud of you on the battle field today.”

The praise warms me, making so so happy and honored that I did good and that Rex was proud of me. I hug him tightly, so happy to have him as one of my Caregivers.

After he grabs a hairbrush and brushes my hair, all while I try not to fall asleep to the comforting feeling.

“You know,” Rex stated to say, “If you want to go to sleep, you can Y/N. You don’t have to stay up with the boys. And if you’re worried about being by yourself I’m sure one of us won’t mind staying with you.” He suggests.

But I shake my head and rub my tired eyes, “Noooowwwaa! Wanna stay up with you.” I put my arms out to be held again.

“Alright my little tooka, alright. But if you feel tired you promise to tell one of us okay?” He lifts me back into his arms.

“Promise Dadee.” I say softly, holding onto his as he carries me back to the group.

Every Little is changed into pjs now, as they settle in for their victory party. Kix and Tups managed to get changed themselves in the mayhem and wear pajamas bottoms and loose shirts. They watch the Littles as Echo and Rex go to change out of their armor.

Tups handles the food and snacks while Kix handles drinks, all while the Littles roam around them.

Jesse stays close to Kix after getting hurt. He becomes his little helper, gathering everyone’s respective cups and getting drink orders from the Littles.

“Y/N!” Jesse runs over, “Water, blue milk or juice tonight?”

“Blue milk please.” I reply, watching as Jesse nods and runs back over to Kix to tell him.

“Y/N wants blue milk, Dad.”

“Thank you for asking her Jesse. You’re just a great helper.” Kix smiled and Jesse beams under the praise.

The rest of the Littles hang around Tups and for good reason. He starts making everyone a little bowl of snacks.

“Where’s the desserts?! How is this a party without desserts?!” Fives whines.

“Because it’s too late to have dessert.” Tups replies.

He’s about to say something else when Fives interrupts him, “But we need desserts so we can stay up all night! This is unfair!”

“Fives drop it,” Rex says sternly as he returns with Echo.

Rex wears a sweatshirt and pajama pants, similar to Kix and Tups, while Echo wears a hoodie and sweatpants because he’s always chilly.

Fives whines but drops it, knowing Rex was not going to put up with it. “Fine….but can we have extra snacks because we won?” He bargains.

Tups chuckles, “Sure Fives. You can have extra.” That seems to satisfy the young clone.

The Caregivers started to get everything together for the night, and while they did the Littles started to run around and play.

Fives grabbed his pillow and shouts “PILLOW FIGHT!!” With that the war had been declared. All of us grab our pillows and start to run towards one another, and into the battle.

The problem is…someone of us have an advantage in this pillow fight…

Fives and Hardcase are brutal in their fight. Being the oldest they us left and right with a brutal force. Jesse got hit twice by the two of them and called it for himself.

“You guys play too hard.” He whined, going back over to Kix and hiding his face against his chest.

Kid walked over and took in the sight of the pillow fight. With an arm wrapped around an upset Jesse, he called out to the other Littles, “Hey! Let’s take it down and start to get settled for the night.”

But neither of them listened.

Their final battle was against Dogman and I. It was two against two. Fives and Hardcase were brutal, each hitting us with percussion. Fives took on Dogman while Hardcase went to battle with me.

Fives hit Dogman square in the stomach, sending him to the ground. He held his stomach as tears brimmed his eyes.

“Papa!” Dogman cried out. “PAPA!”

Fives starts to panic. “Nononono! You’re fine Dogman really! Ssssssshhhhhh!! Don’t tell, don’t tell!”

As that was going on, Hardcase and I were battling it out together. My hit are sloppy, the tiredness of the day getting to me. But Hardcase plays dirty, hitting my legs and sending me to the ground.

As he walked over to hit me with his final pillow blow I closed my eyes and focused. I pull his pillow away using the force. With one move of my hand his pillows flew across the room.

“Hey!” He yelled, “No fair! You’re not allowed to use the force!! That’s cheating!”

“You hit my legs! That’s cheating!”

“What’s going on in here?” Rex called out.

We all turned to see Rex, Tups and Echo all standing together looking stern. Our hearts dropped for a moment.

Dogman runs over to Tups, hugging him tightly as tears fell from his eyes. “We were havin a pillow fight but Fives and Hardcase play too rough!”

“Fives… Hardcase…” Rex said, looking at them suspiciously. It isn’t the first time the two had played rough with the younger Littles. Though they’ve been told in the past, they sometimes forget they’re the oldest and need to be more gentle with their siblings.

“I didn’t mean to hurt him!” Fives tries to say.

“Yeah! And-And Y/N used the force to throw my pillow off to the side!” Right away Hardcase tries to shift the blame onto me.

The attention then turns to me. “He doesn’t stop!” I argue back.

Then the three of us starts talking at once, all arguing to get ourselves out of trouble. Echo and his new found headache interrupt the conversation.

“Alright! Alright! I’ve heard enough. Fives, Hardcase, apologies to your siblings for playing too rough.”

“But we-.”

“Unless you want to have a good time out to think about your apology, I think now would be a good idea to just say one and move on.”

Fives and Hardcase sigh but eventually say an apology to Dogman, Jesse and myself.

“Good. Thank you boys.” Echo turns to me, “Now Y/N, you know you’re not allowed to use to force when you’re back home right?”

I look down, holding my stuffie tighter. “Right…”

“So like your brothers you’re just getting a warning this time. But no using the force anymore or next time it’s a time out, okay?” Echo walks over and puts an arm around me.

“Okay mama.” I lean against him, looking up and nodding my head. “Mama, I want sit with you and Dadee tonight!” I smile looking up to him..

“You do?” Echo smiles, “I’d love nothing more.”

Echo’s always had the title of mom of the 501st. He never minded it or thought much on it. But when the Littles started regressing more and more, Mom or Mama starts to become Echo’s new nickname.

While some men might not like the feminine nickname, he loves the name. Mostly because he knew it meant they saw him as more of a gentle maternal figure. They all would come to him when they need someone with a soft gentle touch.

Everyone starts to gather by the holo. Kix passes out everyone drinks, cups with straws for FIves and Hardcase, sippy cups for Jesse and Dogman, and a bottle for me. And Tups passes out the snacks to everyone.

Then we start to settle in for the night.

The holo starts to play a popular kids show. It glows infront of all of us, calming the usually energetic clones and putting the rest of us in a sleep mode.

Everyone seems to wrap around or sit next to one Caregiver or the other. Echo sits on one side of me and Rex on the other. I lean against Echo, his arm wrapped around me as I rest my head against his shoulder.

Jesse stays close to Kix, laying similarly to me against him. Hardcase sit on the other side of Kix, Fives sits between Rex and Tups pointing out thing about the show to each of the Caregivers, and Dogman leans against Tups other side watching the show intensely.

~~~

The holo plays on the screen while all the Littles settle in for the night, drinking and snacking away. But as it plays on and the drinks and snack start to disappear, the plan to ‘stay up all night’ start to become harder and harder for the 501st Littles.

For Y/N and Jesse, they’ve lost the battle.

Y/N is out 10 minutes into the show, laying peacefully against Echo sound asleep. Her bottle still in her mouth, with one hand wrapped around Echo and the other holding onto their stuffie.

Jesse held a strong battle during the holo. But eventually Kix could feel Jesse snuggling against him. He wraps an arm around him, pulling him close and rubbing his back softly. Eventually Jesse’s asleep, thumb in his mouth and head on Kix’s chest.

Dogman nods off every so often before jumping back awake. Then the cycle repeats itself.

Eventually Tups takes it upon himself to pull Dogman close, having him fall asleep cuddled close too. The Little doesn’t object, closing his eyes and falling asleep soon after.

Then it’s just the oldest two.

Hardcase is in a similar state as Dogman. His eyes droop close and his head falls forwards before he jerks awake.

Kix leans over and takes his hand, rubbing his knuckles. “Hardcase, why don’t you just go to sleep? See? Jesse’s already asleep.”

Hardcase tried to fight it. He rubs his eye and yawns. “But I wanna stay up all night.” He whines.

Kix smiles at the stubborn Little and comes up with a cleaver plan. “Oh, alright. I guess I’ll only have Jesse to cuddle up with tonight.” He sighs. “Though I really wanted to have you to cuddle up next to too. But I understand, you need to stay up all night.”

He knew it wasn’t the nicest plan in the book, but being a medic he knew it wasn’t healthy the way Hardcase is fighting his sleep.

Hardcase looked at Kix worried. He thought about it for a moment before he moved closer to him, “I can still cuddle next to you and stay up”

“You can? Oh that’s great! Come here kiddo.” Kix wrapped an arm around Hardcase and pulled him close. Hardcase leaned against Kix’s side, resting his head in his lap.

As the holo started to near its end, Kix rubbed Hardcase’s back and arms. Between his already sleepy feeling and the soft and gentle touches here and there, Hardcase is out like a light.

The last one standing is Fives…stubbornly so.

The holo ends, Rex stretches and looks to the remaining Little. “Alright Fives, let’s head to bed.”

“What?! But you said we could stay up as late as we wanted too!” Fives stands up and argues. The Caregivers shush him, careful not to wake the sleeping Littles.

“I know I did Fives but it’s getting late and everyone is very tired.”

“But I’m not tired!” Fives tries to say without yawning. Rex and the other Caregivers share a knowing look.

“How about this Fives? Go pick out a good book on your datapad and I’ll read it to you before we go to sleep. Sound good?” Rex bargain.

“What if I’m not sleepy after it?”

“Then you’re allowed to stay up.”

“Really?!”

“Yup. Now go chose a good one.” Rex ruffles Fives hair before he gets up and go to grab his datapad.

With another shake of his head, the other Caregivers chuckle at Fives never ending energy. They settle in for the night. Getting comfortable on their makeshift bed by the holo.

Tups is already asleep next to Dogman. Both of them wrapped in a blanket with Tups snoring and holding protectively to the Little.

Kix is not far behind him. He adjust himself so that he’s able to lay down with the two Littles comfortably.

Echo cards a hand through Y/N’s hair. He pulls her bottle away and grabs a spare pacifier to replace it with. Immediately Y/N latched onto it, snuggling impossible closer to Echo.

Echo looks over to Rex. “You sure you’ll be able to get him down for bed?

“Trust me, I’ve got Fives. You head off to bed with Y/N. It’s been a long day.” Rex nods.

Echo nods back, stretching before pulling Y/N close and laying down himself. “Let me know if you need anything.” He pulls a blanket around him and Y/N before he starts to fall asleep himself.

Fives runs back over and sits next to Rex. “Okay so I have 5 books I want you to read!”

“5 books? Well then we’re going to need to get comfortable first aren’t we?” Rex gestures for Fives to come close.

Rex lays down, pulling Fives to lay next to him. Fives lays his head in Rex lap, feeling his hand start to card through his hair. It’s heavenly. Finally a blanket is pulled around the two of them.

“There we go.” Rex smiles, “Now let’s see what stories we have here.”

Rex begins to read the first story to Fives, all while he continues to card his hand through his hair. He knows like the others that Fives biggest weakness is having his hair played with. It’s always a go-to to calm him down or in this case put him to sleep.

And it works perfectly. As the story goes on Fives can no longer fight the sleepiness any longer. He eventually gives in and falls asleep against Rex.

For good measure, and maybe because he’s curious, Rex finishes the story before he checks on Fives. Looking over he sees the Little is in a deep sleep thankfully, arms wrapped around Rex. He looks over to the other Littles and Caregivers and finds that everyone is peaceful asleep.

He decided to join them, feeling exhausted himself. He pulls Fives close and wraps their blanket around them more snuggly. With a little kiss to the top of his head he whispers “Good night kiddo.” Then Rex starts to sleep himself.

The barracks of the 501st remain peaceful throughout the night. Caregivers holding onto their Littles ones and their Littles reciprocating. All of them happy to have one another.

But soon they’ll find out something interesting…they’re not the only clone force that had this ritual. Which means they’re in store for some playdates in the future or possibly some new babysitters.👀

[mwolf0epsilon]

The Umbaran Pathogen - Day 16: Hospital

Summary: Loath as he was to admit it, Coric had to do just as Cani had suggested and leave the 212th to stall the infected long enough that they'd be able to escape the base. At least if they got to the medical facility and found a cure, the other battalion's efforts would not be in vain...

Warning: N/A

Here’s what Tup currently looks like!

Twitch belongs to @gaeasun Pitch and Tacet belong to @lost-on-kamino

Prev / Next

[In which the events on Umbara are worsened by an unknown pathogen taking hold of both the 501st and 212th. These series of drabbles will follow a non-linear timeline based on the AI-less Whumptober prompt list for 2023.]

THIS STORY IS ALSO ON AO3

---

"SCATTER!!!"

All hell had broken loose the moment Tup had quite literally bashed down the doors to the medbay. His razor sharp pincers and startlingly bulky and powerful body, making short work of the doorway's integrity with terrifying ease.

All who stood who were uninfected by the parasitic menace, had been frozen stiff from shock at the brutal transformation the tear-drop tattooed clone had undergone. Only to be forced to act when the now beyond monstrous kih'vod roared at them.

Malicious intent more than a little clear.

Reacting on instinct alone, Coric had immediately called for the huddled up group of medics to separate. All four of them aarrowly avoiding getting violently crushed to death by the ferocious beast's sudden charge towards them.

Pitch, Sponge and Twitch luckily did as ordered, moving out of harm's way as quickly as physically possible. But it came with an unexpected consequence (although, to be fair, the medbay's size greatly contributed to the unfortunate outcome). All cots that were in Tup's path were completely ripped out from where they were bolted to the floor, and sent flying all about as the specialist collided with them.

Unable to stop himself due to his four clawed feet slipping on the tiles like a clumsy fawn skidding on ice.

The aggro'd patients that had been strapped to said cots managing to then free themselves from their now damaged restraints, and quickly get up onto unsteady feet. Adding even more problems to the huge one they already had at hand, since the partially transformed men were clearly readying themselves to aid their leader in this assault against the healthy troopers.

"Coric! It's you and the rest of your medical team he wants!" Canivete called out in warning, recalling Cody's promise of bodily harm. Aimed directly at the 501st's primary caregivers. "Get yourself and your team out of here, and get to that damn medical facility! We'll try to hold them off for as long as possible!"

"We can't just leave you to deal with this on your own!" Coric shook his head, looking towards the monstrous form of Tup that was back to charging at the medics. Trying to grab at them with his two large mantis-like pincers, kick with all four of his insectoid legs, or lash out at them with a long prehensile tail tipped with a sharp looking cerci.

None of which were options any of them wanted to experience.

"So you'd rather be ripped apart and then have your insides eaten, 'Dusk of the Undead' style?!" Cani cried out in disbelief as she ran to help her General pin down Commander Cody, who was now very much trying to fight off the Jedi's grip to join in on the full on brawl that had broken out. "Very smart choice! 11/10 stars, genius!!!"

SCREEEEAAAAH!!!!!!!!

The 501st's CMO screamed in fright as he just about managed to avoid getting rammed into a wall and turned to human paste by Tup. The latter staggering himself from the harsh collision, while the former ducked under his whipping tail before getting as far away from him as possible.

The Umbaran base's medbay was far too small for all the action going on within it. Sooner or later one of them would end up cornered and unable to get away in time, and then their tip-yip would definitely be cooked.

Loath as he was to admit it, Coric had to do just as Cani had suggested and leave the 212th to stall the infected long enough that they'd be able to escape the base. At least if they got to the medical facility and found a cure, the other battalion's efforts would not be in vain...

"Sponge, Twitch, Pitch! Move out!!!" The senior medic hollered for the rest of his medical team to retreat. Ducking yet again under Tup's lashing tail and knocking down one of the infected vode who had tried to sneak up on him to grapple him to the floor.

"But what about Kix?!" Twitch asked as he was pulled behind Pitch who was back to wielding improvised weapons, using one of the damaged cot legs as a makeshift baton to beat back Lich's relentless attacks. Earning himself quite a few scratches for his troubles before Pretty Boy intervened, headbutting his older batcher hard enough that even Sponge winced at the resulting crack that ended with both troopers on the floor looking dazed.

"We'll find a way to contact him! Go!" General Kenobi ordered as he let go of Cody, trusting Canivete to kept a hold of his second in command while the Jedi used the Force to keep Tup where he was, so as to allow the four medics an easier escape from the ongoing battle.

Reluctantly, they all bolted for the exit. Forcing themselves not to look back so as to not waste any of the precious seconds that they had been granted. The enraged roars and screeches of the infected ringing in their ears as they did so.

---

Tacet liked to consider themselves a very pragmatic and practical sort. They saw a problem, they fixed it. Then they moved onto the next problem and fixed that too. So on and so forth. No dilly-dallying.

When comms had begun to act up, they and the rest of the 212th's top Slicers had done their very best to try to combat the issue. Something the 501st had also no doubt attempted, before they'd become overwhelmed with whatever had crippled their efforts so terribly.

That said, Tacet couldn't help but wonder why no one had discovered that the communications tower itself was the source of their signal problems. Because from the moment they set foot inside the building, they immediately figured out that someone had purposefully put a jammer inside the main console.

Now, it wasn't like the 501st were in any way incompetent or remotely gullible. Far from it, actually! But it just felt awfully strange that no one had even considered the possibility of sabotage, when nothing they did cleared up the signal issues they'd been having. Then again, after the incident with Sargeant Slick, perhaps suspicions of such treasonous acts just came more naturally to the 212th specifically...

As loathsome as it was to suspect their own siblings, it was not an impossibility. Negative sentiment towards the war and the Republic did occasionally crop up among the vode who'd suffered through the worst campaigns. Most never acted upon those thoughts, instead becoming more cynical and contrary. The ones who did, however, either deserted or resorted to this sort of tactic.

If just to feel like they'd at least made their point.

That said, all suspicions of dissent aside, Tacet did have their doubts that this was done by a jaded vod. Not when things had already been so out of hand for everyone involved. It didn't rule out sabotage completely, as the late Krell had a certain reputation that was hard for them to ignore (they'd heard about the Venator that had gone missing on his watch, as well as Beat's experiences with the two traumatized ARCs that General Koon had brought into the 104th on request of one of his natborn engineers). Unfortunately with the Besalisk dead, they didn't really think they'd ever find enough proof to point the finger...

So instead of any further speculating on their end, they decided to focus entirely on getting rid of the jammer and send the all clear to their superior officers. And no sooner did they do so, did they immediately receive an emergency call from their General.

And it seemed like things had only gotten worse in their absence.

But of course there was really no time to consider the whims of the universe when they had a job to do, so they simply listened to the Jedi, nodded quietly, and went on to pass the message to the intended party. Hopefully Captain Rex, ARC Fives and Medic Kix wouldn't be too busy to check their comms...

---

Dogma's desperate screams and garbled words were still painfully loud, despite the trio of Rex, Kix and Fives having run out of the brig and into the lift to go inspect the commotion they had heard coming from the other side of the base.

On the long way down they had all gotten an emergency call from one of the 212th's men, Tacet, informing them to get out of the base and to get to the nearest medical facility ASAP, where the other four 501st medics were already headed to.

As it turned out, Dogma hadn't been lying. He wasn't the one in charge of the insectoid hierarchy he now belonged to. A brief shaky holo of what Tup had turned into making their stomachs plummet as they realized everyone was still very much in danger.

Especially now that they had pissed off the 'Queen' of the hive.

"If memory serves right, the nearest hospital is six clicks north." Fives brought up the map he and the rest of the recon squads had made on their intel gathering missions. "It's where most of the initial enemy patrols were spotted."

"And here we thought they were just germophobes..." Rex bitterly remarked as he pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers. "No wonder they all had hazmat gear incorporated in their armor...This whole planet's trying to kill anything in sight, even from the inside out..."

"I'll bet you they must have expected us all to get sick while we were out here..." Kix murmured to himself. "And then when they saw we were still advancing to the capitol despite being worse for wear, they started throwing everything our way..."

"Or, they saw some of the men were sick with this, and decided they'd rather go nuclear on our shebs than allow us anywhere where we could get medical treatment for this crap..." Fives offered.

"Both plausible theories." Rex conceded "But not what we should be focusing on. Right now we either reach that facility and find a way to put an end to whatever has done this to the men, or give the others enough time to do it themselves."

"And if neither group gets there in the end?" Kix reluctantly asked.

"...I haven't thought that far ahead, but none of what comes to mind is... Ideal for any of our long-term survival." The blond Captain said as he looked down at his boots, unable to meet their eyes.

He needn't explain himself.

If this nightmarish mess couldn't be fixed, then there was no way they could allow it to spread to the in-orbit venators or the Republic itself. A disease like this would wreck havoc all across the galaxy if left unchecked, and not a singular clone or Jedi would ever allow something so catastrophic to happen on their watch.

But that would have to be their final resort.

Right now they had one little tiny chance to make things right, so long as there really was a way to cure this horrific blight...

[wittleyoon]

Little Wishlist

Wots of stuffies

Kiddie pwates and stuff

Paciss too

Sippy tups

Onesies

A wot of toys

More toyys

Caregiver dat woves me wots

Cuddles!!!

Pwaywoom

Colowing books

Cwayons

Fluffy socks

Hugs and kisses

Moana stuff

Wots and wots if canyyyy