#how to hide your everything when youre just a little corrie in the poison pit

[skywalker-is-a-nerd-pass-it-on]

Fox and palpatine? or just how the Coruscant Guard are treated by the people they protect

Oh shit boi whaddup, time to wring out the old wrinkly rag Palpatine

The Chancellor's office

-

When his alarm pings on his comm, he looks down at his wrist to read the next item on his list.

Seeing 'SC meeting - 1700', Fox pauses in the hallway.

Staring at his comm for a moment too long, he takes a deep breath and turns to the Guard patrolling the Senate floors with him.

"Hold guard. Continue your shift," he instructs curtly, and his fellow Corrie (coming to perfect attention, obviously) twitches and makes a sharp nod.

Fox turns about face to make his way to the service elevator, shared with the CG, now (Clones aren't allowed in the public ones), when the trooper calls out to him.

"Boss?" Yaro calls hesitatingly, as there's no one around, "Is it...-" They jerk their head upwards, gesturing to the only place they could be asking about.

Fox forces his posture to relax as he nods.

"Duty calls, trooper."

Yaro nods tensely in reply.

"Is it..." Fox listens to their nervous words, unable to help them. They're in public, they can't be seen like this. But... as much as Fox knows this is adding to his lateness, he can excuse a little bit of tardiness for one of his Corries. "Is it gonna be about... be about what happened yesterday?"

The Commander in Red is honest to his trooper.

"Probably," he replies quietly, bearing the small ache in his chest at his inability to help his vod'ika as they hold their blaster just a little bit tighter, "I'll sort it out. You get back to patrol. After, you've got a 2 hour rest."

"Yessir," Yaro replies in a tight breath, as Fox turns on his heel and forces himself to march down the corridors.

The air feels colder as the elevator rises to the floor of the Chancellor's office.

---

Against his training, against his self-control, against his will, he feels his heart rate increase and his veins flood with pre-emptive fight-flight noradrenaline as he walks down the unwelcoming hallways. Its a response he can never control, no matter how hard he tries, and it enrages him just as much as it floods him with fear.

The dark doors to the Chancellor's office sit at the end of the hallway, guarded not by his troopers, but by the tall red of the Senate Guard.

Thank the Light he doesn't have to post his troopers up here.

With a salute and a polite "Ma'am," to Sly Moore sitting at her own desk nearby - the pale woman staring him coldly down as usual - and he nods to the SG. The one on the right bangs the end of his electro staff into the floor, and the voice inside answers.

Fox's heart skips a beat.

The Guards open the doors, and in he strides.

"Ah, Commander Fox!" The Supreme Chancellor crows. Fox walks past the comfy armchairs and comes to a perfect shun, not before his desk but, at the foot of the dais the desk sits on. "Just the man I wanted to see."

Fox salutes - perfectly, never anything less than perfect - and asks, eventhough he knows exactly why he's here.

"How may I assist you, Supreme Chancellor?"

Palpatine's grandfatherly smile falls a bit as he sighs - the simpering sigh fills Fox's heart with pure dread.

"Unfortunately, this isn't a social call, dear Commander -" When is it ever, "- as as a result of yesterday's blunder, Senator Honiu has not been placated no matter how hard I tried for him to drop the matter."

Fox's ramrod posture is a result of the ice crawling down his veins.

"Sir?"

"I'm afraid," Palpatine sighs, rubbing his temples, inconvenienced, "That you're going to have to send... what was it? Ah, Tulu squad back to Kamino, for reconditioning. Senator Honiu was simply not convinced that your Guards' service was good enough. CT-86009 is to be decommissioned."

Palpatine tsks in defeat and sits back in his seat.

"Such a waste," the old man titters. Fox's mind is empty as he coldly comprehends what he's hearing. His heart doesn't feel like its beating anymore. "It's a waste of funds to send them back all the way to Kamino, but Senator Honiu's support of the armament bill on his planet is paramount to the war. The credits for retraining will have to be allocated from inside the Guard, though I understand, what with this war dragging on, the Coruscant Guard have been struggling. But... what needs to be done, must be, for the good of the Republic."

Palpatine smiles gently, his thin lips pale on his drooping old face.

"You understand, Commander," the wretched man soothes.

"Yes, sir."

Oh, I understand perfectly.

"It will be done, sir."

A mysterious pirate attack on the ship carrying the troopers. All lives lost.

"Wonderful, Commander. You and your troopers lives are the shield of the Republic. You are dismissed."

"Thank you, Sir."

Tulu squad, Yaro... I need to pull another favour.