#vekha is what is called a coruscanti human (derogatory)

[beckyh2112]

when I call myself a shell, I mean- 3/5

when I call myself a shell, I mean- 1/5 when I call myself a shell, I mean- 2/5

Yes, it sprouted more parts.

Behind a cut to avoid cluttering your dash and make it easier for me to correct typos.

---

Vekha pulled out her ID as she walked in one of the Senate building's many service entrances. The Corries knew her by sight now, but they still checked her ID. Because, unlike some other security forces in the Senate, they did their jobs.

"Do you guys want any..." Her voice trailed off.

The security checkpoint was empty. Not a red-painted set of armor in sight.

She looked around, saw one of the credit union ladies on her comm. Vekha waved to get her attention. "Where's the Guard?"

The twi'lek-hybrid shook her head, lekku swinging. "I don't know. They usually send out a mass-mail to warn about drills, but..."

"Kriff," Vekha said with feeling. "Our cafe is open 24/5. If there's been an incident-"

She stepped away, pulling up the number of the overnight manager. "Chidoro, hey, has anything happened?"

In the background, she heard the credit union lady talking to whoever she'd commed.

Chidoro sounded harried - the Mon Cal's Basic sounded like she was gargling saltwater. "Where are you? There's some karking debate today, and a bunch of senatorial staff stayed overnight."

"I'm at the entrance, but... the Guard's not here."

"What the kriff? Ugh, let me grab one of 'em in here." On the comm-projection, Chidoro moved like she was walking, her eyes swiveling to scan the area. A confused look came over her face. "There's no Guard."

"What the heck." Vekha could kinda, sorta imagine the Corries missing a small service entrance like this one. (She'd have to be high to believe they'd actually do that, but she could imagine it.) But the cafe was on a major thoroughfare in the Senate building. Chidoro should have been able to see one Guard from inside, and at least three more if she stuck her head outside. Chidoro not seeing any Guard? Weird as heck.

The credit union lady - Vekha thought she might be the branch manager - stepped into her line-of-sight and flicked her fingers to get Vekha's attention.

Vekha put her hand over her comm input. "Did you find out anything?"

"No one in the Guard's offices is picking up." Her lekku were tying themselves in knots. "My regional manager tried Commander Thire's personal number, and nothing."

What the kriff.

-

"Set some of the jogan fruit juice aside for the Guard?"

Arado shook his head, lekku shifting slightly. "Magpie swung by yesterday. Him and his boys are getting transferred away, so no need to hold things for them anymore."

"How do you even tell them apart?"

The male togruta snorted. "The same way I tell zabrak apart - by their markings. Nice, bright colors, and they each have different scuffs and scrapes. Makes 'em way easier to tell apart than most humans."

-

Thunder woke up to a privacy-marked, pre-recorded holo-call from his vod'ika. Today wasn't his rest day, though, so he couldn't find a private spot to watch it just yet. Not if he wanted to have a meal before shift.

It was still so strange to have rest days. At first, the Jedi had insisted on one day out of every five being a rest day, now that the war was over. But for most of the vode, that was just too much. They'd lived their entire lives either training for battle, preparing for battle, fighting in battle, and recovering from battle. Suddenly having an entire day to just do nothing, if they wanted, was beyond jarring. It had screwed a lot of them up in the head; who were they without the war?

"No wonder the Corries are so high-strung," he'd heard someone say in passing. "It was probably like this all the time for them during the war."

Thunder's shift was spent tracing power lines in the depths of the Jedi Temple. His own fault for nursing a vague interest in electrical work into 'let Thunder look at the problem before you bug Engineering.' By the time it was finished, his armor was scuffed and dusty, he was pretty sure he'd be seeing the voltimeter readout on his helmet-cam in his dreams, and they'd discovered this particular power line just snaked through a bunch of halls without attaching to anything. It might have been an adaptor for an older system once, maybe.

But being down in the depths of the Temple meant he had plenty of isolated spaces to sit and watch what Pup had sent him.

He projected the holo from his wrist comm. Pup looked to be sitting on a crate - he'd probably gone someplace private to record this. "Hey, Thunder." He bit his lip nervously. "It's-"

There was a hiss, and a massif tried to climb in Pup's lap. He laughed and gently pushed them down. "Yes, Bumble, we'll go do the course as soon as I'm done here. In fact, say hi to Thunder?"

He gestured to direct the massif's attention, and they panted at the holo-pickup before Pup tapped his knee twice. The massif immediately laid down at his feet.

"Good girl," Pup said. "You're getting good with tap-signals."

Thunder smiled to himself. He knew massifs weren't smart enough to understand exactly what Pup had just said, but the affection and praise in his voice was obvious.

The happiness and self-assurance just seemed to drain out of Pup when he turned his attention back to the pickup. "Thunder. I just- I just wanted to say this isn't your fault."

What? Something cold slithered down his spine.

"We're leaving. The Guard and Home Fleet. All of us."

What?

"I don't know where we're going, so I can't tell you anything about that." Pup looked down and spoke at his massif. "I wouldn't even if I could. You're my ori'vod, you'll always be my ori'vod. But a lot of the Guard have bad relationships with their batchmates now. Commander Stone-" He shook his head. "That's not my story to tell."

"But. We're leaving, and we don't want to be found."

Thunder sat there numbly, staring at the holo. His vod'ika continued to speak, but he wasn't listening. Everything was just noise in his ears. His vod'ika, and the rest of the Guard, were leaving? What did that even mean? How did they even think they'd manage that? There's no way they could move the Guard onto Home Fleet ships without-

Without someone noticing. Like the Home Fleet and Coruscant Guard troops who kept track of all military movement in the system.

Oh, no.

Thunder was up and running before he registered the holo-call had finished playing. If he could just- If he could get to the Corrie barracks in time- They couldn't be gone already- Someone would have said something-

He just had to get to the Corrie barracks.