EPILOGUE: Transit

[tomcat]

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Longshot lay in his bunk on the Argon Star. The headache was driving him crazy and why was there always an infernal condenser near his quarters that needed servicing? He breathed in deep and regretted it immediately as his filled lungs caused his chest to rise, and so doing caused the still healing flesh to stretch. It hurt, but at least it took precedence to the annoying discomfort of his headache.

The Argon Star was in hyperspace, jumping back into the Core. It was said the Derecho Squad was going to get a stand down for a few weeks - R and R was what they were told. Time would tell, and so far it hadn't been good.

Derecho was quiet. They hadn't talked much since their extraction. The normal banter between the members was subdued. It didn't seem appropriate right now. They had left one of their own behind on Plinth, and Booth would be hard to replace. Getting some new 'Nugget' just out of training would not help morale and having the Sarge replaced by some other grunt off the lines didn't appeal to them either.

But this was the 501st, and they had a job to do. They had a war to win.

[Stefan]

Hammer stared at the vid screen that was trying to show him all the wonders of Coruscant and all the things that he could do with the R&R that he was looking forward to.  Some of it looked like fun but it was monotonous and his eyes drifted shut.

In seconds he was back in the fire fight, blasting the combat droids, trying to hold them off and cover the commander and sergeant so they could retreat down the stairs.  Booth shouted the order to retreat and Martel was running toward him as the room exploded and he was jarred awake reaching for his rifle.  He didn't realize that he'd shouted but everyone in the room was looking at him, no judgement, they all knew. After a few moments they all went back to what they were doing.

He turned off the screen and headed to the gym, exercise would keep him awake and keep his mind focused.  Eventually the dreams would fade and the meds would keep him from loosing it, but for the moment he needed to focus to keep them away.

[GandalfOfBorg]

For a Jedi there is no rest, there is only vigilence, thought Martel as he walked the distance from the spaceport to the Jedi Temple to give his report in person.  The journey was long but he wasn't quite prepared for the meeting and he wanted some time to himself.