| TWENTY-ONE |

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ANYA WATCHED AS B-1 BATTLE DROIDS LOADED CRATES OF EXPLOSIVES INTO THE HILLSIDE. She fiddled with the binoculars as they zoomed in on the mass of thermal detonators.

"The clankars are going to blow up the mine." Sinker observed as he watched through his own pair of binoculars next to her. "We have to go tell the generals."

"Agreed." Anya nodded to the sergeant as they both slithered away from the cliff and onto their feet.

Anya had been working with the 104th for the past several rotations as they took back the planet Khorm from Separatist control. It was suppose to be a joint operation between the 104th and the 212th, but in a hasty change of plans Obi-Wan's battalion was needed someplace else. Yet in the words of her master, Obi-Wan trusted Anya in a battle without his guidance so he sent her to aid Plo Koon and Kit Fisto by herself.

Anya was always happy to see Master Koon. Master Fisto also ended up being a very amiable person that Anya befriended quickly. What Anya was really the most excited about though was seeing Wolffe again. It had been months since she had last seen him in person and standing true to a promise she made him a long time ago, the first thing Anya did when she stepped onto the cruiser was run into his arms (away from the eyes of his men of course).

Wolffe managed to promptly secure a reputation of being the scariest clone commander in the entire clone army, a reputation that he was proud of and lived up too. A reputation that he knew would be at risk if his men were aware of how much he treasured the hugs of a padawan or his tendency of collecting plants from his missions and sending them to her.

Anya was singlehanded Wolffe's favorite person. She was the first person to treat him as an individual, the one person who always checked in on him and displayed constant affection to him. Anya gave him his name. Anya was his best friend. So when Wolffe heard she was joining them for a mission he promptly sat down his entire battalion and explained how a ball of sunshine incarnated was arriving soon and that if they didn't treat her with the utmost respect and hospitality that she deserved - he would kill them.

His threat though didn't seem to matter because the men ended up loving Anya naturally.

Anya managed to befriend the entire battalion in the first hour of her arrival. She was always able to to make friends easily. It was a special ability that Wolffe was constantly amazed by.

Anya had her mask pulled over her entire face as she walked through the puffy snow, the heavy crunch of Sinker's boots following the quiet crunch of her own.

Sinker was Wolffe's second in command and the first member of the battalion she met and befriended. The two ended up getting along like a house on fire and Sinker had kept Anya up her first night there, chatting her ear off about the most random topics. He made it his mission to be her own personal bodyguard on the battlefield - something Wolffe was very pleased by.

"Master Koon, Master Fisto," Anya greeted as she and Sinker approached the two Jedi. "Sinker and I just got back from our scouting mission. The droids are loading thermal detenators into the Agrocite mine."

"The Separatists know we are closing in on them. They will probably blow up the mine before we can retake it." Master Fisto said as Master Plo stroked the end of his mask thoughtfully. "The locals work in those mines, if we are to proceed with an attack the Separatists will kill them all in the explosion."

"We cannot let that happen!" Anya exclaimed, her gut clenching at the thought of the innocent lives being lost.

"Indeed." Master Plo said in his deep, modulated voice before turning to the clone next to them. "Sinker, contact Captain Ozzel, tell him not to proceed with the attack. We must get the locals out of there first."

Innocence - Cpt. RexWhere stories live. Discover now