SWRC: OC-49 (Part 2)(Book 2.75)

Chapter 3 Broken Silence.

Koizac stood behind the bizarre man who had offered them transport to go after their missing kidnaped brothers.

While Koizac didn't trust the man who had said his name was Raptor, he was still begrudgingly thankful for his help. But something was still bothering him.

"What do you want?"

Raptor simply glanced back at him in a gesture to explain more before returning to the ships control console before him.

"Why are you helping us? What do you stand to gain from this supposedly helpful gesture?"
"What do you take me for?" asked Raptor, turning in his seat to face Koizac.
"One of those cliché novel characters that take you somewhere and demand an exuberant amount of credits for their services? And then for you to only end up in some kind of trap?"

Both Raptor and Koizac remained staring at each other until they eventually looked away from each other, Raptor going back to his ships controls and Koizac deciding that he was better off with his captain and brothers than this man at the helm.

"Go help your captain," said Raptor suddenly as Koizac had just been about to leave. Koizac looked up at him as Raptor added something else.

"Remaining in this broken silence will only hurt him further."

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Tye sat apart from the other survivors of their botched mission on the Vergesso Asteroids.

He needed to be alone then.

"Is he any better?" asked Koizac, entering the room from the bridge.
"Do you mean, has he spoken or interacted with us at all?" asked B.J, who then shook his head. "No, not once since we left."
"What did he say to him?" asked Dye, Tye's only other training squad member present with the strike force survivors. "I've never seen Tye like this, even when we were on Kamino, and I've known him the longest out of anyone here."

"Except for C.T," whispered Whisp, before he stood and left. The other three sighed, knowing all too well that not one of the other members of the company knew Tye nearly as well as C.T. Not that any of them ever could possibly hope to get that close and personal with their commanders like Tye and C.T were.

"Heya Cap'an," greeted Alda, and Koizac, B.J and Dye all internally cringed at his misplaced enthusiasm.
Tye looked at the younger clone for a moment before turning his attention back out the window to the passing hyperspace lights and stars.

"Jeez, what crawled into his armour and died?" asked Alda as he made his way over to where B.J, Koizac and Dye had been quietly and discreetly discussing their captain, unlike their present brash company member.

Dye couldn't believe Alda's words, as if the trooper in question had not even been affected by the magnitude of what had happened to them on the asteroids, and just stared at him incredulously. Koizac and B.J just looked at him like he'd lost his mind as well.

"What?!" asked Alda. "Was it something I said? He's usually a lot more alive than this."

"Jesus Christ," muttered Dye, jumping to his feet and making to either engage in a fight or storm out. Koizac senses the latter and moved to stop Dye if he made any rash moves.
B.J had been shaking his head and was seconds away from telling Alda off when the unexpected happened.

"Alda," whispered a voice they had not expected to suddenly join in on their conversation or end the brewing fight with three simple words.

"Shut up."