Traumabreaksall, how are the other Jedi and clone troopers taking the breakdown of obi wan wherever they are? Are they harassed by reporters and protestors as well?
There
wasn’t much to do about it really.
The
sight of General Kenobi crying was not something that could be purged
from the holonet and therefore copies of it circulated the clones
feeds from the moment it was uploaded, all of them treating the clip
with respect as they more than anyone understood the privacy General
Kenobi was fond of.
There
was no way to scrub it from the wider net after all, so what harm was
it for the clones to see it.
To
know that someone out there care for them.
And
they knew it was for them, Obi-Wan Kenobi’s breakdown had been a
long time in the coming but the last push had been the death of one
of theirs, the last push had been Lamb with his bright eyes and
platinum blond curly hair,
the curiosity in those eyes that had endeared him to the General was
forever dimmed.
And
they knew it.
After
all, the triggering question had been about the clones and the audio
of the camera had picked up General Kenobi’s muffled voice as he
gave in to the trauma he had been going through.
Lamb’s
name on his lips, the audio
of the cam barely picking up on it but just loud enough to make out
the tired, sore sobs and Lamb’s name.
The
vode knew that many forgot they were really humans and the troopers had a
complicated relationship to the war if they answered honestly.
Without
it, they would not exist, but with it, they went to their death often, their
brothers and sisters went into war and it took
them from each other, ripped them apart and sent them screaming into voids no one listened to.
The
war was the cause of the traumas they went through, the bone breaking fear, the rapid aging
that many experienced growing pains from, the war could leave them
disabled and senseless, it left them dead
in mass cremation funerals.
And
even some of their own natural born commanders wasted
the troopers lives on foolish attacks.
Didn’t
consider their lives worth taking a more cautious approach, only
wanted the attack done as fast as possible to save more time so they
could go up against the CIS in another place and try and get another
victory for the Republic.
With
no concern for the broken and the injured troopers, for the death,
for the empty helmets gathered.
There
were many who envied the 212th,
as Commander Cody had showed them the memorial room of the
Negotiator, the helmet upon helmet with names, serial codes and dates
on, gently lit candles along with incense floating in the air to give
the room a soft light the harsh lights of electronic could not match.
Some
helmets were clearly scuffed with battle and wear or even broken in halves with their paint
and others blank outside of the names and the dates.
A room
they knew General Kenobi had been spotted in, one of the pictures in
the feed of the man himself in the room, his hand resting gently on a
helmet as he stared at it.
The
vode knew the General cared, they had seen the copies of the bills
the Jedi was trying to write to ensure the citizenship of the
troopers once the war finally ended and they had seen the pictures of
the memorial room, the image of a grieving man that hit his limits.
But
they didn’t know what this breakdown would mean for him or for
them, so when General Windu had commed to the barracks, the vode had
showed up in force to keep the public away from the temple, be they there for malice or benevolence.
The
General cared enough for them to be the final straw that broke him
when his breakdown finally arrived, on public holo tv in full view of
the thousands who had tuned in for the interview of an ‘successful’
battle.
And
they would keep his safety and privacy their highest concern in
return.
They
weren’t sure what would come, what the Jedi in the temple thought,
what the public would finally settle on though for now it was
curiosity and support as the Chancellor threw a tantrum calling the
breakdown fake.
But
they knew this, they would keep General Kenobi safe until he was
ready to return to battle with them once more.