"Casualties" - Fanfic by Maar Lon Dub & Bur Nan Leads

Major Dub sighed with relief. Finally, his unit - the elite of the gungan infantery - had reached their home base. They had been out in the swamps for a manoeuvre, when the message of the trouble that wookie had caused arrived him. Instantly he had broken off the manoeuvre and had given the sign to leave for their home.

His men were keen to fight against this short-eared alien who had dared to walk into their base and ridicule their nation. He had to calm them down, though he himself felt regret to not have been there at the moment that bastard intruded their base. He shouted a few orders at his soldiers, dismounted his kaadu and went for the barracks after he had given the reins to a captain. He had to talk to General Leads.

General Bur Nan Leads had been informed of Major Dub's return and was waiting for his report. Important changes were going on and he wanted to talk some things over with one of his most experienced officers. He closed Dub's profile.. very reliable man he always had been.. since more than 18 years by now. He would be of great importance in the oncoming times of trouble.

A resolute knocking sounded from the door, which was opened nearly at the same time. Major Dub entered the room with long steps and saluted. "Be greeted, General! Da Hit Squad reports back!" He gave up his tensed pose and continued: "Mesa heard 'bout da trouble ya had... Do wes have any casualties?"

Maar had hit the point. He always did. Bur hated casualties.. at least on his side. He was even more annoyed since he hadn't been there to face the intruder as well. He only knew the enemy from a holofile and his agents reports. Bad suppositions. "Aye. Eight men. GAFFL. Bjorg's roughnecks. Steiner. Maalas. Hunt. Triskel. Gahorty. Teen. Mrrs. Quortaska. Several injuries." He faintly shrugged his left haillu with anger.

The Major frowned, his pupils were mere slits. "Hum... 'tis even worse than me thought. At least wes havn't lost some o' our own good boyos... just mercs..." The way he spoke about the GAFFL mercenaries was disparaging. He made no secret of his opinion 'bout this bunch of criminals. It had been a blow to him when the GAFFL had been integrated to their army. But even Major Dub had to see that the GAF was no longer the great army it had been when he was a young recruit.
The young ones didn't take any interest in the protection of their nation in these days. It was very hard to find qualified recruits. "Had there been any counteractions yet?"

The generals mood sank to zero with this matter. "We.. had to take up.. diplomatical relationships to da jedi..." he reluctantly answered. It clearly showed that he disliked the fact.. or worse. "Da intruder mentioned an army of sith he wanted to send against our folks.. he was one of dese weird force people himself. Ya needa have a look at da holo to get da situation. Me even didn't believe it from da reports but da intruder must've had kinda supernatural abilities." He showed the holofile to Maar.

"Well, dat is da situation. We won UFO as our allies.. 'tis an quite known organisation of Jedi Knights. Our agents report dey stand in friendly relationship to da gungan nation. One of dem has been educated by general ceel himself and dis one is educating a gungan boyo in da ways of da jedi.." He decided to leave out further information to concentrate on the facts, "so me guess dey aren't as bad..."
He left open the end but they both knew things were going down. The glorious days were long gone.. the grand army was just a faint shadow of what it used to be in da golden days. "Furtheron we got some new ones joining." His face lightened up a bit.

Dubs eyes went big when Leads mentioned the jedi. "Whut? Yous agreed on an alliance wid' 'dose short earies?" His face showed unbelief and anger. He always had appreciated General Leads, who was a man of honour. But now he couldn't believe his ears. The general seemed to become old and soft.
With a frown he watched the holo-file. Well, that explained the concerns of the general. This wookie was a real menace, and if there were more of his kind, they would need help. But that didn't mean it would please him. "What 'bout Tal Jai? Hesa allrighty?"

*Noticing Dub's disdainful glance general Leads went from zero to sith. "TAKE DAT IMPERTINENT STARE OFF YA FACE OR ME WILL CUT IT OUTN." He stood up from his chair and straightened up his greyish skin turning red with anger. "WHEN WES REFER TO PROTECTN N SERVN WES MEAN PROTECTN N SERVN OUR PEOPLE NOT OUR PERSONAL PRIDE. YOUS UNDASTANDN DAT DUB ?"
It wasn't that often that general Leads exploded like that. In fact Dub's couldn't recall a single situation Bur Nan had shown such an outburst towards him. He normally kept such nicetys for political opponents. The situation seemed to annoy him quite a lot.

Maar Lon straightened, his face now expressionless. "Yes, Sir! Mes undastandin' perfectly."
'Ya right, ol' friend... but what's da price we're pay'n for da protect'n of our nation? Wes loosin' our independance more an' more...' he thought. It was hard for him to commit that their only chance in surviving lay in the alliances they came to with alien nations. All of a sudden he felt old and tired. His unit was still the best in the Grand Army, but there were no more recruits to follow on. The glorious future his father had promised him had never come. It was lying to his feet, nipped in the bud.

"Alrighty. So wesa continue with da facts if ya don't mind." The acrid sarcastical tendecies in his intonation were a bad sign. Leads ran short of patience. He tended to offend others when things didn't turn out like he wanted them to. It was a miracle after all that the mentioned alliance had been formed for Leads social interactions with civilians usually weren't fit to reach any agreement. The thought could have been funny.. in another context.
"Tingys are like dey art, deres no use in complainin'. Yousa always keep dat in ya narrow mind, Dub."
*Fortunately he had left out the full text this time.. saying 'A warrior doesn't complain nor pity, his life's an endless trial !'. One of the generals favourite quotations, wherever they may derive from. Probably he was creating them during his private meetings with Goods, this old slangwhanger.

"Okee-Dee. Da facts. Two new rookys for da GAFFL.. could've been three but the last one is even less trustworthy than those usual dirtbags. One youngster for Tanks. One.. no.. even two Jedi Knights joining us voluntarily. One of dem a mere boyo but brave enough to face dis wookiee figure in battle. The other a grown up to serve as an instructor at GAF academy. He's about to give force defense lessons. Tanks bade me to give me consent to dis.. and well.. he has one free after da CC. And last but not least wesa got an old acquaintance for yous - Greggor Mac Dub is returning to service after da message of a possible war. He sent his reapply and will arrive by tomorrows. He said he was eager to kick but like da old days."
*Bur Nan grinned. He had kept the good news for the end.. like always. Unfortunately there hadn't been lot's of good news lately so Dub had given up waiting for them.

Maar Lon hated it when Leads spoke to him like to a rooky. The generals words hit his pride. He listened to the general attentively. There were some new criminals to join the Foreign Legion... that didn't bother him much. But that thing about the new recruit for Tanks annoyed him. It was always Tanks.
He roused from this thoughts as he heard the name Greggor Mac Dub. His eyebrows lifted, and there was almost a grin on his face. Mac would return! That was good news, indeed! Mac had been the best recruit he had had for years, and his favourite captain. Dub had regretted very much when he had retired to care for his family. The golden days seemed not to be lost yet!

Bur was pleased to see Maar in a good mood by now. The last days had been bad enough to every member of the troops. Enforce tensions within the own unit was like doing a favour to the enemy. 'Da enemy, good point' Leads thougt. He had been looking forward to talk things over with Dub. He considered him a friend.. even if he wouldn't show it that much. "Aye ya.. dere's someting else. Dis third criminal.." his haillu moved back and downwards disdainfully, "he pretends to be a bro to dis intruder chap. Says he was seekn revenge for some hurt pride or so. He has talked out quite somtin about de odda. Considerin' de way he behaved he's unlikely to be a spy. GBI will prove dis matter." Leads closed the datafile on his handheld and put it aside.

"Odda informations are given by our new allies. Their Leader, general Kamon Shadaa, reports Rustichituk.. dis da name of da furrbag.. is alliing wid some so called 'Remnant Empire'. He says troops are beeing trained ova deres." *he sat down and leant back in his huge wooden chair. "So it seems wesa will finally be of great use to our folks." A content crept over his face.

The information 'bout this GAFFL-recruit sounded bad in Dubs ears. This was a difficult matter. On one side, they could get precious information from that man, if his story was true... on the other side, they should be careful on which information they gave him about the GAF and its operations. But it wasn't his department to watch after this man. And he was sure that the GBI would do a good job on this matter. This young investigator, Teal Tan Mudds, was a qualified person.

Rustichituk... that was a name he would remember. And he would ensure that his men would remember it, too. He had never heard of a so called 'Remnant Empire', but there was much he didn't know about all the far away galaxies that existed out there. He allowed himself a little smile with Lead's last sentence, but only for a short moment, then he got serious again.

"Mesa hopes so, Sir! 'Tis seems to become a bad war... Whatabout 'dis GAFFL-recruit? Hope, 'tis woman, Sarge Bjorg, has been instructed how to handle 'im?!"
He was really concerned 'bout this. Not enough that the Drill Sarge of da GAFFL was a flatface, no, she also was a woman. And a criminal herself... Her impertinent behaviour had been a thorn in his side for a long time by now... to be continued.. by you !

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