We made it to Alsakan with little problem.

As Iru said, we did get headaches from time to time, but it was never enough to keep us from doing our jobs. Nobody save for Tor was wiser either in spite of everything that had happened over the course of those few days.

Time flew by. Days between had blended together until we were set down on that Alsakan ridgeline in order to investigate a freighter and transport allegedly carrying Isotope-5.

The plan was simple. The transport was going to careen over the edge with the boys inside.

Not really, naturally. They were going to disconnect comms, shed their armor, and meet Ros and the boys on a nearby hillside where their cargo transport was waiting. That was, if everything went according to our carefully constructed mess of a plan.

If it actually went off without a hitch it would be the one time in our squad's history that something we actually planned did go according to plan.

Trekking across the Alsakan countryside was scenic. The lands were green and had rolling hills and deep chasms that would eventually provide the cover for the escape of two of my three brothers. We marched along in apprehensive silence. Even Red, the chatterbox, had fallen into that same quiet that seemed to always precede battles. Only this time, the only battle was making this whole ruse look half convincing.

When we arrived, we realized that Talen and Venn had hooked us up with an old Republic transport and several canisters of Isotope-5, all ready to be launched over the side of the cliff and down into the ravine. It just all seemed so painfully easy. There had to be some catch. There was absolutely no way this was going to go without something happening. The sky was going to explode or the atmosphere was going to start incinerating.

Red and Grek almost began taking their armor off before we even got up to the transport. Helmets, chest plates, and handguards were tossed inside until they were standing in their undersuits and staring at the pile of white and red armor. red reached out and picked up his helmet from the pile before he pulled out the commlink and dropped it to the ground, crushing it under his heel.

"I'm keeping this," he held it up and gave it a wag. "Put too much effort into the detailing to just... let it burn, you know?"

I smiled. He would keep it.

Red had sat and worked on that helmet for hours when we were issued the new Phase Two armors. He sat on the floor beside his bed with a can of red paint and a brush, going over every single little detail with the skill of a trained artist until he held the bucket in his hands with a huge grin and flipped it to show us. We all gave him ours to do and I knew that idiot loved every single second of it.

Grek watched the pile too and pitched a sigh before he reached in and grabbed his helmet, too, smashing its comm underfoot. "I'm not sentimental," he growled as he set the painted helmet up under his arm.

Back on Christophsis, when I first was assigned to Breaker Squad, we hadn't yet decided on a mascot. Once we figured that the Gundark was a good answer to Colt's Rancor Battalion. Grek had picked it up and ran with the motif, and his helmet reflected that. Painted in sharp lines across the helmet was the face of a Gundark to match the design on our kama. He insisted on it on his Phase One armor, and the Phase Two was no exception.

Breaker Squad had been around since the beginning of the Clone Wars. We fought on fronts in the early war and dropped back later on when Jedi began getting their own legions and battalions. We had broken up slaving rings, stopped cartels, saved the families of senators from crime lords, and fought alongside Mandalorians. Now, here we were on Alsakan, getting ready to be down to two.

It was then that the reality truly began to sink in. When I watched them step back and pull out thermal detonators, I knew that we had reached the end. in a matter of hours, I would report in that my squadmates had died and they would be en route to Concordia to live out the rest of their lives as warriors on their own terms. It was bittersweet.

Someday, I knew I'd be right there with them.

But that was a long way off.

They threw the detonators into the walker and it exploded with enough force to ignite the canisters and jolt the fragile edge of the ravine enough to make it collapse. The walker vanished in a massive explosion as it hit the bottom of the ravine, erupting into a plume of fire and smoke that could likely be seen for miles. Ros and the others would know we had done what we needed to do.

"So that's it," Red began with a sigh. "We're dead."

I looked over at Tor, who was staring at the plume of smoke without saying so much as a word about it. Any of it.

"You're dead," I nodded and turned my attention to them.

"Doesn't feel like I figured it would," Red's response came with a furrowed brow as he held his helmet in both of his hands and looked down at it, tracing the flames across his helmet with his thumbs. "Thought it would be more... You know. More."

"Profound?" Tor supplied, making Red nod at the word.

"Yeah. I just feel like myself."

"Stupid?" Grek asked bluntly when he turned to Red.

"I hate you."

"I know."

*

The trek back across the ravines took longer than I think we planned it to, but none of us were particularly in a hurry. The fact remained that we weren't ready to say goodbye. We all envisioned this whole thing being...

Well.

Easy, for starters.

The choice felt like it should be obvious, but the closer we got to the landing zone, the slower we decided to walk. This was the only life we had ever known with the only family we had ever known. Even if freedom and all of the choices in the world lay on the other side of a mission briefing, that was hard to move past.

When we saw the transport on the other side of a hill, we all paused for a moment, staring up at it with a collective agreement to not utter another word until it was time for goodbyes. We all marched up, four abreast, and found Ros leaning up against the side of the old cargo transport waiting for us. Kade, Kote, and Tracyn were all there with him, and they stepped away from the ship when they saw us, smiles on those familiar faces.

"We were beginning to think you weren't coming," Ros smiled as he shoved his way back upright and walked up past his sons to stand before Red and Grek. "Time to make this all official. Ni kyr'tayl gai sa'ad, Red and Grek. Welcome to Clan Beroya."

"We won't let you down, buir," Grek nodded.

"Yeah, you won't regret this," Red smiled at him.

"I know. I didn't with the first lot, and I have a good feeling about you two, too." Ros looked over at Tor and me with a nod, "You didn't have to help them do this, but you did. I can't thank you enough." He paused for a moment and looked at Tor, "You can come too, Tor. My Clan is always open."

Tor shook his head, "That's a generous offer, Ros, but my place is with the Republic."

"If that ever changes," Kade spoke up and smiled at Tor, "let me know."

Tor's voice smiled even when his face was covered, "You'll be the second," he thumbed at me as he spoke, and I couldn't help but smirk.

"Get your stuff up onboard," Kote thumbed at the ship over his shoulder as my brothers lunged up the ramp to toss their helmets somewhere. Kote turned his attention to me and crossed his arms, "It'll be rough for a while, but you did the right thing, Kando."

"I know," I replied, watching them talk excitedly with Tracyn and Kade as they came back down the ramp for the hardest part in all of this. "Doesn't make it easier."

Kote gave me a sympathetic smiled, "It never does. See you on the flip side of this war, vod. We still need to hunt together again."

I nodded as he passed by Red and Grek up the ramp with Kade and Tracyn on his heels. I heard them start to ready the ship for takeoff, but my mind still hadn't processed what was about to happen until Ros began to walk up the ramp, only pausing briefly to give each of their shoulders a firm squeeze before he looked back over his shoulder at Tor and I.

"Say your goodbyes," Ros nodded at them and then at me. "We have to get you out of here as quickly as we can."

There was a silence that fell over us as the reality began to set in, and it was Red who finally worked up the courage to speak first.

"Will we ever see one another again?" Red asked as he stood at the loading ramp of the ship beside Grek.

I didn't have an answer for them. All I did was shake my head with a smile, "I hope so."

Grek gave a little nod of his head and smiled at me. "Thank you, vod. For everything."

Something caught in my throat when I went to speak. My entire life had been me surrounded by my brothers, but these brothers were mine. I don't think I ever thought that farewells would be this hard.

I finally managed out, "No, thank you. For being my squad."

Red and Grek smiled before they snapped to attention and gave me a salute one last time. I couldn't help but do the same as Tor followed suit. "Grek, Red!" He called out as they went to turn away, "Don't... Don't do anything stupid! Stay alive!"

Grek let out a bellowing laugh and waved, "No promises there, Reg Manual!"

"Same to you, Tor! Stay alive!" Red called out as he and Grek bounded up the ramp as the engines of the old ship came to life. We stood and watched it until it vanished through the atmosphere in silence.

*

The ride back to Coruscant was excruciating.

I could feel Red and Grek's absence like someone had cut a hole in my chest and left it there. I let a part of me go on Alsakan, and it hurt like hell. Tor was staring at the wall, fists balled up on his thighs and his jaw set. I couldn't read his eyes. They were staring somewhere into the distance and drawing nothing but blanks. I couldn't blame him.

I knew what was waiting for us back at base. I knew the questions that were going to be asked. I had the answers.

Red and Grek had died in an accident. The Walker had slipped off the edge while they were retrieving the Isotope. They fell to their deaths.

I thought I had everything under control... until we were standing in front of Fox.

I delivered my briefing like I was supposed to. The walker slipped, they were on it, they died, and there was nothing Tor or I could do about it. There was no hesitation, but I knew I was off. I knew I wasn't convincing. Everything I said sounded so kriffing rehearsed.

Or maybe it didn't.

Maybe in me thinking it was, I gave myself away.

I'm still not sure, but all I know is that Fox caught on.

"You seem nervous, Captain," Fox narrowed his eyes at me. "Is there something about this little disaster that you're not telling me?"

I kriffing hesitated. My lies got caught in my throat and I seized up. For the first time in my kriffing life, I was in a situation I couldn't get out of. I felt my whole life slipping away as Fox's frown increased. It was over.

"He's in shock, sir." I almost died right then and there as my head snapped to Tor, who had the calmest face on he could have conjured up. "He watched the transport slip off with Sergeant Grek and Lieutenant Red inside. He did everything he could to help them, but the ledge gave out too quickly for him to react." Tor stopped and then frowned, "Frankly, the fact that you're even questioning him is an insult to him as a Captain and his status in the Coruscant Guard as a Clone with a near-flawless service record." Fox seemed taken aback when Tor closed the gap between the two of them with narrowed eyes and the whole reg manual memorized, "Need I remind you about section thirty-six, paragraph seventy-two, bulletin forty-three on the interrogation of freshly returned soldiers?"

Fox didn't seem like he knew what to say as Tor rattled off the regulations at him, and eventually, he threw his hands up, "Alright! I trust you, Tor! Just... Just stop citing at me!"

We were summarily dismissed, and when we returned to our room, I looked over at him. he never looked at me. He never so much as said a single word. "Tor..."

"Don't thank me," he replied before he looked at me when he pulled his breastplate off. "It's what any decent brother would do."

"You said..."

"Well," he looked down at the armor in his hands and shook his head, "you three idiots mean more to me than any dumb reg manual."

I just stared at him as he finally gave a quick smile and continued taking his armor off.

"You're a good brother, Tor."

"The Mandalorian life isn't for me, but it is for you and them," he added in a sort of finality as he sat down on the edge of his bed and watched me. "Took me a while to get used to the idea, but... If it makes you all happy, then it's good enough for me."

I sat down at my desk and faced him. We both knew that it was likely for the best. Tor was right. If it was what my brothers wanted, then it was good enough for me.

It always would be.