literature

INFINITE STARS --Part One

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       His boots crunched the forest litter as he walked toward the small circle of clones. It sounded so much like leaves or dried grass that it sometimes surprised Cody when he looked above his head and found the glowing undersides of mushrooms instead of deciduous trees. When he arrived in the midst of the group, he found it strangely silent. Where just a day ago they all had talked and joked, now there was only quiet apprehension.
           
             The tension, the hopeless thoughts that drifted between them, was so tangible Cody could almost feel it resting upon his shoulders. It put his heart on edge to see his men so downtrodden. It was true, they had all been taught to link their probability of survival to if there was a present, functional Jedi or not.
     
              And right now there wasn’t.
     
              Sitting down on the floor of the forest, he shivered at the thought of his Jedi friend reduced to a twitching, delirious heap by a single Sarrishan dart. What was even more daunting was the notion of the great task of uprooting the Separatists from the CIS-sympathetic villages. A task that would be next to impossible without someone deemed worthy of negotiating with the natives.
     
              Even Grey, who he knew was well aware of the importance of personal strength, seemed downcast. His eyes relentlessly analyzing every detail in the patch of brightly glowing yellow fungi in the center of their circle. Gregor and Bolt, his two optimists, were engrossed in mashing plant matter all over their boots in a dejected sort of manner, their eyes not even focused on what they were doing. The commando was amassing a generous pile of spent gills while his brother made repeated patterns with the tread on his boots. He wanted to laugh at their semi-conscious activities, but the air was so laden with anxiety he was sure it would come out sounding too nervous.
     
            The clone commander shifted his weight on the litter of the forest, trying to take his mind off of their situation. It was one thing for him to be worried, Cody knew he could take the stress, but when it was his men that were concerned it would take more than just reassurance to ease their minds. He felt the great stalks and glowing undersides of the caps of the mushrooms above their heads close in on them.
   
            I should say something. He thought, desperate to alleviate his men’s fears. All they need is something to make them forget our situation, something to give them hope. Take them to a different place for a while….A story…..
   
            He was about to begin with something from his past experiences, anything, even if it was unpleasant, when Private Ryan saved him from probably disheartening his men even more.
   
          “Sometimes, Commander Arro would tell us about his training experiences or the battles he was in,” said Ryan, his shy voice soft in the dense wood.
   
          Some of the clones looked up, clearly intrigued, and Cody felt his own interest arouse at the prospect of learning what battle had left them orphaned from their legion. To be truthful, he had forgotten the young man had even been in a battle. Ryan and Daniel were just so soft spoken and, in a way, seemingly too innocent to be thought of as experienced soldiers they really were.
   
         Heh,Rex would have called them shinies. he thought, smiling to himself. Little does he know…..
   
        The commander smiled to himself, amused by the assumption made by Rex that Ryan, Gregor, Moreev, and the other survivors of the 144th were ‘shinies’. All he had to do was look them in the eye to know that these men had seen true battle.

       Cody came back to the moment to find the private’s gaze upon him, waiting for approval.
   
         “Go on, Ryan,” he urged gently.
   
         “I’m afraid it’s a little melodramatic—”
   
         “Eh, I’m up for just about anything right now,” said Ty, kicking his feet up on a squat fungus and leaning his back against the nearby mushrooms. “Shoot kid.”
   
         Cody gave one last encouraging nod toward the young clone whose face was beginning to blush.
 
        “Well, I suppose it began on a long walk. There was a lot of walking in it I guess…..” he paused, chewing his lip a little, the clone’s eyes growing distant, the past leeching the alertness from his gaze.
         
         The private’s voice gained a tense edge to it. “I would just like to say how lucky I am to be here talking to you right now. There were so many things that could have happened to me but didn’t. The fact that they didn’t leads me to believe that there’s some purpose for me yet, something that lead me here…..I don’t know why and I don’t think I ever will…….I just wanted you to know that.”

        Cody leaned forward, intrigued. How many times had the clone commander felt like he was being saved, almost protected, as Ryan now was describing. All those weeks spent trapped in a torture chamber, enduring all that pain, the blinding fear of death, only to survive and not only free himself but Kenobi as well. He had figured it was the Force or destiny or something, but now was beginning to believe it had been his own resilience that had saved him.
     
       As if in answer, Ryan’s eyes flicked to him one last time, and the veteran was surprised to see that same notion reflected in the private’s gaze. With that the young clone took a deep breath and began.
So yeah, I've finally gotten around to submitting the first part of Ryan's story. I'm kinda at odds with it right now. I have the middle and end pretty well figured out, it's just the beginning of it that's been stumping me. :p

I also am going to probably not submit the rest of it for a while because I would like to use it for my creative writing class :ninjaplot: and don't want the teacher to think I'm plagiarizing some one on dA, when it is really me. :p (that would be such a trollfart if that happened :dead: ) :| Sorry but the soonest I might be able to put it up here would be sometime this spring. I hate to leave you guys hanging there with so little to go off of, as I wanted to originally add at least a good portion of the next chapter, but I would really like to use this story for my class. If it seems kinda bland/confusing right now that's because this scene follows a lot of information to process (Obi-Wan's health situation, the Sarrishans' feelings about them being there, their communication difficulties with the tribe, ect. ect.), and I'd have to put the entire book on her just to have it make sense. :p I will appease you by submitting some of Alpha's 'myths' or something, as they have really no order of occurrence in my books and usually occur in flashbacks anyways. ;)

I would also like to mention my add in of Captain Gregor as an exciting new edition into the story. It brings me joy to think that I can incorporate his backstory into this as well! :happybounce:

Anyways, hope you enjoy this very weak/tiny taste of one of my books/the beginning of Ryan's Story. :D It's probably the longest of all the stories with Ty's and Bolt's coming in close seconds. ;) Please feel free to comment and critique as it will help me become a better writer and I'm interested in what you think. :dummy: Also this is probably subject to change as I might change the wording or so forth. :)


(c) Clone troopers and Commander Cody were created by George Lucas.
Private Ryan was created by and belongs to :iconnimbus2224: (aka me ;p) so please don't use without asking.


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AngelAxexinf's avatar
This is perfect! You should submit it to Clone-Bosses!