with a small and highly secure population like the bureau’s, it’s harder to pick off your lunch like usual without being noticed, so sometimes you just gotta make your own! based on this post by @barryjerrybluejeans ✨(commission info)(kofi)✨
*WHY WAS WAXER RANDOMLY SENT OUT SANS BOIL, AND HOW DID HE RECEIVE ORDERS FROM KRELL? WHY DIDN’T HE ASK OBI-WAN FIRST LIKE “HEY, GENERAL, GENERAL KRELL SAYS SOME UMBARANS STOLE CLONE ARMOUR SO THIS RECONNAISSANCE MISSION MAY TAKE A BIT LONGER THAN USUAL. TELL BOIL I LOVE HIM.” ?????
I can answer this question, actually! The answer is that Cody and Obi-Wan were “elsewhere.”
No no, bear with me for a moment here, okay?
See, Cody was the Marshal Commander of the 7th Sky Corps, which means he was in charge of A LOT of men – a full corps tallied 36,864 clone troopers.
Cody was, in any given battle, tactically deploying up to 256 companies simultaneously.
In comparison, Rex, as Captain of Torrent Company, only had 144 clone troopers under his command. It was never explicitly stated in the canon, but Cody actually outranked Rex by a kriffing lot. The 501st Legion led by Anakin was the GAR equivalent of a surgical strike team, whereas the 7th Sky Corps was a whole damn army (presumably to support Obi-Wan’s function as a Republic diplomat; when someone asked him, “who’s gonna make us sign this treaty? You?”, Obi-Wan could reply with, “no, them”).
So the reason why Obi-Wan and Cody weren’t present for the friendly-fire incident on Umbara is because it was a company-sized firefight in a corps-sized battle. Obi-Wan and Cody were engaged on the main battlefront; when Krell reported trouble with the local militia, Cody presumably tasked a single company, maybe even just a platoon, with tracking down the Umbaran guerillas. Compared with the primary battle to take the capital city, some Umbaran skirmishers hiding in the woods wouldn’t be a major concern or warrant the personal attention of senior officers, especially not with a large-scale, decisive battle going on at the same time.
Between Krell’s deception and the broken communication lines, Cody and Obi-Wan had no idea what was really going on until the whole thing was already over. 😦
As for Waxer and Boil, I personally headcanon that they had at this point been promoted to lieutenants and put in charge of a platoon each, to wrangle the influx of rookies to Ghost Company after the defence of Kamino (“Good choice,” Obi-Wan told Cody, smiling as he signed the promotion papers, “those two do seem to handle the young ones well”). Ghost Company specialised in reconnaissance (canonically, all named members of Ghost Company were scouts, had previously been scouts, or later went on to become scouts); Cody, who often took charge of Ghost Company on smaller missions, even wore a scout trooper helmet himself. When Cody was busy leading the 7th Sky Corps, the four platoons of Ghost Company presumably worked as independent recon units tasked with perimeter control and insertions behind enemy lines. It would be perfectly in character for Cody to ask his expert rangers and most trusted men to deal with disguised enemy skirmishers picking at the flank of his main force.
(Just.. don’t imagine Cody approaching Rex after the battle is over to ask him what the hell happened?! Don’t imagine Rex having to tell Cody that Waxer is dead from a blue-on-blue incident. Don’t imagine Rex realising he shot his own brothers too. Just… don’t.)
I don’t think it was ever confirmed which Systems Army the 501st Legion was under, but I’m thinking that it’s Obi-Wan’s, given that Anakin was his former Padawan and was probably the commander of one of the regiments before he was Knighted and promoted. Plus, the 212th and the 501st worked together a ton in TCW.
*gets out her notebook and jotes this stuff down*
DUDE. I JUST RESEARCHED THIS. Not only does Cody outrank Rex by a lot, but by the end of the war, when Obi-Wan is in charge of the entire Third System Army and presumably dragged Cody along with him – Cody is six entire ranks above Rex. Of course, this assumes that Rex remained Captain of Torrent Company and wasn’t booted up to Regimental Commander or even Senior Commander under Anakin, since as far as I can tell Rex was basically in charge of the 501st for at least a little while there. But I digress.
The ranks go like this: Systems Army (this is Obi-Wan – and I assume also Cody – by the end of the war) -> Sector Army -> Corps (where Obi-Wan and Cody started out) -> Legion (the 501st) -> Regiment -> Battalion (the 212th, which Cody takes command of for individual operations) -> Company (led by a Captain) -> Platoon -> Squad. So even if Rex gets promoted from Captain to Major to Regimental Commander to Senior Commander in charge of the 501st, Cody is still above him, at minimum one level up as Marshal Commander of 7th Sky Corps, and probably three levels up as Marshal Commander in charge of the entire Third Systems Army with Obi-Wan.
Note that the 212th and the 501st are not equivalent units. The 501st Legion is two battle orders above the 212th Attack Battalion. In fact, it’s very possible that the 212th was a part of the 501st, not the other way around, as the 501st would have contained 16 battalions such as the 212th. I can’t find any reference to the parent battalion/regiment of Torrent Company, just that it’s a part of the 501st Legion.
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