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kotemf · 9 months ago

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Something is going on in the senator's office

Or, my story for day one of Corrie week. There is something weird going on in senator Chuchi's office. Fox isn't paid enough for this.

Day 1, prompt: eldritch

Fox's shift was just about to end. Sure, he still had an endless pile of paperwork in his office but at least there he could sit. His legs hurt from the day of standing guard in the senate and patrolling around Coruscant for the whole day. On Coruscant, every day was leg day.

Then someone screamed. So much for grabbing a cup of caff and finally sitting down in his office.

Fox sprinted in the direction of the sound. As much as he didn't care if one of the greedy politicians he was supposed to babysit happened to die, the paperwork wasn't worth it.

He turned the corner and almost crashed into a distressed senator. He froze. She screamed. Fox took a closer look. Oh, it was the senator from Pantora. That changed just about everything. That changed just about everything. Senator Chuchi was one of the few exceptions in the senate, one of the politicians who cared about clones or at least didn't try to make their life harder. She never as much as raised her voice at a clone and yes, Fox did keep tabs on senators. And right now the nice senator was screaming in distress. Fox should probably find out what was going on.

"Senator?"

"Commander! I'm sorry, you scared me."

So Fox wasn't really used to senators apologizing to him. The first thing he learned his shinies was that whatever happened, it was their fault. Never the nat-born's. He decided he should probably apologize for scaring the senator? "I apologize for scaring you, senator. Is something going on here?"

"I- I was convinced I saw someone in my office and then I had this feeling someone was following me." The senator shuddered. "I'm sorry, I'm sure you have better things to do."

"Not really." Fox's paperwork wasn't appealing at all. "Do you want me to check it out?"

"No, no. It's probably just nerves. I won't take any more of your time, commander."

Fox snapped a salute. "Have a nice evening, senator."

"Thank you, you too." The senator smiled at him before she walked off. Fox happily forgot about the whole incident.

It was two days later when Fox was reading through some reports that he remembered the events of that night. He normally wouldn't pay any attention to a report like this but there was senator's Chuchi's name and... Fox couldn't really explain it but for some reason, he really wanted to know what was going on with senator Chuchi.

She asked a shiny to check if someone was in her office. The report said she looked scared.

Fox remembered what exactly she told him when he ran into her. I was convinced I saw someone in my office and then I had this feeling someone was following me. Then she brushed it off. It's probably just nerves. This would be the second time senator Chuchi had a feeling someone was in her office, that was, according to the report, empty.

That was a bit suspicious. But maybe the senator was just easily frightened and saw a shadow or something. There used to be a vod like that on Kamino. He got decommissioned for that exact reason. But this was a nat-born and a senator. Where nat-borns were just 'being sentient, not droids', clones were defective. But then again, this world didn't view them as sentient. Droids actually had more rights than clones.

The third time senator Chuchi had a problem, Fox was enjoying his third cup of coffee. It was early into the morning, just about an hour into his first shift, when he ran into Thire.

"Hey, Fox, do you know what's going on with the senator?"

"You're going to have to be a bit more specific, Thire."

"That senator..." Typical Thire, he never remembered names. "The nice one. She's small and blue?"

"Senator Chuchi?"

"Probably?"

"What about her?" Fox asked. If she saw something in her office again, then there was definitely a problem, either with the senator, not that Fox could tell anyone that without getting sent straight to Kamino, or with security. At least senator Chuchi wasn't rude to Fox or his men when they were doing their duty. It made senator sitting a bit more enjoyable.

"She asked me to go to her office with her to make sure no one is there."

"Was anyone there?"

"No. That's the thing. And she actually looked scared when she opened the door. What is she so afraid of?"

"How am I supposed to know?"

"You know everything!"

Now that was a lie. Fox didn't know everything. If he knew everything, he wouldn't have to work. He wouldn't have to obsessively check reports and security footage to prevent anything bad from happening. He wouldn't have to be keeping tabs on senators to see who was bearable and who he had to keep shinies far away from. He wouldn't have to take every single guard duty in the chancellor's office because there was just something about Sheev Palpatine that felt off. He wouldn't have to check the causualities reports from the entire GAR just to make sure his batchmates didn't die somewhere on a battlefield. So no, Fox definitely didn't know everything. Among other things, he didn't know what was going on with senator Chuchi. "I most certainly don't know everything."

"I asked the senator if there was someone who might cause her trouble. She said there wasn't anyone but... if she doesn't have a reason to be scared then why is she scared?"

"It's none of your business." Fox shrugged. If there was danger a senator didn't told the Guard about then the Guard had no way of preparing for said danger.

"Technically, it is. Our job is to protect the senators. And this is one of the nice ones."

"I will tell everyone to pay her extra attention when patrolling," Fox promised. Thire wasn't the only one worried, Fox was just better at convincing himself there were no senators he actually cared about.

It was the next day, when Fox was helping himself to his eighteenth cup of caff, that there was a knock on the door of his office. He sighed. Vode didn't knock, this had to be a senator. He so didn't want to deal with whichever greedy politician was standing behind his door.

He was surprised when he opened and saw senator Chuchi. She wasn't one of his usual visitors. Senators only went to Fox when they wanted to complain, always the same annoying little shits again and again. Fox collected their pictures. He liked to throw darts at said pictures when he was having a particularly bad day. If caff couldn't fix it, throwing darts into Mas Amedda's face was always a good way to go.

"Commander."

Fox only now noticed that the senator was shaking a bit. It wasn't cold and as far as he knew, Pantorans had a pretty good thermal regulation so it shouldn't be from that. Did something scare her again? Scare her so much she was shaking? Fox should probably ask. "Are you alright, senator?"

"Yes. Yes, I am alright. I just... could you please accompany me to my office?"

"Of course, senator."

"Thank you. It's silly but I- The lights in my office went out for no reason at all and I just- I've been hearing stuff, seeing shadows, I always feel like someone is there... There is no one, I know but I- I don't want to go there alone," she admitted.

"I'll make sure it's safe, senator," Fox promised. That was his job, after all. And he would really hate it if something happened to the one senator who treated the Guard with respect because he underestimated a threat.

"Thank you, commander."

They walked together to the senator's office. The senator insisted that Fox goes in first. Fox didn't blame her, he remembered how him and his batchmates used to push each other forward whenever their trainers asked for someone to do a new exercise first. No one wanted to march into the unknown. Someone always had to do it. This time, Fox wasn't scared. But the senator was.

Fox quickly opened the door and went for the light switch. The tight didn't turn on. "The light is probably broken. I can see if I can get it fixed," he offered.

"That would be very nice of you." The senator smiled at him. Something about that smile made Fox glad that he offered his services instead of just calling someone more qualified to look at it. He might still have to do that but for now, he could be the knight in shining armor.

He lit up the light in his helmet to somewhat light the room. He has never been in senator Chuchi's office. It wasn't like the offices of other senators at all. The room was fairly simple, for a senator, anyway. Fox had to borrow a chair to climb up to where the light was.

Before he could do that, the lights turned back on.

Then off.

Then on again.

There there was a noise of rustling fabric behind Fox, where there most certainly wasn't supposed to be anyone.

When Fox turned around, there was no one. The window wasn't open so it wasn't the wind either.

Everything went black again.

"Okay, that was weird."

"Weird?! What do you mean it was weird?! It was terrifying!" The senator started shouting. She didn't sound mad, just scared.

"You're right, senator, I-" Fox didn't finish his sentence. He bolted forward when he saw the senator's knees buckle and reached her just in time to stop her from falling to the ground. She was unconscious.

Fox tried calling the medics. His comm wasn't working.

He could work with that, only the door refused to open.

They were trapped in senator's Chuchi's office and the senator was unconscious for reasons unknown to Fox. Just great. Fox should've drunk his caff before agreeing to accompany the senator.

"Senator? Senator Chuchi?" Fox tried waking the senator up. At first, there was no reaction but after a while, the senator stirred.

"Commander?" She blinked.

"Senator. Are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm- I'm fine. I fainted, didn't I?"

"You did," Fox confirmed. He realized he was still holding the senator. He quickly let her go. It wouldn't be appropriate to touch her any more than was necessary.

"Oh my god, I'm sorry. My blood pressure drops a lot when I'm scared or stressed and sometimes I just faint," the senator explained. Not that she had to explain herself to Fox. In fact, Fox had no idea what he was supposed to say.

"I'm glad to hear you are alright, senator," he said in the end. "Unfortunately, it appears we're trapped here-"

"Trapped?!"

"The door isn't opening and my comm doesn't seem to be working. Don't stress yourself, senator. I'm sure someone will come get us soon."

"Do you know why the lights did what they did?"

"Not really," Fox admitted.

The senator took a moment to process what he just said before she went and started frantically trying to open the door. She wasn't successful. The same went for her attempt at calling her aides. They were trapped in an office without light.

As if that wasn't enough, the lights lit up for a moment without turning back off.

"As soon as we get out of here, I'll ask for a new office," the senator decided. Fox thought that was a good idea considering how... broken the office was.

He didn't get to answer it. There was a tapping sound in the room suddenly. And it wasn't Fox, or the senator. Fox hated his job. Getting trapped with a senator would be bad enough but mysteries were a bit too much. Fox only had seventeen cups of caff that day. That wasn't nearly enough to deal with all that shit.

"What was that?"

"I don't know. I'm going to check it out." Fox got up. Where did the noise come from? Somewhere around senator Chuchi's table if he heard correctly.

He pointed his helmet's light in the right direction before he went investigating. Maybe there was a vent? He looked around the table, then under the table. He moved the small carpet there. Wait a damn moment...

"Senator? Is there supposed to be a pentacle under your table?"

"What? There is a pentacle?"

"Yes, ma'am." Fox nodded in affirmation.

"That is certainly not supposed to be there."

"That's what I thought." Fox reached out with his glowed hand. The lights went crazy and there was some sort of noise that Fox wasn't able to name. He ran his hand over the picture. It smudged.

The noise stopped. The lights turned on and stilled. Fox's comm suddenly lit up perfectly fine. So did senator Chuchi's. Fox went to the door and carefully pushed. It opened without a problem.

"What did just happen?"

"I don't know, senator."

#star wars #clone wars #fan fiction #coruscant guard #commander fox #cc 1010 #commander thire #riyo chuchi #corrieweek #corrieweek2024 #eldritch #horror #but not like really scary #fox might be going into his mulder era

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