Tcw Echo - Blog Posts
Sometimes, Fives looks at Tup and can’t help but remember someone else in his place…
*Not Shipart*
Gorgeous Echo💙
pre-citadel echo in bad-batcher gear 💙 this is like a year into the war 🖤❤️
ignore the inaccurate placement of the hand print 💀
Fives: how dead does someone have to be before its considered a murder?
Echo: if they are dead dead, it's murder. If they are kinda dead, it's attempted murder. If they aren't dead, you failed.
Rex: *backing out of the room* nopenopenopenopenope
CODY LOL
Dang poor fives he’s dead
I don't know anymore, I still can't draw, took me WAAAAAAAAAAAAY to long to finish, but still, thought this was a funny idea.
I miss drawing.....
Fives: I’m 80% awesome 20% water and 100% handsome. Echo: That’s 200%. Fives: I’m twice the man you’ll ever be.
Omg this was so adorable! Literally just what I needed today. Thank you for the fic 💕💕
For your valentines drabbles: Echo/Cadence for prompt: Dancing! Thank you 💕💕
Thanks for the request and for the opportunity to write more about these two! 💙
The song that Cadence sings in this drabble is “Better When I’m Dancin’” by Meghan Trainor.
It’s also here on AO3.
Echo was tired. It wasn’t something specific, though. He hadn’t had a particularly difficult workout nor had the 501st’s most recent mission been especially long. He hadn’t lost anyone he was close to recently nor had he performed any tasks that were more mentally taxing than normal. No, it was more of a general tiredness.
He was tired of war, of watching his brothers die—whether or not he was close with them—and the hopelessness of it all. How much longer would it go on? However long that was, would he even live to see the end? It was just one of those days.
But Echo did his best to push his weariness to the back of his mind as he strode through the streets of Coruscant. Cadence had just arrived on the capital planet and it would be their first time seeing each other in over a month. That last thing he wanted was to dampen their reunion with his dismal mindset about a situation that he wouldn’t be able to change.
When he reached the hangar, he stopped to take a breath before approaching her ship, making one more effort to clear his thoughts. Then he made his way over to her freighter, the Atonal , and tapped the entry code into the security panel.
“Echo!”
He had only just made it to the top of the ramp when he heard his name. Then Cadence was running at him and leaping into his arms. He caught her instinctively and held her off the ground as she kissed him fiercely.
“I missed you,” he breathed, after they broke apart.
He was still holding her and she leaned her forehead against his. “Echo, what’s wrong?”
He fought the urge to sigh. Of course she knew and he knew better than to think that she wouldn’t sense his negative emotions immediately.
“It’s nothing specific,” he answered honestly. “Just one of those days when I wish this war would just end already.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
He shook his head.
“Dance with me then,” she said.
“What? Now?” He wasn’t opposed to dancing in general, but now didn’t seem like the best time.
“Yes! Put me down.” He did. “Now, come on.”
She took his hands and led him to the living area of her ship.
“Bettii!”
At the sound of her name, the little BD unit darted in from the direction of the cockpit. She beeped excitedly when she spotted Echo and hurried over to greet him by climbing up onto his shoulder.
“Hey, Bettii,” he said, patting the droid’s head.
Cadence pressed two fingers to the side of Bettii’s head and music began to trickle out of the little droid. The instrumental tune was upbeat and Cadence immediately added her voice.
—
Don’t think about it, just move your body
Listen to the music, sing, oh, ey, oh
—
A small smile crept onto Echo’s face as his partner, still holding his hands, pulled him farther into the center of the room. It really wasn’t fair. She knew hearing her singing voice always made him smile.
Bettii hopped off his shoulder and Cadence continued her vocals, as she began moving their arms in some sort of motion that Echo didn’t quite understand.
“What dance is this?” he asked.
“Don’t worry about it!” she responded, between lyrics.
“But what are the steps?” Echo asked again.
“I have no idea!” She beamed at him and he couldn’t stop his own smile from widening.
—
We can do this together
I bet you feel better when you’re dancin’, yeah, yeah
—
Now they were spinning aimlessly around the ship’s living area, still joined by their hands. At one point, Echo thought to lift one of his arms, so Cadence could twirl underneath it. Then he pulled her to him and kept an arm around her waist as they continued their chaotic dance routine. His partner’s voice remained steady the entire time; he still couldn’t understand how she could sing so flawlessly while moving her body so rapidly.
When the song finally tapered off, Echo halted their steps and pulled her into a series of heated kisses. They were both breathing heavily by the time their lips disconnected and he bent down to lean his forehead against hers.
“Thank you,” he whispered, tucking some of her wavy hair behind her ear.
“I hope it helped,” she said quietly. “For now, at least.”
“It did.” He tilted his head to place another soft kiss on her mouth.
The Love Drabble requests are now closed, but stay tuned for more drabbles that have yet to be posted! 💕
Our Own Choices
Chapter 11
General Skywalker comes in to check on us. I don't say anything to Echo, because I know that anything that will come out will be a pile of emotional shit. And I don't wanna do that in front of General Skywalker, Tech, or even Rex. Too embarrassing. Besides, Echo probably won't give a shit.
I can still hear some blaster fire from outside. "Situations almost under control out there," General Skywalker says. "How's it going in here?"
"I'm still trying to decrypt Echo's cerebral interface," Tech reports. "Until I do, we cannot disconnect him from this computer system."
"How's he doing, Rex?" General Skywalker's tone softens. Rex stands up. "He's too weak to walk. Very disoriented. Doesn't even remember how he got here. He remembers being at the Citadel, but that's about it."
Who wouldn't remember that?
"Any word on the extraction squad?"
"We called it in, but no word back," Rex replies.
A droid comes flying into the room, and I assume it's thrown by Wrecker. "Well, that's no surprise." Maybe General Skywalker's referring to the extraction squad and the droid that just crashed in here. "We knew when we got into this we'd be on our own."
Hunter, Wrecker and Crosshair back into the room, closing the doors. "It's gonna get more difficult to get outta here," Hunter says, loud enough so that all of us can hear it. "There are several squads of droids closing in." I hear Hunter and Crosshair sealing the door.
Shit.
"Enemy approaching. Droids. Lots of em," Crosshair says.
"How long can you hold them off?" General Skywalker asks.
"How long do you need?" Hunter replies.
"Tech, how much longer?"
"Not yet. I need more time."
I can feel the atmosphere get more tense.
Everything's gonna be okay. Everything's gonna be okay.
Yea right it is.
Shut the kriff/fuck up.
No you.
I look at Hunter and Crosshair, who are sealing another pair of blast doors. I look over at Tech, who's pressing a few buttons before saying, "I've got it. We can unplug him now." And then he takes off his helmet, showing his receding hairline.
Echo turns around, and Rex and I start unplugging him, ripping off a wire from one side of his neck, and then the other. Echo clutches onto the control panel, I can tell it hurts a lot.
Sorry.
And then Rex rips out the last cable from his head, and Echo falls to the ground, groaning slightly. "Rex?"
"What is it?" Rex looks concerned. Echo coughs a bit, before smiling slightly. "I got a big headache."
"Better to feel something than nothing, old buddy," Rex says, smiling.
"At least your sense of humor's still intact. Now what our fucking plan on getting outta here?" I ask.
Echo coughs slightly. "There's an exhaust vent that leads to the cooling systems right there," he says, pointing upwards at a circular vent on the ceiling.
"They've breached the front door," Hunter reports. "It won't be long before they're through the second."
I look up at the exhaust vent. How the kriff are we supposed to get up there?
Echo uses his cybernetic arm and plugs it into the control panel, turning some stuff. "That should get it open."
I look up. The exhaust vent opens, revealing an upwards tunnel that's glowing blue.
"Great. Now how do we get up there?" Crosshair asks. Bro literally spoke my mind.
"I can help with that," Wrecker replies, and I see him grabbing a slightly confused Hunter and throwing him up the vent.
"WRECKER WHAT R U DOING-"
I hold back a laugh as Hunter shouts, "A heads-up would've been nice!"
One by one, Wrecker throws each of us up the vent, and after he throws Tech up, it's my turn.
"Just don't grab me by the ass," I warn him, for obvious reasons.
So he grabs me by the sides and throws me up, and I grab the side of the vent, climbing up behind Tech. Rex follows behind me. Fives and Echo usually do that, but I guess since Echo's not really functioning right now and Fives is DEAD COS FUCKING FOX KILLED HIM-
Rex just likes to make sure I don't fall to my death. I'm really tempted to kick him.
We climb up to reach the cooling systems and Crosshair helps me up. I hear an explosion down below and assume that's Wrecker's work.
We walk through the cooling vents and Rex and I help Echo walk. Echo says that he can find us a safe way outta here. My fingers are slightly cold, because it's a cooling system, obviously. My gloves don't help much, considering they leave my fingers exposed. It's a design choice. It looks cool.
"Well, there is a way," Echo says, and he's referring to how we're gonna escape this place. "But you're not gonna like it."
We walk through the cooling systems for a while, General Skywalker and Echo leading the way, until we reach a door that opens up to the above of a large metal pipe connecting to another of those floating city buildings. It's windy as we step out. I don't particularly like heights either. Echo was right. I don't like this at all.
"I don't know about this," Rex says as he looks out.
"I'm telling you, there's a landing pad on that other building," Echo says, pointing to the building across the pipe.
"So you think there's a ship there we can steal?" Hunter steps out as well.
"Well, I hope there's a ship we can steal," Echo replies.
R u serious right now bro
"Let's hope this trip isn't for nothing," Hunter says as General Skywalker, Echo and Rex start walking across the pipe.
If it is, I'm definitely hacking your Call of Duty account and using up all your COD points.
I follow behind Rex, and Hunter and the batch are behind me.
"Oh boy, I can't even look," I hear Wrecker say from the back.
"Then don't," I reply from the front.
"Just keep walking, Tech," Wrecker says.
"That's fine, but if you fall don't take me with you."
"Uh oh, I looked," Wrecker sounds scared. "I think I'm gonna be sick."
"If you vomit don't vomit on Tech," I tell him.
"Hang on Wrecker, we're almost there," Hunter tries to calm down a currently very freaked out Wrecker.
I hear that familiar sound of droids coming from the front, and draw my knife and pistol, trying to keep my balance on the pipe. To be honest, drawing my weapons makes it easier.
"Turn around! Go back!" General Skywalker shouts from the front, and I see him igniting his lightsaber. When we turn around, we see some more droids coming from the back.
Shit. We're either fucked or very fucked.
I hear General Skywalker deflecting a blast bolt at a droid and Tech shoots another, I throw one of my knives at one of the droids' heads, and the droid falls from the pipe.
I never liked that knife anyway.
I see Crosshair falling from the pipe and Wrecker, despite his intense af fear of heights, literally jumps down and catches Crosshair, hanging by the legs from a support just below the pipe.
Stupid ass. Bro could've died.
"Anyone got a brilliant idea?" General Skywalker shouts.
"I do have a brilliant idea," Tech responds.
"I'm hanging here!" Wrecker shouts from below.
"When the locals attacked us, I recorded the creature's distress call," Tech says, tapping a few buttons on his datapad.
"He records everything. It's a hobby," Hunter says, as I shoot a few more of the droids, not wanting to use my knives because those things are expensive.
"Which allows us to call those flying creatures to us," Tech continues, and presses a button which produces a really high-pitched screeching noise, and we cover our ears to try and block out the sound.
"Ow! Enough with the sound!" Wrecker shouts, and he and Crosshair shoot from below. Crosshair's literally hanging from Wrecker, and he literally puts all his trust into Wrecker not to let him fall while he shoots the droids.
Really wish I had friends like that. Oh wait, I did. Yea, that was Fives. And Echo. But I was closer to Fives.
"There is our ride out of here!" Tech says, pointing at some shadows in the clouds which I could only assume to be the flying creatures that he called, and we all look up at them as they fly up and past us.
"Now how do we get on them?" General Skywalker asks, and I shoot another droid.
We jump you fucking dumbass.
"How else? We jump," Tech replies as the flying creatures fly below us, and General Skywalker jumps and lands on one of them.
You can do this.
I can hear my heart pounding in my chest, and I see Hunter looking at me expectantly, and because I have to impress the batch, I use what little strength is left in my legs and jump off, trying not to close my eyes.
I land on one of them, on its back. I'm breathing heavily. That choking feeling when I'm in a life-threatening situation starts surfacing, and I'm trying to calm down, gulping down dust-filled air like I'm resurfacing from a deep dive.
And now I'm starting to get angry. Getting scared like this makes me feel weak in front of the others. I don't like it. I hate this.
Suddenly, a blaster bolt whizzes past my head, and I look back seeing a bunch of droids shooting at us.
Gotta steer this thing. But I don't know how. My legs grip the flying creature tighter, because I have no interest in dying today.
I turn back and aim with my pistol, lining the back sight up with the front sight and aiming slightly below the droid's head, and I shoot. It hits the droid in the head and I shoot at the others.
We fly sideways, and I was just aiming at another droid when I feel a sharp pain shoot through my right hand. It slams against a rock, hard, and my pistol flies out of my hand, and my hand doesn't feel so good. I grit my teeth as I'm almost thrown off the flying creature, and I'm hanging on for dear life on the creature's tail with my left hand.
I can barely move my right hand, it hurts so much. But with one last clench of my fist, which sends jolts of pain shooting down my arm, I shoot my grappling hook at the back of the creature, pulling myself up as I retract my grappling hook.
"Hey ad'ika! How you holding up?" I hear Echo shout from the flying creature next to me.
I take a few moments to regain my sense of surroundings and find out that we outmaneuvered all the droids.
Should I shout back? That could come off as cringe to the batch.
I nod at him as we land back in the Poletec village. Before the flying creature lands, I jump off and land on my feet, dusting myself off, at least hoping to look slightly cool to the batch. My injured hand throbs as I land, but I try to act as if it doesn't hurt at all.
The Poletec leader comes up to us and starts shouting shit at us.
"Their leader is impressed that we tamed the Keeradaks," Tech translates. "But he wants to know why we returned here."
"Tell him we had no choice. Tell him...that we wore out our welcome in Purkoll," General Skywalker tells Tech, who translates and speaks back to the Poletec leader in that weird ass language again.
I nudge Crosshair in the side. "Keep reminding Tech about how goofy he sounds rn." Crosshair nods back, and I think he has the biggest smirk ever under that helmet.
Suddenly, blaster fire rains down from above, and I draw my other pistol with my good hand, General Skywalker ignites his lightsaber. The flying creatures take flight and fly away, and Crosshair shoots at the incoming droids, hitting one and sending it spiraling to the ground, leaving behind a trail of smoke. I manage to hit one as well with my pistol, and as the droids fly away, I keep my pistol in my hand, my other arm hanging by my side as I try not to move it.
"Not good," General Skywalker says. "If I know Tambor, he'll come after us. Us and the Poletecs, with everything he's got."
The Poletec leader starts talking shit to us again.
"What's he saying, Tech?" General Skywalker asks.
"He says that we have broken our word. We have brought the war to his village."
"You're right," Rex speaks up, stepping forward and taking off his helmet. "Tell him he's right, Tech. Tell him we didn't plan to drag his people into war. But look what the Separatists did to one of our people." He points at Echo, and all the Poletecs look at him, all gasping, looking slightly horrified.
"They took away his freedom, his humanity. They tried to turn him into a machine. The Techno Union claim they're neutral, but they have chosen sides. Now your people have to choose."
"Couldn't have said it better, Rex," General Skywalker says.
That was a good speech, Da-Rex.
Crosshair scoffs. "Let's hope it works. Because I see forces coming. More than we can handle alone."
Our Own Choices
Chapter 8
I hate Rex so much. He hasn't let me on any missions for a few weeks now, and I'm somehow getting bored of writing stories and playing call of duty. Actually no, its just writing stories. Haven't been playing much of call of duty since that happened. Reminds me of him too much.
I also practice throwing knives sometimes. I've made a compartment in my armor to house about 20 or so knives, I always hit my mark when I throw them. At least if I'm in close or mid range.
Besides, I usually don't follow Rex's orders anyways, so I've snuck on about 19 missions without his permission.
Fives' death has definitely affected me in worse ways than it should have. I can barely sleep at night, having nightmares of both Fives and Echo's deaths. It's not like Rex notices the dark circles under my eyes anyways, he's been on Anaxes for a while now with the 501st. I wanna go there so badly, just to get some action for once, waiting in the hangar as reinforcements are being sent to Anaxes for a ship that I can get on.
I've been calculating my chances of being spotted getting on a cargo transport that's headed for Anaxes that aren't being checked, and my odds are pretty good.
So when I check that none of the troopers are looking, I run aboard the cargo transport just as the ship door closes and I get ready for a long trip to Anaxes.
In the cargo ship, I check my gear, making sure that some of the modifications that I made to it in my free time were working. My helmet's visor has a setting which allows me to see the heat signatures of people in my line of sight, which is also orange in color and makes my visor orange when using, which I think is really cool. I added an extra grappling hook that's attached to the armor on my wrist as well, because the only way I could sneak onto missions while I was grounded is if I clipped myself to the outside of the republic gunships and went along for the ride.
When I arrive on Anaxes, the door opens and I see some troopers unloading the cargo. It's easy to blend into the darkness of the ship with my armor painted black and all, and when the troopers turn away from a moment I slip out of the ship and see Rex, Jesse, Cody and Kix talking to group of some really tall ass clones. Well at least 75% of them are tall. One of them has dog shit for hair and is almost as short as I am.
I see them getting onto a republic gunship and I run to it, using my grappling hook to attach myself to the side of the gunship where the door is closed, and I enjoy the ride as the ship takes off.
We fly across the reddish terrain that kinda looks like trees but also not really, I can feel the wind against my body, not in my hair cause my helmet's on. I don't even know why I'm coming along for this one, it's literally just instinctive now that when I see a republic gunship with Rex inside I just clip myself to the outside and ride along. Sometimes Rex finds out and happily lets me come along. Yea. Happily. Totally.
It's quite nice out here. Fresh air's so much better than in my room on Coruscant, it doesn't reek of blood that I've had to clean off from my knife a lot, when I accidentally cut myself with it. It's kind of satisfying, sometimes, to just get a small slit on my arm, and watch the blood slowly flow out.
I know, something's definitely wrong with me.
Fives would have really liked this view. Bet he would invite me to get a drink with him after this mission and then play a few rounds of Call of Duty Battle Royale.
And then as I'm lost in my thoughts, quietly pacing back and forth on the side of the ship, the door opens, and I'm hanging in front of the open door, with Rex folding his arms and staring at me.
"Hi," I wave awkwardly at everyone inside the gunship.
"I don't think you wanna be out there if we get shot down. " Rex doesn't sound happy. I roll my eyes from under my helmet and curse under my breath, before swinging into the gunship and retracting my grappling hook. The door closes behind me and the inside of the gunship turns dark with a dim red glow.
"So anyways, who's the old man?" I ask, pointing at the dude I landed next to, receiving a death glare from him. I can see Jesse, Kix and even Rex trying to hold in their laughter, because they know I have a point. The dude's hair is literally grey, and there are FUCKING WRINKLES on his face. Or maybe he's just so thin that his skull decided to become really clear.
"That's...Crosshair," the dude with the dog shit for hair says. "Yea, and I'm betting you're Shithair." I receive an elbow in the side by Rex, and I take that as a warning to stop speaking facts.
Rex pulls me into a corner in the gunship and half-whispers half-demands, "What are you doing here?! I gave you a specific order not to come!" The dude with a receding hairline that's next to me looks at me and then back at his datapad.
"Oh cmon Rex, when have I ever followed orders?" I try to shrug it off. "I'm here now, so it's not like you can throw me off."
"I would very much like to," Rex mumbles under his breath and I hear it, but I don't really care. I move away from Rex and head over to Kix. "Care to give me some introductions on the new guys?"
"That one's Hunter," Kix points at Shithair. "That one's Tech," he points at the dude with the receding hairline. "And that one's Wrecker." He points towards the buff guy. "You ever heard of Clone Force 99, genetically altered clones? Well, here they are."
I think I remember seeing Clone Force 99 back on Kamino, I've tried to sit with them in the cafeteria a few times but I wasn't very successful.
I stand next to Jesse now, he's receiving a really weird look from Crosshair. Ayo, is the old guy simping? I mean, that could be incest-
Anyways.
"What are you looking at?" Jesse asks.
"We don't usually work with rEgS," Crosshair says, flicking a toothpick at Jesse, which bounces off his armor. Crosshair's voice sounds so (Imperial) weird, not like the normal clones. Then again, I can't really blame him. Is that what clones sound like when they grow old? Or was his voice always like that?
"Regs?!" Jesse takes a step towards Crosshair, but is stopped by Hunter (Shithair). "He's talking about regular clones," Hunter explains. "But don't take it personal."
"Well, I guess we know what's his genetic alteration," I say to Kix, doing a head tilt towards Crosshair. "He's a master at being an asshole."
Kix snickers slightly, nodding. "Yea, that's true."
"We're all on the same team, so cut the attitude and listen up," Cody says, and we all turn to him. Toothpick boi crosses his arms as he turns to Cody. I can almost imagine what's going through his mind right now.
Attitude? I'll show you attitude. *Crosses arms like an irritated child*
"Here's the mission. Our target is this Cyber Center," Cody says, showing a hologram of our target. "It's the brains of this entire Separatist campaign here on Anaxes."
"I can demolish that with one hand! Yeah!" Wrecker says, and I cringe, putting a hand to my helmet and shaking my head. Force, help me.
"This isn't a demo job, Wrecker," Cody says, and I silently thank him. "It's strictly a retrieval operation."
Retrieval means I get to slice up less droids but still some, as long as Clone Force 99 aka the Bad Batch doesn't steal all the kills.
"Incoming fire," I hear the pilot of the gunship say, and the gunship shakes a bit, we struggle to keep our balance. And then I hear some hits landing on the gunship, and we're starting to decend, and fast.
"We're going down!" Wrecker laughs like an absolute psychopath, and I'm starting to wonder if he's okay.
I feel the side of the gunship crash against a wall, and I instinctively hold onto Rex for balance, but immediately let go when I realize what I'm doing.
It's not a nice landing. We crash on the side of the gunship and some of us are thrown off balance and get up, coughing at the smoke from the flames of the engine. We quickly get out of the gunship and onto the ground, which looks a bit like blue-stained glass.
"We always get shot down when we travel with regs," Wrecker complains, and I shoot a sideways glance at him. "Stop complaining," I roll my eyes. I hate it when they say we're regs, because not all of us are. At least, not me. But I don't wanna reveal it to them yet, or ever, because so far my impression of them is that Crosshair's an asshole and Wrecker's a psychopath.
I hear Kix calling out for someone to help Cody who's trapped under the gunship debris. I wonder what happened to the pilot though. Probably dead.
"I'll get him," Rex runs forward, but is stopped by Hunter.
"Woah woah woah, easy captain. Wrecker, get him out," he says as he moves Rex to the side and we all watch.
"Get back," Wrecker warns, stepping forward.
"This is ridiculous! He's gonna need help to get Cody outta there," Kix says. Crosshair chuckles at bit, smirking. "He's gonna get the gunship outta there, not Cody."
I stare at him for a moment, before turning back to Wrecker, who literally lifts the whole ass thing up and turns it on the other side, freeing Cody. Wrecker carries Cody on his back and walks away from the debris.
"Boom."
Boom indeed. The gunship explodes and I flinch and step back a bit, because I have no interest in getting paralyzed today. Wrecker sets Cody down on the ground as Kix checks on him. Definitely not good. Cody looks like he just got kicked in the balls, really hard.
"He has internal damage," Kix reports. "I can cut the pain, but he needs help fast."
"We all need help," Crosshair says as he looks ahead, and for a moment I think he's saying that we all need mental help, which isn't exactly wrong, but then I look in the direction that he's looking and see a bunch of droids headed towards us.
"That blast gave away our position," Crosshair says.
"I thought getting shot down gave away our position," Hunter argues.
"I think both did," I cross my arms and say from behind.
"Everyone, find cover. We'll hold this position and let them come to us," Rex says.
"I don't think so, Captain. That's not our style. We prefer going to them. Bad Batch, plan 82, "shockwave"," Hunter says, and I'm starting to like these guys already. So I just sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.
Wrecker grabs a piece of metal from the gunship that's literally big enough to cover the 4 of them and they run into the blaster fire, the piece of metal blocking them from getting shot. Then I see one of them throwing a stun grenade and then Crosshair fucking shoots it mid-air, which I gotta admit IS FUCKING AWESOME, and they do it a few more times before splitting up and dealing with the remaining droids.
I run over to Wrecker, Tech and Crosshair. "THAT WAS SO FUCKING COOL BRO," I look at Crosshair, and he just puts a toothpick into his mouth and turns away.
"Aren't you a little short to be a reg?" Tech asks.
"That's none of your business," I say, shooting a glare at him. I still haven't warmed up to them yet, but I wouldn't mind warming up to Crosshair, he's so fucking cool and maybe I could get him to teach me how to shoot a sniper sometime, I'll probably have to bribe him with toothpicks though.
So anyways, Rex and the others start walking ahead and we follow them, I stay at the back and Crosshair seems to be the one who wants to walk behind everyone else, including me.
And here I was thinking that I was gonna be at the back.
We walk for a while, and we decide to set up camp in the forest, it's turning night now. Hunter goes to eat dirt or smth and I sit next to Kix and Jesse.
"So I get what makes the other Batchers unique, but what's so special about Hunter?" Jesse asks.
"He can put up with the other three," Kix replies, and all of us smirk slightly.
"He was engineered with heightened senses. A place like the Cyber Center, Hunter can feel the electromagnetic frequencies from anywhere on the planet," Tech says.
"And here I was thinking we were smart just using a holomap," Jesse nudges me and Kix with his elbow.
"Well, maps can be wrong. Hunter never is."
"So is he eating the dirt or something?" I ask, and Kix and Jesse burst out laughing, I try to keep a straight face under my helmet.
"He is feeling the dirt, not eating it," Tech says, and I roll my eyes. I hear Cody groaning in the corner, he doesn't look so good, and Rex is beside him, telling him to hang in there. Then he stands up. "Listen up. We have to move out."
Crosshair stands up and walks towards Rex. "Commander Cody's in no position to move."
"Already called in evac. Kix will stay with Cody until it arrives. I'm in charge now. And I've got a plan to get into that Cyber Center."
Crosshair takes his toothpick out from his mouth and points it at Rex. "If your plans are so good, why did Commander Cody have to call us in?"
Wrecker stands up as well and walks over. And so does Jesse. "You can't talk to Captain Rex like that!"
I roll my eyes from under my helmet, sighing. Can we not do this right now?
"Says who?" Wrecker growls, picking Jesse up by the neck. Rex tries to get Wrecker to put him down while Crosshair puts Kix in a choke hold, and I give him a punch to the face and a kick in the balls for that. Crosshair's definitely not happy as he stumbles back a bit, and he kicks me in the chest, sending me down to the floor, and my helmet falls off.
"Uh guys-" Tech tries to get everyone to calm down.
"Wrecker, drop him. Now," Hunter commands, and we all turn to him as Wrecker drops Jesse onto the ground. "Fellas, cmon! We're all fighting for the same thing, right?"
I take out my vibro-knife and move behind Crosshair, holding the knife to his neck and him in a choke hold from behind.
Hunter sighs. "All right then. Let's cut the chatter and finish what we started. We'll do it your way, Captain. For Commander Cody."
I let go of Crosshair as Rex gives me that "don't make this worse" look, and toothpick boi dusts himself off.
"Okay. Let's gear up and move out," Rex says.
Now that the batch know that I'm a female, there's no point putting on my helmet until we're in battle, so I just carry it under my arm for now. Crosshair and I stay at the back of the group, and he glares down at me, he's like a whole head taller than me, and I glare up at him.
"Didn't expect you to be a female," he says as he puts a toothpick into his mouth.
"Didn't expect you to be addicted to toothpicks. Why not try chewing gum or something? You could get splinters if you chew the toothpicks too hard." I'm being slightly nicer now.
Crosshair rolls his eyes. "Gum's too soft. Just like you."
I glare at him again before moving in front of him, but not before I knock my shoulder into his, showing my annoyance.
Soon, we all put our helmets on and scan the area, making our way closer to the cyber center, blasters drawn. Hunter raises his hand, motioning for us to stop. I see an outpost over the others' heads, we're probably either gonna take it or go around.
"Not our primary target," Hunter says. "It's an outpost. Should we take it?"
"Probably easier than going around," Rex replies.
"Alright, what're your orders? We pick them off from the tree line one by one?"
"Actually, I was thinking we take a page from your book. Rush them head on."
HELL YEA.
"Heh. I like your style."
So we take some shots at the droids and then we run out from where we were hiding, blasting at the droids. I stab one in the head just before Hunter can, and I smirk at him from under my helmet as we run into the lift, I can feel his annoyance at me stealing his kill.
"Too slow?" I ask, as the lift ascends, and we each face different directions, shooting the droids. I go for melee this time, drawing my sword in one hand and my knife in the other, and I slice up a few droids. Crosshair throws one against the wall and I throw my knife at it, it hits the middle of the droid's head. As Tech blasts the last droid, Wrecker comes up through the lift.
He looks around, blaster ready, but all the droids are already dead. He takes off his helmet. "Is it over already? Aw man!"
We all take off our helmets. "Not bad," Hunter says to Rex. "For a reg."
We head over to the window of the outpost, and look out.
"Well, there it is. The Cyber Center," Rex says.
"It looks like the Cyber Center itself has minimal guards, about 30 droids," Tech says as he does some stuff with the control panels. "Oh, wait, wait. I got a massive signal coming in. A whole platoon of droids is headed this way."
"Someone's noticed our handiwork back at the crash site," Hunter says.
"Yeah. Make sure you keep an eye on those incoming Separatist forces. I wanna know when they reach this outpost. We gotta move swiftly."
"We'll grab some speeder bikes and flank them from the back," Hunter says.
I follow Jesse and Rex and we sneak behind 2 battle droids, tackling them from behind and shooting them down.
We hide behind a tree and look out at the battle droids guarding the cyber center.
"Is everyone in position?" Rex asks.
"Affirmative," I hear Hunter say through the comms, and then Crosshair says the same thing.
"Cap, you wanted to know when those Separatist forces breached the outpost. Well, they're getting there just about now," Tech says through the comms.
Rex, Jesse and I get ready to shoot the droids guarding the entrance. Rex aims and shoots the head off the yellow-headed one, and we all run in, blasting droids left and right. Rex throws a stun grenade at the group of droids, knocking them down, and we take cover behind some crates.
We move forwards, still taking cover and blasting the droids. I can feel the adrenaline rush that I missed so much.
Hunter and Wrecker come out of the doors behind the droids that we're blasting at, taking care of them quickly. We run over to them as a transport comes into view. Definitely carrying more droids.
"Better get in there, Cap," Wrecker says as him, Hunter, Jesse and I wait to blast the droids that will be coming out any second now.
Beams carrying dozens of b2 super battle droids extend out, and the droids drop to the ground and start firing at us. We move to the side a bit, avoiding their blaster fire and firing back. In most cases, I could sneak behind and cut them all in half, but there's too many of them, and I don't feel like dying today.
The battle droids advance and we take cover behind some crates.
"Crosshair, we're gonna need a lift," Hunter says into the comms as the rest of us continue blasting the droids.
"Not gonna be a problem," Crosshair replies through the comms, and suddenly I'm thinking about how he's gonna solo the entire group of battle droids like how those pro snipers do in Call of Duty. Having one on your team is useful, but having one on the opposing team is an absolute nightmare.
The battle droids are getting closer and we retreat into the Cyber Center, still shooting as many droids as we can, and then we reach the room where Rex is in and tell him to go. We run through the hallway and out through the back door, where we're surrounded by a bunch of droids, but we're still blasting at them.
Then a vehicle descends behind us and Crosshair is driving it. We all get in and he drives us outta there.
I climb to the seat behind Crosshair.
"Didn't know you could fly," I say to him as I take off my helmet. "You got any of those toothpicks that I can chew?"
Crosshair rolls his eyes. "No. Go chew your gum." I roll my eyes back at him and sit behind him, turning to Rex.
"Hey Captain, what intel did you get?" I ask him.
"Transmission from Skako Minor. I asked them who it was. They said CT-1409," Rex says, and my eyes widen, but I try to keep my composure.
"Echo..."
"Yea kid. Echo's alive."
I just finished re-reading A Star to Steer By for the fourth (fifth? maybe?) time and I just had to draw Ahsoka and Host Echo.
Of course they had to be in Ahsoka’s signature pose 😁
I just finished re-reading A Star to Steer By for the fourth (fifth? maybe?) time and I just had to draw Ahsoka and Host Echo.
Of course they had to be in Ahsoka’s signature pose 😁