The Clone Wars One Shots

Hearing Impaired Part 3

Six clones and a Jedi walked into a lab.

It sounds like the start of a bad joke, but no, it was just your life.

"Remember, this is a stealth mission," Anakin explained, his words translating before your very eyes. "No blasting, no blowing things up."

The elevator door opened, revealing a crowd of Techno Union-ified battle droids. You switched off your visor half a moment before Wrecker let out a battle cry and charged the droids, followed closely by you and the rest of your group. The five of you quickly tore through the droids, blasting, kicking, slicing, throwing, and punching the Techno Union's guards, reducing them to heaps of sparking metal.

Anakin glared down at one of the fallen droids, then glanced back at the Bad Batch. He said what you believed to have been "I said stealth mission."

"That is how we do stealth missions," you signed directing to the rest of your enhanced clone squadron. "You understand, don't you?"

Tech reiterated what you had said to Anakin, whose face slackened with embarrassment before he shot you an irritated glare. You just grinned innocently.

After a long trek through a maze of droid-filled halls and more 'stealth' than Wrecker could tolerate, you and the others reached the source of the signal Tech had picked up. Rex hoped to find Echo behind that door, but you wished otherwise. You didn't want to know what the Techno Union would have had to do to someone in order to physically extract information from their brain. You would have much preferred to find some kind of complex algorithm - something non-sentient.

As usual, your hopes were crushed by the cruel reality of war.

You slipped inside with Tech and Rex, aiding the former in opening the stasis chamber before you. Your heart pounded as your fingers flew across the control panel, the complex movements nothing more than second nature after so many years in Tech's company. There was a living being inside that chamber, you all knew it, but you had a disheartening feeling that he wouldn't remain that way for much longer. Not unless you managed to get him out.

When the chamber slid open, steam spilling out and coating the ground, you stumbled back into Tech, eyes wide with alarm. Something that resembled a corpse fell from the chamber, hanging above you like a sickly puppet.

Rex rushed towards the half-dead man and pulled him free from the tangle of wires he was trapped in while Tech lunged for the control panel once again.

Desperate to help in some way, you scrambled towards Rex and who you could only assume was Echo, kneeling beside the latter to check his vitals. Weak, but present. He was still alive, though not for much longer if you and the others didn't get him out of there soon.

Suddenly, the pale clone snapped out of his trance. He fell forward into Rex's arms, twitching and gasping. You had no idea what he was saying, but based on Rex's expression, you could guess.

You sent Echo a kind smile, silently reassuring the cyborg that everything would be alright. Echo didn't seem to catch this, however, as his unfocused eyes drifted around the room. He blinked slowly as he adjusted to the sudden abuse of light faced by his sensitive eyes.

The others rushed in only a few moments later, and Tech and Rex freed Echo from his confinement as Wrecker, Crosshair, and Hunter sealed the door. When Crosshair announced that a massive wave of droids was approaching, Echo, who was slowly gaining strength, unlocked the exhaust vent in the ceiling of the facility.

"Good idea, but I can't fly," you signed, staring straight up at the vent, which was far too high for even Wrecker to reach. "Or jump."

Wrecker, ever the quick thinker, solved that problem immediately. He seized Hunter and hurled him at the vent. The Sergeant just barely caught the sides, shot Wrecker a glare, then started climbing. Crosshair was next (though he protested and cursed the entire time), then Tech, followed by the still delirious Echo. Rex was chucked not a moment after Tech dragged Echo to safety, then you made grabby hands at Wrecker.