aftermath: life debt | the bad batch

xiii. rescue

"Lux?"

"This is a large island, we're going to have to search for a while."

"Right."

"I'll go this way, you go that way," Echo continued. "If you don't find him, come back to the ship and notify me. I'll do the same."

"Sounds good," Hunter replied, and went in the direction Echo told him to go. The island was dense with trees, and extremely humid. He could barely see, moving branches of trees out of the way so he could continue to venture into the forest. After a while of searching, he reached the beach of the island, signaling that he had reached the end, and that Lux was not on that side of the island, meaning that either Echo is still looking or has already found him and is on the ship, probably the latter.

"He isn't on this side of the island," Hunter said into his comm link. "How about your side?"

No response.

"Echo?"

"Hunter," Echo said over his comm link. "I found him. Get back to the ship before they find us."

"Okay," Hunter responded. "Geez, you scared me."

"Whatever, just get back to the ship."

Hunter retraced his steps, eventually making his way back to the ship. He boarded the ship, seeing Echo, already in the cockpit, preparing the ship for takeoff. Hunter sat next to Echo, in the co-pilot's chair, looking outside the window of the ship, seeing several boats going from the main island, where the imperial base was, to the small island they were on.

"Well, they found us," Hunter said, getting up, going to the back of the ship to put the weapons away.

"I can see that Hunter," Echo said.

"You guys aren't very good at stealth missions, huh?" Lux asked.

"Who the fuck is that?" Hunter asked Echo.

"They guy we came here for!" Echo replied.

"Right," Hunter said, turning to Lux. "You got this entire base put on lockdown. You can't say anything."

"It wasn't me. It was some clone force 99 business. Nothing that I'm a part of."

"Well, strap in kid, you're part of the mess now."

"What do you mean?"

"We're two of the members in clone force 99," Echo said, flipping switches on the dashboard, taking off.

"You're kidding me," Lux muttered.

"You're lucky we saved your ass," Echo replied. "I suggest you shut up before I dump you out of the ship."

"Like you would do that."

"Don't try me," he continued, leaving the atmosphere, and passing the shield, which was open for the fighters chasing them.

"TIE fighters are on us," Echo yelled, once they were in space.

"How many?" Hunter yelled from the back of the ship.

"Too many! Go shoot them down!"

"Can you just go into hyperspace?" Lux asked.

"The hyperdrive is broken," Echo replied.

"No, it's not," Hunter said, coming into the cockpit.

"Yes, it is broken."

"Tech fixed it on Bracca."

"Oh," Echo said, putting the ship into hyperspace, escaping possible death.

"So how the hell did you one, escape by yourself, and two, manage to make the empire put the entire base on lockdown," Hunter asked Lux, once they were in hyperspace, and away from Wasskah.

"During the clone war, I served as part of the rebellion on Onderon. I think I know how to handle myself. And for the second question, it wasn't my fault, and if it was partially my fault, I practically betrayed the empire, and they learned that I was just a spy, so-"

"Shut up," Echo told Lux, interrupting him. "We're dangerously low on fuel. We need to stop somewhere before we go back to Bracca."

"There's a refueling station on Orondia. It's the closest there is to any type of refueling station to us. We'll go there."

Echo looked at Lux for a second, then over at Hunter. "Any ideas?"

"Lux just gave you one."

"I'm going to ask you again. Any ideas?"

"Orondia. That's my idea."

"But that's a purple planet."

"Of all things, why does the fact that the planet is purple matter?" Hunter asked, frustrated.

"Clones don't have good luck on purple planets," Echo said, turning back to the controls. "Let's hope we don't die."

•••

"So you're saying," Tech said, trying to wrap his head around what's going on. "Crosshair gave you an inhibitor chip to make you obey orders he gave you, you gave him all the information about us, he knew we would have to remove the chip, and he knew we'd go to Bracca, and he made the inhibitor chip to track our precise location?"

"Yes."

"How does that man think so far ahead?"

"Because he wants to kill you guys, and he isn't afraid to go to extreme lengths to get that one. We won't last long here."

"Listen, Omega was right," Rex told Tech. "We won't last long here, especially with the new information she gave us. You guys barely survived last time and you weren't tracked. How the hell do you guys expect to survive this time?"

"Do you think I know?!" Tech said. "Don't worry, I'm panicking about this too."

"I didn't say to panic. I said to merely try to figure out this situation."

"How am I going to figure it out without panicking first?!"

"Just don't."

"What if, if they find us, and Omega is still severely ill, you guys try to divert their attention to a different ship while Omega and I stay here, until she recovers. Or at least recovers enough so she can come back on the ship."

"You're going to have to think of a better plan than that, Tech. That's why I've called upon an old friend."

"Really? Which one is it this time?" Tech asked sarcastically.

"Well, two actually. One didn't respond."

"Then who is the one that did respond?"

"Gregor."