Jedi Fugitive (The Bad Batch)

10

"We agreed to meet Rex on Bracca." Hunter put his hand on his brother's shoulder, a try at reassurance. "That's what we're doing."

"He wants to cut open my head," he protested, jabbing a finger towards his scalp.

"All of our heads, actually," Tech corrected.

"Not mine." Omega seemed strangely proud of this fact. "I don't have an inhibitor chip."

"Why not? Now that's not fair!" Wrecker pouted like a toddler and crossed his arms huffily.

"How's that chip scanner coming?" Hunter asked Tech, ignoring Wrecker's outbursts.

"Since Rex's chip was removed, I am able to identify a baseline by comparing his brain scan to ours." Tech worked on the headset even as he spoke, his tools sparking and throwing small puffs of smoke. "Allowing for the detection of any cellular anomaly."

Hunter, Wrecker and I only stared at him, his words having as much meaning as a talking Tooka cat.

"He means 'it's almost finished." Omega climbed off Gonky, following after Tech. I went with her, repositioning her on the other side of me as we passed by Wrecker.

"Do we really have to do this?" He groaned loudly, looking as sick to the stomach as he sounded.

"If Rex is sure, we should trust him." Hunter was quietly insistent. Wrecker only moaned again, hands tightening on his temples.

"What are those?" Omega reached for my forearms, gaze fixed on the vambraces. I pulled them back before she could touch them; they had dangerous weapons in them, and I wasn't about to let Omega shoot herself with an electroshock dart or tangle the whipcord around her legs.

"Mandalorian vambraces."

"What do they do?"

"Whipcord and grappling line, comms system, holoprojector." I held out the left one first, pointing as I listed them off, then the right one, keeping them a safe distance from her face. "Vibroblade, electroshock darts and bolas launcher. But mostly they're just for protection."

"Woah." Omega squinted at them, jerking back in surprise when I clenched my fist and the vibroblade shot out, the gleaming knife vibrating. The shock did not last long, her hands reaching out to touch the blade again, before it retracted back into its sheath as quickly as it had appeared. I could almost see the reflection of it in her wide eyes.

Bracca was an unremarkably brown and dark blue planet from above, just like half the other planets you could find just about anywhere in the galaxy, but we all knew what the planet contained.

The outlines of the wrecked ships became clear as day as we shot out of the clouds. Omega's eyes widened, taking in the vast junkyard. "What is this place?"

"A starship graveyard," Hunter said grimly. The others' faces mirrored his own; Omega could not understand, but the rest of us knew of the countless lives that would have been lost on these destroyed ships. Lives of clones, lives of Jedi.

The console beeped, signalling Rex's location.

"I'm picking up Rex's beacon," Echo reported, tilting the controls. The ship veered sideways, steering it towards the only section suitable for landing for twenty klicks.

Rex was already waiting for us when we stepped off the landing ramp. He had abandoned the grimy cloak now, his white and blue 501st Battalion armour on full display. "Right on time."

"How's a junk planet going to help us?" Wrecker asked impatiently, immediately wincing and clapping a hand to his forehead. Rex put on his helmet, the patterns on the helmet as familiar to me as my own.