To Heal Poignancy ■ TECH - The Bad Batch ■

A Run In

"Well, that's because I never told you my medical history," Adla chuckled breathlessly. Tech placed his datapad back into its slot.

"The ion engine chamber?" Wrecker questioned as he followed behind Adla. "Why'd you bring us here?"

"Because this is our alternate egress off the cruiser," Tech replied as he turned around and began to walk the same path Hunter, Echo, and Omega walked.

"I don't even know what that means," Wrecker groaned as he looked down.

They made it to a big hole in the floor and slid down. To distract herself from the situation, Adla watched Omega to make sure she slid down alright. Wrecker came up behind Adla and continued to groan. Her feet dangled on the ledge for a moment before she wobbly pushed off and slid. The young brunette quickly rose to her feet and placed her hands on her knees and bent slightly. She attempted to try again and regain her breathing into a more controlled manner.

"I didn't think you meant we'd be escaping through the engine," Echo sounded in disbelief.

"I could not have been clearer," Tech retorted, which caused a breathy chuckle to escape Adla.

The group proceeded forward. The clones watched their surroundings as they followed the path of their flashlights. Adla's helmet helped her see clearly through the night vision setting in her visor.

"Whoa," Omega's flashlight shot this way and that as she looked around the room. Her voice bathed in wonder. "I've never been inside an ion engine before."

"I'd be weirder if you had," Wrecker joked.

Adla tilted her head towards Tech as he cut in with the knowledge he knew about the chambers. "These chambers are quite the engineering marvel." Tech stopped to run his pointer and middle finger onto the chamber walls. He rubbed the residue between his thumb to inspect the primer. "This blast primer coating is capable of withstanding -"

"No one cares!" Wrecker shoved his brother forward. "Keep moving!"

Adla frowned under her helmet from the back of the group. She silently knelt down and placed the same two fingers she saw Tech use onto the ground and rubbed her fingers together with her thumb, as if the action would help finish Tech's sentence and she would understand what he was going to say.

"Come on, Senator!" Omega called back to Adla. "We're almost there!"

"Adla is just fine, dear."

She climbed up the rest of the way to reach the edge of the ion engine. She surveyed outside and felt relief at the thought of losing Crosshair and his crew.

She clearly thought too soon as a blaster bounced off the pillar next to Hunter. The enhanced clone reached out to grab ahold of Tech as he lost his footing so he didn't plummet to his death. Adla's stomach churned as she spotted the flying vessel.

"Try again, Hunter!" Crosshair shouted over the sound of the ships. Adla thought Crosshair sounded similar to Tech when he shouted. "As I said before, you're surrounded."

Hunter lightly pushed Tech and they all began to retreat back into the ion engine chamber. They all stopped as they heard the mechanics of a machine power up.

"What is that?" Omega worriedly questioned.

"Sounds like the engine's coming online," Hunter told the group. "But that's not possible, right?"

"Technically, it is," Tech responded calmly. To Adla, he seemed completely unbothered as he pulled out his datapad. Meanwhile, Adla's heart began to race at his announcement. She looked around for a moment in an attempt to locate another exit. If her helmet was off, she would have run her fingers through her hair and sunk her nails into the roots. "I restored the ship's main power core when I accessed the central system, which means the engine can be activated."