Here's another chapter for today! Just finished writing chapter 59 and have to wait until episode 13 comes out next Wednesday for me to write any further lol
Landing on the ledge of Trace and Rafa's garage, Alona and the squad descended the steps of the Marauder and began walking to the crack in the middle of two large sliding doors, the only place where light was coming through.
Two figures appeared, one Alona easily identifies as Rex, and the other took her a few seconds to recognize. But when she finally remembered where she'd seen the blue girl before, a smile spread across her face. "Riyo! It's been a while."
"It sure has. It appears we've both grown up." Riyo smiles, bowing her head.
"Glad you made it." Rex greets, nodding to the squad that stood behind Alona, not even phased by the reunion of the two girls. They no longer needed a reminder that Alona knew just about everyone in the galaxy. But they obviously had never met the pink haired woman, so Rex took it upon himself to introduce her. "This is Senator Riyo Chuchi. Riyo, these are the special clones I told you about...and you obviously already know Alona."
"Hello." Omega waved kindly, offering the Senator a smile.
Riyo nodded to her. "Thank you for coming."
Hunter glanced over at Rex. "Why are we here, Captain?" He asked, his senses picking up on their fast heart rates. They were disturbed, obviously there was something seriously wrong.
Rex nodded to the interior of the garage. "Inside. There's something I want you to see."
Alona straightened her back and walked alongside Hunter, everyone heading inside of the Martez garage, unsure of what they were about to see.
They were led to a table, a bodybag resting on top. Omega tried to step closer, but Echo held her back because the last thing the young girl needed to see was a dead body.
Rex slid the top of the bag open to reveal a clone, his skin gray and cold. "He's an assassin. His identifying number's been wiped."
Alona frowned, staring down at the deceased clone in bewilderment.
Tech adjusted his goggles. "I was not aware that was possible."
Hunter looked up at Rex. "Who was his target?"
"A clone contact of mine named Slip. He said he was in danger. I came to Coruscant to get him out, but the assassin got to him first. Nearly got the Senator too." Rex explained, glancing at Riyo, who let out a sigh.
Echo frowned. "Why would a clone be attacking a Senator or another clone?"
Alona scoffed. "You really gotta ask?"
"To silence us. Admiral Rampart has the entire senate believing Kamino was lost to a cataclysmic storm. Slip witnessed the truth. I wanted him to testify to Rampart's crimes." Riyo replied, her grief stricken face proving just how upset she was of the direction the galaxy was going in.
"We were there too, Senator. I can be your witness." Echo determined, straightening his back and puffing his chest out.
Hunter shook his head. "The Senate won't listen to any of us. We're deserters and as far as they all know, Alona is a traitor."
Alona clenched her metal fist. "I can make them listen."
Rex sighed. "No, Hunter's right. But there's another way to provide the Senate with the evidence of the Empire's crimes. The command log on Rampart's Venator. Slip made a copy of it on the ship's backup data banks."
Wrecker crossed his arms. "Where's the Venator now?" He asked.
"Being retrofitted at the Imperial shipyard right here on Coruscant. Lots of security, but I know a way in." Rex replied smugly.
"Rampart's Defense Recruitment Bill goes to a vote tomorrow. We must prove his crimes before it passes. I'll return to the Senate and garner support where I can." Riyo chimes, holding her head high. She fit perfectly in her job, Alona had seen her fire and passion when they first met during the Clone Wars.
"You could still be in danger." Rex protested.
Riyo dropped her head. "Then I must be on the right track."
Omega shrugged, glancing up at Hunter. "I can go with her, keep an eye out."
Riyo cringed. "You can't enter the Senate district without an Imperial security clearance." She says to Omega.
Not even a second later Tech replied, "That will not be a problem."
Alona was relieved Omega had chosen to go with Riyo. That would probably be least dangerous route this time. Going inside of the Senate building was definitely safer than breaking into a Venator.
"Let's get to work." Rex declared with a flared nose. He, like everyone else in the room, had a hatred for the man they were about to bust.
So while Omega and Riyo went to gather an eye witness to Rampart's crimes, the remaining people made their way through Coruscant to collect concrete proof from a high security Imperial ship.
It was an amusing sight to see the five clones and Alona crowd into a four person speeder. It definitely wasn't comfortable and wasn't the least bit safe, but that was pretty much the summary of their lives, so there were no verbal complaints from any of them.
They arrived at the exterior of the Imperial shipyard by nightfall.
Currently, they were climbing up a very long metal ladder of the maintenance tunnel. Alona was between Echo and Hunter, but could hear Wrecker's grunts and groans from the very bottom of the line the higher they got. And the space surrounding the tunnel was a tight squeeze for a guy like him.
"Wrecker, get to work on the hatch." Hunter ordered once they all filed inside of the vacant control room. They were almost to the Venator.
"Haven't been in these maintenance tunnels since the war." Rex chimed, watching Wrecker start cutting away the hatch.
Alona chuckled. "Me neither."
Hunter looked over at her. "Let me guess, you were running away after committing one of your war crimes?" He joked, bumping her shoulder with his.
She shook her head. "No, it was after I was banned from the Senate district for disrupting Ahsoka's murder conviction trial." She hummed innocently. Hunter dropped his head and sighed.
"Gotta say, Rex. Coruscant's the last place I'd expect you to be." Echo admitted, glancing up to check on Wrecker's progress.
"It's worth the risk. More and more of our brothers are waking up to what's been done to them. I can't turn my back on them." Rex expressed, letting out a long sigh.
"How many have you reached?" Echo asked.
"Not enough." Rex replied, dropping his head. "Troopers who know too much are a liability to the Empire. I'm working with a few contacts I trust, but we're spread pretty thin. Help's hard to come by these days."
Echo glanced at the ground, and Alona could tell what he was thinking. He had been considering it for a while, he had even gone to her and Hunter about it.
"Got it." Wrecker announced, cracking the hatch open.
Alona stepped over to Echo, bumping her metal hand with his scomp. "If it feels right, if it's what your heart is telling you to do, then go with him when this mission is over. We won't hold you back, Echo." She said quietly, tilting her head as she looked into the visor of his helmet.
Echo stayed still, looking at her as he considered her words. "Thank you." He said quietly. He had been waiting for someone to say those words to him, someone to tell him that it was okay to do what he wanted. He was free to go with Rex.
"Great. Ray shields." Wrecker groans, realizing they can't get past the hatch he had just spent so long opening.
Tech held up a finger. "Leave it to me." He chirped, fingers typing away on the console.
"And how are we getting onto Rampart's Venator?" Hunter asked the Captain.
Rex smirked. "I'm taking a lesson from your squad. We improvise."
Tech deactivated the shield and Wrecker went the rest of the way up the ladder, making sure it was clear before climbing out onto the shipyard. Alona followed swiftly, climbing up the cold metal ladder. Wrecker offered his hand to assist her on the last two steps, letting out a flustered chuckle when Alona called him a gentleman.
Once the others were up, they began running between the crates of spare ship parts. Hunter stopped the squad behind a spare hyperdrive, his fist held in the air as he watched a group of troopers in plain white armor make their rotation round. Once they pass, Hunter drops his fist and they continue moving.
Alona kept between Wrecker and Rex, touching into the Force to make herself more aware of their surroundings. There were a lot of troopers, and-
"There's not enough cover." Echo says quietly once they stopped a few dozen feet later. "We won't get across the shipyard undetected."
A droid driving a speeder passed by and Hunter glanced over his shoulder at his squad. "Not on foot." He waited until his heightened hearing picked up on another transport speeder being activated. He pointed his hand in the direction they needed to go and said, "Move!"
All at once, they grabbed onto the bottom of the transport speeder with barely enough time before their feet were dangling off of the ground.
Wrecker adjusted himself to hold on like a koala, both arms and legs wrapped around the speeder piece. He let out a few whines as they gained altitude.
Alona grinned and hooked her legs around the bar, dropping her hands so that she's hanging upside down.
Wrecker gasped, at first sight thinking that she had fallen.
"This is fun." Alona exclaimed quietly, the wind blowing her hair around now that the speeder had picked up its pace.
"Ohhh, you're making me nervous, Alona." Wrecker groaned, holding on even tighter and turning his head away from the woman who had earned the nickname Nutjob from Cid for a very obvious reason. "Don't look down." He whispered to himself.
"He's still not better with heights?" Rex asked Echo, shaking his head at the freaked out clone.
"This is him better." Echo replied, his smile heard in his voice.
Tech pressed something on his device. "I have bypassed the controls. Hang on." He whispered as he started manually directing the speeder by hanging underneath it. He sent the speeder flying upwards and over the Venator, but a little too high for any non-Force-User to drop from and remain uninjured.
It took another minute before he had gotten the speeder low enough. "Now." Tech ordered, letting go of the speeder and dropping onto the top of the Venator. Alona dropped and landed perfectly on her feet, watching the others follow–just not as gracefully.
The squad ran over to the hatch and impatiently waited for Tech to magically bypass the controls for that as well.
Ten seconds later, the double doors slid open and they filed down inside of the Imperial ship.