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“ Tech, we gotta move! ” Wrecker bellowed over the comms.
“Nearly finished,” Tech answered, his fingers still tapping rapidly across his datapad.
“ Nope , we’re done now,” Echo warned as he sprinted into the room. “Building’s coming down.”
“What?” Tech hissed, his head snapping up to Echo, who shrugged sardonically. “That was not the plan–”
“ Plan’s kriffed ,” Hunter called. “ Move, now! ”
Tech pulled his plug, following hot on Echo’s heels as they ran through their base. They raced through the quaking facility, turning corner after corner, following the map Echo had downloaded in his mind.
Coming to a four-way junction, they ran left, only to skid to a stop and dart back around the corner.
“Droids,” Echo hissed.
“At least twenty,” Tech agreed. “Ready?”
“When you are.”
They ran at the pack, weaving their way in; fighting in close quarters was never the specialty of the Separatist Droid Army.
Tech was sticking small detonators to the ones as he danced through. Echo’s blaster was firing rapidly when he wasn’t drilling his scomp into the metallic enemies.
“Done?” Echo called.
“Now!” Tech agreed, pressing a button on his datapad as Echo dashed out of the huddle of confused clankers.
The small explosions went off in quick succession, each triggering the next.
Five left, now. Three. Tw–
The building shook violently and the last droid stumbled, catching itself on Echo’s arm–
“ Echo! Look out! ”
The building trembled and the ceiling rained boulders down onto them. When everything seemed to have somewhat settled, Echo shook his head. The B1– Tech pushed him down .
“Tech?” he shouted. “ Tech! ”
There , he thought, his eyes locking in on a small pile of debris and droid appendages, where a white-armored-arm stuck out, a datapad hanging loosely from his arm. His helmet lay nearby.
“ Kriff ,” Echo hissed, grabbing the helmet and scrambling over to him. He dug through the rubble, quickly unburying his brother. “Tech. Tech, can you hear me?”
Tech blinked up at him, his eyes narrowing. “Echo?” he muttered.
“Yeah, buddy,” Echo nodded, offering his hand to help him up, but as he stood, his left leg gave out. He looked down at the traitorous prosthetic, a smoldering hole just a few inches below where metal met scarred flesh. Oh, that’s not good.
He pulled a pin from his belt, jamming it in at the knee joint, locking it straight. Once he was finally upright, he offered his hand to Tech again. He took it and let the ARC haul him to his feet.
Echo handed him his helmet. “We don’t have a lot of time; we gotta go.”
“Yes,” Tech agreed. “We- we need to–” Tech stopped speaking, his body wavering.
“Tech?” Echo said. That’s not good.
“I– um, a-apologies,” he mumbled, his legs starting to give out from under him. “I can’t seem to– to think clearly.”
Echo scowled, catching him and keeping him upright. Tech coughed a few times, then pushed himself from Echo’s grasp. He stumbled over to a pile of rubble, crashed to his knees and vomited. Echo cringed. That is not good .
“I-I’m sorry,” Tech mumbled, wiping his mouth on his vambrace as Echo helped him up again.
“It’s alright, Tech,” Echo assured him, helping his brother secure his helmet on his head. “C’mon, let’s get back to the ship.”
Tech nodded and they began to run again, Echo hobbling as fast as he could, but moments later, Tech slowed to a light jog. “Echo?” Tech mumbled, his voice–barely picked up by the mic–sounded almost scared.
Echo stopped and looked back at the wobbling figure. “ Kriff ,” he huffed. “Alright, brother. I’m gonna get you back to the ship, but you gotta stay with me, okay?”
“Hmmm?” Tech was fighting against his eyelids as they tried to close.
“Hang on tight,” Echo warned, then wrangled Tech until he had him situated across his shoulders. Tech’s head dipped down. Echo jostled his shoulders. “No, no– Tech, you gotta stay awake. C’mon, work with me here, vod .”
He lifted his scomp to the side of his helmet, the comm channel coming back as static. That. Is not. Good.
He rushed through the rest of the facility, bumping Tech every so often to keep him conscious, and as he turned the last corner before the exit, he found himself face-to-face with Hunter, Crosshair, and Wrecker.
“Thank the
kriffing
Maker,” he groaned as Wrecker took Tech from his shoulders. Hunter and Crosshair wrapped Echo’s arms over their own shoulders as the ARC explained why their so-called “brilliant” brother was babbling incoherently about Wrecker’s scars.