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Tech actually beats Echo to the landing zone. He will admit to being proud of it. Echo is far older than he is, and would be expected to win. Instead, they end up landing the ships about the same time, and Tech makes it to the bottom of the ramp before Echo’s has finished lowering – though his is moving considerably slower.
Echo laughs, crouching to hug him briefly. “Good to see you. You weren’t kidding – this place is remote.”
“What was that about decrypting data?” Tech queries.
“This,” Echo answers, extending the data stick. “The sooner we get this open, the better. The Empire’s doing something with our brothers. We don’t know what, but they’re disappearing. The general thinks it’s something bad.”
“That does sound concerning,” Tech agrees, backing up as the rest of his brothers see Echo and swamp him.
“We’ve missed ya!” Wrecker yells as the twins hug him.
“I haven’t been gone that long,” Echo replies with a laugh.
“Felt like it,” Crosshair argues, “You’ve been gone for weeks.”
“Yeah, I really lost track of time.”
“How was it?” Omega asks. She’s happy to see him, but, Tech thinks, wary. He’s scared, too.
“Oh, it was fine. A few… interferences here and there, but we did good, I think. We’re making a little bit of progress, at any rate.”
“They told me about the vision,” Omega adds, “Do you know what that’s about?”
He shakes his head. “No. Sorry, I got nothing to offer. But I just thought I’d come here to see if you were okay.”
“I think we are doing fine,” Tech offers, “There was a tsunami, which did damage this island, but we are otherwise perfectly safe.”
“For right now,” Echo objects.
“You think the Empire might find us here?” Omega asks.
“I don’t know. Are you sure you want to stay here?”
“I don’t know that, either,” she replies, “You know, for soldiers, putting down roots is an occupational hazard. But you know, I’ve come to see we’re more than that, Echo. You can be, too.”
“Ah, that’s not the life I want. At least not right now.”
The twins exchange glances. They are, no doubt, planning something mischievous, but Tech will focus instead on this data. Not how upset he is that Echo’s not back to stay. The truth is, they all miss him, and they cannot function to the full extent without him. He is the only full trained soldier, aside from Omega.
That makes it hard.
But it is not fair for Tech to request that of him.
***
He could do the decryption anywhere, but hiding inside safely away from where Lyanna and the twins are playing tag, screaming in more high-pitched tones than their voices should be able to go, seemed like a good idea. Echo is sitting on the ramp, Hunter leaning on his shoulder, and Omega’s talking to both of them when he finally makes it through.
“I finished the decryption,” Tech calls down to the others, brows knitting as he scans the data.
It has a list of prisoners. Just their numbers. None he recognizes, Except –
CT-5555.
“Wasn’t Fives listed as killed in action a year ago on a rogue mission on Coruscant?”
“Yes,” Echo answers immediately, “What does Fives have anything to do with this?”
“It has his number listed as recently transported,” Tech answers, spinning his datapad around to show them.
Omega stands, squinting at the screen. Her eyes widen sharply. “Wrecker, Crosshair, get back to the ship. Now,” she orders shortly into her comm.
“Aw, come on!” Wrecker whines a second later, stomping up the ramp. “You make it sound like there’s some kind of doomsday situation!”
“There is. Technically,” Tech replies, “The Empire is kidnapping our brothers and keeping them detained in some sort of lab-prison, which I would define as something relatively close to a doomsday scenario. Also, Fives is, apparently, alive.”
The twins blink in unison. “What?!”
“You heard,” Hutner replies, blinking rapidly himself, “It’s, uh, a lot. Are you sure?”
“It says CT-5555.”
“There’s a chance Fives might still be alive?” Omega breathes.
“I – I can’t believe that,” Echo argues, “he was dead. He was.”
“I went through the same thing with you,” Omega argues, “We were so certain you were dead, but when there was a chance that what everyone had seen was a lie, Rex and your general had to go back for you. I came, too, and I found you. If there’s even a chance that Fives is out there, waiting for us, I say we should do the same for him.”
“You don’t have to do this,” Echo objects, “If Fives is alive, that’s my fight. Not yours.”
“I think we’ve been fighting for different things long enough,” Omega objects, “This, I say we do with you.” She looks around the Marauder.
“Considering the severity of the situation, I am inclined to agree,” Tech answers immediately.
“Me too,” Hunter adds, “If this is real, we need to know what they’re doing to the regs. Even if they are just the regs. They’d do the same to us.”
“Definitely,” Wrecker nods along. Tech isn’t fully certain he’s even following the entire conversation. Not that he will call his little brother out on it.
“Sure,” Crosshair shrugs. “We can make it count.”
Echo slowly sinks onto the chair opposite Tech. He looks up at his eldest brother, watching with concern – Fives’ loss has taken a lot out of Echo, and to learn that he is still alive is going to be even harder. Tech doesn’t know what it’ll mean, really. Or how Echo will deal with that information. Echo has never been very… good with dealing.
Tech wishes he knew what he could say to him. He doesn’t.
“You’re right,” Echo admits at last, “If there’s even a chance it’s that Fives, we have to take him. He didn’t die for nothing. I’m not letting those hydrosnakes get away with this.”
“Then we’ll be with you,” Omega vows, “Every step of the way.”
***
They set course for Eriadu. Luckily, or perhaps concernedly, Echo got a tip from one of the regs working with him, a tip of information saying Dr. Hemlock – the head of this division – is to be attending a summit there. Tech is, quite frankly, concerned. They are going up against the Empire. It will end nowhere short of difficult, and possibly deadly.
The tightness in Hunter’s posture shows clearly that his elder brother feels the same concerns, but neither of them further objects. Omega is right, though her desire to do so may not be. They do have to do this for Echo. His judgement in it is possibly not wholly accurate. And either way, he should not have to do this alone if there’s a chance it’s a trap and the information about Fives’ transfer wasn’t real.
Echo transmits some clearance codes that he stole from somewhere, and they head downwards. “Let’s make this quick, before they realize we didn't land at the base,” Echo warns.
Tech runs a scan, locating a suitable landing zone and pointing it out to Omega, who sends them down to the indicated area.
“Looks like the compound’s heavily fortified,” Hunter says, scanning the building with macro-binoculars.
“But there’s a weak point in the rail line that we can exploit,” Echo replies, pointing to the rail line crossing just off the edge of the cliff they’re crouched on, still taking shelter in the trees. “We’ll sneak past the sensor and hitch a ride under one of the cars.”
“You mean we hang over that?” Omega asks flatly.
“Well, it's the only way to access the compound unnoticed.”
“I’m not liking this plan!” Wrecker whines.
“Don’t worry,” Crosshair offers snidely. “I’ll hold your hand.”
“We need the sensor disabled,” Hunter points out.
“That would trigger an alert,” Tech objects immediately, “I can temporarily disrupt the feed, but that would leave an estimated thirty seconds for us to clear the landing zone before reactivation. This requires precision.”
The others turn back to pointedly look at Wrecker.
“What?!” he cries, “I can handle it!”
“Uh-huh,” Hunter deadpans.
Tech pulls his blaster, fixing a grappling hook to the end.
“I’ll go with you,” Echo tells him, drawing his own. “Just in case.”
Tech nods, and they grapple to the sensor line. Echo pries the panel free. Tech plugs in to work. This is a delicate operation.
“Another rail car’s approaching,” Hunter warns over comms.
“You got it?” Omega asks.
“Not yet.” This is slightly more complex than some of the things he’s made it through. The car is just passing when he finally makes it, cutting the feed. “Got it.”
“You heard him. Go,” Echo orders, lifting his blaster. He and Tech attach to the back of the car a second after the others, Wrecker yowling all the way. Echo’s scop touches Tech’s back, steadying him. “Halfway there,” Echo calls from the back.
“This isn’t so bad,” Wrecker offers. Tech turns his head to look at Hunter, who shrugs with the shoulder that’s not gripping the line suspending him over the drop.
“Oooh, look at all that fog,” Crosshair gloats.
“Not now, please,” Omega pleads. Tech seconds her – the last thing they require right now is Wrecker panicking on top of the already dangerous situation.
Wrecker looks down and instantly shrieks. “Never mind! Ahhhh, I looked!”
“Don’t worry, Wrecker,” Hunter cuts in, “We’re almost there.”
That is a lie. But they are getting there.
Omega’s the first to jump from the car. Tech hears blaster fire up ahead as he jumps off, rolling to his feet and refastening the hook to his belt.
“This would be so much easier if I had my rifle,” Crosshair gripes.
“You’re still too small to carry it,” Omega argues, “Come on. Let’s go.”
***
“How do we know which ship is Hemlock’s?” Crosshair asks as the six of them carefully peak over the viewing screen overlooking the hangar bay. There are many stormtroopers walking about in the hangar, some sort of operation. Whatever is in those crates is probably of significant importance to the Empire, but the truth is that is not their mission. They need to stay focused.
“We need to access the hangar manifest from the control room,” Echo replies.
“Wrecker, remember, no blasting or blowing things up. Unless we get compromised, which could off-throw the mission as a whole.”
He groans loudly, shoulders slumping. “Fiiiiine.”
“Don’t worry,” Omega assures, “You’ll get your chance. Echo, take Hunter and Tech to pull the information from the manifest. The twins and I will plant the shuttle.”
“I can shoot it form here,” Crosshair replies, “If I get a direct angle.”
“You’ll need everyone looking away to do that,” Echo points out, “Come on. Let’s see what we can do.”
Tech throws a final worried glance at the twins – they have an unfortunate tendency for getting in trouble- but he has to go. They have to finish the mission. It’s easy enough to get to the manifest, to plug in and get into the system. What concerns him more is that there are multiple cameras in a number of areas are offline.
“This is highly irregular,” Tech tells them, “It appears numerous cameras have bene run through cycled deactivations.”
“Here?” Hunter asks, confused, “With so many top-level Imperials? That’s not normal.”
“Sounds like I better check it out,” Echo decides, pulling his helmet back on. You two, stay here.”
“But –” Hunter starts arguing.
“Stay with Tech,’” he orders firmly, “The others might need you.”
“Something about this isn’t right,” Hunter murmurs, eyes on the doorway after Echo leaves.
“I am questioning if there is another plan in the works,” Tech replies.
“For the Empire, or against it?” Hunter asks. “That’s what I don’t get.”
“That is what I do not know,” Tech agrees, “It is concerning. I want to believe that Fives is alive, but we have no way of guaranteeing it until we make it to the base. And, regardless, we do not have a reason to believe this isn’t some type of trap, though I cannot imagine what the purpose of it would be.”
“I know,” Hunter sighs. “We just have to hope that Echo’s gonna come back, and that tracker makes it through. It’s the only way to find the truth about those clones.”
“We got the tracker,” Omega says over comms, “Crosshair, Wrecker and I are en route now.”
“I found them,” Echo tells them briefly, “Update when I get back reasoning with these morons.”
“I do not like the sound of that,” Tech offers.
“Yeah, me neither,” Crosshair grumbles. “Do you need me to have a word with them?”
“Appreciated,” Echo says, and suddenly, an alarm goes off.
Tech whirls back to the controls, trying to deactivate it, but to no avail.
“We have to go,” Omega yells, “Now!”
They go.
***
They have to fall back to the rail line. Tech goes to the front to get the car moving, but there’s still stormtroopers everywhere. Omega, Hunter, and the twins are trying to cover for him and Echo, but even their shots are pushing it. As it is, they are fortunate they made it to Echo without anyone being injured.
They’re moving down the rail line, short of calling it a complete mission failure, when the tracks start sparking. Tech sees it through the window – the electric surge racing up and down the tracks. Hunter stumbles with a faint groan at the senses stimuli. Wrecker grabs his shoulder to keep him upright.
“We’re losing power!” Echo snaps from the computer port.
The car is grating to a stop, finally stopping altogether. They are trapped.
His siblings have taken out the rest of the stormtroopers trying to share the car with them, but parked up ahead on the track, also trapped and unmoving, is another car. Tech follows Wrecker up to the front of their car, carefully peeking out the window.
The troopers across from them are pushing their car doors open, blasters in hand. They’re going to be trapped here in a shootout.
“This is going to be a problem,” Tech says flatly.
“Come on. Let’s get the car doors open,” Omega replies, darting to the side of their car. Her and Echo slowly pry the doors open, looking out.
They are nowhere near a mountain or something they could simply slide down like Daro. The only way out is finding a way to get the car moving again. Which Tech might be able to do on the terminal they just passed several dozen meters back.
“It’s better than hangin’ under the car,” Wrecker offers.
“I wouldn’t say it’s much better,” Crosshair states dryly.
“There is no time for a drawn-out shootout,” Tech points out, “We need to get this car moving.”
“How do you propose we do that?” Echo asks, “The powers offline.”
“I can reboot it form the terminal. But I will need you to cover me.”
“Us,” Echo corrects, “I’m going with you.”
“I don’t think we have much choice,” Omega sighs. “Let’s get up there. You three, cover us from down here until we get back.”
“Not a problem,” Crosshair replies smugly.
Wrecker looks at Tech worriedly, yanking him into a brief hug. “Be careful,” he pleads.
“Naturally,” Tech replies. He turns away from them, snatching up his datapad and climbing the ladder to the upper part of the rail car. Omega boosts Echo up, and she hands Tech off to him. He has to climb half the way up himself, Echo one-handedly, gripping his arm to get him up.
It…
Is a very long fall.
He can suddenly understand and appreciate Wrecker’s fear of heights. He regrets poking fun at him for so long. They all tease him for it, but now…
The wind is strong up here, slapping at his face. They’re high enough in the atmosphere that the air is thin and cold but uncomfortably moist. The ground below him is blurred by clouds.
He has to grape to the terminal to get down there. Echo just jumps. Tech fumbles with the plate again. This is ridiculous. His brothers are going to die if he doesn’t get this moving. Echo pries it off for him again, throwing it off the track. Getting the power restored takes far longer than Tech would like.
There are fighters closing in now, and his siblings’ voices overlap with panic over their comms.
Hunter gets the power restored to the rail car, but up above, fighters are still closing. They don’t have the firepower for this kind of shot. Tech sees a couple of the fighters get shot down, falling and spiraling towards the ground. Wrecker hoots with glee, though it was most likely his brother’s work.
“Echo, Tech, get back in here. Now,” Omega orders sharply.
As though he even needed to be told.
They grapple to the line a few times and run. The area is… narrow. Too narrow. It is not a good place to run on. The line itself is shuttering, blaster shots ricocheting across it.
He slips.
Echo grabs him, yanking him back onto the line, and they sit there crouching for a moment, panting.
The rail car is just ahead, shuddering violently. The back one is too damaged. It’s tearing free of the first.
“We need to detach the back car,” Tech says, picking himself up. “The front cannot hold the weight of both.”
“Omega, you got that?” Echo asks over comms.
“I’m seeing it,” she replies, “We gotta detach it somehow.”
Echo bodily shields him as more blaster bolts rain down on them again. This is not a safe place for either of them. The fire is slowing them down significantly. The chances of escape without injury are dropping into single digits now.
“I got it!” Wrecker yells from somewhere, firing up at the car’s attachments.
“Careful!” Hunter yells back, “Echo and Tech are up there, you know.”
“I am being careful!”
Echo huffs a laugh. “Yeah, they have no idea what they’re doing without our help, do they?” he fires from their angle, and Tech adds a shot of his own. The car breaks free and falls, which, unfortunately for them, leaves a greater distance to cover.
“Echo? Tech? Do you copy?” Omega asks.
“We’re trying to reach the car. One minute.”
“We don’t have many more minutes,” Hunter points out, “We got at least six more fighters closing.”
This does not sound good. “If we get the angle right, we should be able to grapple the side of the car,” Tech points out.
Echo shrugs. “Worth a shot. Let’s go together.”
He likes the sound of that.
Their blasters fire at once, and they swing around the car, releasing the lines and landing inside. Wrecker grabs Tech to keep him upright, and Omega tries to steady Echo.
“Punch it!” Omega yells. Hunter hits the button on the datapad attached to the wall, and the car jolts forwards. They zip safely past the other car, but then… they’re headed towards a landing zone. “I think the car’s going too fast,” his sister warns, voice hitching with panic.
“The system's fried,” Echo calls form the port, plugged into the wall, “I can't stop it.”
“I just need to say I’m very glad I got to spend so much time with you,” Crosshair announces
“Don’t say that!” Wrecker yells.
Tech’s eyes fix at the approaching crash sight.
“Everyone, take cover!” Hunter shouts.
Wrecker throws himself over Crosshair, and Tech joins in his efforts to shield his little brothers, even though he’s already dwarfed by Wrecker’s much larger size and his efforts will no doubt do very little to help. He feels Echo and Omega behind him, sees Omega tackling Hunter, and then there’s the crashing and tearing of metal.
And everything goes dark.