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“What is this?” Echo looked at the floor plan in front of him, not sure what to make of it. Was it a lab? Was it a storage area? A kitchen?
Rex seemed just as clueless.
“We don’t know. But there was an anonymous tip about experiments on clones.”
“I say we check it out.” Howzer stood with both hands on the holo table.
“So you’ve said before.” Rex wasn’t convinced, so much was obvious.
Howzer wasn’t fazed in the slightest. “We’re in the vicinity anyway, picking up supplies. In, out. And if they are experimenting on clones, we have to help them.”
“And if not?”
“We’re not losing anything, are we?”
Echo listened to them argue. It didn’t seem too risky, if the floor plan was correct. No obvious fortifications, no obvious guards. It seemed … too normal. That’s why he doubted the story. If there were illegal experiments going on, there had to be something. Any clue. Right now, you could swap this floor plan with thousands of others in the galaxy and not notice a difference.
Rex cleared his throat, snapping Echo out of his thoughts. They were both looking at him expectantly. For a decision, then.
“I don’t think there is much going on there, but we should check it out to be sure anyway. Howzer is right, better safe than sorry, and we are not wasting fuel.”
Rex sighed.
“Alright.”
It turned out to be a warehouse of some sorts. A shady one at that. It made Echo queasy.
Nothing indicated that clones were tortured here. Not even held.
“Looks like the tip was wrong.” Howzer’s voice sounded too loud in the too quiet warehouse. At least it was only in his helmet. He was just as torn as Echo about it. Relieved that they were wrong. Wondering how and why they had tipped them off if it wasn’t true. Had they been found out and moved? Was it a mistake? A trap?
Howzer appeared out of one of the many aisles and shook his head at Echo. Tall shelves stood in rows, lined with boxes in various sizes. No hidden doors, at least none they had been able to find. Nothing indicating any experiments, anything out of the ordinary.
“At least we checked it out,” Echo sighed, switching to an open comm. “We’ll pull out, everyone.”
Two of the other clones gave him an affirmative. Echo waited a moment. “Akk, what’s your status?”
Echo was about to repeat his question, already gesturing to Howzer to take the left. They needed to find Akk. If it was a trap after all, they needed to -
“You need to get over here.” Akk’s voice was unreadable.
Echo blinked. He had already taken off his helmet, in case his HUD was malfunctioning. Maybe his eyes were malfunctioning too? Or he was hallucinating. Was the stress finally catching up with him?
Howzer to his left had done the same. “I don’t believe it.”
So Echo wasn’t hallucinating.
“But that’s not possible, I - how?” He knew that none of them had an answer, and they wouldn’t get an answer that quickly. If they would. Who knew what would happen to someone after all this time frozen in carbonite? Echo hadn’t been in there for long and it still hadn’t been a pleasant experience.
“We need to get him out of there.” Before he had finished his sentence, he was already about to climb the shelf. Howzer grabbed his shoulder tight and held him back.
“Echo, wait. Let’s do it at our base, where we have a medic and time. We’re risking getting found out the longer we stay here.”
Howzer’s words were logical. Still, he longed to press that button right now, free him, talk to him. He hadn’t expected to ever see Kix again, not after he had vanished but here he was. Frozen carbonite and they didn’t know if he was alright, but he was here.
Akk had taken a few steps further into the aisle, and was now frantically waving to them. Echo only saw it out of the corner of his eyes, face still turned towards Kix, but Howzer looked over and seemed to freeze. Then he shook Echo’s shoulder, hard enough to snap him out.
Echo turned around. His brain took a second to catch on, to register the face in the carbonite, but when he did, he had to bite back his tears.