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Tech’s fingers flew across the control panel as he finished downloading the virus into the Separatist’s system. His comm beeped and he answered without slowing.
“What is it?”
“Hope you’re almost done there because we’re going to need some help with the extraction.” Crosshair’s voice came through the comm.
“I am just finishing here now. What do you mean you need help?”
“I mean, I can only carry so many people at once while getting shot at. Kark!” He heard blasterfire through the comm as Crosshair fought.
Tech unplugged and made his way out of the outpost. He blasted any droid he passed, but most were outside trying to deal with his brothers. And doing a good job of it, apparently. Leaving the building, he quickly joined the firefight, spotting Crosshair when he peeked around a corner to take out a line of droids. Standing high behind the droids to Tech’s right was a droid manning some kind of small stationary cannon.
He ducked under the arm of a B2, sticking a droid popper to it, and narrowly avoided a small group of B1s. As he ducked and weaved through the droids, he shot any that came too close and attached a droid popper to any that got closer. As soon as he was behind the main group, he triggered the poppers, disabling a dozen droids.
His eyes widened when he turned back to see the cannon aimed at him, the barrel lighting up as it readied a shot. He dove to the side, rolling behind an abandoned speeder. He felt his hair stand on end as the purple blast crackled past. It appeared to be some kind of electro-net that he had seen bounty hunters favour. He moved around the other side of the speeder, running in a low crouch along the side. At the back of the speeder, he rolled to crouch below the small platform the cannon sat on.
While it was turned away, he vaulted onto the platform, blaster raised. The droid was still falling when he took control of the cannon and began firing on the remaining droids his brother was fighting. Between the two of them, they swiftly got through the rest of them, and Tech joined Crosshair at his alcove.
“Now, what appears to be the issue?”
Crosshair nodded his head deeper into the alcove and Tech followed the gesture to see Hunter curled in a tight ball on his side, Echo lying next to him, limbs akimbo.
“We would normally be fine, but we decided to loan Wrecker to some regs, for some reason.” Crosshair griped.
Tech crouched by Echo to scan him. “Commander Cody has proven trustworthy multiple times, Crosshair. Wrecker is just fine with him.”
“Sure, so we can deal with an electrical net cannon with two people who can’t handle a little electrocution.” Crosshair crouched by Hunter, trying to get him to uncurl, but the ball just tightened. He sighed, looking at Tech. “How are we doing this?”
Tech took a moment to assess Echo. He was awake but dazed, his reaction time and processing greatly slowed. He moved his arms when Tech prompted, but his legs didn’t seem to want to respond.
In the time Tech took to do this, Crosshair got Hunter to sit up against the wall. He also seemed sluggish and hazy, responding slowly to Crosshair’s questions and requests. Hs remained tense and seemed uncomfortable being touched, but didn’t push his brother off when he helped him sit up.
Tech pulled up his datapad and scanned the area. The scanner didn’t pick up any more droid signals, or other life signs, in its range, but they knew reinforcements wouldn’t be far if they had been called. He finally answered Crosshair’s question.
“We appear to be in the clear for now, but there are no guarantees for how long that will last. I’ll take Echo, you take Hunter, and we’ll get them back to the ship.”
Crosshair shook his head. “They’re not walking that far, and we need to be able to be ready if we run into any more trouble.” He looked past Tech. “How about them?”
Tech turned to see the speeders he had ducked behind during the battle. “One each.”
“It’ll be faster and easier, just don’t lose your cargo.” With that, Crosshair slung Hunter’s arm over his shoulders and guided him over to the speeders.
Tech did the same with Echo, earning some grumbling from the ARC. He dragged him to the nearest speeder and sat him on it. “Can I trust you to hold on to me?”
Echo dragged his unfocused gaze over to him. “Wha? Uh, yeah. What’re…”
Tech hopped up to sit in front of him as Echo’s question trailed off, struggling instead to track Tech as he moved. He felt arms wrap around his waist and a body slump onto his back as Echo settled in. He looked over to see Crosshair starting his own speeder, Hunter sat securely behind him. He gave him a nod. “I would strongly suggest not letting go.” Was all the warning he gave Echo before the pair of speeders shot away from the outpost.
The planet was mostly large flat stretches of hard packed rock and dirt. Excellent for riding speeders, not so much for getting by unseen. It had forced them to land the Marauder much further away than usual.
Crosshair’s voice came over the comm. “What about the sensors?”
“Why are you asking me? This was your plan.” Tech huffed. “Are we prioritising stealth or speed? Because I cannot deactivate them and drive, but I believe we should be able to get to the ship before too many droids close in on our location.”
He saw Crosshair tilt his head as he thought. “Kriff it, let’s just get out of here.”
Tech hummed in agreement and pushed the speeder as fast as it could go. As they neared the sensors, he felt Echo’s grip loosen. He tapped his arm and felt the grip tighten again in response.
When the sensors came into view, Crosshair swore. There was a unit of droids waiting for them. Apparently, any reinforcements they called had been sent to cut off their escape. And if they could see the droids, the droids could see them.
“They’ve got more speeders, ready for a chase.” Crosshair reported.
“Plan 42.”
Wordlessly, they began to veer apart so that they would pass on either side of the unit. Tech reached into a pouch for a few droid poppers. As they got closer, he could see the droids preparing to move. Many raised their blasters and began firing while the ones on speeders prepared to pursue. He tapped Echo’s arm again to make sure he tightened his grip before they entered the fray. He still sat slumped against Tech’s back, but he could feel him shift occasionally.
He ducked and weaved to avoid the blaster fire, not needing to look to know Crosshair was doing the same. As soon as he reached the main body of the unit, he lobbed the droid poppers, scattering them among the clankers. A large portion of the droids fell to the sudden barrage and wave of energy, including a few on the speeders, but not all of them, and as soon as they zipped past, they took chase.
There were four in pursuit, two on each of them. Tech made evasive manoeuvres to avoid them, but they were persistent while he had to make sure Echo stayed on the speeder. He glanced back to see them getting closer, riding side by side. Echo was still holding tight, so he slammed the brakes, letting the speeders fly past, before accelerating again to stay close behind them. One broke into a wide arc to circle back around, but the other didn’t move in time before he opened fire. He hit the engine dead on, and it erupted into a ball of fire and smoke as he sped past.
He heard the crunch of speeders colliding to his right, but couldn’t spare a glance as the other speeder on him circled back, aiming for his side. He accelerated in hopes of outrunning the collision, but knew he wouldn’t make it. Instead, he gave Echo a quick warning over the comms to hold on, getting a confused noise, then panicked yelp, in response. Right as the enemy speeder was on top of them, he turned hard to the left, swinging the speeder around to face the other head on. He succeeded in avoiding the worst of the impact, turning it into a glancing blow, but he still felt the speeder shudder at the impact.
He clenched his jaw and gripped the handles tightly as the speeder spun out of control. He managed to straighten out, but a cloud of smoke now followed them. He glanced to the right at the sound of blaster fire and saw Crosshair aiming at the droid with his sidearm as it passed him by. His shot hit the droid square in the head, causing it to slump off the side of the speeder, leaving it to careen into the distance.
Tech felt Echo’s grip on him falter again. Tapping his arm made him tighten his grip a little, but it remained loose. Echo rested heavier on his back, forcing him to readjust his grip on his brother and the speeder, which was beginning to list.
He glanced over when Crosshair pulled up beside him. He seemed to say something over a private comm to Hunter, who seemed more aware after the skirmish. He pulled something from Crosshair’s bag, handing one to Crosshair before reaching over as they pulled as close as possible. Tech felt the rear of the speeder straighten out from where it had been drifting as Hunter latched something to it.
Crosshair reached out and Tech saw a cable in his hand with a hook on the end. He took it and attached it to the side of the speeder, while Crosshair did the same on his own. Now, both speeders were connected, allowing them to make the journey back together. There was no way they would have all fit if they had lost one.
He felt Echo’s weight lighten a little and glanced back to see Hunter easing him off his back and steadying him. Hunter himself still seemed tense and unsteady, but much more aware than Echo. The upgrades Tech had given his systems to prevent overloads were a short term, temporary solution for now, something to help him get somewhere safe before the effects got too bad, and something Tech was working on improving. As such, the effects of the overload were catching up to him.
Steering with the speeders connected was a little awkward, but they managed, needing only to drive in a straight line for most of the trip. The Marauder coming into view on the horizon was a very welcome sight, and ten minutes later, they were parked next to it.
Tech and Crosshair helped their brothers inside. Hunter was reluctant to let Crosshair touch him, but he was still unsteady on his feet despite seeming more present, and they all knew that that awareness was just a reaction to the adrenaline from the chase. As soon as he was settled on a bunk, blindfold and ear protectors on, he crashed.
Echo was mostly unconscious when Tech dragged him up the steps into the Marauder. Crosshair had Hunter settled quickly, and came back to help him get Echo lying on his own bunk. As soon as he was settled, he disappeared into the cockpit. Tech felt the ship rumble to life as he worked quietly on Echo.
He ran two scans, one for his biological systems, and one for his cybernetic systems. He was uninjured, but many of his cybernetic systems had short circuited from the electricity. Those nets were made to take down multiple beings at once, and Echo was feeling it.
Echo shifted uncomfortably when Tech plugged in to run the diagnostics and manually reboot his affected systems. He set the datapad aside to let it work and looked carefully over Echo’s limbs. None seemed too damaged from the incident, though he did notice some damage to his right leg from a previous mission, preventing his knee from extending properly. It hadn’t hindered him too much, and they hadn’t had time between missions to fix it. There was also some wear around the elbow joint and where the prosthetic met his upper arm from him pulling on it when he scomped into anything, still not used to it and often getting jostled in the field.
Tech pulled out his tools and got to work making repairs. He was still working when his datapad pinged, quickly checking the reboot was successful before unplugging it and refocusing on his work. He felt the ship shudder into hyperspace at some point, but Crosshair stayed in the cockpit. After the manual reboot, Echo settled into a proper sleep with a long sigh. Tech wondered briefly how it felt when his systems needed a reboot. He would make sure to ask Echo when he woke up, and see if future upgrades could fix any discomfort it causes.
He fell into the rhythm of the repairs and evaluation. Once he was finished with the repairs to his leg and arm, he put away his tools and picked up his datapad, opening the blueprints for the new upgrade to Echo’s insulation, adding notes. He hummed quietly as he worked.