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Tup let himself relax for a moment, just lying on the ground catching his breath. He and Fives had just been ambushed as they scouted the area while the rest of their brothers set up camp. He’d been tackled to the ground in the scuffle, but had managed to fight the attacker off, who now lay beside him with a smoking hole in his chest. It didn’t smell great, but at that moment, he didn’t care.
Fives appeared above him, holding a hand out for him to take, and pulling him to his feet. “You alright there, Tup?”
He got to his feet again and nodded. “Yes, sir. What do we do now?”
Fives nodded back in the general direction of the camp. “We head back and let them know. We can still camp here, we’ll just need to be careful. Come on.”
They began the trek back, Fives comming ahead to let them know they were returning. Tup felt his chest tighten at the thought of the dangers they were finding on this planet. First, they had to keep their buckets on because the air was toxic, he was not looking forward to trying to sleep, and now they could be ambushed at any time. He just hoped Dogma was having an easier time, though they had somehow gotten him to pair up with Hardcase to scout the opposite side of the camp, so he was sure he’d hear about it either way.
He blinked up at Fives when he almost ran into him. The ARC had stopped suddenly and was looking back at him. When had he ended up in front? “Everything alright, sir?”
Fives tilted his head slightly, as if scrutinising his every move. “I was about to ask you the same thing. You sure you didn’t get knocked too hard back there? You’re lagging behind.”
Tup shook his head, ignoring the slight dizziness it caused. “I’m fine, just distracted I guess. Wondering how Dogma’s doing.”
They started walking again as they talked. “He’s the shiny who joined us with you, right?” Tup nodded, chest suddenly too tight to want to talk. Fives chuckled. “From what I’ve seen of him, Hardcase’ll be giving him a hell of a time, but they’ll be fine.”
Tup huffed a slightly breathless laugh, and they lapsed into silence again. The silence was broken when Tup stumbled, Fives quick to catch his arm to steady him. He tried to thank him, but only got out a short wheeze that turned into a breathless cough. Now that he paid attention, most of his breaths ended in a small wheeze.
“Alright, you’re not okay.” Fives appeared in front of him. “Your helmet sealed properly? Let me look.”
Tup couldn’t formulate an answer before Fives was fussing about his helmet, turning his head this way and that to get a proper look at all the seals. He just let it happen, too focused on how tight his chest had gotten. Fives swore and stepped back to look at him again.
“Got a broken seal, probably from that scuffle. You feel alright, Tup?” Tup nodded, though the wheezing breaths kind of undermined the answer. He could tell Fives was unimpressed, even under his helmet. “I know Kix brought emergency masks, but we’re still a decent way out from camp.”
Tup could feel his mind getting fuzzy from whatever toxins were leaking into his helmet. He watched the two Fives’s in front of him as they looked at him thoughtfully. He didn’t realise he was swaying on the spot until a hand caught his shoulder, steadying him. He was guided over to lean against a tree, and Maker, the trees on this planet looked weird. To be fair, where Tup grew up didn’t have any trees, so he supposed he couldn’t judge.
He blinked when his helmet was suddenly pulled from his head. Breathless coughs escaped him as he was fully exposed to the planet’s toxic air. He couldn’t have been like that for long before his helmet was shoved back on. He took a grateful breath of clean air. As he stood there for a moment, just breathing, his chest still ached and his breaths still ended with a short wheeze, but they felt fuller, even if just a little bit.
He looked over to Fives only to see his own helmet hovering in front of him. As he tried to process that, his arm was tugged and he was being led along once again. After a minute of walking, it finally clicked and he snapped his gaze over to Fives. He reached up to the helmet on his own head and felt the viewfinder absent from his own.
“Sir, what-?”
Fives just shook his head, his own breaths already coming in shallower than normal, his voice already sounding breathless. “Just move, Tup. We’re almost there. I’ll be fine.”
Tup frowned at the short responses, Fives needing to pause subtly for breath between statements. He hadn’t been paying close attention to how quickly he’d gotten worse, but he wasn’t really talking much during that time, either. He stayed quiet and close to Fives as they continued.
As they walked, he could see Fives becoming unsteady on his feet, could hear his breaths beginning to echo his own, shortening and ending in wheezes. He knew his chest had to be tightening, not letting him draw a full breath. The camp was in sight when Fives finally stumbled, almost falling if not for Tup catching his arm, only just managing to keep his own feet under himself as he did so.
“You alright, sir?”
It took Fives a moment to catch his breath before giving Tup a small nod. He didn’t trust how he swayed, but they needed to move, so he tentatively let go, and when he didn’t immediately fall over, they kept moving.
Tup felt his own chest tighten even more as they tried to keep up a decent pace, not wanting to think of how much worse it was for Fives, the extra effort causing him to breath harder, breathing in more of the toxic air. At least when Tup had been exposed, they’d slowed as he had. He knew Fives was pushing himself, every breath wheezed loudly. Soon, he was tripping so often that Tup caught his arm and slung it over his shoulders, leaning into each other as they stumbled along.
Troopers stood near the perimeter. A few, including Kix, rushed forward to meet them as they neared. Fives must have commed them before he swapped their helmets, Tup thought idly as Fives’s legs finally gave, sending them both to their knees.
Tup’s chest ached as he heaved for breath. He might have had access to filtered air for the second half of the trip, but he still felt the effects of the toxins he had breathed in before that. Those effects combined with the physical effort it had taken to get back had his breaths laboured and wheezing as it felt like a vice was squeezing his chest. He blinked when a trooper kneeled in front of him, realising how fuzzy his head still was as he tried to focus on him.
Beside him, Fives slumped into the arms of the closest trooper. Tup’s helmet had been removed, and now his short breaths fogged the mask sealed over his mouth and nose. Vode talked and moved around them, lifting them both and carrying them to the safety of the medical tent.
Inside, Fives’s helmet was removed from Tup’s head, replaced with a mask that pushed oxygen into his lungs. He let out a sigh, trailing off with more breathless coughs. The relief the mask gave was so much more than just the bucket allowed. Lying on the medical cot, Fives on the cot next to him, Tup dozed as the medics fussed.
Some unknown amount of time later, he blinked his eyes open. His head felt a little clearer, his chest a little less tight, but his breaths still came short and shallow. He looked to his left and saw Fives sleeping, mask secure to his face and monitors set up around him. Tup dragged his gaze up up near the head of his own bed to see his own monitors reporting on his status.
Movement to his right caught his attention and he rolled his head over to see Dogma sitting on the unclaimed cot. He still had his helmet on, but Tup knew exactly the look he was giving him.
“I told you to check all your gear before going out.”
Tup shook his head. “I did, but you can’t always predict what’ll happen out there, vod.” He knew his brother was just worried and showed it in the way he knew how.
There was a long silence before Dogma broke it. “I put in a request for a new helmet.”
“Thanks.”
“They’re debating sending you two back to the Resolute.”
He just hummed a slightly breathless affirmative.
Another silence. He didn’t mind the pauses, giving Dogma the time he needed.
“Out of the two of us, I was sure I’d be worse off. You were with an ARC trooper, I was with a trooper who can’t stick to a mission brief. How hard is it to stick to simple directions? And his gear, Maker, Tup. Never mind against regulations, I’ve never seen any trooper store incendiaries the way Hardcase does. It’s like he wants to get himself blown up!”
Tup let out a breathless laugh as his brother complained, happy to sit and listen as he got his grievances out there. As he tended to when his brother got fixated like this, he ended up learning something new about the reg manuals, something he definitely didn’t follow himself, but he’d keep that from Dogma for as long as possible. Maybe try to see how long it’d take for him to catch him? That was always a fun game, though he wasn’t sure his brother always agreed.