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Echo sat down in the copilot chair with an angry sigh and ran a hand over his head.
Recently, every single conversation with Hunter ended up in a shouting match.
They both had a common goal but really different ideas on how to achieve it. Echo had tried to convince Hunter to join Rex and the clone underground. They were already looking for Tantiss, so their chances of finding Omega would be greater. But Hunter didn't see it that way. For him, missions to save clones would make them lose precious time to find Omega.
Echo did his best to understand his point of view. Yet to him, the clues they were finding were breadcrumbs in comparison to what they could find with a bigger team and means to expand the zone of research.
It was like during the war all over again.
The ARC trooper still had the habit of counting on numbers and resourceful allies and what they could bring them. Hunter was used to only counting on his small strike team.
But their numbers were small and now...
Echo turned his eyes toward the pilot seat.
They were still grieving.
Hunter and Wrecker had never had to face that kind of loss before. First Crosshair choosing the Empire, then losing Omega to Hemlock right after Tech's... fall.
That kind of grief was like an old friend to Echo. He did all he could to help his brothers, to support them in those troubling times.
But he wasn't Tech...
This was getting to be too much.
He would call Rex in the morning. He would be more useful out there, helping his fellow clones and looking for Omega at the same time. He wasn't abandoning them, but he couldn't keep choosing sides. Not when for him they were only one.
With his decision made, he brought his attention back to the console so he could scomp in. He would set up a secure line between himself and the Marauder. Just to make sure the boys could safely call him when they needed.
Echo hesitated a moment, looking at the socket. He hadn't had the heart to modify anything on the Marauder out of respect for Tech. He knew he would understand the necessity, but it still felt wrong.
"I promise I won't mess with your ship," he promised to the empty seat.
Scomping with the Marauder had become as easy as breathing for the ARC trooper. He knew the internal programs as much as he knew any member of the Bad Batch. He just hadn't done it since Eriadu.
So he didn't expect the assault of data that overwhelmed him.
Out of instinct, Echo tried to extract his mind from the mainframe of the ship, but it was like the Marauder itself was keeping him there. Needing to give him an urgent message.
There was so much data that for a moment he lost himself. He couldn't tell where his own mind began and where the ship ended.
How long was it? Seconds? Hours?
Echo didn't know, but when he finally came back to his own body and mind, he found himself laying against the console, shaking and covered in cold sweat.
His neural interface around the back of his head felt much warmer, a sign it had stopped his mind from overloading and downloading all the datapacks. Yet he could see the many warnings as one of the files required his attention.
"What the hell was that?!" he asked, a bit breathless as he got the scomp out and laid back in the seat.
Only silence answered him. Silence and that insistent file.
He knew he should wait before opening any datapack, to scan them for any sign of a virus, but the file's name gave him a feeling of safety.
To the attention of Echo
Only one person could be so formal...
Echo took a shaky breath, closed his eyes and opened the file. To his surprise, it was an audio file.
"Echo, if you are hearing this, that means I am MIA or dead. I am truly sorry I did not have the time to consult you about this failsafe and get your approval. It has been a long-running project and I did not have the time to tell you before we had to leave for Eriadu." Tech's voice hit him as hard as the explosion at the Citadel.
This time it was tearing apart the dams holding his emotions.
"I have a good knowledge of our brothers' temperaments and how they might be lost at my sudden departure. So I made this program with all my knowledge, research and blueprints. So I can keep supporting them even if I have passed on. I call it the Tactical Emulatory Consciousness Hologram. TECH for short and easy recognition. I was planning to put all this data in the Marauder's mainframe but soon realized it would not be optimal as it was impossible to carry it in the field. In the next few files you will find all my plans and explanations for a datapad version and a way to link it to all your hubs. I have faith you have all the necessary knowledge and talent to make it."
Then a long silence. Echo held his breath as he tried to hold in the sob that tried to escape his lips.
"In other files you will find more personal messages for all of your... family. I hear that being able to say goodbye might help people to move on easier. I would finish this message with something you more than anyone could understand. A soldier's life is fulfilled by fulfilling the mission and supporting his brothers, and this was the end of mine. And this is a good thing. How it happened does not matter. I know I made the right decision. You will find another message with the others."
The recording ended as suddenly as it began.
Echo could only hear his own laborious breath as a few tears rolled down his cheeks.
He leaned forward, hiding his face in his hands and let the tears fall between his fingers to the metal ground.
He scanned the other files to make sure he had downloaded everything. He saw them—Tech's last goodbyes.
For Hunter. For Wrecker. For Echo. For Omega. For Crosshair... For Phee.
"You crazy son of a Hutt, you really thought of everything," he chuckled sadly.
For a moment he was tempted to open the file Tech left for him, but decided against it.
He would honor Tech's last wish to get that hologram program ready. Only then would he accept to say goodbye to his brother.